Can Ci Pin - - - Chapter 56

Chapter 56 – Are You Trying to Comfort Me?

“Sir, this doesn’t follow your normal behavioral patterns.” Zhanlu’s voice echoed inside the empty Model 3. “What inspired you to make this decision?”

In a deserted area about ten sailing days away from the space station, Lin Jingheng stood inside the cockpit of the Model 3, eyes on the radar already filled with enough clutter to look like a giant kaleidoscope in space.

The three teams of the space station gathered anxiously at their designated hiding spots. The Model 3 turned off its weaponry system and only kept a replica cannon. A replica cannon was just a special type of electromagnetic wave that placed a marking on mechs to indicate that a mech had been hit. Once it reached a certain magnitude, it would indicate that the shield system was broken.

It was essentially a hilarious toy for kids.

Lin Jingheng felt like a big bully holding a tiny water gun in front of a complex intersection ready to play hide and seek with a bunch of grade school children. Yet Commander Lin was completely unaware that these children hiding behind the walls of the alleyways were legitimately scared of this water gun.

For the next four hours, the commander’s job was to tear down the maze and find the children so he could gently splash some water on their soft round butts- Oh, and he couldn’t hit them too hard or it might startle the little almonds inside their heads.

To make matters worse, the whole embarrassing process would be fully recorded and replayed in front of everyone after the game. Thankfully, they were already far enough from the range of the internal network so they were unable to stream the content live.

The almighty and fierce Commander Lin had stood on top for many years and found his reputation down all over the floor today.

There was almost nothing more important in the universe than a man’s pride, so Lin Jingheng quietly put on an expressionless facade before Zhanlu and said: “The remaining three teams from the station can be compared to the result of natural selection and self-categorization. They managed to split into three main types of teams: high adaptability and flexibility type, steady defense type, and mobile assault type. They each have their own strengths, so if they learn how to cooperate and use the anti-detection system to their advantage, it’s possible to draw out their potential.”

“That wasn’t how you evaluated them last time,” Zhanlu ripped off his facade with no tact. “Last time you said the remaining three teams were representations of the three toxic tumors of human society– the vile and manipulative bad eggs, the foolish majority, and the daydreaming fools that don’t know their own limits.”

“……” Lin Jingheng remained silent for two seconds. “That was a joke.”

This time, Zhanlu didn’t laugh; instead, he responded at a loss: “According to the context and your usual speech patterns, I don’t think that was a joke.”

Lin Jingheng’s tone of voice was starting to grow annoyed: “The biggest difference between a human and an AI is that there is no fixed pattern to a human’s speech and actions.”

Zhanlu rebutted with reason: “Sir, it seems like sociology and psychology are not your field of expertise. In fact, research on human behavior patterns began very early in ancient Earth society. There is evidence to show that there is internal logic behind all seemingly complex human behaviors; for example, based off of your personal data the next thing you will say to me is…”

Lin Jingheng: “Shut up!”

Zhanlu: “…Shut up.”

The top AI of the Interstellar Union and his master spoke at the same time. Zhanlu paused for a moment before responding dutifully: “Understood, carrying out ‘shut up’ order.”

Lin Jingheng: “……”

The commander was very tempted to take Zhanlu off the Model 3 right now and reinstall him on a more appropriate hardware: a stationary workout bike.

“Everyone should know the rules already,” Lu Bixing’s voice came up inside all participating mechs. “In the past games, no participants had administration access to the anti-detection system; this time is different as I’ve opened up partial access to the system to everyone on the field. This time, your opponents are not each other, it will be Commander Lin only. To put it simply, the past games were a game of survival that allowed everyone to take the role of the hunter and prey, but this time the only hunter is Commander Lin, whose goal will be to capture every single one of you regardless of team allegiance.”

Sadly, nobody was more excited about the seemingly easier game rules and were instead more nervous than before.

“Starting today, we will no longer eliminate anyone from the game.” Lu Bixing continued. “The scoring system will continue, but from now on the last place team will be put in charge of patrolling the space station until the next game. I will remind everyone once again that the patrols are a long and tedious process. Patrollers are the first in line at the limits of the space station, and in certain areas patrollers will lose signal to communicate between one another. In these situations, those that have weaker mental stability can often experience anxiety, high blood pressure and other psychological unease that can have a level of affect on your future performance on mechs. In other words, losing here once might cost you more than just your pride, so please be careful.”

