novelraw Chapter 322: Upgrade
Chapter 322: Upgrade
"They named me Upgrade," the man said. "They make me kill people. I don’t want to kill people, but they make me do it, just so I can give the power to someone else."
"I don’t want to do it. I don’t want to kill another person for this."
Stanley took in a deep breath, realizing the situation.
"You’re the man who can make people’s power evolve, aren’t you?" Stanley asked. He had finally found the man they had been looking for such a long time.
And... he was a prisoner?
The man looked at Stanley, realizing that his words were going to be his doom once again. Another man was going to use him for what he was.
Stanley looked at the man, understanding that they had found who they intended to find. Now, he needed to make a decision on what to do with him.
’Oh shit,’ he thought, remembering that the AI had called for someone. He turned around, running out of the room, out of the second room, through the hallway, and directly back outside.
He turned around, quickly scanning the area, only to realize nothing was happening. The four were still there, on the lookout.
"What’s wrong? Danger?" one of the men asked.
"No," Stanley said. "Umm... sorry. There was an AI in there that said it was going to send someone to deal with us. I thought you were in danger, so I came running."
"What danger would be there?" Sheila asked. "This entire ship is under attack. Everyone who could be of help is either dead, captured, or fighting someone else."
"Oh... right," Stanley said. "Then... umm... I found him."
"You found who?" Sheila asked. "The tech guy messing with our communications?"
"No, the other guy," Stanley said. "The one that improves powers."
He couldn’t see what Sheila’s face looked like at the moment, but no doubt she was shocked. Even the two men were shocked to hear that.
Stella, however, didn’t understand the situation enough to understand why that was such a big deal.
"Let’s go," Sheila said, quickly rushing past Stanley and the others to make her way in. The rest followed and they soon arrived in the server room once again.
They arrived inside the server room where NOVA, the AI, once again demanded that they leave as they did not have the authority to be in that room.
Sheila looked at the servers all around and asked, "Are you the one running the communications interference system?" she asked.
"I am," NOVA replied. "Who is speaking? You do not appear on my scanners."
"What will it get you to shut it down?" Sheila asked.
"You are not authorized to make any commands for me," the AI said.
"Alright," Sheila said, quickly running over to somewhere that no one could see. She searched for a while and seemed to find something.
"Stanley, here," she called.
Stanley followed her voice and arrived somewhere. When he arrived, he saw a bunch of wires bunched up at the bottom of the floor. "Cut through this," she said.
Stanley looked at the wires, confused. "Won’t I get electrocuted?" he asked. He didn’t want to go through what he had gone through with the Lightning Nova.
"He’s right," another man said as he approached to see what was up. "This whole thing is made of metal. If you cut it without thought, you will end up electrocuting all of us instead."
"Well... we need to do something about this wire. Once we shut down that AI, we should be able to start communicating with people," she said.
"Oh! Let me," Stella said, quickly running up to the wire. "I just need to cut off the power source, right?"
"Yes," Sheila said. "Can you?"
"Won’t turn the wires into rubber work? That should insulate all the conduction."
"That... absolutely works," Sheila said.
"Great!"
Stella grabbed onto the thick wires and used her power to turn a large portion of it all into rubber, which extended even onto the floor itself.
Suddenly, they lost all light, including the tiny blinking lights all over the servers. Only a single source of light remained in the room, and it was the white light that came from the sphere that was housed at the center of the room.
They made their way toward the center and finally saw the graying young man who was tied to the bed underneath the blanket.
"You... you guys shut down the AI..." he said softly. "Are you... going to kill me now?"
"Break the glass," Sheila said.
Stanley swung his sword and the glass easily shattered. A burst of cold air rushed out from the room, making them realize that the place was quite hot in general.
Sheila immediately stepped in closer to check up on the man, but the man couldn’t see her. It wasn’t until Sheila spoke that he realized that someone was standing next to him.
"Are you really the person who is improving other people’s power?" Sheila asked.
The man looked in the direction of her voice. "Please do not use me. I don’t want to kill other people again," he said.
Sheila frowned. "Were you being used by others? Did you not want to do it?" she asked.
"No!" the man let out a haunted scream. "They made me do it. I did not want to."
"Keep your guns on him," she told the others. "If he tried anything funny, kill him."
The two men nodded, pulling out their guns to point at the guy.
"You won’t kill me right away?" the man asked. "Why? Why won’t you kill me? I deserve to die."
"No one deserves to die," Sheila said. "If you feel guilty about your actions, do something better for your redemption. That is the motto of the AAA. You will fit right in."
The blanket lifted to the side, revealing the arms that were cuffed to the side of the bed. The man looked confused for a second and asked, "What are you—"
He felt something touch his wrist and blood drained from his face.
"No no no no no no no no no no no! Don’t touch me. Don’t touch my ha—"
It was too late.