Imperfections Volume 1 Chapter 14

翻译：abby

校对：kk，shy

The great gangster and the interstellar pirate looked at each other with hostility. After a while, they realized that neither party was going to back down, so they both decided that the other person was the arrogant a.s.s.

They both scoffed. Then 001 said: "We invited all important ones in the Eighth Galaxy. Now that almost everyone is here, I guess you came late to make a grand appearance."

Jingheng was a bit surprised that he was not the only one being "invited". Although the gangsters in the Eighth Galaxy are not government people, they have quite a tight connection with the useless government, taking care of a lot of management responsibilities belonging to authority, which makes them basically the governments in practical. Most of them have their own businesses to mind, and don't really establish any sort of diplomatic relations with those extraterritorial anti-government pirates.

A simple invitation is far from enough to gather people like this: the pirates must have used unusual means.

Jingheng threw his hands in his pockets and purposefully said: "Is it a grand appearance or a grand sacrifice?"

That was kind of rude, which made 001's eyes twitch for a moment before he managed to smile and say: "Certainly, I invited everyone so that people can get to know each other. Not everyone is as insightful as you. I did some research on the expansion of the Black Hole in the last few years, and I believe you want a little more than your share of the narrow sky. You should be very interested in our proposal."

"Oh, I'm flattered," said Jingheng, "I don't own a share of the sky. I only have a single planet. I don't control anything outside of Beijing-ß. But I have to take a look if someone is up to something sketchy in my planet."

001's heart sank because of how Lin is arrogantly modest and uncompromising.

The pirates managed to gather every gangsters here, either by threatening or bribing. However there was no doubt that the Black Hole was the most special among them all — the pirates' biochips had faced no barrier in the whole Eighth galaxy, they could abduct a government official like a piece of cake, let along kidnap a couple of little children, unfortunately,  they lost their hand in Beijing planet. The Spider disappeared into thin air, most likely have already been taken care of. 001 did not understand how this mysterious Lin accomplished all that, or was he just lucky?

In addition, almost no one came here voluntarily: some were threatened, some were tricked here by implemented illusions, except for the Black Hole, who accepted the invitation and came without any reservation. Lin was super relaxed and only brought a weak skinny secretary with him. 001 couldn't tell whether Lin knows all his plots and is therefore confident, or he is just simply stupid.

Without a clue of what Lin is up to, 001 decided to pretend to be friendly for now and said: "Please follow me."

The enormous s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p shot towards the sky like a skysc.r.a.per. Inside the gla.s.s windows was an entirely different world. 001 wanted to terrorize Lin, so he took him directly to the top floor. Once the door opened, he pointed to the observation deck with fake smile and said: "After you." 

The observation deck was entirely transparent, running throughout the s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p and hanging hundreds of feet above the ground. The deck was made of a special material that has a similar refraction index to the air, which, considering the fact that it is so perfectly cleaned, makes it hard to see with bare eyes. The handrail around the deck was only 1 foot tall which can't prevent falling at all. To make it more chilly, the ends of the deck was not directly fixed on the s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p, but stabilized via magnetic field.

"B4, you're not afraid of heights, are you?." 001 smiled with way too much teeth. He stepped onto the transparent deck, looking like floating. The dock might even sway slightly when he moved. "The view is so nice up here. I enjoy it a lot, but I'm not sure if it fits B4'saesthetic."

"I'm a rough manman. I know nothing about aesthetics." Jingheng Lin stepped on without hesitation and said: "Zhanlu, watch your step when you come up."

Although Zhanlu did not know [1] s.h.i.+t and was very talkative, he understood Jingheng's argot after many years by his side. After receiving his master's malicious instruction, he stomped on the deck, releasing a magnetic field to disrupt the deck, which made the whole deck shake and sink rapidly.

001 was too devoted to being pretentious to remain balanced. He couldn't help screaming, desperately and randomly grabbing onto anything around him to avoid falling. He almost cried before he managed to entwine himself with the handrail in the most ungallant way possible. 

Lin kept his balance perfectly. He started at Zhanlu with fake annoyance and scolded, "I told you to watch your step! Now look what you've done!" 

Zhanlu looked back innocently.

Lin strode towards 001 and bent down to say: "You should have told me that the deck has a weight limit. That was so dangerous, wasn't it? Let me help you up."

He said he would "help him up", but both of his hands were elbow deep in his pockets, couldn't be happier about 001's misfortune.

The color of 001's face switched rapidly between green and red and scrambled up with murderous intent. He shot a stern look at Zhanlu while activating a small device on his ear lobe and said: "Overhaul the observation deck!"

He could no longer remain polite after that, only continuing to lead the way sullenly.

