Chapter 173: CH 173

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

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

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

“Well done.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Yu Le said nothing while Ji Xiaoman clenched her fists.

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

Ji Xiaoman and Yu Le looked at each other.

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

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

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

The question still came in the end.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ji Xiaoman had already raised her gun vigilantly.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Yes.”

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

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

“What—”

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

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