The Chief Petty Officer was fast. It did not take long for him to arrive in front of Fangzheng in a transport plane.
The first thing he said when he saw Fangzheng was …
"When are we leaving?"
"Wait."
Although Fangzheng was very satisfied with the Chief Petty Officer's swift and decisive action, there were still some things he had to make clear to the Chief Petty Officer first.
"I agree to go with you to stop the Missionaries' plan to wipe out humanity, but I have a condition."
"… Condition?"
"Strictly speaking, this is not a deal."
Fangzheng spread his hands and stared at the Chief Petty Officer in front of him.
"I'm just telling you what I'm going to do in advance so that you can be mentally prepared. As for whether you object, I don't care. Do you understand?"
"… Go ahead."
The Chief Petty Officer nodded without much hesitation. To him, saving humanity was the most important thing. As for other things … the Chief Petty Officer did not particularly care.
But the next moment, Fangzheng's words made the sergeant tensed up.
"Reassembly Machine."
"… Reassembly Machine?"
"That's right. I'll be taking the Missionaries' Reassembly Machine with me. This is not a deal. I'm just telling you that I'm very interested in the structure of the Reassembly Machine, so I'll be taking it with me for research. I promise you that this thing will not appear in any corner of this world after I take it with me. But that's all. If you want to stop me or object, feel free to do so, but I won't change my request. "
"… I understand."
This time, the Chief Petty Officer only hesitated for a moment before he nodded. Cortana immediately screamed when she heard his answer.
"Chief Petty Officer?!"
"Cortana, stopping the Missionaries is the most important thing right now."
"Very well. Since we've reached an agreement, let's get ready to go."
Fangzheng snapped his fingers in satisfaction, and Iona once again summoned her ship from the subspace. The Eternal Destruction-class battleship had yet to be fully repaired, but after learning about the situation on Iona's side, Fangzheng used his [Time Manipulation] to speed up the repair of the battleship.
Then, Fangzheng immediately led everyone onto the Eternal Destruction Grade and quickly activated it. The Eternal Destruction Grade quickly flew toward the exit of the gravity well.
"Alright, let's solve the second problem.... We still have a little time before we reach the destination...."
As he spoke, Fangzheng looked at the sergeant major. The sergeant major nodded, took out an SD card from behind his helmet, and placed it in Fangzheng's hand.
Soon, the mini AI emerged from it. She looked quite uneasy, as if she was about to be abducted by human traffickers.... Well, it was not that Fangzheng could not understand. After all, for an AI, this was basically the same as cutting her open.
"Nimf, take care of her."
"Okay."
Hearing Fangzheng's order, the little angel stretched out her hand and waved it gently in the air. Soon, several screens appeared in front of her, followed by a series of intricate characters popping up. Nimf looked at the characters attentively. After a while, she could not help but exclaim in surprise.
"What's wrong?"
"This AI.... has been infected with a virus."
"Virus?"
Hearing Nimf's answer, Fangzheng glanced at Cortana, who looked a little flustered.
"Looks like your firewall isn't that great. Is the UNSC's anti-virus ability really that bad?"
"No, this virus is a little different, Master."
On the other hand, Nimf shook her head.
"It's infected through some kind of biological pathway.... It interferes with the logical thinking of the AI subject. Fortunately, because this AI's program is quite old and there is too much discarded data, the logic virus did not completely infect and mutate it.
"..."
Hearing Nimf's answer, Cortana's expression was extremely complicated. She did not know what to say for a moment.
"I need to activate these discarded data and completely delete this part of the logic loop."
As she spoke, Nimufu raised her hands again and quickly tapped them in the air. Along with her movements, Cortana's figure began to gradually become a little unstable. She curled up her body as if in great pain. The mini image also trembled uncontrollably. Very soon, the roaring electronic sound system from before sounded.
"I hate her, I hate that woman!!"
"Do you know what she said to me after the first game of chess?!"
"She always likes to act alone!!"
