Click.
With a faint, crisp sound, the seemingly seamless box popped open a crack.
No warning, no slow, holy light spilling out like in fairy tales when a treasure chest opens.
It was a light.
A malicious, cold light that did not obey the laws of physics.
It wasn't so much emitting light as it was so kind of 'essence' exposed after darkness was forcibly torn apart.
Inside the box lay an uncut, rough gemstone. Its surface was a nauseating dark red, yet inside, thick, iridescent light swirled like rcury.
Pavel's pupils contracted sharply.
But before her optic nerve could transmit the 'danger' signal to her brain, that light, like a hunting viper, followed her line of sight and stabbed viciously into her eyeball.
"Huh—?!"
The sound caught in her throat, turning into a broken gasp.
Her world collapsed in that instant.
Not into visual darkness, but into sensory overload.
If the pain from the earlier spinal probe removal felt like soone was sucking out her marrow, then now, it was as if ten thousand rusted hooks had latched onto her cerebral cortex and were yanking in all directions at once.
BOOM—!!!
Pavel felt her head explode.
This was not a taphor.
She truly felt her skull being pried open, and countless filthy, viscous, rust-slling things being forcibly poured inside.
-【Kill! Kill them all!】-
-【Mom... so cold... my leg... where's my leg...】-
-【For the Emperor! For... cough... blood... so much blood...】-
-【No... don't shoot... I surrender...】-
-【Burn these Usar bastards!】-
Innurable voices.
Hundreds? Thousands?
No, it was tens of thousands of dead people screaming, roaring, weeping, and begging for rcy inside her head all at once.
Each voice ca with the most vivid sensory experience of their final monts.
Pavel felt her throat slit by a bayonet, scalding {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} bloody foam choking her windpipe;
The next second, she felt her lower body blown apart by a shell, her intestines spilling onto the ground, cold wind rushing into her abdominal cavity;
Imdiately after ca the burning sensation of lungs corroded by poison gas, the bursting feeling of bones crushed by tank treads, the charred stench of skin carbonized by a flathrower.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaah—!!!"
Pavel finally let out a scream.
It was an inhuman, piercing shriek, like a wounded beast's last struggle before death.
Her hands, which had been bracing against the floor, convulsed violently. Her whole body jackknifed like a live shrimp thrown into boiling oil, then slamd heavily back onto the ground.
Her thin fra thrashed and rolled wildly across the floor.
She clutched her head with both hands, nails digging deep into her scalp, scratching bloody grooves, as if trying to dig out the non-existent intruder from her brain.
"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Shut the fuck up!!!"
Pavel cursed hysterically, but her faint voice was instantly drowned out by the psychic storm in her mind.
It hurt.
So loud.
Her brain felt like it was about to boil over.
Her consciousness began to blur. The boundaries of her self-perception were being scoured and eroded by countless foreign mory fragnts.
She felt herself becoming that frozen-to-death recruit, becoming that blown-apart veteran, becoming that Victoriana officer crying for his mother.
Who am I?
I am Pavel...
No, I am Hans... I am Ivan... I am...
Wrong! I'm fucking Pavel!!
Die! Just fucking die!
--【Warning: High-level ntal contamination detected】--
--【Attempting to initiate ergency protocol...】--
--【Loading... 1%...】--
A cold, chanical voice abruptly rang out amidst the chaotic symphony of the dead.
But Pavel couldn't hear it at all.
Or rather, her current ntal state was as frenzied as a rabid dog. Anything attempting to enter her consciousness, be it the dead or sothing else, would be indiscriminately torn apart by her.
"Get out! This is my body! This is my brain!!"
Pavel slamd her head against the floor.
Thud!
A dull impact.
Her forehead split instantly, blood flowing down and saring over her eyes.
The pain brought a sliver of clarity.
This physical pain, compared to the soul-rending agony in her mind, felt like a gentle caress.
--【Alert: host ntal state extrely unstable】--
--【Forced intervention failed】--
--【Attempting to restart ergency protocol...】--
--【Reloading... 1%...】--
--【Strong rejection reaction detected. Load failed】--
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Like a madwoman, she slamd her head against the hard concrete and tal floor again and again.
Only intense pain could confirm her existence.
Only blood could help her distinguish reality from hallucination.
--【Attempting to restart ergency protocol...】--
--【Reloading... 1%...】--
--【Strong rejection reaction detected. Load failed】--
...
For Pavel,
ti seed to lose all aning.
Maybe a minute passed. Maybe a century.
The voices in her mind gradually grew distant. The pain of those final monts still lingered, but it was no longer as vividly, maddeningly fresh as before.
But they had been suppressed.
Forcibly suppressed into the deepest recesses of her consciousness by Pavel's own tenacious, dark, and vicious survival instinct, as stubborn as a cockroach's.
"Huff... huff... huff..."
Pavel lay face-down on the floor, her body still twitching occasionally from the aftermath.
She looked utterly wretched.
Her forehead was a bloody ss. Blood trickled down the bridge of her nose into her mouth, carrying the taste of rust.
The bandages covering her body had torn open again. Her wounds had ripped from the violent struggle, fresh blood mixing with the previous engine oil and gri, making her look like a malevolent spirit that had crawled out of a garbage dump.
Her short silver hair was plastered to her scalp with cold sweat and blood. Her once-pretty eyes were bloodshot, pupils unfocused yet gleaming with a frightening ferocity.
She stared at the box that had rolled not far away.
That damned, glowing piece of junk that had nearly caused her brain death.
The gemstone inside had dimd, now looking like a worthless piece of junk rock.
"Ha..."
A short, sharp laugh was squeezed from Pavel's throat.
Then.
"Ha... haha... hahahahaha!"
The laughter grew louder, sharper.
She was laughing.
Laughing like a complete lunatic.
Her body shook violently with the laughter, tugging at all her wounds, making her grimace in pain, but she couldn't stop.
"That was... fucking... intense..."
"If I ever fucking touch Victoriana black tech again without thinking, I'm a goddamn son of a bitch."
...
--【Protocol initiation failed】--
--【Suspended. Switching to silent observation mode】--
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