restraint

"I don't understand why you're so persistent," Song Xu handed the biggest and most fragrant bread to Ivy, "Isn't it good to be a collector? You can also go to the wasteland, and it's safer."

“I wouldn’t necessarily pass the collector’s test—there’s just too much to remember,” Ivy said.

The driving space of the supply equipment vehicle was relatively spacious. Now was the time to stop marching and rest. Song Xu used his cousin's connections to prepare an extra set of military uniform, mask, and helmet for Ivy who had hidden in the vehicle in advance, so that she could get out and walk around, helping her conceal her identity.

Ivy and he agreed on a wording: if someone from Iris's team asked, she would say that Ivy was a reserve student. If they ran into a reserve student, they would say that Ivy was a member of Iris's team.

It's mainly an information gap.

Looking out through the transparent car window, it was not the wilderness that Ivy dreamed of.

District 1 is already rich in resources, and the wasteland nearby is the site of a former super city; after humans left, plants and small animals reoccupied the area. The cracked roads are covered with green grass, and the towering skyscrapers are covered with vines and purple, tiny flowers. The abandoned convenience store sign on the roadside is broken, and the font on it has long disappeared. Only the sturdy banyan tree next to it is lush and has countless long aerial roots hanging from its branches. The white storks with white feathers and black skirts are walking gracefully, leisurely preening their feathers on the shallow beach of the small lake.

Song Xu was chewing on a dry piece of bread. He was not wearing a helmet, and his golden hair was messy. The hair gel he had carefully applied in the morning was all messed up by the helmet. He turned his head to look at the mirror beside him and found that he looked worse than the high school student who had to study until ten o'clock every night.

But he didn't bring any hair gel.

This expedition will last at least a week.

Even shaking the hair unnaturally couldn't stop it from becoming messy.

Ivy didn't notice this.

She had always praised his hair, saying it was as bright as the sunshine and that it made her feel good when she saw it.

Song Xu said, "What about next year? The teacher named Lorraine is indeed very strict...but military officers like them are very busy, and the government will only arrange for them to teach one class of students. You can apply for the next training camp - maybe by then, I will be your senior and have already entered Iris."

He was quite proud: "When that time comes, I will take the initiative to apply to select players in the training camp. As long as you say a good word to me, I will vote for you and support you to join the team."

Ivvy quickly and quietly finished her bread, concentrating on observing the birds outside the car window; creatures in the wasteland rarely see humans, and the ones they come into contact with the most are mostly intelligent robots or some bionic people.

Studies have shown that neither of the latter species would capture or harm these birds or animals, and are only hostile to humans.

The birds here are not afraid of people or cars. They tilt their heads to look around curiously.

"So, you don't need to be so stressed, and there's no need to sneak here... Although I will definitely help you, won't your mysterious partner be angry if you do this?" Song Xu finally mentioned Hector. He chewed the bread slowly and asked, "Is he not good to you?"

Ivy sighed: "What does my life have to do with him?"

Song Xu was stunned: "That's right, you never treat men as human beings anyway."

"You also said that my genetic rating is D," Ivy said, "Do you remember the rules of genetic evaluation?"

Song Xu remembers.

Everyone carries disease-causing genes, but the number and probability of disease-causing genes are different, which is an important condition for genetic evaluation. In addition, there are some aesthetic aspects, those recognized "beauties", such as healthy and smooth skin - which are also one of the reference items.

The majority of people are ranked B and C, while those ranked D and E are mostly unhealthy and suffer from different, difficult-to-cure diseases.

Ivy is D.

She appeared to be very healthy, had no intellectual disabilities, healthy skin, pretty looks, and good physical fitness - even because of her own efforts, her grades were ranked higher than Song Xu, who was in Grade A.

Song Xu dared to bet that if it weren't for that terrible "D", the boys chasing Ivy in the school would line up around the entire school; after all, even such a picky boy could not forget her.

“I’ve seen many cases where people were ‘D’ but healthy,” Ivy said, “and then suddenly got sick with a strange disease and died soon after.”

