"Ten years—?! What the hell?" Qiao Song covered his face in shock. Had this guy suffered a ten-year stroke?!
Wei Tang stared at Qiao Song, who was hiding behind Bryta, and took a few steps forward, looking at his unfamiliar face and strange body with deep suspicion.
Qiao Song wondered if this was the legendary mutant human with human consciousness that the Asian Alliance had mentioned before?!
As the other person approached, he frantically shouted, "I have no money! I don't know you! I've lost my memory! Death settles all debts! I'm no longer human!"
Wei Tang, who was two steps away from him, stopped in his tracks upon hearing this, and looked at him quietly with a deep gaze, devoid of any extra emotion.
When his shoulder was grabbed, Britta suddenly felt trusted by his teammates, and he nodded emphatically as a testament: "He really is a scoundrel."
Wei Tang: "...I'm not human either."
Qiao Song could tell at a glance that this guy was not someone to mess with, and felt a chill run down her spine. She muttered under her breath, "What kind of debt can be carried over to the next life?"
Wei Tang: "A debt of love."
Qiao Song: "!" Was I really gay in my past life?!
Bryta: "?" This gentleman seems to be a little mentally challenged.
“Mr. Wei Tang, you must have mistaken me for someone else,” Bretta kindly explained. “Mr. Qiao Song is a robot; he can’t possibly have human emotions.”
Qiao Song roared inwardly: I'm a human-chip robot! That's possible! Wait, is this the time to talk about that?
Wei Tang stared at Qiao Song, and even though there was no trace of familiarity about him, he still stubbornly said, "I haven't mistaken you. You are the person I'm looking for."
Bleta was confused.
Qiao Song strongly suspected that this person wasn't someone whose brain had been taken over by the bird after being infected and mutated; in short, "something was wrong with him."
He and Bretta were now atop the central building of the Mechanical Sky City, waiting for an opportunity to fire the flare gun… He quietly extended his short, cute mechanical arm and reached for it—wait, where's my flare gun?!
He looked up and saw that Bretta was already gripping the flare gun tightly with both hands, pointing it at Wei Tang. She pretended to be fierce and said, "Mr. Joe doesn't know you. You've arrested the wrong person. Let us go! Otherwise, I'll shoot!"
Qiao Song stared wide-eyed at him with eyes as black as cameras: "!"
The man stared indifferently at the gun in his hand, his expression unmoved.
Qiao Song urged in a low voice, "Shoot! Now!"
Britta nervously turned her head and whispered, "...There don't seem to be any bullets in here."
Qiao Song: "..." Her face instantly lost color.
Then I guess I'll just repay my emotional debt. Heh. It's just with a bird, after all...
Unconcerned about their loud conspiracy, Wei Tang strode toward them again in his black leather boots.
Britta threatened nervously, "Don't come any closer! I'm really going to shoot!"
"I really—bang!" The man suddenly appeared in front of him, and in an instant, he reached out and pinched the punctured signal flare. He casually squeezed it between his index fingers, and the signal flare turned into dust, which drifted away in the wind on the rooftop of the tallest building in the steel forest.
Qiao Song stared in disbelief, and the flare gun in Bretta's hand fell to the ground. He was unarmed, unless—but that would expose his identity to Qiao Song.
Bretta's delicate brows furrowed tightly as she secretly calculated whether it was more likely to succeed by taking advantage of the situation and revealing her identity to devour the other party whole, or by turning around and running away with Qiao Song.
If I swallow this falcon mutant—will he grow wings?
Or...Breta swallowed hard—could it succeed?
At this moment, Qiao Song was already considering whether to sacrifice his looks to use this dim-witted idiot for his own purposes, or to automatically shut down and wait for rescue—he didn't believe that the other party, with such heavy tastes, could do anything beastly to a pile of scrap metal, no, to an innocent, broken robot. No, this idiot was a beast...
With a blank expression, Wei Tang looked at Blaita, who was staggering back against the rooftop wall, and the pink dress-clad Qiao Song on his back, and said coldly, "Give him back to me."
"No! I won't give it to you!" Britta was forced to retreat step by step by his imposing aura.
Qiao Song, feigning superiority, retorted arrogantly, "Who are you?! I don't know you! Don't think playing the emotional card will work on us robots, tui—!"
Bretta stiffened, and turned her head shakily to ask, "Mr. Joe, what are you doing?"
"Spitting is a sign of contempt for the enemy! Come on, Tata, learn from me!"
