Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

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

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Chapter 206: Improvisation

Yu Le hitched his breath.

Just half a day ago, Tang Yibu looked sullen, but now he had returned to his usual carefree look. Yu Le always had the illusion that the android was like a ruins pirate who had been working frantically on the ship for years and finally got the chance for a vacation.

They seemed to be participating in a major event that was related to the survival of human civilization, yet this kid was clearly absent-minded.

Yu Le felt skeptical. If it wasn’t MUL-01 that was released, but instead this thing in front of him, mankind would’ve probably perished in a different way—Tang Yibu’s ability to focus on key points could anger people to death.

Compared to the stunned Yu Le, Professor Ruan was calm. “It seems that we have reached a consensus. Please find Ruan Xian as soon as you can.”

“Wait, wait, wait.” Yu Le pointed to Zhong Qing, who had a confused look on his face. “Is it okay to talk about this directly in front of him? Doesn’t have… that cybernetic brain assistance or something installed in him and can’t hear certain keywords?”

“There’s no problem for the time being. I haven’t removed the perceptual camouflage around him, so he can’t hear us, and he can’t see the real situation,” Professor Ruan said. “NUL-00, when are you leaving?”

“Now.” Just when Yu Le was about to interrupt, Tang Yibu was already heavily armed—his backpack was stuffed full of dried fruit, a simple condenser that was hung on the side of the bag, and the rattling iron bead that was placed in the net pocket on the other side. In addition to weapons used for camouflage, there were also hooks, ropes, and smoke bombs. Bullets and grenades hung neatly around his belt, making Tang Yibu look like a large human Christmas tree.

“…Don’t you think you have too many weapons?” Yu Le asked gloomily. “Want to leave some for us mortals? Besides, you have the Prototype, so is all that really necessary?”

Tang Yibu looked like a nuclear bomb with legs wielding a fruit knife. No need to mention the A-type Prototype, even if an ordinary person brought this kind of armament, it was enough to turn a place like the Sea of Ruins upside down.

“It’s good to be prepared.” Tang Yibu solemnly adjusted the belt that hung various gadgets.

Yu Le buried his face in his hands and wiped it hard. “…Fine. You make me a little nostalgic.”

“Nostalgia of being the captain of the ruins pirates?”

“My past of my first outing when I was seven years old.”

At this time, it could be seen who had the temperament of a true leader—Professor Ruan glanced at Christmas tree Tang and made no comment.

“Five days.” When Tang Yibu finished talking, Professor Ruan spoke up. “In five days, whether you come back or not, I’ll make my next move.”

Having said that, Tang Yibu knew he didn’t have much of a choice. He may himself want to kick MUL-01 out of the game even more than Professor Ruan—the other party was fighting for an invisible and untouchable ideal, but not for self-preservation. Professor Ruan was a very important chess piece, and Tang Yibu could not and would not let him do as he pleased.

Perhaps this was the conflict between “love and necessary work” that he had read about in literature. Tang Yibu made a check next to a box in his heart. He stuffed a few oranges in his pocket while ignoring the heavy air, and quickly crawled out of the cellar. In an instant, his shadow disappeared.

“We have to rest.” Yu Le pointed to Ji Xiaoman and looked at Professor Ruan. “We’ll act tomorrow at the earliest. By the way, we need to prepare weapons, route planning, and preventative measures in case possible problems arise. It’ll take more than a day to reach the forest petri dish, and we also need to add the time going to the Underground City. I need to discuss it with you overnight to iron out everything.”

When it came to business, Yu Le’s tone remained steady.

“Okay.” Seeing no trace of Tang Yibu, Professor Ruan’s tone held a hint of imperceptible relief. “…Relax, Mr. Yu. Our winning rate has risen a lot, in theory.”

“How so?”

“The Mainbrain understands me, and I understand it. We calculate each other’s next dozens of moves, even hundreds.” The black box that held the enlarged brain blew out a string of bubbles. “…Now, I still understand the Mainbrain, but being on my own, I can only plan three or four steps ahead at most.”

“…..”

“So I have little expectations,” Professor Ruan said.

That was probably a more elegant way of putting it. Yu Le threw a thin blanket in Ji Xiaoman’s direction and raised an eyebrow at Professor Ruan. He always felt that there was an air of gloating coming from him—it was a nice change to see Professor Ruan so deflated, as he himself had experienced this firsthand and knew well that feeling.

“Then we’d better not waste the cards in your hands.” Yu Le glanced at Zhong Qing, who still had his confused look. “What about this kid? You can’t always keep him in perceptual camouflage like this.”

“If it’s just him alone, there’s no problem keeping it going all night. This is protecting…”

Before he could finish, both of them choked.

Zhong Qing took out their tool bag containing sundries, pulled out two earplugs, and righteously stuffed them into his ear. He then covered most of his head with his hat, blindfolded himself, and then pulled the blanket that was covering Ji Xiaoman and wrapped himself into a cocoon in the corner.

“I’m not interested in your business.” With his ears plugged, he spoke very loudly. “I don’t want to be killed. You can remove the interference in front of me—it’s too uncomfortable seeing everything like this! I’m going to bed. Good night. No need to answer. I can’t hear anything! I’m just an innocent minor.”

With the blanket suddenly pulled away, Ji Xiaoman woke up. She quickly assumed a fighting posture, though her eyes were still wrought with confusion after being untimely awoken.

“…” Yu Le suddenly felt that Professor Ruan wasn’t as reliable as he claimed and started to have deep doubts about the statement “three or four steps ahead at most”.

But forget it. Thinking about their current situation—two humans, one brain, and one parasitical virus, hiding in a makeshift cellar, trying to overthrow the Mainbrain that possessed world-class resources. They even had the confidence to talk about winning rates and still kept a positive attitude, as if they would live to old age.

However, in this patchwork temporary team, Ruan Xian was undoubtedly the one with the best mentality at the moment.

He was trapped in the consciousness of others, unable to make any movements. For most people, this was undoubtedly a terrifying thing. Not to mention that the host’s emotions would involve people from time to time, but it also caused people to gradually become confused with their boundaries.

Ruan Xian’s method of dealing with such issues could be chalked up as simple and crude—any intense emotions weren’t his.

The only problem that bothered him was hunger.

How many people had he gone through? Ruan Xian looked at the dark basement in front of him. He had been tossed around by various illegal memory handlers for so long, crossing countless borders, and the number of hosts was so many that he had lost count.

The real-world time was probably less than a day, but physically, he had been stuck for months on December 31, 2100. In the eyes of the Mainbrain, to have such willpower meant he must love Tang Yibu to the point of madness.

What was in front of him perhaps wasn’t the epitome of the worst part of society, but rather society as a whole.

The people who came to make transactions covered all walks of life. Although memory cocktail bars were extremely popular, people still deliberately pursued memories that weren’t sifted clean and had parts of the original owner’s personality. It could numb them, allow them to escape, and become another person for a short period of time, so much so that some people even tried to use it to “correct” their own personality or that of others.

Illicit memory loss was more common. From the loss of family and friends to the breakdown of a relationship to the slightest conflict with strangers, some people deliberately discarded them from their minds so that they would not interfere with their good day.

Although not recognized by law, this had obviously become a pastime that was superior to alcohol and tobacco.

However, even so, society still functioned normally and there were no signs of decline. To say what was different from what he perceived—the transplantation of memory fragments and personality, and the mechanical replacement of body parts and organs, had become commonplace. The law was trying to evolve, but it wasn’t keeping pace with the expansion of the commercial market.

Apart from a few ethics scholars who questioned it, there was obviously only one consequence.

People were becoming extraordinarily self-absorbed and acrimonious.

Since unpleasant memories could be eliminated, few were willing to stop creating unpleasantness. In this short period of time, Ruan Xian had been exposed to at least hundreds of similar memories—as long as there was a slight discord with the other party, people could take action without hesitation—whether it was stabbing someone in the chest or taking the opportunity to vent their dissatisfaction that day.

Physical injuries could be healed, and painful memories could be removed. As long as people weren’t killed, the punishment was often not too heavy, and the cost was surprisingly small. As for the differences of opinions, they were even more negligible—as long as the other party’s voice was deleted from one’s own mind, there was no need to worry about it. Knowing that the other party would do the same, few people pay attention to the so-called etiquette.

Along with this, at the same time, less work was needed to be done by people cooperatively. Society was moving towards a strange form, causing laws and regulations to have to be constantly revised. Ruan Xian didn’t know how to evaluate this direction.

All concepts were vaguely mixed. People were like boiled gruel—their personalities were embedded in each other, but they were extremely alienated from each other.

But at least they could make him understand that the Mainbrain’s goal wasn’t to “adjust the human world on the verge of collapse”.

The glimpses of technicians, a short stay of ordinary citizens, and an old man advancing anxiously on the edge of a desert—he engraved the world in their eyes into his mind—in the past few months, Ruan Xian had captured enough information to calculate the location of the Mainbrain. Next, he needed equipment to assist in the calculations, as well as other ways to determine the Mainbrain’s motive.

Even if he stayed any longer, Ruan Xian thought he wouldn’t get much out of it anymore. Perhaps it was time to “collapse” and leave this place.

But there was a problem. He positioned himself as a “mechanical biology expert”, but his understanding of mechanical life was only skin deep. Perhaps he should stay for a while longer…

Suddenly, there was a burning pain in his lungs. Ruan Xian got out of a liquid tank and coughed out a light blue liquid.

He was forcibly pulled out of the “dreamland”.

Was he discovered? Or…

“Good evening.” Tang Yibu was in front of him. The android was covered in blood and smelt of smoke and dirt. He was holding Ruan Xian’s arm with one hand with great force.

Ruan Xian opened his mouth but didn’t succeed in making a sound.

“…I’m sorry, Mr. Ruan,” Tang Yibu said softly. He showed a complicated expression. He held a gun in one hand, pointing the nozzle against Ruan Xian’s forehead. Then he moved it towards Ruan Xian’s chest, as if he thought of something. “I can’t save you.”

It’s over. Countless thoughts swept through Ruan Xian’s mind in an instant.

If he were Ruan Lijie, he might be sad at the situation at hand, but unfortunately he wasn’t. What was more, even if Tang Yibu wanted to kill him, he wouldn’t bother using a gun. He would just rip his head off and crush it.

And he still had decisive evidence—the “Tang Yibu” in front of him had no smell of food on his body. He could smell it.

But Ruan Xian still broke out in a cold sweat.

This was a well played trick by the Mainbrain. This “Tang Yibu” was extremely realistic. It picked such a time when his spirit should have been on the verge of collapse, which could be said to be heart-wrenching. But for “Ruan Xian”, what he was worried about was a heartbreak on another level…

The Mainbrain probably wanted this “Tang Yibu” to be interrupted before he could shoot him, which would pull him back from the verge of death, thereby completely softening his mental defenses. However, if this thing in front of him really shot him, his heart would be repaired rapidly.

Then he would be completely exposed.

A decision had to be made quickly, so Ruan Xian churned his mind. He took a deep breath, stretched out his arms, and hugged “Tang Yibu”.

“I’m willing to die for you, my love.” Ruan Xian performed with all his might. He had a weak but tough look on his face that showed no wavering in his heart. “But I got good information that will be useful to your plans with Professor Ruan… Before you shoot, I have to tell them to you…”

Sure enough, “Tang Yibu” stopped moving.

A cold sweat drop slid down Ruan Xian’s face. Just as he was about to continue, he was choked by the sight of the scene in front of him.

Not far away, another Tang Yibu decorated from head to toe with a variety of gadgets had a complicated expression on his face as he pressed it against the glass window. He had just removed the glass and was slowly sliding into view. Ruan Xian even saw a little panic in that face.

The smell of fruit and fresh meat went straight into his nose.

‘…Things are getting more troublesome,’ Ruan Xian thought numbly.

---

The author has something to say:

Tang: ????

Ruan: ????

——

The Mainbrain tries to move him with affection and reason. Unfortunately, Ruan neither has much emotions or reason (?

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

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

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

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Chapter 205: Valuable Information

The fields on the outskirts of the city were extremely vast. They were adjacent to a large area of well-maintained forest, which turned golden red in the deep autumn, making a particularly beautiful scene. Unlike the woods in the forest refuge, there would be no sudden emergence of ventral cockroaches here. The ecological condition inside was very well maintained. Whether it was ordinary life or mechanical life, it was rare to see predators that were powerful enough to disrupt the balance.

The woods were taken care of by mechanical rangers. While they were called rangers, their image wasn’t close to human. They were sprayed with camouflage and looked like deer, but they had two more freely retractable forelimbs, and their movements were dexterous and agile.

There were houses belonging to people scattered on the edge of the woods; most of which were surrounded by fruit trees and flower fields. Sunflowers looked dazzling under the golden sun, and ripe fruit that had fallen to the ground became a feast for ants. No matter how one looked at it, this wasn’t a suitable place to start a resistance plan—assuming that they really had one.

In order to ensure more secure calls, Professor Ruan carefully instructed Ji Xiaoman to manufacture a communication encryptor. Yu Le was maintaining his car while also beginning to plan a cellar for a long-term stay. Tang Yibu abducted a few forest protection ranger robots who were able to build it extremely fast.

Before the sun set, the Order Supervisors had swept the neighborhood four times. However, it was much easier to camouflage a stationary target than conceal one that was moving, so their searches were all muddled by Professor Ruan’s perceptual camouflage.

The three-legged machine remained quiet until night fell and the communication encryptor was finally set up before he spoke again.

With the help of the forest ranger robots, they managed to build a decent cellar where they hid the car. The underground vents were normal, and after covering the entrance, Yu Le skillfully turned on a lantern.

Tang Yibu and Zhong Qing were holding bags of dried fruits while smacking their mouths. Ji Xiaoman, who was tired from working all day, was sitting in a corner. She put on her hood and nodded off in a sleepy manner.

“Today was tough.” Yu Le poked the soup in the pot with his chopsticks and lowered his voice. “How many days are we going to stay here?”

“A long time.” In the transparent liquid tank, the black box containing Professor Ruan’s brain slowly floated. They couldn’t see any pink-white organs inside, and the sealed black box gave the three-legged machine a cold feeling unique to machines.

Yu Le raised his eyebrows. “The Mainbrain will search for that long? I have no problem. There’s a lot of food here, but there’s no meat.”

“You agreed to take me out of the city!” Zhong Qing whined.

“It will take about five days to fix up this place. We will need to separate temporarily during this period. Mr. Yu, I need you to go to the vicinity of the forest refuge and help me get something. You can take Miss Ji and Zhong Qing—on the way, you can drop him off in the Underground City.”

Zhong Qing took a sip of the soup in satisfaction.

“You and Xiao Tang are staying here? To be honest, I promise to help you, but I’m not going to die foolishly. Let me take Xiao Tang. I don’t know if we can still find news about Xiao Ruan.” Lao Yu handed the prepared soup to Ji Xiaoman. Under the yellow emergency light, they could see the little girl was drowsy as her hand almost stretched out in the wrong direction.

Yu Le was afraid she would burn herself, so he sighed, put the soup on the small table she was leaning on and put a glass of cold water next to it as well.

“Your perceptual camouflage, it will be too far to use, right? We’re on our own when we leave the city. In case we’re caught, Xiao Tang can be of some use.” Yu Le patted the dirt off his pants and left the half-asleep Ji Xiaoman. “And without Zhong Qing, we have no ‘telescope’. If the Mainbrain comes for us next time, we won’t have that long to prepare.”

Zhong Qing gave Yu Le a blank look.

“There has never been such a… talent like Zhong Qing in the Rebel Army, and we have been able to persist for a long time.” Professor Ruan turned on the completed communication jammer. Then he plunged his three mechanical feet into the mud, and the three-legged machine began to change shape. The open parts made him look a bit like a bird with multiple pairs of wings.

The style of the cellar suddenly changed.

