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Happy Doomsday - Chapter 165

Published at 4th of October 2022 01:36:39 PM


Chapter 165

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Cold sweat crawled all over Yu Le’s back, who was pushed out.

When they entered, everything outside the door had already collapsed, so Yu Le didn’t realize for a while what Ruan Lijie wanted to do. His adrenaline spiked, and he only had time to change his posture and protect Ji Xiaoman, who was still sitting on his neck.

Then they fell onto soft grass, causing small brown insects to fly away. The smell of dirt and wet grass immediately filled Yu Le’s nose. He didn’t react for a while and just lay there, staring at the dull blue sky that was in front of him.

The door connecting the darkness disappeared some time ago. They have fallen into a forest. With Yu Le’s strength, Ji Xiaoman landed lightly, quickly maintaining her balance. She stretched out a hand towards Yu Le.

“What’s wrong? Is the illusion over?” Yu Le held Ji Xiaoman with one hand and propped himself up with the other. Then he patted the mud off his pants. “Where’s my car?”

“It’s not over,” Ji Xiaoman said in a low voice. She lightly took out the paper ball stuffed in her mechanical calf and threw it to Yu Le. “The season and the trees aren’t right. Something feels…off.”

The tactile and olfactory information here was much richer than just now, as if they had returned to the starting point of the illusion—the dilapidated building. Yu Le clicked his tongue, unwrapped the paper ball, and saw only one sentence on it.

[Captain Yu, remember that net.]

“What does it mean?” Ji Xiaoman blinked.

“It seems that you are right, little profiteer. We are probably still in the illusion.” Yu Le put away the paper ball, turned the gun in a circle with his right hand, and grinned.

Since Ruan Lijie dared to push them out of the door together, he must have guessed about the world behind the door. If they were about to return to reality, the other party didn’t need to be so secretive. It was very likely that he and Ji Xiaoman were still in the world of targeted perceptual interference. In other words, their every move was probably still under the noses of their opponent.

Even if the opponent could investigate the fact that he cheated death in the Sea of Ruins, he would not know how he was “forced to cheat death” in front of the Order Supervisors. Painstakingly recalling the shock of being caught in a net for a few seconds, Yu Le had a general guess about Ruan Lijie’s plans.

“Who knows? They have always been mysterious.” Yu Le casually threw the paper ball into his mouth and swallowed it with a grunt. “We’ll see what we can do when the time comes… Let’s get out of this shithole first.”

Unknown if it was due to what he said, but a rustling sound was heard among the grass in the distance. Listening to the sound, it seemed something big was rushing towards them. Ji Xiaoman and Yu Le looked at each other, separated tactility, and hid behind a tree.

A monster more than two meters high dragged its fat belly that separated the grass while its ugly black legs cut through the soil. Yu Le sucked a breath in between his teeth and began to feel a headache coming on. Regardless of fucking memory interference, it’s fake, all fake. He wanted to think so, but unfortunately, the impression of abdominal pain still kept churning. Ji Xiaoman, who was born in the Underground City, shouldn’t know what this thing was, so she was probably much more reliable than he was right now.

“Little profiteer, you lead the way! I’m going to close my eyes!”

“Wait?!”

“Remember, it’s all fake. Ventral cockroaches can’t survive on an island!”

“That’s a ventral cockroach…” Ji Xiaoman was just about to ask when another party had already rushed over and skillfully plunged a knife into the gap in the carapace of the ventral cockroach, completely ignoring the bloody calf that was stabbed hard by the spikes on its gaiters.

The attacked ventral cockroach went crazy. It scratched its tangled gaiters everywhere, trying to get rid of the attacker on its back. After several failed attempts, it turned its head and rushed towards another person not far away. Xiao Zhao, who was the target of the attack, blew a kiss at the monster who rushed past and smiled.

“How nostalgic,” she said. “This time it’s back to this day.”

Yu Le pressed against the bark of a tree and frowned.

“It was the day we thought Xiao Tang died, my dear!” She put her hands to her mouth and shouted at Kang Ge loudly. “This ventral cockroach had more legs than the others, and one eye is blind. Remember it? Let’s sit on it and watch the fun. Maybe we can find ourselves!”

Kang Ge smiled at her and wiped the bug’s slime from his face. “Good idea.”

He twisted the long knife that he had stabbed into the bug’s body, causing it to hiss and forcing it to change its direction. Yu Le saw that the bug was about to crawl away, so he endured the bout of nausea and barely managed to stabilize himself at the end of the soft insect’s belly. He just wanted to turn around and gesture to Ji Xiaoman when she flew up and grabbed his neck, causing him to almost let out a scream.

“Why are you grabbing me?!” He roared in anger.

“My fingers are too sharp. It will scratch its stomach,” Ji Xiaoman whispered. “Then we’ll all get a face full of bug juice.”

“…” Yu Le turned his head reluctantly.

“And I’m trying to figure out what’s going on.” Ji Xiaoman grabbed materials from Yu Le’s jacket. “If this is really a test from that person, we have to… prove our worth, right?”

“I don’t think it’s a test. Xiao Ruan has pushed us away. It’s hard not to think that that kid still wants to win first place in this meeting competition… That attitude is clearly asking us to stay out of the way.” Judging from the message left by the other party, maybe there would be a dangerous situation that required Ruan Lijie to fake his death. While they did travel together, their relationship was far from that of the iron bead that was like life and death.

