On my second playthrough, they were full of malice towards me.

Chapter 218 Control No. 1

Liao Ji looked at 86, who could only keep a blank face because he didn't have an expression system, but that didn't stop him from constantly spouting all sorts of wild and inappropriate words. He really felt that 86 was changing, or rather, growing.

He vaguely remembered that when he first met 86 in the Holy Kingdom, he spoke quite normally and in a very standard manner. He was a very standard android template, except that due to a system defect, he would express his emotions and inner thoughts along with his speech.

But look at the present.

It's hard to say who Liao Ji learned that sinister "hehehe" laugh, which was produced using electronic synthesized sounds, from when he was in China.

Ever since hearing the virtual idol's way of speaking on the spaceship to the Mechanical Alliance, the word "捏" at the end of 86's sentences has become a catchphrase.

Not to mention things like plugging in USB drives, tuning, home sex toys, and so on!

It's said that androids can learn, and they learn by observing the people around them. Liao Ji is very frustrated. Is he that kind of person? Why doesn't 86 learn something good from him? He clearly has so many excellent qualities.

Liao Ji has always regarded 86 as "Zero's" younger sister. So when "Zero" wakes up and sees her younger sister in this state, how will she explain herself?

We can't say that it was all because of Irene who led them astray.

Hmm. That seems like a good option?

Regardless, Liao Ji quickly stopped 86's evil act of training the machine servant.

On one hand, he was trying to prevent 86 from going astray. On the other hand, if 86 really did that, it would be equivalent to formatting all the current servants. Liao Ji's goal was not to obtain a bunch of home consoles; he needed real servants. The servants seemed too cold-blooded, so Liao Ji decided to call them servant sisters.

After all, they are essentially no different from 86; they are all "Zero's" younger sisters.

So in the end, by creating a system vulnerability through the virus, Liao Ji forcibly added a "commander" identity to himself in the "Control No. 1" program, so that the two sides could communicate normally. After that, Liao Ji told 86 to stop.

"Control Number One" is the new name of the maidservant sister in front of him, "Number 17639". Liao Ji came up with it on the spot, otherwise it would be too troublesome to keep calling her that long string of numbers, so just like "86", he directly used the abbreviation of the number.

"Welcome back, Commander. Control One and forty-nine combat units greet you."

The blindfolded servant placed one hand on his chest, and the servants behind him followed suit, making the same gesture towards Liao Ji.

"Report to me on your battle situation in Zero Dream."

"I apologize, Commander. Control One is only responsible for the 'Witch' war zone and does not yet have the authority to inquire about the situation in other war zones. The following report is limited to the Witch war zone. The base has deployed a total of 1837 combat units, 209 reconnaissance aircraft, and 19 control aircraft. The cumulative combat time is 1,730,080 hours, and the cumulative number of casualties is 2,730,089. The current war zone expansion value is 14.9%."

The beginning of Control One's report surprised Liao Ji. There were more than two thousand machine servants in just one war zone. If the remaining four war zones were roughly the same, then the number of machine servant girls in the entire Zero Dream could reach tens of thousands!

The exaggerated figures that followed made Liao Ji frown even more.

In a war zone with over two thousand servants, more than two million mobile suits were lost or injured. This can only mean one thing: these servants were constantly repeating the cycle of fighting, dying, and being rebuilt, in an endless loop.

More than 1.7 million hours.

"Instability detected in the Commander's emotions. You need not sympathize with our casualties. As long as our consciousness chips in reality remain intact, we in Zero Dream can be infinitely resurrected by the 'Base'."

"Does the base refer to the 'maid's' war zone?"

"Yes."

"And where in reality are your consciousness chips stored?"

"After deciding to enter the dream world, we handed the chip over to the 'Dream Inspection Bureau' of Dream City for safekeeping and maintenance."

Dream Inspection Bureau

Liao Ji remembered hearing this name before; it seemed to have been mentioned in a news report when Yilin was watching TV.

