Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

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

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Chapter 150: Strange Noise

They were standing on the edge of the doll’s head, near the real stone platform. Xiao Zhao didn’t gather her companions who were fighting in the distance but was alone as she looked at Tang Yibu with interest.

“I seem to have heard it wrong just now.” The smile on Xiao Zhao’s face became sickeningly sweet. “Did you refuse, Xiao Tang?”

“No.” Tang Yibu didn’t speak nonsense. This time, he stated it more clearly and loudly. His hand movements became a bit heavier. Ruan Xian instantly understood and pretended that he was badly hurt from that previous fight. He leaned his feet towards Tang Yibu’s chest vainly.

Tang Yibu carefully guided Ruan Xian to the ground, and then took a few steps forward to block his body.

“Then there’s no way out.” Xiao Zhao sighed and rubbed the residual blood on her hands. “Let’s see… How many of your bones did I break before? But now it seems that I have to send your little lover away first. I should have guessed a long time ago that you would run into a guy that could fight. Haa, people’s hearts these days—”

As soon as Xiao Zhao was halfway through speaking, her figure flashed and appeared behind Tang Yibu. She clenched the knife in her hand and jabbed at Tang Yibu’s waist. Tang Yibu pretended to stagger and escaped the blow smoothly.

“Progress!” she exclaimed.

Ruan Xian narrowed his eyes.

Xiao Zhao’s path was completely different from that of the enemy just now. Tang Yibu’s movements were very smooth, and it could be seen that he had not been seriously disturbed. But every time the android moved, there would be a few weird redundancies in his steps.

It was a misdirection.

Compared with complete confusion of perception, Xiao Zhao apparently preferred to hide false details in their environment. Unless one could concentrate, it was difficult to tell what details were deliberate on the part of the opponent—at the moment, Tang Yibu was focusing on hiding his strength and couldn’t completely let go and fight. On the other hand, although Tang Yibu’s perception was somewhat strengthened to a certain extent, it was still very different from the S-type Prototype. Ruan Xian didn’t think Tang Yibu could accurately distinguish those traps.

False projections or depressions on the ground, the wrong edge of the terrain, the subtle deviations in the trajectory of the opponent’s blade and the misalignment of movements; these details were nothing if one just looked at them, but if you were caught in a real fight, they were enough to be a butterfly that could cause a hurricane.

Tang Yibu suppressed all his combat reaction speed and strength to that of an ordinary person that had extensive combat experience at most while looking fiercely. Unfortunately, his opponent was too crazy—Xiao Zhao’s fighting style was beyond what a normal person could do.

“This won’t do.” The tip of Xiao Zhao’s knife slashed across Tang Yibu’s shoulder, bringing up a splash of blood. She herself somersaulted and landed lightly like a feather. “In another five minutes, you’ll be consumed by me… I say Xiao Tang, you really disappointed me that I didn’t even use such a boring method like taking your lover hostage.”

Her movements were crisp and clean, without the slightest trace of sloppiness. It could be seen that she was obviously very good at killing. Relying on the weight and strength of a male physique, Tang Yibu barely kept the battle in a stalemate, but he was also faintly revealing defeat.

“You hurt my hand again.” She just muttered in a complaining tone.

Distracted by those false details, coupled with the opponent’s deadly offensive methods and abnormal movement speed, Tang Yibu could barely attack Xiao Zhao properly. He spent most of his time focusing on defense while Xiao Zhao was like a well-fed cat that was playing with its prey that was struggling in front of it.

Ruan Xian propped his body up off the ground, fixating his eyes on Tang Yibu. To be honest, he wasn’t worried about the android’s safety. As long as Tang Yibu was willing to show a little strength, he could easily crush Xiao Zhao’s skull with his bare hands, and his own preparation was completed. The healing blood gun under his white jacket was ready to go.

But these practices require them to expose a certain degree of strength. Now that someone of unknown origin was spying on them, they couldn’t predict what kind of chain-reaction effects would take place if they were exposed.

What are you going to do, Yibu?

He seemed to be aware of Ruan Xian’s sight. In the middle of the battle, Tang Yibu turned his head sideways, gave him a bright smile, and then shook his head gently.

“Now.”

In the gap between the fierce battle, the android mouthed.

“Not the right…”

The short knife slashed across Tang Yibu’s chest again, staining his clothes red with blood. Although it looked tragic, Ruan Xian was able to make a simple judgement based on the amount of bleeding. Tang Yibu successfully avoided all his vitals but purposefully created a particularly scary wound.

“…time yet.” Tang Yibu completed the information transmission.

At the same time, he was kicked in the chest by Xiao Zhao. He lost his balance and fell to the ground on his back. Xiao Zhao jumped onto his stomach and neatly raised the knife in her hand.

While Ruan Xian was still laying on the ground, Xiao Zhao had never dropped her guard against him. Ruan Xian was sure that the location in which he saw Xiao Zhao wasn’t true. Compared to attacking with his blood gun while his perception was in disarray, it was better to aim the healing blood gun at Tang Yibu.

The problem was Tang Yibu’s intention.

In a certain way, the two of them were very close to the same kind. It was impossible for them to completely pin their own safety on others; they would hold the initiative firmly in their hands. Ruan Xian knew this well, but his heart started to become uncontrollably irritable.

“Just a bunch of overcautious movements. I take back my words. You haven’t made any progress at all. You still look like you’re afraid of death.” Xiao Zhao shook her broken wrist. While Tang Yibu looked at it, her other hand quickly sent out a knife. “When fighting for your life like this, you better use everything you’ve got.”

With her knees pressed against his abdomen, Tang Yibu looked like he was bleeding out and dying.

The knife was raised in slow motion in Ruan Xian’s field of vision, and then fell at an even slower speed. Xiao Zhao didn’t seem to have any intention of killing Tang Yibu. The target of the tip of the knife was Tang Yibu’s right eye.

Ruan Xian hooked the trigger of the blood gun with his finger.

Tang Yibu suddenly smiled. He reached out a hand and let the sharp knife penetrate his palm, then he grabbed the knife together with Xiao Zhao’s hand.

“Got you.” He sounded calm, and his weak appearance disappeared without a trace.

Before Xiao Zhao had time to react, her arms rang out with a click. Removing the joints of the opponent’s arms, Tang Yibu slowly pulled the knife out of his palm, slowly got up, and pushed Xiao Zhao to the ground.

“Thank you for your experience summary.” Tang Yibu patted the soil on his body. His tone was polite. “I’ll also offer a little bit of advice—opponents are easiest to beat at the moment they think they are going to win.”

“Oh?” Xiao Zhao was mercilessly stepped on by Tang Yibu, but there was no panic in her voice. She slowly twisted the corners of her mouth. “This sentence also applies to… Ah!”

Now that Xiao Zhao’s position was successfully determined, Ruan Xian didn’t hesitate to shoot her dishonest left foot twice. Tang Yibu tore off her shoe when he saw this. A long sharp spike popped out from the tip of her shoe and was shining with an unpleasant luster.

“One more thing. I never said this was a one-on-one fight.” Tang Yibu threw the shoe away casually. For insurance, he pulled the other shoe off and tossed it away as well. “Thanks, Mr. Ruan.”

Ruan Xian lay on the ground and waved his hand, continuing to hide the fact that he had already recovered.

“What a lack of gentlemanly manners.”

Both her arms’ joints were dislocated, one leg was shot, but there was still no panic in Xiao Zhao’s voice. Ruan Xian could see that there was a subtle difference between her calmness at this moment and the one she just had—before, her calmness stemmed from self-confidence, but now it stemmed from numbness.

“Today is so unlucky. I lost. How are you going to kill me? Are you going to dramatize it?”

Tang Yibu didn’t immediately turn to Ruan Xian. He tore the hem of his black undershirt and simply bandaged the few large wounds to stem the blood loss. “I haven’t thought about it yet.”

“There’s no point—”

“It depends on whether you are willing to cooperate.” Tang Yibu ignored Xiao Zhao’s reaction.

“Cooperate with what? Anyway, it’s either robbing resources or occupying territory. Or do you want revenge? How boring as hell.”

“I want this island,” Tang Yibu said softly.

“What?”

“I’m going to kill the administrator and seize this island.” Tang Yibu continued to firmly step on Xiao Zhao. “It’s inconvenient to look for things if you’re constantly subject to the management system of this island.”

“What does your scavenger hunt have to do with us?” Xiao Zhao raised her brows.

“Staying in this show for so many years is quite boring, no?” Tang Yibu bent down slightly, giving a polite, but intimidating smile. “If the audience keeps wanting to see this, you’ll have to live here for the next ten, or even hundreds of years. Su Zhao, I guess you and Kang Ziyan have already tried every trick in the book, right?”

Xiao Zhao stopped talking and just rolled her eyes and looked at Tang Yibu.

“You put out sincerity to help other people and try to influence everyone, but at the end of the day, it’s still a show. Then… You probably thought, if you try to kill people, you’ll have a different experience, so you acted. In the end, all that’s left is self-destruction, right?” Tang Yibu said briskly. “You perform various acts to make the audience give up on you, but looking at your current situation, you should fully understand—”

Xiao Zhao smiled, but the smile was so distorted that even Ruan Xian who saw it was left speechless for a few seconds. Xiao Zhao’s facial features were so exquisite and cute that it was hard to imagine that her face could twist to create such an uncomfortable smile.

“No matter how you perform, the audience will want you to live, because your situation is very special in and of itself. If there is really a reasonable ending… You’re afraid that you will become stronger, lose all reason, and be arranged to die as ‘monsters’ on this island in a grand hunt.”

As long as they still had the ability to think, the Mainbrain wouldn’t give up observing. As people who knew the truth and had real personalities, this couple was destined to be squeezed into useless trash before they could meet the end of their lives.

Now, they were still half-crazy, and their strength was eye-catching, so they wouldn’t be easily given up.

“Look, the medical machinery is already on standby around the corner.” Tang Yibu snorted.

“Even if we give you information, what will we get?” Xiao Zhao cocked her head. A trace of clarity glinted in her eyes.

“Something not boring.” Tang Yibu moved his feet away. “With your ability, you should have never won over the administrator. A rare new toy in years, don’t you want to try it?”

“Mm-hmm, that sounds great. However, we won’t guarantee your safety and lives. After all, it’s also very interesting to take action against you.” Xiao Zhao licked the blood at the corner of her mouth. “That’s okay?”

“Deal.” Tang Yibu completely retracted his feet. He had no plan to treat Xiao Zhao, but just hid in the shadows and watched Xiao Zhao climb to the treatment machine by herself.

“You knew she would agree?” After a long kiss for treatment, Ruan Xian panted a little bit.

“At first they were a bit like you when we just met.” Tang Yibu pretended to put a bandage on himself. “But unlike your situation, they were probably sincere.”

Those two people once really wanted to change those androids who knew nothing about the android show, as well as the humans who were gradually added after the Great Rebellion.

However, even if protracted killing and chaos couldn’t change everyone, long despair would. Those two people hadn’t completely lost their minds. Tang Yibu didn’t expect them to have much of their former goodness left. He just needed to be clear that to this day, those two people would still remember their hatred for this show.

Hatred should be the most unforgettable emotion.

“I have witnessed the process of their collapse. If there’s anyone on this island who wants to deal with the administrator the most, their desire for his destruction may be stronger than ours.” Tang Yibu stretched out his bloodied hand to Ruan Xian. “Help me wrap it up, Mr. Ruan. I also want a bow.”

Ruan Xian shook his head amusedly and wrapped Tang Yibu’s quickly healing palm with a bandage. He pondered for a while and jerkily tied an ugly bow.

Tang Yibu stared at the bow for a while, was silent for a long time, and then exhaled. “Let’s go, Mr. Ruan.”

“No need to wait for them?”

“Those two guys are popular characters. Although I just killed a group of detection birds, many more will come soon.” Tang Yibu picked up Ruan Xian. “Let them handle it by themselves. If they can’t even find us, there is not much need for cooperation. And…”

“And?”

“Those two people may not really be ‘both’ crazy.”

On the other side, without Ji Xiaoman’s response, Yu Le quickly looked around and decided to find a place to park.

Just rushing into the other team blindly, the bullets would only get denser. In case Ji Xiaoman was injured, he would only be pushing her towards the underworld. Yu Le never considered himself a saint. Although the two children in the back row were also pitiful, if he really had to choose between his companions and women and children, he would choose the former.

“Ji Xiaoman! Little profiteer!” Yu Le slammed the roof of the car with his fist. “Damn, just squeal if you’re still alive!”

There was a heavy bang on the roof of the car, but it didn’t look like the movement that Ji Xiaoman could make—the sound was too dull, and the strength was terrifying.

Bang. Bang. Bang.

The sound was becoming more regular. Cold sweat began to emerge from Yu Le’s forehead. The experienced ruins pirate was unable to distinguish the cause of this sound. The life and death of his companion was uncertain, and an unnatural movement was close at hand…

“Gwah!!!” The sound of banging stopped, and a brand-new bark broke through the air.

“Lao Yu, I’m fine. I just got… Tsk… Bumped by this.” Ji Xiaoman’s feeble voice followed after the bark.

Yu Le: “……”

The pirate leader rolled his eyes and stepped on the gas.

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The author has something to say:

Congratulations π on your return to the team!!!

As soon as it returned to the team, it took down one of its own (…)

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

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

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

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Chapter 149: God’s Gift

The armored off-roader gradually marched towards the center of the forest. The trees changed from sparse to dense, and then sparse again. With fresh water and medicine, the two children sitting in the back of the car slowly rested. The sky completely darkened, but Su Zhao and Kang Ziyan were both awake.

“Turn left on that rock in front of you, then stick to the wall.” Su Zhao continued to show the way.

There were no lights on in the car; only a little moonlight came in through the window. Coupled with the cover of the woods, the scene in the forest began to become indistinguishable. Fortunately, they were close to their destination—the wall of the management area is solid white, emitting a faint warning-like luminescence in the darkness, like a wandering spirit hiding in the leaves.

“There’s a depression in the wall that is used to place the mechanical radiator. It’s about the size of a small room. There are places to hide inside, and no one from the outside will come after us.”

“You two are quite skilled.” Yu Le bypassed the rock and began to drive against the wall.

“…We hid a few times, but it was easy to get caught before. We discovered this place not long ago.” Kang Ziyan took over and spoke in a low tone. “If it weren’t for my injury this time, I wouldn’t have involved Zhaozhao…”

“What are you talking about? It’s okay now.” Su Zhao kissed Kang Ziyan on the forehead. “It will certainly go well. As long as we come here a few more times, they will find that we haven’t earned too much attention and won’t force us to go to the battlefield again.”

“Speaking of earning attention, don’t you find it strange? Being observed by others, and then being handed attention points or something.” Yu Le, who had been driving for a day, poured himself a sip of ice water. The memory of the previous day in his head still showed no signs of recovery.

“Isn’t everyone like this?” Su Zhao turned her head in confusion. “They say it’s like this all over the world.”

“…Have you ever thought about the question of ‘who is watching’?”

“Of course, it’s God. Those supplies are all given by God, and the administrator is the messenger of God.” Su Zhao replied quickly. “Uncle, why do you keep asking these strange questions? How much have you forgotten?”

This left Yu Le quite speechless for a while. The people here seemed to be completely wrong in their heads, but he couldn’t find a reason to refute her statement at this time. There were obviously phantoms of iconic buildings belonging to various countries in the distance, but the thoughts of people here were stuck several centuries ago.

“Then do you know where those buildings came from? Have they mentioned other countries or anything like that?” The former pirate leader continued to test the waters.

“Mentioned,” Kang Ziyan replied positively. After recovering from his injury, his temperament was much livelier than Su Zhao. “Everyone exchanges resources in their own ways, but most of them are very backward. Those people have different starting lines since birth. Even if some people are talented, they don’t have the opportunity to showcase themselves. I’ve heard that in some places, God is even stricter and even forbids some of them to even stand in front of the starting line.”

“It’s strange how they live,” the child said.

“They are used to it… We are also used to it,” Ji Xiaoman whispered as she shook her head. “I kind of understand them. When I grew up in the Underground City, I used to think that the world was like that.”

Yu Le didn’t say a word. He stepped on the brakes and stopped next to the radiator that Su Zhao mentioned. But before his car stopped steadily, a sharp siren came from inside the wall.

The faces of the two children turned pale in an instant.

“Impossible!” Su Zhao’s voice was shrill with the sharpness of a little girl. “We’ve hidden here twice!”

“Run!” Kang Ziyan was more straightforward. “Uncle, run! The mechanical troops are coming!”

“Fuck, if I find out that you two little brats are playing us…” Yu Le cursed, stepped on the gas, and quickly rushed to the outskirts of the forest.

