161: Who are you? (4000 words)

"Who are you?"

Zandik looked up and asked the man in the air.

The man didn't answer, but some kind of light refraction phenomenon seemed to occur around him. Everyone present felt their eyes were momentarily dazzled.

A second later, their vision recovered, and they looked up at the sky with immense fear, only to find no hole in the ceiling, no molten iron dripping onto the ground, and no man falling.

Was it a hallucination? Was it a hallucinatory or dream-like magic?

The inspector quickly looked at the screen. It wasn't an illusion; the experimental facilities and armor on floors one to twelve were indeed penetrated.

Suddenly!

"Clang!"

A sound of a heavy object hitting the ground came, and Zandik quickly looked in the direction of the sound.

It was Huayan, the android disguised as a mother.

She was wearing a piece of clothing and kneeling on the ground.

No, wait, kneeling on the ground? Wasn't she disassembled and installed into a Ruin Hunter?

Zandik looked over in disbelief. It wasn't a hallucination; the Ruin Hunter was gone, and only the female android sat completely intact on the ground.

"Clang!"

Another clang sounded, and Zandik looked back.

It was the operating table where more than a dozen children were tied. The restraints that should have been on the children fell onto the operating table in a "locked" state, but the bound people were nowhere to be seen.

More than a dozen children had vanished into thin air.

Zandik frowned. How could this be? The electric shock device and the self-destruct device weren't activated? There's no reason why not?

"Clang!"

The sound rang out again. Zandik turned around, and it was those three Ruin Guards preserving half-dead brains, and the cultivation container preserving the entire nervous system. All four brains inside were gone!

The three robots and one container all turned into scrap metal, scattered on the ground, and orange-yellow culture solution flowed everywhere.

"The brains are gone? Could it be!"

Zandik quickly looked in the direction of the four children whose brains had been removed. Indeed! He was there!

The man, dressed in a black robe, grabbed the restraints that bound the four corpses and then casually tossed them backward.

"Clang!"

A heavy object hit the ground, and Zandik's gaze was drawn away for a moment. When he looked up again, the corpses were gone.

No, the bodies were still there, but they were no longer corpses. The four children were sleeping peacefully on the operating table as if they had never been cut open.

The man was holding something, perhaps a surgical instrument. A golden circular ripple appeared beside him, and he placed the item he was holding back into the ripple.

"There are still some after-effects, after all, some parts have already necrotized... Saving them is definitely not a problem. Let me think... I'll give them some medicine. They should be fine after drinking it." The man then took out four medicine bottles from the golden ripple, feeding them one by one. The breathing of the four children clearly stabilized a lot.

Then... his front seemed to split open in the middle, and he picked up the children one by one, stuffing them into his body.

After "eating" them all, the man turned around, his amber eyes staring directly at Zandik.

The moment their eyes met, Zandik's pupils constricted violently. He felt an inexplicable palpitation.

This man is definitely not human! Not even a primate!

That was just a skin, a disguise. His true form must be something beneath this skin!

Huo Xi looked at Zandik and asked, "I say, aren't you Dotto—"

Before he could finish speaking, Zandik pulled out a remote control and pressed it. Instantly, weapons emerged from everywhere—the ground, the walls, the ceiling—wherever something could be hidden. Laser beams and element bullets sprayed towards Huo Xi as if they were free.

Huo Xi sighed. In an instant, the WangSheng Funeral Parlor clothes on him were absorbed by his skin, and the red clothes Alice made for him appeared on his body. These clothes could change synchronously with his body and would not be destroyed.

Huo Xi walked slowly towards Zandik, enduring the hail of bullets, without even blinking.

When he was five meters away from Zandik, the shooting stopped. This was Zandik's safe distance; his creations would not harm him.

Huo Xi lowered his head to look at Zandik and slowly said, "I won't get hurt unless you hit my eyes."

The moment the words fell, Zandik pulled out a sharp awl from nowhere and thrust it towards Huo Xi's eyes!

Huo Xi's eyes popped out, he snatched the awl and flung it aside, then his eyes retracted back. Facing Zandik's stunned expression, Huo Xi smiled brightly: "Just kidding, stabbing my eyes won't kill me either."

Then he suddenly exploded with a kick, his sole directly imprinted on Zandik's chest. Zandik's ribs caved in, and he flew backward instantly!

With a thunderous crash, Zandik slammed into the wall in a spread-eagle shape, the metal wall denting inwards, and he himself fell unconscious.

Huo Xi looked at the Fatui next to him. These Fatui all had the smell of blood on them; they were all accomplices.

He pointed at one of them: "You, go over, unfasten him and bring him here."

The Fatui didn't reply, as if scared silly. He just stared blankly at Huo Xi.

