"So you an, as long as I die, you and Chira 17 can die at any ti, right?" Sun Hang suddenly caught a hint of sothing unsaid in Anna's words.
"It's not death... Death doesn't apply to us." Anna gently corrected, "It should be referred to as extinction or erasure... For us, death is just an experience, not a conclusion... The reason she uses the term 'death' is to help Mom better understand the ssage she wants to convey."
"Since that's the case, Chira 17 wants dead, if I die you'll die too, but you don't want to die, so you and Chira 17 are adversaries, right? Why won't you help ?" Sun Hang questioned, "Could it be, you're waiting for those three monkeys to step in?"
"I never said I wouldn't help Mom... It's just..." Anna paused for a mont, using a tempting tone, "Mom, don't you want to know... those things you've forgotten?"
"?!"
"I just asked Mom if you've ever heard a saying." Anna continued, "That saying is—beneath the surface of madness, often hides the truest emotions."
"...What do you an?" Sun Hang instinctively held his breath, shattering a massive chunk of alien flesh floating towards him with a casual gesture.
"In this seemingly insane, abstract, unreasonable world, what Mom seeks to uncover often lies hidden." Anna said, "Moreover, this approach allows for bypassing so 'rules' to a certain extent."
"The current chaos... does it hold the mories of my past?" Sun Hang imdiately activated bullet ti, imprinting everything within his sight into his mind, using the power of wishful thinking to swiftly process this information.
"Of course... In her state of madness, she'll reveal her hatred towards Mom completely." Anna said, "As for why she hates you this way... That's naturally part of the things I can't bring up to you, Mom."
"But I can't find anything." Sun Hang frowned, "I've thoroughly sorted through the information in this world, without finding anything valuable."
"Everything?" Anna asked with a smile.
Sun Hang paused, he suddenly raised his head, looking towards the abyss, which had switched positions with the sky unknown how many tis.
"Seems like sothing important was missed." Sun Hang took a deep breath, small arcs of electricity crackling around him, and in the next mont, his body shot straight towards the abyss suspended in the sky like a cannonball.
Since Anna said he wouldn't die, he might as well go all out recklessly.
After all, if things go awry, those three monkeys will co to bail him out... Sun Hang thought.
In an instant, his vision was engulfed by darkness.
...
The temperature within the abyss wasn't extre; in fact, it was at a comfortably pleasant level for the human body.
He vaguely felt the wind sweeping across his skin, carrying a faint salty sll.
Sun Hang opened his eyes.
He found himself standing in an old neighborhood.
This was a "normal" world; at least everything he currently saw and felt did not exceed the limits of common understanding.
But for so reason, Sun Hang always felt this world was very "old," like a yellowed old photograph.
His heart suddenly skipped a beat.
Feeling old... Does that an he ca to the right place?
Sun Hang examined the buildings around him; they were very similar to the old neighborhood where he eradicated the Tai Sui cult, but Sun Hang could confirm this wasn't that neighborhood.
Not only did the architectural layout differ completely, but the completion level here was also much higher than that nearly two-thirds finished neighborhood that left behind concrete fraworks.
The primary reason why Sun Hang felt similar about the two places might be because the architectural era of these two neighborhoods was very close.
Back then, cars and color TVs were still luxury items, and air conditioner outdoor units didn't hang on the outside of residential buildings. Stainless steel staircases exposed outdoors were adorned with slightly outdated decorative engravings in modern eyes, with rust marks climbing from the ground floor all the way to the rooftop along welded steel tubes.
Common household garbage was piled in the dumpsters at the unit door, and clothes not fully dried hung on drying racks outside balconies. A "Twenty-eight" bicycle was locked with a thick chain at the theft-proof iron gate on the first floor, a seat cushion made of red corduroy covering the saddle.
This atmosphere made Sun Hang feel as though he was transported back three or four decades... Which left him wondering, should he not have been born then?
Or rather, his current body hadn't been born yet.
The place was full of life, with leftovers from yesterday's als even in the trash bins... Giving a feeling as though a group of people genuinely lived here.
Yet Sun Hang could not sense any human presence here.
Not even animals were present... Perhaps the only life in this world was the trees and flowers planted in flower beds, and moss growing in corners.
Dust-ridden spider webs adorned the stairwell ceilings, yet no spiders or flies captured in webs could be seen. The sunset painted a golden sky divided into innurable grids of varying sizes by electric wires, yet no bird could be seen flying through those grids.
Despite the world being full of smoke and fire, Sun Hang even slled the aroma of cured ats hung on kitchen windows by ground-floor residents, but after searching everywhere, he couldn't find any trace of living creatures.
It was as if, overnight, all animals, including humans, had evaporated from this world.
"Where is this place?" Sun Hang asked.
"I can't say." Anna whispered in Sun Hang's ear, "Mom must discover it yourself... And even if Mom finds sothing, it's safest to pretend nothing was found."
Sun Hang circled around a residential building, finally settling his gaze on the sign at the entrance.
"Spring Breeze Garden Block 6, Unit 1."
Below these characters was a line of smaller text, displaying a postal code Sun Hang had never seen, alongside an address he had never heard of.
"Innovation Road, Xiangyangli 153."
Sun Hang was familiar with Innovation Road, but unsure if this Innovation Road was the one he knew.
There were two Innovation Roads in Tianfu City, and if considering all cities within the federation, there'd likely be dozens of Innovation Roads...
As for the na Xiangyangli, Sun Hang was unfamiliar with it.
At least as far as he rembered, Tianfu City did not have a place called Xiangyangli.
But it couldn't be ruled out as a change due to city planning over decades, renaming certain districts, or outright rging into other zones... Determining his location based solely on a street na was quite a challenge for Sun Hang.
He even "flipped through" his mories associated with Tai Sui cult mbers stored in his mind... But he also couldn't find a place called Xiangyangli in their mories.
"Could this place now be within the Surrendered Area?" Sun Hang boldly guessed.
Anna stayed silent.
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