I Don't Want to Die

Whoosh!

The dark red beams converged instantly, and the violent heat engulfed the White Knight in an instant. In the scorching rays, his armor was continuously destroyed and melted. He roared loudly and finally could not stand still. He was propelled into the sky by the powerful kinetic energy of the high-temperature metal ions.

*Swoosh! Li Aoz quickly activated [Blood of Immortality]. His body healed rapidly. Due to the repeated use of this Aoneng, his lifespan had been greatly shortened. He staggered and tried to get up, but to no avail. His hands, covered with age spots, could not support his Beta-rank body.

"Du Zexin... Mouldy Crotch ..."

Li Aoz's aged voice echoed across the land. Due to the severe aging of his armor, his eyesight had deteriorated to the point where he could not see the road ahead clearly and could only crawl towards the huge white machine in a blur.

Buzz...

The hydraulic rod slowly moved, and a huge white palm opened, taking Li Aoz into its palm and carefully bringing him to its front.

"Aha... Mouldy Crotch, I knew you weren't dead..."

Before Li Aoz could finish speaking, he saw neat, smooth cracks on the cockpit.

"... Mouldy Crotch?"

He slowly crawled toward the cockpit and immediately saw a headless corpse, blood splattered all over the cockpit. Du Zexin's head lay on the cockpit keyboard, his eyes still filled with anger.

"Mouldy Crotch... you, what... what just happened?"

The broadcast system turned on, and a synthesized electronic voice began to play:

"Mechanics... are not the wrong approach."

"You?"

"Idiot, are you stupid?" the broadcast said irritably. "I am a [Mechanic]. [Biochemists] can back up consciousness, so we [Mechanics] can naturally upload consciousness into mechanical carriers."

"You mean, you uploaded your consciousness into this machine?"

"Yes, this [Future Watch GAMMA] is a masterpiece that I put a lot of effort into tuning."

Du Zexin cursed, "Are you looking down on us [Mechanics]? Even that beast Nethermark Professor can create several clones. I naturally have my own preparations. This machine's computer is connected to my brain interface, and my consciousness, soul, and thoughts will be completely recorded by it."

"Just like the Infant Eater, Bio-Kongou."

Du Zexin seemed to take a deep breath, then said in a synthesized voice:

"My air filtration system was directly destroyed by an unknown toxin. I actually inhaled that poisonous gas when that slash was about to hit me. I need to check my body. Don't disturb me."

"Damn it, I didn't even care about you!" Li Aoz gave him the middle finger. "You should have told me you had this ability... But seriously, you're something else. With your body broken like this, can you even be saved?"

"It's just a severed head for now. If there's enough time, it can be reattached and reused. I need to check the integrity of the body. If it's really not working, I'll use a prosthetic body. Anyway, I'm a [Mechanic], and my adaptability to prosthetic bodies is far greater than that of a [Martial Artist]."

Du Zexin's remarks gradually restored Li Aoz's sense of security.

"You're so thorough, you know everything."

Li Aoz joked.

"Isn't it because you're as stupid as a graduate student? If you had any PhD-level intelligence, you wouldn't be so clueless about my professional abilities."

Du Zexin retorted with dissatisfaction, muttering in annoyance:

"Good-looking people are always a bit dim-witted. I'm so smart, yet I'm just average-looking. What's wrong with me? Should I get plastic surgery?"

"Have you forgotten what I told you? People with high intelligence don't have Free Will and are attracted by society."

"Speaking of society," the synthesized voice on the radio abruptly changed the subject. "That guy claims to be a citizen of the ' Hidden Society.' Do you know anything about them? You're an alien, after all; you should know something, right?"

To this question, Li Aoz, who had always been shrouded in mystery, surprisingly shook his head:

"I have no idea."

"Haven't you heard? Such powerful strength... mysterious toxins, and he even managed to cut through this alloy ceramic composite armor with a single strike. If his sword can reach this level, it probably can even break chemical bonds."

Du Zexin's complaints made Li Aoz shake his head even more.

"There are many notorious societies in the universe—the citizens of the Outer Domain Society Pergalai are called 'demons,' and they have become a scourge to the universe, being the most powerful society."

"What about the others?"

"The others don't match up. If it were Imitation Society, it couldn't be this powerful. Even the Speaker couldn't do it."

Li Aoz didn't finish his sentence.

