Chapter 163 Rebooter Base - 20 Lu Yi felt the weight on his back...
Lu Yi felt the body suddenly tighten around his back and instantly realized who the ordinary-looking child was.
The person who caused Tang Bufan five years of suffering was Chen Fei.
"I truly regret choosing you, Tang Bufan." Zero placed his hands on Chen Fei's shoulders, his eyes behind his glasses filled with a sinister glint as he stared intently at Tang Bufan: "If it weren't for you, my experiments, my plans, my efforts to save humanity... would all have succeeded!"
Tang Bufan immediately got off Lu Yi's back. Even though his right foot was throbbing with pain as he stepped on the ground, he gritted his teeth and stared at Zero: "Let go of Chen Fei!"
"I'll let him go?" Zero sneered, asking him mockingly, "If I let him go, will you take him back?"
Tang Bufan felt a tightness in his chest and fell silent. Taking Chen Fei back to the 21st century was indeed his responsibility, because he was the homeroom teacher and had also made a promise to the child's grandmother...
“I… I have a reason to stay here now…” Tang Bufan took a step forward on his right tiptoe, feeling a bit sore. Lu Yi, staring at the quantum time machine that was clearly in operation, nervously pulled him back.
He didn't want Tang Bufan to get close to that machine.
"Then what else did you say!" Zero shouted angrily at Tang Bufan, his eyes reddening. He gripped Chen Fei's shoulders tightly, causing the young boy to wince in pain.
But he still stood obediently in front of Zero.
"I would have preferred a rat to you...useless thing...useless thing!" Zero continued his incessant cursing, while the vast laboratory echoed with mechanical reports.
"The data affected by the electromagnetic pulse has been recalibrated. The quantum time travel machine is entering the final three-minute warm-up phase," the research institute's main computer said in a gentle electronic male voice. It was thanks to its help that the Rebooters were unaware of Zero's actions.
As an AI, it rationally believes that going back to the past and letting AI manage humanity would be more conducive to the longevity of human civilization.
At least, humanity will not face a thousand-year-long apocalypse due to World War III.
Upon hearing the AI's report, Lu Yi frowned and took out three more electromagnetic pulse spheres from his bag. He couldn't let Zero go back in time to change the world. Putting aside other butterfly effects, the fact that he and Tang Bufan would probably never meet again was unacceptable to him.
But the thin man standing next to him reached out and wrapped his hand around the pulse ball.
Lu Yi looked at Tang Bufan with a helpless yet worried expression: "Teacher..."
"I..." Tang Bufan knew he shouldn't, but his eyes flickered with struggle and pain, his gaze fixed on the innocent child who longed to go home: "Let me think about it again..."
"..." Lu Yi pursed his lips, but upon hearing the faint knocking sound coming from the corridor, he silently lowered his hand.
And with a hint of anxiety, he tapped the metal zipper on the backpack in front of him a few times with his fingertips, making a small knocking sound.
Seeing that Tang Bufan had stopped Lu Yi, Zero secretly breathed a sigh of relief, glad that he had brought the child and successfully controlled Tang Bufan. But the next second, a huge explosion suddenly came from the wall in the distance of the laboratory!
"boom!"
The ground trembled instantly. Almost simultaneously, Lu Yi scooped up Tang Bufan beside him and rushed to the side, while Zero instinctively turned his head to look in the direction of the explosion...
A cold glint flashed, and a military knife spun as it flew from the direction of the door. It passed through the spot where Lu Yi and Tang Bufan had just been standing and flew to Zero's front in an instant, slicing off his entire right arm from the shoulder blade!
Zero opened his eyes wide. Before the pain even arrived, he saw his own blood splattering into the air!
"Ah... Ahhhhhh!" Zero screamed in agony, his head burning. He covered his bleeding right shoulder with his left hand, his face pale, and staggered back several steps, almost falling off the metal platform.
"Führer!" Sirius and Fick emerged from the hole in the wall created by the explosion, while Anderson appeared by the open door of the laboratory, tossing another military knife in his hand.
Tang Bufan nestled in Lu Yi's arms, his eyes wide as he watched the sudden turn of events.
"We're fine," Lu Yi said in a deep voice to the three people who appeared. "You did a good job."
When Zero used the child to blackmail Tang Bufan, Lu Yi overheard the message from Anderson.
Due to the electromagnetic pulse, the bracelet on his wrist and the headset in his ear both malfunctioned, but the orc's incredibly sharp hearing allowed him to detect the regular knocking sounds coming from the corridor.
