Chapter 157 Rebooter Base - 14 *** ……
***
The two returned to the toilet, where the three tall orcs were gathered together discussing something, while the little poison man was still obediently huddled in the corner.
Seeing the two return, Anderson turned to look at them, a slight smirk playing on his lips as he teased, "Oh, you're back so soon?"
Tang Bufan was initially confused and replied, "Yes, is the drain clear?"
It wasn't until he saw Sirius looking over meaningfully and smiling slightly that he realized what Anderson was teasing him about. His face immediately flushed, and he said angrily, "Lu Yi and I just went outside to talk. What are you thinking?"
After saying that, he went over and watched the images in the sewer with them.
A virtual screen floats in the air, and a miniature silver spider-like robot is crawling in a pipe. You can see its gleaming silver metal spider legs in the video, but for some reason the screen is shaking quite a bit.
When it emerged from the pipe that Sirius had severed, Tang Bufan discovered that it had lost two legs and had many scratches on its body, with one spot even revealing the rotating motor inside.
"What's going on?" Tang Bufan asked curiously.
“We just encountered another robot in the pipes,” Sirius explained. “It must have been released by Zero, and it has already cleared the pipes.”
Tang Bufan frowned as he looked at the slowly rising floodwaters: "Then why hasn't the water level dropped?"
"Is that even a question?" Anderson sneered. "Zero has already discovered that they've sneaked in, so they've closed the water outlets, trying to force us out by flooding us."
Tang Bufan was taken aback, then he understood. The research institute was currently without power, and if Lu Yi and the others wanted to take him and Anderson away, they would have to forcefully break through the wall. If the research institute remained flooded, they would not be able to get down there at all.
Seeing that the water had already reached their waists, Tang Bufan sighed heavily: "So now we can only keep going up with the water level?"
At this rate of flooding, they can only stay in this underground research institute for a few more hours at most.
Lu Yi thought for a moment and asked Sirius, "Can the drainage system of a research institute like this be manually controlled?"
“Maybe?” Sirius wasn’t sure. “I need to go to the control room to check.”
After he finished speaking, he turned around and shook the oxygen cylinder on his back: "The control room should be downstairs, I don't know if there's enough oxygen..."
"Forget it, let's not go." Tang Bufan felt it was too dangerous. They didn't even know where the main control room for managing the drainage was. What if the oxygen ran out and Sirius was trapped in some passageway? Wouldn't he drown in there?
He didn't want to sacrifice anyone.
Tang Bufan then turned to Lu Yi and said, "Let's go upstairs first. You contact Guo Shen and tell him to bring Fang Yue over no matter what."
"Chief Guo has reported that he has sent someone to escort Miss Fang Yue over," Evelyn's gentle electronic female voice rang out.
"What about the warships of the Eastern Federation and the Northern Federation?" Fick asked.
"The Eastern Federation is about to arrive in the nearby waters, while the Northern Federation encountered a suicide attack by a group of underwater poisoners en route and is currently engaged in battle," Evelyn reported.
"Approximately how long will it take to arrive?"
Three hours.
Lu nodded, gesturing to Anderson and the others: "Let's go up."
The group packed up their things and left the restroom, heading upstairs. Tang Bufan deliberately reached out his hand to the little boy with the poison in the corner, revealing a gentle smile: "r5166, come here."
The little boy, who had been somewhat gloomy, smiled after being gently called by Tang Bufan, and happily ran to his side.
But instead of using his rotting hand to hold Tang Bufan's hand, he used his other hand.
Two hands, one large and one small, one cold and one warm, clasped together. Both of them felt deeply moved. r5166 felt longing, while Tang Bufan felt deep worry and a little bit of unease because of his feminine appearance.
Realizing they were currently hiding with nothing to do, Tang Bufan took r5166's hand and suggested, "Let's go to the sixth basement level. That's the floor specifically for researching poison-using people. I think..."
Tang Bufan looked down at r5166 and said heavily, "Let's see if we can find the mother plant of r5165."
Fick and Sirius both looked at Lu Yi, who nodded in agreement. The changes caused by the poisoners outside worried him, and it was clear that his wife had learned a lot during her time at the research institute.
Having decided on their destination, the group walked up the stairs where water was gushing down. The entire stairwell was dark and empty, completely deserted. Just as they were going up, the research institute suddenly began to shake violently.
Tang Bufan quickly grabbed R5166 with one hand and held onto the wall with the other. The tremors were as strong as a magnitude 5 or 6 earthquake, and even the sturdy stair railing was shaken and rattled. Just as Lu Yi walked quickly to Tang Bufan's side and was about to pick him up, the tremors stopped.
No, it didn't completely stop. Several orcs could still feel the ground trembling slightly, as if they were standing on a car with its engine running.
"What's going on?" Anderson frowned, clicked his tongue, and guessed impatiently, "Could it be that Zero, that idiot, is trying to blow this place up?"
"No." Tang Bufan denied it, looking up at the ceiling in the darkness: "There are too many important laboratories in this research institute. Zero wouldn't be willing to blow them up, and the cross-passage laboratory is at the very bottom."
When he mentioned crossing the laboratory, Sirius, who was walking behind him, opened his mouth slightly in surprise, and then looked at Fick beside him with eyes full of gossip.
