Starting as a Mechanical Hunter

Chapter 669 - 195: Prometheus and Epimetheus

The Black Rose was as enchanting as ever, her fiery red hair like a burning veil over her eyes, and her emerald gaze like a clear spring. Yet with a flick upward, it became a tempest, especially after gaining the Authority of the Metabolism Queen. Every movement stirred excitement, the result of chemical hormones accelerating a hundredfold inside one’s body.

Also, when the Infinite Replica Machine replicates a body, it automatically applies a silver-white bionic suit, perfectly highlighting Sister Rose’s sultry figure.

At some point, Gao Gong’s mouth was sealed by a pair of soft bionic lips, and only after a long while was he released.

"When I once again sensed the presence of a kindred spirit entering, I had a premonition it was you. The chemicals on you are very familiar to me. It’s been a long time, and they’ve become much stronger," laughed the Black Rose.

What wolfish words, Gao Gong thought, and switched the topic.

"So, was it one of the hosts of the Destruction Form causing trouble?"

"Yes, No. 10: Nanobiomimetics, No. 12: Reverse Bionics, and of course, another presence of the Destruction Form. However, she didn’t act, and my Perception was hazy. I could only vaguely sense that her ability lies on the virtual level."

Each host of the Destruction Form has the ability of Perception of Destruction, but with different focuses.

For example, Gao Gong’s Perception leans towards Spatial Positioning, while the Metabolism Queen’s is geared towards Ability Attributes.

Gao Gong’s face turned serious.

Bionic A

And another ’vessel’ controlled by Bionic A.

According to Sister Rose, possessing the ability of Reverse Bionics.

"Did Bionic A and you have a confrontation?"

Bionic A’s nanomanipulation is a bug among bugs, basically invincible in solo battles.

But as of now, Sister Rose didn’t seem to have suffered much injury.

"He attempted to recruit me, and after failing, we had a skirmish."

Seemingly sensing Gao Gong’s thoughts, the Black Rose smiled, touched the face of the charming young man in front of her, and explained:

"Between Destruction Forms, abilities are both reinforcing and counteracting. My ability begins with the flesh and transcends the body, perfectly restraining him."

Seeing that Gao Gong was half-understanding, the Black Rose patiently explained further:

"I absorbed the Corporate Will of three Super Corporations, spreading the Destruction Form’s abilities among hundreds of thousands of employees. Unless they directly kill so many people, they can’t truly kill me."

"But if he really takes action, the Electronic Grid, Pure White Shell, and Artificial Will would retaliate. The Civilization-level Weapons—those three Super Corporations own quite a few, and he might not find it as easy as you do."

Gao Gong understood.

Although Bionic A also has the capability to destroy Level 3 Civilization Weapons, he cannot, like Gao Gong, teleport away at will.

If held back, then with all the advanced weapons in the Bionic Realm coming forth, they might manage to contain him.

"Moreover, he is the leader of the Rebel Army. If he destroys the corporate source of the bionics, no one will sympathize with him anymore, let alone agree with his ideals."

In the worldview of bionics, Super Corporations are like ’family businesses.’ After all, every bionic is produced on an assembly line, inherently bearing the mark of a corporation.

If Sister Rose goes mad, it won’t just affect hundreds of thousands, but millions or tens of millions of bionics.

If Bionic A isn’t totally foolish, he wouldn’t do such a thing.

After all, rumor has it that the shadowy benefactor behind the rebel bionics is the six major bionic corporate giants.

"So, Sister Rose, what’s your current situation?"

"Seeing that they couldn’t harm me, they gave up and instead let another ’bionic patriarch’ act. His ability counters mine to some extent, temporarily trapping me so they could leave."

"I presume they didn’t want me involved in the contest for No. 13."

Gao Gong understood, perhaps this indeed was their motive.

Yet Gao Gong couldn’t help but ask, "The bionic patriarch?"

"He’s called Prometheus, one of the first three bionics born and the only one who maintained self-awareness."

Sister Rose glanced at her palm and continued:

"She isn’t a simple puppet; she must have made a deal with Bionic A, using nanomanipulation to replicate her original shell as a piece of the agreement to align with A.

Interestingly, her ability allows her to fully replicate a countermeasure based on others’ abilities, bodies, and skills. This situation arose because she created three bionic shells to counter the three Corporate Wills, forcing me to devote most of my energy to suppress the Corporate Wills, or else, the three Collective Wills would kick me out as soon as I leave here.

Open your space; let me show you."

Gao Gong nodded. In the next moment, purple light covered the world, countless strings interwoven, each space string infused with a mysterious dimension force.

