Volume 16 Tower of Babel Chapter 864 The Moonlight is Beautiful
Unlike the Nieto in the lower city, the "Nieto" in the upper city uses very standard Chinese, so Sanshisan can understand what it says.
Thirty-three took two seconds to react, and whispered in surprise: "This girl...she can speak Chinese?"
"No matter what language it speaks, there's nothing to be surprised about." Ke Lan said in a deep voice, "We just need to ignore it."
"I know..." Thirty-three curled his lips and said with disdain, "Let alone Nieto on this level, even if it's the one on the next level, I don't believe what she says..."
What Ke Lan saw of Nieto was an intelligent biological computer with the appearance of a beautiful girl with long black hair, while what Sanshisan saw was a mass of wriggling rotten meat... From the beginning, Sanshisan was extremely wary of Nieto, and it was impossible . In his opinion, the reason why Nieto in the lower city was willing to reveal that information to him and Ke Lan was probably because he wanted to use them to achieve some goals. The relationship between them and Nieto was just mutual use, and they could not be considered to be on the same front at all.
Things like trust didn't exist from the beginning.
If necessary, they can betray Neto on the second level at any time. At the same time, they also believe that once they lose their usefulness, Neto will betray them without mercy.
But in the next second, Sanshisan's expression suddenly changed.
Because there were some subtle changes in the female voice he heard.
"It has come to this, and you still refuse to believe me...?"
“This… this voice?!” Sanshisan’s eyes suddenly widened and he asked incoherently, “Ke, Ke Lan, did you hear what she just said?”
"I heard it." Ke Lan glanced at Thirty-three with some confusion, not understanding why Thirty-three, who had a look of disdain just now, had such a drastic change in expression in such a short period of time.
"What did she say? Repeat it quickly!" Thirty-three asked anxiously.
"It says: 'You don't believe me, do you?'"
"wrong!"
"What's wrong? Isn't this what you heard..." Ke Lan frowned slightly.
"No... but the meaning is close, but... but that sentence is exactly the same as it was back then..." Sanshisan's face showed a trace of pain, "What about the tone and intonation? Is there any change from the beginning?"
"No." Ke Lan shook her head. "What did it say to you?"
"It's come to this, and you still won't believe me... You still won't believe me." Thirty-three shook his head in disbelief. "It's exactly the same."
"What's exactly the same?"
"The voice, tone, and intonation are exactly the same, even the sentence itself is exactly the same." Thirty-three whispered, "Eleven years ago, someone said this to me..."
"It read your memory?" Ke Lan suddenly became alert... If the opponent really has this ability, then it would be more difficult to deal with... In front of such an opponent, he would have no secrets at all. The feeling of having one's underwear seen through is extremely uncomfortable.
The first time Ke Lan’s mind was read was in the depths of the “Sick Village”. Fortunately, Chiron was not her enemy at that time... and then it was Zelo and Valentina, who were both people Ke Lan could trust... but Neto was different.
"No... I should have forgotten this memory... but now, I remember everything." Thirty-three clenched his fists and narrated in a low voice, "Her name is Tina. The name of the person who said this to me is Tina."
"Tina?" Ke Lan reviewed Thirty-Three's file with her amazing memory, and then asked tentatively, "Is it Lieutenant Tina Lawrence, the leader of the First Mobile Group of the Fourth Armored Battalion of the Field Corps? When you served in the Fourth Armored Battalion, you stayed in her group for three months."
"Yes, it's her." Thirty-three whispered, "Speaking of which, I'm not afraid of you laughing at me, but the first time I saw her, I liked her... no, I should say I fell in love with her. Although the Field Service Corps prohibited officers and soldiers below the rank of colonel from dating with people in the army during their service, in fact, few people abided by that rule... In the flames of war, not only brotherhood was born, but also love... In the first few years after the Ark landed on Alpha, due to the heavy loss of male soldiers, the Field Service Corps had to recruit a large number of women to fill the vacancies. The ratio of male to female soldiers once reached one to one... It was not until the 940th year of the new era that the female soldiers who joined the army that year were approaching the retirement age, and the proportion of female soldiers in the army gradually decreased."
"I know." Ke Lan nodded. Even now, the field corps still has about 25% female soldiers. Although most of them are engaged in logistics or clerical work, this proportion is still much higher than the proportion of female soldiers in the armies of various countries in the old era.
It is not uncommon for male and female soldiers to fall in love in the army. After all, unless there are special circumstances (such as disability), the normal retirement age is over 40 years old, and not everyone will get married before joining the army. If they want to solve the problem of being single, they can only find a partner in the army... As for the rule prohibiting officers and soldiers below the school level from falling in love, it is actually just a piece of paper.
Especially for female officers and soldiers, this age is the best time of their life. It is almost impossible for them to wait until they are forty to find their other half.
But there is one exception, that is, the special forces with the most difficult missions and the highest sacrifice rate. The "Fourth Armored Battalion First Mobile Group" to which Sanshisan and Tina belong is such a special forces unit.
It doesn't mean that special forces officers and soldiers are strictly prohibited from falling in love - they can, but they can't fall in love with people in their own team... because there have been precedents of this kind of thing, where lovers were unwilling to abandon each other, which ultimately led to the failure of the mission and the annihilation of the entire unit... For this kind of special forces, the mission is the first priority, and reason must overwhelm emotion... For the commander, what he needs is a group of emotionless fighting machines, not a group of ordinary people who will be tripped up by love affairs.
