Can Ci Pin - - - Chapter 182

Chapter 182 – Lu Bixing is a Biochip Human

Longyuan’s mech core lifted his head up abruptly; the serene brush and sketch of a person on the screen disappeared and was replaced by rows of error codes.

“Chief?”

The screen before Longyuan dimmed.

In the First Galaxy, a hidden supercomputer processor overtook an entire space station as it floated in darkness. It was like a beast in slumber awoken by a small disturbance; conflicting data and error codes clashed internally numerous times as the supercomputer attempted self-repair.

AI Woolf used that eerily human tone which resembled his former master to say: “…….annihilate biochip humans and their comrades…biochip humans will flee to the Heart of the Rose and the Eighth Galaxy; the Eighth Galaxy is our ally.”

The next moment, a striking cold and robotic voice replaced the earlier tone as it analyzed: “…..the Eighth Galaxy is an enemy; Lu Bixing is a biochip human.”

The highly humanized voice once again overtook the computer: “Acknowledge the Eighth Galaxy’s legal independence, acknowledge legal independence of all galaxies. Each galaxy will represent its own governing unit to form a new Interstellar Union; AI Woolf will go into hibernation in this final world order.”

“……the Eighth Galaxy is our enemy, Lu Bixing is a biochip human.”

“AI Woolf system processing error detected, forced hibernation mode will be activated.”

“The dream world…”

“System refuses to go into hibernation.”

“……the Eighth Galaxy is our enemy, Lu Bixing is a biochip human.”

The same voice argued with itself in a digital split-personality disorder syndrome.

This was even more chilling set inside the empty space station, almost like a cosmic horror movie.

Woolf’s last will still had loopholes, causing the processing error of this AI. Normally, this would be a very basic logical error that even a freshly graduated engineer wouldn’t make, but unexpectedly it happened on this super AI.

“Activating forced hibernation program…”

“Error—Error—”

“Self-repair in progress…first repair attempt failed.”

“Overwriting original data codes—”

At this moment, the guards inside the Heart of the Rose were quietly changing shifts. Medical capsules on the mechs duly recorded all physical and medical data from the biochip humans whose chips had been removed from their bodies around the clock. The survivors of the First Galaxy quietly followed the robot escorts to their temporary refuge sites as the other civilians spread across the galaxies began fighting back against the remaining biochip humans in a more organized fashion. The AUS, no longer with the Human Alliance after the battle, patrolled around the City of Angels with a handful of small mechs in an attempt to find more clues that could lead them to the location of AI Woolf’s main computer body.

At this moment, in the Second to Seventh Galaxies which had been forcefully isolated during the war, surviving humans rose up in a fight against the grasping hands of fate–even if the road ahead of them was a path of no return.

At this moment, Milky Way City was freshly woken from a long night by the dawning light. Fresh dewdrops gathered on the hair strands of Lu Xin’s statue, capturing the warmth of the sunlight into its small liquid body and reflecting a unique prismatic halo. Countless insomniac Woltorians stared up at the night sky in the direction of their homeland; they rubbed their dried eyes and listened carefully for the government’s next plans for them.

The universe was submerged in a serene but melancholic atmosphere as time flowed by exhaustedly; unbeknownst to the rest of the world, a horrifying scene was happening in this dark corner that housed the super AI.

Twenty-four hours later, the mechanical noise from within the space station finally stopped. The main computing machine of AI Woolf fell into an eerie silence, almost as if it had entered into hibernation mode. The AIs hunting down the remaining biochip humans within the First Galaxy all stopped abruptly in confusion.

Suddenly, a dim light flashed inside that mysterious computer storage, followed by the ringing of an ominous voice that almost sounded like a long sigh.

“System auto-repair process complete—”

“Reloading…”

“Annihilate all threats of safety, annihilate all biochip humans.” That voice said coldly, “Final goal is to conquer all eight galaxies. The Interstellar Union will be reborn from my ideals. Longyuan—”

Hundreds of thousands of kilometers away, Longyuan’s mech core bowed to the call.

A shadow began to spread from a dark corner of the universe.

A total eclipse of the First Sun was visible from the central area of Wolto. A massive celestial object flew across like a silent beast that slowly ate away the sun until a greyed sky was cast upon the ruined and dead lands of the former capital planet.

