同章对照

Ryan thought his life was a role-playing game.

“Kill them all!” a druggie shouted from atop a roof, hitting Ryan’s car with a submachine gun, the bullets unable to pierce the shielding. Everywhere, the courier heard the sound of bullets flying. “Kill them all!”

But somewhere along the line, it had turned into a FPS.

Hiding behind his car with an earplug in his right ear, Ryan reloaded his pistol while mourning the Plymouth Fury’s paint job; at his side, Fortuna fired over her shoulder with a pistol with one hand, and texted on a phone with the other. She didn’t even aim, and her bullets always resulted in a headshot. At least she had taken to wearing a white, streamlined armor to protect herself.

Seriously, one bad haircut, and suddenly the world wasn’t safe anymore?

In total, twelve people, Ryan and Fortuna included, hid behind the cover of half a dozen cars and SUVs. Most were henchmen wearing riot gear and carrying powerful firearms, with one exception: a woman in a suit of heavy, red padded advanced armor whose design reminded Ryan of steampunk comics. That Genome had drunk the Firebrand knock-off Elixir, and as promised by Vulcan, her armor boosted her pyrokinesis. Sometimes, she looked over her cover to throw a car-sized fireball at the enemy.

“You know texting while fighting is the first cause of bullet accidents?” Ryan asked Fortuna, as one of his car’s windows exploded, shattered by a 20mm round.

“I’m texting my brother,” she replied dismissively, barely paying attention to the battle. The lucky Genome didn’t even bother to protect herself, the snipers having a clear line of fire to hit her head. Yet so far, every bullet had narrowly missed her helmet.

“Felix the Atom Cat?”

“You know that?” Fortuna groaned. “I’m in the middle of a firefight and he won’t answer his big sister!”

Having reloaded, Ryan froze time for ten seconds and peeked over his car. Beyond the protective vehicle line, the welcoming committee had taken refuge inside two half-demolished apartment buildings, surrounding the main road leading to the Junkyard. Most of the walls had fallen, but the remains provided snipers with enough protection. As for the road itself, the Meta’s men had blocked it with a trash barricade, leaving only small openings to allow their machine guns to fire through. The Augusti’s Firebrand Genome had managed to set the road on fire though, forcing the defenders to flee or die in the flames.

However, it didn’t look like the snipers would run out of ammo anytime soon. Ryan shot two of them, before taking cover as time unfroze. Far in the distance, west of his position, he noticed crimson beams piercing through Rust Town's polluted clouds. Sparrow’s doing, probably.

In total, Vulcan had deployed three hundred soldiers to retake Rust Town, divided in groups all across the district. Most of them were non-superhuman paramilitary. Others were Genomes having drunk a knock-off Elixir; people like Ryan or the Killer Seven, with original powers, were a minority in the squad.

The Private Security had watched the squadron move inside Rust Town without reacting, perhaps hoping the Augusti and Meta would slaughter one another. Vulcan then deployed her forces all around the Junkyard, where the Meta had established their headquarters.

Unfortunately, as soon as Ryan’s group approached the area’s outskirts, they found themselves welcomed by armed men.

“Vulcan here,” Ryan heard through his earplug. “How’s the situation?”

“It’s a camper contest here,” the courier replied. “It’s the bad days of Quake all over again! But my car is alright!”

“Yes, that’s the important thing,” Fortuna replied with a sassy tone. “If someone could help us, that would be great. I’ve got a date tonight.”

“You will wait,” Vulcan replied, although she sounded quite blase. “Cancel and Sparrow are busy dealing with Gemini and Sarin, and I’m fully occupied dealing with cannon fodder. It’s such a drag, pursuing them house to house.”

“No sign of Acid Rain or Adam?” the courier asked. The Meta’s leader was their main target, as Vulcan believed he alone held his group together; if he died, the Psychos would splinter and become manageable.

“Scared?” Fortuna taunted him, putting her cell phone back into one of her armor’s pockets.

“Frankly, I could do without Acid Rain,” Ryan replied, being in no hurry to die to her again. “Our powers interfere with one another. She can predict my shifts and counter them.”

“Then Fortuna will stay with you,” Vulcan declared. Wise choice. No matter how powerful she was, Acid Rain needed guns, knives, and weapons to kill. And Fortuna’s cheat code of a superpower allowed her to neutralize them. “And no, no sign of either yet. Nor of any of the big guns, oddly.”

“Why do I have to stay with that maniac?” Fortuna complained, as their fire Genome set a building floor on fire with a well-placed fireball. “Can’t you send me with Greta?”

“You will stay with Quicksave because I say so, brat.”

