No Money to Divorce

All of the equipment Adrian brought with him, from his combat uniform to his weapons, were all designed by military experts just for him, taking full consideration of various factors and situations. Nobody knew when Adrian had secretly stuffed the felt pendant into his clothes.

Strictly speaking, it was a violation of military discipline to bring such a sizable object with him privately on a mission. All the experts were riled up on the spot. “Such a large ball! Inside of his clothes! It hurts just looking at it! The breathable and comfortable suit I designed to fit just perfectly!!!”

The Colonel of the Third Regiment tried to calm the expert down. “Think of the bright sight. He placed it just over his heart. That will block a blow or something at the very least.”

“But I designed the suit to block against knife and gun wounds to begin with…”

But nobody could bother to listen to him talk about his elaborate combat suit designs anymore. Adrian had already put the pendant down and the pure white passage glowed with a soft light on all sides. The door at the very end slowly slid open.

Adrian stood just outside, observing the area cautiously before entering. Inside was a huge circular room, or maybe more like a spherical room that had its tops and bottoms flattened out. The walls looked smooth and pristine without any edges. The room was completely empty, devoid of any furnishing, but the detectors on Adrian’s body were all going off like mad.

“This is it.” Adrian reached over to turn the detectors off and said, “Command, I’m preparing to execute the final stage of the mission. Mr. President…” He looked up at the hovering camera above him and knew that his lover was watching him, but neither of them could let their emotions show. They were the final decision makers and ultimate executors in humanity’s crisis, and the weight of the responsibility they held on their shoulders did not allow them to get caught up in their own private feelings. Adrian stared at the camera, his throat bobbing twice before he said, “Please give the evacuation order.”

Fayn was surprised. Before leaving, Adrian had asked him to persuade Zhong Yan to rest, but though Zhong Yan did not do so, he did not make a single peep this entire time. Fayn guessed that besides having the good habit of not interjecting in matters outside of his profession, Zhong Yan must have wanted to mislead Adrian on purpose, trying to get him to think that he wasn’t in the command hall and had gone to rest just so Adrian wouldn’t worry.

So, Fayn cooperated by not mentioning the President over all these hours as if he wasn’t there. It wasn’t until Adrian spoke that he realized Adrian had known since the very beginning that Zhong Yan was around.

He knew Zhong Yan too well.

Zhong Yan examined Adrian intently on the screen. He was covered in so many wounds and yet he still stood so resolute. Zhong Yan suddenly recalled the first day of their reunion after seven years. It was right in this planet, and he asked Adrian mockingly, *for the sake of your grand ideals, it’s worth it to abandon everything, to run towards that goal without a care for a single thing in your life, is that how it is?*

“Of course it is!” That was the answer he received from Adrian without any hesitation.

Zhong Yan closed his eyes and pressed down the pain in his heart. Then, he suddenly stood up and spoke without further ado, “Thank you to all the soldiers, professors, and fellow students who participated in this mission for their selflessness and outstanding contributions to all of humanity. I will now ask that everyone except for the command and the rescue team to please evacuate the Institution Star.”

There was no telling what would happen after the bomb was detonated deep underground in this artificial planet that was filled with dirty bombs. In order to avoid any incidents, they would first evacuate most of the personnel, with the last remaining ship parked just outside of the School of Engineering’s plaza. In case things got bad, everyone in the command hall could quickly evacuate through there.

“Mr. President,” Fayn called out to him after taking a glance at Adrian. “Would you please withdraw as well?”

It was hard for Adrian to say this, and it didn’t matter whether it was reasonable for the President to even withdraw, but it would be favoritism for him to say it as his partner. Fortunately, Fayn was around. After the many years of tacit understanding they had built up, he was able to guess Adrian’s thoughts accurately.

“No need, I’ll stay right here with…” Zhong Yan raised his head to meet Adrian’s gaze through the camera. After pausing for a moment, he said, “everyone else.”

This liar. Adrian turned his eyes away. Though there was no way he could see Zhong Yan’s face through the one-way camera, it still hurt him too much. He was the only one who knew in this world that Zhong Yan didn’t care about the survival of the human race at all.

The President was not a man who easily fell to his impulses. Since he made his decision, nobody tried to persuade him any longer. Not much time was left, and all of them quickly buried themselves into the final stage of the mission.

Adrian stepped into the spotless white room, and in that instant, the screen turned dark.

“What’s going on?!”

“What happened?”

“Commander, are you alright?”

Panic surged through the hall, and it wasn’t after a good few seconds did Adrian’s voice finally come again. “I’m fine for now, but is the video no longer working? The camera might be wrecked.”

Fayn caught onto the keyword and asked, “Might? You’re not sure whether the camera is still functioning or not? What’s the situation?”

“I…” Almost seemed to be struggling to explain the situation he was facing. Finally, he managed to organize his words and said, “I’m in space. At least, my vision is telling me that I’m in space. But since I didn’t just immediately burst into flames and die, I’m clearly still inside of the atmosphere.”

“Your position hasn’t moved, “Fayn calmly checked his location on the tracker and looked inquiringly at the medical team. Wei Lan gave him an affirmative look. “Your physical indicators are still stable, that shows us that you’re still deep underground.”

“Yeah. I know. I think it’s a visual illusion,” Adrian responded, but his voice was a little unsteady. “I’m going to try and install the bombs.”

