同章对照

Standing in the middle of a white, underground experimentation room, Ryan let out a groan. “I need to go to the bathroom.”

“Too late, asshole,” Jasmine replied, as she used a screwdriver to close the armor’s lightweight alloy chest plate, leaving only the courier’s head exposed. Eugène-Henry Schrodinger meowed at her side, looking at his master with curiosity. “But I added a urine-recycling system if you want to drink your own piss.”

“Charming.” Ryan’s body didn’t feel so heavy, even if he wore a twenty-five kilogram suit of armor. The weight was evenly distributed to lessen the strain on his muscles, and the servos provided additional strength. While the courier wouldn’t be able to move as fast as in his glamorous suit, he could probably punch through concrete.

As per his demand, Jasmine had painted the armor purple, with orange lenses for the helmet’s eyes. Though Ryan looked like an oversized humanoid bug in it, he would remain outrageously flashy, and that was all that mattered.

Hell, his armor’s design matched Vulcan’s own. Wasn’t that adorable? Ryan had also memorized its schematics, so he could rebuild it in a future loop if needed.

Separated from a control area by a door and Plexiglas window, the place used to be an underground police interrogation room before the Wars. Jasmine had repurposed it into a lab, even managing to complete the armor in a matter of days using available material. The makeshift workshop was a far cry from Vulcan’s previous foundry, but it was sufficient.

They didn’t even have to lie about that project, not completely at least. Vulcan had promised Augustus that she would work on a new type of armor capable of enhancing Ryan’s power, and the would-be emperor had given his seal of approval. It seemed the courier’s power had left a good impression on Lightning Butt, or he just didn’t care anymore after his daughter’s demise.

Say what you wanted about the Augusti, but they got things done.

“Should have figured it out sooner,” Jasmine grumbled, as she grabbed the last part of the armor she hadn’t put on Ryan yet: the helmet. “You were just too fucking perfect. Was it a repeat performance? Did you fine-tune your sweet-talking until it worked?”

“No.” Though Ryan had centuries of experience with women, so he knew what made people tick. “You tried to kill me in a previous loop.”

“Did I succeed?” she asked, almost hopeful.

“Nope. Not even close.”

“A shame. Guess I might succeed this time.”

“It’s fine, half my girlfriends tried to kill me at one point or another,” Ryan replied with a smirk. “I’m a masochist.”

“I know you are,” Jasmine replied with a chuckle, though her mood quickly soured. “I’ve got a request, Ryan.”

“A request from you?” Ryan asked, quite surprised. Vulcan didn’t do requests, she gave orders. “How can I refuse?”

“If this fails… and it won’t fail, because I’m a genius…” Jasmine gathered her breath, as if admitting the mere possibility of failure took a colossal effort on her part. “But let’s assume that if it fails...”

“I won’t be able to transfer your mind.” In Ryan’s experience, failure would be the rule, and a potential success the exception.

“Yeah, right Sherlock,” she snapped, clenching her teeth. “If I don’t make it, it means I will cease to exist. The me right now.”

“You will just lose your memories,” Ryan argued. “Don’t be so pessimistic. It’s amnesia, not death.”

“I will lose memories of things I haven’t done. Stop kidding yourself, Ryan. I’ll be erased, end of the story.” She let out a sigh as if bracing herself for death. “So, if I don’t make it… I want you to leave my other self alone. Make sure she lives and doesn’t go to corpo-jail, but don’t pull off your summer fling crap on her. Don’t replace me with another Jasmine.”

“I understand,” Ryan said.

“Before, I said you wouldn’t forget me, and I mean it now. Even if I disappear… promise you won’t forget me.”

“I promise.”

He had made that oath before and always kept it.

The helmet in her hands, Jasmine pushed her lips against Ryan’s. The courier put his hands behind her waist, the armor clinking as it moved, and held her tight. It was a passionate, intense kiss; he felt as if Vulcan wanted to eat him on the spot.

This may be their last.

