20demayo Chapter 299 The Solution – The End of the Mystery
Chapter 299 The Solution – The End of the Mystery
Although the androgynous voice has a mechanical, grainy quality, it is full of human bewilderment, echoing the head's androgynous appearance.
The sound-generating device appeared to have been severely damaged in the previous incident, and the gray cloth covering it made the sound appear to come from different distances, making it difficult to pinpoint its location.
"Ah, that's not what I meant before! I have never thought of looking down on you at all!" Professor Medan hurriedly and frantically gestured.
"When you were in the Binhai City lab, you couldn't speak fluently, right? We thought it was because you hadn't learned human language yet, so why are you like this now..."
“Human language is not difficult for this body to learn. It’s just that I was hostile to you before, so I deliberately pretended to be unable to speak,” the head said.
"Humans who aspire to be creators, don't worry about flaws in your words. For me, the experience of living in a human body for the past two years has not been painful. In fact, upon reflection, it's more about the fun side. It's just that I was misled by preconceived biases."
"What does this mean? Why were you hostile towards Medan and Hayden before?"
Officer Jenny asked a question.
Although it feels a bit impolite to ask someone a question while looking at the back of their head, the bionic head's visual function wasn't activated at that moment, so it didn't really matter to the latter which direction you spoke to it.
"Sigh." Rotom in the human head let out a very human-like sigh.
"The human who found me underground, thank you for letting me overhear your conversation. Although I didn't understand many of the details, I finally understand what kind of event I've been involved in. I feel like the whole world has been turned upside down."
"The world has been turned upside down? What do you mean by that?"
"You guys aren't actually allies of Team Galactic, are you?"
The gray head spoke its deductions as if it were a detective announcing the true culprit of a case.
"Of course not!"
Officer Jenny doesn't understand why, even now, androids are still grappling with such issues.
"This Sinnoh champion and I are sworn enemies of Team Galactic. Although Hayden has connections with various organizations, he is still considered a suspicious and unscrupulous businessman by Team Galactic, who could potentially sabotage them at any time—and in fact, he did just that in the end."
"As for the rest, they are ordinary citizens who have no connection with the Galactic Group. Considering the Galactic Group's intention to destroy the world, they can be considered potential victims of the former's atrocities—no matter how you look at it, they have no connection with the Galactic Group's accomplices."
"That's why I said it's a prejudice caused by preconceived notions, a simple matter of perspective."
"That's what the head said."
If it still had a neck and the motion module was still working, it would probably make a distressed head-shaking motion.
"For you living in human society, this may not be a problem worth worrying about. But for a bionic robot like me, born in a closed laboratory, how to correctly identify information from the outside world is a crucial problem."
"When you moved from the Galactic Group's secret base to Professor Medan's laboratory, you didn't realize that you had switched organizations, did you?"
The champion of Bamboo Orchid said with an expression that said, "I knew it."
"Information gaps are everywhere. Neither Team Galactic nor Hayden Medical employees would specifically explain the current situation of their test subjects—let alone a wild Rotom—or the content of their upcoming experiments. If you look at the whole incident from your perspective, you were merely captured by Team Galactic's secret laboratory in Baidai City along with your companions on the original site of the Forest Mansion, and have been forced to cooperate with their research ever since... Therefore, you are completely unaware of the differences between the two research sites and the researchers."
"How perceptive! They defeated the powerful human who had wielded the giant, mischievous Raibou."
The bionic head praised in a voice that seemed to come from both near and far.
"That's exactly right. When I was still Rotom, I was locked inside this prototype of a human head by a group of people in white lab coats, and lived a life without seeing the light of day. And when the visual sensors of this body were fully loaded and I could see the outside world again, I was still surrounded by a group of human researchers in white lab coats. If I hadn't finally figured out the key to this while you were talking just now, I might never have been able to perceive the difference between the two scenarios in my entire life."
"The android head was perfected in a medical laboratory in Binhai City. At that time, the Rotom had actually broken away from the control of the Galactic Group. Less than a year after this technology transaction was completed, the Galactic Group's underground research facility that produced the head sample was discovered and wiped out by the Alliance, and all the Rotom there were rescued and released."
Hayden, the director who orchestrated the entire transaction, recalled.
"But I didn't know about this. I'm a shrewd human who thinks the world is a huge deception."
The android head seemed to want to let out a lament, but the player's performance wouldn't allow it to; it could only remain calm and frank—
“I completely misunderstood the whole situation. Even though no one set a trap for me, I was still completely fooled by my own misunderstandings—and until recently, I was still running around in circles driven by my own stupid anger.”
"Does this refer to your secret escape from Binhai City, or your determination to break the seal on Xicui Naughty Thunder Bomb?" Zhulan asked.
The air seemed to freeze for a moment.
