Light Barrier - Chapter 2: Answer

“The gate broke. A-009 escaped. I repeat. The gate broke. A-009 escaped.”

On the night of the alarm, some people in Oto City were destined not to be able to sleep soundly.

Wei Shu stared at the dozens of flashing screens in the emergency conference room with a tense expression, crumpling multiple creases in the emergency report clenched in his hand.

Veins bulged on his forehead, and he pressed his fists heavily on the console, unable to understand. “How could the gate break? With so many guards in the prison, how did A-009 escape?

“It’s only been three days since Oto City took over A-009, but there’s already an escape. The emergency report said that the broken gate was due to a network problem with Deep Sea… But why is there a problem with Deep Sea?”

Wei Shu turned his head to look behind him. “Regardless, it has already escaped. Miss Nan Jin, you are the commissioner responsible for escorting A-009, so you should be very clear about the… dangers after this thing escapes, right? We have to detain it again as soon as possible!”

At the entrance of the conference room was a woman with long red hair, wearing a large black trench coat. She had her hands behind her head and was twirling her long hair.

She didn’t respond to Wei Shu but calmly stared at the flashing screens.

Dozens of staff members were each responsible for a screen, and each screen was divided into dozens of sections. All the surveillance footage from the gate to the containment city was pulled up, but no one found anything unusual.

After the alarm of the gate breaking sounded, A-009 seemed to have vanished into thin air. This surveillance network could capture the traces of a mosquito flying, but it couldn’t capture a single strand of A-009’s hair.

Nan Jin slowly twirled her long hair.

Her eyes turned black and lifeless. At the same time, the light emitted by the dozens of screens and hundreds of surveillance footage suddenly slowed down in her eyes.

It was not that A-009 had really disappeared.

It did not have the ability to teleport, but its speed was too fast… So fast that if these ordinary workers didn’t slow down the footage, they wouldn’t be able to catch its movements.

Noticing the change in the light in Nan Jin’s eyes, Wei Shu raised his hand with a solemn expression and gestured for the operators to be quiet and not disturb her observation.

The entire conference room fell silent.

Finally, Nan Jin locked onto a screen, her mind firmly fixed on a shadow on the screen. In the hidden vision beyond everyone’s sight, she saw the ‘truth’—the silhouette of A-009 emerged from the shadows in a swarm of crows. If anyone really saw the woman’s face, they would feel a strong sense of pressure.

Its danger sequence was classified as A.

The woman’s eyes quickly moved from one screen to another while mapping out a winding escape route in her mental map.

While staring, two streams of tears flowed out of her lifeless eyes.

“It last appeared on… Light Rail Line 13. The last section of the train route is very long, so it can’t get off yet.” The woman in the trench coat looked at the time and said softly, “If we take a shortcut, we can stop it at the tunnel exit.”

Wei Shu was already waiting in front of the console. The moment he heard the words Line 13, he immediately called up the surveillance footage of several major roads along the way and slowed them down. Sure enough, he saw the ghost-like shadow. The shadow broke through the gate, escaped, and fled all the way to the suburbs of Oto City.

“You want to stop it alone?” Wei Shu frowned. “Catching a Class A fugitive isn’t a small matter. I suggest you ask Mr. Tree for help.”

“I’ve already sent a message to my teacher. But judging from the current situation, we can’t afford to wait any longer. The A-009 is moving too fast. Once we lose sight of it, we won’t know when we’ll be able to lock onto it again.”

Nan Jin said calmly, “You organize the reinforcements. I’ll buy us some time.”

Wei Shu’s expression was solemn. She was right… It was a rare opportunity they couldn’t easily let go of.

Moreover, it seemed that A-009 was determined to escape from Oto City. After tonight, hunting it down would be like searching for a needle in a haystack.

“Then… take action! As long as you can stop A-009, I will guarantee enough backup!” Wei Shu decided resolutely. At the same time, he felt relieved. Fortunately, it was Line 13… At this time, no one would take this light rail heading toward remote suburbs.

“Wait… What is that?”

