Chapter 50: You Hired a Hacker to Track Your Online Boyfriend’s IP…

The Patrol Army Captain stood before Giant Jack’s corpse, silently staring at the multiple knife wounds and three critical bullet holes on its body.

Patrol Troops bustled around, coming and going.

Specialized personnel collected samples of Giant Jack’s tissue structure.

After a moment, he said in a hoarse voice, “I need to report this to the City Lord’s Mansion immediately. Similar mutations might occur in the desert…”

Gris stood not far away. She had brought the gradually awakening people here.

While Xie Jianxun and One fought, she had wisely stayed far away and hadn’t watched.

Now, she blocked Aisia’s view, preventing her from seeing her relative’s final gruesome state.

The girl stared blankly at the ground, as if she had lost her soul.

Gris said something to her, but she showed no reaction.

Later, she said softly, “Actually, I had some suspicions before. Why did people always come during the day and sneak away in the middle of the night when we weren’t paying attention? But I always thought, since Uncle told me, even if I didn’t believe anyone else, I should believe him. He’s my only relative…”

Gris patted her pocket and awkwardly discovered it was empty.

“Of course you can believe your uncle,” the mercenary girl said calmly, “but you can’t believe the Sand Bandits, or a monster capable of mutation.”

“Besides, didn’t your uncle say that you would lead Mase in the future?”

She patted Aisia’s shoulder.

“Pull yourself together. Mase needs you.”

The Patrol Troops spread out, chasing the Sand Bandits scattered throughout the landship and capturing all these headless flies.

They weren’t worried about losing them because One had opened the control room’s surveillance screens, allowing targeted captures that were both safe and efficient.

Antonio was also discovered and pulled up from the elevator shaft.

When he emerged, the Captain’s clothes were disheveled, but he didn’t care about that and first gave his old friend a hug.

Basero sighed, “What a thrilling journey.”

Antonio agreed, “Yeah, I didn’t expect you, me, and everyone else to survive. We’ll probably have to head back now. It’s a shame about all those suggestions you gave me along the way.”

Basero smiled, unconcerned, “As long as it helped you. You’re the big Captain after all; leading a small squad like mine is far less stressful.”

Suddenly, the lady behind Basero said, “We can’t turn back just yet.”

The two men paused and turned to look at her in unison.

Basero gazed at her, and she met his eyes without flinching, staring coldly back at the Captain.

Seeing this, Basero rubbed his temples with a headache.

He said, “Liya, I know what you’re thinking, but we’re short on manpower. We can’t do close reconnaissance…”

The lady fell silent, then said, “Then do it from the perimeter. At least figure out the revival time range. That Mechanical Puppet can definitely protect my survey work from the peripheral bugs.”

Basero raised his hands in surrender. “Alright, alright, lady. I can never win an argument with you. But I have to remind you—we’re still at least a landship’s distance from those coordinates.”

The lady finally stopped talking because all the usable landships nearby were under the watchful eyes of the Patrol Troops.

Antonio hadn’t spoken up until now, and he timely changed the subject. “Where are our heroes? Why haven’t I seen them?”

The heroes certainly wouldn’t obediently stay put.

After handing off the surveillance matters, they had slipped away because One told Xie Jianxun it wanted to take him to see the place where it once lived.

They took the free elevator again, heading to another corner of the landship.

It was a small cabin—the very place where One had resided back then.

The furnishings were sparse, all metal: fixed metal table and chairs, metal wardrobe, metal bed frame.

As soon as Xie Jianxun entered, the silvery white interior dazzled his eyes.

However, probably thanks to solar energy recharging, the cabin’s self-cleaning function kept it in decent condition.

Xie Jianxun touched the bed frame and joked, “Everyone evacuated, but they didn’t even leave you a mattress?”

One calmly replied, “Because there wasn’t one to begin with.”

Xie Jianxun: “…”

He stared at One in shock, and the Mechanical Puppet blinked its eyes, gazing back at him.

“As Mechanical Puppets, we don’t need to maintain human physiological curves, so naturally, we don’t need a mattress for support…”

Before it finished speaking, it saw Xie Jianxun roll onto the bed frame in a flash.

The young human lay flat on it stiffly, pretending to experience it as if he were a Mechanical Puppet.

The real Mechanical Puppet stood by the bed, looking down at him.

Less than five seconds later, Xie Jianxun felt his buttocks aching from the hardness.

He sat up awkwardly, pretending it wasn’t because he couldn’t handle it. “You’d at least need some padding. This bare thing doesn’t even look livable.”

The Mechanical Puppet was silent for a moment, then said, “Back then, our resource allocation wasn’t that high. Only human soldiers had quotas for padding.”

The human on the bed sat cross-legged, staring unblinkingly at it.

“Speaking of which, all the cabins we passed on the way had this setup,” Xie Jianxun recalled the details he’d noticed. “Didn’t humans live here?”

One: “…”

It rarely hesitated to answer.

After a moment, the Mechanical Puppet said, “At first, we lived mixed together. Later, they returned to the Federation.”

Xie Jianxun was shocked. “What happened? Why? They stopped fighting?”

One said mildly, “As you’ve seen, the Insect Clan, Infestor Bugs, and Informant Bugs we encountered along the way all countered human abilities effectively. So they decided to provide support from the rear, leaving frontline command entirely to us Mechanical Puppets.”

