Deus Ex Machina: Chapter 41

Chapter 41

Yang Jin nearly coughed up blood again.

This childish young man in a plaid shirt, who looked barely over twenty, actually said something like that to him? Wasn’t this basically an insult?

*Cough, cough, cough…* Yang Jin coughed violently. Shi Yixi held his hand, not knowing what to do, and looked at the man in plaid for help.

“Don’t worry, calm down,” the man in plaid reassured Yang Jin while grabbing a holographic screen. On it was a human outline with various data displayed beside it. “You weren’t supposed to wake up this early. Your body’s still recovering, and blood production is a major process.”

“Who the hell are you?” Yang Jin asked, gasping for breath.

“My name’s Yu Chen, and…” Yu Chen intertwined his fingers, fidgeting a bit, then pointed behind him at the man in the suit. “He’s called Yang Jian, and he’s your dad too.”

Yang Jin felt like he couldn’t catch his breath. Shi Yixi blinked his wide eyes, carefully analyzing Yu Chen’s words, and then seriously said, “Two men can’t have a baby.”

“What are you thinking about?” Yu Chen exclaimed in shock. “Stop that disgusting imagination, kid! It’s not like what you’re picturing! We don’t have that capability! Technology might be advanced, but not *that* advanced! Don’t even go there!”

“Then who are you…” Shi Yixi mumbled in confusion.

“What kind of scam artists are you?” Yang Jin said. “Neither of us has money, there’s nothing to scam. Also, can you come up with a more believable lie? Use some human intelligence to think this through, please?”

“Do you think I traveled all this way just to scam you? That’d be way too expensive!” Yu Chen walked over and dragged Yang Jian forward. “You explain it to them! I told him not to come to Earth in the first place. See? Now your own son doesn’t recognize you.”

Yang Jin felt utterly repulsed, like his skin was crawling. If given the choice, he might have preferred to never open his eyes and face these two lunatics.

But Shi Yixi, standing nearby, was listening intently, his eyes even showing a hint of curiosity.

“We’re not human. And neither are you, so don’t talk to me about foolish, inferior human intelligence,” Yang Jian said. “You’re a product of the fusion of our two spiritual essences. Rather than calling you a descendant, it’s more accurate to say you’re a better carrier of our genes. Our civilization was once close to Earth, but for certain reasons, we had to leave the solar system. A long time ago, people called that place ‘Heavenly Palace.’”

“I-I know!” Shi Yixi raised his hand like a student eager to answer, “It’s the place where gods lived in myths, gods are… huh?” He suddenly realized something was off as he said that.

Yang Jian remained silent, clearly out of patience.

“People tend to attribute what they can’t explain to gods and spirits, but in truth, yes, civilizations far more advanced than humanity do seem godlike in comparison,” Yu Chen said. “There are countless civilizations like that in the universe.”

“Really?” Shi Yixi asked skeptically.

“Don’t waste your breath on them,” Yang Jin said, closing his eyes. “They’re just two con artists pretending to be gods.”

“Con artists?” Yu Chen sighed. “Then how do you explain the fact that I saved you? Or how you’ve repeatedly escaped death? You carry the best genes from Yang Jian. Forget about blowing up a few buildings—you wouldn’t even die if Earth exploded… well, maybe not a planetary explosion, you probably couldn’t survive that. But you get the idea. Think it over.”

Yang Jin remained unmoved. Yang Jian, without a word, stepped forward, gently pushing Shi Yixi aside and placing his hand on Yang Jin’s chest.

“Hey, you!” Yang Jin, too weak to resist, was startled. He thought Yang Jian was going to hurt him, but to his shock, he saw Yang Jian’s hand pass through his chest, yet he felt absolutely nothing! Shi Yixi covered his mouth in disbelief.

“My hand is almost touching your heart,” Yang Jian said. “If you want proof, I can crush it right now to show you.”

This wasn’t some trick. Yang Jin felt no pain, but he could sense a hand inside his body, dangerously close to his heart. He had seen too many people in his life, and the expression on this man’s face told him this was real.

Yang Jian withdrew his hand, completely clean with not a trace of blood. Yu Chen and Shi Yixi both sighed in relief. Yang Jian then gently tapped Yang Jin on the forehead and calmly said, “Our civilization exists in the higher dimensions of the universe. What more proof do you need? You just don’t remember a lot of things yet.”

Yang Jin felt warmth spreading from the center of his forehead, and the vision of that dive appeared again, along with those rapidly ticking numbers.

