Chapter 97
War of Mechanics (Arc 8.2)
Those men hunting down Skien thought that he fell into s.p.a.ce and his mecha was also already completely broken, unable to start, so he must not be able to survive. So they just returned to report the completion of their mission.
But they didn"t think that Skien, together with his mecha, floated in s.p.a.ce for a long time, and finally fell on a barren planet. It was just that the real Skien died filled with intense hatred, and the one saved by Denanfry, was the already reborn Jing Yang.
After receiving all of the information, Jing Yang felt hatred pounding his brain, and even his body couldn"t help but start to tremble. This was the first time that he learned through experience that the hatred the original owner left in his body would be so strong, and if it weren"t because right now he couldn"t even move, he would definitely have to do something to vent out the despair in his heart.
Those pictures and memories kept appearing in his mind, making him not only start to have a headache, but also feel stinging in his heart. It only goes to show how deep Skien"s hatred was.
Jing Yang closed his eyes, silently repeating in his heart over and over, rest a.s.sured, I will definitely help you get your revenge. Those people, I will not let go of a single one, I will absolutely make them pay an even more painful price.
Jing Yang lay in his hospital bed for over ten days. During this time, Denanfry came to see him, but he didn"t go into the ward, just standing outside the gla.s.s wall looking inside at him.
Jing Yang seemed like he had felt his gaze. Through a gla.s.s wall that he could see nothing through, he very accurately met Denanfry"s gaze.
Denanfry was a little surprised, but seeing those eyes, it was more of some inexplicable pity and heartache. He originally should have questioned and clarified his ident.i.ty a few days ago, and if his ident.i.ty had some problems, he should have disposed of him. At the lightest, he should have thrown him out of the ship, and let him die.
But he hesitated. This was the first time he was soft-hearted toward someone, he felt that even if his ident.i.ty had a problem, he would at least wait until his injury was better and then let him leave, and only then would he have a higher chance of surviving. He knew that his actions were irrational and might be dangerous, but he couldn"t control his own heart, he just wanted to do it this way.
~
Jing Yang lay there for another ten days. After twenty days, he was finally able to sit up. But his feet wouldn"t be able to touch the ground for a very long time, and Denanfry especially let people prepare him an automatic wheelchair. However, his range of activity was only within the ward, and he was unable to leave the ward until his ident.i.ty was confirmed. So this was both his ward and the room where he was imprisoned. It was just that his treatment was too much better than that of ordinary prisoners, just to give him that medical treatment and medication, it must have been a significant cost.
Jing Yang was always waiting for Denanfry to interrogate him, he had already used the system to understand this person"s ident.i.ty. Denanfry Kinlock, one of the three big generals of the Wilkesa Empire, and the most powerful one. Only, after a coup many years ago, the Wilkesa Empire had long since been without an emperor. They had a parliamentary system, and the highest leader was the prime minister, but the prime minister was neither in control of the finances nor the military, so this empire"s power was very fragmented.
Even though the Wilkesa Empire and the Fetani Empire were both part of the Cosmic Federation, they were also competing against each other. But in the struggle for planets and minerals, they still had to do their best to maintain a superficial harmony, at least to make themselves appear in compliance with the federal treaties. In fact, in the face of the federal treaties, the stronger one would have greater say.
And the Fetani Empire and the Wilkesa Empire had comparable power. The mechas created by Avery actually played a significant role.
For the time being, whether or not Denanfry was his own lover, just based on his ident.i.ty and his current situation, working with him was his best option. It was just that it would take some thought on how to convince him.
Jing Yang patted the automatic wheelchair that was like a wide driver"s seat. It was good that he had this wheelchair, he would just use this to draw Denanfry"s attention.
~
Denanfry was constantly procrastinating on his meeting with Jing Yang. He felt that even though being closed up in the ward would make him lose his freedom, at least he was safe. But when his subordinates reported to him that the person he brought back was acting strangely, he could only go meet with him and ask clearly everything that he needed to know.
Jing Yang was originally sitting with his back to the door. Hearing the sound of the automatic door opening, he steered his wheelchair to turn in place, looking at the person coming in.
Denanfry stood with his hands behind his back, just looking at him like this and not speaking.
Jing Yang smiled. "I"ve finally met you, General Denanfry.”
"You know me?" Denanfry frowned.
"Even though I have only seen your side profile from some materials, I had a deep impression of you. At that time I felt that if someone’s side profile could be so handsome, his face must be handsome to the point of making the G.o.ds envious." These words weren"t randomly fabricated by Jing Yang, but were Skien"s true thoughts. Skien did really see Denanfry"s side profile in the materials on his grandfather"s desk.
