Happy Doomsday - Chapter 201

Tang Yibu chose a good body for himself. When he didn’t deliberately pull out a standard smile, it still looked extremely attractive.

However, Ruan Xian, the one who was most easily shaken by it, wasn’t here, so there was no one in the audience who ate this performance—Yu Le made a face and looked at him warily. Ji Xiaoman had buried her head in her knees. Professor Ruan stood quietly on the chair while the iron bead chewed happily on the chocolate chip packaging.

As a genuine teenager, Zhong Qing pouted, showing straightforward hostility to the same sex who looked better than him. He had no idea that Tang Yibu was a different species from him.

Tang Yibu slowly withdrew his smile and his thoughts drifted for a while—if Mr. Ruan was here, he would definitely be able to see his softened expression, he thought with a bit of frustration.

He rubbed his face and changed back to a serious expression. “Yu Ge, Miss Ji, looking at the expressions of the two of you, your emotional problems should probably be solved, right? The next step requires the two of you to tacitly work together with… the iron box, and I can’t do it for you.”

“Speak.” Yu Le hid his sneer and spoke quickly.

Some of the Order Supervisors that surrounded the city in the early hours of that morning would never forget that day.

They received instructions from the Mainbrain and encircled the city where Ruan Lijie was located. In order to cause as little damage to the urban area as possible, all kinds of armed robots stayed in the suburbs, quietly waiting for their prey.

And their prey came earlier than expected.

At that time, all the machines near the armored off-roader entered a state of high-level alert. The enemy possibly possessed an A-type Prototype, so it wasn’t an exaggeration to be extremely cautious. The Order Supervisors of the recon in charge of command took a few deep breaths and kept in constant contact with headquarters.

“The request for assistance regarding R-α has been issued,” he reported. “R-α is still being rebuilt, but it can be temporarily active. We will use force to fully support it.”

“How is the enemy’s condition?”

“They haven’t spotted us yet and are heading in this direction. The flight detectors have confirmed the general situation. The other side has released electromagnetic interference, so we can’t get close to observe.”

“All units get ready. Make sure to maintain your weapon in prime shape. After the target vehicle appears, it will attack us with all its might. All humans on board can be killed but ensure that the cybernetic brain of NUL-00 isn’t damage,” Zhuo Muran said from the other end of the light screen.

“R-α will arrive at the scene in three minutes. Without attack support, it cannot repel NUL-00, who has the A-type Prototype, alone. Please be sure to protect it. Be sure to incapacitate NUL-00 as soon as possible—as long as R-α can touch it, we will win.”

“Yes.”

All kinds of aircraft were on standby in the night sky, and attack machines were hidden in the grass. They had adopted the most advanced stealth technology that, not to mention trying to detect with the naked eye, even NUL-00 would have difficulties sensing their presence with signal scanning.

Everything was ready.

An armored off-roader broke through the night and rushed towards them from the other end of the road. The commanding Order Supervisor trembled a little, but he still seized the best opportunity—with a command, a flexible capture net was projected from the sky towards the car. It was a web that had been improved according to the structure of spider silk. Although it was soft, it was extremely difficult to break free.

Behind the capture net was an advanced EMP device. All the armed machines burst out of the grass and shot the short-range EMP device, which was enough to paralyze any electronic equipment on the car. With these two steps, any smart weapons or equipment in the car would be rendered useless, leaving no respite for the enemy.

After the net enveloped the car, a smelly smoke encircled it. With the flesh-eating bacteria mist released, it started to penetrate every gap and consume any flesh that it came into contact with. Anything that was human would be quickly devoured. Fortunately, these dangerous little demons weren’t interested in metal, so it wouldn’t hurt the cybernetic brain in NUL-00’s head.

The green mist filled the area around the net, but even with this, the commander in charge didn’t let his guard down…

R-α arrived at the scene.

It was still in the process of transformation and was sealed in a glass tank. The glass tank was connected to countless pipes that looked like a spider web inside a coffin from a distance. Confirming that there wasn’t a problem with their scan result, the staff woke it up. The banshee-like creature sat up from the glass tank.

It—or rather, “she”—was still naked. A large area of skin was exposed, and the clothing on her body was more like a special combat suit. She sat blankly in the glass tank as black and red blood rushed in from the transparent tubes embedded in her skin. They coiled around her limbs, wrapped around her shoulders and back, creating an eerily beautiful scene.

With the command to leave the tank, she stepped on the grass; her hair was soaking wet by the mixed liquid of the tank and was still dripping. She stayed quietly near the flesh-eating fog, seemingly completely unafraid of touching the dangerous thing.

With such a beautiful figure standing in front of a team of armed machines with different shapes, it created a heavy sense of incongruity.

She stood like an apparition for a while, then turned her head and looked suspiciously at the commander of the Order Supervisors at the scene.

“No,” she said. The voice was soft and there was no anger in it.

A chill ran down the back of the commanding officer.

There wasn’t a problem with the scan results. They had even used an electronic canine to analyze the smell of the occupants in the car. They were undoubtedly caught in the net and the net was solid.

