Can Ci Pin - - - Chapter 183

Chapter 183 – A Suspected Complete Form of the Nuwa Project

The Silver Ten had faced biochip humans countless times over the last decade of unrest within the Union. The original Second, Fifth, and Seventh Squadrons had been completely annihilated during the war, without a single strand of hair left; nobody had survived long enough for Lin Jingheng to return and give them a reassuring pat on the shoulder.

Biochip humans were the most fearsome and long-lasting sworn enemies of the Silver Ten in this generation.

Thomas could feel his blood pressure rapidly rising.

Lu Bixing was a biochip human? What complete nonsense.

“If you’re looking for an opportunity to invade the Eighth Galaxy, don’t give a bullshit excuse like this.” Thomas lowered his tone sternly and said, “We all know what’s going on with biochips, inside and out. The Eighth Galaxy was the uncontested, game-changing force that helped annihilate the Freedom Corps; if you’re saying our Executive Prime Minister is a biochip human, can you explain why he was unaffected by the Freedom Corps? Are you going to tell us that Lin Jingshu committed suicide? Do you AIs always fabricate lies like this without basis? And that strange video that was clearly edited—”

Poisson caught his brother’s gaze at this moment, shaking his head silently with an unfathomable expression.

The twins had grown up together and knew how to communicate with a quick exchange of a glance. Thomas’ heart sank; he knew that Poisson’s message was that the footage had been checked thoroughly and the Third Squadron hadn’t detected any signs of editing or manipulation. It was raw footage.

“The video wasn’t edited, which I’m sure the Silver Third Squadron can tell.” Longyuan responded. “Why don’t you send someone to check Doctor Hardin’s personal computer instead?”

As soon as he finished, a few human body scans and physical reports were displayed on the communication screen. The location of the biochip within Lu Bixing’s body was even clearer to the eye now; reports on the side indicated that his physical stats had already exceeded the biological limit of a natural human. This wasn’t something that could be explained away with harsh training or natural hormonal changes.

Longyuan calmly explained: “Indeed, Lin Jingshu used the characteristics of the biochip to build her ideal ‘insect society’ among humans. However, you’ve conceitedly drawn the conclusion that ‘injecting a certain type of biochip will make someone fall under hierarchical control, therefore people who are not controlled must not be biochip humans’ based on this single fact. Captain Young, I believe your logic here is quite flawed.”

Thomas was speechless.

He didn’t want to think on the same wavelength as the AI, but some details about his conceivable daily life seeped through his skin and through the joints of his bones within a split second like thin smoke–

Doctor Hardin had been living like a hermit ever since arriving in the Eighth Galaxy and rarely ever made contact with anyone. The only social contact had been with Lu Bixing, and that was only for periodic visits. Now that he thought about it, it certainly didn’t seem like a philanthropic visitation to keep the elderly company–it was more like a routine examination.

And every time Thomas walked to Lu Bixing’s office, the door would always open before he could knock while the Prime Minister called his name before he could speak. It was as if the young Prime Minister could recognize the sound of his footsteps meters away through a heavy door.

Lu Bixing had proclaimed to be a vaccuocerebral during the last battle against the biochip humans and therefore unaffected by the biochips. He had single-handedly shouldered the entire Alliance Troop’s mental network for a good portion of the battle. Yet the world’s most elite vaccuocerebral pilots were all in the Fourth Squadron. It was an undeniable fact that their mental strength would never match up to that of a normal human, and under those extreme circumstances, even someone like Lin Jingheng couldn’t possibly withstand such pressure of continuous mental network attacks.

On top of everything, there was also the Prime Minister’s superhuman-like stamina that allowed him to stay energetic even after days of no sleep…

Thomas had just commented that a hero and criminal were two sides of the same coin and wished he could slap himself to take it all back; what was he thinking?

At that moment, Poisson’s hand grabbed tightly onto his arm, pulling the Captain’s jumbled mind back to reality.

In place of his brother, Poisson gave Longyuan a cold response: “The proof you gave us is still being analyzed by the technical team. If what you said is true, you won’t even need to flash your cannons; the Silver Ten and Eighth Galaxy will never let a biochip human rule over their government.”

Longyuan: “Turn in…”

Longyuan’s tendency to turn into an annoying alarm that just repeated the same lines might have been a bug in his settings. Perhaps the reason why Lu Xin had skipped over him and had chosen Zhanlu as his mech was because of how annoying this AI was.

Poisson interrupted the AI: “Send the data over–the Third Squadron will take at most half an hour to analyze the information. Can you not even wait for half an hour?”

Longyuan fell silent as if he was communicating with someone internally.

“Sure,” Longyuan finally spoke up after about thirty seconds. “We expect you to turn over the biochip human in thirty minutes.”

Poisson temporarily cut off the communication channel and was immediately greeted by Thomas grabbing onto his collar.

Thomas hissed at him: “What are you doing? What if…are you really planning on turning Prime Minister Lu in? Do you want to die?”

