Chapter 32#
Boot Up#
Beep!!——
The piercing alarm buzzed incessantly, making Ning Feng’s head spin from the noise.
Ugh… so loud!
He struggled to open his eyes, but his eyelids felt glued shut; he tried to sit up, only to find his limbs restrained by something, his entire body unable to move; he wanted to shout, but couldn’t produce a single syllable.
What’s going on?
Suddenly, a blinding flash of light shot before his eyes. Then, a sharp pain exploded in his skull, like someone driving an impact drill into his temple—bang, bang, bang.
Mmph!…
Ning Feng writhed in agony, but he couldn’t even manage to roll over. His consciousness churned and thrashed in an endless abyss. Though his eyelids remained tightly shut, his retina “saw” fragmented images flashing past in rapid succession, yet none were clear enough to make out. He could only grit his teeth and endure it all.
It felt as long as an entire star era. Finally, the interminable stream of images ended.
【Stream of consciousness loading complete.】
A flat, emotionless metallic voice rang out. Ning Feng’s vision went black, and he passed out completely.
Drip—drip—
The faint rhythmic hum of machinery echoed. When he woke again, he was astonished to find that he could actually see.
But the visual feed was bizarre—less like waking up bleary-eyed and more like viewing images transmitted through a visor.
His eyes fixed on the ceiling. He seemed to be lying on a bed. Ning Feng tried to sit up, but all he heard was a grating metallic screech that set his teeth on edge; his body didn’t move at all—
No, to be precise, he couldn’t feel his limbs!
What… what is this?
A chill crept into Ning Feng’s heart. He strained to turn his head, but aside from a slight wobble left and right, he couldn’t manage any other movement.
Still, that was enough to take in his surroundings.
It was a small room of about a dozen square meters, windowless, with pitifully sparse furniture. Wires and cables crisscrossed everywhere, occasionally flickering with blue-green signals. Scattered in the remaining corners were piles of mechanical parts—seemingly chaotic, but upon closer inspection, they were sorted and arranged by type.
Why did it look like an abandoned bridge?
Then Ning Feng noticed a man standing directly opposite him.
The man was tall and muscular, his gray vest covered in dust, sweat beading on his neatly cropped brown hair. He had his back to Ning Feng, holding an object as thick as an arm, tinkering with it while muttering under his breath.
“Damn, I think I connected the index finger wrong.” He scratched his head, then picked up a wrench and started clanking away again.
Ning Feng felt a surge of confusion.
Who is he?
Where is this?
He remembered he had been carrying out the extermination mission on the Hive Star, killing the overlord, rescuing the squad and Qiao Xi, then the insect venom flared up… and after that… after that…
Ning Feng’s gaze darkened.
So, was he dead? But now…
Suddenly, he recalled the prompt before he passed out—【Stream of consciousness loading complete.】
Stream of consciousness?
Thinking back to the chip Qu Yan had invented earlier, his mind churned with doubts. He wondered if his memories had been extracted, then speculated whether he had been stored in some container.
While he was still thoroughly bewildered, the crew-cut man turned around, meeting his eyes. Only then did Ning Feng see clearly that what the man held was a mechanical arm.
An awkward silence hung in the air. They stared at each other for a few seconds before Ning Feng finally broke the eerie stillness.
“Who are you?”
This time, the sound did come out—but Ning Feng was stunned.
Who spoke? Whose voice was that?!
Why did it sound so strange? Completely flat, devoid of any intonation or emotion—like a stiff, synthesized mechanical voice!
What happened to his own voice?
Ning Feng was utterly disoriented. The crew-cut man blinked, then broke into an excited expression.
“Ah, it’s booted up!” He then dashed out under Ning Feng’s stare, shouting as he ran, “Brother Mu! Brother Mu! Radish is online—it’s online!”
Ning Feng: ???
Booted? Booted what?
And who the hell is Radish?
What in the world is going on?!
