AWITTGABAGIWOBAFOAP Chapter 48
by Volare“Ka’lier, dreams will eventually shatter. And the gift I want to give you is… to kill you with my own hands.”
Ka’lier chuckled, his shoulders trembling. He grabbed the blood-soaked blade with his bare hand and turned to stare at Song Ningwan with a resentful look.
“Is that so?” The wound in the center of his palm was so deep that the bone was visible, and blood dripped onto the floor from between his fingers.
With a thud! The barrier between millennia of time and space was broken.
Blood soaked his white shirt. Instead of pulling out the dagger, Ka’lier forcefully pushed it further down.
Song Ningwan felt a chill run down his spine as he watched the blade easily slice through Ka’lier’s chest. Ka’lier then reached his hand inside.
“Wan, don’t you want to know my secret all along?” Ka’lier’s smile grew increasingly deranged as he seemed oblivious to the pain. He pulled something out from his chest cavity.
“You…” Song Ningwan stopped himself.
In his hand was not a fresh human heart, but a beating metal one.
“Ka’lier, you are…” Song Ningwan found everything before him unbelievable. The cloud of mystery dissipated at this moment.
This was the heart he had created for the first generation of Artificial Beings.
“Yes, can you see it now? I’m not the second-generation Artificial Being you like. I’m the bad child you hate so much. Wan… ugh!” Ka’lier suddenly coughed up a mouthful of blood, collapsing to his knees as he coughed, looking up at his god.
“Wan…” Ka’lier reached out, tears falling unintentionally. “I wasn’t lying. From the first moment we met again, I’ve been telling the truth. Wan, you don’t know, you’re always so fierce, but your eyes speak the most beautiful love words in the world.”
“Ka’lier, this is an illusion. You won’t die.” Song Ningwan, his breathing ragged, sighed in relief. He was comforting himself, even if it was just with empty words.
“Wan, you’re wrong. To see you, I specifically used a physical body…” Ka’lier choked on blood, unable to speak. “Now, I will fulfill your wish, at the cost of my own death.”
His voice abruptly stopped, and the surrounding illusion underwent earth-shattering changes.
Inside the luxury villa, the scenery gradually lost its color and became blurred. Song Ningwan instinctively crouched down to hold the collapsing body.
“Ka’lier!” Song Ningwan first protected the metal heart, watching Ka’lier close his eyes gently as he fell into his arms.
The surrounding scenery crumbled, and his lover died in his arms.
Song Ningwan couldn’t stop the endless flow of blood. In that moment, he panicked, forgetting all his medical knowledge, and tried to fill the gaping hole with his hands.
“Ka’lier!”
Bang!
The illusion shattered, and the pale blue butterflies lost their color, circling aimlessly in the air.
Song Ningwan woke up from the nightmare, gasping for breath, looking around.
Was Ka’lier the nightmare that had been trapping him all along?
Recovering from his shock, Song Ningwan intended to use something to support himself as he stood up, but he didn’t expect to find something hard in his hand.
!
It was Ka’lier’s metal heart!
How could this be?! Wasn’t it a dream…?
“Ka’lier?” Song Ningwan called out.
Xie Xiaoyu, who had already woken up beside him, noticed the commotion and spoke up: “What are you mumbling about? Get up quickly, we’re all about to die.”
Song Ningwan came back to his senses, suppressing the bitterness in his heart, and carefully placed the metal heart in his pocket.
With a thought, the entire wasteland landscape entered his mind.
His spirit had indeed recovered.
“What are you doing?! Your eyes are bleeding, stop it…” Xie Xiaoyu and the team leader exchanged a glance, hurrying to catch Song Ningwan.
“Outside there are… mechanical blue butterflies.” Song Ningwan withdrew his spirit and described the scene he had seen.
Countless mechanical blue butterflies surrounded the mecha, releasing magnetic forces to affect their minds and drag people into illusions.
“How do you know about the mechanical blue butterflies?” Xie Xiaoyu asked suspiciously.
Song Ningwan suddenly choked back: “How would I know? Is it related to you?”
“You…”
The team leader stopped Xie Xiaoyu, who was about to get angry. It was obvious that Song Ningwan had experienced some kind of nightmare and was in a particularly bad mood.
“The mechanical blue butterflies themselves carry toxins and cannot be touched. Now that we’re trapped in the ancient ruins, we can’t crack the permissions of the ruins’ owner, so we may never be able to leave,” the team leader explained seriously.
Xie Xiaoyu sneered, “These are the ruins left by our ancestors, how could we possibly…”
Buzz—
Song Ningwan didn’t say anything, only using his spirit to control this mecha that had been sealed for ten thousand years.
Xie Xiaoyu, who had just been so confident, was dumbfounded when he saw the mecha start up again.
The big cat, who had been leaning against the wall in silence, perked up his eyes.
Under the watchful eyes of everyone, Song Ningwan parted his thin lips slightly: “001, long time no see.”
!
What?!
“What are you joking about? What an idiot…” Xie Xiaoyu looked disdainful, feeling that this scruffy man had gone mad.
The team leader frowned but didn’t speak. Their gazes towards Song Ningwan were unfriendly.
It was as if they thought he had been corroded by the nightmare and had lost his mind.
What Xie Xiaoyu didn’t expect was that Song Ningwan not only didn’t give them any attention, but instead spoke to the void.
“001, initiate self-repair.”
Xie Xiaoyu was stunned. He walked up to Song Ningwan. “Didn’t you hear me talking to you? You…”
With a ding, the conversation was interrupted.
