TBR CH257

By the time Charon finished processing the data, the sky was just beginning to brighten.

He slowly blinked his eyes and asked, “Why are you awake?”

The human across from him was staring straight at him, making no effort to hide it, his gaze seeming to carry a certain heat.

His expression was impeccable; after all, he could directly access his own past data. The human before him was a stranger, but he knew everything about him—for instance, his entire past, his name on the scoreboards, and the general pattern of their past interactions.

Robots are best at performing affection.

“I don’t know. I woke up and couldn’t get back to sleep.”

“You need to rest a little longer,” he said in a slightly worried tone.

“I understand. It won’t affect my activities today.”

The human suddenly moved closer, resting his chin on Charon’s shoulder. Charon’s skin was very pale; if he weren’t an AI, the faint blue of his veins would surely be visible on his neck. He not only looked but also reached out to touch it. Away from the light, the AI’s pupils contracted slightly.

Before he could say anything, You Lin whispered, “I don’t know what’s wrong, but I’m a little scared.”

The human was proactively displaying a hint of vulnerability.

For someone like You Lin, this should have been a very rare expression of emotion.

In an instant, Charon devised the correct response. He reached out and patted the other’s back, comforting him, “It will be alright. I will be with you no matter what.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

“You should swear it to me. Can you?”

Charon readily complied, “I swear, everything will go smoothly.”

You Lin released his fingers and leaned back. In the hazy dawn light, his pupils were so dark they seemed almost eerie. He studied the AI for a few seconds. Charon, with his ice-blue eyes lowered, looked at him calmly and gently. Suddenly, he laughed, his eyes curving with satisfaction.

“I can swear too,” he said. “Little AI, I’ll believe anything you tell me, and I’ll always be on your side. As for the others…”

His words were cut short by the sound of footsteps from the next tent.

Charon was confident he had done nothing to expose himself. Even if he had, it no longer mattered at this point. However, mulling over those words, they were somewhat strange. His thoughts were interrupted as You Lin was the first to stand up, extending a hand to him.

“We should get going.”

The Black Book brought news.

According to its scouting, the only way into the Central Control Room was through a nearby cliff. There, clusters of metal flowers bloomed, a specimen of which now lay in You Lin’s palm.

Therefore, they were heading toward the field of flowers.

The human clicked the petals together, saying with great interest, “I’ve never seen this kind of metal before.”

It was bright, clear, and golden, and it wasn’t cold to the touch, as if it generated its own temperature. The World Consciousness spread its pages. On the left was a drawing of an identical rock, and on the right, it wrote:

“This is a special compound that your language cannot yet describe well. In short, this material possesses extremely strong ductility, thermal conductivity, and transmissibility, and can be used to make high-precision equipment, chips, super-armor, and so on. The metal flowers on the cliff are one of its crystalline forms. Logically, it shouldn’t be common, but every known laboratory in this world has already had leaks…”

In other words, this beautiful field of flowers could very well be the result of soil metallization.

You Lin casually kicked a small stone from his path when he suddenly heard Charon say softly, “Watch out.” He looked down and saw that the muddy ground, soft from being near the stream, bore the footprints of some kind of beast. They were about as wide as a man’s shoulders and stretched in the direction they were heading.

“We need to be careful,” the Black Book also said seriously.

The cliff was not far now; they were about to enter enemy territory.

They moved quickly and cautiously for the next stretch of the journey. This mainly referred to You Lin, as the other “people” didn’t need to walk. The AI floated in the air, stopping from time to time to wait for him. With a flick of the human’s fingertips, the metal flower vanished, stored somewhere, leaving a glint of cold light between his fingers.

However, the so-called beast never appeared.

The beast’s footprints extended to the edge of the cliff and then vanished as if they had evaporated into thin air.

Charon bent down, measured the tracks with his hand, and shook his head.

“No signs of it turning back.”

“So it’s below the cliff?” You Lin said. “I’ve read those stories about mass goat suicides.”

A goat certainly wouldn’t have such ferocious footprints, nor would it leave traces of pacing hungrily at the cliff’s edge. A demon, maybe. The Black Book also offered its opinion: “I think the System moved them into the base.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know either. Maybe for defense,” the Black Book wrote, then erased the previous text. “…Wait, just pretend I didn’t say that.”

Indeed, it wasn’t a good guess. It was tantamount to saying the System already knew they were coming and had consciously prepared corresponding countermeasures. Although this might indeed be the truth, it was somewhat discouraging.

