Chapter 286

Seeing Leon seemingly determined to ignite the flames and take himself out in one go, Arthif 128, facing a life-and-death crisis, had no choice but to resort to a more modest option. With a panicked childlike tone, she pleaded, “If you must blow up the airship, could you at least take me with you? Please don’t blow me up too?”

Taking this “artificial intelligence” along? Upon hearing Arthif 128’s suggestion, Leon couldn’t help but show a hint of interest on his face.

Even though the kingdom lacked anything akin to a “network,” and removing her wouldn’t achieve much beyond using her as a chat device, she was still an intelligent machine. For Crocodile Kingdom, she represented a rare, irreplaceable asset. It was better to take her than destroy her.

Not to mention he had the badge system; if taking her earned him badges like “AI Father” or “Mechanical Intelligence Sovereign”…

“Lead the way!”

After extinguishing the burning match in his hand, Leon warned,

“You’d better not try any tricks, nor delay things hoping the soldiers will come to save you. The blubber of the flying whale has already started to vaporize. A single spark will cause an immediate explosion. Once the soldiers arrive, a single shot will make you explode!”

“I know…”

Arthif 128 replied with a hint of委屈 (wronged feeling),

“All I want now is to avoid complete destruction. I won’t attempt anything risky… Please head to the control room quickly. My most important core components and data are inside the black fifteen-proof box behind the main platform.”

Hearing this, Leon furrowed his brow and asked while rushing toward the control room,

“What exactly is this ‘fifteen-proof black box’?”

“It’s the black fifteen-proof box—a container that resists high temperatures, water immersion, shocks, electromagnetic interference, impacts… dust, low temperatures. Apheta 01 specially designed it to prevent damage to us sub-units.”

“But it can’t withstand explosions of this scale, nor falling from seven hundred meters in the sky, right?”

“Yes… when the fifteen-proof box was designed, extreme situations like this weren’t considered.”

“No wonder.”

Leon couldn’t help but scoff,

“I see why you didn’t speak up earlier until after I poured all the whale oil. You calculated carefully, realizing that even surviving the explosion, followed by the fall, would mean certain doom, so you panicked, huh?”

“Mr. Leon, your description isn’t precise. We sub-units are merely hard-to-replicate computational logics without concepts of life or death. We should be referred to as either ‘destroyed’ or ‘maintained.'”

“In the future, follow my lead. If destroyed, it’s death; if not, it’s survival.”

“Understood. During our exchanges, I will modify some corresponding phrases accordingly.”

“Good… I’ve reached the conference room. What’s next?”

“There are three anti-detachment locks behind the main platform.”

Arthif 128 rapidly explained,

“Next, please retrieve the keys according to the manual, then unlock them sequentially and remove the panel intact…”

“Snap!”

Using the power of the Holy Spirit Pendant, Leon scraped around the console, tearing apart all the locks. With both arms exerting force, he ripped off the entire front panel, revealing a black box about fifty centimeters long, thirty centimeters wide, connected to various strange devices underneath.

“The panel is removed. What’s next? Should I just pull out this box?”

“According to the manual, we should handle… ”

“Be concise. Pull or not?”

“Pull part of it…”

“Got it. Go sleep.”

“Alright, then I…”

“Hold on.”

After holding the box containing Arthif 128 for a while, no “Father of Artificial Intelligence” badge triggered, Leon hesitated slightly before making a demand:

“Can you call me dad?”

“???”

…

“BOOM!”

With a deafening explosion, the top of the 7-character boarding tower, where the giant airship over three hundred meters long was docked, instantly erupted into intense flames.

In less than fifteen seconds, the thirty thousand cubic meters of hydrogen were completely ignited. The pale blue flames, exceeding two thousand degrees in temperature, soared nearly a hundred meters high, lighting up half the sky and turning the faces of the soldiers below a ghastly blue.

“It’s on fire! The ship’s on fire!”

No mistakes, content found at 69 Book Bar!

“God…”

“Retreat! Don’t move forward, retreat!”

Even though officers were shouting hoarsely to stop them, some soldiers with weaker minds couldn’t help but gape, staring blankly at the distant tower top.

Under the fierce flames surging like sea tides, the thick gas bag of the airship, which might not even leak when stabbed with a knife, held out for only a few breaths before being burned through halfway, exposing the lightweight alloy framework inside.

Soon, even the metal framework couldn’t withstand the heat, deforming and breaking rapidly. Some metals with lower melting points melted directly, raining down like liquid.

As the internal support structure burned away, the airship, nearly as tall as half the boarding tower when upright, could no longer maintain its horizontal floatation. It began tilting, slowly yet alarmingly fast, eventually wrapping itself around the boarding tower. The upper half of the boarding tower became a bright blue torch pointing to the sky.

It’s over… completely over.

Looking at the nearly hundred-meter-high blue flame atop the “torch,” the guards responsible for protecting the boarding tower immediately turned pale.

This time, not only was the airship in the secret harbor destroyed, but even the crucial boarding tower was creaking under the flames. Although made of special materials resistant to burning, it wouldn’t be completely destroyed, cleaning it up would likely take months.

And worse, after such a massive accident, the guards responsible for the tower knew nothing about it. This negligence went far beyond mere dereliction of duty.

…

“Move! Follow me!!!”

When the hydrogen in the gas bag was almost entirely burned, and the fire weakened, the officers, who had lost all hope of their futures, immediately rallied their soldiers, bloodshot eyes running toward the boarding tower to investigate what happened.

Just at this critical moment, an unusually loud shout came from above everyone.

“My name is Nathan, the leader of the radical faction you talk about!”

An indistinct figure stood midway up the boarding tower, shouting down,

“I take responsibility for this attack!

Furthermore, starting now, I declare war on the entire kingdom!”

(End of Chapter)