262: Chapter 262 Su Che personally went to the consciousness arena and broke the deadlock with a backdoor kill!
Li Guang's eyes slowly closed.
Liu Nanshan knelt on the ground, his hands pressed against Li Guang's chest, unable to do anything.
The brainstem damage was irreversible; even the medical pod of a Level 3 Civilization could not save him.
Chen Junhong took the stethoscope off his neck and gripped it in his hand.
Lillian Brown placed her data pad face down on her lap, keeping her head lowered.
No one in the corridor made a sound.
The pilots stood where they were, their formation motionless. Some bit their lips, some clenched their fists, and some had red-rimmed eyes.
Su Che crouched beside Li Guang and reached out to close his other eye as well.
"Outsmart them."
He repeated these two words in his mind.
Then he stood up.
"Keira, after the unlocking is complete."
Su Che's voice was flat. "Use a spacecraft to send Comrade Li Guang's remains back to Earth."
He scanned everyone in the corridor.
"Give him a grand burial with the honors of a national hero."
Keira bowed her head in acknowledgment.
Commander-in-Chief Wang Xueshan walked to Li Guang's side, took off his military cap, and placed it on Li Guang's chest.
Everyone in the corridor removed their caps at the same time.
Someone in the pilots' formation began to sob quietly, but no one moved; the formation remained perfectly neat.
Commander-in-Chief Wang Xueshan put his cap back on and faced Su Che.
"The door still needs to be opened."
Su Che did not reply. He knew clearly in his heart that if they didn't open it and it remained stuck, Kairos would definitely become suspicious.
"I know."
Su Che put his hands into his pockets, looking at the line of text still glowing on the door panel.
Death, real and permanent.
Who goes next? No one can guarantee they will return alive.
"Report!"
Someone in the formation shouted.
"Pilot Zhou Chuyue, I am number two, requesting permission to enter the battle!"
"Report! Pilot Lu Zheng! Requesting to be the second one to enter the arena!"
Zhou Chuyue, Lu Zheng, Han Qiao, Jiang Lin, and Zhao Heng, the five ace pilots whom Su Che had focused on training, stepped forward simultaneously.
Then came the sixth, the seventh.
In less than ten seconds, all ninety-nine pilots had stepped forward, their voices merging into a torrent.
"For human civilization!"
"For human civilization!"
"For human civilization!"
The corridor hummed with the vibration of their voices.
The characters on the door panel were shaking.
The commotion was too great.
Scientists from the other four groups all ran over; Ye Zhiqiu, Su Wanxing, Friedman, and Patrick, along with Academician Zhong's group, with a hundred people crowding both ends of the corridor.
Lin Waner ran over from the living quarters, with Jiang Yingxue following behind.
Qin Lan and Gao Jian rushed over from the security duty room.
Li Chengwen, Zhang Zhiyue, Captain Li Jun, and Instructor Han Tiefeng, all arrived.
In the blink of an eye, the corridor was packed with people.
Lin Waner squeezed to the front, saw Li Guang lying on the ground, and froze in place.
Jiang Yingxue supported her shoulders from behind.
Su Che stood in the middle of the crowd, watching this scene; out of ninety-nine pilots, not a single one flinched.
His nose felt sore, and he turned his head away.
Then he asked in his heart, "System, is there any other way?"
In the consciousness space, a golden light flickered.
[The benevolence of a woman cannot accomplish great things.]
"Cut the crap, is there a way or not?"
[The recognition of a Level 5 Civilization core encompasses all aspects of the host's abilities.]
Su Che countered, "So, letting them die is recognition?"
[Someone paid with their life to tell you to outsmart them; did you listen?]
"The gap is too large; outsmarting them won't prevent deaths, and I don't know how many will have to die."
[Then you go yourself.]
Su Che was stunned for half a second.
"I go myself? If I go, I won't die? Just because I am the Child of Destiny with an inherent immortality halo?"
[That is indeed the case.]
"What the hell, are you trying to write a xuanhuan novel with me? Readers don't like this trope anymore."
[Think back to what this system told you when the nineteenth door was unlocked.]
Su Che remembered.
