Can Ci Pin - - - Chapter 178

Chapter 178 – Is Everything Over?

History books said that most ancient people didn’t often live to 100 years. People back then had very condensed lifespans; they went through countless encounters and separations, there were harmless and dangerous accidents everywhere, and the process of aging was all within mere decades of their lives…along with countless passages of human lives.

When humans reached the end of their time, painful memories would spring up like an underground fountain as they gradually lost their role in society, consumed by the last of their consciousness until the solitude of death quietly settled over their exhausted minds.

For a brief moment, Lin Jingheng fell into a trance that felt as if his soul was about to leave his body, overtaken by that sensation of drowning from the past.

Emotional instability could drastically affect a pilot’s mental strength. Lin Jingheng’s mental strength was powerful enough that when he piloted on his own, sync rates dropping a few digits wouldn’t affect his handle on the mech. However, he was sharing a mental network with a copilot right now, both of them stuck in a unique sync rate; any small changes to the statistics could knock both of them out of the mental network.

Lu Bixing instantly jumped off the mental network after taking a glance at his expression; thankfully he was quick to act. Less than a second after disconnecting, he saw Lin Jingheng fall slightly to the side from receiving the mental network’s warning.

Lu Bixing’s mind turned quickly: “The AI Troops are still behind us!”

Lin Jingheng froze momentarily, but his unfocused pupils quickly regained light and focus.

“Got it,” he nodded expressionlessly in response. He then opened up the communication channel and ordered calmly, “Kin, clean up the battlefield. Technicians on all mechs, make sure to check all protection and codes on all of your digital equipment. Calculate all remaining firepower and casualties and send them over immediately—Young, take all survivors off the frontlines and retreat back. Don’t worry, this is the Heart of the Rose; AIs won’t be any more difficult to deal with than biochip humans.”

It was as if that person whose soul was about to leave his body earlier wasn’t himself.

Lu Bixing let out a sigh of relief; the burden of responsibility, heavy as a thousand tons of metal, could easily fill even a massively empty hole in one’s heart–he knew that from experience.

“Marshal,” Poisson’s voice was heavy through the channel, “we’ve detected unidentified energy activity outside the transfer portals, there’s a fleet of mechs closing in.”

They had barely broken the back of one ferocious beast, only to have another awaiting them. Poisson’s one line completely silenced the entire channel.

The Third Squadron fleets in the outskirts had captured some footage with their military cameras and quickly sent the live stream to the hands of all Alliance troops.

The Alliance saw the abrupt pause of fire from the AI Troops and the retreat of the whole fleet through the screen. The fearsome enemies seemed to be staring at the Alliance fleets for a few moments before finally dispersing to the side, allowing a massive heavy mech to sail out between them.

Lu Bixing asked quietly: “Wait, this…was this that Longyuan mech we encountered back on Wolto?”

As the last syllable dropped from his mouth, everyone who had their eyes on the screen gasped in shock. Behind Longyuan was a single escorting mech, but behind that escort was another supersized heavy mech.

This wasn’t the end. These supersized mechs appeared one by one as if attending a gathering; soon, aside from poor Zhanlu who was out of batteries, the Union’s Great Swords had all gathered.

Nagus was still catching his breath as he spat out another line in between panting: “Are they planning on annihilating us all?”

Lu Bixing reached out and gave Zhanlu’s robotic arm a small pat. The super AI had malfunctioned due to overloading the mental network and was resting on his shoulder; now he was nothing but a dusty digital butler. “Question for you, pal, do you have anything you want to say right now? Have you ever regretted that you ended up in such a lousy state like this? Maybe reflect a bit on yourself?” Lu Bixing asked.

The robotic arm returned an exhausted high-five back, his robotic voice almost sounding a little disappointed for once: “I believe your Engineering Department is the one that needs to reflect on themselves, Headmaster Lu. However, I do miss Popcorn and those back home a little.”

Lu Bixing had nothing else to comment on and could only respond with a sigh at this ambitionless super mech core: “You know, you’re about to turn into a ‘home-use mech’ now.”

At that moment, Longyuan suddenly moved and slowly sailed towards the Heart of the Rose.

The frontmost Silver Third Squadron troops had already stiffened up like rocks from anxiety; this sudden act prompted them to fire a round of particle cannons that hit heavily onto Longyuan’s shield. The high energy waves violently exploded outward the moment they collided with the shield.

Poisson put up a hand filled with cold sweat and connected right into the enemy’s communication networks: “Longyuan, if you sail in any closer, it won’t be a warning round of fire anymore.”

Yet to everyone’s surprise, Longyuan actually stopped. Moments later, the mech core of this super AI spoke up: “Has the commanding ship of the Freedom Corps pirates been shot down?”

Poisson didn’t dare to respond.

Lu Bixing had once hypothesized that Lin Jingshu had been the first target of the AI Troops; Woolf had walked into his own coffin in order to fight her off.

So…what was the meaning of this now?

