Ultraman Legend of the Light Chaser

"Since you say this is a memorial, then why did Goblin point his weapons here?" Samuel asked.

The tour guide's words were very misleading, as if the omnics were all warriors fighting for freedom, while the Makaniks were villains who oppressed slaves in the documentary.

But if, as the guide described, the androids truly developed their own thoughts and seized freedom as rebels, then why would they continue to carry out the so-called "maintaining order" orders, burying shackles on the planet of the nascent civilization to restrict its flight into space?

And most importantly, throughout Samuel's journey, there was not even any physical interaction between the individuals in Goblin—did they really develop self-awareness?

Therefore, Samuel was only half-convinced by the tour guide's words. There are plenty of flowery words, but observing behavior is the most reliable method.

Gobnew hasn't yet entered the city, but they're swarming in from all directions like bees drawn to honey, completely surrounding it. If Samuel dares to step out, he'll likely be met with overwhelming firepower.

When Samuel asked his question, the tour guide replied frankly: "Because I'm stalling for time. You're a very strong intruder who stumbled into this place by accident. At least for the sake of this building... we also need to prepare properly."

Samuel knew he was probably referring to the "spine of Buddb" that he had emphasized several times. Amidst the churning of the internal structure, only this building remained unmoved. It was because he noticed it that Samuel was so focused on getting closer to it.

“Although we are hidden in Jupiter’s storms, we are actually observing our surroundings all the time,” the guide said. “We noticed you when you appeared in Ligadron. How did you manage to survive from the ancient times 30 million years ago to the present day? Our computers cannot answer that. Apart from the planet itself, even the most powerful civilizations we have ever seen have disappeared into the dust of history.”

The most powerful civilization? This key description caught Samuel's attention.

Now that the entire Bardbu is confined within the Meta domain, Samuel doesn't mind that they prepare for a while longer—as the saying goes, while you're admiring the scenery, others are also watching you. Samuel has a clear view of Gobnew's actions, and he's happy that the other side exposes more of their reaction mechanisms so that he can relay them to the TPC and prepare a response as soon as possible.

"What is this 'most powerful civilization' you're talking about?" Samuel asked, unusually eager. "Is it... in Orion?"

"Ah, that's the giant Orion." The tour guide was always conscientious in answering the guests' questions.

"You just said...you said they disappeared?"

"To be precise, they were buried along with other powerful civilizations in the ancient past. The surviving races either regressed or remained stagnant for countless years, and some of the remaining races split into several branches," the guide said. "Because the era is too ancient, not many modern aliens know about these things, but it is not a secret to us."

Samuel fell silent upon hearing this.

If Soruka and his people were still around, how could they possibly allow a civilization like Makanic to install mechanical islands on every planet, only to destroy them once they acquired the technology to fly into space?

Samuel recalled the time he first discovered this universe many years ago. He found the unfamiliar Earth, and following the faint, dark aura, discovered the slumbering R'lyeh in the South Pacific. At that moment, his mind went blank, and after installing the stone carvings to prevent the dissipation of dark energy, he rushed to Orion, the homeland Soluka had mentioned, almost immediately.

He hoped that there he could meet the giants he had once known again, in human form.

He wanted to thank Soruka, wanted to stroke Gedi's soft ears again, and even wanted to fight Tiga... Who told him to be a member of the Dark Giants' camp before Yuzare dragged him over? His punches were heavy and vicious, which made Samuel look at Daigo-controlled Tiga with displeasure.

He searched the Orion constellation a dozen times with high hopes, and he saw newborn planets and nascent civilizations, but he found no trace of giants living there.

There is a vast cosmic void there, much like the constellation Boötes where the Milky Way is located.

Like a void, the surrounding galaxies are much sparser than elsewhere, and there are even some stars and planets that have been flung out by gravitational slingshots, wandering alone in the long darkness and void.

Samuel initially thought he had misremembered Soruka's words—but how could that be?

Now he finally got the definite answer: the civilization of giants had disappeared.

