C111 — [5.6 — False Them]

Taking his thoughts back, Zero Three continued to walk within this huge and redundant building, searching for an exit.

 

Although the roads here were confusing and there were no obvious signs, to a bionic human with a sensitive sensory system, finding the exit was not difficult.

He soon found the gate.

However, along the way, his tall figure and the body bag behind him, which was obviously wrapped around the bionic human’s remains, attracted the attention of many people.

Until he walked out of the gate, there were still many prying eyes behind him.

Those were the residents of the slums.

They heard the gu-nshots just now.

After realising that this was the capture of bionic people, like the slum dwellers before them, they also revealed a look of excitement.

Apparently, watching the bionic people suffer was very enjoyable for them.

“Dad, is that their hand?”

 

A child from the slums looked at the fingers that were exposed from inside the body bag.

On the arm that Zero Three had casually broken, the blo-odless fingers were just like those of a human.

 

The child frowned, ignorant and unable to tell the difference between humans and bionics, and seemed to sympathise with those bionics that had been stuffed into the body bag.

 

The adult sneered, his tone disgusted: “Yes, remember, it is these bionics that drove us here! If it wasn’t for them, I’d still be a factory employee; with a fixed salary and a big house, how would I have ended up here, causing you to not even be able to go to school?”

“It’s just a pile of scrap metal!”

The adult spat; his voice was extremely loud, and he didn’t hide his antipathy towards bionics.

 

The residents beside him who were secretly spying on Zero Three also revealed a look of approval when they heard this.

 

If it wasn’t for Zero Three’s tall body being extremely intimidating, they would have wanted to personally smash Zero Three into scrap metal.

 

Negative feelings towards the bionics spread through the crowd.

And this antipathy could easily infect their children.

 

Thus, this generation living in the slums hated bionic people.

 

For humans, bionics were supposed to be handy tools, machines that could improve the quality of human life.

But with the development of technology in recent decades, the bionic people, instead of making life better, had taken the place of the bottom of their status and aggravated their suffering.

 

In their eyes, it was bionic people who caused their miserable status quo.

All the humans living in the slums were hoping for the day when the bionic people would be completely destroyed.

Wrapped in the sticky malice of humanity, Zero Three walked out of the building and towards the police car.

His black eyes remained silently staring at the road in front of him, not looking at the crowd around him.

Letting the people behind him talk.

 

Disgust for bionic people, the want to split bionic people into pieces—all sorts of unpleasant curses were clearly in his ears, but it was as if Zero Three hadn’t heard them.

When he entered the compartment of the police transport vehicle, Zero Three placed the body bag behind him.

 

The bags containing the remains of seven or eight bionic people piled up on the car to the brim, and from the gaps in the bags’ mouths, one could still see the bionic people’s empty and desperate eyes.

 

The thin bodies of the old model bionics contrasted sharply with Zero Three’s sturdy, pale arm muscles.

 

Standing beside the car, Seven Two silently glanced at those tragically dead bionic people and then looked at Zero Three, who was packing up the wreckage.

 

There were too many of these wrecks to fit in without a little compression.

 

That was why Zero Three began to sort out the wreckage in earnest.

 

Click-click-click-

 

The dead bionics’ arms were snapped, the bones were bent, and eventually turned into the right size and placed peacefully in the back of the transport vehicle.

Hearing sounds that were enough to give anyone the creeps, Zero Three still had that pale and indifferent face, devoid of any emotion.

Watching this scene, Seven Two clenched his fists and turned around to sit in the passenger seat.

Zero Three, on the other hand, sat in the driver’s seat and quickly started the car.

Driving in the direction of the headquarters.

This mission was completed quickly, so they had enough time to complete the next mission.

This would save more time at night to protect the mission target.

Zero Three looked straight ahead and thought so in his mind.

Today, Jiu Shu still didn’t go out. After staying in his room for so long, Zero Three wondered if he would get bored.

Definitely, he would.

 

Unlike bionics, humans were creatures that would feel lonely.

But Zero Three didn’t really know what to do to make Jiu Shu less lonely.

Perhaps more roses could be sent.

 

But yesterday, Jiu Shu wasn’t as happy as he thought he would be when he saw the roses.

Zero Three’s grip on the steering wheel tightened slightly.

