Chapter Twenty-Five: The Rift Within

Love me.

People, love me.

I want your flesh, your heart, your everything. I am greedy and do not know what to eat, eternally hungry and thirsty, always demanding more. I longed for every kiss, every word, every heart that I had encroached upon, to fill the missing hole in my heart.

And the reward is ...... Every heart that I devoured, I put them on my chest and cherished them as if they were a part of myself.

Walk the wilderness, looking for the lost half of your soul. Until then, I will shamelessly deceive everyone who comes near me. Because I'm so lonely, I need to warm my cold heart with your body heat.

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Since the collar was lifted, the apparently well-behaved trio began to scour around the base as surveillance seemed to be lax, looking for an escape solution.

In their spare time drawing drawings, Gage and Tina assembled two trigger-type electric shockers from small parts that Su Jing had stolen from everywhere, and if they came into direct contact with their skin, they could bring down a big man in half a second.

Su Jing is used by Jack as a humanoid power converter these days to charge the "key". Coming back half-dead every day, and being responsible for bringing dinner to the two young ladies. If it weren't for being able to watch Tiny Tina, the second most popular character in the Borderlands, up close, and experiencing the fun of fighting each other with her fists and kicks, a person like Su Jing, who has no patience at all, would have gone berserk and set fire all the way out. As for Jack's plan and Ivan's strategy - what is his business?

Fortunately, the heavens seemed to hear his wild roar in his heart, and just when Su Jing's thirty days of freedom were only five days left, the negotiations between Jack and Ivan finally came to an end.

[Mr. Su Jing, Jack wants us to go to the Hero Crater to negotiate in person, and then he wants us to return the ownership of half the planet, in exchange for the lives of the three of you. 】

"What are you kidding...... The lives of these three of us small characters can be exchanged for half of Pandora? You're not going to say yes, are you? ”

[Mr. Ivan has already agreed.] The Techno-Tech Alliance's control over Pandora is not very strong in the first place, and what Jack wants in this negotiation is actually a truce agreement that will allow him to obtain legal mining rights on the planet Pandora...... In fact, if he really risks another all-out war with us and forcibly enters, we have no good way to do it...... After the last time we kicked him out, Jack was more cautious than before. I'm sure that the Jack you've been in contact with on a regular basis is just a clone. He especially likes to play this kind of trick. 】

The early garrison troops of the science and technology alliance fought with Jack many times, relying on the advantage of excellent single combat ability, and organized several decapitation operations to assassinate Jack, but killing again and again, it was always just another stand-in to eliminate Jack.

"So what do you want to ...... It's not going to be a compromise with him, is it? If that happens, I'll take Gage and Tina out right now. ”

【…… Hehe. You're overthinking. 】

Serena's voice sounded a little muffled.

[You've been charging the "Key" for half a month, tell me, how long do you think it will take to fill it up enough to summon the "Samurai"?] 】

“…… It's almost. I thought it would take a long time to recharge, but I didn't expect it...... For some reason, from what I perceived, the key's recharge progress was close to saturation, and I was just adding a little more power to the end. ”

[It's an "angel."] By the time we rescued Angel, Jack had already been using his daughter for a long time to recharge his power. And we, I'm afraid, made a successful raid on the eve of his success. So, Mr. Su Jing, what do you think about this negotiation? 】

"Jack would never negotiate in good faith." Su Jing concluded, "This person's heart is extremely small, and he will repay it." As for the scientific and technological alliance that drove him out of Pandora, he would never have the idea of cooperating with you, probably trying to find a way to wipe you out. ”

[Jack asks us to negotiate in the Heroic Crater, that is, he thinks we don't know how to summon the "samurai"...... As you say, he wants to catch us all. According to my estimation, it was in the crater that he summoned the samurai sleeping in the magma with the key, and then used the power of the "samurai" to kill Mr. Ivan, and then used the four-star ...... No, that large creature weapon may have reached five stars, and he wants to use this powerful force to reign on Pandora again. 】

"What then? Do you have any plans? ”

[It's simple.] Jack hides himself well on weekdays, and only uses a stand-in to do things. Only when summoning a "samurai", he will never use a replicant at ease, and will personally be present to preside over the summoning ceremony. Our plan was to go to the appointment and kill Jack. 】

"What about the 'samurai'...... I don't think the 'samurai' in reality can be solved as easily as in the game, right? Five-star, according to the division system of ranks, is enough force to destroy the army alone, where did you get so strong confidence? ”

[Please believe in Mr. Ivan's combat effectiveness, and please believe in the technology of our scientific and technological alliance. 】

Serena's tone was very firm, as if she were stating a fait accompli.

