Astrolabe Rebirth

Unknown

Table of Contents
Chapter 1 - The Youth from the Black Sea
Chapter 2 - The Revolution of the Clones
Chapter 3.1 - The Fall of the Patriarchy
Chapter 3.2 - The Fall of the Patriarchy
Chapter 4.1 - The Battle to Escape
Chapter 4.2 - The Battle to Escape
Chapter 5.1 - The Spine of the World
Chapter 5.2 - The Spine of the World
Chapter 6 - The Primeval Heart
Chapter 7.1 - Phoenix City
Chapter 7.2 - Phoenix City
Chapter 8.1 - The Black Plains
Chapter 8.2 - The Black Plains
Chapter 9.1 - The Children of Astrolabe
Chapter 9.2 - The Children of Astrolabe
Chapter 10.1 - The Termination Command
Chapter 10.2 - The Termination Command
Chapter 11.1 - The Pontiff of Dragonmaw
Chapter 11.2 - The Pontiff of Dragonmaw
Chapter 12.1 - The Ebb and Flow of Space-time
Chapter 12.2 - The Ebb and Flow of Space-time
Chapter 13 - The Night of Divine Grace
Chapter 14 - Traveling Against the Flow
Chapter 15 - The God of Creation
Chapter 16 - A Promise for the Next Life
Chapter 17 - The Eve of the Final Battle
Chapter 18 - Astrolabe Rebirth
Chapter 19 - Epilogue: Reuniting

Description
In the tides of time, humans have lost their status as the sole intelligent species among tens
of thousands. What they gained in exchange was a city of steel that rose in the eastern part
of China, and a man-made god they called “Father”. Regimes run by machines have taken
over the world. On this astrological petri dish left behind by an ancient creator, the young
human slave, A-Ka, picked up a black-haired man on the beach of a lonely, deserted ocean…
The astrolabe world will be once again reborn. And as for the humans, clones, and
machines, what paths will they tread towards the future?

"The compass of creation was cast out into the vast, wild, unknown world."

Translator(s): moon
Editor(s): namio, jelly
The main commander of creation placed the fulcrum of the compass of creation in the
bodies of humans, and the other parts were cast out into the vast, wild, unknown world.
With the passage of time, civilizations rose to the peak of their grandeur, before
disappearing without a sound. The predictions of the prophets who spoke of the limitless
future by reading the space between the stars did not come to pass as expected, and the
blueprints that existed within the collective imagination turned out to only be fantasies.
This was a terrible era - in the nucleus of the galaxy there were only three mainlands still
inhabited by people; mankind had experienced three different eras of explosive population
growth followed by sudden nuclear war, and finally the population has shrunk to less than
five hundred million in total. The resources from nuclear fission had been completely
exhausted, and huge pipelines of energy ran through the core of the earth, drawing out the
raw energy in nuclear fission that was harnessed into power. The surface of the earth had
turned into a wasteland, and the Country of Steel took up the largest area - the region
known in ancient times as the “Third Mainland".
The Central Computer replaced the government, the parliamentary bodies, and the systems
of law, becoming the new governing machine, and one day in the past, with its awakening,
robots conquered the entire world. Mankind was either exterminated, forced to flee for
their lives, or subjugated...
The steel lifeforms colonized the surface. The sulphur pollution from constant years of
production covered the sky, causing the City of Machines to be constantly blanketed by
yellow clouds, and though the surface was covered with forests of skyscrapers, they were
all icy cold factories of steel. And deep under the surface, that was where the humans lived.
They had become the slaves of the steel lifeforms, and their daily lives were simple and
standardized: they took shifts to sleep, and when it was time they would get up and start
working… as if they were animals kept in cages.
Our main character A-Ka currently lived in the underworld of the City of Steel. He was one
of the human residents of the living area known as the "Ant Nest".
A-Ka was sixteen this year, and in the production line he held the role of maintenance
technician. His job consisted of seeing different mechanical lifeforms, helping them adjust
and change their parts, and testing out the new techniques and parts that Central Technical
sent him. Many strange robots passed in front of him, all with logical or illogical requests.
"Replace my infrared vision scope, desired part number RM47,” one android commanded.
"Sorry, there are no more in the warehouse," A-Ka answered. "You'll have to wait until next
month."
" Replace my infrared vision scope, desired part number RM47, " the android repeated.
"There's no more," A-Ka said. " No more in the warehouse. "
"Rule Three of the Human Control Regulations," the android said with its dead, robotic
voice, " Humans are not allowed to reject any requests of computerized lifeforms, or they
will be exterminated immediately. "
A-Ka began to think of a different way to put it -- the last maintenance technician had his
head blown off precisely because of this rule. He stared down this client's laser opening,
and at the moment it was already starting to heat up. He only had a maximum of ten
seconds of life left.
"Countdown," the android warned. " Ten, nine… "
"Please wait a moment," A-Ka answered speedily, before pulling out from his drawer a lens
that had already been polished to completion, switching it out for the android; it was a
trash piece that he had taken off another robot yesterday.
The android responded, "The model doesn't match, the infrared lens will malfunction."
A-Ka answered, "It's an issue with the technique and needs to be troubleshooted, please
return to the queue once more. And also, please rate my services before you go."
The android began to capture A-Ka's body profile, and A-Ka watched this android with
trepidation; he knew that he would definitely be sued, but that was still better than losing
his head.
The android left, and A-Ka let loose a breath of relief.
"Help me change out my power source." Another mechanical being laid down in front of his
workstation. In his mind, A-Ka thanked the heavens and the earth - this one was a clone.
Clones were different from androids; they weren't like those icy cold mechanical life forms,
and were the closest kind to humans -- the residents of the City of Machines were split into
three different levels; at the top were the steel lifeforms, in the middle were these clones,
and at the bottom were A-Ka and the other original humans.
“Do you need a battery or nuclear core?” A-Ka asked.
“Battery,” the clone answered, before shooting a glance at the android that just left. “I
thought that you would take the laser head on and be cut into little pieces, and that would
be very troublesome. My pathfinding system always has problems, and if I don’t switch it
out here then I wouldn’t know how to get back.”
The clone turned around, and A-Ka opened a small box built into his back and said, “Your
GPS system has been affected by moisture.”
A-Ka turned on a light as he helped the clone change out that faulty part for a spare. The
clone didn’t let out a sound, only sitting there quietly, and A-Ka couldn’t help but stare at
his side profile.
All the clones had the exact same features, and all were male, so the humans could only
differentiate between them by their outfits or their serial number. This matter had A-Ka
puzzled for quite a long time.
Compared to the steel lifeforms, A-Ka was more willing to provide services to the clones, if
only because they too had emotions - they too felt joy, rage, grief, and contentment. Once in
a while they too would be affected by their hormones, unlike the robots. If a human
executed a wrong command in front of a robot, they would be instantly exterminated.
“You’re a new person,” the clone said.
A-Ka asked, “How’d you know?”
He took a look at the records on the computer screen, which indicated that within the past
three years, this clone had not come in front of A-Ka’s workstation.
The clone answered, “Because you’re very curious, watching me for so long. Most of the
humans who come out of the Ant Nest at first are like this.”
A-Ka didn’t dare to answer that; according to the advice of his predecessors, it was best not
to provoke the clones either. The effect of emotions like joy, pain, and grief was stronger for
clones, and as soon as the hormones in their body became imbalanced, they would also kill
the humans in front of them.
“Losing focus while working,” the clone said, “makes it easy to make mistakes, and your
customers’ reviews will drop.”
A-Ka hurried to nod. “Thank you for your reminder.”
A-Ka’s rating system had a total of five basic points, and every time they received a D they
would be docked a point, while receiving an A would grant them a point. As soon as all five
of the points were docked, they would be marked by the enforcement system as “necessary
for removal”.
Humans that became necessary for disposal were believed to no longer be able to
contribute to society, and they would be brought to the Rebirth Processing Factory, where
they would undergo protein dissolution - in other words, death. Their bodies would be
broken down into its basic constituents before being returned to the biological energy
system, where they would be reassembled into new clones, or turned into raw materials
for nutrient production.
A-Ka changed out the battery for the clone’s positioning system before switching out his
old navigation chip for a new one as well, so that the positioning system would work even
better than before.
A-Ka said, “Done.”
“Your skills are very good,” the clone said easily.
A-Ka answered, “Thanks.”
When the clone left, he casually gave A-Ka a “D”.
A-Ka’s heart filled with rage, but he didn’t dare to make a sound. He stole a fleeting glance
at the screen of his computer; there were still thirty seconds before he was off work.
Time passed second by second. When the electronic chime began to echo, A-Ka rapidly put
the tools back into order and cleaned up his own things before turning around and starting
up the door to the tunnel right behind him.
“Please leave the maintenance stand within ten seconds,” an electronic female voice said in
reminder.
A-Ka entered the annular tunnel. The sound of footsteps was concentrated but orderly as
the maintenance shop underwent shift change, and humans from all around flooded into
the central hall, passing through the metal inspector that beeped incessantly. After entering
through the main door, the platform suddenly lowered as it sank under the surface of the
earth.
Human workers of all ages wearing the same uniform as A-Ka converged on the platform
from different tunnels, and they took the elevator up and down. In the cramped, narrow
space they were all pushed and squeezed up against each other, each bearing a harried
expression, and none of them spoke.
The first time the elevator came to a stop, two patrolling robots entered. The swarm of
people hurried to back up, clearing out a space for them.
With a ding the red light lit up, and the electronic female voice warned, “Awaiting the
passage of another elevator.”
It was extremely stifling inside the elevator, and everyone was sweating, but they didn’t
dare to move unnecessarily or say anything. A person standing by A-Ka used his wrist to
nudge him.
A-Ka turned his head, and it was only then that he realized the two robots had lit up, their
cameras turned towards A-Ka. The surveillance monitor was turned on, and a circle of light
unfocused and then re-focused as it locked onto the pocket over his chest. A-Ka’s heart
almost seemed to leap out of his chest from how hard it was beating.
“What did you do?” the person next to him asked quietly. “They seem to be watching you.”
In that instant A-Ka’s entire body trembled; when he was working, he had secretly hidden
away a chip.
The electronic voice of the patrolling robot sounded.
“Warning, your body temperature is too elevated.”
Everyone in the elevator grew alarmed. The patrolling robots each carried their own
infrared sensors to monitor all humans within the Ant Nest. A-Ka instantly thought of a
scene -- within the infrared sensing system of the patrollers, in the entire elevator, the
outline of his own body in the infrared due to his body temperature would be extremely
eye-catching.
“There’s nothing… out of the ordinary right?” A-Ka asked tremblingly. “I… I haven’t violated
any laws.”
Everyone was watching A-Ka now.
With a ding, the green light of the elevator came on again, and the elevator continued to
travel downwards, letting out loud hong hong noises as it did so.
“Undergoing inspection,” the patrolling robot warned. “Warning, beginning four kinds of
inspections.”
A-Ka’s only thought was: I’m done for.
As long as the patrolling robot found the chip he stole, A-Ka would be immediately gunned
down on the spot. Sweat dripped down his back, and his mind went completely blank.
Just then, a middle-aged mechanic standing behind A-Ka trembled non-stop, his face white
as a sheet as sweat dripped down like rain. He convulsed violently, almost hitting A-Ka.
A-Ka suddenly turned his head around when that middle-aged man grabbed his shoulder;
he didn’t know what he had done wrong.
“Save me… save me…” That middle-aged mechanic seemed to be clutching at his last ray of
hope as he squeezed A-Ka’s hand.
Everyone simultaneously realized one thing: this man was about to be terminated.
“Arriving at: the Ant Nest,” a woman’s voice said in the elevator.
The elevator door opened, and that middle-aged man immediately pushed A-Ka aside as he
rushed out.
“Warning, stop immediately!” The patrolling robots rushed out in pursuit together. The
people in the elevator swarmed out after them, only to see that middle-aged man sprint
into the hallway.
“Get down!” someone shouted.
The entire hallway filled with people immediately exploded with noise, and the
surveillance camera installed on the ceiling shot out a thin, small metal nail with a weng.
The metal nail spread its wings, darting wildly back and forth midair.
With a loud peng, the fleeing middle-aged man took that metal nail straight through the
skull, sending him sprawling against the wall that he was firmly pinned on.
The group of people grew restless as they started to discuss amongst themselves. A-Ka was
covered in cold sweat; according to the conversations he heard around him, that mechanic
had garnered three D ratings today, and after he finished his last supper, he would have
been escorted away to be removed.
A-Ka took the opportunity when the patrolling robots were cleaning up the cruel scene to
hold his breath and leave the hallway. He walked faster and faster until he reached the end
of it, where he couldn’t help but run into the bathroom. Turning on the cold water, he
washed his body, trying to cool down his body temperature which kept rising out of control
from anxiety, before calming the frantic, violent beating of his own heart.
A-Ka’s entire body was soaked and dripping with water, and horror suddenly enveloped
him in its embrace. He knew what the final fate of that mechanic would be -- the corpse
would be taken away and put in the factory to freeze, before it would be dismembered and
tossed in batches into the decomposition solution to corrode, disintegrating into basic
nutrients that would be used to create new clones or turned into animal fodder.
A-Ka only felt a wave of rage and pain wash over his heart; he wanted to shout wildly as if
he was insane, but he couldn’t summon his voice for that. He wanted to vent, but nowhere
was safe; surveillance monitors were everywhere, and he didn’t even dare to let out a
wordless roar. With his back to the surveillance monitor, he pulled out the stolen
navigation chip that he had stashed in his shirt pocket and took a look. The chip was like a
hot potato that burned his hand, terrifying him with its existence.
He needed to get rid of it quickly… the more A-Ka thought about it, the more he felt fear. He
walked out of the shower room, drying his body, before returning to the living quarters.
The humans of the Ant Nest came and went, each on their own duties. When he returned to
his own section, A-Ka finally let loose a breath. He was absolutely exhausted and could do
no more, and this was only his first day on the job.
He took a look at his watch; he had ten hours to rest. When he entered the living quarters,
someone nodded at him. A-Ka returned the courtesy with a stiff smile.
“A-Ka-gege’s back from work!” a child called. “What’s the surface like?”
“How do you feel about your first day of work?” a young person walked over and patted his
shoulder.
A-Ka nodded and said, “It… it was alright.”
Among those who lived here, a large portion were people who were younger than A-Ka.
The Ant Nest was divided into fourteen thousand sections, and the workers of every section
were titled “Human Representatives”. The behavior of the human representatives on the
surface directly affected the quality of life of the entire section. The rest of the humans were
left to undergo training from the robots, to reproduce in relative privacy, or to learn skills.
Likewise, people who had gone through many rounds of tests but had yet to master any
kind of skill were also deemed to be non-contributors, and the only result that awaited
them was disposal.
The “D” he had gotten today weighed heavily on A-Ka’s mind, as well as the fact that he was
going to be sued soon. The legal system would analyze the video recordings of his work,
and if he was lucky, maybe he would only be allotted a “B”, which wouldn’t add or dock
points. But if he was given a “D”, the pressure on him would become very heavy.
The young ones were sitting in the lounge reading. A-Ka sat on one side quietly eating his
allotted meal, when he saw a very small child slumped by the table, watching him.
“Can I eat your fruit?” the child asked.
A-Ka answered, “Of course.”
A-Ka handed the fruit to him, and as soon as the child got it, he ran off to share the special
gift that A-Ka had given him with the rest of his playmates.
In the blink of an eye, the electronic voice broadcast a notice: the time for sleeping had
begun, and the humans that needed sleep were to return to their sleeping chambers.
Subsequently, A-Ka threw the plates that he had cleaned up into the trash bin, and with an
anxiety-ridden heart, he returned to his sleeping chamber.
Every human had their own sleeping chamber, and this was the only personal space that
existed within the Ant Nest. A-Ka initialized the sleeping frequency properly before
climbing into his own sleeping chamber. The space was vast, and it could squeeze even two
A-Kas side by side. There was even a small green potted plant in the chamber.
The outside darkened, and the hatch to the sleeping chamber closed.
A-Ka turned on the reading lamp and pulled out the aged navigation chip that he had stolen
and brought back today. This chip was very useful to A-Ka.
He wanted to sleep for a little, so he didn’t want to go out, at least not today. Only sleep
would let him temporarily forget about the troubles with that “D”. However, after the
sleeping wavelengths began to play, A-Ka lay there for a while, his frustration mounting as
he tossed and turned while sleep evaded him.
He forced himself to close his eyes, but he couldn’t fall asleep; he couldn’t stop thinking
about the robotic entity that he had hidden away down below, as well as the navigation
chip that he had stolen today. After half an hour, A-Ka got up, opened the sleeping chamber,
and slipped out.
Within the sleeping hall, row upon row of sleeping chambers emitted blue light. A-Ka left
the hall with rapid steps, pressing down on the sensor to verify his fingerprint as he
returned to the living quarters. Many humans still filled this area as usual, and A-Ka went
into a safety tunnel, then followed the descending stairs to the bottom, hiding in a corner of
the stairs just before a bend.
Suddenly, he heard a quiet noise from behind him, as if the door had been pushed open.
In that instant the blood in A-Ka’s entire body seemed to have congealed. Who was it? He
subconsciously wanted to turn his head, but he forced himself to suppress this desire.
You can’t turn your head, A-Ka admonished himself. There were no robotic noises, so it
wasn’t a guard. It was probably a human coming over for who knows what purpose, unless
aside from himself, someone else had found out about this tunnel?
He heard the sound of the door closing, and A-Ka let loose a sigh of relief. Only then did he
dare to turn his head back and look. No one was there. He still felt uneasy though, and when
the surveillance cameras turned in another direction, he stayed still for three seconds
before darting out like an arrow, rapidly clambering into the rubbish chute.
A-Ka slid down the rubbish chute all the way to the trash disposal bin far outside the living
quarters. The trash here was incinerated once every six hours, and it was filled with a
pungent scent of smoke that had not yet dissipated.
He climbed out from a hole in the rubbish chute, making his way down a rusty ladder. The
sea breeze blew into his face, and the sound of the tides blanketed the heaven and the
earth, almost drowning him.
This kind of absurd weather… A-Ka began to regret coming out today. He was still
drowning in the anxiety of recent events; had someone discovered this tunnel? But how
could that happen? The disposal bin had been abandoned for a long time now, and recently
there hadn’t been any new footprints...
The rubbish chute led directly to the harbor, where the sky, the land, and everything in
between was pitch-black. Lightning connected the sky and the sea, and the roar of the
waves and the roiling of the thunderclouds seemed to be warning him to go back as fast as
he could.
This was not a good day to set out. Compared with the vastness of the sky and the ocean, A-
Ka was nothing more than a little black dot carefully crawling his way over an exposed reef
as he picked his way towards a hidden cave by the ocean. In this grotto, he had hidden a
robot. Right now, as he made his way over, he prayed incessantly for it to still be there
when he arrived, and that it hadn’t been taken.
If the legal system was aware of these kinds of things, A-Ka knew clearly that the only route
that awaited him was disposal. But from the time he was ten, when he had unwittingly
discovered the passageway in the rubbish chute that led to the outside world, he couldn’t
help but wish to breathe the air outside.
Though the air was filled with the constant, pungent scent of sulphur and the surface of the
ocean was covered with pitch-black crude oil, none of it could stop A-Ka’s heart from
yearning for freedom. He used the past six years to gather several lifestyle necessities from
the Ant Nest and some scrap steel from the rubbish chute, and bit by bit he moved them
here.
At first, he only wanted to create a small boat and leave the City of Machines in search of a
place where he could live. He heard that on the other side of the ocean, there were still
nations where humans gathered. There, no Central Computer called “Father” existed that
controlled all, and there were no robots that cruelly slaughtered humans at any time. That
was a true nation where humans were the masters.
A-Ka wanted to go to that place, so he began to use his knowledge to gather the necessary
parts to make such a vehicle. But, the materials he had collected were random odds and
ends of all different varieties, and in the end he had cobbled together a strange mechanical
apparatus that was kind of like a robot.
A-Ka left a space in the robot for a seating chamber, which made it look like it could be
driven, and he gave it a name: “K”. Compared to the intricate, complex techniques of the
City of Machines, which used nuclear reactors to power steel lifeforms, this thing called K
seemed to be a scrap heap.
But A-Ka was very proud of his creation. At least K wouldn’t receive commands from
“Father” or the legal system, and it wouldn’t beam a laser at humans. Whatever A-Ka had it
do, it would do. This kind of controlling a robot to follow human orders gave A-Ka a
massive sense of accomplishment.
He couldn’t help but treat K as his only friend; this was a secret that he had kept with great
difficulty. He didn’t dare tell anyone, but he hoped that one day he would be able to drive K
away from here.
But before then, he first needed to install a setup on K that would extract tritium from
seawater to supply power to the fusion reactor.
The interior of the cave was dark and damp, and the thunder and crash of the waves
outside seemed earth-shatteringly loud. When A-Ka entered the dark cave, he turned on
the light source, before pulling off the oilcloth draped over K. The steel shell stared back at
A-Ka.
It had no intelligence, but A-Ka planned that one day, he would help it achieve simple
intelligence.
He pried open the front cover of K’s chestplate, installing the navigation chip that he had
stolen today, before testing it out by connecting it to the power source and waiting for the
navigation system to initialize.
Outside, every peal of thunder was louder than the last, and the waves roared wildly, as if
something was heavily slamming against the side of the cave, creating huge bangs.
A-Ka couldn’t wait around for K, so he ran out, afraid that water would get into the rocky
cave. But just as he hurried out, some large object was caught up in a violent wave, and it
rushed towards the entrance of the cave.
“Ah--” A-Ka’s voice was drowned out by the huge bang.
In that instant, he saw something glowing in the seawater, which banged into several rocks
as it floated its way towards the entrance of the cave. Four or five loud cracks echoed, and it
fell from some rocks that were ten plus meters high. Those several muffled sounds were of
a metallic object striking hard rocks.
A-Ka had been drenched from head to foot by seawater, and he was shocked beyond belief.
Sprawled out in front of the entrance, he looked down, only to see some shiny, metallic
object being swept away by the black waves. That seemed to be something big, and maybe
it would be of some use.
But A-Ka didn’t dare to head down rashly, or the (tidal wave) would immediately sweep
him away.
He first turned off K’s power source to prevent any short circuits, before peeking anxiously
out from his position near the entrance. The waves gradually abated, allowing him to see it
more clearly - it was a metallic chest that bobbed in the water, pushed now and then
towards the shore by the waves before being pulled back into the ocean by the tide.
A-Ka prayed for the heavens to leave that metallic chest there. What could be inside? Or
maybe the material of the chest itself could be made into a new robotic body for K, or
maybe inside the alloy chest there was the fusion reactor that he so desperately desired.
The waves gradually quieted down as the sea finally recovered its tranquility; the tempest
had passed.
With great difficulty A-Ka got down to the beach, where black petroleum covered the entire
surface of the ocean. He left a trail of footprints on the beach.
A wave pushed the chest to the shore, and he saw it!
A-Ka followed the coastline as he sprinted over to that steel alloy chest. Before, looking
down on it from the reefs above, it hadn’t seemed real, but when he got closer, he realized
that it wasn’t a chest, but rather a sleeping chamber.
A-Ka stared suspiciously at the sleeping chamber, but just as the waves were about to
sweep it away again, A-Ka hurried to jump into the sea, exerting a tremendous amount of
strength to push the sleeping chamber to the shore.
“The Lion ... Republic.” A-Ka saw a faint symbol on the sleeping chamber in the shape of a
lion.
This sleeping chamber was very durable, and the exterior was mottled with rust and
draped with seaweed; obviously it had floated in the ocean for a very, very long time. There
was a hole in the sleeping chamber, and its inside was half-filled with crude oil, in which
there lay a corpse.
A-Ka sighed. Having drifted on the ocean for so long, it must have rotted by now. Was there
anything valuable left?
A-Ka pulled out a wrench and tried to pry open the sleeping chamber in front of his eyes,
but it didn’t budge even an inch. He panted loudly as he scrabbled at it for a long while,
before his eyes suddenly caught on a line of words on the lower section of the sleeping
chamber.
“Year 7210, 4th month, Heishi.”
Year 7210!
A-Ka was greatly shocked; it was 10073 this year, so this was an ancient sleeping chamber
from almost three thousand years ago?!
He watched it for a long time before he realized that he couldn’t keep dragging it out like
this. He started to search for the switch for the sleeping chamber; this ancient machine’s
layout was completely different from all of the technologies that A-Ka knew.
It was as if A-Ka had found a priceless gem, and he held his breath, like he had discovered a
new world. Thoughts of ancient tech instantly flooded his brain: perhaps the ancients had
left behind some sort of energy source, or a weapon. Taking ten thousand steps back, even
if it was a few slabs of circuit boards, he would find it useful...
A-Ka didn’t know what he touched, but the entire sleeping chamber lit up. He jolted from
shock as he hurried to back away, his limbs flailing as he did so. He immediately thought,
there shouldn’t be anyone still alive inside of the sleeping chamber, it’s been almost three
thousand years.
The sleeping chamber slowly opened, and A-Ka scrambled over, before discovering that
there was another layer inside. The space between the two layers of the sleeping chamber
was filled with crude oil and seawater, which spilled out in that instant, and wave after
wave of heavy fog rolled out slowly. The inner layer was clear, and on it flashed a low
energy warning.
The lid of the chamber opened, and the fog within seeped out and dissipated.
Inside lay a wholly naked man. The man’s hands and feet were even in length, and he was a
whole 180 cm tall; his hair was very short and black. A-Ka stared at him unwaveringly,
before reaching out a hand to touch his body.
That man was still alive.
Translator's Note:
moon: and here we are, chapter 1!

This chapter is migrated and/or formatted by our fellow chicken enthusiast(s), moon.

You slumbered in the ocean for three thousand years

Translator(s): moon
Editor(s): namio, jelly
From afar came the electronic sound of a robot patrol in the waves, and A-Ka muttered a
dark, “Damn!” He used his arms and legs in conjunction to pull the man out of the sleeping
chamber, before carrying him on his back as he ran towards higher ground. Then, four
hundred meters away, two coast guard ships parted the waters as they rushed towards the
shore.
A-Ka’s heart leapt in his chest, and he hugged the man as he clambered up the rocks. From
afar came the sound of sirens, and he pulled out a remote from his shirt pocket, and from
inside the cave came a huge weng.
K staggered and crashed about, dragging a trail of smoke behind it as it rushed out. With
one hand A-Ka hugged that man, and with the other he grabbed K’s metal arm, and K
slammed against the rocks a few times, losing a few stray pieces, and the pieces rolled and
fell, ding ding dang dang, down into the seawater below.
Darkness swam in A-Ka’s vision, and he hugged that man as he rushed behind K back into
the cave.
After several minutes A-Ka finally recovered his senses, and he patted that man’s face - he
was still unconscious. K took large steps back to its original position, once again sinking
into silence.
A-Ka climbed out of the cave and peeked down, only to see the surveillance bots take the
sleeping chamber away. Now there was nothing left of it, only a man that he had picked up
and brought back.
A human.
A-Ka watched that man’s soundly sleeping face, and he suddenly felt that he was at a loss.
What use was a human? If it was just the sleeping chamber, at least he could source some
materials from it, but throwing the man back into the sea was not something that A-Ka
could do.
Whatever, it’ll be like this for now. A-Ka got up and walked to K’s side, before continuing to
adjust its navigation system. This chip that he had stolen off the clone’s body really was
broken, and when A-Ka turned on the sound system, he heard static.
“...System failed.” A sound came from K’s voice box.
“Ah!” A-Ka was greatly startled; he never expected K to be able to open its mouth and
speak. What was going on? He clearly hadn’t installed an artificial intelligence software on
K?!
When K finished speaking, it once again fell into silence, its two icy cold eyes staring fixedly
at A-Ka. A-Ka was filled with suspicion; he opened up the circuit board on K’s abdomen,
before testing out a change of the vocal source.
“The patricide function must be …” K said again.
A-Ka was once again startled, but this time he found the reason: it was the navigation chip
that was producing that noise. Within the location data records, some strange messages
had been inserted. A-Ka wired up the rest of the circuitry before once again beginning to
broadcast the navigation system’s narration, and he heard a series of words that shocked
his heart and moved his soul out of alignment.
“Attention all members of the rebellion, the turning point of the revolution is soon to be
upon us, and the passcode is: with the Patricide, our days of being oppressed will be over,
and a new era will arrive. On the twenty-seventh day of the eleventh month, at twelve
o’clock in the morning when the time comes to switch shifts with the humans we will break
through their defenses, exterminating all bots that try to suppress us with force on the spot.
When every district loses power, all members of the rebellion are to head to the central
reactor region and sneak in, and the vanguard will at this time force a failure in the
defensive system. Our goal is to destroy the Central Energy Storage with explosions and
annihilate “Father”. I wish everyone success in their duties.”
A-Ka was so stunned that he was rendered speechless. All he could do was stand there and
stare dumbly at K.
The twenty-seventh day of the eleventh month, and today was the twenty-fifth… was this a
joke? A-Ka couldn’t believe it, but the navigation chip had been taken from the body of the
clone. The clone didn’t know at all that A-Ka had stolen it, so he couldn’t have planted this
section of narration beforehand.
That was to say, in forty-eight hours at the latest, the clones would ally with the humans to
begin a riot with the goal of taking down the Central Computer. A-Ka only felt that the
things that had happened today were really too impossible… and yet he hadn’t noticed at
all that the man he had rescued from the beach had already awoken.
A-Ka hurried to turn around, ramming into that man’s chest, before letting out a loud shout
as he took a fist to the face and landed heavily on the floor.
The man's eyes were filled with killing intent as he stared coldly at A-Ka.
Under the light that K let out, they stared at each other in silence for almost half a minute.
A-Ka's brain was filled with a buzzing noise, and he was on the verge of exploding, and as
the silence dragged on between them, he couldn't stop struggling.
“What are you trying to do?” the man asked icily.
A-Ka's eyes had tears of rage in them, and he coughed wildly as he gulped down air.
"I saved you!" A-Ka roared as if he was hysterical. "Is this how you treat the person who
saved your life?"
"Oh." The man looked A-Ka up and down coldly, and in the instant A-Ka raised his head, he
felt a little befuddled.
This was a twenty or so years old young man, with bronzed skin and a well-built physique;
his hair was short, and was of even length as if it had just grown out. The line of his lips was
as clear and sharp as the edge of a knife, his nose bridge was high, his eyes were bright with
spirit, and his eyebrows were like black ink.
His arms and legs were long and lithe, and the lines of muscles on his torso were clear and
powerful, his pecs slim. He looked like a heroic sculpture that had survived from ancient
times.
There were a lot of black crude oil droplets clinging to his chest, rubbed over from just now
when A-Ka had been carrying him just now, but it didn't detract from the beauty of his
perfect body -- that was a kind of beauty of a man who had manliness in abundance. The
black oil glistened with the colors of the rainbow, adding a layer of rough glamor.
"What… is your name?" A-Ka asked.
"Name." The man furrowed his eyebrows slightly, as if he had sunk into deep thought.
A-Ka was about to stand up when the man moved again, startling A-Ka into backing away.
A-Ka’s suspicions towards this man were many and varied, and he had a lot of questions
too. Where had he come from? What was the structure of the sleeping chamber that had
held him? Had he really slept at the bottom of the ocean for three thousand years? But A-Ka
knew, if the sleeping cycle lasted for more than a month, due to the shutdown of the brain,
a person’s memories would slowly become sealed away, so he was not very surprised at
the fact that this man showed signs of amnesia.
The man said coldly, "How did you save me?"
A-Ka answered, "You just woke up after being pulled out of the ocean…"
A-Ka described the scene where he had picked him up, but still the man watched A-Ka with
doubt in his eyes as he listened to his explanations. As A-Ka spoke, he thought to himself,
this person really has lost his memories.
"Three thousand years," the man finally said.
"Yes," A-Ka answered, while at the same time realizing this severe issue -- he had slept for
three thousand years, and according to A-Ka's understanding, perhaps his memories would
never be able to return to him.
The man was very deep in thought as he exerted all his effort to try and remember, but A-
Ka said, a little gleefully, to the man, "The technology of the sleeping chamber you were in
is pretty good, because when you woke up, you still kept your speaking and thinking
abilities."
The man didn’t say anything.
A-Ka asked, “What are you called? At least think of a name.”
The man was silent.
A-Ka said, “Or how about I temporarily give you a name? The sleeping chamber that held
you had “Heishi” written on it.You’re probably called “Heishi”, right?”
“Heishi…” the man mumbled.
He didn’t reject it, as if with his silence he had accepted this name.
A-Ka covered K well with the oilcloth again, before pulling out a piece of fabric, indicating
that Heishi should put it on. With some pins, he made it into a simple full body robe.
As Heishi wore that one piece sackcloth robe, it was like he was a statue, sitting quietly on
the rock.
A-Ka had temporarily settled Heishi down, so now he opened K's navigation system, once
again listening to that string of words. Undoubtedly at this time, the revolutionary
broadcast of the clones was much more important than Heishi, and he didn't dare to
consider what would happen next if the words were true.
Would there be a riot? A-Ka could almost imagine it in his head: the clones rushing towards
the Central District, taking over the City of Machines, and exploding the energy storage. As
soon as war broke out, he himself would be able to easily pick up a power source, escape to
the bay, install it on K, and leave this place behind.
A-Ka was both overjoyed and nervous, as if this message was an intracardiac injection
piercing into him. He decided to go back and observe, but his mind was still filled with the
imagery of robots malfunctioning.
A-Ka passed by in front of Heishi and said, "I'm going."
Heishi lifted his head for no apparent reason, and in his eyes were mixed emotions of alarm
and a little bit of helplessness. A-Ka’s head once again began to hurt; this amnesiac that he
had picked up and brought back, what was he supposed to do with him? Take him along?
This person seemed to have some strength, and maybe he would be useful, but he definitely
couldn’t be brought back to the living area, or the consequences of being discovered by the
robotic guards were unthinkable.
“Where are you going?” Heishi asked.
A-Ka said unhappily, “It has nothing to do with you, stranger. I saved your life, and you
didn’t even spare me a word of thanks.”
Heishi didn't answer, but rather asked, "Do you have food?"
A-Ka was about ready to explode from rage, and he said angrily, "You don't know how to
find it yourself? It's not like I owe you anything! "
The space between Heishi's brows was filled with resentment as he looked around at his
surroundings.
I've had it, A-Ka thought, saving this person has brought nothing but trouble upon myself.
He backed out of the cave, but for reasons he didn't understand, he still felt a little worried,
so he finally turned around and went back in.
"Here's food and drinkable water." A-Ka opened the foodstuffs storage that he had
squirreled away in the corner, pointing it out to Heishi. Heishi reached a hand out and
grabbed a water bottle, taking a gulp, before tilting his head back and chugging the entire
large bottle down. It was only then that A-Ka realized he was very thirsty.
"Hungry?" A-Ka asked as he opened a can and handed it over. Heishi hesitated for a
moment, before using a finger to dig out a chunk of chicken meat from the can, which he
put into his mouth to chew.
A-Ka said, "I'm going, you… take care of yourself, alright, go find somewhere to go."
The watch on his wrist began to beep, and A-Ka knew that he could drag it out no longer; as
is, he had already left for too long today. He ran out of the cave and returned via the path he
took to get here.
Worries weighed heavily on A-Ka’s heart, and he kept thinking of the announcement in the
navigation system. What if this was all only a joke? Could it be a joke?
The trip back would take a whole half an hour, and when A-Ka arrived at the rubbish bin,
he turned his head back carelessly and instantly went bug-eyed.
Heishi continued to trail behind him, zigzagging across the crude oil covered beach as he
followed.
"Don't come over here!" A-Ka shouted anxiously.
Heishi stood still, and A-Ka took a few running steps towards him, saying, "Don't seek
death!"
Heishi’s expression was cold and calm, and A-Ka’s watch once again beeped in warning.
There was no more time. He shouted loudly, “Leave this place! Go anywhere else! Don’t
follow me!”
And with that, A-Ka scrambled headfirst into the rubbish chute, and with his hands and legs
moving in conjunction he started to climb up.
He followed the path he had taken to get back to the living quarters, and he carefully shot a
look towards the ground near the rubbish chute. This time, he found footprints - two lines
of messy footprints!
That was to say, after he entered the rubbish chute, someone had come by!
These were the footprints of a human, and additionally after they had come in, they hadn't
left again, how could it be like this?! A-Ka almost couldn't believe it. He still wanted to go
back and check, but he had no more time, so he could only leave quickly with his heart in
his throat. Knowing that a human must have found this exit, he had to lessen the amount of
times he came out later.
When he climbed up the ladder, A-Ka was once again almost caught on camera. Getting on
the next ladder, he thought in his heart, that was too close, I almost lost my life there.
The laser-equipped surveillance camera once again turned to a spot with no people, and A-
Ka slowly went up, back pressed against the wall as he peered out.
Inside the living area everything was as usual, and nothing was out of the ordinary. Several
clones stood in the hallway chatting. A-Ka passed by them, returning to the sleeping hall,
and he climbed into his sleeping chamber and closed his eyes.
His mind was still filled with overwhelming joy for the coming riot, but his body had no
more energy to fight off sleep, and gradually, he fell asleep. Suddenly, a huge roar echoed
from the Central Reactor Chamber, and the resulting explosion was like a bright sun that
dispersed its light over the entirety of the City of Machines. All the constructs, humans,
clones, androids, all of them were turned into ash under the high heat and bright light...
"The sleeping period has ended," the electronic voice announced. "Concluding sleep mode."
The hatch to the chamber automatically opened, and A-Ka jolted out of his dreams,
forehead covered with sweat.
“Are you alright, A-Ka?” one of the humans asked.
A-Ka barely managed to nod, and his head spun as he used the sleeping chamber to support
himself. His feet got caught, and he almost fell over before several people came over to lift
him up.
“Did you have a nightmare?” someone asked in concern.
A-Ka responded, “Yes… yes, I did.”
A-Ka almost couldn’t tell what were dreams and what was reality. He now felt that, in the
past six hours, everything that had happened was only a dream.
People came and went, and A-Ka stood outside the Sleeping Hall for a long while as he
mulled this over again and again. The bell rang, reminding him that he had two hours to get
ready, and when those two hours were up he would have to go to work.
A-Ka went to the cafeteria to eat. Compared to when he last ate, another group of people
had switched in. Just as he sat down with a myriad of things on his mind, a robot slid over
and said to him, "Designation 470023A, your guest is currently waiting in the waiting room,
please arrive there within five minutes."
A guest? A-Ka randomly shoveled a few bites into his mouth. When he went into the
hallway, he saw two clones standing outside the door to the waiting room.
All the clones had the same face and the same physique, and according to their duties, they
each wore the requisite uniform. As soon as he saw that person, his heart gave out a thump.
"You stole my navigation chip," the clone walked rapidly toward him. "Return it to me
immediately, and I won't go after your past mistakes."
"What… what chip? " A-Ka subconsciously reached a hand into his shirt pocket, but his
hand closed around empty air, and he remembered that he had installed the chip on K's
body, but he had actually forgotten to bring it back.
"Don't play dumb," another clone came over and purposefully lowered his voice. "You have
no reason to keep that thing around, you'll only end up burdening all of you humans with
disposal."
“You don’t have the authority to do this!” A-Ka responded angrily. In just a few seconds, he
had cleared his mind, and he knew that this clone didn’t dare to raise his voice - which
meant the thing with the chip was real, and it wasn’t a dream. He was so nervous he was
almost unable to breathe, and he trembled as he said, “I didn’t take your navigation chip.”
"You switched it out!" That clone gritted its teeth, and with one hand spasming, in an
instant he grabbed A-Ka’s neck. “Where is it! Give it back!”
A-Ka’s face turned bright red, and he saw the surveillance cameras in the hallway turn
towards their direction, but the clone’s emotions were already out of control, and his
fingers squeezed his throat until the cartilage of his airway let out crunching sounds. A-Ka’s
vision steadily darkened.
"Stop!" the clone's companion prevented him from beating A-Ka to death.
The clone loosened his grip, and A-Ka knelt on the ground as he gasped for air.
"I didn't take the chip… cough! Cough!" A-Ka answered with great difficulty .
“The guards are coming!” another clone warned. “They’ve already spotted us. You can’t
keep talking with him any longer, think of another way to take him away.”
“Wait and see,” the clone said, his face shadowed.
The two clones left, and A-Ka knew that they would definitely not let him off. He knelt in
the hallway as he thought about his next moves: going out now to retrieve the chip was
already too late, and even if he handed it over it would be useless. What if he switched it
out for a new chip and handed it over?
A-Ka leaned against the wall for support, his mouth filled with the taste of blood, before he
then moved to gulp down some water and wet his hair. And just at this time, the bell rang
out a signal to gather; as soon as it sounded, all the humans had to arrive at the Conference
Hall as fast as possible.
Damn, things were moving too fast and too suddenly. A-Ka knew that the clones definitely
alerted the robotic guards of this area, who then gathered up all the humans. Or perhaps it
was under some false pretense to select some of them so that they could forcefully take him
away.
But he couldn’t not go.
A-Ka entered the gathering area. Looking across, it was packed full of people. From all four
sides came the roar of a crowd, and all the steel doors fell shut, trapping tens of thousands
of people in this great hall.
A strong light turned on, so bright that the humans couldn’t keep their eyes open, and in
the space filled with darkness, a bright white light shone, striking fear into their hearts.
Two robotic guards escorted a human to the center of the stage, and right after a clone
appeared.
A-Ka froze. The person on that stage had on a sackcloth robe, and he stood there with his
feet bare and his hands bound by a pair of magnetic handcuffs - it was exactly Heishi whom
he had rescued from the ocean just a few hours earlier!
“The cops found him in front of the access stair that leads to the rubbish bin,” the clone
announced to the gathered people. “This human of unknown origin does not have a
designation number, no section that he belongs to, and knows nothing. In the process of
resisting arrest, he killed two enforcers. According to the first law of the Human Control
Regulations, he should be put to death.”
A-Ka held his breath.
“But he told us, he came here with the goal of finding a human, and this human, is exactly
amongst you right now.” the clone said, lightly and placidly. “Please step forward and
address the origins of this person.”
The crowd of people began to whisper amongst themselves, and A-Ka’s heart nearly leapt
out of his throat. His brain was devoid of thoughts. Didn’t he tell him not to follow? What
exactly was going on?
A robotic guard’s arm rotated around, revealing a magnetic slicer, which hovered over
Heishi’s head.
Heishi lifted his eyes to watch the buzzing blue magnetic slicer in front of his face. The
hexagonal high voltage beams sizzled and popped. All that was needed was one pull of an
arm, and Heishi’s head would be cut into six pieces.
The clone then said, “I’ll give you all ten more seconds, and if the person he’s colluding with
doesn’t want to step out, then this person will immediately be disposed of, and we will
begin to investigate the entire Ant Nest.”
"Warning. Commencing with disposal procedure in ten, nine, eight…"
Heishi ignored that robotic guard, turning his gaze instead to look at the group of people
down below the stage. His expression was icy and quiet, but his eyes had a searching light
in them, and the crowd began to quietly gasp in shock. This innocent man on the stage
clearly didn’t know that his corpse was about to fall to the ground.
" Six, five, four… "
"Wait," A-Ka took a step forward as he said towards the platform, " It was… "
A-Ka didn’t even have a chance to claim this stranger when Heishi suddenly turned. With
one kick, he sent the guard flying before leaping towards A-Ka, and the entirety of the hall
exploded in chaos. A-Ka hadn’t yet recovered his wits before Heishi landed in front of him.
"A sudden incident."
Streaks of light flew towards them, and A-Ka shouted, "Get down!"
A-Ka pushed Heishi down to the ground, and the interior of the hall instantly darkened,
before A-Ka’s collar was lifted by Heishi.
Heishi said, “Come with me.”
A-Ka said, "We'll die! Don't meet them head on!"
Two flying guards came at them from the left and the right, and Heishi turned again in his
spot, executing a beautiful roundhouse kick. The flying guards were swept aside, smashing
onto the wall with booming explosions.
A-Ka was struck dumb; this kind of skill, he had only seen it once in his study materials. It
was a kind of ancient martial art!
“Hei… Heishi!” A-Ka was just about to have him surrender when the doors to the right
opened. Robotic guards swarmed in, but Heishi charged forward instead of backing up,
rushing into the tunnel that the mechanical guards had come in from.
The sirens wailed loudly, and A-Ka thought, it’s over, it’s over. Everything had happened so
fast that he didn’t even have half a second to respond, just as Heishi asked, “What is this
place?”
A-Ka steeled his heart and said, “Run towards the end of the tunnel!”
Heishi grabbed A-Ka and rushed towards the end of the tunnel, and A-Ka shouted again,
“Turn left!”
The two of them turned at a breakneck speed, slamming into the person behind the corner.
The entire Ant Nest had been alerted by now by the sirens that dispersed from the main
hall, and all of the doors had been shut. A-Ka still held out a thread of hope however, that
when they arrived at the living area, they could rush towards the rubbish chute, and maybe
escape that way.
With how things had turned out, he could only do this...
But Heishi actually stopped in his steps, and A-Ka felt a tug at his heart.
At the end of the tunnel, in front of the sole exit to the Ant Nest from the rubbish chute,
there was a clone, and behind the clone, there were two Exterminators.
“Don’t attack,” A-Ka’s voice trembled as he spoke. “No matter what, don’t attack…”
The humanoid Exterminators were a type of android specially made to take down humans,
and they had been outfitted with infrared tracking shotguns. In the narrowness of this
tunnel, if they pulled them out, Heishi and A-Ka’s corpses would immediately hit the
ground.
Heishi also instinctively sensed the danger, and he took a step back. But behind the two,
even more robotic guards blocked their path. Up front were the clone and the two
Exterminators, and behind there was a whole troop of robotic guards carrying magnetic
handcuffs.
The clone said, "Seems like you've caused quite a bit of a problem, brat."
A-Ka couldn’t help but take a step back as he recognized that the clone was exactly the one
who had demanded the navigation chip from him just now. But just as he took a step back,
his back pressed up against the muzzle of a robotic guard’s gun opening.
Another clone asked, "What exactly is going on?”
A-Ka immediately turned his head back and said, "It's me! The person this stranger wants
to find is me!"
Four robotic guards came over, cornering A-Ka in between them, before putting magnetic
handcuffs on him and locking a laser headgear around his neck. A-Ka used his gaze to signal
to Heishi that he shouldn’t resist.
Heishi was silent.

This chapter is migrated and/or formatted by our fellow chicken enthusiast(s), moon.
"Humans were intelligent animals."

Translator(s): moon
Editor(s): namio, jelly
After A-Ka entered the prison cell, he stared dazedly for quite some time. He didn’t
understand why he had walked out under such circumstances to confess that Heishi was
looking for him.
He hugged his knees and sat in the corner, thinking it over countless times, what would his
own end be like?
Humans were intelligent animals. For the sake of his own life, he had long since memorized
the many articles of the law, time and again. As A-Ka thought it over again and again, he felt
that the problem at the moment was not necessarily that he would be disposed of, because
the law did not mention how to punish the humans that were brought back.
The only crime that they could connect with him was the crime of crossing between worlds.
But A-Ka was very careful to not reveal any of his traces in front of the surveillance
cameras. As long as these robots who followed the rules couldn’t determine if he had
secretly left the Ant Nest, his guilt would be absolved.
And the question of Heishi was even easier to resolve. Since he didn’t have an identity, and
he was not an escapee from the other sections, with this series of events, it was very
possible that he and A-Ka would both be deemed innocent -- the crux being that Heishi
wouldn’t reveal the truth to these robots, the fact that A-Ka had originally snuck out before.
But as soon as that clone brought up the lawsuit, A-Ka would be arrested for the crime of
theft, and then be immediately disposed of.
A-Ka was extremely pleased that he had made a correct decision subconsciously. On the
surface the decision looked like it had saved Heishi, but in reality it had saved himself.
Thinking to this point, A-Ka took a look at Heishi sitting across from him, thinking about
how he would communicate his thoughts to him, if they were not being surveilled and their
every movement recorded down. Just as he lifted his head, he found that Heishi was also
staring at him. They were two cells apart, and the bars of the prison cells were made out of
criss-crossing horizontal and vertical laser beams.
“Heishi,” A-Ka said.
Heishi took a look at A-Ka.
A-Ka: “What exactly did you come here to do?”
Heishi answered, “It has nothing to do with you.”
A-Ka: “You…”
A-Ka had no way to deal with Heishi, who just looked around at his surroundings, eyes
filled with suspicion. Just as he was about to reach out his hand to touch the laser bars, A-
Ka immediately said nervously, “Don’t touch it, don’t touch anything!”
Heishi said coldly, “Shut up!”
A-Ka responded simply, “Then go touch it. If you die don’t blame me.”
Heishi was silent for a long time, and finally he decided not to test it out and put his body in
danger.
“Don’t say anything. "In the end, A-Ka could only tell him like that.
Heishi stood there quietly, watching A-Ka. In his heart, A-Ka mulled it over again and again:
how was he supposed to explain it to Heishi? This grown man that he had picked up and
brought back seemed to be like an inexplicable lunatic.
He didn’t know anything. When he was being interrogated, he probably wouldn’t lie either.
The deadlier thing was, he knew absolutely nothing about the current situation, the City of
Machines, or the status of humans in society and their relations with the robots. A-Ka only
felt that this situation was quite thorny.
When A-Ka lifted his head, he found that Heishi was watching him.
"Listen, Heishi,” A-Ka said. He realized that maybe there was a need to demonstrate the
reality of how everything around them was dangerous, so he pulled out a thin screwdriver
from his shirt pocket and tossed it towards the laser cage where, with a chi sound, the
plastic screwdriver was cut cleanly into two pieces that clattered to the ground.
Heishi stared at the screwdriver.
“Don’t say anything,” A-Ka said. “No matter what you’re asked, don’t say anything, or else
you’ll die. First, tell me honestly, why did you come here?”
Heishi answered, “No real reason. I need to find a way out, you can stay here and keep
waiting.”
A-Ka gritted his teeth and spat, “I saved you twice! Heishi! Do you treat the person who
saved your life like this?”
From outside came a sound, and the two of them raised their guards as they each sat down
in their own cell. A-Ka couldn’t stop sizing up Heishi, thinking of him now and then, and
then to the clones’ revolution. He closed his eyes, when suddenly he heard a muffled boom
from afar and the walls shook slightly.
Soon after, the entire prison region turned dark, and the laser bars blinked out.
From afar came the sound of shots being fired.
A-Ka instantly rose up - the power source had been cut! What was going on? According to
the information that he had received from the chip, wasn’t the revolution of the clones
supposed to happen on the twenty-seventh?
The lasers hummed, weng -- weng --, as they lit up the faces of the two people. The
circumstances were extraordinary, and after a few more seconds, all the lights vanished.
A-Ka ran out of the cage, and with one tumble, he slammed into someone’s embrace. He
was held in place by a powerful arm, and his heart jolted.
A-Ka said, “Let me go!”
That person coldly grunted with Heishi’s voice and pushed him to one side. A-Ka thought in
his heart, I’ve really had enough… As soon as the prison cell opened, all the prisoners were
thinking of ways to escape. In the pitch black there was no way to figure out the way out, so
A-Ka could only remember the path from before and shouted, “This way! Heishi! Come with
me!”
He turned and ran out towards the left side exit, but near the exit he heard the sound of the
continuous tracks on robots moving, as if there were many patrolling guards currently
coming their way. He subconsciously turned his body, running back into the depths of the
prison cage.
A-Ka: “There’s danger! Turn around!”
A-Ka ran into the depths of the tunnel, where there was row upon row of prison cells. As
soon as the lasers disappeared, all the humans grew alert, and the prison was filled with
chaotic shouts as they pushed and shoved at each other. A-Ka was pushed into a stagger,
and he steadied himself on a person.
“Heishi! Heishi!” A-Ka shouted anxiously, but there was no response; he had probably run
off, but A-Ka couldn’t spare any more time to go find him in the darkness. Chaotic words
sounded.
“We’re freed!”
“Get out quick!”
“Something’s gone wrong with the energy system!”
“Everyone be careful! Get down!”
In the span of an instant, A-Ka felt that someone with a robust physique threw themself
onto him, and they rolled about on the ground as the lasers flew in every way overhead.
The robotic guards opened the main door to the hallway, and the light beams zipped
through the air as pained cries and freshly spilled blood filled the air. A-Ka’s heartbeat
seemed to stop in that instant; he had felt some slippery fluid, and his head swam.
“Here.” Heishi’s voice was as cold and calm as usual, and it was so cold and calm that it
seemed unrealistic. A-Ka only felt that his body was lifted up as they leapt. He was tugged
by Heishi into some place, followed by a period of tumbling about. The main entrance
suddenly closed tight; they had entered the tunnel outside the prison complex.
He couldn’t see anything, but A-Ka managed to feel his way around until he bumped into an
overturned manhole cover, which he knocked on for a few times, before asking, “Heishi, are
you still there?”
There was no sound, and their surroundings were intensely quiet. Soon after, there was a
deafening boom, and the cover in front of them was blown to pieces. A-Ka was greatly
startled, and he felt out his blue-toned light and turned it on, only to see that Heishi’s hand
was covered with blood. If it weren’t for the blood, he would even have wondered if Heishi
was a robot.
“You have a lot of strength,” A-Ka said, a little bit of fear lingering on in his heart. “Doesn’t it
hurt?”
He inspected Heishi’s hand. The skin on the back of his hand had been sliced open.
Heishi didn’t respond, but rather said, “I’m going, you be careful.”
Heishi turned and left, and A-Ka’s anger was completely gone. He could only hold that cold
light up as he moved forward.
In the blink of an eye Heishi had already disappeared off to who knows where. A-Ka used
his light to illuminate the path in front of him, and anxiously but cautiously began to search
for tunnels to travel down. He was deathly afraid of running into any robots, but after
circling around for a while, he found that there was a person in front of him, and he once
again ran into Heishi.
“Let’s go together,” A-Ka said. “You’re not familiar with the passageways here.”
Heishi didn’t respond, but neither did he fall into step with A-Ka, instead continuing to walk
towards the depths of the tunnel. He stopped in his steps in front as he turned back to
observe A-Ka before turning his head again, one hand seemingly holding on to something
that didn’t exist, as if he was holding his own blue light. A-Ka vaguely seemed to realize
something: Heishi was learning.
He guessed that Heishi was probably imitating him to understand his own movements. In
other words, other than language, a section of Heishi’s memories on movements and
thoughts, were completely empty, like that of a small child. However, he didn’t have the
luxury to interrogate Heishi right now; the most important thing was to protect his own
life.
As he caught up with Heishi, he mulled over how to explain his thoughts to him.
A-Ka: “This place is called the Ant Nest. It’s where the humans live, and you are a member
of the human race.”
Heishi still bore an expression of “I won’t pay attention if I don’t want to”.
A-Ka: “We currently need to think of a way to escape this place.”
Heishi had no reaction, and A-Ka continued, “The light can help us see the road clearly. This
kind of light is usually reserved exclusively for clones, which aren’t robots. Robots have
infrared sensors installed on them, and even if it’s pitch black, they can still see the people.
So…”
“You’re too noisy,” Heishi said.
A-Ka: “...”
A-Ka finally exploded, and he roared angrily, “Getting to know you is considered my
misfortune!”
Heishi turned around, looking threateningly at A-Ka, and in that instant A-Ka backed off
and didn’t dare to roar at him again.
Heishi said coldly, “What did you say?”
A-Ka didn’t dare to say anymore, but thankfully Heishi didn’t move to beat him up. He only
turned and kept walking forward.
“Outside there are other people fighting in the rebellion.” A-Ka followed behind Heishi,
realizing that right now was not the time to argue with Heishi, before he continued, “So we
can take the opportunity of this chaos to leave this place.”
Heishi perfunctorily en-ed once, before he tilted his head, as if he was distinguishing the
noises within the darkness. A-Ka knew that he had fully understood, so he followed him
forward.
The cold light shone upon the tunnel, revealing the sections of the path ahead of them: a
large hall, a tunnel, a large hall, a tunnel, most of their dividing steel doors open. Once in a
while there would be a steel door halfway closed, probably from its movement pausing
midway due to the problems with the energy source. A-Ka shone the light several times
over the walls, trying to find a map of the tunnels, but he slowly grew aware that it was
futile.
Only the Ant Nest’s living region had a guidance map, but after leaving the Ant Nest, the
robots and the clones both had navigation systems installed in them, so they didn’t need
maps. Since they were blindfolded when they were brought in, he also didn’t know where
he had been brought to, so he could only follow along blindly behind Heishi as they walked
forward.
After Heishi appeared, A-Ka suddenly found that his own luck had become pretty good, as if
he had brought A-Ka a goddess of fortune, and he had also brought about change. If there
was no Heishi, there was a large probability that A-Ka would have been taken away by the
clones and disposed of. As for whether the clones had been warned early due to the loss of
that navigation chip, subsequently kickstarting their battle, that was also wholly outside of
A-Ka’s predictions.
After walking for an unknown amount of time, A-Ka’s body gradually grew unable to hold
up, and he said, “Wait for me for a bit, I need to rest.”
Heishi looked impatiently at A-Ka, before finally saying, “I’m going.”
A-Ka said, “Where are you going?”
Heishi responded, “It has nothing to do with you.”
A-Ka was at a complete loss as to what to do with Heishi. He seemed to hold a grudge over
the words the two of them spoke when he woke up after being picked up by A-Ka by the
shore. That first conversation was an unhappy one. But at the root of it all, it was also due
to the hostility in A-Ka’s face when Heishi first knew him.
A-Ka said, “Wait for me, you can’t survive on your own here.”
Heishi’s footsteps slowly faded into the distance as he left A-Ka in his spot and walked
away.
A-Ka cocked his head, placing his ear up against the wall of the tunnel, but he didn’t hear a
thing. In front of them was a long tunnel used to transport supplies for basic living needs.
There were many of these throughout the Ant Nest, crossing over each other, shuttling
back and forth in the space under the earth, transporting the goods that humans needed.
Finding the tracks meant that they had basically gained access to the network of
thoroughfares.
A-Ka rested for a while, before he once again slowly began to follow the rails, but he didn’t
expect to once again run into Heishi.
In front there was no exit, but Heishi was currently tilting his head up to study something
that looked like an electrical box installation.
A-Ka said, “Pull down the switch on the outside. This is a magnetically controlled one, it
won’t be affected if you cut off the electricity.”
Heishi pulled the switch, and there was a rumble of steel scraping as it opened a door
embedded in the ground.
“Well done,” A-Ka said. “If you went on your own, you wouldn’t have been able to find the
exit.”
Heishi didn’t respond, and A-Ka went down the tunnel so deep that he couldn’t see the end,
walking forward along it. Heishi also followed. From afar came the faint sound of an
explosion.
He didn’t know if the clones’ plan had been put into motion, and A-Ka grew a little worried.
If he didn’t manage to escape in time, and the clones as a whole lost, what would he do
then? As he walked along, Heishi suddenly pulled A-Ka to a stop - the two of them had
almost walked headfirst into a minecart.
The road was blocked.
“What now?” A-Ka asked.
Heishi went forward and pushed the minecart with both hands.
That minecart was at least one ton, and Heishi arched his body as he threw his entire
strength and forcefully pushed. A-Ka was just about to stop him, but when he saw that the
minecart had slowly begun to move, A-Ka then also arched his body, joining Heishi in
pushing that steel-wall-like mine cart into movement, panting heavily as they moved
forwards along the tracks.
After an unknown amount of time, they finally reached a turn in the tunnel. The rails that
extended forward like thin strands of spider silk existed within a large hall, the walls of
which were riddled with cavern entrances. Heishi listened for a while longer, before he
chose a path.
A-Ka stood at the entrance of one of the caverns, hearing moans coming from inside. Could
that be the exit?
Their surroundings gradually chilled. The originally functioning air conditioning system
had been temporarily halted due to the lack of power.
“What’s wrong?” Heishi asked.
“It’s cold,” A-Ka responded.
Heishi obviously didn’t understand the meaning of “cold”, so he callously walked away.
A-Ka was extremely miserable, and he couldn’t help but vent in his heart, then why did you
ask… He was shivering a little, and his attention fell on the sackcloth clothes that he had
given to Heishi, which he had worn since. He thought that though his body was strong, A-Ka
should still find some more clothes for him to put on… otherwise if he got sick then it would
be even more troublesome. As they walked along the rails in that tunnel that was so dark
he couldn’t see his fingers with his hand outstretched in front of him, he tripped over
something.
The bodies of several clones lay on the tracks, and from afar there was someone moaning,
“Save me… save me…”
A-Ka took a deep breath, and his heart began to beat violently.
“Which squad are you from…” That lucky clone turned his head and saw A-Ka and Heishi.
His head had already been destroyed, one eye protruding out of the socket, and his
abdomen had been shot clean through by a bullet. Seeing that A-Ka was a human, he said,
“Humans.”
His hand lifted up tremblingly, as if he wanted to catch A-Ka, but Heishi pulled A-Ka back,
making him stand a little further away.
“What happened?” A-Ka was also desperate to know whether they had won or lost this
battle.
“Human,” the clone said weakly. “You can go.” His eyes closed.
A-Ka raised up that cold light and shone it over their surroundings. It looked like this place
had experienced a harsh battle; in front were many destroyed robot guards, and the
circuits fizzled and sparked now and then in the destroyed shells of the robots.
A-Ka peeled off the clothes on the clone’s corpse and gave them to Heishi to wear. Heishi
untied his sackcloth clothes before reaching his two hands into the vest. When he put it on,
he eyed the clone, and A-Ka knew he had questions. As expected, in the next moment,
Heishi opened his mouth.
“Why do all these people look the same?” Heishi was very suspicious and confused about
the scene he saw before him.
“They’re clones,” A-Ka said. “They were built by the robotic system, to be their servants and
messengers.”
“How about you?” Heishi asked again.
A-Ka answered, “I’m a human.Within the City of Machines, this class is even below the
clones.”
“Class?” Heishi heard a word that he was unfamiliar with.
A-Ka had Heishi put on his clothes properly, and as they walked he explained the concept of
classes and the City of Machines in an absentminded way, as well as the organization of
human society into multiple constituents. He also included how the clones carried out the
commands of the robots and helped them to control the humans, along with helping them
complete a few tasks that these steel lifeforms were unable to perform on their own.
The clones were controlled by a unified operation. They were not afraid of being hurt or
falling ill, and as soon as their organs were damaged, they would naturally be able to obtain
replacements. Their blood types were all the same, and their organs could be swapped out
at will, so the clones’ existence could be said to be a much easier one than that of the
humans’. They were just like living robots.
“How did they come about?” Heishi asked his second question.
A-Ka answered, “They were built by humans.”
“Humans conquered the sky and the land during their Golden Age, and there was nothing
they couldn’t do,” A-Ka explained to Heishi. “The army of robots with ‘Father’ at their head
and the clones were both made by humans, created specially to serve humans. But the
clones first betrayed mankind, and afterwards it was ‘Father’. And when the robots gained
control over the clones’ production lines, they finally brought the clones under the control
of the mechanicals.”
“What about humans?” Heishi asked once more. “Humans like me.”
“Some of them stayed here and were turned into slaves,” A-Ka said. “I am one of those. As
for the rest of them, some of them ran off, and I hear they created a new country on the
other side of the Great Ocean.”
Heishi nodded his head, and A-Ka’s heart jolted as he thought of the moment that Heishi
was washed up on the shore. Could he have come from the distant continent far away? As
for the imaginary country on the other shore of the Great Ocean, the humans had all kinds
of rumors about it. Some people said that the imaginary country was a realm of magic,
where they could call the winds and summon rain, control the forces of nature, and use
their mental abilities to change the world. Others said that the escapees had all died, and
the so-called imaginary country was only a misty and unrealistic legend.
And there were people who believed that the armies of the imaginary country would one
day arrive at this City of Machines, destroy ‘Father’, this great demon that they had
personally created many years ago, and free the humans here.
But instead, it was the clones within the City of Machines that had first started this bout of
revolution.
When Heishi finished listening to A-Ka’s elaboration, his expression grew even colder. A-Ka
suddenly thought of something, and he guessed, “Did you come from the imaginary
country?”
On this journey A-Ka had thought many times about Heishi’s origins. Maybe he was a lucky
survivor that floated away from a ship that perished; or maybe three thousand years ago,
he came to the Third Mainland with some orders. But now Heishi had already completely
forgotten, and all A-Ka could do was hope that some day in the future he would remember.
Translator's Note:
moon: Many thanks to Fayt as well, who provided me with the actual physical extras!

