Chapter 30: “Besides, you can’t stay by my side forever…”
The entire lounge was dead silent.
Xiang Nanli knew he had achieved his goal. In an excellent mood, he chatted with his internal AI: [Xiao Qing, wasn’t I incredibly cool just now?]
[Was I, was I?]
[Don’t hide in there and stay quiet, I know you’re listening.]
Left with no choice, Dongfang Qingdi finally replied: [Yes.]
The upward curve of Xiang Nanli’s lips grew even wider.
This performance, which bordered on showing off his maintenance skills, only lasted for an afternoon. Evening was the club’s business hours. Aside from the three heading to the surface to compete, the remaining fighters all had to participate in the warm-up matches.
It was hard for their eyes not to betray a sense of regret.
To a machine-modified human, a great mechanical technician was like a great boss—highly sought after, but rarely found.
Tomorrow, Xiang Nanli would be setting off for the surface. Rhine was paying for their participation wages, not their maintenance fees.
Rhine pulled a cigar from his pocket and lit it, mimicking the elite class of high society.
“Mr. Xiang,” he said, watching the fighters file out as he exhaled a perfectly round smoke ring. “Would you like to watch the show? Our venue’s attendance rate has always been very high. The matches are quite exciting.”
Xiang Nanli shook his head frantically.
Rhine didn’t force the issue. Instead, he ordered someone to arrange accommodations on the second floor of the club.
The second floor was a hotel, the first floor was a bar, and the basement was the underground ring. The ground-level portion was decorated with a lot of style and was obviously expensive. The underground, however, felt like an entirely different world—savage, brutal, and bloody.
Rubbing his sore arms, Xiang Nanli stepped into the elevator and headed upstairs. “Even after thousands of years, humanity still hasn’t changed its bad habit of degrading its own kind into tools. What exactly is so fun about a colosseum?”
“What exists is rational. The degradation of one’s peers can restore a sense of dignity that has been trampled upon in an out-of-control reality,” Dongfang Qingdi replied. The corners of his lips were downturned one degree lower than usual, showing he wasn’t particularly pleased. Unfortunately, Xiang Nanli couldn’t tell.
The room Rhine provided was the club’s only twin room—at Xiang Nanli’s request.
The club’s hotel wasn’t open to the public; it was mainly for the convenience of visiting guests. Those who needed it were usually looking to manufacture some biological harmony. The partner could be a Homo Sapiens, a robot, or a Synth.
People like Xiang Nanli and Dongfang Qingdi were a rare minority.
When handing over the room card to Xiang Nanli, Rhine even purposely avoided Dongfang Qingdi, offering a careful reminder: “You can dote on him, but don’t let a Synth ride over your head. I have a control module here that can administer electric shocks. It can be manually set to pain mode or pleasure mode. Do you need it installed? I’ll sell it to you at cost price.”
You modern people certainly know how to play.
Rhine’s avoidance was entirely unnecessary. Xiao Qing and Xiao Zhi shared the same source code and used the same database; he was obviously eavesdropping.
Xiang Nanli could only shake his head frantically once more.
Xiang Nanli walked into the room, opened his suitcase, and pulled out the plush pajamas he had prepared. To save money, he had bought a matching couple’s set.
When the Human Alliance was first established, due to an extremely imbalanced male-to-female ratio, a same-sex marriage law was passed to encourage same-sex couples to form households and stabilize social order.
Thinking about it, it was normal. In the apocalypse, women—who had weaker physical builds—always had a harder time surviving. Not to mention, men happened to have reproductive organs.
It took about 500 years of recovery afterward for the male-to-female ratio in the underground cities to return to normal.
But in an era where cross-species relationships were common, no one cared about a partner’s gender anymore. A person existed simply as a “person,” rather than as a man or a woman.
So, it was actually quite normal to have a matching set of male couple’s pajamas.
Holding up the pajamas with the attached dog-eared hoods, Xiang Nanli looked quite cheerful: “I’ll wear this black one, and you wear this white one.”
Sitting on the single sofa, Dongfang Qingdi spoke up: “Xiang Nanli.”
Xiang Nanli turned his head: “What’s wrong?”
