同章对照

Ryan thought this run would have been an Augusti one. Joining the mafia organization, climbing the ranks, perhaps challenging the Big Thunder Man for his daughter’s hand.

But as he prepared to assault the Bliss Factory with a ragtag band of misfits at his back, Ryan understood he had been mistaken. This run was a hidden, yet unexplored route.

The Carnival route.

Ryan and Shroud floated far above the Bliss Factory, hidden inside a cloud; the former carried by his armor’s propellers, the other by his own power. Len waited under the waves for an amphibious assault, while Mr. Wave and Sarin would soon fall in position.

“They will know it’s us,” Shroud complained, barely visible. “The Carnival. I shouldn’t have told Mr. Wave about this operation, that weirdo won’t listen to reason.”

Ryan gently slapped his translucent friend on the helmet, to his surprise. “What was that for?” the vigilante asked.

“You don’t diss Mr. Wave in my presence,” the courier replied. “If he wishes to strike fear in Lightning Butt’s heart, it is his divine right and we shall indulge him.”

“Wait, didn’t he save your life?” Shroud scoffed. “I should have known he influenced you. The cashmere obsession was a telltale sign.”

Ryan loved cashmere like any sensible human being, but Mr. Wave did open his eyes about its splendor. The courier’s first loops mostly revolved around the superhero saving him from an explosion, over and over again, shielding the time-traveler from flames with his soft wool suit.

The original plan was to blame the Meta-Gang for the attack, but while Mr. Wave had agreed to change his clothes, he simply traded his flamboyant suit for a black tuxedo and scaled boots. “They will know it’s you, Wave,” Shroud had complained, somewhat rightly. “You aren’t even hiding your face.”

“Mr. Wave is wearing an evil suit,” his dashing teammate had protested. “It is black, the underclothes were made in China, and the socks were woven with linen.”

Ryan had looked at his hero in shock and outrage. “That’s a war crime!”

“Indeed. So Mr. Wave surrounded them with tasteful alligator boots, to soften the blow. Like putting a flower on a Kalashnikov’s barrel.”

“Why are you using the third person?” Len had asked.

“First-person cannot properly contain the power of Mr. Wave’s name.”

Though Len had giggled, probably because she had grown used to Ryan’s own antics, the rest of the team didn’t get it. “Is yours always like this?” Shroud had asked Sarin, as she removed her hazmat suit to let her gaseous form out.

She had snickered in response. “You think there’s more of them?”

“I pray not.”

“Wardrobe,” Ryan had said, dashing all their hopes and dreams.

“I’ve heard of this Wardrobe,” Mr. Wave had finished. “Our meeting will be legendary, but Mr. Wave doubts the world will survive it.”

Afterward, Sarin had let her gaseous body flow through the wind turbines surrounding Ischia Island, causing a few dysfunctions. Geist had sensed her presence and left the fortress, but didn’t know what to look for amidst all the toxic gases.

Still, as Ryan observed the golden skull flickering in and out of existence around the island, he wondered how far the Yellow Genome’s powers extended. Casper the Ghost could clearly sense Sarin somewhere on the island, though she had no corporeal body. Did he sense her soul? Did people actually have souls? But if so, why couldn’t he sense Ryan and Shroud in the air?

This reminded Ryan of Monaco. Yellow Genomes usually had conceptual limits, reasoning in terms of abstract laws rather than scientific rules. Perhaps Geist could only detect people who technically set foot on his haunting ground, or something like that.

In any case, with the ghost busy and the Olympians holding their meeting, the Bliss Factory was temporarily without its main defenders. Now was the time to strike.

The assault began with a metal monster rising from the waves and landing on the shore.

With full access to Mechron’s armory, Ryan wasn’t the only one who upgraded his technology. Len had also exchanged her power armor for a new one, to reduce the risk of being identified. Her second mech was as bulky as Vulcan’s, and reminded Ryan of Cthulhu, with inorganic tentacled whips where the face should be. The hands finished with mighty crab pincers, and the armor’s blue paint job made it near undetectable in the water. The alien design was unlike anything Len ever built, and took more inspiration from Mechron’s own creations.

She immediately opened fire on the fortress with shoulder torpedoes, collapsing huge chunks of the outer walls. Vulcan’s turrets, the few which Sarin couldn’t sabotage without bringing attention upon herself, immediately opened fire. Ryan blasted them from above with his chest gravity-gun, black spheres collapsing space around them and crushing the weapons. Shroud also discreetly sabotaged the glass and silica components within the machines, causing severe malfunctions.

With the automated defenses down, Augusti guards in riot gear swarmed the walls still standing, while their allies in red, padded steampunk armor emerged from the main gates to intercept Len. Ryan recognized the latter as Vulcan’s corp of Pyrokinetic Genomes, their equipment turbocharging their powers. They tossed car-sized fireballs at Len, causing her outer shielding to heat up.

A red blur crossed the sea at blinding speed, hitting an Augusti Genome so hard that he crashed halfway through a stone wall.

“Mr. Wave will set his foot down,” Mr. Wave proudly announced his presence, hands raised to the skies, “and it will be in someone’s face!”

Ryan couldn’t help but fanboy over his idol, and squealed loud enough to cause guards to look up. “You idiot, you alerted them to our position!” Shroud complained before flying away, fully turning invisible and waiting for an opportunity to infiltrate the fortress. Ryan himself shrugged off gunshots. His armor could resist punches from Augustus and Fallout, so bullets easily bounced off.

The chilling, ghostly wind in the air though, was a greater source of concern.

Ryan barely had the time to fly to his left and avoid a rock the size of his car falling on his head. A glittering tornado of colored, supernatural dust manifested in its wake, a ghostly golden skull materializing above the fortress.

“What is all this racket?” Geist asked, though he didn’t sound concerned at all. If anything, he sounded bored as he oversaw the battlefield. An automated torpedo flew out of the water and landed on the island, with Sarin’s power armor held within. “Who are you guys?”

Ryan almost introduced himself as Saturn, before deciding it wasn’t a powerful enough title. “King Saturn,” he introduced himself, his armor modifying his voice. Time to abandon democracy for the divine right to rule!

“You can’t call yourself Saturn,” Casper the ghost replied, while telekinetically lifting broken remnants of the fortress’ outer wall. “I think my organization has a copyright on Roman names.”

“King Saturn!” Ryan activated his chest weapon. “With a capital ‘K’!”

His gravity projectile went harmlessly through Geist, not even fazing him. The specter replied with a rain of stones, each powerful enough to crush a tank. Since the courier was wary of overusing his time-stop lest his fighting style be recognized, he had to make circles around the attacks.

