Can Ci Pin - - - Chapter 175

Chapter 175 – Do You Want to Be With Me?

At the same time, in the Heart of the Rose.

Before the Silver Third Squadron was doomed to become space waste against the AI Troops, the Human Alliance utilized the vacuum environment of their homeground and managed to hold out temporarily against their enemies.

Yet AI Troops didn’t have human-mech ports and were the antithesis of biochip humans.

The entire Human Alliance was made up of people of pure flesh and blood without any modifications; all of the information gathered from their surroundings was from their own senses. Under the psychedelic mental networks created by those cheating biochip humans, the Alliance troops were virtually powerless to fight back.

The forces created a three-way struggle within the battleground in a pandemonium of fire. Even Lin Jingheng had to admit that in some ways, Woolf was right: only the unrivaled AI Troops could be the real terminators of the biochip humans.

“Hey, Third Squadron!” Nagus’ tears rolled into his mouth, the bitterness and salt staining his voice, “Lure the AI Troops over; you guys won’t be able to properly determine our enemies!”

Poisson could feel cold sweat trailing down his skin: “That’s ineffectual, you’re fighting fire with fire, General Nagus!”

When the Freedom Corps first broke into the Alliance territory, the Alliance troops that had been fooled by the pirates’ act had retaliated in anger. To combat an enemy like the Freedom Corps where individual mental strengths were absurdly high but experience together as a military unit was lacking, the best strategy was to break the fleet up into smaller units and shoot down the enemies that way.

However, it seemed like that initial disadvantageous stage was also part of Lin Jingshu’s calculations because now those small teams were like a layer of protection for the pirates.

If the situation earlier was “the Freedom Corps fell into the barricade of the Human Alliance,” it was now “the Alliance became the security blanket of the Freedom Corps.”

The Human Alliance that had been disrupted by hallucinations was even more lawless than before; for a short while, they were like clueless balls of yarn that had been tangled up from the inside. Yet Woolf’s AI Troops clearly had no interest in cooperating with the lowly carbon-lifeforms; they didn’t care about the casualties on the Alliance side as long as they achieved their goal. If they let Chengying in at a time like this, it would immediately shoot down the battlefield, Alliance and pirate alike, which meant that the Alliance would become the meatshields of the Freedom Corps in this situation.

The most deadly aspect was that the biochip now was a completely different monster than the earliest ‘opium biochip.’

The earliest opium biochip had shadows and links to Eden; even the earliest users had been lured in by the slogan of ‘Eden’s substitute.’ The chip only affected a very small portion of the human brain, which meant it could only create very limited visual hallucinations. Even Zhanlu’s forbidden fruit that was built to combat Eden could easily fight off these earlier chips.

Yet two decades had passed and the chip’s development and research had grown rapidly over these years. Now it had completely escaped the shadows of Eden, disregarded Laura Gordon’s initial vision of bodily modification to accelerate the evolution process, and become something different altogether.

Lin Jingshu had walked too far down this path. Perhaps even Doctor Hardin could only give a rough guess as to the actual mechanics of how biochip humans could hack into the mental networks.

They didn’t have time now to study the science behind it either. The Freedom Corps were essentially invited guests at the party now that they were no longer tied down by the Alliance; if the Alliance didn’t think of a way to combat them, these biochip humans would close in on the wormhole zone.

The natural wormhole area wasn’t like a sewage pipe with a fixed path, it was a field of distorted spacetime. Within any given time, multiple whirlpools that led to different passages would appear and disappear at random. Mint and her team’s main job was to maintain the stability of a passage once anyone entered a wormhole so that it didn’t collapse midway.

Even a fleet of mechs that entered the wormhole at the same time might end up in different passages, so different fleets of mechs were even more susceptible to getting separated. Due to the different passages everyone sailed through, the time it would take to reach the other side also differed; normally the time difference would be about one or two days, but the time of entrance certainly did not necessarily correlate with the time of exit.

