Survive

Wang Tong packed his belongings into a space crystal - the flagship domestic product of the FFC Corporation, almost everyone on earth owned one. Wang Tong received it as a gift from Old Fart. He often wondered why Old Fart didn’t exchange this space crystal for moonshine like he did to his "Mind Opening Operation” ticket.

The sirens had become more ear-piercingly loud, an indication that the Zergs had breached the final line of defense. They could arrive at any moment now.

Wang Tong and Charcoal ran towards the entrance of the mine cave. To Wang Tong's surprise, the sluggish robot seemed to burst suddenly with energy; it ran even faster than Wang Tong to save his life.

Wang Tong lengthened his stride when he was almost at the mine’s entrance. Inside, a grisly gravity of 5g awaited him. He gritted his teeth to muster all of his courage before he finally dashed into the mine.

As soon as he entered, he felt the gravity's blow immediately. Pressure started to build up inside of his body and deflated his lungs. Wang Tong found it hard to breathe; however, Wang Tong was determined to escape the death clutch of the Zergs. He should be able to withstand the gravity for a short while, after all, he was a fairly robust and healthy teenager, or at least that's what he thought.

This mine was built for robots to work in, not for humans to stay in, so the further one went inward, the more unbearable its environment became. Despite the dangerous path, Wang Tong had to go deeper into the mine to avoid the attention of the Zergs because they were able to detect the slightest light or heat signals.

A few more moments had passed, the internal pressure inside of Wang Tong’s body had been forcing the blood to flow into his brain which caused his vision to become blurry. Charcoal stood right beside him helplessly, as he couldn’t help his master since he was not a medic-bot. Wang Tong grimaced in pain as he peered at the fumbling Charcoal, he said: "Go out there and live a full life! It will be your final order!"

Blood had started to seep out of Wang Tong's nose and ears, but at least it seemed like Wang Tong wouldn’t die from a bug's claw after all.

Wang Tong's consciousness started to blur, and he thought perhaps that this would be his last moment. In his blurred consciousness, he saw Old Fart, his only family who had told him that he would have to look after him when Wang Tong had grown up, but now it seemed like Wang Tong would die before him.

"Old-timer, don't drink too much ever again," Wang Tong mumbled.

Wang Tong's consciousness became blurrier with every passing second; soon he felt as if there was nothing left in him to hold on to. He decided to give up control of his body, but immediately after letting go, his body switched instinctively into a crisis mode on its own. It initiated the internal force exercise that had, by then, become Wang Tong's muscle memory thanks to his strenuous daily practices.

In the dark, motionless cave, a faint light started to glow from Wang Tong's forehead.

"Drip, drip, drip..."

Wang Tong heard the sound of water falling into a puddle, his body was in great pain, but he felt relieved at the sensation because the pain was proof that he was still alive.

Wang Tong forced himself back into reality. He opened his eyes and saw Charcoal in the faint light coming from his own forehead.

"Master, you are finally awake!"

"Charcoal...Am I still alive?"

"Master, by the definition of human death, yes, you are still alive. " Charcoal clearly lacked a sense of humor.

Wang Tong smiled back and asked, "Hehe, what had happened to me?"

"You passed out due to the excessive internal pressure built up under the planetary gravity, but thanks to your body's incredible ability to...recover, you have now adapted to the gravity, you have created a ..."

Charcoal took a moment to search his physical memory for a word that could most humanly describe the situation: “a miracle!”

Even though Wang Tong's body still ached, his difficulty to breath was gone, and he no longer felt the built-up pressure inside of him. Perhaps the pressure had been significantly reduced or perhaps it was just like what Charcoal had said - he had adapted to the environment. He asked himself, “But how? To adjust to the gravity so quickly required the mobilization of vast amounts of inner energy which is impossible without using EMF! Could it be...?”

The reality shocked Wang Tong - he realized that he had connected his consciousness to the EMF unknowingly while his life was in this unprecedented peril.

"You will be showered with blessings once you escape a disaster," Wang Tong vaguely remembered this line from a fortune cookie he once cracked open. He had thought it was cheesy, but now he knew it indeed had foretold his future.

Days of practice devoted to the tactics had allowed him to be closer than ever to the full release of his EMF, all he needed after that was a little push.

When Wang Tong went into a coma, he subconsciously initiated the tactic, and the panic his body was experiencing greatly intensified its effect. That was the final push Wang Tong needed to connect his EMF. He wouldn't need an operation after all.

On average, 50% of humans were able to connect their consciousness with the EMF after the ”Mind Opening Operation”. In other words, it was quite common. However, unlike most people, Wang Tong had connected his consciousness to EMF without the aid of an operation. This was a rather extraordinary feat for a human teenager.

