Chapter 85: CH 85

The basement of this shop was much dirtier than that of the flower peacock’s. The cybernetic brain on the shelves were still stained with blood. There were many cracks on the cement floor and there were black and red tissue fragments inside of them. The visceral smell in the air had a tendency to change into corpse odor.

“Return South Wild Geese*,” Ruan Xian repeated Tang Yibu’s words. “Such a name is wasted.”

* [Hui Nanyan] (回南雁) It refers to the migration of geese which is a bit applicable to its program it. Just like clockwork, every year geese would migrate south, this program will make these androids return to Qian Yigeng if they run away. || Ruan Xian makes the comment of it being waste because I believe it’s supposed to be a beautiful name/thing and not meant to use like how Qian Yigeng is using it.

“In other words, assuming that Qian Yigeng thinks that things are irreparable, he may forcibly recall the old-fashioned cybernetic brains of those androids whose bodies can still move, including the Tiantian-Q2 who ran away.”

Tang Yibu put the blood-stained cybernetic brain neatly on the shelf, pausing to consider the orientation.

“We need to master the speed of advancement. It’s best not to let him have the idea of fighting to the death*.”

*Either the fish die or the net breaks (鱼死网破) Idiom.

“True.” Ruan Xian frowned. “But Yibu, the program of the old-fashioned cybernetic brains shouldn’t be so easy to modify… Otherwise, implanting the tracking program can solve most problems, right?”

“In order to prevent third-party arbitrary modification as well as virus infection, the program of the old-fashioned cybernetic brains was extremely secure.” Tang Yibu nodded. “Return South Wild Geese is considered the best modified part of the program. Sometimes it’s necessary to consider the site of relocation or climate issue. The permission to modify is relatively loose…”

“Ji Xiaoman has studied the old-fashioned cybernetic brain for so long, so she must also know this.” Ruan Xian finally found the unnatural feeling in his subconscious. “Once we pressed Qian Yigeng, her mother may be forcibly recalled, but she has never mentioned this to us.”

Tang Yibu tutted softly. “Mr. Ruan, we…”

“Wait.” This time Ruan Xian remembered to open his perception. “Someone’s coming.”

A soft whistle sounded outside the door of the basement. Tang Yibu grabbed Ruan Xian, and the two squeezed behind a dark shelf. Lao Yu reacted quickly, and in the next second he hid himself in a large pile of metal buckets.

A pair of boots that clearly belonged to a man appeared in everyone’s vision. The owner of the boots entered the laboratory alone while whistling. Tang Yibu subconsciously assumed an offensive posture but was held down by Ruan Xian.

[Take a look first.] Seeing that the man tying a butcher’s apron on and was planning to do something, Ruan Xian stopped Tang Yibu through the earring stud.

The man finished tying on the blood-stained apron, opened the glass cover on the body preservation pool, and pulled out a slender juvenile body. He tapped the latter’s skull familiarly with his fingers, sighed, and then turned on the light screen.

“Didn’t you say that you took care of one?” The man squeezed the boy’s shoulders casually and threw the unconscious body back into the pool. “How come I can only find solid ones here? God, the reservation is coming up and I’ve got less than an hour. I can’t do this whole thing in that time, so either you come down here and help me—”

“Help me my ass. I’m busy.” The person on the other side of the light screen spat. “Five shops have just been blown up in uptown. Everyone knows that those guys like to do it at night. Now they choose to play during the day. The ones I finished are in the medical cabinet. You went fishing in the pool, right? Those who are stupid will did and are tossed in the pool. I’ve said it 180 times now. Are you an idiot?”

“Fuck you. Damn it.” The man cut off contact irritably, walked angrily to the metal cabinet in the corner, and dragged out another white shell body from inside. He threw the body onto the operating table roughly, and then walked towards the shelf where Ruan Xian was.

Ruan Xian couldn’t sit still this time. The distance was too risky, and they were likely to be seen. However, this time he was severely held in place by Tang Yibu— The android shook his head solemnly, motioning him to continue watching.

The man fiddled with the cybernetic brain on the shelf angrily, picked up one within five seconds, and returned to the operating table. He tapped the light screen with blood-stained medical gloves and started playing an audio loop.

“I want a boy between eighteen and twenty years old.” A hoarse voice came from the light screen. “The hair has to be slightly long. No need to dye it. If you have a face, M06 and M47 can be used. The height should not be too high. It must be under 1.75 meters. Not too fat or strong. Slender is best. It can’t be too different based on the body shape modeling I gave you…”

“Picky old thing,” the man scolded in a low voice as he washed the cybernetic brain in the tube of light blue transparent liquid.