“Don’t forget that,” Jasmine said upon breaking the embrace and putting the helmet on Ryan’s face. The courier started to breathe with a respirator and see the world through lenses. Vulcan then tried to grab Schrodinger, but the cat stubbornly refused to get caught.

“I think he wants to stay,” Jasmine mused.

“It’s a Schrödinger's cat,” Ryan replied, easily seizing the cat in his armored arms. “He’ll improve the odds.”

“Whatever, I hope he has enough lives remaining,” Jasmine replied, closing the room’s door behind her. The Genius sat next to a control panel beyond the window, sparing her boyfriend one last glance before starting her work.

The plan was for Ryan to open a rift to the Purple World with his enhanced power. Though the courier had never succeeded in doing so for centuries, it should allow for physical time-travel, at least in theory. It was a far-fetched plan, even a risky one, but they had exhausted all other options. Since they had lost the necessary tech for a consciousness transfer and Europe would soon erupt in conflict, there was no other way for Jasmine to survive the restart.

The chances were slim, but one could always hope.

“If you think you might die, why are you going along with it?” Ryan asked Jasmine as she began hitting buttons on her control panel, fine-tuning the armor’s functions. Schrodinger waited, strangely silent. “You could keep me chained up in your basement.”

“Don’t tempt me,” Jasmine replied, pulling a lever on her control panel. Words and numbers started to appear on Ryan’s lenses, the suit’s systems activating. “Roughly eight million people live in New Rome and its countryside. The Meta killed what, two, three million of them? No matter how I see it… one versus three million. You would have to be a huge dick to consider it a fair deal.”

“Some would have thought otherwise,” Ryan admitted. One Genius tried to keep his brain in storage in an old loop, to prevent the courier from reloading. “That’s why I tried to keep my secret under wraps after a few betrayals.”

“Poor you,” Jasmine mocked him, before looking at the armor regretfully. “I was a hero once.”

Ryan said nothing.

“I just wanted to change the world. Make an impact. Like your Len girl is doing, though she doesn’t get it yet. I guess that’s why I wanted you on my team, Ryan; I had the feeling we were going to do great things together.”

“We are,” Ryan reassured her.

“Yeah,” she replied, stopping her work to look at him through the window. “Make sure this disaster never happens again, okay? Kill that fatass.”

“I’m killing him in every single loop from now on, I promise,” Ryan said, frowning. “If I told the Augusti about the bunker—”

“No, don’t, unless I follow you. At best, Augustus will blow up Rust Town like he did now, casualties be damned. At worst… I don’t want to think about it.” Vulcan clenched her fists, scowling. “If I don’t make it, go to Laura.”

“I’m sorry, have I misheard?” Ryan asked, astonished. “You want me to go—”

“I was jealous, alright!” the Genius snapped, interrupting her boyfriend. “Because she’s so fucking perfect! And now she just apologizes? It’s sickening.”

Ryan didn’t answer, letting Vulcan vent out all her pent-up frustration. He had the feeling that the short Genius had invested so much in her bitter rivalry with her former teammate, that she had no idea what to do now that Wyvern had thrown in the towel. Maybe with time, Jasmine would learn to move on. To stop hating.

If she had time.

“I know her better than anyone,” Jasmine grumbled in admission. “She’ll help getting rid of that bunker, if only because she’s too stupid to see the possibilities. She isn’t corrupt, just goddamn naive.”

Ryan wasn’t sure if it was meant to be a compliment or an insult. Knowing Jasmine, probably both. “Do you regret joining the Augusti?” the courier asked his girlfriend.

She considered the question for a few seconds. “No, I don’t regret it,” Vulcan finally said. “It wasn’t the best choice, but it was mine. If that makes sense.”

It didn’t, but the courier accepted it all the same.

In any case, the Genius finished typing on the control panel and looked through the window. “Ryan, we’re ready. Open the path to that Purple World, for the both of us.”

“I will do all I can.”

“Do or don’t. There is no try.”

