"No mistakes." Zhan Chen said.
Yu Tang stayed in Zhan Chen's arms. He didn't want to speak, but the warmth and breath of his head, which was too familiar to him, wrapped around him and made him suddenly feel breathless.
…
He seemed to have suddenly turned back into the little ball of light at night.
Here at Zhan Chen, he learned a lot of things.
I learned how to find cookies for myself skillfully, how to stop Zhan Chen from circling around the stove endlessly, and how to just smash the projector so that I can nestle comfortably in a pile of pillows and play games or watch movies.
Also learn other things.
He hid in the light of the street lamp, waiting for Zhan Chen to come home, then jumped out and suddenly scared Zhan Chen.
He was unable to wait for Zhan Chen. It was the first time he looked at a map by himself and he got the direction of the map wrong, taking the wrong road.
Under the streetlight was the human being he had seen before.
Those humans would give him gifts, some of which he liked, some of which he didn't. There was a strange, shiny silver instrument with a flashing red light, which he liked so much that he secretly hid it in the electronic storm and prepared to give it to Zhan Chen.
Those people also use machines to create some strange electronic pulses.
The frequency of that electronic pulse was very similar to his, and occasionally, there would even be some meaning that he could understand.
He had never had a companion, nor had he ever seen a frequency similar to his own. He thought there were other electronic storms in the world, and was excited to experience them.
The first person he met was Zhan Chen. He had slowly let go of his original wariness towards humans. When he was about to go over to ask for directions, the man in military uniform below him just happened to speak.
"I warn you again, don't get distracted."
The man's voice was very low and somewhat gloomy: "Our original commission was to eliminate the special forces team suspected of treason. It had to be done cleanly without leaving any traces, as if it was an accident."
"We will cover for you and will not interfere with your experiments, but you cannot give us any evidence that could catch us."
The man looked grim and threatened in a low voice: "Be clear, if you don't abide by the agreement, we will not be polite anymore..."
Opposite him was a middle-aged man in a white coat.
He is a little hunchbacked, has thinning hair, and all his ambitions are hidden behind the thick lenses of his old-fashioned glasses.
The man in the white coat narrowed his eyes and said disapprovingly: "Are you suspected of treason?"
"Isn't it that if their pilot project is successful, the entire alliance will be reformed, and the combat based on individuals will become a collective unit. The mecha will no longer have the absolute advantage of the past, and your current status will plummet..."
The man in the white coat said slowly, "We do research and also read military news."
The man in military uniform's expression changed instantly.
His eyes were cold and his expression was gloomy as if a storm was about to come. He reached for the gun hidden on his body without leaving a trace.
"Is it urgent? It's been so long, and hasn't the captain gone crazy as you wish?" the man in the white coat said, "If we expose you, we will be in trouble too. Who would do such a stupid thing?"
The man in military uniform said in a hoarse voice: "... This is the best way."
"People are like this. Everyone has their own selfish desires, and no one is more open than anyone else."
The man in the white coat said, "You guys need to get rid of a group of special forces that are in the way. We just happen to need test subjects. What's wrong with that?"
The man in military uniform stared at him, his eyes changing.
White coat: "Don't worry, the test subjects have all had their appearances modified, they won't be able to find out."
"What's more... no matter how many times we investigate, it will always be just an accident."
The man in the white coat continued to speak at a leisurely pace: "How is it our fault? Wasn't it because of the electronic storm?"
"Everyone knows that electronic storms are an irresistible disaster that causes little harm and harms few people."
"Only if we and you know it, this is the treasure that will make our wish come true."
The white coat said, "Watch the TV and the gatherings for the families of the victims. Aren't people hating the electron storms? Even the experimental funds we applied for from the Ministry of Science are openly for controlling and expelling electron storms for the benefit of mankind..."
The man in military uniform interrupted him in a deep voice: "Save these words for your science department."
The man in the white coat knew that he had convinced him again, so he lowered his head and smiled with satisfaction.
"I'm here this time to remind you that the Special Investigation Division of the Security Department is keeping an eye on you."
