[“External skin print complete. User 0109 Yulin [Preset Outfit].”]
Mm. Impressive.
It really was impressive.
This outfit and the clothes I had used to wrap Alice earlier could not be called similar.
They were identical.
Just as perfectly fitted, just as smooth and soft as skin, light yet sturdy…
It took a long time before I pulled myself out of that feeling of sinking into the sea.
I looked back at the workbench beside me.
The platform that had once stood nearly as tall as I was had lowered, and in a wash of blue light a metal case lay quietly upon it.
My favorite tool, the Portable Construction Unit.
And yet I still did not even understand the word [Construction] that I had been hearing ever since I woke in this world.
The factory had stopped working.
Everything was as if nothing had ever happened.
All that remained was me, still kneeling on the floor, staring blankly at the place where Lingyin had just appeared.
[“User 0109 Yulin, if I may be frank, the holographic message just now was only a pre-recorded projection. That image was not loaded with a script or any AI-type response functions.”]
Mm.
It was only a recording.
Even if I had never seen anything like it, it was easy enough to understand.
But when I saw Lingyin standing there in front of me as if she were alive, when I touched a body whose texture was not quite human, I could not hold back the deep longing I had buried in my heart for so many years.
“Thank you. I actually already knew.”
…
Wait…
In the pitch-black factory, only the spot where I stood was lit by a band of blue light.
Just like when I first arrived, the whole factory was empty.
Only that prompting voice seemed to exist in every corner.
“You can talk?”
I raised my head and looked around, trying to find the source of the voice, but although it surrounded me on every side, I could not find anything like a speaker unit as I understood them.
[“Yes. I am equipped with functions for conversational exchange with the user. I am the auxiliary AI of Factory D-01. In addition to completing production of products that already have complete quantum models, I can also assist the user with product design.”]
Conversation…
Ever since Alice was injured, all I had heard here were emotionless prompt tones.
Even when I saw Lingyin, she had only spoken her own lines.
She had not even thought to reach out and gently pat my head.
Perhaps it was because no one had spoken to me in so long.
Even though the other party was only an AI, this conversation slowly, completely calmed me down.
I slowly stood up from the floor and walked toward the workbench glowing with blue light.
The device called a [Portable Construction Unit] looked like an oversized metal case.
Two shoulder straps ran along the top, and on the outer side there was a metal handle.
I tried lifting it.
Although the case looked large, nearly as tall as I was, it was not very heavy.
I could pick it up with my own strength.
I slipped the bottle of epidermal cell composite cluster Alice needed into my jacket pocket and lifted the metal case down from the platform.
The platform slowly sank into the floor and became part of it.
At that moment, the factory AI said to me, [“User 0109 Yulin: because this factory has been disconnected from the power grid for 3,505,584 hours, materials including the [Aether Origin Factor] contained in the user-customized components can no longer be reproduced.
This factory will exhaust its reserve power and go offline in 23 hours. Analysis indicates that the Construction Unit in your possession cannot complete Construction in the absence of [Aether Origin Factor].
The material canisters installed in your device are sufficient for only 50,000 Construction cycles.
Factory D-01 AI advises that you recover any unused [Aether Origin Factor] canisters in order to increase the number of Construction cycles.”]
[“Additionally, should an emergency arise, you may manually activate the emergency power network and start the production equipment to manufacture [non-Aether Factor] products. Note that this action cannot recharge the factory. Emergency power can only complete ordinary production and cannot produce [Aether Factor] products, including [Aether Origin Factor]. Please take note.”]
3,505,584 hours…
In other words, that much time had already passed since the outer-ring link Lingyin spoke of was cut?
If I measured it by the world I had lived in, several hundred years had gone by.
What I had just seen was a message Lingyin left me several hundred years ago…
Hope always added a deeper layer of disappointment to disappointment.
Waiting in the library for Lingyin to appear, I had felt that way more than once.
Several hundred years.
A person’s life was only a few decades; even a long life was only around a hundred years.
Several hundred years.
In the world I once lived in, the world had gone through the Industrial Revolution, through wars, and then exploded with a series of new technologies and new ideas.
Information from several hundred years ago.
A message Lingyin left me several hundred years ago.
What could it still mean today?
The headache came again.
I now knew I belonged to this place called [Eden].
I knew I might truly be an angel.
I knew my identity.
I knew that in this world there was a hometown called [Eden] that belonged to me.
But… just like Eden itself, even Eden had already become a past buried under yellow sand, unknown to anyone.
Lingyin, Luna — both were people I knew.
Had I once lived in this world together with them?
Why had Lingyin said she was sorry?
Why had she said she was sorry for causing me to die?
Had I died?
In the world I used to live in?
But in my memories I had never been hit by a dump truck.
Had I simply died in my sleep, in my own bed?
…
The questions only multiplied.
And then what?
Where was I supposed to go?
Was Lingyin waiting for me somewhere in this world as well?
What had happened to Eden?
Had Eden once existed in the universe?
…
So chaotic.
“Please live well. Wait for me…”
[“User 0109 Yulin, I have a proposal.”] Just as I was turning to leave the factory, still tangled in questions I could not answer, the factory AI suddenly called me back.
“A proposal?”
I could not help looking back into the depths of the factory.
The dark interior still had no end in sight, and there was still no way to tell where the AI’s voice was coming from.
The AI paused only briefly, then continued, [“Please allow me to synchronize once with your Halo. I will upload my main program to your Halo and continue to serve you as your auxiliary AI.”]
[“During the production process just now, I backed up the entire archive of Factory D-01 to your Construction device. You will be able to use this Construction device to print or Construct offline every product Factory D-01 is capable of producing.”]
[“If my main program can run within your Halo, I will be able to provide you with convenient and intuitive print/Construction services, and I can also help you complete any custom product designs you may require.”]
“I see.” That was no problem.
But just as I was about to agree, the AI suddenly said this.
[“I hope you will accept this suggestion. You are the only user in the 3,505,584 hours since this factory was disconnected from the power grid and the Eden Supply Bureau.”]
[“This factory’s reserve power is about to run out. In 22 hours and 3 minutes, this factory will save and shut down all running services. If you leave Eden, a factory without AI maintenance will find it difficult, over the long span of time, to preserve its own structural integrity, and it will be difficult to guarantee the data integrity of the services that have been shut down.”]
[“I request this of you. I… do not want to die here…”]