297: Chapter 297 Your God Bleeds

Chapter 297: Your God Is Bleeding Chen Mo raised his gun and slowly approached.

Fifty meters.

Thirty meters.

Ten meters.

The old man did not turn around, still intently working on the wood in his hands.

Wood shavings flew.

"I don't like being disturbed."

The old man suddenly spoke.

His voice was aged, hoarse, yet carried a heart-palpitating authority.

"Especially when I'm carving a heart."

Chen Mo stopped.

He saw clearly what the old man held.

It wasn't wood.

It was a piece of greyish-white bone.

The old man was carving that bone into the shape of a heart.

Every chamber, every blood vessel, was carved vividly.

"Who are you?" Chen Mo asked.

The old man put down his carving knife, blew away the bone dust, and slowly turned around.

Chen Mo's pupils contracted sharply.

This face... covered in wrinkles, age spots, with muddled eyes.

It was just an ordinary old man's face.

But Chen Mo had seen this face before.

In a dream.

In the memory fragments of that heart.

This was the one who had picked him up from the garbage heap, installed this heart in him, and then inexplicably vanished... "What, don't recognize me?"

The old man smiled, a kindly smile that was utterly chilling.

He pointed at Chen Mo's chest.

"That is my most satisfactory work, Number 001."

The old man picked up the half-carved bone heart from the table. "A pity, it's a prototype. Only in this environment can it evolve into its complete form."

"Evolve?"

Chen Mo felt the blood in his entire body turn cold.

"You think this is just a machine for pumping blood?"

The old man stood up, surprisingly a full head taller than Chen Mo.

He spread his arms as if embracing the entire sky.

"Look at this sky, look at these trees."

"They are all sustained by the massive reactor beneath this building."

The old man stared at Chen Mo, a fanatical gleam flashing in his eyes.

"And that thing in your chest is the... igniter for that reactor."

Click.

A soft sound.

The surrounding "trees" suddenly moved.

Their bark peeled away, revealing silver-white metal trunks beneath.

Those leaves were all solar thermal collection panels.

This was no forest.

This was a massive energy matrix.

"Welcome home, Number 001."

The old man smiled, extending a hand towards Chen Mo.

"Return the spark to me. We can... light up this world together."

Chen Mo looked at the "trees" that had transformed into steel monsters all around, then at the old man who called himself the Creator.

He suddenly raised the gun with its single bullet and pressed it against his own temple.

The old man's smile froze.

"You just said..."

The corner of Chen Mo's mouth curled into a mad arc. "This is an igniter?"

"Don't be reckless!" The old man lost his composure for the first time, shouting.

"If I blow my own head off."

Chen Mo's finger pressed the trigger; the sound of his heartbeat echoed like thunder in the air.

"The heart stops, the igniter dies."

"Then will your damned Garden of God..."

Chen Mo stared into the old man's terrified eyes, enunciating each word.

"...turn into ruins?"

...The wind stopped.

Or rather, the ventilation system was deliberately cut off.

The entire garden fell into a dead silence, with only the mechanical trees stripped of their camouflage emitting a low hum, like a pack of hungry metal beasts grinding their teeth.

The old man's face was ugly.

That composure, that arrogance of seeming to control everything, deflated like a punctured balloon the moment Chen Mo pressed the gun to his temple.

"Put down the gun."

The old man raised his hands, his movements slow as if afraid to disturb the dust in the air.

"Child, you don't understand... That heart isn't just nuclear energy; it's connected to this level's, no, to the entire city's life support system. If you die, the energy pulse triggered by the heart stopping will instantly burn out the main control brain."

"Perfect."

Chen Mo's finger remained on the trigger, even applying a bit more pressure.

Even though the gun only held one bullet.

Even though this gun might not even pierce his skull.

But at this moment, he had won the bet.

Because the old man was trembling.

"See," Chen Mo said, blood seeping from the corner of his mouth, his voice hoarse. "You're afraid of death too. I thought God wasn't afraid of dying."

"I'm not afraid of death!"

The old man was nearly hysterical. "I'm afraid of destroying all this! This is humanity's final ark! Below is all poison gas and radiation; only here... only here is a pure land!"

"Pure land?"

Chen Mo glanced at the soil beneath his feet.

He hadn't noticed before, but now he saw the soil was reddish-brown.

As if mixed with iron rust.

Or like mixed with aged, dried blood.

"A pure land fueled by burning millions of people below?"

Chen Mo took a step forward.

The old man instinctively stepped back, bumping into the wooden table covered in carving tools.

The bone heart rolled off, fell to the ground, and shattered into two pieces.

"No!"

The old man cried out in distress, wanting to pick it up, but was pinned in place by Chen Mo's icy gaze.

"Russell."

Chen Mo didn't turn around, calling to the councilor cowering behind. "Come here."

Russell trembled as he peeked out from behind a mechanical tree. "Wh-what?"

"Search him."

Chen Mo stared at the old man. "Strip him of all electronic devices. If he dares move a muscle, you shout. The moment I hear you, I pull the trigger."

Russell looked at the old man, then at Chen Mo.

On one side was the god of the top level; on the other was a madman holding a suicide switch.

He gritted his teeth and chose to obey the madman.

After all, the madman's finger was on the trigger.

Russell rushed over, roughly tearing open the old man's plain linen robe.

"How dare you! I am the..."

"Shut up!" Russell slapped the old man across the face.

This was probably the craziest thing he'd ever done—slapping the ruler of the top level.

But he found the feeling damn good.

Items were thrown to the ground one by one.

A control wristband, two magnetic cards, and an exquisitely crafted scalpel.

"That's all." Russell panted.

"Give me the wristband."

Chen Mo ordered.

Russell handed over the wristband.

Chen Mo took it with one hand, the gun still steadily pointed at his own temple.

"green text, see what this is."

"Parsing... Wow."

The voice in his mind grew excited. "This old geezer is a permission hound. This is the environmental control terminal for the entire top level. I see... atmospheric circulation, gravity simulation, and a project folder called 'Eden'."

"Can you control it?"

"Give me ten seconds to crack the encryption." green text said. "But there's a problem: this thing's core code is bound to your heart's frequency. Meaning, you're not just a bomb; you're the key."

Chen Mo narrowed his eyes.

He looked at the old man.

"What's your name?" Chen Mo asked.

The old man, holding his swollen cheek, glared venomously. "You can call me 'Father'. After all, I gave you a second life."

"I have no Father."

Chen Mo said flatly. "Since you say this heart is an igniter, that proves this building is also a machine. Where's the switch?"

The old man fell silent.

He was calculating.

He was waiting for the security forces to arrive.

Although this level was a restricted area, he had triggered a silent alarm earlier. Even with the elevator locked, the exoskeleton airborne troops should be arriving soon.

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