Chapter 54 Night City (8) (4 in 1) [VIP]
Not far away, the scavenger, which had finished its pursuit, floated up and staggered to the company's delivery port for the supplements.
Guan Hongyan was finally able to observe this biological man who was said to be the police chief.
No wonder Shi Zhou and his team thought that this person was the police chief after listening to the previous team member's inference [St 1] = "1st" = first. The way he was commanding those guards mechanically just now made it hard to think that he had nothing to do with these guards.
But it's hard to believe that he is the director, mainly because he is really lively... and curious.
Extremely curious.
The recorder held the notebook and walked around Guan Hongyan: "Why is your hair red?"
Then, he looked at Lu Changfeng who was clicking on the Foundation's task panel not far away: "Are you working? Is this how you calibrate the time? What is that? The device you use to calibrate the time?"
Then, he looked at Zhang Pei and Li Jue running over from a distance, thought for a moment, and after seeing the watches on their hands, he suddenly realized, "Oh, your job is to calibrate other people's time, then why are you on the street instead of going to the company?"
"Why is no one paying attention to me?" The recorder asked around but didn't get an answer. He closed the notebook and slapped the cover a few times in dissatisfaction. "Will you pay attention to me? Pay attention to me!"
It’s not that everyone intentionally ignored him.
The exploration team members of the main foundation were all busy with their own things: Lu Changfeng was busy sending messages to Shi Zhou outside to inquire; Guan Hongyan was busy observing his words and deeds to try to figure out his real occupation; Zhang Pei and Li Jue were in contact with this biological man who was said to be the police chief for the first time, and they were unsure of the other party's attitude and did not want to answer rashly; Huai Jiamu naturally would not answer the recorder's questions. He seemed to look down on everyone except Bai Jinshu equally, which was even more Isaac than Isaac.
"Why don't you speak? Everyone else has only one mouth, but you have two!" The recorder waved the notebook in front of "Isaac" with a frustrated tone, "At least someone can pay attention to me! Why don't you guys speak? Don't you know how to speak?"
"You talk too much." Huai Jiamu, one of the "Isaacs" who was stopped by him, said bluntly.
Recorder: ...
"But this is my job!" he said angrily. "I answered you very well when you asked me those very simple questions just now! If you do this again, I will not answer your questions anymore..."
The one who just asked those questions was Bai Jinshu.
It seemed that he really thought that Bai Jinshu and the evil god wearing the same Isaac skin as Bai Jinshu were the same person, and he didn't feel strange about it at all.
A few comments passed silently:
[Oh no, I think this police chief is kind of cute. ]
[Oh no, why is the police chief so cute and the basic guards so scary? Is there something wrong? 】
[It’s broken. I want to pinch my face. My hands are itchy. 】
[What a cute sunny and chatty little Xiu dog hehe... hehehe... hehehehe, if he falls into my hands, I will rub him bald. ]
[Little Xiu dog was born to be kissed to death by me ehhihihihihihihohohohahahahahahahahahahahamuamuamua]
【The upstairs way】
【Knowing the sky is easy. 】
【A man who defies fate. . 】
[The people in front should wake up! This is the ruthless person who was joking with Sister Shizhou and the others one second and reported the person to the police station the next second! ]
[I seem to understand why Shizhou and the others were so devastated when he reported them to the guards.]
[Wow, who would have thought that I would be reported by such a sunny puppy? I am so heartbroken. ]
【I feel deeply for you.】
On the screen, looking at the recorder whose face was almost overflowing with dissatisfaction, Bai Jinshu narrowed his eyes and said, "How about this, why don't we exchange questions one by one."
"What do you mean?" The recorder unfolded the notebook again.
"Your question seems very simple to us. How about this, you ask us a question and we ask you a question. This way both of us are asking very simple questions, and it will be equal, isn't it?" Bai Jinshu started to make trouble.
After all, Shi Zhou, who is most familiar with this place, is not here now. They don’t know much about Night City, so what they say will definitely contain some common sense questions.
If the recorder has a good relationship with the guards and can give them orders, then he must have very high authority among the guards. In this case, they always ask questions that seem to them to be common sense, which may arouse his suspicion.
"Hmm? Sure, sure," the recorder nodded and spread out his notebook, pretending to record it, and said, "That makes sense. Let me ask first!"
He looked at Guan Hongyan with curiosity: "Why is your hair red?"
Bai Jinshu winked at her and pointed at the supplement delivery robot in the air with his chin.
