Can Ci Pin - - - Chapter 185

Chapter 185 – The Only Beneficiary of the Nuwa Project

The Second Galaxy.

Temporary medic Alyssa glanced around at the fellow soldiers beside her and clenched her necklace tightly in both hands.

The necklace was an impulse purchase she had made while she was still working at the university dorms; it wasn’t particularly valuable nor meaningful on a personal level, but she subconsciously wanted to grab onto something during these times of crisis. It was like her soul cried out for some peace of mind, holding onto the foolish thought that any meaningful object could protect her like a charm.

Soldiers charged forth onto the frontlines like packs of fireflies, carrying a newly injected biochip in their bodies, trudging down into a battle of virtually no return.

Every volunteer soldier piloted their own small mechs onto the battlefield. Due to the shortage of medical supplies, each person was only able to bring in a companion medic lightly trained in basic first aid on their mechs. These volunteer soldiers would fight poison with poison, using the power of the biochip injected into their bodies against their enemies. After every successful ambush, their companion medic would then surgically take out the biochip to avoid being controlled by higher-level chip carriers.

If the medic couldn’t take out the chip in time, then their job was to fire a laser gun at the nape of their soldier where the chip was located or blow up the entire engine of the mech.

Very few souls were fortunate enough to have their chips taken out in time; the majority of these soldiers fell on the battlefield, earth to earth, ashes to ashes.

With this suicide-guerilla tactic on the rebel’s side, the biochip human armies were slowly being pushed into a corner and forced to retreat. However, experienced soldiers from the military were growing scarcer by the minute. Eventually, even the non-combat personnel in the camp and the new volunteer soldiers who had only passed basic training were being forced to step onto the battlefield.

Alyssa’s companion was one of these less-experienced volunteers. Like her, he had been a civilian before the war broke out. After the biochip humans took over the entire galaxy overnight, he had volunteered to join the rebelling forces and was thrown onto a mech before he could even pilot properly without support. His entire body was tied down inside the mech, leaving solely his brain free to connect to the mech’s mental network. Due to the powerful boost of physical strength from being injected with a biochip, it would be impossible for the medic to either take out the biochip or kill the soldier after the ambush operation if he wasn’t restrained.

“I used to be a landscape artist, what about you?”

“Dorm manager,” Alyssa answered in almost a whisper.

“This position makes me feel like I’m cattle waiting to be sent to the butcher’s house,” the landscape artist said as his gaze shifted to the laser gun tied to Alyssa’s waist. “Will you kill me?”

Alyssa bit down her lips and said, “I will take out the biochip in your body as fast as I can.”

“They always say that before we leave.” The landscape artist gave her an almost melancholic smile. “But most of them won’t make it.”

Alyssa couldn’t help but console him dryly: “We have luck on our side.”

“I have a son, he’s six–he stayed in the refugee camp.” The landscape artist said, “Movies always say ‘think about your child, think about who you’re fighting for’, and the protagonist is blessed with courage. But why won’t it work for me now?”

The commander’s voice rang out within the mech: “Everyone, prepare yourselves; we’ll be arriving on the battlefield shortly. New recruits, review the procedures for aiming your missiles—remember, for the Pledge of Freedom!”

Alyssa gripped her own wrist tightly in a desperate attempt to stop her uncontrollable shivers.

“But I’m still scared.” The landscape artist looked at her with a deep and searing look. “I regret coming here now, maybe I should’ve…”

At that moment, the alarm inside the mech and the commander’s howl rang out together: “Open fire!”

That one second felt like a lifetime. Adrenaline filled Alyssa until her head was completely blank, then something crashed into the outer shield of the mech and caused the gravity system inside to malfunction. Her feet left the ground as she stared at the chaotic output of the military camera, hearing someone shout inside the communication channel: “We’ve been ambushed midway!”

Military travel routes were considered top-secret intel. Alyssa was too overwhelmed to catch on immediately and thought, how could we be ambushed?

The next moment, her eyes widened as she realized that a traitor had given away their intel.

The volunteer soldiers were expected to leave right after their operation or take their own lives if they faced a risk of being counterattacked. But how many ‘perfect’ circumstances could they truly expect on a battlefield?

Perhaps some companions couldn’t pull the trigger, others didn’t want to die and were captured by the enemy. Once captured alive, the soldier would immediately be controlled by the enemy and give up information without any hesitation.

“The commanding ship was shot down!”

A strange bitterness filled Alyssa’s heart.

Just how much courage did it take for people like them to step onto the battlefield? How could they simply become stardust before reaching the battlefield without achieving anything?

