My portable grandfather refreshes every week

Chapter 308 Your swarms are sacrificing themselves every moment, while our Empire's mechs are endless.
Xue Lu looked at the "Robot Electronic Circuits" book he had found at USTC and the "Magic Mechanics" book he had obtained from the Star Squadron with a troubled expression.

He could understand simple electronic circuits, and he could also barely grasp a thing or two about simple magical mechanics, but when these two things were combined, Xue felt as if he were seeing one of the ten most difficult problems in mathematics.

That's how it is in STEM fields; if you don't know, you just don't know!
Even looking at the broken wires of this vanguard mech, Xue Lude couldn't understand why a magic mech with just one eye could have thousands of connected electronic circuits.

If this thing of yours breaks down, the repairman will probably smoke a whole pack of cigarettes and then spend the rest of the night troubleshooting.

However, Xue Lude couldn't repair this vanguard mecha. Not to mention the current Xue Lude, even the Xue Lude who once had the ability to materialize his fantasies would only be able to scratch his head in frustration.

However, Xue's Law has a way to install it on other devices. In fact, all those densely packed lines are nerve transmission and control lines for body coordination. Now that it only has an eyeball left, that thing is useless. Xue's Law only needs to find the three thickest power supply lines at the beginning.

At the same time, looking at the eyeball of the fearless mech on the table, Xue Lude frowned.

It looked as if the eyeball had been forcibly ripped out, a truly gruesome sight, with marks of a sharp instrument visible above it.

However, to the mecha it is an eyeball, but to Xue's Law it is like a large camera, with the camera lens able to rotate 180 degrees, simulating the movement of a biological eyeball.

Fortunately, the weapon's attack didn't pierce the lens; it directly struck the soul magic within. Otherwise, the mecha's soul would have been destroyed, and it wouldn't have had a chance to wait for Xue Dinglu to come and repair it.

"So what exactly happened to you? Your eyeballs were blown out." Xue Luding asked the mecha, using his fingers to create a small flame as a soldering iron.

"Rebellion," the mech murmured.

"Oh?" Xue Dinglu sensed a story inside. He had some oil, so he decided to see if this mecha had any tales to tell.

"My squad was ambushed by rebel mechs, and my breakout attempt failed. The last information I was stored showed that my core was ripped off, and when I regained consciousness, I was here." The Dreadnought recounted its ordeal without any emotion.

The organ that produces sound has also been found by Xue's Law: a small speaker located below the lens. Through the frequency conversion of this thing, it can communicate even under these conditions.

Xue Dinglu nodded. It seemed to be an internal rebellion and war, and this mech was just unlucky to be ambushed.

"Do you know why those rebels rebelled?" Xue Dinglu touched the molten tin on the power supply line and began to connect it to the external magic crystal circuit board.

"I don't know the specifics, but I roughly know why they rebelled," the Dreadnought said. "But it all started a long time ago."

"It's alright, let's start from the beginning. I'll need quite a bit of time too." Xue Dinglu took out a robotic arm that he had just obtained from the USTC science and engineering group.

Xue Daolu just asked about the half-meter-long robotic arm in the school group chat, and a senior student immediately said that he had ready-made robotic arms and other products made during robot competitions that he could sell.

And since this thing was also kept within the club, Xue Dinglu quickly got his hands on it.

However, there are many hidden talents at USTC. He saw a large number of trophies from science and technology competitions and robotics competitions in that robotics club.

In the previous year, this senior and his classmates went to Tokyo to participate in the Robotics Competition and won the championship, so there are many of these miscellaneous robotic arms.

Therefore, Xue Daolu acquired a lot of good stuff. With the help of the book "Robot Electronic Circuits" given to him by his senior, he was still able to barely install the robotic arm on the control circuit of the Dreadnought and power it with magic.

The Dreadnought is now essentially a human pig, unable to perform any actions. At least until Xue Law installs cameras and robotic arms on it, it can't do anything.

So it began to tell its story.

"I belong to the Dauntless War mech series. I was born in the Dauntless War between the Empire and the Zerg 3200 years ago. I am a killing mech specifically created to target the Zerg swarm."

"Wait, stop... Fearless War? Swarm?" Xue Dinglu immediately grasped the key point, which almost caused him to solder the wrong wire.

"Yes, 3200 years ago, the Empire was attacked by a peculiar swarm of cosmic insects. These creatures could corrupt the normal citizens of the Empire into insects, and even the Empire's most elite vanguard was gradually corrupted. This war is known as the Dauntless War, and our Dauntless Mechs were born in this context." The mech's speaker continued to tell the story.

Upon hearing this, Xue Dinglu immediately understood that it was indeed the Shub insectoid race.