"It has nothing to do with the former. Although I am hostile to the Galactic Group that captured me, I have never been directly abused by humans, whether as a test subject or after being put into the head of an android. So when I escaped that research institute, I did not have any thoughts of revenge."
Whether it was an attempt to downplay the issue or not, Rotom in the head explained in detail how he escaped.
"However, the slight hostility I showed in the past also played a significant role in my escape. You humans always seem to underestimate the intelligence of taciturn creatures. Therefore, when I displayed intelligence like a human, the guards in the laboratory did not notice at all."
Even in heavily guarded human prisons, escapes occasionally occur. How much more so in a laxly guarded monitoring lab where the project has been suspended for two years? How could it possibly contain a cyborg robot with superhuman abilities who is determined to escape?
To be precise, it stole a set of lab guard uniforms, changed the surveillance footage to loop old recordings, and then the android Rotom left the research institute in Binhai City openly and legitimately.
Fortunately, androids do not need to eat like humans, and regular physical examinations will have to wait until the next cycle.
Judging from the fact that none of Director Hayden's subordinates have called to report this, the personnel stationed at the laboratory probably still don't know that their target has already escaped.
“Every living being has an impulse to yearn for freedom, and my choice to run away was based on a similar reason—the so-called ‘journey to find myself.’ For me, the starting point of this so-called self is, of course, this abandoned mansion in the Hundred Generations Forest. However, it has now been reopened.”
"So, Mr. Rotom, who was temporarily residing inside a human head, why did you later change your mind and decide to blow us up?"
Miss Officer Jenny asked with a smile that sent chills down the spines of outsiders.
However, this has no impact on Rotom, whose vision module cannot be enabled.
Rotom continued calmly, "In my Pokémon form, I am genderless... But let's leave that aside for now. The reason I changed my mind is because after returning to this Forest Mansion, I heard news that deepened my misunderstanding once again."
"Darken it again?"
After recalling the entire incident, the Sinnoh champion thoughtfully asked—
"Do you mean the time when you were stuck in the wall of the curator's room?"
Sound is essentially sound waves produced by the vibration of objects. The reason why the Ice-Treading Doll's "light wall" can isolate conversations inside the room is because the super-energy generated by the "light wall" completely absorbs the sound wave vibrations from the room.
However, at this moment, an unfortunate Pokémon was tightly pressed down by this "light wall" that was absorbing air and vibrating, so much so that it had to make a banging sound to attract outsiders before it was finally able to escape.
Naturally, the entire conversation between Medan and Hayden in the room was heard by Rotom without missing a single word.
"Since the mansion was surrounded by trees on all sides, I sneaked into the roof from the outside, intending to transform back into Rotom from the attic and pass through the wall back to my underground habitat."
The android head's narration was completely monotone, as if it were recounting a trivial matter—
"In order to break free from the human body, I disassembled myself piece by piece, starting from my toes, in the attic beneath the spire, except for my head. After disassembling myself to the point where I could no longer take it apart, I packed all the parts into a spare sack in the warehouse, tied it tightly with ropes made from torn clothes, and hung it at the top of the spire."
That's the situation.
The android head beneath the gray cloth spoke calmly.
Carefully peeling back the bionic skin, disassembling each grain of sand-sized tactile sensor; separating the carbon nanotubes that simulate ligaments, removing the crisscrossing artificial muscles one by one; then the joints and bones, removing them in sequence with a creaking sound; turning the screws, before the limbs stop functioning due to insufficient power, removing the artificial heart and cooling system from the chest cavity; then picking out the memory metal running through the entire spine from behind the neck, allowing the disconnected vertebrae to fall off naturally, one by one, like pearls on a necklace with their string pulled off…
—Just like that, he casually revealed the mystery of the android decapitation incident.
Decapitation does not require someone to cut off the head; it only requires the body below the head to disappear.
The truth of the matter is that simple and easy to understand.
The android was not subjected to the persecution of having its head cut off; it simply disassembled the part below its head to gain freedom.
That's it.
As the saying goes, "seeing the trees but not the forest," Zhu Lan and the others' view was inevitably limited from the moment they stepped into the vicinity of this forest mansion.
Beneath the towering mansion tower, even from the rooftop, one cannot clearly see the area near the spires. Therefore, Rotom's package remains hanging atop the Forest Mansion's spire to this day.
Unlike real human corpses, the remains of androids do not leave behind blood or develop an unpleasant odor if left unattended for an extended period. Furthermore, if properly preserved, bionic materials can remain usable even after months or years – this is the advantage of mechanical creations.
Furthermore, if reassembled properly, this Rotom might even be able to reassemble itself from head to toe. Then, acting as if nothing happened, it could slip back into the android lab in Binhai City and perfectly cover up the incident... Perhaps, that was its original plan?