Can Ci Pin - - - Chapter 174

Chapter 174 – Emotions Are Harmful and Useless

The side-effect of overdosing relaxants–the rapid increase of blood pressure–made him feel as if his blood was about to rip through his mortal flesh to roll out of his corpse like hot lava, melting his bones. Lin Jingheng could almost hear the sound of his heart blowing up inside of him. Every centimeter of his veins felt as if it was about to pop while fresh blood dripped out from his nose. He took in a breath of air subconsciously, swallowing the bit of blood back down his throat while he coughed as if he was ready to cough out his lungs. In a fit of pain, he reached a hand over his nose and mouth while visible drips of blood rolled out through his fingers.

Lu Bixing felt his heart stop at the scene and quickly made his way over to pull the commander into his arms: “Get the medical capsule!”

Lin Jingheng pulled out an arm to push him away and said in a muffled tone: “No need.”

He casually wiped off the blood with his hands and pulled over the smaller medical equipment that had helped treat his broken bone earlier and said hoarsely: “Some local capillaries popped, treat it for me.”

Nosebleeds weren’t a big issue and could easily be resolved by a few sprays up the nose. Lin Jingheng took off his bloodied coat expressionlessly and threw it at Zhanlu; the top of his inner shirt collar was still stained with a bit of blood that had already dried into a rusted streak.

“Jingheng,” Lu Bixing lowered his voice to keep it calm, “I’m begging you, can you please take a rest inside the medical capsule?”

Lu Bixing’s ‘I’m begging you’ had always been a powerful and peerless weapon: no matter what kind of senseless or ridiculous request came after those words, Lin Jingheng would almost never say no.

Yet this time, it was as if Lin Jingheng didn’t hear those words at all as he mumbled to himself: “If the AI troops can chase after her to the Heart of the Rose, that would mean Woolf is aware that she’s still alive and knew how to track her down—then why did the AI suddenly change its task priority under these circumstances?”

Lu Bixing: “……”

“Right,” Lin Jingheng’s eyes scanned the surroundings in what seemed like a daze, “Turan……where’s that response from Turan, pull it up, I want to take a look at it again.”

Zhanlu pulled up the letter Turan sent back from the Eighth Galaxy. Lin Jingheng skimmed through the detailed report of the reinforcements before his gaze was captured by Doctor Hardin’s last line at the bottom and read aloud unexpectedly: “Doctor Hardin specifically mentioned that biochip humans aren’t human. I don’t believe she would die so easily under Woolf’s cannons. If we connect this to how the AI troops suddenly began closing in near the Heart of the Rose seven days ago…does anything come to mind?”

Lu Bixing couldn’t follow this train of thought because he wasn’t sure whether this was an objective analysis of the current situation or simply nonsense that was coming out of the commander’s mouth because he couldn’t accept reality.

Though judging from the stain of blood on his shirt collar, the latter seemed to be the most reasonable explanation.

“Jingheng……”

“As for the biochip humans in the Freedom Corps, they have no reason to join the Human Alliance nor any motives to cooperate with us. Biochip humans and natural humans can’t coexist; whether we win against Woolf or are forced to retreat back to the Eighth Galaxy in the end, there’s doomed to be another battle between us and the Freedom Corps. From the pirate’s perspective, their best strategy is to overtake the Heart of the Rose, utilize the wormhole’s unstable spacetime to send off information to the Eighth Galaxy and take over the galaxy amidst the chaos after cutting off the wormhole terminal. The First Galaxy’s ground battlefield is already in the hands of these biochip humans, so that forces Woolf to decide between wiping out everyone in the First Galaxy or living in harmony with the biochip humans…this is just like how the forerunners of the Union isolated Wolto back then…”

Lin Jingheng’s voice grew softer and smaller until it was barely audible at the end.

He didn’t seem like he was having a discussion of opinions with others and was instead desperately trying to find any traces of evidence to convince himself that his decision was correct by laying out all the hard facts before himself. He wanted to prove he was righteous, that the footage of death earlier was simply a fake video targeting his mental weakness.

This was his very last wall of defense before breaking down.

His whole life had been absorbed by warfare as he shined like an unmatched blade of the galaxies. From an outsider’s perspective, it was a symbol of power and authority; little did they know that these were simply scars of incompetence. The sense of powerlessness ground into his skin; from family to friends, everyone and everything fell like fine-grained sand through his fingertips to a place far, far away of no return. The fleeting regrets passed through his fingers one by one, leaving irreversible cut marks on those battle-worn hands.