Ruan Xian was firmly imprisoned by Tang Yibu in the shadow of the debris behind the shelf, so he had to listen obediently.

“The most important thing is character, personality. Qian Yigeng said you guys get everything, so I spent a lot of money.”

The hoarse voice in the light screen continued. “Well, I want a child from a good family that have never suffered any kind of hardship. It’s best to remove the memory of the apocalypse. The next process may be a bit troublesome. I want some trauma. Yes, you can have someone act as if they are sick. Arrange a scene at an ordinary house and prepare some porridge. The expression of the young who think they caught on a lifeline only to fall into despair is very attractive…”

“Them old coots has a lot of tricks, but waste good money on this shit.” The man started whistling again. “Where is the character library. Good boy, good boy… Hm…”

“I’m going to throw up,” Yu Le said calmly.

His voice was loud just enough for the man to hear it. While his reaction speed was much faster than flower peacock, in the end, it was no match for the former pirate leader. Yu Le roughly threw out an iron bucket, and while his opponent looked away, he struck the opponent’s throat in one fell swoop, knocking him to the ground.

Yu Le didn’t knock him out.

“Mind coming out to help me, you two? You two shouldn’t have to fight like this, right?”

He simply stepped on one of the man’s hands and roughly yanked a blood-soaked rag and stuffed it in the man’s mouth, then Captain Yu pulled out a scalpel from his waist bag and stuck it precisely to the man’s neck. “If you want to live, be good.”

Tang Yibu got out from behind the shelf and took off his collar. Seeing those pale gold eyes, the man’s struggling movements stagnated for half a second.

“You didn’t knock him out. It seems you want to do something else.” Ruan Xian leaned down and checked the body on the operating table.

The young body laid lifeless on the cold operating table without an inch of hair. His skull was open, and the edges around it were roughed out, covered with extremely thin metal edges and a built-in rotating shaft. The empty head was coated with a layer of nail-thick gel, and the flickering blue light was particularly eye-catching.

The back of the torso near the spine was followed by a fist-sized device, like a shiny metal tumor lying on the back of the teenager’s neck. It made a hissing sound and one of the few display lights flashed blue light at the frequency of normal breathing— It was likely to be a substitute for the brainstem to maintain basic life functions.

The cybernetic brain was still soaked in a light blue solution. The opening of the torso’s head was just big enough to shove it in, like an empty battery space waiting for its battery. The machine on the operating table had been activated. The slender metal feet were stretched straight, and the tip of the needle at the end was ready to go.

“This business is more diabolic than I thought.” Lao Yu gave the man a kick. “If the net starts with women and children, then there’s nothing it won’t catch.”

The man whimpered a few times causing Lao Yu to raise his brows and removed the rag from the man’s mouth.

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Seeing that he was outnumbered, the man didn’t yell but bared his bloody teeth. “At least you don’t have to worry about being sold.”

“Yes, laozi doesn’t look like a soft persimmon at all. Some people like the feeling of crushing soft persimmons, right?” Lao Yu cut the man’s neck with a scalpel and blood quickly flowed down the shallow wound to the floor. The man swallowed with difficulty, bobbing his Adam’s apple up and down. “Well, does your boss have any new explanations? Let’s hear it.”

“Hear your mother,” the man sneer. “Boss Qian is our… ugh!”

Yu Le said dryly, “I remember that we nearly have an hour to spend with you. We…”

“Do you have no feelings?” Tang Yibu suddenly spoke, in a very soft tone that was more like a gentle psychiatrist counseling a patient. It wasn’t until the android squatted in front of the man that Ruan Xian and Yu Le were sure the other party wasn’t talking to himself. “They are your kind and you’re hurting them.”

“You dig out their brains, stuff cybernetic brains into their bodies, and then infuse them with other personality data of the same kind. Until the cybernetic brain is reset, they identify themselves as humans— Don’t you have any feelings about this?”

“And where are you from you son of a bitch?” The man spat our bloodied saliva. “Nice face. Although you’re a little sturdier and a bit bigger, I think there will still be a lot of people who want to make you— Motherfucker!”

Ruan Xian stomped on the opponent’s finger, causing the man to howl in pain.

“Answer the question,” he said blankly.

“Another little beauty. I see, I see. You did a good job on the contact lenses.” A smirk appeared on the man’s distorted face to the point of pain. “You two ran out a store, didn’t you? Want to pursue some equality and justice? They’re just living dead that had some broken iron added to them, yet you really take it seriously—”

Yu Le rolled his eyes.

