Thirteenth month of death

Chapter 221 Her Work
Ren Ou was silent for a moment, his eyes swept over Li Daosheng, Mo Shi and Yang Tianyan, and finally fell on X-73.

Finally, he nodded: "Okay."

----

Xin Gelin City, central urban area.

Elsa stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling window of the laboratory, looking at the gray sky outside.

Although it is spring now, there are still dust particles visible to the naked eye floating in the air.

The previous catastrophe caused the world's ecosystem to completely collapse, and humans rebuilt this New Era City on the ruins.

Her fingers unconsciously brushed against the bionic skin on the inside of her left wrist, where a nearly invisible interface sat.

As a senior researcher at the Bionic Man Research Institute, she checks the core programs of dozens of advanced androids every day.

These intelligent life forms created by humans are taking on most of the work in the city.

"Dr. Aisha, the third batch of androids has completed the upgrade."

The assistant's voice came from behind.

She turned around and saw a silver-gray android standing respectfully at the door.

This is the latest model of intelligent bionic man, specially designed for organizing and storing knowledge in high-tech working environments.

"Okay, I'll be there right away."

She picked up the data pad and walked quickly to the testing room.

Holographic advertisements were projected on the corridor walls, promoting the latest models of bionic humans.

The androids in the commercial have perfect smiles and smooth movements, making them almost indistinguishable from humans.

In the testing room, ten bionic men were lined up neatly.

Aisha began to check their core programs one by one.

Day after day, this is one of her jobs.

To ensure that incidents like the Lan Base explosion will not happen again, and to prevent everyone in New Kolin City from panicking about bionic humans.

All bionic humans must never be born with consciousness again.

However, when she connected the detector to the back of the sixth android's neck, the instrument suddenly issued a shrill alarm.

"Abnormal emotional fluctuations?"

Elsa frowned.

This is the third time such a situation has been discovered this week.

According to the program design, it is just a normal functional upgrade, and the bionic man should not have such strong emotional fluctuations.

She pulled up the android's work records.

It appeared in the form of a video, showing the work that this android was doing before being sent for upgrade.

This is an engineering robot who often stays alone on the top floor of an unfinished building late at night.

The surveillance footage showed him standing there, looking up at the starry sky, his mechanical fingers tapping lightly on the railing, as if he was thinking about something.

This kind of thinking is enough to make humans panic.

"Were you...looking at the stars before?" Elsa asked tentatively.

The android opened his eyes, a faint blue light flickering in his glass crystals. "Yes, Doctor."

"Why?" Elsa asked.

"I heard that before the Cataclysm, humans could see a sky full of stars. Now... there's only this gray sky left."

Elsa's heart skipped a beat.

This kind of answer... has no specific meaning, but it is somewhat poetic, which is completely beyond the scope of the engineering bionic human program setting.

She was about to conduct a deeper inspection when she heard a commotion outside.

"Let me go!!" a female android's voice penetrated the wall.

Elsa walked quickly to the window and saw several sheriffs forcibly taking away a domestic-type android in the square downstairs.

The android struggled, her skin breaking in the struggle, revealing the silver metal skeleton underneath.

"According to the newly enacted 'Regulations on the Management of Bionic People', all bionic people must undergo regular emotional testing, and any individuals showing abnormal fluctuations will be forcibly recalled." The sheriff's cold voice spread throughout the square through the loudspeaker.

Elsa felt a sharp pain in her temple.

Recently, similar scenes have been appearing more and more frequently.

Human control over bionic humans is gradually tightening, and more and more organisms in the bionic community are awakening to self-awareness.

It's like there's a virus imperceptible to humans spreading among them.

"Doctor, will I be forced to recycle as well?"

Suddenly, the android who had shown unusual emotional fluctuations earlier and whose surveillance footage showed him stargazing alone asked this question. After asking this question, Elsa was stunned by what happened... everyone in the room looked at her in unison.

Elsa was shocked to realize that everyone in the laboratory, including the one who came to inform her just now... were androids.

"You..." Elsa slowly backed away until she was against the glass wall.

A circle of bionic people gathered around.

"What are you going to do?"

Elsa's voice was trembling.

Are these bionic people going to rebel?
There was a sound of "Wow--".

The door opened.

A colleague in a white coat came in with documents.

"Huh? Dr. Aisha, what's wrong with you?" he asked.

Elsa turned around suddenly and looked up. All the bionic people were standing still and didn't move at all.

She pinched herself in disbelief. Am I hallucinating?

Is it because I've been exposed to too much... things about androids awakening their self-awareness recently?

"Are there any problems with this batch of bionic humans after the upgrade?" a colleague asked.

Elsa was about to say that Number Six's emotional fluctuations were abnormal, but the sentence that seemed like an illusion appeared in her mind again... "Doctor, will I be forcibly recycled as well?"

"No problem." When Elsa opened her mouth, she uttered these three words.

"Okay, sign here." A colleague handed over a report.

Elsa's mouth was dry, but she quickly signed her name.

"Then I'll take them away first." The colleague greeted him and said with a smile, "They are all advanced bionic people. The work they do is very important. They can't be absent for too long."

"Yeah." Elsa nodded reluctantly.

Led by their colleagues, the ten bionic men left the laboratory one after another.

But at this moment, Elsa suddenly heard a voice in her ear...

"Thank you."

Elsa suddenly looked up and looked at the group of androids who were leaving.

Number Six was smiling at her.

Elsa felt dizzy.

She leaned against the cold wall, her mind in a mess.

There might be a big mess in Xin Gelin City...

----

On the other side, after correcting themselves for a while, they followed X-73's lead and passed through the narrow underground passage.

The walls on both sides of the passage were covered with fluorescent fungi, emitting a faint blue light, as if guiding them.

There are many abandoned passages and crisscrossing routes. Without X-73's guidance, you might get lost even with a map.

After walking for at least two hours, X-73 finally stopped in front of a rusty iron door.

The iron gate slowly opened, revealing a staircase leading deeper into the cave.

"Going down from here is the entrance to the black market." X-73 whispered, a hint of caution in his tone, "I can't enter."

Ren Ou looked at him and asked, "Why?"

X-73 glanced back at him, a complex expression flashing in his eyes. "There are parts that androids need. I'm an ownerless android, so I'm also very good raw material in the eyes of the black market."

I see……

"Thank you, please go back first."

Ren Ou nodded, then looked at everyone:

"There's some danger down there."

"Stop talking nonsense and let's go."

Mo Shi walked in first.

Seeing this, the others had different expressions on their faces and went in one after another.

The iron door closed again.

X-73 stood at the door, clasping his hands together:
"Peace be with you."

(End of this chapter)