“I’m older than you!”

“Don’t waste my patience, Fortuna. Clearing out the outskirts is already more exhausting than I expected, so I’m not in the mood to hear your whining.”

Clearly, Vulcan didn’t think the battle would last for so long. The Meta had a lot more foot soldiers than anticipated.

Ryan briefly froze time and glanced over his cover to survey the situation. Much to his horror, a new, scrawny sniper had appeared inside the left building, rejoining two other men with what appeared to be an archaic rocket launcher.

“Uh, oh, rocket launcher to the left!” Ryan shouted a warning as time resumed. How did the Meta-Gang recruit so many mooks?!

“On it,” a voice echoed through the earplug.

Mortimer suddenly phased through a wall behind the sniper nest in the left building, taking them by surprise. Mortimer was the only member of his hit squad who went into the field without armor, perhaps because it interfered with his power. From what Ryan had seen, the killer could phase through surfaces, from cinder block walls to the earthly ground.

In any case, Mortimer slaughtered the mooks with a submachine gun, then phased through the ground within the blink of an eye. The man with the rocket launcher fell through a destroyed wall, falling on the ground below.

“Thirteen,” Mortimer gloated through the earplug. “I’m leading.”

“Not for long, Morty!”

Fortuna fired one bullet.

Two snipers fell from the right building’s roof.

Ryan was about to participate in the kill contest when the reality of the situation hit him like a deer in a headlight.

She… killed two people with one bullet.

She killed two people with one bullet.

…

“How did it work?” Ryan asked. “How did it work?”

“I don’t know,” Fortuna replied with a shrug, amused by his confusion. “The world simply bends to my whims.”

Ryan stopped time and spent the entire ten seconds looking at the scene and trying to puzzle it out. Did the bullet bounce back on one sniper's skull and killed a second? When he realized he had no logical explanation, he turned toward Fortuna as time resumed. “Can I cut off your foot?”

“What? Why?”

“Because if it’s anything like a rabbit’s, I want some of that sweet luck!”

“As a matter of fact, go BLEEP yourself, you crazy… homeless… you crazy homeless.”

Ryan looked on at her pitiful attempt at improvisation, shaking his head. “You're such a disappointment.”

Fortuna let out an angry snarl, rose up from behind the car, and unleashed a volley of bullets at the defenders. When she emptied her magazine, the fighting suddenly came to an abrupt halt.

Ryan peeked over the car, as did the rest of the Augusti. They only faced corpses with holes in their skull.

“Eighteen,” Fortuna declared, smoke coming out of her gun's barrel. “I win.”

“I call hax,” Mortimer complained. “You cheat.”

Their group had probably killed fifty people in total, and lost only one henchman, shot at the beginning of the firefight. Such was the gap between normal human beings and Genomes.

“Stay here and secure the area until I give new instructions,” Vulcan ordered. “I’ll be done in a minute.”

The Augusti spread over the perimeter, but Ryan didn’t join them. Instead, he focused on what truly mattered to him.

His Plymouth Fury.

“My car is alright,” Ryan let out a sigh of blissful relief after he reviewed the engine and key parts. The protective alloys had held against the gunfire. “I will have to repair the windows, but none of the vitals have been hit.”

“The vitals?” Vulcan mused through the intercom. “Does your car have a heart, on top of the brain?”

“All cars have a heart, but not everyone can hear it.”

“Poetic.” Ryan heard an explosion on Vulcan’s side, and then nothing. She must have gone Michael B. on her enemies. “Alright, all clear on my end. Cancel, Sparrow?”

“Sarin and Gemini retreated,” Sparrow replied, ever the professional. “We have control over the main roads.”

“And they’re mighty sore losers about it,” Mortimer said, his voice turning raspy as he cleared his throat. “Look at the skies.”

Ryan did so, noticing acidic clouds spread above the Junkyard, and extending towards the outskirts.

Acid Rain.

Thankfully for him, the clouds moved to the west, so she was Sparrow and Cancel’s problem this time.

“They sent weaklings to delay us until they could mount a counterattack with their heavy hitters,” Vulcan guessed. “But I wonder how they recruited so much manpower to draw upon. I miscalculated.”

“That’s trash mobs for you,” Ryan replied. The courier was quite optimistic though. If the Meta struggled to mount a defense, it meant the attack took them by surprise. He could always refine the plan in a future loop, make it into a blitzkrieg.

“I don’t understand Adam’s plan,” Vulcan muttered. “Now that we have control over the roads, he won’t be able to resupply and we’ll call in reinforcements. How does he expect to break the siege?”

