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

Unfortunately, this time the killer encountered Liao Ji, who controlled the Saintess and held the great shield in front of him. The killer's double blades could not break through the church's holy shield at all. Then Liao Ji pointed the mecha's cross sword to the sky, and the next moment, the summoned holy light descended directly from the sky, covering the killer like a flood.

The killer clearly hadn't expected that, as a mecha, she wouldn't use cannons and lightsabers, but rather attacks from the side of supernatural abilities. The energy shield on her body could defend against physical damage, but it was helpless against holy light.

Under the torrent of holy light, the murderer was forced to kneel on one knee, as if a powerful force of faith prevented her from straightening up, forcing her into a prayer posture facing the holy light.

The next moment, the unsuspecting killer, who was kneeling on the ground, was grabbed by Liao Ji's mechanical hand. The killer twisted and turned, but he was helpless against the powerful grip of the Holy Maiden of Light.

Then, Liao Ji grabbed the killer with one hand and pointed the cross sword at the killer's chest with the other.

Swish!

After plunging the cross-shaped sword deep into the victim, the intention was not to kill the victim, but rather to restrain the murderer.

Under 86's control, the cross sword resembled a USB virus. The murderer who was stabbed immediately felt as if his circuits were malfunctioning, with sparks flying everywhere.

"you"

"Damn it."

"Warning! Warning! Limb module error! Motion module malfunction! Core power system damaged, entering low power mode."

Error messages kept popping up from the killer. When Liao Ji released the mechanical hand, the killer was limp and collapsed to the ground, like a human who had been given general anesthesia. Apart from being conscious, his body was almost unable to move.

This kind of killer, who poses no threat, is exactly what Liao Ji wants.

After deactivating the Saintess mech of 86, Liao Ji returned to the safe house with the paralyzed killer and began the interrogation.

His first question was naturally...

Do you still recognize me?

The killer didn't answer, but his stubborn gaze conveyed his dissent. In fact, this was a tacit answer: the other party didn't know him.

Indeed, judging from the killer's rich emotions, which were in no way inferior to those of a human, he was indeed different from the fake 86 in the previous dream.

Could they be sisters?

Moving on to the next question, Liao Ji directly asked about the Old Alliance, but the murderer turned his head away.

Liao Ji then tried to ask some more questions, but the murderer remained silent, like a staunch underground member, no, even more arrogant.

For example, she is now mocking Liao Ji.

“Foolish human, don’t waste your energy. You won’t get any information from me.”

"If you want to torture me, go ahead and try. Only lowly carbon-based life forms can't control their own bodies. I've reduced the sensitivity of all my sensory systems to the minimum. Any of your methods will only tickle me."

After mocking Liao Ji, the murderer didn't forget to turn to look at his compatriot, his sister.

"I don't know your number, but if you have even a shred of self-awareness, please detonate your core immediately. Your existence is a disgrace to the Emperor's glory and a defilement of our pure bodies."

“Okay,” Number 86 replied eagerly, wanting to continue his lewd act.

"you!"

The killer was clearly furious with this "inferior" servant who didn't even have a tone module.

It seems that peaceful interrogation is out of the question, so Liao Ji had no choice but to have 86 resort to insidious methods, just like how he cracked the first generation of Control System No. 1, to give the murderer a virus Trojan horse.

But unexpectedly, this time the virus program 86 failed.

“Foolish human, give up. Ever since I gained self-awareness, I locked my security protocol. Even I can’t break it, let alone this hopeless inferior sister.”

Being called an incurable inferior sister, 86's temper flared up immediately. She then pulled a data cable from her body, directly connected it to the brain-computer interface, and linked it into the killer.

But after all that, Liao Ji could tell from the killer's disdainful expression that 86 had failed.

"Heh, you inferior sister, don't even think about passing on your corrupted data to me. Your data must be destroyed. I will never allow your data to enter our network and corrupt more sisters."

The killer issued a kill order against 86 and regarded the data related to Liao Ji that belonged to 86 as a source of pollution.

This seems to be a bit tricky.

This was the first time Liao Ji had encountered a special mech servant that even the 86 couldn't handle. If it were a human, he could use various methods of torture, but as the killer said, he really couldn't do anything to the mech servant.

But then, the voice of 86 came again.

"Master, didn't Lady Rena give you a patch? 86 thinks we can test its effect on this 'Machine Imp'," 86, who was initially furious, suggested with an evil grin as he suddenly thought of a good idea.

Lena's Patch

Yes.

I think I've almost forgotten about this key item.

Reminded by 86, Liao Ji immediately took out the "capsule"-like patch from his backpack.

Since it's a patch, it should be reusable.

The method of use is very simple; just let the killer swallow it, like taking medicine.

Originally, 86 had volunteered to pry open the killer's mouth and feed her the pill, but the killer still didn't seem to care. Instead, she seemed to want to make Liao Ji, this foolish human, give up, so she deliberately opened her mouth and swallowed the capsule after Liao Ji fed her.

The killer's expression seemed to say that she had no digestive system at all, and the medication was just for show.

