The night before the promotion

Chapter 3: Illness of Ignorance

The deep alley was like another dimension. The darkness blocked out all prying eyes. Only the occasional flash of fire and the sound of iron clanging indicated that a fierce battle was taking place there.

An inspector was standing at the entrance of the alley with a weapon in hand, staring at Zhou Si's disappearing back, his voice filled with deep worry.

"Just let him in like this?"

He warned his colleagues around him, "You should know how much disaster an out-of-control avatar can bring. Even if it is not an armed avatar, the brute force of its steel body and motors alone is enough to tear a human body into pieces."

Song Qiliang waved his hand, signaling the other party to calm down, "Looking at you like this, you should be a newcomer, right?"

The inspector hesitated for a moment, then extended his hand and introduced himself, "Xiang Ji, I just transferred here from Qingyuan City."

"Oh? That's right, this should be the first time you meet Dr. Zhou."

Song Qiliang's voice was calm and relaxed. "If it were someone else, I might really be worried, but Doctor Zhou, there's absolutely no problem."

Xiang Ji frowned, "Do you really trust this Doctor Zhou?"

"At first, I thought he was a weirdo, just like you. He could have used the armed avatar to quickly solve the problem..." Song Qiliang's voice gradually became low, and then he took a deep breath, "But he finally convinced me."

"why?"

"The reason is simple. These out-of-control avatars are all caused by patients suffering from dissociative disorder. Now the 524 draft is deadlocked, which means the law is indifferent to their mental state."

He further analyzed, "If we use armed avatars, the incident will officially enter the legal process. They will not be regarded as out-of-control patients, but criminals. If necessary, they can be executed on the spot."

"But if the situation can be calmed down before violence is used, the situation will be completely different."

Xiang Ji stared at the darkness in the alley and murmured, "It sounds like Zhou Si is more like a mercenary?"

"You can also understand that tonight is just part of our daily cooperation."

Song Qiliang's eyes never left the dark alley. He deeply understood Zhou Si's treatment philosophy and was aware of the patients' helplessness and plight, but to him, Zhou Si's safety was more important.

Dr. Zhou is a respectable person.

Xiang Ji gradually understood Song Qiliang's point of view, but he still couldn't help but ask in confusion, "Is it really worth it for all this?"

"Is it worth it?" Song Qiliang sneered, "For something like this, do you still need to ask whether it's worth it?"

"Save the dying and the wounded, that's the answer."

Xiang Ji disagreed, "He sounds too kind."

Song Qiliang was amused by Xiang Ji, "Mercy?"

He then sighed, "People often say that Dr. Zhou is a kind doctor, but if you ask me, Dr. Zhou is not kind at all."

……

After calling him Doctor Zhou for a long time, people often apply the stereotype of doctors to Zhou Si, but in fact, Zhou Si is completely different from doctors in the secular sense.

To be precise, Zhou Si is not a doctor at all. He does not have a medical license and has never even attended medical school for a single day.

Zhou Si just liked the role of doctor obsessively, like a morbid role-playing, and devoted his body and mind to it, until even he deceived himself.

The heavy mechanical arm rose and fell like a guillotine. It was not sharp enough, but heavy enough to smash the ground into pieces and break the bricks into fine dust.

Zhou Si stopped moving forward. The narrow space restricted the movement of the incarnation's body, but it also limited Zhou Si's movements.

At a close distance, the posture of the incarnation has become much clearer. It has eight arms, pressing the ground and supporting the wall, like a giant spider.

Due to its excessive modification, Zhou Si could not recognize its specific model, but Zhou Si had seen similar incarnations in many industries.

Like a universal template, the flexible multi-arm tentacles are enough to enable this type of avatar body to handle most complex tasks.

Zhou Si pounced forward, his left arm burst out with strength far beyond that of an ordinary person. Combined with the special metal of the short axe, the cold light repeatedly struck the joints of the mechanical arm, and the sound of explosions continued.

At the same time, Zhou Si detonated the graphite grenade again.

Black clouds rolled by, infecting the incarnation's body, and dazzling sparks flashed from the gaps in the machinery.

For this type of avatar body, graphite is a very effective means of paralysis. Except for armed avatars and some high-end customized avatars, most avatar bodies have no protection against attacks such as graphite and electromagnetic pulses.

The flickering flames were like blood flowing from a body of steel. The movements of the incarnation slowed down a little, but it was still moving. The end of the hard mechanical arm smashed down towards Zhou Si like a greatsword.

Zhou Si's speed was faster than it. As he dodged, the nail gun had already hit the joint of the robotic arm.

Pull the trigger, get in close and fire.

Amidst the deafening roar, the rivets, carrying kinetic energy with an irresistible force, pierced through the steel and wires, firmly restraining the huge monster's ability to move.

The dazzling sparks burst out like a meteor, and then extinguished in an instant, the splendor of a flash in the pan

These are the rivets that Zhou Si customized specifically for dealing with avatar shells. They are hard enough to penetrate most avatar shells, but they are powerless against those military armed avatars.

