Chapter 59 - 55: Android

Chapter 59: Chapter 55: Android

BANG!

The gunshot rang out, but the bullet struck the ceiling. Victor had grabbed Yin Zhen’s hand the exact moment she pulled the trigger.

Furious, Yin Zhen swung at Victor, landing a solid punch squarely on his jaw.

The sudden ten-point surge in her agility and Strength made the strike incredibly fast, accurate, and ruthless. To everyone’s surprise, the blow knocked Victor’s head to the side and forced him to stumble a step back.

"WTF!"

Hearing the gunshot, the interrogator frantically tore off his helmet, only to see Victor leaning to the side, massaging a jaw that had clearly just taken a hit.

"Lucia" stood there, gun in hand, glaring furiously at Victor.

The atmosphere was suffocating. Even though the brain-computer interrogation had been interrupted, the interrogator silently put his helmet back on and squeezed his eyes shut, pretending the session was still ongoing.

Yin Zhen was trembling. It was a necessary part of her act as Lucia, but it was also a genuine reaction born of pure tension.

Given Victor’s capabilities, if he had truly wanted to stop her, he could have done so the moment she opened the door. Instead, he had waited until the very second she fired the gun to make his move.

Victor’s emotions were always predicated on rationality.

Luckily, her gamble had paid off—she hadn’t hesitated when firing that shot!

To Victor, the "value" of the invader had yet to be fully exploited. He would absolutely never allow Qian Jin to be casually killed by her.

Suddenly, Victor chuckled, and his entire demeanor softened.

"Very good, Lucia. That punch just now was very good!"

Yin Zhen didn’t move. She continued to glare at him, her eyes full of silent accusation.

Victor raised a hand, wanting to pat her shoulder in comfort, but fearing she might claw at him again, he awkwardly lowered it instead.

"It’s my fault I hurt you today. I’m sorry. The current situation has left me a bit confused and unable to think clearly, leading me to make the wrong judgment. I will reflect on this. You must be tired too. Go back and rest for now, and we’ll have a good talk later."

"I don’t want to talk to you!"

Yin Zhen screamed at him one last time before storming furiously out of the laboratory.

All the way outside and into the hovercar driven by White Phosphorus, she maintained a facade of extreme grief and indignation.

Intimidated by her dark aura, White Phosphorus was walking on eggshells the entire trip. He scrambled ahead to open doors and press elevator buttons, ensuring Yin Zhen had a seamless journey back to Lucia’s apartment.

"Captain, do you want to—"

"Get lost!"

Only after the door slammed shut did White Phosphorus weakly finish his sentence. "I just wanted to ask if you needed to update the door lock’s iris recognition. Otherwise, you won’t be able to get in next time I’m not here. Also, that thing in your house..."

The sound of things smashing came from inside. With a heavy GULP, White Phosphorus swallowed hard and scurried away without another word.

Inside the apartment, after smashing a few more items, Yin Zhen threw her exhausted body onto the sofa.

The performance was finally over. At one point, she had nearly resorted to using the Overlord Aura.

However, considering the Overlord Aura only forced out toe-curlingly awkward short phrases that wouldn’t have helped the situation, she had held back.

Under those circumstances, given Lucia’s hidden admiration and care for Victor, her usual aloofness couldn’t have been maintained. When someone starved for affection was hurt by the person closest to them, they would inevitably snap.

One could only remain emotionally stable when dealing with people they didn’t care about.

In Lucia’s heart, Victor was the closest thing she had to a father figure.

Yin Zhen leaned back against the sofa and surveyed the apartment.

Lucia lived on the top floor of Night City’s most bustling commercial district. Floor-to-ceiling windows stretched from East to west across an entire wall, offering a view of an endless sea of neon lights and a constant stream of hovercars.

A holographic advertisement for the Saint Group played on a loop on the building opposite. The light pollution was so intense that there was no need to turn on the indoor lights.

Yet, not a single sound from the chaos outside penetrated the room. Instead, the white noise of falling rain looped continuously, while a simulated raindrop Effect trickled down the glass.

The living room was massive, featuring an entire wall dedicated to a custom rack of cold weapons. From Eastern Tang swords and Western knightly longswords to Viking battle axes and various bizarre, unnamed blades, every single one was polished to a gleaming finish.

The adjacent wall displayed a wide array of firearms—handguns, rifles, shotguns, and more. There were even a few antique revolvers that looked incredibly expensive.

