MTLNOVEL Chapter 247:
Chapter 247: You Witness the Change of Heart:
The familiar pattern.
The familiar outcome.
In the face of that apocalyptic celestial body, every defense was as fragile as paper.
Starships shattered, space and time fractured, and the visibly distorted fields swept through the dark void, bringing ultimate annihilation.
Once the chaos subsided,
Once the universe returned to silence,
Once the starlight no longer flickered in disorder…
Xu Xi revived once again, repeating the same process until Ailei arrived and escorted him back to the safety of the backup starship.
“Master, please rest here.”
The loyal machine servant refused to let Xu Xi overexert himself, taking on the full burden of recovery and production alone.
One by one, the destroyed starships were reconstructed and transformed into new units.
Force field technology, gravitational technology, velocity control… The salvaged materials from the old fleet were swiftly refined into stronger and more advanced models.
Standing on the bridge of the backup battleship, Xu Xi watched the cold and silent, yet strangely bustling starship production process.
Amidst this unique mechanical aesthetic, within the rhythmic assembly of metal, his thoughts drifted far beyond.
“An attack every hundred years?”
“No… I can’t jump to conclusions yet. Even with superluminal travel, the intervals wouldn’t be perfectly consistent.”
“If we take a century as the benchmark, there should be some slight variation.”
Flowers will wither.
Tender leaves will decay.
For ordinary people, a hundred years is the limit of life—fleeting yet beautiful.
Xu Xi silently calculated in his heart how many more years he could live if the pattern continued.
“The first death… orbital bombardment from the old Federation.”
“The second… saturation bombing by rebel AIs in the southern capital.”
“The third… the first deep-space strike in the cosmos.”
“The fourth… today.”
“Ten Deaths, One Survival allows me to continue until the tenth death, meaning I still have six more lives.”
“Six lives… six centuries… six hundred years…”
On the bridge, the circulating air from the life-support system carried a faint warmth, brushing past Xu Xi’s nose.
Gentle and warm, like the soft touch of dawn.
Xu Xi spread his palm, mechanical force surging within, pulsing in an irregular rhythm—like an invisible mechanical heart resonating with the starship beneath his feet.
Mechanical force was useful. Ailei was impressive.
But in the face of the absolute power of the neutron war star…
Everything was still far too fragile.
It had nothing to do with effort or talent; it was simply a gap that existed across the dimension of time itself.
The civilization controlling the neutron war star had walked the path of technological advancement for an unfathomably long period, towering over countless other civilizations.
Catching up within a few short centuries was impossible.
“Maybe I can find a loophole to evade the automatic strikes of the neutron war star?”
“But I can’t put too much hope in that.”
“Countless civilizations have perished… Surely, others have realized this threat before I did.”
“Yet they still fell into oblivion in the deep void…”
Xu Xi mused, deducing that the war star’s attack program must possess beyond-imaginable reconnaissance capabilities, potentially involving logic-based technologies far more advanced than anything he possessed.
The ruins of countless civilizations served as a warning—
A testament to the inescapable nature of the neutron war star’s cosmic strikes.
Xu Xi didn’t feel regret.
This sci-fi simulation had lasted 155 years, surpassing all previous simulations by far.
Be it the accumulation of knowledge or the experiences along the way, Xu Xi felt satisfied.
He also knew that no matter how long the simulation continued, he would never fully comprehend the simulator’s true nature—its mystery far exceeded his imagination.
Therefore…
For Xu Xi, the end of this sci-fi simulation, whenever it came, was something he could accept.
“But once I’m gone… what will happen to Ailei?”
Xu Xi slowly clenched his palm.
In the curve of his fingers, the mechanical force crumbled into fine white particles, glowing faintly before dissipating into nothingness.
Fleeting yet brilliant—
Just like the radiance of humanity he once glimpsed within Ailei’s mechanical heart.
When the simulation ends, Xu Xi will return to reality,
But Ailei… she will remain trapped in this starry void.
Without Machine Soul Delight and Mechanical Resonance, the fleet’s strength would drop drastically, leaving Ailei in an even more precarious situation.
She would endure countless crushing strikes.
She would drift alone in the vast void.
She would be imprisoned in an eternal cage.
“…I really can’t just leave her like this,” Xu Xi sighed inwardly.
He resolved to do everything he could in the remaining time to help Ailei carve out a path to the future and escape this bottomless cosmic prison.
“Master.”
A soft voice, calm yet gentle, drew closer.
It was Ailei. She arrived carrying a steaming tray of food, insisting that a warm meal would help Xu Xi recover from today’s shock.
“Thanks, Ailei.”
Xu Xi smiled at the girl.
Side by side, they walked to a nearby table where Ailei had carefully laid out a red-and-white checkered cloth in advance.
“Master, please enjoy your meal.”
Her movements were steady and graceful as she carefully arranged the meal, her expression calm and meticulous.
Once everything was set, she quietly sat beside him, her hands gently folded on her lap, waiting for Xu Xi to finish eating.
Ailei’s mechanical body couldn’t digest food.
Even if she imitated human eating habits, the food would simply be stored in a compartment labeled “stomach.”
Thus, at every mealtime, the loyal machine servant would simply sit beside Xu Xi, her serene silver-blue eyes watching him intently.
At first, Xu Xi found the atmosphere awkward and strange.
But over time, he grew accustomed to it.
“Ailei, how’s the recovery of the starship wreckage going?”
“Rest assured, everything is progressing as planned.”
“I see. That’s good. Have you recorded the gravitational wave frequency from the neutron war star?”
“Yes, the backup starship has already logged it automatically.”
Letting go of his thoughts and worries,
In this peaceful dining environment, their conversation sounded particularly clear, carrying a pure and soothing warmth.
“Master, are you… feeling down?”
After a while, Ailei keenly sensed something weighing on Xu Xi’s mind.
“No, not really.”
“I was just thinking about some things I need to do in the future.”
Xu Xi shook his head, smiling to dispel Ailei’s concerns, continuing to enjoy the delicious meal, and complimenting her culinary skills.
Move.
Twitch.
Ailei’s ears twitched rapidly.
“Thank you for the compliment, Master. I will continue to improve,” she said, her expression brightening with a smile.
Having replicated countless data files and learned human expressions from countless images,
Today, Ailei’s smile had become truly beautiful.
Like a delicate bud, blooming with the brilliance of a falling star.