Chapter 12

"What's wrong?" B4 turned off the hot water, "Zhanlu, report the malfunction."

"Zhanlu's mech was severely damaged...30%...60%...80%...warning, damage continuing..."

B4 grasped his cold wrist. Suddenly, Zhanlu opened his green eyes: "Sir, I lost the connection with my mech."

For a moment, B4's pupils shrank intensely, however, soon he hid it with his eyelash down, getting the hot water from Zhanlu. He poured some water out and threw a teabag in , sitting behind the table.

A peaceful fragrance rose, the sky of Beijing-ß was extremely blue.

"An unexpected event." B4 reached out to wipe the dripping water then twisted his fingers. He was still calm, speaking in a speed which was even slower than usual, "No need to panic. Let's guess what happened first----your body was in the basement of the Silver Fortress. They would not display it."

"My mech's defense system is the superlative degree of the IU. It can withstand all the frontal attack from any massive weapons. According to the damage speed, it suffered from continuous attack of massive weapon....It is possible that there was more than one super-space massive mech." Zhanlu tried to connect to the mech far away at the Silver Fortress which shared the same name as his, but he failed for several times. He stretched himself in discomfort as if he was rusted, rolling every joint of his body. "Sorry, Sir. I feel weird, like my important organ was cut off."

"..." B4 kept the silence for a weird second, "Zhanlu, don't talk to others in this way."

"Everything you say, Sir." Zhanlu said, "Therefore, my mech in the basement of the Silver Fortress is seriously attacked."

And the Silver Fortress must be attacked to death as well.

B4 leaned back. "The location of the Silver Fortress is very subtle, located at the interstellar junction of the First and the Second Galaxy. Not only it had a lot of connections with both two galaxies, but it is also surrounded by the eight galaxy lanes and three military fortress. No one could break in when it raises its defense up, not even a fly. Directly breaking in and transferring large-scale massive mechs are both impossible."

Zhanlu's faced his palm up, showing a 3D galaxy lane map floating above the table. The eight lane out of the Silver Fortress confused people, while seventy-six customs passes were in the network everywhere. Besides, there were Berlain, Tiny Hummingbird and Changbai Mountains — three military fortresses that surrounded the Silver Fortress like three satellites.

"The First Squadron was left on the merchant airship on the lane. They should have sent a message to us if there was anything wrong." His grey eyes reflected the whole galaxy map which was exactly like the virtual one. He said, "The defense system and armament was arranged by myself personally. Including six standby energy systems, and the armed armaments can blast the whole First Galaxy like a meteor shower. They can never lose like this, even if they appoint a donkey to be the Commodore of the Silver Fortress."

Zhanlu added. "The one who took over your place is Ares Lee."

B4 – Lin – Jingheng Lin who took off his military uniform and never mentioned his real name paused for a second. "It was no big difference from appointing a donkey."

Zhanlu said, "You mean the chief executive, the Commodore Lee, betrayed and turned off the defensive system of the Silver Fortress on purpose?"

"Probably him, it can also be the ones that have higher rank." He played with the teacup in hand, smiling coldly, "They started civil war all by their own before I do anything to them – Zhanlu, try to connect with the First Squadron, tell them to play it by ear, use the civilian lane and go over the Hummingbird Fortress while retreating,."

Zhanlu always executed first and doubted it later in treating his orders. Sending the message quickly, Zhanlu then said plainly, "Commodore Ylev in the Hummingbird Fortress is your friend. Sir, do you suspect that he already betrayed the IU?"

"First of all, it takes at least thousands of mechs to blast the Silver Fortress into ruins. Massive mechs of that number can't fly in the sky altogether like some kind of party, or everyone on the nearby planet can notice them with their naked eyes. Therefore they can't drive all the mechs into the First Galaxy at once, no matter if they are from outer space or the Heart of Rose. The process of delivering weapons has to be a long period with departed groups and is highly confidential, so they need to have a place not far from the Silver Fortress to contain all the massive mechs. The Hummingbird Fortress has a perfect position and revolution orbit." Jingheng paused, "Secondly, Ylev of the Hummingbird Fortress is not my friend. Do I take everyone as my friend? Ylev is Xin Lu's former subordinate, which a lot of people didn't know because he hid the truth well, so that he got the time to strengthen himself. He kept his nose clean all these years. First, it's because that I forced him with my power and second, he didn't want to fall out with me wholly for my tutor's sake. He's a wolf I chained beside my bed, hating me but didn't bite me due to old feelings."

Hearing the subtle relationships between humans, Zhanlu who broke down just now felt that his CPU was over-heating. He asked after a long while, "Sir, why would you chain a wolf beside your bed?"

