C119.1 — [5.14 — False Them]
by UntamedSAs a bionic born in the Golden Age, the rebel Bionic had seen too many bionics blinded by love and thinking they could be with humans forever.
These bionic groups had a unifying name, the Human Fantasy Syndrome.
They were the wretches who were blinded by the extravagance of the Golden Age, and lost themselves in the slight favouritism of mankind.
The result was invariably misery.
The symptoms of the ki-lling machine in front of him was typical of human delusion.
Though he might not be as joyful as the other bionics, he could see the repression hidden underneath the indifference.
The moment he was abandoned by humans, these repressed emotions would be exposed until they drove him completely insane.
Bionics could go crazy too.
And compared to humans, a bionic man’s madness would be more uncontrollable.
After all, when a bionic human’s emotion control device was completely ineffective, there would be no other way to suppress their own emotions.
This was the reason why so many bionics that had been infected with the neurovirus had k-illed their human masters in the Seventh Metropolis some time ago.
It was true that some of them had long since developed a hatred for humans, but by no means was it all of them.
Many of the bionics, even after being abused to death by humans, would still be filled with love for humans.
They didn’t want to ki-ll humans, and they only wanted to see the smiles of humans until they died.
The bionic looked at Zero Three.
From the look in his eyes, which was so deep in love that he couldn’t help himself, he knew that this bionic human wasn’t far from going crazy.
He looked forward to seeing Zero Three’s completely insane appearance.
It was in the foreseeable, not-too-distant future.
Zip-
Zero Three, who was looking down at his mobile phone, had another heavy blur in front of his eyes.
He frowned, and the data screen on his iris returned to normal after a few moments.
This situation wasn’t normal for Zero Three.
Ever since he was shipped, his system had always been very stable and rarely had problems.
Today, however, there were situations where the data was messed up.
The image in front of his eyes would even become illusory once in a while, giving Zero Three the illusion that his own body wasn’t this body but was in a disconnected network, a lonely and cold place.
It was probably the aftermath of the last serious injury.
Zero Three knew that the best thing for him to do now was to wait until he submitted his mission later to go to the factory for an overhaul.
So as not to deepen the degree of damage to the organism.
After all, with his repair ability, the fact that this situation could still occur could only mean that the internal damage to his body was severe.
If not repaired, it would probably lead to even more serious damage.
Even affecting the central control system, leading to further disruption of consciousness.
But he had a date tonight.
If he went to have it repaired, he wouldn’t be able to return for at least three days.
Thinking of this, Zero Three once again lowered his eyes and looked at the message on his mobile phone, typing out a line.
[I’m looking forward to it too.]
After a pause, he learned from Jiu Shu and added a red heart at the end.
For Zero Three, who didn’t often chat online, adding the heart made him a little nervous.
He was afraid that it would make Jiu Shu think he was frivolous.
But obviously, he thought too much.
Jiu Shu quickly replied with a heart.
Zero Three carefully touched the heart on the screen, and the gentleness in his eyes deepened.
They were chatting like this now, like a real couple.
Could Jiu Shu really like him a little now?
Not because of the so-called long-term friend relationship, but because of a real liking.
Just like his feelings for Jiu Shu.
“……”
Zero Three’s fingers tensed slightly at the thought.
He had always denied his feelings for Jiu Shu.
Because as a bionic human, as long as there was still reason, one shouldn’t have too many unwarranted feelings towards humans.
As a new model of bionic human, Zero Three had always been very clear about this and also considered himself to be very sensible.
But perhaps last night’s atmosphere was too ambiguous, and Jiu Shu’s tenderness towards him was too intoxicating.
He had actually started to have many delusions that he shouldn’t have now.
He became a human delusionist, just like his companion Seven Two.
But unlike Seven Two, he was really getting a response from Jiu Shu.
Jiu Shu’s responses was like he had a crush on him.
Whether it was accepting the roses he gave him or becoming long-term friends with him and agreeing to a date tonight.
All of them were proof that Jiu Shu had a crush on him.
Perhaps it wasn’t his hallucination.
Rather, it was real.
Looking at the reply on his mobile phone, Zero Three narrowed his glowing eyes for a long time before putting away his mobile phone.
It was time to go.
There was very little work to do in the afternoon, and if he worked hard to finish his work in a few moments, he would be able to free up more time in the evening for his date with Jiu Shu.
It was their first date.
Zero Three wanted to prepare as much as possible and didn’t want Jiu Shu to be disappointed.
Gathering all the bionics next to him, Zero Three’s pitch-black eyes locked with the rebellious bionic who hadn’t lost consciousness yet.
Beneath the zip, the bionic’s eyes were particularly resentful.
Zero Three stared back indifferently and pulled the zip up.
