Can Ci Pin - - - Chapter 80

Chapter 80 – The Eighth Independent Galaxy

There was a large transformable ice pack inside the medical chamber. The ice pack turned into the shape of a giant bean bag as it wrapped around Lin Jingheng’s entire body to physically cool down his fever and keep him awake: “Most communication channels will have a section with damage report data on their fleet’s mech shields – it should be a dynamic list, can you find it?”

Lu Bixing lifted his head to look at him. Perhaps it was due to the fever, but Lin Jingheng’s eyes were only half open and seemed much more disheveled than normal. Though strangely, he didn’t seem weakened, instead giving off the aura of those ancient undead creatures with his pale face, hiding immeasurable power within his coffin.

Whether it was the lingering emotional distress of the fight or something else after that, it certainly made Lu Bixing felt much more awkward facing the target of his anger. He felt his heart skip a beat the moment he sensed that gaze sweep over towards him. Lu Bixing quickly lowered his head and downloaded the shield damage reports of the pirate fleet, then tossed it onto a projection against the wall without a second thought.

Lin Jingheng went silent for a second as he saw the projection: “….can you flip it upside down?”

Lu Bixing: “…”

The young scientist felt like if this continued his brain might decide to malfunction; he didn’t know how to deal with the situation, so instead he decided to force himself to think about Lin Jingheng’s despicable qualities in order to calm his rampaging emotions by dwelling on those flaws. Yet little did he know that the more he thought about it, the harder it got to pick out only a few; Lin Jingheng’s despicable qualities could almost be a grand collection that belonged in a museum, it was impossible to make selections.

Lu Bixing’s anger that had been interrupted by the sudden kisses reignited back into a flame, and the more he thought, the bigger the fire grew within him.

Very quickly, his mushy brain juice got forcefully burned clear by his fury and felt his work speed increase exponentially.

Lu Bixing swiftly opened up a backdoor within the broken communication network of the Freedom Corps and installed a long-distance signal onto it. The signal boldly accessed the network platform, passed through numerous transfer portals and shot towards Qiming to deliver the SOS message.

Unfortunately — perhaps he’d been infected by Lin Jingheng’s shit luck — the AUS headquarters sent out a special disruption signal before the two-way connection could be successfully made.

Even though the AUS was lacking in physical defense, their technological abilities let them single-handedly destroy the entire Freedom Corps–the latter’s internal network was completely destroyed, also cutting off Lu Bixing’s weak signal that he’d implemented on their network.

Zhanlu: “Connection cannot be completed, sorry.”

Lu Bixing sighed: “It’s okay, I’ll try again.”

“Okay, Headmaster Lu.” Zhanlu wasn’t used to this response and paused for a second until he finally added, “compared to my master who would be using vulgar languages even when he loses in a video game, you are very kind and well-mannered.”

Even though Zhanlu was an AI, he was still a mech core before that. While he would fulfill his duty and obey his master on land, once he was on the mech, the orders of the pilot would be prioritized over the orders of his own master–in other words, Lin Jingheng couldn’t make him shut up right now.

And that’s why Commander Lin could only pretend to be deaf again and focus on the dynamic list in his hand.

The rate of shields deteriorating or percentage of damage were all just numbers to normal people, at most only able to be used to determine where to hide when their shield’s about to break.

Yet to veteran frontline soldiers, even the most trivial detail could reveal critical information about their enemy.

Even without the help of a computer, Lin Jingheng could determine both side’s firepower distribution and combat efficiency based on the dynamic damage report. If he ran into a newbie commander, he could even determine the enemy’s thought process.

Just then, he found something strange within the Freedom Corps.

The Freedom Corps weren’t weak; rather, they could be considered well-trained. Even though they were all piloting small mechs, the soldiers seemed to be properly trained with very fast reactions, appropriate defensive and offensive streaks with impeccable cooperation. They destroyed the anti-missile defense of the AUS very efficiently to the point it was almost scary to watch–it was hard to say if the Ninth Squadron could do any better even if they were here.

However, this was all right before the connection cut off.

In an environment like space where everyone’s on a mech, it was impossible to call each other across the battlefield; therefore, in modern warfare, communication interception was a specialized department. It was normal to receive disruptions during a real battle; yet this pirate fleet with combat abilities infinitely close to the Ninth Squadron immediately turned into lost lambs the moment their communication was cut off.

