The night before the promotion

Chapter 96 Phantom Pain
"John!"

Von Neumann roared in the channel, but no matter how he roared, it could not change the objective fact that John was cut in half by the Shattering Sword, and he had no energy to worry about John.

The sword dancer who was supposed to be dormant suddenly stood up again, like a returning ghost, his movements were swift and deadly, without any sense of the heaviness of being a steel giant.

The distance between the two was rapidly shortened, and the Shattering Sword was wrapped with jumping thunder. The high-frequency vibrating blade was ready to cut through the armor at any time and inject high amounts of electricity into the armored body.

Burn through circuits and shatter components.

Von Neumann decisively raised the heavy melta shotgun. A deadly red light brewed in the barrel, and after a brief delay, a dazzling stream of fire erupted.

Zhou Si's field of vision was instantly completely covered by scorching flames, as if hundreds of flash bombs had exploded simultaneously. Even when switching to the thermal map view, all he could see was a large, diffuse heat source.

Although Zhou Si has never controlled his incarnation body since the immortal accident, he still made the best choice based on his many years of medical experience.

The sword dancer tilted his body to one side, using the armor on his shoulder as a shield to cover his entire body.

Half-molten metal fragments hit the shoulder armor with a crackling sound. Some of them were embedded in it with high temperature, like broken arrow feathers, while others bounced off, causing a continuous spark.

Von Neumann fired and retreated at the same time, keeping a distance from the sword dancer. The continuous release of hot melt shotgun shells caused the temperature in the entire area to rise sharply, and there were burning flames and erupting heat waves everywhere. If there were ordinary people here, the aftermath of the battle between the armed incarnations alone would be enough to suffocate them to death.

"Damn it! How can anyone still move!"

John was complaining in the channel. Although half of the armed avatar's body was cut off, the redundant design of the armed avatar meant that the overloaded current did not completely penetrate the control system, and he could still drive the remaining body.

After adjusting his position, John flipped out the shoulder cannon from his back and aimed at the sword dancer in the flames.

Open fire!
The roar of the cannon resounded throughout the courtyard, the sound waves rushed forward, shattering a piece of glass, and leaving crystals all over the ground.

After the roar, John did not see the explosion in the flames. He only heard another roar, and then the sword dancer appeared at the other end of the courtyard.

The wall that the sword dancer was leaning against left obvious ruts on the ground, and there were also dents on the wall behind him.

"Ha ha……"

Zhou Si was breathing heavily. He felt like he was breathing heavily, and his lungs were rising and falling violently like a blower, as if they would explode into a cloud of blood mist in the next second.

The sword dancer was breathing heavily along with Zhou Si, and that was the whistling noise of the wind coming from the cooling system.

The moment the shoulder cannon was aimed at him, the system gave a warning. Without any hesitation, Zhou Si immediately drove the sword dancer to evacuate to the side.

He successfully avoided the attack from the shoulder cannon, but the process was a bit awkward.

Just as Zhou Si had previously compared, the Sword Dancer is a sports car with monster performance, and any neural operation he makes will receive a quick and sensitive response.

The sword dancer evaded at high speed under Zhou Si's will, but failed to control his body stably. He could only stop himself in such a ridiculous way as hitting the wall.

"Warning! Warning!"

The warning sounded in Zhou Si's ears again, and a dangerous red light flashed in his vision.

John aimed at the Sword Dancer again, along with von Neumann who had reacted. The Sword Dancer sped away again, and then the roaring flames and heavy artillery bombardment swept over the place where it had just been, turning the entire courtyard into a battlefield.

Zhou Si was on edge. While moving evasively, he was also checking the 3D map.

Huo Daochuan and others were divided into teams of two. He only encountered one of the teams. Huo Daochuan's team received the news here and were rushing to this location. Zhou Si didn't have much time to deal with it.

The sword dancer suddenly slowed down, and after turning his body towards John, his scarred shoulder armor unfolded, revealing the honeycomb-like bullet nests inside his shoulders.

The shoulder armor serves as both the sword dancer's shield and its arrow of counterattack.

In an instant, dozens of micro-missiles were fired at the same time, and the interlaced tail flames raised a billowing cloud of thick smoke, which not only enveloped the sword dancer's figure, but also spread to other areas of the courtyard.

