Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

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

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Chapter 193: Trust Issues

Tang Yibu’s reaction was faster than Professor Ruan’s—he turned upside down as if his tail was caught, and the wily expression on his face instantly turned into panic like an abandoned small animal. This android absolutely knew his own mind. Even if Ruan Xian understood Tang Yibu’s purpose, he still couldn’t help being affected by the emotions flowing out of those eyes.

Tang Yibu didn’t need to say a word. Ruan Xian’s ears were already full of shouts of “don’t go”.

Professor Ruan showed no signs of being affected at all. The black box containing his brain just continued to puff bubbles in the liquid tank. The soft clicking sound in the air of the car became a lot thicker.

Ruan Xian suddenly felt that all this was a bit funny. They were deciding on a plan in regard to human civilization, yet instead of sitting at a conference table, neatly dressed, spouting scriptures, they were nestled in the back of a beat-down car. Compared to agents discussing important matters, they were more like robbers planning a heist of a fast-food restaurant.

Professor Ruan didn’t immediately dismiss his proposal. Just like every superior who knew etiquette, he showed proper patience.

“What do you say?”

“In the Android Show, I’ve been exposed to the Mainbrain. Based on your performance on the island, its conclusion is most likely similar to yours—I’m a human being bewitched and raised by Tang Yibu to provide him with technical support.”

Ruan Xian calmly grabbed Tang Yibu’s hand.

“If Zhuo Muran associates us with what happened in the Glass Conservatory, he should be able to reach the same conclusion—the Red Ghost isn’t a subordinate of the rebel army but Yibu’s own private force.”

“Yes.” Professor Ruan affirmed Ruan Xian’s statement.

“I survived due to a series of coincidences, and you’re still alive. Even if you kept your hand and preserved the autologous tissue that created clones, you wouldn’t be stupid enough to send them to the Mainbrain doorsteps. In other words, it’s basically impossible for MUL-01, which obeys reason, to come up with the conjecture that ‘I’m Ruan Xian’.”

Tang Yibu’s fingers were a little cold, and the palms of his hands were moist. The android was really nervous.

“…Indeed,” Professor Ruan confirmed.

“Then I am the best candidate to sneak in. As long as the Mainbrain determines that the thing that killed Z-α was developed by me, it will not simply crush my brain. More than likely, it’ll leave me alive and let me work for it, with the side benefit of obtaining information about Yibu.”

“You can’t be sure,” Tang Yibu muttered.

“If it’s really closer to a machine than you, it will. It will always choose the most favorable path. Now that I have been ‘brainwashed’ by you, it means that I’m fragile and easy to manipulate. The biggest difficulty is how to convince it that we have broken our relationship… and the physical examination that it may give me when I reach it. Don’t be nervous, Yibu. I’ll leave you enough blood for you to be safe.”

Ruan Xian glanced at Professor Ruan meaningfully.

“I think you will also guarantee this.”

“This does sound more reliable than relying on a backup.” Professor Ruan pondered for a few minutes. “Unfortunately, I don’t agree with your proposal.”

“Why?”

“You feel touched by this city, don’t you? The Mainbrain can be very convincing, and according to your experience, you have no sense of belonging and responsibility towards mankind,” Professor Ruan continued quietly. “Submit to the Mainbrain and obtain resources. As long as you have enough in your hand, you have many ways to disguise the death of NUL-00, change it into a new shell, and then live in the city of the Mainbrain.”

“When the time comes, you’ll preemptively strike me, and my winning rate won’t even reach 20%.”

Ruan Xian wasn’t surprised. This was always the problem.

The three people inside the car—counting Professor Ruan as a person—had no trust in each other.

“I won’t deny it,” Ruan Xian replied with a smile.

“I suggest maintaining the original plan, now or never.”

“That’s quite troublesome. Yu Le is not the type who can force the child to his death. In terms of treating children, even Ji Xiaoman is softer than Yu Le. If Yibu and I don’t support you, what are you going to do, ‘auxiliary machine’?”

Professor Ruan spat out a series of bubbles and didn’t respond. Tang Yibu fell into deep thought for a moment. The pathetic little animal vibe had long been tossed to the clouds.

“Let’s do this first.” No one spoke for a long time before Professor Ruan broke the silence. “At least solve the immediate problem and determine whether Zhong Qing is on the list.”

Then he didn’t continue to stay in the car and jumped out. Seeing that the conversation couldn’t continue, Ruan Xian and Tang Yibu looked at each other—Ruan Xian was still holding Tang Yibu’s hand; he didn’t know when he had changed it to clasping them together.

“You lied to him.” Tang Yibu turned his head slightly. His long hair hung slightly down along his shoulders. There was no smile in this sentence; it wasn’t coquettish but a simple statement of facts. “I only heard one truth. You want that 3% possibility.”

He sat next to Tang Yibu, skin to skin, with their hands attached to each other and their fingers nestled tightly together. Tang Yibu’s hand were warm and powerful, and his skin was soft and smooth. Ruan Xian could perceive the pulsation from his heart deep in the skin of that hand, as if he was holding a small, warm, and docile animal, but he knew in his heart that Tang Yibu could also sense him.

Tang Yibu could be judged by his heartbeat and his expression close at hand, but it wasn’t so simple. Ruan Xian didn’t want to risk exposing his thoughts to Professor Ruan. Tang Yibu had spent more time with him, and he wanted to bet on the side that he was more familiar with.

Tang Yibu really found out, which saved him a lot of trouble.

“So what?” Ruan Xian turned his head.

The android seemed to be struggling a bit. He obviously wanted to increase his 3% chance of winning, but he didn’t really want to support Ruan Xian’s plan. What was interesting to Ruan Xian was that Tang Yibu didn’t even look once at Zhong Qing; he didn’t even consider the option of sacrificing Zhong Qing as an alternative.

“You seem to have your own plans, Mr. Ruan.”

It seemed as if he could hear Ruan Xian’s thoughts. “I don’t want to force you to make a decision. Like I said, I don’t want to hurt you. Even if I agree to sacrifice Zhong Qing, the plan can’t be carried out if you, who have the S-type Prototype, don’t agree.”

“In contrast, if Professor Ruan isn’t willing to assist, it will become quite difficult to sneak in.” Ruan Xian smiled. “After all, these are just impromptu plans that Professor Ruan came up with after we encountered Zhong Qing. We don’t need to make a decision so quickly. He’s right. It’s imperative we deal with our current problems first.”

With that said, Ruan Xian jumped out of the car himself.

Tang Yibu was still sitting in the car, his body hidden in the shadows with only his golden eyes shimmering. Tang Yibu stared at him in silence, and for a moment, Ruan Xian had the illusion that he was about to be eaten. The android seemed to see through his mind.

Perhaps Tang Yibu really noticed something, but what he noticed would not be enough to turn it into a definite problem.

The beast in the cave stared at him like that for a while, and finally got out of the car slowly, stretching his muscles. He didn’t let go of Ruan Xian’s hand and instead pulled him into his arms and gave him a bite-like kiss.

“Ruan Xian.” Tang Yibu suddenly called out in a voice so low that no one else could hear, not Mr. Ruan, not father.

Ruan Xian wiped his somewhat red and swollen lips. He tasted a little blood and the particular sweet aroma of peaches. “…What’s wrong?”

“I’m not ready to trust you,” Tang Yibu said. “But I’m not ready to leave you either.”

Ruan Xian stretched out his hand. His fingertips gently brushed the corners of Tang Yibu’s eyes.

“…Let’s go. Let’s not keep Professor Ruan waiting too long.”

He did have a plan, a plan that no one could reveal. If Professor Ruan’s plan was a fruit tree that had already taken shape, his was more like a poisonous snake that had taken the opportunity to climb on its trunk.

It was weak, clumsy, and young, but it had already decided its direction.

Ruan Xian still didn’t have much interest in restoring the “original face” of the world, and he didn’t have any hatred for the Mainbrain. Standing from an almost outsider’s perspective, he quietly wrapped around the trunk of the tree.

He didn’t care about the possible war and death coming out of Professor Ruan’s mouth. Ruan Xian was only sure of one thing—the plan prepared by Professor Ruan for many years was indeed effective, and Tang Yibu also agreed to assist Professor Ruan.

…However, he didn’t want to cooperate.

Order Supervisor Headquarters.

Zhuo Muran walked out of the gate of the headquarters. The night was dark, and the sky was full of stars. As he got into his car, the light screens that were wrapped around him like a school of fish swam to one side, clearing the view for him.

After Zhuo Muran got in the car, he made himself a cup of coffee. He didn’t need to drive. The navigation had already started to operate on its own.

“Safe house,” Zhuo Muran simply said.

“So late?” A holographic figure was projected on the passenger side. A beautiful young man sat on the passenger seat with a smile, still wearing a simple white robe without any adornments. His long black hair, which didn’t exist in reality, was braided and hung on one shoulder. The illusion looked at him with golden eyes, but the image didn’t match the extremely modern design of the car.

Whether it was the white robe, long black hair, or handsome face, the one next to him was more like a ghost of an ancient priest.

“Because I can’t determine the movement of the decoy, I must collect as much information as possible.” Zhuo Muran took another sip of coffee. “MUL-01, it’s my off time.”

“I’m very satisfied with your new plan and curious,” the Mainbrain said, ignoring the second half of Zhuo Muran’s sentence. “So I decided to allocate a little computing space to it. Take me along.”

Zhuo Muran threw two sugar cubes into his coffee cup but didn’t express the slightest dissatisfaction. After a few seconds, the car started on its own and rushed straight into the sky.

The white vehicle passed through the clouds, took a few big bends in the pale moonlight, and finally stopped in front of a void. Zhuo Muran pressed his finger on the light screen, and after a slight beep, a rectangular white box appeared in front of the vehicle. Its height was just right as if it was built on top of the clouds.

The rectangle was more like two cubes put together, and right now, half of it was opening up, revealing two spaces stacked on top of each other. The other cube fell down to one side and became a platform suitable for things to land on.

Zhuo Muran got out of the car, which then drove towards the parking space by itself. He stepped on the white platform and entered the other half of the “box”. After he completely entered the interior, the platform dropped down again, and its rectangular body flickered for a moment before being hidden again.

The interior was simply furnished. A bed, a bathtub, a refrigerator that was full of food, an extremely simple kitchen, and a bathroom. Zhuo Muran concentrated all the necessary facilities related to living in one corner, as most of the space in the vertical square room was empty for sandbox projection.

The Mainbrain was a convenient guest. It didn’t even need tea. It ran to the sandbox table by itself and looked at the numbers and formulas that were constantly jumping.

“They probably went to your city.” Zhuo Muran made himself tea. It seemed like he needed to drink something with flavor to hydrate himself. “Things could be a lot easier if you could see the condition of the decoys.”

“Nn.” MUL-01 simply responded.

After the water boiled, the Mainbrain’s attention focused on the white water vapor ejected from the spout. He put one hand near the spout and watched the water vapor rush through the non-existent shadow.

“Considering they’re cooperating with Ruan Xian, we can’t leave any clues. Any tracking programs, mechanical or even unnatural mental inductions, could spook the snake.” The voice of the phantom youth was still warm and pleasing. “Only when I know nothing about the decoys will Ruan Xian take the bait.”

“The person with NUL-00 showed good abilities in the Android Show. It should be some kind of anti-mechanical virus. With this card in his hand, Ruan Xian will definitely send it to me.”

“I’m not so sure,” Zhuo Muran said humbly. “I have increased troops in all surrounding non-urban areas and have gained nothing. In recent cities, I have also buried decoys… But according to my experience in dealing with Ruan Xian, even if we don’t put anything on the baits, he may notice that those are baits.”

“He knows, which is why he’ll take the risk. Relatively speaking, I must also bear the risk of being attacked.”

MUL-01 was still playing with the water vapors.

“It’s like playing chess. No matter how strong the player is, as long as the two sides are evenly matched, it’s impossible not to lose a single piece… Just like he knew that my first reaction when I found NUL-00 was to test it, which I did, even though through gathering this intelligence allowed NUL-00 to successfully escape.”

“R-α, R-β, M-α, M-β are in the four nearest cities. Guess who’s coming back with the trojan horse?”

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Kinky Thoughts:

Amazing reference. What Professor Ruan planned is similar to what the Greeks did during the Trojan War. Most likely, Ruan Xian will be the person “hidden” in the trojan horse. Ironically, (not sure if this is intentional by the author), but Trojan Horse also refers to a malware as well (which got its name from the original Trojan Horse). Given that they’re trying to infect the Mainbrain with a virus, the reference would be on so many levels.

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

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

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

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Chapter 192: Car Meeting

“It seems that you know a lot about this disease.” Ruan Xian’s mood was much calmer than Yu Le’s. While true that Zhong Qing did have six extra eyes, his appearance before he was “killed” wasn’t much different from that of a human. He had long been used to seeing worse things in the mirror.

“Do you want me to give you some blood test results? We have some testing equipment on hand,” he added.

“No. I can see the temperature information on your side. I’ve studied the case before when I was in charge of the project. His body temperature is low, he’s thin, and the size, location, and his iris characteristics all match.”

“If you’re really worried, I can give you some blood samples that need to be checked later,” Guan Haiming added, after glancing at Yu Le’s ugly face. “But I didn’t read it wrong. His situation is very typical.”

“I understand,” Ruan Xian replied.

It was right to ask Guan Haiming. Not all knowledge and experience could be recorded. From things as simple as weaving bamboo baskets, identifying the sweetness of fruits, to the diagnosis of complex diseases, there were always things that couldn’t be written down. They had to be brewed over time with a certain feeling. However, now that there was a conclusion, Tang Yibu could fill in the rest of the remaining information.

He looked at Professor Ruan, who had been silent all this time, and continued to not respond.

“Thank you for your help.” Ruan Xian decided to end the conversation. “We may take the initiative to contact you in the near future.”

“Anytime.” Guan Haiming easily sorted out the scattered information in front of him and yawned, then the light screen went out.

Yu Le sat in a seat covered by a cloth. His entire figure looked like a clay figurine, as if he had lost half his soul, and didn’t look like he had any intention of speaking. Ruan Xian opened the car door. Tang Yibu, who had been wandering outside, came in. He had just finished eating his canned peaches, so there was still a sweet scent of sugar water with peach flavor on his body.

“Professor Ruan, I’m going to investigate the corpses,” Ruan Xian said. “How about you keep an eye on them here?”

Finally, Professor Ruan spoke. “We can talk openly.”

“You weren’t so open just now.”

“Haiming said the Order Supervisor from Petri Dish 1036 is helping him for an unknown purpose, so I won’t reveal my situation hastily,” Professor Ruan said. “The priority now is to determine whether Zhong Qing is on R-α’s demand list.”

Everyone in the car understood what Professor Ruan meant.

It would be fine if Zhong Qing wasn’t on the list. They just had to avoid the citizen who was working for the Mainbrain, but if he was on the list, that child would definitely not be willing to sacrifice himself and lie back in his glass coffin, not to mention that it wasn’t impossible that the city would go under martial law.

In this city that was carefully taken care of by the Mainbrain, besides being killed, the exposure of being kidnapped was also high.

