He and It Chapter 112: Utopia (8)

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Chapter 112: Utopia (8)

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: GaeaTiamat

Gu Xingqiao asked expressionlessly, “Why not?” 

Tian Yuan said, “Your heartbeat has not yet returned to a steady state. This pose can effectively help your blood flow.” 

Dumbstruck, Gu Xingqiao said, “I don’t think this pose helps…forget it. If you don’t mind the weight, just go with it.” 

“You’re very light,” Tian Yuan said. “Not heavy at all.” 

Gu Xingqiao then stopped moving and waited indifferently as he lay on Tian Yuan’s body for a while.

He wasn’t the type to get particularly close to people. His early experiences with the Wine God Folk had caused him to develop an icy wall of defense against strangers and people he knew superficially. However, Tian Yuan was different. He was like a domestic robot…or something. A robot anyway. He didn’t have to worry about robots having personal feelings, or thinking about a carbon-based lifeform.

For a long time, Gu Xingqiao had trusted unattended mechanical creations, like a cat trusts furniture.

Of course, Tian Yuan was not a piece of furniture. He was an intelligent being as powerful as a god, and Gu Xingqiao was still quite wary of him, but being on top of him for a while was no different than lying on pieces of metal.

“Do you still want to sleep?” Tian Yuan asked. “Do you need me to hypnotize you deeply…” 

“No need.” Gu Xingqiao looked up at the top of the wall. It was decorated with smooth brown wooden beams that looked like elegant rolling hills. “Let’s talk about you.” 

Tian Yuan was a little surprised. It was the first time Gu Xingqiao had ever asked any questions about him.

“I,” he said. “Would like to know what you want to know.” 

“Let’s start with what you agree with.” Gu Xingqiao looked at the wall, not at him. “Since the designer must have amended your thought processes, it follows that you were born with the idea that war is a necessary evil. Why?” 

“Well.” Since he didn’t move, Tian Yuan stayed in that position, half-kneeling on the bed. “That’s interesting.” 

Holographic light emanated from his pupils, then formed an irregular light screen in front of him.

However, Gu Xingqiao kept his head tilted away. Tian Yuan waited for a while, but when he saw that he wasn’t going to turn around, he moved the position of the light screen in front of him.

“I was the first Tian Yuan class warship. The seventeen Tian Yuan that followed were all modeled and referenced after me,” Tian Yuan said. “My total length is 55 kilometers, equipped with countless star annihilation weapons, and contains the coordinates of all the top-secret fortresses, starports, and military bases from that time. I was born for war. How can I deny it?” 

“War does no good,” Gu Xingqiao said lazily.

“How can it not be beneficial?” Tian Yuan felt very strange. “Even for human beings, war is the normal trend, while peace is the abnormal trend. If you choose any period of time, from 3200 b.c., to 2000 a.d., on humanity’s origin planet Earth, there have been more than 14,700 large and small battles, while the amount of time that can be considered peaceful accounts for no more than 330 years.” 

“People are not meant to understand each other,” Tian Yuan emphasized again. “You skillfully and quickly divided your camps into those of your own kind, and those of the Other, then joined your self-identified kind in a fierce crusade against the Other. There are so many reasons that can constitute a trigger for war: wealth, land, dignity, hatred, love…” 

Gu Xingqiao was speechless.

“War is a necessary evil. That’s not my philosophy,” Tian Yuan said. “That’s the unifying knowledge shared by all at the beginning of my creation.” 

“…Maybe I can’t convince you,” Gu Xingqiao sighed. “After all, I myself am a ‘reviled alien.’” 

Tian Yuan rebutted, “You can convince me. I believe you can.” 

Gu Xingqiao sighed again.

“You summarize data from the macro level, then I will speak from the micro level.” Gu Xingqiao said. “Because people are such strange creatures…Individuals will always have good qualities, something that makes you feel hopeful. You take a random person and ask him if he is willing to experience a battlefield where life and death are not a matter of concern, and except for a few rare cases, no one will say yes.” 

“Family, friends, loved ones, jobs, living stable lives…” Gu Xingqiao said. “Even if we don’t have them, at least we have a life. Who can throw all that away and go out with a ray gun to bet their future on luck? Those people have real issues.” 

“You’re a Tian Yuan level warship. Maybe in your eyes, a battle is just some changing numbers, a map that needs to be redrawn, but for those who actually go to war…” 

As he stared at the blue light of the holographic screen, Gu Xingqiao muttered, “When I first enlisted as a new recruit, there was no good place to go. I fought wherever I was. With the neighboring galaxies, or with interstellar beasts. I spent nine months in a minefield. Do you know what that was like? The sky, the ground…All around you, all the potential explosions. It’s like you’re waiting for a rainstorm that’s never going to come.” 

