Starting as a Mechanical Hunter

Chapter 637 - 168: Maze

In Undead City, the air was filled with the smell of formaldehyde.

Every Mechanical City has its unique style, but the style of Undead City really opened the eyes of the two ’robots’.

The reason is simple: 90% of the buildings here are hospitals, with rows of white buildings.

Undead City First Mechanical Hospital, Holy Brain Group Brain Modification Hospital, Golden Hospital (Reproductive Specialty), Bionic Man Beauty Salon, Balance Scale Bio-maintenance, Cyber Psychosis People’s Hospital...

"So many damn hospitals!" the Host Brain couldn’t help but complain.

"But there are really few people around."

Gao Gong looked around, and maybe there weren’t even one or two people on the whole street, and even if there were, they were wrapped tightly and hurried by.

"Boss, what should we do now?"

"First, find a hospital to check up. If you’re sick, treat it; if not, find someone."

Gao Gong hesitated between Undead City First Mechanical Hospital and Cyber Psychosis People’s Hospital, and finally, decisively walked into Golden Hospital.

There were more people in the hospital than on the street, but not by much.

Fill out forms, register, one-stop service.

"Which department?" A matronly bionic woman behind the service counter asked impatiently, in a cafeteria aunt’s tone.

"My balls hurt," Gao Gong said honestly.

The matron looked him up and down.

"Machines don’t have balls."

"That’s why they hurt. I suspect some kind of phantom limb syndrome."

"Then go register for orthopedics. Is it normal pain, or the kind where someone slashes you?"

"Feels more like the pain from a Rich Lady’s Joy Pin."

"Oh, then register for trauma orthopedics, head to the third floor of Building B and queue up."

"Got it."

Gao Gong headed eagerly to Building B, and from start to finish, the Host Brain was left with question marks in his head.

The streets had no living people, the first-floor service lobby had few people, but the third-floor calling hall was quite crowded, although the identities were intriguing.

At first, the Host Brain thought those who would register for such male gynecological issues were somewhat seriously ill, but now it seemed more than just the boss was unwell.

Sitting in front of them was a pair of bionic brothers, both handsome like a certain super celebrity. The younger one was wiping tears, and the older one was comforting him.

"Just bear with it, considering who we got as our master. If it doesn’t work out, just switch to another model."

The Host Brain turned his head, sitting next to him was an AI projection, scratching his ears and chin continuously.

"It itches, really itches, could I have caught some skin disease?"

The Host Brain turned his head again, on the other side sat a gloomy man, not speaking, but from his heavy expression, he likely had a serious ailment.

"Number 13, Room 4."

Gao Gong got up, opened the door, and walked into a small cubicle, separated from the entrance by an electronic curtain, only vaguely hearing a conversation.

"Your situation is normal. According to our investigation, 84% of robots don’t have the experience of doing it. You have to get used to this."

"But I heard bionic people have a 100% experience rate."

"Can’t help it, they’re handsome and can customize personality and even meme expressions, we can’t compete. How about I recommend you a car-mounted virtual machine?"

Why would a virtual machine be car-mounted?

Host Brain muttered internally.

"No, doctor, I suspect mine is too big, affecting my ability to find a partner."

"Then you registered in the wrong department," the doctor calmly said, "You should register in reproductive modification; some things can be customized."

"Is it cheap?"

"The better the quality, the less cheap it is."

"Alright, thank you, doctor."

"You’re welcome, call the next one."

The next moment, not just the curtain, but the whole wall flipped open, an excavator with a mighty shovel head solemnly rolled out.

"Doctor’s calling you."

"Okay," said Gao Gong.

"By the way, let me ask you, am I too big?"

"Indeed a bit, but after all, it’s your livelihood; you have to think carefully," Gao Gong said sincerely.

"Sigh, it’s hard being a male machine."

One human, no, two intelligent machines exchanged a line and passed by each other.

The Host Brain watched him fade away, discovering he had some degree of mechanical transformation ability, no wonder he could make it upstairs, and this hospital seemed used to hosting such ’big clients,’ even the walls were automatically retractable.

"Sit down, what’s your issue?"

The doctor was a middle-aged man, with two surgical arms welded directly onto his shoulders.

"Ball pain," Gao Gong said frankly.

The man glanced down, "Hallucination, do you want meds, or surgery?"

"What about the meds? And how about the surgery?"

"With meds, I’ll prescribe you an electronic hallucination eliminator to repair your perception system.

Surgery is simpler, wherever there’s an issue, we’ll install something there. Do you have any requirements for material quality, softness, or heat and freeze resistance? I have a synthetic sponge option..."

Seeing the doctor enthusiastically sale ’egg material,’ Gao Gong decisively said, "Meds."

"Alright," the doctor said disappointedly, quickly writing a prescription.

"Next!"

Outside the door, in the elevator, the Host Brain was silent for a moment, then spoke:

"Boss, are we heading to get the meds now?"

"Get what meds? You haven’t forgotten why we’re here, have you?" Gao Gong looked at him curiously.

"But boss, your actions didn’t look much like you were searching for the virus antigen."

Gao Gong tapped his gold-plated metal skull, "Haven’t you noticed that neither the bionic man nor the modified human, nor even other patients here have any brain-machine interface on the back of their heads?"

"This suggests that either the people in Undead City have developed an antibody, or they haven’t been infected by the virus," the Host Brain mused.

"You’re absolutely correct," Gao Gong exhaled deeply, and with a ’ding,’ the elevator doors opened, "But what I’m saying is, this is Undead City. According to the data, it’s a place where more people die than live each year. If we want to examine how this ’virus’ affects this place, we can’t just look at the living."

"This is the ’Garbage District,’ and dead bodies are most often found in hospitals, so periodically clearing the garbage is essential work for this city."

The two passed through a corridor, arriving behind a building in the inpatient department—one of the most silent among all buildings—that was for good reason.

The dead don’t make noise.

...

While Gao Gong was in action, Gao Yuanyuan was also active. However, unlike Gao’s physical approach, Gao Yuanyuan’s methods were much more advanced.

She knew her brother’s ’physical body’ had been taken, and she needed to quickly find the city’s anomalies, to contain the ’phenomenon,’ and thereby deal with the Biochemical Brain Machine.

’Bang’

A light door closing sound suddenly heard near a pedestrian’s ear.

The heavily dressed pedestrian halted and turned around immediately, only to find—to his shock—that not even a door was visible, let alone another living person.

Across a street, several bionic man waitstaff also ’heard’ this door close. The sound was small but caused the plug-ins within their brain modules to momentarily glitch.

From one street to another district, from one district to a city block, eventually covering the entire city.

As each ’door’ opened, everyone’s memory turned into rooms, multiplying into a maze.

Long ago, Gao Yuanyuan inherited two boss panels, one called ’Virtual Protocol,’ the other ’Hyperlink Girl.’ Especially the second template seemed born for the Electronic Brain Plan.

Template: Hyperlink Girl

Effect 1: Wireless Link, you can enter any program module, including but not limited to websites, emails, enterprise networks, human brains.

Effect 2: Unlimited Link, within your ’consciousness’ capacity, the number you can personally link with is limitless.

Effect 3: Life Link, information life, carbon-based life, energy life, mechanical life, you can link with any lifeform.

Thus, a massive memory maze was born through her links.

The Data Maze trapped everyone, including that ’Advanced Information.’

’If you’ve been infected by a Brain-Machine Virus, then I can open your head at an instant and trap you.’

’If you have resistance against the virus, then you won’t escape this maze.’

Gao Yuanyuan’s smile was brilliant, like a girl who had gotten her favorite toy.

"So, what will you do?"