No Money to Divorce

As mankind’s first artificially created planet, the Supreme Institution situated at the Institution Star has been famous since its establishment, but in the eyes of most of the public, the institution had little to do with themselves even if it represented a group of the most intelligent and capable students at the tip of the pyramid. Just take what happened for example. If Adrian and Zhong Yan had not been reunited after seven years, then people would hardly pay attention to the school’s hundred year anniversary. It wasn’t until the Supreme Institution took the lead to protest the new law that was making waves across the world that people started to pay attention to them again. In just a short few hours, the follower count on the Supreme Institution’s page skyrocketed. Even the other universities participating in the joint protest saw the views on their pages multiplying several times over.

Everyone was waiting to see if the Capital was willing to compromise with these schools and to see whether the “Honor Decree” will still be implemented early next month as scheduled. Unexpectedly, just a day after the joint protests, the Supreme Institution suddenly issued another statement.

The previous statement was just a series of words posted on their page, but this new statement was a scan of a notice written in proper format, announcing that the Supreme Institution will immediately break away from the AI’s rule in order to respond to emergencies and protect the safety of all the personnel and students in the school. They have also requested a garrison from Navi for their protection. Right at the bottom of the notice was the red seal used by the school board and the student council. Even though most official notices and letters in this era were attached with electronic signatures, only a few groups of people still used the seal. But the Supreme Institution has always gone with tradition. Even under such circumstances, their official notice was still written in their own distinguished style.

But hasn’t the “Honor Decree” not been released yet? The Supreme Institution is leaving the Capital just like that? And what kind of emergencies are they facing that can threaten the safety of the school personnel?

Before everyone could take a breather after seeing such a thunderous statement, an even more explosive piece of news swept through the news headlines: the Navi Military Command has sent out their troops.

The mighty roar of the engines sounded as the warship left Leboor’s borders. Through their entire trip, they had no intentions whatsoever to conceal their movements, and they were going on a straight route to ensure they arrived as soon as possible.

After just a few minutes, the warships not far from the Capital’s affiliated military command came out of its nest and headed straight for the Institution Star as well.

Are they going to fight?!

The virtual community has nearly turned itself upside down. As long as people were awake, they would all be refreshing the news like crazy. Even the bosses can’t be bothered to make sure their employees are working—They themselves are staring at the news, too.

The Navi Military Command has responded to the Supreme Institution’s call for “help”. So, what did the Capital send out its troops for? They do not recognize that the Supreme Institution is out of the AI’s jurisdiction, so they’ve decided to send troops to stop the Navi Military Command, or…were they the reason that the Supreme Institution called the “emergency”?

Zhong Yan was currently on his way. He asked the cockpit to choose the route with as much signal uptime as possible, even if that meant going on a little detour. This was currently a crucial moment when he had to be receiving information on all parties and plan his next move.

Originally, the distance between the Capital and the Supreme Institution should have been much closer than Navi, the Capital had sent out their troops just after Navi’s troops have passed Lebor’s borders. Moreover, even though the distance was slightly further, the Navi warship’s route has fewer planets in their path, which means they can go full speed on a straight path without many detours. What’s more, there were many bustling star systems between the Capital and the Institution Star, and the planets were so densely packed. They couldn’t just go in a straight line, nor can they reach speeds as close to Navi’s warship. It was still unknown which side would actually reach the Institution Star first.

A moment later, the news Zhong Yan had been waiting this whole time finally came. He saw a message on his terminal from an unknown account that said, “They have been retrieved, both are safe.”

Zhong Yan breathed a sigh of relief.

The two people they picked up were two officers who “Specimen” has spent four entire years, and consumed countless resources to allow them to make their way up to the Capital’s affiliated/auxiliary military command. They were precisely the ones who gave “Specimen” a timely warning that the Capital’s affiliated military command was gathering its troops so that Adrian was able to seize the opportunity to rush to the Institution Star before them.

At this moment, the public opinion in the virtual community was practically all on Navi’s side. Not for any other reason, but because the Navi Military Command was, first of all, sending out their troops to the Supreme Institution at their cry for help while not only did the Capital leave no explanations for sending their troops, they were even suspected to be the reason the Supreme Institution was calling for help in the first place. This had all happened because of the official notice issued by the Supreme Institution, but what the masses could not see was how enormous the cost they had paid out to issue this statement was.

In the two hours they spent passing through Lebor Zhong Yan had personally contacted the Supreme Institution to inform them of the imminent danger and convinced them to draft this document. But for the Capital, the Supreme Institution putting out this announcement also tells them that someone within the affiliated military command has leaked military information and that the Supreme Institution had found out.

If they go back to find the source of the leak now that this situation is exposed, there’s a high probability they’ll be able to find the spy. So, Zhong Yan later contacted the two officers urgently through “Specimen’s” internal channel and informed them of the danger that they will be exposed soon. He asked them to evacuate immediately and also arranged for their escape and pick-up.

