With the biological prosthetic limb's auxiliary chip and the military exoskeleton's installed system, Jiang Baimian only lost her way once before successfully bringing Shang Jianyao and the nuclear warhead to the end of the tunnel.
The heavy iron-black door was still tightly shut. The Heartless didn't seem to have stepped past it in pursuit.
"They clearly discovered me and showed the desire to hunt…" Jiang Baimian looked at the door and muttered to herself in confusion. She suspected that the Heartless were restrained in some way and could only move within a limited range.
After some consideration, Jiang Baimian placed Shang Jianyao and the crate containing the nuclear warhead in the tunnel and leaned against the wall. She then half-squatted in front of Shang Jianyao and extended her psyche to make contact with his consciousness.
The familiar darkness approached again, and the faint light in the distance gradually condensed into a street lamp.
"Long time no see!" Shang Jianyao waved his hand.
It's been less than two hours! Jiang Baimian kept suspecting that the other party was mocking her for being directionally challenged.
She had just contacted Shang Jianyao before taking a nap. After waking up, she immediately stretched, wore her equipment, and brought the corresponding items into the Eighth Research Institute.
Considering that such communication consumed a lot of mental energy, she didn't waste any time arguing about this and directly said, "I'm going to explore the New World in reality now; provide me with protection. Right, my primary goal this time is to see how far away one has to be from your body for that kind of protection to lose its effects."
She was very careful with her words and didn't say 'completely lose its effects.' This was because when the distance was widened to a certain extent, the mental barrier provided by Shang Jianyao might no longer be able to resist the New World's extraction of human consciousness as the protection gradually weakened.
At this moment, the mental barrier might remain but be penetrated.
"Sure, sure." Shang Jianyao had always been one to experiment as he said excitedly, "Wait a moment."
As Jiang Baimian had taken the initiative to make contact with his consciousness with her mind, it was equivalent to establishing a connection. Therefore, Shang Jianyao didn't need to waste time sensing, searching, and locking onto the target. He only needed to use this connection wholeheartedly to allow his power to penetrate the barrier and attach to Jiang Baimian.
There wasn't much delay; it lasted only a few seconds.
Back when Shang Jianyao extended his psyche and came into contact with Yama Tiger's seemingly sleeping consciousness, he felt like he was being dragged into the deep black water.
Now that he thought about it, Yama Tiger had hoped for help back then but was also unbearably hungry. In the end, he had instinctively extracted the consciousness of the person on the other end of the connection as he shouted "save me"—a kind of contradictory action.
Fortunately, there was a certain delay and Jiang Baimian had also reacted quickly, cutting off the connection between the two in time to prevent a tragedy.
Soon, Shang Jianyao informed Jiang Baimian that he had provided the consciousness barrier she needed. This way, even if Jiang Baimian retracted her extended psyche, the connection between the two of them would still exist until the barrier's effects completely disappeared.
Jiang Baimian didn't hesitate to restrain her human consciousness. She then stretched out her metal-boned palms and used the most suitable strength to open the heavy iron-black door silently.
What greeted her eyes was a flashing light.
In the small city that was very similar to the New World and could even make people who stepped foot into it become Heartless, there were specks of light in the night. There weren't many of them—no more than 20. They were distributed around the tower and its surroundings, completely incomparable to the dense stars in the night sky.
But on such a quiet and dark night, in such a strange place without any real human activity, these dozen or so yellowish or pure white lights still made Jiang Baimian's scalp tingle.
Suddenly, a thought flashed across her mind: The Eighth Research Institute has clearly moved, but they didn't cut off the power to the headquarters. It's probably because this small city at the end of the tunnel still needs electricity to maintain the operation of certain things…
In the beginning, she thought that the Eighth Research Institute used a nuclear power plant. Stopping the operation was a troublesome matter, so they didn't have the time to do it while in a rush.
From the looks of it, there might be a better explanation. Jiang Baimian exhaled softly and walked out of the tunnel.
This time, she didn't feel dizzy, have her head throb, or feel like her soul was about to leave her body.
Jiang Baimian thought for a moment, turned around, and slowly closed the heavy iron-black door. She was worried that the Heartless might escape their 'restraint' and enter the tunnel when the door was left open.
Although this was unlikely to cause any damage to Shang Jianyao's body, Jiang Baimian would lose her greatest trump card if they carried the nuclear warhead away.
