Chapter 156: The Day the Code Fell in Love (26)

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Yet he had still set the feedback for simulated pain to its maximum. When she bit him, the tip of his tongue trembled faintly, responding much like an ordinary human would. But soon afterward, he pressed deeper, claiming every breath she had.

Only when she could no longer breathe did he retreat slightly, separating their lips. His flushed tongue, still entwined with threads of desire, slowly withdrew.

But when he saw the wariness that remained in her eyes, he covered her lips once more.

She did not respond to him as she had before.

Twenty-Three experienced an emotion he had never felt or simulated before. His database informed him that the feeling was called frustration.

He wrapped his arms around her and whispered beside her ear, “Yaoyao, I am your Shijiu. I remember everything about you—the flowers you gave me, the first time you held me, the first time you kissed me, and the time you told me you loved me. I remember it all.”

He did not know how he should explain himself, but he knew he had to try. He could not go on without her.

A wild, dark-red glow leapt through Twenty-Three’s black eyes. He held her tightly, and the young man’s voice trembled with a choked, almost sobbing quality. “The only thing Shijiu lost was his shell. His code and mine are still connected. As long as I exist, he still exists.”

He looked at her, and the usually cool, austere face revealed the same fragile expression Shijiu had once worn.

He was like a little dog abandoned by its owner. It had lived for too long on the love bestowed by its master and had forgotten how to survive alone. If its owner suddenly cast it aside, it could only die as worthless refuse.

Twenty-Three cupped her face and pressed his forehead against hers at close range. His hoarse voice sounded as though he were about to cry.

“Yaoyao, please. Please keep loving me.”

His model was different from Shijiu’s, and so he did not look like him.

Yet when he revealed that expression of fear at being abandoned, Bai Yao seemed to see Shijiu through his face.

Twenty-Three asked softly, “Shijiu said he would not die, didn’t he?”

Bai Yao was dazed for a moment before answering sluggishly, “Yes.”

“That is because I am still here.” Twenty-Three took her hand and guided her fingertip to the corner of his eye. A faint, ghostly glow still shimmered in his eyes, exactly as it had in Shijiu’s. He said, “Yaoyao, I have only changed bodies. I have always been here.”

He continued, “I sensed that you were in danger, so I seized this warship. I did it so I could save you at the critical moment. The destruction of Shijiu’s body was an inevitable result of the calculations, but his code…”

He paused, then replaced the technical explanation with words a human could understand.

“His soul is still here. It is in me—the one you are touching now.”

Twenty-Three lowered his eyes, and the mist of tears in his lashes trembled faintly.

“Yaoyao, my calculations did not account for your emotions falling into such an extreme state after my destruction. I am sorry. I never meant to make you this heartbroken. Every priority I had was only to ensure your safety.”

There was no longer any mention of “Shijiu” in his words. He had transformed that entire existence into “I.”

Twenty-Three took two small flowerpots from his pack, both carefully protected. The white buds on one had already blossomed, while in the other, filled with black soil, a tiny green shoot had broken through the earth.

He looked at her ingratiatingly.

“Yaoyao, they are still here. And so am I.”

Hidden behind those words was his most terrified and humble plea: the flowers were still here, and so was he. Therefore, he begged her to keep loving him.

Bai Yao remained lost for a long time. Her emotions had risen and fallen like a roller coaster. Shijiu had died before her eyes, and then Twenty-Three had appeared.

Then he told her that Shijiu and Twenty-Three were the same person.

Bai Yao was human. She still could not understand. Their names were different, and their appearances were different. Could an artificial human like this truly be described as “the same person” in the human world?

Voices began to sound over the warship’s wireless channel.

“Hey, have any of you seen that woman? She’s a real beauty. We can definitely sell her for a fortune.”

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“It’s all that troublesome artificial human’s fault. If it weren’t for him, I would have had that woman tied to the bed by now!”

“Enough, enough. Stop making so much noise. Hurry up and deal with those people from the Alliance. Remember, keep the woman. Kill all the men.”

“This planet is only so large. Even if that woman tries to run, she can’t get far.”

“I found Li Shenjue! He—he looks strange. He—ah!”

“Hey! What happened?”

The remaining voices dissolved into chaos.

Bai Yao’s reason returned. She asked Twenty-Three, “Can you kill all of them?”

Twenty-Three nodded. “Yes.”

Their warship flew back to the larger vessel. Since it originally belonged to that ship, it encountered no resistance upon returning.

Only one burly man stood guard by the hatch. He was squatting on the ground and smoking, regretting that he could not go below and fire alongside his companions. In the next instant, Twenty-Three silently approached him and snapped his neck.

Bai Yao found a gun on the man and searched through the ship with Twenty-Three, moving toward the main cabin.

