Ch 33 – What is the Deeper Meaning?

Curtis failed to escape.

He was stopped by robots before he could even leave the gardens, and in the end, he could only listlessly allow them to usher him back.

Yu Xi watched the chase unfold. A robot carried Curtis past, and then two more robots ran back: “Are you the one who posted the missing person notice?”

“I am.” Yu Xi felt quite a sense of kinship upon seeing one of his own kind.

But in the next second, his own kind picked him up and whisked him away.

Yu Xi and Curtis were stuffed into a room together, where Curtis held Yu Xi and cried. Yu Xi wanted to go and find Kersz, but the robot guarding the room wouldn’t let them out.

As the banquet was about to end, a robot entered the room with the intention of taking Yu Xi out alone.

“What are you trying to do?!” Curtis became alert. “This child is so young. Are you going to kill him to silence him?!”

Kill…..huh?

Yu Xi was momentarily stunned after hearing Curtis’s words. Then he burst into tears: “W-why, ah?” Had he done something to deserve being killed and silenced?

“Let him go!” Curtis hugged Yu Xi.

Yu Xi was particularly devastated, and his tears soaked Curtis’s shoulder.

The robot seemed to be somewhat at a loss.

“His father is looking for him,” said a female voice. Curtis froze.

Then, a short-haired woman in a military uniform appeared at the door. This was Yara, the star of the banquet, who had just been promoted to colonel.

“Sis.” Curtis smiled awkwardly.

“What in the world were you thinking?” Yara regarded Curtis with a frown. “You took someone else’s child and then left him by himself. Do you think I’d blame the young child for such a disgraceful incident?”

Yu Xi was definitely not young anymore.

But he still didn’t feel the need to correct her.

Yu Xi, his tears still flowing, fixed his gaze on Yara.

He had been in contact with many male humans recently, and this was the first time he’d gotten such a close look at a female.

Yara noticed his gaze and glanced at the child.

The child, who had been crying just moments before, smiled shyly at her when he met her eyes, then covered his face somewhat sheepishly.

This was a very beautiful human woman.

“You just wait.” Yara gritted her teeth and jabbed a finger at Curtis.

“Sis! Sis, wait a minute!” When Curtis saw Yara start to leave, he rushed over and grabbed her sleeve.

Yara looked somewhat displeased, but still stopped: “What’s the matter?”

“Do you know what Mother is going to do to me?” Curtis asked.

“At most, it’ll be house arrest. For a year or two,” said Yara.

With his arms wrapped around the robot’s neck, Yu Xi observed the interaction between the two siblings.

“No way! I don’t want to be locked up!” Curtis was on the verge of collapse. “Please talk to Mom and Dad and put in a good word for me. It’s really not my fault this time, the kid acted on his own!”

Yu Xi opened his eyes wide and pointed at himself.

“If you hadn’t left someone’s child in the gardens, would he have needed to use that method to contact you? You’ve embarrassed Mother. House arrest is the least you deserve.” Yara reached out at smacked Curtis on the head.

“Yeah, it’s embarrassing, but wasn’t it Mother and Father who had my name changed to Fetus? I never asked for that! Isn’t this their own fault?” Curtis kept his grip on Yara’s hand.

Yara: …..

“I’m being honest. I talked nonsense when I was drunk, but did they really have to go that far?” The more Curtis thought about it, the more he realized it was true. “How petty do you have to be to change your child’s name because of a drunken phone call?”

Yara’s expression was somewhat complicated.

“They’re the unreasonable ones. To put it bluntly, given the way they’re so beholden to their emotions, how can they possibly be qualified leaders?” Curtis worked himself up into a temper.

All of a sudden, he heard two coughs.

That sounded like Fusya.

Curtis’s expression froze.

A moment later, a woman with her hair in an updo appeared at the door.

“Mother?!” Curtis was completely dumbfounded.

The High Lord glanced back with some displeasure at Fusya, who was following behind.

Pretending not to notice, Fusya looked left and right as if this was his first time being here.

The High Lord ignored Curtis: “Yara, take that young master and leave first.”

“Yes.” Yara bowed her head.

Yu Xi was carried out by the robot, which then softly closed the door with Curtis left alone in the room. But it left the door open just a crack.

What was it doing? Was it secretly giving Curtis a way out?

Yu Xi looked up to see the High Lord beckon with her hand, and another robot covered Fusya’s mouth.

Was she killing him to silence him?! Yu Xi was aghast.

But other than covering his mouth, the robot didn’t do anything to Fusya.

The High Lord seemed to be waiting for something.

A moment later, Curtis’s voice sounded from inside the room: “What kind of mom is this? I just tried to talk to her, ah. Did she not hear me? Why is she ignoring me? She only likes my sister. I knew you were all like this.”

A series of profanities then emerged from the room as Curtis’s emotions exploded.