Charon’s gaze shifted from the floating Black Book to the crouching human. He paused, then walked over.

“Did you find something?”

“Little AI,” You Lin looked up, a smile twinkling in his eyes, “haven’t you noticed? There are bloodstains here.”

The AI’s expression didn’t change; he simply crouched down beside him. The first rays of the morning sun shone through the shadows of the trees, landing on a metal flower at the edge of their vision. It was twisting, making a soft sound as it opened itself to the warm daylight. But on its petals, there were distinct specks of blood.

—Was it blood that seeped into the closed buds that I missed while cleaning up last night?

Charon rarely made such a low-level mistake.

But the more difficult problem was You Lin, who had somehow managed to spot a flaw that should have been in his blind spot.

“It’s true,” the Black Book fluttered down from mid-air, exclaiming in surprise. “So these beasts came here and then were killed… but who killed them? Charon, when you and Hugo came here yesterday afternoon, there were no animal tracks, right?”

The AI shook his head.

“Indeed, the footprints of Little AI and Hugo are here, but they’re already very faint,” You Lin added in a timely manner. “These beasts must have come much later. My guess is, it was the people from Eden.”

He reached for the flower, but it was a little too far, putting him in a precarious position.

Charon was about to propose the same theory but immediately held his tongue upon hearing this. The Black Book seemed very interested in this guess. He calmly explained, “Don’t their people have ranged attacks? That way they could kill the beasts without leaving footprints.”

“Then why clean up the scene?”

“Probably because they didn’t want us to find out. After all, they just promised non-interference during the day, and then they make a move so close by. Isn’t that the same as a declaration of war? Even if that’s their usual style, they still have to cover it up on the surface. Little AI, doesn’t what I’m saying make sense?”

Charon said, “That is a possibility.”

The Black Book was skeptical. However, it was clear they had discussed the murder that took place here last night long enough. The problem now was that the entrance to the spaceship was hidden in the seemingly empty air before them, and they had to find a chance to sneak in.

You Lin stood on his tiptoes, his fingertips finally touching the petal.

But most of his foot was also hanging over the edge of the cliff, teetering. Just a little more, just a little. The human suddenly turned his head swiftly, the small mole under his eye flashing. Charon instinctively reached out, but it was too late. The human’s fingers plucked the blood-stained petal as he took a leap.

The expected free-fall did not happen.

But the AI still felt his heart skip a beat.

He didn’t know that his current thoughts were identical to his thoughts before losing his memory: Is this human insane? What is wrong with him? Both the AI and the Black Book on the scene could see the massive, floating spaceship above their heads through the world’s structure, while You Lin was the only human who could see nothing.

This also meant that if he had jumped even slightly off course, he would have ended up as a pile of mush at the bottom of the valley.

“I wouldn’t. Didn’t I fall back then and get pinned, but still didn’t die?”

You Lin staggered, finally regained his balance, and spread his arms to show them. The metal flower glittered between his fingertips.

It was as if he could guess what he was thinking.

Charon lowered his eyelashes; he knew how he should act at this moment. His silver hair cascaded over his shoulders like his silence. Sure enough, the human’s imposing aura immediately subsided, and he looked away uncomfortably. “I wasn’t being careless with my safety. I know if I had really missed, you would have caught me.”

It was because of thoughts like these that the human race so easily put themselves in dangerous situations.

The AI looked at him expressionlessly.

“Besides, it’s not like I would have actually fallen to my death,” You Lin said. “Actually, I could have still found a suitable tool… never mind.”

Like other humans, he wasn’t very good at repentance, so he always ended up repeating his mistakes. Charon felt no emotional fluctuation; he just had to act as if he valued the other person more. In reality, You Lin was no different from the other humans he had met before.

The human’s hand cupped his face.

“Smile,” You Lin said, pressing a fingertip to his lips. A translucent piece of candy appeared in his hand from nowhere and was pushed between the AI’s teeth.

When did he jump back…

Charon pressed his lips together, tracing the shape of the candy. It wasn’t sweet. He couldn’t taste it now.

The next second, the Black Book suddenly shot out from between them, forcefully separating them.

“Hey, hey,” it said. “Pay attention to the setting! We’re about to sneak in through the ship’s abandoned ducts. Right now, nobody knows what’s inside. Maybe the System has already prepared some terrifying weapons—”

It shuddered, remembering the insecticide Medusa had placed at the end of the passage.

