Chapter 162 Rebooter Base - 19 The two followed the long...
The two walked down the long corridor, Lu Yi's hands still tightly holding Tang Bufan's arm.
Sirius and Fick had already turned the corner and disappeared from sight, while Anderson walked slowly ahead of them, his feet still shackled, though the chain in the middle had broken, dragging heavily on the ground with a jingling sound.
Tang Bufan realized that the white-haired old man had already granted access to the pass in Lu Yi's hand, so he thought about helping Anderson remove the shackles completely. However, when he turned his head and looked at the tall orc next to him, he found that the orc was pursing his lips, lowering his head, and his face was still a little pale.
"...Did I scare you?" Tang Bufan asked.
“…He looks just like the teacher.” Lu Yi’s eyes were a little red: “I saw the way the teacher died.”
“…I’m sorry.” Tang Bufan stopped in his tracks, tenderly reaching out to touch Lu Yi’s head, regretting his actions: “I shouldn’t have let you into that elevator.”
He should have switched to another bus.
Tang Bufan's touch made Lu Yi feel a little better, but he still felt depressed. He cupped Tang Bufan's face in his hands and carefully examined the face in front of him with his golden-green beast eyes. The skin was very fair but had color in it, the eyes were very dark but had spirit, and the bright red lips were what satisfied Lu Yi the most. This was definitely the face of a living person.
Tang Bufan's bright features softened the ashen pallor of the corpse in the elevator, and Lu Yi felt a growing sense of relief. He liked the face in front of him more and more, and couldn't help but cup it in his hands and kiss it.
In order to appease him, Tang Bufan did not refuse.
The sounds of fighting came from ahead, followed by Anderson's irritable cough.
"Ahem, can you two stop flirting all the time?" Anderson complained sarcastically from the front: "I always thought you two weren't doing anything productive. When you're wandering around, you're picking up trash everywhere. Even though the car is low on gas and battery, you're reluctant to throw away those things. Now we're in the enemy's stronghold, and you're taking every opportunity to kiss. Can't you understand how I, as an observer, feel?"
After Anderson finished speaking, he kicked the mutated poison man who rushed out from the corner and sent him flying against the wall. He urged Lu Yi, "There are a lot of poison men ahead. Come and help."
Lu Yi then released her hands from Tang Bufan's face, her cheeks slightly flushed, and said to Tang Bufan, "I'm going to help out in front. Teacher, please stay close to us."
"Hmm." Tang Bufan pursed his damp lips, then pulled a bloodstained dagger from his waistband behind his back. "Go ahead and don't worry. I'm getting better at killing people now."
Lu Yi then jogged forward, with Tang Bufan following behind him, dagger in hand. Sure enough, as the two turned a corner, they saw a large group of poisoners attacking Sirius and Fick.
At first glance, these mutated poison people almost all appear to be female. The mutated poison people who are female have similar faces, while the mutated poison people who should be male have become effeminate, and some even have obviously developed breasts with abnormal slight bulges.
There is no doubt that they have all been contaminated, and the shared information has caused them to gather here frantically to prevent Tang Bufan and the others from activating the infrasound device that could destroy them.
Sirius had suffered a leg injury in the battle against the poisoners in the Eastern Federation, so he was not very efficient in the fight. However, he was holding a flamethrower, which was very intimidating to the poisoners. Meanwhile, Fick, who was beside him, had transformed into a beast and was protecting Sirius while tearing the poisoners apart with his claws.
This was the first time Tang Bufan had seen Fick in his beast form. He stared at the distorted face covered by hair for a long time, but he still couldn't figure out what species it was. It looked like a black ape and a black dog at the same time, with exaggeratedly prominent fangs in its mouth.
"Sirius, go to the teacher's side." Lu Yi, in his beast form, joined the battle, his huge hand grabbing a poisonous man's head and slamming him against the wall like smashing a watermelon, taking the pressure off Sirius.
Sirius slowly retreated with the flamethrower, and only after Anderson leisurely joined the cleanup of the poisoned people did he turn off the flamethrower and stay peacefully by Tang Bufan's side.