Shi Yixi felt dizzy, gripping the bed’s edge for support, and began reciting a string of numbers aloud.

“That’s the date Yang Jin arrived on Earth,” Yang Jian said, surprised as he looked at Shi Yixi. “How do you know that?”

“I can see it…” Shi Yixi replied, struggling.

Yang Jian glanced at Yu Chen, who awkwardly said, “It’s… complicated. I’ll explain later.”

“Alright.” Yang Jian lightly tapped Yang Jin’s forehead, causing him to pass out. The visions in Shi Yixi’s mind immediately vanished. Alarmed, he blocked Yang Jian’s way, asking, “What did you do to him?”

“I just made him rest,” Yang Jian replied. “He’s in no state to think right now. If you want to stay here with him, feel free.” With that, he grabbed Yu Chen and left the room, the wall returning to its original state.

Now, the space seemed completely sealed, leaving just Shi Yixi and Yang Jin in a room bathed in warm light.

Shi Yixi stood awkwardly for a moment before cautiously sitting on the edge of Yang Jin’s bed.

“Are you really asleep?” Shi Yixi cautiously stretched out his hand, mimicking Yang Jian’s earlier gesture, and gently tapped Yang Jin’s forehead with his finger. Yang Jin didn’t react. “Are the things they said true?” he muttered to himself. “That person just put his hand inside your body—it’s unbelievable. Are they really the gods from ancient myths? But isn’t humanity the only civilization in the universe? How can they say there are others… If it’s true, does that mean you’re also a higher being from another planet? Did you really arrive on Earth fifty years ago? What exactly happened during that time?”

He continued, “You… a higher civilization… Are you the god they talked about?”

Yang Jin was in a deep sleep, and Shi Yixi could feel an unusual calmness from him, more peaceful than he’d ever been—like a still lake. Lowering his head, he whispered, “And I’m just an ordinary person. No matter how hard a normal person tries, they can’t catch up to a god, can they?”

Bending slightly, Shi Yixi studied Yang Jin closely. He looked just like him, with two eyes, a mouth, skin, and hair. Years of education had accustomed him to humanity’s loneliness—out in the universe, there were no enemies, no friends, only humans struggling with themselves.

Even though the things those two had said challenged everything he knew, he didn’t feel much resistance to the idea. If it were Yang Jin, Shi Yixi was willing to believe that he was different from everyone else.

“Will you leave us?” Shi Yixi asked softly. “Will you… leave me?”

“What do you want to tell me?” Yang Jian pulled up a chair and sat down. When facing just Yu Chen, his demeanor became noticeably more relaxed and gentle. A dog circled his legs before settling down at his feet.

“Things didn’t go as we originally planned,” Yu Chen said. “The idea was simply to find Yang Jin and take him away. Whatever mess humanity ends up in is their own business—we wouldn’t get involved. You can’t carry deadweight teammates forever.”

Yang Jian nodded.

“But Yixi can influence him,” Yu Chen continued. “Technically, Yang Jin shouldn’t have woken up for another ten hours. It was Xi Zai’s presence that forcibly awakened him. I suspect this has something to do with the connection between the two of them.” He raised his hand as if swearing an oath. “I swear on the light, I didn’t mean to see those memories.”

“But you did see them,” Yang Jian said, standing up and walking over to Yu Chen. He draped an arm around Yu Chen’s shoulders, smiling. His tone grew lighter, and he leaned close to Yu Chen’s ear. “Was it fun seeing things from someone else’s point of view?”

“It was just awkward, really awkward,” Yu Chen replied. “He’s so much like you, quiet and reserved. God, what am I even saying… Anyway, that’s not the point! The point is we need to figure out how to separate the two of them. Otherwise, this connection will transcend space and time—wherever Yang Jin goes, Xi Zai will know. How are we supposed to play this game?”

“Let nature take its course,” Yang Jian said, clearly uninterested.

“Do you think Xi Zai is just an ordinary person?” Yu Chen asked, but quickly answered his own question. “He definitely isn’t. A human can’t release that kind of energy, not even with the most exceptional potential.”

Yang Jian said, “You checked him, right? He has 100% carbon-based human genes. How do you explain that?”

“Well…” Yu Chen scratched his head. “I’m a programmer, not a life sciences expert. What, can’t I make wild guesses?”

Yang Jian chuckled and ruffled Yu Chen’s hair. “Does it matter what he is? Will he go around causing trouble or destroying the world? Seems like he won’t. So, why does it matter?”