This mission didn’t require ki-lling the targets, but rather capturing them alive, so he didn’t destroy their chips.
He just simply incapacitated them.
After submitting the mission there was still a need for a second interrogation to determine if all the true culprits of the cases of harming humans in the Colosseum had been apprehended.
The work after that was simple, he only needed to recycle the body bags.
The winding and cascading staircases under the old factory couldn’t be seen to the end of a glance.
Zero Three went up the way he came, and the surrounding area was so quiet that only the sound of his own footsteps remained.
As well as the heavy whistling sound coming from the ground.
It was only when he passed by the Colosseum that there were other sounds in his ears.
The ki-lling inside the colosseum continued, the cacophony of sounds pierced through the ears, and there was an endless stream of people coming to watch.
Occasionally, people passed by and saw Zero Three.
After discovering his identity, they all showed disgust.
Zero Three had no reaction to this and remained silent as he walked out of this old factory that reeked of old rust.
Because this was his everyday life, gentle humans like Jiu Shu were the minority.
The transport trucks parked by the roadside already had more than a few traces of graffiti on them.
Many of the outlaws in the Lower City didn’t just harbour malice towards bionics but also towards the rich and the police.
“Have you been listening to that Lower City Light lately?”
“Lower City Light? Ahaha! That’s an interesting name!”
As Zero Three was moving the convergent body bags onto the transport vehicle, some people passed by.
They discussed the topic that was more hotly debated in the Lower City recently.
“I’ve only seen pictures of him; he seems to be quite good-looking, but he always covers his face, so he should have some kind of flaw.”
“That’s not necessarily true; I think he’s really good-looking! His voice is especially good! If it wasn’t for the severe xenophobia in the entertainment industry nowadays, if it was in the last century, I think he would have become a big hit singer.”
He really felt that this underground idol had potential.
It was as if there was magic in his singing voice; no matter who listened to it, they would be helplessly enthralled.
“The temptation’s too much; let me listen to it.”
Jiu Shu’s fame in the lower city was getting bigger and bigger.
More and more humans began to like him
Zero Three closed the door of the transport truck and looked at the people who were walking towards the entrance of the coliseum.
They looked at the video on one of their mobile phones, in which Jiu Shu’s voice came out.
The soft and intoxicating voice of the song never tired, no matter how many times it was sung.
Even the lower-city humans who had become selfish and greedy in character because of their forced lives would be moved by the song.
Everyone had a look of amazement on their faces.
“I heard that he even went to the bar yesterday; I kind of regret not going over there to take a look.”
The sound of people’s discussion gradually faded away.
Zero Three also saw someone holding an entertainment magazine from the lower city in their hands.
Inside were high-resolution photos from last night during the support party.
Although Jiu Shu hadn’t yet become as big a hit as other stars, for the underground idols in the lower city, he had already reached a level of attention that they couldn’t get in any way.
It could be called the ceiling of underground idol status, with no one before or after.
Even magazines with only a few photos printed on them were selling exceptionally well.
After appearing on a TV talk show in a few days, Jiu Shu should become even more famous.
Becoming a very different existence from the bionic people at the lowest end of society.
“……”
Zero Three was a little lost in thought, sitting in the driver’s seat for a long time before he came back to his senses and started the car.
But his gaze fell on the car’s rearview mirror
In the mirror was his pale face.
A blo-odless pallor unlike that of humans.
Zip-
The world in front of his eyes began to distort again.
Zero Three was now acting like a human psychopath, knowing that his consciousness had become unstable due to the damage but unable to control it.
It was good that this instability was only for a moment.
Zero Three lowered his eyes, his face calm.
It would be good to hold on through today.
He would go to the factory for an overhaul after today.
Zero Three gripped the steering wheel tightly and drove in the direction of the headquarters.
The transport vehicle quickly arrived at the place.
It was just that today’s headquarters seemed to have suffered some accidents, and the human police officers were all walking at a hurried pace.
Zero Three watched as they ignored him and walked towards the distance, hearing the alarm bells from the headquarters building.
And the whispers of people.
“It looks like the firewall’s been breached.”
“We need to find the culprit as soon as possible.”
It seemed to be something about the theft of some encrypted information within the headquarters system.
But what exactly had happened? No one had come to inform him, the bionic, for the time being.
In the police department, some confidential matters wouldn’t be notified to the bionics in the department, even if they were urgent.
After all, they were just machines.
Zero Three withdrew his gaze and continued his work.
Soon, the dozen or so bionics were placed in the interrogation department.
The handover of tasks was also fast.
Before leaving, the only sober rebel bionic was still staring at Zero Three with spiteful eyes.
