“Th-this…
where is this?”
Cyrene floated in the boundless void, warily crossing her arms, her fingers subconsciously tightening their grip on the sheer shawl draped over her shoulders.
The flowing rivers of starlight, the swirling nebulae, and the silent silhouettes of distant galaxies formed a cosmic tableau.
Deathly stillness reigned here.
She could feel no wind, no change in temperature—only a bone-chilling silence that pierced her very soul.
The silence was so vast it was terrifying.
[This is the Physical Data Space.]
Suddenly, a cold, mechanical female voice echoed, utterly devoid of inflection.
[You may consider it a secret space, inaccessible by conventional means—an information cocoon existing within the cracks of reality.]
Hearing the voice, Cyrene jolted, spinning abruptly in the void.
“Who?
Who’s speaking?” she demanded urgently.
Her voice trembled with alarm as her eyes frantically scanned the star-strewn expanse.
Yet the voice seemed to be everywhere at once; no matter which way Cyrene turned, its tone remained unchanged.
[I am your auxiliary tool, tasked with helping you ignite the final spark of hope for this doomed future.]
The voice paused, followed by a few faint “tick-tock” sounds from within.
[In terms you can more easily understand…] The coldness of the voice intensified.
[I am your System.]
Hearing this, Cyrene was momentarily stunned before asking skeptically:
“System?
Ignite the final spark of hope for this doomed future?
Can you explain in more detail?”
[Yes, but a verbal explanation is less effective than witnessing it firsthand.
Therefore, please witness it for yourself.]
As the voice faded, the deep, dark expanse of space was abruptly torn apart.
A blinding white light flooded down like a deluge, instantly overwhelming Cyrene’s vision.
Instinctively, Cyrene raised her arm to shield her eyes, which stung from the intense glare, causing tears to well up uncontrollably.
Before the light had even faded, a cacophony of noise assaulted her eardrums.
The roar of engines, the clash of metal, and…
the dying screams of humans.
Cyrene lowered her arm.
The scene before her made her breath catch, her heart pounding against her ribs.
The smooth asphalt road was torn apart as if plowed by a giant plow, with twisted steel rebar exposed.
A sedan, snapped in half, lay overturned nearby, its body twisted and deformed.
Thick smoke billowed from under the hood, and the acrid smell of burning filled the air.
But even stronger was the nauseating, metallic stench of blood.
Right in front of her, in the middle of the street, stood a massive, twisted, and malevolent shadow!
The monster was over three meters tall, its body covered in slightly twitching, dark red muscle fibers.
Thick, misshapen bone spikes, like inverted thorns, pierced its skin, gleaming coldly.
Its massive lower limbs supported its body, and a viscous liquid dripped slowly from the tips of one of its giant claws.
“Quick!
Left flank, crossfire!
Don’t let it near the second defensive line!
Hold the line—!”
Before Cyrene could recover from the shock of the monster, a hoarse roar, like a clap of thunder, erupted from behind her.
At this, she whipped her head around.
Just over ten meters behind her, several battered armored vehicles were haphazardly blocking the road, forming a makeshift barricade.
A dozen soldiers, their faces smeared with blood and grime, were making a last stand, using the vehicles and rubble for cover.
Veins bulged on their foreheads, their faces a mixture of dust and terror, but their arms, gripping assault rifles, were locked tight, the dark muzzles all aimed in Cyrene’s direction.
No, they were aiming at the monster behind Cyrene.
“An army?
A modern army?” The thought had barely crossed Cyrene’s mind when her body reacted instantly.
A chill shot up from the soles of her feet to the top of her head.
The trembling gun muzzles, the soldiers’ eyes on the verge of collapse from terror—each felt like an icy needle piercing her nerves.
“ROAR—!!!”
A foul, gale-force wind erupted from nowhere.
A terrifying roar, loud enough to shatter glass and thick with suffocating, bloody pressure, surged violently from behind her!
Hearing the roar, Cyrene turned her head in terror, her pupils constricting in extreme fear.