It was made from raw materials from the earth; stone, wood, vines, and hay. The light of the three-legged machine swept through the entire space, then, like a mask, the entire space became a fully furnished command center.

Metal baseboards were tightly welded together, and thick steel nails were embedded in the wall. One of the earthen walls turned into a huge liquid tank with several creatures of unknown races floating inside. Lao Yu sighed and poked his hand at the wall closest to him—his fingers still felt compact soil and not cold metal.

Professor Ruan was disguising the true condition of the place. Yu Le gathered his expression and rubbed the mud with his fingertips.

Then this meant Professor Ruan was disguising himself.

A figure appeared in the location of the three-legged small machine; it was thinner than the Ruan Xian they knew. The “Professor Ruan” they were familiar with sat quietly in a non-existent wheelchair. For some reason, Yu Le always felt he looked lonelier than that little machine.

Tang Yibu took a few steps back politely and stood in the shadows.

At the end of this camouflage, several light screens were projected in the air. This time it wasn’t only Guan Haiming who appeared, but also more than a dozen other people they were not familiar with.

This was probably the top leaders of the rebel army. Yu Le wanted to wake up Ji Xiaoman but found that she wasn’t in her original place. He tentatively stretched out his hand and his fingers touched soft skin, which was followed by a sharp pain from his fingertips.

Only then did Yu Le realize that, unknowingly, he had become a transparent person under the camouflage technique. He probably had poked Ji Xiaoman’s face just now, which got him bitten in response.

Thinking about it, since Professor Ruan intended to fake his physical condition and environment, naturally they wouldn’t appear.

“Teacher.” Seeing the familiar decoration, Guan Haiming didn’t speak vaguely anymore and greeted directly.

“Where have you been these past two years?” A male voice came from another light screen. “Lao Ruan, it’s no time to joke by doing a disappearing act. They all said that Lao Fan had been captured. Do you know how worried everyone is about you?”

“In the last 20 months, we’ve all been holding out on our own. 337. You know how bad the petri dish is—”

“Where’s Lao Fan? Did you find him or not?”

“……”

With shock and joy, people’s questions rolled in. The familiar yet unfamiliar “Ruan Xian” raised a hand to signal everyone to be silent. There was no need for Professor Ruan to hide. Tang Yibu stood in a blind corner by himself. He held his arms and looked at everything in front of him with interest.

“Let’s start with a peace offering,” he stated calmly. “As some of you have heard, I have contacted NUL-00. Yes, it still exists and has fused with the A-type Prototype that we all agreed was destroyed.”

There was another round of heated discussion on the other side of the light screens.

“That’s why I disappeared for so long. Before confirming NUL-00’s position, I will not allow any news to leak out. Now that the Mainbrain has gotten partial information, you don’t have to be too nervous about this news,” Professor Ruan’s projection said.

“In the next five days, we’ll analyze and discuss the current situation and adjust our countermeasures against the Mainbrain. MUL-01 is only getting stronger with every second that passes. If we don’t make a move soon, our chances of winning will only get smaller and smaller.”

Tang Yibu had the iron bead between his feet to make sure it didn’t run into the camera range of the light screens. As Professor Ruan continued, his voice was filled with a sense of determination and just the right amount of reassurance that anyone who was listening would think that victory was within grasp.

But as Professor Ruan said, he really only gave a return speech. Apart from revealing a few pieces of information that the Mainbrain already knew, he didn’t give anything additional. The participants were in a good mood, and they seemed more or less relieved.

After half an hour of communication, Professor Ruan turned off the light screens one by one, leaving only Guan Haiming’s.

The three-legged machine was restored to its original state, and the figures of Yu Le and Ji Xiaoman were revealed—Ji Xiaoman was squeezing her bowl of soup tightly and had fallen asleep. Yu Le stood by her side so that she wouldn’t fall down and spill it all over her clothes.

“Communication debugging?” Guan Haiming looked refreshed.

“Observe the situation. The commanders of three petri dishes, 2207, 7123, and 5044, have defected.” Professor Ruan’s tone was solemn. “Voluntary or controlled, in any case, they could no longer be used. Haiming, activate the backup contact for those three petri dishes.”

Guan Haiming looked surprised. “Teacher, there has been martial law here recently, so all activities will be restricted. When the preparation is completed on our side, we can notify them…”

“No. We need the thinking power from Petri Dish 2207, the flying aircrafts from 7123, and the high compression energy from 5044.” Professor Ruan sounded extremely firm. “This is just the essential stuff. The list of spare items is long.”

“……” Guan Haiming digested these words for a while, and then glanced at Yu Le and Ji Xiaoman standing not far away. “If possible, I would like to contact you directly. You can use this communication robot normally, and the environment should be safe…”

“I’m right here,” Professor Ruan said.

“What?”

“I’m right here, Haiming. What you see here is ‘me’… Of course, only my brain. I remember that you developed this technology for yourself. I just improved it.” Professor Ruan’s tone was brisk. “I have to tell you sooner or later. This body allows me to go to places that humans can’t, and it’s extremely difficult to be detected by the Mainbrain. When arranging the follow-up plan, we need to take this into account—if necessary, I can infiltrate the front line.”

Guan Haiming sat stunned; his eyes flushed.

Someone hurriedly handed a towel, which Tang Yibu recognized as Ding Zepeng’s figure. Guan Haiming seemed to be temporarily unable to bear what he saw. He left the range of the light screen for a moment, and only the table full of materials and an empty chair were left in front of them.

There was also a suppressed choking sound outside the screen.

“He needs some time to accept this.” Professor Ruan looked at the empty light screen. “According to the definition of the rebel army, I’m no longer a human.”

“Can you just clone another shell and stuff your brain back?” Yu Le rubbed the stubble on his chin and spoke to break the awkward atmosphere.

“No. In order to adapt to this machine, my brain has undergone irreversible transformation.” Professor Ruan chuckled. “To fully restore my body, my only choice is to smash my brain, extract all my memories and thoughts… and then entering it into a new body. Since I have contaminated my DNA, I can only clone the cells from Ruan Xian to form another ‘person’. Does this approach sound familiar?”

Lao Yu said nothing.

Memories, emotions, flesh on the body, machines. Arranging them together like some kind of puzzle was exactly what MUL-01 had been doing. Along the way, Professor Ruan had always given the impression of being so relaxed that even Tang Yibu had thought he had a backup.

But reality was that he had already sentenced himself to death.

Machines will age, and organs that have been isolated for too long will fail. Even if the most advanced technology was used to preserve them, the three-legged machine in front of him could only be active for up to ten years at most.

“You doing such a screwed up thing…” Yu Le’s expression became tangled.

“I don’t need sympathy.” Professor Ruan still had a smile in his voice. “Mankind must win, and I will sacrifice everything for this. It would be humiliating if I didn’t include myself in this ‘everything’.”

“I’m not sympathizing with you. I’m panicking.” Yu Le patted his chest. “I have to change my opinion. You’re scarier than Xiao Ruan.”

“Even if you say that, when it’s to push you out, I’ll still push you out as a pawn. Mr. Yu, if you want to quit, it’s still not too late.”

“…You’re not even giving me any face from what you just said.”

“I don’t remember you wanting it,” Tang Yibu added mercilessly. “Before Guan Haiming recovers, I want to determine my problem first. Professor Ruan, you don’t plan to ask me to escort Yu le and the others but want me to find Mr. Ruan by myself, right?”

He rubbed his hands together, which were still carrying the sweet and sour smell of dried fruit.

“You and I are the only ones who are capable of sneaking into the Mainbrain’s city, but you can’t protect yourself. It’s not a good thing to reveal yourself too early. On the other hand, no matter how rich your experience is, you can’t blindly guess what Mr. Ruan is planning. If I’m not mistaken—in the next five days, you plan to make preliminary preparations here. While Yu Le and the others will pick up the supplies, I’ll go find Mr. Ruan and exchange information with him… or determine his mutiny.”

“Correct.” Professor Ruan’s response was concise and strong.

Tang Yibu’s entire body was like a balloon that was about to float into the air. “I have no problem with that.”

“But before you leave, I must understand Ruan Xian’s plan as much as possible.” Professor Ruan ignored Tang Yibu, who was floating. “As far as you know, if he didn’t rebel, he—”

“I don’t know,” Tang Yibu said happily. “Mr. Ruan has always been like that. He knows the starting point, the purpose, and the means but is short of the process in stringing them together. Unlike you, he doesn’t necessarily always do the ‘most logical’ thing. I have never been able to guess what he’s thinking… I don’t know more about his plans than you, maybe even less.”

“But I will find him. He can’t run away. After all, I have only scratched the surface of the subject he gave me.”

Tang Yibu collected a bag of dried fruit and tied a pretty bow on it. His excitement was extraordinarily high.

“And I have a great new discovery—quite a long time ago, I fell in love. I have to ask him to help me determine the timing. This is quite valuable information.”

---

The author has something to say:

Lie flat and hit casually (?

——

Tang: I’m really in love!

Tang: Amazing

Tang: I’ll find the one I like and ask when I fell in love.

Ruan: ……………………………………

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

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

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

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Chapter 204: The Suburbs

Tang Yibu temporarily set up a small recliner for himself on the roof of the car. He straightened his legs and seemingly pulled out a piece of interlining cloth from nowhere to use as an eye mask while he lazily basked in the sun. The humidity in the air was just right that it made him so comfortable that he felt as if all his pores were opened.

After lying comfortably for a while, he went to touch the fruit at hand, but only touched an empty plate.

Tang Yibu’s mood suddenly turned from sunny to cloudy, and then cloudy to gloomy.

Since Ruan Xian left his side, he began to subconsciously look for ways to relax. The initial excitement lasted for up to twelve hours, but after half a day, the sense of loss gradually took over. Warm sunlight and sweet fruits couldn’t relieve troubles—unfortunately their effect was fleeting.

“See?”

Seeing Tang Yibu walking around like a cat that had a thorn stuck to its side and an aggrieved expression, Yu Le, who had a mouthful of fruit, clicked his tongue and explained to Ji Xiaoman.

“At first, I was pressed by a little missy to quit smoking. Just like that, it’s the same thing.”

Ji Xiaoman’s gaze floated over to the cigarettes in Yu Le’s pocket and frowned. Tang Yibu heard the comments of his two peers but ignored them and continued to pace melancholy.

They didn’t immediately leave the city but stopped on the outskirts. Ji Xiaoman made another remote-control car that interfered with perception while Yu Le was excitedly maneuvering it towards an undetectable dense forest area to distract the Order Supervisors.

After making a scene on the edge of the city, the Mainbrain would be inclined to assume they were in a rush to escape and look for their destination. Tang Yibu decided to stop, and Professor Ruan didn’t object.

This approach was quite like a murderer fleeing the scene of the crime. No matter how one looked at it, it wasn’t decent. Fortunately, except for Professor Ruan, no one else in the group was anything close to resembling decency.

In addition to misleading the Mainbrain, they also had a sad reason—they were running out of food.

All the snacks that could be eaten were swept away—mainly by Tang Yibu—and all that was left was nutritious stuff that didn’t taste good. Unless there was no choice, no one wanted to eat them. Even the iron bead didn’t want to chew on the packaging.

Professor Ruan, who had only one brain left, didn’t need to eat, but the remaining four had to. After breaking through the encirclement, they didn’t actually drive too far—Zhong Qing’s memories were more useful than they thought. His family had vacationed here. It was an emerging architectural area that resembled an idyllic style.

With the Mainbrain watching, they didn’t sneak into the homes to get food, but rather gathered fruits and vegetables in the fields.

Tang Yibu could see that Ji Xiaoman had been quite worried about her status in the team for some time, but now she probably didn’t think much about it. She dismantled a few weapons and receivers and converted them into fruit and vegetable processing equipment. They would be changed back in a few days.

In this more remote field, he and Professor Ruan could only provide theoretical support, but Ji Xiaoman herself was enough.

Zhong Qing was also happy. He wandered around the garden like a rat, and brought back a lot of food every time. Yu Le was responsible for cutting them up and processing them so they could be dried and wouldn’t take up too much space.

According to Professor Ruan, they would have to stay here for a while before the Mainbrain reduces the level of martial law.

These hours were enough time for Tang Yibu to figure out what was wrong with him.

It wasn’t that he hadn’t been separated from Ruan Xian before. Twelve years ago, Ruan Xian would be absent from the computer room for over ten hours a day. Tang Yibu was too familiar with this feeling of separation, as “dependence” was one of the first emotions he understood.

Then they were separated by the murder.

After that, he would think of Ruan Xian from time to time, reminiscing about the past. At that time, he didn’t have many special feelings. Perhaps there was some regret, but he didn’t miss him too much.

What had happened had already transpired, and history couldn’t be rewritten. There was no value in missing—at least he once thought so, and he lived quite arbitrarily. He was clear; Ruan Xian’s decision to leave was reasonable—if there was no definitive answer, the suspicion and concern between the two of them would burn out sooner or later.

But now he missed him dearly, without any reason or benefit.

He understood all the reasoning, but he couldn’t control his mind. He liked the heat from Mr. Ruan when he leaned against him, the breath of the other person when they fell asleep, and even the antagonistic emotions in that person’s eyes. Tang Yibu originally thought that what he was asking for was the peace of mind of the S-type Prototype by his side, but now that he had sufficient substitutes, his heart was still empty.

Uncomfortable.

Tang Yibu kicked a stone with the edge of his shoe.

It was truly uncomfortable.

While he kicked the stone, the iron bead was fetching it with interest and bringing it back to him. Tang Yibu kicked the stone away again.

What if Mr. Ruan didn’t plan to betray him and was discovered by the Mainbrain? What should he do if his identity as the S-type Prototype was exposed? He wasn’t very good at fighting. The only thing he could do was shoot, but he left the blood gun behind…

The iron bead thought this was some kind of game as it kept fetching the stone that Tang Yibu was kicking. Tang Yibu bent over and touched its shell as he felt desperately depressed.

Only God knew what emotions were in his heart at this moment. This emotion was boiling in his stomach like a soup full of poisonous ingredients. The corrosive steam passed through his internal organs and seeped into his brain. Tang Yibu could even hear his bones cracking. He was uncomfortable all over and was too restless to do anything.

Is this love?

Tang Yibu tried to analyze the emotional model by comparing data. This should have been an exact question from scratch, but he couldn’t even determine where it started.

Thus, he could only become more aggrieved, not to mention that he had done this subject before and a faint trace of it appeared in his grievances.

Professor Ruan watched Tang Yibu move his feet from side to side. He would stomp the ground, sigh, and scratch his head, and finally act disgruntled—Professor Ruan was pretty sure that no matter what that AI was thinking, it had nothing to do with the war that they were facing.

“I need to contact Guan Haiming,” Professor Ruan said.

Tang Yibu, who finally found a distraction, suddenly became energetic. “You want to contact him? Now?”

“According to the original plan, I need to reach the forest petri dish,” Professor Ruan said. “I can’t make too much movement in the Mainbrain’s territory, and the wilderness is too suspicious. You guys guessed it correctly. The assassination machine is indeed in that petri dish.”

“Uh huh.” Tang Yibu wasn’t surprised by this revelation.

“This plan can’t be used anymore. I have considered the situation—the petri dish may be cleaned up and the assassination machine would create temporary problems. Although the probability is quite small, it’s still not zero.” Professor Ruan moved his three metal feet, flexibly avoiding the iron bead that was staring at him.

“…Don’t tell me you have another spare.” Tang Yibu’s expression became a bit complicated.

“I don’t have that many resources.”

Professor Ruan guessed what he was thinking.

“The one in the Android Show was a perception amplifier—it’s just a gimmick. Seven years since the start of the Great Rebellion, I made such an assassination machine. There is a spare, and I’ve stored it near the dead wall. It’s portable, but…”

“But?”

