“Intruder” and Mechanical Girl

Disappointment? Maybe…

The scene before Anna was vastly different from any possibility she had imagined. She had thought this would be an adventure story of "storming the demon castle," like many adventure stories she had read since childhood – heroes and companions overcoming various hardships, reaching the depths of the lair of evil, and defeating the mastermind behind it all.

Then she would be able to stomp on him, demanding why he did this, why he desecrated life and harmed humanity?

But now, all the events had unfolded almost exactly as in those stories – overcoming numerous difficulties and making new companions. Yet, when they reached the end, what was presented before them was just another "tool" that couldn't help itself.

There were no answers she sought here…

Lin Wei comfortingly patted Anna's back gently, then stepped past her again, taking the lead. He raised his hiking stick and pushed aside the dense "spiderwebs" in front of him, carving a path forward as if parting waves, slowly walking towards the "cocoon" in the very center.

Anna snapped out of it and quickly followed. No matter what, she had to get closer and see with her own eyes to be convinced.

They proceeded without incident. The "spiderwebs" didn't turn into deadly traps. Lin Wei had expected this, not worried at all, because they simply didn't have that capability.

They were just exposed biomass nerves, only functioning to transmit bioelectrical signals and neurotransmitters.

Lin Wei walked and observed, his eyes even showing some admiration. This was truly an imaginative and ingenious design.

Countless nerve tissues were woven into a net here. The tens of thousands of red and green signal lights strung on those lines, constantly flashing, were like signal encoders, converting complex and subtle bioelectrical signals into simple binary code, and then inputting them into the "central processing unit" for analysis and decision-making, thus forming an incredibly complex, biomass-based, large-scale computer.

"If you imagine this entire base as a complete human body, then this place is the brain."

Lin Wei muttered to himself. Anna, hearing this from behind, felt her scalp tingle. The eerie image of "walking inside some terrifying monster's body" immediately surfaced in her mind, making her shiver and subconsciously move a little closer to Lin Wei.

Lin Wei had basically understood the operating principle here. This massive bio-computer monitored and controlled everything in this base, including the Armaments and Deadman.

"But doing this, the cost is obviously going to be very, very high, and the efficiency isn't necessarily any better. So why would they go to such lengths?"

Lin Wei narrowed his eyes, looking at the loosely woven "cocoon" not far away.

Unless its design purpose, from the beginning to the end, was to defend against his Key of Erosion.

This wasn't hard to understand. Since it had clearly identified his existence, it was only natural that they would make some targeted arrangements.

But even if 99% of the system was replaced by a biomass network instead of an information network, the core "central processing unit," with its massive processing power, could never be replaced by a human brain. The core part must still be a high-performance computer.

Lin Wei had tried to erode it at the door just now, but there was no reaction. As they got closer to the "cocoon," Lin Wei gradually smelled the odor of burning flesh.

"Lin Wei, her life signs are weakening!"

Anna called out urgently from behind. The light spot on the life detector was visibly shrinking.

Heh, as expected, self-destruction.

Lin Wei seized the time, his hands moving quickly, forcefully pushing aside the obstructive neural network, accelerating towards the center. Some signal lights, dislodged in the process, quietly fell to the ground, extinguishing silently.

Soon, the two reached the side of the "cocoon," slightly disheveled. Through the gaps in the loosely woven "cocoon threads," they could see that it was indeed a human girl. Her eyes, torso, and limbs were wrapped in a layer of metal casing. Her half-exposed face was morbidly pale, as if she hadn't seen sunlight for a long time. Her whole body maintained a fixed, awkward posture, completely still.

"Are you… alright?"

Anna's heart softened, and she couldn't help but ask, hoping for a response.

The "girl's" fingers, encased in metal armor, twitched, seeming to want to move. Then, a spark burst out from her joints with a "crackling" sound, and she completely slumped down.

"biological cyborg, at least half of her brain area has been removed, and a quantum computing engine is built into the empty space. Calling her 'human' now is less accurate than calling her a 'humanoid machine'."