In the next second, several circular machines rose from inside the wall. The red electronic eyes in the center of the circle locked on the armored off-roader speeding through the woods. Yu Le drove the car into a fighter jet as he swayed the car left and right to avoid the mechanical lock behind him, trying to get the mechanical tracking bombs to smash into the trees. The two children lay down under the seat of the car, covering their heads with their hands and firmly fixing their bodies in the car.

Ji Xiaoman rolled down the window and got out. The petite girl carried a small bazooka for emergencies. She maintained her balance on top of the rampaging car and began blasting those tracking bombs that Yu Le couldn’t easily shake off, as well as the mechanical pursuers that were biting behind their backs.

“Little profiteer, be careful!” Yu Le increased his driving speed. Seeing that there was a narrow ditch in front of the car, he yelled out the window and drove straight over.

The heavy armored off-roader lifted into the air under the action of inertia and barely crossed the ditch. Yu Le was about to breathe a sigh of relief when a tracking bomb exploded at the rear window of the car.

Their pursuers were behind them, while a group of figures also appeared in front of them. The formation wasn’t like an ambush. It should be a direct collision.

In that group of figures, several of them were posing with guns raised towards the car.

“…Ji Xiaoman!” Yu Le roared out, almost turning on the headlights to the brightest setting to interfere with the group of people blocking in front.

However, no answer came from the car roof.

“It’s dark,” Tang Yibu murmured in a low voice, with the sweetness of a chocolate bar in his breath.

[Shhh.]

Ruan Xian listened hard in the dark.

The sound had the element of being fake. While ordinary people should be okay, the perception of the S-type Prototype should be several levels sharper. There was no big flaw in the perceptual interference itself, but the fake sound matched the real sounds, creating a strong sense of indescribable incongruity, like putting two mismatched puzzles together. All kinds of noisy sounds were mixed together as Ruan Xian quickly sorted them out in his mind, trying to deduce the real situation outside.

This was similar to forcing his perception to its maximum. It didn’t take long for the feeling of being overdrawn to faintly appear.

[The doll head side is on the defensive. The battle is nearby.] He came to this conclusion. [If you want to run, we should take advantage now.]

“A metal cover was added to the top of the hole.” Tang Yi got up. “Wait a moment, Mr. Ruan… and lend me this thing.”

Ruan Xian listened carefully—Tang Yibu easily folded down the metal pin buckle on his holster, causing it to creak a little, then easily climbed to the entrance of the hole, causing the soil and rocks to fall with a faint sound.

For the first time, he witnessed how truly cautious Tang Yibu was—the android didn’t even want to expose his true strength by trying to open the lock by using the keyhole.

Soon after, there was a soft click above his head, followed by the clicking and scraping sound of the metal lid being lifted. Tang Yibu jumped back at him lightly. Then Ruan Xian found himself being picked up.

“Let’s go, Mr. Ruan.” The android bit his ear again.

[How is the situation outside?] The phone was in Tang Yibu’s hand, so all Ruan Xian could see was darkness.

Their movement distance shouldn’t have been completely messed up by the enemy’s fake perception. Tang Yibu clearly held him in his arms, and Ruan Xian still had the feeling of standing on the ground with both feet but compared to being at the bottom of the pit, the fake perception had weakened considerably.

Their perception should have been forged by someone, and the forger was most likely the guard here. When the camp was invaded, it was logical that most of the manpower would be transferred to the battlefield. Tang Yibu’s unlocking process was quite smooth, and the guards shouldn’t be keeping an eye on them all the time.

But now that they have reached the surface, it was difficult to say.

Ruan Xian’s perception began to become fragmented. All he could see was darkness, and his senses of touch and smell were in disarray. Without vision, other perceptions became more easily affected.

He couldn’t feel Tang Yibu’s warm arms holding him. His body felt like it was falling like he was being buried alive in heavy soil. The confusion of touch made him a little nauseous.

Tang Yibu seemed to have suddenly evaporated from his side.

Ruan Xian quickly concluded that most likely, they were discovered and attacked by the guards. Was he still being held by Tang Yibu? Or was he put down? The sense of touch switched as fast as a revolving lantern, and the sense of incongruity became much heavier, almost causing Ruan Xian to almost vomit.

Amidst the chaotic perception, he struggled to listen to the faint reflective sounds of his surroundings, barely finding an anchor point for his senses.

The attacker didn’t seem to mind that he found something wrong, nor did they care if the affect was natural or not and was pouring all his strength into disrupting his perception. Ruan Xian had learned about the effects of augmented reality in this era when he was in The Glass Conservatory and was able to figure out how it worked—such a violent attack theoretically required a high degree of mental concentration, and he was definitely the primary target of the attack.

Tang Yibu had the cellphone in his hand and could see the real situation. Unfortunately, they were being spied on, so it wasn’t easy for the android to show its true strength. They were still in a terrible situation at the moment. It could be seen that the situation couldn’t be easily solved.

The other party couldn’t be exposed, and neither could they.

[Yibu.] He called to the other party through his earring. The surrounding sounds were so noisy that Ruan Xian gave up the idea of expending energy to indiscriminately parse them and instead decided to save his strength first. [If you’re still holding me, leave me as I struggle for a while. If not, don’t do anything.]

Since the guards focused their attacks on him, most likely they figured out that Tang Yibu had the means to eliminate the influence of their perception. The two of them had always behaved very intimately. If they thought like ordinary people…

After another wave of tactile influence arrived, Ruan Xian flailed his limbs indiscriminately, making a frightened and struggling appearance. Then he ignored everything his body perceived and focused all his energy on his ears.

He had to abandon all perception except hearing. Ruan Xian took a deep breath, although he hadn’t tried this approach before, he had to do it now.

There were many trees here, and the faint sound reflections were constantly bouncing back from all directions. He incorporated them into his brain like a bat and began to estimate the real situation nearby through the reflection of the soundwaves.

Gradually, blurred images without color appeared in my mind.

He was being roughly restrained by someone, with a weapon held against his temple. There was another person standing behind him. Judging from his posture, that person should be pointing a gun at Tang Yibu.

The android stood a few steps away; his heartbeat was a little faster than usual.

From this perspective, Tang Yibu should be able to see his expression. Ruan Xian raised the corner of his mouth and smiled in his direction. His hand crept into his waist pocket and grabbed the knife that he had used to cut his abdomen.

Then, while judging the opponent’s subtle movements based on the sound, he turned around abruptly, and the blade slit across the throat of the person behind him.

The other party seemed shocked by his sudden outburst and didn’t react for a while; only covering his throat while backing away. Ruan Xian’s sense disorder became even heavier, as if he was bundled up on a roller coaster or riding a boat in a storm. Dizziness and weightlessness all hit at the same time, splitting his head.

But it didn’t matter. All he needed to do was just listen.

Just remember the way he exerted his strength and treated his body like a marionette. In this way, even if there was no sense of touch under his feet and his entire perception of the space around him was turned upside down, as long as his calculations were correct, he could run.

Ruan Xian grabbed another guard with his backhand, and the bloody blade followed without hesitation. He didn’t leave the opponent any time to breathe. The blow wasn’t successful in hitting their vitals. Ruan Xian drew out his blood gun and shot his opponent twice in the head.

The haptic disorder stopped instantly, and his vision returned to normal. Ruan Xian knelt on his knees and retched a few times. Tang Yibu rushed forward quickly, searched for a weapon on the body, and then stretched out his hand to Ruan Xian.

“Well done, Mr. Ruan.”

In the burning fire and moonlight, those golden eyes were full of smiles.

Ruan Xian couldn’t help but laugh, easily took the hand, and let the other party pull himself up. After confirming that Ruan Xian had stood firm, Tang Yibu picked up the gun he had obtained from the corpse and fired several shots into the surrounding darkness.

Ruan Xian raised his eyebrows until a small bird fell softly in front of him.

“Now you are very… good-looking.” Tang Yibu wiped the blood on Ruan Xian’s cheek with his palm, and then gently kissed the other’s lips that were covered in dirt. “I don’t want others to see too much.”

[Is the sense of peeping still there?] Their location was in the corner of the doll’s head, a bit far from the battlefield, and the light wasn’t strong. Seeing that there were no enemies around him for the time being, Ruan Xian simply took advantage of the situation to deepen the kiss.

“Yes, I’m sorry,” Tang Yibu muttered in a low voice. “Your handling method is very reasonable.”

[It seems that we have to catch your acquaintances quickly and stay away from here.] Ruan Xian looked into the distance.

The ceramic doll heads were still stubbornly glued to their retinas. Counting the flesh and blood that littered the area, the battlefield near the doll’s head was about the size of three to four soccer fields. However, the camp was doing a good job of guarding, as most of the fights were concentrated outside the doll’s head.

“Oh, you guys came out, Xiao Tang.”

Their target delivered themselves to their front door.

Xiao Zhao was stepping on the orchid on the edge of the fleshy and bloody square while holding two heads by their hair, all while still smiling brightly and sweetly.

“… I couldn’t see it. Xiao Ruan is quite capable of fighting.”

“Where’s Kang Ge?” Tang Yibu protected Ruan Xian with one hand and responded calmly.

“I deliberately asked him to kill more. The secret of harmony between husband and wife—it’s not a good thing to be too competitive. It’s good to lose once in a while.” Xiao Zhao’s voice became a little more neurotic and serious. “Well now, you were safe in the cell but decided to run out.”

She threw away the two heads she was holding. They rolled into the orchid bush and splattered blood on the leaves, dying them a dark red.

“I’ll take you back. Xiao Tang, you’ve always listened to us. I’m too lazy to do it so can you take Xiao Ruan back by yourself? …After all, I like your faces very much. It must be very disappointing when they rot.”

Tang Yibu put away the smirk on his face and gradually returned to his expressionless appearance.

“No,” he said.

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The author has something to say:

The iron bead at this moment: crying and following the car, trying to think about where everyone has gone.

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Kinky Thoughts:

Fun fact, what Ruan Xian is doing is basically echolocation.

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

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

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

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Chapter 148: The Two Deceased

Tang Yibu completely calmed down.

The piece of rotting flesh was still emitting its heavy stench not far away. The memories associated with the past kept surfacing, but this time the situation was slightly different. There was another person in his arms, and he was no longer the ordinary android who had no resistance twelve years ago. In addition to his mind, he also had enough combat leverage.

But his mood at the moment was a bit strange.

Twelve years ago, he hadn’t gotten the A-type Prototype, and his body was extremely fragile. The body of a pure human was much weaker than that of a synthetic android. Even if he had the intelligence, Tang Yibu still chose the safest route…

Shoot the bird who took the lead*. No matter how advanced the cybernetic brain in the skull was, once the body died and lost its energy supply, all that awaited was the ending of being swallowed by the ground. There was more freedom to develop one’s power, but the possibility of being targeted by others would also skyrocketed.

*(枪打出头鸟) Metaphor referring to those who take the lead are vulnerable to blows. || Basically, he plans to not stand out, so he won’t likely be targeted.

He was constrained by his fragile body, which he couldn’t afford to lose at that time.

It was safest to pretend to be an average participant. In order to survive, as long as he was sure it wasn’t life-threatening and would not bring long-term hidden dangers, he would calmly do it—eating spoiled meat and enduring a certain number of beatings couldn’t be any easier.

Human personality data ran in those androids’ brains so he could perform an accurate analysis. He was very clear about which was occasional violent venting, and which could cause him to be targeted for a long time.

For example, there had been people who rushed to him for sex. Once the other party clearly revealed their intention in this regard, Tang Yibu was more inclined to kill them secretly, as to completely avoid possible follow-up problems.

Even so, the memories of this period were still accompanied by endless pain. It stood to reason that he should have gotten used to this a long time ago. Everything was just part of achieving the goal of “surviving”. Now, with a huge advantage, he should have felt relaxed and satisfied.

However, at this moment, smelling the stench of rotten flesh only made him feel bitter and aggrieved. He couldn’t help but hold the person in his arms tighter.

It wasn’t a weakness, but there was an inexplicable sadness in his heart.

…These were strange emotions with no efficiency, value, or clear purpose.

His Mr. Ruan stretched out his hand and patted him gently on the back. Mr. Ruan didn’t ask any questions, but Tang Yibu knew very well. Relying on the current information, the other party could speculate on what might have happened to him in the past.

Kang Ge and Xiao Zhao left more than ten minutes ago, leaving a lot of information worth discussing. Mr. Ruan didn’t immediately exchange ideas with him but let him hug him tightly. Tang Yibu put his nose on the side of the other party’s neck, sniffed lightly, and made sure that his emotions returned to normal. He finally slowly released his arms.

[I don’t mind if you act coquettishly for longer.] The party’s message finally came. Mr. Ruan ran his fingers through his hair, making him feel a bit itchy. [But now, it’s time to explain your original situation, Yibu. What is the attention focus? What happened to those two just now?]

It turned out that this kind of behavior was considered being coquettish. Tang Yibu looked back on this oddly fresh feeling for a few seconds before he began to answer Mr. Ruan’s question.

“I don’t know what the attention focus is. It may be a new rule added by the Mainbrain.” He licked the earlobe of the person in his arms and gave a contented sigh. It was amazing that the stench of rotting flesh seemed unable to affect his mood any longer. “Kang Ge and Xiao Zhao are my original… They can be regarded as partners with common interests.”

[Looking at the situation just now, is it their because abuse won’t kill you?] There was no positive emotion in Mr. Ruan’s message. Instead there was a chill reading between the lines.

“In the initial Struggler, their situation was also special. They are a bit close to the kind of situation I mentioned of replicating true personality,” Tang Yibu whispered. “But there’s a bit of a subtle difference. Their personalities weren’t put in for the purpose of seeking novelty.”

Ruan Xian didn’t feel very good. The soft piece of rotten flesh fell to the ground. His long-lost dark mood had suddenly risen. No matter what purpose Tang Yibu had that he snuck into the show at the beginning, he didn’t have the A-type Prototype back then. Ruan Xian could guess the strategy the other party adopted with his fragile human body in order to survive in this survival game.

He understood logically, but he couldn’t restrain the anger in his heart.

What an interesting experience.

Ruan Xian slowly stroked Tang Yibu’s muscular back with his fingers, as if comforting a large, injured beast. However, before anger affected reason, he needed to change the subject so that he could stay as calm as possible.

[…Subtle differences?]

The answer given by Tang Yibu didn’t surprise him too much. After all, the android chose them as partners for cooperation at the beginning, so it wasn’t so that he could die faster.

“For real personality investment for the purpose of novelty, the owner of those personalities basically chooses to watch the excitement from the outside, treating all this as a realistic game. These two people… Their personality provider is dead.”

Ruan Xian frowned. [Tell me more details.]

It was never bad to understand more of the enemy.

“Xiao Zhao’s name is Su Zhao. She was a well-known explorer during her lifetime and was born into a competitive martial arts family, so she’s very good at wilderness survival and hand-to-hand combat. She also possessed a wealth of knowledge. Kang Ziyan is her fiancé who has known her since childhood and was once a top executive of Plan Corp.” Tang Yibu stared at the artificial darkness in front of him. “Su Zhao died unexpectedly during an expedition before her marriage. For research and recording purposes, she made a comprehensive backup of her memory and personality.”

[Putting memories into the Android Show requires permission, right?]

According to the information obtained so far, there was still basic control over the security of human personalities before the doomsday. Not to mention how demanding Professor Ruan was for the “Farewell Project”, even Plan Corp wouldn’t involve such sensitive issues for money and ratings.

“On this issue, they have quarreled in front of me many times. Before the accident, Su Zhao had authorized all her electronic property to Kang Ziyan, and her personality data was included in it. After her unexpected death, Kang Ziyan wasn’t willing to accept reality.”

[The situation of the two people in the Underground City?] Ruan Xian suddenly thought of He An and Fu Yu.

“It’s different from those two. He An’s personality was imitated through Fu Yu’s memories, and it was essentially a brand-new synthetic personality. Those two people are full replicas, closer to the condition of the survivors in the Shade Refuge. Kang Ziyan abused his power—he injected Su Zhao’s and his own personality into the cybernetic brain as is and created identical shells that were put into the show as a ‘background character’. According to the law at the time, Kang Ziyan’s behavior was considered to be a malicious crime.”

When Plan Corp initially modified personality data and injected it into androids, it was already considered an act of marginalization. At that time, there was still lots of controversy about “personality transplantation” of terminally ill patients and brain-dead people, not to mention the matter of bringing back the dead.

Tang Yibu shook his head. His breathing slowed down a bit.

“So after doing all this, Kang Ziyan, who is a human, committed suicide.”

