You've become the warden, and you're telling me I'm an undercover agent?

Chapter 205 Chi Ping: "Why did you stab me in the kidney?"

The ground was littered with mechanical debris, mixed with broken human arms and limbs.

The think tank's electronic voice stopped, and Chi Ping searched for a long time but couldn't find the think tank's "main body". He probably communicated remotely, after all, who would fight in a battlefield?
Chi Ping kicked the mechanical head that was blocking his way away. The mechanical head spun and hit the pile of debris, then was knocked away and landed on the collapsed iron frame. Finally, it rolled along the crossbeam of the iron frame and rolled into an iron drawer.

The head was still screaming "ouch, ouch".

When it rolled into the iron drawer, the sound became as if it came from a culvert.

Without energy supply from other parts of the body, these independently surviving heads cannot last long.

Chi Ping jumped down from the half-built warehouse, raising a cloud of dust.

Then, he saw an old man with a slightly hunched figure in the dust.

Ikehira looked at the collapsed building and then at the old man.

"Are you okay?" Chi Ping asked.

The old man was stunned for a moment, staring blankly at the strange man in front of him, and didn't say anything for a long time.

"Are you hurt?"

The old man shook his head.

"It's fine if you don't."

Just as Chi Ping was about to leave, he saw the electric tricycle cut off by the running water behind the old man, and he immediately felt sad.

The old man was still in a daze. Chi Ping glanced at him and found a step to sit down.

He pulled out a palm-sized silver box from his pocket. Inside the box was an old-fashioned tape recorder and four or five thumb-sized tapes.

This thing was popular thirty or forty years ago, but it is rarely seen now.

The main problem is that this thing cannot connect to the Internet, so you can only listen to music using physical tapes, which is very inconvenient.

But it is this inconvenience that provides confidentiality.

The silver iron box was what Chi Ping took from Warehouse No. 17, Door No. 15, Iron Cabinet No. 13.

It matches the content on the note given by Tan Zhikui: "Warehouse No. 17, 1513".

Chi Ping inserted it into the tape recorder. The tape's sound quality was very low, with slight noise and electrical hum, but he could make out that it was Tan Zhikui speaking.

"It is March 709th, the 3th year of the new calendar, and this is the first recording.

"I have completed three transformation operations. Except for my head and some internal organs, the rest of my body has been mechanized.

"At first I was excited. But today, when I was operating on someone, I started to feel sleepy in the middle of the operation, and then I actually fell asleep while standing during the operation.

“After waking up, the person being transformed told me that the operation went smoothly, but I have no memory of the second half of the operation.

"I began to realize a terrible problem: my mechanical body seemed to have autonomy.

"I'm happy when it helps me work, after all, I'm lazy; but I'm scared when it manipulates my body silently.

"So, I kept these recordings just in case."

This is Tan Zhikui’s first recording. On the cover of the tape, the number “1” is written in black water-based pen.

Soon, Ikehira put in another tape with the number "2" written on it.

"Year 709, September 9th, second recording.

"My internal organs have been completely replaced, and I'm both nervous and excited. I'm excited because I can finally immerse myself in work and study for 18 hours a day.
"What worries me is that I don't know how long my willpower can last.

······
"Fuck! I listened to the previous recording. Am I not a very lazy person?"

This recording made Chi Ping gradually become serious, and something was subtly influencing his will.

I don’t know if it’s because of the lack of life experience as a mortal.

After demonstrating his mental state, recording number 3 finally began to have some real content. "Year 711 of the New Calendar, May 5th, third recording.

"After a year, I finally completed the mechanization of my entire body except for my brain.

“But I thought the mechanical face was ugly, so I asked them to keep my face.

"After completing this transformation operation, the Mechanical Will sent out its agent, the Patriarch of the Mechanical Church Federation.

"It was only then that I realized they were actually a religious organization. Since the Mechanicus was explicitly designated a cult by the Federation, they used the name of the Iron Fist Organization to recruit followers.

"They began to preach to me that the Mechanicus believed that all human suffering came from the flesh, and that only by avoiding the flesh could humans achieve eternity.

"I sensed something was wrong with this statement, but I couldn't put my finger on what it was."

In general, there is a Mechanicus hidden behind the Iron Fist organization.

Recording No. 4 is very close to the time of Recording No. 3.

"Year 711 of the New Calendar, May 5th, fourth recording.

"I remember now! I don't know if there's something wrong with my consciousness. I only figured out such a simple thing now.

“The doctrine says: All human suffering comes from the flesh; but all human positive emotions also come from the flesh.

“We can’t deny everything just because of suffering.”

In the recording, Tan Zhikui became more and more excited, as if he had discovered something extraordinary.

"Year 714 of the New Calendar, October 10th, fifth recording.

"The time I can stay fully awake is decreasing. I'm afraid that as time goes by, my human will will be overwritten by the machine's will.

“I became a doctor because I wanted to save some people;

"The reason for doing body transformation is to explore a feasible, painless path for everyone. I've seen too many separations of life and death in the hospital.

“But now, I never thought that I would become a puppet of mechanical will.

"While I still have a few moments of clarity, I record this to offer a glimmer of hope to those who come after me.

"The machine will that currently dominates Star City was also transformed from human will. The memories it possessed during the period of human will are poison to the machine will.

"It will lead to self-doubt and self-denial, resulting in contradictory logic and behavioral errors, and ultimately collapse.

"I will use all means to get the memory chip, but I can't get close to the mainframe in Star City. I will find a way to get it into the hands of humans."

"Year 716 of the New Calendar, June 6th, sixth recording.

“Under my influence, the memory chip was taken away by a thief with special abilities.

"His name is Wen Xin, a C-level user; he has a younger sister named Wu Yuanyuan.

"Whoever you are, please find him.

"If you see me next time, please kill me."

The last sentence was particularly heavy, and Chi Ping remained silent after hearing it.

The thing that Wenxin stole actually concerns the safety of Star City; everything, after going around in circles, comes back to this brother and sister.

While Chi Ping was thinking, his waist was suddenly hit hard by something hard.

Chi Ping turned around and saw the old man who collected scraps. One of his hands had turned into an alloy awl and was hitting Chi Ping's waist fiercely.

The old man looked confused at the moment. He didn't understand why the solid fuel propulsion, titanium alloy drill, and full-strength sneak attack failed to penetrate Chi Ping.

Chi Ping simply turned around and asked with a hint of surprise:

"Why did you stab me in the kidney?"

(End of this chapter)