The Mechanic [BL]

[66]

Chapter 66 - The Antidote to Human Nature (4)

Zhang Xun put on a dark brown woollen coat, boots, scarf, hat and gloves while waiting for Pan to open the door of the Lab. The cold air of the winter morning fell on his face and his exhaled breath condensed into a dense fog then quickly evaporated.

It had snowed all night last night and the uneven dirt roads throughout Lost Paradise were covered with thick snow, making it more and more difficult to travel. The muddy soil and snow were crushed by the passing vehicles and mixed into long lines like arable land. Zhang Xun trudged through the muddy road and watched the people who were going out to work in the morning, wrapping themselves tightly just like him. They locked their doors in a hurry and walked back and forth between the narrow alleys. Some breakfast shops on both sides of the main street had opened and the aroma of hot coffee and toasted wheat diffused in the faint sunlight, soft and warm.

Zhang Xun liked this kind of aroma. If happiness had a smell, he thought it should be this kind of smell. He bought a box of freshly baked chocolate croissants at a bakery he frequented, ordered three cups of coffee and holding the pastries in one hand and the coffee tray in the other, he wobbled toward the garbage processing yard.

After the antidote had been successfully developed Adam resumed his combat training with Diego and would go to the garbage processing yard almost every day. Zhang Xun gradually stopped following him all the time. With the tracking device he could know Adam's location at any time. He was busy working on new, unmanned weapons and began designing and building a new artificial intelligence based on Pan—one with the general goal of guarding Lost Paradise. Occasionally he would activate the camera on the tracking device when he was busy and put on a microscopic lens to see what he was doing through Adam's eyes.

In these few days, Adam would leave the Lab very early to train and when Zhang Xun opened his eyes, he would find that the other side of the bed was cold.

Even if he was beaten to death, Zhang Xun would never want to admit that he missed the warm and comfortable feeling of waking up in Adam's arms...

After the framework of the new artificial intelligence was set up, Zhang Xun decided to give himself a day off to see how Adam's training was going.

The entrance to the garbage processing yard was still the same as it used to be but the snow-covered, rusted, steel giant with hollow eye sockets looked sad somehow. Zhang Xun looked up at this ancient mecha, thinking that it must have also had glorious years and was once the most proud weapon of mankind, and he felt a little uneasy.

Everything would reach a time when it becomes obsolete and fades, no matter how brilliant it was.

He found Adam, who was fighting Diego, near Diego's cabin. It was obviously a cold winter day, but the two were only wearing thin vests and camouflage pants and they were in a state of stalemate, with bruises on their faces and bodies. Diego was like a raging lion, rushing up bravely again and again. In comparison, Adam was more like a cheetah who was good at calculating and moving carefully. His blue eyes stared at his prey unblinkingly, every step was so quiet that there was no sound and every move was precise and ruthless.

Zhang Xun widened his eyes slightly and watched they way Adam predicted the opponent's movements before Diego made a move and the metal arms quickly and accurately blocked all attacks. Adam's control of his arms was already perfect, as if he had been born with them. However, Diego had plenty of battle experience after all. Even if he wasn't as accurate as Adam in terms of prediction, he could stabilise his position by relying on the conditioned reflexes he had honed over many years.

They didn't know how long they had been facing each other like this, they were both sweating and panting and the heat from their bodies was evaporating into a faint steam from their skin. Exhaustion was gradually eating away at them and the chance of mistakes occurring was increasing rapidly.