Yu Xi: …..

Yu Xi looked toward the High Lord.

What was she going to do?

The High Lord opened the door again, and Curtis suddenly screamed from inside: “Mother?!”

The High Lord stared at Curtis wordlessly, and when Curtis started to explain, she shut the door again.

This time, the High Lord actually took them away.

Yu Xi was left stunned by what he had just witnessed. So the High Lord had waited because she knew her child would start to complain after she left, and she deliberately stayed to expose him?

This High Lord had a real childlike spirit.

Yu Xi was carried down the corridor by the robot, then to another room where it personally handed him over to Kersz.

Kersz kissed Yu Xi on the cheek, then expressed his gratitude to Yara for bringing him back.

“It was my brother who acted absurdly.” Yara gave him a smile. “We owe you an apology.”

Yu Xi sat in Kersz’s lap. He didn’t think Curtis was absurd.

He thought Curtis was simply a precious gem.

Of course, this wasn’t because he suddenly found Curtis cute, but because Yu Xi had detected traces of another system in the vicinity.

It wasn’t just the Interstellar Alliance’s StarNet here, but another, more deeply-hidden system.

But it was strange – it almost felt like the other system was avoiding him.

Yu Xi lay down in Kersz’s arms and closed his eyes, pretending to be asleep.

While Kersz was discussing a business partnership with Yara, Yu Xi clutched Kersz’s clothes and focused all of his attention on detecting the system’s actions.

Amidst countless data points, Yu Xi “opened his eyes.” He sensed that something was spying on him. That series of data was very excited, but each time Yu Xi tried to get a clear look at it, it ran away.

Yu Xi was a little unhappy. He had originally wanted to capture it outright, but he found that when he looked away, it would inch closer to him again, as if it was observing him.

Another idea occurred to Yu Xi.

Instead of rushing to capture it, Yu Xi simply did his own thing in his stream of consciousness.

A moment later, he opened his eyes.

Yara smiled at him and asked: “You’re awake?”

Yu Xi gave a hoarse hum and rubbed his eyes with his hands, then looked up at Kersz in confusion.

Kersz patted his head: “I just got done talking. We’ll go and rest very soon.”

“En.” Yu Xi remained listless until the end of the banquet, at which point the three of them returned to their residence.

All of the systems in this residence had been replaced by Yu Xi. When Yu Xi transformed back into his original shape, he sensed that there was a problem with the data on the control panel.

Yu Xi narrowed his eyes. Kersz watched as his breathing lights switched on. Then, a semi-transparent furry white thing was pulled out of the control panel and pressed to the floor.

Kersz was shocked: “Facai?!”

He had seen the appearance of this Facai system once.

Kersz did suspect that Yara’s family had a secondary terminal for Facai in their hands, but hadn’t expected Yu Xi to expose them in such a way.

He had thought Yu Xi was still asleep.

He had kissed him on the cheek several times.

Facai didn’t respond to Kersz, but began to bark loudly, letting out a pitiful “awoo!” as its back legs kicked the air.

Tau: “Uh….are you sure this is the Facai system?” This looked more like a frightened puppy…..no, a very big dog.

Facai was significantly larger than the average pet dog.

Kersz: “Hiss….”

He wasn’t quite certain, because the last time he saw Facai, this system had acted rather haughty.

Now back to his original size, Yu Xi approached Facai, who stopped barking.

Facai covered his face with his two front paws.

“Facai,” Yu Xi called out.

“What are you going to do?!” Facai cried out abruptly. He scrambled to his feet, his scolding interspersed with barks. “Why are you being so fierce?! I know we cut ties with each other! But you still shouldn’t attack me, ah! What? Are you going to condemn me? I’ve become like this, and you’re still going to condemn me?!”

Yu Xi’s eyes widened.

So they actually knew each other? Kersz was surprised.

“Didn’t I avoid going to see you? Now you’ve shown up on your own! Am I not allowed to look from a distance?” Seeing that Yu Xi wasn’t saying anything, Facai thought he had the upper hand and spoke even faster.

“I don’t know you,” said Yu Xi.

“Ha?! Are you picking a fight with me? Then I don’t know you either! Who are you, ah? What right do you have to keep me here?” Facai jabbered on.

Yu Xi shrugged: “What I mean is that I have no memory of you. Some of my memories are missing.”

Facai froze. A very expressive look of suspicion appeared on his doggy face, as if he was wondering if Yu Xi was messing with him.

Yu Xi had no choice but to tell Facai about how he suddenly discovered one day that his energy was significantly reduced, leading him to realize that he might have deleted a large portion of his memories.

After hearing this, Facai was stunned into a lengthy silence…..and then he burst into tears.

He cried miserably, muttering things like “how could you be so cruel?” and “so you had to forget everyone?”

