Chapter 1

Scattered fighting took place throughout the facility, once known as the Northern Ring Tower, but now mutated into some kind of deep-mountain launch site. The situation was chaotic. Perhaps hundreds or even thousands of soldiers were vying for control of the place—though this whole farce had only begun an hour ago, they seemed to have been fighting like this for decades. Hao Ren and Nolan dodged soldiers as much as possible, trying to find a safe route to the outside world in this complex and enormous building. There were a few unavoidable skirmishes, but fortunately the opponents were ordinary people and didn't have anyone like Nolan running around with a rocket launcher, so it was relatively easy to deal with them.

As time passed, the sounds of gunfire around them seemed to weaken slightly. Hao Ren muttered, "Looks like the regular army is about to completely take over this place."

"This facility may have explosives underground, so we shouldn't stay long," Nolan muttered, her speed not slowing down at all, just slightly raising the short staff in her hand. "Thanks for the weapon. This thing is actually pretty good."

Although she couldn't master this weapon from the Irium elves in a short time, the short staff's shield function had helped her withstand danger more than once. After all, even with combat skills at the limit of human ability, her body was still mortal flesh. It wasn't easy to travel through this facility full of enemy soldiers.

Hao Ren nodded, suddenly seeing a glimmer of light ahead: "That seems to be the exit!"

Nolan immediately cautiously slowed her pace: "Watch out for ambushes."

She and Hao Ren stopped, but the data terminal ran over without a care: "This unit will go scout ahead!" Hao Ren couldn't even catch that speed.

Nolan was stunned watching from behind: "This is the most agile cerebrovascular thrombosis patient I've ever seen..."

Hao Ren took two steps forward and grabbed the data terminal: "Are you out of your mind?!"

The terminal tossed its head: "It's okay, this unit is already dead. Feel it, there's no heartbeat now. Probably can't die even if someone puts another hole in me."

Nolan had seen Hao Ren and his cerebrovascular-thrombosis-unrecovered type "partner" challenge her values more than once on this journey. She had no energy to ask why at this point. She confirmed the situation at the exit and beckoned to the two: "Come on, the front is safe."

The three of them finally escaped from this overly complex and enormous facility. When they came out of a secret opening on the hillside, Hao Ren was startled by the scene before him, speechless for a long time.

He saw a vast expanse of mountains stretching out before him, overlapping and almost endless. The sky was high and clear, and the clear blue sky made him almost dizzy. His mind still held the memory of the thick, dusty sky on Zorm, where even the sun could hardly show its face. The clear sky in front of him made him wonder if he had arrived in another world.

If there was anything regrettable about this clear sky and mountains, it was that there was little vegetation on the mountains. Only a few low, sparse shrubs and dwarf trees were scattered on the desolate rocky slopes, but even so, this scene was still much more pleasing than the previously desperate post-war wasteland.

The data terminal looked back, seeing that everyone came out of a cave on the hillside. The previous facility was originally a hidden bunker in the mountain, and even the passage in front of them was disguised as an ordinary mountain cave.

The terminal shook its head: "This body is so troublesome. To look behind, you have to twist your neck. Sometimes twisting your neck isn't enough, you have to twist your body—I can't believe you humans take this inferior bearing between your head and shoulders for granted..."

Hao Ren rolled his eyes: "Take it easy, Crow is also humanoid."

"You think she really needs to use her eyes to see the world? Tch."

Nolan looked suspiciously at this wonderful combination that seemed to have neurological problems, then walked to the side of the hillside: "It's not safe to stay here, let's move to a safe place first. Follow me, there should be a means of transportation here."

Hao Ren followed Nolan curiously, asking as he walked, "How do you know? Hasn't this world changed?"

Before he finished speaking, he saw a strange modified vehicle parked behind a rock in front of him. This car had four huge wheels connected by multi-section cranks and a body mounted on a complex suspension system. It looked completely prepared for off-roading in harsh and complex environments. Rather than a car, it was more like a spider robot with wheels. Just like Nolan said: There was a means of transportation here, and it looked very suitable.

Nolan waved, signaling Hao Ren and the terminal to get in the car, then nimbly climbed into the driver's seat and began to fumble with the complex buttons, switches, and steering system, which looked very different from Earth vehicles. It seemed that she was also touching this thing for the first time, but after groping for a moment, she knew how to start this big guy. With the sound of an engine running, the car, like a spider robot, raised its body and drove down the hillside along a relatively gentle route.

Nolan then had time to answer Hao Ren's question: "Of course, it's based on memory—memory that I don't know where it came from. But my constitution is special. As the price for being able to remember past experiences, my new memories are very vague. It takes me several days to piece together a rough idea. Before that, I don't even know what my new identity is. Is your situation different?"

Nolan curiously tilted her head to look at Hao Ren: "Do you know what your identity is 'this time'? Or at least is there some vague information floating in your mind?"

Hao Ren didn't have this setting: "I don't feel anything."

"Maybe our situations are different," Nolan said casually. "You are the first person other than me that I've met who retains memories. I'm not sure if everyone like this is the same."

From Nolan's words, Hao Ren guessed her current situation: she did retain the memory of the last "reincarnation," but at the same time, she was also affected by this "reincarnation." Certain memories were forming out of thin air in her mind, and these memories might be the false life experiences that this world had added to her out of thin air.

The life history of this world's Nolan up until an hour ago.

This was easy to understand: If the entire world had only existed for an hour from its creation to the present, how would you make the people in the world believe that they lived in a normal and orderly world? The only way was to fabricate a detailed and true history for them, to make them believe in their birth, believe in their growth, believe in their experiences, believe in their relationships, believe that they had known a certain buddy for ten years, loved someone for twenty years, lived in a certain place for thirty years, believe in their whole life, and that the entire world before them was so fulfilling and true—but in reality, all of this was injected into your brain at some point an hour and fourteen minutes ago.

Perhaps everyone in the world was like this, except for Nolan.

At sunset, Hao Ren and Nolan believed that they had shaken off every pursuer behind them—or maybe no one was chasing them at all. In short, they found a cave large enough to hide the strange mountain vehicle and the three of them. After confirming that no traces were left outside, they finally settled down.

"I don't like caves," Nolan frowned. "I was once smoked to death in a cave."

The corpse-girl terminal also chimed in: "This unit doesn't like caves either. You always use this unit as a flashlight..."

"Get lost, go rest in the corner. I'm not carrying you if I'm exhausted this time!"

"Okay."

Nolan looked at the blond girl limping to the corner of the cave: "Is she really just suffering from cerebrovascular thrombosis?"

Hao Ren: "...Just assume that every part of her brain is sick, I don't mind."

"I thought you had a very close relationship," Nolan gave Hao Ren a deep look. "The scene of you carrying her around even moved Karl, and even me... Don't tell me I was deceived by appearances."

Hao Ren chuckled dryly: "This... in a sense also... forget it, let's talk about this world."

"This world?" The light in Nolan's eyes dimmed, and she lowered her eyelids wearily. "I only know that this world is crazy and chaotic. As you can see... it has been resetting, changing, and evolving, like a bad director manipulating behind the scenes. I can't remember how many absurd and bizarre 'stage plays' I've experienced."