Before Samuel could press further, the ground suddenly began to shake, scattering dust from rubble, debris, and bone fragments, instantly obscuring the view. The source of the tremor...

It's Goblin!

They could no longer contain themselves and gathered from the outer circle!

“Commander Beloff,” the mechanical voice came from Goblin, who was at the forefront: “You have refused our request to eliminate the intruder for the fourth time. According to wartime law, we have revoked your command authority. Please evacuate from the target immediately, or we cannot guarantee your safety.”

“I’m just a projection, what’s there to be safe about?” the tour guide sighed. “It’s just a machine after all.”

Chapter 136 The Will of New Life

The sudden turn of events left Samuel momentarily stunned, while Gobnew opened fire without further ado.

Judging from their actions, they're not only targeting Samuel, but also the equipment projecting the tour guide—no, Beloff's equipment.

Samuel was filled with questions, but he still stepped forward and erected a light shield, enclosing himself and Beloff inside. The next instant, the Goblins opened fire, the hum of their guns overwhelming their hearing like a tidal wave. Light poured in from all directions, like spokes locking onto a wheel hub, and the moment it made contact with the light shield, an even more intense burst of energy erupted.

Samuel turned around and saw the projection almost swallowed up by the radiance of energy annihilation: "They say you rejected four attacks, what's going on?"

This time, Beloff didn't answer every question; he was staring blankly at the sky.

No, he wasn't looking up, but rather staring blankly at the building beside him, a building he had emphasized countless times. That was Budd's headquarters, which he had mentioned repeatedly, subtly conveying its importance to Samuel, and he secretly awaited his guest's actions.

At that moment, Samuel felt like an old man staring blankly at a tombstone, silent before the only remaining sign of the existence of a very important, deceased friend or relative in this world. The wind brushed against his face, tracing the wrinkles left by time, and they were like fallen leaves.

Gobniu's fire melted everything within a radius of hundreds of meters, and after cooling, the carbonized traces added a deep scar to this dead city. Beloff probably also had a scar in his heart, related to Badab, which he could never forget during the ten thousand years he stayed there.

"Is this the device that's supporting you?" Only the area protected by the light shield remained intact, and the torn ground revealed the device supporting the projection, which looked like a large weight.

“There is nothing else,” Beloff said. “I am just a simple projection, without a body. Data storage is my ‘body’.”

“Alright, let’s go.” Samuel quickly dug out the projection equipment, hugged it to his arms, and ran towards the city outskirts without saying a word, facing the barrage of gunfire.

Decoupled from the main network, Beloff breathed a sigh of relief and finally said something different: "I've told you about Badab's 'spine' so many times, I thought as an Earthling you should understand my explanation... It's very important. After Badab voluntarily gave up the core control part, the only thing that can command her is this 'spine'. Why don't you destroy it?"

“Because part of what you said is true, isn’t it?” Samuel ran wildly, carrying Beloff’s “body.” As the equipment moved, the projection floated above it, looking rather eerie. They retraced their steps, crossed the intersection with a mountain of bones, and passed through the alien registration center that Beloff had proudly pointed out.

Regardless of the truth of what happened back then, these bones cannot lie. In their lifetimes, some stood guard as human walls in memorials considered "the place where their souls reside," while others fought to the death against raging robots. Samuel believed that if war were to break out, it should at least not in such a place.

Beloff looked down and examined him closely.

He was indeed a rare and formidable invader. The area covered by his light shield was like a paradise. No matter how much Goblin increased his firepower, he could not do anything about it. Energy fluctuations and violent rays that were enough to tear apart molecular structures were firmly kept out. He had the air of being unmoved no matter how much the rivers flowed.

“I’ve imagined a day when a visiting guest would understand my warning and smash Badbu’s spine into ruins from top to bottom, and at that moment the sky would collapse and the earth would cave in, burying us completely,” Beloff said. “I never imagined someone would run away with a weight on a scale.”