It's Morse code.
The keynote that every high-ranking orc learns at the Commanders' Academy.
Anderson told him that Sirius and Fick were using explosives on the east wall to distract Zero, while he would simultaneously launch a frontal attack on Zero.
Lu Yi responded with a knock: Understood.
Then the explosion occurred, and Anderson threw a knife from the doorway, aiming directly at Zero's mechanical arm.
The power of a high-ranking orc throwing a knife at full force is terrifying, enough to slice off an ordinary human's arm, bone and all, and Zero's shoulder blade was not transformed into steel.
The sneak attack was perfectly executed.
Anderson looked at Zero, who was disheveled and clutching his empty right shoulder with his left hand, narrowed his eyes, and smiled. The hatred in his heart was finally somewhat relieved.
What's a little strange is that the child who witnessed everything still stood there with his eyes wide open, and despite having Zero's blood splattered on his face, he didn't let out a single scream.
He even looked at Tang Bufan again and said, "Teacher, I want to go home."
Hearing his murmur, Tang Bufan's eyes reddened. He reached out and pushed Lu Yi away, then stumbled and climbed onto the high platform.
He reached out and hugged the child tightly, his body trembling slightly with emotion, and his voice choked with sobs: "Chen Fei... Chen Fei... You will go back... You will go back... Your teacher will definitely take you back..."
"..." The child, who seemed to lack some emotional support, showed a subtle ripple in his dark eyes after feeling his warm embrace.
"Explosion impact detected, instrument function check in progress... A gap detected in the seventh nuclear energy group, posing a risk of nuclear leakage. Continue quantum spacetime travel?" The gentle electronic male voice of AI suddenly sounded.
Upon hearing about the risk of a nuclear leak, Lu Yi immediately tried to carry Tang Bufan off the metal platform, while Anderson, who had also come over, kicked Zero, who was pale and trying to climb back down.
Zero fell heavily to the ground, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth, his glasses cracked from the impact, but he still looked up at the research institute's main computer with red eyes and shouted at the top of his lungs, "Continue!"
"Command received. Quantum time travel machine warm-up begins, countdown begins in one minute and 28 seconds."
"Sirius! Contact the nuclear submarine to pick us up on the lower level! Anderson! Take Zero with you!" Lu Yi decisively gave the order and pulled Tang Bufan into his arms.
"..." The child on the platform stretched out his hands towards Tang Bufan with some confusion, as if he was longing for his embrace.
"Your Majesty, shouldn't we stop this machine?" Sirius and Fick had already taken the pulse orb into their hands.
Lu Yi glanced at the somewhat abnormal child with mixed feelings: "This child needs to go back."
Only by sending him back can his teacher completely let go of the past and belong to him alone from now on.
“…Alright.” Sirius glanced regretfully at the room full of sophisticated instruments, then grabbed Fick beside him and turned to run outside.
Seeing him grasp his hand, the usually aloof and taciturn orc subtly curled the corners of his mouth.
"Damn it, I still have to carry this brat." Although Anderson was unwilling, he obeyed orders and carried the struggling Zero, running to catch up with Sirius and Fick.
Lu Yi did not hesitate and followed closely behind, holding Tang Bufan in his arms.
"Chen Fei! Chen Fei!" Tang Bufan, leaning on Lu Yi's shoulder, finally couldn't hold back his tears and shouted one last time at the obedient child standing on the high platform:
"Go back and be a good child! Teacher... Teacher loves you!"
Upon hearing this, the seven-year-old child's eyes widened, and a faint smile appeared on his otherwise ordinary face.
At 8:42 PM on September 7, 3329, a massive 8.3 magnitude earthquake struck the central Pacific Ocean, causing tsunamis of varying degrees along coastlines worldwide.
In the same month of the same year, Louis Smith, the head of the Western Federation, took the lead in announcing the abrogation of the Peace Pact and selecting the Isle of Man as the site for a mixed human-animal settlement. The following month, Guo Shen, the head of the Eastern Federation, announced the establishment of a new human base in Penglai and the pilot operation of a mixed human-animal settlement.
After suffering greatly from the mutated poisonous humans, the Northern Federation finally reached an agreement with the Rebooters, a new human force, in November of that year, exchanging the abolition of the Peace Pact for sonic data that could destroy the mutated poisonous humans.
Thus, humanity ended its thousand-year underground life and returned to the surface, entering a new era of coexistence with the orcs.
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