同章对照

• Spring 2018, farm near Firenze, Italy.

An eighteen-years old Ryan Romano kicked the laboratory’s door open, naked as the day he was born. “Braindead!” he shouted, raising a rabbit plushie above his head. “I did it! I did it!”

His ‘roommate’ Alchemo, who had been busy operating on an extracted dog’s brain, raised his head at Ryan. This lanky cyborg had bones made of brass, steel pumps for organs, and glass for veins; his hands ended with syringes. A brain and two green eyes floated in its glass dome of a skull, glaring at the time-traveler.

“Why are you naked, you shameless exhibitionist?” The voice that came out of the cyborg’s speaker was annoyed, but not surprised. “Have you let your base, biological urges run wild yet again?”

“Yes, but no!” Ryan replied happily, waving his new invention at the cybernetic Genius. “I just couldn’t wait to show you the truth!”

The cyborg looked at the beautiful toy without a word. For a moment, the only sound that echoed in the workshop was that of computers. The Genius’s laboratory was a true den of mad science, a chaotic gallery of brains in jars, tubes full of multicolored, chemical substances, and experimental weed strains. The Chronoradio awaited on a table nearby, hooked to an artificial brain and a miniature particle accelerator.

“What is this?” Alchemo finally asked. “A scavenged children’s toy?”

“The test probe!” Ryan replied proudly. “It’s way more imaginative than another rover!”

“And why a lagomorph plushie, exactly?”

“Well, it’s cute. If the dimension is inhabited, it will lull the locals into complacency.”

To prove it, Ryan flipped the back switch, waking up the plushie. Its blue eyes shone with artificial light, and it immediately played a pre-recorded message, “I love you!”

“See?” Ryan asked. “It comes with lasers and is programmed to protect children under the age of thirteen. It’s completely safe.”

“Sometimes I wonder if your neural connections are damaged beyond repair,” Alchemo said, absentmindedly finishing his current surgery. “But it is as you wish.”

Alchemo, or Braindead as Ryan liked to call him, was a Genius with a special focus on neural technology. Brain-machine interfaces, brains in a jar, sensory drugs, if it involved neurons, he could do it. Ryan had known him for over two years, at least from his point of view. They even started a drug cartel together in a previous loop, though that venture ended with Ryan shot by one of his maddened customers.

But it was fun! Maybe Ryan will dedicate this new loop to make their Rampage start-up work this time?

In any case, the time-traveler had dedicated the last decade or so to mastering Genius tech, learning from the best. With enough knowledge, the time-traveler hoped he could find a way to travel further back in time; before he drank his Elixir.

Progress was slow but worthwhile. Alchemo in particular might finally find a way to make the Chronoradio work.

“Romano.”

“Yes?”

“Put something on before the Doll sees you,” the Genius all but ordered his roommate. “You already corrupted her mind enough with your ‘body enhancements.’”

“You’re just jealous of my android design talent.”

“I fail to see the use in mammaries in an asexual gynoid construct,” Alchemo replied icily, completely missing the point. “Anyway, toss that thing into the accelerator. You still will not tell me the purpose of these experiments?”

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” Ryan replied, moving towards the device. The mini particle accelerator took the shape of a small metal tube with a hatch, hooked to the Chronoradio. Ryan quickly opened it and put the plushie inside, like a child in an escape pod.

“We won’t know unless you try,” Alchemo grumbled.

Well, maybe Ryan could? Most of the people he confided in during the early loops didn’t believe him, but Braindead had grown more and more open-minded in the Violet Genome’s company. “How about I tell you if the experiment is a success?” the courier asked, before remembering something important. “Also, you should stop abusing that metaboost drug you designed. The side effects will catch up to you.”

“How do you kno—were you looking into my stash? You thief, I should have you expelled from my property!”

“Sure, sure,” Ryan replied, knowing the cranky genius’s bark was worse than his bite. “Alright, so the particle accelerator should send the plushie to that alternate dimension I told you about. It is equipped with a camera and the best artificial intelligence hardware I could find.”

“Knowing you, that’s not saying much.”

Ryan eventually put on a red shawl around his waist, though only because Braindead refused to activate the machine unless he covered his most powerful weapon. Once they were ready, Alchemo transformed his fingers from syringes to USB keys and hooked himself to a computer. The particle accelerator made a terrible sound as it activated, like the roar of a living engine.

“So far so good,” Braindead said, processing data directly into his brain. “Energy readings are stable.”

“Did it teleport?” Ryan asked, hands clenched in excitement.