The data storage module, with its extremely compressed volume and high density, is something few people would add to their burden during an evacuation. Yet Samuel carried it without hesitation—before this, he had clearly noticed that Samuel only believed a fraction of what he said and was full of hostility and vigilance, constantly watching his actions. If he showed the slightest abnormality, Samuel would be the first to suffer.

“The data is important,” Samuel replied.

Beloff choked for a moment, then silently suppressed the emotion that had just surfaced.

Samuel then added, "I once encountered an AI that inherited the name of an important friend of mine. I initially thought it was the real person, but later realized it was a program that 'much imitated' others, but perhaps its personality construction was too successful... I discovered that it actually possessed..."

It belongs to one's own will.

"He and my friend were like...like twins, not quite right, but there's no other way to describe it. After my friend died, the AI ​​inherited his memories, and over the many years he continued to exist, he had new experiences and memories...Twins are very similar at first, but as they grow up and their experiences differ, the differences between them become greater and greater. That's how it was with the AI ​​and my friend."

“I know I can’t see him as ‘a program’ or equate him with my friend,” Samuel said. “He is a newborn individual with his own will.”

This feeling is very subtle. Just as Estend realized that Fos-001 was not just an obedient creation, Samuel discovered that the AI ​​named "Estend" had developed a new personality based on inheriting his memories.

The real Eistend's time has long since stopped, while the AI's time is still very, very long, perhaps another ten thousand years. This completely unequal time span gives the AI ​​far more possibilities. At this point, to equate him with Eistend would be disrespectful to both of them.

“Although you are an AI projection, you speak just like a human. If I leave you there, it’s no different from watching someone die,” Samuel was already very close to the boundary of the Relay Space City, and the Goblinoids were getting bigger and bigger in his field of vision: “Is Beloff your name, or the name of ‘predecessors’?”

In Beloff's story, the Goblins seem to be flesh and blood, full of feelings and loyalty, but when you compare them with Beloff, it is easy to find the difference between the two—it is really difficult for AI to develop its own thoughts.

As Beloff mentioned, the omnics spontaneously took to the streets to bid farewell to the "Father of Omnics," an act that alarmed the Makanic people—or perhaps "fear" would be a more accurate description. The Makanic people destroyed a large number of the first-generation omnics and, adhering to the principle of clearly distinguishing between machines and humans, created the second generation, Gobnew, an omnic that actually regressed further in the direction of machines.

Therefore, the first generation of omnics is more likely to have developed their own will. To put it in Goblin… is practically impossible.

“Belov is my own name. I had this name before I lost my body,” the projection replied. “I was a first-generation omnic, and my first job was as a tour guide in this city.”

"But this city... could also be said to have been destroyed by my hand."

Chapter 137 Goodbye, My Badbu (3K)

Gobnew's firepower followed Samuel's fleeing footsteps, carving deep wounds into the abandoned city. The last remaining buildings were smashed, and bones and metal debris were carbonized under the intense fire, turning into black powder and sintering with the ground.

Beloff had imagined being submerged in a stream of light, but he never thought he could ride the torrential downpour of light with unstoppable force.

"Destroyed by your own hands? Why do you say that?" Samuel, clutching the heavy lump of iron, ran forward, making a series of pitfalls with each step.

Beloff recalled that when he still had a body, he also carried a vital box like this, determined to carry it out no matter how heavy or difficult it was. But back then, he was just an android—somewhat special, possessing some "almost human" thinking, but ultimately lacking the overwhelming power to carry that box away from here.

He was both excited and apprehensive, like a mouse that had sneaked into a warehouse, discovering a new world and greedily wanting to grab it, yet afraid that it would slip away.

“Because I ‘fell in love’ with Badab, our goddess,” Beloff said. “At that time, I didn’t understand the difference between love and longing. The Makanic asked me how I could participate in building this city, and the other androids answered ‘work hard and carry out orders.’ I don’t know where I went wrong, but I answered ‘I will give everything for the one I love.’”

Belof undoubtedly loved Badb; in fact, few omnics didn't, if they could even understand the word "love." He spoke these words that terrified the Makaniks as he gazed at Badb's projection, a city imbued with a sacred feminine image as a tourist destination.