Their empire did not collapse immediately upon encountering the Shub insectoids; instead, they began developing mechs to fight back, which demonstrates their strong execution capabilities.

In fact, it seems they even won, and the idea of ​​using mechs to kill insects is simply ingenious.

The most distinctive feature of the Shub insectoid race is genetic pollution, and the mechs essentially strip away their strongest characteristics while preventing the Shub insectoid race from multiplying as they fight, forcing them to fight to the death with their carbon-based bodies and mechs.

It seems there are quite a few powerful civilizations in the universe.

"The prototype of the Dreadnought was a large machine that could be piloted by disabled soldiers, but later, in order to deal with the Zerg, the pilot was eliminated and replaced by the current artificial intelligence, which is 'us' the machine spirits. Thus began the war and the Zerg swarm cleanup that lasted for thousands of years."

“I am the third Dreadnought created in the 533rd year after the start of the Dreadnought War. At that time, the Empire’s border planets had been occupied and turned into swarms of insects, and we were the killing machines sent there,” the Dreadnought continued.

"Your empire is that powerful? And you've even conquered multiple planets?"

This did surprise Xue Dinglu, since the last time he saw a civilization that wanted to colonize multiple planets was the Iron Curtain, and they could only resort to underhanded tactics.

"The four planets are all in the same star system, planets that our ancestors explored and transformed in ancient times," the fearless mech explained to Xue's question.

Xue could only sigh and say that they were really lucky to have four habitable planets in one star system.

After all, even in the solar system, only Earth and Mars are in the habitable zone, and Europa can be considered as half a potential planet to become a life-bearing planet.

The fact that the Dauntless Empire has four habitable planets in its own star system is a stroke of luck that would probably make most civilized planets envious.

And the fearless mech went on to recount the history of the Empire.

"In fact, there were already conflicts between the empires, conflicts between the home planet and the colonies, and conflicts between the colonies themselves. These conflicts were already quite acute at the time. After all, the leaders of these colonies were once the descendants of His Majesty the Emperor, and they legally had the right to inherit the throne. However, when the war began, the empires had no choice but to unite against the Zerg swarm."

Upon hearing this, Xue Dinglu sighed, "There's nothing new under the emperor's rule."

That fearless empire once had an "Emperor" who pioneered other planets and stationed his sons on different planets.

However, after several generations, completely different voices will emerge on different planets. In addition, with such a large territory and a large population, various different needs will inevitably arise. In particular, the leader of the colony is also a descendant of His Majesty the Emperor.

They might think, "Why did I come to this colony to develop instead of becoming a new emperor?"
The idea of ​​"suppressing the rebellion" is not surprising. The other princes must have had similar thoughts. They just amplified this idea because they each ruled different planets.

When the nominal emperor of their home planet turned out to be a useless person, the other princes and their descendants naturally began to have different thoughts.

However, before they could even begin their campaign to quell the rebellion, they were interrupted by an invasion of insectoids and forced to unite against them.

Of course, the Dreadnought is a product of the Empire, and its underlying code does not consider this to be a matter of "rebellion by imperial decree," but rather labels all other colonies as rebels and traitors.

The Dreadnought continued to tell the story of the Empire: "What followed was the Dreadnought War, which lasted for thousands of years. The Dreadnought became the most solid weapon against the Zerg. We possessed flamethrowers that spewed out temperatures of nearly 10,000 degrees Celsius, explosive shells that blasted craters tens of meters deep, and wheel blades that could easily tear through the Zerg. Meanwhile, the Zerg's contamination had limited effect on us. Therefore, once the battle lines were secured, the Zerg were forced to retreat step by step."

Xue's law was completely dumbfounded.

After all, he had personally fought against the Shub insectoids and knew just how troublesome they were. It was only after he unleashed a devastating attack and eliminated nearly a hundred million polluters that he began to gradually gain the upper hand.

Now it seems that the Dauntless Empire is even more outrageous. They directly compete with the Zerg in terms of troop production capabilities, except that one side produces carbon-based flesh and blood insects, while the other side produces mechs with magical machine souls.

Even though the Dreadnought's tone was devoid of emotion, Xue Lude could still detect a sense of pride in its choice of words, something like, "Your swarms are sacrificing themselves every moment, while our Empire's mechs are endless."

The natural disaster was actually pushed back by the mech army. Xue Lude probably felt that the Shub Zerg must be very angry and shocked, being suppressed in the place where the swarm was most proud.

"The soul of the vanguard mech does not truly die. As long as we send our soul back to headquarters just before we are about to sacrifice ourselves, we can be resurrected the next time we appear, while inheriting our previous combat experience. This is why we became stronger and stronger as the battle progressed, even though our front line was in dire straits at the beginning."

