Chapter 210
She struggled instinctively, only to find that the power within her body was as if locked up, and EGO's response became weak and sluggish.
She raised her head, her sharp gaze sweeping across her surroundings.
This was a room so simple it was almost cold, with only a thin document bearing the Lobotomy Corporation logo on the table.
Sitting opposite her were two acquaintances whose circumstances were closely related to hers.
Angela sat gracefully and calmly on the other side of the table, her hands folded on her knees.
She had already returned to her usual calm, almost inorganic demeanor, with a halo hovering silently above her head as she stared directly at Carmen.
"Awake?" Angela's voice was flat, devoid of any emotion. "How are you feeling, Carmen?"
In the Library Angela - Carmen remained silent, her gaze passing over Angela and landing on the petite figure beside her.
Then, her pupils dilated slightly, and she hesitated briefly.
That's Xiao Huasheng.
But the red-haired Angel at this moment was completely different from the one who had just fought two opponents without being at a disadvantage.
She was wearing a black bunny girl outfit that was clearly carefully chosen.
The smooth fabric clung to her petite and shapely figure, outlining her youthful and adorable curves.
Black fishnet stockings encased her slender legs, a touch of worldliness that distinguished them from the purity of white stockings.
On her feet were a pair of equally playful black high heels.
Most striking was the pair of soft black rabbit ear headdresses nestled among her fiery red hair, trembling slightly with her restless movements.
Her face, which always carried a touch of vitality, was now flushed red, like a ripe apple.
Those bright eyes darted around, not daring to meet Carmen's gaze, but staring intently at the tips of her shoes.
She huddled up next to Angela, clutching Angela's dress without saying a word.
Angela seemed quite pleased with Xiao Huasheng's attitude, and kept smiling.
She then turned her head slightly and spoke to Carmen in a businesslike tone.
"You have caused our company enormous losses. Lost wages, repair costs, and all sorts of expenses need to be compensated... Of course, if you become our employee, all of this can be reimbursed, Carmen."
A blue-haired beauty stared intently at another blue-haired beauty, while beside them stood an innocent-looking red-haired bunny girl Angel.
Faced with this situation, Carmen's choice was--
Chapter 40: I really want to be human! [1st update]
"I have searched for a long time, to make up for the pain I have suffered."
Carmen's face was devoid of a smile; she spoke with a hint of sadness.
Then, she raised her head and poured out her heart to the person in front of her who resembled her. "That's why I suppressed my feelings and emotions, only to find it all came to nothing in the end."
Carmen felt a dull, persistent pain in her chest.
In almost every world, Angela was created to assist her superior.
Angela is modeled after Carmen, replicating everything about Carmen; she is a robot whose very soul has been copied.
Carmen was a very gentle person, and it was her existence that ultimately led to the establishment of Lobotomy Corporation.
Since the founding of Lobotomy Corporation, its founder A has had only one goal: to launch Light Seed to bring hope to everyone, ignite the burning flame in the hearts of everyone in their despairing world, and make that world a little better.
Once the Light Seed is fully launched, everyone will receive their own EGO, the power unique to their hearts.
And so, Lobotomy Corporation remained within the TT2 Protocol for a full ten thousand years, all for this one goal.
As the assistant A, Library Angela's sense of time has been slowed down a hundredfold, and her memories are not reset with the reset, so these ten thousand years seem incredibly long to her.
Even until the very end, even after Library Angela for millions of years.
When the Light Seed was launched, she was still not allowed to stand next to A and watch the launch of the Light Seed.
Carmen, such a gentle person with such a warm heart, was thus Distortion.
Destroying A's plan became almost the only objective Library Angela.
Therefore, when the Light Seed was launched, Library Angela went to intercept it and built the Library of Ruina Light Seed the ruins of Lobotomy Corporation.
Library Angela believed that she had avenged her great grudge and could find her true purpose in life through the existence of the Library.
She had thought she could find...
After losing control of half the Library, Library Angela, spent her days worrying about the ministers' rebellion and fearing that she would never reach the ending she wanted.
In the end, I gained nothing. Even though I destroyed everything that person had and destroyed their ideals, I still gained nothing.
Library Angela, her beautiful eyes suddenly brimming with tears.
Even though the body is a mechanical creation, A still designed a tear-shedding module for this mechanical body.
"If... if I hadn't felt pain in the first place, why, why couldn't it have been like this?" Her tears fell continuously, running down her thighs.
She searched for a long time, starting with the gentleness of "Carmen," but in the lonely cycle of millions of years, her search was Distortion into fuel for revenge.
She thought that by destroying A's ideals, she could prove that her existence was different from that simple template, and fill the void abandoned at the end of time.
She believed that seizing the Light Seed and establishing the Library was writing her own chapter and unlocking everything within herself.
But only now, after losing half the Library, did she realize that she wasn't special at all, and that in her own world, she would ultimately meet a bad end.
She finally saw a cruel truth.
Whether she imitates Carmen's gentleness or goes to its extreme opposite, all her actions, all her emotions, and even her "Distortion" are still firmly rooted in that origin.
She never truly escaped that track called "A".
What she perceived as her "self" was nothing more than a long and painful reflection based on the blueprints of others.
Millions of years of torment did not make her cry, the moment the Light Seed was destroyed did not make her cry, and even after half of the Library was taken away, she did not cry.
But now, seeing Angela's condition beside Xiao Huasheng, Carmen realizes that she can never truly be herself.
Her fate was firmly tied to the cage.
