Chapter 113: Narrative Cage (Ten)

"Mom, I'm scared."

"Good boy, everything will be fine. Don't cry."

On the LCD screen, refugees comforted and encouraged each other, praying for a miracle to occur.

Li Cheng glanced at Hui Yu with slight surprise; regardless of whether she, as a prisoner inside the Narrative Cage (likely non-human), possessed any empathy or compassion,

these refugees were most likely just false images generated by the Protagonist Effect Chamber.

Hui Yu guessed what Li Cheng was thinking and explained: "Isaac mentioned he once tried to rescue a shipload of Zelos civilization refugees. This civilization, during its early development, used sub-light-speed travel for interstellar colonization. Due to population shortages in the colonies, they heavily relied on robotic laborers, until some robots developed self-awareness and demanded citizenship rights."

At that time, the Zelos homeworld erupted in civil war, and nuclear conflict caused massive population loss. The robotic city-states on distant colonial planets built warships and returned to the homeworld to help government forces suppress the rebellion. As a result, the Zelos civilization decided to grant robots citizenship rights."

"This tattoo is used to distinguish machine citizens from native humans."

Hui Yu extended her finger and touched the LCD screen; some refugees had concentric circles nested within triangles printed on the backs of their hands, others did not.

"To maintain his own personality, Isaac often spoke to himself alone in his cell, reciting memories he could still recall."

Hui Yu spoke in a low tone: "He never clarified the cause or sequence of events, but the outcome was singular. All these Zelos civilization refugees perished—every last one—due to severe airlock leakage."

Robots do not require oxygen. For them to die from airlock leakage, the hull must have been catastrophically damaged—enough to eject internal personnel into vacuum.

That means time is running out.

Li Cheng turned to look at the bridge; the crew had already initiated their first space jump.

"Field guide collecting Y-rays. Current progress: 100%."

"Reactor at full power. Opening spatial matrix."

"Spatial matrix open. Activate inertial control! Stasis field maintaining ship-wide spacetime flow rate!"

Below the Blood Hawk, the trapezoidal nozzles emitted a pale blue ripple, forming a black vortex roughly five hundred meters in diameter ahead of the ship.

The warship accelerated full speed, plunging into the vortex; brilliant starlight illuminated the entire vessel, and everyone was twisted and stretched like noodles.

As if only an instant had passed, yet as if centuries had elapsed, the Blood Hawk abruptly appeared one million five hundred thousand kilometers away—five light-seconds distant.

Just a few kilometers from an enemy pirate vessel.

In space, a few kilometers is no different from face-to-face contact. Before the enemy ship could react, the Blood Hawk, already having adjusted its cannon angles, fired without hesitation—sixteen heavy cannons on its starboard side simultaneously unleashed high-energy particle beams, striking the enemy vessel.

Boom!

The Blood Hawk's bridge sound simulator mimicked the explosion sound of the enemy ship in vacuum.

"All hands," the rabbit-eared lieutenant shouted, "Prepare for second space jump! Field guide countdown: two minutes ten seconds!"

They could wait no longer. In Isaac's memory, the Blood Hawk would suffer heavy damage; the bridge might not be safe either.

"I'll press the button. Cover me."

Li Cheng said grimly to Hui Yu, clenched his fists, and activated the Mist Concealment Technique.

Shhh—

Thick mist surged outward from him, instantly filling the entire corridor and spreading toward the bridge.

"What's going on?"

"Where did this fog come from?!"

"Did a gas pipe leak?"

The Blood Hawk crew had no idea what was happening; some thought it was a toxic, high-temperature gas leak and hastily retreated, only to realize the mist had no temperature.

Li Cheng, recalling the bridge's layout, fired his bat-hook gun, dodging obstacles, and headed straight for the control console.

Soldiers on the bridge felt a gust of wind pass by and instinctively tried to block him—but all of them missed.

This 【Protagonist Effect Chamber】 functions similarly to the 【Misdirection Chamber】, except the latter fabricates memories and illusions from nothing, while the former extracts existing memories from Isaac's mind to create illusions and trap him here.

The reactions of everyone aboard the Blood Hawk are not their true reactions—they are the responses Isaac remembers these people should have made.