Guan Hongyan really got the idea and immediately replied: "This is my paint job, just like theirs."
The recorder looked in the direction of her finger and saw a robot flying slowly in the sky. He pointed at the notebook in his hand curiously: "But that's not Xiaohong's paint job..."
Xiaohong, this should be what they call that kind of red municipal robot.
"Will your hair color change like Xiaohong's?" He blinked in surprise. "But you are not a municipal official. Xiaohong's red is an energy display screen, which is used to show energy loss. It will be brighter when there is enough energy and darker when there is not enough energy. What is your red used for?"
Municipal robots change color?
Everyone caught the message.
Bai Jinshu frowned slightly. He knew that the colors of these robots delivering supplements were different, but when he was in the central tower, he thought that the difference was caused by long-term wear and tear or different batches. Could it be that they were changing on their own?
Bai Jinshu looked at Guan Hongyan's eyes asking for help and continued, "The color of her hair is used to test whether the time of the people around her needs to be calibrated. If necessary, it will change."
"Oh..." the recorder asked curiously, "Does this color need to be calibrated now or not?"
"No need." Bai Jinshu's expression was as if it was real. "Your time is very accurate."
"I don't think my time needs to be corrected," the recorder muttered, opening his notebook and writing something. "I haven't seen it before, so I'll just write it down first."
"Okay, ask me any questions you want to ask me." After taking notes, he raised his head and looked at the exploration team members very generously.
"How many years has Night City existed?" Bai Jinshu glanced at the conversation in the temporary group chat and decided to start with the question that everyone was most concerned about.
"How many years has it existed?" The recorder thought for a moment, "What is the concept of years?"
"Just like the guard next to you," Bai Jinshu saw the familiar gray-white half-skeleton guard, "he will reach the end of his service life at a certain time. We call this period of time 14 days. A year is 365 days. In your memory, how many years has Night City existed?"
In the database, the largest number behind the guard's number is 14, so he reasonably speculated that this kind of guard can only live for 14 days. After 14 days, they will be scrapped or returned.
"Your question is quite interesting," the recorder's eyes lit up, "Let me remember the concept of days and years first, and then I'll calculate it for you..."
There is no concept of days and years in Night City, so why are the marks behind these people's numbers calculated in days?
Bai Jinshu patiently waited for the recorder's pen to write a few lines on the paper, and then he calculated: "Xiao Bai's validity period is 14 days... Then Night City has existed for 29 years... and 249 days!"
Almost thirty years.
Bai Jinshu’s previous estimate was correct. The largest number of more than 10,000 behind the numbers of those biological humans was the length of time that Night City had existed.
"Have you been here since Night City was founded? Do you know what Night City was like before it was founded?" Guan Hongyan couldn't wait to ask.
"Hey, those are two questions!" The recorder tapped the spine of the notebook in dissatisfaction, obviously enjoying this "one question for another question" game, "and I haven't asked them yet!"
He looked at Lu Changfeng, who was still quickly informing Shi Zhou on his mission watch, and asked suspiciously, "Didn't you say that no one here needs calibration? Then what has he been working on?"
Lu Changfeng paused, obviously not knowing how to answer.
But before Bai Jinshu could save the situation, he, who had been trained by the two different styles of conversation between Skao and Shemochu, found a very clever excuse: "I'm looking for someone who needs to calibrate the time."
"We also need to find a target before we can start working." Lu Changfeng nodded seriously.
"Oh, I see." The recorder scratched his head. "That's right. Then ask me."
"Just the two questions just now," Guan Hongyan nodded, "Have you been here since Night City was founded? Do you know what Night City was like before it was founded?"
"Yeah..." The recorder tapped the spine of the book and recalled seriously, "No one knows what Night City was like before it was built, because everyone started working there after it was built."
"But Night City was very small in the beginning, probably four or five times smaller than it is now. It was only later that it was gradually expanded to this size," he thought for a moment and replied, "Maybe Night City before it was built was even smaller than that."
"Is it my turn now?"
The recorder rubbed his hands together excitedly. "Can I see the instrument you use to calibrate time? I have never seen this kind of work done by you before."
"This..." Lu Changfeng looked at his brother Isaac for help, but this time, before Bai Jinshu could reply, a message from Shi Zhou popped up on everyone's watch.
Shi Zhou: [Run! ! ! ! ]
Shi Zhou: [Do you know the direction? Run! Run in the opposite direction of me! ! ! ]
Her message was so random that everyone was a little confused, but soon, no one was confused anymore.
