The Whole Empire Thinks The Admiral Wants To Steal The Bride - Extra 2.3

　　☆☆、Chapter 35 – Lone Wolf (III) [END]☆☆、

　　”May I have your name?”

　　”My master named me Carl.”

　　”Okay, Carl,” Glenn repeated. “You seem pretty good.”

　　”Thank you for the compliment.”

　　This is a terminal communicator with a highly intelligent artificial intelligence, or rather, it is the home of the last part of this highly intelligent artificial intelligence.

　　High-intelligence artificial intelligence always has multiple carriers, from the host to the terminal, and they accompany their owners at all times.

　　If the other party was alive, he would definitely ask the host to cut off the connection between Carl and this terminal, or set up high-level encryption for the terminal, but the other party did not do so.

　　Therefore, it is reasonable to guess that Carl’s master, the man named Sasir, is most likely dead.

　　The safe that the homeless man picked up yesterday was welded with metal fragments. It obviously belonged to an aircraft or a mecha, but what kind of person would lock his terminal communicator in the safe of an aircraft?

　　Randy and Glenn didn’t think much about the above.

　　One of them had not left the abandoned planet No. 8 for more than 20 years, and the other was a bumpkin who was born and raised in the dark alleys. They knew nothing about flying vehicles, nor did they know how the Sasir family of the capital planet once prospered and how it declined because of the death of a head of the family in battle.

　　Ignorance makes people happy.

　　•=|=•

　　This artificial intelligence named Carl fulfilled its responsibilities and obligations as an artificial intelligence very well. It diligently answered questions and solved doubts for young Glenn, and indirectly became Glenn’s teacher in his youth, a most honest and objective guide.

　　On the first day, teenager Glenn asked a question: “What is the outside world like?”

　　Carl replied: “Do you mean other habitable planets besides Waste Planet No. 8?”

　　”Well, I think so.”

　　”Please wait a moment.”

　　Artificial intelligence searches the database, makes reasonable analysis and summary, and gives a long voice explanation.

　　The young man’s eyes lit up when he heard this.

　　The next day, Glenn asked again, “What’s the world like outside?”

　　Carl: “…”

　　As a highly intelligent AI, Carl keenly judged that repetitive behavior was not the best solution. It chose to project all kinds of strange videos and play them in front of the boy one by one.

　　Both the person and the artificial intelligence have freed their mouths and are very satisfied with the current situation.

　　This is when Glenn Sasir’s transformation began.

　　He learned more and more and saw a bigger world. He began to take the initiative to ask Carl to teach him some knowledge and skills and put the practical parts into practice in life.

　　He became more and more particular, and developed an inexplicable temperament of being unsociable, like a teenage version of Randy Sasier. But the two of them were fundamentally different.

　　The upheaval in his cognitive world and the huge gap between life in the outside world and the waste planet No. 8 did not defeat this black-haired boy. His eyes were full of ambition.

　　——It’s like a wolf cub in a cage smelling the scent of grassland and forest. Only the eagerness to explore distant places can transcend all the tough fences.

　　If the AI had feelings, Carl would probably be rubbing his eyes with a handkerchief in a reserved manner: It’s all because of me who taught him well.

　　Before the arrival of another spring on the Eighth Waste Planet, Glenn had already mastered the use of this terminal communicator. He was like a tireless sponge, absorbing its nutrients to his heart’s content.

　　In Carl’s database, military, mecha, and current affairs account for half of the content, astronomy accounts for a quarter, and the rest is varied.

　　Glenn had to be forced to accept this fact.

　　He nibbled at the knowledge bit by bit, and like Carl’s previous master, he developed a keen interest in the gray sky above his head.

　　”Why is Waste Planet No. 8 so cold?” he would occasionally ask.

　　”Because it is going off track. According to common sense, the imperial government will soon send people to evacuate the residents and recycle usable resources.”

　　As time went by, all the “fast” became “slow.” It was not Carl’s fault.

　　Human nature is too complicated, especially when it comes to politics, and artificial intelligence cannot make accurate judgments on government actions. These words gradually failed to please Randy Sasir, and the old Sasir placed less and less hope on the terminal.

　　Like his adopted son, he liked to ask the same question over and over again: “Can it help us get out of here?”

　　And Glenn could only answer him again and again: “I don’t know, maybe not yet.”

　　Signal transmission between galaxies is limited by distance, not to mention that Carl is only connected to the local area network of the garbage disposal station. All it can do is start up and provide expired information.

　　After hundreds of disappointments, Randy pinched a cigarette butt that he didn’t know where it came from and said, “Smash it. The waste planet No. 8 has been abandoned.”

　　As he said this, his relatively neat clothes and messy long hair hung down together, as if to echo his owner’s mood.