Liao Ji noted down the Dream Inspection Bureau and planned to investigate it in reality after leaving the dream. Following up on the topic of Control No. 1, he asked about another point that Liao Ji was most concerned about.

"Why did you enter my dream? What is your reason for fighting?"

"Commander, have you forgotten because you haven't been back for so long? Our mission is to stop the expansion of Zero Dream. If the other four 'Turbid Kings' are allowed to continue polluting the world after 'Maid' goes into hibernation, the world of Zero Dream will grow larger and larger."

"Once the size of the Zero Dream reaches the critical value of the boundary between reality and dream, everyone in the Mechanical Alliance will be forcibly pulled into the Zero Dream, causing an uncontrollable and serious disaster. Therefore, we need to fight against the Turbid Calamity to delay the expansion speed and wait for your return, Commander, to lead us to truly eliminate the four Turbid Calamity Kings, awaken the maid, restart the base, and end the Zero Dream."

The "Commander" character was created by 86 through a virus-induced program tampering. For the real servants, there is no such hopeful character as the "Commander" that they can wait for.

In other words, they knew very well that their battle was doomed to failure.

All they could do was, as Control One said at the beginning, slow down the speed at which Zero's illusion eroded reality, nothing more. But they continued to fight on, persisting for millions of hours until now.

Is this what mechanical life is?

Looking at the calm-faced Control One across from him, whose eyes were covered by a black cloth and seemed completely unmoved, Liao Ji felt even more determined.

Even if this is nothing to mechanical lifeforms, Liao Ji doesn't think so. Mechanical lifeforms should also have their own lives, instead of endless battles. Besides, these are not unrelated servants to him; they are servant sisters.

Liberating Zero Dream is imperative, and the first step should be to start with the current Witch War Zone. Liao Ji quickly asked again:

"Do you have any way to allow people outside the Mechanical Alliance to log into Zero Dream?"

Control System One seemed to search the database for a short while, and to Liao Ji's surprise, it actually provided a possible answer.

"According to historical records, each Turbulent King has its own trials. The first hero to pass the trial will receive the corresponding 'Emperor's Mark' equipment. After equipping the 'Emperor's Mark,' the hero can summon special mechs from beyond the Dream Realm. Only by relying on these special mechs, which have a great restraining effect on the Turbulent King, can the powerful Turbulent King be truly defeated."

Uh... okay.

As a mechanical being, Zero wasn't really expected to create any particularly complex dreams.

Liao Ji finally understood. In fact, he should have realized this as early as when the five Turbid Kings were around. The rules of this dream were like the world of Demon King and Hero. The hero had to find the Holy Sword to defeat the Demon King, but here it was mechanized and the Holy Sword became a mecha.

"So, what are the Hero Mechs in Witch Wars Zone?"

According to legend, it was called the "Bright Leftover Woman".

Control One projected the shadow of a huge mecha into Liao Ji's eyes. It was completely different from "No. 86" and was estimated to be several stories high.

Although it hasn't been unlocked yet, so we can't see its full appearance, we can still make out some of the "nun" shape from the shadow outline.

Then, Control One thoughtfully labeled the mecha with four large characters.

【Bright Leftover Women】

Chapter 219 The Agreement

"The 'Leftover Women's Number?"

Liao Ji initially thought it was a typo, but the control officer on the other end nodded firmly and repeated:

"Yes, Commander, Light Maiden."

Liao Ji couldn't help but turn to look at 86 next to her, but this time 86 shook her head, indicating that she hadn't done anything underhanded; it was simply the setting of this world.

Just like there will be a "witch" named Zhuo E Wang.

Row.

It's just a dream, I can understand.

We obtained a lot of crucial intelligence from Control One, much of which pointed to reality, such as the Brave Mech.

The witch's trial was the one he had experienced before, but even though he had passed it, he didn't get the Emperor's Mark. This could only mean that he wasn't the first to pass it. Before him, people from other forces had already passed the trial and taken the Emperor's Mark that could summon mechs.