The once-organized fleet completely fell apart like a bunch of ants which had lost their pheromones. Some mechs even began sailing around in Brownian motion, but even stranger was the fact that they still continued to fire at their enemy.

There were no changes to the energy waves that Zhanlu captured, but the amount of damage that the AUS headquarters received dropped significantly–in other words, the Freedom Corps was currently firing aimlessly around the area…it was highly possible that some of them were caught in friendly fire.

Lin Jingheng frowned and turned to Lu Bixing: “Give me the mental network.”

Lu Bixing glared at him coldly and defensively.

Lin Jingheng gave up almost immediately: “Fine—let Zhanlu expand the network a bit and attempt to hack into the closest Freedom Corps mech.”

“Oh,” Lu Bixing responded with an unimpressed expression, “Zhanlu, expand the mental network.”

Lin Jingheng couldn’t help but worry: “Can you handle Zhanlu’s network? He…”

Even though Lu Bixing didn’t respond or look at him, his expression darkened.

Even though Lin Jingheng didn’t like talking to people, to be able to become a Commander at such a young age meant that he knew how to read the room. He held up his hand to indicate that he would keep quiet as he saw Lu Bixing’s expression.

However, he wasn’t used to not being in charge of the mental network while he was on a mech. Lin Jingheng felt like he was completely blinded, like he’d just handed his wild steed running along the edges of the cliff to someone else…and the new rider of this “dressage” clearly wasn’t a professional athlete.

Lin Jingheng held it in for a while until he finally couldn’t help himself and said: “You…okay, you can pilot if you want, but remember to keep yourself hidden. If they catch you, don’t waste time dealing with them and make an emergency warp immediately to the closest transfer portal, the coordinates are…”

Lu Bixing responded sarcastically as he spread out Zhanlu’s mental network: “I didn’t know you were such a careful person, Commander. Who was the one who was about to shove himself into an ecopod and fly out into the battlefield just earlier?”

Lin Jingheng: “……”

Lu Bixing locked onto a floating Freedom Corps mech and continued to mock him: “Maybe someone hacked into your brainwave channel and turned you into an idiot.”

Lin Jingheng had only ever been the audience to stories about how relationships always involve some sort of couple’s quarrel; now being put on the spot to experience it himself, he only just found out that the process also involved ‘a fight for a kiss’. This wasn’t what he signed up for, and now Lu Bixing wasn’t even holding back on the scolding!

The fever also gave Lin Jingheng the delusion that he had been the one who had acted inappropriately earlier.

Just then, Lu Bixing’s expression changed: “Hold on, the human-mech sync rate is too high.”

During the process of hacking into others’ mechs, if the hacker were to take action against a high sync rate enemy, they would be killed immediately.

Lin Jingheng slowly pulled his body up in shock: “Come back, give me access to the network!”

“Wait, there’s no reaction from the other side…I can’t find the gap within the port that connects the pilot and mech.” As a qualified scientist, Lu Bixing’s curiosity was strong enough to wipe out the entire feline population. With this sudden game-changing discovery, he wasn’t shaken instead drawn by it as he said quietly: “Zhanlu, remind me if I’m wrong; the maximum human-mech sync rate is 90% and is an unshakable law of modern science…is my vision just that bad that I can’t find the sync port?”

“No,” Zhanlu answered, “You’re not mistaken, Headmaster Lu, the enemy’s human-mech sync rate is 100%.”

Lin Jingheng was shocked: “What?”

Even Lu Bixing couldn’t help but be surprised: “You’re not kidding!”

“Looks like the pilots of the Freedom Corps aren’t normal people,” Lin Jingheng quickly commented, “back on the Corps’ space station, that ‘001’ person mentioned this son of a gun…artificial god project, which uses biochips to forcefully transform people into superhumans. These superhumans will experience a drastic physical change within a short amount of time and can turn half of their body into a machine. According to 001, once these superhumans connect to the mechs, their bodies will become a part of the mech itself and have a reaction time 16 times faster than humans…no wonder you couldn’t find a gap within the port.”

Lu Bixing couldn’t understand the logic behind it: “No way, the Silver Fortress isn’t completely dead yet, why are these fools still looking into fully autopilot mechs?”

Zhanlu interrupted: “The Freedom Corps’ ultimate goal is likely not autopilot mechs, and instead superhumans that can evolve both as man and machine. However, they have not reached their goal and can only create these half-completed monsters.”

