Papercut's gaze circled the central control room. "Nanster isn't here?"
He walked into the room as he spoke, but he was stopped by Red Fox just as he took a step.
"Wait a moment." Red Fox's eyes were cold and clear. His footsteps were soundless as he entered the central control room. His nose trembled slightly as he distinguished the smells in the room. He even went to the elevator and other entrances and exits to investigate.
Luo Nan's body reeked of blood due to his eye injury. Red Fox's rigorously trained nose was enough to distinguish where he went. However, Red Fox's expression grew uglier after he circled inside and out.
He was unable to understand the information displayed by the smells.
"There are no signs of him going out."
"Huh?"
"There are no traces of the elevator or the security door. He didn't go out from there."
Papercut blinked and turned to look in the direction they came from. "Smells don't show the direction. Nanster also came from here last time. Did he go back the way he came?
"I can tell." Red Fox didn't even raise his head. He walked to the operating console. This place should have been the core of the entire building, but now it had become a massive garbage dump. It had been completely destroyed by the tank.
Red Fox tried to restore the scene. He sized up the operating console that had become scrap metal and quickly discovered an abnormal situation. An enormous amount of electricity had just passed through a certain area of the garbage dump. Since the operating console was destroyed, the electrical resistance was extremely high, leading to traces of erosion. However, there were no wires or the like here.
Papercut mumbled to himself as he was pondering, "Disappeared into thin air? It doesn't seem like something happened... "
As he spoke, the paper man he controlled bounced outside the building. He extended his sensory range and confirmed that the devil ray was still obediently acting as a firefighting helicopter. There was nothing strange about it.
"Should I contact the Secretary?"
Red Fox's expression turned even worse, but he didn't object.
Papercut had just raised his wrist when an electronic beep rang in his ears. The corresponding thoughts found a place to go. Soon, a kaleidoscope of information connected with his consciousness. He felt livelier all of a sudden.
After a lot of trouble, the Psychic Wave Network was finally rebooted.
Papercut had long since gotten used to having the HexaEar by his side during his years in Xia City. He could enter the Psychic Wave Network at any time. His mind immediately relaxed. He searched his friend list in the first instance and shockingly saw:
Luo Nan was online!
The tetrahedron avatar was extremely eye-catching.
"Hey, Nanster, where are you?" Papercut called out.
The Red Fox suddenly turned his head and stared at him.
As for Luo Nan, he was silent for a moment. One second. Two seconds. Then a strange noise rang out, forming a disturbance. It made Papercut believe that something was going to happen to the Psychic Wave Network.
Luckily, the static soon disappeared and Luo Nan's voice rang out: "I'm here … … Mm. Wait a moment."
These words sounded a bit hoarse and floaty. Papercut was stunned when he heard them. He hurriedly asked, "Are you okay?"
"It's fine." Luo Nan responded in a hoarse voice. She could feel that there was a bit of a problem with his mood.
Red Fox couldn't stand this sort of pointless conversation. He also connected to the Psychic Wave Network and bluntly asked, "What about Snake Tongue?"
"Suicide."
Red Fox and Papercut looked at each other.
Luo Nan had no intention of explaining further. He asked them in reply, "You guys are in the central control room. Everything is fine over there, right?"
"It's alright …"
Before he finished speaking, another person requested to be connected to the call, and it wasn't just one person, but several people. He Yueyin, Zhang Yingying, Crag Burst, Bamboo Pole, Octopus … … even Bai Xinyan came to join in on the fun.
Practically all the ability users that Luo Nan knew contacted him like a swarm of bees.
Luo Nan never expected that he would have this sort of popularity. He wasn't good at this sort of situation, and he hoped for a quiet environment, especially right now.
Luckily, the other side was aware of this sort of situation. He Yueyin immediately took the lead and established an internal channel. She pulled in all the relevant personnel and switched to message mode. Only she, the creator of the channel, retained her voice to ask questions on behalf of everyone else.
"Mr. Luo, how is your body? How are your eyes?"
As He Yueyin spoke, all sorts of words rapidly flooded the internal channel interface. It felt even livelier than the voice mode.
Luo Nan just responded with a low and hoarse voice, "I'm fine. I can see."
"Mr. Luo, I don't recommend that you stay in Gear for too long. Someone has already posted photos and videos of the devil ray flying into the sky online. The activity in the northern jungle is too big. We need professionals to deal with the aftermath."
He Yueyin maintained a calm and rational attitude from beginning to end. She could more or less guess Luo Nan's thoughts. She added, "I already notified the firefighters to rush over there ten minutes ago. They should be here soon." "I know." Luo Nan's mood was subtle, but his response was straightforward, "I'll leave immediately."