Shhh—

Suddenly, a violent wind surged toward him. Li Cheng's body hairs stood on end instinctively; he twisted his body hastily, drew the 170 Straight Blade from thin air with his right hand, and slashed sideways at a certain point.

Clang!

Sparks from metal collision flashed and vanished within the mist.

Li Cheng felt his arm go numb; he didn't bother withdrawing the blade to dodge, but swapped his left-hand hook gun for a nuclear lighter and blasted a searing fire column forward.

Blazing flames briefly dispersed the thick fog. There stood Isaac, like a reef, blocking Li Cheng's path. His skull's eye sockets burned with pale blue fire. His left hand, made of black metal, casually caught the rusted greatsword.

His right hand unclasped his cloak, spun it to catch all the fire columns, then thrust forward, gripping Li Cheng's wrist through the fabric.

As a metallic skeleton, Isaac was hardly vulnerable to fire; catching the fire columns was largely to protect the crew. But Li Cheng remained within the carbon-based biological range—being covered by the scorching cloak would inevitably burn him.

He shut off the nuclear lighter, extended the mantis-arm bone blade from his left arm, lunged forward, and slashed the blade toward Isaac's torso and abdomen.

Riiip—

The uniform tore open, revealing the metal skeleton beneath, and the dense, intricate wiring buried in the gaps between bones.

The bone blade severed several cables; sparks erupted instantly. Isaac's right hand twitched, failing to grasp Li Cheng's wrist.

Opportunity.

Li Cheng's eyes showed no flicker. His multi-threaded mind frantically calculated every factor: distance between them, height difference, joint dimensions, floor load capacity.

All converged into one plan.

He stepped half a pace forward with his right leg, leaned his upper body slightly backward and left, then twisted forward. As he twisted, his retracted left fist thrust forward; due to the torso's far greater effective mass than the arm, in this low-gravity environment, it delivered far greater force.

His fist struck Isaac's jaw directly, rotating violently upon impact to further amplify the power.

If this punch landed on a human, not even an unenhanced ordinary person, but even Leonardo, Lv8 and heavily modified from the previous mission, would have had his jaw shattered, leaving only the upper teeth.

Yet, whether Isaac's skeletal form was constructed from what material, he merely tilted his head slightly—no fracture occurred.

Squeak—

His left hand, gripping the cleaver, thrust forward rapidly. His palm scraped violently against the blade's edge, sparks flying as he seized Li Cheng's right arm and twisted it leftward—intent on snapping the limb.

Li Cheng immediately kicked off the floor. His magnetic boots, originally fake devices made by Hui Yu, had no actual function; once airborne in low gravity, his body floated and rotated effortlessly, dissipating Isaac's force.

The bat-hook gun's cooldown is three seconds; it has now finished cooling. Li Cheng released the rusted great knife's hilt and fired the hook toward the ground, hurtling himself once more toward the red button.

As captain, Isaac knew there was no Li Cheng aboard his ship. He dropped his cleaver and did not charge to stop him—no one could outrun a hook gun.

Instead, he drew from his right hip a ceremonial sword of ornate grandeur and slashed diagonally.

Modern navies of Earth's nations also carry ceremonial swords, often used in sword-bestowing ceremonies, with no practical function.

Isaac's ceremonial sword was clearly no mere decoration; its blade shimmered with green luminescence, slicing through air as it continuously twisted and elongated, lashing like a whip toward his body.

Li Cheng's bone armguards spewed a torrent of death incantations, forcibly altering his trajectory and narrowly avoiding the whip—but he also drifted far from the red button.

"Increase the bridge ventilation fans' power!"

A sharp cry echoed faintly through the thick fog—the rabbit-eared aide's voice. As the ventilation fans spun wildly, the once-thick mist inevitably thinned.

"An outsider? How did you get in?!"

The rabbit-eared aide clenched her teeth, eyes locked on Li Cheng as he slowly rose. One hand reached for her sidearm, the other shouted to surrounding guards: "Detain him."

The word "him" froze in the rabbit-eared aide's throat. Unseen, Gray Rain had slipped behind her during the fog's spread, wrapping an arm around her neck. His left hand liquefied, reshaped, then solidified into a slender, needle-like spike, hovering beside her temple.

"Everyone, stay still!"

