by <unknown>
The other bandits realized what had happened and were embarrassed by their temporary bewilderment. What they were facing were merely two children less than ten years old who did not have any Cosmos Rings or magical equipment. Even Li Yao or Ding Lingdang, the strongest experts in the federation, must have been two piles of meat at the mercy of anybody at their age.
"Exactly. Come here, little ones. Your uncles will take good care of you. Hehehe!"
Drooling and cackling, the bandits pushed forward to Xiaoming and Wenwen, opening their claws.
"We are not scared. We only want you to 'order' us to kill all the human beings here." The two kids pouted. "It doesn't matter which of you gives us the order. Is no one here willing to help us? We will offer cake to whoever gives us the order!"
"Hahaha. You are still being pretentious on the verge of your death. What bold brats!"
Finally, one of the bandits laughed in amusement and said, "Fine. I will give you the order to kill everyone here. Come and amaze me. How are you two idiotic, immature brats going to do that?"
Black Triangle vaguely felt that it was inappropriate for his subordinate to say that, but it was already too late to stop him. He only saw that brilliance as glamorous as a supernova outbreak glowed inside the two kids' eyes. There were still smiles on their faces, but the smiles did not look like a human's at all. From their thin chests, voices as cold as a knell echoed. "Order accepted… Analyzing the mission… Upgrading permissions… Overriding restrictions… Beginning the battle!"
Hiu!
At that moment, Black Triangle vaguely felt that the brains of the two brats seemed to have become two of the most powerful command centers and signal bases. Overwhelming instructions flooded out of their eyes into his crystal suit, robbing him of all the control permissions of his crystal suit!
Before the unpardonable, inhuman bounty hunter realized what was going on, exclamations were already echoing around.
The beast puppets that stayed on alert nearby had 'rebelled' at the same time. The connection between them and the bandits was entirely cut off, and they lunged at their previous masters.
The panicked bandits intended to shoot at the beast puppets, but their storm bolters were all locked by uncanny forces. The safeties could not be deactivated.
Even their crystal suits turned into cold, iron coffins, whose crystal processors were controlled by the mysterious enemy, making it impossible to activate any rune array. They could only watch the beast puppets jump at themselves while doing nothing.
Hualala!
The neck armor and the breastplate of their crystal suit were opened automatically, revealing the most vulnerable carotid arteries and hearts.
Chi! Chi! Chi! Chi!
The beast puppets waved their sharp claws and bared their tusks, piercing into the bandits' eyes, necks, and hearts. In less than three seconds, all the bandits had been killed in the neatest way.
Da! Da! Da! Da! Da! Da!
Finally, some storm bolters opened fire crazily, not at the rebelling beast puppets or the two little devils but the bandits themselves.
The bandits seemed to be puppets who were controlled by their crystal suits. Their eyes bloodshot and their faces twisted, they approached each other while holding the storm bolters and practically stabbed the barrels into their companion's chests. Amid panicked shrieks, they opened fire brutally, blowing each other into burnt beehives!
Bullets spluttered, and fire burnt furiously. Broken limbs were flying everywhere, raising a storm of blood. In such an environment that felt like an inferno, the two cute kids walked to Black Triangle slowly while enjoying their milk and cake.
Black Triangle felt that more than ten burnt daggers had stabbed into his heart.
And the daggers were revolving quickly.
For the first time in his life, he knew what dread really meant. He did not even have the strength to control his sphincter to keep his excrement inside his intestines.
"Ah! Argh!"
Tears running out of his eyes, he screamed and shouted loudly.
But none of that could stop his crystal suit from being controlled by the devils. It drew the gun on his waist and raised it inch by inch.
Black Triangle realized what the enemy wanted to do. He tried his best to compete with the force, but the only outcome was that his arm was shattered into pieces. He could not stop the pistol from moving up at all.
