149: Broken genius

"Warning: High-dimensional energy field dissipation rate is rising. Structural integrity of non-resistant equipment within the medical bay is being eroded. The Third Life-Support Unit is expected to be completely scrapped in 2 hours."

The sharp electronic voice pierced the dead silence of the bridge once more.

"quick hand" Fili's four eyes stared in horror at the red alarm flashing on the screen, his voice turning shrill with fear: "Did you hear that! It's 'eating' my ship! If this continues, this damn thing will turn us all into a pile of scrap metal!"

Chen Feng's gaze shifted away from Reno's nearly static vital sign curves.

Stasis was merely drinking poison to quench thirst. While that stasis sliver forcibly froze Reno's life, it was also releasing a "reality" from a higher dimension centered around him.

He had to understand it.

Chen Feng turned and walked toward the darkest corner of the bridge.

Eve was curled up there like a startled young animal, arms wrapped tightly around her knees and her face buried within them as if she could shut out the entire world. Her long silver hair hung messily, hiding all her expressions.

Chen Feng crouched down in front of her; for the first time, his voice held no command, only a trace of suppressed, almost pleading raspiness.

"Eve."

The girl's shoulders trembled slightly.

"I need your help," Chen Feng's voice was soft, yet it carried an unquestionable intensity. "Only you can analyze what happened to Reno. Only you can save him."

Eve didn't look up; she only buried her head deeper.

After a long silence, she stood up as if she had used all her strength, trembling as she followed Chen Feng toward the medical bay.

The hatch door slid open with a "shhh."

Inside, the soft glow flashing on the life-support system, the low, rhythmic hum of the operating equipment, and that cold, unique aura of high-dimensional energy instantly flooded Eve's senses.

Her pupils contracted to pinpoints in an instant.

"..."

The world in her eyes changed. This was no longer the medical bay of the lucky dice, but that white cage named the "Higher Academy" that imprisoned her soul.

Countless cold instrument arms reached out from all directions; the flashing lights were probes, and the humming was the wailing of her soul being repeatedly torn apart for testing.

Invisible Spiritual Shackles choked her neck once more, dragging her consciousness into a cold abyss of data.

"No... no!"

Eve let out a heart-wrenching scream, her expression twisted and filled with extreme terror.

"Let me go! Don't touch me!!"

She seemed to be fighting countless invisible enemies, waving her arms wildly and resisting that non-existent restraint.

"Bang!"

She slammed her fist hard into an auxiliary control console nearby.

The screen burst into a cluster of dazzling electrical sparks and instantly went black.

"Oh no!" Chen Feng's expression changed drastically.

The short circuit in the console triggered a tiny energy storm. Inside the medical bay, the thin stasis field around Reno's body flickered wildly, nearly collapsing!

The body inside the life-support pod convulsed violently, and the various vital sign readings jumped crazily on the screen like runaway horses, instantly breaking through dangerous thresholds!

Chen Feng didn't have time to worry about Eve; he lunged toward the main console, his hands turning into afterimages on the virtual keyboard as he forcibly switched to and restarted the backup power before the medical AI's alarm could spiral completely out of control.

"Hum—"

The stasis field stabilized again, pressing Reno's body back into that eternal "amber."

"She's crazy! She's going to destroy my ship!" Fili let out a pig-slaughtering howl as he looked at the smoking console.

Eve, however, was like a rabbit startled by the explosion; she looked at her reddened fist, then at the chaotic medical bay, and finally gave Chen Feng a look as if he were a monster.

Then, screaming, she turned and rushed out of the medical bay.

Like a startled animal, she dove deep into a nearby dark maintenance corridor, her thin figure instantly swallowed by the darkness and disappearing.

Chen Feng ignored Fili's roaring.

He stood there, his chest heaving violently.

A powerful sense of helplessness, unlike anything he had felt before, flooded his heart like cold seawater.

He realized that Eve was not a machine that could be started at any time with a command.

She was a... defective product, with a soul that had been shattered and barely glued back together.

All his plans, all his logic, all his threats and inducements lost all meaning at this moment.

Standing at the entrance of the dark corridor, he could clearly hear the heavily suppressed crying, like the wailing of a young beast, coming from deep within.

He knew that if he couldn't find a brand-new way to reach her, Reno would die.

And everything he had sacrificed for this rescue would come to nothing.

He had to abandon his past self.

To try a method... he had never considered and was least skilled at.