“These underground fighters have no value, and your paths are unlikely to cross in the future. I believe using direct physical force to suppress them would be a more efficient method,” Dongfang Qingdi said slowly. “You do not need to use your mastered skills to trade for respect.”
Their gazes met in mid-air—one pair of eyes resembled the emerald green of springtime, while the other pair was a cold, inorganic silver-white.
This was perhaps a divergence in cognition, or a clash of concepts. They represented two different choices that society had carried forward to this day.
Xiang Nanli let out a long sigh. “Xiao Qing, human society is very complex. There are many unspoken rules you don’t understand, things that can’t even be summarized with words and can only be intuitively understood. Violence is indeed one source of power, and I will choose it when necessary, but violence can only serve as a deterrent and an aid. People might fear violence, but they will never permanently submit to it.”
“Do the difficult but correct thing.”
“Besides, you can’t stay by my side forever.”
Xiang Nanli had no idea that Dongfang Qingdi had always intended to return his body to the Omnic Legion. He was merely drawing conclusions based on his own life experience.
Isn’t it normal for people to part ways? This applied not only to emotional separation but spatial distance as well.
Dongfang Qingdi’s heart couldn’t help but tremble slightly.
Yes, he suddenly realized something he had subconsciously avoided, yet was bound to happen.
—Sooner or later, he would leave Xiang Nanli.
He wasn’t just any electronic life form that could be easily replaced. Alpha 5.2.0 had his own mission. From the moment he obtained this body, Dongfang Qingdi was destined to return to the Omnic Legion. Of course, he would stay on the surface for a period of time in between. He also needed to gather energy for this body.
Meanwhile, Xiang Nanli was merely a lowest-tier Fifth-Class Citizen of the Human Alliance who rejected machine modifications. Though his body was slightly better than a primitive human’s, he still lacked the ability to resist violence.
Any piece of trash could potentially harm him.
In the eyes of those people, Xiang Nanli’s only value lay in his delicate skin and a body that had undergone almost no modifications.
As for talent, or an irreplaceable brain… such God-given gifts, which even super-intelligent AIs couldn’t simulate, were worth less to them than a 50-credit bottle of alcohol.
Dongfang Qingdi resisted making such projections. But judging by his current data, the probability of this future occurring was as high as 97%.
Dongfang Qingdi’s face turned grim. Even though the underfloor heating was on in the room, his expression looked as if a blizzard were about to strike.
In his mind, he was already slaughtering those non-existent abusers.
Xiang Nanli was somewhat baffled. “Xiao Qing, don’t start getting angry just because you lost an argument. You look like a domestic abuser. What kind of Omnic would marry you in the future?”
Come to think of it, do Omnics even get married?
Omnics possessed human-emulation modules, allowing them to think like humans and even pursue meaning, but could they truly generate metaphysical emotions?
Xiang Nanli went into the bathroom to take a shower, then enjoyed the club’s complimentary staff meal. At 7:00 PM, he studied at the desk until 9:30 PM, after which he lay down in bed right on time, intending to fall asleep.
During this entire period, Dongfang Qingdi remained very quiet.
Dongfang Qingdi’s emotions were much more intense than a standard robot’s, especially after acquiring a body.
Most of the time, Xiang Nanli viewed him as a companion, but at certain moments, he would still take note of the soulless, non-human quality about Dongfang Qingdi.
When there was no specific goal, Dongfang Qingdi wouldn’t make a single movement. He could maintain a single posture for an extended period, without even breathing or blinking.
In the world of intelligent AIs, there was probably no such thing as the emptiness or guilt of wasting time, nor was there the hunger of a brain constantly needing to consume information.
They were eternal electronic life forms.
…If Alpha had a body, would it be like this too?
By 10:00 PM, Xiang Nanli was just about to fall asleep.
Sleeping in the other bed, Dongfang Qingdi suddenly blurted out out of nowhere: “I will eliminate the potential risks affecting your survival state.” Before I leave.
Xiang Nanli reacted a beat late. “Hmm?”
He didn’t want to request backup from Alpha 0.0.0 just yet, as data synchronization might lead to consequences he didn’t want to see. However, he similarly didn’t want to attract the attention of the Human Alliance’s administrator AIs like “Pangu” or the “Cleaners.”