The tail flames of the micro-missiles flashed red, like a large group of spreading and cruising snakes. Their target was not von Neumann, but John who had lost the ability to move.

"Damn it! Damn it!"

John cursed on the channel as the constant pop-up alarms almost filled his ears.

At the critical moment, von Neumann rushed to John's aid.

It did not have feet that could move at high speeds like the Sword Dancer, so when von Neumann reached John, several micro missiles had already hit John first. The exploding flames destroyed the armor, and there were constant cracking sounds and sparks.

"It's fine!"

Von Neumann comforted John, and the powerful armored force of his armed incarnation became a shield to protect John. While sharing the bombing with John, he did not forget to grab John's broken body and dragged it with difficulty.

"Watch your back!"

John yelled. Although the thick smoke obscured the view, the radar system detected a fast-moving unknown unit.

The shoulder cannon aimed and fired randomly in one go.

The speeding heavy bullet pierced through the billowing smoke and landed at the end of the courtyard, setting off another layer of burning flames.

"Bastard!"

John raised his arm, and the heavy machine gun mounted below spewed out dazzling tongues of fire, weaving a continuous rain of bullets, which splashed a few sparks in the thick smoke like a stone to test the water.

"I saw!"

Von Neumann responded loudly and fired the melta shotgun again, but this time, a grappling hook came rushing out from the broken firelight and accurately nailed into John's body.

The hook rope was tightened and retracted, but von Neumann failed to react in time. John's body was dragged by the huge force and slipped away from his hands, rubbing against the ground at high speed, creating a spark.

"Exactly what I want!"

John was not surprised but angry, and his shoulder cannon dropped.

He knew that he only had one chance to get close and fire. If he missed this opportunity, the Sword Dancer's Shattering Sword would split him in half without hesitation. But at the same time, as long as he could hit the Sword Dancer at close range, the firepower of the shoulder cannon would be enough to severely damage the Sword Dancer.

It was like a duel between knights in the Middle Ages, with lances raised and horses galloping, and only one side would survive.

John's locking system repeatedly retrieved the target in the thick smoke, the ticking sound rang in his ears, and the crackling sound of arcs piercing the air also echoed as the distance closed, until a dazzling lightning rose in the smoke. The edge of the Shattering Sword quickly magnified in John's eyes, and the shoulder cannon also opened fire, erupting with a thunderous roar.

Interlace, cut, explode!
The fatal confrontation was over in an instant, and the expanding and burning flames rolled past, clearing away the diffuse smoke once again and bringing brightness to the courtyard.

"John! John!"

Von Neumann shouted anxiously in the channel, but received no response.

Directly in front of him, the Sword Dancer emerged from the gradually disappearing smoke, its body covered with scratches and gaps, and the magazine on its right shoulder was completely twisted and deformed, as if it had been hit by some kind of explosion. Even the arm carrying the Shattering Sword was hanging unnaturally.

As for the sword dancer's feet, there was only a pile of broken debris. By identifying the local features of the debris, von Neumann barely recognized that it was John's body.

Zhou Si completely strangled John's body, pierced through the thought storage core, liberated John's consciousness from the armed incarnation, and exiled him back to the real world.

"There are three left."

Zhou Si muttered silently, forcing his eyes open and enduring the strange dry feeling.

This feeling is really subtle, like phantom pain.

Zhou Si imagined a body of flesh and blood inside his steel body, and projected all kinds of abnormal negative feedback onto this virtual body of flesh and blood.

For example, the dryness of his eyes at this moment is actually because Zhou Si in reality has kept his eyes closed, but the "eyes" in the armed incarnation cannot be closed even if he wants to.

"Zhou Si, are you okay?"

Ruan Linrui's worried voice rang out again, but her voice was cut into pieces by all kinds of strange sounds. Zhou Si could only barely distinguish a few vague syllables, and most of it was meaningless noise.

As the battle progressed, the effects of information overload and cognitive impairment intensified. Chaotic and complex information poured into Zhou Si's brain without reservation, repeatedly chiseling his neurons.

The most significant impact at the moment is the visual system, ultra-clear real-life images, electronic 3D maps, radar detection, heat maps, warning signs... Too much information, like overlapping layers, is presented in front of Zhou Si's eyes.

