radicalducati Is Chapter 31 considered normal?
Is Chapter 31 considered normal?
In the short period that followed, Vector finally managed to make his life more regular.
During the day, she still went to Qingqiu City as usual to work as an assistant to Red Spider, listening to him disassemble the machine's layers while pointing out the flaws in her brain module.
During her free time, she would fill in at the energy bar or do odd jobs in the perimeter of the arena.
When I got home at night, I could never escape the training from Zhen Tianzun. If I was unlucky, I would get beaten up; if I was even unlucky, I would practice swordsmanship until my left arm went numb.
Taking advantage of any spare moment, she ventured into the Iron Fort Archives to continue battling that incredibly troublesome retrieval system.
Sometimes she really doesn't understand why she's getting busier and busier, and she's even using the fragmented time that she used to look down on the most.
Reality is truly forcing us.
While she was working at the energy bar outside the Qingqiu City Technology Zone, she gradually became acquainted with a colleague she was working with.
The other party's name is like a number, and it's quite long. Every time I see it, the vector looks like it was randomly generated by the terminal.
GEL-397.
In the end, she simply gave it the abbreviation "97".
97 is a very ordinary, common Cybertronian. His armor isn't new, and his job isn't exactly prestigious, but he's easy to talk to, and his brain modules are normal. When the two units are on duty, they'll chat casually for a bit, complaining about the shift schedule, the passenger flow, and how the supply boxes are running out so quickly. After chatting for a while, they'll casually add the frequency to their schedule.
-
The dueling arena was as lively and deafening as ever that day.
She arrived at the backstage area not too late; the show featuring Zhen Tianzun hadn't started yet. Instead of rushing into the audience, she strolled over to the backstage area as usual. She was now so familiar with the place that the guards didn't even glance at her.
The backstage corridor near the rest area was quieter than outside. The metal walls blocked out most of the noise from the audience, leaving only a muffled vibration. Yin Vector, carrying his terminal, was about to find a quiet spot to wait for Zhen Tianzun to come out when he turned the corner and saw that familiar red, white, and black figure.
Knocked down, leaning against the wall, looking down at his terminal, he had probably just come back from the emergency room or somewhere else. Hearing the noise, he glanced at her, a smile immediately playing on his lips.
"You've been coming here quite often lately." He drawled, looking her up and down. "Not bad, you look much better in vehicle mode."
The vector was already quite used to his evaluation system. Leaning against the wall, he replied directly, "Thank you. I'll take this as the high-level recognition the medical officer mentioned."
"That's how it is." Knocked down and shut down the terminal, the light mirror paused on the structures on her left forearm and side waist. "Much more pleasing to the eye than when I first saw you. It seems the hybrid training of technical and gladiator styles is working well for you."
Vector couldn't help but chuckle: "You make it sound like I'm some kind of observational organism."
He laughed as he was knocked down.
"Not really," he said. "The organism under observation won't cause as much trouble on its own as you do."
The two machines chatted casually for a few minutes. Most of it was about trivial things, such as how she had recently filled in for several shifts at part-time jobs, how the archive's retrieval system was still just as annoying, and how Great Sage's public speeches had started to include slogans about treating every Cybertronian equally.
When Knockout heard her say, "The partitioned search logic of the Iron Fort Archives is like deliberately humiliating first-time visitors," she laughed with amusement.
"Looks like you're finally getting your hands on a system that's really going to torture your machine," he said.
"Do you Cybertronians have an inherent aversion to the concept of 'being normal'?" the vector asked irritably.
"Don't generalize and condemn all machines." He raised his chin. "At least I've always been tasteful and reasonable."
Just as Yin Vector was about to retort with "You really have confidence in yourself," he caught a glimpse of an extra machine silhouette at the other end of the passage.
Dark-colored, quiet, and walking without making any unnecessary noise.
Her entire body reacted before her brain module, tensing up very slightly.
Of course, one wouldn't miss such a sharp-eyed machine.
"Hmm?" He glanced at her, his tone instantly revealing a hint of amusement. "Why are you suddenly so wary?"
Before the vector could be connected, the sound wave had already approached from the other end of the channel.
This time, there was no blocking the road, no private messaging, and no deliberate attempt to make his presence barely noticeable while making others uncomfortable. He just passed by normally, as if he happened to come from this passage and saw the two of them standing here.
Knockout deliberately spoke first, lazily: "Sound wave."
The sound wave paused briefly, then he looked at Knockdown and nodded.
"knock down."
The voice was still low, flat, and short, but it could be considered within the scope of "normal communication".
Then, his gaze fell on the vector.
His gaze held no obvious emotion, lingered on her for a moment, and then he spoke naturally: "Vector."
Pointer vector: "..."
She didn't respond immediately.
Because this machine is behaving abnormally well today.
Before, when he saw her, he would either block her, test her, or bombard her with a few words that sounded like a sentient behavioral analysis report. Now, his sudden, seemingly professional greeting caught her off guard.
She paused for a second, then replied, "...sound waves."
It's impossible not to feel awkward, but you can't just suddenly explode on the spot right after someone knocks you down.
