Chapter 212: Closing the Net

At the moment the base's gate slowly closed, in the direction he and Yakor had looked at earlier, countless mechanical life flying units came flying like dark clouds. Wherever they passed, the sunlight was blocked, and the earth fell into darkness.

However, within the darkness there was also light, that was the light produced when the ground's android anti-air units counterattacked as they flew over.

Under the sky-filling beams of light, plasma spheres, and dense missile attacks, countless mechanical life forms fell like raindrops.

Although the number of mechanical life was terrifyingly large, they were still decreasing at a rate visible to the naked eye.

When the mechanical life forms finally managed to break through the outer firepower net, they entered the city's internal anti-air weapon range, and even denser firepower rained down on them like a deluge.

However, Adam and Eve, who were commanding them, didn't care at all about their survival. Under their orders, the remaining mechanical life clustered together and directly dove toward the ground.

"Androids, prepare to engage the enemy."

On the ground, White put on her helmet and gave the order to engage. Then she shouted again, "For the Commander!"

The already fully prepared androids immediately shouted in unison, "For the Commander!"

Then they charged at the mechanical life forms that landed on the ground.

This was a pure battle. The mechanical life attacked from all directions, and the androids also counterattacked from all directions. The entire Hope City was filled with battles, and every second a large number of mechanical life forms or androids fell.

In the camp of mechanical life, Adam and Eve didn't act. They, under the protection of mechanical life, closely watched the situation on the battlefield.

Suddenly, they heard an android shouting, "B111 Squad, all members, go support Area A! Mechanical life is attacking our Commander's residence!"

Adam keenly spotted the android who shouted amidst the chaos, and immediately said to Eve beside him, "You take the main force and focus the attack on Area A. Just follow that support squad."

Eve nodded, and took the mechanical life with him to follow. But before leaving, he turned back and said to his brother, "Brother, be careful."

"Don't worry, my brother. After this battle is over, we will be real humans." Adam waved his hand casually, then took the remaining mechanical life with him to go look for the android command center.

But what they didn't know was, in a building across from them, White was closely observing their every move. After all, their appearance was too eye-catching among the mechanical life.

Of course, if placed in the android camp, they were equally eye-catching, because in the entire city, besides Commander Aiden, there wasn't a single male.

"The big fish is hooked." White's lips curled up in a smile. She said to the android beside her, "Notify the androids near Area A to all go support Area A. Create the illusion that we are focusing defense there."

"Yes, Commander."

———

Normally, a military command center is very easy to locate, just look for where there are the most signal towers.

And Adam did exactly that. Under White's deliberate arrangement, without encountering much resistance, he quickly found the android command center. The reason he was so sure was because in the whole area, only that place had more androids and heavier defenses.

"It all depends on this." Seeing the command center, Adam remembered a phrase he read in a book. Then he waved his hand, and the mechanical life beside him launched a fierce assault on the command center.

The androids didn't resist for long. Under the mechanical life's intense assault, they soon withdrew from the command center. Although this scene made Adam a bit suspicious, the situation was urgent and he didn't have time to think much.

Smoothly entering the android command center, Adam arrived at the room housing the control system. Then he took out a bunch of components and assembled a small mechanical life server on the spot.

In theory, as long as there was a mechanical life server, the two brothers and N2 could teleport at will. But because the androids had cleared out all nearby servers, they could only carry a small server to pinpoint coordinates for N2.

After all, N2 had no physical form.

However, N2 had once appeared inside the androids' bunker base. That was because 9S had left a backdoor there, which she discovered, so she could come and go in the bunker at will, triggering that whole chain of events in the game plot.

Not long after the small server was powered on, N2's figure appeared in the room. It looked somewhat blurry, obviously because the server had just been set up and the signal wasn't stable.

But as time passed, N2's figure became more and more solid, proving they had fully transmitted their network consciousness here.

"Begin." N2 had no physical body, so could not perform physical operations. They looked at Adam and spoke in unison.

Adam nodded, walked to the control system, and began to operate. Very soon, he implanted a decryption program into the control system.

Sensing a vulnerability in the control system, N2 instantly transformed into a stream of digital light and entered the control system.

And at the moment they entered, the entire room sounded a shrill alarm, and bright red warning lights kept flashing.

At first, he thought this was a normal reaction to N2 invading the system. But as the sound of gunfire outside the room intensified, he gradually furrowed his brows.

"What's going on?" He muttered in confusion.

At this moment, a voice from outside the room answered his doubt, "The big fish has been caught. Time to close the net."

Adam was shocked. He quickly looked outside, and saw a tall android walking over surrounded by many YoRHa androids.

"We've been waiting for you for a long time." White looked at Adam and said in a calm tone.

"So, this is a trap?" Adam turned back and looked at the control system. It had been quite a while, yet the androids still showed no change, clearly the logic virus N2 planted hadn't taken effect.

"Yes. A trap specially prepared for you by our Commander." White answered his question.

"Humans truly are a great race. Even though their computing power isn't as good as ours, they can use strategy. Although the Commander always says this isn't strategy, just a despicable trick, in my opinion, this is the greatness of humanity."

"Humans are indeed amazing." After hearing White's words, Adam muttered. For a moment, he yearned even more to become human.

