The facility, which was once known as the Northern Ring Tower, had now turned into a launch site deep inside the mountains. There were sporadic battles everywhere. The situation was chaotic. Probably there were hundreds of soldiers fighting for the control of this place. Though the chaos was nothing but a farce that began only an hour ago, they seemed to behave as if they had been fighting for a decade. Hao Ren and Nolan were trying their best to avoid the soldiers and find a safe way out from this complex and massive building to the outside world. They had several inevitable encounters, but the opponents were mediocre and not running around with bazookas as Nolan did. So it was pretty easy to deal with.
As time goes by, the sound of crossfire in the surroundings seemed to die down somewhat. “Looks like the regular army is almost completely taking over this place,” Hao Ren said.
“Don’t stick around here, there may be explosives underground,” Nolan said without slowing down her pace. She raised the short wand slightly. “Thank you for your weapon. It’s pretty handy.”
The wand’s shield had saved Nolan several times though she had not fully mastered the usage of this Aerymian weapon. Even with the best fighting ability, she was merely mortal; running around in the facilities lurking with enemy soldiers was not a walk in the park.
Hao Ren nodded at her. He suddenly saw a light in front. “Exit!” he shouted.
Nolan immediately eased her pace. “Be careful of ambush.”
They both stopped. But the MDT kept running ahead mindlessly. “Let me check it out!” the MDT said, running so quick that even Hao Ren did not manage to grab it.
Nolan watched from behind; her jaw fell to the ground. “This is the most agile cerebral thrombosis patient I have ever seen…”
Hao Ren lunged forward and finally got hold of the MDT. “You want to die?”
The MDT shook its head. “It’s okay. I’m already dead anyway. Touch here if you don’t believe me, I’ve no heartbeat. It wouldn’t make a difference even if I get blown another hole in me.”
Nolan had already seen enough of the mind-challenging interaction between Hao Ren and the cerebral thrombosis partner. She could not care less. She checked the situation ahead and then beckoned the two and said, “Let’s get out of here. It’s safe ahead.”
The trio finally got out of this somewhat overly complicated colossal facility. They emerged from a secret hole on the hillside, but what lay ahead had Hao Ren rooted to the spot.
There were layers of mountains spread out into the distance into the horizon. The sky was clear and blue, almost dazzlingly bright. Everything was in stark contrast with what he thought—the sun-blocking, hazy, dusty atmosphere of the planet Zorm. He could not believe what he saw and felt that he had come to an alien world.
If there was any regrettable about these landscapes, it had to be the sparing vegetation in the mountains. There were only sparse shrubs and short trees on the deserted rocky hillside. But even so, this scenery was much more pleasing than the depressing wasteland in the aftermath of war.
The MDT glanced back. They had emerged from a cave on the hillside. The facility behind them was a hidden fortress inside the body of the mountains. Even the passage opening looked like a dark cave.
The MDT shook its head. “This is a cumbersome body. If you want to look back, you need to twist your neck and turn your head. Sometimes this isn’t even enough; you even have to turn your body around to see. I can’t believe how could you humans put this lousy bearing between the head and shoulders and think this is okay.”
Hao Ren rolled his eyes. “Mind your words; even Raven is also in human form.”
“Oh, do you think she needs to see the world with her eyes? Heck.”
Nolan looked at the seemingly odd pair, puzzled. She then walked to the side of the hill and said, “We got to go to a safe place. Come with me. There should be a vehicle or something.”
Hao Ren followed Nolan from behind, feeling curious. “How do you know that? Hasn’t the world changed?”
Before his voice trailed off, a weirdly modified vehicle had appeared in front of him behind a boulder. The car had four huge wheels connected by multiple crankshafts and a body that mounted on a sophisticated suspension system. It seemed the vehicle a purpose-built off-roader specifically for the harsh and complex terrain here. It was not so much a car but more like a spider robot on wheels. It looks like Nolan was right; there was a vehicle, and it came very handily.
Nolan beckoned Hao Ren and the MDT to come on-board while she climbed into the driver seat and began to fiddle with the complicated buttons, switches, and the steering mechanism that looked very different from those of the earth’s vehicles. She seemed to have figured out how to operate the vehicle after a while. She fired up the engine; the spider-robot car lifted and drove down the gentler slope.
Only now that Nolan started to answer Hao Ren’s question. “Of course, I remember it—I don’t know where I got this memory. But the weird thing is I have a blurry short-term memory. It always takes me a few days to piece things together. I didn’t even know who I was before this. Is your situation any different?”
Nolan glanced at Hao Ren curiously. “Do you know what your ‘identity’ is this time? Or do you remember any information, however slightly?”
Hao Ren had none of that. “I didn’t feel anything.”
“Maybe our situations are different,” said Nolan casually. “Besides me, you’re the first person I’ve ever seen retaining memory. So I’m not sure if every one of them is the same.”
Hao Ren had guessed Nolan’s situation from her own words. She did retain the memory of the last ‘reincarnation,’ but at the same time, the current reincarnation also influenced her. There was something in her head that seemed to come from nowhere. These memories could be the false life experience that this world had given her.
The history of Nolan in this world had just started an hour ago.
Things were simple: If the world had only existed an hour ago, how do you convince people that they are living in a regular world? The answer is to fabricate the details and history to convince them of their origin. Let them believe in their growing-up, life experiences, personal relationships, and that they have known a bad friend since ten years ago, that they have loved someone for twenty years, that they have been living in a place for thirty years, and that their life and the whole world in front of them are real. But in reality, it was all in their head, injected into their brains an hour and fourteen minutes ago.
Maybe everyone in this world was the same, except for Nolan.
At dusk, Hao Ren and Nolan were convinced that they had shaken off all pursuers. Or maybe no one was pursuing them at all. They found a cave, enough to hide the weird offroader and all three of them. They made sure they had erased their tracks before finally settled down.
“I don’t like caves,” Nolan frowned. “I once died from inhaling smoke in a cave.”
The MDT in the corpse yelled. “I don’t like cave too; you always use me as torchlight…”
“Go to the corner and get lost. I’m freaking tired now, and I’m not going to carry you on my back!”
“Okay”
Nolan looked at the blonde limping to the corner of the cave. “Is she having a cerebral thrombus?”
“You can say that. I don’t mind.”
“I thought you guys have a very close relationship?” Nolan looked into the eyes of Hao Ren. “When you carried her around on your back, it touched Carl and me. Don’t tell me it was just a lie.”
Hao Ren smiled wryly. “Well, in a sense… Forget it. Shall we talk about this world?”
“This world?” Nolan’s eyes dimmed. She closed her eyes; she was tired. “I only know that this is a world of madness. As you can see, it has been resetting, changing, and evolving like there is a bad director behind the scenes. I can’t remember how many absurd and strange ‘stage plays’ I have endured.”