Therefore, his current task is very simple, that is, to cooperate with Jack to charge the key, let this careerist reveal his flaws, and then cooperate with the troops of the joint technology to kill him with one blow.

Just as Su Jing was recalling the conversation just now, an engineer from Hyperion Company walked over in the corridor, the man was wearing a standard maintenance mask, and when he saw Su Jing, the man nodded slightly.

As the two passed by, the maintenance man quietly slipped a card into his hand.

Su Jing didn't turn his head around, returned to the dormitory with the food box, and then put the card on the lid of Gai Qi's lunch box.

"............" Gage glanced at the card, then silently took it into her hand, and when she let go of her hand again, there was nothing in it.

"Thank you."

"No, you don't."

After saying this endless conversation, the two shook hands gently, and Su Jing had an extra friend reminder in his mind.

[Three-star adventurer Gage applies to be your friend]

The two looked at each other and smiled.

【Confirmation】

Considering the convenience of movement, Su Jing applied to Serena for advance payment, and first advanced a three-star blank character card to use.

Before that, he had hooked up with one of the second-generation Vault Hunters, the three-star adventurer Exton. Axton had been part of the mercenary army and had been secretly scouting Hyperion's forward base. After Su Jing and the other three were captured, it was also Exton who obtained the information of the Hyperion base as quickly as possible, and screened out the one that was most likely to imprison the three people:

Excluding several bases that had already been found out and did not match Su Jing's description, Exton finally targeted a secret base deep underground in the vast desert area in the south of the planet, codenamed "Blacklist", and was mainly responsible for the project was all confidential.

At this point, Su Jing understood why the lights of this base should be turned off every night, not to save energy, but to reduce heat dissipation. During the day, the desert temperature is high, and the base can operate normally, but at night, the desert temperature plummets, and the temperature emitted by the base is too high to be easily detected by the satellite's heat source detection system, so all unnecessary power must be turned off.

[Mr. Axton has found out that our seized personal equipment is placed in the innermost level of the base's weapons room.] Just wait until Jack appears at the volcano to summon the samurai, and we'll be able to surprise them here. 】

[Wait...... If Jack were to negotiate with Mr. Ivan, he would bring the three of us with him. 】

Gai Qi closed his eyes and used the communication system between the character cards to discuss tactics with Su Jing.

[Hmm...... That's just as well. If we don't retrieve our equipment, the three of us will be defenseless at the start of the Volcano War...... If Jack really believes in the control of his collar over us, he should return the gear to us, and let's go and attack Mr. Ivan and them together. 】

After all, Ji Lu can't catch up with the changes, and Gai Qi and Su Jing are not particularly brainy people. The two discussed for a long time and couldn't come up with a plan that was too good, so they decided to take it one step at a time. Tina, who was on the side, watched the two of them sit and didn't speak, but kept flirting with their eyebrows, completely treating her as nothing, so angry that she didn't eat anything, and wanted to go for a walk as soon as she dropped the plate.

It was only when she walked to the door and pressed the button to open the door a few times that the door did not move, and she felt that something was wrong.

Previously, because the three of them had always behaved submissively, Jack also magnanimously gave them the apparent freedom to walk around the base and apply for reasonable material needs while completing their work.

Gage applied for some experimental equipment from Jack when she was making a portable folding space generator, and Jack approved it, but all the tests had to be completed in the designated laboratory, and the whole process was recorded by a surveillance camera, so she couldn't touch something and use it if she wanted to.

"Open the door! Open the door! I'm going to the toilet!! Tina kicked the door twice with her foot and shouted at the camera, "I know you can see it!" If you don't want to watch me paste on camera, open the door for me!! ”

[Wow, what a disobedient little ghost. This is handsome Jack, one of the richest people in the five galaxies, and if you can do such a rude thing in public, then I can change the camera again...... Oh my! What are you doing! This kid really sticks on the camera!! Shit, I really need to get a new camera...... Oh my God, I forgot what I wanted to say when I was messed up by this little ghost...... By the way, Su Jing, you, only you, come out. Tonight I want you to go out with me to do something. 】

Something to do?

Su Jing watched as Tina continued to pour the chocolate drink onto the camera while putting on her coat.

"Tonight...... Something could happen. Gage, get ready. ”