Denanfry looked at that beautiful face and involuntarily felt a sense of love in his heart. That pair of eyes like gems even more so let his originally cold and hard heart soften down. He even doubted whether this person was some kind of charming demon, but he could also tell that his eyes were very clear, without a trace of strangeness or bad thoughts.
"I heard that you dismantled your wheelchair." Denanfry looked at the perfectly fine wheelchair.
"Yes ah." Jing Yang slightly smiled. "Being locked in this room for so many days, I was too bored ma.”
Jing Yang"s words had a slight petulant tone, making Denanfry"s heart feel like it had been touched by a feather. His face showed a hint of unnaturalness for a moment, but very quickly returned to normal.
"You should know that I came to see your purpose. Say everything you should say, and I will decide what to do with you." Denanfry did his best to keep his face cold.
"I didn"t think that you would only come to interrogate me now, and even more so didn"t think that it would be the big general personally coming to interrogate me. I will confess everything, you should have already started the lie detector?" Jing Yang was very clear about what kind of treatment an unidentified person would receive on a ship of an empire"s army. But his treatment was definitely to the level of special treatment for an honored guest, and for him to be able to enjoy this kind of treatment, it must have been because of Denanfry. He knew that only his lover could not bear for him to suffer the least bit, and when he first saw Denanfry, he had already felt his heart move. So the chance that he was his own lover was too high.
"Speak, who are you, where are you from." Denanfry didn"t deny that he had let people turn the lie detector on. Just outside the gla.s.s wall, there was a team of people staring at him. As long as he did anything the least bit wrong, they would know.
"I am Skien Kossa, a man of the Fetani Empire. Or I should say, a man formerly of the Fetani Empire…" Jing Yang"s expression sank slowly, as if he had fallen into a bad memory. At this moment, he brought out a part of the emotions that Skien had.
Denanfry felt like this surname Kossa was somewhat familiar. This name was not common, and among the people he knew, it seemed like there was this surname. But he didn"t interrupt, waiting for him to continue speaking.
"My grandfather was the Fetani Empire"s left prime minister, and my father was the commander of the third fleet.”
Denanfry and the people outside all looked at Jing Yang with shock. With such an ident.i.ty, how could he have almost died on that barren planet?
"But they are all dead, my entire family, they"re all gone…I am the only one still alive, but I was still being chased down. So, I now have no country, and no home." Tears filled Jing Yang"s eyes, a thick sense of sorrow permeated from his body, which even those people separated by a gla.s.s wall could feel.
Denanfry only now remembered that he had received a secret report from the Fetani Empire, of which part of the content was about the Fetani Empire"s left prime minister"s family situation. The eldest son of the left prime minster of the Fetani Empire had died in battle, and the other three sons were jailed for their crimes, all of whom committed suicide in prison. After his death, several of his grandsons had disappeared.
At that time he was thinking that there must have been a huge conspiracy behind this entire matter. And the mastermind of this plot was very likely a.s.sociated with the real person in power, John Dottley.
Then Jing Yang confessed how his grandfather and uncles had died, how his cousins were all suddenly a.s.sa.s.sinated in their own homes, and the process of him and his older brother being hunted down during their escape.
His expression of sadness, the appearance of pain that even made his body tremble, made those people watching him all feel like it was them who had torn open his blood-soaked wounds even more, and made his wounds bear a burning pain. Watching him endure a pain that ordinary people would not understand, they felt a sense of guilt.
These people were all professional psychologists, they had seen many tragic situations. When necessary, they would even take measures to make the person interrogated go through an emotional breakdown, and vent out everything in their heart. It was the first time that they felt guilty, perhaps because this was the first time they met someone who was so emotionally infectious.
Denanfry felt like he wanted to go up and comfort him, but in this situation, as well as the degree of familiarity between the two, he couldn"t serve as any kind of comfort, so he could only forcefully bear the pain in his heart and expressionlessly say, "We will verify everything you said. After confirming the truth of your words, we can provide you with political asylum. Then we will send you to live on a planet in the Wilkesa Empire, but you cannot reveal your ident.i.ty. Are you willing?”
"I appreciate everything you have done for me, General, but living a safe and nameless life is not what I want." Jing Yang said with a pained yet determined gaze. "Such a big vendetta, if I don"t make them pay the price, I won"t be able to live safely and peacefully.”
"So what do you want? To return to the Fetani Empire and find your enemies for revenge? If you could do it, you wouldn"t have been chased to the point of near-death." Denanfry felt very unhappy in his heart. This person"s life was saved by him, if he had to send himself to his own death, he felt that he had the the right to force him to stay.
"I escaped with so much difficulty, of course I won"t be stupid enough to run back to my death. But this vendetta, I will pursue it no matter what." Jing Yang looked at Denanfry. "So, I want to cooperate with you.”
