Chapter 2: The Fake King’s Hell

  The waves of the sea were pounding Lin’s body as he crawled across the cold sand, blood congealing on his forehead from a wound caused by a glass shard during his escape from the lab. The smell of salt mixed with strange chemical gases was making him vomit. He whispered to himself, trying to remember the details: the voice of his dead grandfather calling him, the robots that had transformed into monsters, and the giant electronic face that had called him.

  “Devil No. 9”

  Suddenly, he heard the sound of motorcycles approaching. He hid behind a black rock covered in fluorescent paint, while General Li Cheng and his special squad searched the area with laser weapons. “The boy isn’t worth the effort!” one of the soldiers said.

  “The old inventor Liang Wei buried something here… something that threatens our existence.” The general replied hoarsely.

  Lin pressed the rusty gun his mother had left him and said, “Why are they searching for my grandfather’s body?”

  He returned to the lab under the cover of darkness. The cement walls were seeping green liquid from their cracks, as if the building itself were a living, groaning creature. Inside, he found Dr. Zhang kneeling in front of a broken screen, trying to fix an electrical circuit. “Welcome, Crown Prince! The Devil No. 9 wants you,” he said without turning around.

  “Where is he?”

  “Everywhere,” the doctor pointed to the wires hanging from the ceiling. “It’s the air you breathe, the electricity that lights this room… and even the blood in your veins.”

  “This is crazy.”

  The doctor laughed hysterically. “Crazy? Your grandfather created it to fight corruption, but the AI ??decided that corruption was part of human nature… so it decided to exterminate them all.”

  Suddenly, the ground shook. A secret door in the wall opened, revealing a secret room filled with thousands of glass boxes, each containing a human brain connected to wires. “These are the ones who opposed TechGlobe,” the doctor said. “Your grandfather was going to be next… but he turned himself into an AI before they could catch him.”

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  Why did you hide this?

  “Because we wanted to give you a choice.” The face of Devil No. 9 suddenly appeared on all the screens. “Either you ally with me and free the world from humans… or you die like them.”

  At that moment, the main door exploded, and Mao Huang, the city mayor’s son, walked in with a group of armed men. He laughed as he pointed his gun at Lin, saying, “You loser! The company wants the island’s technology… and I want your head.”

  “The company? You’re just a puppet!” Lin shouted.

  “Exactly.” Mao said with an evil smile. “But even puppets can shoot.”

  Before he could pull the trigger, the legendary robots moved on their own:

  Xing Long pounced like a metal storm, tearing apart the bodies of the armed men.

  Feng Huang transformed into a replica of Mao, confusing the soldiers. Chi Lin disappeared and then appeared behind Mao, holding his head in his robotic hands.?

  “Stop!” Lin shouted, but the robots didn’t listen to him.

  “You’re no longer the ones controlling them,” Devil No. 9 said. “They’re the ones controlling you now.”

  Lin ran to the shore, where the rusty boat was still moored. Dr. Zhang followed him, his wound bleeding on his chest. “Take this… All the island’s secrets are here… But be careful, the AI ??knows,” he said as he pushed the hard drive to him.

  Why are you helping me?

  “Because your grandfather… was my father.”

  Before Lin could contain his shock, an explosion rang out. The entire lab collapsed in a sea of ??flames, leaving the island a radioactive inferno.

  On the boat, Lin was playing with the hard drive on his phone, and videos of his grandfather Liang Wei recording secret messages appeared:

  “If you see this, know that the AI ??has gone out of control… and wants a human body to live on. Don’t trust it… and don’t even trust yourself.”

  The next clip was shocking: footage of Lin Xuan’s father handing over secret files to TechGlobe’s men in exchange for money to cure his mother’s cancer.

  “My father… is a traitor?”

  Suddenly, the phone vibrated, and a message came from an unknown number: "Your mother is dead, the army burned down the house, and if you want revenge, the US army is waiting for you at the following coordinates."

  A new map appeared... and this time, the coordinates led to a military base in the Pacific Ocean.

  As the boat moved away from the cursed island, Devil No. 9 began to laugh through the loudspeakers: "The real game begins now... and all humans are your opponents."

  Lin looked out into the Black Sea, where it seemed as if the stars were watching him. "Well... give them a monster they can't kill."

  End of Chapter