"Huh?" Bryta was a little dumbfounded.
Wei Tang was already annoyed by their noisy conversation, and he reached out to grab Joe Song off Britta's back.
Bretta took a deep breath, preparing to open the abyss's gaping maw, while Joe Song nervously closed his eyes and shouted:
"I'll pay it back! Can't I just pay this debt back?!"
“!” Bleta abruptly stopped speaking, with a wisp of clear, unidentified liquid still clinging to his lips.
Uh, there's nothing left to eat.
Although he didn't really want to eat it, having wings was really cool!
Wei Tang paused, withdrew his hand, looked at Qiao Song, who was only showing half of his head, and said, "It's a deal."
Qiao Song hurriedly raised his hand to speak: "But before that, you must escort me and Tata to find the mechanical master Rudolf to repair my body... After all, as you can see, I am now no different from a piece of scrap metal, and I will soon be unable to hold on."
Wei Tang stared at him for a few seconds.
Bretta licked her lips and stood up straight nervously.
After a while.
Wei Tang said, "Okay, I promise you."
No sooner had he finished speaking than a pair of enormous—snow-white wings—spread out from behind him!
Bretta and Joeson were both surprised: "You... how can your wings change color?"
"I am a variant of the White Eagle. I was just a decoy to hide among the flock of eagles." Wei Tang stepped forward, reached out and picked up Bretta and Qiao Song, who were like conjoined twins, with one hand. He then leaned forward, spread his wings, and took flight.
A sharp gust of wind whipped through their hair, and Bretta, experiencing flight once more, excitedly opened her eyes to look down at the city buildings. Joe Song, who also possessed mechanical wings, was now completely unable to operate them. He was sandwiched between the two like a sandwich—feeling extremely awkward, and fearful that his old arms and legs would break and he would fall.
Bretta and Joeson were carried through the skyscrapers of the Mechanical Sky City, quickly blending in seamlessly with the drones overhead. Bretta could see small groups of people walking by on the ground, their voices ringing out. Upon closer inspection, his eyes widened as he realized that these so-called "people" were almost all modified humanoid robots. Robots of varying sizes, each equipped with different prosthetics, were walking, standing, or doing something, their bodies shifting shape at any moment, talking, arguing, and even fighting with those around them…
No one would notice the humanoid robot with wings flying in the sky, because he wasn't the only one flying like that.
"The robots here are amazing!" Bretta exclaimed.
Qiao Song scoffed dismissively, "The mechanics who created them are truly amazing. I guarantee that more than half of the entire Mechanical Sky City was built by my master, Rudolf. Hey! You think you can just fly like that? Do you even know where Rudolf is?"
As they were talking, Wei Tang suddenly slowed down and flew into a window of a tall building, landing safely with Blaita and Qiao Song.
"Know."
"..." Qiao Song saw Rudolph inside, who seemed to have been waiting for them for a long time. A middle-aged man with gray hair, slightly overweight, and whose former glory was barely visible, looked at them and said with a cheerful smile, "Have you picked them up?"
Rudolf glanced at Bretta, the handsome young man, and vaguely felt that he looked familiar. Then he looked at Qiao Song behind him and realized that the one behind him was his apprentice. He clicked his tongue with some regret and said, "Little Song, how many times have I told you, if you can't beat someone, run away. Why did you make yourself look so pathetic?"
Qiao Song ignored the long sentence that followed and focused on the key point: "Received? What do you mean? Did you send this jerk to pick me up?"
Rudolph chuckled, "Of course! I received your tracker signal and knew you were back. Little Tang volunteered to pick you up, and I even sent him your location. How about it? Tears welling up in your eyes as old flames meet again? Adding fuel to the fire?"
Qiao Songmu's face remained expressionless: "..."
Wei Tang: "No. He's completely different from before."
Rudolf chuckled: "How is it different?"
Wei Tang: "It's different everywhere."
Qiao Song looked at the man who claimed to have been searching for him for ten years, his heart filled with mixed feelings. He immediately interrupted their conversation and said, "Master, my team members are still outside the city. I need your help to bring them into the city."
Rudolf raised an eyebrow: "Oh, how old are they? Let them walk slowly." He glanced at Bretta, who had been cautiously observing him since entering the room without saying much, adjusted his monocle, and curiously scanned him up and down. Suddenly, as if he had discovered something: "Huh? Another one..."
