Chapter 37

The camouflage and invisibility function of the biochip had been used up to its maximization, all the surrounding backgrounds had been blurred, leaving only one enlarged giant screen whose effect of 360-degree stereoscopic image was so real that it formed an indistinguishable illusion -- as if the interstellar pirates and the Royal Guard of Prince Cayley whom people tried but were unable to avoid have already been close at sight with their bloody smell!

Even at the era of NSC, outer space was still an extremely dangerous environment for human. Having their heads on their belts*, the smugglers would be ready for any fatal consequences for having their freights on the channels -- not to mention facing the interstellar war directly ... Although their opponents would never deem that random encounter as a "war".

*an idiom that means in a extremely dangerous time or situation that one could die at any time

But for ordinary people who had not experienced professional trainings and had no Eden system as a powerful support, the trauma of being deprived of the mental network in a vacuum was no less than being killed once, and it would bring constant extreme fear and anxiety -- therefore the Self-Defense Force members had a mutiny immediately after returning from the air. Mania and rage were the ways people try to control their fear, allowing even the timid mice to reveal their fangs.

Now, this air raid scene was like the flame that lit the fuse, suddenly detonating those repressed fear and anxiety. The fiercest people among the procession were precisely the most traumatized people, most of whom collapsed on the spot, and began to panic and to run aimlessly in vain of trying to find a place to hide. However, the crowded buildings in the alleys were only visually "invisible", the entities were still there which did not disappear. The people who were running soon hit the unseen walls. Those who lost their minds had been unable to tell what were on their way. They began to scream again and again so madly, like beasts, and they slammed into the invisible walls repeatedly.

The strong emotions were often like a plague in the crowd, which spread out quickly. The angry crowd panicked, some held their heads up blankly, some shivered and sat on the ground, others began to shout out someone else's name, running as they stumbled in the direction from their memory, leading to a bump on the invisible walls, and then desperately clang up the wall seams ...

One of them, with a hoarse voice, was even shouting out "Mom!".

The video on the stereo screen was recorded from a road monitor that captured the missile landing process during the bombing of the Beijing β planet. The monitor was located near a remote harbor in the southern hemisphere, and that mainland was sparsely populated. So, in fact, the vast majority of the residents in Beijing β planet were just like Penny, who had not witnessed the process of themselves being swallowed into hell. They just disappeared silently in the inexplicable rejuvenation. Death was quick and calm, like logging out from a not so interesting holographic game.

This palm-sized base was so lucky that they have got the chance to appreciate this terrible doomsday picture.

The missile in the video fell on the ground, creating the inflated white light whose speed was far beyond the speed of sound. The light silently rolled in and engulfed the entire base. At the same time, under the use of the chip, the looming machine armor at the back, the road under people's feet and the distant buildings ... all disappeared. The figures of the people around were elongated, whose flesh were as if made by sands. When the wind blew, they were just scattered and left only a dismayed skeleton.

The screams almost alarmed the energy tower.

"Aaaah! Aaaah!"

The video ended in the final white light. The multimedia screen went dark, with lotus blooming picture on the standby screen. And then, after the scourge by the high-energy particle guns, the high-power protective nets and the multimedia, the energy system whined a few times, officially announcing its overload. Except the core energy of the mech station, all other places were out of power.

The whole base was in silence, people lost control of their faces and bodies, some were kneeling, others were still standing, but none could escape this abyss of nightmares.

Even had the experience of using biochips, Bixing Lu had not tried to affect so many people at the same time. His brain hurt like needles were poking it. He leaned towards the wall weakly.

Saturday gazed at him shockingly: "What ... what the heck was that?"

"Holographic horror movie." Bixing Lu put his thumb and index finger into the shape of a gun, playfully touched the forehead of Saturday. After he wiped the cold sweat from his own head and drank the soup that was left in the bowl, he told Saturday, "Just kidding, it is not a movie. That was the last piece of recording from the attack in Beijing β planet. The guardians at the track close to Earth uploaded it when they asked for assistance from the Union. I downloaded it from the supply station you abandoned."