This so-called escape was only to protect their own physical selves. There was no way for them to return to the military command anymore. This means that the two spies Zhong Yan spent so much time and financial resources on will be useless from then on. The message chain on both sides will be completely broken.

And he did all this just so he could make sure that Adrian’s reputation in the future could be saved.

The abnormal silence shown by the Capital’s affiliated military command was precisely because they found out about the leak. Moreover, from the speed it took Navi’s troops to leave Navi, the Supreme Institution must have properly communicated with the Navi Military Command before issuing their statement. If they categorize the Navi Military Command’s actions now as illegally occupying a Federation owned planet, and that they are only sending troops to stop their behavior, then the Navi Military Command is likely to reveal “Butterfly’s” suppression order and the fact that they have gathered their troops since long ago. When that time comes, they’re going to receive backlash from lying anyway, so they might as well not make that lie to begin with.

Furthermore…This matter can hardly be concealed at all. Because soon enough, all of the Federation’s military commands will be moving out.

In the very beginning, when the news of a star system’s troops having assembled was leaked out, everyone thought that “Butterfly” was ordering them to intercept Navi’s warship en route.

But nobody would ever have thought that they would go in the opposite direction instead. Their goal wasn’t to stop Navi at all, they wanted to suppress the defenseless students within the Supreme Institution.

Fully-armed soldiers marched out from the descending ship like a school of fish and stormed straight into the school campus. Countless reporters within the star system swarming the area were all stopped outside of the army’s guard ring. Soon after, there were soldiers coming out of the school, holding boys and girls that looked like students under their arms. Some of them were still yelling and struggling, but others seemed to have lost consciousness and needed to be dragged away by the soldiers. It was not known whether they were dead or alive. This unexpected scene stimulated the reporters and onlookers at the scene, throwing them all completely mad. Everyone was shocked and furious but with the weapons as deterrence, nobody dared to try and push through the circle. However, the many floating cameras could—there were some conscientious reporters who hoped to expose the scenes within, and also those who wanted to the big news for their platform. At this instant, all the reporters had ignored all the warnings and sent their camera drones rushing into the campus.

When the soldiers saw those little black balls floating in the sky, they shot them down immediately. Within the dense sound of gunfire, some unknown person shouted that “The military command is opening fire! They’re going to kill us!”, and the already complicated situation became even more chaotic in and out of the campus. For a moment, yelling, screaming, and gun sounds were mixed together while the slogan of the captured students could occasionally be heard. “Overthrow artificial intelligence! Restore human autonomy!”

These extremely chaotic fragments had been broadcasted within the virtual community and everything began bubbling up intensely. At the same time, images of the armies in several military commands gathering have also been uploaded.

The entire virtual community was overwhelmed by shock and anger. Some of the people had also quietly shut their mouths because of this, and deleted all their comments for protest—fear is also a normal part of being human.

Zhong Yan sat in the studio of the small spacecraft, reading the news. His face looked neither sad nor happy.

He was not shocked or angry either, he was only contemplating the pros and cons of each move. His private team ad just drafted a plan to use a student’s life as the breakthrough in this deadlock. Frowning, Zhong Yan hesitated. The notification bell of his terminal sounded. When he looked at it, he found that a page that he was following had updated.

There was only one person in Zhong Yan’s high-priority follow list, and his mind also felt refreshed because of this. Opening his terminal, it was Adrian issuing a letter titled, “A Letter to My Friends Throughout the Federation’s Military Commands”.

He spoke directly to the supreme commanders of each military command and urged them not to obey the orders of a non-ethical machine blindly and hurt their fellow citizens. At the very end of his letter, he wrote, “Before executing a military order, we should respond to the situation as humans. Solders who point their gun towards the innocent are not worthy of being called humans. Starting immediately from now, I will send troops to all military commands who are moving out to the schools一I will clear you all out and put an end to this chapter once and for all. I, Adrian Yate, is marching out with my troops.”

After reading this letter, Zhong Yan couldn’t help but put on a bitter smile. This was the script prepared for Adrian by him. The motivational force within those words were very strong, but the wording was also cautious. This was because he believed that this letter will definitely be recorded in history in Adrian’s name. So, he would never write anything about anyone not deserving to be called humans, or to end things once and for all; all that at the end was written by Adrian himself. It seems like this whole affair really has angered him.

This anger felt so real that those emotions were even more infectious than the first half that had already gone through retouching and refinement. After seeing this message on their virtual screens, many people were also moved and inspired by it.

Zhong Yan stared blankly at the screen in front of him for a while. Then, he sent a message to his own team, “Dispose of that idea. Do not prepare any similar plans in the future.”

He didn’t love this world, nor his fellow compatriots. But helplessly, he loved everything about Adrian. He could only restrain himself at every moment, incase he loses the only person he loves in this entire world.