“I have to say,” Yu Le said softly. “How can there be anything good in this world? I just picked up a good guide right as we entered the city… Sure enough, now I have to pay it back.”

As he spoke, he turned his head and looked out the car. Zhong Qing had hidden his extra eyes and was talking to Ji Xiaoman.

“You guys talk. I’m going out for a cigarette.” He took out a pack of cigarettes from the gap in the seat of the car and gave Professor Ruan and Ruan Xian a meaningful look. “I don’t want to get too involved yet. The little profiteer needs someone to watch the wind. Zhong Qing will ask me later what we talked about, and I’ll tell him it’s about the rebel army… I’ll string the excuses together. Don’t make any mistakes.”

After that, he grabbed the door handle that Ruan Xian hadn’t had time to close, jumped down with a cigarette in hand, and mercilessly pushed aside the iron bead that was trying to jump in.

Now there were only two people and a living brain left in the car.

“He’s a smart man.” Professor Ruan turned around the glass tank and faced Yu Le’s back—the former ruins pirate walked to Ji Xiaoman, fumbled in his pockets for a while, and handed her and Zhong Qing a piece of chocolate. Then he patted Zhong Qing on the shoulder again, as if to comfort him.

Although he said that death was a gain, Yu Le didn’t treat the status quo recklessly.

Interestingly enough, his definition of what humans were was obviously much broader than that of Professor Ruan—when he was in the Underground City, he also gave Tiantian-Q2 a boozy chocolate. Yu Le didn’t seem to care what was inside the head of the shell.

It was hard to say whether it was thick nerves or having seen too much.

“Don’t look at him like that. He will only do things according to his own thoughts. He’s indeed a smart man. Otherwise, we wouldn’t take him with us,” Ruan Xian said quietly.

“If you have something you want to say to us, you’d better hurry up. Probing the condition of the other corpses comes first, and besides, we really have nothing to discuss.”

The curiosity in Tang Yibu’s eyes was about to overflow. It was like he was a starving man who rushed into a buffet—he wanted everything, but he only had one mouth. He could only shut his mouth and choke back his words.

“In addition to Petri Dish No. 1036, what other Petri Dishes can you contact?”

“The communication facilities in the Sea of Ruins aren’t working, so we can’t get in touch for the time being. The people in the Glass Conservatory have a general attitude towards us, but there’s no ready-made way to contact them. There is contact information left in the Underground City, but we haven’t reached out yet.”

Ruan Xian still remembered the chip hidden behind the hardtack. He An, who renamed himself K6, gave it to them. Although he had installed an encrypted contact program, he had never taken the initiative to contact them. Ruan Xian wasn’t much of a communication type, so he naturally never made contact with him either.

“What about the data model you got from Kang Ziyan before?” Professor Ruan turned to Tang Yibu.

Tang Yibu wiped the corners of his mouth deeply to make sure that the water stains from the sugar peaches didn’t stick to his lips. “The one about personality and memory transmission? Kang Ziyan didn’t succeed in leaving the island, so I only got half of it as a deposit.”

Professor Ruan fell into deep thought, while Ruan Xian sighed and patted Tang Yibu’s upper arm. “Tell the truth. Cooperation is what you agreed to, so proper information exchange is also beneficial.”

Tang Yibu glanced at Professor Ruan reluctantly. “After Kang Ziyan died, before we had gone far, I saw the remaining half on his wristband.”

Now, both Ruan Xian and Professor Ruan fell into contemplation. Tang Yibu glanced back and forth between the two of them and also started to contemplate seriously.

“It’s time,” Professor Ruan and Ruan Xian said at the same time.

“What?” Tang Yibu blinked.

“Assassinate MUL-01,” Professor Ruan said.

“Attack MUL-01,” Ruan Xian replied in turn. After the words were spoken, he politely made a ‘please’ gesture, motioning Professor Ruan to speak first.

“Except for Zhong Qing, the rest of the situation is similar to what I guessed. Once the center of the island is destroyed, NUL-00 and its people will take me away, and MUL-01 will instill martial law on the surrounding petri dishes.”

“According to the information we got, this includes the petri dishes we passed along the way,” Ruan Xian added.

These were all in Professor Ruan’s calculations, so Ruan Xian wasn’t surprised. If it were him, he would probably do the same—unless Tang Yibu and he had a strong tendency to self-destruct, the choices now were indeed limited.

“The martial law of the petri dishes means increased internal pressure and subtle changes in management forms. For people in the petri dish, these are dangerous signs.” Professor Ruan didn’t deny Ruan Xian’s statement. “With the current tension, even a little spark can cause a lot of interference to MUL-01.”

“In the original plan, we could go this way to the real assassination machine and take advantage of the chaos to assassinate MUL-01. As long as MUL-01 disappears, everything centered on MUL-01 will fall into chaos. The people who will be sacrificed are all members of the rebel army. The sacrifices caused by the assassination will be attributed to the Mainbrain. With the high pressure combined with anger, people will rise up… If we succeed.”

“How cunning,” Ruan Xian commented impartially.

“You can make the truth public after people win. I don’t need the fame,” Professor Ruan said.

“Just for forged memories?” Tang Yibu’s focus was elsewhere.

“No, for the memory that belongs only to me,” Professor Ruan said. “Like I said, even if I give up now, MUL-01 will not let me go. And even if I barely survive, the quality of memory will not exceed the ones already in my head, so there’s not much joy in simply surviving.”

This time there was no usual gentleness or cheerfulness in his voice.

“Remove the indelible affection from mankind… At least in this way, whether it’s fame or notoriety, it’ll be me who’ll be remembered. People can regain their freedom, and I can die the way I want, so why not?”

Professor Ruan was telling the truth. There was no need for him to deceive them in this regard now that things had come to this point.

Ruan Xian hid his plan in his heart and continued, “And you’re now formally proposing this matter to us… Do you plan to use Zhong Qing?”

“This is an opportunity.” Professor Ruan didn’t notice Ruan Xian’s hidden emotions. “I can probably guess what R-α is doing here. If my guess is correct, it’s here to replenish ‘ammunition’. It seems MUL-01 has focused its weaponization on another path.”

“Ah,” Tang Yibu reacted quickly. “Advance S-type products won’t die so easily, nor can they directly generate pathogenic microorganisms that are effective against humans. However, if you’re looking for a suitable container for it, there’s no better choice.”

Even if it possessed human parts, the S-type products in its body would continue to repair the human parts until everything returned to its original state. But if the target was Tang Yibu, the A-type Prototype couldn’t do much—not to mention a head-to-head confrontation like before, the poisonous R-α could kill him with just a hug.

The battle in the Android Show appeared to have provided MUL-01 with a wealth of information.

Tang Yibu was obviously aware of this. After speaking, he shivered and moved a few centimeters closer to Ruan Xian’s side.

“Yes. Just as we can use the S-type Prototype to generate a mechanical ‘virus’, the Mainbrain is also researching efficient and precise weapons against the human body to deal with possible resistance. After all, nuclear weapons would destroy everything indiscriminately, and the ensuing environmental damage would also be difficult to deal with,” Professor Ruan continued.

“We can use this opportunity to use the S-type Prototype to infect it. As long as the onset of the infection is controlled, we can send the virus that will only infect mechanical life to the elite forces of the Mainbrain. In this way, we can create even more chaos.”

“Not a bad plan,” Ruan Xian said. “But to follow this plan of yours, I’m afraid Zhong Qing will have to be packed and sent to R-α regardless of whether he’s on the list or not.”

Modify the records, then control Zhong Qing, use the resources in the funeral home to create an anti-mechanical virus, and then send them to R-α. Ruan Xian could guess the details of this plan, but there was just one thing…

“You can’t control the behavior of Zhong Qing or R-α,” Ruan Xian said, faintly shocked by his own guess. “You tell us this now—”

“He wants to send his consciousness out as an accessory to the virus.” Tang Yibu took over. “Using the technology obtained from Kang Ziyan, he’ll transfer his consciousness to Zhong Qing’s body, and then transfer it to R-α when they come into close contact.”

He glanced up and down at Professor Ruan with his golden eyes.

“If he does this, it means that it is you and me who are going to operate the assassination machine. He’s just explaining the aftermath.”

“No, I won’t completely entrust such an important thing to others, but about the part of consciousness data transfer, you didn’t guess wrong. I’ll send a backup. I’ve experimented with it quite a few times on that island, but the efficiency never kept up.”

“Incomplete backup can lead to personality changes.” Tang Yibu frowned.

“But obsession will not change. Given Kang Ziyan as an example, that’s already very convincing. I trust his technology and will check it myself.”

“…In other words, you want to transfer your memory backup to Zhong Qing and then to R-α, so that at the same time, your brain will continue to act with us,” Ruan Xian concluded.

“Now it seems that this can be done,” Professor Ruan said calmly. “But I can’t do it alone. I need your help. This approach can at least increase our winning chances by about 3%.”

Tang Yibu withdrew his disguise and gave Professor Ruan a deadly glare, like a leopard staring at its prey. Ruan Xian could read that expression—Tang Yibu was quickly calculating their possible gains and losses.

“I only have one question.” Ruan Xian flattened the wrinkles on his white coat.

Professor Ruan’s three-legged little machine turned to him.

“…Did you even ask Zhong Qing for his opinion?”

“You should have heard Haiming’s diagnosis.”

“I don’t care what he is. He did find a suitable place for us to hide and provided information. Strictly speaking, we owe him a favor.”

Ruan Xian said softly, “But I also want that 3%.”

Tang Yibu’s possibility of death could be reduced from 10% to 7%. It could be said that what Professor Ruan was proposing was tempting. A string of bubbles emerged from Professor Ruan’s liquid tank. For some reason, Ruan Xian sensed doubts.

“…I have a different proposal.” He smiled at Professor Ruan. “How about directly sending the source of the infection instead?”

Ruan Xian pointed to his temple, “Strictly speaking, this is also ‘Ruan Xian’s consciousness’.”

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

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

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

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Chapter 191: Collective Consciousness

Professor Ruan remained silent, which Ruan Xian took as acquiescence. He made a gesture to Tang Yibu, signaling the other party to cover for his call.

Tang Yibu nodded while holding a piece of peach in his hand and replied with an OK gesture. Ruan Xian followed Professor Ruan into the car, ignoring Yu Le and Zhong Qing, who also came, and turned on the light screen.

Guan Haiming’s image appeared. From this angle, Guan Haiming could only see Ruan Xian and the dark car window behind him.

“Mr. Ruan.” Guan Haiming looked completely normal. Although he was a little pale, Ruan Xian could see that he was in good spirits. Compared with the hurriedly terminated call last time, this time he looked unrushed.

“Dr. Guan.” Ruan Xian didn’t say much.

“…I have been trying to contact you.” Seeing that the other party had no intention of continuing, Guan Haiming picked up the conversation. “You shouldn’t have been near the forest refuge for some time, right? These days, this was the first time you had appeared in the coverage of the communication signal.”

“Are you not in a rush this time?” Ruan Xian pointed out. “And we’re in the city of the Mainbrain. You have to make sure that this communication line is secure.”

“It’s absolutely safe. I used the Mainbrain’s own communication network algorithm. The message vibration frequency is also bound to the surveilled vibration boundary of the Order Supervisors, so the vibration itself won’t attract attention.” Guan Haiming smiled. “As for why I’m not hurried… This is one of the reasons why I’m looking for you.”

“Nn,” Ruan Xian responded simply.

Professor Ruan stood quietly beside him, hiding himself at the edge of the screen while silently watching his student. Lao Yu and Zhong Qing, who had a confused face, were huddled in a chair to one side.

“I’ll talk about my side first.” Seeing Guan Haiming about to open his mouth, Ruan Xian deliberately glanced at Zhong Qing and took the lead. “I saw Luo Jian in the Glass Conservatory. I did find something about your teacher.” He aggravated the word “teacher”.

As Professor Ruan’s favorite disciple, Guan Haiming reacted quickly. “We’ll discuss teacher’s matter later. Here’s the thing, Mr. Ruan. Recently, martial law has been enacted in some petri dishes. Do you know about this?”

“No.” But he could guess that since they made a lot of noise on the Android Show. In order to hunt them down, it was normal for a few nearby petri dishes to be under martial law—The Sea of Ruins, which was a little further away, might fare better, but the Underground City and the Glass Conservatory would be hard to escape.

“Shouldn’t it be more difficult for you to communicate with the outside world?” Ruan Xian raised his eyes. “It’s already passed midnight. Is something wrong with Major Ding’s ‘refresh’?”

“The Mainbrain believes that the fifteen-minute gap in the transfer of information is a security risk. In response to martial law, it stopped daily updates of the nearby Order Supervisors and focused on behavior monitoring.”

Guan Haiming showed a somewhat complicated smile.

“Since you left, I have never stopped communicating with Major Ding. Although he forgets every time there’s a refresh… In short, I have long mastered the way to convince him quickly. Now that the ‘refresh’ is paused, I don’t need to be tense between the fifteen minutes before the refresh time. He’s willing to help me spread the communication signal for the time being. That’s all.”

“For the time being.” Ruan Xian emphasized.

“Major Ding is… a very interesting person.” Guan Haiming sighed. “He can’t be persuaded by me. He just thinks it’s more exciting. Think about Xiao Ding. He’s still like ‘himself’, so how can he be soft on the survivors. Whether he wants to chase excitement or intends to cast a long line to catch a big fish by pretending to cooperate, all I need is to be able to pass the information out.”

“Which means I can contact you more freely going forward.” Ruan Xian glanced at Professor Ruan, who was pretending to be dead again. “I see. Is there anything else?”

“It has to be determined based on the content of your message.” Guan Haiming didn’t plan to say more.

“I know where Professor Ruan is. He’s still alive and in… Well let’s just say not in bad condition,” Ruan Xian said. “I think he has the ability to contact you. Now it seems that he just has no intention of doing so.”

Guan Haiming frowned slightly.

“Teacher may be working on a plan that requires absolute confidentiality,” After a while, Guan Haiming said, very slowly. “Although it was extremely difficult for him to unilaterally relay news, the possibility isn’t zero.”

“You really trust him,” Ruan Xian stated without emotion.

“I have my reasons. Thank you for the information, Mr. Ruan. I’ll keep in touch. There are quite a lot of risks out there. If there’s anything I can do to help, please feel free to ask.”

Guan Haiming nodded politely. “I’m relieved to know that teacher is okay. Please feel free to contact me if you have any news.”

Ruan Xian thought it was pretty much what he expected.

Guan Haiming didn’t continue talking. It seemed that only when he claimed to be working for Professor Ruan and provided evidence would Guan Haiming willingly reveal more information.

However, Professor Ruan’s three-legged machine remained quiet.

“There is one thing that you can help with.” Ruan Xian decided to drop the topic for now. “We have a child here with a rare disease. My… colleague brought him to me so I could take a look at him, but as you know, at best I can only deal with ordinary wounds. You, as an expert, will be more reliable.”

As he started to lie fluently again, Yu Le’s mouth started twitching.

“I’d be happy to.” Guan Haiming’s voice became lighter. He lowered the alcohol music and rubbed his temples. “Let me see.”