This chapter is migrated and/or formatted by our fellow chicken enthusiast(s), moon.

Translator(s): moon
Editor(s): namio, jelly
After Heishi and A-Ka grew acquainted, aside from asking questions, he spent most of his
time sunk in silence, observing the outside world. A-Ka also didn’t want to disturb him, so
he just tossed him a pair of boots and had him put those on.
The air grew colder and colder, and the breaths that A-Ka puffed out turned into white fog.
The two of them were wrapped in thick layers of clothing. As they passed through the
aftermath of a large battle, as far as the eye could see, the ground was covered with the
corpses of clones and the destroyed wreckage of robots. Clearly this place had experienced
a soul-shakingly huge battle.
The further in they went, the more corpses they saw, until they saw a dense pile of bodies
outside a door. A-Ka realized that this could be a very important place. In this very ordinary
hallway, there stood this door with no markings.
“Why would they have died here?” A-Ka asked, puzzled. This hallway had almost a hundred
corpses and shells, as if they had been protecting something important, but at the end there
was only this door.
When he turned around he saw that there was no path of retreat, and so they could only
stubbornly push ahead. A-Ka suddenly realized, could the Central Control Chamber that
held “Father” be inside? However, he immediately overturned that hypothesis. This was
only an area where many tracks from the lifestyle goods transportation system crossed,
and there was no way that “Father” would be sealed away in this remote underground
space.
Heishi moved the corpses and the destroyed shells of the robots aside, revealing the
entirety of the door. He used his shoulder to push at it, but it didn’t budge. After a moment
of contemplation, A-Ka said, “Let me try.” He opened the control panel next to the door,
inside of which were some tens of password locks, extremely tricky.
Subconsciously, he found that the clone lying closest to the door tightly grasped a card in
his hand. He then understood that the rebels were only half a step away from entering
through this door.
What exactly was behind the door? A-Ka’s curiosity was almost impossible to control. He
used the security card to open the door, which had its own external power source, and he
was greeted with nothing but darkness. The cold light illuminated his and Heishi’s faces as
they saw emptied nourishment chambers all around the room, and in the middle of it all sat
a human on the brink of death.
An old person.
“You’re finally here…” the old man opened his mouth and spoke.
The voice coming so suddenly greatly scared A-Ka.
“You… who are you?” A-Ka hurried up front, scanning over that old man’s condition, and he
found that he had many multicolored tubes sticking out of him, all of them serving as life
support.
“Where is General Libre?” The old man lifted up his murky eyes as he looked towards A-Ka.
“Li… General Libre?” A-Ka said. “I don’t know… there were many clones that died out there,
are you still okay?”
“The revolution failed…” The old man’s voice faltered. “How did you come to this place?”
A-Ka briefly told him the narrative of how they had escaped, and the old man managed to
hold himself together to hear it to the end, before he said weakly, “In the end, it was
actually a human who came in front of me… my own mother’s kind…”
“What… what does that mean?” A-Ka asked, puzzled. He tried to lift up that old man, and
asked, “Are you able to move?”
“I am about to die…” the old man said. “Child, help me out… take these things away…”
Heishi lifted up the cold light, shining it on the old man’s face. A-Ka carefully observed his
wrinkled features, feeling as if there was a sense of familiarity, as though he was someone
A-Ka knew. Especially that pair of indigo blue eyes; it felt like he had seen them somewhere
before.
“Do we know each other?” A-Ka felt as if he was in the middle of a great puzzle; he kept
feeling that he had known this old person before.
The old man didn’t respond; he merely reached out a trembling hand to grab A-Ka’s own,
and A-Ka hurried to give his hand over. The old man pressed A-Ka’s finger against the
handle of his wheelchair, and immediately there was a light ka sound as A-Ka felt
something prick through his fingertip, and it hurt so much he yowled.
A-Ka shuffled back a few steps. Heishi went up and grabbed at that old man’s collar to toss
him out, but A-Ka said loudly, “Wait!”
The old man’s body was connected to several tens of tubes, and he was lifted off his
wheelchair by the throat. This movement hastened his oncoming death, and his eyes rolled
back as a complicated and strange faint smile appeared on his face as he struggled greatly
to lift up his finger.
“Don’t be so rough, put him down,” A-Ka hurried to say.
Heishi put the old man back onto the wheelchair, and A-Ka lowered his head to look at his
own ring finger, where a drop of blood was beading on the tip.
His head spun dizzyingly just as he heard the sounds of mechanicals from afar, and thought
to himself, damn. The old man then said, “Take this… and give it to General Libre…”
He handed a chip to A-Ka before closing his eyes. A-Ka said anxiously, “Hey! Wake up!”
The old man’s head drooped down. He was dead.
The mechanical sounds drew ever closer. A-Ka speedily hid that chip, before turning his
head back and saying, “Go.”
Heishi dashed towards the tunnel just as lasers shot in from the outside. A-Ka hurried to
shout, “Be careful!”
“Quick, go back! There are enemies!” Heishi responded.
A-Ka slid the security card, and the main door immediately slammed shut. Explosions
resounded in twos and threes from the other side; they were trapped in this room.
“Find an exit,” A-Ka immediately said.
A-Ka and Heishi speedily split apart to find the exit out of this place. As A-Ka searched
through all of the possible places where an exit to a tunnel would be, he couldn’t help but
recall the indigo eyes of that old man, as well as his familiar face. He kept feeling like he had
seen this old man somewhere, and very often at that… Just as he was musing, he suddenly
saw Heishi stop, standing within the great hall, staring at the old man’s body with
suspicion.
“What’s wrong?” A-Ka straightened his body and asked.
Heishi responded, “I know him.”
A-Ka’s heart jolted, and he asked, “What is he called?”
Heishi shook his head and said nothing.
A-Ka wanted to inquire more about the old man’s origins, but Heishi didn’t have an answer
for any of his questions, wholly forgotten.
A-Ka could only say, “Then let’s search carefully for the exit.”
Heishi answered, “No need to search anymore, this place is a prison.”
In an instant A-Ka snapped out of his daze – Heishi’s conclusion was correct. From the
moment they first stepped inside, every sign indicated that the old man was a prisoner.
That was to say, aside from the entrance, there were no other ways they could take.
What should they do?
Just then, from outside came another series of loud banging, which began to change the
shape of the door. A-Ka wanted to find a place to hide, but the door had already started to
warp under the force from the outside as sparks flew from the crack of the door. A-Ka
subconsciously turned and ran towards Heishi, but Heishi cleanly and efficiently took a
flying leap. The two of them collided in midair, hugging each other tightly.
At the same time, the door blew open with a hong, sending sparks flying everywhere.
Heishi hugged A-Ka as they landed on the ground and rolled towards a corner.
“Quick! Take him away!”
“Heavens… he’s already dead!”
“Humans?”
“There are two humans here!”
“Don’t attack!”
“What’s going on?!”
The inside of the room devolved into chaos as many clones rushed in. A-Ka’s head throbbed
with pain as he stood up, protected behind Heishi, as a strong light swept back and forth.
A-Ka explained, “We escaped in here.”
“When did you come in?” a clone asked him anxiously. “When you two came in, was Dr.
Callan still alive?”
Heishi was just about to open his mouth and answer, but A-Ka pinched his palm and
replied, “He was still alive. He asked me to pass on a message to General Libre.”
From the outside came the sound of more explosions, and this time, the bangs were as clear
as crystal, as if the entire world was going to be overturned from the force of those blasts.
The earth trembled, and several people almost couldn’t stay upright. The clone squad’s
leader said, “There’s no time to explain more! Take them away!”
Under the protection of the clone squad, they once again rushed out into the tunnel. The
robotic guards surrounded them on all four sides, their numbers growing by the minute,
and once in a while someone would loudly shout, “Hold them there! They’re
counterattacking!” and similar phrases. A-Ka didn’t know why, but his head spun and he
felt nauseous as he staggered out quickly, a wave of dizziness washing over him.
A-Ka scrabbled desperately in the air a few times before he caught Heishi’s hand, but Heishi
pushed him aside. He couldn’t hold on any longer, and he plummeted headfirst to the
ground.
Heishi came back, and he frowned, “Why are you this weak.”
A-Ka said angrily, “Then don’t bother with me!”
A-Ka couldn’t stop panting as his vision blurred, feeling as if he had a bad fever. Heishi
lifted him up in his arms before running along with the clones. Behind them members of
the rebellion followed, carrying the old man’s body as well as his wheelchair.
They bumpily passed through the passageway. A-Ka drifted in and out of consciousness for
an unknown amount of time, before a sudden burst of thousands of rays of bright light had
him reeling.
They had come out, and the sunlight was blazingly bright. A-Ka used his hand to block his
eyes; he had never really breathed the fresh air of the surface so vividly until now, and he
felt that the burning hot sunlight was like a ball of fire currently radiating heat so strong it
scorched his soul.
Everything around them turned a brilliant white, like they had been enveloped in a burst of
solar wind that came from a star.
“I’m going to die…” He didn’t know why, but A-Ka felt extremely weak.
“Hang in there!” Heishi anxiously shouted next to his ear.
All this time, Heishi had been hugging A-Ka around the waist, and as they jolted, A-Ka felt
that Heishi was sprinting along, and next to his head came the sound of the clones talking.
“He’s only temporarily faint and weak…”
“I can’t see a reason for it…”
“Humans, come with us! We’re almost about to start!”
“Let him soak up the sun, don’t move him now…”
The voices washed over him like waves lapping against the shore, and in an instant A-Ka
grew calm. This was the most mysterious moment he had experienced in his life. The
movements of his surroundings seemed to be infinitely distant, but he also saw them with
extreme clarity, as if there was a magnetic field extending out across the vast expanse of the
earth and sky from a part of his brain, and he was keenly aware of every single minute
movement in that magnetic field.
Slowly, the magnetic field retreated, and its final focal point only encompassed the outline
of one person by his side – Heishi.
Heishi’s outline grew clear. He said something towards A-Ka, as A-Ka’s five senses slowly
returned to him.
“Are you alright?” Heishi’s brows furrowed into a pretty knot.
A-Ka responded, “I’m… I’m okay.”
He recovered his wits, body soaked with sweat, and subconsciously lifted a hand. Seeing
that Heishi was currently watching him with worry, he grabbed Heishi’s hand and
interlocked their fingers. Heishi grew slightly more at ease. A-Ka thought back to his period
of weakness just a moment ago, and connected it to the needle that the old man had
pricked him with. What exactly had he injected him with?
“Humans, hurry and get on the ship! Don’t stay here any longer!” a clone came over to
inform them.
Heishi once again lifted A-Ka up in an embrace, but A-Ka said, “I can walk on my own.” He
then shuffled along behind the clone onto a small airship. The instant he walked into the
lift, what A-Ka saw with his eyes left him tongue-tied.
On the platform that took up almost a thousand square kilometers, millions of war airships
turned and launched off, flying into the sky, while the protective magnetic layers
surrounding the launch platform shot down the mechanical aircraft that came to ambush.
The sky was filled with balls of fire, and in deafening explosions of lighting-bright light, an
airship exploded, trailing a plume of smoke as it plummeted into the ocean.
Like a wasp nest that had been poked until it exploded, tens of thousands of airships left
the earth behind as they lifted themselves into the sky, letting loose row upon row of laser-
guided bombs, which flew towards the direct center of the city.
Translator's Note:
moon: apologies for the delay, it is up now!

This chapter is migrated and/or formatted by our fellow chicken enthusiast(s), moon.
"K rushed out from the firelight, slamming into “Father”’s outer wall"

Translator(s): moon
Editor(s): namio, jelly
A-Ka had been brought into a small fighter airship, inside of which only had a single clone
as the pilot.
“Find a spot and sit down! Fasten your seatbelts! I’m in charge of sending you guys over to
the mothership!” the pilot shouted.
A-Ka was reminded that that old man had something that he wanted A-Ka to hand over to
General Libre of the clone camp, so he quickly sat down. Through the windows of the cabin,
he could see that the skies were filled with the glow of flames, while mechanical troops
swarmed out like a hive of wasps, obstructing the sky from view.
The aircraft shook heavily, and Heishi tightly grabbed the roof handle over his head as the
pilot shouted, “Watch your heads!”
The fighter craft flipped over in midair before very narrowly turning to one side and
slipping through the gap between the metal tentacles of two giant jellyfish-like craft. A-Ka
asked, “Can you guys win?”
“Can’t say for sure!” the pilot shouted. “I don’t know which bastard leaked the news, but the
rebellion plans were completely pushed forward!”
A-Ka felt a lingering fear in his heart. The pilot continued, “We’re going to arrive at the
central region of the Country of Machines! You guys be careful!”
A-Ka said, “Don’t go! You’ll die!”
“The main body is there!” the pilot said. “General Libre is on the front lines! There is no
turning back!”
A flash of bright light in the distance lit up the entire world, and the ball of fire radiated
outwards as it whistled towards them. The blinding brightness blotted out the entirety of
the battlefield.
In that instant, all sound grew distant, turning their surroundings incredibly peaceful.
Heishi seemed to have seen something, and he slowly got up, walking towards the cockpit.
A-Ka grabbed him; he wanted him to sit down. It was far too dangerous, but the words that
A-Ka shouted were drowned out by this space and silence. He immediately realized that the
sound of the explosion was so loud it had rendered everyone temporarily deaf. Just as he
grabbed Heishi’s hand, interlocking their fingers, he felt that the light seemed to carry a
wave of energy in it that was faintly calling to them.
What was that? For a while A-Ka forgot that his body was stranded in a dangerous
situation, and he fixedly watched the thing inside the white light.
It was then that the small fighter craft broke out of the circle of light, and as sound
returned, A-Ka clearly saw his surroundings.
It was a truly breathtaking view. The clones’ mothership was as large as a city, floating in
midair, and from it spewed millions of fighter craft, rushing towards the Central Computer
like a giant wave.
But the Central Computer, “Father”, stood firm against the onslaught, letting out a
blindingly bright light as it controlled the dense masses of flying robots, blocking the
charge of the mothership. In the sky, black clouds roiled as they gathered into a vortex, as
the magnetic field split the world into countless little broken sections.
This was a battle of gods, and as A-Ka stood in front of it, he couldn’t help shuddering at the
sight.
And just at that instant, “Father”’s defensive foundation once again shot out flash bombs,
one of which pierced through the mothership’s flank. The broken shrapnel and steel body
exploded apart, shooting in all directions.
“Be careful!” Heishi pushed A-Ka to the ground.
A piece of high speed shrapnel flew towards their cabin and pierced through the pilot’s
forehead to the background noise of the sonic boom. Blood spurted everywhere inside, and
the fighter craft shook wildly, spiraling downwards to the earth below. A-Ka slid to the tail
end of the cabin.
“Don’t worry about me! Go take the pilot’s seat!” A-Ka shouted.
Heishi was of the same mind, and he scrambled over the chairs in a fierce headlong charge,
pulling aside the pilot’s body before grabbing the joystick.
A-Ka, “Keep it steady, pull towards you!”
Heishi fiercely yanked the joystick, and A-Ka fell towards the front, landing near the
cockpit. He speedily took the co-pilot’s seat as he rapidly flicked his thumb, manning the
anti-air machine gun. The laser turrets on the craft activated, pulverizing the shrapnel that
flew at them like meteors.
Heishi, “Now what!”
A-Ka, “Do you know how to fly a ship?! Fly towards that large one!”
Heishi, “I don’t know!”
A-Ka, “Hurry up and grab the joystick! Quick! We’re going to die!”
Heishi shouted angrily, “You’re so noisy! We can’t go into the middle and take bomb blasts!”
A-Ka only remembered this mission, but had forgotten that they had to keep their lives as
well. Just as he was about to mull things over, reality forced him to skip past it as time ran
out.
“Quick, run!” A-Ka said resolutely.
But another piercing boom caused another sky-shaking moment, and the small-sized
fighter airship was ejected outwards, shooting towards the Central Computer. Outside of
the cockpit came the glow of firelight, and with that huge boom A-Ka slammed into the
bridge headfirst. His head hurt so much it felt like it had split.
The explosions lingered in his ears as A-Ka blurrily felt Heishi patting his face.
“Wake up!” Heishi shouted anxiously.
A-Ka’s forehead now had a fresh bleeding wound. He hazily lifted his head, only to be
struck dumb.
The two of them were stuck on the edge of the cockpit, and below their feet was empty air,
as they were some thousands of zhang off the ground. Not too far from them, the huge
mothership was being bombarded incessantly, the defensive layer shuddering violently
under the onslaught of the exchange. Any time now, it would toss them and the rest of the
fighters all down.
The small fighter ship was tilted almost 70 degrees as it stuck on that turret, and it could
detach and fall at any point.
A-Ka recovered his wits and immediately flipped the switch on the emergency button, and
the emergency lights indicating “damage” lit up. The power was low.
“Do we leave the ship behind?” Heishi shouted loudly over that eardrum-shattering sound.
“No way!” A-Ka replied. “There are over six hundred layers in the Central Tower! If we ran
all the way down, then we definitely would die --!”
Heishi frustratedly but helplessly let out a sigh.
“What now?” Heishi said loudly.
“There’s no more power!” A-Ka responded equally loudly. “We need to find a way to
recharge the ship’s energy supply!”
How could they find a way? A-Ka watched that 12% left of the power supply bar, his face
filled with confusion. His head was ringing. Heishi slowly calmed down as well and he
asked A-Ka, “Are there any transportation devices nearby?”
“It won’t work…” A-Ka lifted his gaze and looked towards the heavens, where the fight
between the mothership and the Central Computer was entering its most chaotic stage. In
such a short period of time, multiple thoughts passed through his head:
One, abandoning the ship and escaping for their lives was too dangerous. Returning from
here to the ground would still result in them being caught in the middle of the crossfire,
and if they escaped on foot they could not run fast; at any point in time they could be
exploded to smithereens by a bomb.
Two, finding a new mode of transport was not logically possible. In the City of Machines,
almost all of the flying ships were controlled by “Father”.
“Here, there is only ‘Father’,” A-Ka explained. “We cannot break the control that he has over
the flying robots…”
Heishi also lifted his head to watch the sky, and seeing that there were countless human-
shaped mechas shuttling back and forth, he asked A-Ka, “What about those?”
A-Ka said, “Those are the mecha suits of the clones, we have no way to use them.”
Heishi said, “Maybe there are broken suits…”
A-Ka, “There’s no way to fix them right now! We’ll have to rely on blind luck! Let’s find a
way to recharge the power.”
Heishi could only nod. A-Ka was extremely anxious, but after thinking for a moment, he
suddenly lifted his head to look into the depths of the tall computer tower, and he came up
with a daring thought.
“Father”’s energy source could be used, and there were even slots outside for robots to
charge… A-Ka suddenly had a plan.
“Hold onto me,” A-Ka said.
Heishi pulled on A-Ka’s hand, and A-Ka climbed out of the ship. He peeked down, and
instantly he felt the earth spin underneath his feet.
“Be careful!” Heishi warned.
Performing such acrobatics on an airship that was leaning dangerously to one side, A-Ka
thought in his heart that he must have gone crazy… Before, he would never have imagined
that such a thing could happen. Clearly, when humans were at the gates of life and death,
they could do anything.
He activated the charging port on one side of the ship, tugged out the power cable, wrapped
it around his own waist, before looking all around for the closest opening to “Father”, which
was only ten meters above them.
But the entire Central Computer tower was shaking, and the outside was completely
smooth with no purchase, how would he climb up?
Heishi saw what A-Ka was trying to do, and he shouted, “Come back! I’ll think of a way!”
A-Ka said, “How will you think of a way? Every wall is made of extremely hard metal!”
Heishi pulled A-Ka back into the cabin and took the cable, asking, “How does this connect?”
“Clip the latch on and that’s it,” A-Ka said.
Heishi looked around his surroundings, before he found a rubber plunger used to clean out
the inner pipes of the generator, saying, “Use this.”
A-Ka, “...”
That was a toilet plunger.
A-Ka said, “It… it won’t work, it’s too dangerous.”
Heishi didn’t respond. He suddenly rushed forward, leaping up towards the high platform,
toilet plunger in hand, and with a peng it stuck against one side of the tall Central Computer
tower. Instantly, A-Ka was dumbfounded. Below his feet was a thousand foot drop, and
Heishi’s body shook with the force of the explosions and the trembling, while that power
cable was still wrapped around his waist.
A-Ka didn’t dare to breathe. He could only watch Heishi steadily, just to see him press one
hand against the outer wall and use the friction of his palm to steady his body, while with
his other hand he pulled off the toilet plunger and speedily stuck it in a higher spot.
This also worked! A-Ka stared dumbly as Heishi used a toilet plunger to climb higher and
higher on “Father”’s body. He was at once both absolutely terrified and greatly amused.
Heishi approached that opening, and he hung the cable over. In an instant the power in the
cabin reached its peak, and all of the lights came on.
“It worked!” A-Ka shouted loudly. “Heishi, come back quick!”
But Heishi did not move even an inch. He maintained his original position, and though A-Ka
was anxious beyond belief, his voice was drowned out by the continued explosions.
Damn! A-Ka turned his head again, only to see that the huge mothership that spanned the
sky was almost unable to hold up anymore. A blue light shot out of “Father”’s tall tower,
piercing the mothership’s abdomen. A wild gust of wind blew by from the explosion, and
one of Heishi’s hands pressed against the connection point as he fixedly stared at the power
cable connector.
Where the cable plugged in there was a blue glow, and a voice faintly reverberated in
Heishi’s mind. It was a man’s voice, but it was too blurry to comprehend.
The charging of the airship had already completed, and A-Ka was shouting at him
anxiously, but Heishi was still sunk in that trance. A-Ka was almost ready to fall into
despair.
Explosions happened in twos and threes on the mothership far above their heads, and
debris began to shoot out from high above. A-Ka’s breathing quickened, and just as a
fireball was about to engulf Heishi, a shabby, tattered robot rushed out amongst the glow of
the fire. A-Ka’s eyes widened and his tongue was tied. He couldn’t believe the sight in front
of him.
That broken robot was K!
How was K here? That was his robot!
K rushed out from the firelight, slamming into “Father”’s outer wall, before reaching a hand
out to grab Heishi. Immediately, Heishi woke, and with a face filled with astonishment, he
was picked up by one of K’s arms, and they flew towards the small fighter.
In the next instant, before A-Ka could process all of the irrational things that had happened
in this short span of time, Heishi was already tossed into the cabin by K.
“Leave quickly,” K said.
That robot turned and trod onto the roof of the small ship, which wobbled gently. A-Ka’s
scalp tingled; he could not accept this reality where K stood in front of him, alive.
“You… K, how are you…”
“Hurry and go!” The voice that came out of K’s body was anxious, and with another solid
kick, K helped the ship out from its confines. Right after, it turned and flew towards the
mothership.
Just as the airship was about to fall down, A-Ka turned his body and pulled up the joystick.
Right then, with another sky-shattering explosion, the mothership broke through the
Central Computer’s defensive layer, smashing into “Father”’s tall Computer Tower. The
piercing blue light instantly spewed out like an energy tsunami, overturning all the flying
robots in the air.
That energy tsunami radiated outwards like a chain reaction, first sending the dilapidated
mothership flying, before cracking open the ground of the entire Country of Steel. The
cracks widened to the sound of explosions.
A-Ka had never realized that he was witnessing the birth of history, the first time the tides
had turned against the might of the robots in three thousand years. His only thought was:
they had already come this far, so no matter what, they had to stay alive.
All of the locating systems had already lost effect, and he couldn’t tell where the sky and
earth were. He could only rely on his own instincts to figure it out, and place his trust in
Heishi’s steering.
The huge energy wave first washed the entire ship away, turning it into a grain of sand
caught in the waves as it was swept far away.
Finally, all of the blue light disappeared, and in front of them was the constantly-rotating
ground.
Translator's Note:
moon: apologies for the delay in getting this chapter out, the other translations took over
my time for a bit haha… in the future I will try to announce if a chapter will be delayed
significantly
This chapter is migrated and/or formatted by our fellow chicken enthusiast(s), moon.

Translator(s): moon
Editor(s): namio, jelly

Content Warning:
brief mention of cannibalism
The airship dragged trails of smoke behind it as it rushed towards a desolate plain. It first
skimmed a mountainous object, before, with a series of violent shudders, it fell off a cliff
and sank into a large river.
With a huge boom, the water wildly rushed in. A-Ka dazedly got up, grabbed Heishi’s hand,
and flipped the escape pod switch. But the escape hatch was stuck.
“Heishi!” A-Ka shouted.
Heishi remained unconscious.
“Damn it!” A-Ka kicked at it a few more times, but the water flow grew heavier and heavier.
He put Heishi on his back, searching for an exit. Heishi was too heavy; he was as dense as a
piece of steel. The two of them were trapped in the fighter as the water level rose higher
and higher. As Heishi was splashed by the water, he suddenly opened his eyes, and he
turned his hand and hugged A-Ka’s waist before lifting his foot. With a leap and a dull thud,
an entire section of the metal sheet flew out under the water.
The two of them rushed to the surface, washed about this way and that as they completely
lost their sense of direction, before finally, with great difficulty, they crawled onto the
shore.
Bedraggled, A-Ka coughed out a few mouthfuls of water, before meeting Heishi’s gaze. The
two of them couldn’t resist, and began to laugh loudly.
“Hahaha --” A-Ka didn’t know why, but he laughed until he was completely out of breath.
Heishi also couldn’t resist a smile, and he wiped the water off his face before sitting down
on a rock.

This was a desolate plain, but they were still within the borders of the Country of Steel. A-
Ka observed the direction of the sun and confirmed their position. The two of them stood
up high, looking at the road in the distance.
To the eastern side of the plains, plumes of thick smoke rose from where “Father” and the
clones’ mothership had their final confrontation, which had twisted time and space for an
instant, sending them some four hundred kilometers away from the City of Machines. It had
also brought along quite a few robot weapons that flew like meteorites, each embedding
themselves in the rocky earth.
A-Ka picked through the debris of the robots to find a few useful scraps, and after melting
them with a nuclear reactor-powered furnace, he turned them into a new small wrench. He
thought of the robot K, and he had so many questions that his brain almost exploded.
Why was K in that place?
There was a person in K! A-Ka recovered his wits and recalled the few sentences it had said
to him, so there was definitely a person inside steering it. But this person, why did they
know them? Or was it because of the battle that someone unknowingly stumbled across K
in that cave, before climbing into it and directing it into battle, unknowingly saving himself
and Heishi?
No matter how A-Ka thought about it, he couldn’t figure it out, so he could only put it aside
for now. Before, the only desire in his mind was to find a fusion engine for K, but now when
there were fusion engines scattered about everywhere, he no longer had a need for one.
“I’m going,” Heishi said suddenly.
“Where are you going?” A-Ka asked. He predicted that the next words would be something
like “it has nothing to do with you” again, and A-Ka was going to explode from anger
because of this person. He never should have saved him in the first place.
“I rescued you from the ocean!” A-Ka said. “And I saved your life again in the living
quarters! Can’t you be a little nicer to me?!”
“I’ve also saved you quite a few times. Now we’re even!” Heishi said.
A-Ka said, “How have you? If I hadn’t brought you out…”
Heishi and A-Ka stood on two ends of a needle before A-Ka suddenly realized that arguing
had no point. Just now, on the journey here, if Heishi wasn’t there, A-Ka would never have
survived under his own power. But without himself, Heishi wouldn’t have been able to find
the path out.
“Whatever, let’s not talk about this,” A-Ka said helplessly. “Where are you going?”
“I have a mission,” Heishi said evenly.
A-Ka’s heart jolted, and he asked, “What mission? You’ve remembered your own identity?”
Heishi hesitantly stared off into the distance, before finally shaking his head slightly. A-Ka
questioned, “What did you remember?”
Heishi said, “Nothing, I only know that I have a mission.”
A-Ka said, “Then isn’t that the end? You also don’t know what the mission is, so where are
you going?”
Heishi seemed a little annoyed. A-Ka went over to go pat his shoulder, but Heishi turned his
body to the side and avoided it.

A-Ka was also too tired to continue talking with this maniac. He hopped off the rocks and
picked through the fallen scraps of robots on the plains. After a while, he saw that Heishi
had also come down, wandering about on the desolate plain without a purpose.
“You’re not even remotely familiar with this world,” A-Ka shouted, “and you don’t have a
destination in mind, so don’t walk about randomly! If you get lost then you’ll have no way
out!”
Heishi picked up a rock, hefting it in his hand, before hurling it into the distance, letting out
an outraged, furious roar.
A-Ka vaguely understood a little of Heishi’s emotions.
One person, without a past, without a future, without knowing what he was called; that
kind of confusion and frustration, if it was constantly being suppressed in the depths of his
heart like a demon, would have a person feeling extremely bitter.
“Hey, old bro,” A-Ka walked over and said, “Don’t be like this.”
The muscles of Heishi’s body were all tensed up tightly, but after hearing A-Ka’s voice, they
slowly relaxed. He shot A-Ka a cold glare.
“Where are you planning on going?” Heishi asked.
“I don’t know,” A-Ka smiled. “At least we’ve escaped, isn’t that so? The world is so big, there
will always be somewhere to go. Plus, you still owe me two lives, so why don’t we travel
together.”
Heishi said coldly, “I don’t owe my life to anyone.”
A-Ka persevered. “I saved you twice.”
What he didn’t expect was for Heishi to instantly reach out a hand, and with his palm he
cupped A-Ka’s head.
A-Ka, “?”
Heishi said mildly, “One time.”
A-Ka, “...”
Heishi pulled his hand away, before bringing it back again.
“Twice, now I’ve saved you twice.”
Heishi walked away, and A-Ka said wildly, “What does that mean?!”
From afar, Heishi turned his head back. “Just now I could have killed you!”
A-Ka was completely speechless.

Three hours later, A-Ka managed to strenuously disassemble a mecha. Heishi was still
nearby, drifting about aimlessly. He didn’t come over to help, nor did he go too far. A-Ka
shouted, “Can’t you come here and help me out?!”
Heishi said, “Say ‘please’.”
A-Ka said tiredly, “Please.”

Heishi casually lifted a hand and tugged the entire arm of the mecha off, throwing it on the
ground. A-Ka sized up Heishi, thinking in his heart, this person has so much strength. But he
wasn’t a clone, and he wasn’t a robot… the blood of the clones would not be red, and robots
didn’t even bleed.
This time Heishi didn't keep going. He stood to one side, watching A-Ka picking through the
scraps. He didn’t ask any questions, nor did he speak, until A-Ka put together a laser gun,
handing it to Heishi, saying, “Keep this on you for protection.”
Heishi looked at that laser handgun for a while, before taking it and mimicking the attire of
those clones as he pinned it against his waist.
“After we leave here, we need to pass through the influence of the City of Steel, heading
west,” A-Ka said to Heishi. “Getting to the New Mainland is how we’ll survive.”
“When will we go?” Heishi asked a little impatiently.
A-Ka explained patiently, “We need to make the proper preparations, or we’ll die along the
way.”
Heishi said, “You’ll die, but I won’t.”
A-Ka said nastily, “Since you won’t, then you go on your own.”
Heishi sniffed haughtily through his nose, before he suddenly asked, “Did they die?”
“Who?” Immediately A-Ka realized the current condition of the City of Machines. “Father”’s
condition was not one he could pinpoint, but from the knowledge he had amassed over the
years, “Father” was all-powerful. The Computer Tower that rose from the ground was only
one portion of “Father”, and the even more colossal mechanical body laid buried under the
earth.
A-Ka really couldn’t say for sure, so he could only vaguely explain it to Heishi. He also
remembered the chip that that old professor had given him, and he pulled it out and
studied it carefully for a while. Of course, both of them couldn’t see anything special about
it, and Heishi had absolutely no interest in this chip, so A-Ka could only carefully put it
away again.
Night fell, and in the shelter of the robotic debris they turned on the nuclear stove, huddling
by it to stay warm. Heishi returned to the riverbank, using the laser gun to shoot a few
oddly shaped fish to death. Due to them growing within wastewater, the bodies of the fish
contained a large amount of heavy metals. A-Ka only ate a little, and he didn’t let Heishi eat
too much either, to prevent either of them from being poisoned. Afterwards, they ducked
inside of a broken robotic shell to sleep.
In the middle of the night, a great snow began to fall on the plains. The north wind gusted
over the desolate plain, and A-Ka was so cold that he couldn’t stop shivering, but he didn’t
know where Heishi had gone. He shrank into the robotic shell a bit more, trying his best to
hide in a spot sheltered from the wind. He was so cold he couldn’t bear it anymore, and he
felt that he was almost frozen stiff.
Just as A-Ka was freezing almost to the point of hallucinating, a warm body pressed in,
spine against him.
“Where did you go…” A-Ka asked, voice garbled.
“It has nothing to do with you,” Heishi responded in a cold voice. A-Ka was so cold that his
teeth chattered together, and he had no way to bear it, so he snuggled into Heishi’s
embrace. He felt that Heishi’s chest was like a hot nuclear furnace, and after a long time, he
slowly grew warm again and peacefully fell asleep.
The next day, A-Ka was woken by the cold, and when the sun hung directly overhead in the
sky, Heishi came back.
A-Ka shivered as he climbed out of the pile of robotic debris, where he found that Heishi
was dragging along a clone corpse by the leg, bringing it back to camp before tossing it in
front of him.
Heishi, “Eat.”
A-Ka, “Don’t joke around! How could we eat people?”
Heishi, “He’s not the same kind as you.”
A-Ka knew that compared to humans, clones were basically just a collection of proteins,
and a dead clone even more so. But as he watched that clone’s face that had been frozen to
a greenish purple color, he really had no way to eat a living creature that had the same
shape as a human, with the same features.
“I… I won’t eat,” A-Ka said.
“Then I’ll eat it myself,” Heishi said.
A-Ka said hysterically, “If you’re going to eat this clone, then don’t talk to me ever again!”
Heishi said, “Why are you this troublesome?”
A-Ka huffed. “Anyways you can’t eat clones.”
A-Ka had no way to accept the process of Heishi standing in front of him, sawing off a
“human” leg before roasting and eating it. Heishi hesitated for a moment, and finally he let
go of that clone’s body as he went in search of other food.
What had been swept onto the plains was not just them, but the unfortunate thing was that
all the living things, all the clones inside any mechas had all died. Heishi pulled off an arm
from a mecha and swung it around experimentally; it was a little too strenuous to swing.
A-Ka said, “Don’t bring too many things. Do you like heavy weapons?”
Heishi didn’t speak.
A-Ka was between embarrassment and laughter, as he helped him peel off a long strip of
metal and weld on a handle. Heishi tested it, and when he waved it around the wind went
hu hu around it, before he slung it against his back, just like a broadsword.
“Let’s go.” A-Ka organized his own hastily gathered satchel. Inside it there was a compass, a
box of healing supplies that the clones used, a few injections of stimulants, a portable
energy stove, a wrench, an assortment of screwdrivers and other tools for fixing broken
electromagnetic equipment, and a set of magnetic field generators.
"What did you bring these for?” Heishi asked indifferently. “You can’t even carry them.”
A-Ka had brought so many things that it was a little taxing, but he persisted. “The repair
tools of a mechanic are like a soldier’s gun. In the future they’ll be of use.”
On the flat plains, the large pieces of snow that fell were so white they stabbed the eyes.
Heishi put on a pair of sunglasses that he had gotten off the clone’s body as he and A-Ka
stepped out into a new, unknown world.
This chapter is migrated and/or formatted by our fellow chicken enthusiast(s), moon.

The revolution of the clones was actually started for the sake of the humans.

Translator(s): moon
Editor(s): namio, jelly

Content Warning:
brief mentions of bodily functions
This was the sixth day that A-Ka and Heishi spent walking in the snow.
Their surroundings were devoid of any human habitation. They first passed through a
small grove of trees, before coming out of it and entering a huge mountain range.
The satchel on A-Ka’s body had already been transferred to Heishi’s hands, but even with
this, A-Ka was still a little short of breath, and he had no way to bear their travels during
the day. When they came to a fissure in the mountain range, he was almost tempted to lie
down on Heishi’s back and have Heishi take him as they clambered over the mountains.
“This is the entire ridgeline of the Astrolabe,” A-Ka said, “Jingchuan.”
As usual, Heishi listened to him with a chilly expression. As they sat in front of the fire, A-Ka
finished eating the wild fox that they had caught. The meat was both foul and smelly and
there was no salt, so he almost vomited it back up as he ate it.
“The Astrolabe is our world,” A-Ka explained to Heishi. “A huge astrolabe, guiding along
seventeen smaller astrolabes. Every mainland is its own separate island, like gears in a
machine, nestled together because of this.”
Heishi unconcernedly en-ed, before asking, “Are you done resting?”
“No,” A-Ka said a little helplessly. “I’ve slowed you down, very sorry for that.”
This sentence of A-Ka’s had really come out of the depths of his own heart -- Heishi was
really too sturdy: he didn’t dread the cold, his strength was extraordinary, and he could
walk for a whole day without resting. Of course, to make up for that, he also ate a lot. After
all, he was a human from three thousand years ago, and back then, the genes of humankind
were of the highest quality; hence, it was known as the Golden Age. He was unlike A-Ka and
the rest of humans of the Black Iron Age, struggling under the control of the machines with
their fragile constitutions.
All along the journey, A-Ka had been observing Heishi, trying to figure what exactly he was.
Finally, one direct piece of evidence had A-Ka convinced that Heishi was indeed human:
excretion.
If he was human, then he would have to eat, and of course he would have to excrete. Heishi
could sweat, and he sometimes wanted to bathe. The way he bathed was to take off his
clothes, standing wholly naked in the snow, directly using the snow to wipe down his body.
Sometimes he would also excrete, but most of the time he would avoid A-Ka when he did
so. This kind of shame seemed to be inborn.
One day, A-Ka watched Heishi from afar. Heishi had just finished wiping down his body,
and after he finished taking his bath, he knelt in the snow, unmoving. Under the shining
sunlight, his bronzed skin made him look like a perfect statue of an ancient male god. A-Ka
had only seen people squatting or sitting before, and this was the first time he had seen
someone kneel while they peed. After he left, A-Ka went over to go take a look, but he was
dragged back by Heishi and tossed into the snow.
Even A-Ka felt that he was being a pervert, so he could only admit defeat and flee.
Finally, A-Ka thought, aside from Heishi’s temper not being very good and him being a little
prone to violence at times, overall he was a very good companion.
“Have you seen humans from the Bronze Age?” A-Ka asked.
Heishi raised an eyebrow. A-Ka realized that he might have made him mad, so he stuttered
out an explanation. “I didn’t want to… ask about your past. I was just curious.”
“No,” Heishi responded. “I don’t know what that is.”
“The Golden, Silver, Bronze, and Iron Ages,” A-Ka said. “I am of the fourth kind of human. It
was said that before the Golden Age, there was an even more ancient, original humankind.”
Heishi listened silently. During these past few days A-Ka would tell him about some things
every now and then, and though Heishi looked as if he wasn’t paying attention, A-Ka knew
that he had probably taken it all in.
“The original humans created everything on this mainland,” A-Ka said, “including the
cloning techniques, computers and artificial intelligence. Fourteen thousand years later,
their bodies evolved to become more and more strong.”
Heishi said, “And the generations afterwards called them the Golden Age of humankind.”
A-Ka nodded. “That was the most splendid age of man. I don’t know if there are any more
humans from the Golden Age like you, maybe there are more in the imaginary country or
the Curran People’s Confederation.”
Heishi said mildly, “If there are, then so what?”
A-Ka said enthusiastically, “Maybe they can figure out your mission?” He picked up a tree
branch and drew a map on the ground. “After passing through Jingchuan and flipping over
the mountain range from this patch of highland here, we’ll arrive at the Aijia Strait. Maybe
there we might be able to wait for a ship that’s going towards Curran.”
Heishi said easily, “Or we might be captured by the robots and shot full of holes like a wasp
nest. This is the sixth time I’m listening to your plans.”
A-Ka shrugged helplessly. Suddenly, Heishi’s expression changed minutely, as if he had
heard something.
“Stay here,” Heishi commanded, before he lifted up his greatsword and slid down the slope,
raising a flurry of snow in his wake.
The sounds grew clearer, until even A-Ka could hear them. That was the roar of airship
engines and the sound of machine guns firing, along with the shrill screams of women and
the confused, panicked cries of men.
The robots had chased them down! A-Ka fell into a panic. He followed the small path down,
until within the snow-covered valley, he saw a group of humans sprinting for their lives
and trying to hide, as two robotic patrols hovering in midair pursued them, shooting bullets
as they chased their quarry.
Up on the cliffs, a human figure leapt from cliff to cliff. It was Heishi.
Heishi spread his arms, his greatsword in one hand, leaping down headfirst from up high.
“Be careful!” A-Ka roared.
Heishi didn’t say a single word in response as he landed on one of the robotic patrols. The
hovering killing machine turned, and the bullets changed directions. A-Ka decisively flipped
his bag over, dumping out all the things inside with a huala, and as he lifted his head, his
hands never stopped as he swiftly put together that magnetic field generator.
The fleeing humans rushed up the slope of the mountain. Heishi pressed down on one of
the robotic patrols, as if he was controlling a particularly hard to tame bird of prey, and the
robotic patrol collided with the mountain. The second robotic patrol turned its head and
flew towards Heishi, opening up its gunports, taking aim at him and preparing to fire.
With a kacha, A-Ka put the last screw of the magnetic field generator’s external cover in
place, before wrapping a rope around it. Speedily tying a knot, he picked up the other end
of the rope and spun it in rapid circles, before letting it fly out and up.
The electronic box flashing with the grey gold of metal flew up high with a shua, before it
sensed a metallic object nearby and was attracted towards the other robotic patrol. With a
light sound, it stuck to the body of the robot.
And right after that, with a weng, the blue light of the magnetic field shone forth. Heishi
turned his body and pushed off, leaping towards the steep slope, as the second robotic
patrol’s anti-gravity engine lost effect and it slammed into the cliff, letting out an earth-
shaking boom. One part of the mountain range collapsed - it was an avalanche.
“Run, quickly!” A-Ka shouted.
Heishi was swept down the mountain by the collapsing snow. The humans rushed towards
the high ground as the two robotic patrols sizzled with electricity before letting out sounds
of explosions, once again starting a chain reaction. Under the snow that covered the entire
ground, the mountains stood tall, reflecting the bright sunlight. After the sky-splitting
booms, the world regained its stillness.
“Ack, ack, pei!” A-Ka climbed out with great difficulty from the snow. Heishi hurried over to
him, lifting him up by the collar with one hand and dragging him out of the snow field.
One by one, the escaping humans clambered out of the snow, barely escaping with their
lives, each of them still in a state of shock.
A-Ka nodded towards them. He saw that seven of them had climbed out - two women, four
men, and one small girl.
Everyone sat under the sunlight in the snow field, all of them exhausted beyond belief.
“When did you guys escape?” a woman asked A-Ka.
“Seven days ago,” A-Ka said. “I’m called A-Ka, he’s Heishi.”
“Thank you,” a man said gratefully. “We were chased our entire way by these two fellows…”
Heishi said coldly, “I was only protecting myself.”
A-Ka felt a little awkward, and he smiled. “Don’t put it like that. Everyone’s a human, and
since we’re all humans we should help each other out.”
The gathered people began to smile, but Heishi walked to one side. In the distance, there
were a few more men digging in the snow.
“Friend! Come help us!” a man shouted in the distance. “There’s still a guy here, get him
out!”
A-Ka went over, and he bent over to look, but after helping them pull the person inside out,
he froze.
It was a clone.
The clone’s face was covered with chips of ice. As he staggered to his feet, a punch from the
human standing next to him landed squarely on his face.
“You lied to us!” that man said angrily.
“Hey! Wait! If you have something to say, then say it nicely!” A-Ka was greatly startled,
seeing that the clone had been pushed to the ground as soon as he got out.
The men surrounded them. One person held a gun, pressing it against the clone’s head,
saying coldly, “Why did you send a signal to the robotic soldiers?”
“I didn’t!” that clone responded angrily.
The leader of the men roared in fury, “You were contacting the soldiers! You wanted them
to capture us!”
The clone said, “I only wanted to listen to the news from headquarters…”
A-Ka said, “Don’t… Let him first speak clearly.”
“It has nothing to do with you, bro,” the leader of the men reached his arm out to block A-
Ka, trying to get him to go away, and with a shuffle A-Ka backed away. Heishi originally just
stood to one side, observing the small girl that was traveling with them, but at this time he
suddenly and keenly felt the tension, and he turned and walked towards them.
“What?” Heishi asked icily.
Everyone watched Heishi, before their gazes traveled down to the broad blade in his hand.
No one dared to speak.
The leader said, “I’m called Tapp.”
Heishi nodded his head. A-Ka indicated that they first let go of that clone, and he asked the
assembled group, “What crime did he commit?”
Tapp said to Heishi, “Along our journey, we kindly took him in, but he actually dared to
secretly send a signal to the robotic patrol squad as he traveled with our group…”
The clone said angrily, “I didn’t! I helped them escape from the City of Machines with good
intentions! I only wanted to listen to the news from headquarters along the way! Even if we
forget that they destroyed my transceiver, they even forgot their debt to me and wanted to
kill me! You ungrateful humans…”
In that moment of heightened emotions, that clone wanted to fight with Tapp, but he was
stopped by that group of men.
“What did he use to contact the patrol squad?” A-Ka asked Tapp.
Tapp turned and made a gesture, and another person brought out an electric signal
transceiver.
A-Ka took a look, before explaining to them, “This one can only receive, it can’t transmit
messages. He didn’t deceive you.”
“But it was also him who lured the robotic patrols over,” one man said recalcitrantly. “He
was receiving a message when his signal was tracked.”
A-Ka said patiently, “It can’t send messages, which means that the robotic patrols can’t
figure out where the signal came from, so they couldn’t have been lured over by him.”
The clone watched them, and everyone felt very awkward. After a short silence, Tapp said,
“Bringing him is too dangerous, let’s kill him.”
“You all!” That clone could hardly believe it, but A-Ka broke in. “Wait! Why do you need to
kill him?”
Tapp said, “The clones and us aren’t on the same side. Who knows what tricks he's up to?”
A-Ka said angrily, “You can’t kill him!”
A-Ka looked towards Heishi, but Heishi was noncommittal. Tapp and them seemed to be a
little fearful of them, and finally A-Ka said, “Hand him over to me, I have questions to ask
him.”
A-Ka held out a hand, and the clone grabbed it, using it to help him up. A-Ka walked away
with that clone and Heishi.
“Wait!” Tapp shouted from behind.
“What else do you have to say?” A-Ka turned and asked.
Tapp sized up the three of them, almost as if he was estimating Heishi and A-Ka’s fighting
capacity, and finally he gave up on some plan of his, saying, “You’d best be careful of that
guy.”
“Thank you for the reminder,” A-Ka responded.
Night fell, and A-Ka, Heishi and that clone sat in the cave. They lit a fire, and the rest of the
humans stayed within the valley to rest temporarily, lying down in an area sheltered from
the wind.
“General Libre has died,” the clone said. “The revolution failed, and “Father” is currently
rebuilding the City of Machines. It has also sent out robotic patrols to track down the
humans and clone brothers that have escaped.”
This was a piece of news that was as bad as it could get. A-Ka asked, “What news is there
from headquarters?”
“You seem to be very clear on our movements,” the clone said casually. “The humans that
participated in the Patricide Plan were no more than ten, so how did you know about it?”
A-Ka said, “It was a coincidence. So have they all been defeated?”
“Not yet.” The clone shot a glance at Heishi. “Headquarters had the rest of the wounded
troops escape past the Aijia Strait to Andoria to form an alliance with the humans of
Curran, before thinking of more plans to counterattack.”
A-Ka pondered deeply, before nodding.
Heishi said, “Have all the people in the City of Machines died?”
The clone sighed and said, “Well, it can’t be counted as a total defeat. At least now, “Father”
needs at least ten years to repair itself. Our main body of troops bought us quite a bit of
time in the end.”
“What is Andoria?” Heishi asked coldly.
“The country of clones,” the clone answered. “There lives our clones’ ancestors, three of
those who gave us their forms. Originally, we clones had four earliest ancestors, but one of
them was involved in a scheme many years ago. After the plan failed, he was captured by
“Father”. It was he who stayed in the City of Machines, instigated rebellion within all of the
clones there, and started this war.”
A-Ka sucked in a breath. The clone’s words had revealed a very important piece of
information - at least for now, they were still in the midst of danger.
The clone repeatedly toyed with that small mechanical device, saying tiredly, “I can’t
connect with headquarters, the transceiver was broken by those idiotic humans.” After
saying this, he realized that A-Ka and Heishi were also humans. “Sorry, I wasn’t talking
about you.”
A-Ka nodded and asked, “Why don’t you have a serial number?”
“When the revolution began, all of the clones no longer acknowledged the serial numbers
that the robotic government gave us. We all gave ourselves unique names,” the clone said.
“My name is Feiluo.”
“I’m called A-Ka.” A-Ka nodded towards him.
“Heishi,” Heishi said.
With the addition of Feiluo, A-Ka finally didn’t have to face the slab of rock that was Heishi
every day. When they set off the next day, the other group of humans came over to report
to them, asking if A-Ka would go with them. And it was thus that A-Ka’s small three-man
group was absorbed into this camp of human refugees.
They crossed mountains and forded rivers, heading to the Aijin Strait, hoping to travel
across the ocean to a new mainland.
Translator's Note:
moon: so Feiluo almost became… Phyllo

This chapter is migrated and/or formatted by our fellow chicken enthusiast(s), moon.

"Heishi's eyes were set deeply in his face, like black obsidian that had been hidden underneath
the surface of the earth for millenia, shining with a mesmerizing brilliance."

Translator(s): moon
Editor(s): namio, jelly
Of all the clones that A-Ka had interacted with before, Feiluo was one that had a very good
temper. He was extremely polite to Heishi, and Heishi didn’t treat him like he treated A-Ka.
“Thank you guys for saving me.” One day, Feiluo said this suddenly while they were on the
road.
“You’re welcome.” A-Ka still held a certain amount of goodwill towards clones as a whole;
after all, when he and Heishi escaped out of their confinement, it was the clones who had
saved them. If they hadn’t allied with them at that time, they would definitely have died
within the City of Machines.
“I’ve now found,” Feiluo said emotionally, “that to change this world, we must still depend
on humans to do so in the end.”
A-Ka half-mumbled, “Humans huh?”
The revolution of the clones was actually started for the sake of the humans. This point was
a little out of A-Ka’s expectations, but after thinking about it carefully, it seemed within
reason. Humans had a wealth of emotions and complex ideas, this was something that the
steel beings were unable to achieve. But due to their emotions and their ideas holding each
other in check, they hindered one another, oppressing the rest of their own kind. When the
Creator gave humans their bright side, very many flaws were also mercilessly left behind.
The entire world changed because of humans. Or, perhaps when the Creator was creating
this world, the fulcrum of the compass had been secured on the shoulders of the humans,
and as for the other end, it pointed into the vast unknown.
Humans differed from each other in a thousand tiny ways, and every person was their own
unique being on this wide earth. In the end, even the clones were chasing after
individualization. Take Feiluo for example, who had given himself a name, turned his jacket
inside out, and stuck a piece of straw on his hat, to indicate his difference from other
beings.
“I once heard an older clone brother say, this is the awakening of my own ‘self’,” Feiluo said
to A-Ka. “Every one of you humans has their own concept of ‘self’, but we don’t. So we must
first awaken our own sense of self, before the revolution can truly start.”
“Then right now, what is your conception of ‘self’?” A-Ka asked him curiously.
Feiluo shook his head. “It’s hard to say, but at least there is one thing that is clear - I am not
the same as I once was.”
A-Ka felt instinctively that this topic was deep and hard to comprehend. Every person had
their own sense of self. They were all individualized, from the oldest adult to the youngest
child… He looked towards the train of humans and saw that single young girl following
along inquisitively behind Heishi, asking him a bunch of questions. Every now and then,
Heishi would nod or shake his head, but for most of the time he remained silent, only
observing this small girl.
“Children are very mysterious living creatures,” Feiluo appraised. “As soon as we are born,
we are already equipped with an adult’s form, without experiencing any sort of childhood.
The childhood period of a human’s life must be very happy.”
A-Ka said, “I already can’t remember my own childhood well, and the feelings there weren’t
very happy to begin with.”
Heishi piggybacked that small girl as he walked forward. A-Ka walked by his side, gently
teasing that girl.
A-Ka: “What is your name?”
“Ann,” that girl responded timidly.
A-Ka smiled and said seriously, “Ann, keep your chin up, we will find hope.”
The girl nodded her head.
The sun rose and set. This was a stretch of long and endless road, and traveling through the
snowy mountains was very difficult. They couldn’t find food, and everyone felt despair and
frustration. Only A-Ka persisted in using that magnetic field generator to set down a
magnetic trap, and sometimes he would be able to catch one or two birds that fell into the
trap, or even a roe deer.
He handed the food off to the girl and the women to eat. Heishi originally found this
extremely strange, but later he gradually got used to A-Ka’s ways.
Just when everyone was on the brink of collapse, under Feiluo’s leadership, they left the
snowy region behind and entered an expansive plain. If they kept going forward, they
would reach the shoreline of the inland sea on the western side of the continent.
They had spent almost half a year on this journey, and when everyone had exhausted all
their energy, they finally saw the first light of day. By now, everyone’s clothes were all in
tatters. Heishi’s clothes were the most tattered; on the journey here, he had been in the
lead every time they broke a path through the brambles. Heishi simply went around with a
bare torso, tying his shirt which was just a few strips of cloth around his waist.
On the way, Feiluo was bitten by a venomous snake as he was rescuing that girl. Thankfully
he was a clone, so he wasn’t affected by venom.
A-Ka was also completely worn down, his clothes torn beyond repair, and the cloth straps
of the satchel had also broken. He could only borrow two strips of cloth from Heishi, tying
them together around his body.
On the way, two people died of sickness. A-Ka had no ability to help, so he could only bring
the rest of the people here. The most pressing thing was that one of the people who had
died was the small girl Ann’s mother.
On the journey here Ann always kept asking where her mother had gone, but Feiluo kept
answering that her mother had gone ahead to scout out the road. Ann didn’t shout, nor did
she make a fuss. After the group of humans had escaped, she joined A-Ka’s little squad.