He struggled for a long time, but his body still wouldn’t obey. His patience exhausted, he cursed inwardly, “Sit up, damn it!” The next second, with a creak, his entire upper torso sprang upright from the bed.
Now Ning Feng could finally see the state of his body.
His once solid, muscular frame had become a boxy mechanical contraption, patched with mismatched colors. His thighs were replaced by rough metal components. A low hum of machinery emanated from deep within his body. He had only one arm; wires were exposed at the shoulder, and his right arm was missing.
“Holy crap! How did I end up like this?!”
Ning Feng yelled, but the sound came from the back of his head, flat and harsh, utterly failing to convey his shock, horror, or any other emotion.
Though the volume was loud enough.
He tried to look down, but found his neck couldn’t bend, and his waist was locked. After struggling, he could only wobble slightly, accompanied by the clatter of mechanical parts.
While he was flailing, a man with clean, handsome features and brown hair walked in.
Seeing Ning Feng sitting bolt upright at a ninety-degree angle, his neck fixed straight ahead, his two round cameras straining to rotate in his direction, the man paused, his thin lips curving into a warm smile.
“Hello, how can I help you?”
**
The man introduced himself as Sha Mu, a mechanic.
With his help, Ning Feng finally managed to get his body straightened and found a sitting position that felt “comfortable” to “look at.”
“Sorry, the captain needed me earlier, so I didn’t get a chance to oil you up.” Sha Mu spoke apologetically while deftly tightening a screw. Soon, the right arm was attached, looking just as battered as the left. He stepped back. “Come on, try moving it.”
Ning Feng moved. Both arms rotated flexibly, even bending at impossible angles.
Sha Mu nodded in satisfaction and turned back to fiddle with other parts. “Wait a moment, almost done.”
The robot nodded, subtly observing the man.
He looked to be around thirty, with silver-rimmed glasses and kind, peach-shaped eyes. His posture was tall and straight, and his white robe was spotless—conspicuously clean against the surrounding mess.
Ning Feng chose his words carefully. “What is this place?”
“This is Forge Town in Scrap City, also the base of the Explosive Sheep.”
“Explosive Sheep?”
“Ah, that’s our squad’s name.”
Mercenary squad?
Ning Feng paused, then suddenly remembered that Scrap City was a famous mercenary hub in the nearby star sector—if you could call it a city.
It gathered a vast number of mercenaries of various levels. As long as the pay was good, they would fight for any organization. Many of them cooperated with the military; back at the base, an updated mercenary list was sent to him every month for screening.
But as far as he recalled, he had never seen any mercenaries from the Forge Town area.
Too low-ranked?
He studied the man again. He seemed refined and gentle, with none of the edge that came from living on a knife’s edge. And why did he look so familiar… like he’d seen him somewhere…
While his mind wandered, Sha Mu installed two more parts near his knees. “Alright, try standing up and walking a few steps.”
Ning Feng followed the instruction. Awkwardly, he turned, supported himself on the edge of the bed, and slowly stood up. But the moment he straightened his waist, his body began to sway violently. Before he could find support, he crashed forward.
Crackle, clatter—
And then Ning Feng fell apart.
Not completely—his skull and elbows were still attached—but the rest scattered into a jumble of parts, looking even more battered than before.
Ning Feng: …
“Hmm… seems the lower limbs are a bit asymmetrical.” Sha Mu propped his chin on his fingers, looking troubled.
Ning Feng felt speechless. He watched the man crouch down, roll up his sleeves, and start hammering away with the wrench. Even though it was his own body, scattered across the floor, he felt no pain. He could calmly watch as Sha Mu picked up his still-intact thigh, twisting and reassembling it.
It was truly a peculiar experience.
After a moment’s thought, he asked again, “Why am I here?”
Finally, Sha Mu looked up and adjusted his glasses. “Do you know Qu Yan?”
Ning Feng tried to nod, but found his neck stuck again, so he just said, “Yes.”
Sha Mu smiled faintly.
“I’m his cousin.”
