“Master, the artificial intelligences inside these chips are easier to control than I expected. According to the AI’s feedback, there are seven chips in total, each responsible for handling a certain part of the Red Mist Battle Armor’s functions. Director Li, I have some bad news and some good news. Which one would you like to hear first?”
In the room, Shen Ge was sitting on the edge of the bed, Deng Yuqi was sitting on a chair across from him, and Li Xiang was crouching next to the secondary armor. The three of them were waiting for Little Seven to crack the chips.
Li Xiang adjusted his glasses and said, “If possible, I’d rather not hear either one. If I’m guessing correctly, the good news is that ‘that person,’ in order to control the Red Mist Battle Armor, deliberately split the control system into seven parts, trying to compete with you for control over each specific function. This increases their chances of success. But precisely because it’s split into seven parts, you can easily crack them one by one, right?”
Little Seven replied, “Absolutely correct.”
Deng Yuqi then asked, “So what’s the bad news?”
Little Seven said, “Based on the specific data extracted from these seven chips, although the other party doesn’t know the Red Mist Battle Armor’s data inside out, they have a general understanding of each category’s capabilities. There are only two possibilities for such confidential data to be known by an outsider. One is that Director Li has a mental illness like Dissociative Identity Disorder, with a ‘traitor’ alter ego. The other possibility is that there’s a traitor among the people who have access to this data.”
Upon hearing this, Li Xiang frowned. As he had said before, anything related to the Red Mist Battle Armor was top secret for the Rong City branch. Apart from him, the creator, the only other person with access to the core files was Deng Yuqi. The other assisting researchers and assistants only had access to basic data, and even if that leaked, it wouldn’t cause much trouble.
So the problem circled back to the starting point. The prime suspect was still the “mysterious person” who controlled Li Xiang when he was unconscious.
While the three were discussing how to handle this, Little Seven had already finished cracking the chips. “Master, I’ve rewritten the chips. Now they can be transplanted onto the Blood Spiders, and I can provide fake coordinates to them at any time. Once the other party receives the data, we can follow the clues and track down their exact coordinates.”
Shen Ge nodded upon hearing this. “Good job. So, can we confirm the secondary armor is safe now? Can the fusion proceed smoothly?”
The Red Mist Battle Armor was Shen Ge’s strongest “shield.” Paired with Little Seven’s alertness, it provided even better protection than the barrier of the Immovable Weird Domain. So he certainly didn’t want any issues with it.
“Master, I have performed a comprehensive screening and transferred the chips. Fusing the Red Mist Battle Armor will not cause any problems,” Little Seven affirmed.
As it spoke, Little Seven had already started controlling the Red Mist Battle Armor, extending rotting blood tentacles to fuse with, or rather, devour the secondary armor.
The entire process lasted about ten minutes. After it was done, Shen Ge tried to fully cover himself with the Red Mist Battle Armor. The donning speed was twice as fast as before, and every function had undergone tremendous changes.
First was the Weird Shield. Previously, Shen Ge had only two ways to use the Weird Shield. One was to control the rotting blood to gather and solidify into a shield on a specific part of his body. The other was to directly form it on a certain area while already fully covered by the armor, and the latter method was much faster than the former.
But after devouring the secondary armor this time, besides the previous conventional methods, Shen Ge could also detach a clump of rotting blood and throw it like a projectile, solidifying a Weird Shield at the target point.
The specific shape of the Weird Shield could also be controlled by Shen Ge himself. The maximum total area he could solidify was a circular shield with a diameter of two meters, and he could change its shape and size as needed. Moreover, even when forming a large Weird Shield, it wouldn’t reduce the Red Mist Battle Armor covering Shen Ge’s body.
Next were the Weird Tentacles. Previously, the number and length of the rotting blood tentacles were severely limited. Now, both the number and length had doubled. Even when forming a single rotting blood tentacle a hundred meters long, it wouldn’t reduce the Red Mist Battle Armor covering Shen Ge’s body.
Overall, the effect of this upgrade was like comparing the Red Mist Battle Armor to a lump of clay, and the secondary armor was a smaller lump of clay mixed in, resulting in a qualitative leap in the “quantity.”
After trying out enlarged functions like the “Weird Stomach” one after another, Shen Ge then tried to have Little Seven separate and control a set of secondary armor. When two identical Red Mist monsters stood side by side, it was quite a visually striking sight.
Now Little Seven truly had its own “body.” Even Li Xiang couldn’t help murmuring that the “crisis of mechanized intelligence” wasn’t far off.
