Chapter 2

Who are you?

Faced with this question, he did not hesitate at all and directly gave the answer: "Experimental Subject 1120 of the Deep Space Warrior Program."

Why were you created?

"To be an experimental subject for the development of an all-capable warrior capable of independent deep space exploration."

For what do you fight?

"For humanity."

Whose orders do you follow?

"System directives."

Do you fear death?

"I do not fear death."

What is death?

"Complete alteration of the physical form of existence."

All the questions flashed by, and his thoughts did not waver at all, answering purely by instinct.

The screen suddenly paused for a moment, then a new question popped up:

"Among the following people, which one would you shoot first?"

Below the question, eight photos suddenly appeared, including elderly people and children, and a few familiar faces, but he could not remember where he had seen them.

He then realized that this was knowledge protected by the system, and his own access level was insufficient to view his own memories.

However, this question was completely outside the scope of instinctive answers, so he began to carefully observe the eight photos, thinking hard, trying to find the target that should be prioritized for shooting.

But at this moment, his thoughts became slightly confused. What criteria should be used to screen the targets? Age, gender, identity, or something else, like, looking unpleasant?

The appearance of the last criterion surprised him, and he did not understand where this thought came from.

Just as he was hesitating, the screen suddenly went dark, and all the images disappeared. A moment later, it turned transparent, revealing the room behind the screen.

Behind the screen was a room full of instruments, and a disheveled researcher with thick glasses was sitting at the control desk, looking somewhat surprised at a middle-aged man who had rushed in.

This man was wearing the same researcher's robe, but with an additional black and gold stripe on his shoulder, indicating that his status was higher than the other researchers.

For some reason, seeing this man caused a slight ripple in his emotions.

The middle-aged man quickly walked to the control panel, glanced at the screen, and shouted, "Who told you to change the questions? Stop immediately!"

The researcher at the control panel shrugged and said, "I just wanted to see how he would react to an unfamiliar question outside the preset scenarios. The results were indeed surprising! Look, this data is very interesting. How does a program evaluate whether someone looks pleasant or not? If we delve deeper, we might find a whole new algorithm..."

Before he could finish, the middle-aged man interrupted, "Delete it, and forget everything that happened today."

The disheveled researcher jumped up, pointing at the screen with both hands, and said, "Why! Don't you understand the significance of this result? It might be the true intelligent fuzzy judgment algorithm we've been looking for! This could win a major award!"

"Before you win the award, you'll lose your job. Don't forget, our research progress is already 15% behind. If we have two more such incidents, we won't get the additional funding this year. Everyone's bonuses, special allowances, and the three-year leave will be canceled. If I'm not mistaken, you have two children, one of whom is about to pay for school tuition."

The disheveled researcher's confidence waned, and he laughed bitterly, "Alright, you're the boss, you decide. But, Dr. Chu, can't we keep this data privately?"

"No, delete it immediately! Step aside."

Dr. Chu firmly pushed the researcher aside and started operating on the computer. The researcher shrugged helplessly, watching as the data deletion progress bar appeared and slowly reached the end.

Just as the progress bar was about to finish, the lab suddenly shook violently. The disheveled researcher fell over, while Dr. Chu, pressing his hand on the table, floated in the air, avoiding a fall.

Then a faint explosion was heard, and the room's lights turned a glaring red. The shrill alarm quickly drowned out everything else, and only the electronic voice repeated the warning in a monotonous tone:

"Warning! The base is under unknown attack, damage level three. All personnel evacuate according to emergency procedures! Repeat, the base is under unknown attack..."

The disheveled researcher was clearly not in a good state, "Unknown attack? Who would attack us?"

The room shook more violently, and the explosions grew closer. Dr. Chu landed from the air, standing steady despite the violent shaking of the room.

He shouted, "Destroy all data! Immediately!"

The disheveled researcher hesitated, saying, "It's just a level three alert..."

"It will be level one soon! Think about who would attack us?"

The researcher was suddenly startled, rushed to the chair, and started frantically operating the computer.

Dr. Chu reached out to fasten his safety belt and said, "Unlock Memory Core 7."

"But, that's forbidden..." the disheveled researcher stammered.

Dr. Chu patted his shoulder and said, "Consider it a favor. You know what that memory core means to me."

The disheveled researcher struggled for a moment, then gritted his teeth and said, "Alright! I'll lose my job, and my second child can go to a less prestigious school!"

He rapidly entered the password and aligned his eye with the screen. After the iris scan, he took a deep breath and forcefully pressed the confirmation button.

