Chapter 708: Chapter 16: Tearing Off the Disguise

[Jin: Can we continue the installation?]

[Akas: It should be possible, I’ll give it a try... The main issue is that it’s really hard to install; it needs to be placed exactly at the proximal end of the aorta.]

[Akas: Ah!]

Another gasp, it doesn’t matter, he definitely failed again.

[Akas: Brother! Quickly use your ability to block the bleeding spot!]

[Jin: It’s blocked...!]

[Akas: Whew, that scared me, thank goodness you’re here, brother.]

[Jin: Stop dithering, hurry up and install it.]

The two men clumsily operated, just hearing their recorded voices, Yun You could imagine how panicked they must have been at the time.

But speaking of it, the difficulty of this transformation surgery is indeed too high.

Yun You roughly tallied, these two men failed at least ten times, spending nearly three days and nights, without successfully installing the equipment.

Until...

[Akas: The seventeenth time! Finally... finally succeeded! It’s not easy... Wait... Brother, Lamia seems to be waking up!]

[Jin: Yes... her physiological reactions have returned, but why... why is there no emotion in her eyes? Didn’t you say this method could let her retain some...]

[Akas: I said retain some instincts! But there’s still a gap between instinct and emotions, for example, now she will eat when hungry, drink when thirsty, and sleep when tired, these functions are not possessed by normal Dolls... but to give her real emotions, we need ongoing experiments for many years.]

[Jin: But we don’t have that kind of leisure anymore, you know, ever since the last bombing ended, Zhao Xuan, that old guy has been targeting me, now we can only evade his pursuit by continuously shifting territory, a stable experimental environment is nonexistent.]

[Jin: Moreover, I can’t possibly leave Lamia with you, you don’t have the ability to protect her.]

[Akas: I see... then... I do have one idea.]

[Jin: Let’s hear it.]

[Akas: I still have some savings, and after that leak incident ended... the Curse on Ah Ning and my child has already disappeared, currently I shouldn’t attract the attention of the Death God Organization.]

[Akas: So, I plan to first settle Ah Ling and others, then find a secluded place to slowly conduct experiments, striving to recreate previous technology... though this might take years or even decades, I will persist until Little Lamia can live as a real human again...]

[Akas: Brother, this is where we part ways.]

After speaking, Akas fell into silence, no need to guess, he must have left with his equipment.

For this, Jin did not stop him, just quietly cut off the recording.

And in the days that followed, this once-glorious Death God powerhouse wandered the world with her child, living a nomadic life, and left... a few final diaries.

[June 7, 2046]

[It’s been more than half a year since that experiment, during these six months, I’ve been fleeing with Lamia, incidentally witnessing the beautiful landscapes of this world, attempting to awaken the emotions of this girl.]

[But no matter what I do, the final result is failure.]

[Lamia seems to have forgotten who I am, and who she is, she only knows to follow orders and intelligence, like a robot without self-awareness.]

[Honestly, seeing the once-lovely little girl become this way, I truly feel uncomfortable... sometimes I dream of Lamia, dreaming of her being lively and cheerful as she once was, I want to embrace her, but when I awaken, I can only face the current Lamia who can’t even speak.]

[She is the first child to make me question whether my ideals are right, I am determined to rescue all oppressed souls in this world, but in the end, I can’t even protect my own daughter... what kind of person has the qualifications to save others?]

[I must admit, her existence has made me waiver.]

[I just hope I can slowly accept her current state... now that I think about it, I’m really not a competent father.]

...

[January 20, 2047]

[Lamia’s condition has not improved at all, in fact... increasingly resembles a machine.]

[When eating, she always asks me if she can dine, I tell her there’s no need for permission, but she says it’s a necessary protocol; every time she falls asleep halfway, she always wakes me and requests "charging" permission.]

[Solution? Of course there is one, just install a few more chips in the brain, but I refuse to do so, her brain has already been transformed into a riddled state, further adding chips would shave off some of the original tissue... I absolutely won’t agree.]

[Sigh, what a situation...]

...

[November 1, 2049]

[There’s an old saying in the East, "Long illness, no filial child at the bedside," meaning even the most filial child will feel irritable when caring for an elderly person at their sickbed for too long... though I hate to admit it, I indeed have this mindset now.]

[Of course, I still love Lamia, to me, if I could revive Lamia, even if it costs me my life, I would willingly do it, but I can’t, and Lamia... or rather, the girl in front of me, I must admit, she can’t be considered the Lamia from the past.]

[My feelings for her are genuinely complex, sometimes I truly don’t understand, is she Lamia, or a machine Doll embodying Lamia’s appearance?]

[I can no longer call her "Lamia," because no matter how I utter her name, she won’t respond to me, or rather she doesn’t consider "Lamia" her name, she always follows the brain chip’s instructions and asks me to give her a code name or name.]

[In the past, I always avoided this matter, but I know, no matter how much I avoid it, I can’t change this fact.]

[Moreover... considering Lamia’s name might attract Death God Organization’s attention, so ultimately, after thinking for a long time, I decided to give her a code name.]

[From this day forward, I call her...]

[Shiqi]

[The meaning is quite simple—back then, it was after seventeen surgeries, that she transformed from a human into a Doll.]

"..."

Silence.

A deathly silence, lasting for a long, long time.

Finally.

Yun You slowly raised her head, her gaze lifting from the diary paper, and landed precisely on the girl.

Shiqi.

The girl who appeared to be in her early teens was sitting upright at the moment, with her hands placed on her knees, not speaking, nor doing anything.

She was simply quietly watching Yun You, like... like a bionic robot.

"Gulp..."

Yun You swallowed, then stretched out her hand, tentatively waving before Shiqi, using a bit of Death God Power.

Then —

"Snap~"

A light sound, like the sound of electricity.

Following that, Shiqi’s appearance began changing in a blur.

Her white hair slowly transformed into golden from the roots to the tips, her cold eyes gradually turned into pale blue, revealing exquisite features and an almost flawless small face.

This was a little girl as exquisite as a doll, and importantly...

This face bore some resemblance to Jin himself, evident from the eye color and hair color. 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

The reason she hadn’t been recognized before was that she had activated... or rather passively activated her disguise function, thus covering her original appearance.

"So... so that’s how it is..."

Yun You sighed lightly, gently stroking Shiqi’s soft cheek.

She should have realized it earlier.

Shiqi was the daughter Jin had been hiding, she was Lamia.