661: How Do You—

How Do You—

Lu Yizhou had no idea why his heart skipped a beat when he heard Dr. Feng say that. Anticipation, thrill and a hint of anxiety swelled in his heart in equal measure. Not only that, he even felt mildly nauseous.0

Suppressing the turbulent emotions, he trailed behind the other, entered the building and was immediately greeted by a lively voice of a female receptionist. "Good morning. May I help—" Her eyes rounded in shock when they landed on Lu Yizhou, it was as if she had seen a ghost. Then she shot a few meaningful glances at Dr. Feng, obviously flabbergasted at the blonde-haired young man's abrupt appearance.

"It's okay," Dr. Feng waved his hand in dismissal. "It's me who decided to bring him here."

Lu Yizhou shot him a speechless look. What did he mean by that? Was the female receptionist under some sort of preconception that Lu Yizhou was the one who threatened Dr. Feng to bring him here? 

"Oh!" The woman heaved an obvious sigh of relief and proceeded to offer Lu Yizhou a big smile. "I have heard a lot about you, Mr. Lu. Welcome to our research institute! Here, we are focused on– oh, well, you will be able to hear it soon from Dr. Feng himself…" She intended to explain their scope of jobs to Lu Yizhou only to catch a glimpse of Dr. Feng's obvious displeasure. Almost immediately, she clamped her mouth shut and her entire person wilted like a wet radish.

Dr. Feng did not linger for long in the lobby. He raised the terminal on his wrist — a new one, Lu Yizhou noticed — and brought it to the scanner beside the elevator. Immediately afterward, a familiar mechanical voice sounded.

[Current time 7.18 am. Welcome back, Admin God, to the research institute. The documents you asked for have been sent to your terminal. Please check it and tell me if there is any problem.]

Lu Yizhou's eyes widened and for a brief second, he thought he had returned to the simulator. It was the exact same emotionless voice as the one who had always reported the completion of each mission to him!

"Okay, thank you," Dr. Feng replied lightly. He turned to see Lu Yizhou's stunned look, then decided to explain out of goodwill. "The whole building's security is based on AI created by me. If it doesn't recognize you, then the alarm in the whole building will be turned on at once. I am sure you know this voice very well already. This is the same main system as the simulator."

[Scanning the new visitor…]

[Beep. Scan completed.]

[Mr. Lu Yizhou, welcome to the research institute. As of now, your status is a 'visitor'. You will need an authorized personnel to guide you around this place. If you still intend to come back in the future, then I will issue a visitor card to your terminal. Do you want to proceed?]

Lu Yizhou had no idea what to answer, so he could only turn to Dr. Feng.

"It's fine," the head administrator gave a series of commands. "Directly raise his level of security to level three. He will be a part of this research institute from now on. Give him access to the SSS patient's room too."

[Very well. Mr. Lu Yizhou's security level has been upgraded into level three. Your status as a 'visitor' is no longer valid. Welcome to the research institute, Mr. Lu. I am very happy to have you here.]

This was the first time Lu Yizhou had been exposed to the existence of another system aside from 666. It was a stark contrast to a certain noisy, clumsy and crybaby system. As he expected, this was how a sophisticated and brilliant system was supposed to be. Very professional and meticulous.

Lu Yizhou asked Dr. Feng with a hesitant look, "...SSS? Are you talking about… him?"

Dr. Feng gestured for him to enter the elevator first and hence, they stepped in one after another. Only when the elevator started to ascend did Dr. Feng clear his doubts. "It is indeed Zachary. Even in this place, I strive to keep his identity as discreetly as possible. There are less than five people in this world who have access to his room, and they are all medical personnel who are responsible for doing a regular check-up on his health. One needs to get my permission in order to see him, so you can be rest assured."

Lu Yizhou swallowed once, then he finally asked the answer which had been plaguing him for a while. "...How long has he been in a coma?"

Dr. Feng cast him a furtive glance. "It's been almost three years now."

"Three years…" Lu Yizhou's heart sank to the pit of his stomach. Three years… it certainly was not a short time. "Exactly what has happened to him?"