“No wonder they’re interested in the Nuwa Project from the AUS.” Lin Jingheng’s gaze turned towards the chaotic Freedom Corps fleet. “These half-completed superhumans have fast reflexes and aren’t affected by signal interruptions, but it looks like they don’t have independent cognitive abilities. Their thoughts and actions might be limited under the biochip’s control, so when the AUS intercepted their communication signals, it also intercepted their biochips; the engineers of the Freedom Corps might be performing emergency repairs right now. Can you try…”

Lu Bixing’s eyes lit up: “Crack the signal code of the biochip while they’re repairing the system and hide among them!”

Back on Qiming, Huang Jingshu wore the heavy isolation suit and waited in the city plaza for the people to come pick up their ‘vaccines’. Even though the Self-Defense Squad had sent the vaccines to households personally, the homeless and wanderers with no permanent living spaces were left without any vaccines to pick up. So the ones that were left out gathered to protest, and large gatherings are the most dangerous parts during a pandemic, so Turan set up a few pickup stations in different areas, sent out armed mobiles to block roads, and forcefully disassembled crowds as people were sent to various locations.

Even then, the amount of people at the pickup stations was much greater than she expected. Huang Jingshu was stuck in the heavy isolation suit uncomfortably and moved her body around on the spot. Her other classmates were helping out at other pickup stations.

They needed to work in order to ease the anxiety of society.

They were the only survivors of Beijing-β wandering in the complex and vast Eighth Galaxy all by themselves. Huang Jingshu couldn’t imagine how they would go on without Headmaster Lu.

“Here you go,” Huang Jingshu handed out a fake vaccine filled with glucose to the Milky Way City residents waiting in line as she repeated the line she’d said countless times today mechanically, “please leave as soon as you receive the vaccine and don’t block the way. Don’t gather up in large crowds either, thank you. Next–”

Before she could finish, sounds of commotion came from afar as a few armed mobiles set off their alarms simultaneously and summoned a few soldiers. Immediately after, the microphone expanded the commotion exponentially as a man yelled loudly through the alarm broadcast from inside an armed mobile: “They’re liars! These aren’t vac-…”

A buzzing noise rang as the armed mobile sent out signal disruption and turned the voice in the broadcast into a high-pitched screech. Everyone covered their ears subconsciously as their hearts dropped into a boiling pool of anxiety.

“What did he say? What liar?”

“These aren’t vac…vaccines! I think I heard that!”

“What? Then what are they handing out?”

“Oh no”, Huang Jingshu thought as a drop of cold sweat rolled down her face.

A soldier from the Ninth Squadron quickly walked over and told her in a small voice: “We’re reporting this to the Captain right now, non-combat personnel should retreat first!”

Huang Jingshu nodded her head on instinct as she was about to follow them out.

Just then, a civilian that was waiting in line suddenly stood out and said loudly: “You guys are all holding the vaccines, just find a pharmacy or lab somewhere to test and you’ll see that this is filled with useless plac…”

A narcotic gun shot him down before he could finish his line; however, the civilians already drenched in fear thought he’d been shot dead and started running around as they cried in horror. Some people began cursing out loud, others attempted to pass through the barricade of the armed mobiles inside to point at Huang Jingshu, demanding her to give them an explanation…

Some fearless individuals even denounced harsly: “They won’t give us the real vaccines, I suggest you guys that are already infected find a place to hide now before they capture you guys into the quarantine rooms. You’ll die the moment you get caught, they’ll just toss you away like trash once you’re dead!”

Huang Jingshu’s heart rate rose up to 180 beats per minute as she watched the people that had been lined up in an orderly fashion just a few moments ago turn into a flood of unorganized mess before her. Rumors were like an uproar picked up by a heavy wind among the crowd. The Silver Ninth soldier beside her was dragging her away as he reported to Turan on his personal device. Huang Jingshu vaguely made out some of their conversation and heard the always smiling Captain Turan said with a cold tone: “….control the area at all costs.”

“At all costs,” Huang Jingshu thought blankly in her mind, “are they going to silence the crowd? Professor Lu, what should we do?”

Professor Lu was currently out in a faraway galaxy and couldn’t answer. She then heard someone else yell from the crowd: “Those people that are handing out the vaccines are all in isolation suits. If the vaccine works, why are those people so scared of the virus?”

“We want an explanation, give us an explanation!”

