Chapter 287 [Added] Mechanical Bird My Bionic Friend
Bai Ling felt that although he was irrational, he was fundamentally different from Crazy Fish.
At least, he knew that he could not destroy the fate of all the imperial people in this world line for his own selfish interests.
Ask him to blow up the capital planet, he can't do it. He also refused to sacrifice the people. He just wanted to ask a professional if there was a more compromise solution. If it works, then it works. If not, then forget it.
When it comes to "it's always a good idea to give it a try", Bai Ling is terrifyingly stubborn.
The next morning, the physicist was brought in by a special plane, and Bai Ling met him.
Bai Ling’s idea was very direct - find a way to teleport to the past through the scepter and stop the mermaid’s chronic suicide.
In fact, he had originally thought about whether he should go back to two years ago, find the half mermaid and kill it.
But on second thought, this is only a temporary solution and not a fundamental solution. Because the assassination of half a fish could only be considered the finishing touch, the root cause was that Yu Chen himself had ruined his physical foundation.
Otherwise, with his physique as a monster that had eaten up the entire family of mermaids, if he was assassinated, he would only be able to recover for ten days or half a month at most.
Thinking of this, Bai Ling couldn't help but recall the situation when he discovered that Yu Chen was the Empire's mothership.
He went to confront the mermaid, but he didn't expect the bastard to be so calm. He advised the mermaid to take care of herself, but the mermaid actually said to him gently and politely, "Sorry, baby, we met too late, it's too late."
This kind of indifferent attitude really deserves a beating.
Bai Ling is not the type of person who would just accept things as they come.
He sneered and secretly decided that he must find an opportunity to teach this thing a lesson.
The physicist confirmed his request with him: "You mean... you traveled to the past and want to return to the present timeline?"
"Yes." Bai Ling said concisely, "I hope you can find a way to change my spouse's health concept without changing the fact that the imperial revolution was successful."
Bai Ling has watched the famous time-travel movie "A Trip from the Past" and has also looked up a lot of information about it.
Time is like a river. Even if a leaf falls into it, it will cause ripples and create a series of butterfly effect-like reactions.
For example, the heroine in the movie goes back to the past and meets her parents. Because she wanted to save her young father, she accidentally caused her parents to miss the chance to meet each other and almost prevented herself from being born.
If Bai Ling wants to go back to the past without having a huge impact on the present world, he must go back to a very, very distant past.
After all, the same apple falling from a tree, the one that fell in the wilderness in the Middle Ages and the one that fell on Newton's head in the seventeenth century, had very different historical impacts.
Objectively speaking, Bai Ling's requirements are very demanding, and he wants both.
But the physicist did not feel troubled. Instead, he was quite excited because he finally had the opportunity to test his wild ideas.
"Please rest assured that studying wormholes is my lifelong wish."
He readily agreed and was ready to give it his best try. Bai Ling was also very straightforward. He gave him the authority to select his own troops and generals and seek out experts in the empire's field to cooperate with him.
When Bai Ling asked what the success rate of traveling back was, the young scientist smiled and gave an ambiguous answer:
"It's hard to say. But in theory, time is self-consistent, and everything in this world is a predetermined ending. If you come back to this timeline, then there must have been signs around you - some details have been changed, and there are unreasonable edges and corners. But because the impact is very small, so small that it can't be detected at all, only at that point in time, you and I will realize that the world has been quietly changed."
But when Bai Ling thought about it, there was nothing unreasonable in the current world.
This question was too complicated to think about in depth, so he put it out of his mind.
Physicist: "One more thing. Please confirm the time and place of your crossing as soon as possible so that we can calculate the space-time coordinates of your landing."
Bai Ling: "Okay, I'll consider it."
He had to find an exact time and place where the mermaid appeared in the past to ensure that he could find her as soon as he landed.
A week later, the mothership "Horus" that was stationed on the wild star returned. The huge and magnificent ship slowly entered the airport and docked outside the atmosphere.
From afar, the rooms on the ship were lit up with clusters of lights and stacked on top of each other, like a dream hotel floating in a sea of stars.
For a long time, Bai Ling called it "home".