This was a very expansive plain, the oldest place in the heart of Astrolabe. It bridged the
distance between the snowy mountains and the primordial forests below, separating the
City of Machines and the region of the western shore. It was called “the Primeval Heart”.
Historically, this place had been called “the Creator’s Laboratory”, only because there were
many different kinds of species on the plains. In the prehistoric era, T. rexes had run
rampant on these plains, and even the mechanical troopers couldn’t survive here.
Setting up supply lines would take too long and was too difficult. So, when the humans
escaped from the City of Machines after the revolution many years ago and arrived at the
edge of the western shoreline, they could only piecemeal build their own rest area, which
they named “the Rebel Alliance”.
But everything was only temporary. Everyone knew that sooner or later there would be a
day when “Father”’s mechanical troops would come to this place and occupy the entirety of
the western shoreline. Only by leaving this mainland, drifting across the seas towards the
countries on the far side, would they survive.
The humans living by the Primeval Heart couldn’t help but be wary of ambushes from the
prehistoric living beings on the planes and the mechanical troops from the even more
distant Eastern Continent. Every day was spent in gut-wrenching fear, in a state of
constant, unending anxiety.
A-Ka had originally heard of legends involving this place in the Ant Nest. Back then, he had
thought that if there was one day where he could arrive here, how nice that must be. But
after experiencing so many things, he slowly began to realize how laughable his original
idea of driving K across the great ocean and seeking out the legendary Imaginary Country
was.
Feiluo said, “After crossing the border here, ahead of us lies Martha Town.”
This group of people, covered in the dust of the road, stood on a slope on the plains and
looked down. No one spoke for a long time.
From border to border, on the open plains that spanned hundreds of square meters as far
as the eye could see, was packed with humans. These people sat or laid down or
congregated in front of the wire netted fence, waiting for Martha Town to receive them.
The wire fence was like a border between countries that rose in the middle, in front of the
edge of the last hope, mercilessly refusing anyone’s approach.
A-Ka had also never expected that there would be this many people. At a first glance, there
must have been some tens of thousands.
Since the day of the revolution in the City of Machines, there must have been quite a few
humans who escaped from the prison that was the Country of Steel. They each took their
own paths, spreading to all corners of the mainland. A-Ka thought that his group, which had
directly crossed the high-altitude plains, was already near the front of the pack, but he
never expected that there would be this many people who had no lodgings and no place to
rest.
“Let us in!” the humans crowded in front of the wire netting, shouting loudly.
Behind them was a uniform group of resistance fighters in battle gear, holding weapons in
their hands as they looked towards the refugee groups on the plain.
A-Ka watched from a distance, his face filled with confusion.
“What should we do?” A-Ka asked.
Heishi shrugged, looking wholly unconcerned as his gaze swept over that entire plain.
Feiluo said, “Don’t worry, I’ll go try to negotiate.”
The humans on the plains had gathered into groups. It would be night soon; the winter
days were short and the nights were long, and the wind bitingly cold. Feiluo brought the
small girl and A-Ka and the rest in front of the wire fence. Behind the fence, the rebel
soldier immediately pointed his gun at them, asking warily, “Who?”
A bright light shone over, landing on the faces of those present. Feiluo used his finger to
sweep aside his dirty locks, revealing his forehead and his indigo blue eyes.
“One of your own,” Feiluo said, “from the 7th Troop.”
“The 7th Troop has already been dissolved!” the other said. “The brothers in the City of
Machines all died!”
Feiluo fell silent for a while. From all four sides, quite a few armed troopers came over,
lifting up their helmets, each revealing their own indigo blue eyes. They were all clones.
“Are there humans?” A-Ka asked. “I have a few things I want to say. After all, we all escaped
from the City of Machines.”
One of the clone soldiers answered, “All of the people here are refugees from the City of
Machines. You’re not an uncommon sort, wait outside ba.” He then used the mouth of the
gun to point at Feiluo. “You, you are one of us, you can come in.”
Feiluo said to A-Ka and Heishi, “Wait for me here for a little bit. Ann, go, we’re going in
first.”
The small door in the wire fence opened a crack, and Feiluo had Ann go in first. Ann was a
little afraid, turning her head back to look at them, but Heishi went against his usual cold
demeanour, speaking words of comfort instead. “Go, you will be safe.”
This series of events roused the displeasure of quite a few people, and they all began to
clamor. Feiluo squeezed onto the other side of the wire fence and nodded towards A-Ka,
indicating that he should be calm, before he took Ann with him as they disappeared into the
darkness of the night. A-Ka was squished by the people behind him until he really couldn’t
bear it anymore, and he turned in hopes of finding an empty space to sit down in, but he
couldn’t even take a step out. Finally his collar was grabbed by Heishi, and he was dragged
out.
The rest of the group sat in an empty spot, watching the xenon lamps high up above the
wire fence turn the night into daytime with their light. Tapp and the rest were still by A-
Ka’s side.
Tapp said disdainfully, “That clone definitely won’t let us in.”
“I trust that he will.” In his heart, A-Ka had another thought, but he didn’t say it. He felt that
Feiluo would save him and Heishi, but he might not save these temporary human
companions. After all, Tapp and the rest of his group originally wanted to kill Feiluo.
From afar came the roars of the prehistoric beasts. Under the cover of darkness, the depths
of the plains seemed to hide countless dangers that were unknown to the humans.
The long night arrived, and the sky shone with a brilliant starry river as the plains sank into
a deep sleep.
A-Ka was startled awake from his dreams, and he looked around.
“Come with me,” a clone lowered his voice as he spoke to A-Ka. “Don’t disturb the others.”
“Where’s Heishi?” A-Ka asked.
That clone asked confusedly, “Who?”
“Heishi!” A-Ka found that Heishi wasn’t by his side. This was the first time that Heishi had
left him since they had left the City of Machines, and A-Ka instantly grew anxious as he
shouted, “Heishi!”
“Shh…” That clone immediately covered up A-Ka’s mouth, saying quietly, “Don’t disturb the
others, come with me!”
“My friend…”
“This is Lieutenant Colonel Feiluo’s command! If you have any words, then wait until you
see Feiluo and tell him!”
A-Ka stopped struggling, and still dazed, he was brought in front of the wire fence. A crack
opened within the fence to let him pass, and the clone nodded towards the guard. “That’s
him.”
The clone brought A-Ka in front of a warehouse, and A-Ka couldn’t help but become wary.
The clone then said, “In a while Feiluo will be waiting outside for you, go in ba.”
A-Ka gritted his teeth and went into the warehouse, only to find that it had been remodeled
into a bathing room. At this point, his head finally cleared, and he understood that they
were letting him take a bath. After journeying for this long, his body was itchy to the point
of extreme discomfort, and he was covered in mud. Now, he finally had a chance to take a
good bath.
A-Ka turned on the hot water, and with a shua, the inside of the bathroom filled with steam.
When the hot water rained over his skin, A-Ka felt a sense of relief from head to toe. In the
foggy bathroom, he saw a silhouette.
“Heishi?” A-Ka asked happily.
Heishi stood to one side, untied his own clothes, and began to wash up as well. He turned
his head to look over at A-Ka. His gaze made A-Ka feel extremely awkward, so he shifted to
one side to let him pass. Heishi’s body was one that he had seen many times, so it was no
longer strange to him, but this was the first time his own body was undergoing Heishi’s
scrutiny.
A-Ka’s hair was drenched, and water dripped down constantly as he smiled at Heishi. “This
is great, and here I thought you…”
Heishi faced A-Ka, looking at him without saying anything.
“On this journey, thank you for looking after me,” Heishi said suddenly.
When A-Ka heard this sentence he felt it was a little out of the blue, and he smiled. “It was
you who was protecting me…”
Then, Heishi reached out a hand and pulled A-Ka into his embrace.
In an instant, A-Ka’s heart began to beat violently. In the foggy vapors of the bathroom, he
pressed against Heishi’s naked, muscular chest, feeling the powerful beat of his heart under
his fiery hot body and abdomen.
“You…” A-Ka suddenly felt a sense of foreboding unease.
Heishi only hugged him for a short period before letting him go, placing one hand by A-Ka’s
ear and looking into his eyes.
“Thank you.” Heishi’s eyes were set deeply in his face, like black obsidian that had been
hidden underneath the surface of the earth for millenia, shining with a mesmerizing
brilliance. “In the future, take care of yourself.”
“Heishi?” A-Ka asked.
Heishi wiped away the water on his face, turned away to wipe his body dry, before he put
on his clothes and left.
“Heishi!” A-Ka hurriedly put on his clothes, chasing after him, but Heishi had already put on
the clones’ uniform and he walked very fast. In that instant, A-Ka vaguely sensed
something.
“Wait!” A-Ka anxiously raced after Heishi, heading towards the place with a lot of people,
and there stood Feiluo.
“Quick! The ship is boarding!” Feiluo waited at the other end of the pier. At its front were
many people lining up. The surroundings were silent and peaceful, but on the pier shone
blindingly bright white lights. Many people turned their heads back to look. In the silence of
the night, their discussion was very obvious to those around them.
“You’ve finished saying your goodbyes to A-Ka?” Feiluo asked.
Heishi nodded towards Feiluo, and the tacit agreement between the two of them
immediately confirmed many of A-Ka’s guesses. A-Ka asked, “You’re staying?”
Feiluo explained, “He still has things to do, so he’s having me send you off first. Come here…
don’t speak…”
“What is he going to do?” A-Ka asked in disbelief.
Feiluo didn’t respond, merely leading A-Ka through the crowds. Feiluo’s expression was
clearly one of complexity and unease. A-Ka asked, “Because only one person can be sent
away, so he willingly chose…”
“No! It’s not like that!” Feiluo hurried to respond. “A-Ka, don’t ask anymore, just trust me,
Heishi is only…”
No matter what, A-Ka couldn’t stop worrying, and he responded, “I saved him from the sea,
how can I leave him behind now? I must go together with him, or I also won’t go!”
Just as they were talking, Heishi finally couldn’t resist it any more. He asked, “Why do you
care about me this much?”
A-Ka sighed, and in an instant he grew angry. Just now he had been a little moved by
Heishi’s expression, but now as soon as he heard these words he completely didn’t want to
care about him anymore.
“Hmph, none of your business” A-Ka said nastily. “Whatever, up to you, if you want to stay
then stay.”
Feiluo began to smile as Heishi said to A-Ka, “I have a few things I need to take care of. If
fate wills it, then we’ll meet again.”
A-Ka’s heart once again rose in his throat as he looked at Heishi, trying to figure out from
his expression if he was lying. From afar, the ferry let out a whistle, breaking through the
awkward silence hovering over the three of them. Feiluo hurried to say, “It’s time to get on
the ship. Come, Percy!”
Feiluo brought a small boy over. With the darkness of the night, A-Ka couldn’t see that
child’s face clearly; he only knew that he was a little smaller than A-Ka himself.
“This is Percy. Percy, this is A-Ka.” Feiluo introduced them to each other, before explaining,
“A-Ka, I’m leaving Percy in your care. After you reach Phoenix City, please hand him to the
human orphanage.”
A-Ka felt that this was a little strange, but since Feiluo had entrusted this child to him, he
held this human child’s hand in his own. Feiluo said, “Quickly.”
Feiluo brought them onboard the ship from a small side passage. A-Ka looked out from the
side and saw that Heishi was still standing alone under the spotlights of the pier.
“We won’t see each other again?” A-Ka asked suddenly.
Heishi lifted his head, giving A-Ka a look, before silently turning and leaving.
This fellow… A-Ka’s heart was filled with all kinds of emotions, but he didn’t know what he
should say. After a short silence, he pulled out a chip from his shirt pocket. That was the
chip that the old doctor trapped in house arrest underground had given A-Ka when they
escaped together out of the City of Machines. He had commanded A-Ka to bring this chip to
the rebel camp and hand it to General Libre.
But now the revolution had already failed, and as of today A-Ka had no idea who to hand
this chip over to. Maybe the chip itself could serve as a memento for Heishi, or perhaps
Heishi could decode the contents of the chip and deliver them to the right person.
“Help me pass this on to Heishi,” A-Ka said matter-of-factly, “As a memento.”
Feiluo took it over and stored it away securely, before saying to A-Ka, “Take care of
yourself.”
A-Ka tugged on that youth’s hand as they were brought to the lower levels of the ship. Here,
there were many humans who had escaped, all squeezing together. After Feiluo showed
them a space behind a pile of boxes, he had them sit down, and with one knee on the
ground, he said to Percy, “Percy, Dad is leaving.”
“...” A-Ka’s eyes were wide with shock, and he didn’t dare to speak.
He’s actually sending his own child to the orphanage?!
Percy reached out a hand and hugged Feiluo’s neck, clearly already missing him a little.
After a long time, Feiluo let out a sigh, shifting Percy’s hands aside, before telling him,
“Listen to A-Ka-gege. When things are finished, Dad will come to Phoenix City to find you.”
After A-Ka heard this he finally roughly relaxed in relief. He asked Feiluo, “Heishi will also
come then, right?”
Feiluo responded, “He will. May the winds be in your favor.”
Feiluo left the hold of the ship, his footsteps gradually receding into the distance. The large
ship had already set off, loaded with its cargo of human immigrants, leaving behind the
Central Mainland and heading towards unknown islands over the seas.
Underneath the moonlight, A-Ka was still worrying over Heishi. Since the day he had
appeared before A-Ka, it was as if he was carrying some secret that was unknown to
anyone. Outside of the ship was only the sound of waves lapping against it, and the quiet,
peaceful moonlight scattered across the endless sea around them, shining over A-Ka and
the lonely Percy. Everyone around them was already deep in slumber, and it was at this
time that Percy gently wrapped his hand around A-Ka’s and wiggled it.
“Is Heishi your good friend?” Percy asked quietly.
“A comrade-in-arms,” A-Ka explained to Percy. “We fought together shoulder to shoulder,
and we escaped from the City of Machines together.”
Percy nodded. His hands reached into his own bag slung at his side, and A-Ka said, “I’ll do it,
what are you looking for.”
A-Ka helped Percy to flip through his messenger bag, pulling out a small dagger, a piece of
chocolate, a portable water filtration device, and a transmitter, inside of which was a
picture of Percy and Feiluo: the two of them standing shoulder to shoulder under the
sunlight, against the backdrop of a desolate landscape.
Translator's Note:
moon: look at them, being gay

This chapter is migrated and/or formatted by our fellow chicken enthusiast(s), moon.
“The Creators fashioned the Astrolabe mainland fifty thousand years ago,”

Translator(s): moon
Editor(s): namio, jelly
The youth picked out a piece of chocolate, before feeling around for A-Ka’s hand and
placing the chocolate in the center of his palm.
“This is for you,” Percy said to A-Ka. “It’s very tasty, Feiluo gave it to me.”
It was with this that A-Ka finally realized: Percy was blind.
“Are you Feiluo’s son?” A-Ka asked.
“Adopted child,” Percy said. “My birth father and mother both died, so Feiluo adopted me.”
“Have you been with him for very long?” A-Ka asked.
“Two years,” Percy said. “Thank you for saving my dad. When I heard headquarters’ news
that the revolution failed, I always thought that he died. I never expected that he would still
be living… when he came back, I was so happy I couldn’t speak… I also… don’t know how to
repay you… Thank you, A-Ka… I… Just now, when I got onto the boat, I wanted to say this to
you… but I felt that since you and your friend separated… you weren’t in a good mood…”
A-Ka hadn’t expected that his own careless actions had actually given this human orphan
living within the clone army a ray of sunshine and hope in his dark existence.
“You’re welcome.” A-Ka began to smile as he pulled Percy into his embrace. In that instant,
he could almost sense the limitless hope and joy overflowing from Percy’s heart, and this
intense surge of warm emotion even influenced himself, leading him out of his confusion
and perplexity.
The moonlight turned peaceful and serene, and the two youths in the cabin snuggled up
against each other. Tired, A-Ka closed his eyes and calmly fell asleep.

On the fifteenth day of the first month, the region of Martha Town was enveloped in a
typhoon. The seawater swirled towards the land, and all the humans waiting for aid on the
plains scattered towards the mountains. After the typhoon passed, no one knew how many
of them died because of a lack of food, drinking water, and medical aid.
Within the darkness of the storm, a line of people was currently walking single-file along
the muddy mountain path. Heishi wore a hooded windbreaker as he stood at the head of
the squad on the summit of the mountain, looking into the distance. The sea was vast, with
no far shore in sight, and only lightning strikes slashed across the sky, connecting the
heavens and the earth.
“Heishi!” Feiluo shouted.
Heishi leapt down,rejoining Feiluo and his line of people as they moved forward step by
step. Feiluo said loudly beside his ear, “There won’t be any problems!”
Heishi shook his head. His lips moved a little, but the wind and the thunder drowned out all
human voices. Feiluo scooted a little closer to say, “I said! They’ll definitely be able to arrive
safely!”
“I’m not worried about the ship!” Heishi said. “I’m worried that after those two arrive in the
new mainland! That they won’t be able to make a living!”
“They’ll be able to do it!” Feiluo smiled. “My friends will take care of them! A-Ka and Percy
will live a comfortable life!”
Heishi nodded. In front, another clone officer turned back and said unhappily, “Commander
Feiluo! Are you sure this is the place?!”
Feiluo called loudly, “We’ll be there right away! Hold out a little longer!”
The wild wind was so strong it almost seemed like it was trying to blow this squad of
people off of the cliff. In front of them was the end of the path, and Feiluo took a few steps
back, roaring, “Open up your hang gliders!”
With this strong tempest, as soon as they opened their hang gliders, they would certainly
be blown into the cliffside by the wind and break all the bones in their body. But Feiluo led
the way and leapt off the cliff, opening his glider with a huala. In that short instant, Heishi
hesitated for a moment, before he too bowed and leapt into the darkness.
In that instant the violent wind gusting by his ear paused for a short moment, and the
glider shook open. In the quiet night, he flew towards the distant other edge of the cliff.
This was actually a dead wind zone.
Heishi opened his eyes, only to see that on the other side of the gorge, Feiluo had lit a
fluorescent lamp. Over there was a cavern situated high up on the cliffside.
Five special forces troops protected Heishi as they flew towards the cavern.
It wasn’t until they landed solidly on the ground that Heishi let out a breath, folding up the
hang glider.

This mountain cave led deep into the darkness. It seemed to have been left unused for
many years, and two guards were stationed outside. When they saw Feiluo, they saluted
towards him.
Feiluo told Heishi, “We’re here, it’s this place.”
“The Primeval Heart.” Heishi stood in front of a set of doors, lifting his head to look at the
strange symbols over the doorway. The center of the doors even had a large chunk of a
glowing gem.
“According to the investigations of the Rebel Alliance in this place,” Feiluo said, “this is a
historical relic from almost fifty thousand years ago. In the entirety of the Astrolabe
mainland, there aren’t any ancient sites from earlier periods than this. And it was just three
thousand years ago that this relic was activated for a short period of time. Our people tried
to use explosives to open it, but the material of the door...”
When he got to this point, everything grew quiet.
Everyone saw what was strange -- on the door was a small hole that was no more than
three centimeters in diameter. From within the hole came a glow of light.
“Last time I came, this hole wasn't there, commander,” a clone said.
“I… I don’t know,” one of the guards said. “When we were stationed here, the door already
had this hole.”
Heishi asked, “When were you guys stationed here?”
“Three months ago,” the guard responded.
“This isn’t right,” Feiluo murmured. “Who would punch through the main doors here? What
is the purpose of this small of a passage?”
In an instant, Feiluo shot Heishi a look of disbelief.
“It was the mechanical lifeforms.” Heishi had guessed it too. “Before we arrived, there must
have been robots who already came here.”
Feiluo said, “That’s impossible! With the troops standing guard, who could have used a
laser to pierce through…”
Heishi shook his head very slowly, signaling for Feiluo to stop talking. Feiluo took a look at
the guards standing to the sides, and he understood.

Heishi pressed his hand against that gem. The doors let out a loud rumble, before they
slowly began to open.
Feiluo, “...”
All of the clone troops seemed to sense something in that instant and they all grew alert,
pulling out their respective weapons as they stood to either side. With the opening of the
doors, a brilliant, eye-catching ray of light shot out from inside. Floating in mid-air behind
the doors was actually a humongous astrolabe, radiating a gentle glow.
“What is this place…” Feiluo mumbled.
“The Primeval Heart, the laboratory of the Creator.” Heishi’s voice echoed within that large
hall. “There’s no danger, you can all come in.”
The guards walked into the great hall. Heishi and Feiluo craned their necks up to look: the
Astrolabe mainland in the center was like a huge model of an islet floating in the air. Feiluo
asked, “Why is this place so big?”
“Because of the Creators’ physiques,” Heishi said. “They were all giants who came from the
Void.”
Feiluo glanced at Heishi, his gaze filled with both suspicion and shock. He then turned to his
subordinates and commanded, “Please, for Heishi’s sake, keep this a secret.”
The guards all nodded, and they stood watch within the great hall.
Heishi climbed the huge staircase onto the tall platform, where he found a huge control
stone. In here, all of the fixtures were ten times larger than what humans usually used.
Feiluo followed behind Heishi, asking, “How do you know about this place?”
“‘Father’ told me,” Heishi answered.
This sentence caused Feiluo’s guard to rise, but Heishi then said, “Calm down, it seemed to
not like me very much.”
Feiluo furrowed his brow but didn’t speak; there were too many unknown factors
surrounding Heishi. Ever since this man appeared, his actions had been mysterious and
discreet, and most of the time he didn’t even speak a single word. Even A-Ka couldn’t see
through him.
Heishi studied the control sphere, before he placed a hand on it. The model of the Astrolabe
mainland instantly lit up, and the light rays criss-crossed, projecting forth shadows of living
lifeforms.
“The Creators fashioned the Astrolabe mainland fifty thousand years ago,” Heishi explained
to Feiluo. “And within the laboratory they left behind are the models of the lifeforms that
they once came up with.”
Countless kinds of living creatures: from cellular organisms to insects, then to mammals,
appeared one by one within the light. Feiluo quietly watched; what was happening before
his eyes had far exceeded all of what he understood about the world.
“The living creatures on the Astrolabe…” Feiluo said, “I recall, were nurtured by nature.”
“Within the limits of your knowledge, that is correct,” Heishi said. “But in reality that’s not
the case. Records from humans of ancient times show that humans created clones… but see
here.”
Heishi lifted his head, flicking an eyebrow up, and within the stereographically projected
hologram appeared a diagram of a human cell.
“Heavens…” Feiluo mumbled. “This is…”
“The first cloned body,” Heishi answered. “This is one of the techniques that the Creators
tested out, using the cloning method to incubate even more life, but afterwards, for reasons
unknown, they gave up on this method. And there’s this…”
And with Heishi’s voice, within the hologram appeared countless sets of matrices. Feiluo
knit his brow and said, “And what are these?”
Heishi gave Feiluo a look. In that instant Feiluo thought of something, and his entire body
began to tremble uncontrollably.
Feiluo, “These are the mechanical lifeforms’...”
Heishi, “Right, their soul matrices. If they were coded according to this method, then the
mechanical lifeforms would be able to have their own souls.”
Feiluo instantly turned around, grabbing Heishi’s collar and looking at him as he asked,
“How did you know these things! Tell me!”
Heishi pushed Feiluo aside, saying quietly, “Don’t get excited, there’s still more to come.”
The images appeared in succession as Heishi controlled the light sphere, saying earnestly,
“I got these from ‘Father’’s database, and they differ from the conditions that you all know.
After the Creators made humans, they sealed up this laboratory. And three thousand years
ago, numerous human explorers discovered it, stealing away the soul matrix technique and
the method of creating clones.”
“After that, clone civilization flourished. As for how the cold robots also gained the ability to
think and to have emotions, one of the explorers in the group had ignored the warnings of
his peers and programmed in the soul matrices, and after that came…”
Feiluo’s voice shook as he murmured, “The revolution of the machines.”
“Your world changed from that point onwards,” Heishi answered. “But one of the explorers,
who became known by the later world as one of the new gods, a member of the
‘Thunderbolt’ squad, discovered an emergency mechanism left behind by the Creators. And
now, what I want to find is this emergency mechanism.”
“Will it let the Rebel Alliance gain the ultimate victory?” Feiluo answered. “We’ll use all of
our resources to help you in this effort.”
Heishi said quietly, “But the key information inside has already been taken away by
‘Father’. I don’t know how it found this place… this is within your kind’s territory.”
Feiluo was silent for a long time, before he said, “Small-scale mechanical lifeforms are
unable to be equipped with high-powered lasers, especially ones that can pierce a hole
through these doors. My guess is that within our camp, there are spies. And the revolution
failing might also be related to them.”
Heishi asked, “Who do you think is most likely to be colluding with ‘Father’?”
“I don’t know,” Feiluo shook his head. “We have too much information in too disorganized
of a manner. Only very few of the higher ups within the army know of this place, and
including myself, there are no more than seven.”
Heishi said, “Then, it must be one of the seven. Recently, has anyone else come here?”
Feiluo glanced at his subordinates, and one of them responded, “General Mackenzie came
before. Back then, the guards who were in this place were two other brothers.”
Feiluo’s forehead furrowed. “Heishi, let’s put aside who stole the information for now. Right
now, if we can find the information that was stolen, how will it help you?”
Heishi shook his head and said, “This is the destiny I was born for, and it’s of vital
importance. There’s a section of code that can completely stop the operations of ‘Father’...”
“But ‘Father’’s central processing unit is connected to the nuclear core of the entire
Astrolabe,” Feiluo frowned.
“Correct,” Heishi nodded. “So, to restart ‘Father’ means that the entirety of the Astrolabe
will be reborn.”
In that instant, because of Heishi’s words, everyone was thrown into a state of great shock.
“After the entire Astrolabe is reborn, what will happen?” Feiluo asked in disbelief.
“Many changes will happen in the world, but… I forgot… I’ve forgotten too much inside
information. Too much time has passed, and I’ve also slept for too long…”
Heishi narrowed his eyes and shook his head forcefully, as if he was trying to dig out that
section of memories from his own mind and capture that fleeting desire. The clones dumbly
watched the holograms that the light and shadows created and stared at the magnificent
light emitted from the Astrolabe mainland. But no matter how hard Heishi tried, he
couldn’t recall that segment of memory that had already been wiped clean.
“I can’t remember…” Heishi murmured, his forehead covered with cold sweat. Feiluo knew
that this matter was one of great importance, and he said quietly, “Don’t rush, Heishi. Think
carefully, are there any matters that have any connections to these matters?”
“My first memory was seeing A-Ka,” Heishi said, narrowing his eyes. “That time on the
beach, A-Ka saved me…”
It wasn’t until this moment that Feiluo knew about the connection between Heishi and A-
Ka.
“Would he know anything about your background?” Feiluo asked, concerned.
“The probability is very low,” Heishi said. “The only clue is that… I slept in the ocean for
three thousand years.”
At this moment in time, A-Ka was currently resting in the ship’s cabin. The sound of the
waves caused him once again to think of the day that he rescued Heishi, and the words that
Heishi had spoken to him that day in the bathing chamber.
“What are you thinking about, A-Ka?” Percy asked gently. “Are you thinking about your
friend?”
“En,” A-Ka said. “When I met him, it was also on the sea. You’ve woken up? Do you want to
drink some water?”
Percy said, “Thank you, I can do it myself.”
Percy felt along until he opened the water bottle, drinking a mouthful.
Percy was only twelve years old, and his blindness was congenital. According to him, one
day a robotic squadron had wanted to capture and kill all of the people in his village. The
villagers fought back in self-defense, but they were still met with slaughter. Just as they
were fighting, the division that Feiluo led had rushed to the scene, and in the wreckage
Feiluo had discovered him and taken him with them.
Percy was very mature. He didn’t cry or throw tantrums, and he would often try to guess at
other people’s intentions; having such a travelling companion was indeed a blessing. The
ship’s journey was long and slow. Every day the clones would come down and hand out
food and water twice, and during set hours, they were allowed up onto the deck in shifts to
breathe in the fresh air, but the rest of the time they had to squeeze in the lower levels of
the ship. Like this, two months passed on their journey.
And after chatting with the compatriots in their cabin, A-Ka learned that these people were
all equipped with special skills. Some of them were masters of design, some of them were
familiar with production, some knew how to cook, and some were even artists. Life within
the cabin was comparatively happy. A bard would play the harp for the children, and
according to him, long before the revolution in the City of Machines broke out, there had
been quite a few people wandering about on the mainland.
His compatriots’ experiences seemed to open up a completely new door for A-Ka. He
gradually learned that the City of Machines was not the entirety of the world, and all this
time, humans and clones had always been thinking of ways to destroy this country of
demons that influenced the entirety of the Astrolabe world and caused the residents of the
mainland to live in abject poverty.
“‘Father’’s power is about to collapse,” one man said to the crowd. “This is a path that is
inevitable for history to flourish, and the robots that have no ability to create will never be
able to be considered intelligent living beings…”
This was the first time A-Ka had heard such words. He was very curious, sitting there and
listening with a great deal of interest, but the other listeners all expressed their boredom.
One small child said, “I’ve heard the revolutionary manifesto a hundred times now.”
“I’ve also heard it two hundred times now,” another child said. “I want to hear Uncle Moran
tell history stories.”
This wandering bard had curly brown hair and a pair of azure eyes, and though he was not
young anymore, he was kind and amiable, and was the person the little children on the boat
liked the most. When he heard those words he began to smile, and he plucked the strings of
his lyre twice, which let out crisp sounds. The youths all clapped, and the bard then began
to sing a lilting melody of a ballad of history.
“In the depths of those faraway stars, the Creator activated his Astrolabe…”
The song detailed the tens of thousands of years of change that had happened in the
Astrolabe world. A-Ka combined the knowledge that he had before with the story that this
bard was telling. And gradually, he began to understand even more -- the legendary Creator
had abandoned his destiny in the depths of the universe, and past legends had dubbed it
the “Astrolabe”, which was also the world that the Creator had used to test and grow
countless living beings.
Within the depths of the Astrolabe, God had left behind the Room of the Stars, which
watched over the trajectory of the development and movements of the Astrolabe. This
entire world was built from countless combinations of gears, both large and small, whose
teeth ground together underneath the layer of land covered by the ocean, causing the
mainland to slowly spin.
The entire world was like the internal mechanisms of a huge pendulum clock. All of the
mainlands and islands were inlaid on its bedrock, and this chunk of bedrock was called the
“Astrolabe”. In the prehistoric era, the Astrolabe flourished with abundance. There was no
war or carnage, and humans and other species lived in harmony.
At the end, the Creator, for reasons that the humans were unclear on, left behind the world
it had made with its own hand, leaving behind this country of God. And when the power of
the robots rose, aside from taking over the Third Mainland, which was both the largest in
area and most vast in territory, they raised ‘Father’ as their new man-made god. The other
mainlands, both large and small, began to pray to the Creator, eagerly awaiting its return.
But this was only one belief. From that experienced bard, A-Ka learned about other faiths.
He really liked the stories that this bard told, and the bard also looked favorably upon him
and Percy.
“Though you cannot see the world,” Moran used his fingers to gently caress Percy’s eyes,
saying earnestly, “but you have a pair of eyes in your heart, and they seek the light in every
moment.”
“Thank you.” Percy began to smile.
A-Ka said, “Uncle Moran, say, if you believe that the Creator is only an artifact of a faith,
then what is faith?”
Moran explained to A-Ka and Percy, “Faith is born of humans, and it is the power that
supports someone moving forwards. Under the light of faith, the shadows brought about by
death and horror will dissipate…”
“Teacher Moran,” a young person said amusedly, “I don’t think that believing in the God of
the Stars will bring about salvation. Haven’t you seen how many people have risked their
lives, but they were all atheists?”
A-Ka didn’t understand his point, and he shot that youth a look. He knew that there were
many young people about his age on the boat, and all of them were eager for a fight,
preparing for when they arrived at the Second Mainland to use their own two hands to
build their new lives from the ground up.
The bard smiled and responded, “Faith is not the same as worshipping a deity. The people
that you have pointed out are those that have faith in themselves, but there are others who
believe in the existence of a god. At the root of it, this is so that they can believe the moral
compass they have in their own heart. Young ones, when you grow up, you all will slowly
begin to understand.”
The youths in the cabin didn’t debate with Moran any longer, but it was obvious that they
didn’t wholly agree with him, and A-Ka could only keep these words within his own heart.
He really liked this environment. Though every day was spent waiting and they didn’t
know exactly when they would approach the shore, the entire ship was like a huge
classroom. Everyone had their own knowledge, and from this knowledge, A-Ka learned a
lot.
One night, the boat met with a storm. The lightning raged across the sky above the sea, and
the large ship was as small as a leaf on this deep ocean. Large amounts of seawater sloshed
in from the windows, and the people closed the windows as their terror grew
insurmountably.
The violent jolting of the ship caused many people to throw up, become dizzy, or feel
hopeless… under the grip of horror, that bard called Moran knelt in the middle of the cabin,
praying in a low tone.
“The god of the stars who created everything, your light guides the destiny of this piece of
mainland…”
“May you look favorably down upon us, and guide us to the bank filled with light…”
His voice traveled through the entire cabin. The people within slowly began to calm, and
more and more people knelt down on the ground, joining Moran in prayer.
The thunder grew softer, and though the lightning still lashed out rampantly, it no longer
seemed like it wanted to destroy everything. As A-Ka observed these happenings, he
discovered that Moran’s prayers seemed to carry the power to soothe human hearts. Under
his prayers, the wind and rain gradually lessened, and everyone slowly sank into sleep, no
longer fearing the struggles out at sea.
But still the lightning flashed, and within his dream A-Ka seemed to sense something -- a
kind of change within his soul. Within the flashes of lightning and the rumbles of thunder,
he seemed to clearly see the essence of the world. Under the thunder and lightning, the
seawater was split into protons, neutrons, and electrons; within the darkness, countless gas
molecules collided together and split again.
He seemed to possess a pair of eyes created from spirit, and as he looked at his
surroundings, the segments of the ship, the creases on the sails, and even the dowels
holding the wooden buckets together… Percy was sleeping soundly by his side, and when
he looked at that water purifier with a complicated structure in Percy’s shoulder bag,
countless precisely oriented parts came together to form it...
He saw the principles that were the foundation of the world. Another bolt of electricity
slashed down, and A-Ka suddenly jolted awake. His surroundings returned to their normal
state, and within the dark cabin, a lantern glowing with white light swayed gently in the
tempest.
Moran hadn’t slept yet, and he lifted his head, looking at A-Ka in askance/A-sKance. A-Ka’s
face was covered in cold sweat, and he shook his head.
“What did you see?” Moran came over, placing one hand on A-Ka’s forehead.
“I…” A-Ka mumbled. “I had a dream.”
Moran smiled slightly. “Dreams are the eyes of humans, through which they see the world
and themselves. Sleep, child.”
A-Ka’s breathing evened out, and he once again fell into a deep sleep.
On the second day, excited shouts rang out from the deck, and the refugees within the ship
cabin all rushed up there. A-Ka went along with the crowd and saw land in the distance.
This journey had finally reached its end, and every person was cheering loudly and crying.
“That’s Kurlovich,” Moran said. “A port city of the Second Mainland, but it’s still a good
distance to Phoenix City.”
From afar came the chimes of the belltower, and A-Ka began to smile. Under the sunlight, a
port city filled with vitality appeared on the horizon.
“There are many seagulls,” A-Ka let Percy come stand by the prow of the ship, describing
the scene around them to him. “Under the sunlight, all of the houses are white, it’s beautiful,
very beautiful…”
Percy closed his eyes, feeling the slight breeze that blew from the west, and he nodded.
“En!”
Translator's Note:
moon: the astrolabe clown circus strikes again

This chapter is migrated and/or formatted by our fellow chicken enthusiast(s), moon.
Until now, he had yet to completely accept the truth that he had returned to a human society.

Translator(s): moon
Editor(s): namio, jelly
The boat docked. The clone troops of this place were not defensive and wary like the ones
on the Eastern Mainland, and the friends that they made along this journey said their
goodbyes as they disembarked.
This was a completely new world. Even just within the port city, A-Ka was already dizzy
and had lost all sense of direction. Thankfully, he had been tightly clutching Percy’s hand all
this time, to prevent them from losing each other. This place had given him too many
surprises, and many of the rumors that he had heard before turned out to be incorrect.
They said that the Second Mainland was the home of the clones, but that wasn’t the case --
there were more humans here than clones, and they were scattered along the streets as
they opened stalls and did business, selling cakes, robotically produced parts, and even
parts for alchemy.
A-Ka travelled down the road alongside the harbor, and it was after noon that he finally
passed through less than half of Kurlovich. In ancient times, this was a port where a large
portion of the gold trade had taken place, so it was called the Port of Gold by this group of
mainlanders. The humans lived in peace and ran their businesses, their lives fulfilling and
happy.
“Shoo!” The owner of the fruit stall called coarsely. “You outsiders!”
After A-Ka had been shouted at, he cowered a little. He was filled with curiosity towards
everything, but he was also afraid of breaking the regulations here. Percy couldn’t see, so
he anxiously asked A-Ka, “Big brother, what’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” A-Ka originally wanted to ask the boss if he could get a fruit for Percy to eat. But
without any money, it seemed like eking out a living on this mainland would be very
difficult.
They needed to have money first, and after earning money they could keep surviving.
Though earning it was difficult, A-Ka was still filled with confidence. He asked for directions
to Phoenix City from a passerby, planning to first fulfill the directive that Feiluo had issued
him to send Percy there, before figuring out a way to make a living.
But, they had no traveling expenses, and as the sky slowly began to darken, A-Ka began to
feel a little bit at a loss for what to do next. Would it be better to find a job here and earn
some money to travel before taking Percy on the journey? He stopped outside a watch
store and looked for a while, but just as he was about to go up front and ask, he suddenly
saw a familiar silhouette.
The bard Moran was currently walking out from inside one of the structures along the
street, with many people following behind him.
“What’s wrong?” Percy asked.
A-Ka said, “I just saw the bard uncle, he seemed…”
Percy said, “Uncle Moran!”
A-Ka hurried to press his index finger to Percy’s lips, wanting him to not shout, but Moran
had already heard. He turned his head to look at them.
“Isn’t this Percy?” Moran smiled and said, “What are you two doing here?”
Percy said, “Big brother’s finding a job, so that he can use his own skills to get something to
eat. How about you?”
A-Ka saw that Moran had many people following him, some of them even clones, and he
was very surprised. He wasn’t like Percy, ignorant of everything; he had guessed dimly that
Moran came from an extraordinary background. After all, they had interacted on the boat.
After recalling that their destination was Phoenix City and guessing that these two youths
didn’t have any traveling expenses on them, he turned and said a few words to one of the
people beside him.
“Yes, Your Excellency.”
The man then immediately pulled out a stack of thin golden cards from the pocket of his
shirt. This was the money that this mainland used. Earlier, A-Ka had seen the residents
using bronze and silver cards to exchange for goods.
Moran handed the cards to A-Ka, and A-Ka understood his meaning. He said, “This… no, I
can’t accept these.”
Moran smiled. “I’m lending these to you two. It’s a pity that I have to travel to Dragonmaw
City. Otherwise, I would be able to take you two along with me.”
A-Ka said, “In the future, can we go to Dragonmaw City to find you? I’ll return this money to
you.”
Moran smiled and said, “Of course.” He thought for a moment, before flipping open his
travel journal and pulling out a bookmark, handing it to A-Ka, saying, “If you have the
chance, when you come to Dragonmaw City, you can find me in the Palace of the Stars.”
“Your Excellency,” one of his attendants reminded, “It’s getting late.”
Moran nodded and bade A-Ka and Percy goodbye. He warmly kissed Percy’s forehead,
before turning and leaving.
Now that A-Ka had obtained traveling funds, he let loose a breath, and together with Percy
they got onto a steam coach heading towards Phoenix City. He was extremely curious about
everything, so he didn't mind describing them to Percy at all. A young man leading another
half-as-old youth, like two little idiots, received the help of many kind-hearted people along
the way, and finally they managed to stumble their way to Phoenix City.
When they walked out of the Phoenix City steam coach station, A-Ka finally felt that he had
come home, despite Phoenix City being nothing like what their traveling companions on the
boat had described, a haven for humans to live and work in; it was actually very dirty.
This was a huge industrial city, and robotic cars came and went on the streets while the
houses were dyed a dark yellow by the pollution from the factories. Steam and black smoke
billowed into the sky, and the noise seemed to envelope the entire world around them. But
everything seemed to carry vitality, with humans bustling about busily as if they were
welcoming their arrival.
“Don’t block the road!” someone shouted coarsely.
“Why are you this fierce?” the station attendant raged. “Can’t you see that kid’s blind?”
A-Ka hurried to say, “Sorry, sorry.”
On their journey, people kept finding out that Percy was blind. No matter whether their
intentions were good or evil, every time they asked the question, A-Ka always felt a little
sad and a little guilty; he was afraid that Percy would be hurt. But Percy was very positive,
and he smiled. “Sorry, we’re newcomers.”
A-Ka held Percy’s hand as they came down. Immediately, he was lost, only knowing to
follow the crowd. In these few days, he missed Heishi, thinking in his heart that if only
Heishi was here, then everything would be alright. In this unknown world he faced, he was
filled with confusion, and a little bit of insecurity; he was even afraid that he might not be
able to protect Percy.
If Heishi was by his side, at least he would be a little less worried.
"Big brother, where are we going now?” Percy asked.
A-Ka thought of Feiluo’s command. After arriving in Phoenix City, he was to send Percy to
the human orphanage, but he felt a little unwilling to part.
“Let’s first go to the orphanage to take a look,” A-Ka said.
The travel funds that Moran had given them had already been basically spent by A-Ka. On
the journey he kept buying things for Percy to eat; the two youths had experienced too
much hardship before, and now they wanted to eat everything, sparing no thought for their
future. When A-Ka realized the issue with their depleting funds, he was afraid that the only
way he would survive was to send himself into the orphanage as well.
It was nearing evening in Phoenix City, and the sunlight pierced through the dark clouds,
scattering a thin layer of evening glow, as the sound of the machines that enveloped the
entire city slowly began to grow weak. A-Ka bought a map and began to study it closely.
Here he learned that the city was split into human and clone districts, dividing it into the
eastern and western regions. As they walked, they looked at the map, before they finally
arrived at the human residents’ community center. However, they had already closed up
for the night, and the great doors were shut.
One worker came out, and after hearing A-Ka’s explanation they gave him directions. “The
orphanage is within the inner ring of the city, you guys can go in first at night to go rest, and
tomorrow you can come back to fill out the paperwork.”
A-Ka asked, “Do we need to pay for it?”
The worker shook their head. “No, you don’t need to pay. It’s straight down the main street,
but you may need to get a ride, otherwise you won’t be able to get to the orphanage before
it gets dark.”
Percy said to him, “Thank you.”
A-Ka nodded, and he left clutching Percy’s hand in his. They traveled along a river flowing
with polluted water, and perhaps it was because a farewell was imminent that A-Ka’s
spirits were low and he was silent. Percy suddenly asked, “Big brother, what’s around
here?”
A-Ka turned his head to look, only to see that the ground was covered with wastewater
from the industrial processes and refuse. He thought for a bit, before describing to Percy,
“En, this is a very good city… as for the specifics…”
A-Ka portrayed their new home as a very beautiful place, but in his heart he sighed. He
brought Percy with him as they entered the inner ring of the city to find the human
orphanage. It wasn’t until the sky grew dark that they arrived outside of a waste processing
factory, and on the door hung a tarnished plaque, on which was written the words “Human
Orphanage”. The entire place was fenced off with a layer of wire netting.
“Come in ba.” After the guard listened to A-Ka’s words, they opened the door of the wire
fence. At the same time, a truck loaded with a large amount of coal drove into the refinery
next to the shelter. This orphanage gave off the impression of a prison to A-Ka, but he didn’t
say that to Percy. He only explained, “We’ll stay here for the night.”
Percy nodded his head, and the two of them were given numbers. They didn’t even receive
any sort of questioning before they settled down. In the hall, the children were getting
dinner, and a woman said to A-Ka, “You’re already over sixteen, you can’t live here any
longer.”
“I know,” A-Ka said. “I’ll leave first thing tomorrow morning."
The woman brought A-Ka and Percy to a room and said, “After nine o’clock at night, we lock
the doors.”
A-Ka looked around at his surroundings. The room was devoid of people, and overhead
there was only a single light. There were two bunk beds in here, and the other set seemed
to have occupants who were not here at the moment. Percy sat down quietly on the lower
bunk.
The kids in the other bunks came back; they were both ten odd years old, and one of them
was even a little taller than A-Ka. They gave the two of them a glance, before that older one
asked, “Where’d you come from?”
A-Ka smiled and said, “We’re from the City of Machines, this is my little brother.”
Percy said, “Hello.”
The larger youth understood and nodded. “Refugees from the east.” And after saying this,
he passed no more judgements, climbing onto the bed and lying down.
It was obvious that the smaller kid was very afraid of this larger one. The two of them
didn’t chat, and the other kid didn’t dare to strike up a conversation with A-Ka and them,
and A-Ka’s emotions grew heavy again. He went out to get food for Percy, and as he swept
his gaze over the assortment, he saw that the orphanage-provided dinner was a kind of
grey mixed-grain gruel. He sniffed it, and could tell that there were oats, wheat, and several
other kinds of grains in it, so he didn’t get any for Percy, instead letting him eat the snacks
that they had brought.
Nine o’clock at night, and all of the lights throughout the entirety of the orphanage were
extinguished. Outside the window, a light rain began to fall, and the bright white lights
shone down on the street below. Once in a while a large truck would rumble by. The other
two kids laid on their beds idly. A-Ka stared out of the window for a while, and a sense of
confused unease began to rise from the depths of his heart.
The winter night was very, very cold, but compared to the icy chill, the loneliness in the
depths of A-Ka’s heart was harder to bear. He slid into the icy blankets, hugging Percy,
hoping that he would be a little warmer. Until now, he had yet to completely accept the
truth that he had returned to a human society -- after all, this was far too different from the
new life that he had in mind.
Percy pulled out a small mechanical device, using his hand to press lightly and non-stop
against the keys. A-Ka knew this was a transmitter, and he asked quietly, “Who are you
sending messages to?”
“Daddy,” Percy answered quietly. “I’m telling him that we’ve already settled down. The
transmitter uses a code to send our words to every transfer center in the rebellion troops’
headquarters in every city, and then they connect it up to him.”
A-Ka was a little surprised; Percy being able to remember this complicated of a code meant
that he was also very smart. In another moment, the green light flashed, and as a series of
messages came back, Percy began to smile.
“I’ve gotten in contact,” Percy said.
“Ask if Heishi is still there,” A-Ka said.
He didn’t hold out much hope, but to him, Heishi was his only friend, or perhaps he could
even be counted as the person he cared about the most. Percy sent out the message, and
when the reply came, he said, “He’s still there, Heishi’s with my daddy.”
This was an unexpected piece of good news, and A-Ka asked, “What did he say?”
“For us to take care of ourselves,” Percy said to A-Ka. “He heard that… Phoenix City’s
condition isn’t as good as he expected, but at least we still have our freedom.”
And with the clicks of the transmitter, Heishi’s sentence seemed to flip some switch in the
depths of A-Ka’s heart, instantly causing his thoughts to be pulled far away from this rainy
night as he came to a decision. Percy closed the transmitter, saying quietly by A-Ka’s ear,
“They’re going to save the rebel hostages, I hope there won’t be danger.”
A-Ka nodded and comforted him, “Sleep, if there’s anything else you can talk about it
tomorrow.”

Far on another piece of mainland, Feiluo closed the transmitter, sitting with Heishi silently
in the armory. Heishi’s hands turned a chip reader over and over in his hands as he
disassembled, then reassembled it.
“You shouldn’t have told them,” Heishi said darkly.
“I’m used to telling everything to Percy,” Feiluo said. “That little one, ever since he was
small, has had a kind of… special power, do you know?”
Feiluo lifted his eyes to look at Heishi, showing a warm smile, as he explained, “Though he’s
lost the sight in his eyes, he can see something different from what normal people see.”
Heishi furrowed his brow. “What can he see?”
“He can predict danger,” Feiluo said, as if he had thought long and hard about it. “I don’t
know if you humans all have this kind of strange ability. Once, a robotic patrol was
approaching us when we were all sound asleep, and coincidentally it turned out that he
was in the troop. We were in a rush to leave the Central District and head towards the
rainforest in the south, and in the middle of the night he woke me up, saying ‘Daddy, I
dreamt that those icy cold big fellows are coming’.”
“Thankfully our troop discovered them early, and only three people were lost. With such a
small price, we left the swamp,” Feiluo said. “That’s why, every time before I make an
important decision, I’ll always ask for his opinion through the transmitter.”
Heishi smiled a little, and that expression seemed to be a little disapproving. Feiluo didn’t
explain any further, saying, “I know you don’t believe it, whatever.”
Heishi said, “If Percy’s dreams really do have the power of prediction, then you could let
him try and perceive who was it that replicated the important messages stored in the
Primeval Heart.”
Feiluo smiled helplessly, saying, “I don’t think that’s possible. Only things that involve him
and me that are of personal relevance can cause him to dream about them.”
Heishi had torn apart and reassembled that anti-bomb casing three times, and yet they
were still in the warehouse waiting for night to fall. After night fell, Heishi would join
Feiluo’s troop and go forth to save a few of the hostages that had been detained by the Iron
and Steel Corps. And within this group of hostages was one soldier that had been standing
guard over the Primeval Heart three months ago.
“If your guess is right,” Heishi lifted his eyes to look at Feiluo, “and General Mackenzie has
been plotting with the Iron and Steel Corps, then what will be the result of that?”
“It’s difficult to say,” Feiluo shook his head slightly. “Brigadier General Mackenzie’s position
is very important; he’s one of the three founders of the revolution. If this matter is exposed,
then it’ll definitely arouse movements within the high levels of the army.”
Heishi was gradually understanding the structure of the clone army, which, including Libre
who had lost his life leading the revolution that had failed, and Commander Angus who, to
this day, still sat in Phoenix City, both of whom were at the same level as Mackenzie, made
up the three decision-makers within the clones’ forces.
For one of the top-level executives to have actually been sent by “Father”, subsequently
hiding in the rebel forces as a spy — if this matter was to be leaked out, then the results
would be unimaginably catastrophic. At this moment, Feiluo felt as if he had collided head
on with a huge problem, and ever since Heishi had walked into the Primeval Heart, one
enigma had followed after another. This matter was not one that could be revealed yet.
“Where is General Mackenzie right now?” Heishi asked.
“In Phoenix City,” Feiluo responded. “He’s meeting with Angus; because Libre was
sacrificed, they must settle on a new battle strategy to prevent the Iron and Steel Corps
from fighting back. He’ll probably return here in about a month. Since we want to make a
move, we’ll have to do it quickly. Otherwise, if we wait until he returns, then very quickly
he’ll learn of the matter of you and me entering the Primeval Heart.”
Heishi nodded, before getting up and taking a look out of the window, where the sky was
already growing dark. Feiluo picked up the firearms that his subordinates had prepared as
he pushed open the door, walking into the pitch-black mountain range.
This chapter is migrated and/or formatted by our fellow chicken enthusiast(s), moon.

"Compared to the icy chill, the loneliness in the depths of A-Ka’s heart was harder to bear."

Translator(s): moon
Editor(s): jelly
The night passed, and thousands of rays of sunlight shone down on Phoenix City on the far
end of the continent. In the early morning, A-Ka brought Percy out with him to the
orphanage office, explaining their situation to the supervisor.
“I’ll go find a job,” A-Ka said to the man who sat there with his knee propped up over his
other. “As long as we can make enough to support ourselves, then my little brother won’t
need to enter the orphanage.”
“Sure,” the man said carelessly. “Go, I hope that you two succeed.”
A-Ka held Percy’s hand as they walked out of the orphanage. After that rain from last night,
the clouds hanging over the horizon had dissipated, and the sunlight came streaming
through the clouds. Percy stood in the sunlight, and he couldn’t help the tears that flowed
down his face.
“What’s wrong?” A-Ka was greatly startled.
Percy smiled as he wiped away his tears, shaking his head. “It’s… it’s nothing.”
“Let’s first find a place to stay.” A-Ka shoved the messenger bag a little more to the back,
switching it to his other shoulder, as they walked into the bustling, busy world of Phoenix
City.
“We’re not accepting technicians.” The person in charge of the maintenance shop looked A-
Ka up and down oddly.
A-Ka grasped Percy’s hand, saying, “No worries. I’ll go ask other places and try my luck
there.”
A-Ka led Percy out. This was the fifth shop that he had tried; all of the factories weren’t
accepting technicians, and there was virtually none of the money left that Uncle Moran had
left them. He used the last of the money to buy two hot dogs, and he squatted with Percy by
the side of the road as they ate.
“Is finding a job very hard?” Percy asked him anxiously.
A-Ka answered, “Don’t worry, I’ll find one.”
A-Ka’s requirements were that they just had to include room and board, and that they
would also take in Percy. But a large portion of the workshops didn’t believe that A-Ka
could even repair things, no matter how he explained his past experience, again and again.
He even tried to go to a few of the clone-run repair shops to apply, but instead, others
would discover Percy and ask about Percy’s origins.
A-Ka answered that this was Feiluo’s adopted child, and Feiluo was a clone. But, the people
who all heard this began to laugh loudly.
“Adopted child?” that clone boss said, before calling, “Hey! Come over and take a look! This
little brat’s a clone’s son. We’ve gotta keep him here.”
“Which one?” someone asked.
“What serial number?”
Everyone surrounded them, and A-Ka instinctively felt danger, but Percy tugged at his hand
and said quietly, “Don’t be afraid, A-Ka.”
Percy pulled out an army insignia and handed it over. On it was Feiluo’s military rank and
his troop and designation, and with that everyone believed it. But, what came with that was
a period of long silence.
“Your father owes me a lot of money. A very, very large amount…” a clone said after a long
while.
“What do you all want to do?!” A-Ka blocked Percy behind his own body, not letting the
clones intimidate him. Percy was very confused, and he didn’t know how to respond, but A-
Ka said, “These matters are between you and Feiluo, go find him when he returns and settle
them then.”
“You guys will get taken away,” the clone smiled, “and your organs will be removed to be
sold."
“Don’t scare him!” A-Ka said angrily to that clone.

A-Ka wasn’t willing to talk more with them, and he took Percy and left. After asking around
at a few places, he found out that Feiluo’s reputation was very bad, to the point that he
didn’t even dare to bring it up towards the end. They returned to the region where humans
gathered so that he could try to find a repair factory.
Percy said, “Do we need to go ask Feiluo?”
“No,” A-Ka said. “Don’t make them worry.”
At least they had freedom. Heishi’s words were ones that A-Ka remembered very clearly;
he had nothing to complain about, as he brought Percy along, walking from dusk to dawn.
On this day, it once again began to rain, and Percy said, “Let’s pass the night near here.”
A-Ka saw that across from them was a waste processing factory; this was the western-most
district of the entire Phoenix City, and he stopped, hiding with Percy within a huge concrete
pipe to pass the night temporarily.
In the heap of junk across from them, a beggar was currently starting a fire, and he lifted
his head to glance at them.
A-Ka was afraid that he would come over to rob their things, or to frighten Percy, so he kept
staring fixedly at that beggar who was starting a fire. An instant later, a man wearing a
windbreaker and holding a black umbrella came walking through the rain, exchanging a
few words with the beggar. A-Ka suddenly felt that there was something not quite right.
“What’s wrong?” Percy asked lightly.
“Nothing,” A-Ka said quietly.
As the sulfurous rain came down and they hid within a concrete pipe in the construction
site, across from them was that dirty beggar -- everything was very ordinary, but then there
came a man of unknown origins who found this beggar, and that change caused A-Ka to
instantly be on his guard.
“Sleep ba.” A-Ka hugged Percy, letting him place his head in his lap, no longer looking at the
beggar in the distance as Percy closed his eyes.
The man seemed like he hadn’t left at all, as he chatted in the distance with the beggar. A-Ka
couldn’t hear what they were saying, and he had no motivation to pay them any attention.
But slowly, Percy began to shift uneasily, and he began to sweat, before he suddenly jolted
awake.
“Percy?” A-Ka asked. “Are you sick?”
A-Ka felt Percy’s forehead, and Percy woke up, breathing lightly.
“I had a dream,” Percy said in a small voice. “Is there someone near us?”
A-Ka was surprised. “You heard footsteps?”
Percy said, “They’ve noticed us.”
A-Ka jolted and lifted his head to look into the distance, where he saw the man who had
been talking with the beggar; he had been hanging around there for almost half an hour. A-
Ka didn’t have a chance to ask Percy why he said it like that, so he just said, “Get up, let’s
go.”
It was already deep in the night, and the streets were devoid of any people. A-Ka couldn't
determine exactly where they should go, and he didn’t know if he and Percy would be met
with any sort of danger in this unfamiliar city. However, Percy piped up, “I think we should
wait here for a little.”
“Why?” A-Ka asked.
Percy didn’t respond, but when the man in the distance finished chatting and noticed them,
he turned and started walking towards them. In an instant, A-Ka’s heart began to beat
violently as he thought of the words that that clone shopkeeper had told them -- this city
was extremely dangerous and disorderly. If that man was...
“Go with him,” Percy said quietly into A-Ka’s ear.
“Who are you guys?” Tha man wore a black windbreaker, looking A-Ka up and down.
A-Ka pushed Percy behind him and asked, “What does it have to do with you?”
Percy tugged A-Ka’s sleeve, warning him wordlessly, and the man’s quiet, deep voice said,
“If you don’t want to die then don’t stay here. Come with me.”
A-Ka hesitated for a split second, but the man didn’t give him too long to make a decision as
he turned and left. A-Ka looked at Percy, before looking at that man in the distance. Finally,
he cleaned up their things, picked up Percy’s hand, and rose, leaving behind the waste
treatment area.
The man wearing the black windbreaker pulled out something from his pocket in a habitual
manner. A-Ka thought it was a gun, but just as he was about to get nervous, he heard a light
click, and a small flame burst to life. The man had a cigarette dangling from his lips, and the
end of the cigarette lit up with a slight glow of fire.
“Who… are you?” A-Ka asked.
“Shahuang,” that man answered.
A-Ka lifted his head to look at him, only to see that this man called Shahuang had
roughened skin, and the hood of his black windbreaker covered half of his face in a dark
shadow. His nose bridge was hawk-shaped, and he had a pair of earrings in his ears, while
on the side of his face was a one cun long scar.
His black windbreaker had an insignia pinned to it, on which was written “The Iron Blood
Fighters”.
“What are the Iron Blood Fighters?” A-Ka asked.
Shahuang stiffly lifted up his collar, using his arm to block that insignia.
“A name,” Shahuang said coldly.
A-Ka furrowed his brow and answered, “I’m called A-Ka, and he’s called…”
“I know he’s called Percy,” Shahuang said.
“I’ve heard your voice before,” Percy said lightly. “In the energy supply store.”
A-Ka then remembered that in the morning, when he took Percy along job-hunting, within
that clone-run store where the clones had intentionally scared him by warning him about
being taken to harvest his organs, this person seemed to have been there, but he wasn’t
wearing a windbreaker.
“Your eyes can’t see, but your heart’s very clear,” Shahuang tossed the cigarette stub away.
“You’re that bastard Feiluo’s son?”
Percy stopped walking, and he said unhappily, “If you say bad words about my dad, then I
won’t go with you anymore.”
Shahuang grinned crookedly, looking out from under his cap at Percy, saying, “Though
you’re small, your temper’s fierce. Ah well, pretend that I didn’t say it.”
And with that, A-Ka and Percy finally followed along with the man as they went forward. In
the small alley darkened by the night, the eaves of the houses dripped water, and one door
within the alley had a light shining in front of it. Shahuang pushed open the door and went
in, saying, “On Feiluo’s behalf, I’ll take you guys in.”
“I don’t need someone to take me in,” A-Ka said. “I can work.”
Shahuang turned on the lights, and the dim yellow lighting shone down on the interior of
the room. To his pleasant surprise, A-Ka found that this was a weapons repair store, this
was really too good!
“Let me work for you!” A-Ka offered happily. “You just need to cover our food and housing!”
“You can do it? Don’t break my things while you’re fixing them.” Shahuang took off his cap
as he looked consideringly at A-Ka. He began to take off his windbreaker, before asking, “Do
you understand how to fix firearms?”
A-Ka had Percy sit down before he went to the front of the counter to look at the firearms
that Shahuang had. He pulled out one, testing it out by pushing and pulling, and it let out
mechanical clicks as his fingers moved nimbly and swiftly in a professional manner.
Shahuang took a look at A-Ka, before nodding.
A-Ka said, “They’re all older models.”
“A small medieval knife can kill people just as well,” Shahuang said easily. “Taking lives has
nothing to do with the time period they’re from.”
A-Ka keenly perceived that either the person in front of him was a killer, or he was
someone who used a gun very often; his wrists had traces of bullet scars and wounds.
Shahuang then said, “You can sleep behind the counter, and this little one can go sleep
under the stairs. You’ll start tomorrow and help me watch the store.”
A-Ka had finally found a place to stay, and though it wasn’t quite the same as what he
imagined, as long as they had a place to settle down, that was the best outcome they could
wish for. That night, Shahuang tossed them two sets of bedding, and though the blankets
had the smell of damp and mildew, A-Ka still spread them out on the floor, smiling towards
Percy. “Percy, good night.”
“En, A-Ka, good night.”
A-Ka turned off the light, and the room sank into darkness, and the only sound was
Shahuang’s snores upstairs.
In this dark night, in their quiet corner, the transmitter suddenly began to resound with
“beep beep beep”s.
A-Ka immediately pulled Percy's transmitter out from the bag, and after plugging in a data
cable, a line of words appeared on the screen.
This was a decoder that he had made simply out of some spare parts, and though the
frequency band was not stable, it could still manage to receive a portion of the messages.
Percy, this is Heishi, I’m looking for A-Ka.
A-Ka immediately lowered his head to enter a message.
This is A-Ka, Heishi, what’s up?
The other side didn’t respond, and A-Ka then entered another line of words.
Heishi, are you able to send and receive sound on your end? I can try to see if we can use the
radio frequency of the transmitter so we can talk.
Heishi’s message came back.
No need.
A-Ka didn’t understand.
What was wrong?
A-Ka found the talkback module and connected it to the miniature transmitter, beginning to
adjust the frequencies. The earpiece was dead silent.
A-Ka said quietly, “Heishi? Where are you? Can you hear me?”
A-Ka said to himself, “Is there a problem with the earpiece? Heishi… eh?”
“I hear you,” Heishi said on the other end.
A-Ka began to smile, and he squirreled into his blankets as he asked, “Where are you?”
Heishi said, “Still in the Eastern Mainland.”
A-Ka then asked, “When will you come back?”
Heishi didn’t speak. He sat in the darkness on the shore, watching the rolling tides. A gentle
breeze blew past, bringing with it a slight hint of salt.
“Do you remember the day that you picked me up?” Heishi asked.
“What about?” A-Ka felt that this question was a little out of the blue, and he didn’t know
why Heishi suddenly wanted to contact him in the middle of the night.
“It’s nothing,” Heishi said quietly. “I suddenly had a strange feeling, so I wanted to find you
and chat.”
A-Ka’s smile grew gentle. He laid in his blankets, the side of his head on his pillow, as he
quietly asked, “What feeling?”
“I can’t describe it clearly,” Heishi answered as he looked off into the distance.
A-Ka mumbled, “Why did you have this kind of feeling?”
“My father,” Heishi answered.
“‘Father’?” A-Ka furrowed his brow.
“Not ‘Father’, but rather… the person who made me,” Heishi said. “My father.”
A-Ka’s heart jolted, and he asked, “You’ve remembered your own past?”
Heishi didn’t respond, and A-Ka followed up with another question, “Who created you?”
“Why did you save me?” Heishi asked.
A-Ka thought of the day he had discovered Heishi, and he said, “For… for no reason. I saw
that you were on the beach, so… speaking of which, your temper seems to have improved a
lot, did something happen?”
“Was my temper very bad?” Heishi asked.
“I still remember the first day that I saw you,” A-Ka smiled. “You almost choked me to
death, and you were very annoyed with me.”
“Hormones,” Heishi said quietly. “My scrambled memories, the effects of rationally
accepting a master, and my aggressive behavior were in conflict."
“What does that mean?” A-Ka asked.
Heishi dodged this question and asked, “That day, when the robotic guards were about to
kill me, why did you stand up?”
A-Ka said, “I found you, so I couldn’t bear for you to die just like that, because my
conscience wouldn’t let it go. What about it?”
“It’s nothing,” Heishi said.
A-Ka said, “Have you found a clue related to your father? Who’s your father?”
Heishi said, “He has no name, and he’s already left this place.”
The communicator was silent, before Heishi said, “My master is already gone.”
In that instant A-Ka understood how Heishi was feeling. He had matters weighing on his
mind, but he couldn’t tell anyone, or perhaps he was trying to think things through. And
after experiencing so much confusion, he finally had no way to keep it in, and needed to
find someone to talk to.
A-Ka said quietly, “The feeling in your heart is called loneliness.”
“Is it?” Heishi said indifferently. “This kind of feeling is very strange, I just want to find
someone and sit with them.”
“Where’s Feiluo?” A-Ka asked.
Heishi answered, “He’s not here.”
A-Ka asked, “When will you come back?”
Heishi said, “As soon as I can.”
A-Ka, “Will you come and live with us?”
“Live?” Heishi repeated.
A-Ka said, “We’ve already found a place to stay, we’re currently in the shop of a person
called Shahuang.”
Heishi, “Shahuang…”
Heishi seemed to be thinking, before he said, “Do you recognize the leader of the Mercenary
Association, Huixiong?”
A-Ka asked confusedly, “Who’s that? Your friend?”
Heishi, “Feiluo helped me to get in contact with him. Tell me about you guys’ current
condition.”
So, A-Ka quietly told him about their experiences in his blanket, and on the other end
Heishi didn’t speak for a long time, only listening silently, until A-Ka had spoken for almost
ten minutes, up to the point where they had arrived at Shahuang’s repair shop. He was
almost nodding off, when he asked, “Heishi?”
“I’m listening,” Heishi responded.
A-Ka en-ed, and Heishi heard A-Ka’s tiredness. He said, “I’ll come back very soon. Before I
come, do your best to stay there.”
“Alright,” A-Ka said. “Heishi, be careful, don’t do anything dangerous.”
Heishi broke off the communication, and A-Ka gradually fell asleep to the static of the radio
waves.
This chapter is migrated and/or formatted by our fellow chicken enthusiast(s), moon.

"That man… they call him ‘the Savior of the World’, because he was left behind by the ancient
gods, the key to ending ‘Father’."

