Chapter 622

"What a confusing time span... Can it be inferred that after Adam was infected by 3125, he also became a flesh monster for a long time, and then because of Ma Ma Liang's backup plan, he recovered?"

"It makes no sense not to be infected; with monsters coordinated by a supreme divinity, eliminating and assimilating all survivors is just a matter of time."

"Memory erasure is obviously more useful; just delete the memory, and you can be exempted from infection. This might be the most effective way to deal with anti-memetic hazards."

"Brain: Are you awake?"

"'Memory Erasure Principle' price: 100 points; 'Memory Erasure Operation Specification' price: 100 points; 'Targeted Memory Search Method' price: 100 points... Are you sure you want to use enough wealth to empty a galactic giant enterprise to exchange for a full set of memory erasure technology?"

"Looking at it this way, supreme divinities that just play conceptual attacks have flaws; the materialized ones are the powerful ones."

"? What kind of joke are you making? How to solve 3125? Those who know Him are dead, those who don't know are all infected and assimilated, and now we have to rely on a disabled Adam to save the world."

The office was narrow and dim, piled with high documents, with only two simple small tables and a few broken office chairs.

In this oppressive environment, Adam found the ringing phone and picked it up:

"Hello?"

Responding to him was a synthesized female voice, cold and mechanical:

"Mr. Adam?"

Adam: "It's me. Who are you?"

With a tone of consideration, the synthesized voice replied:

"Mr. Adam, you have been sick for a long time."

"I would be happy to answer all your questions, but not now."

"There is a lady in room W16, and she is approaching the end of her life."

Adam's heart tightened:

"I—I am not a doctor, I'm afraid I can't help."

"I know. You can't save her no matter what you do. But you must go find her, immediately, right now."

"But I... I don't think I'm suitable, and my state today is not good," Adam tried to decline.

"It must be you, no one else," the other party's reply was concise and clear, allowing no rebuttal.

After a brief silence, Adam gathered his courage to ask:

"She... who is she?"

The other end of the phone seemed to fall into deep thought, and after a moment, replied slowly:

"...She is very important. Please set off immediately, I beg you. She doesn't have much time left."

Adam was lost; he seemed to have no reason to do what the strange call instructed.

But what was he going to do now?

The surrounding world was stingy in giving him any clear direction and revelation, letting him grope alone in the chaos.

He had no thoughts at this moment, and his thoughts still seemed to be disconnected.

Adam looked at the landline phone; it was connected to a telephone line, and it couldn't be pulled, otherwise he would definitely carry it with him.

"You will always be there, right?" he whispered.

"Yes," the other end of the phone replied.

Adam hung up the phone slowly and returned to the quiet corridor.

He walked slowly in the corridor and soon arrived at the door marked "W16."

Through the translucent safety glass, he saw the inside of the classroom glowing with a warm orange-red light; the light poured down from the distant horizon, crossed the window grilles, and sprinkled mottledly in the classroom.

And this color of sunlight could belong to dusk or dawn; Adam couldn't judge the specific time.

This was not the key; the key was that there was no one inside.

After hesitating for a moment, Adam pushed the door and entered.

The classroom walls were covered with posters and classroom photos, desks were placed askew, textbooks were scattered everywhere, schoolbags were discarded at will, and the front and back blackboards were empty.

Adam walked in the aisle made of desks, looked around, and became more and more confused.

The lady approaching the end of her life... where is she?

There was no one in the classroom, and there was no place to hide anyone.

Just as Adam was puzzled, a rustling sound came from behind him.

That was the unique sound made by chalk writing on a blackboard.

But Adam was quite certain that there was no one in front of the blackboard, and during this time, there were no footsteps in the classroom other than his own.

Damn it.

A sense of uneasy pain surfaced quietly; Adam's body seemed to remember some unpleasant memories, making him instantly highly vigilant.

Adam turned his head, but didn't see an uninvited guest; instead, a few seconds ago, the empty blackboard surface had a huge chalk sketch—a photorealistic depiction of a woman's head and shoulders.

Adam was absolutely certain that it was black a moment ago.

Right in front of him, the drawing moved, like a PPT animation, at five to ten frames per second.

Her face was framed by hair, but the negative effect of white chalk on the blackboard made the hair color difficult to distinguish.

The only touch of color was the thick and bright blue on her glasses frames.

She looked quite nervous, and although silent, her words appeared in text form beside her:

[Adam?]

Adam was stunned for a moment, then replied: "Yes?"

With his answer, lines of text emerged like a spring, constantly changing:

[I remember everything]

[I can't forget a single second]

[Now I know everything he did]

[I was blind and let him wander by my side]

[He killed everyone I loved, except you]

After this, her lips stopped trembling.

The last sentence stayed on the blackboard longer than all the previous words, eventually turning into a blank space.

Adam pondered these words repeatedly, trying to find some appropriate position in his life to embed them.

...If there really was such a position.

Who was she? Adam had never seen this woman.

But... was that really the case?

Adam pondered her face, and a corner deep in his memory began to shake; a long-buried past event surfaced before his eyes.

Her! That time at the hospital, remember?

Your foot was pricked by a nail, backstage, after the performance.

You stayed in the emergency room for most of the night, she was there, and you even chatted together.

So who was she?

An agent, or at least related to that field.

She was mysterious, firm and brave, beautiful and moving, with eyes as sharp as sapphires.

You once talked about music, movie ratings, the terrible sci-fi series popular at the time, and David Lynch's works.

Everything seemed to be a destined arrangement.

Just as Adam was thinking this, another completely different memory roared in.

—No, nothing special happened that night; the doctors treated your wound, and you went straight home.

Really?

"Ma Ma Liang..." Adam whispered, and all the clues were finally connected.

He raised a hand, showing fear, signaling her to stop:

"No, this is impossible—"

[I sent you away because I wanted to save your life]

Adam remembered those forgotten times, and surging emotions swept in like a tide, so intense it was suffocating.

Adam remembered these; those memories that had been deliberately cut and buried had been sutured without trauma, vivid before his eyes.

It was a time of being together year after year, like a shadow; whoever wanted him to forget, could never strip it from the tapestry of his life.

The majestic energy surged like a giant wave, sweeping in with an irresistible force, impacting his fragile heart defense.

This felt like suddenly grasping a bare, rusty wire; the current instantly penetrated his skin and hit the depths of his soul.

It was also like being precisely pierced by a bullet from the chamber; in an instant, the shock wave exploded in his body, trembling every nerve ending.

Adam took several steps back, panting.

He couldn't believe it, and he couldn't accept it.

He had never imagined missing so much.

"No, no, no, Ma Ma Liang—"

[And that didn't work]

"What happened to you? I should have been by your side!"

[He destroyed the world]

[Now, you will suffer in hell]

"Where are you now? Someone told me you were about to pass away—"

[I am already dead, what you see is my memory]

[And now, the memory is also fading]

[He found the road to heaven and intended to destroy it, just as he treated the human world]

"What do you need?! I will stop him! I will help you! I will do anything, I love you!"

Ma Ma Liang did not respond.

A second or two later, Adam realized her portrait was frozen and would never move again.

Adam stepped forward and stared at the chalk drawing for a long time.

Hesitating, Adam raised his right hand, reached toward the thick chalk shadow drawn as hair, and touched it with his index finger, as if touching her hair.

There was a black dot on it.

The chalk dust was real, both adhering to the blackboard surface and staining Adam's fingertips.

She was just a drawing, that's all.

She was gone. Completely gone.