“Z-α and Z-β have stopped functioning. Judging from the last signal they sent back, both of them should have been destroyed.”
The subordinate reported with his head down. Zhuo Muran couldn’t see his face. In fact, he already made this judgement when he first got the signal, and the subsequent data analysis only confirmed that his judgement was correct.
He himself had made a mistake in front of the Mainbrain.
MUL-01 had continuously improved the D-type Prototype in his hand. After storing all the data, it rewarded him with the original sample as the prize. It tried to reverse-engineer the structure of the S-type and A-type Prototypes on that data, but unfortunately it wasn’t successful, and it only came up with a team of powerful troops of acceptable quality.
Having said that, the Mainbrain had given him the D-type Prototype because of his own flesh. Z-α and Z-β were his clones due to his physique that was used to fuse and transform the D-type derivatives.
The S-type products were too soft and harmless, while the A-type products, though powerful, could easily lose the battle due to injury without backup support. The D-type was the best model to test an opponent’s ability. With the Mainbrain’s custom-made exoskeleton, their combat abilities would be just as good as an A-type product.
But they lost.
According to combat power, NUL-00 had an A-type Prototype that was nominally “destroyed” during the beginning of the Great Rebellion. During their battle, Zhuo Muran didn’t stop observing and calculating. Tang Yibu shouldn’t have been a match for Z-α and Z-β—his body was almost pure human, and his joints and muscles were too fragile.
Even with the help of the A-type Prototype, the human body couldn’t fight against special alloys.
However, as soon as he relaxed for a few seconds, a change suddenly appeared. Tang Yibu’s human companion—or rather, the human technician—rushed out and disrupted the situation on the battlefield with some kind of drug.
Judging from the performance, it may be some kind of mechanical virus, but looking at its container and completion, that thing was still in the research stage.
The one who had leaked Tang Yibu’s data to them was Ruan Xian. In other words, Ruan Xian and NUL-00 had no cooperative relationship before that. He was using this approach to put pressure on Tang Yibu and force him to take a side for the sake of self-preservation.
The Red Ghost wasn’t a subordinate force of the rebel army. NUL-00 had its own armed and scientific research power.
Zhuo Muran distractedly put down his cup of tea. He didn’t have the heart to drink it.
The explosion in the center of the island had cost them several elite scouts, and the destruction after the explosion was meaningless—the signal from Z-β at the end of his life was so badly disturbed that he couldn’t even deduce Tang Yibu’s whereabouts.
There was no doubt that his evaluation by the Mainbrain would drop quite a bit.
“Ruan Xian himself should not be on that island.” Zhuo Muran reported to the Mainbrain who was a few steps away. “Excluding the Android Show contestants who are clearly dead, the biological disturbance feedback on the island hasn’t changed significantly.”
“Because there is serious perceptual interference on the island, the detection of disturbance feedback will take longer. I just ordered someone to calculate it thoroughly. In the last month, only four people came to the island and four left. The biological characteristics are extremely similar and no one has been replaced.”
“Nn,” the Mainbrain responded.
MUL-01 was expressionless. His amorphous fingers turned around the edge of Zhuo Muran’s teacup.
“I have ordered people to set up ambushes along the nearby coast, and all petri dishes are under martial law. Next, we will conduct a carpet search of no man’s land. They won’t escape.”
The Mainbrain retraced his fingers. “What about my city?”
“All public facilities have been optimized and upgraded. The incident in the Glass Conservatory will not be repeated. The rest of the problems are within normal range. If there’s any abnormality, I’ll send someone to investigate thoroughly as soon as possible.”
“You’re given authority to send out the S.A.D squad, but Z-α and Z-β have fallen, and it will take time to remanufacture. Without the D-type derivatives as the vanguard, you can only mobilize a total of four other fighters derived from the the S-type and A-type. Please don’t waste them.”
“Yes.”
“One more thing. Please capture the technician alive. The one who’s in a physical relationship with him, I’m very interested in him.”
“Personally, I think it is safer to remove the head after killing and analyze it…”
“But you won’t be able to collect full body data and make a perfect copy… He may not be able to create new things like he is now.” The projection of the Mainbrain finally showed a little smile. “I have confidence to convince him. Don’t worry. If you can do it, I will not pursue this blunder.”
“Understood.” Zhuo Muran lowered his head slightly.
When the projection of the Mainbrain disappeared, he opened the image of the storage warehouse where the S.A.D squad was stored.
This huge warehouse was built only for six soldiers. The derivatives that the Mainbrain painstakingly optimized were still not up to the level of the Prototypes, and their stability was lacking. Fortunately, it was extremely good at designing mechanical parts and human modifications and was able to balance these flaws by adding appendages.
Z-α and Z-β needed to be remanufactured. At present, two of the six liquid tanks in the warehouse were empty, and the remaining four were filled with sleeping organisms. The glass wall of the liquid tank was the size of an entire wall, without any traces of seams, and countless charts, numbers, and texts flickered on it. The bodies of the creatures in the tank were covered with dense pipes, suspended in a clear mixture.
The same as the two warriors who had been killed, the four creatures were also similar, as if they were reproductions of the same prototype.
Zhuo Muran pressed his finger on the glazing screen, pulled it closer to his vision, and began to check the data.