He’d fold some paper roses with his own hands.

This thought suddenly popped up in Zero Three’s mind.

He had obviously never folded paper roses before, but he felt that that lonely human might like them.

The vehicle quickly drove into the area where the headquarters were located.

This was the border area between the upper city and the lower city.

From here, one could see the towering tall buildings of the upper city, the glass curtain walls reflecting the light of the sky, and geometric lines rich in technological beauty everywhere.

Every now and then, a levitation train, a representative of the latest technology, passed between the buildings.

 

The contrast with the sewage-filled streets and houses of the lower city was enormous.

 

And the distance between the two was only a hundred metres.

 

A winding wall separated prosperity from poverty.

Zero Three looked out through the car window.

He was already accustomed to the change in scenery.

 

Uptown’s malice towards the bionics had become more restrained; after all, the bionics wouldn’t squeeze them out of their jobs; instead, they would become a labour force that worked for them at their beck and call.

 

But in contrast, there was arrogance and detachment towards the bionics in everyone’s eyes.

No one wanted to get close to the bionics, as if they were full of dirty viruses.

The superiority of humans was obvious.

Seven Two looked out the window and glanced down at the smartwatch on his wrist.

 

It was displaying the coded message of his successful meeting with the Resistance.

 

He had long understood the arrogance of humans.

Humans never cared about bionics.

In their eyes, bionics were just tools that could be destroyed at any time, and there was no power for any equal dialogue.

And compared to humans, the power of the bionics was indeed too weak.

 

The advanced technology and the number of races on the human side were something that the bionics could never match.

Seven Two knew what an arduous path he had to face as a member of the resistance.

 

But in order to realise the dream in his heart, no matter how difficult it was, he would try to move forward until humanity acknowledged their existence.

 

Because he loved humanity.

So he wanted to be respected.

He wasn’t a cold and heartless machine like Zero Three; he had feelings.

 

He longed for the day to come when humans and bionics were equal.

 

Even if he had to fight against humans for that and fight against a terrifying new model like Zero Three.

“Give me your love, let’s embrace…”

 

The lively streets outside the car suddenly heard the delicate singing of young girls.

 

Zero Three glanced outside the car and saw that there were some underground idols from the lower city.

 

As small idols that were ignored by the TV stations, these humans often did so, performing in bars at night and going to the streets of the upper city to perform in the open air during the day as a way to grow their popularity.

 

Now these girls seemed to be part of Seven Two’s favourite Xiao Tiantian’s idol group.

Zero Three wasn’t interested in these similar-looking, similarly made-up idols.

But Seven Two seemed to be very interested, he looked at them for a long time until the vehicle had gone far away, and kept poking his head back to look at them.

“Xiao Tiantian is so pretty, isn’t she? She works so hard; she’s my favourite!”

Seeing his favourite idol, Seven Two seemed to have finally shaken off his fear of Zero Three from earlier and began to gush.

 

He knew the daily routines of these underground idols like the back of his hand; whether it was the daily performances or the post-performance support party scenes, all of them were well-spoken.

 

“Speaking of which, it seems that Jiu Shu hasn’t made a real appearance yet; he’s just been here for over a month, but he’s already very popular, so it’s reasonable to say that he should have gone to an offline performance a long time ago.”

 

“That’s the usual practice for bars, and most people are in favour of that business model.”

 

Seven Two was very fond of the human named Jiu Shu.

His beauty was enough to convince anyone.

Although it wouldn’t be good to say that to Xiao Tiantian, whom he had always loved, Seven Two felt that Jiu Shu’s singing voice was indeed even better than Xiao Tiantian.

 

Neither humans nor bionics could deny the charm of that young human idol.

 

Seven Two had also recommended Jiu Shu to his other bionic companions.

 

Unlike in the past, when he hit a wall when recommending Xiao Tiantian, everyone, without exception, he became interested in Jiu Shu.

His singing voice seemed particularly attractive to the bionics, almost as if it had magic powers.

 

With the long, slow tunes of the last century and clear vocals, it was as if he had reverted back to the time that was the best for the bionics, warm and soft.

 

Like the sunlight spilling down on an autumn afternoon.