In her vision, the dark red, monstrous giant transformed into a cannonball, tearing through the air and charging toward her at a speed utterly disproportionate to its size!
Its massive maw, filled with rows of sharp teeth, rapidly filled her vision!
So close…
she could even clearly see the dark red chunks of flesh and fabric scraps stuck between its teeth!
Too fast!
Unavoidable!
“I can’t dodge it!!” Cyrene’s mind went blank.
Her body was as rigid as if filled with lead; she couldn’t even move a finger.
In that moment, all she could do was squeeze her eyes shut in despair, cross her arms tightly over her head, and tense every muscle to its absolute limit.
WHOOSH—!!!
Accompanied by a violent gust of wind, the monster, thick with the stench of blood and decay, passed through her body without any resistance, as if she were a void-like phantom!
The expected impact never came.
The expected agony never arrived.
There wasn’t even the slightest sensation of collision!
Only the nauseating wind and the icy feeling of sound passing through her body.
Immediately after, behind her, scalp-numbingly dense gunfire, mixed with the soldiers’ desperate roars, suddenly erupted!
RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT—!!!
Cyrene snapped her eyes open, tears still clinging to her lashes.
She lowered her arms, still shaken, her heart pounding wildly.
Then, the scene before her plunged her into complete shock and confusion.
She stared in disbelief as the enormous, terrifying monster, like an intangible phantom, passed through the spot where she had just stood.
Its massive body didn’t even disturb a single strand of her floating hair before charging straight into the defensive line formed by the soldiers’ flesh and blood!
“Fire!
Concentrate fire on its head!
The eyes!”
At this moment, a middle-aged officer with two bars and one star on his epaulets, his face smeared with blood and grime, roared with all his strength, the assault rifle in his hands spitting furious and desperate tongues of flame.
RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT—!!!
Countless scorching metal slugs rained down on the monster’s head and torso like a torrential storm, dense sparks erupting wildly against its dark red, keratinous skin!
But this all-out assault was utterly meaningless!
The bullets, which could easily tear through human flesh, deformed and shattered the instant they struck the monster’s skin, then were mercilessly deflected, failing to leave even a single white mark on its keratinous hide!
Even the strafing fire from the heavy machine gun mounted on the armored vehicle merely caused the monster’s bulging muscle groups to dent and ripple slightly, vanishing in an instant.
But these ineffective attacks completely enraged this creature from hell!
It abruptly raised a giant claw dripping with viscous fluid and swept it horizontally, the sound of tearing air whistling through the wind!
THUD!
CRACK—!
The muffled sounds of two bones shattering erupted almost simultaneously!
The two soldiers at the forefront, firing from behind the vehicle’s cover, didn’t even have time to let out a short scream before their entire upper bodies twisted grotesquely and were sent flying through the air
They slammed heavily against the ruined wall behind them, sliding down and dragging two glaring crimson streaks across the wall and ground.
Immediately after, as if it wasn’t enough, the monster’s massive body lunged forward, sending rubble flying, as its other giant claw rose high and slammed viciously onto the twisted hood of an armored vehicle!
CLANG—SCREEECH—!!!
The deafening roar of twisting and snapping metal exploded!
The multi-ton armored vehicle, before this absolute power, was as fragile as a child’s toy!
The entire chassis was brutally thrown into the air, tumbling sideways and crashing down!
It instantly crushed several soldiers behind it, who had no time to dodge, beneath the heavy steel wreckage!
Dark red blood gushed from the gaps beneath the vehicle like a fountain, quickly spreading across the ground.
Slaughter.
This was a one-sided slaughter!
Cyrene stood frozen in place.
She watched the tragedy unfold just feet away, watched those vibrant lives being effortlessly crushed, watched the middle-aged officer who had been roaring commands get casually stomped under the monster’s foot.
The distinct sound of bones cracking echoed as the officer’s entire chest caved in…
Her nails had long since dug deep into her palms, her body trembling uncontrollably.
“How could…
this happen…”
She wanted to scream, wanted to stop it…
But her throat felt tightly blocked; no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t make a single sound.
