Malfunctioning Utopia

Chapter 72: Face-Off

The moment he heard the sound, Sun Jack yanked the two people beside him to the ground. In the next instant, beams of lasers swept rapidly over their heads.

Sun Jack felt a surge of relief—this voice was indeed helping him, not a trap.

But that was just the beginning. The ceiling lights began flashing red, and the sound of dense footsteps echoed from all directions.

“They’re behind the brain wall! Don’t harm the brains!” The voice resounded in Sun Jack’s mind once again.

Sun Jack blasted through the corridor and stormed into the room where there had been human brains and heads. “Where are you? I’ll get you out of here!”

When he reached the back of the brain wall with the two people, Sun Jack abruptly froze. He saw four individuals of varying shapes and sizes—each with cybernetically modified limbs and eyes—huddled around a pile of screens and devices, seemingly operating something.

These four were clearly caught off guard; they hadn’t expected anyone to break in and were momentarily stunned.

Sun Jack’s gaze swept past them and landed on a row of headless corpses hanging on the wall. Among them was a body he recognized—a curvy woman he’d seen before. It was Xiao Ting%!

Recalling the brains outside and Hilda’s plea for help, a blazing fury ignited in Sun Jack’s chest. He raised his prosthetic arm, ready to fire.

But before he could, the flat cybernetic eye of the tall figure flickered faintly, and Sun Jack’s prosthetic arm locked up.

“Another damn hacker! I hate hackers!” Sun Jack roared as he swung his blade without hesitation, charging directly at the four.

The burly man stepped forward to shield the others, his right arm splitting open. With a deafening roar, a massive chainsaw spun to life, slicing toward Sun Jack.

As the chainsaw spun violently, shards of jagged metal shot out like projectiles at Sun Jack.

Sun Jack’s charge was interrupted when Tapai yanked him aside, the two quickly switching positions. Sparks flew as the chainsaw ground against Tapai’s head.

“D**n it!” Sun Jack cursed, glaring at the burly man. Taking advantage of the chainsaw catching on Tapai, Sun Jack leaped off Tapai’s back, driving his blade deep into the burly man’s body.

The man twitched, and silvery electric arcs surged from the blade into his body. His flesh began to char rapidly, his clothes catching fire.

As the burly man fell, Sun Jack turned to face the remaining three. He saw one of them extend a hand, a laser beam forming in their palm.

“Bang! Bang! Bang!” AA’s rapid shots struck the trio, causing the lasers aimed at Sun Jack to veer off target.

“Boss! Get down!” AA shouted, hurling a mine in pre-detonation mode toward the three.

With a deafening explosion, the room erupted in chaos. As the noise subsided, Sun Jack dashed out from behind Tapai, releasing high-voltage arcs into the smoke.

The electricity lit up the haze, revealing one of the shorter figures fleeing too slowly and getting reduced to charred remains.

The other two had vanished. Sun Jack didn’t pursue them; instead, he shouted into the system, “Who are you? Are you Hilda?” But no response came.

This was clearly Xiao Ting%’s hideout. Yet thinking of Xiao Ting% filled Sun Jack with a chilling suspicion he couldn’t confirm just yet.

“Boss… B-boss…” AA stammered, retreating behind Sun Jack with a fearful expression, clutching her gun.

Following her gaze, Sun Jack saw rows of robots marching into the room. Their screens displayed cartoonish AI ghost images.

“Don’t worry. These auxiliary AIs can’t violate the Three Laws. They can’t kill anyone,” Tapai reassured.

But in the next moment, the robots stopped abruptly. Their AI ghosts went offline, replaced by human faces on their screens.

A voice boomed from the ceiling speakers. “Kill them! Whoever does it will get a brand-new body and identity!”

At that, every robot’s screen turned to Sun Jack in unison. In the next instant, they surged toward him like a tidal wave.

“I’m sorry! I can’t stay trapped here for a thousand more years!”

“The new body is mine!!”

Sun Jack’s cybernetic eye flared, and rows of robots convulsed and collapsed, their screens shattering.

Yet more robots flooded in endlessly from outside.

As the situation spiraled out of control, a voice came from above. “Hurry! This way! There’s a secret door!”

Looking up, Sun Jack saw a non-hostile robot suspended from the ceiling, looking down at them.

Though he had countless questions for it, Sun Jack knew they had to escape first. “AA! Throw all the mines!”

A series of explosions tore through the oncoming robots, their human-faced screens shattering. Seizing the opportunity, Sun Jack retreated with the group, following Hilda to a corner.

Behind the secret door lay a passage leading to a shipping container—an escape route prepared in advance.

“Let’s go! We’re getting out of here!” Sun Jack said, ready to drive away with Hilda.

“It’s useless! We have to find those two! Otherwise, they can upload my data back to the cloud database at any time!”

Before Sun Jack could ask how to find them, a barrage of bullets tore through the container, forcing him to blow a hole in its side and dive through to safety.

They emerged outside, rain drenching them as they found themselves in a drainage channel with water up to their calves.

But there was no time to breathe. Bullets and lasers rained down, forcing them to dodge continuously.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

Sun Jack finally saw their assailant—a hover vehicle previously escorting the convoy!