“Answer the question,” Ruan Xian reiterated again, using some force in his feet to crush his opponent’s finger.

“I’m so sorry. I’ve been injected with pain tolerance enhancement. Those cute little things in my veins won’t make me talk easily— Listen, if you stop here, I can still find you two some gentler guests. A nice combination of personality and appearance. Boss Qian himself won’t make this change that easily.”

The distortion on the man’s face slowly disappeared, and the sarcastic smile became thicker.

“And you, who do you give your head to? What’s wrong with the same kind? This kind of business has been operating for thousands of years. We’re not the first. Before the apocalypse, it’s not like slaves had disappeared but now you want to come give me a morality exam. Are you worthy?”

After that, he turned to Tang Yibu. “There’s no such bullshit of same kind or different kind. A children’s playground has been everywhere since the advent of mankind. Genocides have been committed. Is it true that everyone involve is a lunatic? Special measures in special times. Anyways, I don’t’ think there’s anything wrong with it, especially now that the world is even more insane.”

“Morality exam,” Yu Le snorted. “To be honest, I don’t think I could pass it.”

“Your answer is very moving.” Ruan Xian took off his feet and glanced at the machinery on the operating table. “It’s best to avoid stalling by long speeches. Now it’s my turn to ask. How many imitation brains and how many old-fashioned cybernetic brains are working in your store now? By the way, let me know about Qing Yigeng’s movements as well. Thank you.”

“Sure, as long as you stay with me for one night—”

“This machine is used to inject personality data into the cybernetic brain, right?” Tang Yibu’s expression was a bit stiff, but Ruan Xian didn’t look half as angry. He paced to the operating table. “I guess you use it to pierce the cybernetic brain and input specific electrical stimuli into the corresponding area at high frequencies. But in fact, if the operation is done properly and the electrical signal is slightly adjusted, the difference between the human brain and the cybernetic brain isn’t too big.”

He took the body down, let it lean against the shelf, and patted the empty operating table. Tang Yibu knowingly took off the wristband from the man’s wrist, cracked it lightly, and opened the light screen. “What personality did you want to pick just now? A good boy with no doomsday memories? Guess what would happen if I punched in a complete set of personality data into your head?”

The man’s face changed, and there was a deep fear on his face. “No, it’s impossible… You can’t have that kind of technology…”

“Do you want to take a gamble?” Ruan Xian pulled out the operation light screen of the injection machinery and quickly analyzed how it was used. “Lao Yu, bring our good friend up. What a great opportunity for us to practice.”

Yu Le’s brows tightened.

“…Qian Yigeng asked us to take pictures of every customer who comes into the store to see if there are any strangers. He also told us to dispose of more than half the goods and pack the brains and be ready to leave at any time.” The man’s voice changed instantly. “There are 3 old-fashioned cybernetic brains in this store, plus 117 imitation brains at work. That’s all that’s in the basement for backup sir. That’s all I know. You, turn that thing off first—”

“Thank you for your cooperation.” Ruan Xian turned off the operation light screen, and the man breathed a sigh of relief.

“Good information. We need to adjust our strategy.” Tang Yibu calmly concluded.

Yu Le didn’t say a word, he raised his eyelids and glanced at the man on the ground and pulled the trigger mercilessly. Then he turned to Ruan Xian, showing a sharp expression they hadn’t seen for a long time.

Yu Le didn’t put down the gun in his hand.

“Are you serious about those words just now?” he asked with a stern face. “Those that infused personality and memory…”

“It’s theoretically true. It was just to scare him.” Ruan Xian shrugged and stepped over the blood that kept spreading on the ground. “What?”

“Oh, nothing.” Yu Le still stared at Ruan Xian’s eyes tightly, “I just want to know—”

“—Why is Mr. Ruan so privy to this special torture method?” Tang Yibu continued for him with a smile.

“I’m also very curious. After all, only the Order Supervisors has that kind of technology.”

The author has something to say:

Showing a mysterious smile (???

Kinky Thoughts:

I just have to say I find this arc fascinating, on both a morality and philosophical scale. I mean morally I find it reprehensible what they’re doing with these androids even if they’re technically not “human”, but it begs the question of ethics. If the world ever gets to a point where androids are a thing, would they be considered and treated like humans or just like a soulless robot? As the guy said, even humans treat other humans as badly not to mention androids. Anyways, some nice food for thought.

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