Because as they raised their heads and looked in the direction of Shi Zhou, a white light flashed quickly.
"The first disaster!"
Now everyone knew why Shi Zhou asked them to run away.
This area actually became the core area of the first disaster!
Shi Zhou: [Reply 1 if you see it! Run in the opposite direction, hurry up or it will be too late! ]
The speed of the laser was faster than the last time they saw it at the abandoned supplement delivery port on the roof of the company building. The last second it was still far away outside the high-rise building, and a few breaths later, the laser was visibly approaching.
"Defense tower! Defense tower!"
People on both sides of the streets and people inside the company also discovered the natural disaster and shouted anxiously.
Without time to think, everyone left the recorder behind and ran away. Bai Jinshu, riding the balance bike, quickly asked in the group: [I saw it, what happened? ]
Didn’t Shi Zhou say that they discovered the time and area patterns for all natural disasters in Night City?
If a natural disaster were to occur in this area, there was no way she wouldn't know about it.
Shi Zhou: [I don’t know! ]
Shi Zhou’s reply was quick.
[Normally, natural disasters shouldn't happen here! According to the rules, there won't be a first disaster today! ]
Although he couldn't hear Shi Zhou's voice, Bai Jinshu could already imagine the tone of her voice that was full of doubt about life.
[According to the rules, the second disaster should occur in another area today. I have come in more than a dozen times and the rules have never changed. Why is it happening this time...]
Bai Jinshu thought for a moment and said, "You are not in the disaster area now, right?"
[I'm not here,] Shi Zhou replied quickly, [I've left this area. We'll contact you after you run out. You have a map in your hand. That map should be all the areas where natural disasters will occur. However, the abnormal appearance of the first natural disaster this time makes me unsure whether it will only be in this area, so I suggest you run a little more. After you get out, go one or two areas forward in this direction.]
[Okay, I understand.]
After Bai Jinshu finished replying, he closed the task panel. He and Huai Jiamu were at the back, covering the entire team. Behind them, countless humans and robots died one after another. The sounds of defense towers opening and breaking were endless. Lasers were chasing after them. If they ran a little slower, they would be caught up and suffer the same consequences as those who did not have defense towers.
The comments obviously didn’t expect this development:
[…I didn’t expect that after exploring the rules of the natural disaster for so long, I would still be able to see the Night City Marathon. ]
[The First Great Triangle of the First Disaster has appeared! 】
[Night City Marathon limited edition return. 】
[Damn, it’s been a long time since I last went to the Great Triangle, and I saw a ghost chasing the exploration team members again. It’s like my old days are back.]
[What is the Night City Marathon and the First Disaster Triangle? ]
[The Night City Marathon was before the exploration team discovered the pattern of the natural disaster. Once everyone found themselves in the natural disaster area, it was too late and they could only run for their lives and run two to three blocks on foot. That’s why we called it the Night City Marathon...]
[The Great Triangle of the First Disaster is the simplified map drawn by Shi Zhoujie. Generally speaking, the areas are relatively regular quadrilaterals, but sometimes the First Disaster will change the direction of the laser from one corner to another, like this time.]
[So generally when encountering this kind of situation, the exploration team members need to run farther than when running from edge to edge, hence the name of the First Disaster Triangle...]
The last time the exploration team saw the first disaster, it was on a building far away from the disaster area. This time, they were really in it and felt what a natural disaster was.
Everywhere you look, you can see people hurriedly taking out defense towers. Guards without defense towers are also fleeing quickly. Those who run slower are directly caught in the surrounding lasers and die after a few breaths.
At the workstations of the company next door, those who turned on their defense towers were still working tirelessly, while those without defense towers were sitting at their desks waiting to die, waiting for a few rays of white light to sweep by and completely turn them into scrapped machines that would be cleaned up by scavengers and their colleagues would receive Type II supplements.
Lu Changfeng seemed to have been inspired by his terrifying survival instinct. He ran the fastest in the front, so nimble that it made people wonder if his weight was all in vain. Bai Jinshu saw that he was about to go astray, so he quickly went up to hold back the fat man who was running so fast that he was dizzy: "I'll lead the way."
He vaguely remembered the map that Shi Zhou had sent them. Just now, Shi Zhou had sent a more detailed map in the group, marking out for them the fastest route that was mixed with main roads and small roads, as well as a number of low walls that needed to be climbed. Bai Jinshu quickly exchanged four bottles of energy supplements from the mall and handed them to the team members on a balance bike.