“A ghost?” Mr. Wave asked on the ground, holding an Augusti guard above the ground by the throat. “Are you one of Mr. Wave’s victims?”

“No,” Geist replied, as he telekinetically tossed more projectiles at Ryan. Other chunks he moved back in place to replace the outer walls, dealing with the assault with no more enthusiasm than a middle-manager filling his taxes.

“Give it time, you will be.”

“If I kill you will it count as murder, since you’re already dead?” Ryan mocked the specter before flying through him. He expected to inflict damage like with Augustus, but instead, he harmlessly phased through Geist’s ethereal skull. The specter responded by telekinetically slamming him to the beach below, and Ryan ended face-first buried into the sand.

“Oh, he fell down,” Geist noted, with a hint of amusement. “Did it hurt?”

This confirmed it. Ryan’s secondary power only worked during the time-stop.

The courier quickly guessed why. His power worked by aligning Earth’s reality with the Purple World, itself a crossroads between all of space and time; the crossroad through which he could draw energy from the Black World.

A mighty crimson shockwave hit the Bliss Factory while Ryan rose back up, causing the entire castle to shake and a barbican to collapse. Stones crushed Narcinia’s flowers near the fortress, and a hole opened to the chambers inside.

“Aw man, Ceres won’t like that,” Geist commented with a bored tone, while Ryan’s heat sensors informed him Shroud used the opportunity to slip inside the fortress. Though the specter hastily repaired the destroyed curtain walls, the invisible vigilante had already slipped in.

The courier looked at the blast’s source, a woman in an orange synthetic suit lined with strong crimson metal plates. The helmet resembled a mix between a gas mask and a knight’s helmet, while the gauntlets radiated crimson light.

Sarin had put on her own power armor.

Created in Mechron’s labs with data harvested over the previous loop, the suit was specifically insulated to resist the wearer’s own rusting power. It also spread her shockwave power through her entire body; when guards rained bullets at her chest, they flattened instead of inflicting lethal wounds.

“Not so easy to harm me anymore, eh, jackasses?!” Sarin gloated, before raising her hands and shattering a pyrokinetic Genome in power armor. “It’s payback time!”

“Look, I really hate working and I ain’t paid for this job,” the ghost said with the laziest voice possible, expanding the colored dust supporting his ectoplasmic skull. A glittering storm the size of a tornado soon surrounded the castle, forming an impenetrable wall around it. “Could you just, you know, go away? Or we could play Board & Conquest, if you’re up for it.”

“If you hate your job, why don’t you let us in?” Sarin snarled while sending a shockwave at the colored storm. The blast failed to get past the defense, and Ryan realized that Geist drew the strange substance from the Yellow World. The twisted storm blew sand in all directions, expanding the beach’s size.

“Father Torque promised to find a way to exorcise me back to Heaven if I kept the place clean, and I don’t know any other priest. I’m kinda bound to that island, so I don’t have an active social life.” Geist observed each member of Ryan’s team in turn. “Is one of you a priest, by any chance?”

“Mr. Wave has a Rabbi license.” The Genome in question leaped into the air and transformed into a laser, aiming straight for Geist’s ghoulish face. “And he will cut you like Solomon!”

Geist telekinetically stopped Mr. Wave in midair, the red Genome reverting back to his original form. “I’m Christian, so you’re out of luck,” the ghost said before throwing Mr. Wave into the sea. “Unlife is unfair.”

“Don’t tell me,” Ryan said while returning to the skies.

Geist let out a loud sound that could pass for a shrug, and his skull changed shape. Two ginormous golden bone arms and a rib cage formed below it, supported by the colored tornado protecting the Bliss Factory. The specter had turned into a colossus, and his hands lunged for Ryan.

“Wait, you can shapeshift?” Ryan protested as he did his best to avoid the colossus’ hands. “Why didn’t you do it against Dynamis?”

“Dynamis?” Geist asked, confused. He attempted to crush the flying courier like a bug with all the motivation of an exhausted desk jockey. “I can do pretty much anything a ghost can, which is surprisingly a lot. I wish it included moving out though.”

That Ghostbusters ad was the Yellow version of Leo Hargraves. Ryan shuddered to think what the specter could do, if he wasn’t limited to his haunting ground and had any motivation whatsoever. If he had any killer instinct, Geist would have realized that he could telekinetically crush people rather than toss them away.

Sarin and Len attempted to support Ryan, the former with shockwaves, the other with torpedoes. Neither seemed any more effective against the colossus’ golden arms than water guns against a statue. Mr. Wave raced back to the island on foot, a crimson dash turning water to steam in his wake. He tried to cross the tornado barrier around the Bliss Factory, only to be thrown back as if he had hit a forcefield.

“Okay, you’ve done it,” Geist said, his tone markedly more annoyed. “Ever watched The Mummy?”

“1932 or 1999?” Ryan asked, before realizing what the specter had in mind. “Uh oh, 1999.”

The beach below the flying courier began to shift and twist, forming waves like a raging sea. Len and Sarin were buried beneath them, alongside most of the defeated guards, while Mr. Wave had to run away in laser form.

The beach then started to rise, a sand tsunami forming at Geist’s will. The higher Ryan flew, the taller the wave.

“You know, I never tried to see how high I could raise it up,” Casper the ghost said, amused by Ryan’s attempt to escape. By now the sand wall had risen higher than the Bliss Factory and emptied the shore of sand. The courier hoped his allies’ power armors could shield them from the inevitable impact.

“Alright, Imhotep, I’m sending you back to the nineties!” Ryan swirled around Geist’s arms, bypassed them, and then went straight for the skull. “Teeth first!”

“I’m kinda dead already,” Geist said, unimpressed. He didn’t even bother to cover his skull with his giant hands, so confident was he in his immortality. “Even Cancel and Pluto couldn’t put me six feet under for good.”

“In that case, you force me to use my full power,” Ryan said, raising his fists. “Now I have to use my hands!”

The time traveler froze time right as his gauntlet reached Geist’s skull, but only for a split second. A trail of dark particles trailed from his fingers like a falling star’s tail as the world turned purple, a black meteor striding across the skies. An unstoppable force hitting an intangible object.

And as Ryan’s metal fingers connected with the specter, he felt resistance.

When time resumed, Geist’s golden skull flickered, black cracks appearing where Ryan hit him. The tornado of glittering dust that supported it weakened for an instant, and the telekinetic force that raised the sand tsunami failed.

Tons of sand collapsed onto the ground around the fortress in a cataclysmic crash. A cloud of dust spread over the island and the sea, to the point that Ryan couldn’t see anything within it. Some of the sand found its way to the fortress, tainting its strong walls yellow.