The man in military uniform said coldly, "I don't know if it's true or not... There may be agents from the Security Department among the experimental subjects you are observing."
"I don't know how they developed the inside information. It could be through your researchers, or it could be through those people's opportunities to go out and get information."
"Among your experimental subjects, those who come from the military may be able to resist your system even if they have been transformed."
Man in military uniform: "You should also know what will happen if the security department finds out about our affairs."
The muscles on the man in the white coat's face twitched slightly.
For the first time, his expression showed a slight fluctuation. After a long silence, he asked again, "Is the news accurate?"
"We can't be sure either, we're just reminding you."
The man in military uniform frowned: "Destroy them quickly, especially those that still maintain their own consciousness. Aren't your programs very powerful? Be quick..."
Their voices became lower and lower, and the man in the white coat adjusted his glasses and nodded slowly and thoughtfully.
…
Recalling this memory again, Yu Tang could already clearly understand all the subtexts in it.
Once the pilot in Zhuangyu is successful, the entire military will usher in a revolutionary reform. Return to the combat mode based on combat teams, strengthen tactics and coordination, and maximize the role of commanders.
The individual combat system that originally took mecha as the core, spent huge amounts of money to build heavy weapon mecha, and spent a lot of manpower and materials to train mecha operators will completely disappear over time.
The vested interests were unwilling to see this happen, so they used the pretext of jointly conducting research on "AI weapons" and "android projects" with the Ministry of Science to find Wen Er's mentor.
These people, including Sheng Xincheng, secretly cooperated with Wen Er's mentor and deliberately formed a spearhead group to protect the research team. They took the opportunity to create an "accident" and made all of Zhuang Yu's comrades and subordinates disappear in the electronic storm.
"These people are busy fighting among themselves, protecting their own interests, and eliminating dissidents."
Yu Tang said: "They didn't expect that only a year after the last war, an insect invasion far exceeding any previous scale would break out."
Zhan Chen didn't speak immediately, but listened to him quietly.
"Lian Wen'er is just a pawn in their plan."
Yu Tang connected all the causes and consequences: "Wen Er's mentor should not be satisfied with him... He is paranoid, he lives in his own illusion, and all his enthusiasm for the electronic storm comes only from Pu Ying's shadow."
"His mentor is more ambitious and crazier. It's a seamless collaboration."
"Each party got what they needed from the cooperation. The conservatives consolidated their own interests, Wen Er got his important position and experimental conditions, and his mentor got the most perfect experimental subject."
"Madness, ambition, and greed came together to break their own sharpest knife. This knife had encountered the fiercest insect swarms and experienced the most difficult battles. No one could have imagined that the power that broke them came from their own body, from the part they risked their lives to protect."
"… However, the entire alliance was drawn into a protracted battle."
"The most acute part is missing, the core innovative force that should have been in place is missing. The Alliance's army cannot stop the Zerg."
Yu Tang spoke several words in one breath. His voice was still slightly hoarse despite the mechanical sound changes: "This planet... this entire galaxy will be completely destroyed in the war without any suspense. Humanity will be on the road to destruction. On the road to destruction, when they look back at this part, they-"
"A small ball of light." Zhan Chen said.
Yu Tang's voice suddenly stopped.
He was somewhat glad that he was encased in a mecha. The cold and hard iron shell could conceal many details. If it were his original body, he might not be able to say these words.
But he couldn't say what to say next.
…
That night, he finally did not go looking for Zhan Chen again.
He was already able to understand human language, and he could understand a lot of what the man in the white coat said.
He had no idea that so many people had fallen into the electronic storm.
He did live in an electronic storm, but the scope of the electronic storm was so large that it would take him a long time to go around it completely. Occasionally, he would get lost because he couldn't remember the terrain.
… He never knew that he was a scourge.
He had no time to go back to look for Zhan Chen. He went to watch what the man in the white coat called "TV". For the first time, he was exposed to the world other than Zhan Chen, and people's undisguised hatred and resentment towards the electronic storm.
He didn't think those people were wrong at all.