"Fuck it," Guan Hongyan's eyes turned red. "Can I also get a mechanical prosthesis? Is it a big deal if it has wheels?"
The four purebred humans were running for their lives here, and when they turned around and saw Isaac riding on a balance bike, it really made them feel unbalanced!
"You don't meet the requirements for replacing your prosthetic limbs." Who knew that Isaac would shake his head and say this.
"Why?!" Guan Hongyan couldn't accept it. "Aren't we all human? You can do it but I can't?"
Bai Jin said: "Because you don't have the genetic sequence to replace the prosthetic limb."
He was at the front, riding his balance bike with ease, leading the way. Everyone could only see his back and hear his calm voice: "All babies born in the alliance have undergone certain genetic modifications. This is to ensure that their bodies will not reject mechanical prostheses, adapt to life in space, and not have any diseases."
"You are not a newborn in the alliance, and you have not undergone special genetic modification." He turned his head and glanced at Guan Hongyan, "So if you install a mechanical prosthesis, it may cause a very serious rejection reaction, which will directly lead to your death, or the failure of the prosthesis to integrate will cause you to become disabled."
"...Is that so." Guan Hongyan was a little embarrassed. She thought that Isaac thought she was too low-class or something. After all, this man always looked down on everyone equally.
But her strength is that she admits her mistakes immediately and without delay: "I'm sorry, I was distracted."
She saw Isaac turn his head and look at her, and said calmly: "It's okay."
He seemed to have always had this tone, calm and without any emotion.
Guan Hongyan just felt a little guilty about her thoughts when she heard the other party's next words: "I don't think you know either."
Guan Hongyan: ... Damn it, it’s too early to feel guilty.
Yes! You know it too!
How could she, an ancient person who lived thousands of years ago, know how you replace prosthetic limbs in the interstellar age!
Is there anyone in this world who can take care of Isaac? Is there anyone?
What on earth did this guy install in his leg and foot prostheses? When he needs to climb over a wall, the two wheels of his balance bike will retract with a "click", and then two mechanical grippers will extend from the side, one will flip up and grab the wall, and the other will support his body downwards.
Then a grabber-like thing would open at the dividing part of the balance bike in the middle, and Isaac would flip over and over like that. The whole process was smooth and actually faster than her, an experienced wall climber who could just climb up the wall in a few steps and then turn around and let go and jump down.
Guan Hongyan’s eyelids twitched as she watched: …What kind of thing am I exploring an unknown space with?
No, there are two now.
The latter Isaac is even more flamboyant.
He actually used the prosthetic limbs under his feet to form something that looked like a staircase, then stepped on it leisurely, and then walked down leisurely.
Guan Hongyan: ...
I'm so upset. What on earth do you interstellar people put in your legs and feet? Please respect us ancients and respect the walls!
Shi Zhou's familiarity with Night City was unmatched by others. Isaac led them along the path marked by Shi Zhou. The few people who had been chased by lasers just now were now far ahead of the lasers behind them. Li Jue and Zhang Pei were not very experienced in climbing over the wall, and after they stumbled over, they were not caught up by the lasers.
Fortunately, Shi Zhou still took into account the two team members who were not good at climbing over walls. Most of the roads she pointed to were small paths, and there were very few places where they needed to climb over walls. The group was dizzy and simply gave up thinking and followed Isaac who was in front.
Another advantage of the alley is that there are fewer people, and you can't see the people from the surrounding companies. This somewhat alleviates some of the psychological pressure of walking in a natural disaster where people are dying every moment. When Bai Jinshu led everyone to the end of the road marked by Shi Zhou, everyone raised their heads as if waking up from a dream.
"Are we there yet?" Guan Hongyan was a little dazed.
She had long lost all concept of space and distance while wandering through countless alleys. Now that she could suddenly return to the main road, she actually felt as if she were in another world.
"It's not that we've arrived yet," Bai Jinshu looked at the hand-drawn route map in his hand, "It's that the route that Shi Zhou gave us has come to an end."
They have already walked out of the area where the natural disaster occurred, but Shi Zhou said that this natural disaster occurred suddenly and did not follow the previous rules at all, so to be on the safe side it would be better to walk one or two blocks forward in this direction.
"Then I'll send you a coordinate," Guan Hongyan opened the temporary group chat on the task panel, "Let's go in the direction ahead first, and then meet up after we get out of here."