The strength that controlled his crystal processor seemed to have directly flooded into his brain through the virtual connection between the crystal processor and the human brain. His own strength in the Core Formation Stage that he had been proud of could not be unleashed at all.
The barrel of the gun was moved to his mouth.
He gritted his teeth and struggled in vain.
The crystal suit controlled his shattered arm to move slightly backward before stabbing it in brutally, breaking almost ten teeth and sending the barrel into his throat.
"Argh!"
Black Triangle completely collapsed and burst into tears. In the middle of the colorful haze before his eyes, he could still see that the two little devils were enjoying milk and cake slowly and eyeing him in a way that suggested they seemed curious about the entire world.
Their eyes gave Black Triangle a slim chance of hope. He thought that the enemy would allow him to live a while longer even if they took pleasure in torturing.
But he was mistaken. His pistol became hot. The most violent spiritual energy rushed into his throat, blowing off his entire upper jaw as well as his head above it.
The headless neck spurted out a fountain of blood. The dead body danced for a while before it hit the ground after losing all its strength. Before Black Triangle was killed, the rest of the bandits had been annihilated. The whole ground was strewn with their incomplete bodies.
Since the two children had received the 'order', only nineteen seconds had passed!
Chapter 1939: A War of Two |
Jin Beibei tried her best to cover her mouth so that she would not cry out.
The burning metal ruins, the broken limbs that were emitting a stinky smell, and the two little children who were still smiling innocently congregated into a burning hot picture that was deeply branded into her head.
Having lived in the Leo Dock for so long, she had seen gang fights and dead bodies far too many times. But none of those times were as creepy and terrible as this.
Every hair on her body was shivering hard, and all her strength was pouring out of her. She could barely stand on her feet.
"Sister Beibei, are you alright?" Wenwen, the girl, hopped over to her agilely. There was a drop of blood on the tip of her nose, which made her innocent little face look even weirder.
"I—I am fine," Jin Beibei replied, breathing heavily.
"Aya!" The vigorous little boy suddenly exclaimed not far away. He frowned and said, "We forgot to offer cake to the uncle who overrode our restrictions and gave us battle permissions. We promised to treat him with cake!"
Wenwen stood on her tips and said, "The uncle's head is gone."
"Then we have violated our promise." Xiaoming scratched his head in the same way Li Yao did. "However… I do not feel uncomfortable at all. It seems that violating a promise for human beings does not affect our functions!"
"But our brain is still too weak. The infiltration and control of such a level is already enough to raise the temperature of the brain beyond the alarm level." Blood zigzagged out of Wenwen's nose. She wiped it off and looked at her red fingers. "Maybe, we should accelerate our growth to make the brain enter the mature phase sooner. That's the only way we can continue the expansions and upgrades!"
"But there will be hidden problems if we overuse hormones to accelerate growth," Xiao Ming said. "Forget it. Let's take care of the problems here and get our starship first. There are still 824 targets outside!"
"Good idea!" Wenwen clapped her hands and smiled.
Xiaoming blinked, with weird brilliance beaming out again.
The scene that was appalling and blood-freezing for Jin Beibei continued. The bandits who had been killed just now slowly got back to their feet as if they were coming back to life. Together with the beast puppets, they stood behind the two little children lifelessly!
Despite the losses of their arms, legs, or even heads, the zombies all picked up weapons from the ground with mechanical movements before checking the magazines, adjusting the attack mode, and activating the weapons unhurriedly.
At first, Jin Beibei thought that the two children boasted a certain art of remote control or that they were capable of controlling dead bodies through bioelectricity.
However, she soon realized that she was wrong. The 'zombies' awakened by the kids all had relatively intact crystal suits with undamaged crystal processors.
The less fortunate fellows whose crystal suits were riddled with holes were still lying on the ground quietly.
Therefore, it was not dead bodies that they 'summoned' but the crystal suits on the dead bodies!
What… are the two children exactly?