The room behind the sofa was a gaming den, crammed full of the latest holographic gaming pods along with a pile of peripherals and merchandise that Yin Zhen couldn’t even name.

There were also two of the Saint Group’s newest Training Pod models. It seemed she and Tuner used to train in them frequently.

Yin Zhen recalled that three floors below the apartment lay Lucia’s private gym and training grounds. On the roof was her exclusive helipad, where a black-painted armed helicopter was parked.

"If there wasn’t a war, this kind of life would be absolutely fantastic," Yin Zhen muttered to herself. "The only downside is the food—all the booze, drinks, and snacks reek of blood."

She checked the forum. The new Players hadn’t joined yet. Aside from Nan Jiamu’s bounty post, no one had created any new threads. It was as quiet as a graveyard.

Yin Zhen began to calculate. Since she had killed the amalgamate, her Slaughter points should be far higher than the other Players.

However, if Nan Jiamu recruited all the first-batch Players and they teamed up to clear out the Fallen Species on the city’s outskirts, they still had a chance of winning by sheer numbers over the remaining three days.

She couldn’t afford to slack off. She decided to rest for a bit before heading out to exterminate the Fallen Species in the West District, which also happened to be part of Lucia’s official duties.

Just as she was thinking this, a very faint sound came from the storage room.

Yin Zhen’s pupils contracted slightly. She swiftly approached the storage room and yanked the door open.

"I’m sorry, I didn’t hide well enough. Please don’t erase me. I promise to hide better next time."

Huddled in the corner of the room was a little girl, about seven or eight years old, curled up into a ball with her arms wrapped around her knees. She wore a very worn, blue floral dress.

After the little girl finished speaking in a mechanical, monotone voice, she looked up, got a clear view of Yin Zhen, and tilted her head.

Immediately after, a scanning beam shot out from her azure eyes, rapidly sweeping over Yin Zhen from head to toe. A pale blue indicator light on her temple began to blink rapidly.

"Appearance data updated. Hello, Miss Lucia."

She was an android! Yin Zhen hadn’t seen this android girl in Lucia’s memories, so she had no idea she existed within the apartment.

But thinking it over carefully, a daily maintenance robot was definitely necessary for such a massive apartment, and having an android handle those chores was perfectly reasonable.

Perhaps Lucia had once ordered this android to stay out of sight, which was why it hid whenever she returned home.

White Phosphorus and Tuner both had keys to this apartment; they must have informed the android beforehand that the current Lucia had switched bodies.

But why use an android modeled after a little girl to manage the place?

Blonde hair, blue eyes... she looked a lot like a younger Lucia... Then, it clicked!

Before the Blood Plague, when Lucia was eight years old, her scientist mother had personally built this android to keep her company and take care of her.

During the Blood Plague, Lucia’s mother passed away, leaving the little android girl as the only memento of her. But as Lucia slowly grew up, her feelings toward the android became complicated.

Lucia would have people replace the android’s parts with the latest upgrades to ensure she remained "alive," yet she didn’t want the android wandering around in front of her.

There were many times when Lucia wanted to completely erase the android, but she always gave up in the end. The android’s chip held the memories of the happiest, most joyous times from her childhood with her mother.

To Lucia, doing so would mean truly saying a final goodbye to her mother, and she just couldn’t bear to do it.

Thus, this little girl became the "invisible person" in Lucia’s apartment.

Lucy! Yin Zhen scoured Lucia’s most distant memories and finally found the android girl’s name. The Source of the name was a song her mother used to sing to her when she was little, "Miss Lucy Had a Little Baby."

Lucy and Lucia... their names were very similar too.

Closing the storage room door, Yin Zhen felt a headache coming on.

Members of the Blood Clan were fundamentally beings of Wisdom; they possessed emotions and could be deceived by her acting.

But an android was fundamentally an AI. It only performed data comparisons and analysis.

Lucy had been by Lucia’s side even longer than Victor. If she kept Lucy around, it would only be a matter of time before the android analyzed the minute discrepancies in her habits and deduced that she wasn’t the real Lucia.

Yin Zhen raised her arm and used her communication bracelet to call White Phosphorus.

"Come pick me up."

Yin Zhen selected a brand-new Hand Axe from the wall, grabbed her coat, and headed straight out the door.

Inside the storage room, Lucy watched through the hallway cameras as Yin Zhen left. She slowly stood up, opened the door, and walked out into the living area.

Looking at the shattered objects scattered across the floor, the pale blue indicator light on Lucy’s temple suddenly turned an abnormal red, blinking with increasing speed.