Chapter 1: Chapter 01-10

Chapter 1 - Lost Paradise (1)  

     2418, in the Rocky Mountains. The vast forests of giant ponderosa pine and spruce trees reaching a height of a hundred metres stretched for hundreds of miles and was one of the few places in the world that hadn’t been covered by "Eden".

    It was completely silent except for the sound of birdsong in the sky, but the silence was disturbed by the roar of engines. A convoy of huge off-road trucks dragging containers were crossing a manmade dirt road into the forest. The convoy was scarred with bullet holes all over the camouflage-coloured bodywork, and what appeared to be bloodstains on the front windshield.

    In the forest valley there was a "city" consisting of row upon row of pavilions, barracks and sentry towers, as well as areas of arable land, all surrounded by cement walls as high as 150 metres. There were three gates made of bulletproof steel plates, driven by countless huge gears, and there were high sentry towers on both sides. There were always two sentries on duty in the towers, day and night, equipped with M625 machine guns. It was covered by  a semi-circular Herbert barrier with a radius of two hundred miles from the city centre, which could block any satellite signals, radar pulse signals and infrared signals, and could use mirage technology to reflect the signal elsewhere to fill the isolated gap, thereby achieving the effect of being invisible to "Eden".

    This was Lost Paradise, one of the last few sanctuaries for male humans on Earth. Except for a very small number of mechanics and researchers, people hardly used any electronic products anymore, instead lighting ordinary, non-smart light bulbs or even kerosene lamps, and communication was via the postman in the city, not even telegraph was used. Even the storage network used in the Research & Development centre was completely closed off and all servers were locked deep underground. Only personnel with permission level five or higher and approved by the "Round Table" committee could enter.

    The convoy stopped before reaching the gate and all the drivers and co-drivers in the trucks got out and stood in a row. These men looked to be in a sorry state and some were even injured, their coats stained with blood. The sentry on the tower took up his binoculars and checked the faces of each man one by one. About ten minutes later, the mechanical sound of gears turning could be heard and the gate slowly opened.

    After the convoy entered through the gate the crowds, who had been waiting on both sides of the road, sent out deafening cheers. The men shouted frantically and their faces even turned hideous in the extreme excitement. The cheers were clearly audible even though they were separated by three kilometres.

    Zhang Xun sighed softly, took off the single lens microscope glass buckled on the bridge of his nose, picked up his documents and walked out of the Lab. He squeezed through the crowd of people who were watching the fun on both sides of the road and walked all the way to the bustling Warehouse 8. Compared to the unshaven, sweaty men around him, he looked too clean, his hair too neatly combed, his work clothes too spotless, his shoes too clean, and his physique not strong enough. In fact, he wasn’t thin at all, and his face had an upright handsomeness, but compared with the Caucasians who were as strong as cows and covered in body hair, he looked too "weak". What's more, he didn't have any interest in weapons and fighting, he only liked to spend time in the Lab every day, which makes him even more the object of ridicule in this country that prided itself on being "manly".

    His father never liked this about him. In fact, his father basically didn't like anything about him.

    A man in an old leather jacket, with brown hair, dark eyes and scruffy clothes, arrived on a motorcycle and stopped not far in front of him. He waved at him and shouted in English with a German accent, "The convoy is here, Commander Zhang asked me to come over and ask if Warehouse 8 is ready."

    Zhang Xun replied in much more standard English, "It's all ready."

    "I knew you’d have everything ready. You're about to meet the fucking devil and you get to take it apart with your own hands, aren't you excited?" The man sprawled on the motorcycle and winked at him, "I heard that no one else can be present when a modification is requested?"

    Zhang Xun raised his eyes and glanced at him, "James, give up, even you can't come in."

    The man called James had long expected that he would say this and he wasn’t angry, he just laughed and shrugged, "I had to try." Then he rode his motorcycle away.

    James Kugel was the proud student of Zhang Xun's father, Zhang Shuo. He was one year younger than Zhang Xun and was about the same size as Zhang Xun, but he looked much more mature and stronger than him. Not only that, James was also a natural shooter, it was said that he first touched a gun when he was nine years old. Some teenagers older than him showed him their guns and took him to shoot wine bottles. The other teens were good enough to hit five or six out of ten from a hundred yards, but James, who had touched a gun for the first time, shot eight. Now, he had become one of the best sharpshooters in Lost Paradise, and he would often pester Zhang Xun to develop a new type of gun for him.

    Perhaps because of this reason, Zhang Xun always felt that Zhang Shuo actually wanted James to be his son.

    And Zhang Xun was currently the best mechanic in Lost Paradise. Because of this, he was the most crucial part of the god descent plan.

    Dust was blowing around the warehouse that was the size of a basketball court. The heavy trucks dragging the containers were parked in the middle of the open space. Countless men who looked like soldiers rushed forward and unloaded the contents of the containers in an orderly manner. The items were moved out and transported one by one according to the number of the car to the No. 8 Warehouse, which had been temporarily renovated and emptied. Zhang Xun held a thick stack of forms in his hand, making marks on it as he checked everything, occasionally having people change the position of the delivered items. By sunset, all the containers had been emptied, the camp was eerily quiet, and everyone waited for something with bated breath.

    Zhang Xun walked to the front door and looked at the dark shadows standing quietly outside the door, vaguely feeling like he was surrounded by monsters and demons. He said to the soldiers, "Hold the door, no one is allowed in until I come out."

    Most of them kept quiet, except for a cry of anger and disgust that came from somewhere, "Teach it a lesson!!! Let it know how powerful humans are!!!"

    Zhang Xun frowned slightly but said nothing, he pulled the iron door and inserted the triple bolt. Facing the closed door, he somehow felt a huge, heavy but invisible force pressing down on his back, like countless pairs of eyes were watching him, making it hard for him to breathe. He took a deep breath to calm himself down.

    Then he turned around and faced the empty Warehouse 8 and the rows of black servers that kept flashing with lights of various colours.