Xie Jianxun was stunned—that sounded just like they got scared and ran?

He thought about it but didn’t say it, stewing with frustration.

One walked to the bedside and sat next to him, its tone carrying a faint smile. “That’s exactly why I had the chance to be promoted to commander.”

Xie Jianxun said seriously, “When you return to the Federation, they’ll at least make you a major general.”

One lowered its eyes, the smile lingering on its lips. “Perhaps.”

It stood and walked to the metal desk, reaching to open its drawer.

With a fingerprint recognition beep, it pulled out the drawer and retrieved a Multi-Function Folding Army Knife, showing some clear surprise. “It’s still here.”

The human nearby craned his neck. “What’s that? Can I see it?”

One hesitated obviously. “You must be very careful—it’s extremely sharp… No, forget it. I’ll hold onto it.”

What it didn’t say was that just seeing Xie Jianxun hold this folding knife gave it a heart-pounding sense of dread, even though physically it didn’t have such a thing.

“Oh.” The human was a bit disappointed but obediently handed the knife back.

Finally, One found a mobile hard drive.

It said nothing about the drive, simply unbuttoning its shirt, exposing its chest, and plugging the mobile hard drive into its data port.

A moment later, it breathed a sigh of relief and unplugged it.

Xie Jianxun watched with wide eyes.

After hesitating, he carefully asked, “What was that for?”

One’s tone was very casual. “Some data needed to be loaded into my chip, so I copied it from this drive. As for the source file, could you keep it safe for me?”

It handed it to Xie Jianxun, who took it solemnly despite not understanding.

One produced a thin metal chain from somewhere, threaded it through the hole at the top of the drive, and hung it around Xie Jianxun’s neck.

Finally, it tucked it under his clothes.

Xie Jianxun looked down, grasping the drive through his shirt, and said nervously, “Is this important data?”

One said lightly, “No. If you like it, then it’s important. If not, treat it like any ordinary drive—you can store files on it or back up Light Brain data.”

Xie Jianxun thought of the drive’s plain gray-black exterior and felt puzzled.

Data that looked important, and it was entrusting it to him?

He looked to One pleadingly, trying to get it to keep it, but the Mechanical Puppet had already averted its eyes, gazing out the window.

“I once wanted to go to the underground slumber with you.”

The Mechanical Puppet murmured dreamily.

Xie Jianxun didn’t catch it clearly and thought it was reciting poetry. “What did you say? Could you recite it again for me?”

One turned back with a smile, its inorganic blue eyes flickering. “Nothing. It’s a short poem a comrade once wrote and recited to me.”

Xie Jianxun sighed in admiration. “Mechanical Puppets can even write poetry? That’s impressive.”

One: “Do you want to go to the deck?”

Xie Jianxun was delighted. “We can go to the deck?”

“Of course.”

The 1.9-meter Mechanical Puppet bent slightly, extending a hand in invitation. “The wind has stopped outside—perfect for going out.”

Outside was just as One described: only a gentle breeze that couldn’t stir the high-altitude sand.

The deck was tilted, making it convenient for Xie Jianxun to sit on the railing and watch the distant sunset.

The golden sun sank, and the Desert Planet would fully shift to quiet night mode within an hour.

A soft wind blew from below, the dunes rippling like waves.

One or two rodent-like small animals scurried across the sand surface, darting into a nearby burrow.

Golden light played on his fair cheeks, even his pupils shimmering.

“I once thought that even when I grew up, I’d never see the real sun,” Xie Jianxun laughed as One turned to look at him. “It didn’t feel stifling back then, but now with the wind blowing, it feels so good.”

One: “He wouldn’t let you go out?”

Far from it, Xie Jianxun thought.

“It was okay. Every month, he’d take me out to see my father and brothers. But they were so busy; we couldn’t meet for long before they had to go back to work.”

Xie Jianxun shifted position, draping himself over One’s shoulder.

He complained coquettishly, “I was sixteen when I first accessed Star Net. I was such a country bumpkin—I didn’t know anything and needed others to teach me even how to read the news. Then, I met a friend online. He was amazing; he knew everything and taught me so much.”

Online boyfriend.

One recalled the term, lowering its eyelids slightly and pursing its lips unpleasantly.

“I really liked him back then. I wanted so badly to meet him in person. But he refused, saying he was ugly and not fit to be seen.”

Xie Jianxun said loudly, “I was just going to meet a friend—what did looks have to do with it!”

One said softly, “Did he give you his address?”

Xie Jianxun: “No, I hired a hacker online to track his IP.”

One: “…”

For the first time, it was speechless.

Even the most doting parent knew right from wrong.

Xie Jianxun: “I didn’t understand back then. Now I do—it was wrong of me. That’s what you wanted to say, right?”

After a while, he lowered his head dejectedly. “That’s why I don’t dare get close now. When I save up enough money and leave here, I’ll just pick a nearby planet and watch from afar.”

“Just one glance.”

One turned to look at him. The little lamb looked so sad, its fur drooping, smoky gray hair limp.

Its chip generated massive redundant logs; the overload felt heavy, like its heart was sinking.

Sinking bit by bit.

One closed its eyes briefly and suggested, “You should formally apologize to him.”

Xie Jianxun said blankly, “I want to. But after that, I couldn’t contact him anymore.”