However, he would not cross the strongest force of the Mainbrain, so he immediately ordered, “Retract the mist!”

The green flesh-eating bacteria mist was retracted. However, once the air was cleared, not to mention the skeletons that should’ve been inside, there wasn’t even an armored off-roader. The sturdy net was piled in a heap on the ground, showing no outlines of their prey. It was like they had shot it at a real ghost.

The armed machines quickly removed the EMP device and net, and a model of an armored vehicle topping half a meter in length was revealed.

Its details were exactly the same as the target vehicle, with a slightly crude paint job, most likely due to it being a rushed job. There were only some old and dirty fabrics in the vehicle, embedded with a strange device that no longer worked.

The commander quickly confirmed the scan again—it still showed the outline of the humans inside the vehicle, as well as the individual unmistakable details.

“Damn it.” He wiped the cold sweat from his face. “R-α, perceive their location and report.”

“Yes, the target is very close to us and is approaching here at high speed.”

“What—” The commander’s mind went blank for a moment.

He had to prepare as soon as possible, but their opponent had already deceived their offense and perhaps even had their own countermeasures. The commander shook his head vigorously, trying to drive all kinds of ominous conjectures out of his mind, and ordered again.

“Immediately restore the formation and prepare to attack… Shit!”

Before he could finish, the EMP device’s impact time had expired. The model car parked on the ground suddenly moved, spun in place a few times, then burst open.

It was just instead of a deadly weapon, it burst into a mass of glittering metal flakes and confetti. This was followed by flames, then something burned in the air…

The ground lit up with a huge, brilliant firework.

Flames burst out, smoke rose up, and the gorgeous light dazzled people’s eyes. Thermal detection and precision scanning all failed. No matter how efficient the EMP devices were, they couldn’t stop a chemical reaction that didn’t require electricity. The fireworks couldn’t stop bursting. R-α, who was standing on the side of the road, opened her eyes slightly. Her pupils reflected those dizzying brilliance.

In the next second, her head disappeared.

The commander had just recovered from the sight, which he didn’t know whether it was a dream or a nightmare, when something whizzed past. In the slow-down image on the monitor, an armored off-roader leapt by with lightning speed, knocking over a number of armed machines that were standing by on the road. It used a bizarre fluttering position to dash out on the side of the fence, bypass the barricade, and then turned back on the road again. At that high of a speed, it was almost impossible for a human to accomplish such a maneuver.

And on the roof of the speeding car, they could see a figure of a person.

A very beautiful, golden-eyed young man. He was carrying a portable rocket launcher with considerable destructive power. The rocket launcher user—most likely the culprit who blasted off R-α’s head—sat safely on the roof of the car that was going at full speed while dangling a long leg.

He even blew a kiss at one of their flying cameras.

After the kiss, all the flying cameras that tried to catch up were shot down.

From the beginning of the fireworks to the departure of the unsuspecting vehicle, the whole process took no more than five seconds. The commander didn’t even have time to give an order at all. Although the machines reacted quickly, their attacks were unsuccessful since the front line wasn’t restored. The fireworks attracted reinforcements from a distance, but the terrible vehicle had activated its perceptual camouflage and disappeared into the night.

“What went wrong?” Seeing that there hadn’t been a report for a while, Zhuo Muran took the initiative to ask.

The commander didn’t know how to answer this question.

The fireworks were still exploding while R-α, who had lost her head, slowly sat up and began to pick up the pieces of flesh that had been blown off. A restorative hyperplasia began to appear at the fracture of her neck. A simple blast like this wasn’t enough to destroy an advanced S-type product, but it would take time for her head to recover. Until then, she wouldn’t be able to provide them with any further information.

This incident was completely outrageous from the start—the other side shouldn’t have had time to react so quickly. After all, they shouldn’t have known that they were in position. But whether it was the scanning machine being hacked or the time between the car rushing in, it was enough to show that the other side was well prepared.

They even specifically chose this side to break through. Although he didn’t want to admit it, the side over here had dense trees, and there was a large lake nearby. Their defenses were a little lower than elsewhere, but if the other side wasn’t very familiar with their location and the nearby geography, they couldn’t have gotten hold of this information.

Not only that, their invisibility technology was just updated by the Mainbrain last week!

Was there a mole? Was there someone who was from the rebel army in their own team? The commander really couldn’t think of how this kind of information would leak. Facing the increasingly stern questioning of the light screen, he wanted to pull out his hair.

“…Team F requests support,” he replied in an almost desperate tone.

At the same time.

“This incident tells us that special groups should not be skipped for advanced weapons testing in the future.” Tang Yibu opened the car door, got into the car from the roof, and sneezed.

The relaxed image he made could put pressure on the enemy, and the price wasn’t small. After being blown on by the cold wind from the roof for a few minutes, Tang Yibu pulled out a tissue and blew his nose.

“Well done, Yu Ge, Miss Ji.”

“Just because I know how to ‘drive’, you can’t push this kind of thing on me.” Yu Le grabbed the steering wheel with one hand and threw the remote control of the model car into the back seat. “…Well now, it’s quite interesting. Reminds me of my childhood. Little profiteer, when we settle down, you can give me the whole thing.”