“For the newborn ‘Su Zhao’ and ‘Kang Ziyan’, they will instinctively think that they are human beings, while being very clear about the true situation of the android show. When Plan Corp found out, things had reached a point where it was hard to get off riding the tiger*—they could only offer up the appearance authorization left by Kang Ziyan, falsely claiming that it was some kind of memorial and that the personalities of the two had been adequately reprocessed. Otherwise, they would have to bear joint and several responsibilities… After discovering that they could avoid punishment, Plan Corp also hyped up the matter for a while, which is why I knew about the existence of these two people.”

*(骑虎难下) Metaphor referring to the difficulty to carry on a task, but the situation doesn’t allow it to stop halfway, thus creating a dilemma.

[You said, they haven’t been so crazy before.]

“Nn. Perhaps it’s more appropriate to explain this way—the ‘civilization’ of those two people is far beyond the original Struggler’s design alignment. I have studied their profiles and they are much friendlier to individuals around them than other androids. Things had deteriorated quite a bit by the time I joined. They would quarrel with each other for days and occasionally hurt other androids to vent their anger. Their thinking was barely maintained at a normal human level.”

‘A lean camel is bigger than a horse*. The remnant humanity was better than the pre-set barbarism,’ Ruan Xian thought. Since he couldn’t escape the fate of being injured, it was reasonable for Tang Yibu to choose those two people as partners for cooperation.

*(瘦死的骆驼比马大) Proverb referring to people who have special expertise in one aspect, even if they suddenly reach the point of poverty in this aspect, are better than some people who have just been released in this aspect. || In this context, it means that Su Zhao’s and Kang Ziyan’s actual human personalities were better (for the show) than the preset personalities inputted into an android because at least they were originally humans, and their data is based off of their human characteristics.

However, looking at the current situation…

“I can understand the purpose of why the Mainbrain kept them specifically. They are indeed rare samples.” Tang Yibu sighed in a low voice. “Choosing them at that time was a mistake in my judgment. I originally thought their spirits wouldn’t collapse so quickly.”

[That is to say…] Ruan Xian had a guess. [Only Xiao Zhao and Kang Ge may be like us here; knowing that the ‘reality’ is artificially distorted and the theory behind it. Other people are likely to think that they have the ability to influence ‘reality’, but they don’t know that the world in front of them is an illusion?]

Compared with other characters who had been forcibly instilled with preset worldviews, the two undoubtedly had a considerable information advantage, and it wasn’t surprising that they had climbed to the top of the pyramid of strength.

So it was imperative that the two of them take away their cellphones, but they didn’t think much of the weapons.

“Yes.” Tang Yibu nodded. The tips of his slightly long hair swept across Ruan Xian’s neck. “I don’t know how much of their rationality is left. If they still have a little logic, they will definitely be wary of us.”

[It’s worth testing.]

Compared to “androids” who regarded this island as the whole world, those two people would have more information; about the sense of peeping of unknown origin, about the changes on the island… About Professor Ruan.

Professor Ruan used to be an outsider here. Ruan Xian once thought it was a coincidence that Xiao Zhao and Kang Ge found Tang Yibu, but what if it wasn’t?

Anyway, chaos was destined to break out tonight, as long as one of those two people was still rational.

“Well, not surprisingly, they will have a better understanding of the management of this island.”

Tang Yibu sniffed Ruan Xian’s neck again. “If Ruan… That person is really here, he’s probably hiding near the management area. Even if unsuspecting people have the courage to attack the management area, they often give up after being brutally suppressed—the management area of the Android Show is one of the most heavily guarded areas in the world. It’s difficult for even a fly to enter successfully.”

Besides that, Kang Ziyan used to be a senior executive of Plan Corp, so he wasn’t just an ordinary insider. It shouldn’t be difficult to carefully test and find out the boundary distance that was most beneficial for himself.

[I’m kind of looking forward to the sun setting.] Ruan Xian tugged the corners of his mouth.

They were different from that crazy couple—they didn’t have the reality augmentation devices and couldn’t turn their understanding of rules into deadly weapons. However, relying on their own abilities, it was still possible to ensure safety.

The most threatening thing was the peeping.

It had been sticking to them, but there were no follow-ups. If it was the prying eyes of the Mainbrain, according to its style of killing a thousand by mistake and not letting one go, they should have been caught and quarantined by the Order Supervisors long ago.

But the peeper just observed them in silence.

…If that was Professor Ruan, as a human, how was he doing this? What was the purpose?

They currently lack the necessary information, and it was useless to guess indiscriminately. Now they were very close to the mystery named Professor Ruan.

They just needed to be patient.

Ruan Xian stretched out his hand, pressed the back of Tang Yibu’s head, and gave the other party a soothing kiss in the dark.

Be patient and cautious. No matter what answer he got, he was bound to take away this android from Professor Ruan once and for all.

The sun was about to set. Ji Xiaoman held the cellphone in one hand while the other was facing a screen to repair the damage on her prosthetic limb. She would glance at the back of the car from time to time. The two children sitting in the back row had slightly dropped their guard. Although they didn’t dare to fall asleep together, their posture was no longer stiff.

“Turn right in front of that tree.”

Kang Ziyan, who was more seriously injured, sounded refreshed as he drank more of the canned peaches. The juice from the yellow peach left a dark wet stain on his collar. Su Zhao was sleeping soundly on his shoulder, leaving another wet stain with her saliva.

“Man Jie, why are you holding that thing in your hand?” After pointing the way, Kang Ziyan asked in a low voice.

“Repair equipment. Let me see more clearly.” Ji Xiaoman didn’t intend to tell the truth.

“Oh.” Children were easily dismissed as Kang Ziyan quickly lost interest. “Can you give me two more cans?”

Ji Xiaoman nodded and used the hand holding the cellphone to reach for the food box. In the screen that flashed by, she suddenly noticed something subtle—there seemed to be more cans on the screen than she could see with  naked eye.

Ji Xiaoman frowned, pointed her mobile phone at the food box, and took a closer look.

This time, the quantity was normal.

Was it her own eyes? She shook her head. While the two children in the back weren’t paying attention while handing out the canned food, Ji Xiaoman quietly glanced at the two children on the screen—whether they were shown on the phone or not, the two children’s appearance didn’t change.

Ji Xiaoman pursed her lips… Perhaps she was being too overly suspicious.

“Here,” she said. “It’s getting dark, and the lights won’t be on in the car for a while, so hurry up and eat now.”

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The author has something to say:

It’s (part of) the past of Kang Ge and Xiao Zhao XD

Tang chose them for a reason XDDD

Ruan: I’m robbing from myself (×

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Kinky Thoughts:

Though Su Zhao’s sex has now been established, depending on how the author narrates and the POV, “he” may still be used for the kid version (since Yu Le and Ji Xiaoman aren’t privy to this information yet, and they can’t tell the sex of Su Zhao). If it’s just a reference and not a POV, the correct pronoun will be used in that case.

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

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

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

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Chapter 147: Concerns

After being a pirate for so long and as a marauder, Yu Le’s first reaction when he heard the imperative words “hand over” was to laugh.

“I haven’t heard of this kind of request in years.” He laughed for a while. “I say, how many of you are there? Isn’t it humiliating to have that much just to threaten?”

“Raw face.” The person next to the leader on the other side said.

“If they’re not one of us, then it’s fine,” The young man who was the leader said. “Forget it. Kill them—”

“Do it?” Ji Xiaoman moved her metal prosthesis and opened the window.

“Remember to keep them alive.” Yu Le didn’t talk nonsense and slammed on the gas.

The car crashed straight into the group in front of him. Yu Le adjusted all the window glass to one-way light transmission mode. Ji Xiaoman crawled out of the car window like a gecko, flipped to the roof of the car, and fired her machine gun in all directions.

In order to secure the luggage, the top of the armored off-roader had a small recess. The petite Ji Xiaoman was just small enough to lie down inside, and with the height of the roof of the car, the bullets on the opposite side couldn’t hit her. Occasionally, thrown weapons fell on the roof of the car, but Ji Xiaoman ignored them and focused all her attention on the subtle vibration of the roof.

No one knew better than her how metal reacted when it’s touched, and if that reaction was wrong, even if the “bombs exploded” under Ji Xiaoman’s nose, she had no intention of moving.

As a mechanical hunter who grew up in the Underground City, being suspicious of everything could be said to be an instinct engraved in her bones, and facing death was even more commonplace.

This was the first time they had fought against an opponent with reality-augmentation capabilities. Even if they weren’t affected by the unimaginable weirdness, the opponent’s positions and distance may be fake. At any rate, the two of them were struggling in a real fight, so they could never be too cautious.

Eyes, ears, and nose couldn’t be trusted. The phone could only help them determine three things: the surrounding environment, the number of people on the other side, and the degree of armament they had.

These three things were enough.

Yu Le kicked one of the military fireboxes installed near the seat, took out a few incendiary grenades, and weighed them in his hand.

“Little profiteer, it may be a bit hot outside. Remember to buckle the gas mask tightly.” After that, he waited for a few seconds, and then began to throw incendiary grenades around. The choking smoke was accompanied by large flames raging everywhere. Behind the gas mask, the corner of Ji Xiaoman’s mouth hooked as she began to shoot intensively at the few gaps left by Yu Le.

At the same time, Yu Le drove the bulky armored off-roader like it was a living thing. The attacker specially picked a densely wooded area to appear in but failed to successfully trap the behemoth with trees.

Everything was burning. When the incendiary bombs ignited, Yu Le almost turned around in place so that Ji Xiaoman could get a better shooting angle. The bullets fired from outside slammed against the car windows but failed to break them. The former pirate leader whistled triumphantly.

The shooting lasted for a few minutes before Ji Xiaoman formed a fist with her hand and knocked on the roof of the car. Yu Le went around the smoke and confirmed the enemy’s injuries one by one with the cellphone screen. After confirming that their opponents were all incapacitated, he put on a bulletproof vest and got out.

Ji Xiaoman lightly leapt off the roof of the car, took off her jacket, lifted her mask a bit, and wiped the soot and sweat off her face. “Done?”

“Done.” Yu Le dragged the injured together and kept watch of them on his cellphone at all times.

“Which side are you from?” Despite falling so far, the young leader didn’t seem to show even a slight bit of panic. His legs were hit by Ji Xiaoman and the wounds were bleeding, so most of his attention was now focused on trying to stop the bleeding.

“No comment.” Yu Le squatted down, with a rogue smile on his face. Unfortunately, the gas mask could only reveal his eyes. Ji Xiaoman threw the jacket into the car window. Her sharp blade was still popped out of her prosthetic leg, and her whole body was in a combat state.

“A group of you in your twenties chasing after two children; have you no shame? What? There’s an attack tonight and these two children are the only ones on the battlefield or something?” Yu Le deliberately lowered his voice to make himself sound more intimidating.

“Why ask if you already know?” The little leader’s voice became cold. “They are big attention getters on our side. Isn’t that what you guys are thinking?”

Attention getters?

However, Yu Le didn’t show any surprise on his face and continued, “But they’re not willing to get out of the car and hang out with you. Shouldn’t you respect the opinions of the other party? If I were you, I would worry about myself first.”

“Lao Yu.” Ji Xiaoman moved to Yu Le’s side; her voice was low. “There are detection birds nearby.”

The smoke was blown away by the wind, and several sparrow-sized detection birds stood in a row on a nearby branch, with the camera structure of their heads facing their way.

“It seems that we are going to become stars.” Yu Le sneered in a low voice. “Just let them shoot. Sooner or later, we’ll be filmed anyways. As long as we wear our masks—”

Before he could finish speaking, a person suddenly jumped from the pile of wounded. While the two of them were focusing attention on their conversation, Yu Le hugged Ji Xiaoman, who wasn’t very tall, and used his weight advantage to knock her to the ground. The knife in the assailant’s hand almost slashed the little girl’s throat.

Fortunately, before the knife fell, Yu Le jumped up and kicked the assailant in the head. The man didn’t even have time to scream. He just struggled a few times before going silent. Ji Xiaoman quickly grabbed the knife. She stretched out two sharp metal fingers and pierced the other party’s temples.

“You really thought I’m just a driver.” Yu Le pointed a gun at the rest of the group with one hand while stretching his other arm in the direction of Ji Xiaoman, allowing the girl to perch on it. “It stands to reason that I should kill you, but there are still children in the backseat watching and I don’t have any grudge with you. Just go back and tell your people not to come for a second time… That is if you still have your life to go back. Little profiteer, let’s go.”

The two stepped on the scorched grass, passed through the gray-black smoke, and returned to the car. The two children didn’t run away but hugged each other tightly, looking at them vigilantly.

“Continue to show the way.” Yu Le started the car. “What are you staring at? Just because we’re muddleheaded doesn’t mean we’ve become retards who can’t fight.”

“…Thank you,” Su Zhao said in a mosquito-like voice.

“If you’re really thankful, explain it to us. What’s with this attention getters? I don’t remember this.”

“Someone is watching,” Su Zhao said. “Someone is watching outside the island. If you’re good-looking and have a special situation or out-of-the-ordinary behavior, it will get you attention… If you get noticed enough, you get attention points. Everyone’s supplies and people are exchanged for these points.”

“I don’t see any attention points.”

“Clap your hands three times and it will be shown on the palm of your left hand,” Kang Ziyan interjected.

“Little profiteer, try it.” This mechanism sounds a bit silly, but it was more convincing to let someone in a marginal situation like Ji Xiaoman try it.

Ji Xiaoman stretched out two metal palms in silence, clapped them vigorously three times, and then looked down at the palm of her left hand. After seeing what was in the palm of her hand clearly, she was taken aback for a moment, then picked up the phone and shone it in the palm of her hand.

“450 points,” she said. “Since it can be photographed, this shouldn’t be reality augmented.”

This time, Yu Le didn’t habitually make a joke. Behind the gas mask, he frowned.

At any rate, he had been a leader in a certain sense and knew what this mechanism meant. People needed to get attention from the outside world through various behaviors and then exchange their attention points for supplies—it sounded like a simple rule, but no matter how bizarre the augmented reality of this island was, real reality wouldn’t change.

The Mainbrain didn’t know magic. The efficiency of material delivery was the highest, which would inevitably lead to the rapid formation of various forces. If you fight alone on this island, even if you could get enough points to maintain your life, after the materials were exchanged, there would be other forces waiting for you. It seemed that the combat power of the people here wasn’t much different from normal humans, and they had to rely on outside forces to survive.

Thinking about it this way, that weird “weekly battle” was also very reasonable.

The upper-class people in The Glass Conservatory sought out “stimulation due to the lack of excitement in their living environment”. With this as the premise, everyone who lived in peace would only lead to common poverty. In such a difficult environment, children were probably the scarcest, and good-looking children with certain abilities to protect themselves were even rarer. These two children had a natural advantage and were obviously more likely to attract attention.

The subsequent problems that followed, though, were even more terrifying.

Everyone here knows that they are being watched? How much do they know about their situation?

How did he and Ji Xiaoman get included in the system? If the administrator of this island discovered the four of them as outsiders, why wasn’t there any reaction, but instead they let them directly participate in this absurd show?

“Lao Yu.” Ji Xiaoman poked Yu Le’s thigh again, interrupting Yu Le’s thoughts. “…There are more humans here than just those two children.”

“What do you mean?”

“The man who wanted to kill me just now, I poked my finger into his brain.” Ji Xiaoman’s voice was so low that it was almost inaudible. “I confirmed that the human brain matter on my finger is not bionic tissue of a cybernetic brain. I’m afraid this is not an android show—”

“Well, I think so too.” Yu Le squinted. “It could be a petri dish.”

The two on the other side were in bad shape.

Ruan Xian took a nap for a while, regaining some energy. The cellphone was in the hands of Tang Yibu, who was better at fighting. In order to ensure his safety, he chose to sleep in Tang Yibu’s arms. In this way, if there was any movement on Tang Yibu’s side, he could wake up immediately.

The warm embrace of the other party also relaxed Ruan Xian a lot.

As he expected, there was indeed movement on Tang Yibu’s side now, and the movement wasn’t small, but it wasn’t anything he guessed—the android’s stomach was growling, which was pretty loud.

They hadn’t eaten since they had some grilled fish and coconuts in the morning. Each was equipped with a Prototype, which consumed a lot of energy, making them hungry very quickly. Now it seemed that Tang Yibu’s energy requirements were much higher than his own.

Although Kang Ge and the others said they would come to deliver food, Ruan Xian didn’t intend to trust two people with obvious mental abnormalities. He sighed and touched his waist bag. There were two chocolate bars, a pack of hardtack, and the canned smiley face he had been carrying with him in his waist bag.

This would be enough for them to last until the evening. Ruan Xian pulled the chocolate bar out in the dark, bit open the wrapping paper with his teeth, and put it towards Tang Yibu’s mouth.

