Honkai, why do you only play high-end games?

Lin Wei looked at the bound mechanical girl and couldn't help but applaud her. She had to say that this whole performance was really wonderful!

Chapter 60: Emerging from the Cocoon into a Butterfly (6,000 words)

"Anna, calm down. The sky is not falling."

Lin Wei first spoke to comfort Anna, who was becoming increasingly anxious, and then slowly stood up from the position she was sitting on the ground.

Seeing Lin Wei standing up, Anna subconsciously reached out to help him up, and received a comforting look.

"The partitions between each floor of this base are very thick, and you know how long the stairs are between each floor. We're on the fifth floor... well, a little higher than the fifth floor. But it doesn't matter. We still have plenty of time to find a solution... How about this, Anna?"

Lin Wei noticed that Anna was even showing signs of mental breakdown, so she decided to find something for her to do to distract her.

"Each time the shield machine digs through a layer, have your companion report its progress to you via the communicator so that we can have a clear understanding of our situation."

Having said that, Lin Wei paused for a moment, looked directly into Anna's eyes with a gentle and firm look, and said softly,

"So, please tell me how much time we have left. I'll take care of the rest, okay?"

Anna was stunned for a moment, her heart warming. She raised her hand to touch her cheek and nodded solemnly. Then she stepped back, took a deep breath to calm herself, and turned on the communicator, telling the other party that she was safe for the time being and not to worry. She was actively looking for a way to escape and asked them to synchronize the excavation progress of the shield machine with her.

"It's really strange. This is the first time I've seen someone so calm in the face of death threats. Usually, they act really badly."

The mechanical girl expressed her doubts calmly. Although her tone was emotionless, her words carried a hint of disdain for the human race.

"Oh? I'm disappointed? Well, I'm really sorry... I just don't like wasting time and energy. After all, I guess that device overhead can't be stopped, right?"

Lin Wei's tone remained calm and gentle as he led the team. But unlike before, this time there was a hint of joking in his tone, and even a hint of pity on the corner of his mouth.

"Yes, it cannot be stopped. It is the last protection here, ensuring that all the secrets here can be buried after the core of the base is invaded."

The mechanical girl didn't mind chatting for a while, as if to delay time.

"You can't escape, don't waste your time."

"The core of the base, isn't it you... Tsk tsk, using your destruction as its activation command, how pitiful."

Lin Wei felt that the girl in front of him was still tightly bound and had no freedom at all, which was pitiful and sad. Then he changed the subject.

"Tell me, where are these 'others' you mentioned?"

"Yes, it's strange. I didn't die, which is surprising. But unfortunately, I don't have the authority to stop it."

The mechanical girl selectively responded to Lin Wei's words and tried to guide the direction of the topic.

"I appreciate your perspective and your wisdom in remaining calm. But if you're looking for a breakthrough from me, personally, I don't mind you wasting more of my time."

The mechanical girl's tone of voice was strange, as if she was being sarcastic in a very objective way.

"Drip drip..."

"Lin Wei, that machine has reached the second floor."

Time was running out, so Anna suppressed her anxiety and gently reminded Lin Wei as agreed.

"A waste of time? I don't think so, because you've been procrastinating."

Lin Wei remained unmoved, with a faint smile of confidence still hanging on the corner of his mouth.

"And if this place is truly a dead end with no way to escape, you wouldn't have to do this. So there must be a way to leave. You know, you don't want us to find it, so you want to buy time. Right?"

Having said that, Lin Wei stopped talking and waited for the other party's response.

He really likes this game of unraveling the mystery, and he also enjoys the feeling of manipulating his opponent bit by bit.

It would be too boring if I always relied on using Yu Duchen to look through my memories.

What's more, since he was able to trick Fu Hua by taking advantage of the loophole in his memory, how could he be sure that others would not use another loophole to trick him?

If you rely too much on reference answers, your brain will rust.

After a short silence, the mechanical girl seemed to understand what her silence meant, and said,

"Intruder, I must admit that I underestimated you again."

The tone was the same as usual.

"You never overestimated me, that's why you failed me again and again, and in the end you lost everything."

Lin Wei retorted, not holding back at all just because the other person was a young girl.

"Perhaps you are indeed intelligent enough, but for a machine, you are far too arrogant. By the way, let me ask out of curiosity, do machines also use the word 'death' to describe their own demise?"

