Malfunctioning Utopia

Chapter 26: Money

Four Ai spoke to Sun Jack, but realizing he couldn’t hear her, she pulled a mechanical cochlear implant from her thigh and inserted it into his ear.

“At such close range, you dared to fire a cannon? Were you not afraid of blowing yourself to pieces?” she chided, quickly tending to his other wounds.

“If I didn’t fire, I’d be the one dead,” Sun Jack managed to say through gritted teeth.

“With a combat prosthetic like yours, firing at such proximity risks injuring yourself. You should replace all your skin with heat-resistant and shockproof material.”

Sun Jack shook his head. “Maybe someday.”

If he had enough money for a full-body upgrade, he wouldn’t be pawning off organs just to afford a meal.

Once Four Ai had provided emergency treatment, Sun Jack propped himself up and surveyed the devastation around them.

The two AABs were completely destroyed, King Kong waved at him from above, and the battered Tapai crouched beside him protectively. Father, however, was nowhere to be seen.

“Off to find the offline server to dig up dirt on Rock Boy. Don’t forget why we came here.”

“Finally over… making money is way too damn hard,” Sun Jack muttered to Tapai.

Surprisingly, Tapai didn’t respond. He stood motionless, like he had frozen.

“What’s wrong? Are you broken?” Sun Jack, clutching his wounded stomach, gave Tapai’s battered body a pat.

Just then, a large red exclamation mark flashed on Tapai’s screen. Without warning, he raised his weapon and shot directly at Four Ai’s left leg joint. Then, he hoisted Sun Jack onto his shoulder and bolted out from under the rain cover.

“You’re insane! What the hell are you doing!?” Sun Jack protested, struggling to get down.

A black object hurtled toward them like a cannonball, but Tapai sidestepped just in time to avoid it.

When it embedded itself into the ground with immense force, Sun Jack finally saw what it was: the lower half of Father’s body.

The mangled remains lay there like a broken ragdoll, and Sun Jack turned in shock to see where the attack had come from. Emerging from the shadows of the pitch-black garage were multiple ink-black AABs, slowly advancing.

Tapai, unfazed, sprinted toward the rain-drenched outdoors as the first AAB appeared, carrying Sun Jack along.

However, as they reached the open rain, Tapai skidded to a halt, digging deep furrows into the soft ground.

From the rain, three more AABs crawled forward, blocking their escape. They were surrounded.

“Song 6! What the hell is going on!? You said that guy only had a Gaofeng Technology Silver Membership! Why are there so many AABs? Damn it!”

Song 6PUS’s voice sounded panicked on the comms. “Holy sht! How should I know? This is my first job as a broker! Why are there so many AABs? Thank god I didn’t go there. Damn, I’m scared shtless!” ɽА𝐍O͍ᛒËs̈

Song 6 kept rambling, but Sun Jack was no longer listening. His full attention was on the nine AABs in front of him.

There was no escaping the situation now. The only way out was survival—and later settling accounts with Song 6PUS.

Each of the AABs appeared to be uniquely modified, designed for specific functions: hooks, blades, drills, pistons, and more. Two of them showed visible damage from their fight with Father, but even with impaired mobility, they outmatched Sun Jack and his group.

They had barely managed to take down two earlier at great cost. Now, with Father’s fate uncertain and both Sun Jack and Four Ai injured, there was no chance of victory. As for running, that was out of the question—speed was the AABs’ specialty.

“Listen,” Tapai’s voice whispered into Sun Jack’s ear. “In a moment, I’ll overload my arm, use maximum torque, and throw you toward the SUV. Get in and drive away.”

“What about you?” Sun Jack asked.

“I’ll activate my self-destruct sequence as soon as you’re airborne to buy time.”

Faced with a certain death scenario, Sun Jack laughed. “You think I’ll survive that? Really?”

“1.35% success rate. Better than zero.”

“No thanks. If we’re dying, we die together. Besides, don’t f***ing make me drive—I failed my driving test over summer break.”

Pulling out a combat stimulant, Sun Jack injected himself in the neck, the pain and weakness ebbing almost immediately.

As Sun Jack prepared for a last stand, an idea suddenly came to him, and his eyes lit up.

Just as the AABs crouched low, titanium claws digging into the ground, preparing to pounce, Sun Jack shoved a hand into his pocket and yelled:

“Wait! I’ve got money!”

Hearing this, the AABs froze mid-action. Seeing their hesitation, Sun Jack’s hope surged. Maybe this could work!

This trick was something he had picked up from Song 6, a last-ditch gamble that he never thought would actually work.

As the AABs stopped, Sun Jack bluffed further. “I’ve got money—enough in my account to buy our lives!”

The AABs stayed still, possibly too simplistic in their AI to comprehend his words, but they didn’t attack.

Just as Sun Jack was about to push his luck, a soft female voice came from the nearest AAB: “Transferring to a live agent. Please hold…”

Before Sun Jack could react, the red camera light on the AAB’s head turned blue, and a tired male voice sounded.

“Hello, sir. Agent 1DW33 here. Happy to assist. How should I address you?”

Sun Jack froze in shock. “Wait! That voice—it’s the guy I interviewed with before!?”

He was stunned to realize the customer service agents they’d encountered before weren’t human after all.

As Sun Jack tried to figure out how to leverage this connection, a blue light scanned him, cataloging his data.

“F***, you broke-ass fool. Selling your body parts and acting rich? What a waste of my time!”

With that, the agent abruptly ended the call.

The red light in the AABs’ eyes flared to life, and they bared their razor-sharp teeth, lunging at Sun Jack and Tapai without hesitation.