That genetic lock, the system said he was useless and told him to try it himself.
Courage.
Kairos was testing his courage.
"So this time, they are testing my nerve?"
[Correct! They won't let you actually die; you still haven't transmitted more than half of the technical data to them.]
"So if I go to fight in the arena, the system inside will recognize my identity and open a backdoor for me? Are you sure?"
[Don't worry about whether this system is sure or not; if you don't even have this much nerve, how can you make the Level 5 Civilization core recognize you?]
Su Che turned the system's words over in his mind several times.
There was no turning back.
He steadied his breathing, turned around, and faced everyone.
"Stop arguing."
The corridor went quiet.
"I will take on this door."
A deathly silence, and then it exploded.
"No!" Commander-in-Chief Wang Xueshan was the first to speak. "Su Che, you are the core of the entire ship; you cannot take this risk!"
Zhang Zhiyue rushed up, pressing both hands onto Su Che's shoulders.
"If something happens to you, the entire project is finished; have you thought about that?"
Li Chengwen was stomping his feet in anxiety nearby. "Su Che, please, calm down!"
Captain Li Jun and Instructor Han Tiefeng came up and grabbed one of Su Che's arms each.
"Let me go; I am a soldier, this is my duty!"
Senior Colonel He Zhiqiang, with red eyes, blocked Su Che's path. "If you want to go, you'll have to step over my dead body!"
Lin Waner rushed over, hugging Su Che's waist tightly with both hands, burying her face in his chest, her shoulders shaking.
Jiang Yingxue grabbed Su Che's hand from behind, her fingernails digging into his palm.
Qin Lan and Gao Jian also crowded up, grabbing the hem of his clothes.
Su Che struggled twice but couldn't break free.
He had underestimated the strength of these people. "Everyone, let go."
No one let go.
"I said, let go."
Still, no one let go.
Commander-in-Chief Wang Xueshan walked over, his face livid. "If you don't agree not to go, I will have someone knock you out and lock you in a cabin."
Su Che looked at Commander-in-Chief Wang Xueshan's expression and knew this old man would do exactly what he said.
He closed his eyes for a moment.
"Fine, I won't go."
Lin Waner's grip loosened slightly.
"I'm not going anymore."
Jiang Yingxue also let go.
Su Che flexed his arms, which had been pulled numb, and scanned the area.
"Everyone disperse; we'll proceed according to the lottery order."
The crowd slowly dispersed, but everyone kept staring at him, like they were watching a prisoner.
Su Che walked to the edge of the corridor and stood against the wall for a while.
Zhou Chuyue, who had drawn the number 2 slip, walked out of the formation. She didn't greet anyone and walked straight toward the Brain-Computer Interface equipment.
Su Che frowned.
Zhou Chuyue was a good pilot, but she was a girl.
The opponent in the consciousness arena was a combat race from a Level 3 Civilization, crushing in strength, speed, and defense in every aspect.
Even a sturdy young man like Li Guang couldn't hold his own; if she went up, it would be suicide.
"Zhou Chuyue, wait!" Su Che shouted.
Zhou Chuyue stopped and turned around.
"Su Che?"
"Come here, I have two words to say to you."
Zhou Chuyue walked over and stood still.
"Just now, when Li Guang was fighting that monster, I noticed a flaw." Su Che took two steps closer. "I want to give you a few instructions."
Su Che reached out a hand toward her, as if to pull her to the side to whisper.
Zhou Chuyue just extended her hand.
Su Che pushed her hard.
Zhou Chuyue was sent stumbling backward and was caught by Senior Colonel He Zhiqiang behind her.
Su Che turned around, rushed to the Brain-Computer Interface equipment in three steps, and flipped into it.
The hatch closed from both sides.
"Su Che!!"
Lin Waner threw herself against the glass cover, tears falling in big drops.
Jiang Yingxue pounded hard on the edge of the hatch.
Commander-in-Chief Wang Xueshan was so angry he stomped his feet.
Su Che could no longer hear anything.
In the consciousness space, the darkness receded, and the metal arena condensed and formed beneath his feet.
He looked down at his hands and clenched his fists.