Saturday was not fully recovered from the shock, he just nodded unconsciously. Legs driven by only instinct, he followed Bixing Lu out. After a while, he finally thought of something, and whispered lightly: "Why would you save this video?"

Lu did not answer. Saturday thought he did not hear him, but he was somehow afraid of Bixing Lu now, so he pressed the urge to ask again.

Until they made their way out of the mech station, seeing the procession of parade lying on the ground from a distance, Lu slowed down slightly, and suddenly brought up: "Because I lived in planet Beijing β."

Saturday raised his head.

"I have done some investment to get the long-term resident status on the planet Beijing β. I have been living there for the past years. I used the money to build a school, called Starry Sea Academy. The kids we got were all little assholes. They kicked the teachers all out on the first day of school. I had a lot of students in planet Beijing β, also many friends --" Bixing stared nowhere with a pokerface. The light from the energy tower was filtered by the atmosphere and hit his face softly. He seemed to zone out a bit, and then he shook his head, asking Saturday, "What, you think that I'm another interstellar hobo?"

Saturday did not know what to say -- he only heard about the munitions dealer named Monoeye Hawk among these people. Cow got his mechs from him. But what kind of arm dealer he was, where he lived, and why he was wandering in the universe ... Saturday had no idea about all these since he never traveled with Cow nor encountered with Monoeye Hawk.

He just took it for granted that Bixing Lu must be one of those homeless interstellar hobos who had never rooted in any of the natural ground on any planets. He was just one of them "picked" up by Cow.

Saturday opened his mouth like a robot: "What I said to you ... What I just said, in that working cell ... I ..."

Just now in the cell, he told Bixing Lu so casually that the smugglers in the underground channels at the time acknowledged the news from the outside, but they decided to keep it down and not to tell anyone.

Bixing looked over his shoulder: "Hmm, I know you did not mean it. You just climbed the window to deliver me breakfast."

Saturday did not know what to say.

Strangely enough, if a person was lively, cheerful and righteous, then when he and another person become friends, it would really be easy to share the hatred of his friends as his own hatred, and the pain of his friends as his own pain ... he seemed to be unaware that, not so long ago, this man for him, was still "none of his business".

"Since you know it now, please pay attention not to let that sneak out of your mouth in front of my students next time." Bixing Lu tried, but the power shut down just now would need longer to recover. The broken audio equipment in the base was totally down, so he cleared his throat and walked into the crowd.

"What you saw just now was an accident. I was trying to use my personal terminal to debug the multimedia, and unintentionally turned on the late Beijing Beta planet bombing scene done by the extraterritorial pirates." Bixing Lu said, "I know you are all scared, and I'm sorry for that. "

Except for some madman's vents, there was nothing but a dead silence in the stunned crowd of the Self-Defense Force. When there was suddenly a normal person's talking, everyone's attention was uncontrollably dragged to him.

A Self-Defense Force member who almost lost his sanity was experiencing a stress reaction. He was slamming the wall next to him, fists smashed into fleshes. With a speed too fast to see, Lu suddenly pinched his wrists. The biochips gave him more power than normal people. The self-abusing guy violently screamed and tried to get rid of him, but his pinched right hand did not move a single millimeter, just hanging there up in the air.

"Listen to me," Lu Bixing bent over and looked at his eyes, slowed down his pace, and repeated it one word at a time. "Listen, to, me."

The self-abusing guy widened his eyes. After a while, his pupils seemed to have been enlarged a bit as well, and he actually stopped in his voice as steady as a boulder.

"First of all, you already bought the mechs," said Bixing, "and if one thing cannot be stopped before it happens, it will be useless to say anything afterwards. Just look at your hangar and arms depots. You are all already militants, whether you admit it or not."

"Secondly, do not even think about blowing up the mech storeroom," Bixing Lu saw the dimming sanity coming back to the eyes of the self-abuser, so he let go of his control and slowly straightened his back. He continued, "Mechs are designed for wars, that is, even if you use the lasers for a whole day, nothing but a scrape of a layer of the paint would come off. Mechs require space-grade weapons to destroy, which will also lead to a huge energy fluctuation at the moment of destruction. And the wreckage will never be able to dispose by any kind of manpower. If you try to destroy the mechs in this base all at the same time, the energy of the explosion will be like an invitation for all the star pirates in Eighth Galaxy to join a delicious dinner party."

