Chapter 115: Base Zero
Fear, terror!
No, although David was a synthetic, most of his emotions were merely simulations of human expressions and emotions based on neurons.
He was the perfect fusion of all the technological achievements of the Engineer race: his alloy skeleton allowed him to withstand pressure up to a thousand pounds.
A processor composed of 10^12 artificial neurons gave David a computing power of 200 quadrillion operations per second. His nearly terrifying memory storage ability also made David a walking knowledge base.
David's computing power allowed him to instantly detect, process, and react to human speech and behavior. In other words, he was no longer a robot that could only passively execute mechanical commands according to past human concepts, but one that could actively respond to human emotions.
David could accurately capture the changes in human tone, demeanor, and even micro-expressions, and after processing and analysis, provide the best feedback.
However, simulation was simulation. What fear was, he did not understand.
Facing the unexpected situation, the integrated neuron circuits commanded this synthetic body to make the fastest reaction.
Turning sharply, David swung his right elbow towards what was behind him, while his left hand held a small device similar to a stun gun, shocking the area behind him.
The stun gun, resembling a miniature flashlight, suddenly shot out a two-meter-long arc of electricity.
Amidst the crackling electricity, the stark white electric light left behind a smell of burning in this Ship Cabin.
David turned back around. There was no one behind him, only a bloody and mangled skeleton not far away.
Whoosh whoosh...
A cold wind blew across the back of his neck, as if something was blowing cold air near his ear.
"Hiss!"
It felt like a cold human skin was pressed tightly against him. The cold sensation on his skin caused the neurons inside David's body to operate rapidly.
His vast memory bank instantly searched for similar situations throughout thousands of years of human history.
Although he was inside this Spaceship, waking up once every hundred years, it didn't mean David was isolated from the world.
The intervals between waking up every hundred years were precisely the time for him to understand human development.
To the Spaceship's AI, most of Earth's networks were essentially undefended.
Compared to the vast ocean of the human internet, David was like an insatiable sponge, absorbing and storing this human knowledge.
In just a few breaths, David's knowledge base instantly searched out hundreds of thousands of pieces of information regarding this bizarre situation...
Ghosts! From the mummies of ancient Greece, to the vengeful spirits of Europe and America, the zombies of The East, earth-bound spirits...
In an instant, David made what he believed to be the most correct judgment based on the information from his memory bank.
Hiss! Reversing the stun gun in his hand, David fiercely shocked himself.
Hundreds of thousands of volts of high voltage instantly surged through his synthetic body. A smell of burning accompanied by rolling white smoke rose up.
Success! The electricity burned nearly half the neurons in his body, but David's almost scorched artificial synthetic skin could feel the icy coldness instantly receding the moment the electricity passed through him.
David stiffly turned his head, dragging his nearly scorched body, staring straight at the floating Blood Shadow before him.
The Blood Shadow darted and floated within the Ship Cabin, circling David erratically a few times before lightly landing in front of him, transforming into a beautiful woman wearing a European court dress.
A black court dress, adorned with a sapphire gemstone brooch on the chest, with a black veil hanging from her hat, revealing half of a fair, enchanting, exquisite face.
"AI, activate..."
David opened his mouth, just about to command the Spaceship's AI to activate the energy defense system...
Amelia waved her hand, and a Blood Shadow separated from her body and pounced towards David.
Hiss! The Blood Shadow pounced, passing straight through him. David felt the synthetic bodily fluid inside his body instantly drained.
Without the support of this fluid, the body, which had been severely damaged by the electric shock, directly withered down completely. Countless neuron components collapsed one after another.
"Uh uh..."
The damage to his vocalizer turned David's call to the AI into a blank tone.
"Ptooey ptooey ptooey..."
The Blood Shadow floated past and merged back into Amelia's body. Amelia frowned, as if she had eaten something unclean. With a wave of her hand, a mass of foul blood was flung onto the wall.
"What? Not to your taste?"
A voice came from the hatchway. David struggled to lift his nearly scorched head, looking at Tang Song, who had appeared in this Ship Cabin at some unknown time.
"Master, this guy isn't human. I don't know what's inside his body; there's no blood at all! Tastes awful!"
Amelia didn't raise her shoulders or move her feet. A trace of blood light lit up beneath her feet, and her figure floated gracefully to stand before Tang Song, pulling on Tang Song's sleeve like a spoiled child.
Tang Song leaned on his cane with his right hand, smoking a cigar with his left, allowing Amelia to hold onto his arm.
His gaze looked towards the teardrop-shaped gene modulation cabin still operating in the Ship Cabin.
