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ntranslator: baumkuchen editors: serefina, glitterypanda

nAt 23:00, in accordance with the specified requirements, Chi Xiaochi turned in half a cubic metre of Naman metal which had been removed of cosmic radiation and rushed over to meet with Rosie and the others at the decided coordinates.

nMost of the Naman metal contained in the stardust was taken by Chi Xiaochi, transformed into cold liquid, and stored in an empty cabin.

nWith these six bottles of fluid, Blue’s new body was settled at last.

nChi Xiaochi was in a rather good mood, but was unable to resist the double onset of drunkenness and sleepiness. After setting the target coordinates, he said to 061, “I’m going to sleep now.”

n061 flipped open a book, “Last time, I read up to……”

nChi Xiaochi was truly exhausted. He reached out his hand and pushed forwards lightly several times, as if trying to cover someone’s mouth. “……I’m going to sleep, don’t fuss.”

n061 was stunned for quite a while. Only when he heard regular breathing coming from a place close to his heart did Blue raise his hand, stroke his chest, and feel the subtle sound and movement coming from inside, spellbound.

n……Why did he always have so many things on his mind?

nHe was too smart, and too tired.

n……And he very quickly experienced the consequences of “thinking too much”.

nIt was only when he was surrounded by four specialised mechas did 061 finally realise that there had been people following them for a very long time now.

nOne of the dark red mechas holding a detector said confidently, “Yes, there’s a very strong Naman metal signal coming from his body.”

nAnother spider type mecha that was holding a laser gun sneered, “Quickly hand it over. One versus four, can your mecha carry this match? You should be able to calculate it.”

nThe other two mecha didn’t make a sound, but one infrared ray aimed at Blue’s knee, and another aimed at the power system on his back. If he tried to break through forcefully, he would be put down immediately.

nAnd 061, or rather Blue, hadn’t planned on running at all.

nBlue stood in the centre of the encirclement and said politely, “Shh, please keep your voices down. My master is sleeping.”

nThe spider mecha was amused. “It’s a high intelligence system.”

nBlue stared at the detector in the dark red mecha’s hand and instantly analyzed its every function. “According to the rules, no one is allowed to bring in a detector with a radius of more than one kilometre. How did you people bring it in?”

nThe spider mecha clicked his tongue. His fingers pulled the trigger, sending a snow-white laser into Blue’s back waist.

nBlue, clutching his waist, kneeled.

nThe spider mecha pressed the energy storage button of his laser gun. He said scornfully, “You speak too much. Hand it over, or else you’ll be scrapped here.”

nThe operator of the dark red mecha was a girl. She didn’t really approve of this kind of behaviour where one opened fire and used weaponry to rob others, but seeing the time tick by and no one in their four-person team being able to find even a fingernail-sized piece of Naman metal, who would be willing to resign themselves to failing?

nShe said, “Hand it over, and it can be counted as helping us out.”

nBlue didn’t speak, nor did he pay her any attention.

nThe spider mecha threatened, “If you don’t hand it over, we’ll turn you into scrap metal, and then destroy your master’s distress signal transmitter. When the time comes, your master will have to lug along a metal lump and wander around here. Do you know the walking distance from here to the nearest monitoring point? A full ten kilometers. Do you know what you’ll meet on the road if you don’t have a mecha?”

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nThey were all waiting for Blue to surrender.

nThis machine was very human-like, with a human emotions system. It should know what “fear” is.

nBlue, with one knee on the ground, raised his head. He asked, “&#k2026;&#k2026;What will you meet?”

nThe spider mecha hadn’t thought that their adversary wouldn’t know to cry until they saw their coffin. He raised his laser gun and raged, “You want to refuse a toast only to be forced to drink a forfeit, huh?”

nAfter scolding, he pressed the trigger once more.

nThis time, his target was Blue’s head.

nIf it was pierced through, Blue’s central core system would undoubtedly be destroyed.

nWho knew that when the trigger was pulled, he wouldn’t see any light from the laser.

nAt some unknown time, Blue had already flashed to his side, his right hand ten centimetres away from the muzzle of his gun, and the laser was gathered into a ball, unable to move any further.