Ji Xiaoman’s shirt was soaked in sweat. She was holding a bottle of juice and sipping slowly on it with a straw. Her face showed signs of relaxation after being so tense and nervous.

“Let her rest for a while. This lady’s mechanical transformation and assembly ability is the highest I’ve ever seen. This kind of work consumes a lot of energy, so I don’t think she can listen to anything right now.”

Professor Ruan was still holding a light screen and they could still see the situation near the fireworks. However, given that all the flight cameras had been destroyed, the point of their invasion was getting farther and farther away, and the picture started to become abnormally vacant and shaky.

“I’m so strong!” Zhong Qing exclaimed in surprise while still holding a piece of preserved fruit in his hand.

Tang Yibu put the portable rocket launcher down; the cylinder was put back in the arms box. He huffed out, not affirming the kid’s boasting. If Mr. Ruan was here, they would have used a similar method to get through.

But then, their abnormal scrying ability might make Ruan Xian look more suspicious. Now that Ruan Xian wasn’t present, the account falls on Zhong Qing’s head—it wouldn’t take long for the Mainbrain to deduce the vulnerability of their cloaking device. In this case, Ruan Xian wouldn’t be at risk of being exposed.

He became a lot happier again after thinking about this. Tang Yibu decided to generously ignore Zhong Qing for stealing his treasures. He opened another pack of chocolate chips and chewed on them sweetly as he cast his gaze out the window.

He didn’t know how Mr. Ruan was doing now.

In fact, Ruan Xian had slept through these thrilling parts, or rather fainted. When he woke up, it was early in the morning. When Tang Yibu and the others successfully escaped from the Mainbrain’s city and were looking for a place to hide and recover, Ruan Xian was clutching a hotdog bought by MUL-01 as his mood sank to the very bottom.

He was sulking on the morning of the Great Rebellion.

After perceiving Ruan Xian’s resistance, MUL-01’s version of Tang Yibu didn’t engage in further intimacy. He just took Ruan Xian to the side of the street. Everything on the street seemed normal enough that Ruan Xian didn’t know what the other party’s purpose was.

Until they came to a residential building.

The Mainbrain walked to a huge trashcan, knocked on the motherboard a few times, causing the opaque trashcan to suddenly become transparent. It contained some perishable garbage. Among the fruit scraps, leftovers, and withered flowers, a bloodstained human body was particularly conspicuous. Her eyes were wide open, and there were still dark black fingerprints around her neck.

But the mark on the slender neck was equally conspicuous. Ruan Xian didn’t know what it was, but he knew what it meant—the owner of this mark wasn’t human. It was more like a mark of an object.

The Mainbrain knocked on the trashcan again, causing it to turn opaque again. Ruan Xian could smell a bit of garbage, but the source wasn’t from there. The deodorization measures of the trashcan were exceptionally good.

“What do you want to express?”

Ruan Xian didn’t think that the Mainbrain would develop thoughts of “safeguarding the rights and interests of bionic people”. Professor Ruan and Fan Linsong wouldn’t leave such loopholes when designing it.

The Mainbrain shook his head as he led him upstairs to one of the doors. It was extremely silent outside the door, but after the Mainbrain opened it, a miserable cry came rushing out.

A man was sitting on top of a child’s stomach as he punched him in the face. The child’s face was so swollen that he couldn’t see his original appearance, and the perfect sound insulation stopped his screams indoors. The child’s arms should have been broken as they were twisted at a weird angle.

Seeing that the child was almost out of breath, the man stood up, wiped his hands, and took out a medicine box. After a few injections, those wounds began to quickly disappear, and even the broken bones slowly returned to their original position.

However, the side effects of the medicine weren’t small as the child began to howl again.

“Remember your lesson?” The child’s father wiped the blood from his hands. “Take your medicine.”

The little boy shivered and took the cup and pills and obediently ate them. Within a few seconds, his eyes were a little flustered, and then his expression turned blank. He didn’t seem to know why he was standing here, but his instinct to survive made him tighten his body and stand obediently.

“Next time, don’t mess around in front of me. Now go study.” The man waved his hand.

“Yes, father.” The boy glanced at the time in fear, took a deep breath, and quickly ran into his room.

Was this to express that the Great Rebellion was to “protect humanity”? Ruan Xian frowned. He didn’t think the Mainbrain would do this kind of idealistic thing. These images…

Ruan Xian suddenly reacted.

The impression he gave to the Mainbrain was that “he sacrificed himself to save Zhong Qing”. This meant MUL-01 had classified sympathy for children as one of his weaknesses and was now giving him the right medicine.

Interesting.

Ruan Xian made a sullen expression on his face and turned his gaze to the Mainbrain’s back.

Since this was a test, he could make it a two-way street.

The author has something to say:

If Ruan was a normal person, the direction the Mainbrain was taking would be quite right.

Unfortunately, he’s not. Not only is he not affected by it, he’s also unusually calm (……

Tang: Began to miss Ruan.

Ruan: Began to pit the (machine?).