“I wouldn’t say it teleports, but it coexists in two dimensions so long as the accelerator is active,” Braindead replied with what could pass for a shrug. “Are you sure you want that device hooked to a car’s engine? Seems like a waste of promising technology.”

“Oh, I’m certain.” If the accelerator managed to send the plushie into another dimension, then it should allow the Plymouth Fury to do the same. Ryan could settle for an alternate Earth where his family and Len were both still alive. “Have you watched Back to the Future?”

“I don’t watch movies, I live them.”

Oh, right, the old Genius hooked his brain to artificial ones to experience false memories. Ryan himself wondered if he should enter the market considering his wealth of experience, though two-thirds of his past would be rated 18+.

Eventually, the noise from the particle accelerator lessened and finally subsided completely. Ryan expected to find the plushie missing, but instead, a brief, violet flash suddenly erupted from the accelerator the second he opened the hatch.

When it subsided, his creation looked up at its maker with its big, beautiful blue eyes. Ryan blinked, the plushie tilting its head to the side.

“Uh, Brainy, are you controlling my rabbit from afar?” Ryan asked, the plushie raising its ears as if it was a living being, instead of a stylized exploration probe.

“Let’s play together!” said the plushie, raising its tiny hands on its own. The time-traveler started hearing sound coming from the robot, strange whispers the time-traveler couldn’t decipher. Was the speaker broken?

“Why would I touch that dirty thing, except with a stick?” Alchemo replied, disengaging from the computer to observe this furry wonder of engineering. “Perhaps the energy blast fried the hardware?”

The plushie glared at the Genius, its blue eyes turning red.

Aww, it could even make an angry fa—

ZAP!

Alchemo’s glass skull exploded as a laser went through it, vaporizing the brain inside. Ryan barely had the time to cover his head with his arms, shards cutting his skin while the cyborg’s body collapsed to the ground.

The rabbit’s eyes shone with malice, the hidden lasers within having activated on their own.

“Damn it, that’s the fifth time!” Ryan complained, looking at Alchemo’s remains. “Fifth time I got him killed!”

The plushie clearly didn’t think it did anything wrong. “Let’s go to Disneyland!”

“Not today,” Ryan replied, deeming this experiment a failure. “Now I have to reload before Doll finds him.”

With a sigh, the courier casually headbutted the nearest jar and used a glass shard to slice his own throat.

---

Ryan woke up a few minutes earlier, gazing into a blue abyss.

The plushie looked back at the time-traveler, orienting its ears at him instead of attacking immediately.

What happened? Why did Ryan reload now instead of the day before? He hadn’t created a new save point since yesterday night! Did… did the experiment force him to save on reflex? Whatever the case, Ryan was sure it remembered.

“It is still in our dimension?” Alchemo replied, moving towards the accelerator to look at death once more. “Is the hardware still functional?”

The plushie’s eyes turned red yet again.

Ryan immediately attempted to activate the switch on its back and save the Genius, but the plushie hopped out of the particle accelerator and onto a nearby table. Alien voices echoed through the room, as the rabbit’s left hand revealed a hidden blade, which it quickly raised at Ryan.

“Wait, you equipped it with a switchblade?” Alchemo asked. “Also, you have a weird choice in sound design for that thing.”

“It was for self-defense only!” Ryan replied, wondering if he should just use a time-stop and be done with it.

But he couldn’t figure out what happened for the life of him. The time-traveler didn’t program the plushie to react like this! Had the accelerator damaged the hardware inside? It was as if something else, something intelligent, controlled it from afar…

Ryan’s eyes wandered to the plushie’s shadow, and he realized it didn’t belong to a rabbit anymore. The shape didn’t fit any creature of this world, but that of a monster with tentacles, appendages, and impossible geometry defying comprehension.

Okay. The good news, the particle accelerator worked. Somewhat.

Bad news, it had worked in reverse, bringing something in instead of sending a probe out.

“What is all this racket?”

A new voice echoed in the workshop as its door slowly widened, and a redheaded, green-eyed woman walked in. While she looked normal at first glance, with a lovely heart-shaped face, one only had to give a cursory glance at her arms to realize her true nature: that of a lifelike mannequin, animated through technology.

Doll was a robot, a gynoid animated by an artificial brain created by Alchemo; one advanced enough to pass the Turing test. Though he pretended to have created her to assist him in his work, Quicksave was sure the Genius actually wanted human company. Brainy might have let go of his physical needs, but emotional ones were another matter entirely.

Still, Alchemo had only equipped her with a human face, a featureless body, and called it quits. It had fallen to Ryan to make her body truly humanlike, in all the ways that mattered.

He even gave her a name.

