Trying to communicate with these two strange creatures took them a while. Although Luo Binhan felt that Yaleriga could finally "assimilate" these two strange aliens by teaching him the Alliance language, Yaleriga did not do so immediately. Luo Binhan asked her why with some confusion. Yaleriga only said that it was a safety consideration, and then asked ∈ to go to them for detailed inspection.
Her reaction made Luo Binhan realize that even Yaleriga didn't know the origins of these two strange creatures. Their abilities and dangers are not yet clear, so Jing Huang's white rope tightly binds them, preventing Yaleriga from touching them at all. The four thin limbs of the chair legs were tied together, and the neck was tied close to the body. Let it only see things in one direction. At first it yelled a few words, but then it was so frightened that it didn't dare to say a word.
"Folding chair." ∈ commented.
Luo Binhan actually wanted to laugh a little, but that didn't seem very kind. He had no choice but to drive ∈ away from him, trying not to look at his "distant relative" but observing the octopus next to it. Compared to the chair legs, it was tied more tightly and ridiculously. Each tentacle was tightly fixed upward by a white rope, and the suction cup was facing its own head, making it look like a chrysanthemum in bud. Luo Binhan was originally worried that it would disperse into an elusive mist like before, but it didn't do that until ∈ put it and the chair legs into a tubular isolation cabin. slipped through a small hole.
As soon as the rope was released, the octopus immediately turned into that colorful mist, following the path of the white rope close to the hole. It was stopped a few centimeters from the opening, with some kind of genderless barrier blocking it from leaving with the white rope.
"Oh, magnetic nanomolecules." ∈ said, "Sure enough."
"What the hell?"
"It's a nanorobot, or a group of them. I didn't find the control chip inside it. It's probably on the one next to it."
∈ Mouthed at the chair next to the octopus: "Carbon-based creature, lightly modified. There is a magnetic signal box in its body, I guess that is the command device. But they can't be too far apart, otherwise they will be unable to control .”
"What will happen?"
"How do I know? I haven't opened it and checked it. Do you want to try? You can take out the box with just one operation."
Luo Binhan and ∈ looked at the chair legs together. It twitched nervously under their gaze. Luo Binhan almost thought it was an epileptic seizure, but ∈ assured him that it was just a natural reaction of the other person's physiological structure in times of high fear: it has more neural circuits and more complex neuroendocrine hormone secretion than Luo Binhan, so it Its emotional experience and sensory sensitivity are much richer than Luo Binhan's, and it is natural for its life to be frightened and twitch.
It did sound like Luo Binhan's conscience had been soothed, but in the end no surgery or dissection was performed - Jing Huang did not show any favorability to this plan. He just urged him impatiently to "hurry up and teach these two things to speak human language."
It was a very boring process in Luo Binhan's opinion. The mist-shut cabin kept flickering with light, and at the same time there was a steady buzzing sound. ∈ claims that it is using electromagnetic waves to transmit some basic information to the other party. It was obviously not a process that Luo Binhan could observe with the naked eye, so he walked away after more than ten minutes.
Although this incident was special, it actually did not bring any danger to the Silence, so Luo Binhan quickly forgot about it. He continued Fina's training and close-range shooting practice, but during this period he never got any clues about Upsilon. This uncertainty about the future gradually deepened his anxiety, making him increasingly suspicious that Lufu was deliberately leading them in the wrong direction. He couldn't help but go to the warehouse to look for Li Li twice more. It had no clear purpose, but chatting with this strange and suspicious artificial intelligence did give him a sense of reassurance that "something was going on." Although Li Li hardly provided any analysis related to the current situation, she and Luo Binhan chatted about aesthetics and mythology, things that Luo Binhan grew up in. That couldn't be said to be a topic that Luo Binhan was particularly interested in, but he had to admit that Li Li's talk was quite interesting, and it more or less diverted his anxiety.
He also did not forget to inquire about Li Li's suspicious background, but Li Li was always meticulous in this regard. She didn't mind revealing her knowledge of Luo Binhan's hometown, but it was difficult for Luo Binhan to judge her origins from this knowledge. Sometimes he suspected that Li Li was a super artificial intelligence created by Fa Ke, just like Paduma created Popa - but what considerations did Fa Ke have in creating Li Li? The mysterious warehouse manager showed no resemblance to Farke.
The conclusion is still far away, but Luo Binhan is not in a hurry. Anyway, Li Li lacks a pair of running legs. Sometimes he also thought of the Li Li in his nightmares. After meeting Lu Fu for the second time, he could already remember many of the final scenes: thunder, the sound of rain, and the stream of blood flowing from Li Li's body.
"Do you like thunder?" he asked Li Li in the warehouse.
Li Li thought about it briefly. "Symbolically speaking, yes." She said, "Thunder is a fierce thing. Violence, violence, and grandeur always appear in turbulent moments. Sir, in a long and suffocating night, if you are alone Stand in a lonely position—say, on a tower next to a tomb—then the thunder doesn't scare you, it reminds you of something more desperate, something that makes the self irrelevant. Something urgent...some force for innovation."
"Is it really possible?" Luo Binhan said doubtfully.
