Chapter 270 An End in a Dream

Hilda's sudden fainting startled everyone present. Hao Ren was the closest and reacted first, quickly supporting her shoulders, "Hey, hey, what's going on?"

Hilda had completely lost consciousness. Hao Ren even felt she was like a dead person: her whole body stiff, her face pale, and he couldn't even feel her breathing! Vivian reacted second, quickly helping, using ice to stimulate her face and urging her bloodline to try and rescue her. After a lot of fuss, Hilda finally had a faint breath, but showed no signs of waking up.

"What's going on? Too much pressure, then suddenly relaxing and going into shock?" Hao Ren subconsciously thought of this reason.

Vivian's expression was much more serious, and confused: "No, it doesn't seem like it. I can't feel any… intellect in her. I forcibly urged her blood and physical energy to make her body 'live,' and she should have regained consciousness, but she still hasn't opened her eyes."

As Vivian said, Hilda's body had completely stopped its physiological activity in the past few minutes, and could be said to be a hundred percent dead person. It was only under the action of the vampire's peculiar blood magic that she was resurrected from a brief state of suspended animation. However, now this body showed no signs of regaining consciousness, as if the soul had left this tired body—leaving only a mass of flesh and blood that was still running in front of everyone.

"Stand aside, I'll do a shallow scan," the data terminal seemed to have a guess. It shone a light blue glow over Hilda, "Completed basic health monitoring… physiological tissues have minimal activity, no nerve impulses with signs of reason detected, no brain activity detected, no polymorphic mental power detected, preliminary identification as a deceased individual… This is going to be fun, this elf might already be dead."

"What the…" Hao Ren was dumbfounded. He didn't expect that a sudden piece of good news would kill Hilda directly. But after the initial shock, he quickly turned to Vivian, "Quick, use that transformation magic of yours…"

"It's useless," the data terminal interrupted Vivian's spell preparation. "She already used the power of blood to revive Hilda's body. Now the elf's body tissue is alive. Her current state should be due to a deeper reason… Hmm, there's a general-purpose medical pod on the ship. We have to send her for a full scan."

As soon as Izhaks heard this, he raised his leg and walked towards the elevator to call for someone, but Vivian stopped him after only two steps: "Wait! It's best not to let anyone know—it will cause panic at this juncture."

"They'll find out sooner or later, right?" Izhaks said, turning his head.

"I agree with Vivian's view," Hao Ren nodded. "Delay it for the time being, at least until the medical equipment on the ship gives us the test report. Terminal, you teleport us directly to the ship. Vivian, you're quick-witted, stay here and deal with the elves. If anyone comes to ask about the situation, just say the Queen suddenly decided to take us out to inspect the city…"

"Can that fool them?" Vivian was a little dumbfounded. "And how do we fool the guards in the elevator? Where did the Queen go out from?"

Hao Ren pointed to the outside of the window: "Didn't a giant white-haired, four-legged, fanged beast jump down from above yesterday? These elves should already be immune to the weird abilities of our group of people, and their queen has been with us for quite a long time. If we use this excuse, we should be able to delay it for a while. Whether the medical pod works or not, I'll try to be back within two hours or at least send you a message first. Also, if Lily comes back, tell her to honestly stay in… no, you'd better trick her into continuing to run wild outside. That girl is too good at messing things up."

Hao Ren usually looks listless and doesn't say much, but when he encounters this kind of emergency, he seems to be inspired with potential, calmly explaining a lot of things. Vivian nodded while listening. Finally, Hao Ren took out a small silver-shining cube from his personal space and handed it to her: "Take this, it's an off-crew communicator from the ship. I'll call you if anything happens."

Hao Ren's tenants at home don't have permission in the Empire data link, so they can't access the spiritual communication network. However, the Petrified Tortoise Rock Terrace was originally prepared as a flagship for inspectors, and inspectors often come into contact with "civilian units" that cannot access the data chain, so the ship prepared many of these communicators. They can only access a secure channel and do not intersect with the data chain. They are good things to deal with unexpected needs. Hao Ren conveniently stuffed a handful into his personal space when he left the ship, but he only remembered it now.