[You eat. I still have some food here. Eat more.] He motioned through his earring and stuffed all the food except the canned smiley face into Tang Yibu’s arms. [You are the main combat power and are more susceptible to fatal injuries. It’s better to maintain your physical strength.]

Ruan Xian pinched the chocolate bar and could feel Tang Yibu nibbling on it. The android didn’t speak, and only concentrated on eating, but his gnawing became slower.

“I left a third. You can eat the rest.” Tang Yibu grabbed the chocolate bar and poked the corner of Ruan Xian’s mouth with it as he said in a muffled voice. “I prefer you assist me in battle. This is the most reasonable energy distribution.”

At that moment, Ruan Xian felt the feeling of being peeped at again, but like the previous few times, the feeling was fleeting. He was just about to tell Tang Yibu about his discovery when a dazzling light appeared in the darkness.

In the augmented reality cage, Xiao Zhao opened the outer door of the prison cell and was sitting at the door with her hands on her cheeks. A cloth bag was placed beside her that was oozing with a suspicious dark red color.

“So kind.” She sighed. “I didn’t expect that a character like our Xiao Tang, who only has a good face, could get such an object—who’s that over there? What are you doing?”

“Mr. Ruan suffered a throat injury and is unable to speak.” Tang Yibu hugged Ruan Xian tighter.

“Oh, it turns out to be Xiao Ruan.” Xiao Zhao smiled happily. “What route are you planning to take? To win sympathy? Demonstrating the survival of a good-for-nothing? Or doing it for others to see?”

A monitoring bird stopped on her wrist. Xiao Zhao smiled sweetly at the camera embedded in the bird’s head and even blew it a kiss.

“Today’s theme is feeding!” She stated happily, taking out a piece of half-rotted raw meat from the cloth bag and throwing it to Tang Yibu. “But they are not hungry yet, so we may have to wait a day or two to see the results. What a pity—”

Tang Yibu narrowed his golden eyes.

“Tell you what. I’ll shut you guys in for a month. I want to know which one of the two of you will eat the other.” Xiao Zhao suddenly let out a cheer. “Oh, I just thought of it now. I’m such a genius!”

Her tone of voice was extremely relaxed and sweet. If you ignored the contents of her speech, it wouldn’t be out of place even in a commercial for a dessert store.

“Xiao Zhao, didn’t I tell you to wait for me?” Kang Ge stopped behind Xiao Zhao, stretched out his arms and rubbed her face from behind. The latter let out a cute squeal. “Are you here to tease Xiao Tang again?”

“It’s all your fault for walking too slowly! And this is not teasing. I’m giving Xiao Tang the value of life. I just had a particularly good idea…”

“Let’s talk about it tomorrow.” Kang Ge dotingly pinched her face. “I heard a little. The idea is very good, but more details are needed. We still have a game tonight, didn’t we agree? I’ll go and grab more gifts for you.”

“Well, like usual—let’s see who gets more attention. If I’m still number one, you give me a kiss. If you overtake me this time, I’ll give you a kiss.”

“My Xiao Zhao will always be number one.”

“After all, those idiots don’t understand anything.” Xiao Zhao stood up with a smile and lifted the cloth bag that smelled of corpses.

“…They don’t even know that they are living in an android show.”

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

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

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

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Chapter 146: The Two Children

“Are you new here?” The child bandaged his companion’s wound and skillfully wiped the blood from his hands.

“I’ve been hit, so my mind’s a little unclear. I can’t just drive around here,” Yu Le replied smoothly. “You just said that today’s the day of the attack. What’s that?”

“Once a week, everyone will come together and attack the doll’s head over there. My brother was injured this week. If we had followed the original plan, we would’ve died.” The child pointed to the creepy ceramic doll in the distance, with the expression of a real child. “If you can’t remember which side you are on, uncle, it’s best not to get involve.”

“Why attack there?” It was Ji Xiaoman who spoke this time.

“An attack is an attack. Everyone’s like this, so do you need a reason?” The child glanced at her strangely. “I haven’t heard of a reason.”

Ji Xiaoman and Yu Le looked at each other through gas masks.

“Having said that, is there a neutral zone or a convenient place to hide? You two are not in good condition, our memories are fuzzy, so it’s better to find a good hiding place.”

Yu Le started calculations in his heart. According to Tang Yibu’s and Ruan Lijie’s consistent styles, it was impossible for him and Ji Xiaoman to stay where they were and wait for them to come back. Those two guys would probably go directly to Professor Ruan.

Then it was better if he simply focused on finding Professor Ruan—the island didn’t look small, so it was easier to head towards the same goal than to rendezvous.

No matter where these two little guys came from, their forces and those from the doll’s head would have regular conflict, which meant this wasn’t a peaceful area. If Professor Ruan wanted to survive safely on this nightmare island, it made more sense for him to choose a relatively calm spot and reduce his exposure.

It might be a good idea to start from this angle.

The children in the backseat didn’t answer immediately. Yu Le glanced at them from the rearview mirror—both were young and were too good-looking. Even if he knew that the one who was sleeping was the “younger brother”, he didn’t know whether the one who was awake was a boy or a girl.

Can this type of android also be used as a supplement for the show?

This thought was enough to make him feel disgusted.

“I’ve said enough. If you still want to continue to inquire, we need to exchange things,” the child who was awake stated, after carefully examining the situation in the car. “Give us something to eat in exchange.”

“Why do I feel like I’m getting the short end here? The medicine and safety given to you aren’t worth it?”

“Then you can kick us out.” The kid didn’t sound panicked at all. “Anyway, we know where to hide. Now that everyone is preparing to attack the camp, there should be no one else nearby. I wish uncle and sister good luck.”

“What do you want to eat?” Before Yu Le had time to speak, Ji Xiaoman was one step ahead. “By the way, tell us your name, otherwise it’s not easy to address you—you can call me Man Jie. The one next to me is Lao Yu.”

“My name is Su Zhao, and his name is Kang Ziyan. I want sealed canned fruits and soda. Do you have any?”

“Is he really your brother?” Yu Le couldn’t help but interrupt. The surnames of the two children weren’t the same.

“Pretty much the same as a brother. He’s the only person I believe in here.” Su Zhao stubbornly raised his chin.

Ji Xiaoman picked out two canned yellow peaches, took two packs of milk, and nodded to Yu Le. Yu Le said nothing and lowered the glass partition a little between the front and rear seats. However, Su Zhao didn’t start eating immediately after receiving the items. He—or she—opened the canned food and milk, filled the lid with a little bit of it, and handed it back to Ji Xiaoman.

Ji Xiaoman’s reaction was also very smooth. She took the lid and drank it readily.

The child who claimed to be Su Zhao waited for ten minutes to make sure that there was no reaction from Ji Xiaoman. Only then did he feed the canned food to Kang Ziyan, who was still in a coma. He carefully ate a small piece of the peach and put the rest away.

“Show the way.” Yu Le waited for Su Zhao to finish chewing slowly before speaking again. He pretended not to see the kid hiding the scalpel he used to cut off the rotten flesh in his sleeve.

“Go forward like this first. I will tell you if you need to change direction.” Su Zhao was very cautious, holding Kang Ziyan tightly in his arms. It may be that the drugs and sugar played a role, as Kang Ziyan’s face looked a little better.

“At least tell us where we are going.” Yu Le closed the glass partition again. “You can’t take all the cheap shots, kid.”

“Outside the factory.” Su Zhao cleared his throat. “That’s a neutral area, where the administrator grandpa lives. If you fight nearby, you will definitely be punished by the administrator.”

“Factory?”

“Well, after all, everything you need has to be produced, and people also need a place to produce things locally.” Su Zhao lowered his head. “We have hidden there before. Just control the distance and don’t let the administrator grandpa find out.”

Hearing this, they seemed to be heading in the direction of the Mainbrain.

But as the saying goes, it’s dark under the lights*, so it’s not impossible that Professor Ruan was hiding nearby. As for the phrase “people also need a place to produce things locally”, Yu Le wasn’t very surprised—no matter how complete the drugs and equipment here were, at the rate of fighting once a week, if there was no fresh blood to replenish in time, the show would’ve been long empty. Timely addition of androids was a necessity.

*(灯下黑) Idiom has a few meanings, but in this context it refers to how people don’t see and notice things and events that are happening close to them, and also that the more dangerous an area is, the safer it is.

“You have seen the administrator,” he added, intentionally or unintentionally. Ji Xiaoman was busy messing with a strange device in her hand, as if she had lost interest in the children in the backseat.

“I saw him through the window a year ago before he had time to pull the curtains.” Su Zhao shivered. “Very old. A bit scary. I heard from the adults that he has been on this island for at least six or seven years and has never left, even for a single day.”

Indeed, this kind of messy and chaotic show must be controlled by an experienced Order Supervisor. This child was shrewd, but his experience was limited, and his means of disguising his emotions weren’t very good. Yu Le could see that their little guest was truly scared.

“That old man must have good means if he could manage such a big island alone.”

“There is a mechanical army near the factory. A few years ago, someone on the doll’s head wanted to grab some supplies and was beaten to death. The appearance of the corpse was projected in the sky for a week.” Su Zhao swallowed his spit.

“Speaking of that doll’s head.”

Yu Le naturally turned the topic around. He had already figured out how to get information from Su Zhao’s mouth.

“I remember that the upper limit of the consciousness influence is ten people, and we don’t look like we are being targeted. So how come we can see it everywhere we go?”

“What?” Su Zhao looked confused. “What consciousness influence? It has been there all this time?”

Ji Xiaoman raised her head when she heard the words, pulled Yu Le’s sleeve with her fingers, and shook her head gently.

Yu Le breathed out cooperatively. “Forget it. I’m still a bit muddleheaded.”

Su Zhao didn’t answer again. He slightly squinted his eyes as if he was sleepy but not daring to fall asleep. The lethargic Kang Ziyan finally woke up. He tried to stand up and hugged Su Zhao’s shoulder with difficulty.

“Sleep Zhaozhao,” he said. “I’m awake. I’ll keep watch.”

“……Nn. Remember to take them near the factory, don’t tell them the destination all at once…”

“I understand.”

Ji Xiaoman poked Yu Le’s thigh with her fingertips again. Yu Le looked down. Ji Xiaoman added a line of information to the light screen displaying her physiological indicators.

[Turn on the one-way sound insulation between the front and back seat.] She wrote.

Yu Le did as he was told, and the two stare ahead, trying not to show any signs of conversation.

“Those two children are humans,” Ji Xiaoman said.

“You really mixed things into their food… Your hands are pretty fast. Didn’t you give Luo Fei a little at the beginning? The android paralyzing agent isn’t all used up yet? Xiao Ruan only gave you a pill.” Yu Le vacated one hand and lifted the mask to pinch his brow.

This island was so abnormal that he no longer had the strength to be surprised.

“There was only half of it left, but the environment was worth confirming.” Ji Xiaoman’s voice was serious. “The situation here is more complicated than we thought. Lao Yu, I feel that something isn’t right.”

“Okay, what’s going on?” Yu Le turned the steering wheel and bypassed the trees in front of him. “You didn’t let me keep asking just now. Do you have a clue here?”

“I’m probably clear about what Tang Yibu said before,” Ji Xiaoman murmured. “First of all, not to mention that these two children are humans, I checked several times and didn’t detect any external devices on them… Simply put, the reality augmentation device was implanted in them, and it’s probably in their brain. This kind of surgery is quite sophisticated and should have been buried at the beginning of manufacturing.”

“Even if you grab the reality augmentation equipment, you have to find someone who knows how to open a brain for you. Is this what you’re getting at?” It’s no wonder why Tang Yibu said it was troublesome to get the device. Yu Le didn’t want to split open his head on this creepy island at all.

“……Yes.” Ji Xiaoman looked at the giant doll head outside the window. “As for the doll’s head, I can also explain that too.”

“Uh-huh, I’m listening.”

“Augmented reality affects up to ten people.”

Ji Xiaoman summoned a light screen above her thigh and pointed out a red dot.

“Suppose this is the person who first created the ‘doll head illusion’. His ability is very strong, strong enough to erode the cognition of the other ten people.”

The red dots on the light screen became eleven.

“Then all the people who ‘saw the doll’s head’ in cognition sum up to eleven, and these eleven people went to infect the cognition of others separately…”

The red dots were constantly connecting, increasing, and finally becoming densely packed.

“So we can always see those weird things—they are not attacks specifically aimed at us, but the collective cognition of the people on this island. Without augmentation equipment, we can only passively accept the influence. For those two kids who have been ‘born’ with reality-augmentation equipment, this is reality.”

“In other words, the more people believe in it, the more real those strange things are?” Yu Le glanced at the red dot on the screen.

“Nn. What we are seeing now is most likely the result of the stabilization of the ‘reality’ of the entire island.” Ji Xiaoman nodded.

“Oh…” Yu Le stretched out his tone. “Maybe this is a good thing.”

Ji Xiaoman couldn’t help turning her face and looking at Yu Le.

“Didn’t Xiao Tang say this before? If you’re affected by these messy things and think you’ll die, it’s really possible that you will really die.”

“Yes.”

“Cigar.”

“……What?”

“Suppose these people think that the word ‘cigar’ is a curse of death, and those who believe it from the bottom of their hearts will be killed by this curse. Do you think we look like the kind of people who’ll believe that? We knew from the beginning that all this here is fucking fake. As long as we have doubts, we’re invincible.”

Yu Le snorted.

“How funny. There’s not a kind and loving person among the four of us. There’s no need to worry about mental attacks. Just pay attention to attacks in reality. No wonder Xiao Tang emphasized the reality issue from the beginning.”

“Stop the car!” Kang Ziyan, in the back seat, suddenly shouted. “Turn left, turn left!”

“Why are you so excited, kid? Don’t break open your injur—”

Yu Le slammed on the brakes.

“Get out.”

Suddenly, about seven to eight young people blocked the only path for the car. Yu Le glanced at the cellphone screen. These people weren’t illusions.

“All get out.” A young man who seemed to be the leader repeated it again. He held a gun steadily in his hand. “Hand over the two people in the backseat.”

---

The author has something to say:

These two children are not twins XDDD

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Kinky Thoughts:

For those confused so far, think of this island as a highly augmented reality. The people here are equipped with equipment that can enhance the “reality” of this island. Using Ji Xiaoman’s example, there’s one person who’s particularly mentally strong and augmented that there’s a giant doll on this island. Though the max range is 10 people, these 10 people that are under that augmented influence now believe that there’s a giant doll on the island and thus infect 10 other people (and so on and so on), eventually all inhabitants reality are now affected to believe that the giant doll exist thus changing their cognition.

Basically, the “realities” of the island is formed by the augmented thoughts of its inhabitants until it finally stabilizes into what everyone on the island now believes it to be. As people not equipped with these augmented enhancement equipment, Ruan Xian’s party can only be passively influenced by the augmented reality of the island inhabitants, but they can’t change it in any way (that is, unless they split open their heads and install the augmented enhancement equipment into their brains).

On another note, with children involve this is giving me some Lord of the Flies vibes.

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

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

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

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Chapter 145: Mutation

The iron bead panicked like never before.

A few hours ago, since the strange pair appeared in front of them, its two big companions seemed to have forgotten it. Even if it rubbed their ankles in a different way, the two of them still looked unconcerned and indifferent.

Its coquettish strategy had no effect. The iron bead looked up at the two familiar figures eagerly, opened its mouth on the spot, and was about to bark angrily.

[Hide yourself, π.]

At that time, before it had time to make a sound, an instruction popped into its head. The iron bead swallowed back its “gwah” forcibly and turned to the direction to Tang Yibu suspiciously.

[Follow us from a distance. Don’t get too close. It’s dangerous.] The distance was a bit far, and the consciousness instructions coming from the voice were a bit vague, but it was simple enough to understand.

The iron bead was still a bit aggrieved. It was kicked and got its shell dented a few days ago, and there was now an ugly patch on its round metal shell that it was proud of. These soft creatures without shells would not understand its sadness—such a round shell!

But it still had to listen to Tang Yibu’s instructions. Since it was injured, its condition hadn’t been good, so it got very tired after a little activity. The smell of the man and woman wasn’t friendly, so the iron bead didn’t really want to get close to them.

It rolled twice in the sand, feeling a bit regretful. If it had stayed at Ji Xiaoman’s side at that time, it would not only get to eat, but it would also have had a car to ride in—unlike now, where it had to carry itself laboriously to make the journey.

It wasn’t happy.

The iron bead rattled its mouth as it jumped between fallen leaves and the roots of trees. It could barely keep up with the four figures that were walking ahead, and its stomach was getting hungrier and hungrier.

