Act. 2: Every Breaking Wave

Foreword:

Human beings truly need very little.

--Ernest Miller Hemingway

[Part 1: Tourism and Sightseeing]

The phone was playing a short video--

--The BOSS stood solemnly on his desk, holding up the laurel wreath as he walked toward the Big Sister.

"Once you put on this golden headband, you will no longer be an ordinary mortal. From now on, you will be free from all worldly love and affection."

Glory accepted the greeting and then removed her crown.

She said, "But thankfully I was able to pick it."

Xue Ming smiled and used the last communication base station to fully charge his phone. He also took the opportunity to see the great cat doing its old tricks again. When he heard Ming De's voice, it seemed that the spiritual pressure environment of Haofeng Ridge could no longer harm him.

He put on his headphones and then swiped the screen to watch other home videos.

To be honest, Amin has never been a fan of taking photos or videos.

He once told Meteor that he didn't like taking pictures.

The ritual of taking photos is very interesting; it has a strong psychological effect, and people always want to present their best selves in front of the camera.

Originally, people felt that this kind of ritual had no practical meaning. They wanted to live in the real world every minute and every second. As their photo albums grew thicker and thicker, the time spent in their memories also increased. When they returned to real life, they felt only intense emptiness and loneliness.

If the people in the images can never come back, that sense of loneliness will destroy a brave and passionate heart.

But now, at the age of thirty, he already has four children.

Compared to himself six years ago, he can feel the subtle changes in his mind and body at all times. He is no longer as meticulous and precise as he was six years ago, nor as sharp and outspoken as he was in his youth. His mind has become sluggish, and his hands and feet are not as agile.

As he gradually entered middle age, he felt the pace of life slow down, and he shifted from intense and uplifting metal music to rock.

Wrinkles appeared at the corners of his eyes, and when he occasionally made exaggerated expressions to amuse the children, his forehead wrinkles became increasingly deep.

The scars on his hands were from when he was working with boring tools. He loved repairing engines, especially boring cylinder blocks. Seeing the rough edges and splinters become neat and smooth relieved the pressure he accumulated from talking about principles and doing favors with people in the anonymous office.

Compared to when he was twenty-three or twenty-four, his physical strength was much greater. His appearance also became ordinary and plain, transforming from Xiao Bai into a man with a resolute demeanor.

Over the years, living with his wife and children has softened him. Xue Ming used to rarely joke, but his little ones can't stand their scary father and are often frightened to tears by this strange dad. For the sake of his children's mental and physical well-being, he has to make a change.

Six months ago, Jiang Xueming ended his long expedition. This is the first time in 184 days that he has returned to the wilderness to begin exploring unknown lands again.

The thick-soled leather boots felt wonderful on the ballast road. The mountain breeze carried warm, moist air, and if you smelled it carefully, you could detect a salty scent. Xue Ming's rich experience immediately led him to the conclusion that there was an ocean nearby.

The sea breeze carries the smell of rust, a sign that the coastal strata contain hematite and aluminum ore, making them rich in heavy metal mineral resources.

Relying on his two legs, he followed Ying Shi all the way to the vicinity of Haofeng Ridge Tunnel. The layers of cracks, ravines, stone platforms and complex geological formations formed a stunning landscape.

Xue Ming squatted down beside a vein, carefully examining the composition of the soil, and then took out a multimeter and a psionic probe from his bag.

A multimeter is just a basic piece of electrical repair equipment. We saw the psionic probe in the Lingyun volume; it was a tool used by the Red Stone Rock Band's security team to detect the concentration of Spirit Calamity.

He grounded the multimeter and connected it to the headlamp circuit to observe the voltage difference between the two locations.

Repeat the experiment using the psionic probe.

--The probe readings are all [out of specification]. The concentration of Spirit Calamity in this area has always exceeded the standard, making it an environment unsuitable for Homo sapiens to live in. If people live in this environment for a long time, they will continuously lose their mental strength and willpower, their Madness Index will gradually rise, and they will eventually go completely insane.