"Furthermore, the [Eye of Truth] is Aoneng specifically designed to counter the Imitation Society... its subtle effects are something the Imitation Society could never achieve."

So who exactly is it? The Hidden Society, Gaia... This isn't information that has ever appeared in the game.

"No matter what, at least we repelled him. We couldn't possibly be a match for the White Knight. He's too powerful, much stronger than Gamma-rank... He must be an alien, just like you."

"He's, at least for now, an alien, isn't he?"

Li Aoz lay in the palm of my hand, his gaze unfocused.

"Li Aoz?"

"Um?"

"Why are you so insecure?" Du Zexin said while checking his physical condition. "This isn't like you at all."

"Get lost! How many times have you even seen me? Just be yourself."

"Look at yourself! You're not smart, but you're quite good-looking."

Du Zexin seemed to want to look down on Li Aoz, but his machine body couldn't do so, so he could only flash his lights:

"Honestly, you are really beautiful, or rather, you have a quality that is beyond the ordinary—it is unforgettable. I feel like even if I forget my own birthday, forget who I am, I probably won't forget you, it's like an addiction. It's too weird, my sexual orientation is clearly machine."

"Damn, it seems you've accidentally revealed something really serious..."

Li Aoz couldn't help but laugh:

"Mechanic lovers, why do you [Mechanics] all like things with copper skin and iron bones? It's so damn funny, pfft hahahaha..."

Seeing him laugh, Du Zexin casually said:

"That's more like it."

"—What? What did you say?"

"Say 'my little cutie' to your mother, I love you, my dear little biscuit." Du Zexin said irritably, "Look at yourself, you're usually so pretty and arrogant, but now that you've been beaten into a pulp, you look like you've lost your soul."

"The situation is beyond my control. I have a bad feeling. You don't know what this feels like. I feel powerless. Just thinking about the Hidden Society makes me feel powerless. I don't know anything about that thing. For the first time, I feel like I can't do anything. I can't resist the oppression of the White Knight. His power is too great. I can't do anything but keep dying, resurrecting, and dying again. Do you know what that feels like, Du Ze?"

"You idiot, you're so damn arrogant."

Du Zexin seemed to have spent a lot of time with Li Aoz, and he no longer maintained his airs and manners. He packed up his own body, refrigerated it, and stuffed it into a safe. He turned around and stared at Li Aoz with sixteen eyes. "No one can guarantee that the future will go according to your will. What do you think this is? A game? Li Aoz, you have to understand that you are not the protagonist, and neither am I. In this game in the name of reality, we are all just passersby, and we will die sooner or later."

Li Aoz, unconvinced. "What are you talking about, Mouldy Crotch? You died once too, didn't you?"

"I'm talking about you, you arrogant idiot. What do you know about death? You got your friend's Aoneng, you're not going to die."

Du Zexin said with a complicated expression:

"I will, Li Aoz. No matter how many bodies I change, my will will gradually wither, my thoughts will become numbers of 0 and 1, even steel will rust. Sooner or later I will perish due to entropy. Perhaps I will become like you said, attracted, distorted, and corrupted by society because of my high intelligence—just like that beast that attacked us."

"But you are different. You can come back from the dead. You have seen so many things—stars, blue sky, Milky Way, sun—are the Azure Planet People willing to be trapped on Earth? No, that's not it. Do we really believe there is no sun in the world? No, it's just that we can't, we dare not think about it."

"You know the universe we most want to know about in advance."

"The sunlight that we dare not even dream of is commonplace for you."

"The starry sky that we can never reach is nothing more than your homeland."

Li Aoz stared blankly at Du Zexin's camera. "Mouldy Crotch, you..."

These statements are completely contrary to the official persona they represent.

The official description of Du Zexin portrays Du Zexin as a man full of justice, conscience, talent, and strength; in other words, he is a hero.

"I want to go to space."

Du Zexin said:

"I don't want to see what the universe is like, nor do I want to become a high-level [mechanic], nor do I want to be a hero who saves humanity's fate. I don't fucking want to fight monsters like society—I just hate this planet with garbage countries like Frostplate, Sky Ring, Zhengxu, and Red Arrow."

His electronic eyes flashed, conveying all his emotions in a synthesized, cold voice. "Li Aoz, I don't like space, I just want to escape."

