"You can still regret this and let me go now. By doing so, your interests can be maintained longer!" Sun Jack continued to beguile the other party, searching for any sliver of a chance to survive.
4sever, having heard Sun Jack's rambling, seemed momentarily persuaded. However, the next second, a red-hot iron was pressed onto Sun Jack's chest, hissing as it burned his skin.
"Who are you calling a dog? You think I don't understand this? Do I need you to teach me? I've already tied my interests tightly with theirs. Even if you die, they can't lay a hand on me. If they try to touch me, they are harming themselves!"
Seeing the other's reaction, Sun Jack realized that the man had been completely blinded by his own interests and was utterly deaf to any reasoning.
As 4sever continued to torture Sun Jack, who was almost delirious with pain, Sun Jack suddenly saw a familiar face before him—Number 43.
When he saw his face, Sun Jack understood a lot all at once.
In his dreams, Number 43 had followed the long-dead Hopelily. He appeared before Sun Jack and sternly said, "Sun Jack, do you see now? No one needs your rescue. You are not a savior! You have no right to sacrifice anyone!"
"Fuck!" Sun Jack spat out a mouthful of bloody spit, now fully aware that FFP had also played a part in this trap.
It was clear that they had an informant inside Metropolis who knew his plan in advance.
FFP was not foolish, although they were currently too embroiled in their troubles to untangle themselves; they were certainly not going to sit back and watch him easily take over Emola.
He supported the Resistance Army, so they supported the Holy Grail of Emola, always accomplishing the most with the least.
Because FFP knew his strengths and knew they could replace him with a clone at any time, the tough approach was no longer effective, which is why they resorted to this tactic.
Watching his intestines slowly being pulled out from his abdomen, Sun Jack clenched his teeth and endured the pain, saying, "No! I have to get out, I have to get this intelligence out."
Although he said this, he was completely trapped in a dream, and transmitting information out on his own was almost impossible.
While enduring various tortures, Sun Jack attempted to find any possible escape, but after thirty minutes had passed, he could think of no way out in this desperate situation.
If he were outside, Sun Jack would have already passed out from the pain several times, but in this dream state, he seemed never to faint, continuously suffering this endless agony.
Clearly, no one could be killed in a dream, but it could break a person's will and drive them mad, which appeared to be the other party's intention.
Sun Jack didn't know how much longer he could hold on, but he knew he was human, and he might not last much longer at this rate.
Watching Sun Jack continuously suffering, Number 43's face grew increasingly joyful as he pulled Hopelily close into his arms.
"Hope, do you see? No one can sacrifice you, no matter who it is, I will make them pay tenfold, a hundredfold!"
"Your Hope isn't dead."
Sun Jack's sudden statement caused Number 43's pupils to constrict, but the next second, he was overcome with anger. He snatched the torture instrument from 4sever and violently thrust it into Sun Jack's abdomen, grinding his teeth as he stirred it.
"Bullshit! I saw her die right before my eyes!"
"She can't die because she was already dead! She was just a corpse fitted with AI software! If you want her back by your side, all you need to do is reboot!" Sun Jack's words were half true, half false—he wasn't certain if Old Six's Mother was really as he described.
But he was completely trapped in a dream, seeing how deep the other party's feelings for Old Six's Mother were, so he could only look for a breakthrough from this guy.
Number 43 stared intently into Sun Jack's eyes, attempting to find some hesitation and evasion, but he found none of what he was looking for.
"Can we search his memory?" Number 43 suddenly turned his head to ask 4sever.
"Umm... I'll try." 4sever gestured in the air, and several translucent screens floated directly in front of Sun Jack.
During the search, Number 43 came in front of Sun Jack, staring intently at him. "Sun Jack! Don't expect anything! Thinking that with this little you are in a position to negotiate with me! Today you are doomed," he said.
But he didn't notice the slight curl of Sun Jack's lips after he said that.
Just a second after he finished speaking, the brightly lit surroundings suddenly began to tremble. Number 43's expression turned stunned. "What's happening?"
However, upon feeling this disturbance, a look of joy came over Sun Jack's face.
Accompanied by a cracking noise, the entire room's ceiling split open, and the enormous Tapai reached in from outside.
Upon seeing Sun Jack's tortured and battered body, the screen on his face instantly turned red and popped out a large red emoticon.
"(▼皿▼#) Fuck you!!"
After seeing the next scene, Sun Jack laughed. "Forgot to tell you, my memory has been tampered with many times before, especially since I had issues with a 2B who is adept in this field. So, naturally, I left some contingencies in place to prevent this kind of thing from happening again."
As Sun Jack spoke proudly, Tapai completely tore apart the room, the dream rapidly began to collapse, and Sun Jack finally escaped from this bizarre dream world.
The next second, accompanied by a strong ringing in his ears and an excruciating headache, Sun Jack abruptly woke up, and upon looking around, he realized that he was still inside the shield machine and had not left at all.
From the moment he had gone to sleep, he had never woken up.
"What's going on? Why would someone want to touch your memory? Why was someone torturing you just now?" Tapai asked.
"Don't mention it, let's hurry and make everyone block sleep. Emola has dream weapons," Sun Jack briefly explained, recounting the whole incident to Tapai in detail.
"Emola's Resistance Army has been completely incorporated, and now we're in trouble. If we don't have insiders, Metropolis and Emola going head-to-head will lead to massive losses," Sun Jack contacted Metropolis's Think Tank to discuss the next steps.
"I see," Tapai recalled the earlier scene, reached out calling over a Lone Wolf Mercenary. As his induction wire inserted into the mercenary's system port, the Lone Wolf Mercenary's eyes rolled back, and he fell asleep.
"What are you doing? Wake him up quickly, he'll get connected to Emola's dream weapons," Sun Jack exclaimed.
"I want him to connect. I'm planning to send them a little gift," Tapai responded.
"What kind of gift?"
"Kang Tao Virus, judging by its previous power, it should be able to kill all of Emola's people," Tapai said lightly, his words exploding like a thunderclap in Sun Jack's mind.