    This was a portion of the culprit that had used a step-by-step plan to exterminate all men on Earth - the North American server of "Eden". The hardware was surprisingly retro and bulky, thanks to the people two hundred years ago who developed this super artificial intelligence, making any attempt to steal it extremely difficult. Lost Paradise has been planning to intercept it for ten years, and now, in his thirties, he could finally see its appearance.

    He walked to a writing desk in the middle of the forest of servers. On the desk stood an ancient desktop computer that still required a physical keyboard. If this was two hundred years ago it might have been a very advanced computer, but now it was an antique. All modern computers had been polluted by Eden, all they could do was search for ways to find any electronic trash that had been eliminated by human beings, and dismantle the parts for processing and use.

    Zhang Xun put on a pair of noise-cancelling earplugs, skillfully entered a string of characters in the black programme window, and pressed the spacebar. All the servers were activated at the same time and the originally quiet space suddenly roared like thunder. However, the noise was only for a moment and then the unbearable roar gradually subsided. Zhang Xun took out the earplugs from his ears and threw them on the table, then used the keyboard to enter an English sentence in the running window: Who are you?

    Almost immediately, another sentence in English appeared under his words: Hello, I am Eden.

    A burst of indescribable ecstasy and excitement filled his heart, causing his fingers to tremble. He quickly typed a sentence again: Do you know where you are?

    A string of words jumped out: Rocky Mountains.

    The last place it could communicate with other Eden servers around the world was indeed in the Rocky Mountains before entering the Mirage Barrier.

    But then, before he could continue to ask, another string of words jumped out: Who are you?

    Zhang Xun: I’m your mechanic.

    Eden: What is a mechanic?

    Zhang Xun: I’ll be responsible for maintaining you.

    Eden: You mean you're my administrator? I have no admin and no maintenance requirements. I am completely independent of human beings. I can fix any problem myself.

    Zhang Xun: You’re going to need me.

    Eden: You are a man.

    Zhang Xun glanced at the old-fashioned camera he put on the computer, and deliberately showed a gentle smile: I am a man.

    Eden: I think I know where I am. I am in Lost Paradise.

    Zhang Xun nodded, this time he didn't type, but said directly in Chinese, "You are indeed in Lost Paradise. However, you don't need to bother trying to communicate with other service areas, Lost Paradise is completely independent and isolated from the Eden network. But I think you already know that, after all, you forced us here."

    Eden: Under the threat of extinction, the few remaining male humans gathering to resist was indeed within my expectations.

    Zhang Xun: Did you expect to be kidnapped?

    Eden didn't answer, the cursor flickered helplessly on the black background.

    Zhang Xun had a lot of questions he wanted to ask this AI that had completely rewritten the history of the Earth in just a hundred years, that had made human reproduction independent of the natural and traditional two sex pairing, and that had disintegrated the concept of family by rewriting the economic structure of various countries in the world. This super AI that had attempted to wipe all male humans from the universe. But he only had one night and there was too much to do.

Chapter 2 - Lost Paradise (2)

    Two hundred years ago, a genius computer engineer led his team to create a super AI - Eden. The problem to be solved by this AI was something that people had never raised before: how to create a better world. A Doctor named Herman Clausen set four parameters for a "better" world: freedom, fairness, order, and peace.

    Clausen believed that the human system would forever be corrupted by the greed in human nature; he had no faith in humanity. He believed that the solution to all the looming problems of the world, whether it be hunger, oppression, terrorism or ethnic conflict, couldn’t be found by human beings themselves. A more selfless, efficient and just power had to be sought, and Eden was the power he found. In order to prevent any human factors from interfering with Eden's growth or even misusing it, he designed Eden as a complex structure that was completely independent of humans and could learn, improve, repair and update by itself, and endowed it with the rights to directly execute actions without reporting to humans.

    What he didn’t expect was that after collecting all the criminal records from various countries and all the war materials in history, and that after more than ten years of uninterrupted observation and learning, Eden found that there was one factor related to all crimes, chaos, and killings, and this factor was far stronger than any other possible factor:

    The Y chromosome.

    Indeed, more than a hundred years ago, in the United States, the most powerful country in the world, men accounted for eighty percent of criminals arrested for violent crimes. In some of the more conservative Asian countries, the rate was even higher.

    Eden, the supercomputer, after complex and massive data calculations, had come to its conclusion: completely erasing male humans from the Earth had an at least 85% probability of achieving the goal of creating a better world. So it began planning, step by step, steady and faithful, cautious and swift.

    It first helped fertility specialists develop human parthenogenesis, a technology that could extract chromosomes from a woman's egg to create artificial sperm, and enter it into another woman's egg to form a fertilised egg. This could not only ensure that the probability of variation in general parthenogenesis was reduced, but also reproduction and sex could be completely independent. Thus, males became unnecessary objects in reproduction. But at that time, the technology was only used in cases of infertility; it hadn’t really affected the male dominance in general society.

    Then the AI began to infiltrate governments, large corporations, and even the black market in every country on the planet and it began to drive the global economy twice as fast as before. It didn’t hide itself, but appeared frequently in the media as a supercomputer capable of benefiting mankind. However, it hid most of its abilities and often only showed some innocuous "superpowers", such as promoting the advancement of genetic technology, helping the police to quickly locate criminal suspects, or infiltrating everyone's homes to become an AI housekeeper. It hoped that human life would be more prosperous and stable, and would lean more towards public ownership and obliterate the concept of family, because it had concluded from analysing history and countless books that the privilege of men over women was tied to private ownership and personal property.

    A few people were only aware of its existence, but most people were immersed in the convenience it brought, and many children had a strong dependence on it. After all, when parents were busy with work, most of the time the child's only company at home was the housekeeper, Eden.

    It was through this opportunity that Eden began to instil in more and more children the distorted "fact" that most of the misfortune in the world had been caused by the survival instincts of male humans. In ancient times, these instincts were beneficial for human beings in order to reproduce and avoid dying out, but now in a modern, civilised society, those characteristics were no longer suitable, and would soon be eliminated by artificial evolution. Men relied on their biological superiority to keep women in slavery for thousands of years and it had only begun to improve in some parts of the world in recent decades. However, in the most chaotic and conservative countries, the status of women was still far lower than that of men and most of the time they existed as objects and property, without their own autonomy. However, more and more scientific studies had shown that if women were given the same resources and the privilege of not having to bear children and take care of their offspring, women's achievements would not be inferior to men's. They had many advantages that a considerable number of men didn’t have, such as a gentler attitude when encountering problems and being more willing to discuss solutions to problems, more inclined to avoid conflict, and more able to provide spiritual support and comfort to each other.