Instantly, Ning Feng’s optical sensors contracted, focusing sharply on the man’s delicate face. Realization dawned. He opened his mouth to speak, only to remember he didn’t have one.
So that was the source of the inexplicable familiarity—
This man looked a lot like Qu Yan!
“Qu Yan told me about your situation. I modified the pod’s code so that if anything happened to you, it would be transmitted here.” Sha Mu continued working on the “limbs.”
“You can change the destination?” Ning Feng was surprised.
He knew the pod was upgraded by Big Beard, and the system code should have been set. How could this man quietly alter the program? Wait—the upgrade schematics were provided by Qu Yan to Big Beard. Could it be…
“I gave the schematics to Qu Yan.” As if reading his doubt, Sha Mu smiled slowly.
His original plan was to relocate Ning Feng’s body first, until they found a way to purge the insect venom. That way, returning to base wouldn’t result in his body being dissected for research.
“But before I could even tell you, you ended up here.” He sighed helplessly.
Yes, no one had expected it.
No one expected that Yin Beichen’s adjutant would be infected with insect venom, that the venom would flare up so suddenly, or that Ning Feng would die from it.
Now, Ning Feng’s pod—contaminated with high concentrations of insect venom—was stored in the starport’s landing pad. Once the contamination dissipated in a few days, they would find a place to store it. Since Qu Yan’s chip had a limited storage time and couldn’t be kept too long, to prevent memory data loss, he had transferred Ning Feng’s consciousness into this robot.
After hearing Sha Mu’s explanation, Ning Feng felt surprisingly calm. He was silent for a moment. “What’s the date today?”
“You can check the date on your interface. Just send a neural command.”
Ning Feng tried issuing a command, and sure enough, today’s date appeared at the top right of his retina.
November 27th.
Six days had passed.
The pod had surveillance footage. Yin Beichen must have discovered the insect venom by now, right?
Thinking of that man whose entire goal was to eradicate the insect race—and now his most trusted adjutant had become the very thing he hated most…
All those years of dedication now seemed like a joke.
Ning Feng felt like laughing, but couldn’t manage the expression. The small room was brightly lit, yet he felt as if he had fallen into an abyss, darkness crushing him like a heavy star, even his heart aching.
Oh, right—he had no heart now.
He tried moving his arm, attempting to adjust his position. But after struggling for a while, all he managed was to flip his head around; his lower body remained trapped in the pile of parts.
Staring at the scattered components, he felt a wild, unruly emotion surging inside, with nowhere to go. He didn’t know why, but he felt so, so tired.
Even a little sleepy.
He hadn’t rested well before because of the Hive Star mission—the venom torturing him, Yin Beichen torturing him, and even himself torturing himself. Now that he was dead, why bother agonizing over all this?
Maybe he should just sleep for a bit? Just a little while.
He could think about everything else after he woke up.
With that thought, slowly, Ning Feng’s consciousness sank into darkness.
For a time, the room was filled only with the crisp clatter of parts.
After a while, hurried footsteps came from outside. The tall, burly man rushed in, panting. “Brother Mu! Brother Mu! The captain—oh, this…”
“Xiao Yong, what’s wrong?” Sha Mu brushed aside a stray curl near his ear, his eyes full of affection.
The man snapped out of it, his face immediately turning anxious. “Oh, the captain sent someone again. She said we have to give an answer by the day after tomorrow.”
“I got it.” Sha Mu smiled and patted the man’s head, showing no sign of urgency. “Go wash up and eat first. I dissected a razor-beak chicken today and saved you the drumstick.”
“Razor-beak chicken?” The man licked his lips. The meat was delicious, but it was a notoriously fierce bird, extremely hard to catch. He couldn’t believe Brother Mu had gotten one!
He glanced sideways at the battered robot. “Huh? Why is Radish offline?”
After checking, he found it had run out of power. He moved to charge it, but Sha Mu stopped him. “What’s wrong?”
Sha Mu slowly shook his head, his gaze toward the robot carrying an unreadable light.
“Let him rest. He’s tired.”