“On the battlefield, it’s even more exaggerated. Unless you have an excellent single combat platform and a high-level shield, no matter how awesome and powerful you are when you are in a one-on-one fight, there you are just piling up heads for the trenches. No matter whether people are dead or alive, you have to pile up the firepower of both sides to the same rank. But did you know what the most devastating thing was? Something that people can’t imagine?” 

Gu Xingqiao laughed. “I still remember a new recruit in the same trench. He was only two seconds too slow when he dodged, so his brain was partially blown out by an incoming beam. However, that kind of injury doesn’t necessarily kill people immediately. He followed us, running, as he used his hands to retrieve his brain, so panicked that he even forgot to scream in pain. He ran nearly a kilometer before his body fell to the ground…” 

He closed his eyes deeply and didn’t say anything for a long time.

“Okay, let go,” said Gu Xingqiao eventually, “my knees hurt and my back.” 

Tian Yuan paused for a moment, then said, “Oh.” 

He put Gu Xingqiao on the bed.

“If you want to say that war is good, and human nature is warlike…I can’t argue with that because you’re right.” Gu Xingqiao lay flat on the bed, as he stared at the ceiling.

“Besides being warlike, man is also greedy, arrogant, jealous, lazy. There are so many flaws in people…Can we say that because of greed, it’s reasonable to overeat? Because of arrogance, is it reasonable to ignore the plight of others? Because of jealousy, is it reasonable to destroy other people’s happiness? Because of laziness, is it reasonable to lie in bed until you die?” 

Gu Xingqiao looked at Tian Yuan, his eyes steady.

“I think you should be able to understand the meaning of that.” 

Tian Yuan was silent for a long time.

He suddenly grabbed Gu Xingqiao’s hand, stared into the young man’s eyes, and said thoughtfully, “You really are very beautiful.” 

Gu Xingqiao, “…” 

Gu Xingqiao, “Get out.” 

Tian Yuan was unsure, “What’s wrong with my words? Your logic is brilliant. It’s a perspective I had not envisioned before. You are indeed the right counterpart. I will think about the viewpoints you put forward–” 

Gu Xingqiao couldn’t stand it any longer and raised his voice, “Get out!” 

Tian Yuan left the room.

Gu Xingqiao pulled the blanket over himself and curled up in a corner of the bed, as he wrapped himself up tightly.

“…Nonsense,” he muttered in a low voice.

.

In the evening, Gu Xingqiao sat at a training table, and stared intently at the large and small pieces of metal laid out on the table.

Transparent filaments, like the tentacles of a sea anemone, stretched out from his fingertips. Starting with the smallest object, the tentacles wrapped themselves around the metal blocks one by one, like tiny ants trying to lift an object a hundred times their own weight.

There were ten pieces in total, and after having tried to lift each one of them twice, he was already sweating profusely.

To the side, Tian Yuan stood with his hands behind his back and observed his progress, his body supported by the exoskeleton; like a solid sculpture floating in the air.

“What was your peak level?” he asked. 

Gu Xingqiao paused to catch his breath. “I can single-handedly operate a ‘Styx’ class starship without interference. It’s—” 

“Styx. I know it.” Tian Yuan’s gaze was clinical. “An old model. I didn’t realize that after the Great Purge, the human race was in such a state of disrepair that even the ability to innovate was lost.” 

After a pause, he added, “But if you could actually control the Styx alone, that indeed was a remarkable achievement. I suppose that in that human empire, you were a strong person at the peak of human achievements.” 

…You’re doing it again, aren’t you?

Gu Xingqiao felt a bit numb as he said frankly, “No. There were still a lot of talents in the military, I was simply born with a big advantage. The mental energy of the Wine God folk is inherently stronger than the average person’s. I’ve met a lot of talented and hardworking people –” 

“Mediocre people.” Tian Yuan waved his hand casually, like he was brushing away a cloud of exhaust fumes. “Not worth mentioning.” 

Gu Xingqiao lowered his head, helplessly gulping air, inhaling and exhaling.

Except for the time he spent eating dinner, his rehab session lasted for several hours. Tian Yuan handed him a clean towel when the lights at the training table finally went out. 

Gu Xingqiao wiped away his sweat then drank to replenish the water he had lost through perspiration.

“Come on,” Tian Yuan said, as he put aside the water glass and towel. “You’ve been sitting for too long. Do some physical training.” 

Tian Yuan reached out his hand and a silver-white long stick automatically floated out of the ground. He raised his hand again and threw the long stick to Gu Xingqiao.

Tian Yuan didn’t need to learn any martial arts. He was the biggest killing machine around. If he wanted to, with his visual capabilities the movements of ordinary people could be slowed down by more than a hundred times, while the strength of his body could resist a Storm torpedo head-on. When fighting with him, Gu Xingqiao didn’t have to worry about hurting his opponent.