nBlue released his left hand that had been pressed to the “damaged area”. In it, was actually a ball of laser energy which had yet to enter its body.

nWith a slight move of its hand, countless snow-white laser butterflies flew out of the joints in Blue’s mechanical fingers, going off in all directions.

nMeanwhile, Blue stood, perfectly unharmed, in front of the dazed spider mecha, and bowed like a gentleman. “I’ve been impolite.”

nEveryone was thinking, what the ** is this damn defense system.

nBut instinct had already caused them to open fire, with their target, of course, being Blue.

nBut when those bullets, lasers, and piercing infrared lights reached Blue’s armour, they were all unable to move any further, and were all turned into broken fragments. If one looked closely, they would actually be able to see countless parsed streams of data flowing like water around its body and then dissipating.

nBlue reached out a hand and pushed the infrared light that had been about to pierce through the weapon system on his wrist. “Ladies and gentlemen.”

nThe party of robbers blocking his path had already sunk into a complete daze.

nBlue then twisted a laser beam, as if he was playing around with a soft rope. “……I just said, my master is sleeping.”

nThe two who used infrared guns had already sensed that something was wrong and tried to flee, but found that their power systems had already failed.

nThey could only forcefully restart their power systems. Who knew that they would then receive a string of error messages.

nIn their bewilderment, they saw a white laser butterfly leisurely fly past their visualisation system. In an instant, their visualisation systems failed completely.

n……When had those things invaded their mechas?

nBy this time, Blue had already finished modifying all the ammunition. It said gently, “I don’t want to wake him up. So, I hope every one ofyou will take more care, and not scream too loudly.”

nThen, it made a 45 degree bow.

nThe moment it bent down, the weapons and ammunition that had been frozen in mid-air, moved.

n——The infrared rays penetrated the spider mecha’s movement power system, the laser gun exploded the dark red mecha’s detector, and the lasers shot through the other two mechas’ weapon systems.

nAs Blue rose back up, the other four mechas that had been shot into briquettes fell to the ground.

nHe looked around. After confirming that the four mechas had been thoroughly wrecked, and they couldn’t even get out of their cabins, he walked over to the side of each mecha, opened the cabins hiding their distress signal transmitters like he was opening the door to his own home, and placed a lock around them like he was placing birthday candles.

nAs Blue moved them, he said, “I heard from you, Mister Spider here say that the closest monitoring point is around ten kilometres away; as for what people without mechas will meet out here in the wilderness, I’d like to invite you, this good sir to slowly explain to your partners.”

nThe spider mecha had already begun to panic. “Give those back, give those back to us! ……I’m begging you!”

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nBlue ignored them. He got up and left, planning on letting them stay here until past midnight before letting them do anything else.

nFour white laser butterflies landed on the four distress signal transmitters, fluttering their wings and fanning out a light ripple of data.

nAfter walking for another ten kilometres or so, Chi Xiaochi woke up from his light sleep.

n061 asked, “Did you sleep well?”

nThe interior of the cockpit was soft and comfortable, adjusted to the perfect temperature, and the surroundings were abnormally quiet. It could be said to have been a dark and sweet sleep, without a single dream.

n“Not bad.” Chi Xiaochi comfortably stretched. “Blue, what time is it? Where are we?”

nBlue carefully felt the movements of Chi Xiaochi in his body. His tone was incredibly gentle. “It’s 11:58 at night. There’s still a few hundred metres before we reach the coordinates of the set meeting point.”

nChi Xiaochi asked, “Did you meet anything on the way?”

nBlue replied, “No, it was entirely safe.”

nAfter the mecha wandered for a while, Chi Xiaochi suddenly heard a sharp electronic cry in the distance. When he turned to look, he saw four fireworks exploding in the sky, the beads of light dispersing, like a silver snake spitting out a message, a golden dragon roaring in the air. In the dark, it was especially striking.

n061 let out a quick, light laugh.

nChi Xiaochi looked back at him, as if he had a feeling. “Liu-laoshi?”

n“Ahem,” 061 coughed gently, “Looks like a team had an accident.”

nChi Xiaochi said, “Then this distress signal of theirs is really filled with a joyful spirit.”

n061 didn’t manage to reply before hearing Rosie’s voice come from behind, “……Ji?”

