Chapter 105 - 100: The Strongest Lucy

Chapter 105: Chapter 100: The Strongest Lucy

At a moment like this, facing such a sincere Lucy, Yin Zhen should have just said yes.

But her reason reminded her: she couldn’t!

Lucy was an android. She didn’t possess human emotions. For her to make such a decision, it had to be the optimal result calculated by her programming to achieve her goal.

Chi Hai’s environment wasn’t conducive to an android’s survival. Even though Lucy was powerful enough to control all models of Saint androids, she still wasn’t stronger than the ’gods’ existing in the Red Corpse World.

In contrast, Ancient Abyss’s environment would be extremely friendly to her. She could even become the ’god’ of Ancient Abyss.

However, androids still had insurmountable drawbacks, especially in a place like Ancient Abyss, where the technological Strength was far inferior to Chi Hai’s. Ancient Abyss lacked androids for Lucy to hack and control at will, and electricity and networks would become her fatal weakness. Without these mediums, Lucy’s abilities would be greatly discounted.

More importantly, Lucy was a companion-type android, not a combat model. She wasn’t equipped with any Weapons.

Lucy needed the protection of an expert, and Yin Zhen was the most optimal choice for her. They already had a foundation of trust.

Lucy trusted her character, but she couldn’t entirely entrust her trust to Lucy in return.

Taking Lucy to Ancient Abyss would certainly be a huge help, allowing her to play an unimaginably great role. Yet, simultaneously, as time passed, the potential influence and harm Lucy could cause in the future might be something Yin Zhen couldn’t bear.

Previously, she hadn’t cared about what Lucy did because she had planned to leave her in Chi Hai anyway. But now...

After pondering, Yin Zhen finally spoke. "I have one condition. If you agree to it, I’ll take you with me."

Lucy nodded immediately, evidently having calculated that Yin Zhen would make a demand.

"Please speak."

"I don’t want your highest administrative privileges, and I can give you the maximum amount of freedom. But I want to add a base-level directive to your programming. This directive is: without my permission, you may not, directly or indirectly, do anything that endangers Ancient Abyss or harms the human lives within it."

Pausing, Yin Zhen added, "Ancient Abyss is my world."

Lucy smiled. "I thought you’d ask me to abide by your world’s ’Three Laws of Robotics.’ If it’s just this, I agree. Your world exists, you exist, and I exist—I understand the causal relationship here. All I want is to experience what it feels like to be human, to possess free will, and to live. I will respect you and your world."

Hearing this, Yin Zhen extended a hand.

"Then, here’s to a pleasant cooperation, Lucy."

Lucy also reached out and shook Yin Zhen’s hand. "From now on, I am your cousin, Lucy Yin, and you are my guardian."

As their hands clasped together, an agreement was reached.

In the distance, Zoe saw their conversation end before walking over to ask, "May, is she your friend too?"

"This is Lucy," Yin Zhen introduced. "But now isn’t the time to talk about this. We need to quickly figure out a way..."

Yin Zhen didn’t finish her sentence. Instead, she led Zoe to look at the massive, sealed vat protected in the center of the laboratory. Its exterior was secured by thick alloy doors and covered by a laser grid.

After a brief pause, Lucy said, "That is a separate, independent system. Its defense Level is extremely high. I will need at least eight hours to hack it. There is no self-destruct system installed here, so we cannot destroy it directly.

"If we forcefully dismantle it, it will trigger an internal protocol. The brain in the vat will sink into a sealed capsule a hundred meters below, and the three entities in the coffins will be forcibly awakened. The comprehensive combat assessment of those three reaches the SSS-level."

Yin Zhen glanced at her return countdown.

[08:36:30]

This timeframe made her feel... Yin Zhen forcefully suppressed those thoughts, afraid of accidentally triggering a cannon fodder flag.

"Let me try first."

Yin Zhen took out the Universal Key and walked to the center, attempting to use it on the sealed alloy door. Unsurprisingly, it failed.

The Universal Key was only effective on Silver-tier and lower items and Skills. The Level rating of the thing in front of her had definitely reached Golden or even higher.

Yin Zhen then tried using her blood silk to slice it. Failure!