“Tea, back off!” Ryan shouted, the plushie hiding its switchblade arm behind its back and changing its eyes from red to blue. Even the alien voices had suddenly fallen silent. “It’s dangerous!”

“Dangerous to you, mayhaps,” Alchemo mused, none the wiser. “Methinks you cannot control your own creations.”

“Dangerous?” Tea looked at the plushie, immediately joining her hands together. “It is so adorable… what are you hiding behind your back?”

The plushie slowly revealed his hand.

But instead of a switchblade, it held a rose.

“I love you!” it said to Tea.

The gynoid couldn’t help but gush, as she took the flower. Wait, Ryan thought, where did it find a rose in this lifeless dump? “Thank you,” Doll said, petting the plushie behind the ears. “It is adorable.”

“Tea, step away from the rabbit,” Ryan pleaded. “You don’t know where it has been!”

“But look at it, it’s cute,” the gynoid replied, holding the rabbit on her shoulder like a child, and the tiny monster didn’t resist. She looked at Alchemo, who had observed the scene with some degree of amusement. “Can I keep it, Father?”

“If you want, Doll,” the Genius replied with a grunt, uncaring. “Do as you wish with it.”

“Hey, wait, you can’t dispose of my stuff like that!” Ryan protested.

“Stop stealing from my medicine stash, and we’ll talk.”

The plushie looked at Ryan over Doll’s shoulders, its eyes turning from blue to red.

---

Eventually, what was bound to happen, happened.

A containment breach.

“Research log B-101,” Ryan told himself, fully dressed and rifle in hand. He didn’t record anything though; he just wanted to monologue. “My hunt for the plushie continues. The beast has eluded capture so far, but I do not despair.”

The plushie had used its cuteness to lull Tea into a false sense of safety, and then immediately ran away when she wasn’t looking. Ryan had followed its trail for over three days.

It wasn’t difficult. He just had to follow the corpses, strung to trees with their own intestines.

“The beast is learning,” Ryan observed. The first ‘ropes’ had been crudely designed, collapsing under the weight of their owner. The newest ones were thicker, stronger, more complex. “Though it appears to focus its unbridled hostility towards humans.”

While the rabbit attacked Alchemo on sight, Tea didn’t trigger a hostile reaction. Ryan had also crossed paths with animals like wild dogs and hares during the search, yet none had perished at the plushie’s vicious claws.

Perhaps it found humans to be the most dangerous game of all, or something about homo sapiens infuriated the creature on an instinctual level.

Eventually, Ryan tracked the plushie to a farm closest to Alchemo’s. He didn’t have to look too hard; he had heard the voices when he approached the area.

He found the farm’s owner, a woman named Sarah, tied up on a bed of broken wood right in front of her barn. The plushie had shoved an apple down her throat, like a pig ready for roasting. The responsible party stood next to her, eyes crimson and white fur drenched in blood.

It seemed to struggle with lighting a match with its associated box, while its captive looked at Ryan with pleading eyes.

“Bad rabbit!” Ryan shouted, raising his rifle at the monster he had created. “Drop the match!”

The rabbit looked back at the time-traveler and finally lit a match.

“Don’t do it,” Ryan warned, keeping the rifle aimed at the creature’s head. In response, the plushie dangled the match over the woodpile, seemingly entertained by the woman’s muffled cries. “I know violence solves many problems, but not all of them!”

“Mom?”

Ryan and the plushie looked at the barn, a blonde child no older than ten peeking through the door. A tense standoff between an armed man and a murderous rabbit, with his mom in the middle...

Well, this must have been quite an embarrassing sight.

“Child detected.” The rabbit’s eyes turned blue, and the alien voices fell silent. “Entering cute mode.”

The rabbit instantly dropped everything to rush at the child, the lit match falling towards the woodpile and the captive. With supreme marksmanship honed through countless restarts, Ryan managed to shoot the match with the rifle, blowing it out before it could set the victim ablaze.

The child screamed and stumbled as the plushie powered through the barn’s doors.

“You are my best friend!” said the rabbit, grabbing onto the screaming child’s leg with its bloody hands. “Let’s hug!”

Ryan briefly worried for the child, but thankfully, besides refusing to let the kid’s ankle go, the rabbit didn’t attack in any way. The plushie’s programming kept working, preventing it from attacking children under thirteen and activating the protection subroutine.

Now, the time-traveler just had to free the captive, pull the switch, and everything would return to normalc—

Pop.

Ryan blinked, unsure if he was experiencing hallucinations.

For while the blood-drenched rabbit still held on tight to its new, and unwilling, best friend… a second, white-snow plushie had appeared out of nowhere, looking at Ryan with its big blue eyes.

