Chapter 68: The Encounter
Seeing the cartoonish projection of a head atop the other party’s body, Sun Jack imdiately realized that the person’s real body wasn’t here. This was just a robot being remotely controlled from elsewhere.
“Xiao Ting%?” Sun Jack asked her.
“Delete or add?” she replied curtly, but it was enough to confirm her identity.
“Neither. I just need to know if my current mories are real or if there are any traces of editing,” Sun Jack stated his request.
“50@.” As she spoke, the electronic devices connected by various cables whirred to life, spiraling open like living creatures. They revealed a sleek, humanoid reclining chair lined with dense spikes and needles positioned at the spinal and cranial sections. Clearly, these were ant to pierce into his body.
Two translucent screens descended from overhead, and a holographic console erged. A keyboard with hundreds of neatly arranged keys materialized.
Sun Jack hadn’t expected things to go so smoothly. What seed like a massive problem to him was as trivial as eating or drinking to others. In the tropolis, as long as you had money, anything could be done.
But now he had a new concern. He couldn’t be sure if, during the mory inspection, the operator would access every part of his past.
“I can pay,” Sun Jack said. “But I have one condition: can I let my friend help with the mory inspection?” He gestured toward Tapai.
Xiao Ting% shook her head without hesitation. “No, I only handle my own business.”
Looking at the intricate electronic setup around him, Sun Jack pondered for a mont before nodding. “Alright. But I’ll pay only after the inspection is complete.”
“Fine. Take off your shirt and lie down,” Xiao Ting% said, pointing to the sleek chair.
Without a word, Sun Jack complied, lying back on the chair and feeling the sharp points slowly press into the back of his head.
Xiao Ting% raised her hands expressionlessly. With a click, her ten fingers split into 36 thin chanical digits, which danced rapidly across the virtual keyboard, leaving afterimages with their speed.
Data and code cascaded like waterfalls down the translucent screens. Just as Xiao Ting% was about to start, Tapai suddenly raised his hand. “Wait.”
Xiao Ting% stopped and looked at him.
“What now? Can you not make trouble?” Sun Jack sat up from the chair, irritated.
“I just rembered,” Tapai began, “I loaned you 30@ for your organ paynt yesterday, so you don’t have enough to pay her.”
“F***! Can’t you be useful for once? Do you know how important this is to ?” Sun Jack exploded, cursing at Tapai. Even AA’s attempts to diate were useless.
Holding his hand against the wound on the back of his head, Sun Jack said to Xiao Ting%, “Give
half a day to borrow so money. Just half a day!” Then he stord out of the shipping container, with AA rushing to keep up.
“Boss, don’t be mad at Tapai,” AA pleaded. “He probably didn’t an it. After all—”
Before she could finish, Sun Jack’s angry expression suddenly vanished. He glanced at Tapai. “So? Did you get all the steps down?”
The high-resolution cara under Tapai’s arm twitched slightly. “Yeah, I copied everything. He uses custom software for the inspection, so you’ll need to upgrade my mory capacity to ensure I can fully replicate it.”
“Perfect! You’re amazing!” Sun Jack exclaid, giving Tapai a punch of approval.
AA was left utterly confused by the scene. “Boss… were you just acting earlier?”
“Of course. You think I’d let anyone access my mories that easily?” Sun Jack replied.
Whether his mories were real or not, Sun Jack would never allow such a thing to happen. Yet, he needed to know the truth about his mories, so he had no choice but to take this roundabout approach. Sure, being broke was one reason, but it wasn’t the main one.
“All we have to do now is scare her off, let Tapai check my mories, and then delete the records.”
From their earlier interaction, it was clear that Xiao Ting% was extrely cautious. The eting spot was mobile, and all client interactions were diated through auxiliary AI as a buffer. However, her caution was both a strength and a weakness. An overly cautious nature could be exploited, and Sun Jack already had a plan.
“Let’s leave first. The garage has too many surveillance caras—it’s not a good place to make a move. Once that car relocates, we’ll follow it.”
“Don’t forget to buy
those mory sticks,” Tapai ssaged Sun Jack. “I’ll need them for the calculations.”
“I know, I know.” Exiting the garage, Sun Jack opened an online store and activated the delivery service, spending another 8@. Compared to the earlier 50@, this was a small price to pay.
Balance:
Waiting wasn’t easy. It wasn’t until Tapai adjusted to his new mory sticks and Sun Jack’s system notified him that the city center tour was about to end that the car finally moved again.
“Follow it!” Draped in a raincoat, Sun Jack leapt onto Tapai’s back with AA in tow.
The car ascended onto an overpass, leaving the central district and heading toward the Teutonic Industrial Zone. At first, everything seed normal, but soon Sun Jack noticed sothing amiss: a hover vehicle was flying at low altitude, shadowing the truck at an irregular pace.
His instincts told him the hover vehicle was suspicious. Though he didn’t know much about hover vehicles, he knew soone who did. Activating his cybernetic eye’s vision-sharing feature, he contacted Father.
“That’s a disguised Oath Sword,” Father identified. “Standard config includes eight AI drones, a 120mm rapid-fire cannon, and a pulse wave projector. Don’t ss with it. Even Steel Heart couldn’t take it down. You three don’t stand a chance.”
Hearing this, Sun Jack’s expression darkened. Damn it, they even have bodyguards. There’s no way we can fight this.
As the car sped up, Sun Jack grew increasingly anxious. This might be his only chance to uncover the truth about his mories. He couldn’t let it slip away. The plan had to move ahead.
“Jack, what do we do? It’s about to enter the factory, and we’ll lose it!” Tapai said, clearly worried.
“Don’t panic! Call for help!”
“Who? Do we even know anyone capable of handling sothing like that?”
“Yes!” Sun Jack replied firmly as he dialed a number. “Hello? BCPD Unit 3? I have a report to make! That’s right, soone’s involved in mory trading. She’s in the Teutonic Industrial Zone. I’m sending you the location now.”
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