“He’s a camper,” Ryan said. “It’s not about winning, it’s about getting off on our tears of frustration.”

“Chief, I only see mountains of trash from my rookery,” Mortimer said. “It looks like they’re shifting though.”

“Do we advance?” Sparrow asked. “We could take them in a pincer attack.”

Vulcan shot the idea down. “I’ll fly by and do some recon first. Hold the road, there’s definitely something fishy going on.”

Given an official order to laze off, Ryan whistled to himself, waltzing through the battlefield with his gun. Mortimer stood on the left building’s roof, watching the road like a hawk, while Fortuna had again begun to text on her phone. The courier checked the dead mooks’ weapons, in case he found one badass enough to add to his collection.

As he examined the various firearms, Ryan couldn’t help but notice the Dynamis logo on quite a few. It made sense since the company was the main weapon manufacturer in the area, but… suspicious.

As for the archaic rocket launcher, the courier found it oddly familiar. As if someone had pointed it at him not so long ago.

A doubt crossed the courier’s mind, as he turned the dead sniper’s body on his back, to get a good look at his face. His balding, familiar face.

“Paulie?” Ryan said, astonished.

“Who?” Fortuna asked, looking away from her cell phone.

“A Rust Town mechanic,” the courier replied. “But that makes no sense, he hated the Meta-Gang!”

“They must have press-ganged him into their service,” the pompous woman replied, her voice softening. “My condolences. You were close?”

“Once, I threatened to throw a plushie at him.”

Fortuna immediately returned to her texting and did her best to ignore Ryan’s existence.

“What the—” Vulcan’s voice turned from surprised to panicked. “All units, retreat!”

“What?” Fortuna asked, putting her cell phone away. “But we’re winning!”

"Retreat! They have Mechron tec—"

Ryan heard the sound of an explosion, both in the distance and through the earplug.

Then, without warning, the atmosphere turned oppressive.

Ryan couldn’t quite put a word on it, but he felt no longer welcome in Rust Town. He sensed hundreds, thousands of invisible eyes gazing at him in judgment; the courier’s body entered a fight-or-flight response, his muscles tensing in alarm. He had entered the den of a mighty predator and now had its full attention.

The psychic attack seemed to spread among the Augusti, Fortuna dropping her phone and suddenly collapsing to her knees. A cloud of yellow energy flared around her body, an ethereal field surrounding her. An invisible force pushed it back inside the Genome, compressing the halo.

Immediately afterward, tremors shook the ground, before escalating into a full-blown quake. Ryan struggled to stand on his feet, as some of the henchmen tripped and the road broke up into large rifts.

“It’s the Land!” Mortimer warned through the intercom. Before he could say more, the building he stood on collapsed due to the earthquake, the hitman phasing through the falling cinder blocks and vanishing amidst a cloud of dust.

Ryan had learned about her during the attack’s debriefing. That Psycho could fuse with an area, melding her body into it and gaining psychic control over a certain territory. Add geokinesis on top of that, and you had a truly deadly combination.

But apparently, their intel had miscalculated her powers’ range. The tremors spread all over Rust Town, collapsing every building in sight in a catastrophic domino effect and blowing dust across the district.

Fortuna shouted a warning as the buildings collapsed, debris raining on them. The Augusti ran in all directions, Ryan included, but some of the henchmen were soon buried alive under cinder blocks anyway.

“W-what’s happening?” Fortuna panicked, as the golden cloud around her started getting thinner and thinner, threatening to disappear entirely. Debris that passed through the yellow aura miraculously missed the Genome, but those that avoided it hit her armor just fine.

“I can’t get hit!” Fortuna panicked, finally getting the memo that her life was in danger. “Nothing can hit me!”

“Get into my car!” Ryan shouted a warning, rushing to his Plymouth. Above, advanced rockets pierced through the pollution clouds, falling down upon them like a rain of arrows. Ryan counted dozens, if not hundreds of them.

While the courier reached his car’s hood, Fortuna’s field short-circuited and she tripped on debris. Before Ryan could even react, she was buried beneath a rain of stone and dust. She would probably survive with her armor on, but she would need help to escape.

Whatever invisible force had taken over the area, it interfered with her luck.

Ryan stopped time, and to his immense relief, found that his power hadn’t been affected. It must have been a case of Yellow interfering with another Yellow, instead of something as threatening as Cancel’s negation.

However, even as he fired bullets at the missiles in an attempt to detonate them before they hit the ground, Ryan could only do so much in ten seconds. Most of the projectiles landed when time resumed, the courier thrown backward by a massive explosion.