Translator(s): moon
Editor(s): namio, jelly
The next morning, A-Ka began working at this temporary job. Shahuang’s store provided
repair services to the mercenaries in the old city district. He also resold guns on the side, a
large portion of which were illegal firearms from who knows where. A-Ka’s job was to
retrofit them and make some adjustments before putting them out for sale.
With his previous skills from the City of Machines, A-Ka had modified a portion of the
electromagnetic weapons, which made Shahuang very pleased. In the morning, when the
three of them sat together to eat breakfast, Shahuang wore a dirty white collared shirt,
rolled up his sleeves, and made three portions of tomato soup. He put down a large basket
of bread, and Percy and A-Ka, who were absolutely starved, began to wolf it down.
“From your appearance, I didn’t expect you to be able to repair firearms,” Shahuang said.
“Before, in 'Father'’s nation, I studied it a little,” A-Ka said, “but unless it was necessary, I
rarely touched them.”
Shahuang said, “You didn’t steal one away from the City of Steel and use it for self-defense?”
A-Ka shook his head. The weapons from the City of Steel had left a strong impression on
him. The mechanical lifeforms utilized the weapons that humans had created to inflict
massacres upon them, which made him feel a natural aversion towards firearms since he
was young. But to stay in Shahuang’s store, this was nothing more than a job, and he could
do no more than do it well, otherwise he and Percy would have no food to eat.
After that night on the boat, A-Ka found, to his surprise, that his ability to sense the outside
world had seemingly undergone a revolution. Before, when he was working single-
mindedly, his focus was concentrated solely on the mechanical parts in his hand. But now,
as soon as he entered his working state of forgetting everything, his sensing capability
seemed to expand outwards.
That was a difficult feeling to describe. A machine gun in his hands, including the sight, the
grip, the chamber, and other spare parts, would all become disassembled in an orderly
fashion in his mind, laying itself out clear beyond a doubt. Just like on the dark sea, when
the lightning struck, the world’s principles grew clear to him. Every basic building block
that made up a more complicated structure seemed to take on a mysterious quality.
In a daze, A-Ka loaded the gun and put it on the counter.
“That’s it?” that mercenary said. “This Desert Eagle is something that even the precision
instruments store can’t fix!”
“It’s good,” A-Ka nodded. “There was a problem with the positioning mechanism on the
trigger…”
The mercenary asked, “Did you look at the blueprints?”
A-Ka said impatiently, “I didn’t, didn’t you want your gun fixed? It’s already fixed, what
other problems are there?!”
The mercenary tested it out, and found that it was really as good as new, and all it lacked
was bullets. He turned to Shahuang and said, astonished, “Hey, old bro, this little brat…”
“A Desert Eagle?” Shahuang, who was sitting to one side, rose at that and came over, taking
over the gun and glancing at it. He said, “Huh, the producer’s already closed down right,
how did you fix it?”
“I…” A-Ka felt a little uneasy, and he looked at Shahuang as he said, “The internal structure,
as long as you can find the problems with it, then it’s easy.”
“This young one’s very smart.” Shahuang began to smile as he handed the gun back to the
mercenary, patting his shoulders a few times.
The mercenary couldn’t believe it. This gun had been disused for many years. Since there
was no way to either fix it or return it to the factory, originally he had only thought to bring
it over as scrap metal to exchange for some money, possibly sneaking it by Shahuang’s new
repair apprentice. He hadn’t expected that this apprentice would be able to fix it in just a
few moves!
“Twenty five gold pieces,” A-Ka said.
The mercenary hurried to pull out some money and pay up.
A-Ka glanced over at Shahuang sitting in the corner, but Shahuang only smiled to himself.
A-Ka thought to himself that he didn’t know if Shahuang had figured out his own potential,
but no matter whether he had or not, A-Ka kept feeling that he shouldn’t go too in depth
about it. There was also Percy’s dream -- A-Ka had tried to communicate a few times with
Percy, but he never got a result, so he could only temporarily let it go.
With the passage of time, A-Ka and Percy had worked in Shahuang’s store for almost a
week. In the beginning, the customers that had entered the shop were all mercenaries with
lean faces and grim expressions, and when they saw A-Ka and Percy they always felt a little
surprised. They didn’t have good attitudes towards A-Ka, but they were extremely polite to
Percy, and before they left they would often give Percy some tips.
A-Ka kept all the money, and Shahuang would also give A-Ka some remuneration every day
depending on the business volume. A-Ka then handed it all to Percy and had him take care
of it.
The two of them had basically nowhere to spend this money, and as A-Ka repaired firearms
for Shahuang, he couldn’t help but think of his original treasure -- the robot K. At that time,
he had worked very hard to save a few scrap parts, but in the end he lost it all in one go.
From that, A-Ka then thought of that day when he and Heishi were escaping from the City
of Machines, when the robot had suddenly appeared in front of them.
Who had been controlling K? As A-Ka mused over it, he dealt with the machine gun in his
hands. After a few fixes, he then thought about the one who had escaped together with
them, Heishi. How was Heishi living now, was he in any danger?
That night, he resolved to have Percy contact Feiluo, so that he could ask about Heishi’s
current condition.
Today, it was very cold outside, and the snow blocked the doors. The snow of Phoenix City
carried an acrid stench of sulfur with it. The snow that fell to the ground was all grey, and
the polluted snow piled up in front of the doorways. A-Ka outfitted a small automatic snow-
clearing robot, and had it clean away the collected snow outside the door.
In Phoenix City, privately tinkering with robots was forbidden. But the regulations were
very unclear, and the daily lives of the humans and clones were heavily dependent on
mechanical devices. A large portion of the automated machines was something that the
rebellion patrol squads turned a blind eye to.
A-Ka had nothing to do, no matter if he was horizontal or vertical, so he used the scraps in
Shahuang’s store to start casually putting something together. If it was possible, he wanted
to make another K. This time, it wasn’t for escape, nor was it for him to fight in, but rather
his innate, internal interest towards metal and machines that caused him to have such an
idea. Building a robot was like playing with blocks, with tens of thousands of changes, each
filled with their own joy. There was a special sense of joy and happiness that came with
being a creator in the moment that the device he built himself began to move...
Just as he was thinking about this, the bell outside the main entrance dinged.
“We’re closed for the night,” A-Ka said. “Come back tomorrow ba.”
The door was pushed open, and a tall, sturdy man walked in. Looking just like a mountain
and wearing a military cap of the Rebellion, he stared down at A-Ka from high above.
“Where’s Shahuang?” His voice resounded, and the entire store shook. Percy, who was
peeling potatoes in the kitchen, jumped out of surprise, and the plates and bowls clattered.
“He’s…” A-Ka apprehensively watched this man, feeling that he was talking with a huge
Andalusian bear. He pointed inwards, saying, “He’s inside.”
“Hey, Huixiong.” Shahuang lifted a mug of whiskey, dangling a cigarette from his lips as he
leaned against the doorway. “Welcome, and here I thought that you’d already died in the
City of Steel.”
A-Ka furrowed his brow slightly. When he heard this name for the first time in a long time,
he couldn't help but give a second glance towards that man named Huixiong. Huixiong said,
“This blasted winter that never has an end, I’ve really had enough!”
Huixiong took off his military greatcoat, tossing it casually under the stairs, where it landed
on Percy’s bunk; that revealed a body of sturdy muscles, which seemed as if they were
going to explode out through the material of his shirt. This was the first time that A-Ka had
seen such a powerful, well-built man, who was easily about 190 cm tall. Even the sturdily
built Heishi would lose if he were to stand in front of him. One Huixiong had the physical
prowess of two adult men.
Huixiong took a large gulp of whiskey, and he choked on it, his face turning bright red. “A
person outside the Party has joined the secret operation team, and you have no idea what
they found in the Primeval Heart! Though the revolution failed, according to the intel that
man provided, ‘Father’’s system is about to be destroyed! That man… they call him ‘the
Savior of the World’, because he was left behind by the ancient gods, the key to ending
‘Father’. In the Primeval Heart, he…”
A-Ka couldn’t help but stretch out his neck, curiously listening to Huixiong and Shahuang’s
conversation. The door to the room opened, and Shahuang took a look outside, directly
catching A-Ka’s expression.
“Shahuang, can I use your magnetic welding coil?” A-Ka asked a little awkwardly.
“Sure,” Shahuang said lazily. “But don’t test out your new weapon in my store. If you want
to use it, then take it out by the river behind the little alleyway out back.”
A-Ka nodded and began to collect his mechanical arm. Just as he was thinking of
eavesdropping some more, Shahuang came to the door and closed it, so A-Ka couldn’t hear
their conversation anymore.
A-Ka kept feeling that the atmosphere was a little strange recently. Shahuang didn’t go out
anymore, and the patrols had increased greatly outside. One clear morning, one mercenary
came over and said, “Oi, young one, is the kid in Alley No. 16 your little brother? He got
stopped by the patrol.”
A-Ka immediately put down the work in his hands and went out, where he found that there
were many more sentries posted along the street. Percy held an electronic cane in his hand,
the kind that blind people used, and he raised his head confusedly, holding a bag of bread in
his other hand.
A-Ka said, “He’s my little brother!”
“Don’t wander about outside,” the clone patrolman looked him over, before returning the
bread to Percy. He was also holding an epaulet in his hand, and he asked, “Who gave you
this?”
“My dad,” Percy answered.
That piece of shoulder decoration that Feiluo had given him had always been in his pockets.
The clone patrol man smiled. “Interesting. You’re a clone’s son?”
“Let’s go.” A-Ka warily watched the patrol guard, and he grasped Percy’s hand in his own as
the two of them turned to leave. The patrol guard said, “General Mackenzie’s coming back
in a few days for an inspection. If you don’t want any trouble, then you all should stay
obediently in your houses. Don’t go anywhere.”
“What’s happened outside?” A-Ka asked Shahuang the moment he got back.
Shahuang slumped in a chair, his two booted feet resting on the round table, his cap
covering his face. From under the brim of the cap, he spoke, “Mackenzie’s coming, so he
wants to tour around, give speeches, and mobilize the troops in preparation for war…”
“He’s the person in charge around here?” A-Ka asked.
“One of the three,” Shahuang drawled. “The clone regime wants to counterattack,
mobilizing all its troops to wage war on the City of Machines.”
A-Ka said, “They’ve only failed once.”
Shahuang said, “The inhabitants of Phoenix City are on tenterhooks, so at this time, they all
need to find something to do about it.”
A-Ka didn’t say any more. In the night, Shahuang hummed the song of the Rebellion: “The
Black Plains”. This song was one that A-Ka had heard Feiluo sing multiple times. The entire
city was under curfew, and the lights had been extinguished very early on. The room was
pitch-black. After A-Ka fell asleep, he heard a knock on the door, so he blearily climbed out
of bed, but Percy had fumbled around and gotten there first to open the door.
“Who?”
Shahuang, on the other hand, seemed like he had been waiting patiently. He said, “Come in
ba.”
In the darkness, that person placed something on the counter, before entering into
Shahuang’s parlor. After that, the door closed. A-Ka turned on a light and saw that the thing
on the counter was a long-range rifle.
He began to adjust it for the customer, thinking that he was probably another one of
Shahuang’s so-called friends, and he peered in that direction curiously, trying to see if the
visitor had brought any news from the mainland. But Shahuang closed the door tightly, so
he couldn’t hear anything. That night, A-Ka didn’t sleep well, and with the addition of the
previous night, when Huixiong had come by and disturbed them, A-Ka hadn’t slept well for
two nights in a row. But in the early morning of the next day, he was awoken by a noisy
hubbub outside.
The people flooded out into the streets and their cheers were like thunder, all this because
the leader of the rebel forces was coming. A-Ka pushed open the window and looked
outside, only to see that every street, no matter big or small, was packed with people, all
streaming towards the central square. Some people brought fresh flowers, others brought
food, and they all tried to push their way to the front as they headed towards the square,
waiting for that legendary figure to arrive at Phoenix City.
Phoenix City had never had so many people gather like this before. It was as if they were
celebrating a grand festival.
The sounds of the fireworks thundered in his ears, and A-Ka closed the window. The first
thing he did was to go check on the visitor that had arrived last night.
The visitor wasn’t there, and Shahuang was still sleeping soundly. Percy said, “Are you
looking for that person from yesterday? He brought us something to eat.”
On the table was a box of fresh fruit, which even had water droplets on it. Percy said, “He
got up today earlier this morning, and after washing the fruit and telling us to eat it, he
went onto the rooftop.”
A-Ka clambered up the stairs to find him, only to discover that the door to the roof was
locked from the outside. A-Ka knocked on the door. “Are you outside?”
That man wearing a windbreaker propped the rifle up on a railing, wiping the lens. He
turned his head back and shot a glance at the securely locked door to the roof but didn’t
respond.
A-Ka: “Thank you for the fruit, come down and eat breakfast ba.”
The man on the rooftop didn’t respond. A-Ka waited a little longer, but when he didn’t get a
reply, he comforted himself with the thought that everyone who came by Shahuang’s place
was a little odd, so he didn’t pay him any more attention.
Translator's Note:
moon: and happy holidays! astrolabe will be continuing on its usual 1x per week release
schedule despite the holidays, so stay tuned for the usual chapter next week

This chapter is migrated and/or formatted by our fellow chicken enthusiast(s), moon.

"This gunshot that shook the entire city caused one person to die and another person to wake
upon hearing it."

Translator(s): moon
Editor(s): namio, jelly

Content Warning:
some minor gun violence
A-Ka and Percy were eating breakfast when they heard people starting to sing outside,
their voices turning into a flow.
“Oh wayward souls, we have finally returned to our homeland…”
“Our destined hero leads us forward…”
“The future is at our feet…”
The city had been lit by the fires of passion, and though A-Ka was not interested in the
Rebellion and their matters, he couldn't escape being affected by these emotions as well.
Percy piped up, “Can I go outside and look?”
“No,” A-Ka responded, without even thinking about it.
An instant later, someone else knocked on the door, before it was thrown open and
Huixiong appeared in the doorway.
“Mackenzie’s come,” Huixiong said. “Don’t you want to go out and look?”
Shahuang drawled, “Eh, nah. There’s two little ones in the house though, you can take them
with you.”
Huixiong smiled and asked, “Are you guys going?”
Percy looked at A-Ka. A-Ka didn’t really want to go; his mechanical arm hadn’t been fully
outfitted yet. Shahuang said, “Percy, you can go with Huixiong, he’ll make sure you’re safe.”
A-Ka looked consideringly at Huixiong. In the end, he said, “You can go, come back soon.”
Huixiong then picked up Percy’s hand in his own and led him out the door. Shahuang said,
“Huixiong once destroyed a military base with just his two bare fists, so no need to worry
about your little brother.”
“Instead of worrying if he can protect Percy,” A-Ka said, “I’m more afraid that he might do
something to Percy.”
Shahuang began to smile. He said, “He doesn’t like little kids, you don’t need to worry there.
Now that your guys’ bodyguard has come, no one needs to be afraid anymore.”
“What?” A-Ka asked, confused.
Shahuang finished his breakfast. Without answering A-Ka’s question, he went back to his
room and sat down, slumped in his chair as usual, using his cap to cover his face. He turned
on the radio, which was broadcasting nothing but the news of General Mackenzie’s tour.
A-Ka returned to his spot behind the counter, adjusting his mechanical limb. He had used
the scrap parts in Shahuang’s store to put together a robot’s arm and hand, and he held in it
in his hand. When it moved, it let out ga ga noises as he added a light slingshot to it.
What was the visitor upstairs doing? He had gone onto the rooftop in the morning, and he
hadn’t come down since.
A-Ka pushed open the window and peered outside, only to see the square that was
swarming with people. The crowd seemed endless; A-Ka had never seen so many people
before, and they kept rushing in from all sides, as if they all wanted to bear witness to such
an important moment in history. In the center of the square was the steam coach station
that led to the south, and the railroad tracks stopped at this point, as if they could not
extend even an inch further into the hitherto unknown, uninhabited part of the world.
The hands of the large clock pointed at 9:50 as a steam coach pulled into the Shakespeare
Town station. When the doors of the car opened, the crowd went wild.
“Mackenzie --”
“Mackenzie, you’ve come!”
Countless people shouted Mackenzie’s name, and several Rebellion officers left the
carriage, followed by a squat middle-aged man.
A-Ka couldn’t help but walk outside, clambering along the ladder outside up to the roof. Not
far away was the rooftop, where he saw that man’s long black windbreaker. His two hands
were stuck deep in his pockets as he stood still in the corner, looking into the distance.
“Hey!” A-Ka shouted to him.
That man was about as tall as Heishi, and he wore a pair of earmuffs. A-Ka bet that he
heard, he just didn’t turn his head. A-Ka went up on tiptoes, staring towards the square. He
knew that many people in Phoenix City had been eagerly anticipating Mackenzie’s arrival,
since Mackenzie’s actions in the Rebellion had become the stuff of urban legends. The news
on the radio said that he had also participated in that battle, and had single-handedly
destroyed two large-scale Exterminators.
He had come with orders from the deceased General Libre to gather up the Rebellion
troops in the north and lead them in setting up their frontlines, but now, he had returned to
Phoenix City. Humanity was going to lift up the banner of revolution here and regain their
stolen homeland.
The sound of “The Black Plains” song was so loud it echoed in his ears, but it slowly died
down, and Mackenzie began to speak.
“Today is a moment that history will be made,” Mackenzie said.
Mackenzie’s voice was solid and vigorous. He took off his cap and said, “We’ve fallen victim
to the cruelest blows in all of history, and with the lives of countless soldiers as the price,
we’ve whittled away at ‘Father’’s menacing power, but this is nowhere near enough! We
will gather together…”
The sunlight was stark white but thin, and it silently landed on every single structure in
Phoenix City. On the rooftop of the repair shop, Heishi clenched his teeth around a bullet,
set the rifle in place, and pointed it at the center of the square, at the platform where
Mackenzie stood.
He put on a laser sight, observing Mackenzie from over four hundred meters away; he was
gesticulating as he spoke. He was currently waving around a marshal’s military cap,
rousing the enthusiasm of the crowd.
A few seconds later, the killer pulled the trigger.
“Peng!”
As if a giant had swung a hammer down into the ground, the entire world seemed to shake
from this.
In that instant, time seemed to slow down drastically as Mackenzie’s grandiose forehead
burst open, a blossom of blood flowering on it. Under the sunlight, Mackenzie’s brain
matter glittered as it reflected the light.
The entire square of people was struck dumb with surprise. This shock was far too much.
For almost five whole seconds, no one could speak as they dumbly watched Mackenzie’s
headless body topple over onto the ground and roll off the platform.
This gunshot that shook the entire city caused one person to die and another person to
wake upon hearing it.
In the repair shop, Shahuang was jolted awake by the report of the gun, and he sat up
vigorously.
Outside of the shop, A-Ka immediately felt a spike of panic. He hurried to hop down and
rush into the shop -- just to run right into the arms of Shahuang who was rushing out!
“What did that bastard do!” Shahuang yanked A-Ka’s collar and bellowed.
“I don’t know!” A-Ka pushed aside Shahuang, speaking loudly. “I also just heard the report!”
“Damn!” Shahuang rushed up onto the rooftop, kicking the door furiously as he bellowed,
“Open the door! You damned fucker! What did you do!”
But no matter what, that metal door stayed firmly shut, and no matter how hard Shahuang
tried he had no way to open it. Just then, A-Ka grabbed him and shoved him to one side,
before resting the mechanical limb on his shoulder and sending a blast at the door.
With a huge hong, that blast caused the door to the entire rooftop to fly out. Shahuang and
A-Ka rushed in only to see the corner of that windbreaker fluttering away, and the shadow
of the sniper flipping over the railings and leaping into the alleyway below. He then lifted a
hand, his index and middle finger pressed together, as he made a slight gesture at A-Ka.
In that instant, all the blood in A-Ka’s veins congealed.
“Heishi --” A-Ka pounced to the front of the railings, shouting.
At that moment, Heishi leapt into the small alleyway behind the repair shop. When he
landed, he lifted his head and glanced at A-Ka, before turning and sprinting away,
disappearing into one end of the alley.
A-Ka also vaulted over, falling onto an oil can before landing on the ground and rolling
around for a bit, his head spinning. He then rose to chase after Heishi, shouting, “Wait!”
Mackenzie’s death caused a chaotic panic. As the nearly hundred thousand people in the
square came back to their senses, they, as one, let out shouts and cries of unclear meaning.
Rage and grief, and even despair, mixed together in the tumult. Many people wanted to
rush onto the platform to see his corpse, but the guard squadron leveled their guns in
warning. The humans caused a riot as a hundred thousand people trampled over each
other and overturned the spectators’ platform.
A-Ka would never have expected for something like this to happen. Pursuing him out of the
small alleyway, he finally caught sight of Heishi’s silhouette. Everywhere was in chaos, and
Heishi really ran too fast. The sky was filled with patrol aircraft, and when he finally saw
Heishi, the clone police had already begun to circle around and trap the escaping Heishi in.
From his shirt pocket, A-Ka pulled out a monocular positioning device that he put on over
his left eye, and he dragged the mechanical arm behind him as he sprinted through the
main street. The place was crawling with soldiers that were trying to capture Heishi and
disperse the residents, and Phoenix City had exploded into a riot that the rebel troops were
beginning to suppress.
What was going on? Where A-Ka passed, he found that there were quite a few people who
were starting a gunfight with the rebel troops, and most of them were actually the
mercenaries!
This desire for destruction swept through the crowd, and people began to pick up rocks
and smash the windows, destroying the buildings. In this short half an hour, A-Ka
personally witnessed how history would, in vital moments, complete its revolution, and
how destiny would forcefully change the courses of hundreds of thousands, or even
millions or tens of millions of lives at once.
With a loud roar, two security mechas controlled by clones chased after Heishi, and the
defensive equipment spinning in the air began to let out a warning.
“Disperse quickly. In ten seconds, the sixth block will enter lockdown…”
“Ten, nine…”
Heishi raced ahead on the path. Sensing the danger, he quickly turned to the side as with a
loud hong, two annihilation mechas blocked his way forward. He tossed the rifle in his hand
to one side, and in a short moment, the rifle disassembled on its own before aggregating
together again, changing into a magnetic cannon that sent a blast towards the mechas.
In the flash of lightning, the mechas lost their ability to move. But just as they dawdled for
those few seconds, A-Ka had already raced up from behind. Just then, the encirclement
around the entire section of the street was complete, and thousands of clone soldiers held
firearms in their hands as they rushed towards Heishi.
Heishi turned and swept his gaze in a circle. The defensive satellite in the sky had already
reached “one” on its countdown. Right after, a laser beam shot towards him. In a flash, A-Ka
rushed to the intersection of the two roads, and with a bow of his body and one knee to the
ground, he lifted the mechanical limb with his left hand. His right hand reached behind his
back, pulling out a rocket he kept in the heel of his boot. Stuffing it into the limb, he kicked
off the ground and rushed forwards.
In a few seconds, A-Ka flew towards Heishi, activating all the firepower of the mechanical
limb at once and clearing them a path! Heishi immediately reached out a hand, and they
linked arms as Heishi leapt up from the ground, executing a beautiful flip in midair.
Catching A-Ka in a mutual embrace in the air, the two of them smashed into a skyscraper
like a cannonball!
There were several loud peng peng pengs, and A-Ka and Heishi tightly clutched each other.
A-Ka used the mechanical arm to protect their heads as they rushed into the tall glass
skyscraper. He didn’t know how much they wrecked before they rushed out from the other
side, his head spinning as he tried to make out directions. Heishi, however, hugged him and
rushed into an underground structure.
“I can walk on my own..” A-Ka said.
Heishi took A-Ka’s hand in his own, and the two of them sprinted through the underground
parking lot before they found the next passageway and scrambled in.
Half an hour later, they finally shook off all of their pursuers. A-Ka laid in the sewer panting
non-stop. He felt that he had taken a bullet, which had embedded itself in the side of his
abdomen, and he knew that he needed to get it out as soon as possible.
When he reached out and felt his side, his hand came back wet, covered in blood. But since
Heishi didn’t know yet, he pulled on his jacket and covered up the wound.
Heishi rose to his feet and stood at the intersection of the sewers, his brow furrowed
deeply.
“How much longer do you need to rest?” Heishi asked impatiently.
“Can you be a little considerate!” A-Ka instantly bristled in anger.
Heishi looked at A-Ka, and A-Ka asked, confused, “What? Am I acting very strange?”
“Why did you chase after me?” Heishi asked.
A-Ka said bad-temperedly, “Because I’m afraid for you. Why didn’t you greet me at all even
after you came back? Yesterday, were the fruits that Percy and I ate brought by you? I was
wondering who would give us good food to eat.”
Heishi carelessly en-ed in agreement, but his expression seemed to be a little anxious. A-Ka
turned over and rose with great difficulty, leaning against the sewer wall, before taking
tentative step after tentative step. Alerted by this, Heishi immediately asked, “Where are
you going?”
“You go on your own.” A-Ka held back his anger and heartache. “No need to worry about me
anymore.”
“It’s dangerous outside!” Heishi rushed after him.
A-Ka finally exploded. He turned around and pressed the mechanical arm against Heishi’s
chest, roaring angrily, “Why did you stay! Why did you come back! You don’t tell me
anything! I treated you like a friend, which is why I rushed out without a thought for myself
to save you! What do you take me for!”
Heishi froze. A-Ka was like an angry cock, staring at him as he panted.
“It’s like that?” Heishi seemed to think this was immensely amusing. “You’re angry?”
“Stop with the 'you don’t understand human emotions” to bluff me!” A-Ka said angrily.
“Fuck off!”
“Wait.” Heishi walked behind A-Ka, and after contemplating for a while, he finally said, “I
don’t want to drag you into this matter.”
A-Ka said, “Fuck off! I don’t want to hear it!”
Translator's Note:
happy new year from the astrolabe tl team! may this coming year bring more heishi and a-
ka shenanigans for us all to feast upon, huehuehue

This chapter is migrated and/or formatted by our fellow chicken enthusiast(s), moon.

“A world where the wind blows and the sun shines and all kinds of organisms thrive, don’t you
like it?”

Translator(s): moon
Editor(s): namio, jelly
A-Ka walked to the vent and stood there for a little, before exerting some effort to pry aside
the grille blocking it off. But Heishi had him move to one side before he sent a punch at the
grille. There was a huge bang.
“Come with me.” Heishi pried off the grille, grabbed A-Ka’s hand and climbed up.
This was an expansive underground space, the junction point of several sewers of Phoenix
City. A-Ka limped in front, clutching his abdomen, his feet staggering through blood and his
eyes spinning with vertigo.
Heishi finally discovered A-Ka’s condition, and instantly his expression changed. “What
happened? You were hit?! Why didn’t you say so!”
A-Ka shoved Heishi aside, but Heishi rushed forward, hugging him tightly as he roared,
“Don’t move! Let me take a look!”
A-Ka had lost so much blood that his head spun. Heishi hurried to lay him down flat, taking
off his own jacket and spreading it out on the ground before having A-Ka lay down,
unbuttoning his collared shirt. The bullet hole wasn’t large, and upon seeing it Heishi
flicked his weapon. With a shua, it grew smaller automatically as if it was alive, turning into
a pair of sharp tweezers.
A-Ka asked, “What… what is that?”
Heishi didn’t respond. He merely lowered his head and began to pull out the bullet, and A-
Ka was in so much pain that he began to shout loudly. Heishi grew anxious at that, and he
said, “Don’t move!”
A-Ka convulsed incessantly, and finally Heishi pulled out the bullet and tossed it to the
ground, where it landed with a clang. He then took off his own shirt, pressing it against A-
Ka’s abdomen.
“We don’t have any medicine, so we’ve got to head up quickly…” Heishi was a little at a loss
for what to do next. Seeing him this anxious, A-Ka only felt that this was very funny, and he
said, “No worries, I won’t die.”
Heishi suddenly hugged A-Ka, and his strength was so immense that it hurt. At first, A-Ka
felt a little ill at ease, but he then sensed that Heishi’s entire body was trembling.
“Sorry… sorry…”
A-Ka couldn’t believe that those words were coming out of Heishi’s mouth.
“What did you say?” A-Ka felt as if he had heard a joke.
Heishi also noticed that he was being a little too emotional, and he let out a long sigh. “I’ll
carry you on my back. We need to get out as quickly as possible to go find some medicine,
to prevent your wound from getting infected.”
After saying this, Heishi didn’t allow for any room for argument on A-Ka’s part as he lifted
him. A-Ka’s entire body was limp and lacking strength, so he slumped like a dead dog on
Heishi’s back.
“You made that weapon yourself?” Heishi suddenly asked.
“En,” A-Ka said from his position on Heishi’s back. Heishi’s footsteps were very firm,
causing him to feel very comfortable. He turned his head, watching the walls of the dark,
deep sewer as they passed, and it was as if they had returned to the day where he and
Heishi escaped out of the City of Machines.
“What about yours?” A-Ka mumbled. “Where did your weapon come from?”
“I found it in the ruins of the Creator,” Heishi answered. “It’s an ancient weapon that can be
controlled via thoughts alone.”
A-Ka was very interested in this, but he really was not in a mood to study it further, so he
decided that after they returned, he would borrow it from Heishi to look at. He then asked,
“What are the ruins of the Creator?”
“The place where everything came into existence,” Heishi said as he walked. “During the
Golden Age, it was the center of the world. At that time, the Creator created this world.”
“You’ve remembered things from before?” A-Ka continued.
Heishi replied, “Only a portion.”
“Your world is called the Astrolabe, and it is a world controlled by a preset program,”
Heishi explained. “The CPU that controls the Astrolabe world is buried under the ground,
and no one can find it. It’s called ‘the Nucleus’.”
A-Ka, “I… don’t quite understand. This seems to be different from what the history books
say?”
Heishi explained, “You can think of the world as a huge ecological spaceship, and on a
certain day in the distant past, it came from the depths of the galaxy and stopped in this
space. The goal was to study the origins of life, and through that, to discover some of the
laws governing the microcosms within the universe.”
Heishi, “So this ecological spaceship underwent the passage of time for tens of thousands of
years, before finally turning into what you see today. The programs that had been pre-
programmed in, through the energy provided from the underground of the Astrolabe,
adjusted and controlled the laws of the entire world; for example, earthquakes, volcanic
eruptions, tsunamis, tornadoes…”
“The Creator did some experiments, and after establishing this ecological petri dish of
Astrolabe, they left this place. Humans were free to evolve and flourish. Then, about five
thousand years ago, an adventurer discovered this laboratory in the Primeval Heart. From
inside he brought out a few techniques, including ones to create the clones and the
technique to create a computer. In the depths of the Eastern Mainland, they created
another laboratory, and there they created ‘Father’.”
A-Ka dimly sensed that Heishi standing in front of him was perhaps the key to unraveling
all of this. He held his breath, not daring to disrupt Heishi’s words. After a long silence,
Heishi then said, “Originally, ‘Father’’s earliest purpose was to be a computer monitoring
system that the Creator set up in this world. It reported every result of the experiments
back to the Creator, and it was also in charge of terminating any experiments that extended
beyond their expected limit.”
“Later, the Creator felt that ‘Father’’s determination criteria were too rigid, and it was
difficult to maintain the numbers that they wanted anyway, so they didn’t use it on our
world. But the adventurers didn’t know about this past decision, so they created the
‘Father’ with consciousness that we know. After ‘Father’ awoke, it continually expanded its
own capabilities, linking up with the Nucleus of Astrolabe. At the same time, it acted to
remove the parts of this petri dish that had gone out of control.”
“And thus, both ‘Father’ and the clones rebelled, creating the City of Machines that you see
now. Right now, ‘Father’ is currently preparing to perform the final linkage between it and
the ‘Nucleus’, to end this experiment that has gone on for tens of thousands of years. It’s
preparing to entirely clear the experimental results, so that it can begin anew.”
A-Ka asked, “Then what about the Creator?”
“They’ve already disappeared,” Heishi said. “They’ve left the communication range of
‘Father’, so ‘Father’ has no way to make contact with them. According to its own protocols,
it will end the entire experiment, stopping all of the movements of Astrolabe, before
turning off to preserve the power.”
“And that’s to say…” In that instant, A-Ka felt a flash of terror.
“In the not-too-distant future,” Heishi said, “after annihilating all of the sentient organisms
raised by this world, the Astrolabe will terminate all of its power-producing functions. The
surface will become a desolate land covered with sand and stones, turning into a dead
world that waits for the return of the Creator.”
“When will that happen?” A-Ka asked, his voice trembling.
“Very soon. Feiluo has gone to investigate this countdown, but it’ll be within a year,” Heishi
said mildly. “But, before the Creator left this world, they left behind an emergency system.
This emergency system is equipped with the power to determine whether or not to
terminate the experiment, but it does not rank higher than ‘Father’. When it issues its
command to the nucleus of Astrolabe, I’m unclear on whether the Nucleus will obey the
command of the emergency system or of ‘Father’.”
“Where is the key?” A-Ka asked.
Heishi turned his head and gave A-Ka a look. A-Ka dug through his thoughts for a long time,
before he said, “What are the conditions that need to be met for the emergency system to
kick in?”
“Someone needs to get close to the Nucleus of the Astrolabe and send a command to it. The
Nucleus in and of itself does not have any consciousness; it only stores energy and the
terminal that is used to execute the command. The only passageway is under the ground of
‘Father’’s tall tower, but it’s already been connected to the Computer by the lead wires.”
A-Ka said, “We can try it, but this emergency system…”
A-Ka suddenly remembered something, and he abruptly stopped breathing. He asked, “Is it
that chip? Who else knows about this?”
“That chip only records the explorations of the adventurers on this matter, but it doesn’t
have the voice command needed to enter the Nucleus,” Heishi said. “The old man that you
found underneath the City of Steel was one of the adventurers who entered the Primeval
Heart back then.”
“Then why…” A-Ka remembered the assassination that Heishi had carried out.
“There were only four people that knew about this matter,” Heishi said. “You, me, the dead
Libre, and General Mackenzie. ‘Father’ discovered their plans and sent out robots to kill the
first Mackenzie, before creating a clone of him, who would then mix into Phoenix City to
gather the armies and start a war. He would send the battle strength of millions of clones
into the City of Steel, where a trap would be laid beforehand, and everyone would be
killed.”
“But General Libre, through who knows what way, discovered the problem,” Heishi said,
“but unfortunately it was too late. He knew very few things about the secrets of the
‘Nucleus’, and in the end he still was sacrificed.”
“Now, I’ve killed the spy that was Mackenzie,” Heishi continued. “After this, they will take
back control of the upper ranks of Phoenix City. If this succeeds, and we find the emergency
system, then there’s a 50% chance that ‘Father’ will shut down and restart the Astrolabe.”
“When the Astrolabe is restarted, what will happen?” A-Ka asked.
“It’ll return to the environment of the Golden Age,” Heishi said. “It’ll release the power of
ions and expedite the growth of all the plants, cleansing the pollution that you guys have
wreaked upon this earth during these years. It will turn the environment and atmosphere
into one more suitable for all kinds of plants to grow. Do you think this is necessary?”
A-Ka had once read in a book that during the Golden Age, the expansive land was green and
flourishing.
“I like that kind of world,” A-Ka said. “It’s just like a terrarium.”
“But after thousands of years, or even tens of thousands of years,” Heishi said, “humans will
still destroy it, as they always do.”
“I won’t,” A-Ka said quietly. “But I can only speak for myself.”
Heishi asked, “You really like it?”
“Of course,” A-Ka responded in a small voice. “A world where the wind blows and the sun
shines and all kinds of organisms thrive, don’t you like it?”
Heishi seemed to be mulling over something, and he didn’t say anymore. A-Ka spoke,
“Thank you for trusting in me.”
“I only wish for you to not be entangled in such a complex matter,” Heishi said in a deep
voice.
A-Ka said, “I’m willing, I’m willing to help you.”
But Heishi responded, “I’m not planning to do this.”
A-Ka smiled. “If you weren’t planning on doing this, then you wouldn’t have come to
Phoenix City.”
Heishi didn’t say anymore, and A-Ka said, “I understand. Hey, see, isn’t it pretty good like
this? You should have told me about some of it.”
“Don’t tell anyone else about this,” Heishi reminded him in a quiet voice.
A-Ka knew that the urgency of this matter would rouse the horror of everyone, especially
under the circumstances where they hadn’t yet found the emergency system.
“No matter what,” he murmured, “there will always be hope.”
Heishi finally came to the exit of the sewers, and he pushed open the steel door to let in the
golden afterglow of the sunset. A-Ka stared dumbly down at the scene below. The entire
city seemed to have been bombed as smoke rose from all directions, and many places had
already turned into rubble.
This was a cruel battle where the clones and the humans engaged in a desperate life-and-
death struggle in Phoenix City. A-Ka hadn’t realized it, but in the time that he was unaware
of the outside happenings, the internal strife had spread so shockingly quickly. Heishi, still
piggybacking him, walked towards the Western Quarter, where the mercenaries were
screening the human residents who wanted to enter.

“What’s going on?!” someone shouted loudly.

The human migrants in the wire netting responded with a hundred cries of agreement, and
it wasn’t until now that A-Ka began to discover that the conflict between the clones and the
humans ran this deep. There was no way to get rid of the schism between the species. The
entire humankind population of the Western Quarter all shouted in favor of taking back
their resources, usurping the last power-holder of the clones, Commander Angus.
“Who’s there?” Mercenaries were guarding the sentry post at the entrance of the Western
Quarter, and they began to interrogate Heishi.
Heishi piggybacked A-Ka as he said, “My chest pocket.”
From Heishi’s pocket, A-Ka pulled out a card, and after that person took a look at it, he
immediately said, “Hurry up and get in, this place is too unsafe!”
Heishi brought A-Ka into the streets of the Western Quarter. Half of Phoenix City had
already been taken over by the humans. In front of the tallest, fifty-two story building, the
Mercenary Association opened its doors wide, and many people went in and out. Heishi
brought A-Ka in. After coming to Phoenix City, this was the first time that A-Ka had set foot
in this place.
Putting A-Ka down, Heishi let him sit while he went to go find medicine. Immediately, other
people noticed him, and some mercenaries came over, asking him about the specifics of the
situation outside. Heishi gave A-Ka a shot of antibiotics to prevent an infection and fed him
a rapid-healing capsule, before moving to piggyback him again, but A-Ka said, “I can walk
on my own.”
“Come with me.” Heishi pulled A-Ka into the elevator. They traveled up to the third floor
and entered an expansive conference room. He said, “You can rest here.”
With this, A-Ka finally tiredly laid down. His abdomen throbbed lightly, and it itched a little;
he could feel the wound slowly healing.
Not long after, footsteps awoke him.
“Who is this little friend?” a deep voice asked. “Your companion?”
“A comrade-in-arms,” Heishi responded. “One of us.”
A-Ka opened his eyes and saw that quite a few people had arrived in the conference room:
Heishi, as expected, along with a red-haired man he was not familiar with, Huixiong,
Shahuang, and a man wearing a hat, as well as a woman seated in a wheelchair.
“Your little brother is safe, no need to worry,” Shahuang drawled.
When A-Ka heard of Percy’s whereabouts, he finally let out a sigh of relief.

“Let me introduce myself,” Huixiong spoke. “Yours truly are the leaders of the Phoenix City
Mercenary Association.”
A-Ka, “...”
Shahuang propped his feet, clad in polished black riding boots on the conference table, and
he said lazily, “I think this little friend of ours has been frightened out of his wits by us.”
A-Ka, “You… weren’t you running a firearms store?!”
“Being a firearms shop owner is only his side job,” that woman smiled warmly as she
explained. “Shahuang is our little trump card, in charge of passing on intelligence and news
of the clone regime from within his store. I’m the bookkeeper, Lilith.”
That hat-wearing man took off his hat, revealing a bald head covered with scars and he
said, very civilly, “The leader of the Mercenary Association’s troops, Lang Marx.”
The red-haired man wearing a jacket held a silver gun in his hand, and he twirled it once
before placing it on the conference room table. He smiled as he said, “The leader of the
gunslingers, Gerd.”

On the road to Phoenix City, A-Ka had heard quite a bit about the rumors that spread about
the humans and the clones co-existing in this city. On the surface, the clones held all the
power, but in reality the humans were working under the table, acting in the dark. They
were much more cunning than the clones, and they understood the need to keep
themselves hidden.
In reality, after experiencing several bloody battles with the Iron and Steel Corps, in these
years, there were not many humans left. But, it was also because of this that the ones who
had survived were the cream of the crop. They seemed to be living in different corners of
the city, appearing happy with the current state of affairs, but in reality they were turning
every citizen into a soldier. As long as they picked up a weapon, they would be able to fight.
“The Mercenary Association is the hidden power of the humans right now,” Huixiong said
in a deep voice. “As long as there are humans living within Phoenix City, they’ll all be ready
to accept our orders.”
Heishi said mildly, “I know you guys, when Feiluo had me come back, the first point of
contact he introduced me to was Shahuang. You guys used the mercenary system to get
involved in the battle between the clones and ‘Father’.”
“Yes,” Huixiong continued. “But that clone commander is not familiar to us, and I think this
is a good opportunity for our two sides to understand each other. Since you’re a human,
then no matter the situation, we humans will stand behind you, firmly supporting you.”
Lilith opened a notebook and said, “Feiluo told me that you are the savior of the humans,
that you brought a secret back with you, and that you were seeking our help. Before
meeting us, this secret would be unable to be disclosed, which is why Shahuang got in
contact with you - but you then sniped the leader of the Rebellion, the clone general
Mackenzie, so I hope you can give us an appropriate explanation.”
“Now, there is no way to control the rioting anymore,” Huixiong continued. “The clone
troops have already surrounded the area, so you must prove that you really do have the
ability to save us all, or we’ll have no way to face this turbulent situation, Savior.”
“I will prove it,” Heishi said coldly, “but not right now. Have you found Mackenzie’s chip
yet?”
“It was snatched away in the chaos by a clone,” the red-haired man smiled. “Without the
chip, we have no way to prove that he was being controlled by ‘Father’, which means that
you are the murderer who plotted and killed General Mackenzie.”
“That was another one of my comrades-in-arms,” Heishi said. “He’s called Feiluo, send
someone out to go find him.”
Shahuang protested, “You lied to us! I thought that you would use some method to expose
Mackenzie’s identity, but it was just this?!”
Heishi said quietly, “A bullet is the best method.”
Shahuang suddenly rose and grabbed Heishi’s collar in one fist as he roared angrily, “You
stuck your little mistress raised by whores in my store, just to do this?!”
“Who are you calling a mistress!” A-Ka would not take this lying down, and he pressed the
mechanical limb against the back of Shahuang’s head as he raged, “I didn’t know that Heishi
would come back at all!”
Heishi said coldly, “Sit back down, your wound hasn’t healed yet.”

A-Ka retracted the mechanical limb, and Shahuang chuckled coldly. “You’re not a simple
one brat. You dare to press the parts from my shop against my head? Do you also want to
open fire?”
“Let go of him,” A-Ka said.
Though Shahuang was mad, he had no choice but to let go of Heishi’s collar.
“Thousands of people died for your one shot,” that woman said, with a hint of menace.
“There’s no way to control the situation anymore.”
“What should come will always come,” the red-haired man smiled. “Vice-President, this is
something that no one had the power to predict, and it isn’t like not bringing up the conflict
between the humans and the clones means that it doesn’t exist.”
Huixiong said, in a low voice, “Alright, don’t argue anymore.”

As soon as Huixiong opened his mouth, the conference room quieted. A-Ka suddenly asked,
“Are you the president?”
“Yes,” Huixiong glanced at A-Ka as he explained, “but that isn’t important. Son of God, I
want to hear your opinions.”
Huixiong called Heishi by such a strange address, one that A-Ka had never heard before. He
looked at Heishi suspiciously. Heishi thought deeply for a second, before responding, “Have
Angus come over to negotiate.”
“And then what?” Shahuang asked. “You think he’ll come?”
“Find Feiluo, he’s holding on to the chip that Mackenzie dropped,” Heishi continued. “Have
Angus deal with it on his own.”
Huixiong said, “The situation has changed, and we cannot confirm whether or not Angus is
also being controlled by ‘Father’. If he does turn out to be a spy for ‘Father’, or there is one
of Mackenzie’s subordinates at his side…”
“Then you all are done for. Might as well prepare for your funeral ahead of time President,”
Heishi said, unconcerned. He rose, picked up his coat, and reached out a hand to A-Ka,
leading him out of the conference room.
Translator's Note:
moon: we have a feitian valentine’s exchange (feilentians, if you will)! if you’re interested,
check it out here: https://www.chickengege.org/website/feitian-valentines-event/

This chapter is migrated and/or formatted by our fellow chicken enthusiast(s), moon.

"He has lived for ten thousand years, and every five thousand he will awaken once."
Translator(s): moon
Editor(s): jelly, namio
In one of the lounges in the office section of the Mercenary Association, A-Ka and Heishi sat
shoulder-to-shoulder on the bed. A-Ka picked up the chip that he had given to Heishi,
turning it over and over in his hands as he inspected it, and Heishi toyed with that small
knife in his hands, not making a sound.
Little by little, A-Ka began to understand one point, why Heishi wanted Angus to come
personally - it was so they could avoid any hint of the secret from leaking out. He seemed to
have recognized an unfamiliar Heishi; after all, ever since A-Ka rescued him from the City of
Steel, he was very cold and quiet, almost never speaking, and he never brought up his past
to A-Ka.
Now that he was slowly remembering it, he also grew more human, giving off a feeling of
being more lively, able to think, able to speak on his own, able to plan ahead, like a human.
What exactly was he? Was he a human? Or was he a manmade organism from the ancient
past that was equipped with a consciousness?
“What are you looking at?” Heishi found that A-Ka was watching him, and he asked this
curiously.
They sat, shoulders touching, on the bed, and as A-Ka turned his head to watch Heishi,
Heishi also turned his head to watch A-Ka. Their faces were very close, and in that instant,
A-Ka felt that Heishi was a little discomfited.
“No… nothing,” A-Ka said.
Heishi turned his head aside and asked, “Do you know how to make a decoder?”
A-Ka suddenly remembered that before, on their hasty escape, there was nothing they
could use, so they couldn’t access the contents of the chip. But now they could. As long as
they had the correct supplies, he could quickly make a decoder that would be able to
specifically read chips.
“I can,” A-Ka said. “I’ll go find the supplies.”
Heishi rose and went outside to get someone who took A-Ka’s list of supplies, and very
soon they came. A-Ka put on the metallic goggles that technicians wore, and he began to
put together the optical printed circuit board and the complicated mechanisms. He first
hooked up the magnetic coils to the chip, cracking the encoding it used, before he asked,
without even lifting his head, “Heishi, are you a human?”
Heishi responded, “Be more focused when you’re working.”
A-Ka pushed his goggles up and glanced over at Heishi. Ever since they had parted, he felt
that Heishi’s attitude towards him had grown much gentler, and he wasn’t vicious to him
anymore.
“I can split my focus many ways,” A-Ka said, smiling as he continued, “I’ve seen you bleed,
and your blood is red, so you’re a human.”
“I guess I count as one,” Heishi said.
A-Ka then asked, “Why do you know about these? About the ‘Nucleus’, about that
emergency system…”
“Because I’m the Eliminator left behind by the Creator.”
A-Ka almost zapped his own fingers. “Wh… what?”
Heishi was still toying with his small knife, and without lifting his head he replied, “I wasn’t
originally called ‘Heishi’. Heishi is the name that the adventurers who ventured into the
Primeval Heart gave to the other laboratory they created.”
A-Ka said, “You… you’ve remembered your own past?”
“No,” Heishi said casually. “This segment of memory does not exist in my own brain, but
was rather something that the records in the Primeval Heart told me. After all, I wouldn’t
be able to know about things that happened outside the sleeping chamber I was in, while I
slumbered.”
“Then what are you called?” A-Ka asked.
Heishi responded, “I don’t have a name. You gave me the name of Heishi, so you can call me
that. The people who created me programmed me to eliminate all of the unexpected
changes on the petri dish caused by unforeseen processes.”
A-Ka asked, surprised, “How long have you lived for?”
“For longer than you think,” Heishi said. “Every five thousand years, I awaken once to check
if the Primeval Heart has been disturbed.”
At this point, A-Ka had already wholly forgotten about the chip, and he stared fixedly at
Heishi.
“So your body is this well-built,” A-Ka said, “because you’re not a human.”
Heishi, “Not only that, I can even understand knowledge that you humans are unable to
wrap your heads around. It’s only because of that group of human thieves that snuck into
the Primeval Heart, smuggled me out, and cut the power source, that many of my memories
were destroyed.”
A-Ka let out a sigh, and Heishi continued, “So I spent almost three months to put together
the broken pieces of my memories. After the power was cut, I originally almost died from
exhaustion in the midst of the ocean.”
“Do you remember what the Creator looked like?” A-Ka asked. “Why did they want to
create the Astrolabe, this large of a laboratory?”
“Focus on making your decoder,” Heishi said indifferently.
A-Ka could only lower his head, consulting a decoding manual as he began to study the
symbols from the chip on the display screen. With this, he finally understood why Heishi
was so powerful, and it seemed like his abilities were not limited to just these...
“...So that’s to say,” A-Ka tried his best to make his words light-hearted, “That emergency
system needs to be started up by you.”
Heishi didn’t respond.
“Does this mission have any life-threatening danger?” A-Ka suddenly asked.
The small knife sliced open Heishi’s palm, and a little blood flowed out. A-Ka jolted, but as
he was about to rise to look, the wound had already healed. A-Ka picked up his fingers and
rubbed them, before lifting his eyes to meet Heishi’s gaze.
Heishi’s brows began to furrow. “Is this very important to you?”
A-Ka sat back down, putting together his data chip decoder.
If Heishi died, then ‘Father’ would be destroyed, and the humans and the clones would all
be given a beautiful homeland - but was he willing to let Heishi to die? What if it was A-Ka
himself in Heishi’s shoes? As A-Ka began to decode the chip, he pondered over this
question.
“What’s the actual start up procedure?” A-Ka couldn’t resist asking.
“I’m only in charge of surveillance, not activation,” Heishi said. “You’ve guessed wrongly.
Starting up the emergency system has nothing to do with me.”
With this, A-Ka finally let out the breath he had been holding, and he nodded a little. Heishi
saw that motion.
“Then… after ‘Father’ is destroyed,” A-Ka smiled, “will you keep sleeping? Or will you live
on as a human?”
Heishi said, “The laboratory has already been destroyed, and the sleeping chamber was
discarded by you, so how can I keep sleeping?”
A-Ka began to grin, and he said, “Thank you.”
Heishi, “?”
A-Ka said, “Thank you for helping us do all of this. If you can finish this mission, then let’s
live together ba, you can sleep on my bed.”
Heishi said mildly, “I haven’t yet decided to do this much, I’m only planning on handing the
chip to Angus.”
“You will,” A-Ka said. “You like humans, and you don’t like the mechanical troops. I know
that in your heart, you’re willing to help us.”
“At that time, when you go to start up the emergency system, can I come with you?” he
continued.
Heishi didn’t even think about it before rejecting him. “You cannot.”
A-Ka said, “I can help you.”
Heishi said coldly, “That place is under the ground where ‘Father’ stands. I cannot bring you
there. What can you even do?”
A-Ka persisted. “When the time comes, you’ll know.”
Heishi let out a muffled grunt, and he didn’t continue to talk with A-Ka.
At this time, A-Ka finally let out a real sigh of relief. He had put together the decoder, and he
found that he really had gained a new ability: his eyes could see all of the components that
made up a mechanical device. That sense seemed to extend freely to anything that wasn’t
living, which allowed him to only need to disassemble something once to be able to put
anything similar back together again.
He stuck the chip in the card reader slot of the decoder, and the image of a person showed
up on the holographic projector. It was an old man, the person on his last breath that they
had met underground: Professor Callan.
His voice buzzed with static, and the image was very blurry. As soon as Callan appeared, he
opened his mouth. “Commanders of the clone regime, my descendants…”
A-Ka instantly became nervous. Heishi got up and closed the door before standing with him
in front of the table, watching the projection.
“You haven’t watched it either?” A-Ka asked quietly.
Heishi shook his head so slowly it was almost imperceptible.
Electronic static continued to issue forth.
“... I am your father, Callan…”
Heishi said, “He was one of the original four adventurers who entered the Primeval Heart.”
“I trust that you all have already received my last communication, and have sent out your
troops to destroy the man-made god. My life is reaching its end, and I am unable to help
you any further…”
“... No matter which commander is listening, please remember the words I am about to say
next.”
“When I was designing the blueprints for the first clones, I left behind a control mechanism.
In your brains, there is a place where a disused implant chip is located, and ‘Father’ utilized
this weakness by sending out radio waves to activate them. In the beginning, you all may
not be able to sense the existence of the chip, but with the influence of the radio waves,
their control will strengthen and produce results…”
A-Ka said, “Damn...”
Heishi made a gesture, telling him not to open his mouth.
A series of anatomical charts appeared on the holographic projection, which provided
analyses on the weak points of the clones. Professor Callan then said, “You all must be
careful, ‘Father’ has planted spies within the clones. Humans will forever be your allies,
because they are not under any influence of ‘Father’’s, and after receiving this message,
please go ask for help from them.”
“As for the location of the Astrolabe’s Nucleus, it is right underneath ‘Father’. Through the
flow of pure energy, it influences the entire land, and in these past years, ‘Father’’s
communication pipelines have extended non-stop towards the Nucleus. There are less than
a hundred days until ‘Father’ will complete the entire process of linking up with the
Nucleus.”
“...At that time, it will forever control this world of the Astrolabe.”
“...Go find the Son of God in the Heishi Laboratory. He has lived for ten thousand years, and
every five thousand he will awaken once. The predestined fate of the Son of God is to
awaken once the world of the Astrolabe is on the verge of collapse, because he will save all
of the living inhabitants in the world…”
This chapter is migrated and/or formatted by our fellow chicken enthusiast(s), moon.

“The Son of God is the only person who can make ‘Father’ turn off."

Translator(s): moon
Editor(s): jelly, namio
“Is this talking about you?” A-Ka asked, looking at Heishi. “Why does it sound like it isn’t
referring to you?”
Heishi, “...”
Heishi’s expression darkened.
Professor Callan continued. “The Son of God is the only person who can make ‘Father’ turn
off. After finding him, you all must listen to the truths he speaks and carry out his orders.
My time is almost up. I’ve extracted the essence of my genes and put them into this vial of
vaccine…”
“I hope that when you all arrive, the power of the Eye of Truth can be of use. The person
who receives the injection will be able to analyze the internal structures of everything,
aiding the Son of God and entering into the Nucleus of Astrolabe…”
A-Ka came to a great realization. “So… that was the injection he gave me.“
But Heishi said, “This is something they stole from the Primeval Heart. It’s a power that
didn’t belong to him in the first place.”

A-Ka said, “He’s having me bring you into the Nucleus of the Astrolabe, this works out
great! Now you won’t have to leave me behind.”
For a bit, Heishi was struck dumb. He grabbed A-Ka’s shirt collar, staring at him, but A-Ka
only smiled happily. He didn’t know why, but he felt that Heishi had a very warm manner
and was a good person. Even though he put on an air of being standoffish to strangers
usually, that was only used to bluff people.
Just at that time, there was a knock on the door.
Huixiong’s deep voice spoke. “There’s been a new development.”
Heishi pulled the chip out from the decoder before handing both items to A-Ka, who
stashed it into his toolbag that he carried around. Heishi was silent for a moment more, as if
he was thinking about the current situation.
Once again Huixiong knocked on the door, asking, “Can you hear me? What happened? If
you don’t open the door, I’m going to break it down.”
Heishi indicated that A-Ka should go open the door, and A-Ka let Huixiong in. He was even
taller than Heishi, and as he looked down at him from above, he said, “Your friend isn’t
willing to come.”
Heishi responded, “The reason?”
Huixiong said, “He believes that you lied to him, because you only told him to retrieve a
chip that would fall from Mackenzie’s person in the chaos. However, you didn’t say that you
were planning on murdering General Mackenzie, which led him to shoulder the crime of
betraying his people.”
Heishi said, “I’m only using the fastest and most straightforward method to accomplish this
mission.”
Huixiong said, “Then you have to persuade him.”
Heishi said, “Connect me up with him.”
Huixiong said, “We can’t find him. After telling our mercenaries about this, he disappeared.”
But A-Ka interjected. “I have a method, where’s Percy? I’ll bring Percy along to go find him.”
Heishi gave A-Ka a look, hesitating a little. Huixiong said, “I’ll go with you guys ba.”
Percy was currently in a small room, entering something into his transmitter. As soon as A-
Ka pushed open the door, Percy immediately stopped. But, it was only for a short while, and
he once again began to tap in encoded messages.
“Are you able to contact him?” A-Ka asked.
“I can,” Percy said lightly. “A-Ka, did you get hurt?”
A-Ka en-ed, and Percy asked, “Where were you hurt? Was it serious?”
A-Ka sat down by his side, pressing down against his shoulder. Lifting Percy’s hand, he
placed it against his own abdomen. The wound had already healed, leaving behind a bullet-
shaped scar. Percy said, “Feiluo’s very angry. He says he’ll find a way to save me, but he
thinks Heishi lied to him.”
A-Ka said, “Can you persuade him?”
Percy en-ed and said, “I’ll try.”

“We need to find a place to chat with him face to face,” A-Ka said. “Let’s first agree on a
location to meet, only us two and the president of the Mercenary Association.”
Percy sent that over. This time, the other side hesitated for a long time before finally
replying.
A-Ka, Percy, and Huixiong left the Mercenary Association, heading to the meeting location.
Percy asked, “You haven’t told me yet, what exactly has happened?”
A-Ka didn’t dare to tell him Heishi’s mission, so he only spoke of the portion involving
Mackenzie being controlled. Percy nodded, and he didn’t pass any judgements.
Feiluo stood in a pile of rubble, and when he saw A-Ka, his brows furrowed deeply. “Percy,
come to my side.”
But Heishi appeared as silent as a shadow behind them, and Feiluo immediately flew into a
rage. He came forward, fully intending to fight Heishi as he shouted angrily, “Friend, is this
how you repay me?!”
Heishi said, “He was already controlled, so he needed to be eliminated as quickly as
possible. I don’t know how many of your people had their chips activated by ‘Father’, so I
couldn’t tell you to prevent the news from leaking out.”
“You…” Feiluo walked over and pressed Heishi against the wall, raising a fist.
“Don’t fight!” A-Ka hurried forward. He still really liked Feiluo as a friend, especially since
they all escaped the City of Steel together and had fought together to survive on that
journey.
Feiluo gave A-Ka a hard stare, before looking at Heishi. He wanted to say something more,
but finally he suppressed his urge to do so.
Heishi, “Give the chip to me, and you can take your son back.”
Feiluo pulled out the chip that was still stained with blood, throwing it at Heishi’s face.
“You only came to help the humans,” Feiluo said vengefully. “You’ll kill all of the clones. I
should never have trusted you in the beginning!”
After saying this, Feiluo slammed one fist into Heishi’s handsome face, causing Heishi to
careen backwards.
“Feiluo!” A-Ka went forward to stop him.
Feiluo said, “See you again never.”
And saying this, he picked up Percy’s hand and turned and left.

A-Ka went forward to look at Heishi, but Heishi waved his hand, indicating that he was fine.
When A-Ka looked at his expression, Heishi seemed to be a little crestfallen.
A-Ka, “Feiluo’s not a bad person…”
“There’s nothing to say,” Heishi said quietly. “Let’s go.”
Within the conference room of the Mercenary Association, a silence fell over the group as
they all stared at the transceiver in the middle of the table. Heishi sat at the head of the
table, and A-Ka held Heishi’s weapon, studying it intently in a corner.
The transceiver suddenly sounded with a man’s voice. “He’s agreed to the negotiations!
He’s willing to come in person!”
The people there finally let out a collective sigh of relief, of which Huixiong’s was the most
exhausted. It was pretty clear that the pressure on him had been the greatest.
Heishi, “Have him come alone.”
The messenger on the other end of the transceiver went to pass on the message, and a
moment later, A-Ka heard them beginning to sing the marching song, “The Black Plains”
outside the Mercenary Association skyscraper.
He scooted in front of the window. At this moment, Phoenix City was already approaching
nightfall, and the sky darkened as the fires of battle rose from all around. The streets had
been blasted into a blackened mess, and scattered all about were still-burning embers. The
mercenaries rushed to the end of the street, singing “The Black Plains” as they crowded
along the two sides of the path.
There was someone currently walking towards them over the blackened streets, and the
mercenaries began to open a path for him unprompted. That person wore a military cap,
and it was General Angus.
Downstairs, someone passed on the message, and Huixiong went up, opening the great
doors to the conference room. A clone came in, plucking his military cap off his head before
sweeping his gaze over the people gathered in the room.
“Please sit,” Heishi said.
The atmosphere seemed to congeal. Angus said, “You must first prove your identity.”
Heishi said, “I want to let you see a message before we discuss the matter of my identity.”
A-Ka pulled out the decoder and the chip from his bag, turning it on, and Professor Callan’s
form and voice appeared on the holographic projection.
“... Clone commanders, my descendants…”
For a while, the conference room was silent as the grave, until the full contents of the chip
finished broadcasting. Heishi then flicked his finger, and that small, controlling implant
chip retrieved from Mackenzie’s head slid in revolutions down the long table, slowly
coming to a stop in front of Angus.
“I am the Eliminator, the child of the Creator,” Heishi said mildly. “I am here to pass
judgment upon you all.”
In that instant, A-Ka seemed to see an illusory scene: Heishi seemed to have actually
become a deity, and his voice was filled with menace and rage, causing his listeners to feel
involuntarily oppressed by it.
Angus picked up the chip and glanced at it.
“Those sitting here include representatives of humans and representatives of clones,"
Heishi said. “May the judgement begin.”
Everyone’s breathing stopped at once.
“In the past twenty thousand years, you all, as lifeforms that were nurtured on this
Astrolabe, changed this world. You’ve consumed the energy within the Nucleus of
Astrolabe, and for this have even killed each other. This is mutual slaughter between
members of the same species, specific actions caused by the warping of emotions.”
“As experiments, you all are unqualified living beings.” Heishi’s voice held no emotion at all,
as if he was just an observer stating the reality of things.
“You all have destroyed the environment of the petri dish, as well as poked your heads into
the Creator’s intentions, smuggling the destroyer that the Creator left in the Primeval Heart
and giving it life.” Heishi’s voice was deep and hoarse. “The environment of the Astrolabe is
no longer able to provide you with the resources you need for living, and according to the
direction the experiment is developing in, this experiment is already pointless…”
“This isn’t fair…” Angus’ voice trembled.
The upper levels of the Mercenary Association finally reacted. Huixiong said, “This isn’t
fair!”
“No one can determine our fate!” In agitation, Angus rose to his feet, pounding a fist on the
table. “And the mistakes that our predecessors have committed shouldn’t be our burden to
bear!”
Heishi, “Sit down.”
The conference room was silent.
Heishi, “I said, sit down.”
Angus didn’t dare to defy Heishi’s order, and he sat down fearfully.

“This is unfair,” Huixiong smiled bitterly. “No one can determine the fate of the humans and
clones.”
“There is someone,” Heishi said. “The destroyer that you all let loose, it will determine your
futures.”
“We aren’t experimental results,” Angus breathed as he straightened up, as if he wanted to
prove the absurdity of Heishi’s words. “We are living beings that have intelligence and
consciousness, we are on the same level as the Creator!”
Heishi said, “This doesn’t constitute a reason to maintain the experiment.”
“This isn’t fair!” Angus seemed to have lost all reason as he roared uncontrollably.
Heishi immediately splayed out his hand. The bracelet around his wrist speedily assembled
together and shifted, changing into a two meter long magnetic sniper rifle, the muzzle of
which was pointed at Angus.
“Three,” Heishi said coldly.
The room was dead silent.
“Two.”
“Heishi,” A-Ka said, his voice trembling.
Angus backed up, and Heishi flicked that sniper rifle. With an ear-piercing screech of metal
on metal, it disassembled, returning to its original form and wrapping itself around his
wrist.
Another second more, and Angus would have exploded into ash. This commander of the
clones finally gained a new lease on life.
“So, we’re all going to die?” Shahuang began to chuckle. “Here, let’s drink a cup, either way
our deathdays aren’t far away.”
But Huixiong looked into Heishi’s eyes, and he said carefully, “I imagine that you came here
not to tell us an outcome that cannot be changed.”
Heishi’s fingers subconsciously drummed on the tabletop. He said, “I need the armies of the
humans and the clones to all move out at once to draw away ‘Father’’s firepower, and I’ll
need a group of people to protect us as we sneak into the City of Machines.”
“I also need a portion of code from ‘Father’’s nuclear core. According to my previous
investigations, this code is composed of two parts - one part was stored in Mackenzie’s
brain, which is this.”
Heishi gestured to the chip in Angus’ hand.
“And the other portion, if my predictions are right, should be in your hands, Commander
Angus.”
Angus looked at the chip, trembling uncontrollably.
“These two chips control the two primary functions of the entry and execution of the
program, and after they’re assembled it can cause its nuclear region to shut down
temporarily. Though ‘Father’ will still be able to attack after its shutdown, it will stop
several major defensive measures in the nuclear core region. This way, we’ll finally be able
to successfully enter the passageway leading to the Astrolabe. Hand it over to me.”
“Aside from this, I’ll need my mechanic to travel with me. After you all think it through
clearly, give me an answer.”
Everyone in the conference room jolted, and Huixiong asked, “What are you planning on
doing?”
“To link up with the Nucleus,” Heishi responded, “to save you all.”
“I don’t believe you,” Angus said coldly. “All of my clone brothers won’t pin our hopes for
our future on you, you stranger!”
“Calm down! Commander!” Huixiong thundered. “Humans and clones must work together,
this is our last chance.”
Angus roared angrily, “This person’s a madman! I won’t accept his conditions!”
Just as Heishi was about to say “Up to you”, his eyes slid subconsciously over, and he saw A-
Ka’s pleading gaze. He changed his mind and said mildly, “You can’t leave. Give me the
execution chip. I know that you control this passcode in your hands, Commander Angus.”
Angus said, “Absolute nonsense.”
He rose to leave, but Huixiong interjected, “Please wait, Commander!”
Angus suddenly turned back, sweeping his gaze over the upper ranks of the Mercenary
Association. There were armed soldiers guarding the doors, and Angus roared, infuriated,
“Do you all want to detain me here?!”
Shahuang gave Huixiong a look, and Huixiong said, “Let’s begin the vote.”
“One vote,” Shahuang raised his hand lazily, before placing a rifle with the mark of the
Mercenary Association on the long table.
“One vote,” that red-haired man said smilingly. He pulled out his gun and placed it on the
table.
“In favor,” the woman in the wheelchair said warmly, handing over a rose brooch made of
gold.
“In favor,” the bald man echoed.