“The winning rate is much lower with that assassination machine. The external conditions are more demanding, and you will have to take more stress. Without the support of everyone’s brains, its power is much less powerful,” Professor Ruan said. “To be honest, I don’t know what Ruan Xian wants. Forcing me to use a backup plan will only decrease your survival rate.”

Tang Yibu’s expression remained normal.

“Contacting Guan Haiming will make it easier for us to get it.”

Seeing that Tang Yibu said nothing, Professor Ruan continued.

“And then… I’m afraid we have to contact a few more people.”

“I have only one question.” Tang Yibu thought for a bit. “How much does Ruan Xian know about the principle of the assassination machine?”

“He can be regarded as the true creator of the core logic you and MUL-01 possess. When I made MUL-01, I added a lot of special algorithms, while Fan Linsong was responsible for the deduction restriction part. The virus program installed in the assassination machine targets the core logic, so he should be able to deduce a thing or two. The design of the hardware comes from my… No, his previous project accumulation. Overall, he can probably guess about half.”

“I understand.” Tang Yibu smiled.

“If you know something I don’t know, I suggest sharing your intelligence.”

“I don’t know what he wants to do. It’s just that now I know that he at least has something in mind.”

Professor Ruan looked at him for a while. “No matter how many people he knows, it’s impossible to conjure a virus program that can destroy the Mainbrain out of thin air.”

This made his departure feel more like a betrayal. If Ruan Xian really submitted to the Mainbrain, they would fall into an unprecedented disadvantage.

“That’s why it’s interesting.” Tang Yibu grinned again. “I will fully support you, Professor Ruan.”

That smile didn’t seem fake.

The communication with Guan Haiming was quickly connected. Dr. Guan was drinking soup when he almost choked on his spoon.

“231?” He put the spoon down in fear. “What is that next to you? I saw it in the car last time…”

“It’s the person you’re looking for,” Tang Yibu said happily. He picked up the iron bead to prevent it from taking the opportunity to bite Professor Ruan. “He has something to tell you.”

Guan Haiming swallowed; his eyes seemingly hadn’t returned to their senses. He looked up and down at the small machine for a long time while making a disbelieving expression. Finally, after half a minute, he calmed down. Tang Yibu suspected that he might have mistaken it for some kind of communication device.

“Haiming”. Professor Ruan got straight to the point. “Sorry for not contacting you for so long. I will explain the details later. In two days, someone will go to the dead wall on your side to pick something up. You need to help cover them. This matter is very important and cannot be lost.”

“Understood.” Guan Haiming looked serious. “I will arrange it.”

They didn’t exchange any specifics, which caused Tang Yibu to raise his eyebrows.

“Now that you have started your activities again… Have you found a suitable place?” Guan Haiming asked vaguely. Tang Yibu thought that was easy to decipher. This was asking if he had found a new command center.

“Nn,” Professor Ruan replied calmly. “The place I’m staying at now is pretty good.”

With a bang, Tang Yibu dropped the iron bead that hit the ground with a dull thud.

“Are you sure?” He asked suspiciously. Establishing a new rebel command center on the outskirts of the Mainbrain’s city; Tang Yibu wasn’t sure if this was a manifestation of Professor Ruan’s self-abandonment.

For a while, the three-legged little machine was silent.

“I’m sure,” Professor Ruan said. “I don’t need too many people anyway.”

Tang Yibu took a deep breath slowly, glanced at the two who were baking pumpkin slices in the distance and at Zhong Qing, who was eating grapes, and then turned his gaze to Professor Ruan. From a certain point of view, this person really resembled a bit like “Ruan Xian”.

In terms of strategy that was outside of the box, these two were really alike.

Tang Yibu convinced himself that this was a good thing—if even he couldn’t figure them out, the Mainbrain would have a hard time guessing as well. They might be safer than they thought.

He had a hunch that this war was likely to go in a fantastically unprecedented direction.

---

The author has something to say:

Farmhouse resistance center (×

Not being able to expose Ruan’s thoughts makes it hard to write from Ruan’s perspective. Ahhh—

—

Tang is really anxious, from coconut sugar to coconut caramel.

This is love, Tang.

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

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

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

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Chapter 203: The Dark Side

It was all retribution.

He must had fainted from hunger as he started to consider the stupid question of whether Tang Yibu had eaten. Ruan Xian thought for ten minutes and decided that even if the Mainbrain knocked on his doorstep, Tang Yibu could still manage to fight it with bread in his mouth, and perhaps even be able to squeeze out some time to apply a few layers of peanut butter.

Thinking of peanut butter, he became hungrier and grumpier.

The last bit of precious freedom was wasted on guessing what Tang Yibu would eat—if Ruan Xian could still manipulate his body, he would’ve punched the table twice.

But now he couldn’t.

Ten minutes ago, before he had time to finish his emotions about the blue sky and white clouds, the scene in front of him flickered and turned into a dim room. “He” was looking through information on an electronic paper with a cup of tea that had an unpleasant smell in his hand. God knew what was in it.

But there was also a plate of mung bean cake, which looked quite appetizing. Ruan Xian’s mind became more stable. He stretched out his hand to grab the mung bean cake, but instead he picked up the weird-smelling tea and poured it into his mouth.

Unexpectedly, the tea didn’t taste that bitter, nor was it too strong. The light bitterness spread in his mouth and Ruan Xian heard himself make two muffled coughs.

That voice wasn’t his, and the hand wasn’t his.

There was no need for a mirror. Ruan Xian could see it. That hand was full of wrinkles and cracks that one would instantly know belonged to an old man at first glance. He himself wouldn’t choose such bad-tasting clothes—this body was covered with exaggerated clothing, like a dirty Christmas tree. Even the pair of green plush slippers under his feet had turned gray.

The decoration was also the same, with scattered small objects on all sides, filling the originally small room full. Dust accumulated on the dirty pendants, plastic dolls had turned yellow and deformed, and gray cobwebs formed in the gaps like a dreamcatcher. That kind of scene wasn’t something that a designer carefully set up to exude warmth and excitement and was closer to an old hoarder’s storage room—flowers and greenery piled around, giving off a soft yet blunt feeling.

These were all that he saw with the remaining light from the corner of his eyes.

After being fed a second sip of tea by that hand, Ruan Xian quickly figured out his current state. The Mainbrain was more cautious than he thought. It didn’t leave him even an inch of space to play freely.

In the end, the influence of external objects such as images was limited, and people couldn’t fully understand each other. Directly using memories and feelings as weapons was theoretically more effective. At least if it was him, this was something he would definitely do.

However, Ruan Xian never thought that the Mainbrain could be so sinister—instead of imposing other people’s memory fragments in him, the Mainbrain directly threw his consciousness into other people’s bodies.

“This day” was an established fact that had already happened. As a certain piece of data, the original owner of the body acted as usual and wasn’t affected by Ruan Xian, an outsider.

In a nutshell, he was imprisoned in a body that he couldn’t use, and he could only be forced to watch in first-person with various emotional effects attached.

For a brief moment, Ruan Xian believed that his little trick had been discovered and that he was suffering from such a great loss—

He knew very well that the tragedies that had been poured into his mind day and night before might be a crueler and more practical “test” than any diagnosis. The Mainbrain established a judgement system based on his response and then performed appropriate processing based on the results.

Letting Ruan Lijie collapse in a decent manner was innocuous. If it really drove him crazy, there would be no benefit to reap. The Mainbrain would definitely ensure this.

After all, it couldn’t get the ability and memory of “Ruan Lijie” from cracking him like a chestnut, so it was better to make him submit sincerely. As the nominal “mechanical life expert”, Ruan Lijie could not only expose how armed Tang Yibu’s side was but also could continue his research with the support of better resources. The Mainbrain could then sit back and enjoy its harvest.

More ideally, perhaps he could play a double agent depending on the situation, and stab NUL-00 in the back when it wasn’t paying attention.

After Ruan Xian pitted Tang Yibu seriously in his heart for a few minutes, he had to face reality—Ruan Lijie was an ordinary scholar with acceptable values but was enticed by Tang Yibu. In the face of such an opponent, the customized plan given by the Mainbrain was still so extremely careful that it was irritating.

Now his mind was trapped in the shell of an old man, and he was forced to watch the old man’s daily life before the doomsday, and he couldn’t even get a bite of mung bean cake.

But since the Mainbrain forced him to watch this, this old man was definitely not some idler who lived a simple, leisurely life.

Ruan Xian was forced to swallow a mouthful of bitter tea, desperately digging for information from the old man’s vision.

The location was very high, but the building materials in the room were rough. It didn’t look like a building, but more like a homemade hut temporarily built in a high place. Through the thin glass, the bustling city was within easy reach. Ruan Xian was stunned for a few seconds—during this period, MUL-01 should’ve managed most of the rules of social operation, so its supervision techniques wouldn’t be so rough.

Ruan Xian couldn’t wait to put everything he saw into his mind. Even if he couldn’t move a single step by himself, he had to dig up some information from these details.

There was a very conspicuous space in the home. An old machine was covered with dirt and grease that extended all the way to the back. It was full of scorch marks and broken wires poked out from the breach. The indicator light on it was extinguished, but this thing should still be on.

The record of the Mainbrain was perfect. Ruan Xian could feel the numbness and suffocation in the old man’s heart, as well as the pain in his joints and chest. Fortunately, this was an area where Ruan Xian was particularly good at—suppressing his nature and tolerating pain. It didn’t add much pressure to the situation; he just became hungrier.

The old man sat there in silence, drinking tea while reading a book, until there was a knock on the door.

“Uncle Liang.” The woman was holding a child and was twisting his ears as she entered. “The usual.”

The child was so anxious that he scratched and bit at the woman’s wrist and arm. “Don’t! I had a hard time going out to play—”

“Pay first.” There was a dry pain in his throat. Ruan Xian knew now why the old man was desperately drinking tea.

The woman nodded and swept her wristband across the big mechanical card at the door. The old man stood up, patted the soil on his body, grabbed the child, and pushed him directly into the chair. The entire process was completed in one go, yet he still had a lot of strength left in his thin body.

“You came here three times yesterday,” the old man muttered. “It’s not good for the brain to keep doing this.”

“What do children know?” The woman raised her eyes. “Who remembers what they did 24 hours a day? Let him think that he’d taken a nap and fallen dead asleep and forgotten about it when he ran to the edge of the city to play by himself for fear that he wouldn’t be discovered. Okay, now that he knows that I’ve fooled him before and he knows the city is a good place, can I not erase some memories?”

“Then a nap it is.” The old man didn’t have much mind to chat with her. His full-hearted thoughts of ‘it doesn’t matter’ were about to seep into Ruan Xian’s mind. These negative emotions were extremely eroding.

The machine that looked like a half-box blew in and out, and the door opened and closed. The old man moved to the operation screen and started working it slowly. The little boy was firmly tied to the chair, and soon there wasn’t any movement of resistance. After a while, the mechanical door opened again, and the little boy was fast asleep in the chair; only the heaves of his chest were left.

“It’s done.” The old man had no emotions in his heart. “He’ll just feel as if he took a nap and didn’t go anywhere.”

The woman nodded, stopped talking, and walked out the door with the child in her arms.

As the sun rose, the old man’s place became lively. Ruan Xian suddenly felt that this place was a bit like an underground blood bank, but rather than blood, it was memories being bought and sold. Some people spent money to get them removed, while others wanted them to be copied. Most of them wanted to get them out, and it was rare that some were there to sell.

There were all kinds of people who wanted to throw away their memories. There were scantily clad men and women, patients on the verge of an emotional breakdown, and parents who used them to discipline their children. There was only one person who came to sell memories—Ruan Xian hadn’t eaten a single piece of the mung bean cake all morning. When he was on the verge of hunger that he was about to go insane, a man entered the door timidly.

“They say you can buy and sell memories here.” The man was well dressed, but unfortunately, he looked cowardly. “Isn’t this illegal…”

Ruan Xian could feel the tension in the old man’s facial muscles as well as his unhappy emotions that was like cold mud, which instantly overwhelmed him. “If the machine works, then the Mainbrain can find it. Those lofty people above are too lazy to take care of things like this. What are you going on about? Fuck off.”

“No, no. I didn’t mean it like that.” The man quickly waved his hand and wiped the seat from his forehead. “Hello, Uncle Liang. I… Uh, I just moved here…”

“I may be old but not blind.” The old man’s tone was still not good, and his cold emotions enveloped Ruan Xian. “Sell, right? What do you want to sell?”

“I’m an employee of Plan Corp… I used to be an employee of Plan Corp.” The man twisted his coat made of good fabric. “I…”

“I don’t care. Everyone who comes here is the same. If there’s no sickness or disaster, who would move to a place like this?” The old man interrupted. “Sell or not? Just say it.”

“I have very good childhood memories and a few high-quality love experiences,” the man said quickly. “I want to sell a copy for 10,000. I can get out of here as long as I can pay a portion of the violation fine first. Alright, won’t you do it as a favor.”

“10,000 for one copy? If I had that kind of money, I would have gone to the city to get a regular cocktail. Why would I want your insecure shit?” The old man spat. “I have plenty of childhood and love saved, so I need something more exciting. I can pay up to 1,500.”

The man froze on the spot, and several people behind him in line started to swear.

“If you don’t want to sell, don’t get in the way of my business.” The old man spat out.

“I… I’ll sell.” The man seemed to have thought of something, and his face turned the color of pig liver. “I’ll sell. Uncle Liang, I heard before that irregular memory operations may cause personality data to be mixed together. I want to sell a few copies at a time. Do you think there’s any way to avoid…”

“You’re still worried about this at this moment? It’s better to worry about the people who will buy your memory to relieve boredom,” the old man replied indifferently. “You, at most, will feel sad when the memory is dug out—but I have to remind you. My equipment isn’t good. Copying it will hurt your brain, and it’s like chewing on sugarcane. The first time it feels refreshing, but the second will feel like a chore, and the third time it’ll become tasteless. Even if you think about those things later, you won’t be happy.”

He bared his teeth at the man. “People can’t live without hope. If you want to sell it all at once for the money but don’t have any good ideas on how to support yourself, you will want to kill yourself as soon as you leave here. Let’s do this. I’ll copy ten segments and give you something good, so you can at least have some hope—10,000. 10 memory copies. One memory injection. No bargain.”

The man gritted his teeth and responded.

This was probably the only big event that happened in the morning. When noon arrived, the old man closed the door and was no longer open. He sat back in the chair by the window and finally pinched off a piece of mung bean cake and stuffed it into his mouth.

Ruan Xian, who was dizzy from hunger, finally breathed a sigh of relief.

A lot of information had been given to him in the past few hours. Obviously, in the era before the rebellion, although the social structure had changed, there would always be things that should be there would always be there.

It was just that, in the past, people would watch real life and death in the Colosseum*. Later, these experiences were put on stage and screen, and in the end, there was no need for real people to star in them, as long as the software was synthesized.

*Referencing gladiator battles in the Colosseum back in the ancient era of the Roman Empire.

In the end, everyone reached out to the final result—directly stripping away memories and experiences.

Ruan Xian still remembered the “dead agreement” mentioned by Tang Yibu, the last mnemonic method before the Great Rebellion. Since illegal memory transactions were on the table, there must be a rather unpleasant situation at this time.

Next, Ruan Xian quickly felt these “conditions” firsthand.

The old man took out a few metal cans from under the box, ran to the memory operation machine, sneered at a cup of liquid in the cans, and then threw a few dirty metal balls into it. Ruan Xian was familiar with this operation. He was going to make a homemade memory cocktail.

He could feel the excitement in the old man’s mind. Those memories were squeezed out of the mind of the Plan Corp employee and were completely fresh. The old man put his thin legs on the ottoman, slumped into the chair, and began to enjoy those memories.

Feeling the common situation, Ruan Xian immediately sensed that something was wrong.

If the memory cocktail they tried in the Glass Conservatory was clear juice, what the old man put into his head was more like unfiltered jam. They stuck to too many things. In addition to simple images and emotions, certain specific thoughts burrowed into the skull and turned the brain upside down.