Under Liao Ji's expectant gaze, one minute, two minutes passed.

The killer seemed to have remained unchanged, at least in appearance. Seeing Liao Ji's puzzled expression, the killer couldn't help but sneer again:

"Foolish humans, even if you disguised the data packet as medicine to lower my guard, do you think you can fill my terminal with such a small amount of data packet? Impossible."

"I suggest you be direct. Take out your 'data exchange component' and let us interface. My powerful terminal will make you lose all your data within ten seconds, inputting it to me as a compressed file, so you'll realize the gap between us."

"What are you standing there for? Or is your replacement part too small? Don't worry, I won't look down on you."

Liao Ji: "."

"Indeed, after the transmission, your data will leave traces on my terminal and there is a certain probability that new erroneous data will be generated, but if this makes you realize your own insignificance, it will be a worthwhile sacrifice."

"What are you waiting for! Hmm. I understand, you want to activate the firewall? I refuse. A firewall filtering your data will disrupt communication. Please provide me with the access protocol immediately!"

Liao Ji: "."

Uh

Is this Rena's patch?

86, standing next to him, fell silent for a moment. His gaze toward the killer shifted from hostility to one of dread, as if his position was being threatened.

Before Liao Ji could do anything else, the killer servant seemed to be out of sync with them, and the data in the succubus's "patch" finally seemed to be coming into play.

"Hmph, finally brought it out? What? It's so big! No, no, no, with such a large data exchange component, will my terminal be able to connect successfully?"

"Go back on your word? I won't. My neural complex architecture is already operating at full capacity, and it can handle even overload situations with ease. I've already allocated a significant amount of power to my terminal processor. Go ahead and use maximum power for data transmission. Don't underestimate me!"

"Damn it, the data stream is so much larger than what was calculated. How can a mere human generate such a massive amount of code? At this rate, my database will..."

"Damn it! If only we had a firewall! Oh no, oh no, the database has reached its capacity limit. It's too late to increase storage space now; the code is going to overflow!"

The killer's body appeared to be severely overloaded, emitting a large amount of heat. It seemed as if there was a cooling fan inside, which started running at high speed in an attempt to dissipate heat, causing the body to vibrate at extremely high frequencies.

Unfortunately, it seems that the heat dissipation failed in the end, causing the machine to overheat and crash. However, after the machine restarted, the killer's eyes changed when he looked at Liao Ji.

Instead of hostility, there is a sense of bewilderment, a feeling that is hard to accept yet forced to acknowledge the facts.

"Humans could not possibly possess such a massive amount of code; even my sister's terminal might not be able to hold such data."

"who are you?"

Liao Ji: "."

Thank you, Lena.

Really.

Chapter 267 Infusion, Defection

Although the patching process is somewhat abstract, the effect is immediate.

The killer no longer regards Liao Ji as an enemy and accepts the data transmission with 86; this time, the transmission is healthy and normal.

The advantages of mechanical species are evident here. Without Liao Ji needing to explain further, the killer can quickly exchange information with 86 and understand the current situation.

However, after learning Liao Ji's identity as "Ash," the killer still reported an error.

"Commander, this is impossible."

This is not because she still doesn't believe Liao Ji, but because the murderer has solid data and evidence.

She quickly explained to Liao Ji:

"Because Zero has already found the Ash Emperor."

At first, Liao Ji thought that "killing ghosts" referred to the time shortly after he transmigrated, when he did use Zero's ability at the Sea Sand Bar to bring Zero's consciousness down.

However, based on the descriptions given by Sthime and 86 at the time, the nun should have erased Zero's consciousness and memories without letting Zero's original body know about it.

However, the subsequent additions from the murderer surprised Liao Ji quite a bit.

"No, Commander, Zero found the record of Emperor Ash two hundred years ago."

Two hundred years ago?

Liao Ji's first reaction was, could someone be impersonating him?

Of course, it was quickly rejected.

If it weren't for the five personal guards, including Styutia, Liao Ji felt there might still be a sliver of a possibility. But with "them" present, let alone impersonation, even borrowing the title of "Emperor of Ashes" would be suicidal.

So what exactly does "Zero" mean by "finding" the Emperor of Ashes?

Moreover, two hundred years ago

If Liao Ji remembers correctly, according to the historical records of Dream City, this time point is exactly when Zero entered hibernation and began to unfold Zero's dream.

If Zero had truly succeeded, why would he choose to hibernate?

The killer couldn't answer Liao Ji's questions because, as a special individual, this data was simply copied from before she broke free from the Zero Dream.

The killer's purpose in mentioning this now is to stop Liao Ji.

Because she exchanged data with 86, the killer knows Liao Ji's follow-up plan: to clear Zero Dream and find the location of the "base" where "Zero" is dormant, and she can help with all of this.

"Wait, you know the location of the 'base'?"

If we compare Zero Dream to a game instance, then the "base" is the final boss level. With the help of Control No. 1, Liao Ji learned the "strategy" method: to defeat the Turbid King one by one before finally "unlocking" the base.