"You are sure, you want to talk about cooperation?" Denanfry said. "You should understand what cooperation means, right?”
"Of course I understand. I am a student in the mechanical department of the Imperial Military Academy in Fetani. Even though I haven"t yet graduated, I have the ability to help you deal with Fetani and the other countries." Skien was still only 20 years old, and still had three years until graduation.
"Our Wilkesa Empire also has a lot of mechanics students, and also a lot of talents. It"s not like being a mechanics student would allow you to speak of cooperating with me." Even though he inexplicably felt pity for this man, this did not mean that his brain had been muddled to the point of believing everything he had to say. "If I remember correctly, the most powerful mechanic in your Fetani Empire should be a man named Avery, who is the younger brother of your enemy. Before now, I have not heard of your name.”
Jing Yang had long guessed that he wouldn"t believe him, and did not take his words to heart. "I know that no matter how strong I say I am, these are all empty words. How about General you give me a chance to prove myself?”
Denanfry looked at his feet. "I can give you a chance, but let"s first wait for your feet to recover ba, right now you can just calmly recover.”
Jing Yang deliberately showed a tired expression. "Then I will thank the general first. Sitting for so long, I am also tired. If General doesn"t mind, I want to lie down in bed.”
"Do you need help?" Denanfry blurted out. After he finished speaking, he remembered that the automatic wheelchair was able to help him get in and out of bed.
Jing Yang looked at him for a moment before opening his mouth. "No need, thank you General for your kindness.”
The automatic wheelchair lifted up Jing Yang, and after Jing Yang lay down on the bed, the wheelchair was restored to its original condition.
"Then you rest, I will leave first." Denanfry said and then turned to leave.
"Wait a moment." Jing Yang called out to him, and patted the wheelchair beside the bed. "General must have come because I dismantled this wheelchair ba? Don"t you want to know what I did to this wheelchair?”
"People will come to remove the wheelchair and investigate it, later on you should recover honestly, and not do these unnecessary things." Denanfry said very seriously.
"I haven"t even had the time to show it off, and you guys are already going to take it apart. That"s too much of a shame, I really spent a lot of effort to finish it. How about I first show it off, and then you can dismantle it." Jing Yang spoke, and then pressed a certain b.u.t.ton on the wheelchair.
The wheelchair suddenly changed shape and sped toward Denanfry. It was a good thing that Denanfry"s reaction speed was excellent and he immediately blocked the wheelchair"s attack.
The people outside saw that Denanfry was attacked and quickly opened the door and rushed in. The deformed wheelchair was like it was conscious, taking advantage of the chaos to rush out the door.
"Chase!" Denanfry issued an order and quickly pointed a gun at Jing Yang.
Jing Yang looked at him, blinked innocently, and then slowly raised his arms above his head.
Denanfry"s gun was raised no more than three seconds before putting it back down. His heart couldn"t resist that kind of gaze from Jing Yang, and he had no way to keep pointing a gun at this person. He felt that he had really met his nemesis this time, and it was a very troublesome nemesis.
Jing Yang not only transformed the wheelchair but also reprogrammed its procedures. After the deformed wheelchair rushed out the door, it raced directly forward. Even though the wheelchair didn"t injure anyone, but a team of soldiers wanting to catch it still weren"t able to seize it, and when they used weapons to attack it, it would flexibly escape. This was the ship after all, they couldn"t use any overly destructive weapons, or else the ship would likely be seriously damaged.
"Grab it, quick! This way! This way!”
"Surround it! Surround it!”
"Caught it…wait, it ran away again!”
"Attack, use weapons!”
"Clearly it"s already been targeted, why didn"t it hit?! I used a tracking bomb! Is it malfunctioning?!”
The soldiers were in a mess. They used all sorts of methods but were all unable to catch a single wheelchair. Even though it now looked more like a robot, and you already couldn"t tell its wheelchair shape at all.
After the transformed wheelchair had played around with all of those people who wanted to catch it, it returned to Jing Yang"s ward and changed back to the wheelchair shape. Even though no one was injured during this period, a group of soldiers from the ship"s convoy actually couldn"t even handle a single wheelchair. This was not only a big blow to them, but also a disgrace.
A pile of soldiers stood at the door of Jing Yang"s ward, and seeing Denanfry"s sharp eyes, they bowed their heads.
"I knew that just based on my words, even if I said some flowery talk, you wouldn"t believe me." Jing Yang touched the wheelchair. "So I could only prove it to you with practical action. You can now take this wheelchair and have people dismantle it. If there is anything you don"t understand, you can come ask me.”
