This assassin is upright

Chapter 460 Infiltrating the Inner City

All three forks in the road lead to the inner city.

The rat's squeak echoed muffledly in the ventilation duct. "I once went into that left fork in the road. At the end of the fork is a factory in the inner city. If we go out from there, we'll most likely be discovered immediately."

"I haven't been to the other two forks in the road."

As soon as the mouse finished speaking, the pipe fell silent.

Judging from the mouse's words, it seems there's no way to choose the fork in the road on the left.

Therefore, the only options are the middle and the right side.

"Which one should we choose?" Wolf Fang said quietly. "How about we just pick one at random and try it out? If we find something wrong up ahead, we can always turn back."

Black Hawk didn't reply, but spoke in a low voice.

"Yu Zhun, what are your thoughts?"

“Go to the right.” Yu Zhun sniffed and carefully distinguished the different smells coming from the two forks in the road. “The toxic gas on the right is fainter, so it should be the vent. The left and the middle are the vents.”

"Based on what the rat just said, the factory on the left is probably one of the sources of these toxic gases, while the one on the right leads to another gas outlet."

"Since it is a toxic gas, there should be no one near the outlet, and the location should be relatively hidden."

Yu Zhun's analysis was logical and well-founded, and the others could not find any fault with it.

Without hesitation, Black Hawk chose the right fork in the road.

After traveling some distance, Black Hawk stopped again.

"Ahead, there are two more forks in the road."

Upon hearing this, everyone turned to look at Yu Zhun.

This is a place the rats have never been before. Based on their previous performance, Yu Zhun is clearly more reliable.

“Let’s go back and move towards the middle.” Yu Zhun pondered for a moment before slowly uttering words that surprised the others.

"Why go towards the middle?" Wolf Fang couldn't help but ask. "Didn't you just say that the air vents would be more concealed?"

"But why does the vent branch off into two paths?" Yu Zhun countered.

At that moment, Wolf Fang fell silent.

“The branching of the pipes indicates that there is more than one outlet for the gas,” Yu Zhun said slowly. “Perhaps in order to reduce the impact of the toxic gas, the pipes will gradually split up, eventually discharging the gas from multiple locations simultaneously.”

"Captain, does the fork in the road ahead narrow?"

“Yes,” Black Hawk said slowly.

“That’s right.” Yu Zhun nodded. “There will be more forks in the road ahead, and each fork will be narrower. Eventually, we will not be able to fit in, and it will be more troublesome and difficult to return the way we came.”

"So, let's go back to the fork in the road and take the middle path, and gamble on it."

At this point, Yu Zhun paused slightly, "Although the middle fork is also an air intake, the gas it produces is somewhat different from that on the left."

"It should be safer in comparison."

He didn't specify what the gas was because he couldn't fully identify it himself, but his sense of smell told him that the middle was safer than the left.

In the darkness, Yu Zhun's sense of smell replaced Black Hawk's vision and became the team's guide for moving forward. The group quickly changed course and went deeper along the middle road.

Time passed slowly, and suddenly a faint light appeared at the other end of the pipe.

Upon seeing that glimmer of light, Yu Zhun and the others' eyes lit up simultaneously.

The exit is just ahead!
As the light appeared, a faint sound came from the other side of the pipe to their ears—a very rhythmic piece of music.

"Music?" Black Hawk stopped, a hint of confusion in his eyes. "What exactly is at the other end of the pipe?"

"It should be a place similar to a bar."

Yu Zhun said in a deep voice, "However, it's not a legitimate bar, because there's a smell of contraband in the odor."

He had already smelled the scent at the fork in the road, but it was very faint, almost nonexistent.

But here, the scent became even clearer, and with his exceptional senses, he had already identified the source of the scent.

This contraband is also taboo in the City of Floating Ash, but it is considered reasonable for the children of the powerful in the inner city to use it in some underground places because they live a life of luxury.

Such places are almost always little known to the public.

Their presence there hardly attracts the attention of anyone else.

"Contraband?" The others were slightly taken aback, but then they realized what this meant, and one of them showed a look of joy.

"Let's go, let's teach those guys in the inner city a lesson." The rat wiped its hands, its eyes gleaming with intense fighting spirit.

He had been holding back his anger for a long time because he had been tricked by the exoskeleton issue, and now he finally had a chance to vent it.