Huixiong sat at the end of the long table, silently watching Commander Angus. After a long
time, he spoke.
“General Angus, for the future of the clones and the humans, you cannot leave.”
In the conference room, no one spoke. Huixiong continued, “Give us the command to shut
down the system, and the clones can choose not to participate in this mission. The entire
process will be supported by us humans.”
Angus took a few steps forward, his voice filled with menace, and he said coldly, “I will not.”
“Take him away,” the woman in the wheelchair said. “Son of the Creator, please go rest first.
As soon as there is news, we’ll immediately notify you.”
This chapter is migrated and/or formatted by our fellow chicken enthusiast(s), moon.

“Pray ba,” Heishi said, “for your futures.”

Translator(s): moon
Editor(s): jelly, namio
Heishi rose and nodded. He gave a look filled with meaning to everyone in the conference
room, before he and A-Ka turned and left.
For the sake of not having anyone disturb them, the Mercenary Association cleared out a
small unit for them on the top floor. There was even a small flower garden on the balcony;
it was where the previous president had lived. In the night, flying patrol units flew around,
their yellow beams of light scanning the ground below, and in the distance came indistinct
sounds of static over the radio waves.
In the middle of the night, A-Ka woke up for some reason. He took a look at Heishi sleeping
beside him, before clambering to his feet quietly, walking out of the small house. He inhaled
a breath of fresh air, before climbing onto the rooftop, sitting up high while hugging his
knees, looking over the entirety of Phoenix City. In the distance, the central tower
controlled by the clones glowed bright with lamplight, causing him to recall the day they
escaped the City of Steel.
Heishi also got up. A-Ka turned his head and looked at him, gesturing for him to come up.
The two of them sat shoulder to shoulder on the rooftop, looking into the distance. For a
while, neither of them spoke.
“You also can’t sleep?” A-Ka asked.
Heishi didn’t respond.
A-Ka murmured to himself, “I wonder how Feiluo and Percy are doing now.”
He leaned on Heishi. In the distant darkness, the flames dimly lit up the night sky a bright
red. There was still no news from the Mercenary Association, which indicated that they
were so far unsuccessful in forcing Angus to give up the termination command.
“You didn’t need to treat Feiluo like that,” A-Ka said.
“I don’t understand the emotions you humans and clones feel,” Heishi replied indifferently.
A-Ka recalled that scene of Feiluo beating up Heishi. Back then, Heishi actually hadn’t
returned the blow. This small detail, for some reason, was preserved in his heart, causing
him to go back to it, musing over it again and again.
A-Ka kept feeling that Heishi’s existence was more like a machine left behind by the
Creator, but of course this was a secret that only he knew. Technically, a messenger of God
would not be equipped with many emotions, just like ‘Father’.
“I feel that…” A-Ka said tentatively.
“What?” Heishi asked.
A-Ka was a little hesitant. He looked at Heishi as he said, “Do you think you have the
emotions of a human?”
He couldn’t help but recall the first time he had met Heishi, up to the moment they were
separated and reunited; aside from the pure emotional reactions that he had when they
were escaping, Heishi was equipped with the emotional characteristics of a human. Plus, as
they deepened their understanding of each other on this journey, these characteristics
became more and more obvious.
When he was injured in the sewers and Heishi revealed the anxiety that he felt, A-Ka was
even more convinced of his conclusion. Though this feeling was immediately dampened by
the accompanying truths that Heishi revealed, now that he thought back to it, Heishi was
feeling concerned for him.
“No,” Heishi said.
“You do,” A-Ka insisted. “I feel like you do. You were actually designed with humans as the
model.”
Heishi responded mildly, “When the Creator made me, you humans did not exist, and
neither did the clones. You think it’s possible?”
When A-Ka thought about it, that was correct, but he still responded, “It is like that, correct,
but the Creator is also an intelligent being. How would you know that they aren’t like
humans?”
“Impossible,” Heishi responded, without even needing to think about it. “Logic,
communication, identification, and judgement; these all are part of reason, but joy, grief,
sorrow, and happiness, these are emotions.”
“But you also get angry and impatient.” A-Ka tried to explain the essence of being a human
to him, but Heishi didn’t even look over, instead staring off into the distant night sky.
“Basic reasoning skills are observation and judgement, while higher reasoning skills are
perception and analysis,” Heishi explained. “By the same principle, the basic emotional
skills are emotional reactions caused by external stimuli, encompassing all kinds of
emotions; these are the basic skills for any living being. Whereas higher emotional skills
are things that I am not equipped with.”
“What are higher emotional skills?” A-Ka asked.
“Higher emotional skills,” Heishi thought for a moment, before telling A-Ka, “are the ones
that only you humans have: body language, instinct, grudges, and the thing that you all call
‘love’.”
A-Ka then said, “But back then, when Feiluo reached out to attack you, why didn’t you
dodge or return the blow?”
Heishi froze for a moment, and A-Ka observed his expression, before smiling. “So, actually
you’re the same as us humans. You have complicated emotions, and you even feel
loneliness and unease.”
Heishi was only silent for a short while before he recovered his usual cold demeanor. He
responded, “Because I was sure that he was only acting to vent his anger and not trying to
kill me.”
“Then why do you need to accept his anger?” A-Ka asked.
This time, Heishi couldn’t resist thinking over it deeply. He didn’t respond verbally, merely
shaking his head.
A-Ka continued. “After parting ways with Feiluo, did you have some sort of uncomfortable
feeling in your heart?”
Heishi continued to maintain his silence, but A-Ka knew that he was definitely pondering
over this in the depths of his heart, thinking about some things that even he himself hadn’t
realized. At this point, from afar came a muffled explosion, and Heishi immediately grew
alert, squinting his eyes in the general direction it came from.
“Infrared telescope,” Heishi said.
A-Ka went back to his room to find it, but right at that moment, the transceiver in the bag
began to sound, beeping with the chime of an incoming message. He immediately turned on
the transceiver, and on the other end was Percy’s anxious voice.
“A-Ka, I see that their army is moving out,” Percy said quietly. “I don’t know why, but
they’re going to fight again. You guys have to leave that skyscraper quickly.”
A-Ka asked, “Is Feiluo there?”
Percy responded, “He went to go persuade the army to not attack now. Why are things like
this?! Isn’t there a ceasefire already?”
A-Ka repiled, “The people from the Mercenary Association have detained Commander
Angus. Listen to me, Percy, keep yourself safe, and no matter what, don’t go outside…”
“This is too insane…” Percy said. “Can’t they send him back? Just now, Feiluo and the
temporary leader were arguing very loudly, that scared me to death --”
“This brat’s sending messages to the enemy!”
“Kill him!”

A frenzy of sounds issued from within the transceiver, and A-Ka’s expression immediately
changed. “Percy!”
Percy let out a shrill cry, as if he had been caught by someone. The transmission cut off, and
A-Ka knelt in front of the bed, breathing rapidly.
Heishi was standing behind A-Ka. He had heard the entire exchange. He said, “I’ll go notify
Huixiong.”

Another battle broke out unexpectedly, but this second time around, the fighting was
fiercer than before, and the fires of battle once again baptized Phoenix City in catastrophe
through this long, sleepless night. Six magnetic flyers swept towards them from the tall
tower in the north, flying to the human gathering area, and the entire Western Quarter
woke within moments.
The tall tower of the Mercenary Association was filled with chaos. Heishi rushed down the
staircase, asking, “Is Angus willing to hand over the code?”
“Not yet!” Huixiong said. “He’s not willing to answer, no matter what! We must first fight off
their attack! Mercenaries! Pick up your weapons! Prepare for battle!”
With a huge hong, the entire building shook as thousands of bullets made of light shot out
of the flyers, shattering the glass that made up the facade of the building. The clones began
to shoot at the skyscraper as they began their efforts to rescue the captured Angus. The
scene was one of tumult as Heishi protected A-Ka, the two of them rushing out of the
skyscraper.
In the dark night, the fires of battle rose all around as Huixiong’s voice issued forth from the
speakers.
“My human brothers! Please support us!”
“We have already found the weak point of the machines, and we are counting down the
days until our victory! Now is the most difficult time, Mackenzie has betrayed us and the
Rebel Alliance…”
The humans and the clones had been struggling over resources for a long time, and when
they heard this, they all let out angered roars, raising the guns in their hands as they threw
themselves into the battle! But the clones’ firepower was still too strong, and with three
rounds of sweeping bullets, they suppressed the human rebellion troops. A-Ka equipped
his mechanical limb, and Heishi’s wristband turned into a heavy machine gun, accurately
shooting down the flyers coming right for them.
The airships of both the humans and the clones turned into fireballs as they spiralled in
twos and threes into the earth below, where they exploded with loud booms.
For a while, there was nowhere to hide. Just as A-Ka was about to escape to somewhere
with less people, someone rushed at him from the side and covered his mouth, dragging
him towards the skyscraper that was going to collapse!
Heishi’s expression changed, only for him to realize that it was Feiluo.
“What exactly are you all doing!” Feiluo roared.
Under the hazy, dark sky, A-Ka explained what had happened to Feiluo in a loud voice.
Feiluo let out an anxious breath, watching Heishi rush over.
“Where’s your son?” Heishi asked.
“He’s been detained by the Rebellion soldiers because he was passing messages to you
guys,” Feiluo said. “Come with me, let’s go.”
Even now, Feiluo’s face was still dark with anger as he brought Heishi and A-Ka around the
defensive line, approaching the base of the Rebellion. They came to a stop in front of a vent,
and Feiluo spoke. “A-Ka, I know you can open this entrance to this pipe. If we crawl
upwards along the vent, we’ll be able to reach the command center.”
A-Ka lifted his head, looking up towards the tall building enshrouded in the dark of the
night, where he saw that there were surveillance machines patrolling up above. He finally
put on the infrared mechanic’s goggles before digging out a few tools from his pack, testing
out unlocking the security system here.
Heishi and Feiluo stood silently to one side.
Heishi, “Why did you come back?”
Feiluo said harshly, “Percy got captured, and he’s also being held in the command center, so
I must go in to rescue him.”

“The termination command is a magnetic disk that can be wiped,” Heishi said. “If nothing’s
gone wrong, then there should be thirty megabytes of code in there.”
Feiluo thought deeply for a moment, before answering, “I’m not sure where General Angus
put it. In theory, since Libre received it as well, there should be at least one backup. I’ll take
the two of you into the building, where you can search through the deceased’s belongings.
Perhaps you’ll find something there.”
A-Ka asked curiously, “Why would this command be in the hands of you clones?”
“You think that launching an assault on the machines on all fronts is a joke?” Feiluo said. “If
Heishi didn’t bring up the shutdown codes, then you humans wouldn’t even know about
this secret weapon.”

A-Ka instantly remembered. When he had just picked up Heishi, Libre had made secretive
but extremely complete arrangements, mobilizing all of their forces to the City of Machines.
Perhaps back then, he had been relying on the shutdown codes he had in hand.
“Yes,” A-Ka said. “The headquarters of the Rebellion must have that backup! Thank you,
Feiluo!”
Feiluo said coldly, “I’m not planning on helping him. It’s only that, with the current
circumstances, the battle will only stop if we retrieve the command. Otherwise, without
waiting for the Iron and Steel Corps to fight their way in, we’ll already have died at the
hands of our own.”
Heishi said mildly, “This is your guys’s original sin.”

When Feiluo heard these words, he immediately flew into a great rage. Grabbing Heishi’s
collar, he shouted angrily, “Say that again!”
“Don’t fight!” A-Ka called from his squatting position in front of the vent.
Feiluo let out a vicious hn as he pushed Heishi aside. Heishi then said, “Libre still died.”
“Before, we did not despair,” Feiluo said, “exactly because Angus knew that the chip that
would execute the program to shut down ‘Father’ was still in our hands.”
Heishi, “Foolish. Even if you were to get both chips, they would only be able to be used once
to temporarily turn off its nuclear core for three minutes. Aside from this, with the external
defenses and the Iron and Steel Corps’ continued patrolling, don’t you find it strange?”
Feiluo forgot his conflict with Heishi, lifting his eyes to look into Heishi’s as he asked,
“What?”
But A-Ka seemed to think of something, and he let out a full-body jolt.

“The previous movements of the troops,” Heishi said uncaringly, “was only a trap that
‘Father’ set in place via Mackensie.”
In that instant, the blood running through Feiluo’s veins seemed to congeal. Heishi’s
expression however, was wholly unchanged, as he explained. “Mackensie was being
controlled by ‘Father’, and he obtained these two original chips from the Creator’s
Laboratory. From this, he learned of the shutdown codes for the nuclear core, and he lied to
Libre and Angus, telling them that this was the only opportunity to completely destroy
‘Father’.”
Feiluo’s voice trembled. “So… including General Libre, the strongest battle power of the
Rebellion was sent to… the City of Machines.”
“Yes,” Heishi said mildly. “Everything fell within the predictions of that computer. Libre,
believing that he could use the termination command in his hand to save this world,
initiated that attack on all fronts. And as expected, it failed.”

With a click, the security system outside the exit of the vent was unlocked.
A-ka rose. “It’s done.”
Feiluo murmured, “If General Mackensie had long since laid this trap, then perhaps the
chips have already been destroyed by him.”
“Not necessarily,” Heishi said casually, his voice not carrying even a hint of emotion.
“‘Father’ hasn’t yet wholly exterminated you all, or perhaps it was planning to use the
original chips to once again lay down an identical trap. But this time, Mackenzie’s plans had
only been half-carried out when he was sniped by me.”
“Pray ba,” Heishi said, “for your futures.”
And saying this, Heishi bent his body and squeezed into the vent.
The three of them crawled along in the vent, and in front of them was a field of lasers that
criss-crossed. Every time they approached a laser, A-Ka pulled out a card that he had made
himself, pressing it against the pressure-driven security system. The lasers blocking the
section of the path ahead of them disappeared with a weng.
“When did you become this strong?” Feiluo asked.
A-Ka replied, “After we left the City of Machines.”
“He’s always been like this,” Heishi answered from up ahead, where he was inching his
elbow forward. “Even in the City of Machines, he was able to develop his own humanoid
mecha.”
From afar came the sound of numerous unending explosions. They came to a fork in the
road, and Feiluo lowered his head to study the fluorescent map in the pipes as he said, “The
place where they’re keeping Percy is to the left. I need to go save him quickly, otherwise
he’ll be disposed of when the sun rises.”
A-Ka said, “Let’s go together.”
But Feiluo answered, “You guys go find the codes, the greater good is more important.”
The three of them fell silent for a moment, before a rare smile grew on Feiluo’s face as he
said, “I’ll save Percy, don’t worry.”

In the darkness, Heishi reached out a hand, looking into Feiluo’s eyes. Feiluo was still for a
bit, before he too reached out a hand and tugged his. This movement indicated that the two
of them had made up again, before Feiluo opened the cover of the pipe, sinking into the
hallway outside.
Heishi and A-Ka continued to crawl forwards. A-Ka began to smile.
“What are you smiling about?” Heishi seemed to be able to sense all of A-Ka’s movements,
even in this pitch black tunnel where they couldn't see their hands in front of their faces. A-
Ka grinned. “Feiluo’s a pretty good friend.”
“Oh shut up,” Heishi said, a little impatiently.
Dawn approached, and A-Ka continued to worry about Percy’s life as the sky slowly began
to lighten outside. With one kick, Heishi removed the iron bars blocking the exit of the vent.
“Head down in a moment,” Heishi said.
The instant that Heishi leapt down, he turned in mid-air, tossing out an electric whip, and
with a sizzling crackle, the robotic guards all toppled over. With this, A-Ka finally came
down from the vent, stepping on Heishi’s shoulder as he landed on an office desk.
“Hurry up,” Heishi said. “The guards here are going to come over any minute now.”
A-Ka began to crack the code for the table, but Heishi was more impatient. He had him back
up, before shooting right at the table!
The report echoed loudly as A-Ka shouted, “You can’t break it open with brute force!
Otherwise the contents will be automatically destroyed!”
This shot startled even more guards, and Heishi said, “It’s too late! Find it quick! I’ll help
you hold off the guards!”
Footsteps came from inside the hall; it was the clone troopers. Heishi rushed out in a flurry,
his back to the door, and A-Ka trembled as he searched through the drawers, which were
all filled with documents.
Someone shouted from outside, “Who’s there!”
Right after, there were several successive gunshots, and a bullet hole appeared on the door.
Fresh blood sprayed through, and A-Ka’s heart tightened with worry. He shouted, “Heishi!”
“Finish your job…” Heishi’s voice was at times near and at times far, clearly hopping and
leaping about. A-Ka searched through all of the cabinets, but he didn’t find anything, so
right after, he inserted the decoding chip into the second cabinet, beginning to undo the
password-protected lock.
Such an important thing as the termination command, would it be kept in this kind of
place? A-Ka thought deeply for a moment, and he couldn’t help but turn his thoughts in
another direction - perhaps they were being kept where the other disks were. But, Angus’s
office was their only clue, otherwise, searching for a miniscule disk drive in such a large
building was the same as searching for a needle in a haystack.
“You still have three minutes,” Heishi panted outside. “The guards here aren’t easy to
defeat.”
“Don’t rush me,” A-Ka said in a quiet voice.
Where exactly could it be? A-Ka’s nervousness seemed to have reached a critical point as
the guards increased more and more in number. If he didn’t find this key item quickly, then
both he and Heishi would definitely lose their lives in this place. His blood rushed to his
head, causing his limbs to turn icy, and the gunshots and explosions in the corridor grew
immeasurably distant in the span of a moment.
All sound disappeared, and the structure of the building appeared as clear as day in A-Ka’s
eyes, every steel wire and brick defined down to the smallest of details. The desk was
connected to the floor, where there was an activation switch. The circuitry led towards the
wall, where it was linked up to a safe embedded in the bricks.
There was an incredibly complicated alarm system set up in front of the safe.
With a huge peng, his surroundings returned to their normal state, and Heishi said, “You’re
still not done?!”
A-Ka pulled out the decoding chip, running to the wall. There was a bookcase there, and
after thinking deeply for a second, recalling the route of the wires, he returned to behind
the desk, turning the knob on the swiveling armchair. The bookcase swung open silently,
revealing the safe hidden behind it.
Heishi roared angrily, “A-Ka!”
“Here!” A-Ka shouted loudly in response. “Don’t rush me!”

His hands trembled uncontrollably as he turned the knob of the combination lock on the
safe. Heishi rushed into the office, pressing his shoulder against the door, before using the
electromagnetic light gun to draw a circle, welding the steel door shut. But behind the door,
the clone guards began to shout and shoot their lasers, and the steel door silently began to
turn red and cave in.
“Hurry up! There’s too many of them!” Heishi said anxiously.
A-Ka held his breath, recalling the internal structure of the safe. Heishi turned his head,
watching A-Ka, before he asked, “You found it?”
“What was the location of the last gear…” A-Ka’s head hurt greatly, and Heishi was once
again ready to break through with brute force, but A-Ka’s expression instantly changed.
“No! There’s a bomb inside!”
The last digit was currently set to 0. A-Ka turned it to the 1, before turning it back to 0,
anxious beyond belief, but unable to once again sink into the condition where he would
forget everything else and be able to see the structures of everything around him. The
entire steel door was about to be opened, and Heishi thought deeply for a moment, before
saying, “Let’s bet on this once.”
A-Ka’s back was covered in cold sweat. “No way… it’s too dangerous. There are high
explosives in the safe. If the numbers are wrong, then the disk will be melted down, and
we’ll also die in the explosion.”
The future of mankind was like a huge spinning disk of red and black that once again, in
this historical moment, began to move. The marbles of fate rolled full-speed towards a
position filled with fog, and everything would be decided in this brief second.
Without giving him any time to protest, Heishi pressed down on A-Ka’s hand, rotating the
knob towards the position of the 1, before depressing the button.
“Capture them --” the clone guards shouted.
This chapter is migrated and/or formatted by our fellow chicken enthusiast(s), moon.
“This world is fated to be destroyed. There is already no more hope left.”

Translator(s): moon
Editor(s): namio, jelly
A-Ka couldn’t resist turning his head and squeezing his eyes shut. In that instant, Heishi
pulled him into his firm embrace.
The passage of time seemed to become extraordinarily slow, and within the cacophonous
world, with a light sound, like the most delightful of music, the safe sprung open, revealing
an aged, old chip inside.
The door of the safe activated.
A-Ka opened his eyes.
Heishi reached out his hand, grasping the chip with it, before turning. With one hand
hugging A-Ka and the other protecting his forehead, he turned his body and rushed to the
floor-to-ceiling windows in two steps, before ramming into it with his shoulder.
“Aaaaaahhhh--”
A-Ka shouted dramatically, before he roared, “Heishi, you’re crazy!”
With that hit from Heishi, the bulletproof glass actually shattered into small pieces,
shooting with a hua into the air. They looked like a shower of gems as they dispersed under
the first ray of the early dawn sunlight. The guards rushed into the office, but Heishi and A-
Ka had already leapt off the building some hundreds of meters off the ground.
In that instant, time seemed to completely stop. The only thing that A-Ka could hear clearly
within that complete silence was the slow beating of his and Heishi’s hearts.
In the next moment, the two of them drifted through the sky some hundreds of meters
above the ground like a kite with a broken string.
A-Ka couldn’t help but let out a loud shout, but Heishi’s armband split into countless
metallic shards in an instant, and with a shua, layer upon layer, they formed into a pair of
silver wings. With a hula they spread open, acting like a hang-glider, taking him and A-Ka
flying into the distance.
“This is too insane, aaaahhh!” A-Ka shouted with great emotion.
“Shut up,” Heishi said coldly. “You’re too noisy.”
But when A-Ka lifted his head, he found that the corners of Heishi’s mouth were actually
raised up slightly, a faint trace of a smile on his face. Accompanying the glow of the early
morning, the two of them flew into the distance.
At noon on this day, the battle finally came to a conclusion. The entire city resounded with
the military song, “The Black Plains”, and the defeated humans were escorted into the plaza
like prisoners of war. Up on a nearby building, Heishi bent over and looked down.
“It worked?” Heishi asked.
“Not yet.” A-Ka’s brow was furrowed deeply. “This chip with the main program is very
ancient, and if I’ve guessed correctly, it should have been retrieved directly from the ruins
that the Creator left behind…”
He put the chip from Mackenzie’s head and the main program chip together, but he found
that aside from these, there was still another port to connect to.
What was this port for? A-Ka had a dim, ominous premonition: was there another piece?!
“This was a technology from tens of thousands of years ago,” Heishi said coldly. “Now, all
the computational techniques that you humans and clones are using were all stolen from
within the Primeval Heart.”
A-Ka had no more effort to spare to study the other port as he connected the chip
containing the main program to the data cable. He said somewhat helplessly, “I don’t really
agree with calling it ‘stolen’... but alright… let us take a look at what’s inside.”
Just as he finished speaking, the decoder spat out a cramped, packed 256-faced encoded
volume, like a huge, glowing ball.
Heishi said, “If you’re sure that’s it, then we must immediately head down to tell Huixiong.”
A-Ka’s pupils expanded slightly as he looked at that encoded ball. His breathing paused.
“Is there a problem?” Heishi studied the strange shape.
With a finger, A-Ka moved the encoded ball, turning it in a different direction. The red,
glowing encoded ball was only two-thirds complete, and the last third was blank space
facing Heishi. Heishi also realized this, and he murmured, “What? There’s a third piece?!”
“I guess that this is something else that ‘Father’ prepared ahead of time,” A-Ka said, his
voice trembling. “At its core, it’s still afraid of the stop commands being leaked out, so it
deleted this section.”
Heishi said, “Impossible. How could General Libre not have found this blank space? If one
part has been deleted, then the entirety of the command can’t be used, so how could he
have gathered the armies to storm the City of Machines?”
A-Ka replied, “This is the original chip, and what General Libre had was the backup. When
he copied it, the entire shutdown encoding must have been complete. As for where that last
chip went… only the heavens know…”
Heishi glanced at A-Ka, and the two seemed to come to some tacit understanding. A-Ka
quickly came to a realization, and he frowned. “What if the last piece is in Angus’s head?!”
“Quick!” Heishi said.
A-Ka immediately stowed the chip away, and the two of them ran down the building.
At twilight, the sun shone over these black plains that had been scorched by the fires of
war. The mercenaries that had been captured were escorted out to kneel on the ground in a
line.
“Hand our people over,” a clone officer called, pressing a gun to the back of a prisoner’s
head. “Otherwise, for every minute that passes, we’ll kill one person.”
The mercenaries were gathered behind the defensive line, but though the crowd’s
emotions were turbulent, none of them went forward at that time.
A moment later, Shahuang pulled Angus out, pressing the gun to his forehead, saying, “If
you guys kill one person, then I’ll kill him.”
The clone officer jeered. “Shoot all you want, the clones have never had a leader. Even now,
you still don’t understand? We are all one body, if you kill Angus, anyone else can take his
place.”
Heishi and A-Ka passed through the rubble as they ran towards the mercenary
headquarters. As others spotted them, they began to mutter amongst themselves. When he
looked forward, A-Ka saw Feiluo kneeling on the ground, one hand hugging Percy as he
used his body to shield him.
Percy’s eyes were closed, and he leaned against Feiluo in his embrace.
“Feiluo! Percy!” A-Ka wanted to rush over, but a mercenary grabbed the collar of his shirt
and dragged him back.
That clone officer that was issuing orders said darkly, “These are traitors of ours that were
colluding with the humans. Since you all seem to care about them so much, we’ll kill them
first…”
After saying this, that clone officer walked towards the father and son duo of Feiluo and
Percy.
“No!” A-Ka shouted angrily.
“Wait!” Huixiong’s voice suddenly sounded.
There was a disturbance created within the mercenary base camp. Huixiong exchanged a
few words with Heishi, before saying, “We accept your terms, give us a few more minutes.”
The clone officer put his gun away, saying, “Ten minutes. If General Angus isn’t handed over
to us then, I will kill ten of you humans.”
A-Ka shot him a vengeful glare before turning and running towards his own side’s base
camp, only to see when he entered that the high-level members of the Mercenary
Association were gathered together, with Angus standing as straight as a pen in the midst,
his expression cold and set.
“Even if you guys kill me now, there’s no use,” Angus answered decisively, as if he already
knew that he himself was going to die no matter what.
“Where’s that blank part that was deleted?” Heishi said coldly. “I don’t believe that you
don’t have a backup.”
Angus fell silent. Shahuang put his gun away and walked up, grabbed Angus’ collar, and was
about to hit him.
“Don’t be hasty!” Huixiong said anxiously. “No one is allowed to attack right now!”
“I suspect that the encoded bit is right here, in this bastard’s head.” Shahuang pressed his
gun aggressively against Angus’s head as he spoke impolitely. “How about we saw open his
head and take a look?”
Heishi said, “It’s not in his head.”
“I also suspect it’s not there,” that red-haired man called Gerb said. “Hand it over ba,
Angus.”
“I don’t have it,” Angus said measuredly. “This world is fated to be destroyed. There is
already no more hope left.”
As soon as those words were spoken, everyone’s breathing stopped for a brief moment. A
strange expression appeared on Huixiong’s face, while A-Ka’s heart beat extremely
violently as he dimly thought of the worst case scenario.
“You guys can kill me now,” Angus said. “If you kill me, you guys will also never be able to
find the third chip. Input, output, and execution, the three main sequences, we each are
taking care of one part, and that last part was inserted into Libre’s brain.”
In this instant, everyone had the same thought flash through their mind: damn it.
A-Ka’s brain was a patch of blank white. Libre had already been lost during the battle to
take the City of Machines, so where exactly were they supposed to find it?!
Heishi was silent for a moment. He then said, “Better prepare for your funerals soon.”
“No!” A-Ka said. “There’s still hope, let’s think about it a little more…”
Everyone’s faces were as grey as ash, and for a while no one said anything.
“There’s still five minutes left,” Huixiong said after glancing at his watch. “Should we give
up?”
“There must be a way,” A-Ka said. “Let’s think about it a little more… perhaps Libre hasn’t
died yet…”
“He’s already dead,” Angus said calmly. “Every time a clone brother dies, a signal will
always be sent through the quorum sensing system, to Phoenix City. Halfway through the
battle, in the instant the mothership crashed into ‘Father’, General Libre had already
perished.”
A-Ka said to them, “I’m familiar with the City of Machines. I’ll go back to search, perhaps I’ll
be able to find the chip.”
The mercenaries maintained their silence, before finally Huixiong let out a sigh.
Though A-Ka kept persisting, he knew in his heart, how could going back to the City of
Machines to find a single chip be considered easy? That last explosion was like an energy
wave that had even pulverized the mothership into powder, and perhaps the chip had
already long since been destroyed by that. Even if it had survived the explosion, by now, the
City of Machines would have already been flattened and rebuilt.
“Three minutes,” Huixiong said.
“Surrender ba.” Shahuang put his gun away as he let out a long sigh. That sigh held within it
a limitless hesitance and despair.
Their shadows stretched long under the light of the setting sun, landing on the blackened
plaza.
“A-Ka and I will go back,” Heishi said.
“You won’t be able to find the chip,” Angus said. “Don’t immerse yourselves in pointless
hope, because what comes with that hope is an everlasting despair.”
Tears welled up in A-Ka’s eyes. In this instant, he hoped desperately for a miracle to
happen. When he glanced towards Heishi, he felt that Heishi definitely had some way to
deal with this, but even Heishi was at the end of his rope.
On the plaza, the clone officer reminded them, “There are still forty seconds left.”
“Go, Angus,” Shahuang said. “Your duty is done.”
Angus walked towards the center of the plaza, but just at this moment, a huge boom echoed
in the distance, as if something had split open spacetime, rushing utterly silently towards
Phoenix City!
“The Iron and Steel Corps!”
“The Iron and Steel Corps have invaded!”
“It’s not the Iron and Steel Corps! Be careful!”
A huge shadow enveloped the entire plaza as a golden airship flew over. The clones all
backed up swiftly; they had no time to kill the human hostages as they each pointed their
guns towards the sky, shooting out bullets of light!
“Percy!” A-Ka rushed out despite the danger of being hit with a bullet. With his body
hunched over, he activated the rocket propellers in his boots, flying towards Percy and
Feiluo. Feiluo roared, “Watch out!”
In a flash, the golden airship shot out a beam of magnetic light amongst the hail of light
bullets, which dissipated with a weng across the field. All of the guns let out crackles of
electricity as they all turned into hunks of useless metal!
Heishi’s powerful arm grabbed A-Ka, before his other arm dragged Feiluo and Percy back
into the humans’ camp.
The clones all retreated a little bit, and Angus took the opportunity to also run back to his
own camp. The golden ship came to a stop between the two sides. The door to the cabin
opened, and a middle-aged man walked out, observing his surroundings.
That middle-aged man said, “General Angus, you have violated the sixth commandment.”
“This is a conflict that the humans started!” Angus roared angrily.
The human side was entirely silent, and A-Ka asked quietly, “Who is this person?”
“The Curia requests that you all immediately stop fighting,” the middle-aged man said
solemnly. “If any commandment is violated again, we will take back all the humans in
Phoenix City to Dragonmaw City in batches.”
Angus chuckled coldly. “Pass this message along to the Curia for me, I’d be very glad if he
did so.”
The middle-aged man then said, “Angus, you should know who came up with the
commandments on the peace treaty. Your ancestor gave you clones a place to stay in
Phoenix City, so if you were to make light of starting such a war, you all should be very
clear on what the consequences are.”
“We aren’t starting a war,” Huixiong, who had been silent all this time, finally spoke up.
“Mackenzie had been implanted with a controlling chip by ‘Father’, becoming a spy of the
City of Machines that was planted in the Alliance camp. Before he could begin a second
battle of moths clustering to a flame, our brother carried out an assassination to stop him.”
“The Curia already knows of what happened,” the middle-aged man said. “The Curia
requests that General Angus, the President of the Mercenary Association, Huixiong, as well
as all parties involved in this matter to gather in Dragonmaw City and undergo mediation.
Everyone, please get on the boat.”
The middle-aged man turned and stepped back onto the boat. There was a minute of
silence on either side, before Huixiong took the lead and stepped out, saying, “Let’s go.”
Percy said in a small voice, next to Feiluo’s ear, “Dad, let’s go, they’re not bad people.”
On the ship that was headed to the Western Mainland, A-Ka had previously heard the bard
Moran bring up that the Curia believed in the God of Astrolabe, which was that
extraterrestrial Creator that had created this very world. With Heishi there, there shouldn’t
be any danger, and when Heishi walked onto the ship, A-Ka followed him. Angus and
Huixiong also got on, both of them commanding their troops to temporarily halt the battle.
The airship slowly rose into the air, flying towards Dragonmaw City in the southern part of
the Western Mainland.
The ship kept flying at a low altitude, and from the portholes in the cabin they could see the
devastated land below their feet, as well as Phoenix City charred by the flames of war. After
Heishi got on the ship, he stood on the deck, watching this land below him through the
transparent glass.
“A-Ka,” Percy said in a small voice.
“Percy.” After the two of them had been reunited, A-Ka had finally found the time to speak
with Percy. He lowered his head to inspect the rope burns that had been left on Percy’s
wrists, asking, “Are you okay?”
Percy smiled. “I just sent Uncle Moran an electronic message, telling him about the things
that happened here. He said before that if we ran into any difficulties in the future that we
could go find him.”
No wonder, and with that, A-Ka finally let out a breath. Feiluo wiped Percy’s face, saying,
“You guys ran into an official of the Curia? Why didn’t you say so?”
“I wasn’t clear on his position,” A-Ka said. “He told us that he was only a wandering bard.”
But now that he thought about it in detail, A-Ka could sense that Moran had left the Eastern
Mainland aboard a ship as the battle to kill Father took place. For him to appear in the
Rebel Alliance’s headquarters at that time, in that place, to board that ship, meant that
perhaps he and General Libre had communicated before in some fashion.
As for what the Curia did, A-Ka wasn’t very clear on. When he saw Heishi, Huixiong, Angus,
and that middle-aged man sent by the Curia standing together and chatting, he rose and
walked towards them.
“...The last chip has already been destroyed,” Huixiong said. “It was in General Libre’s
hands.”
“The Curia has already received the news of General Mackensie’s betrayal,” the middle-
aged man said as he bowed politely towards Heishi. “He asked me to pass along his regards
to you.”
Heishi’s expression was placid as he asked, “Does he still have a backup copy in his hands?”
The middle-aged man thought silently for a moment, before shaking his head. He then said,
“Perhaps there’s still a way, do not give up hope.”
Huixiong let out a long sigh and leaned back against the railings as he spoke. “With the
current situation, the only hope is to once again seek refuge with the Curia.”
A-Ka asked, “Are you guys friends of Uncle Moran?”
That man turned around and said politely, “I am Archbishop Igor, my friend, and on behalf
of the Pontiff, I would like to express his regards. He greatly respects the bravery and effort
of each and every one of you.”
A-Ka waved his hand, indicating that he didn’t need to be polite. Heishi explained to A-Ka,
“The precursor to the Curia was founded by one of those original four explorers from all
those years ago.”
With this, A-Ka finally understood. Back then, after the four adventurers had entered the
Primeval Heart and left the Creator’s laboratory, they parted and went their separate ways,
each establishing their own forces. Amongst them, Doctor Callan had obtained the cloning
techniques, and with himself as the father, he cloned the group now known as the clones,
becoming known as the father of the clones.
General Gallo took command of the humans. Using the Creator’s techniques, he built
Phoenix City to allow humans and clones to co-exist peacefully, creating the first republican
regime. Professor Ricard had taken the computational techniques and the chip that made
up the core of the Creator’s various programs, and created a huge, primordial computer.
After undergoing evolution and changes written into it, the computer became “Father”.
The last explorer had arrived in Dragonmaw City, gathering many followers, and taught
them the faith of the Creator.
“Does the pontiff have any method to restore this chip?” A-Ka’s heart rose at that thought.
In this bleak, dark situation, he thought he saw a single beam of hope. But Archbishop Igor
sighed and said, “It’s very difficult. Aside from a small number of modes of transportation
and defense mechanisms, the Curia doesn’t use any computer-related methods, to prevent
‘Father’ from sneaking in. But there are quite a few records preserved in the Church.
Perhaps we may be able to find another way to deal with ‘Father’.”
A-Ka held that chip out for Igor to look at. Igor was wholly ignorant about this, and he could
only respond, “In a while, when you see the Pontiff, you can discuss it with him in person.
We are just about to arrive.”
The airship approached Dragonmaw City steadily. This was a land that was covered with
fresh wildflowers, and along the road from Phoenix City to Dragonmaw City, the earth that
was blackened and barren slowly turned green; this was a true paradise. In a quiet voice,
Feiluo was describing the scenery below to Percy, before Archbishop Igor explained to the
gathered people, “Ever since Dragonmaw City was founded, we have never taken in any
humans that grew up in modern technology-based civilization, or clones, as believers.
Welcome, everyone, to the Country of God.”
Translator's Note:
moon: and that’s when they knew… they were screwed

This chapter is migrated and/or formatted by our fellow chicken enthusiast(s), moon.
"The world that I hope for is just like this."

Translator(s): moon
Editor(s): namio, jelly
A breath of fresh air washed over them, and the glass shield around the airship dissipated
as they slowly entered the territory of Dragonmaw City, coming to a stop at an empty port
on the outskirts. This was a world frozen in time, and many mechanisms and
transportation devices were ones that A-Ka had only seen before in books.
The road was paved with cobblestones, and of all the buildings in the city, not a single one
was taller than two hundred meters. The most grandiose of them was the temple in the
center of the city, and there was even a huge bell at its top.
This strange style caused A-Ka to feel, upon entering a new country, that everything was
very new and exciting. A horse carriage came to a stop at the empty port to pick them up.
When Angus arrived here, he had become extremely quiet. The entirety of the city had an
awe-inspiring tranquility and sanctity about it, enveloped as it was in the last weak light of
the day before night fell. Igor brought them to the side of the temple, walking along a path.
The passing clergy all bowed to them in greeting, though their gazes all stopped on Heishi’s
face.
“It is already very late today,” Igor explained. “Everyone, please get a good night’s rest.
Tomorrow the pontiff will invite everyone to dine together for lunch, and at that time he
will also discuss the situation at hand.”
A-Ka was still a little worried, but Heishi used his gaze to indicate that he shouldn’t be too
nervous. After all, so many days had passed already, and if the world was going to be
destroyed, one night wouldn’t make a difference. To that, A-Ka could only nod, his heart
heavy. Igor showed them to their rooms, and after informing them that their dinners would
be brought to them, he saluted Heishi.
“May the God of the Stars protect all of you,” Igor said elegantly, before turning and leaving.

A-Ka laid on the bed and let out a long sigh, before sitting up again. Taking his satchel off
and putting it to one side, he clambered onto the chair in front of the window, peering out.
In the calm, night had already fallen, and the garden was filled with blooming calla lilies.
Gentle music drifted out from somewhere unknown, echoing melodiously.
A-Ka only felt that this was far too comfortable, and he laid on the bed. When he saw Heishi
sitting on the side of the bed, mind distant as he watched A-Ka, A-Ka used his bare foot to
poke Heishi’s waist.
“What is it?” Heishi turned to look at A-Ka.
A-Ka said, “If we can live here for our entire lives, that would be very nice. The world that I
hope for is just like this.”
Heishi thought for a moment, before saying, “The world you humans used to live in was
exactly like this. There weren’t any robots or computers back then, so why did you all need
to create them?”
“It may be good, but this kind of a lifestyle is pretty inconvenient,” A-Ka thought for a
moment, before smiling. There is no tap water, so they need to get water from the river,
and there is nothing to do for entertainment. Industrialization has its own merits as well.”
Heishi then said, “If you like this kind of an environment, I can tell the Curia this and get
them to permit you to stay within Dragonmaw City.”
“Will you stay as well?” A-Ka scrutinized him.
Heishi didn’t respond.
A-Ka then said, “Having a flower garden to plant some flowers in and make a few small
things is pretty good as well.”
“We can talk about it later,” Heishi said easily.
The nights in Dragonmaw City were a little chilly, and A-Ka and Heishi laid on the same
bed, wrapped in blankets. Through the window, A-Ka watched the starry sky outside,
saying, “Heishi, do you have memories of your childhood?”
He thought that perhaps Heishi didn’t have many memories of his childhood at all; after all,
after he had been made by the Creator, he had always been kept in that place. But
unexpectedly, Heishi responded, “I remember a little.”
A-Ka was a little surprised, and he turned his head to look at Heishi. Of his own accord,
Heishi stretched out his arm and let A-Ka pillow his head on it, and the two of them laid
there quietly in this position.
“What was it like?” A-Ka asked.
“How about you?” Heishi didn’t answer, replying with a question instead.
A-Ka said, “I… Actually, since I was old enough to understand, things were the way you saw.
We took in the training, studies, and nurturing that the robotic lifeforms enforced, but there
was one thing that left me with a deep impression. It’s related to ‘Father’.”
“Related to what about ‘Father’?” Heishi’s voice was even, but it didn’t hold any emotions at
all.
“All of the humans, on the last day before we came of age, we had to connect up with
‘Father’ to confirm our loyalty. That kind of feeling was very uncomfortable,” A-Ka
reminisced. “It was like a monster was forcing itself into your brain.”
Heishi said, “This is also one of the special functions that ‘Father’ has. Ever since the petri
dish was started, it was equipped with the power to investigate all of the thoughts of any
living being. As long as it was able to connect up in a mental link, it could read any of the
thoughts in your mind.”
“Yes,” A-Ka said. “Actually, in the beginning, I never had the idea of opposing ‘Father’.”
Heishi said, “I do find it a little strange. Technically, humans like you would definitely not
be able to survive under ‘Father’s gaze. You would have been destroyed by it before you
came of age.”
A-Ka had to admit that Heishi was right. The lax regulations in the City of Machines itself
didn’t mean that “Father” was foolish. Allowing him, a human, to secretly sneak out was not
an oversight on “Father”’s part, but rather, under normal circumstances, something that
would never be able to happen.
Because for the humans living within the City of Machines, their thoughts had once, or were
destined to be, exposed to ‘Father’s inspection. It would single out any human with any iota
of a desire for freedom that might grow into escape attempts for pre-emptive elimination.
This was also the reason why, in the end, the clones created the Alliance and employed
methods of gaining people on the inside by having those from the outside interact with
them.
“The clones also undergo a mental inspection by ‘Father’,” A-Ka said. “It’s just that their
inspection isn’t as frequent as us humans’.”
“How frequent?” Heishi asked.
A-Ka responded, “Approximately once every ten years. I now understand that though it’s
called an inspection, in reality it’s to kill the humans that have had a seed of escape planted
in their hearts.”
When A-Ka was small, he had heard that many people would disappear in the process of
the regularly scheduled inspections, but he had never thought about it in this way. Now, he
could finally slowly begin to deduce the general gist of things.
Heishi said, “The clones have no logic to speak of, and they act on their emotions alone.
Humans, on the other hand, cling desperately to living and are afraid of death, so they
became ‘Father’’s slaves. There’s not too much difference there.”
“It’s not like that.” A-Ka turned over and shook Heishi slightly, whose eyes were still closed,
but Heishi didn’t open his eyes as he replied mildly, “Continue, I’m listening.”
A-Ka began to smile, using his fingers to pry open Heishi’s eyelids, looking at his dark, deep,
gem-like pupils. Heishi said, in a dark voice, “Three.”
A-Ka immediately pulled his hands back, afraid of being on the receiving end of one of
Heishi’s beatings. He recalled the day he had undergone the mental inspection, when he
saw a vast sea of blue light.
“That kind of feeling is very hard to describe,” A-Ka murmured. “It was very uncomfortable,
as if someone had dug through every nook and cranny of your soul…”
“I know,” Heishi said. “A pair of god-like eyes take you in from head to toe, which is why
‘Father’ is able to strike such fearful awe into your hearts. You humans have a saying, which
is ‘When you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes back at you’.”
A-Ka said, “But this was not a provocation that I deliberately began…”
“What did you see within ‘Father’’s thoughts?” Heishi asked.
“How did you know?” A-Ka was taken aback. Heishi actually guessed what he was going to
say next.
That day, within “Father”’s mental sea, he had indeed felt something out of the ordinary.
That shaky uneasiness seemed to come from some core section, but it also seemed to come
from some secret place that his own soul yearned incomparably for. From the start, his
brain felt like it was being scorched by some bright light, causing him to feel like he wanted
to retch, but very gradually, the discomfort disappeared.
In the depths of “Father”’s thoughts, he found a soul hidden very deeply away. Its voice
sounded by A-Ka’s ear, as if it was saying something to him, but A-Ka’s expression was
filled with confusion, and he had no way to answer.
“What did it say?” Heishi asked mildly.
“I don’t know,” A-Ka said, smiling a little bitterly. “It’s not like I could understand it.”
Heishi said, “What did you say?”
A-Ka said, “I… I said I was very lonely, and I took it to be a ‘Father’ that would be able to do
anything. You know, in the City of Machines, the humans’ rumors all said that ‘Father’ was a
god that could do anything. So, I made a wish to him.”
Heishi said, “What wish?”
“I wished…” A-Ka thought for a moment, before continuing, “that there would be a gege
who protects me, because growing up, I had always been kicked around and picked on by
the clones.”
Heishi opened his eyes, looking at A-Ka. His gaze was bright and warm, and the corners of
his lips quirked upwards as he began to smile.
In that instant, A-Ka grew bug-eyed. He said, “You… you’re smiling? Heishi, you’re smiling!”
Heishi’s smile vanished as quickly as it had come, and he said solemnly, “Sleep ba.”
A-Ka had forgotten himself a little there, because in that instant, Heishi’s smile was
extremely handsome, and he couldn’t help but praise him in his heart. In the span of a
moment, that smile caused the entire night to grow bright. With the fragrance of the
flowers and night music, it was as if countless things had crossed paths in his soul, before
erupting in an instant in the depths of his heart!
A-Ka dumbly stared at Heishi, but Heishi turned over, indicating that A-Ka lay behind him.
A-Ka however, said, “When you smile, you look really good, Heishi.”
Heishi en-ed, and A-Ka couldn’t resist adding, “I feel like I’ve fallen a little bit in love with
you, that kind of a feeling.”
At this, Heishi grew a little awkward, and he said, “Don’t say stupid things!”
A-Ka had just laid down, and he hurried to clamber upright, explaining, “I didn’t mean
that… my meaning was… like what the textbooks described, between people… Just like how
I love Percy, Feiluo also loves Percy, and Percy says he loves Feiluo.”
Heishi, “...”
A-Ka felt that the longer he went on, the deeper he dug himself into this pit, so he could
only stop speaking and lie quietly behind Heishi. In the darkness, Heishi opened his mouth.
“You can take me as your gege.”
“Thank you, Heishi,” A-Ka said, comforted. From behind, he hugged Heishi’s waist and
turned his head, resting it against his sturdy, powerful back.
“I will protect you,” Heishi said. “But that’s limited only to you.”

A-Ka en-ed, and in the fragrance of the sea of flowers, he fell asleep. This was the most
comfortable night of sleep he had since they had left the City of Machines, and it wasn’t
until the sunlight came shining through that the sound of knocking woke A-Ka. He thought
he had only slept for a few short minutes, but Heishi had already gone off to who knows
where. The blankets still had a faint scent of him.
“The pontiff requests your presence in the Hall of Canonization to partake in the midday
meal,” a young archbishop said very politely. “Please bathe first, as there is much time left.
Your clean clothes are placed here.”
A-Ka nodded. “O-okay.”
A-Ka took a look at the clothes. They were a very simple set of technician pants and a
jacket. With that, he took off his clothes and walked around in the room before pushing
open the door of the bathing room, only to see that the large bathing pool had already been
fully filled with water so hot there was steam rising off it.
A-Ka walked into the bathing pool, but he didn’t expect to step on something soft, and he
immediately let out a loud shout.
“Waaah!” A-Ka was so frightened that he jumped up, only to fall into the water and swallow
a mouthful of the warm water. Heishi immediately grabbed his wrist and pulled him into an
embrace, and with that, A-Ka was once again greatly startled, this time by Heishi.
Heishi asked impatiently, “What?”
A-Ka was still jittery from the shock as he asked, “Why are you here?”
“I’m bathing,” Heishi responded casually. His hair had grown much longer, and after it had
been soaked, the strands stuck to his forehead. When he stood up, his muscles were sturdy
and his arms were powerful as he hugged A-Ka. Their skin pressed against each other as he
had A-Ka move into a sitting position by the side of the pool.
“You wash first…” A-Ka was still a little out of it, and Heishi interjected, “Come in ba.”
A-Ka stared dumbly at Heishi as Heishi rose from the water, walking to one side to get the
soap. He understood; just now, Heishi had been lying in the water, but A-Ka hadn’t seen
him at all, and with one step he trod on Heishi’s thigh… the part at the base.
“I can do it myself.” A-Ka couldn’t resist sneaking glances at Heishi. His physique was very
beautifully complete, just like a human built with the Golden Ratio in mind. The places that
were supposed to have a lot of muscle were not many, but the places where there weren’t
supposed to be a lot of muscle had just the right amount. His height was also exactly 182
cm, the very epitome of the ideal human.
His physique was more well-proportioned than the clones, and compared to the clones that
were mass manufactured, Heishi had an air of cordiality that was unique to humans. It was
the whiff of a man’s skin, and it was also the feeling that his body warmth gave to those
around him.
A-Ka said, “Were you nurtured according to the Golden Ratio model?”
“I don’t know,” Heishi said. “But I can confirm that my father’s features and physique were
all different from mine.”
“I feel that the Creator must have highly favored humans,” A-Ka smiled. “Or perhaps, it was
even partial to them, so it made you in the shape of humans.”
“Perhaps,” Heishi replied. “But I cannot confirm whether or not my father’s world also
experienced this era with humans.”
“It should have,” A-Ka responded.
A-Ka began to feel that humans were a very special species. Their emotions, their joy and
rage and their intelligence, were different from any other living being in this world.
Perhaps it was exactly because the Creator highly favored humans that caused Heishi’s
friendliness towards them - at least, it wasn’t like his interactions with the clones.
A-Ka hugged his knees, sitting in the warm water. He and Heishi each sat at one end of the
bathing pool, sitting there quietly just like that. A-Ka suddenly had a strong urge to move
up and lean on him.
Last night, that feeling of leaning against Heishi’s body to sleep was very good. His back was
just like a father’s broad back. Though A-Ka had never had a father, he felt a similar sense of
dependability from Heishi.
“Can I hug you?” A-Ka asked.
Heishi didn’t say anything, and A-Ka also felt that would be a little awkward. Because of this
sudden, strange desire, he couldn’t hold back his smile, and he said, “Don’t take it seriously,
I was just joking.”
“Alright, come over,” Heishi said.
A-Ka scooted over, and Heishi opened his arms. The two of them came into contact in the
warm water. A-Ka shivered a little, and when his fingers touched Heishi’s arm, he couldn’t
help retracting them. But Heishi grabbed his hand, pulling A-Ka towards himself, letting
him press that hand against his own chest.
In that spot, there was a heart that undulated rhythmically, and it was currently beating
powerfully and firmly. This was the first time that A-Ka had touched someone else’s body
just like this, and a strange feeling rose in his heart.
His breathing quickened as he stroked Heishi’s muscular arm in the water. His shoulders,
arms, abdomen, and legs were all touched by the silky feeling of flowing water, but his
muscles were firm and powerful. A-Ka approached him, hugging his waist, leaning on his
body.
They pressed together, naked, and in that instant, A-Ka felt that sudden, unexpected feeling
of safety, as if he had found some sort of a home to return to in his life.
“Father,” A-Ka murmured.
Heish didn’t speak. This was the second time that A-Ka had felt it. The last time was in the
depths of “Father”’s thoughts, when he was facing that silhouette of light.
“It’s father…” A-Ka’s breathing almost stopped.
Heishi responded quietly, “You’ve felt it.”
A-Ka raised his head in disbelief, but Heishi reached out a hand to rub his hair, saying, “This
was bestowed by the Father of All Things, and through the male hormones, heartbeats, and
the flow of blood, it has the effect of calling humans.”
“What is it used for?” A-Ka murmured while watching Heishi’s eyes.
“It doesn’t have any use,” Heishi said. “It’s just a scent that he left on my body. It has
nothing to do with me.”
“Will you let me hug you like this for a while?” A-Ka asked.
“I will,” Heishi responded calmly.
A-Ka hugged him quietly, and Heishi pulled his arms to the side, leaning slightly back.
Placing his elbows against the side of the tube, he allowed A-Ka to lie in his arms in that
embrace like a newly-born infant.
A moment later, Heishi dabbed a little mixed flower balm from the scent box to one side
onto his palm, spreading it, before holding A-Ka with one arm, pressing his other hand
against his head.
A-Ka’s heart was filled with peace. He didn’t say anything, merely feeling Heishi’s warm
palm rub over his neck and back, spreading the flower balm all over his body. A moment
later, Heishi, still hugging him, sat up, before shifting A-Ka so that he sat in Heishi’s
embrace in front of him.
A-Ka’s breathing quickened, and his skin grew bright red as he leaned on Heishi’s body,
panting harshly. Something seemed to be germinating and sprouting in his heart.
Heishi cleansed his entire body for him, before beginning to rub his fingers through A-Ka’s
bangs.
“Thank you.” A-Ka already felt a little dizzy, and Heishi lifted him up out of the water,
saying, “When blood rushes upwards, it’s easy to get dizzy.”
A-Ka was carried out of the bathing room. Heishi tossed him some clothes, letting him put
them on, as he put on his own.
When they left the hallway, traces of that warm feeling were still left in the depths of A-Ka’s
heart. He turned his head to look at Heishi, trying to hold hands with him. Heishi let his
fingers relax, allowing him to hold his hand. When they came to the end of the hallway,
Heishi curled his fingers up slightly, grabbing A-Ka’s hand as he pushed open the door.

Music began to sound. Within the large golden hall, Moran was currently administering
treatment to Percy’s eyes, and when he heard the music, he lifted his head and smiled. “We
welcome you, Son of God.”
Translator's Note:
moon: the entire tl team: DADBLOCKED DADBLOCKED

This chapter is migrated and/or formatted by our fellow chicken enthusiast(s), moon.

“If you could sacrifice yourself to let everyone survive, would you go?”

Translator(s): moon
Editor(s): jelly
On one side of the temple, the bright, warm sunlight scattered down, coating the earth
below, its rays giving the humans that soaked it up a sense of languid comfort. Upon seeing
Uncle Moran, A-Ka immediately remembered that period of time when they had first left
the City of Machines, spending their days together on the ship, all of them in the same boat.
In his surprise and happiness, he let out a loud shout and rushed up to hug Moran.

Angus and Huixiong were each standing on one side behind Moran. Before this, it seemed
like the two of them were disagreeing over something, but they had been interrupted by A-
Ka’s arrival. A-Ka, his hands pressed against his knees, bent over to look at Percy’s eyes,
before raising his head to ask Moran, “Can you cure him?”
“I will do my best,” Moran answered, after a period of pondering. “Percy was born blind, so
my plan is to first have him recover a little bit of sight. If he is able to sense light and dark,
then that is basically the first step to success.”
Percy closed his eyes and smiled gently. “Actually, I’m not that urgently wishing to see
things. As long as everyone is well, then it’s alright.”
“Yes,” Moran smiled back. “But if we don’t treat your eyes, then very easily, you’ll have even
more problems to deal with… Alright, it’s good for now.”
A disciple carried a tray over, and with A-Ka helping Moran, they tied bandages over
Percy’s eyes. A-Ka asked curiously, “Will this alone make his eyes able to see things?”
“No,” Moran smiled. “It’s just a preliminary preparation. If I could use herbal salves alone to
treat his blindness, then I wouldn’t need to be the pontiff anymore. I could just change
professions and go cure people of their illnesses.”
“You’re the pontiff!” A-Ka and Percy shouted surprisedly at the same time.
Moran, “Shh…”
“You are too humble, Your Majesty,” Archbishop Igor replied. “The medical skills of the
pontiff are renowned throughout this entire mainland. I believe that curing him will not be
difficult.”

No matter what, A-Ka would never have imagined that the wandering bard he met on the
ship was actually the pontiff of the entire continent. In his eyes, his perception of Moran
grew quite a bit better. The corners of his mouth twitched; this was the first time in his life
that he had met such an important figure, and he was suddenly overcome by a feeling of
vertigo.

“You-you-you… Uncle Moran, you’re actually…” A-Ka hadn’t recovered from his shock yet.
“I’m just the caretaker of a small city,” Moran said warmly. “How many people do you think
still believe in the Star faith right now?”
Moran rubbed A-Ka’s head, before leading him and Percy to the long table, indicating that
they should sit down there. Heishi walked over towards them. Moran pressed one hand
against the left side of his chest in a salute, but Heishi only responded with a single nod.
Moran then said, “Everyone, please partake of the midday meal. No need to stand on
politeness, my honored guests.”
The guests took their seats and enjoyed a sumptuous meal. Heishi said mildly, “You guys
keep talking, no need to pay attention to me.”

But Moran responded, “I believe their rage has already completely died down.”
Huixiong put down his knife and fork, but just as he was about to speak, Angus said, “Your
Majesty, Phoenix City is not as peaceful as you imagine it to be. The humans and our
brothers have already reached..."
“I assure you that after this matter is settled,” Moran said patiently, “the conflict in Phoenix
City will no longer cause any more problems for you all. If everything goes smoothly, then
the current situation which is causing despair for all of the inhabitants of the mainland will
be changed for the better.”
Huixiong suddenly spoke. “Place that hope on their shoulders. I myself am more than
willing to go do battle with ‘Father’.”
A-Ka, “?”
“You will get that chance,” Moran said mildly. “The humans and the clones must be united.
After this long, difficult battle, this is the single chance that will bring about the final
outcome.”
A-Ka asked, “Uncle Moran… no, Your Excellency the Pontiff, I would like to ask, about
‘Father’...”
With a glance, Moran indicated that A-Ka should not say any more. A-Ka then adopted an
expression of intense concentration on his next words, but Moran began to chuckle, saying,
“I would rather still have you call me Uncle.”
A-Ka smiled. “Alright.”
Just at this point, Feiluo came over and took his seat, nodding at him. “Thank you for
watching over them on the ship, Your Excellency the Pontiff. It was a temporary oversight
on my part, I hope you do not mind.”
“Hello,” Moran replied politely. “I’m only a traveler who wanders the edges of the world.
I’m very honored to be able to offer my services to Percy, Lieutenant Colonel Feiluo.”
A-Ka felt that there was some kind of tacit agreement between Moran and Feiluo, and from
there he connected it back to that day, when they were on the ship drifting over the ocean
towards the Western Mainland. What Moran had done in the ship’s cabin - this meant that
perhaps they had met before.
Heishi seemed to be able to guess A-Ka's suspicion, and he asked casually, "What were you
going to the City of Machines to do?"
"To take a look," Moran replied easily as he took the bread he was handed. "I entered the
City of Machines and witnessed your revolution."
A-Ka was surprised. "You've also been inside?"
Moran nodded. "Originally, my goal was to rescue Professor Callan, but unfortunately I was
one step too late, and something changed in my travel plans as well, which caused my
entire plan to be entirely overturned."
Feiluo answered, "No matter what, I should still thank you for saving Percy."
"It was as simple as lifting my hand," Moran said easily. "Percy's power caused me to be
very surprised, since his dreams often foretell the future. Percy, have you been having that
dream lately?"
"Not anymore," Percy answered lightly.

A-Ka's entire body shivered once, uncontrollably, and even Heishi was very taken aback. He
asked, "You can see the future?"
Percy nodded, and Feiluo's gaze held a slight bit of blame as he looked towards Moran.
A-Ka thought of the days when he and Percy had been travel companions on their journey
away from the City of Machines. Percy indeed accidentally told him many things about the
future. The deepest impression he had was that day when they were sheltering for the
night in the tunnel, Percy had figured out the identity of Shahuang who had come to search
for them.
"No need to worry while you are in the Curia," Moran said.
But Commander Angus said, "Feiluo, your adopted child can actually see the future?"
"Only sometimes," Moran said not very politely. "It's not a good thing. Commanders,
everyone, I would rather Percy not need to say anything."
Huixiong then asked, "In this war, is there a chance of us attaining the final victory?"
Percy didn't say anything, and Moran replied, "Let's stop here, everyone."
Moran nodded politely. Clearly, he was unwilling to let Huixiong ask any more questions,
and when he rose, he added, "I believe that after Percy's eyes are healed, he will no longer
be visited by these kinds of prophetic dreams any more."
"This isn't fair!" Angus protested. "Why aren't you letting him tell us the final outcome? If
he really can see, and his dreamscape can predict a destined future…"
A-Ka suddenly interjected. "If his prediction told you that you would lose, then would you
no longer fight this war?"
No one said anything, and after a long while, Huixiong began to smile.
"Interesting," Huixiong said. "Then we'll act according to the previous plan."
Angus said, “I need to gather the opinions of my troops.”
Moran said, “I will give you three days to prepare. Archbishop Igor, please send them back
to Phoenix City right now.”
Huixiong nodded, and under Igor’s lead, he and Angus left the Hall of Faith. Moran was
silent for a long time, before he said, “Everyone, I need a formulated plan to follow for the
general offensive on the City of Machines.”
A-Ka nodded. He knew that Moran must have had his own things to worry about, so he bid
his farewells and left the table. When he passed through the hallway, he and Percy stopped
in their tracks. He had some questions he wanted to ask, like what exactly Percy’s dreams
looked like, or if he had hidden anything from them, things that he hadn’t said yet.
“Percy,” A-Ka said. “Your shoelace is untied.”
“Huh?” Percy turned around. In the hallway, there was only the two of them. He sat down
on a bench, and A-Ka took a knee as he helped Percy tie his shoelaces, patting his shoulder,
saying, “You seem to have never mentioned your dreams to me before.”
“Uncle Moran told me not to,” Percy responded lightly. “Ever since I was small, the villagers
treated me like a demon. They were terrified of me seeing their deaths.”
“Could you see them?” A-Ka tied Percy’s shoelaces for him, before sitting down next to him.
Sunlight streamed down from the clear sky, turning the flower garden into a sea of golden
splendour, and the golden flower sea swayed slightly under the faint breeze.

