Thrive in Catastrophe Chapter 26

Chapter 26 Subconscious

"You need help," Heine raised his brows and looked at Shen Bing from the corner of his eyes, sheathing the blade in his hands.

"Hey, don't look at me like that, I'm not a zombie." Shen Bing drew a deep breath and began explaining, "You probably heard about the cadet that piloted the dual-engine system and has successfully flown back to the base under the infiltration of the Interruptor."

"So, he got trapped."

Shen Bing gave an exasperated smile, "Yeah, he got trapped, not by the Interrupter, but by himself."

Mark, who was playing on his phone by the side burst into laughter after hearing what he said, "You're kidding, right? What kind of idiot is that to get trapped by himself!"

"Because I ordered him to keep the Interrupter in his brain as long as possible in order to obtain as much data left in his brain, and he did it, leaving a perfect strand of information in his mind. He had never received training on fending off Interrupter, which is why he completed this mission by shutting everything off to block off the enemy and trapped himself at the same time. I believe Charles will know of this cadet's excellence very soon and will be ordering me to send him back to Charles, with conscious."

"Alright, so that fella is a hero in some ways, though still an idiot. I'll try my best not to mock him then," Mark shrugged blatantly and continued his game. Suddenly, he popped up a sentence without much thinking, "Don’t tell me, that idiot is a rookie called Xiao Yan."

Shen Bing paused for a second, "You guys…… know him?"

"Ha? So it really is Xiao Yan! That fella looks so frail and weak but it seems that he's a smarty pant! How did he got himself trapped!" Mark widen his eyes in surprise.

Reeve had a worried frown on her face while the other teammates stopped what they were doing and stared at Shen Bing.

"How do you want me to help?" Heine voiced out at last.

"Enter his subconscious, tell him everything is fine now and lead his main conscious out of his subconscious level."

After his words, all the soldiers in the room were throwing daggers at him with their glare but Shen Bing just shrugged them off with no pressure.

"You should know, I will not enter anyone else's subconscious ever again."

At that instant, he felt an overwhelming sense of oppression as Heine looked deep into his eyes.

"I-… We've been through that incident together, I can fully understand your feelings, and I'm certain that you know the reason why I refuse to do it myself. My mental had received great damage after that mission, I can no longer bear the subconscious projection. However, I know you can."

"I won't help you. The human subconscious is the darkest and filthiest place in the world, the nest of all malevolence. I will let myself plunged into a place like that again."

Right after as he said that, the secretarial officer came into the room and saluted to Shen Bing and Heine.

"Colonel!"

"What is it?"

"It's a message for you from Charles."

The secretarial officer gave a light tap and a holographic screen appeared before Shen Bing.

"As figured, they want me to wake Xiao Yan up," Shen Bing smiled with a frown.

"This is inevitable. It takes too long to escort Xiao Yan back to Charles for conscious recovery. His mind would have been too messed up and the once constructed data structure collapse and that will highly affect his brain power and speed in terminal connection in future," the secretarial officer replied.

"Shen Bing closed his eyes for a moment, and stood up in resolution, "Activate the terminal, I'll connect to his brain."

"Roger!"

"Xiao Yan, huh?" Mark whistled, "Boss——that fella survived from zombies and the Tides killers, but ended up killing himself because of his own idiocy!"

"Mark!" Reeve glowered.

Mark laughed out loud and gave Reeve a sudden smack on her back, "Say, Reeve, you're not into that little fella now, are ya?"

Reeve rolled her eyes at Mark and slap away his hand. She walked towards Heine and pleaded earnestly, "Colonel…… Xiao Yan has been on missions with us, and he had saved Maya life, he's our comrade, I hope you could help him. And Colonel Shen Bing is a friend of Colonel's as well, and he's been through a mental trauma…… if he were to enter Xiao Yan's subconscious… it'll be quite risky."

Heine remained silent.

