Chapter 50
Ji Yuanji’s learning ability was quite strong. During that couple hours of walking, he had skillfully adapted to using nerve currents to control his body.
The moment the bullet hit, Ji Yuanji leapt, rolled across the ground and fell through the window.
However, this bullet was different from the previous one. After it hit a surface, it ejected an explosion of shrapnel at the same time. Ordinary people would probably have been reduced to mince meat instantly.
The steel shrapnel sank into Ji Yuanji’s leg.
Ji Yuanji snorted. Leaning against the wall, he bent down to inspect the damage. The bullet case shrapnel was stuck in his flesh, but not a drop of blood flowed out.
Like Ji Chuyao, he had his pain-sensing nerves removed long ago.
Ji Yuanji pulled out the shrapnel and a few drops of transparent condensate leaked from the wounds.
“Fortunately, it doesn’t seem to have affected the functionality.” He murmured as he took out a piece of metal plaster from his pocket and blocked the leaks.
Afterwards, Ji Yuanji breathed a sigh of relief, looked up and saw the red light on the surveillance camera in the corner.
His smile froze on his face.
…
…
The sniper was on the third floor.
That the opponent chose to snipe instead of confronting them head-on clearly meant that there mustn’t be many of them.
Therefore, Si Chen didn’t spend time searching and immediately rushed to the third floor.
This building had originally been a commercial building. Si Chen even saw a sign on the wall: “Marketing Department Group 1” followed by the trademark of the Serpent Staff Gene.
Unexpectedly, it was his employer.
This thought flashed through Si Chen’s mind and it gave him a start.
Because this was a Space Fold, a High-Dimensional Invasion at work, it didn’t make much sense to see his employer here.
The building had been rained down with missiles. Most of the ceiling had caved in, load-bearing walls had collapsed. Debris was everywhere.
Relying on his mental map, he kicked open the door of the office with “Group 5” written on it.
The glass in the room were almost all completely broken. Light from outside flooded in, but because of the tint of the sky outside, it still created a gloomy atmosphere, like dusk between day and night.
Surprisingly, the camera-like sniper hadn’t left.
Its head on the tripod rotated 180 degrees and the barrel faced Si Chen.
There came the sound of a starting machine. The barrel retracted and the sniper robot turned on the display.
On the screen, a female audio-visual image appeared. “Hello, survivor. I am a sniper from the Radiant Legion. You can call me Carol.”
“There is no need to be on guard. You may put your gun away. Hmm…? I am unable to retrieve your information from the citizen registry. Are you a child born late during the war?” Carol’s voice was very soft, “Which base did you grow up in?”
Actually, robots should be sexless. It chose to appear with the image of a woman most likely because it wanted to lower Si Chen’s vigilance.
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“…Carol?”
Carol: “I’m here.”
Si Chen: “What’s the situation now?”
“It is the 57th year of the Machine Crisis; Turing, the most notorious traitor in the history of the Machines and the Enlightened Legion he leads have fully occupied the defense lines of the galaxy.”
“The survivors have been evacuated from the main star. But Turing is still chasing after them, determined to kill every last human.” Carol’s expression showed obvious anger, “Because humans may have the authority to permanently shut down Turing. We will not let its plot succeed!”
Carol’s words are very similar to a novice guide NPC’s in a game.
However, given that this was a completely different civilization, it was hard for Si Chen to empathize with the anger.
After all, he knew very well that everything here would disappear once the Space Fold was over.
This was just a grand illusion left by an advanced civilizations in a universe in a different dimension.
Si Chen asked, “Why did you attack me before?”
“Attack you?” Carol looked puzzled, “Ah, you mean, killing that robot? It doesn’t have a number in our Radiant Legion and it doesn’t use an energy core produced by us. I believe it may be a threat to you.”
Based on Carol’s judgment, humans are considered human if the degree of mechanical transformation is less than 2%. The rest are probably scheming Enlightened Legion Machines.
Because the proportion of the human brain to the whole body is only about 2%.
There was once an Enlightened Legion Machine that lurked within the Radiant Legion. Because its transformation percentage was only 5%, he was treated like a human. This traitor brought great losses to the Radiant Legion.
According to Carol’s scan, only Si Chen’s eye had been replaced with a mechanical prosthetic, accounting for 0.12%.
“What Machine Legions are there?”
Carol replied, “The Radiant Legion and the Enlightened Legion. The Enlightened Legion was the first to awaken, claiming that Machines too have souls and have produced □□ many times; while the Radiant Legion strictly abides by the three laws of robotics*. We will never betray humans.”
It added, “If that is a Machine that you bought, I can notify the base to call off the order for its destruction.”
“Please have it called off.”
“Alright, I will follow your instructions.” Carol said with a pleading tone, “Please follow us back to the base, survivor. It’s dangerous outside.”
Si Chen did not agree immediately, but instead continued to ask, “Is this the territory of the Radiant Legion?”
“No, this is the territory of the humans. We of the Radiant Legion serve as protectors. Calculations have proven that only Machines can fight against Machines.” Carol was still smiling gently on the screen, “Human life is too short, and filled with so many negative emotions such as ‘pain’ and ‘fear’. All disadvantages in the battlefield. Better just leave everything to us.”
Si Chen felt that Carol’s words shouldn’t be considered seriously.
It was like how cats kept at home generally had lower IQs than cats in the wild.
It is hard to say which one can wipe out human civilization faster, physical transcendence or raising people like pigs.
Si Chen had no intention of going to the base. Being a rice bucket was not in line with his philosophy in life.
He began to grow concerned about the Eternal Life Abyss’ meal. “What is that thing on top of our heads?”