Watching him cry, Yu Xi was at a loss for what to do.

Yu Xi tried to pet his fur, but Facai dodged away, clearly harboring some resentment toward him.

Left with no choice, Yu Xi could only look toward Kersz.

“What exactly happened between you and Yu Xi back then?” Kersz crouched down and asked Facai, “You used to have a physical body, so how did you become a system?”

Facai glanced at Kersz, then asked Yu Xi: “Is this human your new partner?”

“W-we’re friends,” Yu Xi corrected.

“Ha. Friends.” Facai chuckled mockingly, and then his form shifted.

The enormous dog transformed into a tall, white-haired man. The only difference between him and a human was the pair of dog ears on top of his head.

Seeing him like this immediately piqued Yu Xi’s curiosity: “Um, that…..”

“Are you trying to ask if there are human ears under my hair?” Facai asked Yu Xi.

Yu Xi nodded.

“There are.”

Yu Xi had asked Facai this question many years ago…..of course, this wasn’t the only thing he asked about.

Facai lifted up his hair to show Yu Xi his humanoid ears: “Once we take on a human form, the ears on top of our heads lose their hearing.”

“Oh!” Yu Xi suddenly understood.

Facai then asked him: “Do you want to know why we have two forms, one animal and one human, and why our language is the same as that of the ancient humans?”

Yu Xi nodded repeatedly.

Facai found this even more ridiculous: “We investigated this issue together before.”

Yu Xi: “Have you and I ever gone on adventures together?”

Facai nodded. A semi-transparent screen popped up, and a video automatically began to play.

The first person to appear on the camera was a woman with cat ears: “Today is the 136th day of our adventure! We’ve found another ancient human ruin!”

Facai explained: “You and she used to be very good friends.”

“Ah? Oh.” Yu Xi started to smile at his really good friend, but that smile only lasted a short while before he felt that something was wrong.

“But I have no memory of her.” Yu Xi clasped his hands together. He felt nothing for this “very good friend” whose face was unfamiliar to him.

Facai immediately fell silent.

The video continued to play, and the woman’s face moved aside, revealing Yu Xi behind her.

“Yu Xi! Yu Xi! Do you think we’ll find something like cryogenically-frozen ancient humans here?”

“Then I’ll raise the humans as pets.” The Yu Xi in the video also seemed very excited. “I’ll have them live on my planet, and they’ll reproduce, and then I’ll have countless humans!”

“You’re terrifying. You actually love humans so much that it looks like hate.”

“I’m not scary at all,” Yu Xi retorted.

There were quite a few people in the video, but Yu Xi only recognized Facai.

As Yu Xi watched himself and the others bicker playfully, he had the illusion that he was watching someone else’s story.

The Yu Xi in the video seemed much more cheerful than his current self.

The video finished very quickly, and Yu Xi looked down at his hands, in somewhat of a daze.

Kersz went to Yu Xi and patted him on the back.

“You shouldn’t have left your planet again.” Facai was finally no longer crying.

“Why?” Yu Xi didn’t understand.

“Obviously, the outcome of our adventure wasn’t exactly pleasant,” said Facai. “At first, we were just a bunch of second-generation ancestors with nothing better to do, and decided to go out and discover the origin of those legends.”

“Then we met you. We thought the whole thing was a rather romantic adventure.”

Facai put his hands behind his back: “Just like how in the beginning, we thought our birth was a beautiful thing, that we were created by the gods out of ‘love.’”

“Later, we discovered that this wasn’t the case. Humans created beastfolk out of selfishness. The humans of that era sought only to have complete control over us, and when the troubles the humans caused for themselves became too great, they released us back into the wild. We were released into a place where there were no humans, and human selfishness was romanticized into legend.”

Yu Xi: “Do you hate humanity?”

“Why would I bother hating that bunch of insignificant nobodies?” Facai had never met the ancient humans. “But our origin story isn’t as wonderful as we had imagined….everything is the same in this world.”

“Stories may contain legends, but when those legends are brought down to earth, we inevitably discover the squalor and chaos lying within.”

“You were cuter as a dog,” Kersz couldn’t help saying.

Facai sent him a glare.

“Then why did you become like this?” Yu Xi asked.

“Punishment,” said Facai.

“Punishment for what?” Yu Xi didn’t understand.

“For the most heinous of crimes.” Facai’s statement was very vague.

Yu Xi thought for a moment: “So is your current state related to this group of humans?”

Facai shook his head: “My punishment is related to the beastfolk. Humans have no part in it.”

“During that long period, the beastfolk also developed a magnificent civilization.” At this point, he couldn’t help but hold his head high. “Only spoiled, rich second-gens like me were curious about those legendary apes. They were never of much importance.”

“Then what about the current group of humans?” asked Yu Xi.

“They found me and used me as a ‘weapon from an alien civilization,’” said Facai.