Uh…

That wasn’t good at all.

---

Research log C-011…

Well, actually, now wasn’t the time to monologue.

Though only a ruin after the world ended, Firenze had only a few days ago welcomed a population of refugees, trying to rebuild the city. Dynamis had an enclave there, and even Augustus’ drug cartel had a presence in the area.

But today, Ryan didn’t see any humans as he walked through the city’s empty streets. He didn’t hear a sound.

But he wasn’t alone. Everywhere around him, white forms occupied every corner of the city.

Rabbits.

Rabbit plushies, everywhere. On the roofs, on the ground, behind the windows. None made a sound or even twitched. They just watched Ryan, as if they were all mere drones bound by a singular intelligence.

“Well,” Ryan said, “I fucked up.”

It seemed that the child had triggered a new pattern in the creature. Perhaps its sheer happiness allowed it to divide, or it ‘summoned’ alternate versions of itself from other universes. Whatever the case, the plushie had started reproducing.

And like all rabbits… the plushie multiplied exponentially. By the time Ryan had tracked the second one to Firenze half a week after the farm incident, it was already too late. The time-traveler wasn’t sure what happened to the city’s population, but he had no intention of finding out.

“Alright, I just doomed humanity yet again,” the time-traveler said, sighing before looking for a rope to hang himself with while the rabbits watched. “I shouldn’t make it a habit...”

---

During the next loop, Ryan went to sleep with a clear mind, happy to have contained the dangerous anomaly.

In the end, Ryan dealt with the plushie by activating his time-stop and flipping the switch off the moment he reloaded. The creature possessing it might seem capable of remembering his past loops, yet it remained bound to its host body’s programming. Sort of.

As it turned out, the accelerator had fried the hardware, damaging the camera. Not only could Ryan not extract any information about whichever dimension the plushie had been exposed to, the robot shouldn’t even function.

Why did it follow the original programming if the CPU no longer worked?

Ryan himself didn’t remember how he made the plushie in the first place, and half of its pieces didn’t make sense on a closer look. It had been a stroke of inspiration, born of his raw nakedness. Perhaps the plushie’s behavior was caused by its mechanical part, or by the abomination now using it as an anchor on Earth… or perhaps a combination of both.

Ryan hesitated about destroying his creation, considering its threat to the world at large, but decided to keep it. It could prove an amusing last-resort weapon, and he was curious about its true nature.

Also, destroying the plushie might release whatever dwelled inside into their reality. Even Ryan wasn’t crazy enough to try.

In any case, the courier closed his eyes, dreaming about new adventures and how he would tell Braindead the truth. The plushie looked down from the bedside table, inactive.

For hours, there was no movement in the room. Even the noises coming from Alchemo’s workshop stopped; the Genius ended his hard day’s work with a moment of relaxation, replaying harvested memories from before the war.

And then, with the slightest click sound…

The plushie’s ‘off’ switch flipped to ‘on.’

Without making any noise, the plushie hopped on the bed, leaning over the sleeping Ryan. The courier’s slumber was too deep for him to notice, even as the shadow of death approached. The plushie observed its human creator without a sound, watching his chest rise up with his breath.

“I will always be your friend,” the plushie finally said.

It raised the bedsheet to keep Ryan warm and then sat on the nearest pillow. The switch moved from on to off, and the plushie played statues.

They would have so much fun together...

• 2018年春，意大利佛罗伦萨附近的一座农场。

十八岁的瑞恩·罗马诺一脚踹开实验室的门，浑身上下光溜溜，跟刚出生时一样。“脑残！”他把一只兔子毛绒玩偶举过头顶，大喊道，“我成功了！我成功了！”

他的“室友”阿尔凯莫正忙着给一颗取出来的狗脑动手术，闻声抬头看向瑞恩。这个瘦长的半机械人骨骼由黄铜制成，器官是钢铁泵，血管是玻璃管，双手末端则是一根根注射器。他那玻璃罩似的头颅里浮着一颗大脑和两只绿眼睛，正怒视着时间旅行者。

“你为什么光着身子，你这个不知羞耻的暴露狂？”半机械人的扬声器里传出恼火的声音，却并不惊讶，“你又放任自己低级的生理冲动肆意泛滥了？”

“是，但也不是！”瑞恩兴高采烈地回答，把自己的新发明举到这位半机械天才面前晃了晃，“我只是等不及要让你见识一下真理！”

半机械人盯着那只漂亮的玩具，一言不发。一时间，工作室里只剩下计算机运行的声音。这位天才的实验室是个货真价实的疯狂科学巢穴：罐子里的大脑、盛着五颜六色化学物质的试管，以及实验培育的大麻品种，乱糟糟地陈列在各处。时空收音机就放在旁边一张桌上，连接着一颗人工大脑和一台微型粒子加速器，静候使用。