Tang Bufan surveyed the scene. Although there were many poisoners and it was chaotic, they did not pose a threat to the three high-level orcs fighting together. Therefore, he did not go up to help, knowing that with Lu Yi's personality, his involvement would only distract him.
Soon the corridor was filled with pools of blood, but because the blood of these mutated poisonous people was dark green, it looked like dirty fuel. The characteristics of plants made them difficult to kill, and the severed limbs and legs crawled and twisted on the ground like separate living creatures. Tiny tentacles would extend from the severed limbs, like worms crawling out of the flesh.
It's disgusting.
Whenever a severed limb wriggles and crawls near the two of them, Sirius will kick it away or drive it away with a flamethrower, leaving Tang Bufan, who is standing against the wall, to throw his knife around out of boredom.
The corridor light above their heads suddenly flickered. Tang Bufan looked up and noticed a dark figure appearing in the other part of the corridor out of the corner of his eye.
Tang Bufan was startled and turned his head to look, only to find Zero wearing a white coat.
Sirius also saw him and immediately reached out to block Tang Bufan, protecting him as he slowly retreated towards the three people.
"Your Majesty, it's Zero." Sirius calmly reported to Lu Yi at the other end of the fold, stepping on a severed hand that was touching his foot as he backed away, so he kicked it away.
The mutated poisoners surrounding this floor had already been torn to pieces by the three high-level orcs, so Lu Yi instructed, "Fick, you and Anderson continue fighting, I'll go check on things."
“You stay, I’ll go.” Anderson knew how formidable Zero was; he still had many scars on his body. So he reached out and forcefully pushed Lu Yi back, then walked towards the corner himself.
Lu Yi frowned as he was forcefully pushed back. He glanced back at the remaining poisoned people and found that there weren't many left. So he changed his order: "Sirius, come and help Fick deal with the remaining poisoned people."
"Yes, Your Majesty." Sirius handed over Tang Bufan's guard duties to Anderson, who had come over, and immediately grabbed the flamethrower and ran towards Fick.
Lu Yi rushed to Anderson and Tang Bufan's side. The three of them stood at the corner and looked at the human man in the white coat across the long corridor.
For some reason, Zero just stood there watching them without moving.
"...He's not the real person." Anderson's silver-gray beast eyes stared into the eyes of the man in the distance, and he sneered through gritted teeth: "It's that android from that night."
After he finished speaking, he reached up and touched the scar on his face, turned his head and spat hard on the ground, then strode towards the android.
Tang Bufan quickly reached out and grabbed him, frowning as he said, "Come back. He's an artificial human, his whole body is made of steel. What are you doing going over there to force him? The real Zero can't feel any pain."
Lu Yi scrutinized the quiet android, then reached behind him and pulled out several metal balls the size of ping-pong balls from his small backpack.
He handed three to Anderson.
"What's this?" Anderson reached out and took it.
"Electromagnetic pulse ball." Lu Yi told him how to use it: "Press the red part and throw it. It will release extremely strong electromagnetic energy after one second, destroying nearby electronic components."
The three of them brought a lot of good stuff in their backpacks when they came to rescue Tang Bufan.
Anderson raised an eyebrow and tossed the small metal ball in his hand: "This works."
Before the two people beside him could react, he suddenly pushed off the ground with both feet and rushed toward the android across the corridor!
"Anderson!!" Tang Bufan hurriedly reached out to pull him back, but he couldn't keep up with Anderson's speed at all. Meanwhile, the quiet android in the distance narrowed its eyes and, after catching Anderson's movement, turned and ran towards the stairwell.
"Damn it, so you know how to run?" Anderson sneered and gave chase.
The two disappeared in an instant.
"..." Tang Bufan's hand was still outstretched in the air, unsure whether to chase or let go.
“With three EMP spheres around, Anderson won’t be at a disadvantage.” Lu Yi grabbed Tang Bufan’s raised hand and reassured him, but then, thinking of Anderson’s easily impulsive nature, he became uncertain: “…probably.”
After he finished speaking, he raised his wristband, and a virtual screen popped into the air. Lu Yi took out the access card that Fang Yue had given him, entered the account on it, and then logged into an interface.