“Even if Minister Lu leaves the Eighth Galaxy right now, it will take him at least a week to go through the wormhole, so let’s make them wait. We can expect the Alliance Troops to arrive within the next 48 hours, give or take an extra day of buffer time. We’re in the Heart of the Rose; if we can gather up the entire Alliance Troops here, we might even have a chance against those AIs. These crazy supercomputers had always been unstable forces; we might as well clean them all up right now.” Poisson explained calmly, “By the time we clear the wormhole, we’ll close off the terminal so that not even a fly can get to it. And then nobody will know anything that happened here.”

Thomas frowned: “You really think they’re going to wait quietly for a week here?”

“Just put on an act.” The corner of Poisson’s mouth lifted slightly. “‘The Silver Ten forced the Prime Minister out of his seat after realizing the truth’ or something like that, it’s just a test of our acting skills. Our only advantage in the battle between carbon-lifeform humans and AIs are shameless, low tactics.”

At that moment, an internal communication request came in–the Central Militia fleets that had just passed through the wormhole into the Heart of the Rose were greeted by this explosive news before they could even get their feet back on ground after the wormhole trip. They had no choice but to ask the Third Squadron to answer their countless questions.

Poisson answered without lifting his head: “The footage was edited out of context, and the rest of the photos were pieced together. Do you really believe them when they say that Minister Lu is a biochip human? Listen, our priority right now is to hold these AIs back until all of the refugees and Alliance fleets come out of the wormhole. In order to do that, we’re going to have to play along with them for a while. So please, bear with us.”

His tone was firm and calm, leaving no room for doubt. After hearing a ‘confirmation’ from a trusted ally, the Central Militia agreed to help without hesitation. Outsiders like them who didn’t understand the nature of vaccuocerebrals could only rely on what they’d seen: the Eighth Galaxy had somehow managed to create a miraculous galactic force made up of vaccuocerebrals, so it wouldn’t be surprising if they had more crazy technology up their sleeves. In contrast, Lu Bixing being able to control Zhanlu’s mental network to sweep across the battlefield seemed like a trivial matter.

Thomas was completely dumbfounded.

Poisson didn’t spare a glance at all the data Longyuan sent over, let alone analyze its legitimacy.

Noticing his brother’s baffled gaze, Poisson gave him a deep look: “If the Silver Third Squadron says it’s fake, it’s fake. Who do you think our allies are going to believe, those machines or me?”

Thomas asked in almost a whisper: “But what if it’s all true?”

Poisson asked him back: “Does it matter if it’s real or fake?”

A strange chill ran through Thomas’ heart.

Did the truth matter?

The human Woolf had borrowed the hands of others in order to commit murder to hide the fact that his name had been listed on the forbidden fruit, almost at the cost of Lin Jingheng’s life on the border of the Seventh and Eighth galaxies. He then single-handedly destroyed the major forces of the AUS during that same battle. Sixteen years later, Lin Jingheng resummoned the Silver Ten and once again stepped back onto the stage of the world; Hope regained control of the AUS with his influence. Both the commander and Prophet of the AUS had chosen to remain silent on the matter of Woolf’s plot despite everything that had happened.

If Lin Jingshu hadn’t summoned a storm across the galaxies, perhaps this secret would’ve been buried forever under the peace of the universe. No history textbook thousands of years in the future would even mention this event.

“Report to the Milky Way City Command Post and tell Minister Lu to be prepared.” Poisson took a deep breath and glanced at his watch. He then turned his head towards the military camera that showed the growing AI fleets waiting in the outskirts of the Heart of the Rose, ready to fire their cannons.

AIs always kept to their word: thirty minutes had passed without any troubles. Almost to the second, Poisson’s pale and clearly frustrated face reappeared on the communication screens of the AI fleet.

Longyuan: “Captain Young, did the Third Squadron confirm the legitimacy of the data we’ve sent?”

“This isn’t the same kind of biochip as the ones used by the Freedom Corps,” Poisson responded in a low voice. “What is this? What does it do? How did you guys even find out about this?”

Longyuan scanned his facial expression and came to the conclusion that it was a display of anger and guilt, then answered: “The chip’s functions are unknown. As for how we discovered this, we will explain after we capture the biochip human.”

“What have we fought for all these years, then? We thought the Eighth Galaxy was the only paradise untainted by biochips and would become our final fortress, but now even our last hope has been a lie all along. We’ve just been fighting biochip humans on behalf of another biochip human, thinking we were the saviors of humanity.” Poisson pressed his lips together after venting his anger verbally. Thomas stood with a racing heart on the side, for once unable to tell if his brother was truly acting. At the very least, he knew that there was real anger behind his brother’s words at that brief moment. “How could so many people so conceitedly think they could make the entirety of mankind follow their lead into involuntary evolution?”

Perhaps it was their minds playing tricks, but Longyuan’s mechanical voice sounded almost a little less cold this time: “May we take it that Captain Young is willing to stand on our side?”

“I’ve already sent a secret message to the First and Ninth Squadrons waiting on the other side of the terminal, they will send someone to Milky Way City to search Doctor Hardin’s personal computer. If we confirm that it’s true…” Poisson lifted his gaze and said, “The Silver Ten will never fight for or swear allegiance to a biochip human.”

Longyuan once again fell into silence.