Song Xu was furious: "Don't say such sad things, there is no research to prove it!"

Ivy laughed: "Who knows if I will die suddenly? I don't want to 'wait another year'. Time is precious and cannot be wasted."

Song Xu didn't like hearing her say this, and couldn't think of anything to refute it, so he just silently picked at the army biscuits, flipped them over and over, picked out the hazelnut cocoa flavor, and handed it to Ivy.

He chose the one marked "peanut-free", opened the package, and put it in his mouth.

"So why did you rush into marriage last year?" Song Xu whispered, "If you don't want to waste time, why do you want to start a family with a stranger? Even if you really want to get married, you should give priority to the people around you--"

There was a loud explosion outside, and the supply truck was shaken with a loud bang.

Ivy stopped eating and quickly stuffed the remaining few cookies into her pocket. She put on her mask, picked up her gun, and jumped out of the car quickly and cleanly.

Song Xu was stunned: "——Hey!!!"

He jumped down and caught up with Ivy.

The explosion was very close to them. Ivy was the first to arrive at the scene and identified that they were several small bombs.

It is a masterpiece of artificial intelligence.

They often use this method to manipulate small explosions to cut off the human advance or retreat route. The wasteland is currently the base of artificial intelligence, and they will try to kill or capture and keep the humans who intrude.

This proves that there are artificial intelligence "eyes" nearby, and Ivy needs to find the nearby central server as soon as possible and destroy it.

Following the experience taught by the teacher in class, in less than two minutes, Ivy found traces along the lines left near the bomb. The small signal detector also responded strongly. She suppressed her excitement and quickly chased to the abandoned building nearby with a gun.

"You place the signal jammer here," Ivy told Song Xu, "and stay here to show the way. When others arrive, remember to tell them that I'm in the building to handle the server."

Song Xu's eyes were complicated: "...You are still so strong-willed."

Ivy has used a laser gun to cut through the vines covering the door and rushed into the building.

This was originally a building of an Internet company. The logo on the wall was in tatters, and the hanging posters had been shattered into dust. Only the tables, chairs and benches left behind when humans evacuated in a hurry were still there, covered with thick dust. There was little sunlight in the building, and the power had been out for a long time - artificial intelligence controlled all the power resources in the wasteland, and they did not need lights.

The glass windows were covered with vines, the elevator didn't work, and the server was not on the first floor - there were forty-five floors here, and walking up the stairs would be exhausting.

Ivy walked to the atrium and looked up. The layers of railings and the glass skylight on the top were covered with dust, not letting in any sunlight.

She first turned on the searchlight on her helmet, took a breath, turned on the device on her wrist, and aimed to fire.

whoosh.

The tough steel wire shot out and firmly wrapped around the railing on the third floor. Ivy pressed down slightly and pointed her toes, and the steel wire pulled her straight up.

Leaping lightly into the second floor, she retracted the wire and began to explore.

Outside the building.

Lorraine was the third person to arrive on the scene.

He quickly realized that there was more than one server.

There was more than one bomb.

When Song Xu said, "A classmate is still in the building," Luo Lin was unhappy: "Who allowed you to act without permission?"

Song Xu stood at attention: "Report to the teacher, the situation is urgent."

"You violated the rules. Go back to my office and receive your punishment." Lorraine turned around and said, "Songfeng, you take three people to dismantle the remaining bombs. Bianmu, the other server is located in the white house at six o'clock. You take five trainees to shut it down..."

He assigned the tasks in an orderly manner, looking up at the towering building, the dense vines outside, and the rectangular hole cut by the laser gun.

Luo Lin asked Song Xu: "Can we contact the students who have entered?"

Song Xu said: "The signal is interfered and cannot be used."

As expected.

Since they have their servers in this building, they naturally have to use means to block signals.

Song Feng noticed his gaze and said, "Sir, we can move further away and notify the air force to blow it up."

Lorraine did not comment: "There are students inside."

Song Feng said: "Those who entered the wasteland and acted without permission should bear the consequences."