This phenomenon also aligns with the information provided by Mr. Heian—only those people who were transformed by the VENOM organization are qualified to live in Shinto City.

However, Xue Ming did these things not only to verify the basic environment of the two places, but also because his keen Inspiration had detected subtle differences when he walked on the ballast road.

There is an invisible boundary line on the road 150 meters from the entrance of Haofeng Ridge Tunnel, and 84 meters from the road leading to the front-line stronghold.

The multimeter showed a significant voltage difference here, indicating that the electrical potentials in the two locations were different and that current was flowing through them. This suggests that the geological strata and minerals here have shifted, and the activity of a large amount of current has caused the magnetic field to change accordingly.

As the psionic probes moved rapidly between the two locations, the readings jumped wildly, a phenomenon that had also occurred at the Dead Puppet Agency.

The different areas controlled by the Rune have different spiritual pressures and different magnetic fields. Therefore, it can be confirmed that the culprit behind the ghost wall phenomenon that A Xing and Ping An encountered, which caused them to spin in circles, is located beneath this land.

The boundary line where the rock strata of the block have shifted is located here.

Xue Ming summoned his Soul Power, making Fragrant Dream stand sixteen meters away from the maximum range. He threw the psychic probe to the spirit body and had the spirit body's good brother report the reading. He walked along this boundary line from the mountain to the outermost edge of the railway, close to the cliff of the valley.

He took out the fluorite from his baggage, crushed it into a luminous powder, and evenly spread it along the border line. Thus, a simple marker was made, and if the area shifted again, the anomaly would be immediately apparent.

It took him about ten minutes to finish all that. He rushed to the tunnel and saw the hematite mine where the rock burst had occurred. When the rock strata released pressure again, the overwhelming psionic tide almost forced him to take a step back.

A cloud of sand and stones rushed out of the pit, causing the entire tunnel to tremble.

It was at this moment that he also heard the Japanese phrase "[Come back]"

The feeling was like thousands upon thousands of wandering spirits gathering together, shouting in unison towards the tunnel exit, without joy or sorrow, mechanically repeating "[Come back]".

Xue Ming quickly passed through the entrance of the hematite mine and walked several hundred meters further before arriving at the area of Stone Hill Town.

He followed the trajectory of the shooting star, passing sixteen large billboards, recording the street scenes with pen and paper, and drawing portraits of Matsushima Seiko.

He thought to himself—the cultural landscape of Stone Hill Town seems to be converging.

The people who once lived here all shared the same idol: Matsushima Seiko.

This feeling is so strange, it's like we've gone back to the 1980s, and there's a town where all the cultural images and advertising endorsements within a hundred-kilometer radius are all by the same person.

At this time, Amin was unaware of the existence of [typical humans].

Stone Hill Town is a satellite town of Little Kanto. According to this logic, scientific research and technology manufacture production tools, production tools affect living standards, and living standards determine ideological construction. So, the people who once lived in Stone Hill Town, which is close to Haofeng Ridge and close to the civilized world, were transformed by VENOM around 1984 and accepted the standard aesthetics. Matsushima Seiko became the standard aesthetic of the citizens.

Unlike large cities like Little Kanto with their administrative offices, Stone Hill Town had a more primitive and humane environment before the widespread use of [Extreme Bliss Space] – Xue Ming experienced this human touch when he visited the cemetery.

[Part ② Why did you provoke him?]

Walking past the guard post, you'll find everything from the simplest Cyber Electronic Cemetery Youth Edition to the Mountainside Dog-Raising Villa PRO/PLUS/MAX and other upgraded variations.

Jiang Xueming also kept saying "Good heavens!" as he lay down on it.

He had never seen such an outrageous all-inclusive funeral service in his entire life; it was too sci-fi, no, too fantastical.

Many of these virtual corpses in Stone Hill Town are ghosts who were not qualified to enter Extreme Bliss Space. They died before 1984, and people used electronic cemeteries to express their grief and leave their deceased relatives and friends in the world. That's how these virtual corpses came about.

