IRCDM Chapter 61

Chapter 61: Capture – You Will Forget Me

“What is this stuff?” Li Yao released him, unscrewed the lid and shook the cup. He found only a few goji berries, red dates, and two slices of ginseng inside. He couldn’t help but take a sip to taste it.

There must have been other ingredients added, but he couldn’t identify them. However, that didn’t stop him from mocking Liang Huan: “Baby, are you already this weak?”

“I need to replenish myself to live longer,” Liang Huan took the cup back. “Otherwise, you’ll be a young widower, how will you have the energy to take care of your little lovers?”

Li Yao said seriously, “That’s not right. We’re already divorced. If you really die, sending you a bouquet of flowers would be the utmost I can do.”

Liang Huan smiled, “What kind of flowers?”

“Special-grade Heteromorph brain flowers,” Li Yao said proudly. “Starting at ten million Condensed Coins, that’s enough face.”

Liang Huan’s smile deepened, “That works too.”

“Then, if I die, what do you plan to send?” Li Yao put his arm around his shoulder, pondered for a few seconds, “Burn a few mecha models for me, preferably 3S+.”

Liang Huan held the thermos cup and smiled, “If you die, I’ll send the entire East District base down with you as burial goods.”

Li Yao patted his shoulder, “Haha, you’re such a joker.”

Liang Huan turned to look at him, smiling, “Just take it as a joke.”

Li Yao was silent for half a second: “…Just hypothetical.”

“Of course,” Liang Huan looked at him with affection. “The Northern Liang dynasty abolished the practice of burying the living with the dead a long time ago. Besides, this is the New Era for humans, don’t be superstitious about ghosts and gods.”

Li Yao raised his eyebrows.

Liang Huan slowly took a sip of tea, returning him a gentle smile.

Although Li Yao had an independent office in the Administration, it was filled with mecha parts and weapons needed to enter and exit the outer districts. There were also some discarded parts scavenged from the Administration or the training grounds, and even some that seemed to be products from the Black Market junkyard. Apart from assembling something on a whim, Li Yao usually wandered between the offices, becoming familiar with everyone in the Administration building in a matter of weeks.

Even the newly replaced cleaning robots particularly liked to hang around him, probably because Li Yao always gave them different flavors of machine oil.

Of course, he spent most of his time in Liang Huan’s office.

Liang Huan was discussing the possibility of steeping Heteromorph brain fluid in tea with him when they entered the office. They saw Mu Bo sitting on the sofa, listless. Seeing them come in, he got straight to the point: “Lu Lian refused to pair with me. He even loathes me. I’ve decided to change my pairing target.”

“What did you do to him?” Liang Huan asked calmly.

“I almost devoured his mental source,” Mu Bo leaned on the sofa, his long hair almost covering it entirely. He looked a little sad. “If Heteromorphs can’t reproduce without a partner, that’s a failure. Liang Huan, I’ve decided to kill all the human children in the entire Eastern Third District and build a sleeping nest. You and Li Yao still can’t have children, probably because you don’t have enough nutrition. Let’s sleep together.”

Li Yao discreetly reached for the gun on his lower back.

Liang Huan held his arm, sat down opposite Mu Bo: “When you were in the underground laboratory, I once asked Su Murong to do a genetic test on you.”

Mu Bo raised his eyes, not very interested.

“The test results showed that the proportion of human genes in your body reached 75%, transparent Heteromorph genes only accounted for 10%, and the remaining mixed Heteromorph genes accounted for 15%,” Liang Huan paused, meeting his questioning gaze, “In other words, you’re essentially still human.”

Li Yao stared at him in disbelief. This could be considered human?

Liang Huan calmly nodded, I say it is, so it is.

Mu Bo was momentarily confused. He frowned, “No, that’s impossible. I’m a pure Heteromorph, how can I have human genes?”

“Because you were originally a product of the laboratory,” Liang Huan said. “We are creations of humans.”

Mu Bo looked up, his gaze towards him cold and sharp.

Liang Huan calmly met his gaze: “But no matter what we originally were, we can’t be controlled by the genes and instincts given to us by humans. Lu Lian rejected you not only because you’re a Heteromorph, but also for other reasons.”

Mu Bo pressed, “What reasons?”

“Lu Lian is from the military. When we went to the Wutong Apartments in the Fifth District, we were almost killed by him,” Liang Huan said. “He stayed in the Administration to find evidence against us. In his eyes, we are all his enemies. Cooperation is only temporary.”

Mu Bo said, “Li Yao was also your enemy once, why is he so obedient to you now?”

Li Yao was surprised, “When did I become an enemy?”

“You kept trying to run away in the Black Market and almost killed Liang Huan,” Mu Bo said reasonably. “I just want a partner as powerful as Li Yao.”

Li Yao put his hands in his pockets, “Little Heteromorph is quite the talker.”

Mu Bo looked at Liang Huan expectantly: “Liang Huan, help me think of a solution.”

“Find the root cause and treat the problem at its source,” Liang Huan smiled. “Find the laboratory in your memory and figure out our true identities.”

Mu Bo’s expression turned serious: “But I can’t remember clearly, I only remember many containers and researchers… calling us Group Two, Number One and Number Two.”

Liang Huan pulled up a holographic image that Zhou Suiyu had sent over and asked, “Something like this?”

Mu Bo’s pupils trembled violently.