Everything went white and silent for a moment, Ryan taking several seconds to regain consciousness. The left half of his body burnt, the flesh seared to the bone, and dust seeped inside his mask.

“We need reinforcements!” Sparrow shouted through the intercom, Acid Rain’s manic laughter echoing in the background. “Vulcan?!”

“I’m trying!” Vulcan snapped back, her voice almost covered by the noise of gunfire. “Ryan?! Fortuna?! Answer, damn it!”

Everywhere, Ryan could only see burning craters, corpses, and shattered stones. Clouds of smoke filled Rust Town’s polluted skies, turning the area into a vision of Hell. The bombardment had savaged the entire warzone.

And worse, his car, his beloved car, was a smoking wreck.

“Not again!”

What did the Meta have against his Plymouth?

As far as he could see, Ryan was the only survivor. The Augusti’s men had been blasted into burning body parts, even the armored one. Mortimer may have survived if he had phased through the ground, but he didn’t answer through the intercom. The courier heard explosions both west and east, the Meta launching a counterattack.

“Vulcan?” Ryan called through the intercom but received no answer. “Must I call Wyvern for help?”

He only received a static noise for an answer. Something interfered with their communications.

And then, emerging from the ruins and towering over the debris, the source of the attack showed up to finish him off.

It was a colossal dark blue machine, twelve meters long and four meters wide. Six metal legs carried its body, while a scorpion-like tail flung at the back, the tip replaced with some kind of laser cannon. Missile launchers covered the warmech’s back, while two flamethrowers and turrets formed the ‘head.’ Wire tentacles wriggled through small cracks in the shielding.

A silver gear with a stylized ‘M’ at the center was painted at the front.

Mechron’s symbol.

The enormous mech was clearly one of his robots, repurposed by the Meta into a weapon platform. From the wire tentacles slipping through the cracks, Ryan guessed that Psyshock piloted it from within, using his peculiar biology to hijack the machine’s command centers.

But the robot wasn’t scavenged. It looked pristine, and straight out of storage.

“Little Cesare.” Psyshock’s voice came out of the warmech, startling the courier. “What a surprise.”

“I come with a gift box,” Ryan deadpanned, struggling against the pain.

“Where is Ghoul?” the Psycho replied, wires coming out of a thin crack in the mech’s shielding, while its cannon aimed at Quicksave. “What did you do with the body?”

“I gave him to dogs, to play fetch with.”

Psyshock responded to the joke by opening fire, the cannon unleashing a massive, crimson beam straight at the courier.

Having outlived his car and seeing no point in continuing after such a slaughter, Ryan made a dramatic pose and embraced the light.

---

It was May 8th 2020 for… the ninth time?

Ryan didn’t remember and didn’t care all that much. He guessed the previous loop hadn’t been his Perfect Run in the end, and there was clearly still room to improve. Vulcan’s attack had gone terribly wrong, and now he had to consider what to do about it.

He also now knew where Len was, and how to contact her without owing a favor to either the Carnival or the Augusti. A connection he had overlooked, and now seemed so obvious to him.

The Meta subverting Rust Town’s denizens, and having one of Mechron warmechs in reserve, was cause for alarm. They also clearly had access to Dynamis-made weapons, and the supply of Elixirs implied a connection of some sort between the two organizations.

Wait.

The Meta that Ryan had captured in the previous loops said robots protected the bunker they wanted to access. Machines powerful enough to fight a gang of Psychos.

And Mechron was infamous for his robot army.

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” Ryan muttered to himself. The Meta wrecked his car, killed him multiple times, and finally erased the loop when he had finally managed to confront Len.

Now?

Now was the time for war.

瑞恩一直以为，自己的人生是个角色扮演游戏。

“杀光他们！”一个瘾君子站在屋顶上大喊，举着冲锋枪扫射瑞恩的车，子弹却打不穿车身的防护层。快递员四面八方都是子弹横飞的声响。“杀光他们！”

可不知从什么时候起，它变成了第一人称射击游戏。

瑞恩躲在自己的车后，右耳塞着耳机，一边给手枪换弹，一边哀悼普利茅斯“狂怒”的车漆。他身旁的福尔图娜一只手握着手枪，越过肩头朝身后开火，另一只手还在用手机发短信。她甚至都不瞄准，却枪枪爆头。至少她现在肯穿上一套白色流线型装甲保护自己了。