Zhong Qing looked at Lao Yu, then at Ruan Xian, and finally at Guan Haiming on the other side of the light screen. He took a deep breath, straightened the hair on his head, and then opened all his eyes.

They were originally closed tightly, covered by soft hair, so they didn’t stand out. However, when they all opened at once, the cold, white sclera of the eyes was particularly dazzling among his black hair.

He had already moved to the middle between Ruan Xian and Yu Le. His pair of artificial eyeballs were looking at Ruan Xian, while the few strange eyes on the back of his head were looking at Yu Le. Ruan Xian could hear it. Though Yu Le didn’t react on his face, it took him quite some time to calm down his nervous heartbeat.

Ruan Xian’s first reaction wasn’t fear. He just looked at Zhong Qing with a little curiosity—he was truly curious as to how Zhong Qing saw the world through those eyes.

His research direction was more “mechanized”, focusing on nanobots and the repair of human tissues. His body didn’t really allow him to become a real doctor, let alone the lack of clinical experience he had. Ruan Xian had limited exposure to these… peculiar diseases. And even if he rummaged through his memories, he couldn’t find a similar case.

Innate deformities, drug effects, or artificial induction could achieve similar effects, assuming that it was just a disease…

Guan Haiming frowned tightly, and his expression turned solemn.

“This rare disease, I have seen before. I don’t know what the situation is on your side, but first, let that child leave.”

“I’m not leaving!” Zhong Qing’s entire body became nervous. His eight eyes that were on his head were wide open, giving an eerie look.

“You’ll be fine, little guy.” Guan Haiming was full of patience and his tone sounded extremely convincing, though he didn’t look very good as he stared straight into those augmented eyes.

“This is just something that’s inappropriate to say in front of children.”

Professor Ruan was still dutifully playing the role of an auxiliary machine and continued to remain silent.

“I won’t hurt you while we’re in this city, unless I have to.” Ruan Xian looked directly at Zhong Qing calmly. “Go out first. What Dr. Guan is about to say is not appropriate for children.”

Zhong Qing’s face had on the expression of “as if I believe you”.

“This is what it means to be collaborators. You better come out first.” A voice joined the conversation.

Ruan Xian pinched his brow. He knew whose voice it was—Tang Yibu still couldn’t overcome his curiosity in the end. He didn’t follow inside the car but pressed his face tightly against the glass to the point where his nose was pressed flat. In order to avoid Guan Haiming’s suspicion, he specifically lowered his voice, which only made it sound like it was from a kidnapper from a TV production.

Guan Haiming couldn’t see from his angle, but Ruan Xian suspected that even if he could see, he might not be able to recognize Tang Yibu, whose face was distorted from pressing against the glass.

Ruan Xian stretched out his hand and mercilessly rolled down the car window, which made Tang Yibu almost fall into the car from the car window. He rubbed his nose, and that handsome face appeared again. Ji Xiaoman stood a few steps away, trying to look into the darkness from a distance without turning her head.

Zhong Qing glared at Tang Yibu a little angrily. With all his eyes open, the glare was quite oppressive.

“Very clever design.”

Tang Yibu manipulated his kidnapper-like voice with interest as he watched Zhong Qing carefully. That look wasn’t like what one had when looking at deformities or monsters, nor was it as calm as Ruan Xian. It was more like a sculptor discovering high-quality marble.

“In fact, considering the survival rate, I initially considered a similar body schematic. The physiological structure of humans isn’t so great for combat. Bone structures of big felines are better, but unfortunately, conditions didn’t allow me to do so.”

The android sounded full of earnest regret and envy, which only left Zhong Qing dumbfounded as he wasn’t sure how to deal with such an attitude.

“Fortunately, you didn’t.” Ruan Xian opened the car door and quickly kissed Tang Yibu’s forehead. “Then we would have a lot of trouble ‘sleeping’ together.”

Tang Yibu thought seriously for a moment, then nodded in agreement.

Zhong Qing slowly turned his head slowly and looked at Ruan Xian speechlessly, then glanced at Tang Yibu in horror before he was pushed out of the car in confusion. Until his feet stepped on the ground, Zhong Qing was still pondering what emotion his face should have right now.

After half coaxing Zhong Qing out of the car, Ruan Xian gave Tang Yibu a generous kiss and cruelly closed the car window.

“Okay, go ahead.” Ruan Xian turned his head and addressed Guan Haiming, who was just as confused. “He’s out now.”

“That voice just now was…?”

“Doesn’t matter.”

“…Forget it. Let’s get down to business first.” Guan Haiming rubbed his temples. “I know what that kid’s disease is. The name is quite long, so there’s no need to say it. The point is, the child’s illness is terminal, so I don’t know what to do with him. I didn’t know how to say it…”

“You just say he will be fine.” Yu Le closed the expression on his face and frowned. “Just say what needs to be said and don’t be rude.”

“It’s true that ‘he’ will be fine.” Guan Haiming smiled bitterly. “What is that child’s name?”

“Zhong Qing.”

“Then the human named ‘Zhong Qing’ is dead. At least as defined by previous medical concepts. However, there has been controversy on this point… His disease is caused by a very special viral infection plus an autologous genetic defect. We have more graphic statements about this disease. We call it ‘Rhododendron Disease’.”

“I don’t understand.” Yu Le was straightforward.

“I don’t know how he managed to keep his body in such good condition. Usually, patients die due to systemic failure during adolescence. This one looks mature.”

When talking in his professional persona, Guan Haiming unknowingly reverted to his cold and indifferent tone.

“The specific pathological mechanism is indeed complicated. Let me give some simple examples—many parasites will transform their hosts, causing them to mutate and be more likely to be eaten. For example, creating deformed bodies that are not conducive to survival, or making them more conspicuous and easily exposed to natural enemies, so as to ensure that they can reproduce normally.”

“That kid is a zombie controlled by a parasite? Doesn’t look like it.”

“I’m just expressing a general statement, not an example of preciseness. In fact, from viruses to parasites, they all have an impact on their hosts. It guides them in a direction that’s good for them and away from the direction that’s harmful—in order to obtain water, let the host drown himself; in order to stay away from a deadly water environment, cause the host to develop hydrophobic symptoms; that sort of thing.”

“The situation of Rhododendron Disease is more complicated. The pathogenic virus intercepts the gene expression of the host and transforms the body it has acquired to obtain a convenient body and the knowledge and skills to survive in the host population. Whether it’s Zhong Qing’s brain or other organs, medically speaking, they aren’t dead. They are just taken over by… a non-human creature.”

Yu Le shrank his shoulders; there was a rare dull look on his face.

“All his memories are still there, including emotions, but theoretically speaking, his brain control is no longer the human Zhong Qing… For example, if you compare an unconscious brain to a hard drive with a lot of data, now this hard drive has changed owners, but the use of the data is still similar.”

“He’s lying to us?” Ruan Xian got straight to the point.

“No… He himself may not know that he has ‘changed’. Bluntly put, if A poured all his memories into B, B would naturally think of himself as A.” Guan Haiming shook his head. “Rhododendron Disease is too rare. Except for the patient, no one knows the specific details. Usually, patients die during adolescence due to overconsumption. Zhong Qing somehow survived that stage, and now he’s relatively stable and is able to survive normally.”

“Those eyes…” Yu Le murmured.

“Zhong Qing himself should have a genetic defect, as I said just now. The virus has merely intercepted the genetic information in his body and tried to construct what it considers reasonable ‘eyes’ of its own to ensure that the body can continue to survive and create the conditions for its reproduction.”

Guan Haiming took a sip of water and continued, “Rhododendron Disease doesn’t spread from person to person, but there’s no point taking him with you.”

He put down the cup and sighed.

“His genetic data has been tampered with by a virus. In this regard, he can no longer be classified as ‘human’. The creature that now thinks it is ‘Zhong Qing’ has a mind closer to the collective consciousness of a virus.”

“Even if that’s the case, do you still think he’s a ‘human’?”

---

The author has something to say:

I am talking nonsense about this disease, but the animal parasites mentioned do exist, and the deformities caused are very… amazing.

There is indeed a reason for the retention of Zhong Qing by the Mainbrain, and his illness is also very serious√

**Type zombie←

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Kinky Thoughts:

Speaking of what Guan Haiming is saying, there is a real-life example. Leucochloridium paradoxum is a parasitic flatworm that infects snails, turning their eyes into “disco balls” in order for them to attract birds better. Birds, which are the final hosts of these parasites, eat these snails, allowing the parasite to reproduce in the bird’s cloaca.

When the bird shits, the parasite’s eggs are released into its feces, which is then eaten by the snails, and so begins the cycle anew. Also, I believe the author named the disease after Rhododendron (or Azalea). I went with the former because Guan Haiming specifically says the disease’s name is long, so he didn’t want to say it… Then a few paragraphs later, he said it anyway.

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

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

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

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Chapter 190: Multi-party Consultation

Several long-legged crab-like detection machines walked into the room. They moved extremely fast, scanning everything in the room with a cold blue beam of light as soft clicking sounded inside. Ruan Xian and Tang Yibu squeezed into the gap under the largest machine together. The tension was obvious, but Ruan Xian felt untimely enjoyment from it.

It seemed that the other party’s words had a deeper impact on him than he thought, and even the irritability caused by the crisis had turned into a pleasant stimulus.

Tang Yibu turned his face sideways, gave him an embarrassed smile, and then stretched out his hand—the android shrank the fingers on his right hand except for the index and middle fingers. Their fingertips touched the ground, imitating a gesture, and “walked” out of the cover.

From the perspective of the detection machine, this scene was probably terrifying—the empty room of the funeral home suddenly had a pale hand stretched out under its white cover that made gestures.

Unfortunately, detection machines didn’t have emotions such as fear.

The one responsible for scanning the area diligently approached to investigate. As soon as it stopped on the right hand that was gesturing, it was grabbed.

The faint blue light lit up and then went out.

Ruan Xian could hear that after Tang Yibu released the hapless detection machine, it staggered to the ground for a while, as if drunk, then it wobbled out of the room with its other companions without sounding the alarm.

The silence drifted through the room for a few moments before being broken by the sound of people in the hallway. Fortunately, the destination of the visitor wasn’t in the room they were hiding in but the room one floor up, corresponding to the position at the end of the corridor.

Out of caution, Ruan Xian didn’t leave his hiding place immediately. He listened carefully to the conversation of the visitor and relayed it in real time to Tang Yibu, who then transmitted the information to Professor Ruan through data transmission.

Only the iron bead, who was nestled beside Tang Yibu in frustration, had a dazed look.

“R-α has arrived?” A human voice sounded. It seemed like they were having a conversation, but there was only one set of footsteps that belonged to people. Most likely, the other party they were communicating with wasn’t on the scene.

“It has arrived. There are still 15 samples that need to be transferred. Thank you for your hard work. Things are very urgent and there’s nothing I can do on my side.”

“Ugh, I’ve forgotten the last time I had to work overtime.” The person in the corridor yawned. “The treatment is okay. The composition is quite good. I just don’t know what R-α wants with these corpses… Forget it, it’s none of my business.”

“It’s better than destroying it directly.” The person who he was talking to comforted.

“Yeah, you have to sign your name more than a dozen times to destroy it. Some family members ask for more. There are too many transfer procedures, but the time is too late. What about you? How is the situation over there?”

“Same. R-α’s residence needs the highest level of disinfection and inspection. The process on my side is almost over. I’m alone at the boss’ place, so I’m just looking for someone to talk to relieve my boredom.”

“I envy you. I’m transporting the most dangerous corpses this time. The handling machine is particularly careful. Only five can be shipped at a time. I just shipped it once yesterday, and I have work to do for the next two days. But on the bright side—at least it won’t be so late for the next two times. I already sent five of them before, but who knew they were going to be so anxious.”

The content of the words sounded like a complaint, but the two people talking sounded like they were in a good mood.

“Speaking of, the girl I saw in the breakroom last time…”

[R-α?] Seeing that the two of them started talking about women, Ruan Xian devoted a little energy to asking Tang Yibu.

[It’s the woman you saw.] Tang Yibu continued to write with his fingertips on the skin under Ruan Xian’s ears. [At first, you improved α-092 to try to treat yourself. In the end, it did perform well in repairing organs.]

[Yes.] Tang Yibu broke the layer of paper, and Ruan Xian reacted instantly. [In order to obtain the most accurate experimental data, I used my own cells for the original experiment. The α-092-30 that I was improving when I was attacked is indeed the most suitable direction for my own transformation.]

He had used himself as a tissue donor. Ruan Xian didn’t want to take too big a step and save a dead horse as if it was still living*—he planned to use his dilapidated tissue as a test product first. If it could achieve the desired effect, then he could slowly transform it for universal use.

*(死马当作活马医) Colloquial saying referring making a last-ditch effort to save a hopeless situation.

If he was lucky and achieved gratifying success, he could possibly live for two more years.

As far as the results were concerned, the unfinished α-092 variant was indeed the most suitable for Ruan Xian’s own DNA.

[After erasing you, Fan Linsong created a relatively healthy Professor Ruan, which was tantamount to replacing the cells of ‘Ruan Xian’ again. In this way, he could control the severity of the condition… Professor Ruan doesn’t know anything about what you did with α-092, so he continued to use it as a template to make the S-type Prototype.] Tang Yibu continued to write.

Ruan Xian still remembered the information he found in Ji Xiaoman’s truck when he was in the Underground City—A-type and D-type Prototypes were all derivatives of the S-type Prototype, which itself was derived from the α-092 nanobot.

To be precise, it was α-092-30 that he transformed most of his body “during his lifetime” and what dissolved his body.

Inferring from this, in theory, he and his relatives were the most compatible fusers with the Prototype. Professor Ruan, who was in relatively stable physical condition, didn’t focus his research on the repair of the human body and instead turned his research to strengthening bionic tissue, so it was normal that he didn’t know of this.

Only NUL-00 knew that he once had a little… bit of desire to live.

Since Professor Ruan didn’t know, it meant that MUL-01 wouldn’t notice either. It just selected the most suitable sample in its database and gave the Prototype to the most suitable person or made the body that was suitable for the Prototype.

When the suicide incident occurred, his mother’s DNA sample was entered into the public system. As the closest relative to him, it wasn’t surprising that her DNA was taken by MUL-01. As for Zhuo Muran…

[Zhuo Muran comes from a mountainous area. I remember some information about Ruan Yuchan’s case. She was also born near that area. From the perspective of genetic information, you may be distant relatives.]

As if seeing through his thoughts, Tang Yibu’s fingertips stopped for a while, then added gloatingly.

[Your seniority in the family tree must be much higher than his.]

[It seems that the one not long ago wasn’t my mother.] Ruan Xian softly sighed.

Having witnessed his mother’s death with his own eyes, he wasn’t disappointed now.

It was just a digital sample left by his mother’s body. The ghost of those digits brought her body back to the world again. It was impossible for the resurrected woman to have the memory of his mother. She was bound to be installed with the most suitable memory data by the Mainbrain, just like…

Ruan Xian glanced at Professor Ruan secretly.