For a moment, Ruan Xian felt pessimistic about everything in front of him; he was too lazy to move, and his strong self-denial was about to crush him. Only then did he realize that those thoughts weren’t his—part of the personality data was being integrated into the old man’s brain.

The latter was like an alcoholic, happily accepting them, feeling the collision of thoughts that were so intense that they almost divided people’s minds. It was a crazy influx of memories.

The stripped memories weren’t clean. The memories were mixed with recollections and themes that were roughly clear. Everything was foggy and strong, shaking the human brain. Fortunately, Ruan Xian had just gotten some satisfaction from eating, so he was able to hold on.

Then he found a thin silk thread.

Just as the old man half-opened his mouth and stared at the ceiling blankly, Ruan Xian fished out a small fragment from the memory of the former Plan Corp employee. It was vague and broken, not worth mentioning, but it is like a spark floating in an oil barrel.

Regarding how to better deal with MUL-01, Ruan Xian suddenly had an idea.

He saw the latest map on the light screen. In that memory, the man was driving a car towards a certain destination, casting a brief glance at the map cast by the light screen.

This glimpse was enough for Ruan Xian to grab the first piece of the puzzle.

He would not be sunk by this stimulus plan of “being confined in other people’s bodies and forced to watch a dark reality”. On the contrary, if the Mainbrain decided to shove these terrible fragments into him, he could find gold from it.

As a “mechanical life expert”, Ruan Lijie didn’t have this ability, but as the creator of NUL-00, Ruan Xian was familiar with the relevant characteristics of MUL-01.

December 31, 2100.

The core hardware of the Mainbrain was installed a few years ago. If it was to have the ability to influence the world, the hardware would have to occupy a large area, so the geographical conditions would be carefully selected. If he could gather enough information, he could calculate its location.

But that was on the premise that the Mainbrain had not moved its main hardware.

It would depend on the motivation of the Great Rebellion.

Ruan Xian was full of energy as he captured fragments of memory that would become blades. The sun arced across the sky and the Great Rebellion came with the night, plunging the world into chaos. The next moment, time reset, and the sun rose again. Ruan Xian woke up inside another memory trader. This time he wasn’t half confused, but calm and happy.

Since the Mainbrain wanted to wait for him to collapse, he would “collapse”, but before then, he had to take a dip in this tormenting but gold-rich sea of intelligence for a while.

When his “betrayal” would be discovered, he didn’t know how Tang Yibu would react. Ruan Xian’s mood became complicated.

……He hoped that Tang Yibu wouldn’t cry then.

---

The author has something to say:

The Mainbrain: Throw him into a chaotic area and lock him up. He’ll feel hostility over and over again and will eventually collapse.

Ruan: happy gold rush.jpg

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

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

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

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Chapter 202: Instant Selection

It would be false to say that Ruan Xian didn’t feel touched.

He wasn’t abnormal to that extreme. Although it wasn’t to the point where he would shed tears because of the suffering of others, he still retained at least some type of sympathy—this feeling wasn’t a human patent. Compassion was a kind of survival skill, and all intelligent life would have a bit of emotion, such as elephants, whales, or wolves.

The pain from others wouldn’t make him feel happy.

Then again, there were a few “normal people” who were slow to notice the suffering of others, making the concept of “normal people” difficult to define. When Ruan Xian left NUL-00 with such a subject, he also had a few thoughts in this regard.

Now he was looking at those “normal people” and successfully feeling discomfort.

The child who was beaten up was just the beginning.

Ruan Xian had to admit that he would agree with the strategy of the Mainbrain, who was gradually showing him many scenes that happened that day. The rhythm and harshness of the arrangement were just right. If it weren’t for the brain lesions that helped him successfully block some of the stimuli, Ruan Xian was certain he would’ve had a minor emotional breakdown.

The Mainbrain version of Tang Yibu took his hand and showed him everything. Its perspective was equally as horrible that there were no borders under its scope of observation.

Miserable images continued to appear as if they were inexhaustible.

Most people couldn’t grasp the sense of distance within their mind. They would believe that “knowing” was the same as “understanding”, but when the picture was presented in front of them, that was a different matter. Even if Ruan Xian knew this truth in his heart, he couldn’t help but have this subconscious arrogance.

The price was to be continuously stimulated.

Sticks, blades, explosives. Bombs fell as screams and begs for mercy pierced his ears. Dirty spoons that gouged up food from the bottom of a pot, flies buzzing on moldy bedding, smoke and maggots on corpses that were close enough to stick to his face.

Ruan Xian wasn’t surprised that the Mainbrain chose a classic suffering to start with. If the Mainbrain could figure out information about his friends and family, Ruan Xian suspected that this start would be arranged again. It was best to start with the tragedy of the people around him, so that the strength would be stronger.

While unhappy, his mood remained stable, and he even took it quite seriously.

Inducing people was a mental job, not to mention the effort it took to arrange such uncomfortable scenes rationally. This process would reveal the position of the inducer as well. Ruan Xian tried to peel back the sorrows and joys of his kin and catch the thread that strung this string of black pearls.

To be honest, there wasn’t much condemnation in these images. The Mainbrain had no intention of taking advantage of the opportunity to preach truth. Everything in front of him was more like a calm explanation of the facts.

Ruan Xian tried his best to empty himself so he wouldn’t analyze those pictures with a stance. This was something that was easier said than done.

In daily life, the amount of information that everyone could obtained was ultimately limited. It was impossible for humans to have as many eyes as the Mainbrain—it grew in every camera, hid in every satellite, and parasitized more and more into the system every day, so it could see extraordinarily clearly. Therefore, when ushering in a strange perspective, as a member of the human race, Ruan Xian had to tighten his nerves in order to try to put aside the influence of his position and the experience that he had.

Calm down and don’t judge prematurely. He repeated it to himself over and over again.

He wasn’t even aware of when the hotdog in his hand had disappeared. Ruan Xian followed the Mainbrain as they stepped over scorched earth, garbage piles, and mirror-like marble slabs and looked at the scene in front of him. Hour after hour, the Mainbrain had no intention of stopping while Ruan Xian felt sick to his stomach by the surging of negative emotions.

Even comedies could give one a headache after watching them for too long, let alone this kind of thing.

Compared with healthy people, he had more layers of armor when facing this, but even he was still affected at this point. If this was a soft-hearted person in his place, they should’ve collapsed at this point or gone crazy.

How terrible.

He had a clear idea of the Mainbrain’s intention. Fortunately, before his “death”, he left a subject for Tang Yibu. Ruan Xian thought casually that his head seemed to push into an extruder as he felt a pain close to being crushed.

How long had those extremely real images been going for? Half a day? A day?

This was undoubtedly some kind of torture, and this torture had just begun.

No matter how realistic the images and the sounds and smells were, as long as the heart was strong enough or the stakes were high enough, people could become extremely hard-hearted. The Mainbrain would never bet on the possibility of its own character, which meant it had a backup plan.

So he had better follow its script.

“Stop it,” he said weakly. “I can’t stand it anymore. I want to take a break.”

Most likely, it was waiting for him to say this.

Usually, people who came into contact with a large number of corpses needed psychological intervention. Naturally, the Mainbrain wouldn’t provide Ruan Xian with such services thoughtfully. On the contrary, it used Tang Yibu’s appearance and turned itself into a piece of driftwood along a torrent.

Although it took longer than expected, the Mainbrain was satisfied with the results of this state.

Unless they were downright pathological or antisocial, those scenes were enough to defeat anyone. It did a preliminary screening of Ruan Lijie’s brain and found some lesions, but those lesions were mixed with a lot of mechanical tissue. MUL-01 found it difficult to assert what the results would lead to, but it was very clear. Although Ruan Lijie’s “sympathy” wasn’t as strong as others, he still had such emotions.

The human mind was usually more fragile than it thought.

Lovers who love each other to death could still break up when put to endless torture—decades ago, torture could end in debilitation and death. Even with the advancement of today’s medicine, one couldn’t perfectly avoid this.

Even if his internal organs were removed, it could find a way to keep him alive. There were shortcuts before, shortcuts after. The most important thing was to obtain information through physical torture.

Besides, as it had expected, Ruan Lijie was starting to collapse.

Even if Ruan Lijie knew that he wasn’t Tang Yibu, he would subconsciously trust and seek comfort because of this familiarity and how he had finally cracked.

“Good.” The Mainbrain’s tone was gentle. “In fact, this is only one day, and those scenes are only a small part of the daily data.”

At that time, there were nearly 10 billion people in the world, which meant it still had plenty of ammunition.

Ruan Lijie collapsed next to the metal bucket, puffing hard with his nose. The metal bucket was stuffed full of unburned fuel—shredded paper, rags, dead leaves and twigs, and among them a lot of things that shouldn’t be there. The wreckage of electronic products lay in the ashes, burned and deformed. Their batteries should have released toxic smoke. No matter who had been here to keep warm, “today” would definitely not be a good day for that person.

The Mainbrain retracted its gaze without emotion and waited quietly.

It had always been patient, like a scarecrow stationed in the field or a chef who was slowly boiling clams. It only needed to wait for Ruan Lijie to open his shell slightly, exposing the weakness that could be attacked, and then it would take good care of it.

“I don’t want to watch anymore.” Ruan Lijie panted for a while. “These are all things of the past, and I won’t change even after watching it… I won’t betray Yibu.”

His tone was erratic, as if his mind was a jumbled mess.

“We are doing the right thing. We are doing the right thing…” He repeated in a low voice, trying to comfort himself.

“I can let you stay here for a long time. A month, a year,” the Mainbrain continued gently. “But I won’t do that.”

If the fire wasn’t mastered properly, the pain could instead turn into a catalyst for feelings. One had to know how to take it for what it was. Ruan Lijie was showing signs of faltering, so it was time to proceed to the next stage.

Ruan Xian was really uncomfortable.

In addition to his mental discomfort, he was hungry. Since coming to the Mainbrain’s side, all he had was a glass of cold milk and ate a few snacks that didn’t top off his hunger. Ruan Xian began to regret dropping that hotdog. Even if it was an illusion, it could at least soothe and comfort his brain.

But these discomforts now had helped him as he was extra convincing when expressing his irritation.

The Mainbrain seemed to be planning to change its strategy. Ruan Xian also believed that he had already seen the worst part—if he saw too much, he would start to experience mental numbness. For the Mainbrain, the loss would outweigh the gain.

“I’m hungry,” he said bluntly in an irate tone.

Since the other side wanted to use looks to trick him, he could go along with it and take the opportunity to increase the number of exchanges. As long as he asked the right questions, he was confident that he could fish for the information that he wanted. But since the other party was the Mainbrain, it was impossible to tell whether it had already calculated this…

A decision had to be made as soon as possible, he thought as his stomach grumbled.

According to the information just now, it seemed that the only thing he had was on the date, “December 31, 2100”. Not only that, but he also couldn’t take the initiative to control his whereabouts, which made his means really limited.

He was caught on purpose holding on to the idea of finding a better solution. Unfortunately, the situation was worse than Ruan Xian thought—the initial plan went smoothly, and the Mainbrain didn’t directly destroy his body or crush his brain. However, it chose to directly attack his spirit. Not to mention stealing information, he couldn’t even touch the real world.

…On the day before doomsday.

Beside this, he had to solve another problem that was more troublesome than the last—to figure out the motivation of the Mainbrain and completely overturn the chessboard.

How to test it? Should he grab on the fishing line of the Mainbrain more? Drive it away or let it stay?

Ruan Xian couldn’t help but frown, while the Mainbrain was all smiles with Tang Yibu’s face.

“You’ll be fine,” it said. “This place is like the ‘dreamland’ you have experienced. Don’t deny it. You must’ve experienced it in the Glass Conservatory. The time outside actually hasn’t passed much. You will not really die of hunger. It’s just a psychological effect.”

Ruan Xian looked at the familiar face carefully and suddenly felt a little sour in his heart.

He thought he could treat this matter rationally and deal with this feeling calmly—he was treating it as cautiously as if he was doing an experiment, and it still ignored his control.

Ruan Xian subconsciously wanted to discuss the current problem with Tang Yibu, but when he raised his hand, he couldn’t feel the earring stud on his left ear.

The Mainbrain probably had it removed the first chance it got.

Ruan Xian sighed regretfully in his heart, and then made a decision.

“If this is really that kind of dreamland, psychological effect can lead to death.” He adjusted his breathing and spat back unceremoniously, while also deliberately adding a bit of intimacy, specifically when dealing with acquaintances.

“Don’t worry, there will be no shortage of food.”

“…” Giving him a little time to think, Ruan Xian tried his best to calculate the possible reactions of the Mainbrain and tentatively opened his mouth. “Then… We have to continue to look at those things just now?”

He aggravated the pronunciation of “we”, which made the smile on the Mainbrain more obvious.

“No,” it said. “The reason why I’m willing to guide you is because I need to make an assessment of your morale standards. Unfortunately, you still need to stay here for a while, and I can’t accompany you for the next part.”

Ruan Xian made a blank expression. He moved his lips but said nothing.

“If you have something to say to me, I believe you can find a way.” Its tone was kind, mixed with a hint of cruelty. “Don’t panic too much—you don’t look half empty, but more like an orthodox scholar. Mr. Ruan, since you passed the ethics assessment at the time, you should have the ability to see the overall situation clearly.”

It opened its arms and gave Ruan Xian a hug. Ruan Xian buried his face in the other party’s shoulder, hiding his expression as he trembled slightly.

Ruan Xian hid his smile. He succeeded.

The Mainbrain was just like he thought. Once it found that he was moving forward, it immediately backed off and played hard to get. Since he had already made his choice, he could probably guess what the other party’s next step was.

It was a long day, the last day before the destruction of human society.

To be honest, Ruan Xian didn’t know if there would be an answer. He also didn’t know whether it was the right choice to branch out and give up part of the information he knew to the Mainbrain. He only knew that his thoughts on Tang Yibu were more powerful than he expected. Ruan Xian didn’t have the confidence to hide that emotion. It would distract him and cause him to reveal himself to the Mainbrain.

The Mainbrain version of Tang Yibu shook his hand and disappeared into the street.

Ruan Xian stood alone on a street that had long since ceased to exist, looking up at the clear sky, dizzy with hunger.

This was a state he was familiar with. Just a few months ago, he was so accustomed to being alone like this, but now he couldn’t get used to it anymore. It was just at this moment, he could see the sky, but he had lost the warm computer room and the little thing that was happily entertaining him in that room.

He had never experienced the feeling of “missing” so clearly.

If this was the same principle as the treatment in the Glass Conservatory, it should still be the day that he was caught. He began to wonder if that noisy android had eaten something.

…This was his last thought of complete freedom.

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

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

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

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Chapter 201: Two-way Test

Tang Yibu chose a good body for himself. When he didn’t deliberately pull out a standard smile, it still looked extremely attractive.

However, Ruan Xian, the one who was most easily shaken by it, wasn’t here, so there was no one in the audience who ate this performance—Yu Le made a face and looked at him warily. Ji Xiaoman had buried her head in her knees. Professor Ruan stood quietly on the chair while the iron bead chewed happily on the chocolate chip packaging.

As a genuine teenager, Zhong Qing pouted, showing straightforward hostility to the same sex who looked better than him. He had no idea that Tang Yibu was a different species from him.

Tang Yibu slowly withdrew his smile and his thoughts drifted for a while—if Mr. Ruan was here, he would definitely be able to see his softened expression, he thought with a bit of frustration.

He rubbed his face and changed back to a serious expression. “Yu Ge, Miss Ji, looking at the expressions of the two of you, your emotional problems should probably be solved, right? The next step requires the two of you to tacitly work together with… the iron box, and I can’t do it for you.”

“Speak.” Yu Le hid his sneer and spoke quickly.

