Chapter 114: Narrative Cage (Eleven)

The term "Iron Plague War" should be common knowledge in the environment of the Blood Eagle.

Many crew members showed stunned expressions. After a brief silence, Isaac slowly spoke: "It's a kind of biological weapon using a virus as its vector, deployed by an unknown civilization. It can infect the vast majority of life forms through contact, turning them into a new species that is half flesh, half machine, stripping them of self-awareness and instinctively spreading the infection.

The Zello Civilization waged a seventy-year-long Iron Plague War against that thing, and ultimately ended in defeat — the entire nation was wiped out."

【Scene Driver countdown forty seconds】

The AI voice on the bridge broadcast faithfully reported the countdown.

Li Cheng spoke at great speed: "Swan B is also a colonial planet of the Zello Civilization?"

"How do you know that?"

Isaac's tone remained unchanged, but his inflection shifted slightly — from his perspective, the other party didn't even know what the Iron Plague War was, yet could precisely name Swan B.

Li Cheng had no patience to stop and explain, and quickly said: "There was once an incident on Proxima A involving student food poisoning and a terrorist nuclear strike. What else do you know about it? And, have you seen this drawing or not?"

He took out the children's crayon drawing from his backpack slot — it depicted a little girl carrying a gun and her mother.

"."

The instant he saw that drawing, Isaac's skull-like face finally showed a ripple, and he murmured in a daze: "This isn't reality, is it?"

The blue flames in his eyes flickered violently, and the entire bridge, the entire warship, trembled and shook along with them — so violently that even some crew members wearing magnetic boots were flung off their feet.

The bridge was in total chaos. Hui Yu, along with the rabbit-ear adjutant, slammed heavily into the metal wall and were separated from each other.

"This isn't reality…" Isaac muttered to himself. The black-and-red military uniform he wore fluttered and swayed, and the metal floor, centered beneath his feet, shattered for no apparent reason.

【Scene Driver countdown twenty seconds】

【Pressure leak detected on bridge, emergency sealing in progress】

Nozzles embedded beneath the floor actively sprayed out white foam. The foam expanded and solidified upon contact with air, rapidly filling the gaps.

But the repair progress still couldn't keep up with the leak — the bridge's air pressure plummeted rapidly, and a large amount of debris flew about wildly.

Clang!

Li Cheng swung out his mantis-arm bone blade and drove it into the metal floor to steady himself. Squinting, he stared fixedly at Isaac and shouted: "You're a prisoner of the Narrative Cage — do you remember? Come away with us!"

The latter was oblivious, still in a dazed, lost state.

Watching the bridge about to split apart, Li Cheng strained to stride forward, trying to grab Isaac.

But someone was faster than him.

The rabbit-ear adjutant first released her magnetic boots, letting the gale blow her up into midair, then cranked the boots' power to maximum — with a "snap," she landed beside Isaac.

"You don't belong here," she gave Li Cheng a deep look, "go back."

That line clearly shouldn't have come from the mouth of a mere NPC. Li Cheng's brow furrowed tightly: "Wait…"

Without waiting for Li Cheng's question, the rabbit-ear adjutant grabbed Isaac with one arm, and with the other, slammed down hard, hitting the red button on the console.

【Scene Driver countdown zero seconds】

The Blood Eagle began another spatial jump, the entire ship stretching and deforming, and that blinding, intense light once again pierced through the bridge.

When the intense light faded, Li Cheng had already returned to the empty room — Hui Yu had returned along with him.

Her right arm had been pierced through by a flying steel shard during the earlier chaos, and a piece of steel was also embedded in the middle of her face — a particularly horrifying sight. "What's the situation? We got kicked out?"

Li Cheng glanced at her. "You're okay?"

"Just a scratch."

Hui Yu, with quite a heroic air, reached out and gripped the steel shard in her right arm, yanked it out forcefully, then tugged hard at the steel plate in the middle of her face.

But the steel plate was embedded too deeply — no matter how she pulled, it wouldn't come out. So she simply dropped her arm, turned to face the wall, charged forward at a sprint, and with a "thud," slammed headfirst into the wall.

That collision actually caused the steel plate to be "squeezed" out from the back of her head.

Hui Yu's head split into two halves — an absurdly grotesque sight — yet she calmly said: "Isaac didn't make it back. Looks like he's still trapped inside the 【Protagonist Effect Chamber】."

Li Cheng glanced at the steel plate on the floor that had turned to ash on its own, his brow still not smoothing out, and asked calmly: "Swan B and Proxima A are both colonial planets of the Zello Civilization. The former's name once appeared on the newspaper you read."

Hui Yu had once, in her personal cell, flipped through a newspaper. The article on it was about an unknown virus breaking out on Swan B, with many citizens — including mechanical citizens — showing fever symptoms.

From Isaac's account, the Iron Plague War that destroyed the Zello Civilization used a virus as its vector — it was very likely the new virus on Swan B.

In other words, the newspaper Hui Yu had flipped through was one from seventy years ago, and she hadn't elaborated on the details.

"You suspect I'm hiding something?" Hui Yu held one side of her head in each hand, struggling to glue them back together, and said calmly: "Let me put it this way — the newspaper didn't show a date, and I don't know any information about the Zello Civilization beyond what Isaac muttered to himself."

She gave a hard squeeze and finally managed to press her head halves together. "Before each meal time, prisoners can shout to the prison authorities to request a newspaper they want to see. If no specific request is made, the prison randomly assigns a publication. My newspaper was randomly assigned."

Random? Heaven knows how many civilizations and planets there are in the space age, and how many newspapers on each planet.

Hui Yu casually asked for a publication, and it just happened to be related to the Zello Civilization — a probability lower than winning the lottery ten times in a row for five million.

"The newspaper, the drawing. All the clues on hand right now are related to the Zello Civilization and Isaac. His influence on the Narrative Cage isn't limited to a single cell or a single engine room."

Li Cheng said slowly: "Maybe it's because he's trapped in the 【Protagonist Effect Chamber】, unable to get out yet unable to die, causing the prison to be unable to fully reset.

He disappeared three months ago, right? During these three months, you've also tried to escape. Did you encounter this kind of situation?"

Better not to have brought it up — the moment this topic was mentioned, Hui Yu's gray-skinned face, for once, showed an awkward expression.

"……"

After a long silence, she squeezed two words out from between her teeth: "Forgot."

"Huh?!" Li Cheng suspected he had misheard.

"I said I forgot!"

Hui Yu raised her voice in embarrassment and indignation, huffily: "I'm not like you carbon-based lifeforms — I'm a noble, efficient, pure silicon-based life! My brain capacity has to be used to store more important things!"

"Could those more important things possibly be the flavor of corn juice?" Li Cheng's eye twitched wildly. "Mind telling me how much brain capacity you have?!"

"256…"

Hui Yu slightly turned her head away, refusing to make eye contact with Li Cheng. "GB."

Pfft — for a machine lifeform, her cultural level is about the same as Ding Zhen's, right? Are you a phone or something?!

(Book recommendation, title: 【I Logged Into the Primordial Era in the Cultivation Realm】

Su Ze, a senior-year student at the Cultivation Academy, was diligently cultivating in preparation for the entrance exams to an advanced cultivation academy. Originally, the greatest dream of his life was to successfully reach Foundation Establishment.

That all changed once he discovered he could log into the primordial wilderness of antiquity.)

(End of chapter)