“You…” Geist’s gaze of ghostly light turned to Ryan in shock, his giant arms falling down like a stringless puppet. “You hit me!”

“Vade Retro Satanas!” Ryan said. Below, the dust had died down and Sarin propelled herself out of her sand prison with a shockwave. Mr. Wave reappeared from the island and started moving around the beach at high speed, perhaps looking for the buried Len. “Or you will see the back of my hand again!”

“You harmed me…” A strange colored substance fell from the skull’s eye sockets, a liquid version of the glistening dust Geist left in his wake. “You harmed me…”

He was… he was crying? Ryan felt bad for a moment, before realizing there was no sorrow in the ghost’s voice.

These were tears of joy.

“Finally!” Geist shapeshifted once more, his arms and rib cage vanishing. The colored tornado that shielded Castle Aragonese vanished, leaving the Bliss Factory defenseless. What guards the team hadn’t beaten, the ghost’s sand tsunami had crushed. “Go ahead, send me back to heaven! Rip my ectoplasm open, my soul is ready!”

Normally, Ryan had no problem hitting his foes, but something in the specter’s voice made him hesitate. He stopped time and lightly slapped the specter’s skull, who moaned as time resumed. The courier shuddered.

“Why won’t you kill me, you selfish tease?” Geist snarled, when his foe didn’t dare strike him a third time.

“Stop, you’re…” Ryan looked away. “You’re making it awkward.”

“Do you want to make me beg? Is that what you want?”

“If you take pleasure in it, it robs me of mine,” Ryan said, grossed out. “I’m all for euthanasia, but this one feels dirty.”

“I have waited fifteen years!” Geist’s skull complained while moving in the courier’s field of vision, forcing Ryan to acknowledge him. “Fifteen years as a ghost, unable to move on! Can you fathom how boring it is, to keep watch of this toxic dump? Nobody ever visits, except for work!”

The discussion made Ryan uneasy. “Look, I understand the downsides of immortality, more than you think,” the courier said, trying to find the right words. “But do you really wish to die for good? It’s not a decision to take lightly.”

If he truly wished to perish, Ryan would put the ghost to rest in his Perfect Run. But when his Violet Elixir presented him with a similar conundrum, the courier chose life over death. He didn’t want to go through with that option unless the poltergeist was absolutely sure of his decision.

“Are you serious right now?” Geist snorted. “Would you want to be a ghost bound to one place, completely intangible?”

“I’m sure there are ways around that limit,” Ryan replied. “And you got phenomenal cosmic powers out of the deal. You could probably go toe-to-toe with Augustus if you wished.”

Geist remained silent a few seconds, but the courier’s words clearly didn’t reach him. “What use is power if you can’t enjoy life?” he asked. “I can’t taste, I can’t touch, I can’t sleep or dream. I can’t have kids and there aren’t enough games to fill my time with. I can lift things with my mind, but they don’t feel warm. The world is cold to me, tin can. It’s unbearable, half a life.”

On the ground, Ryan noticed Sarin and Mr. Wave lifting Len from under the sand. His former vice-president listened to the discussion with rapt attention, probably because it struck home.

“I’ve tasted Heaven and peace, only to be yanked back to Earth,” Geist said. “I died years ago, but I can’t rest. All I can do is kill time. Unless you can raise me from the dead?”

“That’s beyond my power at the moment,” Ryan admitted. “But maybe in the future?”

“Yeah, and maybe I’ll still be rotting on this island while the sun swallows the Earth. I’ve waited for Father Torque to find a solution for years, and ‘maybe’ stayed ‘maybe.’ I’ll take my chances. Fifteen years as a ghost were fifteen years too many.”

Ryan still hesitated, so Sarin complained from the ground below. “Just finish him off already!” she said. “He ain’t strong enough to carry on, let him go.”

“Do you want me to fight back?” Geist asked in despair. “Is that what it will take? I don’t want to go there, mate, but I will if needed.”

“Alright, alright, I will do it!” Ryan said, highly disappointed. He closed his eyes, tightened his fist, and prepared to get on with it. “Don’t make a sound.”

“Hallelujah,” Geist replied, waiting for the end peacefully. “Heaven at long last. Thanks.”

Ryan froze time again, and punched the strange ghost with all his might. His blackened fist tore through Geist’s intangible body, black particles consuming the ectoplasmic substance like a black hole with stardust.

When time resumed, the blow had split Geist’s spectral body in half. The golden skull’s substance seemed to lose cohesion, snow melting under the warm sun to turn into droplets. The ghost dissipated, his immortality canceled. Below, Sarin unleashed a sustained shockwave at the castle, destroying the barbican which Geist had repaired a few minutes earlier. Mr. Wave immediately entered through the hole at lightspeed.

As he floated in the skies alone in solemn silence, Ryan remembered his brief stay in the Black World. The time traveler had prayed for an end to his immortality, a way out of his eternal existence... and the Ultimate One had obliged. It had given the time traveler the ability to harm the invulnerable, to kill those who couldn’t die.

Even Ryan himself.

In the end, a president’s best friend was the oil he mined along the way.

---

Ryan would have loved to say that after Geist’s demise, the Bliss Factory’s troops made an epic last stand to protect their drug batches. The courier expected to waste at least an hour to conquer the factory.

It took fourteen minutes.

Shroud, who infiltrated the fortress during the battle, had reached a terminal and hacked into the factory’s systems. With the security codes given by Livia, he opened all the doors and scrambled outside communications. Mr. Wave simply toured the factory at the speed of light, and finished piling up two hundred unconscious guards by the time the rest of the group entered.

“Ugh, and here I thought you would leave some for us,” Sarin complained.

“You can find a list of Mr. Wave’s enemies under the ‘extinct species’ category,” the man boasted, his tuxedo unblemished. “Mr. Wave does not kill, he exterminates.”

Before such wit, Ryan felt like a student in the presence of a master.

They advanced into the Castle Aragonese’s corridors and made their way to the Bliss labs within. In stark contrast with the ancient walls outside, the Augusti had reinforced the inner structure with steel walls and blast doors. Sarin broke down the few that Shroud didn’t open for them.

Eventually, the group made its way to the facility’s core, and the center of Bliss production. Bacchus developed his beloved drug in underground warehouses below the fortress, and even Ryan found the size of the operation mind-blowing. A vast glass garden housed the plants producing the drug’s raw material, strange flowers with light blue petals and yellow cores. A small army of workers in hazmat suits harvested the petals, with the plants regrowing their missing bits in minutes.