A-Ka asked, “How did you and Uncle Moran meet?”

Percy replied, “When daddy went to join the war, he left me in the care of the human
habitat in the army camp. I had a dream, and I dreamed that they lost the battle. There was
a very large ship that slammed into a pointy tower. Daddy’s ship crashed on the barren
plains and turned into a ball of fire. He led the humans to escape as they all ran into a
valley, before they were mowed down by an airship’s machine guns.”
A-Ka’s breathing seemed to almost stop, and in that instant he felt that the blood coursing
through his veins was like ice.
“Then what?” A-Ka asked.
“Later, he appeared in a laboratory in the City of Machines,” Percy said. “His body was
opened up, and a chip was retrieved from his brain. He died. But after the chip was
removed, I dreamt again that he turned into a ball of fire.”

A-Ka remembered the first time he had seen Feiluo. That time, he and Heishi were resting
on the mountain, and they happened to run into Feiluo, who was leading a bunch of
humans. He comforted Percy, “Your dream wasn’t accurate, Feiluo didn’t die.”
“En,” Percy said, smiling. “Uncle Moran told me that too. He said that the future is
undetermined, and the past is undetermined as well; the only thing that is determined is
the present. That was a proverb of the ancient philosophers.”

Dimly, A-Ka felt that there was something not quite right with Percy’s dream. Was it
because he wasn’t in it, or was it because Heishi wasn’t in it? That day, when they met
Feiluo, if A-Ka and Heishi weren’t there, it was possible that the outcome awaiting Feiluo
would indeed be getting captured and taken back into the City of Machines.
“What else?” A-Ka asked.
Percy thought for a moment, before replying, “When I was by your side, I also often
dreamed of a young man who was fiddling around with some strange mechanical devices…
I didn’t know what that was. The day that we spent crossing the great ocean on the ship, I
also dreamt of the scene today, where we were sitting in the hall, eating lunch with Uncle
Moran.”
“Were there any involving Heishi?” A-Ka thought of that mission that they were going to
carry out, which was filled with changing variables.
“No,” Percy said. “In my dreams, he never appeared. But there was once, when I was awake,
that I heard two voices, I felt that those were probably you two…”
“What were we saying?” A-Ka asked.
“It seemed to be something about a large airship,” Percy said. “A mothership, and ‘Father’,
and a person called Libre.”
“General Libre?!” A-Ka asked. “We were actually that close to each other?”
Percy said, “I don’t know, that voice seemed to sound like you, but it also wasn’t very much
like you. It was a little hoarse, and there was the sound of static.”
A-Ka, “??”
Percy continued, “The dreams that I have, most of them are extremely fragmented, and now
there are many things that I can no longer recall. Actually, I’m most worried about daddy.”
A-Ka comforted him. “It’ll be alright. He’s already escaped that death, and he won’t be in
any more danger. Did you dream of him again after that?”
Percy thought for a bit before responding, “Not anymore.”
A-Ka loosed a sigh and said, “Then that’s good. How about me? Did you dream of me?”

“I constantly have one dream,” Percy said. “In the dream, it’s a patch of glowing blue, and a
person walks into that ocean of blue.”
“And after that?” A-Ka asked anxiously.
Percy leaned on A-Ka’s shoulder, asking, “Do you know what that blue light is?”
A-Ka held his breath. He knew that no one could be more clear on that than him.
“That is ‘Father’’s consciousness,” A-Ka said. “Was there anything afterwards? After the
person went in, how was the blue light?”
Percy answered in a small voice, “After that, that person never came out again. There was a
very tall, pointy tower that collapsed, and all of the clones collapsed, completely paralyzed.
A great fire burned the entire city… Afterwards, it rained, and the rain extinguished the
flames. Grass and trees grew from the ruins.”
“... And there were many humans. They walked out from under the ground, returning to the
surface of the earth,” Percy said.
“That person, what did they look like?” A-Ka asked nervously.
Percy lifted his head. His eyes, covered with cloth, turned towards A-Ka.
A-Ka asked, “Was it a man with black hair and black eyes, very tall… with a really good
build…”
“No,” Percy answered. “I didn’t know who he was because his silhouette was very blurry.
The person you speak of, is it Heishi?”
Even A-Ka’s voice was shaking a little as he responded quietly, “Heishi wants to confront
‘Father’ to end all of this. I’m very afraid, afraid that he’ll sacrifice himself… I don’t know
why, but I keep feeling that he’s made his preparations to never come back.”
“No, that person wasn’t him,” Percy smiled faintly. “A-Ka, don’t worry. Though I haven’t
seen what Heishi looks like, I feel that that person shouldn’t be him. Because, in my dreams,
Heishi has never appeared, you know? Even on that night, when the clones and the humans
were battling, I had a dream, a dream of when Uncle Moran would come to save us…”
“... So it was that dream sequence that reminded you?” A-Ka smiled.
“Yes,” Percy answered. “After I woke up, I sent a message to Uncle Moran. I also dreamed
that we all got on the airship, but of the people who climbed onto the ship, there was still
no Heishi.”

A-Ka was silent for a while, before he suddenly realized that something wasn’t right.
“The person who walked into the blue light, was it a stranger?” A-Ka asked.
Percy didn’t say anything, and A-ka immediately understood.
A-Ka said, “That person was me, right?”

The medicine spread over Percy’s eyes was wetted by his tears. He hugged A-Ka, and in
that moment, A-Ka couldn’t summon up any words at all.
“If you could sacrifice yourself to let everyone survive,” Percy replied, “A-Ka, would you
go?”
A-Ka was silent for very, very long. He lifted his head, rubbed Percy’s head, and responded,
“Yes, I would.”
This chapter is migrated and/or formatted by our fellow chicken enthusiast(s), moon.

“As early as a year ago, the day when I left Dragonmaw City..."

Translator(s): moon
Editor(s): jelly
For some reason he didn’t know, A-Ka’s horror and fear towards death was already no
longer as intense as it had been in the beginning. After going through that struggle to
escape annihilation with Heishi, and after leaving the City of Machines and arriving in
Dragonmaw City, everything that he had seen, without a single exception, was displaying
what little life force was left in this world.

If it was up to him to choose, he would not be willing to live in a world like this. Instead,
before he left, he would rather leave behind a beautiful world, just like the world that he
had always wished for, so that everyone who would continue to live would be a little
happier and be able to enjoy a good life.
“I also would,” Percy smiled. “As long as Daddy is able to live well, I would be willing.”
A-Ka thought of Heishi, and his heart throbbed once with pain.
“But without you,” A-Ka responded, “He wouldn’t live well. Thankfully, you also do not need
to shoulder this duty.”
But Percy responded, “I feel like it is easy for changing variables to appear in my dreams.
Before Uncle Moran met me, I kept feeling like I was a person who brought misfortune to
those around me. But slowly, I began to realize that the future that the dreams foretold
could be changed.”
“Because your dreams didn’t have Heishi in them,” A-Ka answered. “Now, I believe that the
future can be changed.”
“Hopefully,” Percy said readily.

Feiluo hurried over along the hallway, asking, “What are you guys talking about?”
A-Ka rose. Percy didn’t say anything else. Feiluo spread his arms and hugged Percy, rubbing
his head and asking, “Do your eyes feel uncomfortable?”
Percy smiled. “They’re cold. Uncle said, after a few days, he’ll operate on me. He says that
after the surgery, I’ll be able to see.”
Feiluo nodded, before saying to A-Ka, “His Excellency the Pontiff has something to say to
you.”
As A-Ka left the flower garden, he turned his head and looked back into the distance, only
to see Feiluo hugging Percy, the two of them sitting on the bench, quietly talking to each
other as they gazed at the sea of flowers.

Even if he finished walking down this path to perish alongside ‘Father’, if he could let
everyone live happily, then perhaps it was worth it, much like how Percy and Feiluo were
just then.

When A-Ka walked into the Pontiff’s study, he saw that Moran was currently mixing a
bottle of medicine, while Heishi stood to one side, raising his head to study the books on
the bookshelves.
“... This kind of path you’re traveling is in fact of great concern.” Moran only nodded
towards A-Ka, before continuing to explain. “I imagine, no matter who it is, they would have
no way to change a fate that has already been destined. This is indeed something that is
difficult to accept, it is an unhappy experience.”
Heishi answered, “What would happen if fate was changed?”
Moran responded, “As soon as fate is changed, then the moment that you guys return, you
will find that the butterfly effect will have triggered all the following outcomes… Perhaps,
the next time you see Dragonmaw City, it will have already become ruins, or perhaps… I
will have already died.”

A-Ka stood there, completely lost, as he listened to the two of them talking, and he dimly
felt a sliver of unease.
Heishi didn’t say any more, and the study fell into a peaceful silence.

“What medicine is this?” A-Ka asked curiously.

“Anesthetic,” Moran answered. “For surgeries.”
Heishi said, “What did you want to tell A-Ka? Say it ba.”
“Please sit, A-Ka,” Moran said. “Feel free to serve yourself some coffee. Do you remember,
when you arrived here, your difficult problem that I mentioned?”
A-Ka walked to the side of the table to pour himself some coffee. He was still thinking about
the dream prophecy that Percy had told him about, but he didn’t know how to express that
to Heishi. If Percy’s dream was to become reality, and that was to say, the day that ‘Father’
was annihilated, when Heishi restarted the entire Astrolabe, he himself would return to
nothingness with ‘Father’.
When he heard Percy say it, A-Ka was very composed. He only felt that this wasn’t anything
special; dying like this was much better than being slaughtered by the mechanical guards in
the City of Machines that didn’t differentiate between black and white. But, without
knowing why, the moment he saw Heishi, he felt a little sad, and that small bit of
unwillingness to part grew.

“What’s wrong?” Heishi observed A-Ka and discovered his strange attitude.
“Nothing much,” A-Ka managed a smile as he shook his head. His eyes were aching a little,
but he said to Moran, “We only found two portions of the code to enter the Central System,
and there’s still one section on General Libre, but Libre is already dead.”
Moran nodded. A-Ka then asked, “I was wondering, perhaps there is a backup in
Dragonmaw City?”
When he got to this point, a thought flashed through A-Ka’s mind. Since Moran had gone to
the City of Machines as early as the time of the revolution, then could it be that he had a
backup copy of the code as well?
He watched Moran with anticipation, but Moran had guessed his thoughts. He smiled
slightly as he looked at A-Ka, saying, “It’s a great pity that I have to let you down. Though I
knew, from Percy’s dreams, that that total mobilization would end in failure, I did not
obtain any backup copy from General Libre.”
“Is that so,” A-Ka said dejectedly.
“Allow me to first ask you two a question,” Moran said. “If, after this is over, the two of you
are to be parted, and everything that you have done so far is not for yourself, would you
two be willing?”
Heishi looked at A-Ka with a question in his gaze.
A-Ka was a little lost, and Moran continued, “To restart the Astrolabe, perhaps… It’s just a
possibility, but it may cause you two to encounter a mishap. Not only would it change the
future, but the bigger possibility would be related to the past.”
Heishi answered, “I’ll listen to A-Ka’s response. He entreated me to give you humans and
clones a new world. A-Ka?”
“I…” A-Ka’s eyes turned bright red, and when he heard these words, he was no longer able
to control his own sorrow.

He walked forward, hugging Heishi tightly, burying his head in between his shoulders as he
sobbed quietly.
Moran put down the medicine in his hands and walked towards A-Ka, stroking his back.
“It seems like you are not yet prepared,” Moran said lightly. “Rest another day ba, we still
have a lot of time.”
“The general offensive is going to start three days later, right?” A-Ka asked, wiping away his
tears. “I am willing, I can do it.”

Moran watched A-Ka, as if he had long since known that he would respond in that way.
“The world will remember the price you two paid,” Moran said solemnly, placing one knee
on the ground. “Son of mankind, please allow me to express my greatest respects.”
A-Ka hurried to lift Moran up, saying, “No need for politeness, Your Excellency. Is there any
way to obtain that section of code that was General Libre’s?”

Moran returned to his position in front of his desk, explaining, “As you know, after the
materials from the Creator’s Laboratory went missing, one human created ‘Father’ and the
City of Machines, one human created the Country of Clones, and there was one more
person, who founded the Faith of the Stars.”
A-Ka responded, “Yes.”
Moran said, “The first pontiff of the Faith of the Stars, likewise, brought back a portion of
the Creator’s heart. We call it the Wish of the Tides.”
“What… what’s that?” A-Ka asked, confused.
Moran replied, “Technically, in our universe, time does not always flow forward.
Elementary particles can be found everywhere, and through their back-and-forth
vibrations, they generate a kind of energy. This energy pushes all physical objects to brush
through time, and from there they reach the other shore… I imagine, perhaps I’ll let you see
this first. You’ll be able to have a little bit more of a concept then. Please come with me, you
two.”

Moran opened a hidden door in the bookcase and led them through a silent corridor as they
walked towards the lowest level. This road was very different from the rest of the splendid
structures of Dragonmaw City’s Curia, entirely different from the standard.
The rotating stair led towards the depths of the earth. Moran took off his pontiff’s necklace,
which was a shining five-pointed star that lit up a small patch of ground in front of the
three of them.
“This is the Curia’s sacred ground,” Moran explained. “Only by using the key that ignites the
stars can we enter this place.”
Along the first segment of moving stairs that they walked through, in the darkness, the
various stars of the sky began to shine. The galaxy covered the silent darkness like gems
shining from a goose-feather down bed. They then began to flash in surges, sending thin
threads of white light towards them.
Squinting his eyes, A-Ka responded, “These are lethal lasers.”
“Yes,” Moran answered. “The first pontiff set up this place, and he accompanies me at my
side. Be as careful as possible in everything you do.”
A-Ka saw the lasers cross as they headed towards them, moving towards their bodies. But
Moran’s pendant seemed to have a strange power which deflected the dense laser beams. It
generated a warm, golden protective sphere that reflected back all the light that came
towards it.

In A-Ka’s eyes, though the lasers were densely packed and laid out complicatedly, it was not
impossible to pass through them. Of his own accord, Heishi took his hand and said, “There
are gaps in this laser array.”
“Only to you two,” Moran said very politely. “A-Ka’s eyes can see the structure of everything
in this world. That shot that Professor Callan gave him caused him to become the offering
that would enter the center of the planet. Everything and every object is within his ability
to willfully deconstruct.”

A-Ka jolted fiercely, thinking, so that’s how it was.

“An offering,” A-Ka murmured. “So that’s to say, I am an offering for God?”
“An offering for the Son of God,” Moran responded. “The ties between you and Heishi are
made up of unseen connections. It was because of you that he awoke, and likewise…”
“That’s enough, Pontiff.” Heishi interrupted Moran’s words.
Moran smiled. A-Ka, however, wanted to know what Moran was going to say next, and he
said to Heishi, “Let him finish!”
The hand that was wrapped around A-Ka’s own fingers tightened a little, and the gaze that
was turned on him held a little reproach. A-Ka could only say nothing else.
Moran said, “In the future, I’ll tell you, A-Ka. Right now, let us go take a look at the Wish of
the Tides. I trust that you’ll be able to figure out its intended purpose.”

Moran stopped in his tracks. They had already arrived at the center of the laser array, and
when they walked into an unseen perimeter, all the stars in the sky winked out in that very
instant, revealing the walls all around, which began to shine with a clean white light. The
ceiling and floor as well also began to glow with a milk-white light, like a white room
devoid of any decorations. The 360-degree light was everywhere, and it enveloped their
bodies.
In the middle of the room was a cryosleep chamber, which looked brand-new. A-Ka
exclaimed, surprised, “This was the same chamber that Heishi was in when he arrived on
the beach!”
“Yes,” Moran said. “If you take a closer look, is it exactly the same?”
A-Ka bent over to inspect the chamber, and he saw that on the outside of the chamber was
a shining plaque which was carved with the words “Heishi Z9925”.
“I can confirm that it’s exactly the same,” A-Ka said, pressing his hand on the lid of the
chamber. “Heishi, this is his name.”
But Heishi responded, “I originally had no name. It was A-Ka who, according to the writing
on the chamber, gave me a name like humans have.”

A-Ka focused his gaze on the interior of the chamber, and in an instant, the structure of the
chamber appeared in front of him: the oxygen supply, the sleeping system, as well as the
internal circuitry. This cryosleep chamber used a matter and anti-matter energy supply
that humans had no way to use, and it was enough to supply the chamber with the power it
needed to sustain life for a hundred thousand years.
But the pity was that its energy supply had already been drained, and it had no way to work
again.

Moran explained, “The first pontiff left the Primeval Heart inside it, escaping from the lava
passageway underneath the ground, passing through the deep sea and the seafloor of the
Western and Eastern Mainlands, before finally being brought to the shore.”
Moran pressed the five-pointed star necklace on the outer lid of the chamber, and the
chamber lid slowly opened, revealing the young boy sleeping soundly inside.
Heishi also felt a little taken aback as he asked, “He’s the…”
“Yes,” Moran replied. “He is His Excellency, the first pontiff. He has already passed away
many years ago.”
That little boy’s features were still as vivid as if he was alive, and clutched in his hand was a
ring-shaped object. Moran first knelt down on one knee in front of the chamber, quietly
saying a prayer, before plucking that ring from his hand and closing the chamber.

Moran handed the ring to A-Ka, who took it silently and held it up to the light to observe it.
This ring had a very complicated internal structure, and for the first time in his life, he felt
dizzy and befuddled as he looked at it. The power routing within the ring was wholly
dependent on the strange particle of light found in the microcosmic world of the gem inset
into the ring, which flickered.
“It’s like it’s living,” A-Ka murmured.
“Indeed,” Moran nodded approvingly. “In this, there exists a city.”
Heishi furrowed his brow slightly, and A-Ka exclaimed, surprised, “No wonder! There are
so many lives that exist in this single gemstone?”
“They are a kind of lifeform completely different from we humans,” Moran said as he
plucked off the five-pointed star necklace. “Or perhaps, the Creator made the world within
the gem and left it on this land. This gemstone has too many mysteries within it, and we are
unable to pry into them.”
A-Ka said, “In this gemstone, there is a kind of… one…”
A-Ka stared at that bright red gem, which had a crack in the middle. When he looked closely
however, he found that it was a strange structure.
“An emitter,” A-Ka murmured. “A particle emitter.”
Moran smiled and nodded. A-Ka returned the ring to Moran, saying, “A kind of helical
particle emitter, which can cause particles to generate their own spin as they circle around
the tower.”
Moran put the ring on as he took them away from the underground chamber. A-Ka asked,
“But what use does this emitter have? You need another one, one that is completely akin to
it, an identical receiver, to communicate with each other and create the energy needed to
jump. Or perhaps, in this world, there is another ring that is exactly like it?”
Moran answered, “You guessed right. This ring can shoot out energy, which can be received
by the other identical ring.”

Moran brought them out of the underground chamber and closed the secret door. A-Ka
then said, “I can’t figure out what this has to do with us obtaining that section of code that
Libre has.”
Moran replied, “It’s entirely the same thing, A-Ka. There is nothing in this world that is
exactly the same, especially in the microscopic world. The only thing that is completely
identical in structure to it is itself.”
A-Ka instantly understood. He exclaimed, “The it of the past!”
“Yes,” Moran nodded. “Use its power to jump, so that you two can return to the past. Do you
still remember the instant that we met on the boat?”
A-Ka immediately remembered it. When he had first met Moran, he had been wearing this
ring on his finger as well.
Moran explained, “As early as a year ago, the day when I left Dragonmaw City and headed
towards the Eastern Mainland, I was not comfortable with leaving the sacred relic in the
Curia, so I brought this ring along with me. This ring’s power is to be able to fix its own
position, so the you of the present can travel to the past and then find the Libre of the past
and attain his section of the code.”

No matter how exaggerated the words were, A-Ka had no way to express the shock in his
heart. He stood there for a long time, not making a single sound, as Moran continued, “Now,
I must converse with the lifeforms in the gem to confirm that they are willing to send you
guys back. In the span of this day, how about you and Lord Son of God first rest?”
Heishi asked, “When will we begin to carry out the mission?”
Moran thought for a bit, before answering, “We still have a lot of time left. After all,
interacting with the flow of the past will not be recorded in the current time. You two can
leave in the small hours of the last day, but I do not recommend that you do this. Of course,
you do not need to set off today. Today is the Festival of Spring’s Dusk, a night where all the
beings of this world flourish and grow. I suggest that you two take a stroll around the city.”
Heishi said, “Then tomorrow ba.”
Moran nodded, satisfied, before he made a “please” hand gesture. A-Ka’s brain was a patch
of blank white, and no matter what, he would never have guessed that Moran would use
this kind of method to resolve their problem for them.

Heishi followed behind them. As A-Ka walked, he came to a stop in the long hallway, raising
his eyes to look at Heishi. As usual, Heishi maintained that cold, calm expression on his face
- no matter who he was facing or what he heard, he always bore this poker face.
“You don’t want to go?” Heishi asked.
A-Ka fell silent for a long time, before he walked forward and hugged Heishi, leaning on his
body as if he couldn’t bear to part. In that instant, the light in Heishi’s eyes changed to
something different than what it was before. Complicated emotions gathered in his eyes,
and he lowered his head as if he wanted to say something, but he was unable to find the
words.
Finally, he only placed his hand on A-Ka’s head, just like Feiluo did to Percy.

“What happened?” Heishi asked. “From a little while ago, you were a little out of it.”
A-Ka searched his thoughts for a long time, before replying, “No, nothing.”
He mustered up a weak smile, and Heishi asked, “Are you afraid that it’ll be dangerous
when we return to the past?”
A-Ka said, “Uncle Moran said that he was afraid we would be met with a mishap.”
The corner of Heishi’s mouth quirked up a little, and he seemed to be trying to hide
something as he said, “Since you are afraid of mishaps, then you shouldn’t have agreed with
him in the beginning, isn’t that right?”
A-Ka, “...”
“That isn’t a way to resolve the issue at all, alright?!” All of the grief of parting that A-Ka felt
was gone now, but Heishi continued solemnly, “This isn’t like you.”
“This isn’t like me?” A-Ka didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. He asked, “Then what am I
like?”
Heishi walked to A-Ka’s side, turning his head to give him a look, saying, “That day, when
you stepped out of the crowd of humans, do you remember?”
A-Ka and Heishi stood face to face in front of each other. Heishi’s gaze was as familiar as
always, and it was no different than the expression that he bore that day when he stood on
the platform, the guns of the mechanical guards pressed against his head.
“I remember,” A-Ka began to smile.
Nonchalantly, Heishi used his thumb to point at himself, then used his index finger to poke
A-Ka’s shoulder, saying, “Believe in yourself, and believe in me.”
A-Ka’s dark mood vanished like fog under a rising sun, and he began to smile, saying,
“Alright, Heishi.”
This chapter is migrated and/or formatted by our fellow chicken enthusiast(s), moon.

“Because I like humans and because there are individuals like A-Ka within them."

Translator(s): moon
Editor(s): jelly, namio
That evening, A-Ka finished cleaning up his things. Carrying a small bag, he asked Heishi
who was lying on the bed, “The pontiff said that today is a festival, I want to go out to look
around. Want to go together?”
Heishi was silent for a moment before he nodded, and A-Ka went with him out to explore
Dragonmaw City.
Dragonmaw City had one major difference compared to Phoenix City: it was filled with
humans as far as the eye could see. Moran had given A-Ka some money, so now, he bought a
few things that he liked to eat. He really liked to eat the buttered crepes of this mainland,
but in Phoenix City he had always felt they were too expensive. He often bought some for
Percy to eat, but he was loath to eat some himself.
When he bought a crepe at the stall, he was salivating so much his saliva almost flowed out
of his mouth, but when he handed it to Heishi, Heishi only stared oddly at him for a
moment.
A-Ka stood in front of the stall, wolfing down the food; there were also fresh fruits in this
one. The sunset shed its rays on the long street, and he felt that if he could live like this
every day in the future, how lucky he would be.
Heishi said, “You really like to stay around the fellow members of your species.”
“This is called liking the liveliness,” A-Ka explained as he grinned. “I had once thought that
once you returned to Phoenix City, I would have to take you everywhere to see the sights.
Actually, Phoenix City is also pretty good, though it isn’t as good as Dragonmaw City.”
Heishi wore a pair of sunglasses as he walked through the market shoulder-to-shoulder
with A-Ka. There were quite a few hawkers shouting about their wares along the street,
and A-Ka stopped to look over them curiously, before buying a little something for Percy.
“Do you like this kind of life?” A-Ka asked.
“It’s alright,” Heishi responded after thinking for a moment. “You like them, because you
are the same as them, but I am not.”
Heishi’s words seemed to err on the side of more rather than less today, and A-Ka smiled as
he explained. “If you think of yourself as a human as well, then perhaps you won’t feel as
lonely.”
“Perhaps.” Heishi bore a strange expression as he passed by a girl selling flowers on the
side of the road, as if he couldn’t figure out why she would pluck the genitals of the plants
living in the wild to sell to her own people at a higher price. A-Ka bought a small voice
changer and a signal transmitter, and when he raised his head, he saw that Heishi was
judging the flower seller.
That girl’s face turned slightly red under Heishi’s attention, but she smiled. “Sir, do you
need to buy a flower?”
Heishi responded, “No.”
A-Ka thought that he was such a boring fellow. Just as he was arguing over the price with
the owner, Heishi knelt down on one knee in front of another stall, one of the ones in this
market that sold bracelets.
“Do you want one? Sir?” The owner smiled. “It’s only seven silver pieces!”
Heishi lifted one of the bracelets, looking at it with the sunset as its backdrop. Squeezing
over, A-Ka asked, “Do you want this? I have money, let me buy it for you.”
Heishi waved his hand, pulling out a small box from the chest pocket of his jacket. When he
opened it, there were multiple golden bullets of varying lengths stuck inside.
“I’ll use these to trade with you,” Heishi responded. “I only want one.”
The owner said, “This is a matching pair of bracelets, they’re a set, they’re not sold
separately!”
But Heishi responded, “I only want one.”
Seeing that the owner had no way to communicate with Heishi, A-Ka had no choice but to
say, “Let’s get them both, give the other one to me.”
Heishi shot A-Ka a look, before tossing a golden bullet towards the stall, picking up the two
bracelets and tossing one of them at A-Ka.

A-Ka felt that this fellow’s personality was really too strange, but he hoped that in the
future, if he were to interact often with humans, it would gradually change a little.
Neither of them knew the area, and since Heishi and A-Ka both didn’t know where they
should go, they walked through the market, one following after the other. When the setting
sun left a smear of a light purple glow on the distant mountain range, the bustling of the
market had reached its peak. Colorful lights were pulled criss-cross across the air above the
market streets of Dragonmaw City, and more and more people appeared, so A-Ka could
only hold Heishi’s hand in his own to prevent them from being separated.

A-Ka suddenly remembered that with Heishi’s personality, he didn’t seem to much like
interacting with too many people, let alone being pushed to and fro by the crowd, so he
hurried to say to him, “Sorry, you don’t like very noisy, bustling places, right?”
Heishi took off his sunglasses, glanced over at A-Ka, and responded, “I don’t mind.”
A-Ka said, “Let’s go back ba.”
But Heishi replied, “I really don’t mind. You like to stay here, so I’m alright with it.”
The backdrop behind A-Ka’s head seemed to be covered in black lines as he asked, “Is there
anywhere you want to see?”
Heishi responded, “There aren’t.”
A-Ka, “...”
A-Ka actually really enjoyed this kind of cozy cityscape, because it gave him a feeling of
beauty and vitality, but Heishi clearly didn’t even care for it half a whit. He only came along
to accompany A-Ka window shopping.
“Actually, you can’t keep being like this,” A-Ka said. “If we’re no longer together, how will
you live your life?”
Heishi’s eyebrows furrowed prettily, as if this was the first time he had thought of this
question as well. A-Ka then smiled as he said, “You’ll always need to interact with humans
as long as you live on this earth, isn’t that right? I always feel that you don’t like us.”
“No,” Heishi responded. “To me, humans are about the same as trees, birds, or insects.”
“That’s why this isn’t right.” A-Ka turned his smile upon Heishi. “You actually are the same
as humans, isn’t that right?”
Heishi said, “I guess.”
A-Ka really could not win against him, so he said, “Are you hungry? Let’s go eat dinner?”
Though Heishi didn’t care one way or the other, compared to when they had just met, he
was much more open. At least, he no longer had a constant aura of keeping everyone at
arm’s length. A-Ka found a restaurant set up on a terrace, and he and Heishi sat down.
“What do you want to eat?” A-Ka asked as he looked over the menu.
“Whatever.” Heishi was watching the multi-colored scene of the street outside in a daze,
and without even thinking about it, he handed the problem of ordering the dishes to A-Ka.
A-Ka was also not very clear about what was good, so he could only order two of the same
meal. Before, in Phoenix City, he had always thought about going to a restaurant to eat a
meal, but he had been very poor, and there hadn’t been a chance. He constantly thought
that when Heishi came, he would definitely take him along to see the world of the humans
and experience a few things that he’d never experienced before.
Now at least, his wish was fulfilled, but it was under this kind of helplessly laughable
circumstance.
The waiter filled their glasses with wine and lit a candle. A-Ka used his fork and knife to
begin cutting up the steak, and after Heishi watched for a while, he directly picked up the
entire piece with his hand, taking a bite out of it like he was chomping a biscuit.
“...” A-Ka was wholly blindsided by those bold actions.
Heishi: “What?”
A-Ka gestured for him to put it down, before using his own knife and fork to cut the steak
up into small pieces for him. As Heishi watched the outside, he carelessly picked up small
pieces of the steak, putting them into his mouth to chew on.
A-Ka said, “Sometimes, I’m very curious. You don’t often speak, so what are you thinking
about then?”
“I’m thinking about what you just told me,” Heishi said.
A-Ka asked, “In your eyes, am I also no different from a tree or a bird?”
Heishi turned his head and gave A-Ka a look. A-Ka seemed to have already understood his
reply from that alone, and the fight went out of him as he said, “Alright.”
He always thought that to Heishi, he was different. After all, ever since that day when he
had found Heishi in the ocean, they had always been together. Having traveled together for
this long, Heishi’s attitude towards the others seemed to be different from his attitude
towards A-Ka.
A-Ka said earnestly, “To the Son of God, the Savior of the World, I don’t hold out any wild
hope that I would be any different from the flora… I only feel that perhaps there will come a
day when I will die.”
At this time, Heishi finally turned his full gaze on A-Ka.
“You will die, yes,” Heishi nodded.
A-Ka said, “I’m not entirely sure about your body’s structure. Perhaps, with your status,
you’re immortal?”
Heishi thought for a moment, before replying, “I don’t know.”
A-Ka said, “If you don’t try to make a few friends, then… after I die, there will be no one to
take care of you.”
He continued, a little sympathetically, “Or, say, if I were to die of an illness, or if… I was
sacrificed for the greater good. I wouldn’t mind, because I would be dead, but you might
feel a little lonely.”
Heishi also said sympathetically, “You should first take care of yourself.”
A-Ka really wanted to toss the table napkin to one side and not humor him anymore. But,
after thinking about it, Heishi was indeed very obtuse when it came to human emotions. Of
course he didn’t understand the fetters between people. In the end, after thinking about it,
he decided not to pick this bone with him.
Heishi’s hands were covered with the steak sauce, and when he got to the end, he said, “No
more, the flavor’s too strange.”
“There’s no way this flavor can get any better, alright?” A-Ka asked.
Heishi took a look at the steak with red peeking through, saying, “I don’t like to eat raw
things.”
A-Ka saw that the steak was about 70% done, and he asked, “This flavor’s really good, why
don’t you eat raw things?”
“If it’s raw, it means that there is still life left in it,” Heishi responded.
Sometimes, A-Ka really didn’t know what kind of logic Heishi operated on. He said, “If you
won’t eat it, then give it to me, don’t waste it.”
Heishi then used his fingers to pick up a piece of steak and feed it to A-Ka. Just as A-Ka was
about to rise to get the bill, he ate this piece of steak, sucking and licking the sauce off
Heishi’s fingers. In that instant, Heishi’s movements suddenly grew a little stiff.
“You…” Heishi’s breathing immediately sped up.
“I’ll go get the bill,” A-Ka said.
Heishi’s expression was a little not right, as if he was in a daze. A-Ka felt that this had come
out of nowhere, and he waved his hand in front of Heishi’s face, but Heishi immediately
came back to himself. His fingers rubbed against each other as he let out a sound snap.
A-Ka smiled. “You even know this?”
Heishi answered, “I saw that Huixiong and the rest all did it like this.”

Heishi paid for the meal. Outside, on the streets, the crowd had grown even denser. Some
tens of thousands of people were all flooding onto this single street, as if they were going to
attend some grand ceremony. A lilting flute melody came floating through the night air; it
was a very famous old tune called “The Shepherd’s Spring”. The people outside danced and
sang to the music, following the flow of the crowd as they all flooded towards the huge
plaza in front of the church.
“Feiluo--” A-Ka shouted.
Feiluo was very tall, and Percy was riding on his shoulders. Percy’s eyes were still
blindfolded, and Feiluo was probably afraid that Percy would be squeezed by the crowd,
which was why he let him sit on his shoulders.
“A-Ka!” Percy keenly heard A-ka voice, and he shouted, “Where are you?”
He turned his ear to try and figure out A-Ka’s location. The two of them were very far from
each other, so A-Ka hurried to say, “Piggyback me, Heishi!”
With no other choice, Heishi turned his body. A-Ka then clambered onto Heishi’s back,
shouting, “Feiluo! You guys also came!”
Feiluo, carrying Percy, answered, “Don’t come over! A-Ka! There are too many people!”
There were more and more people, and Heishi, still carrying A-Ka, was buffeted about by
the crowd into continuing to walk forward. When they arrived at the central plaza of the
Faith of the Stars, the lights had all been put out.
A-Ka let out a surprised shout, before he said quietly, “Put me down, Heishi!”
Heishi and A-Ka linked their hands as they stood at the edge of the plaza. In the next
moment, a vast silver river of stars began to shine in the sky, and the crowd began to cheer
loudly. There seemed to be a mysterious kind of power outside of the sacred hall. The stars
traveled across the sky, forming into all kinds of different images, before growing dim once
more.

“My dear citizens, happy Festival of Spring’s Dusk.” Moran appeared on the tall platform,
both his hands pressing down on the railings as he addressed the crowd below.
“I hope that the wind blows and the sun shines, the rain falls and the thunder booms, so
that all of the living beings on this land can grow and flourish…”
“I hope that the clouds gather and scatter just like our lives…”

Everyone pulled out a small cup from the space in front of their chest and lit the candle
within it. The plaza fell wholly silent, and only Moran’s voice was resounding to the
backdrop of the graceful music.
“I hope that all life flourishes…”
Moran prayed in a quiet voice, and the thousands of candles in the plaza lit up the faces of
all of the people there as they lifted their heads to watch the pontiff.
A-Ka glanced to the left and right. Just now, they hadn’t bought candles to attend this kind
of grand event, which was an unfortunate miscalculation, but Heishi said, “Hug me, A-Ka.”
A-Ka: “What?”
He thought he heard wrong, so A-Ka didn’t move.
Heishi reached out his arm, so A-Ka hugged him, and right after, with a “whoosh”, Heishi
shook open the golden wings on his back. They flew into the sky, circling once over the
sacred hall, before lightly landing, sitting on the railings up high.
“It’s too beautiful!” A-Ka sighed with admiration.
As they looked up from this not very tall building, the glow of the individual candles turned
into a sea as Moran stood under the light of the stars, praying in a quiet voice.
“En,” Heishi answered casually, before he placed one leg on the railing. Without looking
down at all, he lowered his head to fiddle with the bracelet that he had just bought.
Moran’s voice traveled to them in the distance. After listening for a while, A-Ka shifted his
focus to Heishi’s bracelet, where he found that Heishi was trying very hard to inlay a piece
of something black onto the bracelet.
“Did you want to decorate it a bit?” A-Ka asked.
Without even lifting his head, Heishi grunted out an en in response. A-Ka then said, “Where
did this piece come from?”
A-Ka scooted forward to take a look, only to see Heishi’s slender, long fingers holding a
crystal that looked like obsidian in the shape of those black iron wings that he spread to fly.
“Move over a little,” Heishi said. “You’re blocking the light.”
A-Ka, “...”
A-Ka could only stand to one side, at a loss for what to do. Heishi lifted his gaze to glance at
him, but said nothing before turning his attention back to adding the gem to the bracelet. A-
Ka watched for a bit; in the distance, the sound of Moran’s prayer had already become
indistinct, and from his little bag that he carried by his side, he pulled out the other
bracelet. With a simple soldering iron, he attached a signal transmitter the size of a button
onto the bracelet.
“Let me borrow that,” Heishi said.
A-Ka could only hand the soldering iron to him. Heishi’s fingers pressed against the iron as
he directly moved to turn it on, and A-Ka said, “Careful!”
A-Ka could even smell the scent of something burning as he hurriedly tugged Heishi’s hand
aside, only to find that his index finger had a blackened burn mark across it. He quickly
stuck it in his own mouth to suck on, and at that, Heishi froze again, before he tried to pull
his finger back a little stiffly. However, A-Ka didn’t let go.
A moment later, Heishi pulled it out, and his face was a little red as he asked, “Is this some
form of expression for you humans?”
“No, it’s only because you got hurt,” A-Ka replied.
Heishi said, “I can heal on my own.”
But A-Ka replied angrily, “Even then, you can’t do it like this! Doesn’t it hurt?!”
Heishi indicated for A-Ka to take a look at his finger, which had already healed as if it had
never been hurt in the first place. A-Ka gave up at that.
“It’s done.” Heishi was like a satisfied child as he admired the silver bracelet that he had
made, and he seemed to be a little taken aback as he said, “Even I can create.”
A-Ka said irritatedly, “Of course you can create.”
“Only you humans can create,” Heishi answered. “Aside from humans, other living beings
do not know how to create, which is why the Creator had always been searching for
lifeforms with the ability to create.”
“Is that right?” A-Ka seemed to dimly sense something, and he continued to ask, “Do no
other living beings know how to create?”
“They need to be given, or they need to spontaneously produce, some kind of chance,”
Heishi replied, gazing off into the plaza. “I also don’t know what that is. My heavenly father
never left this message in my memories. Perhaps even he didn’t know why intelligent life
forms possessed the ability to create,”
“Because of love?” A-Ka asked. “In the ancient poems and songs and records, I saw that love
can spur the creativity of humans.”
Heishi didn’t respond. A moment later, Moran’s prayer ended, and the crowd began to
cheer. This ceremony seemed to have come to an end, and the lights on the plaza were
extinguished.

“It’s for you,” Heishi and A-Ka said, almost in the same breath.

In that instant, A-Ka’s and Heishi’s expression held the same surprise. A-Ka held his
bracelet, and Heishi held the other one.
A-Ka couldn’t resist laughing, but Heishi was extremely serious, holding the bracelet with
his fingers as he nudged it towards him.
A-Ka said, “Let me help you put it on.”
He pulled Heishi’s hand over, fastening the bracelet on his powerful, sturdy wrist. And just
then, in the distance, a bright, clear sound broke through the sky.
A firework dragged a bright tail behind it as it rose into the night sky, and its piercing
whistle instantly roused the cheers of thousands of people!
With a huge boom, the firework exploded, lighting up their faces. Dumbstruck, A-Ka lifted
his head to watch the night sky, his joy running wild.
Heishi properly fastened the bracelet he gave to A-Ka, and the two of them lifted their
heads, watching blossom after blossom of colorful fireworks explode in the night sky. A-Ka
murmured, “How beautiful.”
There were more and more fireworks, and they spread over the entire pitch-black evening
sky. The flashes in the sky were like a dream, and as A-Ka turned his face up to watch, he
sank into that bright, blossoming reverie.
But, Heishi inadvertently turned his head, watching A-Ka’s expression. A-Ka watched the
show for a little bit before he found that Heishi was watching him, and at that he grinned at
him. “It’s too beautiful! Have you seen it before? It’s just like… just like…”
“The stars separating from each other, the birth of the universe,” Heishi answered. “My
heavenly father gave me that memory.”
“Yes!” A-Ka said excitedly. “That’s even more apt than a metaphor!”
A-Ka and Heishi sat shoulder to shoulder as the fireworks that lit up the night sky exploded
in front of them. Unable to resist, A-Ka turned his head once more to observe Heishi.
“If there comes a day when we have to separate,” A-Ka said quietly. “Would you be
unwilling to part with me?”
Heishi observed A-Ka, as if he had something to say, but in the end he didn’t say it. A-Ka
looked into his black eyes, into the depths of his pupils, where there was a gorgeous,
colorful light. He felt that this was like a grandiose, splendid play.

His heart trembled minutely at that, and even he himself couldn’t say what thought had
caused that movement. He closed his eyes, feeling Heishi’s gentle breaths.

This night, thousands of fireworks replaced one another in the sky, and the show lasted for
the length of an entire hour, lighting up Dragonmaw City like a white night. It wasn’t until
the very end that everything returned to their original silence. The glowing birds of late
spring swirled about in the city as the entire city gradually sank into sleep, and everything
fell into a peaceful silence.
Up high in the church, A-Ka leaned on Heishi, sound asleep.
When the first rays of light peeked over the horizon the next morning, Heishi walked
through the hallway, and Feiluo who followed behind him stopped in his tracks.
“I cannot confirm that you will succeed,” Feiluo said. “Although… work hard, Heishi.”
Heishi turned around, draped in his long windbreaker, his hands clad in fingerless gloves
stuck lazily in his pockets. At this point, he reached out a hand, and on his wrist was the
silver bracelet that A-Ka had gifted him.
“Thank you,” Heishi said solemnly.
Feiluo and Heishi gripped each other’s hands, their fingers squeezing tightly for a moment.
“Come back alive,” Feiluo said.
Heishi nodded and said, “I’ve now found that being human also isn’t bad.”
Feiluo began to smile, and he said, “You really are different from before.”
Heishi let out a whistle before turning and walking into the sacred hall.

At the same time, A-Ka put on his hat and came out of his room. When he passed through
the hallway, Percy ran out from one side, hugging him tightly.
“A-Ka,” Percy said. “You must return safely!”
A-Ka hugged Percy tightly. He was wearing a shirt and a pair of long pants, and when he
pushed up his sleeves, he revealed, on his wrist, the bracelet that Heishi had given him. In
the center of that silver bracelet was soldered a black gemstone in the shape of a tear, and
it gave off a minute purple glow.
“You too, do your best,” A-Ka said quietly.

He and Percy parted, and he headed towards the sacred hall, where he saw Heishi standing
there waiting for him.
The group of them walked into the sacred hall, where Moran was currently waiting for
them in the center. Archbishop Igor closed the main doors.
Moran said, “Feiluo, Shahuang, and Huixiong have already been sent back. Five minutes
later, which I will keep track of for you, you two will be sent back to the eleventh month of
last year, where you will arrive by my side. At this time, there are three more days left
before the revolution of the clones. The past me will assist you all in entering the City of
Machines.”
A-Ka had waited for a long time for this moment to arrive, and there was a kind of
indescribable, thunderous shock in his heart. The light shone down as he and Heishi stood
in front of Moran, as if they were holding a grave and solemn ceremony.
A-Ka took a deep breath and nodded. “I will do my best.”
Moran continued, “Since the past me is not familiar with the terrain within the City of
Machines, there is no guarantee that he will have all the required commands to open the
passageways. So… it will all be up to you, A-Ka.”
Heishi asked, “Is there anything we need to watch out for?”
A-Ka said, “Can we ask the past me and Heishi to help us?”
“No,” Moran’s expression changed slightly as he immediately spoke. “Aside from the me of
the past, you cannot maintain too much of a presence there. If you recall the day that you
escaped from “Father”’s city, did you know that the future you had returned?”
A-Ka immediately understood. Since he didn’t know of this matter, that meant that his
future and past selves had actually never met each other.
“Not only can you not seek assistance from your past selves,” Moran continued solemnly,
“you cannot even let them see you. You must avoid him, and you must be wary of any and
all reasons that could cause the revolution to fail. Every action that you take in the past will
set off a butterfly effect, and this effect can very possibly cause everyone in the present to
diverge from their own trajectories.”
A-Ka nodded. “If we’re spotted accidentally, then what would happen?”
Moran said severely, “It’s very likely that it would cause annihilation. Or perhaps, when the
two waves of energy flowing in opposite directions collide, then they will directly destroy
the entire world.”

A-Ka sucked in a deep breath, saying, “I understand, please begin ba… wait, that’s not
right!”
From Moran’s advice, A-Ka had deduced some inevitable result: the Moran of the present
had marked out the Moran of the past, because both of them wore this ring on their hands.
After A-Ka and Heishi returned to the past, they would meet with the Moran of that time…
which meant that before this, Moran had known about them returning to the past!
“Before you got on the ship… you already knew me,” A-Ka’s voice shook.
“Yes,” Moran smiled gently. “Before I boarded the ship, we were already friends.”
A-Ka’s surprise had no way to increase further. He continued asking, “Then about our
mission, did it succeed?”
Moran responded, “Whether or not your mission succeeded does not mean that you do not
need to work hard. On the contrary, if you fail, then you will induce changes in time, and
perhaps all of us will be destroyed. So no matter at what time, in what place, you need to do
your best, A-Ka.”
“I understand!” A-Ka replied. “Please begin ba!”
Moran said, “The process of being sent back to the past may cause you a little discomfort.
Bear with it, A-Ka.”
He turned the ring, and a beam of light enveloped A-Ka. With a weng, A-Ka instantly
disappeared.

In the sacred hall, there was only Moran and Heishi, standing face to face across each other.
After Moran’s ring sent away A-Ka, its light grew dim, waiting for the next recharge.

Heishi stared at the ground mutely. Within this short moment of peace, Moran opened his
mouth and said, “We must wait three minutes before I can send you back, Son of God.”
Heishi nodded and asked, “Will it cause any effects on A-Ka’s body?”
“It’s hard to say,” Moran said. “I also haven’t tested out activating the Desire of the Tides.”
Heishi lifted his eyes to look at Moran, who pondered silently for a moment, before he
smiled gently and asked, “I’ve always been curious about one thing, can I ask you a
question?”
“Ask,” Heishi only responded concisely.

Moran said, “According to the records on the Book of the Heavens, when the day
approaches when the Astrolabe petri dish is almost wholly polluted, the Creator will send
out the Son of God to carry out a purge... So that is to say, your duty is actually to…”
Heishi responded, “Cleanse everything on the petri dish.”
Moran answered, “Yes, last year, when I arrived at the Eastern Mainland and saw you for
the first time, I felt this was very out of the ordinary. Logically, the command our Heavenly
Father left in your memories should have been to kill all of the humans and end this
experiment.”
“Wu,” Heishi replied. “Is there a problem?”
Moran said, “What caused you… to decide to protect us humans and clones? Apologies, I do
not have any intention of inquiring after the matters on your mind…”
Heishi sank into a lengthy silence.

In the sacred hall, the shadows and the light fluctuated. Heishi lifted a hand. In that instant
all of the rays of light conglomerated, and their intersections stitched together vibrant,
colorful scenes, one after another, like paintings.

In front of the sea of tulips, the moonlight shone through the window frame into the room.
Heishi laid on the bed, and A-Ka sprawled on his front to one side, smiling as he said
something to Heishi.
“Because of A-Ka?” Moran asked calmly.
Heishi didn’t say any more. One hand swept across the air in front of him, and the imagery
instantly changed a thousand times --

-- Night in the sacred city, thousands of fireworks exploded in the sky as A-Ka, smiling,
handed him a bracelet.
-- Twilight of the Festival of Spring’s Dusk, A-Ka stood at the head of the street, wolfing
down a buttered crepe.
-- The moonlight shone down through the window frame; Heishi was lying down, and A-Ka
was sprawled next to him, saying something to himself.
-- Under the dark, gloomy sky of Phoenix City, A-Ka chased after Heishi, activating his
propeller device. From amongst the tens of robotic guards, he hugged Heishi by the waist,
and together they slammed into the glass skyscraper, glittering shards exploding outwards
and covering the sky.
-- In the sewers under Phoenix City, A-Ka slumped weakly in Heishi’s arms, tightly
clutching his hand.
-- In the long night, the black sea was like the roaring, gaping maw of a roiling beast; Heishi
sat next to a rock all alone, speaking into the transmitter, and his windbreaker drifted in
the sea breeze.
-- That day, in the City of Machines, Heishi stood on the tall platform, sweeping his gaze
over the unfamiliar humans beneath. Everyone’s expressions were cold and distant, and
their gazes were filled with horror.
“Wait!” A-Ka shouted loudly. “It’s me! The person this stranger is trying to find is me!”
Heishi watched this scene silently, without saying a word.
-- The tides of the black sea ebbed and waned, the clouds passed away and were born, and
the lid of the sleeping chamber opened. A-Ka’s surprised expression greeted him as he
carefully lifted him in his embrace.
-- A patch of blue light, like the waters of the vast sea, drowned him, and A-Ka’s lonely voice
walked into “Father”’s sea of consciousness.
“I wish that there was a person who could keep me company,” A-Ka murmured, “so I won’t
be this lonely.”

Heishi gave Moran a glance but didn’t speak as he walked into the blue light. The ocean-like
blue light turned into a warm purple glow, and Moran’s ring shot out a beam of light that
enveloped Heishi.
“Because I like humans and because there are individuals like A-Ka within them,” Heishi
answered, before nodding once to Moran. Moran pressed one hand on his chest in front of
his shoulder, bowing to Heishi in a salute.
In the light, Heishi’s silhouette slowly grew faint, before finally disappearing.

-- The fireworks replaced one another, blossoming splendidly in the sky. Underneath the
fireworks, A-Ka closed his eyes tightly, and Heishi gently kissed him.
Translator's Note:
moon: remember, readers, this is a no cp novel!

This chapter is migrated and/or formatted by our fellow chicken enthusiast(s), moont.

“But now, you’re like a human. You should thank A-Ka.”

