Under the gloomy sky, specks of starlight spread across the entire cosmos like the Milky Way, glowing brightly from afar. In the dark blue sky, the golden-haired woman that Lin Sanjiu had been searching for was floating in the air, looking at her leisurely.
No matter how Lin Sanjiu looked at it, the scene was too surreal. Even if Lin Sanjiu woke up from her dream the next second, she wouldn't think anything was wrong.
She hesitated for a few seconds before she blurted out, "What did you do to my friend?"
The golden-haired woman called Magus tilted her head and smiled noncommittally.
"Do you want to stay here and talk? Or do you want to talk outside? "
"Tell me first, how is Ji Shanqing?" Even though it was dangerous to stay here, Lin Sanjiu was afraid that Magus would disappear the moment she stepped out of the Astral Plane. "Where is he? Is he with you? "
However, what Magus said next stunned her for a moment — "Ji what? Which one? "
"Which one?" Lin Sanjiu was a little confused.
"... Talking like this is going to tire me out," Magus waved her hand. Her patience was disappearing at a speed visible to the naked eye. "I'll leave first. I'll wait for you outside. You'll know when you get out."
"Get out?"
It was only then that Lin Sanjiu suddenly remembered the most important thing. However, just as she uttered the word "wait", Magus, who was standing in front of her, had no intention of listening to her anymore. With a flash of her body, she disappeared from the starry sky.
"I —" Before Lin Sanjiu could finish her sentence, her words were stuck in her throat. She was dumbfounded.
She still didn't know how to leave the Astral Plane!
The questions that she didn't have the time to ask Magus almost made her chest explode. She felt like her brain was a ball of yarn that had been played with by a cat. Everything was in a mess. Lin Sanjiu floated forward in a daze.
The moment she moved, she transformed back into a star. This small, inconspicuous ball of green light flew to the spot where Magus was just now. It circled around in a daze for a few times before it stopped moving.
All she could see was the boundless cosmos. Obviously, no matter where she flew, she wouldn't be able to reach the exit.
Lin Sanjiu looked around cautiously.
Rays of light flashed past her eyes one after another. Everyone seemed to be very busy and knew where they were going and what they were going to do next. However, at the end of her vision, the stars suddenly slowed down. Because they were too far away, they only seemed to be flowing slowly. Some even seemed to be frozen and motionless, like a real star in the night sky.
Nuwa once said that the "Astral Plane" was a new dimension created by connecting the Willpower of multiple posthumans. To a certain extent, it was similar to the World Wide Web before the apocalypse.
So … What were these evolved humans planning to do by going "online"? How was she going to retreat?
Amidst the meteors that streaked across the sky, the small ball of green light floated helplessly in the air. From time to time, it would fly up in a panic to avoid the meteors around it. However, Lin Sanjiu soon realized that all the people who had been eyeing her had disappeared.
"That's her. She swallowed Syphilis just now —"
Lin Sanjiu seemed to vaguely hear those words when two silvery white rays of light brushed past her not too far away.
"How did the news spread so fast?" Lin Sanjiu was stunned for a moment.
"Hey, is that true?" Before Lin Sanjiu could regain her senses, she heard another voice above her head, "... I heard you took Bohemia's Potential Growth Value?"
Lin Sanjiu quickly looked up and saw a ball of dark blue light. It seemed like it had completely blended into the sky. If it wasn't for his voice, she wouldn't have noticed his existence.
The dark blue meteor hovered in the distance and did not seem to have any intention of getting closer. This made Lin Sanjiu feel a little relieved. After he asked that question, a few more rays of light appeared in the surrounding void. They seemed to have heard his question and gathered together, waiting for Lin Sanjiu's answer.
"I … I only took a quarter of her Potential Growth Value," Lin Sanjiu replied in Magus' words. She was still a little guarded, "... Who are you guys?"
"What an unexpected turn of events. Hmm, Bohemia is really unlucky. She has no choice but to go into hiding." After the dark blue meteor said that to the other balls of light, it glowed faintly and flew away in the direction it came from. In a moment of desperation, Lin Sanjiu shouted, "Wait!" However, after these posthumans got the answer they wanted, they didn't seem to want to stay any longer. They didn't even want to tell Lin Sanjiu their names. One after another, they leaped away and disappeared.
Lin Sanjiu sighed inwardly, feeling both anxious and disappointed.
"... But, at least for now, they won't do anything to me, right?" Lin Sanjiu consoled herself, feeling a little uncertain. Even though she didn't know what the use of taking away two people's Potential Growth Value would be, at least it would serve as a warning to others...
"... Did you just arrive here?"
Lin Sanjiu was slightly taken aback when she heard a slightly restrained voice from a direction she thought was empty. She looked up and saw an inconspicuous little star in the distance.
After the group of stars had left, a small star that had been floating behind them finally revealed itself. It was not much bigger than Lin Sanjiu's orb. After it flickered a few times, a small star appeared in the dark universe.
"A..."
Lin Sanjiu thought for a while, but she still didn't know how to address the person.
She suddenly felt that her vocabulary was lacking.
"Hello, I forgot to greet you."
The person seemed to have realized his impoliteness. As he greeted Lin Sanjiu, he bowed to Lin Sanjiu in the air — if that was really a bow.
"No … You don't have to be so polite …" Lin Sanjiu replied blankly. She also reverted to her original appearance.
Regardless of how many apocalyptic worlds she had gone through, this was the first time in her life that a robot apologized to her.
"Wait a minute, this isn't a robot, right?" Lin Sanjiu suddenly felt uncertain.