Afterward, the petals were drenched in oil, dried, and turned into a blue powder mixed with other chemicals. The resulting substance was routed through automated lines where a small army of robotic arms put Bliss in small canisters and hypodermics, filling entire crates each hour. From the quantity assembled, Ryan estimated the operation produced multiple tons of Bliss per day. Hell, the factory’s incinerator worked full time to eliminate the process’ waste.

Most of the installation was automated, and Len kept the few remaining workers at torpedo-point, hands behind their heads. “What’s happening?” Ryan heard Vulcan’s voice come out of a computer, while Shroud typed on its keyboard. “I received an alarm twenty minutes ago.”

“It was nothing, ma’am,” Shroud replied, disguising his voice. “Psychos tried to raid the factory, but Geist and your security system sent them packing.”

“Of course they did,” Vulcan scoffed on the other end of the line, too proud of herself by half. “I told you an inspection was a waste of time.”

“It was, ma’am. It was.” Shroud ended the communication and looked up from his panel. “I’ve downloaded the production data and deleted the camera footage. Let’s torch this place.”

“Oh yeah.” Sarin eagerly blasted the glass gardens and the plants within. The vibrations snapped the alien flowers in half, and the Psycho soon moved on to the assembly lines.

“Mr. Wave is quite happy.” His idol patted Ryan in the back as they observed the destruction. “He was worried you would grow up the wrong way, and that he would have to put you down like an old yeller. But you became a man of refined taste and great skill.”

“Thanks to your example.” After saving him so many times, Mr. Wave had left a powerful impression on Ryan.

“What were you up to in all these years?” Mr. Wave asked. “Mr. Wave tried to look for you a few times, but you never seemed to spend long in one place.”

“I conquered Monaco, won a town at a poker competition, and got an alien to autograph my Necronomicon.”

“Nice. In his case, Mr. Wave traveled to Tibet and explored the great mysteries of the cosmos. Did Mr. Wave create the world when he was born, or was the world made for Mr. Wave? Is it possible that the only gravity is the one produced by Mr. Wave’s charisma?”

“How can you stand this guy?” Sarin asked Shroud over the sound of her shockwaves.

“Only in small doses,” the glass manipulator replied.

“Mr. Wave understands. Prolonged exposure to Mr. Wave can cause a pathological desire to worship him, or near-death experiences. There is no middle ground.”

“Instead of standing by, there’s something you could help with,” Shroud said, after destroying computer parts with his power. “Bacchus has a secret testing area and… you will understand when you see it.”

Ryan did, to his horror.

Shroud led him and Mr. Wave deeper inside the facility, into a secret room behind a cold metal corridor. It was dimly lit, with most of the area kept in complete darkness. Ryan walked inside first, his steps echoing on the iron floor. He saw iron bars flickering in the dim light, and his heat sensors sending more than three dozen signatures.

Though his armor’s helmet filtered the air, the stench of human filth overwhelmed it.

The livestock pens were so small, that Ryan was certain they had been meant for pigs. They were piled up on each other like a tetris game, but there was nothing amusing about the sight. As his allies remained eerily silent, Ryan activated his armor’s lamps and looked through the nearest iron bars.

Humans.

Three humans shared a cage so small, they couldn’t rise up on their feet. They must have crawled inside. The veins and lips of the captives had turned blue from Bliss overdoses, their skin so white and their flesh so thin that the courier could see the bones beneath. Two men and a woman. The cages hadn’t been cleaned up in a while, excrement piling up in a corner.

Though he had looped for centuries, Ryan hadn’t grown numb to such sights. Examining the captives filled him with revulsion, doubly so as he looked at the other cages, counting the people imprisoned within.

Twenty-three, he thought, stopping at a man whose eyes a swarm of flies had devoured. One dead.

“Does Narcinia know?” Ryan asked. “Does Vulcan know?”

“No, I don’t think so,” Shroud said. “Only Bacchus could access that part of the lab.”

The mad priest used these people to test his experimental Bliss strains, destroying people’s minds in an insane attempt to contact the Blue Ultimate One. These people were the most recent batch of ‘volunteers,’ addicts taken off the streets, or perhaps enemies of Augustus sacrificed to his horrendous drug wizard.

How many people had died within these walls, their corpses dumped in the incinerator?

“That…” Mr. Wave seemed at a loss of words, waving his hand at the prisoners. Their eyes didn’t follow his movements, their gaze empty. “I… Mr. Wave thinks someone scrambled their brain.”

Ryan had his helmet take pictures of the scene, and then ripped open the nearest pen. His armored hands bent the iron cages open. Shroud immediately grabbed the captive within, a woman no older than twenty. Blue mold grew over her skin, and blood had dried beneath her eyes.

Ryan walked out of the area while carrying two people on his shoulders, watching at the ruins of the production lines. Flames had started to spread, and threatened to engulf the underground facilities. Sarin had demolished them all and oversaw her work with a pleased stance, while Len evacuated the workers.

“Bianca?” the courier asked.

“What?” Sarin snapped back.

“Once we’re done evacuating, collapse the whole place,” Ryan said, his tone dangerous. “Bury it.”

Ryan would destroy the factory himself in his Perfect Run.

With Bacchus inside.

瑞恩本以为这一轮会走奥古斯蒂路线。加入黑手党组织，一路往上爬，或许再挑战一下那位雷霆大佬，好迎娶他的女儿。

然而，当他带着身后一群东拼西凑的怪人，准备攻打极乐工厂时，瑞恩明白自己想错了。这一轮走的是一条尚未探索过的隐藏路线。

嘉年华路线。

瑞恩和裹尸布悬浮在极乐工厂上方的高空，藏身云层之中。前者靠装甲的推进器托举，后者则靠自己的能力。蕾恩等在水下，准备发起两栖进攻，波动先生和沙林也即将就位。

“他们会知道是我们干的，”几乎看不见身形的裹尸布抱怨道，“是嘉年华干的。我就不该把这次行动告诉波动先生，那个怪胎根本讲不通道理。”

瑞恩抬手在这位半透明朋友的头盔上轻拍了一巴掌，把他弄得一愣。“打我干什么？”义警问。

“不准在我面前说波动先生的坏话，”快递员答道，“如果他想让闪电屁股心生恐惧，那是他的神圣权利，我们理当成全他。”

“等等，他是不是救过你的命？”裹尸布嗤了一声，“我早该想到你受过他的影响。你对羊绒的痴迷就是铁证。”

