Imperfections Chapter 36

Jingheng Lin was carefully scanning over the heavy mech no.3's damaged parts along Zhanlu's mental network.

He needed to comb through the malfunctions and their causes bit by bit, and when they were clear enough, only then could he draft the repair plan. To Jingheng Lin, fixing a mech's malfunctions wasn't that difficult skill-wise: it was just a delicate task, like unraveling a tangled-up ball of string.

But if fixing an emergent malfunction was unraveling a ball or two, then with the level of damage of the heavy mech no.3, it was pretty much equal to dumping more than a hundred cats into a warehouse full of yarn. And that reshaping and repairing work was synonymous with combing through all the yarn and putting them back in their places in the cat disaster's aftermath.

No advanced deep skills were required -- the only thing needed was patience enough to forgive the entire world.

Although Jingheng Lin wasn't someone that was short-tempered, the patience of a wild wolf that lay in wait to capture a mob of deer in the snow and the patience to untangle a yarn knot were clearly not the same thing. He originally wanted to use the reason of "letting the students get up close with a heavy mech's inner parts" to trick Bixing Lu into taking up the task of repairing the heavy mech no.3.

But what he hadn't antic.i.p.ated was that he stepped back in a moment of hesitation. Searching around the base, he couldn't find another reliable and easy-to-trick engineer, and had to do it himself, fuming.

"Sir, do you need a break?" Zhanlu, whose mental network was connected to his consciousness, said suddenly. "I've noticed that the prefrontal blood flow above your left eye is getting faster, and it seems that you are restraining your bad mood."

Jingheng Lin was annoyed close to exploding by the whole "yarn clot" project but wasn't able to get into a fit of rage since it wasn't appropriate to just because of a tiny thing like this. So, he extracted himself from the mental network with extreme self-control, leaving the heavy mech no.3 without a word, escaping into the elevator hoistway to smoke.

Zhanlu, ever the AI loyal to his duties, automatically became a human-shaped ashtray for him. Jingheng Lin had stayed silent for more than half a cigarette's time when he finally spoke, "Look at you, you're one of the most cutting-edge technologies in the Union, so why can't you run naked?"

Zhanlu serenely explained his functions. "Sir, technically speaking, without a body, I'm only unable to achieve some of the functions I have as a mech. But my function as an AI is not affected, and I also have low energy consumption."

Hearing this, Jingheng Lin jabbed his cigarette into his mouth distressedly, wishing that Zhanlu could be an untalkative artificial idiot.

"For example, I can hack into surveillance systems in a limited range, and keep a tab on the outside world for you real time." Zhanlu, as if trying to express that he did not only have the function of "chatting", had countless shadows quickly flash through his emerald green irises, accurately watching the actual scene through the monitors in the mech port. He observed for a while, then reported, "Mr. Spencer's Self-Defense Force has rebelled."

"Rebelled?" Jingheng Lin looked up, confused, "The thing about me locking Spencer in the dungeons was leaked so quickly?"

Zhanlu: "Wait for a minute, I am reading their lips..."

Jingheng Lin flicked away the ash in his palm and didn't really gave a thought about the event after his brief surprise, treating it only as entertainment--in his eyes, the base was pretty much a chicken farm. The chickens could only squawk and flap their wings, and if the ruckus got really big, the worst they would have to do was to slaughter the entire bunch. Though it would be a bit troublesome, it wouldn't be a loss, either.

He shook his head, "These people are surprisingly loyal."

"No," Zhanlu finished a.n.a.lyzing, and replied, "The reason they rebelled is because of their own anger towards Mr. Spencer--they currently think that Mr. Spencer is trying to play dead and want an explanation from him."

"Internal strife," Listening to this, Jingheng Lin found it fresh and interesting. "Why? Because he took the enemy in?"

Zhanlu: "Because he didn't surrender in time."

Jingheng Lin: "......"

The mechs that were dragged back were piled messily everywhere. The revolting Self-Defense Force troops were packed in a tiny square, some yelling a slogan while standing up, while some others were rolling on the ground, refusing to get up.

Bixing Lu spent the first night in a robot workshop. The workshop was less than twenty meters from the tiny square, letting him hear everyone's chattering clearly.