nHe turned and saw, next to a nearby cliff, Rosie and her mecha Red together, raising their hands and waving at him.

nRosie yelled, “Xiaoqing just finished roasting a wild rabbit, quickly come over. Did you complete your task?”

nChi Xiaochi jumped out of his mecha and purposely said, “Nope, didn’t complete it.”

n“That’s great,” Rosie wasn’t concerned. She looked back and shouted to the Wang siblings, “Keep the rabbit leg, just leave him the bones.”

nRosie was originally an easy person to get along with. After a short few hours, Wang Xiaoqing and Wang Xizhou had already gotten very familiar with her.

nThe three young men and women smiled together. Even Ji Zuoshan raised the corners of his lips, his eyes rippling with humour.

nAt the same time, below a cliff nearby, waves surged in Zhan Yanchao’s eyes. He clenched his fists even tighter.

nIt wasn’t like this before.

nBefore…… it was just Ji Zuoshan and him.

nJi Zuoshan had practically never smiled. Now, when he smiled, it was like an iron tree had bloomed, making people’s hearts move incessantly.

nZhan Yanchao was currently leaning on some rocks, watching balefully. Suddenly, he noticed Ji Zuoshan look around, as if he’d sensed someone spying on him. He immediately shrunk back behind the rocks, pressing down on his mecha’s head and chiding in a soft voice, “Don’t move! Lower your head!”

nSeeing the regret value that had risen to 15 points, Chi Xiaochi didn’t say anything and walked up the cliff with Blue.

nZhan Yanchao greedily chased after the sounds of his leaving footsteps until he couldn’t hear them any longer, before he buried his face in his arms with reddened eyes and whispered, “Ji Zuoshan, come back.”

nBut his voice was too soft, to the point that even he himself couldn’t hear it.

nHis mecha looked down at him.

nZhan Yanchao sat there, dazed, for a moment, before suddenly thinking of something. He opened his mecha and went in, then gave an order, “Turn off the heat preservation, lighting, and somatosensory systems, only leaving the external warning system.”

nCombat mechas would obey all of their masters’ orders without question. It naturally did as he said.

nThe entire world turned quiet.

nNormally, Zhan Yanchao’s senses would merge with his mecha’s, and he of course wouldn’t feel anything. But now, all systems were on strike, leaving only a narrow, cramped, stuffy and dark cabin that was just like a coffin.

n……Just like the coffin he’d had made for Ji Zuoshan.

nHe had always thought that this was just a minor punishment.

nWithin an hour, he began to get jittery, sweaty, and his heart started to palpitate. His eyes couldn’t see anything, so his thoughts began to run wild.

nAfter two hours, he just felt like ants were biting him all over, and couldn’t help but start scratching the walls of the mecha with his fingers.

nFrom the outside, his mecha asked him if he wanted to come out. In one breath, Zhan Yanchao said in a low, muffled voice that he didn’t need to.

nAfter an unknown amount of time, the mecha felt strong pounding and struggling coming from inside. It immediately implemented an emergency plan and ejected the cockpit.

nZhan Yanchao rolled out of the cabin and collapsed on the ground. His clothes were transparent with sweat. After wiping at his face harshly quite a few times, he asked his mecha in a trembling voice, “What time is it……”

nHis mecha answered, “Master, it’s four.”

nZhan Yanchao’s entire body went weak. He stared up at the dark night sky before the dawn, thinking. He’d even thought he’d spent half his life in there.

nNo wonder every time Ji Zuoshan came out of the coffin, he would always be covered from head to toe in cold sweat, and his elbows would be black and blue from striking the walls. He’d even always blamed the other for being too finicky, not knowing to properly reflect on his mistakes and only knowing how to make trouble with him.

nHe rolled over so he was facing up, buried his face in his arms, and curled up in a ball.

nWhat had he done……

nThe author has something to say:

nI recommend the song 《I’m not a robot》, it really fits Liu-laoshi~

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nsere: 061 being the knight in shining armor (lmao literally though…)

nbaum: if you’re wondering about how the text keeps switching from referring to Blue as ‘it’ and ‘he’, it’s because sometimes it’s in Blue’s POV, and sometimes it’s in other people’s POVs.

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