A Bleak Future

Why are you swaggering around at her? If I could find a lover right now, I'd unleash my dogs on you today!

"Oh...right." Only after Vil-V's comment did Pardo realize what was happening. "But speaking of which... Prometheus? Why does that name sound so familiar?"

"You really have been spending all your time eating and drinking in the lab..." Mei pushed up her glasses. "You pointed at Prometheus and asked me last month, 'What is this thing?'"

"Is... is there? I think so..."

Pardo scratched her head, her face showing a difficult recollection, but she gave up completely the next moment.

"I don't remember."

"Don't expect Pardo to remember something like this," Liu Bai finally said slowly. "Pardo goes to several labs a day to eat and drink, and she's probably asked other people similar questions. Do you think she could remember what you said a month ago?"

"... Alright." Mei sighed helplessly. She really couldn't expect this silly child to remember anything.

Liu Bai then looked at Prometheus: "Hello, I am Liu Bai."

"Yes, your records are in my database, Father."

Prometheus, wearing Bronya's face, nodded with a blank expression.

"... Can I change how you address me?" Liu Bai felt that the way she addressed her sounded really strange.

In some ways, it doesn't sound as pleasing as the "old thing" of the Imaginary Archive...

"Permissions checked... Sorry, Father, you do not have sufficient permissions."

After receiving Prometheus's reply, Liu Bai looked up at Mei.

Mei adjusted her glasses with a serious expression. "I believe that your existence, teacher, is the greatest secret of the Moth Chasers to Fire..."

"Bullshit." Mei had barely started speaking when she was mocked by Vil-V. "Given Liu Bai's nature, even if we all go under, he can still continue to exist. What do you mean by giving yourself the highest authority? Are you going to transfer the authority after you die? That's pointless. You just want to lock the name for your own pleasure."

"You talk as if you're not one of them."

Mei showed absolutely no embarrassment at being exposed.

Before you criticize me, can you reflect on why you were able to react so quickly?

Mei's words plunged Vil-V into silence.

That's true... Vil-V asked herself honestly, if she created a supercomputer with the intelligence level of Prometheus, she would definitely give it a name and play around with it.

But thinking of this, Vil-V pointed to herself and asked Prometheus, "You recognize me, don't you?"

"I recognize you. You are Dr. Vil-V, the Moth Chasers to Fire ..."

"Stop, let's leave the title aside, so how do you address her?" Vil-V turned and pointed to Mei.

"Dr. Mei, my creator... title omitted."

"Oh... so you still have a sense of shame, huh?"

Vil-V looked at Mei with surprise. She had thought Mei would be even more shameless and call herself "Mother" or something.

Mei curled the corners of her lips. "So, does that mean someone did something even more shameless?"

This time, Vil-V fell silent.

At this moment, Pardo also curiously approached Prometheus and poked Prometheus cheek with her hand.

"Oh... it feels just like real skin, soft and bouncy."

Prometheus simply endured Pardo's kneading with a blank expression.

"Because it's a full-coverage Soul Steel skin," Mei explained casually, then looked at Liu Bai, "Teacher, could you please teach Prometheus?"

"I..."

Liu Bai rarely showed a headache.

"My matter here..."

"I will tell Mobius that you will not be required to participate in any experiments other than the exploration of the Sea of Quanta and the Hypermutation Surgery. You will only need to be responsible for Captain Himiko's psychological counseling and education of Gretel. Bringing Prometheus along will allow him to serve as your deputy while also learning some human survival skills."

Prometheus didn't need to learn those experiments at all; the knowledge in the database was enough for her to be competent in any experiment.

Mei wants to see "people"—that would be a very interesting experiment, wouldn't it?

So people like Mobius, Vil-V, and even yourself, shouldn't burden Liu Bai with your experiments. Just recruit more researchers instead.

"Aren't you going to keep her by your side?" Liu Bai asked, slightly surprised.