The first target was gone, and now they wanted to find a second target to clean up?

When Woolf was still a human, it was possible to guess his next moves from a strategist’s perspective. Yet now that this old man had stepped out of the boundaries of carbon lifeform, his thought process had gone far beyond what anyone could imagine. Nobody could understand what those crazy trigger-happy computers were thinking.

Longyuan waited exactly one minute without an answer, then repeated the same question robotically.

“Don’t worry.” Lin Jingheng’s voice rang out from Poisson’s channel this time. The Human Alliance had reorganized at an impressive speed; within this brief time, the commanding ship already received all reports of casualties from their side.

Lin Jingheng only quickly scanned the reports but determined that they still had enough combat power left and said: “You can tell them the truth and see what they want to do. If we’re doomed to clash one day, we may as well take them on right now while we still have power.”

Longyuan was like an annoying alarm that repeated his question once every minute, and once again asked: “Has the commanding–”

“Yes,” Poisson interrupted him, “Lin Jingshu’s commanding ship has been shot down by our missiles. Most of her escorting fleets were annihilated in battle; the remaining survivors have been captured already.”

Longyuan paused for a moment before finally changing his line and said in the same robotic tone: “But the biochip humans within the First Galaxy still exist.”

Poisson was utterly confused.

“Wait,” Lu Bixing said, “I feel like they’re not here to fight.”

Longyuan: “Mister Woolf wishes to speak with Commander Lin–or Prime Minister Lu of the Eighth Galaxy directly.”

Longyuan’s voice vanished into the void after he finished speaking, and Woolf’s voice replaced him.

This AI’s voice was too realistic; it triggered the still-fresh trauma of a talking corpse on Wolto the moment he spoke. The entire Alliance fleet felt goosebumps crawling up their skin.

“I am Hubert Woolf; first, I must show my thanks for your efforts in defeating our common enemy.”

Bayer: “……weren’t we in a three-way battle where they’re also a common enemy of ours and the pirates?”

Lee quickly shushed him.

“It hasn’t been long since the Glory Troops surrendered and returned Wolto to our control, but the Freedom Corps had already planted deep roots of their biochip empire into our soils. My creator was already at the limit of modern man’s lifespan; he could feel that his natural death was near and created me.” That AI spoke with Woolf’s voice, “I share his memories and will fulfill his dying wish to protect the peace of the galaxies to the best of my abilities. My first target was to annihilate the Freedom Corps pirates, and with the help of everyone present here today, I have accomplished this goal.”

Lin Jingheng responded coolly: “I should say your method of ‘protecting peace’ is quite creative.”

Thankfully, AIs wouldn’t mind his bad attitude, so it continued: “Do you mean blowing up Wolto, Jingheng? Wolto was the most likely bait the pirates would take; it was the least populated among all planets in the First Galaxy. Its citizens were well-prepared for times of crisis, making them the most well-equipped group of unarmed civilians during wartime.”

This almost made blowing up Wolto sound like a strategically smart idea.

“From individual rights or efficiency of social development, ethics, civilization, to gains and losses, every single one of these topics could be brought out for debate until the end of time,” Woolf said. “Every choice will take a toll on you and test your determination and sharpness as a commander. Our enemy knows this; in fact, she had already used all capital planets across the galaxies as hostages before. I’m almost certain she wouldn’t have given you all time to debate amongst yourselves either. I have determined my mission priorities based on the threat of our target and chose to carry out a plan that would yield the most beneficial results; and so far, facts have proven that we were successful.”

Lu Bixing: “Alright, let’s drop this for a bit and get on with the important stuff; what’s going to happen to those refugees who fled from Wolto?”

“The City of Angels still retained its most basic systems, so there are also plenty of space stations around that are fit for living with plenty of supplies. They’ve been there once already and are quite familiar with the area. Most of the refugees had their own temporary living spaces on the City of Angels during the last evacuation, so we can simply repeat the same method as before. We can appoint the highest ranking official amongst the refugees to take charge.” Woolf responded calmly, “Of course, the choice is all yours. AI mechs will perhaps scare the refugees for at least a while to come, so I must request you all to escort them one last time after you reorganize.”

This AI had thought out quite a plan.

Woolf added: “Our next step is to clean up the biochip humans on land. We will capture generation two carriers and above to put them on trial, then forcefully take out generation one chips. The generation one carriers will be put into quarantine to completely remove all side-effects the chip has on the human body; however, due to lack of data on this particular front, we must request Prime Minister Lu to provide technical support.”

Lu Bixing: “You guys want Doctor Hardin’s biochip disruption technology?”

“Yes.” Woolf responded courteously, “I promise to not abuse biochips; my first priority will be to eradicate the lifeline of the underground biochip market and circulation. The technology I obtained in the process will never be used on illegal human experiments, this will be coded right into my database.”

Lu Bixing hesitated.

Anything created in this world would never completely disappear.