Yu Chen thought for a moment, as if something had clicked. “Oh, right.” He snapped his fingers. “Come over and look at this.”

“What?” Yang Jian asked.

“There’s a very advanced artificial intelligence in the building where we landed,” Yu Chen explained. “It lost power because of Xi Zai, and the backup systems failed to activate. I managed to retrieve it and planned to study it. But the human standard code is different from ours, so I had to convert it before it could be adapted. Come, take a look.”

He pressed a key, and a screen full of strange code started rapidly flashing. When the progress bar reached 100%, the program launched.

Yu Chen had been dealing with artificial intelligence for centuries—humanity’s high-end AI had been developed in his era, so this was a trivial matter to him. He had even speculated on what the AI’s first words to him would be…

“Waah! Waah!” The sound of a child wailing suddenly erupted.

“What is this?” Yang Jian demanded.

“How should I know?” Yu Chen covered his ears. “Who in their right mind would program an AI to sound like a crying kid?”

“Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!”

A series of urgent calls broke the dead silence in the hall.

“There’s a signal!” Feng Mang rushed over in excitement. “It’s Fan Fan!”

“It’s still around?”  Ying Si was equally surprised. “Where is it now?”

“Locating…” Feng Mang’s eyes were glued to the screen, fingers working quickly. The others crowded around, but the signal Fan Fan sent was just a mess of garbled code, completely unreadable.

“What the hell is this?!” Feng Mang was losing it.

“Haunted!” Yu Chen yelled as he frantically typed away. “Stop crying!”

Suddenly, a slightly cold, metallic male voice cut in, distorting with the previous crying sound. Yu Chen made a few more adjustments, and the crying finally stopped.

“ZZ initialization complete,” the male voice announced.

“You’re called ZZ?” Yu Chen finally let out a sigh of relief, now that the program seemed normal. “Can you help me retrieve the logs from the past ninety days?”

ZZ replied, “Permission.” An input box popped up on the screen, prompting Yu Chen to enter a password.

“So annoying.” Yu Chen muttered as he fiddled with the interface. The permission was confirmed.

ZZ responded, “Logs are being retrieved.”

Yang Jian asked, “Isn’t ninety days too long? We only need to know what happened in the twenty-four hours before we landed, right?”

“You don’t get it. Seven days, thirty days, ninety days—these are habits for us coders,” Yu Chen explained. “Besides, we haven’t been to Earth in a while. Don’t you want to see what’s been going on? Aren’t you curious about what people have been up to?”

Yang Jian shrugged. “Probably just a bunch of dumb stuff.”

No matter what happens in the world, the sun always rises and sets according to its own rhythm.

The news dominated the screen all night. It wasn’t until sunrise that the Intercontinental Alliance finally released an official statement to the world. They declared that after investigation, all incidents from the explosion to the attack on the Intercontinental Alliance building in a single day were orchestrated by the Sanctuary organization. The Intercontinental Alliance claimed to have solid evidence and would retaliate against the Sanctuary.

Public opinion became tense, with everyone focused on different aspects. Aurora’s local citizens were gripped by anxiety, while people in other continents were merely filled with outrage and debate. Some were making grand speeches, others were sarcastic, but their lives remained unchanged. The explosions on the screens looked terrifying, but they were too distant for most people to feel a real connection. As a result, their comments seemed detached and indifferent.

It was just people on the shore watching someone drown.

“I think you should come take a look at this.” Bai Yunci walked out holding a tablet. He couldn’t remember the last time he had rested, and dark circles were faintly visible under his eyes. He called for He Xun and the others, as He Xun, being older and in poor health, couldn’t endure as long as Bai Yunci.

“What is it?” Feng Mang rubbed his eyes, still drowsy.

“This is the blood test result from the needle Meng Die brought back,” Bai Yunci said. “After comparing it, it is indeed Yang Jin’s blood. But unlike the last sample I took from him, this time the blood has been broken down to a much smaller unit by some method.”

“Blood? Units?” Ying Si had just woken up and didn’t understand what Bai Yunci was saying. Bai Yunci didn’t bother explaining further, simply stating, “It has surpassed the smallest unit of the human body. It’s absolutely incredible.”

“And the result?” He Xun asked, only interested in the conclusion.

Bai Yunci unfolded the analysis results, revealing a strange structural diagram that no one could fully comprehend.

After staring at it for a long time, He Xun suddenly said, “It looks a lot like one of the components found in Xing Bao.”

Bai Yunci replied, “Or maybe that component resembles this one?”

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