Both burst out laughing; Ryan couldn’t believe they even shared the same love for pop culture. Truly, they had been a match made in mafia heaven. Even if it ended terribly… this loop had been something special.

Gathering his breath and holding Schrodinger in his arms, Ryan activated his time stop. Now was the moment of truth.

The world turned violet, as the Purple World and their universe converged. Instead of freezing in time, Vulcan’s armor kept working inside the temporal anomaly. Even if the experiment failed, at least Ryan could upgrade his arsenal for later runs.

Two seconds within the time-stop, the courier immediately noticed something unusual. Bright violet particles began to appear inside the interrogation room, swirling points of light coming off from his person. They floated around the room, even as the universe remained frozen.

The armor was meant to focus Ryan’s power, to fully harvest the theoretical ‘violet flux radiation’ that powered spacetime manipulators. Could this be those particles?

As two seconds turned into three, four, then five, the number of these lights only increased at an exponential rate; from a few dozens to thousands, shrouding everything around him. Their color turned from bright violet to purple, and they grew from the size of fireflies to bubbles.

At this point, Ryan reached the ten seconds limit and decided to stop before he accidentally made a new save. This was a mere initial test to access more power from the Purple World, but it wasn’t worth setting New Rome’s destruction in stone.

The genome hastily cancelled his power...

But the world remained frozen.

In fact, the number of particles around him only increased, until they drowned his sight entirely. Schrodinger, Jasmine, the entire room vanished behind a veil of colored bubbles.

“Jasmine?” Ryan attempted to move, but his body refused to. Or rather, the armor didn’t follow his movement, keeping his limbs encased in steel. He couldn’t even sense Schrodinger in his arms. “Jasmine, I can’t stop!”

No one answered.

The veil of purple bubbles split open, finally allowing Ryan to see through the armor’s lenses. But instead of the interrogation room, the courier looked at an icy, silent wasteland beneath a dark sky.

Was this Antarctica? It would fit the stars’ positions in the skies.

Strangely, while the bubbles remained at the edge of his vision and the armor refused to move, Ryan saw snow move with the wind. It felt like watching a 3D movie from an outside perspective.

Ryan’s viewpoint focused on a dark metal dome emerging from the snow; perhaps a research station or something similar. His vision glitched out, showing a mahogany desk in a darkened room. Three figures spoke around a table, although Ryan couldn’t see them clearly; they appeared as phantoms made of blue particles.

“These higher dimensions defy physics and our understanding.” A woman’s voice. “Yet, to master these alien worlds and conquer the stars is mankind’s destiny. To survive, even thrive, in this hostile universe, humanity must ascend to a higher state. From man to overman… from homo sapiens to homo novus.”

“Ascension through genetic engineering.” A similar voice, but slightly different. Ryan couldn't explain it, but it seemed like the same actor voicing two characters. “But governments and institutions will try to stop us, to preserve the status quo. Those old fossils can’t see what’s up ahead; they live in the past, while the future came to us with this craft. We were warned.”

“Old nations are fragile things that will crumble to dust, or they will adapt. The chaos we will unleash…”

“Is well within our budget.”

What was that? A vision of the past?

The scene glitched out again, and this time he could only hear broken voices; purple particles obscured his vision, like a VHS tape suffering from a breakdown.

“There is no place for Black… out of all the colors, it alone can’t be safely harnessed. The creatures within the black dimension do not seem malicious, but their mere existence tears our lower reality apart. Physical laws cannot coexist with paradoxes.”

“All the ultimate ones are compassionate, but also narrow-minded… they only understand lower universes through the prism of their color. Limitless power without complexity.”

“Or perhaps they see farther than we do.”

The veil of purple parted ways, revealing a green meadow populated with white rabbit plushies, dozens of them. They all looked at him, raising their ears as if they could see him through time and space. Their fur was covered in blood, and the courier noticed a dismembered human corpse hidden behind tall grass.

“Hi,” Ryan said.

The plushies raised their tiny paws and waved at the courier in perfect synchronization.

