Outside the Hovercar, the night sky was a vast expanse of stars.

Jiang Zheyu was pressed against the window. She could see the starry lights of towering skyscrapers rising from the ground, a breathtakingly beautiful and brilliant sight.

"BEEP. Hovercar now initiating self-destruct sequence. Countdown: one minute!"

"Fifty-nine, fifty-eight, fifty-seven..."

A mechanical voice echoed inside the Hovercar.

Jiang Zheyu froze for a second before she realized what was happening. ’The Hovercar is going to self-destruct!’

Red and white lights flashed throughout the Hovercar, illuminating Jiang Zheyu’s delicate, pale face.

"Fifty-five, fifty-four..."

The countdown was like a timer ticking down to her death.

Cold sweat beaded on Jiang Zheyu’s forehead. She rushed to the door and kicked it, but it didn’t budge. She quickly grabbed the handle and yanked, trying to force the door open, but to her dismay, the handle she was clinging to snapped right off. The door remained shut, and her own momentum sent her stumbling backward to the floor.

"Damn it!" Jiang Zheyu scrambled up from the floor, about to buy a high-tech gadget from her system to blast the door open.

But suddenly, an arm covered in rose tattoos grabbed her by the wrist.

"Thirty, twenty-nine..."

The Hovercar’s countdown continued, each number a death knell.

Jiang Zheyu looked over, her eyes wide with astonishment, at Gu Yao, who had grabbed her arm.

"Get behind me." It was still Gu Yao’s face and voice, but the tone was calm and filled with a reassuring sense of security.

His pair of purple eyes bloomed like quiet, resolute violets.

They were the same purple eyes, but when it was Gu Yao, they were wicked and twisted. Now, those eyes were reassuringly calm.

Their eyes met for only an instant. The moment he spoke, Jiang Yi—possessing the data body of Gu Yao’s Biorobot—pulled Jiang Zheyu behind him. His rose-tattooed arm transformed into a giant Laser Cannon and fired a blast straight at the Hovercar’s door.

Hiding behind him, Jiang Zheyu knew from just a single glance that the person using the Biorobot body with Gu Yao’s appearance wasn’t Gu Yao, but someone else entirely.

A deafening BOOM filled her ears as shrapnel and steel fragments flew through the air. All of it slammed into the young man’s body; he shielded Jiang Zheyu from every last piece of flying debris.

The massive explosion, mixed with the sound of the Hovercar’s self-destruct countdown, all flooded into Jiang Zheyu’s ears, making them ring faintly.

"Five, four, three..."

The young man held her and instantly charged out of the Hovercar. Jiang Zheyu could only feel the sharp wind scraping painfully against her face. That, along with the roaring of the wind, made her ears ring even louder.

"Two..."

"One..."

The two of them plummeted downwards at high speed.

In the sky, the Hovercar instantly exploded, blooming into a fiery mushroom cloud. Red flames, mixed with thick black smoke, were incredibly conspicuous against the night.

The roaring wind and the sound of the explosion flooded Jiang Zheyu’s ears together.

And as her body fell rapidly, the feeling of weightlessness, the crushing pressure on her entire being, was unbearable.

The stinging wind forced Jiang Zheyu to squint, and she could only make out the blurry forms of towering buildings below, a sea of brilliant, dazzling lights.

’I wanted to live, but I didn’t want to jump out of a Hovercar just to be splattered into a pancake on the ground!’

"Hey..." ’The person next to me probably doesn’t want me to die, right?’

So she reached out and grabbed the man’s arm, about to say something. But she had only managed to get out that single "Hey" before the wind rushed into her throat, choking off the rest of her words and forcing her into a fit of dry coughs.

"Don’t be afraid. You’ll be okay." The man beside her quickly turned her head into his chest, shielding her from the fierce wind.

All of this happened in a flash. Jiang Yi deployed a parachute. It shot upward, and the speed of their descent began to slow.

Jiang Zheyu’s coughing gradually subsided.

She looked down at the skyscrapers with their twinkling lights. Against the darkness of night, the myriad lights looked brilliant and beautiful. Leaping from the sky toward a sea of brilliance seemed incredibly picturesque.

’But in reality, my blood pressure is spiking, this weightlessness is agonizing, and I could still die!’

’As I thought, I don’t find these brilliant skyscrapers picturesque at all anymore. I just feel numb inside. Every time I run into a Star Thief, something insane like this happens. I’m completely worn out.’

The two of them continued their slow descent, the man beside her holding her waist tightly.

Something warm and wet dripped onto Jiang Zheyu’s face.

She seemed to realize something and quickly looked up at the person beside her. She saw that the bloody cuts Gu Yao had perversely carved on his own face were still there, now slowly oozing blood. His body was also covered in wounds from shielding her from the shrapnel, and he smelled of blood.

’I know this is a Biorobot, and the blood isn’t even real.’

’But I remember... for Biorobots, all sensory input is synchronized.’

’So the pain must be synchronized, too!’

When that pervert Gu Yao was cutting his own face, Jiang Zheyu hadn’t really considered whether he was in pain or not.

But now, with the man beside her bleeding, she subconsciously wanted to ask if he was in pain.

Jiang Zheyu didn’t know who he was or how he had connected to this Biorobot. All she knew was that he meant her no harm and had just saved her life.

"Are... are you in pain?" Jiang Zheyu frowned. "If it hurts, you should leave this body. I can hold onto the parachute and get down by myself."

Jiang Yi was indeed experiencing all of this body’s sensations, including the bone-deep pain.

"It doesn’t hurt." Jiang Yi gave a faint smile, the corners of his lips turning up slightly.

’Because I’m holding you, it doesn’t hurt.’ 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

Jiang Zheyu stared at him for a moment. Her eyes flickered, and she pressed her lips into a thin line.

’It’s clearly Gu Yao’s face, yet I can see a shadow of Jiang Yi in it.’

"Let’s land there!" Jiang Zheyu spotted the tallest building and quickly spoke up, wanting to get down faster.

’That way, once he sees I’ve landed safely, he can leave this Biorobot’s body without worrying. Otherwise, staying in this body full of injuries... the pain must be beyond what any normal person could bear.’

Jiang Yi paused, seeming to understand Jiang Zheyu’s thoughts. He didn’t say anything more and obediently guided their descent onto the roof of the tall building.

Jiang Zheyu’s feet touched solid ground, and her heart, which had been hanging in her throat, finally settled.

"Thank you." Jiang Zheyu looked up at the man before her. "I can get back on my own from here. You should leave this body now, quickly."

"Alright," he replied with a smile.