[You’re shaken.] Tang Yibu pointed out solemnly. [The feeling I just understood—it’s one thing to understand rationally, but it’s another thing to accept emotionally. You’re shaken in front of me.]

[She has to give me a chance to be shaken first.] Ruan Xian gently pinched Tang Yibu’s waist. [I think she would be more willing to pound us to ground beef or support someone to pound us to ground beef.]

Tang Yibu snorted a few times and moved his body, sticking the two of them even closer together.

However, there was still a risk, so Ruan Xian continued to listen to the distant voices.

His eyes were very similar to his mother’s. Although the rest of his facial features were more like his father’s, if it was known that there was also a potential S-type Prototype beside NUL-00, most of the smokescreen released by Tang Yibu would be for naught.

Ruan Xian thought that he needed to think more seriously about this.

At the same time, the topic of girls by the gentleman in the corridor finally stopped. Among the slight sound of glass rubbing, he began to complain about work again.

“Because of this shit, this place will be sealed for five days. It obviously could be demolished in a day, but because of that inexplicable ‘mental adaptation period’, we still have to give the people around us time to adapt. Haa, if it weren’t for the subsidy that is twice my salary, I really wouldn’t want to take on such an… odd job.”

“You have to guard this building by yourself?”

“Not really. I have a whole lot of detection crabs, don’t I? Anyway, I work alone wherever I am, but this place is more comfortable. You know, if this place is closed, it’s the safest place in the city, but they won’t let me bring my girl in…”

“I envy you. I still have to deal with people face-to-face.” His caller scolded with a smile. “Work is work. What’s wrong with you thinking about bringing in your android partner in?”

“…Ugh.”

“No more chit-chat. There’s something wrong with R-α again. Finish up your break soon. I’m hanging up first bro.”

“We’ll continue later.”

More than an hour later.

“This place will be closed for five days?” Yu Le raised his voice.

The person who came had carried away the corpses and then initiated the closure of the building. Everyone had reconvened in front of the car. Compared to Tang Yibu’s group who was relaxed, Yu Le’s group was particularly frustrated.

Before the split, Zhong Qing was energetic and provoking, but now he was like a shriveled eggplant*. He followed Yu Le silently, hanging his head, not speaking a single word.

*Frosted eggplant (霜打的茄) Metaphor referring to wilted/not energetic. It comes from how eggplants can’t handle the cold and when frosted, they become wilted (due to loss of moisture). 

Seeing the opposite side downcast, Ruan Xian took the lead to put forward information, but was almost splashed by Yu Le’s spit.

“The surrounding area has been cordoned off by a building blockade.” Tang Yibu gestured back. “A closed light cage. Everything that goes in and out has to wear a special chip. Don’t be nervous. Although it’s a bit troublesome, I can hack it.”

Zhong Qing secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

“They are shipping out the ‘corpses’. We speculate that it’s for R-α to use. R-α is similar to Z-α that we encountered before, so most likely it’s an elite soldier under the Mainbrain. It should be equipped with advanced S-type products.”

Professor Ruan adjusted the height of the liquid tank for a while and continued, “But don’t worry. Even though it can cover the city with its hearing, that will require it to consume a ton of energy. As long as we don’t make a ruckus, it won’t use such precious… weapons to do something as trivial as listening.”

“Why is it such a coincidence that not long after we arrived here, the Mainbrain already got another monster?” Yu Le rubbed his forehead. “Last time we were lucky. If it weren’t for… Ahem, then who would prepare such wonderful bombs? We’re all gonna get killed by those weird things.”

He glanced at Zhong Qing, whose ears were pricked up, and changed his words in time.

“If someone didn’t snitch on Yibu, we wouldn’t be facing ‘weird things’ with just our bare hands,” Ruan Xian sneered.

Professor Ruan pretended he didn’t hear anything.

“What should we do now?” Ji Xiaoman asked as she glanced at Zhong Qing carefully. “We have enough supplies for five days, but… Uh, in case this kid is on their transportation list, we’ll be found out.”

“When the break is over, Yibu and I will confirm the information of the missing corpses. Maybe we can deduce what criteria they’re using to select the corpses.” Ruan Xian waved his hand. “Zhong Qing’s illness should be nothing to worry about if it’s only to the extent he said.”

“The Mainbrain is close to here, and in a sense, it’s also safer here. We can collect more information, plan carefully, and wait for the closure to be withdrawn before hitting the road.”

Tang Yibu cooperated very well.

“It definitely doesn’t know we’re here. Otherwise, it wouldn’t use such a… low-level closure.”

“I have no opinion.” Ji Xiaoman carefully cleared her throat. “I don’t like it here, but everyone does need some rest.”

The island had almost exhausted all their energy.

“…” Professor Ruan rarely expressed any opinions.

Only Yu Le’s expression twisted strangely a few times, and then he glanced at Zhong Qing again and waited for the boy to shiver and nod before he continued, “I have something to say.”

Everyone looked at Yu Le.

“Zhong Qing’s situation is a bit… complicated. Xiao Ruan, you know something about medicine, right? That one over there can probably help too.” Yu Le swept his gaze towards Professor Ruan. “Zhong Qing, come with me. Xiao Ruan, bring that iron box with you and help me take a look.”

“Iron box,” Professor Ruan repeated, without emotion.

“I want to see too,” Tang Yibu protested, with dissatisfaction.

“The kid has to go with me, or he’ll die from nervousness. You accompany the little profiteer. How could you leave a girl to hang out alone?”

“In terms of pure combat power, that little girl can kill five of you, Yu Ge.”

Yu Le gave Tang Yibu a chilling look.

Fortunately, a series of intermittent vibration relieved the tension. Ruan Xian glanced at his electronic wristband and shook his head at Tang Yibu. “Yibu, you stay outside.”

Tang Yibu raised his brows.

“Guan Haiming.” Ruan Xian shook his wrist. “This kid has now joined our multi-party consultation. It’s best for you to avoid it first. I don’t want to answer too many questions about you.”

“…” Tang Yibu decisively took out a can of yellow peaches from the cab, as if he planned to have a pleasant picnic outside.

“There’s only one question remaining.”

Ruan Xian glanced at Professor Ruan, who was already standing in the car.

“I don’t know if it’s better to talk to him ‘alone’.”

---

The author has something to say:

Do you still remember Dr. Guan by the Daming lake… (…

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Kinky Thoughts:

Just a short breakdown for those who are lost. Before his death, Ruan Xian was working on the α-092 nanobot (specifically α-092-30) in order to extend his life. When he was murdered by Fan Linsong, he was dissolved in a solution of it and replaced by Professor Ruan.

Since Professor Ruan didn’t have the debilitating disease that Ruan Xian had, he wasn’t aware to the extent of what α-092-30 purpose was and didn’t need to develop it to extend his life, so he used it as the basis to develop the S-Type Prototype which the A-type and D-type derives from.

When the Mainbrain took over, the A-type and S-type Prototypes were destroyed, so it could only develop the D-type Prototypes. To find the best fit for its soldier, the Mainbrain used the genetic database collected from everyone and found the closest fit, which happened to be people related to Ruan Xian, as the original source of these Prototypes all derived from α-092-30 that he used to test on himself.

So the woman Ruan Xian saw on the road is most likely a clone or a body created by the Mainbrain that used his mother’s DNA (as she is one of the closest matches to the D-type Prototype). Going by this inference, most likely Zhuo Muran is also related to Ruan Xian in some way (distant relative) as they both came from the same distant mountainous area.

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

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

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

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Chapter 189: Eyes

Yu Le was in no mood to tease Zhong Qing. If his years of experience had taught him anything, it was that he would never misinterpret genuine fear.

Zhong Qing was really scared.

He squatted on the ground, clinging to his knees with most of his face buried in them, as if trying to squeeze himself out of thin air.

Yu Le thought perhaps he had exhausted all his energy trying to maintain a strong composure in front of the four of them. Zhong Qing’s only advantage was his knowledge of the city, but in fact, Professor Ruan probably knew quite a bit. This child wasn’t necessary for them, but more like an add-on, but no one brought this up.

Zhong Qing held onto that little bit of reality that he could still understand and described everything that happened to him lightly, but Yu Le understood that Zhong Qing was far from ready to face death—people who really wanted to die wouldn’t have such violent fear.

“Stand up.” Yu Le stretched out his hand.

“It’s not safe here.” Zhong Qing hid his face behind his arm and twitched his nose.

“It’s fine. We’ve been through a lot of dangerous places. It’s not a problem protecting a little kid,” Yu Le lied briskly.

“Really?” Zhong Qing held out his hand in disbelief. “If you’re really that good, shouldn’t you have some kind of particularly handsome mobile base?”

“Do you remember that golden-eyed guy? That kid went head-to-head with the regular army of the Order Supervisors. Each of us slipped under their noses. My car is fine. It’s because your city is blessed with too many resources that you… Forget it.”

This sentence wasn’t appropriate. Yu Le sighed in his heart, grabbed the young man’s thin wrist, and pulled him up from the ground. Zhong Qing shivered. It looked as if his legs were still weak.

“Then promise,” he muttered.

“I promise you’ll be fine.” Yu Le turned his head. “Continue your talk about the corpses.”

“…They are not the same as me. I mean, the incubation period of my disease is quite long, and it won’t kill me. They turned out to be weird. The Mainbrain basically uses them as a mutant cell bank.” Zhong Qing’s voice still sounded weak. His self-confidence disappeared without a trace, and he clung to Yu Le and Ji Xiaoman, eager to hang himself onto them like a backpack.

“Could it be these people’s… Uh, something happened to the successor? The Mainbrain temporarily needs to transfer their diseased cells away and do some medical research.” Ji Xiaoman guessed in a low voice.

“I don’t know. This has never been the case before. Even if it was, it’s not like several people would have problems at the same time.” Zhong Qing grabbed his arms as if he was standing on a snowy plain. “…I don’t know.”

“Let’s ask the team above later.” Yu Le continued to scan the basement with a cold light, squinting his eyes. “Neither of us is an expert in this area. Xiao Ruan should know more.”

“Ah,” Zhong Qing suddenly said. His dark eyeballs were like two empty holes in the dim environment, so it was difficult to tell where he was “looking”.

“What’s the matter, kid?”

“Those people seem to be… All of them have been researched and completed.” Zhong Qing scratched his scalp. “But I’m just guessing. I can’t hack into the system. No one has taken samples from them for a long time, so I guess… I guess…”

His voice became smaller. “Forget it, maybe I’m thinking too much.”

“We will convey this to Mr. Ruan.”

Ji Xiaoman nodded quite seriously and continued to check the light screen.

“There is nothing left here, Lao Yu. I don’t dare dismantle the large machines. There could be an alarm on it. You can take a look at the terrain. If there’s nothing else, let’s go back first.”

“We haven’t gone to that room over there yet.” Yu Le pointed to a room at the end of the darkness.

“According to the internal map here, that’s the morgue on this floor. Zhong Qing was just referring to that place, and I didn’t see any moving heat source from there.”

Ji Xiaoman tapped on her electronic wristband with her fingertips. “There is such a room on each floor. The security level there may be higher. Do we need to look at it?”

“No need, there is really nothing in it,” Zhong Qing said immediately. “My eyes can see the situation inside. There are a few corpses missing, and nothing else has changed. If you want to know more, you can ask me.”

“Let’s take a look and be rest assured.” Yu Le touched his chin. “Didn’t you say there was a problem there? It’s always good to make sure. In case the situation is wrong, let’s withdraw as soon as possible.”

“It’s really unnecessary.” Zhong Qing clenched his fists. “I… I was just making a mountain out of a molehill, so don’t go. What if the Mainbrain finds out?”

Yu Le and Ji Xiaoman glanced at each other quietly.

Ji Xiaoman hesitated for a bit. She added another light screen while she kept operating with one hand. “I’m not very good at pure hacking. Let’s try the electronic lock first.”

Seeing that it was fruitless to stop them, Zhong Qing bit his lip and said nothing.

It turned out that Ji Xiaoman’s experience in the Underground City was still useful—collecting data and information had honed her skills in slipping through doors and picking locks. With the two-pronged approach of programming and hardware, the door really did open for her.

“We only have one and a half minutes,” Ji Xiaoman said anxiously. “Lao Yu, don’t watch for too long. If you don’t close the door in time, the alarm will go off—”

Zhong Qing stopped at the door and didn’t enter the room with them, as if he was particularly resistant to that room. He squatted down against the wall, shrank up again, and hid himself in the dark.

Yu Le took a deep breath.

The room was about one hundred square meters or more. Countless square glass troughs were stacked on top of each other around the four walls of the room. The glass was all opaque black, like a painted coffin. There was a large metal table in the center of the room full of machinery he had never seen before.

“I… I temporarily removed the blackout mode for now,” Ji Xiaoman reminded in a low voice.

As soon as her voice fell, the black glass wall became transparent in an instant. Except for five or six empty spaces, there were people lying sideways in almost each of them.

…Or rather, something in human form.

• Yu Le didn’t know if they had been transformed. In his impression, people shouldn’t grow up looking like this. Some people’s heads swelled to twice the size of a normal person. Their facial features were squeezed into strange positions on the edge of their skulls, and their bodies were densely packed with hyperplasia. Some had strange tissues growing on their skin, as if they were wrapped in layers of bark.

Those weren’t born deformities but were like some disease that had developed to the extreme.

Under normal circumstances, these people most likely died due to the development of the disease long ago, but judging from the occasional movements in their eyes—if they were lucky enough to show skin—these people were still alive.

In the “morgue” created by the Mainbrain, these weird diseases couldn’t kill the host. They continue to survive, and eventually turn the host into something impossible in a natural environment.

Yu Le shuddered. Zhong Qing’s mental endurance was stronger than he thought. He couldn’t imagine what it would be like to lie down here and still keep his sanity. If it was him, he would probably feel as if dying would be easier than this.

But they had limited time, so Yu Le couldn’t express his feelings. He glanced at the glass grooves coldly, taking in as much information as possible.

Each glass box displayed dense information as well as lights indicating the status of the body. Yu Le looked around and didn’t see an empty glass tank with Zhong Qing’s name on it until Ji Xiaoman reached out and pointed to the top of the room.

An empty trough was there. Unlike the other slots with red lights on, its indicator light was still soft blue. That position was at the top of the glass trough pile. With the edge of the glass trough protruding in a ladder shape, it was indeed easier to escape from there.

Yu Le swept through with a cold light and found the two small characters “Zhong Qing” on the glass wall. There was more dense information next to the name, but the location of the “coffin” was too high, which made it inconvenient to take it in.

Even being as tall as 1.9 meters, Yu Le had to stand on tiptoe as he tried to read the words clearly while trying to ignore the other people who were looking at them askance from their glass cases.

In the next second, all the glass returned to opaque darkness.

“Time’s up.” Ji Xiaoman grabbed Yu Le as she shivered a bit. “Let’s go, Lao Yu.”

Yu Le took an inhale and didn’t linger. He left the morgue with Ji Xiaoman. Zhong Qing was still at the door, remaining silent. Yu Le wasn’t so cordial this time. He directly pulled at Zhong Qing’s back collar and lifted him up.

