Love Code At the End of The World

*Rustle!* The vines were moving towards me. All of a sudden, they sped up and seized my foot. I immediately raised my gun to shoot at them. The gun’s light ray snapped the branch, but other branches swiftly took its place to charge at me. Quickly, I shot all of them. 

*Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!* The lights constantly beat off the branches that were aiming for me. I continued to shoot as I sat next to the robot. Anxiously I grabbed the cables in his chest. “Xing Chuan! Wake up…” A blue light blinked in my hand, before a light flashed under the silver mask. The robot sat up!

I continued to shoot as I glanced back at him. “Why are you just sitting there! Quickly bring me away!”

The robot immediately held me by my waist, pulling my body close, and carried me away while keeping close to the ground! I grabbed the rose gift box that I had thrown away earlier, holding onto the robot by his neck with my free hand as I continued to shoot the surrounding branches.

“How do the trees move?” I asked. The robot continued to charge forward while he dodged the spirits. Spotting a gap with lesser spirits, he sped up in that direction. A hole in the wall gaped ahead of us, where Ice Dragon had blasted a hole earlier.

“Spirits. The spirits can enter trees and animate them!” I was too busy shooting to reply. There was a limit as to how many shots a gun could hold. We had to retreat soon.

*Phew!* We flew out from the hole. Behind us, I could clearly see the spirits pouncing. One grabbed onto the winged robot’s leg, while more attached onto the first spirit, forming a long chain that streamed behind us - like a flowing tail of blue lights on a white phoenix. 

My hand quickly covered the robot’s chest. If they took away the robot’s energy, I could counter them by instantly recharging it. I believed that the robot would be able to shake off the spirits. After all, they were only spirits.

Just then, some invisible suction force seemed to pull the blue lights on the spirits to me. They swam up from the robot’s ankle like blue snakes, flowing up along his leg. Gradually, the blue lights on the spirits still holding on faded away. They revealed human faces that were withering in agony.

*Ah!* With a roar, the spirit holding onto the robot shattered into dust that blew away in the wind. The chain of spirits broke and the spirits fell back into the building. They got to their feet as they watched us leave.

Silently standing at the hole in the wall, the spirits looked like they had been left behind in the sealed city, shimmering in blue light.

I looked at my hand, then at the spirits who were further and further away. We shared a similar superpower!

*Phew!* Xing Chuan brought me high into the sky above the city. Spirits couldn’t reach us there. Looking down, the entire city lay before us. Green plants engulfed the silent city. It looked beautiful and harmless but there was danger all over the place.

“Isn’t it beautiful?” he asked.

“Mm, it’s like a mysterious garden that God sealed,” I replied.

“How long have you been here?” He lowered his head, touching his chin to the top of my head.

“Since you’d abandoned me in the wilderness.”

He became quiet.

The world was silent. We flew over the sealed city that had resumed its tranquility with only the sound of the wind howling in our ears. We neared the city’s border, the light wall coming closer and closer to us.

I hugged his robotic body close and said, “I’d like to take a last look at the city before I leave.”

“Alright.” He stopped on the rooftop of a tall building near the city’s edges.

The wind blew vigorously at us, whipping at my scarf. The robot stood before me without speaking. Standing on the rooftop’s edge, Xing Chuan’s eyes watched me from behind the silver mask.

The spirit wouldn’t come by so quickly, since they had only appeared after Ice Dragon and me had been in there for some time. They were likely hidden in the depths of the forest, like sap running deep within the trees. They would only surge over when they notice an abnormality.

“Luo Bing, it was my fault for leaving you alone back then,” Xing Chuan said sincerely in regret. “I didn’t know you’d really lost your memory and needed help. From now on, Silver Moon City will be your home. I’ll be by your side. I’ll protect…”

I raised my gun and cut him off. Humph. You thought I didn’t hear what you said to Sharjah? I will not return to the embrace of a poisonous snake.

“Luo Bing, hit his head. Ice Dragon scanned the robot and its signal device is on its head!” That was Raffles’ reminder. “Try your best to keep the robot intact. We want to recycle it! This is awesome! We caught a robot from Silver Moon City!” Raffles couldn’t conceal his excitement.

The robot stood in silence, as if it was Xing Chuan himself who stood at the rooftop’s edge.

I smirked under the scarf as I looked at him. “Xing Chuan, thank you for teaching me how to be brutal and also about the law of nature in this world. Now that I know better, I won’t trust anyone again, including you!” I shot his mask.

*Pak!* The mask instantly shattered into pieces, exposing a blinking circuit board.

Slowly, the robot fell backwards even as his hand reached for me. It looked like he was going to tear away my scarf. I took a step back and his hand caught the rose gift box in my hand. The gift box broke and the rose petals fell.

The rose petals danced before me as I stood at the rooftop’s edge and looked down at the fallen robot. The red flower petals looked like his bloodstains left in the air.

The wind blew strongly on the rooftop and my scarf flapped. I didn’t look at him again, only turned to leave his sight. Humph, Xing Chuan, have a taste of how it feels to be abandoned.

I walked to the other side of the rooftop and said, “Ice Dragon, you can come and get me now.”

“Yes.”

The robot from Silver Moon City had separated from me, which meant that it had lost its energy source too. The remaining energy in his body would run out very soon.

Ice Dragon appeared in the sky above. It turned out that it had been following closely in invisible mode without making any sound.   

After I had confirmed that the robot was out of energy, Ice Dragon and I landed next to it. It was completely dead, hanging from the intersection of two big branches like an abandoned baby’s toy.

“Oh, you are still so rough-mannered. I hope that you won’t treat me like that. I am alive and conscious after all.” Ice Dragon sighed emotionally. “This child is so pitiful.” Ice Dragon sounded as though the robot was a living thing.

However, in my eyes, it was just a body made of a bunch of circuit boards and unknown metal. I did like the wings though. They were beautiful.

Ice Dragon extended its claw to seize the robot. We carried him away from the Garden of Eden that was full of danger. We had to leave as soon as possible. Xing Chuan knew I was here and he would definitely send a spaceship over.