The landscape artist beside her widened his eyes and frantically shouted something at her. There wasn’t time for Alyssa to read his lips before the glow in his eyes became completely different. The mech that had been flying aimlessly under his control slowed down as Alyssa’s head buzzed; she realized that his biochip was being controlled by the enemy.

She bit the tip of her tongue and pulled out the laser gun from her waist, ready to fulfill her duty.

But of course, it wasn’t easy.

She was a former dorm manager who hadn’t even killed a cattle, an average middle-aged woman who would avoid conflict on the streets on a daily basis. She had joined the rebelling forces and the volunteer soldiers with the idea of helping her injured comrades during the battle, not to shoot and kill a father of a child with her own two hands.

Alyssa screamed; the shrill sound of it was drowned out by the alarm of the mech. The first shot missed, but tears rolled down her cheeks. She quickly wiped the wetness from her face as she let the gun auto-aim, mumbling apologies that sounded more like a chant: “Sorry….I’m sorry….ah!”

That was when the landscape artist struggled out of his restraints and jumped.

Alyssa stared in shock at the burnt edges where the ropes had broken. There was a clear cut made from a laser blade that couldn’t have been done over a matter of minutes–the landscape artist had smuggled a laser blade on him and had been wearing down the tough rope behind him the whole way!

As a fighter, he had accepted a highly dangerous mission as the forces were short on men, but immediately regretted it the moment he stepped on the mech. Perhaps he had been trying to hide his fear despite embarking on the journey, but couldn’t help but cheat the system as well–it was his seniors that had given him the idea; surely he couldn’t be the only one who brought a laser blade.

Perhaps he thought, if they couldn’t take out the biochip in time, he didn’t want to die.

The gravity system inside the mech returned to normal as Alyssa crashed into the wall and slid onto the ground. The biochip human before her didn’t even give her a chance to pick up her laser gun and knocked her unconscious as swiftly as the wind.

The small mech team that had been ambushed stopped rebelling. Half of the fleet had been blown up while the surviving mechs became hostages of their biochip; these people would no longer think about rebelling against the higher level chip carriers and give themselves in to the hands of their enemies.

This small battle was like a miniature reflection of the bigger war within the six galaxies.

Three hours after Ms. Alyssa was captured, the coordinates of the temporary lab for biochip research within the Third Galaxy were exposed. The lab was ambushed by the biochip human fleets in that galaxy, annihilating all of the top biotechnology scientists and researchers who had been gathered at the site to fight against the chip. The small ray of hope that shone there, a prototype research model of a biochip disruption system, was burned to ashes.

People struggled for life, then fell into the abyss of death.

People swindled for survival, then betrayed the morals of humanity.

And the elite troops that were supposed to protect these people were still stuck in the forbidden zone between the First and Eighth Galaxies.

“Move away!” Poisson could feel a vein pop in his head.

Both sides of the wormhole had technician fleets and mechs carrying enough disruption equipment to block off the terminal at any time.

Their well-rounded ally understood the risks and in order to stop them from contacting the other side, completely cut off the communication to the Eighth Galaxy to block the terminal.

In other words, this meant that if anything happened in the Heart of the Rose, the First and Ninth Squadrons would not receive any alarms or reports.

“Do you all know how many natural planets exist in the Eighth Galaxy, how many people live there? Did you all know that the Eighth Galaxy had just recovered from years of internal warfare? Can’t you see that these damned computers are here to expand their influence?” Poisson was livid as he shot sharp words like countless blades. “Do you all think the Eighth Galaxy was stupid enough to house you all like a foolish saint, my fellow allies?”

“But Captain Young,” a colonel from the Fourth Galaxy’s Central Militia spoke up, though his voice seemed to be coming from a faraway land. “The majority of the forces from the ally troops are still in the wormhole terminal as well as our own comrades and millions of non-combative personnel! Think about how they would feel if they knew their allies gave up on them and locked them in a time space distortion to die!”

“How would you compare that to a whole galaxy, then?”

“Are you saying the minority deserves to become sacrificial lambs!? What kind of outdated ancient logic is this?”

“So are you saying we should sacrifice the majority?”

“Why are we being forced to make such disgusting choices!?”

At the height of his fury, Poisson let out a laugh. “You think this is just a goddamn school exam where you can simply choose to turn in a blank test and expect only a scolding from your teachers and parents?”

“Then, Captain Young, if the main fleets were to arbitrarily die within the wormhole terminal, what would you have to say to the other galaxies? What about those who are still suffering and struggling under the uncontrolled outbreak of the biochip humans? Do you think they can even expect to see any help in this lifetime!? Tell me, are there more people within the six galaxies combined than the entire Eighth Galaxy alone? How are you going to calculate this!?”