Li Li smiled and said nothing. At this time, Luo Binhan heard Momoluo calling him at the door of the warehouse. He ran out to ask about the situation, only to learn that ∈ had begun to try to communicate with the two prisoners on the ship. He immediately followed Momolo and rushed to the holding room. When they arrived, they found that Jing Huang and Yaleriga had already arrived. They all stood in front of the holding chamber on the chair legs, staring at it for a moment. This solemn atmosphere not only shocked Luo Binhan, but also caused the chair legs in the cabin to twitch violently. Its four legs were slipping slightly like it was drunk, and it frequently held a device on its head that looked like headphones.
Luo Binhan was attracted by this scene as soon as he entered the door. He didn't pay attention to anything else. He just looked at the new device on the head of the chair leg until a stiff voice said behind him: "You can negotiate with me directly."
This unfamiliar voice made Luo Binhan's back tremble. He quickly turned around and saw the octopus floating up and down in the holding chamber next to him. Its visual organ is not an eyeball, but a dark strip of crystal that spans almost half of its head. When it made a sound, Luo Binhan didn't see anything resembling a mouthpart. It was like some kind of vibration reverberating in its head.
"I can communicate with you," the octopus said in a tone that was clearly irritated. "You don't have to ask anyone else."
Luo Binhan wanted to talk, but ∈ floated over and stopped the conversation from happening. He waved his hand, and an electric-like blue light beam immediately appeared in the holding cabin, and the octopus was knocked back into the colorful mist.
"No, absolutely not." ∈ pointed to Luo Binhan's mouth and said, "It is a robot swarm. It cannot identify neural responses, cannot psychologically evaluate, and cannot detect physiological lies. We don't know whether what it says is true or false. And if Any question you ask it, it will probably compile an answer and send it to its accomplices. I didn't separate them just to make sure it doesn't shut down permanently from being far away from the controller, you know? Some little idiots will Make that kind of design! But I’m not happy to be deceived by a bunch of little scraps! No artificial life form can deceive me! Your mouth must be as honest as a dead person!”
Luo Binhan pretended to bite his finger. Then he heard another younger, sharper voice. The voice sounded so nervous that it seemed a bit harsh, making one imagine a little boy in the period of voice change.
"Uh, ah, I," said the chair with the earphone device stumbling on its legs, "I can understand you."
Luo Binhan looked over curiously. He saw Yareliga walking up to the holding cell and squatting down in a very charming and not very oppressive posture. She vaguely traced the deck with her fingertips, as if tracing the outline of the chair legs and head. This move made the chair legs slip and fall to the ground in fright. After a while, it covered its head with its front legs and secretly observed Yaleriga.
"Your name?" Yaleriga asked hoarsely and lowly.
The chair legs stammered, "Bang, bang, bang bang."
"What are you doing here?"
The chair legs mumbled out a few syllables, which sounded a bit like "teaching people" and a bit like "handing over". Yaleriga asked patiently several times before it finally gave an answer that everyone could hear clearly.
"I'll hand in the paper." It replied nervously, its eyes never leaving the tip of Yareliga's tail.
This answer was obviously beyond Yaleriga's expectation. She was speechless for a few seconds, until Luo Binhan sneaked up next to her, wanting to confirm more closely whether the chair legs were really blushing at Yaleriga. The tip of her tail slapped Luo Binhan hard on the buttocks, driving him behind Jing Huang. Then she asked, "Who are you giving your paper to?"
"My master," said Chair-Leg. Its answer became a little smoother, and after a moment of hesitation, it tentatively said: "I didn't come here on purpose. I think your place, oh, this place must be a bit far from the school, isn't it? I'm teaching Finla I found you here in Tan's research laboratory... Anyway, maybe you have seen him?"
Its eyes literally lit up, and it peeked at Yaleriga with a little hope. Yaleriga thought about it for a while, and then asked: "Describe your teacher's appearance."
The matter became a problem. The chair leg tried to describe it in words, but all the metaphors it gave were confusing. No one knew what "perfect body shape", "academic accent", "graceful body" or "The Color of the Flying Star". They also tried giving the chair legs a virtual screen and a pen stick, but it just stared and twirled the stick around. Now even Luo Binhan thought it was a bit silly.
"Uh, ah, me," it said tentatively, "can I let Oholt demonstrate?"
It pointed to the side with one leg, and everyone understood that Ohot was the octopus's name. ∈ looked unhappy, but Jing Huang, who was impatient with waiting, asked him to stop breaking up the robot swarm. As a result, the colorful mist finally stopped being attacked by the continuous flow of light and regained some physical appearance.
"Oholt," the chair leg said as it transformed, "you, you, would you mind becoming my mentor?"
The octopus, which had stretched out seven or eight legs, stopped condensing. It turned half a circle in the air, its colorful colors changing to golden red, and there was a layer of translucent blue-gray stripes on the bright and dazzling scales.
At this time Luo Binhan had already started to stare. His mouth slowly opened wide, watching the beautiful creature slowly transform, from a multi-legged octopus to taller and longer, with a circle of fleshy fins protruding from its chest and abdomen. At the end, a walrus-like creature with the color of a mandarin fish was floating in the cabin, staring out of the cabin with its beautiful white jade eyes.
"I, my professor." Chair Leg stuttered, "An expert in black hole manufacturing. He is responsible for, ah, reviewing my thesis."
There was no apparent reaction from the others. Only Luo Binhan gasped, then choked on his accumulated saliva and coughed.
