Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

Chapter 180: A Rational Decision

Soft sliding wings protruded from both sides of the armored off-roader. They undulated like waves on the sea as the entire car moved extremely fast. Whenever the detection aircraft of the Mainbrain got close, the vehicle would dive into the water for a short time and wait for the scans to pass over.

After Tang Yibu and Ruan Xian got in the car, their positions changed again. Ji Xiaoman took the front passenger seat while Tang Yibu and Ruan Xian sat in the back row. π was still crowded in its exclusive space. In order for Professor Ruan to concentrate on controlling the temporary perceptual camouflage, they vacated a place in the last row of the car used to store luggage, so that Professor Ruan could stay there quietly alone.

The smoking island had long been left behind by them, and the original thick column of smoke looked like a gray-black thread from afar.

Compared to other plans in his mind, this was indeed the easiest and safest way to escape. The sunlight basked on the surrounding sea surface as the bionic gliding wings slapped on the water surface, creating the unique sound of the ocean’s tidal friction that penetrated one’s ears. For a while, there were no other creatures in sight, and everything was extremely peaceful.

But the atmosphere in the car wasn’t very relaxed.

Yu Le could be regarded as having achieved his goal. No matter what he thought now, he had successfully helped Professor Ruan escape from the eyes of the Mainbrain. Ji Xiaoman met the person she wanted to see the most, but she was still sorting out her emotions. It seemed that the pressure had not only not decreased but had increased several times.

Ruan Xian thought he and Tang Yibu should be regarded as the unluckiest.

They did get the answers they wanted, but they underestimated Professor Ruan’s obsession with winning the war, and accidentally stepped into the trap woven by the latter. Right now, everyone’s interests were the same for the time being, and when they reached their destination, there would inevitably be another dispute.

Ruan Xian sighed and decided to take advantage of this precious hour to get a good rest. He pressed down the agitated thoughts in his mind and turned to face Tang Yibu.

To be honest, although he could understand Tang Yibu’s strategy, he still didn’t agree with the android’s initiative to expose himself. There was indeed one purpose, but there could be many methods. In response, he also chose a more efficient but more dangerous path. It meant that they were dancing on the edge of a cliff together.

Now, Ruan Xian found it hard to say whether he regretted it or not—in terms of strategy, he didn’t think there was anything wrong with his approach. If he didn’t come forward, the Mainbrain would investigate every inch and crevice about him, so he might as well give a misdirection in advance and portray himself as a senior technician who had been compelled by Tang Yibu. This trick had also deceived Professor Ruan, so it wasn’t too difficult to fool the Mainbrain.

As long as he let their thoughts stray from the S-type Prototype, it would be considered a half-success.

But there were also points of regret. This approach complicated the already chaotic emotional relationship between them. Facing Tang Yibu, Ruan Xian couldn’t say whether he should be angry, appeased, or give him a warm kiss.

The actual fact was that he had always been unable to see through the android’s abnormal thoughts and was now no longer clearly able to grasp his own.

After settling into his seat, Tang Yibu remained affectionate towards him but chose to inject the remaining blood to treat his wound. Then he took off his blood-soaked shirt. Instead of washing it immediately, he added some solvent with the intention of extracting the blood left by Z-β.

As he waited for the wounds to heal, the android soaked a towel in warm water and wiped away the bloodstains, sweat, and dust on his upper body and face. This process was long and careful and was comparable to that of a cat cleaning its fur. After making sure that there was no longer the smell of blood on his body, Tang Yibu let out a long sigh of relief, and started to stare at the pearl-like foam of the ocean outside the window.

The hot body heat dissipated from the clean and soft skin, penetrated into the fabric, and finally swept across his nerve endings like a feather. Ruan Xian turned his head and carefully gazed at the side of Tang Yibu’s face.

Perhaps it would be a good idea to smooth out their emotional problems before another wave of emergencies arrives.

He had to tread carefully. This problem was completely beyond his control. If Tang Yibu was the NUL-00 he knew, then he was bound not to be good at such aspects as well—NUL-00 had seen enough cases, but unfortunately, there was no such extreme situation like his own in those cases.

“Yu Ge, can you close the sound insulation for the back row?” Tang Yibu stared at the waves for a while before he smiled and spoke.

Yu Le didn’t turn his head but silently separated Professor Ruan from them.

“Turn off the sound to the front seat as well. Thanks. My father and I need a little privacy. Ten minutes will be enough. It won’t take too long.”

Hearing the word father, Yu Le shuddered reflexively, but the great ruins pirate lacked the mood to comment. He casually waved his hand on the light screen. “What? You want me to put on some background music as well?”

“No need.” Tang Yibu politely refused.

He watched as the latest wave of scanning aircraft dispersed. When the transparent barrier in front rose to the roof of the car, Tang Yibu opened the window a bit, allowing the fresh air of the ocean to pour in. The sea breeze whistled in their ears and the sultry heat in the car dissipated a bit.

“Yibu?” Ruan Xian cleared his throat, trying to create a calmer opening.

“I analyzed the behavior of the two of us not long ago.” Tang Yibu finally turned his face. Unexpectedly, there wasn’t much expression on it. “Father, we have all chosen a high-return, high-risk approach and have deviated from the model of action we’ve always taken.”

“…Indeed.”

“I knew a long time ago that my interest in you would cause damage to myself.”

Tang Yibu touched his well-muscled arm. Not long ago, there were terrible lacerations and burns on it.

“The damage at that time was still within my control, and in order to get more useful information, I was also happy to accept it. But after knowing that you are my father, this interest got out of hand.”

“On the one hand, I am indeed happy to study these fresh emotions and collect more data. On the other hand, I still want to survive. Contradictions began to appear between them… and my analysis speed could not keep up with the speed of change of these unknown feelings, which was terrible.”

Ruan Xian listened in silence. Tang Yibu looked straight at him. Behind him was the clear sky and the silk-like sea, but his heart seemed to be filled with lead pulsating extremely hard.

Everything around him suddenly made him feel extremely dull.

“If this continues, there will be more and more situations outside of our model that will lead to destruction.” Tang Yibu came to a similar conclusion to Ruan Xian.

They were both too raw, too stubborn, and the speed of their approach was too fast. It was like diving into a dark cave hand in hand and navigating its narrow waters; if they didn’t pay attention, they would both die because of loss of control.

It wasn’t that Ruan Xian hadn’t thought about slowing down the speed, but he couldn’t pull the brakes on the wild horse that he was riding. This strong emotion began to make him feel terrible. He knew they had to treat it more carefully, but…

Tang Yibu stretched out his hand and held Ruan Xian’s face. The palm of the android was a bit hot.

“…We may have the same answer,” Tang Yibu whispered. “No, you may have reached your conclusion earlier than me.””

“I’m still me, you’re still you. Just like before?”

“I have an emotional bond that can keep you, unique and irreplaceable. According to my analysis of you, you… will not simply leave.” Tang Yibu’s speech was getting slower. “You will stay with me. At the same time, you will hope that I will not leave you easily as well.”

For a second, Ruan Xian was a bit nostalgic about their relationship before they knew each other’s identities—selfish but wanton, swaying the emotions rippling inside. They could kiss each other without restraint, spend hours at a time in bed, then get up and continue their tit-for-tat, and cut each other’s throats without any hesitation.

However, after recognizing each other, the two sharp blades were wrapped with strong, sticky spider silk, which made things irritating. They became cautious, but even crazier.

Tang Yibu guessed correctly. Just like every time before, they came to the same conclusion again.

…To be precise, it was he who put on the mask first, but Ruan Xian didn’t really want to agree with Tang Yibu, so he pursed his lips tightly.

“Dopamine doesn’t necessarily have to be produced. In terms of reproductive behavior, we won’t be greatly affected—I have always been able to control the hormone levels in my body. I have been with you for five years and know that you have a very high ability to manage your body. We just need to change our behavior patterns and we have the past as a ready-made example.”

The android’s speech became faster.

“Before the environment is safe, let us return to the way we got along twelve years ago. In my opinion, this is the best solution and is completely feasible. This will effectively inhibit the creation of uncontrollable behavior without too many unknown factors appearing to interfere with…interfere with…”

“I understand,” Ruan Xian said. “…Don’t cry.””

“Huh?” Tang Yibu didn’t react for a while. He used his fingertips to wipe under his eyes that had turned red, licked the salty liquid with the tip of his tongue, and his expression turned into pure shock.

“Maybe the sea breeze is a bit strong.” Ruan Xian crossed Tang Yibu’s position and closed the car window, deliberately making his voice appear relieved. “It’s common.”

“Oh.” Tang Yibu wiped his eyes indiscriminately. “Then our views are in agreement?””

“…” Ruan Xian did not answer.

Ruan Xian thought that, given their current tense situation, this was a wise approach. Before this intense relationship “deteriorates” further, it was best to cut it off with a sharp knife—logically speaking, this would make their relationship less tense.

But he just didn’t want to give an exact answer.

After that, none of them spoke again. Tang Yibu was still wiping his eyes suspiciously. Ruan Xian crossed his hands and looked at the meter-shaped crack that had been knocked out of its isolation layer.

On the bright side, with Tang Yibu safely at his side and Professor Ruan in the back, they weren’t without a chance of winning against the Mainbrain.

Everything is fine.

…Everything is fine.

Ruan Xian put his hands in the shadows and slightly exerted force, creating a severe pain that came from the tips of his fingers. His state of mind was relatively calm at first. The anxiety and restlessness had magically subsided for a bit, but as time passed, they’d made a comeback again, mixed with an unbearable chill.

They had just put the temporarily unsolvable problems in a jar and sealed it.

Ruan Xian repeatedly took deep breaths as he went over the pros and cons continuously, trying to convince himself. Tang Yibu didn’t choke, or breath tremblingly, but just carefully wiped tears from his eyes with the back of his hand.

Those tears apparently didn’t stop with the departure of the sea breeze. They didn’t amount to much, but they kept flowing and had no intention of stopping.

And the owner of the tears didn’t have any expression related to pain on his face, only growing puzzlement.

“Let me think about it again. There’s still some time. You should sleep for a bit.” Ruan Xian sighed softly. He hooked Tang Yibu’s shoulder and let the other party lie on his lap. Tang Yibu turned sideways obediently and curled up his legs while still remaining silent.

“After a sharp recovery, the body will be relatively fragile, so it’s common for the chemical composition in your body to be unbalanced. Don’t think too much about it,” Ruan Xian said as gently as possible. “Just sleep for a while.”

He stretched out his hand, covered Tang Yibu’s eyes with the palm of his hand, and repeated, “…Go to sleep, Yibu.”

The distance between them was extremely close, but the temperature didn’t come through again. The place where their skin touched was like a thick layer of ice, which brought about a strange sensation of detachment.

“Nn.”

<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

Chapter 179: A New Destination

These eight minutes felt as long as eight years.

Yu Le dealt with many enemies in the Sea of Ruins. There were ruin pirates who tried to steal resources and came to his territory to spread the flickering grass, and there were also strange-looking mechanical creatures. The heart of the Sea of Ruins was home to many aliens, and its darkest corners were as unpredictable as the bottom of a trench. His subordinates had fished out many strange things. Yu Le thought he was courageous as he hadn’t been scared once.

However, facing the rushing Z-β, his legs went numb.

Originally, this heavy armored off-roader was driven like an arrow that flew off the string. After Yu Le further accelerated, it almost took off in place. Z-β rushed forward without mercy and fired several shells towards the car.

“Don’t dodge,” Professor Ruan said. “Drive as you should.”

“Easy for you to say.” Yu Le took a deep breath. The bright colors blurred around him, making him feel a little nauseous. The car Tu Rui gave wasn’t bad. Even if he drove it to death like this, there wasn’t a problem for the time being.

Yu Le’s hands trembled a little, but he managed to stabilize his movements with great difficulty. He stared at the card-sized phone screen to find the most suitable route.

Amazingly, despite the two cannons fired by Z-β, the shells didn’t hit the car, but instead hit the ground close to the vehicle. The blast of its impact shook the car, but it still maintained its balance.

Sitting in the front passenger seat, Ji Xiaoman wrapped her wound with a bandage, opened the car door directly, and prepared to pull her companions back.

Professor Ruan’s three-legged robot was surrounded by a light screen with light blue text flashing quickly on it. The iron bead smelled tension in the air and stuck under the seat, not daring to come out in this atmosphere.

“Perceptual interference?” Yu Le wished he could grow an extra pair of eyes; one to look at the road while the other stared at Z-β. He had never been this nervous before, even when he was facing “disinfection” from the Order Supervisors. The clothes behind Captain Yu’s back were soaked in sweat. His eyebrows reflected the light of the sweat, and his breathing was fast and short.

Though the quality of the car was good, in the end, it couldn’t compare to the pristine soldiers under the Mainbrain. Z-β was getting closer to them. When he was about less than an arm’s length away from the car, Yu Le felt his heart was about to pop out of his throat.

“It’s perceptual interference. Hold on for a bit.” Professor Ruan’s words were concise, and his voice was solemn.

Ruan Xian was the first to get into the car. He wasn’t small, so the front seat suddenly became a bit crowded. Ji Xiaoman dexterously maneuvered over the back of the chair and sat in the relatively spacious back seat. After sitting still, she looked at Professor Ruan, who was up to something as he looked at the light screen unblinkingly.

The car door was still open. Ruan Xian hugged Tang Yibu’s waist and helped the other party stabilize his center of gravity. The android held back and curled his long legs, while the upper half of his body was still exposed outside the car.

“Time?” Ruan Xian threw a question directly towards the back seat.

“Twenty-five seconds,” Professor Ruan replied.

There was an odd pause in Z-β’s movements, as if it had received new instructions. Countless drones gathered towards Z-α, which had become a mass of rotten flesh. Z-β’s attacks had become relatively conservative. Tang Yibu struggled to pull out a small rocket launcher from the compartment, trying to blast Z-β away while also blowing up the drones that were closing in on Z-α’s corpse.

[Ten seconds.] Ruan Xian quietly cooperated with Tang Yibu’s movements and reported the time through his earring.

“Close the door, now!” With about three seconds left, Professor Ruan shouted sharply.

Ruan Xian pulled Tang Yibu back into his arms and squished into the front passenger seat space as if two peanuts were born in the same shell. Tang Yibu shrank his head hard and the door was smoothly closed.

“You want to do…” Yu Le asked vigilantly, but before he could finish, the car flew into the sky under the shockwave of a huge explosion.

Yu Le thought in a daze that it was completely different from the time they tried to enter the Underground United City. It was as if a nuclear bomb had exploded right under the car.

There was a light orange glow around the car, like a translucent multi-faceted shell. It rushed straight into the sky very smoothly, and then fell into a parabolic fall—the aircraft that the Mainbrain was on didn’t escape this disaster. The ones closer to the explosion were directly turned into ashes, while the others that were far away were blown into the sea. From a distance, it looked like feathers scattered on the water.

Yu Le’s car spun in the sky for what seemed like weeks and finally plunged into a bush outside the dead wall. The wheels fell into the sand, and the sea was right in front of him.

“This car is equipped with a water travel mode. Now, follow my instructions.”

“Are you kidding? This is not a fucking tree target—”

“Perceptual camouflage. It can last for about two hours, so the Mainbrain won’t find us during this period. We must leave the island and reach the ground within this time limit.” Professor Ruan spoke extremely fast. “Go straight from here. It’ll take about one hour and forty-seven minutes to reach the nearest dry land.”

“This is not the closest way,” Ruan Xian interjected while still entangled with Tang Yibu. Although he could guess the answer somewhat, he still didn’t like the feeling that all arrangements were controlled by another person.

“The Mainbrain will set up the heaviest defense on the shore closest to the island, so we shouldn’t take risks,” Professor Ruan replied.

The light screens had wrapped around Professor Ruan like a cocoon. The entire island was shaking, and the huge rumble made people’s chests tighten. The smoke from the explosion continued to spray from the center of the island. Gray-black columns of smoke pierced the sky. Ruan Xian heard the sound of the sea pouring in—the explosion just now probably completely destroyed the underground base Professor Ruan built while also blowing everything in the center of the island to smithereens.