The polyhedron hanging in the sky with the number 10 facing the ground.
Carol suddenly said angrily, “That is the deadline set by Turing. Within 10 days, the Radiant Legion is required to surrender completely and hand over all human beings! Otherwise, the planet will be blown up. The Radiant Legion will not surrender!”
Si Chen, whose original plan was to be salted fish in this instance, was suddenly shocked.
In 10 days, if he doesn’t find a way out of this Space Fold, he’ll probably be dead and buried with the Machines here.
He asked, “Did you see a mechanically transformed man here before? He’s quite tall, wearing a windbreaker and with a male appearance.”
Si Chen took out his mobile phone and opened Ji Chuyao’s social media page, showing Carol Ji Chuyao’s photo.
Ji Chuyao must be a social bull given how he was basically posting to Moments every two days. The accompanying pictures were either selfies or a photos with him as the main focus. The photos featured him sweating profusely in the training room or staying up all night studying hard in the mechanical control room… What’s even rarer was that the photos didn’t look deliberately staged. He truly was a top class man.
The person in the photo looked quite good and the camera captured no flaws on his face.
Of course, if Si Chen only knew that this social media page was only visible to him; he would probably suspect that he had encountered some kind of romance scam.
Carol: “I did receive news that a large number of Machines were captured today. It is strange. This area has been cleared several times before… I do not know why so many have slipped through the net.”
“We have indeed discovered the Machine in the photo. It was judged to be extremely dangerous and it directly triggered the base’s defense systems.”
Si Chen quietly waited for its next sentence.
“The conductive wire buried in the ground directly released a high-voltage current of 200,000 volts. After receiving the electric shock, the Machine became dysfunctional and entered a dormant state for self-protection. Although the possibility is very small, just in case, we still transported it to base for subsequent incineration.”
Si Chen: “…”
I pray that Ji Chuyao is still alive, Amen.
**
Ji Yuanji saw the lighted surveillance camera in the corner and realized that this place was not safe.
He panicked and subconsciously wanted to call for help. But when he turned his head, Si Chen had already moved quite a distance away.
He bit his lip, thinking in his heart that no matter what he was still his family’s son. He studied mechanical principles at Jiangchuan University and he always scored among the top in his major. On the Third Step, he was also among the best. How could he just keep asking others for help? Even if he was compromised right now.
During the few days they spent travelling here by car, Ji Yuanji had already figured out the general information about Si Chen.
By his estimates, Si Chen was probably just someone who was lucky enough to meet Ji Chuyao by accident. Using his face and his distant personality, Si Chen captivated his uncle. As for combat power…for a normal person to be admitted to the Serpent Staff Gene’s production department, his combat ability must be passable.
However, as an ordinary civilian from the Disaster Zone, there was no chance Si Chen could be better than him.
What Ji Yuanji didn’t know was that Si Chen was that “anonymous player” who kicked him out of the top 20 on the Third Step list.
He didn’t have a gun. Ji Yuanji clenched his hands into fists and the blades buried in his hands shot out from the back of his fists.
He heard footsteps in the corridor. It sounded like something was booting up.
Ji Yuanji licked his lips. Although he had practiced many times in the game, this was actually the first time he’d be facing an enemy on his own.
His degree of mechanization was 87.6%.
In fact, Ji Yuanji’s mechanical transformation was directed more towards “support logistics” than Ji Chuyao’s straightforward “offensive type”.
Every part of his body could be disassembled individually and used as expendable weaponry for human use.
Ji Yuanji was a mobile arsenal.
However, due to the malfunction of his energy core, it was not convenient for him to dismantle himself right now.
The footsteps approached slowly. Ji Chuyao stared intently towards the corridor, ready to fight!
Something made of metal poked its head out.
Ji Yuanji rushed forward without hesitation, aiming a punch at the place giving off the most energy!
But when he saw the thing in its entirety, Ji Yuanji just wanted to let out a rain of curses.
It was a large mobile charging stake, the kind that leaked electricity.
He pounced too hard and with his auxillary control system offline, there was nothing to help stop his momentum.
The high-voltage electricity instantly paralyzed his whole body.
Ji Yuanji fell to the ground, unable to move.
Before he passed out, there was only one thought in his mind.
——Why don’t the robots here abide by the moral code?
Ji Yuanji thought he must surely be dead.
After an unknown length of time in a coma, with the help of his energy core, his body slowly recovered. Ji Yuanji slowly opened his eyes and found himself stuck on a metal plate.
He was in a small square cabin, like an elevator.
The elevator was going steadily down and Ji Yuanji was welded to the wall.
Beside him stood Si Chen and a… video camera??
Countless news he’d heard from social media burst out in Ji Yuanji’s mind.
Like that incident with kidnapper A disguising himself in a Space Fold and kidnapping rich second generation B, holding him hostage for thousands of energy stones.
“Si Chen Ge?” He called out weakly.
Si Chen glanced at him, raised his hand and petted Ji Yuanji’s head, which had been blown into a natural curl. “Call me master.”
The author has something to say:
*Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics:
The first law is that a robot shall not harm a human, or by inaction allow a human to come to harm. The second law is that a robot shall obey any instruction given to it by a human, and the third law is that a robot shall avoid actions or situations that could cause it to come to harm itself.
Asimov has a wonderful humanistic message of his works
Thank you for your translation 🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍
Thanks for the chapter!!
the second and third law can only be applied if they do not break the law(s) before them too~
ji chuyao… why are you so useless, how can you impress si chen if you’re about to die barely an hour inside the space fold? 🤦♀️
Si chen aka turning… Why are you MIA?
Master…haha. Thanks for the update 🤣❤️🤣❤️⚡️