"You need help?" Heine's brow raised and he placed his weapon in its sheath. His eyes locked with Shen Bing's.
"Don't look at me like that, I am not a zombie." Shen Bing, inhaled deeply before proceeding with his request.
"I'm sure you heard of the student who piloted the twin engine craft. While infiltrated by a blocker, he piloted the craft and made it to the base."
"Now he is trapped." Heine's voice was flat and emotionless.
Shen Bing smiled a bit helplessly, "Yeah, he was trapped.. but it not by the blocker. He trapped himself."
The words had just left his mouth when Mark burst out laughing, "Huh! That right? What an idiot! He trapped himself!"
"It was because of the orders that I gave him. I told him that the longer the blocker stays in his mind, the more information is left for us to mine. Since he is a student he hasn't been trained to deal with a blocker, so while trying to accommodate my command, he accomplished the task by binding himself away and shutting his mind down to protect himself from the blocker. I imagine that once the Shire hears of his performance they will require that I bring him back to the Shire, with his mind uncompromised. "
"Well, I guess the guy is a type of warrior, though he's an idiot. I should stop laughing at him." Mark shrugged his shoulders seemingly done with the conversation.
He went back to playing a game and then casually added, "Don't tell me, by any chance is this stupid rookie's name Xiao Yan?"
Shen Bing was slightly startled, "you guys, know him?
"Oh shit! It is Xiao Yan! That guys body is so fragile and delicate, but his brain is something else, huh! AH! How could you trap yourself?!" Marks eyes widened as he spoke.
Liv also revealed a worried expression. The other team members stopped what they were doing and looked at Shen Bing.
"So how do you want me to help you?" Heine's voice landed heavily in the room.
"Enter his subconscious and tell him the situation is secure, then guide him out."
At Shen Bing's words, the special forces felt the thorny gaze of Heine intensify and fill the room with a sharpness and oppression that a normal person could not bear to be the recipient of, Shen Bing's complexion was unaltered. His face remained impassive.
"You should know best that I cannot enter another's subconscious ever again.
The space instantly began to tense and Heine's eyes held an oppressive power. The force emanating from them was so powerful it gave everyone in the room as sense of being crushed.
"I...I know how you feel, I feel the same. You understand that I cannot go myself, the neuronal damage is too severe and has compromised my ability to withstand a subconscious projection. But you can."
" I won't help. The subconscious is the dirtiest most malevolent place, filled with nothing but a gathering of evil thoughts. I will never let myself fall into such a place again."
The secretary entered the room, he headed over to Shen Bing and gave Heine a quick and stiff salute.
"Report."
"What is it?"
"An official order arrived from the Shire."
The secretary gingerly offered his display module and opened the tab, holographic images appeared in front of Shen Bing's eyes.
Shen Bing smiled tightly, "As I thought, they want us to wake Xiao Yan."
"This was inevitable. If Xiao is sent back to the Shire for awakening, too much time will have passed. His thoughts will be too disordered and his mind's original foundation will falter. Such damage will greatly reduce his brain's ability to interface with the terminal."
Shen Bing closed his eyes in wretched defeat and stood up. "Open a terminal, I'll connect to him."
"Yes sir"
"Xiao?" Mark let loose a loud whistle, "Hey Boss, that guy survived zombies, and Surge assassins, only to kill himself in the end."
Liv chastised him, "Mark!"
Mark laughed and slapped Liv on the shoulder, "Ah, I say you really like that kid, huh Liv?"
Liv gave Mark a stern look, threw off his hand and approached Heine earnestly begging him.
"Colonel, Xiao saved Maya on a mission we went on together. He is our comrade and hope for the future. I know that you can help him wake up. Colonel Shen Bing is your friend, but you know with his neuronal injuries he simply cannot perform this task. It is simply too dangerous."
Heine stood still, not saying a word.
Shen Bing seated himself in front of the terminal. He closed his eyes and took a deep readying breath. His fingers gripped his armrests so hard that his knuckles whitened.
His secretary immediately noticed his fear.
"Colonel...if you...."
Shen Bing closed his eyes and gave a wry smile, "What? if I don't go, you will?"
The secretary sheepishly lowered his head. "I m sorry colonel. You and Colonel Burton are the only ones on base with a successful retreat in such an operation. I don't think that this task will be too difficult for you."
"You greatly admire me, but now I have to tell you that I am just an ordinary person...an ordinary and weak person."
Shen Bing went silent for a minute then, gathering himself, he lifted the helmet that connected to his brain. As he was about to place it, his wrist was suddenly grabbed.
"I'll do it. "
The voice was flat, void of emotion, but its steadiness instantly made everyone fell at ease.
"Heine!" Shen Bing stared at him in shock.
Heine wrenched him out of his seat and placed the helmet on without a moment's hesitation.
"Heine, Thank you....Be careful." Shen Bing grabbed his hand and clasped it tightly.
"What is his neuronal processing speed?"
Hine was busy looking ahead and the researcher were calibrating the system and modulating the connection.
"300 trillion mega neuro-rate."
Heine raised his eyes to Shen Bings and his lips curled up in a mockingly derisive smile. "Faster than you?"
"Yes. Look if you run into any situation that you cannot control, withdraw immediately. Don't hesitate."