The protective shield was removed after they landed, so smoke from the explosives surrounded them. With just this bit of smoke, it left a few deep corrosive marks on the surface of the car, signifying just how powerful the explosion was.

Professor Ruan didn’t leave a grain of sand for the Mainbrain. If he guessed correctly, the island had changed from an irregular near-circular shape to a ring shape. Everything in the center of the island had been completely destroyed and was swallowed up by the rushing sea.

“At least let me know the destination.” As a former leader, Yu Le was obviously unhappy to follow the arrangements of others.

“The city of the Mainbrain is my guess.” Tang Yibu nestled comfortably in Ruan Xian’s arms. Because he was a bit bigger, this behavior caused a lot of trouble for Ruan Xian, who was trying to adjust his posture. “Because we have the least reason to go that way, the defenses will be much weaker there.”

“Correct,” Professor Ruan affirmed this guess, but didn’t intend to explain further.

Ruan Xian snorted. If it were him, he would probably make the same choice. However, without Professor Ruan’s perceptual camouflage, their journey would probably be much more difficult.

Though he was holding back the fire in his heart, he wouldn’t be impulsive enough to exchange the survival rate of this group of people—especially his and Tang Yibu’s—just for a moment of satisfaction.

Ruan Xian opened the car door and fell into the sand with Tang Yibu.

“Xiao Ruan?!”

“This is not over yet. Give us a few minutes.” Ruan Xian stood up from the sand, while Tang Yibu squatted in the sand with his injuries, groaning in pain.

Despite the android’s scattered appearance, he had no intention of healing his injuries at this moment. In order to mislead Professor Ruan about who actually possessed the S-type Prototype, Ruan Xian specially gave Tang Yibu a few vials of blood just in case.

But just now in the car, although Tang Yibu was hissing in pain, he didn’t have the slightest intention of wanting treatment.

He knew it wasn’t over yet—the protective shield and perceptual camouflage were probably unable to activate at the same time, so Tang Yibu thought it was possible that there would be pursuers.

Sure enough, just when Yu Le asked about the destination, he heard an unnatural sound behind the car.

Z-β followed them.

He had to admit that the quality of the soldiers under the Mainbrain was passable. The explosion had corroded Z-β’s exoskeleton. He was covered in blood, his flesh hung loose on the bones, and a small pile of internal organs trailed outside his body. The honeycomb camera on that thing’s face kept flashing electric sparks, and the many additional machines on his scalp had fallen off, leaving a few bloody holes; even a little bit of pink brain tissue could be seen.

“If it’s a D-type Prototype, it’s estimated it won’t likely fall to this point.” Tang Yibu stopped groaning. He patted the sand on his body and tightened his muscles again. “Come. Let’s wrap it up—time is limited.”

Z-β had no facial features, but there was a muffled rumble that emanated from his throat that was uncomfortable to hear.

He rushed at them, as if he didn’t feel pain, while holding a deformed piece of metal tightly in his hand. Ruan Xian didn’t use his blood gun this time. He cautiously used the gun in Yu Le’s car and shot at the internal organs that were trailing outside the thing. Tang Yibu’s approach was more straightforward—the android rushed over and tried to snap off the corroded neck.

However, a shot came from another direction.

Z-β didn’t follow the route they imagined. He didn’t attack Tang Yibu or Ruan Xian, who were the important targets. The perception system of that thing most likely had failed as it chose the best target to deal with.

He rushed towards the source of where that last shot came from.

Xiao Zhao had woken up at some point and was half-kneeling on the roof of the car. She was shooting wildly at Z-β with her gun while humming a nursery rhyme intermittently. In order to cover her, Kang Ge was affected by the explosion just now. He was lying on the roof of the car dying, panting hard, as he was covered in blood.

“Don’t shoot,” he said hazily, pulling Xiao Zhao’s sleeve with his hand. “They will take care of it. Don’t shoot… Don’t shoot… Zhaozhao, we’re leaving here.”

His eyes were flushed, and tears kept rolling down his face.

“Zhaozhao, do you hear me? We can leave now.”

Xiao Zhao turned her head and showed him a twisted and sweet smile.

“Isn’t this our home?” she said. “I don’t want to go.””

“Listen, I lied to you. I lied to you!” Kang Ge roared in despair. “I should have told you a long time ago. This is all my fault… Please, don’t fight. Let them deal with it—”

Unfortunately, his strength and spirit weren’t as good as Xiao Zhao’s. His hand was stuck to the railing of the car roof, and he couldn’t move. Xiao Zhao jumped out of the car. She had lost her shoes somewhere along the way. She just stood barefoot in the sea like that. The blue waves rolled over her pale feet, giving people the illusion of warmth.

“I don’t want to go,” she repeated happily while she kept attacking. “Xiao Tang and the others can leave if they want, but I want to stay here.”

Tang Yibu choked Z-β from behind. It seemed that the high-grade D-type products were stronger than imagined—even if there was a person hanging on his body, his neck was broken with a click, and his internal organs were smashed to pieces, he still walked firmly towards Xiao Zhao.

Kang Ge desperately pulled his hand that was deformed by the railing off and tried to climb down from the roof of the car.

“Su Zhao and Kang Ziyan are dead long ago. We’re not… We’re not the original us.”

He stumbled and fell into the sand as he yelled incoherently.

“I should have told you a long time ago that Su Zhao and Kang Ziyan stored their data when they were alive. In theory, our thinking… Our thinking is at most 70-80% consistent with theirs. We are who we are. We’re not that different from the others in the show. We can live on our own. We originally had an advantage…”

Those memories that had been perfused were data that had been entered. Instead of bringing back the real Su Zhao and Kang Ziyan from the dead, they became a curse that trapped them. If they had made this all clear earlier, perhaps they could have abandoned their anachronistic morality earlier and lived better…

Kang Ge dug into the sand, dyeing the milky white sand dark red.

In the end it was all despair, and a quick knife might’ve been better than a dull one. Unfortunately, there were no “ifs” in the world.

“…Come with me. Please, Zhaozhao.” He could only plead with his crazy wife over and over again until his voice became hoarse.

“I already knew it was fake.” Xiao Zhao hummed. “Otherwise, it can’t be explained. I was obviously pregnant and wanted to give you a surprise, but it turned out that my body data was normal after waking up with you and there was nothing there… Kang Ge, haven’t I been asking all this time? What went wrong? Where can we go now?”

She smiled more brightly.

“This is our home.”

Kang Ge shivered.

He stopped pleading or even talking but stood up staggeringly. He stood between Z-β and Xiao Zhao and opened his arms weakly but firmly.

Z-β attacked him decisively. The thing that was only bones left easily tore Kang Ge apart, as if he was ripping a rotting ragdoll in half.

Tang Yibu was still committed to breaking its neck and his movements didn’t stop. Ruan Xian attacked all the places that could be attacked until he emptied all his bullets. He started changing the magazine while a few dozen steps away.

“I’m sorry, Xiao Tang,” Kang Ge whispered.

He fell to the ground and stopped talking. He looked at Xiao Zhao, who was treading in the sea—the latter was humming while dancing in the water, continuing to shoot around her, as if unaware of his departure.

After being stopped by Kang Ge for a few seconds, Z-β failed to get to Xiao Zhao. He finally stopped his movements as Tang Yibu broke his neck and fell smoothly to the ground.

“Get in the car and go.” Seeing that the hidden danger had been removed, Ruan Xian urged Tang Yibu.

Tang Yibu didn’t move. He looked with interest at the young couple. Kang Ziyan’s replicant showed extremely weak signs of life and could die at any moment. Su Zhao took her gun and approached briskly, then lay down beside the dying Kang Ge.

The figures of the two children gradually appeared again in the air.

They stood arm in arm beside Su Zhao, wearing the shabby clothes they were familiar with. It was just that this time, the young Kang Ziyan’s face was unclear, and it looked like a cloud of smoke.

“The sun is so nice.” The adult Su Zhao said to her husband’s face and kissed him on the forehead.

“I’m sorry.” Kang Ge moved his lips but couldn’t make a sound. “I’m sorry.”

“It reminds me of my favorite memory,” Su Zhao said with a smile. “Didn’t you always ask before? I didn’t want to tell you, but now I suddenly want to talk about it.”

“You always guess the day we first met, the day of our first date, the day you proposed… You’re really a narcissist.”

Kang Ge looked at her quietly. His face was pale and breathless.

“My favorite memory is very similar to the present… I woke up early and you were still sleeping. It was a bit cloudy, so I opened the refrigerator to get some water. I found that the fruit in the refrigerator was rotten, so I thought about how we would throw it away later. After I drank the water, I looked at you, who was still sleeping.” Su Zhao stretched out. “I can’t say, but I just remember it very clearly.””

“Are you going to sleep?” She said happily. “Yes, the sun is quite nice. When you wake up, let’s grab a car together.”

After confirming that Kang Ziyan had lost signs of life, Tang Yibu turned his head and returned to the car with Ruan Xian.

The car was quiet for a while.

The young couple lay face-to-face in the blood-stained sand, with two blurry children watching them.

“…Let’s go,” Yu Le said in a muffled voice, starting the car. The auxiliary buoyancy machine stretched out from above the tires of the off-roader, and then slapped the sea quickly.

The thick smoke in the center of the island hadn’t dissipated. The figures of the two people quickly disappeared from their vision.

Kinky Thoughts:

Didn’t anyone ever tell Kang Ziyan, don’t stick your dick in crazy? What kind of kitty cat does Su Zhao have that he be dying for it?

Anyway, the arc is over. Summary below.

After leaving the Glass Conservatory, the group headed towards the Android Show based on the hint that Luo Fei gave them. Professor Ruan was most likely hiding there. Tang Yibu gave a breakdown of the Android Show as he was once on it and had almost died.

The Android Show utilized reality augmentation. This meant that if someone had strong mental capacity, using the tools that they were equipped with for the Android Show, they could affect the reality around them. Perception meant nothing as it could be easily swayed and affect the show.

The group learned this firsthand as they fell into a trap, not noticing that they had already reached the android show and fell into the augmented reality of the inhabitants there. Ruan Xian and Tang Yibu got separated from Yu Le and Ji Xiaoman. They stumbled across Tang Yibu’s old companions, Kang Ziyan and Su Zhao, who took them to their base. It turns out that the Android Show was set on an island, and everything was being recorded. Tang Yibu felt a sense of peeping on him that was unlike that of normal viewers, so they had to act discreetly.

It’s revealed that the peeper was actually Professor Ruan, who was observing Tang Yibu, or rather NUL-00.

Tang Yibu and Ruan Xian managed to break free from their confinement and make a deal with Kang Ziyan and Su Zhao to head towards the management area, where they suspect that Professor Ruan was hiding.

On the other side, Ji Xiaoman and Yu Le came across two children, who later were revealed to be the child versions of Kang Ziyan and Su Zhao. They were also led by these children to the management area and encountered a few run-ins. This turns out to be a test designed by Professor Ruan to test NUL-00’s companions.

The group then finally reunites and attempts to find Professor Ruan. It is then revealed that the Android Show actually had two layers of augmented realities. The first layer was the show itself, and underneath there, between the true reality, was another layer set up by Professor Ruan. He had been using this second layer to manipulate their actions and test them; first to find out more about NUL-00 companions, and second to test NUL-00 and where he stands in terms of this war between machine and humankind.

While trying to find Professor Ruan, Tang Yibu gets kidnapped and his past is revealed via projections due to reality augmentation that could display one’s memories. We learn that after Ruan Xian was murdered by Fan Linsong, Fan Linsong ordered NUL-00 to be scrapped. NUL-00, realizing this, brokered a deal with the muscle Fan Linsong hired to do his dirty work. In this way, NUL-00 was able to escape from the Institute and was sold to Plan Corp. Using the last of his energy, he hacked into a helper bot and made his way to the android processing room, where he created his human shell and inserted his cybernetic brain into… Thus creating Tang Yibu.

It was here that he starred in the first Android Show, Struggler, and suffered many abuses from Su Zhao and Kang Ziyan. He was weak at this point as he hadn’t obtained the A-type Prototype yet. When the Mainbrain went awry, everything was attacked, including the Institute. It turns out the filming of the original Android Show was right next to the Institute. Plan Corp had purchased the land as basically a face slap to them. Using the chaos created by the Mainbrain’s attack, Tang Yibu escaped from Su Zhao and Kang Ziyan and ran towards the Institute, where he was able to obtain the A-type Prototype that they were protecting.

This was all learned by everyone, as Professor Ruan had projected this past for all viewers, and mainly the Mainbrain to see. Professor Ruan proposes that they work together. He had a device that could infect the Mainbrain, like a virus, but needed Tang Yibu (NUL-00) and the human brains of people in order to power it. The chances of winning were about 90%. Tang Yibu and Ruan Xian, however, declined, as they didn’t want to risk their lives for it, but Professor Ruan forced their hand as he snitched to the Mainbrain that NUL-00 was alive and was Tang Yibu.

It was also here that Tang Yibu found out the truth that Ruan Xian was the actual Ruan Xian that he knew from the past and what had happened to him and that Professor Ruan was simply a clone that was imbued with Ruan Xian’s personality data and had memory adjustments by Fan Linsong.

Ruan Xian and Tang Yibu then spent a night together before trying to escape, only to find that the Mainbrain had made its move and was sending Order Supervisors to their location to wipe them out. Professor Ruan then revealed everything. The device in his underground lab wasn’t actually the device used to kill the Mainbrain (as that is somewhere else) but he wanted to test NUL-00 to make sure that NUL-00 wasn’t working for the Mainbrain and didn’t have the idea similar to that of the Mainbrain’s. He had to use this method of snitching in order to get Ruan Xian and Tang Yibu to agree to work with him.

The group then had a fight against the Mainbrain’s army, where Tang Yibu revealed himself to the Mainbrain, no longer wanting to hide himself. They tussled about until the entire island exploded, sending their vehicle flying into the sea. Now, they are on their way to the city where the Mainbrain resides.

Other things to note: Tang Yibu, after finding out who Ruan Xian really is, thoughts leaned towards dangerous territory as he fully wanted to possess him. They still can’t fully trust each other and still want to kill each other (well, mainly Tang Yibu). Ruan Xian, finding out the truth about NUL-00, now realizes his love for him and wants to protect him at all cost. π gets upgraded because it consumed some of Ruan Xian’s blood that had the S-type Prototype in it.

Side characters:

Su Zhao was Kang Ziyan’s fiancé when she suddenly died in an accident. As an executive of Plan Corp, Kang Ziyan stored all her memories and personality data and transferred them and his own data into androids to star in the Android Show then committed suicide. They are now the most popular characters of the show and had become deranged and crazy from all the iterations they have gone through. To relieve their frustration, they often abuse Tang Yibu.

However, it seemed that Kang Ziyan still maintained his sanity, as when he discovered Tang Yibu possessed the A-type Prototype, he wanted to make a deal with him to help him and Su Zhao escape.

Su Zhao, on the other hand, was haunted by their childhood images. It turns out that the two children Yu Le and Ji Xiaoman picked up were nothing more than illusions made by Su Zhao that became “reality” in the augmented universe as they had been imprinted on the inhabitants on the island, including Professor Ruan.

After the confrontation between the Mainbrain and the group, Su Zhao woke up and started acting all crazy and eventually got Kang Ziyan killed. It’s then revealed that Su Zhao had been aware of their situation the entire time, and she considered the island her home and never wanted to leave. Kang Ziyan gets killed trying to protect her, and they both lie together in the sea after the island was completely destroyed.

That’s it for the summary. There’s a lot of shit going on, so hopefully I didn’t miss anything. For more details on the reality augmentation and other things, I have left explanations in their respective chapters, so you can go to those chapters again to read more on it, or if you want to discuss can go to my Discord channel.

