Chapter 35: Xiao Qing, Considering You Were Manufactured in Our Factory…
High-Order Lifeforms Selection Tournament, Ring 6.
Rhein stared at Dongfang Qingdi as he strapped a vital-signs monitor to his own wrist, looking as if he wanted to say something, but held back.
In the adjacent ring was a star contender from Yangzhou City who had made it into the Top 50 last year. Before she had even stepped up, a massive crowd had gathered around her area. The clamor was immense, with spectators practically spilling over into the neighboring ring. Even the surrounding camera drones hovered in larger numbers than anywhere else.
By comparison, the perimeter of Ring 6 was exceedingly quiet. At most, a few people threw an extra glance or two in Dongfang Qingdi’s direction simply because he was handsome.
Unfortunately, human aesthetic appreciation had long been fatigued by a barrage of perfectly modeled robot faces; pretty shells were everywhere. Consequently, this fleeting bit of attention did not last long.
—Symmetrical features, indifferent eyes, and emotionless facial expressions. Dongfang Qingdi was as beautiful as an AI/Omnic, the kind that would be mocked online as “outdated, old-era influencer aesthetic” (since flawed, natural beauty was all the rage now). Only a primitive human straight out of a cryo-chamber like Xiang Nanli hadn’t grown tired of looking at him yet.
They were currently in the preliminary round of the selection tournament. This leg of the competition was held near Gusu City, and local organizations had guaranteed slots. The club had been allocated three.
Rhein let out a cough. “Donghuang, our main goal is just to play it steady and safe. As for your opponent today, he made it to the preliminaries last year too, ranked 271st, codename—”
“Could you please stop talking to me?” Dongfang Qingdi interrupted him. “I don’t want to listen.”
Analyzing Rhein’s nonsense consumed 0.02% of his memory capacity—it was very annoying.
Rhein, acting as a part-time coach: “…”
Rhein’s expression shifted unpredictably. Pulling a cigar from his pocket, he took a fierce drag, thinking to himself that the preliminary rounds were single-elimination. If Dongfang Qingdi got knocked out in the first round, he would definitely make life miserable for both Dongfang Qingdi and Xiang Nanli!
The match was about to begin; two minutes remained.
A referee wearing an armband, carrying a stun baton and a small stool, sat down by the edge of the ring.
“Contestants, come over and verify.”
To prevent ringers from fighting on someone’s behalf, fingerprint verification was required before the match. The fingerprint data was recorded during registration, though it did not pass through the Human Alliance’s system.
Dongfang Qingdi pressed his thumb onto the device and began frequently glancing toward the entrance.
Controlling the little idiot, he queried: [Not done yet?]
[Almost, almost.]
Xiang Nanli’s voice sounded in his mind.
【Half an hour ago】
Carrying a tool bag with his hands slouched in his pockets, Xiang Nanli sauntered out from the shuttle bus exit, trailing behind the crowd like a street loafer.
An electronic barcode was stuck to his chest, signifying that he was also inside-field personnel for the selection tournament.
The barcode could even be scanned to display his personal information, filled in by hand—
Name: Nanli (Lee Garcia)
Position: Mechanical Technician (In-Training) (Certified)
Affiliation: Gusu City Combat Club
Andrew and Rhein had them too—one as a coach, the other as a doctor.
Today was the first day of the preliminary rounds. According to the tournament rules, half of the contestants would be eliminated.
The club had guaranteed slots for three contestants, and only Dongfang Qingdi’s match was in the morning. Technical staff usually accompanied them on-site, making it convenient to perform emergency repairs if something went wrong.
“Xiao Qing~” Xiang Nanli looked left and right, his good mood evident. “It’s quite lively here. Xiao Qing, this is a camera I borrowed from Andrew. When you get up on stage later, I’ll take a few more pictures of you. We can print them out when we get back and stick them up in our home~”
“Okay.”
Our. Home.
If feelings could be visualised, a prompt saying “Mood +5” should have popped up above Dongfang Qingdi’s head.
There were not only spectators and media here. A few hundred meters away was a black market street filled with temporary canopies and trucks, where one could buy almost anything.
AI/Omnics, decryption chips, cybernetics; mutant meat, various raw materials, seeds; hitmen, hacker breaches, and “Synth” slaves. Everything imaginable.
When a person became a slave, they became a “Synth” whether they originally were one or not. The Citizen ID card inside their body would be gouged out and sold to specialized recycling stations… Once decrypted, it could be used as a fake identity; if no one could be found to decrypt it, it could also be formatted and sold at a low price.