Zhou Si couldn't control what he saw, so he could only try his best to stay extremely focused and distinguish among the vast amount of information what he really needed and what were distractions.

The same is true for the perception system. All kinds of strange feedback are intertwined, as if this body is splitting into different consciousnesses, fighting for dominance of the body.

It felt terrible, like wearing a thick cotton coat soaked with cold water. Every step seemed extremely heavy and wet, and the cold seemed to penetrate into the bones.

"John!"

Von Neumann growled and fired continuously at the sword dancer. The burning flames intertwined together, as if a river of burning magma was rushing towards him.

The sword dancer was struggling to dodge von Neumann's attack, and at this moment Zhou Si discovered that the red beacons of the other two people on the 3D map were approaching him rapidly and were almost overlapping.

Amid the noisy noise, Zhou Si heard a roar coming from the end of the corridor behind him.

Turing and Charles are about to arrive at the battlefield.

Zhou Si no longer stopped, as if he had completely freed himself from the shackles of his own will. He no longer resisted the erosion of himself by information overload and alienation disease. Instead, he opened his arms and embraced them tightly.

"Stay out of the way!"

Zhou Si's voice rang through the Sword Dancer's speaker.

Clusters of flames ignited from behind the sword dancer like spread wings of light. The power system roared and pushed the sword dancer's body up. The motor vehicle wheels at his feet also spun at high speed. The rubber tires rubbed against the ground, raising wisps of green smoke.

The sword dancer turned into a high-speed afterimage, rushing forward under the broken hot melt shotgun shells. Von Neumann was shocked by the sword dancer's maneuverability. After realizing that he could not keep a safe distance from the sword dancer, he simply gave up avoiding and opened fire with all his strength.

The missile bay on von Neumann's back opened. Although the ammunition storage capacity was not as dense as that of the micro missile, its firepower was much greater.

Several flames rose from the sky and turned back to fall towards the sword dancer, who then shot out the grappling hook again and nailed it into the wall on one side, using it as an anchor point, and his figure drew a huge semi-arc.

A loud explosion came from behind the sword dancer. Zhou Si gritted his teeth and stared at von Neumann with the locking system.

In fact, with Zhou Si's abilities and the performance of the sword dancer, this battle should not have been so difficult, but the impact of information overload and cognitive illness was too terrible, to the point that blurry hallucinations began to invade Zhou Si's world.

Zhou Si saw fresh flesh and blood growing on von Neumann's body, blood oozing from the flashing sparks, and the heavy melta shotgun itself turned into a burning skull with its mouth wide open, with lava brewing inside.

In fact, this state is not the worst. Whether it is von Neumann's flesh and blood or the deformation of the weapons, their changes themselves are still within the scope of Zhou Si's understanding. What really makes Zhou Si uneasy is the change in von Neumann's face.

Yes, that resin-printed face.

Zhou Si looked at the thing that should have been a face. He couldn’t tell what that thing was at this moment, what shape and color it was... It could be said that all the information related to it had now turned into an abstract chaos in Zhou Si’s eyes.

He couldn't read any perceptible information, just like a damaged hard drive, there was nothing.

There's no need to know what it is, just destroy it.

The sword dancer released the grappling hook and rushed to von Neumann's side. The missile bay behind von Neumann was still open and continued to spew out flames.

Fire rained down, and the sword dancer swung his sword without fear of death, even though there was still a distance of more than ten meters between him and von Neumann.

Clang——

A long, melodious sound reverberated in the courtyard, and then a flash of lightning crossed the long distance, bringing up a smoldering blood.

"How……"

Von Neumann stared blankly at the shattering sword that pierced his chest, and at the nanotube line that extended from the end of the shattering sword into the sword dancer's arm.

The sword dancer is majestic and solemn.

A deadly fire lit up at the end of the corridor. Zhou Si first heard a deafening cannon shot, and then the speeding shell pierced through the sword dancer's right arm. The explosion almost engulfed most of the sword dancer's body.

But before that, Zhou Si had already released a large amount of electricity, and the sword roared, burning the soul residing in the armed incarnation to ashes.

The lightning was brilliant.

(End of this chapter)