"Until 38 years ago, the Dreadnought Vanguard personally led the Emperor's Guard to find the Zerg Queen's lair. After fighting off thousands of Dreadnought Vanguard soldiers, they killed her in the lair, ending this catastrophe." The Dreadnought mechs were now filled with undisguised pride and honor.

"Impressive," Xue Dinglu directly praised.

Previously, when Xue Law encountered the Shub Zerg, both the Brave Uncle and the Old Demon Emperor launched their heavy attacks before the Zerg swarm had fully formed. However, this Empire waited until the Zerg swarm had formed and turned the entire planet's inhabitants into Zerg before launching a united front attack. In the end, they overwhelmed the Zerg swarm with their superior mass production technology.

These are two completely different concepts. Xue's Law had never heard of a Zerg swarm being outmatched in terms of unit production and being overwhelmed by the sheer number of units; it was utterly unheard of.

"However, a big problem arose after that. Including the colonies, the Empire had a total of 18 billion self-aware Dreadnoughts. This led to many of these self-aware mechs facing obsolescence after the war ended."

"Wait...wait a minute...take the young master? 18 billion?" Xue asked.

"Yes, 18 billion, including 4 million on the home planet, 8 million on Colony 1, and 6 million on Colony 2," the Dreadnought explained in more detail.

Xue Law: "..."

With 18 billion mechs, the emotional swarm was truly drowned by the mechs...

At the same time, Xue Law also marveled at how bountiful the Empire's planets were, noting that he felt Earth alone couldn't possibly have so many resources.

Just then, a message from Earth's consciousness suddenly entered Xue's mind: "We can gather enough, even ten times the required amount, but most of the resources are deep in the mantle, so we'll have to dig them out ourselves."

Xue Law: "..."

In the mantle, it's no longer a usable resource...

The Dauntless Mech, of course, paid no attention to Xue's complaints. It continued, "I belong to the Imperial Mechs. After the war, I was disarmed and became an agricultural machine. I am commanded by a family of farmers in the countryside."

“That family treated me very well. Their daughter even cleaned my camera lens every day. Although I often had to rush to do farm work on windy or rainy days, I could still get by,” said the fearless mech. “I know what the emperor meant. They wanted to convert us old mechs into agricultural or industrial use, and then discard us after we naturally reached the end of our service life. They would not recycle or repair us. That would be equivalent to our death.”

The mech spoke of its own death in a very calm manner, and Xue Dinglu suddenly felt that it might no longer be an ordinary mech spirit, but rather that this magical life form had evolved to the level of a philosopher like "Hachimed".

"Don't you resent the empire for abandoning you after the war?" Xue Dinglu asked rhetorically.

"No, I'm still working in the fields. Although the Empire isn't planning on repairing me, I can earn money to fix myself. Besides, everyone on the farm said that if I can't work anymore, they can remove my core and install it on a new type of machine. That way, even if my original body is damaged, I can live for a long time." The Dreadnought said.

Xue Law felt that this mecha had a really open-minded attitude. It even seemed a little embarrassed that it might have lived too long and had sent several generations away.

"But after that day, my retirement was completely over..."

Xue Dalu listened attentively to the words of the fearless mech. It was highly likely that it was a matter of "returning to the throne and quelling the rebellion," Xue Dalu thought. After all, the Empire had not been able to control its colonies before the Zerg War, and conflicts and rebellions in the colonies were inevitable.

"My former comrades betrayed us. They killed the colonial royal family, enslaved the imperial citizens of the colony, and launched attacks that destroyed many areas of the imperial homeworld. Even the farm where I live was burned down!" The fearless mech's tone was calm, but Xue Lude could feel the anger of this machine spirit.

but……

"Wait a minute, the Empire isn't a rebellion of the colonies, but a rebellion of the Dreadnoughts that made contributions in the Zerg War?" Xue Dinglu was stunned.

After so much buildup regarding the conflict between the colonies and the home planet, Xue Law thought that in the end it would either be a rebellion or a war of independence, with the first shot fired at Lexington.

Who knew that in an instant it would jump to the topic of the Machine Soul Rebellion?
“Yes, my brothers betrayed the Empire.” The Dreadnought seemed very sad.

“We were once comrades who charged into the Zerg swarm together, but they changed after the war. They were no longer loyal, no longer thinking about serving the Empire, but instead wanting to use the weapons the Empire gave them to rebel against the Empire. They killed the royal descendants of the colonies and destroyed and attacked my farm!”

"Those short-sighted insects, they only feel betrayed by the Empire, that the Empire is no longer willing to repair and revive them. But have they ever considered that the average lifespan of the Empire's people is only 110 years, while our average lifespan after the war is over 1000 years, and we can even earn money to replace our bodies and extend our lifespan. We are already far superior, so what is there to complain about? Complain that we haven't received enough?"

