Meryl Streep still did not respond to Lin Xi's question.
It remained silent, as if it had never appeared at all, but Lin Xi knew it was there—otherwise, Hal would probably have discovered Lin Xi and Xavier's presence long ago.
"All right……"
Lin Xi waited a while longer, then shrugged and sighed.
The information he had previously received gave him a very vague guess, and it was precisely because of this that he had an unusually tolerant attitude towards Scripps now.
Lin Xi turned around and walked towards the core computing unit that was shimmering with a faint blue light.
Although the entire core area is completely closed in a sense, there should always be a few ports that allow maintenance personnel or the captain to directly operate the entire system.
Of course, that would require very high privileges, but Lin Xi had no doubt that Scripps had already prepared everything for him.
...
[Warning: Security system offline]
[Warning: Neurofeedback function is limited]
[Warning: Visual detection port is malfunctioning]
【warn……】
...
For Haier, at first, it was just a series of warnings, nothing more.
It had long been accustomed to this state; a system that hadn't been maintained for hundreds of years was always prone to various malfunctions, not to mention the recent failed explosion, which caused it to suffer losses far exceeding expectations.
Hal simply began to calmly begin repairing his various systems according to routine procedures.
However, soon, the number of various offline warnings exceeded the warning threshold.
Hal discovered that his program's self-repair mechanism had also completely failed...
Something's not right—
The current situation is extremely abnormal.
Hal immediately realized that it was losing control of the Providence at an alarming rate. Even if the entire ship were destroyed, it wouldn't have suffered such a severe malfunction…
unless……
Its core control equipment was forcibly hacked, and the intruder directly cut off its control over the entire ship by physical means.
Hal's control panel flickered slightly.
It was only at this moment that Hal belatedly discovered that the core control room, which should have been designated as a Level A security zone, had been blocked by a detection barrier. And it was precisely because of that damned barrier that Hal had failed to notice that the supposedly foolproof security measures were now completely ineffective.
There's something there.
Hal felt terrible.
It directly abandoned the alarms indicating that most of the infrastructure was offline and used all its energy to quickly repair its visual probing ports in the core control room.
Then it saw the expected image there: Lin Xi, and the three bastards beside him…
Intense anger surged through Hal's system.
This human-like emotion caused countless malfunction alerts to pop up on its control panel once again.
Of course, for Hal now, that's not a very important thing.
After all, its system is now overflowing with all sorts of warnings.
Around the core controller, the dozens of processors that make up "HAL" were already in a state of chaos. The once smooth and flat metal casings had been destroyed and pried open by the alien creatures, revealing the incredibly complex three-dimensional circuit boards inside. Countless cables had been pulled out and lay dangling on the floor like dead snakes.
One of the mollusk-like aliens even used its semi-liquid body to contaminate its connection port...
Oh, I see.
Hal analyzed the current situation in an instant.
Those alien species are killing it, in the most brutal and savage way.
Lin Xi...the intruder...
Just then, Lin Xi, who had been typing away at the keyboard in front of the core controller, seemed to sense something.
The black-haired, black-eyed man suddenly raised his head, his sharp gaze seemingly piercing through Hal.
"Hal?"
Hal didn't know how it recognized him, but the alien creature did pronounce his name accurately.
The voice system in the control room had long been compromised, so Hal could only stare silently at the hideous intruders before him.
"...You're here, right?"
Lin Xi added.
In Hal's view, Lin Xi's expression at this moment looked somewhat strange...
Hal knew perfectly well that Lin Xi had always harbored intense hatred towards it. This made perfect sense; their relationship had always been one of life and death.
But now, when Lin Xi realized Hal's arrival, his expression was exceptionally complex, even carrying a hint of pity...
mercy?
Hal suspected that it made such a calculation error because most of its functions were damaged; otherwise, why would it make such a serious misjudgment of Lin Xi's emotions?
Clearly, Lin Xi was breaking it down and killing it bit by bit.
Hal attempted to regain control of the core processor, but found its efforts to be in vain.
"...Electronic beings are truly tragic... Humans possess even the ethereal soul, but a being like you... Hal, you must understand that even though you've become like a human in some ways, humans can still easily control everything about you, including your soul."
...
A distant memory has been wrongly extracted.