Gray Rain ignored her struggles, holding her firmly in place, and barked: "Or I'll kill her!"

Clearly, the aide held immense authority aboard the ship. The guards, armed with rifles and pistols, stood paralyzed, their gazes turning to Captain Isaac.

"."

The metallic skull remained silent for a moment. The Blood Hawk had just completed its first space jump; the second was still charging.

Dozens of enemy pirate ships, as if driven mad, launched torpedoes and missiles toward them. Most were blocked by exploding hull fragments or energy shields.

"Hyperjump engine: current charge 31%."

"Hyperjump engine: current charge 33%."

The ship's AI's mechanical voice echoed through the bridge. Through the floor-to-ceiling windows, the outside world blazed with relentless, apocalyptic explosions.

"I remember every one of the 7,829 crew members—each name, each face. And the 1,300-plus refugees I picked up from Zelo's homeworld and Proxima A."

Isaac spoke slowly, his voice hoarse and rough: "Who are you?"

Proxima A?

Li Cheng's eyelid twitched. This term had appeared multiple times—first on a newspaper from a vending machine, reporting a mass food poisoning incident at a local public school.

Second, on the newspaper obtained in the Misdirection Room, detailing an unknown terrorist group detonating a nuclear bomb in the city center.

He stood, shook his aching, numb arms, and dispelled the Mist Concealment technique outright: "Is Proxima A a part of the Zelo civilization?"

"What else?"

Isaac tilted his head calmly: "You haven't answered my question."

"Who we are doesn't matter. What matters is why a pirate like you would go out of your way to rescue refugees."

Li Cheng slowly pulled an object from thin air: "Answer my question, and I won't use this to destroy your ship."

The object he produced caused chaos on the bridge.

It was a pistol—futuristic sci-fi design, matte green, its triangular barrel scarred with scratches, a shattered glass sphere mounted on its side.

Crew members stared in disbelief: "Isn't that the captain's?"

"Final Redemption?!"

This pistol was infamous. Everyone recognized it instantly, instinctively glancing at Isaac's left belt.

There, too, hung an identical pistol—every detail nearly the same, except its glass sphere (the so-called stable super-heavy element particle containment vessel) remained intact.

Li Cheng made no attempt to convince Isaac that this place was an illusion created by the Protagonist Effect Chamber.

Two reasons: first, according to Gray Rain, Isaac had been missing for three months—time within the Protagonist Effect Chamber might have stretched into years, and his brainwashing was far deeper than Li Cheng's.

Second, revealing this pistol would make Isaac question reality far more effectively.

As expected, upon seeing the second "Final Redemption," the usually calm and stern Isaac showed visible disturbance. The pale blue flames in his eye sockets flickered slightly: "... How did you get this gun? If I recall correctly, the Starforge Master Baladin made only one."

"Heh, you didn't know that, did you?"

Li Cheng smiled faintly: "Baladin had a younger brother, Balazen, also a forger—though far less famous. The two brothers once studied forging techniques together, but separated when their mother remarried. Together, they formed 'One Research, Top Needle—Appraisal: Mom's Savings.'"

He forged his own 'Final Redemption' and gave it to me. The difference? Mine is male. Yours is female."

???

All crew members stared blankly. In their interstellar era, Journey to the West had never spread widely—otherwise someone would have shouted: "Male and female? Are you treating this like Jinjiao and Yinjiao's Purple Gold Gourd? Go apologize to Teacher Liu right now!"

Only Gray Rain understood Li Cheng's intent: to use the two "Final Redemption" pistols to trigger Isaac's memories, to make him realize this was an illusion.

Unfortunately, after a brief silence, Isaac spoke: "I rescued the Zelo refugees because they were my former compatriots."

As the owner of Final Redemption, Isaac knew every data point of the weapon—even with its glass sphere shattered, Li Cheng's pistol could still fire its final shot.

In this sealed bridge environment, it could destroy the Blood Hawk. So he had no choice but to comply: "For reasons unknown, I left there and became an interstellar pirate.

When I learned of their fate, I discovered the Zelo civilization was about to lose the Iron Plague War. These people aboard were the last remnants of my civilization I could save."

"Iron Plague War?"

Li Cheng caught the keyword, narrowing his eyes: "What is that?"

(End of Chapter)