　　Glenn certainly didn’t do that.

　　The boy secretly thought that he and the artificial intelligence Carl had become friends, but his “friend” always refuted him: “Sir, AI has no emotions, you’d better not think so.”

　　•=|=•

　　Life on the abandoned planet has not changed for a long time, except that the temperature of the planet is getting colder and colder, and even the summer temperature is below zero.

　　Glenn was still enthusiastically absorbing information from Carl every day. He even learned a few sets of self-defense skills. He didn’t know what the use of these things was on the waste planet.

　　The major change that disrupted this life trajectory occurred in 2990 – Waste Planet No. 8 ushered in the coldest winter in ten years – nonsense, it gets colder here every year.

　　Sixteen-year-old Glenn is already 1.8 meters tall. Under his thick, dirty coat, he is extremely thin, but there is still a thin layer of muscle attached to his bones.

　　No one thought that he would turn into an Omega anymore. No matter how you looked at it, this big boy with deep features was a good candidate to be an Alpha.

　　In contrast, Randy became increasingly distant and indifferent to this increasingly powerful kid, and this indifference morphed into something else when he saw Glenn practicing various fighting techniques alone.

　　He became particularly sarcastic.

　　Perhaps this is a mutual repulsion between Alphas? Glenn concluded calmly.

　　——On December 17 of that year, the power supply to the garbage disposal station on Waste Planet No. 8 was cut off.

　　•=|=•

　　On the first day of the power outage, the dark alley fell into unprecedented panic. People crawled out of their rat holes and gathered in various corners of the garbage dump to talk and cry.

　　For the first time in a month, Randy Sasir returned to the shack he and Glenn shared, and they sat facing each other in silence in the night.

　　The day after the power went out, Randy Sasir asked Glenn a question: “Do you think you can get out of here?”

　　He used “you”.

　　Glenn’s answer: “Yes.”

　　At that time, Randy Sasir’s eyes flashed, he turned over and began to snore long and disturbingly.

　　Glenn had long been accustomed to the noise and stench of the alley, and he fell asleep comfortably with the terminal communicator in his arms.

　　On the third day of the power outage…in the dark alley, the first suicide occurred.

　　The other party may have thought that suicide is more dignified than freezing to death or starving to death, and left a suicide note that no one will read.

　　This time people had no time to hold a funeral for him. Everyone in the dark alley was in danger, not to mention that the number of suicides on the fourth day had increased many times compared to the day before.

　　Glenn had almost forgotten that there were so many people living in the alley.

　　On the seventh day of the power outage, Glenn heard a rare noise outside the window.

　　”Look, it’s the fleet! The Empire has sent people to pick us up and leave!”

　　Glenn frowned and looked at the dark shadow in the sky and the faint red light flashing in it. He turned on the communicator and asked Carl, “Is that a fleet?”

　　”Please aim the scanning lens at the suspicious location.”

　　Glenn walked through the thick snow to the end of the dark alley – where the view was wide. He did so.

　　”A fleet is approaching Waste Planet No. 8.” Carl’s mechanical voice remained calm. “It is recommended that you find shelter in time and be prepared to evacuate.”

　　Glenn was stunned for a few seconds: “What do you mean?”

　　”The target fleet has the possibility of launching an attack, the probability is 66.7%. The distance is too far to accurately sense the energy fluctuations.”

　　Glenn was stunned for a moment, then he quickly ran back to the shack where he and old Randy lived.

　　”We have to hide,” Glenn said urgently.

　　Old Randy was putting all the small valuables into his pockets – he was good at finding jewelry and broken jewels in the garbage. When he heard Glenn’s words, he looked back with contempt.

　　”Stop talking nonsense, the Empire’s fleet is here, we can finally leave!”

　　”They’re not here to save us, they’re here to attack us!”

　　Randy Sasir didn’t want to listen to him now. The old tramp sneered and took a step forward: “What, Glenn, who is always full of hope, has learned to crush other people’s hopes?”

　　”No, I didn’t.” Sixteen-year-old Glenn said calmly, “Carl told me that thing is very dangerous.”

　　Randy suddenly smiled strangely.

　　”Carl, huh?” He took another step closer to the boy. “Ever since I gave you that damn terminal, you’ve become like this… so confident, preachy, and idiotically hopeful?”

　　”I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Glenn took a step back cautiously.

　　”Hope” is a forbidden word that has been buried under the snow on Waste Planet No. 8 for many years.

　　Just like the “warmth” that Glenn had never dreamed of since Irene’s death.

　　But Randy didn’t intend to let him go before leaving. Randy stretched out a hand calmly: “Give me that thing.”