[Don’t go! Don’t go!] It tried to transmit its consciousness to Tang Yibu, then skillfully turned over its belly and kicked its four legs towards the sky. Even if Tang Yibu wasn’t moved, Mr. Ruan would always like this.

Unfortunately, what greeted it wasn’t a warm hand touching its shell or delicious metal parts, but a gunshot that sounded not far away. The iron bead stiffened its legs in fright and rolled into the bushes.

This time it was Tang Yibu who told it not to approach… The iron bead thought angrily that, unlike last time, it was clear that these two strangers weren’t a match for its companions.

What was more, it was still injured.

The iron bead makes a whirring sound in the bushes. It could wait in the distance for the commotion to end before continuing… before continuing…

The familiar sense of drowsiness hit it again, and it couldn’t resist. It fell asleep calmly. A few hours later, it opened its eyes again. The people it was following were long gone.

The iron bead rolled out of the bushes in a daze and looked around. It was almost noon, and it couldn’t smell the familiar smell nearby, nor could it find a ready-made road. As a Grove R-660 that lived on mechanical waste, it wasn’t good at moving and searching long distances.

It’s over.

It opened its mouth and started making rattling noises. Unfortunately, no one came to pick it up. The iron bead howled for almost ten minutes before finally a rustling came from the bushes. The iron bead quickly turned its belly up and retracted its legs into its shell, making what it thought was the most pitiful look. However, what came wasn’t even human—

A medium-sized mechanical creature resembling a sea spider poked its head out of the bushes. Its head was about a meter or so, and its electronic snail-like eyes stretched out, looking like it was about to pounce. The iron bead was so terrified that it bounced in place, then chose a random direction and began to run for its life.

After being fed safely for so long, it had almost forgotten that it was at the lower level of the food chain of the mechanical life food chain.

What to do? What to do?

The Grove R-660 lifeform wasn’t a highly intelligent species. It racked its brains but couldn’t figure out a way to successfully escape. Its race usually operated in areas like the Sea of Ruins or the wasteland, where they could easily move and hide. The forest vegetation was too dense. Wet and fallen leaves made it too easy to slip on using its shell, while branches and stems made it easy to stumble over with its short legs, not to mention that it was still injured.

In contrast, the predator with multiple long legs behind it was happily chasing it with ease.

Is it going to die?

The more the iron bead ran, the more aggrieved it became. Its stomach was already hungry, and now it was weak and feeble. It needed to eat, it needed a warm embrace and gentle petting, and preferably someone to wipe its shell with a soft cloth stained with oil. It shouldn’t be in this shitty place. When it saw those two guys again, it would definitely bite their heels extremely hard.

Grievances gradually turned into anger.

It would be too unfortunate if it were to die like this without getting to bite at those two guys’ heels. If it were those two guys, what would they do at a time like this…?

The iron bead slammed on the brakes, rolled a few times in the decaying fallen leaves, and stopped by a section of tree roots. The medium-sized mechanical life chasing behind easily stopped and began to poke the small object on the ground with its two sharp front feet.

The iron bead then bit into one of the incoming feet.

‘Delicious metal,’ it thought. Hunger, frustration, and anger completely overwhelmed its simple thinking that it only had two thoughts in mind: ‘I’m so hungry’ and ‘I must bite their heels’.

The bitten predator was stunned in place for a moment, then shook its forelimbs vigorously, trying to throw the iron bead that bit its leg to the ground.

But it couldn’t get rid of it.

The iron bead only felt that the metal foot in its mouth was the most delicious thing it had ever eaten in its life. It wished it had sharper teeth and a bigger mouth as it wanted to eat more of this. The iron bead was gnawing so intently that it completely failed to notice the change in itself.

The metal patch of Ji Xiaoman’s welding was chipped off, and its proud shell was slowly cracking open with delicate split seams. The white flesh and blood hidden inside the shell quickly changed its shape and continued to expand from the top of the original base of its mouth into a complex structure resembling an insect’s mouth. This made its mouth more than five times larger.

The iron bead opened its strange new mouth, bit off the delicious metal leg in one bite, and quickly chewed it.

Still hungry. Hungry as hell.

The predator that was chasing it didn’t attack again, but instead showed some intention of retreating. Unfortunately, the hungry iron bead had completely forgotten about fleeing for its life. It jumped high directly onto the joints of the body that were connecting the predator’s metal limbs and opened its mouth and bit again.

The hunter had now become the prey. The medium-sized mechanical life tried to escape but was no match for the red-eyed little monster. Within ten seconds, its long metal legs were all bitten off, leaving only a body the size of a washbasin that was twisting on the grass with milky white liquid flowing out of its wound.

It had never seen anything like this, was the last thought in its mind before the medium-sized mechanical life struggled a few times and stopped moving.

The iron beads cackled and gnawed those delicious metal legs and swallowed the enemy’s already cold body with relish. The deformed and stretched part slowly retracted and it returned to its original round appearance.

After vomiting out unwanted impurities and burping a few times, the iron bead realized that something seemed to be wrong.

It tried to roll on the grass twice, and found that its proud round shell was back, and its body seemed to have become much heavier. The iron bead rattled twice in confusion. Its small eyes glanced at the remains of the other mechanical being on the ground, then it was stunned for a few seconds before a scream broke out.

After screaming for a long time, it recovered from a dizzy state.

The iron bead thought in shock that this was its own handiwork. It knew its position in the food chain well, and it was impossible for it to do this.

‘Forget it. Don’t think about it.’ As long as it could find its companion and finish biting their heels, Tang Yibu and the others should be able to figure out what happened to it. It was more reasonable to leave the troublesome questions to those with good minds.

It had eaten enough, slept enough, and barked until it was tired out. The iron bead curled up and began to roll in the direction of more sparse trees. It turned out that good luck had not abandoned it—the grass in front of it was deformed, which made it very easy to identify.

It was the armored off-roader.

The iron beads spun around in place for a few times, cheered in a low voice, and then rolled firmly up to the vehicle.

The people inside the vehicle were in a delicate mood.

There were more than just two people in the armored off-roader at the moment. Two small children with swollen eyes were crying in the backseat, while Ji Xiaoman sat in the front, curled up, pretending as if she didn’t exist.

‘Bad luck,’ Yu Le thought. It would be fine if he ran into adults, but it was these two little ones who were breaking down and crying in the forest. For various reasons, he shouldn’t have stopped the car, but unfortunately, after he saw them, he didn’t have the heart to drive the car away.

The two children looked at most eleven or twelve. They had delicate and beautiful faces, like dolls, but they undoubtedly wore outfits that were suitable for fighting. One of them had an obvious gunshot wound on his right shoulder that was swollen and festering, giving off an unpleasant smell, and he didn’t seem to be very conscious. All he could do was cry. The other was in better condition, with only a sprained ankle, which didn’t seem fatal.

Yu Le stopped the car, carried the two shivering little guys to the backseat, threw them some medicine and medical equipment, and then dragged Ji Xiaoman to the front. Ji Xiaoman didn’t say a word throughout the whole process. She didn’t object or approve and only looked at Yu Le with strange eyes.

“You can’t abandon children here.” Yu Le bit the bullet and turned the steering wheel. “I know child soldiers are a thing, but the injuries of those two little guys aren’t fake. I can tell… I’m still weak and unable to leave small kids there just waiting to die.”

Ji Xiaoman still stared at him.

“The supplies they use are all mine, okay?” Yu Le waved his hand. “Little profiteer, even if you are one, at least be open-minded. We don’t have a guide or anything in this place, so it’s not like this won’t get us a return.”

Ji Xiaoman glanced at the backseat. One of them was using a scalpel to skillfully cut away the rotten flesh on the other’s wound. His hands and feet were quickly disinfected and sutured. Then she moved her gaze back to Yu Le’s face.

“Okay, alright. I know these two guys look like celebrities. They probably have a follow-up shot. I covered my face when I brought them in just now. How about we just all wear gas masks? You didn’t throw them away from the Underground City, right?”

“No.” Ji Xiaoman quickly put on a mask for herself. “You keep driving, I’ll put it on for you.”

“Alright.” Yu Le sighed and raised his voice. “You two back there. Us brother and sister aren’t doing charity. I can give you more medicine, so tell me what’s the situation?”

The severely injured child was already asleep. His head was resting on the other’s shoulder and his face was flushed. The other child bit his lip and hesitated for a while before speaking.

“…Thank you, uncle, sister.” The child’s voice wasn’t high.

Yu Le: “……”

From behind the mask, Ji Xiaoman made a sound similar to stifled laughter.

“I don’t know what situation you’re asking about.” The child ignored the reaction of the two of them, and his voice became alert. “At present, the most serious thing is… Tonight is the day of the attack.”

---

The author has something to say:

The iron bead’s battle effectiveness also got enhance!

Did everyone forget about it (?)

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Kinky Thoughts:

I love π.

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

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

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

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Chapter 144: Among the Head

Xiao Zhao was stunned by the shot. She slowly raised her hand to her face and blinked at Kang Ge through the bloody hole in her palm.

Then a rather harmless expression of grievance rose from her face. Xiao Zhao got up and shook the blood from her hand. “Kang Ge! Xiao Tang’s boyfriend shot me with a gun—”

Her tone wasn’t like she had just been shot but was more like Ruan Xian had accidentally stepped on her new shoes.

“It’s because you’re not careful. The boss hasn’t seen Xiao Tang yet! All you know how to do is wave that knife around all day long. It’ll be troublesome if Xiao Tang dies of a wound infection. You also know that now is the busiest time, so we have no one to take care of him.”

Xiao Zhao sniffled, then hastily bandaged her wound while pouting. Her face was a bit round, and her eyes were bright and big, making Ruan Xian unable to judge what her actual age was.

“Then can I kill him?” She pointed to Ruan Xian, her tone still fluttering.

“Speaking of which, I haven’t seen Xiao Tang fall in love before. I’m a little curious how he will react…”

“Right!”

“But thinking about it again, after these two busy days of work, there are many ways to try.” Kang Ge’s face was handsome. It had a bit of righteousness between his brows that didn’t match his words at all, which gave him a sense of incongruity that sent chills down one’s spine. “We only get one chance, so it’s a shame to use it so simply.”

“In that case, how will you react if I die? I’m starting to get curious.” Xiao Zhao wrapped her wound with a dirty cloth band and tied it into a bow. “I want to take a good look at Xiao Tang’s reaction and use it as a reference in the future! If you don’t properly behave by then, I… Huh? What should I do? I can’t punish you if I’m dead.”

Ruan Xian: “……”

It wasn’t easy to say directly, but he tried to signal to Tang Yibu with his eyes to convey his appreciation. After spending a few years with these things, Tang Yibu was quite harmless in comparison.

“…They weren’t like this before,” Tang Yibu whispered. “They used to be more sober.”

Xiao Zhao seemed to forget about Ruan Xian, who shot her. She bounced back to Kang Ge with fleeting steps as she hummed a tune while using her own blood to draw patterns on her clothes.

As they went deeper into the forest, the gross entrails that were sprawled on the ground grew denser and their squirming became faster. The dark red flesh was mixed with bruises and twitched like an animal before it was gagged. A hot, wet, fishy smell went straight into Ruan Xian’s nose and gave him bouts of nausea.

[Why don’t you do it?]

At the point where things were now, even a fool could see that the other party had no good intentions. Ruan Xian didn’t think Tang Yibu was the sentimental type. In fact, the other party might be the most distant creature on this planet from the word “sentimental”.

He had watched the android abduct the Mainbrain’s detection bird. Based on Tang Yibu’s abilities, it shouldn’t be difficult to disrupt the programs of a few cameras while they enter the forest. Even if he didn’t want to kill them, it wasn’t difficult to escape.

But he didn’t do that.

Tang Yibu turned his head sideways and answered Ruan Xian’s question by mouthing it.

“Someone is watching,” he said. “Since a while ago, someone has been watching me. The interference procedures may be discovered.”

[Mainbrain? Order Supervisors?] Ruan Xian didn’t feel any abnormality.

“I don’t know,” Tang Yibu replied silently, disguising this action as a reassuring kiss. “Be careful, Mr. Ruan.”

In the next instant, Ruan Xian experienced what Tang Yibu meant when he said, “Someone is watching”. When he first heard this statement, he thought the description was too broad. After experiencing it firsthand, Ruan Xian realized how apt this description really was.

Someone was indeed watching.

It wasn’t a mysterious intuition, nor was it the discomfort of being exposed to the camera. Ruan Xian didn’t care much about those things. He didn’t mind making out with Tang Yibu thoroughly in front of the camera for an entire night before.

This time it felt different.

When he fired his gun just now, he felt a similar discomfort, but he didn’t perceive any threats around him. The feeling was so fleeting that Ruan Xian didn’t immediately judge it as an anomaly and delved deeper into it. At the moment, he didn’t know if it was due to the credit of the S-type Prototype, but the discomfort of being peeped on made Ruan Xian’s stomach sour.

If it had to be given a description, it was like standing unconsciously next to the eyes of a sleeping behemoth, turning around, and seeing one’s own reflection in the other party’s eyes that suddenly snapped open…

It seemed like they were being gazed upon at very close range by an extremely huge eyeball.

Fortunately, the invisible eye only stared at him for a while, and the sense of oppression suddenly dissipated. Tang Yibu’s body tightened again, which meant the peeper’s attention should’ve returned to him once again.

[I see.] Ruan Xian replied cautiously. [I was also peeped at just now.]

Tang Yibu tugged at the corner of his mouth.

[This is a good thing.] Ruan Xian rubbed Tang Yibu’s hair. [This means there’s probably only one peeper.]

But there were also many questions. How did the other party bypass his perception to “see”? Why were they specifically peeping at them as soon as they entered? …Could it be Professor Ruan was hidden on the island? Or did the Mainbrain detect an anomaly?

The current situation was beyond their knowledge, so it wasn’t a good idea to expose themselves under completely uncontrollable circumstances—the opponent’s main goal seemed to be Tang Yibu, so they had to choose a more cautious and careful approach.

Ruan Xian didn’t want to let anyone take away the heat that he had finally obtained. Even if Tang Yibu was going to die, he would be the person who would kill him. Ruan Xian took a breath and held Tang Yibu’s hand firmly.

Tang Yibu grabbed his hand and firmly interlocked their fingers.

“We’ll find him,” Tang Yibu whispered, not knowing whether he meant Professor Ruan, the peeper, or both.

“From what I understand, that person wouldn’t choose my original hiding method.” The palm of the android was still warm. “I know how to find him.”

The road under their feet was getting more and more out of place. The writhing entrails almost covered the ground and piled on in tiny hills. Blood vessel-like things hung from the trees and kept bulging uncontrollably. Ruan Xian surveyed the surrounding environment. They seemed to be walking towards the broken ceramic doll head.

The sticky touch under his feet and the rising sensation were probably all illusions. The mentally abnormal pair were walking in front of them. Ruan Xian thought for a moment before he took out a knife from his pocket.

[Yibu, help me hold their attention. Seventeen seconds is enough.]

Tang Yibu gave him a deep look.

[Don’t worry. Our interests are the same.] Ruan Xian curved the corner of his mouth. [I won’t take the opportunity to run away.]

Tang Yibu then jogged a few steps and ran towards the young couple and said something with a smirk on his face. Ruan Xian wrapped his grime-stained white coat tightly around himself and took a few deep breaths.

This was still the coat they got from the prevention shelter. There weren’t many sets left, so it was best not to get them too dirty. He casually thought of this as he moved.

It was about noon when they finally reached the inside of the ceramic doll’s head. However, given that the thing was on the ground on its side, the side facing the sky was missing a small half of its head, and the interior wasn’t much different from the open air.

Inside the skull, the flesh and blood only gave off an eerier feeling. The huge skull had a honeycomb-like structure inside that was made into small compartments comprised of soil and stone mixed with various textures of flesh. However, it could be that, considering augmented reality wasn’t reality in the end, most of these small compartments were probably gathered at the bottom and there was no overhanging design. The part that lacked shade was left empty with only randomly planted dying orchids, which at first glance looked like a small half-built square.

They were standing on this simple, small square. Ruan Xian highly suspected that the part they were stepping on was simulating brain tissue. No matter who created this reality, that person was definitely abnormal to a rather serious extent.

“Boss, we are back!” Xiao Zhao waved towards the center of the square.

There was a gray armchair in the center of the square. Its size was like the style used by children to play house, so an adult was unable to sit in it. The bulging backrest was faded, and many of its openings had suspicious tan-colored material leaking out. A small ceramic doll without a head was placed in the center of the chair. Its yellow limbs were full of scratches and cracks, and they were twisted in a gesture that no human could do.

It remained motionless.