"I have treated many patients like you. Under the influence of the disease of dissociation, everyone sees things completely differently."

Zhou Si used words to hurt his opponent. "Tell me, what does all this look like to you?"

Zhou Si's questions were like gusts of strong wind, pouring into the chaotic and distorted spiritual world, and echoing in the empty factory, with disturbing echoes that continued endlessly.

In the cold, hard and spotless mechanized workshop, the cold white light is covered like frost, indiscriminately falling on every corner of the workshop. Several conveyor belts are intricately intertwined together, like a giant steel net.

In the center of the crisscrossing conveyor belts, it stands like a lonely fortress, like an ancient tree that survives tenaciously in the wilderness.

This is its inner world, the world it perceives due to the disease of alienation. Under the influence of long-term use of the avatar body, it cannot distinguish between reality and illusion, and its perception of the world is completely distorted.

Until its self-perception completely changed, it no longer saw itself as a human being, but thought it was a soul born from machines and steel.

The incarnation shell is its essence.

It lived in the way of an incarnated body, becoming a hub on the assembly line. Suddenly, a certain sound pierced the silence of the workshop and interrupted its work rhythm. It tried to capture that sound, but the sound was ethereal and short-lived, like a ghost, fleeting.

It discards those unnecessary distractions and refocuses on the goods rushing past in front of it. Eight sturdy robotic arms are raised high and quickly pick the goods on the conveyor belt.

This is its mission, its existence, its entire meaning.

As long as you strictly follow the preset procedures, all the noise will disappear from your mind, leaving only a cold silence.

thump—

The annoying sound rang out again, breaking its tranquility.

The entire workshop was instantly cut apart by some unknown force, and the smooth and neat cuts revealed chaotic, wriggling colors.

It was a strange and chaotic world. It seemed that at some moment, the dust-free workshop where it was located was suddenly dragged into a twisted and strange space by an invisible force.

But those stunningly brilliant colors are nothing more than a string of indecipherable garbled codes in front of its optical sensor.

Data that it cannot understand is equivalent to non-existence.

Suddenly, chaotic blocks of color surged in and quickly condensed to form a rough human-shaped outline, striding towards it.

As the human figure approached, the dust-free workshop seemed to have suffered an earthquake-like impact. The walls were covered with shocking cracks, and bright colors seeped in from the gaps like blood.

This time, it finally responded to the external intrusion, and a cold electronic warning sound came from the speaker.

"No entry for unauthorized persons."

The warning did not work, those bright colors still poured into its territory recklessly, accompanied by bursts of arrogant laughter, as if mocking its incompetence.

The robotic arm stopped sorting. This was its most direct response to external interference. As a machine, it adhered to the preset procedures. Any interference with this was a distortion and blasphemy of the meaning of its existence.

The heavy mechanical arm was raised and smashed down like a hammer, the ground was torn into pieces and colorful colors gushed out, like splashing sewage or squeezed blood.

The approaching human-shaped block of color did not fall down because of his heavy blow. On the contrary, at the moment of intersection, several deafening thunders rang out.

It felt no pain, but from the gradually stiffening movement of the mechanical arm, it discovered that something had been nailed into the steel, embedded in the meshing gears, locking the flexible joints, and some deadly weapon had cut open gashes in its body, oozing burning blood.

The world under the optical sensor suddenly flickered, and the dust-free workshop in front of me overlapped with the dark alley. Amid the brilliant colors, a hint of paleness also emerged, as if two worlds were intertwined.

Brilliant colors appeared before its eyes and a hoarse voice sounded. This time it finally understood what the other party was saying.

"Do you remember who you are?"

In an instant, a strong sense of trance hit it like a hammer. It hesitated at first, wondering if there was an error in its program, but before it could think of a result, a strong sense of rejection broke out, like an implosion of gunpowder, about to tear its body apart.

In the midst of intense mental pain, a name that was about to be forgotten rose up.

"I...I'm Luo Yong."

Luo Yong stared blankly at the blocks of color in front of him. They faded away like sticky mud, revealing Zhou Si's stern face.

At the same time, the dust-free workshop completely collapsed, and the colorful colors disappeared along with it. Instead, it was replaced by turbidity and darkness, and the end of the alley late at night came into view.

The beautiful dream was shattered and Luo Yong woke up from reality.

Slowly, Luo Yong shifted his gaze from Zhou Si to himself.

The first thing that caught the eye was the human chest and abdomen, but below that was the hideous and terrifying body of the incarnation.

Luo Yong clearly saw that it was as if someone had roughly cut open the metal plate with a knife, revealing the complex mechanical structure inside, and then used that clumsy and cruel method to forcibly sew half of a human body into it.

The bloody spine was inserted into it like a spear, and the blood vessels and muscles were roughly sewn together, entangled with the red and green wires, like a distortion of steel and flesh born from some curse.

Shortness of breath, muscle tremors, rapid secretion of adrenaline...

In extreme fear, Luo Yong let out a hysterical wail, but this fear did not come from the giant spider's body, but from his own human body.

The fragile, dirty, and deformed human nature.

(End of this chapter)