　　”No.” Glenn decisively put his hands behind his back and turned off the power of the communication terminal, as if this would hide the little thing more securely.

　　The old tramp’s eyes were blazing with fire, his face was grim, and he shouted, “Give it to me!”

　　”I said no!” Glenn yelled back at the same volume.

　　This was the first time he expressed his resistance to the old tramp so clearly.

　　In the previous sixteen years, he never cared about anything, even when he was ordered to help the other party find food, even when he was ordered to deal with the fights over food that broke out every winter, even when he was scolded for no reason.

　　In his eyes, these were trivial matters.

　　At least the other party kept him alive and even gave him some good memories.

　　And now, the old tramp was rushing at him like crazy, and they were fighting each other – Randy was stronger than he had imagined – and now he knew that this was not normal.

　　”Are you really a human?!” Glenn screamed in despair the moment the communication terminal slipped out of his hand.

　　”People?” Randy climbed up breathlessly. He laughed for a while, as if he had heard a funny joke. “I’m 133 years old, kid.”

　　”What are you?”

　　”What am I?” Randy turned on the terminal with a smile, “Guess what I am?”

　　”……” The activated artificial intelligence was silent for two seconds, and then a mechanical voice sounded steadily, “Blood identification has been completed. You are cyborg ZE-0376, and your gene sequence is close to that of the Immortal Clan.”

　　Glenn sat there blankly: “Cyborg?”

　　Carl’s mechanical voice sounded two syllables, as if he was about to start explaining. Randy said coldly, “Shut up.”

　　The artificial intelligence obeyed the command.

　　Randy looked at the boy sitting on the ground with disgust: “When I picked you up, I thought someone would want to take you home sooner or later. I didn’t expect that you would be nothing more than a piece of trash thrown into the garbage dump.”

　　Glenn remained silent.

　　”You know, you’re alive because you have this value,” Randy stretched out his thumb and index finger to indicate a little distance, “If I give you a bite to eat, maybe we can get out of here. Now, wow–”

　　He shook his arms dramatically: “This hope is shattered.”

　　The red light outside the window grew brighter and brighter, and the fire in Randy’s eyes grew hotter and hotter, and the terminal shook up and down in his hands.

　　”But it doesn’t matter. We’re leaving here soon,” he said. “I forgot to tell you that your hopefulness over the past few years really disgusts me.”

　　“No——” Glenn’s pupils shrank slightly, and he finally let out a scream.

　　Unfortunately it’s too late.

　　The fragile terminal finally fell to the floor and was crushed by the old homeless man.

　　”Now we are equal again,” said Randy Sasir.

　　•=|=•

　　Glenn’s vision blurred, and he saw silver-white fragments coming together, like a broken metal heart.

　　Randy laughed happily. He watched the boy’s collapse with satisfaction. Until the boy’s eyes were completely dimmed, he left the shack amid the cheers outside the window and ran somewhere with the crowd.

　　The red light outside the window became increasingly intense, and the heat seemed to devour everything.

　　……Glenn had never witnessed any of this.

　　He just knelt and crawled forward a few steps in a daze, held the fragments of the terminal communicator in his palm, and struggled to roll into the low mezzanine of the shack.

　　Before falling into a fever-induced coma, the black-haired boy thought desperately:

　　——Glenn Sasir’s only friend disappeared.

　　•=|=•

　　The rescue team arrived at the abandoned planet No. 8 in the early morning of the third day. This was their last stop.

　　The habitable areas on these abandoned planets were extremely small, and the population was extremely small. On the previous planet, they only found 32 survivors, most of whom were seriously injured and might not be able to be saved.

　　They didn’t have high expectations for today’s rescue operation.

　　As they expected, the spacecraft’s detector flew slowly around the habitable area twice, and there was no movement. It was not until the spacecraft approached the northernmost end of the habitable zone, near the garbage disposal station, that the life sign detector screamed shrilly.

　　”Alright, we know there’s someone alive.” A brown-haired soldier turned off the alarm as if he couldn’t stand it anymore and put on his winter clothes. “Imperial rescue dogs, attack!”

　　”John, watch your words.” Another man in an officer’s uniform said helplessly, obviously accustomed to his subordinates’ outspokenness.

　　The team consisted of only seven people. They carefully chose their landing site, trying to get as close as possible to the area where there were signs of life.

　　But after three hours of searching, they only found more than fifty bodies with an average age of very old.

　　”Boss, is there something wrong?” asked a soldier.

　　”Probably not,” the officer replied, “Let’s look for it again.”

　　Another half an hour passed, and they even figured out the distribution pattern of the bodies – before the attack, they had tried hard to run towards the open area behind the garbage disposal station.

　　They seemed to think… they could finally get out of here.

　　——What is a waste star?

