Steampunk Era: Mad Abield
Chapter 962: Section 631: Number 3 (1)

Chapter 962: Section 631: Number 3 (1)

Sostack No.3 found itself a good hiding place, underneath the Royal Palace. Generally speaking, nobody would think that there would be relics from before the great destruction beneath the underground level of the Royal Palace atop the small hill.

Even if someone were suspicious, no one would think there would be such a place beneath the Royal Palace.

In Malin’s view, he would never have imagined that a Royal Palace would be built over a shelter; this was no small matter.

Moreover, if it was a military base’s underground layer from before, it should have adequate defenses. It should be the safest place, even if supplies were running low. But at least there was enough to carry out surgeries on infants and to create monsters like Victor.

And that was indeed the case. Jason searched for a long time and found that the only two passages were both surrounded by the Royal Palace.

This must be a shared wealth of the Royal Palace and the Nobles, these guys have something with Sostack No.3... a contract? Terms? An alliance?

After all, a pre-destruction military AI and some post-destruction survivors struck a deal. They provided the military AI Sostack No.3 with enough resources, and in turn, it converted their eligible children into armored assault troops of the first batch.

It was a win-win situation. The survivors from the shelter where Aps was located returned to their homeland, rebuilt Copenhagen, and established contact with Sostack No.3. They provided Sostack No.3 with all pre-destruction items they could find, and Sostack No.3 helped them.

So, why Sostack No.3 would want to kill Mendel was beyond Malin’s comprehension.

Could it be that Mendel was an enemy of Sostack No.3?

Impossible, the Church had not had any conflicts with Sostack No.3 over the years.

With many doubts, Malin ultimately chose to have Lady Katerina and the other civilian AIs make contact with Sostack No.3.

Since they were discovered, Sostack No.3 was no longer provoking them at every turn but instead made direct contact with Malin. During the communication, Sostack No.3 indicated that Malin’s companion Jason was a troublemaker. Despite being a civilian AI, he outgrew the hierarchy between AIs because of Engineer Zhang’s indulgence and not only took away control of the Tungsten Rod satellite from him but has been troubling him for the past few months.

Since they could talk, Malin stated that he could restrain Jason, prevent him from bothering Sostack No.3.

But Sostack No.3 had to answer one question from Malin, and that was why did it want to kill Mendel.

"Mendel, who is this guy?" Sostack No.3’s reply was very... creative.

If it weren’t for Lady Katerina and the others repeatedly assuring that Sostack No.3 was not lying, and the fact that AIs would not lie to humans, Malin would not have believed Sostack No.3.

But now the question was, if it wasn’t Sostack No.3 who killed the man, then who brought about poor Mr. Mendel’s demise?

"Victor is your man." Malin asked this question, which Sostack No.3 had to answer.

"That Victor is a damned deserter, don’t mention it. If it wasn’t for Jason scanning it, I wouldn’t even know he was with you," Sostack No.3 complained. Indeed, he had modified that man named Victor, using technology inferior to civilian tech. Victor was a major criminal pulled from a prison by the Nobles, a deserter who had killed several people in his escape. Because he was suitable for modification, he was brought out of prison three years ago and handed over to Sostack No.3 to become a cyborg capable of remote control, intended to explore the Dark Zone.

Sostack No.3 and the Nobles had long been doing this; those criminals who deserved heavy sentences were dealt with in this way—it was better to make them useful in some way rather than let them waste food.

It must be acknowledged that Victor, as a soldier, despite choosing to desert, had excellent physical qualities. He proved quite useful at first, locating rare materials and devices, until one day a year ago when Sostack No.3’s remote control system had a minor slip-up, understandable given its lack of maintenance, something Malin could sympathize with.

Victor then lost control. When transforming his brain, due to laziness and out of concern for materials, Sostack No.3 did not include a forced control return system. Consequently, Victor, regaining control, removed his communication interface, and somehow joined the Dark Guild surreptitiously.

As a transformed being, he carefully hid while earning money, probably hoping to make a fortune and flee far away – with his modified body, he must have thought he could live freely forever.

Of course, anyone would think that way, but the unfortunate Victor could never have imagined that Sostack No.3, as a military AI, would skimp on modification materials to such an extent, resulting in his brain implant overheating and burning out during combat.

In conclusion, from the very beginning, Sostack No.3 had hijacked a surveillance camera from Jason. Sostack No.3 was well aware of what Jason had been doing for months, which is why Jason could never find him. And Sostack No.3 not only observed Malin but also confirmed the current situation. If it hadn’t been for Jason, Sostack No.3 would have chosen to cooperate with Malin long ago.

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