Chapter 209: Take My Place, and Stay by His Side
The bright incandescent light shone down from the ceiling, casting its glow onto the girl’s thin white cotton hospital gown, making her slender, fragile arms appear almost translucent.
Rast's gaze remained fixed on that petite frame, unmoving for a long time.
“Xiao Ai…”
A hoarse whisper escaped his throat.
This was the first time since he had been stranded at Deep Blue Port—Rast saw this girl named Emis in a place beyond the rift between Nightworld and the Present World, beyond that boundary called “Canaan.”
Lying on the hospital bed in the intensive care unit, the tiny girl looked much younger and more delicate than the way Rast remembered her.
Her petite form lay submerged in sapphire medical gel, with the white bed sheet pulled up to her chest. Her thin lips bore no trace of color.
Anyone could see that the girl in the intensive care unit was already beyond saving.
And yet, even though her body was already broken beyond repair—
Even though half of her face, obscured by medical tubes and the respirator, appeared paper-white—
Still, the girl’s sky-blue eyes remained bright, like stars reflected on the clear lakebed.
That image gently overlapped with Rast’s memories—within the small town named Canaan—of the girl who always wore a radiant smile, who loved playing the wind flute and cooking.
“She suffered from the aftereffects of Temporal Collapse, causing a deep-seated conflict between Emis’s body and the entire spacetime of the Sixth Era.”
“In other words, her body is constantly being rejected by this world.”
“Every moment, all of Emis’s organs are rotting, eroding... continuously marching toward death.”
“Even the most advanced medical technology of the Sixth Era can do no more than delay the aftereffects of Temporal Collapse—the slow decay of her body... but in the end, it is only a temporary reprieve.”
“From the moment she arrived in this world… she was already afflicted with a terminal illness, one that could never be cured.”
Grey’s voice followed, carrying indescribable emotional undertones.
“As someone who didn’t experience it firsthand, I can never truly imagine what kind of agony and suffering it must be.”
“To lie in bed, eyes wide open, watching one’s organs wither away piece by piece, flesh slowly fade, the body rotting and aging… yet being unable to do anything about it.”
“Even those on the medical team responsible for Emis’s treatment, upon witnessing that irreversible condition, could not help but fall into despair.”
“But even so, as the one personally enduring that pain... Emis still always smiled and cooperated with treatment. Sometimes, she even encouraged the medical staff who couldn’t bear to face her condition.”
“It’s hard to imagine what she holds in her heart to allow a delicate girl—who had only ever lived in a small town and never experienced pain—to endure such torment and survive—”
“Now that I think about it, even though she’s just a little girl, Emis… was clearly stronger than I am.”
Alongside Grey’s words,
Ripples spread across the light screen, like waves on water.
It was still the same sterile white intensive care unit. Only now, the busy staff around the room were absent.
This appeared to be Grey’s own point of view. She sat beside the bed solidified in blue medical gel, speaking with the blonde-haired girl lying there.
Compared to her worst state, Emis seemed slightly better. She could even briefly remove the respirator and communicate clearly.
Yet anyone with long-term caregiving experience knew—such a short-lived recovery was no more than a fleeting final flare.
No one knew when her condition might suddenly and sharply decline.
“Grey-jiejie…”
“This body of mine… it’s impossible to cure now, isn’t it?”
Within the screen, Grey’s perspective clearly paused.
Just moments ago, the topic had still been on Grey’s favorite dishes, desserts, and the wind flute… part of patient care.
She hadn’t expected Emis to bring up the subject of her own death—something the medical staff had always tried to avoid.
Nor had she expected this girl, barely past ten, to have such clear and calm awareness of her own mortality.
“No, that’s not true…”
Grey shook her head, instinctively trying to deny it.
But then, she saw the girl on the bed—the blonde-haired girl—smile faintly.
“No need to hide it from me, Grey-jiejie.”
“I’ve actually known all along. I’m very clear about the state of my own body—just how ruined it really is.”
She raised her frail arm, looking at the tubes connected to all kinds of life-sustaining machines. “At this point, I’m really only one step away from the Death God, aren’t I?”
“It’s just that Grey-jiejie, you all… have been desperately trying to keep me from being completely dragged into the depths of the Netherrealm by the Death God.”
The little girl’s calm expression made Grey fall silent once more.
After a long while, she finally spoke in a low, hoarse voice:
“I’m sorry.”
“No, Grey-jiejie, you don’t have to apologize.”
Emis gently shook her head. “I know, none of this was ever your intention.”
She turned slightly, gazing toward the corner of the ward, at the patch of azure sky beyond the small window.
“It’s just that I still feel a little unwilling…”
“And, I’m worried.”
“Worried?”
“Mm.”
The frail little girl nodded slightly. “Grey-jiejie, you told me earlier that Rast… also survived the great fire in Canaan.”
“And he’s different from me. His body wasn’t harmed, and he didn’t suffer from the aftereffects of Temporal Collapse—only because you were afraid he couldn’t accept it, so you temporarily hid the truth about Canaan and me from Rast, right?”
“Mm.”
“That’s why… I’m worried.”
“Worried about him.”