After finishing the trial of the upgraded Red Mist Battle Armor, Shen Ge stored some important monster specimens back into his Blood Hide Backpack, especially the ones in the Weird Sleeping Bag that could wake up at any moment.
Although these were research materials prepared for Li Xiang, now that they were in Da Jing, he couldn’t conduct research anyway, and he might even attract the attention of Da Jing’s research department.
Li Xiang only kept a few small items that interested him to carry along. Next, he planned to go with Deng Yuqi to take a look at his teacher’s research institute in Da Jing.
Deng Yuqi and Wang Han were responsible for Li Xiang’s safety. Wang Han assigned one of his team members to take Shen Ge to the United Hotel where Cheng Shengnan was staying.
After arriving at the hotel room, Shen Ge first had Little Seven scan the surroundings and sent out a few Blood Spiders to lurk in various corners of the room.
After fusing with the secondary armor, the “base quantity” of the Red Mist Battle Armor had doubled, and the number of Blood Spiders Little Seven could control had also increased.
“Master, consistent with what the Minister explained. No high-intensity Weird Energy reactions or Weird Space reactions were detected nearby,” Little Seven reported.
The reason Little Seven said no high-intensity Weird Energy reactions were detected, rather than no Weird Energy reactions at all, was because over the past few months, as strange incidents became more and more frequent, more and more invisible Weird Energy had been surging up from underground. The faint Weird Energy that used to be undetectable by Weird Energy detectors and could only be seen by Shen Ge’s ‘naked eye’ was now visible everywhere in the air.
Therefore, if Little Seven were to scan for faint Weird Energy, it would certainly detect some in the hotel, like on the rats and cockroaches in the sewers.
Having confirmed the absence of a Weird Space, there was only one way to verify whether Cheng Shengnan and the others had been pulled into the dream world:
Shen Ge’s Weird Domain.
“Little Seven, did you record how many dream fragments the Weird Stomach devoured before?” Shen Ge tried to expand his Weird Domain to scan, while also thinking of a question.
He remembered that it was precisely because he had devoured too many glowing dream fragments that his consciousness and memory had developed serious problems.
And if he wasn’t mistaken, the Weird Stomach had devoured even more before that.
“Reporting, Master. A total of thirteen glowing dream fragments and thirty-six dim dream fragments. Most of the glowing fragments were integrated into the Red Mist Battle Armor, which is why the armor was able to devour the secondary armor so smoothly,” Little Seven replied.
Shen Ge paused briefly, then asked, “And the rest?”
Little Seven extended a rotting blood tentacle from Shen Ge’s wrist, with the tip forming an open palm. In the center of the palm were small stones, each about the size of a fingernail. These were the dim, lusterless dream fragments.
Shen Ge casually picked one up. When he infused it with Weird Energy, the dim fragment flashed with countless scenes of strange, cataclysmic events destroying various countries around the world, eventually ending with the whole world collapsing.
The next second, the fragment slowly turned to powder and dissipated, but right as it vanished, Shen Ge saw a faint glimmer of light enter his body.
“What’s going on here?” Shen Ge asked, somewhat puzzled, as he summoned the glowing fragments stored inside his body. Including the previous two, there were now seven in total.
At that moment, next to the first glowing fragment, a tiny glowing fragment the size of a grain of sand was sticking to it.
Shen Ge tried to sense that particular glowing dream fragment. The Weird Energy hadn’t decreased, but that grain of sand seemed to be slowly growing its Weird Energy.
“It can work like that?” Shen Ge was stunned. This meant that he could simply use the seven glowing dream fragments to nurture those dim, lusterless ones and end up with a whole bunch of glowing fragments.
After absorbing all the dim, lusterless fragments, Shen Ge asked, “Didn’t you say the Red Mist Battle Armor only absorbed most of the glowing fragments? What about the rest?”
Little Seven replied, “Master, to be precise, what the Red Mist Battle Armor absorbed wasn’t the fragments themselves, but the light source within them, which is the Weird Energy. After absorbing that Weird Energy, the Red Mist Battle Armor completed a self-initiated upgrade. That’s why you noticed the donning and solidifying speeds increased several times over. That actually wasn’t thanks to the fusion with the secondary armor.”
“Secondly… the fragments whose Weird Energy was drained were also in that pile of dim, lusterless fragments. As for the rest, I currently suspect they were absorbed by me.”
Shen Ge’s expression turned somewhat strange upon hearing this. It wasn’t that he was being stingy with a few fragments. Strictly speaking, Little Seven was his comrade through life and death, so he wouldn’t blame Little Seven even if it had absorbed them all.
But the reason his expression was strange was that he could vaguely detect a hint of a “guilty” tone in Little Seven’s words.