<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

Chapter 178: Augmentation

It was like a game, Zhuo Muran thought to himself.

The Order Supervisors that were thrown onto the battlefield were far less than mechanical life. Their army gathered into a blue spot on the light screen, squeezing the few scattered red spots out of sight. Centered on the live situation on the battlefield, images from different angles were continuously transmitted back.

It may be a bit troublesome elsewhere, but there was never a shortage when it came to monitoring equipment on the Android Show. All the surveillance on the entire island was turned on, including the most expensive ones around the island. They could capture pictures so clearly that the pattern on the wings of a dragonfly could be seen from dozens of kilometers away, and they didn’t need to worry about it being affected by the battlefield.

“Surveyors have arrived in the management area.” A light screen flew up to his edge of vision.

“Where is the stationed Order Supervisor?”

“Li Yixun, 62 years old. Number 090234. We found his head.” There was no emotion in the speaker’s voice. “It was placed in his room and connected to a life-sustaining machine. He had no sense of autonomy, but his brain was still alive. Wait a minute… Tissue test results just came out. He’s been in this state for at least two years.”

“In other words, someone used his brainwave signals to disguise himself, and this island has long been taken over by others.” Zhuo Muran’s voice became cold. “How is the periodic report done?”

“Li—Mr. Li is an expert in this area. The physical and mental tests returned were healthy, so there was no need to refresh them. We also sent someone to confirm before and saw him by the window… Mr. Li said unlocking the access control was very troublesome and had security risks, so we only communicated through the window…”

“So you only saw his face and upper body before, right?”

“Yes. I’m sorry.”

People would always have such problems. Zhuo Muran looked at the investigators coldly on the other side of the light screen—people always wanted to save trouble in a variety of ways, but machines would not make this kind of mistake.

“Come back to make the report. Everything will be handled according to regulations.” Zhuo Muran didn’t get angry. “Most likely, the people who control this island are rebels who want to hide. Since the people who did this are willing to continue to manage the island in an orderly manner, there must be something here.”

“Yes. We are looking for it.” The surveyor wiped the sweat from his forehead. “Commander, we…”

Zhuo Muran decisively turned off the light screen and focused on the battle. The projection of the Mainbrain didn’t disappear. The young man’s silhouette stopped in the room and was intently observing the small battlefield on the light screen.

NUL-00 didn’t mean to hide itself.

Interestingly, a beautiful young man who looked familiar countered their offensive bird-like machine and rushed to NUL-00’s side. Zhuo Muran recognized that face as the technician from the rebel army. He should’ve died in the previous fire.

Mass-produced replicants? However, if one gained access to top-of-the-line medical equipment in time, it was also possible to save one’s life.

Either way, NUL-00’s resource reserves were obviously much richer than they thought.

The current situation was a stalemate, and the technician rushing up wouldn’t have any effect. Or perhaps he brought some kind of weapon? Zhuo Muran touched his chin and raised his eyebrows at the two people kissing each other on screen.

‘…Interesting,’ he thought.

On the other side of the light screen.

The bird-like machine flew high in the air. The wind was strong and cold, blowing the corners of Ruan Xian’s coat, flapping it about. The tip of Tang Yibu’s nose was frozen pink. He was putting all his energy into controlling the strange bird that caused his nose to wrinkle slightly.

Ruan Xian’s hand felt a little itchy, and he wanted to reach out, but he held back this ridiculous impulse.

Tang Yibu’s counter-operation effect on the flock of birds was gratifying. Ji Xiaoman, who was actively sniping them, suddenly felt a lot less pressure, and Yu Le no longer needed to drive the armored off-roader into the ground flying fighters. However, Ruan Xian knew very well in his heart that this was only temporary.

The Mainbrain knew that Tang Yibu was NUL-00, and all this was more like testing Tang Yibu’s basic combat abilities than an attack. Harder units must be in the back and relaxing now would only lead to a faster death.

The strange bird temporarily became their partner. He didn’t know if it was intentional or not, but Tang Yibu opened up all the system permissions of the one under them to Ruan Xian. Ruan Xian held Tang Yibu’s waist ambiguously with one hand, thereby covering the light screen between their bodies. He stared at the numbers while quickly calculating.

Not far away, the mechanical beings being manipulated rushed to the periphery, and the red smoke from the biological missile was particularly dazzling against the blue sky. A dazzling gap appeared in the sardine-like group of aircraft, surrounding the two of them in this circular gap.

After Tang Yibu completely snatched dominance of the flock of strange birds, he finally had the energy to curiously observe Ruan Xian. Ruan Xian didn’t act coy, allowing the android to look at him at will, but the calculations in his head didn’t stop.

The reason why the Mainbrain didn’t blast them to kingdom come was probably, on one hand, to observe Tang Yibu, and on the other hand, was wary of Professor Ruan’s possible arrangements. However, this situation couldn’t continue to be stalled and no one knew when the killing blow prepared by the Mainbrain would commence…

Before this thought was finished in Ruan Xian’s mind, a new figure joined the battle.

Two figures equipped with exoskeletons floated in the air.

Though it wasn’t accurate to say “equipped”. Unlike their first encounter with Zhuo Muran, the exoskeletons of these two people seemed directly embedded in their flesh, becoming a part of their bodies. The two of them were exactly the same shape and height, and the smell they emitted was exactly the same as Zhuo Muran’s, as if they were like two projections from the same source.

Their faces had been transformed. They had no normal facial features; only densely arranged lenses like a weird hive. There were no hair stubbles on their scalp, but instead many small mechanical groups were densely pinned there, like an augmented bone armor, forming the off-white exoskeleton of flesh. The body was well fused, leaving no blood or scars, as if it seemed to be born with it.

The two of them wore uniforms adapted to the exoskeleton. Their badges were marked with Z-α and Z-β respectively.

They had no intention of talking. Within a second of appearing, they rushed straight towards Tang Yibu. Tang Yibu jumped away from the strange bird where Ruan Xian was, grabbed another one, and rushed towards the two of them without hesitation.

Tang Yibu chose the Z-β on his right to start. He held down the opponent’s shoulder joint as quickly as lightning, grabbed the opponent’s wrist with his other hand to exert force, and tried to dislodge their arm that was carrying more offensive equipment. From Ruan Xian’s point of view, there was nothing wrong with this judgement.

But Tang Yibu failed.

The bare hands that could break metal failed to tear off the arm, and the opponent showed no signs of dislocation. Seeing that the attack wasn’t effective, Tang Yibu didn’t falter, and immediately controlled the strange bird to fly away.

Z-α hit back instantly with a reaction speed that wasn’t like a human and he cut off a large piece of flesh from Tang Yibu’s left arm with his hands, along with most of the wings of the strange bird. Blood splattered instantly, and Tang Yibu groaned in pain before responding by using his backhand to attack the enemy’s seemingly fragile head.

If this was a one-on-one battle, Tang Yibu might be able to pull it off. Unfortunately, his opponents were heavily armed by the Mainbrain. The exoskeletons of Z-α and Z-β were activated at the same time, causing the air around the two of them to suddenly become extremely hot.

The mechanical creature under Tang Yibu trembled suddenly. Its already injured wing could no longer move, and the metal surface of its body was instantly heated up to the point of melting. Tang Yibu immediately turned around and jumped onto another one before the strange bird fell to the ground. Even though he reacted quickly, he was still left with a large number of burns on his arms.

Tang Yibu took a deep breath and swallowed the pain, with a little more dampness in his eyes.

[They seem to be enhanced high-grade D-type products. These two are probably copies of Zhuo Muran. I just observed their exoskeletons. In order to maximize the advantages of D-type products, they are equipped with a lot of flexible acceleration devices, impact devices, and at least three auxiliary defense mechanisms.]

Ruan Xian passed the message through the earring.

[Judging from the design and precision of the exoskeleton, they should be top soldiers under the Mainbrain, which means there shouldn’t be too many of them. However, Yibu, while you do have the A-type Prototype and it’s indeed strong, your body is still purely human in the end. It’s okay if this battle is on the ground, but it’s inconvenient for you to move in the air.]

[We’re not well prepared for this battle. If I don’t support you, you can’t win.]

But if they revealed that they still have an S-type Prototype in their hands, they would no longer have an information advantage over the Mainbrain. Tang Yibu grimaced and shook his wounded arm. He glanced at the colorful balls jumping on the ground directly below, then ordered the mechanical bird to descend immediately.

Ruan Xian immediately followed suit. The battlefield became completely chaotic.

Tang Yibu’s blackened strange birds scattered like compact sardines as lasers and bullets flew wildly around. Ji Xiaoman had stopped her snipping on the wall. She quickly jumped off and hooked the rushing armored off-roader with her grappling hook. Coordinating her actions with Yu Le’s, she managed to get back into the passenger seat and panted for breath. The scattered laser beam burned her shoulder and almost blasted off one side of her prosthetic leg.

The little girl didn’t say a word. She pulled out the gauze from the front of the car with one hand, gritted her teeth, and began to bandage it skillfully.

“Stay away from NUL-00,” Professor Ruan ordered. “The two things he brought down are not easy to mess with.”

“Away from what?”

“…Stay away from Tang Yibu,” Professor Ruan said. “We need to hold on for another eight minutes. When the time is almost up, I’ll remind you. You’ll rush to their side at that moment, pick them up, and drive off in the direction of the sun.”

“Are you sure we’ll still be alive by then?” Yu Le murmured. “One of the things you just said to not mess with is coming this way.”

“Don’t panic. I’ll find a way to deal with it.” Professor Ruan’s tone was steady.

Not far away, Z-α and Tang Yibu were fighting in a sea of bouncing colored balls. Tang Yibu’s human body made him suffer a lot. Although his movements were still sharp, his entire body was already covered with blood. Z-α’s exoskeleton was torn a bit by Tang Yibu, it still seemed to be in high spirits.

The damaged exoskeleton was pushing an unknown liquid into its body. Tang Yibu didn’t need the sense of smell of the S-type Prototype to know what it was. It was definitely some kind of enhancement agent.

The high temperature when the exoskeleton raised its defense had burned Tang Yibu’s hand and ignited the surrounding trees. As they jumped around faster than the colored balls, Tang Yibu found it was getting more difficult to breathe—the air was full of smoke and dust, and it was so hot that it burned his trachea.

From time to time, the wreckage of aircraft fell from the sky. While Z-α could probably withstand such an impact, Tang Yibu wanted to avoid at all costs.

His father was right. The Mainbrain came prepared. All the equipment on the enemy’s body was of the highest grade. Whether it was the combat environment or the field, what he could do was very limited.

He really couldn’t win.

…But Tang Yibu didn’t really want to win at first. It was enough for MUL-01 to see this tragic situation. Tang Yibu stared at the enemy’s face that only had honeycomb-like lenses.

Anyway, his purpose from the start was to stall for time.

Professor Ruan wanted to leave here with them, so he was bound to destroy the giant jamming machine powered by his own brains underground. Tang Yibu was clear about the practice of completely erasing one’s traces—flames and explosions—the latter being more effective.

Not to mention his father, he had studied Professor Ruan quite a bit. That guy would never do anything that was uncertain. What was waiting for them was definitely a special explosion that was enough to destroy everything.

The question was “when”.

Tang Yibu stood up staggeringly, staring at the enemy’s exoskeleton with greed. The pain from his wounds was so severe that he began to miss the heat from Ruan Xian’s lips. When he leaves here, he must…

Wait, if he could infer Professor Ruan’s plan, Ruan Xian would definitely be able to do the same. His father could definitely guess that he had no intention of dying and he just wanted to throw a few smokescreens at the Mainbrain. If that was the case, it would be more reasonable for his father to go back to the car and help Yu Le and the others deal with possible enemies and keep a low profile as much as possible.

The feeling of his calculations being derailed made Tang Yibu shiver. It brought fresh panic and a subtle sense of thrill.

His beautiful puzzle set was about to generate a new puzzle again.

As if responding to his thoughts, Ruan Xian appeared lightly behind Z-α. Tang Yibu didn’t know what Ruan Xian had done as Z-α didn’t seem to sense him.

Next, he took out an extremely weird-looking machine. That thing was the size of a can and looked extremely menacing. He approached Z-α like a ghost and jammed the tip of the thing into Z-α’s neck.

With the force of human strength, it naturally couldn’t damage the skin of a D-type product. The little machine stuck into the gap in the exoskeleton of Z-α’s neck, and then exploded, releasing a burst of dark red smoke.

Z-α covered his neck for the first time but didn’t attack Ruan Xian. Tang Yibu broke out into a cold sweat. If Z-α decided to advance, Ruan Xian could instantly be crushed into ground beef by him.

However, Z-α didn’t do it.

The transformed person was like a person about to suffocate as Z-α scratched his throat desperately. Then the skin of his exoskeleton began to bulge as the pale mechanical tissue proliferated rapidly. Z-α quickly lost his human form and turned into a large, deformed flesh tumor, completely losing his ability to move.

After a long time, the tumors began to fester as they emitted unpleasant gurgling sounds.

Tang Yibu swallowed his saliva. He thought about Ruan Xian’s means of invading Professor Ruan’s underground fortress and the continuous calculating behavior and came to a faint guess.

Tang Yibu thought for a few seconds and decided to choose the most beneficial way for himself—he blinked his moist eyes, tried to move his injured arm, and softened his tone.

“It hurts so much,” he cried aggrievedly.

The effect was immediate. His Mr. Ruan glanced over in a tangled manner, looking like he wanted to give him a hug immediately, and at the same time wanted to beat him up.

Interesting reaction.

“You…” Ruan Xian grinned, before half-heartedly raising his voice with a leathery smile. “Forget it. Can you still continue?”

“Can’t.” Tang Yibu easily threw out a stone that directly knocked out an aircraft that was trying to approach.

Ruan Xian: “……”

He raised his blood gun, destroyed another group of attacking drones, and then stretched out his hand.

He definitely could still continue, and Ruan Xian saw this, but Tang Yibu didn’t know why he was telling this lie. It just came out of his mouth without a second thought.

This was probably just to make things easier to communicate, was what he told himself.

“There’s another one.” Tang Yibu lowered his voice and leaned his head on Ruan Xian’s shoulder.

[I know.]

“How long will it take?”

[Immediately.] Ruan Xian stabilized Tang Yibu and kissed the android’s hair. [The armored off-roader is here. The trick just now can only be used once. Next, I’ll trouble you to take action, Yibu.]

[Time must be calculated carefully to ensure that the Mainbrain can’t get Z-α’s body. I’ll explain things to you later. Come on, Mr. Wounded.]

“……”

The author has something to say:

However, all this is due to π! Inspiration from π—

I like rational people who become rational and unstable because of love (?

<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

Chapter 177: Special Seat

The live broadcast of the Android Show didn’t stop.

At the beginning, people’s attention was focused on the “important characters” on the periphery of the island, so many people continued to pay attention to Kang Ge and Xiao Zhao. However, since they entered the woods, the images returned had been resting and traveling, and there was nothing new.

No one bothered to report the error—the Android Show was directly monitored by the Order Supervisors, so it was impossible for such a low-level error to occur, so they chalked it up to those two people making boring decisions. As one of the focal points of the show, they seemed to decide to give up attention for the day and pass their time leisurely.

For the audience, every second meant a loss of expenses. Within a few hours, people’s attention would be focused back on the periphery of the island. Continuous conflicts raged, and people exchanged their attention for food, weapons, and daily necessities. Thus, all was well.

Until a dead wall rose in the center of the island.

The originally small island was cut into two parts. The center of the island, where the management area was located, was tightly surrounded by a dead wall, and then countless bright things began to spew out from the center of the island. The dead wall was like a muzzle sticking out from the ground, constantly bombarding the sky with new things that had never appeared on the island.

At once, everyone’s attention was attracted.

Countless white aircraft hovered over the dead wall, like schools of fish wandering in groups in the sea. Things with fresh and beautiful colors kept gushing out. At first, people thought it was a new gimmick made by the Android Show, until the aircraft began to explode in turn.

