Can Ci Pin - - - Chapter 160

Chapter 160 – Aren’t You Going to Show Me Your Home?

The piercing sound of the siren rang out, triggering the security robots around the site. This was the entrance to Chief Woolf’s mansion after the assassination.

“No luck,” Lu Bixing, who had been attempting to break through the security system, sighed in defeat. “Lesson learned, Milky Way City’s security is garbage. Let’s retreat.”

Lin Jingheng reached out an arm and pressed him down, “Don’t move.”

A red light shone from Bayer’s personal device; immediately after, an invisible energy field surrounded everyone in the party: “This is an infrared scanner, Prime Minister, look—”

Another 3D screen appeared as Bayer spoke up and scanned their surroundings. After a few seconds, the massive web of infrared lines that covered the entire mountain ranges became visible to the party. It was impossible to tell how many equipment signals were activated from the amount of individual rays that wove together perfectly like a blanket; if the party were to retreat immediately after the sirens, perhaps they would’ve already been recorded on camera.

Lu Bixing: “Thermal radiation blocker?”

“Yep,” Bayer said, “We can fool the infrareds, but not the AI security system. The thermal radiation blocker will cause an unnatural spread of heat and energy flow within a given area. The AI security systems nowadays are also quite sensitive to detect the use of thermal radiation blockers, but thankfully the weather on Wolto is nice today with no wind. Otherwise, we might not have been able to escape even if we hid under tree trunks without moving a centimeter.”

Lee whispered back: “Now what?”

“This wave will last about a minute to make sure nobody is passing through the area,” Bayer answered back, confident from experience. “Then all the digital eyes and cameras around the area will be activated without a deadend. We can’t keep going forward; we’ll have to retreat.”

Lee pestered on desperately: “What if the intruder isn’t a person or a machine? Like a robot or armed mobile.”

Bayer: “Then you’ll be detected within a one kilometer radius from the Chief’s mansion.”

“What about a biochip?” Lu Bixing asked. “Opium biochips can disrupt human brainwaves and communication with AIs.”

“No,” Bayer responded sternly, “The Union didn’t only identify the Freedom Corps as a terrorist group yesterday; remember how Yelvich from the Hummingbird Fortress also died in his own territory? Since then, mainstream security systems have completely abandoned the ‘singular core AI’ model of security systems and transformed into AIs that specifically target opium biochips.”

Lin Jingheng: “In other words, someone would need to destroy the internal security system in order to infiltrate the Chief’s mansion.”

Bayer responded solemnly: “At least that’s what I would do, but maybe the enemy is much more brilliant than I am…alright, we can retreat now.”

Thankfully, the party was filled with experienced people. After a short order from the professional assassin Bayer, everyone left the Chief’s mansion as quickly as they could and fled to the backside of the mountain.

Bayer didn’t know about Lu Bixing’s unique body and shot an impressed glance at the Prime Minister who seemed to still be at ease after running. As he caught his breath in the mountain ranges, he said: “Wow, Prime Minister, can’t judge a book by its cover, huh?”

Lu Bixing responded shamelessly: “I have better soil in my house; even the snake our Marshal raises is braver and stronger than other snakes.”

Bayer: “……”

He recalled little Popcorn’s image at home and was certain it was quite the opposite.

Lin Jingheng gave him a small slap on his head: “Enough nonsense–call up Liu and prepare for battle.”

Lu Bixing’s expression grew grim as he responded in a lower tone: “Are you worried about the funeral tomorrow? The entire area around Wolto’s airspace is being surrounded by the elites of the Central Militias–would anything happen up in space?”

“I’m not worried about space, it’s the ground that I’m concerned about. Even though opium chips can greatly increase mental strength, after exchanging fire with them for this long, I don’t think they have a significant advantage against veteran galactic soldiers who have been on the battlefield all their lives. Their expansion is too rapid and the quality of their members is all over the place. Nor do they have any genius commander on their side; they’re still leaps away from their ideal clear hierarchy of their insect society.” Lin Jingheng said, “But the one advantage the chip carriers have is that they are significantly more powerful in one-on-one battles. An average person–even if it’s someone who had been through proper military training–might not even have a chance against them individually. These generals from the Central Militias were all lured to Wolto by Wang Ailun, which shows that they’re still clearly stuck in the galactic mentality and think as long as they control the air, they’re invincible.”

Lee’s expression also grew grim: “Is Wang Ailun mad? Why did he invite the demon inside?”

