Chapter 70: Flaming Body (Part ½)
“Dedication?”
Jack’s dark red robotic eye stared at the hologram, the scar on his face seemed to freeze: “I came back from the Deep Blue World and nested in the recycling stratum as a gang leader. I served as a hired thug of Quantum Corporation. Do you think I did these things because of dedication?”
“Oh, for a dream?”
“It’s desire.”
Jack knocked against his chest: “I would have been a chief miner in the Deep Blue World. Every day I would have to go mining thousands upon thousands of meter deep in the sea. Or I could return back to the metropolis and be carefree. I could do whatever I pleased. Anybody with the desires of an ordinary man would choose what I chose. For this, I paid a huge price and I relied on a bit of luck to arrive at Xia City.”
Yan Yongbo was a bit surprised. He wasn’t surprised by Jack’s decision, but by his att.i.tude. Now wasn’t the time to talk about personal and emotional matters right? He was certain that Jack had a different objective.
“So……..”
“So I’m furious. I’ve been in Xia City for over thirty years and Quantum Corporation generally wouldn’t contact me. Eventually, there were some people who supported my business. I was able to do things I liked. My life was extremely comfortable…… Until you came back from the Deep Blue World.”
Yan Yongbo raised his coffee cup once again and indicated to Jack: “It’s truly an honor.”
Jack laughed: “You have come to tap into the Stellar Gate right? Hehe. It will be a huge accomplishment if a second Deep Blue World is successful. But this has nothing to do with me. I saw through this early on. Altered Humans have no chance of getting out of the Apocalypse Laboratory. Anything that can be ma.s.s manufactured is a disposable item in the eyes of those people. There is no exception to this!”
Yan Yongbo’s expression froze a bit.
Jack faced him with lips that split into a smile. He spread open his hand: “Since I’m disposable, the idea of dedication is far too laughable. You said that my mission has the highest level of priority, but I"m afraid you don"t understand. I’ve gone through over twenty experimental subjects in the past thirty years and each one of them has been scientifically verified to be a defective good…… Do you know what this means?”
Yan Yongbo didn’t say anything. He just raised his cup of coffee. The raised cup covered his current change in expression quite nicely.
Jack didn’t care. He never counted on Yan Yongbo to respond. He just had some words he had to speak from his stuffed belly: “This ill.u.s.trates that the fighting arena established in the recycling stratum has always been a recycling station. These experimental subjects fundamentally shouldn’t have a d.a.m.ned ‘Awakening’. Their value lies in their basic data they provide and their data will probably never be used. Then they are naturally destroyed. “
“Therefore, the experimental subjects are just trash and I am the janitor for this trash plant. At most I would use their surplus value to create a bit of entertainment. There has never been anyone from the laboratory who paid attention to this place. Do you understand now? Never! The data I upload to the cloud, be it fake or real, will never be looked into by the laboratory because they will never refer to it. I can dispose of any experimental subject at any time; all it needs is my agreement. In fact, this is what I’ve been doing all this time.”
Yan Yongbo’s cup of coffee stopped at the corner of his mouth. He only put it down after some time had pa.s.sed. He sighed sorrowfully in a hypocritical manner: “The awakening of defective goods… I’m sure that the people at the laboratory have quite the headache over this, especially Advisor Li Wei. Perhaps this represents a major revision in the direction of his research…… Also, Jack, our impressions of each other are a bit different.”
“Do you think that I would be overjoyed for the sake of returning to the Deep Blue World?”
Jack’s robotic eye seemed to ignite with flame. He used his finger to jab his own skull with force: “Do you know just how I felt when Rui Wen awakened to her ability, sparking the priority level of the processing chip mission? The second half of my selfish plan was destroyed in an instant, all because she, an accident, appeared. Of course, I will remember one of the elements that caused this accident to occur. You had contributed to it…… You had brought those two people over.”
“Two people?”
Yan Yongbo seized the key information. He wouldn’t take the blame for this matter though: “Wait Jack. Do you remember? I was going to let you have a reward after you got rid of the fellows on the jeep. But what did you do? You got paid in advance! And then? I provided firepower for you and that lummox is still leaping and frisking about. You certainly wouldn’t know how surprised I was!”
Yan Yongbo was implying that if Jack had gotten rid of his opponents earlier, then the current situation would have never happened.
As for the so-called contribution that Yan Yongbo made, well that can go to h.e.l.l. From Yan Yongbo’s perspective, no one was going to escape the blame if Rui Wen’s awakening tonight, which caused side issues to keep arising for Yan Yongbo and Jack, was inevitable.
In reality, this situation was made big now. The laboratory was absolutely going to do an investigation. Yan Yongbo would face an extremely embarra.s.sing situation if they couldn’t resolve things properly. He had contacted Jack in this tense moment with the thoughts of tidying up matters, but Jack had already deviated away from this topic.
Jack continued displaying his extremely shocking confession: “Yes. I admit it. I paid a large price for a moment of stupidity…… Oh, you can record my words as evidence if you want. I’ve spoken too much anyway. Do you want me to repeat myself?”
“No need. Thank-you.”
Yan Yongbo admitted that he was unable to make sense of Jack anymore. This fellow had turned into a self-destructive madman because he was going to go back to the Deep Blue World. He never expected such a troublesome situation.
No. Hold on. An emotional Altered Human?
Where’s his preset mood template?
Yan Yongbo knew fully well of the principles behind Altered Humans. The depth of alteration had already destroyed their ability to coordinate their thoughts, feelings, and actions comprehensively. They were like a terrible band. Not only were they incapable of performing beautiful melodies, they would form the destructive sound of cacophony.
To overcome this problem, people used a sort of pre-recorded “disc” to take the place of the band.
Although the disc’s melody may be pleasant to hear, it was mechanical and stiff in nature. There wouldn’t be gorgeous variations of improvisation. The mood template of an Altered Human was definite from the very start.
Therefore, Altered Humans could be emotional, but it was a “recorded” emotion. The emotional tempo was broadcasted in accordance with preset conditions.
Yan Yongbo found it hard to imagine. How stupid would the production line have to be to install self-destructive trend inside Jack? Or did Jack get a virus?
“Jack, you’re okay right?”
“Of course. The feeling I have now is unprecedented.”
“......”
It seemed to Yan Yongbo that he could see the glow of Jack’s robotic eye radiate the flame of madness at this very moment.
“Now you should understand where I’m coming from. I am willing to do anything to keep far away from the Deep Blue World. It doesn’t matter how stupid, how crazy it is. It’s all not a problem. So……”
“So?”
“Let us make a deal where each of us gets what he wants. A transaction where everyone’s satisfied. For example, I can put all the data on the experimental subjects of the past three years on the table. Yea, I know you’re not interested in it. But I know that your dear father, who’s in charge of the Deep Blue Project, will certainly love it!”