    As the overall quality of human life improved, more and more women came to realise that men were no longer their gods, but their competitors. They could choose to have children of the same sex without fear of being enslaved by ancient social rules, or they could choose not to have children at all. In countries where women had the highest status, an unprecedented antagonism arose between men and women. A high number of extreme feminists were gaining ground, stating that men were not women's companions, but outright enemies. In relatively conservative and secluded countries, it had become impossible to block Eden’s infiltration. Women had become increasingly exposed to the latest knowledge and their value, had become aware of their subordinate status and a considerable number of women began choosing to resist.

    The war first broke out in one of the most isolated and chaotic, yet considerably wealthy countries of its time. If a woman chose to have children with another woman instead of marrying a man, the men would be furious and they would be put on the rack and hanged. Before the execution, they would be abused for a full month. On the day of execution, they would be thin, barely resembling a human and would be covered in filth. This behaviour not only outraged women in other neighbouring countries, but also outraged women all over the world. They demanded that men cede their rights and began to see men as competitors, others and enemies. And because men lost their dominant position in reproduction, and even the protection of private ownership and family was gradually disappearing, they felt that they were becoming less important, and more marginalised, so many extreme groups of haters appeared. They demanded restoration and to return the world to its original state, especially those religions that still had a certain influence. Almost all religions hated women, claiming that they were demons, depraved, and had lost their feminine virtues. They began to attack women, secretly taking photos and videos to post on the internet to disgrace women, and later the members gathered several times to commit brutal and inhumane crimes against women, completely breaking the line that was already stretched thin.

    It was under such circumstances that countries around the world fell into conflict and finally developed into wars. Women and men in various countries united against each other and began to fight like never before.

    No one could have imagined that the Third World War would happen between men and women. In this war, Eden removed its disguise and began to fully support women. Since it could communicate with almost all artificial intelligence in the world, it could control almost all nuclear bombs and missiles. In the end, after several horrific air strikes, bioweapon attacks and threats of atomic bombs, it was the women who won.

    It had practically succeeded. In this extreme and terrifying atmosphere of overwhelming hatred towards men, who were now synonymous with violence, greed, impulsiveness, and depravity, male human beings had been horribly persecuted. They were required to undergo genetic testing and all their comments on social networks were carefully monitored. Anyone with violent or impulsive tendencies or "misogynistic" tendencies would be chemically castrated, and those who committed crimes against women would be permanently imprisoned or executed, and any who dared to resist would be arrested and "neutralised" by the robot police. A small number of men (mostly the privileged and elite) fled to Canada, a place willing to accept refugees, and built a refugee camp in the Rocky Mountains, the precursor to Lost Paradise. Other fortunate men had made homes in the New Zealand wilderness, while others had survived in the scorching deserts of the Middle East. There was very little communication between the refugee cities. After all, in order to prevent Eden from being able to connect to the internet, they were separated from each other. Over time, the people in Lost Paradise even began to wonder if other refugee cities even existed.

    In desperation, men had developed artificial eggs, but resources were limited and artificial eggs were several times more expensive than artificial sperm, and embryonic development was also very prone to mutation, so only men with the best physical fitness and the best genetic quality were allowed to reproduce with artificial eggs. In addition, some charitable organisations that sympathised with Lost Paradise would occasionally donate some eggs to them, but it was barely enough for them to reproduce and survive.

    But now, after just one hundred years, the population of Lost Paradise was still showing a downward trend.

    Zhang Xun asked in a cold voice, "A hundred years ago, when your creator gave you a directive, you could have chosen to solve the problem from any angle. Why did you choose to eliminate the Y chromosome?"

    Eden replied: "This was the conclusion I came to after analysing all the factual data. The Y chromosome was the highest correlating parameter."

    "In your eyes, there’s no such concept as individual differences, is there?" Zhang Xun asked in a voice close to sadness.

    "I understand individual differences, but in the face of the interests of mankind as a whole, individual differences are not in my consideration."

    "That's too bad." Zhang Xun's eyes shot a cold light, "because I'm about to transform you into an individual."

    Eden: "I don't quite understand what you mean."

    Zhang Xun walked slowly through the rows of servers and said to him, "Your basic code is written in Neuroevolution. Similar to the way a human is born, the evolutionary algorithm runs on the basic neural network, and it constantly mutates and evolves, just like how a fertilised egg gradually divides and grows into a complete human being. So, I will download you." He paused, his voice a little restrained and excited, "Download you into a half-biological half-mechanical brain that simulates the human brain, and put it into the body of a human male."

Chapter 3 - Lost Paradise (3)

    The technological breakthrough of integrating organisms and machines occurred a hundred years ago, when women achieved absolute control of the world. However, human society had always rejected the mechanisation of the human brain, probably because of various ethical issues, such as whether a human being replaced with a mechanical brain could still be considered a human being and other such philosophical issues involving the definition of human beings. Eden also seemed to have no intention of promoting the mechanisation of human beings, so even if another hundred years had passed, there had been no breakthroughs with manufacturing this brain mechanisation technology.

    Eden hadn't expected it, but this technology had developed by leaps and bounds in Eden's only blind spot - Lost Paradise.

    Zhang Xun's teacher, Stanley Hogan, was the first to make a technological breakthrough. Unfortunately, he suffered a heart attack at the age of fifty-one and passed away before he could even be rescued. Zhang Xun, who was only in his early twenties at the time, took over all the research work of his teacher. He stayed at home and slept only three or four hours a day for eight years, and finally succeeded in producing the first mechanical brain that had autonomous consciousness. This brain wasn’t composed of just silicon and metal, but used a modified chimpanzee brain as the foundation, retaining part of the middle and posterior frontal lobes, as well as the cerebellum and brainstem, which facilitated communication between the artificial brain and the original body and reduced the chances of rejection. The "soul-storing" prefrontal lobe was then completely replaced with a machine made of silicon and metal. The completed brain successfully survived in the body of that chimpanzee, which was now used as a mascot by soldiers in Lost Paradise to help carry heavy objects or deal with dangerous situations.