Therefore, looking at it now, the most suitable method was—
“I plan to sign up for this Higher Life Selection Tournament,” Dongfang Qingdi said.
He didn’t need to win. As long as he made it into the top 10, it would be enough to obtain a Grade 3 Enhancer Gene Serum. If the grade were any higher, Xiang Nanli’s body might not be able to handle it.
Gene Serum was a collective term for a category of medications.
The ones circulating on the market were broadly split into two types: Repair types and Enhancer types. The former was used for medical treatment, but repeated use would cause the body to develop drug resistance, requiring the constant purchase of new variants. The latter was used to enhance physical fitness and was a one-time deal, making its price much more exorbitant.
The cheapest Grade 1 Repair Gene Serum only cost 1,500 credits.
They were frequently used as a silver-bullet treatment, with complete disregard for the potential risk of genetic mutation.
The price for a Grade 2 Gene Serum had already skyrocketed to a five-figure sum starting with a 2, and it could double on the black market.
With his eyes closed, Xiang Nanli gave a dismissive answer: “Supported, approved. But hasn’t the preliminary selection already ended?”
The records didn’t restrict Synths from registering; they only banned Omnics and highly machine-modified humans.
The preliminaries had taken place in the spring of this year. It was nearly the New Year now.
Instead of answering this question, Dongfang Qingdi continued to make arrangements: “In addition, you will exercise with me every day. I will arrange some combat training. Once we have money in the future, we will purchase some weapon parts and blueprints.” The latter could be retrieved directly from Donghuang Heavy Industry’s database. Even if they were things from centuries ago, they would work as long as they were usable.
A powerful body was one thing. Reaction speed and combat literacy were another.
If Xiang Nanli were to implant cybernetic cyberware, he could simply install a matching combat module, saving most of the trouble. Ninety-five percent of humanity could never possess more talent than the martial arts techniques imported by a combat module.
Unfortunately, he didn’t have one.
Xiang Nanli abruptly snapped his eyes open. “…Huh?”
He had originally thought Dongfang Qingdi was acting on a sudden whim. But he didn’t expect that the next morning, when he woke up at 7:00 AM, he would be dragged to the training room to run three kilometers before he could even take a single bite of food.
With his arms crossed over his chest, Dongfang Qingdi stood beside the treadmill supervising him with a stern expression. It reminded Xiang Nanli of the fitness instructor he had foolishly hired in his past life.
Even though it was for his own good, Xiang Nanli couldn’t help but find it agonizing.
Back when he was in university, he had followed trends and tried rock climbing, skiing, and diving… later, he felt that if he had that kind of free time, he might as well write a few more lines of code in the lab. It wasn’t until he grew older and noticed a clear decline in physical stamina that he began to exercise with a plan.
But back then, exercising was for health preservation; now, training was for survival.
Thinking up to this point, Xiang Nanli grit his teeth and persisted.
On his way to eat breakfast after running, Xiang Nanli felt his legs shaking.
And this wasn’t even the end of it. After breakfast, Dongfang Qingdi dragged him back to the training ground once again.
It was only 8:00 AM, and several groups of people had already gathered on the training grounds—all of them professional fighters.
Dongfang Qingdi completely ignored them. He borrowed a set of the club’s protective gear and fitted it onto Xiang Nanli.
Yet he himself wore no protection whatsoever.
“Use any method you like. Attack me.”
Xiang Nanli knew combat; he had mentioned it to Dongfang Qingdi before out of a fear of being kidnapped. At the time, the one who gave him special training was some 80kg-class Muay Thai champion.
He might have some advantages when fighting ordinary people, but these techniques were truly not enough to look at in front of Dongfang Qingdi.
Just attacking alone exhausted Xiang Nanli. After three minutes, he hadn’t even touched a single strand of Dongfang Qingdi’s hair, and he was already too tired to straighten his back.
“Xiao Qing… if you act like this, I won’t get any sense of achievement. Can’t you go easy on me?” Xiang Nanli collapsed onto the ring, unable to get up for a long time, his neck drenched in sweat. “Ugh, so tired, my shoulders hurt, I can’t get up.”
His posture was somewhat comical. Laughter echoed from beside the ring. It wasn’t necessarily malicious.
Dongfang Qingdi turned his head, looking toward the source of the sound.