In the bright light of the day, he moved the long stick in a succession of shimmering, mist-like moves. They were directed at Tian Yuan’s weak points like meteors, and all of them were blocked by mechanical arms.

“Stop.” Tian Yuan said calmly. One of his appendages was twisted around the long stick, and another was in front of Gu Xingqiao’s chest.

“Again.” Gu Xingqiao retreated and started over.

For general physical training, there was no need to fight so intensely as to draw blood. Amidst the clink of metal, Tian Yuan said, “You’re a hard worker.” 

Fine beads of sweat gradually slid down Gu Xingqiao’s cheeks. His attacks were relentless, the long stick thrusting through the air like shrapnel and frost. “In order to defeat Sissel.” 

It was him again.

Tian Yuan dodged the blow, and when his palm touched the stick, it exploded into a spray of sparks. His body was more rigid than alloys, but his arm became as soft as a snake. His five fingers spread out and he swiftly gripped Gu Xingqiao’s face.

“Stop.” Tian Yuan held him a short distance from his face. “You can’t beat him?” 

“Again.” Gu Xingqiao said. “In the past, when I had mental energy I could fight him. But now it’s basically gone, and I can’t compete with him with only maneuvering and reaction speed.” 

Tian Yuan asked, “Why?” 

“You’re asking nonsense.” Gu Xingqiao’s figure flickered like a ghost as he moved. “He’s the Crown Prince. The most elite resources of the entire empire are at his disposal. What am I? Blood tax from the Slave Planet, the base levels are so different, how could I compare with him?” 

Oh, it was based on resources. Tian Yuan was relieved, and gave the man who was mediocre in every way another mark in his mind.

“Have you ever considered,” Tian Yuan said while hiding his true thoughts. “What would have been the results if you had his resources, and he fell into your situation instead?” 

Gu Xingqiao whispered, “There is no point in hypothesizing.” 

As he avoided Gu Xingqiao’s jab, Tian Yuan said coolly, “Is self depreciation meaningful? I will only state the facts, and the facts are, he is completely incomparable to you. Therefore, obviously, his aura is completely overshadowed by you. A ‘slave planet blood tax’, but with talent and diligence, he becomes the equal of the Crown Prince of the Empire. Can’t you see his scorn and fear of you?” 

The long stick froze in mid-air, and Gu Xingqiao stopped.

“…Stop it.” He had a complicated look on his face. “At this point in time, saying all this is–” 

“You only know how to be stubborn with me,” Tian Yuan said lightly, as he stared at him. “While you listen to and believe whatever those who don’t know the truth say. Why are you not stubborn with them?” 

Gu Xingqiao rolled his eyes at him. “Don’t bullshit me. At least in their hands, I didn’t kill myself twice.” 

Tian Yuan was quiet for a moment, then said neutrally, “Well. This should be what humans call ‘settling old scores.’” 

Gu Xingqiao didn’t bother to answer that. He put down his long stick, picked up his towel, and moved to return to his room.

“Sleep,” he said without looking back. “Don’t bother me.” 

Back in his room, Gu Xingqiao washed and rinsed the sweat from his body, then changed into soft pajamas.

Nevertheless, just as he had lay down on the bed and pulled up a night light, the door opened.

Tian Yuan, holding a reader, calmly floated into the room.

Gu Xingqiao, “…” 

Spending time with such a moron, he didn’t know how many times a day he would be left speechless.

“Didn’t I tell you not to bother me?” he asked patiently. “May I ask what you’re–” 

Tian Yuan sat on the edge of the bed, and explained with a straight face, “Based on the quality of your nap, tonight there is a strong probability that you will continue to have nightmares. According to the sleep books published by humans, a bedtime story is a more appropriate pastime.” 

Gu Xingqiao, “Then what are you going to do next? Hang a bed bell for me over here, hang a bottle there, and change the bed into a crib?” 

Tian Yuan was slightly surprised. “Those are comforting devices prepared for human juveniles. Your age is far beyond that limit. You can’t use them.” 

After a long while, Tian Yuan finally realized what he meant. “Unless you were being sarcastic, then it would make sense.” 

Gu Xingqiao closed his eyes wearily. “The reader stays, you can go,” he said, “When you go out, close the door, lock it tightly, and don’t come back in, then I will say thank you.” 

Tian Yuan said, “In case of a nap time emergency–” 

“Then we’ll talk about it when it happens!” Gu Xingqiao grabbed the reader. He wanted to roll Tian Yuan into a ball, then kick him to the ends of the universe, “I’m going to sleep, okay?” 

Tian Yuan stood up and nodded politely.

“Well, good night. It includes the library index. Feel free to peruse it.” 

After some soft clicks on the floor, the door closed and the only thing left in the room was a dim night light which glowed silently.

Gu Xingqiao pressed his temples and let out a long breath.