The next moment, a black sphere suddenly appeared at the bridge of his nose. The sphere grew larger and larger, seemingly possessing an incredibly terrifying suction force. His entire face began to twist, rotate, and shrink towards the sphere.

"Ah ah ah ah ah ah ah—" The scream stopped abruptly. Half of his face had been sucked into the black hole, and his corpse fell straight down.

Huo Xi looked at another person: "You, unfasten him and bring him here."

The Fatui immediately went over, unfastened Zandik, and hurriedly dragged him over.

Huo Xi threw him a medicinal pill: "Feed it to him."

The Fatui immediately fed the medicinal pill to Zandik. Zandik coughed, showing signs of waking up. Huo Xi nodded: "Alright, you're useless now." Then he swung a palm, and the Fatui's head exploded, sending his body flying.

Zandik slowly regained consciousness. He looked up and saw Huo Xi looking down at him.

Huo Xi placed him next to a table, letting him sit on the ground with his back against the table, making communication easier.

Zandik also noticed something was wrong. His subordinates looked at him as if they had seen a ghost, with obvious fear, indicating that something had just happened.

"Speak," Huo Xi asked him. "Why did you capture the children?"

Zandik narrowed his eyes: "Why should I tell you ah ah ah ah ah ah ah!"

Huo Xi directly extended his foot and stepped heavily on Zandik's right foot. At this time, Zandik was sitting on the ground with his legs straight, his toes pointing upwards. Huo Xi simply helped him compress it.

Body fluid, not blood, sprayed from the wound. Considering that Dottore's segments were made by imitating the Wanderer's body, this was probably some kind of bionic person.

But it was clear that he possessed some kind of pain warning mechanism.

After screaming, Zandik gasped for breath, and Huo Xi's voice came again: "From now on, if you don't speak, lie, or say anything I don't like, I will crush your limbs little by little."

Zandik gritted his teeth, gasping for breath, and said, "I want... to experiment on them, remove their brains, and install them into Ruin Guards ah ah ah ah ah ah ah!"

Huo Xi stepped up another notch, and his calf also turned into rotten flesh. He continued to ask, "How did you trick them into coming here?"

"Hehe... children are all stupid... I pretended to be their age and played with them for a while, and they believed me ah ah ah ah ah ah ah!"

His knee caved in.

"What about Huayan? Why did you capture her?"

"Huayan? Who... oh, you mean that android. She just found the children, realized they were gone, chased after them, and I crippled her ah ah ah ah ah ah ah!"

This time it was his thigh.

"Good." Huo Xi looked down at him: "Then how many children did you abduct in total? And from where?"

Dottore smiled bitterly and shook his head: "None left, just those from before, you rescued them all! What are you doing again?!"

"I told you, if you say something I don't like, I'll mess with you."

"I didn't lie!"

"I just don't like it when you talk."

Even Dottore's usually cold heart was infuriated by that remark. Are you just saying you want to torment me?

"Yes. I just want to torment you." Huo Xi seemed to know Dottore's thoughts: "I'm asking you questions just in case you lose consciousness, to keep you awake."

But even so, after Huo Xi crushed Dottore's other leg into a pulp, Dottore's consciousness gradually faded away.

—It failed.

Dottore thought.

—If only he could escape, if only he could transmit the message to his main body... But his consciousness was like something heavy tied to him, sinking deeper and deeper into the water... —Perhaps dying like this, rather than being senselessly tortured... isn't so bad... But in the next moment, a fierce electric current spread from his chest to his entire body, and his thoughts were quickly pulled back to the surface from the deep sea.

Dottore gasped violently, like someone who had truly drowned. He looked up and saw the man who had been tormenting him, electric sparks flickering in his right palm, as he withdrew that hand from Dottore's chest.

"Did I tell you to sleep?" the man said mercilessly.

Dottore understood; this was cardiac massage. Even if he truly lost consciousness, this man wouldn't let him go!

At this moment, a Electro Hammer Fatui behind Huo Xi suddenly erupted, swinging his hammer directly at the back of Huo Xi's head!

A huge impact erupted the moment the hammer struck the back of his head! The force directly broke the Electro Hammer Fatui's hammer handle, and the massive hammerhead, due to the recoil, smashed directly into his own face, caving in his entire face. He instantly died, falling backward.

Huo Xi scratched the back of his head; he felt a bit itchy.

No, that's not right! Someone ambushed him!

Huo Xi immediately decided to counterattack. He casually picked up a wrench from the table and threw it back. The wrench directly pierced a Pyro Gunner Fatui who was about to raise his gun, and the immense force slammed him against the wall.

He slowly slid to the ground, his features contorted beneath his mask, blood gushing from his nose and mouth, seeping through the mask's seams.