She pressed her lips together, and tears silently streamed down her pale cheeks.
Upon seeing her like this, Xiao Huasheng immediately panicked. Even if the Angela in front of him wasn't his Angela, at least it was the same face.
The red-haired Angel couldn't imagine Angela crying in front of her. She stroked Carmen's head and comforted her, "It's all in the past, it's okay... At least we gave you an option, didn't we? You can just join our company."
Carmen finally broke down in tears in front of Angela, she only dared to cry in front of herself.
Angela paused for a moment, then spoke without any hesitation.
You know perfectly well that tears are useless.
"But at least this makes me feel a little better." Carmen smiled, but her eyes were still red.
"I accept your offer." Carmen's voice calmed down, carrying a sense of tranquility. "I can join Lobotomy Corporation. My strength, my knowledge, everything I possess, can be used by you."
Upon hearing this, Xiao Huasheng's face immediately lit up with joy, and he breathed a sigh of relief.
It looks like the company is about to prosper again. With two Angela, the company will definitely become even better!
However, Carmen's next words made the red-haired Angel's smile falter slightly.
"But," Carmen uttered clearly, her gaze intense, "I have only one request."
Angela raised an eyebrow slightly, seemingly expecting this, and waited for her to continue.
Carmen's gaze fell on her hands, which appeared no different from human hands but were actually made of precision machinery and bionic materials.
She clenched her fist slightly, a deep sense of disgust flashing in her eyes.
"This body..." Her voice trembled slightly, "Is a creation of 'A,' a replica of 'Carmen,' the root and witness to all my pain and loss. It has never carried 'my' will."
"My request is that I want a real 'birth'."
"It can't be a copy, nor can it be patching things up within this cold, mechanical frame. I want to separate my soul from this body and transfer it to another."
"And the body I'm going to dedicate myself to will be designed and sculpted by myself, a body that is entirely my own! From the most basic genetic code to the growth and differentiation of every cell, everything will be guided by my will. I know that this function exists here."
"Then, I poured my soul into this body that truly belongs to me; this is the end I have been searching for—to be born as a human being."
"Only in this way can I completely sever the shackles of the past. This is the premise of my cooperation, and also my... only salvation."
Angela did not refute, as if she had expected Angela to say that.
Chapter 41: What I Saw [1 Update]
"So what will you look like afterward? Will you still have this face?" Xiao Huasheng asked curiously, since if it really was like Carmen's, then it would indeed be a rebirth.
Carmen responded with a single word.
"I actually quite like my appearance, and I'm happy to stay the same, but I'd like to add something special to my body."
"Like, getting a mole on the corner of your eye?" Angela asked. "I can lend you my Distortion permissions for a while, but you'll never have this."
The blue-haired beauty pointed to the halo above her head. The purpose of this halo was to communicate with Xiao Huasheng, and only she could communicate with Xiao Huasheng within the Lobotomy Corporation.
After a while...
Everyone was happy.
In no time at all, Carmen signed the contract and fulfilled her wish.
She abandoned her mechanical body and transformed into a fleshy one.
Following her own ideas, she painted a mole on the corner of her left eye and another on her right breast.
After completing the character creation, she was successfully born, leaving behind only that programmed mechanical body.
When Xiao Huasheng introduced Carmen to the employees, everyone was bewildered.
Ku Tang asked curiously, "Manager? So we have two Angela now?"
Carmen: "Please call me Carmen. I am not her."
"So... what do we do now? Aren't you going back?"
Xiao Huasheng quietly asked Carmen a question, and it was this question that clearly stumped Carmen.
Those bright red eyes held a hint of pure curiosity and concern.
She simply felt that since Carmen had achieved her wish, she might have her own plans.
This seemingly casual question left Carmen frozen in place.
Go back?
The word resonated in her new, warm chest, stirring up a strange and turbulent wave.
Before arriving at the Lobotomy Corporation, before her life-or-death struggle with another version of herself, and before experiencing that complete emotional breakdown and reshaping, the option of "going back" almost never appeared in her considerations.
She came with the mindset of either destruction or... being bound and becoming another energy extraction tool.
She once served as the head of the Lobotomy Corporation for a short period of time. During that time, she had thoroughly understood everything about the company. She is also known as 'Angela' and possesses wisdom that is unimaginable to ordinary people.
She thought that the step she took was a complete break with everything from the Library of the past.
However...
Xiao Huasheng's unintentional remark was like a key, unexpectedly unlocking a corner of her carefully closed-off world.
The ministers... those ministers she once feared would rebel, yet whose fates had become intertwined with hers over the long course of time.
Similarly, Carmen knew that she was a huge energy gift to the current Lobotomy Corporation. As long as she continued to release EGO and burn her soul every day, the energy she could obtain would be almost equal to that of the current Abnormality within the company.
She chuckled softly, her eyes glistening with tears as she looked at Xiao Huasheng.
"So that's what makes you different from him, supervisor. But... I do have things I need to accomplish."
Fragments of promises and images, buried by obsession and pain, flashed through her mind.
She didn't leave Nothing There- handed; in that vast Library, she seemed to have left behind something... an unfulfilled promise, and something that could perhaps be called a "bond."
She promised the ministers one thing... something unfinished concerning the future of the Library, their shared path.
A powerful impulse, almost startling her, surged from her beating heart.
It was no longer out of a sense of responsibility or calculation, but a more autonomous will.
She wanted to go back.
Not as the secretary who suffered ruthlessly driven by A, or as Angela, the librarian of the Library of Ruina, returning to that place.