不是吧，就剪坏了一次头发，这个世界忽然就不安全了？

算上瑞恩和福尔图娜，总共十二个人，以六辆轿车和越野车为掩体藏身。大多是身穿防暴装备、手持强力枪械的打手，只有一个例外：一个女人，穿着带衬垫的红色重型高科技装甲，那造型让瑞恩想起了蒸汽朋克漫画。这名基因者喝过仿制的“火种”灵药，而正如伏尔甘所承诺的，她的装甲增强了她的控火能力。她不时从掩体后探出头，朝敌人扔出一颗汽车大小的火球。

“你知道吗，边打仗边发短信，是枪弹事故的头号诱因。”瑞恩对福尔图娜说。就在这时，一发二十毫米口径的子弹轰碎了他的一扇车窗。

“我在给我弟弟发短信。”她不以为然地回答，几乎没把心思放在战斗上。这位幸运的基因者甚至懒得遮掩自己，狙击手能毫无遮挡地瞄准她的脑袋。然而直到现在，每一发子弹都险险地从她的头盔旁掠过。

“原子猫菲利克斯？”

“这你都知道？”福尔图娜抱怨道，“我正在枪林弹雨里呢，他居然还不回他姐姐的消息！”

换好弹后，瑞恩暂停了十秒时间，从车身上方探头观察。车辆组成的防线外，欢迎委员会藏在两栋半毁的公寓楼里，夹着通往废料场的主路。大部分墙体已经倒塌，但残存的部分仍足以为狙击手提供掩护。至于道路本身，超能帮的人用垃圾堆起路障，只留下几个小缺口供机枪向外射击。不过，奥古斯蒂的那名“火种”基因者已经点燃了道路，守军要么逃命，要么就得葬身火海。

但那些狙击手看起来一时半会儿还用不完弹药。瑞恩开枪打死其中两人，随后在时间恢复流动时缩回掩体。他注意到，自己所在位置西面的远处，有深红色光束穿透了锈镇受污染的云层。大概是麻雀的手笔。

为了夺回锈镇，伏尔甘总共部署了三百名士兵，分成小队遍布全区。其中大部分是不具备超能力的准军事人员，另有一些喝过仿制灵药的基因者；像瑞恩和杀手七人组这样拥有原创能力的人，在队伍里只占少数。

私人安保队眼睁睁地看着这支队伍进入锈镇，没有任何反应，也许是巴不得奥古斯蒂和超能帮自相残杀。随后，伏尔甘将兵力部署在废料场四周——超能帮在那里设了总部。

不幸的是，瑞恩这一组刚接近那一带的外围，就迎来了武装人员的热情接待。

“这里是伏尔甘。”瑞恩的耳机里传来声音。“情况怎么样？”

“我们这儿在比谁更能蹲点。”快递员回答，“简直又回到了玩《雷神之锤》的那些苦日子！不过我的车没事！”

“是啊，那才是重点。”福尔图娜挖苦道，“要是有人能来帮帮我们，那就再好不过了。我今晚还有约会。”

“等着。”伏尔甘回答，语气倒是相当漫不经心。“消除者和麻雀正忙着对付双子和沙林，我这边的炮灰也清不完。挨家挨户地追着他们跑，烦死了。”

“没发现酸雨或亚当的踪迹？”快递员问。超能帮的首领才是他们的主要目标，因为伏尔甘认为，这个团伙全靠他一个人维系；只要他一死，这群疯魔就会分崩离析，到时候就好对付了。

“怕了？”福尔图娜嘲弄道，将手机塞回装甲上的一个口袋里。

“说真的，酸雨还是别来的好。”瑞恩回答，他可不急着再死在她手里一次。“我们的能力会互相干扰。她能预判我的位移，再做出反制。”

“那福尔图娜就跟着你。”伏尔甘决定道。明智之举。酸雨再强，也得靠枪、刀之类的武器杀人。而福尔图娜那堪比作弊码的超能力能让这些武器全都失效。“另外，没有，暂时都没发现。奇怪的是，其他几个厉害角色也都没露面。”

“我为什么非得跟着这个疯子？”福尔图娜抱怨。与此同时，他们的火系基因者精准地扔出一颗火球，点燃了一栋楼的整层。“就不能让我去跟格蕾塔一组吗？”

“因为我说了，你就得跟着快存，臭丫头。”

“我比你大！”

“别消耗我的耐心，福尔图娜。光是清理外围就已经比我预想的累多了，我没心情听你发牢骚。”

