imperfections

This is the No.11 rainy season of Venus after the first year.

The Eighth Galaxy will probably never be like Votto, who is afraid of getting a little mud on his leather shoes, and must accurately control cloudy, sunny, rainy and snow-they don't have the money, and they don't have the exquisite attitude towards life. Except for the agricultural bases with special requirements, most of the natural planets are still sunny and rainy, and it is often seen that idiots who forgot to pay attention to the weather forecast are running around in the heavy rain.

The house uses special moisture-proof materials, which can keep the humidity in a relatively comfortable range, but seeing the gloomy sky outside through the window still makes people feel drowsy.

Lu Bixing was in his own study room. The desktop was covered with files and windows flying out of his personal terminal. It was in a mess, and the background color of the black walnut wood could hardly be seen clearly.

Lu Bixing didn't take his eyes off the document, stretched his arms, pushed the thermos cup aside, and a mechanical hand stretched out from the corner of the table, and poured him a cup of freshly brewed milk tea.

"Principal Lu, you have been sitting there for more than three hours," said Zhan Lu's voice from the mechanical arm, "for the sake of health, you should stand up and move around."

This manipulator is a little smaller than the original one, and it only has a simple transformation function, and it cannot be transformed into a humanoid that can be mistaken for the real one.

Theoretically speaking, by analyzing the data in the Zhanlu database, they can almost restore the mech nuclear Zhanlu technically, but they have not moved it out of cost considerations—the budget given by the engineering department is too high to restore a The Zhanlu Mecha is almost enough to equip Turan with a hyperspace heavy armor team.

Besides, there is no peerless master weapon, and it is no different from a kitchen knife, so it is temporarily shelved.

"It's not that I don't want to," Lu Bixing replied without raising his head, "Yes... I said, can you get this one off my feet first?"

There is a one-meter-long golden python under his table, which is wrapping around one of his legs intimately. Didn't find anyone hating it.

"Oh, so I came here." The mechanical hand slid down from the table quickly, grabbed the python firmly, lifted it into the air, and lifted it back into the tank, "It's time to change the 'Popcorn' to a bigger one." A little home."

The name "popcorn" succeeded Lu Bixing showed a little indigestion expression.

In addition to the snake, there was a chameleon lying on one corner of his desk, trying to integrate himself with the desk, with a demented expression on his face that he thought he was living on the ancient earth.

There is a huge fish tank in the living room on the first floor, nearly three meters high, like a small aquarium, with a whole tank of aquatic organisms in it. The fish tank landscape is carefully arranged in it, and it is updated regularly. The water waves follow the fish coming and going gently. The rippling makes the wet rainy day even more steamy.

"Okay, Zhanlu, if you are a human being, you will definitely have a place in the interstellar roommate list, can't we raise a mammal without scales?" Lu Bixing moved his legs that were numb from the python, looking around , I feel surrounded by lower vertebrates, and Yin Qi is oozing out from the cracks in the bones.

Zhanlu replied: "Keeping pets is good for physical and mental health. I very much agree with you adopting a small animal you like."

The implication - I raise what I like, you raise what you like, we don't interfere with each other, but you feed yourself what you brought.

"I have to reset you one day." Lu Bixing held up a hot teacup and waved his hand in front of the chameleon, "I'm holding down my coaster, please move it all the time."

The ancient living fossil tilted its head in slow motion and turned a deaf ear.

Lu Bixing failed to communicate across species, so he had to endure the discomfort, and with his fingertips, he picked up the man with all four feet in the air, invited him to the ground, and rescued the oppressed ceramic coaster.

Next to the coaster, there are seven scratches on the walnut tabletop, which are not neatly arranged. Some are as deep as if they want to divide the table into two, while others are not carved with a single knife. The deep and shallow nicks are combined together, like some kind of strange totem with unknown meaning.

Lu Bixing's eyes inadvertently passed over those notches, and paused lightly——

It's been ten years, he thought.

Ten years ago, the day of the CEO's funeral was also a rainy season.

Lu Bixing presided over the entire ceremony and returned to the home of "General Lin and Engineer 001" alone. Every step felt like stepping on clouds, light and unreal, dizzy, and about to fall from this planet into the black hole of the universe inside.

He really wanted to get drunk, but at that time, all living supplies in the eighth galaxy were rationed, and the new chief executive's family didn't have such non-essentials in stock, so he might as well live freely while picking up trash in the smelly big sister's base.Lu Bixing rummaged through the whole house, and finally only found a can of beer from a long time ago.The moment he saw the can of beer, a hallucination suddenly appeared in front of his eyes. He vaguely saw that evening many years ago, Lin Jingheng opened the refrigerator in his pajamas, took it out to have a look, threw it back in disgust, and went to drink it with patience. The herbal tea that has been soaked in three waters in his cup.