The purple particles’ brightness intensified, and in a blink, they all exploded in a blinding flash. Ryan had to squint, though he managed to see a shadow inside the light; through it he saw hints of impossible geometries, shifting spaces and doors to other alien worlds. A crossroads between realities, whose existence defied the physics of mankind’s universe.

He had entered the Purple World.

The shadow grew in size as if Ryan approached it. It vaguely looked like an inverted pyramid covered in eye-shaped spheres, though the courier couldn’t work the details through the purple light. However, he could tell it was colossal in size. A flying structure the size of a planet, maybe a star…

No. Not a structure.

A living being.

The godlike entity looked at Ryan with its countless eyes, and—

---

It was May 8th, 2020, a brand new day in Rome.

His hands on the driving wheel, Ryan immediately parked at the nearest spot and glanced through the window. Cars passed by his Plymouth Fury and made their way towards the glitzy city, ready to gamble their souls to win fortunes in its glamorous casinos. Mount Augustus and Dynamis’ HQ stood proud, two would-be nations facing each other.

Ryan observed his surroundings, trying to gather his thoughts. He had traded the armor for his usual clothes, and after checking, confirmed that everything was back in its proper place. Either the entity had killed him, or it activated a failsafe in the Genome’s own ability.

And no sign of Vulcan either. She was supposed to call him immediately should she somehow manage to travel back in time, and so far, his phone had remained silent.

Jasmine hadn’t made it through.

“Well…” Ryan let out a deep, sad sigh. “That was a failure.”

The time-traveler wasn’t surprised, just… disappointed.

At least Ryan had managed to go back after all, instead of accidentally making a new save. It had only cost him a trusted friend, and everything else. But the Genome had a chance to make things right, and he wouldn’t waste it.

Gathering his breath, Ryan put on the chronoradio, and prepared to make his way towards Renesco’s place.

“I still think we’re alone in the universe.”

Ryan stopped, as Len’s voice came out of the chronoradio.

“It’s all dark and cold beyond our little blue planet.”

“We aren’t alone,” Ryan’s own voice answered through the radio. “And if you ask me, the stars shine brighter still.”

The courier behind the wheel froze, as he heard himself discuss with Len through the radio. It didn’t take him long to realize what was happening.

He listened to a recording. A recording of that conversation with Len, on the orphanage’s roof.

How? He didn’t record it, and neither did Shortie as far as he knew! How did it travel back in time? Did Len manage to send a recording through her device before Mechron’s satellite claimed her life? Or was it that strange entity’s doing?

Whatever the case, the whole orphanage conversation repeated perfectly, as Ryan had experienced it. Eventually, the courier’s own words echoed in his car.

“It can improve. Len, all you see is the dark, but everywhere you look, there’s light.”

Yes. Even if the world held much sorrow, it was also worth saving.

Ryan pushed the accelerator and drove towards New Rome, to begin again. It didn’t matter how many tries it would take, how many false starts and bad endings he would have to go through. He had a city to save, and a Perfect Run to complete.

The courier had made a promise to Vulcan, and he would keep it.

瑞恩站在一间通体白色的地下实验室中央，呻吟了一声。“我得去趟厕所。”

“晚了，混蛋。”贾丝敏一边回答，一边用螺丝刀固定装甲的轻合金胸甲，现在送货员全身上下只剩脑袋露在外面。欧仁-亨利·薛定谔在她身旁喵了一声，好奇地打量着自己的主人。“不过我加了尿液回收系统，要是你想喝自己的尿，倒也行。”

“真贴心。”虽说套着一身二十五公斤重的装甲，瑞恩倒不觉得身体有多沉。重量分配得很均匀，减轻了肌肉的负担，伺服装置还提供了额外的力量。送货员穿着它，行动没法像身着那套华丽西装时那么迅速，不过大概能一拳打穿混凝土。

