Her startled call was destined to receive no answer.
Gust after gust swept the sand across the wasteland, as deathly still as a barren desert.
She suddenly moved.
The flesh wrapped around her mechanical body tore with wet, gurgling sounds. It was as though a reckless soul was desperately trying to escape the cage imprisoning her. At some point, her eyes had come to see nothing but that back so close before her. The flesh kept suppressing her, yet something like an immense obsession drove her.
Drove her to reach for him, regardless of everything.
Inch by inch, she drew closer.
She pushed forward with everything she had.
But every inch forward triggered a tremendous backlash from the Flesh Plague afflicting her body, making her mechanical skeleton creak under the strain, nearly breaking apart.
Yet she no longer seemed to care.
That rust-covered back was reflected in her eyes.
As though, at that moment, nothing else in the world mattered to her anymore.
Inside the System Space, Zuo Zuo clamped a hand over her mouth, trembling and teary-eyed as she watched the figure on the big screen struggle to get closer for a look. Even the chips in her hand had lost their appeal. Her whole body shook, and at that moment, the scene had her heart completely in its grip.
Inch by inch.
Little by little.
It was like failing to realize how precious something was while you still had it, only to remember the moment you lost it. Because there were so many words left unsaid. Because she had awakened long ago, but he had never known.
And now, even letting him know had become an impossible wish...
"Look at him... hurry and tell him..."
Zuo Zuo trembled, her heart clenched tight.
On the screen.
Under the crushing