The Silver Third Squadron’s position had been made clear; Longyuan respectfully retracted his initial hostility. The wormhole zone once again signaled abnormal energy activity–another Human Alliance fleet had arrived. Thomas could feel sweat gathering in the palm of his hand.

Soon after, the cannons pointing towards the Heart of the Rose slowly rolled back. The AI fleets took a few steps back like a beast that had been given a piece of fresh meat, temporarily retracting its claws as it waited patiently in its cave.

“Twenty-four hours,” Longyuan said. “Within twenty-four hours, we expect you to turn in the biochip human to us.”

Thomas’s throat rolled as he spoke up: “Twenty-four hours isn’t enough time for anyone to pass through the wormhole terminal.”

“We need hard confirmation that he has been arrested within twenty-four hours,” Longyuan responded coldly. “We expect you to send him through the wormhole terminal; don’t play games with us, we have ways to confirm.”

Thomas and Poisson both let out a silent sigh of relief at the same time–they were both experienced technicians who knew the effects of timespace distortion within the wormhole. It was impossible for Woolf to send in a clone to the Eighth Galaxy and at most had found a way to hack into the Eight Galaxy’s internal network. The super-AI may sound fearsome, but the most it could do was to control a few security cameras. Surely, it wasn’t hard to manipulate and lie through these digital eyes in their own homes.

The anger on Poisson’s face was completely wiped clean the moment he cut off the communication. He turned to give Thomas a small gesture—they only needed to hold on for 48 hours and victory would be theirs.

Thomas gave him a complicated expression.

Despite being like clones of each other, the Young twins still had quite contrasting personalities. When difficult situations came up, Poisson always seemed to be calmer and more adaptable to change than himself. Thomas took up the mantle of being the Captain of the Third Squadron simply because Poisson didn’t care for dealing with trivial matters. The two were like a single entity that took turns being the main support of their squadron; Thomas was quite used to tossing work he didn’t like to deal with to his own brother.

But…

Is Lu Bixing really a biochip human? He thought, It seems like the danger has passed, but is the truth really meaningless?

Four hours and twenty minutes later, an urgent frontline report from the Heart of the Rose was delivered to Lu Bixing.

The young man completely froze at the first glance.

Lin Jingheng: “What’s wrong?”

Lu Bixing took a deep breath and forwarded the report to him, then stood up and said: “Zhanlu, inform the Public Security Department to send a security team to Doctor Hardin’s residence immediately to ensure his safety. Quarantine all of his personal digital devices and block off all signals around him, also ask him to temporarily take off his personal device…”

He paused momentarily and added, “Be sure to be gentle with him, don’t scare the old man too much.”

Lu Bixing walked around his desk a few times to calm himself down. Suddenly, his gaze scanned past the seven marks at the corner of his wooden desk; a strange but fateful feeling filled his heart.

He felt like someone who had taken all the shortcuts and avoided all the toll roads in his life, building up a debt throughout the years, and now it was time for him to finally pay everything back to fate.

Lin Jingheng had already skimmed through Poisson’s reports and said firmly: “It’s not too bad, Poisson handled it well. All Central Militia and Human Alliance fleets will be arriving within the Heart of the Rose shortly. The Third Squadron will remain on watch, and the Fourth Squadron will also arrive to escort the fleets. When everyone is safely out of the wormhole, we’ll close up the terminal.”

“Zhanlu!” He stood up and called, “Tell all directors of the galactic forces to gather up in the Command Post for an emergency meeting. Let the First and Ninth Squadrons reinforce their frontline defense, connect–”

Zhanlu surprisingly interrupted before Lin Jingheng could finish giving his orders and said: “Sir, Headmaster Lu, I think you both need to take a look at this first.”

Lu Bixing’s fingers twitched slightly as the fateful feeling in his heart grew stronger.

“An unidentified individual hacked into the Milky Way City Media’s headquarters just now, and countless media companies are rolling out this footage. I’ve already contacted the Engineering and Security Departments to intervene, but I’m afraid that it’s already too widespread now—”

“….According to verified reports of his medical history, this individual had once come in close contact with carriers of the mutated Rainbow Virus within an enclosed space without any vaccines or protection. However, there have been no reports or signs of the individual being infected with the virus. After thorough medical checkups, it has been confirmed that he is naturally immune to the Rainbow Virus and numerous other mutated forms of deadly viruses.”

“The genetic makeup of his body does not match up…”

“….suspected complete form of the Nuwa Project.”

“Pictured is a full body scan, the symbol indicates the location of the chip injection…”

“This is the comparison of the physical statistics with an average human’s statistics.”

From the Nuwa Project to the biochip, everything was laid out clearly and publicly.

The Eighth Galaxy had already been wavering from the aftershock of the battle in the Heart of the Rose and was still recovering from a meteor shower of news from outside the galaxy; this explosive news further riled up the tides of unrest.

Lies and fabrications covered the world like grains of sands and soil, sometimes so well-nourished it was difficult to make out the difference between fantasy and reality.

Yet aside from the truth, nothing in this world was without loopholes.

All secrets would eventually be exposed under the light of day.