Lu Bixing couldn’t stand seeing him like this any longer and quietly called for a medical capsule. He walked up behind Lin Jingheng and got ready to knock the senseless man unconscious.

At least half of Lin Jingheng’s mind was somewhere in another corner of space and didn’t notice the young man behind him as he continued mumbling: “It’s almost impossible for her to get past the technological barrier of the AUS’ warping block, yet if she’s still confident that she can take the Eighth Galaxy and the Heart of the Rose with her own hands, that would means she…”

The tips of Lu Bixing’s fingers were about to touch the nape of the commander when he stopped abruptly as he heard this line. The young man then lifted his head up to stare at the interstellar map on the big screen.

Due to the natural orbit and rotations of celestial objects, interstellar maps were always changing. Terminals were essentially ambulatory passages that mankind had already fully grasped amid all variations of orbital and rotational movements of these celestial objects, which were then accurately displayed on the maps at any given time. The movements of the terminals were extremely complicated and were normally calculated by computers connected to mechs, which would automatically reroute to follow specific terminals based on the locations of celestial objects en route.

Yet with a place as vast as the universe, there were bound to be unexplored areas aside from known terminals. The First Galaxy was where the Union’s capital was located–countless terminals connected to the capital planet from other galaxies with highly-developed transportation technologies. Likewise, unexplored territories were considerably less prominent than in other galaxies, but they still existed–especially near the forbidden zone of the Heart of the Rose.

Unexplored non-terminal areas were not only dangerous, the requirements for safety proofing routes and pilot’s competency to respond to any unexpected situations were significantly higher. However, the most important part was that these areas didn’t have transfer portals or points of warping.

Without points of warping, an interstellar trip lasting light years was almost unfathomable; the distance marked ‘one sailing day’ measured approximately the distance a mech could feasibly travel in a whole day.

Yet no matter how far the travel was, it was still only within the First Galaxy.

The First Galaxy was a hub for the elites; it was the smallest in both geographical size and human population among the eight galaxies. Back when Lin Jingheng sailed on the starship from the Silver Fortress to Wolto, he was banned from warping points so his estimated arrival on the capital planet without any mishaps on the way was thirteen days.

Yet, now it had been seven days since Chengying had haphazardly entered their first line of defense.

Lin Jingheng also noticed this point and suddenly stopped; the two men quickly exchanged a glance.

Lin Jingheng turned to the communication channel screen: “Frontline vanguards, back out from the battle for the transfer portals and retreat into the inner lines immediately!”

The entire frontlines were completely taken aback. This wave of invasion from the AI Troops was extra ferocious, unlike any they’d seen before; this sudden order from their Marshal completely shut down the brains of the entire First Galaxy Patrols and Silver Third Squadron at the front: “Marshal Lin, but those AI Troops…”

“Forget about them, retreat!”

The Silver Third Squadron was the first to react. While Poisson was just as lost as everyone else, he knew their Marshal’s orders always had a strategic reason behind them. The Third Squadron tossed one last missile into the incoming AI Fleet before they ceased all fire and began retreating. The technological unit was the core fighter in the battle against AIs. Everyone else was only there to support with brute force. After the Third Squadron left, the First Galaxy fleet had no choice but to follow; yet even as the most elite fleets of the human military retreated swiftly and orderly within a blink of an eye, there were still some that couldn’t escape in time—

In the Heart of the Rose, a fleet of heavy mechs suddenly charged in from an undocumented non-terminal area. The crossfire at the frontlines turned the energy detector into an endless rollercoaster that conveniently masked the abnormal energy waves emitting from heavy mechs closing in on them.

This fleet was the exact Freedom Corps pirates that were still ‘being chased down’ by the AI Troops.

The one waiting outside the transfer portals wasn’t Lin Jingshu……not merely the one that ‘died’ on screen, perhaps even the one that first established connection with them was never actually her!

Plastic surgery or tampered communication, regardless how it was done, artificially creating someone that looked exactly the same wasn’t hard to do with modern technology. In addition, Lin Jingshu had the power to ‘possess’ others and remotely control a generation five chip carrier’s body; the queen bee simply needed a similar body in order to appear before everyone else.

The fleet outside the transfer portal was simply bait: the real fleet of the Freedom Corps had already left the barricade of the AI Troops.

AIs had difficulties determining who was the actual generation five carrier and who was the real Lin Jingshu; they could only run after the bait around the First Galaxy while attempting to search the main fleet of the Freedom Corps.

