The next day at noon, within the logistics department of Utopia Security, Tapai reactivated from an offline state. He looked down at his chest where a miniature reactor was operating steadily.
"All set, Tapai! We've installed the latest version of the nuclear battery I designed. With it, you'll never need to recharge again." Two AAs wearing exoskeleton armor stood on either side of Tapai, their small tiger teeth showing as they smiled and spoke to him.
"Is it safe?" Tapai asked.
"Of course, it's safe! Right now, my head is filled with technical chips related to this, my technology is countless times more powerful than before!" AA proudly showed off the dense array of chips behind his ears.
Perhaps because of a girl's love for beauty, AA had also colored each chip bright and vibrant, resembling a large colorful tattoo behind his ears.
"Didn't Sun Jack open source DNA programming technology? As the department head of logistics, haven't you spent any Talent Points in that area?"
Tapai got off the bed and started picking out prosthetic bodies from AA's collection. He spotted more advanced ones and didn't ask questions; he simply took off the old ones and fitted the new ones on himself.
"I still prefer playing with iron gadgets, I'm not interested in that field. If you want a flesh-made body, then you need to go to Gaofeng Technology and look for Delete and the others."
AA spread his arms and gently hugged the other AA from behind, tilting his head and resting it on her shoulder. "Right, right, Ms. Xiao Ding's Weike Medical seems to be working on that too."
"That means we have a common interest. I don't like flesh-made ones either."
The AAs, upon hearing this, became instantly gossipy and leaned in to ask, "Why? Is it because Boss likes metal-made ones?"
"Little A, you're picking up bad habits." Tapai reached out and tapped on her head.
"I am not! Nowadays, everyone is very open-minded, and a romance with a machine isn't a big deal, Tapai." As if to comfort, AA patted Tapai all over, making a 'pang pang' sound with her hands.
"Mind your own business, Japanese girl. I've heard you've come up with something new again? Had Linda Linda switch into your body and appearance, and then the two of you went to the accountant's mucus pool to play?"
"Who told you that! It's a rumor! Absolutely a rumor!!" AA said, stomping her feet angrily.
Tapai bent his mechanical fingers and knocked twice forcefully on AA's head, the metallic clang echoing twice. "You know that's a rumor? Then have you ever thought that the stuff you hear about me and Sun Jack might also be rumors?!"
Watching AA run off while holding her head, Sun Jack directly called Sun Jie. "Hey, scruff, are you awake yet? Time to get up and work."
"I'm already in the meeting room, I've been in conference with the Metropolitan Federation for the past 10 minutes, come over."
"Be right there." Sun Jieke picked up a trench coat from a mechanical arm nearby, draped it over himself, then grabbed a bright yellow spray paint can and sprayed a smiley emoticon across his chest at an angle, getting ready to head out.
Just as he was about to leave, the system suddenly received an encrypted communication on a very special frequency.
"Tapai, it's me, Sun Jieke. That Sun Jieke's original body beside you is a fake!"
The moment he heard this, Tapai's system began to rapidly overload with calculations. After a careful analysis, he initially concluded that it was a tactic by Sun Jieke's enemies to sow discord, with a credibility of no more than 2%.
But it was precisely this 2% chance that stopped him from immediately hanging up the phone. "Why should I believe that he's the fake one and you're the real one? Show me your evidence."
"I have no evidence. The Sun Jieke beside you does indeed look a lot like me; for all I know, he's even using my previous body, and the consciousness and cognition are genuine. However, the FFP has added a lot of other stuff into it."
"I know you'll doubt me, thinking I'm misleading you, but you don't have to trust me 100%. Just keep an eye on that guy, and you'll see that he's going to do everything in his power to sabotage what we've worked so hard to achieve. He'll damage my global reputation to the greatest extent and completely nullify the previous exemplary effect, making all our efforts for naught!"
"But you just need to remember one thing – that's not what Sun Jieke would do. He's a fake!"
Tapai continued to think rapidly. A few seconds later, he spoke, "Tell me your location, I need to find you so I can identify you myself."
He began to use hacking techniques to locate the source of the encrypted communication but couldn't find it at all.
Meanwhile, the communication on Sun Jieke's end also became fuzzy and distorted as if it had been interfered with.
"Don't bother, don't come looking for me, and don't try to save me. I'm going to try everything to die, so they can't control me anymore to threaten you."
"Tell the other clones to act as if the original has died, to not forget their initial resolve, and to keep persevering."
"Also... Tapai, you have to keep on living well, too."
"Wait a minute, let me understand this first!" Tapai replied, but there was no new response from the other end; the signal had already been cut off.
"Which Sun Jieke is the real one? Which one is which?" The percentages of probability for each possibility kept shifting.
Suddenly, Tapai moved. His legs folded rapidly as he dashed toward the meeting room.
As soon as he arrived at the meeting room, he saw Sun Jieke sitting there, with two cigarettes in his mouth, negotiating something with the other members of the Metropolitan Federation.
Seeing Tapai barge in, Sun Jieke nodded at him and continued the meeting, "Stop talking nonsense. Of course, I know your little schemes. Out with it. As long as you all behave, I can let you stay in your current positions."
"For how long? A year, three years, or a lifetime? You used to be with the Rat Alliance Battle Line, would you really let us capitalists stay in Metropolis forever? Tell us, we don't believe you."
Sun Jieke looked around the room, his mechanical arm emphatically slamming on the table, "What? Not content with the soft approach, you prefer the hard one, right? Listen well to what I have to say. Considering the things you've done in the past, dying a hundred times wouldn't be enough to even the score!"
Confronted with Sun Jieke's threat, these people weren't planning on a direct confrontation; they seemed to have already thought of a strategy prior to their arrival.
"We know you definitely wouldn't allow this situation to continue, so we've come up with a compromise. Hand over the Holy Grail's technology of immortality to us, and we can gradually withdraw our capital from this city, giving up all our positions. From now on, Metropolis will be yours, Sun Jieke, and yours alone."