“Zero has given Fang Yue fairly high access,” Lu Yi said. He quickly found Anderson’s file and pulled up his movement path—Lu Yi had already noticed the tracking shackles on Anderson’s feet.
Tang Bufan quickly moved closer to the screen to watch with him. They saw Anderson running upstairs at lightning speed, almost as if he were sprinting in a straight line.
It seems they're chasing after him. Having learned of Anderson's whereabouts, Tang Bufan felt slightly relieved, just then Fick, covered in blood, walked over.
"Your Majesty, the mutated poisonous people on this floor have been cleared out."
Lu nodded, put down the bracelet, and instructed Evelyn: "Evelyn, keep an eye on Anderson's movements, and report to me if anything seems amiss."
“Yes, Louis.” Evelyn’s gentle electronic voice came from the bracelet.
The most urgent task now is to obtain the infrasound frequency that can destroy the poisonous man. Lu Yi put his arm around Tang Bufan's shoulder and led him toward the laboratory where the infrasound device was located.
Sirius was still using the flamethrower to spray several stubbornly writhing corpses.
The metal door to the lab opened with a "beep" as Lu Yi swiped his card. He glanced at the camera in the corner and saw that it was slowly turning around.
After the power was turned on, the Rebooters had been secretly observing them. If it weren't for the rampant presence of poisonous people in the research institute, they wouldn't have allowed Lu Yi and the others to wander around like this.
"Sirius, play the infrasound, then copy the sound data and send it to our researchers so they can quickly build the same instrument and send it to the border," Lu Yi said to Sirius. The sooner the data was sent back, the sooner their border soldiers could disengage from the battle.
"Understood." Sirius immediately walked to the row of control panels, and Fick tacitly came to his side to help him.
More than a dozen virtual screens popped up in front of the two, and several researchers from the Western Federation instantly joined in remotely to assist.
Tang Bufan then realized that Lu Yi and his team's entire operation was connected to the people behind the scenes in the Western Federation. He was initially surprised, but then he felt that it would be abnormal for such a rescue operation not to have someone behind the scenes. Finally, he thought of the several kisses he had shared with Lu Yi...
"..." Tang Bufan guiltily raised his hand to cover his mouth, hoping that the researchers and officers behind the scenes wouldn't bother them like Anderson did.
No more kissing afterwards. Tang Bufan reminded himself and reflected on his actions.
"Your Majesty, should we send the acoustic data to the Eastern Federation and the Northern Federation?" Sirius asked Lu Yi, turning around.
Lu Yi thought for a moment and then refused: "Let's not do anything unnecessary. After all, this is someone else's intellectual property. We can just copy our own."
Fang Yue from the Eastern Federation probably already obtained the sonic data, while the Northern Federation... Lu Yi thought about how the leader of the Northern Federation refused to abolish the peace treaty at the meeting, so this sonic data could be used as a bargaining chip in subsequent negotiations with them.
Although it concerns other federations, Lu Yi himself hopes that all of humanity in the world can return to the surface.
Watching Sirius and the others operate over there, Tang Bufan, who was fine, started to worry about Anderson. He wanted Lu Yi to open the screen again to check Anderson's path, but Evelyn didn't say anything because she knew there was a large group of people from the Western Federation helping to monitor things behind the scenes. She reassured herself that everything should be alright.
In his silence, he thought of the android standing quietly in the depths of the corridor, watching them. There was no doubt that it was sent by Zero. The reason it didn't attack was because it had discovered that there were four high-level orcs. Could it be that it couldn't defeat them?
Where is Zero himself in the research institute? Fang Yue said the surveillance cameras captured him coming over... Tang Bufan pondered, looking up at the ceiling, just as the light bulb flickered a few more times.
Lu Yi also looked up at the ceiling, while Sirius, who was busy at the control panel, clicked his tongue softly and turned the instrument back on after it had shut down due to unstable circuitry.
"The circuit is a bit unstable," Tang Bufan said.
"It's probably because of the water coming in," Lu Yi said.
"Hmm, probably." Tang Bufan, the culprit, covered his mouth guiltily.