After losing traces of the main fleet, the computers that ran inside the AIs would automatically determine through historical data of the enemy’s battle strategy that the enemy’s next target was the Heart of the Rose and Eighth Galaxy. Therefore, the AIs would reasonably attempt to capture all terminals surrounding the Heart of the Rose. Due to the heavily dependent nature of AIs on their hardware requirements, it could safely be concluded that their connections between each other were built on the transfer portal networks. The vacuum area of the Heart of the Rose was extremely disadvantageous to them, so they would have no choice but to fight for control of established interstellar terminals.

Biochip humans and natural humans could not coexist; Lin Jingshu had never planned on cooperating with the Human Alliance.

The first knock on the door would no doubt be rejected; she simply needed to control the amount of complicated emotions required to put on an act in order to plant a seed of doubt in the hearts of people.

She didn’t continue to pester even after rejection because it wasn’t her style; it was too cowardly and suspicious by her standards. So, when he finally knocked on the door the second time to drop a warning, she displayed her prideful and determined side. Therefore, when the AI troops certainly arrived as she said, it would make her words worth more as she showed she was willing to risk her life to send a message to the enemy. At this point, even the most iron-hearted soldiers would be moved as everyone within the Human Alliance questioned whether their decision had been correct.

As they pondered, the attention of the Alliance would be driven away by those senseless AI invasions as the entire fleet’s defense shifted heavily towards the frontlines.

The third knock on the door was the finishing blow–the beast at the cliff’s edge. After a dramatic death witnessed by the entire Alliance and leaving a last bloodied scar on the burning eyes of the generals, the flames of war and a common enemy would fuel the heroic passion of these human hearts. The Human Alliance would bathe temporarily in emotional numbness for the loss of their comrades, allowing even the Central Militia to forget their hatred towards the pirates that still held their homes and families hostage.

The insides of space mechs were dry, so people who stayed on for extended periods of time would show varying symptoms of dehydration, such as chapped lips. Lin Jingshu ripped a piece of dry skin from the corner of her lips, revealing a small trace of blood. She licked up the dripping blood, feeling quite pleased by the slight pain.

Back on the nameless planet of the Sixth Galaxy, a completely disabled Lin Jingheng had deceived her once to the point where she left the man for over a decade with a mistyped “don’t cry” through the small mental network.

I finally repaid you for that time , she thought, Jingheng .

Emotions were harmful and useless; they should’ve already been thrown away in the process of human evolution.

The angle the Freedom Corps emerged from was strategically unique, like a hidden nail that stabbed right into the core of the Human Alliance camp. They forcefully cut off the back-end defense from the frontline vanguards that didn’t have time to retreat back to their post within the Heart of the Rose.

At the same time, the Second Galaxy Central Militia that served as the second line of defense ran head-first into the Freedom Corps’ heavy mech fleet.

Lin Jingheng’s arrangements were tightly-knit and Zheng Di was still a dependable old General who wouldn’t drop the ball at the surprise attack, successfully blocking off the obnoxious Freedom Corps fleet temporarily.

Lin Jingheng: “Captain Liu!”

The Sixth Squadron moved in at the command, slashing into the Freedom Corps fleet from the side, sandwiching the pirates between the Second Galaxy Central Militia. The two fleets cut off the pirates from both directions like hunters holding down a poisonous snake that crawled out of the sewers.

Zheng Di’s fragile emotions sank and rose back up in a full circle, finally yelling back in anger after realizing he had been played with: “Are you all here to die!?”

Despite the fact that the biochip soldiers from the Freedom Corps still had a raw advantage in higher mental strength, the strategic decision to charge right into their enemy’s homebase still proved to be difficult to carry out. An elite military fleet wasn’t simply determined by their mental strength and still needed equal amounts of combat experience to fully reach their potentials; for someone who was a master of deceiving others, who played with the hearts of their enemies, it seemed as if her Freedom Corps still fell short in raw fighting power.

Within a matter of minutes, this intimidating heavy mech fleet from the Freedom Corps was about to be completely broken into pieces as the Alliance troops pulled out their butcher knives.

Lin Jingshu let out a helpless sigh on the commanding ship: “I’m really not fit for warfare, huh. I even went out of my way to cram in some lectures from the Black Orchid Academy’s Battle Command department. Thank goodness I don’t often use missiles to solve my problems.”

The Freedom Corps mechs that were now scattered amongst the Alliance fleets began their final struggles, attempting to hack into the mental networks of the surrounding mechs.

Of course, the Alliance was not afraid of this at all.