More than half the audience made a similar decision—they tried to buy the camera closest to the outbreak site, but no one succeeded. Only the vertical ground was in the field of vision of the detection birds. Thick rotten leaves and grass obscured the return pictures by more than 80%.

As they fell to the ground, most of them lost their vitality.

“What’s the situation?” All the detection birds used for the live broadcast of the Android Show were killed, while the war aircraft used by the Order Supervisors were much stronger. Zhuo Muran calmly watched the aircraft explode one by one as he asked a short question.

“Within 30 seconds, the first batch of detection troops were damaged by more than 80%. Only one person carried out the attack.” A voice very close to Zhuo Muran came from the other end of the light screen. “It’s recommended to continue to observe.””

“The second group of troops follow up. If the android isn’t captured within five minutes, you two will take action immediately. Don’t delay too long.” Zhuo Muran stared at the little black shadow moving through the smoke and flames.

The first batch of detection aircraft were purely mechanical. Although they possessed some offensive capabilities, they were still, ultimately, remotely manipulated dumb-headed geese. The second batch was closer to actual combat weapons—they weren’t simple aircraft but modified mechanical life. Whether it was combat effectiveness or sensitivity, they weren’t on the same level as the first batch of cannon fodder.

Although MUL-01 had a tendency to collect as much intelligence as possible, Zhuo Muran didn’t want to take too much risk to prolong the battle. The other side only sent one person. Whether it was overconfidence or they were at the end of their rope, the purpose was to delay time.

Zhuo Muran was extremely disgusted at having to cede dominance of the rhythm of the war to his opponent.

“If you need to attack, Z-α will meet the enemy head-on. Z-β will support from the side, focusing on the armored off-roader,” he continued to command. “The logistics force released ground detectors to figure out the cause of this perceived eruption for me… No, it’s not a post-war assessment. Do it now.””

“Understood.”

Zhuo Muran took a long breath. He zoomed in on the light screen in front of him and squinted at the madman who was tearing up the machine in the center of the explosion.

He really didn’t think at the beginning that the android who teased him was one of MUL-01’s most dangerous enemies. Zhuo Muran had transformed his body. He himself was equivalent to the most advanced interrogation machine on the market. If the android named “Tang Yibu” had an out-of-specification maintenance mentality for humans, he wouldn’t be able to turn away.

But that android had no bias towards humans. If he didn’t want to be discovered by MUL-00 and beheaded, he could easily just hide in silence. There wasn’t a need to be so high-profile.

Was this a smoke screen? Or was there a deeper reason?

Zhuo Muran was holding his cup that had tea that had already gone cold. He turned around and wanted to dump out the tea…

“You don’t need to think too much, Muran.” The projection of MUL-01 had appeared behind him some unknown time ago. He still had a soothing smile on his face. “NUL-00 is unfinished and hasn’t received formal teaching. Many of its behaviors cannot be explained by human cognition.”

“Then you don’t need to deliberately prolong this battle. You can just wipe out the island directly. With all due respect, you’re taking a risk…”

“I’m very interested in NUL-00’s cybernetic brain and personality data. It can be used as a patch for me to complete myself. Before Ruan Xian’s personality treatment, he occasionally had some extreme but effective ideas.”

The Mainbrain wasn’t impatient and explained carefully with its youth-like projection.

“Ruan Xian is also involved in this plan. He won’t be stupid enough to let me destroy NUL-00 casually. There are two possibilities—either the act of destruction is within the scope of his inference, and he already has the means to deal with or even use it, or there are things on that island that will be buried even if NUL-00 is destroyed. NUL-00 is just a cover to guide us to destroy the island.”

“It’s inefficient and wasteful to take the final resort before clarifying the status quo.” It summarized.

“Yes.” Zhuo Muran swallowed his words of rebuttal.

MUL-01 stretched out a hand and lightly pressed on the figure of the android on the magnified light screen. The image didn’t even blink. It stared at the light screen for a few seconds while the expression on its face returned to blank.

“Maybe we can win it over.” Seeing that the atmosphere was getting odd, Zhuo Muran seized the opportunity to speak. “Conceptually speaking, NUL-00 could be considered your kind, your brother. It doesn’t share Ruan Xian’s philosophy. It doesn’t seem to have any opinions on the current human situation. As long as we…”

“This is the 413^th time I’ve reminded you, Zhuo Muran. Don’t apply human logic to me. As the Commander-in-Chief of the Order Supervisors, you should be more aware of this than everyone else.”

MUL-01 withdrew his hand.

“If we were defined as a kind of creature, our greatest instinct would be to learn and devour. We don’t need to reproduce like humans, and we don’t have genetic factors that need to be maintained. NUL-00 is not a compatriot or relative that I cherish. It is my best prey, and it will not give up the opportunity to erase me.”

“There will be no plans for persuasion now, nor will there ever be.” The projection voice was quite firm.

“…Understood.”

When the second wave of enemies came crashing down, Ruan Xian noticed something was wrong—this time the aircraft style was completely different from the first batch. Compared with the simple and neat flying machinery, what was rushing towards them was more like a strange bird with metal and bionic tissue, and its head was a bit larger than an adult brown bear.

Like the detection birds, their heads didn’t have a normal form of a mouth, nose, and eyes. Only a camera-like structure that gathered into bundles. There were a lot of white sarcomas under the twisted wings, and strange-shaped ammunition was embedded in them. He didn’t know if they made it themselves or if it was installed artificially.

Unlike the smooth-surfaced aircraft, this group of mechanical creatures had sharp claws and a delicate body covered in hard thorns. Their joints were much more difficult to disassemble than ordinary machines. Even if they were torn apart, they wouldn’t explode. The torn parts would be connected to a lot of sticky and resilient bionic tissues, which made them difficult to use for secondary attacks.

They could no longer control the situation through physical attacks. Most of the strange birds rushed towards Tang Yibu, while the rest headed towards the armored off-roader.

Yu Le had no choice but to use all his driving skills to drive the bulky car as if it was a loach in muddy water. Facing general obstacles, he could only activate the emergency injection device in the car to collapse it out of the wall—the dead wall would disable all machines and equipment nearby, so Captain Yu had to go around the inside of the wall.

“What’s next?” Seeing the group of strange-looking things rushing towards the car, Yu Le’s voice almost broke the sound barrier. “Laozi can’t make a move!”

“Wait,” Professor Ruan only replied with one word. “It’s enough to keep driving like this.””

“You’re speaking so fucking lightly.” Yu Le’s voice was a bit sharp as he made another turn with his hands. The iron bead, which had gained a bit of weight, was pitted by inertia—it slid out of Ji Xiaoman’s arms and slammed into the car door violently, causing it to bark in anger.

“I’ll go to the roof to help.” Ji Xiaoman was silent for a while before she finally spoke. “π, you guard… You guard Professor Ruan.”

The iron bead bit the corner of Ji Xiaoman’s clothes and looked at her pitifully. Unfortunately, it didn’t have the function of tears, so it could only work hard to make its three small eyes quickly light up.

“Good boy.” Ji Xiaoman opened the car window, ignored the crazy speed, and crawled out quickly with her hands and feet.

Seeing that its coquettishness was ineffective, the iron bead turned its head angrily and gnawed at the three-legged machine to vent its anger—Professor Ruan seemed to have the ability to predict as he calmly moved his metal feet away.

There was a series of threatening grunts from the iron bead, a bit like a revving engine. Unfortunately, it hadn’t finished grunting when the car took another sharp turn and almost threw it out the window.

Professor Ruan sighed, stretched out a foot, and pointed to a gap under Ji Xiaoman’s seat.

The iron bead moved in suspiciously and found that the space was just the right size, as comfortable as shrinking in a shell. It moved its body comfortably, instantly threw away its hostility to the wind, and gave a friendly rattle to Professor Ruan’s three-legged machine.

The atmosphere outside the car wasn’t as peaceful.

Ji Xiaoman climbed onto the roof of the car, making the already small space even more inconvenient to move. Fortunately, the little girl has extremely good combat experience—she didn’t stay on the roof of the car but jumped straight onto the dead wall. With the height advantage, she quickly threw a grappling hook and climbed to the top.

Knowing the characteristics of the dead wall well, the former mechanical hunter didn’t use advanced firearms.

Ji Xiaoman toggled her arm, causing her parts to click, and her left arm turned into a light mechanical crossbow. She pulled out several flashing arrow bombs from her backpack. The arrows began to attack the mechanical life flying towards the car.

At the same time, the movement under her feet didn’t stop. The mechanical beings who found her threw countless explosives at her. However, Ji Xiaoman didn’t stop in one place for too long.

Fortunately, she wasn’t dealing with them alone.

Ruan Xian didn’t leave the roof of the car. He stood up straight on top of the scurrying armored car, relying on the sensing ability of the S-type Prototype to maintain his balance. Instead of using his newly discovered blood trait, he simply used his attack blood gun to focus on the monitor structure of the heads of those creatures.

Although they flew extremely fast and tried to hide their heads, they still couldn’t fight the perception of a Prototype as well as the abnormal fighting spirit of its owner…

Ruan Xian vented all his stifled frustration at these strange things. The blood-sucking device of the blood gun was hidden under his sleeve, sipping his blood continuously. The coldness and pain of blood loss mixed with dizzying pleasure, temporarily liberating him from the unknown emotional chaos.

The mechanical life crackled to the ground and was run over by Yu Le mercilessly. The dark brown soil was almost dyed white by the scattered tissue fluid.

Professor Ruan asked them to wait. Ruan Xian could guess what the other party wanted to do, and he had no intention of interfering.

Besides, Tang Yibu was exposed, and what he could do now was extremely limited.

Ruan Xian raised his breath and blew off a dozen mechanical giant birds that Ji Xiaoman hadn’t had time to deal with. After observing the structure of this thing clearly, this time he deliberately put one close, and then jumped up. Ruan Xian took off his electronic wristband and poked the interface of the seam of the strange bird’s neck quickly and ruthlessly.

He wasn’t as adept at fighting as Tang Yibu or Ji Xiaoman. He could only imprison the thing with his legs, stabilizing his body as the mechanical life struggled. The light screen was brightly lit in the air. Ruan Xian twisted the vitals of the thing with one hand while the other invaded its nervous system.

He had never seen such a biological program, and he could only rely on the hormones that were almost soaring to its apex to rack his brains and crack it in real time with all his energy.

He didn’t know whether it was intentional or not, but Tang Yibu had already left the effective range of his blood gun. The android couldn’t fly, and the only place in the sky was in enemy territory—

Although the possibility was very low, in case he was seriously injured, in case he accidently fell off, in case the Mainbrain took out some new weapon…

Thinking about this, Ruan Xian couldn’t wait to dig out those buzzing noises in his mind. Recently, this symptom had become more obvious—once he touched Tang Yibu, the startling and useless murmurs became particularly loud. He was still able to make a decision calmly, but the process was several times more difficult.

It’s terrible.

It was clear before the recognition; his love wouldn’t have these unlucky side effects. Something must’ve gone wrong. If cherishing NUL-00 made his love a bit stronger, the performance wasn’t quite right.

Even before, Ruan Xian had never considered weighing NUL-00 and himself on the same scale. After falling in love with Tang Yibu in a very self-centered way, he never thought that the android would have such a deep impact on him.

But now wasn’t a good time for self-analysis. It was enough to know that the problem existed—before solving it, he had to make sure that both of them stay alive.

Ruan Xian bit his lower lip as one of his hands continued hacking nonstop. He tasted blood in his mouth. Finally, after an artillery fire, as the shell was about to explode right in his face, the strange bird finally stopped struggling, and its movements became obedient and stiff.

Lowering his body, he continued to enter instructions and rushed towards Tang Yibu.

Tang Yibu did have injuries on his body, and the wounds weren’t minor. Ruan Xian took a deep breath and started to think about how to treat him as stealthily as possible when the android stomped his feet and rushed towards Ruan Xian like a cannonball.

The momentum was so fierce that Ruan Xian was almost knocked down by him. Tang Yibu took the opportunity to hook Ruan Xian’s waist with one hand and pressed the top of the bird-like machine with the other. His clothes were drenched in blood.

“You’re here.” Tang Yibu smiled happily, lowered his head, and breathed in Ruan Xian’s ear. “Don’t do anything, father.”

“At the rate of your blood loss, you’ll last at most two more hours.”

“You’ll catch me, won’t you?” Tang Yibu kissed Ruan Xian’s forehead. “Don’t forget. The Mainbrain is watching.”

At that moment, Ruan Xian reluctantly understood Tang Yibu’s meaning—even if he didn’t want such a connection, he could almost instinctively guess what the android was thinking.

Seeing Ruan Xian’s face slightly distorted, Tang Yibu smiled. He pressed his blood-stained fingers diagonally to his mouth and made a quiet gesture. Then he used his fingertips to stroke Ruan Xian’s face, deliberately leaving a trail of blood.

“This is a special seat, father.”

He stretched out his blood-stained hand; the blue light around his palm was extremely dazzling.

A burst of air exploded centered on the two of them, and the surrounding mechanical birds stopped moving for an instant, as if time had frozen. In the next second, their heads lit up with red light. They turned around and began to rush towards the aircraft farther away.

Cunning guy. Ruan Xian tugged at the corners of his mouth.

Indeed, Tang Yibu did intend to expose his armed capabilities—NUL-00 still existed and had the A-type Prototype. This kind of information was reasonable.

But the Order Supervisors and the Mainbrain didn’t know that they still had another Prototype in their hands. Tang Yibu was still the Tang Yibu he knew, and he would never cut himself off under any circumstances.

It was just the android made a mistake. Ruan Xian stretched out his hand and touched the blood on his face.

…He himself had never been the type to willingly give up the initiative and obey orders.

“You’re right,” he said as he kissed Tang Yibu’s bloody lips. “This is indeed a special seat.”

<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

Chapter 176: Tang Yibu’s Decision

Yu Le removed the glass barrier between the front and rear rows of the armored off-roader. Ji Xiaoman and Professor Ruan’s three-legged machine stayed in the back row while Ruan Xian sat in the front passenger seat. The window was wide open so he could always lean out his body and support Tang Yibu at any time.

Tang Yibu climbed the car’s side, one hand holding the roof bracket and the other a gun.

Outside, the two children have disappeared. Ji Xiaoman’s eyes stared blankly forward, as if she hadn’t had time to react. Professor Ruan’s brain manipulated the three-legged machine into the seam of the seat and fixed himself firmly in the back row. The iron bead had rolled into the seat between the cushion crevices. Seeing that everyone was in the car, it became rest assured and whirred to sleep.

The scene outside the car was a complete mess.

Temporary dead walls were raised like the skin of poor-quality puppets. They couldn’t hold the flourishing illusion. The colorful stuff poured out through the two non-existent children, bulging around the car, covering the sky in a constant stream. It was like all the paradises in the world had collapsed at the same time, and everything with color had come to life, and together they decided to have a grand tour.

Bombs. The bombs fell straight into the illusions created by the perceptual interferences, as if an anchor had sunk into the colorful ocean without splashing too much water.

“Where to go?” Yu Le’s face was flushed. It seemed he was trying to hold back 10,000 questions to ask and finally picked the sentence with the fewest words.

“Due north.” Professor Ruan and Ruan Xian spoke at almost the same time.

Yu Le no longer dawdled. He quickly started the car. “I’ll use my cellphone to make do. Remind me at any time if there are difficult obstacles. You can do it, right?”

Now that Professor Ruan was in their car, he shouldn’t use his perception interference to rewrite the images on the cellphone display. Yu Le adjusted the position of the cellphone in front of the driver’s seat and let out a snort.

“Nn,” Ruan Xian replied softly as he kept staring at Tang Yibu, who was still dangling out the window.

Colorful balloons twisted like living creatures and rushed to the sky. A merry-go-round was turned upside down as it was inserted into the ground and started bouncing up and down. Fortunately, Yu Le, who was born in the Sea of Ruins, had excellent psychological strength. Thanks to the shuttle agent, he dared to drive and hit anything head-on.

