Chapter 19: Matrix “Revolution”

By the time Mirror Face turned, he held a short sword in each hand. Two cold gleams swept out with a ringing clash. He darted away like lightning, and in the blink of an eye he was behind Darkwater. Both swords stabbed in through the ribs and slashed upward, tearing open the black body.

The two cuts split Darkwater's torso open, severing both shoulders and leaving his arms dangling to either side. But his recovery was astonishingly fast too. Almost the instant the blades left his body, the separated parts stuck back together and reformed.

Seeing this, Mirror Face held nothing back and went for sheer speed. He wanted to see whether this monster could recover as fast as he could destroy it. His twin swords struck like a gale, unleashing more than a dozen moves in an instant, leaving no opening in a relentless downpour of blows. Darkwater was driven steadily backward, black liquid spattering the ceiling, floor, and walls of the corridor.

We shall leave their fight for the moment. Gates, who had been standing nearby just a moment ago, had vanished in the blink of an eye. He had no desire to get caught up in a fight between those two. However many lives he had, they wouldn't be enough.

Stumbling toward the base's main control room, Gates was frantic. Putting himself in the intruder's shoes, he reckoned that if he got into headquarters with high-end equipment, he might need only twenty minutes to crack Matrix's core database.

An external intrusion like yesterday's—stealing some intelligence and having a little online chat as a show of force—wasn't enough to cause a major upheaval. Even if the intruder handed all that intelligence to the Empire, the organization would, at worst, suffer the same losses as Steel Commandment in the Dragon Commandery, abandoning some fixed assets that had been exposed. So Gu Wen hacking into their system yesterday was something the organization could live with. No wall was airtight. Any system written by humans had to have a way in.

But an intrusion from inside, like today's, could very well breach Matrix's core database. That would put the Freedom Front's life in the intruder's hands. Records on every senior member, including the decision-makers, top-secret files on agents planted within the Empire, proprietary research and technology, and so on… Once that information was in someone else's hands, the blow to the organization would be devastating. Unlike certain resistance groups, they couldn't afford fancy tricks like sending messages by carrier pigeon. The Freedom Front relied on technology more than any other resistance organization. To them, the fall of Matrix would be like an infection reaching a person's bone marrow. They wouldn't have long to live.

Halfway there, Gates suddenly sensed something was wrong. With alarms blaring throughout the base, why hadn't he seen a single person along the way? He slowed and looked around. All the electronic doors in the corridors on either side were closed. He ran on to an intersection and looked both ways. The same thing.

“Has that brat already taken control of the whole base…?” Gates muttered. “Then why hasn't he sealed off my route to the main control room too?”

Though he suspected something was amiss, Gates had no choice. He reached the main control room without trouble, and the electronic door opened after scanning his eyes. Five or six staff members were still seated inside. At the sound of the door, they all turned. Seeing Gates, one immediately said, “Mr. Gates! What on earth is going on?”

“Someone inside our base is trying to break into Matrix. He probably entered the system through the conference room computer.” As he spoke, Gates walked up to the console and placed both hands on the keyboard.

“What?” a staff member exclaimed. “At this speed… We thought the base had been discovered and the Empire was attacking us with an entire department's worth of personnel and computers.”

“No, it's just one person. That much I'm sure of.” Watching the screen, Gates said irritably, “I know what this brat can do. He's still no match for me. But these abnormal changes in the data and the speed of these attacks aren't something Sorcerer's programs alone could manage. What the hell is that thing on his wrist… a computer built with alien technology?!”

In the conference room, Gu Wen had taken Destiny off his arm. It had transformed into a control panel attached to the conference room computer, allowing him to operate it with both hands.

“What a pain. Since I'm not connected directly to one of Matrix's own terminals, it really is taking longer,” Gu Wen said to himself. “Still, this system isn't nearly as outrageous as I imagined. Is Gates slipping…? No, that woman is just too good.” For a brief instant, Vanessa's face flashed through his mind. “Her improvements to Apostle brought it pretty close to Matrix. That's why, now that I'm facing Matrix, it feels a little underwhelming.”

Bang bang bang bang! Four successive impacts shook the room, snapping Gu Wen out of his thoughts. He tilted his head toward the electronic door. Four bulges had been knocked into the wall beside it, on the corridor side.

“Darkwater should be fine…” Gu Wen murmured.

Outside, Darkwater's hand was wrapped around Mirror Face's neck like a tentacle, slamming him into the wall over and over. An ordinary person would long since have been reduced to broken bones held together by sinews, vomiting blood and dying. Only a Strong-rank ability user like Mirror Face could withstand this kind of battering.

Just a few minutes earlier, Mirror Face had seemed to hold every advantage. The crucial reversal came because he had misjudged both Darkwater's strength and his purpose.