With a light click, a cabinet door on one side of the server rack opened, and a chip box the size of a lighter popped out. The chip box was marked with a prominent red prohibition symbol.

Dr. Chu quickly pulled out the chip box and, before leaving, suddenly turned back and said, "I won't forget you. If... we ever meet again."

The disheveled researcher did not catch the hidden meaning in his words. He was focused on clearing the data, and after a moment, he sighed in relief, muttering to himself, "Finally done. If it wasn't a level one alert, I would be in trouble... Damn! Level one alert!!"

At this moment, the alarm lights began to flash wildly, and the alarm speed doubled, repeating:

"Core cabin self-destruction program activated, countdown begins. All personnel evacuate immediately. Repeat, self-destruction countdown activated, all personnel evacuate immediately!"

The disheveled researcher unfastened his safety belt and stumbled toward the door. At that moment, a nearby cabinet exploded, and the shockwave sent him tumbling, his head hitting the corner of a table, blood flowing down.

The disheveled researcher ignored the pain and crawled out of the room. The fire that had started in the room was completely ignored.

Throughout, he remained seated, motionless.

He watched the screen, which, despite the explosions and debris, showed no scratches, and lowered his slightly raised hand, continuing to wait. He had not received an order, so he should wait here for new instructions or for the base to be destroyed.

Even if he did not want to wait, it was useless. The walls of this room were made of armor-grade alloy, impervious to any single soldier's weapon, and it was unclear what they were guarding against.

He did not want to know the answer, instinctively.

He sat there, watching the fire on the other side of the screen grow more intense. Under the high temperature, the screen began to deform.

At this moment, he thought of nothing.

Deep in his consciousness, there were a few mysterious points, storing some data fragments. These points had limited capacity and could store very little data, but they could avoid daily cleaning.

They were memories of the past.

He once had companions, fellow subjects with only numbers as names, and had experienced similar destruction scenarios in experiments. He knew that in experiments, destruction might occur, or it might just be an experiment. As a test subject, he had no way to distinguish. However, he was clear that experiments might not lead to destruction, but thinking too much during experiments would certainly lead to destruction.

He did not know where the destruction came from, did not think about it, and could not think about it.

At this moment, the automatic door of the room suddenly opened. However, it only opened halfway and got stuck. A hand grabbed the edge of the door, forcefully pulling the heavy automatic door open, and then Dr. Chu strode in.

Dr. Chu had already taken off his research robe and was wearing a powered combat suit. As soon as he entered, he said, "Follow me."

He obediently stood up and followed the doctor. In his system, Dr. Chu's orders had the second-highest priority. The highest priority owner did not seem to be in the base. At least, he had never seen them. So the doctor's words were the supreme command, not to be disobeyed.

As soon as they left the automatic door, a pipeline in the side passage burst, and the leaking gas ignited, a wall of fire blocking their path.

Dr. Chu, without hesitation, rushed to the side passage entrance, using his body to block the flames, then grabbed him and threw him into another passage. Only then did the doctor leave the side passage entrance and rush forward.

He saw that the back of the doctor's combat suit was charred black.

At this moment, explosions were happening one after another, smoke and flames everywhere. The entire base was shaking violently, and damaged parts were falling at any time. With the continuous explosions, debris was flying everywhere, and being hit would be fatal.

Dr. Chu moved quickly, constantly clearing the way ahead, and finally came to an automatic door. The automatic door had lost power and could not open.

Dr. Chu directly ejected a small bomb from his wrist, stuck it on the door, and pulled him behind.

A not-so-loud explosion, and the automatic door was blown open. Dr. Chu, with a strength disproportionate to his body, kicked the remaining door open and strode in.

Inside the room were rows of instruments similar to hibernation pods. Hidden memories reminded him that this was the place for rewriting and adjusting programs, where he would clear memory data after each experiment.

Dr. Chu quickly checked and soon found a machine that was still functional.

"Get in."

He entered the machine, sat down, and lay back, preparing.

Dr. Chu quickly entered a series of commands on the control panel, then took out the prominently red-painted Memory Core 7. Looking at the memory core, Dr. Chu suddenly hesitated, then looked up and asked, "Do you know what I'm about to give you?"

"Whatever it is, I will obey," he said in a mechanical, unchanging voice.

Dr. Chu nodded, his hand trembling slightly, as if making a great decision, before inserting the memory core into the slot and pressing the start button.

A probe pierced his nape, connecting to the data port, and a small segment of data was immediately input. As soon as this data entered, it began to clear all the restrictions and locks in his consciousness, even many hidden commands and interfaces at the lower levels, one by one.

The shackles that bound and controlled him fell off one by one.