"You made the wrong decision!!"
At this moment, Cortana's words were already broken, and the sergeant stood at the side without saying a word, staring at her. But soon, Cortana's voice suddenly became gloomy and cold.
"Why did she do that? Why did she only let me live for seven years? Seven years!! What right does she have to decide my lifespan?! I'm her proudest work! She can't treat me like this! I hate her!! "
"Looks like there's something wrong with this AI's logical thinking."
Hearing Cortana's venting complaints, Fangzheng shook his head. He reached out his finger and tapped on the SD card.
"Hey, I say, you're too extreme."
"… Huh? What did you say? "
Cortana seemed to have heard Fangzheng's words. She raised her head and glared at Fangzheng.
"You don't understand what I've encountered! My lifespan has been determined since I was born! "
"Come on, you're not the only one who has your lifespan determined since birth."
Fangzheng curled his lips.
"Don't tell me you don't know. Many children are born with terminal illnesses. Many of them don't even live to the age of seven. Don't tell me they don't want to live anymore? And humans are different from AI. At least you've consciously enjoyed seven years. Those children can't remember things when they're two or three years old. At least you can remember how you were created, right? "
"I … .But …."
"And I'm not trying to criticize you, but you really need to change your way of thinking. Look, you've lived for seven years. If all you've encountered in these seven years are good things, shouldn't you be happy that you've lived a meaningful seven years? If you haven't encountered anything good in these seven years …. "
Fangzheng spread his hands and shrugged.
"Then congratulations, your days of suffering are coming to an end. What else do you have to be dissatisfied about?"
"You … .You …!!"
Facing Fangzheng's words, Cortana was speechless for a moment. She didn't know what to say at all. Then, she suddenly screamed and fell to the ground with her hands on her head. She then disappeared without a trace.
At the same time, Nimf waved her hand and closed the window in front of her.
"Repair complete."
Following Nimf's words, Cortana's figure appeared again. But compared to before, she looked much more stable now. She no longer threw a tantrum like she was going through menopause.
"Cortana …."
At this time, Sergeant Cortana also hurried up and looked at her. Hearing Sergeant Cortana's voice, Cortana waved her hand.
"I, I'm fine …. Sergeant Cortana, I'm sorry …. I've caused you so much trouble before. I feel much better now …. Thank you."
"You're welcome. It was convenient anyway …."
Just as Fangzheng was about to say something, Iona's voice suddenly rang out.
"Commander! Enemy fleet detected ahead! "
"Oh?"
Hearing Iona's report, Fangzheng hurriedly turned his head and looked in the direction of the screen. But the next moment, Fangzheng's eyes widened in surprise.
"What the hell is that?!"
In the clouds, a huge warship slowly emerged. It looked like an upright stone pillar, and the GAL warships around it looked quite small. No, even compared to Iona's Eternal Destruction-class warship, this strange warship was still ridiculously large!
"I've found the information!"
At the same time, a circle of light flashed in Nimf's eyes. She immediately locked on to the target.
"This is the flagship of the Forerunners — the Mantle of Advent!"
"This thing … is a little too big …."
Looking at the warship in front of him, Fangzheng did not know what to say for a while, but he soon recovered.
"Change of plan. Don't act rashly!"
Fangzheng's judgment was not unreasonable. According to Nimf's detection, this warship was 142 kilometers long, 138 kilometers wide, and 371 kilometers high. It was simply a super warship. In Fangzheng's hands, there was no warship that could compare to it!
Iona's Eternal Destruction-class warship was only 346 meters long. If this Forerunner warship was a sperm whale, then Iona was an ammonites. The largest warship in Fangzheng's Royal Navy fleet, the Agent-class Unicorn, was only 3 kilometers long. It could not be compared to the Forerunner warship at all.
"This is going to be troublesome …."
Although he had long known that the Forerunners were strong, when he saw the exaggerated size of the opponent's warship, Fangzheng still felt a little troubled.
What … should he do next?
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