Thomas stepped in and pressed a hand on Poisson’s chest to push him aside: “That’s enough! Third Squadron reinforce side-wing defense; keep Chengying from advancing!”

Chengying had taken the non-terminal route and charged right into the core of the Heart of the Rose. The Second Galaxy Central Militia were the frontline defense facing this surprise ambush and were nearly knocked out. With a single order from Thomas, the technicians from the Silver Third Squadron immediately jumped in as support and hacked into the communication systems of Chengying’s surrounding mechs. That brief moment of stalling gave the completely chaotic Alliance troops a chance to finally get back on their feet and reinforce the opening in their defense.

“Captain Young.” It wasn’t until now that the Second Galaxy Central Militia finally spoke up for the first time. “The Silver Third Squadron….once fought for the Second Galaxy for decades. Is the old principal from the Polytechnic University still writing letters to you guys?”

Poisson’s iron heart sank into an acid bowl; the hard shell was finally melted to expose the unsightly blood and flesh within.

If they weren’t forced to a corner, who would voluntarily choose murder as an answer?

Thankfully, they didn’t seem to have other choices left now.

Thomas pressed his hands down on his brother’s shoulders and said: “The tech starship is gone and our communication is cut off. What else can we do? Now that we have no choice left, let’s just drop it. What if we’re lucky like last time and see the Alliance forces come out of the wormhole at the very last minute like Anakin and his crew?”

Poisson responded hoarsely: “But what if they don’t?”

“Block them off with our lives, Captain Young.” A voice from an unidentified fleet rang out from the communication channel, “We won’t make any choices, we’ll fight until the very end.”

Poisson lifted the corner of his lips slightly at the remark.

The bickering Human Alliance had been standing on edge from the pressure of facing the Great Swords until now, when they all refocused their attention onto the battlefield while tossing aside their differences.

Yet this time, there were no surprises from the wormhole nor was luck on their side.

AI’s abilities to check for loopholes and bugs were not something humans could match; after the Third Squadron hacked into their communication channels several times, the AIs upgraded their systems while still maintaining the same firepower against the Alliance. The Third Squadron was pushed to the edge. At that moment, a small portion of the First Galaxy fleet near the frontlines vanished from the Alliance’s internal communication channel.

“Captain Young, the enemy counterattacked and intercepted our channel!”

“Watch out, the mental network invasion is coming!”

The super mech’s massive mental network quickly swept through the battlefield like a tsunami, effortlessly knocking down another backup pilot from the Third Squadron’s commanding ship.

Poisson was about to connect to the network when Thomas took the pilot’s permission, one step ahead of him. The commanding ship nearly crashed into its escorting mech but dodged a collision at the last minute as Thomas called out, “Take command of the fleets, I’ll pilot.”

He reached a hand out for a relaxant as he finished, only to discover that the commanding ship’s supply of relaxants had already been depleted.

Thomas’s heart almost stopped; he felt as if the Alliance was one step away from the edge of the cliff. After that last mental network attack, about one-third of the Alliance mechs had completely lost control on the battlefield.

All of the pilots on the mechs were unable to pilot anymore.

“Communication channel repairing—repairing failed—”

“Retreat!”

Thomas could already see Chengying’s mech body closing in through the mental network and called out: “Fall back in now! Retreat!”

A notification popped up within the mechs to indicate that the Alliance troops had entered the wormhole zone and were affected by the special radiation emitted by the energy waves of the wormhole–in other words, they could no longer retreat further back.

That was when the communication channel of the Alliance forces blacked out. The voices of their allies could no longer be heard on the deathly silent mechs.

Thomas felt as if a large metal pole had stabbed right into his temples as the mental network’s connection shook violently. The human-mech sync port was being consumed by the enemy’s hacking at a frightening speed; Thomas felt like a small ant attempting to hold off a falling tree with its weak arms. Powerless and depairing, his vision blackened.

The commanding ship of the Third Squadron immediately lost control. The gravity system inside malfunctioned as everyone and everything on the ship flew out and crashed into each other, creating sparks of light within the darkness.

The last line of defense of the Alliance had been broken. Uncontrolled mechs were like uprooted weeds scattered aside.

Supermechs Chengying and Longyuan took the lead and carried the AI fleet through these battlefield casualties and into the wormhole terminal.

And the main Alliance forces still didn’t come out of the wormhole.