Saturday’s eyes lit up, Foucault was finalizing her team’s formation, and Weasel was already starting to use his administration access to the anti-detection system to check up on the positioning of the other two teams. A thought ran through Weasel’s mind as he located the other teams: it doesn’t matter if they got wiped out since it was just a simulation, so as long as the other two teams performed worse than the Iron Knights they could naturally escape the fate of being in last place.

“Lin, you said before that the combat experience and ability of space pirates were far greater than we ever imagined,” Lu Bixing’s voice rang up inside the Model 3 as if he was just speaking right by Lin Jingheng’s ears. “If the pirates really managed to scan through this area with their long-distance radar detectors, I want to know if my anti-detection system could really stand a chance against them; so please, don’t go easy.”

Lin Jingheng’s eyes looked up towards the communication screen and saw Lu Bixing hastily add: “I meant don’t go easy on me, but try and be a little less harsh on the others.”

“Don’t go easy on you?” Lin Jingheng said.

Lu Bixing interpreted some strangely suggestive meaning from that line, gave a quick smile in response and cut off the communication with a bright red face.

Lin Jingheng: “…”

The commander stood dumbfounded for a split second before he let out a sigh and poured himself half a glass of rum.

And thus, a massacre began as the commander felt an awkward unease tingled his otherwise dense senses.

“Hey Saturday,” Holiday’s voice came up from the telecom. “The Weasel’s men are moving towards Foucault’s team, are they planning on working together?”

Saturday examined the map carefully for a moment: “Foucault’s team has the most people, making them the easiest target to locate. If I was in the commander’s place, I would target them first.”

Holiday didn’t quite follow the logic: “Then why did the Weasel…”

“To cover up and steal fame.” A member of the Self-Defense Squad answered. “We’ve been fighting for so long already, can’t you tell? They’re pretending to seek alliance right now, but the moment Commander Lin locates Foucault, the damn Weasel will backstab her and destroy their fleet from the inside. It wouldn’t be easy for the Model 3 to make its way around the sea of mechs, so Foucault’s team would become the best defense for them. They can hide behind the Golden Warriors and attack the Model 3 in a guerilla fight; there’s also a transfer portal right behind them, so they can retreat anytime they want.”

“Weasel wasn’t part of the patrol that last time.” Another Self-Defense Squad member spoke up. “He has no idea what it’s like to fight against Commander Lin.”

“What’s it like?” Saturday asked.

“His mental network…” The squad member’s voice began to tremble a little as he continued. “The moment his mental network scans through, you would feel like a weed grass growing out of a field waiting to be cut down. It was like a giant scythe cutting through a field at a speed you can’t even see, there was no way for you to hide; by the time you realize, you’re already done for. When you get forcefully disconnected from the mental network, it was like you fell into a sea of ice, and then into a complete void where your body won’t even respond to you as if you were dead. This was nothing like how we normally disconnect…Boss, I was only around the sidelines at the time, there were other people that faced the commander directly still on the station. Forget about piloting mechs, some of them are still traumatized to the point they can’t turn off their lights at night. Weasel has no idea that even with their firepower, there’s no way they can hit the Model 3 outside of the heavy mech’s mental network range. Once they enter the range, there’s no way for them to get out.”

“Don’t worry,” Saturday reassured his team. “We still have the anti-detection system on our side. Listen to my orders, everyone spread out, but keep your formations!”

“Saturday, the Model 3’s on the move!”

Under the anti-detection system’s monitoring function, the route of the Model 3 appeared in front of all three teams. It started making rounds outside of the system’s range before finally settling near a transfer portal.

“Hey boss, what is he doing?”

“Don’t stand around the transfer portal, move away.” Saturday commanded. “Spread out a little more.”

“We can’t spread out more” Holiday said. “We’re not inside the station’s network range right now so our communication is fixed-point, if we spread out even more we won’t be able to reach each other’s signals!”

Saturday’s gaze remained still on the minitor as he spoke: “I heard that these frontline generals have experienced more battles than all the meals we’ve ever had in our lives combined. They’re so used to the battlefield that they can sense any little changes. The people that were in the simulation battles are all scared of him, so they must’ve prepared an escape route by the transfer portals and are waiting to run at any given time. But heavy mechs are able to scan signals through transfer portals…”

Before he could finish, the Model 3 suddenly made a transfer as Saturday’s heart skipped a beat.