显然，伏尔甘没想到这场仗会拖这么久。超能帮的喽啰比预计的多得多。

瑞恩短暂停住时间，从掩体上方探头查看局势。令他惊恐的是，左边那栋楼里又冒出了一个瘦骨嶙峋的狙击手，带着一件看起来像老式火箭筒的东西，加入了另外两人的阵地。

“呃，糟了，左边有火箭筒！”时间恢复流动，瑞恩高声示警。超能帮到底从哪儿招来了这么多杂兵？！

“交给我。”耳机里响起一个声音。

莫蒂默突然穿过左边楼里狙击阵地后方的一面墙，打了他们个措手不及。他是暗杀小队里唯一一个不穿装甲上阵的成员，也许是因为装甲会妨碍他的能力。就瑞恩所见，这个杀手能穿透各种物体表面，无论是煤渣砖墙还是泥土地面。

总之，莫蒂默用冲锋枪屠掉了那几个杂兵，接着一眨眼便穿进了地面。拿火箭筒的男人从破墙处跌了出去，摔在下方的地面上。

“十三个。”莫蒂默在耳机里得意地宣布。“我领先。”

“你领先不了多久了，莫蒂！”

福尔图娜开了一枪。

两个狙击手从右边那栋楼的屋顶上摔了下来。

瑞恩正准备加入这场击杀竞赛，却突然反应过来刚才究竟发生了什么，像被车灯照住的鹿一样愣在原地。

她……用一颗子弹杀了两个人。

她用一颗子弹杀了两个人。

……

“这怎么做到的？”瑞恩问，“这怎么做到的？”

“我不知道。”福尔图娜耸耸肩，他困惑的样子让她觉得很好玩。“这个世界就是会顺着我的心意来。”

瑞恩暂停时间，整整十秒都在观察现场，试图解开这个谜。难道子弹在一个狙击手的头骨上弹了一下，又杀了第二个？意识到自己找不出任何合乎逻辑的解释后，他在时间恢复流动时转向福尔图娜。“我能砍下你一只脚吗？”

“什么？为什么？”

“因为要是它也跟兔子脚一样灵，我也想沾点这美妙的运气！”

“我看你还是去哔——你自己吧，你这个疯子……流浪汉……你这个疯流浪汉。”

瑞恩看着她这番可怜的临场发挥，摇了摇头。“你可真让人失望。”

福尔图娜愤怒地低吼一声，从车后站起来，对着守军一通扫射。等她打空弹匣，交火声忽然戛然而止。

瑞恩从车后探出头，其余奥古斯蒂成员也纷纷探身查看。他们面前只剩下一具具脑袋上开了洞的尸体。

“十八个。”福尔图娜宣布，枪口还冒着烟。“我赢了。”

“我要举报外挂。”莫蒂默抱怨道。“你作弊。”

他们这一组总共大概杀了五十人，自己却只损失了一名打手，在交火刚开始时中枪身亡。这就是普通人和基因者之间的差距。

“原地待命，控制好这一区域，等我下一步指示。”伏尔甘命令道。“我马上就完事。”

奥古斯蒂的人散开，在周边警戒，瑞恩却没有加入。他把注意力放在了自己真正在乎的东西上。

他的普利茅斯“狂怒”。

“我的车没事。”检查过引擎和关键部件后，瑞恩心满意足地长舒一口气。防护合金扛住了枪击。“车窗得修，不过要害都没伤着。”

“要害？”伏尔甘在通讯器里玩味地重复了一遍。“你的车除了大脑，还长了颗心脏？”

“每辆车都有一颗心，只是并非人人都能听见。”

“真有诗意。”瑞恩听见伏尔甘那边传来一声爆炸，随后便没了动静。她准是对敌人使出了迈克尔·贝那一套。“好了，我这边清干净了。消除者，麻雀？”

“沙林和双子撤退了。”麻雀回答，还是那么专业。“我们已经控制了主路。”

“而且他们可输不起了。”莫蒂默说着清了清嗓子，声音沙哑起来。“看看天上。”

瑞恩依言抬头，发现带有酸性的云团正在废料场上空铺开，向外围延伸。

酸雨。

幸好云团往西去了，这回该麻雀和消除者头疼。

“他们派弱鸡来拖住我们，好腾出时间让那些高手发动反击。”伏尔甘推测道。“不过，他们到底从哪儿招来了这么多人手？我失算了。”

“小怪就是干这个的。”瑞恩回答。不过快递员倒是挺乐观。超能帮连组织防御都这么吃力，说明这次进攻打了他们个措手不及。他完全可以在以后的循环里完善计划，把它打成一场闪电战。

“我搞不懂亚当的计划。”伏尔甘低声道。“现在道路都在我们手里，他没法补充物资，我们还能叫援军。他打算怎么突围？”

“他是个蹲点党。”瑞恩说，“赢不赢不重要，他就指望我们气到流泪，好拿来找乐子。”