"No need." Just as she finished speaking, a familiar female voice came from not far away.
Shi Zhou climbed over a wall and appeared in front of everyone: "We caught up, no casualties, right?"
"No," Guan Hongyan shook her head, "Where to go next?"
"Let's run forward from here first," Shi Zhou glanced at the area they had just left behind him, "I just walked along the edge when I came here, this time the first disaster is really not right, I feel like the range seems to have expanded, the place that was originally on the edge of the area has also been affected by the laser this time."
Once Shi Zhou arrived, Bai Jinshu no longer needed to lead the way.
She led a group of people through the small path and onto the roof beams, taking some time to rest from time to time. The scope of the natural disaster behind them was indeed expanded, but with Shi Zhou leading the way, the journey felt much better than before.
Apparently, the comments on the forums also felt the same way:
【Sister Shi Zhou is still so reliable. 】
[The marathon I loved to watch is gone, it has become a training session. 】
[Speaking of which, this natural disaster is very strange. Why did it suddenly break the rules? ]
[I don’t know. I’m a mid-level investor. This is the first time I’ve seen this project. Has this happened before?]
[No, the previous natural disasters were very regular, I don't know why they suddenly changed this time. ]
[Yeah, is it because of what Isaac did? Didn’t he hack into the central control AI? ]
Shi Zhou was also thinking about this question.
"Isaac." During another rest period, she found Bai Jinshu alone, uh... or rather Bai Jinshu and Huai Jiamu.
After all, in everyone's eyes, these two identical people are Isaac.
"Didn't you say that the central control AI is a dead program?" She frowned, with a worried expression on her face, "Then if it is a dead program, will the time and scope of the natural disaster change?"
If it is a dead program, then why is it not following this program now? Did something go wrong in the middle?
"Yes." Bai Jinshu patted the railing next to him and motioned her to come up and talk. Don't stand at the bottom. It's tiring to crane your neck to look down.
Shi Zhou came around and sat on the railing next to Bai Jinshu: "You continue."
"Logically, it would," Bai Jinshu nodded. He was about to speak when he found that several other people had come over and wanted to hear what he had to say. He had no choice but to raise his voice a little, "What I meant by 'the central control AI is dead' is that the artificial intelligence here has no thoughts of its own."
"But it can still make decisions, learn and analyze on its own, just like it analyzed that Shi Zhou wanted to block her in Night City," Bai Jinshu gave a very easy-to-understand example, and Shi Zhou nodded. "But these actions are just things written in its code. In essence, it is still following the code. So I say this is a dead program. It has no thoughts or decisions of its own. All its actions come from the code."
"Then why did you say 'it should be'?" Shi Zhou noticed the flaw in his previous words.
"Because I copied the database of the Central Control AI, I didn't find anything related to the first two natural disasters you mentioned," Bai Jinshu spread his hands towards Shi Zhou, "which means that all our previous speculations about natural disasters must be overturned."
"This natural disaster is not controlled by AI. It may be some disaster from the outside world..." Bai Jinshu flipped through the information he copied in his mind again. "It may be a screening mechanism or a forced control program. For example, in order to screen out some people who are not suitable to live in Night City, such as those who do not have defense towers or whose defense towers have expired, they no longer need to live in Night City. It is better for them to die and be turned into Type II supplements to replenish energy for other people who are suitable to live here."
"Or, this could be a forced control program. Whenever a natural disaster occurs, some of the programs that originally belonged to the central control AI will be taken over by outsiders, so it cannot control the machines in the city to attack others."
"It's almost time," Shi Zhou interrupted him hastily, raised his hand and looked at his watch, "Let's go first, get out of this area first. I'm not sure if the natural disaster will come here later."
Everyone hurriedly got up and re-entered the long marathon.
When they arrived at the safe area that Shi Zhou mentioned, everyone realized that this place was actually next to the so-called police station.
Zhang Pei sat down at the door of the police station without caring about his image, leaning against Guan Hongyan and unable to speak.
She was not the type of exploration team member who excelled in physical strength or physical skills. It was too difficult for her to run around like this for the whole afternoon. If it weren't for the foundation's physical recovery agent that kept her alive, Zhang Pei felt that she would really die here this afternoon.
Li Jue was also very tired, but compared to Zhang Pei, he still had some strength left, which was enough for him to find a place that looked better and fall to the ground.
