Deus Ex Machina: Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Yang Jin said, “You really held us back. If it weren’t for you that day, I would have left long ago.”

Shi Yixi lowered his head even further, his expression obscured, showing the look of someone who had long accepted reality. He said earnestly and calmly, “I’m sorry.”

“Is there nothing else to say?” Yang Jin asked.

Shi Yixi hesitated, then lifted his head to look at Yang Jin, struggling for a while before coming up with more apologies, “It’s all my fault. I should have listened to you. I shouldn’t have rashly come out and caused trouble for you.”

Yang Jin continued to stare at Shi Yixi. He himself had spent a long time digesting those words. Two people with completely different mindsets, one of them had to try to understand the other. But Yang Jin found that he couldn’t understand at all.

“Well, in that case, go home,” Yang Jin said.

Shi Yixi fidgeted with his fingers, feeling uncomfortable as he asked, “How… how do I get back to Earth?”

“…,” Yang Jin felt like rolling his eyes. He said angrily, “You really are so stupid that you make me mad.”

“I’m sorry,” Shi Yixi apologized again. But at this point, he was starting to feel unsure where exactly he had gone wrong—if being foolish was the original sin.

“Why did you fire your gun back then?” Yang Jin asked, “Don’t you want to explain your thought process?”

Shi Yixi spoke slowly, “During the exam, Ying Si told me to shoot, but I threw the gun away, which caused a lot of trouble for everyone. Then, at that moment, that person took out a knife behind you… I saw the gun beside me and instinctively did what I did. I wanted to protect you, but it seems…”

Yang Jin, for the first time in his life, heard someone say they wanted to protect him. It was absurd. Who was he? The people he had saved could form a queue that stretched to Earth, and he didn’t even know how many times he had faced death. His life was dedicated to the world, protecting all sorts of people he didn’t even know, but never had anyone spoken to him in such a naive tone, saying, “Actually, I want to protect you.”

Great heroes, how could they possibly be protected by others? Should we say Shi Yixi overestimates himself?

Yang Jin said, “You didn’t do anything wrong. On the contrary, you did well. I was just teasing you… Ah, you really can’t tell, and you don’t get upset when misunderstood. How have you managed these eighteen years?”

“My mom said I’m not a smart person, but at least I can be a sensible person,” Shi Yixi said. “That’s how I’ve come this far.”

Yang Jin was momentarily speechless. Suddenly, he couldn’t remember what kind of state he was in when he was Shi Yixi’s age, as if it were a distant memory, and he had never been a “sensible” person. Based on this difference, he found himself looking down on Shi Yixi, with a mixture of contempt as if he were insignificant, and pity as if he were just like everyone else.

This feeling was complicated. Yang Jin couldn’t find a precise way to express it in concrete terms. He clearly didn’t sympathize with the weak, yet he couldn’t bring himself to expose the truth with a harsh tone either. Finally, he sighed and said in resignation, “Ah, you little fool.”

“So…” Shi Yixi asked, “How… how do I get home?”

The tiny bit of sympathy Yang Jin had felt instantly dissipated. He stood up and said, “Unless I die, you’ll never go home in your life!” Ignoring Shi Yixi, he turned and walked away.

“Yang…” Shi Yixi managed to say a word, whether to call him “teacher” or “Jin,” he hadn’t decided, and he choked on his words.

In the blink of an eye, Yang Jin was gone. Shi Yixi sat there for a moment, thinking. He held the cold soda Yang Jin had given him and secretly felt that maybe he didn’t need to go home.

As for Feng Mang, once he entered work mode, he was like a machine running twenty-four hours a day.

By Earth time, it should be early morning now. From day to now, he had experienced several things, yet he still had enough energy to focus on dismantling the gun Yang Jin had given him. During this time, he only took a little break to guide Ying Si on some techniques and experiences, surprisingly finding that Ying Si quickly caught on and started to help him.

“You also graduated from the Nufeng Academy?” Feng Mang asked. “How about a cup of coffee?”

“I got expelled,” Ying Si replied. “I don’t drink coffee.”

“Then how about some milk?” Feng Mang chuckled. “I got expelled in my second year. How about you?”

“I don’t drink anything,” Ying Si thought for a moment and said, “I’ve been in school for a few months, I think? I don’t remember exactly, but I failed the midterms.”

“What’s your potential?” Feng Mang asked again.