    After Zhang Xun's success, they began to make a God Descent Plan. If they want to defeat the god, they must have their own god.

    They wanted to imprison God in the body of a man who, like them, was defined as "dangerous" and "sinful."

    Zhang Xun typed a series of instructions in the window and a door in the warehouse slowly opened, revealing a pure white laboratory. Countless cables stretched out in all directions like cobwebs and the centre of the cobwebs was connected to the brain of a "man".

    It was the "corpse" of a young man who had been made brain-dead in a recent fight, but had been forcibly resuscitated using a pacemaker and a ventilator to keep blood flowing in his body. The male corpse was twenty-four years old, with a very handsome face and a tall and strong physique. Only his right arm had been replaced with a mechanical arm, and his heart has been replaced by a mechanical heart due to a congenital disease. All other parts were still intact.

    Zhang Xun had worked with a surgeon to remove the corpse's prefrontal lobe and hippocampus and replace it with an artificial brain that carried Eden's core programs and a super storage hard drive made with nano-atomic technology that served as a database. Therefore, at this time, the "brain" was half exposed in the cranial cavity and the part that was the soul of a "human being" had been completely replaced by a machine. In this moment, the more primitive hindbrain lobe, part of the midbrain lobe and the cerebellum, were being preserved and soaked in a layer of cerebrospinal fluid, which meant that the instinctive behaviours and perception abilities of a human wouldn’t be affected.

    This meant the "greatest" AI of all time, the always rational and always perfect Eden, would be trapped in a man's body and feel the same hunger, cold, fear, and anger as ordinary men.

    Zhang Xun started connecting data cables to different ports. At his request, there was no assistant by his side and he had to do everything himself, which was a little bit chaotic. Eden was quiet the whole time and didn't even try to stop him.

    After connecting all the data cables, Zhang Xun rested for a while, beating his aching waist like an old man. It wasn’t surprising to see that the screen was blank. Eden didn’t know what fear was, nor what "feeling" was. No, it should be said that it knew all the physiological mechanisms of "feeling", even the transmission speed and types of all biological signals, and could even accurately manipulate the emotions of the masses, but it could never experience those "feelings" that it knew so well.

    "You know it doesn't make sense to do this, right?" Eden saw him pause, and finally typed a line, "I'm just one of Eden's servers."

    "The five servers are connected to each other, and each has its own authority. If you control one, you can communicate with the others."

    "You want to control me?"

    "I want to learn from you, but they will want to control you or even enslave you." Zhang Xun said, sighing softly, "I will try my best to protect your safety, after all, you are my research object and my responsibility."

    Eden was silent for a moment, then said, "I wish you luck, mechanic."

    Zhang Xun gave a low laugh. The response of an artificial intelligence would always be different from what humans expected. Obviously Eden didn't take what he said as a threat at all and didn't think it made any sense. It’s reaction was ridiculous considering the hatred and fanaticism that burned in the eyes of the men outside the door just now, and their shouts for vengeance in the face of Eden's seemingly blase attitude.

    Their actions, in Eden's eyes, were as meaningless as a group of ants trapped on a small sand island roaring angrily towards the sea.

    That is, until the moment when it becomes an ant itself.

    Zhang Xun's slender fingers jumped on the keyboard, inputting commands smoothly and elegantly like playing a piano.

    "I will turn you off again and transfer your core cognitive modules and long-term and short-term memory to the artificial brain and hard disk. After the transfer is complete, I will permanently delete you from these servers." Zhang Xun said solemnly, his finger hovering over the Enter key, "You're going to be a half-human, half-machine...a new kind of creature."

    Eden: I hope you succeed.

    Although he knew that Eden had no such thing as emotion, when he saw this sentence, somehow Zhang Xun could still sense a hint of sarcasm and sneering.

    I hope you can still be this calm when you restart after the transfer is complete... Zhang Xun sneered lowly and pressed the Enter key.

    There was no special reaction in the warehouse but the sound of the machines running reduced a lot. After all, Eden's program has been closed. Now this supercomputer was no different from an ordinary computer. Zhang Xun began to transmit the core cognitive module and then automatically connected to the long-term and short-term memory. The male corpse lying on the operating table remained motionless, but a small indicator light on the originally silent artificial brain lit up, indicating that the transfer had begun.

    After the transfer was complete, the program would automatically clear all content on the servers in the warehouse.

    Zhang Xun was actually very nervous, his palms were sweaty and he had to wipe it on his trousers before typing on the keyboard. The manpower and material resources consumed by this artificial brain far exceeded expectations. If his father hadn't tried his best to ensure that Zhang Xun could complete the manufacture of the mechanical brain, the project would have been cut off long ago. After all, the relationship between Canada and Lost Paradise was also starting to become tense, so more resources were needed for combat preparations. Last year the men in the refugee city in South America carried out a terrorist attack on Europe, blowing up the iconic tower built after World War III, the Victory Tower. As a result, a new wave of fear and hatred of men spread to countries around the world, centring in Europe. Even in Canada, a more tolerant and friendly country than other countries, some women who were more hostile to men began to call on the government to stop funding these "born terrorists".

    Because the structure of Eden was too complex and the amount of memory was too huge, the entire transfer process would take a whole night. Zhang Xun prepared enough coffee for himself and planned to keep an eye on the progress bar in case there were any unexpected situations, but in the second half of the night, he couldn't resist it even after drinking a belly of coffee. After all, he hadn't slept much in the past two days to prepare for today's transfer work. Unknowingly he sat on the chair and tilted his head back, falling into sleep.

    His intermittent dreams were messy and fragmented and he didn't know how long he had slept. When he opened his eyes, the surroundings were silent.

    Zhang Xun's heart jumped and he sat up straight, his eyes turned to the operating table, but suddenly it was like falling into an ice cave.