Ever since ancient earthlings opened up the pandora’s box to addictive drugs, the abuse of these drugs had become an almost never-ending problem in human history. Similarly, even though the biochip empire collapsed, the addictiveness of the biochip that simulated what Eden provided still existed. This new kind of drug would become another societal issue to solve in the future; every galaxy would eventually need to create special anti-drug forces that targeted these biochips. But that would be another long battle for another time.

However, biochip disruption technology would most definitely be shared amongst galaxies; if this was any other general from the Central Militia asking, perhaps Lu Bixing wouldn’t have hesitated to give them this information.

Yet they were facing this creepy AI Troop, so Lu Bixing asked cautiously: “Longyuan won’t open fire if we refuse to cooperate, right?”

“No. I thought I’d already explained myself clearly enough: my existence is built to ensure that I always choose the most beneficial option with the lowest cost. I am not a war machine.” Woolf explained peacefully, “The technology of biochip disruptions may not be completely untraceable; I have a powerful AI system that can analyze this kind of technology. Even if you refuse to cooperate, I will simply only be spending more time on finding a method myself. However, if Prime Minister Lu refuses now, we will also refuse sharing new technology in the future if biochip related crimes increase. I don’t believe this is a win-win situation for either side.”

This was the first time Lu Bixing had negotiated with AIs and couldn’t help but test the bottomline of these supercomputers: “How about this, you can trade for it with the Great Swords in your hands.”

Humans had emotions but machines didn’t; no matter how similarly they replicated a human personality, it was still an act in the end.

As expected, despite making such disrespectful requests, AI Woolf was not angered and only responded logically: “Sorry, but this exchange is unfair.”

Lu Bixing quickly reworded: “I’m not asking for all, how about half?”

Woolf still said: “It is unfair.”

“One mech.”

“It is u–”

“Then how about the transformable material to fix Zhanlu’s mech core; that’ll do, right?”

To everyone’s surprise, this time AI Woolf fell silent momentarily and accepted the offer.

About one hour later, the AI Troops sent a small mech supply ship out of their fleet. The Third Squadron was awoken as if they had chugged down shots of coffee, then quarantined this small supply ship and almost dissected the entire ship to disinfect every physical part. After checking thoroughly in and out six times through security, they finally accepted the materials and sent back on the ship a few pieces of biochip disruption equipment with simple instructions.

Woolf generously gave them one whole ton of transformable material…and an old cardboard box.

“The Third Squadron checked already, there are no dangerous items in there.” Poisson personally delivered the box onto the commanding ship. “There aren’t any digital items in there. Marshal, take a look.”

The box was filled with various old relics: a whole bundle of frames that contained many old photos. Photos of a young Chief Woolf, Doctor Hardin, his grandfather Lin Ge’er, young Lin Wei, young Lu Xin wearing the uniform of the Black Orchid Academy; group and individual photos were all inside.

There were also a few children’s drawings, the corner of the drawings signed with a lop-sided ‘Lin Wei,’ and an old notebook. From the looks of it, the notebook belonged to Lin Ge’er. It was said that during the transition period from the old to new Sidereal Era, there was a time where the founders of the Union completely abandoned digital technology out of safety concerns and returned to ancient paper and pen. Perhaps this was something left behind from that time.

“These are some mementos,” AI Woolf said, “Jingheng, I trust that you will take good care of them.”

Longyuan took in the supply ship as Woolf finished and got ready to sail away.

“Wait,” Lu Bixing suddenly said before the connection was cut off, “one last question. Chief…Woolf, what do you plan on doing after dealing with the biochip humans on the ground? Turn the Union into a machine empire under the control of an AI?”

“I will go into sleep mode.” AI Woolf left this strange and completely undecipherable message. Then, without any further explanation, he cut off the connection. The Great Swords seemed to have been summoned only to escort this old man; after showing off a little at the party, they retreated as quickly as they arrived earlier. The entire AI fleet vanished outside the Heart of the Rose within the blink of an eye.

The silent Heart of the Rose was like a galactic cemetery–countless remnants of mechs floated around. The surviving Human Alliance troops stared at each other as if they had all just woken up from the same nightmare.

An unidentified voice asked quietly in the channel: “Is everything over?”

The channel was quiet; suddenly, someone broke out into a sob. It was hard to tell who it was; perhaps it was the Second Galaxy Central Militia that had lost their general, or perhaps a pilot that had misfired to an ally under hallucinations earlier.

Or perhaps it was simply the mournful cries finally released from the hearts of the survivors.

Lin Jingheng took a deep breath and called a soldier over: “Take control of the mental network, you’ll pilot.”

The soldier, shocked from being appointed pilot on the absolute dictator Lin Jingheng’s mech, asked in disbelief: “Me…me?”

Lin Jingheng didn’t answer and swiftly gave over his piloting permissions, then walked nonchalantly towards the medical chamber beside the cockpit.

He took a few steps forward, then as if he had run out of batteries, fell into the chamber.