They reached the end of the deck soon. There was an open field filled with primal desperate roars. 

It was a round-shaped stadium-like field that was surrounded by observation booths. Researchers were sitting in the booths, recording something. On the outside of the circle were guests just like Jingheng. They all looked extremely disgusted and pale.

When 001 led Jingheng inside, a man in the corner looked up and met Jingheng's gaze accidentally.

This man was tall and very handsome, but not in a traditional way. His uncoordinated hook nose makes him look gloomy, and above the nose were two different-colored eyes. Rumor has it: when he was young, he had suffered trauma on his left eye and needed an artificial eye transplant. At that time, technology was advanced enough to give him a new eye that looked exactly the same as the old one, but you know, everyone had been young and wild and free.

This wild and free adolescent deliberately chose an iris with different color, just to be different from everyone else. He thought that was cool, not realizing that he actually looked like a deformed Persian cat. When he was mature enough to regret this, it was too late.

This man was the father of Headmaster Lu in Beijing, Monoeye Hawk.

When Xin Lu was charged with treason, his wife escaped with Zhanlu. The IU Army went after her all the way to the Eighth Galaxy, but some unknown forces came along and took her away. The Army had already gotten Zhanlu, and the small stars.h.i.+p that Mrs. Lu was in was also hit by missiles - she's probably dead -  therefore the IU stopped chasing her.

15 years ago, Admiral Lin went by the Eighth Galaxy when fighting the interstellar pirates. He took a private day off to meet the Monoeye Hawk.

No one knew why the Admiral of IU wanted to meet an army cartel; no one knew what they talked about. 

All that people knew was that the Moneye Hawk was relieved when Admiral Lin was a.s.sa.s.sinated 5 years ago.

Thus, Monoeye Hawk was more than surprised when he saw Jingheng: this slovenly man looked nothing like the well-groomed Admiral he remembered. Then, Jingheng gave him a smile that seemed to come directly from h.e.l.l. 

Monoeye Hawk felt like he had seen a living ghost on the spot, a gaggle of gooseb.u.mps laminated his whole body. His two heterochromatic eyes enlarged with fear and he instinctively covered his stomach with his hands.

"You look well as ever, Mr.Lu." Jingheng extended a hand to him, "It's been more than 10 years since I last met you. It seems that time has served you well. I've been living in Beijing these years, and it was so unthoughtful of me to have never visited you. Please allow me to visit you someday to apologize."

Monoeye Hawk's shoulders were so rigid that veins climbed up his neck. Jingheng maintained his ice-cold "smile" with a hand suspended in the air that is now filled with cold hostility.

001 eyed them suspiciously: "You guys…"

An excruciating scream erupted from the inside of the stadium, and the raised voices from the audience disrupted tension between the two.

Jingheng retrieved his hand as if nothing had happened and nodded to Monoeye Hawk. "It's nothing. Just a little excited to see my 'old friend'."

001 regarded himself as someone important, so he had no interest in the personal affairs of those gangsters. As long as they're not starting a fight, he had no problem with it, so he simply seated Jingheng farther away from Monoeye Hawk.

No one was actually looking at them because all of their attention was attracted by two men in the middle of the stadium.

Jingheng Lin is quite tall, but both men in the field were at least one head taller than him, and their bodies were too muscular for a human. They were naked from waist up and were hooked up with various sensors that continuously transmitted data to a semi-transparent screen on the side of the field.

One of the men pulled out a gun out of nowhere and shot his opponent in the chest for three times in a roll. The trail and the exact velocity of the bullets appeared on the screen immediately. It had so much force that it could have shot through a bull, but his opponent's chest was like a piece of bulletproof steel board. His opponent yelled out loud and ran towards the direction of the bullets, blocking the muzzle with his bare chest and throwing a punch to the guy with the gun. 

The punch was dodged and landed on a 50-foot-tall lamppost which folded in two and fell on the audience booth. The audience scattered in fear.

Then, the man with bulletproof chest threw another punch, but this time, his opponent wasn't so lucky. The physical contact of the fist and human body created a m.u.f.fled sound that could almost spread pain to every audience. The guy being punched apparently broke his neck - because his neck bent to the side unnaturally - but he did not die! In fact, he moved as if nothing had happened! Blood l.u.s.t rose in his eyes. The machine gun in his hands sounded noisily and the opponent became a human sieve — literally.

A dozen bullets were embedded in his naked chest, like a row of inverted tooth. 

The scene was b.l.o.o.d.y beond the imagination of a normal person. Someone in the audience vomited immediately.

Then, the timer on the semi-transparent screen went off - 5 minutes. 