Lu Bixing tried to reach out to catch the phantom, but the person suddenly disappeared at his fingertips. This became the last straw that broke the camel's back, and collapsed like a group of meteorites from the sky.

He yelled to ask the family medical cabin to give him hallucinogens, banned drugs... anything, as long as it can put him down and give him a drunken dream, he was warned three times by the electronic housekeeper Zhanlu, so Had a big fight with that artificial intelligence unilaterally.After three warnings, Zhanlu could no longer disobey his orders. Even if the master wanted to commit suicide on the spot, he could only hand over the prepared laser gun.

However, while this great man-made product was forced to obey orders, it also made a claim of its own——

He dug out a video from his database and hit it on the pale wall.

14-year-old Lin Jingheng was attending the opening ceremony of the Wulan Military Academy. In the auditorium, the glorious history of heroes since the establishment of the alliance was broadcast. It was magnificent and passionate. The young man sat in the corner, his attention was attracted from time to time, and he had to pretend that he was cool. When he came back to his senses, he hurriedly pretended to be bored and looked around, and accidentally found the thief flying next to him taking the camera, and suddenly showed an expression of embarrassment and anger, and slapped it, turning the screen black.

Lu Bixing stared blankly at the boy's still childish face, forgetting about the hysterical hallucinogens, where he was, and the dark days behind him.

That night, he watched this less than 5-minute video over and over again hundreds of times, and at dawn the next morning, he carved the first knife on the desk and restored Zhanlu's forbidden power. Autonomous functions——

Chief Edward said that no one could hold him back when he was gone, and Lu Bixing actually listened to what he said.

That morning when he was awake all night, he suddenly thought, Lin Jingheng is such an aloof, arrogant and uncompromising person, why has he let Zhanlu nagging in his ear for so many years, and never thought of disabling his autonomous function?Zhan Lu even teamed up with others to trick his master.

At this moment, he finally understood that a person who walks alone at night with a sharp sword must wear a shackle, even if it can only lock his little finger, it can make him feel carefree and forgetful. , pull up gently.

He promised Chief Edward that he would be reduced to ashes seven times, and then revived seven times.

From that time on, Lu Bixing would carve a knife on the corner of the table whenever he couldn't bear it, like a contract with the dead, and also like a countdown to himself.

Maybe something like "countdown" will give people the illusion that "these all have an end". The traces he carved on the corner of the table really seem to soothe his soul.

...Of course, Zhanlu's autonomy is too high, and there are also some inconveniences, such as weird aesthetics and cold-blooded animals in the room.

In the third year of the Independent Era, at the end of the year, the eighth galaxy inevitably re-emerged because of the long depression, and the deep underground culture. The people who took the lead were all those who had certain local influence in the "Freedom Alliance Army" in the early years. At the earliest, these people Let the eighth galaxy be closely condensed together, so Lu Bixing turned a blind eye to them at first because of affection, but soon, the contradiction between the spreading black market and the government became deeper and deeper, and the relationship between black market members The infighting among the people also intensified, and those who used to drink and sing under the stone statue of Lu Xin ignited a civil war.

The civil war lasted for three and a half years. During this period, Lu Bixing dug out all the bits and pieces about Lin Jingheng recorded in Zhan Luli, as if accompanying him to live again from his youth.And the notch on the desk also changed from one to five.

These five deep or shallow inscriptions are like "a ghost for the dead". The hand holding the carving knife has not wiped out the declaration of freedom under the stone statue of Lu Xin.

Then came the middle of the seventh year of the Independent Era—

After Mint became an adult, adhering to the spirit of Xinghai Academy, she decided to extend her limited life to an infinite world, and voluntarily joined the "Interstellar Expedition Team" to explore the unknown and non-jump point outside the realm with a group of crazy delusional patients.Mint grew up, and gradually understood the wrong words of his elders. Back then, Lu Bixing refused to approve the "Interstellar Expedition" project, and the sea of ​​stars in his heart solidified into cold missiles and mechs. It was Mint who secretly posted in his mailbox. Li sent an opening speech under the dome of Xinghai Academy, which made this unpopular government project successfully landed.

As a result of the expedition, several unknown asteroids rich in mineral resources were found, a channel was opened up stumbling... and a natural wormhole active area was discovered in an unknown area.

