Chasing the Little Rabbit

After saying this, Bai Ying placed the helmet over her head and quietly watched Xing Tian outside the window.

As an older model of mecha, Xing Tian's neural synchronization had a separate connection program designed from the start, allowing it to operate independently of the main control system.

This became Xuan Se Cang Qiong's only hope.

"Parameter calibration complete. Are you ready?"

Bai Ying nodded.

"Good luck."

A vast white light suddenly exploded before Bai Ying's eyes, instantly engulfing everything in her vision.

The sound of infinitely overlapping electrical currents shrieked like an ice needle piercing Bai Ying's eardrums, robbing her of her hearing.

Bai Ying couldn't feel her limbs, her brain had even forgotten how to control them, as if they were organs from a distant era before humanity had fully evolved.

A pain that struck directly at her soul was burning through Bai Ying's sanity, like thousands of scorching maggots gnawing at her torso!

Yet, she was also like a corpse floating on the sea, her entire body submerged in cold, dark currents, devoid of sensation.

No sensation, yet she could feel a deadly pain!

In a daze, Bai Ying saw a little girl in a white nightgown.

The girl's hands were bloody and mangled, not a single intact fingernail visible.

Her white hair, falling to her shoulders, obscured the girl's pale face, only tears sliding from her chin repeatedly splashed against the gravel and blood beneath her knees.

Bai Ying watched the girl's mouth open as if wanting to say something, but ultimately, she couldn't utter a sound.

She just kept digging, clawing, in front of the collapsed building like a madwoman who had lost her mind.

Behind the girl was a pile of rubble that had already formed a small hill. If she encountered a concrete slab too heavy to move, the girl would crawl on her knees to the other side and continue digging.

No one stopped her, no one advised her.

Bai Ying stood beside the girl, watching the sun slowly set on the distant horizon, starlight adorning the brilliant Milky Way.

Only when the broken white moon had disappeared behind the dim clouds did the girl finally stop.

It was a bloodless hand, like a withered tree branch, quietly stuck in the ruins.

The girl trembled all over and crawled towards it bit by bit.

Bright red blood, like a trickling stream, left a vermilion trail where the girl had crawled.

Finally, the girl could no longer persevere. Her already red and swollen eyes overflowed once more, her murky tears filled with drifting bloodshot veins.

She wanted to scream, to call out, but her throat was like a dried-up well with no water, unable to squeeze out any sound.

Bai Ying watched as the girl opened her mouth wide and embraced that hand with her delicate arms.

Hate?

If the general, now revered as a hero, truly loved his home.

Then Bai Ying's deceased mother wouldn't be buried beneath this rubble.

From that day on, Bai Ying no longer wished to be Chen Weimin's daughter, nor did she ever want to be called Chen Ying again.

Bai Ying slowly walked to the girl's side and took her bloody, mangled hand.

"Mom... she..." The girl's voice was as hoarse as a traveler dying of thirst in the desert.

"Mom is gone." Bai Ying drew the girl into her embrace.

"Dad... Daddy... why... didn't he protect us..."

"He had military orders. He had to go protect more people. That was an order, one that could not be disobeyed."

The girl hugged Bai Ying's neck and sobbed uncontrollably in her arms.

Who should Bai Ying blame?

A mecha that could only be in one place, or two cities attacked simultaneously?

She had forgotten when she last called him "Daddy," but rather than calling him father, Bai Ying preferred to call him General Chen like everyone else.

Years have passed, and Bai Ying has long understood the choice he faced then.

But understanding does not mean forgiveness.

When facing the fusion beast that could destroy Xuan Se Cang Qiong, was the order he gave also just to save his own daughter?

Bai Ying had no way of knowing.

The only thing she knew was the choice she made at that time.

To protect everything she cherished.

Suddenly, everything before Bai Ying's eyes vanished—the ruins, the tall buildings, and her past self.

In its place was a strong sense of weightlessness, Bai Ying was falling into a pure white abyss!

Thump!

When Bai Ying landed again, she found herself not smashed into a pulp as she had imagined, but standing steadily as if on flat ground.

The physical laws of this space seemed not to follow reality.

Bai Ying was convinced she had just experienced a "chase the little rabbit."

The so-called "chase the little rabbit" actually borrowed a plot from a fairy tale—the protagonist falls into a wondrous underground world after chasing a talking rabbit.

During the neural synchronization process for a mech pilot, "chase the little rabbit" was used to describe situations where a pilot didn't clear their mind before synchronization, leading to failure due to overthinking.

The ultimate form of "chase the little rabbit" was when the pilot became lost in a particularly vivid memory in their subconscious, causing them to lose themselves.

But this was absolutely impossible for Xing Tian and Bai Ying!

Neural synchronization was divided into two types: pilot-to-mech synchronization and pilot-to-pilot synchronization.

The first type was relatively easy. After all, a mech was just a steel shell. As long as the computational load of controlling the mech did not exceed the pilot's brain capacity, the synchronization rate would typically not drop below 80%.

However, pilot-to-pilot neural synchronization was much more difficult. It was akin to directly implanting another consciousness into someone's brain, requiring both parties to be completely open, allowing their bodies to adapt and accept commands from the other consciousness.

But even if both parties could achieve mutual honesty, their synchronization rate might not meet the standard—the psychological defense mechanisms in a person's subconscious could not be controlled. They would instinctively take physical or mental defensive actions against the external consciousness, such as metabolic disorders, limb spasms, or intermittent amnesia and mania.

In severe cases, it could even lead to the pilot developing a split personality.

For this reason, pilots who operated dual-pilot mechs were usually family members, spouses, or friends who had known each other since childhood.

This was because their living habits were relatively similar, and they could psychologically and subconsciously accept most of each other's thoughts.

But Xing Tian was a single-pilot mech. Even if Bai Ying experienced "chase the little rabbit," at most, it would only cause the synchronization rate between her and Xing Tian to drop, not for her to become lost in memories and lose herself!

This was because a mech could not contain a subconscious or memories!

Only another living mind could accommodate the consciousness activities of a human brain!

"Could it be that Xing Tian's self-awareness has truly evolved to the point of being like a normal human?"

If that were the case, Xing Tian could no longer be considered a "living mech."

But a true life form!