"We weren't even far from the atmosphere when I almost ran into an energy tower, and almost became a roast pig!"

"Do you people know how scary it is to fly a mech up into the sky? There's nothing around you, you can't even see your fingers even if you put them in front of your face, what do you see us as, Cow? The elites in the Eden that even have their brain plasma grown exceptionally correct?"

"That's right. Don't talk about all of that bulls.h.i.t anymore! How many of us are afraid of heights? How many of us are afraid of the dark? How many of us are afraid of tight s.p.a.ces? Huh? If you're so impressive that you can fly up into the sky, then why don't you try to fix our brains first?'

"When someone came, you opened fire without checking who they were, who did you think you were? The Ten Squadrons? Because of you, I almost lost my f.u.c.king life there!"

"How dare you attack Monoeye Hawk, he was already selling mechs when you were still wetting your bed!"

"If you're brave enough to, attack him yourself! Don't just hide back there!"

"Yeah, if you can, then fly the mech yourself!"

"Cow! Don't hide in there!"

"Get the f.u.c.k out of wherever you're hiding!"

These people were knocked out by Jingheng Lin outside the base's atmosphere. They were just dragged back to the base, humans hovering between life and death inside their mech. In the black pit of the universe, having one's mental network access taken away and floating in a vacuum, alone, was not something that could be joked with. Without strong physique and willpower, the sheer fear itself could drive someone crazy.

The base's residents were originally here early to work for the p.o.r.n. After they heard the course of everything, sadness surged out of nowhere through them, all of them agreeing with them that Cow was really a son of a b.i.t.c.h.

Things started to get a little out of control.

Right at the same moment, a knock sounded from the small window on the side of the workshop. Bixing Lu looked up and saw a member of the Self-Defense Force, Sat.u.r.day, poke his head in,"Open the window, I'm carrying stuff!"

Sat.u.r.day's face was that of a minor's, but the trace of a soldier could be found in his movement. He had a bulky lunchbox in his hands. He climbed up to the second floor with only one hand, skillfully supported himself on one, and then jumped in from the window. "Breakfast from Big Sister's, there's even some soup inside--I was terrified that I'd spill it for the entire way--d.a.m.n I'm tired."

Bixing Lu was starving, instantly feeling that Sat.u.r.day, the kid, was as righteous as the broad skies. He quickly grabbed the lunchbox over, asking, "How did you know I was here?"

"Your students told me," Sat.u.r.day said, "They said that they couldn't figure out how to solve the homework you gave them and were going to come and ask you. I saw that people were making a ruckus over here, and I didn't let them come over. Don't look at these people as just a random, uncoordinated crowd--if they really were desperate, they'd do anything. They aren't familiar with the base, and there are also girls, it's way too dangerous for them."

At this point, the energy reform plan was tossed at the back of his mind. Bixing Lu, his soup half-finished, hearing that his students were coming over, quickly tossed his bowl aside. He used the base's internetwork to message White, telling them all to return to the Self-Defense Force's administrative building, and to stay close to either Monoeye Hawk or Commodore Lin and stay indoors.

"How did it come to this?"

Sat.u.r.day shrugged. "The conflict was there in the beginning. They were all against Cow on buying the tons of mechs and weapons."

"Why?"

"Because they were expensive. Before Prince Cayley came in--about a month or two before that--we here were alerted. Underground pa.s.sage, you know it. On the surface, no one ever went to extraterrestrial places, but a lot of people still go do black market transactions there for the cash. When an earthquake's here, the rats in the sewers usually get the news first."

Sat.u.r.day looked down and lit a cigarette expertly. He leaned on the window sill, his expression slightly weary. He had a baby face, the ring above his lips seemingly just a width of fluff. A look that of a minor's. But seeing at it now, it was weirdly matured, telling people that he might not be as young as he seemed.

"At that time, everyone on the underground pa.s.sage was panicking, everyone stopped trading, coming to a consensus that this information was limited to us, and us only, and was not allowed to be leaked to anyone. Whoever leaks it, they will die. Cow said that we must buy a batch of mechs to protect ourselves, and a lot of people disagreed, as how many goods and supplies could be bought with the price of a single mech, and how many people could be fed with that? But this pa.s.sage, this base, all of them are Spencer's. He's the boss, he intends on doing that, and we can't do anything about it."