In the area, wormholes like whirlpools kept appearing and disappearing. Adhering to the spirit of pioneers who are not afraid of death, the expedition team left a good word and got into a wormhole. They didn't show up again for ten months. Everyone thought they were curiosity Sacrifice, ten months later, the shabby expedition team miraculously returned with the appearance of a new "vortex", bringing a news that shocked the eighth galaxy - this natural wormhole active area folded the distant Time and space, getting into the "vortex", will reach another star field, which is very dangerous, and the geographical environment is more complicated than the "desert of death" in the eight galaxies. After entering, it is almost a narrow escape, but they found The remains of the mech were found, there used to be human activities there!

Regardless of the objections of his entire cabinet, Lu Bixing insisted on entering the dangerous wormhole area by himself, leaving the eighth galaxy behind, and following the road signs left by the expedition team, he found that this place was actually the forbidden zone of the first galaxy. place.This is the first time in Lu Bixing's life that he has left the eighth galaxy. He never expected it to be in this way. This lunatic fumbled for several months in the heart of the rose, and even tried to pass through the heart of the rose. Xin arrived in the first galaxy, hoping to find a few words about that person.

Hard work pays off, although he failed to find a way in the heart of the rose, which was full of crises, he caught the wreckage of an alliance mecha. Come over, the database has all the major events in these years, and the amount of information is enough for the eight-galaxy with closed eyes and ears to deduce the situation of the battle.

Of course, there is also the beginning of all this, the whole story of the annihilation of the seven or eight star system coalition forces.

Lu Bixing finally saw it with his own eyes, the footage streamed from the military recorder at that time.

He stumbled back to the eighth galaxy. The first thing he did was to make the Turan garrison keep a close eye on the natural wormhole area, and then he plunged into the laboratory and took out the hair sealed in the bead like crazy. He came out and extracted the DNA from the hair follicles—he thought, since that person is gone, even a copy can be used as a consolation.

Zhanlu failed to dissuade him many times, activated the autonomous function, and directly blew up the incubator.Lu Bixing locked himself in the dark laboratory for three days, left a sixth notch on his walnut table, and then personally destroyed and sealed the DNA file.

And then, it was the ninth year of Independence, the beginning of the year.

Lu Bixing regarded himself as an experimental product, repeatedly implanting, taking out, modifying, and re-implanting that chip.The interactive function of the chip is discarded, so that it no longer has the function of interfering with electronic equipment, and at the same time, the security of the chip is guaranteed so that it will not be controlled by outsiders.After nine years of groping alone, the stability and safety of the chip seem to have met the application requirements, and the animal experiments responded well. The body functions of the mice injected with the biochip were significantly enhanced, and there was no abnormal behavior tendency.

Just when he thought he had succeeded and asked Zhanlu to release a briefing on the results in the small circle of experts in the engineering department, the experimental rats suddenly began to die in batches from the Pop crash, as if the chip had overdrawn their lives.

Only one group of mice in the control group lived longer than the other groups, living for more than a month-the mice in this control group were infected with a variant of the Rainbow virus, which was a sample copy of the virus strain he secretly cultivated using his position.

It took Lu Bixing nine years to finally prove that the Anti-Ukraine Society does not take perversion as its pleasure, but that this "artificial superman" road cannot avoid the Rainbow Virus.

If you want to break the shackles of human beings' natural growth, you must first completely destroy their natural attributes.

As a special case, Lu Bixing himself can still integrate into the crowd as a "freak". If this special case can be "produced" in batches, will it form a new species?Where will this man-made species go in the future?Will they be born out of human beings like the "vampires" in ancient legends, and then oppose human beings?Thousands of years later, if one party destroys the other, is it considered that human beings have evolved, or have they become extinct?

On one side is what he has been pursuing for nine years, and on the other side is a seductive and frightening Pandora's box.

This time, Chief Lu did not disturb the trembling cabinet, nor did he disturb the engineering department, nor did he let Turan come to the door to pick the lock himself. He went to work as usual during the day and went home to rest on time at night. At the inflection point, holding the hand of the devil.

A month later, the silent turbulent waves turned into the seventh notch on his desk, and the replicated rainbow virus strain, and a complete set of data and materials for more than nine years were burned.

After sitting for more than three hours, Lu Bixing stood up with a teacup in his hand, and while walking in the study, he listened to Zhanlu help him sort out his work schedule: "The Ministry of Finance has reported the report for the new quarter, and the deficit has shrunk for two consecutive quarters. Personally, I feel very optimistic.”

Lu Bixing nodded: "Well, this is good news."

"The engineering department requested an increase in funding, and the new anti-missile system experimental base on the Beijing β star has made breakthrough progress."

Lu Bixing sighed: "I just thought it was time to loosen up a bit, but I came to ask for money again..."

Zhan Lu: "Ms. Mint sent an email to apply for the second wormhole exploration plan for the expedition team. They have already made full preparations."

Lu Bixing raised his head——