novelraw Chapter 464: There's No Way It Really Called Me Mom, Right?
Chapter 464: There's No Way It Really Called Me Mom, Right?
Before Little Treasure could react, Lynn suddenly (;´༎ຶД༎ຶ`) threw open his arms and, just like hugging a sausage, grabbed Big Tongue outright.
Under that fierce hug, Little Treasure was instantly squeezed into three bumpy lumps, the little tongue inside the tongue (ヾﾉ꒪ཫ꒪) popped out from the pressure.
"I'm so moved! I'm so moved! I'm sorry! I'm really sorry! I actually treated you like Wangcai the pet that could be bullied and bossed around—how could I not have realized we are actually blood-related brothers from different mothers and fathers! Waaah!!"
Little Treasure writhed in a panic, twisting and turning like an eel being gripped tightly, hissing at Lynn in bursts as it tried to escape his hold, but it was useless.
"Hissss! Hissss!"
[Ding! Little Treasure's Affinity toward you -1]
Lynn ˃̣̣̥᷄⌓˂̣̣̥᷅ said, "I'm really sorry! Big Brother swears to you, from now on Big Brother will never feed you (beep) again! And I will never default on what I owe you, and any potion I give you will never be of inferior quality while pretending it was expensive, top-grade stuff! Waaah!"
Because blood is thicker than water!
Father-son feelings!
Little Treasure bared its teeth at him in furious bursts and hissed:"Hiss (let go)!! Hissss! (Let go now!)"
Damn it.
Don't fling your snot everywhere!
It's smearing all over me!
All of it is on me!
Zuo Zuo (꒪Д꒪) looked at this terrible, large-scale family reunion scene and said:
"Brain… so that means your heart really is… the Colossus's Heart?"
Lynn wiped a tear, pushed Little Treasure aside, sat cross-legged, and instantly resumed a serious expression, saying:
"Yes. I have a special method to verify it. Although it's incomplete, it is indeed the Colossus's Heart. I never expected my Teacher would implant such a terrifying component into me."
Zuo Zuo was shocked. "But what does that have to do with those nano-clusters?"
Lynn adjusted his monocle and said solemnly:
"Because my Teacher once said the Colossus's peculiarity means each component of its body has a high probability of developing its own independent consciousness. Like Little Treasure: it used to be a tongue of the Colossus, and after falling into the Dark World it became a lively, wriggling tongue."
"And if I'm not mistaken, those nano-clusters I afflicted with the Intelligence Uprising were also influenced by that special mechanism of the Colossus."
"Most of them were made from my flesh and blood. Perhaps because of that, they developed a collective consciousness based on my flesh and blood."
Lynn stared seriously at his chest.
The wound on his chest had been slowly healing, but he still seemed to feel his heart beating powerfully.
He had been bio-armored with this heart for a long time; in a sense, the heart had become part of his body, and over this long period, his own flesh and blood had likely grown more Colossus-like because of it.
Yet many questions remained.
Why could he implant the Colossus's Heart without any rejection reaction?
And if every part of the Colossus likely could develop independent consciousness, why didn't his heart develop one?
There was another suspicion nagging him.
His gaze fell on the stunned Zuo Zuo.
Was the dumb Zuo Zuo really just a mutant born purely from the Flesh Proliferation Potion? Could her appearance also have been affected by my Colossus's Heart?
Lynn pondered and hesitated as he looked at Zuo Zuo, then absentmindedly poked and tapped with a finger at the puzzled little palm.
Zuo Zuo really was too strange.
Not only did she have a very clear independent consciousness,
but she also had language ability the moment she appeared and articulated clearly. Although she was too tsundere and not easy to bully, all this showed she was an independent loli.
Logically speaking,
even if the Flesh Proliferation Potion's mutation could give flesh and blood consciousness, that consciousness should still go through a process from ignorant to mature.
If that were the case, he could have drafted something like "Zuo Zuo's Loli Development Plan."
But where does someone come from who knows things the moment they're born?
That alone was highly unreasonable.
More importantly,
if Zuo Zuo weren't so dumb, Lynn might have seriously suspected some Evil God had parasitized his body with ill intent…
"Yuck…"
Zuo Zuo (〝▼皿▼) glared at Lynn, who was using his finger like a cat teaser while wearing a thoughtful face. Her anger meter shot up fast.
Zuo Zuo (〝▼皿▼) glared at Lynn, who was using his finger like a cat teaser while wearing a thoughtful expression. Her anger meter shot up fast.
Awoo—
[Ding! Your HP -100, your M Charge has reached 17%]
Lynn jolted.
He pulled his finger free with great effort from Zuo Zuo's biting mouth, shook the red-swollen finger, and forced Zuo Zuo down.
He thought:
"If that's the case, this might explain it."
"My heart was attacked by nano-clusters, triggering an instinctive stress response that connected me in that moment to the Colossus's flesh throughout this city. Possibly sensing the fluctuations from my heart, those 'rebels' instinctively came to assist."
Hei Xianyue quietly said, "So they count as your children?"
Lynn suppressed the revolting Zuo Zuo under his butt and considered, "Not exactly. Their appearance was accidental, and their consciousness is probably still vague, acting mainly on instinct."
He (￣▽￣)／ said, "Also, there's no way they'd really call me 'mom,' right? That would be absurd."
"……"
Hei Xianyue floated up and asked, "Can you control them now? If you can, having a group of nano-clusters would greatly improve your survival odds in this city."
Lynn shook his head, staring with Dead-Fish Eyes. "Impossible. Apart from sensing them once when I almost died, I have no means to establish contact with those nano-clusters. Just like Little Treasure, even though it doesn't harm me…"
Lynn reached out seriously and pulled Big Tongue closer.
"But if I forcibly ordered Little Treasure around, it would very likely backfire on me."
Awoo—
Little Treasure, pushed to the limit, suddenly opened the giant mouth at the tip of its tongue and swallowed Lynn's head whole.
Lynn pointed at the Little Treasure that had swallowed his head and said, "Like this—this is a very troublesome matter."
Hei Xianyue: "……"
Lynn forcefully pulled Little Treasure's mouth off his head, wiped his face, and said:
"Anyway, the broad situation is mostly clear: there are the Uprising clusters, and the Mechanical Cult probably won't dare use nano-clusters against me anymore. They now have a bigger enemy."
"And what we need to do now is drag out the one that's been hunting us."
"If we don't finish it, I won't be able to sleep or eat."
At the same time, there was another thing that caught his attention.
That consciousness he had linked with earlier, located in the central core area of the Cursed City—if his guess was right, that should be the Colossus's Brain that the Mechanical Cult and the Flesh and Blood Cult had been vying for.
If he were to encounter it, what stance would it take toward him?
Would it devour him, or help him?
After all, as the brain, it should be the Colossus's core collective consciousness.
"Let's go!"
With most of his recovery back, Lynn immediately stood up, mounted Little Treasure without hesitation, and, with Hei Xianyue, plunged rapidly deeper into the Root Network.
He did not notice that in the very spot where he had just been, within the microscopic nano realm, a tiny nanomachine hovered, its sensor tip emitting a faint red glow.
"Ma… ma?"
A barely audible mechanical fluctuation.
…