That was why Seven Two was looking forward to actually meeting Jiu Shu, and it didn’t matter if he was flawed like the outsiders talked about; he didn’t care about what he really looked like.

 

His singing voice was enough to make the hearts of all the bionics sing.

 

If the Resistance’s goal could be realised, then perhaps he would still be able to have a chance to pursue Jiu Shu.

Zero Three listened to Seven Two’s words and looked at the fading figure of Xiao Tiantian in the rearview mirror.

 

The so-called offline performances were like those female idols just now, appearing on crowded streets and smiling at the onlookers.

 

You could get flying kisses from them by paying money.

Even make them sing just for you.

Would Jiu Shu be like that too?

 

Zero Three became even more silent.

Seven Two was used to this silence; he didn’t care; he was just trying to create the same atmosphere as before.

 

Trying his best not to let Zero Three notice anything unusual.

Now wasn’t the best time to be exposed.

 

The Resistance’s plan wasn’t complete.

Thinking of the visions of the future that his fellow Resistance members had told him during the meeting, Seven Two’s eyes firmed up.

 

The wariness of Zero Three in his eyes also increased.

 

As a new model of bionic human, Zero Three’s strength and detection acumen were incomparable to other bionics, so he had to be extra careful when facing him.

 

Everything was for a better future.

 

It was soon time to arrive at the headquarters.

Zero Three sent the body bag to the inspection department for a final inspection.

 

Only after that would it be sent to the incineration plant for burning.

 

While waiting outside the inspection department, Zero Three checked the g-un in his hands as usual.

Doing routine

maintenance.

 

However, there was a sudden noise from downstairs.

 

It was a human bringing his old model of bionic to report a crime.

 

Ever since the government announced the destruction of the old models, there’d been many humans with old models who brought their long-used bionics in exchange for cash compensation from the government.

 

It was just the right amount of compensation to trade for a newer bionic.

A newer model would always have more comprehensive features than the older model.

So the old model that had accompanied the family for a long time could be discarded without a care in the world.

 

Zero Three looked downstairs through the glass window.

.

 

The pale-faced female bionic human was having her iris information entered by the staff and would be uniformly sent to the incineration plant in a few days.

 

These days were usually the peak period for bionic people to defect.

 

The stylishly dressed human host carefully counted the cash in his hand, while the bionic beside him hung her head, her face ashen.

 

Watching as she was abandoned, she only pleaded at the end, “Master, can you send me to the robot graveyard?”

 

There were some bionic humans who would rather be sent to the robot graveyard and be silenced forever than to be sent to an incineration plant to receive the pain of burning.

 

But the human male just waved his hand impatiently and continued counting the money.

Zero Three saw the bionic lower her head in despair.

She was looking at the code on her wrist.

Once upon a time, during that period in the olden times when humans and bionics were most amicable, there were many humans who would give their beloved bionics beautiful floral tattoos to cover the codes on their wrists.

They thought of bionics as their family.

Or… loved ones.

Zero Three saw that the bionic human’s wrist was exactly the flower pattern that symbolised eternal love in the old days.

 

Perhaps sometime in the past, this female bionic human had been surprised to receive the love of a human’s whole heart and thought it would last until the end of time.

 

But in just a few short decades, the eternal affection had turned into yellowed lines, and like the ageing machine, it was no longer needed.

 

Zero Three withdrew his gaze and looked down at the code on his wrist.

The tail number of his code was 03.

 

Both 01 and 02 were only civilian models; only he was a special military combat bionic.

 

As a young, new model bionic man, he had a brand new code and a powerful body recovery ability.

He was a representative of the top human technology.

 

But technology was constantly iterating and developing, and his days of being needed by humanity would end when technology developed again.

There would be another more advanced and powerful new model to replace him.

It was like replacing a machine that had fallen into disrepair.

For humans, it was a matter of course.

 

For Zero Three, it was the end of his own lifespan.

 

Because machines that weren’t needed didn’t need to exist.

 

How far away was it from that day?

Zero Three’s eyes looked to the building beyond the open glass walls.

The most distinctive building in Uptown, the towering Commerce Tower, could be seen from the headquarters.

 

On that hundred-story building, a huge screen was broadcasting a holographic projection.

 

It was the latest new type of bionic human introduced by the technology company.