In other words, if the biochip fleet were to enter the wormhole right now, Turan’s side would not be able to distinguish them from the Woltorian refugees. There were hundreds of thousands of refugees inside the wormhole right now and closing off the passage would certainly cause everyone inside the wormhole, refugee and Freedom Corps alike, to perish within the distorted spacetime. If Turan didn’t have the heart to make the sacrifice, then these biochip humans would cross the chasm of space into the Eighth Galaxy, returning it once again to an endless purgatory of warfare after emerging from a mere few years of peace.

A whole galaxy versus hundreds of thousands of outer galaxy refugees, who would they choose? Who would they sacrifice?

This was a simple multiple choice question for AI Woolf.

Yet for the Human Alliance, both choices were death sentences.

Therefore, they could not afford to let this sinister choice of the devil become a real problem they must face.

Lin Jingshu opened up the communication channels within the mechs of her biochip soldiers fully, allowing everyone to hear her enchanting voice from the depths of hell: “Higher level biochips can completely control lower levels, lower level chips can completely overtake normal humans. Isn’t it obvious which life form is superior, everyone? Have any of you ever thought that you’re the only ones left fighting us while all the civilians down on the ground are currently fighting to join our biochip empire?”

“Is the tech unit dead?” Bayer cried angrily, “Block her off!”

Yet everyone was busy scurrying for their lives through the battlefield thick with missiles and high-energy particles without a moment to spare, allowing her to continue spreading her toxic words into their ears: “What’s wrong with evolving into a higher life form? My people will soon overtake the majority of the population down on the ground, and by then, all of these stubborn minorities refusing to give in will realize that they’re like wild animals on ancient earth without any ability to survive in a highly civilized society. In front of a stronger and more powerful species, their living spaces will only continue to contract until they grow extinct.”

“Prepare a mech for me; Zhanlu, you come with me!” Lu Bixing turned his head around and announced to Lin Jingheng. Zhanlu immediately turned back into his robotic arm form and curled up onto Lu Bixing’s arm. “I have an idea, maybe I’ll be able to stay unaffected by those chips!”

“Even if you’re unaffected, what about others? Would you be able to handle a missile from each one of your escorting soldiers?” Lin Jingheng’s imemdiate reaction was to shoot down this idea. “I’ve never heard anyone bringing out their Prime Minister to lead a suicide squad, so you’re not allowed to go.”

“Jingheng!”

The two men stared at each other in silence momentarily.

Another Alliance mech blew up in close proximity to the central commanding mech.

On the galactic map, the Freedom Corps mech fleet sailed towards the wormhole zone like a tornado, far past the danger zone the Alliance had previously marked off.

“Marshal, we can’t hold out anymore!”

A vein popped on Lin Jingheng’s forehead: “I can’t let you on a mech, but I can give you the piloting permission for the commanding ship—Zhanlu, take over the commanding ship’s mental network.”

Lu Bixing was taken aback for a moment before he realized what the other meant and asked softly: “This is really risky, Marshal. We’re giving the enemies a free pass if the commanding ship falls–do you want to be with me?”

Lin Jingheng gave him a quick glance: “We’re all walking on a wire right now, even a single breath of air is a risk…”

“No.” Lu Bixing took over the piloting permission but still had his gaze locked on Lin Jingheng’s eyes. “I meant–do you want to be with me? The kind where you let me tie you down with a ring so that you can share the rest of your life, not just now, but in the future, with me under the law.”

Lin Jingheng only gave a bitter laugh: “If we screw up, ‘the rest of my life’ could only be the next few minutes long.”

“Even the next second belongs to me.”

Zhanlu’s patched-up mental network finally expanded to its limit and covered over half of the entire Heart of the Rose, proving that the glory of the Great Swords was still alive and well.

Chengying seemed to have felt something from afar as its cannon aimed at an Alliance mech hesitated momentarily, allowing the lucky mech to flee out of firing range. Within the massive sea of data inside these super AI’s systems, countless ‘Zhanlu’ flashed simultaneously, eventually forming a deep sigh from the depths of darkness.