“这是什么？”阿尔凯莫终于开口问道，“捡来的儿童玩具？”

“实验用的探测器！”瑞恩骄傲地回答，“总比再造一台探测车有想象力吧！”

“那到底为什么要做成一只兔形目毛绒玩偶？”

“因为可爱啊。如果那个维度有居民，它就能让当地人放松警惕。”

为了证明这一点，瑞恩拨动背后的开关，唤醒了毛绒玩偶。它的蓝眼睛亮起人造的光芒，立刻播放了一段预先录好的话：“我爱你！”

“看见了吧？”瑞恩问，“它自带激光，程序还设定了要保护未满十三岁的儿童。绝对安全。”

“有时候，我真怀疑你的神经连接是不是已经损坏到了无可挽救的地步。”阿尔凯莫一边说，一边心不在焉地给手头的手术收尾，“不过，随你高兴。”

阿尔凯莫——或者用瑞恩喜欢的叫法，脑残——是一位专精神经技术的天才。脑机接口、缸中之脑、感官药物，只要涉及神经元，他就能做。瑞恩已经认识他两年多了，至少从瑞恩自己的角度来说是这样。他们甚至在之前的一轮循环里合伙开过贩毒集团，只是这项事业最后以瑞恩被一个发疯的顾客开枪打死而告终。

但那可好玩了！也许这一次，瑞恩可以把这轮新循环专门用来经营他们的狂暴初创企业，争取把它做成？

总之，过去十年左右，这位时间旅行者一直致力于掌握天才科技，向最顶尖的高手学习。他希望积累足够的知识之后，能找到穿越回更早时点的方法——回到他喝下灵药之前。

进展缓慢，却值得付出。尤其是阿尔凯莫，说不定终于能找到让时空收音机正常运作的办法。

“罗马诺。”

“嗯？”

“在人偶看见你之前，穿点东西。”天才几乎是在命令自己的室友，“你那些‘身体改造’已经把她的思想带坏得够多了。”

“你就是嫉妒我设计仿生机器人的才华。”

“我看不出给一具无性的女性仿生体装上乳房有什么用途。”阿尔凯莫冷冰冰地回答，完全没抓住重点，“总之，把那东西扔进加速器。你还是不肯告诉我，这些实验的目的是什么？”

“说了你也不会信。”瑞恩回答，朝装置走去。微型粒子加速器是一根带舱门的小金属管，连着时空收音机。瑞恩利落地打开舱门，把毛绒玩偶放进去，像把一个孩子放进逃生舱。

“你不试试，怎么知道我信不信？”阿尔凯莫咕哝道。

嗯，也许瑞恩可以试试？早期几轮循环里，他向大多数人吐露秘密时，对方都不相信。但跟他这个紫系基因者相处久了，脑残已经越来越能接受新事物。“要是实验成功了，我就告诉你，怎么样？”信使问道，随即想起一件要紧的事，“还有，别再滥用你设计的那个超能增效剂了。副作用迟早会找上你的。”

“你怎么知——你翻过我的存货？你这个小偷，我就该把你赶出我的地盘！”

“好，好。”瑞恩应道，他知道这个脾气暴躁的天才向来嘴硬心软，“那么，粒子加速器应该会把毛绒玩偶送进我跟你说过的那个异维度。它装了摄像头，还有我能找到的最好的人工智能硬件。”

“以我对你的了解，这话可没多少分量。”

瑞恩最终还是在腰上围了条红披肩，不过只是因为脑残坚持说，他不遮住自己最强大的武器，就休想让机器启动。准备就绪后，阿尔凯莫把注射器手指变成USB插头，将自己接入一台计算机。粒子加速器启动时发出可怕的声响，仿佛一台活着的引擎在咆哮。

“目前一切顺利。”脑残直接用大脑处理着传入的数据，“能量读数稳定。”

“它传送过去了吗？”瑞恩问，兴奋得攥紧了双手。

“我不会说它是在传送。只要加速器还在运行，它就同时存在于两个维度里。”脑残回答，做了个勉强算是耸肩的动作，“你确定要把这台装置接到汽车引擎上？这么有前途的技术，似乎有些浪费了。”

“噢，我确定。”如果加速器能把毛绒玩偶送进另一个维度，那它应该也能让普利茅斯“狂怒”做到同样的事。瑞恩可以退而求其次，去一个家人和蕾恩都还活着的平行地球。“你看过《回到未来》吗？”

