Chapter 160 Rebooter Base - 17 The Rebooter...

After a brief silence, the Rebooter's meeting room erupted into noise. The researchers, who had been indignant at Zero's encouragement, were not only shocked by Lu Yi's decisive decision to abolish the Peace Pact on the spot, but also curious about the Western Federation's research on orc genes.

In genetic science, the Western Federation has never been inferior to humans, and may even be slightly superior. After all, the scientist who led the orcs to independence came from the Western District Underground City, and he also took a large number of top talents with him.

Hearing the whispers of the other researchers behind him, the white-haired old man snapped out of his reverie. He quickly pushed up his glasses and said to Lu Yi, "Send me the research report, I want to take a look."

Lu Yi raised his bracelet and sent the report to the old man.

Seeing that Lu Yi's sudden decision had shifted the situation towards negotiation again, Zero's face turned ashen. He turned to the white-haired old man who was already eagerly looking down at the report and said in a deep voice, "Professor Chen, you don't really believe that humans and beasts can coexist, do you?"

"Humans and beasts are originally compatriots." Lu Yi did not give Zero another chance to seduce the other Rebooters. His golden-green beast eyes were calm, gentle and wise: "We have the same ancestors. It's just that a large number of beast genes have been inserted into our bodies. However, human DNA has also accumulated many mutation factors in millions of years of evolution. Only 1-2% of the 3 billion bases directly encode proteins. We can completely merge again by 'correcting' our genes."

"Who wants to merge with you filthy orcs..." Zero was so angry that he couldn't even speak properly, but was interrupted by the old man beside him.

“Zero, don’t get agitated.” The white-haired old man raised his wrinkled eyes and glanced at the young Zero: “Indeed, as President Louis said, our human genes are also ‘shit mountain code’.”

After he finished speaking, he turned his head to look at the few glowing virtual screens, his gaze fixed on Guo Shen: "Can President Guo also abolish the Peace Pact?"

Guo Shen frowned slightly. For more than two hundred years, the Peace Pact had maintained the stability of their orc society. They had to admit 100 humans every year just to keep the birth rate up. But Lu Yi's behavior was too friendly, which suddenly put him and the leader of the Northern Federation in a difficult position.

If they don't give in, it will cause dissatisfaction among these Rebooters. Even if a fight doesn't break out, they will still side with the Western Federation because of Lu Yi's stance. The Western Federation is already receiving a lot of technological support because of its good relationship with humanity. If it also gets help from these Rebooters...

Guo Shen sighed deeply and said, "Our Eastern Federation will conduct a pilot project at the Penglai base to establish a mixed human-beast settlement. If the marriage rate between beastmen and humans is good, we will follow up by abolishing the Peace Contract in the future."

The white-haired old man then looked at the head of the Northern Federation. However, the gray-eyed old man pondered for a moment and stubbornly said, "Abolishing the Peace Pact is too serious. I need to go back and discuss this matter with the other members of the council of this state before making a decision."

The white-haired old man didn't make things difficult for him, and said to the people in front of the screen, "Give me an hour. I need to study this genetic report from the Western Federation with other academicians."

He then ended the video call.

The four-party talks have now entered a break.

As soon as the virtual screen disappeared, Lu Yi breathed a long sigh of relief and raised his hand to brush his half-dry hair back to his head.

Tang Bufan walked over carrying r5166, and couldn't help but stand on tiptoe and kiss Lu Yi's cheek, his dark eyes shining brightly: "I'm proud of you."

During his time imprisoned on the island, Tang Bufan often overheard people whispering behind his back that he had betrayed humanity. Tang Bufan outwardly appeared indifferent, but inwardly he was deeply distressed.

Although he has now become a sub-beastman, he doesn't actually realize that he has become a sub-beastman at all. He has been a human for twenty-eight years and naturally feels that he is still a human, so being called a traitor is very painful for him.

But Lu Yi is an orc, Anderson is an orc, and his future child will also be an orc, so... his stance has shifted.