As for who this other force is, Liao Ji had already guessed it from the "Salvation Society" food coupons in the little girl's package. Indeed, only they had the ability to make the first connection.

This also explains why Kyle Technology is frantically recruiting scholars, even going so far as to poach talent from the Demon City.

Kyle Technology probably tasted success, which is why they need countless scholars to help them figure out how to pass the tests of other Turbid Kings and obtain the Imperial Mark.

However, it seems that they have only obtained the Imperial Mark, but do not know how to actually use it.

Besides the Di Luo at Kyle Technology, Liao Ji was also very concerned about the Dream Monitoring Bureau, where the consciousness chips of the female servants were stored. Could he directly liberate them through this channel? Or could he do something else?

In short, there's nothing that can be done in Zero Dream; we have to return to reality.

He had already been in the dream for almost five or six hours. Time in the zero dream was the same as in reality. He logged in at midnight, and it should be almost dawn in reality. It was time to "leave the dream".

However, before that

"Control Number One, I have some things to take care of back in reality."

"Commander, are you leaving again? Understood. I will reconnect to the base network and enter automatic patrol mode. Please rest assured, Commander, we will continue to fight against the Turbid Evil while you are away, and we will wait for you to come back online."

Looking at the blindfolded machine gunners standing at attention and saluting opposite him, this was the thing Liao Ji had to do before leaving.

He quickly shook his head to interrupt, saying, "No, Control One, I require you not to connect to the base network after I leave, and to stop automatic patrols. Understand your own safety and remain on standby until I come back online, understand?"

Control One was created by exploiting a system vulnerability in the 86 virus and modifying the program. Once it goes offline, 86 will also go offline. If Control One connects to the base network, the vulnerability created by 86 will likely be reported and fixed very quickly.

When Liao Ji logs back on, the one that has been fixed is probably number 17639, who will be subjected to the "Glory Program" again. Liao Ji doesn't want to "plug a USB drive" again after finally getting a female servant on his side, so he has to restrict the connection between Control One and the base.

"This is not in accordance with the regulations."

The blindfolded servant initially denied it, but quickly nodded and said, "But if it is the commander's order, Control One understands. We will stay at this coordinate and wait for you, so that you can find us as soon as you log in."

"Okay, it's settled then. We've agreed on this, so if I log on and come looking for you later and find you're not here, that would be a breach of contract, and I'd be very angry," Liao Ji said very seriously.

"The agreement with the commander? Rest assured, Control One will do everything in its power to keep it."

"Okay, I'm off then. It won't be long. See you later."

After receiving a clear answer from the blindfolded servant, Liao Ji felt relieved and waved to Control One with a smile. At the same time, the 86 beside him transformed back into the Dream Terminal and began the "Dream Escape" procedure for Liao Ji.

As Liao Ji's figure rapidly disappeared into the blur, Control One suddenly made a strange move.

She raised her hand and waved at Liao Ji, just like Liao Ji had done.

"See you later, Commander."

Unfortunately, Liao Ji had already disappeared into the Zero Dream by this time. When Control One finished speaking, there was only empty air on the other side.

Next, another action completely detached from the behavior of the machine servant appeared in Control One.

The blindfolded servant stared blankly at the spot where Liao Ji had disappeared. Her eyes, covered by a black cloth, seemed to reveal a dazed expression as she stared at the empty, desolate land without its commander.

Then, Control Number One raised his hand again, but this time it wasn't mimicking Liao Ji's wave goodbye, but rather...

She touched her lips with her hand.

As androids, the servants are almost indistinguishable from humans in appearance, including their soft, bright red lips. In fact, they are arguably more perfect than most humans, since they were sculpted from the most perfect mold.

The action of Control One touching his lips seemed to influence the other forty-nine "combat units" servants in the queue behind him, who also made the same move. They all placed their hands on their lips, as if they were feeling something, something they had never seen or possessed before.

Fortunately, no one else was present, or they would have been stunned by this phenomenon.

After all, for the servants, their hands would only touch their weapons, not their lips, which were meaningless to them and were merely "decorations".