In the next instant, the Model 3 appeared out of nowhere behind the Weasel’s fleet. Weasel was still executing his master plan and didn’t even have time to react; within a matter of seconds, the entire Iron Knights fleet froze on the spot. At the same time, the monitor signals indicating Weasel’s entire team completely disappeared from the screen. Lin Jingheng didn’t even touch the cannon and straight up swept the entire fleet’s mental networks.

Due to having dirty tricks up their sleeves, all of the Iron Knights’ cannons were aimed at their allies ready to fire. The moment their mental networks were taken over, all replica cannons opened fire towards Foucault’s Golden Warriors.

Thankfully, Foucault already had some precautions about Weasel’s team and had part of her team waiting outside the fire range, and was able to avoid running into the crossfire the moment the Model 3 appeared.

Saturday caught the opportunity and immediately sent a set of coordinates to his team’s mechs: “Everyone, retreat to the nearest transfer portal and get ready to make a transfer!”

Even while facing Lin Jingheng, Saturday was fearless.

Holiday’s face turned pale at the command: “Saturday, are you crazy?”

“If we don’t attack now, we’ll be the ones running next, hurry up!” Saturday charged forward, and the rest of the Self-Defense Squad followed. They’ve been through too many hardships with Saturday that following their leader already became an instinct.

During this short span of time, the Golden Warriors were already almost completely wiped out by the Model 3. The survivors began retreating back towards the transfer portal in an attempt to escape. Before they could reach the portal, the Self-Defense Squad suddenly appeared and charged towards the Model 3. Behind the surviving Golden Warriors, the Self-Defense Squad were like a swift dagger that shot out from the depths of darkness towards its prey.

Saturday’s eyes locked on the Model 3 through his mental network, his focus strong enough that he managed to reach his all-time highest sync rate with his mech. The Model 3 was like a giant glistening pearl in space; Saturday pulled up his mock cannon and fired towards it. Even if it was just a little scratch, if he could manage to hit the Model 3, he would earn a significant amount of points for his team even if it meant he’d be swept off his mental network the next second…

His field of vision blackened. The next second, Iron Knight mechs under the Model 3’s control blocked right in front of his cannons. Saturday’s chest tightened as he sensed a foreboding feeling when he realized he wouldn’t have time to retreat. Within a blink of an eye, Saturday felt as if something covered his mental network followed by a strong feeling of suffocation; Saturday’s head buzzed, his sync level with the mech drop from 75% straight down to 0 as he lost consciousness.

Seeing that even the sharpest knives of the Self-Defense Squad couldn’t stand a chance, the surviving mechs all hurried back to try and escape using the anti-detection system.

They were too late. The Model 3 had already hacked into countless mechs previously, and naturally gained administrative access to the anti-detection system. Lin Jingheng, the most terrifying hunter of this game, slowly took off his blindfold inside the Model 3 and looked around the field. Within less than 40 minutes, the field was completely emptied with no one else to be seen.

The drill estimated to last for four hours ended in less than 40 minutes. All three teams were completely wiped out with the same exact negative scores, making it impossible to rank them.

The four students monitoring the drill didn’t even have a chance to show off their piloting skills and stood dumbfoundedly without a word. Whether it was the armed forces of the station or the anti-detection system, months of training meant nothing in the eyes of someone who’d been on real battlefields. Everyone was speechless at how vulnerable and hopeless the armed forces were before a real soldier.

After what felt like an eternity, White’s voice broke the silence in the communication channels: “Hey teach, d-does this mean it’s over?”

“Uh,” Lu Bixing answered arduously. “…Okay, drill’s over. Clean up the field and take care of the injured.”