　　As the name suggests, waste stars are abandoned planets that have undergone unified transformation and become the existence of waste recycling and disposal in various galaxies.

　　According to common sense, there should be no inhabitants on these planets, but on every abandoned planet, there are people struggling to survive. This is an unspoken fact among the upper class.

　　Among these abandoned star residents, some are elderly stubborn residents who would rather die than leave their hometown, and more are “useless people”.

　　Like waste, he has lost his function and value and was thrown onto a waste planet to fend for himself.

　　Each abandoned planet had a beautiful landing pad, and large airships would transport the garbage and waste from the entire galaxy here. Occasionally, other mechas and aircraft would visit here, but every time an outsider visited, the number of residents on the abandoned planet would increase.

　　They only bring people in, never take people out.

　　It’s like hanging the carrot of hope on a fishing rod. Over time, even the most stubborn donkeys will no longer chase it openly. They will only bury the seeds of “leaving” and “revenge” in their hearts for a long time.

　　How they wanted to leave.

　　Now, they really can’t leave.

　　The rescue team sighed and walked and stopped. When they reached the shantytown, which was once a dark alley, a soldier named John suddenly frowned and walked towards a stone slab. He raised his eyebrows, used the Alpha’s extraordinary arm strength to move the obstacle away, and found the source of the strange damp smell.

　　An unconscious black-haired boy.

　　”Hey, Bowman, there’s still someone alive here!” The soldier said in surprise, and then he wrinkled his nose, “It’s a newly converted Alpha. Smell this deadly smell.”

　　The man named Bowman cursed with a smile: “Get lost, get the person into the aircraft, and do one last round of detection for signs of life. If there is no sign, we will retreat.”

　　”Yes, yes, you are the boss and you have the final say.”

　　•=|=•

　　Glenn woke up fifteen minutes after the aircraft took off. The strange gravity startled him and woke him up from the exhaustion of sexual transformation. He was stunned for a long time before he learned the story of his coma from others.

　　Fortunately, the person in front of him was a good-tempered middle-aged officer.

　　During the coma, he was always holding something tightly in his hands, and no one could pry it open, which made the officers who knew some first aid knowledge very distressed – they couldn’t even give him a needle. However, the newly transformed Alpha physique would be in a delicate peak period. It was this state that allowed him to survive the 72 hours of coma in the snow and not be frozen to death before the rescue team arrived.

　　Glenn listened to the officer talking to him dumbly, and asked in a hoarse voice: “Can I go to the window and take a look?”

　　The middle-aged officer was obviously a little surprised, but he nodded gently: “Of course, I’ll get you some oral medicine.”

　　After saying this, he considerately left the lounge.

　　Behind him, the black-haired boy propped up his sore legs and trudged forward, struggling to move to the round porthole.

　　He cast his gaze far into the distance.

　　——Under the high heat generated by the explosion, the snow that had accumulated on the abandoned planet No. 8 for many years melted, revealing the gray-black soil soaked by water. Looking down from the sky, it looked like tear marks on the face of this abandoned planet.

　　”What’s a cyborg, Carl?” he asked.

　　The air was silent.

　　”I want to visit the places you showed me,” the boy said again.

　　No voice answered him.

　　Glenn lowered his head, trying to hide the soreness in his eyes. Big tears fell quickly into the air, dripping onto the back of his hand and the silver metal floor of the aircraft.

　　The shattered communication terminal was still tightly held in his hand, and the spider-web-like screen was frozen in eternal darkness.

　　This communication terminal has gone through battles of all sizes, experienced the disintegration of mechas, avoided the recycling machinery in the garbage dump, and withstood the serial torture of a country boy, but was eventually stepped on by an old man over a hundred years old and completely reduced to waste.

　　Glenn, who entered the sea of stars for the first time in his life, cried wildly and suddenly realized that he could not remember how old he was, where he was, or why he cried the last time.

　　The residents of the abandoned planet No. 8 never cried. They just wanted to live. As for why they wanted to live, no one told him. This was a question he had never asked Carl.

　　——There was another question that he hadn’t had time to ask Carl.

　　”Because I think I have value, I can survive. But where does a person’s value come from?”

　　Glenn finally raised his head in the officer’s stunned eyes and realized belatedly that he had blurted out the question.

　　The man in military uniform who was walking back to the lounge stopped and smiled, saying, “I registered your name, kid. Your name is Glenn Sasir, right?”

　　”Yes.” Glenn nodded blankly.

　　”Value…why don’t you try to join the army?” The man stroked his chin in distress. “The army is the soil for Alphas to discover their own value in life. That’s what my father said back then.”

　　”Oh, what a coincidence. I’m Boman Sasir, nice to meet you.”

　　-TBC-