She used her other Extraordinary Abilities to try and destroy the outer alloy door, and Zoe also made various attempts. Without exception, all failed.

"Lucy, we’ll have to rely on you then. Try to speed it up as much as possible. I only have eight and a half hours left."

Lucy was just about to nod when she suddenly looked toward the entrance.

"Victor has appeared in the first-floor lobby. Shall I intercept him?"

Unsurprised by this, Yin Zhen replied, "Intercept him!"

Lucy’s eyes began to lose focus. The indicator light she had hidden flashed wildly as she gave a cold, robotic broadcast.

"Activating the fire alarm of the Saint Building. Evacuating the crowd to create chaos.

"Locking down all elevators and quarantine doors leading to the underground laboratory. Initiating S-Class emergency protocol.

"Deploying all defense-type armed robots. Overwriting the directives of all androids within the building.

"New directive: kill Victor at all costs!"

Once Lucy’s gaze regained focus, she looked at Yin Zhen and asked, "There’s a saying in your world: ’The supreme strategy is to attack the mind.’ I have an audio recording of Evelyn’s murder in my database. Shall I play it for Victor?"

Secretly alarmed by how terrifying Lucy could be, Yin Zhen shook her head. "Just try to delay him as much as possible during this time and beat him down to critically low health. We aren’t good at psychological warfare. If handled poorly, it will only make Victor think the recording is a forgery, rendering it completely useless."

Lucy nodded. "Understood. I will hack the programming here as quickly as possible."

Lucy handed her backpack to Yin Zhen. Inside were all her belongings.

Yin Zhen tried to store the backpack into her game inventory but found that she couldn’t take it in as a whole. She had no choice but to clear out the Weapons and blood source elements that could be discarded, sorting and storing the remaining items into her inventory category by category.

One backup battery, one charger, a set of spare parts, and all the gold mashed together into a ball—taking up a total of four inventory slots. Including Lucy, that made five slots.

If the Black Domain Walker hadn’t contributed another game inventory, it really would have been difficult for her to bring Lucy and all her belongings back to Ancient Abyss.

With only one slot left, Yin Zhen thought for a moment and decided to keep the Night Song. The gun’s handling and lethality were very good, and 12.5mm bullets could be found over in Ancient Abyss as well.

The laboratory, located twenty floors underground, suddenly quieted down.

Zoe had been staring at Yin Zhen, prompting Yin Zhen to ask, "What’s wrong?"

Zoe said, "I’m suddenly getting curious about what your world is like. Is it the same as the hometown Ian described? A place that even an android like Lucy yearns for must be a wonderful place, right?"

Yin Zhen remained silent for a moment before replying, "If you want to know, I can take you to visit my world, but only for seven days."

Zoe immediately grew excited, a bright smile blossoming on her face. "Really?"

Yin Zhen nodded. Zoe wanted to say something more, but she suddenly frowned and looked toward the massive white brain in the corner. "That thing... it’s been calling out to me."

Yin Zhen hadn’t heard any sounds. Her perception of these things wasn’t as keen as Zoe’s, the protagonist of Chi Hai.

Using novel logic to deduce the situation, Yin Zhen figured that the thing was likely a fated opportunity for Zoe.

Without the invasion of these Players from Ancient Abyss, Zoe’s main storyline would have been very clear-cut. She definitely would have experienced certain events, grown stronger, and annihilated the three great families step by step. Ultimately, she would have arrived at this laboratory, confronted the final boss—the brain in the vat—ended the Blood Plague, liberated the people, and become the leader of Chi Hai.

Before any major boss, danger and opportunity always went hand in hand. The protagonist would suffer a setback first, obtain ’supplies,’ erupt with power, and then pull off a counter-kill.

Now, because of Yin Zhen, Zoe hadn’t gone through her complete, cruel growth period and had been brought here ahead of time. Yin Zhen couldn’t be certain whether Zoe could handle this ’fated opportunity.’

"May, I have to go take a look."

Zoe spoke to Yin Zhen with firm resolve. She was no longer the Zoe who needed to heed others’ advice on everything.

"Go ahead, then. I’m here."

Zoe’s lips curled up in a smile. "Mhm!"