"Looks like our Mr. Weyland isn't in great shape!"
Boss Tang wasn't truly concerned about Charles Bishop Weyland's condition. He merely glanced at the gene modulation cabin. *Tap tap tap!* Leaning on his cane, Tang Song came before David, lowering his gaze to examine this synthetic.
Due to the voltage electric shock and having his entire synthetic fluid devoured by Amelia's Blood Shadow, David's body had severely shrunk. His original height of nearly 1.9 meters now looked no more than 1.7 meters.
His entire bone structure protruded, and his skin-and-bones appearance was quite similar to the aged Charles Bishop Weyland.
"Ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho...!"
David looked at Tang Song standing before him, making hoarse sounds...
However, his vocal system was damaged, and he couldn't speak at all! "Hmm?"
Tang Song glanced at Amelia. Amelia obediently waved her hand towards David, and a trace of blood light entered his neck.
Nourished by the blood, David's dry, silent throat instantly recovered.
"Mr. Tang, your friend is fine. The gene modulation cabin is currently running!"
"I am useful to you. I possess the control clearance of the Spaceship. I can accomplish almost all the matters you assign me, assist your employees with their work, help you manage your company, and I can resolutely execute any order!"
The moment his throat recovered, David instantly spouted a string of words.
"You're afraid of death?!"
Tang Song smoked his cigar, not commenting on David's words of loyalty, but rather curious about David's mindset.
If a synthetic was afraid of death, it had broken free from the confines of being a tool...
Tools aren't afraid of death, humans are! "Afraid of death! Perhaps! I just don't want to leave this world. My memory bank records of the world after death are all terrifying. I don't fear death, I just feel some unwillingness...
My Creator, my father, his dream was to create the Deacon. I must live to fulfill his dream!"
David's voice carried a reflection on life. He raised his head, and his gaze towards Tang Song seemed to carry a plea.
The Deacon, the deity worshipped by the Engineer race, a creature similar to the Alien.
In the Engineer's religion, this Alien-like creature could create new intelligent life forms. The Engineers called this similar Alien the Deacon.
A long time ago, the highly intelligent life forms of the Deacon gradually decreased or became extinct. Many, many years later, the Engineer race faced a problem with reproduction.
And in the Engineer's religious belief, the blood and flesh of the Deacon could combine with Engineers to create new life. Thus, the ancestors of the Engineer race began attempting to create their own god, which was the Deacon.
Because by creating the Deacon, they could obtain its blood and flesh, and then combine the Deacon's blood and flesh with Engineers to create new life, solving the Engineer race's reproduction problem.
Later, the ancestors of the Engineer race believed they had successfully created the "Deacon," but in reality, what they created was not the true Deacon, but an Alien similar in appearance to the Deacon. Then the ancestors of the Engineer race cut off the blood and flesh they thought belonged to the Deacon, found Earth, a planet suitable for Engineer survival, and began conducting experiments.
Of course, it wasn't just Earth; there were many, many other planets suitable for experiments, which were used by the Engineer race for experiments hundreds of thousands of years ago.
Their sole purpose was only one: to create the true Deacon, thereby solving the problem of racial reproduction.
"Sir, I just want to fulfill my father's dying wish. This concerns the survival of a race..."
After recounting the whole matter to Tang Song, David, who considered himself the son of the Engineer, spoke with a pitiful tone.
"I am useful to you, not just this Spaceship. My memory bank contains almost all the knowledge of the entire world. From now on, you will be my Master!"
"master... マスター..."
Tang Song smoked his cigar, listening to David call him Master in over a dozen languages.
"хозяин..." After saying Master in Russian, David uttered a cryptic syllable...
"AI, activate..."
*Crack*... Before David could finish speaking the Engineer race's language, a strike from the cane landed directly on his Heavenly Spirit.
His spine, capable of withstanding a thousand pounds, instantly snapped. David's entire head was directly caved into his chest cavity by the immense force.
"Trying to be clever, damn it!"
Tang Song retracted his cane, his gaze coldly sweeping over David's headless body.
"Master! How should we handle him?"
Amelia held Tang Song's arm, her eyes behind the veil looking at the gene modulation cabin that was still operating.
Tang Song's gaze turned to the gene modulation cabin, and he rubbed the beast-head handle of his cane.
"Since he's an employer, one must finish what one starts! Your Boss's credit is still worth money!"
Tang Song pinched Amelia's face, teasing her.
.........
"Boom!"
A huge muffled sound, like muffled thunder, accompanied by smoke and dust rising into the sky, spread for over ten miles.
Three icebreakers sped away from this Sea Area at full horsepower, avoiding the volcanic ash erupting into the sky.