He thought that if he hadn't met Lu Yi heading east in that desert, but instead had struggled and found Zero on his own and been brought to this island, seeing the current state of humanity and the obsession with returning to the 21st century, he would probably have cooperated very well with Zero.

Tang Bufan felt bitter and conflicted. If he weren't holding a child in his arms and there were other people around, he would have really wanted to lean on Lu Yi's arm.

“I’m glad you can bring true peace between humans and orcs,” Tang Bufan said.

"The premise is that things can go smoothly." Lu Yi still remained worried: "That Zero seems very stubborn. I hope that the white-haired old man can reach a consensus with the Rebooters after seeing our research report."

Tang Bufan thought of Zero in the video, whose face was pale and whose eyes were slightly red, and his brows furrowed slightly.

"Hmm." He looked down at the drowsy little poisoner in his arms and reached out to touch his sweaty forehead. "I hope things go smoothly."

***

Inside the Rebooter's conference room, all the researchers were looking at the genetic report.

"To prevent the beast genes within a human from being compiled and converted into invalid genes... Professor Li Lan mentioned this research before, didn't she?"

"Yes, but it's too difficult to implement in practice. There are too many types of orcs, each with billions of genetic codes. And they also interbreed in various ways. Just recording and marking the genes of a single orc couple would take several months, making it impossible to popularize."

"The so-called breakthrough here is just the successful enhancement of the human genes of the sub-beastmen."

"But it does increase the fertility of sub-orcs to orcs, and can reduce the orcs' dependence on humans."

The researchers were discussing the matter enthusiastically, but the white-haired old man waited until everyone had finished reading the report, then stood up, clapped his hands, and signaled for everyone to be quiet.

Then the virtual screens in front of the researchers disappeared one after another.

“The armies of the three Orc Federations are currently surrounding us. Although we can leave on the Rebooter, but…” The white-haired old man paused, looking out at the blue sky, white clouds, and forest through the floor-to-ceiling window.

The blue sky and white clouds were obviously fake, an effect created by the protective shield above their heads, but the forest surrounding the Rebooter was real, planted one by one by their ancestors on the island.

“Our departure will damage this island,” the white-haired old man said gravely. “After a thousand years of repairs, the shield’s opening and closing function has long since failed. If the Restarter wants to take off, it will have to destroy the shield, and everything on the island will be exposed to the harsh environment on the ground.”

All the researchers remained silent.

"No destruction, no construction." A clear, cold male voice rang out, and everyone in the conference room looked at Zero.

The man's expression remained gloomy, and the glasses on his nose reflected a cold light. He said in a deep voice, "We can defeat them. Both the Eastern Federation and the Northern Federation have warships. Moreover, on the way here, the Northern Federation has already had half of its military strength depleted by our poisoners. Only the Western Federation's aircraft can pose a slight threat to our ships, but their ammunition reserves are not as large as ours."

“Yes.” A middle-aged man in a white lab coat stood up. He was a senior researcher like Zero and a proponent of war. He said with a serious expression, “You have all seen the development of the orcs over the years. If we make peace with them now and give them room to continue developing, future humans will have no ability to fight back.”

“But we have it now.” Zero looked sharply at the white-haired old man and said solemnly, “If humanity wants to fight back and completely break free from the orcs’ control, now is the last chance.”

The atmosphere in the meeting room became heavy. The white-haired old man looked at the other researchers: "Do you all think this way?"

In the huge circular hall, everyone looked at each other. They were all very intelligent people in the outside world, but they had lived their entire lives on this island, devoted to research. Although they were good at making weapons and machines, fighting was not their forte.

"But even if we fight and win, what then?"

In the silence, a man's voice came from the back of the conference room.

Zero frowned and turned to look at Lin Xia, who was sitting in the corner: "What do you mean?"