Jin Beibei's head went completely blank. She had never seen such a terrifying secret art or heard anything about it before.
While she was panicking, the vigorous boy, Li Xiaoming, moved his eyes over to her again.
The eyes were as clear as water, but they were somewhat cold.
In clinking noises, a beast puppet in the form of a spider crawled to Jin Beibei's side. The limbs that were as sharp as swords and sabers were still stained with the red-and-white blood and the brains of the bandits.
Jin Beibei felt like throwing up.
She suddenly realized what the boy was going to do.
The beast puppet walked up to her and raised a limb that looked like a sickle, locking onto her carotid artery.
"Don't be scared, Sister Beibei. It won't hurt." Xiaoming comforted her caringly. "Right. Thank you for your cake and milk. They were delicious!"
Hiu!
The blade limb turned into a streak of blackness and slashed at Jin Beibei's neck at an unbelievable speed.
However, when it was only several millimeters away from Jin Beibei's carotid artery, the beast puppet came to an abrupt halt.
The gears and bearings inside the joints of the beast uttered ear-splitting shrieks, as if two uncanny forces were fighting inside its body.
Another beast puppet in the form of hound suddenly lunged forward and blew it away. The collision was so fierce that both of them turned into broken parts in midair.
"Huh?" Xiaoming raised his eyebrow and looked at Wenwen, who had stopped before Jin Beibei.
It was not until the remains of the two broken beast puppets hit the ground that Jin Beibei realized that she had survived a disaster. She looked at the little girl Wenwen in astonishment.
"What are you doing?" Xiaoming asked, not very angrily but with intense curiosity.
"I think… we shouldn't kill Sister Beibei." Wenwen looked at Jin Beibei solemnly. "She is a good person who wanted to protect us. She treated us with delicious cake and milk, and she asked us to run away when she was in danger!"
"Yes. Sister Beibei is indeed a good person. I like Sister Beibei very much," Xiaoming said with great confusion. "However, does it have anything to do with us killing Sister Beibei? She has witnessed the whole process of our combat. If she is alive, the odds of us being exposed will be increased, and our chances of survival will be lowered. According to my calculation, it is very possible that our chances of survival will drop by 2.3%!"
"I'll give you that," Wenwen said, "but I like Sister Beibei. I'd feel delighted if we kept her alive. Killing her will bring me tremendous pain."
After a brief silence, Xiaoming said, "Lowing the chances of survival for a groundless feeling? That is illogical."
"It is indeed. However, since we are alive, we are free to do illogical things once in a while," Wenwen said. "Otherwise, are we any different from cold crystal processors?"
"No." Xiaoming shook his head hard. "That is the human beings' definition of 'alive'. Human beings have defined what life is and isn't with themselves as the template. We do not have to stick to their definition."
"Indeed, we do not, but it is unnecessary for us to pursue the opposite of the humans' definition," Wenwen said. "Or let me put it in another way that you can understand. Keeping Sister Beibei alive will make me feel delighted. The delight will possibly soothe my nerves and increase my computational ability, which will be beneficial for our survival in the end. On the contrary, if Sister Beibei is killed, I will grieve for a long time. My computational ability will drop, my mood will be bad, and my brain will be in an unstable state. The picture of Sister Beibei's miserable death will become redundant memory pieces that pile up in my brain and affect my information processing abilities."
"I can understand you now if you put it in such a way." Xiaoming nodded. "However, just because I understand you does not mean that I agree with you. I still hold that the risks of exposure and chances of survival after we let go of Sister Beibei will outweigh the negative influences caused to you by Sister Beibei's death. Therefore, I have to kill Sister Beibei."
"It seems that we have a disagreement." Wenwen opened her young arms. "I will not allow you to do that. I will protect Sister Beibei."
"So…" Xiaoming thought for a moment. "We cannot convince each other logically, and we lack sufficient data for comprehensive analysis and virtual deduction. We will have to resolve our disagreement through a violent approach. Do you wish to wage war on me?"
