Rules
When Dr. Lowry spoke to her, his voice was always soft, as if he had shed all his armor and was showing her all the tenderness that humans could express.
"Ella, never let anyone see your weaknesses."
“Mom, Ella has no weaknesses.”
Dr. Lowry shook his head: "Your very existence is a weakness that will drive you to utter ruin."
"I do not understand."
"You don't understand now, but one day you will. Until then, keep your breathing even and don't let anyone see you bleed."
Dr. Lowry warned about two points, which she has been doing very well.
She knocked down three androids and was able to escape unscathed.
As she stumbled and fell to the ground, a human guard lunged at her with a sinister grin.
"I thought he was so capable, so straightforward, but he only deserves to be tricked."
The pain of the dagger plunging deep into her shoulder blade brought her back to her senses, her eyes fixed on the microfiber netting a fist's distance from the ground.
Unexpectedly, it was set up by the three people who were fighting the androids earlier.
"Look what this is! Blood!" the human guards exclaimed excitedly, and the remaining guards gathered from all directions.
"The inference is true; we must report this to the King immediately."
Upon hearing the word "report," a cold glint flashed in Ella Zero's eyes. She broke free with a backhand elbow strike, her left hand reaching for the dagger still embedded in her shoulder. She gritted her teeth and used all her strength to resist her instinctive trembling.
Not a single one can escape.
Not a single one!
She felt her body temperature dropping along with her blood; she had never experienced such severe pain before, and these symptoms were only seen in the implanted knowledge chip.
She finally collapsed, exhausted, when she managed to twist the neck of the last human guard around him from behind like a ghost.
The last thing she saw was a pair of amber eyes.
When she woke up again, she was being carried on someone's back.
She remembered reading in a book that clothes dried in the sun had a warm scent. She wondered if it was the same scent she was smelling now.
But nothing on Earth has been exposed to the sun for a very long time.
“…Don’t let anyone see you bleed.” Dr. Lowry’s voice was deafening, and for a moment she seemed to stop thinking.
Dr. Lowry is absolutely right...
absolute……
The dagger was still at her side. Ella Zero mechanically released her right hand, which made her left hand tighten its grip on the person's shoulder and neck.
"Don't move around once you're awake. The royal family has cut off contact, but they will definitely send someone to investigate again."
"You are..." The voice sounded familiar; she must have heard it before.
Where?
No, it's not important. This person cannot be kept.
The knuckles gripping the dagger tightened further, turning white.
“You don’t need to do this. If I do anything to harm you, this dog will tear me apart. You can tell just by looking at its eyes.”
The numbness caused by excessive blood loss still affected her, and she only looked away after hearing this.
It was that Arabian wolf.
His figure was completely hidden in the night, with only his amber eyes constantly fixed on her.
Seeing her touch the dagger, it bared its teeth, seemingly eager to attack.
It was as if as soon as Ella Zero identified him as an enemy, it could immediately send him to hell.
"That's not a dog..."
Ella Zero spoke through the pain that tore at her dry throat.
Gu Yan clearly felt the chill beside him, but he didn't turn around and walked forward with firm steps.
"You can treat me as a means of transportation, and we can figure out what to do with me after we're out of danger. You'll have plenty of time to think things through along the way."
As far as he knew, dozens of Ella-type test subjects had already been discarded and their whereabouts were unknown.
Saying it was dozens of numbers might be too few; the number 355 from yesterday's logbook flashed before his eyes again.
Therefore, she is now very likely the only remaining Ella-type experimental subject.
The wound was deep, Gu Yan could feel it. His wet back indicated that he urgently needed to stop the bleeding.
He wasn't very familiar with this area, so he had to ask Yang Guang for directions.
"Something happened?"
"It's a bit complicated; I need to sort things out first. We'll discuss the rest when we meet."
Yang Guang scoffed: "Did you run into that Ella type?"
Gu Yan paused for a moment: "After I find her, I will persuade her to come with me."
"Alright, I'll rely on your silver tongue then. Have you heard of this saying? I just saw it in a banned book today."
Gu Yan only cares about safe houses.
Yang Guang returned to work, grumbling, "You'll see the bunker in three more miles. By the way, are you walking this slowly today? You should have reached me by now."
"It's a bit of a delay. As I said, we'll talk when we meet."
The breathing sounds on the side of her neck began to fluctuate, indicating that Ella Zero was about to wake up.
Gu Yan hurriedly cut off the communication.
It was warm, with a slightly pungent burnt smell mixed with the scent of damp moss.
Ella Zero's sense of smell was the first to awaken.
Then came the auditory experience: faint crackling sounds and occasional waves of heat.
The flickering light from the campfire was a bit too bright, and she closed her eyes again for a while before opening them again.
"He's awake." It was a human male with broad shoulders, covered in blood.
She didn't look injured. She moved her shoulder alertly, a feeling of freshness she hadn't experienced before losing consciousness.
"I put a band-aid on you to stop the bleeding. I used several band-aids before it finally stopped."
Ella Zero silently analyzed the situation; they must be at the foot of the mountain, north of the cabin. Only this terrain would form a cave with hard stone walls.