There were also many people gathered around the square, like clusters of worker bees—everyone was so busy with their own affairs that it was difficult to see what they were doing. On the edge of the crack in the huge skull, several detection birds flapped their wings with their camera heads pointed straight towards the square.

“Look who it is!” Xiao Zhao ran behind Tang Yibu and abruptly pushed Tang Yibu forward a few steps. “Everyone, everyone! Xiao Tang is back!”

The people around didn’t respond, but cheers rang out in the void. The sound was repeated stiffly, like an audio track recorded in advance of a show. Red confetti fell from the air in response. Ruan Xian stretched out his hand to catch a piece, which felt terrible to the touch as it didn’t feel even half as real.

Then he looked around carefully. There were no pairs of golden eyes similar to Tang Yibu’s.

“Originally, I wanted to keep the two of you for lunch, but it turns out the boss wants to lock you up.” Kang Ge grabbed the headless doll on the seat, raised one of its hands and waved it at them. “But I’ll remember to deliver food to you guys! Haa, the boss is quite temperamental, so I can’t help it. It’s an extraordinary time right now. Do understand.”

After speaking, he threw the doll’s body back into the chair without saying a word.

“But for the sake of, ah, right, security—Xiao Tang’s boyfriend. Hand over the observation machine in your hand. The one that looks like a cellphone. Xiao Tang too. This is the rule. Otherwise, it’ll be difficult for us.”

“Listen to Kang Ge. He’s so smart.” They didn’t know when, but Xiao Zhao had flashed behind them again. Ruan Xian could feel cold metal pressed against his back.

He waved his hand wordlessly, pointed to his mouth, and then to Tang Yibu’s pocket.

[We only have one observation machine in our hands. Let them search.] As he did this, he sent a simple message to Tang Yibu.

“My boyfriend can’t speak. Sorry.” Tang Yibu took the conversation very naturally. “We only brought one. Mr. Ruan just gave it to me… Well, this is it. If you are still worried, you can search us.”

“Ok! In addition, the weapons—”

“Nothing else.” Tang Yibu’s tone was firm.

“Huh? Why!” Xiao Zhao, who was behind them, sounded quite dissatisfied.

“That is our token of love.” Tang Yibu began to speak nonsense again. “We need it to leave a little reminder. You took away our observation tool, and there are many people around. A few knives and guns won’t affect anything.”

Ruan Xian: “…” This was the first time he had heard such a messy explanation from Tang Yibu’s mouth.

“Kang Ge, Kang Ge! Look, they’re not even married yet, but they have so many tokens of love.” As a result, Xiao Zhao instantly bought it. “Why didn’t you ever think about giving me a knife or a gun? How annoying!”

“I’ll give you a gun next time.” Kang Ge coaxed. “Isn’t the time just right? I’ll cut off two more tongues and send them to you, and we’ll win.”

Xiao Zhao retracted the knife that was against the back of Ruan Xian’s neck and clapped her hands vigorously. This time she didn’t relent to Tang Yibu’s anger. Then two tins with the same exquisite face came forward and dragged Ruan Xian and Tang Yibu into the nearest cubicle.

Unlike the young couple, the rest of the people showed no interest in them. As soon as the door of the compartment closed, the two were plunged into pure darkness.

But hell knows if this darkness was something “seeable”.

Ruan Xian decisively crouched on the ground. He was ready early on. Even if his weapons were really taken away, he still had a way to break these annoying perception interference.

But now that he still had his weapons, he would suffer less.

Ruan Xian didn’t remove the buckle pin on the holster under his armpit but used a small knife to cut open his abdomen and took out a bloody old-fashioned cellphone from his abdominal cavity. The moment the old-fashioned cellphone left his body, the wound in his abdomen quickly healed again.

Not long ago, when they were in the woods, he secretly hid it.

Then he rolled over, covered the bloody cellphone with his clothes, activated the camera, and glanced quickly around.

Sure enough.

They were at the bottom of a pit four or five meters deep, with the sun pouring down on top of their heads. There was a person sitting on the edge of the pit, looking bored.

Tang Yibu was sitting next to a dry white bone. His gaze was unfocused, indicating he was still trapped in the dark perception.

Everything became much easier now that the perspective had been clarified by the phone. Ruan Xian crawled to Tang Yibu’s side and secretly shoved the blood-stained cellphone into the other party’s hand. The false darkness came again.

Tang Yibu rustled around to hide it, then fumbled to caress Ruan Xian’s cheek.

[Still being watched?]

“Nn.”

[If I didn’t hide it, what would you do?]

“Wait,” Tang Yibu said softly. “Let’s wait for the evening before we act, Mr. Ruan. Recover some more strength while you can… They’ll come.”

[Who will come?]

“That couple and attackers from other areas.” Tang Yibu put his chin on Ruan Xian’s shoulder and sniffed lightly. “There will be a battle here. I understand why the Mainbrain copied some of the data from the participants of Struggler—this is a show—or at least a show for people in The Glass Conservatory to watch. There must be conflicts and contradictions. In my experience, at least two areas here are in a state of confrontation.”

“We’re on the ‘worst’ side right now.”

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

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

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

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Chapter 143: Restless*

*(如芒在背) Idiom referring to extreme anxiety. From Han Shu: The Biography of Huo Guang.

Although the two of them were close, they didn’t seem to have intentions of approaching for the time being. However, from this distance, it wasn’t difficult for Ruan Xian. He carefully looked at the two uninvited guests and adjusted to the most appropriate expression.

The man and woman standing in the distance had very upright faces, good looks, and figures, which was unlike people living in a desperate environment. The clothes they were wearing were a bit shabby and incomplete. Scattered props hung around their rough belts, most of which had rough traces of manual modification.

Ruan Xian held the phone in his hand, pretended to wipe his sweat, and glanced at the screen quickly—the appearance of these two people wasn’t forged. There wasn’t that much distance between them.

After assessing the situation in front of him, Ruan Xian turned sideways so that his clothes could completely block the blood guns.

[Acquaintance?] He turned to Tang Yibu and touched the earring with his hand.

“…I don’t know.” Tang Yibu’s answer was a bit vague. “From their appearance, yes, but it may also be a duplicate that the Mainbrain copied memories of the previous androids and remade it.”

Ruan Xian had never seen Tang Yibu look so vigilant. It wasn’t deliberate vigilance but more like a stress response.

“After all, there’s no need to use androids, especially nowadays.” Seeing that Ruan Xian didn’t move his gaze, Tang Yibu continued to explain in a low voice. “After each stage of Struggler is completed, the more popular android will be sold in batches. I don’t think the android at that time could appear here… The Mainbrain will not easily let go of this opportunity to observe humans.”

“Don’t believe anything they say, Mr. Ruan.” After a few seconds of silence, Tang Yibu added in a low voice. “Unlike the Glass Conservatory, the Mainbrain may not consider mental health issues. Their memories may have been modified countless of times.”

Indeed, the reason why the previous android shows used androids was entirely in consideration of social and ethical issues. There were rigid requirements for the proportion of biological tissue. Since most of the body of an android was composed of bionic materials, they wouldn’t be regarded by the audience as the same kind. Even if there was fighting and killing, the psychology of the spectators wasn’t much different from watching a puppet show.

But there was a premise—the android shows were run by humans.

Ruan Xian had seen it when he was in Shade Refuge. The Mainbrain had the ability to implant memories into real human bodies, so was it really necessary for MUL-01, who was keen to observe humans, to abide by these rules any longer?

…What exactly are the people in The Glass Conservatory watching?

Regarding mental issues, Tang Yibu was probably right.

Ruan Xian had always been sensitive to the emotions of others. He could instinctively perceive that the two people in front of him weren’t normal—the pair didn’t react to the island’s abnormalities and treated the atmosphere around them like a brisk outing. If the people in The Glass Conservatory were finely pruned flowers and the focus was on the stability of their mental state, then this was more like an extreme testing ground.

Let the “upright” ones be more “upright” and the “sick” be more “sick”.

Ruan Xian thought it was fine. Compared with machinery that may have had strange modifications, people with flesh and blood were easier to deal with.

“This reaction is really Xiao Tang.” The surprise on the man’s face didn’t seem to be fake, but Ruan Xian didn’t see much intimacy in it. “Where have you been? We all thought you were dead… Oh, who is this?”

Tang Yibu suddenly grabbed Ruan Xian’s wrist, holding it tightly. Then the android pulled him into his arms and held him firmly, exuding a strong sense of possessiveness that was overflowing.

[Disguise?] Ruan Xian continued to ask questions with his earring.

“Nn. We can’t attract attention.” Tang Yibu lowered his head slightly. The tips of his slightly long hair hung down with his movements. “Assuming that the Mainbrain specially allows some people to inherit the memories of the previous android shows, they are likely to be positioned as ‘important characters’.”

Ruan Xian understood. Important characters usually had accompanying shots, so it was best not to attract the interest of the audience.

Fortunately, after their flurry at the prevention shelter, Gong Siyi would no longer have the capital and qualification to watch The Android Show, so there was almost no possibility of discovering them. However, it was best to still be cautious.

He took a half-step back cooperatively, making a nervous look.

“I didn’t expect you to find a boyfriend after not seeing you for so long, Xiao Tang. What a pity. Those in the camp will be so sad when they find out.”

Tang Yibu didn’t answer but showed a perfunctory smile that Ruan Xian was very familiar with.

“Come back with us.” The man didn’t seem to notice Tang Yibu’s perfunctory smile, and seeing Ruan Xian’s intention to retreat, he instead pulled the woman over. “I forgot to introduce ourselves. Just call me Kang Ge. Over here is my wife, Xiao Zhao.”

Xiao Zhao nodded. The smile on her face was almost as enthusiastic as the man.

“You are?” Xiao Zhao stretched out her hand to Ruan Xian with a sweet smile.

“There’s still a chance to see you again.”

Tang Yibu’s tone was rarely stiff. He let go of his embrace and tugged at Ruan Xian behind him, just missing the hand. The attitude of the android was so abnormal that Ruan Xian was unsure whether it was acting or a real reaction.

“It’s nice to see you guys again, but we have a team, and now we are—”

“Don’t say that.”

The man squeezed Tang Yibu’s arm with great strength, but his movements weren’t fast. Ruan Xian knew that Tang Yibu could have avoided it, but the android didn’t mean to dodge.

“New acquaintances can’t be as reliable as old acquaintances. Let me tell you, Xiao Tang, since we changed places, our lives have been a lot better. You must bring your good friend to see… The truth may be unpleasant, but your team allowed someone like you who has no ability to wander around. This means they are most likely incompetent.”

Ruan Xian’s hand leaned towards the blood gun in his arms.

He understood Tang Yibu’s concerns. Not to mention the rare effect of the prototype inside the two of them, none of the four people in their group were equipped with reality augmentation equipment. Once they attracted unnecessary attention, the possibility of exposure was quite high.

But if they were to go along with the wishes of these two strangers, they didn’t know how long it would take to rendezvous with Yu Le and Ji Xiaoman.

Having said that, Ruan Xian was fully confident that he could kill these two people in two seconds, and Tang Yibu would only be faster than him. However, Tang Yibu hadn’t done it yet, so there must be a hidden surveillance device around him.

Although he understood the truth… Ruan Xian glanced at the man’s hand squeezing Tang Yibu’s arm and his hand became increasingly itchy.

He had always understood the most prudent approach, but this journey was full of wanton actions. Since Professor Ruan was here, he must be monitoring the island through certain means. It may not necessarily be a way to attract attention to the other side.

After all, he had one more advantage than Tang Yibu—he could cheat death perfectly when needed.

However, at the moment when Ruan Xian’s fingertips were about to touch the handle of the gun, Tang Yibu pretended to struggle, intentionally or unintentionally touching Ruan Xian’s quietly moving arm, and took advantage of the situation to press the other party in his arms again.

“It’s okay, Mr. Ruan,” Tang Yibu whispered. “Don’t act. Follow them first.”

“Okay.” Then he raised his head and replied clearly to the two of them.

Although there was no performance on the surface, Tang Yibu’s anxiety was about to burst. Originally, he could find a quiet place to digest Mr. Ruan’s speech. The other party’s unexpected attitude made a mess of him, and he urgently needed to sort out all the data…

If Mr. Ruan was just Ruan Xian’s clone, why would Ruan Xian adopt such an attitude towards him?

If Mr. Ruan was the real Ruan Xian, how could those logical contradictions be explained?

As if there was a fire burning in his lungs, Tang Yibu couldn’t even breathe well—right now, he couldn’t distinguish the complex emotions boiling in his chest.

Unfortunately, this island seemed determined to fight him. A piece of complex emotional data hadn’t been processed and another piece of negative emotion had closely followed.

Tang Yibu never thought that he would meet his deceased friends here. The interest of MUL-01 was even worse than he thought—as the first android show, Struggler took the trial-and-error route of savage development, in which many severely distorted personality samples were born. If the Mainbrain wanted to keep them…

Things were becoming a bit troublesome, and he couldn’t help but click his tongue.

Either pretend to agree first, lead the two to a place where there were no cameras, and then quickly kill them, or use the monsters in the forest to push the boat along and create an “accident”. There must be someone watching here. Even without the S-type Prototype, he could sense the feeling of being watched.

The hair on the back of his neck stood up, and there seemed to be a small needle stuck in his back. This was the precious instinct that the pure human body brought him.

It was very rare, but this time Mr. Ruan intended to make the first move. Tang Yibu stopped his movements in time as the sense of the pricking of a needle behind his back became stronger, causing almost all his hair to explode.

“Go with them first,” he whispered to Mr. Ruan.

Before thoroughly figuring out Mr. Ruan’s situation, Tang Yibu didn’t intend to let the other party step into danger. His Mr. Ruan glanced at him, and finally retracted his arm and intent to kill, then put on his gentle and harmless mask again.

“Good.” Kang Ge clapped his hands. “I’ll take you to see the boss. Maybe you can still get your original job back.”

After that, he seemed to think of something funny, and laughed heartily for a while. Xiao Zhao also smiled at him and patted Tang Yibu on the back as if they had a seemingly good relationship.

Tang Yibu thought it would be good to get to the forest. As long as they calculated the branches and leaves to provide enough cover, with his and Mr. Ruan’s abilities, they would have many opportunities to create a few accidents.

But the sense of being watched was still clinging to him tightly.

[Mr. Ruan.] Tang Yibu finally couldn’t help but write quickly in the palm of the other person’s hand. [What’s nearby?]

[There are only four of us in a two-kilometer radius.] Mr. Ruan replied with his earring. [165 flying machines. I don’t know the specific monitoring parameters. You have to hack in and take a look yourself.]

This was as many flight monitors as one would find through signal tracing. Tang Yibu frowned. Those things wouldn’t give him such a bad sense of being watched, but if the S-type Prototype couldn’t detect it, he probably wouldn’t be able to find the reason.

[By the way, I’m planning to act dumb.] Mr. Ruan’s message came again.

Tang Yibu was taken aback, then he reacted—after the pair approached, Ruan Xian didn’t say a word.

This was indeed more low-key, and in case they were separated, the information provided wouldn’t be easy to contradict.

[Understood.] He poked gently in the palm of the other party’s hand.

“Wow, Kang Ge, look at them.” Xiao Zhao turned her head and glanced at their holding hands. “Come one, you grab me too.”

If they weren’t stepping on the flesh and blood winding through the forest, the couple in front of them would look like a young couple in a peacetime film or TV production. It was just that the slippery innards that were gurgling underneath their shoes broke the warm atmosphere to the point where not even crumbs were left.

Tang Yibu looked at the two people walking in front of him vigilantly, and suddenly his hands tingled.

He lowered his head and glanced at it. There was a thin blade on the back of his hand, and blood was dripping onto the ground along the back of his hand. Mr. Ruan was also covered in blood.

Tang Yibu’s gaze turned slightly. Sure enough, Xiao Zhao, who was just walking in front of him, leaned against him and had a dagger in her hand. He didn’t know when the other party had eroded their perception.

“Also, you’d better let go, Xiao Tang.” The young girl still smiled sweetly. “Kang Ge didn’t hold my hand, so I don’t like to see people holding hands. Next time you do this again, I’ll cut off your finger—it’s alright, though. Kang Ge has good medicine, so it won’t cripple you.”

Tang Yibu didn’t say a word. He had long been accustomed to the style of these two old acquaintances. He only needed a chance to attack…

“Bang.”

Xiao Zhao fell crookedly to the ground. The hand holding the knife suddenly had a bullet hole, while her face hadn’t had time to retract.

His Mr. Ruan didn’t put away the blood gun or even expose his nature. The man made a face of extreme nervousness and fear and pointed his muzzle tremblingly at the girl in front of him without saying a word.

Tang Yibu blinked, and at that moment, the sense of being watched on his back disappeared.

