The night before the promotion

Chapter 24: Undead Souls
Zhou Si sat on a stone pier beside the road, staring blankly at the people and cars coming and going on the street.

Zhou Si has been sitting here since leaving Pei Dong's house. He couldn't tell how long he had been here. He only knew that the bright red sunset was gradually fading away in the sky, and the coldness of the night was spreading with the shadows.

Zhou Si just sat there quietly, with waves of emotion in his mind.

In Zhou Si's view, the definition of a person is not only the sum of past experiences, but also the sum of social relations. In most cases, human suffering often comes from those heavy and cumbersome social relations.

After the immortal's death, Zhou Si suffered a lot of pain, and this pain was not eliminated by the recovery of his Lishi disease, but became more and more severe.

When faced with extreme pain, humans will do whatever it takes to survive.

Zhou Si found a way out for himself, a new life, a new beginning, so he said goodbye to everything in the past, as if he had evaporated from the face of the earth, disappearing from his original spider-web-like social relationships.

Zhou Si once thought that this was enough, but the past events still emerged before his eyes.

He originally thought that after so many years, he would no longer have any emotional fluctuations towards these people and things, but when he really saw Pei Dong's haggard appearance, the pain like a knife still spread in Zhou Si's heart.

The words of the person in the mirror rang in Zhou Si's ears.

"Doctor Zhou, how can you be so naive to think that if you unilaterally reject everything in the past, you can really treat it as if it never happened?"

Zhou Si stood up, stretched his stiff body, and called an unmanned online taxi. About a minute later, a white unmanned online taxi stopped in front of Zhou Si.

Sitting in the car, this time Zhou Si did not look out the window. He closed his eyes tightly, as if he was enduring pain, or as if he was meditating and thinking.

The cell phone rang, Zhou Si answered the call, and Li Weiyu's voice rang out.

"Doctor Zhou, how is your situation?"

"I visited Pei Dong, she's fine," Zhou Si asked, "Are there any new developments on your side?"

"I investigated the qualified candidates who survived the Immortal Falls accident. According to the list... you are right. In recent years, many qualified candidates have mysteriously lost contact."

Li Weiyun's words made Zhou Si's heart heavy. He said, "Continue."

"After the Xianyu accident, most of your former colleagues left Anyan City and moved to other countries. From the data we collected, many people died in various accidents, and some disappeared mysteriously."

Li Weiyun also felt heavy pressure. "Law enforcement agencies in various places did not find the connection and just treated it as an accidental incident."

Zhou Si started to have conspiracy theories, "Is it really just a coincidence? Or was it some kind of interference that prevented their investigation?"

"I don't know, but I've already reported it to my superiors," Li Weiyun felt the same pressure as Zhou Si, "The situation is more serious than we thought."

"Any other useful information?"

"According to the list, the only qualified people in Yanyan City are you and Pei Dong," Li Weiyu said worriedly, "So, Dr. Zhou, you are also on the hunting list."

Zhou Si knew the whole story. "I know."

A dangerous idea came to Zhou Si's mind, and he suggested, "This is a good opportunity, Team Leader Li, I can use myself as bait to lure them out."

"This is too dangerous. We need to think long-term."

Zhou Si was silent for a moment, and accepted Li Weiyun's kindness, "Okay, I won't take the risk."

"There is one more thing, Doctor Zhou. We don't know when the crisis will come. I suggest you come to the Supervisory Bureau first," Li Weiyun proposed another plan. "In this special situation, I want to implant a locator for you to avoid accidents. I hope you can understand."

Zhou Si hesitated for a moment and responded, "Of course I understand."

Looking up at the tablet on the back of the chair in front of him, which displayed the map navigation of the driverless online car-hailing vehicle, Zhou Si changed the destination from the clinic to the Supervisory Bureau, and the distance instantly increased by more than ten kilometers.

The driverless online taxi turned at the intersection and drove onto the intricate viaduct. Zhou Si looked at the densely packed buildings and marveled at the huge size of the Anyan City. It was like a maze with no end, and all souls involved in it would lose their way.

The driverless online car-hailing vehicle carrying Zhou Si disappeared on the long viaduct. A few seconds later, the electronic road sign on the viaduct flashed a dangerous red light, with a line of text projected on it.

"There is an accident on the road ahead, no passage."

The text is eye-catching and bright red, as if blood is about to seep and drip from the electronic components.

In the unmanned online car-hailing vehicle, Zhou Si continued his conversation with Li Weiyun, "Team Leader Li, how do you plan to lead him to the Land of Bliss?"

"Given their style of coming and going without a trace, I'm sure the ones who come to hunt me are those incarnation killers whose source cannot be traced. If the hunt fails, they will definitely be alert, and it will not be easy to lure them out again."

Li Weiyun said irritably, "I am also troubled by this matter, so I plan to cooperate with other groups. When you arrive, we can have a meeting to discuss it."

"Ah."

Zhou Si nodded. He liked Li Weiyu's work efficiency. Just as he was about to say something else, Zhou Si suddenly noticed something unusual around him.

Looking around, Zhou Si was the only unmanned online taxi driver on the viaduct. You know, this is the city of Anyan. No matter when and where, this city is always congested and noisy. But at this moment, Zhou Si seemed to have crossed a certain boundary and came to an unmanned world.

"Team Leader Li!"

Zhou Si sensed something was wrong. Before he could finish his words, a flash of white light appeared in the rearview mirror, followed by a strong impact.