But Zhanlu’s master knew that Zhanlu’s mech core repair had been constantly delayed and had only finally begun after Lin Jingheng returned, with progress nowhere near completion. This obnoxious show could only last momentarily as the network still lacked stability. It had already shattered once back on Wolto when they had fought against Longyuan, but thankfully the pilot had been Lin Jingheng, who was fast enough to switched out before any real damage was made; any other pilot would’ve been killed or at least knocked unconscious from the direct battle against Longyuan.

“Zhanlu, please try and last a bit longer this time.”

As an AI, Zhanlu was an honest and noble character that would never bluff about his abilities. He responded within the mental network: “I’m afraid I won’t be able to do so, Headmaster Lu. I’m not fully prepared, but I can try to give you warnings before my network breaks down.”

An unprepared mech and unprepared pilot were both thrown into the frontlines without anything else, which was essentially only as useful to the situation as throwing an ill-equipped disabled person in to run a marathon. The massive mental network loomed over the biochip human mechs and Alliance mechs at the same time; the biochip soldiers were immediately alerted and attempted to hack into Zhanlu’s network to create hallucinations for the pilot.

Despite giving up all communicative functions to the outside world, the chip inside Lu Bixing now felt like a sacred relic that protected the mech as it repelled all disruptions outside. Soon after, Lu Bixing extended his heightened senses through the mech and was surprised to discover that he could ‘see’ through the mental network to determine which of the Alliance mechs had their mental networks infected by biochips.

The next moment, Lu Bixing used the commanding ship’s permissions to give an order directly to the infected mechs: “Pilots, turn in your mental network access immediately!”

These clueless pilots were still steeped in anxiety when they finally received a proper order, so they instinctively followed. Within seconds, everyone who had received the order disconnected from their mental networks and let Lu Bixing remotely take over. The transition process was virtually seamless as these infected mental networks crashed head-on with another biochip like electrodes running into an insulator.

But Lu Bixing wasn’t a robot and had no way to control this many mental networks remotely. The moment all of this access fell into his hands, he felt as if someone had grabbed a hammer and smashed it onto his head. A short buzz rang inside his head as he called out: “Backup pilots, get ready to retrieve access!”

As the last syllable of the sentence dropped, he was forced out of the remote mental networks. Thankfully, all troops that retreated back into the Heart of the Rose now were all elite soldiers and had already caught on. The backup pilots all reconnected back to this new ‘disinfected’ mental network and, without any hesitation after taking in a breath of fresh air, locked their cannons on the nearest biochip human mechs around them.

The Freedom Corps that were only a hair strand away from the entrance of the wormhole were suddenly faced with a violent counterattack that knocked them down one by one.

Lu Bixing felt his vision blackening; his back was already covered in a layer of cold sweat from his brief act earlier.

“Everyone,” he took a deep breath and spoke into the communication channel, “the biochip human’s hallucinations are ineffective against vaccuocerebrals. Luckily, vaccuocerebrals are a specialty within the Eighth Galaxy. As the Executive Prime Minister, my condition is a little bit more complicated than others, but due to some childhood illness I do have some symptoms of vaccuocerebria.”

The Central Militia generals all gasped in shock.

The unprecedented and unmatched Space Commander Lu Xin’s own son admitted with his own mouth that he was a vaccuocerebral!

And even more shocking, the genetic defect and illness that the Union had once discriminated against suddenly became the last ray of hope in this hellish situation!

Nagus pinched himself and felt that the whole world around him had turned into a spinning kaleidoscope, rotating too fast for him to see.

“I can detect any abnormal states on both sides through Zhanlu’s mental network right now, so we can do the same thing we did earlier. Pilots that have been infected, turn in your access to me immediately after I call you; I can negate and clear the effects of the chip,” Lu Bixing continued. “But while I can remain unaffected, my mental strength is limited as well. So, I need backup pilots to be on standby and prepare to retrieve the accesses; I can only last for a moment.”

