readsfreenovel Chapter 460 Threat
Chapter 460 Threat
Chu Ziyu stood in the shadow of the side door of the auditorium, his fingers unconsciously rubbing the edge of the paper cup in his hand. The ice water passed through the thin wall of the cup to his fingertips, forming a delicate balance with the cold sweat on his palms.
"Host, the ceremony will begin in seven minutes." The mechanical voice of 001 sounded in my brain, "Failure of the mission will trigger a secondary electric shock."
On the other side of his mind, 6872's electronic voice was filled with obvious anxiety: "I just scanned the core code of 001 again. Its mission module is indeed damaged, but the punishment module is intact. What's worse is-"
"It is linked to the stability of the world." Chu Ziyu answered calmly in his heart, his eyes passing through the crowd and locked on the thin back of the first row. Lin Ci'an was looking down at the speech manuscript, his fine bangs hanging down, casting a small shadow on his face under the illumination of the ceiling light in the auditorium.
In the first act of his memory, he saw Lin Ci'an lying in a pool of blood under such light. The hatred in the boy's eyes at that time was more painful than any electric shock from the system.
"That's right." 6872's voice became serious. "If you fail three missions in a row, not only will you receive a level three electric shock, but the stability of this small world will also drop by 5%."
Chu Ziyu's fingertips tightened around the rim of the cup. A 5% fluctuation was enough to repeat the tragedy of the first episode - the school building collapsed, the flames engulfed the orphanage, and Lin Ci'an dragged everyone to his death with him in a state of 100% blackening value.
"I have a plan." He raised his eyes and noticed that Lin Ci'an suddenly turned his head to look towards the side door. Their eyes met briefly across the noisy auditorium. At that moment, Chu Ziyu was almost sure that he saw a familiar and creepy arc on the corner of Lin Ci'an's lips - the same weird smile as in the death scene in the first round.
"Student Chu?" The senior from the Student Union patted his shoulder. "It's your turn. After the freshman representative's speech, it's your piano solo."
Chu Ziyu retracted his gaze, shifted the paper cup to his left hand, and pressed the metal pen in his suit pocket with his right hand. It was a simple electromagnetic device he had just modified, with a coil wrapped around the pen body and two button batteries hidden in the pen cap.
"Host!" 6872 suddenly screamed, "Lin Ci'an's darkening value is soaring! It was 65% just now, and now-"
Chu Ziyu had already strode towards the stage. His leather shoes made a regular sound on the teak floor, which formed a strange coincidence with the increasingly rapid heartbeat in his chest. When he sat down in front of the piano, he saw Lin Ci'an looking up at him from the corner of his eye, with emotions that he couldn't understand surging in his black and white eyes.
"Please enjoy Chopin's Nocturne, performed by Chu Ziyu from the Department of Physics."
Amid the applause, Chu Ziyu placed the paper cup on the edge of the piano cover. His fingers hovered above the black and white keys, and he took a deep breath before dropping them. As the melody flowed, he quickly calculated in his mind: the straight-line distance between the paper cup and Lin Ci'an's seat was 4.2 meters, the height difference of the water surface was 1.5 meters, and considering the air resistance -
"The mission countdown is three minutes." 001's voice pierced into his thoughts.
The piano sound suddenly became faster. Chu Ziyu deliberately played a wrong note in the variation, and his right hand "accidentally" knocked over the paper cup. With a cry of surprise, he quickly pressed the switch of the electromagnetic device in his pocket.
The water drew a parabola in the air, but at the moment when it was about to hit Lin Ci'an, it strangely changed its trajectory - the water flow seemed to be pushed away by an invisible hand, brushing against Lin Ci'an's shoulders and falling to the ground, splashing only a few drops of water on the edge of the speech.
The auditorium was in an uproar. Chu Ziyu stood up in a panic to apologize, but when he bent down, he saw Lin Ci'an stroking the wet pages with his fingertips, with a faint smile on his lips.
"Mission... completed." 001 hesitated for a few seconds, "Completion rate 70%, slight penalty."
A slight pain shot up his spine, but Chu Ziyu breathed a sigh of relief.