Chapter 148 Rebooter Base - 5 *** ……

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Almost all information about the Rebooter base is public knowledge. After the laser cannon self-destructed, everyone on the island watching the battle lost signal.

"That's all, that's all." Cotton turned off the virtual screen in front of him with some disappointment, preparing to go back to continue his experiment.

He is a remote controller. The Rebooters left behind androids in many parts of the world, whose consciousness enters the bodies to carry out their work.

After he left, Tang Bufan remained sitting blankly in his chair. Unlike Lu Yi's side, which could take comprehensive photos using numerous drones, the Rebooters only had an underwater perspective. Therefore, Tang Bufan only saw three warships being cut into pieces by lasers, countless pieces of iron sinking to the seabed, and then the mutated poisoners surging to the surface like sea monsters.

Lu Yi should be alright. Tang Bufan comforted himself with this thought. He hadn't seen the footage of the aircraft being shot down, but Lu Yi, as the commander, should have been inside.

The huge physics seminar room was quiet, with only Tang Bufan studying there. However, he couldn't concentrate on his book at all. After thinking it over, Tang Bufan got up and walked towards the cloning laboratory.

Chen Fei and his clone are nearing the end, and there is only one and a half months left before the next scheduled time travel experiment.

A month and a half... A month and a half... Tang Bufan walked in the dark and damp corridor, so anxious that he bit his fingers. He even ignored the researchers who greeted him on the way. It wasn't until the researchers had walked two meters away that he realized what was happening and turned around to apologize: "Sorry, I didn't notice you. Good afternoon."

"Thinking about that battle just now, huh?" the researcher said casually, turning back to tease Tang Bufan.

Everyone on the island knew that Tang Bufan was Lu Yi's wife, but not many people blamed him for it. After all, it was their data error that caused Tang Bufan to fall into distant Europe, and he had no choice but to marry Lu Yi later.

“…Yes, that’s right.” Tang Bufan responded with mixed feelings.

"You'd better forget about that orc as soon as possible," the researcher kindly advised Tang Bufan.

"..." Tang Bufan didn't answer again. He turned around and continued walking forward.

Following the route he remembered, Tang Bufan arrived at the cloning laboratory. Although Zero did not restrict his freedom, Tang Bufan felt resistant to the place and could not calmly face his students and his clones.

The AI ​​camera on the laboratory door glanced at Tang Bufan and then opened the door for him. Tang Bufan walked in and immediately saw the eight-year-old child who had already taken on a human form.

The pale child, with eyes closed, quietly immersed in the slightly yellow solution. His skin was still translucent, and the blood vessels throughout his body were clearly visible. His hair had not yet grown out.

Tang Bufan mustered his courage and looked into the corner again, where he saw "himself" with the same clearly visible, semi-transparent veins.

He lowered his head in distress and walked to Chen Fei's container.

A month and a half... a month and a half...

"I thought you wouldn't come here before they were fully mature." Zero's voice suddenly came from the doorway. Tang Bufan, who had his head down, was startled and turned to look.

Zero, wearing a white lab coat, slowly walked to the opposite side of him and sat down in a swivel chair.

Tang Bufan met his gaze for a moment, then slowly calmed down.

"And you? Why are you here?" Tang Bufan asked him.

“Check the status of the clone.” Zero looked at Tang Bufan, who was still a complete novice in experiments, and explained, “You don’t think that cloning a living organism is something you can just set up and then ignore the whole process, do you?”

After he finished speaking, he looked at Tang Bufan's clone in the corner: "Moreover, your genes have mutated. Your clone was created using AI, so there may be very subtle differences between it and the original you."

"...If I were to have my brain transplanted, wouldn't I experience a rejection reaction?" Tang Bufan asked.

“Maybe.” Zero wasn’t entirely sure either. “But it doesn’t matter. If there’s a rejection reaction, we can just take your brain out and put it in an artificial body.”

Zero raised his right hand, which was still wearing a white glove, but looked no different from a normal hand: "The mechanical body is still very useful. It is controlled by our brain nerves and is no different from a normal hand, except that it has no feeling."

Tang Bufan laughed: "Without the sense of touch, I only have a brain left. What's the difference between me and being dead?"

“…Some people are willing to live like that, like some cancer and paralyzed patients,” Zero said.

"I don't want to." Tang Bufan's smile vanished.

Zero then fell silent.

Tang Bufan continued, "I don't want to go back to the 21st century and be studied as a monster. You also know that I don't have the ability to repair artificial bodies. So if you can't be sure that my brain can be successfully transplanted into that new body, I hope you won't touch me."

Tang Bufan knew he didn't have the ability to negotiate with Zero, as he was currently wearing shackles that could instantly paralyze his feet, but he still earnestly made this request to Zero.

Otherwise, given the current level of completion of the clone, Tang Bufan estimates that he will be on the operating table next week.

Zero was silent for a moment, then agreed, but pointed with his chin at Chen Fei in the container: "In that case, when this child wakes up, you can't appear in front of him. You're 1.93 meters tall now, not his human teacher."

Tang Bufan felt a little regretful, but after glancing at "himself" in the corner, he nodded.

"Alright, go back to your studies." Zero spun his chair toward the control panel, and a bunch of virtual screens popped up in front of him. With his back to Tang Bufan, he said, "Don't go back to the 21st century. You can't even record the experimental data we need."

Tang Bufan watched as Zero's right hand split into many tiny steel tentacles, methodically tapping on the small virtual keyboard, and then he turned and left.

But as he reached the door, a sudden thought flashed through his mind, and Tang Bufan couldn't help but turn back to look at Zero's mechanical arm.

