Star Rank Hunter

Xi Kai didn’t answer Cilin’s question. Everything he said earlier was known to all the previous heads of Black Viper, so he had no reason to hide it from Cillin who was the new head of the organization. Moreover, it was a good topic to use to show his sincerity. However, anything deeper than that was a family secret, and he had no intention of divulging them to Cillin right now.

Cillin asked another question after hearing no reply from Xi Kai, “Do you know where your ancestors come from? Do you know where their homeworld is?”

Xi Kai still didn’t say anything, but this time Cillin had a feeling the man himself didn’t know the answer to that question. If he did, he would’ve tried a different way to get the answers he wanted instead of spending all his energy on recreating the Original robots.

“Never mind. What do you want from me?” Cillin asked.

Xi Kai finally broke his silence. “The Xi Family was never able to create another Original robot since the original five. No matter how much effort and time we put in—we even lost two Original robots in the process—all we ever managed to create was an imitation of the real thing.

According to the final records of our ancestors, the brains of the two Original robots they dissected for their research was an amalgamation of a kind of coordination compound. It was why their quasi-brains were closer to a human’s than that of a robot. Actually, I would like to correct myself. They are exactly like humans, and the only difference between them and us is that they have a metallic body. They have their own independent consciousness, they are capable of divergent thinking, and they can pick all kinds of unique habits that form their personality.

We know that the coordination compound that made up their brains is critical to our research, but to this day the molecular formula eludes us even after we sacrificed two Original robots in the name of research. There were barely any records regarding this coordination compound as well.”

Cillin didn’t realize that the material that made up Sigma’s brain was so special until Xi Kai mentioned it. In fact, it looked like the key to recreating the Original robots was this unknown coordination compound.

“Is there no other way? What about a substitute?”

“We tried. The Xi Family had been trying to find a coordination compound that might work as a replacement for generations, but to no avail. No matter how close we got, it just wasn’t close enough to match the Original robots. Anyone who met the Original robots before would know that their creation was nothing but a defect with a pretty shell.”

Xi Kai gave an example in order to make things clearer for Cillin. “You’ve seen my robots. They may look expressive and emotional, but they’re actually not. For example, I taught a robot how to draw a straight line, but when I try to teach it how to draw other pictures, the result isn’t what I imagine it should be. It’s because it lacks the ability to learn a different type of line. It can create the most gorgeous drawings in the world, but the basis of those drawings will always be the straight line it was taught. It can never learn how to draw a curve on its own.”

Xi Kai moved his finger once and brought up a light screen. First, he drew a straight line on the screen. Next, he drew a circle next to the straight line.

“This is how we humans learn. What about the robots we created?” Xi Kai started drawing something that looked like a circle. And why wasn’t it actually a circle? It was because the circle was made entirely from straight lines. It looked nothing like the smooth, round circle Xi Kai had drawn.

“We’ve researched the Original robots for a long time now, and today our so-called ‘Original’ robot looks something like this.”

Xi Kai moved his finger again, and this time the jagged circle looked much smoother than before. However, the reason for the smoothness wasn’t because the robot learned how to draw a curve, but because more straight lines had been added to the circle.

Even if the final circle looked as smooth as butter, it didn’t change the fact that it was made up of straight lines.

In a sense, it was similar to what people called cognitive rigidity. The academic circles considered it a dangerous condition, and the teacher or the education system that raised a student like this was considered a failure. It was the reason why the test questions of AF1 were as weird as they were. They were meant to test a student’s personality, behavior and mode of thought. For example, two different people could look at the same picture and notice completely different things.

AF1 and AF2 didn’t accept students with rigid thinking.

Research was about innovation and flexibility. The beauty of thought lies in its creativity..

A rigid thinker could be a good soldier or an obedient student, but never a ruler or a politician. This was why the researchers of the Xi Family were dissatisfied with their creation.

“At the beginning, the robot we created is like a blank slate. If we taught it how to draw in a straight line, it’ll always draw in a straight line. If we taught it how to draw a circle, it’ll always draw in circles. Everything it learns afterward is based on the first lesson it was taught. It can never stray from its initial programming.

The robots who picked up the straight lines are similar to pure machines. They are nothing but humanoid calculators. The robots who learned how to express emotions are just as rigid in that they can do nothing more but ‘draw circles’. However, the coordination compound that made up the Original robots’ brain is something that allowed both positives to be combined, enabling the final product to learn new drawing methods on its own, and express independent thought and emotions.”

Cillin nodded understandingly. He suddenly recalled Czedow, the robot he created before he arrived at this star system. He had made Czedow using the best qualities of the liquid nucleus chip technology, but he also made some tweaks and added that mysterious substance in the end. It was why he was successful in creating Czedow. In fact, now that he thought about it, Czedow was very similar to the ideal robot Xi Kai described. Czedow felt stiff and emotionless, but that was only because he was freshly created and hadn’t had too much time to pick up human emotions and expressions. He wondered how the gang was doing right now.

