In the room, Number 43 spoke animatedly, memories of the past trickling back as he recounted his story.
"Do you know what it feels like, being in debt and desperate, about to be crushed by others, then someone sells themselves to pay off my debts?"
"Once, I worked myself to death, and when I woke from the brink, seeing her worried face in that moment, do you know what that felt like?"
"No! You don't know, you have no idea, you don't have a clue what Hopelily meant to me!"
"To me, she was everything! All the wounds I suffered outside could heal in her arms! Only after meeting her did I understand what it meant to be alive!"
With a roar of rage, Number 43 fired directly at the robot's face, blasting it to pieces.
As the robot fell to the ground, the room went silent instantly.
He stared blankly at the woman in the picture frame, his thoughts drifting back to the past.
As memories flowed backwards, he seemed to relive those happy moments, but however wonderful, the past was just that, memories.
"Everything... Sun Jack destroyed it all! If not for his damn rebellion against the Holy Grail, we wouldn't have had to scavenge corpses for money! If not for the money, we wouldn't have ventured to other cities! If not for him, Hopelily wouldn't have died!!"
When he returned to the cold room, he stood up embracing the portrait, placing it back in its original spot with extreme care.
He gazed lovingly at the picture frame, "Do you know? I was truly happy—something a person like Sun Jack could never understand in his lifetime. He's just a lunatic obsessed with grand schemes!! Poor sods like him don't even know what love is! They'll never realize that their grand schemes and ideals are built on the backs of people like us!"
"They say 'For the rise of some, many bones must pave the way,' but I refuse to be one of those bones, and I absolutely wouldn't let you be one either! To avenge you, I could be used by anyone!"
No sooner had Number 43 spoken than he looked at the command authorizations, the anger in his eyes growing fiercer, almost gnashing his teeth as he said, "He and his Tapai, they must die, torn to shreds!!"
--------
"Bang! Bang! Bang!" Old Six's graffiti room door was pounded by huge metallic fists.
"Who is it?" Old Six cracked the door open, eyeing Steelheart with a face full of hostility. "What! What do you want!"
Steelheart, with an indifferent expression, extended his thumb and pointed behind him. "Time to work, you're not busy anyway. Take a trip to the Himalayas."
"Fuck you~!"
Old Six flipped a middle finger through the crack in the door. "What's my status now? What's my position, that I still need to do this life-risking stuff? Ever since I started as a mercenary with Sun Jack, I've gambled my entire life away."
"I'm not telling you to go fight, just to make a video, to record the oppression at the base of the Himalayas, better to capture some representative scenes, they say it's to create public momentum for the future attack on the Himalayas, it's not just you, all your fellow streamers need to go, the more comprehensive the footage, the better,"
"I'm not going." Old Six muttered and was just about to close the door when Steelheart wedged his fingertip into the gap. "This is a direct order from Sun Jack himself, you sure you don't want to go?"
The mention of Sun Jack made Old Six a bit sheepish; Sun Jack's hyperthyroidism was getting worse by the day, it was better not to provoke him.
"Since it's a gig from mybroD, I'll give him the respect. You go ahead; I'll be there in a minute!" Old Six said, about to close the door again.
"Damn, why are you closing the door, it's broad daylight. Hurry up, stop dawdling."
As the noise outside faded, Old Six let out a sigh of relief. He walked to the bedside and looked at Hopelily lying there on her side.
The Hopelily that Number 43 daydreamed about was now quietly lying on Old Six's bed.
Even devoid of life, she still looked vivid, almost as if she had just fallen asleep.
Although he had buried his mother in the finest cemetery in Metropolis, after seeing Sun Jack secretly plant nuclear bombs beneath the city, he had exhumed her and secretly hidden her in his room.
Indeed, he had made the right choice. Otherwise, his mother's body would have been blown to smithereens by the nuclear bomb.
"Mother, I might be going away for a while." Old Six bent down, hugged his mother's body, and made small talk.
Truth be told, this felt quite nice. Old Six thought this was okay, to always have the company of family.
"If you get lonely while I'm gone, you can chat with your daughter-in-law." Old Six handed her the pink toy next to her.
"Jackhammer, activate the shared screen recording mode." As soon as Old Six spoke, a mechanical female voice came from the toy. "Shared screen recording mode is now on."
When Old Six saw the live feed of his room appear on his system's interface, he finally felt at ease and turned to leave.
"Alright, all you little bitches and bastards, it's your Boss Old Six PUS speaking. Time to get to work." As Old Six spoke in the department channel, the response was immediate.
Once a department director of HR at Utopia Security, Old Six still preferred to be an internet water army, stirring up the hype and leading discussions. After all, this was his live streaming forte, and he had a knack for it.
In recent times, Sun Jack needed cooperation in public opinion, and his team had done a great job with that.
It was all because of himself; Sun Jack hadn't lost thanks to him. He had always endured in silence, tragically unnoticed for his talent.
By the time he arrived at the Floating Port, he found the others were already there, except for Steelheart and Priest.
"Priest, you going too?" Old Six greeted him warmly, but Priest ignored him.
Besides them, there were clearly others on the deck of the Spacecraft Carrier, but it was obvious that they couldn't all go together; the target would be too obvious. Clearly, they were going to proceed in groups.
A Hover Shuttle that could only seat six people stopped in front of them. They got on without hesitation.
Facing the new city, Old Six looked forward with anticipation, "The Himalayas, huh? I've heard about this city from The Previous Epoch. I heard because of that, the people from class three wanted to blow it up, but failed, and it was quite the debacle."
"Don't believe the rumors; seeing is believing," Sun Jack walked in, but this time, Tapai wasn't following him.
"Bro? You're going too? Aren't you afraid of getting assassinated?" Old Six asked in astonishment.