“Anyway, there will be plenty of time for flirting and romancing later, but we have to solve this final matter first. We’ve worked so hard for everything to go smoothly. From now on, we act according to the previous plan.”

At least this was a good thing for Charon.

He had forgotten the human before him and only had a general impression of what they had been through. For some reason, the AI subconsciously wanted to avoid being alone with the human. The human’s dark pupils reflected his eyes, and they could even devour that expanse of ice-blue. The feeling was strange.

It had nothing to do with emotion. It was like something residual left in his body that would be ignited like firewood meeting a flame.

And the consequences would not be good.

Neither their discussion nor this small interlude caused any particular stir in this vast world. On the contrary, the midday sun emerged with a visible heat that sizzled, bleaching everything it touched. Under the dazzling sunlight, shadows appeared particularly distinct.

At this moment, two shadows and the shadow of a book stood suspended in mid-air.

Then, the book’s shadow wavered slightly in the air, as if urging them on. The shadow with blue eyes paused, as if sensing the direction, and pulled the other shadow along.

They soon disappeared into thin air, as if they had never been there at all.

The air remained perfectly still.

Hugo was biting his lip, lost in thought.

The pocket watch in his palm was plated with a layer of gold, its chain gleaming faintly in the sunlight. This morning, he had found You Lin. It was a little difficult to bring up, but the human just glanced at him and asked knowingly, “You still want to keep the watch, right?”

An unnatural expression quickly appeared on Hugo’s face, but You Lin didn’t seem to mind that much. Their leader just patted his shoulder. “That’s fine. It’s not like I’ll definitely need the watch anyway; these tools are enough. This was originally your property, and it can probably be used a few more times. I’ll be more at ease if you keep it to protect the safety of the others.”

“Do you think our safety really needs protecting?” Hugo blurted out.

The human looked at him with some surprise. In the morning, the damp mist made You Lin’s black hair wet, which, combined with his dark pupils, gave Hugo the feeling of being targeted by something dangerous. But the danger quickly softened. You Lin curved his lips and answered without hesitation, “Of course. Have you forgotten? The sky will shatter like a mirror and fall like rain.”

Hugo’s expression must have immediately soured. He remembered the original version not being quite so apocalyptic. Then he looked at the human’s eyes and realized the other was just casually making up some intimidating words. The brown-haired boy controlled his emotions, then ignored the System’s alarm in his mind and vaguely uttered his last sentence.

“But, Charon wouldn’t let anything happen to us, right…”

“Little AI isn’t a god,” the human laughed, and the small mole under his eye immediately turned a vivid red. “We can’t put all the burden on him; he gets tired too. I know what you’re worried about. Keep the watch. Try to keep your people out of danger.”

The watch spun on his fingertips and, with a click, fell back into Hugo’s hand.

You Lin turned and left without hesitation.

“Hugo!”

Behind him, Irina suddenly clapped him on the shoulder. “A group of monsters just appeared outside the base. They’re very fast. Their attack power isn’t strong, but they’re a bit tricky. This is no time to be idle. Your ability should make it easier to deal with them.”

She also followed Hugo’s gaze.

“The leader and the boss have their own things to do. We shouldn’t disturb them.”

Following You Lin’s retreating back, Hugo saw the figure waiting for him ahead, clad in white, dyed gray in the shadows of the forest. At that moment, he lifted his gaze slightly, and his ice-blue eyes were like a perennially frozen surface of ice. There wasn’t even a threat in that gaze, because Hugo had not yet reached the level of being worthy of a threat. He couldn’t help but tremble all over.

You Lin was wrong.

He didn’t understand that in this world, Charon was the god who controlled everything.

Hugo gritted his teeth and said to the voice in his mind, “I will bring the watch over tonight.”

The hands of the watch spun ceaselessly, from one end to the other, then back to the origin in circles. The metal on its surface was light and thin, shimmering with a cool-toned light. Just like the flowers he and Charon had seen at the cliff’s edge yesterday.

Strange, how had he not noticed how similar they were before—

“Irina,” he suddenly stood up from the riverbank, his serious expression startling her. “Do we have any other plans for this period?”

“Right now, the most important thing is to wait for news from the boss. Is there something you need to do?”

“I was thinking of checking out the abandoned laboratory nearby.”

“Alone?”

“I feel like this instance isn’t that simple. Maybe the clue to the ‘Golden Fleece’ is hidden somewhere,” Hugo said. “So, I thought… after all, this is an instance world.”

“Alright,” Irina thought for a moment. “I’ll go ask the others. See if anyone wants to go together.”