“我不看电影，我亲身体验。”

噢，对了，这位老天才会把自己的大脑接到人工大脑上，体验虚假的记忆。瑞恩自己都在想，凭他那么丰富的阅历，是不是也该进军这个市场。虽说他过去的经历有三分之二都得被评为十八禁。

终于，粒子加速器的噪声逐渐减弱，最后彻底平息。瑞恩本以为毛绒玩偶应该已经不见了，谁知就在他打开舱门的瞬间，加速器里突然迸出一道短暂的紫光。

光芒散去后，他的造物仰起脸，用那双漂亮的蓝色大眼睛看着自己的创造者。瑞恩眨了眨眼，毛绒玩偶则把头歪向一边。

“呃，脑袋兄，是你在远程控制我的兔子吗？”瑞恩问。毛绒玩偶竖起耳朵，仿佛它不是一台造型别致的探测器，而是活物。

“我们一起玩吧！”毛绒玩偶说道，自行举起了两只小手。时间旅行者开始听见机器人里面传出声音，那是些他听不懂的古怪低语。扬声器坏了吗？

“我为什么要碰那脏东西？要碰也得拿根棍子。”阿尔凯莫回答，断开与计算机的连接，过来查看这个毛茸茸的工程奇迹，“也许那股能量冲击烧坏了硬件？”

毛绒玩偶瞪着天才，蓝色的眼睛变成了红色。

哎呀，它居然还会摆出一副生气的表——

滋！

一道激光穿透阿尔凯莫的玻璃头颅，将里面的大脑汽化，头颅随之炸裂。瑞恩只来得及抬起双臂护住头，飞溅的碎片划破了他的皮肤，半机械人的身体则倒在地上。

兔子的眼里闪着恶意，藏在其中的激光器已经自行启动。

“妈的，第五次了！”瑞恩看着阿尔凯莫的残骸，抱怨道，“我都第五次害死他了！”

毛绒玩偶显然不觉得自己做错了什么。“我们去迪士尼乐园吧！”

“今天不行。”瑞恩回答，认定这次实验失败了，“现在我得赶在人偶发现他之前读档。”

信使叹了口气，若无其事地一头撞碎了最近的一个罐子，再用玻璃碎片割开自己的喉咙。

---

瑞恩在几分钟前醒来，正凝视着一片蓝色的深渊。

毛绒玩偶回望着时间旅行者，把耳朵转向他，却没有立刻发动攻击。

怎么回事？瑞恩为什么读档到了这个时候，而不是前一天？自从昨晚之后，他就没建过新的存档点！难道……难道实验迫使他本能地存了档？不管怎么回事，瑞恩很肯定，它记得。

“它还在我们的维度里？”阿尔凯莫说道，走向加速器，再次来直面死神，“硬件还能正常运作吗？”

毛绒玩偶的眼睛再次变红。

瑞恩立刻伸手，想拨动它背后的开关，救下这位天才。可毛绒玩偶已经跳出粒子加速器，跃上旁边的桌子。异界的声音在房间里回荡，兔子的左手亮出一把暗藏的刀刃，迅速举起，对准瑞恩。

“等等，你还给它装了弹簧刀？”阿尔凯莫问，“还有，这东西的音效设计，你的选择也够古怪的。”

“那只是拿来自卫的！”瑞恩回答，心想要不干脆暂停时间，一了百了。

可他死活想不通到底出了什么事。他写的程序里，可没有让毛绒玩偶做出这种反应！难道加速器损坏了里面的硬件？简直像有别的什么东西，某种有智慧的东西，在远程操控它……

瑞恩的视线落在毛绒玩偶的影子上，这才发现那已经不是兔子的影子了。那形状不属于这世上的任何生物，而是一头怪物，长着触手和附肢，几何构造悖逆常理，无法理解。

好吧。好消息是，粒子加速器起作用了。多少起了点。

坏消息是，它起了反作用——没有把探测器送出去，反而把什么东西带进来了。

“怎么这么吵？”

工作室的门缓缓推开，一个新的声音在室内响起。走进来的是一名红发绿眼的女人。乍看之下，她与常人无异，有一张秀丽的心形脸，但只要扫一眼她的手臂，就能认出她的真面目：一具栩栩如生、靠科技驱动的人形模特。

人偶是个机器人，一具由阿尔凯莫制造的人工大脑驱动的女性仿生体；那颗大脑先进到足以通过图灵测试。尽管阿尔凯莫声称造她是为了协助工作，快存却很肯定，这位天才其实只是想有人陪伴。脑袋兄或许已经摆脱了生理需求，可情感需求完全是另一回事。