“头儿，我从这鸟巢上只能看见一座座垃圾山。”莫蒂默说。“不过它们好像在动。”

“我们往前推进吗？”麻雀问。“可以两面夹击他们。”

伏尔甘否决了这个提议。“我先飞过去侦察一下。守住道路，这里面绝对有猫腻。”

有了正式的偷懒命令，瑞恩便吹着口哨，拎枪在战场上悠闲地溜达。莫蒂默站在左边楼房的屋顶上，像鹰一样盯着道路，福尔图娜则又开始用手机发短信。快递员检查着死去杂兵们的武器，看看有没有哪件够威风，值得加入自己的收藏。

翻看各式枪械时，瑞恩不由得注意到，其中不少都有迪纳米斯的标志。倒也说得通，毕竟那家公司是这一带最大的武器制造商，可还是……有点可疑。

至于那具老式火箭筒，快递员觉得它有种奇怪的熟悉感。仿佛不久前才有人拿它指着自己。

一个疑念掠过快递员的脑海。他把那个狙击手的尸体翻过来，让他仰面朝天，好看清那张脸。那张秃了顶、熟悉的脸。

“保利？”瑞恩惊讶道。

“谁？”福尔图娜从手机上移开目光。

“锈镇的一个修理工。”快递员回答，“可这没道理啊，他恨死超能帮了！”

“他们肯定是抓了他来当壮丁。”那个趾高气扬的女人回答，声音柔和了些。“节哀。你们很熟？”

“有一次，我威胁过要拿毛绒玩具砸他。”

福尔图娜立刻继续发短信，尽最大努力无视瑞恩的存在。

“搞什么——”伏尔甘的声音从惊讶转为惊慌。“所有单位，撤退！”

“什么？”福尔图娜收起手机。“可我们明明在赢啊！”

“撤退！他们有梅克隆的科——”

瑞恩听见一声爆炸，同时从远处和耳机里传来。

随后，毫无预兆地，周围的气氛变得压抑起来。

瑞恩说不清那是什么感觉，只觉得锈镇不再欢迎他。他感到有成百上千双看不见的眼睛正注视着自己，仿佛在审判。快递员的身体进入了战斗或逃跑的应激状态，肌肉警觉地绷紧。他闯进了一头强大掠食者的巢穴，而现在，对方的全部注意力都落在了他身上。

这股精神攻击似乎波及了所有奥古斯蒂成员。福尔图娜的手机脱手落地，她突然双膝跪倒。一团黄色能量在她周身迸发，形成一圈缥缈的力场，将她包围。一股无形的力量压缩着那圈光晕，把它往基因者体内推回去。

紧接着，地面开始震颤，转眼便升级为一场真正的地震。瑞恩竭力站稳，几个打手已经跌倒，路面裂开一道道巨大的缝隙。

“是大地！”莫蒂默通过通讯器示警。他还没来得及多说，脚下的楼房便在地震中坍塌了。杀手穿透不断落下的煤渣砖，消失在滚滚尘土之中。

瑞恩在这次进攻的情况说明会上了解过她。那个疯魔能与一片区域融合，将身体融入其中，再以精神力量控制一定范围内的地盘。再加上控土能力，便成了一个真正致命的组合。

但显然，他们的情报算错了她的能力范围。震动传遍整个锈镇，视野内的每一栋建筑都在灾难性的多米诺骨牌效应中接连倒塌，扬起的尘土席卷全区。

楼房坍塌，碎块雨点般砸向他们，福尔图娜高声示警。包括瑞恩在内，奥古斯蒂的人四散奔逃，但还是有几名打手转眼就被活埋在煤渣砖下。

“怎、怎么回事？”福尔图娜慌了。她周围的金色云团越来越稀薄，眼看就要彻底消失。穿过黄色光晕的碎石奇迹般地避开了这名基因者，没经过光晕的，却照样砸中了她的装甲。

“我不可能被打中的！”福尔图娜惊慌失措，终于意识到自己有生命危险。“什么都不可能打中我！”

“上我的车！”瑞恩高喊着冲向自己的普利茅斯。头顶上，高科技火箭弹穿透污染的云层，如箭雨般落向他们。瑞恩数了数，少说也有几十发，甚至可能上百。

快递员跑到引擎盖旁时，福尔图娜的力场失灵了，她被碎石绊倒。瑞恩还没来得及反应，她就被如雨落下的石块和尘土埋住了。有装甲护身，她多半能活下来，但要脱困就得有人帮忙。

