Chapter 177 The Desire for Freedom Will Be Torn Off by Reality!

"The war... is over?!"

After hearing this series of news, Li De took two steps back in a daze. It was a little hard for him to accept this reality for a while.

President Miles Rosalind is dead, killed in a machine uprising started by Song So-mi.

Although Li De did not believe that Miles would die so hastily, he would never care about the truth about the cause of Miles' death.

Because for a big shot like her, if she died of murder, there was a high probability that she failed in her power struggle.

Since you are staying out of it, there is no need to get involved.

Li De knew very well that he was just a nobody.

What makes Li De most saddened is the end of the Metal War, which means that the journey of New America's revival has come to an end, and it will no longer exist in the future!

And he, an CIA agent who had devoted decades of hard work for New America, got nothing in the end. It was all in vain.

The life ideal and ideological identity he pursued became the most ironic joke with Miles's death.

Everything he did was just self-motivation in vain, and it never made any sense!

"V, Alex, these things are not good news to me. I feel like I have lost everything and have nothing left."

"I still feel...I am a complete loser now. I have lived for most of my life and I don't know what I am doing."

Li De held his head in frustration and annoyance. He was not sad for Miles's death, but felt that everything he had done in the first half of his life seemed meaningless at this moment.

Since everything they do is destined to be fruitless, why do they have to sacrifice so many people to achieve an ideal that will never be realized!

This feeling of trying to get nothing out of a basket is the real reason why Li De's mentality exploded.

People like him who have sacrificed everything for New America always strive for honors that have no practical meaning when they are alive, but now Li De doesn't even have this frivolous thing!

"Li De, you have to cheer up. Alex still needs you to take her to the beach for vacation. Didn't you already agree?"

V stepped forward and patted Li De on the thick shoulder, comforting him, and then told him some good news:

"Actually, I have already told Mr. Li Ang about your choice, and he allows you and Alex to officially join LA Company."

"From now on, you two are considered to be regular employees of the company. You will receive company benefits, paid vacations, etc."

As soon as the words fell, Alex beside her suddenly pumped her fists in excitement. She had been waiting for this day for a long time.

Compared with Li De, who is loyal to the country, Alex seems to have no inhibitions. As long as any organization can give her what she wants, she is willing to work for whomever.

Obviously, LA Company never disappoints its employees in terms of employee treatment.

Even as an informal worker, Alex, who was working as a lurker, was receiving much better wages than when she was in the CIA.

"Li De, did you hear that? From now on, we can be regarded as people with a company structure. At least it is better than being a stray dog."

Alex is very down-to-earth and realistic. She values ​​material importance more than Li De.

Otherwise, she wouldn't have opened a tavern of her own while she was hiding in Dog Town.

Li De didn't care about this, but due to the need to make a living, he did all kinds of jobs. He even worked as a security guard for the Nether Dog soldiers for several days.

"Yeah, I heard it."

Li Dewen responded angrily, not showing the same happy expression as Alex.

In his opinion, joining LA Company does not mean that he will be much better than before.

You still have to work hard, it's just that you have a new boss and a new organization to which you are loyal.

Everything is business as usual.

"Li De, Alex, the first company mission you receive now is to go with me to bring Song Zhaomei back!"

V knew that Li De was in a very low mood at the moment, but there was really not much time left for them.

Every second they waste here, Song Zhaomei may be closer to death. At this life-and-death moment, they must no longer be emotional.

"Mr. Li Ang has sent company troops to Dog Town. It won't take long to calm down the chaos here."

"But we can't just wait for them to come to the rescue. Song Zhaomei is still waiting for us to rescue her."

"You have to help me find Song Zhaomei!"

V has noticed that the movement outside has become much smaller, which means that Song Zhaomei's power to control the machine device is weakening.

Her current aggression should no longer be as deadly as it was just now.

"Okay, I get it."

Li De nodded solemnly, knowing that what V said was right.

Anyway, I have nothing left, so I might as well use this last bit of time to help V rescue Song Zhaomei.

As for what he should do and how he should live in the future, we will wait until everything is settled. The top priority now is to rescue Song Zhaomei.

"V, after this job is completed, will LA Company allow us to take a period of vacation? I haven't had a vacation in seven or eight years."

Before setting off, Alex couldn't help but ask.