In the Eighth Galaxy, Milky Way City’s sky was still a serene and cloudless blue.

The communication had been cut off, therefore nobody had received the nightmarish news from the other side of the wormhole.

At this moment, everyone’s attention was on the internet, listening to a public service announcement from the Milky Way City Command Post. Lu Bixing’s face appeared on every big screen in plazas throughout the galaxy.

“In regards to some information being spread on the internet recently, I’d like to confirm that the Engineering and Cybersecurity Departments have concluded that they were purposely leaked by AIs from the First Galaxy after hacking into our public networks.” The young Prime Minister spoke in his usual tone on-screen. His lips curled up naturally at the corners and his eyes were clear; afurrow under his eyes would appear sometimes as he spoke, making him seem to be at ease and in a good mood despite not having a smile on his face.

“My staff and assistants believe that this is quite an opportunity for a strategic public relations move. They felt that as long as the anxiety of ‘the enemy will soon invade the Eighth Galaxy’ spreads within the galaxy, this situation can easily be rewritten as ‘a public opinion aggression tactic from the enemy.’ Therefore, the government wasn’t obligated to give a direct response to the rumors being spread. They said that the atmosphere of facing a common enemy during a time of crisis will easily drive attention away from such rumors. Then, by spreading certain information to target everyone who still clung to the AI’s proposition as spies from the First Galaxy, it would be easy to rile up more support for me—to be quite honest, my personal image these years has been quite decent. I still have a handful of toothpaste ad requests sitting in my personal mailbox right now.

“There are indeed concerning enemies on the other side of the wormhole zone, but I don’t want to put the blame all on them–by the way, this speech I’m giving right now never went through quality check or inspection by the government, so it’s actually illegal. Perhaps it’ll be removed completely from the internet after a while, so I suggest you all keep a personal copy to share with your friends and family that are not fortunate enough to listen to this in real time.

“When my mother, Lady Muller, fled to the Eighth Galaxy under the deadly pursuit of the Union troops, my adopted father who was supposed to meet her didn’t have the chance to save her life. I was supposed to have died within the womb……”

Inside the Command Post, the entire General Office exploded into a mess of headless chickens. The public relations team frantically rushed into the Prime Minister’s office, only to be shocked by the heavy guards at the door. When they saw the person in the chair turn his head, they were even more stunned–instead of the Prime Minister, they were greeted by the fearsome Grand Marshal Lin Jingheng.

Lin Jingheng remained very lowkey within the Eighth Galaxy; aside from work, he almost never showed his face in public. Even when he made a rare appearance, he spoke very little. His free time outside of work was all spent at home, no more life-threatening overtime work as he had done back when he was still in the Silver Fortress. In theory, there was nothing about him to be fearful of, but for some reason everyone’s stomach churned in fear at every sight of him. It was a strange sense of reverence that was not unlike Zhanlu’s python Popcorn.

“Sit.” Lin Jingheng’s expression was almost relaxed and friendly. “Your Prime Minister isn’t here.”

The Director of the General Office mustered up his courage and took a step forward: “Commander Lin, please contact the Prime Minister immediately. We are requesting to stop this public announcement at this moment; this will be detrimental to the trust and authority of both the Eighth Galaxy government and Prime Minister Lu himself. We shouldn’t be…”

Lin Jingheng lifted a hand to interrupt him: “Director, do you also believe this is a scandal?”

The Director: “……”

Even if he did, he wouldn’t have the guts to say it in front of Lin Jingheng.

“Of course no–”

“If not, then why are we not allowed to give an explanation?” Lin Jingheng answered calmly, “Conspiracy theories all come from implications between the lines; are you going to swear to abstinence for the rest of your life just because you married an ugly wife? I don’t see what the issue is here–of course, the situation is urgent and we may have missed a few procedures; I’ll remind the Prime Minister to complete it later.”

The director’s face reddened into a cherry hue.

On a 3D screen in the corner of the office, Lu Bixing continued to speak, composed: “So, my entire body is basically a giant jigsaw puzzle that was pieced together. Perhaps I’m the only beneficiary of the Nuwa Project that took the lives of countless people—”

The director could almost feel himself getting a heart attack.

That was when a human-shaped Zhanlu walked in and handed Lin Jingheng a small and elegant box: “Sir, you have a package that was delivered to the house, I’ve asked the robot to pick it up for you.”

Inside the box were two matching rings.

Lin Jingheng nodded in acknowledgement, his gaze softening as he placed the small box on him. “I still have things to take care of, so pardon me. If the rest of you all want to, feel free to listen to the full speech in the office.”