The consciousness body was much lighter than the real body; there was no stiffness in the joints and no muscle fatigue.
On the other side of the arena, that mass of black fluid began to squirm again.
This time, it shaped itself into something even more terrifying than the mantis.
Four arms, each ending in a bone blade.
It was nearly three meters tall, covered in black carapace, with no eyes, only two glowing cracks on its head.
[Guardian Sequence: Hunter.]
A voice sounded in Su Che's mind.
[Three levels stronger than the mantis.]
Su Che cursed in his heart.
Then he felt a warm current surge from the depths of his consciousness; something was secretly helping him calibrate every nerve in his body.
His muscle reaction speed increased, and his consciousness processing speed also quickened.
The backdoor was opened.
Su Che grinned. "Come on, big guy."
The Hunter moved.
The four bone blades slashed down simultaneously, as fast as four bolts of lightning.
Su Che's body reacted instinctively.
He slid to the front right, just passing through the gap between the four bone blades.
Outside, on the holographic projection, everyone saw Su Che dodge the attack at the critical moment.
There was a collective gasp in the corridor.
Su Che did not stop. Using the momentum of the slide, he brushed against the Hunter's body to get behind it and slammed his right fist into the glowing crack on the back of its head.
The fist connected.
The Hunter's head tilted forward, and a crack appeared on its carapace.
The outside world was in an uproar.
"He hit it!"
"Su Che hit it!"
The pilots crowded in front of the projection; some clenched their fists, others patted the shoulders of those next to them.
Commander-in-Chief Wang Xueshan stared at the projection, his hands behind his back, fingers interlaced.
Lin Waner was held by Jiang Yingxue, her eyes fixed on Su Che's figure in the projection without blinking.
On the arena, the Hunter was enraged.
Its speed had significantly increased, and the four bone blades wove into an airtight net, covering Su Che.
Su Che fought with great intensity inside.
The backdoor provided by the system not only increased his reaction speed but also granted his consciousness body a strange perceptive ability.
For every attack from the Hunter, he could sense the trajectory and force before it was launched.
This feeling was like having a full-map vision hack.
The more he fought, the smoother it went; he became more relaxed, even finding time to shake his head in the gaps between the bone blades.
The people outside didn't know this.
What they saw was Su Che dodging left and right amidst the slashing of the four bone blades, in perilous situations, with every dodge missing by a hair's breadth.
On the arena, Su Che had already figured out the Hunter's patterns.
He began to take the initiative.
His left fist slammed into the Hunter's ribs, using the force to spring back.
His right foot kicked the Hunter's knee joint, making it kneel for a moment.
Then he soared into the air, both fists raised high, and slammed them toward the crack on the Hunter's head.
"Bang!"
The crack widened.
The Hunter let out a soundless roar, and all four arms swept backward simultaneously.
Su Che had anticipated this move long ago.
He flipped in the air, vaulted over the Hunter's head, and as he landed, his right hand formed a palm and struck hard at the widest part of the crack.
The carapace shattered.
The Hunter's body stiffened, its four arms hung down, and black fluid surged out from the crack.
Then it collapsed, turning into a pool of black liquid that spread across the arena.
[Challenger wins, unlocking successful!]
On the holographic projection, Su Che stood in the center of the arena, flexing his wrists, his expression very calm, like nothing had happened.
The hatch of the Brain-Computer Interface equipment popped open.
Su Che sat up and blinked.
The corridor was packed with people, and everyone was looking at him.
Lin Waner rushed over and hugged him, her tears smearing all over his clothes.
Jiang Yingxue was behind, gripping his arms with both hands, her fingernails almost digging into his flesh.
Commander-in-Chief Wang Xueshan walked over, stood to the side, and looked at Su Che for several seconds.
Then the old general raised his hand and wiped the corner of his eye.
"You kid."
Su Che freed one hand from Lin Waner's embrace and rubbed his nose.
He glanced at Li Guang lying on the ground, then at the now-extinguished arena image on the holographic projection.
"Li Guang's sacrifice is my fault."
He smacked his lips.
"If I had known, I would have gone first."