She was exhausted from working at the CIA, and she longed for a summer vacation on the beach, even for just one day.

Now that the entire New America and the CIA are about to die with the dead Miles, Alex thinks that he should be able to take a day off.

"Uh! I will try my best to get permission for you to take leave, but you have to fully cooperate with me, because I am your boss now!"

"I ask you to cheer up and stop thinking about other things."

V was a little speechless at Alex who only wanted to be ruined and lie down, but he could also see how miserable Alex was tortured by the CIA, so he thought about retiring and taking a vacation every day.

"Okay, let's set off now!"

Alex instantly regained his energy at the thought of his chance to get a day off from the company.

Of course, she wasn't doing it all for herself, Song Zhaomei still had to save her.

"Song Zhaomei has the locator I put on her body. She is approaching the border of Taipingzhou. I guess she is most likely planning to go to the abandoned laboratory."

The laboratory Li De mentioned was the scientific research base once established by the New America's troops in the Pacific region.

Now, this base has been transformed by Hansen into a large mechanical laboratory in Dog Town, where some combat robots, drones, network access cabins, etc. are piled up.

"What is she doing there?" Alex was confused. There shouldn't be anything Song Zhaomei wanted in that shabby place.

"I think... Song Zhaomei should be planning to perform AI neural matrix surgery on herself. Her condition can no longer delay it!"

As he finished speaking, even V was reluctant to believe his guess, but this was indeed the result that was most consistent with the reality.

After all, the operating room Hansen arranged for Song Zhaomei was in that experimental base.

"What?!"

At this moment, Li De and Alex were shocked. They looked at V in disbelief with expressions of astonishment.

They couldn't imagine how desperate Song Zhaomei must be at this moment to think of performing such a dangerous operation on herself.

What is the difference between this and suicide!

"Li De, please lead the way quickly. I hope we can catch up." V's voice became heavier.

…

…

Taipingzhou, Dog Town, abandoned underground laboratory base.

The malfunctioning device flashed scarlet light in the gray fog, and droplets of water fell from the leaked pipe, piercing the brilliant neon.

At this moment, Song Zhaomei, who was lowering her head and swaying, slowly walked towards the main console of the base like a zombie.

The unknown dark red current lingering throughout her body made her body surface as hot as coals. Song Zhaomei's prosthetic device was on the verge of collapse.

At this moment, Song Zhaomei was suffering from severe pain. Her brain seemed to be churning rapidly due to the infection of the flowing AIs and black walls, and the blood in her body began to heat up and boil.

Countless circulating AIs were howling and shouting crazily in Song Zhaomei's mind, tearing at every inch of her brain and gnawing at her soul and consciousness.

But even though she was enduring such excruciating torture, Song Zhaomei still gritted her teeth and forced herself to move forward.

She knew that the closer she was to the main console, the closer she was to the freedom she wanted in her heart.

[Song Zhaomei, you are the only one here. Do you think you can use your AI neural matrix by yourself? Hahaha! 】

Song Zhaomei felt that the chaotic voices in her head were getting clearer and clearer. The wandering AIs had been eyeing her conscious body and had been trying to break through her ICE defense and seize control of her body.

Song Zhaomei, on the other hand, tried her best to fight against these rogue AIs while silently enduring the pain and torture caused by the black wall infection.

【You can never get rid of us! ! 】

The harsh sound of electricity surged in Song Zhaomei's mind, and her expression showed unprecedented pain.

Fortunately, her ICE defense has not completely collapsed, and Song Zhaomei can continue to move forward.

In this way, under the crazy attacks of the wandering AIs, it took Song Zhaomei 10 minutes to walk the last 20 meters.

She squatted in the main console, slowly plugged the high-speed cable into her brain-computer interface, and connected it to the AI ​​neural matrix device.

Immediately, Song Zhaomei connected to the cyberspace and used the main control interface in the space to start writing the code program to activate the device.

However, due to the interference of circulating AI, Song Zhaomei's writing efficiency was extremely low. Tasks that she could usually complete in just a few seconds now took 10 minutes to start.

At this moment, Song Zhaomei's whole-body prosthetic device was rapidly collapsing under the load and high temperature.

As time goes by, her life gradually enters the countdown.

There is no way, AI neural matrix surgery is an extremely difficult surgery and requires multiple professional engineers to perform it.