"Within a month, I confirmed my relationship with her...but no one in the First Mobile Team knew about our relationship because we never appeared too close in front of others, and we didn't even have too much interaction." Sanshisan continued, "Until now, I'm still not sure whether I was in love...or simply needed a woman to give me physical comfort..."
"This is normal. The officers and soldiers in the front-line combat troops are under great mental pressure. In order to relieve this mental pressure, they will more or less choose some more weird ways... Maybe, she just wants to vent?" Ke Lan continued with what Sanshisan said.
Ke Lan knew very well that this incident was most likely a psychological trauma of Thirty-Three - the First Mobile Group of the Fourth Armored Battalion suffered heavy losses during its last mission. Thirty-four of the thirty-seven members of the group, including the team leader Tina Lawrence, were killed, and only three survived. Thirty-Three was one of the three survivors.
Subsequently, the designation of the 1st Mobile Group of the 4th Armored Battalion was cancelled, and after recovering from his injuries, 33rd was incorporated into the later "Velociraptor Squadron".
He should have witnessed Tina Lawrence's death with his own eyes...and the reason why Neto simulated what Tina Lawrence said to him was probably to break through Sanshisan's psychological defenses.
"Those were the last words she said to me." Thirty-three's voice became increasingly low. "At that time, we were already in a desperate situation. Half of our men were dead, and almost all of the remaining half were injured. There were no friendly units nearby that we could contact, and the only vehicles that could still be driven were a six-wheeled armored off-road vehicle and a walker mecha... and below the high ground where we were stationed, there were enemies that outnumbered us a thousand times."
"That walker was driven by Lieutenant Tina?" Although Ke Lan only glanced at Tina's file, he clearly remembered that Tina's position in the army was a tactical mecha pilot, and the equipment configuration of the First Mobile Group did include four old-model walker mechas.
"Yes... At that time, we had been fighting hard for three days and three nights, and were about to run out of ammunition and food." Sanshisan recalled, "I remember that because of Tina's command error, we directly lost three walkers, 'Black Bear', 'Tree Demon' and 'Blizzard'... Because of this, she and I had more than one quarrel during the intervals of the battle."
Ke Lan did not interrupt Sanshisan, letting him continue: "But now think about it, maybe if I were to do it, I might not be able to do better than her... Everyone has not slept for three days, relying on stimulants to support them. When the stimulant effect wears off, the side effects and strong sleepiness come up, they will take another injection of a larger dose... In that case, I still asked her to follow her instructions without any deviation..."
"It has already happened. It's not your fault." Ke Lan patted Sanshisan's shoulder. "You were just too anxious."
"She ordered us to abandon our position, but I yelled at her. I told her that as soon as our heavy firepower stopped, the native creatures gathered at the bottom of the steep slope would climb up on the corpses of their own kind and tear us to pieces. We would not have time to retreat..." Thirty-three paused, "Then she told me that she would be responsible for covering our retreat and asked me to take the rest of the people away."
"..." Ke Lan pursed his lips. In fact, before Sanshisan said it, he had already roughly guessed how things would develop.
"I was stunned for a while, and then she said this to me." Sanshisan took off his breathing mask, rubbed his face vigorously, and took several deep breaths, so that his tone could remain as calm as possible. "That... was also the last sentence she said to me."
"I know Tina is... a very important person to you, but I still have to tell you that the Tina Lawrence you knew has died." Ke Lan looked directly at Thirty-Three and said, "Now this guy who imitates her voice, tone, and lines is just an asshole trying to play with your emotions. This is also an extremely disrespectful act to the dead Lieutenant Tina. No matter what it says, don't pay attention to it."
"I know... I know..." Sanshisan nodded woodenly, "Just when I was telling you these things, Tina... no, that guy called 'Nietto', she has been imitating Tina's voice and talking to me in my ear, and she said the same things that Tina had said to me before."
"It seems that it has chosen you as the breakthrough point." Ke Lan said in a deep voice... This is a means of attacking the heart, but it will not have any effect on Ke Lan. As a "symbiont", he only has false memories one after another. After knowing that his past memories were artificially implanted by the undead crew, Ke Lan has no feeling for those memories. Looking back, it is just like watching a movie where the protagonist looks very similar to himself. As for those people Ke Lan cares about, if Neto simulates the voices of Zofia or the Hound and talks to him, he will never believe it - first of all, Zofia and the others are still alive, and Ke Lan does not have any "unresolved feelings" at all; secondly, reason will also tell Ke Lan that they can't appear in this place at all, and what he hears, sees, and even touches may just be hallucinations.
"I think so...but..." Thirty-three paused when he said this. Then, he actually raised his head and looked towards the dome -
In a flash, Ke Lan chopped Sanshisan's shoulder with a knife, then pinned him to the ground with a standard grappling move, and pressed his face tightly to the ground with his other hand.
"What's going on?!" Sanshisan, who was attacked , did not speak first. Instead, the "attacker" Ke Lan asked.
"She...she told me...the moonlight was beautiful...and asked me...to look up." Sanshisan said with some difficulty, "Tina...also told me...the same thing...when we had our first...secret date..."
"The moonlight is beautiful" comes from an anecdote by the old Japanese writer Natsume Soseki, and is used to implicitly express the meaning of "I love you"... However, now the people on the Ark don't even say "The moonlight is beautiful", and many people have never even heard of the name Natsume Soseki... This way of expression is only used by a small number of literary and artistic young people.
"Wake up... The sky above Alpha is full of radiation clouds. You can't see the moon at night. You can only see two blurry shadows emitting faint light behind the clouds." Ke Lan said, "It just wants to trick you into looking up!"