As if the timer had magic, the two monstrous men in the field froze like two beast Cinderellas who have heard the midnight bell.

The skin of the man with a broken neck started to redden like a boiled shrimp before blood seeped out of every pore of the man's body. He shrank down like a deflated blood bag, and the only thing left in his once extremely strong and muscular body was a set of scarlet skeleton.

Another man screamed in despair, tried to run out of the stadium crazily. No one tried to stop him, because there was no need. 

As he ran, the flesh on his body leaked out as if the skin was an oversized coat. He stopped after merely 150 feet because all the muscle and tendons that were supporting his bones suddenly snapped. The bones fell down, and his eyeb.a.l.l.s rolled out for ten feet afterwards.

The audience sank to silence while Jingheng frowned.

After a moment, the gangsters freaked out: "What the f.u.c.k was that!"

"The biochip you intercepted was only an unfinished low-end model." 001 said to Jingheng in a low voice.

Then, 001 turned around, walked towards the two remains, put on a pair of gloves, and fished a chip out of one of the remains. He smiled with way too much teeth and said: "Everyone, I believe you've seen enough evidence with your own eyes. No.5 and No.6 were both ordinary adults who were about 5'9 tall, weighed between 165 and 190 pounds, and had no military training. But after chip injection, we achieved dramatic improvement in their height, weight, body fat percentage and all kinds of physiological indicators."

"This is one of our models," 001 said while raising the chip in his hand, "We call this project 'G.o.d Creation'."

Monoeye Hawk scoffed: "G.o.d Creation? Why don't you just say Motherf.u.c.king Frankenstein?"

"They are prototype that only have a lifespan of 5 minutes." said 001, "But we have made a big step forward since then. The life span will increase significantly in the next two months. Just imagine, ladies and gentlemen, a strong and fearless army of superhumans. 

Monoeye Hawk said: "I thought modern war didn't entail any hair pulling or face scratching anymore."

001 glimpsed at him, "You're right. That's why aside from the physical evolution you just witnessed, those modified men are also perfect pilots for mechs. They can become a part of the mech once they are connected to it. I a.s.sume everyone knows that in the battlefield, the compatibility of any man to the mech is no higher than 90%. The gap in-between allows the enemies to take control of your mech if their mental threshold point is higher."

The reason why Jingheng Lin was invincible and why he dared to go anywhere as long as he has his mech was because of his extremely outstanding mental threshold point .

But if there were impenetrable mechs…

001 looked around and smiled. He reached for the semi-transparent screen and replayed the scene of the two men fighting. "The reaction speed of the modified men is 15 times faster than a normal human. Do you know what it means in the battle of mechs?"

Monoeye Hawk: "It's peaceful times. Why are you preparing for war?" .

001 bowed to him. "Sir, you don't ask for war, but it doesn't mean war wouldn't ask for you. This might be news to you, but on the night of June 29th UT, which is about 56 hours ago, one thousand super-s.p.a.ce ma.s.sive mechs blew up the Silver Fortress into pieces. At the same time, someone infiltrated the Capital and a.s.sa.s.sinated the Secretary General - " 

Jingheng Lin uncontrollably stumbled, just slightly.

However, no one noticed his nuanced movement because they were all astonished by the news. The Eighth Galaxy was too far away from the other galaxies, therefore, an emergency news like that didn't get through quickly. Astonishment fell into momentary silence and no one could afford to do anything other than to look at each other in disbelief.

"Impossible!"

"Is evidence at all?"

"Stop spreading rumors. What the f.u.c.k are you trying to do?"

001 snapped his fingers, calling the semi-transparent screen to rise in the air to display a footage.

The tall command tower of the Silver Fortress once shot towards the sky, but now it fell down to ashes, leaving only roars of despair. A beam of strong light s.h.i.+ned through, blinding the audience momentarily. Then a piece of mech dropped on the ground, with half of the IU logo - eight intertwined veins resembling the ring of peace.

"This is our times," 001 opened his arms. "The Eighth Galaxy has been tramled under the foot of the alliance for 200 years, and now, it's timefor us to ride the wave. Join us, then everyone here will be the maker of history!"

As 001 was giving his grand recruitment speech, an inconspicuous individual mech slipped into the harbor of the s.p.a.ce station in autopilot. It pa.s.sed the security check and landed among thousands of other mechs.

Countless individual mechs went in and out of the station every day, and the security was quiet as a mouse.

n.o.body knew that inside of this particular mech were four innocent teenagers who pa.s.sed out during their first interstellar travel experience.

the rewording kinda lost a lot of the essence of pi wrote it...it might be better to stay closer to the original text to keep the humor。

TBC