跟任何头脑正常的人一样，瑞恩热爱羊绒，不过，确实是波动先生让他领略了羊绒的美妙。快递员最初的那些循环，基本都是那位超级英雄一遍遍把他从爆炸中救出来，用柔软的毛料西装替这个时间旅行者挡住烈焰。

原计划是把这次袭击栽赃给超能帮。然而，波动先生虽然答应换身衣服，却只是把那套华丽的西装换成了黑色晚礼服和鳞纹皮靴。“他们会知道是你，波动，”裹尸布当时抱怨道，而且不无道理，“你连脸都没遮。”

“波动先生穿的可是一身邪恶套装，”他那位风度翩翩的队友抗议道，“衣服是黑的，内衣是中国制造，袜子还是亚麻织的。”

瑞恩震惊而愤慨地望着自己的英雄。“这是战争罪！”

“确实。所以波动先生在外面配了双有品位的短吻鳄皮靴，缓和一下冲击。就像在卡拉什尼科夫步枪的枪管上插朵花。”

“你为什么用第三人称说话？”蕾恩当时问道。

“第一人称不足以承载波动先生这个名字的力量。”

蕾恩咯咯笑了起来，大概是因为她早已习惯瑞恩那些荒唐行径，可其他队员却欣赏不来。“你们这位也一直这样？”裹尸布问沙林。当时她正脱下防化服，放出自己的气态身躯。

她窃笑着反问：“你说这种人还会有更多吗？”

“但愿没有。”

“衣橱。”瑞恩说道，击碎了他们所有的希望和幻想。

“我听说过这个衣橱，”波动先生接过话头，“我们的会面必将成为传奇，不过波动先生怀疑这个世界能不能撑过那一刻。”

之后，沙林让自己的气态身躯流过环绕伊斯基亚岛的风力涡轮机，制造了几起故障。幽魂感知到她的存在，离开了堡垒，却不知道该从漫天毒气中寻找什么。

此刻，看着那颗金色骷髅头在岛屿各处时隐时现，瑞恩仍不禁琢磨，这名黄系基因者的能力究竟能延伸多远。幽灵卡斯珀显然能察觉沙林就在岛上某处，尽管她并无实体。他感知到的是她的灵魂吗？人真的有灵魂？可如果是这样，他为什么察觉不到空中的瑞恩和裹尸布？

这让瑞恩想起了摩纳哥。黄系基因者通常受概念层面的限制，遵循的是抽象法则，而非科学定律。也许幽魂只能发现那些严格来说踏入了他闹鬼地盘的人，或者类似的情况。

无论如何，幽灵忙着找人，奥林匹斯众神又正在开会，极乐工厂暂时失去了主要防卫力量。正是动手的时候。

一头金属怪兽从海浪中升起，登上岸边，拉开了进攻的序幕。

梅克隆的军械库全面向他们开放后，升级装备的可不只有瑞恩。为降低被认出的风险，蕾恩也换了一套新动力装甲。她的第二台机甲和伏尔甘的那台一样笨重，让瑞恩想起了克苏鲁：本该是面孔的地方，垂着无机质的触须长鞭。双手末端是强壮的蟹钳，蓝色涂装让装甲在水中几乎无法被察觉。这套异形设计与蕾恩以往的任何造物都不同，更多地借鉴了梅克隆本人的作品。

她立刻用肩部鱼雷向堡垒开火，轰塌了大片外墙。伏尔甘的炮塔当即还击——只剩少数几座沙林无法在不暴露自己的情况下破坏的炮塔。瑞恩从上空用胸前的重力枪轰击它们，黑色球体令炮塔周围的空间塌缩，将武器压碎。裹尸布也暗中破坏了机器内部的玻璃和二氧化硅部件，造成严重故障。

自动防御系统被摧毁后，身穿防暴装备的奥古斯蒂守卫涌上尚未倒塌的城墙。他们那些身穿红色厚衬蒸汽朋克装甲的同伙则从正门冲出，拦截蕾恩。瑞恩认出，后者是伏尔甘麾下的控火型基因者部队，装备能大幅增幅他们的能力。他们向蕾恩掷出汽车大小的火球，令她装甲外层的防护温度骤升。

一道红色残影以肉眼难辨的速度掠过海面，重重撞上一名奥古斯蒂基因者，将他半截身子都砸进了石墙。

“波动先生要跺脚立威了，”波动先生双手高举向天，骄傲地宣告自己的到来，“而且这一脚要跺在某人的脸上！”

瑞恩忍不住为偶像发起花痴，兴奋的尖叫声引得守卫纷纷抬头。“你这白痴，把我们的位置暴露了！”裹尸布抱怨了一句，随即飞走，彻底隐去身形，等待潜入堡垒的机会。瑞恩本人则全然不在乎枪击。他的装甲连奥古斯都和辐尘的拳头都扛得住，子弹撞上来便轻易弹开了。

倒是空中那股阴冷的鬼风，更值得担心。

瑞恩勉强来得及向左飞开，躲过一块朝头顶砸落的巨石，那石头足有他的车那么大。紧接着，闪闪发亮的超自然彩尘化作龙卷风出现，一颗幽灵般的金色骷髅头在堡垒上方凝聚成形。

“吵吵闹闹的，干什么呢？”幽魂问，听起来却丝毫不担心。真要说的话，他俯瞰战场时的口气甚至有些无聊。一枚自动鱼雷跃出水面，落到岛上，里面装着沙林的动力装甲。“你们是什么人？”

瑞恩差点就自称萨图恩，随即又觉得这名号不够响亮。“萨图恩国王。”他报上名号，装甲改变了他的声音。是时候抛弃民主，改行君权神授了！

“你不能叫自己萨图恩，”幽灵卡斯珀一边回答，一边用念力抬起堡垒外墙的残骸，“我记得罗马名字的版权归我们组织所有。”

“萨图恩国王！”瑞恩启动胸前的武器，“‘国王’的K得大写！”

重力弹穿过幽魂，毫无作用，连惊都没惊到他。幽灵回敬了一场石雨，每块石头的威力都足以压扁一辆坦克。快递员担心太频繁地暂停时间会被人认出战斗风格，只得绕着攻击不断盘旋躲闪。

“幽灵？”地面上的波动先生问道。他正掐着一名奥古斯蒂守卫的脖子，将对方提在半空。“你是波动先生的受害者之一？”

“不是。”幽魂答道，继续用念力向瑞恩投掷碎石。他还把另一些石块移回原位，补好外墙。应付这场袭击时，他的热情也就相当于一个正在填报税表的中层经理。

“再等一会儿，你就是了。”