Walking into the floor dedicated to mermaids and lighting the wall lamp, I saw that the red velvet sofa in the living room was covered in dust. The bookshelf in the small attic was unattended and two books were eaten by insects. If a book lover saw this, he would definitely sigh.
Pushing open the sliding door, the small garden looked desolate and dilapidated.
Vines were creeping everywhere, stretching their clawed leaves over the glass of the greenhouse. The place that the mermaid took care of day by day and thought about night by night, and in which she had put so much effort, was now completely occupied by withering, weeds and rot.
It was as if the garden had been drained of its spiritual energy after he left.
There was a slight sound of branches breaking behind me.
"Mechanical bird?"
It's a gloomy AI butler.
The small robot appeared in front of Bai Ling on rollers. In Bai Ling's opinion, this guy is just like his master, elusive and often changes carriers.
However, the way it appeared today was the same as when Bai Ling first saw it. Cute, a little naive and silly.
"Hello, my bionic friend. How are you? You look a little older than before, and your brows are furrowed. Is there something wrong with the emotion module?"
It greeted me as enthusiastically as before.
But Bai Ling was no longer in the mood to joke with the little robot.
Standing in the vast dry grass, Bai Ling lit a cigarette, and the mist spread out faintly. He lowered his eyes to examine it, looking tired, and sighed:
"I'm not a android, nor am I a mechanical bird."
"Huh?" The little robot was stunned for a moment.
"My body is made of flesh and blood," Bai Ling raised his leg and tapped his prosthetic limb, his voice very light, "only this part is made of iron."
The little robot zoomed in and said in shock: "I thought you were just like me, a household appliance, a little robot that the master liked..."
Bai Ling said nothing, just stood in the darkness and smoked a whole cigarette. The orange flames gradually faded, and the ashes fell. Before he left, he reached out and touched the little robot's head:
"It would be nice if it was a household appliance... I'm too lazy to be sad."
He walked back to the study and looked through the gloomy documents, trying to find one or two specific locations from the last century as alternative options for time travel.
The little robot was left standing there in a daze, puzzled.
The CPU in the computer room was running wildly all night.
This AI, which is connected to the Empire's mother machine and is known as the smartest management AI in the world, could not understand why it would mistake a human being for a mechanical bird.
It was such a profound impression. It was as if this information had been input at some wrong time.
·
In a blink of an eye, it was November.
The research led by the physicist team has made a major breakthrough. But Bai Ling was unable to give a response and the situation was stuck in a stalemate.
Bai Ling didn't know which year to choose to travel through. Or, the wrong choice.
Physicists say that in order to reduce the impact of time travel, you can only stay in that timeline for a maximum of 72 hours. No matter how much time passes, he won't be able to come back if the world line changes.
Therefore, he must be very careful in his choice. It is best to choose a scenario where a merman is alone, has no guards around, and can quickly gain trust.
But this would narrow the choices too much.
Especially for an emperor who has been in power for a hundred years without showing up, his whereabouts is simply a mystery.
So, a month later, Bai Ling was still searching everywhere, turning the mothership and the palace upside down, and even checking the ministers' previous notes.
Now, the place where he lives is full of historical documents. He has to walk around them, and it is not convenient to clean.
The new sweeping robot struggled to dig out a piece of dirty clothing and prepared to throw it into the laundry basket. Bai Ling took a glance, suddenly stood up, snatched the clothes back, and hugged them tightly to his chest.
That was the suit Yu Chen was wearing on the day he was attacked. There was blood on it.
Swish.
A small piece of paper quietly fell from the inverted pocket.
Bai Ling picked it up and took a look. It was a handwritten sheet of music, with careful line drawing and pencil annotations:
[The tone rises here]
He stared at it for a while, and unconsciously, the corners of his lips curled up.
It turned out to be evidence of the fish secretly practicing singing.
I gently stroked the paper with my thumb. The paper was heavy and felt good. It must have been torn from a thicker notebook.
The image of a thick book gradually emerged in Bai Ling's mind. He stood up suddenly, remembering that the mermaid had a notebook that she always carried with her.