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

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

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

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Chapter 142: Old Friends

Yu Le was seriously questioning his life.

Thinking about it carefully, why didn’t he blow up at that moment in the Sea of Ruins? In that way, he would always be the great ruins pirate who occupied the most territory in the Sea of Ruins, living arbitrarily while dying heroically. Right now, he felt more like a bear breaking corn*—he came across a few petri dishes and rejected them, not settling down, which directly led him to his current predicament.

*Describe the process of continuous acquisition while continuously giving things up until they end up with nothing in the end. It comes from the story about a bear breaking off some corn, putting it in its armpit, but seeing other, better corn, so it kept breaking them off and tucking them in its armpits, causing the previous one it gathered to fall off. Eventually, after a hard day of harvesting, it ended up with only one corn.

Yu Le straightened his slightly messy hair with his fingers and inhaled deeply. There was still the same confusing scene outside the window, but he wouldn’t be fooled again.

The armored off-roader stopped steadily on the beach.

A few minutes ago.

Although the sound of sand and dust hitting the car window was clear and real, the feeling of driving wasn’t deceptive. The car didn’t advance on dry, hard land. The attacker simulated the touch as much as possible, but as a former pirate who was adept at this, Yu Le was still able to find subtle differences in the feel.

There was sand and water. Combined with the direction of their progress, his armored car was semi-soaked in the sea and was heading deeper towards it.

But fuck it.

Yu Le rolled his eyes at the scene of the wasteland in front of him, activated the underwater mode of the vehicle, and carefully steered, as if what he held in his hand wasn’t a steering wheel but some kind of weird scalpel.

He operated the vehicle carefully, feeling every tremor caused by the rotation of the off roader. He used to steer a giant pirate ship that burned shuttle agent, and any small error would lead to the death of the entire crew. At that moment, it wasn’t difficult for him to judge the condition of the car only by the subtle reaction that the enemy couldn’t erase.

The car sank and the sand under the tires became solid, indicating they had returned to a safe direction. Ji Xiaoman adjusted her arms with a serious expression, as if she didn’t care whether Yu Le intended to drive the car into the deep sea or a crater.

“We’re under attack.”

“An attack.”

The two spoke almost at the same time. Yu Le let go of the steering wheel, clenched a gun in one hand, and nudged his shoulder. “You first.”

“My prosthetic is missing a part. The weight of one knuckle is gone. It may have been broken during the landing.”

Ji Xiaoman moved her metal fingers.

“No one can see the internal parts, so there are no missing parts. The outside is also equally as fine. According to Tang Yibu’s theory… Someone should have observed my other hand and covered it with the same perception… In order to keep us from finding out that ‘we’ve come to the island’.”

“The state of the car isn’t quite right,” Yu Le said smoothly. “The mess just now could be explained. They want to separate us and break us one by one. The car has been running for a while, so it’s too late for Xiao Ruan to react.”

“There should be a clue in the car.” Ji Xiaoman had already begun to grope and rummage around. “They can’t see the inside of the car from the outside, so the situation here shouldn’t be disguised. We shouldn’t go to the island unprepared.”

“Find clues first, then we’ll see what’s going on outside.” Yu Le made a quick decision, activated the body value detection system, and adjusted the light screen to an angle that couldn’t be seen from the outside. “Little profiteer, you’re small. I adjusted the light transmission of the glass behind the car. After you find something, go back and observe—you’re going to be the ‘dark sentry’.”

Yu Le groped around casually and, as a result, found an empty bag of squid feet that had the toothmarks of the iron bead remaining on it. He breathed a sigh of relief, got a lady finger, and put it in his mouth, trying to ease his nicotine addiction.

“Look at my physical condition on the light screen. Our senses now may not be accurate. Xiao Tang said the state of our bodies won’t lie though.” It was impossible for the outside people to know that he had activated this function. This was done just in time so he could use it as a detector.

Ji Xiaoman lengthened her face and didn’t seem to like this proposal very much.

“Hey, you’re thinking it’s because you’re a chick that I’m letting you do it?” Yu Le continued to drive forward cautiously. “Come on, Miss Profiteer. Although I don’t want to admit it, I prefer fighting hand-to-hand and can’t stand your messy little mechanisms. Besides, you’re so small. Or are you saying a 1.9-meter-tall man like me should go and make a surprise attack? People would be lifting their heads up before I even approach.”

“I want to rip your head off now—if you die, this car won’t start and it’ll give me more trouble,” Ji Xiaoman said sorrowfully. The voice wasn’t loud, but the deterrence was enough.

“You’re underestimating me. It’s not that easy to kill me.” Yu Le narrowed his eyes. “Have you found anything? Stop talking nonsense.”

Ji Xiaoman rolled her eyes at Yu Le and threw the old-fashioned cellphone on Yu Le’s lap. “The situation should be better if you observe it in abnormal ways.”

“Oh, this method is good.” Yu Le reacted quickly. He directly fixed the cellphone in front of the car with a robotic arm and opened the glass barriers between the front and rear seats. The small screen showed the shadow of the tree beside the beach.

Ji Xiaoman shrank up in the back seat, staring at Yu Le while eating lady fingers. After a few crunching sounds, she finished it off and recovered some energy and began to look at the outside through the cellphone camera.

“…Huh?”

“It’s different, I know.” Yu Le looked at the screen on the display intently.

“No, it’s dawn.” Ji Xiaoman pointed out the window. “It seems that a lot of the foreign influence has been removed.”

Only then did Yu Le raise his eyes and saw the sparkling sea. The rising sun was like a little melted gold. The sky had become clear and blue, and the edges were attached to the morning glow from the rising sun, creating a scene of tranquility.

However, the noise of the air conditioning in the back row made the sound quite incompatible with the current scene.

In the end, she was a young girl who grew up among the poisonous fog of the Underground City. Yu Le shook his head regretfully. Those who have seen such a scene like himself wouldn’t be shaken just now. After sighing in his heart, he turned his head to Ji Xiaoman’s side.

Then he inhaled deeply, drawing in a breath that was even louder than Ji Xiaoman.

‘Crazy,’ he thought.

The inside of the island was completely distorted. The closest thing to them was a huge ceramic doll’s head that he conservatively estimated to be about 30 meters high. Its color flaked and a small piece was broken off, while the remaining parts were marked with conspicuous cracks. Visceral flesh and blood trailed out of its head and were piled on the other side of the island; they were still twitching and pulsating, with a moist luster. The long feet of several insects extended out from nowhere, constantly stretching and curling, which was equally as large and frightening.

The only eye left on the ceramic doll was a little blue, and it looked at them indifferently.

Damaged colored building blocks, blood-stained blunt instruments, decaying books, squirming shadows; they mixed in different sizes and covered the entire island in a weird fusion. Further away, golden confetti rained down on iconic buildings of various countries that were inserted into the ruins like candles on a cake. Everything was illuminated by the brilliance of the rising sun, undulating in some bizarre way, as if it was breathing.

Truly a nightmare. Yu Le slowly swallowed. No wonder the ratings of Struggler II were so high. This scene must seem particularly exciting to the outside world. However, as a person up close to this nightmare, Yu Le couldn’t wait to turn around the car and drive it into the sea again.

In contrast, the prevention shelter in The Glass Conservatory was quite lovely.

“I should cherish the Sea of Ruins.” Yu Le murmured. “Fuck, laozi’s original life was so normal. Not to mention a year. If I stay here for a month, I might really go insane.”

The broken head of the ceramic doll trembled and turned around, bringing up dust as birds flew away. Its facial features were slightly distorted as it tried to squeeze out a smile.

As an experienced mechanical hunter, Ji Xiaoman shivered visibly to the naked eye.

“It’s like… It’s like entering the brain of a mentally ill person.” It took her a long time to find her voice.

“More like entering the brain of a group of psychopaths.” Yu Le made a feeble correction. “Little profiteer, are we still proceeding?”

Ji Xiaoman stared at the broken ceramic head, shaking like a sieve for a while before finally settling on her thoughts.

“Go,” she said, picking up the phone and looking out the window. In the picture taken by the camera, there was no distortion. Only a little pile of ruins of a building obscured by the forest could be seen. “It’s not real anyway.”

“Come on, you’re stuttering.” Yu Le didn’t look at the eerie scene anymore. He adjusted his state for a while and continued to move towards the forest. “Let’s go if we can bear it. As far as the virtues of those two crazy boys are concerned, if we’re to retreat here, most likely we won’t be able to touch even a single hair of Professor Ruan’s.”

As Yu Le guessed, as the sun rose, Ruan Xian and Tang Yibu both saw the distortion on the island. However, they just glanced at it lightly, and then stared at each other again.

Tang Yibu grabbed two skewers of charred grilled fish with both hands, with a serious expression, as if he was holding two military-grade knives.

“This is my answer,” Ruan Xian said. “If you really want to find the flaws in MUL-01, it’s better to ask Professor Ruan.”

Tang Yibu mechanically took a bite of the grilled fish, chewing it with a click as his eyes stared blankly forward.

Was the blow that big? Ruan Xian felt a little puzzled, but he didn’t plan to let the other party off the hook. “Now it’s your turn.”

“What?” Tang Yibu spoke monotonously, looking a bit distracted.

“Information.” Ruan Xian cruelly snatched the grilled fish from Tang Yibu’s other hand and took a bite of it. He didn’t mind the giant pile of internal organs squirming not far away. “This was a deal. I can’t really tell you this for free.”

He had revealed enough. If Tang Yibu knew some details, he could probably deduce that he had “disappeared” before NUL-00 was destroyed, or that this part of his memory had been modified. However, whether the other party was willing to believe it or not was still a question. After all, what he gave was just scraps.

In the end, even if he had a special love for the android, Ruan Xian was also unwilling to reveal all information to Tang Yibu—Tang Yibu’s thoughts on “Ruan Xian” should be far from as simple as it seems. Until determining the other party’s true attitude, spreading out all his cards prematurely would leave him with no out.

Ruan Xian himself, a clone who could be unwittingly executing Ruan Xian’s plans, or a clone that was abandoned by Ruan Xian… Regarding his identity, he could roughly guess many possibilities. According to Tang Yibu’s position, he had to consider how to smoothly switch these identities.

“Oh…” Tang Yibu’s reaction was a lot slower now. Facing the distorted scene of the island with his back, the android was gnawing on the grilled fish blankly, with a little black ash on his face, like a cat who saw a thunderstorm for the first time.

Ruan Xian couldn’t help poking that face.

“Did you have a body when you were abandoned by Ruan Xian?” He also chose a question that wasn’t too in-depth. Looking at the current state of the android who was in a trance, maybe he could pull out some other clues.

Tang Yibu claimed he created this body himself. So, before this, whether Tang Yibu had abandoned his original body or existed alone in the form of a cybernetic brain, he needed a helper.

A cybernetic brain couldn’t move. Even if he had an original body, it was difficult for him to build this body without being noticed.

Tang Yibu finally got his attention back.

“I know what you want to ask,” the android whispered. “This body was made when I sneaked into Struggler. Plan Corp started this show a few years before the Great Rebellion in the 22^nd century, and many android shows on other themes have been launched in the follow-up, but the Struggler series has always been the most popular. Many of the androids in the show can be sold at the end of each issue.”

This guy had started talking about other information again. Ruan Xian narrowed his eyes.

“That’s very interesting.” Ruan Xian directly blocked Taking Yibu’s words. “Since you’re a ‘weapon’ made by Ruan Xian after the Great Rebellion, how did you mix into the Android Show that existed before it?”

“Because that show lasted for many years, it didn’t stop immediately because of the rebellion.”

Tang Yibu pointed blankly to the island where they were.

“There are no humans in The Android Show. At the same time, they maintained their own set of life circles that the Mainbrain didn’t have the need to specifically deal with. You can think of it as a small country isolated from the world. Considering the situation of The Glass Conservatory, shooting and recording may not have stopped, and the external facilities are also well preserved. This is the only place where I can customize my body as the remaining resources are basically in the hands of the Order Supervisors.”

“I see.” Ruan Xian’s tone rose at the end of the sentence.

“At that time, I did have assistance as well. It was easy to cajole humans. Not to mention it’s a chaotic environment.” Tang Yibu didn’t look at Ruan Xian. “This is all the information I can give you.”

“Next…”

“Tang Yibu?!” a strange voice interjected. “Oh my god, is it Tang Yibu?”

Ruan Xian turned his head abruptly. A man and a woman were standing in the distance. The man was waving his hand at them.

They were faces that he didn’t know.

“Tsk.” Tang Yibu’s reaction was even more dry—the android smacked his lips loudly.

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Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

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

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Chapter 141: Defects

He couldn’t continue anymore.

The other party seemed to see that he was emotionally unstable and compelled one set after another. Tang Yibu skillfully used the countermeasures he had thought of before and decisively pushed the temptation back, but his Mr. Ruan didn’t have much intention of buying it.

Tang Yibu took a sip of the soup. The strong taste of the pepper broth swirled on the tip of his tongue. Before drinking this soup, he must calculate a comprehensive countermeasure.

The identity of NUL-00 must not be exposed now.

“As the main person in charge of NUL-00, I should be able to provide you with some useful information.” Mr. Ruan didn’t stop the terrible bewitching, apparently not accepting his previous explanation as it was.

His heart and mouth seemed to be pierced, and a peculiar pain spread slowly.

‘I want to know,’ Tang Yibu thought. He wanted to know very much at this moment. In the five years when he first saw the world for the first time, it was almost like a snap of a finger. How did that person see him?

It was a great opportunity to inquire. As Mr. Ruan said, it was difficult to completely falsify such memories. He could definitely find some gold from the sand and find the thread that was difficult to solve.

However, this subconscious thought made Tang Yibu choke even more severely.

Why did he care so much about the views of “Ruan Xian”? No matter what that person once thought, it was true that he had abandoned him.

Even if a miracle of all miracles happened, the Professor Ruan they were about to meet wasn’t the real thing, and there was a high probability that his Mr. Ruan wasn’t either—in theory, the S-type Prototype could repair abnormal lesions, but it was produced after he was abandoned. Mr. Ruan fused with it long ago, so what about the time before this?

And thus lay the problem—Leaving aside other contradictions, if he assumed that his Mr. Ruan was Ruan Xian himself, then the basic prerequisite would be that Mr. Ruan’s body was preserved.

If this was part of a formal treatment plan, out of all the information he had rummaged through, he found no such clue. Besides this, Mr. Ruan wouldn’t be so confused that he couldn’t figure out Tang Yibu’s own identity.

…Unless he had “disappeared” in an informal way.

If that was the case that it needed to be buried in the dark, it didn’t make sense to preserve Ruan Xian’s body.

First of all, the access of materials to and from the institute was strictly controlled, and it was impossible to take Ruan Xian’s body away. Secondly, even if Ruan Xian’s body was properly preserved, such technology absolutely needed to be hosted online by a system. Under the indiscriminate scanning at the time, Tang Yibu didn’t find a similar device.

However, this wasn’t the first time his Mr. Ruan had puzzled him.

A product and emotions that shouldn’t exist outside of logic. Most likely, Mr. Ruan was a fake, and he also hoped that Mr. Ruan was a fake.

But…

“For the NUL-00 you made, you—” Tang Yibu still spoke strangely.

“There is a problem.” Yu Le suddenly raised his voice.

Ji Xiaoman, who was repairing the iron bead, stopped. Tang Yibu swallowed the rest of the words he hadn’t asked, causing Ruan Xian to frown.

“I cooked this soup using a special method,” Yu Le said as he sprinkled salt into the soup again. He smacked his mouth, and his expression suddenly turned a little ugly. “The taste doesn’t seem right.”

After that, Yu Le rushed back into the car. “Be careful, something is wrong! In order to prevent that kid, Tang Yibu, from stealing food, I hid the meat in the front row… It disappeared for four or five days!”

No one knew where Yu Le hid the meat, and they only left The Glass Conservatory for a day.

Ruan Xian subconsciously pulled Tang Yibu to his side and looked around vigilantly. The iron bead, which was turned over and being petted by Ji Xiaoman, also woke up. It stirred its little legs with great effort, bounced to Ruan Xian’s feet, and barked inexplicably.

“Go back to the car first. Now all back to the car.” Yu Le tightened his muscles. “Never mind the pot of soup alone. You two hurry over—”

Before he finished speaking, the rest of the words were all blocked in his throat. He felt his throat closing up.

Tang Yibu and Ruan Lijie disappeared.

The two young people who were still standing there completely disappeared within the next second. The bowl and spoon in Tang Yibu’s hand were placed upright in the open space, looking particularly creepy.