不管掌控了这一区域的无形力量究竟是什么，它都干扰了她的运气。

瑞恩暂停了时间，发现自己的能力并未受到影响，不由得大松一口气。这一定只是一个黄系能力干扰了另一个，而不是消除者那种威胁极大的能力无效化。

然而，即便他开枪射击那些导弹，想在它们落地前将其引爆，十秒钟里瑞恩能做的也十分有限。时间一恢复，大部分导弹便轰然落地，一场巨大的爆炸将快递员向后掀飞。

一时间，一切都化作白光，万籁俱寂。瑞恩过了好几秒才恢复意识。他的左半边身体被烧焦了，血肉一路灼蚀到骨头，尘土钻进了面罩。

“我们需要增援！”麻雀在通讯器里大喊，背景里回荡着酸雨癫狂的笑声。“伏尔甘？！”

“我在想办法！”伏尔甘吼了回去，声音几乎被枪声盖住。“瑞恩？！福尔图娜？！回话，该死的！”

瑞恩放眼四周，只看得见燃烧的弹坑、尸体和碎石。滚滚浓烟填满了锈镇污染的天空，将这一带化作地狱般的景象。整片战区都被轰炸蹂躏了一遍。

更糟的是，他的车，他心爱的车，成了一堆冒烟的残骸。

“怎么又来！”

超能帮跟他的普利茅斯到底有什么仇？

目之所及，瑞恩是唯一的幸存者。奥古斯蒂的人都被炸成了燃烧的残肢，就连那个穿装甲的也不例外。如果莫蒂默及时穿入地下，也许还能活下来，但通讯器里没有他的回应。快递员听见东西两边都传来爆炸声，超能帮发起了反击。

“伏尔甘？”瑞恩对着通讯器呼叫，没有得到回答。“非要我找双足飞龙求救吗？”

回应他的只有一阵电流杂音。有什么东西在干扰他们的通讯。

随后，发动这次袭击的罪魁祸首从废墟里现身，高高耸立在瓦砾之上，前来给他最后一击。

那是一台庞大的深蓝色机器，长十二米，宽四米。六条金属腿支撑着机身，一条蝎尾般的尾巴在后方甩动，末端装着某种激光炮。导弹发射器布满这台战争机甲的背部，两具火焰喷射器和炮塔构成了它的“头部”。线缆触手从装甲的细小缝隙间钻出，蠕动不休。

机甲正面画着一个银色齿轮，中央是经过艺术化处理的字母“M”。

梅克隆的标志。

这台巨大的机甲显然是他的机器人之一，被超能帮改造成了武器平台。看到从缝隙中伸出的线缆触手，瑞恩猜测，心震正在内部操纵它，利用自己特殊的生理结构劫持了机器的控制中枢。

可这个机器人不像是捡来的破烂。它完好如新，像是刚从仓库里提出来。

“小切萨雷。”心震的声音从战争机甲里传出，让快递员吃了一惊。“真意外啊。”

“我还附赠礼盒。”瑞恩强忍疼痛，面无表情地回答。

“食尸鬼在哪儿？”疯魔问道。线缆从机甲防护层的一道细缝里钻出，炮口同时瞄准了快存。“你把尸体弄到哪儿去了？”

“给狗了，扔出去让它们叼着玩。”

心震用开炮回应了这个笑话。巨大的深红色光束从炮口喷出，直奔快递员而来。

瑞恩的爱车已经先他一步没了，而经历了这样一场屠杀，他也看不出继续下去有什么意义。于是他摆了个夸张的姿势，拥抱了那道光。

---

又到了2020年5月8日，这已经是……第九次了？

瑞恩不记得了，也不怎么在乎。他想，上一轮到头来终究没能成为他的完美通关，显然还有改进的空间。伏尔甘的进攻出了大岔子，现在他得想想该怎么处理。

而且，他现在也知道蕾恩在哪儿了，知道怎样才能联系上她，而不必欠嘉年华或奥古斯蒂任何一方的人情。之前他忽略了那条联系，如今看来却再明显不过。

超能帮将锈镇居民拉到了自己一边，还藏着一台梅克隆的战争机甲备用，这些都值得警惕。他们显然也有渠道获取迪纳米斯制造的武器，再加上灵药的供应，意味着两个组织之间存在某种联系。

等等。

瑞恩在先前循环中抓住的超能帮成员说过，他们想进入的地堡有机器人守卫。那些机器强大到足以对抗一群疯魔。

而梅克隆，恰恰因他的机器人大军而臭名昭著。

“我有种不祥的预感。”瑞恩喃喃自语。超能帮毁了他的车，杀了他好几次，最后还抹掉了他终于得以和蕾恩当面谈话的那一轮循环。

现在呢？

现在，是时候开战了。