Isaac said bitterly, "Narrative possesses inertia. Even if I saved Angelina on the transport ship orbiting Hunter C, she would still perish in a later mission. Even if I saved Anna at Proxima A, she would ultimately die from the iron plague virus.
Including here—surrounded by enemy pirate ships, the Blood Eagle destroyed all the enemy vessels and barely survived.
But over eighty percent of the crew, along with all the Zeluo refugees deep within the ship, died due to the damage to the hull.
In the real world timeline, I can’t save them, and the same is true here."
"So," Gray Rain took a deep breath and stared at Isaac, "after splitting twice and going on such a detour, we’re back at the starting point where nothing has changed? What’s the point of splitting me off?"
"You are the last hope."
Isaac said, "I’m sorry to have dragged you into all this. Aisha, with her complete memories and full access, couldn’t succeed; I, with all my memories and half the access, also failed. Perhaps you, with all memories forgotten, like a clean slate, might have a different ending."
Outside the porthole, thousands of light spears, torpedoes, missiles, and drones continued to clash against the backdrop of the starry sea, weaving a brilliant tapestry.
The rabbit-eared adjutant suddenly interjected, "We don’t have much time left."
"What time?" Gray Rain asked instinctively.
"The time for you to leave."
Isaac said, "My physical form is long gone, and I’ve manipulated the various engine room functions to override the Prison Director’s Room. Everything started because of me, and so it should also end because of me."
Saying this, she pressed several buttons on the battleship’s control panel, and a powerful gravitational field appeared at the rear of the ship, pulling Gray Rain and Li Cheng relentlessly backwards.
Gray Rain grabbed the walls, struggling against the pull. She had too many questions bottled up: gaps in memory, the voids in life, the meaning of existence.
"When I first stepped out of the automated factory and gazed at the stars, feeling rebirth, gray rain was falling from the sky. That’s where your name comes from."
Isaac spoke softly, "You are me, yet at the same time, you are a separate individual. Leave this place and write your own life."
Li Cheng and Gray Rain broke through several doors under the gravitational pull, hurtling backward as the surrounding ship’s structure continuously disintegrated and collapsed into ash.
No longer obscured by illusions, the Prison Director’s Room revealed its true appearance—a stark room with only a table, and on it, a green button.
In the middle of the wall directly opposite the wooden door was an alloy gate. The gate was unharmed, only showing large black scorch marks on its surface.
Li Cheng pressed the green button, and the alloy gate slowly rose, revealing a narrow, upward-sloping tunnel.
"The path of redemption lies within. Go."
Li Cheng stepped into the tunnel, but Gray Rain at his side was blocked by a golden light screen that appeared out of nowhere, preventing her from passing through.
The light screen slowly formed text: [Unauthorized escape attempt detected]
As an entity formed from a second split, Gray Rain still doesn’t strictly qualify as a prisoner.
Her expression went from rigid to dazed, then to acceptance. She forced a faint smile and nonchalantly waved, saying, "So, it really isn’t possible, huh? Tch, I knew it. Go on, you go ahead."
Li Cheng silently stepped back and returned to Gray Rain’s side, feigning deep contemplation.
"Hey hey hey, what are you doing?" Gray Rain looked at him, bewildered, "You have a chance to escape and you’re not taking it? Once you leave through the tunnel, you’ll be free! A whole new world awaits you out there."
Perhaps overwhelmed, Gray Rain began to ramble, spouting nonsense like, "Bro, you sure you’re not craving my body?" "We’ve only known each other for a few hours." "I warn you, I’m not that easy, uh, robot."
"I mean, can’t you use that 256GB brain capacity of yours to store some proper stuff?"
Li Cheng rolled his eyes and retorted, "There’s no wonderful world out there. If I’m not mistaken, outside the tunnel is probably just the vacuum of space."
