Chapter 8: Resurrection

Pitter-patter!

The light rain continued to fall. In a sprawling mountain of refuse extending for dozens of miles on the outskirts of the city, a hazy mist permeated the air, painting everything in a vast, desolate white. The ground of the trash mountain was piled high with mottled plastics, where exposed discarded circuit boards, rotting textiles, and abandoned home appliances could be seen everywhere.

Rustle!

Two hunched, ragged figures with disheveled hair bent over, rummaging through a pile of black plastic bags in search of anything usable. They paid no heed to the rain, continuing their search unabated. The bags were tightly sealed, requiring a fair amount of effort to tear open. Inside, they found charred or overcooked bits of flesh, viscera, and bones, all mingled with blackened soil and emanating a pungent, acrid smell of gunpowder. Judging by the identifiable remains, these were fragments of human corpses—the victims pulverized in the harbor incident. The explosion had been so violent that these remnants lacked even the value of being repurposed as biological organs, leaving them to be discarded like common trash.

The two scavengers shook their heads in disappointment and prepared to leave.

"Hey, look at that!" one of them suddenly pointed to the left, his voice trembling.

His companion looked up and saw that, amidst the pile of black plastic, several pieces of flesh were stacking themselves like a bunker, assembling into a mangled, half-human monster that slowly began to stand. The sight made the two scavengers’ skin crawl.

"M-monster!"
"The monster’s back to eat people!"

They turned and ran, tripping over themselves in their panic. Too terrified to stand, they scrambled away on all fours.

The semi-human creature crawled toward a nearby black plastic bag and pierced it with a sharp, protruding bone. Several pieces of flesh inside wiggled out and attached themselves to the creature. After several repetitions, it gradually assembled into a rough human shape. Its head was reduced to little more than a base, with only a trace of charred residue left of the brain. The body was pitted and shattered, devoid of any intact skin; the blood had long since drained away, the internal organs were mere scraps, and the limbs were fractured, creating a truly horrific and ghastly appearance.

Then, a bizarre force, defying the laws of conservation of matter, began to repair the body. From the bones to the internal organs, nerves, and blood—even the grime attached to the surface was ignored in its original state and converted into raw material for the youth's restoration.

Seconds later, an unscathed sixteen-year-old boy stood in place. Rain washed over his body, trickling down his skin.

"The last of my true soul points are completely depleted, but thankfully, the clone was successfully repaired," the boy muttered to himself.

The reason this clone had been in such a wretched state was that, at the final moment last night, Ruoye had controlled it to curl up and shield the main body, absorbing the vast majority of the explosive force. That was why the main body had suffered only minor injuries.

"Come to think of it, I haven't properly felt what it's like to be in the clone..."

Ruoye moved the clone’s limbs a few times. The motion was fluid, without a hint of lag or resistance, feeling exactly like his own body. However, the moment his consciousness withdrew, the clone would revert to a lifeless corpse.

"So this is a living puppet under my own control?" A realization dawned on Ruoye.

Though the clone appeared human, deep down at the microscopic level, its essence was an empty shell—much like a mask. After testing it, she suddenly remembered something and activated the peculiar power within her.

Hum!

Three silver threads emerged around her, dancing and circling, each roughly three meters long. Ruoye felt as if these threads were extensions of her own arms, controllable with a mere thought.

"This is the magic I acquired, called: Eight-Eyed Gold-Devouring Spider!" Ruoye read the information about "magic" from the clone’s brain.

After she had controlled the clone to devour that strange silver spider last night, memories regarding the "Magical Girl" had automatically surfaced in the clone's mind. At the time, the situation had been too urgent for them to ponder the origin of these events. Now, having calmed down to reflect, a chill crept up Ruoye's spine.

"If the other party can directly implant information into the clone's brain, does that mean they could also implant other things? Like a personality, memories..."

The thought weighed heavily on Ruoye. She felt increasingly grateful that she had not signed a contract.

"Still, for now, I need the power of a Magical Girl."

Her main body was at the academy, still a powerless young girl. Currently, all the power she could rely on was this clone.

"Hmm, has the rain stopped?" Ruoye noticed the weather had cleared, and the dark clouds were dissipating.

"Time to get out of here."

She identified the direction of the city and left the area quickly, grabbing a wet shirt and shorts along the way to cover herself. She pushed forward with all her might. Because of the contract signed last night, this clone's physical capabilities had reached the absolute human limit. A hundred-meter dash took only about ten seconds, comparable to a professional athlete. If she utilized magic, she could go even faster.

Ruoye let herself run freely along the road. In her previous life, she had been sickly, spending nearly her entire decade-plus of life in a hospital bed. In this life, having finally obtained a healthy body—no, two healthy bodies—she naturally had to compensate herself.

The clouds had cleared, leaving the firmament looking refreshed, vast, and pristine. It was dusk, and perhaps because the sky had just cleared, the brilliant red sunset glow spread across the land like a gentle veil, devoid of its usual sharpness. The sky was clear and high, vast and boundless, with faint stars reflecting upon it, magnificent and ethereal.

"The moon of this world is actually shattered," Ruoye remarked, looking up at the sky while running.

She saw that the southern side of the cratered moon was missing about a tenth of its mass, revealing a massive, shocking hole visible even from the ground. Above this crater floated a dense field of debris, forming a lingering cluster of asteroids.

"And that place, what is that?"

Ruoye looked toward the southern sky. In the vast, endless horizon, a straight, thin line extended from the ground to the very edge of the firmament. Ruoye did not doubt for a second that this line reached into outer space. She searched the clone's memories and was astonished to learn that this line was something akin to a space elevator from her previous world, and one that didn't even require being on the equator. She was even more surprised to discover that there were ten such structures in this world.

She did not continue searching. The clone's memories spanned sixteen years; there was too much. Only when she had a corresponding thought would the relevant memory emerge. If nothing surfaced, it meant that information did not exist in the clone's memory.

"The technology of this world is indeed more advanced than my previous life..." Ruoye sighed inwardly.

As time passed and the sky grew dim, she finally reached the city limits. She had no idea how long she had been running, but she guessed it was at least a marathon. Now, she felt a burning pain in her muscles, drenched in sweat and gasping for breath. Once her breathing steadied, she entered the city.

What met her eyes were streets of a modern city, yet even more advanced than what the youth remembered. The cars on the streets were full of futuristic style, featuring sleek, streamlined designs with no visible wheels from the side. However, not all cars were of this advanced style; there were also vehicles similar in shape to those from her previous life. The streetlights were also highly advanced, resembling perfect arcs. Many of the young people on the road were wearing devices like VR glasses...

"Right, I still don't know the identity of this clone." Ruoye began to search the clone's identity memories.

Gradually, her expression turned strange.

...

Central City.

In a mysterious facility, ribbon-like programs orbited a sphere of light as massive amounts of data flowed across it, ever-changing.

"Beep! Detected sub-program #338763172, connection re-established after 817,202 seconds of disconnection..."

"Beep! Connection request approved... Connection successful, initiating sub-unit diagnostic..."

"Beep! Abnormal parameters detected in sub-unit, parameter type F1003, attempting to repair abnormal parameters... Repair failed."

"Beep! Uploading error log... Upload complete."

"Beep! Error log queued for processing... Estimated wait time: 536,112,271 seconds."

"Beep! Executing substitute program during waiting period... Magical Girl sub-unit #338763172, replacing Magical Girl sub-unit #338763161, responsible for the maintenance of area NSS177."