The crisis with the Crystal People seemed already so distant. Pan Ruiyi slept by the poolside and had a dream composed of thick, coagulated blood. The flesh and blood mess in Zero Hub had left a psychological shadow on Pan Ruiyi—not that she feared the writhing tentacles, but rather, it brought back a memory from when she was ten years old.
She vividly remembered the scene from that day, sixteen years ago, when she threw a shot put fifteen meters in the military camp while Instructor Wang Qi'an measured the distance. As the shot put flew far, a military shuttle approached, casting a huge shadow over the entire camp. The area was under martial law—apparently, they had found a Battle Witch "with severe problems in her thoughts."
Medic drones and military police burst into the barracks, and after a while, young Pan Ruiyi saw them take an entire, intact human brain out of the barracks.
"What does the company want with the brain?" young Pan Ruiyi asked.