“你已经死了，那我再杀你，还算谋杀吗？”瑞恩嘲弄着幽灵，径直飞身撞了过去。他本以为能像对付奥古斯都时那样造成伤害，结果却毫无作用地穿过了幽魂虚无的骷髅头。幽灵随即用念力将他狠狠掼向下方的海滩，瑞恩一头扎进了沙子里。

“哎呀，他摔下去了。”幽魂的口气带上了一丝兴味，“疼吗？”

这下确认了。瑞恩的第二种能力只有在时间暂停时才会生效。

快递员很快猜到了原因。他的能力通过将地球的现实与紫色世界对齐而运作，而紫色世界本身就是一切时空的交汇处；也正是通过这个交汇处，他才能汲取黑色世界的能量。

瑞恩重新爬起来时，一道强劲的深红色冲击波击中了极乐工厂，震得整座城堡摇晃不止，一座瓮城轰然坍塌。落石压碎了堡垒附近纳尔西妮娅种的花，炸开的缺口直通内部房间。

“唉，刻瑞斯肯定不高兴了。”幽魂懒洋洋地评论道。与此同时，瑞恩的热感应器显示，裹尸布趁机溜进了堡垒。幽灵虽然匆忙修复了被毁的城墙，那位隐形义警却早已潜入其中。

快递员朝冲击波的来源看去。一名女子穿着橙色合成材料紧身服，身上覆着坚固的深红色金属甲片。头盔看起来像防毒面具与骑士盔的结合体，两只护手则散发着深红色光芒。

沙林已经穿上了她自己的动力装甲。

这套装甲在梅克隆的实验室里制造，采用了上一轮收集的数据，并专门做了隔离处理，以抵抗穿戴者自身的锈蚀能力。它还将她的冲击波能力扩展到了全身。守卫朝她胸口扫射时，子弹纷纷变形压扁，没能造成致命伤。

“现在想伤我可没那么容易了吧，混蛋们？！”沙林得意地叫嚣，随即抬起双手，将一名身穿动力装甲的控火型基因者轰得粉碎，“该算账了！”

“听着，我真的很讨厌干活，这份工作还没工资，”幽灵懒得不能再懒地说道，同时让托举着灵质骷髅头的彩尘向外扩张。一场龙卷风规模的闪光风暴很快包围了城堡，形成一道不可穿透的屏障。“你们能不能，就是，走人？要不咱们玩《棋盘与征服》也行，只要你们有兴趣。”

“既然这么讨厌工作，干吗不让我们进去？”沙林怒吼着朝彩色风暴打出一道冲击波。攻击没能穿透防御，瑞恩由此意识到，幽魂是从黄色世界里抽取了这种古怪物质。扭动的风暴将沙子吹向四面八方，扩大了沙滩的面积。

“托尔克神父答应我，只要把这里看护好，他就会想办法驱灵，把我送回天堂。我又不认识别的神父。我算是被绑在这座岛上了，社交生活很不活跃。”幽魂依次打量瑞恩小队的每一个人，“你们之中，碰巧有谁是神父吗？”

“波动先生有拉比执照。”这位基因者纵身跃起，化为一道激光，直冲幽魂那张鬼脸，“而且他会像所罗门一样把你劈开！”

幽魂用念力把波动先生定在半空，那名红系基因者变回了原形。“我是基督徒，所以你没戏。”幽灵说完，把波动先生扔进了海里，“死后的日子也不公平啊。”

“还用你说。”瑞恩说着，重新飞上天空。

幽魂大声哼了一下，权当耸肩，骷髅头随之改变形态。两条巨硕无比的金色白骨手臂和一副肋骨在下方成形，由保护极乐工厂的彩色龙卷风托举着。幽灵化作了一个巨人，双手猛地抓向瑞恩。

“等等，你还会变形？”瑞恩一边拼命躲闪巨人的双手，一边抗议，“对付迪纳米斯的时候你怎么不用？”

“迪纳米斯？”幽魂困惑地问。他试图像拍虫子一样拍死飞来飞去的快递员，干劲却跟累瘫了的办公室职员差不多。“幽灵能干的事，我基本都能干，而且多得出人意料。真希望其中也包括搬家。”

这个《捉鬼敢死队》的活广告，简直就是黄色版的利奥·哈格雷夫斯。瑞恩一想到，如果这幽灵不受闹鬼地盘的限制，哪怕只有那么一点积极性，能干出什么来，就不寒而栗。但凡有点杀心，幽魂就该意识到，他完全可以用念力把人捏碎，而不是扔出去。

沙林和蕾恩试图支援瑞恩，前者用冲击波，后者用鱼雷。可打在巨人金色的手臂上，两者都不比用水枪滋雕像有效。波动先生沿海面跑回了岛上，深红色疾影所过之处，海水尽数化为蒸汽。他试图穿过极乐工厂周围的龙卷风屏障，结果却像撞上力场一样被弹了回去。

“行，你们惹到我了。”幽魂的语气明显烦躁起来，“看过《木乃伊》吗？”

“1932版还是1999版？”瑞恩问，随即意识到幽灵打算干什么，“啊哦，1999版。”

悬空的快递员脚下，整片沙滩开始移动、扭曲，如怒海般翻起波浪。蕾恩和沙林连同大部分被打倒的守卫一起，被埋在了沙浪之下，波动先生则不得不化为激光逃走。

随后，沙滩开始升起，依照幽魂的意志化作一场沙海啸。瑞恩飞得越高，那道巨浪便涨得越高。

“说起来，我还真没试过能把它抬多高。”幽灵卡斯珀觉得瑞恩逃跑的样子很有趣。这时，沙墙已经高过了极乐工厂，岸上的沙子也被抽得一干二净。快递员只希望同伴的动力装甲能护住他们，撑过那势必到来的撞击。

“好吧，伊莫顿，我这就把你送回九十年代！”瑞恩盘旋着绕开幽魂的手臂，突破拦截，直冲骷髅头，“先送你的牙回去！”

“我已经死了啊。”幽魂不为所动。他对自己的不死之身信心十足，甚至懒得用巨手护住骷髅头。“就连消除者和普鲁托，也没法让我彻底入土。”

“既然如此，是你逼我使出全力的。”瑞恩举起拳头，“现在，我不得不动手了！”

就在装甲护手碰到幽魂骷髅头的刹那，时间旅行者暂停了时间，但仅仅一瞬。世界染上紫色，漆黑的粒子从他指间拖曳而出，宛如流星的尾迹，一颗黑色陨星划过长空。一股不可阻挡的力量，撞上了一个没有实体的物体。