[001 has finally waited for you, my master]
“What?” Xie Xiaoyu was about to say something when a strong electric shock suddenly flowed through his entire body. It was like a million needles piercing into his bones, causing his hands and feet to spasm in pain.
Xie Xiaoyu exclaimed and fell to his knees, “Ah!”
[Those who disrespect the master will bear the consequences]
Xie Xiaoyu cursed silently, trying to get up from the ground, but was suppressed by a vast spirit, unable to breathe.
He tried to release his own A-class spirit to resist, but was crushed, unable to resist at all.
“Ugh!” He supported himself on the floor with his palms, sweat dripping from his forehead. Xie Xiaoyu desperately raised his head, blinking the tears in his eyes, refusing to give in.
Even though Song Ningwan’s condescending gaze frightened him.
“Don’t provoke me. I’m not interested in playing games with you kids right now. If you want to live, you have to learn to listen,” Song Ningwan’s voice was cold, and there was no warmth in his eyes as he looked at people. “Or I don’t mind opening the hatch and letting you go out to fend for yourselves.”
Meeting Xie Xiaoyu’s stubborn gaze, Song Ningwan heard his inner thoughts.
[Jerk! I hate you so much!!! I absolutely refuse to give in! Kill me if you have the guts!!!]
Oh?
Song Ningwan continued to release his spirit, crushing Xie Xiaoyu’s brain, making it so that he couldn’t even lift a finger.
This kind of one-sided suppression was absolutely impossible to reverse.
[Kill me if you have the guts…]
Worried that he wouldn’t be able to vent his anger, Song Ningwan’s eyes grew darker and darker, and his SSS-class spirit was preparing to “go all out.”
But the team leader noticed something was wrong in time and knelt on one knee under the pressure, begging for mercy: “Senior, please calm your anger! We were blind and didn’t recognize Mount Tai! Please spare him!”
“No…” Xie Xiaoyu, blood gushing from his mouth, was already unable to speak.
“Senior!” The team leader looked up in surprise.
Seeing that the level of punishment was almost enough, Song Ningwan retracted his spirit, giving the sweating people time to breathe.
“Thank you, Senior.” The team leader couldn’t stand steadily at all, staggering over to check on Xie Xiaoyu’s condition, which was not optimistic. He was already in a deep coma.
Song Ningwan spoke indifferently: “001, laser treatment.”
[Yes, Master.]
After the electronic sound rang out, the treatment cabin emitted a pale green fluorescence, performing wound healing treatment.
[Master, the mecha has successfully self-repaired. Please issue instructions.]
“I need to retrieve materials to reforge a body for Ka’lier,” Song Ningwan said and paused: “Are there any safe areas nearby?”
[Master, after testing, the air on the wasteland contains up to 95% toxins, and humans cannot be exposed to the virus for long periods of time]
Reforging a body for Ka’lier was urgent. Taking these people with him wouldn’t necessarily be a burden, but it would be extremely troublesome.
Song Ningwan thought for a while and instructed: “001, send them back to the Underground City first.”
[Yes, Master.]
“We can’t leave, the research report hasn’t been completed yet.” The taciturn big cat stood up at the critical moment.
The youth stood up straight, his whole body exuding a black aura, calm.
“Negotiating terms with me?” Song Ningwan looked over faintly, his tone without fluctuation.
The big cat shook his head: “No.”
Then he paused: “It’s a request, please give us some time. We will leave on our own once we get the wasteland research report, otherwise everything will be in vain.”
Song Ningwan didn’t refuse: “What do you want?”
The team leader had a bad feeling and was about to stop him when he was interrupted.
The big cat said earnestly: “A specimen of the mechanical blue butterfly, and the mecha’s structural diagram of 001.”
The former could be understood, but the latter was simply outrageous!
Too shocking.
The team leader’s eyes darkened. He wanted to change the subject and smooth things over: “Senior, we will leave on our own now.” After saying that, he looked at the big cat.
“Come and help Xiaoyu.”
The big cat pursed his lips and took the initiative to support his teammate, and before leaving, still unwilling to give up, looked at Song Ningwan.
“Mechanical blue butterflies, I can help you catch them. I can give you the mecha’s structural diagram. I will also safely send you back to the Underground City,” Song Ningwan suddenly said, “but there’s one condition, one of you has to stay behind.”
The team leader, who was walking at the front, paused slightly. He shook his head: “Senior, we can solve it. Let’s go.”
The big cat suddenly stopped, looking at Song Ningwan: “I’m willing to stay.”
The team leader frowned upon hearing this, his tone firm, “We have to leave as soon as possible, we can’t stay in the wasteland environment. Besides, I brought you out for this exploration, and we have to go back with everyone accounted for. No one can have an accident. So, Senior, I’m sorry we can’t accept your kindness.”
The big cat lowered his eyes, his voice softening: “I want to stay, team leader. You take the scientific research report back. You’ll definitely have a meteoric rise.”
“I don’t agree.” The team leader’s eyes cooled down. Exchanging his teammate’s life for a bright future sounded like something a beast would do, and he would never do it.
During the struggle between the two, Xie Xiaoyu, who was being supported by the big cat, accidentally fell to the ground with a bang!
The group was instantly speechless.
At this moment, Song Ningwan opened his mouth at the opportune moment, speaking to the big cat: “I don’t need you to stay, I want…”
Song Ningwan paused, looking at someone.