The scene would temporarily protect them at the bottom, so the Order Supervisors wouldn’t be able to find them for a while. Ruan Xian observed for a while the group of carnival things outside the window and then withdrew his gaze. “That thing underground was planned to be used for this in the beginning, right?”

Although Professor Ruan had the ability to hold up the second layer of “perceptual wallpaper” alone, the premise was that the perceptual interference wouldn’t be too complicated. The center of the island enclosed by the dead wall was full of strange and exotic things, which couldn’t be done by a small three-legged machine in the back row.

Just like himself, Professor Ruan was also an experienced liar.

The phage-like machinery he showed them wasn’t an assassination device against the Mainbrain, but a perceptual interference device that controlled the island. His replicated brains were used by the device to enhance the augmentation.

“The assassination device does exist.” Professor Ruan didn’t sound surprised. “I just didn’t put it here.”

Whether deliberately choosing a dangerous practice of hiding under the lights or simply placed it elsewhere, both approaches made sense. Without enough information, even Ruan Xian himself couldn’t easily judge. Now that the matter was over, the opponent’s plan was clear.

Although he was unwilling to admit it, he and Tang Yibu were defeated in regard to intelligence collection. The twelve-year combat gap really did exist.

“Before you two murmur something we don’t understand, consider how we feel.” Yu Le stepped on the gas and accelerated the speed of the vehicle. He casually threw a ball of paper on Ruan Xian’s thigh while he made an ugly face.

“While it’s safe now, hurry up and make things clear.”

He glanced at the three-legged machine in the back seat through the rearview mirror. “I hate being kept in the dark the most. The little profiteer and I figured out that Tang Yibu is a relative of MUL-01, and then what? You guys rushed back, muttering a bunch of inexplicable things, and then pressed us to escape together.”

“There has to be an explanation for this. To be honest, those two kids don’t matter. I don’t know what’s going on with this strange machine in the back—”

“I don’t understand yet,” Ji Xiaoman interrupted him, her voice hoarse. “I still don’t understand about those two children.”

Ruan Xian hugged his arms and didn’t mean to speak. He used his gaze to signal to Professor Ruan in the back row with an “after you” gesture.

“Forget it, I should explain.”

There was a weird soothing effect in Professor Ruan’s voice.

“Let’s start with Miss Ji… All the reactions and performances of those two children were created by Kang Ziyan and Su Zhao, and then shaped by the impressions of others. This matter is also quite complicated to say. In simple terms, they are ‘people in the eyes of others’.”

“But…”

“They have no life. Although they act as if they are living, they really aren’t. Miss Ji, I understand your mood. Even if I’m very clear about the principle behind it, I still can’t help but be affected—you can think of them as characters who are portrayed in works of art and that will make you feel better.”

“Don’t they feel anything?” There was a rare irritation in Ji Xiaoman’s voice.

“I don’t know. No one can know. The concept of life was originally defined by humans,” Professor Ruan said softly. “This is the price of not controlling development in the first place. Our social ethics can’t keep up with the speed of technological advancement. If they try to get to the bottom of the issue, people will go crazy… That’s why I have always insisted on the ‘naturalness’ of humans.”

He paused for a while and turned to Yu Le’s direction. The black box shifted in the glass trough, causing a string of bubbles to emerge.

“To formally introduce myself, I am the clone of the real Ruan Xian, the Professor Ruan you know. To be precise, I’m Professor Ruan’s brain. The me now is also difficult to classify as ‘human’.”

Yu Le grabbed the steering wheel and shook his hand. “…You dug out your brain?”

“He did. I’ll take over from here.” Ruan Xian rubbed the ball of paper that Yu Le threw at him and put it in his pocket. “It’s hard to make my identity clear in a few words, so I won’t explain that for the time being—simply put, Professor Ruan set in motion a plan to make Yibu come to this island to find him for several years now. This is just the accumulation of it.”

“He built a perception interference machine underground to hide his identity and, at the same time, lied that it was a weapon against MUL-01 to judge Yibu’s position. This is what we were just talking about.”

Ruan Xian wiped his blood gun.

“Professor Ruan has investigated you all and knows that you’re all humans, but I’m the only one with unknown origins and had suspicious behavior, so according to my calculations, he was going to kill me, show it to Yibu, and bring my body back for research.”

“I needed to go to Yibu’s side, but I wasn’t sure if he would let you witness that scene. The note I wrote was just in case. Since you and I don’t know, and I was afraid Miss Ji wouldn’t rush out to help me.”

“…Listening to this statement, even you aren’t human?” Yu Le sighed.

“Tentatively, I can be considered one, but strictly speaking, I may not count as one. Don’t put too much thought into it. If you really can’t get over it, you can treat me like I’m the zombie of the real Ruan Xian.”

Ruan Xian put away the blood gun. “The next step is the main point—to make sure that Yibu is still around, and if Yibu wasn’t keen on cooperating, our Professor Ruan exposed his presence to the Mainbrain. Well, this is the result.”

In any case, Yu Le, as a former big-shot ruins pirate, should be able to figure out what Professor Ruan was up to.

Now, they had to cooperate even if they didn’t want to. Tang Yibu’s identity predestined him not to be emotional and would only choose the plan that was most beneficial for him.

“You didn’t escape?” Yu Le murmured.

“A step slower. I didn’t expect this one to also be so crazy.” Ruan Xian shrugged.

Yu Le rolled his eyes and decided not to pursue the meaning of the word “also”.

With the identities of the two determined, it stood to reason that Ji Xiaoman, who should be the most excited, was still depressed. The petite girl curled up in the back seat, looking like she didn’t want to talk to Professor Ruan.

“What’s next?” Yu Le glanced at Ji Xiaoman through the rearview mirror and quickly retracted his gaze.

“Get rid of the chasing soldiers, it depends on the situation next.” Ruan Xian looked out the window at Tang Yibu again—the enemy hadn’t attacked yet, but Tang Yibu was stubbornly hanging on the side of the car, and even began to happily play with those illusions.

As they were talking, the android was stretching out an arm, happily letting his palm brush through the colorful clouds of road signs; his mood looked very high.

Isn’t he worried?

For the first time, Ruan Xian experienced being worried to the point of irritability. The recent emotion of suffering from gains and losses was driving him insane—if they were lucky, Tang Yibu wouldn’t expose too much strength in front of the Order Supervisors, and they could still hide incognito.But if Tang Yibu exposed their combat power, they would have to cooperate with Professor Ruan to make the first move and terminate the Mainbrain.

The latter represented the mortality rate that Tang Yibu had to suffer. Furthermore, Professor Ruan had already led them to this step, so his plan should be airtight.

This thought made Ruan Xian suffocate. Looking at Tang Yibu, who had a carefree expression on his face, he felt a sense of suffocation that his heart was on the verge of exploding.

The care had now turned into concern, but “concern” was undoubtedly a strange and painful emotion, which Ruan Xian didn’t like very much.

It stood to reason that if he wanted to protect himself, he should find a way to get rid of that deadline earring as soon as possible and stay away from Tang Yibu. However, even though it was clear that this was the most reasonable approach, Ruan Xian firmly threw it to the back of his mind. He could no longer handle that love with ease. It was mixed with desire, regret, and possessiveness, and grew into a monster with a huge mouth, which in turn was swallowing him little by little.

Not to mention getting rid of it, now he couldn’t even prevent it from continuing to grow. Ruan Xian could only try his best to keep the two of them alive together.

This feeling that wasn’t in his control was simply awful.

“Father.” As if perceiving Ruan Xian’s gaze, Tang Yibu grabbed a handful of light blue clouds and threw them into Ruan Xian’s arms. “The toughness of this thing is quite realistic.”

“…You can go in.”

“I have to keep a good eye on the two on the roof of the car.” Tang Yibu smiled like a fox who stole chicken. “And looking at this formation, I guess…”

Before he finished speaking, a “be careful” escaped from Ruan Xian’s mouth.

Yu Le’s rampage let them quickly reach the edge of the dead wall. The colorful illusion became thin, and the image of the car was exposed to the sky that was filled with aircraft. Missiles bombarded from the sky.

Tang Yibu squeezed his eyes at Ruan Xian, exerted his arms, and briefly rose into the air. He caught a homing missile with one hand and tossed it towards the dead wall that wasn’t far away.

A huge burst of wind made those colorful illusions tremble, yet the dead wall didn’t even shake. Yu Le jerked the steering wheel and maneuvered the car so it wouldn’t suffer the blow head-on. The violent shaking of the car awakened the iron bead, who whizzed into Ji Xiaoman’s arms, quaking pitifully. It tried to take a bite of one of the feet of the three-legged machine during the chaos, but Professor Ruan simply pulled his foot away as if he had predicted it.

Ji Xiaoman petted its shell, but her posture wasn’t very stable, and her mood was still extremely low.

Seeing that the missile couldn’t blow up the dead wall, Tang Yibu glanced at the explosion, clicked his tongue in disgust, and threw another homing missile back at them.

Their power was too small. It was obvious they weren’t used for attack. Most likely, the Mainbrain wanted to use the explosion to locate their specific location. Ruan Xian frowned and just wanted to remind Tang Yibu…

Tang Yibu stretched out his hand, grabbed Ruan Xian’s front lapel, and pulled him neatly out the window.

“Hold my waist tight.” Those golden eyes gleamed so close at hand. Tang Yibu kissed the corner of Ruan Xian’s forehead, causing warm breath to brush against the skin of his neck.

In order to avoid the continuous bombardment, the car was still traveling at a high speed. The brown ground quickly blurred in front of them, becoming afterimages. Ruan Xian subconsciously put his arms around Tang Yibu’s waist as the latter stepped on the door handle and leaped directly onto the roof of the car.

Xiao Zhao was still unconscious while Kang Ge was holding her tightly in his arms. In order to ensure that the two of them wouldn’t be thrown out of the car, he squeezed his left arm into the narrow gap of the fixing rod on the roof of the car. His arm was covered in blood.

Tang Yibu’s attention was on the densely packed aircraft overhead. Those ill-intentioned armed machines were painted white, glinting coldly in the sunlight. He smiled at them as if the sky wasn’t covered with enemies but was sprinkled with flying flakes of dandelions.

“Father.” Tang Yibu turned to Ruan Xian and smiled happily like never before. “I just made a decision.”

“What?” There was a lot of wind on the roof of the car, so Ruan Xian raised his voice.

“I have to deal with MUL-01,” Tang Yibu said happily. “With Professor Ruan.”

“No, the risk on your side is really…”

“I calculated that it would indeed be higher, but I have something I want to see. Besides, it’s still quite a good deal to work together if you take these conditions into account.” Tang Yibu stretched out his hand and poked Ruan Xian’s face.

“If you have any ideas, we can discuss them. Yibu, listen. No matter what you want to see—” Ruan Xian took a deep breath and didn’t remove Tang Yibu’s hand as he tried to patiently play the role of “gentle Professor Ruan” but unfortunately failed.

“For example, I want to see your expression now,” Tang Yibu responded happily. “And I want to see more.””

“Father, in addition to your subject, I have now found more interesting questions. Until I can answer them, data can only be collected from such practices—”

Tang Yibu jumped up.

Ruan Xian had never seen him jump to that height.

Tang Yibu jumped directly onto the aircraft closest to them, tearing the metal-covered weapon in half like bread. Then he took advantage of the explosive air flow and jumped to another larger aircraft. This time he didn’t simply tear it apart but broke off the flying wings of its tail and threw their fragments at other aircraft rushing around.

The guns and lasers changed their direction and shot at Tang Yibu all at once, but the android was like a cat preying on birds or a fish swimming in the current. He jumped between aircraft, and every jump was accompanied by several explosions.

Most of the attacks missed his body, and occasionally some came close to hitting, but he swapped them away with his back hand and turned them in another direction.

There was no panic in the movements of the android; rather, it could be said to be graceful. Lined with lively illusions on the ground, the exploding aircraft were like strange fireworks in the blue sky.

And his NUL-00 danced in the smoke that burst out.

Although Tang Yibu seemed to have the advantage, Ruan Xian’s heartbeat still didn’t return to its normal frequency…

This wasn’t going to work. Ruan Xian gritted his teeth. More and larger aircraft were coming, and they were facing a complete outpost. This was just a test, and they were being observed. The Order Supervisors didn’t immediately flatten the island, which meant the current situation was still completely “under control” for the Mainbrain.

It’s impossible for Tang Yibu to not be aware of this. Ruan Xian thought that this was a complete provocation.

…It wasn’t that he was forced to make a move. The android wanted to show his strength.

The author has something to say:

Tang: Happy, very happy.jpg

Ruan: Old father is angry.

The two of you are about to start understanding the essence of love (?

<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

Chapter 175: Life Data

It seems that the appearance of the A-type Prototype wasn’t much different from the S-type. Ruan Xian recalled the S-type Prototype encountered in the ruins. No matter its size, shape, texture, or color, it was exactly the same as the A-type Prototype in Tang Yibu’s memory.

Floating in the liquid was a jellyfish-like white mass.

It was just that it was attracted by the “suspected old version” of α-092 in his body, and it actively integrated into him. The images on this island may be fake, but his memories of when he was in the ruins were absolutely authentic.

Ruan Xian finally abandoned the last doubt in his heart.

It seemed that it was indeed an accident that he obtained the S-type Prototype, and it wasn’t another one of Professor Ruan’s tricks, or some kind of hidden agenda for the future. Professor Ruan couldn’t predict in advance that he would arrive in that room in time. If this was part of his plan, it couldn’t be a more bullshit plan than that.

This thought made Ruan Xian temporarily calm down and he turned his attention to the young couple in front of him.

The young Su Zhao’s entire body was covered in blood and her clothes were stained with grass and dirt. The child’s body was thin, her throat was being squeezed tightly by the adult Su Zhao, her feet were dangling in the air, and her entire body was twitching violently. The small Kang Ziyan was lying face down to one side; his hand still reaching towards the direction of the small Su Zhao while the back of his head was stained with a large dark red blood spot.

As she was choking her younger self, Xiao Zhao had no special expression on her face, as if what she was choking was a sparrow.

Ji Xiaoman reacted the fastest.

Though she was still a bit confused, the gun in her hand was already extended. Xiao Zhao seemed to have predicted this, as she raised her wrist at the right point in time, dropped the young Su Zhao in her hand, and successfully avoided the bullet.

Yu Le immediately donned on his professional pirate attitude—despite being mind-blown by the pile of terrifying information and the fact that he was still in the dark about the current situation, he pretended not to hear Kang Ziyan’s plea and rushed to the car first and sat in the driver’s seat. Unlike Ji Xiaoman, he remembered that the two children “didn’t exist”. As the former captain of the Walking Stones, Yu Le obviously didn’t intend to waste too much time on meaningless things.

The three-legged little machine with Professor Ruan’s brain seemed to want to say something, but before it could speak, Ruan Xian picked it up blankly and threw it rudely into the back seat of the car.

The iron bead couldn’t wait to return to the comfortable car as it followed Ruan Xian and jumped in and rolled into the soft back seat before the rest boarded.

If it weren’t for the situation being really tense and him not wanting to create more trouble, Ruan Xian wasn’t sure if he could resist his hands and ask for some price from the young couple who had been abusing Tang Yibu for so long. In addition, he was also interested in how Tang Yibu would react. With the strength of the A-type Prototype, Tang Yibu could kill those two within a second…

After a few seconds, only Ji Xiaoman and Tang Yibu were left outside the armored off-roader.

Ji Xiaoman’s attention was still on the two “non-existent” children—the young Kang Ziyan was still in a coma, covered in dirt, looking pitiful, while the young Su Zhao was rubbing her throat and coughing. Her eyes were full of pleading as she looked at Ji Xiaoman.