Anna felt that the man next to her was quite vicious.

The mechanical girl seemed to be a little stressed by the word "machine" and turned her "eyes" that had been "looking" at Lin Wei away.

"I've already lost my job. Things without value have no meaning to exist. 'Death' or 'Destruction' makes no difference to me. Impulse, anger, emotions, these even more meaningless things have no effect on me. So, intruder, if you want to try to provoke me, I appreciate your imagination."

Her voice remained flat and emotionless.

"If you want to save time, you can kill me here—or use any other adjective if you like—and then try to find a way out yourself. You know I can't stop you now."

"I won't dirty my hands. When this place is destroyed, you will naturally be destroyed with it. There's no need for me to do anything unnecessary."

Lin Wei laughed and shook his head, then changed the subject and said seriously,

"Where are the others? You've already avoided me twice. Three times is enough, my dear little friend."

"I'm not avoiding you. I just don't understand what you're talking about, so I refuse to answer meaningless questions."

The mechanical girl replied calmly.

Lin Wei stopped talking to her and turned around and asked in confusion,

"Anna, can intelligent robots lie?"

Anna was a little confused when she was suddenly dragged into the topic. After a moment of hesitation, she said uncertainly,

"That shouldn't be the case, right?"

Tianming has its own artificial intelligence technology. Most of its warships and transport ships are equipped with intelligent assistants to varying degrees, so Anna has some understanding of this.

But a human being transformed into a half-human machine really touched her blind spot in knowledge.

"It doesn't matter whether the robot can speak or not, but you lied."

Lin Wei casually tapped the interlaced nerve lines next to her with his trekking pole, and the mechanical girl twisted painfully a few times, as if punishing a disobedient child.

"You just said it yourself: let those who deserve to die die, and let those who deserve to live live. Now that all those who deserve to die are dead, what about those who deserve to live? You're not trying to tell me that those so-called survivors have all become like you, are you?"

The mechanical girl turned her head again, looking at Lin Wei through the metal eye mask with her eyes that had long been unable to see, and refused to answer.

Lin Wei didn't mind being a dull audience.

"Suppose there are people with higher Houkai resistance—like this beautiful girl beside me."

Anna's face turned red, she felt a little embarrassed and wanted to pinch him, but she was too embarrassed to do so.

"So, where are these people you're referring to as 'deserving to live'? I remember you weren't just arresting ordinary citizens, you were also arresting survivors of the Houkai disasters across the country. They themselves have undergone a brutal round of screening."

Lin Wei continued his solo performance.

"There are two possibilities: One is that you are truly a cruel angel, as you claim, harboring a greater vision and protecting them well deep within this base. The other is that you have other motives and are transferring these extremely scarce and precious resources elsewhere for other uses."

"If the truth is the former, then your destruction of this base is ruining humanity's future. Therefore, that destruction device shouldn't exist. Otherwise, it only proves that you are outright terrorists, and everything you said before was just a veiled lie. If the truth is the latter, then there must be another hidden route leading to the outside world, allowing you to transport your carefully selected 'seeds'. What do you think? How about you choose one?"

Another slight vibration came, much more obvious than the previous one.

"Drip drip..."

"According to calculations, that damn machine has already advanced to the third level! It looks like it dug this entire rat's nest in the first place, and now it's going through it again at an incredible speed! Damn, this deep underground, there's no way to call in heavy firepower support, otherwise we wouldn't be in such a mess... Anna, how's the situation over there?"

Hearing the anxious voice coming from the communicator, Anna glanced at Lin Wei worriedly. Lin Wei raised her hand to signal her not to worry, so based on an inexplicable trust, Anna reported to the other party that everything was going well.

Lin Wei's eyes were always on the girl who was trapped in an awkward position, wanting to see how long she could remain silent.

The mechanical girl felt like she was stuck in a bug, but unfortunately the built-in computer in her brain had already burned out, otherwise she wouldn't be in such a mess right now. So she simply remained silent.

"Are you going to continue pretending to be a robot? Hmm?"

Lin Wei sneered. That's it? So vulnerable.

"I do not understand what you are saying."

The girl's voice remained calm and indifferent.

Lin Wei looked at her trying to hold on, and suddenly thought of Bronya. She was much cuter than this pretentious guy in front of her.