"From now on, we can just connect to the slave machine. There's no need to keep this child by our side. As the Prometheus network grows, the computing power will also increase while sharing data."

The Prometheus Network... Why does this term sound so familiar?

Liu Bai's expression was a bit strange, but he still nodded. After all, having a supercomputer of Prometheus level by his side was quite convenient in many ways.

And she can keep Gretel company, since there aren't many people in the Moth Chasers to Fire who are the same age as Gretel. Prometheus... at least looks the same age, right?

"So, this child is considered the mother machine? Or the main unit?"

"No, according to my prediction, in the future each 'sub-individual' will actually be an independent individual, without any dependent relationship, and will simply be connected to each other to share data."

"Hmm... that sounds like a good plan."

Liu Bai nodded. This idea was quite meaningful... Of course, he just didn't know how much money Mei would have to be able to squander like that.

Perhaps ten or twenty units would be the limit—he wasn't unaware of the cost of Prometheus.

To put it bluntly, the hardware of Prometheus alone represents that even if costs are reduced in the future, they won't drop much, making mass production completely impossible.

However, it seems that Mei doesn't care much about this issue, perhaps because she has already arranged all the functions.

"Prometheus, do you have a map of the Moth Chasers to Fire's headquarters?"

"Some,"

"Could you wait for me in the therapy room later?"

"Father, are you referring to the 'psychological clinic' located next to Dr. Mobius's office?"

"That's it." Liu Bai thought Prometheus would be more cold-blooded and choose to call out the location, but the answer he gave was quite humane.

"According to the work schedule in my database, Father, your next task is to provide psychological counseling for Captain Himiko?"

"It was just a casual chat."

Liu Bai corrected him, saying that in psychology... he could only be considered experienced at best; from a professional perspective, he was actually just a dabbler.

However, he was also well-suited to tutor Himiko —mainly by listening to Himiko out her troubles.

Anyway, I listened to this a lot when I was with Himeko before, and both Liu Bai and Himiko were quite comfortable with this job.

"Then I'll be going now." Vil-V was a little depressed; she suddenly wanted to get something that could call her "Mom."

... Let's just forget about it.

Wouldn't that make it seem like you're jealous of Mei?

A super artificial intelligence in the form of a beautiful girl... Well, putting everything else aside, actually, Vil-V herself really wants one.

However, she is indeed not good at this kind of thing.

Mobius's office, next door

Psychological counseling room.

"Hua, you're back too?" Liu Bai looked at Hua, who was sitting next to Himiko, with some surprise.

"I was rotated to a different position; my team was just transferred to headquarters."

A hint of awkwardness appeared on Hua's face.

Hua was originally supposed to return with Himiko, but after a preliminary check, it was found that Hua was in a very stable state of mind, so Hua stayed in Australia and sent Himiko and her subordinate squad back.

Hua's awkwardness stemmed from this. After all, it seemed like he would be working in Australia for a long time, but after only a few months, he was transferred back. Even Hua was completely confused about his junior sister's transfer order.

However, Liu Bai frowned upon hearing this, but quickly composed himself. "It's quite normal for shifts to happen, and you can't just have the two captains conduct the psychological checks; the team members should also be checked."

Although he was trying to fool Hua, Liu Bai had already realized something.

Mei may have changed its policy toward Australia... for example, adopting a loose-handed approach while tolerating some of the darker aspects of the situation, and strictly monitoring the signs of Honkai.

An attempt was made to artificially induce the birth of Herrscher and then eliminate it.

It would be very upsetting for these two people to know about this—after all, this kind of experiment is meaningful, but the sacrifices involved are also very painful.

Knock knock knock!

"Please come in."

After Liu Bai spoke, Prometheus pushed open the door and walked in. His pupils automatically rotated and scanned the entire room before finally stopping on the empty chair.

"Are you in this direction, Father?"

Since the Imaginary Archive's shell couldn't be brought along, Prometheus couldn't see Liu Bai now. Incidentally, because Prometheus was a machine, he couldn't form a contract either.