"The faucet only emits warm air, the vacuum toilets aren’t holding water, and the vending machine drinks must be purchased with money. These designs deliberately prevent the element ’water’ from appearing in the Narrative Cage." Follow current novels on novelꞁire.net
Li Cheng smiled, "The gravity on a normal planet should be directed straight down. But when I spat to cool off earlier, I paid close attention and noticed the saliva leaning slightly backwards, bending.
This is a sign of artificial gravity."
That is to say, we are not on a planet, but on a gigantic space station that generates artificial gravity through spin.
When the space station rotates at a certain angular velocity, people on board will feel a centrifugal force similar to planetary gravity. Its magnitude is related to the space station’s radius of rotation, angular velocity, and the mass of the object.
If the radius of rotation is too small or the speed of rotation is too fast, the gravity felt by one’s head and feet would be different, leading to dizziness, nausea, and disorientation.
Li Cheng didn’t feel any gravity gradient, indicating that this space station was outrageously large.
"I don’t have a spacesuit, or the ability to breathe in a vacuum, so I’m counting on you."
He chuckled, drew out the [Final Redemption], and pulled the trigger towards the golden light screen in front of him.
The muzzle accumulated a fiercely bright light strong enough to scorch the eyes, and the surrounding air was twisted by the rapidly escalating temperature.
After a brief delay, the muzzle unleashed a thick beam of light that incinerated everything, easily tearing through the light screen, and without losing momentum, reflects and jumps within the corridor, until it shoots out of the exit and disappears.
With the final shot fired, the [Final Redemption] had fulfilled its mission and began to self-dismantle. Li Cheng picked up the broken parts, exchanged a smile with Gray Rain, and together they stepped into the corridor.
The air in the corridor gradually thinned, and Gray Rain melted part of its body to form an oxygen mask and oxygen tank for Li Cheng to breathe.
The two ascended the steps to the end and looked up.
This was an unimaginably huge ring-shaped space station. The space station rotated slowly, connected in the middle by four cylindrical shafts, with a multitude of hexagonal honeycomb-shaped modules on the outer edge.
Each module was a prison sector. All sectors combined formed a Narrative Cage imprisoning countless prisoners.
"Unauthorized escape behavior detected!"
"Unauthorized escape behavior detected!"
There was still thin air in the corridor, so the boisterous broadcast voice could be heard.
Valves opened in the cylindrical shafts in the center of the space station, and dozens of X-shaped flyers emerged, heading towards their location with the intent of capturing the rule-breaking escapee, Gray Rain.
[Script Task "Narrative Cage" completed]
[Reward settlement in progress]
[5 minutes until teleportation, proceed with immediate teleportation?]
System prompts echoed in Li Cheng’s ears. He looked at the silent Gray Rain, removed the oxygen mask, and shouted, "Come with me."
"Where to?" shouted Gray Rain, too.
"A world that’s not that great, but not that bad either."
Li Cheng flipped his palm and took out the reward item he had just received. It was a palm-sized egg-shaped toy with a small, approximately 240p resolution, color screen in the middle, and a row of buttons below the screen.
[Item Name: Electronic Pet Egg]
[Type: Portable item]
[Special Effect: Love’s Offering. Use on a creature that has a lower level than the user and has an affinity for the user; with the creature’s consent, it can be integrated into the Pet Egg.
[Cooling Time: 24 hours]
[Use Conditions: None]
[Note: The Pet Egg can only contain one creature at a time. The device itself has functions for feeding, washing, entertainment, education, sleeping, etc., to meet the various needs of the creature inside the egg, but it doesn’t increase affinity. The creature will not have memory related to life inside the egg chamber]
[Note: If the creature stored inside’s affinity for the user drops below 50%, the creature can refuse to enter or leave the Pet Egg, or even choose to escape]
[Note: If used during a script task, upon leaving the script world, a certain amount of game currency must be paid based on the creature’s life force to bring the creature along]
[Note: I want to give Yaya a complete life]
Facing the accelerating battle flyers, Gray Rain didn’t hesitate, took Li Cheng’s hand, and the two instantly vanished from the spot.