Upgrading services for cemeteries is also a way to stimulate economic consumption. People spend money on these virtual ghosts, which gradually upgrade them, eventually passing through layers of review to become excellent service providers, or being further processed into modules before finally moving into [Extreme Bliss Space].

When Xue Ming arrived at the top of the low hill in the cemetery, he saw a construction team repairing the cenotaphs of the Shinto People.

A cordon flashing neon lights surrounded the perimeter, and he observed the interior of the cemetery from outside the cordon.

Four groups of drones, each of six different sizes and totaling twenty-four, flew up and down, piling new material onto the broken tombstones under the command of the Night Patrol executioners.

Xue Ming took out his phone and snapped a picture of the scene.

The executioner immediately turned around, seemingly sensing the faint change in electrical current as the camera took the picture.

They were about forty meters apart, their eyes meeting.

Time seemed to slow down at that moment.

Jiang Xueming remained silent, simply observing this formidable foe.

The executioner's forehead has a factory serial number. This face has been refurbished, and the serial number ends with an "X+" refurbishment mark. The first letter of the serial number is C3, indicating that this is a third-generation prosthetic body.

The median of the code is 5101. Brother Ping An said that this is the number of the Fifty-One Pillars Regional Arsenal. He had seen many typical Night Patrol at the guard post in Ginza.

Slightly forward of the tail, there is a red military unit number—the executioner was the thirteenth sheriff of Stone Hill Town; all his colleagues had retired, and he was the newest.

Xue Ming greeted her, "Hello? Should I speak Japanese or English?"

The composite sights in the executioner's eyes quickly locked onto the alien creature.

He turned his body as his head turned, and the scene was very strange, like the movement of a bird's body while its head remained still, as if it possessed a very precise gyroscope.

He placed his hands flat between his legs, seemingly relaxing his guard, but in reality, his legs were already straight towards Jiang Xueming, ready to activate his nano-armor to approach the target at any moment.

"What do you?"

At such a great distance, the executioner's biometric identification system was unable to determine Jiang Xueming's DNA profile.

--When in contact with a meteor, the executioner can rely on thermal vision or collect pheromones to determine what the meteor is.

Luo Ping'an is in spirit form, which the executioner cannot recognize, so he is always armed upon meeting.

Jiang Xueming raised his hands high to explain his purpose.

"I am a passenger at the Nine Realms Station!"

The executioner walked forward step by step, very slowly and very carefully.

He was like a timid rabbit, because in the visual signals provided by the pair of electronic eyes of the VENOM organization's visual center, besides this humanoid unit that claimed to be a passenger, there was another psionic unit of unknown origin—that was Xue Ming's soul power.

The executioner walked to the limit of the biometric system's effectiveness, only eight meters away from Jiang Xueming.

Are you a psionicist?

Jiang Xueming: "That's right, I'm a VIP at the station, my name is Jiang Xueming."

Executioner: "Why are you here?"

Jiang Xueming: "I got separated from one of my companions, and I need to take him back."

"A companion?" The executioner glanced back at the cenotaph, suspicion creeping in. "The companion you're referring to, is it one person? Or two?"

Jiang Xueming: "Just one person. Have you seen him?"

Executioner: "Identity information?"

Jiang Xueming: "His name is Bu Liuxing. Did he show you his crew card? Have you heard of that name before?"

The executioner said, "The person you're talking about has voluntarily become a legal citizen of Shinto City."

"What do you mean?" Jiang Xueming still had his hands raised high. "He's not planning to go back?"

The executioner nodded and patiently explained.

"Any intelligent life that enters the territory of the Shinto City should remain here."

"The Eternal World will take good care of you. You will join the community and build your own small community."

"A psychic like you is extremely valuable material."

Jiang Xueming: "I can't leave either?"

At this point, Xue Ming lowered her hand slightly.