At this moment, everyone in the room felt a slight tremor, and Sirius and Fick both looked up at the ceiling.
"Is the sonic device turned on?" Lu Yi asked, carefully sensing the vibrations that felt like a large electrical appliance had been turned on.
“It was already turned on, but it was turned off again just now because of unstable circuitry.” Sirius noticed something was wrong: “And although infrasound can cause resonance, the noise isn’t this loud.”
At that moment, the lights above their heads flickered again as if they had short-circuited.
“No…” Tang Bufan looked at the light bulb that was flickering more and more frequently, and suddenly a thought flashed through his mind, and his face turned pale.
"It's the time travel lab..." Tang Bufan grabbed Lu Yi's hand and turned to run out: "Zero is in the time travel lab!"
Tang Bufan suddenly remembered! Zero's purpose in capturing him from a thousand years ago and bringing him here!
Your appearance proves that the time travel was successful.
However, it cannot yet be verified whether the world is unique; the universe may contain countless parallel worlds.
[After you return, you need to carefully observe that world. Perhaps it's just a change in the color of a toothbrush cup, or the appearance of a friend you don't recognize but who recognizes you, that could prove the world you returned to is not your original world.]
[But regardless of whether it's your original world or not, you should record your observations of that world and post them in a way that's only visible on your Weibo account. If the world doesn't undergo any major changes, your Weibo data will be very fortunate to be preserved until our time and then unearthed by us.]
[And if I can confirm that the world is unique, then... I can go back in time and change the present world.]
"Zero wants to change the world!" Tang Bufan frantically pulled Lu Yi upstairs: "Floors -47, -48! The quantum time machine is there!"
Lu Yi then realized what was happening and immediately bent down to hug Tang Bufan. In the flickering stairwell lights, he carried Tang Bufan to the -48th floor at a speed of leaping across an entire floor with each step.
In the corridor, a dozen researchers in white lab coats stood quietly. As soon as Lu Yi and Tang Bufan appeared in the corridor, they seemed to turn on their phones and raised their lowered eyes one after another.
“…A android.” Lu put Tang Bufan down from his arms and took out several electromagnetic pulse balls from the small backpack behind him.
A dozen or so androids rushed forward. Lu Yi threw out all the pulse balls in his hand. A second later, several blue electromagnetic pulses resembling water ripples spread in the air. The androids that the ripples touched all stiffened, and intense sparks immediately burst from their eyes, noses, mouths, and ears.
All the androids collapsed, and the corridor lights went out instantly.
Thousands of miles away in the Western Federation, the researchers and officers behind the scenes became instantly anxious upon receiving the signal that Lu Yi had lost contact.
The chief researcher in the room immediately ordered Sirius and Fick, who were still in the sonic chamber, to go to the -48th floor to protect their leader, while General Angus, one of the officers, did not hesitate to contact his foolish son who was still chasing "Zero".
"Anderson! Return to the research facility immediately!"
In the forest, Anderson, who was running wildly in his beast form, suddenly heard his father's voice. His body trembled involuntarily, and he almost crashed into a tree.
This moment of distraction caused "Zero," who was running ahead, to disappear into the forest.
Anderson clicked his tongue and looked down at his ankle in confusion. Sure enough, his father's stern voice came from the electronic shackles again: "Zero's main body is in the quantum traversal laboratory on floors -47 and -48 of the research institute. The Führer just used an electromagnetic pulse ball and has now lost contact with us. I order you to return immediately and protect the Führer and his wife!"
"..." Anderson stared blankly at the shackles for two seconds before reaching out and slamming his fist into the thick tree trunk in front of him, cursing, "Damn it! Zero tricked me!"
In the dimly lit corridor, Lu Yi held Tang Bufan tightly beside him, asking anxiously, "Teacher, are you alright?"
"Ugh...it's nothing." Tang Bufan kicked away the heavy android at his feet, feeling a dull pain in his right shinbone. The android had just flown over out of control, and although it was covered with a layer of plastic, it still had a steel skeleton weighing over 400 pounds inside, which still hurt Tang Bufan badly.