Xi Kai didn’t break Cillin out of his daydream. He was thirsty and needed a drink anyway. He curled his fingers a bit, and the robot standing next to him passed him a cup of tea. While he was wetting his throat, he waited patiently for Cillin to give him a response. If what he heard from the heads were true, Cillin’s participation should push the project a step further. It might not be a small step, but even the smallest progress was significant at this point. The descendants of the Xi Family had barely made any headway since the research landed in their laps, and what looked like perfection to an outsider was nothing but defects that barely achieved any advancement since too long ago to Xi Kai.

Wheeze cocked its head in confusion. Xi Kai’s explanation made no sense to it probably because it was a half-cyborg, but it wasn’t so stupid that it couldn’t understand one simple fact: these idiots didn’t have their ancestor’s technology at all!! Without their ancestor’s technology, it might actually be impossible to go home! If they couldn’t go home, then they might be stuck in this stupid ass empire forever! Meowfucker!

Wheeze glared at Xi Kai and asked in an ominous tone, “You’re saying that there are two other Original robots beside Sigma?”

“Pwah—COUGHCOUGHCOUGHCOUGHCOUGHCOUGH”

Tea spilled out of Xi Kai’s mouth and even his nose. The innocent question made him cough so hard it felt like his lungs were threatening to pop out of his throat. But he didn’t even bother wiping his mouth as he blurted, “W-w-w-w-w-what did you say?!!!”

“I-I-I-I-I-I-I said if there are two other Original robots beside Sigma!”

Cillin felt like smiling when he heard Wheeze’s reply. He looked away from the light screen and flicked it in the ear.

Xi Kai finally wiped the water on his face before sucking in a deep breath to calm himself down. He tried to act serious, but he couldn’t even control the tremor in his voice, much less the excitement overpowering his features.

“You... you know Sigma?”

This time it was Wheeze’s turn to fall silent. Realizing that it had slipped up, Wheeze shot Cillin a look to make sure that the latter wasn’t angry before curling its tail into a question mark. Then, it closed its eyes and pretended to be asleep.

At this point, Xi Kai was fully certain that Cillin and Wheeze’s knowledge of Sigma wasn’t falsehood or something they had found out from Black Viper. It was because their info was known only to the successor of the Xi Family. Not even a family member of the Xi Family was aware of the details. The problem was not many people actually thought optimistically of the successor’s inherited duty to recreate their ancestor’s technology because they thought that robots were just robots, and that they could never develop divergent thinking or personalities. Robots were constructs who obeyed only their orders and their programming, so how could they possibly evolve into an independent entity of their own? It was one of the reasons why they didn’t acknowledge the Original robots existed, and thought of their project as an ideal that their ancestors had left behind for them to complete.

Someone might ask: why not just show these disbelievers an Original robot? That would surely shut up their mouths, right? Xi Kai would’ve groaned if someone had asked him that question. The answer was that they couldn’t, not since several centuries ago.

There was zero information about the Original robots in Black Viper’s network, and he would’ve known if Cillin had hacked into his private network. Besides that, the only ones who knew about them were him and a couple of special robots.

“Where... is Sigma?” Xi Kai was a steady guy, but he was positively shaking when he asked the question. He had never shaken like this even when he was creating a new batch of experimental robots.

Cillin shook his head. “We can’t find it. As you mentioned yourself, I want to know more about your ancestor’s technology.”

He got up to his feet and said, “Take some time to think, will you? Some things are better dealt with honesty than secrecy. A secret will never be anything more but a secret if you never divulge it, and it’s unrealistic to expect others to solve your secret without telling them what it is in the first place. I hope we’ll be able to have a more sincere conversation after my mission is complete.”

Cillin wasn’t expecting Xi Kai to divulge his secrets from the start. Sincerity was a thing that could only be tested with time, and considering how long he had already waited he didn’t mind waiting just a bit longer to get his answer. He could only make some real decisions once Xi Kai had gotten over himself and told him everything. But before that happened, both of them were just wasting each other’s time.

“We’re leaving like this? You sure you don’t have another question to shoot?” Wheeze looked reluctant to leave. They had learned far less than they hoped for from this trip.

“He’ll speak more if we give him some time.”

Wheeze kneaded its paws for a bit. “I wonder how Sigma would react if it learns that its siblings were broken by the Xi Family’s experiment.”

Cillin patted the plotting cat before saying, “Something big must’ve happened back then. Sigma said that his master took a lot of people with him on his journey, but it’s starting to look like that isn’t the case.”

The duo returned to the spaceplane and left the space fortress. Xi Kai stared wordlessly at the departing vehicle on a giant screen before taking out a necklace and pressing a button on it. The necklace then displayed a hologram of the five Original robots. It was literally the most precious thing his ancestor had left behind after his passing; a record of the lives of the five Origin robots after they were born.

