Chapter 1 The Pitiful Madman

That pitiful madman—that’s what Nolan’s mercenaries had started calling the strange man who arrived at the base today carrying a female corpse. Even though Hao Ren had been here for less than two hours, his story had already spread throughout this small outpost. No one knew which imaginative person had first concocted the entire tale, or which bigmouth had then spread it around, but now, if Hao Ren went outside, he would definitely be met with a crowd of curious onlookers.

But Hao Ren wasn’t paying attention to that. He was currently focused on studying the body of the data terminal, and not out of any inappropriate thoughts. He wanted to know how this second-generation evolutionist had become the data terminal’s carrier by some strange twist of fate. Because the Dream Plane was a real world, everything that happened here should follow the laws of nature. Since the data terminal’s consciousness could parasitize a corpse, then this body must have parts that were compatible with the terminal’s consciousness pattern.

Finding this compatible part might restore the terminal’s senses.

Hao Ren carefully unwrapped the rough strips of cloth that served as bandages on the blonde girl’s body. The fatal wound that pierced her chest and abdomen was still ghastly, and because the blood had long since drained, the silver-white tubes that grew with the body, somewhere between machine and flesh, could now be clearly seen. Hao Ren tried not to pay attention to the other exposed skin on the girl’s body, but in reality, with such a frightening wound in front of him, he wasn’t in much of a mood to observe her body anyway.

The data terminal still hadn’t regained its senses, but it had established a visual and auditory sharing with Hao Ren. Now it could see the surrounding situation through Hao Ren’s eyes, and at this moment, it was also curiously observing its current appearance. Even for a machine with a distorted worldview, this experience was novel and interesting.

“I guess the chip inside the second-generation evolutionist’s brain and her artificial nerves all over her body are at work,” Hao Ren said, putting on gloves and carefully checking the broken lines. “These parts should operate more like machines, and your consciousness might be able to survive on them.”

“This unit thinks you look like a pervert right now,” the data terminal unceremoniously complained as Hao Ren’s eyes roamed over the girl’s body. “Your current actions are simply molesting a girl, and with a morbid tendency to necrophilia… Ah, you stuck your hand into this unit’s belly!”

“If you’re not going to help analyze, then shut up,” Hao Ren muttered in a low voice, which probably sounded like he was talking to himself to anyone nearby. “Look at these lines, truly worthy of growing along with the body. The ultimate form of mechanical devices, as precise as living things…”

The data terminal also chimed in with its comments: “Do you think this unit’s chest is a bit small now? Hmm… It seems to be black? This unit doesn’t like black. If there’s a chance, can you help change it to blue?”

“Get lost! Who’s the pervert here?!” Hao Ren’s greatest regret right now was not being able to hit that foul-mouthed PDA. “And this chest isn’t yours!”

“It is now! And dare you say you didn’t look just now? Don’t deny it, this unit is using the same pair of eyes as you now. This unit knows how many milliseconds you use when you blink.”

“Why did I end up with such a nag…” Hao Ren muttered helplessly. “Compared to that, I reconnected a few broken lines just now. Do you feel anything?”

“This unit doesn’t feel anything. This unit doesn’t know what human touch is like, and this unit must remind you of one thing: this body is already dead. Can’t you see that there isn’t even a trace of electrical signal in those lines? The biological and mechanical parts of this body have already stopped working. Connecting a bunch of offline lines won’t do anything.”

Hao Ren sighed. “I know, theoretically, a completely non-functional body can’t carry a soul, but we have to look at the facts. Aren’t you inside her now… And zombies, skeletons, and other undead can also move, which means that dead bodies can also function.”

“The undead have their own special energy cycle. Their blood vessels no longer pulse, but they have other cycles and metabolisms in their bodies, such as magic or alchemical potions. Therefore, in a broad sense, the bodies of the undead are still ‘alive’,” the data terminal said seriously and earnestly. “But the situation of the body in front of you is different. She is completely dead, stopped functioning. At least this unit can see through your eyes that there are no active parts inside this body.”