The executioner's exposed muscles were immediately covered by black armor, and the pale fiber optic hair on his head began to flicker. The artificial nerve exoskeleton center at the back of his neck began to emit low-brightness, low-frequency communication signals.

"Don't get agitated." Jiang Xueming raised her hands again. "I didn't want to fight you. Can't I say something? Can't I even ask a question? Why are you so temperamental?"

The executioner's eyes were devoid of emotion; no change in attitude could be seen.

--But this does not mean that the changes that occur in his mind under the influence of various hormone suppressors do not exist.

Just now, he sensed a threat of death. The moment the outsider lowered his arms slightly, the sudden change in spiritual pressure made him react and immediately activate his nanoarmor.

He was almost scared out of his wits. When the yellow light came on, the security center was still urgently asking questions.

"Executioner, what happened?"

"Share your visual signals with us: How is the tombstone restoration work going?"

Why aren't you answering? Did you encounter something?

The executioner pressed down on the back of the neck, communicating with the security center through the exoskeleton.

"It's nothing. I met a strange outsider. He's neither a beast nor a baby; he's a psionicist."

Security control center. "He attacked you?"

Executioner: "No."

Security Center: "Is he Bu Liuxing's partner? Is he connected to the prisoners held in Ginza?"

The executioner said, "I don't know, but what I do know is that they were wearing the same kind of carrying equipment and their gear was similar. He used the name [Jiang Xueming]."

Security Center: "Bring him back and hand him over to the Day Patrol and the Eternal World."

Executioner: "I request Level 2 force."

Security center. "You have not been attacked; this is illegal."

Executioner: "I request Level 2 force."

Security center. "You have not been attacked."

Executioner: "I request Level 3 force."

Security center. "You don't have it."

And so, Jiang Xueming waited quietly.

He heard no response.

The muscular cyborg in front of me kept covering its neck, and a yellow light kept flashing behind its head; I had no idea what it was doing.

After about ten seconds, the executioner finally seemed to come back from a daze and started speaking in Chinese.

"Jiang Xueming, please come with me. The administrative authorities of Shinto City will hold a welcoming ceremony for you."

Xue Ming: "Wait a minute, please wait a minute."

The executioner drew his sword from behind, preparing to strike.

Jiang Xueming said loudly.

"I'm not a criminal, right!?"

The executioner. "You are not a criminal."

Jiang Xueming: "I have personal freedom, right?"

The executioner brandished his sword and threatened, "Yes, you have personal freedom, but you must live according to the rules of Shinto City. You will soon have a VENOM device, which is your electronic brain. You need rescue, electrolyte solutions, and basic necessities for life. We will provide you with these things."

Jiang Xueming still raised both hands, with his right index finger pointing crookedly towards the way he came.

Can I go back?

The executioner repeated himself like a broken record, "No, you're excellent material for Shinto City."

"Hiss," Xue Ming took a deep breath. "Is there really no room for negotiation?"

Executioner: "You can resist, but it's pointless."

Before the words had even finished --

--Drawing the gun from his carrying case, Xue Ming lifted the foregrip and emptied the magazine.

The main weapon of the Frost Moon Knights is M4A4MK18Mod0, which is a very common and practical long gun.

His speed in drawing his gun exceeded the executioner's expectations. Almost immediately, the VENOM organization's combat advice to the executioner was to approach with shields raised. As this decision was being executed, the gunshot rang out.

The shield wall immediately blocked the view. Eight meters is neither a long nor a short distance. At the android's walking speed, it would only take two or three big jumps to catch up.

Xue Ming fought and retreated, but not a single bullet landed on the dark, round shield in front of him.

After taking two or three steps forward, the executioner finally realized that his upper and lower arms had not been impacted, and his shield was unharmed. So where did the bullet go?!

The honest and straightforward android suddenly turned around and glanced at the drones that were repairing the stone tablet. They were like headless flies, sparking everywhere. In the blink of an eye, all twenty-three drones crashed onto the solid stone road and shattered into pieces.