The last time the Freedom Corps escaped by pushing the Alliance out of the mental networks, they lucked out in capturing the Alliance right after their initial shock of facing the AI Troops. This time was different: no matter how high the mental strength of a biochip human was, they couldn’t possibly reach a 100% sync rate with their mechs like an AI, which meant that their average percentage was not much higher than a professionally trained galactic soldier.

In addition, the pirates had already entered their territory. Even if the Alliance was full of second-rate pilots and had to rely on crowd-strategy with ever-changing pilots, they still had the power to wear down the mental strengths of these biochip humans.

As this ambush that seemed to have a doomed failure dragged on, something unexpected and frightening happened the next moment.

One of the Central Militia mechs suddenly shifted its cannons and shot right towards the Second Galaxy’s commanding ship.

The aggressor mech was originally one of the escorting mechs of the commanding ship, piloted by Zheng Di’s personal guard. It was located very close to the commanding ship when it fired, and of course, nobody expected this sudden turn of events.

Yet within this short distance, the missile fired mercilessly at the commanding ship’s armory. In the blink of an eye, the entire armory was engulfed in a horrific fire that swallowed up the rest of the commanding ship’s body.

A signal suddenly disappeared on the communication channel of the central commanding ship. Lin Jingheng stood up abruptly.

Humans were like ephemeral stardust on the battlefield of space.

Zheng Di didn’t even get the chance to say another word to him.

Liu Yuanzhong hollered inside the channel: “Watch out! Disperse!”

Among the Sixth Squadron and Central Militia fleets, countless mechs all fired towards their own comrades as he announced his warning.

A chilling sensation rolled down Liu Yuanzhong’s back–the Central Militia aside, the entire Sixth Squadron forces dispatched out here had sailed directly from the Eighth Galaxy and were all equipped with biochip disruption technology; it should have been impossible for biochip carriers to sneak in among them!

“It’s the mental network.” As a half-baked specialist on biochips, Lu Bixing was the first to come to a realization. “The early ‘opium’ chips had the ability to disrupt human-mech synchronization and had psychedelic effects. After Yelvich’s assassination, the Union’s public security department must have specifically created a firewall against opium biochips to greatly reduce these psychedelic effects. But the battle of mental networks is essentially a battle of mental strength, so these biochip humans can create illusions for their enemy pilots through their mental networks!”

A heavy mech’s mental network range was extremely vast with the ability to contract and expand as necessary, but it was almost impossible to do so during a heated battle like this. Everything from the heavy mech body out to its range of mental network was within the control of the biochip humans; there was nowhere to run.

The Alliance panicked. It was one thing if they were sailing under just the threat of friendly fire, but the most terrifying aspect was that they couldn’t even tell which of their comrades’ mental networks had already been ‘infected’ with a virus. They couldn’t tell who had already become an enemy in the eyes of their comrades inside the communication channel, nor could they even be sure if they were truly awake and still able to distinguish friend from foe.

These biochip humans had always been conspirators that plotted things in the dark and had grown to this scale with the same underhanded methods over the years. Under most people’s impression, they were simply commoners without any proper military training; little did they know that these pirates had had this final trick up their sleeves the whole time.

Lin Jingshu certainly had done all she could to prepare to fight against a proper military unit, as Lin Jingheng had once said.

The Heart of the Rose was the homeground of the Alliance. Because they had the Eighth Galaxy behind them, they could choose to retreat back to the other side of the wormhole at any time, and the Eighth Galaxy was on standby to dispatch reinforcements at any time–this was still an undisputed fact.

But what if the entire Alliance troops in the Heart of the Rose were blinded and deafened to the point where they could not even distinguish between friend and foe?

If they retreated, they would certainly bring the biochip humans along with them to the Eighth Galaxy. Then, the wormhole would no longer be able to stop the virus-like biochip and would let Lin Jingshu claim total victory without dirtying her own hands.

Meanwhile, throughout the other galaxies, the civilians and government organizations finally united in a growing rebel force against the biochip humans. The chip carriers that had lost their connection with their queen bee fell into a disadvantageous state, especially on the battlefield of space; they were simply no match against the proper military fleets that had regained control.

Yet just as people thought the tables had turned in their favor, the situation on the main battlefield once again reversed as the biochip displayed its most fearsome aspect of itself to the entire universe.

“I’ve told you all that this was simply one possible future of evolution,” Lin Jingshu said gently. “But of course, there will always be some pessimists that won’t believe that I’m doing you all a real favor.”