Chapter 15: The Four Tablet Spirits

Fox... died?

A huge question mark appeared in Jiang Shu's mind, the fox he had caught just the day before yesterday was dead today, and it certainly wasn't through a normal judicial process.

Moreover, what he did couldn't be considered robbery, it should be classified as theft, and he didn't resort to any violent means—it definitely didn't warrant the death penalty.

"Hello?" Jiang Shu dialed Wolf's number, "Pick me up, will you? And, how did Fox die?"

"I'm on my way, about twenty minutes. We'll talk about Fox in the car," Wolf replied quickly, and then a roaring "buzz" resounded from the other end.

"You're driving a car for me! I'm not riding a motorcycle!" Jiang Shu shouted to stop him, but all he got in return was the "beep beep beep" of the call being disconnected.

"..."

Forget it, I might as well get washed up.

He dressed and walked into the bathroom to freshen up, and in his absence, the four tablets on his bedside table lit up on their own and then sprouted limbs.

A: (•︠ˍ•︡)

B: (*•.•*)?

C: (ง˙ω˙)ว

D: (･᷄ὢ･᷅)

Their screens displayed various emoticon faces, then they curiously observed each other.

Without verbal or written communication, they skillfully jumped down from the nightstand and stealthily maneuvered toward the bathroom, peeking out in order from tallest to shortest, barely revealing a tiny camera lens.

Then they quickly retracted the lens, and text appeared on their screens to communicate.

A: Is it him?

B C D: Yes, Master!

A: Who's going?

B C D: Alright, Master, you're the chosen one!

Then, amidst a face full of question marks—yes, a face full of question marks—three tablet spirits flung the fourth one, A, into the bathroom.

"?" The toothbrush stopped moving, Jiang Shu opened his mouth wide, looking down at the two-foot-tall tablet spirit with elongated legs.

A: I'm asking you, are you my master?

"Probably... should be... yes," Jiang Shu spit out the foam in his mouth. He quickly came to terms with the situation, telling himself it was just a little gadget like Xiao Ba and Xiao Wu, only this one communicated through text.

Tablet Spirit A turned around and waved at the three lenses peeking from the doorway.

A: Come out, my minions!

Then, four tablet spirits with different markings on their foreheads appeared before Jiang Shu.

A B C D: Bowed.heads.submissive.face.JPG.

"There's no time, follow me, we'll talk later," said Jiang Shu as he glanced at the time, quickly washed his face, and dashed out of the bathroom.

As he reached the stairs and looked back, the four tablet spirits were desperately trying to keep up, taking small steps with their ten-centimeter legs.

"Do you... not know how to levitate magnetically?" Jiang Shu wondered, even Xiao Ba and Xiao Wu could do this, and as an upgraded version, why couldn't they? Why were they walking? Are they prehistoric creatures or what?

Finally, little A scurried in front of Jiang Shu, wiping the sweat (from the screen) on its forehead, then hopped onto Jiang Shu's hand.

A: Open "Settings".

Jiang Shu complied.

A: Turn on "Flight Mode".

Jiang Shu subconsciously activated it, then watched little A leap into the air and float there.

"???"

Holy shit, Flight Mode!

With time pressing, Jiang Shu didn't say much. He turned on the other three's flight mode, then walked into the kitchen and put yesterday's leftover fried dumplings and porridge into the microwave.

Glancing at the clock, he saw that he still had a little over five minutes left. So Jiang Shu went upstairs, entered Liu Tingruo's room, and looked at the unidentifiable lump on the bed as well as the various strange machines and parts scattered around the room, and began tidying up.

Man, is this woman really just a hacker? These four things, they don't look like the work of a hacker, do they? More like something a technician like Kirie would make.

Right, where are those four things?

Turning his head, he saw the four Tablet Spirits hanging by the bed, using their flashlight-equipped cameras to scrutinize Sister Ruo on the bed.

Alpha: Definitely a woman (confirmed).

Beta: Press any key to enter the game.

Gamma: Press [F] to enter the tank.

Ding: Click the left mouse button to fire.

"..."

What the heck is all this! Are these really artificial intelligences created using my personality as a template?

Am I the idiot here?!

Jiang Shu silently grabbed them, one by the foot, and dragged them out of Sister Ruo's room.

"Stay close and follow," he instructed, raising his index finger and pointing fiercely at the four of them.

Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Ding: Obedient.JPG

However, on his way out of the villa, Jiang Shu had a thought. Since they had flashlights, wouldn't it be easy to cast a shadow beside himself and then effortlessly cut it in two with a single slice?

Plus, if he was a bit more discreet about it, he could blame the "Shadow Cutting" ability on Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Ding by just saying that it was a secretly developed laser-blade weapon.

Compared to a superpower, this explanation would be more readily accepted.

If he had the time, he planned to experiment with this a few more times to perfect the technique; he preferred thorough preparation to hasty improvisation.

Wolf called out from a distance, "Over here, over here," as he opened the passenger door of the car.

"Heading to the police station?" Jiang Shu asked, settling into the car and fastening his seat belt.

"Hmm..." Wolf hesitated for a moment before confirming, "You could say that."

"What happened to Fox?" Jiang Shu asked.

"Yesterday, the court in Seventh District passed its judgment on 'Fox.' Although he showed no violent tendencies, the amount involved in the case was huge, and the judge was from the Huang Kong Group faction, so he got fifteen years. Moreover, given his hypnosis technique, the court decided to transfer him to a special single-cell prison in Thirteen District," Wolf explained in detail.

"Faction? Judges have factions?" Jiang Shu was stunned; this Cyberpunk-infected Lonely City had once again shattered his worldview.

"Yes, you don't even..." Wolf paused and sighed with a smile, "Right, you're not even aware of Character Cards, much less this."

"Strictly speaking, Lonely City doesn't have a government," he continued. "However, there are various civil servants, which are employees from different Social departments, like judges for example."

"Their jobs are assigned and assessed by the Main Brain," Wolf said. "The Main Brain's assignments are void of emotional bias and purely select civil servants based on ability. There's no denying that public servants cultivated by the Three Major Groups are more outstanding."

"Isn't that... lawless?" Jiang Shu frowned. He knew the Three Major Groups virtually controlled all of Lonely City's lifelines, but controlling the judiciary seemed a bit too far.

"No, it's not that exaggerated. The inspectors from opposing groups won't miss any opportunity to suppress other factions," Wolf shook his head. "And if things really went that far, the Main Brain wouldn't just sit by and do nothing..."

"Unable to 'explain' the Role Cards well can lead to distortions; the higher the Gradient, the more so."

"Main Brain..."

Jiang Shu slowly repeated, yet again the Main Brain.

(Since this is a free chapter, I'll just publish it here.)

(For this book, whenever there's a "JPG" "GIF" or any indication that there's a picture, I will put the image in the chapter message. Some of these are expression packs of the Tablet Spirits, some are GIFs of Magic tricks that are hard to explain with Language alone, and some are explanatory images of obscure memes. So please, support the official release; the reading experience is so much better with the official version.)

(Also, some emojis might get censored due to mature content, so try to see them as early as possible; there's not much I can do if the image gets blocked later.)

(Therefore, I need to set a fixed update schedule before the paywall is up, starting from tomorrow, daily updates at 20:00, two chapters a day.)

(Writing is not easy, thank you for your support!)