To be honest, the "thing" that appeared in front of her didn't have the shape of a human body.
It seemed to be composed of nearly a hundred curved mechanical parts that were assembled according to some kind of pattern. If she had to describe its shape, it looked a little like a sculpture with its wings spread out. Every mechanical part was combined to form an intricate and complicated structure. Even though she couldn't tell what it was, it didn't diminish the beauty of its craftsmanship.
"I'm sorry to talk to you so suddenly. You must be very confused." If it wasn't for the sound of a stapler-shaped part at the top, Lin Sanjiu wouldn't have realized that it was its "head". "If you don't mind, I would like to introduce myself first."
"Please," Lin Sanjiu couldn't help being polite.
"... As you can see, I'm not human." The stapler-shaped part lowered its head again as if it was expressing its politeness to Lin Sanjiu, "Nice to meet you. My name is' Project J's Experiment No. 7 (Failed) '."
"What?" Lin Sanjiu was dumbfounded, "You're not human. How did you come to the Astral Plane?"
"It's like this. In the world I was born in, bionic machines have been widely used. Based on this foundation, the human scientist who created me is trying to develop a new technology. He hopes to combine the human brain with a mechanical structure and use the mechanical system to support the human brain. Then, he can create soldiers who won't die, astronauts who can explore space, operators who can perform high-risk operations, and so on. He can even use this method to cure the terminal illness that has plagued mankind for a long time. "
Lin Sanjiu had probably prepared this speech in the mind of "Project J's Experiment No. 7 (Failed)", so it spoke very smoothly, "Even though AI is developing very fast, the human brain — especially the part that involves creativity — cannot be replaced by AI. Therefore, this research is of great significance. And I am the Experiment No. 7 of this project. "
Lin Sanjiu blinked a few times. She felt that she must look like an idiot right now.
"Even though the human brain that was transplanted into me survived, an unexpected change occurred." Project J's Experiment Subject No. 7 (Failure) seemed a little embarrassed. "After I woke up, the human scientist who created me discovered — these are his exact words — 'It wasn't a human brain that took over the new mechanical body, but the mechanical body that received a human brain'."
"What's the difference?"
"This is because the original human brain's memory and self-consciousness were erased during this process. Instead, I used the transplanted human brain to develop my own self-consciousness. However, I still think of myself as a mechanical lifeform. I don't think of myself as a human, even though I have a human brain."
Project J's Experiment No. 7 (Failed) sighed in a very human-like manner. A few of its mechanical parts closed up smoothly, making it look a little more slender, "In the end, the end of the world came before the birth of Experiment No. 8."
"In the end, just like a human, you began to wander around the apocalyptic world?" Lin Sanjiu asked incredulously, "If you can enter the Astral Plane, it means that you also have Higher Consciousness —"
"Yes, this human brain has given me Potential Growth Value, Evolved Ability, and Higher Consciousness, just like any other human. Even though my Higher Consciousness is very weak by the standards of this world," Project J's Experiment No. 7 (Failed) said.
It took Lin Sanjiu a few minutes to digest the news that this mechanical fellow had Evolved Ability and Higher Consciousness.
"So, why are you looking for me?" Lin Sanjiu asked hesitantly.
The head of Project J's Experiment No. 7 (Failed) suddenly lit up, "Because I admire you very much. Forgive my rudeness, but ever since I entered the Astral Plane, I have been in danger a few times due to my weakness. I never thought that someone could fight back against two powerful enemies even though he was weaker than me. I believe that you must be a very powerful human. If you are willing to let me understand your advanced operating system, I will be very grateful. "
"Speaking of which …" Lin Sanjiu's "advanced operating system" was a little embarrassed by the praise, "Actually, I wasn't even at the level where I could enter the Astral Plane, but I was dragged here by force … There are still many things that I don't understand."
"Is there anything I can help you with?" Project J's Experiment No. 7 (Failed) asked.
Lin Sanjiu's eyes lit up. Even if this fellow was a — a — whatever it was, since it could come to the Astral Plane on its own, it must know more than her.
"I have something urgent to attend to. I need to leave this place now," Lin Sanjiu quickly asked, "Do you know how I can leave the Astral Plane?"
"It's very simple," Project J's Experiment Number 7 (Failed) flew closer to Lin Sanjiu after she nodded, "Every posthuman has their own Willpower cultivation pathway. For example, mine is an [Engineering Laboratory] … If you want to leave this place, you'll have to enter your cultivation pathway first."
Lin Sanjiu smiled bitterly.
Her cultivation pathway was a school, and the teacher who set up the school had been sent to sleep by Nvywa a long time ago. She couldn't even open the [School of Higher Consciousness] at the moment, let alone leave through it.
After listening to Lin Sanjiu's explanation, Project J's Experiment No. 7 (Failed) remained silent for a moment.
"This situation is very rare," it said after a few seconds, as if it was in a difficult position, "But I think you have to wake up that teacher first."
"The problem is … how do I wake him up?"
Lin Sanjiu couldn't help feeling a little worried when she thought that it was Nvywa's doing. She thought for a while and sighed. Then, she said to Project J's Experiment No. 7 (Failed), "Thank you for telling me so much. But I can't wake Mrs. Manas up in such a short time, so don't let me hold you up. "
Project J's Experiment No. 7 (Failed) paused for a moment, as if it couldn't come up with a good solution. It lowered its stapler-like parts slightly and waved at Lin Sanjiu as if it was bidding farewell. However, just as it turned around, a few of its mechanical parts suddenly turned around with a buzzing sound and turned back to face Lin Sanjiu.
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