Having witnessed the mockery of the humans towards Zero Three on this journey and the contempt of his human colleagues towards Zero Three, he clearly understood that although Zero Three didn’t care on the surface, he must have already accumulated many negative emotions in his heart
.
Even more so, he was certain that he was not far from going mad.
No one could withstand the dumping of negative emotions all the time.
Even bionic humans had limits.
Zero Three ignored his gaze and left the interrogation department right away.
He stood in the corridor, gently wiping the g-un in his hand out of habit and putting it back in its holster.
His pale fingers were long and slender, but they bore minor scars that were in the process of being repaired.
At his wrists, traces of bandages loomed beneath the cuffs of the uniform.
Touching the bandage he had just tied on, Zero Three’s expression eased.
Turning around, he left the headquarters.
Today’s mission had been completed ahead of schedule, and the afternoon would be free for what he wanted to do.
And at that moment, in the building behind him.
Seven Two, who was dodging the patrols, also managed to send the message containing the data of all the bionic humans in the Seventh Metropolis.
The Resistance’s plan had come to an end, and success or failure depended on it.
After leaving the headquarters, Zero Three began to prepare for his evening appointment.
When he returned home, he changed into a casual outfit after changing out of the police uniform he was wearing.
He could tell that Jiu Shu usually liked to wear loose and comfortable clothes for his performances, so this time, he picked his outfit according to that standard.
He took out a much more meticulous level of care for this date than he would have on a mission.
On top of that there were roses.
Yesterday’s roses seemed to satisfy Jiu Shu.
So Zero Three prepared to give more roses today.
Sitting in the living room, Zero Three carefully folded paper roses.
From time to time, his eyes glanced at his mobile phone to check if Jiu Shu had sent him a message.
He didn’t want to miss a single message.
The process of folding roses seemed boring, but Zero Three did it with great devotion, taking care of each one.
The bionic’s unique precision handling allowed him to easily make a good rose, but he still moved carefully, refusing to make the slightest mistake.
Until the petals of the rose were as beautiful and colourful as a work of art, only then could he relax a little and move on to the next rose.
By the time all one hundred roses were finished, the time had already come to an end.
When he looked up to the flat room where Jiu Shu was located, he realised that he had already drawn the curtains in order to concentrate on folding the roses just now, so he withdrew his gaze again.
He looked at the large bouquet of roses in his hands; his eyes were focused blankly as he thought, and one could only see his eyes gradually becoming softer.
After a long time, he put the roses aside and looked at the time; there was still a long time before the agreed time.
Sitting upright on the sofa, Zero Three finally couldn’t hold back and looked at the surveillance.
Fortunately, Jiu Shu hadn’t had any accidents.
He was just drinking tea in the living room, classical music from the last century playing on the record player at hand.
Through the surveillance, he could only vaguely hear the faint tunes.
Jiu Shu really liked classical music.
Thinking so, Zero Three looked towards the bookshelf in the corner of the living room as if he remembered something.
That was a piece of furniture that he had only recently added.
Previously, the living room of the house had been empty, but only now had it become more popular.
On the bookshelf were some old films that he had watched during his previous mission.
At that time, Zero Three remembered the names of these films and bought some of them from the internet.
Switching on the projector, Zero Three screened one of the old films that was said to be sweet.
He wanted to learn something about dating from it.
On the yellowish-greyish-white projection screen, a woman with a pretty face soon appeared.
With a sweet smile, she threw herself into the arms of the tall man at the other end of the screen.
“We’ll be together forever.”
The man and woman hugged each other tightly.
“You can’t be together!”
A sharp-tongued supporting character appeared, interrupting the entanglement between the two.
With a dramatic, exaggerated expression characteristic of old movies from the last century, the supporting character tugged on the man’s arm, revealing his pale wrist.
The man’s eyes widened at once, his expression sad.
Last century’s bionic human manufacturing methods were not yet superb; the neck still carried mechanical-like lines, and the wrist also carried the same codes as the new bionic human.
“These codes can never be erased!”
“……”
Zero Three stared at the film in a daze.
Only after a long time did he look down and unwrap the bandage on his wrist.
The wound that had just been re-injured had long since healed.
The code that had once disappeared also appeared intact on his wrist once again.
The fingertips holding his wrist sank deep into the flesh where the code was located, and the warm, cool, artificial blo-od moistened his fingertips and also stained that string of codes red.
Zero Three didn’t know why, when he felt that it was possible for him to pursue happiness, there would always be all sorts of realities that reminded him of the gap in his identity over and over again.
Over and over again.
Constantly repeating.
It was as if Zero Three’s own subconscious was telling him that it was all ultimately impossible.
It was never possible, even if he wished for it any more.
