66: Chapter 65 The remaining warmth

The towering, terrifying entity before him, composed of countless burning, crimson data clusters, suddenly froze in its movements.

Alt Cunningham's vast consciousness core experienced a violent data storm within a millisecond.

"What happened?" A fundamental logic loop of inquiry had actually experienced a brief lag due to processing overload.

"Shouldn't he have collapsed under this level of data stream impact? His load and output power are clearly worlds apart from before... In such a short time, it couldn't possibly be a physical-level intervention. And... I can't observe any behavioral trajectory..."

Like a blinding alarm suddenly lighting up in the darkness, a marker—one buried and almost forgotten since she was still human before entering the network—suddenly surfaced in her algorithmic processing results. "...Could it be... 'Them'?"

That was it.

This was the only explanation.

Only that group of Transcendent AI, born from the network itself, whose behavioral patterns defied conventional logic, and who had all but vanished since the establishment of the Blackwall, could have completed such a massive and bizarre intervention without her noticing.

[But, why?] This question took root in Alt's mind.

'Watching' Lin Yi, whose data image was now stable and even faintly exuding an indescribable aura, Alt instantly made the decision that best fit her survival logic.

The reason no longer mattered at this moment; continuing a direct confrontation with Transcendent AI interference would lead to a predetermined outcome—becoming an ownerless cluster of data in this Cyberspace, composed of countless 0s and 1s.

Without the slightest hesitation, that massive, crimson data image began to rapidly disintegrate and shrink from the edges, as if erased by an eraser. It transformed into a dark red data stream and, faster than it had arrived, plunged fiercely toward the Blackwall behind it.

That giant net, woven from pain and madness, rippled like the surface of water, then immediately returned to that suffocating, rhythmic "calm."

The formidable enemy had retreated.

Lin Yi looked at the empty space before him, now left with only data debris and the humming of the Blackwall. His long-taut nerves finally relaxed, and an indescribable wave of exhaustion washed over him, though he knew this fatigue stemmed more from the extreme confrontation just moments ago than from the present.

He suddenly recalled that power which had felt like a divine descent. "Europa? Is that you?" He tried calling out in the empty data space, his voice carrying a sense of inquiry and a trace of imperceptible gratitude and lingering fear.

But there was no response.

Only the embers stirred up by the distant data storm drifted down silently like snowflakes, made of 0s and 1s.

This space was terrifyingly dead silent, as if the thrilling battle just now had never happened.

Lin Yi understood.

Europa, or rather, an existence at the level of a Transcendent AI, had its own methods of operation; it was not something that could be summoned at will.

He stopped dwelling on it, as another more realistic concern surfaced—the Cyberspace eruption and the violent fluctuations of the Blackwall just now were surely like lighting a flare in the dead of night. In all likelihood, within seconds, Netwatch's rapid response teams would swarm in like sharks smelling blood.

This place was not meant for lingering.

He did not hesitate further; his consciousness actively severed the connection to the deep-dive state and began to surface rapidly.

Cold.

Piercing cold.

This was the first and only clear sensation Lin Yi felt after his consciousness returned to his body.

It felt as if every inch of his skin and every neuron were submerged in a ten-thousand-year-old ice cave, so cold that his teeth began to chatter.

Before his blurred vision had fully recovered, he couldn't help but blurt out: "Damn... Valerie... are you here to get revenge on me? It feels... like I'm about to freeze to death..."

Before he could finish his sentence, a pair of ice-cold hands with undeniable strength suddenly pressed onto his shoulders, unceremoniously pushing him back into the frigid liquid.

"Blyat! Why didn't you just freeze to death, you bastard!" V's voice exploded in his ear, laced with tears, and even more so with the anger and lingering fear of surviving a catastrophe. "I was here, terrified, my hands nearly scalded dragging you in, and you—the moment you wake up, you say I'm getting revenge on you?!"

Amidst the splashing water, Lin Yi choked on a mouthful of ice water, which actually made him a bit more clear-headed.

He felt the hand V had pressed on his shoulder trembling slightly; it wasn't just a sign of using too much force.

He seized the moment when V's body leaned forward and her center of gravity became unstable from the exertion. He suddenly reached out in the water, wrapped his arms around her slender yet powerful waist, and pulled her in hard!

"Ah!" V was caught off guard and let out a startled cry. She was lifted off the ground by his embrace around her waist, and then, with a "splash," she fell into the bathtub filled with ice water and half-melted ice, kicking up an even larger spray of water.

The instantaneous cold made her whole body shudder, but what was clearer than the cold were the arms tightly encircling her—Lin Yi's arms, which were rapidly regaining body heat—and his steady, powerful heartbeat beside her ear.

She struggled for a moment, but that resistance quickly faded.

Her soaked clothes clung tightly to her, cold and sticky, but she seemed not to feel it. She just buried her face in his neck, and her fist struck his chest—not too lightly, not too heavily. Her voice was muffled, carrying a distinct sob as she vented her sorrow: "You damn... I almost thought you were going to be gone... bastard... I felt like a blind person, left only with a scent but completely helpless... I don't like it at all..."

Her voice lowered, and her body trembled slightly with the lingering fear: "Just now... your whole body was so hot it felt like you were going to burn up, then suddenly you were normal, and then... then you started getting cold, colder and colder... What the hell... I thought you were already going into rigor mortis..."

Lin Yi held her tightly in his arms, clearly feeling the slight tremors of her body.

He sat up, leaning against the cold bathtub wall, and pulled the soaked V even tighter into his embrace. One hand, still carrying a trace of the chill from the ice water, gently stroked her back over and over, trying to dispel the fear that stemmed from her heart.

"Alright... it's okay, Lily." His voice was low and gentle, carrying the hoarseness of surviving a close call. "Look, aren't I fine? This is over, completely over."

He lowered his head, his chin gently rubbing against her soaked hair, and continued to soothe her: "Tomorrow, as soon as day breaks, we'll go home. Then, we'll go out and have fun, just the two of us, or we can call Jackie and the others too. You pick the place, we can do whatever you want, we'll listen to you. Let's take a good break for a while and put this whole Pacifica mess completely behind us, how about that?"

V stayed quietly in his arms for a while, greedily absorbing the gradually returning, reassuring warmth of his body.

After a good long while, she looked up; her eyes and nose were still red, but her gaze had recovered its usual clarity and a touch of stubbornness.

"Fine." She sniffled, her tone carrying a hint of 'no backing out.' "You said it, don't think about reneging."

Immediately after, she wrinkled her nose, pushed him hard, and her tone returned to its usual "fierceness": "Get up and get out! I'm freezing! Whoever wants to take this ice bath can have it!"

Lin Yi watched her regain her vitality and couldn't help but chuckle out loud; the last bit of gloom in his heart seemed to be dispelled by this laughter.

He stood up from the bathtub first, the ice-cold water cascading off him, and then reached out to pull the equally soaked V up as well.

The two stood in the bathroom, looking at each other's disheveled, drowned-rat appearance, and then at the water stains all over the floor and the crushed ice floating in the bathtub, yet they suddenly found it somewhat funny.

Outside the window, the night in Pacifica was still noisy and dangerous.

But in this small, messy bathroom, the crisis had been resolved, leaving only the relief of having survived and the real warmth of clinging to each other.