Guan Hongyan and Shi Zhou seemed to be very relaxed. No wonder Shi Zhou asked Guan Hongyan to come in. Judging from physical strength and other combat abilities, Guan Hongyan was indeed a very worry-free team member.
But the bad luck was that the two projects she entered this time were not the ones that were known for their strength.
Zhang Pei used Guan Hongyan as a human cushion, leaning against her crookedly. Shi Zhou took a look inside the police station before going to Bai Jinshu: "Continuing with the previous topic, are you sure that this natural disaster did not come from the mechanism in Night City?"
Bai Jinshu nodded: "I'm sure."
If this thing is also controlled by the central control AI, then it is impossible for the other party not to leave a mark. In the world of the Internet, the central control AI here does not even have independent thoughts, and it is impossible to hide it from Isaac.
Since he didn't find it in these databases, it means he really didn't find it. This natural disaster, at least the first two natural disasters, had nothing to do with the central control AI.
"What about the last one?" Shi Zhou leaned on the armrest with some worry and let out a long sigh. "What's the reason for the clone? Could it be that our previous identities were company employees, and then we left our jobs due to some accident, and ended up being hunted down?"
Before she finished her guess, she laughed at herself: "How serious a crime must one have committed to be hunted down just for escaping from a job? Last time I blew up their bridge, no one raised the wanted level for me."
"Not necessarily," Bai Jinshu shook his head, "Have you ever observed how your previous team left here?"
"I understand. You want to ask if we will die on the fifth day like those company employees who have reached their expiration date. So the Foundation's rated exploration time is only five days, right?"
Bai Jinshu nodded.
"No," Shi Zhou denied very straightforwardly, "As the one who logged out, I don't know what we looked like when we logged out, but we looked nothing like those company people who had reached the end of their lifespan."
"Why are you asking me this?" She turned her head and asked curiously.
"Because I have another discovery that I haven't told you yet," Bai Jin said slowly, "I said that the code after each person's number represents their survival time, but there are two surprises. One is the robot that delivers the supplements."
“It doesn’t even have a corner mark on the back.”
"The robot can understand," Guan Hongyan also came over, "Shi Zhou said they are not connected to the Internet, so it is normal that the data is not in the AI database."
Therefore, it is normal that their real-time survival time is not synchronized together into the database of the central control AI.
"What's the second one?" Shi Zhou's expression had already vaguely guessed what was going on. "It can't be us, right?"
"Yes," Bai Jinshu nodded to everyone, "So I can be sure that your initial speculation was wrong."
If they were company people who had escaped, then no matter what they were like now, there would be no number after their serial number, which was enough to mean that they could not have been company people before, because company people had an expiration date.
As they were talking, a familiar and lively voice came from behind: "Hey, we meet again. Are you here to calibrate the time for others?"
The barrage became active again:
【Repair the dog, repair the dog, my lively little dog! 】
[I thought he died in the first disaster. He actually ran pretty fast, almost as fast as the exploration team members.]
[You are stupid, they have a defense tower! ]
[…Yes.]
【Pinch the cute dog hook. 】
[Last time, your cute dog Gou answered every question and sent everyone to jail. ]
[Speaking of this!! Sister Tokisu! Sister Tokisu is still here! What if she is recognized? Will she be reported to the police station again? ]
[Hiss——You found the highlight, Sister Shizhou is still here this time! ]
The comments became tense again and all their eyes turned to the direction where Shi Zhou had just sat. Shi Zhou was quick-eyed and quick-handed. The moment he heard the voice, he quickly buried his head in Guan Hongyan's arms to avoid facing the recorder.
The recorder looked at the seven people who were sitting or slumped at the entrance of the police station and asked curiously, "Are you... tired from work?"
They all look exhausted!
"Oh, I see. One question for another." After saying that, he excitedly opened his notebook as if he had remembered something. "After you have answered your questions, you can come and ask me questions!"
He hasn't gotten tired of playing this game yet.
Bai Jinshu looked up at him. There were a lot fewer guards behind him than when he first saw him this afternoon. It seemed that many people had also died in the natural disaster.
But he didn't expect that he would meet this recorder again.
If he saw it correctly, when they ran away and the Scourge reached that area, the biological man with the notebook did not actually deploy the defense tower.
He didn't deploy his defense tower...but he didn't die?
Or can other people's defense towers also be shared?
"We are tired from running..." Lu Changfeng received instructions from his brother Isaac and said weakly, "Because we don't have a defense tower..."