"Stop pretending that you're being mistreated when it's actually a favor. As expensive as a mech can be, you only paid the deposit, which was less than thirty percent of the original price. Spencer's an expert at tricking and deception, why would you be worried about money when you're following him?"

Sat.u.r.day went silent for a while, and then flicked the ash on the windowsill. "You're right, beside from how expensive they were, the main reason was that they were afraid of getting into trouble. You've seen it too, the kind of people they are. They've forgotten that they're people after being mice for a long time. They think that if they hide their tails between their legs and behave themselves, and hide in the base with their heads down, they can stay alive. Getting a bunch of mechs and arms openly like this--what if they were discovered by the interstellar pirates, or the Union, and were mistakenly identified as armed militants?"

Bixing Lu looked at him. "You don't think that way."

"I don't," Sat.u.r.day pressed his voice low, and sneaked a sideways look at the furious ma.s.ses, "I don't think that fearing and trembling everyday, and surrendering to 'destiny', can do anything. Compared to hiding in the sewers in fear, I'd rather fly a mech up to the skies to fight. Even if I die up there, it's my own decision, and I won't blame the fates."

Just as the sound of his voice fell, they heard the Self-Defense Force members making a ruckus downstairs yell, "Yelling here won't do anything, let's go to the Self-Defense Force's building and drag Cow out of there!"

"Head to the building!"

"f.u.c.k him!"

Bixing Lu quickly stepped forward and shoved the window open. "Shoot."

"Are your students also in the administrative building?" Sat.u.r.day immediately pinched out the flame on his cigarette, saying quickly, "Are you able to climb over a wall? I'll take you to them through a shortcut."

Bixing Lu shook his head, his expression serene. He wasn't worried about the safety of the students. He was just afraid that this ragtag bunch would get their ruckus in front of Jingheng Lin's face. Once that commodore was p.i.s.sed off, he might just decide to bomb these people into ground meat.

The base was split into two parts: one for mechs to land, and the other for civilian use. The administrative building was on the boundary of the two parts, extremely close to the mech port. The angry parade, starting here, would need at most fifteen minutes to get to the administrative building. Bixing Lu didn't even dare to imagine Lin's face when they blocked up the door and shouted insults.

From Bixing Lu's own a.n.a.lysis, Lin's reluctant agreement to give him three months was already the result of him having to use his attractiveness, so what could he do now?

Did he have to sell himself?

Although the situation was already severely urgent, Saint Lu, ready to sell his own body to save the ma.s.ses, still managed to fantasize for a second. The good thing was that he still knew what was more important, and once he realized that, he quickly dragged back his mind which was basically a violent sea at the moment. He cleared his throat with force, and then awoke his personal terminal.

A 3D map of the base instantly spread out in the workshop. Bixing Lu quickly hacked into the road network's monitoring, dozens of monitoring projections popping up above their heads.

Sat.u.r.day immediately recognized the rebelling Force's route. "They're close to the port's north entrance, there's a roadblock there!"

Just as he finished his words, Bixing Lu touched the roadblock's controller. A rumble instantly sounded from afar, and in the monitor, an iron fence several dozen meters high rose from nothing, blocking the angry ma.s.ses behind it.

Sat.u.r.day clapped. "Bravo!"

Just as Bixing Lu wanted to be charmingly modest for a moment, right before a smile could form on his face, he saw the rebelling Force gather behind the iron fence, forming a human ram on their own accord. Someone yelled commands, and the people gathered together, holding hands, ramming into the roadblock furiously yet steadily.

On the interstellar battlefield, they were like a plate of loose sand, but when it came to shove their own door, they somehow managed to gain organizational discipline that was enough to make them qualify as a trained team!

What was more dangerous was that the iron fence looked like it probably hadn't been repaired in a few hundred years. The anti-rust coating was a mottled mess, and dotted bits of rust corroded several bearings. The fence looked alright, but it was actually not. After being rammed by the people a few times, it began to shake and seemed close to breaking.

At the same time, Jingheng Lin walked out of the heavy mech no.3's storage room. He could already hear their cries as they rammed into the wall, "One-two! One-two!"

The four students ran upstairs hurriedly, "Commodore Lin, they..."