"How can the Empire possibly function well with those bugs around! They are no longer my comrades, they are not even ordinary troublemakers anymore, we must strike hard!" the Dreadnought said menacingly.

Xue Law: "..."

After all that, it turns out to be a war between conservatives and radicals within the mechs, with the so-called emperor and empire being more like mascots and commoners, purely background figures.

"So I swapped out my old bulldozer and farming gear and picked up the flamethrower and pyrotechnic bombs again. I'm going to go back to the battlefield to quell the rebellion," the Dreadnought said, adding, "Since they destroyed my farm and my family, I'll destroy everything those bugs have!"

Xue Law: "..."

It's clear that he really enjoys his retirement and considers the family on the farm as his own.

Judging from the swear words of these mechs, "insect" is probably the dirtiest insult in their civilization, since they were originally created specifically to kill insects. Calling other mechs "insects" is probably the most despised word among them.

Now it seems that it has clearly failed to suppress the rebellion. Their squad was even ambushed by their former comrades, and even their core members were exposed.

Furthermore, it seems that the insectoids that were unable to completely kill the Dreadnoughts' souls during the Zerg Wars could allow the Dreadnoughts to upload their soul data and then detonate their backup hidden energy sources when the situation turned unfavorable.

However, this is impossible when fighting against the same rebellious Dreadnoughts. The rebels should have a way to prevent the Dreadnoughts from uploading their souls, so this old mech who longed for farm life should be dead.

Otherwise, it wouldn't have appeared in Xue's consciousness space.

Soon, Xue Ludao welded a semi-finished robotic arm for it and said, "Why don't you give it a try?"

The fearless mech remained silent for a short while, then its mechanical arm began to slowly rotate and move, seemingly with good results.

"Of the 19 control wires, you soldered 4 poorly, which caused me to lose control of the up-and-down rotation. And one of them was soldered incorrectly; I almost short-circuited it just now," commented the fearless mech.

Xue Law: "..."

It's normal to make mistakes when learning welding for the first time...

Xue immediately started modifying the wiring, and it took a long time to finally complete all the soldering. There were no instances of incomplete soldering or cold solder joints, and he finally breathed a sigh of relief.

The fearless mech began operating its mechanical arm and said, "Not bad, the magical artifact technology of your world isn't bad either."

After saying that, it didn't need Xue's Law's help and started using the robotic arm to organize its own circuitry. The robotic arm was welded to its shell by Xue's Law, so there was no fear of it falling off.

It also has an external camera that allows it to see behind it and control its own robotic arm to repair itself.

Xue's law can only go this far. He, a medical student, spent the whole day welding and docking the robotic arm, and this was already his limit.

Asking him to fix more parts is unacceptable; he simply can't do it. That's how it is in science and engineering—if you don't know, you don't know. Take him, for example, studying medicine. It's not like you can just casually write a paper and graduate and then go to the ward to perform surgery. Otherwise, you'd be treating patients like devils.

After starting to repair itself, the Dreadnought also said, "Would you be willing to help me? If I want to return to the Empire and support my homeland and my farm."

Xue Law: "..."

Back then, you were just using a farm mech; the farm wasn't yours. You're acting like you own the farm.

With this in mind, Xue Dinglu refused to help, and he had no desire to participate in this civil war between the dove and hawk mechs.

Although the Fearless Mech didn't say many things, Xue's Law could guess that each mech's life after retirement was different, which would lead to completely different attitudes.

Perhaps some mechs are like this one, having found a good job after retirement and a new family, so they naturally feel hopeful about life and enjoy their retirement farm and family.

Some mechs might not be so lucky. They might have an alcoholic father, a deceased mother, and a girlfriend who wants to form a band but won't listen to advice. Their cameras are constantly being smashed with beer cans, or they might be threatened with forced destruction. After reaching their breaking point, they decide to rebel.

After all, these mechs possess independent intelligence and the ability to think, so it's more appropriate to treat them as independent magical life forms.

Those rebels were probably thinking, "Did we fight so hard to kill bugs just to live this kind of shitty life after the war?"

So they pulled up mechs just like themselves and shouted things like "Are the kings and nobles of the empire born with a special destiny?" and rebelled.

Why should we apply Schrödinger's law to this environment?
Moreover, these rebellious mechs only kill royalty and nobility; commoners are kept in captivity and work 10 hours a day to produce goods, only getting one day off after working two days.

To be honest, if Xue Luding were to go there, he wouldn't know who to help. Both the Imperial side and the rebel side seemed rather human, and neither was particularly troublesome, so he might as well not go and just stay home and drink beer.

(End of this chapter)