It wasn't that Darkwater couldn't beat Mirror Face. He simply didn't want to fight. His main aim was to buy time for Gu Wen, so he was in no hurry to end the battle. Tian Yi's instructions had also explicitly said to kill as few people as possible.

For all the commotion, Mirror Face's attacks were doing Darkwater almost no harm. Unless he could exceed the speed of sound, produce something like a shock wave, and break down Darkwater's entire body in an extremely short time, all his exertions would achieve about as much as Dugu Qiubai practicing his swordplay against his reflection in the water.

But as the fight went on, Mirror Face gradually discovered something he shouldn't have. Darkwater's weak point was his head.

Whenever a blade approached Darkwater's head or threatened to cut clean through his neck, severing the connection between head and body, Darkwater would make some effort to evade it. These movements were minute, and he was already retreating, but Mirror Face still noticed.

He darted in front of Darkwater, both swords gleaming coldly, their keen edges on full display. Every move went straight for the head. As the fighting grew fiercer, Darkwater finally had nowhere left to retreat or dodge, and a sword point struck him between the brows.

But at that instant came the clang of metal striking metal, and a jolt of pain and numbness ran through Mirror Face's sword hand. Only then did he realize that his opponent's body could turn liquid as well as become as hard as alloy.

The sword hadn't penetrated Darkwater's head at all. Instead, Darkwater had caught it in a firm grip.

Had Gambling Snake been there, faced with an opponent like this, he would certainly have abandoned his sword and retreated without hesitation, waving his sleeve, taking not a single cloud with him, leaving only a few grenades…

Mirror Face chose differently. He wasn't thinking of getting away safely and trying again later. He wanted to keep springing unexpected moves and snatch victory from danger.

He did not release the short sword in his left hand. He merely shifted his right foot half a step back, channeled all his strength and energy into his right arm, and slashed with all his might.

The sword cut from the left side of Darkwater's neck to the right side of his abdomen, dividing his torso along that line. His right arm, head, and roughly a third of his torso were separated from the rest of his body.

For one brief instant, Mirror Face thought he might have won. But when facing Darkwater, you must never think that way. Unless you throw him into a steelmaking furnace, flush him down a toilet, or toss him into the sun… you'd best stay on your guard. Gunsmith had already tested this in the South American ruins. Even when Darkwater had only just awakened and consumed a single human, a shot that blew his head apart while he was completely off guard still hadn't killed him.

Sure enough, the cut lasted no longer than Mirror Face's thought. Countless strands of black slime between the separated sections clung together again. Darkwater's torso quickly rejoined, the cut marks on his front and back vanishing as his body smoothed over.

Now Mirror Face was rather at a loss. This monster could keep his head as hard as alloy while the rest of his body remained liquid and capable of instantly reforming. Even if a slash successfully cut his torso in two, the parts would quickly rejoin unless the attack had enough reach and momentum to send the severed section flying far enough away.

“Probably only a Molecular Influence ability user could destroy him completely.” With that thought, Mirror Face gave up on defeating Darkwater. He immediately drew his right hand back from the slash and aimed his mirrored mask at Darkwater. He intended to carry the motion through and thrust the short sword into his own mask, immobilizing his opponent first.

This would restrict Mirror Face's own movements too, forcing him to maintain that position. But here in a Freedom Front base, his opponent had no outside help to wait for, whereas reinforcements would come for him.

Yet Mirror Face's short sword never reached the reflection in his mask. Darkwater's arm moved first, turning into a black torrent that surged toward his face and wrapped around his neck. At that instant, the arm changed from liquid to solid. An immense force cut off Mirror Face's breathing.

Darkwater tightened the black tentacle around Mirror Face's neck and slammed him into the wall four times in succession, each blow carrying the force of a pile driver. These were the blows that had produced the bulges Gu Wen saw in the conference room.

Mirror Face's consciousness began to blur. Racked with pain and starved of oxygen, he had no strength to resist. He had never imagined he would die in a place like this.

Darkwater raised his other hand. That arm sharpened into something like a steel spike, lengthening on its own and stabbing straight at Mirror Face's throat.

Suddenly, with a dull thud, Darkwater's entire body was blasted apart. It drifted forward half a meter like a cloud of black mist, then gathered together again.

Mirror Face dropped to the floor, gasping as he moved out of Darkwater's reach.

Darkwater turned and saw a white man in his thirties standing far down the corridor behind him. He wore a black suit and sunglasses, but unlike the others, he also wore black gloves. He was approaching with one arm held straight out.

Two more dull thuds sounded. Darkwater turned to mist again, this time driven much farther back. His body also took about half a second longer to reform.

“Weak point… the head…” Mirror Face forced the words through his hoarse throat, shouting as loudly as he could.

The white man seemed to hear him. He raised both hands and aimed at Darkwater's head, preparing to concentrate the force of the blow on a single point.