“Zoom in. Zoom in again.”

Wei Shu saw a running black dot on the screen.

At the same time, a string of black lines appeared above his head… After the surveillance image was enlarged, he could vaguely see a seventeen-year-old youth running to board the last train before the light rail closed.

Which unlucky fellow was this?

“…” Wei Shu looked at Nan Jin. “Can we still save him?”

The woman in the trench coat was silent.

“Line 13 will go through a long tunnel. He will be with A-009 for at least… twenty minutes.” Nan Jin looked down at her watch and joked dryly, “He should still be warm when I arrive.”

Wei Shu had a complicated expression. He was an insider who had read the files and knew very well what twenty minutes with A-009 meant.

It would already be pretty good if he was still warm by then.

He paid tribute to this young man.

Immediately after, he took a deep breath to compose himself and threw these distracting thoughts to the back of his mind. The most important thing now was to command the following containment work. He was choosing to stake everything on this. There was no way out. They had to contain A-009 tonight to minimize the losses…

“Connect to Deep Sea and activate permissions. I need assistance.” Wei Shu’s voice echoed in the control room.

When he said the words Deep Sea, the responsible operator became solemn. The emergency report submitted stated that the reason for A-009’s escape was a mistake in the operation of Deep Sea.

Wei Shu really couldn’t believe this report.

Deep Sea, this vast network covering and connecting the entire East Continent, had been operating tightly and seamlessly for more than twenty years. Among the countless calculations of past events, it had flawlessly completed all tasks without a single mistake… And this time, he was willing to believe that it was a misreport by the staff. In fact, there were always misreports every year, and they were always confirmed to be human errors later.

The big screen dimmed, and a loading screen of waves sweeping forward and washing away appeared. The loading special effects in the lower right corner were very retro. Upon closer look, you would find that it was a blurry girl made up of pixels running on a beach, stepping on the sand.

Wei Shu tapped his fingers and waited patiently.

Finally, the room lit up, and a clear and pleasant gentle voice sounded in the control room. “Connected to Deep Sea… Serial number V349708069527, I am pleased to serve you.”

…

The lights were dim.

The train was bumpy.

This light rail was like a long snake crashing into the end of the shattered night.

And Gu Shen was in the snake’s stomach. He saw the eyes of the tall lady. They were completely different from ordinary people’s. Two snake-like vertical pupils, slender and long like swords, were emitting red light.

The lady’s voice echoed in the empty carriage of the light rail.

“Yes… Clearly, you touched it.” Gu Shen’s answer came almost immediately. Cold sweat broke out on his forehead, and his voice trembled, but his consciousness was unprecedentedly clear.

She was touching the ruler with one hand and holding the sharp knife with the other.

The tall woman in the formal dress was stunned and seemed slightly disappointed.

She paused for a moment and continued to ask politely, “Then… why?”

In the dim light, Gu Shen stared intently at the old newspaper stained with blood on the woman’s knees. He tried to read the content of the newspaper, but it was too dark to see clearly.

Gu Shen chuckled softly. “Ma’am… Pardon my frankness, but not everything can be perfectly embodied. But when we delve into larger domains, we will only obtain more than we’ve imagined. Between three and four, it already encompasses infinity.”

The red light in the snake-shaped pupils of the tall woman flickered faintly.

She moved her lips and seemed to smile.

Seeing this smile, Gu Shen only felt his blood run cold. He maintained a relatively safe distance and slowly moved forward. The pressure enveloping his heart had yet to dissipate.

He had no doubt that if he had said a wrong sentence or even a single word… it would trigger the condition for this woman to draw her knife.

Therefore, he could only remain quiet and slowly approach the woman under the tranquility of silence.

The newspaper was the only information medium for him to understand the woman. It might be helpful if he could see it.

But the lady only said softly, “Continue.”

“… Pi is an infinite, non-repeating constant, which means it has endless precision. But on a ruler with limited precision, there isn’t a single point that can mark pi,” Gu Shen said, trying to stabilize the other party.