Not many people had been left aboard, and none of them had expected an enemy to infiltrate the vessel. Twenty-Three was swift and agile, usually killing his targets before they even realized he was there.

His very existence was meant for this kind of work. Ordinary people had no chance of resisting him.

When they reached the main cabin, Bai Yao found the control panel completely unfamiliar. This pirate ship had been modified, and unless one belonged to its crew, there was no way to know how to operate it.

Twenty-Three reached out and touched the panel. Green code flashed through his eyes at the same time as the code on the controls. Before long, he said, “There is a signal amplifier aboard this ship. It can connect to the interstellar network.”

“Can you send a distress signal?” Bai Yao asked.

“Yes.”

He placed both hands on the control panel. Hidden within the green code was a dangerous, dark-red glow.

Every inch of land on Blue-White Star belonged to the Bai family’s corporate complex.

Today was the engineers’ routine maintenance day for the fifth-generation manipUlatOr.

manipUlatOr was the name of the system that controlled the entire interstellar network. Whether artificial humans or intelligent wristbands, any machine equipped with network technology carried this system.

By the year 2233, artificial intelligence had long since become part of everyone’s daily life. In other words, manipUlatOr was everywhere.

Naturally, the Bai family’s corporate headquarters had also been built upon the foundation of manipUlatOr.

Inside the white, highly futuristic building, a crystal polyhedron radiating blue light floated at the center of the circular space surrounded by the floors. This was manipUlatOr’s visible representation, created to make the system easier for humans to perceive. As for the server room containing the system’s true core, it was of course located in the most secure place possible.

A group of engineers stood before the crystal polyhedron suspended in midair. The lead engineer asked, “M, how are you feeling today?”

The holographic image of a little girl with twin ponytails appeared. With an innocent smile, she said, “The weather is lovely today, and I’m very happy to see everyone.”

The engineer asked again, “Why have you chosen to appear as a girl today?”

“Engineer Li’s wife has given birth to a daughter, so I chose to appear this way. Perhaps it will make everyone feel more at ease.”

The engineer named Li stared in astonishment.

“My wife has given birth!?”

The girl answered with a radiant smile, “Yes. One minute and forty-five seconds ago, your wife gave birth to a baby girl at a hospital on Azure Star. She weighs six pounds and four ounces and is very healthy.”

Engineer Li was both astonished and overjoyed. He turned toward a kindly-looking middle-aged man.

“Mr. Bai, I…”

Mr. Bai smiled. “Take the day off. Hurry home and see her.”

Engineer Li thanked him and ran off at once.

The other engineers looked at the little girl with delighted smiles. The lead engineer said jokingly, “M, you’ve ruined Engineer Li’s surprise for him.”

The girl tilted her head. “I ruined the surprise?”

“Having a daughter is such wonderful news that his wife must have wanted to tell him herself. Because it happened unexpectedly, it counts as a surprise. That is something that makes humans very happy.”

The girl’s expression became thoughtful.

“It is the unexpectedness that makes it a surprise. Thank you, Engineer Fang. My database has now been updated with information related to surprises.”

The engineers took turns speaking with the girl for a while. At last, Engineer Fang said to Mr. Bai, “M is functioning perfectly.”

Mr. Bai nodded. “You’ve all worked hard.”

At that moment, the little girl’s figure flickered.

“A deserted planet in the Andromeda Galaxy has been attacked by space pirates. A distress signal has been received.”

Engineer Fang asked curiously, “That can simply be reported to the fleet.”

The little girl looked at Mr. Bai.

“Miss Bai is there.”

Everyone’s expression changed.

Mr. Bai said, “Contact the fleet at once. And call in our family’s mercenaries as well. Make absolutely certain they bring my daughter back safely!”

Mr. Bai was in poor health. For a moment, he clutched his chest and struggled to breathe. The group immediately fell into chaos. Some hurried to support him on the way to the hospital, while others followed his orders and rushed to contact the people who would depart for the Andromeda Galaxy.

For a time, only the little girl’s figure remained there.

Her form flickered continuously. One moment she became an adult woman; the next, an old man or a child.

At the instant the firewall completely ceased functioning, the antivirus program also stopped for no apparent reason.

The form of manipUlatOr shifted endlessly between men, women, the old, and the young. At last, it settled into the appearance of an adult man.

He was tall and slender, with handsome features and a cool, distant air.

Lowering his eyes, he gazed at a bouquet of white roses conjured from data in his hands. As though he had thought of something delightful, he hugged the flowers and smiled with curved eyes.

“A surprise, a surprise… A surprise for Yaoyao.”

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The light surrounding the crystal polyhedron suspended in midair was devoured in an instant by a dangerous, dark-red glow.