The first thing Joachim did after leaving the Taixu Martial Arts School was return to his rented apartment.
He had chosen a good location for his hideout. There were enough surveillance systems around, with no obvious loopholes, so it wouldn't be a priority area for investigation.
At the same time, the surveillance systems were not densely packed. For someone like him, although the surveillance was tight, there were still vulnerabilities.
Joachim, carrying a breakfast he had snatched from a local student on the way, gently pushed the door open, trying his best not to let the door of the old rented apartment make any noise.
He was successful. Joachim squeezed sideways through the narrow opening and immediately saw Yae Rin lying on the bed, the blanket twisted into a vortex.
This child's sleeping posture is a bit poor... but it's a good thing. At least the child is lively and active. It shows that she is psychologically healthy, not some lifeless consumable from an illegal laboratory.
Joachim's heart suddenly felt a little heavy.
Such illegal experiments were strictly prohibited in the City of the Future. And with the absolute surveillance of Sequence Zero, such situations had been completely eliminated within the city.
But outside the City of the Future, in places that Sequence Zero couldn't monitor, how many such experiments were there?
Even within the City of the Future, there would be people who left for these "experimental consumables"... these people were one of the few reasons why the City of the Future would take strong action against the outside world.
And depending on the former status of the person who left, the City of the Future's attitude would be different.
If it was just someone registered in the City of the Future, then only one or two specialists would be dispatched. But if the person who left had once reached the core circle, then even Joyce would have a reason to act.
Just like this recent incident, Joyce personally led several scholars from the core circle out of the City of the Future and went to Siberia.
It was said that a former Saint Hand and a core member who had participated in the construction of Xanadu had joined forces and, with a large group of middle-aged and young scholars, had built a Tower of Babel in the Siberian snowfields.
It wasn't a bad thing for research scholars to become independent. The place of their independence being in war-torn Siberia was also not a problem. The City of the Future didn't even care if they used its flag.
But they were collecting a large number of victims and sufferers in the war, a considerable number of whom were old people, women, and children?
This was a big problem!!
About a month ago, Joyce had already set off. And it was unknown if it was because of the situation in Siberia, but Joyce had gone missing again!
That's right, this wasn't the first time he had gone missing. In fact, he went missing almost every time he went out.
Including the time he was sent to a Shenzhou prison by the righteous Kaslanas for smuggling. Joyce was actually missing at that time too.
This kind of disappearance usually didn't seem like a problem, because most of the time, the decision-making level of the City of the Future was Sequence Zero. In an emergency, Albert, who was stationed in the City of the Future, could also make decisions on their behalf.
But this time was different.
The world was about to be destroyed, so what about the person who had once changed the world?
You must know, he had gotten an important piece of information from Fu Hua and the others—an AI Self-Help Association had appeared in the City of the Future!
Why "self-help" and not "self-governance"?
What about the other people in the City of the Future? Did the Honkai paralyze the City of the Future too?
Thinking that the Honkai had been erupting for a full six months, and the most powerful organization in the world was actually a Fire Moth built from scratch, Joachim couldn't help but think in the direction of "something happened to the City of the Future."
Something must have happened to the City of the Future, because there was no leader.
The Honkai would descend on the City of the Future before Joyce could. If the City of the Future, as Fu Hua and the others said, had lost more than 99.99% of its personnel, then the City of the Future would indeed be paralyzed...
...not a chance.
Why would Sequence Zero be paralyzed?! Even if everyone in the City of the Future died, Sequence Zero could take over all the facilities of the City of the Future and aid the whole world with the power of AI!
Instead of an AI Self-Help Association appearing!
Joachim's face grew darker the more he thought about it. This was something he had analyzed at the Taixu Martial Arts School. But just as Fu Hua and the others had hidden from him the fact that Shu Xu was a transmigrator, Joachim had hidden this point from them with the same feeling.
Something was wrong with Sequence Zero. Of everyone present, only Joachim could understand how serious this problem was.
Sequence Zero had the highest authority to mobilize all materials and equipment of the City of the Future, except for itself, including the three hundred and sixty-five White Blood Cell arrays in low-earth orbit.
And thinking about the monstrous Herrschers Kallen had mentioned, Joachim had to consider a possibility.
The problem with Sequence Zero originated from a certain Herrscher...
And the Herrschers were hostile to humans.
My God, don't tell me there's going to be a White Blood Cell cleanup in the future?
Thinking about two of the three great miracles created by the City of the Future joining forces to turn all the power contained on Earth into disordered energy, thus tearing the Earth apart into another "asteroid belt" in the solar system, Joachim felt a headache.
No, I must contact Joyce...
At the very least, I need to contact Albert and have her retract part of Sequence Zero's control over the White Blood Cell array. And the AI Self-Help Association, that too... ugh... I feel like that Albert would actually focus on these AIs.
She liked these things too much.
"Sigh..."
Joachim sighed deeply and gently placed the still-warm breakfast on the bedside table.
But looking at Yae Rin's defenseless sleeping face, the heaviness in his heart, caused by the situation in the City of the Future and the world, was strangely diluted a little.
He was silent for a long time, then walked to the bedside, reached out, and very gently tucked in the blanket that the child had kicked off, his movements so skilled that he didn't seem like a pampered "prince," but more like a brother who had taken care of his younger siblings for many years.
After doing all this, he retreated to the simple desk in the corner of the room, took off a bracelet from his wrist, and placed it on the desk.
The next moment, the seemingly ordinary alloy bracelet actually began to "proliferate" and "disassemble."
Sub-quantum state storage technology, nanorobot recombination technology... various high-tech that shouldn't appear here formed a helmet full of science fiction sense.
Human Brain Computer—one of the taboos of the City of the Future, and a technology that Schrodinger had temporarily used on Noah's Ark.
In extraordinary times, one must use unconventional technology.
Joachim took off his glasses, put on the helmet, and closed his eyes.
After taking a deep breath, a very brief sense of weightlessness came over him. The next moment, even though his eyes were closed, a realistic image unfolded before him.
"Yo, isn't it the Arahata brat? What, had your fun out there? Finally willing to come back?"