Lin Wei did a quick check, his expression turning somewhat grim. World Serpent's methods were too ruthless.

"She's already self-destructed – excessive voltage overload, burning out all the circuits and chips. There's no possibility of repair or data retrieval. The half that's still preserved as a biological body is now also on the verge of death."

"Then what to do… Lin Wei, you're so smart, is there a way to save her?"

Anna covered her mouth, feeling a pang of pity.

"Otherwise, the clues will be lost!"

Listening to Lin Wei's explanation, she already couldn't bring herself to hate the mechanical girl before her, because she was clearly just another victim.

Lin Wei's eyes flickered as he stared at the dying humanoid machine. He really wanted to say "no."

But glancing back at Anna's worried face, he swallowed it back down.

After all, he did have a way…

Lin Wei hesitated slightly, finally sighing.

They treat me with sincerity, and I should treat others with sincerity.

Anna's sincerity throughout this journey… if he were to lie and deceive her again, his conscience wouldn't be clear.

As for the consequences…

Heh, it wasn't like this was the first time he'd been willful!

Lin Wei chuckled self-deprecatingly. In the end, he was still an emotional person… Lin Wei, ah, Lin Wei, you're going to learn a harsh lesson someday!

But so what? If even his own thoughts weren't clear and free, then what right did he have to coldly mock the hypocrisy and sanctimony of this world?

"Anna, can I trust you?"

Sighing again, Lin Wei made up his mind, then suddenly asked.

"Huh… ah?"

Anna wondered if she had misheard him. What do you mean by that?

"Can I trust you, Anna?"

Lin Wei turned around, looking directly into Anna's eyes, asking seriously.

"…Of course you can! What kind of person do you take me for?"

Anna felt a sudden surge of grievance in her heart. Looking at Lin Wei's serious expression, she felt a moment of panic, which then turned into even more grievance.

"Okay, then, what you are about to see, don't tell anyone… just treat it as a secret between you and me…"

"Who wants your secrets? I won't look! I won't listen!"

Before Lin Wei could finish speaking, Anna turned around like lightning, walked away a few steps, covered her ears with her hands, and shook her head repeatedly, her back to Lin Wei.

Lin Wei was taken aback, then smiled. That works too.

Then he took a deep breath, his hand reaching out into the air as if grasping something. In an instant, a black lance appeared out of thin air.

"Projection · Sixth Divine Key · Black Abyss White Flower!"

With force in his arm, the thick lance pierced through the fragile "cocoon," pointing directly at the dying mechanical girl. As a bright red light flared behind Lin Wei, a phantom black flower appeared at the tip of the lance, blooming and closing, merging into the mechanical girl's body.

Anna, not far away, felt an incredibly vast power suddenly erupt behind her, making her heart skip a beat in an instant. It felt like a lurking beast suddenly burst forth, pouncing fiercely towards her!

However, that power came quickly and went quickly. Before Anna could react, it had already disappeared.

Anxious about Lin Wei's safety, Anna suddenly snapped back to her senses, only to see Lin Wei slumped on the ground, supporting himself with his hiking stick, panting heavily, drenched in sweat.

"Are you alright? What did you just do?"

Anna rushed back to Lin Wei's side, relieved to see that he was just exhausted.

At this point, she had also understood that the change just now must be related to Lin Wei. Although she was curious about what it was, she decided not to think about it, not to ask. She carefully raised her hand to wipe the sweat from Lin Wei's forehead, asking with concern about another question she cared about more.

"Was that thing just now… dangerous?"

Lin Wei looked up, met her worried gaze, smiled and said,

"Don't worry, I can control it… and, it won't let me be controlled by anyone."

Anna wanted to ask more, but looking at Lin Wei's sincere eyes, which didn't seem to be feigning, she finally relented and chose to believe him.

"Then she…"

Anna pointed in the direction of the "cocoon," which had already returned to its original state, the hole pierced by the lance now gone.

"She should wake up in a little while. But as for how much she'll remember when she wakes up, I can't guarantee that."

Lin Wei coldly laughed in his heart. Did they think they could stop me with biological technology? Did they think mechanical self-destruction would leave me helpless?

