Chapter 688: Atifi

Just as I guessed, Qiaoshuya really hid fireworks or signal flares or something. After hearing the movement and turning back, through the porthole on the side wall of the airship, he caught a glimpse of the signal flare shot by middle-aged Qiaoshuya, and Li Ang couldn't help but sigh gloomily.

Sure enough, things like everything going smoothly were all illusions.

With his own shitty luck of running into a Holy Spirit descent when shopping and running into an out-of-control anomalous object when watching a play, the possibility of everything going smoothly simply didn't exist. Stability was an accident, and bad luck was the norm.

And this kind of bad luck of his was not the Cleanup Bureau-style bad luck of "the higher the infection value, the easier it is to encounter anomalies," but rather that nothing went smoothly, and there was always some trouble, the kind of purest bad luck...

After shaking his head helplessly, Li Ang reached out and gripped the Holy Spirit Pendant in front of his chest, picked up the people who were still in a coma one by one, and sent them out of the airship one after another, handing them over to the rebels waiting outside.

A moment later, after the last unconscious operating personnel was also taken away and entered the 【Gate of the Other World】 opened with the rebels, Li Ang, who confirmed that Qiaoshuya didn't play any tricks, first waved goodbye to the rebels who were moved to tears, then turned and walked into the airship again, leaving everyone with a "heroic" back.

Almost there.

Prying open the fuel storage room of the airship, taking out more than a dozen barrels of whale fat used as fuel, pouring it all the way along the long and narrow airship, and checking repeatedly to confirm there were no omissions, Li Ang retreated to the entrance of the middle cabin and took out a box of matches used to light cigarettes for the Black Goat.

Inside the airship's gasbag, it was all flammable and explosive hydrogen, estimated to be over three hundred thousand cubic meters, and there were many unstable lightning strike ores stored in the tail cabin.

Next, as long as he lit this whale fat and let the fire burn all the way, the entire airship would be completely destroyed, and even be instantly detonated by the electric arcs of the lightning strike ores, becoming a giant fireball hanging seven hundred meters in the sky...

"Would you please not light the fire?"

Just as Li Ang was about to take action, a somewhat crisp child's voice suddenly came from the metal pipe next to him.

Is there still someone in the airship?!

Li Ang's nerves tightened after hearing the movement. The little finger of his right hand immediately brushed against the cuff and pressed against the exposed sheep horn. However, no matter how he checked, the airship in the soul vision was still dead silent, and there was no soul flame appearing.

No soul?

So it's an anomalous object? Remote communication technology? Or something like an answering machine?

"Where are you?"

Reaching out to touch the inner side of the fixed outer wall, used to transmit sound from the control room to other cabins, and confirming that there was no danger in terms of anomalies, Li Ang cautiously found the nearest pipe opening, opened the cover, and shouted into it:

"No matter what you are, if you are on this ship, you'd better come out quickly. I'm about to light the fire!"

"Can't come out."

After Li Ang's voice fell, the crisp answer of the "child" came from the communication copper pipe in front of him.

"I am the Atifi 128 airship itself, and you are currently standing in my middle cabin."

?!!!

Upon hearing the "child's" words, Li Ang's eyes couldn't help but widen instantly.

No wonder... no wonder Qiaoshuya would say that the ship must also be blown up together. It turns out this is a living ship! If it were really allowed to return to the Keroke Kingdom, it would be useless even if all memories were modified!

Li Ang, who was shocked beyond measure, calmed down and asked with locked brows:

"What kind of thing are you! An anomalous object? Or..."

"I am the 128th sub-body of Atifi."

The crisp child's voice sounded again in the communication copper pipe. "To put it in a way that is easy for you to understand, I am the core differential machine Atifi 01 of the Keroke Kingdom, a low-computing-power lower-level sub-body replicated by copying part of my own computing logic. You can call me Atifi 128."

"..."

So it's neither a person nor an anomalous object, but something like an intelligent supercomputer? Has the Keroke Kingdom's technical level developed to such a terrifying degree?

After a silent pause for a while, Li Ang, who was shocked beyond measure, couldn't help but ask:

"You have wisdom? Can you truly communicate with me? How did you hear me speak?"

"I should have wisdom. As for how I heard your words, it relies on a special sound-receiving device that can convert the sound near the communication copper pipe into 'mechanical encoding' similar to this, transport it to the core differential machine I use to process information, and then output it in reverse."

Following Atifi 128's explanation, her tone began to slow down and lengthen. The originally crisp and neat child's voice slowly "scattered," turning into countless tiny, dense, small tapping sounds.

And these complex tapping sounds, which were difficult to count, were like the various sections of a symphony, cleverly and precisely combined together, neatly forming a tone similar to a little girl, and spread throughout the entire airship along the special communication copper pipe.

So... she is not "speaking," but using some kind of mechanical device with countless tiny tapping hammers to "tap" the special communication copper pipe at the same time, simulating a voice similar to a little girl?

After barely understanding how this ship, which called itself "Atifi 128," was communicating with him, Li Ang, who was secretly clicking his tongue, although he still had a belly full of questions he wanted to ask, thought of the signal flare shot by middle-aged Qiaoshuya and had to shake his head helplessly, then opened the matchbox.

"Sorry, I don't have much time left."

"Please wait a moment."

The emotionless mechanical child's voice sounded again. Atifi 128, who was facing a "life-and-death crisis," seemed to be in a hurry. The speed of her speech was clearly a large section faster, and even exposed discordant tapping sounds.

"Please don't destroy me. I have already analyzed what you guys did. There are a large number of guards under the boarding tower. You will be attacked by them and then die because of physical damage. If you are willing to give up lighting the fire, I can teach you how to operate the airship and carry you away from here safely.

In addition, for the Keroke Kingdom, I am an important asset that cannot be regenerated. If you are willing to give up destroying me and bring me back to the Keroke Kingdom, Atifi 01 will definitely give you extremely generous..."

"You recorded the volcanic data of Laien County, right?"

After interrupting Atifi 128's words, Li Ang asked back:

"Since you have wisdom, and even know how to draw cakes, can you tell me, if you are allowed to bring those sniffer records back to the Keroke Kingdom, what reaction will the Keroke Kingdom have afterward?"

"..."

"An aggressive war regardless of casualties, right?"

"Yes... but if you destroy me, it will also attract the attention of Atifi 01."

"But not destroying you will 100% lead to war. Destroying you, even if it will lead to war, can also delay the time of the war's outbreak, right?"

"..."

Li Ang took out a match and struck it, saying with a calm face:

"I have read those sniffer records. They spent a full 31 years drilling more than seventy deep holes in the Hesipito Volcano Group before they finally determined the location and intensity of the heat source point recently.

Even if it needs to be measured again, it will be much faster, but as long as those deep holes are filled and the terrain is changed slightly, even if new sniffers are let in to measure casually, it can at least be dragged on for ten or eight years. If you make a little trouble, it might be dragged on even longer.

And even if your Keroke Kingdom is crazy again, it won't be to the point of directly launching a war regardless of the cost when the specific situation is not yet determined and the kingdom side is still quite cooperative, right?"

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 689 =====