"Father?"

Upon hearing the title "Prometheus, "Himiko and Hana visibly experienced a pupil dilation shock.

"Teacher Liu, please forgive my intrusion... who is this child's biological mother? Um... or rather, who are the biological mother and father?"

Hua seemed to retain a last shred of rationality, knowing that Liu Bai, this ghost, was incapable of reproduction—although, judging from Hua's words, it seemed more like he was completely unable to accept the fact that his Teacher Liu already had such a grown-up daughter.

"Oh... it's certainly possible that other children left behind by fallen comrades also did fall." Himiko also suppressed her gossipy expression after hearing Hua's words.

—As a soldier who was forced to undergo psychological counseling, Himiko is now very interested in the gossip around her.

—Especially after discovering Liu Bai's circle.

Since there's nothing else to do anyway, and I'm just idling around, I might as well use Liu Bai, this "ball of yarn," to pass the time.

"Captain, loose lips sink ships." Hua gave his old captain a deep look, unsure whether it was a well-intentioned reminder or a veiled threat.

"Ahem, of course I know about such a trivial matter! Do you think I'm about to lose control of my mouth?" Himiko coughed twice, somewhat embarrassed.

She really wasn't good at dealing with her own old-fashioned, non-young teammate.

Hmm... maybe she only shows her girlish side when it comes to the topic of romance?

"Her name is Prometheus, and she's the one who developed the supercomputer... She's still in the learning phase."

"Nice to meet you, Captain Hua, Captain Himiko. Please take care of me." Prometheus nodded to the two of them expressionlessly.

"Oh... so it's Dr. Mei's son, right?" Himiko gave Liu Bai a hearty smile.

Hua's eyes twitched upon hearing this—she suddenly remembered that her old captain's mouth was no different from Kevin's; they both had no sense of propriety when it came to talking.

Hua strongly suspects that Kevin's condition worsened because he served as Himiko's vice-captain for a period of time...

Speaking of which... Himiko's current vice-captain is her good friend Carole. After so many years, she has finally made it to the top. She has basically reached the end of the path of a warrior. She is completely different from Kosma, who holds the position of vice-captain but is actually just someone who doesn't want to be promoted.

Well, on another note, although it's not nice to talk about my friend like that, this person is also a husky... or at least a little husky.

... Could it be that after me, there hasn't been a single vice-captain of a normal type by my old captain's side?

Chapter 409 A Dire Future

Hua is starting to feel like there are no normal people around her anymore.

Or rather, the number of abnormal people far exceeds the number of normal people. A quick thought reveals that Huaneng can only think of a few normal people: Eden, Sakura, Pardo, and Su.

"Hana, aren't you getting more and more girlish? Always having such a serious face will give you wrinkles." Himiko rested her chin on her hand, looking at her former teammate with a teasing expression.

"Studies have shown that laughing too much leads to... no, that's not the problem."

Hua pushed up her glasses. She had almost been led astray by Himiko again. When dealing with this kind of person, one had to be constantly careful not to let one's thinking be swayed.

Incidentally, Himiko isn't exactly a husky, but rather the creator of huskies.

As a captain, Himiko was flawless: she was warm, generous, cheerful, optimistic, understanding, led by example, and loved her soldiers like her own children.

These strengths, as a captain, completely overshadow Himiko's personal weaknesses... such as her alcoholism.

It is precisely because of these strengths that Himiko was able to pass on her optimism to others.

The "husky mentality" isn't necessarily a bad thing during this period.

But... Hua also knew that he, the old captain, was not as optimistic as he seemed. He had known this ever since he first attended the celebration banquet. He was just forcibly conveying an optimistic attitude to others.

In fact, these captains understood the true situation better than anyone else. Learning on the battlefield was far more effective than looking at data directly. Not to mention themselves and Himiko, even Kevin was fully aware of the current situation.