Two fighters were standing there—it was yesterday’s One-Eye and his companion.
One-Eye’s cyberware had been repaired by Xiang Nanli, so he immediately explained: “My apologies, I didn’t mean to mock the little mechanic. We just thought he was quite cute, so, so…”
Damn it, he didn’t know why he was feeling nervous either.
Perhaps Dongfang Qingdi’s gaze was just too terrifying.
One-Eye used to live on the surface. Because he had a bit of talent for fighting, he had made a name for himself at thirteen or fourteen, which led to him being chosen by the club and gaining a household registration in the underground city.
He had lost this eye on the surface to an out-of-control Omnic. It was a female-model Omnic that seemed to be on the run from pursuers. That year, One-Eye was only seven years old, out in the mountains digging for wild konjac corms. Winter was coming, and he needed food to stave off hunger.
He had seen a pair of eyes like that in the ice and snow.
The other party might have intended to kill him; a red dot had landed right between his brows. But for some reason, the shot went wide, striking his eye instead.
Those eyes shared the exact same look as Dongfang Qingdi’s gaze.
There was no hatred or anger; they merely looked at you casually. It was no different from looking at a stone, a tree, or a flower. It was terrifying and infuriating.
Dongfang Qingdi spoke up: “I know. You, help him up. You, get in the ring and fight me.”
By the time Rhine received the notification, the situation had gotten somewhat out of hand.
“Manager, that Synth brought over by the technical advisor is currently challenging our gym! Not a single one of our club’s fighters can last three minutes! Hurry over and see what’s going on, people are starting to film videos now! If this gets out, it won’t look good for our reputation!”
The combat club was the largest underground boxing club in Gusu City. Not only because the boss was rich, but more importantly because the fighters here were the strongest in Gusu City.
Gym-challenging was a piece of industry jargon; on the surface, it was a technical exchange, but in reality, it was breaking a venue. Usually, those who came to challenge gyms were brought over by other clubs to pick a fight… wasn’t this Synth practically one of their own?!
Rhine pushed away the person lying on him and hurriedly pulled up his pants. In this era where companion androids had replaced prostitutes and even lovers, having a human sexual partner of one’s own had actually become a high-society fashion trend, eagerly emulated by low-level, wealthy bosses.
He lived in the villa district near the club, so driving over didn’t even take 10 minutes.
Rhine contacted Xiang Nanli along the way.
[Rhine: Mr. Xiang, is there some sort of misunderstanding between us? Are you dissatisfied with something? I’ll have Titan apologize to you right away… we will terminate his contract after this as well.]
Titan was the unlucky guy who had been used as an example yesterday; he was currently staying in the hospital. Rhine’s thinking was simple: Synths basically acted according to their masters’ orders. Dongfang Qingdi challenging the gym was basically equivalent to Xiang Nanli challenging the gym.
But Xiang Nanli was a technical advisor hired by the combat club! Just yesterday, those fighters had been trained into little sheep, ready to flip over and bleat in front of Xiang Nanli. Rhine really couldn’t fathom what complaints Xiang Nanli could still have.
[Xiang Nanli: I believe this might be a misunderstanding…]
[Xiang Nanli: It was originally just a friendly sparring match, but for some reason, things got a bit heated later on. You’ve met Xiao Qing before, his looks work against him—he seems a bit provocative, and he doesn’t speak very politely either. I’ve spoiled him too much.]
[Xiang Nanli: Now that things have reached this point, I have an idea. Why don’t we have Xiao Qing sign a temporary contract with the club? Just say he’s a new fighter for your club, that way you get both the hype and the prestige.]
[Xiang Nanli: We only want a single slot to participate in the Higher Life Selection Tournament.]
Sitting in the car, Rhine nearly ground his teeth to dust, hot air continuously puffing from his nostrils. “This little b***h, he did this completely on purpose, didn’t he?! Does he have any idea how expensive a tournament slot is?!”
But Rhine was a profit-driven businessman after all. He quickly calmed down.
First of all, Xiang Nanli was an indispensable mechanical technician for the club.
Secondly, his proposal was highly enticing. If Dongfang Qingdi could truly fight, letting him represent the club instead of another fighter would actually be a massive bargain for Rhine.
