Chapter 80#

Gears of Fate 22#

The moment the words fell, a cluster of dazzling flames suddenly ignited at the center of the three-meter-tall heavy machinery, burning so intensely that it became nearly pure white. This temperature could easily melt most metals into molten iron, much less human flesh.

Confirming it was coming for him, Yu Feichen thought—he’d only been lying here a moment. How did he become waste? Next second, he looked at the mechanical dummies busily working around him and felt he truly deserved to be called industrial garbage and destroyed.

By then, the machine had slowly approached. A series of mechanical grinding sounds erupted from all directions. One machine moved, but its movement was backed by countless auxiliary component transmissions. At its center, a cannon-like apparatus slowly rotated, directing the flame’s core toward Yu Feichen.

Yu Feichen rose and descended. The machine didn’t chase him but stood stationary, seemingly reconfirming the waste’s location. After moving through mechanical gaps briefly, he snatched a cleaning rag from a mechanical dummy’s hands and found a spot to begin pretending to wipe machines back and forth. The dummy whose tool he’d stolen didn’t notice, still mechanically wiping.

Through the gaps, Yu Feichen stared unblinkingly at the “recycling station,” watching it stand still for a moment. The flames gradually extinguished. It retraced its original path back to its original position, like a fighter jet that lost its target and could only return.

Yu Feichen recalled what happened. One condition for being treated as waste was prolonged stillness. So by what sign did the recycling station judge a mechanical dummy wasn’t moving?

—Most likely gravity. One couldn’t remain stationary in the same place too long.

After figuring it out, Yu Feichen deliberately lingered motionless in several places. Sure enough, exceeding three minutes without movement brought the recycling station’s attack. After leading the recycling machine around the machinery group several times like playing with a dog, he gradually developed more dangerous ideas.

He removed his badge and placed it in a secure spot, then walked toward open space on the gear floor. If a gravity sensing system existed, the fortress should detect something here.

This time, as the waste recycling station came burning fiercely toward him, the voice said: “Beginning garbage disposal.”

With the badge, one was a mechanical dummy—work meant survival. Without work, one was waste. Without carrying the badge, the fortress didn’t recognize you—equivalent to garbage. Yu Feichen quickly retrieved his badge to save his life. As the recycling station recovered, he rapidly moved between gears, arriving at the station’s parking position.

He’d expected to find charging apparatus or a sensing core here, but instead found a dark tunnel slanting downward. Did this thing not only slide horizontally on this level but also move vertically through the fortress?

Yu Feichen’s brow furrowed slightly. He set his badge aside and found a winch to leverage himself upward to the ceiling. The advantage of a mechanical world was having steel components everywhere to climb on. He easily suspended himself from above in a rather elegant manner, looking down at the recycling station.

As expected, it sensed the garbage’s presence, moving on the ground. When it reached the position directly below him, it stopped. The cannon pointed straight up toward him but remained silent—it needed sufficient proximity.

Just as Yu Feichen thought he’d found a recycling station weakness, watching quietly, its components reorganized. Support rods slowly extended from its base, lifting the flame’s position upward!

—The fortress’s determination to clean garbage was remarkably firm.

The recycling station’s body drew closer and closer. Searing heat swept toward him. He looked at the surrounding gear floor, calculating the optimal landing position and method.

At this moment, hidden among the mechanical sounds his ears could detect came another different sound. Yu Feichen became alert, closed his eyes and listened for three seconds, then suddenly looked toward the black tunnel he’d noticed earlier. The sound came from there.

Just as he looked that way, five slender fingers emerged and gripped the tunnel’s edge.

The next second, a light golden head poked out from the tunnel.

—It was Anphiel.

Yu Feichen: “…”

He was watching from above, and happened to be focusing on the tunnel entrance. He could confirm that at the moment Anphiel saw this place, he was completely stunned.

Not mentally—physically. Billions of cogs at different heights, different rotation speeds, different diameters, directly bombarded that fragile brain.