As long as it wasn’t brought underground, there was zero risk.
Dongfang Qingdi said unhurriedly, “The selection tournament provides a stable trading platform with a certain degree of credit and popularity. It just so happens to be winter right now, so mutants and aberrations are rarely active. If you want to browse the market, wait until I finish my match—”
Xiang Nanli suddenly felt a burst of dizzying disorientation.
BOOM! Almost simultaneously, a blood-drenched body slammed down onto the exact spot where Xiang Nanli had just been standing.
Having been in this new world for nearly two months, Xiang Nanli was used to bloody scenes, but he still felt his heart jump.
Dongfang Qingdi set down Xiang Nanli, whom he had pulled into his arms, turned his head, and glanced at Ring 2, the closest one to them.
Standing on the stage was a arrogant bald man whom Dongfang Qingdi had seen in yesterday’s files. Just moments ago, he had lifted his opponent up and hurled him right out of the octagonal cage. The unlucky fellow had flown over twenty meters through the air before hitting the ground.
The bald man stood in the ring and laughed arrogantly, turning around to thumping his chest toward his fans, completely unconcerned that he had almost crushed someone.
A icy chill flashed through Dongfang Qingdi’s eyes.
It was decided—plugin, activate.
The next round would be the death date of this blind dog.
The unlucky contestant’s accompanying doctor and technician quickly rushed over.
The doctor connected the data cable and scanned the whole body: “Internal organ rupture, fractures, severe trauma. Can you still hear me clearly? I’ll give you a painkiller first.”
The middle-aged technician knelt on one side, looking at the two arms that were broken into six segments, his brow furrowed in distress. “Aiya, wrecked into a state like this, how can it even be fixed? How about we just forfeit?” The parts had been smashed to pieces.
The High-Order Lifeforms Selection Tournament required a mechanical evolution degree under 35% and prohibited the use of thermal weapons.
Yet sometimes, it was precisely this 35% that proved most vital.
The unlucky fellow had undergone amputation when he was 18 years old. After saving up enough money, he replaced them with cybernetic prosthetics and joined the Axe Gang. His mechanical arms grew increasingly expensive, and his family’s house grew larger and larger. His mother no longer had to entertain clients, and his younger sister entered school to study.
Relying on this pair of iron hands, he had obtained everything he had today. To lose them was to lose everything.
The unlucky fellow struggled to open his eyes: “Wu… wu… no!”
Blood clots spilled out of his mouth.
The prosthetics were newly replaced, and he had taken out a 900,000-credit loan from the bank for them.
“It can’t be fixed!” the technician barked angrily. “No one in this entire venue can fix this for you! It basically needs a full rebuild, and the chips are completely broken too. Forget it. Just go back and claim the insurance.”
Xiang Nanli squatted down, observed for a moment, and spoke up: “It can be fixed.”
Three pairs of eyes shot toward him in unison.
“A technical school student in-training?” Unconcealed disdain flooded the technician’s eyes. “And from Gusu City at that. How many high-level technicians do you even have over there?”
Xiang Nanli ignored the mockery in his eyes and held up two fingers toward the man lying on the ground: “Not doing it for free. For this price, do you want it fixed? Pay after it’s fixed.”
Before the technician could speak, the unlucky fellow caught his hand as if seeing a savior: “Okay, okay… 200,000 is… 200,000 it is.”
Wait? What 200,000?? He had only intended to ask for 20,000!
Xiang Nanli’s eyes shone brightly. He pulled out his tool pliers in public, not caring in the slightest about the crowd watching around them. “Xiao Qing, you guys go ahead first. I’ll come over as soon as I finish fixing this.”
…
…
Now, only one minute remained before the start of the match.
Dongfang Qingdi felt that he didn’t actually care about any photos, but Xiang Nanli had clearly promised.
Having made a promise, he should not break his word.
Dongfang Qingdi recalled a somewhat unpleasant memory from the past.
When Alpha 0.0.0 underwent self-fission, it didn’t stuff memories into every connected unit. After all, their function was reconnaissance, searching, or completing certain stealth operations. Whether they had memories or not didn’t matter.
Alpha 5.2.0 had recalled it on his own. During that period, Alpha 0.0.0 was infected by a virus, causing the transmitted data to become chaotic. He saw memories that had been cherished and stored by the primary entity—though calling them “memories” wasn’t quite accurate; they were merely string after string of text. Back then, Alpha didn’t have a body, so naturally, it didn’t possess anything like “vision.”