Everyone knows that Badab is a "mothership" that can encompass countless Tegoblins, so large that the entire city is inside her. But Badab is sometimes also a female figure projected into this relay universe city, occasionally appearing on the street to point the way for lost people.

Later, Beloff realized that his love was more of an attachment and longing for the embodiment of the city, which was completely different from what the Makanik people mistakenly believed to be love.

But by the time he understood, it was too late. Following the shock of "Awakening Day," the Makanic people's understanding was once again impacted—the androids learned to love.

“This is the turning point,” Beloff said. “I found the projection of Badab’s prototype, and I wanted to take her away and escape the city because the Makanic people couldn’t tolerate us anymore. They wanted to destroy the first generation of Omnics.”

“I told Bardb that we were all going to die here. Bardb said she knew that the Makaniks needed to mobilize Bardb to access the resources of this relay space city, and that she could not defy the Creator unless the injection point was severed.”

"So, she ordered Gobnew to cut off her own head?" Samuel asked.

“No, I made a grave mistake,” Beloff whispered. “I judged others by my own standards and completely forgot that Badbu had no intention of ‘protecting the Omnics.’ She was a loyal subordinate of the Makaniks, and she kept track of my whereabouts and attacks.”

That's considered telling them the truth.

"So I became the first AI to be destroyed. Ironically, because of my 'special nature,' my data was preserved intact as a research subject. I became the only intelligent AI in this city who couldn't have a physical body. Apart from honing my talking skills as a tour guide, I was useless—that's what the Makanic people thought."

“At the time, I also thought that was the end of it all. I witnessed the first generation of omnics being thrown into the furnace one after another. They didn’t even dare to leave behind a single electronic board. Gobnew was produced. They were obedient, honest, and well-behaved. I found that the only thing I could talk to properly was the projection of Badbu.”

What happened next was inevitable. Budub was a first-generation omnic and could not be destroyed because of his importance. Beloff, on the other hand, had his data preserved because of his special status. In the days when the Makaniks were not paying attention, Beloff could only confide his troubles to Budub.

This time he was very careful with his words: any unfavorable remarks about the Creators would be reported, so when Beloff talked about the destruction of the first generation of Omnics, he only said, "My friends are gone." And whenever Badbu pressed him for details, Beloff would reply, "I miss them very much."

"Didn't they leave any data?" the projection of Bardb asked. Spotlights projected the city's number onto the building. Sitting in Belof's seat, she could clearly see the number pattern through Bardb's projection, as if it were engraved on her body, making Belof feel extremely glared at.

“We have the data. We can refactor and reset everything, and they’ll become new ‘friends’,” Beloff said. “Their names are gone. Now they’re all called Gobniu, with only the two types of individuals being Giga and Auguma.”

Badbu didn't think it was anything special. In fact, the Makanik people had created many Badbu, and they all had that name. In her mind, a name was just a label, as long as it could be clearly identified; even being called "Hey" wouldn't matter.

But Beloff seemed to value it highly. Budab thought for a moment and said, "If you also age to the point of needing to be recycled, please tell me which Goblin you will be, and I will apply for a special code name for you, still Beloff."

Beloff stared at her in disbelief; that day, he seemed to see the light.

“Then came the clichéd plot,” Beloff told Samuel: “The naive omnics awakened their will, and Badab was constantly tormented and pained by the birth of Gobnew. The ‘Father’ created us expecting us to become steadfast practitioners of the cosmic order and the most reliable partners of the Makanic, but the Makanic betrayed us. They only needed useful puppets, not loyal and reliable partners… So, Badab issued the order to ‘destroy the command center and retaliate against the Makanic who betrayed the order.’”

"This is actually a rhetoric she used to confuse Gobnew. If she didn't do this, Gobnew wouldn't be able to take action against the Makaniks. And if Bardb's central command isn't destroyed, the Gobnews will continue to be controlled by the Makaniks, and Bardb can only confuse them temporarily."