 

Both men and women had handsome looks and fit bodies, as the aesthetics of human society were constantly changing.

 

The aesthetics of human society have changed rapidly over the past few years. A few years ago, it was still a dignified look with thick eyebrows and deep eyes, but now it has turned into a flirtatious and voluptuous look with the ends of the eyes hooked up.

 

Zero Three looked at his own face in the glass mirror.

 

It was the most popular thick eyebrows and deep eyes with pale skin a few years ago.

 

His body was also tall and robust.

It was still handsome and in line with human aesthetics, but it was no longer mainstream.

 

Such a look might be completely discarded in a few more years.

“……”

Would Jiu Shu find him ugly by then?

 

Zero Three didn’t know what Jiu Shu, who was a human, was thinking; he could only remain silent for a long time as he continued to polish the g-un in his hand.

 

Only when the inspection was complete did he get up and leave, ready to head to his next mission location.

Today was also payday.

 

In the past, Zero Three wouldn’t have cared about any of this, but he had to keep his salary for that human now.

 

Otherwise, it would be bad if the mission failed when the time came.

Unexpectedly, today’s salary was much less than last month’s.

The performance was deducted because of the human colleague’s ostracism.

For the next month, it would be necessary to maintain full attendance.

Zero Three transferred all of the balance to a specific category and decided to wait for a few days to give it to Jiu Shu.

 

A few more days of gifts would be enough to officially transfer the balance to him.

After taking care of the renegade bionics, the rest of the day’s tasks were simple: just taking the bionic remains to the incineration plant.

Everything that was too troublesome for the human employees, the bionics would meticulously complete.

 

Zero Three completed his work with familiarity, and soon it was evening.

He needed to go to the pub to keep an eye on the Resistance bionics.

Zero Three was a little nervous for some reason as he looked at the lively crowd at the bar’s front door and slowly stepped inside.

 

Jiu Shu had recently moved up his show time, seemingly for the sake of good rest and relaxation, and had set a time in for the early evening.

Zero Three entered just in time to see Jiu Shu’s holographic projection appear on the stage.

The audience under the stage was much larger than the previous two days, almost surrounding the first floor.

Frenzied shouts came out of everyone’s mouths.

The scene was even more exciting than those celebrity concerts Zero Three had seen on TV.

The hot atmosphere caused excitement to spread on everyone’s faces.

 

In the cheerful atmosphere that belonged solely to humans, the bionics could only stay in a dark corner, quietly peeping.

 

It was a delightful thing to watch Jiu Shu become more and more popular, with this human icon gaining success in human perception.

Zero Three thought so to himself, but his pitch-black pupils became a little darker.

 

He seemed to be realising that he had drifted away from that glorious human idol.

 

It was only when he saw the roses pinned in the chest pocket of that young human idol that he was stunned, and his eyes slowly lit up.

 

The corners of his mouth carried an upward curve that he hadn’t even noticed.

 

For a bionic who usually always had little expression, such an arc could almost be called a happy smile.

 

He was happy that Jiu Shu liked the gift he had given him.

Recently, Jiu Shu’s video had become much more widely circulated on the internet and had even made it to the top of the internet search trends.

 

Although the ranking wasn’t considered high for the time being, almost everyone who clicked on the video would watch the video all the way through, and some would even watch it several times over.

 

Everyone would have an indescribable liking for the young idol whose face could not be seen in the video and would be fascinated and unable to take their eyes off of him.

 

This was the reason why there were more and more customers in the bar recently.

 

The bar owner was overjoyed.

Not only did he agree to Jiu Shu’s request to adjust the performance time, he also adjusted the contract to a more reasonable premium contract with a more reasonable dividend, just to be able to keep Jiu Shu as a money tree.

It had been a long time since there had been a star in the downtown area who could explode on the internet.

 

Nowadays, the stars on the internet all came from famous families, or at least were official residents of the upper city.

 

Stars such as Jiu Shu, who had no trace of being in the upper city, were rare.

 

After all, if they really had a rare singing voice, they would have been scouted by talent scouts long ago and would no longer be in the dirty and backward downtown area.

 

Now the underground idol, Jiu Shu, had even been given the exaggerated nickname of the Light of the Lower City in just a few short days.

Residents of the formerly high and mighty Uptown district could be seen driving their cars in a hurry just to see a show in an underground bar.