"Let me see." Lu Yi squatted down and pulled on Tang Bufan's trouser leg, and found that there was a large bruise there, and the situation did not look good.
"Is it a fracture?" Lu Yi wanted to reach out and touch it, but then hesitated.
"Go find Zero first." Tang Bufan didn't bother to check his leg. He stared at the corridor in the distance where the lights were still flashing. The shockwave from the electromagnetic pulse hadn't affected that area.
"Get on my back." Lu Yi moved the small backpack from his back to his front, revealing his broad back to Tang Bufan.
Without hesitation, Tang Bufan lay down on it.
"Teacher, you are so flexible."
"What time is it?" Tang Bufan said irritably, slapping the orc's head. "Let's go!"
"Oh." Lu Yi immediately carried him on his back and strode towards the end where the lights were still on.
The two hadn't gone far when they suddenly heard the stairwell door close. Lu Yi turned around with Tang Bufan on his back, but didn't see anyone.
“There are other androids.” Tang Bufan said in a deep voice. Although the Rebooters were poor, they were still a force to be reckoned with. There were still many androids in the research institute that had not been sent out. “Hopefully Sirius and Fick can handle them.”
Tang Bufan then understood why the Zero-like android had stood still and watched them. It turned out that it was observing them. After discovering that they possessed an electromagnetic pulse sphere, it decisively chose to escape and successfully lured Anderson away.
Four advanced orcs, armed with mechanical electromagnetic pulses, were met with Zero's very clever choice to evade and disperse them.
“Sirius and Fick also have EMP spheres in their backpacks, they’ll be fine,” Lu Yi reassured Tang Bufan, while glancing at the security camera in the corner of the corridor. The lights were on, but the camera wasn’t flashing red.
The floor was still trembling slightly.
“The surveillance cameras on this floor aren’t working.” Lu Yi carried Tang Bufan down the long, damp corridor. “It seems the Rebooters are unaware of Zero’s actions.”
“Zero has really gone mad.” Tang Bufan said, enduring the dull pain in his leg. “Actually, I think even if the Rebooters vote to go to war with the Orcs and win the war, Zero will still choose to travel back in time to change the world. He told me that if the timeline can really be changed, he will not choose to go back to kill the researchers who created the Orcs, but will choose to go back to the 21st century to implant the AI he designed and let the AI manage humanity.”
The 21st century is the century of great development of human AI, and many large AI models have emerged. Tang Bufan thought that this was probably one of the reasons why he was chosen by Zero, since he happened to grow up in that era.
"Does he think that letting AI manage humanity will prevent World War III?" Lu Yi said.
"right."
“Then he really doesn’t understand humanity.” Lu Yi loves humanity, but he is also aware of humanity’s inherent flaws: “Even if humans are well-fed and clothed, have a low crime rate, and don’t even need to go out to work under AI’s management, they will only feel that their humanity and freedom are restricted by AI, and thus start a war with AI.”
Tang Bufan thought for a moment, then gave a self-deprecating smile, realizing that he was right.
The quantum time travel laboratory was very large, with two interconnected floors. Lu Yi carried Tang Bufan along the long corridor for quite a while before finally finding the very large alloy iron door.
He supported Tang Bufan's buttocks with one hand and took out a pass card from the bag in front of him with the other. He swiped it, but it didn't open.
"Use the pulse ball," Tang Bufan said. "Since the access card is useless anyway, let's cut off the power inside first."
As soon as he finished speaking, the huge alloy doors opened from both sides. The laboratory, which was as big as an indoor football field, was not very bright. Although the lights on the ceiling were on, they seemed to be underpowered.
At the center of the laboratory is a nuclear reactor, which acts like a heart connecting many instruments. A metal "stage" less than two meters in diameter stands not far from the reactor, where two people, one large and one small, are standing.
The one wearing the long white coat was naturally Zero, while the smaller one... Tang Bufan, who was lying on Lu Yi's back, suddenly clenched his fists, his face turning extremely pale.
The child, who had been placed in front of Zero, looked at Tang Bufan with a somewhat bewildered expression and said, "Teacher, I want to go home."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com