“Because he doesn’t even know this is a demon,” Lin Jingheng said. “To him, this is simply a game of espionage. Why? Because it’s like the Trojan Horse. Without the horse inside the city, the enemies could not possibly break the iron defense from the outside. Bayer mentioned earlier that Wolto’s general security system had been adjusted to combat opium chips, so they would need a powerful spy in order to complete Woolf’s assassination.”

Bayer scratched his head in confusion: “Wait, what’s going on?”

“I’m sure Wang Ailun also thought the same.” Lin Jingheng glanced at him. “Imagine if you were Wang Ailun and I’m a pirate; we plotted secretly to take down the Central Militias together. One of the key points of this plan involves assassinating Woolf, so I need you to open the doors for us. What would you think?”

Bayer was taken aback for a moment, then immediately caught up with the logic: “I would think that you needed me to open the doors in order to let the water flow in, and that I’m the key player in this plot.”

“But in reality, you’re not. Once a person steps into a conspiracy, the delusion that they can control the whole game grows as they sink deeper into it.” Lin Jingheng responded airly, “So you plan on pulling some tricks from your sleeves, you arrange for a surprise attack against the generals of the Central Militias by a few chip carriers that snuck past security. Then, you’ll order the Union troops that are stationed around Wolto to surround the Central Militias and let the Freedom Corps show up from the back for a full-on ambush. Are you following this logic?”

Bayer: “Yes.”

Lin Jingheng: “All of this works out because through a series of ‘collaborative work’ with your partner, you firmly believe in one thing: that without you, the chip carriers would not be able to get past security.”

Bayer trembled slightly in response.

Everything had been a chain of traps since Woolf’s assassination.

Yet Lin Jingheng didn’t continue and fell silent like the calm surface of the ocean. That was his blood-related sister; in certain ways, Lin Jingshu was the most familiar and similar person in the world to himself. As long as the concept of ‘if this was me’ existed, it wasn’t hard for him to follow her train of thought.

But it was too late.

He had been too prideful and aloof when he was younger; he had looked down on everything and everyone around him. Whether it was toward Lu Bixing or Lin Jingshu, he arrogantly assigned them the role of needing his protection, egotistically loving them as if they didn’t have their own souls.

He had never met Laura Gordon and always felt like aside from his bad temper, he was much more similar to the cold and subdued Lin Wei.

But that arrogance Laura had from standing at the top of the White Tower also engraved itself into his bones with Laura’s genes.

Lu Bixing felt a tingling sense and chased after him: “Don’t worry, we still have Doctor Hardin’s secret weapon. We can use that against them tomorrow.”

Lin Jingheng gave a complex nod in response.

“Since we’ve managed to come to Wolto, I have one more place I want to visit.” Lu Bixing pulled Lin Jingheng’s hand over and grabbed it tightly in his palm with no signs of letting it go. “Why don’t you show me your home?”

Lin Jingheng responded in a low voice: “I don’t have a home on Wolto…okay, I guess I do have a piece of land here that was taken from the old Lin residence. I…my sister and I each took half of the land after we came of age, but neither of us returned back after it was revamped. It’s also quite far; my father liked peaceful and quiet places and disliked social places, so he refused to live in the central area. You can’t even see it from the mountains this high, and if we go now, I’m afraid it would be troublesome to come back tomorrow if anything urgent were to happen.”

Lu Bixing stared into his eyes: “That’s not the place I’m talking about.”

Lin Jingheng was startled.

The Parliament building could be seen from the mountains–it was already being surrounded by layers and layers of Central Militia troops and arms.

Inside the central area surrounding the building, only one residence had its lights out.

The former mansion of Commander Lu Xin.

The Second Galaxy.

Inside the principal’s office of the Second Polytechnic University, there was a row of photos hung on the walls. Among them, the most iconic photo was that of two young twins: one of them had his hat lopsided as he leaned on his brother’s shoulder, the other brother was moving away with a face full of irritation and annoyance until he heard the voice from behind the camera. He had turned his head in shock and left a bewildered expression to be captured by the camera. They were the Young twins from the Silver Third Squadron.

It was already past office hours as the principal looked up from his pile of work and rubbed his sore eyes. He walked towards that framed photo and spoke to the little robot that was cleaning the windows: “The frames are picking up some dust, come clean this too.”

The Second Polytechnic University used to be on a space station within the Second Galaxy, but the station was destroyed many years ago by space pirates. The principal back then was still only a professor who had taken a group of students and evacuated the school onto a galactic transfer station; he was then a disheveled teacher left with only despair and fear, who then coincidentally found the Silver Third Squadron at the station.

