Chapter 95: Awakening

Chapter 95: Awakening

Having personally watched as that troublesome group of problem children were all safely sent away, Tendou immediately turned his head toward the glass wall between the quantum control room and the quantum computation chamber.

Through the special shared field of vision created by the connection between the Portable Quantum Core and the Base Quantum Central Hub, he—now inside the control room—had already temporarily regained his “sight.”

He could clearly see Caroline, sleeping within the computation pod.

At this moment, Caroline was exceptionally quiet. Her silver hair, made radiant by the high-speed transmission of quantum data, spread across the bottom of the pod like a waterfall. Her calm face radiated a silence akin to that of a sleeping princess.

There was not the slightest sign of her waking.

Regret filled Tendou’s expression.

So… she still hasn’t woken up.

After casting one last look at Caroline inside the pod, Tendou turned and walked toward a black computation pod in the corner of the control center. Just before his consciousness was about to sink into silent darkness, he bent down and lay inside.

The instant his back touched the cold alloy base of the pod, a familiar mechanical voice rang in his ears.

【Respected S-Class Authority Holder · Masamune Tendou, it has been detected that you are attempting to access the Mechanical Intelligence Core via the Quantum Data Center connection pod. As you are not a Machina Type Starbearer, this connection may cause irreversible damage to your neural center. Do you wish to proceed?】

Without the slightest hesitation, Tendou fought against the creeping drowsiness and answered decisively.

“Proceed.”

【Command acknowledged, Respected S-Class Authority Holder · Masamune Tendou.】

As the hydraulic hatch slammed shut, four quantum data cables—designed exclusively for Machina Type Starbearers—extended from all sides of the pod like living creatures. The interfaces on those cables precisely connected to the Portable Quantum Core worn on Tendou’s forehead.

In theory, non–Machina Type Starbearers were absolutely forbidden from using this type of quantum computation pod.

Without a body born from a Machina Star Origin, one could neither meet the minimum quantum computing power required for quantum computation, nor possess a quantum firewall capable of withstanding the data impact.

But there were always exceptions.

As long as a non–Machina Type Starbearer wore a suitable Star Gear, they could still enter a Machina computation pod.

The Portable Quantum Core on Tendou’s head was precisely such a Star Gear.

Even so, entering a quantum computation pod as a non-Machina was an extremely dangerous act.

Once the quantum data transmitted from within the pod exceeded the processing limits of the Portable Quantum Core, the excess data would pour straight into Tendou’s brain like floodwaters bursting through a dam.

Data streams that were no more than gentle brooks to a Machina Type Starbearer could, for him, become an unstoppable and terrifying data tsunami.

The slightest mistake would cause his neural domain to collapse, leaving him a complete vegetable.

Yet since he had chosen to do this, he naturally had a reason he had to do it.

Listening to the sound of the pod slowly sealing shut, Tendou endured the piercing pain caused by the massive influx of data crashing against his brain and spoke softly:

“Caroline, you’ve been asleep for a bit too long.”

“And it seems… I may not be able to wait until the day you wake up.”

“Even though there are still many things I want to tell you in person, reality is just like this—no one knows whether tomorrow or an accident will come first.”

“And if, after you wake up, you find that no matter how hard you try you can’t wake me, don’t be angry. I’m just a little tired, so I’m being lazy and sleeping a bit longer.”

“You’ve already slept for so long anyway… so this time, let me sleep for a while instead. Just for a bit.”

As Tendou’s voice gradually faded away, his consciousness completely linked with the base’s Mechanical Intelligence Core.

【Quantum core connection successful. Mechanical Intelligence Core AI mode has been altered.】

【Welcome, Respected S-Class Authority Holder · Masamune Tendou.】

At the same time, not long after Tendou entered the black computation pod, the base’s quantum firewall—which had originally been on the verge of collapse within half an hour—had its failure time extended.

Quantum Computation Center

Five minutes after Tendou entered the black computation pod, the hatch of Caroline’s pod—previously tightly sealed—slowly opened.

Along with a large amount of cooling gas, like white mist, venting from inside the pod, Caroline gradually opened her eyes.

Because she had not yet fully adapted to the massive quantum data assimilated from quantum space, Caroline was still in the high-frequency computation state of her Machina Persona.

A full ten minutes passed.

Although Caroline could still feel her mind being influenced by the Machina Persona, the situation was already far better than when she had just awakened.

She reached up, removed the computation pod’s data cable from the back of her neck, and slowly sat up.

Moments later, she swung her legs out of the pod, her bare feet touching the cold floor of the computation center.

But before she could completely step out of the pod, Caroline immediately noticed something placed beside it—

Two dolphin plush toys, one large and one small, one pink and one blue.

The instant she saw them, the Machina Persona on Caroline faded away at lightning speed.

Her silver-white hair also changed to green in the blink of an eye.

After sitting in the pod and thinking for a moment, she reached out with a hint of childishness and poked the belly of the larger dolphin plush.

The chubby plush belly dented inward under her finger, then bounced back with a soft pffft sound.

Seeing this, the cold, detached expression caused by her Machina Persona instantly melted, and the corners of her lips lifted uncontrollably.

“What a self-righteous idiot…”

Who else could have placed these two plush toys here?