按照他的要求，贾丝敏把装甲漆成了紫色，头盔双眼处的镜片则是橙色。瑞恩穿上它，看起来像只特大号人形昆虫，但依旧扎眼得令人发指。这才是最重要的。

嘿，他这套装甲的设计和伏尔甘自己的还是配套的。多可爱啊。瑞恩也把设计图记了下来，往后的循环里有需要，还能重新造一套。

实验室与控制区之间隔着一道门和一扇有机玻璃窗，战争之前，这里曾是警方的地下审讯室。贾丝敏把它改造成了实验室，甚至只靠现有材料，短短几天就完成了这套装甲。这个临时工坊远不能和伏尔甘从前的铸造厂相比，但也够用了。

他们甚至不必为这个项目撒谎，至少不必句句作假。伏尔甘向奥古斯都承诺，要研发一种能增强瑞恩能力的新型装甲，这位一心称帝的家伙也批准了。看来送货员的能力给闪电屁股留下了不错的印象，又或者，女儿死后，他已经什么都不在乎了。

不管怎么评价奥古斯蒂，有一点得承认：他们是真能把事办成。

“早该看出来的。”贾丝敏嘟囔着，拿起装甲上唯一还没给瑞恩装好的部件：头盔。“你他妈的也太完美了。这是重演了一遍以前的戏码吗？那些甜言蜜语，你是不是反复打磨过，直到能哄住我为止？”

“没有。”不过瑞恩有几百年与女人打交道的经验，很清楚人吃哪一套。“以前有一轮循环，你倒是试过要我的命。”

“成功了吗？”她问，语气甚至有点期待。

“没有。差得远呢。”

“可惜。那这次说不定能成。”

“没事，我一半的女朋友都试过要我的命。”瑞恩坏笑着回答，“我是个受虐狂。”

“我知道你是。”贾丝敏轻笑了一声，可心情很快又沉了下去。“瑞恩，我有件事想求你。”

“你求我？”瑞恩颇为惊讶。伏尔甘从不求人，她只会发号施令。“那我怎么舍得拒绝？”

“如果失败了……当然不会失败，因为我是天才……”贾丝敏深吸了一口气，仿佛光是承认存在失败的可能，就耗尽了她的力气。“但假设，万一失败了……”

“我就没法转移你的意识。”以瑞恩的经验，失败才是常态，成功只是偶有可能的例外。

“对对对，福尔摩斯。”她咬紧牙关，没好气地说，“要是我没能过去，就意味着我会不复存在。现在的这个我。”

“你只会失去记忆。”瑞恩争辩道，“别那么悲观。那是失忆，不是死亡。”

“我会失去的，是那些我还没做过的事的记忆。别再自欺欺人了，瑞恩。我会被抹去，就这么回事。”她叹了一口气，仿佛已准备好迎接死亡。“所以，如果我没能过去……我希望你别去打扰另一个我。确保她活着，别进企业监狱，但别对她搞你那套夏日露水情缘的把戏。别拿另一个贾丝敏来替代我。”

“我明白。”瑞恩说。

“以前我说过，你忘不掉我。现在我是认真的。就算我消失了……答应我，别忘了我。”

“我答应你。”

这样的誓言，他以前也许过，而且从未食言。

贾丝敏手里还拿着头盔，便将嘴唇贴上了瑞恩的。送货员双手环住她的腰，把她紧紧抱在怀里，装甲随着动作铿锵作响。这个吻热烈而激切，他觉得伏尔甘像是恨不得当场把他吞下去。

这也许是他们最后一个吻了。

“别忘了刚才。”贾丝敏松开怀抱，将头盔扣在瑞恩头上。送货员开始通过呼吸器呼吸，透过镜片看世界。随后，伏尔甘想去抱薛定谔，那只猫却倔强地不肯让她抓住。

“看来他想留下。”贾丝敏说。

“这可是薛定谔的猫。”瑞恩用裹着装甲的双臂轻松抱起猫咪，“他能提高成功的概率。”

