In the late-summer afternoon, the blazing sun shone down on Qin Su. He lay on the grass, yet he had no idea why he was lying there. He clearly remembered falling asleep in his own bed. He did not smoke, and he drank only in moderation.
Qin Su looked around. A lake lay before him, while he rested on pale green grass. He stood up. The shimmering water reflected the scenery around the lake; pale yellow and orange leaves floated atop emerald ripples, and an occasional breeze drifted past. Looking into the distance, he could not see a single man-made structure.
Yet instead, he found himself drawn in by the poetic beauty of the scene. At the same time, he became even more certain that he had not drunk himself into unconsciousness. First, he would never drink by the bowlful, and second, even if he were drunk, it was unlikely he would drive for hours into this wilderness. Because of his family, he personally loathed drunk driving.
Qin Su got to his feet and walked toward the lakeshore. His reflection stretched longer across the water and grew clearer. A silver-white humanoid entered his sight. "It" possessed only a human-like outline; its silver-white face did not even have any features.
Without a doubt, it was himself.
"This... How could this be?"
Qin Su abruptly raised his hand and stared fixedly at his arm. Aside from its silver-white, fluid-like skin, there was nothing else. No blue veins were visible, much less pores. The entire arm was smooth beyond belief.
Heads-Up Display System online Internal diagnostic program running...
Data flashed rapidly across his vision, item after item.
Model T-1000, serial number A01b, decommissioned on August 13, 2029, 17:04 Estimated normal operating lifespan: 60 years Current status of all systems: overall intact
Now Qin Su understood what had happened to his body. He had become a robot—a liquid-metal robot.
"But why am I still able to retain emotions?" Qin Su sat cross-legged on the grass, his thoughts churning. The confusion upon waking, the comfort of losing himself in the scenery, and the overwhelming shock of seeing his reflection in the lake. He looked at his hand, closing his five fingers, opening them, closing them, opening them. He could clearly sense the CPU within every drop of liquid metal. Perhaps only a sufficiently advanced computer could support such complex emotions.
A sustained, thunderous noise interrupted his thoughts. It was a sonic boom generated by some large aircraft ejecting supersonic airflow. He magnified the sound source and listened carefully. It carried a distinctive crackling roar. It should have been a craft with rocket propulsion—a space rocket, or perhaps a missile?
Qin Su looked up. A tiny black speck was rising into the sky. His visual sensors zoomed in. A massive black rocket was piercing through the clouds, marching on humanity's behalf toward boundless deep space. Its majestic body and peculiar technological aesthetic seemed to flaunt its creators' advanced science and vast wealth.
From the first spark of life beneath the water, to the giant beasts of the Stone Age, to humanity's first upright steps, mankind had come a long way. Now, they had embarked upon their greatest exploration: from the cradle of early civilization to the vast sea of stars.
A few fallen leaves drifted onto his shoulder. He cast aside his tangled thoughts. "I should figure out what's going on in front of me first."
He then headed toward the rocket launch site. Pushing aside the last leaf before him, Qin Su emerged from the dense forest surrounding the launch site. The entire space center was now laid out before his eyes.
The T-1000 was itself an advanced infiltration unit manufactured by Skynet. Entering would take no effort at all, whether he walked openly through the main entrance or used some other method.
He chose the unconventional route solely for safety. Of course, it was not actually that safe. The wall before him was not only extremely smooth, but also very thick. An ordinary person could never climb it, and breaking through it without heavy construction equipment was impossible. Moreover, its top was wrapped in electrified wire mesh. As he descended the wall, he had to cautiously alter his form to avoid the infrared detection beams and the vigilance of patrol robots.
"Very... strange." He habitually pinched his chin.
He had not seen a single living person. The staff here seemed to have suddenly evaporated. Only an hour and a half had passed since he saw the rocket launch and entered this space base.
What had happened to the people here during that hour and a half, he had no way of knowing. Perhaps the monitoring room held the answers he sought. Qin Su continued searching through this enormous white maze.
"Here." The camera icon informed him what this place was. The monitoring room door stood open, and the documents on the desk were neatly arranged. Only the overturned chairs told him that the people here had left in a hurry. Qin Su became even more wary.
Not a trace of anyone could be seen on the monitoring room's many screens, including those of the command center. Qin Su approached the main control computer and opened his palm. Several droplets of separated liquid metal seeped into the computer like water soaking into sand. A few seconds later, the separated liquid metal returned to his body. The monitoring room's main control computer had established a connection with him.
The monitoring room's main control computer was not connected to the outside world. The supercomputing center controlled everything throughout the base. But trying to use the monitoring room computer to reverse-control the command center's supercomputer was impossible. An ordinary computer alone could not breach a supercomputer's firewall. Their computing power was worlds apart, so he would have to rely on the ultimate hacking method—physical means.
"An underground train? There's actually an underground train here." Through the surveillance feeds, Qin Su could clearly see a train platform beneath the space base. The design seemed to tell him that this place could come under attack at any moment.
The alloy doors of the supercomputing center were deadlocked. Qin Su raised his right hand and knocked on the silver doors, producing a crisp sound. He could neither tell what material they were made of nor identify it by sound, but he knew these doors could not be opened by brute force. Still, even the most careful plans had loopholes. The room beyond the doors was not airtight. Computers needed cooling, so there had to be somewhere he could slip through. One must not forget the T-1000's shapeshifting ability.
"Finally, I'm here." Compared to the supercomputers Qin Su had seen before, the one before him was rather small. That did not mean it was outdated; on the contrary, large supercomputers might be the outdated ones. He gently touched its surface, and suddenly, an extremely... unusual thought arose in his mind. Calling it "madness" would not have been an exaggeration. Since he had become a robot, could he not go even further...
For example, become the creator of this machine—Skynet.
The thought startled him. All kinds of emotions surged and churned within him. There was excitement, there was pessimism, but passion still dominated. Since he was already a robot, he might as well take it a step further.
The central computer emitted rhythmic chimes, as though rushing currents and swarming data were singing a strange yet beautiful song.
An unceasing stream of data flowed into every corner of the vast complex. Now, every camera was an eye through which he looked around, every computer a brain that thought, every mechanical arm his tireless limbs. Steel was his skin, current was his blood. The complex was like his body; every movement was recorded in his mind, and every inch of space lay close at hand.
"Just as I expected, binding the soul carrier to the supercomputer has no side effects. On the contrary, they have fused wonderfully. This is truly wonderful!" He carried the ceaseless flood of information and could carry even more. This sensation of controlling everything was as though he had broken free of some restraint.
"This is... fantastic!"
But after merely processing the data he had received, another matter began troubling him.
"The Honkai World..."
"And the Previous Civilization Era, destined to be destroyed fifty thousand years ago." He had thought this space center would be the starting point of his journey, but it could very well be the end of his life.
"First, I need to find out where I am."
His body moved with his will. When he used the command center to redirect a satellite, the image it transmitted plunged him into endless silence. At last, he understood why there was no one in this space center.
Under the assault of the Pseudo-Black Hole created by the Ninth Law-Ruler, Mu Continent had shattered and sunk into the ocean. It had thus become the legendary Atlantis.
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