Soundwave didn't say much, just nodded slightly, and walked past them. He didn't linger, nor did he suddenly bring up any new questions to bother her.
The whole process was so clean it was like a demonstration of "how to pass by normally".
Only after the dark silhouette of the machine passed the corner of the passage and completely disappeared on the other side did he slowly turn his gaze back to the face of the manipulator.
He looked at her as if she had just watched a very interesting play, but only understood half of it.
"Interesting." Knocked down, arms crossed, a smirk playing on his lips. "When did you two start acting like this?"
The vector at the forehead jumped: "What mode?"
"Don't pretend." Knockout laughed heartily. "When you saw him just now, your whole body tensed up. But as soon as he opened his mouth, you managed to suppress it again."
He paused, the gossip in his eyes growing more pronounced: "Weren't you quite interested in him before? Why are your reactions so complicated now that you've seen him?"
The word "complex" is actually quite accurate in a certain sense.
She opened her mouth, but finally just squeezed out, "He's sick."
After hearing the story, instead of calming down, he became even more excited.
"I know that," he said. "The question is, what did he do to you?"
The vector looked at him and remained silent for two seconds.
Of course, she couldn't possibly recount the entire sequence of events—blocking the road, forcibly connecting to the channel, trying to extract information, and then apologizing and sending attachments—right here. That would seem too much like she really cared about the phone, and it would sound very strange to say it out loud.
So she just vaguely replied, "Nothing much, it's just a problem with how we communicate."
He raised an eyebrow: "If someone would label your less-than-healthy communication style as 'problematic,' then the problem must be quite serious."
The vector was momentarily speechless, then glared back at him without any politeness: "Whose side are you on anyway?"
"I'm watching the show from the sidelines," Knockout replied confidently, his smile smug and undisguised. "And honestly, he was actually quite restrained just now."
Yin Xiang crossed his arms, recalling the polite greeting he had just exchanged while passing by, and then thinking back to his previous crazy antics, he reluctantly admitted a little bit of reality: "...That's true."
Upon hearing this, Knockdown laughed even more broadly: "Looks like something really did happen."
"Why are you so gossipy today?"
"Because I have optical glasses," Knockout said slowly. "The atmosphere between the two of you just now really didn't seem like that of ordinary nodding acquaintances."
The vector core clicked its tongue, but didn't respond to that.
She knew it was normal for her to be able to tell when she was knocked down. After all, her brain and body weren't fully responsive to sound waves yet. Even though her opponent had acted quite "normally" today, she would still instinctively be on guard.
Conditioned reflexes are sometimes much more honest than brain modules. It's incredibly annoying.
The two stood by the passageway and chatted for a few more minutes, with the attacker still shamelessly trying to get information out of her. She deflected his attacks left and right, finally resorting to attacking his medical aesthetics and his perverse pleasure in watching the spectacle, which finally steered the conversation slightly off-topic.
Who can be defeated?
This person clearly belongs to the type who thinks, "I can guess what you're thinking even if you don't tell me."
So when the match on Zhen Tianzun's side was about to end and the waves of noise from the audience were building up, Ji Dao had a satisfied look on his face, as if his trip today hadn't been in vain.
Before leaving, he cheekily tossed out, "Next time, if you two can finally have a normal conversation of more than three sentences, remember to tell me."
Vector immediately wanted to smash the terminal on his arm at him: "Get lost."
He knocked her down, smiled, waved, turned around, and walked away, his back view exuding a smug "I'm having a good time" vibe.
Yin Vector stood still, staring in the direction he left, grinding his back teeth, and couldn't help but curse inwardly.
...Are these guys just bored out of their minds?
After a while, she couldn't help but recall Shengbo's actions, which were barely considered normal.
Never mind, as long as it doesn't recur.
In the distance, the announcement over the loudspeaker from the stadium began to change tone; it was clear that Zhen Tianzun's match was nearing its end. Yin Xiang straightened up and moved a little towards the exit to be ready to pick up the athlete later.
When Zhen Tianzun returned from the arena, he immediately saw her standing by the passageway with a subtle expression on her face, as if to say, "I just went through something messy, but I haven't quite sorted it out yet."
He took two steps closer and glanced at her: "What is it now?"
Vector looked up at him, paused for half a second, and finally decided there was nothing to hide from him, so he said directly, "When I was chatting with Knockout just now, the sound wave passed by."
Zhen Tianzun didn't stop walking, but his tone was a little tense: "And then?"
"And then..." Vector paused, "and then he was pretty normal today."
Zhen Tianzun finally turned his head and glanced at her. His gaze was brief, but the meaning was very clear.
Who are you calling normal?
Even he himself thought what the vector was saying was a bit outrageous, so he quickly added, "Only relatively speaking."
Zhen Tianzun scoffed.
"It seems you've lowered your standards quite quickly."
Pointer vector: "..."
She followed him back, silently defending herself in her mind.
It's not that her standards dropped too quickly.
The problem is that none of these machines can be completely trusted to be measured by normal standards.
On this basis, the behavior of sound waves nodding and leaving when called by name today is indeed a great improvement.
...Although thinking about it that way, it still seems pretty absurd.