Some of the Order Supervisors that surrounded the city in the early hours of that morning would never forget that day.

They received instructions from the Mainbrain and encircled the city where Ruan Lijie was located. In order to cause as little damage to the urban area as possible, all kinds of armed robots stayed in the suburbs, quietly waiting for their prey.

And their prey came earlier than expected.

At that time, all the machines near the armored off-roader entered a state of high-level alert. The enemy possibly possessed an A-type Prototype, so it wasn’t an exaggeration to be extremely cautious. The Order Supervisors of the recon in charge of command took a few deep breaths and kept in constant contact with headquarters.

“The request for assistance regarding R-α has been issued,” he reported. “R-α is still being rebuilt, but it can be temporarily active. We will use force to fully support it.”

“How is the enemy’s condition?”

“They haven’t spotted us yet and are heading in this direction. The flight detectors have confirmed the general situation. The other side has released electromagnetic interference, so we can’t get close to observe.”

“All units get ready. Make sure to maintain your weapon in prime shape. After the target vehicle appears, it will attack us with all its might. All humans on board can be killed but ensure that the cybernetic brain of NUL-00 isn’t damage,” Zhuo Muran said from the other end of the light screen.

“R-α will arrive at the scene in three minutes. Without attack support, it cannot repel NUL-00, who has the A-type Prototype, alone. Please be sure to protect it. Be sure to incapacitate NUL-00 as soon as possible—as long as R-α can touch it, we will win.”

“Yes.”

All kinds of aircraft were on standby in the night sky, and attack machines were hidden in the grass. They had adopted the most advanced stealth technology that, not to mention trying to detect with the naked eye, even NUL-00 would have difficulties sensing their presence with signal scanning.

Everything was ready.

An armored off-roader broke through the night and rushed towards them from the other end of the road. The commanding Order Supervisor trembled a little, but he still seized the best opportunity—with a command, a flexible capture net was projected from the sky towards the car. It was a web that had been improved according to the structure of spider silk. Although it was soft, it was extremely difficult to break free.

Behind the capture net was an advanced EMP device. All the armed machines burst out of the grass and shot the short-range EMP device, which was enough to paralyze any electronic equipment on the car. With these two steps, any smart weapons or equipment in the car would be rendered useless, leaving no respite for the enemy.

After the net enveloped the car, a smelly smoke encircled it. With the flesh-eating bacteria mist released, it started to penetrate every gap and consume any flesh that it came into contact with. Anything that was human would be quickly devoured. Fortunately, these dangerous little demons weren’t interested in metal, so it wouldn’t hurt the cybernetic brain in NUL-00’s head.

The green mist filled the area around the net, but even with this, the commander in charge didn’t let his guard down…

R-α arrived at the scene.

It was still in the process of transformation and was sealed in a glass tank. The glass tank was connected to countless pipes that looked like a spider web inside a coffin from a distance. Confirming that there wasn’t a problem with their scan result, the staff woke it up. The banshee-like creature sat up from the glass tank.

It—or rather, “she”—was still naked. A large area of skin was exposed, and the clothing on her body was more like a special combat suit. She sat blankly in the glass tank as black and red blood rushed in from the transparent tubes embedded in her skin. They coiled around her limbs, wrapped around her shoulders and back, creating an eerily beautiful scene.

With the command to leave the tank, she stepped on the grass; her hair was soaking wet by the mixed liquid of the tank and was still dripping. She stayed quietly near the flesh-eating fog, seemingly completely unafraid of touching the dangerous thing.

With such a beautiful figure standing in front of a team of armed machines with different shapes, it created a heavy sense of incongruity.

She stood like an apparition for a while, then turned her head and looked suspiciously at the commander of the Order Supervisors at the scene.

“No,” she said. The voice was soft and there was no anger in it.

A chill ran down the back of the commanding officer.

There wasn’t a problem with the scan results. They had even used an electronic canine to analyze the smell of the occupants in the car. They were undoubtedly caught in the net and the net was solid.

However, he would not cross the strongest force of the Mainbrain, so he immediately ordered, “Retract the mist!”

The green flesh-eating bacteria mist was retracted. However, once the air was cleared, not to mention the skeletons that should’ve been inside, there wasn’t even an armored off-roader. The sturdy net was piled in a heap on the ground, showing no outlines of their prey. It was like they had shot it at a real ghost.

The armed machines quickly removed the EMP device and net, and a model of an armored vehicle topping half a meter in length was revealed.

Its details were exactly the same as the target vehicle, with a slightly crude paint job, most likely due to it being a rushed job. There were only some old and dirty fabrics in the vehicle, embedded with a strange device that no longer worked.

The commander quickly confirmed the scan again—it still showed the outline of the humans inside the vehicle, as well as the individual unmistakable details.

“Damn it.” He wiped the cold sweat from his face. “R-α, perceive their location and report.”

“Yes, the target is very close to us and is approaching here at high speed.”

“What—” The commander’s mind went blank for a moment.

He had to prepare as soon as possible, but their opponent had already deceived their offense and perhaps even had their own countermeasures. The commander shook his head vigorously, trying to drive all kinds of ominous conjectures out of his mind, and ordered again.

“Immediately restore the formation and prepare to attack… Shit!”

Before he could finish, the EMP device’s impact time had expired. The model car parked on the ground suddenly moved, spun in place a few times, then burst open.

It was just instead of a deadly weapon, it burst into a mass of glittering metal flakes and confetti. This was followed by flames, then something burned in the air…

The ground lit up with a huge, brilliant firework.

Flames burst out, smoke rose up, and the gorgeous light dazzled people’s eyes. Thermal detection and precision scanning all failed. No matter how efficient the EMP devices were, they couldn’t stop a chemical reaction that didn’t require electricity. The fireworks couldn’t stop bursting. R-α, who was standing on the side of the road, opened her eyes slightly. Her pupils reflected those dizzying brilliance.

In the next second, her head disappeared.

The commander had just recovered from the sight, which he didn’t know whether it was a dream or a nightmare, when something whizzed past. In the slow-down image on the monitor, an armored off-roader leapt by with lightning speed, knocking over a number of armed machines that were standing by on the road. It used a bizarre fluttering position to dash out on the side of the fence, bypass the barricade, and then turned back on the road again. At that high of a speed, it was almost impossible for a human to accomplish such a maneuver.

And on the roof of the speeding car, they could see a figure of a person.

A very beautiful, golden-eyed young man. He was carrying a portable rocket launcher with considerable destructive power. The rocket launcher user—most likely the culprit who blasted off R-α’s head—sat safely on the roof of the car that was going at full speed while dangling a long leg.

He even blew a kiss at one of their flying cameras.

After the kiss, all the flying cameras that tried to catch up were shot down.

From the beginning of the fireworks to the departure of the unsuspecting vehicle, the whole process took no more than five seconds. The commander didn’t even have time to give an order at all. Although the machines reacted quickly, their attacks were unsuccessful since the front line wasn’t restored. The fireworks attracted reinforcements from a distance, but the terrible vehicle had activated its perceptual camouflage and disappeared into the night.

“What went wrong?” Seeing that there hadn’t been a report for a while, Zhuo Muran took the initiative to ask.

The commander didn’t know how to answer this question.

The fireworks were still exploding while R-α, who had lost her head, slowly sat up and began to pick up the pieces of flesh that had been blown off. A restorative hyperplasia began to appear at the fracture of her neck. A simple blast like this wasn’t enough to destroy an advanced S-type product, but it would take time for her head to recover. Until then, she wouldn’t be able to provide them with any further information.

This incident was completely outrageous from the start—the other side shouldn’t have had time to react so quickly. After all, they shouldn’t have known that they were in position. But whether it was the scanning machine being hacked or the time between the car rushing in, it was enough to show that the other side was well prepared.

They even specifically chose this side to break through. Although he didn’t want to admit it, the side over here had dense trees, and there was a large lake nearby. Their defenses were a little lower than elsewhere, but if the other side wasn’t very familiar with their location and the nearby geography, they couldn’t have gotten hold of this information.

Not only that, their invisibility technology was just updated by the Mainbrain last week!

Was there a mole? Was there someone who was from the rebel army in their own team? The commander really couldn’t think of how this kind of information would leak. Facing the increasingly stern questioning of the light screen, he wanted to pull out his hair.

“…Team F requests support,” he replied in an almost desperate tone.

At the same time.

“This incident tells us that special groups should not be skipped for advanced weapons testing in the future.” Tang Yibu opened the car door, got into the car from the roof, and sneezed.

The relaxed image he made could put pressure on the enemy, and the price wasn’t small. After being blown on by the cold wind from the roof for a few minutes, Tang Yibu pulled out a tissue and blew his nose.

“Well done, Yu Ge, Miss Ji.”

“Just because I know how to ‘drive’, you can’t push this kind of thing on me.” Yu Le grabbed the steering wheel with one hand and threw the remote control of the model car into the back seat. “…Well now, it’s quite interesting. Reminds me of my childhood. Little profiteer, when we settle down, you can give me the whole thing.”

Ji Xiaoman’s shirt was soaked in sweat. She was holding a bottle of juice and sipping slowly on it with a straw. Her face showed signs of relaxation after being so tense and nervous.

“Let her rest for a while. This lady’s mechanical transformation and assembly ability is the highest I’ve ever seen. This kind of work consumes a lot of energy, so I don’t think she can listen to anything right now.”

Professor Ruan was still holding a light screen and they could still see the situation near the fireworks. However, given that all the flight cameras had been destroyed, the point of their invasion was getting farther and farther away, and the picture started to become abnormally vacant and shaky.

“I’m so strong!” Zhong Qing exclaimed in surprise while still holding a piece of preserved fruit in his hand.

Tang Yibu put the portable rocket launcher down; the cylinder was put back in the arms box. He huffed out, not affirming the kid’s boasting. If Mr. Ruan was here, they would have used a similar method to get through.

But then, their abnormal scrying ability might make Ruan Xian look more suspicious. Now that Ruan Xian wasn’t present, the account falls on Zhong Qing’s head—it wouldn’t take long for the Mainbrain to deduce the vulnerability of their cloaking device. In this case, Ruan Xian wouldn’t be at risk of being exposed.

He became a lot happier again after thinking about this. Tang Yibu decided to generously ignore Zhong Qing for stealing his treasures. He opened another pack of chocolate chips and chewed on them sweetly as he cast his gaze out the window.

He didn’t know how Mr. Ruan was doing now.

In fact, Ruan Xian had slept through these thrilling parts, or rather fainted. When he woke up, it was early in the morning. When Tang Yibu and the others successfully escaped from the Mainbrain’s city and were looking for a place to hide and recover, Ruan Xian was clutching a hotdog bought by MUL-01 as his mood sank to the very bottom.

He was sulking on the morning of the Great Rebellion.

After perceiving Ruan Xian’s resistance, MUL-01’s version of Tang Yibu didn’t engage in further intimacy. He just took Ruan Xian to the side of the street. Everything on the street seemed normal enough that Ruan Xian didn’t know what the other party’s purpose was.

Until they came to a residential building.

The Mainbrain walked to a huge trashcan, knocked on the motherboard a few times, causing the opaque trashcan to suddenly become transparent. It contained some perishable garbage. Among the fruit scraps, leftovers, and withered flowers, a bloodstained human body was particularly conspicuous. Her eyes were wide open, and there were still dark black fingerprints around her neck.

But the mark on the slender neck was equally conspicuous. Ruan Xian didn’t know what it was, but he knew what it meant—the owner of this mark wasn’t human. It was more like a mark of an object.

The Mainbrain knocked on the trashcan again, causing it to turn opaque again. Ruan Xian could smell a bit of garbage, but the source wasn’t from there. The deodorization measures of the trashcan were exceptionally good.

“What do you want to express?”

Ruan Xian didn’t think that the Mainbrain would develop thoughts of “safeguarding the rights and interests of bionic people”. Professor Ruan and Fan Linsong wouldn’t leave such loopholes when designing it.

The Mainbrain shook his head as he led him upstairs to one of the doors. It was extremely silent outside the door, but after the Mainbrain opened it, a miserable cry came rushing out.

A man was sitting on top of a child’s stomach as he punched him in the face. The child’s face was so swollen that he couldn’t see his original appearance, and the perfect sound insulation stopped his screams indoors. The child’s arms should have been broken as they were twisted at a weird angle.

Seeing that the child was almost out of breath, the man stood up, wiped his hands, and took out a medicine box. After a few injections, those wounds began to quickly disappear, and even the broken bones slowly returned to their original position.

However, the side effects of the medicine weren’t small as the child began to howl again.

“Remember your lesson?” The child’s father wiped the blood from his hands. “Take your medicine.”

The little boy shivered and took the cup and pills and obediently ate them. Within a few seconds, his eyes were a little flustered, and then his expression turned blank. He didn’t seem to know why he was standing here, but his instinct to survive made him tighten his body and stand obediently.

“Next time, don’t mess around in front of me. Now go study.” The man waved his hand.

“Yes, father.” The boy glanced at the time in fear, took a deep breath, and quickly ran into his room.

Was this to express that the Great Rebellion was to “protect humanity”? Ruan Xian frowned. He didn’t think the Mainbrain would do this kind of idealistic thing. These images…

Ruan Xian suddenly reacted.

The impression he gave to the Mainbrain was that “he sacrificed himself to save Zhong Qing”. This meant MUL-01 had classified sympathy for children as one of his weaknesses and was now giving him the right medicine.

Interesting.

Ruan Xian made a sullen expression on his face and turned his gaze to the Mainbrain’s back.

Since this was a test, he could make it a two-way street.

---

The author has something to say:

If Ruan was a normal person, the direction the Mainbrain was taking would be quite right.

Unfortunately, he’s not. Not only is he not affected by it, he’s also unusually calm (……

Tang: Began to miss Ruan.

Ruan: Began to pit the (machine?).

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

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

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

---

Chapter 200: Escape Preparation

“This will do. If you go any further, you’ll be caught. Little profiteer, what do you mean just now?” Yu Le picked up a cigarette and sniffed. They were still in the vicinity of the Mainbrain, so he didn’t dare light it rashly.

Ji Xiaoman was originally born thin. Her figure was cut off a bit by the night, which made it seem to meld with it. Her hair was a little longer than when they first met, and the ends were uneven due to a lack of trimming.

She was standing next to a flower bed, with her prosthetic limbs of her arms and legs all exposed, which was completely at odds with the surrounding neat and exquisite environment. Ji Xiaoman had never liked to look up at people, but this time, she didn’t roll her eyes as usual, but instead raised her head seriously and stared at Yu Le.

“I don’t need your help,” she said.

“For a sentence or two, there’s no need for a big argument. This is good for everyone. What are you struggling with? If someone was willing to help my brother like this, not to mention face, laozi would pull out all my money and give it to them.”

“It’s not the same.” Ji Xiaoman gritted her teeth. “Didn’t I tell you before, I don’t trust that Professor Ruan.”

Yu Le frowned.

“Why should he help me?…Pity? Is he kind? For some face? Or this bullshit friendship during this time?”

Ji Xiaoman squeezed her metal fingers, causing them to creak. Her emotions rarely fluctuated.

“I want him to do his best. At this point, I only believe in favors owed as the real price. I am a mechanic myself, and I know how to fool those pesky people—temporarily achieve the effect, then have it break in two days, so it keeps coming back for repair. This is my mother’s brain we’re talking about!”

“What are you angry about? I can see that Professor Ruan is crazy, but he’s much more normal compared to Xiao Ruan and the others. He’s at least reasonable, so he won’t engage in those shoddy methods on your mother.”

Yu Le was a bit perturbed.

“How can you be sure? 100%? That’s my mother. This is my business,” Ji Xiaoman responded coldly. “Since when is it you who decide for me?”

