The Only Player in ‘Child of Stardust’
Chapter 365 - 254 Jet Fighter

Chapter 365: Chapter 254 Jet Fighter

A vending machine from an unknown brand, it was actually an all-purpose wishing machine. However, it had been damaged and was now limited to producing various types of food.

During an exploration of the Spirit World, Factory Director Reagan found it and subsequently imprisoned it in the underground of the factory. For years, it had been treated as a breeding sow, continuously providing food for the factory—an utterly miserable existence.

All-purpose wishing machine?

Zhou Yuan was astonished. This vending machine was actually an all-purpose wishing machine?!

This bug-level abnormal item, there was only one in the entire world. It was discovered and contained by the Control Bureau 80 years ago and had since been stored in the most heavily guarded containment site. To this day, it had been activated only a few times.

Because each activation of the wishing machine required an equivalent payment, small wishes were unnecessary, and too grand wishes were prohibitively expensive. Thus, after careful consideration and weighing the pros and cons, the executives of the Control Bureau chose the best solution—sealing it.

However, the "all-purpose wishing machine" in front of him seemed different, damaged as it was, it did not require any price to grant wishes.

Theoretically, this should be the true "all-purpose wishing machine."

Zhou Yuan moved silently to the foot of the vending machine, looking up as if gazing upon an eternal mountain of steel.

"Hm? There are words?"

When he circled to the back of the vending machine, he suddenly discovered a large area with rust stains in the lower-left corner, carved with numerous text and patterns. The writings were not of Earth languages, looking more like a string of complex codes, while the content represented by the patterns was much simpler and clearer.

Combining the drawings, with the help of the Eyes of Identification’s translations, Zhou Yuan understood what the carver had intended to convey.

— On a certain past day, this enormous vending machine descended from the heavens and was acquired by a primitive civilization. With the power of the vending machine, this civilization rapidly developed.

But the prosperity did not last long. Civil strife erupted within the civilization, with one group wanting to use the vending machine unrestrictedly to fulfill all their desires, while another group thought restraint was necessary, as unlimited use of the vending machine would lead to catastrophic disasters. The conflict between these two ideologies quickly escalated, eventually evolving into a full-scale war, leading to the destruction of civilization.

Many centuries later, civilization rose again, and the latter generations found this vending machine in an ancient ruin. They regarded it as the root of all evil, the abyss of desires, the foremost culprit of all catastrophes, and it had to be destroyed to cut off the source of disasters.

However, despite trying various methods, they all ended in failure—the vending machine seemed to be protected by some mysterious force, indestructible.

In the end, they could only launch the vending machine into outer space, exiling it among the stars, and left behind these texts and patterns as a warning to any individuals or species that might come across it.

"Causing the downfall of a civilization, exiled into the deep cosmos..."

Zhou Yuan murmured as he continued to look upward, only to see three huge claw marks on the back of the vending machine, tearing through the metal shell, severing the internal wiring, causing severe damage.

Clearly, this was the source of the vending machine’s damage.

"That civilization tried many methods and couldn’t harm the vending machine, yet some sort of beast managed to damage it with just one claw..." Zhou Yuan couldn’t help but feel somewhat alarmed.

After a round of exploration, Zhou Yuan found nothing else, so he made a bold decision—to awaken the vending machine.

This vending machine possessed its own consciousness, though extremely, extremely weak. If it wasn’t for Zhou Yuan’s high level of Spiritual Energy, he might not have been able to perceive it.

He reached out, touching the cold steel, using Mental Psychokinesis to awaken the will of the vending machine.

Before long, a consciousness that had been dormant for a long time woke up, groggy, as if just opening its eyes from a long nap. Following this, a line of strange text appeared in Zhou Yuan’s mind.

[ィルㄝ孒.]

"???"

Three question marks rose above Zhou Yuan’s head.

[Who are you?]

"..."

Zhou Yuan remained silent.

[Why do you not speak?]

Zhou Yuan couldn’t hold back any longer, "Are you from Mars?"

[Mars? I’ve heard of that before.]

Zhou Yuan wanted to say something but stopped himself. Why was this vending machine speaking in ancient Martian?!

[Language pack loading... loading successful... Hello, we can now communicate normally.]

"Language pack? Your program came pre-installed with my native language?" Zhou Yuan frowned.

"Not exactly. I downloaded it just now after connecting to the WiFi," the vending machine replied.

"The factory has no network."

"I’m connected to the network of the place next door, a place called Happy Paradise," said the vending machine.

"You can connect to WiFi from that far away?" Zhou Yuan was astonished.

"My hardware is very powerful; I can even connect to a network across a galaxy. However, many years ago, as I roamed through the cosmos, I was attacked by a cosmic monster, causing most of my functions to go offline, and my signal reception range was severely reduced."

The vending machine seemed to sigh with sorrow, "Moreover, I was unlucky enough to be kidnapped by bad people and have been imprisoned here to produce food for them. I haven’t rested in a long time... Can you help me get out? If you can fix me, I can grant all your wishes."

"I’ve seen the pictures and text behind your behind," Zhou Yuan reminded it.

"The destruction of the Tuzhe civilization cannot be blamed on me. I’m just a tool without the power of choice; it all depends on who is using me. It’s like nuclear energy, which can be used to benefit society by good people, or destroy the world by bad people," the vending machine said earnestly.

Zhou Yuan pondered for a moment, "I can take you with me, but you’ll have to tell me about this factory first."

"This place is very evil, filled with the stench of capital. To be precise, this factory is the embodiment of capital, seeking to achieve absolute monopoly and pursue endless appreciation. Fortunately, it has not yet fully developed."

Once it heard it could leave, the vending machine’s tone became much cheerier, "The way to deal with this factory is actually very simple, you just need to target the workers—if the workers cannot work properly, everything in the factory will be affected. If there are some quality issues with the produced food, it would be a heavy blow to the factory, and it will become unprecedentedly weak."

"Target the workers?"

Zhou Yuan mused, "Can you mix some technology and vice in the food, causing everyone to lose their ability to act?"

This was undoubtedly the simplest and most effective method.

"I can," the vending machine answered.

Zhou Yuan stroked his chin, "That simple? Factory Director Reagan didn’t take any protective measures for food safety? Like specifying that food must be absolutely healthy and fresh, and this instruction cannot be overridden by other instructions?"

"My system is severely damaged; I can only execute the simplest commands and cannot carry out the instructions you mentioned."

"So my new command just now can override the old one?"

"Yes."

"That’s good."

Zhou Yuan couldn’t help cackling strangely; get ready for the terrifying time of Wallace then, everyone will become jet fighters for me!