Chapter 19: "Don't let anyone think of me"
In the empty room, the smell of disinfectant filled the nose, and a few rays of light came through the curtains that were never drawn tightly, shining on the scar on Xu An's face.
"Have you remembered everything?" Yin Xiangrong walked in slowly, pulled a chair and sat down.
"Yeah." Looking in the direction of her fingertip, in addition to various test reports, there were also a lot of bionic man promotional leaflets spread out on the table.
Yin Xiangrong put the pictures one by one, and then called up a screen recording of Xiaolin in the observation room.
“Do you believe that artificial intelligence can develop consciousness?”
When Yin Xiangrong asked this question, he felt that he was probably crazy. Humans have been researching artificial intelligence for hundreds of years. Even if artificial intelligence could develop consciousness, it should have been there long ago. But now it appeared in a base where the technology was many times behind that of humans on the ground.
Xu An looked over and asked, "What do you mean?"
Where Yin Xiangrong pointed, on the bionic man leaflet issued in New Era 198, in addition to Xu An's blurred half face in the corner, another half face was faintly revealed behind her, which was Feng Lan.
"New Era 198? How old was Feng Lan then? Five?" Xu An frowned. "You were only 11."
In addition to these, there is a vague mark on Xu An’s clothes on the flyer - 0302.
Yin Xiangrong's eyes froze for a moment, then he quickly looked at Xu An, speechless with surprise. "0302? Everyone who knew about this during the Battle of Humanity is dead. Besides you and me, who else knows this number?"
"I should have noticed it earlier." Xu An sighed and pressed his swollen solar plexus. "When I was on the ground earlier, I was affected by the bromine mist. My survival instinct made me perform [Decontamination] directly in front of Jie Shuqin and Baili Yunle. At that time, Baili Yunle had already pointed out that there was something wrong with the flyer, but my mind was not clear and I didn't react."
Speaking of this, she felt a headache. "I've been feeling really weird lately. I'm always groggy and my memory is terrible, especially when I'm on the ground. Yin Xiangrong, I always feel like something on the ground is affecting me."
Yin Xiangrong always had unwavering faith in Xu An's perception, even though she hated Xu An's ability because it prevented her from even seeing Yin Shu for the last time.
"I'll apply to go on the next ground mission with Feng Lan, and by the way, investigate what you mentioned..." As she spoke, she quickly looked up and stared at Xu An: "I'm warning you, it's best not to sneak to the ground. The bromine mist concentration has been very unstable these days, and the alien species are very determined to attack. If you go down, you will be a hot commodity in their eyes."
Xu An didn't care and shrugged: "Just a little snack..."
She suddenly stopped talking.
Yin Xiangrong looked at her strangely: "What's wrong?"
Xu An's movements were a little stiff. She felt around and asked tentatively, "Is there a power outage?"
At this moment, the sky was bright, the base was suspended above the clouds, the lights were on, and the room was warm.
Yin Xiangrong's expression grew serious. He quickly held Xu An's shoulders and pushed her to sit on the bed. "Your eyeball is broken. I'll go fix it first."
She skillfully put on gloves and removed the electronic eyeball from Xu An's eye socket, placed it in an ultrasonic cleaning machine, then pulled the curtains and covered Xu An's eyes with a layer of gauze.
"Now, you can't even sneak to the ground." Although her words sounded gloating, her tone was serious.
Xu An held her wrist and stopped her movements: "It doesn't matter if you don't cover it up. We've been through this all those years..."
"Shut up!"
As the sound came, a drop of warmth fell on his face. Xu An suddenly looked up and was stunned.
"Why do you always look so indifferent and nonchalant? Why can't anything touch you? Why can't you remember anything even after I provoked you like that? Xu An, you bastard, you promised to protect my mom, you bastard..."
The curse words were heard everywhere, but her hands were steady. The gauze was tied and the lifeless eyes were covered. Yin Xiangrong realized that apart from those eyes, Xu An was no different from humans.
She took a long breath and wiped her face casually. "I know it was wrong of me to force you to remember, but I can't let it go, and you can't let it go either."
"You failed to protect Yin Shu, so it is your mission to find the cause of Yin Shu's death."
Xu An was silent for a moment, then lowered her head. The wind blew the curtains, letting some light in and lifting her hair.
"I know." Xu An's voice was very soft. "I don't know why I forgot, but I have never let it go."
Perhaps because she was too obsessed, she would even dream of that blurry, blood-soaked face in the dead of night. Then, blood splattered in her eyes, and in the crimson, the body resting on her gradually grew cold, accompanied by a hoarse voice: "Only when I become a taboo can the base take off. Xu An, forget me, don't let anyone remember me."
Amidst the noisy crowd, the voice fell clearly into her ears. She couldn't shake it off or escape. She felt like she was kneeling in a pool of blood, screaming silently, with no response.
“Ding Di——”
The chip vibrated and Xu An pursed his lips, coming back to his senses.
