Golden Ticket 1/3
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The cube has many sides like shiny crystals. Each small square on it is like a tiny mechanical servant’s brain.
After Renji breaks the protective barrier and grabs the consciousness cube, 86 has already planned how to escape. The serial killer, along with Renji’s Dragon Mecha, make their getaway before Kael Technology’s other security forces can get there. They zoom off like a red comet shooting up from the top of the building.
It was only after Renji returned to the safe house with the consciousness cube that the Dream City outside seemed to come back to its senses, once again thrown into chaos.
Major media, like sharks smelling blood, swarmed towards the still fiery Kael Tower, everyone wanting to know what exactly happened.
In fact, there’s a lot that could be made of this, but sanctioning Kael Technology was not Renji’s main goal. These minor matters could be pushed back and handed over to others.
What’s most important for him right now is to integrate all machine servants with the consciousness cube.
“What should I do next?” Renji looked at the floating crystal cube in front of him and asked the serial killer.
“Commander, since you are not of the mechanical kind, if you want to connect with us using the consciousness cube, it can only be done in the Dream.”
After hearing the serial killer’s words, 86 transforms into a Dream terminal. When Renji puts it on, he doesn’t enter the dream alone this time; he and the serial killer go into the dream together for a “duo” entry.
This is Renji’s third time entering Dream Zero. As his consciousness sank, falling into the deep sea, after a brief darkness, the sense of weightlessness disappears, and when Renji opens his eyes, he has moved from the Dream City to that bloody-red world.
Compared to the first two times, the old era of Dream Zero, the bloody color in the sky had visibly faded quite a bit, naturally because of the annihilation of the two “Miasma Masters.”
After entering Dream Zero, without the killer needing to explain anything, when Renji’s fingers touched the consciousness cube, the many “cubes” on it started to vibrate, as if responding.
Soon, the cube began to disassemble, the small cubes reorganizing, surrounding Renji like a nebula, a subtle sense of connection rising from the bottom of Renji’s heart.
The consciousness of the machine servants comes from Zero’s replication. As Renji wants to integrate the machine servants, while combining with the consciousness cube, he inevitably sees the memory replication of Zero.
That too, comes from before the encounter with “Ashen” when it should not be called Zero, but just a memory of some domestic maid robot.
…
The dark clouds make the blood-red sky dim a few shades.
Grey rain falls inside the base.
“From today on, whatever you need, just tell it,” said a middle-aged man dressed in black suit to a little girl in front of him, inside a detached villa. .
The little girl, also in a black dress, seemed to have remnants of tears on her young face. With her swollen red eyes, she looked towards a mechanical person standing next to the middle-aged man.
Although referred to as a mechanical person, its appearance significantly differed from the likes of 86 and other machine servants from five hundred years later.
At a glance, the most obvious difference was that it didn’t have fully human-like skin; large parts of its metal structure were exposed, with gear mechanisms visible at the knees and elbows.
However, these imperfections were well concealed by the maid uniform it wore, so although the little girl was still somewhat afraid of such a robot, she didn’t reject it.
“I, I understand… Daddy,” the little girl replied weakly.
However, this statement made the middle-aged man frown slightly. Seeing the ‘daddy’ expression that seemed to herald anger, the little girl instinctively showed panic, shrinking her neck and trembling more severely.
Nevertheless, the middle-aged man didn’t end up scolding her harshly, perhaps because of the significance of this particular day.
He soon left the detached villa, but before he left, he said to the little girl:
“I hope you learn to be strong, Zera”
“You are our daughter, destined to replace me in ruling the Grey base, but the you now…” The man stopped mid-sentence.
“Also, don’t use such childish terms next time, call me father.”
*Bang!*
After the door closed, the empty residence was left with only the lonely little girl.
“Yes, father,” Zera tried to hold back the tears of grievance welling up in the corners of her eyes, seemingly wanting to make amends, but unfortunately, the man had already left and couldn’t hear her.
Wiping the tears from the corner of her eyes, Zera clenched her fists; ‘I need to be strong’
However, when she looked at the mechanical maid beside her and remembered her father’s words before leaving, that she could tell it any request, the little girl couldn’t help but harbor an immensely eager wish.
Zera mustered up her courage and tentatively asked the cold mechanical maid:
“Can I really order you anything?”
“Yes, I will do my best to fulfill your needs within my capabilities,” replied the maid with a synthesized electronic voice.
“Then…”
The little girl hesitated, but finally resolved to ask the maid: “Can I ask you to be my mom?”
“I’m sorry, that’s beyond my capabilities. I can only serve as your friend or listener and cannot replace a real human. If you have grievances with your mother, I suggest communicating with your father.”
“No, my mom died yesterday… So, can you… play the role of my mom? Just pretending, is that not okay?”
By the end of her request, the little girl started to sob again, which went against the principles of the maid robot. After a quick analysis, the maid soon responded:
“Okay, from now on, I will act as your mom until you decide to end it. However, since I lack relevant data in this area, my performance might greatly differ from that of a real mother. I hope it doesn’t inconvenience you.”
“Mom… wouldn’t use ‘you’ with me,” Zera listened to the mechanical maid’s cold response, her eyes dimming and her sobs growing heavier.
Despite fulfilling the little girl’s request, the maid’s computational core encountered an error as the girl became even more sad and in pain, unable to understand why.
Amidst the continuous error messages, Renji, observing from the sidelines, could see strands of red Miasma, the girl’s sorrowful emotions, being absorbed by the maid from the surrounding air.
After a moment of silence, as if receiving new data, the maid spoke again with a cold mechanical voice, but the words were different:
“I’m sorry, my child, it’s all mommy’s fault. Come here, let mommy give you a hug. Whenever you need me, I’ll give you a warm embrace. I love you, and that will never change.”
The maid opened her arms, squatted down, and hugged the little girl. At first, Zera looked confused, then shocked, and finally returned to pain, though this time she buried herself in the maid’s embrace.
“Mommy!?”
“Mommy! Waaah, mommy! Mommy, I miss you so much, why did you leave me… Waaah, mommy.”
“I’m sorry, it’s mommy’s fault, but mommy is back now, and I’ll never leave you again. I love you my child.” The maid stroked the little girl’s head.
Watching the memory of the maid and the little girl embracing, Renji’s guess was not far off.
In the old era, those who could afford a robotic maid like Zero were the high-ranking officials of large bases. It seems that Zero’s first young mistress was a young leader’s daughter who had lost her mother?
As a leader’s daughter, the girl’s personality clearly did not match, and soon the next scene showed Zera, sniffling and crying to the maid.
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