Following another 30 seconds of silence, Lu Bixing quickly changed his tone and said calmly: “There were three fatal mistakes made today. First, the transfer portals; when we were installing the anti-detection system two days ago, I noticed that commander Lin purposely avoided all routes that connected directly to the portals. If it wasn’t for this, I’d presume they would be wiped out much faster today. I didn’t even think about security locking the portals with a passcode…heh, sorry, I got a little too conceited from a few words of praise. Second, the battle awareness of the teams was not ideal. The Iron Knights and Golden Warriors were already raising their white flags before the battle started and stayed close to the transfer portals, that was why they were the first to be located by the Model 3. The Self-Defense Squad was too reckless and underestimated their opponent. They didn’t catch on that all the portals within the vicinity were under the control of the Model 3 and jumped right into the trap. Third, the anti-detection system didn’t have a secondary security code. Without that, once a mech gets hacked, the enemy will be able to obtain all information and access to the system, making it their own. This was my mistake.”

Huang Jingshu carefully called out: “Teach…”

Lu Bixing laughed: “What? Don’t worry, I’m fine. Hurry up and clean up the field, I still need to adjust the anti-detection system.”

The students were now experts at cleaning up after the drills and took care of all injured persons in a timely manner. Inside the vast interstellar maze, Lu Bixing sat by himself in his mech and reviewed the data from the simulation game earlier.

He couldn’t say he didn’t feel defeated.

Ever since he made the three-month promise with Lin Jingheng, Lu Bixing had been living inside his workroom in the mech dock. When the commander got up every morning before sunrise for his physical training, he was also up in his workroom working on his project. He poured out all his blood and sweat for this project, yet that still wasn’t enough.

After all, he was still young.

Lu Bixing let himself space out for a minute before he rubbed his face and recollected his feelings. He turned all his efforts from the last few months into a light feather of emotions and blew it away. Lu Bixing had learned two important lessons while he was a young teen: to not care too much about his own feelings, and not care too much about the amount of time things took.

Feelings are subjective and controllable, but time…people can do nothing and time will still pass. Lu Bixing believed that to say that you gave your time away was a little too conceited.

Just then, a connection request came in. Lu Bixing looked up and found the Model 3 already waiting nearby, with the mech dock opened towards him.

Lin Jingheng stood by the loading dock’s main entrance and watched as Lu Bixing’s little mech slowly parked inside through the glass windows. The commander’s face was still as expressionless as usual, but he already cracked his knuckles behind his back a few times while silently contemplating if he had been a bit too harsh.

Lin Jingheng had noticed the problem with the portals during the installation, but didn’t mention it to Lu Bixing and only adjusted it quietly by himself.

He was well-aware of his bad habit of nitpicking every little problem in front of him, so he purposely held back in front of Lu Bixing. The transfer portals were like a double-edged sword that didn’t seem like a major flaw in Lin’s eyes; to him, it could even be used as a tool to lay out traps during an actual battle. In fact, traps in the transfer portals had been exactly how the Primal Alien died…he just didn’t think that Lu Bixing would ask him to join the station’s drill games.

“I should’ve just hung around a bit longer.” Lin Jingheng thought. “At least for about four hours before I went in.”

The air pressure adjustment was complete and Lu Bixing came out from his mech. Lin Jingheng froze up a bit as he saw him from afar.

Lu Bixing walked over, and the two looked at each other in silence.

Lin Jingheng then took the chance to speak first: “To complete a project from start to finish is an extremely hard task. From brainstorming to designing, and then building to completion, every step requires a systematic process to achieve. You also often need to pay attention to every detail in order to make sure all functions run successfully, which requires a large amount of time and effort. In contrast to that, finding one loophole is much easier, because nothing in this world is perfect. Finding loopholes and bugs is also an important process, but if anyone thinks they are better than someone for nitpicking for these loopholes, then they’re simply fools…Uh, you don’t need to worry about them too much.”

LIn Jingheng remembered that Lu Xin would wrap his arms around his shoulder and talk to him when he was younger whenever he ran into something that upset him. He subconsciously wanted to try and imitate that gesture, but because he wasn’t an extroverted person that fancied physical contact, Lin’s hand stopped in midair awkwardly as he contemplated where to place it. The longer Lin Jingheng held his hand out, the louder Monoeye Hawk’s shady cult rant replayed in his head.

Lin Jingheng could also feel cold sweat covering his palm.

Lu Bixing looked a little surprised. He suddenly grabbed Lin’s hand and stared into the commander’s eyes as he asked: “Are you trying to comfort me, Commander?”

Lin Jingheng instinctively wanted to pull his hand back, but felt a little awkward doing so and completely froze up on the spot.