Chapter 16 Post-traumatic Sequelae

After a rough examination, Hao Ren looked up at the blonde girl's face: "Still no heartbeat, no body temperature. The external injuries have all healed, but that should just be the effect of the medical dermis. This body is still technically dead."

The blonde girl used her only movable arm to cover her chest, looking shy: "You're finally done playing with this body?"

"If you keep messing around, I'll strap you to a probe and launch you into outer space!" Hao Ren slapped her on the forehead. "Where did you get so much nonsense?!"

The data terminal waved its arms: "Do you know how many little movies are in this unit's memory bank?! What scene haven't I seen?"

Hao Ren: "..."

Seeing Hao Ren stunned, the data terminal raised its hand and curiously studied its limbs. This was the first time "she" had seriously observed her state since turning into this strange form. Everything about this body felt new to "her": "Fingers...joints...muscles...so many redundant structures. Do you know how difficult it is to control? Especially when this unit's thinking program is incompatible with this body. Every action requires a specific command to control a single muscle. This process is like using a mouse to control a battleship, and that mouse only has one button that works."

Hao Ren waved his hand in front of her eyes, deliberately twisting his fingers: "Aren't you envious? Aren't you envious?"

"This unit has more threads than you! This unit has a faster calculation speed! This unit's shell is harder than yours! And this unit can emit blue light. What's there to envy!" The data terminal retorted unceremoniously, now speaking much more fluently. "She" was rapidly improving her control program for this body.

Then "she" began trying to sit up, first using her only usable right hand to grab Hao Ren's arm, then straightening her legs for balance. After swaying and sitting up, she tried a few more times and finally miraculously stood on the ground. After completing this feat, "she" turned her head and waved at Hao Ren: "Help this unit watch out. I'm going to try walking two steps... Wow!"

Before the terminal could finish speaking, she fell face down on the ground. Hao Ren tried to pull her up, but couldn't. After finally getting up again, "she" wiped her face and patted her chest: "Luckily this unit has small breasts, so I'm not afraid of flattening them..."

Hao Ren crossed his arms, looking helpless: "How many times have I told you that these breasts aren't yours. You borrowed them..."

"Finders keepers, what's it to you?" The data terminal waved her hand and continued practicing walking unsteadily. At first, she could only use one leg, and maintaining balance was the limit when she stood up. But now Hao Ren was surprised to find that her other leg could also be controlled at some point, although it was very uncoordinated. But this guy was really staggering forward, and getting more skilled!

Although she had complained countless times about the clumsy and difficult-to-use human body, the data terminal was now studying how to use this shell with the enthusiasm of a child getting a new toy. "She" slowly walked back and forth in the small room, occasionally turning her head to look at Hao Ren, and then clumsily imitating his movements. It seemed that this was also part of "her" learning plan. Because it was difficult to maintain balance, "she" bumped into the table and wall several times, but this couldn't stop the terminal's enthusiasm for exploration.

Watching this hardworking corpse puppet terminal, Hao Ren couldn't help but sigh sincerely: "Like someone with twenty years of cerebral thrombosis..."

"This unit has a question," the corpse puppet terminal didn't care about Hao Ren's nonsense. She just stopped suddenly, pinching her chin like Hao Ren did when thinking about problems, "Since this unit's body has started moving, does it consume energy?"

Hao Ren glanced at her, not too sure: "It should...consume energy, right?"

"Then where does the energy come from?" The terminal tilted her head and asked, not because she wanted to use this action to look cute, but because controlling her neck was still not very skilled. "Can this unit eat now? Or does it need to be charged?"

Hao Ren was stumped by the terminal's question. He thought for a long time before hesitantly pointing at her stomach: "I don't think you can eat anything—it's still a mess in there. It's just that the holes on the outside have been blocked with dermis. If you eat something, it'll probably turn into a pot of stew in your stomach."

"...Aren't you disgusted?"

Hao Ren raised an eyebrow: "You're a PDA, what's disgusting about that?"

The data terminal, who had previously gloated with "this unit's values are different from yours," was speechless. "She" chuckled dryly and changed the subject: "Okay, let's not talk about that. Anyway, it's pretty abnormal that this body can move at all. We can study it later if we have the chance. Let's discuss what to do tomorrow. Can this unit show its face outside?"

"I'll find a reason to take you out of the base... Um, I'll say I want to bury you outside, and then put you back into the portable space when no one is looking. After that, don't show your face in front of those mercenaries. Wait until there's no one around to come out and move around."

"Tsk, this unit finally can move, and I still have to lie like a corpse in the portable space," the terminal complained immediately. "If I had recovered to this extent when I first came here, it would have been great. You could have explained to people that this unit has post-cerebral thrombosis sequelae, at least this unit could swagger in front of people..."

"You're going to wander around everywhere with a transparent hole in your stomach?" Hao Ren glared at the terminal. "Can you say something realistic?"

The terminal thought for a while, scratching the back of her head like Hao Ren usually did: "Oh, this unit forgot about that."

"You seem to be imitating my actions all the time?" Hao Ren finally noticed this. "This scratching-hair posture too..."

The data terminal rolled her eyes, another action exactly like Hao Ren's: "Isn't that obvious? This unit usually collects the most human action data from you. At this time, the action template is of course based on your appearance."

Hao Ren looked at her with a strange expression, imagining the pitiful blonde girl sitting on the bed with her legs spread wide and picking her toes like him. He suddenly felt unwell: "You should change the template—change it to Lily or Vivian's. You're a girl now, after all."

"This unit doesn't have a gender," the blonde girl tossed her head, but still obediently followed the suggestion. "Okay, you have a point."

As she spoke, she squatted down on the spot, propping herself up with both hands and looking ahead spiritedly. Hao Ren was puzzled: "What are you doing..."

"Lily, she usually waits at the door like this after you go out."

Hao Ren coughed twice: "Cough cough, change it to Vivian."

"You're so picky... Speaking of which, how does Vivian usually hang herself upside down from the rafters?"

"Load some normal behavior templates for me!"

The two (?) studied human behavior until very late, until Ulanov came to call Hao Ren to eat, and then it was over. The data terminal returned to its corpse state in the room, while Hao Ren was led by Ulanov to the mercenaries' cafeteria.

Since the decline of the ecosystem, food from nature has become an unattainable luxury for ordinary people, and organic matter synthesized by nanite swarms has become the only thing on the civilian table. Under the leadership of Ulanov, Hao Ren took a portion of food. They looked like tender and juicy vegetables and high-quality meat. Hao Ren even felt his appetite increase when he saw the shape of the food, but after eating it, he found that these things had a very light taste, and they all had a kind of astringent strange taste, as if they were crude imitations that were forcibly modulated with additives and barely imitated the taste.

Ulanov took off his mask and slowly poured a liquid food into his esophagus. He had no qualms about the taste of these things: because he had lost his sense of taste many years ago, and now he only eats to maintain the biological parts in his body so that they can continue to operate.

If it weren't for some special insistence, he would even consider replacing his whole body with machines like some severely disabled veterans, leaving only a bionic brain, so that he could live on concentrated nutrient solution and batteries, only needing to replenish energy once every seven days.

But he still retained this "human body", although this body could only bring him endless trouble and pain, he never thought of discarding these.

Hao Ren frowned and casually stuffed some "stewed meat" that was similar to rubber into his mouth, and said, looking up, "I plan to bury her tomorrow."

Ulanov's movements paused, and a relaxed sigh came from his synthetic vocal cords: "Well... that's good for you and for her. I thought you were going to be stubborn like this."

Hao Ren: "..."

He completely didn't plan to reverse this misunderstanding.