The elevator door slid open in front of them and the mechanical voice sounded again. [You have arrived at the seventh floor. Up ahead is the room for SSS patient. Currently, there is only Dr. Xiao on duty. She has been informed of your arrival.]

As soon as the system's sentence formed in the air, a series of footsteps came from afar and a middle-aged woman appeared at the end of the hallway and spotted them. She had a mask on her face, yet it could not hide the obvious smile on her crescent jovial eyes. She tugged the mask down to reveal a bright grin and waved at them. "Head Administrator! I see you have finally brought him here."

Dr. Feng chuckled wryly. "If I didn't, perhaps you would find him sneaking into this place sometime in the near future." 

That indeed sounded like something Lu Yizhou would do. He did not comment and merely shot Dr. Feng a speechless look. "You haven't answered my question," he reminded the other.

The corner of Dr. Feng's lips twitched. His face contorted for a split second as if he wanted to get angry, but in the end, he merely heaved out a sigh. "What a coincidence. Dr. Xiao has been Zachary's attending doctor even before he went into a coma. You will be able to get more information from her."

The joyous atmosphere was immediately dampened once Zeke's condition was mentioned. Even Dr. Xiao's bright smile faded slightly to be replaced with a slight furrow. Lu Yizhou could not help the surge of unease weaving into his heart. Why did they react like this? Exactly what was wrong with Zeke?

"Come on," Dr. Xiao beckoned for them and then took the lead to walk in front.

The entire floor had been transformed into Zeke's hospital room so it was completely empty save for the three of them. With each step he took closer to Zeke's room, Lu Yizhou found himself growing even more nervous, he could even feel a layer of sweat forming on his palm. This feeling… it should be the same as when he waited for Oliver to give birth to their daughter. After that, Lu Yizhou had never experienced such anxiety for the second time. He took a deep breath to compose himself. 

Calm down, Lu Yizhou, why are you so nervous?

Because you will be meeting him for the first time, a voice inside him whispered in a matter-of-fact tone. It will not be a meeting in the simulator where you are only connected through brainwaves. This time, it is for real.

Dr. Xiao brought them into a large room similar to a laboratory. There were a few hologram screens floating atop of the rectangular table, displaying a body diagram as well as numerous data of vital condition. A large cabinet took the space of an entire wall, filled with jars in various sizes and test tubes which Lu Yizhou had often seen in Zhao Bolin's private laboratory. And finally… on another side of the cabinet was a glass window.

Lu Yizhou sucked in a sharp breath.

He could see his lover there, slumbering inside of a glowing cabin with detectors linked to his body. It was the exact same scene he had seen every single day on his terminal for the past week. 

Now, the distance between them was less than twenty meters, yet for some reason, Lu Yizhou still felt as if there was a huge rift separating them, one that was almost impossible to cross…

Lu Yizhou pursed his lips and repressed the urge to go directly to the monitoring window so he could take in every line and edge of his lover's features and commit them to memory. Oh how Lu Yizhou wished to go to him but... there would be time for that later. Right now though, he needed to hear everything about his lover.

He turned to Dr. Xiao, silently inquiring.

Dr. Xiao summoned a hologram keyboard in front of her and typed something on it. The floating screen above the table started to shift to display a complicated diagram of someone's brain. Lu Yizhou stiffened as realization dawned on him. He had seen this diagram before. 

It was… very similar to the one 666 had retrieved from the recycle bin. One that recorded his lover's brain activity data. He still remembered vividly that there was a bright red word 'failure' scrawled at the end of the document. 

And also, that glimpse of memory he had seen in Izher's mind…

Amidst the silent space, Lu Yizhou's voice echoed softly, sounding hollow and flat even to his own ears, "Is he not… a real human?"

Dr. Feng and Dr. Xiao's reaction was immediate. Both of them instantly whipped their heads to stare at him, shock and disbelief etched on their faces in capital letters.

"You…" Dr. Feng's voice cracked in the end. "How do you—"

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