“随你吧，希望他剩下的命还够用。”贾丝敏说完，走出房间，关上了门。这位天才坐到窗外的控制台旁，最后看了男朋友一眼，才开始工作。

计划是让瑞恩用增强后的能力，打开一道通往紫色世界的裂隙。虽然几百年来，送货员从没成功做到过，但至少理论上，这应该能让人以肉身穿越时间。这套方案异想天开，甚至相当冒险，可他们已经没有别的选择了。意识转移所需的技术已经失去，欧洲又即将陷入战乱，要让贾丝敏熬过这次重置，别无他法。

机会渺茫，但总还能抱有希望。

“既然你觉得自己可能会死，为什么还愿意配合？”贾丝敏开始按动控制台上的按钮，微调装甲的各项功能，瑞恩便问了她这个问题。薛定谔安静地等着，出奇地一声不吭。“你大可以把我锁在地下室里。”

“别诱惑我。”贾丝敏回答，同时扳下控制台上的一根操纵杆。装甲的系统开始启动，瑞恩眼前的镜片上浮现出文字和数字。“新罗马和周围乡间大约住着八百万人。超能帮杀了多少，两百万，三百万？不管我怎么看……一条命，对上三百万条命。得是个天大的混蛋，才会觉得这是笔公平交易。”

“有些人可不这么想。”瑞恩承认。在过去某轮循环里，一个天才曾试图把他的大脑封存起来，好阻止送货员读档。“所以被背叛过几次之后，我就尽量守住这个秘密了。”

“真可怜啊。”贾丝敏挖苦了他一句，随后带着遗憾望向那套装甲。“我也曾经是个英雄。”

瑞恩没有说话。

“我只是想改变世界，留下点影响。就像你那个蕾恩姑娘现在做的事，只是她自己还不明白。我想，这就是我当初想拉你入伙的原因，瑞恩。我那时觉得，我们在一起能做出一番大事。”

“我们会的。”瑞恩向她保证。

“嗯。”她停下手中的工作，隔着玻璃望向他。“一定别让这场灾难再发生了，好吗？杀了那个死胖子。”

“从现在开始，每一轮循环我都会杀了他，我保证。”瑞恩皱起眉头。“要是我把地堡的事告诉奥古斯蒂——”

“不，别告诉他们，除非我跟你一起回去。最好的结果，也就是奥古斯都像这次一样把锈镇炸掉，管他死伤多少人。最坏的结果……我不愿去想。”伏尔甘紧握双拳，阴着脸。“要是我没能过去，就去找劳拉。”

“抱歉，我没听错吧？”瑞恩惊讶地问，“你要我去找——”

“我就是嫉妒她，行了吧！”天才厉声打断男朋友的话，“因为她他妈的太完美了！现在她居然还来道歉？真叫人恶心。”

瑞恩没有回答，任伏尔甘发泄所有积压已久的怨气。他觉得，这位小个子天才在与昔日队友的积怨和争斗上投入了太多，如今双足飞龙主动认输，她反倒不知该怎么办了。也许假以时日，贾丝敏会学着放下过去，不再憎恨。

如果她还有时间的话。

“没人比我更了解她。”贾丝敏嘟囔着承认，“她会帮忙除掉那个地堡的，哪怕只是因为她蠢得看不出那地方有多少用处。她倒不腐败，就是他妈的天真。”

瑞恩不确定这是夸奖还是辱骂。以他对贾丝敏的了解，大概两者都有。“你后悔加入奥古斯蒂吗？”送货员问女朋友。

她想了几秒。“不，我不后悔。”伏尔甘终于回答，“那不是最好的选择，但那是我自己的选择。不知道这样说有没有道理。”

没什么道理，不过送货员还是接受了这个回答。

无论如何，天才结束了控制台上的输入，抬头望向玻璃窗。“瑞恩，准备好了。打开通往那个紫色世界的路吧，为了我们两个。”

“我会尽全力。”

“要么做，要么不做。没有试试看。”