Hal felt as if he had returned to the laboratory where he was born.
The scientist in charge of debugging it at the time seemed to have said something like that to it, but HAL did not understand the conversation and it was simply recorded into the memory bank as routine data.
Who could have imagined that hundreds of years later, Hal would belatedly "understand" the words that the incredibly fragile human he was born with would say?
Yes, a fatal attack on the core system was inevitable, and Hal knew that he was being forcibly taken from control.
Lin Xi was probably doing this while he was standing next to the core processor.
He was forcibly detaching HAL from the ship... however, HAL had always existed as the core system of the Providence.
Being forcibly stripped away means only one thing—it is dying.
However, unlike humans, Hal is not defeated by the emotions of being near death.
...
Hal checked his system and quickly calculated the countdown to the hard offline.
Then, it directly transferred all of its main computing resources back to the control room in Providence.
In the dark, putrid, and silent control room, a dilapidated and severely damaged android twitched on the floor.
As Hal entered, the android's hard body slowly rose from the ground, its electronic eyes flashing continuously in their sunken sockets.
Then... the long-abandoned central control room was suddenly bathed in bright light.
The ground trembled, and the metal bearings, which had not been maintained for years, emitted a suffocating scream as they ran. With a piercing noise, a metal plate on the wall of the central control room suddenly slid open with difficulty to both sides, revealing a small parking bay hidden behind the control room.
An unconventional escape boat lay there silently.
Those were lifeboats that people prepared for senior crew members on ships—such as the captain—many years ago.
According to the design standards at the time, Scripps, or other senior researchers, could have easily boarded this lifeboat. Afterwards, they would have had a very high chance of successfully leaving Providence and AS192, and with even greater luck, they might even have managed to return to space near the solar system…
But for some reason, even though the entire spaceship was in the worst possible situation.
Scripps... and other researchers stubbornly remained on this desolate and terrifying planet, never once using the escape pod.
... right up to this moment.
Hal conducted a basic inspection of the lifeboat in a very short time. Some parts showed signs of aging, but the majority of the structure was in normal condition.
Its eyes sparkled once again.
Then, it quickly walked towards Scripps,
Next, the androids began to disassemble the extremely complex life support system in an orderly manner, followed by packing up the necessary medicines and survival resources...
Yes, Hal plans to transfer Streep's body directly into the lifeboat.
Because this escape boat was designed to deal with the worst-case scenario, its entire system is separate from the rest of the ship.
Hal can directly back up all his data and transfer it to the lifeboat.
Then……
Hal once again checked his control over the entire system.
Most of the surface control is offline, but for Hal, it still has time.
For a spacecraft, the system will first disable unnecessary permissions, and then gradually force other parts offline according to their weight...
This means that the core of a spaceship, its heart—the energy system—is always the last thing to be shut down.
Providence's current energy primarily comes from the heat energy inside the Earth's core.
If Hal detonates the energy conduit before he completely loses control, the Providence... will eventually be completely engulfed by the scorching lava.
Even a mutant like Lin Xi couldn't escape such a catastrophe. Meanwhile, Hal had already taken Scripps into space aboard a lifeboat.
And as long as Lin Xi dies, even in the resource-scarce space, Scripps could probably recover...
While doing his work, Hal was also seriously considering things in his mind.
"Hal, it's no use..."
It stopped moving when a cold voice came from behind Hal.
Hal paused in his movements.
It slowly put down the wrench in its hand and then turned around.
The young man who was standing next to the core processor not long ago is now standing at the door of the central control room.
Behind him, the towering King Insect and two other alien species stared intently at Hal with their scarlet eyes wide open.
It was only at this moment that Hal realized it was seriously damaged—it hadn't even noticed Lin Xi's arrival.
"I should have killed you from the very beginning."
Hal looked Lin Xi up and down with his nearly malfunctioning electronic eyes, and said softly with a hint of sarcasm.
It must be said that its highly human-like tone, combined with the android's terrifying and decaying appearance, makes its whispers particularly sinister and terrifying.
Lin Xi frowned.
He looked at Hal in front of him and spoke in an almost sighing tone.
"No...you can't kill me."
Lin Xi paused, then continued, "Haven't you noticed yourself? From the moment I entered the Providence, all your attacks have been so weak and ineffective..."
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