Before he met Zhan Chen, he really couldn't understand human emotions.
But Zhan Chen taught him a lot. He could already understand the stories that Zhan Chen read to him and the movies that he watched with him. He could also experience the joys, sorrows, anger and happiness that belong to human beings.
He has been able to understand human suffering.
He saw a young man with a bewildered look on his face being led by his elders to attend his parents' funeral. He saw an old man standing in front of the wall of honor, wiping his son's photo over and over again.
He saw the memories of the Alliance Headquarters. The military leader had red eyes and was persuaded to retreat, but he still pounded on the desk filled with documents with his fist.
"I can still stand here and listen to your nonsense!"
The military leader screamed, his throat soaked in blood. "He is the best observer in the entire alliance, the most outstanding leader in the history of the special forces! They saved all of your lives! You have been investigating for so long, let me tell him that his subordinates were swept away by some bullshit electronic storm and can never be found again!"
The military leader was held down, and he collapsed and sat back down, taking off his clothes: "If you put your hands here, something will go wrong sooner or later... If a war with the Zerg breaks out again, we can't stop it."
"Planets will be occupied, galaxies will be swallowed up, and humanity will come to an end."
The military leader spoke in a hoarse voice, like some kind of chilling verdict: "On this road, if you look back at this section, you will know that approaching the electronic storm is the beginning of your demise..."
…
The alliance's hearing was broadcast live, but no one expected the military chief to suddenly say these words at this time. He was listening to those words on TV outside the window, and the next second, the picture suddenly turned into a snowflake.
The ever-changing light and shadows hit the window.
The family just used the TV as background music. The man and woman were busy with their work, and only the child who had just finished his homework was concentrating on watching the content.
Hearing the noise coming from the TV, the man thought that the cable was broken again. He looked up in confusion, took the remote control to change the channel, found that there was no problem, and put the remote control aside.
The child walked over and asked his father: "Are electronic storms bad things?"
"Yes." The male host said casually, "Didn't the Ministry of Science issue a notice? Our galaxy is in a high-incidence area of electron storms recently, and the public should be vigilant."
The child was a little scared and a little unconvinced, and whispered back, "My classmate showed me that the electronic storm was very beautiful, just like the aurora we learned about in geology class."
The hostess nodded his head and said, "Wait until you are caught by the electronic storm and can never go home again and can't see your parents, then I'll see if you are still beautiful."
The father half-jokingly threatened his son: "I heard that the electronic storm can understand our speech. If you mention it, it will sneak up on you when you are not paying attention..."
The child was really frightened this time. He quickly shut his mouth and threw himself into his mother's arms.
The hostess gave her husband a half-blaming look: "Are you talking nonsense?"
"Scare him, so that the little kid won't be so careless." The man coughed, "His teacher contacted me two days ago and asked us to give the child the right guidance."
The man said, "Did you see his essay? He even compared the electronic storm to a human being, and even threw a small note into the electronic storm, asking it to stop coming..."
Under the influence of those propaganda, the public of the Alliance has accepted the statement that their star system is located in an area with a high incidence of electronic storms.
More and more people are disappearing in the electronic storm. Even if some of them can get out successfully, they will have various problems and need long-term treatment.
Although this disturbing oppression is not as direct and direct as the fear brought by the real insect tide, it is also spreading silently throughout the alliance.
People were waiting for the electronic storm to go away and for news from the Ministry of Science, hoping that there would be at least one victim who was completely cured.
…
The TV was turned off.
The child was frightened by his father's joke, and refused to leave his parents to go to bed alone. His mother patiently held him and coaxed him back to his room in a soft voice.
The male owner was dragged to the study by the female owner, who gave him a lecture in an angry and amusing manner, and then he went to apologize to his son obediently.
The lights in the living room were also turned off.
He couldn't move freely in the dark place, so he could only stay outside the window, waiting motionlessly for the moonlight to penetrate the clouds.
That was the first time he tried so hard to learn to speak.
He felt that he was extremely bad, but he was also so wronged that he almost went crazy and couldn't stop shaking.
