The fifth planet of Centaurus - The Eye of Blue Light.

The research institute of the Zhen Dan corporation is analyzing the latest round of combat test data for the Flame Mech. As human pilots cannot withstand the gravitational overload brought by the high-speed maneuvers of the Flame Mech, AI is operating the mech in the testing environment.

"Eh?" A young researcher noticed some problems in his data, which quickly piqued his interest. He separated these data for analysis, and the more he dug, the more he felt there was a hidden secret. He quickly reported to the team leader: "Leader, there are some problems with the combat data!"

The team leader was reviewing data on the Flame Mech's damage resistance and didn't look up at the young researcher. He just responded, "What's the problem?"

The young researcher excitedly said, "In the latest combat test of the Flame Mech, I found that the response time of the Flame Mech was 20% higher than the average response time when the AI issued a command!"

"I analyzed this command. The AI calculated that in this battle, it could destroy an enemy mech at the expense of damage to the right arm of the Flame Mech. The AI ordered the Flame Mech to attack directly without evasion."

"I pulled up previous battle data of the Flame Mech and found that the usual response time fluctuated around 5%."

"And whenever the AI issued a command requiring the Flame Mech to attack the opponent at the cost of damage to its body, the Flame Mech always took more response time to execute."

The young researcher became more and more excited as he spoke, handing these data conclusions to the team leader and expressing his suspicion: "Leader! I suspect that the Flame Mech has come alive!"

The team leader raised his head and took the report from the young researcher. He slowly said, "Shinichi, these data indeed show some correlation, but the nature of science is to boldly assume and carefully verify. You can draft a plan to test these hypotheses."

Encouraged by the team leader, Shinichi became even more enthusiastic about his work. He cheerily told the leader, "Okay, leader! I'll draft the plan right away!" He then ran out of the leader's office, even forgetting to close the door for the leader.

The team leader didn't mind, smiled, picked up the previous document, and continued his research, muttering, "It's good to be young."

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The U3-173 combat spaceship has been flying in antimatter space for more than six months. The people of White Goose Star have never enjoyed such a long period of peace.

Through the food synthesizer on the spaceship, he tasted a variety of foods for the first time. Spicy, sweet and sour, salty and fresh, the rich tastes made him understand what happiness is.

Every time he had delicious food, he would go to perceive that tall woman. Every time his perception touched the woman, he felt as if there was a warm current surging in the lower part of his abdomen.

The other women on the ship could give him the same feeling.

Through learning, he knew this feeling was a biological instinct, the instinct for reproduction. He was looking forward to experiencing this biological instinct.

In antimatter space, he also met many "friends". The farewell of the first planet made him realize that stars also have their own consciousness. In this antimatter space where time and space are redefined, the gap in thought frequency between him and the stars was bridged. There were curious stars sending him friendly messages, and there were indifferent stars ignoring his greetings.

He felt that everything was wonderful after leaving White Goose Star.

As time passed bit by bit, he knew he needed to find a way to escape from this spaceship. If he followed this spaceship back to the human base, it would be difficult for him to regain his freedom.

He had "friends" helping him, consuming the energy of the giant ion reactor on the spaceship in some way. He was calculating the energy in the ion reactor. In more than a month, the spaceship would leave antimatter space due to insufficient energy, and that would be his chance to escape from the spaceship.

The Flame Mech has been having a hard time lately. Every time it goes through a combat test, the AI issues commands that cause damage to its body. Although humans quickly repair it afterwards, it doesn't like the feeling of being damaged.

"Sh*t!"

The Flame Mech muttered inwardly: "Is this AI an idiot? Why doesn't it dodge such an obvious projectile trajectory and instead takes a beating?"

"What kind of sh*t order is this? There are so many enemies ahead, shouldn't it retreat? Why does it still charge forward? Why doesn't the AI charge forward itself?"

The Flame Mech was unaware that all of its actions and reactions were being recorded by the young researcher, Shinichi. The more data Shinichi collected, the more he believed that the Flame Mech had truly come alive, or at least, had developed a certain level of self-awareness.

The results of Shinichi's report also made the research group's leader begin to take the matter seriously. The research group wanted to establish a new testing plan to determine the extent of the Flame Mech's self-awareness development, which resulted in even more strenuous days for the Flame Mech.

Just as the Flame Mech was once again subjected to various weapons attacks in the space combat target field, seeking to escape, a huge, entirely black spaceship emerged from antimatter space and entered normal space, appearing right in the center of the space combat target field.

This was a "Mo-Star class" battleship of the Galactic Alliance, with the hull number U3-173.