Bretta's heart skipped a beat when she heard this, feeling as if Mr. Rudolf had seen right through her.
Qiao Song had no idea about any of this. He thought the old man's obsession with good looks had kicked in again, so he hurriedly urged, "Then I have to give them a signal to show that we are safe." He asked Bretta to carry him over and whisper to Rudolf, "Also, the Colonel needs you to repair me as soon as possible so that we can decrypt the memory of a particularly important suspect's brain chip."
Rudolf paused upon hearing the word "colonel": "He's not... he didn't actually..." Rudolf burst into laughter upon hearing this, "Good, good, good, I knew that kid wasn't meant to die. Alright, wait, I'll send a helicopter over to pick them up."
Qiao Song's lips twitched. If he had known that the name Klindall was so effective, he wouldn't have wasted so much breath.
Hearing that he would soon be able to see Mr. Lin Dao and the others, Bleta breathed a sigh of relief.
Mr. Lin Dao... must be very worried about him.
After saying this, Qiao Song glanced at Wei Tang, recalling his strange transformation, and couldn't help but lower her head to ask, "Master, seriously, who exactly is this Wei Tang...?"
"I was attacked by a White Eagle alien ten years ago and died inside its belly. Later, I successfully regained control of my body and became an alien with human consciousness," Wei Tang suddenly spoke, answering Qiao Song's question. This frank and open manner made Qiao Song feel slightly embarrassed, as if he had been caught talking nonsense.
Qiao Song simply turned to look at him and asked, "Then... how are you sure the person you've been looking for for ten years is me?"
Wei Tang stared straight at him, then reached out and dropped a rusty, gold-plated pocket watch in front of Blaita and Joeson.
Qiao Song was stunned when he saw the pocket watch. Suddenly, some broken images and the sound of the minute hand ticking rang in his mind. Although his whole body was a cold machine, he felt as if he had short-circuited, feeling stiff and uncomfortable.
"This is...?" His voice was somewhat unnatural and dry.
Wei Tang stared intently at him, then opened his pocket watch. Inside was a yellowed photograph showing two young men standing intimately together, facing the camera. The handsome young man with a detached expression was Wei Tang, while the other, with a bright smile, looked both familiar and strange to him…
But he knew it was him. Rudolph would store the appearance of each modified robot before their death, whenever possible. Joe had once curiously looked at his own file photo, but perhaps feeling too uncomfortable, he quickly closed the photo, sealing away the long-forgotten past.
At this moment, Wei Tang handed the photo to Qiao Song, saying, "This is a gift you gave me."
Qiao Song felt a sudden chill and reached out to slap the pocket watch away. He then looked up with a forced smile and said, "Sorry, I don't remember." He then turned to Rudolf and said, "I... am about to run out of power..." He deliberately winked at Bretta, and the next second, his head tilted to the side and he fell onto his shoulder.
Qiao Song activated the automatic shutdown and hibernation mode.
Bretta looked up somewhat awkwardly at the man still holding the pocket watch, then at Rudolf.
Wei Tang silently put away the pocket watch. He had been expressionless since they met, but now his eyes revealed a painful sense of loss: "...He is not my Qiao Song."
Seeing his appearance, Bryta didn't know what to say to comfort him. Rudolf then led him to the machine room, which was over a hundred square meters in size and contained even more and more complex machines and equipment than the one in Mix.
Following Rudolf's instructions, Bryta put Josh down and temporarily placed him on a charging seat. After thinking for a moment, he asked, "Mr. Rudolf, may I observe your repair robot from the side?" He said somewhat shyly in a low voice, "I saw your previous courses through the teaching videos Josh gave me, and I am very interested in intelligent mechanics. I can help."
Rudolf looked up at the handsome and well-behaved young man with slight surprise upon hearing this, and casually teased, "Really? Then you're practically my student now. Come and lend a hand."
A few hours later.
Rudolf watched as this self-taught young man, with his limited guidance, had almost completely repaired Qiao Song. His eyes gleamed with the brilliance of someone who had discovered a genius. He excitedly stepped forward and exclaimed, "Not bad! Not bad! You're much smarter than that kid Qiao Song. How about this, do you want to learn how to make machines with me? I can teach you to make all kinds of weapons, whether they fly in the sky or swim in the sea."
Bryta paused for a moment, then nodded: "I was already learning from you."
"Very well!" Rudolf clapped his hands. "From today onwards, you are my last disciple."