But he also knew that in the current situation, they had no chance of winning. Even if he died now, maybe he could resurrect in the mechanical life network, but seeing N2 hadn't returned from the control system, he guessed she was probably doomed too.

They had lost. Completely.

"Lost, utterly lost… but so unwilling. There was clearly a chance."

After being silent for a moment, Adam suddenly let out a relieved laugh. Looking at the androids surrounding him, he slowly loosened his clenched fists, he decided not to resist anymore.

He understood that now any resistance was pointless. Even if he and his brother escaped, the android forces were unaffected, and they had lost N2's help. Continuing to resist would be entirely futile.

Then, he thought for a while, and started muttering to himself, "I've read human records, saying a person's life goes through many stages, birth, growth, illness, marriage, children, aging, and death, etc. Unfortunately, mechanical life cannot get sick, nor grow old, nor marry or have children. Although I've experienced birth, I still feel it's a pity. There are so many things I haven't experienced."

Hearing Adam's rambling, the androids were completely puzzled. They didn't know what he was trying to express. But they still slowly tightened the encirclement and aimed their weapons at him.

Adam had no reaction to the androids' movements, as if he hadn't seen them. He continued muttering, "However, even if I die, I can revive in the network. But if I actively sever the connection to the network… maybe I can truly die. That's good. At least, I can experience one more human thing."

He rambled on, and his body slowly moved toward White.

Seeing this, the surrounding androids immediately took action. Several long blades instantly pierced his body.

"What a pity. I don't have pain perception. Otherwise, I should be screaming now, right? How should I scream?"

Adam looked down at his wounds and continued, "But, I can feel life slipping away. My body is weakening. So this… is the feeling of dying?"

By this point, Adam could no longer stand. He slowly knelt on the ground, lifting his head with effort to look at White in front of him.

"Have you ever thought about becoming a real human?" He asked weakly.

White looked at him. After a while, she nodded, "I've thought about it, but only after meeting the Commander."

Saying this, White suddenly had a lot she wanted to say. She glanced at the androids beside her, then closed her mouth. She didn't say the reason why she wanted to become human.

But Adam seemed to see through her thoughts, and smiled, "I know what you're thinking. Even though it's impossible… still, I wish you the best."

White frowned as she looked at him, saying nothing. She seemed to be pondering something. After a while, she relaxed and smiled, "Thank you."

By now Adam's body was growing weaker and weaker. After all, mechanical life carried the word "life." And the core of mechanical life had plant-like characteristics, when weak, they weren't much different from organisms. Hearing White's words, he also smiled. Then he slowly closed his eyes and murmured, "So this is what death feels like…"

After saying this, Adam completely died. Only after the surrounding androids could no longer detect his signal response did they lower their weapons.

"Report to the Commander, we've taken down Adam and captured N2." White looked away from Adam's body and spoke to the communications-type android beside her.

"Understood."

At the same time, in the city's Area A, Eve, who had been leading a fierce attack, suddenly clutched his chest and knelt to the ground. He had sensed Adam's death.

"Why… Brother, why did you leave me?" Eve pounded the ground in anger. In an instant, a strange black mark appeared on his chest and began spreading rapidly across his whole body.

If Yakor were here, she would definitely recognize that the symbol on Eve's chest resembled the one from the Angel Church in that world she had once visited.

Although Yakor did not see Eve's change, she, who was with Aiden in the underground base, suddenly looked up in the direction where Eve was.

"Magic essence… Good, it's only affected by magic essence. That guy hasn't come." After sensing for a while with her eyes closed, Yakor let out a breath of relief. As long as that guy hadn't arrived in this world, Aiden would be safe.

At this moment, a communication-type android guarding the room suddenly spoke, "Commander, the General reports they have captured N2."

Aiden, who was playing a game specially made for him by the androids, immediately tossed aside the handheld console, stood up, and said, "Let's go take a look."

———

Coming out of the underground base, Aiden saw that the androids had already begun cleaning up the battlefield.

This battle had ended surprisingly quickly. But the main reason was that, without Adam, Eve, and N2's command, the mechanical life, who had no thinking ability, were nothing but mobs in front of androids whose numbers weren't inferior.

"What's our loss like? It shouldn't be much, right?" On the way to the command center, Aiden asked the person beside him.

"Other than the city being seriously damaged and the need to re-activate a batch of new bodies, there were basically no other losses." It was 2B who responded, looking at the information projected by the pod.

"That's good." Aiden nodded. The city could be rebuilt if destroyed. New bodies could be made. Those weren't big deals.

While chatting and walking, they soon arrived at the command center.

At this moment, White was inside, directing subordinates to clean up the mechanical life corpses. Seeing Aiden enter, she immediately stepped forward and said, "Commander, you're here."

Aiden nodded and asked, "N2?"

White pointed at the duplicated control system, "She's in here. Commander, do you want to see her? I can project her before you."

N2 was also a twin-type, so she used "they" when referring to her.

"Just eliminate her." Aiden casually waved his hand, then asked again, "That should be possible, right?"

"After all, it's just a pile of data. Without support from the mechanical life network and servers, killing her is still very easy." White thought for a moment and replied.

"Then I can rest easy." Aiden looked at the control system, showing a smile.

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