Shen Bing sat in front of the terminal and took a deep breath, his eyes closed. His fingers clutched onto the chair until his knuckles turned white.

Only then the secretarial officer knows, that Shen Bing is terrified.

"Colonel…… If you……"

Shen Bing gave him a wryly smile, "Are you going to do it instead?"

The secretarial officer lowered his head, "I'm sorry, Colonel. You and Colonel Burton were the only ones that successfully retreated from that mission, I… I've never thought that that mission had brought such great harm to both of you."

"You've always looked up to me, but I have to tell you, I'm no one special. Just a cowardly and ordinary man."

With that said, Shen Bing raised the terminal helm at above his head but a hand stopped him.

"I'll do it."

The voice sounded cold and emotionless, but it set one's mind at ease.

"Heine!" Shen Bing eyes widened.

Heine pulled him off the seat and placed the helm on his head without hesitance.

"Heine……" Shen Bing clutched his hand, "Thank you, and… be careful."

"What's the processing speed his brain?" Heine asked as the researchers modulate the system.

"Three trillion megahertz."

Heine's eyes met Shen Bing's and his lips upturn into a callous smile, "Faster than you?"

"Yes…… So if you faced any situation out of your control, retreat immediately, don't linger!"

The faster the brain processing speed a person has shown that the more complicated his or her mind is and is capable of constructing deeper mental levels, thus making an even more dangerous task to infiltrate the brain.

"Neurons calibrated!"

"Subconscious connected!"

In an instant, Heine's vision was traveling through a pa.s.sageway and into a black hole.

Just as he tried to control his mind flow to regain his direction, a sudden bright light appeared before him and he then cascaded through the brightness and into a sea of blueness. He remained vigilant, only to notice that the pool of liquid he submerged in was warm and enveloped him gently. The water current caressed his hair, across his ears like a tease a harmless embrace.

Heine frowned and decided to dive deeper. Oddly, his surrounding did not turn dark was he dive deeper, instead, a tint of light shimmer through the water, the current was strangely calm and serene.

In the next second, Heine's face plunged through the barrier of water when he reached the sea bottom, only to see a vast gra.s.sland presented before him.

All principles of nature no longer exist in the inner world of Xiao Yan.

Heine left the sea of water without effort, his body became as light as feather. The moment his feet touches the gra.s.s, Heine questioned in puzzlement, "Are you sure you've sent me into his subconscious?"

Shen Bing, who was standing by the machine, began to panic.

"Heine, what happened? If there's anything unusual, I'll draw you back immediately!"

"There's no need."

Heine started walking across the wide meadow. He crouched down on one knee, his finger graze upon the thin gra.s.s that swayed gently in the breeze. The dandelion seeds danced with the wind, scattering apart, flying towards the blue ocean hovering above.

"What can you see?"

Shen Bing folded his arms clutching his hand with tense subconsciously.

"It's awfully peaceful," Heine looked around, searching for the host in Xiao Yan's conscious.

"Peaceful? You have to stay alert, the more peaceful a subconscious is, the higher possibility of it to be a trap!"

"Hmn."

In the contrary of Shen Bing anxiousness, the frown on Heine's face disappeared and replaced with tranquil. He lifted his head with his eyes closed, feeling the ray that pours through the ocean above him, leaving shadows of ripples across his face. A soft sound gra.s.s blowing in the wind sounded by his eyes, like a soothing lullaby.

"Yes…… it is dangerous here," Heine replied softly.

This place is dangerously soothing and tranquil, a peaceful place that could make one be submerged in it willingly.

"What's wrong? I'll draw y-"

"Nothing’s wrong." Heine's eyes snapped open, his gaze sharpens and continue forward.

At last, he saw a lone, gigantic tree, blossoming in the middle of the vast gra.s.sland, with vines entangling across its branches, forming a bridge between the meadow and the ocean above.

And Xiao Yan, is lying within the tree hollow.

Heine placed his palm on the trunk and felt pulses similar to the veins and heart of human beneath.