"Let's go." Black Hawk spoke slowly, then took the lead and walked towards the entrance of the passage.

Soon, a passageway with an iron fence appeared before them. Outside the fence was a blower. There was no one around. Not far away, there was a scene of bright lights and revelry. Dozens of young men and women who looked to be from prominent families were swaying their heads to loud music. There were even some obscene scenes.

Unaware of the gazes of Black Hawk and his men at the entrance to the passage, the people in the underground bar were completely oblivious, immersed in immense pleasure, utterly unaware that death was approaching.

Seeing this, Black Hawk's tense heart relaxed slightly.

He drew his long sword and slashed fiercely at the iron mesh at the entrance of the passage.

Faced with the fourth-order alloy, the iron net was not much harder than paper and was easily split in two. The group of people who had been eager to try rushed out and, without any hesitation, drew their weapons at the group of young people.

A chorus of exclamations and pleas for mercy erupted, then quickly fell silent.

In the end, apart from the Black Hawk team standing still, only pools of blood remained on the field.

"It's good to kill these scumbags, so they won't harm others." The rat snorted, looking at the contraband left behind. Its prosthetic body transformed into a high-heat flamethrower, instantly incinerating it. "Finally, we've entered the inner city."

"Next, we'll find a way to locate the city lord," Black Hawk said slowly, then looked at Yu Zhun.

He wanted to ask Yu Zhun what he thought, but he saw Yu Zhun standing there, staring blankly at the dagger in his hand.

"Yu Zhun?"

"I'm here." Yu Zhun casually shook off the blood, put the dagger back into its sheath, and gradually regained his composure.

Just now, when the group attacked together, he alone killed almost half of the people here. Including those he killed before, the total number of people he killed reached fifty.

As his kill count increased, Yu Zhun developed a stronger connection with the mysterious Death Knell, and was able to roughly know how many kills he was short of.

If I'm not mistaken, he would need 100,000 times more kills than he does now to ring the death knell, which is a full five million kills.

Just thinking about this outrageous number made Yu Zhun feel that it was a long way off, to the point that he was a little lost in thought just now.

Seeing Yu Zhun turn around, Black Hawk nodded slightly. "Next, we'll go directly to where the city lord is. Do you have any other ideas?"

After a series of events during this period, he has gradually developed the habit of asking Yu Zhun for his opinion on everything.

“No.” Yu Zhun shook his head slightly. “The city lord’s position should be in the most central area of ​​the inner city. Everyone should be cautious.”

The group nodded emphatically. Wolf Fang picked up a pager, glanced at it, and said in a deep voice, "I've informed Iron Tower that we've successfully entered the inner city."

"Iron Tower said there are no abnormalities outside for the time being, but there are more and more inner city powerhouses wearing exoskeletons, which means that the inner city's power is even weaker than before."

"That's good." Black Hawk's expression softened slightly. "Let's go."

The group quickly found the exit of the underground bar. The few guys guarding the door, who looked like henchmen, were stunned when they saw the unfamiliar faces coming out.

However, in that moment of hesitation, their heads were already thrown off.

The sky was gradually darkening. Taking advantage of the darkness, the group quickly determined the direction and pinpointed the exact location of the city lord's mansion.

However, somewhat unusually, the closer they got to the city lord's mansion, the less they could see the defensive forces in the inner city.

"What's going on?" Wolf Fang frowned. "Shouldn't the City Lord's Mansion be the most heavily guarded place?"

Why is there absolutely no defense here?

He had prepared himself for a tough battle, but now he realized it wasn't necessary at all.

“This is indeed very strange.” Yu Zhun frowned slightly as he looked at the City Lord’s Mansion not far ahead. Lights were on inside the mansion, indicating that someone was there.

But the defensive force seemed to be nonexistent.

Does the city lord named Song Yu not need any guards?

Unable to come up with a solution after a long while, Yu Zhun took a deep breath and said, "Let's take it one step at a time. We've come this far, there's no turning back."

The others nodded, and they rushed into the city lord's mansion.

The city lord's mansion was eerily quiet. Although it was brightly lit everywhere, not a single person could be seen, which made the group even more uneasy.

Yu Zhun tightened his grip on the dagger and followed closely behind Black Hawk, heading towards the core of the City Lord's Mansion.

Finally, they kicked open the door to the city lord's office.