It is absolutely impossible for Song Zhaomei to complete it alone!

Song Zhaomei knew that doing so was in vain, but she still had to do it without hesitation.

Rather than saying that she was trying to save herself, it was better to say that she was looking for a relatively free way to die.

Rather than dying in the CIA's endless missions, Song Zhaomei felt that dying on the road to self-rescue might make her look more like a lark pursuing freedom.

[What a poor little bird! Since you are actively seeking death, I will accompany you through this final journey! ]

The wandering AIs laughed playfully in Song Zhaomei's mind and stopped attacking her.

They did not originally have such human-like emotions, but after devouring multiple human consciousnesses, these wandering AIs began to evolve iteratively, and now they have learned to taunt and ridicule.

Because the wandering AIs know that by doing so, they can more quickly disintegrate the mentality of human hackers so that they can take advantage of the opportunity.

And now, what they value is Song Zhaomei's consciousness data!

The smarter the hacker, the more valuable their consciousness value is to the wandering AIs, which can help them enrich their data system more comprehensively.

To put it simply, Song Zhaomei's soul is a feast for the wandering AIs, and it is the experience baby for them to complete their own iterative evolution!

Therefore, they will entangle the weak Song Zhaomei.

After a while, when the wandering AIs noticed that Song Zhaomei was on the verge of death, they decided to rush forward and completely break through the opponent's ICE defense system and devour Song Zhaomei's consciousness.

But at this moment, the wandering AIs suddenly noticed a terrifying existence nearby, which was approaching them rapidly!

[It's the White Queen! The White Queen is coming to us! ]

In an instant, more than half of the wandering AIs in Song Zhaomei's body escaped instantly, and the speed of her life passing seemed to slow down a little.

But even so, some wandering AIs who were still not afraid of death were obsessed with eating Song Zhaomei's soul so that they could quickly complete the iterative evolution.

In order to prevent V from approaching, the remaining wandering AIs began to control the combat robots in the laboratory, the big flat head, and some drones to block V.

They tried to slow down V's progress in reaching the main console and buy themselves time to kill Song Zhaomei so that they could take away Song Zhaomei's consciousness.

However, what these wandering AIs did not expect was that the moment V activated the Chapter 6 Access Warehouse, the AI ​​White Queen had already followed the Black Wall ICE and invaded their location in the reverse direction.

After the upgrade, the AI ​​White Queen not only performed better in defensive counterattacks, but also could find targets along the signal source when actively attacking.

Immediately, the AI ​​White Queen appeared in Song Zhaomei's mind and quickly swallowed up the rest of the wandering AIs like a greedy snake.

This made Song Zhaomei, who had already stepped into the gates of hell, feel less pressure. She would not die for the time being, but the situation was still not good at the moment.

The degree of infection of the Black Wall that Song Zhaomei suffered was too deep, and the AI ​​White Queen alone was not enough to help her clear these messy data.

After all, the main function of this AI White Queen was to help V block the download process of the Relic chip, and it could not autonomously clear these fatal data for Song Zhaomei.

Here, without the control of the roaming AIs, the combat robots, drones and other devices that had just started and were about to attack V and his group stopped instantly.

The sudden scene scared Li De and Alex. Fortunately, nothing happened in the end, otherwise they would definitely be entangled by these things.

A fierce battle would definitely be inevitable at that time.

"Oh my! This big flat head... Why did it stop just after it jumped out?!"

Alex, who was frightened and pale, said with lingering fear as she looked at the nearly two-meter-high combat robot in front of her.

When the big flat head suddenly fell from the ceiling just now, her legs were almost frightened to limp.

Alex knew this type of combat robot. Although this thing was not as good as the battlefield killing machine like the Chimera Chariot.

But to deal with an agent like her, it would be as easy as crushing an ant!

This thing can be regarded as a military-grade killing machine. It looks invulnerable. Except for the top hackers, ordinary mercenaries can't do anything with it.

"I hacked this thing."

V had no intention of showing off in front of Alex, but the Chapter 6 Network Access Warehouse in his mind could indeed make him one of the world's top offensive hackers.

Even if Song Zhaomei came, she would be scared to run away when she saw him.

"I didn't expect that you are actually a hacker, a comprehensive talent!"