Only a silent scream crashed within her chest, bringing a tearing pain.
Only when the blood-soaked monster, seemingly bored with the feeble resistance of the ants beneath its feet, let out an earth-shattering roar and began pursuing the fleeing survivors with heavy strides…
did Cyrene finally break free from the suffocating feeling of drowning.
She gasped violently, inhaling the foul air thick with blood and gunpowder, a sharp pain stabbing her lungs.
“Cough…
cough, cough…” She coughed violently.
Her gaze involuntarily drifted to the center of the ravaged battlefield, to the figure lying amidst the rubble where it had been stomped.
The middle-aged officer.
Almost immediately, Cyrene stumbled and staggered toward him.
The man now lay at the edge of a bloody mess, his tactical vest torn open.
The massive wound in his abdomen was horrifying, his shattered organs faintly visible as dark red blood gushed out, staining the rubble beneath him.
His face was deathly pale, his eyes unfocused, staring blankly at the sky, which was dyed a grayish-brown by the smoke.
His lips moved slightly.
“Hold on!
Don’t sleep!
Look at me!” Cyrene immediately squatted down beside him, her voice trembling so much it cracked.
“The monster’s gone!
Hold on!
I’ll…
I’ll call an ambulance right away!”
Immediately after, she frantically reached into her dress pocket, her fingertips fumbling urgently, but found nothing.
Empty!
Cyrene’s heart sank.
She suddenly remembered she had left her phone on the bed and hadn’t brought it with her.
At this thought, she bit her lip so hard she tasted blood, then snapped her head up to look at the dying officer on the ground, speaking rapidly:
“I forgot my phone!
Where’s yours?!
Tell me!
Which pocket?
Hurry up and tell me!”
However, the officer on the ground didn’t respond.
His dull, gray eyes remained fixed on the sky, the edges of his pupils already beginning to dilate and widen.
“Damn it!
Damn it!” Cyrene muttered anxiously.
Seeing the middle-aged officer unresponsive, she couldn’t afford to hesitate any longer.
She thrust out her trembling right hand, reaching for the blood-soaked pocket of the officer’s jacket.
But in the next second…
Her pupils trembled violently!
Her hand…
passed straight through the officer’s body without any resistance!
She felt no texture of fabric.
She felt no trace of body heat.
Not even…
the sticky sensation of blood!
The officer before her was like a lifelike hologram: incredibly realistic, yet utterly without physical substance.
Time seemed to freeze.
Cyrene froze in place, her hand still outstretched, her mind completely blank.
She refused to accept it!
Driven by a profound sense of absurdity and unwillingness, she lunged forward again, this time aiming directly for the gruesome, gushing wound on the officer’s abdomen.
She tried to press her hands against the wound, to stop the life draining away.
But the result was no different.
Her hands once again passed unimpeded through the mangled flesh, as if through a layer of air, her palms landing firmly on the rough asphalt road.
In that instant, an overwhelming sense of absurdity and all-encompassing despair washed over her like a frigid tide, completely submerging her!
Slowly, she raised her hands, bringing them before her eyes.
Pale, clean, slender, unstained by a single drop of blood, utterly pristine, like works of art.
They formed the cruelest contrast to the shocking crimson hell beneath her.
This hellish scene was right before her eyes, the tragic aura of death so thick it was suffocating…
and yet, she was like a ghost completely abandoned by the entire world.
“Why…
can’t I touch anything…
why…” Cyrene murmured dazedly, kneeling in the pool of blood, her spirit shattered.
She stared at the middle-aged officer, now completely devoid of life.
Just as her confusion and helplessness reached their peak, the familiar, cold mechanical voice echoed once more in the vast emptiness of her consciousness:
[Regrettably.]
[This is a virtual projection constructed from high-dimensional information streams, a cruel simulation of a future that does not include you.]
[Here, you are an observer, a recorder, and…
a ghost.
You cannot interfere with the predetermined causality of this place, nor can the beings and creations within perceive your existence.