Fick was relatively calmer. The two longtime friends whispered to each other with their eyes, and then looked at Tang Bufan, who was much shorter than the average sub-beastman.
"What's that noise?" Anderson was still muttering to himself when he turned to Tang Bufan from the stairs. "Zero has activated island teleportation again?"
“It’s no use,” Lu Yi said. “Even if he moves the island at full speed, we can be located here by all three Orc Federations.”
The AI devices on their wrists were all connected to satellites, and their locations had already been shared before the operation even began infiltrating the island.
“Zero definitely knows this, so…” Tang Bufan lowered his eyes, thought carefully, then raised his eyes sharply, his eyes gleaming: “It’s not the island that’s moving now, but… the Rebooter is starting up.”
***
In the heart of the island, the Rebooter, resembling a towering mountain, is brightly lit.
Although a thousand years have passed, this most advanced Chinese spacecraft has not been damaged. It was built as the last ark of human civilization and can travel in space for ten thousand years without any problem. The generations of restarters have also maintained it well.
Because this spaceship is their true home, while the island is not; the island is merely their launch site.
Zero stood in front of the panoramic glass window, looking at the giant egg-shaped aircraft floating on the distant sea through the transparent protective shield, his face ashen.
“Doctor, there are still 23 people who haven’t been evacuated to the spaceship.” A researcher walked up to Zero and reported to him.
"No rush, we'll wait." Although Zero was angry, he wasn't flustered. In terms of both size and combat power, the Rebooter was superior to the giant egg-shaped spacecraft in the distance.
Moreover, being forced to abandon the island is infuriating, so Zero will not start the spaceship to escape into space until the very last moment.
Looking at Zero's gloomy face, the researcher hesitated and asked, "So, are we... having a meeting now? All the department heads are here."
"..." Zero felt a little reluctant to attend the meeting because there had always been several ministers who opposed his salvation plan. If he hadn't verified that the bacteria that purified the pollution could be spread to the whole world by using poison people, and gained 70% support, he wouldn't have become the chief manager.
And now, with the orc army pressing in, that's also his fault...
Thinking of the woman who handed over the pass, Zero clenched his fists in hatred.
"Doctor?" Seeing that Zero remained silent for a long time, the researcher next to him tentatively called out again.
Zero snapped out of his daze, let out a long breath, and said calmly, "Meeting."
After saying that, he turned around and led the researcher into the elevator not far away.
The largest conference room on the Rebooter was already filled with researchers in white lab coats. The conference room was circular, with each department seated in its designated area. At the front, in addition to the heads of each department, sat many retired elderly people with gray hair.
Everyone has gathered here because of the crisis facing the Rebooter base.
Lin Xia, wearing wet cotton slippers, sat silently in the back row, one foot dangling. He listened to his colleagues' hushed discussions while thinking about how he could sneak away to the tropical rainforest of South America.
He didn't want to escape to space with the main force. The Earth's environment had finally been purified to a level where humans could almost survive. Plants were reviving and animals were multiplying... He wanted to continue studying water quality and soil along the riverbanks in the tropical rainforest.
But the island is now in the South Pacific, far from South America, and he, a human, simply cannot swim there.
If he had known he would undergo mechanical modification, he shouldn't have hesitated to have his limbs amputated. Lin Xia felt a pang of regret. Then, hearing everyone in the conference room fall silent, he looked towards the door and, sure enough, Zero had arrived.
Even though he had made a big mistake, Zero remained calm. He pushed up his gold-rimmed glasses and walked calmly to the center of the circular conference hall.
"Can you tell me why Louis Smith was able to swipe his card and come in?" A middle-aged researcher with a few strands of gray hair asked Zero sternly. A virtual screen popped up above the conference hall, showing three orcs wearing diving suits and carrying oxygen tanks diving into the bottom of the research institute.
"..." Zero lowered his eyes silently, and after a long while, he told them, "I gave Fang Yue the access card to the base. I didn't expect her to give the card to Louis Smith. It was my fault."
The conference room erupted in uproar. Another retired researcher with gray hair angrily said, "Any human who wants to enter this island needs joint approval from higher-ups! Who gave you the authority to issue her a card without authorization!"
Zero held his breath and looked up at the old man: "I didn't expect her to betray humanity. At the time... I just wanted to give her a way out."
Since the destruction of the Cultural and Educational Group, Fang Yue has lost the protection of her family and party. Whether it is the Yu family, which controls the peacekeeping faction, or the New Business Alliance, which has complex interests, there are people who want to silence her.
"When she finalized the cooperation agreement with Guo Wen for the Penglai base, you should have realized that she still adhered to your parents' beliefs! Humans and beasts can coexist! Since you want to eliminate the beastmen, how dare you continue to trust her?!" The gray-haired old researcher cursed with exasperation, spitting as he spoke: "Just because she's your sister?!"
As soon as the old man finished speaking, the researchers who did not know Zero's background immediately erupted in an uproar. Many people stared wide-eyed at the farce unfolding before them and couldn't help but start whispering among themselves.
Faced with the old man's stern questioning and the gazes of all the researchers in the vast conference hall, Zero pursed his lips, his eyes reddening slightly.
“She’s not my sister anymore.” He clenched his fists tightly, and he was even a little breathless because of the betrayal and the shame he felt at this moment: “She’s not anymore.”
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