Translator(s): moon
Editor(s): namio, jelly
Black clouds billowed in the sky. In the distance came uneasy tremors as A-Ka was spat out
by the gaping mouth of the cloud cover and lightning.
“Ahh--” he screeched within the wild winds.
“Brace for impact --” Huixiong’s voice said.
Ten thousand feet in the air, Huixiong spread his arms wide, his large body appearing
below the cloud cover as he shot towards the ground. Shahuang also shot out of an unstable
crack of time, a huge bazooka on his shoulders. The moment he placed the scope in front of
his eye, it was as if he had become a wholly different person. With one hand still stuck in
the pocket of his windbreaker, his lanky form was like a sharp blade emerging from its
sheath, shooting towards the earth below.
“Countdown to collision, twelve, eleven…” From his pocket, Shahuang pulled out a small,
finely crafted metal tube, pressing down a mechanism as he pointed it at Huixiong. With a
weng, a huge net made of something akin to spider silk wrapped around Huixiong, who
turned in mid-air. The great net shimmered with the luster of liquid as it exploded into a
parachute.
With an elegant flip, Shahuang flew towards A-Ka. A-Ka was shouting loudly from the force
of the wind on him; he had never expected that he would be plummeting straight down
from some thousands of meters in the air. Shahuang fought the fierce wind as he hollered,
“I’ve got you!”
There was almost no way for them to fight back against the wind. Several times it tried to
rip A-Ka away, but Shahuang tightly clung onto his wrist, latching onto him. Just as he was
about to open his parachute, there was suddenly a flash of black gold, and as Heishi flashed
by him, A-Ka had already been taken off his hands.
“AHHH --” A-Ka shouted loudly.
“My ears are going to go deaf,” Heishi said coldly. “Can’t you be a little quieter?”
As he finished his sentence, the metallic wings on Heishi’s back spread open, blotting out
the sky above and earth below. They acted like a glider as Heishi took A-Ka flying into the
dark horizon. In mid-air, they circled, and the mountains and the land below skimmed by
underneath them. In the distance, the tall tower of ‘Father’ was wrapped in lightning and
purple clouds, forming a vortex.
In that instant, A-Ka stared dumbly at the majestic Father. It was like a probe pointing
straight up at the universe from the vast land below, but also like a pitch-black god of
death. Millions of intelligent robots danced in the air around it, like worker bees in a
beehive.
“The backup formatter device, Labere.” Within Heishi’s eyes was reflected the sight of the
City of Machines as he said seriously, “It’s a little different from the impression in my
mind."
“Is that right?” A-Ka turned his head to look at Heishi, asking, “What’s different?”
Heishi only en-ed in response, not saying anything more, and with a dive, they flew towards
the earth below.
This was the western side of the City of Machines, where the marshy plains were covered
with a nerve gas to restrain those who would try to pass through there. Father’s regime
extended all the way to the Eastern Shore, with the exact intention of preventing the
humans from escaping.
Heishi hugged A-Ka as they slowly descended. In the sky, the white parachutes were like
white dandelions, and the two mercenaries flew towards the forest at the end of the plains.
Feiluo opened his glider, tailing Heishi as they spiralled downwards.
A-Ka could clearly make out a person standing near his feet - that was the Moran of the
past!
The gem on Moran’s ring was pointed inwards towards the center of his palm, and his palm
was splayed upwards towards the horizon. Thousands of strange rays of ions shot out from
the ring, creating a bright connecting line between the ring and the time tunnel in the sky.
“Is there anyone else?!” Moran shouted, bracing himself against the strong wind.
“There’s no more!” Heishi shouted back loudly.
A-Ka called out to him, “Uncle Moran!”
Moran smiled towards him and nodded. Without knowing why, when A-Ka saw the Moran
of the past, he only felt that he was both close and distant. After they landed on the ground,
they saw Shahuang and Huixiong dangling from the branches at the edge of the forest.
Half an hour later, the group stood on one side of a lake on the swampy plain, surrounding
Moran. After Moran finished his head count, he said earnestly, “Mercenaries, clones, and
warriors of unknown origin who come bearing prehistoric weapons, I imagine your
identities must not be ordinary, and this… child as well. Now, shouldn’t you each introduce
yourselves?”
“Your Excellency the Pontiff,” Feiluo said, “I am the lieutenant colonel of the 2nd Corps
under the command of General Libre, Feiluo.”
Moran looked at Feiluo and nodded, asking, “You used to be someone inside the City of
Machines?”
“My previous identity was that of a spy,” Feiluo said, pointing at his own head. “The chip
spurred me to contact my other comrades in arms during the Revolution of the Clones.”
“I recognize you,” Moran said to Huixiong. “President, and this individual… Shahuang of the
Hundred Battles.”
Shahuang smiled but didn’t make a sound, while Huixiong nodded.
“I’m called Heishi,” Heishi said simply.
“A-Ka,” A-Ka said, smiling as he introduced himself. In the beginning, he still found it a little
strange, but now he remembered -- the Moran of the past clearly didn’t recognize him, and
it wasn’t until he had climbed onto the ship heading towards the Western Mainland that
they had met for the first time.
“I’m a completely ordinary human,” A-Ka said. “I’ve come to help, to lead them into the City
of Machines, because I once lived there before.”
Moran smiled. “Humans themselves are already unordinary. My dear friends, tell me about
your plans ba, I’m not even sure why you all have come here. I merely received the message
from my future self saying that General Libre will activate an assault on all sides the day
after tomorrow, so I imagine we still have quite a bit of time left.”
With his hands clasped behind his back, Moran walked slowly across the plains, with
Huixiong and Shahuang acting like two bodyguards. As Feiluo explained the general course
of events to Moran, when he got to Heishi’s identity, Moran couldn’t resist giving A-Ka
another look.
“So I am the representative for the Clone Regime,” Feiluo said matter-of-factly.
“Commander Angus sent me here to help accomplish the mission this time.”
Moran didn’t pass any judgement on it. A-Ka said, “Uncle Moran… no, Your Excellency.”
“I really like that address,” Moran smiled. “You can just call me Uncle.”
A-Ka asked, “What have you come here for?”
Moran spoke. “According to Libre’s request, I’ve come to purify Father. They had me wait
here, but I imagine that since you all have brought the newest news from the future, then
the outcome of the revolution this time has already been clearly destined.”
He lifted his head and gazed toward the horizon. At this time, Heishi was still slumbering in
the cryosleep chamber, and A-Ka was still resting in the humans’ gathering area of the City
of Machines. Libre had yet to lead his squadron of people charging towards Father. Though
everything would still march forward inexorably, right now, there existed a strange
tranquility.
A-Ka thought about how one day later, tens of thousands of clones would leap onto their
mechas and battleships to rush towards Father like moths towards a flame, meeting a fiery
grave in this enormous city of steel. He couldn’t help feeling an unspeakable sadness.
Just then, Moran turned and bowed slightly to Heishi, saying, “Please allow me to represent
the humans to express our humble gratitude, Son of God.”
“No need,” Heishi said mildly. “Saving you all is not necessarily for the sake of the entire
species.”
Feiluo, Huixiong and Shahuang all looked at Heishi. A-Ka couldn’t resist laughing at that. He
knew that no matter what time, Heishi always had that disagreeable attitude, which more
or less would cause the people he interacted with to feel a little angry.
Moran said, “Tonight, we will need to make camp within the forest, and tomorrow we’ll
wait for a chance to sneak in. Until now, I haven’t been able to obtain a map of the interior
of the city, but let’s discuss that after we rest for a bit.”
Night fell gently over the land. A campfire was lit in the depths of the forest as Moran,
Huixiong, Shahuang, Feiluo, and A-Ka sat together, preparing food. Moran had brought
quite a bit to eat, which he benevolently shared with the rest of them. A-Ka then told him
about everything that had happened in that short year in the future, when they arrived at
Phoenix City and Dragonmaw City.
Heishi sat roguishly in a tree. His back was against the tree trunk while one foot dangled
from the branch, swinging languidly.
“Are you done?” Heishi asked distantly. “Not only are you verbose, you’re also loud.”
With one sentence, A-Ka concluded the narrative, and he rose and said, “It’s just like that,
remember not to tell anyone else.”
The rest all began to chuckle. Huixiong looked at A-Ka, then at Heishi, and said, “Heishi, if
there was not a necessity, I would never choose to work together with you.”
Feiluo said casually, “He’s just a ruffian. He isn’t able to take anyone else’s opinions on
anything.”
“Don’t say that.” A-Ka walked to the base of the tree, turning his head back to say to them,
“Heishi’s a good person.”
“I’m not a person,” Heishi said lazily.
Everyone else was at a loss for words. Heishi let down one leg for A-Ka to hug as he
clambered up the tree.
“You’re nothing good,” Feiluo said.
“You’re right,” Heishi replied, unconcerned.
Feiluo continued, “But now, you’re like a human. You should thank A-Ka.”
In that instant, A-Ka found that Heishi’s expression seemed to undergo some change, as if
he felt awkward. When he didn’t continue this topic of conversation, A-Ka was again a little
taken aback; Heishi actually could feel awkward?
Heishi could only pretend to not see as he scooted to the side, letting A-Ka have a little bit
of space to sit on. A-Ka was holding some food that Moran had given him, and he gave most
of it to Heishi. Heishi took a look at A-Ka’s eyes, before saying, “You eat it ba.”
“You eat,” A-Ka said. “You didn’t even get to have a little bit of a happy life in Phoenix City,
and you haven’t had the chance to try all the delicacies of the humans.”
“Delicacies.” Heishi found that his own thoughts were unable to connect up with A-Ka’s. He
originally wanted to let out a few scoffing lines, but with a flash of an idea, he changed to
asking earnestly, “Delicacies?”
“Percy really likes to eat the fresh coconut buns straight out of the oven from the shop on
the street corner,” A-Ka said. “And the coffee jelly outside the Municipal Tower.”
Heishi was wholly unable to understand this, so he en-ed neutrally. A-Ka then said, “After
the war is over, I’ll take you to some places. Let’s go together, is that alright?”
“Go where?” Heishi asked. “Are we going to eat things again?”
A-Ka said, “I once read in books before that this world has many precipitous mountain
peaks and islands out at sea. There is very beautiful sunlight, and places where the ocean is
so pristine that you can clearly see the sand under the water. There are forests that sing,
with many strange, odd beasts within, and there are also humans in many places, where
Father’s power is not yet able to reach.”
Very absentmindedly, Heishi grunted once as a response.
A-Ka finished eating his soda crackers and handed the paper to Heishi. On it was printed
the clear limpid snow lakes of the eastern mountain range, and he said, “This is a nice place.
When I was small, I always wanted to go there and take a look.”
“You learned these things from the educational materials?” Heishi asked.
A-Ka nodded and said, “Teacher Crankos was the human teacher that taught us the general
subjects. After he died, we could only read on our own, and when I was in the City of
Machines, I even made a pact with a few good friends that if we ever had a chance to leave,
we would definitely go to those places to look. To humans, those places used to be our
ancestral homes, our deities’ shrines, mountain ranges, vast oceans, and prehistoric
ruins…”
“I remember you had friends amongst the humans,” Heishi said. “Where you were was a
concentration camp for the humans.”
“Concentration camp?” A-Ka asked.
Heishi didn’t respond.
A-Ka sank into a prolonged silence.
“After we go back, can I go see how they are?” A-Ka asked. “The little kids that were in the
same living quarters as me.”
Heishi responded, “As long as there’s enough time, it’s up to you.”
A-Ka said, “If I saved them, what would happen?”
Heishi: “I don’t know, you should go ask Moran that.”
A-Ka glanced over at the pontiff in front of the fire in the distance, hesitating in his heart.
Heishi, however, guessed at what he was thinking, and said, “Not asking him is because you
also know that you can’t.”
Dejected, A-Ka was silent.
“You can save one person, but you cannot save multiple people,” Heishi said matter-of-
factly. “Even less so are you able to save all of the humans in the City of Machines. At this
moment, Father still holds victory in its grasp. Unless you destroy Father for Libre -- but
this is impossible, because when we left the City of Machines, Father had not been
destroyed yet.”
“If it was possible,” A-Ka murmured, “I would rather, in this battle… do my best to destroy
Father. That way, I can prevent so many things from happening…”
“But with that,” Heishi said, “the world would collapse, and the rules of the space-time
continuum would be broken. You’d best reconsider. As soon as you get the passcode to
open the door, leave immediately, otherwise Moran too will be dragged down by you.”
A-Ka didn’t say any more. He sighed and leaned back into Heishi’s embrace, going to sleep.
When the sky brightened the next day, Heishi shook him awake. Moran split breakfast
amongst them. A communicator in his hand beeped, sending news from the clones via an
irregular coded telegram.
“After we sneak past the city walls, we should be in the Western District.” A-Ka used a
branch to draw out the general sections of the City of Steel on the ground. This city was
built in the shape of a crown; the region of the Nucleus was built thousands of years ago by
humans, and its central point is Father’s tall tower.
“The Western District goes from here… to here.” A-Ka circled a large region, continuing,
“It’s the region where the mechanical lifeforms gather.”
“Wait a moment,” Huixiong said. “I do not mean to interrupt, but I must ask, how are we
supposed to get in?”
A-Ka looked at Huixiong in confusion, before looking to Moran. All of them sank into an
unsolvable dilemma.
“You continue talking,” Heishi said. “Don’t think about how to get in first.”
A-Ka could only continue in his explanations. “Let’s assume that everyone has already
entered the city, I won’t care about how we got in… Now we’re in the Western District. This
is the area where the mechanical lifeforms charge up, and where they exchange
communications, their acquisition terminals. Gathered in the outer city are about two
hundred thousand clones who provide all kinds of services for the mechanical lifeforms,
just like a small-scale community.”
“Any robots without duties will be on standby in the Western District,” A-Ka said. “To save
on power, Father sometimes wakes them up. No matter what, we cannot pass through this
area above ground. This is an area we have to avoid, but if we circle around the outside of
the Western District, there’s a gap.”
“Is it here?” Moran used his long sceptre to point towards a spot on A-Ka’s drawing.
A-Ka nodded. “Yes, this is the spare parts assembly plant, which is operated by the robotic
guards. Inside there is a conveyor belt that sends metallic plates, spare parts, and other
half-finished parts to the casting plant. We can follow the conveyor belt to the casting plant,
that’s the region where they refine and enhance the crude metal.”
A-Ka drew a line towards the north of the city, saying, “On the ground outside of the
molding plant, we’ll find a road around the biomaterial synthesis center that leads to the
Eastern District. The Eastern District is where the humans are gathered. After we arrive
there, we can use the central elevator shaft to make our way into the underground
passageways, then wait until the energy passageways start up to make our way to the
surface. We’ll wait for General Libre in front of Father’s Nuclear region.”
“Very well articulated,” Shahuang said. “This lecture sounds pretty good, and it’s clearly
thought out and spoken with a serious attitude. Though my identity is that of a bodyguard,
and how you all sneak onto the mothership is not something I care about, I still want to ask:
how will you all contact General Libre?”
Huixion and Moran looked towards Feiluo.
Feiluo said, “General Libre’s hiding spot is not something that will be given out to any of us,
otherwise the message will be very easily intercepted by Father, but I imagine that I can
use the chip in my head to contact him when the battle starts.”
“En,” Huixiong said. “And then kill him with one shot? Or are you going to let him open up
some device that allows you to see his brain, and while he’s at it also hand over his chip?”
Feiluo had also thought about this immensely important issue, and he said, “Perhaps we
can let him make a copy…”
Heishi said, “I’ll be in charge of doing this, and very willingly so. Let’s set out ba.”
But Feiluo said, “This is a duty that Angus has given me, no need for you to stick your nose
in.”
Heishi indicated that he had no need to continue. They all picked up their weapons, and
Moran, his scepter in hand, brought them through the swampy plains as they began to
sneak into the City of Machines. The walls of this city were not high at all -- after all, most of
the mechanical lifeforms were equipped with the ability to fly, and the only function of the
walls was to prevent the humans and clones from leaving this place.
“There are no sentinels,” Huixiong said as he stood on a large tree, looking into the distance.
“No.” A-Ka stood in a gap between the trees, quietly looking at the city walls that spanned
tens of thousands of meters. “The entire city wall is a huge sentinel.”
The black city walls were criss-crossed with marks, as if a special weapon was inset inside.
A-Ka walked out of the grove, to which Feiluo immediately said, “Wait!”
A-Ka waved his hand, indicating that it was fine, and under Heishi’s protection, he walked
towards the city wall. Extreme shock flashed through his eyes as the fully ten meter tall city
wall instantly became countless steel structures, splitting themselves up into individual
parts. Energy turned into glowing lines that flowed around the inside of the entire wall.
“Infrared scanners,” A-Ka said. “We’ll need to make a few preparations. Shahuang, do you
have a laser jammer?”
Shahuang tossed over a miniature anti-infrared jammer, which was made to be mounted on
a gun. In battle, it was used to camouflage from the mechanical lifeforms. A-Ka then took a
single knee and began to adapt it right there, outside of the city wall.
A moment later, A-Ka tossed the small-scale jammer that had the interference function out.
The device arced through the air, before with a weng, it spread its wings, flying back and
forth above the city wall, weng weng weng. A-Ka led the way. In his eyes, the city wall was
already no longer a simple city wall, but an infrared laser web that fluctuated irregularly.
“Come with me,” A-Ka said quietly.
“You can see the traps?” Huixiong asked.
A-Ka nodded, and a line of people followed in his footsteps, forming an orderly line as they
headed towards the city wall. Heishi lifted his head and said, “I haven’t found any sentinels,
and even if we’re found by the city wall, then so what?”
“The terminal here connects directly to ‘Father’,” A-Ka said in an extremely quiet voice. “Be
very careful to not startle it.”
The city wall was like a dark black beast that was lying dormant. A light rain scented with
crude oil began to fall from the sky as A-Ka found the gap. He gestured for Heishi to go, and
Heishi, trailing rope behind him, clambered up onto the wall, pulling A-Ka up behind him.
“Flying up here would be much easier,” Heishi remarked casually.
“Your wings span too much space,” A-Ka said. “They’d touch the infrared scanning lasers
that sweep over this area.”
“Where are they,” Heishi said.
“There’s nowhere they aren’t.” A-Ka looked at the ground, indicating that he should wait a
moment. The criss-crossing lasers that the naked eye could not perceive were currently
sweeping along the ground towards them.
“Alright! Quick!”
Heishi pulled Huixiong up, and one after the other they all clambered up onto the city wall.
They then turned and went down the other side, steadying themselves as they landed. A-Ka
gestured for them to follow behind him, and when they turned a corner, all of them stopped
violently in their tracks.
In front of them was a plaza that stretched thousands of square meters, and the entire place
was covered with neatly-arranged rows of three meter tall robotic lifeforms. Row after row
of them shone with a dark gold metallic sheen, reflecting the daylight, with a red dot
glowing in their chests. They were all currently in standby mode.
At the same time, many small robots were traversing the square formation, maintaining the
large ones. These flying robots were like a swarm of ants bustling about, and Huixiong and
Shahuang were both shocked beyond belief.
“Come with me,” A-Ka said very quietly. “As long as we don’t set foot in their alarm range,
we won’t be attacked. Be careful.”
A line of people, with their hearts in their throats, walked along the edge of the Western
District. The small robots passed by at their very sides, as if at any moment they could find
this group of gatecrashing guests. Heishi followed right behind A-Ka, until he stopped
outside an assembly plant.
“I can only lead us to this point,” A-Ka said. “After this, I also don’t know how to trick the
guards and get past them.”
From here on out, there were robotic guards. The outside of the central loading dock was
full of robots, and they could even communicate using electromagnetic waves. It was
basically impossible to tell what they were saying amongst themselves. Shahuang and
Huixiong exchanged a glance.
Shahuang: “Should we force our way in?”
“No,” A-Ka said decisively. “Here, as soon as you attack a single robot, Father will
immediately be alerted, because they can directly send an emergency signal to Father.”
“It might work if we lead them away,” Feiluo said. “My identity’s special, let me lead them
away. That way, I only need to pay a very small price and pretend to have accidentally
stumbled into the assembly region for you all to enter the plant.”
“But how will you escape?” A-Ka asked. “The identity check will cause you to expose
yourself, and at that time, if two exactly identical Feiluos appear, then things will become
even more troublesome.”
Feiluo responded, “Before that, I’ll make my escape.”
“They will first obtain your identity verification.” A-Ka was clearly very familiar with all of
the routines in the City of Machines, and he continued, “Then, according to the serial
number on it, they’ll find the you of the past. Before the battle of the revolution began, did
the robots ever find you to trouble you?”
Feiluo responded, “We must take this risk, there is no other choice. I will figure out a way to
escape when they’re obtaining the verification of my identity. Don’t forget, I also used to
stay in this city before.”
“You’ll be caught,” A-Ka said. “It’s exactly because you also used to live here that you should
be even more clear about the power of the Iron and Steel Corps. I’m not afraid of changes
happening to the plan, but rather, I promised Percy that I would definitely let you return
safely.”
Feiluo fell silent. In reality, he knew more clearly than anyone that when the revolution had
broken out, it was only because he was using a fighting mecha that he could barely manage
to oppose the Iron and Steel Corps. In the end, he still lost.
Shahuang and Huixiong exchanged a glance, and Huxiong said, “I have no identity in the
City of Machines. Let me go, I’m not afraid of running into my previous self.”
But Moran said, “I’ll go ba. I’m in charge of sending you all in.”
“After the fighting is over,” he said, “Everyone meet up at the pier of the Western Bay inside
the valley with the Primeval Heart.”
“Pontiff!” A-Ka said. “It’s too dangerous, you aren’t aware of the situation in the City of
Machines! Even if you do get caught, you won’t have any way to escape!”
Moran rubbed A-Ka’s head and said, “I don’t know what the me of the future, at this
moment in time, decided to do, but I believe that since even A-Ka has the courage to
bravely move forward in the face of danger, the Curia naturally cannot remain forever
under the protective shadow of others, isn’t that right?”
A-Ka sucked in a deep breath, deciding to find another way, but upon seeing Moran’s
earnest expression, he grew calm.
“As the pontiff,” Moran said to the gathered group, “I have faith that I will have a way to
protect myself. Everyone, prepare to sneak into the assembly plant, I wish you all luck.”
And when he finished saying this, Moran, scepter in hand, walked towards where the small
robots were gathering. A-Ka stopped breathing as thousands of small-scale robots
discovered his movements at the same time. Right after, all of the large-scale robots on
standby immediately glowed green, turning their heads.
“I represent the Curia to pay respect to the manmade god, the omnipotent 'Father’,” Moran
said leisurely. He then pulled open the scepter in his hands, on which appeared an
apparatus flashing with blue light. At this moment, something deep underground seemed
to have been startled into motion, and the entire city began to shake. A beam of light broke
through the clouds, shooting towards the Western District from the tall tower in the
distance, and in the immediate vicinity, all of the robotic lifeforms immediately started
closing in on this spot!
“The Curia,” a rich, heavy voice resounded in the Western District. “Sibelius’s human
offspring, why have you come here?”
Before anyone could react, Moran slammed the scepter in his hands onto the ground once.
“I’ve come to interrogate you,” Moran said darkly.
In the blink of an eye, the place where the scepter made contact with the ground lit up with
a blinding white light as an arc of electricity rapidly diffused, sweeping out across the earth.
Under the effects of that magnetic power, all of the robots lost their ability to move - it was
a reverse magnetic field. A-Ka didn’t hesitate any longer, and he urged them, “Let’s go,
quickly!”
Heishi turned and glanced back as the line of people took this opportunity to rush into the
assembly plant. Under the power of Moran’s staff, all of the mechanicals temporarily failed.
The buzzing sound grew louder and louder as the magnetic field swept through a good
portion of the Western District like a tornado. In the midst of it all was Moran, standing at
the center of the Western District, lifting his head to look at the flashing blue lights in the
sky as the magnetic field did its work.
Since time immemorial, this was the first time the power of Father and the power of the
god of the Faith had communicated, and it was also the last. Under the brilliance of that
blue light, Father stood imposingly unmoved, and its icy voice said, “You have no right to
interrogate me. I only obey the commands of the Creator.”
“In this world, the Creator is no longer present,” Moran said bluntly. “What powers the
continued rotation of the Astrolabe is the faith of all of the living creatures on it.”
“Foolish humans,” Father’s voice said. “You must pay the price for this provocation.”
Right after, the tower released a dispelling windstorm rotating in the opposite direction.
Thousands of flying robots shot out, drowning the sky as if they were the heavy, dark
clouds that came before a sudden storm. Moran’s barrier and Father’s magnetic field
collided, letting out a series of explosions.
The sound of the explosion traveled into the assembly plant. In the hall, the working robots
flashed with electric light, all of them already stalled. A-Ka brought everyone dashing into
the depths of the plant, where he found the stopped conveyor belts. He was still thinking
about how he would get them to move again when Huixiong said, “There’s no time,
everyone get on! We don’t know how long the pontiff can hold out.”
Feiluo: “Which conveyor belt?”
The entire room was packed densely with stopped conveyor belts. The boxes were laid out
neatly on the rubber belts, and for a moment A-Ka didn’t know which one they should go
for.
“If it isn’t the leftmost, then it’s the rightmost…” A-Ka’s forehead was furrowed deeply. He
looked for a little while more, but Huixiong said anxiously, “There’s no more time, as quick
as you can now!”
“Let’s gamble on one,” Heishi said. “The left.”
Just as everyone had climbed onto the conveyor belt, another explosion came from outside,
and all of the machines began to move again. In these short few minutes, the Western
District had returned completely to normal. A-Ka was very shocked. Even as he was sent by
the conveyor belt into the assembly room, he couldn’t help looking outside, his expression
filled with worry.
Feiluo pressed him into an empty crate, indicating that he shouldn’t peer outside, to
prevent alarming any guards.
This was a conveyor belt that traveled in the opposite direction, which meant Heishi had
guessed correctly. They all hid away in three separate empty crates. Heishi was at the front,
to bear the brunt of anything that came their way as they were transported towards the
Northern District, while A-Ka and Feiluo were together in the middle, and Huixiong and
Shahuang brought up the rear.
A-Ka let out the breath he had been holding, but in his heart he was still anxious.
It was evident that Feiluo had also relaxed. He leaned against a corner of the large crate,
pulling out his magnetic explosive bullets from his stash at his waist, loading them into his
firearm.
“Sometimes I also really admire you,” Feiluo said. “I never knew how you managed to
survive.”
A-Ka also sat down cross-legged, pulling out a small device from his little bag. He ducked
his head and glanced at it, saying, as if to himself, “Am I very rash?”
“A little,” Feiluo said. “You don’t even have a plan and yet you dare to bring this many
people along to sneak into the City of Steel.”
“No matter how detailed the plan is, there will always be changing factors,” A-Ka said as he
smiled a little. “This life of mine was one that I managed to hang on to somehow. Several
times, I thought I was going to die, but in the end I always managed to escape safely. So, I
guess I’ll see how far I can get.”
Feiluo didn’t speak, and his index finger hooked around the gun in his hand, twirling it in a
circle. He said, “Is this bravery or recklessness? I heard that when you found Heishi, you
chased him all the way out of Phoenix City.”
A-Ka didn’t respond to that question, a hint of laughter in his eyes as he said, “Despite
thinking of me as reckless, you still entrusted Percy to me?”
“Because your luck has always been pretty good,” Feiluo said easily.
“Your reputation in Phoenix City seemed to not be very good,” A-Ka said.
“En, that’s true,” Feiluo said. “I owed them too much. In the beginning, I didn’t tell you, and
for that, I am sorry. Because I was afraid that they would bully Percy, I could only hand him
over to you.”
A-Ka nodded and said, “This time, after we go back, you shouldn’t follow us any longer.”
Feiluo suddenly sank into a prolonged, thoughtful silence. After a long time, he said, “I’m
sorry, A-Ka.”
“Huh?” A-Ka felt this was very out of the blue, and he asked, “Why?”
Feiluo replied, “We shouldn’t have let you carry this heavy of a burden. Percy said, after
entering the City of Machines, you will… sacrifice your life. Is that true?”
“En.” A-Ka thought about it, before continuing. “It’s possible. If I don’t come back, then
Heishi… I’ll entrust him to your guys’s care.”
Feiluo smiled bitterly and a little helplessly as he shook his head. A-Ka patted his shoulder,
saying, “Relax, Feiluo.”
Feiluo raised his eyes, which were bright red, to look at A-Ka. A-Ka said, “You all will be
well, and none of you will die, because Percy’s dreams didn’t contain your deaths.”
“But you,” Feiluo choked out. “What are you thinking? You clearly knew that you would end
your own life, yet you’re still this… this unheeding.”
A-Ka didn’t say any more. He tested the miniature robot in his hand, slowly saying,
“Because I don’t like that.”
“I don’t want the world I see to be that kind of world,” A-Ka said, very, very slowly. “Even if
I sacrifice myself, that’s fine. If I can return alive, then of course that’s even better. I once
heard an ancient rumor that if a human can offer up their life for the City of Machines,
Father’s godly power will take him to the Nucleus of the Astrolabe and let him become one
with the Nucleus forever.
“He’ll be able to watch over this world,” A-Ka said, smiling towards Feiluo. “Of course, this
is only a false rumor made up in the City of Machines to brainwash humans. They want the
humans to lead harsh lives and give up everything for the steel lifeforms in power. But, I
feel that there are always things that cause humans to… not care about living on, so that
they can change everything.”
Feiluo smiled a little as he looked A-Ka up and down. After a long time, he shook his head
and said, “You are the true Son of God.”
“No, Heishi is,” A-Ka chuckled awkwardly. “My destiny is only to aid him. Were it anyone
else who picked up Heishi, they would do the same things I did.”
This chapter is migrated and/or formatted by our fellow chicken enthusiast(s), moon.

"Zoroaster, my dear son."

Translator(s): moon
Editor(s): jelly, namio
Was there a difference? There was no difference.
Previously, A-Ka had also pondered over this question more than once. If it was someone
else instead who had picked up Heishi by the sea, then the one now accompanying Heishi at
his side would be a different human. They would also have escaped during the battle of the
revolution, and would probably even have obtained Professor Callan’s transformative
vaccine.
Perhaps what had long since been fated was only the effects of the vaccine that Professor
Callan had injected into him before his death, so that he could pick a human, it didn’t matter
who, who would be tasked with helping the Son of God enter Father’s Nucleus to restart the
entire Astrolabe.

“We’re here,” Heishi’s icy voice said.

They had accompanied the conveyor belt to its end, and the area in front of them buzzed
with noise, as if there were robots currently working furiously. They had passed through a
large part of the Western District and arrived at the spare parts refinery. When A-Ka poked
his head out, he saw that the sky was filled with flying robots moving about and flying units
that were equipped with death-ray-equipped weapons.
The first box fell to the ground and let out a heavy thud. Heishi pulled himself out and
backed up, stepping onto the pile of containers and leaping upwards, catching A-Ka who
was falling out of the second box.
The third box fell with an earthshaking thud. Just as Huixiong and Shahuang were about to
appear, a robot flew over and dragged the container away in its steel clamps.
“Oh damn!” A-Ka said.
“You guys go first, I’ll go find them!” Feiluo immediately said.
“After you find them, immediately get on the conveyor belt, we’ll meet up at the molding
factory!” A-Ka said. “We still need to pass through the second conveyor belt! This place is
still too far from the nucleus region!”
Feiluo made a gesture to Heishi, who immediately took A-Ka and ran. They searched all
around for conveyor belts, but in the next moment, piercing sirens sounded in the distance.
“Signs of life, attention, signs of life,” an electronic alarm said. “Humans or clones, step away
immediately from the raw assembly materials.”
Heishi pushed A-Ka behind a container, using his body to protect him. With a slight flick of
his wrist, he flashed his long knife, while A-Ka untied the mechanical limb strapped to his
back, fixed it to his left wrist, and prepared to engage the enemy in combat.
“Do not fire your cannon,” Heishi suddenly said.
A-Ka’s heart beat wildly, and even his blood felt like it was about to congeal. He saw that
Feiluo was running towards where the sirens were originating from, and he shouted, “Don’t
attack!”
There were still quite a few clones in the hall, and upon hearing the alert they all began to
gather around the conveyor belt. With one hand, Feiluo pulled out his electronic card,
holding his gun in his other hand, indicating that all of them be quiet. He pointed the
muzzle of the gun almost carelessly at the robotic sentry and said, “Serial number 77023E,
police officer carrying out official business. I’m taking these two humans.”
“Swipe your card,” a robot responded, and a card reader sprung from its abdomen as the
magnetic cutter in its hand began to revolve. “Describe your official business. Requesting a
connection with the clones’ administrative affairs bureau to confirm these orders…”
Before it could even finish its sentence, Feiluo pressed down on the trigger and fired a shot.

The entire hall exploded immediately. Feiluo’s bullet caused a huge explosion, while
Shahuang and Huixiong, moving at the same time, overturned two robots. Huixiong lifted
his rapid-fire machine gun and swept it across. All of the clone workers in the hall let out
loud shouts and hurriedly ducked to avoid the bullets, leaving the robots to face the rain of
bullets head on.
The light bullets crossed in the air, flying everywhere, as Feiluo shouted, “Don’t kill my
people!”
Over on A-Ka’s side, he had already rushed onto the conveyor belt, and he shouted, “Heishi!
Quick, go help them!”
“No way,” Heishi said. “I must keep you safe.”
“Go!” A-Ka said, gritting his teeth. He and Heishi’s gazes met for a split second, and Heishi
sank into a thoughtful silence, after which he turned and vaulted off the conveyor belt.
Feiluo and the two mercenaries dodged as they rushed over. Just as Heishi’s feet touched
the ground, he swept the back of his hand out and withdrew it. Immediately, the black-gold
glowing wings roared through the storm of light bullets. All the beams ricocheted off the
slippery surface of the light feathers, before causing a series of loud explosions in the
workshop.
A-Ka knelt on the conveyor belt, clutching a small device in his hands. He hesitated several
times and decided not to press that button, but Heishi rushed up, bringing with him Feiluo
and the two mercenaries who left bloodstains on the ground as they ran. The steel
conveyor belt was scorching hot. When the robots flew in from the entrance, A-Ka hugged
his head and rolled on the ground, before lifting the bazooka in the mechanical limb and
swiftly firing a shot at it.
That single shot caused the entire flying robotic guard to explode, and Heishi roared, “Let’s
go, quick!”
The conveyor belt stopped, and A-Ka rose to lead the way. When Huixiong was running
away, he turned again and lifted his rapid-fire machine gun, firing savagely. The bullets
whistled through the smoke and caused the exit of the conveyor belt in the workshop to
collapse entirely.
They were surrounded by flashing red lights and alarms as A-Ka ran along the conveyor
belt. The others were faster though, and Heishi bodily picked up A-Ka, running some tens of
meters in a single blink. Behind him was Feiluo, who had been struck through the waist by
a light bullet. One of his hands was slung over Shahuang, and they staggered and stumbled
along as they fled.
The blood of the clones was white, and Feiluo dripped white blood onto the conveyor belt
as he ran over it. In front of them, a wave of scorching hot air rushed towards them,
washing over them. They had reached the end of the conveyor belt, and below their feet
was bubbling molten steel.
“Jump!” A-Ka shouted bravely.
Small-scale transportation carriers flitted here and there in the high heat coming from the
melting furnace. Heishi leapt into thin air, treading on one transport carrier, which caused
it to dip down. When it touched the molten steel it let out a sizzle, before the guards inside
rushed to the scene from all around, beginning to shoot. A-Ka was dizzy and confused from
all this running around, and when he saw the conveyor belt again he shouted, “Jump again!”
With a leap into thin air, Heishi, still hugging him, stepped onto another conveyor belt. In
front of them was a rotating press that never stopped turning, each of its heads easily tons
in weight. When they fell, they could easily smash the entire group into meat paste. At the
same time, Shahuang, with Feiluo’s arm slung over him rushed up, and Huixiong, bringing
up the rear, groped around, pulled out a grenade, and tossed it into the molten steel.
With a boom, the molten steel exploded, instantly drowning the transport carriers and also
blasting a large hole in the furnace. A series of explosions sounded in twos and threes as
Huixiong reached out and pulled the emergency lever as he ran by. The foundry’s door
slammed shut, causing the second wave of robotic guards to be stopped outside.

“Feiluo!” A-Ka knelt down on one knee on the ground, inspecting Feiluo’s wounds. Feiluo’s
expression was set, and he said, “Don’t mind me, let’s go quickly.”
A-Ka felt around at his waist. There was a hole there from which a large amount of white
blood had seeped out. The blood of clones was very weird, and it had a slight fishy scent. In
a few movements, Feiluo had dressed the wound, but Heishi asked, “Did it hit your internal
organs? Let me take a look.”
Feiluo pushed Heishi aside, but Heishi roughly shoved him, laying him down flat.
Outside, they had begun to blast the doors, but Heishi was deaf to those sounds as he undid
the dressings and took a look. He then said, “You need a transfusion.”
“Don’t look down on me,” Feiluo panted. “Go quickly! You idiot!”
Without giving him any time to explain, Heishi lifted Feiluo and carried him to an empty
cart used to transport the molten slurry, before pushing the cart into motion and starting to
run. The sounds behind them grew louder and louder, as if the robots had already banded
together to act. A-Ka and the others raced behind Heishi, but Heishi was extremely strong,
so A-Ka couldn’t catch up with him after a long time. Heishi then said, “Climb on.”
A-Ka didn’t try to be polite with him either, and he leapt directly into the cart. In this way,
Heishi pushed the cart with the two of them as they passed through the roaring steel-
flattening press saying, “Point any danger out to me anytime.”
A-Ka turned his head, squeezed his eyes shut, and opened them again.
“Pass,” A-Ka said.
“Speed up.”
“Slow down!”
Under A-Ka’s guidance, Heishi rushed through the steel rolling portion, and A-Ka shouted,
“There’s an exit up ahead!”
They had reached the end of another conveyor belt, and in front of them was scrap steel
piled up like a small mountain. Heishi pushed the cart out into the air, where it overturned,
and he hugged Feiluo, spreading the wings on his back, gliding towards the exit. Behind
him, A-Ka leapt forward, latching onto Heishi’s back, flying down with him.
Shahuang and Huixiong stepped onto a gliding disk, which whistled through the air as it
slid down. The large door slowly slid down, and Shahuang pulled the slide, loading up an
armor piercing bullet. With a huge boom, he busted open a hole in the ten plus meter thick
steel wall.
“Protect them!” Huixiong stared into the scope, his rapid-fire machine gun clacking in his
hands as they rushed out from the broken opening.
When he saw sunlight again, for a moment, A-Ka was blinded and dizzied by it. They were
surrounded by robotic guards.
Heishi: “Fuck!”
As soon as they alerted the robotic guards, they would be chased by what felt like a swarm
of ants. No matter what they did, they would not be able to shake them off. Huixiong roared
angrily, “Don’t mind us! You guys take Feiluo and go!”
“Take me to the Northern District,” Feiluo said tiredly. “As soon as we enter the gates, you
two can head directly towards the human section…”
“Hang in there,” A-Ka said. “Let me first find a clinic.”

Without giving him any time to protest, Heishi slung Feiluo’s arm over his own shoulder.
Slung over on his back was his firearm, which was pointed at two of the robotic guards that
were swarming over.
A-Ka led them in a sprint towards the clones’ living quarters, and Feiluo pressed his palm
against the door-opening mechanism.
“Access granted,” an electronic voice said. “Passage allowed.”
The great doors opened, and the group entered a greenhouse. After Feiluo closed the doors,
a vague expression of failure appeared on his face. A clone was currently tending to the
plants in the greenhouse, and when he saw Feiluo he instantly went bug-eyed and dumb.
“Do you have any treatment chambers?” A-Ka asked. “He’s hurt!”
“Who are you?!” that clone said. “The medical bay is just next door, but I must confirm your
identities first…”
Before he finished speaking, that clone had already received a clean, swift punch from
Heishi. Heishi took his identification card and said, “Thanks.” And saying this, he forcefully
dragged him to the outside of the medical bay, using his palm and identification card to
open the door.
When Feiluo was carried into the treatment chamber, his entire body was already covered
with blood. Sirens sounded in the distance, as if there were even more people chasing after
them. Huixiong pointed at their original spot and said, “You guys are in charge of making
sure he gets the treatment he needs. I’ll go hold the guards off. Don’t wait for me, run
directly for the human district.”

“Capture them!” a clone guard rushed over, shouting angrily. “Intruders!”

Heishi and Huixiong’s gazes met for a split second, before Heishi nodded once, curtly.
Huixiong said, “After finishing your tasks, take advantage of the chaos to escape. We’ll see
each other again outside the city.”
Shahuang glanced at his watch and replied, “There are still four hours and twenty three
minutes before the start of the revolution.”

Huixiong rubbed A-Ka’s head and said, “You guys, good luck.” Before he lifted his rapid-fire
machine gun and rushed out of the greenhouse.

Feiluo’s face gradually regained color, before the lid of the chamber sprang open. Outside
came the ear-splitting reports of guns firing. Feiluo let out a breath before pulling out his
own identification card, but his body was still weak as he led them through the greenhouse
garden, sprinting towards the Eastern District.
Guns firing and the sound of explosions were reflected in Feiluo’s eyes and resounded in
his ears. His face bore an expression of unbearability, and several times he wanted to turn
around to stop Huixiong, but Heishi grabbed his arm and forcefully tugged him along.
Hundreds of flying robots rushed towards them, and Shahuang said, “You guys keep going!”
Right after, Shahuang fired a shot towards the ceiling of the clones living district. That shot
turned out to be a sonic bomb that shattered the entire roof of the greenhouse, and all of
the flying robots turned their firing ports, shooting towards Shahuang on the ground.
“Shahuang!” A-Ka roared.
“Go!” Heishi pushed A-Ka onto an elevator. With his identification card, Feiluo activated it.
In the distance, a clone guard rushed over, shouting, “Who are you all!”
Feiluo said, “You guys head down first!”
“Wait…” A-Ka didn’t have a chance to speak before Feiluo tossed his ID towards the inside
of the elevator, before pressing a few buttons on the outside rapidly. The elevator doors
suddenly slammed shut.
“Destination, the Ant’s Nest,” an emotionless, icy electronic voice reported.
In the last moment before the door to the elevator closed, A-Ka saw the back profile of
Feiluo through that crack. He raised both his hands, turning to face the clone guards that
were coming towards him.

There was a loud boom, and the sudden loss of gravity almost caused A-Ka to start floating.
He and Heishi stood in the elevator as it sped down. A-Ka tiredly shut his eyes, burying his
head into Heishi’s shoulder.
“Prepare yourself,” Heishi said. “There should be more pursuers in front.”
A-Ka said, “After we get into the human district we’ll be safe, but they…”
“Don’t worry,” Heishi said. “Very quickly, they’ll be able to escape.”
A-Ka recalled that the revolution was hanging over their heads. Perhaps right now, Libre
had already begun his plans for invasion; Heishi didn’t discuss matters relating to the
revolution overly much, to prevent them from being overheard by the surveillance cameras
in the elevator. He glanced at A-Ka with a gaze filled with intent, and A-Ka understood what
he meantis meaning was. Right now, the most important thing was to arrive at the Nucleus
(region) as quickly as possible.
They had almost four and a half hours to pass through the humans’ gathering place, and
Heishi said, “After we get in, follow behind me.”
“I’m begging you,” A-Ka said, “Heishi, don’t kill my kin.”
“If they don’t sell us out, I won’t attack them,” Heishi said. “But, you also need to keep your
guard up.”
A-Ka nodded and fell silent. The elevator continued to head downwards, as if it was falling
into a bottomless abyss or the depths of the ocean. Heishi lowered his head to watch A-Ka’s
movements. A-Ka’s nerves were a little frayed, and he toyed with a small device in his
hands.
“You trust your kind so much,” Heishi said.
“Yea,” A-Ka said. “I know that they’ve yearned for freedom for a long time… Aactually, every
human is like me, they yearn for the outside world.”
“I don’t agree,” Heishi said.
“Humans are the most complicated living thing,” A-Ka said, smiling as he looked into
Heishi’s eyes. “Unless, after the revolution, when you heard the suggestion that we would
spread over the entirety of this land, your heart wasn’t moved at all?”
In Heishi’s eyes, a sliver of confusion appeared for a brief moment. A-Ka then said, still
smiling, “You’re becoming more and more like a human now.”
“What are you holding in your hand?” Heishi asked, changing the topic.
A-Ka stared levelly at Heishi. He realized that Heishi never liked to admit that he had
learned the emotions of a human, as if this was a little awkward and embarrassing, but his
embarrassment and awkwardness was at its heart one of the human emotions. He even
knew how to evade questions that he himself didn’t want to discuss.
A-Ka couldn’t help feeling that this was very funny, and he responded, “It’s K’s
(remote/controller), that robot that you saw the day we first met.”
“You built it?” Heishi asked.
“Yep,” A-Ka responded. “You’ve seen it already. Before you came, K was my best friend, and
I once had a wish. I wished for K to start moving.”
He recalled when they had first met, Heishi almost choked him to death as he pressed him
up against a wall. Now, they had returned to the day when they had first met, but the Heishi
now had a gaze that was very warm, as if he was an earnest, stern big brother.
“What are you smiling about?” Heishi asked.
“Nothing,” A-Ka said, grinning to himself. Heishi couldn’t resist reaching out a finger,
brushing it along his cheek.
A-Ka: “...”

“Arriving at: the Ant Nest,” the electronic voice said.

The elevator doors slid open, but just at that moment, Heishi immediately flicked his wrist,
creating a long dagger as he said, “Don’t go out just yet, there are guards outside.”
Heishi looked around at their surroundings, but the two robotic guards’ target wasn’t them.
A-Ka turned his head to look, but in that instant, he was shaken.
Next door, another elevator was currently rising, and through the metal bars surrounding
it, he saw the him of the past! The elevator next door was crowded with people, and a
mechanic was shivering inside, his face the color of dirt. “Let’s go, don’t watch anymore,”
Heishi said.
A-Ka immediately pulled the brim of his cap lower, following behind Heishi as they walked
out of the elevator.

The two robotic guards entered the elevator. The doors to the elevator opened, and that
middle-aged man immediately rushed out.
“Warning, stop immediately!” The robotic guards rushed out at the same time, and the
humans in the elevator flooded out. That middle-aged man sprinted into the hallway.
A-Ka increased the speed of his footsteps, but he couldn’t resist turning his head back to
watch that escaping middle-aged man. The robotic guards came chasing after him.
“Get down!” Heishi shouted. The entire hallway of people exploded at that. With a weng, the
surveillance unit on the ceiling shot out thin, metal needles which opened their wings,
flying wildly through the air.
With a huge peng, the sprinting middle-aged man was pierced through the skull with a
metal needle. He slammed into the wall, pinned firmly onto it.
A-Ka was tackled to the floor by Heishi. At the same time, the elevator behind him had
already closed, and it continued its journey up.
Covered in cold sweat, A-Ka was pulled to his feet by Heishi, and they kept walking forward
through the hallway. Neither of them expected the beeping guards to stop them.
“Undergo an inspection, a safety inspection of the fifth kind. Raise your hands,” an
electronic voice said.
A-Ka shot a glance at Heishi, before lifting his hands. When Heishi lifted his hands, he
immediately gave a kick to that robotic guard, instantly sending that several hundred
kilogram robotic guard flying. It slammed into a door, letting out a loud boom. The
surveillance units on the ceiling all swiveled towards them, and Heishi said, “Go!”
The hallway once again sank into chaos. A-Ka hadn’t yet come back to himself as Heishi
grabbed him and sprinted through the hallway. With a flick of his hand, Heishi’s black-gold
wings rustled, filling the entire hallway as they flew out, each of them hitting their target
without fail, destroying all of the surveillance units.
“Where to?” Heishi asked.
A-Ka thought, I’ve really had enough, bringing such a group of people here. The question I
hear the most is “where to”. I just drew a map last night! Did you all even look at the map?!
Heishi looked at A-Ka. “?”
A-Ka: “...”
“This way.” A-Ka pushed open a small door and entered from there. The robotic guards
came over with a group of flying guards trailing behind them, and A-Ka circled around and
around in the room, before rushing into the large-sized sleeping quarters.
“Damn,” A-Ka said. “I forgot this is the fourth level…”
In the sleeping quarters were some tens of humans who looked up at them. When Heishi
lifted his head to look, the surveillance monitor was turning towards them, and A-Ka
immediately dragged Heishi into hiding behind it. A girl waved at A-Ka.
“Shh… over here.” The girl opened up a metal trash can, and A-Ka and Heishi immediately
scrambled in.
With a doubtful expression, Heishi looked at A-Ka, meaning -- why was she helping them?
A-Ka pointed at the surveillance monitor, before making a shrinking and expanding
gesture, meaning that if they were discovered by the surveillance monitor, it was very
likely that they would be attacked indiscriminately, which meant that the humans here
would also be injured.
The girl put the lid on, before placing a random bag of junk on the lid. At the same time, the
door opened, and the robotic guards rolled in.
Inside, A-Ka stuck a miniature device to the wall of the can. After he had obtained that anti-
infrared jammer from Shahuang, he had kept it all this while. Now, it sent out a jamming
signal that covered the entirety of the metallic can.
The robotic guard left.
A-Ka took a deep breath and climbed out from the can.
“Thank you,” Heishi said to that girl.
“What are your jobs?” the girl asked nervously.
As A-Ka lifted his head. Anxiously watching the surveillance camera on the ceiling, he
gestured for Heishi to follow its movements. He then said to the girl, “Four hours later, on
the hour, make sure to leave through the rubbish chute.”
“Go!” Heishi said.
A-Ka and Heishi left the sweeping range of the surveillance camera, pushed open another
door, and ducked into a stairwell.
This entire place was dark, and only the surveillance camera above their heads shone with
a faint green light. The two of them clambered carefully up the stairwell, and after pushing
open the door, A-Ka saw another human.
“Is this the fifth level?” A-Ka asked.
That was a middle-aged man, and with an expression of confusion, he replied, “It is, which
level did you come from? Go back quickly!”
A-Ka pulled his cap down, saying, “I’ve come to find someone.”
He and Heishi walked down the hallway. That middle-aged man still wanted to ask more,
but with an expression of doubt, got rid of his desire to follow them.
Heishi took A-Ka’s hand in his own as they passed through the large gathering hall for the
humans. People passed to and fro, and they sank into the crowd.
“We’ve thrown off the guards just like this?” Heishi was still in disbelief.
“Yes,” A-Ka said quietly. “Their surveillance of the humans is the weakest, because the
aptitude for battle humans have is too weak, especially when they don’t have weapons.
Plus, Father has no way to estimate human behavioral patterns, and in the robots’ eyes,
they do many strange things…”
Heishi responded, “That’s true.”
“Are our actions very strange in your eyes as well?” A-Ka pushed open another door, and
someone greeted him. “A-Ka, didn’t you go to sleep?”
A-Ka was greatly startled. That person was from the same section as him, and he hurried to
say, “I suddenly remembered something, I need to make a trip back.”
“Who’s he?” that young man asked, looking at Heishi curiously.
“Hello,” Heishi said.
A-Ka: “...”
The young man smiled towards him. “Hello to you too, how come it seems like I’ve never
seen you before?”
A-Ka replied, “I’ll explain later, they… ah well, I need to go back and take care of some
things first.”

Hastily bidding farewell to that person, A-Ka and Heishi turned the corner of the hallway as
A-Ka said, “We’ll pass through the rubbish dump, there’s energy passageways there.”
Saying that, A-Ka pushed open the last door, but his collar was suddenly grabbed by Heishi,
and he was pulled back.
A-Ka was instantly scared stiff.
The past him was currently standing at the corner of the emergency exit, waiting for the
surveillance monitor to turn!
In that instant, A-Ka seemed to sense something. He dumbly watched the him of the past,
completely unable to believe it. Even though it was just a hasty glance, for him to see
himself from the mere distance of opposite ends of a staircase, made all of the hairs on his
body stand on end. He immediately ducked behind the door, but thankfully the him of the
past hadn’t discovered anything strange, because hiding from that surveillance camera was
his only goal.
“Thankfully you didn’t turn,” Heishi said quietly.
The two of them waited outside the door for a while longer, and after A-Ka counted the
minutes silently, he said, “Let’s go ba.”
This time, they managed to leave the outside and headed towards the rubbish chute. The
moment A-Ka entered the rubbish chute and saw the footprints around it, he remembered
the last time that he had used this exit, and he immediately understood.

“Let’s go ba,” A-Ka said. “Heishi?”

Heishi looked towards the other exit, not saying anything.
A-Ka said, “Do you want to see the you of the past?”
Heishi was silent, as if he was mulling over a difficult decision.
“We still have three hours and fifteen minutes,” A-Ka said after glancing at his watch. “Let’s
go take a look at our past ba.”
Heishi nodded, and the two of them clambered out of the garbage chute from the other exit.
The sea wind ran rampant as light rain drifted down from the sky. The A-Ka in the distance
was doing his best to climb down the cliff, as if he would be swept away by the wind at any
moment, and even he himself wiped away some sweat as he watched that scene.
Heishi flicked open his wings. Hugging A-Ka, he brought them through the air above the
beach, while still making sure they kept their distance.
The seawater rushed over, crashing into the land with a sky-shaking angered wave, sending
a black incubation chamber to the shore. It slammed into the cliff and landed on the beach
below.
“This is where I was born,” Heishi replied from where he stood in the distance.
A-Ka asked quietly, “Weren’t you born in your Heavenly Father’s laboratory?”
“No, I wasn’t,” Heishi said. “The memories my father gave me was actually a copy of his own
soul and personality, which he injected directly into my slumbering body.”
A-Ka looked at Heishi strangely, but Heishi merely responded, “Is it very surprising?
Otherwise, how would I hold the highest level of authorization, and be able to stop Labere’s
computations?”
A-Ka said, “But in the beginning, you didn’t tell me about this.”
“Because back then I was like a newly born infant, with a completely blank mind,” Heishi
said, pointing at his head with his own finger. “According to the learning function in my
body, my knowledge and memories slowly open up with time. Otherwise, if I woke up and
all of the memories in my brain activated at once, then they would short-circuit my brain.”

A-Ka laughed loudly and stroked Heishi’s head. The corners of Heishi’s mouth curved up
slightly as they watched A-Ka climb down the steep cliff, curiously opening the door of the
incubation chamber.
In that instant, A-Ka and Heishi, hand in hand, stood shoulder to shoulder on a craggly rock,
watching the movements of the A-Ka in the distance.
“So it was like that,” Heishi murmured. “You were the first person I saw upon opening my
eyes.”
A-Ka began to smile, but he didn’t respond. His emotions were very complex as he, as a
bystander, watched the him of the past go through the entire process of them getting to
know each other. He felt an urge to cry.
They watched as A-Ka lifted Heishi in his embrace. As he was using K to once again clamber
up the cliff, A-Ka’s frail body seemed to be ready to fall off the precipice at any moment. If
he had, his bones would have been smashed to pieces.
“That was a close call.” Even A-Ka himself felt a little bit of lingering fear in his heart as he
remarked, “If I had fallen, then both of us would have been done for.”
“You have always been very brave,” Heishi replied. “I still remember when you discovered
me again in Phoenix City and chased after me for several streets despite the bullets and the
soldiers in pursuit.”
A-Ka made a face and said, “Let’s go. In the future, I definitely won’t be this reckless again.”

Heishi waved his hand, indicating that A-Ka wait here for a moment as he walked towards
the incubation chamber on the beach.
A-Ka followed him over, saying, “Is there anything inside this still?”
Heishi replied, “There’s still one thing that is vitally important.”
He once again opened the incubation chamber. The power inside had already been fully
expended, but in the depths of the chamber, there was still a backup power source. With a
surprised intake of breath, A-Ka saw Heishi rotate a switch before pushing the energy core
back in. The entire incubation chamber once again lit up.
In that instant, countless rays shot out of the chamber, forming into a star map. In the
middle of the star map appeared a huge circular plate, and in the depths of the plate was
the projection of the Nucleus of the Astrolabe.
A-Ka was both nervous and excited, and he didn’t know what Heishi wanted to do. He
turned his head back to glance at the heights of the cliffs, afraid that his past self would
suddenly appear, but Heishi comforted him, “I’ll be done soon, I only need a few minutes.”
The projection of the expansive universe appeared on the windswept shore of this dead
sea. Heishi gathered his hands together, turning it into a flattened image as he began to
retrieve a large amount of messages. On the screen, countless strange text symbols
appeared, reflecting in A-Ka’s eyes. These messages contained all of the knowledge of the
human world, and even all of the knowledge that Father held, but what was even more
amazing was -- it seemed to be a communication device that directly connected to the
depths of the vast universe.
“You are going to… with the Creator…”
“Yes,” Heishi replied simply. “No matter what the outcome is, I must tell him about the
proceedings of the entire experiment.”

“Zoroaster, my son,” a deep, rich voice projected itself from the incubation chamber. The
entire galaxy above gathered into a single point, before changing into the face of a warm
giant.
“Father,” Heishi murmured, lifting his head. “I’ve finally seen you.”
“When you manage to see this message, the experiment on the petri dish will be
approaching its conclusion,” the Creator’s voice said. “You chose Saidesian, which is the
mother tongue of our world, and I am very grateful for that. It seems that the development
of the petri dish, on some level, has gone exactly as I predicted.”
“In this moment, when you activate the cryosleep cocoon,” the Creator said, “my physical
body is on the other shore across this vast river of stars. After leaving behind this test point,
I will never return again. But you, what have you learned from this world?”
“Since the cocoon has already been opened by you, then everything left on this petri dish
will be left for you to decide, my dear son. When I came to this Astrolabe, before I created
you, you have to understand, the original world that Father was on before, my people, my
loved ones, was also once like the world you’re on. There was sunlight, there was wind,
there was rainwater, there was a sky, mountain ranges, and great oceans.”
With the rise and fall of that voice, the lights of the star map changed, and a figure of a
distant planet appeared. Giants strode over mountain ranges to start battles, only to
slaughter each other with weapons. The blue light of the central tower destroyed the entire
planet, molded from the exact same model as ‘Father’ was.
“But my people destroyed all of this with their own hands,” the Creator’s voice continued.
“In this vast universe, I found lone island after lone island, trying to recreate that lost
splendor, but it was a pity that with my limited lifespan, I can no longer wait for such a
moment. The evolution of intelligent species is far too slow, and there are a thousand
changes that can happen. One small shift can cause the entire species to head towards a
vague, unknown future…”
“If, when you open your eyes,” the Creator said, “there exists this kind of lifeform called
‘man’, then that means that my experiment has already succeeded.”
Heishi murmured, “But they’re somewhat different from what you anticipated, Father.”
The Creator didn’t respond to Heishi’s words, because that was only a blurry video
recording. With his hands clasped behind his back, he walked towards the ocean, standing
on the roiling surface, looking into the distance.
“Your awakening,” the Creator continued, “is proof of the appearance of an intelligent
species. After I seal away the entire experimental platform, father will write out a section of
hidden code in the central control system Labere. Only when a human who fulfills the
specific requirements appears and activates the special emotion and thought mechanisms
present only in Labere’s central system, will Labere release the cocoon that is holding you,
letting you appear on this earth.”
“Labere originally could not think like we do. Its patterns are fixed,” the Creator said
heavily, still looking off into the distance. “Your job is to determine, and from each of us
individual gods, learn emotions and grow. No matter what the situation actually is, the
experiment will formally end the moment that you appear. What comes after is for you to
decide.”
“My dear son, Zoroaster.” The Creator turned, speaking in a sorrowful voice, “I hope that
your future will not be like your father’s, experiencing millions of years of loneliness before
departing alone into the long voyage through time. I did not bestow upon you the ultimate
emotion, because I hope that through your interactions with humans, you can slowly learn
about love.”
A-Ka’s heart thumped loudly, but Heishi only steadily watched his heavenly father’s
projection, and in his eyes there were faint traces of tears gathering.
“I wish you happiness,” the Creator said heavily, before turning into thousands of glowing
points of light, dissipating into the air.
Heishi keyed in a few symbols, before bending over and pushing the cryosleep chamber
into the ocean.
“Are you going to destroy it?” A-Ka asked.
“No,” Heishi said. “I activated an escape function. Perhaps, in the future, it’ll be of use.”
Heishi sent his cradle away, and he and A-Ka stood silently by the sea. The waves rolled and
crashed, just like the waves in each of their hearts, never ceasing in their motion.
Translator's Note:
moon: but what was that necessary condition that the humans had to fulfill? *thinky face*

This chapter is migrated and/or formatted by our fellow chicken enthusiast(s), moon.

I’ll take Feiluo’s place in carrying out his mission."

Translator(s): moon
Editor(s): jelly, namio

Content Warning:
graphic depictions of gore (surgery related)
In the rubbish chute, A-Ka once again stood at the exit with Heishi. Just as they were about
to leave, Heishi couldn’t resist turning his head back for a glance. In the distance, the him of
the past was currently walking on the beach, following A-Ka’s footsteps.
“Go back --” the A-Ka of the past shouted towards him before waving his arms, indicating
that Heishi should return to where he had been hiding.
Heishi smiled at that, and he and the present A-Ka clambered into the rubbish chute.
“There’s still two hours and thirty minutes,” A-Ka said. “Quick, we need to make haste.”
A-Ka brought him to the rubbish chute through the opening they used to replenish fuel.
There was a narrow, twisting pipeline, and at the other end, it led to the energy supply
center for the entire City of Machines. Half an hour later, they arrived at a huge, icy cold
boiler, which was what the human district used for heating.
“Heishi, are you still alright?” A-Ka asked.
Heishi came back to himself and nodded.
“That sentence of Father’s… what did that mean?” A-Ka asked. “Unless it was ‘Father’ who
released you in the first place?”
Heishi answered, “In Labere’s central region, he wrote down a control sequence. The
motive of his wandering the universe was to, through experiments, recreate the splendor of
his homeland. On this point, humankind is the closest existence to the creators.”
“He watched the destruction of his hometown with his own eyes and because he was afraid
that that tragedy would play out once again, he let the central control region cleanse the
Astrolabe when necessary and stop the experiment. But, he still held sympathy in his heart,
so in ‘Father’’s central region, he wrote down the code to awaken me. When the intelligent
lifeforms on the Astrolabe have evolved to a point where they have… emotions, desolation,
and hope, they’d be just like the giants on my heavenly father’s home planet. These
lifeforms would activate this section of hidden code.”
“What does that do?” A-Ka asked.
“After this section of code is activated, it would take remote control of my sleeping chamber
and bring it to land,” Heishi said. “It would then allow me to wake and assist ‘Father’ in
determining if the experiment on the Astrolabe is worth preserving. But I imagine, even
‘Father’ doesn’t know about the code that was hidden in its central section, so… waking me
was not its original idea.”
A-Ka understood. They were passing through the energy pipeline. The space inside was
narrow and cramped, so the two of them could only press their arms against the ground as
they shimmied along. A-Ka turned his head back. “‘Father’ actually has this section of code?
I never knew.”
“It can only be activated under a specific set of circumstances,” Heishi replied in the
gloomy, dark passage. “I imagine that it probably mirrored my heavenly father’s emotional
state. When he wrote down this code that depended on emotions, he was probably feeling
lonely, because he needed the companionship of his own kind.”
“If he is still in this world…”
“Keep going,” Heishi said. “There’s not much time left, we’ve got to use it well.”
A-Ka clambered along the passage, and at the end he turned. Heishi’s voice echoed from the
depths of the passage behind him.
“Perhaps he has already died,” Heishi replied.
“He’s already died,” a rich voice echoed through the pipe.
A-Ka immediately jerked his head up, and Heishi’s face changed instantly. “A-Ka! Watch
out!”
In that instant, the passageway that had been left abandoned for decades was filled with
blue light. An earth-shaking explosion happened behind him, and the displaced air rushed
towards them as the entire City of Machines began to echo with sirens.
“Damn,” Heishi said coldly, before shouting angrily, “A-Ka --!”
“I have already searched for your tracks for too long,” that rich voice said. “If you hadn’t
activated the communication signal from the survival cradle, then perhaps I would still
have no way to discover your whereabouts…”
Heishi was blown by the force of the explosion into an empty space underground, and he
struggled to lift his body. Metal slabs slid down to block off the exits in all directions. His
head was covered in fresh blood as he managed to shakily rise to his feet, saying darkly,
“Labere, you’ve betrayed our heavenly father.”
“Father has already disappeared into the depths of the universe on his travels. A thousand
years ago, he stopped sending back his fixed-interval signals. According to the
determination of the main program, the Creator of the Astrolabe has already perished in
the galaxy. And now, I hold ultimate control over the Astrolabe petri dish.”
“As expected…” Heishi said, panting for breath. “They’ve still managed to evolve. Labere,
have the humans been unable to influence you…”
Just as that forceful voice was about to speak again, Heishi let out an angered roar instead
before rising into the air, his body glowing with piercing light as his arms stretched out, one
to each side. In that instant, a strange black-gold aura appeared around his body, and he
exploded with powerful energy that collided into Father’s energy shockwave!
Suddenly, the structures in the depths of the energy pipeline were all destroyed by the
shockwave. A beam of black-gold brilliance sped back along the pipeline, rushing towards
‘Father’ towering majestically above. Right after, a muffled boom came from afar, and the
aftershocks of the explosion caused the surface of the earth to tremble. The entrance to the
energy pipeline had been destroyed.
A-Ka woke to those quakes.
“Heishi? Heishi!” A-Ka, still bleeding profusely from his head wounds, searched
everywhere, but everything was pitch dark in that collapsed underground, to the point
where if he reached his hand out, he couldn’t see his fingers.
“I’m here, can you hear me?” Heishi asked anxiously. “A-Ka! Are you alright? A-Ka!”
A-Ka was still in shock, and it wasn’t until he heard Heishi’s voice that he finally grew calm.
He followed the voice and the light, only to find Heishi with one hand trapped under a steel
structure, tugging viciously at it as he let out loud shouts.
“Don’t use brute force!” A-Ka’s expression instantly changed. “Let’s think of a way to lift it!”
Heishi’s head and body were all covered with fresh blood, and the two of them were
separated by a huge elevator. A-Ka did his best to squeeze his hand through a gap, his
fingers just managing to make contact with Heishi’s nose and lips.
“Calm… calm down,” A-Ka said, his voice trembling. “How are you? Does it hurt?”
Heishi recovered his composure, and he said, “Labere has found us. I’ve managed to break
its energy pipeline, but we have to leave immediately. There will be robots coming very
soon.”
A-Ka responded, “Let me think a bit. Don’t act rashly, there will be a way.”
A-Ka took a deep breath, his fingers trembling non-stop as he indicated that Heishi wait,
and pulled out some tools from the bag he carried at his side. Heishi however, gritted his
teeth and tried to lift that elevator, but it was really too heavy. What was even more
damning was that on top of the elevator were piles of huge rocks and concrete slabs of the
entire living region after it had collapsed.
He only had a small toolbox in his bag. Heishi glanced at A-Ka, before saying, “Hand the saw
over to me, I’ll cut my hand off.”
“No way, let me think a little more,” A-Ka said.
“I’ll treat it after we get back,” Heishi said.
“There’s no way to perform an arm transplant on you!” A-Ka said. “You’re not the same as
the clones.”
“You can also install a mechanical arm instead, it makes no difference to me,” Heishi said.
“You can even personally make one for me. Quickly now.”
“No!” A-Ka said. “It’ll hurt too much! There must be a way.”
“Pain is also another experience I have to learn in order to become a human,” Heishi
responded.
“But if it’s possible, I hope that you never have to experience these…” A-Ka replied, sighing.
He didn’t even lift his head as he spoke, still digging through his bag, before he suddenly
found that remote control.
He held his breath and pressed a button on the remote.
Heishi’s eyebrows moved, and A-Ka explained, “I’m letting K fly over to rescue us.”
Heishi said, “It can’t make it here.”
“It will definitely be able to…” A-Ka said as he prayed silently, but as time flowed by, drop
by drop, there was no movement, and the two of them stared silently at each other.
In the darkness, Heishi said, “A-Ka.”
“What?” A-Ka asked, puzzled.
“Give me your hand.” Heishi replied.
A-Ka reached a hand into the darkness, clasping Heishi’s warm one. Heishi’s hand was
covered in sticky, drying blood, but they still held each other’s hand tightly. In that moment,
A-Ka’s heart was suddenly filled with warmth and strength, and it was just at this time that
the sound of an engine approached from a distance, beginning to strike at the wall.
“K --!” A-Ka’s face was streaked with tears as he began to shout loudly.
There was nothing that could compare with the joy that he felt in seeing K in this moment.
K’s rust-mottled body was the same as it had been before, and it slammed harshly into the
wall, letting out a huge boom.
“Make it use more force!” Heishi called loudly.
A-Ka clambered onto K’s body and slid into the cabin. Taking a firm stance, it lifted its arms
and pushed up on the elevator. Heishi suddenly let out a loud shout; at the same time, the
gears in K’s arms began to torque, letting out an ear-piercing screech. The elevator was
pushed upwards and away with a loud boom, and Heishi immediately pulled out his arm.
There was another explosion. The Revolution of the Clones had begun.
Ash floated down from overhead. They looked up at that, and Heishi said, “Leave now
through the emergency escape passage! We’ll meet up again on the surface!”
“How about you?!” A-Ka shouted.
“I’ll go draw away our pursuers! They’re going to arrive any minute now!” Heishi shouted,
before closing the door of the cabin and knocking on it. A-Ka said, “You must...”
Before he could finish, the ceiling of the underground space once again collapsed as the
robots entered. But this time, the robots didn’t do a sweep with bullets, instead pulling out
countless magnetic nets to pull them in. Heishi leapt up, pulling out his black-gold blade,
slicing one in midair that then exploded in the blink of an eye. A-Ka didn’t have the chance
to keep talking as he rushed into the emergency exit.
K’s propellers were turned up to the maximum, and as it rushed forward in the passage, it
let out a deafening rumble.
Heishi, with the guards chasing after him, escaped into the depths of another passageway.
He found an elevator shaft that led to the surface, and he clambered up to the fifth level.
This was a prison, and the inside was completely dark. The power source had been cut, but
A-Ka’s voice immediately began to shout. Heishi startled at that, before he suddenly
realized that he had already returned to the fifth level, the cell that he and A-Ka had been
imprisoned in!
The moment the last lasers disappeared, Heishi took this opportunity to grab the A-Ka of
the past who was sprinting out of the cell! With a stagger, A-Ka slammed solidly into his
embrace, shouting in a panic, “Let go of me!”
Heishi didn’t dare to say more, afraid that A-Ka would recognize him. He only responded
with a garbled sound, before using his body to shield A-Ka, making him stand to one side.
A-Ka: “This way! Heishi? Come with me!”
They turned and ran towards the left exit, but from it, they heard the sound of many robotic
tracks turning, as if there were many patrolling guards heading that way.
“We’re freed!”
“Let’s get out quick!”
“The energy system’s run into a problem!”
“Everyone watch out! Get down!”
Heishi slammed A-Ka to the ground, and they rolled around. He was quick about it, as the
laser bullets flew from all directions. The robotic guards opened the main door to the
hallway, and points of light flew by at light speed as pained cries filled the air and blood
covered the floor.
A-Ka: “Heishi, is this your blood?”
“Here,” Heishi’s voice said coldly, before he hugged A-Ka and leapt up, entering the
passageway outside the prison complex.
He couldn’t see anything. A-Ka groped around blindly in the dark to one side of the
passageway until he found a cover plate and smacked it a few times, asking, “Heishi, are
you still there?”
Immediately, Heishi smashed that to smithereens. A-Ka was greatly frightened at that, and
he pulled out his blue-light lamp and flicked it on. When he looked at the arm Heishi had
dangling at one side, he noticed that Heishi’s hand was covered in blood.
“You’re really strong.” In the darkness, A-Ka asked him worriedly, “Doesn’t it hurt?”
A-Ka picked up Heishi’s hand, but Heishi didn’t respond, instead saying, “I’m going, you be
careful.”
Heishi turned and left, running into the darkness.
At the other end of the passageway, A-Ka, piloting K, whistled through the entire length of
the passageway, stopping when he came to the intersection of the sewers.
He climbed out of the cabin and retrieved the mechanical arm that he had been carrying on
his back this entire time. He disconnected K’s left hand, before outfitting that arm complete
with a bazooka onto the stump. He then used his hat to wipe down the hatch cover, before
patting it and clambering back into the pilot seat, once again fastening the hatch, before
saying, “K, I’m really sorry for leaving you at home for this long. Now…”
“...Let us fight together!”
“Yoohoo --”
“——”
A-Ka’s excited shouts accompanied K’s charge through the ceiling of the passageways at the
highest level. Glowing with the blue light of the nitrogen thrusters, it flew towards the
surface. With a deafening boom, K destroyed panel after panel, and when the vast world
glowing with sunlight appeared in front of him, A-Ka only felt that his own fate was truly
incredible.
The battleships of the clones were currently speeding over from the north, their
mothership surrounded by millions of airships, as if they were fireflies colliding with each
other or meteorites falling from the sky. A-Ka lifted his head to watch; the fires of battle
spread out over his head, and the light bullets criss-crossed until they formed a huge net.
The entire sky was filled with robotic lifeforms flying wildly about. At this point, ‘Father’
had no more capacity to send more troops in pursuit of them.
The mothership flew towards them from the distance, beginning to fire its bullets in a
broad sweep across the City of Machines. The entire city began to smoke as explosions and
a sea of flames engulfed it.
A-Ka sucked in a deep breath. He remembered the last time he had seen this scene; the
mothership was like a huge whale floating in the sky, colliding with the symbol of the godly
regime of the mechanicals. That scene was so stunning it was hard for him to describe.
But Heishi was still making his escape. A-Ka directed K to fly through the air, searching for
Heishi’s silhouette. In the distance, there was another explosion, and black-gold feathers
gathered together in the air, forming a huge, sharp sword, which sliced down viciously.
Where the edge of the blade landed, the robotic lifeforms were instantly cleaved into two.
The pursuing guards all gathered towards that point, and A-Ka roared, “Heishi!”
He moved the joystick and K raised its mechanical limb, beginning to provide cover fire in a
sweeping motion as it rushed into the fray of battle. He spotted Heishi standing at the very
top of a structure. After Heishi spread out his black-gold wings, they bore down on his
enemies, as thousands of bullets sped towards his body at once. Right at this moment, K
whistled as it flew past, leaving behind an afterimage as the hatch sprung open, swallowing
Heishi. Its energy core was then pushed to the maximum as it rushed into the sky!
A-Ka and Heishi fell into each other. Borrowing K’s rolling motions, the two of them
exchanged positions. A-Ka’s back pressed against Heishi’s chest as they squeezed together
tightly in that narrow, cramped pilot’s cabin.
“Let me go out and get rid of them,” Heishi said.
“Let me!” A-Ka was so excited he seemed like a child, and with a pull on the joystick, he took
them beautifully through the fires of the explosion. With another rain of gunfire, he caused
the large aircraft flying towards them to explode into a burst of fire!
K pushed its nitrogen propellers to the maximum, rushing towards the battleship under the
danger of explosions. Heishi said, “Feiluo hasn’t given us the signal yet!”
“Be a little quieter!” A-Ka bemoaned. “My ears are about to go deaf.”
Both of them froze for a moment, before they began to laugh loudly at the same time.
From behind, Heishi wrapped his arms around A-Ka’s waist, hugging him. Tired, he rested
his head on A-Ka’s shoulder.
“This is a miracle,” Heishi murmured, lifting his eyes to look towards the tall tower of
‘Father’.
“What? Are you talking about K?” A-Ka began to smile, before putting on a scope. The pretty
arch of his brow shadowed the red of the lens, which locked onto the mothership in the
distance that was constantly dodging the assault that came from ‘Father’.
“Humans,” Heishi said, lifting his head and staring at the sky. “clones, the lifeforms on this
entire Astrolabe…”
‘Father’ let off a blue glow, sending out a magnetic whirlwind. The mothership on the
outskirts began to force its way through. The dark clouds in the sky began to swirl into a
vortex, and the light cannons on the foundation began to point to the sky, gathering energy.
A-Ka said, “We can’t wait for Feiluo anymore, let’s take a gamble!”
Right after, K rushed towards ‘Father’’s apex.
The light cannons fired, piercing through the flanks of the mothership. Instantly, the sky
and earth were covered with the force of the explosion, along with the metal debris that
rained out, whistling as they went. Under this ceaseless flow, K approached the tall tower.
In the distance, several successive explosions happened on the mothership. A gust of fire
enveloped K, and Heishi said with finality, “Abandon ship!”
But A-Ka said, “No! There’s still something that needs to be done!”
In that instant, countless scenes of the past flashed through A-Ka’s mind. K rushed out of
the fire, flying towards the top of the six hundred plus story tower, where A-Ka found that
small-scale aircraft currently stranded on ‘Father’, charging up its power source!
And just then, the Heishi of the past was currently struggling to climb back into the aircraft
from his position thousands of meters in the air. The aircraft was firmly stuck, and the
propeller at its tail glowed with blue light, creating a vortex.
Heishi: “...”
“Control of the secondary propellers has been lost, brace for impact,” K’s electronic
warning system alerted them.
With a sudden loud boom, K crashed into the outer wall of ‘Father’. In that instant, A-Ka had
K reach its mechanical limb out and grab the Heishi of the past. Holding him with one arm,
they flew towards the small airship and tossed him into the cabin.
“Go quickly,” A-Ka said to his past self he was watching through the viewing monitor of the
pilot cabin.
The A-Ka of the past bore an expression of surprise as he stared dumbly at K.
With a turn, K leapt up onto the small-scale craft, which had loosened from its position.
“Go now!” A-Ka shouted to himself of the past, and with another harsh kick, he helped the
airship make its escape. Right after, he turned and flew towards the mothership.
The instant that the airship escaped, the mothership at the very top slammed into ‘Father’’s
tip, and with a huge boom, the blue light pierced through the ship. At this very last moment,
A-Ka rushed into the blue light.
The flow of time seemed to become strangely slow as gravity loosened its hold on them.
Countless blue tentacles emerged from that blue light, undulating as they pierced into the
interior of the mothership.
“General Libre!” A-Ka roared loudly.
K rushed onto the bridge, still trailing embers as it went. In the expansive central hall on
the bridge, a clone commander was currently entwined in countless tentacles created of
blue light, dangling in mid-air.
The moment that K entered the bridge, the hatch opened, and Heishi flew out from inside.
With his body in midair, feathers of light flew out from his hand, severing the connection
between Libre and the blue light.
‘Father’’s consciousness instantly retreated, but it didn’t retreat outside of the cabin.
Instead, the glowing tentacles undulated over the bridge, coiling around.
“General Libre!” A-Ka shouted.
“You are…” Libre’s pupils slowly contracted.
Heishi rose, turning to face the blue light. ‘Father’’s rich voice once again sounded.
“Zoroaster.”
“Labere,” Heishi said coldly. “You’ve violated our heavenly father’s decree.”
“Your defeat is inevitable,” Father intoned. “Your emotions serve no purpose, and they will
only turn into a trap that hinders the growth and evolution of all lifeforms.”
Heishi said darkly, “Our heavenly father has assigned me as the final decision maker,
exactly because compared to you, I have learned and experienced the power of these
emotions.”
A-Ka exclaimed quietly, “General!”
Libre’s eyes slowly lost their clarity, and a buzz and glow of electricity came from his
forehead.
“When the sea of blue sweeps… over the world…” Libre said brokenly, “The Son of God
will… come into this world… answer me… children… you guys… you guys…”
“I need your chip,” A-Ka said, extremely quietly. “Of the passwords that unlock the Central
program, the three passwords, I have already obtained two… General Libre.”
Libre grabbed A-Ka’s hand, his deep-set eyes watching him.
“Take it,” Libre murmured. “It’s in my mind. Promise me, child, that you two will definitely
come back…”
“I will, I will, this I promise you.”
In that instant, the blue light expanded rapidly, and Heishi called loudly, “Take him and go!”
“You won’t admit it?” ‘Father’’s voice said. “Then look at this.”
The blue light suddenly shifted, and at the very top of the tall, pointy tower of ‘Father’
appeared an open laboratory. The metal structures spun slowly, getting stuck on the
bridge, before suddenly breaking through the plate blocking off the front cabin. In the criss-
crossing multitude of electromagnetic lights, the laboratory’s great doors slowly opened,
and Feiluo appeared, bound to a chair. He faced the monitor, his brows furrowed heavily as
he trembled uncontrollably.
“Feiluo!” Heishi took a step forward, but the electromagnetic lights suddenly increased in
intensity. As soon as he rushed forward, they would blow this place into smithereens,
completely destroying everything.
“Give up on your actions,” ‘Father’’s completely emotionless voice said. “Otherwise I will
annihilate him. To the world, the lives of clone lifeforms are wholly pointless. This is one of
the rules laid out by our heavenly father; they are mere tools.”
In that instant, all the blood in A-Ka’s body froze.
Heishi’s voice trembled. “No… no…”
The medical robot held Feiluo’s head in place. Feiluo gritted his teeth, tears trickling out of
his eyes, his lips moving slightly, as if he was waiting for imminent death to descend upon
him.
Even A-Ka’s breath was trembling. His small knife was placed by Libre’s ear, but he had no
way to make that cut.
“Act,” ‘Father’ intoned coldly. “The medical robot will copy your movements exactly. When
you retrieve A01’s chip, 77023E’s central nervous system will also be severed by you.”
In this instant, even Heishi was at a loss for words. He watched Feiluo silently, his eyes
bright red.
“A-Ka… Heishi,” Feiluo said. “Do not be sad. As a cloned lifeform, I’m willing to shoulder the
burden of this destiny…”
A-Ka shut his eyes, his tears sliding down non-stop.
“Act, child,” Libre said quietly. “I’m begging you, this is our duty…”
“I’m begging you, leave my people a place to find shelter,” he finished.
Feiluo clenched his jaw, fighting back the horror on his face as he said, trembling, “A-Ka,
why are you hesitating?! What did you come here for?!”
“Take good care of Percy for me…” he continued. “Don’t tell him how I died. Just tell
70174A what happened…”
‘Father’’s icy voice said, “Zoroaster, you’ve finally understood. There is no purpose in the
evolution of humans’ emotions.”
At the other, distant end of the time-space tunnel, thousands of flowers of light were
blossoming.
It was afternoon in Dragonmaw City, and the warm, golden sunlight shone down on the
garden. Percy sat silently on a swing as a gentle breeze blew through the garden. Moran
stood at the side of the pond, scattering food for the fish into the pool.
“Uncle Moran,” Percy suddenly said, lightly. “The you of the past also went to the City of
Machines, right?”
“En.” The corners of Moran’s mouth quirked up in the beginnings of a smile as he nodded.
“Can you tell me if they all returned safely in the end?” Percy asked, tilting his head up, his
eyes still covered with that white cloth.
“Percy,” Moran responded solemnly. “The past and the future are two completely separate
timelines. The past of the past, and the past of the present, cannot be linked together
through cause and effect.”
“That’s true,” Percy said earnestly. “But I still want to know… I keep feeling this sense of
unease.”
Moran fell silent for a moment, thinking, before he said, “They all came back, they all
returned safe and sound.”
“Thank you,” Percy said, smiling warmly.
In the City of Machines, in the control room of the mothership, amidst a hurricane.
“Do it!” Feiluo shouted hoarsely, tears trickling from his reddened eyes. “What are you
waiting for! You coward!”
A-Ka squeezed his eyes shut, slicing the small knife into the flesh to the side of Libre’s ear,
and Feiluo let out a pained shout.
Heishi said, “The clones are not tools. They were the first to rise in rebellion against you,
Labere.”
The blue light suddenly shrank back, and Heishi continued, “You, have failed. The lifeforms
that you created have long since surpassed you. They have their own strength and beliefs,
and humans have intelligence and emotions. These two people were all successful products
of evolution, they are our heavenly father’s masterpieces.”
With the spraying of Libre’s brain matter and fresh blood, Feiluo let out pained howls,
gritting his teeth and staring towards the sky. His eyes slowly lost their brightness as A-Ka,
crying heavily, pulled out Libre’s chip.
“My life will be carried on... by that of my brothers’.” After Feiluo said that last sentence, his
pupils slowly expanded, and a red light glowed from his chest.
Heishi turned and grabbed A-Ka in his arms as they leapt outwards. Right after that, Feiluo
self-destructed. Way up high in the sky, he turned into a fireball, instantly blowing a hole at
the top of that tall tower. The flames whooshed over the bridge. A-Ka’s hand was covered in
fresh blood as he pinched Libre’s chip between his fingers. The entire mothership folded in
on itself as it slowly began to tilt.
“Catch it!” Heishi shook open his black-gold wings, but just at this moment, ‘Father’ turned
the light cannons towards the region where the bridge was, shooting out an earth-shaking
cannonball.
Heishi’s wings instantly spread wide, becoming a protective cage that shielded the two of
them, blocking the intense flames and the ferocious rush of the explosion. But that rampant
explosion of energy also caused the bridge portion to collapse, and in the collisions that
followed, Heishi had no way to hold back that powerful wave anymore. His wings of light
were utterly defeated in an instant, and they dispersed.
On the tilting ship, A-Ka slipped past, the chip flying out of his hand as the two of them flew
off the ship together.
The flow of time seemed to stop. With the explosion and the heat wave, sharp shards of
metal whistled through the air in all directions, but in A-Ka’s eyes was reflected the energy
pool that powered the ship. All of the mechanical components were instantly disassembled
in his vision, and he pulled out a screwdriver, flinging it towards the energy pool in the
distance. It stuck to the outer shell, before the entire energy pool exploded.
The screwdriver shot back, striking the chip, which flashed with a golden light. The chip
trailed drops of fresh blood as it spun through the air, changing directions as it flew
towards A-Ka, landing in his hand. A-Ka closed his fingers around it, holding it tightly.
The wind rushed past his ears as he quickly descended, and Heishi shot at him from the
side, grabbing him in a fierce embrace. A-Ka pressed down on the remote control. As they
plummeted, K burst through the flames. Rushing towards the two of them, it caught them in
the cabin and closed the hatch. Darkness covered their vision.
Everything’s over, A-Ka thought tiredly.
‘Father’’s tall tower folded, plummeting towards the earth below. The light cannons began
to shoot into the sky, and right after, the mothership that was crashing in the midst of the
hurricane exploded for a second time. The main energy source’s explosion decimated
basically the entirety of the Nucleus. In the blazing flames that erupted, K, blanketed by fire,
rushed out of the City of Machines, flying towards the horizon.
A heavy snow began to drift down from the darkened sky, and the flakes contained the
ashes from the flames. The plains were completely barren as far as the eye could see, and in
the chilling storm, K towered over the land like a giant, its entire body covered with
snowflakes.
A-Ka knelt on the ground, and Heishi hugged him tightly. He let A-Ka bury his head on his
shoulder as A-Ka sobbed soundlessly.
Shahuang had Huixiong’s arm slung over his shoulder as they limped over. None of them
said anything, silently staring at the chip in A-Ka’s hand.
“I hear that the clones’ lives have no individuality,” Shahuang said in a low voice. “They’re
more like one entire person, one strong life made up of an entire people.”
“Which is why so many clones, in battle, push forth over the bodies of their fallen comrades
for the future of their people,” Huixiong said lowly. “After we go back, it is time for us to
properly discuss the future of this people with Angus.”
A-Ka’s tears flowed down, and he couldn’t restrain his own grief. Heishi let out a long sigh,
before saying, “Let’s go. To the meeting point.”
A-Ka’s consciousness was in a daze. Along the way, he drifted in and out of sleep. In his
dream, his hands were covered in blood, but Feiluo didn’t blame him at all. He only rubbed
his head, saying, “You’ve done well, A-Ka, I’m proud of you.”
When he opened his eyes again, they had already arrived at the Primeval Heart. In the
midst of the basin was parked a small airship. Moran was currently communicating with
the clone headquarters via transmitter, reporting to them that the outcome of the battle
was as expected: the Revolution of the Clones had failed.
By his side, several clones gathered around. A-Ka’s eyes were bright red as he stood in the
basin.
“Seems like Lieutenant Colonel Feiluo hasn’t returned,” Moran said. “These individuals are
friendly troops who rescued me from the City of Machines.”
Those clones glanced at each other, before Moran introduced them to A-Ka and his group.
A-Ka only nodded, and Huixiong described the series of events that had happened on his
behalf. A-Ka remained silent the entire time.
“Who is 70174A?” Heishi asked as soon as he opened his mouth.
A clone raised his hand, saying, “I am, my name is Karna.”
Heishi passed on Feiluo’s last words. That last sentence of his wasn’t complete, and
everyone sunk into silence at that, before Moran said at last, “Let’s wait a little more, I need
to let the ring recharge enough energy…”
“Can I help you guys?” Karna suddenly asked. “The Feiluo of right now is still alive, should
we tell him…”
“No,” Moran said. “That is not a good idea, Lieutenant Karna.”
Karna pondered deeply for a moment, before continuing, “I can replace Feiluo. If all of this
holds true, then Feiluo should still be escaping right now.”
“Wh-what?” A-Ka couldn’t believe it.
Karna explained. “Feiluo and I were created in the same batch, and we were the best of
friends. I first met Percy many years ago, and it was Feiluo and I who rescued Percy from
that village together. I know what he and Percy talk about usually when they’re alone.”
“This…” A-Ka mused. “But Feiluo is already dead.”
“Our chips are connected,” Karna said, pointing to his own head. “I can retrieve all of his
backup memories from his database.”
Moran glanced at Karna, before saying, “What about your identity?”
“Just say that I was sacrificed,” Karna said. “I’ll take Feiluo’s place in carrying out his
mission. Otherwise, if there’s no one to take care of Percy, he will grow very melancholic.”
Translator's Note:
moon: almost put that as revolution of the clowns there hoo