Seeing most of the people getting into the car without wavering, the adult Kang Ziyan’s face turned incredibly ugly. He raised his empty hands high and approached Tang Yibu tentatively. “Xiao Tang, that is the A-type Prototype, right? Did you guys come from outside? Please, take us out of here… I don’t ask for your forgiveness. I know some information about Plan Corp. Let’s make a deal—”

Tang Yibu had on his standard smile. He titled his head slightly while the smile remained motionless, like a mask.

“Kang Ge, what nonsense are you talking about?” Xiao Zhao approached with a smile. The muzzle of the gun in her hand was pointed towards the back of Kang Ge’s head. “Isn’t it good here? This is our home. They are going to take away the car. We have to hurry up and grab it—”

“Any information is fine.” Kang Ge ignored Xiao Zhao. “I have to take her out of this place. Please.”

“Human society has collapsed.” Tang Yibu spoke without any emotion in his voice.

Ji Xiaoman looked at Tang Yibu, then at the child in the distance calling for help; her eyes were filled with confusion and struggle. The two men who were talking regarded them like air, as if those cries didn’t exist, while Xiao Zhao exaggeratedly blocked her ears with her fingers as she sang nursery rhymes.

“I know. I’ve been in this business. Looking at the situation in those days, I can probably guess something.” Kang Ge didn’t give up. “No one went to repair the research institute, so something must have happened outside… Not to mention this, I really have information in my hand. Let’s make a deal, okay? I don’t want your escort or anything. Just let us leave this island. Even if we fail on the way… It doesn’t matter.”

Ruan Xian narrowed his eyes in the car and stared closely at Tang Yibu’s every move.

“What do you have?” For the time being, Tang Yibu had no intention of budging.

“The Institute is good at strengthening mechanical hardware, but our company is better at memorizing data and software operations. After the launch of MUL-01, my group focused on the research of data transmission between the human brain and the cybernetic brain. 90% of the relevant technologies on the market were developed by us. This… I’m confident in this regard. We’re ahead of Ruan Xian, who rejected this technology.”

Tang Yibu naturally knew what the other party wanted to mention.

Professor Ruan abnormally rejected the memory operations that were popular before the Great Rebellion and placed his research focus on the development and perfection of various types of Prototypes. In regard to the processing of memory data, Plan Corp was indeed once the leader. Even if the Mainbrain optimized the technology, the basic path wouldn’t be much worse.

This included the memory refresh of the Order Supervisors, the “memory indoctrination” of the replicants of the petri dishes, and the “personality setting” of the Android Show. Naturally, it also included the technology to pull the long-dead memories of Su Zhao and Kang Ziyan back from hell.

Professor Ruan had only studied the very limited application of the mind access needle. Even if he picked up this field after the Great Rebellion, under extremely limited conditions, it was difficult to truly surpass the Plan Corp’s progress back then.

It must be said that Kang Ge gave a good price. Tang Yibu let out an “oh” that was neither long nor short, ending with a meaningful tone.

Seeing Tang Yibu’s performance, Ruan Xian could probably guess what the other party’s conditions were.

However, Ruan Xian could only think how ironic this all felt—the real Kang Ziyan and Su Zhao had already died. Unlike the situation in the Shade Refuse petri dish, Kang Ge should have known this a long time ago, but in order to retain their two memory data, he still struggled to exist… Truly like they were ghosts.

“I can give you part of the data model! When I leave this island, I will give you the rest.” Kang Ge didn’t care about Xiao Zhao’s gun that was pointing behind his head. He looked as if he was about to collapse to his knees. “Please, please. I understand you’re angry with us, but… But…”

“I’m not angry.” Tang Yibu spoke calmly. “I might be a bit at first, but don’t worry. You see, it’s just like stubbing your toe against a table. You won’t really hate the table.”

“…He’s indeed not suitable for immediate listing*,” Professor Ruan said quietly.

*Referring to listing to market. || In this contest Professor Ruan is making a quip saying the way Tang Yibu acts truly isn’t proper to be sold to the public.

That wasn’t kindness or tolerance; it was purely indifference, which could be terrifying “inference” in a sense. Ruan Xian understood what Professor Ruan was referring to, but he didn’t plan to pay attention to the other party and continued to look at Tang Yibu.

“Father, let’s take them with us and put them on the roof of the car.” Tang Yibu waved his hand in the car. His smile suddenly brightened. “There won’t be any hidden dangers and it might even attract some firepower.”

“Whatever you want.” Ruan Xian nodded.

“This is my car, okay?” Yu Le snorted, then coughed dryly a few times, as if he remembered his current situation. “Forget it. Do what you want. Just hurry up.”

The moment he got permission, Kang Ge turned around and chopped. Xiao Zhao was caught off guard and was struck squarely. Her body fell down limply and was hugged by Kang Ge. For fear that Tang Yibu would regret it, Kang Ge climbed to the roof of the car at the speed as if he was avoiding monsters.

“Those two children…” Ji Xiaoman was still hesitating. She was particularly soft on children, perhaps due to her own experience.

Taking advantage of Ruan Xian’s inattention, the three-legged brain beast jumped out of the back seat and walked towards Ji Xiaoman. Suddenly, seeing such a thing up close, Ji Xiaoman subconsciously took a step back.

“Xiaoman Jie.” The young Su Zhao, who was still conscious, was begging for help, as if she had completely forgotten about being shot in the head by Tang Yibu. “Xiaoman Jie…”

“Miss Ji, the Order Supervisors are almost here.” Professor Ruan spoke in an electronic voice. “Get in the car. They don’t exist.”

“Then you, uh, unlock the perceptual interference.” Ji Xiaoman felt uncomfortable as she stood up straight.

“Jiejie, Kang Ziyan is injured. Even if you take him away…” The young Su Zhao crawled closer; her face was full of tears. “We’re here. We’re here!”

She dug into the ground with her fingers, her fingertips dripping blood everywhere. Ji Xiaoman, ironically, didn’t bother looking at her but was in a daze.

“Why do you want to take away the bad guys and not help us?”

The child’s desperate voice made people’s mouths bitter, and the desolate crying made Yu Le in the driver’s seat move his body uncomfortably.

“We are here!”

Most of the perceptual interference seemed to have been removed, and the burning buildings and the starry sky all disappeared, replaced by the forest and the blue sky, yet the two children were still crawling nearby, slowly dying.

“Since they don’t exist, it doesn’t matter if we take them with you.” The young Su Zhao cried heartbreakingly while Ji Xiaoman’s spoke in an extremely low voice. Her metal fingers clattered loudly.

“We have wasted ten minutes here,” Tang Yibu reminded gently. “There are five minutes of preparation time left at most. Please pay attention. Miss Ji, if you can’t make a decision in five minutes, I’ll have to take coercive measures.”

As the subject of Ji Xiaoman’s inquiry, the knee-high three-legged machine didn’t answer. For some reason, Ji Xiaoman felt a strong aura of sadness from it. Yu Le rolled down the car window and looked over carelessly.

“I want to ask you a lot of things.” He raised his voice so that Ji Xiaoman, who was a few steps away so she could hear him clearly. “Let’s explain this first Tang Yibu. Before, you said these two children were loopholes, and then we separated—now it’s time to make things clear.”

“I’m afraid Professor Ruan can’t make them disappear,” Tang Yibu said calmly. “Do you remember the wallpaper analogy?”

“Remember. The perceptual interference of everyone on the island was the first layer, and Professor Ruan created a second layer of perceptual interference to cover the reality at the bottom.” Yu Le spoke extremely fast. “So?”

“These two children are the things on the first layer of wallpaper… No, it would be better to say they are the nails that run through the two layers of wallpaper, connecting them together.” Tang Yibu glanced at Yu Le. “I’m afraid they are the product of the imagination of the two of you. Depending on their level of fineness, the person who made them must be quite eager to go back in time.”

They were just products of imagination, like the mottle ceramic doll head that was squirming in flesh and blood, or the disgusting phantom plants.

“There is just one difference—our Professor Ruan naturally doesn’t think that those strange things are real, but he can’t help but care about the two children, subconsciously treating them as active people. In other words, in the past, only Professor Ruan affected the top layer through the second layer of wallpaper he built. This is the only time the top layer has a perceptual disturbance that has affected Professor Ruan.”

The two children were created by Su Zhao, then were slowly “recognized” by others and finally became an existence on this island. This was what would happen here—deep and desperate memories condensed into flesh and blood, stepping into the cruel reality.

They started to become “recognized” by one person after another, as a collection of consciousness, living under the camera, born into this world. However, if the perceptual interference was completely removed, they would disappear, as lightly as bubbles.

Ji Xiaoman, who had dabbled in relevant knowledge, hugged her shoulders as her whole body shook a little.

…Those “people” only existed in the cognition of others.

“So they are weak points, recognized both by me and by others on this island. So if someone hurts them, it can temporarily break the boundary between the two layers of ‘wallpaper’.”

Professor Ruan’s three-legged brain container finally opened its mouth.

“Using your analogy, it’s equivalent to loosening the nails that pierced the two layers of wallpaper. Of course, it’s possible to see the second layer. I indeed sent them to you to guide Tang Yibu to me.”

“Xiaoman Jie.” The phantom was still crying.

Xiao Zhao and Kang Ge were two pieces of memory data that settled in flesh, and those memories divided themselves again before the chaos, copying out two small fragments of memories.

They didn’t have any flesh, no real body.

” Xiaoman Jie—” The young Su Zhao grabbed Ji Xiaoman’s pants leg and almost cried until she ran out of breath.

“Let’s go, Miss Ji.” Professor Ruan let out a long sigh. “There’s no time.”

Ji Xiaoman didn’t speak. Her eyes were a little red.

“The Order Supervisors have arrived,” the three-legged machine said. “They… have other uses.”

Ji Xiaoman raised her head. As soon as she wanted to say something, the scene in front of her shook—when they stabilized again, she had already been carried to the back seat of the car by Tang Yibu, together with Professor Ruan’s three-legged machine.

She tried to raise her head and looked out of the car window—the young Su Zhao sat dumbfounded, wiping tears desperately with both hands.

Then she exploded.

The two small figures on the ground looked like weird fireworks. They were like two newly added pinholes to a bulging balloon. Unlike the last color eruption, it was like the entire world was sprayed into the sky through those two figures.

Ji Xiaoman’s body stiffened.

The already crazy island had become even crazier. Countless distorted new images appeared on the island—blooming flowers, smiling faces crowded together, a playground’s Ferris wheel spinning sideways, and stacked paper cranes flying in the air.

In the gap between those beautiful things, a dead wall rose around the center of the island where they were located, isolating other people, and then exploding countless times as bombs came crashing down.

<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

Chapter 174: Incomplete Memory

“This dream is so vivid,” Yu Le exclaimed in a low voice.

“Just now I saw Xiao Ruan calling that gadget ‘Professor Ruan’, and that thing called Xiao Ruan ‘Ruan Xian’. Is this a greeting method that I don’t know of?”

After speaking, he laughed dryly and subconsciously stood between Ji Xiaoman and Tang Yibu, separating her from him. Tang Yibu glanced at Yu Le meaningfully and then fixed his gaze back on Ruan Xian.

“Anyway, if this is a joke, it’s not very funny.”

At first, Yu Le himself had no idea about Ruan Xian. The most willing to join the rebel army were soldiers and public servants. The second were ordinary people who had a good life before the Great Rebellion.

As a criminal where when one person was full, the whole family wouldn’t be hungry, Yu Le had never had such high-level awareness. His days in the Sea of Ruins were satisfying enough for him. He only came here due to a temporary rise in passion and there was nothing better to do.

*(全家不饿) Idiom describing a single-person family.

In order to ensure a stable life, Yu Le had been paying attention to the news outside the Sea of Ruins while he was still there. To him, “Ruan Xian” wasn’t much different from other little leaders in history textbooks—he had heard of the name and knew that he wielded great power, but there was no concrete concept. The impression came to life thanks to Tu Rui. As a member of the rebel army, Tu Rui had only admiration for Ruan Xian, so he would talk about him constantly.

After all, in this era where human life was like weeds, “the human who could give the Mainbrain the most headache” wasn’t a title that could be obtained casually.

He had also seen Ruan Xian’s appearance in video recordings. He was on a wheelchair and looked weird and quite menacing.

However, there was only a beautiful young man in front of him, as well as a strange, small machine. Yu Le couldn’t react for a while. His spirit had been shaken by Tang Yibu, a relative of MUL-01, and he couldn’t bear a second blow.

Unfortunately, “Ruan Lijie” didn’t look as if he was joking at all.

Yu Le could feel Ji Xiaoman pinching his wrist. The little girl was trembling but remained silent. This was supposed to be a desperate and crazy trip, but now it had gone completely off course—unknowingly, they seemed to be mixed into something incredible.

Yu Le frantically recalled the behavior of the young couple along the way, and then barely grasped some sense of reality. He originally just wanted to talk to Tang Yibu about terms, but now he couldn’t find his voice.

Yu Le thought blankly, ‘We know a bit too much,’

“Are you really Ruan Xian?” He turned to the young man who called himself Ruan Lijie.

“…Sort of.” Ruan Xian’s mood wasn’t very good.

He knew this wasn’t over. Although he had taken precautions, Ruan Xian didn’t expect Professor Ruan to do this. It seemed that the same kind of madness was still buried in their bones.

That person must have made countless records—if NUL-00 was alive or dead, whether it had companions, and whether he would agree to cooperate. In the end, they still failed to escape the net that the other party had carefully woven for several years.

Ruan Xian was able to calculate what would happen next.

Even if they succeed in obtaining the car, they may not be able to leave low-key. Assuming that he was in Professor Ruan’s position, he would definitely take the opportunity to force out more of Tang Yibu’s aces and, in the process, get more information. Not only that, the Mainbrain would focus on Tang Yibu for the time being, which meant he could take the opportunity to implement his plan.

Even if he killed him, he didn’t believe that Professor Ruan’s base camp was really here.

Even if the degree of madness was about the same, Ruan Xian himself wouldn’t take risks with such an important thing, and Professor Ruan, who was obsessed with victory, wouldn’t do so either. However, the thing underground didn’t look like a product of perceptual interference, so it probably had some use. It was just that his mechanical knowledge was behind the times, and it was difficult to judge in such a short period of time.

Things were getting worse, time was tight, and they didn’t have much time to collect more information. To protect themselves, they had to follow the path predicted by Professor Ruan.

Ruan Xian looked at Tang Yibu beside him. The android had always looked like he was in a good mood this whole time, as if he wasn’t the one being pushed to the cusp. The android was now looking at Yu Le and Ji Xiaoman beside him, as if he was a chef looking at fresh ingredients. The two of them had been on the battlefield for a long time, and they wouldn’t miss Tang Yibu’s ambiguous examination.

Yu Le stared back vigilantly. His arm muscles taunted visibly to the naked eye. Ji Xiaoman, who was still in shock, tremblingly held the gun. Her metal fingertips knocked against the handle of the gun, causing clattering sounds.

He didn’t owe Yu Le and Ji Xiaoman much. If he had just woken up, he wouldn’t have stopped Tang Yibu from silencing them—in theory, the disappearance of the two would only make their escape more troublesome. The sword had gone in the opposite direction, down a more dangerous path; a decision he never made.

However, Ruan Xian’s mentality had changed a bit.

On one hand, he seemed to have become cowardly—he began to be unwilling to let Tang Yibu take too many risks, even if he knew the other party could handle it. On the other hand, he also had a little bit… A little bit of fear and began to worry about possible failure.

In addition, Yu Le and Ji Xiaoman, no matter how he looked at it, weren’t good people, yet out of some vague emotion, Ruan Xian still didn’t want to see these two die for this reason. All choices at the moment were accompanied by risks, and he was more willing to face the possible identity leakage than the risk of increasing the difficulty of escape.

Anyway, Tang Yibu had already been exposed. Whether he was Ruan Xian or not, he would inevitably be targeted by the Mainbrain.

Before taking out the Mainbrain, he just needed to keep these two people within his sights.

“Yibu, about Mr. Yu and Miss Ji—”

“I won’t kill them, father,” Tang Yibu replied magnanimously, bending his eyes with a smile.