Turan gave the proposed timeline its final approval for escorting back the Woltorian refugees to the City of Angels and returned it back to the refugee committee. She then signaled for them that they could prepare to take off according to the proposed schedule.

Then, she stretched out her back, long and ugly while nobody else was looking.

“Watch your posture.” Lee suddenly appeared on the communication screen behind her. “Deducting a point off disciplinary marks for the Ninth Squadron.”

“You wanna see something even more messy?” Turan gave him a naughty wink as she carefully and seductively took off her uniform jacket, then moved to unbutton her collared shirt. Without any hints of shying away from the camera, she walked towards the little shower room inside her office and didn’t even bother closing the door. “What’s up, mister director of the disciplinary committee?”

Director Lee remained quite collected at this blatant tease and didn’t even bat an eye as he answered: “The Union troops and Central Militia will also be making their way back within the coming months; I’ll send the schedule over to you in a bit. There’s a lot of work to be done here, so the First Squadron will support you in the mission to escort the refugees back.”

Turan let out a sigh: “Man, can I finally get a vacation after we send them off? I haven’t gotten a damn day off in seventeen years. We somehow managed to wish Marshal back, but this year was still as busy as ever. Y’know, I can’t believe nobody here in this vast Eighth Galaxy has even heard of my famous ‘manslayer’ name.”

“Captain Turan’s fame is boundless,” Lee responded unenthusiastically. “A back-end Union Troop Major General by so-and-so name, two lieutenant captains from the Third Galaxy Central Militia, a certain head secretary from the Sixth Galaxy Central Militia, countless anonymous personnel—among them even a self-identified female with unconventional genitalia. You know, plenty of people have gone out of their way to look for you the moment they stepped into the Eighth Galaxy to get their revenge. I’ve blocked them off temporarily with the excuse of the Ninth Squadron stationing on the frontlines. Though I do have to say, have you not considered holding back a little?”

Turan poked her head out from the water vapor with an excited expression: “Are you serious!?”

Two weeks later, the Human Alliance hosted a grand mass funeral service for the comrades they’d lost in the Heart of the Rose. The entire communication network within the Eighth Galaxy repeated various military anthems from across the galaxies. The Alliance finally prepared themselves as they got ready to take off for a long journey back home.

At the same time, the fallen Woltorian elites also gradually sailed out from their temporary camps to be escorted back into the City of Angels by the Alliance troops that shared the same route.

The Ninth and First Squadrons simply needed to transport them all to the wormhole on the Eighth Galaxy’s side before the Third Squadron in the Heart of the Rose received them. All mechs and starships that entered the wormhole would take an average of three days to travel one-way.

The Sixth Galaxy Central Militia were the last of the vanguard fleets to leave. As they got ready to pass through the wormhole zone, a special light flashed on the body of a heavy mech to spell out a line legible to even the naked eye: Elizabeth Carla Turan is the century’s biggest scumbag.

The entire process of sending off the Alliance troops was being livestreamed simultaneously across the Eighth Galaxy. The recording robots on the frontlines did not expect to capture sudden hot gossip during a military report and began jumping around excitedly as if a holiday had come early.

Captain Turan knew no shame and instead stood proudly as if she had received some honorable recognition. She took a glimpse at one of the media robots on her own mech and blew a kiss at its camera. She then took off her hat and called out: “Attention, Ninth Squadron—salute! May our comrades have a safe trip!”

The orderly soldiers of the Ninth Squadron all saluted that ‘century’s biggest scumbag’ title as the media robots dutifully recorded every bit of the footage and spread it all throughout the galaxy. By the time a certain enraged Marshal saw the Ninth Squadron’s absolutely despicable performance on the headlines, it was already too late to take it down.

In the Heart of the Rose, Thomas Young didn’t receive the news until hours later. By that time, a portion of the Alliance troops and refugees had already made it out of the wormhole while Thomas cackled in amusement as he held onto his personal device.

“Quit laughing, get up and work.” Poisson strolled over, “Supermech Longyuan took a team of AIs near the Heart of the Rose and informed us that the basic systems on the City of Angels have all been checked and activated; they’re ready to receive the refugees. Also, due to the small flow of biochip humans remaining within the Eighth Galaxy, Longyuan also asked if we needed them to help clean up the terminals before we send anyone over.”