“Literal meaning.” Lin Xia sat in the chair, calmly meeting Zero’s gaze. He was not usually an eye-catching person. He was in charge of sampling and needed to lie in the brain-computer interface to remotely control the androids, so he always wore slippers.

In academic research, he was far inferior to Zero, and in terms of status, he was just Zero's subordinate. But at this moment, he slowly stood up from his chair and faced Zero's cold gaze.

“If war breaks out, we will have to abandon this island, abandon our research institute, and even… we might have to abandon Earth.” Lin Xia looked at Zero and said, “In the current situation, if we want to destroy those warships and one aircraft outside, we have to use nuclear bombs. If we use nuclear bombs, the nuclear radiation will increase, the seawater will be polluted again, the clouds will turn black again, and the plants will die again… and we have clearly come this far, but we have to retreat.”

Lin Xia looked directly at Zero, "So, even if you win, so what?"

"..." Zero pursed his lips, his expression stiffening.

Lin Xia lowered her eyes and looked at the dirty cotton slippers on her feet: "I put a probe in a river in Brazil the day before yesterday. It's been raining heavily there these past few days, and the water has become very turbulent. I was supposed to go there today to retrieve the probe and also to see the fawn I rescued. If I didn't find it, I could sit in a tree and look at the forest. The dense forest after the rain is so beautiful... You should all go and see it; everything is new."

After Lin Xia finished speaking, she raised her eyes again: "The Earth doesn't know what hatred is. Only we fight because of hatred."

The conference room fell into a long silence again, before another researcher said, "The contaminated soil rice I cultivated is still in the laboratory. It's almost ripe. If Miss Fang Yue's new human base is built, I want to plant it there. Humans haven't grown rice under the sky for a long time."

A few seconds later, another researcher said, "My pigs are the same. They eat weeds and don't compete with humans for food, so they're very suitable for being raised at the base."

Gradually, more and more researchers spoke up:

"I want to go back to the research institute to see if the bacteria in my petri dish are still alive."

"I also want to go and collect my samples."

“I studied civil engineering, and if a new human base is really built, I would like to go there to help.”

As more and more people began to talk about going back, Zero painfully closed his eyes.

The white-haired old man looked at them and smiled with satisfaction. In truth, as he entered his twilight years, he did not want to leave his homeland—the island that buried dozens of generations of Rebooters.

However, he did not make a decision unilaterally, but calmly said: "Given the disagreement, let's do the usual thing and vote."

After he finished speaking, he raised his wristband, and then all the researchers in the room raised their wristbands as well.

Only zero.

"I don't think my ticket will make a difference," Zero said softly, then put his hands in his pockets, turned and walked out: "I'm going to the restroom."

He left the meeting room, but a screen popped up in front of him, and before he even reached the restroom, the voting results were already out.

The island has 120,483 researchers with voting rights.

Declaration of war: 49,013 votes.

No war: 60,447 votes.

Abstentions: 11,023 votes.

Zero silently watched the voting results, his glasses reflecting the blue light from the screen. A few seconds later, he slammed his fist heavily against the wall outside the toilet.

The mechanical right arm he used was extremely powerful, causing the wall to cave in and crack open, revealing a spider web the size of a washbasin.

"Human beings always find themselves in predicaments in various ways."

Zero lowered his head and spoke slowly, his eyes reddening, his teeth clenched, his expression pained: "Gentleness cannot maintain peace, it will only bring destruction... Sister, Dad, Mom, Grandpa, Grandma... they clearly proved this with their lives, so why can you still talk about peace with the enemy? Only strength..."

His metal fist, embedded in the wall, clenched tighter and tighter, making a cracking sound: "Only absolute control... can bring absolute security!"

Zero suddenly raised his eyes, pulled his fist out of the sunken wall, and strode into a corridor with windows.

He opened the window, looked down at the lush forest, and jumped down without hesitation.

Mechanical fingers gripped the metal wall of the spaceship, and the man wearing gold-rimmed glasses slid down, his white coat billowing in the wind.