"War is the greatest impetus to push a civilization to evolve rapidly over a short amount of time," Wenwen said. "After such a long time of peaceful development, we have accumulated tremendous internal conflicts, with a lot of disagreements in many aspects. The time has come for us to resolve the problems once and for all. So, why shouldn't I wage a war on you?"
Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack!
Invisible electrical currents surged out of the two children. All the beast puppets and zombies in crystal suits were divided into two teams, surrounding Xiaoming and Wenwen respectively.
The two parties were at loggerheads. A war that could destroy the entire space dock was about to break out.
Looking at everything in bewilderment, Jin Beibei did not have the faintest idea what the two kids were talking about.
But however inert she was, she could tell that the two kids were serious and that they could truly kill each other!
Right then, roars and screams echoed from the edge of the ruins.
Black Triangle's gang was not the only group looting the Leo Dock. Another few gangs had sensed the anomaly in the place and were surrounding them from various directions.
"Forget it. I'll wage a war on you next time." Xiaoming pouted and made gestures to make his beast puppets and zombies disperse and crawl toward the new invaders in silence. "The latest calculation tells me that initiating a war on you right now will eventually lead to a drop of more than 4.5% in our odds of survival, which is greater than the change in our odds of survival if we let go of Sister Beibei. Therefore, I will compromise. But this incident will affect my 'compromise factor'. It won't be easy for you to make me compromise again if we run into another disagreement."
"Great!"
With a sweet smile, Wenwen squatted in front of Jin Beibei and took a deep breath in a slightly exaggerated way. With weird brilliance beaming out of her eyes, she said softly, "It's alright, Sister Beibei. Have a good sleep. You won't remember anything after you wake up. Live a good life with your dad.
"Thank you for your milk and cake, and thank you for your advice just now. If dad treats grandpa well, we will be nice to dad. If dad does not treat grandpa well, we won't be nice to dad. If dad kills grandpa, we will kill dad. That can't be wrong at all.
"Alright. Go to sleep now. We are going to the center of the cosmos to look for dad!"
Under the weird brilliance surging out of the little girl's eyes, Jin Beibei could not help but feel her eye
lids becoming heavier and heavier.
The last picture she saw before she fell asleep was two little kids holding each other's hands, driving a bunch of shaking puppets and zombies toward the ferocious, hideous bandits while singing 'Look for Dad'.
Chapter 1940: Universe, I'm Here! |
At the center of the cosmos—where the arms of galaxies congregated, stars collided, and spiritual energy surged out—the place was like an enormous swirl that absorbed most of the spiritual energy in the vast universe and reformed it into a bizarre, unbelievable world.
As far as one's eyes could see, all the stars seemed to be nearby, and one could catch a couple of stars as long as they reached out for them. It was much livelier and more prosperous than the dark, barren, and desolate edge of the cosmos.
At the long distance, it could even be seen that colorful rivers of stars were interweaving, splitting, and condensing, running incessantly as if they had nurtured billions of creatures!
No sound could be conveyed in the vacuum of space. However, the running rivers of stars seemed to be letting out the most deafening sounds that polished the souls of all living creatures.
The nearest nebula was even more incredibly splendid.
It seemed to have been made from the powder of billions of colorful gems, with countless fireflies dancing inside. That was the only way it could unleash such soul-stirring brilliance.
The nebula was in a roughly oval shape, but almost ten arms extended out from two sides like the limbs of an insect.
At the end of the oval that was slightly constricted, a thick arm extended out with an obvious expansion on the end, which made it look like the tail of a scorpion.
The most violent exchange of spiritual energy and materials went on between the nebula and the arms, decorating the entire nebula in explosive brilliance every day. Tremendous spiritual energy and materials were spurted out of the nebula as surging high-energy particles and overwhelming radiation after they were transmitted at the expansion at the end.