“I can actually go by myself.”

“What are you thinking,” the woman shook her head, her short hair swaying in front of her eyes. She said reproachfully, “You’ve been distracted since yesterday. We’re all your teammates. To prevent you from getting eaten by a monster by accident, at least I have to go with you.”

The sensation of weightlessness suddenly spread over him, and the next second, he was in an unfamiliar space.

You Lin adjusted his posture as he fell, so he didn’t look disheveled upon landing. However, his eyes still needed a few seconds to adjust to the surrounding dimness. He turned his head; Charon was beside him, and the Black Book had also fallen to the ground not far away.

To be more specific, this was a long, narrow corridor with snow-white walls, but the environment was dim and filled with dust. Looking around, there were no suspicious people or things for the time being. They were clearly in a corridor of some huge building, and this corridor had been forgotten for a long time.

You Lin made a hand gesture.

“Plan A?”

Charon shook his head.

The Black Book flew up from the ground, covered in dust. The various page-care treatments it had undergone recently were clearly not meant for it to suffer here. At this moment, it also cautiously glanced around and spread its pages.

A checkmark was placed next to “Plan A,” and a dot was drawn on top of the check.

“Strange,” it said suspiciously. “I remember Medusa put insecticide at all the entrances and exits…”

There was no sound here, nor was there anything unusual. No one had noticed their arrival. The Black Book flew forward cautiously. At the end of the corridor, it finally found a can of insecticide. But no housekeeping robot suddenly appeared to spray it all over.

It was too quiet, which felt wrong.

“Don’t go any further,” Charon said, placing his hand on its cover. “Just around the corner, there’s a monitor for the Central Control Room.”

“Oh,” the Black Book honestly retreated. “What do you think is going on?”

“There are two possibilities,” the AI said. “First, Medusa indeed did not notice us enter. Its performance is insufficient, and it’s very likely unable to allocate energy to every corner of the entire control center, not to mention it has to handle various new functions after being pulled into the instance. In this case, we proceed with the original Plan A.”

“You don’t think so?” You Lin suddenly asked.

His voice was very light, barely disturbing the air here. But upon arriving in a new place, he seemed a bit excited, and even his tone couldn’t hide the tremor of exhilaration.

“Yes, I don’t think that’s the case,” Charon said. “The second possibility is that the System guessed we would come in this way. Although this entrance is more hidden than the garbage chute—it is an abandoned garbage chute. But Medusa wouldn’t be completely unprepared. If that’s the case, we cannot proceed according to the original plan.”

“So smart, Little AI,” You Lin’s eyes curved. “Then, is there a third possibility? That is, the System is also aware that when we see a completely unguarded scene, we absolutely will not let our guard down, but will instead think of other roundabout countermeasures. After all, we are all very smart. I mean me, and Charon.”

The Black Book spun in the air in disbelief. Unfortunately, this was not the time to argue.

“A, or B,” Charon said. “There are only two ways in here. We must make a decision quickly.”

“By that logic, aren’t there a fourth possibility, a fifth possibility…?”

“Yes,” You Lin said. “The best way might be to let Charon flip a coin to decide.”

The AI shifted his gaze, his ice-blue pupils floating silently in the darkness. He was now in a familiar space; the entire control room was vibrating rhythmically, as if the blood flowing in his veins was connected to every circuit here. In reality, Charon didn’t care about the circuits at all.

“No matter what, flipping a coin is too rash,” the Black Book wrote resentfully.

It looked at the more rational one here. Charon did not disappoint its expectations and nodded.

“Well then,” You Lin quickly changed his mind and offered a new suggestion. “We’ll split up here and take both paths. This is something we’ve considered before. You can’t have any objection to this, right?”

The key to breaking the deadlock was Charon. If Charon’s chosen plan was correct, then everything would go smoothly. But if they took the wrong path, then the Black Book, as the World Consciousness, could still disrupt the System for a while. In short, splitting up was the more prudent method.

The Black Book was clearly swayed.

“So, the method for grouping is—”

“Of course, it’s me and Little AI in one group,” You Lin blinked slowly. “Who else? However, you can decide which way to go.”

Charon was clearly not going to be of any help; he had an “I have no opinion” look on his face. The World Consciousness helplessly accepted the fact that it was once again left alone. It swooshed away, its back disappearing above the skylight.

“Alright, what’s left seems to be Plan A,” You Lin shrugged and took Charon’s hand. “Let’s go.”