Leaving aside Ruan Xian and others who hid their genetic information, the Mainbrain searched for all the genetic information that remained in the database. This was the sample it found in the vast sea of data, and it was the most suitable for the characteristics of different primers.
As advanced derivatives of the A-type, the two A-type fighters had long since lost their human forms. Rather than humans, they were closer to beasts—their body length was more than four meters, and their structure was like a hairless alien tiger, with hardly any normal skin showing, and every joint was nested with perfect alloy armor and auxiliary machines.
The S-type was the opposite. They—more precisely, most of their skin was exposed, and they were wearing combat uniforms that were very convenient for movement. There were few traces of transformation on the bodies of the two women; only a lot of pipes drilled in and out of their skin with black and red blood rushed in them.
With their white skin and long black hair floating in the mixture, they look strangely fragile.
Very beautiful women.
However, Zhuo Muran’s expression hardly wavered. His gaze did stop on them for a while, but it wasn’t because of the attraction to the opposite sex—this face, that he had seen hundreds of times, suddenly felt strangely familiar.
Zhuo Muran pondered for a moment, unable to find the source of the weird familiarity.
Perhaps he was being too sensitive. He shook his head, continued to confirm the degree on the liquid tank, and temporarily pressed the thought down.
“Wake up R-α and R-β in advance and perform routine memory therapy on them,” Zhuo Muran ordered.
The Mainbrain’s city, late at night.
Professor Ruan couldn’t maintain the perceptual camouflage for long. He originally wanted to guide Yu Le to drive back and forth around a certain building complex, triggering a monitoring bug to get rest time. It was just that when they circled around for the third time, Zhong Qing wanted out.
“What’s with all this turning!” He yelled. “I’m really going to throw up!”
“We have to find a place to hide,” Yu Le roared back. “Laozi has a headache from all the noise. We’re not dedicated to fucking delivering food to the Mainbrain. I’m telling you this, if you dare vomit in my car today, I’ll give zero shits about cooperation—believe it or not, I’ll skin you alive and stuff you into the processor to make fuel.”
Zhong Qing was stunned, and a very complicated expression slowly appeared on his face. Ruan Xian suspected that he had never been yelled at like this in his life.
The poor child couldn’t get out. Zhong Qing stayed for a while and began to brush away his tears.
“It’s no use crying. Why do you think I’m looping this song? Just now there was a ton of crying that I’m immune. Sorry.” Facing the boy’s tears, Yu Le was unmoved.
Tang Yibu breathed loudly, with a serious expression. The iron bead had fallen asleep in Ji Xiaoman’s arms and was breathing calmly.
“Are you even human?” Zhong Qing wiped his eyes with the back of his hand a few times, sucked in his snot, and stopped crying. “I… I’m just trying to help. I know a safer place. You’re just wasting your energy. Bah!”
“Call me Yu Ge,” Lao Yu replied indifferently. “That’s good. You should’ve said so earlier. Anyway, we’re all in the same boat. If we’re unlucky, we’ll be unlucky together, so selling favors will be exempt.”
“Got it, uncle,” Zhong Qing muttered.
The blood vessels in Yu Le’s neck bulged.
“Go to the old funeral home.” Boss Zhong Qing reluctantly turned to Ruan Xian, who was “better-tempered”. “They are doing final data recording and probing now. The new funeral home has been built, so the old one will be demolished and re-planned in two weeks. Surveillance is very loose.”
He spoke as he tore off a piece of paper, blew his nose, and pointed to Professor Ruan with the soiled paper. “You can carry this kind of thing. How much do you know about technology? Hm? It’s better than driving around aimlessly.”
“I need your help.” Professor Ruan turned to Tang Yibu. “Open the entrance to the monitoring program in that area to me. 0.1 seconds is enough. Too long and it’ll be discovered.”
Tang Yibu turned his head to look at Ruan Xian.
“It’s safer to make sure first.” Ruan Xian nodded.
Tang Yibu stared at him for a while, then began to manipulate the light screen in silence, with a woeful melancholy air all over his body.
At this point, Ruan Xian really didn’t know what the android was struggling with. In his vision, he was the one who should be confused, and Tang Yibu’s thinking should be very clear and firm.
His NUL-00 never hesitated. Even if he encountered a problem that couldn’t be solved, Tang Yibu would cram it into the schedule and arrange a reasonable time to analyze it slowly. Ruan Xian could see through all his previous performances and behaviors, but he couldn’t see through the current state of the android.
The mess between them was washed away by the flowing water, slowly moistened and rotted, and all kinds of tangles should have been taken away by the flow. But after everything was washed away, the remaining wreckage still couldn’t be separated.
Yu Le was right. The two of them were indeed not in the right state, and if they continued like this, something would happen. After they settle down, they could open up and talk tonight.
Ruan Xian moved his neck, tore his gaze off the depressed Tang Yibu, and cast it out the window.
The next moment, his heartbeat almost stopped.
He saw a figure flash by; a figure of a woman that was slowly walking in the direction of the city center. Her long, soft hair was draped over her shoulders.
He didn’t know if this was an illusion, but their eyes met for a moment, and then she was left behind by the fast-moving armored off-roader.
This was the second “dead” person he saw tonight, and it took Ruan Xian several seconds to recover.
…That was his mother.
Unlike Zhong Qing, who was alive and kicking, she had died a long time ago; her rotting body was dangling in front of him.