It should be in the trunk.
He suddenly opened the cupboard, dragged out the box, and knocked over a lot of things with a clatter. But he didn't care. He just held his breath, used a knife to violently pry the lock, and searched hurriedly among the neatly stacked clothes.
Found it!
His fingers trembled as he turned the pages. He prayed in his heart, "It's not a work log. It's not a work log..."
Little Bird Recipe
[To my little velvet flower, I hope you will bloom in the future]
Turn the page.
[2410/12/7 Thanksgiving: The kid is going out for an adventure, I’m waiting for him here. When he came back, he treated me to cupcakes, which were very sweet.]
Turn the page.
[2410/12/8: Had a fight, made up. The kid said that his wish was to tie a mermaid to a mecha and have it sing for him. I made note of that.
We wrote letters to veterans together until three in the morning. He had restless sleep and uncomfortable dreams, which could be attributed to my evil deeds - I sat by his bed and watched him quietly all night]
[2410/12/20: Reminded me of some things from the past. The baby was crying, and I held him in my arms and walked on the road. I thought, it would be nice if I could walk like this for the rest of my life. I hugged him before going to bed and felt a small hole on the back of his sweater. Poor kid, this is all my fault, I have to buy him a new sweater that's warm and airtight]
Turn a few pages.
[2411/2/16: Settled down on the wild star. The desert is vast and more suitable for eagles to soar. Friends, subordinates, followers, gathered my baby around the campfire, his eyes were as bright as the stars in the desert night sky. May he enjoy his 19th birthday, which is the best time of his life]
Bai Ling's heart skipped a beat and he felt a palpitation for no apparent reason.
——19 is the best age in a person’s life.
I seem to have seen this sentence somewhere.
The paper was turned to the very back.
[2412/9/23 Victory Day: Before I knew it, I have been remembering it for two years. Come to think of it, the last time I wrote a diary was probably in September 2284. What a coincidence, both times were in September.
But what I wrote down at that time was miserable and full of bad things, and I don’t even want to look through it.
Unlike this one, there are many happy things. It is a rare enjoyment to open it and flip through it from time to time while basking in the sun.
Today is Victory Day. Looking back, when I first ascended the throne, the process was just a formality and no people were willing to come and congratulate me with flowers.
But my baby must be treated differently. There was a huge cheer and a warm welcome. What I don't have, he will definitely have tenfold or a hundredfold.
Ps: I still need to practice the beat]
Further back is the torn page of music score.
Bai Ling was in a trance for a long time before slowly coming back to his senses. A guess kept circling in his mind, a guess that seemed impossible but extremely reasonable.
With trembling hands, he took out the terminal, found the photos he had taken earlier, and compared the handwriting.
The left side is youthful and beautiful, while the right side is calm and reserved. But the direction of the pen strokes, the pauses in the words and sentences, are all similar and traceable.
Too. Whose diary could this be?
He had his journal on his left and a recipe book in his right hand. The left hand is written with loneliness and hardship, while the right hand is filled with hope and happiness.
When they met again, he was exactly nineteen years old. The node of rebirth seemed random, but it actually had another meaning.
Xiao Yi's nineteen years were as painful as hell.
But it doesn't matter. Xiao Yi treated you as himself and raised you all over again.
Now, Xiaoniao’s nineteenth birthday is as sweet as a dream.
The love that Xiao Yi couldn't get, the bird got.
The respect that Xiao Yi doesn't have, Xiao Niao has.
Xiao Yi never grew up, but the little bird grew wings.
The little bird lived on in place of that little Yi.
The mermaid treated him as her own child and even more as herself.
When I closed the book, I found a small, wet circular mark on the original cover.
Bai Ling wiped his eyes with the back of his hand, carefully put the notebook aside, and called the office's hotline:
"Go tell the experts, I've chosen the time."
In early December, when all the information was integrated and all the equipment was tested perfectly, this team of experts that brought together the smartest minds in the entire empire delivered a satisfactory answer.
They used the scepter as a base to create a time-travelling platform. Since Bai Ling chose consciousness transmission, not much energy was used. They only needed to burn one-eighth of the dark matter reserves underground in the capital star.