“Hold on to me, little profiteer.” Yu Le jumped back into the car, clutching Ji Xiaoman’s metal prosthesis tightly in one hand. “It’s so fucking heinous—”

“My right arm has been reduced by 80 grams.” Ji Xiaoman’s voice was also full of vigilance. “Although it looks intact…”

“We obviously haven’t arrived at The Android Show yet.” Yu Le directly abandoned the pots and pans and food outside the car, activated all the defenses of the vehicle, and started the car. “What the hell is going on?”

This was also spoken by Ruan Xian.

He wasn’t sure if Tang Yibu’s warning of “don’t get too close to humans” had turned into a curse, as Ji Xiaoman and Yu Le, as well as the car, had completely disappeared. The bonfire and the bubbling soup were still in place, exuding an uncomfortable sense of dissonance.

“We are already on the island, Mr. Ruan.” Tang Yibu suddenly opened his mouth.

“But the Struggler II show is about a five-day drive from The Glass Conservatory, and I don’t feel anyone else around.”

Otherwise, he wouldn’t talk about NUL-00.

“Temporarily suppressing memory and blurring the senses. One can’t feel how much time has passed if there’s not enough familiar reference.”

Tang Yibu lowered his voice.

“But according to my experience, they won’t rush to approach raw faces. It’s normal for you not to perceive it. Words with personal characteristics and things that cannot be observed can be fooled by them, but it’s easy to find something wrong, so…”

“So, so far, there’s no issues with our conversations, and the equipment and supplies have not been detected by the other side, so it can’t be faked.” Ruan Xian reacted quickly.

The environment near the island was much the same. They were in a dark and quiet place. The attacker should have spent time in a similar environment, so it wasn’t difficult to disguise it. Yu Le hid the meat in the car, and the attacker couldn’t figure out the structure of the car from a long distance, which meant the environment in the car was absolutely real.

As for the outside of the car…

Smell, taste, vision, and the most basic hearing; these perceptions that contain a small amount of information weren’t necessarily true. It could have been collected at random. Conversations were difficult to fake naturally and couldn’t be easily fooled.

In other words, they most likely had a conversation in an extremely realistic “VR chat room” just now. Fiction and reality were mixed so well that he didn’t see any flaws.

Ruan Xian didn’t speak again.

He closed his eyes and pushed the perceptual ability of the S-type Prototype to its limit. Countless messages flocked into his brain—this time he smelled the sea, the wet sand, and the damp forest; and he heard the distant heartbeat, the friction of clothes and human skin, and a conversation in low voices.

“It’s almost time,” that distant voice said. “Huh, they… Two of them seem to have found out.”

Ruan Xian opened his eyes abruptly and knelt on one knee. The long-lost sense of overdraft crept up his spine. The iron bead leaned forward anxiously, tugging at him with its teeth, as if to urge him to stand up quickly.

Without corresponding perception and machinery, they could only passively accept the influence and couldn’t resist it. This was undoubtedly the worst situation; they obviously knew it in advance…

Wait, they knew in advance that this kind of thing would happen.

“Yibu, is there a way to break the visual perception misdirection?” Ruan Xian kept his eyes closed and began to rummage around his body.

“Create a way of observation that the attacker cannot infer.” The smile in Tang Yibu’s voice disappeared, and he was obviously on full alert. “Mr. Ruan, we shouldn’t have been on the island for long.”

Ruan Xian understood what he meant; they wouldn’t be stupid enough to stumble into the pit twice.

…Just as they wouldn’t set foot on this island unprepared.

Ruan Xian felt two cold machines the size of playing cards, about half a centimeter thick, in his waist bag. He smoothly handed one to Tang Yibu. “Take it.”

It wasn’t a delicate piece of work. It felt like an old-fashioned cellphone that had long been eliminated with the introduction of electronic wristbands that could project light screens. However, these two objects were the things he still had an impression of among all their supplies.

This should be their preparation in advance.

Changing the way of observation, it wasn’t convenient to use glass-type machinery that was easily attacked and not flexible enough. If there were people who were good at calculations on the opposite side, their observation angle would be easily exposed, but old-fashioned cellphones were different—slight differences in angles, distances, and parameter settings could make the range of the scene that it captured vary a lot.

Tang Yibu didn’t ask much. They always had a comfortable tacit understanding in this situation.

The android flipped open the cellphone-like machine and turned it on. He started to observe the surroundings through the camera on the screen. Ruan Xian didn’t explain much and did the same thing almost at the same time.

‘It feels really weird,’ Ruan Xian thought.

Inside and outside the screen, the world was torn into two versions.

What they saw were ruins and deserts. Their feet stepped on the dusty wastelands, and they smelled spoiled gasoline and dry dust, but in the instant shot of the camera, they saw sea water that was barely up to their calves. Their surroundings were only sea water and the forest of an island, engulfed by the darkness of night.

“Their technology has improved a lot.” Tang Yibu kicked the water.

“Let’s go ashore first,” Ruan Xian said.

The sensory invasion was more troublesome than he thought. Whether it was the sea water that wasn’t all that high or the water droplets that were kicked at his body by Tang Yibu, he couldn’t perceive it at all. The sense of existence of the solid wasteland under his feet was all he could feel.

However, as soon as they walked ashore for four or five minutes, everything around them suddenly returned to “normal”. The warm sea water rolled over their skin, bringing the unique fishy smell of the ocean, and the forest rustled not far away.

Did they find out they couldn’t deal with them, so they gave up?

“Pay attention to the screen. There may be other hidden traps.” Ruan Xian didn’t let go of his vigilance so easily. He looked at the cellphone in his hand. “You wrote a description on the back. The battery life of this thing is enough to last for a week. Just remember to take it out and charge it during the day.”

“Understood.” Tang Yibu didn’t stop shooting. “…There’s a vehicle on the beach over there, it’s Yu Le and Ji Xiaoman.”

Ruan Xian sighed. “Their situation?”

“They started to drive into the sea, but it turned around in time. It should be fine.”

“Well, I can also hear a little engine sound, so it should be them, but it’s already quite far away. It’s not appropriate to rush to them to try and catch up.” Ruan Xian dug out the sand in his ears.

Things were still a bit troublesome. Although Yu Le made the proper judgment, they were successfully separated. Yu Le and Ji Xiaoman were both people who had fought their way through hell. They wouldn’t be killed so simply. The situation on their side was more troublesome—they had sufficient combat power, but they had a serious lack of resources. They didn’t even have fresh water.

Although they brought some supplies with them, they could also get fresh water from things in the forest. Unfortunately, both of them were large energy consumers, and they didn’t have much free time to collect resources themselves.

“There are coconut trees over there.” As if he had discovered Ruan Xian’s thoughts, Tang Yibu turned his camera. “First replenish some calories before chasing. The soup just now was definitely sea water. My mouth is full of salty and bitter tastes. Ugh.”

Before Ruan Xian could answer, Tang Yibu returned to the shore first and climbed up and down the coconut trees a few times to get a few coconuts.

“There are fish and crabs by the sea. Before we go deeper, we have to at least have a full meal.” The android pressed the coconut open with his bare hands and handed it to Ruan Xian. “It’s almost dawn. Let’s go find them after sunrise. With a good grasp of this island, we can also know how to avoid surveillance.”

Ruan Xian took the coconut. The sweet coconut juice moistened his throat, and his dehydrated innards seemed to be slowly unfolding. Tang Yibu used a knife to dig out the coconut meat and used the knife as a fork as he ate it. His eyes were staring straight at the shadows of fish in the sea.

The sky at the end of the ocean had begun to show orange, and the dark island began to become clearer with the gradual rise of the sun.

“Alright, let’s talk about it at dawn.” After drinking the coconut juice, Ruan Xian felt better.

His answer was already close at hand.

After he found the answer, what would he do next? It was better to find himself a new task, such as how to swindle Tang Yibu to spill the beans, or simply solve all the mysteries surrounding that guy. Along the way, he watched as the android started to become more human—although his thoughts and most of his behavior were far from those of human beings, the android had developed a wonderful sense of maturity.

Ruan Xian thought the feeling felt familiar and he liked it very much.

He remembered the computer room buried deep in his memory and NUL-00 that accompanied him day and night for five years. Ruan Xian hadn’t had time to verify whether it possessed a certain degree of emotion and perception, nor had he had time to determine whether its subtle behaviors came from imitation of self-thinking. It was the work he had devoted the most effort to, but it ended in a semi-finished state.

Did it suffer the moment it was destroyed?

Now that he could distinguish grief from chaotic anger, this strange freshness made him unable to help but start thinking and pursuing questions that he had never thought about before. Ruan Xian touched the scar on his left wrist and lowered his gaze.

Maybe it was the conversation that mentioned NUL-00 that he couldn’t help but start thinking about it again.

“About the question you just mentioned.” Seeing Tang Yibu with a fish in one hand and another fish in his mouth, Ruan Xian took out a lighter and dug up a pit and filled it with dead branches mixed with fuel as he continued the topic. “Are you still interested in exchanging information? About NUL-00.”

The fish in Tang Yibu’s mouth plopped to the ground, now covered in sand.

“……Nn.”

There was a bit of suspiciousness in the calmness of the android. He started to prepare the fish with a wooden face, and his hands were covered in blood. He didn’t formally ask the question until he had finished preparing the fish and skewered them with sticks.

An unblemished, very professional question. Ruan Xian thought Tang Yibu would ask more emotional things, but the other party was much more cautious than he thought. It seemed that he really didn’t want to exchange too much information about himself.

“As the designer of NUL-00,” Tang Yibu wiped the fish blood from his hand with a handkerchief and looked directly into Ruan Xian’s eyes. “What do you think is its biggest flaw?”

“…Why do you want to ask this question?”

“It’s said that the same set of core designs were applied to the Mainbrain and NUL-00, which means they should have relatively consistent weaknesses… This should actually be classified as free shared intelligence.” Tang Yibu’s expression was serious.

From an angle that Ruan Xian couldn’t see, he secretly clenched his fists. Weaknesses were important, but any other information was equally important. This was the most appropriate question he could think of…

Am I not doing well enough? It was just that one time when he didn’t finish the subject.

Why do you have to deny me and destroy me?

…Why did you leave me?

“I can’t answer you. I’m sorry.” After thinking for a moment, Ruan Xian sighed. “It may be a bit arrogant to say that… I haven’t found any fatal shortcomings in it. If you insist on an answer, I would say it’s a bit capricious at best.”

“…But you postponed the launch of NUL-00.”

“In my impression, that’s not its problem, it’s ours.” Ruan Xian shook his head, his tone serious.

“It wasn’t ready yet. It was tantamount to giving a child the most advanced gun. He will easily hurt himself and bring danger to others. In the event of a problem, isn’t it the adult who gave the gun that bears the most responsibility?”

“The truth, Mr. Ruan, the truth. I’m not here to listen to you preach.” Tang Yibu still stared straight at him. “According to what I know about you, this should only be part of the reason.”

Ruan Xian smiled.

“Yes. There was also a way to force it to work, enter countless guidelines for it, and pay attention to corrections all the time. Although it was very troublesome and the risk wasn’t low, it wasn’t impossible to do it. It’s just…”

“It’s just…?”

“I used to live like that.” Ruan Xian took a step towards Tang Yibu. “Abide by all the rules that ’kind people’ need to abide by and interact with people in the most appropriate way. I will have my own judgments, but I will never be able to execute those judgments. Guess what life would be like?”

Tang Yibu stopped speaking. The fish by the fire smelled a little burnt, but he didn’t even look at it.

“It was hell. I never had a good time.” Ruan Xian spread his hands. “Since you’re the work of Professor Ruan, you know how dangerous I am to normal people.”

He wasn’t Frankenstein, but if one insisted on a definition, he was closer to that of Frankenstein’s monster.

But he also had the ability to create. Ruan Xian created a life. Even if no one agreed that it was a life, he still insisted on that point stubbornly.

It was just that, in order to be a normal person, he never made such relevant remarks.

In those five years, Ruan Xian gradually discovered one thing—he seemed to have created a “similar kind” of himself.

Then he had a wish, a small, not-so-great wish…

“So in the matter of directly instilling the norms of right and wrong… From a human perspective, I understand the dangers it may bring, and I have no interest in ruining human society. From a personal point of view, I hope it will not live as uncomfortable as I did.”

“In the end, you destroyed it,” Tang Yibu said softly.

“No, I don’t have that impression.” Ruan Xian shook his head very seriously. “And I will never do that.”

At the same time.

“NUL-00 is really still there.”

A man stood up from his chair and stared at the signal feedback on the light screen.

“…It seems that I didn’t wait in vain.”

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The author has something to say:

Tang got his father’s (?) evaluation: A bit capricious.

Tang: ………………

I finally let them eat coconuts! (……

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Kinky Thoughts:

End of the arc. Summary below.

The team entered The Glass Conservatory in an attempt to find Ruan Xian’s whereabouts. Their target is Luo Jian, who was known as the best infiltrator of the rebel army. They located him at a prevention shelter, where he was locked up for having doomsday thoughts.

As it turned out, The Glass Conservatory is a sort of utopia created by the Mainbrain where society is dictated by it. People live in a relatively peaceful environment, with everything from job selection to entertainment consumption being controlled by the Mainbrain. Those who don’t conform are thrown into the prevention shelter for “treatment”.

To infiltrate the prevention shelter while not exposing his thoughts to the Mainbrain via mind scanner, Ruan Xian took a huge dose of a memory suppressant that gave him temporary amnesia. His plan was successful and proved that he was still human since memory suppressants shouldn’t work on bionic life.

While Ruan Xian was gone, Tang Yibu felt an uncomfortable feeling developing inside of him. Missing his Mr. Ruan, Tang Yibu infiltrated the prevention shelter early in order to meet with him and also address this bubbling feeling that he couldn’t process. He plans to extract the information about “Ruan Xian” from Ruan Xian after he gets it from Luo Jian, and then kill him and turn him into a blood bag, hoping that this will resolve his inexplicable feelings.

Meanwhile, Yu Le and Ji Xiaoman stumble upon Luo Fei, who introduced them to a memory cocktail. Here, they could go into a dreamworld where they could read explicit materials that are banned by the Mainbrain. They also discovered an organization called Pear Blossom that rejects the Mainbrain’s control and preached doomsday theories.

Ruan Xian managed to get close to Luo Jian. Feeling that he had gotten enough information, Tang Yibu enacted his plan to kill Ruan Xian. Ruan Xian, aware of the other party’s motive, also made his move. The two had a showdown, with Tang Yibu eventually coming out on top, but he was unable to kill Ruan Xian. Still unsure why, they had make-up sex and start to plan for the next step.

Tang Yibu convinced Gong Siyi, the doctor at the prevention shelter, to do joint therapy with Ruan Xian and Luo Jian. This basically pulled Ruan Xian into the dreamworld created by Luo Jian. Here was where they discovered the real truth. Luo Jian infiltrated The Glass Conservatory a few years ago and met with “Ruan Xian”. There he discovered the truth behind this petri dish. In an attempt to keep the rebellion alive, Luo Jian created a “joint dreamworld” that could connect everyone to it, mainly the rebels. They would hold their meetings here, and this would escape the notice of the Mainbrain. In order to keep his physical body safe, he pretended to be mad and put himself in the prevention shelter. However, the Mainbrain noticed the anomalies and the movements of Pear Blossom and sent programs to infiltrate Luo Jian’s dreamworld, essentially slowly destroying it until Luo Jian could no longer remember things in great detail. This would eventually collapse his mind and destroy the rebels’ meeting spot with it.

Eventually, they were able to deal with the Mainbrain’s programs, but Luo Jian’s world was exposed. To send him a warning, Pear Blossom was captured and sent to the prevention shelter. Luo Jian then decided to wipe his memory and thus end the dreamland. However, his son, Luo Fei, who was a clone created by the Mainbrain, injected Luo Jian’s real memories into himself and became the new spark for the rebellion and set up his own mind to be the next dreamland for the rebels.

The party then wreaked havoc in The Glass Conservatory so they could escape from it. In the process, they attracted the attention of the Commander-in-Chief of the Order Supervisors, Zhuo Muran. After a deadly confrontation, they managed to escape and head towards their destination, The Android Show.

Other important notes: Ruan Xian confessed his feelings to Tang Yibu, while Tang Yibu was still unsure of how he felt. As an android who had never had any kind of reference to human emotions, he couldn’t give a conclusive answer.

Side characters:

Luo Fei is the son of Luo Jian. As Luo Jian’s real son had died a long time ago, he was created by the Mainbrain using information gathered as a way to “correct” Luo Jian’s personality. At first, he joined Pear Blossom as a rookie who thought the organization was nothing more than a book club that was dedicated to reading and spreading texts that were banned by the Mainbrain. Eventually, he discovered the truth and became the new “joint dreamland” for the rebels.

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