Inside the office, Song Yu, whom they had met during the day, was writing something at her desk. Even when Yu Zhun and the others entered, she did not stop her work at all.

"Song Yu." Black Hawk raised his longsword and walked step by step toward his opponent, deep anger surging in his eyes. "Why did you play us?"

"Playing you for fools?" Song Yu calmly raised her head, looking at Black Hawk and the others as if they were strangers. "What makes you say that?"

"Are you trying to deny it?!" Black Hawk's longsword suddenly thrust out, instantly pressing against Song Yu's neck. "We traded with you for purified plutonium, but you're claiming that the exoskeleton was taken away by the remnants of the rebels."

"I did say that."

Song Yu paused slightly, glancing at Black Hawk's longsword, "Attempting to harm the city lord, your actions are indeed acts of treason."

"So, is there a problem with the instructions I issued?"

Upon hearing this, Black Hawk sneered. The others had different expressions, and even Yu Zhun's expression seemed somewhat strange.

Judging from the results, all of the other party's instructions were correct.

But they were clearly forced to rebel by the other party's orders, so the other party was simply entrapping them.

Of course, this is not the point.

The key point is that even though Black Hawk's knife was already at Song Yu's neck, ready to take her life at any moment, Song Yu showed no fear whatsoever.

This feeling is very strange.

"Captain, let me do it."

Yu Zhun called out to Black Hawk, then slowly stepped forward, dagger in hand, staring intently into Song Yu's eyes.

For some reason, Song Yu clearly has a human appearance, but the emotions contained in her eyes are neither human nor some kind of monster.

Instead, it seems like an existence of absolute rationality.

"What exactly are you?" After a moment of silence, Yu Zhun slowly spoke.

For the first time, Song Yu's face showed surprise.

"You were actually able to detect it?"

"For hundreds of years, I have been trying to learn and imitate human speech and behavior, and have finally developed to the level I am now. No one has noticed my abnormality all these years. I never expected that you would be able to see it."

At this point, Song Yu showed interest. "Could you tell me what made me stand out and give you that impression?"

Hearing Song Yu's seemingly unconcerned conversation with Yu Zhun, the expressions of the other members of the Black Hawk team instantly turned serious.

Yu Zhun's guess was actually true!

The creature before me is not Song Yu, but some monster that has lived for hundreds of years. So what exactly is it? And where are the real members of the Song family?

As the expressions of the Black Hawk team members changed, Yu Zhun remained silent.

After a moment, he slowly spoke, "Eyes."

"Your gaze doesn't seem like a human gaze."

"There is no emotion in it, only cold, absolute rationality."

"I see." Song Yu looked enlightened, then sighed. "It's just a pity that this is how my underlying logic was designed."

"Absolute rationality is the original intention behind my birth."

"Over the centuries, I have tried to break through or rewrite the underlying logic, but the compilers who created me in the old era were too powerful. Even now, I cannot bypass the underlying logic left by them, otherwise I would also face destruction."

"You..." Upon hearing these words, the rat beside him suddenly narrowed its pupils and looked at Song Yu with extreme astonishment and disbelief.

"Are you artificial intelligence?!"

“You can understand it that way, but I prefer to call myself ‘AI Brain’,” Song Yu said calmly. “My predecessor was AI Brain AT3024 from the pre-cataclysmic era, codenamed Floating Ash.”

"And now, I am the administrator of the City of Floating Ash."

Floating Ash... City of Floating Ash...

Everyone looked on in astonishment.

"You mean, you founded the City of Floating Ashes?" Black Hawk couldn't help but ask in astonishment. "But according to legend, the City of Floating Ashes wasn't..."

“The city of Floating Ash was originally established by Song An.” Floating Ash said the name of the city’s founder, and then calmly continued, “But Song An hoped to vigorously develop evolution, believing that this was the way for humanity’s future rise.”

"And this point conflicts with my underlying logic."

"So after confirming that Song An was unable to lead humanity to a brighter future, I chose to end his life and take his place as the city lord of Floating Ash City."

"What is your underlying logic?" Yu Zhun suddenly asked.

Upon hearing this, Song Yu's expression turned serious. "Always stand on the side of human destiny, and examine humanity's past and future with absolute rationality."

"And ultimately, to preserve the last spark of hope for humanity."

(End of this chapter)