"And lastly, go and get your head filled with some modern history," Bixing Lu looked around at the crowd. Those faces, regardless of the gender and age, could all be simply described as ugly, on which all those tears and ignorance were shown. "The reason why Prince Cayley's Guards were kicked out of the Eighth Galaxy by the Alliance was simply because they ignored the underground channels. Ares Von is crazy, but he is not a fool. He won't make the same mistake twice. After he completely occupies the Eighth Galaxy, he will definitely clean up the underground channels inside and outside the galaxy thoroughly. So all you 'militant' fellows, the day you will be discovered is not far anymore."

At the foot of Lu Bixing, a big man with a bearded face was making a slashing motion at his neck and shoulders, with one hand clasped the pendant on his neck tightly. After hearing his words, this big man sobbed in a "squeaky" sound like the conch. Bixing Lu kindly patted his back: "At that time, you will die again as you have just done."

His remarks only created more silence. A moment later, some people slowly climbed their bodies up.

"I still have one last word," Lu spoke out to them, "If you don't want to die like this, then put on your Self-Defense uniform, and come to me at the mech stop tomorrow, roger that? "

No one answered, no one answered him, no one was clamoring for Cow to settle the accounts, and no one was ever gonna laugh at him anymore -- the people stood up first were with a numb face. It might be that they just accepted the destined fate, or their hearts were already dead.

They leaned on the wall and walked away one by one.

The big man who cried like a sea snail also tried to climb up, but his legs were so soft, and he fell back to the ground. He cleaned up his nose and felt even more wronged. He held onto the pendant over his neck and called out "mom". Bixing Lu looked at him: "Just now, did you call that 'mom'?"

This wronged sea snail was then shy and indignant, sobbing was the only thing he could do.

Lu Bixing tentatively unfolded his hands, holding the pendant and saw a crystal bottle of about eight centimeters hanging on the neck of this mister with a savage look. The crystal bottle was not small but hanging on the neck of this man, it looked like a cute clavicle chain.

Lu Bixing wiped away the water vapor and saw some gray crumbs in the crystal bottle. He froze, hurriedly and respectfully put it back in place with both hands, and greeted the crystal bottle: "Hello auntie – What's your name, buddy?"

"My name is ... My name is ... Ugh ..."

"He's Holiday'," Saturday interrupted, "He was picked up back on one Sunday, and was originally called 'Sunday', but then everyone felt like they were swearing, so they changed it into this."

*Sunday in Chinese is zhōurì, which sounds like the swear word "zhaori" that means "are you begging for a fuck?"

Lu: "..."

Compared to the league's parliaments whose names normally took three lines to write, people here in the Eighth Galaxy named themselves so casually that it was somewhat creepy.

Holiday sobbed a tear: "I am not a mama's boy, I am just ... ugh ... I suddenly miss her. My mom used to trade goods outside the planet domain and made a lot of money ... ugh ... was robbed by pirates. She was driving a merchant ship camouflaged in a mech, and she hid me in a rescue cabin and sent me back to the base, I ... um ... I didn't even have a bone of hers, this was the rabbit she raised ..."

Having called a rabbit as "auntie", Lu was speechless for a moment. He soon digested this horrible fact though.

He pulled up his trousers, stretching his legs and sitting on the ground. Suddenly he said, "I miss my mom, too. I'm even worse than you, I have never seen her in person. There was only a couple of images and videos ... they were recorded from the day of her pregnancy. Sometimes one per day, sometimes several of them a day. She might be a teacher, because she seemed pretty idle, and probably had no money. Every single day she would complain about how students don't know how to use their brains, so much worse than the AI ... My dad did not want to tell me much, so I secretly checked the institutions in the Eighth Galaxy, and I did not find her. It might be some unregistered and illegal private school or something. "

Holiday sat on the ground like a bear, he gave him a wailing: "How did she die?"

