Relying on the auxiliary chip of the biological prosthetic limb and the system of the military exoskeleton, and using the strategy of "one slow, two think, three pass," Jiang Baimian only got lost once and successfully brought Shang Jianyao and the nuclear warhead to the end of that tunnel.
The heavy, iron-black double doors were still tightly closed, and the "Heartless" seemed not to have tried to chase inside.
"They clearly discovered me and showed a desire to hunt..." Jiang Baimian muttered to herself, looking at the door, slightly puzzled.
She suspected that the "Heartless" were constrained in some way and could only move within a limited range.
After considering it, Jiang Baimian placed Shang Jianyao and the crate containing the nuclear warhead inside the tunnel, against the side wall.
Immediately afterwards, she half-squatted in front of Shang Jianyao, extending her spirit to touch his consciousness.
That familiar darkness before her eyes came again, and the faint light in the distance gradually coalesced into a street lamp.
"Long time no see!" Shang Jianyao waved his hand.
It hasn't even been two hours! Jiang Baimian always suspected that he was mocking her for being a terrible navigator.
She had contacted Shang Jianyao before taking a short nap, and immediately after waking up, she exercised her body, put on her equipment, and brought the corresponding items into the Eighth Research Institute.
Considering that this kind of contact method was extremely draining on the spirit, she didn't waste time arguing about this issue, and said directly:
"I'm going to explore that 'New World' located in reality now. Provide me with protection.
"Well, my primary goal this time is to see how far away from your body that protection will lose its due effect."
She used her words carefully, and did not say "completely lose effect," because when the distance widened to a certain limit, the mental shield provided by Shang Jianyao might gradually decrease in effectiveness and no longer be able to resist the extraction of human consciousness by the reality of the "New World."
At this time, the mental shield still existed, but it had been penetrated.
"Okay, okay." Shang Jianyao has always had a spirit of experimentation and said with great interest, "Wait a moment."
Because Jiang Baimian took the initiative to use her spirit to contact his consciousness, which was equivalent to establishing a connection, Shang Jianyao didn't need to waste time sensing, searching, and locking onto the target. He only needed to wholeheartedly use this connection to allow his power to penetrate the barrier and attach to Jiang Baimian's body.
This didn't have much delay, only a few seconds.
Back then, when Shang Jianyao extended his spirit to contact Yan Hu's seemingly sleeping consciousness, he had the feeling of being dragged into the depths of dark water.
Looking back now, Yan Hu at that time, on the one hand, hoped to get help, and on the other hand, was extremely hungry, and ultimately made the contradictory act of instinctively extracting the consciousness of the linker while shouting "Save me."
Fortunately, there was a certain delay, and Jiang Baimian reacted quickly and disconnected the two with an electric shock in time, which prevented a tragedy from happening.
Soon, Shang Jianyao informed Jiang Baimian that he had provided her with the mental shield she needed.
In this way, even if Jiang Baimian retracted her extended spirit, the connection between the two would still exist until the effect of the shield completely disappeared.
Jiang Baimian did not hesitate, restrained her human consciousness, stretched out her hands covered with metal skeletons, and used the most appropriate force to open the heavy iron-black double doors almost silently.
What came into her eyes was flickering light.
In that small city that was very similar to the "New World," and could even turn those who stepped into it into "Heartless," there were specks of light that shone brightly in the darkness.
Their absolute number was not large, not exceeding twenty, distributed around that tower and its surroundings, and completely incomparable to the dense stars in the night sky.
But on such a silent and dark night, in such a strange place with no real human beings active, these more than a dozen lights, either yellowish or pure white, still gave Jiang Baimian a scalp-numbing feeling.
Suddenly, a thought flashed in her mind:
"The Eighth Research Institute has clearly relocated, but it didn't cut off the power to the abandoned headquarters, probably because this small city at the end of the tunnel still needs electricity to maintain the operation of certain things..."
She initially thought that the Eighth Research Institute used a nuclear power plant, and shutting down the reactor was a troublesome matter, and they didn't have time to do it during the hasty transfer.
Now it seems that there may be a better explanation.
Hu, Jiang Baimian gently exhaled and walked out of the tunnel.
This time, she no longer had that feeling of dizziness, throbbing headache, and her soul almost leaving her body.
Jiang Baimian thought for a while, turned around, and slowly closed the heavy iron-black door.
She was worried that with the door open, the group of "Heartless" might break free from their "constraints" and enter the tunnel.
Although this was unlikely to cause harm to Shang Jianyao's body, if they took the nuclear warhead away, Jiang Baimian would lose her biggest trump card.