Liang Huan and Li Yao exchanged a look. Liang Huan said, “Are there any familiar feelings among these people?”

Mu Bo stared intently at the corner of the holographic image, at the back view of someone sitting in a wheelchair, half-blocked by someone else. He instinctively arched his back, his mental source suddenly exploding. The tentacles of the transparent Heteromorph abruptly pierced through all the humans in the holographic image. Because a shielding device was installed, only the entire office shook suddenly, without affecting other places.

Liang Huan immediately linked his mental power with Li Yao. At the moment of Mu Bo’s eruption, his mental power suddenly increased, preventing himself and Li Yao from being affected by the special-grade transparent Heteromorph’s anger.

“I’ve seen him,” Mu Bo stared intently at the half wheelchair, “He often stood outside the culture tank watching us. He would also cut off my tentacles, dissect my body, sever my nerves… every experiment was painful. I hate him.”

Liang Huan pulled up one of the panoramic photos: “Is it him?”

Chuanwu’s pale, emaciated face appeared on the screen.

Mu Bo’s expression was gloomy: “It’s him, I want to kill him!”

“Someone should already be helping,” Liang Huan said.

As he spoke, a huge explosion appeared on the office news screen. The host said in a hurried tone, “Breaking news: Just two minutes ago, the Dawn Laboratory headquarters in the Eastern Fifth District was suddenly attacked by unidentified terrorists. The attackers are carrying a large number of highly lethal weapons. The military police have dispatched a large number of police forces to the scene. The casualties at the Dawn Laboratory headquarters building are currently unknown. Residents, please pay attention to your safety…”

Liang Huan’s communication rang at the right time. Lu Lian’s calm voice came from the external chip: “Gene tracking shows that the Twin Towers are now moving at high speed towards the outer district entrance center. According to news from the police, the Twin Towers hijacked Chuanwu, but they can’t catch up at all.”

“Mu Bo, go and stop him,” Liang Huan said, “Be sure to bring Chuanwu back.”

Mu Bo immediately perked up: “Okay.”

After saying that, he jumped directly out of the window. Li Yao walked to the window and looked down: “You’re too good at making things up, can that really be considered human?”

“I need him to be human, and he can be human,” Liang Huan looked at him. “Your mental source feels much better, but your mental power is a bit low. Have you tried entering a mecha independently?”

Li Yao’s expression didn’t change: “No, maybe I’ve been watching too many small videos.”

Liang Huan was deploying Yue Hang and others to assist in the interception. Hearing this, he paused and said earnestly, “Li Yao, you should still watch less of these in the future. Too much lust is bad for your health.”

Li Yao crossed his arms and smiled lazily at him: “You’re always hanging around in front of me, yet you tell me to think less. When you pinned me on the mecha in the waiting room and kissed me before, why didn’t you think less?”

Liang Huan: “…”

Li Yao gloated: “So hypocritical, Your Majesty.”

Liang Huan turned off the chip: “You and I will go on a mission together to intercept the Twin Towers. The matter of you entering the mecha alone will be settled separately.”

Li Yao followed behind him, dragging out his voice: “Injustice, Your Majesty, injustice—”

Liang Huan said seriously, “I will give you justice.”

Li Yao hooked his shoulders with him without any pretense. Liang Huan pulled open the door and went directly to the hovercar parking area. When passing the patrol room, Mao Ming happened to come out with a gun on his back.

“Uncle Mao?” Liang Huan was a little puzzled. “There are no patrol teams on this mission.”

Mao Ming glanced at the external chip on his wrist and smiled: “I’m not on a mission, it’s time to switch shifts with someone else. District Chief Liang, Captain Li, you’re busy.”

“You don’t have to be so polite, just call me Little Liang,” Liang Huan felt a subtle mental fluctuation, but soon that fluctuation disappeared. He looked at Mao Ming questioningly.

Mao Ming smiled frankly: “How can that be? I was able to join the patrol team thanks to you this time. I also went to Cheng Xiaolei’s school the other day, it’s really well-built. The Eastern Third District has completely changed now.”

Even after knowing Mao Ming had walked away, Liang Huan was still turning his head to look at him.

“What’s wrong?” Li Yao got into the hovercar.

Liang Huan shook his head: “Just a little dizzy, probably because Mu Bo released too much mental power just now.”

Li Yao looked at him and beckoned to him.

“Hmm?” Liang Huan had just bent down to get into the car when he was suddenly pulled down onto the seat by him. Li Yao closed the car door, set the destination, and reached out to press his temple.

Weak mental power slowly caressed his mental source. Liang Huan wasn’t used to it and wanted to open his eyes, but his eyes were covered.

“This is called mental power introduction massage, I learned it when I took espionage classes, it’s used to lower the enemy’s guard,” Li Yao’s voice slowly sounded in his ear, “Comfortable?”

Liang Huan smiled: “Tolerable.”

Li Yao turned to look at the scenery flashing past outside the car and smiled: “Liang Huan, have you noticed that your mental power is increasing rapidly?”

Liang Huan lay on his lap, not speaking.

“This is a sign that your mental power disorder is recovering,” Li Yao felt the slight tremor of the eyelashes under his palm, and raised his hand to gently stroke his nose and lips, smiling casually.

Liang Huan grabbed his hand, but Li Yao pulled his hand away, looking down at him: “If your mental power recovers one day, you must tell me.”

Liang Huan was silent for a long time before saying, “I will.”