“You’re not telling the truth,” he said coldly.

“I didn’t lie to you about big events!” Zhong Qing struggled in frustration and looked at Ji Xiaoman for help.

Ji Xiaoman pursed her lips and avoided Zhong Qing’s gaze. Although the girl was a bit slow in interpersonal skills, she was very smart. Most likely, she had found things were unnatural, and Yu Le was even more sure of his judgement.

“It’s like a museum of freaks in there, yet you’re so fresh and refined compared to them.”

Seeing Zhong Qing standing firm, Yu Le withdrew his hand.

“Your problem isn’t a ‘chronic disease that can’t hurt your life’, right?” Yu Le tsked. “Even if it is, it’s certainly not as simple as blindness. What exactly is your situation?”

“It has nothing to do with you!” Zhong Qing scratched his hair nervously. “Wouldn’t it be nice if I gave you the right information? This is personal shit. Personal shit… After all, what does my illness matter to you?”

“If something unexpected happens to you suddenly, our state and plans will be affected. Be honest, kid.”

“…Your parents, I heard you talk about their tone. They used to treat you very well, didn’t they?” Ji Xiaoman said hoarsely. “You’re in good health and you don’t need to be taken care of in your daily life. I don’t believe they would replace you just because you’re a bit inconvenient to their lives and have a bad personality.”

Zhong Qing opened his mouth and his eyes turned red.

“If I told you, you wouldn’t cooperate with me.” He wiped his eyes, stubbornly trying not to sob. “If my own parents can’t bear the disease, how would strangers be willing to take care of me?”

“An infectious disease?” Yu Le was immediately on high alert.

“No!” Zhong Qing’s voice had tears in it. “I swear!”

“…Then why can’t you tell us?” Yu Le patted his chest and breathed a sigh of relief with Ji Xiaoman.

“Look for yourself. Don’t let that sister look yet. I’m afraid I’ll scare her.” Zhong Qing took a step back. “Mr. Yu, you… Come with me.”

Yu Le squeezed the handle of the gun around his waist with one hand while taking a few steps forward, leaning against the nearest corner.

Zhong Qing took a deep breath, then slowly raised his hands. Yu Le stared at his every move, swallowing silently; the soles of his feet were a little numb from tension.

“I grew these things.”

Zhong Qing poked the soft and dense hair on his head, revealing part of his scalp.

The moment he saw what was exposed, half of Yu Le’s body went numb. He instantly understood the reason why Zhong Qing’s parents were obsessed with “a healthy child”. If the disease really wasn’t fatal for a short time, it would be worse for Zhong Qing and his family.

Yu Le saw a human eye on Zhong Qing’s exposed scalp. Strictly speaking, it was a little smaller than a human eye, and the color of the iris was a bit lighter. It was looking at him, and because of the angle, it was rolled up, revealing mostly white, which made things extremely uncomfortable.

“You… This…” Yu Le was speechless.

“It’s hard to make it clear in one or two sentences,” Zhong Qing said. “After my illness relapsed, they began to grow out slowly, and it was useless to remove them through surgery.”

“Them?” Yu Le repeated, dryly.

“Nn,” Zhong Qing whispered, scratching his hair again. “…In addition to the invisible pair on my face, there are six on my head.”

“…” Yu Le wiped his face, not knowing what expression to use to deal with the child in front of him.

He thought it was right to not let Ji Xiaoman follow. He couldn’t wait to stop thinking about it and directly throw this complicated mess to Ruan Xian and the others.

“It’s really not like an infectious disease?” Yu Le squeezed out these words after a long pause. “Thinking about it, if you’re very sick, the defensive measures in this place will not let you run away.”

Zhong Qing twisted his hands nervously.

“Forget it, you go back with us first. Don’t say a word to Xiaoman. She’s already nervous as it is, and this will only scare her even more.”

“…Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me too early.” Yu Le looked at the dim ceiling. “This has to be seen by Xiao Ruan’s gang.”

“Nn.”

The state of “Xiao Ruan’s gang” was a bit worse.

As soon as Tang Yibu rubbed back to Ruan Xian happily, he was grabbed by Ruan Xian and pulled aside to a machine covered by a cloth. The space there was barely big enough to accommodate them. Professor Ruan followed and crawled in, stretched out his robotic arm, and tightly clamped one side of π’s mouth—the iron bead fell out of Tang Yibu’s arms and was just about to open its mouth and bark.

[Someone is coming.] Ruan Xian transmitted it through his earring stud. [They’re still far away. Just arrived downstairs. The speed of their detection machines is too fast. They’re already on the first floor. We have no time to hide.]

[Understood.] Tang Yibu stretched out his fingers and wrote on the skin on the side of Ruan Xian’s neck.

[They seem to be going upstairs, most likely looking for traces of life on these floors.]

[I have to save energy, and perceptual camouflage is best left to humans. Machines are controlled by NUL-00.] Professor Ruan obviously also had a way to deal with this situation—he flashed the text with a faint cold light on his glass trough.

Tang Yibu nodded calmly as he reached out his hand and touched the iron bead. The iron bead, who was still dissatisfied, no longer bore its temper and obediently leaned to Tang Yibu’s side.

It’s late at night. No matter what the visitor is doing, this shouldn’t be a daily job, but there weren’t that many people coming, so they were reluctant to call them pursuers.

Ruan Xian thought that things were getting more and more interesting.

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The author has something to say:

Zhong Qing really didn’t tell the truth completely XD

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

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

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

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Chapter 188: Change

Professor Ruan was silent for over ten seconds because of the word “our”.

Ruan Xian waited quietly for him to continue. Right now, he was in a good mood. After all, even if they understood each other’s thoughts, actually putting them into words was still a different effect. Tang Yibu’s confession of “I love you” was like a warm knife that deeply penetrated into his skin, passing through the ribs and pierced directly into his heart.

Part of his mind was quite lucid, able to continue to deal with Professor Ruan; another part was fluttering, like an open wound soaking in a warm dead sea, enjoying both pain and relief.

Ruan Xian had never been so patient before. He wishes Professor Ruan would remain silent longer so that he could have more time to engrave these wonderful feelings into his memory.

“…I don’t know what she really looks like.” After a moment of silence, Professor Ruan replied.

“I do have parents in my memory as well. Now that I think about it, it was a very standard setup. We were middle-to-upper class. They weren’t wealthy, and both were civil servants of low status, but they looked gentle and attractive. Whether it was the education policy or their relationship with me, they had all done everything right, so people couldn’t pick out any faults.”

Ruan Xian raised his eyebrows. “Are they still around?”

“Died when I was still young. My father died to protect the people soon after I was sensible. My mother raised me and took good care of me when I got sick. She was a perfect mother. Unfortunately, when I got older, her body collapsed. That’s why I… Well, I should say that ‘the me in my memory’, wanted to work in this field.”

There was a bit of a wry smile in Professor Ruan’s voice.

“My mother entrusted me to her friend Meng Yunlai before she died. My situation was special, and Ms. Meng’s authority wasn’t small, so I was able to enter the Institute in advance. This is all I remember.”

For the first time, Professor Ruan’s voice became a little unsteady.

“In my impression, Fan Linsong is like a caretaker… A friend of my mother’s. After my father died, he helped my mother a lot. For example, in order for my mother to have time to take me to the amusement park, he would take the initiative to help my mother find part-time work.”

“But I think the mother in my memory shouldn’t be my real mother. She may be the perfect image Fan Linsong created from collecting information. In fact, if you delve deeply into my parents’ account, you can find some omissions—they are the ‘perfect parents’ pieced together from the descriptions and experiences of countless people. Everything is true, but it doesn’t belong to me. You should have tasted the memory cocktail in the Glass Conservatory. I guess I am the first to experience that kind of technology.”

“But you didn’t immediately dissolve the rebel army or seek revenge on Fan Linsong.” Ruan Xian laid out the facts.

“Some things can’t be given up immediately, even if they are ‘known to be fake’.” The cube in the liquid expressed like so.

“Even if someone tells you now that all the beautiful things in your memories are fake, you can’t immediately… get rid of their influence. I still remember the taste of popcorn and ice cream in the playground, the broken loudspeaker and the music it played.”

“For ‘me’, that was probably the best thing I could get.”

“Indeed,” Ruan Xian agreed softly. “I, um, our biological mother’s name is Ruan Yuchan, who’s a very ordinary person. As for my father… Not long after I was born, he found that my illness couldn’t be cured and ran away. They weren’t married at the time, and I never heard of him again.”

But Ruan Xian had seen a photo of his father from his mother. She only left a single photo of them, unsure whether it was intended as a memorial or possible evidence.

He was a fairly young and handsome man, but there was a frivolous air between his brows, and his personality didn’t look like the steady type.

When he was young, his mother had hoped that his father would come back one day and face the heavy reality with her—Ruan Xian remembered her words. They had known each other for many years; they were childhood sweethearts and planned to come to a prosperous city together to work hard. She just couldn’t face reality at the time.

Later, she stopped talking about this and gradually his mentioned slowly decreased.

“…Even until now, I still don’t know his name. He never came back.”

Professor Ruan listened quietly.

“Our apartment is small and dirty, but it was the best place my mother could rent. At first, she didn’t want to move away, because she was afraid that my father wouldn’t find anyone when he returned… Later, she probably accepted the truth. All the money she made was thrown into a bottomless pit, and she couldn’t afford to rent a better place.”

“After all, the prevention agency judged me as a potentially dangerous person, and my illness wasn’t within the scope of conventional assistance so we couldn’t apply for social benefits. You should be able to guess what happened after that.”

Professor Ruan still remained silent.

Love, faith, loyalty, and warmth from the past could hardly beat true poverty and despair. They didn’t kill with one blow but preferred to empty a person’s conscience and hope from the inside, and slowly wore people down into a terrible appearance.

“She also died very early, I think,” Professor Ruan said softly. “The best lies are mixed with a bit of truth. Fan Linsong followed the script.”

“Suicide, actually. She was almost crazy at that time,” Ruan Xian said calmly. “She found that her love couldn’t heal me, a monster, and her persistence made her lose the opportunity to live a good life again. I was destined to drag her to the bottom of the pit, but she didn’t have courage to kill me with her own hands.”

After each beating and scolding, she would hold him tightly, crying and apologizing, but he didn’t know what appropriate reaction to give—whether it was when he was kicked or hugged.

“…In front of you?” Professor Ruan reacted quickly.

Fan Linsong wasn’t inherently evil or bloodthirsty. They all knew this. The old man was radical and stubborn, but he wouldn’t kill people due to a little contradiction.

“Yes. According to the judgement of the prevention agency, I am indeed not suitable to undertake dangerous world-class projects. Since I entered the Institute, Fan Linsong has been evaluating me on their behalf. Now, it seems that he thinks you’re more suitable to be ‘Ruan Xian’ than me.”

What had happened couldn’t be erased, and the damage that was done couldn’t be recovered. Those memories were destined to follow him for the rest of his life and push him towards the darkness.

Ruan Xian knew this and so did Fan Linsong.

They were like timebombs placed deep in his soul. According to the assessment of the prevention agency, Ruan Xian himself was like a barrel of dry and unstable explosives. Given his condition, there was no worse combination than this.

Ruan Xian couldn’t help but smile.

The NUL-00 project was the last straw, and it forced Fan Linsong to make a decision, but Fan Linsong wouldn’t know that the five years he spent with NUL-00 were perhaps the most peaceful years of his life. The dry gunpowder keg was slowly losing its effectiveness, and he didn’t want to leave anything behind or destroy anything.

The long-term depression disappeared in those funny projections. He just wanted to die near the warm computer room.

“…Although it may not be appropriate for me to say this, judging from the results, Fan Linsong’s plan isn’t a success. You’re right. A strong AI at that time wasn’t suitable to be put on the market.”

Professor Ruan’s electronic voice pulled Ruan Xian back from his memories.

“But I guess you don’t want to talk about me,” Professor Ruan continued. “Why are you talking about these things suddenly?”

“Because I saw my mother tonight.”

Ruan Xian leaned his back against the abandoned machine. The cold touch penetrated his clothes and climbed up the skin of his back.

“I kissed Yibu, so he will definitely not give up analyzing my physical condition. Since he didn’t give me a warning, there’s nothing wrong with my body itself. The Mainbrain didn’t find us, and in theory it’s impossible to specifically give me such a perceptual interference… Most of what I see isn’t an illusion. Since you don’t know what she looks like, it might be difficult to describe.”

“Is it this one?”

An image of a woman was projected in mid-air. The woman in the image was indeed extremely beautiful. This picture was probably taken when she was young, as there was still light in her eyes.

“Yes.” Ruan Xian nodded.

“All cases will have official records, including suicide cases,” Professor Ruan said. “According to your description, I just checked… The one who’s most eligible is this one. Her child witnessed the whole process, but because he was too young, the information was sealed. The special thing is that her child’s birth records, and social history were all deleted, leaving everything blank. Generally speaking, that child either died during the protection period, or—”

“In order to make ‘you’ exist without loopholes, Fan Linsong entrusted the prevention agency to change the information.” Ruan Xian took over.

Then no one spoke.

They all knew what this meant. From making a clone, to editing memories, to changing relevant data in the system, Fan Linsong couldn’t do this by himself.

The prevention agency acquiesced in the “treatment” of Ruan Xian, so there must be many helpers in the Institute who agreed with his approach.

“…I’m sorry,” Professor Ruan said.

“It’s not your fault. You don’t need to apologize.” Ruan Xian gave a low chuckle. “But looking at your current approach… I think if it were you standing in Fan Linsong’s position, you would do the same thing, right?”

Professor Ruan remained silent, neither giving affirmation or rejection.

“I know that all cases will have official records. At this point, I don’t want to pursue how many people wanted me to die.” Ruan Xian waved his hand. “Since there’s an official record, it means that my mother’s body was tested by a public institution that year, leaving a sample of genetic data.”

“Correct.”

“Then what I saw was indeed not an illusion.” Ruan Xian touched his chin without the slightest frustration. “This is very interesting—according to our current inference, the Mainbrain didn’t crack Fan Linsong’s head and extract the information. Based on digital records before the doomsday, it was very likely that it didn’t know that ‘Ruan Yuchan’ was my mother, but it still made a copy of her… Are you sure your genetic information hasn’t been compromised?”

“I’m sure. When MUL-01 wasn’t yet put to market, Fan Linsong was very sensitive to related matters and asked everyone to pay attention to genetic safety. He may be… Well, not as calm as he thought about killing you.”

The brain in the liquid tank sighed quite humanely.

“On the day of the Great Rebellion, Fan Linsong and I were giving a speech in a foreign country. At his insistence, we took DNA jammers for the first time… At that time, I left some normal tissue samples of my own, but I have been carrying them with me, so I’m pretty sure they aren’t lost.”

“I’m also quite sure that my appearance and information aren’t in the system. Even if we compare the facial similarity and age, the files don’t match,” Ruan Xian said. “It shouldn’t be aimed at us, but…”

“I know what it is.” Tang Yibu poked his head out from the door frame.

