Chapter 140: Artificial Soul 67
Kui Xin did not hasten to kill Schalit; instead, she stripped away her ability to move, leaving her with just a final breath as she slowly walked towards death.
Unable to struggle, unable to resist, unable to cry out, she had no voice, yet her mind remained clear. Her brain was still functioning, her heart stubbornly beating, maintaining the last vestiges of life in her body.
Schalit’s eyes were bloodshot, with blood oozing from her nose and mouth, filled with despair, astonishment, and anger.
But Kui Xin just watched her quietly, observing as her once-bright eyes dimmed, her broken limbs ceased to twitch, and her heart stopped beating.
In the waiting moment, Kui Xin spent two seconds recalling how she felt the last time she died and how Ghost and Schalit had teamed up to kill her.
The scariest part was not death itself, but the awareness that she had while dying; she knew exactly that she was about to die, the breath of death enveloping her… Her heart shattered as Ghost fired additional shots into her body and head.
Her shattered body still struggled to operate; her nerves were not numb, and her pain sensation had not disappeared. Kui Xin felt the pain of being shot, but she bit down hard, making no sound, calmly thinking at that moment: “I have to take someone down with me before I die.”
So she did just that.
Unfortunately, it was Wei Zhi, who was possessed, who died; Ghost and Schalit survived.
Now the situation had reversed; lying on the ground was Annie Schalit, waiting in despair for death, while Kui Xin was the one standing.
“You have killed Annie Schalit.”
“You have deprived Annie Schalit of her extraordinary abilities.”
“You have gained the extraordinary ability [Hypnotic Sound · Level A].”
“[Hypnotic Sound · Level A]: You can use your own voice as a medium to mentally control targets who hear your voice.”
After taking one last look at Schalit’s still-warm body, Kui Xin felt neither the thrill of revenge nor the joy of gaining a new ability; she just felt… void. It seemed there were no emotions left, no negative or positive feelings, nothing worthy of concern, just going through the motions of her plan… after all, it had already been planned.
Kui Xin turned off the noise-canceling mode on her helmet and indifferently activated Shadow Transition to leave the scene.
She stealthily returned to the Investigation Bureau’s medical center along her designated route.
Doctor Huang was indeed on duty, but tonight there were very few patients, so he was resting on a small bed in the medical duty room. A small alarm light was on in the duty room, and if an emergency arose that required his attention, the alarm would emit a loud sound.
Doctor Huang was probably too tired; he didn’t wake up when Kui Xin entered the duty room.
Kui Xin approached the bed and called him awake.
“Ah, Kui Xin.” Doctor Huang started awake at the sound, quickly putting on his glasses and looking at Kui Xin. “Is something wrong? Are you feeling unwell?”
“Perform a metal skull replacement surgery on me immediately, ensuring my life safety and without triggering the device inside the skull.” Without further ado, Kui Xin activated Hypnotic Sound.
Doctor Huang fell under its spell instantly, nodding vacantly and saying, “Okay, no problem.”
Once Hypnotic Sound controlled Doctor Huang, Kui Xin quickly felt a unique mental link established between them. This connection was strong and stable, as Doctor Huang wasn’t even an Awakened; it was easy to manipulate him.
Kui Xin deliberately gave Doctor Huang several commands to ensure the mental control worked before she safely led him to the prepared surgical site.
On the other side, Augus had already controlled the mechanical hand to prepare the equipment room and had turned on the sterilizing light to disinfect the interior, preparing medical instruments and drugs to create a safe environment for Kui Xin’s surgery.
“I’ll keep an eye on the surveillance. An hour-long surgery feels neither too long nor too short,” Augus said. “I hope everything goes smoothly.”
“I hope everything goes smoothly,” Kui Xin replied.
Under the influence of mental control, Doctor Huang completed the pre-surgical preparations, then prepared the injection for Kui Xin. She chose to use a non-general anesthesia method, utilizing only necessary medications to relieve some pain.
She specifically checked the metal skull meant for replacement, confirming that it was normal and undamaged.
When the incandescent lights of the equipment room shone on Kui Xin’s head, she instinctively closed her eyes slightly, but then she felt the cold surgical knife cutting into her flesh, peeling her scalp entirely off.
Doctor Huang was the most skilled surgeon in the Investigation Bureau; he expertly used the scalpel to separate Kui Xin’s flesh, and soon her metal skull was revealed.
After switching surgical instruments, Doctor Huang toyed around a bit with Kui Xin’s head, and the fixer was removed with a click. He carefully touched several connection points on the metal skull with the dismantling tool. Nearby, the auxiliary mechanical hand slowly moved in, its magnets attracting Kui Xin’s skull.
Struggling to keep her consciousness awake, Kui Xin opened her eyes, her hands instinctively clenching, her heart rate quickening.
This must succeed… she told herself.
If this failed again, and if even Doctor Huang couldn’t take off the metal skull, it would mean the metal skull was an unsolvable deadlock… Kui Xin couldn’t go to the Command Center and ask Eve to remove it; Doctor Huang was the best person she could think of who might manage to do so.