“Father…?!” Yu Le’s expression seemed like he had choked on a hard-boiled egg. “Hold up. Little profiteer, although I shouldn’t say this—there’s something wrong with the Mainbrain, while these people on our side seemed to have a lot of issues. This is the end for humanity.”

The iron bead bit Yu Le’s toe with a rattle, causing him to groan.

“Now that the two of you have dealt with the problem of your companions, it’s best to start acting quickly.” Professor Ruan urged in an electronic voice. “This is not a suitable place to chat.”

“Don’t think about just muddling through. I’m not going to buy it so simply.” Determining that he wouldn’t die for the time being, Yu Le shrugged off the iron bead at his feet and his ruffian aura came back. “Later, you must be honest. Don’t bother mentioning the little profiteer. I have no requests for you.”

“Then escape first.” Ruan Xian grabbed Tang Yibu’s wrist and rushed to the Institute full of perception interference.

The Tang Yibu, who appeared in the memories, was lying prone on the steps and was crawling towards the burning Institute. The gunshot wound on his body was still bleeding, leaving a very conspicuous blood trail on the ground.

“NUL-00, why did you go to the research Institute at that time?” Professor Ruan manipulated the three-legged machinery to keep up. “During the time of the Android Show, you shouldn’t be able to get information from the outside world.”

“It’s still possible to collect a little bit of information up close, and it gives me a very safe feeling there.” Tang Yibu continued to let Ruan Xian pull him along, and even deliberately slowed down as he spoke, with a little pride in his tone. “It’s also convenient to determine the degree of technological development. There is also an abundance of supplies.”

He paused.

“Most importantly, I wanted to see my father.” Now the tone was rather smooth. “…Though in the end, I didn’t get to see him.”

“Speaking of this, I happened to be out on the day of the rebellion.” Professor Ruan’s three-legged machinery jumped over stones dexterously. “MUL-01 is very good at picking time.”

“What if the Great Rebellion never came?” Ruan Xian, who was running in front, was focused on other aspects. “Were you going to be abused to death by Su Zhao and Kang Ziyan?”

There was a bitterness in his heart, and he didn’t hold back the grit in his teeth.

“I have worked very hard to save my life.” Tang Yibu’s voice instantly became unusually aggrieved. Ruan Xian was instantly deflated and could only silently glare at the air.

“And the Great Rebellion was bound to come.” After admiring Ruan Xian’s reaction for a while, Tang Yibu continued with a smile. The soft grievances in his voice had disappeared. “I just wasn’t sure how many years it would take.”

“…Did you know in advance that there would be a big rebellion?” Professor Ruan’s voice became serious.

“Being close to the institute, I can also get a little bit of unencrypted news. Without drawing on my program architecture, even father himself wouldn’t be able to create a new strong AI so quickly,” Tang Yibu replied lightly.

“And when I got this news, MUL-01 was already activated. I don’t have any channels to notify you, and even if I did, I have no obligation to risk my life to do so.”

He lowered his head and stared at the three-legged machine with a cold gaze from an angle that Ruan Xian couldn’t see.

“Going a step back, even if I could successfully pass this ‘conjecture’ to the outside world, only crazed lunatics would be willing to buy it, and you yourself can’t do anything—You should know, Professor Ruan, the game of chess changes all the time. From the moment MUL-01 officially took control of the network, everything was destined to happen. Don’t you have negative predictions yourself? Most people need to suffer by themselves first before they realize the seriousness of the problem.”

“That’s true,” Yu Le interjected, unable to control the irony in his voice. Ji Xiaoman lowered her head, staring only at the ground.

The three-legged machine sighed quite humanely.

“I understand.” Professor Ruan’s voice was a little low. “I just want to ask the reason you know in advance.”

“I also understand. It’s just that these words have been held back for many years, so it’s quite refreshing to say them.” Tang Yibu put a finger on his lips. “As for the reason… Let’s talk about it when we escape smoothly. At any rate, it’s a family secret.”

Ruan Xian didn’t plan to join this somewhat shocking dialogue.

His attention was all on the research institute—the interior wasn’t as dark as what Yu Le said. Professor Ruan’s plan was obviously successful. Tang Yibu’s memories had been successfully intercepted and the gaps were automatically filled in.

The hall of the burning research institute was billowing with smoke and completely empty. The smell of burning metal was particularly pungent. In the image, Tang Yibu crawled among the wreckage of armed machines firmly towards the equipment room on the first floor. It was just that things didn’t go well. Before he could climb down a few steps, he fell into a huge crack on the ground.

Maybe he was wrong in his judgment. Maybe the android deliberately fell in—when Ruan Xian saw the underground of the hall being transformed, such thoughts floated through his mind.

That wasn’t the underground of the Institute he was familiar with.

Compared to the quiet and cruel hall, the people here were still fighting fiercely with armed machines. The mechanical ants rushed towards the center of the hall like a steady stream and were instantly blown up by the flashing protective net.

At the center of the struggle was a huge columnar sink. The glass of the columnar sink was covered with blood and bullet marks, and the surrounding human and mechanical debris piled up like mountains. A white object with no fixed appearance was rotating leisurely in the soaking liquid, like a large jellyfish, seemingly unaffected by the fierce battle around it.

Tang Yibu observed the environment for a long time and then stared at the weird milky white object. He maintained a prone posture and stretched out a hand towards it with difficulty, with a dim blue light emitting from the edge of his palm, as if reading something.

Then, a smile slowly appeared on the face full of blood stains and dust.

A laser was cauterizing a silver-gray metal wall, followed by an explosion. Armed machines from both sides were tearing each other apart as the screaming sirens pierced everyone’s eardrums. In the chaotic smoke, the Tang Yibu of the past stood up staggeringly.

He seemingly wanted to command his hand, as if he was conducting an invisible orchestra, but he couldn’t lift his arms, so he had to weakly support his forearms and twitch his fingers. Ruan Xian recognized that action—Tang Yibu was trying to hack into the defense system there.

Bullets and beams of light passed by the android’s temples. His shoes had long been lost and sharp mechanical fragments stabbed his feet. The blood from the gunshot wound was mixed with the blood of newly formed injuries at the soles of his feet, causing him to leave blurry crimson footprints on the blackened ground.

He stepped on the charred limbs of humans and smoking fragments of machines without discrimination. The defense net that could only resist machines turned red for two seconds. After all, it didn’t react to true flesh and blood. Tang Yibu stretched out his hand towards the half-broken glass trough, as if to give it a hug.

The two sides were fighting fiercely and discovered him almost at the same time.

Tang Yibu turned his face. His golden eyes were bloodshot. The invading machines seemed to have received a self-destruct command. They trembled in place, their limbs twisted, and then attacked their own kind as if they had gone crazy. There weren’t many humans left. Just as someone wanted to command the offline machines under his control to approach, a notification sound rang out from their bodies, one after another.

Ruan Xian could hear the contents.

[A-type Prototype has been destroyed. Please do not interfere. A-type Prototype has been destroyed. Please do not interfere.]

Tang Yibu used his last strength to tear the half-broken glass apart, ignoring the new wound that formed on his hand. The mass of white stuff flowed out of the soaking liquid and flowed into his calf. Then, like a vine that had found a trunk of a tree, it quickly became entangled and disappeared.

Afterwards, Tang Yibu stepped down and crawled into the towering pile of corpses with difficulty, looking extremely weak.

People were still yelling at their communicators, but they no longer got any responses. The invading machines continued to rush into the room continuously—the memory stopped at this image, but the fate of those people wasn’t difficult to guess. The A-type Prototype, despite being able to enhance Tang Yibu’s body, didn’t have perfect recovery like the S-type Prototype. The memory was suspended at this point as Tang Yibu, the owner, must have fainted and was in a quasi-death state.

The memory didn’t stand still for long.

The broken glass cylinder gradually disappeared, and the outline of the armored off-roader slowly became clearer. As the corpse mountain and thick smoke passed away, the surrounding environment became more normal…

“Oh my.” Kang Ziyan and Xiao Zhao were present not far from the car. Xiao Zhao was choking the “young Su Zhao” with one hand while her other hand was greeting them. “That was really exciting just now, right Kang Ge?”

Kang Ge didn’t react as crazily as before.

He stared at Tang Yibu. His face was pale and blue, and his lips trembled badly.

“Take us away,” he said in the direction of Tang Yibu.

“Take us out of here, please.”

The author has something to say:

Tang has been hiding his strength before, whether it was his strength as NUL-00 or having the A-type Prototype.

Now he doesn’t have to anymore XDDD

Ruan hasn’t been completely exposed by the Mainbrain side yet.

<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

Chapter 173: Little Robot

Tang Yibu’s gaze stayed on the earrings in Ruan Xian’s left ear for a moment. “Leave now?”

“Now.” Ruan Xian breathed very firmly. “What about you? How’s the investigation going?”

Like a child who was caught stealing from the cookie jar, Tang Yibu blinked, then gave an embarrassed smile. “It’s okay. Professor Ruan’s firewall is very powerful, so I only got a little bit of information, but it’s enough to figure out where Yu Le and the others are.”

“Well done.”

Ruan Xian wasn’t surprised. When he broke in here, Tang Yibu was checking the light screen showing Yu Le and Ji Xiaoman’s situation. Since there was a signal input, it was possible to locate the relevant detection equipment and thus find their location.

Tang Yibu had always acted cautiously. Even with the power of the A-type Prototype, he rarely took the initiative to take risks. If the android was happy doing nothing after recognizing his maker, he would’ve been eaten by Tang Yibu a long time ago, leaving no bones behind.

The first time he entered here, Tang Yibu would definitely do his best to find an exit for emergency escape.

On the other hand, he did push Yu Le and the others out of the “door”, but in the real world, they would definitely not be too far apart. There were few rare mechanical creatures in this forest, and only Ji Xiaoman brought a lot of precious materials with her. Professor Ruan was well-informed, but even he missed the iron bead, so it was impossible to simulate the attraction of food to the iron bead perfectly—if it lost them, then the iron bead would inevitably go to Ji Xiaoman.

If his inference wasn’t wrong, his companions were now gathered in one place outside.

“You should have hacked into Professor Ruan’s detector, right? Is π with them?” In order to ensure that his judgment was correct, Ruan Xian took the initiative to confirm.

“Together. Yu Le suffered a minor injury, but it will not affect his actions.” Tang Yibu closed his eyes for a few seconds and quickly confirmed.

Seeing that the other party didn’t use the wristband and other appliances to assist and directly used his cybernetic brain to invade, Ruan Xian always felt uncomfortable, without peace of mind. However, the current environment wasn’t suitable for carefully confirming everything. He nodded to Tang Yibu, indicating that he was ready.

Tang Yibu put one arm around Ruan Xian’s waist and firmly clasped the other in his arms. Without going through the door, he directly tore open the top guest room that wasn’t firm and jumped into the darkness formed by the accumulation of mechanical debris.

Professor Ruan’s confidentiality measures were well done. The surroundings were frighteningly quiet, and there wasn’t even much humming sounds of mechanical operation. Tang Yibu pointed his toes at the bumps of various wrecks and jumped up quickly.

As they proceeded, if they encountered stones or metal plates that couldn’t be bypassed, Ruan Xian would first explore whether there were any surveillance machines that were still in operation nearby. After confirming that everything was safe, Tang Yibu would tear apart those obstacles, like peeling a cabbage, and take him up. Ruan Xian simply closed his eyes, let go of other senses, and focused, not letting go of any suspicious sounds.

He heard the sounds of metal breaking and rubble rolling down in all directions, the roar of the mechanical monster in the deepest part of the ground, wheels rolling on the floor, and the gears inside the mechanical assistants clicking and turning. Tang Yibu jumped quickly, and the wind generated by his advance hit Ruan Xian’s face.

The sound of the wind mixed with the heartbeat of the android was like a warm and delicate foam that was so close that it seemed to wrap him up. In order to stabilize his body, Ruan Xian also took the initiative to put his arms around Tang Yibu’s waist and abdomen, causing the other party’s heartbeat to suddenly accelerate a few beats.

It was very strange that in that short moment, the vigilance that had always been rooted in his heart faded a bit.

There was no dialogue. They couldn’t see each other’s faces, and only the temperature and heartbeat were left. The two of them walked up in the endless darkness, as if floating from the deep sea to the sky. The soil layer was getting heavier, and their speed of progress was getting slower—it stood to reason that this wasn’t a good sign, but Ruan Xian wished that this process would last longer.

However, as soon as this thought came out of his mind, Ruan Xian freed up a hand and roughly pulled the studs on his left ear until there was a smell of blood in the air. It snapped him awake; no longer was he compelled by the warm, quiet darkness.

Can’t relax. Can’t sink. Though he attached great importance to NUL-00, he still couldn’t let go of his vigilance. The other party’s attachment to him didn’t represent anything.

He had been deceived once by the so-called profound love. After handing over the initiative, he could only wait for his own demise. Ruan Xian was more willing to believe in his own experience than in unrealistic dreams.

Finally, they jumped out of the mud-bound sea.

Ruan Xian’s first thought was that their bath last night had all been in vain.

Tang Yibu’s strength wasn’t small. After drilling out of the ground, he shook the mud on his body vigorously, and then began to carefully pat Ruan Xian, who was covered in dust. Ruan Xian checked his surroundings and successfully found Ji Xiaoman, who was stunned. The iron bead was frozen in a ball, and there was no trace of Yu Le nearby.

Without Yu Le, they couldn’t make the most efficient use of that car. As soon as Ruan Xian was about to frown, he found Captain Yu hanging high from the branch of the tree—

“Are you two sick?” Yu Le was lying prone on a thick branch, half wrapped in a blanket, with a few pieces of mud in his hair. He bared his teeth and greeted them.

“What a fucking awesome AI, huh? Must be infused with a mole spirit. Laozi hasn’t…” Yu Le murmured for a while, as if he couldn’t find a suitable way to end his sentence, then swallowed back the second half of what he was going to say embarrassingly.

“Yu Le was resting just now, and Tang Yibu made him jump to the top.” Ji Xiaoman added thoughtfully.

Tang Yibu glanced at Yu Le, jumped on the branch, and carried Yu Le down like a pocket. “I’m sorry.”

Even the iron bead could hear that there was no trace of sincerity in what he just said.

Unfortunately, the iron bead had no sense of equality. It happily bounced around Tang Yibu like a metal satellite with four legs.

“Count me as unlucky.” Yu Le grimaced, and his teasing expression disappeared. “Have you met Professor Ruan?”

“Met.” Ruan Xian didn’t intend to hide it. Professor Ruan was also the main purpose of the two of them. Even if the situation was critical, they may not be able to follow them in confusion.

Yu Le said nothing while Ji Xiaoman clenched her fists.

“Our problem has been solved. As for Mr. Yu’s question, we can explain it after we leave here,” Ruan Xian said quickly. “For Miss Ji’s mother, we also got a solution. Order Supervisors are about to come. We need to leave quickly—”

Ji Xiaoman and Yu Le looked at each other.

“I won’t ask you how you plan to go.” Yu Le took a breath. “Tang Yibu, you’re the prototype or the scrap of MUL-01, right?”

Ruan Xian glanced at Ji Xiaoman, and then reacted in the next second.

In order to rescue her android mother, Ji Xiaoman had studied the cybernetic brain deeply, so it wasn’t surprising to find clues from those memories. The existence of NUL-00 wasn’t widely announced to the outside world, but they could still make such a guess.

The question still came in the end.

Even if Ji Xiaoman didn’t understand the human world very well, Yu Le was a veteran. Rather than leaving a bloody trail, it was better to put on simple perception camouflage and rely on Yu Le’s car to escape. This would be the most low-key approach. However, once they leave this isolated island, Yu Le and Ji Xiaoman would become “a source of information that may reveal Tang Yibu’s whereabouts”.

Especially now that the Mainbrain presumed that NUL-00 still exists. No matter which one was caught, the Mainbrain could squeeze a lot of effective information from the brains of the two.