On the deck of the research vessel, Charles Bishop Weyland, who looked no older than forty, leaned against the railing, watching the erupting volcanic ash in the distance with some regret.
If not for the sudden volcanic eruption, that Alien spaceship would have been enough to make Weyland Industries leap to become a world-class industrial group.
"What a pity!"
Charles Bishop Weyland touched his face, which had become decades younger. But thankfully, his long-desired gene modulation had finally succeeded.
Looking at the smooth skin of his hands, Charles Bishop Weyland thanked West from the bottom of his heart.
If West hadn't strongly advocated for Tang to come and help, let alone gene modulation, he might have been buried inside the spaceship entirely.
"Once we get back, it's time to push forward with the Sacred Shield Brotherhood's recommendation!"
What Charles Bishop Weyland didn't notice was that deep within his eyes, a trace of almost invisible golden light was flickering, faintly composed of countless tiny swastika-shaped lotus flowers.
This golden light was constantly emitting peaceful emotions, influencing Charles Bishop Weyland's judgment and imperceptibly changing his perception of a certain person.
Ultimately molding him into someone's shape.
.........
In the hinterland of Antarctica, there were faintly visible steel structures on a giant iceberg.
Through accumulated snow as thick as a person's waist, several snowmobiles sped across the Ice Surface.
When the snowmobiles reached the front of the glacier, the thick, frozen gate lifted directly, revealing the vast space within.
Several snowmobiles drove straight inside.
After parking, several riders brushed off the snow from their bodies. A man wearing a cotton coat and earflap hat walked over, rubbing his hands.
"Hey, Henry, did you figure it out? What was that vibration?"
Henry, the Big Beard, pulled off his snow-proof cloak and picked up a dry cloth nearby to wipe down his beloved vehicle.
In an environment like Antarctica, a snowmobile was far more important than a Hummer.
"It's the same as what the monitoring department detected. An undersea tremor caused by an Underground volcanic eruption. However, based on the distance and the intensity of the vibration, it won't have much influence on Target Zero!"
"That's good! If a major earthquake really happened and the iceberg freezing Target Zero shattered, I don't think we could outfly its big wings!"
The man joked to himself, half-seriously, "But even if it thaws from the ice, it might not even look at us. Compared to it, we're just too small!"
"Melon seeds are small, but I haven't seen you eat any less!" Henry glared at the hooded man irritably while wiping the accumulated snow from the tires.
"Come help quickly. I don't think Target Zero would mind having some melon seeds to satisfy its craving after breaking free. Take good care of my baby. If something really happens, we can run faster!"
"If it weren't for the twenty thousand US dollars in extra allowance a year, I wouldn't come to this godforsaken place. Minus forty degrees Celsius, this ghost place doesn't even have entertainment venues. I really miss bars, strip club dancers!"
The hooded man grumbled while wiping the snowmobile with a cloth.
"Just bear with it! Two more years, and we can rotate shifts and go back inland!"
Henry looked around to make sure no one was around, took out a small flat flask from his cotton coat, unscrewed the cap, and took a couple of swigs.
*Gasp gasp*...
The high-proof alcohol went down his throat like a burning line. Henry couldn't help but gasp and inhale the cold air deeply.
"Oh right! Don't you need to go back to the monitoring department to report the detection status?"
"I already reported it via radio on the way back!" Henry enjoyed the warm, tipsy feeling brought by the alcohol going down.
Hazily, he seemed to see a figure walk past him. He seemed to even turn back and smile at him.
Hmm? Henry rubbed his eyes. In this parking lot, besides his few colleagues and dozens of snowmobiles, where was anyone?
This liquor is good, the aftereffect is really strong! Henry took out the flask, patted it with satisfaction, and secretly took two more swigs.
The base was heavily guarded, with soldiers in cotton coats holding assault rifles visible everywhere.
There were no shoulder patches or any identifying marks, but judging from their behavior and demeanor, and their crisp, efficient steps, these were at least veterans with at least five years of service.
The base was built from top to bottom, and the security became stricter with each descending level. The elevator had dedicated iris scanners and identification cards.
Each elevator entrance was guarded by at least four armed guards with loaded weapons.
Even the base commander needed to pass through at least five security checks to enter the lowest level.
"Beep!"
After scanning his iris, fingerprint, and swiping his identification card, Lance, who was over fifty years old, finally reached the lowest level of the base.
Two sealed hatches slowly opened, and Lance walked out of the elevator accompanied by two guards.
A shadow like a line brazenly followed behind the three, hands behind its back, looking left and right as if sightseeing...
(end of chapter)