“They’re coming to kill us, run!”

Just then, a row of armed mobiles from afar passed through an energy field and landed right outside the crowd of people that were trying to escape and forced them back into their area. The sharp front of the armed mobiles were like a cold arrowhead pointing at the angry citizen cattles.

Huang Jingshu suddenly took a step back and struggled out the grip of the soldier grabbing onto her. She ran back to the reception desk she’d just been at earlier and picked up the megaphone meant for maintaining order: “Hey!”

The 16-17 year old young girl may have had a similar figure to an adult, but with the situation falling to an extreme her voice came out with a bit of a childish tone. She raised a vaccine up in the air and said to the crowd: “We have very limited supply of the vaccine, and everyone in isolation suits have not received any injections. If you guys really want to accuse us, that would make my job easier.”

Before the soldiers could stop her, she took off her isolation suit as she finished her sentence. Her hair was already drenched in sweat as it fell against her face; the people that came to support her were a group of the Ninth Squadron, who were all shocked by this sudden change of events and all came down from their mobiles.

Huang Jingshu’s hands trembled wildly as it took her multiple tries before she successfully clipped the syringe onto her arm. The syringe scanned her automatically to find the position of injection, disinfected the area and shot a vaccine that couldn’t cure any illness or save lives into her veins.

“Professor Lu will find a way,” she thought. “If vaccuocerebrals can pilot mechs up in space and control over two mental networks like a normal person, what else is impossible? Even if I get infected, they will bring back the real vaccine.”

No matter what time or age, there will always be thoughtless and fearless youths that will run forward without a second thought while others are busy trying to cheat their ways out.

The syringe fell off her arm as it completed its task while the crowd watched her in complete silence.

“Does this convince you guys now? The vaccine isn’t almighty, it’ll have different effects for different people. Some people will still face the risk of infection and death, others will be allergic; if you find yourself to be infected that just means the vaccine isn’t fit for you, so go to the hospital immediately. The hospital isn’t a butcher station!” Huang Jingshu took in a deep breath, “I’ll say it again, people that haven’t received their vaccines stay in line in an orderly fashion. People that have already received it please leave the area immediately and avoid highly crowded areas. Next in line–”

At this time, a large rumbling noise came from the sky. People raised their heads to see a line of spaceships and mechs were flying towards the operational base at a distance within the atmosphere as they all got ready to land.

In the clear sky, people were able to make out the large signs and symbols on the mechs and spaceships.

“There’s a symbol of the syringes on that spaceship!”

“That’s from planet London, I heard there was a big name on London that specialized in selling medicine.”

“That mech is from planet Valor.”

“And that one’s from Milas…”

Monoeyed Hawk virtually mobilized the entire Eighth Galaxy’s medical resources as the large spaceships landed like a giant rainbow boat inside the operational base. There was a fully equipped medical laboratory and a full team of medical researchers inside the ship. Most planets within the Eighth Galaxy contributed at least some medical equipment and supplies, and some even came by themselves.

Sitting by the gate of death, William Yu opened his eyes and saw an aged face through the transparent mask on the isolation suit. He didn’t recognize who it was; perhaps a century’s time had already changed both of their faces, or perhaps the Rainbow Virus had already burned the last of his cognitive abilities. Or perhaps they’d once fought together but never had the chance to meet each other–but he recognized the rusty bronze medal in the person’s hand.

The Eighth Galaxy, Independent Union Navy.

It wasn’t the laughable ‘Freedom’ Corps of the pirates, but a real fleet that once followed the Union over a century ago, a fleet that once believed in the Union’s Pledge of Freedom, and the fleet that once went through the bloodshed of war…

William’s vision suddenly blurred as this unknown…former comrade placed the medal beside him and said slowly: “My friend, we are the Eighth Independent Galaxy.”

Tears covered William Yu’s face.

Monoeyed Hawk barged in Turan’s temporary commanding office without a greeting: “I brought over the entire lab from that old rat’s place in London, they’re ready to analyze the new virus immediately. Where’s Lin Jingheng? Did they find that cult’s homebase?”

Lin Jingheng and Lu Bixing had already snuck into the Freedom Corps’ fleet of small mechs. The fleet was already made up of various mech models, and a customized code let the superhuman fleet completely ignore their existence. The communication channel was repaired, and the messy formation of the Freedom Corps regained their order as they swiftly closed in on the headquarters of the AUS.