It was like a heavy hammer hitting Zhou Si's back. His chest felt stuffy and painful. His body was thrown forward heavily due to inertia, and his head broke the flat panel on the back of the front seat. The screen shattered and his head was bleeding.

Fortunately, Zhou Si had fastened his seat belt, which held him firmly in the back seat. But even so, Zhou Si's brain still fell into a brief dizziness, his vision was confused, and all the sounds were fading away, only the sharp beeping sound was still whistling.

Trying to pull himself together, Zhou Si struggled to open his blood-soaked eyes. The car lights flashed, and the white beam of light accelerated to the side of the unmanned online car-hailing vehicle. Zhou Si heard the violent friction sound of the tires against the ground.

"damn it."

Zhou Si cursed, unbuckled his seat belt, tried to climb into the driver's seat and manually control the vehicle, but it was too late.

The vehicle on the side suddenly turned, and the bodies of the cars collided violently. Amidst the flying sparks, the driverless online car-hailing vehicle was squeezed out of the lane and hit the concrete guardrail on one side heavily.

The car body rubbed violently against the concrete guardrail, and the shiny car body was instantly devastated, with large pieces of the car body torn apart, and the side doors collapsed and fell off.

Zhou Si was bumped around in the narrow car, and in the blink of an eye, he had several bruises on his body. However, with his strong willpower, the dizziness quickly faded away, along with the buzzing sound that filled his ears.

But Zhou Si's world did not quiet down because of this. The screaming sound of the vehicles rubbing against each other cut his eardrums, and after being hit, the car system also kept wailing.

"There's a collision! There's a collision!"

Zhou Si climbed to the driver's seat with difficulty and cursed, "Shut up! Be quiet!"

Holding the steering wheel tightly, Zhou Si stepped on the accelerator hard. The squeezed vehicles let out a series of mournful screams, trying to speed up and escape from the stranglehold, but soon, another strong white light lit up in the rearview mirror.

Zhou Si almost instinctively crossed his hands to protect his head, and then there was a loud crash. The second car rear-ended Zhou Si at high speed, and the airbag popped out. A gray and white chaos flashed before Zhou Si's eyes, and he lost consciousness.

Inside the vehicle, the cell phone that had fallen somewhere was still in the conversation with Li Weiyu.

On the other end of the phone, Li Weiyun shouted anxiously.

"Doctor Zhou! Doctor Zhou!"

No one responded.

The two cars that attacked Zhou Si slowed down and slowly stopped where they were. The car Zhou Si was in continued to slide forward for a while and stopped at the ramp.

The car doors opened at the same time, and two slender figures got out of their respective vehicles. The towering street lights illuminated their bodies, giving off a cold metallic luster, like messengers of death.

The humanoid avatars took light steps and strode forward. Inside the damaged vehicle, Zhou Si was lying on the deflated airbag, unconscious.

"Zhou Si, are you sure you want to be that doctor?"

At the moment of life and death, an old and familiar voice sounded, like a warm illusion, brushing across Zhou Si's mind.

"Answers? You think you can find some answers from those patients."

Zhou Si's fingers twitched a few times and a painful groan came out of his throat. It was unknown where the wound appeared on his body, and blood stains appeared on his white coat.

"It wasn't an easy process... Just consider this as my parting gift to you."

The voice continued.

"I have implanted an artificial mechanical organ in you. It can make your physiological functions far superior to those of ordinary people. Even in extreme situations, you can still maintain a certain degree of mobility. This is an armed incarnation that Shenwei Technology is still in the experimental stage. Although it only has one arm, it is enough to help you deal with many crises."

The voice in the hallucination became clearer and clearer, and a blurry face slowly emerged from the water, revealing his true appearance.

"Of course, the most important thing is the spiritual training I taught you. Whether it is the physical body or the incarnation, they are just shells. What really controls everything is your consciousness and your spirit."

His voice became pitiful.

"O fallen spirit, may you find the answers you seek."

Zhou Si opened his bloodshot eyes and called out the name in his illusion like in a dream.

"Chen Wen Ge..."

As the heavy footsteps approached, Zhou Si followed the knowledge he learned from mental training and regulated his consciousness.

The confused consciousness quickly cleared up, as if it had just been soaked in ice water.

Zhou Si felt that the pain that filled his whole body was quickly fading away, and a strong sense of power was once again given to his flesh and blood - the artificial organs began to work, and a large amount of adrenaline was secreted, igniting Zhou Si's anger.

Zhou Si kicked open the shaky car door and staggered out. Sparks flashed inside the car, and then the battery burst into flames. The raging fire engulfed the vehicle, turning it into a scorching bonfire, stretching Zhou Si's shadow into a long and wild one.

In the high temperature, the car computer seemed to be damaged. The distorted sound no longer screamed the so-called "collision", but kept switching the audio.

Zhou Si heard radio broadcasts, news reports, and some strange talk shows, and finally it stopped at a song that was halfway through.

Amid the roaring fire, a cold and pale voice sang.

"Bela Lugosi's death! The dead never die! The dead never die! The dead never die!"

Zhou Si spat out a mouthful of blood and a crazy smile appeared on the corner of his mouth. He swung his left arm, his palm cracked, and the sharp narrow blade broke out of his body.

"The undead never die!"

Zhou Si's voice was hoarse and low, and a blazing white lightning struck forward.

(End of this chapter)