"Oh, how tragic! This disaster happened suddenly..." The recorder showed a look of mixed understanding and sympathy, "But you won't be in trouble if you don't run."
"If you don't run, you will die..." Lu Changfeng was lying on the ground half dead, following his brother Isaac's wandering eyes and asking questions.
Although he was half dead, he looked no different from being dead.
"But after death, won't a new self be created?" The recorder showed a puzzled expression, "Just like him."
He was pointing at Bai Jinshu and Huai Jiamu.
"Aren't they the same person?" The recorder made a note in a strange way. "You are not a species that cannot be reproduced, then why don't you have a defense tower?"
"Because something seems to have gone wrong recently," Shi Zhou used his watch to send something to the group in Guan Hongyan's arms. Bai Jinshu took a look and immediately gave Lu Changfeng a look, then he said, "We don't have a defense tower anymore."
Lu Changfeng quickly opened the task panel to check.
Shi Zhou: [They said there was a problem with our copy and we have no defense tower. ]
Shi Zhou: [It happens sometimes. I don’t know why some people have it and some don’t.]
Bai Jinshu gave Zhang Pei a look and made mouth shapes, indicating that she should ask if there had been such natural disasters before.
He intentionally balanced the questions each person asked the note-taker, so that if the note-taker later recalled the conversation with them, the first reaction would not be "this person asked a lot of questionable questions" but "I talked to a group of people, and they asked some very simple questions, but the questions I asked were also very simple to them."
This balance reduces the suspiciousness of the conversation.
"Don't you use a defense tower?" Zhang Pei received his instruction and asked, "Then you must be amazing to have escaped so many disasters.
"I don't need that. Disasters can't hurt me." The recorder touched his chin. "In fact, if I measure it according to the time scale you taught me, the disaster in Night City has only been a little over a year... I remember there was no such mess before."
"But disasters will destroy many construction factories," he said, nodding in agreement. "Like Xiaobai, their numbers will be greatly reduced after each disaster. Your factory must have been destroyed as well. There's nothing we can do about it. In the future, you may not be able to replace your defense towers like everyone else's."
Lu Changfeng: ...
For some reason, he remembered a long-standing joke from hell:
Tourists asked the staff of the bungee jumping project: "Are your equipment and ropes safe? How often are they checked and replaced?"
The staff said, "Don't worry, we will replace it if it breaks."
This hellish joke is exactly the same as what the current "police chief" said. What does "replace it if it's damaged like everyone else" mean? If the defense tower is damaged, won't people die?
What's the point of changing it at this time!
Lu Changfeng couldn't help but silently sent a message in the temporary group chat: [Isn't their concept of life and death a bit strange? 】
Can the death of a companion be spoken of so easily?
The recorder was still talking to Li Jue, who was instructed by Bai Jinshu. He suddenly slapped his forehead and said, "Oh, I forgot to exchange questions with you!"
He looked up and saw Lu Changfeng poking at the instrument that could calibrate time. He immediately asked considerately, "Did you come here because you found someone inside who needs time calibration?"
Lu Changfeng: "...Yes, yes."
He nodded to the recorder and said, "It seems someone here needs to calibrate the time, so let's do the work."
"Oh, then I won't bother you anymore," the recorder looked very understanding and walked into the gate first.
If you want to discover the rules here, you have to go to every place here. The police station is not easy to get into, and now that you have a ready-made excuse, anyone who doesn't go in is a fool.
"You guys go," Shi Zhou lowered his voice, did a light pull-up, and flipped onto the roof like a nimble bird, "I'll follow you up there. If there's anything I can't answer, I'll text you."
Then she clicked on the foundation's panel and searched for a long time, and finally bought a miracle: "This is [Thousand Miles Voice Transmission]. You need to purchase the right to use it and then pay for it by the hour. Whoever wears it will get it. After wearing it, it can be used directly as a small walkie-talkie. Four...three of you take it first."
She hesitated for a moment and said, "Isaac, do you want two or one?"
"One is enough," Bai Jinshu spoke first, "Give it to me."
Not knowing how much the deduction for such a miracle would be, he estimated that Huai Jiamu was able to receive the watch from the foundation because he left the project in the place of Yang Pei's team member, so now the foundation also recognized him as an employee of the foundation. And if he remembered correctly, Yang Pei had used up all his points in that exploration by buying a [Spring Festival 20,000 Fireworks], so now the points in his account should only be the minimum points of 100,000 after he came out of the B-level space last time. It can be said that he has the least points in the whole venue.