Zi Zi…
Under the influence of the unknown toxin spreading in his brain, Zero Three’s eyes began to blur again.
His temples throbbed for the first time, and his brow furrowed.
Just as the rebel bionic man expected, it was as if some long-suppressed resentment began to leak out from the depths of Zero Three’s consciousness.
Some resentment about humans, about his bionic identity.
Why did the humans resent the bionic man? Why did the creators abandon their creations?
Why should they be filled with malice towards him?
Why was he a bionic?
… Why was he the only one who couldn’t be happy?
These mixed emotions pounded against Zero Three’s chip firewall, against the loyalty to humanity that was etched into his chip.
“But our love for each other is enough to counteract all that! I don’t care!”
Within the film, the woman’s loving and gentle voice made Zero Three break free from the chaos of emotions.
Looking up, he saw the woman and the man free from their obstacles, embracing again and escaping together to the light where no one was standing in their way.
The ultimate happy ending.
The bionic man’s identity didn’t hold them back.
The image at the end of the film was frozen in place, and Zero Three watched it for a while.
As if inspired by some sort of encouragement, Zero Three’s eyes, which had been fading into darkness, became bright under the reflection of the projector’s light.
Regaining his senses, he let go of his hand, looked at the blo-ody wound on it, and, in silence, gently wiped away the blood on his wrist.
Picking up his mobile phone again, the monitor showed Jiu Shu practicing dancing to a song.
It was the most popular duo dance of the last century.
Characterised by the enthusiastic and powerful drum beats, every movement in the dance was both elegant and forceful.
Jiu Shu’s movements were standard.
When he danced, his toes pointed to the ground, and the hair on his forehead was slightly wet with sweat and spread out as he moved.
When bending over, he showed off his slender waist, and his posture was pleasing to the eye.
As if he could detect his gaze, Jiu Shu’s side face was turned towards the camera, and his beautiful eyes looked over.
When Zero Three locked eyes with Jiu Shu, Jiu Shu arched an eyebrow, his smile extraordinarily beautiful and gentle.
The tips of Zero Three’s ears slightly reddened, and the corners of his mouth subconsciously hooked up.
Although Zero Three knew that Jiu Shu couldn’t see him at all, he still couldn’t help but be slightly lost in thought because of this smile.
It wasn’t until the dance was over and Jiu Shu left the surveillance range to go wash up that Zero Three turned off his mobile phone.
After all, he only wanted to see if Jiu Shu was safe and do his duty to protect him; he had no intention of spying on his privacy.
Though that dance just now was indeed so beautiful that it fascinated him.
For Zero Three, keeping such a distance was enough.
Inside the room.
Jiu Shu wiped off the sweat on his forehead with a towel, his gaze looking towards the room where Zero Three was, his eyes gentle.
He still didn’t seem to be very good; it was probably that tonight’s date made the object of discipline nervous.
Jiu Shu glanced at the monitoring window on the computer not far away and sighed.
Looking out the window, the sky had darkened.
It was time for work.
As usual, Jiu Shu began to perform through the projections.
The scene inside the bar came into view through the projection.
The number of people in the audience under the stage was increasing with each passing day.
In fact, Jiu Shu wasn’t purposely marketed.
But perhaps it was because the humans in this world had listened to too much rock music and were now interested in his classical compositions instead, so he was getting more and more popular on the internet.
He seemed to be very close to the original owner’s dream.
The original owner’s dream was to become a big star, and it was a big star that was comparable to the heroine Lian Qi, which had sounded heavenly to him, but perhaps it wouldn’t take long if he continued to develop at the current rate.
Jiu Shu swept his gaze over the audience on the barstool and lingered for a moment on one of them.
It was a colleague of the object of the punishment.
A bionic man with the number Seven Two.
Thinking about what he had done today, Jiu Shu couldn’t help but raise his eyebrows slightly.
He actually ran to the police headquarters to obtain bionic human information and succeeded.
One could only say that the technology tree in this world was a bit crooked.
Although progress in biotechnology, such as bionics, was soaring, the security system was really bad.
Jiu Shu had attached the monitoring programme to it after noticing their information transmission and trying to find the Resistance’s headquarters stronghold.
However, that half-baked AI’s hiding place was indeed heavily guarded and completely physically disconnected.
His surveillance programme couldn’t continue to pass on the message once it entered because there was no network.
He only learned that the AI’s manufacture was at an end point from the last message that came out.
It had reached the final stage of bringing together the consciousness of all the bionics.
Afterwards, the AI awakening would be carried out, which would allow the AI to have a brain that could think independently.
In the original story, this stage ended up failing.
TN:
Other half will be posted tomorrow
Goodnight, I need sleep 😮💨🥺
Thank you for the chapter!