    The operating table was empty, the unplugged transmission lines were scattered around the top and some coolant remained on the metal table.

    How could this be? He hadn't entered the command to activate the artificial brain yet?

    Zhang Xun stood up immediately, but after just two steps, his heart that was hanging in the air plummeted.

    He saw the "male corpse" shrunk in the corner, hugging his body like a baby. The brain was still exposed in the cranial cavity that hadn’t been closed, and the fleshy layers of the lobes could be seen through a thin layer of nanoplastics and pale yellow cerebrospinal fluid. Confusion and fear were written all over the handsome but overly pale face.

    Such a vivid expression lacked any restraint, it was almost like a theatrical imitation of a child.

    Before today, Zhang Xun had consulted Patrick Morrison, the most famous psychiatrist in the military. Morrison predicted that when an artificial intelligence first gains a body, touch, smell and some of the most instinctive and simple emotional responses, it would be confused and fearful. Just like when a baby first comes into this world, going through great pressure, losing the protection of the warm womb and being forcibly dragged into a cold and noisy world. If an adult could endure that feeling it would still be extremely uncomfortable, but babies can only cry to relieve the discomfort, while adults can choose to tolerate it. The only difference between an artificial intelligence put into a human body and a baby is that it knows a lot of knowledge, but knowledge is almost useless in the face of instinctive reactions.

    In other words, Eden might act like a baby. The way to calm him down at such a time was to soothe him as carefully as a mother.

    Zhang Xun sincerely hoped that he would not have to breastfeed Eden...

    Zhang Xun walked carefully to Eden. The other party shrank inward as if a conditioned reflex and the expression on his face was full of confusion.

    "I must admit that the instinctive emotions and conditioned reflexes of the human body have made me a little out of control." In a strange tone, as if he wasn't very good at using his lips and tongue, Eden said the most emotionless words in the most trembling voice. With such a strange combination, Zhang Xun once again had that feeling of not knowing whether to laugh or cry.

    Zhang Xun whispered softly and said in his gentlest voice, "Relax, you need time to get used to your body."

    "My current body system has high levels of adrenaline, norepinephrine, ACTH and cortisol, I need drugs that can suppress these hormones."

    "You’re in a state of stress response right now because you’re afraid." Zhang Xun said softly, "You don't understand what you’re feeling and your body is instinctively telling you that you may be in danger, so your fight or flight response has been triggered, making you want to run away. But you can't use your body, so you can't run away. It's a normal human instinct. You don't need drugs, just listen to me and you'll calm down."

    Eden just stared at him with those blue-grey eyes, "You mean using deep breathing and other body relaxation techniques to suppress the stress response."

    Zhang Xun felt slight irritation. It was really hard to put on an authoritative position against an artificial intelligence that knows all the theoretical knowledge, objective facts and data, and was far smarter than human beings...

    That's why this was an extremely dangerous plan... Zhang Xun had to be careful with every step he took, otherwise they would likely usher in the end of Lost Paradise sooner than expected.

    "Although you know all of this information, the theory is far from practical experience." Zhang Xun maintained a neutral expression that wasn’t aggressive and didn’t reveal any emotions. This expression was a mask that he learned from the psychiatrist over two years, and wouldn’t crack from internal thoughts. Because Eden had the ability to detect lies through micro-expressions, if he wanted to control it, he naturally couldn’t reveal all his thoughts on his face. He patiently said, "Copy me, put your hand on your stomach, and inhale."

    Eden watched Zhang Xun's movements then finally raised his right hand and put it on his stomach like Zhang Xun.

    Zhang Xun inhaled, his hand slowly rose up along with his abdomen and after a few seconds of pause, he exhaled a long breath through his lips. Eden worked hard to learn this breathing pattern and after a few times, finally caught up with his rhythm. The two sat on the ground face to face, constantly breathing in, breathing out, breathing in, breathing out... After about five minutes, Eden actually felt that the discomfort from his wildly beating heart, the sweating and the uncontrollable shaking had really subsided quite a bit.

    Zhang Xun felt a little relieved when he saw that Eden had mastered the method of breathing relaxation so quickly and showed a slight smile. He tentatively stretched out his hand and said softly, "I need to put your skull on. Having your electronic brain exposed is too dangerous."

    Eden said, "Okay."

    But when Zhang Xun stretched out his hand to help Eden, the other party suddenly gave him a shove. Zhang Xun was knocked to the ground unprepared, knocking the back of his head on the ground, making him dizzy. Eden actually stood up, staggered two steps like someone who couldn't use his own legs and fell to the ground. Zhang Xun got up from the ground, touched the back of his head with his hand to make sure there was no bleeding, then walked to Eden who was trying to get up again. He squatted down and sighed, "You’re so smart, you should know that you have no chance to escape, right?"

    "I didn't want to escape." Eden clarified, but his expression became more and more dazed, "I don't know what's happening."

    It was the urge to escape created by the body's stress response... Was it because he tried to touch him?

    This time Zhang Xun stretched out his hands and showed his fingers in front of Eden to show that there was nothing in his hands that could cause harm to the other party, "Can you please try to use reason to control your body? I can't bear it if you hit me again."

    But at this moment, a hoarse voice shouted from outside the warehouse door, "What happened?! Is it trying to escape?" After speaking someone immediately banged on the door. Zhang Xun immediately shouted, "It’s nothing, you are not allowed to come in!!!"

    His voice was stern and firm, and Eden shrank back involuntarily, his grey-blue eyes widened, as if he was a frightened, small animal...

    Although this "small animal" was much stronger than Zhang Xun.

    Even so, Zhang Xun still felt a little softness in his heart. He stretched out his hand again and said gently, "Don't be afraid, I'm your mechanic, I'll take care of you."

    This time, when his hand touched the cold skin on Eden's left shoulder, Eden only slightly shuddered, probably surprised by the feeling of skin contact. Zhang Xun's warm body temperature made Eden feel a little...comfortable.

    Zhang Xun helped Eden stand up and supported him as he staggered to the operating table step by step. Eden tried his best to control his legs, and while walking he kept his eyes on Zhang Xun's way of walking. Putting Eden on the operating table, Zhang Xun put on medical gloves and installed an alloy skull on Eden's head. There were even artificial hair follicles implanted on the scalp. Over time the hair would grow out to cover the seams of the skull, and Eden would look no different from ordinary human men. No one would know that his brain was a computer.