Lorraine glanced sideways at him.

“This is the way to minimize the risk,” Song Feng added. “We cannot afford to sacrifice other people’s lives.”

Lorraine said nothing and took off his military jacket, revealing the black uniform underneath.

His military jacket was specially made to suppress his keen sense of touch, so it would be a bit cumbersome if he were to engage in close combat.

Ivy isn't here.

The rest of the smells didn't irritate him.

"Thirty minutes," Lorraine said briefly, "After thirty minutes, notify the air force to blow up this building."

Song Feng was surprised: "Are you going to go by yourself?"

"I'm the teacher," Lorraine said. "I'm responsible for their safety."

Song Xu shouted: "Teacher, I want to apply to join you."

"Reject," Lorraine left grimly, "I don't want to add any more trouble."

He walked into the dark building.

This is not the first time we have dealt with this kind of situation. In the years of fighting against artificial intelligence, all kinds of messes have occurred.

Lorraine easily identified the young trainee's diving route by following the traces on the ground.

It was clear that the other party had a solid foundation of knowledge, but was seriously lacking in practical experience. Under normal circumstances, an expedition team would not search such a tall building as the search would take a long time and involve high potential risks. To be on the safe side, they would simply call in the air force to blow it up.

I hope today can teach the other person a lesson so that he (she) can remember it well.

When following the trail to the fifth floor, Lorraine noticed a drop of blood on the railing.

The opponent was accidentally injured while flipping.

but--

The taste of blood.

Lorraine leaned forward slightly, frowned, and smelled a familiar scent from the blood.

Light coconut aroma.

He paused.

A bad feeling slowly came over me.

Seventeenth floor.

Thank God.

Ivy finally found the location of the server.

But the reinforcements had not yet arrived.

There is no signal on the communicator. Artificial intelligence knows how to block links better than humans.

Ivy had to do it herself.

Fortunately, she was taught how to deal with it in the class she took.

She took out a USB flash drive, found the interface accurately, and just inserted it when the dark screen in front of her suddenly lit up.

Ivy remained indifferent, calmed herself down, and waited for the contents of the USB drive to be copied in.

The program inside would help her lock down the server so that she could completely cut off the power supply - and then blow it up.

The foolproof method of eradicating the weeds at their roots will prevent them from regrowing.

However, it was different from what the teacher taught. A line of words slowly appeared on the large electronic screen, with an ethereal and clear blue background and soft white fonts like water. It was written in six languages ​​with the same content.

"Welcome back to our home, my daughter."

Ivy looked at him suspiciously, and suddenly heard heavy footsteps behind her. She immediately turned around and just as she pulled out her gun, the man picked her up.

Her cheek hit the other's hard chest hard, the silver iris badge hurt her, and the familiar cold metal breath wrapped around her body like a snake.

The man in the black military uniform picked her up and walked out without saying a word.

It's not a princess hug, but holding her in his arms like a child.

Ivy, who is 170cm tall, never dreamed that there would be a day when someone would hold her like this.

She screamed in shock: "Teacher Lorraine, why are you here?"

"I should be the one asking you that," Lorraine sounded even angrier than she was. "Are you a restless little bee?"

"I'm sorry, teacher," Ivy asked politely, "Can you put me down? I can walk by myself..."

He hugged her too hard and too tightly. Even though he was wearing gloves and did not touch her skin, his arms were so strong that it seemed as if he wanted to break her bones.

Very painful and uncomfortable.

His...body temperature is also very high, abnormally high, scary.

Lorraine said nothing.

In the darkness, Ivy could clearly hear his breathing, rapid and heavy, like a wild beast lurking in the darkness.

The look he gave her just now was like a predator staring at its prey.

The building was dark, with a flickering light.

A drop of sweat rolled down Lorraine's protruding Adam's apple, slowly seeping into the dark military uniform, and the veins on his neck became visible.

He tried his best to restrain himself.

Resist the urge to touch her other parts.

Fifteen minutes left.