“B-level, specialized in mechanical expertise,” Ying Si replied.

“You’re practically another me in this world,” Feng Mang suddenly felt that Ying Si wasn’t so detestable anymore, as if he had suddenly encountered a kindred spirit.

“I definitely don’t want to be like you,” Ying Si clearly rejected Feng Mang’s attempt at closeness. “You have that holier-than-thou look, and I hate that.”

“Young man, don’t be so hot-headed. A hero’s heart shouldn’t be filled only with killing; it should have love and peace,” Feng Mang muttered disjointedly while bowing his head to study something in his hand. “The metal in the gun body is rare, with high density and almost no visible seams… It could even be used as a melee weapon to bludgeon someone to death. Where did Qianfan get this thing?”

Ying Si had never seen anyone calmly researching weapons of mass destruction while preaching love and peace. He thought Feng Mang must be schizophrenic.

“There’s no need to fully restore it, right?” Ying Si said, “Actually, I’ve never understood why Qianfan would make such a high-end gun with obvious battery life issues. Although its ammunition propulsion system is very powerful, it’s still using metal bullets in this day and age, which is too limited in functionality.”

Feng Mang asked with interest, “What do you propose?”

Ying Si added something at the junction of the holographic image of the gun barrel and said, “We can improve the shooting method, change the energy storage, which solves the battery life problem while reducing firing resistance. As for this part, if we convert it to fully automatic, it becomes a highly accurate rifle during close combat.”

“Good idea. We can turn it into a versatile weapon suitable for various combat forms. As for the casing, I think there should be many choices available near Mercury,” Feng Mang said. “But do you know what Yang Jin needs this gun for?”

“High accuracy?”

“No.”

“High lethality?”

“I don’t.”

Ying Si thought for a long time and didn’t know what Yang Jin could ask for, asking, “What’s that?”

“Want to be handsome,” Feng Mang replied.

Ying Si wanted to kill Yang Jin.

“So,” Feng Mang smiled, “weapon crafting is also an art. Let’s think about its design. What color scheme would suit someone like Yang Jin?”

Ying Si said, “A color scheme of shit.”

Living away from Earth seemed to distance all problems and troubles. However, during these days at the space factory, Yang Jin still received messages from the Intercontinental Alliance. Annoyed, he had them all blocked.

Besides collecting and analyzing data on the Sacred Land with Bai Yunci, Yang Jin had nothing else to do but occasionally stroll around the space factory. It was nominally a factory but functioned more like a city, equipped with all the necessary amenities. People who worked here for a long time even formed families and had children.

Looking at it this way, this space factory must have been around for a long time, but Yang Jin had never heard of it, which struck him as strange.

Feng Mang called Yang Jin to look at the new design models and enthusiastically boasted about them like a salesman. Yang Jin found it quite amusing. When he came out of the laboratory, he intended to find Bai Yunci. Just as he arrived at the door of Bai Yunci’s room, he saw Shi Yixi coming out from inside with Bai Yunci following behind, looking at Shi Yixi in a very strange way. Shi Yixi lowered his head to adjust his clothes.

Yang Jin wanted to greet them, but suddenly Bai Yunci had a knife in her hand, swiftly stabbing towards Shi Yixi.

“Stop!” Yang Jin shouted loudly, rushing forward. The knife couldn’t be completely stopped, leaving a thin wound on Shi Yixi’s face.

Although the wound was small, blood gushed out immediately. Shi Yixi didn’t react to what had happened, absent-mindedly touching his face with his hand, palm turning red.

“Are you crazy?!” Yang Jin grabbed Bai Yunci’s collar and questioned harshly.

“Why are you so nervous?” Bai Yunci said indifferently.

Yang Jin knew Bai Yunci was someone who did whatever he wanted, not batting an eye at murder or arson. But he couldn’t fathom what Shi Yixi could have done to provoke Bai Yunci to such a violent act. Bai Yunci pushed away Yang Jin’s hand, casually pinching Shi Yixi’s chin with his fingers, gently pulling his face towards him and muttered to himself, “I just wanted… to try.”

Shi Yixi’s eyes widened, his mind blank, unable to react.

Bai Yunci’s fingers traced Shi Yixi’s cheek, but before he could examine the wound beneath the blood, Yang Jin pushed him away. Yang Jin quickly pulled Shi Yixi into Bai Yunci’s room, shutting the door and leaving Bai Yunci outside.

