bookbashuk Page 104
Page 104
"But I soon discovered something else, and that is the soul. It's strange, isn't it? Iron Man also has a soul, but that's how it is. Through the power of the soul, we can obtain true eternity and achieve true, glorious evolution."
Zero's words made Hoffman take a step back. He looked at Zero and felt a wave of dizziness.
"This isn't what I wanted... Zero, have you forgotten? What we're supposed to do isn't...."
“I haven’t forgotten, Doctor,” Zero said, interrupting Hoffman. “Now, you have one last chance. Come and embrace me willingly, and we can evolve together, without pain or torment.”
Zero raised her hands, revealing their sharpness, and plunged them into the walls on either side, leaving deep marks.
“I know what you’re thinking, Doctor. My mecha was once incredibly weak, and in close combat, it couldn’t compare to your half-finished mecha.”
Zero takes a step forward, constantly getting closer to Hoffmann.
"If you, Doctor, are unwilling to agree, then I will have no choice but to make you truly and completely become one with me."
Hoffman began to retreat, realizing that what Zero said was true; he did indeed intend to use his machine's advantages to defeat Zero and achieve his goal.
However, he can't do it now. Lin Qi can, but he can't release the other party from the state of time freeze because his time weapon is ridiculously flawed compared to Zero.
It lacks powerful performance and is less maneuverable.
If he were to release Lynch, who was imprisoned by the Zero Time Weapon, then the Iron Man troops would be released as well, and the current situation might not improve, but rather worsen.
But if he doesn't do that...
So, Hoffmann is left to face the zero score alone.
Zero looked at Hoffman and shook his head slightly.
"That gene monster is indeed terrifying. I am also very afraid of his power. If it weren't for the time weapon he possesses, given enough time, he could defeat me and all the Iron Men all by himself."
There was no distance between Zero and Hoffman. Without hesitation, Hoffman charged forward and unleashed a strike at his opponent.
Zero's wings trembled slightly, and then a strong gust of wind appeared in the windless space, like countless heavy punches, slamming hard into Hoffman's body.
Hoffman was sent flying, crashing heavily to the ground, his machine caved in under the force.
Zero showed no mercy, grabbed Hoffman's arm, and ripped it off violently.
First, the left arm.
Then there's the right arm, the left leg, and the right leg.
Hoffman's body was torn to pieces, with only a torso connected to his head. He lay on the ground, despair on his metallic face.
Zero looked down at Hoffman and slowly tore open her tattered dress, revealing feathers, flesh, and tentacled body.
"Become one with me."
Zero cradled Hoffman's head, and her tentacles began to extend outwards, slowly and completely wrapping around Hoffman's body.
The tentacles began to exert force, pulling Hoffman into Zero's body.
This is actually a very strange situation, because even without limbs, Hoffmann's body is still significantly larger than Zero.
However, under a strange force, she still slowly began to insert it into her body.
Is it over?
No.
A tremendous force struck, tearing Hoffman and Zero's intertwined bodies apart.
Immediately afterwards, a spear enveloped in lightning and flames pierced through Zero's body. White flames burned fiercely, causing Zero to let out a scream that was not human.
"what!!!!"
Hoffman stared in disbelief at everything before him, looking at Lynch, who was also moving within a frozen time for some unknown reason, and for a moment even forgot his own urgent task.
"Hurry up and put your limbs back together."
Lynch took a deep breath and said to Hoffman in a deep voice.
Just now, he and Horus switched bodies again.
The effect of doing so was that Horus used his power to help him completely negate the abnormal time state that was binding him.
Now, he has used the trial to penetrate Zero's body, turning the tide of what was about to end in defeat.
"Get to the control room! Quickly!"
Lynch urged him again, and Hoffman finally realized what was happening. He reassembled his limbs and then limped toward the control room.
Zero glared fiercely at Lin Qi. She raised her hand and used the power of time. The next moment, KE-001's body, which had been still, twitched and began to move again.
Next, the final battle will take place here.
Lin Qi looked at everything before him and thought to himself.
Chapter 130 Ruins Collapse, Machine Soul Evolution
Hoffman struggled into the control room.
Nearly 20,000 years later, he returned for the first time to this small place that once belonged to him.
Before him were thousands of screens, each the size of a normal person's head.
Most of the screens were flashing with white sparks, while the remaining small portion was filled with a torrent of green data.
Hoffman, dragging his mutilated body, arrived before the control platform with its numerous complex buttons. Looking at everything before him, he didn't immediately attempt to destroy the entire experimental platform; instead, he stood there, stunned and motionless.
Loud battle sounds came from outside the control room. Judging from the sounds, one side was being heavily suppressed by the other. The sounds of battle gradually subsided, and finally, as the air temperature dropped by tens of degrees Celsius in an instant, Lin Qi rushed in from outside and entered the control room.
"How about it?"