Just as Bretta was about to continue helping to repair Josh, Rudolf stopped him, reached out and pressed on the back of Josh's neck, and said directly as Josh turned on and woke up: "Let this kid handle the small things like finishing up. Come on, come with me, I'll teach you something more interesting."
Qiao Song: "???"
“We received Qiao Song’s signal! He said he and Bretta are safe with Rudolf, and they’ll send a helicopter to pick us up later.” After Xiang You finished speaking, the others breathed a sigh of relief. Lin Daoze frowned deeply: “Did they mention anything about that group of falcon mutants?”
Xiang You shook his head.
Lin Dao looked at the Mechanical Sky City, which seemed close at first glance but was actually still some distance away: "It seems that the Mechanical Sky City is not as simple as it seems."
An hour later, they boarded an intelligent, unmanned helicopter and communicated with Blaita and Joe Song via the helicopter's communicator to confirm their safety. They then arrived at the rooftop helipad of Rudolf's residential building somewhere in the Mechanical Sky City.
Bryta had been anxiously waiting there for a while, and when he heard the sound of the helicopter's rotors, he looked up excitedly.
Compared to him, Rudolf and Wei Tang standing beside him appeared much calmer, while Joe Song was still miserably carrying out self-repair in the machine room—his entire body needed to have parts and equipment replaced, including a new bionic skin. This guy was picky about every little detail and was unwilling to compromise, so he would not be able to show his face until his handsome appearance was completely restored.
After the helicopter came to a smooth stop, the cabin door opened, and against the strong wind whipped up by the propellers, Bleta saw that the first person to step out was Lin Dao. As he disembarked, Lin Dao glanced over and met Bleta's excited gaze.
Bretta immediately beamed with joy and ran to him, calling out, "Mr. Lin Dao!"
Lin Dao was taken aback, and at the same time noticed Rudolf in front of him and the unfamiliar man next to him. He coughed twice and said, "Just call him 'Captain'."
Bryta then realized he had been a little too excited, so he quickly composed himself and called out again, "...Captain."
Xiang You, Cheng Cheng, and Chu Hui disembarked from the plane one after another.
Bleta sensed the impulse of Xiaobai in Chu Hui's arms, quickly stepped forward, grabbed Chu Hui, and whispered, "Are you... are you alright?"
Chu Hui looked at him holding her arm, then looked up at Bretta's deep, exquisite features, which vaguely resembled that person's. She paused for a moment, then quickly turned her head away and said in a stiff tone, "It's nothing."
Blaita breathed a sigh of relief. With so many people around, he reassured the little white dog in Chu Hui's arms, telling it not to come out and to stay obediently with Chu Hui.
Lin Dao noticed their subtle movements, but without saying anything, he walked over to Rudolf, extended his hand, and nodded in greeting: "Professor Rudolf, hello. Please call me Lin Dao."
Rudolf was a shrewd man, and just a dozen seconds earlier, after Colonel Klindall disembarked, he had already sensed something was wrong with him through the one-way mirror scan. At this moment, the man's entire body, as seen through the lens, was exhibiting an abnormally high body temperature, unlike that of a normal human.
Rudolf nodded, reached out and shook his hand, and smiled, "Congratulations on your rebirth through a new form of human evolution."
Lin Dao paused slightly upon hearing this pointed remark, raised his eyes warily, tightened his grip on the other person's hand, and said in a serious voice:
"I'm sorry, I don't understand what you mean."
Rudolf smiled slightly and said in a low voice, "Perhaps you have heard of alien species that possess human consciousness?"
Lin Dao's expression immediately changed upon hearing this, and an undisguised murderous intent flashed in his eyes: "What do you mean?"
At this moment, Lin Dao did not notice that Wei Tang, who was standing next to Rudolf, suddenly stepped forward, pressed his hand hard, and his slender fingers transformed into sharp eagle claws at an angle that only they could see, pressing down on him.
"You!" Lin Dao's eyes darkened. He subconsciously turned his head slightly to check if Blaita and the others behind him were safe. Then he saw the other person lower his voice and stare at him with emotionless eyes, saying:
"Colonel Klingdale, we are all the same kind, we survived, but not as human beings—"
"--monster."
Author's Note: Thank you to all the little angels who voted for me or watered my plants with nutrient solution between 2022-02-08 23:10:13 and 2022-02-09 20:36:59!
Thank you to the little angel who watered the nutrient solution: 47120470 1 bottle;
Thank you so much for your support! I will continue to work hard!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com