The executioner's face showed a rare expression, an anxiety stemming from the delayed construction and slowed progress of the task. His expression was contorted, yet he still recited the laws of Shinto City verbatim.

"Foreign life! You have committed an offense."

With a "whoosh," a blinding silver light struck the cockpit of the last drone. Before the executioner could finish his sentence, Xue Ming had already thrown out his combat dagger and was preparing to reload.

The instant your fingers grip the magazine release latch.

The executioner raised his sword again, having received the attack signal from the VENOM organization, and charged straight toward his target.

Two bright, high-temperature radiation sources appeared in their field of vision. The cyborg couldn't quite understand what they were—and treated them all as interference signals from psionicists. The cordon at the scene was made of tritium tubes, so some radiation interference was normal.

We are 230 centimeters away from the target.

Two hundred centimeters, one hundred and fifty centimeters.

He crossed the clutter almost without hesitation.

Immediately afterwards, the arms separated, and the top of the head also flew up.

Before Jiang Xueming could reload, he saw the executioner collapse to the ground, his thick arm and execution sword flying out. Two charred horizontal lines appeared where his eyes were, and his skull rolled forward, only to be stepped on by Xue Ming's boots. The red light of the electronic prosthetic eye dissipated, and he finally lost all signs of life.

"Well done, SD!"

Fragrant Dream: "Of course! We're the best partners!"

Jiang Xueming pulled out two dark threads, the ends of which led directly to the drone's cabin. He plunged his combat dagger into the circuitry, sending the tough molybdenum wire flying out with it.

Fragrant Dream grasped the other end of the molybdenum wire circuit, and wisps of blue smoke rose from the steel cat's body, as if it had been electrocuted, and it couldn't stop making strange "gurgling" noises.

Xue Ming retrieved the short knife and noticed that the barb on the blade that had caught the molybdenum wire cutting line had turned black. He sighed inwardly—this drone's output was already up to engineering and industrial standards, and the battery's energy density was so outrageous. Such a small thing actually met the power requirements for molybdenum wire thermal cutting.

When energized in a pure oxygen environment, molybdenum wire cutting can reach temperatures as high as 2,600 degrees Celsius. It is an industrial wire used to cut metal. Just now, the executioner lost sight of the shield with his head down. Xue Ming's reloading action was deliberately performed for the executioner to see—to test the tactical decision-making of Artificial Intelligence.

As it turned out, these metal lumps weren't as clever as Mr. Ping An had said; they simply rushed straight towards the cutting line, and their heads and bodies separated.

Xue Ming calmly rolled up the cutting wire, even having the leisure to cut off the burnt molybdenum dioxide, sharpen the rolled-up knife, then twisted open the executioner's arm, pried open the fingers of the two severed arms, and held the carbon beheading sword in his hand.

"So light."

The weapon manufactured by C60 possesses the advantages of toughness, weight, and hardness. It is a divine weapon shaped by nanomaterials, and the entire sword weighs only 1,700 grams.

The security center couldn't receive the executioner's signal, and all the drones on site were destroyed by Xue Ming.

The back of the executioner's head was still emitting flashing lights, seemingly as the security center repeatedly checking on the soldier's safety.

Xue Ming stepped forward and shattered the exoskeleton with a single sword strike. He retrieved the scabbard from the drone, wove a nylon carrying harness, slung the decapitation sword over his back, and was just about to leave—

He walked about twenty meters away, then hurriedly ran back.

"Sorry! Sorry, I almost forgot! I'm getting old!"

Pick up the weapon, and let the Fragrant Dream pick up the executioner's brain.

Fragrant Dream frowned, hunching over in preparation. "Preventing resurrection, is that it? Ready?"

Xue Ming nodded in acknowledgment. "Let's go!"

Heads were tossed high into the air, and gunshots rang out in rapid succession.

The carbon nanotubes disintegrated along with the brain tissue, and the milky white artificial blood splashed down like brilliant waves in the ocean.

It is not hard to see--

He's completely dead.