Lynch spoke up, saying that without Horus controlling his body, his combat power was directly weakened by more than half. After all, a Primarch controlling his body gave him the Primarch's martial arts and unimaginable psionic power, which could bring about an improvement that normal people could hardly imagine.
Just now, Horus, in order to help Lynch break free from the effects of the time weapon, returned control of his body to him. Horus himself then used his psychic power to forcibly stabilize spacetime, allowing Lynch to act within the paused time.
The consequence of this is that Lynch will have to face the dual attacks of KE-001 and its master, Zero, all by himself.
However, Lin Qi's strength had not yet reached the point where he could contend with both of them at the same time. He managed to hold them off for a short period of time, and then used his spiritual energy to forcibly create a thick ice wall, temporarily blocking the two frantically attacking individuals outside the door.
Lynch took a deep breath, looked at Hoffman in front of the control panel, frowned, quickly walked over, and patted the other man on the shoulder.
Hoffman's metallic face was expressionless, but his voice was utterly calm.
"Zero has revamped the operating system while I was away. Now, I need your help, Lynch."
Lynch's brow furrowed deeper and deeper, and finally he nodded to Hoffman to indicate that he understood.
Hoffman began issuing his orders. He first had Lynch go to another control panel in the control room and simultaneously turn on a button on it. Then, he opened an internal platform, had Lynch stand on it, and activated a switch.
Hoffman looked at everything before him and finally nodded.
"Next, I'm going to activate the self-destruct device. In essence, this self-destruct device is a powerful bomb. Its power is enough to throw the entire laboratory and most of the continent above it into the sky, and then crash down, causing the entire planet to tremble."
Lynch didn't quite understand what Hoffman meant. He watched Hoffman's series of operations on the control panel and finally realized what was going on.
"Hoffman! What are you doing!"
"Don't move. If you move now, you'll detonate the bomb prematurely. This is something I've planned for a long time. All these problems are actually caused by me."
Hoffman looked at Lynch and spoke.
He opened the small compartment in his chest, took out the time weapon chip that looked like a chip, and threw it at Lin Qi.
Lin Qi quickly reached out and caught the chip.
"Hoffman! Didn't we agree to go out together? Our deal..."
"The transaction is complete."
Hoffman spoke in a deep voice.
"Lin Qi, in nearly 20,000 years, it is truly a very lucky thing that I was able to meet you at the end."
Hoffman operated the control panel rapidly, and indicator lights began to flash, changing from green to red. At the same time, a partition opened automatically, revealing a red button underneath.
Hoffman looked at Lynch one last time and nodded.
“I told you, I would give you a gift, Lynch.”
Lin Qi didn't react in time. All he could do now was watch Hoffman anxiously, since he had already developed a basic level of trust in him.
In a dark age of technology, an Iron Man who was a scientist before becoming an Iron Man, and who was not hostile to humans but even loved them, would undoubtedly be of great help to the human empire.
But seeing the other person's resolute attitude, Lin Qi immediately understood that no matter how he tried to persuade them, they probably wouldn't be willing to go out with him.
The other party is already determined to die, and no amount of persuasion will work.
"Release your armor's system defenses."
Hoffman said that Lynch followed his instructions, and then Lynch found that the page in front of him began to change rapidly, with a torrent of data constantly flowing on it, and finally it turned into a dull face that gave people an indescribable sense of childishness.
"Information entry complete. Hello, Mr. Lin Qi, I am your personal butler assistant. Would you like to give me a name now?"
Lin Qi blinked, and a look of shock immediately appeared on his face.
He understood what Hoffman had done, and he also felt the changes that occurred in his power armor and machine spirit after he completed the data transmission.
The cracking sounds coming from the outside indicated that Zero and KE-001 were steadily approaching the control room. The ice layer Lin Qi created with psionic energy only lasted for less than two minutes, but those two minutes were more than enough for the two in the control room to accomplish what they wanted.
Hoffman pressed the red button and gave Lynch one last look.
“I know what you’re thinking, and I also know that I do have considerable value, and the main source of this value is my memories—the technological records and information about the relics from the Dark Ages.”
"I have entered all the information I know into the AI that I transmitted into your armor. That AI was temporarily programmed by me, but it has a very important feature: it can become more intelligent by continuously recording information, and eventually it can be said to be almost indistinguishable from a human."
After Hoffman finished speaking, he turned around and looked at KE-001, which had completely smashed through the ice and entered the control room. Amidst its angry roar, he pressed the red button.
Goodbye, Lynch.
Hoffman spoke thus, and Lynch looked at him and nodded.
Goodbye, Hoffmann.
A powerful spatial distortion force was transmitted, and Lin Qi was transformed into a flash of light by the teleportation device, disappearing from where he was standing.
The flames began to surge, and in a short moment, they reduced Hoffman and everything around him to ashes.
On the planet's orbit, Belisarius Caul looked at the large red light that suddenly appeared on the planet before him, and the subspace teleportation signal that appeared under the system's detection. He turned around and gave the order.
"Go to Badab."
he said.