Vivian took the communicator and nodded. Hao Ren then easily picked up Hilda, who was neither alive nor dead, and disappeared into the teleportation light curtain with Izhaks and the data terminal.

The data terminal directly set the teleportation point in the medical area. After the teleportation dizziness faded, Hao Ren saw the medical pod in front of him. The ship had received the order before they arrived and began preparations. Now the medical pod's cover was slowly opening, and the surrounding equipment was flashing faintly, indicating that it had entered standby mode. An autonomous machine babbled and flew over to help Hao Ren put Hilda into the medical pod, and then skillfully fixed itself on the special connector on the side of the medical pod: these autonomous machines are all loaded with a full set of ship equipment operating procedures, and can undertake all crew work, including medical duties, when there are no professional personnel on the ship.

The medical area's mainframe began to report the results in a stiff and rigid voice: "Intervention complete… starting to scan target… carbon-based, Type IV, closed internal circulation organism, active organic body. Judgment… deceased. Re-testing, reason for death… annihilation of intellect. Re-testing, reason for death… soul necrosis. Re-testing…"

Amid the humming of various equipment, the medical area's artificial intelligence quickly completed a series of reports, as long as ten pages, detailed to the point of being dazzling. Hao Ren and Izhaks looked at the reports on the holographic projection with big heads. Neither of them understood what the professional terms were saying. Finally, Hao Ren asked the medical area's mainframe to briefly report what the situation was, and received a concise sentence: "Soul death."

"How suddenly…" Hao Ren felt that the development of this matter was a bit incredible. Hilda, who was alive and standing in front of him, talking and laughing with everyone, was now judged to be soul dead. This was really unacceptable. He even felt that Hilda's sudden relaxation due to excessive pressure leading to shock death was easier to accept. However, the medical area's mainframe's judgment in this regard was beyond doubt, Hilda was indeed dead—even long ago.

The data terminal summarized certain special items in the inspection report and presented them in front of Hao Ren. The latter immediately saw the eye-catching key items: Loss occurred on… twenty to thirty days ago… soul remnants…

"What does this mean?" Hao Ren had a guess, but he couldn't believe that what the report said was true.

The data terminal's voice was very calm: "Hilda should have 'died' a long time ago. If I'm not mistaken… she died when she entered the Dream Plane. Her soul loss began twenty to thirty days ago, which is the dissipation that occurs after a person dies. But usually this loss process is very, very fast. Ordinary people often only take a moment, but her soul took dozens of days to be completely lost."

"In other words…"

"These days, what was with us was just the obsession she left behind," the data terminal slowly landed on Hao Ren's shoulder. "Not just you and me, even she herself was unaware of this."

The medical pod's cover slowly opened. Hilda's body, which still retained body temperature but was actually dead, appeared in front of Hao Ren. Her face was pale, but there was no pain, and there was even a faint smile on the corner of her mouth, as if she had fallen asleep in a beautiful dream.

She had already died when the Rainbow Light Island exploded, and like countless people on the scene, she was instantly killed by the powerful arcane power. But in the moment when the space crack opened, her body was thrown into another world, and her soul left behind some fragments. The obsession formed by these fragments made her not even know that she had died—in the following month or so, she walked all the way to today under the impetus of obsession: returning home, protecting her people, and guarding her homeland. These obsessions made her soul weaken day by day without her knowing it, until that moment just now, she found that all the burdens on her shoulders had disappeared. This tired queen finally fell into a deep sleep in a beautiful dream.

This soul, obsessed with going home, can finally rest.

The atmosphere at the scene fell to freezing point. Hao Ren's mind was full of chaotic noises, until the voice of Raven 12345 suddenly sounded in his mind.