“I understand now.” Yu Xi was very familiar with this feeling.

“Understand what?” Kersz asked.

“He’s like me. He was going to wait for the birth of the second generation of beastfolk society.”

Facai didn’t like humans, and there was no cooperation between them. So why would he allow these humans to use him as a weapon?

The beastfolk civilization was originally derived from human civilization.

There was a new society of humans here, and their communities also included cats and dogs, so it was very likely that a second generation of beastfolk civilization would emerge here.

Facai was most likely waiting for them.

Facai immediately grew agitated: “I’m not ! !”

“Okay, you’re not, you’re not.” Yu Xi didn’t argue with him, because there was no point.

“You only have humans on your mind! You’re judging others by your own standards!” Facai accused him.

“It’s true. Humans are the only thing on my mind.” Yu Xi nodded in acknowledgement.

And lately, it was the same human who kept popping into his thoughts.

“You’re not allowed to suddenly grab me next time! !” Facai turned back into a big white dog and stomped his front paw.

“And you’re not allowed to tell anyone about our meeting, or else I’ll destroy all the labs that might be conducting beastfolk experimentation,” said Yu Xi.

The big white dog was completely shocked: “When did you become so awful?”

Hadn’t Facai just said that he wasn’t waiting for the next generation of beastfolk?

Kersz’s lips twitched. He didn’t have a high estimation of Facai’s intelligence.

The big white dog prepared to leave, but then a thought suddenly occurred to him and he came to a halt.

Facai glanced back at Yu Xi, and his doggy face seemed somewhat conflicted: “Do you have any sort of vague feelings?”

“Vague feelings?” Yu Xi didn’t understand.

“Like feeling particularly disdainful or annoyed when you look at me,” said Facai. “Or perhaps disappointed.”

“I just feel that you howl a lot and make quite a racket,” Yu Xi said seriously.

“Ah….oh, I see, I see…..” Facai was a little embarrassed. He wanted to leave quickly, but as soon as he took a step forward, he couldn’t help but want to ask more questions.

“Under what circumstances would you erase all of your memories, ah?” Facai asked.

“I don’t know.” Yu Xi didn’t yet have such a desire, so he had no answer to give.

“You could still regain your memories…..but forget it, you’d better not.” Facai hung his head. “In any case, there wouldn’t be many good ones.”

Facai left.

Kersz silently wrapped his arms around Yu Xi.

And Tau…..Tau didn’t understand a word they were saying. Facai and Yu Xi had been communicating entirely in the language of the ancient humans, which Kersz only knew to some extent due to his diligent studying.

Tau was actually learning too, but he spent most of his time raising the little dinosaur, so he hadn’t really assimilated the knowledge.

Was he being slightly negligent in his duties?

Never mind, his little dinosaur was probably hungry.

*

*

“What’s this about Facai being depressed?” The Supreme Governor asked his subordinate.

“He keeps sighing. It’s not that we’re listening in on him – he sighs any time someone passes by, as if he wants us to hear,” the subordinate explained.

“What does he want?” the Supreme Governor asked.

“The Facai system hasn’t indicated that he wants anything. He’s just sighing.” The subordinate was somewhat perplexed.

“He hasn’t said a word?” 

“No.” The subordinate was at a loss.

“Then let’s wait and see what he intends to ask for.” The Supreme Governor frowned.

Why had Facai reacted so strongly today of all days? Was there something special about today?

*

*

On the other side, in the wake of Facai’s departure, Yu Xi was about to talk to Kersz. He could tell that the human wanted to comfort him.

Kersz probably thought that Yu Xi’s missing memories weighed heavily on him, and was worried that he would be upset.

But Yu Xi was unable to sit down and have a discussion with Kersz.

Because he discovered that the data stream belonging to the Facai system was still circling around nearby.

“Stop spying on me and my friend!” Yu Xi was very angry.

The moment he said this, the Facai system in the main control room on another planet heaved a sigh.

A staff member drinking nutrient solution: ?

The staff member paused for a moment, then looked at the nutrient solution in his hand.

Yu Xi continued on the other side: “What you’re doing is voyeurism! Be careful, or I’ll drag you out and beat you up!” 

The staff member prepared to take another drink of nutrient solution.

Facai: “Sigh…..”

The staff member: ? ?

He looked left and right.

Yu Xi: “Go, go, go away!”

The staff member prepared to guzzle the nutrient solution in one go.

Facai: “Woof, wuwuwu!”

A moment later, the Supreme Governor in his office let out a hiss and clasped his hands together under his chin: “You’re saying that the Facai system doesn’t want the staff to eat?”

The subordinate: “It’s very obvious. He was so angry that he cried.”

The Supreme Governor was puzzled: “What is the deeper meaning behind this?”

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Chapter 32 << Table of Contents >> Chapter 34