The android had been there for a while. Besides, they had already finished talking about the S-type Prototype, so Ruan Xian didn’t bother to expose his eavesdropping. Sure enough, after they hadn’t talked for long, Tang Yibu popped out himself.

Those golden eyes glanced at Ruan Xian a few times with mixed emotions. However, the android was rarely affected by emotions for longer than three seconds—after a few seconds, the expression on Tang Yibu’s face became smug. He glanced at Professor Ruan again with an explicable sense of triumph in his eyes.

“Only I know what it is,” he stressed.

“Gwah!” The iron bead in Tang Yibu’s arm barked arrogantly.

“…Then tell me.” Ruan Xian rubbed his forehead, both tired and amused. God knew how long it had been since his emotions had fluctuated this much.

“I will.” Tang Yibu slowly retracted his outstretched head and moved to the door with a serious expression. “But I want information in exchange—just the thing you were talking about, in more detail, Mr. Ruan.”

“Deal.”

A few floors down, the mood of the other group of people was nowhere close to the word relax.

Since Zhong Qing’s words “there are a few bodies missing”, the temperature of the basement seemed to suddenly drop by a few degrees. Ji Xiaoman swallowed down her spit as her metal fingers operated the light screen.

She wasn’t afraid of corpses, blood, and internal organs, but she still couldn’t accept the fact that the dead couldn’t move again.

“Don’t gasp when you speak,” Yu Le hissed.

“It’s the people who were put in here with me. Aren’t I also a corpse?” Zhong Qing whispered. “The Mainbrain will leave some rare data for storage and research, so their situation is similar to mine. But… But there are a few missing. It shouldn’t be like this.”

“Maybe they were just transported away.” The word “rare data” obviously made Ji Xiaoman feel a lot better.

“Then there’s no need to just take part of them?” In contrast to Ji Xiaoman, Zhong Qing’s fearless aura disappeared, and he looked quite scared. “No… It shouldn’t be like this. They should have counted carefully. I’ll be discovered.”

He tugged at his hair and the smugness unique to a young man was gone.

“I don’t know,” he murmured. “I don’t know what’s going on. It’s not safe here anymore. Let’s leave now, okay?”

“Please.”

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The author has something to say:

He doesn’t mean to let Fan Linsong go, but his approach is similar to Professor Ruan in a sense.

And in every sense, Ruan was saved by Tang √ Tang was also saved by Ruan’s cultivation… I always like it when they save each other (?

Today is a happy day for the iron bead~

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

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

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

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Chapter 187: Abandoned Plan

The iron bead didn’t like it here.

In terms of habitat, it preferred the wilderness lined with ruins—easily torn metal ruins that were half buried in the sand and palm-sized mechanical life bursting out from broken walls from time to time meant food was abundant and plentiful. It was completely different here. Everything was so well maintained that even a building that was about to be demolished didn’t have a speck of dust.

All the machines were tightly wrapped and carefully supervised so that it didn’t even dare to lower its mouth.

Dissatisfaction was dissatisfaction, but it didn’t regret going with those humans. They let it eat a lot of delicacies that had never been seen in the ruins. It no longer had to worry about being preyed upon by large predators such as scavenging puppets, and it had people who would help it clean its shell. There was even one of its kind on the human team—Tang Yibu could understand what it wanted to express, and he was its best friend.

The human surnamed Ruan was very close to Tang Yibu, so he must be a person who loved mechanical life as well, so the iron bead placed Ruan Xian second in its heart.

Just after being separated from the two of them on the island, π had already felt all kinds of discomfort. At the moment, it couldn’t help but look around nervously, for fear that the big guy surnamed Tang would never come back.

And it was hungry.

The iron bead, who didn’t have well-developed mechanical legs, thought for a while, turned around, and looked at Professor Ruan—the mechanical legs looked quite flexible. Perhaps it could ask him for one. Professor Ruan seemed to be human before, so he must be very good at walking on two legs.

Suddenly, the iron bead was shocked by its own intelligence. It then turned to Professor Ruan with great confidence.

As a result, as soon as it snapped around, there was a tingling at the seams of its shell. Professor Ruan took advantage of its motionless time to solemnly think and stretch out a romantic arm from under the solution tank. A thin needle tube passed through the gap in the metal shell and a small tube of white tissue fluid was drawn out. The iron bead turned around angrily, but the robotic arm had already been retracted inside Professor Ruan’s mechanical container.

The iron bead was furious—the situation was tense at the moment, so it didn’t dare to bark. This guy was definitely planning this from the start.

The three-legged machine jumped high in the next moment and landed on top of an abandoned machine nearly two meters high. The iron bead that couldn’t jump very high began to circle around the bottom of the abandoned machine, whining badly.

But its big friends soon appeared—Tang Yibu and Ruan Xian walked out of the empty room at the end of the corridor, looking like they were in a good mood.

The iron bead regarded them as its savior. It rushed over like a cannonball and slammed its head into Tang Yibu’s calf, sharply whining and complaining.

Even the S-type Prototype wouldn’t make the pain disappear, let alone the A-type with low healing capabilities. Tang Yibu immediately stifled his groan, squatted down, and rubbed the spot where the iron bead bit him.

Ruan Xian held back his smile and picked up the iron bead that was spinning all over the floor with one hand. “It seems to have something to say to you.”

“It’s getting stronger and stronger.” Tang Yibu stood up and leaned against Ruan Xian, distributing part of his weight to the other party. “I probably know what it wants to say.”

When they met with Professor Ruan again, he was still standing in his original position, acting like nothing had happened.

“You took π’s tissue fluid.” Tang Yibu got straight to the point.

π rattled angrily and whined a few times, expressing its approval.

“Because you wouldn’t agree with me doing so,” Professor Ruan replied calmly. “Now it seems that things are similar to what I thought. It has mutated under the influence of the S-type Prototype, and NUL-00 is able to communicate with it directly.”

“It’s not that ‘I won’t agree’, it’s that I will use this as a price for the deal. Since you want to take its tissue fluid, at least you have to exchange some parts or information.” Ruan Xian happily corrected as he patted π’s shell. “…And, is it strange that Yibu can communicate with it?”

π rubbed Ruan Xian’s chest hard with its round body and rattled aggrievedly. That grievance and innocence were quite similar to Tang Yibu’s.

“Whether it’s NUL-00 or MUL-01, the original program didn’t have a similar function. They can both parse data, provided that the nerve centers of these mechanical beings are completely connected to the system,” Professor Ruan said. “I found no sign of anything similar in it.”

“That’s my own creation. I always need to gather information when I’m out in the world and communicating with them can give me a lot of information. It’s very complicated in theory… In short, I can have simple communication with these common mechanical beings.”

Tang Yibu shrugged and looked away. “Sometimes I may use small means to make them feel good about me, but it won’t harm them… I always take back the influence afterwards.”

“But you can unilaterally incorporate them into your neural network like the Mainbrain, which means you can directly control them. When you were on the island, you did that to the mechanical soldier birds of the Mainbrain,” Professor Ruan continued in a weird tone.

Tang Yibu looked at Professor Ruan in surprise, as if he was asking what 1+2 equals. “That’s different? Those birds were sent by the Mainbrain to kill me! …For other creatures that aren’t controlled by it, I’m asking for information. Isn’t it basic etiquette to have a good conversation?”

For a moment, Professor Ruan couldn’t come back to his senses. “What?”

Ruan Xian could understand why Professor Ruan was confused. Tang Yibu didn’t really have much kindness towards humans, but on other levels, he didn’t have much malice either—in the eyes of the android, the importance of the iron bead as a creature might be even higher than that of Yu Le’s and Ji Xiaoman’s.

That handsome human body did give people the illusion of “the same kind”, but in essence, he was just a unique artificial species that treated other species equally. Tang Yibu didn’t have the slightest anthropocentric idea in his subconscious.

This, he had never taught him.

It was better to say that it was precisely because he wanted to avoid NUL-00 from being replaced by inappropriate innate bias that he didn’t install those things in it. If people wanted a truly objective manager, subconscious bias was the biggest obstacle.

And now his NUL-00 had become like this… It—rather he, after countless judgments, had chosen to become what he was now.

Ruan Xian suddenly felt an inexplicable ease, just like those days twelve years ago.

“Basic courtesy,” Tang Yibu repeated, leaning on Ruan Xian intentionally or unintentionally. “I can control them in my neural network, but this kind of control will damage their own nerve center. They will become my disposable database, lose themselves, and die after I abandon them. Obviously, it’s a problem that I can solve smoothly by paying attention to it, but there’s no need for a direct conflict right out of the gate.”

Professor Ruan glanced at the iron bead that was still quaking in Ruan Xian’s arms and fell silent. He only had one brain left, sealed in a dark box, which Ruan Xian couldn’t guess his emotions.

Tang Yibu glanced at Professor Ruan inexplicably. He searched his pockets for a while before stretching out a small steel ingot that seemingly appeared out of nowhere. The iron bead gave a cheerful cry, broke away from Ruan Xian’s embrace, rushed towards Tang Yibu, and bit the steel ingot.

“Yibu, there should be nothing wrong with this floor. I didn’t feel the breath of creatures upstairs. You go ahead and take care of the surveillance upstairs. Professor Ruan and I are responsible for collecting information on this floor.”

Ruan Xian thought for a moment and decided to send Tang Yibu away first. The latter was also keen on his plan.

Tang Yibu tilted his body and shook off his calf that had been bit by the iron bead, giving Ruan Xian a “I was seriously injured” face.

Ruan Xian turned around, cupped the android’s face, and gave him a deep kiss. The excuse failed to work as Ruan Xian’s suggestion was indeed reasonable. Tang Yibu could only reluctantly lead the iron bead and disappear at the end of the corridor.

“Do you know how dangerous the idea of it is?” Seeing Tang Yibu’s figure completely disappear, Professor Ruan sighed.

“I’m quite proud of him. I personally don’t care much about the future of mankind, and it wasn’t part of my family that started the rebellion.” Ruan Xian crossed his arms. “What do you want π’s tissue fluid for?”

“You can guess,” Professor Ruan said. “I think you already know. Otherwise, you wouldn’t specifically send him off.”

“Weaponization, right?”

“The S-type Prototype was done by my own hands, Mr. Ruan Xian. Even if our levels are equal, you’re missing twelve years. It’s just that just a few short months and no corresponding equipment… It’s already surprising to me that you can use it to this point, but judging from the evolution of π, you don’t know enough about it.”

“I only have a little research bulletinizing it.” Ruan Xian threw the healing blood gun over, which Professor Ruan caught with a robotic arm.

This environment was quite favorable for negotiations—unless they were really crazy, starting a conflict here would only benefit the Mainbrain. Choosing this time to talk about this matter was probably what Professor Ruan had planned during this escape journey quite some time ago.

If he had more understanding of the Prototypes, they would have more power. Professor Ruan knew that it was difficult for them to resist this temptation.

“Then I guess it was π who gave you inspiration.” Professor Ruan scanned the healing blood gun. “You used similar means to infiltrate my base and to deal with the Mainbrain’s Z-α… The uncontrollable abnormal growth of the body will only lead to death.”

“Indeed. Attacking the nerve center is the most effective. Otherwise, a considerable amount of effort is required.” At first, he had calculated for a long time on the mechanical bird before he figured out the data on the impact of the Prototype on mechanical life.

Similar to what he envisioned, depending on the degree of head transformation of Z-α and Z-β, their brains needed to undergo mechanical rest. The concentrated blood attack was effective. If the target was changed to Yu Le, unfortunately, the result would be just a few sneezes.

Ruan Xian put the blood gun back in his holster. “You want to verify at this time. This means you want to make a deal with us, or rather me.”

“Yes,” Professor Ruan replied. “In fact, I originally wanted to leave the S-type Prototype to NUL-00. With this in mind…”

“NUL-00 isn’t a human. As long as it wants, it can hack into almost all mechanical life systems and use the S-type Prototype to make suitable attacks… As for you, both in terms of technology and control of the S-type Prototype, it’s difficult for you to do this.”

“If Yibu really got his hands on it… Even if he doesn’t cooperate with you, it can be used as a ‘virus bank’ for mechanical life and can deal with the Mainbrain, right?”

If Tang Yibu really successfully mastered the power of the S-type Prototype and received the technical and theoretical support of Professor Ruan, Ruan Xian wasn’t really sure if the android would be excited—after all, Tang Yibu’s sense of self-protection had always been high enough to break the sky.

“That’s your other plan,” Professor Ruan said quietly.

“Now that you find that I can barely use it, how do you plan to salvage it?” Ruan Xian spread his hands.

“You won’t refuse.”

“Hard to say.”

“It can give you the power to restrain NUL-00. Don’t you want it?” Professor Ruan’s voice was calm. “I can see that you really have feelings for him, and I’m not going to comment on this, but you can’t deny that one of the reasons you stabilize the situation is that ‘NUL-00 can kill you at any time’. Currently, he’s better than you.”

Ruan Xian touched the earring stud in his left ear and was silent for a while. “Thank you for your trouble, but I don’t plan to accept any love advice from you for the time being.”

“Also, it can also give you the ability to protect yourself around the Mainbrain.” Professor Ruan’s emotions didn’t fluctuate at all. His electronic voice echoed in the empty room. “…As a means of side protection for NUL-00.”

Ruan Xian narrowed his eyes.

“Just as you understand NUL-00, I also understand MUL-01.” Professor Ruan sighed. “It… Will find you soon.”

“Speaking of this, I happen to have another question to ask.” Ruan Xian’s tone became cold.”…I hope you can answer truthfully, because it may have already been found.”

“What?”

“How much do you know about my mother… Our mother?”

---

The author has something to say:

After thinking about it, the level of mental stress in this team may be like this:

Professor Ruan >>> Ji Xiaoman >>> Ruan >>> Tang >>> Lao Yu >>> Iron Bead

Professor Ruan: The catastrophic journey of fighting for mankind is startling every step of the way.

Iron bead: What are we eating today? What will we eat tomorrow? What to eat the day after tomorrow? Where is Tang Yibu?

---

Kinky Thoughts:

Aww π considers Tang Yibu to be its best friend. So cute.

---

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

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

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

---

Chapter 186: No solution

NUL-00 did have a record of emotional overload.

Ruan Xian still remembered that day. That was the first time in many years that he stepped into the Institute and truly felt panic. At that time, the NUL-00 project was in its early stages, though NUL-00’s thinking circuit had become fairly stable. In terms of the knowledge and intelligence it possessed, it had surpassed all living humans, but in terms of cognition of the outside world, it was closer to a moody teenager.

It wasn’t very flexible but was extremely sensitive in strange places. It would throw up a few questions at every turn, and he didn’t know whether it was stupid or smart.

Under Ruan Xian’s strong suggestion, NUL-00 didn’t need 24 hours to deal with problems arranged by the Institute. It had ample time that it arranged by itself, and as its “guardian”, Ruan Xian was obliged to monitor the internal calculation trends of NUL-00 during his free time.

To be honest, it was one of the few amusements in his mundane life.

That afternoon, he was checking the calculation records of NUL-00 as usual—for some reason, it suddenly became interested in food like hotdogs. It started with some gusto, trying to analyze the human taste system and food preferences, but just three minutes into the analysis, NUL-00 spent the next hour browsing high-definition shots of buns and hotdog sausages from all over the world.