可即便如此，阿尔凯莫也只是给她配上一张人脸和一具毫无细节的身体，就算完工了。于是，让她在所有要紧的方面都真正像个人，这项身体改造工作便落到了瑞恩头上。

他甚至给她起了个名字。

“蒂娅，退后！”瑞恩大喊。毛绒玩偶把装着弹簧刀的手臂藏到背后，眼睛由红转蓝，连那些异界的声音也骤然沉寂。“它很危险！”

“也许只是对你危险。”阿尔凯莫若有所思地说，依旧蒙在鼓里，“依我看，你控制不了自己的造物。”

“危险？”蒂娅看向毛绒玩偶，立刻把双手合在了一起，“它这么可爱……你把什么藏在背后呀？”

毛绒玩偶慢慢伸出了手。

然而手里拿的不是弹簧刀，而是一朵玫瑰。

“我爱你！”它对蒂娅说。

女性仿生人接过花，忍不住连声赞叹。等等，瑞恩心想，这死气沉沉的破地方，它上哪儿找来的玫瑰？“谢谢你。”人偶说着，摸了摸毛绒玩偶的耳根，“真可爱。”

“蒂娅，离那只兔子远点。”瑞恩恳求道，“你都不知道它去过什么地方！”

“可你看它，多可爱呀。”女性仿生人回答，把兔子像孩子一样抱起来靠在肩上，小怪物也没有反抗。她望向阿尔凯莫，他正饶有兴致地看着这一幕。“父亲，我可以养它吗？”

“喜欢就养吧，人偶。”天才无所谓地哼了一声，“你想怎么处置它都行。”

“喂，等等，你不能这么随便处置我的东西！”瑞恩抗议道。

“等你不再偷我的药，我们再谈。”

毛绒玩偶从人偶肩头望着瑞恩，眼睛由蓝变红。

---

最终，该发生的还是发生了。

收容失效。

“研究日志B-101。”瑞恩衣着齐整，手持步枪，自言自语。他其实什么都没录，只是想念段独白。“对毛绒玩偶的追猎仍在继续。那头野兽至今逃脱了所有追捕，但我不会绝望。”

毛绒玩偶用可爱的外表让蒂娅放松了警惕，随即趁她不注意跑了。瑞恩循着它的踪迹，已经追了三天多。

追踪并不困难。他只需要沿着尸体找下去——那些尸体全被各自的肠子吊在树上。

“这头野兽正在学习。”瑞恩观察着。最初的几根“绳子”编得粗糙，承受不住主人的体重就断了。最新的这些则更粗、更结实，编法也更复杂。“不过，它那肆无忌惮的敌意，似乎主要针对人类。”

兔子一见到阿尔凯莫就发动攻击，蒂娅却没有激起它的敌意。搜索途中，瑞恩还遇到了野狗、野兔之类的动物，但它们没有一个死在毛绒玩偶凶残的利爪下。

也许它认为人类是最危险的猎物，又或者智人身上有什么特征，让这生物本能地感到愤怒。

最后，瑞恩一路追到了离阿尔凯莫的农场最近的那座农场。他不必费力寻找，刚靠近这一带，就听见了那些声音。

他找到了农场的主人，一个名叫莎拉的女人。她被绑在谷仓正前方一堆碎木头上，毛绒玩偶往她喉咙里塞了个苹果，活像一头准备上烤架的猪。始作俑者就站在她旁边，双眼猩红，白色绒毛浸透了鲜血。

它拿着火柴和火柴盒，似乎怎么也划不着。俘虏则用恳求的目光望着瑞恩。

“坏兔子！”瑞恩大喊，举枪对准自己造出的怪物，“把火柴放下！”

兔子回头看向时间旅行者，终于划着了一根火柴。

“别这么干。”瑞恩警告道，步枪始终瞄着那生物的脑袋。毛绒玩偶的回应，是把燃烧的火柴悬在木堆上晃来晃去，似乎觉得女人含混不清的哭喊很好玩。“我知道暴力能解决很多问题，但不是所有问题！”

“妈妈？”

瑞恩和毛绒玩偶一同望向谷仓。一个不超过十岁的金发孩子正从门口探出头来。持枪的男人与嗜血的兔子剑拔弩张，妈妈夹在中间……

好吧，这场面一定尴尬极了。

“检测到儿童。”兔子的眼睛转为蓝色，异界的声音归于沉寂。“进入可爱模式。”