He couldn't go crazy. He could vaguely sense his own limits. If he lost control here, this entire family would be swallowed up by him and disintegrated in an instant.
There was no light outside the window, and he could not move. He used his electronic pulses to shout desperately at these people.
Why don't you throw the note
Even if a piece of paper may float to an invisible place, or may be decomposed by the electron storm, but if he throws in one, one hundred, or ten thousand pieces, he will always be able to see it.
Even if he can't recognize words well, you can draw for him.
Zhan Chen often drew pictures for him.
Zhan Chen also praised him for being smart and quick in learning.
He had escaped for quite some time, and he couldn't help but want to go back to see Zhan Chen, but it was cloudy that night, without the moon or even the slightest starlight.
For the entire night, the electronic storm, which was feared and cursed by countless people and which they wished would disappear forever, was frozen in the bone-chilling darkness.
…
Zhan Chen's gentle but unquestionable voice rang in his ears: "That's not the case."
Yu Tang was pulled out of the prison of memory.
"The anger of military leaders is due to their extreme inability to do anything, and the public's resistance is due to fear caused by a lack of information."
Zhan Chen said: "When we are occupied by these negative emotions, it is often difficult for humans to remain rational."
Yu Tang leaned on Zhan Chen's shoulder. He listened attentively to Zhan Chen's heartbeat and every word he said along with the heartbeat.
… He seems to be very troublesome.
Things in the electronic storm will slowly disappear, just like the two popsicles that Luo Rannu left for his parents, which melted little by little into shapeless sweet water in the scorching summer air.
Only by placing it in the very core of the storm, in the eye of the storm, can it be preserved.
The silver instrument with a flashing red light that he had carefully hidden away and was going to give to Zhan Chen was not a gift from those people at all, but a special detector that was dropped in.
Not long after that, Wen'er's mentor deduced the existence of conscious beings in the electron storm by analyzing electron pulses.
Unlike Zhan Chen, those people used all means to lure and trick him. Before Zhan Chen turned into a two-story-high robot, those people even found a lot of liars to trick him into cheating.
The scammers were all very good at disguising themselves. They tried every way to persuade him not to be sad, and cursed on his behalf those who dared to defame Electronic Storm. They were filled with righteous indignation and denounced the ignorance and incomprehensibility of ordinary people.
But he couldn't listen to any of this.
He could only listen to what Zhan Chen said to him slowly and patiently over and over again.
These truths are not subjective at all, but are from the most gentle and wisest perspective.
To him, these teachings were more direct and effective than any empty consolation or persuasion.
…
Yu Tang suddenly felt extremely aggrieved.
If he had not experienced so much and read this book, he would have realized that when he was making the light ball, his behavior of tearing open Zhan Chen's collar and hiding inside was inappropriate, and he is still hiding inside now.
Zhan Chen held him in his palms, protecting him in the quiet warm light.
Yu Tang hid in this dim light.
He sat quietly for a long time, the mecha concealing all the details. When he spoke again, he was able to control his emotions again.
"I know." Yu Tang said, "You taught me... I know."
Yu Tang: "I know, I remember it all, even after I had the concussion."
He was too embarrassed to speak up at this time and admit that although he had not forgotten these principles, he had forgotten Zhan Chen and even mixed up a bunch of words.
Yu Tang was halfway through, trying to make amends: "I still remember... If you want something, you can't just grab it, you have to go to the mall to buy it."
There was a soft laugh in his ear.
Soft and gentle, like the wind blowing through the aurora.
"You learned very well." Zhan Chen praised him, "Luckily you remembered it."
Yu Tang suddenly couldn't help himself. He stood up from the swing and asked the mall manager, "How many experience points will it cost to hug the mall manager?"
Zhan Chen was slightly stunned.
He had never encountered this problem before, and subconsciously searched the mall's database, but could not get an answer.
Yu Tang just relied on his thick iron sheet not to blush, and before Zhan Chen could react, he calmly changed the subject: "This morning..."
The temporary shielding was set up at the right time, and it had been five minutes since it was reconnected with the outside world.