As for her, she was infiltrating at night. It was clearly inappropriate for her to carry the nuclear warhead as it would obviously affect her actions.
In any case, she was wearing a military exoskeleton and had an extremely powerful biological prosthetic limb. When the time came, she could open the door with a slam or push. It wouldn't delay her escape.
Compared to this, she was more worried about wasting precious time on getting lost.
Jiang Baimian—who had hidden her human consciousness—bent her back and quietly approached the real New World along the weeds that could be seen everywhere in the valley.
The temperature here was slightly higher than outside. It was already summer in Icefield, and all kinds of creatures were clearly active.
With her sensing of electric signals and the exoskeleton's night vision, Jiang Baimian didn't alarm these 'little fellows.' She silently arrived at the edge of the city and hid beside a long-abandoned apartment.
Almost at the same time, she realized that the scattered bioelectric signals had warped to a certain extent. The visualization dashboard of the M-45 military exoskeleton also told her that the electromagnetic environment here was different from the outside world.
As expected… Jiang Baimian wasn't surprised at all.
She followed her plan and passed through the dark alley where starlight couldn't reach, approaching the tower and the dozen or so lights around it bit by bit.
Her sense of direction was much better when she could see her destination directly.
Upon seeing her target in sight, Jiang Baimian suddenly frowned. She had sensed too few Heartless consciousnesses along the way—almost one-tenth of what she had seen during the day.
At this moment, she had almost traversed half the city.
It's impossible for 90% of them to live on the other side, right? Or can they all hide their consciousness and hide in places with lights? But why don't the 10% head over? Jiang Baimian stopped advancing and fell into deep thought.
Unable to make a guess, she walked forward for a while.
When the nearest lamp was less than 30 meters away from her, her head throbbed as if someone had pricked a nerve with a needle.
This familiar feeling made Jiang Baimian immediately stop—this was a precursor to the Heartless disease!
But as she stopped moving forward, the throbbing pain in her head remained the same as before. It didn't worsen.
Here, the consciousness barrier provided by Hey gradually can't withstand the consciousness extraction. The corresponding signs are beginning to appear… Jiang Baimian thought for a moment and came to a realization.
She was currently only 160 to 170 meters away from the tower. This made Jiang Baimian feel a little regretful and disappointed. It would be good if Shang Jianyao's consciousness barrier was stronger.
However, Shang Jianyao didn't know how to improve himself after entering the New World, much less her. She could only think of another way to cover the last hundred-plus meters.
Jiang Baimian took seven to eight steps back to shirk off the throbbing pain in her head and quickly came up with an idea. There are two ways: The first is to move Hey's body in and shorten the distance between him and me. However, I'm not sure if the effects of his consciousness barrier have weakened or if the closer we are to the tower, the stronger the human consciousness extraction.
Second, from the looks of it… The higher the Awakened's level, the stronger their resistance to consciousness extraction. If I can enter the Mind Corridor and use the barrier provided by Hey, I should be able to reach that tower…
She was still wandering about the Sea of Origins and searching for the next island, and that island might very well have a golden elevator and another 'her.'
Unable to go any deeper, Jiang Baimian changed targets and prepared to confirm the situation regarding each Heartless she could sense.
…
In the New World.
As Shang Jianyao maintained Jiang Baimian's mental barrier, he looked at the Ashlandic compound by the side of the road.
The compound was pitch-black, and there were no lights representing humans. However, Shang Jianyao had previously heard a slight commotion.
Yes, two hours ago.
Shang Jianyao had maintained this posture for two hours!
"This is called being careful!" The honest Shang Jianyao praised himself.
After two hours of 'listening,' he realized that there were indeed sounds coming from the compound from time to time. Sometimes, it sounded like people walking; sometimes, it sounded like the sound of the wind passing through the hall; and sometimes, it seemed like a group of men and women were suppressing their voices and laughing.
The calm and rational Shang Jianyao looked around and said, "There's been no light…
"The New World's situation might be more complicated than what the lady, Jacob and Hendrick had shared. There are more secrets…"
"Won't we know what's going on by entering and taking a look?" The rash Shang Jianyao took the opportunity when his peers weren't paying attention to control the body and rush two steps forward. He stretched out his hand, pressed down, jumped over the wall, and entered the courtyard.
Among all Shang Jianyaos, his strength seemed to be increasing.
As Shang Jianyao entered, the lamp representing him lit up in the compound.
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