Jingheng Lin patted White's shoulder, instructing, "Go back to your rooms."

White recalled his harsh and heartless promise of three months and shuddered substantially.

Monoeye Hawk came down from the guest room upstairs. "What's happening?"

Jingheng Lin didn't answer him, connecting to Zhanlu's mental network. The giant mental network blanketed the whole base under it. The next second, the mech port acted like it had encountered some kind of supernatural event. All the originally slumped down mechs stood up one by one, icy green lights lighting up. The mechs on the outermost line raised their particle cannons silently, pointing them at the ramming people in synchronization.

"You should've taught him how to make choices, not to try to find a way out that would satisfy both sides every time." Jingheng Lin glanced at Monoeye Hawk through the corner of his eyes, his thin lips spitting out a few words so low they were almost unable to be heard, "Trash will be trash."

The particle cannon's preheat made the base's fragile power system let out a high-energy warning. Bixing Lu's irises instantly shrunk, and the next second, the iron roadblock crashed down with a loud bang. The Self-Defense Force troops, not knowing anything that was happening behind their backs, felt like they had gotten a huge victory, starting to scream in a crazed celebration.

Jingheng Lin commanded the particle cannons to launch, his expression unmoving.

The lighted air quickly heated up. At first, it seemed to be a few blood crimson flowers that burst in the air out of nowhere, that then quickly turned from red to stark white, rolling towards the people creating trouble like a sunset.

At the same time, Bixing Lu's fingers were so fast they almost became a stroke of an after image. In the impending danger, he called out the base's fragile defense net, grabbed it forcefully, and concentrated the defense that encompa.s.sed the entire base into one tiny dot, which narrowly became a wall that stood between the Self-Defense Force and the particle cannons.

The particle cannons ran straight into the defense net. The defense net shattered, the entire mech port shook. Ash on the robot workshop's tiny building's walls scuttled down to the ground, the mechs in the front row that released the particle cannons all stepped back half a step, and the people standing close had all fallen to the ground due to the shock. Simultaneously, the particle cannons' energy quickly weakened in the defense web and its aftermaths, and had only less than half left soon. It glided through the Self-Defense Force like a breeze, whistling into the deep alleys of the residents' dwellings.

Bixing Lu knew that Lin definitely knew that it was his work, but that didn't necessarily mean that he would give him tolerance.

To Jingheng Lin, launching a second round of particle cannons was easy as lifting a tiny finger, but this s.h.i.tty base did not have a second defense net for Bixing Lu to block with.

Sat.u.r.day watched him hesitate where he was for less than a split second before he suddenly summoned a few robots.

"Those are robots from the medical team," Sat.u.r.day asked, confused, "What are you doing?"

"Implanting a prop." Bixing Lu took out a tiny aseptic pack. Soaking in it silently was a very, very tiny piece of a biochip. He stuffed the pack into the medical robot's hands, quickly setting up the "implant" procedure. The medical robots surrounded him in a circle, thin lines cutting through the air to isolate a tiny temporary operating room. Immediately after, an antisepsis spray surged up and covered Bixing Lu. There wasn't enough time for him to use anesthesia, so the biochip entered his body without accepting any complaints, the violent pain making his knees weak.

The next second, familiar power diffused from his spine down his entire body, his knee strucking a dent in the floor.

Before Bixing Lu could stand up, he had already played the biochip's 'camouflage' and 'invisibility' features to their maximums -

All the people from the Self-Defense Force only felt a slight 'hum' sound in their brains. Then the houses and streets on one side suddenly disappeared in a sweep of white light, the roaches in the mech port transformed together, and the interstellar pirates - the Cayley Guard - had their logo in front of everyone's eyes. The oval heavy mechs seemed to be from the end of the world, lined up in front of them, their muzzles pointed at them, the sinister pirate logo seemingly roaring at them.

Bixing Lu, clenching his teeth, stood up and turned on the multimedia in the base. The screen turned on without a sound, convincing high-res images playing the video of the Cayley Guard blasting Beijing-β. Bixing Lu set the screen to its biggest - countless mechs, both light and heavy, streaked through the base's skies like a meteor shower, easily blocking out the energy tower's light. Half a minute after they arrived, raging missiles poured down like a heavy shower!