"My family got some enemies and was hunted down, that's what my dad said. I was cut out straight out from her belly." Lu said," It is said that she was still holding her stomach after her death, I ..."

He did not finish this sentence, because from not far away suddenly came the roar of Monoeye Hawk: "Bixing Lu! You son of a bitch!"

"Oh shit!" Bixing pondered, the excuse of "playing the wrong video" could only fool the gang of these illiterate people. His dad who did the arm deals knew about the chips.

But before he could turn back, Bixing Lu was pulled up by the back of his neck and his collar choked his neck hard. Jingheng was pale, even his lips faded in color. His palm was already up in the air.

Bixing Lu heard his knuckles cracking and was gonna scurry. But halfway there, he suddenly realized that he was now unbreakable like a diamond, so he put his arms back and tried hard to play innocent, winking at Jingheng: "Well you know ..."

Monoeye Hawk just scolded him as a "son of a bitch". But seeing this, he immediately turned the muzzle: "Lin, what the heck are you doing? I dare you!"

Jingheng squeezed out a few words from his teeth: "So you knew ..."

You knew that she was being chased all the way, struggling in the cracks and trying to protect you from the danger while she was dying.

You knew that your life was taken back from Death's hands.

But he could say none of them.

It was his own decision to let the past get rotten in the database of Zhanlu, and he would never say a word of it to that person.

Jingheng slowly put down his hands, letting Monoeye Hawk sprint close and push him away.

For a moment, Bixing saw his hands were shaking. There was a squeaky sound in his heart, and before he could react, his hands already reached out for Jingheng Lin.

Jingheng Lin flashed off on one side, didn't look at him. He nodded to Zhanlu who rushed here.

Zhanlu involuntary locked Bixing Lu's elbows: "Principal Lu, the medical equipment is ready, please come with me."

Bixing Lu's eyes were still chasing at the back of Jingheng. He tried to get rid of him: "Hey, wait ... "

Zhanlu earnestly said: "As an artificial intelligence with a mechatronic core, my body uses special deformable materials. Each gram costs 6 million First Galactic Alliance coin."

Lu immediately raised his hands and froze. He dared not even breathe hard, lest the uncontrollable strength sprayed on Zhanlu and tore one hair out of him.

Zhanlu did not ask for any help, and quickly removed the biological chips on Bixing. The artificial intelligence held the chip with blood with a pallet and showed it in front of Bixing's exhausted eyes, saying in a serious tone: "You had fully acknowledged the harmfulness and addiction of the 'opium chip', but still tried this the second time. After my assessment, your behavior has reached the level of primary dependence. In accordance with the league policing management, your behavior will be monitored in the future."

Bixing Lu: "Wait, I ... "

Zhanlu picked up the chip in front of him, with a sharp sound, the chip was scorched, and a wisp of small white smoke appeared. "After my examination, your brain nerves have been overused. In order to prevent migraines, anxiety and a series of adverse sequelae, I need to give you one shot of soothing agent."

With that and no waiting for response from Bixing, a thin needle poked him in the neck. Bixing didn't even had a chance to react. Suddenly, everything blacked out and he did not feel a thing anymore.

When he woke up, one day had already passed. And the countdown of the base for three months went one step further.

Bixing got up and sneaked out, only to discover that Monoeye Hawk was guarding in the living room. He was sleeping on the sofa with loud snore. Bixing gently closed the bedroom door and climbed out of the window. He wanted to find Jingheng -- he wanted Jingheng to finish the slap he didn't give, otherwise he would always dream about that trembling hand.

However, Jingheng Lin had already compiled the repair plan for the Heavy Mech No. 3 and started the automatic repair process. He left with Zhanlu.

He needed to draw the military map of the underground channel as soon as possible.

Bixing Lu had no choice but to turn around and walk to the mech station.

However, apart from four silly students who had given blank papers, he did not see anyone else.

Eighty-nine days away from the day the base would be finished. But judging by what people have done here, he thought that this base was already done for.