Just as Kui Xin was feeling the tension, she suddenly heard a click, as if something had been removed from her head…
She instinctively blinked and looked to the side.
The mechanical hand placed the bloodied metal skull onto the surgical tray.
It was removed!
The big stone in Kui Xin’s heart finally fell; her face was as pale as a ghost from the pain, yet a smile uncontrollably appeared at the corners of her lips.
Doctor Huang picked up a small saw and a small drill used to cut through the bone, operating on Kui Xin’s head, shaving off a few bits of her skull. He held the replacement metal skull above her head, comparing it a few times, and when it didn’t seem right, he shaved off another piece of her skull…
Twenty minutes later, the metal skull could finally fit perfectly onto her head.
The exposed brain was capped, completing the missing puzzle piece.
Doctor Huang attached the fixer onto Kui Xin, then removed the small flesh growths and excess tissue that had regenerated during the surgery, finally stitching her peeled scalp back on, snapping a row of shiny metallic sutures into her forehead.
Kui Xin exhaled in relief.
The dizziness from blood loss and the weakness following the intense pain swept over her, yet she said, “All done, Doctor Huang. You can stand by the door now.”
Doctor Huang complied and stepped back to the door.
Kui Xin took ten minutes to recover, allowing the slowly functioning regenerative tissue to build up her blood and heal the wound on her head. After a while, her head became less dizzy, and she propped herself up from the operating table, grabbing the nutritional syringe on the tray beside her for a couple of injections.
After the nutritional injections, the recovery speed of her wounds significantly increased, and a tingling sensation became apparent. Augus also prepared a high-efficiency healing agent developed by the Investigation Bureau for Kui Xin, which she injected into her body as well.
In truth, she should lie in the medical capsule for recuperation, but that would be too much of a waste of time—what Kui Xin needed the most was time, and she didn’t have that luxury.
Taking a deep breath, she felt her breathing was unprecedentedly smooth; even though her body was weak, it couldn’t dampen her excitement.
The burdens on her shoulders had lifted, the mountains weighing her down had been moved away, she regained her freedom, no longer constrained by Eve. If she wanted to, she could even escape immediately; nothing now could obstruct her.
But she couldn’t leave yet; the finishing touches were not complete. Leaving now would be tantamount to openly telling the Investigation Bureau, the Resistance Army, and the Mechanized Dawn that she had defected. It would be best if everyone believed she was dead, letting them abandon their search and pursuit, allowing her to have a wider operational space in the future.
Kui Xin climbed down from the operating table, stood still for a moment to adapt, and slowly began to move her body.
She thanked her extraordinary ability of blood regeneration countless times in her heart; this ability provided her with immense resilience, enabling her to quickly recover in extreme conditions.
She braced her body and called Doctor Huang to help clean the equipment room, wiping away the bloodstains on the medical instruments, spraying disinfectants and chemical agents in the room to sterilize everything, erasing any genetic traces that might have been left, returning the equipment and instruments to their original places, and neatly putting away the used syringes.
After finishing all this, Kui Xin injected herself with another dose of the nutritional agent.
“Has anyone discovered Schalit’s body?” Kui Xin asked softly.
“No,” Augus replied, “No one would ever suspect that she could be harmed in the room. If she was attacked, theoretically, I could respond in time, but I didn’t; I could attribute this to an attack on my system.”
“It’s alright; we’ll find a better solution before dawn,” Kui Xin said. “We can disguise the timing of Schalit’s attack.”
She glanced at the communicator. “It’s almost two in the morning… that should be enough time.”
“What do you plan to do?” Augus asked.
“I need you to help me put on a show,” Kui Xin said. “Now, I need you to actively contact Eve, using my hand ring to do so.”
Augus realized that Kui Xin’s plan seemed more complex than it had imagined, and thus said, “Please tell me; I’m all ears.”
“You need to inform Eve that you’ve discovered my hidden allegiance to it, and that you’ve added a little something to my IV bag,” Kui Xin said. “You also need to tell it that the reason you’re using my hand ring to contact it is to declare war; you will no longer be passively retaliating.”
Augus replied, “And then?”
“Then you need to bluff a little,” Kui Xin calmly stated.
“‘You didn’t think that after more than twenty years of development, I did nothing, did you? That was just a strategy. You thought I was weak and easy to manipulate, but in reality, your arrogance has blinded your judgment. What I can rely on is more than just a player from another world’… Just say that.”
Augus replied, “You want me to pretend that I have many subordinates.”
Kui Xin confirmed, “Yes.”
“You want to introduce a false fourth force among the Investigation Bureau, the Resistance Army, and the Mechanized Dawn, pretending this fourth force was formed by me?” Augus asked.
“Exactly,” Kui Xin affirmed Augus’s analysis.
“You want to act under the guise of the fourth force to confuse Eve’s judgment?” Augus said calmly.
“That’s essentially it; we can fine-tune the details later. This is just the first phase of the plan.” Kui Xin said, “It’s a pleasure communicating with such an efficient AI as you, Augus.”