S7, who was overseas and had a whole comic book stuffed into his pocket by his special forces comrades, was fighting the mechanical bugs while distractedly reminding him: "Senior Zhan, you can hold me for free at this time."
Zhan Chen: “…”
Yu Tang: “…”
The adults were talking about serious matters, and the young interstellar commander was blocked again from outside his consciousness.
Yu Tang's entire mecha felt a little hot, and he turned around shakily, ready to jump off the swing.
"Mr. Yu... I'm sorry."
Zhan Chen said: "According to the regulations, the person in charge of the mall cannot have private contact with the host beyond the transaction."
"I know." Yu Tang just spoke on impulse. After being interrupted by Shi Ji, he calmed down a lot. "Let's talk about it later. I—"
Zhan Chen put his arm around him.
Yu Tang was stunned.
That hand was as steady as in my memory—it was an extremely firm support that did not allow any questioning, with a clear stance and no reservations.
Just like in his first two books, every time he exchanged for something strange, the mall would silently give him a temporary character.
For example, the temporary cleaner who completely exposed the fig leaf of Sui Si Studio.
For example, secretly replacing the lucky bag with a room service that provides an electric shock device.
For example, the Sweeping Monk brand pebbles that punctured the tires of Wen Er's car.
…
For example, when dealing with Wen Er, he tested the bottom line of the mall's rules and exchanged half of the data in the terminal.
When choosing to exchange, Yu Tang was actually prepared to be rejected.
But the mall did not reject him.
The mall still accepted the application he submitted, making him a temporary righteous hacker.
It seemed as if everything was still the same as it was in the little house. It was just a little naughty fight that was not difficult to solve.
“How did you become a hacker?”
Yu Tang leaned on Zhan Chen's palm, his voice unconsciously soft: "Can I ask this? If not—"
"You can ask." Zhan Chen said, "There are no hackers."
Yu Tang: “?”
"I don't have such strong programming skills."
Zhan Chen: "I moved it myself. It took me three hours."
Yu Tang: “…”
He leaned on Zhan Chen's palm, and in front of him was the image of the majestic mall manager who was diligently carrying data out of the terminal one by one in the dark.
Yu Tang tried to hold back his laughter for a while, but couldn't help it and laughed softly.
Zhan Chen noticed the fluctuation in his data and a smile appeared in his eyes.
He just spent some time to make an exclusive purchase link, and just finished it and sent it to the chosen lucky host through the platform.
Yu Tang heard a ring from the backstage: "What's the news?"
"Because the host has asked about the discount, the mall will automatically send a push notification for a great exchange."
Zhan Chen said: "It's a purchase link, it only costs one experience point."
One experience point is not even enough to buy bubble gum, so anything you buy is a profit.
"Hurry up and grab it." Yu Tang was not in a hurry. He called up the control panel and quickly selected the option to agree to pay. Then he stood up and asked, "What are you selling?"
Zhan Chen: "The person in charge of the mall."
Yu Tang: “…”
Yu Tang: “?”
Yu Tang clicked on the virtual link and looked at it carefully: "Can this be sold?"
"There is no relevant prohibition order." Zhan Chen said, "Even if a ban is declared now, previous transactions will not be invalidated."
According to the rules of Chuanshuju, the mall manager and the host are not allowed to have any private contact in non-transaction situations.
However, Chuanshuju does not stipulate that the person in charge of the mall cannot be a product shelf.
Yu Tang felt a bit complicated: "Isn't it a bit too much for us to take advantage of this loophole..."
"As long as the purchase link is not deleted, returns are allowed."
Zhan Chen patiently inquired: "Does the host want to return the goods?"
Yu Tang quickly called up the control panel, opened the platform, deleted the purchase link and completely cleared the operation data.
Zhan Chen chuckled at his comma-less movements.
He reached out his hand, took Yu Tang into his arms, and gently stroked the back of the mecha.
"Deal done."
Zhan Chen had a smile in his eyes, and he imitated Shi Ji's words seriously: "Hold me as you like, it's free."