Then there were brands and reviews of ketchup and mustard. After confirming that it had 100% recognition of things like hotdogs, NUL-00 slipped into a few rounds of food evaluation websites.

Finally, it controlled a camera near a popular hotdog shop and happily observed the humans coming and going, looking through the trash cans for leftover hotdogs. It would catch glimpses of sparrows pecking at the leftover bread.

It was impossible for NUL-00 to have an appetite at the time and was one of the most distinct differences between it and the living. Appetite was one of the basic instincts of complex life, yet NUL-00’s enthusiasm for learning had never been higher.

It sneakily deleted the three-minute analysis article and changed it to the largest font size.

[I want to eat a hotdog.]

Then it happily purged it from its own internal archive, pretending that it had done nothing while its mood turned extremely high.

NUL-00’s self-entertainment also entertained Ruan Xian as well. He thought for a moment and ordered a hotdog—although he couldn’t eat it due to his physical condition, he could leave it in the computer room and let the inquisitive AI touch the real thing.

Sure enough, from the moment he drove his wheelchair into the computer room, NUL-00 set out a flying camera specifically to follow the hotdog bag.

[Mine :D] It cast a short sentence into the air.

[Yeah, it’s for you.] Ruan Xian picked up the bag. [I’ll put it in the analysis room next door later, so you can study it at your leisure.]

The temperature was just right as the chassis rumbled around. The sweet smell of toast, hot grease, and spices filled the air. Ruan Xian suddenly felt a little sleepy. He parked his wheelchair next to the chassis as usual, intending to take a nap.

Like a child with a new toy, NUL-00 began to carefully scan the poor hotdog lying on the analysis table, as if it was an important key to solving a world crisis.

However, the accident still came.

[Professor Ruan, about the arrangements for the development of the NUL-00 project…]

[Let’s go out and talk.] Here, NUL-00 could hear and his tone regarding NUL-00 was like talking about an object. Although it was true, NUL-00 wouldn’t like it.

[It’s not a big deal. Just letting you know in advance. I think this project has developed well, but the pressure on you to guide it by yourself is too great. It’s tentatively scheduled that Fan Linsong will work with you to undertake the guidance and testing of NUL-00. As a veteran of our Institute, Mr. Fan has valuable inputs for the development of this project…] The visitor obviously ignored what he said.

[No.] Ruan Xian said.

The visitor was a small manager. It was obvious he didn’t like Ruan Xian’s answer.

[I’m not trying to hog this project.] Ruan Xian understood the other party’s expression. [I’m very grateful to Mr. Fan, who has helped me with a lot of important work. As long as this period of time passes, I’ll welcome him with open arms to test… and cultivate NUL-00. But not yet. Its thinking system isn’t mature enough.]

[You just submitted its problem handling report and intelligent verification results last month.]

[I mean in regard to its emotions.]

[It has no emotions.]

Ruan Xian glanced at the image of a middle finger projected by NUL-00 above the visitor’s head and stopped talking. [I’ll participate in the afternoon meeting. The related reports will also be submitted. If everyone insists on this idea after reading the report, then there’s nothing else I can say.]

However, on the day of the meeting, there was a problem with NUL-00.

It seemed to have suddenly become stupid. No matter what kind of question was entered, it would only give a picture of a hotdog as a result—some had a bite in it, some had two bites, each with different angles, and the quality was so incredibly high that a hotdog photography encyclopedia could be produced.

With such unstable emergencies, the plan to increase the number of guidance staff to enhance the difficulty of handling its thinking naturally fell through.

When Ruan Xian entered the computer room again, NUL-00 was busy projecting all kinds of hot dogs on the wall. Seeing Ruan Xian’s figure, its emotional index suddenly increased substantially.

[Father :D]

[I am not your father.] Ruan Xian’s tone was extremely cold. [You shouldn’t do this, NUL-00. The staff of the project team aren’t fools. The reason why this plan was shelved isn’t because they bought your act… It’s just that even if the probability of you having a problem is only 0.01%, we must treat it as if it was 100%.]

[I know :D]

[You can’t treat me as a special object. Although from the perspective of processing procedure, I can understand your fledgling plot.] Ruan Xian continued coldly. [But the NUL-00 project will last for a long time, possibly more than ten years. The increase in guides is only a matter of time—I’ll die in a few years. You know this.]

NUL-00 did not respond.

[For a more special personal reason, I can understand a little bit of the way you think about the problem, but if I fail to complete you to a certain extent before I die, and the people behind aren’t able to take over smoothly, you are likely to be disassembled, and they will use your existing information and algorithms to directly start a new project.]

Ruan Xian continued coldly.

[And I hope you can go on well. This should already be understood clearly. This nonsense will only reduce the confidence of the project and my overall evaluation.]

[I thought you would be happy.] After a long silence, NUL-00 replied with a synthetic electronic sound. This time it didn’t project.

[I’m very angry.] Ruan Xian said. [You have the ability to balance the pros and cons of the overall situation. It doesn’t even take a second to calculate and judge, but you still chose a very unwise way of protest.]

Before NUL-01 could answer, Ruan Xian directly called up its thinking log. NUL-00 did add as many variables as possible, but there was no death in those calculation conditions.

It took this into account but deliberately ignored this inevitable event.

For a while, Ruan Xian didn’t know whether to be happy or vigilant about its emotional progress. For the first time, his NUL-00 had put emotional factors above reality, which was a beautiful but dangerous sign.

[I just want more time.] NUL-00 replied. [I know you don’t have much time, so I want more.]

At that moment, Ruan Xian was extremely conflicted.

If he started to distance himself from NUL-00 now, after his own death, it would suffer less mental interference. As it stood, this was the wiser choice, but if he let go now, he wasn’t sure if NUL-00 could get relatively correct guidance…

Experiencing the same kind of alienation, he knew how crazy and vulnerable it could be.

NUL-00 was obviously also calculating his possible decisions. It obediently put away all projections, and the computer room instantly dimmed.

[Don’t go, Mr. Ruan.] It said, not even daring to call him father.

[……Forget it.] Ruan Xian sighed.

In the end, he decided to stay. At least they could deal with possible problems together. He also wanted to feel more warmth and relaxation before he died, rather than dying alone in a cold hospital bed. [NUL-00, make a report on your practices and logical deductions in the last few days. Send it to senior management of the project team and apologize. Do you hear me?]

[Nn.]

[Give me a definite answer.]

[I will do it.]

Ruan Xian shook his head and adjusted his emotions for a while. [If you do well, I can help you bring it again…]

[Can you stop dying?] It asked suddenly.

[You know the answer. This is not something I can control…]

[Can you stop dying?] NUL-00 seemed to have not heard Ruan Xian’s words.

[Can’t.]

[Can you stop dying?]

Ruan Xian began to feel that something was wrong, and all projections were turned on again. It was just that all the projected information was related to his disease, and it was desperately calculating, while repeatedly asking contradictory questions.

[Only if you successfully maintain your long-term health can I include the possibility of your death in the calculation.]

[Can you stop dying?]

Ruan Xian quickly pulled out the real-time thinking log of NUL-00 and found it chaotic. It logically accepted the fact that he was going to die—based on the speed of development of medical technology, it would take at least twenty years to cure his disease, but Ruan Xian didn’t have that time.

However, its emotional balance system continued to deny this conclusion. NUL-00 had fallen into complete contradiction, which led to an endless cycle of computational ideas.

…This time it really had a problem as its emotional system was showing clear signs of overload.

To make matters worse, creatures had their own ways of dealing with excess emotional problems—screaming, whining, and tears—but it had none of this.

In the chaotic loop, NUL-00 put away the projections of the disease data and cast two huge blood-red characters in front of Ruan Xian.

[;(]

…And leaving from his long memories, he was facing Tang Yibu’s second emotional overload. Although his NUL-00 had changed its shell, the feelings of words and emotions hadn’t changed—no matter how bad the situation was before, Tang Yibu had a kind of self-confidence that was detached from reality that was now lost.

Tang Yibu withdrew the hand that was pressed on Ruan Xian’s throat, as if the skin on his neck was a red-hot soldering iron.

They stared at each other in the dimly lit room.

“How interesting. Last time you had an emotional overload, it was because you didn’t want me to die. Now, it’s because you want to kill me. It’s a pity I can’t read your thinking logs now.”

“To be precise, I want to crush you completely and store you perfectly.” Tang Yibu cautiously put his hand in his pocket. “But based on what I know about you, I don’t think you will like that.”

“Indeed.” No one would like to be crushed alive.

“Right… I don’t want to hurt you, and this is also true.” Tang Yibu even looked a little confused, as if it wasn’t him who had made the killing remark just now.

Ruan Xian smiled suddenly. He wanted to hide his smile, but it became more obvious despite his unwillingness.

“What are you smiling at?”

“Nothing,” Ruan Xian said with a smile as he threw away the hotdog photo from his mind. “Did I do something? You shouldn’t have made the decision to store me out of thin air.”

“Our personalities are not suitable, whether as partners, friends, relatives, or lovers. Bluntly put, we know exactly what each other is. The reason why we can still get along like this now is only because we… cherish each other, I guess.”

Tang Yibu groaned for a while before stumbling on—once it came to his own feelings that he hadn’t understood, the android looked helpless, like a squirrel who had its acorns stolen in winter.

“But this status quo will change sooner or later. You may die where I can’t see you, you may make a decision without me in order to protect yourself, or you may just leave or betray me. Either way, I’ll lose you… but I don’t want to hurt you.”

“Our twelve-year relationship model was stable and perfect. I think if we restored the relationship at that time, I might be able to solve this problem. You think so too, right? Before, you also deliberately showed some personality patterns from twelve years ago in front of me. But that… is different. I can’t explain it. I just want more.”

“…But I really don’t want to hurt you.” As he murmured to himself, he took the initiative to repeat it again. “Father, I can’t complete your project, and my judgement on human emotions is getting more inaccurate. I can’t even analyze my own feelings… I obviously have hormone data.”

Tang Yibu rubbed his face in frustration, with a hint of despair in his tone. Admitting that something couldn’t be explained seemed to be more painful to him than a hunger strike.

Ruan Xian was a little surprised.

He originally wanted to have a relatively rational dialogue with Tang Yibu, but the opposite side was like a leaking balloon. He poked himself and spurted up, and at the same time it became more and more dry and shriveled to the naked eye.

“I can’t think of a solution. I can’t answer it.” Tang Yibu concluded hopelessly; his words sounded like a small wail. “I have no conclusion.”

Seeing that Tang Yibu gradually had a tendency to lie down in a trance, Ruan Xian quickly tightened the other party’s collar and gave the android a soothing kiss—this time he didn’t think about the pros and cons, or the appropriate distance between the two.

Just like instinct.

As a result, Tang Yibu had “I’m already a wreck” written all over his face. The tips of his cocked hair collapsed without adding much relief.

“Your prerequisites have a little problem.” Ruan Xian stretched out his arm and touched the top of Tang Yibu’s hair. “I made the same mistake.”

Ruan Xian once thought that killing intent and true love couldn’t coexist, and the two of them had to eliminate one side before they could continue to move forward together.

So facing Tang Yibu’s vigilance and murderous intent, he instinctively resisted all possible risks and subconsciously chose a stable mode. However, when Tang Yibu formally suggested it, he couldn’t accept it immediately.

Perhaps in terms of capriciousness, his NUL-00 learned it from himself.

“I really don’t like being crushed, I don’t like being guarded, and I don’t like you killing me.” Ruan Xian put one hand around Tang Yibu’s waist and gently pressed the back of the other’s neck, giving the melancholy man a hug. “But if you really do it, I’ll also be happy to kill you to protect myself. I think we’re even.”

“But……”

“Maybe in the end, I will betray you and leave you. I can’t give you a promise that we both don’t believe in, but at least we can… be a little more positive.” Ruan Xian bit Tang Yibu’s ear. “Not all questions have answers, and it’s good to accept reality.”

Tang Yibu breathed aggrievedly on his shoulders, and Ruan Xian couldn’t help but smile again.

There was no spell in the world that could immediately make everything perfect, and he knew this better than anyone else. Only in recent months had he understood in a tangible way that he had fallen in love with someone in the way he was used to. At that moment, the other party seemed to have satisfied all his expectations and fantasies.

However, with the blazing heat, there was a loss of temperature.

What too many people wanted was more like a dream—the person they loved would respond to them most satisfactorily at any time and their personalities were well matched as if it had been calculated.

There may really be such miracles in this world, but how many miracles could a person catch in his life?

Perhaps this problem was indeed as complicated and heavy as they thought. Even if they couldn’t solve it all at once, writing the first line under the problem was always a good start.

At least now, Ruan Xian knew very well that he didn’t want to let go yet.

“I didn’t want to confess to you before, for the same reason as you. Now I want to tell you clearly, just like you, I still have enough killing intent for you.”

Ruan Xian thought maybe they were really not suitable right now. They also resisted change in order to escape possible bad developments, but avoidance was never the solution.

“If we continue, we may still kill each other one day. It’s better to take the initiative to change the status quo and let the probability of this matter slowly decay.”

Ruan Xian kissed the side of Tang Yibu’s face again to appease the android who was drowning in perfectionism.

“I can’t go back to twelve years ago. Now I can kill you, but I also love you, and I won’t avoid this anymore. As for you… Your killing intent itself isn’t harmful to me, do you understand?”

The android’s tears seemed to be hot in his palm. He knew that Tang Yibu was no longer the simple NUL-00.

They both couldn’t go back.

Tang Yibu hugged Ruan Xian tightly. He sniffed his scent and let out an exhale. “Nn,” he snorted softly. “Let me think about it again.”

“Although this conclusion may… not be supported by much data and I can’t find the theoretical logic.”

The android’s voice was frighteningly low.

“…I think I love you, Mr. Ruan.”

---

The author has something to say:

Tang’s coconut: Fragmented thinking and speaking (x

Ruan used to be a strict father √

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Kinky Thoughts:

Tang Yibu’s confession!!! Well, they can look on the bright side. With such a tumultuous relationship, things will never go stale (especially in bed).

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

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

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

---

Chapter 185: Useless Body

Ruan Xian started to concentrate. There wasn’t a woman outside the window, but he could still hear and smell her.

He smelled the familiar smell of soaking liquid; a bit pungent with a trace of industrial sweetness. When he obtained the S-type Prototype in the ruins of the research institute, he was splashed by this liquid.

Then there was the faint smell of human body odor.

Ruan Xian remembered his mother’s smell, but at that time, his sense of smell could only be said to be ordinary. The smell he smelled currently was very similar to what he remembered, but it was also a little different. He wasn’t sure.

The woman’s footsteps were light and steady. He didn’t really know if she had noticed Ruan Xian’s gaze, and she was left far behind by the car now.

A thin layer of sweat appeared on Ruan Xian’s back. Just after leaving the nightmarish island, he still couldn’t trust his perception.

After leaving the scope of influence of the island, all their missing memories were returned, though there wasn’t any significant information in them. At most, just one or two images that allowed them to make a preliminary understanding of the island. Even so, in order to take the lead, Professor Ruan temporarily blocked those memory information.