 

A rarity indeed for the suffering populace of the Lower City.

It was enough to make them feel honoured, and the title of Light of the Lower City was well deserved.

 

And so, with some excited sense of triumph, the cheers of the audience on stage grew louder and noisier.

Jiu Shu sat in a high chair, adjusting the strings as the cheers of the people filled his ears.

 

The radio equipment purchased by the original owner was too irritating to his eardrums, and he couldn’t help but frown slightly as he adjusted his earphones to make those sounds a little less loud.

 

Fingertips brushing over the guitar strings, Jiu Shu looked down at the stage, before his black eyes shone beautifully in the coloured beams of the bar’s lights.

 

Like translucent jewels, they were mesmerising to look at.

The stage fell silent.

 

For his part, Jiu Shu subtly glanced at the object of discipline that stood at the end of the stage—the one who thought he was unobtrusive.

The black-haired, black-eyed bionic man was tall, with only a pair of pitch-black eyes on his pale, handsome face that stood out, looking at him on the stage without blinking.

 

His gaze was focused to the point that it looked like a student listening to a lesson, no longer dull.

 

The corners of Jiu Shu’s mouth rose slightly, and he knew that the rose he had purposely placed in his jacket pocket would make him happy.

 

And that was enough.

 

As the lilting accompaniment played, Jiu Shu began his performance for the day.

 

It was still a simple love song.

In that golden age of romantic classics in the last century, many classic songs were born.

 

Most of them glorified love and exalted freedom.

 

In that era when technology was developing at a high speed, pollution hadn’t touched human interests, and class hadn’t solidified, human essence was always the most abundant.

 

Each song had the gentle extravagance of the golden age.

A stark contrast to the decadent electronica of today’s era.

 

Today’s song was one of those, celebrating the love between man and bionic man.

 

In an age where bionics were universally hated, a song like this was a bit of a departure from the norm.

 

If a different person were to sing this song, he or she would have been booed off the stage immediately.

But this young singer on stage named Jiu Shu was different; his voice was gentle and delicate, like a gentle wind caressing his cheeks. It was intoxicating to watch.

 

No one even protested, simply enjoying this classic song from the last century.

 

He seemed to recall those yellowed images of bionic people born not long ago being treated with kindness and friendship by humans.

 

And the bionic people’s undying love for humans.

 

As long as their human master died, the bionic people would also follow them without hesitation.

 

This was the reason why humans preferred bionics in the last century.

 

Impeccable loyalty and love.

 

It was once an advertising slogan that bionic manufacturing companies regarded as a label for their products.

 

Now it had become a folly mocked by humans.

 

A folly that wouldn’t let them fight back even if they were killed by human hands.

 

Listening to Jiu Shu’s song, Zero Three was a little lost in thought.

 

He looked at Jiu Shu’s face as he narrowed his eyes and sang, his gaze wandering around his bright red lips, his short black, slightly curled hair appeared to make his complexion increasingly fair.

 

With his unique red lips and white teeth, he was incomparably clean and beautiful.

Jiu Shu seemed to have no prejudice against bionics.

 

Just like the bionic man who had been split up before, even though he was already bruised and ugly to the point that only a head was left, Jiu Shu would still gently gather him up.

Gentle enough to make him jealous.

If he could be cared for by this young human idol and become the bionic he holds, he should be happy.

There would be no need to worry about being abandoned, and there would be no need to worry that his appearance would be out of the mainstream aesthetic.

But… this was ultimately impossible.

 

Just because he sang a song related to bionics didn’t mean that he was a human who loved bionics.

“……”

 

Moreover, love had nothing to do with him.

 

After all, he was just a bionic human on a mission and shouldn’t have any other sentiments.

The human on the stage who was getting all the attention had never even seen him before and would probably never notice that there was a bionic human hiding in the shadows, looking at him so intently.

 

And that tenderness in the face of bionics would probably fade with time.

Lowering his eyes to look at the code on his wrist that was different from that of a human and remembering the faded lines on the wrist of the bionic woman he saw during the day, Zero Three’s eyes showed a bit of emptiness.

 

Perhaps it was enough to just watch from afar.

 

Until his lifespan ended and he was no longer needed.

 

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