绝代双骄 林志颖

The bright glaring headlights pierced his eyes like sharp knives, his vision was blurred by physiological tears, and the familiar dreadful pain came from the back of his head— as if a scalpel was ruthlessly cutting it open. The tearing pain hit him head-on like a heavy hammer, making his eyes black and he could hardly breathe.

He already remembered it all.

——The surging flood of information and the accompanying strong emotions washed over his body one after another like waves, enough to make anyone overwhelmed.

He seemed to have re-experienced every day, every year, all the pain, struggle, rebelling and parting since his birth until now…

Thelong twenty years were condensed into just a few seconds and finally he was frozen under the dazzling light above the operating table and howl of his spiritual power being invaded——

Above his head hung almost the same light as that day, so bright that he could hardly open his eyes.

Ge Xiu couldn’t tell where he was. His forehead was dripping with cold sweat, his chest heaved violently. Two completely separate sets of memories, the twenty years before he was arrested and the hundred years spent in the virtual world, were still colliding in his brain. The huge spiritual power deliberately sealed by surgery exploded in his mind. Such incredible pain could drive any normal human being crazy.

After a long time, the pain slowly faded away like a tide.

Ge Xiu’s pupils gradually focused, and he turned his head slowly, looking at the narrow cell he was in in a daze.

The cold metal walls, the blue-purple shackles on the wrists, the prison uniform on his body.

There was a sudden look of clarity on his face, as if he finally remembered where he was.

At this moment, the loudspeaker above his head suddenly turned on.

The hectic footsteps in the background and the piercing siren were all faithfully transmitted to this closed and narrow cell, breaking the dead silence in the room that seemed unchangeable before.

There came an extremely strange, but also very clear voice, cold and low:

”…You thought you won, didn’t you?”

Ge Xiu didn’t recognize the voice.

This voice was not the presiding judge who was unkind, but still had some conscience, nor did it correspond to anyone from the Institute in his memory… It’s a completely unfamiliar voice, he couldn’t find any resemblance.

”Before you speak, you must at least state your name.” His voice was hoarse and soft, but he showed no sign of weakness.

Contemptuous laughter came from the speakers.

”I’m the director of the Institute of Biopsychology.” The other party’s voice was cold and arrogant: “The current leader of the Pandora project.”

”The current…?” Ge Xiu has basically recovered from the dazedness just now, he narrowed his eyes sligtly, leaned back against the metal wall and said thoughtfully: “It seems that the director I know is in the past…Let me guess, he “retired” after I ran away, right?”

This time, the silence on the other side was slightly longer.

The director grit his teeth viciously and stared at the picture from the monitor screen in front of him. The young man was leaning against the wall calmly, without any superfluous expression on his face, his eyes didn’t even look up once. He didn’t look any different from before, but the sharpness that was out in plain sight before, was now hidden under the peaceful appearance, however it inexplicably gave people a heavier feeling of danger.

The director voice was squeezed out forcibly through the gritted teeth: “…You don’t have amnesia.”

“No.” Unexpectedly, the other just shook his head, “I just regained memories.”

His calmness and composure in front of the great force without even changing his expression seems to have provoked the director, whose mood had been tense for a long period of time. The director’s face twisted in anger and when he spoke again, his voice became sharp and high-pitched:

“Whether you have those memories or not, it’s useless!”

The young man on the screen raised his eyes and looked straight at the camera. Looking at those dark and quiet eyes, the director felt a sense of twisted pleasure, he continued vengefully: “The entire Pandora plan has only one perfect experimental subject and you’re just a superfluous existence that should have been eliminated! Your hostility, aggressiveness… all prove that you’re a failed product in the Pandora plan! The greatest mistake of the previous director was that he hadn’t simply gotten rid of you in time, but mistakenly thought he could get some new results from you… Ha, how is that possible? You are just a defective product! If you didn’t help us wake up the real Pandora, you’d have been executed the day you were arrested!”

He laughed neurotically, “And I won’t make the same mistakes as my predecessor.”

The director raised his eyes and looked at the repair progress displayed on another screen, with an arrogant and complacent expression on his face, “Defective product can only be a defective product… Do you think you can outsmart us?”