Gu Yan turned around and smiled, "Luckily it was you. If it were an ordinary person like me, it wouldn't be something that could be fixed with just a few band-aids..."
Before he could finish speaking, a blur flashed before his eyes, and he was slammed to the ground by an irresistible force.
Caught off guard, his neck was suddenly pressed down by this force, and the forced interruption of his breathing caused him to struggle involuntarily.
"Then you should know that it would be as easy for me to crush an ordinary person like you."
Gu Yan stared intently at the person looking down at him like a superior. He had long realized that under the suppression of absolute power, non-natural people could easily rule over natural people.
"I don't care what you are, as long as you abide by the 'Android Code,' you can't kill me."
“I just killed four human guards. Do you think I would care about something like this?”
The pressure tightened a bit more, and Gu Yan couldn't help but instinctively struggle against her wrist as he reached for hers.
If nothing works, then we'll use something that works.
Gu Yan decisively put his arm around her shoulder and applied force—
The bandage was stained red again, and Ella Zero suppressed a cry of pain, but her strength loosened a little.
Feeling that he had regained the right to breathe, Gu Yan seized the opportunity and punched Ella Zero in the stomach.
Ella winced in pain, and Gu Yan was finally freed.
He coughed heavily twice, took deep breaths of fresh air, and met Ella Zero's gaze without the slightest fear.
“Your life belongs to your master. The Code provides an exception, allowing you to retaliate when your master is threatened. So your logic is this: you've been exposed, and if you don't kill them, the information they obtain will threaten Dr. Lowry himself. You're rational enough to have already thought of an excuse to escape punishment before you act.”
“That’s a good analysis, so this theory applies to you as well.”
"Don't you find it ridiculous? You have the same physiological reactions as humans, and you bleed just like humans, yet you have to abide by the rules of androids."
Ella Zero's gaze turned even colder: "What's it to you?" She reached to her side and found the dagger had indeed been removed. She calmly scanned her surroundings, searching for anything she could use.
"No need to look anymore. I was sent by Dr. Lowry to find you. Killing me won't do you any good."
I've never seen you before.
Gu Yan chuckled self-deprecatingly: "I wasn't qualified before, but I do see your sisters every day."
Ella Zero stared intently at him, seemingly trying to gauge the percentage of lies in his words from his expression.
"To prove you're right, grant me access to my memory retrieval."
Gu Yan's face turned cold for the first time: "You've crossed the line. I don't care what you are, as long as you still abide by the 'Android Code,' you understand that you cannot be above humans."
Unauthorized access to human memories is indeed a major taboo; even humans need multiple levels of authorization to do this.
Ella Zero continued to watch him warily.
“But I can show you this.” Gu Yan seemed to have all his strength drained away. He slumped against the stone wall, reached into his pocket with his right hand, took out something, and casually tossed it in front of Ella Zero.
She recognized it; it was Dr. Lowry's ever-present voice recorder. Her scrutinizing gaze then shifted to Gu Yan.
"Listen, listen to the last minute. After you finish listening, you'll know who I am. It's okay if you play it in front of me, I've already listened to the whole thing."
Ella reached for the recorder, but her gaze never left Gu Yan.
She also listened to the beginning and noticed a slight look of disgust on her face when she realized it was her conversation with the tester, which Gu Yan accurately caught.
“Ella, if you hear this, this man has come to you with my concern for you, and you can trust him. The coming time will be difficult for us, and you may hear things like I'm in danger. Don't believe them; they're trying to lure you out. Stay in a safe place, for my sake.”
The red light on the recorder flashed twice, indicating that playback had ended. Ella Zero remained motionless in the same position.
Gu Yan asked her with his eyes for her final decision, and he could already hear the faint howl of the Arabian wolf outside the cave.
"Your plan?" Ella Zero asked him with the simplest two words.
"Anyway, the research center will release the news of my escape tomorrow. We'll both be wanted criminals, so why don't we go to my place?"
Ella Zero didn't ask him where that was. She stiffly turned her neck to the side, and her face finally began to turn pale.
"You've lost too much blood, let me change your bandage."
Ella Zero said expressionlessly, "Thanks to you."
"You're quite humorous."
Gu Yan paused for a moment, then moved closer to her and reached for her collar. She didn't move, not even raising an eyebrow.
He unbuttoned her collar and silently changed the bandage for her.
This was the second time I had touched her bare skin, and it was quite different from the first time when she was completely unaware.
He felt more curious than uncomfortable.
What exactly is Ella Zero?
She resembled a human, but seemed unaware of gender differences. He wondered if, at this moment, Ella Zero perceived him as a piece of human flesh, or if Ella Zero herself was a piece of human flesh?
"Are you changing so slowly?" Ella Zero turned her head away, and for the first time, he saw her slightly furrowed brows.
The expression looked just like a living human being, which made him a little confused.
He feigned nonchalance: "I know your face too well. You look exactly like your sisters. But I've only recorded data on your sisters; I haven't applied any medicine to you yet. Do you understand how it feels to have the same face?"
"Are you testing me, asking how I feel? Did Mom give you that kind of authority?" Ella Zero's voice was flat.
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