“That’s right, I also tested the signals of these lines just now, and they were all interrupted. I really can’t explain which part of her you’re living in now,” Hao Ren sighed and stood up. “So let’s go back to the beginning and scan again. This time I’ll check the brain, maybe there’s a chip using the remaining cell energy to maintain operation and is offline…”

Hao Ren was only halfway through his sentence when a soft knock suddenly came from the door. He looked up in surprise and found a middle-aged woman with slightly dark skin standing at the door, staring at the scene in the room.

“The door wasn’t locked,” the middle-aged woman said casually.

Hao Ren quickly took his hand out of the terminal’s belly (that sounded weird), and at the same time, he suddenly remembered that he had been talking to the data terminal unconsciously just now—not just in his mind, but also muttering out loud. He rubbed his hands. “Um, did you hear everything just now?”

“Only heard the last few sentences,” the middle-aged woman said, taking out a low-quality cigarette from her pocket and putting it in her mouth, taking a few puffs after lighting it. “But I’m not interested in what you’re saying. I’m the doctor here. Nolan asked me to deal with a… to check on your girlfriend’s condition.”

Hao Ren scratched his head. “Uh, I’m not crazy. I was just chatting with it just now.”

The data terminal’s mouth wasn’t going to be idle for a moment. “Don’t you think chatting with a corpse is crazy?”

“Shut up,” Hao Ren shouted in his mind.

The middle-aged woman just gave him a strange, sympathetic look after hearing Hao Ren’s words. She had already heard about this man from Nolan, just like the other mercenaries had imagined—she thought Hao Ren was just a pitiful man who couldn’t accept the fact that his partner had died tragically and had become crazy, so she didn’t say much. She just picked up a small black box from the floor and walked into the room. “Don’t mind me interrupting your alone time, right? I need to give your girlfriend an injection.”

Hao Ren said with a sad face: “Whatever you say… but please don’t say she’s my girlfriend, okay?”

The woman who called herself a “doctor” had nothing in common with the medical personnel in Hao Ren’s impression. She wasn’t wearing a white coat, nor did she have any diagnostic equipment. She even had a cigarette in her mouth while working. She was wearing the same gray-black combat uniform as the other mercenaries, with a wooden expression and a weathered face. Except for not carrying a weapon, she was no different from the warriors in this base in all other aspects. No one would doubt that her combat power would be weaker than an ordinary soldier if she took up a gun. Hao Ren watched the woman take out a silver-white, pistol-like vacuum injector from the black suitcase, and casually asked, “Do all the doctors here dress like this?”

“Suspecting my medical qualifications?” The woman took out a metal tube from a small compartment in the box and inserted it into the vacuum injector. “Okay, I don’t have a license, after all, the last institution in the world to issue professional licenses closed down more than twenty years ago, but I’ve treated more than three hundred wounded people, which is more useful than any license.”

As she spoke, she put the vacuum injector against the terminal’s neck. After a soft hiss, a substance was injected into the latter’s body. Hao Ren looked at this scene with a strange expression, not knowing what it meant to inject a corpse with medicine. He even suspected that the other party was specially sent by Nolan to cooperate with his “schizophrenic necrophilia”: “What did you inject her with?”

“Nanite swarm,” the “doctor” replied. “The simplest model. They will ensure that the body does not decay within a month, but after a month they will run out of energy… Oh shit, Nolan told me not to mention the problem of decay in front of you…”

The corners of Hao Ren’s mouth twitched. “Uh, it’s okay, I don’t care… But speaking of which, aren’t nanite swarms very dangerous things?”

He remembered the information he had searched for on the Internet before, but he was in a hurry at the time, and he didn’t have time to see the fate of nanotechnology after that accident. He thought the technology had been sealed.

“In the eyes of you ultra-conservative naturalists, probably all high-tech should die,” the “doctor” glanced at Hao Ren. “But without nanite swarms, ninety-nine percent of the people in this world would die of starvation and suffocation—how much land do you think can still grow natural plants now? Where do you think the oxygen you breathe comes from? Thank the nanite swarms, at least they’re feeding humanity.”