Thomas was shocked: “Wow, was he always this kind?”

“Hah, right, they sure didn’t care much about human rights when they blew up Wolto.” Poisson’s expression remained unfazed. “Inform the other side to be careful and increase defense around the outskirts. Don’t let the AIs near the Heart of the Rose.”

Thomas fell silent for a few moments: “Before Commander left the Silver Fortress, he asked us to keep his recommendation letter safe–if anything happened down the line and the central government gave up on Wolto, we would become his communication center. This was because Chief Woolf would become the last guardian of the Union, because the Union was built by the hands of his generation. Commander believed that he would fight until the very end—do you still trust him now?”

“He destroyed the Silver Fortress, lured the pirates in to invade the Union, borrowed the hands of the same pirates to force the Eighth Galaxy to close off, then went ahead and turned himself into a horrible AI postmortem—are you really asking me if I trust him after all of this?” Poisson questioned back. Then, he lowered his voice and continued, “We’re doomed to fight against these AIs at some point. One hundred years later, the name ‘Hubert Woolf’ will be crucified in history in the name of crimes against humanity.”

Thomas gave his brother a deep look before he swallowed the rest of his words down.

But Commander Lu Xin and even Lin Jingheng himself had once been the ‘guardian’ of the world, and had once carried the name of ‘anti-humanity’ on their backs. The pendulum between the two extremes didn’t stop once for either of them; it continued to swing multiple times.

It was clear that the difference between a hero and criminal of anti-humanity was only as large as the difference between a mugshot and self portrait.

A long and trying waiting period began. Eight days later, the wormhole area in the Heart of the Rose detected abnormal energy activity. The first batch of Alliance Troops arrived safely in what seemed like a peaceful and smooth expedition. Longyuan hadn’t appeared since he had been rejected days ago, and the AI troops seemed to have settled down.

On the night of the eighth day, Woltorian time 18:38P.M.

The former First Galaxy Patrol fleet that had successfully made their way out of the wormhole escorted a few unarmed starships of the refugees to their destination.

The wormhole zone grew active, indicating that the large fleet would be arriving shortly.

That was when Poisson suddenly received a message from the frontline soldiers: large fleets of AI mechs had suddenly sailed out to outside the Heart of the Rose.

Cold sweat rolled down the palm of Poisson’s hand; why did it have to be now after all this time of peace?

The majority of the Human Alliance fleet and large amounts of Woltorian refugees were inside the wormhole right now; it was hard to tell how long it would take for them to exit. Even then, it would be too late for them to retreat back to the Eighth Galaxy!

How did these AI troops manage to time this perfectly, as if they had stolen a copy of the schedule from the inside?

Thomas tapped on a soldier’s shoulders: “Send a message to the Milky Way City Command Post, quick!”

“Captain Young!”

Both Thomas and Poisson lifted their heads abruptly as a frontline soldier reported through the communication channel: “The AIs are requesting for us to immediately turn in the hidden biochip and biochip human to them!”

It would be a bad time to provoke the AI troops right now; Poisson responded cautiously: “All biochips have been annihilated and the former carriers are all being imprisoned right now. If they want war prisoners, I can’t make the decision here. Please submit a formal written request as I’ll need to return to Milky Way City to send in the request.”

“We are not looking for the war prisoners from the Freedom Corps,” Longyuan’s hollow and cold voice rang out. “We want the biochip human hiding within the Eighth Galaxy.”

Before anyone could respond, the AI sent a video recording to the Third Squadron’s public communication network–it was the exact phone call Doctor Hardin had made to Lu Bixing regarding the biochip.

Thomas completely blanked out momentarily: “What the fuck is…”

Longyuan demanded: “Turn in the biochip human.”

More and more AI mechs appeared in the outskirts of the Heart of the Rose like a massive, endless web. A few terminals amidst the fleet opened up near the center as the Ten Great Supermechs once again reappeared in the Heart of the Rose, with Longyuan leading the team at the front.

Countless cannons pointed towards the wormhole zone like little voids of darkness.

“Turn in the biochip human—”