The Principal could still recall the scene back then: that careless and absent-minded looking Captain Thomas Young who gathered them all up and announced sternly: “The Silver Third Squadron will follow our commander’s order to readjust our itinerary and swear to protect everyone here to the best of our abilities. Until our last mech is shot down, until our last soldier falls, we will never give up on our territory and people.”

“All Hail the Pledge of Freedom.”

And thus the Silver Third Squadron fulfilled their promise.

Later, Commander Lin destroyed over half of the fleet of the main AUS forces at the border of the Seventh and Eighth Galaxies at a hefty cost. The Union and Central Militias of the galaxies united on the battlefield and finally overturned the pirates. After the war ended, the Second Polytechnic University was rebuilt on the capital planet of the galaxy; now, the first class of new students were preparing for the first final of their school year as the halls of the dorms were lit up in last-minute study crunching.

Almost two decades later, the surviving people had already grown used to leaving Eden behind and returning to reality.

As a species, mankind was almost pitifully fragile and cowardly, yet revered for their vitality and tenacity.

After Eden broke down, the majority of civilian deaths didn’t come from the war, but suicide. The people that managed to survive were like lost lambs woken up from a long dream of a peaceful world and thrown into a blizzard storm; but instead of waiting for their deaths, they struggled to survive and deal with the new environment. In this turbulent world of unrest and warfare, they slowly grew accustomed to the days without mood-adjustment medication. Some of them even willingly stood up in the aftermath of the war, trudged through the debris and bent down with hope to rebuild their homes with their own two hands.

“Hail the Pledge of Freedom.” The Principal lifted his lips in a smile as he touched the frame of the Third Squadron’s photo. “I wish you all well, my friends.”

A message was received on his personal device before the smile on his face faded away.

Because there weren’t a lot of students in the school, the principal didn’t have a personal secretary to take care of all his daily work, so he picked up the call on his own: “This is the Principal’s Office of the Second Polytechnic University, how can I help you?”

“Sir, it’s me, please don’t say anything and listen to me!”

The principal was shocked and only realized now that the person on the other line was an old friend of his. This was a soldier he’d met on the transfer station back in the day while they took refuge. He had escorted everyone back to the capital planet of the Second Galaxy at the request of the Third Squadron after the pirates retreated. He was now the Colonel of the Second Galaxy Capital Planet’s Defence Forces.

“Colonel?”

“They’re back!” The Colonel’s voice was stiff and hoarse, as if he was speaking through his teeth, “I don’t know where they came from, it’s almost as if they appeared overnight…fuck, there’s too many people, we can’t hold out!”

This whole line was completely broken and made no sense, but the principal, who had survived under the gunfire of the pirates understood immediately: “Pirates? Biochip humans?”

A horrible scream and sounds of gunfire came from the other line, followed immediately by heavy footsteps. The principal felt goosebumps crawling up his arms: “How could it be? Colonel, are you alright?”

“Go, take your students off the ground now, or it’ll be too late! Quick…”

A muffled sound of something getting hit came from the other side as the line suddenly cut off; the principal could feel cold sweat covering his back.

Didn’t know where they came from, as if they all showed up overnight…

Had these biochip humans always been hiding among everyone as normal people this whole time?

The principal turned and ran out of his office. The moment he left, he saw a few staff from the school walk toward him; he froze on the spot, instincts telling him something was off.

Soon after, footsteps could be heard from behind him. Inside the staff building, a group of teachers walked out fearfully with their hands up as their colleagues holding laser guns followed them from behind.

The staff that walked toward the principal gave him a smile: “Mister Principal, here’s an emergency notice from the government.”

Footage popped up from the staff’s personal device.

A man sat expressionlessly inside the Second Galaxy’s Government building facing the camera as he announced coldly: “Good evening, this is the Second Galaxy’s Central Government. I am a ‘second generation’ and temporary representative of the government. I am now announcing to all citizens of the galaxy–from now on, all communications will be temporarily cut off. All public streets and roads will be cleared under martial law, all units and organizations will temporarily suspend all activity. Please remain calm and stay at home; all working individuals in school, hotels, or other public locations, please stay quietly at your current location and listen to the orders of your higher ups as we dispatch the census team. If any citizen refuses to obey the orders and insists on rebelling, we will not be able to guarantee the safety of your lives.”