"It's fine if Mr. Luo returns to Cloud City Water Village. The facilities of the Sacred Heart Hospital here are quite complete … …"
"Okay." Luo Nan's response grew more and more brief. He went offline right after his reply. It was clear that he didn't want to say anything more.
This attitude made the people in the internal channel very baffled.
"What's wrong? Are you angry? "
"Anyone would be angry after being tormented by those people from Headquarters."
"Are you sure it's not because of a bunch of powerless idiots?"
"Hey! Hey! Think about yourself!"
"Is it a stress reaction syndrome? He's shocked and angry, and he even killed people. Look! Black Beetle, Puppeteer, Tank, and Snake Tongue. A total of four lives. Oh, has he ever killed anyone before? "
"I think … … he hasn't?" Zhang Yingying wasn't too sure.
Papercut didn't say a word at this time. He just uploaded a few pictures. They were all displays of Tank's corpse from various angles.
Red Fox annotated, "Boss Luo's masterpiece."
Zhang Yingying sent a dumbstruck emoji and activated the bullet screen effect. She slid from right to left. The others followed one after another. A series of sluggish and confused emojis slid across the corpse pictures.
Luo Nan didn't care what the others said about him. After ending the call, he maintained his original posture. He opened his eyes wide, ignoring the pain in his eye sockets that was about to go numb. He looked around his surroundings.
The ring-shaped space, the ring-shaped chair, the wall lamp, the bookshelf, the footstool, and other arrangements were arranged. This narrow space created a comfortable and calm atmosphere. This was none other than the treehole cabin on the Withered Tree Sandbar.
Luo Nan looked at the furnishings in the room blankly, then he looked at his own hands. Several seconds later, he suddenly stood up. He supported himself against the slightly damp tree wall and walked up the stone steps shakily. He arrived at the upper level of the treehouse.
In front of the viewing window, the scroll window spread out to both sides. The darkness inside and outside quickly converged together, attempting to drown out all existence.
Luo Nan could still see that the Withered Tree Sandbar and Gear were separated by a distance of five to six hundred meters. From this angle, Gear was like an unfinished painting. Only a portion of the dark silhouette could be seen. One or two spots of fire that had yet to be completely extinguished were still flashing.
How did he get here?
What happened in between?
What did he see?
Actually, Luo Nan wasn't in a rush to obtain the ultimate answer. He wanted to talk about everything he had just experienced to others. He wanted to discuss it, big and small. He wanted to talk about it for as long as he wanted.
But the current situation determined that there was no such person.
He could only silently gaze at Gear. He watched as this building silently towered in the long river of time, revealing its simplest and most insignificant side to the people of the world.
At this time, the rumble of a real firefighting helicopter could be heard from the distant night sky. On the Psychic Wave Network, He Yueyin knew that Luo Nan had logged off, but she still left a message to remind him. She wanted him to meet up with Red Fox and Papercut as soon as possible. She also wanted him to do his best to hide the devil ray and meet up with them at Cloud City Water Village.
Luo Nan didn't reply. His gaze lingered on Gear. His mind seemed to be clear yet not clear. Coupling Theory could explain what he had encountered, but pure theory was ultimately unable to fully display the entirety of a great work of art.
It was rigorous. It was magical. It was beautiful!
Most importantly, it was his mother's work, and I was only able to glimpse one side of it.
It shouldn't be like this!
Luo Nan's body leaned forward, his head already sticking out of the viewing window. The autumn night wind was wrapped in ash and the fishy smell of the jungle. It pounced into his nose. It was clearly ice, but a fiery stimulation penetrated straight into his brain.
His emotions, his impulses, were hard to suppress.
Luo Nan's hands tightly gripped the bottom edge of the viewing window. His thoughts stirred, and the devil ray that was drawing water from the small lake not too far away immediately gave up on its work. Its pectoral fins and wings flapped lightly, and its enormous body arrived above the submerged sandbar. It leaned against the edge of the withered tree.
"Go!" Luo Nan let out a low shout and exerted force. He actually let his body leap out of the viewing window and fall to the edge of the devil ray's pectoral fins. His long wings took advantage of the situation to fold slightly, allowing his body to slide all the way to the flat back of the large fish.
The viewing window silently closed, restoring the appearance of the withered tree. Luo Nan did his best to stand up, but his legs were still a bit weak. He nearly fell down again. Fortunately, the devil ray's tough body gave him a timely elastic support.
Luo Nan didn't wait for his balance to be completely restored. He staggered forward until he arrived at the head of the devil ray. He grabbed a pair of flipped up cephalic fins, and only then did he let out a long sigh of relief. He spoke softly.
"Fly, then. Find the best angle!"
The devil ray let out a deep cry, and the whistling air currents broke a few branches of the withered tree. Its enormous body swam upward, reaching a height of over a hundred meters in the blink of an eye.