Yin Xiangrong picked up the ultrasonic cleaner and gave Xu An a deep look. "Rest well, we still have things to do at the physical training ground."
Seeing Xu An nodded, Yin Xiangrong stepped out quickly, handed the things to a passing intern to take back to the research institute, changed his clothes, and quickly got on the skytrain to rush to the training ground.
There were few people on the train today, perhaps because it happened to be a break. Yin Xiangrong sat on a chair, leaning against the carriage, and his heart slowly calmed down.
For some reason, the air became a lot more depressing, probably because of her mood. Yin Xiangrong didn't care. She quickly looked at the chip and got out of the car.
The physical training ground was much smaller than the mecha training base, but it housed a wide variety of equipment and physical training robots. Yin Xiangrong quickly crossed the overhead walkway and took the elevator to the tenth floor.
"What do you want from me?"
Pushing open the door, a man in a sports vest and brown sweatpants walked over. Looking inside, Feng Lan was leaning back in a chair doing a full body examination inside the testing equipment.
"His indicators unexpectedly met the standards. I would like to ask the doctor to see if he can do [dissolution] training." As he said this, Wang Zhan retrieved the data and handed it to Yin Xiangrong.
Yin Xiangrong pushed his glasses up and glanced at him with some dissatisfaction: "They hurriedly called me from the central area to the west area without even giving me a chair..."
She suddenly stopped talking, glanced at Feng Lan, then at the data: "Incredible, his compatibility was only at 40% a few days ago, and it has soared to 60% now."
Wang Zhan quickly asked, "So we can start the [Deconstruction] training now?"
"Well, let's prepare the equipment." As she said that, Yin Xiangrong skillfully tied up her long hair. After everything was ready, the [Dissolution] training room, which had been closed for a long time, was finally opened again.
Yin Xiangrong gestured on the screen with a pen. "Remember, once you enter, you can't stop releasing your superpowers. The fluctuation meter needs to be stable between thirty and fifty. Ten seconds after the nerves are connected, you'll start absorbing the alien's superpowers. Just imagine yourself eating."
Feng Lan nodded, took a long breath, and stepped into the training room.
The sound of the training room running rang in his ears, and Yin Xiangrong leaned against the table and stared at the test data transmitted from the chip.
"Dr. Yin, have a drink of water." Yin Xiangrong looked up and saw Wang Zhan moving two chairs with one hand and holding warm water with the other.
She reached out to take it, sat down on the chair Wang Zhan had placed, and pointed to the time on the chip. "The results will be out in another hour."
Wang Zhan rubbed his hands and nodded nervously, "This is the second time the [Dissolver] training room has been used since the base was established. If Feng Lan can succeed, maybe he can really lead us back to the surface later."
Yin Xiangrong wasn't particularly moved. She took a sip of water and casually said, "Knowing [Dissolution] can only improve his survivability on the ground. If he isn't strong enough, he'll be countered by the powerful alien species he attracts."
"Having this ability is better than not having it. As long as we can use it skillfully and don't deliberately jump into places where alien species gather, we'll be fine." Wang Zhan was very optimistic. "Doctor Yin, I remember that the last person who successfully completed the [Dissolver] training was Commander Ran Yue, right? It's a pity that she became the commander of the base shortly after graduating from university. My ground mission schedule just happened to overlap with hers, so I haven't seen the scene of [Dissolver] being activated. It must be very shocking."
Yin Xiangrong calmly drank a sip of water and glanced at the words "Xu An" displayed on the chip communication bar.
"Well, it will be shocking."
Soon, the sound of the machinery stopped, and the fluctuating dripping sounds of various indicators on the chip disturbed the minds of the two. When the last gray data turned green and was checked, the door of the training room opened.
Mist hurriedly squeezed out from the door, and Feng Lan slowly stepped out, with various crystal core fragments still scattered on his body, and a surge of heat was transmitted over him.
Wang Zhan patted Feng Lan's shoulders excitedly. His gray hair was very obvious under the light because of his old age.
Feng Lan was stunned for a moment, then smiled and shook hands with Wang Zhan, raising his eyebrows: "Teacher, I feel embarrassed when you are so enthusiastic."
Wang Zhan patted his arm, and the wrinkles on his forehead were faintly visible because of his smile. "Stinky boy."
"All indicators are normal, and the initial adaptation is good." Yin Xiangrong put the pen in his pocket and walked over slowly, giving Wang Zhan a somewhat impatient look. "Hey, don't be too happy too soon. If you can't adapt well in the later stages, there will be problems. Be careful that you will become a shell with nothing but the ability to [Dissolve] and release superpowers stably."
"I was just too excited." Wang Zhan calmed himself down. "I'll have to trouble Dr. Yin to do the steady work later."
Yin Xiangrong nodded, and Feng Lan's chip suddenly vibrated.
"I'm going on a mission now. After I'm done, I'll treat you two to a meal!"
As he spoke, the person in front of him disappeared in an instant.
Yin Xiangrong's mouth twitched. "Or the fried potatoes from last time. No need to run so fast..."
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