The faster the processing speed, the more complex the person's thinking. They are more adept at constructing deeper dimensions and elaborate architecture within their thoughts; such a construction can be a very dangerous world to dive into.
"Neuro-calibration!"
"(sub)Unconscious connected!"
Suddenly Heine's mind shuttled through 5 light tunnels each gathering darkness until it all collapsed like a dying star.
As he attempted to control the flow of his thoughts, a great burst of light flooded through and he tumbled into a deep azure abyss. He remained vigilant, but found that the atmosphere surrounding him was warm and a current of the blue waves was gently carrying him. Occasionally soft ripples of water flowed over him, filling his ears and soaking his hair; the undulating fluid softly lapping at the strands like a caress.
The water wrapped around him in a soothing embrace. He raised his brow in surprise and continued to dive. He expected the scenery to gather darkness as he delved deeper, he did not expect that the flow of the water would calm further and transform into a glorious world.
As Heine's face emerged from the bottom of the ocean, a vast expanse of greenery lay below him. The ocean was the sky, and a lush forest decorated the ground.
In the mind's architecture, physics and natural law do not apply.
He didn't struggle, he just fell from the sea and his body floated down as though weightless. When he landed softly on the grass he communicated quite coldly, "Are you sure you have sent me to his subconscious mind?"
Shen Bing stood over the equipment, looking at the readings, he nervously replied back. "What's happening Heine? If there are any abnormalities at all, I can pull you out."
"No need."
Heine walked along the greenery and squatted down, his hands touching the blades of grass. As the wind danced across them, the grass seeds fluttered rising upward towards the sea above.
"What are you seeing?".
Shen Bings arms are folded over the other and his hands tighten against his upper arm.
"It is too calm here." Heine turned to look for Xiao Yan's consciousness.
"Calm? Be very careful, the deeper you are, the more trapped you could be."
"I know."
In contrast to Shen Bing's rising hackles, Heine's brow relaxed. He closed his eyes and tipped his head back. He felt the waves from before and a trace of light shine on his face. His ears were serenaded by the song of the wind.
A continuous soft and soothing lullaby of the elements.
"Mhmm...It is quite dangerous here." Heine answered with a light voice.
This was totally different from reality.
Its beauty and tranquility lures one into wanting to stay forever... to fall deeper... forever.
"What's wrong? I'll extract you..."
"No need."
Hai Yan opened his eyes and sharpened his gaze, then continued on.
Finally Heine spotted a large towering tree with vines that were connected to the green field and the ocean above his head.
Xiao Yan is lying at the center of the tree trunk.
Heine's palms move across the tree, beneath the trunk there is a pulsating rhythmic heartbeat.
"Hey rookie, wake up!" Heine palms slam across Xiao Yan's cheeks without mercy.
Suddenly the water suspended in the sky poured down in a deluge. Surging and waves threatened to overturn everything. Hein grabbed onto the tree, nearly washed away by the power. The water formed into a blade and cut into Heine's body. The blood was dragged from his wounds and formed the outline of the Surge symbol.
"Heine! What the hell is going on? I'm going to stop the link, Heine."
Heine clenched his teeth and closed his eyes. As he concentrated, his body slowly lost physical form and melted into the turbulent tide. Just as the ocean was about to calm, the tree trunk was torn by a wave and the bark peeled away. Heine's body appeared in physical form but he can't stop the wave from reaching into the tree trunk where Xiao Yan was asleep.
Just as the water is about to roll into the tree, Heine smashed his head against Xiao Yan's head. The pain startled Xiao Yan awake. After making a murmuring noise, he finally opened his eyes.
Xiao's eyes settle on the blue bottom of the sea and his expression dissolves into a dreamlike stupor.
Heine's glares at Xiao Yan and commands him directly "Stop all of this."
huh...Heine...Burton?
Why is he here?
Xiao Yan looked at him with disinterest and the world gradually calmed. The water pulled back into the sky. The crashing waves and brutal current followed, dragged upward by an unknown force.
Xiao Yan is on Heine's shoulders, the two fall onto the lush grass. the air around is moist and fresh.
"I...where?" Xiao Yan stared with an impossibly blank look at everything in front of him.
He was lying of Heine's chest, his palms on either side of his body. Heine's arms are tightly wrapped around his waist in a firm embrace. The tip of his nose is a mere millimeter from Heine's. He felt Heine's body shift ever so slightly and his nose lightly brushed past his cheek, his breath hot and close.
Like the beginnings of a kiss.
Heine looked at Xiao Yan "We are in you subconscious."
"...What?" Xiao Yan froze.
Underneath him Heine is adjusting his position, Xiao can feel his calf slowly and provocatively rub against his body. His senses heighten and his thoughts scramble at the slight movement.
The ocean overhead immediately bursts into tumultuous waves.
"You trapped yourself in order to accomplish your orders and keep the information from the blocker in your mind. This is how the mind protects itself. However, now that you can't hear anything from outside, you do not know that it is safe. You and your team have already arrived at the Base."
"So...and...the blocker."
"When you landed, Shen Bing ordered allwireless signals to be shielded. Theconnection was terminated and theblocker stopped. "
Heine's voice is steady with no undulation in his cadence. He simply states facts with an even tone asthough they have nothing to do with him. He releases him and stands, then helps up Xiao Yan.
"So now we're going to leave here?"
"Not we. You have to go byyourself."
"I don't know what to do..."