If this miracle was credited to his account, Bai Jinshu doubted whether that amount of points would be enough to deduct.
Sure enough, his guess was right. Good things are expensive. Zhang Pei and Li Jue, the mid-level players behind him, opened the foundation mall and looked at the fee schedule. They took a deep breath and waved their hands repeatedly: "Sister Shizhou, we won't talk after we go in."
"Okay." Shi Zhou didn't force it. After all, there is a barrier between the middle and high-end players. The middle-level players receive a minimum living wage, and they really can't squander like the high-end players who receive dividends.
Now the only ones with [Thousand Mile Sound Transmission] on their ears are Bai Jin, Shulu Changfeng, Guan Hongyan, and Shi Zhou who are outside.
"Hello, hello, can you hear me?" Shi Zhou stood on the roof to make sure the miracle was working properly, then nodded to the others, "You guys go in. When we came in before, we didn't dare to stay for long, and we didn't know a lot of things. It's great that you can go now."
Lu Changfeng held up his watch in one hand, pretending to be looking for something, while Guan Hongyan followed behind him and imitated the lie he had told a few hours ago. The two of them looked around in front in a serious manner, and used this excuse to tour the entire police station.
Finally, a lucky unlucky guy was chosen to say that there was something wrong with his time. Then Bai Jinshu took action, linked his data in the internal control AI, moved the number after his number forward or backward by one day, and announced that his time had been corrected.
In fact, rather than being a police station, this place is more like a training base.
The "Long Halberd" that Shi Zhou mentioned was actually being trained here. As they walked along, they saw many "Long Halberd" guards who were still young and inexperienced practicing. This made the fugitive suspect Lu Changfeng, who was only wearing a work jacket, feel creepy. He always felt that these guards would rush over to surround him or shout "FBI! Open the door!" in the next second.
Fortunately, his brother Isaac's ID change was really reliable. They had been here for so long, and no one had noticed that there was anything wrong with them. The lucky unlucky guy who was pointed out to have time problems by them even expressed his gratitude for their work.
Although this thank you is also very formulaic, it makes people feel like it is some set procedure.
The group walked around inside and didn't find any clues, but they discovered that the scrap cycle of some of the "halberd" guards was much longer than that of the half-skeletal gray-white guards. Just from spending such a long time inside, Isaac reported the serial numbers of many people.
These serial numbers vary in size. Some are relatively short, about ten to twenty days, and some are as long as more than three thousand to five thousand days. There are also several that Isaac said are the same as the numbers of those biological humans.
That's strange.
If they could understand this number before, the one for the clones would be short, and the one for the biological humans would be long.
But now they couldn't understand why, as "Long Halberd" guards, some would be scrapped after a dozen or twenty days, while others could get the same number of days as biological humans.
After going around a few times, the clues were almost collected, and Lu Changfeng, feeling guilty, wanted to be the first to rush out.
Just then, there was a commotion at the door, followed by Shi Zhou's voice: "Don't come out! The second disaster is happening outside!"
"The second disaster should have occurred in a few hours! It happened earlier again..."
Everyone paused.
What happened today?
Two natural disasters occurred in succession without any regular pattern. Could it be that with their entry, some unknown changes have occurred in Night City?
Or does the person or organization that caused these natural disasters have a new plan?
Bai Jinshu glanced out the window. A strangely colored fog had spread outside the police station. No wonder Shi Zhou and the others thought that this fog was a chemical leak. This color of gas did not look like a good thing...
"Shi Zhou? Shi Zhou?" Guan Hongyan called several times.
After she said those two sentences, there was no movement. Guan Hongyan became visibly anxious.
"I'll go out to find her!" She even covered her mouth and nose with her coat, trying to rush into the strange gas to find Shi Zhou.
"Goodbye," Bai Jinshu frowned and stopped Guan Hongyan, "I'll go."
Could Isaac detect what the gas was, he wondered?
The author has something to say:
Twelve thousand...not a drop of sugar left [coma.jpg] I will send out yesterday’s red envelope when I wake up!
It seems that the word count of the v chapter has exceeded 300,000 now. I should automatically send 10 bottles of nutrient solution to my lovely wife who has fully subscribed (starry eyes). Let Hantang rub her hands and ask for a wave of nutrient solution. After February's full attendance, I will add 10,000 words a day in March. When there is no need to add, it will be 6,000. Now, including Bai Lei and 4k nutrient solution, I should owe about 7 more chapters (lying)
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