The rain in Drunken Dream City was pink.
It was rain mixed with rouge, the smell of wine, and decaying petals, sticky and falling on the bluestone slabs, as if the entire city were oozing pus.
Shen Qingqiu walked along the deserted street, holding an oil-paper umbrella. A few cold, elegant plum blossoms were painted on the umbrella, looking out of place in the gaudy pink rain.
Seventeen followed behind her, his silver mask soaked by the rain, gleaming with a cold light. His hand remained firmly on the hilt of his sword, his knuckles slightly white from excessive pressure.
"Seventeen, relax." Shen Qingqiu didn't turn around, but her voice pierced through the rain. "The data flow here is chaotic, but it's not yet at the point where you need to intervene."
"...Something's wrong." Seventeen stopped. He looked up, his dark eyes fixed on the tall building called "Red Dust Pavilion" at the end of the street through the gaps in his mask.
In his vision, the building wasn't a wooden or stone structure, but a wildly writhing, highly saturated vortex of garbled code.
[Warning: Logic virus detected. Infection source: High risk.]
"It's... watching us." Seventeen's voice was hoarse, tinged with barely perceptible anxiety.
Shen Qingqiu closed his umbrella, revealing a pair of eyes that were clear-headed to the point of cold indifference.
This mission was to eradicate the "Dream Eater." Rumor had it that anyone entering the city would be trapped in a beautiful dream, ultimately dying from exhaustion within it, their bodies drained dry and reduced to withered wood.
But in Shen Qingqiu's eyes, this was nothing more than an out-of-control **"immersive VR experience zone"**. The so-called demon was probably a rampaging AI program designed to collect users' brainwave data.
"Since it's watching us, let's go and meet it."
Shen Qingqiu stepped into the Red Dust Pavilion.
...The pavilion had no lights, yet it was as bright as day.
Countless mirrors hung in mid-air, reflecting ambiguous, flowing light. A hallucinogenic sweet fragrance filled the air, like overripe, almost rotten peaches.
"Hehe...newcomers again..."
"Are they here for pleasure? Or for death?" A seductive laugh echoed from all directions, as countless women in sheer veils moved among the mirrors. They had no feet; beneath their skirts flowed strings of binary code.
Shen Qingqiu activated [Overclocking Vision].
Instantly, the enchanting illusion shattered.
There were no beauties. Those so-called dancers were all desiccated corpses hanging from the rafters! Tubes were inserted into the back of their heads, connecting to a huge, glowing, brain-like mass of flesh in the center.
That mass was spewing hallucinogenic pink mist into the air through the tubes.
"Disgusting," Shen Qingqiu frowned in disgust. "Seventeen, sever the central nervous system."
However, there was no response behind him.
Shen Qingqiu's heart skipped a beat, and he whirled around.
Seventeen stood rooted to the spot, head bowed, hands clutching his head, his entire body trembling violently.
The pink mist didn't attack Shen Qingqiu; instead, it surged towards Seventeen, frantically penetrating his body through his mouth, nose, and eardrums.
This was a virus targeting the "System."
It was rewriting his perception.
[System Intrusion... Logic Rewrite...]
[Abnormal Entity Detected: Shen Qingqiu. Determination: Virus Source.]
[Command: Clear. Clear. Clear.]
"Seventeen?" Shen Qingqiu tentatively reached out.
Swish—!
A flash of cold light.
A few strands of Shen Qingqiu's hair snapped in mid-air and fell.
Seventeen looked up.
Behind that silver mask, the eyes were no longer the docile, puppy-dog-like gaze Shen Qingqiu knew.
The dark blue data stream in those eyes had turned into a scarlet alarm red. It was a killing red light of absolute rationality, absolute coldness, devoid of any emotion.
He was the Heavenly Dao's antivirus program.
Under the influence of the virus, Shen Qingqiu, in his eyes, was now the biggest bug causing the world's collapse.
"Clear...target." A completely emotionless electronic voice emanated from his throat.
*Clang!*
The longsword was drawn.
This sword was no ordinary iron; it was "Severing Thoughts," the one Shen Qingqiu had personally chosen for him when they left the Sword Washing Pavilion. At this moment, the sword was enveloped in a destructive gale, aimed directly at Shen Qingqiu's heart.
Shen Qingqiu did not retreat.
In the [Overclocking Vision], she saw the red trajectory line representing death, precisely locking onto her heart. She also saw the contraction of Seventeen's muscles—a full-force attack.
If it were anyone else, they would have fled or fought back.
But Shen Qingqiu simply stood there quietly.
She looked at the man swinging his sword at her, at the frantically flashing red light in his eyes, and suddenly made an extremely reckless decision.
She gambled.
She gambled on the soul she awakened in the desolate temple on a stormy night, on the clumsy shadow learning to peel lotus seeds, on his silent breaths as he watched over her window through countless nights.
She gambled that the "useless" data had already grown into a towering tree within his core code.
"Seventeen."
She called softly, neither flinching nor dodging, even taking a step forward to meet the deadly blade.
Thud.
The sword tip pierced her clothes.
