Chapter 1289: Chapter 1288: Melee

The girl’s eyes lit up when she saw the chip in Lu Yang’s hands, but her face turned grave upon noticing the robots gradually regaining their mobility.

"The conglomerate not only sent people to hunt me down but also sent robots after me!"

She felt a sense of foreboding, having not anticipated that the conglomerate would be so thorough as to lay an ambush with robots in this location.

No matter what, I must get my hands on that chip first!

The girl, agile and swift, glanced back at the pursuers, pushed over tables and chairs to block their path, and flipped her way to Lu Yang’s side.

She spoke to Lu Yang earnestly, "I don’t know who you are, but the chip in your hands is incredibly dang..."

"Take it."

Without a word, Lu Yang stuffed the chip into the girl’s hand, a decisiveness that left her momentarily stunned.

Realizing it wasn’t the time to be dazed, she quickly checked the chip.

"Strange, why isn’t it this one?"

She had thought that finding a chip the size of a fingernail in the library meant it was the one left by the contact, but after inspecting it, she realized she was mistaken—It was just a similar-looking chip.

She shook her head disappointment and handed the chip back to Lu Yang, "This isn’t the chip I’m looking for."

Lu Yang: "..."

So whose chip is it, then?

"Forget the chip, how do we deal with the enemies on both sides?" the boy asked anxiously, not sure if he was talking to himself or someone else.

Among the three people on the scene, only Lu Yang was not in a hurry. The boy and the girl were as anxious as ants on a hot pan. To their left were the operational robots, and to their right were the conglomerate’s mercenaries. There was nowhere to escape.

But they couldn’t afford to flee, as the chip was nearby. Artificial Intelligence and the conglomerate were already aware of its presence here. If they escaped, the chip would fall into someone else’s hands, putting humanity at risk!

They noticed Lu Yang’s calm demeanor, out of place in the chaotic environment, and sighed internally—it seemed that an innocent bystander dragged into this dangerous situation had already given up on thinking.

The robots and mercenaries didn’t dare to make their move lightly, guns pointed at each other, each mistaking the other as the target’s ally.

For a moment, an uneasy standoff filled the air.

Suddenly, the third wall of the library was smashed open, breaking the standoff. Another girl barged in, golden hair and blue eyes gleaming, her delicate features elfin. Upon seeing the chip in Lu Yang’s hands, her eyes brightened.

"Found it!"

This girl also had pursuers behind her, but unlike before, these were real people.

The new pursuers were shocked to see the robots and mercenaries: "So there are indeed allies!"

Acting first, the new pursuers opened fire, and the robots and mercenaries returned fire, plunging the place into chaos!

Amidst the chaos, the golden-haired, blue-eyed girl dodged bullets and found Lu Yang.

"This chip..."

"Take it."

The golden-haired, blue-eyed girl checked the chip and exhaled in relief, "This is the one!"

Lu Yang also breathed a sigh of relief, happy to have found the rightful owner of the chip.

"So you were indeed the contact person arranged by the doctor!"

She spoke with conviction, having escaped the organization with the doctor’s help. Alas, the doctor took a bullet protecting her and died. The doctor, before passing away, asked her to find the chip in the library, though he couldn’t finish his sentence before drawing his last breath, likely wanting to inform her about the contact in the library.

"Err, miss, you might be mistaken. I’m not any sort of contact person," Lu Yang felt it necessary to clarify.

"You must be. Otherwise, why would you hand over the chip to me the moment we met?" The golden-haired, blue-eyed girl grew even more certain of Lu Yang’s identity. To her, it was a simple intelligence test.

"I really am not."

The golden-haired, blue-eyed girl surprised, "What, wasn’t it the professor who recorded the organization’s illegal genetic modifications on this chip? And then he entrusted it to you to rendezvous with me—a genetic modifi...

Lu Yang wanted to prevent the girl from spilling the beans, but she spoke as fast as a machine gun, explaining the whole situation in a few sentences.

"I came here to read books," Lu Yang said, helpless, holding up the book about the cosmic map.

Seeing Lu Yang persistently denying, the golden-haired, blue-eyed girl was convinced she had thought too much and quickly apologized, "Oh, I’m sorry, it was a case of mistaken identity. I’ve dragged you into this disaster!"

"What, it’s this book!" The boy noticed the book in Lu Yang’s hands, and his body shook with excitement, an idea forming.

"Yes, how could I not think of it? My grandfather’s favorite book was this one; he said that the universe was infinite, and compared to it, the Interstellar Alliance was but a drop in the ocean, completely insignificant. The Interstellar Alliance should hold the universe in awe."

The boy, hugging his grandfather, learned about the mysteries of the universe on the rooftop during his childhood. Just thinking of those moments from his youth made him break down in tears.

Only his grandfather and he knew about this; only he could find the chip his grandfather left behind!

The boy took the cosmic map from the book, pointed to a particular Star Domain, and murmured to himself while turning the pages among the astronomy section’s shelves: "According to the layout, it should be right here."

The first girl noticed the book’s author in Lu Yang’s hands, and her body shook.

"Why didn’t I think of it? The author of this book is an alias used by our resistance organization’s Boss."

The first girl took out a mysterious slip from her pocket, which she had received before coming to the library but never knew its purpose.

Now she understood—the numbers on the mysterious slip corresponded to the pages and words in this book!

She took Lu Yang’s book and hurriedly translated the enigmatic slip.

At that moment, the shooting continued among the three forces, with gunshots exploding near their ears, like thunder. The boy and the girl raced against time among the bookshelves, searching for their chip.

"Found it!"

Both the boy and the girl found their chips and couldn’t help but rejoice, but the sound of gunfire soon snapped them back to reality.

"How to escape?" Their crisis was far from over.

The boy proudly showed off the chip he held, "My grandfather’s chip contains a virus that can paralyze robots and mechanical bodies. We’ll just make our run for it when it’s time!"

The conglomerate’s mercenaries were mostly mechanical.

The golden-haired, blue-eyed girl reacted with shock, "No, that won’t work, those hunting me are genetically modified humans; the virus won’t affect them!"

The first girl pulled out a bomb, "I have a tear gas grenade. We can catch those genetically modified humans off guard with it!"

"Great idea!"

The boy peeled back the skin on his arm, revealing a mechanical arm underneath. He inserted the chip into the mechanical arm and tapped a few times on the screen. The sound of combat suddenly died down—it was the robots and mercenaries stricken by the virus, taking hits helplessly.

The first girl threw the tear gas grenade, which exploded with a bang, flooding the area with choking fumes and blinding the genetically modified humans.

The three young men and women seized the opportunity to escape, weaving through the battling forces in a risky and exhilarating escape, not forgetting to pull along the innocent bystander, Lu Yang.