当瑞恩的金属手指触及幽灵时，他感到了阻力。

时间恢复，幽魂的金色骷髅头闪烁起来，被瑞恩击中的地方浮现出黑色裂痕。托举着它的闪光尘暴有一瞬间减弱了，支撑沙海啸的念力也随之失效。

成吨的沙子崩塌下来，以灾难般的巨响砸落在堡垒周围的地面上。尘云笼罩了岛屿与海面，浓得让瑞恩看不清其中的任何东西。部分沙子落进了堡垒，将坚固的城墙染成黄色。

“你……”幽魂那双发着幽光的眼睛震惊地转向瑞恩，两条巨臂如断了线的木偶一般垂落，“你打到我了！”

“退下吧，撒旦！”瑞恩说道。下方，尘埃已经落定，沙林用冲击波将自己从沙牢里喷射出来。波动先生从岛上重新现身，开始在海滩上高速奔走，大概是在寻找被埋的蕾恩。“否则再赏你一巴掌！”

“你伤到我了……”一种古怪的彩色物质从骷髅头的眼窝里流下，像是幽魂行经之处留下的闪光尘埃变成了液体。“你伤到我了……”

他这是……哭了？瑞恩有那么一瞬间感到过意不去，随即发觉幽灵的声音里没有半点悲伤。

那是喜悦的泪水。

“终于！”幽魂再次变形，双臂和肋骨消失不见。保护阿拉贡城堡的彩色龙卷风也散去了，极乐工厂失去了防护。那些小队没能打倒的守卫，也已被幽灵自己的沙海啸碾压了。“来吧，把我送回天堂！撕开我的灵质，我的灵魂已经准备好了！”

通常，瑞恩揍起敌人来从不犹豫，可幽灵声音里的某种意味却让他迟疑了。他暂停时间，轻轻扇了骷髅头一巴掌。时间恢复时，对方竟然呻吟了一声。快递员打了个寒战。

“你这自私鬼，光会吊人胃口，怎么还不杀我？”见敌人不敢打第三下，幽魂恼怒地问道。

“别这样，你……”瑞恩移开视线，“你搞得我很尴尬。”

“你想让我求你？你就想要这个？”

“你要是享受起来，我就没乐子了。”瑞恩恶心得不行，“我完全支持安乐死，可这次总觉得不干净。”

“我等了十五年！”幽魂的骷髅头一边抱怨，一边移进快递员的视野，逼瑞恩正视自己。“当了十五年幽灵，始终不得解脱！你能想象守着这片毒垃圾场有多无聊吗？除了公事，根本没人来！”

这番对话让瑞恩很不安。“听着，不死的坏处，我理解得比你以为的还要深，”快递员努力斟酌着措辞，“可你真的想彻底死去吗？这种决定不能轻率。”

如果幽灵真心求死，瑞恩会在完美通关时让他安息。但当自己的紫色灵药将类似的难题摆到面前时，快递员选择的是生，而不是死。除非这个闹鬼的家伙绝对确信自己的决定，否则他不想走到那一步。

“你现在是认真的吗？”幽魂嗤道，“换成你，愿意做一个被困在同一个地方、完全没有实体的幽灵？”

“肯定有办法绕过这个限制，”瑞恩回答，“况且作为交换，你得到了惊天动地的宇宙之力。只要你愿意，大概连奥古斯都都能正面对抗。”

幽魂沉默了几秒，可快递员的话显然没能打动他。“不能享受生活，力量又有什么用？”他问，“我尝不到味道，摸不到东西，不能睡觉，也不能做梦。我生不了孩子，游戏也不够我打发时间。我能用意念举起东西，却感受不到它们的温暖。对我来说，世界是冰冷的，铁皮罐头。这种残缺不全的生活，我受不了。”

瑞恩注意到，地面上的沙林和波动先生正把蕾恩从沙子底下抬出来。他从前的副总统全神贯注地听着这番对话，大概是因为听进了心坎里。

“我体验过天堂和安宁，结果又被一把拽回地球，”幽魂说，“我好多年前就死了，却没法安息。我能做的只有消磨时间。除非你能让我死而复生？”

“我目前还做不到。”瑞恩承认，“可也许将来可以？”

“是啊，也许等到太阳吞掉地球，我还烂在这座岛上。我等托尔克神父想出办法等了那么多年，‘也许’一直都只是‘也许’。我宁愿赌一把。当了十五年幽灵，整整十五年都是多熬的。”

瑞恩还在犹豫，地面上的沙林便嚷了起来。“赶紧给他个痛快吧！”她说，“他没那么坚强，撑不下去了，就放他走。”

“你非要我还手吗？”幽魂绝望地问，“一定要这样才行？伙计，我不想走到那一步，可有必要的话，我会的。”

“好吧，好吧，我动手！”瑞恩说，心里失落极了。他闭上眼睛，攥紧拳头，准备了结此事。“别出声。”

“哈利路亚。”幽魂平静地等待着终结，“终于能回天堂了。谢谢。”

瑞恩再次暂停时间，用尽全力向这个奇异的幽灵挥出一拳。他漆黑的拳头撕开了幽魂无形的躯体，黑色粒子吞噬着灵质，宛如黑洞吞没星尘。

时间恢复时，这一击已将幽魂的灵体劈成两半。构成金色骷髅头的物质仿佛失去了凝聚力，像积雪在暖阳下融化，散作点点液滴。幽灵消散了，他的不死之身被抹去。下方，沙林向城堡释放了一道持续不断的冲击波，摧毁了幽魂几分钟前修复的瓮城。波动先生立刻以光速穿过缺口，冲了进去。

瑞恩独自悬浮在空中，在庄严的沉默里，想起了自己在黑色世界短暂的停留。时间旅行者曾祈求终结自己的不死之身，祈求一条逃离永恒存在的出路……而终极者应允了。它赋予了时间旅行者一种能力，让他能够伤害不可伤害之物，杀死无法死去之人。

包括瑞恩自己。

到头来，总统最好的朋友，还是他沿途开采出来的石油。

---

瑞恩很想说，幽魂死后，极乐工厂的部队为保卫那一批批毒品，进行了一场史诗般的最后抵抗。快递员本以为，攻下工厂至少得浪费一个小时。

结果只用了十四分钟。

战斗期间潜入堡垒的裹尸布已经找到一台终端，黑进了工厂系统。凭借莉维娅提供的安全代码，他打开了所有门，并干扰了对外通讯。波动先生只是以光速逛遍了整座工厂。等其他人进来时，他已经把两百名昏迷不醒的守卫堆好。

“啧，我还以为你会给我们留几个。”沙林抱怨道。

“想查波动先生的敌人名单，请看‘已灭绝物种’分类。”那男人夸口道，身上的晚礼服纤尘不染。“波动先生不杀戮，他只负责灭绝。”