It won't cause a big explosion.
At the same time, the physicist was checking precautions with Bai Ling for the last time: "Please remember not to reveal that you are from the future, and do not have too much contact with objects other than your target."
"When you return after 72 hours, your consciousness should feel a huge suction force. Please don't resist, just follow this force and come back."
"Since you changed the events, the world line should make corrections for the temporary disappearance of your consciousness. For example, when you come back, you may find that you have lost your memory, or that you have encountered an accident and appear somewhere else. This is all possible."
Bai Ling nodded to show that he understood. He and Yu Chen had both experienced amnesia caused by time and space shock in this life, so it was not a big deal. Anyway, I'll remember it naturally after a year or so.
“Finally, we took advantage of some minor bugs so that you don’t need to stab yourself with the scepter when crossing, to reduce unnecessary pain.”
The physicist gestured slyly and asked him to sit on it. "Now, all you need to do is lie on this small bed that looks like an MRI machine, close your eyes, and listen to the buzzing sound in your ears for twenty minutes. When you open your eyes, you can breathe the air of the 23rd century."
As for the carrier of consciousness after landing.
Bai Ling closed his eyes and raised the corners of his lips.
He picked something that the fish would never refuse.
·
[2284 September 25th 12:35]
Ifas got off the interstellar passenger ship and looked up at the clock displayed above the airport.
It was only twelve o'clock and the boat had arrived an hour early. The small hotel he had booked had not yet started to check in, which made him consider whether he should go somewhere else.
For example, a flea market selling second-hand bionic people.
While on the ship, he repeatedly considered whether to buy a bodyguard. I just happened to see the news about the annual big sale in the second-hand market, so there was no reason not to check it out.
"Welcome to the Bionic Life Supermarket! Here we have high quality and low prices, and we provide all the models you need. There are combat types, protection types, medical types, companion types, and the popular sex dolls. The face molds are all one-to-one. Which one do you need——"
Ifas interrupted the salesman: "Where is the cheapest one?"
"Here, here." The salesperson enthusiastically took him around the huge and cluttered store. "The ones on the right are the ones that have just been eliminated. They are for girls. They are 80% new and can be used to replace organ parts. They only cost 2,300 star coins. If you pay in cash, you can get a 10% discount."
His fingers clacked on the calculator and he made a low offer that he thought he could not refuse.
Ifas stretched his head to take a look. "Too expensive."
The salesman choked, put his calculator in his pocket, and changed his expression. "You think this is too expensive," he rolled his eyes, "Then go pick it up at the garbage dump outside."
"Okay," Ivars asked politely, "just get out of here?"
The salesperson was furious. How could he be a handsome guy and a miser who couldn't even give out any gold coins?
Ifas came outside, and a huge shadow was looming over his head - standing in front of him was a mountain of waste that was taller than three stories. Because the pile was so crowded and full, parts, hands and feet would tumble down from the top of the mountain from time to time. He had to be careful to dodge and approach at the same time to avoid being hit by the rapidly spinning iron head.
Just as I was thinking about it, a bionic head suddenly rolled down from the side, carrying dust and parts along with it, with a rumbling sound.
When Ifas turned around, it was too late to avoid it. Just as he was about to accept the fact that his ribs were broken, suddenly, an iron fist stretched out and "bang!", knocking him away.
The iron head made a sharp turn, and its original trajectory was forcefully reversed. It flew to the other side and fell into the pile of spare parts, splashing a cloud of rusty screws.
The hero who stepped forward, with his titanium skeleton shining brightly in the sun, raised his chin arrogantly with half of his body:
"Why are you choosing? Just buy me."
Ifas: “……?”
This is the first time I have seen a bionic man speaking in such an arrogant tone.
Although this guy was more arrogant than expected, Ifas still paid the bill in a daze, based on the principle that he should give appropriate returns when the other party helped him once.
200 yuan.
The price of the garbage.
Ifas took it out of the garbage heap and placed it aside carefully, as if he were a newly bought puppy. Its plastic intestines were in a mess, and its lower body was missing two legs, so it couldn't even stand up, and it looked completely useless.