Xi Kai stared at a robot that was swinging its arms and spinning in circles. He then tried to touch it with his finger. However, the hologram was just a hologram, and his fingers went through the image like it wasn’t there. His finger followed the spinning robot that was being chased by two other robots.

“Sigma...”

...

Beside giving Xi Kai some time to think, the other reason Cillin left so soon was because he had received a couple of messages and missed calls during the conversation. He just hadn’t checked or answered them because Xi Kai was speaking at the time.

The calls came from Gen Xingming and the gang, especially Bel. There were also a couple of missed call messages and actual messages from unknown numbers. If he wasn’t mistaken, the people trying to contact him belonged to the Blazing Eagle Royal Family. They probably wanted to thank him for creating a cure for the Zebra Virus in time and saving their queen’s life.

His suspicions were confirmed to be correct when he called Bel. When the latter heard that he was already on the road, he insisted on thanking Cillin properly after he finished his mission and returned to the capital. Beside that, he also congratulated Cillin for entering the RAS while he was still a student. Cillin was now famous throughout the affiliated schools as the student who was appointed as an honorary scholar before he even graduated from AF1, and his achievement was the subject of much envy and jealousy.

“You don’t know this Cillin, but when some of my freeloaders heard about your glorious achievements their eyes literally turned red with jealousy! One of them had a bit too much of a drink and said something like, ‘so what if he’s a scholar? He’s still going to get his ass kicked by a space robber if he travels into space without military protection!’ after he saw your picture at the first place of AF3’s ranking board. You know what Gaga did? He beat him so hard that his own mother wouldn’t recognize his face! That guy’s just jealous, you see. He’s good at physical things, but he’s trash in everything else, especially those that require him to employ half his brain. Seriously though, whoever said that bookworms are weak pieces of shit? You could probably put that idiot down in one punch if he ever ran into you!”

Cillin smiled through the entire conversation while Bel prattled on and on like a machine gun. Thank goodness he left the school on a mission, or Bel could probably talk him to his grave. These students—especially the young nobles who studied in AF3—were like a piece of bubblegum stuck to the bottom of your shoes. They were impossible to get rid of once they began their antics.

“Cillin, how many bodyguards did you bring with you?” Bel asked a bit worriedly after he was finally done prattling about school. He knew that Cillin disliked carrying bodyguards with him.

“It’s just me and Wheeze.”

“I... I see. You haven’t actually run into any space robbers, have you? The empire’s patrols can’t be everywhere, you know.”

“No. Honestly, I haven’t run into a single space robber since I came to the empire. Are you worried that what that guy said would come true?”

“Yeah, him and his stupid mouth.” Gaga wouldn’t have beaten the living shit out of him otherwise. “Ahem. Anyway, just keep an eye out is what I’m trying to say. Be ready to make a run for it if anything does happen, yeah?”

“Don’t worry, I know.”

Cillin ended the call after they talked for a few more minutes.

“Space robbers, huh,” Wheeze said dreamily while swinging its tail. Those were the times~

Cillin shook his head. The cat was getting restless because it had a bit too much sleep recently.

To the great disappointment of Wheeze, they didn’t encounter any space robbers as they entered the twenty third star region. In fact, the number of patrols in the area visibly increased after they entered the star region, making the chances of encountering a space robber even lower than it already was. It was understandable though. What kind of idiot would try something where the space patrols were right around the corner?

Cillin’s arrival didn’t draw anyone’s attention. Since his spaceplane didn’t fall under the category of a tourist ship, a transport ship or a noble’s fleet, it was mandatory for him to check his ship at an official inspection point. If it was found out that he had illegally entered the star region, an armed force would be sent to block him. Normally, these people didn’t give a shit if you lived or died while they were cornering you. Cannons had no eyes, and if you were blasted to smithereens because you were too lazy to pay the toll, well, unlucky you.

Cillin didn’t request for q special permission this time. He simply obeyed the standard protocol and entered an inspection point on the official route. Once he got close enough, he made a call request and entered his ID data after receiving an automated prompt.

Inside the inspection space station.

“Yo! You have a lot of free time or something? It’s rare to see your face around here.” A man in a high level office teased the guest who just walked through his door.

The guest dropped his ass on the sofa and grabbed a pack of food from a nearby cabinet like he owned the place. Then, he entered a password and pulled two bottles of wine before tossing one of it into the hands of the man sitting on the office chair.

The duo were enjoying a casual conversation and a good time when the communicator on the table rang all of a sudden.

“Boss, a strange-looking spaceplane just dropped in our station.”

The subordinate sent over the scan data and pilot data, and the office man checked them right in front of his guest, unworried that the latter could see everything.

When the guy on the sofa saw the pilot data though, he rose to his feet and exclaimed in surprise, “What the fuck? Why is he here?!”