The metallic stench of blood still hung heavy in the arena. I counted the survivors—less than a hundred and fifty remained. The girl in the baseball cap crouched in the corner, cradling a glowing blue rose that had now swelled to the size of a basketball. Its petals flickered with patterns resembling cell phone signal bars.
"That move you pulled was insane," I said, sidling up to her. "How'd you even think to use a 'Linguistic Cage' to crack the problem?"
She tugged her cap lower. "My grandpa was a literature teacher. He always said, 'Every word is alive…'" Before she could finish, her eyes widened, and she screamed at something behind me.
那个医生——那个应了的医生——正在从沙地上爬出来.她的白色外套被发光的紫色液体浸透,手术刀刺穿她胸口的地方现在是一个透明的玻璃腔,里面有一个无尽的沙漏在旋转.
"我是林小冉,"她说,擦了擦脸上的血,然后掏出一包半空的彩虹色糖果."想要一些吗?比吗啡更好的止痛药.
还没等我反应过来,整个体育馆就剧烈地颤抖起来.天空裂开,一场支离破碎的记忆风暴倾泻而下.一块碎片擦过我的耳朵,我听到了秦始皇皇帝的怒吼:"在东海找到长生不老药——现在!
"看看地面!"棒球帽喊道.
沙子已经变成了透明的玻璃,不同时代的战争在玻璃下被冻结在时间中.在我脚下,二战坦克无声无息地滚动.在我的左边,消灭恐龙的流星雨如雨点般落下,动画暂停.在我的右边,未来派机器人与激光剑发生冲突.
"欢迎来到文明的回声,"红衣女孩说,她不知怎么地换了衣服——她的 JK 制服换成了野兽皮裙子,她的权杖换成了火花电击枪."自由探索时间.只是不要碰任何发光的东西.
她刚说话,一个纹身的男人就伸手去拿玻璃下的恐龙化石.当他的手指接触到的那一刻,他的身体缩成了一个三岁的孩子,在地上哀嚎.
林小冉抓住了我的手臂."你的额头——它在发光!"
我摸了摸自己灼热的眉毛,把手机当作镜子.我的右眼已经变成了一个钟面,它的秒针逆时针疯狂地旋转.通过这个怪诞的镜头,我看到每个人头顶的深红色数字都在变化:棒球帽还剩 89 天.林小冉的读 ERROR.那个干瘪的男人变成了蹒跚学步的孩子?十分钟.
"下来!"林小冉抓住了我,我们站着的地面爆炸了.一个穿着皮草大衣的女人盘旋在上方,她的手指伸长成钢刀."如果我吃了你,我就有更多的时间,对吧?"
我向她扔了一块石头,但她把它切到了半空中.然后棒球帽的量子上升喷发,它的花瓣变成了带刺的铁丝网,困住了这个女人."检查她的计时器!"
我眯着眼睛通过右眼,看到这个女人的倒计时从 3 天飙升到 30 岁.她的刀刃缩回,她跪倒在地,茫然不知所措."什么...我在做什么?
那个红衣女孩骑着机械霸王龙经过,向我扔了一个指南针."不错,死神之眼先生."
警报响起.天空中的裂缝放大了,一只巨大的青铜眼睛出现,瞳孔紧紧地盯着我.当我的视野穿越时空时,痛苦烙印着我的右眼——三千年前,在商朝的祭坛上,一位长得和我一模一样的僧侣将一枚衔尾蛇硬币扔进了火焰中...
"动!"林小冉把我拽到一边,一朵食肉花在我站的地方发芽了.棒球帽将她的玫瑰卡在地上,它膨胀成一个保护性圆顶."我是萧羽.进来!
屏障外,一片混乱.那个穿着毛皮的女人长出了翅膀.这个蹒跚学步的男人现在骑着霸王龙,追逐着那个红女孩.最糟糕的是,玻璃下的历史场景正在爬出.
"那是...兵马俑?萧煜指着从秦朝战场出现的泥兵,他们的弓箭噼啪作响,散发着蓝色的能量.
林小冉掏出一块怀表."我可以将时间冻结三秒钟.准备好了吗?
We sprinted after the compass's glow, passing more horrors: a man drilling into fossils with arm-mounted augers, a hanfu-clad girl summoning a fire-breathing kaiju with brushstrokes.
"Light ahead!" Xiao Yu pointed at a pyramid-shaped structure. We barely made it inside before the doors sealed, trapping our pursuers outside.
The interior was a labyrinth of screens broadcasting history's turning points: Hiroshima 1945, UFO sightings in 1999, a lab leak in 2023—then, abruptly, they all switched to the dimensional collapse I'd witnessed in the subway.
Lin Xiaoran gasped. "Look." In a corner stood a bronze vat, its liquid preserving a clone of me. The label read: Shang Dynasty Test Subject #7.
The compass suddenly levitated, its needle forming an arrow pointing upward. We climbed to the roof, where an altar held three ouroboros coins.
Xiao Yu reached for them—and the pyramid inverted. We plummeted into an aquarium-like chamber, its waters teeming with fish sporting human faces. The red girl's voice echoed: "Three sacred coins buy one question~"
Lin Xiaoran clutched her chest. The hourglass in her glass heart was nearly empty. "I'm out of time…"
The water erupted. Seven figures in gas masks sped toward us on jet skis. "Hand over Death's Eye!" their leader barked through a megaphone.
Xiao Yu's rose morphed into a cannon. My right eye revealed their timers: all negative numbers. Lin Xiaoran scattered her candies across the water, each exploding into colored smoke. We dove, finding a luminous tunnel below…
(End of Chapter)