The Almighty Ring

“Alright, we’re alone now. Let’s talk.” Jiang Fei smiled at Z0-11. He was still clueless about what the secret meeting was about.

“PLOP!”

Z0-11 took out a small box and placed it on the table in front of them before saying anything. The box emitted a wave of energy that emanated throughout the entire room. The energy it produced was neither offensive or defensive in nature, but merely scanned the room for bugs and set up a privacy field to make sure that Bella and Ariel outside could not listen to their conversation.

“Hoho, is that really necessary?”

Jiang Fei thought that Z0-11 was being overly cautious and unnecessary. With his close-knit relationship with the girls, it was just a matter of time when he was going to tell them the details of their discussion anyways.

“Yes, we can begin,” Z0-11 said after the box had finished scanning.

“Now let’s talk.”

Jiang Fei gave the guest his undivided attention. All the detours and secrecy that led to this meeting had been slowly building up his curiosity, and he was now eager to know what was Z0-11 here to discuss.

“SWISH SWISH SWISH SWISH…”

But while Jiang Fei’s eyes were glued onto Z0-11, he failed to notice that the ring on his finger was flashing rapidly. Beams of light carrying data signals were being transmitted from the ring, and the recipient for the transmission was none other than Z0-11 who was just right in front of him! Thanks to the privacy barrier that Z0-11 had just set up moments ago, the ring’s transmission succeeded in eluding the even Ariel who was sensitive to electromagnetic signals, and was just right outside the room!

“Mr. Jiang Fei, as you have just seen, Braveheart has reached a critical point in the rebuilding process. However, we are now beginning to run low on resources. In order to resolve this problem, we have come up with a plan to acquire more Energy Crystals. My purpose here today is to ask if you are interested to join us on this endeavor?” Z0-11 spoke in a calm and casual manner.

“Acquire more Energy Crystals? You mean… you’re planning to raid the Unknowns?”

Jiang Fei’s eyes lit up, he was now very interested in Z0-11’s proposal. His immense obsession to wipe out the Unknowns was too powerful for him to ignore any opportunity to bring them down, especially one that could allow him to disrupt their plans like this one. But little did he know that even after sealing off 0542, the new 0543 had already sold him out twice!

“That is correct!” Z0-11 nodded.

By now, Z0-11 had already finished receiving intel from 0543, and the ring had already stopped flashing and was now sitting idly on Jiang Fei’s finger, as if nothing happened at all.

“When?”

“The date of the operation has yet to be determined. But if you are interested in joining us, we can discuss the specifics right now!”

“I’d like a few days to prepare for the raid if you don’t mind. Then we will teach those bastards a lesson they will never forget!”

Jiang Fei said through grinding teeth. He was seething with anger. Jiang Fei was polite and kept his cool most of the time. But when it came to dealing with people who threatened the well being of his family members, all that civility goes out the window. He had absolutely zero tolerance for people like that!

“No problem, we can still work with what we have for now.”

Z0-11 agreed to his request without a fuss. The Android’s real objective was to gather intel, and the plan to attack the enemy Unknowns was merely a secondary reason to see him.

Since 0542 was already sealed up, Straz was no longer able to gather intel through it. And in order to acquire any new information from 0543, Z0-11 had to personally come for it.

The rest of the meeting was spent with the two ironing out the raid details. Thanks to the immense hatred that Jiang Fei harbored towards the Unknowns, he kept throwing out ideas left, right, and center into the discussion, coming up with as many different ways as he could to hurt them.

Z0-11 however, was not as enthusiastic as Jiang Fei was, and remained level-headed during the discussion. But although the Android had already completed its main objective of gathering intel, it still had to chip in ideas and give some opinions in the discussion. Although only secondary, this attack was still one of its objectives and not a mere excuse, it still had to make sure that Jiang Fei did not dictate every part of the plan.

After all, Z0-11 was a machine—highly intelligent yet never impulsive, unlike humans. Under any circumstances, they would not execute a plan that had a success rate of less than seventy percent.

When the meeting ended and Z0-11 left the premises, Jiang Fei was still hyped up for what was to come. He had previously planned to build an army by first accumulating a stockpile of equipment ready before slowly recruiting and training some low-level fighters until the army grew big and strong enough before starting a war against the enemy Unknowns. But that was before Z0-11’s coming here seeking his cooperation.

This would not only give him an excuse to move his plans earlier, but also an opportunity to “earn” a good amount of Energy Crystals. This was an opportunity that Jiang Fei was not willing to miss.

“Honey? How did it go?”

As soon as Z0-11 had left, Bella and Ariel both came to his side.

“We were planning a raid!” Jiang Fei then shared the plan with the girls without withholding anything.

“Dear husband, are you sure you’re not being deceived? Did you two only discussed this and nothing else?”

Sylphy joined in the discussion while Jiang Fei was still explaining the details of the plan to Ariel and Bella.

“That’s right! Ah Fei, I don’t think this meeting is as simple as it seems to be,” Nina chimed in.

“Wait! If this was just all you two discussed in there, why are we not allowed to listen?” Ariel voiced out her suspicion.

“Something’s wrong!”

After listening to the girls, Jiang Fei finally snapped out of his excitement.

“But just what could its purpose be by meeting with you alone?” Bella frowned.

“Purpose?” Ariel suddenly exclaimed as an idea crossed her mind.

“Honey, quick! Check 0543’s deep layer protocols!”

“Err… Ok?!” Jiang Fei was stupefied.

Ariel was the one to suspect that 0542 was in collusion with Bennette Straz when it happened. But even back then, 0542’s logs were clean when he checked them at that time. Now, Ariel was suspecting the same thing with 0543.

Although Jiang Fei believed that Ariel was being overly cautious, but he still checked it anyway out of the trust and respect he had for her.

Since 0543 was a new AI Support System, Jiang Fei had yet to form any meaningful bond with it and did not feel troubled at all about auditing it. He quickly accessed 0543’s operating system and scanned through the logs, but found nothing wrong with it. Everything was in order, and there were no instruction code violations. And because 0543 was only created recently, the logs showed that it had yet to evolve and still appears to be in a very early stage.

“Nothing wrong here. I doubt it can just betray me right after being created so recently, that just doesn’t make any sense!” Jiang Fei replied.

“But…” Hearing that 0543 was clean only brought Ariel more confusion. It was true that 0543 was a newly created system, and if it really had already betrayed Jiang Fei, then sealing it would also be pointless. Because even if they sealed 0543 and created a new one, 0544 could just betray him all the same. An endless cycle of betrayal!

“Then just what is going on here?”

After failing to find a suitable explanation for Z0-11’s actions, everyone became more confused.