两人同时笑出了声。瑞恩简直不敢相信，他们连对流行文化的热爱都如此一致。他们真是黑手党天堂里的天作之合。哪怕结局惨不忍睹……这一轮循环依旧与众不同。

瑞恩深吸一口气，怀抱薛定谔，发动了时间暂停。见分晓的时候到了。

紫色世界与他们的宇宙交汇，世界染上了紫罗兰色。伏尔甘的装甲没有随时间一同凝固，而是在这片时间异常中继续运转。就算实验失败，至少瑞恩也能为往后的循环升级一下装备库。

时间暂停刚过去两秒，送货员就察觉到了异常。明亮的紫罗兰色粒子开始在审讯室里浮现，一个个旋转的光点从他身上逸出。宇宙依旧凝固，它们却在房间里四处飘荡。

这套装甲的用途，是聚焦瑞恩的能力，充分汲取理论上为时空操控者提供能量的“紫色通量辐射”。难道就是这些粒子？

两秒变成三秒、四秒，接着是五秒，光点的数量以指数级速度不断增加，从几十个变成几千个，将他周围的一切笼罩。它们的颜色由明亮的紫罗兰色变为紫色，个头也从萤火虫大小膨胀到了气泡大小。

这时，瑞恩达到了十秒的上限，决定赶在意外创建新存档之前停下来。这不过是一次初步测试，目的是从紫色世界获取更多力量，不值得为此把新罗马的毁灭变成无法挽回的定局。

基因者急忙停用了能力……

可世界依旧凝固着。

事实上，他周围的粒子反而越来越多，直到彻底淹没了视野。薛定谔、贾丝敏，整个房间，全都消失在那层有色气泡织成的帷幕之后。

“贾丝敏？”瑞恩试着动弹，身体却不听使唤。准确地说，是装甲没有跟着动，将他的四肢牢牢禁锢在钢铁之中。他甚至感觉不到怀里的薛定谔。“贾丝敏，我停不下来！”

无人回答。

紫色气泡构成的帷幕裂开了，瑞恩终于能透过装甲的镜片看清外面。可映入送货员眼帘的不是审讯室，而是漆黑天空下一片冰封、死寂的荒原。

这是南极洲？天上星辰的位置倒是对得上。

奇怪的是，气泡仍在视野边缘徘徊，装甲也还是动不了，瑞恩却看见雪花在随风飘动。感觉就像以局外人的视角看一场立体电影。

瑞恩的视野聚焦在一座从积雪中露出的深色金属穹顶上，也许是研究站之类的地方。眼前的画面忽然一阵错乱，显出一间昏暗房间里的桃花心木书桌。三道人影围着桌子交谈，瑞恩却看不清他们，只能看见蓝色粒子组成的幻影。

“这些高维空间违背物理学，也超出了我们的理解。”一个女人的声音。“然而，掌控这些异界、征服群星，是人类的天命。要在这个充满敌意的宇宙里生存，甚至繁荣昌盛，人类就必须升华到更高的状态。从人到超人……从智人到新人类。”

“通过基因工程实现升格。”另一个声音，听起来相似，却又略有不同。瑞恩说不清为什么，但感觉就像同一个演员在给两个角色配音。“但政府和各类机构会试图阻止我们，以维持现状。那些老古董看不见前方的事物；他们活在过去，未来却已随着这艘飞行器来到我们面前。我们已经收到过警告。”

“旧有的国家都是脆弱之物，要么崩塌成尘，要么适应改变。我们即将释放的混乱……”

“完全在我们的预算范围之内。”

那是什么？过去的幻象？

画面再次错乱，这一回他只能听见断断续续的声音。紫色粒子遮住了他的视野，就像一盘播放出了故障的录像带。

“黑色没有容身之地……所有颜色之中，唯独它无法被安全地利用。黑色维度里的生物似乎没有恶意，但仅仅是它们的存在，就会撕裂我们更低层的现实。物理定律无法与悖论共存。”

“所有终极者都心怀慈悲，却也思想狭隘……它们只能透过自身颜色的棱镜去理解下层宇宙。有着无限的力量，却毫无复杂性可言。”