The blonde girl looked out at the azure sky, her voice carrying a huskiness unfit for her age—her illness had already affected Emis’s vocal organs.
“I know. Even though he always tries to act deep and cool, putting on a prematurely composed front like everything is under control…”
“But in truth, that’s just a disguise he uses to protect himself.”
“The real Rast is actually someone who’s very afraid of the cold, afraid of loneliness, extremely sensitive and fragile.”
“That, I know better than anyone.”
On the hospital bed, the blonde girl seemed to smile a little.
“He lost his hometown, lost the companionship of everyone he knew… If he were to learn the whole truth, I truly worry he might completely lose control and walk a path of no return.”
“Perhaps even… fall into the abyss of self-destruction.”
“I can’t accept it, and I’m not at peace—leaving him all alone to wander in this unfamiliar world.”
Seeing the dense emotion in the sky-blue eyes of the blonde girl, so thick it almost solidified into something tangible—
Grey’s gaze faltered slightly.
And only at that moment did she finally understand—
What it was that supported this frail girl of just over ten years old, allowing her to survive the great fire of Canaan, to endure the torment of illness, and to cooperate so resolutely with her treatment…
“Grey-jiejie, can I ask one last favor?”
Suddenly, the blonde girl on the hospital bed spoke again.
“Of course.”
Grey nodded without even asking what the request was.
Whether out of guilt toward Emis, or after witnessing everything before her eyes… she couldn’t bring herself to refuse anything the girl asked.
“Then… may I try that new artificial intelligence technology?”
Emis’s voice sounded once again, soft and quiet.
“I overheard the nurses from the medical team talking about it.”
“They said the current artificial intelligence technology can collect a person’s large volume of voice recordings, conversations, interactions, and life experiences… using vast amounts of data to build a highly precise bionic AI model.”
“Such a personality model, whether in speech, expression, movement… even in reactions to different situations, could be indistinguishable from the original person. Even close acquaintances wouldn’t be able to tell the difference, right?”
“Mm.”
Grey nodded again.
But immediately after, she suddenly realized the true intention behind the words spoken by the girl before her.
“You mean…” She looked toward the girl on the bed in disbelief.
“That’s right.”
Emis gently nodded. “I know I won’t be able to hold on much longer.”
“But I really can’t stop worrying about him… I know he’s lost his family, lost the companionship of everyone familiar to him. In this unfamiliar world, he’s bound to stray from the right path.”
“So.”
Emis’s eyes seemed to shimmer like starlight. “Let another me… take my place—”
“To stay by his side.”
…
In the library of the Watchtower, Dean Silver instinctively cast a slightly worried glance at Rast seated below.
Although it had known nothing of Rast’s past prior to this, at that moment, listening to Grey’s account, it gained a rough understanding—about Canaan, and about that blonde girl named Emis.
That place called Canaan, a border town which had mysteriously vanished over two hundred years ago from the Present World timeline during the “Fran Explosion,” was to Rast something like a refuge, like a harbor for the soul.
However, now, Grey had laid out the full truth—
Canaan had long since perished, and the safe haven in Rast’s heart was most likely a fabricated illusion.
Perhaps even the girl named Emis was false.
According to the story’s development on the light screen—this blonde girl named Emis had likely already died in agony from the aftereffects of Temporal Collapse.
And what was left behind in the end was merely a bionic AI, simulated through an incomparably vast database, possessing Emis’s appearance, temperament, and personality.
At the moment the truth was revealed, Dean Silver truly worried Rast might break down under the weight of it all.
But immediately afterward, Dean Silver was somewhat stunned to realize—
By its side, Rast’s pitch-black eyes did not show even a trace of wavering.
“An artificial intelligence simulated through big data may be able to deceive most acquaintances… but it absolutely cannot deceive those closest.”
As if guessing what was on Dean Silver’s mind, Rast spoke softly, but with the firmness of a declaration:
“The Xiao Ai I knew was not artificial intelligence.”
…
As if responding to Rast’s words,
The water-like ripples on the light screen once again spread out.
And Grey’s voice once more rose slowly along with the rippling screen.
“I agreed to her request.”
“After that, I could only watch as Emis forced herself to rise from her terminally ill body and began attempting to create her own bionic personality intelligence.”
“At the time, artificial intelligence technology was still in its infancy, riddled with countless flaws and imperfections… The bionic AI that was replicated could match her appearance, but not reproduce a complete personality.”
“And so, in order to make that blank AI real enough to take her place, to stay by your side, Rast-gege—”
“Emis forced her already near-decayed and ruined body to repeatedly converse with that blank bionic personality, refining it over and over, until that reflection became real, identical to herself.”
“She believed only by doing this could she create a substitute that would remain by your side, Rast-gege, to keep you from straying from the path or falling into the abyss.”
“Watching her struggle so hard to speak to the blank AI, even I, as an observer, felt my heart being torn apart.”
Grey’s voice paused slightly.
“So, I once again went back to review the memory of the first time I made a wish—to endlessly observe the future.”
“Then, I found a new path… not a way to save civilization, but a path that could bring redemption to the girl named Emis.”
“And that was the reason for the birth of the Third Mechanical Research Institute—”
“The ‘Artificial Angel Project’.”