"I know another girl who also lost her entire family in a catastrophe and became the victim of a dangerous experiment. She also lost all the emotional circuits in her brain and had a biochip implanted in her brain, controlling her like a machine."

Anna was a little confused when she heard this. What are you doing? Are you trying to express your sympathy?

"But he never forgot he was human! He found what he had lost, bit by bit. He stood up again, bit by bit. He kept his emotions hidden deep in his heart. Although he appeared aloof, he was always a warm-hearted child, good at making friends, and even learned to play games. He also helped me a lot."

"I have always lived very proudly."

"I don't understand what you're trying to say."

The mechanical girl's voice was still calm and indifferent, but with a hint of impatience.

"Do I need a friendly reminder? Those cold machines implanted in your body have long been burned by you, losing all their functions. What lies there now is the original you—although it is damaged, but it is no longer a machine."

Lin Wei's smile was gentle and cruel, like a devil.

"How is it, how does it feel to be human again, to face reality again?"

"…Sorry, I'm just a machine."

The mechanical girl's voice remained calm and indifferent, standing her ground, but this time there was a hint of emptiness.

"Okay, whatever."

Lin Wei remained silent, then looked at Anna with an incredible look.

"Miss Anna, you're too lame, aren't you? You were just refuted by something like this?"

Anna was a little confused. Lin Wei changed the topic too quickly, and why did it come back to her now?

"Look, she doesn't even understand herself, and she can't even face her true self. How convincing is her so-called 'position'? She's driving you crazy. Oh my god, how shaky is your own position?!"

Anna finally reacted, stamped her feet in embarrassment, and blushed to her ears.

I was actually criticized by Lin Wei...

"What on earth do you want to do?"

The mechanical girl couldn't hold it anymore.

Lin Wei looked at her, put away all the ridicule, and sighed with pity.

"I haven't finished my story yet. That girl later burned the chip in her brain, and after a near-death experience, she regained consciousness and became a better version of herself. She wasn't crushed by her heavy past. Instead, she let it become her nourishment, becoming a butterfly that emerged from its cocoon and was reborn."

"And you... since you've chosen to escape reality and truly become a machine, then just treat yourself as if you really are a machine... What a pity! I quite liked that humanoid robot that caused us so much trouble along the way... But now that you've lost half of your machine, you're just a defective product. What a disappointment."

After showing mercy, Lin Wei sneered again.

"A wretch like you, are you qualified to discuss the fate of humanity? Without the support of the database, you probably don't even know their true meaning, right?"

Lin Wei no longer paid attention to her, turned to look at Anna, and said softly,

"What she said before is correct. The vast majority of people in this world are destined to die. When the mass extinction occurs, 90% of all living things are doomed to die."

Anna's heart sank. Why do you say that?

"But she only said half of it. It's wrong to let those who should die die and those who should live live."

Lin Wei looked at her seriously and said,

"The 10% of living beings that survived were able to live into the new generation not only because they were lucky, but also because the 90% of those who sacrificed their lives and shed their blood paved a path to the future for them bit by bit."

"My instinct tells me that flying is the way to survival, so I'll try, bit by bit, trial and error by trial. If I fail, I'll die. If I succeed, I'll pass that tiny bit of experience on to the next generation through my genes, so that they can continue to advance on my shoulders..."

"My instinct told me that if I ran faster, I could catch more prey and avoid starvation. So I started trying to figure out how to make my body run faster and farther..."

"My instinct tells me that if I jump higher, I can pick more fruits..."

"This is a race between life and death. Under the ruthless harvest of the Grim Reaper's scythe, we struggle to find a way out! There are no answers, no helpers, no end in sight, and even no way forward."

"Everything depends on life itself, trying little by little, trial and error! If you make a mistake, then die; if you succeed, then engrave this small step forward into your genes and pass it on to the next generation, so that they can get closer to success, and then keep trying, keep dying, and keep moving forward..."

“This is a hymn to life itself. Its greatness lies not in the result but in the process. Even the process itself will allow you to go further after reaching the result.”

Lin Wei pointed at the tightly bound mechanical girl behind him and sneered,

"But some people, who clearly don't know anything, pretend to know everything, yet they insist on being high and mighty, thinking they can decide the future of the entire human race."