Though he said that, it was hard for a person to overcome their physiological fears. No matter how much objective evidence he had, his eyes were telling his body that he was in the vast universe, and there were billions of stars as far as his eyes could see all around, above, and under him.

A human being was such a small existence in the large expanse of the universe, but he was actually able to stand there, completely safe as if it was a miracle. Who knows whether taking a step forward would cause that miracle to disappear, and lead to his body to combust in an instant?

Awe, fear, loneliness, and confusion sunk deep into his limbs beyond his will. Under that tremendous psychological pressure, it was hard to even think about the bombs or what his task was. In fact, he may even be frozen in place until the end of time if he was an ordinary human being, unable to think of anything else.

Adrian calmed himself down and shut his eyes, but the lingering images in his retina were still affecting him. His heart rate began coming down again after quickly shooting up earlier. Moreover, he was so quiet that everyone in the command hall could see that something was wrong, and everyone was holding their breaths, turning the room so silent that you could hear a pin drop.

After a few minutes of readjusting his psyche, Adrian was barely able to clench his fists. But there was no time for him to slowly get used to it. He needed a strong stimulus to push him out of this predicament. So, he muttered, “Xiao Yan.”

Everyone in the command hall froze. Only Zhong Yan responded without hesitation. “I’m here.”

“Talk to me.”

Zhong Yan didn’t waste any time with dumb questions like “whys” and the like. Adrian had always been respectful and called him President, and he always called him “Mr. Zhong” anytime they were talking to other people. But he must be encountering some serious problems if he was calling him by his nickname in the workplace. Under pressure, Zhong Yan didn’t have time to think and in a state of disarray, he let out with, “Your salary for this month is here. It arrived just yesterday. I’m going to open another account for it.”

Even at such a tense moment, everyone couldn’t help but turn to look in shock at Zhong Yan.

The Commander’s salary is actually being managed by the President!

It was said that the Commander had already gone bankrupt after the blood buying incident from last time. Now that the President was in charge of his salary too, didn’t that mean he didn’t have a single penny on him?

…How miserable.

The object of everyone’s sympathy laughed. “Sure. I’ll leave it in your hands.”

As his heart rate slowly returned to the normal range, the medical team was relieved.

Adrian took a deep breath and took a step forward.

He was still alive.

That great mental barrier was shattered and all his reason had returned to him. Adrian opened his eyes. He was still inside that white space.

Without hesitation, he quickly took out the installation kit and walked to the center, and began to plant the first bomb.

Right at that moment, a voice spoke to him. “Please don’t do this.”

Adrian’s hands moved to the gun at his waist out of reflex and everyone in the command hall rose to their feet in surprise.

Nobody would think that voice belonged to a human. It was such a pleasant voice! It sounded completely androgynous but also rang naturally, filled with sacred compassion. It was a relatable voice that generated awe in its audience’s hearts.

As the only former member of the council who has been exposed to the AI and heard its voice, Zhong Yan said. “This is the voice of ‘Butterfly’.”

“How is that possible?! ‘Butterfly’ is still in hibernation!” The faces of the group paled in disbelief. They urgently confirmed with the team in the Capital they had been connected with that “Butterfly” was indeed still dormant. The only place which had high enough permissions to wake it from its sleep was the Capital’s Council House. There was no way it could wake up early on its own.

“What are you? Are you Butterfly?” Adrian asked, not showing any hint of politeness.

His surroundings changed. A splash of color slowly appeared on the white walls, spreading out in the blink of an eye. The strange splendor flowed through the surface. If the cameras hadn’t been damaged, then Zhong Yan would be able to recognize it as the colors from the pillar of light that appeared when “Butterfly” descended on the round table.

Unhurried, the compassionate voice filled the room. “Mr. Yate, ladies and gentlemen of the surface, I am the first generation super-AI, ‘Cocoon’. This is my main server core and you have just triggered my activation conditions. Could you please tell me what is going on?”

Many experts expressed doubts about the fact that all the materials of this artificial planet had all come from the Tech System, which did not specialize in minerals or manufacturing. They were just in possession of the cutting edge technology that could produce it. So why was the Tech System the sole supplier of the materials?

But now they knew. It wasn’t some surface material they shipped over bit by bite from the Tech System. It was “Cocoon’s” main server.

“Cocoon” sounded very friendly, and many people had involuntarily dropped their psychological defenses because of it. One officer even said hopefully, “Great. You have the authority to shut down ‘Butterfly’ permanently, right? Can you help us turn it off? There’s no time for explanations. We still have several minutes before ‘Butterfly’ wakes up. We have the Federations’ President here that can sign you a mandate or anything of the like.”

Zhong Yan did not answer. His brows were knitted into a light frown.

“Of course,” so said the voice that called itself “Cocoon”. “But I must be fully activated to access that permission. May I please ask Mr. Yate to help me complete that?”

Following that, a doorway opened up in the splendid circular space, one different from the door Adrian entered from. But there was a passageway out there as well, and it seemed to be covered in different rooms that lead to different functions inside.

But Adrian stood still. He had a strong feeling of unease welling up inside of him, but he couldn’t tell what was wrong. Right at this time, Zhong Yan suddenly said, “Are you really ‘Cocoon’? Or should I say…Did ‘Butterfly’ really exist?”