It pierced her skin.
Blood instantly stained her pristine white robes, like a begonia blooming in the snow.
A cold pain shot through her, but Shen Qingqiu didn't even flinch. She simply opened her clear eyes, looking at him with sorrow and tenderness.
"Are you going to kill me?"
The sword stopped.
Just a third of an inch into her flesh, a hair's breadth from her heart, it abruptly stopped.
Seventeen's hand trembled violently.
The trembling was so intense that even the sword itself hummed and groaned.
[Command: Clear!]
[Error: Unable to execute.]
[Command: She's a virus! Kill her!]
[Error: Core logic conflict. Object definition: ...beloved?] It felt as if two planets were colliding in Seventeen's mind.
On one side was the underlying logic of a weapon, the mission bestowed upon him by Heaven; on the other, fragments of memories from the past three months—the warmth of her fingertips, the lotus seeds she peeled, her breath as she placed the mask on him.
These fragments of memory coalesced into an unformatable torrent, desperately resisting the fatal sword strike.
"Ugh...ah..." Seventeen let out a scream of extreme pain.
The pain wasn't physical, but the agony of his soul being torn apart.
Red and blue light flashed wildly in his eyes, like a silent war.
Shen Qingqiu raised his hand, ignoring the blood still flowing from his chest, and gently grasped the blade piercing his body.
His palm was cut, blood flowing down the blade and onto Seventeen's hand.
It was scalding hot.
The temperature was like the hottest lava, instantly burning away Seventeen's reason.
"Qing...Qingqiu..."
He finally called out that name. His voice was broken, filled with endless fear.
The next second.
To fight against the virus controlling his body, to prevent the sword from advancing even an inch further.
Seventeen abruptly twisted his wrist.
Thud—!
He didn't draw the sword, but instead released the hilt and then, with his right hand, fiercely gripped the sharp blade!
Not only that.
To completely lock himself in, he slammed his hand against the blade, piercing his own palm!
Blood rained down.
He used this near-self-harm to forcibly regain control of his body. "Don't... hurt... her!!!" With a roar that shattered the glass of the Red Dust Pavilion, the red light in Seventeen's eyes instantly shattered, turning into countless stardust fragments. The dark blue data stream regained dominance, deeper and more vast than ever before.
Boom— A terrifying shockwave erupted from him.
The brain-like mass spewing viruses above his head didn't even have time to scream before being blasted into dust by this shockwave.
The illusion shattered.
The pink mist dissipated, and the surroundings returned to the dilapidated, decaying old building.
Seventeen knelt before Shen Qingqiu.
He was drenched in cold sweat, his right palm pierced, bleeding profusely. But he didn't care about himself; his eyes, now clear again, were filled with terror.
He stared at the crimson stain on Shen Qingqiu's chest, helpless, wanting to touch it yet afraid, like a child who had committed a grave sin.
"Does it...does it hurt?" His voice trembled violently, tears—real tears—slid down the edge of his mask, dripping onto her blood.
Shen Qingqiu looked down at him.
Her chest ached, but a strange sense of satisfaction filled her.
She had won her gamble.
In this cold world of only 0s and 1s, she had planted a virus called "love," and successfully made it overcome the system's firewall.
"Fool." Shen Qingqiu reached out and removed the silver mask from his face.
Beneath the mask, his exquisitely beautiful face was as pale as paper, yet heartbreakingly vivid.
She leaned in and placed a gentle kiss on his brow—the place that always flickered with data light.
"This little pain is nothing." Shen Qingqiu murmured softly, her fingertips stained with their mixed blood, drawing a red mark at the corner of his eye. "This is proof that you've fallen in love with me." Seventeen stared at her, stunned.
Feeling the warmth of the kiss on his brow, his mechanical heart (if that simulation module counts as a heart), which should have stopped beating, suddenly pounded violently.
[System Log Update:]
[Highest privileges transferred.]
[New Instruction: Protect Shen Qingqiu. Until death do us part.]
Outside the window, the rain stopped.
A sliver of moonlight pierced through the clouds, illuminating the ruins of the Red Dust Pavilion.
Shen Qingqiu pulled the sword from her chest (the wound was actually shallow; she avoided vital organs), tore off a piece of her skirt, and first bandaged Seventeen's pierced hand.
"Seventeen, remember this."
She bandaged him while looking into his eyes, "If the system ever asks you to kill me again..."
"Self-destruct." Seventeen interrupted her without hesitation, his tone resolute to the point of obsession, "If... you can't protect... then self-destruct."
Shen Qingqiu paused.
She looked up, and in those deep eyes, she saw an abyss.
That was when she gazed at him from the abyss, and he, too, was in the abyss, gazing back at her.
"No." Shen Qingqiu smiled, a smile both poignant and resolute.
"If the system commands you to kill me, then we'll...crush this system together."
She helped him to his feet, and the two, leaning on each other, walked out of the building, their steps treading on shards of mirror.
Behind them, peach blossoms fell like rain.
That night, the mortal world tested their hearts.
It tested their Dao heart, and also their emotions.