面对这般妙语，瑞恩只觉得自己是个站在大师面前的学生。

他们沿阿拉贡城堡的走廊深入，前往内部的极乐实验室。与外头古老的城墙形成鲜明对比的是，奥古斯蒂用钢墙和防爆门加固了内部结构。裹尸布没替他们打开的那几扇门，都被沙林轰碎了。

一行人终于抵达设施核心，也就是极乐的生产中心。巴克斯在堡垒下方的地下仓库里研制他钟爱的毒品，其规模之大，连瑞恩都觉得难以置信。一座巨大的玻璃花园种满了提供毒品原料的植物，那是些花瓣浅蓝、花心黄色的奇异花朵。一大群身穿防化服的工人忙着采摘花瓣，而这些植物只需几分钟就能重新长出缺失的部分。

之后，花瓣被浸入油中，干燥后制成蓝色粉末，再与其他化学品混合。产物被送上自动流水线，大批机械臂把极乐装进小罐和皮下注射器里，每小时都能装满一整箱又一整箱。按现场制成的数量估算，瑞恩认为这里每天能生产好几吨极乐。见鬼，光是处理生产废料，工厂的焚化炉就得不停运转。

这里的大部分设备都是自动化的，蕾恩用鱼雷瞄准剩下的少数工人，逼他们双手抱头。“怎么回事？”瑞恩听到伏尔甘的声音从一台电脑里传出，裹尸布正在键盘上敲打。“我二十分钟前收到了警报。”

“没什么事，女士。”裹尸布伪装了声音，“有疯魔想袭击工厂，不过幽魂和您的安防系统把他们赶跑了。”

“那当然。”通讯另一头的伏尔甘嗤笑一声，自满得过了头。“我早说过，检查就是浪费时间。”

“是的，女士。确实如此。”裹尸布结束通讯，从控制面板前抬起头，“生产数据已经下载，监控录像也删了。把这里烧了吧。”

“太好了。”沙林迫不及待地轰向玻璃花园和里面的植物。震荡将异样的花朵震成两截，这名疯魔很快又转向了生产线。

“波动先生很欣慰。”看着眼前的破坏，瑞恩的偶像拍了拍他的后背。“他原本还担心你长大后会走上歪路，到时不得不把你像那条老黄狗一样了结掉。不过，你成了一个品位高雅、本领过人的男子汉。”

“多亏你做了榜样。”救过他那么多次之后，波动先生在瑞恩心中留下了极深的印记。

“这些年你都在忙什么？”波动先生问，“波动先生找过你好几次，可你好像从来不在一个地方久待。”

“我征服了摩纳哥，在一场扑克大赛上赢来一座小镇，还找了个外星人给我的《死灵之书》签名。”

“不错。至于波动先生，他去了西藏，探索宇宙的伟大奥秘。究竟是波动先生诞生时创造了世界，还是世界本就为波动先生而造？有没有可能，世间唯一的引力，就是波动先生的魅力所产生的引力？”

“你怎么受得了这家伙？”沙林提高声音，盖过自己冲击波的轰鸣，问裹尸布。

“只能小剂量接触。”玻璃操纵者答道。

“波动先生理解。长时间接触波动先生，可能引发对他的病态崇拜欲，或者濒死体验。没有中间状态。”

“别站着看了，有件事你们可以帮忙。”裹尸布用能力毁掉电脑部件后说道，“巴克斯有个秘密试验区，而且……你们看了就明白了。”

瑞恩明白了，只觉毛骨悚然。

裹尸布带着他和波动先生深入设施内部，穿过一条冰冷的金属走廊，来到后面的密室。室内灯光昏暗，大部分区域都笼罩在一片漆黑之中。瑞恩先走进去，脚步声在铁地板上回响。他看见铁栏杆在微光中闪烁，热感应器则传回了三十六个以上的热信号。

虽然装甲头盔能过滤空气，人类排泄物的恶臭仍冲破了过滤。

那些牲畜笼子狭小得让瑞恩确信，它们原本是用来关猪的。笼子像俄罗斯方块一样层层堆叠，眼前的景象却毫无趣味可言。同伴们一片令人不安的寂静，瑞恩打开装甲上的灯，朝最近的铁栏里望去。

人。

三个人挤在同一个笼子里，里面小得连站都站不起来。他们一定是爬进去的。极乐过量让囚徒们的静脉和嘴唇变成了蓝色，皮肤惨白，肉体消瘦得让快递员几乎能看见底下的骨头。两个男人，一个女人。笼子已经很久没有清理，排泄物堆在一角。

即使已经循环了数百年，瑞恩也没有对这种景象麻木。打量这些囚徒时，他心中涌起强烈的厌恶。再看向其他笼子，清点关在里面的人数，这种感觉更是加倍翻涌。

二十三个。他心想，停在一个男人面前。那人的双眼已被一群苍蝇啃噬殆尽。一个死了。

“纳尔西妮娅知道吗？”瑞恩问，“伏尔甘知道吗？”

“不，我想她们不知道。”裹尸布说，“实验室这一部分只有巴克斯能进。”

那个疯神父拿这些人测试尚在试验阶段的极乐新品种，摧毁他们的心智，只为疯狂地尝试联系蓝色终极者。这些人是最新一批“志愿者”，可能是从街上抓来的瘾君子，也可能是奥古斯都的敌人，被当作祭品献给了他那可怖的毒品巫师。

究竟有多少人死在了这些墙壁之内，尸体又被扔进了焚化炉？

“这……”波动先生似乎不知该说什么，朝囚徒们挥了挥手。他们的眼睛没有跟随他的动作，只剩空洞的凝视。“我……波动先生觉得，有人把他们的脑子弄坏了。”

瑞恩用头盔拍下现场，随后撕开了最近的笼子。他覆着装甲的双手扳弯铁栏，打开笼门。裹尸布立刻接住了里面的囚徒，那是个最多二十岁的女人。她的皮肤上长着蓝色霉斑，眼下凝着干涸的血迹。

瑞恩肩上扛着两个人，走出这片区域，望向生产线的废墟。火焰已经开始蔓延，眼看就要吞没地下设施。沙林把它们全都毁了，正以心满意足的姿态欣赏自己的成果，蕾恩则在疏散工人。

“比安卡？”快递员喊道。

“干吗？”沙林没好气地回道。

“等所有人撤出去，把这里全震塌。”瑞恩的语气透着危险，“埋了它。”

在完美通关时，瑞恩要亲手摧毁这座工厂。

连同里面的巴克斯一起。