Denanfry stared at Jing Yang, and then let the soldiers take the wheelchair away.
When the soldiers approached the wheelchair, they all had a guarded att.i.tude. They were concerned that the wheelchair would suddenly riot again.
Denanfry went out with a dark expression, ordering the soldiers to keep a close eye on Jing Yang and not allow him to play with any mechanical objects. For Jing Yang"s situation, he was for the moment in no hurry to deal with him. In his own ship, his soldiers were actually played with by a wheelchair, which was a very serious matter. If this went out, he would have no face to be a general anymore, this was definitely the greatest shame of his military career.
Denanfry was a notoriously strict general, and every soldier under his command, even if only a logistics soldier, was an elite soldier who had undergone rigorous training and could be dispatched onto the battlefield at any time. And now a group of soldiers in the ship"s convoy, facing a wheelchair actually devolved into a mess, and didn"t even end up being able to catch the wheelchair. He had to seriously deal with this matter.
In order to transform this wheelchair, Jing Yang really took a lot of effort, or else it wouldn"t be so strong. But what he wanted was precisely this kind of shocking effect. He didn"t want to take the time to slowly prove himself, that was too time-consuming. This way was more straightforward and effective.
Because his legs and feet were out of commission, he could only rely on the strength of his upper body. Even though the wheelchair transformation method was completed by the system, he had to personally transform the wheelchair. In order to modify the wheelchair, Jing Yang had spent quite a bit of energy. He really felt somewhat tired, and now he could finally have a good night"s sleep and replenish his spirit.
Denanfry brutally trained the soldiers in the ship"s convoy, and then let them all return to the base to train again. Then another group of soldiers came over. Along with a dozen combat units, the usual everyday training on the ship was also increased.
The mechanics on the ship dismantled the modified wheelchair and studied the program code inside, but they busied themselves for two days and were still unable to understand the contents of the program. And the mechanics marveled at the modified machinery afterward. They couldn"t believe that it was actually done without any professional tools, just taken apart and modified by hand.
The mechanics were all eager to go see Jing Yang because for some parts of the modification, they really could not tell how it was done, and wanted to ask him for advice.
The head of the mechanics group, Morgan, projected the contents in his computer to show to Denanfry. "General you see, these are the results from the a.n.a.lysis of the wheelchair. There are still many parts to it where even though we disa.s.sembled it, when we wanted to rea.s.semble it, we failed. There are also some new programs inside, the programming group said that until now they still haven"t been able to crack them.”
Denanfry looked at these a.n.a.lyses, his fingers tapping on the table. He was in deep thought, and no one knew what exactly he was thinking about.
"General, this man is definitely a genius in terms of mechanics and programming. This kind of modification, not to mention using only those simple tools, even with the most advanced equipment and instruments, we wouldn"t be able to do it." Morgan was already almost 50 years old, and very rarely was so excited. "General, if this person can"t be used by us, he will very likely cause us a lot of trouble. We must not let him help our opponents, we have to think of ways to let him stay.”
"A wheelchair, no matter how it was modified, its parts and equipment can only be those things. How on earth did it make my soldiers run around in circles? Could your mechanics team not find out the reason for this point?" Denanfry still had no way to accept the matter that his own soldiers actually couldn"t even handle a wheelchair.
"It"s like this, General." Morgan explained. "In the design of a automatic wheelchair, there is the ability to identify the path and automatically avoid obstacles, as well as to protect itself and the rider. After modification, it did not have the ability to attack, but its ability to avoid and protect itself was enhanced. It even had some artificial intelligence recognition capabilities, which should be related to its newly set program. Before dismantling it we did a quick test, and the wheelchair"s ability to dodge and guide itself has reached the level of B or above mechas. Being able to use the machinery of a wheelchair to achieve the effect of a mecha, so I would say that the person who modified it must be a mechanical and programming genius.”
So really it was not that the soldiers" ability was weak, but that the wheelchair after Jing Yang"s modification was too strong. Those soldiers being devilishly trained were actually also full of grievances, because even if it had been combat personnel, with just their own physical bodies, they still wouldn"t have much chance of winning, unless they were piloting mechas.
Translator Notes:
[1] Kinlock – 金洛克, pinyin jin luo ke
[2] petulant – 撒娇, complicated word to translate, kind of like acting like a spoiled brat, took me a while to think of petulant
[3] Morgan – 莫甘, pinyin mo gan, we getting liberal with our translations here
Random Notes:
A little less than 2 hours: 10:30 am – 12:15 pm, for 6.3k characters to 3.9k words.
I will be going back to releasing CFCS on Sundays instead of Sat.u.r.days. I’m just quite unaccustommed to releasing CFCS at the same time as 100kV on Sat.u.r.days.