China, 2209
"Xinyi, you have ten missed calls and thirteen unread messages from Zi Wengcheng. Should I tell him not to contact you anymore?"
Zhao Xinyi's hands that were recording a just completed research paused as she glanced at the robot pen beside her.
"Also, in the last ten days, he has not crossed your mind," the robot continued.
As her personal creation, Zhao Xinyi had connected Ray to her brain waves, and it could tell everything that was going on in her mind.
But she had done it for the purpose of research and not because of matters like this. Irritation flashed through her eyes and her nose scrunched upwards.
"Ray, there are ten research reports that I'm expecting from you. Since when is Zi Wengcheng one of them?"
Seeing that there was no response from the pen, she went back to her recording, but it was barely up to a minute when Ray's voice rang out again.
"Xinyi, Team leader Fang has called for you a third time. She also sent a message that she is with the President.
This time, Xinyi sighed and dropped what she was working on.
Even though she didn't need words to communicate with Ray, she still instructed it as she changed out of her laboratory gear.
"Ray, make sure that all particles are kept at the exact same position and energy level as I have left them. I would go to the president's office now."
After entering the right details to make sure that nothing would happen to the ongoing research in her laboratory, Zhao Xinyi made her way to the inner parts of the government house.
At twenty-two, she had one of the highest level passes, and she could see even the president without filling out any application form. Although she was a level 11 citizen, it was not enough to have a full pass to the president. However, the importance of the research team that Zhao Xinyi was on made the President happy to give her full access.
With her mind still on her experiment, her steps were brisk and she barely managed to wave at everyone that greeted her.
As soon as she arrived at the doors that led to the president's inner office, she swiped her fingers on the scanner and allowed the top-grade recognition security scanner to scan her entire body.
"Xiao Yi, you are here." The president and a woman in her early forties said at the same time with broad smiles.
Fang Yijun, Zhao Xinyi's team leader, stood up to hug Zhao Xinyi.
"Your laboratory line was off. I had assumed that you would take a while before getting the chance to come."
"Ray must have sensed a trace of urgency in your words and decided to announce in such a way that left me no choice but to leave the experiment alone."
The president chuckled at her reply while Fang Yijun pulled out a seat for Zhao Xinyi.
"If we give it a few more months, Ray might be able to become the smartest invention the world has ever seen." She commented and Xinyi nodded, agreeing with her theory.
"It's a good thing you decided to take Xinyi under your wing that year back." The president added as he nodded his head in approval.
The world has advanced rapidly in the last two centuries. And to remain on top, the pressure on the government and ruler was even more.
After all, they were the steering wheel. And in this time and age. The group that held the leading technology and winning cards held the right to rule.
Eight years ago, Zhao Xinyi, who had only just joined Fang Yijun's team, made a groundbreaking discovery on brainwave-harnessing technology.
Not only were the prospects endless, but its current capabilities had already changed the entire future of technology in the world.
Because of her brainwave discovery, Fang Yijun had been brought to the government house by the president before anyone else had the chance to snatch her up.
Fang Yijun had also become one of the world's most famous scientists and an acclaimed genius.
After all, for people that had no idea what went on within their team, they would not have imagined that the fourteen-year-old girl on the team was the one to have made such a ground-breaking discovery.
And now, eight years later, Zhao Xinyi was working on expanding what the brainwave technology could do.
She had created and trained a robot like Ray to reach human-like perfection. More importantly, she had been able to build Ray in such a small size, making it easy to carry around.
The first series of experiments and training carried out on Ray had been tedious but eventually successful as she had been able to link Ray to her brainwaves, allowing it to read through her every thought.
After some small talk about her experiments and how she was doing, Fang Yijun, who was like a guardian to Zhao Xinyi, changed the topic.
"Xinyi, the Yanmen seem to have taken action. The government cannot take action at this sensitive time. We need a neutral power to stop them before they go too far."
Zhao Xinyi barely paid attention to the news or most of the things happening outside her laboratory. She was so much of a recluse that more than half of the technologies she had invented and created had been credited to the government.
As an orphan, she was free from most of the worries that others had and just wanted to lose herself in her research.
But she knew enough from her conversations with Fang Yijun, a trusted friend of the president, to know that the Yanmen had constantly caused trouble.
Now that they had gotten to a point where even the government wanted to act, she needed to step in.
