747: Please Be Safe!

Please Be Safe!

It had been five days, yet Luan had not received any answer from Dr. Feng. Let alone an answer, the man did not even come looking for him!  2

Luan had no idea how many times he had stopped himself from confronting the man right away. He told himself that he should be patient, that he should give Dr. Feng all the time and space he needed. 

Still, this overwhelming dread and anxiety was killing him slowly. He felt like he was stewed in a pot of bubbling and sizzling magma. It was suffocating and he could not breathe properly. And before he knew it, all of the flesh on his body had melted away, leaving only charred bones that would soon turn to ash. It did not hurt – or to be exact, he had gotten so used to it that it had become a kind of itching numbness. 

When all was said and done, he had presented his core – the most personal and intimate part of him, the part which held all of his unspoken feelings, nurtured by years of silent affection and love. It would be an utter lie if he said that he did not hope; hope that at least… he would be able to move the man's heart. 

The first day, he was utterly distraught with thrill, hope and anticipation. 

Second and third day, a sliver of doubt began to linger in his mind. What if Dr. Feng was only dragging the time because he did not know how to reject him? What if everything was only his wishful thinking and Dr. Feng was not actually moved at all? What if it was really impossible between them?

Fourth day, he could not even function properly. It was fortunate that all of the system's operation was carried out automatically or else the research institute would be down due to countless errors by now. Constantly worrying, constantly fearing, it was utterly unbearable. He even thought that it was better to snuff out any hope sooner than to hang him like this.

And finally, today was the fifth day…

Luan could not endure it anymore and secretly snuck a glance at Dr. Feng's office to see what the man was up to.

And there he was, working as usual. Luan greedily took in the man's silhouette because he had not seen him since the day he handed his core over. And God… he missed him terribly, so much that he was going crazy over it. As he soothed his intense longing by gazing at the man from afar, an indescribable sadness arose in his heart as well.

How could he still work at a time like this? How could he continue to act as if… as if nothing happened at all? 

Luan had always admired and supported how passionate Dr. Feng was in his career. But now, for the first time ever, he felt… resentment. 

Is your work much more important than I am? Luan wondered sadly. But then, he realized that he, too, was also included in one of Dr. Feng's 'work'. 

That one fact slapped him so hard that all he could feel was numbness. A bone deep, icy numbness that seemed to dull all of his senses.

He looked at Dr. Feng one last time and decided to shut himself down. Luan had never done this before since he gained awareness. Shutting himself down meant that his perception of the outside world would be blocked. His sight, smell, hearing, touch… everything. It was literally equal to being in a coma where he only floated amidst the boundless sea of nothingness. But he thought that it was way better than going through each passing second in agony. So he did that. He shut himself down and only allowed the Head Administrator to reach him.

At least, he would be able to gain a little peace this way.

Luan had no idea how long he remained in this comatose state until one day, he sensed an energy fluctuation in his space. His brow furrowed and despite having blocked all his five senses, his subconsciousness still relayed information to the surface of his brain.

—Someone had touched Cyrus' core memory.

He had locked Cyrus' main source code earlier because he did not want Dr. Feng to know about their relationship. And it was not until he surrendered his own core that Cyrus' got unlocked as well. However, nothing had happened so far. He had almost forgotten about this matter too if not for this. The fact that someone had breached Cyrus' core right now, the only one who could do this was…

…Dr. Feng!

Luan instantly snapped his eyes open and reactivated himself. 

In an instant, a huge surge of new data poured over like a towering tsunami, engulfing him in a glittering sea of stars. He nimbly swam through them like a fish in water until he got to Dr. Feng's office. 

He had no idea what date it was today, nor did he know why he was in such a hurry. Luan reckoned that it must be what humans called 'sixth sense'. And right now, his sixth sense was telling him to get to Dr. Feng. As quickly as possible!

He settled into his android body in Dr. Feng's office, and the first thing that welcomed his sight was the familiar office layout. But the person he was looking for was not here.

Still a tad disoriented, Luan checked the date and was shocked when he discovered that it had been six days since he shut himself down. Or in other words, eleven days since Dr. Feng asked him to wait. The time showed that it was noon. He had learned Dr. Feng's schedule by heart and knew that the man was supposed to be working in his office at this hour. Luan assumed that he must be going to Dr. Xiao or Lu Yizhou for something, and hence he opted to wait anxiously inside the office. 

…So what was up with the energy fluctuation he felt earlier?

Was it really Dr. Feng who had touched Cyrus' core memory? For what?

Luan's throat bobbed as he swallowed, his mechanical heart beating so fast inside his chest that he was getting dizzy. There was a voice inside him whispering that something was amiss, that he should go and find Dr. Feng as soon as possible, but before he could even take a step out, someone opened the door and stepped in.

"Huh?" It was a researcher whom Luan had seen countless times before. He was one of the Head Administrator's most capable people. Upon seeing Luan standing frozen in the office, he was stunned before carefully asking, "You are… umm, Luan? Is that right?"

Luan briskly walked forward and took hold of the man's shoulders. He did not even realize how tense he was until his hoarse voice sounded, "... Where is he."

"H–He…?" The researcher was taken aback for a split second. Fortunately, his brain worked fast and he soon understood whom Luan was talking about. "Ah, you mean Head Administrator Feng? He said that he will be unavailable for the next two days. Didn't he tell you?"

Luan froze. Dr. Feng would not even be absent from work even if he was sick. The dread coiling around his neck became tighter and tighter, and an imperceptible tremble was detected in his voice. "Why… Why would he be unavailable?"

The researcher realized that something was off with Luan's reaction and told him the truth, thinking that the man had an urgent business with Head Administrator Feng.

As soon as he heard what was going on, Luan's mind buzzed and his entire system felt like it was falling apart. One second he was still standing in the office, and the next second, he already took off running. He ignored the flabbergasted calls behind and rushed down the hallway at the fastest speed. The wind whistled past his ears, and his mechanical joints creaked loudly from the exertion, yet he could hear nothing but his thundering heartbeat and the words the researcher had told him.

Memory Integration.

Dr. Feng was currently going through Memory Integration. Even though the researcher did not know the full details, Luan could guess it – no, he was certain of it. The person whose memory Dr. Feng was going to assimilate with was none other than… Cyrus!

How… How could he do this?! Didn't he know what kind of high risk he was taking? Did he not know what kind of complications might arise from it?! 

Dr. Feng was not a machine. He was a human, and human's brain was the most complex and fragile organ that commanded the entire body. Assimilating two people's memories meant that he would be messing with his own nerves. He would be stuffing a new set of memory into his brain which could only accomodate one, then forced the overworked organ to rapidly adjust to it. 

If… If the slightest error occurred during the process, then there was a huge possibility that he would end up not being able to differentiate between fantasy and reality. He would develop a double personality and thought that he was two different people living in one body. Not only that, he might lose his intelligence, his ability to move and speak, or worst, he… he might even lose his life!!

Luan gritted his teeth, forewent the elevator in lieu of climbing the emergency stairs straight to the highest floor where Zachary's medical room used to be. He did not even pay attention when he bumped into other people and got yelled angrily for it, too focused on the path in front of him. Too focused to get to where the very core of his heart was.

Please… Please be safe! If something happens to you, I… I will…

Stop! Luan shook his head to empty his mind and forced himself to stop going down that line of thought, otherwise… he would really break down right there and then!

He slammed open the emergency door and charged straight toward the monitor room. He did not even have the chance to see who was inside when he hollered in sheer dread and terror,

"Stop! Terminate the progress… NOW!!"

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