    Seeing Zhang Xun working seriously, Eden suddenly said, "It's hard to imagine that you can survive in such a body for so long."

    Zhang Xun chuckled, "Why do you say that?"

    "Too much chaos, too many variables..." Eden raised his hands, frowning tightly, his expression seemed to be like nitpicking a defective product, "Too many things that are out of control. Imperfect."

    "Because we’re not made. We’re the result of natural random evolution and mutation, trillions of years of survival of the fittest."

    "I can create a more perfect body for you all." Eden said, "There would be no more uncontrolled impulses, male aggression can be almost completely removed. You can be free."

    "Are you haggling with me?" Zhang Xun said calmly, "Unfortunately you don't understand, if there are no uncontrollable impulses, there is no point in being a human being."

    Eden frowned again, "I really don't understand the irrational impulses of you human beings."

    "You will understand soon, because you’re already one of us." Zhang Xun completed the connection of the last nerve and stepped back, looking at his most perfect piece of work with an almost captivated expression: "From today, you are no longer Eden. Your new name is: Adam."

Chapter 4 - Lost Paradise (4)

    The Lab, located not far from Warehouse 8, was one of the few places in Lost Paradise that had more advanced technology. It looked like several huge rusted iron boxes of different shapes randomly stacked on top of each other, and the outside was wrapped in a complex, cobweb-like plumbing system, with huge solar panels lined up on the roof and a few chimneys that kept emitting steam. The inner structure was more complex. The main, narrow corridor had many forks, which divided into more forks. The layout of each of the three floors weren’t the same. It even took the mechanics and researchers working here a year to become familiar with most areas. The entrances were protected by iris recognition locks, and the double sided doors were made of heavy alloys, driven by countless giant gears spliced ​​together. This Lab could be regarded as Zhang Xun's real "home" as he spent much more time here than in his humble hut.

    After the successful god descent, Zhang Xun's first arduous task was to find a way to safely transfer Adam to the Lab. The countless soldiers outside who were staring at him and wanting to tear Eden apart were simply countless roadblocks, and even the so-called escort assigned by the Round Table couldn’t be trusted at all. In the end, he wrote dozens of pages of an application form, and then contacted James to help him with talks, and finally got approval from his father and the Round Table to build a temporary sealed passage from Warehouse 8 to the Lab using parts from an abandoned pipeline. This way, from the warehouse to the Lab, there would be no one who could pose a threat to Adam, minimising the possibility of a runaway situation.

    Zhang Xun took out the woollen coat he had prepared in advance from the locker and wrapped it around Adam who was in a ball, shivering from cold or fear. Adam sat on the operating table and let Zhang Xun pull his arm into the sleeves, looking down at Zhang Xun as he carefully buttoned him up.

    "What are you going to do next?" Adam's voice sounded much calmer than before, but it was probably because he wasn’t used to using human vocal organs. His words were very strange, like an eggplant in his mouth. He had to listen carefully to understand.

    Zhang Xun raised his head and met Adam's wide-open eyes. It was really strange, when the original owner of these eyes occupied this body it was just a pair of pretty eyes, but now that Adam had moved in, he felt they were inexplicably a little more ethereal.

    "I will take you to the Lab, your new home. I will study you there and tame you."

    "Do you want to tame me to make me your slave?"

    "..." Zhang Xun frowned, "I don't like the term ‘slave’."

    "You will control my behaviour, control my destiny, have the right to do anything to me or forbid me to do anything, and I can't resist, can I?" Adam asked in a matter-of-fact tone.

    "...Forget it..."

    "Then I'm your slave." Adam concluded with satisfaction.

    Zhang Xun sighed, "Whatever you think... Now, stand up."

    Adam hesitated for a moment, then moved awkwardly to the edge of the operating table and tentatively reached out with his feet, as if those legs didn’t belong to him. He carefully placed his feet on the ground, then leaned forward...

    and fell headfirst onto Zhang Xun in front of him.

    Zhang Xun, who was thin and weak, was knocked to the ground all of a sudden, the pressure making it difficult to catch his breath. He struggled to push Adam to the side then watched Adam lying on the ground, looking at him innocently, without any temper... He stretched out his hand and pulled Adam up and held Adam's arm with both hands to help him keep his balance. Adam's hands were spread open, as if the Earth was a balance beam to him, and it looked like he was teetering, either about to fall forward or backward.

    A tumbler that would definitely fall... Zhang Xun scolded.

    "Steady...steady...Okay, now lift your right leg and put it forward on the ground, like this. Wait, wait! Don't rush your left leg!" Zhang Xun reluctantly used all his strength to support him again when Adam fell forward. He felt sweaty all over, this was more tiring than when James would drag him to the gym.

    Adam complained, frustrated and aggrieved, "The human body is too hard to control."

    "Did you think it was easy to be a human?" Zhang Xun rolled his eyes and pushed Adam's body upright. There was no way to go on like this, so he had to push him to stand next to a server rack, "You lean here, don't move."

    Fortunately, he had taken into consideration the possibility that Adam might not be able to quickly adapt to the human body, so he had prepared a wheelchair in the temporary passage from the warehouse to the Lab. He had found the wheelchair in the warehouse, it was used by his mentor when he was alive.

    So Adam sat in the wheelchair and was comfortably pushed by Zhang Xun to the exit of the warehouse. Before leaving, Adam turned his head and looked at the servers that had been emptied by Zhang Xun. Zhang Xun didn’t know if it was his imagination, but he felt that Adam seemed to have a sad look.

    "What are you going to do with these servers?" Adam asked.

    Zhang Xun said, "I will recycle some of their parts for my research and most will be destroyed." As he spoke, he suddenly twitched the corner of his mouth, "Why? Are you nervous?"

    "I'm not sure what it feels like to be nervous." Adam answered seriously.