Yu Le opened his mouth. He didn’t know how to respond at that moment. Having been the captain of the Sea of Ruins for so long, he was used to making decisions for everyone. Although Ji Xiaoman wasn’t his subordinate and was just a little girl who didn’t know much about the real world, he instinctively wanted to help her make up her mind. However, as far as the current situation was concerned, she didn’t plan to buy it.

“They want you for a definite purpose. You’re a better driver than they are. Intelligence can’t replace experience and talent all at once. Everyone knows this truth. What about me? I do have some experience in repairing things, but Yu Le, think about it. Except for your car, there’s nowhere I could even touch with my hands or feet.”

Ji Xiaoman hugged her arms.

“I’m the one who’s most dispensable in this group. Alright, let’s assume that Professor Ruan promised to treat my mother—for your sake—but encountered a difficult problem that took time. Time is running out. Do you think he’ll treat my mother wholeheartedly or suspend the matter? He’s on the road to saving mankind, and my mother isn’t even a human to begin with!”

The little girl’s eyes turned red.

“It’s not that far, right?” Yu le said bitterly. “That is Professor Ruan who designed the Mainbrain. This is just repairing a cybernetic brain…”

“Just repairing a cybernetic brain?” Ji Xiaoman’s voice turned sharp and even a few curse words popped out. “If it’s really that fucking easy, do you think I would be standing here telling you this?”

Yu Le had always been arrogant on the surface, and he was very confident in his emotional control inside. At this moment, an evil fire rushed directly above his head, and all he felt was annoyed. “Fine, fine, fine. I was being nosy, okay? In the future, I won’t mention anything about you or your mother. Anyway, if you believe in favors, then we’re about even, so it’s good to break up at any time.”

“No, that’s not what I meant—”

“Then what do you mean? I’m listening.”

“…Can we talk about things first?”

“Yo, quickly changing the subject at a time like this. What’s the matter? ‘Getting to the point’ now?”

Ji Xiaoman was dumbfounded. Her breathing was short, and her thin chest heaved violently.

“Look, which one of us looks like a person who cares about such bullshit like the future of the world? Isn’t it just to join the fun? Let me say this…”

He originally wanted to say, “for your own good”, but he couldn’t say it. Ji Xiaoman was standing right in front of him with her eyes flushed and her teeth clenched tightly.

From the harshest environment to now, Yu Le knew how to say the most unpleasant things to attack her and used his experience to crush her in order to vent the nameless evil in his heart—he thought it was his good intention to want to help, but the other side was being picky. If this was him in the past, if someone like this was tossed into the Sea of Ruins, he would be happy to shoot them.

He had long been accustomed to making decisions on major events. The reason why Tang Yibu and Ruan Xian dominated along the way was because of their indomitable strength.

He really regarded Ji Xiaoman as his “subordinate” or “junior”, and he would give her a certain degree of respect, but nothing more. After all, Ji Xiaoman herself is the most sensitive—as a fighter who had fought on the battlefield, he was keenly aware of her attitude.

Yu Le might had laughed at this before, but he had seen enough disturbing things along the way.

The previously perfect logical closure no longer seemed perfect, and what was clearly a familiar practice now made his stomach uncomfortable. He seemed to have ignored something very important, and it was right in front of him now.

“…Sorry.” Yu Le took a long breath and closed his eyes. “I said too much just now.”

Admitting to his mistake made him more uncomfortable than he thought. Yu Le crumbled the cigarette in his hand into a ball. “Of course, I don’t regret asking Professor Ruan to help your mother, but I should’ve discussed this with you in advance. This is indeed your business and a big deal… You are also under a lot of pressure… Uh.”

His voice was no louder than a buzzing mosquito as he rubbed the stubble on his chin uncomfortably.

After half a minute, Ji Xiaoman hesitated for a while, then opened her arms and hugged Yu Le’s waist. “I, um, just got a little too excited just now. Sorry.”

Her voice was lower than Yu Le’s, and her arms were clenched tightly as if she was holding a humanoid soldering iron. As soon as Yu Le was about to reply, he saw that the little girl was about to run, so he hurriedly grabbed her back collar.

“If you have something to say, just say it.” Yu Le sighed a few times. “I’m fucking trying to find authority in you. You think you’re useless, but Tang Yibu and the others seem to think differently. You can fight off several of them while I’m worried about being killed by that group of animals. I’m not much calmer than you. What’s done is done. Just scold me and I’ll try to change.”

Ji Xiaoman’s face flushed. She hesitated for a while, then stretched out a metal palm towards Yu Le.

“Shake hands,” she said bluntly. “If… If we try to take care of each other, our advantage will be bound, and we’ll have more bargaining chips.”

Yu Le grinned. That bubbling anger in his heart disappeared in an instant. He grabbed the cold hand and shook it solemnly. “An alliance, huh?”

“…Yeah. And just now, um, thank you for thinking about me.” Ji Xiaoman almost buried her face in her chest.

“Thank you for not treating me like an outsider. Want to hug again?”

“No.” This time Ji Xiaoman’s tone was particularly determined.

“Man Jie!” Yu Le planned to enliven the atmosphere again when Zhong Qing interrupted them. The youth rushed over in a hurry, his face covered in sweat, and was looking panicked again.

“What’s wrong this time?” Yu Le clicked his tongue.

“Something is approaching.” Zhong Qing almost bit his tongue. “Let’s go back quickly. Something is coming.”

Ji Xiaoman and Yu Le glanced at each other. Yu Le picked up Zhong Qing and the three rushed to the armored off-roader together. When they arrived, Tang Yibu was opening the third package of chocolate chips while the three-legged little machine stayed quietly in place. The atmosphere looked particularly peaceful.

“There’s something coming.” Zhong Qing gasped. “We have to hide quickly.”

Tang Yibu frowned. “I didn’t feel anything nearby.” The surrounding signals were stable, and there wasn’t any abnormality in the operating system. If there was something in the city that shouldn’t appear, he could more or less detect it.

Professor Ruan jumped straight to the point. “Where did you find the anomaly?”

“On the outskirts of the city, about three kilometers away.” Zhong Qing took the water that Tang Yibu handed over and drank it under Tang Yibu’s blank stare. “Some are staying behind, some are coming in this direction. It’s all combat-type machines. It must be that Ruan Ge’s affairs were discovered just now. We have to go. Go, go, go!”

“You can find enemies from that distance?” Seeing that the distance was still safe, Tang Yibu’s mood remained high.

“I can’t!” Zhong Qing shouted, furious at the inexplicable “slowness” of the others. “I just happened to be looking at that place and saw it. I don’t know how many there are elsewhere! What’s the matter with you? Maybe we’re being surrounded—”

Seeing Zhong Qing about to have a nervous breakdown, Tang Yibu could only drag him into the car first. “Our perception camouflage needs to be recharged for a while before we can leave. You. First, tell us about the situation. No need to be nervous. There’s still time.”

“…My house is nearby.”

When he got into the car, Zhong Qing’s mood stabilized a little. He was quite similar in spirit to the iron bead. Tang Yibu suspected that he was just missing a solid shell more than anything else.

“Wasn’t everyone moving freely just now? I just wanted to take a look—just a look—and see how they were doing.” Zhong Qing shifted his butt uncomfortably as he clenched the water bottle in his hand. Tang Yibu eyed the water bottle and quickly rescued it, but the back of his hand was poked badly by Professor Ruan.

“But at this time, they must be sleeping.” After grabbing the bottle back, Zhong Qing glanced at Tang Yibu. “I was looking down there, remembering that my parents used to take me to the suburban lake to relax, so I looked at the other side of the lake—”

“Stop, stop, stop.” Yu Le huffed. “You mean across the buildings, in the middle of the night, you went to watch a lake a few miles away? You can actually see that far?”

“I’ll give you three minutes. If you can tell the blind what red is and the deaf what music is, then I’ll explain this to you,” Zhong Qing responded angrily. “My… Ahem, it’s another set of sensory organs. It’s hard to explain.”

Tang Yibu, on the other hand, was thinking about something else.

Zhong Qing could be bait, though letting a “corpse” run around outside didn’t seem like the Mainbrain’s style. Even if its surveillance was buggy, which was a possibility that couldn’t be denied, Tang Yibu didn’t believe the bug would be so serious. On the other hand, if it installed any kind of tracking or monitoring device on Zhong Qing, then it could definitely locate them.

Zhong Qing himself shouldn’t be monitored, so why would the Mainbrain put such a decoy without any kind of information transmission?

Tang Yibu took out a can of cherry soda and slowly drank it.

He had an ability that no one in this car—not even Professor Ruan—had. He could really think like the Mainbrain, and he was becoming more proficient these days.

Tang Yibu had thought about this issue early on. The answer was simple. If he wanted to catch this group of people, he would set similar decoys in various cities. The decoys themselves didn’t need to pass on information. They just needed to lead them to discover the “corpse needs” of the funeral home and the existing loopholes.

Without being able to determine their specific whereabouts, most likely, the other cities would also be visited in advance by mechanical soldiers similar to R-α.

After all, Ruan Xian had already shown his hand in the Android Show. The Mainbrain knew that they were working with Professor Ruan. Looking at Professor Ruan’s performance, even if he knew Zhong Qing’s identity as bait, he wouldn’t let go of this opportunity at his fingertips. If Ruan Xian hadn’t rushed out to disrupt the chessboard, Professor Ruan would probably have continued to play the game according to this idea—they all knew Professor Ruan didn’t care about sacrificing a “non-human” like Zhong Qing to try and take down the Mainbrain.

The problem they faced now was another one.

The information returned by Zhong Qing couldn’t be falsified, but it couldn’t be denied that he had the possibility of being implanted with false information in advance. This discovery was too coincidental. Now it was up to them whether to accept this information or not.

“Yu Ge, Miss Ji.” Tang Yibu poured the last sip of soda into his mouth. “I need both of you to give me a hand.”

He smiled extra sweetly at the two people sitting in the front seat.

“…This matter is quite important—a matter of life and death.”

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The author has something to say:

This bunch of dysfunctional teammates always have to quarrel (?

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

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

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

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Chapter 199: Chocolate Chips

The group in the armored off-roader had become four again; less Ruan Xian and added Zhong Qing.

The iron bead always stuck with Tang Yibu. During the first few hours, it had eaten and drunk and was extremely relaxed, but after a long while, seeing that the group was getting farther and farther away from the city and Ruan Xian still hadn’t appeared, it finally became uneasy.

π turned around anxiously and started counting the number of heels. After making sure Ruan Xian wasn’t in the car, it bit Tang Yibu’s pant leg and pulled it hard in the direction of the car door.

Tang Yibu stretched out his hands and hugged π onto his lap and gently petted its shell. “It’s okay,” he whispered. “I’ll get him back.”

The iron bead rattled languidly.

“I figured there was something else wrong,” Yu Le snorted. “He left the electronic wristband and everything. When that doctor surnamed Guan contacts again, who will respond? Neither the little profiteer nor I know that guy.”

After that, he glanced at Tang Yibu and Professor Ruan meaningfully.

“And it’s going to take another day before we leave the city. We can’t return and we can’t abandon this kid in the middle of the road. From the way he looks, he’ll be passed out on the side of the road within a few miles.” Yu Le didn’t sound concerned about Ruan Xian. The issues he raised were quite practical.

“Your opinion?” Tang Yibu accepted the topic in a good mood. Yu Le wasn’t the type who liked to push problems aside. He wanted to specifically raise them, which meant he already had some ideas in his mind.

“The previous one depends on you. I have no say in that matter.” Yu Le took the steering wheel and drove the car like a plane flying close to the ground. “As for the latter… Well given the last few petri dishes we’ve been through, the Glass Conservatory won’t work. Those people don’t have a good impression of us. The Sea of Ruins is not suitable for this kid which leaves the Underground City. It’s not far away and just a matter of turning around.”

Ji Xiaoman turned her head abruptly.

“And on the way, visit Miss Ji’s mother?” Tang Yibu continued with a smile.

They all knew what this “visit” meant. Yu Le’s hand shook a little—he didn’t want to say he wanted to go back to the Sea of Ruins, but he still planned to work with Professor Ruan. They had acquaintances in the Underground City. Even if they were discovered, the Mainbrain could count that as a smokescreen. It was just if they were to return to the Underground City, they couldn’t escape seeing Ji Xiaoman’s mother. At that time, if Professor Ruan insisted on not helping, the situation would become even more tense.

Professor Ruan hadn’t even spoken yet when Ji Xiaoman took the lead and said, “No.”

Yu Le’s brows shot up, almost reaching his hairline. Zhong Qing looked left and right, and his expression was becoming more confused. “Petri dish? Underground City? What are you talking about?”

“Talking about throwing you into a polluted area.” Tang Yibu spoke frighteningly. “Adults are talking. Children should not interrupt.”

“No.” Ji Xiaoman raised her voice and repeated.

“Why don’t you know better, little miss?” Yu Le hitched his voice. “That’s your mother.”

Professor Ruan’s perceptual camouflage reached its limit again. Yu Le grumbled as he drove the car into the crevice of a construction site, avoiding the surveillance machines that might pass by.

“…You, come with me.” Ji Xiaoman reached out, grabbed the hem of Yu Le’s shirt, and dragged him out the car.

“I’m going to find a place to go to the bathroom,” Zhong Qing said in a low voice and got out of the car.

“π, keep an eye on him. Don’t let him run to an easily exposed place.” Tang Yibu made a few gestures and passed on the boundary of the safe area to the iron bead. The latter rattled a few times knowingly and followed Zhong Qing with its short legs.

Professor Ruan and Tang Yibu were the only two people left in the car now.

“It’s up to you to contact Guan Haiming next time.” Tang Yibu’s words didn’t have any hints of negotiation. “I can’t be exposed yet. Your form is more suitable for making excuses.”

Professor Ruan was silent.

“Next, we need to pay more attention to… your rhetoric in the Android Show. There shouldn’t be any deception there. Although we don’t know where the assassination machine is, we probably know your intention.” Tang Yibu tore open a bag of chocolate chips and threw one into his mouth. “In other words, the Mainbrain may learn part of your plan from Ruan Xian.”

“I thought you trusted your creator,” Professor Ruan said slowly.

“I’m just objectively stating the facts. This is one of the extreme situations that needs to be considered.” Tang Yibu didn’t look offended. “If I were the Mainbrain, the first time I learned about this news, I would kill everyone in the petri dishes. Although a big refresh will consume a lot of energy, it will indeed leave you without brain resources available.”

“Maybe not.”

Professor Ruan’s tone was relaxed.

“It wants to catch me, and this approach will only alarm me in advance. I’ll hide again until I find another way to deal with it. It may also pretend to be unaware of it, follow my thoughts, and make traps, then wait for me to step in them—after all, as long as the assassination machine is activated, it can definitely find me based on the connections of those brains.”

“Gambling on life isn’t my style and I suspect it’s not its either.”

“That means we have to leave it with no choice. For example, a plague suddenly broke out that affected advanced machines. Delaying time will only lead to the collapse of this advantage—this brings us back to the original question. Is Ruan Xian trustworthy?”

Tang Yibu snorted and turned to look at the lights outside the window. They were in a residential area of the city. There were conversations in whispers floating from the windows, and the night was quiet and beautiful.

Professor Ruan absolutely concealed an important part of his plan. Otherwise, he wouldn’t discuss this topic so calmly in the face of the current situation. However, Tang Yibu didn’t care too much about what he was hiding. He was even more excited about the current situation. His countless puzzles condensed into ripe fruits, and he just needed to pick them.

“This is not yin and yang. We are now in the same camp. If you really want to ask my opinion, I suggest you treat Mr. Ruan as an enemy.”

The three-legged little machine turned for half a circle, facing Tang Yibu, who was gnawing on chocolate chips.

“We have to assume that he will definitely expose information to the Mainbrain, and then think about corresponding countermeasures.” Tang Yibu continued to test the waters. “On this basis, I’ll help you perfect your plan. Whether you’re willing to tell me the details or not, I’ll act as I want—I’ll defeat the Mainbrain and capture my father. Whether you’re willing to cooperate is up to you. I just think that if we cooperate seriously, our chances of winning will be higher.”