I'll lift the coffin lid for you!

The power of creation that could repair biological cells at the genetic level was simply overkill to use only for repairing some dysfunctional tissues at the cellular level.

But… the consumption was really too great!

Lin Wei complained inwardly while also marveling at that Principal Otto he had never met – when this guy was still a kid, having just obtained the Void Archives, he actually thought about using "Mimicry · Black Abyss White Flower" at "Zero-rated power output" to revive Kallen's dad, who had already been burned to a crisp. What brave kid behavior was that!

Luckily, he was stopped by Kallen…

Wait, no, Kallen, why did you stop him?

Ask and ye shall receive, how great would that have been!

"Mmm…"

Soon, a soft groan came from the direction of the "cocoon."

Lin Wei and Anna looked towards the sound and saw the slumped girl, heavily bound, slowly raising her head. They could clearly see her eyes, encased in a metal eye mask.

"Ah, self-destruct failed?"

The girl muttered to herself in an emotionless voice.

"Visual system damage confirmed… computer cannot boot… auxiliary system connection failed… physical functions cannot be assessed, but… feeling good…"

The language uttered by the girl was clear and detached, as if a smart machine was performing a system self-check, only slightly stuttering at the end.

Even though she was clearly a person, she really felt like a machine. This somewhat unsettling feeling made Anna a little uncomfortable.

"Can you hear us?"

Anna wanted to try to talk to her, also wanting not to scare her, so she kept her voice very soft.

"Auditory system is fine…"

The girl paused slightly, assessed herself again, then tilted her head slightly, towards the direction of the voice, aiming her cold metal mask at Anna, her tone even colder and more detached.

"Intruder, congratulations on arriving here. Unfortunately, I cannot see your face."

"You!"

Anna was quite irritated by this cold attitude, thinking that she shouldn't have felt sympathy for her! She simply started the interrogation directly.

"Those things outside, were they all your doing?"

"If by 'those things' you mean maintaining the normal operation of the base and resisting intruders like you, then I believe, yes."

The girl continued to answer indifferently.

"And I regret to inform you that all valuable data here has been destroyed. Your trip is destined to be fruitless… ugh…"

Before she could finish speaking, she suddenly convulsed in pain without warning.

"Thought she was a heartless machine, turns out she knows pain after all? Tch, so-so."

Anna was already fuming with anger, but seeing this sudden change, she couldn't help but look back. She saw Lin Wei, still sitting on the ground, retracting his arm. Just now, he had casually cut off a nerve, chuckling while winking at Anna.

"Continue."

The girl turned her face slightly in Lin Wei's direction, as if this action could actually allow her to see him, then returned to her original position, continuing to narrate in a detached and emotionless tone.

"If you intend to use torture to force a confession, I suggest you save some effort. The database is confirmed damaged and cannot be repaired. I cannot provide any valuable information in my current state. Therefore, for the sake of saving each other's time, choosing to kill me now would be a more efficient action."

Anna was speechless with anger. She had never seen someone so infuriatingly serious!

Lin Wei, watching from the sidelines, even found it a bit amusing. World Serpent's humanoid machines were more interesting than the last.

Anna calmed herself down, and a flash of inspiration struck her, as if she had caught a loophole. She asked,

"You just said 'kill' you, not 'destroy' you, right?"

"I do not believe that quibbling over words will be of any real help to our conversation."

The humanoid machine girl remained expressionless.

"Only living beings would use kill and be killed to describe it."

Anna didn't give up, patiently continuing to press,

"What exactly are you? Human? Or machine? Or some other unhuman thing? Surely you don't need to retrieve data from the database for this, right?"

Lin Wei sat cross-legged on the ground, giving Anna a thumbs up in his mind, and continued to watch from the sidelines.

The humanoid machine girl was startled, as if stung by the word "machine." She paused for two seconds of silence, then continued to speak coldly,

"Yes, I am just a machine. A machine that executes its master's orders, guarding the home for its master."

"Who is your master?!"

Anna finally couldn't hold back and directly pressed her question.