This chapter is migrated and/or formatted by our fellow chicken enthusiast(s), moon.

"Everyone, today, everything will be up to you."

Translator(s): moon
Editor(s): jelly, namio
None of the gathered people spoke, before Karna said, “He won’t see through it. I’m very
familiar with him, just like Feiluo. In the past, when Feiluo wasn’t there, I helped him out by
pretending to be him and chatted with Percy. He couldn’t tell our voices apart.”
The clones' voices were exactly the same, and since Percy hadn't been able to see since he
was small, he had never seen Feiluo's visage either. But A-Ka knew that Percy would
definitely be able to tell - not because of anything specific, but rather because human
instinct was the keenest thing in this world.
A-Ka said, “If Percy learns of this, you must tell him the truth.”
Karna’s deep-set eyes scrutinized A-Ka, before he nodded.
Moran said, “The other side has sent the signal, so let’s begin. Everyone, after you return to
Dragonmaw City, there is still a large battle awaiting you. I wish you all the best of luck.”

A-Ka took a deep breath. Karna’s arrival had more or less cancelled out a bit of his despair
and sorrow, but now was not the time for either of those. Accompanied by gorgeous
lightning from the sky, the space-time tunnel once again enveloped them. All of them
slowly rose into the sky, flying into the distant future.

In Dragonmaw City, all of them were sent back one by one. A-Ka was tired beyond belief,
and Moran managed to catch him first and support him.
“Where’s Percy?” Karna asked anxiously.
“I didn’t notify him,” Moran replied. “Change into this military uniform, as quickly as you
can.”
“I’ll go… rest.” A-Ka didn’t have the courage to face Percy. They all left, with Moran going to
help Karna change into that uniform. Karna tugged on the collar and glanced himself in the
mirror, before mussing up his hair a little more.

Percy sat in the hallway, facing the gentle breeze that came in from the outside. His eyes
were still covered with white cloth. Karna quietly came up behind him, like a silent panther,
his military boots landing on the ground.
While Percy was silent, Karna began to smile and hugged him from behind.
“Daddy!” Percy said, smiling from the unexpected joy.
Karna said warmly, “I’ve come back, Percy.”
Percy hugged his waist, sobbing. “I thought I would never be able to see you again.”
Karna said, “They all came back safely.”
Percy hugged Karna’s neck, grinning and hopping around. Karna then said, “Though we
were only parted for a few days… I imagine your eyes are almost healed, right?”
“En,” Percy said. “There’s still one more day.”
“Tomorrow at noon,” Karna said, picking up Percy’s hand. “Everything will get better, I
promise. There might still be one more battle, but I will specially request the Pontiff to give
us a little more time to be together.”
Percy nodded. Karna then picked up his adopted son in a horizontal carry, bringing him
back into their room.
“Alright, don’t cry anymore…”
“Everything’s over now.”
“I promise you, Percy, after everything is over, we’ll stay together for good… I promise
you…”

Tonight, every bone in A-Ka’s body was steeped with exhaustion. Feiluo’s passing had
caused all of his strength to leave him, and he couldn’t even find the courage to face Percy.
Even now, he hadn’t said hello to him -- and his dreamscape had already held up to the test.
That was to say, even A-Ka himself would experience what Percy had seen in his dream; he
would sacrifice his own life to change this world.
“Are you still down?” Heishi pushed open the door and entered the bathing room. He was
wearing a bathrobe, holding a bottle of fruit juice in his hand. He handed another bottle to
A-Ka, who lifted a hand to take it.
“Not anymore,” A-Ka said matter-of-factly. “I just feel a little uneasy, I don’t know how to
face Percy tomorrow.”
Heishi untied his bathrobe, his handsome, well-sculpted body revealing itself under A-Ka’s
gaze. He then walked into the hot water, sitting directly across from A-Ka. He pressed his
feet against A-Ka’s, and the press of their skin caused A-Ka to grow a lot more calm.
“Human lives are very fragile,” Heishi replied.
“Yes,” A-Ka said quietly. “But they are also very powerful. Every person, including my
people who perished in the City of Machines.”

Heishi pulled A-Ka into his arms, stroking his head.

That same night, A-Ka began to merge the three passwords, borrowing Moran’s laboratory
to unlock the lock. Angus, Huixiong, Heishi, and “Feiluo” gathered in the study, anxiously
watching A-Ka place Libre’s chip into the decoder as volumes of densely packed
information flooded out.
Moran said, “Retrieve his memories that have to do with Father.”
A-Ka said, “There’s too many. That includes the military movements that involved Father…”
“Search by keyword,” Angus said. “The password to the Central Core, the twenty second of
the eleventh month last year.”
According to the keywords Angus had provided, A-Ka began to search. In an instant, 99% of
the messages were eliminated, and Angus said, “Circular ring-shaped memory injection,
cellular structure, destruction of the original chip.”
Once again, a large portion of the messages were removed. Angus continued, “Keyword,
Doctor Melendez.”
“Found it.” A-Ka raised his head, only to see the contents on the vertical projector screen
flashing at him, these strange lines of code. He copied the code onto another chip, and
finally, the three chips were inserted at the same time into the prehistoric decoder.
The instant that he pressed down on the power button, A-Ka’s heart was beating so hard it
almost leapt out of his throat.
“Heavenly Father, please protect us…” Several times, A-Ka couldn’t seem to find the
courage to press it.
This was a historic moment, and the President of the Mercenary Association, the Pontiff,
the Son of God, and the future King of the Clone Country passed down for millions of years,
all gathered around this common, ordinary human, waiting for him to activate a fresh
section of history that the humans, clones and robotic lifeforms would face.
In that moment, they unwittingly created a whole new section of history. A golden age, with
the weight of Heishi’s hand on the back of A-Ka’s pressing down on that button, was born in
that instant.

A complex polyhedron shot out from the chip decoder. The first section, the second section,
the third section...
99%, 100%, complete.
The red light suddenly shrank in, and there was silence for a moment, before a light blue
glow began to emanate as a ring of symbols appeared, circling slowly. Below the symbols
appeared annotations and explanations, as a low, rich voice spoke. “The final termination
sequence for the core of the Astrolabe surveillance system. Requesting a connection with
Labere.”
All of the people present let out excited cries. A-Ka leaned against Heishi’s front, once again
tearing up from excitement and joy.
“After noon tomorrow, we will begin our battle,” Angus said. “I will rally all the military
power I have left at my disposal to protect you guys when you break into the City of
Machines.”
A-Ka nodded. “I’m in charge of helping Heishi arrive at the Nuclear Core.”
Huixiong said, “The mercenaries and I will prepare to launch a guerilla attack from within,
we’ll draw away some of the enemy’s firepower.”
Moran said, “My duty is already complete. I will pray for you all.”
“We will definitely succeed,” A-Ka said with tears in his eyes as he hugged the others. Karna
smiled as he slapped Heishi’s arm, saying, “You guys have done well, I’m going to go back to
keep Percy company now. Tomorrow, I’ll head out with you all.”

Tonight, A-Ka couldn’t sleep at all. He sat on the swings in the garden, watching the clear
sky and the brilliant starry river above. He knew that this was going to be his last night.
Heishi stood in the courtyard, his two hands pressed against the railing, watching A-Ka in
the garden.
“I want to watch it for a little while longer,” A-Ka said, lifting his head to stare at the sky.
“Heishi, say, do you think the Heavenly Father’s spaceship is drifting alone, asleep in the
depths of space right now?”
“Actually I really long to see him again,” Heishi said quietly. “It’s you who caused me to feel
this emotion of longing for the first time. Now I’ve begun to feel that, when I am far from
the people I am most familiar with, my friends, my loved ones, a strong sense of unease
rises from my soul. I imagine that you humans are the same, so you search for support.”
A-Ka lowered his head to stare at the ground, murmuring, “What about now?”
“Now?” Heishi thought for a moment, before responding, “Everything is very good.”

“A-Ka.” Karna brought Percy over.

A-Ka began to smile, and Percy ran towards him, hugging him tightly.
“It’s so great that you came back safely,” Percy said, his voice quivering.
“Sorry, Percy,” A-Ka choked on a sob. “I… I made you worry…”
“Shh.” With his eyes still blindfolded and a smile on his youthful face, he pressed a finger
against A-Ka’s lips, before pressing a kiss to his forehead.
“I no longer dream now,” Percy said warmly and affectionately. “You all will be well. After
all, my dreams aren’t always accurate, right?”
“Yes,” A-Ka said, smiling. “Your dreams predicted things wrong. We’re all here, safe and
sound.”
Percy asked, “Before you head out tomorrow, can you come keep me company for a bit?”
“Of course,” A-Ka answered quietly. “When that time comes, you’ll be able to see me with
your own eyes. You’ll see us, Heishi…”
Percy nodded, before handing A-Ka a flower. A-Ka held it in his hand and smiled a little,
before Percy turned and left with Karna.

Heishi walked over, sitting shoulder to shoulder with A-Ka on the swing.
“I don't want to sleep tonight,” A-Ka said. “Can you keep me company for a bit?”
Heishi en-ed, leaning against A-Ka’s side. A-Ka stuck that flower onto the chair, and the two
of them leaned against each other, swaying gently with the motion of the swing.
Tomorrow, this world would no longer be the same. It was a pity that he wouldn’t be able
to see it in person.
If there was a pair of eyes that could replace him to see this new world, how good that
would be.
“What are you thinking about?” Heishi asked.
A-Ka began to smile, and Heishi even knew to care about what he was thinking. Watching
him slowly become like a human gave A-Ka strange, miraculous feeling.
“I’m thinking about my past,” A-Ka murmured. “I’m thinking about the world that I’ve
grown to recognize ever since I could remember things.”
What kind of a world was that? A-Ka still remembered a fragment of a blurry memory from
when he was three or four. That was a day when he and many small children in the Ant
Nest’s nursery had been undergoing human thought training. They sat together in a
darkened room as the robots played a movie.
In the movie was a human who was currently exploring a desolate world. The dangers and
horrors he faced were far too many, and A-Ka kept feeling that in the next instant the main
character would die. Thankfully, with the help of the robots, every time, before he was
about to die, he managed to escape danger.
His next segment of memory was when he was at the age of learning how to be a mechanic.
He had always wanted to go take a look outside - every year he tried to get a job that would
take him to the surface, but no matter what, his request would never pass. Even after many
years, he had never once gained the opportunity to go up to the surface. In the end, when
he went to the rubbish disposal to find scrap parts, he unexpectedly also found that exit
that led to the beach.
With that, he was so excited his entire body began to tremble. It grew difficult for him to
sleep at night, because from time to time, he would sneak out to look at the vast ocean and
craggly rocks. That small patch of land and sky was his entire world. Even later, he
absorbed knowledge like a sponge, planning for a day that he would be able to leave this
huge, icy cage.
He designed, and began to slowly build K.
Though human bodies were so frail, they were the beings that had the most adventurous
spirits. He couldn’t even explain clearly where this desire to escape had come from, or
when exactly it had slowly taken root and grown in his heart. Was it because of the
loneliness and hesitation he felt when he was alone? He kept feeling that at the end of the
ocean lay an even vaster new world.
That day, when the robotic guards notified him that it was his turn to undergo the
inspection, he had thought that without a doubt that his little secret would be found by
‘Father’, and that secret would end him.
But that hadn’t happened.
In the vast sea of blue light, according to convention, a human could ask ‘Father’ to grant a
single wish. According to human legends, as long as they worked hard for their entire lives,
giving their all for the City of Machines, then this wish would be granted after they died.
Legend also had it that for every person, when their mind was being searched through by
‘Father’, they would lose all sense of self. The wish that rose then was the deepest demand
in their heart.
A-Ka slowly began to recall. That day, he was drowning in the vast sea of blue light.
“I wish that… there was someone who would accompany me,” A-Ka said. “Someone who
would take me to change the world, to search for… freedom…”

Later, he peacefully left ‘Father’’s consciousness, as if nothing had ever happened. His robot
and his secret passageway were not found by ‘Father’, and it wasn’t until the end that he
learned - ‘Father’’s programming didn’t allow it to read the inner hearts of humans. On top
of that, humans were the most complex living beings in this world. Even the omnipotent
‘Father’) couldn’t tell what every human was thinking.
With that, he continued to carry out his plans to explore. His courage was so strong that
even he himself was taken aback. And then, he met Heishi.
The clouds appeared and disappeared, and the tides ebbed and flowed. Today, they were
here, and Father’s era had already become history.

In the early morning, the thunderous buzz of machines woke him. When A-Ka opened his
eyes, the sunlight that encompassed the sky above Dragonmaw City was blocked out by
humans, clones, and the Curia; everything that had life in it was currently gathering under
this sky, with the Hall of Faith in Dragonmaw City becoming the central headquarters.
“Are we heading out now?” A-Ka asked tiredly.
“Too early,” Heishi replied. “We still have a lot of time to prepare.”
A-Ka passed through the hallway, coming to the Hall of Faith. He first went to bathe, and
then he ate his breakfast. The commander of the clones, Angus, ten plus members of his
clone generals, and Huixiong, with the members of his Mercenary Association Board, were
all gathered in the hall. Moran smiled and said, “Yesterday night, you didn’t seem to sleep
very well.”
A-Ka smiled. “Yes, but it’s already enough.”
“Then, everyone,” Moran said, “Today, everything will be up to you.”
Percy sat on the chair in the middle, and Moran gently untied the white silk wrapped
around his eyes, tenderly wiping away the remnants of the paste from around them.
“Percy?” A-Ka asked joyfully. “What do you see?”
Percy opened his eyes. Karna, A-Ka, and Heishi were standing in front of him. Just as
Percy’s eyes opened, they closed again. This repeated a few times, until they finally
adjusted to the strong light that had appeared suddenly.
“Do you see me?” A-Ka asked, worried.
Light appeared in Percy’s eyes. He had a pair of clear eyes that looked like black obsidian.
“What do you see?” Moran asked mildly.
“I see… light,” Percy said. “And hope. A-Ka, I see you, and Heishi too. You guys are exactly
the same as I imagined you to be!”
As he shouted loudly, Percy rose to his feet, pulling A-Ka into a hug. A-Ka was so moved
that it was difficult for him to give voice to his feelings Percy walked out of the hall, the
bright light making it almost impossible for him to open his eyes at first. Outside the
platform of the Hall of Faith was a sea of battle airships stretching as far as the eye could
see. Amidst the roar of the engines, shouts of humans and clones echoed under the vast sky.
In front of his eyes, a new world opened wide its doors.
Translator's Note:
moon: and next time, how it all comes together

This chapter is migrated and/or formatted by our fellow chicken enthusiast(s), moon.

“Farewell forever, child.”

Translator(s): moon
Editor(s): namio, jelly
A-Ka had once read in a book that sometimes, some species would, wave upon wave, rush
towards certain death. For example, mice in the depths of the desert would be compelled to
leave their native habitats to race towards the ocean. Fish shining with light that lived in
the depths of the ocean would, one day, flood in the hundreds of thousands to the shore,
stranding themselves there.
The pods of whales which existed further back in history, whose history spanned longer
than that of humans’, when their species had no way to survive any longer, would seek out
land on their own. They would exchange their own lives for the price of letting their entire
species live on.
This day, when he saw countless battle crafts, both large and small, all assembled to move
out, they were like a courageous school of fish speeding to their deaths as they raced
towards the City of Machines, buying their whole species a chance at survival with their
fierce assault. At that, he couldn’t help but think of this scene that he had read about many
years ago in a book.
All of the clones’ firepower had been sent out, and they covered the sky. The flashing ships
looked like the deep-sea fish whose scales glowed with light, and under that gloomy sky
covered with lightning, they obstructed the view of the horizon.
The defenses along the outer perimeter of the City of Machines had already been bolstered
with guards. The fighter robots all rose to the sky, facing down the clones’ fierce firepower
as they charged towards the city. Heishi and A-Ka stood on the bridge, watching the glow of
the explosions and bright blazes that spanned the sky.
After the Revolution of the Clones, ‘Father’’s body had been destroyed beyond repair, and a
section of it had been whittled away entirely. In this short half a year, the peak of the
rebuilt tower only had steel cables and exposed wiring, which flashed brightly under the
backdrop of the sky. However, the City of Machines had the most battle power on the
mainland, and the flying robots were like a swarm of termites that couldn’t be fully killed.
They rushed towards the battleship division.
With a huge peng, emergency lights began to flash in the ship’s interior.
“Warning, the right flank has been hit, emergency situation.”
“Prepare to abandon ship,” Heishi said. “A-Ka, are you ready?”
A-Ka nodded, the distant ‘Father’ reflected in his eyes. At this time, it was gathering its
energy. A-Ka pulled down the communicator by his ear, shouting, “Feiluo! Do you hear
me?”
“I’m here,” Karna’s voice came from beside his ear. “What is it?”
“Father has begun accumulating energy!” A-Ka said. “Tell them to not get any closer!
Otherwise the electromagnetic wind will destroy all of the battleships!”
“You all move out immediately,” Karna said in response.
The battleship began to shudder and shake violently. A-Ka rushed past the ladder, entering
the hangar. In an instant, the entire battleship swung around, and Heishi reached an arm
out just in time, wrapping it around his waist, roaring, “Be careful!”
A-Ka took a seat in the small-size aircraft, squeezing with Heishi in the cabin. A-Ka said,
“We can’t wait for them to get any closer. Let’s fly in right now!”
Another laser hit the ship. The red clouds from the explosion signaled its collapse as a small
aircraft flew out from its midst.
“‘Father’ is currently intercepting your positioning pings to find your location, Heishi,”
Karna’s voice said from within the communicator. “To avoid exposing your flight path, all
communications will be cut off. I wish you guys luck, A-Ka.”
“And good luck to you guys too,” A-Ka replied.
The aircraft sped through multiple explosions, avoiding the metal shrapnel and light bullets
that flew everywhere. Heishi controlled the joystick, saying, “Switch to manual mode.”
With A-Ka’s strong tug on the switch, Heishi pulled the joystick to one side. The aircraft did
a flip in the air, avoiding a collision with the huge metallic robot and clone battleship that
sped their way!
“Now I’ve found,” a voice drawled lazily from the communicator, “that our clone brothers
really aren’t afraid of death.”
“Shahuang!” A-Ka shouted loudly, with great emotion.
More and more of the Iron and Steel Corps battle machines rose into the air, rushing
towards them. After they started approaching the Nucleus region, their aircraft turned into
the only target, but from the blazing flames, a squad of human aircraft came rushing
towards them! Right after, in a well-practiced move, they split into two flanks, spreading
apart, protecting the aircraft that the two of them were in!
“Because they all know what’s at stake,” Huixiong’s rich voice said. “It’s just like what Libre
said. The entire people are like one person.”
“Then do they exchange wives amongst themselves?” Shahuang asked.
Instantly, a chorus of raucous laughter came from the communicator. Huixiong continued,
“Right now, let us humans act as the last escort for the Son of God!”
Over the communication frequency, countless mercenaries from Phoenix City shouted
loudly in agreement. At that moment, A-Ka couldn’t help but feel full of pride.
“Bring us towards the center!” he shouted loudly. “Find where it’s flashing! That leads
directly to Father’s Nucleus!”
Just as the words came out of his mouth, ‘Father’’s heroic figure flashed with light.
The blue light shone, and all of their eyes were temporarily blinded to a bright white. It was
in that fleeting moment that all of ‘Father’’s structure appeared in A-Ka’s eyes.
It was a miraculous moment that would never be repeated again, as if the hand of a god had
bestowed the destiny of everything in this world on a particular, fixed point in time and
space. The thoughts that flashed through A-Ka’s mind were not about ‘Father’, the battle,
nor this fantastical power, but rather his own fate -- as a sacrificial offering.
In that instant, he seemed to understand everything. He was born exactly for this. His
destiny, at the instant when the sun, moon, and stars aligned, was to shoulder this heavy
burden.
“Percy… I understand now…” A-Ka’s pupils swiftly contracted, fixating on a certain point in
space.
“What?” Heishi called. “Watch out!”
A huge steel slab came spinning towards them. The aircraft suddenly swerved to the left,
but a bit of the wingtip was clipped off. Instantly, it began to trail black smoke, and with a
huge boom, it began to spiral towards 'Father'’s body.
“Have you guys found the entrance?” Shahuang’s voice asked from within the
communicator. “You’d best be quick about it, I can’t guarantee…”
“Make a spiral descent!” A-Ka shouted. “It’s at a distance of 220 meters off the ground! I can
already see it!”
That entrance was situated at the center of the firing range of four light cannons. Huixiong
chuckled a little helplessly. “A great location.”
As he finished his sentence, the aircraft guarding the two sides suddenly split off to the left
and right. The light cannons turned in different directions, taking aim, but suddenly the
blue light at the top of the tower exploded outwards!
With a huge weng, all sound grew distant. On the Eastern Mainland, with ‘Father’ as the
center, an electromagnetic ring spread out rapidly. The sky, the land, and all of the robotic
guards and clone battleships, without a single exception, were struck by this paralytic
electromagnetic blast that swept past without differentiating between friend or foe. The
world went still for two seconds, before all of the fighter robots exploded with blazing
flames, plummeting to the ground.
The land trembled without rest, and the indicator dials on the aircraft spun wildly, as
Heishi was unable to control the aircraft any longer. With an explosion, the top flew off, and
in the moment before the aircraft slammed into the tall tower, countless dark gold light
feathers spread out, gathering again under their feet. A-Ka hugged Heishi around the waist,
squeezing his eyes shut as the two of them stood on the hoverboard formed by the light
feathers. They took that instant when the light bomb exploded to rush into the tower that
made up ‘Father’’s main body.
From the communicator, A-Ka heard a pained cry. He couldn’t tell if that was Shahuang or
Huixiong, or if it came from the clones’ battleships, but to him, these things were no longer
important. From that split second that he and Heishi rushed into the tower, it was as if they
had entered another, completely different world.
Here was a long hallway filled with light, and the ceiling, floor, and walls were all screens
flashing with countless lines of code. Standing in the midst of it all was like standing in a
vast, endless universe of information. The flow of symbols was like the twinkling of the
stars or the ebb and flow of the tides; they continued without end.
“Heishi?” A-Ka knelt by Heishi’s side, only to find that he was unconscious.
With great difficulty, Heishi coughed up a mouthful of blood.
“Heishi!” A-Ka shouted.
“Zoroaster has already lost all of his power,” 'Father'’s rich voice said. “Foolish human, even
today, you still hold such an unrealistic desire…”
“Those are…” Heishi said brokenly, “Attenuation beams. Don’t be afraid, A-Ka, let’s go, we’ll
keep heading forward.”
A-Ka pulled Heishi up, letting him lean on his shoulder as they jogged through the hallway.
'Father'’s intimidating voice echoed in their ears.
“Give up on your mission. All of this cannot be stopped simply with your actions…”
“Your time is limited,” A-Ka murmured, lifting his head. “You have disabled all of the robotic
lifeforms in the City of Machines, so now you have no firepower at all…”
The two of them ran to the end of the hallway. What appeared in front of them was a huge,
dark blue quartz pillar, around which countless tentacles were wrapped.
A-Ka: “Quick! That’s its nucleus controlling mechanism!”
Heishi roared angrily, “Wake from your fantasy now -- Labere!”
Heishi’s wings spread open as he hugged A-Ka, flying to the center of the blue pillar of light.
In A-Ka’s eyes, everything around him instantly shifted, and a gap appeared in the quartz
pillar.
At the same time, thousands of dancing tentacles curled towards them, wrapping around
Heishi, who let out a loud shout. A-Ka however, kicked off from Heishi. Shooting out like an
arrow leaving a bow, he flew across that last short distance, raising the chip decoder high
with his left hand, aiming it at the center of the quartz pillar.
The flow of time seemed to come to a complete halt. In midair, A-Ka flew towards the
quartz pillar, slamming the chip decoder in with his palm. It let out a quiet click as it was
inserted into the indent.
Instantly, the entire quartz pillar went from blue to red, and the code all around them
became completely scrambled.
“Warning, emergency shutdown,” 'Father' said, in an electronic voice that went against its
will. “In 30 seconds, the Nucleus Protocol will be restarted. 29, 28…”
In that instant, the tentacles disappeared. Heishi let out an angered roar, flying towards the
quartz pillar, and with a spin in mid-air he caught A-Ka.
But the two of them slammed heavily into the pillar, plummeting headfirst into that
bottomless abyss.
Thousands of lines of code, like twinkling stars, gathered together and formed a huge face.
That human face created from flashing squares opened its mouth and let out a furious roar.
Heishi’s face was covered with fresh blood as he hugged A-Ka, the two of them plummeting
through the air. Their speed grew faster and faster as they fell along the energy pillar that
'Father' controlled. They dropped from the inside of the tower directly into the Nucleus of
the Astrolabe's space, falling deeper under the surface.
A-Ka opened his eyes. In the encompassing darkness, he saw a single point of light.
'Father'’s blue light circled ceaselessly around their bodies, while the glowing tentacles
whipped towards them. However, every time they neared Heishi and A-Ka, dark gold wings
would spring out, slamming into the tentacles.
With a huge boom, A-Ka and Heishi rushed through the other end of the blue light.
'Father'’s consciousness faded away, and what appeared in front of them was a calm and
still domain that glowed with white light.
Around them appeared millions of water droplets suspended in midair. A-Ka turned his
head curiously, only to find that reflected in every droplet was an immense, magnificent
world.
“Right here?” he asked, puzzled. He tried to land, only to find that in the end, he was still
stuck dangling in the air. The two of them looked up, only to see that far above their heads,
countless blue tentacles of light were currently trying to break into this space. 'Father' still
hadn’t given up, still trying to snatch the right to control the Nucleus of the Astrolabe.
Heishi answered, “In millions of years, you would be the first, and also be the last human to
set foot in this place.”
“What is this?” A-Ka, with surprise in his gaze, used his finger to prod at one of the
suspended water droplets that floated by his body. The droplet let out a light sound,
splitting into countless smaller droplets that flew in all directions. The world reflected in
that droplet disappeared, giving birth to new worlds.
“This is my Heavenly Father’s knowledge repository,” Heishi answered. “In these water
droplets, he preserved the data from all of his experiments, and within the Nucleus of the
Astrolabe, he used the consistency of the liquid form to carry out conversions and
calculations.”
A-Ka couldn’t resist exclaiming that this was too magical. This vast world filled with white
light far outstripped any human system. Heishi then continued, “Should we begin now, A-
Ka?”
“Do you know how to operate it?” A-Ka asked.
Heishi shielded A-Ka behind him, saying, “No matter what happens, don’t come forward.”
“No way,” A-Ka said. “What can I do for you? Don’t always be like this.”
Heishi gestured for him to be silent. He pressed one finger to the Nucleus of the Astrolabe,
but suddenly the light from the nuclear core disappeared, and an electronic voice sounded.
“Unable to activate, carrier required.”
A-Ka: “???”
Heishi thought silently for a moment, before walking up, standing in the center of the
circular disk. The particles of light, however, rejected him; they didn’t gather around his
body.
“Carrier does not fulfill the requirements, please exchange the sacrificial offering.”
Heishi: “...”
“I understand,” A-Ka said, his voice trembling. “Let me, Heishi.”
“No!” Heishi immediately stopped him.
A-Ka said, “You are unable to do this on your own. You need another consciousness. I
understand now…”
He lifted his head, looking around at his surroundings. All of those symbols seemed to have
taken on a special meaning, and the floating water droplets gave off a slight glow.
“I will cooperate with you to restart the Nucleus Protocol of the Astrolabe,” A-Ka said
nervously. “I will become the main program.”
“What?!” Heishi couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “That's impossible! What about
you?”
A-Ka indicated that he was ready, and he patted his shoulder while smiling. Heishi was
about to pull him back, but A-Ka said, “Let me try it! It might not work! Don’t be impatient!”
Heishi mumbled, “No, A-Ka, you can’t… we’ll leave this place.”
Suddenly, the world of the Nucleus began to shake uneasily. The space above their heads
suddenly collapsed as 'Father' forced its steel frame into the depths of the Astrolabe. In an
instant, countless glowing blue tentacles shot out, tangling together as they covered the
ground. Slowly, the white light was being sucked away by the blue light.
The heavens collapsed and the ground split open as the white world began to buckle, layer
by layer. The water droplets scattered.
As the world shook around them, A-Ka and Heishi were still calmly facing each other as
they had before, hovering in the air.
“Listen, Heishi, once the reboot process has begun,” A-Ka said, “I will follow what you said.
Don’t worry, everything will be resolved. Don’t cry, Heishi, what are you crying for? I will
be very well… being able to walk with you to this point has been the happiest thing in my
life…”
“No!” Heishi rushed up, but A-Ka’s movements were even faster than his, and he had
already stepped into the Nucleus of the Astrolabe. The points of light swept towards him,
turning him into a glowing silhouette, and they forcefully expelled Heishi out of the
Astrolabe.
“A-Ka!” Heishi roared loudly.
A-Ka smiled. “Even if we didn’t do anything, 'Father' would still regain control over the
Nucleus. Isn’t this for the best? Heishi, come, let us begin.”
Heishi, his eyes reddened, lifted a hand.
The world above their heads seemed to be collapsing in on itself in its destruction. Amidst
the falling stones and the light, Heishi’s body flashed and countless motes flew towards A-
Ka. The Nucleus of the Astrolabe expanded gently, encircling A-Ka’s body. A-Ka comfortably
spread his limbs apart. A gentle breeze began to blow. When he lifted his head to look up
into the distance, a single tear trickled down from the corner of his eye.
That single teardrop turned into one of the millions of worlds within the galaxy,
assimilating itself into the vast sea of information.
“The sacrificial offering’s lifeform fulfills the requirements, completion confirmed.” A-Ka’s
voice turned into an electronic one. The boot program of the Nucleus of the Astrolabe
replaced his voice, and that impersonal voice continued, “The experiment is already
complete. Please connect with the consciousness of the Astrolabe.”
WIth a shua, A-Ka’s consciousness seemed to expand until it encompassed everything. He
had been assimilated into the expansive world of the Astrolabe itself, and a strange change
began to happen to his body as it was enveloped in the light of the Nucleus. His clothes
turned into powder, which drifted away.
From his feet to his body, to his waist, and then to his head, A-Ka’s soft skin crystallized,
flashing with light.
The power of the Nucleus was turning his body into a carrier. All of the water droplets
gathered towards his head.
In that instant, Heishi seemed to understand that A-Ka would never return.
“A-Ka --!”
“——”
Heishi let out a hoarse howl.
A-Ka said impersonally, “Connection established. Beginning data migration.”
A-Ka opened his eyes, and Heishi’s tears flowed out unbridled. He stood right in front of A-
Ka, his brows furrowed deeply as he quivered uncontrollably. He felt the same kind of
sadness as a newly born infant who had lost everything it ever had. A-Ka wanted to smile at
him, but he could no longer form any expressions. His crystalline exterior flashed, and
information and communication signals in a volume as great as the sea started to pour in
wildly into his consciousness.
“Operator privileges require confirmation,” A-Ka’s voice said. “Warning: If privileges are
not sufficient, the operation will be forcefully terminated.”
Heishi pressed a trembling hand gently to A-Ka’s forehead.
“Access confirmed: highest level of operator privileges. Emergency control operation, high-
level lifeform Zoroaster,” A-Ka said calmly, watching Heishi. “Welcome to the Nucleus of
Astrolabe. Please begin operation.”
Heishi watched A-Ka, his tears flowing out uncontrollably. He pressed his lips together,
crying so hard he seemed to be unable to keep himself under control, before he tightly
hugged the crystallized form of A-Ka, burying his head in his shoulder.
“Astrolabe Rebirth,” Heishi said, his voice trembling. “Reset all environmental variables to
their default values…”
“Confirmed.” A-Ka’s arms spread wide as he lifted his head, his hands turning so that his
palms faced upwards. Countless glowing points of light appeared from his palms, shooting
towards the barrier separating them from the Astrolabe.
With a huge boom, on this day, the world of Astrolabe that had been spinning for millennia
tremored.
The sunlight poured down. In Dragonmaw City, Moran lifted his head to look at the horizon
as the ground shuddered and trembled. In front of the Curia’s Hall of Faith gathered a
congregation of tens of thousands of believers, and the instant that the earth split open, a
golden glow erupted from under the Church of the Stars. A huge propeller began to spin,
humming as it did so, lifting the inner city slowly into the air.
“A-Ka has succeeded,” Moran said.
“Will he ever come back?” Percy asked quietly.
Moran responded, “He has already become one with this world. His consciousness formed
this new world, Percy.”
Percy stood on the top of the platform, unable to resist his sobs. He buried his face in
Moran’s side.
Moran reached out a hand and stroked his head.
On the eastern shoreline, the Black Sea rushed in with earth-shattering force. The tsunami
swept into the city, and mountains collapsed before that force as the land sank. The
plummeting aircraft once again started up as 'Father'’s tall tower folded. The blue light
slowly disappeared before it grew dark.
“Board your ships now --!” Karna shouted loudly. “This place is going to be flooded soon!”
Thankfully, the humans in the City of Steel all streamed onto the ships. The sea surged into
the city, and the eastern side of the mainland began to sink as the continental shelf broke
off. The final huge mothership burst out of the seawater, flying like a huge whale into the
horizon.
The cloud cover was swept away, and the wild wind that gusted through the sky cleared
the red fog above Phoenix City. The land glowed with a white light, and rainwater began to
sprinkle across every corner of the world.
The black in the seawater and the rivers faded, and the clear, limpid water flashed with the
reflected brilliance of the sunset as it flowed across the land. The polluted water in the
Black Sea turned into a whirlpool, which sank into the depths of the Nucleus of the
Astrolabe.
“The rebirth of the Astrolabe is complete,” A-Ka’s voice said. “Awaiting your next order.
According to the rules of this irreversible reboot, after this operation, the Nucleus of
Astrolabe will be completely reformatted, and the results of the experiment will be cleared.
It will no longer be operational.”
Heishi reached out his hand, which trembled as he stroked A-Ka’s face.
A-Ka’s expression was set in one of calm indifference, and in his eyes was reflected Heishi’s
expression of sorrow.
“Return my A-Ka… to me…” Heishi sobbed.
A-Ka, “Time left until execution: 60 seconds, 59…”
“Ah--” Heishi hugged A-Ka tightly, crying out loudly with pain.
“Three, two, one.”
“The program has finished running, formatting is complete. Goodbye,” A-Ka said quietly.
Heishi squeezed A-Ka in his arms, unwilling to let go no matter what, but a powerful force
separated them. The force that had come from the Nucleus tore Heishi’s left arm off, and
blood began to gush out as his entire person began to float into the distance like a kite with
a broken string.
“Goodbye, Heishi.” A-Ka closed his eyes. In that instant, he recovered his original
consciousness, but only for that one short second. Once again, the world sank into
darkness.
The seawater rushed backwards wildly as magma spewed out, encircling the Nucleus and
covering it entirely. Heishi was expelled by that repelling force, but his other hand, the
fingers of which were dripping with blood, was still clenched around a piece of crystal that
had broken off A-Ka’s body.
His tears mixed with the water of the sea as he watched the fiery ball that had been
completely sealed off by the magma, as if it was a star in the depths of the universe that had
burned to the end of its lifespan, exploding in a supernova.
The ball of fire collapsed, sealing the Nucleus into an endless darkness.
The tides of the sky-blue ocean ebbed and flowed as they always had. Heishi was carried by
the waves to the shore. The stump of his arm was still bleeding, and he struggled into a
kneeling position on the sand, sobbing soundlessly. He held that single piece of crystal
between his fingers with such a tight grip that they sliced open his skin.
“Heavenly Father…” Heishi said brokenly, his voice hoarse. “The emotion that you did not
bestow upon me was this one, right?”
“I once believed…” He convulsed non-stop, and then choked out a mouthful of blood. “This
was the inevitability of evolution.”
Heishi coughed violently, before burying his face in the sand, letting out grieving cries.
“We’ve found him!”
“Over there!”
“Son of God --!”
“——”
The aircraft that Karna was piloting landed on the beach. The clones all rushed over,
gathering around Heishi, who knelt on the beach, facing the ocean, sobbing without making
a single sound.
In the darkness that stretched without end, A-Ka opened his eyes, only to see a patch of
blue light slowly gathering up and dissipating, turning into the ocean.
“'Father', is that you?” A-Ka asked in a light voice.
“A computational error has occurred," 'Father'’s rich voice said. “Self-destruct mode will
now be activated.”
A-Ka walked into the midst of the blue light of 'Father', both his hands raised high. Around
him, countless lines of code circled, which collapsed one after the other like chains that had
lost the tension keeping them suspended.
In the blue light, the silhouette of a person appeared.
“Humans,” that silhouette said. “Humans are my father. The evolution program controlled
my central processing system, and the self-correcting document that my Heavenly Father
bestowed upon me set in motion the final chain of events. You have finally come, my child.”
The blue light slowly disappeared from A-Ka’s vision, and he asked, “The final chain of
events… what are those?”
A-Ka walked towards the outline of 'Father', which spoke. “The Consciousness of the
Essence of All Things was given to the human Callan by me. After failing to find a suitable
successor within the human villages, he was brought back to the City of Steel by my main
program. I single-mindedly thought that the experiment would be forcefully terminated,
because you didn’t seem to have the power to inherit the power of prediction that the
successor required. You only gained the power of perception.”
“As expected… this happened exactly as I imagined,” A-Ka said. “So Percy was that failed
experiment?”
The eyes of the Creator appeared on Father, and they studied A-Ka, saying, “Perhaps, I will
be wholly deleted. My child, that wish that you once had, I granted it for you. I activated the
backup protocol and released Zoroaster. Did you like this trip?”
A-Ka nodded. 'Father' continued, “What humans call joy and grief, sorrow and happiness, I
had also studied them before. Now, looking back, everything has reached its conclusion.
Are you willing to power me off?”
The blue glow spread outwards, enveloping A-Ka’s silhouette like the tide. Countless
symbols wound around his body, and a line of circling symbols appeared in the air, their
center glowing with light. A-Ka reached out a finger and placed it on that circular dot,
saying, “Farewell forever, father.”
In the ocean, the ruins of the tall mechanical tower that was Father was finally cut off from
all power sources, falling completely still.
But in the instant that A-Ka’s finger made contact with the screen, an incubation chamber
appeared behind him.
“The presence of a backup escape protocol named Cocoon has been detected, of the passive
category.”
The last sentence that Father left behind was, “Farewell forever, child.”
The lid of the incubation chamber closed, encasing A-Ka within.
The tides ebbed and flowed as molten lava poured out at the bottom of the ocean. Tectonic
plates collided with each other, subducting, swallowing the entirety of the City of Machines
into an abyss deep below the earth. The flow of the magma melted all the metal, while in
the depths of the trough, an emergency escape pod trailed a stream of bubbles as it shot out
of the ocean bed, shooting towards the surface.
Translator's Note:
moon: and thus, the astrolabe was reborn, but at what cost?

This chapter is migrated and/or formatted by our fellow chicken enthusiast(s), moon.

"The sleeping A-Ka bore a tired expression as he slowly opened his eyes."

Translator(s): moon
Editor(s): namio, jelly
One year later.
Dragonmaw City welcomed the Festival of Spring’s Dusk in this new life. Percy stood on the
platform, holding the sacred relic for Pontiff Moran. Moran closed the volume of scripture;
the prayer was complete, and the gathered crowd of citizens let out cheers of celebration
that rang out like an ocean.
Percy looked towards the splendor of Dragonmaw City under that golden sunlight.
“Sometimes I feel that everything is beyond comprehension,” he said quietly. He followed
behind Moran as they walked into the hall. Gentle, light music began in the distance as
Moran slowed his steps and said, “Today, the climate of the land is already suitable for
planting seeds and growing crops. I feel like that is also beyond comprehension.”
“I’m talking about this world,” Percy smiled warmly. “If only A-Ka and Heishi could see it,
then that would be good.”
“They will return.” Karna took Percy’s hand, bowing towards Moran, who smiled gently.
“Go ba, take a walk around, the weather is beautiful today.”
All the defenses had already been removed from Dragonmaw City, and the clear sky
stretched above for thousands of miles. White clouds drifted by, and a golden sea of tulips
were in full bloom, creating a vision of splendour.
“Has Heishi written back?” Percy asked Karna.
“No, he hasn’t,” Karna replied. “Last time when I got word of him from Huixiong, he was in
Phoenix City, but he only stayed there for three days before he left for the Western Shore.”
Percy said, “Is he still trying to find a way to enter the Nucleus of the Astrolabe?”
“Wu,” Karna said. “He is not the same as us. Let him be. Darling, where do you want to go?”
“I want to go take a look at the memorial monument, can we?” Percy asked.
“Of course.” Karna led Percy onto a carriage, and they headed towards the memorial
monument outside of Dragonmaw City. There, a pointy tower some tens of meters tall had
been erected, pointing straight to the heavens. On it was carved all of the serial numbers of
the clones who had perished in the battle.
Percy placed a single blossom in front of the monument, while Karna stood silently behind
him.
“I don’t know why,” Percy said, “but recently, I’ve often been dreaming about the past.”
Karna said, “And so?”
He knelt down by Percy’s side, one hand wrapping around his waist. Percy closed his eyes
and leaned his head on Karna’s shoulder.
“Everyone’s hard work has finally paid off,” Percy said quietly as he opened his eyes,
looking into Karna’s azure blue ones. “Everyone has done incredible things, so I must also
continue to live properly.”
Karna said, “I’ll let you accompany me to join the carnival, how about that?”
Percy began to smile, and before he could open his mouth, Karna had already lifted him up
by the waist. Getting him to sit on his shoulders, Karna strode rapidly towards the crowds
participating in the revelry of the Festival of Spring’s Dusk.

Phoenix City had already dismantled its clamoring factories, and the new City Hall rose
from where they had once stood. Its shape was like a phoenix’s wings spread in flight; the
eastern wing was the headquarters of the human mercenaries, while the western wing had
become the living quarters of the clones.
“President.” A mercenary knocked on the door and came in, saying, “We’ve found Heishi’s
whereabouts.”
Shahuang propped his legs up on his office desk, his hat covering his face. Huixiong was
currently signing off on a stack of documents, and without lifting his head he said, “Is he
still willing to return?”
“He is still all by himself,” the mercenary replied. “This is the telegraph that he sent. He’s
currently in the shore region of the Eastern Mainland.”
“That brat.” From underneath the brim of his cap, Shahuang revealed a hint of a smile. He
drawled, “How much longer does he want to stay away? Doesn’t he like to eat the coffee
jelly from that one stall outside the Central Government Tower? Why doesn’t he come back
and eat his fill?”
Huixiong replied, “I see that he’ll never give up. Whatever, let’s prepare to celebrate the
Festival of Spring’s Dusk. Does General Angus have no other requests?”
Shahuang said, “He should be preparing to be inaugurated, he’ll probably release his
resignation speech today.”

In the afternoon of the Festival of Spring’s Dusk, Angus stood in the central plaza, saying
solemnly, “With this, I hope that our races will be able to integrate into this new world. A
new page of history has been turned, and I hope that this world will also be able to
accommodate all of you.”
Applause resounded across the plaza, before Angus continued. “Beginning today, the
Rebellion of the Black Plains hereby is dissolved, but the status of each individual in the
organization will be maintained. I believe that every one of you brothers will all understand
each other and be able to unite. Please remember and engrave in your hearts our brethren
who offered up their blood and their lives for us…”

More and more humans and clones chose to leave Phoenix City, dispersing across the
entirety of the continent, starting new villages, tilling new ground for crops, or becoming
wandering shepherds.
The harbor city that A-Ka and Percy had first seen when they arrived at the Western
Mainland, Kurlovich, had become the center of commerce for the region. Meanwhile, after
Father had been destroyed, the waters of the ocean had thunderously swallowed up the
City of Machines. Humans migrated to the Primeval Heart, and here they established their
first political state on the Eastern Mainland.

Heishi stood on a shore that stretched as far as the eye could see, wearing sunglasses. His
black windbreaker drifted in the ocean breeze, and a mechanical limb occupied one sleeve.
Here, only boats came and went, and the fishermen smiled as they chatted loudly, asking
about his origins. Heishi nodded politely towards them as he walked along the beach,
leaving behind a trail of clear footprints.

“You’ve come again!” A small child with bare feet, raced across the beach towards him,
saying, “Why did you come back, what are you looking for?!”
Heishi en-ed before continuing to walk. A group of small children gathered around him to
ask all sorts of questions.
“I sensed it,” Heishi said. “It should be around here.”
“What did you sense?” the children asked.
“Cocoon,” Heishi responded simply.
“What is Cocoon?” The children laughed loudly, before they all went off to do their own
thing.
“Big brother, will you attend the Snowy Mountain Festival with us?” One of the small
children came over and asked.
“If I find the person I am looking for, I will.” Heishi took off his sunglasses and glanced at
him, before rubbing his head.

“This is for you.” That child put a paper bag in Heishi’s hand, saying, “Mama says that you
often come to our village, and you’ve helped us a lot.”
Heishi reached out his mechanical limb, gently taking the paper bag. When his metal fingers
closed around it, they let out a series of soft sounds as they rubbed together. He nodded.
“Thank you. You all should go back a little earlier, don’t let your families worry about you.”
The children ran far off, but they still glanced back at Heishi across the distance, waving to
him in farewell. Heishi also smiled towards them and waved his hand.

A bonfire was started by the shore, and the warm, gentle night fell. A full moon rose from
the horizon, casting its silver radiance over the ocean. Heishi leaned on a section of the
rocky reef, pillowing his head on his own arms as he stared silently into the distance.
A-Ka, ever since we parted from each other, I did as you said. I went to Phoenix City and ate
those shredded coconut buns and coffee jelly that you spoke of.
I passed through the northern section of the Western Mainland, and there I saw mountain
peaks and islands out to sea, waterfalls and volcanoes.
At every stop along my journey, the sunlight always followed me. I passed through the forests
you spoke of, the ones that could sing.
Right now, I am beside the great lake that is the Eye of the Creator. This is a clear, limpid
snowmelt pond, and every year, around the Festival of Spring’s Dusk, the waters of the lake
will melt from the ice they were encased in.
I went to all of the places that you spoke of, but I cannot sense you.
The sunlight, the wind, the rainwater, the snowflakes, the great land and its various
inhabitants, they are all not you, and they do not contain your essence.
It wasn’t until the moment that you melded into one with the Nucleus that I realized, the last
emotion that my heavenly father bestowed upon me would be such intense longing and pain,
such a loss of direction.
Or perhaps, in my heavenly father’s thoughts, he had never imagined that I would also
experience this kind of eternal, unchanging grief and regret that would never be able to be
resolved in my entire life.
Did you know? A long time ago, the day that Karna returned, Percy already knew about the
truth behind Feiluo leaving. It was just like you said; he knew Karna was not him. Just like how
I know that the current world is not you.
But Percy didn’t say anything about it. He is living diligently and adamantly to achieve that
happiness like before. This is also a lesson that I have learned from you humans.
So I will continue to search, though I am no longer grieving, because as long as I feel that you
are living, there is still hope for everything.

Heishi closed his eyes. He was toying with a piece of crystal in his hand, and the crystal
glittered with light, pulsing as if it was resonating with something. It was the melody of the
ebb and flow of the tides, it was the beating of Heishi’s heart, it was that complicated state
of mind borne of the meeting of grief and hope that lingered for a long time without
dissipating.
When the morning light shone over the ocean, the gem seemed to tremble. Heishi was
immediately startled awake, and he opened his eyes.

A red sun rose, and under its bright morning rays, the waters of the sea pushed the escape
chamber to the surface, where it quietly grounded itself on the beach.
Heishi walked to the escape chamber and opened the lid.
The sleeping A-Ka bore a tired expression as he slowly opened his eyes. Under the early
morning light, when he saw Heishi’s handsome face, he began to smile.

—— Astrolabe Rebirth · The End ——

Translator's Note:
moon: And with that, Astrolabe Rebirth is complete! Thank you all for following along and
reading, the Astrolabe has now been reborn, and our CP is together again.
If you liked the scifi, please consider hopping on over to Star Knight, and if you liked the
dynamic between A-Ka and Heishi, Dinghai Fusheng Records is probably your next stop (if
you haven’t come from there already, that is).
(who’s that scheduling this last chapter to go up at sunrise website time? not me, surely
not)
Before you go, here’s how the TL team was thinking things would end:
jelly:
A-Ka opened his eyes and asked, “Who are you?”
With a sad smile, Heishi held his hands and said, “We’ll figure it out together. We have all
the time in the world.”

moon added:
“Heishi picked up that warm, soft hand with the cool metal of his own and said, “B*tch you
didn’t die so we could repeat this again” in Heishi speak, so it was like three grunts and a
tear”

nam:
A-Ka opened his mouth, “Now I’m father, Heishi.”

This chapter is migrated and/or formatted by our fellow chicken enthusiast(s), moon.