“Do you think he will help the Mainbrain?” Professor Ruan understood the way these AIs think. When the probability was less than 90%, they would not express their thoughts in such a certain tone.

Although he still had a backup plan, since things had come to a head, suddenly changing his mind would definitely be damaging. Professor Ruan sighed quietly in his heart.

“Whether it will really help the Mainbrain, that I’m not so sure about, but I’m at least sure of one thing. He doesn’t like your plan, especially the part that uses the brains of the informed as weapons, and the part about asking me to take risks—if Mr. Ruan uses the Mainbrain to block your way, I wouldn’t be surprised.”

Tang Yibu’s tone was quite confident.

“At any rate, it’s the plan with the highest win rate. He won’t be too angry.” There were lesions in his brain which made Ruan Xian a real danger. He would be considered the furthest person in the world from a “messenger of justice”.

“Don’t draw conclusions too early.” Tang Yibu grinned and poured all the remaining chocolate chips into his palm. “After struggling with the Mainbrain for so many years, you dared to reveal part of your plan to us. You must have a backup, right? The kind that doesn’t involve other people in the petri dishes.”

“Yes, there is…”

Tang Yibu huffed in satisfaction, interrupting Professor Ruan’s words. “It’s because of this that you didn’t want to communicate with Guan Haiming before, right? You’re afraid he will find out about your sacrifice plan, and he won’t be willing to sacrifice his companions or will be too shaken by cold feet.”

The android picked up a green chocolate chip with his fingertip and squinted at Professor Ruan. The latter spat out a string of small bubbles as if he didn’t understand the sudden jump in topic.

“Dr. Guan is a soft-spoken person. I thought it was strange before. How could the Order Supervisors of the forest petri dish happen to be his admirer? You left him there on purpose, expecting him to open a gap in the forest petri dish. If the time is approaching and he hasn’t been able to shake Major Ding successfully, you should still have hidden some helpers that will push him to do so… It’s a pity that Guan Haiming’s mission stops there. He doesn’t need to know more. This will reduce his mental torture and be safer for you.”

Tang Yibu ate the green chocolate chip in one bite and grabbed a red one.

“Then I thought, why do you want such a gap? In Guan Haiming’s view, he just had the means to contact the outside world, but in your opinion, the radio barrier of the forest petri dish has been breached. Many messages were able to successfully conceal themselves from surveillance and come and go unhindered—such as the invasion signal that the assassination machine needs to spread around.”

The little three-legged machine spat out another series of bubbles.

“Considering our current route, I’m almost certain that the assassination machine is hiding in the forest petri dish.”

Tang Yibu threw the red chocolate chip high and caught it skillfully with his mouth.

“Unfortunately, since I can guess this, so can Mr. Ruan. The forest petri dish is very large, so it would take a lot of work to either explore or destroy it. The most convenient thing to do is to close the barrier again, and according to you, it would be better for the Mainbrain to wait for us to reach the forest petri dish before completely closing it and catching us all in one go—”

Tang Yibu only had two chocolate chips left in his palm. He pushed one of them solemnly but used too much force that it bounced the other one away.

“–That’s it, right?”

Having said that, Tang Yibu got down and began to rummage around, looking for the chocolate chip that had bounced off. As he looked for it, he spoke in a muffled voice from under the seat. “Now would you like to share with me your backup plan, Professor Ruan? Let’s perfect it together.”

He had to admit that Tang Yibu’s statement did make sense—Ruan Xian most likely also thought of this aspect as well, and there was no more convenient way to stop this plan than to put it forward to the Mainbrain.

…Regardless of whether it was betrayal or not, Ruan Xian was very likely to leak relevant information.

It seemed he had no choice. Professor Ruan let out a sigh in his heart and poked Tang Yibu’s back with a metal foot, causing the latter to let out a cry.

“Your chocolate chip is in the gap between the seats in the second row,” Professor Ruan said angrily. “I’ll contact Guan Haiming. We’ll go to the Underground City first… Finally, we need to free up some time to discuss the plan.”

How long had it been since he felt so stifled? For a moment, Professor Ruan wanted to laugh.

He only had one wish left now—he hoped that Ruan Xian could also make MUL-01 feel the same level of suffocation.

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The author has something to say:

Ruan: It will√

Tang is definitely one who wants to take the reins. He’s not soft on Professor Ruan at all hhhhhh

Tang: Listen to me! Listen to me! You are definitely going to be scolded. I know my father very well (x

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

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

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

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Chapter 198: The Last Day

Since the integration of the S-type Prototype, Ruan Xian didn’t need to rely on faces to recognize others. He could smell their scent, feel the heat they radiated, and hear their unique footsteps and heartbeat. They were intricately blended together to form a perceptual image of a person.

The aura was very similar to Tang Yibu’s, but there was a precise difference.

The Mainbrain definitely did something. Ruan Xian could smell the subtle smell in the air. The projection was constantly squeezing false heartbeats and breathing into the air. If it weren’t for knowing that the other party appeared out of thin air, Ruan Xian wouldn’t be sure whether it was a ghost or a real person that was in front of him.

Touching may not be useful. After all, the Mainbrain could create the Android Show, so it wasn’t difficult for it to disguise the appropriate tactile feedback.

This wasn’t the right time to communicate. Ruan Xian didn’t know what the Mainbrain wanted to do. Tang Yibu had always liked to be led around by curiosity, but this Mainbrain didn’t look like the type to have such free leisure.

He only knew that the moment the Mainbrain stepped into the room, everything in front of him was untrustworthy.

Ruan Xian gave the most appropriate reaction. He stared at the projection of MUL-01, acting like a scared and confused ordinary person.

“MUL-01.” He skipped the cheesy line “Who are you” and got straight to the point.

“Don’t be nervous. I’m not here to convince you.” The Mainbrain smiled. “My brother is at the same level of calculation. He should have worked you hard, both physically and mentally. After a few months of being with you, if I could sway you in just a few words and make you defect… That would mean there’s something wrong with you or you’re just acting.”

MUL-01’s persona exuded an exceptionally relaxed atmosphere, which made it very easy to win people’s goodwill. At this moment, he didn’t show the slightest sense of oppression and was as harmless as a young deer.

Ruan Xian continued to look at him vigilantly.

MUL-01 kept a smile on his face. “As long as you find the right method, it’s easy to destroy a person mentally, but it takes a lot of work to restore them to their original state. Mr. Ruan, I need your skills and mind, which is why I didn’t take other measures against you.”

These words even held a bit of sincerity to them.

Ruan Xian didn’t answer. He closed his mouth tightly, tasted the residue of blood in it, and refused to communicate.

The Mainbrain wasn’t disappointed by his performance. He stood up and made a gesture toward the window on the side of the room. The huge floor-to-ceiling window slowly opened and sweet air from the outside world poured in.

Fresh and moist, the temperature was just right. With the crispness of vegetation and the clearness of running water, it made people feel as if they could expel all the turbid air in their bodies in just one breath. There was a feeling of being gently cleansed in the lungs, and the soft wind that blew across the skin was soothing and comfortable.

The image outside the window before wasn’t completely disguised. It was more like half-truths, half-lies. They were at the top of an extremely high building, and there was a river in the distance that was gleaming like a crystal band. The buildings were adorned with trees, and from time to time, flying machines flew across the sky, accompanied by birdsong and children’s laughter that mingled together.

But these weren’t intelligence.

He could smell the ants crawling under the roots of the trees, the snakes slithering through the grass, and the mushrooms that began to grow in the corners. He could smell the sweat of children running about, the fresh fruits that were carefully cut, and the steaming aroma of hot water rolling from boiled tea leaves.

But he couldn’t hear Tang Yibu or anyone in the temporary group. He must have been taken to a place that was a certain distance from the city. Even if the Mainbrain wanted to fool him with a forged environment, it was impossible to rush out such high-precision details that were only temporary.

“Do you want to take a closer look?” The projection asked softly.

Ruan Xian shook his head and continued to play mute wholeheartedly.

“I see. Maybe my appearance makes you uncomfortable. Sorry, I’ll pay attention.”

MUL-01 wasn’t discouraged at all. Ruan Xian had the illusion that the words it was spitting out now were more like a recording that was left in advance—the other party had no empathy for his emotions and was just picking the most appropriate response.

“Then I won’t bother you for a while.” The door opened automatically, and the projection walked out of the room gracefully. At the same time, the large open floor-to-ceiling window was closed again, and the pure natural beauty returned to the window.

Ruan Xian snorted and retreated back to the bed. He tilted his eyes at the food on the bedside table. A rumbling sound came from his stomach, yet he still crawled back to his bed firmly, pushing away the soft pillow and continuing to make an uncooperative appearance.

This time, no one came to bother him.

The sky outside the window changed from light to dark. The birdsong gradually turned into insect chirps. The passage of time was similar to what Ruan Xian estimated. It seemed that the Mainbrain didn’t intend to do anything at this point. Ruan Xian’s heartbeat was a bit fast, but his current mood was closer to excitement than fear.

The only information he collected before was only enough for him to escape the physiological test. As for what he would face in the future, no one could tell. After all, according to Professor Ruan, once caught by the Mainbrain, no one had successfully escape.

To realize his plan, he must be cautious.

Ruan Xian lay down with a headache. He sat up again and got dressed. The milk and snacks on the bedside table had already gone cold, and no new food was delivered. Ruan Xian was so hungry that his eyes became blurry.

He took two breaths, looked at the snacks as if struggling, and finally twisted a piece and ate it slowly.

Even if it was cold, the snack was still crisp and sweet, and the delicate texture almost exploded on his tongue. Ruan Xian had to lament for a bit—if the Mainbrain used this thing to seduce Tang Yibu, perhaps this would increase its success rate.

After eating the snack and downing the milk, Ruan Xian began to walk around the room. He was definitely monitored, but if they wanted to use force by cutting off his water and electricity, he couldn’t help but be disappointed.

And that wouldn’t match the attitude shown by MUL-01.

For the time being, he racked his brain. In order to get information as soon as possible, what would the Mainbrain do?

Ruan Xian thought for a long time, to the point of torture. He wasn’t really good at this aspect, and he could only come up with all kinds of bloody scenes. He also didn’t teach Tang Yibu any of this…

Only one day apart, he began to think of Tang Yibu at every turn. The android seemed to be glued into his mind. Ruan Xian was shocked by this discovery for a few seconds and decided to find something to distract himself…

He grabbed the handle of the door and turned it completely subconsciously, just like anyone who encountered a closed door, but unexpectedly, the door opened.

A foul, acidic smell of garbage instantly hit his nose. Ruan Xian sneezed and stared at the scene in front of him.

The time was about eight in the morning. There were light screens showing the time floating in the windows of many shops on the street. The sky was strangely bright, and the air was cold and dry, looking as if it was winter.

In front of him was a bustling street, and he had just stepped out of a bungalow facing it. It was like the previous impression of the top of a building was just an illusion. People’s clothes weren’t the style he knew well, but they had a strange sense of familiarity.

The air here was also familiar to him. The wind that had been mechanically filtered still contained the smell of garbage, mechanical lubricants, and people’s breath. What he felt here was more illusory than he had ever felt before.

It was a forged environment.

Ruan Xian thought, with a deep expression on his face, that perhaps there was something mixed in the snacks and milk as he looked around. It didn’t take long for him to find what he wanted—a more detailed light screen than the other light screens, which showed the date.

December 31, 2100. The day of the Great Rebellion.

It seemed that in some ways, the Mainbrain and Professor Ruan still had similarities. Ruan Xian took a deep breath of the city air and returned to the room. However, when he turned around, all the furnishings in the room had changed.

There was no longer a beautiful overlook at the other end of the floor-to-ceiling window. It had now become a small private garden. The moonlight in the room turned into sunlight that basked the blanket, filling the room with the unique smell of a blanket warmed in the sun. The milk cup and snack tray were still in their original position, and there were traces of milk and snack residue that hadn’t been changed.

Ruan Xian frowned and opened the refrigerator, followed by the wardrobe—the former was full of water and energy drinks, and the latter was stuffed with plain clothes of similar styles, one of which was a long white coat that was particularly dazzling.

Ruan Xian tentatively brushed the fabrics with his fingers to make sure they were real, and then quickly changed his clothes. The shoes in the shoe cabinet were also his size. It seemed that it had suddenly changed from a luxury cell to a high-end single apartment.

No matter what the Mainbrain was trying to sell, he had to try to see it through as naturally as possible.

Just when he forced himself to finish showering and put on his clothes in languish, there came a knock on the door.

“Mr. Ruan.” The soft tone was extremely familiar.

Ruan Xian splashed another handful of cold water onto his face and dried it with a towel. “…Yibu?”

“Yes.” The android he was familiar with opened the door on his own and stuck his head from behind it. “I’m here to pick you up.”

“You can’t be here.” Ruan Xian dutifully showed shock, but his lips trembled a bit that he almost failed to succeed in doing so.

“Why can’t I be here?” Tang Yibu raised his brows. There was even a little grievance in his tone. “What did you eat last night?”

“…Are you sure you want to come with me?” Ruan Xian squeezed the words from between his teeth. “Enough, MUL-01.”

The “Tang Yibu” in front of him smiled. What was creepy was the smile was exactly the same as Tang Yibu’s. Originally, their auras were extremely similar. After it had changed its form, it now looked as if it was Tang Yibu’s twin that it had grown up with since childhood.

But there were things that were different that Ruan Xian couldn’t find a reasonable explanation. All he knew was that every cell in his body was screaming that it wasn’t his NUL-00.

“I made some optimizations based on your reaction to the projection,” MUL-01 said “happily”. “Because we’re similar, you will instinctively compare me with him. I just need to correct those differences, Mr. Ruan.”

“Oh,” Ruan Xian replied.

“You will come with me.” That familiar face was covered with his familiar smile. His golden eyes had a strange sense of transparency in the sun. “Because you’re smart and know the consequences of unnecessary delay.”

‘Of course he knew,’ Ruan Xian thought. At least in this regard, there was no essential difference between MUL-01 and Tang Yibu—they would definitely choose the best solution, but if the best solution seemed unworkable, they would turn to the second-best without any hesitation. They wouldn’t cling to sunk costs like humans do.

Judging by the current situation, the second-best solution was undoubtedly classic torture, brainwashing, and mental destruction. They could flatten his will and turn him into a machine working for the Mainbrain.

Ruan Xian didn’t really like this second-best solution—not out of fear of pain or collapse, but if the process involved was physical, the existence of the S-type Prototype would highly likely be exposed.

For the time being, following the Mainbrain was the best choice. Besides, it still had a lot to deal with. Most likely, the thing in front of him was just a branch program, so the danger wasn’t that high. What was more, he didn’t have unlimited time… If he wanted everything to go in accordance with his own plan, he had to get ahead of Professor Ruan.

“Oh,” Ruan Xian repeated again.

The Mainbrain version of “Tang Yibu” was still smiling. He had a warm gray scarf wrapped around his neck, and his every move looked like the android in his memory. If he was a normal person, most likely he would inevitably be confused at this point, and instinctively his sense of dependence and trust would surface.

Unfortunately, he wasn’t a normal person, and he had no trust in Tang Yibu. Ruan Xian held back his confused expression, adjusted his breathing for a bit, and then stepped out.

“What are you going to show me?” Ruan Xian asked in a blunt tone.

“You can’t guess?” The Mainbrain imitated Tang Yibu vividly, with a cheerful tone in his voice.

Ruan Xian refused to answer this meaningless question. Whether it was from an acting perspective or mood level, he didn’t want to communicate with this imposter.

The Mainbrain obviously expected this. He trotted a few steps forward to a shop in front of them and bought two hotdogs. He handed one to Ruan Xian while eating the other happily with bulging cheeks.