Huo Xi then saw the Electro Hammer Fatui on the ground and realized he had hit the wrong person. He quickly walked over, his tone slightly apologetic.

"Are you, are you alright?"

As it turned out, being pierced by a blunt object was not a pleasant feeling. The Pyro Gunner Fatui trembled and stammered: "You... you hit the wrong person."

"Ah? Sorry!" Huo Xi, knowing he was in the wrong, pulled the wrench out of his chest, making the Pyro Gunner Fatui tremble violently.

"It hurts! It hurts!"

"Oh! Sorry, sorry!"

Huo Xi couldn't bear to see the other party in such pain. To help stop the bleeding, he reinserted the wrench.

After a violent tremor, the Pyro Gunner Fatui tilted his head back, his neck twisted to one side.

The Cryo Cicin Mage next to him had already wet her pants.

Her legs were trembling, and the smell of ammonia emanated from her feet.

At this moment, a golden-based, blue-barreled Ruin Guard Floater stabbed into Huo Xi's back like a bayonet. It was Dottore; this was Dottore's attack.

But before the other Fatui could rejoice, they saw that the part of Huo Xi that was stabbed actually split open into a mouth, crunching and eating the Ruin Guard Floater.

"Oh?" Huo Xi maintained his original posture, but his neck suddenly twisted 180 degrees to look back: "King Deshret technology?"

Looking back at Dottore, he found that he had dragged his crippled body onto a platform!

Seeing Huo Xi look over, he slammed his hand on a nearby button: "Be buried with this base! You monster!"

And when the numerous Fatui saw him press that button, they all showed expressions of fear.

"Lord Dottore! No!"

"I don't want to die! I don't want to die!"

"Explode! Explode! Being blown up is much better than being tortured to death by this monster!"

From their words, Huo Xi also realized that this button was the self-destruct button for the entire base!

Huo Xi flashed directly to Huayan's side, swallowing her into his body at the last moment. The next second, explosions rang out one after another throughout the entire base! The river above Lingju Pass surged, rocks shattered, and the entire underground base was engulfed in flames and collapse.

Amidst this smoke and dust, a cyan light shot straight into the sky from halfway up the mountain, flying towards Guyun Stone Forest!

That light was Dottore's crippled body, enveloped by countless King Deshret technologies!

At the last moment, he actually stuffed himself into the cannon, launching himself as ammunition!

"Ha! Ha!" Dottore gasped for the outside air. He wasn't naive enough to think that such a blast could kill that man, but just for a moment, just to stop him for a moment! That would be enough!

He had already figured it out: he couldn't contact his main body and other segments because this man had set up some kind of signal jamming device!

So as long as he escaped the jamming range, the information would naturally be transmitted!

Not only that, in just a moment he had figured out many things. The older but less intelligent segment that "Dottore" encountered in Mondstadt was undoubtedly this guy! He possessed the ability to change his body, so imitating someone else's appearance should be no problem.

Moreover, the Honorary Priest of Mondstadt, the one who could transform into a giant wolf, was also him! They were the same person! This meant he possessed at least God-level power!

And Signora, Signora disappeared last time and then suddenly returned, claiming she encountered an incredibly terrifying being. That so-called incredibly terrifying being... No, that's not right, perhaps Signora gave false information; the possibility of Signora being brainwashed cannot be ruled out.

And Scaramouche, Scaramouche's sudden disappearance is also suspicious; it cannot be ruled out whether it is related to this person!

Soon, the simple clues were connected by Dottore, and the truth behind all the dark clouds emerged!

He must get the message out before he is killed!

The flying speed was very fast. Guyun Stone Forest gradually appeared in Dottore's sight. After landing there, it would only take five seconds, no, three seconds! In three seconds, he could complete everything he needed to do.

However, at this moment, he discovered that there had always been eight floating objects around him. These floating objects centered on him, maintaining a relative stillness with him.

What are those things?

After a simple thought, Dottore came to a conclusion.

That was the so-called jamming device.

The jamming device was not installed near the base, but was set to "remain relatively stationary with Dottore as the zero point."

It was as if... as if that person... "You knew about my existence from the beginning, and that I have countless segments?! What exactly are you?!"

Dottore roared, looking up at Huo Xi, who was directly above him, maintaining a relatively stationary position, and smiling down at him.

"I've prepared a gift for you," Huo Xi said. "It's a dream, a long dream. I hope you like it."

The so-called jamming devices suddenly gathered and closed, enveloping Dottore, and then fell into the abyss of the sea.

Inside, the consciousness of the young Dottore, like his physical body, gradually sank into the depths of the dream.

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Please urge updates, reviews, and small gifts. There will be one more chapter tomorrow, and the little Dottore will temporarily exit. Please forgive me if it's not well written.

Next time: The flower cart bumps along, Dottore opens his eyes.