Although it lacked scientific proof, some said that a naturally connected EMF was much stronger than those that aren't. Wang Tong had never heard of anyone who had done that, and only those from the Five Great Houses of the Confederation had ever dabbled in the subject.

It was a major relief to Wang Tong to have his EMF at his disposal, at least now he wouldn't be crushed to death by his own weight.

Wang Tong closed his eyes in relief and cherished the fact that he was still alive. He felt lucky that he always had kept an optimistic mind so that an unbearable situation would seem almost okay.

However, one question remained unanswered, why would the EMF aka the “Sea of Consciousness” mobilized the inner power all by itself to kick-off the tactic?

As he was not able to find an answer to his question, Wang Tong decided to give up and thought that maybe everyone's consciousness just worked that way.

Wang Tong had been slowly taking over the self-perpetuating tactic ever since he had regained consciousness. After a few hours, it was fully under his control; therefore he had a better idea of its progress and effect. He was amazed to find out that the exercise was being conducted at a much faster rate than it ever had been before.

It usually took five hours for Wang Tong to complete an entire round of the tactics following the instructions in the "Tactics of the Blade" (Old Fart's version). But now he estimated that the whole process would only take half an hour, it was a significant leap in speed. Wang Tong bet that even the high expectations Old Fart would be amazed at his speed.

The best part of practicing tactics after one had gained EMF was that the EMF will increase its breadth after every round of the exercise. In other words, the faster the tactic was completed, the faster one's EMF grows.

After Wang Tong had completed one round of tactics, he felt that his body had stopped aching and he was able to stand up on his feet. The next thing on his agenda was to eat. He remembered that Charcoal had packed some food in his space crystal. He gave a voice command, and the crystal unlocked itself. Voice recognition was a less sophisticated and therefore less secure way of locking it, but some more advanced space crystals could be secured using one's DNA albeit more expensive.

Wang Tong ate four times more than he usually did and then took another nap. After he had woken up, he finished another round of tactics and then started to observe his surroundings. It appeared that the Zergs had not searched this far into the mine yet, so he was safe.

Although the mine was safe to stay for the moment, it was not a long-term hiding place. Wang Tong had to get out, he led Charcoal to the entrance and deployed the method of detecting enemies he had learned in the movies; he placed his ear close to the wall and then to the ground, and listened carefully...but he couldn’t hear anything. The massive Zerg army had probably already left the base, contrary to this attack orchestrating a chaotically rush en masse, in an ordinary military operation, the Zergs were very disciplined.

Although Wang Tong expected to find a bleak scene outside of the mine, he did not lose his hope of surviving the aftermath. The Confederation would not be willing to give up a planet with this much potential, and they would come back to Norton. All that Wang Tong had to do was survive until the rescue came.

He remembered that there was a granary right next to the mine entrance. If Wang Tong could make it there, the food inside would last him at least a year. He would never need to be worried about hunger, and he could focus solely on his safety.

"Charcoal, stay here and crack open the gate on my command."

"Yes, Master." Although Wang Tong didn’t count on Charcoal to come up with any life-saving ideas, an extra set of hands, although mechanical, was always helpful to have around him.

As Charcoal overrode the gate control unit and cracked open the gate, light poured into the dark room which brought Wang Tong hope. Wang Tong waited patiently in the dark for a while; he listened carefully to check if there was any commotion outside...but nothing, a complete silence. He then signaled Charcoal to widen the opening, and as soon as the opening was about half a meter wide, Wang Tong rolled out through the narrow gap in-between the hanging gate and the ground.

Wang Tong took a deep breath and drew a gulp of fresh air into his lungs, then immediately started to observe his surroundings. Wang Tong had never encountered a Zerg, and he didn’t know how they stalked their prey. He had seen many terrible scenes in movies where a Zerg would suddenly jump onto the silver screen and snatched away an innocent human in its bloody claws.

Moral of the story, Zergs could be anywhere, so Wang Tong had to stay on high alert.

After making sure that there were absolutely no Zergs around, Wang Tong rushed towards the granary. Comparing the real-life aftermath of a Zerg attack in front of him to what he had seen in the movies, the latter had been modest in its portrayal of the horrific scene. Deep gashes on three-inch thick steel plating made Wang Tong's hair stand end. It was the longest five hundred meters that he had ever run, and when he finally arrived at the granary, the grim scene made him cringe.

The granary had been raided by the Zerg and was destroyed. Wasting no time, Wang Tong started to pack the crumbs, and whatever was left scattered on the ground, into his space crystal, but suddenly, he sensed movement in a far corner.