It wasn't visible under the white coat, but it appeared to have broken off from the base of the right arm.

Tang Bufan turned around thoughtfully before leaving the cloning lab.

"Did the doctor replace his arm with a mechanical one himself?" Tang Bufan asked the female researcher, as he took the poisoned child to play on the ground with her as usual.

The children are very well-behaved, tending to the vegetables in the fields they've cultivated, and there's an electric fence around the area, so there's no need to worry about them escaping.

Tang Bufan and the female researcher sat on the steps not far away.

“I’m not sure,” the female researcher said. “His arm was already mechanical when he came to this island.”

"So he was originally from the East District Underground City?" Tang Bufan asked.

“Yes.” The female researcher nodded: “We and the Underground Academy of Sciences occasionally switch personnel, but most of the people who come from our side are retired professors, while the people who come from their side are mostly young people.”

After the female researcher finished speaking, she thought back for a moment, "The doctor was probably seventeen or eighteen years old when he came here... He was very smart and made a lot of achievements after he came to the island. He initiated and led the project of integrating plant genes into the poisonous people. The time travel experiment also progressed faster after he joined, and then his influence on the island became greater and greater."

In this research-oriented island, a person's achievements can indeed greatly influence their status.

Tang Bufan understood and was about to ask again when a poisonous child suddenly hugged him from the side.

"Mother! The watermelons I planted have borne fruit! I'll take you to see them! I'll take you to see them!" The poisonous child affectionately hugged Tang Bufan's arm and pulled it back and forth.

This child is named r5166. He is only 3 years old, but looks like a 7 or 8-year-old. Although he is lively and cheerful, he is not very smart.

Tang Bufan had reviewed the comprehensive evaluation of this group of poison-people children. This child would most likely be eliminated in the next exam and then sent off the island as a holy son to receive the worship and offerings of other poison-people.

The child probably knew deep down that he wouldn't be left behind, so he clung to Tang Bufan tightly, fighting with the other children to grab Tang Bufan's hand every day.

Tang Bufan looked at the child's expectant eyes, smiled, got up from the steps, and walked with him towards the melon seedling field.

"Sister He said Mother will turn back into a human next week." r5166 skipped along with Tang Bufan on the ridge of the field: "You'll look different then, even more beautiful than you are now, is that true?"

"...No." Tang Bufan's heart sank slightly as he realized that all the researchers on the island were watching his progress: "It won't be that fast, it might...take another month."

The next time he travels through time is a month and a half from now, so Tang Bufan predicts that the longest he can delay is a month.

Tang Bufan had no intention of turning back into a human, partly because he was afraid of surgery, but also because he felt that his current body belonged not only to him, but also to Lu Yi.

He had to protect the body that Lu Yi liked. While being led by r5166, Tang Bufan inexplicably raised his hand and touched his chest.

“A month…” r5166’s mood immediately plummeted upon hearing this. He stopped jumping around and lowered his head, saying, “I might not be here anymore in a month.”

"..." Tang Bufan remained silent, then pulled r5166 to a stop and gently squatted down in front of him.

He was very tall, 1.93 meters, and when he squatted down, he was just level with r5166. The man gently stroked r5166's seaweed-like hair with his palm and said softly, "It's okay. Even if we are separated in the future, we will remember each other, right?"

Looking at his handsome and smooth face, r5166 blushed slightly, then enviously reached out to touch Tang Bufan's fair skin: "Yes, Mother is the most beautiful person I've ever seen, but she was defiled by the orcs..."

Tang Bufan frowned and interrupted him: "Who said that?"

r5166, unaware of what was going on, looked at Tang Bufan with her innocent eyes, the whites of her eyes tinged with red: "Everyone says so, Mother was bitten by an orc, that's why she smells strange, but Father will turn you back into a human soon, so it doesn't matter."

After he finished speaking, he happily switched his small arms to hug Tang Bufan: "I will turn back into a human in the future. After we eliminate the orcs, Father will help us turn back into humans. Mother, wait for me."

Tang Bufan thought of what Mian Tuo had told him: these children had been injected with genes that were sensitive to infrasound, and they would never turn back into humans. It was all a lie by Zero to keep them hanging. Suddenly, he felt a tightness and bitterness in his heart.

"...Even if r5166 doesn't turn back into a human, it doesn't matter." Tang Bufan hugged his thin and frail back with some sadness, and said in a mixed voice, "Whether you are human or poison person, I will love you."

The little poisonous man holding him had a slight tremor in his eyes, his heart shaking: "...It doesn't matter if he's not human?"

"Hmm." Tang Bufan looked up and looked at him seriously: "You are a very good kid. Your identity as a poisoner is not important at all."

After he finished speaking, he turned to look at the other poison-infected children not far away and instructed r5166: "When you get out in the future, you must also teach everyone to accept their own identity, and then..."

Tang Bufan paused, unsure of what to say. He couldn't tell the child the truth, so he bit his lip and whispered, "Live a good life. You don't necessarily have to fight orcs. Your life is your own."

r5166 stared at him blankly, then suddenly burst into tears. Tang Bufan was startled and was about to comfort her when a little girl's voice suddenly came from behind him.

“I think Mother is right.” r5165 yelled at the crying 5166: “Crybaby!”

"I'm not a crybaby! You're so mean!" The toxic little boy pouted, got up, and started chasing after his mean-spirited deskmate.

Tang Bufan watched the two poisonous children run off, bickering and playing, and sighed in the wind.

"r5165 will probably stay," Tang Bufan thought, looking at the little green poisonous girl. "She's much smarter than 5166."