In this entire space, aside from Gao Gong, there was only the Black Rose.

At this moment, the state of the Black Rose was very peculiar, her whole body composed of transparent smoke. In these smokes, Gao Gong also saw numerous chemical element structures—steroid hormones, lipid hormones, amino acid-derived hormones, peptide hormones—momentarily becoming numerous small blocks, and then into various double helix structures.

Moreover, Gao Gong noticed that Sister Rose could move freely within the Purple String Space without the need for spatial string fluctuations.

"Don’t be surprised, I can’t replicate your abilities. The primary reason I can move freely in this space is that over 90% of bionic human structures are fixed, and artificial chemicals are also fixed. Therefore, I can temporarily borrow most of the shells of low-level and intermediate bionics on this planet, creating the illusion of ’instant teleportation.’"

’Black Rose’ walked to a spot and said:

"Open this space node, and we’ll go in together."

Gao Gong nodded, and the next moment, a purple rhombic mirror appeared, and they both entered it.

Once again, Gao Gong found himself in the ’Exocrine Network.’

However, compared to the Exocrine Network he saw previously in the Iron Sand Desert, this was undoubtedly hundreds of times stronger.

It was like a sea of data in the Cyber Space, but this time, the substances composing the seawater were not code numbers but various human chemical substances.

The giant waves surged, occasionally crashing down.

The concentration of chemical hormones in these waves was comparable to any form of biological virus.

Fortunately, just before entering, Gao Gong had been wrapped in a layer of mist by Black Rose, so he would not be affected.

Watching the giant waves crash down, Black Rose sneered, and the ’Metabolism Queen’ ability was activated.

In a few breaths, the sea turned into a desert, and the ocean creatures dried into white bones. The island sank, and the earth’s cracks were filled with smoke.

Shriveled bionic corpses lay in the desert, skin and bones only, with no trace of life inside, and naturally no chemical reaction.

All these chemical hormones had been devoured by Black Rose.

When a person dies, the chemical elements don’t disappear, but the chemical reactions are indeed reduced by ninety-nine percent.

Now Gao Gong finally knew where those missing Giant Corporation employees had gone.

The two of them walked forward, and soon saw three ’Sister Roses’ standing on three sand dunes.

The styles of the three Black Roses were different,

One with a partially virtualized body, with moving electronic signals on top.

Another’s skin had turned into porcelain, making her look a few years younger.

The last one, with black, hollow eyes, seemed to be filled with cosmic wisdom upon closer inspection.

Faced with Sister Rose’s arrival, the expressions of these three were varied.

The partially virtualized ’Black Rose’ immediately rebuked: "Does your current behavior do justice to the power entrusted to you by the ’Electronic Grid’? If the company faces a large-scale hacker invasion without employees, how will we defend ourselves?"

The other ’Porcelain Attribute Black Rose’ acted more directly, instantly appearing in front of the two, her long legs crossed like a pair of scissors, slashing down.

Gao Gong frowned, but his palm was gently pinched, and the next moment, his brow relaxed, allowing the leg strike, akin to a missile, to hit his body.

But it only stirred up a cloud of mist, and moments later, the mist reformed into two human forms.

"Huh?"

Gao Gong opened the panel, and in the status bar, a new ’Elemental Mode’ appeared.

This element was not that element of the mage, but the body’s chemical element.

Elemental Mode: In this mode, the body enters an informational state, rendering physical attacks ineffective.

The ’Metabolism Queen’ can directly convert to Information Life?!

What an impressive ability.

And finally, the ’Blind Rose Sister’ spoke, her tone calm: "Epimetheus, close Pandora’s Box, it’s your only contribution to the Bionic Realm."

Black Rose said calmly:

"Surrender your bodies, otherwise, this is just the beginning."

"If you disregard the lives of tens of thousands of bionics, what about millions or tens of millions?"

"Have you gone mad!" the partially virtualized Black Rose shouted angrily.

"Then we will see if you truly care about the fate of the bionics, Grid, Shell, Will."

Without a doubt, these three ’Black Roses’ were the corporate wills of three Bionic Corporations.

And that ’Reverse Bionics’ ability seemed to provide suitable shells for the three corporate wills, temporarily freeing them from Sister Rose’s control, allowing them to actively resist Sister Rose.

"How about this, we can give up our bodies, but as a price, you need to relinquish our three families’ executive power, although you can still retain the largest shares in our three families."

’Blind Black Rose’ said earnestly.

"I can ’see’ your future is not in the bionic world, you have a broader future, ’Epimetheus’ abilities have limits, ’Prometheus’ showed you that, there’s no need for you to remain entangled with us."