Darkwater reacted at once. A blue-green light blazed in his eyes. He crossed his hands in front of his face, turning them liquid and swiftly shaping them into a black shield.

An enormous crash rang out. The shield of black water exploded, and Darkwater's entire body went flying backward. The corridor walls buckled and warped all around him from the impact.

Listening to the sounds outside the conference room, Gu Wen knew things were going badly. Mirror Face definitely wasn't their only expert. If more came, Darkwater might not be able to hold them off. His hands moved faster as he babbled at the screen, “Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on…”

Suddenly, another dull thud sounded, and the conference room's electronic door turned to powder too. Unlike Darkwater, though, the door couldn't put itself back together.

The man in black gloves stood in the doorway with one arm raised. He told Mirror Face, “I'll hold off that monster. You deal with the brat inside.”

Mirror Face was already on his feet and had steadied his breathing. Though badly injured, he still had enough strength to stop Gu Wen from working on the computer.

Gu Wen thought he was in trouble. But just as Mirror Face was about to charge in, everything before Gu Wen's eyes went pitch-black. He couldn't see his hand in front of his face. Every source of light in the world seemed to have vanished at that moment.

In the main control room, Gates was startled too. The same thing had happened there. “What's going on? A power cut? No… I can still hear the computers running. The power's fine.”

“Have we gone blind?” an operator asked.

“Impossible… What the hell is going on?!”

Darkness descended as though it had substance, covering everyone's eyes. The only visible light was the glow of a single match.

About ten seconds later, everything returned to normal. But many things had changed.

A hand was pressed against the back of the black-gloved man's neck. Spayton leaned close to his ear and said, “Move, and everything below this vertebra will stop working forever.”

Mirror Face was pinned to the floor by Darkwater once again. Much as he hated it, he truly had no strength left to fight.

“You're a little late.” Gu Wen resumed his work. He had hesitated for less than two seconds, all the time his brain needed to catch up and work out what to do next.

Spayton replied, “Once that Destiny device on your arm entered this base, its signal was blocked. I wandered around the nursing home for ages before I found a way down.”

“A little later and Mirror Face might've chopped off one of my arms,” Gu Wen said lightly.

Spayton said, “Then you could just have Stranger sew it back on. Or have Marshal make you a mechanical one.”

“A man's hand can do far more than you could possibly imagine. How can you value it so little?” Gu Wen said with a grin. He tapped Enter, finishing his work, and his good mood had him cracking dirty jokes.

Spayton said, “Looks like the boss calling you vulgar was just stating a fact.”

Gu Wen said, “All right, let's get out of here before more experts arrive.” As he spoke, blood spurted simultaneously from the black-gloved man's Achilles tendons and elbows.

“Sorry, but I don't want you chasing us.” Gu Wen even spoke to him as though nothing had happened as he stepped past.

The man said nothing more. He knew there was no point making threats. If he didn't watch his mouth, he might lose his life.

Darkwater slammed Mirror Face hard against the wall a few more times, as savagely as Mr. Bean beating a sardine to death while making a sandwich. He had no qualms about doing such things, though. In that respect he was rather like Blood Owl.

The three moved on with Gu Wen guiding them. He jogged ahead, leading the way as easily as if he were in his own backyard. Presumably he'd glanced at a floor plan of the base while he was at it earlier, then committed the whole thing to memory.

“What do we do if we come to a door?” Spayton asked.

“How did you get in?” Gu Wen asked in return.

“I also had to break through electronic doors on the way in. That held me up even longer,” Spayton replied.

“Heh…” Gu Wen chuckled. A door happened to block their path about ten meters ahead. He raised Destiny, now back on his left forearm, and made a few quick adjustments—who knew what. The electronic door ahead opened.

“One of the added features in the improved portable version…” Gu Wen seemed to find it funnier the more he talked. “Sorcerer included that ‘knoock’ program he wrote as a kid. An upgraded version, too.”

Darkwater commented without a trace of emotion, “Don't get it. Sounds impressive…”

The three escaped all the way to the surface with practically no resistance. The Freedom Front, meanwhile, had to find ability users to break down their own electronic doors if they wanted to give chase.

In the main control room, Gates crouched on the floor with his head in his hands, his eyes full of anger and frustration. “That little bastard… Did he let me reach Matrix without any trouble just to humiliate me…?”

Before Gates and the assembled operators, the Matrix terminal's large screen displayed a photoshopped image of Gu Wen in a black trench coat and sunglasses, flying through a virtual city. Beneath it was a caption: The Savior Was Here at Matrix.

The whole thing looked like a movie poster, and a spectacularly ridiculous one at that. At that very moment, every main Matrix screen belonging to the Freedom Front, all around the world, displayed this image. If this wasn't a belated April Fool's joke, it meant that the Matrix system, impregnable for so many years, had fallen completely today, its distinguished career ending in disgrace…