“Ever since we found you on the deserted planet, we have known your purpose, this entire facility, including your cell, is designed with the purpose of trapping you in. So what if your spiritual power is restored? Trust me, we’ve improved it a lot since you escaped, in ways you can’t even imagine! You can’t escape.”

“It is true that Pandora woke up for a short while and actually got out of our control for a moment, but in order to prevent accidents, we’ve already placed emergency measures in his training cabin.”

He laughed loudly, “Our researches have already controlled him again and from now on, he can no longer fall into this kind of self-inclined deep sleep again, as long as we want, we can keep him awake his whole life! ——and all of this thanks to your help!”

During the whole monologue, the young man had been listening quietly, only frowning slightly when Pandora was mentioned, and rest of the time his expression was as calm and unpredictable as the ocean, as if what the other was talking about wasn’t his future fate.

Unexpectedly——

”I believe you.” Ge Xiu said.

Behind the screen, director’s face froze, as if he didn’t expect the other party to react like this.

”The Federation’s number one interstellar most wanted criminal suddenly appeared in the deserted planet alone and upon arrest was found to have amnesia… No matter how you think about it, it’s a trap, right?” the young man said slowly.

”Do you know why I didn’t go looking for you directly after I collected my fleet?”

His eyes were dark and deep, like a bottomless abyss:

”After I escaped, you cleaned up all the insiders and staff, destroyed the original place and even used starnet’s power to hide your whereabouts… Your new address is a top secret, information hidden by the power of the entire galaxy. Even I can’t determine your exact location.”

Ge Xiu lowered his eyes and raised his hand to caress the steel wall beside him: “However, materials that can isolate spiritual power is extremely rare.”

The director suddenly had a very ominous premonition in his heart.

There was a sudden violent shaking of the ground and the deafening bombardment could still be heard through the thick soil layer and armor. The lights above the head flickered and buzzed, making overloaded noises and the entire Research Institute reverberated with harsh sirens. In the red light, the presiding judge saw that an unknown ship suddenly appeared very close to the Research Institute, showing on the radar detector that was quiet and empty until now, without any warning, just like a ghost.

——They found a way to evade radar detection!

The director’s eyes were about to fall out of his eye sockets.

However, the bombardment just now had already destroyed the outer grid equipped by the Research Institute, making it impossible to maintain the line of defense.

Even denser dots appeared on the detection screen, each dot representing an enemy ship, and the entire fleet was dispatched in full force, heading here in large numbers!

Inside the prison.

The light above their heads flickered on and off, faint rumbling vibrations came through the thick metal walls, causing the entire cell to tremble.

The speaker had been cut.

There was silence in the small space and no loud noises could be heard, but as the ground and walls shook more and more, one could imagine how fierce the battle outside was.

”Buzz—”

the lights above his head flickered a few times, struggling and fighting against the power outage.

Finally, after the overwhelmed sound of crackling electricity, it went out completely.

All around was pure, thick darkness.

Ge Xiu stood up.

He stood in the darkness, silently counting his steady heartbeats—thump, thump, thump…

After an unknown amount of time, there was a sound that was so sharp that it could almost shatter eardrums and the wall on the side seemed to be torn from the outside.

The young man raised his eyes from the ruins, the huge steel monster in front of him was reflecting in the dark pupils, as the corners of his lips curved lightly and leisurely.

Game over.

·

The young man with gray eyes jumped off the ship hurriedly and ran towards the cell.

The moment he saw Ge Xiu, his eyes lit up: “Captain! Great, you’re fine!”

”Good job, Xiao Yi.” Ge Xiu glanced at him.

Although it was just an understatement of a praise, it made the young man in front of him speechless with excitement: “…Thanks, no… It’s clearly you…”

Ge Xiu raised his eyebrows, turned and walked into the Research Institute: “Let’s go.”

”The dragon has been defeated and the prince is now coming to rescue the sleeping princess.”

In the darkness, the youth’s voice came from afar: “Let’s go, I’ll take you to meet future captain’s wife.”

Xiao Yi: “…???”