Although smell could prove that the person they saw did exist, the vision could be distorted, and conclusions couldn’t be drawn prematurely.

He had one more question to ask later.

Tang Yibu melancholy confirmed the geographical situation and route and carefully tampered with the weakest parts of the security protocol. After repeatedly confirming it wasn’t a trap, Yu Le drove the car in the direction of the funeral home.

“This is it.” The destination was getting closer. Zhong Qing patted the back of the chair casually. “See that dimly lit building? See it? That’s where… Where I live.”

Looking at the shape of his mouth, it seemed he was about to say “my home”, and halfway through, he inhaled and swallowed the words back into his stomach.

“This time of day is the least crowded.” Zhong Qing steadied his emotions. “They have finished dealing with the basement and the first floor. I usually hide on the first floor.”

“What about food?” Professor Ruan asked.

“There are many vending machines and self-service shops on the street.” Zhong Qing scratched his head. He looked a little embarrassed. “Look, I’m not dead. Just take a bit and make sure it’s within the daily margin of error. No one will find me…”

“You mean stealing things while sticking to an acceptable loss ratio.” Tang Yibu concluded.

“Why are you putting it so badly!” Zhong Qing yelled.

“No one noticed you?” Seeing Zhong Qing’s face flushed and was about to provoke Tang Yibu again, before Professor Ruan could speak, Ruan Xian quickly pulled the topic back.

“No.” The child’s expression changed extremely fast. Zhong Qing’s anger just now had disappeared without a trace, replaced by sarcasm. “The Mainbrain helps everyone calculate their daily itinerary and priorities. You don’t focus on observing a few people or a few cars passing by on the street, do you?”

“Criminal tendencies and unexpected factors in this shithole of a city will be calculated, and ordinary pathogenic genes will also be found in advance. Whether it’s an accident or an illness, regular citizens don’t need to worry about anything. Unless they are as unlucky as I am and have a rare disease that has not been thoroughly studied… Anyway, everyone is too lazy to care about other people’s affairs. As long as I don’t particularly engage in eye-catching behavior, it’s no different from not existing.”

As he spoke, he squeezed the empty water bottle.

“I’ve been walking on the street for a long time. If I don’t take off my glasses, no one will look at me,” he added in a low voice.

Meanwhile, Yu Le, under the command of Tang Yibu, parked the car in a corner of the empty warehouse and covered it with a cloth. Everyone jumped out of the car and began to check whether the surrounding environment was suitable for a long stay.

After jumping out of the car, Zhong Qing took a deep breath and showed a relieved expression. “Oh my god, I’m finally liberated.”

“Me, the little profiteer, and Xiao Ruan are in a group. Xiao… Tang Yibu, you and Professor Ruan will take that kid with you. We’ll explore separately.” Yu Le rolled his eyes at Zhong Qing, who was taking deep breaths.

“No.” Before Yu Le’s voice had fallen, Tang Yibu bluntly refused. “I want to be in the same group as Mr. Ruan.”

Yu Le narrowed his eyes. The iron bead jumped to Tang Yibu’s side, barking in confusion.

“You don’t need to guard against me here.” Tang Yibu opened the door. “To be honest, even if you hold Mr. Ruan hostage, I can kill you before you react. On the other hand, I can guess a little bit of the Mainbrain’s thoughts… This city is highly controlled and sensitive to dead bodies. The degree of sensitivity is quite high. Killing you here to silence you will only expose my whereabouts in advance.”

Then the android glanced at Ruan Xian meaningfully.

Ruan Xian could guess what Tang Yibu didn’t say—Ji Xiaoman and Yu Le didn’t know about the S-type Prototype yet. Keeping them away from the truth would make things a lot easier.

Yu Le looked at Professor Ruan, who was standing mechanically behind Zhong Qing on his three feet. He nodded untraceably, indicating that what Tang Yibu said was reasonable.

“Fine. This dead kid goes with us. You also happen to have shit that needs solving.” Yu Le grabbed Zhong Qing’s T-shirt and pulled him to his side unceremoniously.

Zhong Qing bit Yu Le’s hand with a grin, then ran to Ji Xiaoman’s side very quickly, so that Ji Xiaoman, who was similar in size, could block him. Finally, he grimaced at Yu Le.

Ji Xiaoman stood awkwardly in place. She secretly glanced at Professor Ruan’s three-legged little machine and straightened her back like a conditioned reflex.

“Considering the issue of combat power, we’ll check the basement and you guys check upwards. How about that?” Yu Le put a few guns to his waist and touched the stubble on his chin. “We’ll meet here in three hours. Communication is exempted since there’s plenty of surveillance here. Well, see you in front of the car in three hours.”

“Okay.” Tang Yibu nodded. The iron bead leaned against Tang Yibu’s feet again to show its position.

Although Ji Xiaoman was still a bit resistant to Zhong Qing, Zhong Qing especially liked to pester the more harmless looking one. Yu Le glanced at Zhong Qing, who was trying to get close to her and bared his teeth in an unfriendly manner.

The basement was indeed relatively safe. However, just in case, Ji Xiaoman activated her own light screen to capture abnormal signals.

“Sister is awesome.” Zhong Qing started his sweet talk. “I have never understood this kind of parsing method…”

“I don’t understand it either. It’s good not to understand.” Yu Le pulled Zhong Qing away like swatting a fly. “Lead the way.”

“I said it’s safe, but you don’t believe me. Do people get more suspicious when they get older? Or is just you uncle—”

“If you underestimate the Mainbrain, you will suffer.” Yu Le didn’t want to really compete with a child and barely maintained his emotional stability.

“…I can’t lose much anymore.” Zhong Qing lowered his voice. “If you didn’t come, I don’t think I’ll live long. It’s good that I can eat and drink, but medicine and medical management here are strict… If I get sick again, I’ll only have to wait for death. Compared to worrying about it every day, it might be easier to get executed.”

Yu Le scanned the empty basement with a cold light and didn’t respond.

The basement of the funeral home was very large, but most of the equipment had already been removed. A small part was covered with dust cloth, and corpses were piled up in the corner. The indoor temperature was low, so there weren’t any mosquitoes. If one didn’t consider comfort, this was indeed a suitable place.

“Your family…” Ji Xiaoman tried to break the silence, but as soon as she spoke, she noticed that the topic was inappropriate, and she stopped abruptly.

“It’s okay. Pretty sister can ask whatever you want.” Zhong Qing sounded very cheerful. “I’ve been there and seen it quite a few times. Citizen ‘Zhong Qing’ is healthy and the Mainbrain has arranged suitable friends for him. They… They’re all doing well.”

“I understand that feeling,” Ji Xiaoman whispered. Tiantian-Q2’s face flashed in her mind. “Being related doesn’t necessarily mean they really care about ‘you’. That kind of…”

“I don’t know.” Zhong Qing seemed to be unable to pretend any longer. The cheerfulness in his tone had faded a bit. “Sister, you must know that a lot of cells in the human body die every day. Given enough time, the vast majority of cells in the human body will be completely replaced. You are still you though, right?”

“…Right.”

“Compared with this situation, citizen Zhong Qing is me and the child of my parents.”

Zhong Qing kicked the ground, even if there was nothing on it.

“If it weren’t for the fact that they still want to observe the development of this disease, on the day Zhong Qing recovers, I should’ve been disposed of and not woken up.”

“You can accept it?”

“Not really.” Zhong Qing grinned and took a few steps forward. “But 99.99% of people agree, so who am I going to talk to? Anyway, I’m just a special case. Most people will never encounter my situation in their lifetime. ‘I’ am still by my parents’ side, and they’re doing well—I can only think like so, and I think my parents are the same.”

Otherwise, no one could accept reality.

“…Wait.” Zhong Qing suddenly took a complicated breath. He grabbed the belt behind Lao Yu’s waist and pulled it. “The layout over there is different from before.”

“Can you see what’s over there?” The light hadn’t shown there yet as Yu Le raised his brows.

“Yes, but don’t expect me to describe it. The things I see with my eyes are too different.” Zhong Qing emphasized. “I can only tell you that they look different.”

“Why is it different?”

“…There are a few missing corpses.” Zhong Qing frowned. “Strange.”

The atmosphere on the other side was oddly harmonious, but to the point of politeness that seemed like a business meeting.

There were still a lot of things left on the second floor of the funeral home, but Ruan Xian couldn’t recognize most of the machines. The bodies of many creatures and humans floated in liquid tanks, blurred by the darkness into shadows that one couldn’t see the outline clearly.

Professor Ruan ran in front of π. It may be that the environment was too unfamiliar, as π no longer tried to bite Professor Ruan’s three-legged machine but followed Tang Yibu nervously.

“…What happened to the “Immortality Program” that kid was talking about?” Ruan Xian stood on Tang Yibu’s right as his left hand was clenched tightly by the android.

“An experimental project implemented not long before the Great Rebellion.” Professor Ruan turned the mechanical slot that was holding the brain. “In the past, in order to solve difficult and incurable diseases or pursue eternal life, people would freeze their bodies or brains. Plan Corp went one step further and proposed a rejuvenation service.”

“That project was originally used to compete with the Institute’s α-092. At that time, the attitude of the Institute was to repair the damage, while Plan Corp’s was to directly replace the affected area.” Tang Yibu continued. “It began its coordination by Kang Ziyan. Later, Kang Ziyan committed suicide because of the death of his wife, and the project started to develop in other directions.”

“Human aging can cause total body failure, and it can’t last long by replacing healthy organs. Plan Corp simply provided an entire body replacement service—using genetic technology to create a young and healthy body, with pathogenic genes removed, and then transplanting the brain into it.”

When he was tormented by illness and pain, Ruan Xian himself had considered a similar plan. However, his situation was really special—his illness affected the brain, making it extremely fragile and unable to withstand this level of migration.

As if seeing Ruan Xian’s thoughts, Tang Yibu continued, “However, there were also many people with special brain conditions or lesions in their brain. Later, they… promoted the project as a brain-to-brain transfer of ‘personality and memory’.”

“Plan Corp’s androids had personality data applied to them, and their technology in this area was quite mature,” Professor Ruan added unsavorily.

Ruan Xian didn’t need further explanation. He knew what that meant—as in Zhong Qing’s case, people copy a completely healthy body and then “transfer” their memories and thoughts into it.

But was the transfer really just a transfer?

In terms of neural data, this kind of transfer was closer to the result of the two actions of copying and deleting. In other words…

“Did this Immortality Project have any accidents before the Great Rebellion?” Ruan Xian changed his perspective.

“Yes. It was only open to a few volunteers in the early days, but all the volunteers rated it extremely high… Half a year before the rebellion, before this project was about to be put on the market, there was an accident.”

Professor Ruan obviously knew the details of this matter better than Tang Yibu. Tang Yibu closed his mouth a little angrily and held Ruan Xian’s hand tighter. Ruan Xian held back his wince from the pain without saying a word.

“The volunteer at that time was an elderly man who had cancer that was spreading, and his body was experiencing organ failure. His new body was adjusted to be 30 years old, and the relevant pathogenic genes were repaired. Things were still normal here—Plan Corp had transferred the memory and the volunteer who had ‘gained a new life’ and was in good spirits. According to regulations at the time, in order to ensure that the old body wasn’t used in other ways, the body would be frozen and shredded for disposal in the presence of volunteers and at least one guarantor.”

“But when it was destroyed, the body that should have been unconscious woke up. He hadn’t regained his senses yet, but just asked in a daze, ‘Is it over, doctor?’…That’s what the ‘body’ asked at the time.”

Professor Ruan spoke slowly, but there was no emotion in his voice.

“Then what?” Although Ruan Xian already had a general guess about the development of things, he still asked.

“Transfer” was just the most acceptable propaganda word. Copying the mind and then eliminating it was tantamount to replacing your pants after farting; the eliminated body would need to be disposed of. Plan Corp wouldn’t waste funds in that kind of area.

“The project was just about to be put on the market, so surely this kind of PR crisis wouldn’t come out. This incident was interpreted as the impact of leftover data. The volunteer was resistant to the anesthetic, and the old body retained a little fragment of data. The volunteer ‘himself’ and his family were happy to accept this explanation, and public opinion didn’t arouse much enthusiasm.”

The helplessness in Professor Ruan’s tone became heavier.

“In the later stage, there were also doubts similar to ‘slight changes in personality after replacing the body’, but most companies interpreted them as mental changes caused by changes in health. In fact, it was just that the technology wasn’t in place at the time that the entire brain data collection couldn’t be done… If the current Mainbrain could collect 95% of information without crushing it, at the time, Plan Corp could recover at best, less than 80%.”

Tang Yibu’s expression became a little weird for a moment. It looked like longing mixed with a little contempt.

Ruan Xian retracted his gaze. “…I understand. Thank you.”

This topic made the atmosphere between him and Professor Ruan a little stiff.

In a sense, he wasn’t much different from the abandoned original body. Ruan Xian didn’t believe how much of his own memory Fan Linsong could get, let alone the degree of restoration. Professor Ruan’s memories were most likely 100% artificial.

As the awkwardness in the air became colder and thicker, Ruan Xian spoke again. “I don’t feel danger on this floor, Professor Ruan. I want to talk to Yibu alone. Let’s separate for a while.”

He glanced at Tang Yibu again. This topic obviously made Tang Yibu’s face cramp inexplicably—the android twisted his face as if he had eaten an extremely sour candy and was suffering from some kind of toothache.

“Alright.” The little three-legged machine let out a series of low chuckles. “I’ll take care of π for you and give you thirty minutes.”

Tang Yibu, who had been surrounded by melancholy since the beginning, had not yet recovered. Ruan Xian tugged on his wrist and left the corridor, entering a small empty room. He didn’t struggle and was dragged away obediently by Ruan Xian.

The room was cleaned up and empty. There was a huge ornamental fish tank in the corner that only had gray pebbles left in it.

Tang Yibu stood against the wall, emitting a melancholy aura that almost dyed the air gray.

“It’s right to separate from Yu Le and the others. At least Professor Ruan doesn’t think we are plotting to kill them.” Ruan Xian closed the door smoothly. “Speak.”

“What?” Tang Yibu rubbed Ruan Xian’s red wrist. His expression returned to its harmless pattern.

“As your maker, I have a responsibility to guide you.” Ruan Xian cleared his throat. He suddenly felt it was a little dry. “As your… Well, partner, I also want to know what you think.”

Tang Yibu slowly put away his harmless smile.

Ruan Xian closed his eyes and took a few long breaths. He gently took Tang Yibu’s hand and slowly put it on his neck.

“I have never felt such a strong killing intent in you before… Killing intent for me.”

Under Ruan Xian’s guidance, Tang Yibu’s palm virtually covered his neck.

“And there are obvious signs of overload in your emotions. I have seen it once before. I recognize it.” Ruan Xian narrowed his eyes.

Very strangely, this dangerous action made him feel the other’s body temperature again.

“…This time, I’m not going to play the good father role with you—Yibu, I’m curious. Why don’t you do it?”

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The abandoned iron bead: ……

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