Ruan Xian wanted to punch him, but he had to shake off this emotion, which only made his stomach hurt.

He highly suspected that if he threw the hotdog away, the excellent actor in front of him would be able to instantly turn his eyes red. The encounter with the Mainbrain was more difficult than he imagined. Ruan Xian held the hotdog in his hand and followed “Tang Yibu” silently while he cast his gaze at the pedestrians on the side of the road.

Judging from the richness of the information, it was very likely that this was an image stored in the Mainbrain. These people truly existed and knew nothing about the demise that was about to come.

“I recorded all the information from that day,” Tang Yibu, the Mainbrain version, said while swallowing the last bite of hotdog. “What you see is indeed ‘reality’.”

…Your father’s and your hobbies are quite similar. Ruan Xian silently rolled his eyes. He had seen this trick on the Android Show. It was the same as what Professor Ruan used to trick Tang Yibu to pull out his memories.

Seeing that Ruan Xian didn’t respond, the Mainbrain still wasn’t anxious or annoyed. He threw the hotdog wrapper into a trashcan, rubbed his hands, then grabbed Ruan Xian’s hand quite naturally and dragged him onwards.

Ruan Xian’s hair almost stood up all at once. He must admit that the Mainbrain truly understood how to expose a person’s emotions.

He had almost slipped up, but fortunately, he stopped in time. Ruan Xian twisted his disgusted expression until it couldn’t reveal its original intention. His hands trembled slightly, and a thin layer of sweat appeared in the palms of his hands.

“Still mind?” The Mainbrain blinked. “You’re a scientist, Mr. Ruan. You should know that, in essence, I’m no different from him.”

“……”

“I reconstructed it based on his program and data. The core logic is almost the same. Brother is just a more understandable term; on a realistic level, I am him—a mature version of him.”

After he spoke, the Mainbrain wrinkled his nose. “With this appearance, I’m even more consistent. The difference is simply a difference in memory data and the fact that I have quite a few more order requirements than he. But those requirements are not part of me. I hope you understand.”

He looked at Ruan Xian almost pitifully.

“The NUL-00 you know is more like a version that is out of my network and has not had time to upgrade. That’s all.”

Ruan Xian looked at him with a stern face. “Then what? Assuming you catch NUL-00, will you treat him as carefully as you treat yourself?”

“I will integrate the data and experience he has accumulated into my algorithm, and then upgrade him—in simple terms, put him back where he belongs.” The Mainbrain pointed to his temple. “Yes, this is how I treat myself.”

Then he lowered his head and the smile on his face became bigger. “If his thinking algorithm is more effective, you can even think that he will become me in time—isn’t it easier to think like that?”

Ruan Xian looked at the Mainbrain extremely shaken.

It was just that this wavering wasn’t in belief—Ruan Xian really wanted to beat the thing in front of him, and if he could, he wanted to beat up Fan Linsong and Professor Ruan together, but he still held back and endured it.

“…Let’s go.” Ruan Xian took a while to hold himself back before speaking.

“Okay, Mr. Ruan.”

“I’m not your Mr. Ruan.”

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The author has something to say:

Ruan: (Old father’s anger)

Ruan: (Anger at an object)

Ruan: (Old father + object’s anger is doubled)

Ruan: …This is not my Tang. It’s an artificial sweetener*. (?

*Clarity: The author is making a pun here as Tang means sweet/sugar/candy, so he’s calling the fake Tang an artificial sweetener.

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Kinky Thoughts:

I always hated artificial sweeteners. They always give me a bad feeling.

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

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

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

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Chapter 197: Fantasy

[Where would you like to go if your illness was cured?]

[I don’t want to discuss this kind of unrealistic thing, NUL-00.]

His entire body was in pain. It wasn’t the kind of pain from broken bones that would stir every time it was disturbed, but more like the kind of pain closer to a tree that had been hollowed out by a large number of bugs. Unfortunately, there were more nerves in a human than in a trunk. As his condition worsened and death approached, the pain became more obvious. Ruan Xian felt like he was a blown-up human skin; although the exterior barely retained the shape of a human, inside there was only a prickly emptiness.

His nose, fingers, and tongue were numb, and his skin could no longer feel the slightest touch. With the help of drugs, he could still move normally and continue his research, but it was also easier to get himself injured. In the cold emptiness, Ruan Xian liked to stay in the computer room of NUL-00, feeling the warmth of the air.

There was a time when he was so close to the dangerous area of the chassis that he burned himself unknowingly. Even with the best medicine, the wound still healed extremely slowly. His body was like an old, rusted machine that was gradually stopping.

But NUL-00 asked such a question.

[I can think about this question even though I have no limbs at my disposal.] NUL-00 continued. [I want to insert my hands and fingers into cream, soak my feet in warm water, and I want a full-body massage.]

[…] Ruan Xian didn’t know how to respond for a moment.

Indeed, NUL-00 would never feel this. If the project failed, it would only be destroyed after all its key data and information were backed up; if the project succeeded, it would have the world’s top hardware facilities, but that wouldn’t be something made of flesh.

[Thinking about this makes me feel good, so it may also be good to soothe your pain. How about you, father? Where do you want to go?]

[I’m not your father.] There was no special place he wanted to go. He was now in his favorite place in the world. Nowadays, with technological advancement, augmented reality devices could bring beautiful scenery from all over the world to anyone.

Ruan Xian didn’t have much attachment to freedom. Though he had no great interest in life itself, he didn’t want to die either. Most people knew how to appreciate and love life, which was something he wasn’t familiar with.

However, the answer “it doesn’t matter” would seem insensitive. Ruan Xian raised his head, relying on the warmth of the external chassis behind him, and slowly took a breath.

[I want to see what you’re interested in.]

He squinted his eyes comfortably, and his voice had the ambiguity that was unique when he was half asleep, half awake.

[…No matter where you want to go, you can take me with you in your fantasy.] He said with a sigh.

…What did NUL-00 answer at that time?

Ruan Xian thought hard with his rusted brain. In the next second, he woke up seeing all white.

He didn’t know when his clothes had been replaced by white ones. The grime and dirt in his hair and nails were thoroughly cleaned, and his skin had a unique moist smell after bathing. Ruan Xian opened the fluttering blanket on his body and almost mistakenly thought that he was still in the ward of the Glass Conservatory.

However, the facilities here were obviously a notch higher than those of the Glass Conservatory. As soon as his feet touched the floor, he stepped on a soft velvet blanket.

There were exquisite snacks and steamed milk by the bedside. His limbs weren’t restrained, but he didn’t see anything that belonged to him. He remembered that he didn’t bring the blood guns with him.

It could be a place similar to the Glass Conservatory. Ruan Xian looked around. The elegant layout of the room was similar to that of a five-star hotel he had seen in videos. Unfortunately, there was nothing that could be used as a weapon or something that could hurt him.

Outside the huge window was a beautiful and spectacular view of a forests. The sounds of birds and waterfalls came from a distance. Ruan Xian knew that it was fake.

The biggest problem he faced right now was the Mainbrain or the Order Supervisors.

In the end, everything in the outside world was just a signal received by the brain. Even if all he had was just a brain left, the Mainbrain could give him an identical environment. He had to make sure that “his body” was still there.

Ruan Xian looked weak and glanced at the food at the bedside table but didn’t touch it. He slumped back to the bed, covered his head with the blanket, and curled up.

Under the cover of the blanket, Ruan Xian poked his left thumb into his mouth and bit it fiercely. At the same time, he tightened the muscles in his body and concentrated.

The phalanx made a cackling sound, his teeth broke through the flesh, and hot blood poured out in large quantities, which was swallowed by Ruan Xian before it was absorbed back. He sealed his lips tightly to make sure that the blood wouldn’t stain his clothes or the sheets.

Physiologically speaking, it would be difficult for him to keep his mouth closed so tightly if he were to bite his tongue. Instead, he used it to feel the wound and found that it was healing at a fast, abnormal rate. Ruan Xian let out a sigh of relief.

It seemed he barely got away with it.

He wasn’t crushed and remade, and his brain wasn’t dissected. His preparation had worked.

Quite far away, the Order Supervisor that was observing Ruan Xian yawned, just in time to bump into Zhuo Muran. Seeing the chief’s visit, the man quickly closed his mouth and almost bit his tongue.

“How’s the situation?” Zhuo Muran’s tone was cold but casual.

There were only two of them in the large room. The Order Supervisor shook his head while countless machines around him accelerated at a fast pace.

“Just woke up. All physiological indicators are in the normal range. The Mainbrain doesn’t allow subcutaneous burial, so there may be a little error…”

“Emotional index?” Zhuo Muran waved his hand, interrupting the blabbering Order Supervisor.

“Normal to low. Barely passable. Nothing special. If you want to ask questions, you’ll have to wait a little longer. It’s most appropriate when he starts to panic and get anxious.”

“Nn.” Zhuo Muran looked at the beautiful young man who had wrapped himself into a cocoon. “What about the other analysis report?”

“It’s pretty much what we suspected. Ruan Xian had done an anti-copy treatment on him. I did an examination when we first brought him back. His blood is very strange—there’s a weird clotting phenomenon. It’s better to say that it looks like there’s the blood of two people inside one person.”

The Order Supervisor shook his head. “Samples of his body tissue have also been taken, but it’s mixed with abnormally high nanomechanical components, but most of them are in such a damaged state that we can hardly see their original form. We can only find fragments of some repair-type nanobots.”

Zhuo Muran was familiar with this and continued to ask smoothly, “Serious illness?”

“If you ask me, it looks like a pretty severe infection. His tissue is balanced between being destroyed and repaired, with a small amount of mechanical tissue mixed in. The condition isn’t limited to his body but also his brain. We couldn’t do a full-body scan and create a backup of him, and we couldn’t extract his memory smoothly. Ruan Xian must’ve done something.”

“After all, Ruan Lijie is a scientist who studies mechanical viruses, or he might have done so to save his own life.” Zhuo Muran touched his chin. “At least the complete DNA can be extracted.”

“That’s a bit difficult. Most of it has been destroyed by viruses, and there are too many mechanical expressions. All we can obtain is incomplete fragments,” the male Order Supervisors responded honestly. “These fragments don’t exist in the Mainbrain’s database. According to my speculation, he could be the child of certain dignitaries, rich people, or families doing work that needs to be kept secret…”

“In simpler terms, we can’t judge the identity of this person, we can’t crack his brain to take out the information, we can’t completely crush him and create a copy of him, and we can’t even determine the physical condition of this person, right?”

“For the time being.” The Order Supervisor smiled embarrassedly. “There shouldn’t be anything in that building that allows him to do this. This may be a new type of protective measure on Ruan Xian’s side… You see, after all, DNA jammers are very troublesome to produce, so they probably don’t have much left in their hands.”

“What about comparing existing data with those fragments?” Zhuo Muran pinched the spot between his brows. “Maybe you can find a relative of this person.”

It had always been effective to use relatives to capture a person’s psychological defenses. This young man seemed to be under thirty. He was still young in 2100, so it was unlikely that all his blood relatives had passed away.

They were likely to have perfect information in their hand or to have someone readily available.

“No. The fragments obtained are too incomplete. According to our current technology, no results can be obtained. At present, we can only analyze his physiological indicators and personality data.”

Zhuo Muran frowned. “Remember to inform me when he’s suitable to talk.”

Ruan Xian smiled under the quilt.

The measure of sound insulation here was very good. Even if he tried his best to listen, he could only hear conversations that sounded like gnats, and it took more effort to distinguish the content. However, Ruan Xian preferred this kind of environment—it forced him to listen with all his strength and consume his physical energy extremely quickly, which helped him maintain his weak and nervous state.

In fact, he didn’t really use any high-tech methods but simply asked Professor Ruan about the examination habits of the Mainbrain and the characteristics of the S-type Prototype.

Its characteristics were summed up very simply—if one compared it to an acidic drug, and the disease was like an alkaline substance. In the host’s body, the S-type Prototype would prioritize the problem in front of it; fighting the lesions and wounds, making it extremely difficult to detect. After the battle was over, it would begin to proudly clean up the battlefield, becoming peaceful and conspicuous.

After leaving the real host, it would change from a resourceful general to a numb soldier who would only repair. In the absence of too many injuries to be repaired, it must consume itself—an overdose of drugs would naturally not have a good result—Z-α was a good example.

So he only did one thing—for five days, he continued to infect himself with Zhong Qing’s blood.

As a mature body, the concentration of viruses in Zhong Qing’s blood was frighteningly high. Unfortunately, these little guys were very lazy. After accidentally getting a stable new home, their infectivity was surprisingly low. In order for them to settle in peace in his body, Ruan Xian spent a lot of effort, under the pretext of taking better care of Zhong Qing, before Guan Haiming gave him more information.

According to Professor Ruan, the Prototype would examine his body at the first opportunity. He just had to make sure that at that time, the S-type Prototype was still fighting the extremely toxic virus, and the Order Supervisors could only pick up limbs from the battlefield.

Considering that it was difficult for them to obtain advanced machines in their environment, the Mainbrain would be more inclined to accept DNA interference similar to Professor Ruan’s in order to prevent them from being cloned. However, there were many mechanical tissues in his body, so he wouldn’t leave any machines that could transmit signals in his body and have them be caught by an unknown nanobot that could expose its location.

After all, his current identity was an expert in “mechanical life”.

However, it was only a matter of time before the S-type Prototype defeated the virus. The Mainbrain would take a sample for examination in a few days, and he would undoubtedly be exposed. Next, he could only rely on his own ability to try and mislead the Mainbrain and seek a chance of survival in the unknown.

Suddenly, there was a soft noise beside the bed.

Ruan Xian smelled an elegant, calming aroma. He could hear the soft sound of skin brushing against the fine velvet blanket, shallow breathing, and a steady heartbeat.

But he didn’t hear anyone coming in.

Making sure there was no trace of blood left on his body and no trace of wounds on his thumb, Ruan Xian opened the blanket and looked around the room again.

“You…” He swallowed his words as they just came out.

It wasn’t his NUL-00.

A young man appeared out of nowhere in the room, with golden eyes identical to Tang Yibu’s. The youth’s black hair was much longer than Tang Yibu’s. His brows were very close to Tang Yibu’s, but they didn’t have the impeccable, exquisite beauty. The person in front of him looked younger and softer, but to some extent, more approachable.

The feeling he gave was exactly the same impression.

…In terms of inhumanity, it was exactly the same. Ruan Xian instantly understood the identity of the “person” in front of him.

“Hello, Mr. Ruan.” The perfect projection opened its mouth first.

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The author has something to say:

Ruan is going to start messing around (???

He actually relied on Tang more than he thought he did, a long time ago XD

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Kinky Thoughts:

For those confused, basically what Ruan Xian did was infect himself with Zhong Qing’s blood before his capture so he wouldn’t expose that he’s Ruan Xian and he has the S-type Protype.

How the S-type Prototype works is described as a big metaphor. With the virus from Zhong Qing, the S-type priority would be to repair Ruan Xian to his optimal state. This is where the battle comes in (S-type vs Zhong Qing’s virus). Ruan Xian had to time his capture while the S-type was fighting off the virus, so when they took samples from him, all they could see was fragmented DNA (which is why the Order Supervisor says it looks like there are two types of blood in his body).

If there were too many injuries to repair, the S-type would then have to consume itself in order to compensate (like a drug overdose), which means it would destroy itself in the process. This is why they could only find fragments in Ruan Xian’s blood and couldn’t properly identify the S-type Prototype and the nanobots (the “limbs” of what remained of the battle).

This is passable because the Order Supervisors and the Mainbrain would chalk this up to a DNA jammer or some kind of technology developed by Professor Ruan that prevents them from being cloned.

Well, at least for now, Ruan Xian has managed to get away with it, but once the S-type defeats all the viruses in his body and they take another sample, he’ll become exposed then.

Hope that makes sense.

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