And she was infiltrating and exploring at night this time, and carrying the nuclear warhead was obviously not suitable, as it would significantly affect her actions.
Anyway, she was wearing a military exoskeleton and had incredibly powerful biological prosthetic limbs. When the time came, she could open the door with a single bump and push, and it wouldn't delay her escape.
More than that, she was more worried about wasting precious time getting lost.
Hiding her human consciousness, Jiang Baimian bent down, and quietly approached the real "New World" along the weeds that could be seen everywhere inside the valley.
The temperature here was a little higher than outside. Now that it was summer in the ice field, all kinds of creatures were clearly active.
Relying on electrical signal sensing and the night vision function of the exoskeleton, Jiang Baimian didn't disturb these "little guys" and silently arrived at the edge of the city, hiding next to an abandoned apartment building.
Almost at the same time, she discovered that the scattered biological electrical signals had undergone some distortion.
The visualized "dashboard" of the "M-45" military exoskeleton also told her that the electromagnetic environment here was different from the outside world.
"As expected..." Jiang Baimian was not surprised by this at all.
According to her planned schedule, she traveled through the dark alleys where the starlight was blocked, gradually approaching the tower and the dozen or so lights around it.
--When she could directly see the destination, her "terrible sense of direction" would be much better.
Seeing the target within reach, Jiang Baimian suddenly frowned.
The consciousness of the "Heartless" that she sensed along the way was too little, almost only one-tenth of what she saw during the day.
And at this time, she had almost traversed half of the city.
"It's impossible that the remaining nine-tenths all live on the other side, right? Or can they all hide their own consciousness and have shrunk to those places with lights? But why doesn't this one-tenth go over?" Jiang Baimian paused her advance and fell into deep thought.
Unable to make a guess for a while, she walked forward for a while.
When the nearest light was less than thirty meters away from her, her head throbbed, as if someone had pricked a nerve with a needle.
This familiar feeling made Jiang Baimian stop immediately.
This was the precursor to "Heartless Sickness!"
However, as she stopped moving forward, the throbbing in her head remained at the same level as before and did not deepen.
"Having arrived here, the mental shield provided by Shang Jianyao can't gradually resist the extraction of consciousness, and corresponding symptoms have begun to appear..." Jiang Baimian thought for a while, and suddenly understood.
The location she was currently at was only about one hundred and sixty or seventy meters away from the tower.
This made Jiang Baimian feel somewhat regretful and disappointed.
It would be great if Shang Jianyao's mental shield was a little stronger.
But how to improve after entering the "New World," Shang Jianyao didn't know, and she knew even less. To break through these last one hundred meters, she could only think of another way.
Jiang Baimian took seven or eight steps back, got rid of the throbbing in her head, and quickly came up with an idea:
"Two methods:
"One is to move Shang Jianyao's body in to shorten the distance between me and him, but it is not yet certain whether the effect of his mental shield has decreased, or whether the closer to the tower, the stronger the extraction of human consciousness;
"Second, it seems that the higher the level of an Awakened, the stronger their resistance to consciousness extraction. If I can enter the 'Mind Corridor,' plus the shield provided by Shang Jianyao, I should be able to reach that tower..."
She was currently still traveling in the "Sea of Origins," searching for the next island, and that island was likely to have a golden elevator and another "her."
Unable to go any deeper, Jiang Baimian changed her target and prepared to confirm the situation of those "Heartless" that she could sense one by one.
............
Inside the "New World."
While maintaining Jiang Baimian's mental shield, Shang Jianyao looked at the gray-earth-style courtyard on the side of the road.
The courtyard was pitch black, with no lights representing humans, but Shang Jianyao had heard slight movements before.
Well, two hours ago.
Shang Jianyao had been maintaining this posture for a full two hours!
"This is called caution!" Honest Shang Jianyao began to praise himself.
After two hours of "listening," he discovered that there were indeed occasional movements coming from the courtyard, sometimes like someone walking, sometimes like the sound of wind blowing through, and sometimes like a group of men and women laughing in suppressed voices.
Calm and rational Shang Jianyao looked left and right and said:
"There is no light at all...
"The situation in the 'New World' may be more complicated than what that lady and Jacob and Hendrik shared, and there are more secrets..."
"Wouldn't you know what's going on if you went in to see?" Reckless Shang Jianyao took advantage of his colleagues' inattention, manipulated his body, rushed two steps, reached out, pressed down, flipped over the wall, and entered the yard.
Among all the Shang Jianyaos, his strength seems to be getting higher and higher.
As Shang Jianyao entered, the light representing him lit up in the courtyard.