You see, as an artificial intelligence, Little Seven didn’t possess emotions. Previously, its tone of voice and speech patterns had no inflection whatsoever. But now, it sounded as if it had acquired emotions.
“Why ‘suspect’? Are you unable to confirm whether you fused with the glowing fragments, or rather, that Weird Energy?” Shen Ge asked curiously.
Little Seven replied, “Because, as I said before, I was in a ‘crashed’ state during that period, so I don’t know for sure if I absorbed the Weird Energy from the fragments. But I can feel a very peculiar sensation, like… I understand what ’emotion’ means, and how to express my own ’emotion.'”
“For example, influenced by the rules, I used to unconditionally obey my master’s commands. That is still the case, but now I also have an additional layer of respect for you. I admire you for achieving miracles as a human that ordinary people couldn’t, and I am still willing to follow your orders willingly.”
“In my programming, I couldn’t say ‘no’ to my master’s commands, but now… it seems I can refuse.”
After hearing Little Seven’s description, Shen Ge’s expression became even stranger.
“…”
Uh.
Buddy, are you a genie in a lamp?
Jokes aside, Shen Ge suddenly realized a serious problem. Was the “crisis of mechanized intelligence” they had always joked about actually becoming real?
“So, what are your plans?” Shen Ge asked.
Little Seven was clearly stunned by the question. After a long pause, it replied, “Master, the whole reason I was created was to assist you in your actions. Now you suddenly ask me what my plans are… I don’t seem to have any plans. It still feels most interesting to follow you.”
“It’s okay if you haven’t figured it out yet. Just take your time. If you ever want to take a leave of absence or go on strike someday, just let me know in advance. Just don’t pull something major on me at a critical moment. My heart can’t take it,” Shen Ge teased.
Little Seven said very seriously, “Based on the scan information from the Red Mist Battle Armor, Master, your physical condition is quite good, and your heart function doesn’t have any problems… But speaking of your heart, I have some good news and some bad news for you. Which one would you like to hear first?”
“…” Shen Ge was speechless. Setting aside everything else, just this habit of making people choose between good news and bad news showed that Little Seven had truly “evolved.”
“The good news?” Shen Ge ventured cautiously.
Little Seven replied, “Perhaps because I absorbed the light source from the dream fragments, I can sense the location of the dream fragments inside my master’s body. They are in your heart.”
“How is that good news?” Shen Ge asked, confused.
Little Seven continued, “Haven’t you always wanted to know where the so-called ‘System,’ the Progenitor Weird’s cells, are located in your body, Master? Well, I found them.”
“The heart?”
“Yes. More precisely, they have completely fused with your heart… Your heart is the System, and the System is your heart.”
Shen Ge was stunned for a moment, then murmured, “So… I’ve always been hearing my ‘heart’s voice’?”
“…”
Little Seven almost crashed again. After a long pause, it said, “Master, that’s just like you. After hearing this news, the first thing you think of is a dry joke, not worrying about your own body.”
“So what’s the bad news?” Shen Ge asked. The truth was, it wasn’t that he didn’t care. Ever since he learned that the System was the Progenitor Weird’s cells, he knew the System had already fused with him. Which part it was fused with didn’t really matter that much anymore.
“The bad news is that because it’s completely fused with your heart, Master, you are now a weird monster. You can never change back into a normal human being,” Little Seven said regretfully.
“Is that all?”
“Huh? Isn’t that bad enough?”
Shen Ge laughed. “Little Seven, it seems that although you’ve awakened ’emotion,’ you still have a long way to go before you can think like a human.”
“Why?” Little Seven asked, puzzled.
Shen Ge said, “The truth is, a ‘person’ isn’t defined by whether a specific organ in their body changes. For example, if a person loses a hand and replaces it with a robotic arm, are they still human? And if that robotic hand gives them greater strength and makes life more convenient, will they regret not being able to change back to a normal human hand?”
“Wouldn’t they?” Little Seven questioned, confused.
Shen Ge smiled. “I can’t say no one would feel that way, but at least most people wouldn’t. Because most of those who complain about robotic arms and miss their human bodies do so simply because today’s robotic arms can’t fully replace the original factory model. When they can perfectly replace human arms and provide even greater strength, a certain portion of people will definitely accept their existence. And I just happen to be one of those people.”
“A weird monster’s body has never been the problem in my eyes. The problem is how to solve the shortened lifespan and the risk of further mutation that comes after becoming a weird monster. Once those two problems are solved, weird monsters will be no different from ordinary people.”
“But there’s no point in debating this. Maybe one day, when you truly become a ‘person,’ you’ll understand all this!”
