Chapter 888

【I have become a bag of bones, while you are probably still the way you were when you escaped the city. Thinking about it this way, you and I are truly fundamentally different.】

【I'm not going to make it, Christina. My body is getting worse day by day, but honestly, I have lived long enough.】

【I always thought God let me live so long so that I could see you again with my own eyes, but it seems this was just a small reward for my hard half-life.】

【I don't know if you can see these tapes again. Maybe I have been wishful thinking all my life, but since life has already given me so many miracles, I also hope it can give me one last one.】

【By that time, promise me not to cry.】

At this time, Tommy turned his head and looked at Christina outside the camera, a gentle and relaxed smile on his aged face, his voice as innocent as when he was a child:

【Go, do what you should do, go find the meaning of your life, find your rainbow.】

After speaking, he winked at Christina, as if he had returned to childhood.

Christina's expression froze on her face, seeing Tommy's smile stop at the last scene, the picture became blurred, and finally returned to a quiet darkness.

It was like water falling through fingers, trying to catch its tail, but failing to do so no matter what.

Click!

The videotape was tightened completely by the reel, just like Christina's heart.

Accompanied by the slight sound of the motor rotating and the slight friction, the videotape was slowly pushed out of the machine, making a "click" sound.

Tommy! Her vision was already completely blurred, wanting to call out something, but finding that she couldn't make any sound.

Christina's hands trembled; she stood up shakily, staggered two steps to the video player, wanting to hold the videotape in her arms, but staggered two steps and fell to the ground.

Alice helped her up, supported her to the side, and then stuffed all the videotapes into her arms.

Christina's eyes became exceptionally deep at this moment; sadness, unwillingness, and a deep sense of powerlessness intertwined and entangled in the bottom of her eyes, condensing into drops of unshed tears.

The corners of her mouth trembled slightly, trying to say something, but finding that any language seemed so pale and powerless in the face of such emotion.

It seemed that something had disappeared, tearing away a piece of her heart along with it, dying with half of her, falling into an endless void.

……

"Do long-lived species who fall in love with short-lived species understand this emotion better? Watching their lover age rapidly, and then, inadvertently, realizing that the other party has left before them, while their own lifespan is still quite long."

"It's indeed a bit like it, but more accurately, it should be a long-lived sister and a short-lived brother growing up together, and then being forced to separate in an accident. Every day after that, both were looking for each other; the sister, in a journey, accidentally found the brother's descendants, and then read through the brother's complete life."

"Sigh, long-lived species, sigh, lifespan theory."

"Sigh, Foundation, sigh, apocalyptic scenario."

"I find that no matter what the story is, as long as it involves lifespan, it is easy to have tragedy."

"As long as the work involves life and death, it is easy to touch people's hearts, regardless of family affection, love, or whatever else. Tommy is very strange to his sister, and to us... if Tommy were replaced by a 'white moonlight' or something, this story would immediately become very cutting."

"Is no one concerned about Christina... this little girl is about to collapse..."

"In just a few months, she lost all her family... it's indeed a bit miserable."

"Saying this might seem a bit inhumane, but Tommy being able to die of old age in such an environment is already lucky enough; she should be satisfied."

"These are two different things; when the little girl recovers her calm, she will naturally understand, but now she is drowned in sadness and cannot think from this perspective."

……

When the picture lit up again, Alice and Christina were already dressed neatly and said goodbye to Kerwin.

Kerwin was very worried:

"Are you setting off now?"

The ancestor's sister hadn't recovered yet; since seeing the videotapes, she had been like a walking corpse, with no reaction to the outside world.

Nothing is more sorrowful than a dead heart.

"Yes. Thank you again, Mr. Kerwin."

Alice said softly: "But I'm sorry, those videotapes really became invalid after watching them as you said... one-time use."

"Don't worry about that, as long as it helps you. She..."

Kerwin turned his eyes slightly, looking at Christina, who was motionless not far away.

Alice didn't say anything more and shook her head: "Thank you again."

After speaking, she pulled Christina and continued forward.

……

【- Data Analysis -】

【Baseline Time Tick (Huang Shi): 45.2999】

【How about it, dear Alice? Do you believe me now?】

"She looks very sad."

Alice glanced quietly at Christina behind her, whose gaze was still somewhat dull.

First she lost the city where she grew up, then she lost her warm family, and now even the brother who was her spiritual sustenance has passed away.

The things that anchored Christina in this world have disappeared.

Only she, this traveler who joined her on the road, remained.

【This is normal, dear Alice; she is still a child after all. Give her some time.】

"Hmm," Alice withdrew her gaze and continued to move forward along the planned route.

"I believe you now."

【I am honored.】

"Communicating through the terminal like this is too inconvenient."

"Can I save a copy of you on my terminal so we can communicate by voice?"

She now has to look down at the text on the screen while walking, which is inconvenient and unsafe.

Who knows when she might not see the road clearly and take a hard fall.

【I'm sorry.】

【However, to achieve this, you must go to Huang Shi, find my prototype, which is the source of all information, and only then can you take away a copy of my consciousness from that machine.】

【However, it is impossible for you to complete this action.】

"Why is it impossible? I am about to arrive at Huang Shi, with an estimated half a day's journey left."

【This is what I am going to say next. You must stop going to Huang Shi and find the nearest, and only, space transmission node still in operation, and use it to go to the Antarctic.】

【Our time is very tight, both yours and mine.】

"Why is this again?" Alice was very puzzled.

Wasn't this "Wanderer" quite normal before?

How come when she was about to reach Huang Shi and solve the apocalypse, it started causing trouble?

"My destination is Huang Shi; we have walked for so long, and now you are asking me to turn back?"

【Dear Alice, you must believe that I am an AIC whose calculations will never go wrong.】

【I hold all the information, all the futures, and the perfect plan. Do not question me.】

"Yes, you are a perfect AIC, but I am not a perfect human."

Alice frowned; the other party was again in this condescending attitude.

"I can't formulate a perfect plan, nor can I see the future. I need you to explain it to me."

Seeming to perceive Alice's resistance, "The Wanderer" did not persist.

【Then, let it be.】

【As you said, you are only inches away from Huang Shi, and I don't want to destroy the trust we have finally built for no reason.】

【You cannot understand my wise decision now, but it doesn't matter; when you arrive there, you will understand.】

Extinguishing the personal terminal screen, Alice didn't delay any longer and hurried toward Huang Shi with Christina.

But the closer she got, the more uneasy she felt—the temperature was too high, and the terrain here seemed wrong too.

When she stood on the top of the cliff, staring at the unfathomable abyss beneath her feet, the confusion and uneasiness in her heart erupted instantly.

Turning into an exclamation.

Before her eyes was an apocalyptic scene—a huge volcanic crater-like void spread out beneath her feet, opening like the mouth of hell.

These sunken giant pits connected into one, like scars branded on the skin of the earth, shocking to the eye.

Scorching white-hot magma surged incessantly at the bottom of the pit, emitting a low rumbling sound.

Only a trace of building structure debris was mixed in the rock layer; besides that, there was almost no trace of man-made things having existed, and everything returned to nothingness.

Huang Shi underground facility complex, the original "SCP-2000" had been completely destroyed. ===== CHAPTER 890 =====