As for the answer, Caroline didn’t need to be a Machina to guess it immediately.

Not only that, she could also guess right away why he had put them here.

Without a doubt, it was so that when she woke up, she would see them at the very first moment.

Thinking of this, Caroline shook her head helplessly.

What a childish guy.

What kind of thought process would make someone believe that she’d be happy just because she saw a pair of children’s plush toys the moment she woke up?

She was really being underestimated.

That said, the smile in Caroline’s eyes was impossible to hide.

After all, where the plush toys were placed didn’t matter.

What mattered… was the person who had placed them there.

And judging by the time, she had spent roughly two and a half months inside the computation pod.

Left unwatched for such a long time, she truly had no idea what kind of outrageous things that lawless fellow might have done.

Hopefully it wouldn’t be a pile of headaches waiting for her to clean up.

Thinking of this, Caroline immediately prepared to connect to the base’s Quantum Central Hub, intending to locate that guy’s exact position through data sharing.

However, the moment she accessed the base’s surveillance feeds, the scene that came into view made Caroline’s pupils contract sharply.

In the surface base, the elusive head of the base security force—Da'vion—who was rarely ever seen, now lay there decapitated, reduced to a silent, cold corpse.

In the core zone of the underground base, a group of unfamiliar Association Starbearers lay dead amid stretches of rubble, their bodies twisted into all kinds of grotesque poses.

Among those corpses were clearly three second-order Starbearers.

One body lay collapsed in pooled water.

Another had its chest pierced clean through by a blade.

And the last one… was buried beneath massive chunks of collapsed structure, leaving only a hand—wearing a pink wristwatch—sticking out from the ruins.

Yet Caroline didn’t care about any of that.

She had no interest whatsoever in whether these people lived or died.

Her electronic eyes flashed with an immense torrent of data. At a shocking speed, she frantically switched between every usable camera throughout the base, doing everything she could to find that familiar figure amid the devastated facility.

No—he wasn’t in the cafeteria.

No—he wasn’t in the residential quarters either.

No—not at the training grounds.

At last, after a desperate, frantic search—

She finally found him.

Without the slightest hesitation, Caroline immediately tried to leave the computation center and rush out the door.

But in her panic, she completely forgot that she hadn’t yet unplugged the quantum data cable still connected to her spine inside the computation pod.

And so she was suddenly tripped.

Thud!

Pulled back by the quantum data cable, Caroline staggered and crashed heavily onto the cold floor.

She didn’t even have time to register the sharp pain of her knee slamming into the ground.

Her right hand shot out instinctively, roughly tearing free the data cable connected to her spine, and she ran barefoot out of the computation center.

The moment she left the computation center, Caroline immediately saw that familiar figure lying inside the black computation pod.

But unlike the confident image in her memories—the one that always wore an arrogant grin—

The person lying in the pod now was unnervingly quiet.

So quiet… that it terrified her.

Under the combined weight of overwhelming fear and some indescribable emotion, Caroline felt that her mind—normally razor-sharp—had become unbearably sluggish.

At the same time, a dreadful, unanticipated suspicion that left her at a complete loss was finally confirmed the instant she saw the figure inside the pod.

Her electronic cat ears could hear the dripping of leaking water from distant pipes.

She could hear the faint airflow from the ventilation ducts in the corridors.

She could even hear the subtle rustling of insects crawling within cracks in the walls hundreds of meters away…

But the one thing she couldn’t hear—was that familiar heartbeat.

Either her ears were malfunctioning.

Or else…

With that thought in mind, Caroline slowly placed her hand against the transparent glass window of the computation pod.

Yet her fingers were trembling violently.

Just as her heart wavered in confusion, fear gripping her at the truth that lay inches away, a familiar voice suddenly sounded beside her ear.

“Yo, Caroline. You’ve been asleep for so long—finally decided to wake up, huh?”

Hearing that voice, Caroline’s expression instantly lit up with joy.

She then snapped her head around.

But when she clearly saw the “person” who had spoken, the joy on Caroline’s face vanished.

Because the one talking to her was, unmistakably, a pre-recorded, illusory holographic projection.

A figure that looked very much like Tendou… yet was absolutely not Tendou.

And perhaps it was due to the quantum core’s real-time computation capabilities, or perhaps because Tendou understood Caroline far too well—

Even though it was clearly a hologram prepared in advance, he spoke at this moment as naturally as if he were truly present, smiling as he said:

“Caroline, why are you pulling such a stiff face? That doesn’t look good on you.”

“Come on, smile a little—like this.”

As the holographic projection spoke, it suddenly made a silly face at Caroline.

But the very gesture that used to make her laugh now felt like a silent blade, stabbing straight into her heart.

Despite being a Machina Type Starbearer with inherently weak emotions, Caroline, at this moment, clearly understood what sadness truly meant.

Staring at the ‘Tendou’ making faces at her from not far away, Caroline—after a long stretch of silence—finally responded.

“Alright…”

With a choked voice, Caroline lifted her head.

She forced the corners of her mouth upward into a smile uglier than crying, as tears spilled uncontrollably onto the alloy floor, splashing into tiny droplets.

“Look, Tendou… I—I’m smiling.”

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