Sure enough, in almost the moment of stunning himself, Anphiel quickly closed his eyes.

A series of movements completed in extremely short time. Encountering gears, Anphiel was like a panicked animal emerging from a rabbit hole.

However, Yu Feichen calculated the angle between them and recalled the tunnel’s slant. He saw Anphiel at a glance. And Anphiel, emerging from the tunnel, raising his head to look at surroundings for the first time would precisely see him.

Sure enough, seconds later, Anphiel’s eyelashes trembled. With difficulty, he opened his increasingly glazed eyes and met Yu Feichen’s gaze.

Yu Feichen’s expression remained unchanged. With his eyes, he indicated the recycling station’s flame cannon almost reaching his face. In the mere dozen seconds his attention was diverted by Anphiel, he’d entered flame range and missed the optimal escape window.

Anphiel slightly furrowed his brows. Under overwhelming dizziness, his peripheral vision caught Yu Feichen’s badge on a nearby gear. In that instant, he understood the situation. He climbed from the tunnel entrance, gripped the badge in his hand, then raised his head again: “I’ll throw it to you.”

Anphiel’s face was ghastly pale, his body trembling, his eyes heavy with mist. Anyone could see what effort he expended resisting the pressure from the gears, and how difficult precise throwing would be in this state. But Yu Feichen didn’t speak. He neither agreed nor refused, just stared directly—until Anphiel raised his hand and threw the badge toward him.

The brass gear traced a brilliant arc through the air. Anphiel’s throw was accurate. Yu Feichen caught it without fumbling.

The recycling station lost its target, remained still for a moment, then slowly returned to its original state. Yu Feichen remained on the ceiling, slowly closing the badge in his hand.

Just now, acquiring his badge meant Anphiel held his life. Bai Song was right about one thing—he lacked trust in anything outside himself. He didn’t truly believe others’ claims, sometimes didn’t even trust his own thoughts. He only believed in what he saw. Theoretically, he trusted Anphiel, but required Anphiel to recklessly risk fainting to throw him the badge before feeling satisfied.

Though whether this satisfaction came from seeing Anphiel save him or purely from seeing this person trembling weakly and falling apart, was unclear.

Yu Feichen descended to the ground before the central steam engine. Anphiel stood at the field’s edge, closing his eyes again. His breath hadn’t evened out. His damp curled hair clung to his forehead. He appeared fragile and disheveled, like a doll left outside in wind and rain all day.

On the ground, gears intersected chaotically. One wrong step meant being sent elsewhere. A misstep meant falling from thousands of meters. Yu Feichen knew he couldn’t walk here alone but made no move to pick him up.

He said: “Follow my directions.”

Anphiel nodded.

For the following path, Yu Feichen, watching from the steam engine’s height, directed Anphiel on the ground floor. Walk or stop, turn what angle, how many steps, how long to wait—all in sparse words.

Anphiel followed the minimal directions, crossing the gear floor and machinery forest step by step toward Yu Feichen without hesitation or objection, like a puppet on strings.

Now the place was full of danger. One step left was another rotating gear. One step right meant falling into void from the fortress’s peak to its depths.

If holding the badge meant controlling Yu Feichen’s life, then now, his life rested on Yu Feichen’s every thought.

Thump, thump.

Yu Feichen’s heart beat heavily twice. Past memories suddenly surfaced.

From Ludwig to Anphiel, or rather, since realizing this person was his superior officer, his emotions had been stable until this morning when he stepped into void, wandering uncertainly where to land. Yet as Anphiel, obediently guided by him, positioned himself at danger’s edge, in the hollow emotion, a familiar sensation suddenly resurrected—unstoppable.

—That was the moment hot candle wax dripped on Ludwig’s skin. When razor-sharp blades pointed at his chest.

The desire to push someone off was both ice-cold and intense.

Very illusory. Very joyful.