Finally, his unusual actions attracted the attention of others. Papercut's shout seemed to come from the jungle. There were people shouting and reminding in the HexaEar and the wristband.
Luo Nan didn't respond at all. He just looked at the sky.
The Pingjiang District where the academy was located was part of Xia City's specially designated educational function district. Even though the skyscrapers of Cloud City Water Village towered into the clouds, this district was still one of the areas with the lowest average building heights. The distribution of air traffic was relatively sparse.
Looking up, one's field of view was actually quite wide. The weather tonight was pretty good. A few stars impatiently broke through the light pollution of the city and appeared in the corners of the horizon.
But as the devil ray flew upward, the cold wind assaulted Luo Nan's face. In Luo Nan's mind, in his eyes, and in his ears, there was a different scene.
It was the surging mist and ice crystals.
It was the astral winds that roared like dragons.
It was the vast land of a fiery hell.
It was a marvelous world that Luo Nan had never imagined in his sixteen years of life.
It was dangerous and deadly, yet it possessed the allure of a poppy flower.
Luo Nan was practically unable to distinguish between reality and illusion. Then the tall body of the devil ray returned to normal, and it began to circle in the sky.
It was already over a thousand meters in altitude. Looking down from high above, one could see the rotation of heaven and earth, the meandering rivers, the dark void, and the light pollution of the city painting the background. It formed a dark and turbid and oppressive scene that flooded the horizon. Millions and millions of living beings came and went, either numb or wantonly, spilling the heat of life.
Luo Nan had never truly understood this city. Right now, Xia City was merely the background of his existence. What he paid attention to was just an insignificant point beneath this background.
Gears.
From Luo Nan's perspective, this was the only place that was pure and clear. No matter how chaotic the background elements were, as long as he approached this place, the visible and invisible order, the visible and invisible gears, crisscrossed between heaven and earth. They converged and revolved around the marvelous orifice, slowly revolving.
Rigorous, mystical, beautiful …. Reality!
Luo Nan stared blankly at this soul-shaking gorgeous scene. It was possible that he was the only one who understood this scene. His self-consciousness seemed to operate along with it, becoming a part of the invisible and grand order. It expanded outwards layer by layer, combing through all the living things of heaven and earth that he could sense.
So he knew that within a range of several dozen kilometers, practically all the high-definition cameras on the tall buildings in the area had turned to look at him. There were also high-altitude ships, and there might even be orbiting satellites at an altitude of several hundred kilometers. They locked onto the night sky where he stood, staring coldly at him.
As for the mental senses, strands and strands of them spread out from every mental plane. It wasn't just one or two.
It was unknown how many people used various methods to pay attention to this part of the world, to pay attention to his every movement.
But compared to the millions and millions of residents of Xia City, compared to the billions and billions of living beings of the world, what did this amount to?
Knowledge was order. Ignorance was disorder. The information of disorder was like an illusion. It melted and disintegrated within the glowing mist of this enormous metropolis.
It was like that figure, that name, that soul. The pride that surged within Luo Nan's heart had no place to go.
Thousands and thousands of words were needed to narrate her fantastic thoughts and her great accomplishments to the world. The ambiguity of a few words could be tens of thousands of kilometers.
Who could confide in the boundless world? Who could understand?
Could it be that it was the crazy grandpa from the sanatorium?
In the end …. It's just me.
Mom. Right now, it's just me.
It's just me!
The devil ray suddenly dove down from a thousand meters in the air, sensing Luo Nan's mood. Its enormous flat body seemed to be tied by long incorporeal threads of order. It transformed into a bizarre and spectacular giant kite, revolving around the center and rapidly spiraling.
Great winds howled, and Luo Nan's eyes burned hot. His field of vision warped. Only the self-rotating gear revolved around time, vaguely like a billowing pupil. It was like the center of the world, the source of order. All living things in the world merged within it, linking and coupling with his thoughts.
Boom!
The vast river of stars and millions and millions of stars faintly trembled within the surging storm of emotions. The millions and millions of starlight were like water droplets, turning into a river and an ocean in the blink of an eye. The surging soul strength burst the external neuron, overflowing in the blink of an eye. It was like a great river bursting through its dike as it rushed downwards.
It was this rush that brought the two gears of different sizes up. It was like the waves of a cart beating against the water, finding an opportunity to rotate in sync.
Energy rubbed, lightning burst forth, crisscrossing and weaving. In the blink of an eye, it was impossible to remember how many there were. Luo Nan's blood and energy surged. Was it pain or excitement? How could he experience it? He could only let the surging emotions push him as he tore his throat and screamed.
There were no misgivings. There were no considerations. There were only the purest emotions mixed with lightning to rumble on the mental plane.
"Mom!"
The melancholy sound of thunder crushed through the void.
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