In the end Ji Xiaoman was still too young. While she was good at combat and mechanical repair, she lacked the experience to analyze the twists and turns of the actions of others.

“Then what are you doing?” Ji Xiaoman’s voice had a little surprise in it.

“I’m curious?” Yu Le replied in a rough voice. “Everyone recognizes this bug. Most likely, this place is related to the memory of that young couple. It’s good to see what happened to Xiao Tang before, no? Those two boys have hidden a lot from us.”

“…Yu Le.”

“Hmm? Why did you suddenly become serious.”

“Although my knowledge is limited, I also saw a lot of commands in that dark shadow just now.” Ji Xiaoman clenched her hands tightly. “Tang Yibu’s level is much higher than mine. I have never seen that style of cybernetic brain design…”

“In terms of invasive procedures, is he better than you? Wasn’t this already known when he broke through the wall of the Glass Conservatory?”

Bluntly put, the first memory they saw was of a man yelling something meaningless at his phone, and the second memory was even more vague and heinous. As a person who didn’t know much about software, Yu Le probably only understood that this was how Tang Yibu was “born”.

“No, the point is, I have never seen such a cybernetic brain design.” Even if there was no flesh and blood, Ji Xiaoman’s hands still trembled a little. “For my mother’s sake, I have collected all the information related to cybernetic brains, and I have also created a lot of cybernetic brains… It is impossible for this kind of blind spot to appear. Absolutely impossible.”

“Don’t think too much. Maybe he’s a new model you haven’t seen before.” Yu Le couldn’t understand the other party’s nervousness. “And it looked like it was going to be thrown away at first. It’s estimated that it was a failed design sample.”

“Many of the above designs are behind the times, and I’m sure I won’t mistake them.” Ji Xiaoman raised her voice slightly. “And the design of a few places is too exaggerated. If it’s just to adapt the performance of a general cybernetic brain, the hardware doesn’t need to be made like that at all, let alone something from a formal research institute…”

“What do you want to say?” Yu Le began to realize the problem.

“I didn’t have time to see very clearly. However, from a rough point of view of the coolant, storage method, and structural design, its computing power is at least ten times that of the average human brain, and perhaps several orders of magnitude more.”

“After the official operation of MUL-01, the independent computing power of general cybernetic brain hardware must not surpass that of the human brain. This was a rule that all manufacturers must follow. Even if innovative research was to be carried out, there was no point in spending a lot of effort to do that kind of thing when the software was restricted—it’s like installing a fighter engine on a children’s bicycle.”

“…” Yu Le didn’t answer again this time. The ventral cockroach dragged the four of them forward; its soft abdomen rolled over the grass, causing endless rustling.

“Finally, after MUL-01, related hardware and software information must be filed for public announcement, even including projects that failed to compete with Plan Corp at the beginning. It took me a lot of effort to get my hands on the diagrams at that time, and there was no information about this model. Moreover, MUL-01 is the first recorded strong AI project, and that project started in 2090 and was completed in 2096… But the time in the hall was 2094.”

“Yu Le, Tang Yibu existed before MUL-01 was officially put into use. Now it seems that he…he…”

Is looking for Ruan Xian.

Yu Le silently helped her finish this sentence. He turned his head and signaled that he had understood the meaning of Ji Xiaoman’s words.

Tang Yibu may not be an android equipped with a high-end program. Assuming that Ji Xiaoman’s statement was correct, together with the other competing companies that had to also file, Tang Yibu only had one identity…

A failed version of MUL-01 or the predecessor of MUL-01.

Neither of them spoke again.

Ruan Xian, on the other hand, didn’t have time to think. As he expected, Tang Yibu’s memory had just ended, and the opponent had acted. The familiar sense of emptiness under his feet hit him again. He pretended not to stand still, always adjusting his center of gravity, ready to fight at any moment.

If he wanted to capture or kill himself, the other side would send armed machinery in reality. He just needed to keep making sounds to determine his position, like a bat.

But he had to do it in a way that the other party couldn’t find out.

Ruan Xian picked up the frightened iron bead from the ground and blew silently on the edge of its shell. “We are dead.”

The iron bead rattled and yelped at the same time, creating screams of despair that were heartbreaking. Ruan Xian petted its shell with some guilt, then rushed to the place where it was lit up.

Ruan Xian picked a suitable time to lean down, and a gust of wind brushed his cheek. The attacker only cut off a few strands of hair and failed to connect to his flesh. From the size, it seemed to be a large machine. He most likely barely managed to avoid it. Looking at its attack method, it didn’t seem to plan to kill him immediately, but wanted to drive him in a certain direction.

Then he would continue to play dumb for a while and see what Professor Ruan had in mind.

As for Tang Yibu, given that they had predicted countless possibilities about Professor Ruan, the android would definitely not make a mistake in his plans.

It was himself who was at risk of making a mistake. An unexpected problem had appeared in his personal plan.

Ruan Xian patted the screaming iron bead while speeding up his steps.

Although he knew the expected meeting time, he still wanted to see Tang Yibu. After living for so long, Ruan Xian had never had such a strong urge…

He wanted to see his NUL-00 very, very much.




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