The safest way was to “silence” them. As a former high-level pirate, this wouldn’t be something Yu Le hadn’t thought of. Even if they pretend to play dumb, with Ji Xiaoman, a cybernetic brain expert, Tang Yibu might not let them go like this. Right now, they couldn’t escape, so they could only move things forward and negotiate terms…

“He is.” Tang Yibu hadn’t spoken yet. A mature and steady voice happily accepted the conversation. “The number NUL-00 isn’t an out-of-date version or an abandoned case. If you follow the analogy of human relations, he can be regarded as MUL-01’s older brother.”

Ruan Xian and Tang Yibu looked at the source of the sound almost simultaneously—

A cubic black box was embedded in a weird transportation robot. It had three legs and a transparent glass tank slightly larger than the black box on top, which was soaked in a light blue liquid. The little robot was only a little higher than Tang Yibu’s knee, but its movements were quite flexible. The glass tank was equipped with so many parts that Ruan Xian couldn’t recognize their function.

Ji Xiaoman had already raised her gun vigilantly.

“Professor Ruan.” Ruan Xian spoke up. “Is it really okay to leave your important project underground?”

Ji Xiaoman’s hand trembled slightly, causing her to almost drop the gun. Yu Le hitched his breath between his teeth and stared at the weird robot in disbelief. The iron bead rushed forward with joy and opened its mouth and started to bite, only to be easily restrained by the robot with one foot as it was kicked back gently.

“Because there’s still a little time now, I also have something I want to know.”

“Lies.” Ruan Xian poked the opponent without mercy.

“There’s your car.” Professor Ruan pointed to the illusion of the Institute in the distance. The scene on the day of the Great Rebellion still confused their senses. “Inside the Institute.”

“We checked… Checked. There is a lack of information there. Only blanks…” Ji Xiaoman’s voice was shocked and confused as it was difficult to tell which emotion had more weight.

“It won’t be soon, right, NUL-00?” The little robot took a few steps closer, and the relaxed expression on Tang Yibu’s face disappeared.

“You deliberately let him invade your data network.” Ruan Xian couldn’t be more familiar with his habitual techniques.

Professor Ruan had already guessed that they would probably not compromise.

If they wanted to escape, finding Yu Le’s low-key escape was their best choice. Then Tang Yibu would definitely choose to invade the data network and obtain Yu Le’s location.

Tang Yibu transformed his own cybernetic brain by himself. Relying on the old data left by the Institute, Professor Ruan could only obtain Tang Yibu’s memory before he joined the Android Show. Even if he analyzed the perspectives of Kang Ziyan and Xiao Zhao, he still couldn’t judge what Tang Yibu had done in the Institute.

But if he took advantage of Tang Yibu’s invasion and used this connection, he could also dig out some surface data from Tang Yibu’s cybernetic brain—for example, the most basic image memory.

The memory system of androids was no simpler than that of humans, so locating specific memories was extremely troublesome. But even if it was, there were shortcuts. As long as the owner of the memory was immersed in a scene similar to the memory, specific memories will be naturally recalled.

This person really was prepared. Even in such a volatile chess game, Professor Ruan mobilized all of his pieces in every corner, unwilling to waste a single step in his hand.

From Tang Yibu watching Ji Xiaoman’s and Yu Le’s situation, to Tang Yibu taking advantage of the overnight stay to steal the location data, to the external memory scene loop…

It was difficult to say where Professor Ruan started his plan.

The illusion was in the hands of Professor Ruan. He just needed to locate the destination, forcing them to go inside the Institute. Even if Tang Yibu was unwilling now, he would have instinctively recalled everything that happened that day.

And once the memory data was intercepted, it couldn’t be recovered again.

“The identity of NUL-00 alone is enough to make MUL-01 determined to obliterate him. The rest are just simply add-ons.” Since Professor Ruan had no fleshy exterior, Ruan Xian couldn’t analyze the opponent’s expression. “The two of you don’t seem willing to share information. I can only judge that you still have an ace in the hole in your hands that I don’t know of… There are not many things that can threaten the Mainbrain. It’s not difficult to infer.”

“But you need to confirm.” Ruan Xian took out the blood gun and squeezed it in his hand.

“Yes.”

“…What the hell are you talking about?” Yu Le interrupted the conversation with a hoarse voice. “Xiao Ruan, you don’t sound like you want to be a rebel. If you are also a relative of MUL-01, you should have said it earlier—”

“It’s normal for Mr. Ruan not to like me.” The little robot equipped with Professor Ruan’s brain turned to Yu Le. “After all, I am a fake who took away his life.””

“What—”

“Or let me put it another way.” A string of bubbles appeared from the solution in the glass square tank. “It’s normal for ‘Mr. Ruan Xian’ not to like me.”

The author has something to say:

I still remember the pits of Mr. Kang Zhao and Mrs. Xiao Zhao. They will be filled XDDD.

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Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

Chapter 172: No Choice

Zhuo Muran was drinking tea in his office as countless light screens flew and chirped beside him, like some kind of alien jellyfish that could swim in the air.

Data, text, and images jump quickly on the light screen. The clear surface of the tea reflected the cold light of the screens. It was disturbed when Zhuo Muran grabbed his cup. There wasn’t a single speck of dust in his office, but he could still see the shadow of the mountains in the reflection of the water.

The mountain that imprisoned his entire childhood.

Zhuo Muran breathed out a long breath, as if this would exhale the pain that had settled in his lungs. He poured out a few pills from the medicine bottle and took them with his tea. They could help him disperse his sleep.

Without sleep, there would be no dreams. He no longer needed to dream of waking up on musty straw, accompanied by the hidden pain caused by his deformed spine and the scolding coming from outside the house. He recognized everything as a dream. Even if everything had already passed, even if that despair would only last for a moment, he didn’t want to taste it again.

And he was just one of the millions of desperate people. They were destined to die in the corner of time, never seeing the flashing neon lights and the long shadows of high-rise buildings in their entire lives.

They had nothing to lose, so they had become the sharpest blade of the Mainbrain.

Now was the time for the Order Supervisors commanders of each branch to report. He didn’t need to dedicate too much energy to this. There were enough auxiliary algorithms that he could handle those reports with little attention.

He was more interested in the events of The Glass Conservatory that happened a while back than the repeated resistance and conquest. Unfortunately, when he uploaded the images of the three surviving people to the system, there wasn’t any feedback for the time being. Afterwards, he conducted a carpet-style information search in the Glass Conservatory and only found a doctor who had a breakdown in the prevention shelter due to his public debt.

The doctor, surnamed Gong, was emotional throughout the whole process and gave them enough information, but the valuable part was pitifully little. The most valuable thing was probably the name ‘Red Ghost’. Using this name as a clue, it was possible to pull the dark line from several petri dishes.

It was just that there was still too much information missing, and not enough to draw a relatively definite conclusion.

“Zhuo Muran,” a voice greeted. “Light screen DS-09i3. Please pay attention to the data feedback of the Android Show.”

Zhuo Muran’s fingers holding the handle of the teacup became a bit stronger. He held his breath and looked back at the person who had suddenly appeared in the room.

A young man who looked less than twenty years old was sitting on the edge of his desk.

He was wearing a loose white blouse, his hair was long and went past his shoulders, and he had a very soft appearance. It was difficult to determine his gender at first glance, but he wasn’t that kind of aggressive beauty.

The young man who suddenly appeared sat there quietly, pure and calm, like a spring frozen in the depths of winter. A little inorganic quality emanated from his surroundings, making him look closer to an exquisite wax figure or a lifelike mannequin than a living person.

“MUL-01.” Zhuo Muran saluted.

It was indeed not a living person, but an image projected by MUL-01. It liked to analyze people’s thoughts, calculate the preferences and biases of those present, and find the most suitable negotiation image. Every time Zhuo Muran saw it, its image would change slightly.

In the face of a mother who had lost her daughter, it would become a girl full of vitality. In the face of passionate young people, it would appear as a majestic middle-aged person. When facing a young girl, it would become a gentle and handsome young man again.

It had no appearance of its own and would only change into the appearance that people were most likely to put down their guard or most likely be attracted to.

Zhuo Muran could be the reason why MUL-01 became like this in front of him. He had just left the mountains, and the teacher who guided him was such a well-mannered young man.

The soft face of the Mainbrain subtly blended some elements that he was familiar with. They made him look a little similar to himself, with the illusion of being a relative.

“It’s a message from Ruan Xian.” MUL-01’s expression was very human-like. “The Android Show G-098132 detection bird captured a looped image, and based on preliminary analysis, he indicated that NUL-00 is still around.”

“Ruan Xian wouldn’t jump out so simply.” Zhuo Muran put the teacup in the corner of the table and kept a polite distance from the projection of MUL-01.

“Indeed.”

MUL-01’s voice was barely audible, with traces of electronic synthesis, like a real person.

“The content of the information is very convincing, but there’s currently no conclusive evidence. There are currently two highest possibilities. Ruan Xian found NUL-00 and is using it to force it to join the rebel army. Either that or this is a trap by the rebel army. Zhuo Muran, lower the priority of data repair and figure out this matter first.”

“I will personally—”

“You stay here. After all, the possibility of a trap isn’t low… You’re very important to me.”

The voice was extremely nice to hear, and the gentleness and concern in his tone was just right. If he was an ordinary person, it was easy to become completely bewitched by MUL-01, thinking that it really had a heart that resonated with people.

At the apex of Order Supervisors, having created countless mountains of corpses under the command of MUL-01, Zhuo Muran had long passed the stage of being coaxed. Rather, it was better to say that what he wanted was an almost omniscient and extremely cold leader.

Human leadership was flawed in the end, but God wasn’t. The unshakable, unbiased ruthlessness in equality meant great justice.

……Even if it was just an artificial god.

“Yes.” Even if he knew it in his heart, the other party’s gentle attitude still made Zhuo Muran very receptive. Maybe this was one of the reasons why MUL-01 had not changed its attitude.

“If NUL-00 is really alive and is exposed by Ruan Xian, it will definitely have a certain amount of armaments. This time, let your clone scout out first. You can’t underestimate the enemy. There are two derivatives of the D-type Prototype. The rest of the troops will be planned by you. Environmental control has already started a perimeter assessment, so you can use strategic-grade weapons if necessary and wipe out that island.”

MUL-01 continued to smile.

“However, considering the resource consumption to recover afterwards, I’ll only allow it as a last resort. If you do use it, my evaluation of you will drop by 6%.”

“Don’t you need to keep Ruan Xian alive?” Zhuo Muran knew how many replicants were on that island and was even clearer on how many people would die for this operation. However, since MUL-01 didn’t mention it, he wouldn’t make a fool of himself by asking.

“According to what I know about him, it’s impossible for him to be killed by a blow of this level.” MUL-01 smiled again.

“The Y continent region is under full martial law. Regardless of whether the NUL-00 information is true or not, Ruan Xian’s counterattack is coming.”

Zhuo Muran was taken aback. The rebels had been in a rout for a long time. They just received a message from an unknown source and found a small organization wandering around. Things shouldn’t come to this.

“I know what you are wondering.” MUL-01 had an innocent smile on his face. He stood in front of Zhuo Muran with only a floating mist under his golden eyes that held no trace of emotion. “Don’t hesitate. As before, you’ll see the necessity of doing so.”

“I won’t doubt you.” Zhuo Muran’s always tight facial muscles relaxed unconsciously. “I’ll never…”

Before he finished speaking, the projection of MUL-01 disappeared.

Zhuo Muran withdrew his smile and turned on the light screen. He observed the island and the surrounding terrain and began to estimate the combat power. He picked up his teacup again, took a sip of warm tea, and while calculating the opponent’s possible counterattack, he opened the “suspected NUL-00” information sent by MUL-01.

Then he almost spurted out his tea.

He had seen the face on the light screen—it was a recorded non-combat android in the Red Ghost organization. A guy who was playing a marathon while holding a technician in front of him.

If it weren’t for MUL-01’s deadly order, Zhuo Muran would really want to find out for himself. He couldn’t figure out the reason why MUL-01 wanted to stop him. He was integrated with the D-type Prototype and wouldn’t suffer serious injuries.

But MUL-01 was always right.

“The destination coordinates have been sent. Z-α and Z-β will lead the team. I will take remote command. Pay attention to the surveillance in all regions of Y Continent. The level of regional defense has been raised to Level B or above. Please increase the monitoring of each petri dish and be vigilant at all times.”

“The following are the action plans for each region…”

In the area that was about to be attacked.

“Eat quickly.” Ruan Xian put on his shirt as he held a piece of bread coated with peanut butter in his mouth. “This place will be attacked soon.”

Tang Yibu was waving his spoon with interest, trying to wrap the whole slice of bread with peanut butter. He was still chewing fried ham in his mouth. Although he didn’t make any chewing sounds, his cheeks bulged like a squirrel.

Hearing Ruan Xian’s statement, Tang Yibu paused his spoon movement and struggled to speak. “Mmm?”

“Because I know ‘myself’.” Ruan Xian understood Tang Yibu’s question without hindrance. “I also tentatively understand you. You wore my clothes, right? You went to see Professor Ruan.”

Tang Yibu pretended to choke, coughed heavily, but didn’t answer.

Ruan Xian jokingly handed him a glass of milk and patted him on the back. “Don’t pretend.”

“I just want to ask some personal questions.” After downing the glass of milk, Tang Yibu swallowed the food in his mouth and wiped it vigorously.

“Nn.”

The android was covering up his emotions again, but Ruan Xian had no intention of pursuing his questions. After knowing his identity, Tang Yibu didn’t remove the earring that could take his life. This revealed a lot of things—he knew the other definitely didn’t forget. In the chaos last night, he didn’t know how many times Tang Yibu’s tongue deliberately licked that earring.

“I care more about what Professor Ruan is hiding.”

Tang Yibu raised his brows.

“I always feel that his trap is not over yet. If it were me… If it were me, there’s no way I’d reveal your location ‘while you’re still here’.”

Ruan Xian stretched out his hand, wiped off the little milk stain still on the corner of Tang Yibu’s mouth, and licked it quite naturally.

“It’s impossible for the Mainbrain to have no response after discovering it. No matter whether it believes it or not, no matter what measures it takes, the Order Supervisors will treat this place as a key inspection area.”

Ruan Xian put on his holster and returned the blood gun to its place, then put on a clean white coat.

“Even if the current Professor Ruan has taken disrupters, those duplicated brains should always come from the genetic samples he kept privately—assuming that the Order Supervisors discovered them and got Professor Ruan’s genetic information, he could do more and possibly drag me down with him.”

“I thought about it.” Tang Yibu swallowed the peanut butter-coated bread and licked the corners of his mouth. “Isn’t this one of the ways to force us to cooperate? I think he has enough defenses—”

“I don’t trust anyone. The current situation isn’t very good. I don’t think he is much worse than me.” Ruan Xian shook his head. “In order not to leave a trace, this place is ‘destined to be destroyed’. He knew we would refuse, and maybe he guessed that we had more power than he estimated. It’s just that Professor Ruan’s specific arrangements, I can’t guess yet…”

Tang Yibu licked the spoon carefully and frowned slowly. “Are you sure, father?”

“I rarely have what I want.” When he said this, Ruan Xian looked straight at Tang Yibu; his pupils dilated slightly. “So once they appear, I will seize all possibilities to keep them.”

Emotionally rich people had countless ways to make their harvest pleasant, while he only had a barren desert, but now a miraculous plant had grown from it.

He didn’t want to watch it die.

“So I don’t believe he will let go so simply, nor will he gamble his life on the matter. If I guessed correctly, our escape is likely to be part of his prediction.”

A good strategy would only leave people with no choice.

Taking a step back, if Professor Ruan hadn’t guessed this, they would be able to escape to a relatively safe place to think and make a decision. If Professor Ruan guessed it…

“Leaving early can seize a greater initiative. We have to find Yu Le and the others quickly and get off this island.”

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