"Rookie, wake up!" Heine gave a good slap on Xiao Yan's cheek.

At the same time, something unexpected happened.

The ocean hovering above as sky came pouring down like a tsunami, with the strength and ferociousness that could destroy everything.

Heine holds on to the trunk before he gets washed away by the waves. The once harmless ripples turned into blades, slicing across Heine's body. Blood seeped through his wounds, forming the shapes of ripples.

"Heine! What's going on? Do you need me to cut you off?! Heine!"

Teeth gritted, Heine closed his eyes tried to focus. Gradually, his body went transparent and blended into the waves.

Just as the ocean was calming down, there was a snap at the trunk as a tide crashed onto it, tearing it in half layer by layer. Heine's body appeared once again. He dashed towards the tree and pulled Xiao Yan out.

Before the waves rise again, Heine banged his forehead hard on Xiao Yan's.

Xiao Yan let out a low moan from the immense pain and finally opened his eyes.

And the moment his eyes open, his gaze met the blue abyss of Heine's, the cloudiness from his slumber still remain in his eyes.

Heine glowered at Xiao Yan and mouthed to him, "Stop all of these!"

Heine…… Burton?

Why is he here?

Xiao Yan stared at him blankly. The tumbling waves eventually quiet down, and the water flows back into the sky as though it was drawn back by an invisible force.

Heine pressed onto Xiao Yan's shoulders as both of them plopped onto the gra.s.s. The smell of moist and freshness lingers in the air.

"Where…… am I?" Xiao Yan was befuddled.

Then he realised he was sprawled on top of Heine's chest, his palm supporting by Heine's sides, whereas Heine arm wrapped around his waist.

Noticing his nose was only less than an inch away from Heine's, Xiao Yan turned away instinctively. He felt Heine's nose brushed across his cheek, his breath tingling his lips, like the premonition of a kiss.

Heine glanced at Xiao Yan coldly, "You're subconscious."

"……What?" Xiao Yan was dumbfounded.

Heine tried to shift around the position they are in, and while he was moving, Xiao Yan could feel his leg brushed across his body. At the time, the ocean hovering above went raving for a moment when his mind wavered at the touch.

"You trapped yourself when you tried to stain the Interrupter's data in your brain. This is a self-defense action of your brain. And you're currently not receiving any information aside from your brain, hence, you have no idea that you're safe now. Your teammates are safe, so are you."

"Then…… what about the Interrupter?"

"Shen Bing has severed all wireless connection the moment you entered the base. The Interrupter's infiltration to your brain halted then."

Heine's spoke with a toneless voice, as though he is stating a fact that he has no concern for.

He let go of Xiao Yan and stood up briskly before dragging the latter up.

"So how do we get out of here?"

"Not 'we', just you."

"But I don't know how……"

Written by Jiao Tang Dong Gua Translated by Winly 風夜林 ~~~ Chapter 27 I’m Addicted To You ~~~

Notes: Hi guys! Sorry for the wait XD. An important notice for all of you! Next chapter onwards I’ll be adding a pa.s.sword to the post, and I’ll reveal the pa.s.sword by the end of each previous chapter, so keep an eye on it! Anyway, I bet you've probably noticed…… that I'm really bad in summarising…… (I didn't score well on my summary test, tbh) I'll figure out a way to do better summarising in next chapter (actually, that may take more time… nvm, I'll figure things out.) I believe most of your prefer this though, sadly, can't do this for long until I get the license. And speaking of that, I'll be asking for a contract from them soon (hopefully). Nevertheless, just enjoy the story for now =) 

Next week we'll be selling artworks at Hin Bus depot again, if any of you lives or are visiting Penang, feel free to drop by! ^_^

Author's note:

Xiao Yan: I thought there will be some OOXX if it was Colonel who enter my brain……

Plump Melon: OOXX in real life would be much more satisfying, isn't it?
~~~

A little support? ^.^