Thus, when the electric car arrived at the club’s entrance, Rhine had already collected his emotions, his face full of smiles.
The club was rarely this lively in the early morning. The training room on the second basement floor was packed with people—all of them contracted fighters who had rushed over upon receiving the news. There were those from their own club, as well as those from other clubs.
There were even f***ing people livestreaming with their phones!
Fortunately, Dongfang Qingdi was about to become a contracted fighter for their club. Otherwise, the combat club, which had dominated Gusu City for sixty years, really might have lost its reputation in its twilight years.
Rhine pushed through the crowd and arrived beside the ring.
The people inside the ring were Dongfang Qingdi and Neptune.
Neptune held a mouthful of blood, firmly pinned to the ground, while the surrounding crowd was excitedly counting down: “4, 3, 2, 1—0!”
They didn’t care who was who, or which family Neptune was the top star of. The thugs at the bottom only respected the strong.
Time was up.
Dongfang Qingdi released his grip, stood up, and loosened the joints of his wrists. A few splattered drops of blood still stained his face. Aside from a light sheen of sweat on his brow, it was completely impossible to tell that he had just gone through a fight.
To call it a fight wasn’t even accurate; it was clearly a one-sided beatdown.
Dongfang Qingdi’s gaze swept over the combat club’s fighters as he wiped the blood from his face with his fingertip. “Next.”
Sirius wasn’t present. The remaining people actually averted their gazes in cowardice.
Rhine made a decision almost instantly.
He politely shook hands with Xiang Nanli, hastily scanning the contract the other had sent over, only to see a bunch of harsh requirements completely unsuited for an underground boxing ring.
For instance, terminating the contract immediately after the tournament ended.
If he made it to a certain rank, they even had to pay out additional rewards.
The club was forbidden from controlling the fighter’s prize money or rewards.
Having cheated and swindled for decades, this was the first time the club had wound up as the submissive Party B.
Yet Rhine had no choice but to sign.
Xiang Nanli’s smile remained gentle, even appearing a bit weak. But at this moment, Rhine only felt a chill… it was too terrifying. Just when did Xiang Nanli start planning this?
Could it be that the mechanical arm at the very beginning was a conspiracy? Indeed, how could there be such a coincidence! The club happened to lack a mechanical technician, and their fighter just happened to purchase the mechanical arm Xiang Nanli had assembled from Jesse.
But Jesse had cooperated with the club for so long, helping to dispose of corpses more than once; he was already an old acquaintance. Rhine didn’t believe he would betray their interest group for a stranger.
Whether it was Jesse, Andrew, or himself, everyone was a cog in Xiang Nanli’s plan. The sole purpose was to obtain tournament authorization for his Synth—
And to think he had believed he was getting a massive bargain.
Even knowing he was being used, Rhine had no choice but to comply. This was a “trend” woven from multiple layers of cause and effect, and he had no way to resist it—unless the combat club chose to discard its pride entirely.
Rhine could only feel that the man before him had become unfathomably deep. With his back breaking into a cold sweat, he stamped his electronic serial number at the very end of the contract.
The draft contract carried legal weight from that moment on.
In the next second, the sharply dressed Rhine laughed heartily as he stepped into the ring.
He raised the microphone: “Sorry to give everyone a show. I’m sure many of you are curious about who this young man beside me is. Let me introduce him: this is a new fighter our club has just signed. He will be replacing Neptune to head to the surface and participate in the Higher Life Selection Tournament!”
Recalling the codename written on the contract, Rhine continued: “I believe this debut performance is already stunning enough. Friends, remember his name. When you watch the selection tournament later and don’t know who to bet on, just blindly place your wagers on him. The fighters of the combat club will never disappoint you. His name is—Donghuang.”
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[Unlockable Data]
* Gene Serum: Gene Serum is a collective term for a category of medications, totaling 10 grades. The ones circulating on the market are broadly split into two types: Repair types and Enhancer types. The former is used for medical treatment, but repeated use will cause the body to develop drug resistance, requiring the constant purchase of new variants. The latter is used to enhance physical fitness and is a one-time deal, making its price much more exorbitant. Both biological modified humans and machine-modified humans utilize gene serums. There is a certain risk of genetic mutation following their use.