At the same time, he slowly squatted down and looked up at the tall woman in the cramped space. These words seemed to offend her. The smile on the woman’s lips instantly disappeared, and her eyes became as cold as a snake’s.

She gripped the boning knife, and the entire light rail was full of bone-chilling wind.

At this moment, Gu Shen saw the newspaper trembling in the wind and scarlet words… It was a series of numerical symbols and proof formulas.

They looked familiar.

Where had he seen them before?

His brain worked frantically.

Gu Shen recalled the first time he saw this woman. She had been reading the newspaper… looking mesmerized. So that’s how it is.

“But even so, I still firmly believe that we can touch pi between three and four.” Gu Shen looked up, his voice a little hoarse. “Ma’am… As for the reason, we both know, don’t we?

“Alan Turing.”

When Gu Shen said this name, the tall lady’s body clearly trembled.

She stared at Gu Shen in surprise.

Yes, Gu Shen found the ‘answer’… The lady asked him to continue not because she wanted to hear the proof process but because she wanted to seek a common aspiration.

The densely mathematical symbols and proof formulas on the newspaper pointed to the final point, the very object of the tall lady’s reverence, admiration, and fervor in her eyes.

What she wanted to hear was just this name.

Alan Turing.

Very few people knew that the famous figure who had created the Deep Sea Network was also a mathematician. In the field of mathematics, π was within 3 and 4 and could be easily touched.

In the field of physics, π was an imaginary number that did not exist and could not be touched, let alone referred to by a scale.

After this name was spoken…

The cold wind in the light rail suddenly died down.

The flashing lights went out as well.

The lady’s expression softened, and she stretched out a hand, seemingly wanting to help Gu Shen up, but a ruler slipped out of her sleeve. It was the silver ruler she had gestured with earlier.

Gu Shen was stunned and subconsciously reached out to take the ruler.

The next moment…

The two people connected by the ruler separated.

The light rail emerged from the tunnel.

A roaring wind poured down, and the feeling of weightlessness suddenly struck. Clutching the ruler, Gu Shen was thrown uncontrollably and slammed heavily onto the floor.

Boom!

Gu Shen’s expression changed drastically. He heard a muffled sound, as though something heavy had slammed into the light rail car, and a pair of visible footprints appeared above his head.

Thousands of sparks and electric arcs burst out.

Accompanied by an ear-piercing and sharp bang, a long blade pierced diagonally into the iron wall of the carriage and accurately stabbed into the shoulder of the tall woman, nailing the woman to the side of the carriage.

Immediately afterward, a second blade stabbed down from the top of the carriage. The blade rotated like it was cutting paper, and a large piece of iron from the top of the carriage fell off. A red-haired woman in a trench coat landed on the iron sheet.

Nan Jin landed right in front of Gu Shen.

She narrowed her eyes and looked back at the young man sitting on the floor with his arms protecting himself. She reported calmly, “Wei Shu… that unlucky guy is still alive.”

Unlucky. This word isn’t bad. At least it’s appropriate… Gu Shen bared his teeth and hugged the iron railing to stabilize his body. The blow just now was too painful. His butt seemed to have broken into eight pieces.

Now, apart from pain all over, he felt dizzy.

He carefully held the ruler in his arms and hid it inside his  clothes. When this ruler touched him, the unexpected coolness made him exceptionally clear-headed.

The woman in the black dress nailed to the side of the carriage was furious. She stretched out a hand and grabbed the long blade nailed to her body by Nan Jin, wanting to pull it out.

Pfft!

The moment her five fingers touched the saber, the blade burst into flames, and blazing silver light illuminated the entire carriage!

The lady screamed in pain and had to let go of her palm.

The silver blade was burning with blazing flames, but the flames were quickly dimming.

Clearly, their time was limited.

However, Nan Jin did not attack but chose to wait.

She was waiting for Wei Shu’s instructions.

Electric currents crackled.

“Change the battle location and rescue this young man named Gu Shen first.” Wei Shu’s voice sounded, every word emotionless. “Don’t fight A-009 on the train. This is the optimal solution given by Deep Sea.”