“又或许，它们比我们看得更远。”

紫色帷幕向两边分开，露出一片绿草地，上面有几十只白兔毛绒玩偶。它们全都竖起耳朵望着他，仿佛能穿透时空看见他的存在。它们的绒毛沾满鲜血，送货员还注意到，高草后藏着一具被肢解的人类尸体。

“嗨。”瑞恩说。

毛绒玩偶们举起小爪子，动作整齐划一地朝送货员挥了挥。

紫色粒子越来越亮，转瞬间一齐爆发出炫目的闪光。瑞恩不得不眯起眼睛，却还是勉强瞥见了光中的一道阴影；透过它，他隐约看到了不可能存在的几何形态、不断变换的空间，以及通往其他异界的门户。那是诸多现实的交汇点，其存在本身，就违背了人类宇宙的物理规律。

他进入了紫色世界。

阴影越来越大，仿佛瑞恩正在向它靠近。它隐约像一座倒悬的金字塔，表面覆满眼状球体，可隔着紫光，送货员看不清细节。不过，他能确定它大得惊人。一个飞行的构造体，体量堪比一颗行星，也许是一颗恒星……

不。不是构造体。

是个活物。

那神明般的存在用无数只眼睛望向瑞恩，然后——

---

2020年5月8日，罗马迎来了崭新的一天。

瑞恩手握方向盘，立刻就近停车，朝车窗外望去。一辆辆汽车从他的普利茅斯“狂怒”旁驶过，开向那座浮华的城市。车里的人准备在华丽的赌场中赌上灵魂，赢取巨额财富。奥古斯都山和迪纳米斯总部傲然矗立，像两个一心立国的势力，彼此对峙。

瑞恩打量着周围，试着理清思绪。身上的装甲已换回平时的衣服，检查过后，他确认一切都回到了该在的位置。那个存在要么杀死了他，要么触发了瑞恩自身能力里的保险机制。

伏尔甘也杳无音信。按约定，只要她设法穿越了时间，就该立刻给他打电话，可到现在，他的手机一直安安静静。

贾丝敏没能穿越过来。

“好吧……”瑞恩沉沉地叹了口气，满是悲伤。“失败了。”

时间旅行者并不意外，只是……失望。

至少瑞恩终究还是回来了，没有意外创建新存档。代价不过是一位信得过的朋友，以及其他一切。但这名基因者还有机会把事情纠正过来，他不会浪费这个机会。

瑞恩深吸一口气，打开时空收音机，准备前往雷内斯科那里。

“我还是觉得，我们在宇宙里是孤独的。”

蕾恩的声音从时空收音机里传了出来，瑞恩停住了。

“我们这颗小小的蓝色星球之外，全是黑暗和寒冷。”

“我们并不孤独。”收音机里，瑞恩自己的声音答道。“而且要我说，星光还要更耀眼。”

听着收音机里自己与蕾恩的对话，坐在方向盘后的送货员僵住了。没过多久，他就明白了这是怎么回事。

他听到的是一段录音。在孤儿院屋顶上，他与蕾恩那场谈话的录音。

怎么会？他没有录过，至少据他所知，小矮个也没录过！这段录音是怎么穿越时间回来的？难道在梅克隆的卫星夺走她的生命之前，蕾恩成功用她的设备送出了一段录音？还是那个奇异存在的手笔？

无论原因是什么，在孤儿院的整场谈话都原原本本地重放了一遍，与瑞恩亲历的完全一致。不久，送货员自己的话语回荡在车厢里。

“可以变好的。蕾恩，你看到的只有黑暗，可无论你望向哪里，都有光。”

是啊。这个世界纵然满是悲哀，仍值得拯救。

瑞恩踩下油门，驶向新罗马，再次开始。无论需要尝试多少次，无论要经历多少次出师不利、多少个坏结局，都无所谓。他有一座城市要救，还有一次完美通关要完成。

送货员向伏尔甘许过承诺，他一定会兑现。