The Alliance: “……”

A vaccuocerebral who was able to pilot a mech and could even remote control multiple mental networks of ally mechs, this sounded almost as surreal as someone without hands playing a piano with their foot!

Lin Jingheng gave him a quick look and noticed the young man was speaking nonsense without shame and simply responded with a wordless smile.

Certainly, vaccuocerebrals could pilot mechs; the Eighth Galaxy even had a whole specialized fleet made up of vaccuocerebral galactic soldiers, but nobody had mental strength powerful enough to accomplish such a thing. It was impossible for any of them to control Zhanlu’s exceptionally complex and insatiable mental network.

In the end, Lu Bixing still kept quiet about the biochip and single-handedly cut off the Nuwa Project’s road to further human evolution.

Lu Bixing pinched Lin Jingheng a little and wiped the cold sweat on his hands all over the Marshal’s dress shirt: “Then, my fellow soldiers, it’s time for us to launch our counterattack.”

Rebel troops across the galaxies began to back down from the biochip humans’ psychological attacks. Yet unlike Lin Jingshu had described, more and more people were standing up to fight against biochip humans; instead of giving in to join their enemies, they still struggled and fought with hope.

The Second Galaxy.

The dorm manager Alyssa from the Polytechnic University escorted the students into the temporary camp set up by the rebellion forces in the back of the campus and naturally joined the rebels.

Alyssa’s higher education was in the medical field, but she had only been an average student who hadn’t scored well in her studies. Human medical experts in this era were all elite researchers and specialists in their niche of study; normal treatment had all been taken over by robots, so most of the more average medical students had switched their careers.

Alyssa had thought she had no future with her major and didn’t expect to see a day where her knowledge would be useful in real life–now, the rebelling troops lacked medical equipment and needed large amounts of human nurses to help out, so she became a temporary military doctor.

At this time, she dragged her exhausted body after a summons and quickly made her way into the meeting room: “What is it?”

The room was filled with a row of military doctors, varying grim expressions on their faces; beside them stood a few rebel troop officers with several biochips in the center of the table.

“What are you all doing?”

“Only biochip carriers are not affected by biochip hallucinations.” A young officer said, “I volunteer to receive the injection, it’s worth a try.”

A doctor whose expression was about to be jumbled into a mess responded: “Nonsense, the biochip has a unique characteristic of following orders of their higher-ups without question. If you inject the chip, you’ll no longer be one of us; your actions and thoughts will be completely controlled by them, you won’t be able to fight!”

“No,” that officer said, “I’ve observed them before and know that biochip humans aren’t always completely under control. Without any orders from the higher ups, they’re no different than normal humans.”

Alyssa hesitated: “Indeed, this was part of their propaganda–the chip won’t affect daily lives.”

The officer added: “So my plan is a one-time ambush; we dispatch a team of people who will voluntarily take injections of the chip, disguise ourselves as the Freedom Corps, and then launch a surprise attack before our enemies notice…”

The doctor who had rebutted earlier said: “And then you all will be controlled by higher level chip carriers.”

“That’s why it’s a ‘one-time’ plan. We will destroy the enemy from within and then end ourselves before we become their puppets; if we have time, we can even surgically take out the chip. If we can’t make it, we’ll simply have to plan ahead.” The officer turned to the doctor, then pointed at his neck and smiled. “Shoot us down right here.”

The doctor was stunned and couldn’t say another word.

Alyssa mumbled: “What does this mean, we have to pave the way with human lives?”

The young officer looked deeply into her eyes. “We no longer have a road ahead of us.”

The director of the Second Galaxy’s rebel troops reached his hand out over the glass tanks on the table that carried the biochip and finally let out a deep sigh after what felt like an eternity of silence.

Thus began a revolution of martyrdom that sparked from the Second Galaxy and soon spread to the rebel forces of the other galaxies.

From within the boundless sea of stars rose the heroes who marched toward death.