Jingheng didn't answer as usual, just simply gave orders. "Keep spying. Call the Ninth Squadron back from outer space and see me at the edge of the Eighth Galaxy."

Zhanlu stood at attention, just then Penny called in.

Jingheng raised his eyebrow, suggesting Zhanlu to answer it.

Zhanlu got on the phone immediately, imitating Jingheng's voice vividly. "What's the matter?"

"B4," Penny lowed her voice, "Someone intends to see you, saying that they come from outer space. They think you are very interested in a biological chip...What chip? Do you know anything about this?"

Zhanlu looked up and met B4's eyes --

After the chip in the Spider's body was taken out, the man behind him would surely do something, but...why now?

Starry Sea Academy still didn't hire any teacher after two and half a months, whereas the lab was ready and the teaching part worked smoothly. They even had a mech for tearing and playing. Everything was almost perfect.

Bixing dismissed the students, walking back to his own lab as usual.

It was a little different today because the lab was connected to Zhanlu who would usually wave at him through computer. The magical AI could use the experimental equipment in the lab as his body to assist President Lu and update the data to his master from time to time.

Yes, this plague of an AI was too damn intelligent, ensuring he could communicate with his sponsor without going out. Bixing hasn't seen Lin for three months.

The mysterious Lin, and his scientific products advanced the Eighth Galaxy at least a hundred years, both attracted Bixing the geek like a magnet. It was not like "missing you like being apart for three months when it was actually one day", but just wanting to talk to him whether he needed to or not. Though Lin was always indifferent and never responded evidently, which one had to observe carefully by microscope. But Bixing still thought that Lin could understand everything he would say.

It was not easy to find someone who doesn't regard him as a freak in the enormous Eighth Galaxy.

"Zhanlu?" Bixing sounded out. No one answered, which implied Zhanlu was not there.

Could an AI also be absent for no reason?

Biixng murmured, messing his hair while no one was looking at him at the moment. His neat hair was screwed up totally after just few seconds, drooping up and down, in and out. Then he stretched himself indolently, thinking, "Fine. It feels more comfortable when there's just me."

He changed his clothes while reading through the report before. For several months, he and Zhanlu were about to figure out the biology chip which was like a rough Eden. The difference was that Eden was a network and an exchangeable platform while the chip was more like a vicious transmitting station. It radiated as the center, the more powerful, the bigger the radiation range was. When it started, it would invade a human's sense organ and intelligence systems around it without warning, just like a virus. The insertion method was exactly like Eden except that one couldn't communicate with the man or the robot in their range. The chip influenced people in the settled few ways which were pre-programmed in the chip. The man who wore the chip couldn't change everything arbitrarily.

The other incomprehensible problem is that...why could the chip make Spider an Achillean superman?

It didn't happen when they were trying to insert the chip into the rat.

Bixing checked the data of the rat, staring at the biological chip. A bad idea came up.

"Zhanlu, are you out there?" He asked again to the empty office.

There was still no answer.

Acting immediately after thinking of it, Bixing set the medical equipment quickly and disinfected himself nervously and excitedly. After presetting the program, he laid in the sterile cabin.

The medical system was remolded by Zhanlu, which was much more advanced than Bixing could ever imagine. It was prepared for accidents, and now it offered convenience for President Lu's human trial.

The little painless implanting operation was finished in a few seconds.

The death-seeking-lover President Lu wrote down his vital sign after the operation carefully, whistling a song named the Cat Killed by Curiosity. Then he started the chip.

What would happen?

His heart was attacked by a feeling of electric-shock feeling at once. Not on a torture level but enough to be bound for a second.

Then raised an unspoken pleasant sensation, inner codes of every machine around rushed into his eyes, and his own mind was connected with the chip.

It was like being in the middle of rough waves, and outer power invaded his brain. The connection had already driven him nuts. His accelerating heart rate alarmed the medical equipment, while a thought came up from nowhere — I'm almighty.

He paused, folding the solid metal handrail unconsciously.

Bixing lost all the superman thoughts when he looked at the curved handrail. "It's fucking expensive!"

At the moment, his ears suggested something to him. His sense organs seemed to connect to all the electric equipment in the building, including the monitoring system, exactly like a spider on its own web.

The spider heard the sound from the mech storeroom. A few damn students came in by lock picking!

"Just a ride. I've never left the atmosphere in my whole lifetime." It must be White the troublemaker, "On the orbit only. Not leaving Beijing-ß. We'll come back very quickly and our president wouldn't know anything about it."