After changing into a hospital gown, Zane followed a functional Mecha Girl he had no memory of into the laboratory.
It seemed the functional Mecha Girls working here had been replaced again. When he came in today, he barely saw any familiar faces.
Compared with the Mecha Girls outside, the ones working in the laboratory felt much colder. They usually only spoke when giving instructions, and the rest of the time, they all wore the same indifferent expression.
"Test Subject No. 1425, Zane."
The functional Mecha Girl checked the list, took out a box-shaped device, and had Zane verify his fingerprint. After confirming his identity, she pointed at the experimental table.
"Lie down. Today's experiment will take about six hours, so it'll be a bit longer than usual. After it's over, we'll give your body basic rehabilitation treatment, and your pay will be higher as well."
The moment Zane heard that, cold sweat broke out across his back.
The previous experiments had all lasted four hours, so the wake-up drug he prepared this time was timed for that. He should wake up at around three and a half hours.
But today's experiment was six hours long.
Didn't that mean he would wake up after three and a half hours, then have to endure another two and a half hours of torture without anesthesia?
Who could survive that?
"Why is today's experiment six hours? Could there be some mistake?"
"There's no mistake." The functional Mecha Girl looked at the list and said, "After multiple rounds of screening, you've been classified as a test subject with higher experimental value. Don't worry. You'll be under anesthesia the entire time. When you wake up, you'll only feel a little tired. It's not like we're going to cut you open."
Seeing Zane's hesitation, she frowned.
"What? Are you worried about the risk and don't want to do it?"
"Zuanka Technology is very humane. If you don't want to participate, you can leave now, but you won't be able to continue working at Zuanka in the future. What we need are stable experimental subjects. People changing their minds halfway through would seriously affect our research and development progress."
Although the functional Mecha Girl was speaking reasonably, leaving Zuanka Technology was not what Zane wanted.
Zuanka Technology was an organization jointly founded by Mecha Island and the Human Federation. Its entire security system was handled by the Human Federation. Every time someone entered Zuanka Technology, they had to pass through layer after layer of checkpoints, with armed soldiers stationed everywhere.
If Zuanka Technology fired him, getting back in later would be harder than climbing to the sky.
"That's not what I mean," Zane quickly explained. "I'm just not used to it. Six hours is fine."
There was no good way to solve this, so he could only grit his teeth and accept it.
If he woke up midway through the anesthesia, he would endure it if he could. If he couldn't, then that would be that. He could only hope these Mecha Girls were simple enough not to draw blood for testing.
Without a doubt, this was a gamble.
And it might be a gamble with no payoff at all.
No one could predict whether the Mecha Girls conducting the experiment later would be the same two from before, nor could he predict whether they would talk about their "mission" during work the way they had last time.
But aside from this, he had no other option.
Compared with a colossus like Zuanka Technology, he was just an ordinary person, as tiny as a grain of sand.
There were too many things he couldn't see clearly. Every step forward was like feeling his way across a river by stepping on stones. One careless move, and he could fall into an abyss he would never climb out of.
Fortunately, no matter what happened, it probably wouldn't drag Derek Su and Lingwind into it.
Under the functional Mecha Girl's instructions, Zane lay down on the experimental table.
It was the same process as before. The functional Mecha Girl first administered local anesthesia to different parts of his body, then pushed over a machine and connected a whole mess of tubes to him. They were all syringes, and there were more than twice as many as last time.
There was no need to think too hard. This round of experiments was going to be brutal.
No wonder the experiment frequency had changed from once every three days to once every seven to ten days.
At this intensity, if they didn't lower the frequency, even an elephant wouldn't be able to take it.
"Relax. Take a nap, and the experiment will be over," the functional Mecha Girl said, offering a rare word of comfort as Zane's consciousness gradually sank into a haze.
Once she saw that Zane had been fully anesthetized, she turned and left.
In the research institute, every functional Mecha Girl had her own task.
She specialized in anesthesia and logistics. The experimental process itself was handled by other specialized Mecha Girls.
Ten minutes later, two Mecha Girls entered the laboratory.
After checking Zane's physical condition, they exchanged a glance, then began operating according to the experiment requirements.
... Mecha Island, Xinyan Headquarters.
"Smack!"
Torch slammed the document onto the desk, her eyes filled with anger and hatred.
The title on the document stood out sharply under the light.
[Joint Statement by the Techmasters Regarding Xinyan Proposal No. 1]
"A pack of spineless cowards! Mecha Island provides Mecha Girls and offers them the chance to awaken, and this is the group of ungrateful traitors we end up raising. And that naive fool Eden still insists on protecting them."
"Understanding? Then who's going to understand us?"
Torch's furious voice was sharp and biting, nothing like the gentle demeanor she had shown in front of Derek Su before.
There were many other Mecha Girls in the office.
But none of them dared to speak. They only stood near Torch, silent and tense.
After a long silence,
one Mecha Girl finally stepped forward and said cautiously, "Leader, please don't be angry. We've already processed the data stream from Chloe Qin driving Viper earlier. Would you like to see it?"
Seeing Torch nod, the Mecha Girl quickly placed the laptop on the desk.
Torch stared at the data stream and statistical charts for a while, and the anger in her eyes eased slightly.
"I didn't expect the second-generation AI core to be this stable. It only becomes a little unstable when the driver's emotions run high. Recruit more drivers for safety testing, and make sure the disclaimer is airtight. If there are no major issues, we can expand the promotion."
She paused.
"Right, how is Zuanka's progress?"
Seeing Torch's mood stabilize, the Mecha Girl let out a quiet breath of relief and hurriedly reported, "As you requested, the sisters over there have already kept one portion of the concentrated Sodium-Fiber-Ω Awakening Serum. We've converted the remaining raw materials into Sodium-Fiber crystals. The Awakening Serum Zuanka supplied for the provincial-level track has already been replaced with a counterfeit. Following your instructions, we used the newest type of blocker to drain the Sodium-Fiber energy. As long as no one inspects it carefully, they won't be able to tell."
"Very good." Torch nodded.
That was the one thing that gave her even a little comfort.
The Human Federation trusted the serums developed by Zuanka Technology very much. Under normal circumstances, they would not inspect them.
At most, the fact that no one awakened after the provincial-level track might raise suspicion.
But Techmaster Awakening was probabilistic to begin with. If there happened to be one year when no one awakened after the provincial-level track, surely that wasn't anything worth making a fuss over, was it?
"With the Sodium-Fiber crystals, [Code Name: Torch] can continue as well."
Torch leaned back in her chair. Her blazing golden eyes stared at the light overhead, and a cold smile curved across her lips.
"Giving Sodium-Fiber-Ω to humans is a waste. The Sodium-Fiber-Ω materials consumed by one Techmaster Awakening would be enough for me to fuse with how many AI cores?"
"Eden, one day, you'll understand..."
"My decision is the correct one!"
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