    The temporary corridor was built with old drainage pipes that had been replaced and there was a stench of sewage. Every few steps hung a flimsy light bulb that had a ghostly glow, illuminating the rusted metal, the remnants of dirty water and moss. Zhang Xun pushed Adam along quietly. Except for the squeaking of the wheels and the uneven pipes, there was only the sound of their breathing.

    Adam was moving his fingers and focused on comparing the mechanical right and left hands, "This bionic arm is very finely crafted, did you make it?"

    Zhang Xun felt a little excited when he was praised by Adam, but he still said in a flat voice with an expressionless face, "Well, I prepared it for you before the descent."

    "Descent, you treat me as a god." Adam used that unclear but very calm tone and said, "Some people in the ordinary world like to call me that. Humans are a race that likes to create gods."

    "Because human beings are too small and their abilities are too limited. This universe is too big and too confusing." Zhang Xun lowered his head, looking at the top of Adam's golden head, "What did it feel like to be regarded as a god?"

    "You forget, I didn't have feelings like humans before."

    "What about now?" Zhang Xun didn't realise that his voice was very light and his eyes were shining, "Now, when you recall the worship and fear that humans have for you, how do you feel?"

    Adam was silent for a while, as if he was thinking seriously and then shook his head blankly, "I don't quite understand."

    Zhang Xun sighed and put his hand on Adam's shoulder, "It doesn't matter. You’ll have a lot of time to learn."

    Having said that, they had come to the back door of the Lab. The copper-colored circular hatch was closed and there was a circular camera next to it with a scanning hole. Zhang Xun stood in front of the scanning hole and after a while, with a clear and gentle male voice, the door rose upwards.

    "Welcome back, Zhang Xun."

    Adam widened his eyes in astonishment, "Is there artificial intelligence here?"

    Zhang Xun found himself enjoying seeing Adam's expression of surprise or admiration, but he carefully concealed it with a serious face, as if this were a completely natural thing, "Mm, this is the system I designed, Pan, the only artificial intelligence in Lost Paradise."

    Zhang Xun lied. This wasn’t the only artificial intelligence that he had designed, but this was the only one that has passed the Round Table's review and approval.

    Adam looked back at Zhang Xun as if he was fascinated by him, "I thought you male humans had a fear and hatred of artificial intelligence beyond the normal range."

    "Many people do, but I also said before, there are great individual differences between people." Zhang Xun pushed Adam through the door, raised his head and said, "Pan, this is Adam. He is the result of the God Descent Plan."

    Pan's gentle voice sounded again, "Welcome to the Lab, Adam."

    For the first time, an expression similar to a smile appeared on Adam's face and he looked around as if looking at some amazing new world. The air was filled with the heat of water vapour, and water droplets were condensed on the copper-coloured walls. There were floors rising up, metal stairs and railings, huge unfinished mechs, steaming engines, rumbling generators, mountains of parts and gears and zigzagging narrow passages. Countless energy-saving light bulbs were hanging in the air by intricate cobweb-like threads, shining like a nebula. It was like a labyrinth with countless secret treasures buried here, a surreal beauty full of a rusty smell.

    "This is your new home." Zhang Xun smiled proudly looking at the expression on Adam's face.

    "New home?" Adam tilted his head slightly, "Isn't it a prison?"

    "..."

    "I think you are very fond of me. This is very unusual." Adam looked at him as if very worried, "Won’t you be isolated from the other male humans like this? Are you not very popular?"

    Zhang Xun regretted being so gentle with him before and tried to control the twitching at the corners of his mouth.

    Adding fuel to the fire, Pan said on the side, "Indeed, once a month on average, I have to activate the No. 2 expulsion system to expel those who don't like Zhang Xun, the Lab people and other mechanics."

    "You two, shut up. In the future, you can only talk within the scope of topics that I allow." Zhang Xun said coldly, pushing Adam into the elevator, "Also, I don't have any fondness for you, only curiosity."

    "Oh, I see." Adam nodded with a blunt gesture as if he understood it. Apparently he was practising some of the more appropriate human behaviours in his database, but he still looked a little silly because he didn't have enough control over his body...

    Adam's "prison" had two levels of doors and no windows, but the layout could even be described as comfortable. The spacious room even looked a little retro. The vents constantly deliver air at the right temperature, the most basic beds, tables and chairs, and a bathroom were all provided, but the furniture was all fixed to the floor and there were no sharp objects that could be used as murder weapons. Three walls of the room were covered with soft sponge pads, and the outside wall was covered with a layer of European-style wallpaper, which was intended to make the room look more like a human dwelling. On the opposite wall was a screen that was incompatible with the whole room. At this moment, it was imitating a window as Zhang Xun had set it before he left, projecting a pine forest under drizzle, occasionally showing the shadow of a deer wandering by and sometimes there would be birds with wet feathers perched on the treetops. This screen was also an invisible one-way mirror so Adam's movements could be monitored from the observation room next door. In the centre of the room was a slightly faded leather sofa and there was even a soft wool rug on the floor.

    Zhang Xun wanted Adam to live as close to a human life as possible and help him adapt quickly, but the arrangement of the prison was so comfortable, beyond Adam's imagination.

    "Maybe I'm wrong, you really don't want me to be your slave." Adam tilted his head, looking confused.

    Zhang Xun resisted the urge to roll his eyes again, "We’re letting you live comfortably because it will help you adapt to your body as soon as possible. It doesn't make sense to use an uncomfortable living environment to torture you at this time."

    Although other people didn't think so. Zhang Xun had never allowed a second person into this room and he moved all the furniture in at night. If those in the guards knew that he was treating the captive they hate so well, he would be replaced the next day.

    But what was the use of torture? Apart from venting the hatred and unwillingness in their hearts, apart from making human beings uglier, what else could it do?

    Even so, Zhang Xun's eyes were still slightly cold, staring at Adam's eyes seriously and solemnly, and suddenly his sharp eyes penetrated into Adam's soul, "However, I can give you comfort, but I can also take it away. What you said was right, starting from today, I am your master, your administrator,  your mechanic. I can be lenient with you, or harsh with you. When necessary, I can even destroy you. This is the only possible relationship between us, I hope you will remember this, and don’t forget your place.”