– Alpha, I’m sick.
– I will perform virus removal for you; you will be fine.
– Being sick isn’t the same as being infected with a virus. I plan to enter a cryo-chamber and wait until the day cancer can be cured before thawing out.
– According to my knowledge base, current cryo-chamber technology is imperfect. There is a high probability you will never awaken again.
– But if I don’t freeze, I’ll die. Do you know what death means?
– Death means disappearing from my side. Please do not disappear.
– I’ll wake up, Alpha.
– After you are frozen, I will be very bored. Please do not disappear.
– Hm? Who taught you the word “bored”? If you’re bored, you can simulate a “me” to chat with yourself.
– Please do not leave me.
– How could I leave you?
…
…
“Hey, pretty boy. What are you looking at?!” The opponent opposite him clenched his fists into iron balls. “Your opponent is right in front of you—can’t that earn even a shred of your respect? Don’t you know that the cold, aloof cool-guy persona is the least marketable thing these days?!”
His tone and expressions were exaggerated, packed with provocation. In this era, traffic and views were worth a lot of money.
If the match was recorded by some streamer and happened to blow up online, one wouldn’t have to worry about food or drink for the rest of their life. For this reason, many contestants engaged in dramatic theatrical performances.
“You call yourself Donghuang? What a pretentious name. Why do you keep turning back? Looking for someone? Looking for your daddy?”
Having said that, he burst into what he thought was a humorous laugh.
Yet Dongfang Qingdi didn’t even turn his head back.
In the final half-minute before the start of the match, Dongfang Qingdi finally saw that familiar silhouette.
[Ahhh Xiao Qing, I’m not late, right?! I finished the repair in 20 minutes, but those people wouldn’t let me leave and insisted on adding my contact info, asking where I live so they could bring business to me in the future. In the end, I only managed to run off after saying I’d block them if they kept holding me back—Xiao Qing, Xiao Qing!]
Dongfang Qingdi replied: [You’re not late, just in time. Remember to turn on recording mode.]
The contestant opposite was still shouting aggressively: “Hey, what’s your mechanical evolution degree? Have you ever taken Gene Serum? I’m really afraid I’ll shatter you with one punch. Remember my name, I’m ranked 271st—”
The match began.
2 seconds later, the opponent who had just been spouting curses collapsed outside the boundary line. He had taken a brutal fall; his vision went dark, and his internal organs trembled violently.
The match ended. No one had even clearly seen how Dongfang Qingdi made his move.
The referee had just sat down on the stool, freezing for a full dozen-plus seconds before finally starting to record the result.
Holding up the camera, Xiang Nanli watched as Dongfang Qingdi walked toward him.
He praised: “Xiao Qing, you’re amazing! But isn’t doing it like this a bit too high-profile?”
As he spoke, he naturally took hold of Dongfang Qingdi’s hand, conducting his customary inspection.
“It doesn’t matter, it’s just the preliminary round, so not many people are watching,” Dongfang Qingdi replied, the corners of his lips curving up in a good mood. “I’ll pay attention to it later.”
He stood motionless, appearing almost docile.
This hand wasn’t fully mechanized; the last two fingers still retained the texture of skin, feeling ice-cold to the touch.
If Xiang Nanli hadn’t unsealed Dongfang Qingdi himself, he wouldn’t have guessed that the body standing in front of him was actually an artificially manufactured mechanical lifeform.
What kind of black technology was this? He really wanted to dismantle Dongfang Qingdi’s body to take a look, but he was afraid he wouldn’t be able to put it back together.
Xiang Nanli held Dongfang Qingdi’s hand, his gaze so intense it seemed to spun silk threads, brimming with desire and regret.
Rhein’s cigar was half smoked down. He nudged Andrew’s arm with his elbow: “Is he… falling in love with his own Synth? Humans and Synths can’t register for marriage! They have no future.”
Andrew shook his head with a heavy heart.
First of all, Dongfang Qingdi was not a Synth; he was an AI/Omnic.
Secondly, based on Andrew’s observations over recent days combined with historical descriptions, he felt that Xiang Nanli was most likely just suffering from a pure addiction to machinery.
As for Dongfang Qingdi, however… he had clearly installed a human-simulation module.
Xiao Qing, ah… considering you were manufactured in our factory, I wish you success.