兔子立刻丢下一切，朝孩子冲去。燃着的火柴掉向木堆和俘虏。凭着无数次重来磨炼出的绝顶枪法，瑞恩用步枪击中了火柴，赶在它点燃受害者之前将它打灭。

毛绒玩偶猛冲过谷仓大门，孩子尖叫着踉跄后退。

“你是我最好的朋友！”兔子用血淋淋的双手抱住尖叫的孩子的小腿，“我们抱抱吧！”

瑞恩一度担心孩子的安危，但幸好，除了死抱着孩子的脚踝不放，兔子没有做出任何攻击。毛绒玩偶的程序依然有效，阻止了它攻击未满十三岁的儿童，并启动了保护子程序。

现在，时间旅行者只需要解救俘虏，拨下开关，一切就能恢复正——

啵。

瑞恩眨了眨眼，不确定自己是不是出现了幻觉。

因为那只浸透鲜血的兔子还紧紧抱着它新交的、极不情愿的好朋友……第二只雪白的毛绒玩偶却凭空出现了，正用那双蓝色的大眼睛看着瑞恩。

呃……

这可太不妙了。

---

研究日志C-011……

好吧，其实现在不是念独白的时候。

世界末日之后，佛罗伦萨已是一片废墟，但就在几天前，这里还迎来了一批难民，试图重建这座城市。迪纳米斯在这里有一块飞地，连奥古斯都的贩毒集团也在这一带设有据点。

可今天，瑞恩走在空荡荡的街道上，一个人也没看见。他听不到半点声音。

但他并非独自一人。他的周围，到处都是白色的身影，占据了城市的每一个角落。

兔子。

到处都是兔子毛绒玩偶。屋顶上、地面上、窗户后面。没有一只出声，甚至连动也不动一下。它们只是看着瑞恩，仿佛全都是受同一个意识支配的傀儡。

“好吧，”瑞恩说，“我他妈搞砸了。”

看来，那个孩子触发了这生物的一种新模式。也许是极度的快乐让它得以分裂，也许它从其他宇宙“召唤”来了别的自己。不管怎样，毛绒玩偶开始繁殖了。

而且，跟所有兔子一样……毛绒玩偶的数量呈指数增长。农场事件过去半个星期后，瑞恩追着第二只来到佛罗伦萨时，一切已经太迟了。时间旅行者不确定城里的人都遭遇了什么，也无意查个明白。

“行吧，我又一次毁灭了人类。”时间旅行者叹了口气，在兔子们的注视下找起绳子，准备上吊，“可不能养成习惯啊……”

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下一轮循环里，瑞恩睡下时心中一片安宁，很高兴自己终于收容了这个危险的异常。

到头来，他解决毛绒玩偶的办法，就是在读档的那一刻暂停时间，把开关拨到关闭位置。附身其中的生物似乎能记住过去的循环，却依然受宿主身体的程序约束。大致如此。

结果证明，加速器确实烧坏了硬件，也损坏了摄像头。瑞恩不但提取不到任何关于毛绒玩偶接触过的那个维度的信息，这机器人甚至本来就不该还能运作。

既然CPU已经不工作了，它为什么还会遵循原本的程序？

瑞恩自己都不记得当初是怎么造出毛绒玩偶的，细看之下，它有一半零件根本不合常理。那是赤身裸体催生的一次灵光乍现。也许毛绒玩偶的行为源自机械部件，也许源自如今正把它当作地球锚点的那个可憎之物……又或者两者兼有。

考虑到它对整个世界的威胁，瑞恩犹豫过要不要销毁自己的造物，最终却决定把它留下。它或许能成为一件有趣的武器，留作最后的手段；而他也很好奇它的真实本质。

再说，摧毁毛绒玩偶，可能会把里面寄居的某个东西释放到他们的现实中。连瑞恩都还没疯到敢试一试的地步。

总之，信使闭上眼睛，畅想着新的冒险，以及该怎么把真相告诉脑残。毛绒玩偶静静待在床头柜上，朝下望着，并未启动。

几个小时过去，房间里毫无动静。连阿尔凯莫工作室里的声音都停了；天才结束了一整天的辛苦工作，开始回放收集来的战前记忆，享受片刻放松。

接着，伴随一声极轻的咔哒……

毛绒玩偶的开关从“关”拨到了“开”。

毛绒玩偶无声地跳到床上，俯身看着熟睡的瑞恩。信使睡得太沉，连死亡的阴影逼近都没有察觉。毛绒玩偶默默端详着自己的人类创造者，看着他的胸膛随呼吸起伏。

“我会永远做你的朋友。”毛绒玩偶终于说道。

它拉起床单，替瑞恩盖好保暖，然后坐到最近的枕头上。开关从“开”拨回“关”，毛绒玩偶又开始装起了雕像。

他们在一起，一定会有好多好多乐趣……