Alex looked at V with a new look. She originally thought that V was just an ordinary company agent who could fight well with the prosthetic device.

In essence, he was a mercenary who relied on technology.

But what surprised her was that V actually added some hacker skills. No wonder LA Company sent V into Dog Town to complete the mission.

V didn't continue to pay attention to Alex, but followed Li De closely and quickly rushed to the direction where Song Zhaomei was.

They must seize this time!

Soon, just as V and his team arrived at the main control station deep in the base, Li De chose to stop and let V go in to save Song Zhaomei.

He stood outside and waited patiently for the situation.

Li De knew that Song Zhaomei would definitely not want to see him again. In order not to stimulate Song Zhaomei's fragile and sensitive nerves and cause further deterioration of her body, he could only temporarily avoid it.

Alex could see what Li De was thinking, so he followed him and made a simple avoidance, allowing V to enter the main control station alone to rescue Song Zhaomei.

"Song Zhaomei, how do you feel now? Can you still hold on!"

As soon as V saw Song Zhaomei, he immediately sent his specific location to Li Ang and asked the company to send people for emergency support.

After completing these basic tasks, V quickly pulled out the nano access line on his wrist and inserted it into Song Zhaomei's access slot.

V's brain prosthesis is quite advanced. It is not an exaggeration to say that it is a miniature professional medical scanning device. It can be connected to Song Zhaomei's system with an access line to comprehensively check the other party's condition.

While V was patiently waiting for the scan results, the drowsy Song Zhaomei opened her eyes. The moment she saw V, her eyes were filled with tears:

"V, I beg you, help me unplug these things, I am in so much pain, really... so painful."

Without the interference of the wandering AI, Song Zhaomei's eyes have changed from bright scarlet to normal pupil color.

But those fine red bloodshot like worms have occupied Song Zhaomei's eyes, and the dark circles under her eyes also show that Song Zhaomei's physical and mental state has collapsed at this time!

Therefore, Song Zhaomei's first reaction when she saw V was to ask him to help her and let her die smoothly.

Song Zhaomei no longer has any attachment to this world that makes her desperate. She could have uploaded her consciousness data like Batmos and chose cyber ascension.

But Song Zhaomei does not want to become a meaningless and cold string of AI data.

She has always missed the time when she still had a human body. At that time, her dancing movements would not be as clumsy and stiff as they are now.

The light dance posture and the agile and changing footsteps have haunted Song Zhaomei to this day.

She almost forgot what she looked like before.

"Song Zhaomei, Miles is dead. You are free now. No one will control you from now on. You can go wherever you want."

"Didn't you tell me that you always wanted to go to the Crystal Palace? Then let's go to the airport and take the Hermes to fly up!"

V gently held the back of Song Zhaomei's head. While he spoke to soothe Song Zhaomei's collapse, he checked the information results scanned by the system.

V didn't know until he found that the black wall data in Song Zhaomei's brain was so much that it almost caused her system to collapse completely.

These complex and chaotic data are the real reasons for Song Zhaomei's collapse of consciousness and short circuit failure of her whole body prosthesis!

For a network hacker like Song Zhaomei, being infected with the AI ​​data of the black wall is equivalent to an ordinary human being infected with a fatal cancer.

If it is discovered in time at an early stage, it can actually be saved, but in a special case like Song Zhaomei, she was infected but not treated in time, but concealed it.

In the case of a serious condition, Song Zhaomei also forcibly broke through the constraints of the ice-breaking procedure, which caused her infection to worsen.

Now Song Zhaomei's black wall infection has rapidly deteriorated from the early and middle stages to the late stage!

At this moment, Song Zhaomei is really only one step away from the gates of hell, and she is just a little bit away from death.

Seeing such a bad scan result, V's hand holding Song Zhaomei began to tremble slightly. He seemed to feel a life disappearing in front of him through his fingertips.

"No, V... You don't understand."

Song Zhaomei's voice was choked, and her haggard face, like a withered flower, forced a sad smile.

She came here from Baozhanqing and had already seen through her fate. Dying on the road to freedom may be her best ending.

"Miles is not important, Hansen is not important, Mr. Leon is not important, no one is important..."

"This world is a huge cage. It does not allow anyone to fly away from their position. Any thoughts that desire freedom will be torn down by the gravity of reality."

"Just like me now, I will end up in pieces..."