"I was going to deploy a team. But your master insists that you are the only one we can trust when dealing with the Yanmen," the president added from the side.
"How soon? I haven't practised my martial arts recently, but I can ask Ray to create some weapons that we can use on them. It already has the configurations and the…."
Before she could sink into her world of science, Fang Yijun interrupted, her doting smile still fixed on her face.
"Xiao Yi, it has to be done before the sun rises. I have arranged a team for you and they are waiting in the weapons room."
"Now?" Her brows scrunched up while her eyes flashed with a suspicious light.
She had lived in the government house for eight years and knew their things were usually never done on short notice.
To carry out an important mission like this on such short notice made her suspicious.
"I can't work with anyone on a mission like that. Give me two days, and I can create a plan to help us break into their organisation and return safely." Zhao Xinyi said, doing her best at yielding.
If anyone else were in the room at that moment, they would have their mouths hanging open in shock at her reply. After all, there weren't up to three people that could disagree or try to bargain with Fang Yijun, not to mention the president.
"It just came up. More importantly, they plan on raiding one of our top storages. It might be too late if we don't take action now."
Zhao Xinyi watched as Fang Yijun sighed heavily and stood up. She crouched in front of her.
"Xinyi, I have watched you grow. If it weren't this important, I would never call you my biggest trump card to go forward, but there's no one else I can trust like you."
"Do we have an estimate on the people going for the raid? Perhaps, having some sect join me would be safer than going with people from here." Zhao Xinyi asked, starting to relent under her master's persuasion.
Although the government house also had its martial artists, their world advanced quickly in the last few years. Certain sects had exceptional martial art skills and they kept it exclusive.
The rest of the world had learnt to rely on the rapidly growing technology.
"The team you are going with is made up of all level 10 citizens. It's better to attack the Yanmen's martial arts with our technology. Since you are skilled in both, you would lead the team."
"Even though the Yanmen team are all proficient with martial arts, they are a mix of level 8 and level 9 members."
Zhao Xinyi looked at her master for a while before nodding. Even though she had a tingling feeling in the bottom of her stomach, she couldn't pinpoint what it was.
But since she was the type to plan anything carefully, she shook it off as her control instinct acting up.
"Since it's important, I would take Ray with me to ensure we wipe all their leaders out." She stood up, thinking the discussion was over.
"Xinyi, you can't take Ray. Ray is a top-level secret. Not only do your team members not know about it, but we also can't let the world know about it…."
"Leave Ray behind. I'm sure it won't miss you too much."
"Also, your martial arts skill is the best way to enter the depths of the warehouse. After all, no mind can remain firm under the seduction from your martial arts." Fang Yijun added, sealing the discussion with that point.
Although she wasn't a stellar beauty, one of the martial skills that she had practised on the side was based on the act of seduction and would make a person's soul and mind weak.
In addition to her strength and other skills learnt, this skill made winning against men easier since she could easily control their souls and beat them with minimal effort.
Xinyi didn't like the skill as much as her master and had long since stopped practising it. However, she said nothing and nodded in agreement to the plan.
Xinyi left the room after they discussed some more details of the plan. Returning to her research, her mind skimmed through the conversation again. But no matter how much she replayed it, she couldn't find anything wrong.
"I already told you to take me along. If you had made me that watch casing I asked for, perhaps you wouldn't have to put that little human brain of yours through so much stress." Ray's human-like voice rang out.
Since it was a technology connected to its user's brainwaves, Ray could quickly tell that she was trying to figure out what could go wrong with the plan.
"My little human brain made you remember? Plus, don't you ever shut up?" Xinyi snapped at the robotic pen.
She had planned to make it into a wristwatch. However, she couldn't tell what configuration had gone wrong. The robot talked a little too much, even when it wasn't asked. It was like having some annoying friend watching her back.
And so when she was done, she had made it into a pen to remind Ray that she could be locked up in a cupboard forever, like other pens. Ray, clearly, didn't feel threatened.
"Ray, we have to halt every project in the laboratory for a maximum of twelve hours…."
"I'll set everything to disable and erase if the twelve-hour limit passes, and we aren't back," Ray finished for her, reading her thoughts.
Ray backed up every work in her laboratory. Even if the copies in the lab self-erased, as long as she had Ray, she had them all.