There was no choice but for Ifas to spend another 200 yuan and buy it two legs that he didn't know whether they were three-handed or four-handed.
The salesman pouted and gave him the receipt, "This is just an old model. It can't match the original one, so just make do with it."
"What is this, its antenna?" Ifas fiddled with the bent wire on top of the android's head.
“Yes,” the salesman said, “the quantum communication antenna was designed to look like bird feathers, but now the feathers have fallen off.”
Ifas suddenly realized that it was just a bald mechanical bird. So broken.
In order to save money, Ifas decided to install the legs for the mechanical bird himself.
When the mechanical bird saw him coming over with the sack, its standardized and delicate face showed an extremely happy expression: "You bought me legs. You bought me legs as soon as I got here."
"What's wrong?" Ifas looked up, holding the wrench.
"Nothing," the mechanical bird turned away, remembering some confidentiality principles, "I just remembered something that happened in the past."
I remember the days when you bought me a prosthetic limb.
Once the fish was given prosthetic limbs, it would jokingly call him "little robot".
"Little robot——"
The mechanical bird vibrated, and when it turned its head, it happened to meet the pair of young eyes. The young man has clear features, and even among the crowd of bionic people with distinctive facial features, he is still handsome enough to stand out from the crowd.
His skin was very white, not the kind of white that comes from a long illness, but the refreshing, transparent, cold white of marine life.
The little mermaid's eyes were slightly narrowed and looked a little cold. Compared to a hundred years later, his eyes did not show as much wear and tear of time and decay. They were more like a rarely visited spring in a forest.
An unpolluted spring.
Bai Ling couldn't help but feel pity in his heart. This is a cute and innocent young fish...
But the next second, Ifas said coldly, "Do you still remember what happened before? Then I have to buy a floppy disk and restore your factory settings. I remember it can be set to 100% loyalty."
“…”
Bad fry! !
Your head is full of bullshit loyalty!
Ifas went to buy the software, and the salesperson taught him that he could go back and connect to the terminal to operate it himself.
Looking at his empty wallet, Ifas felt a pang of pain. He began to regret that he shouldn't have bought this shabby mechanical bird on impulse, and it was a second-hand one at that - who knew if it had been installed with spyware to monitor him.
And what would he do with this guy after the trip? The residence that took him in would definitely report to the higher authorities that he brought back a "tin friend".
"I shouldn't have bought it," Ivars muttered to himself, "I have nowhere to put it."
The mechanical bird replied: "I can put myself into the box and fold it up to be your furniture."
"I don't need furniture."
"Why?"
"No reason, I just don't need it."
Bai Ling found it strange, he remembered that Lao Yi loved buying furniture, why didn’t Yu Miao like it?
But when they returned to the station and Ifas went to pick up the luggage, Bai Ling soon found out why.
At the bottom of the steep slope, a mountain of backpacks slowly rose from the end of the road.
...This guy actually carried his entire fortune on his shoulders. No wonder he always complained about being tired in his diary. Monster fish fry!
The mechanical bird hurried over, stubbornly pulled the heavy bag off the boy's bent back, and then carried it on its back.
"I'll help you carry it!"
There was no reason, no excuse, it was just so direct and frank, as if it was born to share half the responsibility with him.
Ifas slowly straightened his aching spine, frowned slightly, and looked thoughtful.
He turned his aching wrist, took two quick steps, and caught up with the mechanical bird, commenting casually, "You are very proactive."
The mechanical bird took it as a compliment, "Of course, you're lucky to have met me."
"You are very bold too."
"uh-huh."
"Your emotional value is very high." Ifas stared at his two legs, which were of different heights, and watched him limp. "Who was your previous master?"
Previous owner? He still has the nerve to say that! When Bai Ling thought of the reason why he was here, he wanted to curse, but due to the principle of time travel confidentiality, he had to endure it.
So he randomly looked at the advertisements on the street and saw one called "Lettuce King", so he made up a story:
"Whole milk tyrant."
Ifas: “?”
What a ridiculous and paranoid title.
Was the previous owner a decent person?
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