After treating Shi Yixi’s wound slightly, Yang Jin said sternly, “If you don’t want to end up as a specimen, stay away from Bai Yunci.”

“He…” Shi Yixi asked sluggishly, “wants to do what?”

“I should be asking you,” Yang Jin replied, “but it’s obvious he’s a bit interested in you.” As he spoke, he glanced at the wound on Shi Yixi’s face. The bleeding had stopped, and the cut seemed to have narrowed.

Yang Jin’s hand paused.

Outside, Bai Yunci knocked on the door, loudly asking, “Are you done yet?”

Yang Jin opened the door. Bai Yunci leaned against the doorframe, asking, “Was all this fuss necessary?” He didn’t seem to think he’d done anything terrible. Yang Jin, exasperated, told Shi Yixi to leave first. As he passed, Bai Yunci glanced at Shi Yixi, as if observing something very interesting.

The door closed with a “bang.”

Yang Jin asked, “What do you want to do?”

“Don’t be so tense,” Bai Yunci replied, “just an experiment.” He smiled and then said, “Yang Jin, can I draw a vial of your blood?”

Yang Jin asked, “For what?”

Bai Yunci beckoned Yang Jin to follow him inside. “This is a small lab I got from Feng Mang. I didn’t expect this place to have such good medical facilities.” Bai Yunci said, “Did you know I drew a vial of Shi Yixi’s blood?”

Yang Jin felt like he was drowning in questions today.

“He’s very interesting,” Bai Yunci said. “The wound on his shoulder has completely disappeared, as if nothing happened.”

“This…”

“Even the stitches have completely dissolved,” Bai Yunci said. “There are many strange people in Qianfan, but I’ve never seen anyone with such strong healing abilities—except you.”

“So you wanted to cut him again to see?” Yang Jin was speechless. “What’s that logic?”

“Experimental logic,” Bai Yunci replied matter-of-factly.

“No,” Yang Jin suddenly said, “he wasn’t like this before. His healing ability wasn’t this strong.”

“You mentioned that before, so I analyzed his blood sample. Something very interesting happened,” Bai Yunci said, bringing up his experimental sample. “His genetic sequence showed…” he hesitated, vaguely saying, “a different kind of mutation, like a sudden growth. I can’t even name it. If Guan Jincheng were here, he might have an answer.”

“Stop with the useless talk,” Yang Jin said.

“So I want to draw some of your blood for comparison,” Bai Yunci said meaningfully. “Is this a coincidence?”

“No matter how hard I tried when I was younger, I couldn’t have a son as old as him,” Yang Jin said sarcastically. “What else could it be but a coincidence?”

Bai Yunci already had the syringe out and waved it at Yang Jin. “Come on, consider it a contribution to science.”

“I hate scientists,” Yang Jin said.

“That’s no reason to refuse a medical examination,” Bai Yunci replied.

Shi Yixi’s cheek no longer hurt as much, just a slight itch. He touched it and could still feel the warm scratch.

He couldn’t understand why Bai Yunci had suddenly attacked him. Bai Yunci had only asked to see his wound… Did he do something to make Bai Yunci dislike him?

Lost in thought, he remembered hearing something strange around the last street corner and retraced his steps to check.

A group of boys surrounded someone lying on the ground. Shi Yixi looked closer and saw it was a young girl.

One of the boys noticed Shi Yixi and turned, snarling, “Hey, what are you looking at? Get lost!”

“What are you doing?” Shi Yixi asked.

“None of your business!”

The girl on the ground seemed weak, barely opening her eyes to look at Shi Yixi.

“You shouldn’t bully girls,” Shi Yixi stepped forward.

“Bullying girls?” The leader of the boys laughed. “Do you know who she is?”

Shi Yixi shook his head.

The boy kicked the girl on the ground and mocked, “Are you new here? Haha, how interesting. Alright, alright, let’s let you play hero for once, but… don’t regret it!” He gestured to his companions, “Let’s go.”

Things didn’t turn out as badly as Shi Yixi had expected. The boys left. Without thinking much, he walked over to help the girl up and asked, “Are you okay?”

The girl nodded, but she had several obvious injuries.

“Where do you live?” Shi Yixi said. “I’ll take you home, or… or we can see a doctor.”

“I…” the girl looked up at Shi Yixi, “I don’t have any money.”

Shi Yixi blinked.

“I don’t have a home either,” the girl continued.

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