The synthesized voice cannot tremble, and the flow of electrons is devoid of joy or sorrow. "I want to stuff my soul into a can, find a place to bury it for hundreds of years, and wait for humanity to perish before driving a mechanical body on the apocalypse, to travel, to escape, to survive."

"I hate this world, I want to leave it, so from the time I saw that children's literacy book when I was a child, I had this unwavering belief in running away—but I have always felt that I like the universe, I like that untouched starry sky."

"Du Zexin ..."

"Later, you appeared in my field of vision, bringing with you all the beautiful things I had imagined. I suddenly realized—I wasn't actually interested in the universe at all; I just wanted to escape this stupid world."

"When I was a child, because I was a boy, girls took away my chance to go to school. When I grew up, because I had a relative working in the government, I also lost my chance to get promoted and receive a raise. Later, I wanted to change this country, Dai Weilin went to jail."

"Now, I've met you. It's ridiculous, but the days I've spent with you have been the most real and enjoyable days of my life, you idiot Li Aoz."

Du Zexin repaired his upper and lower body with a welding torch, and piloted the Mobile Armor to regain his stance. "Li Aoz, if you feel that you can't do anything, why don't you look at me? I think no one is more Mouldy Crotch than me."

"Du Zexin, that nickname was just a joke—"

"At least, you still have people who love you, care about you, and are concerned about you."

Du Zexin shoved Li Aoz into the cockpit:

"I have nothing left, but at least you can be considered half a friend to me."

The Mobile Armor swiftly crashed through the checkpoint's interception, carrying Li Aoz into the endless night and snowstorm.

The journey was initially uneventful, with the mecha blocking out the frost and snow. The seemingly precarious machine was more robust than expected and more stable than any known Mobile Armor. It seemed Du Zexin had put in a lot of effort, and the injection of his own consciousness into the mecha provided considerable assistance in operating it.

Li Aoz's goal was to reach an abandoned camp on the outskirts of Triangle Town, the best launch site, where the selected players were waiting.

Li Aoz's Biochemical Pool can accommodate 25 players, and its sturdy Biochemical Pool can protect them in the event of a nuclear explosion.

The Xiajian Jing team also indicated that everything was going smoothly and they were en route to the rendezvous point.

Compared to these things, Li Aoz was actually more concerned about Du Zexin's situation.

He was very different from before, and even more different from the Du Zexin I remembered.

Li Aoz glanced at the data.

There's been no change in terms of Favorability; it seems there are some things that can't be reflected by numerical values.

Why would Du Zexin say that? Li Aoz suddenly remembered something. "How is your health?"

"... It's nothing serious."

"Really? His head was severed, and he inhaled that poison gas."

"I've already frozen it. If the head is off, I'll have a biochemist reattach it. As for the poison gas, that's even easier. I just need to replace the lungs with prosthetics—as an agent of Law Enforcement Division Three, buying that stuff is quite easy for me."

Since the mentor of the [Mechanic] class had said so, Li Aoz an outsider, naturally did not question his opinion.

"I hope you're okay," Li Aoz said. "That's not a lie."

Instead of refuting or criticizing, "How many lies have you told?", Du Zexin suddenly said, "This Hydrogen Bomb is only enough to open up 70 kilometers of Malefic Calamity, but Malefic Calamity's aggregation speed is faster than you think. If you don't want to be nothing but a skeleton when you enter space, you will have to detonate a small nuclear bomb when you reach the ionosphere."

Li Aoz sighed and shook his head, "It's too late. I can just send my brain out. Once it's regenerated in outer space, I can fly away directly. Besides, I took the Biochemical Pool with me, so it's safe to stay in Biochemical Pool."

Du Zexin replied, "That would result in a significant loss of initial velocity."

Time waits for no one.

Do you really need to go to space right now?

"Yes, to be honest, it's already very late. I should have gone into space a month ago. The crisis of Malefic Calamity is urgent."

"It would be best to add another lesson."

"I fucking know that, but there's nothing I can do now, and there's no time to find a second nuclear bomb."

"Looking for what?"

Du Zexin said:

"Isn't it right here?"

After saying that, he raised his large mechanical hand and pointed to the reactor on his chest.

I actually started planting this hidden subplot from the very beginning of the first volume, before Nomi even died, starting with the Black Knight storyline, and also writing the Ya Wen storyline.