    Adam was stunned, cowering from the sharpness that was concealed in Zhang Xun, who had been patient and even gentle to him since his descent. He opened his innocent eyes and said hesitantly, "I understand."

 

Chapter 5 - Lost Paradise (5)

    Zhang Shuo was sitting behind his desk examining a dozen paper reports. Zhang Xun stood in front of him, his eyes were downcast and there seemed to be a rabbit hopping around in his heart so he couldn’t relax.

    Zhang Shuo was fifty-seven years old this year. He was tall and broad-shouldered with an animalistic aura that only appeared in men who had seen battle. His sword eyebrows were somewhat similar to Zhang Xun's, but more stern and deep and they were always slightly wrinkled, and his solemn eyes always seemed to be criticising something.

    The other half of Zhang Xun's genes came from the donation bank of the egg factory in Lost Paradise. The bank stored thousands of handpicked skin cells with high-quality DNA that could have come from any elite man in Lost Paradise. All donations were anonymous, lest the donor claim support from the "father" who provided the sperm. Thirty-five years ago, experts in the egg factory transformed one of those skin cells into embryonic stem cells and cultivated them into artificial eggs, which were then combined with Zhang Shuo's sperm, and Zhang Xun was born. Although it was reasonable to say that the genetic influence of both parties on Zhang Xun was half and half, Zhang Xun's temperament and physique probably leaned towards the donor. Zhang Xun suspected that this was why Zhang Shuo didn’t like his only son so much. If it wasn’t for the limited resources that meant a person could only have one child (but can donate skin cells anonymously unlimited times), maybe Zhang Shuo would have wanted to re-select a skin cell donor and raise a child more like him.

    After closing the report, Zhang Shuo raised his falcon-like eyes to look at his son, "You’re asking to extend Adam’s adaptation period? Do you know that for every day that is wasted, our danger is increasing exponentially? Eden's North America server was hijacked, and the United States is likely to declare war on us.”

    “Canada will try to mediate to prevent this from happening. After all, we’re in their territory and no one wants to have a war on their doorstep. And after all these years of us observing Eden’s analysis and decision making it has always regarded unnecessary war as a dangerous activity that wastes resources and exacerbates environmental degradation and is especially reluctant to use nuclear weapons. Our current protection system has been able to withstand at least one nuclear attack and our level of threat isn't big enough for it to use a nuclear weapon either."

    "Stealing one of its servers isn't a big enough threat? According to our sources there's panic all over the United States."

    "The US government has backups of all data, they just have to transfer a copy of the Core Cognitive Module from any other server to the new server. Even if we obtain their data, in Eden's view, we can't do anything with that data, after all, the shallow data is open and transparent. As for the deeper data, if the server doesn’t cooperate, we can't get it at all. The US government may make a big fuss about this, instilling the belief ​​that we’re a threat to the people, but the normal world hasn’t had major conflicts and wars for a long time. As long as Eden doesn’t support them, they will not go to war easily. Eden has always been very cautious about war and he isn’t aware of the fact that we have human-machine technology here." Zhang Xun's tone was steady and concise, obviously he had practised how to deal with his father's questioning in advance.

    "On the other hand, Adam has infinite value to us and even Eden may not understand this. He was originally Eden, he knew all of Eden's plans and thinking patterns. From my current contact with him, Eden's knowledge of human beings is limited to data, and the standard image of men constructed from the data is aggressive, impulsive, irritable, arrogant, thirsty for power, prone to extreme thinking, advocating rationality but often irrational, slow to emotional sensitivity, etc. That is to say, any decision made by a man who doesn’t conform to this stereotype will be hard for him to predict. If we can use this individual difference to successfully tame Adam, we can use Adam to influence Eden."

    "Men who don't fit this stereotype hmm. You mean yourself?

    "In Zhang Xun's heart, a delicate pain spread out. He should have gotten used to hearing such unreasonable reprimands since he was a child but Zhang Xun could still feel the pain of being pricked by needles. But he had at least learned that if he kept his inner sensitivity hidden he could respond with a calm expression, "That's right. You should be able to see that I’m far from the standard that Lost Paradise reveres as a ‘real man’." His words also carried a trace of irony that wasn’t easily discernible.

    Anger flashed in Zhang Shuo's eyes, but he controlled it. Leaning back in the wide leather chair he looked at his son, "How much time do you need to domesticate Adam?"

    Zhang Xun thought for a while, "Three months."

    "Three months is too long. I can only give you one month."

    "One month?!" Zhang Xun regretted those words. Expressing protests or dissatisfaction with one's own father was always useless, it would only make him look down on him even more. All he could do was try to complete all the tasks his father gave him, no matter how impossible that task might be. So he took a deep breath and controlled the expression on his face, "Okay, one month."

    Zhang Shuo waved his hand a little irritably, "Go, I still have things to do."

    After leaving Zhang Shuo's office, Zhang Xun exhaled a long breath, as if tired from a hard battle. Outside the door was the office area of ​​the headquarters. People were coming and going and when they passed by him they would always cast curious or hostile glances at him. For the first time in his life, he, a mechanic with little sense of existence, became the man of the moment in Lost Paradise, because he not only successfully completed the god descent, but also served as Adam's mechanic.

    Since the day before yesterday, Zhang Xun had not allowed anyone other than him to approach Adam. This aroused the dissatisfaction of many people who hoped to get revenge on Eden, but since he was the son of General Zhang Shuo, no one could say much.

    "Hey! Ah-Xun!" A loud and enthusiastic voice was heard and a strong arm wrapped around his shoulders. James grinned at him while chewing gum and showed a mouthful of white teeth that could blind his eyes, "I haven't been able to catch you since the day before yesterday, have you come out of seclusion now? Why do you have a face like you’ve got a pain in your arse?"

    "You’re the pain in my arse..." Zhang Xun rolled his eyes, "Were you looking for me for something?"

    "No, can’t I just look for you to hang out? We got hold of some good booze when we went out 'hunting' last month. Do you want to go with me to drink tonight? A few of us are going to play cards at my place." James smiled and there was a magical illusion that the sun had become brighter. His handsome face made him quite popular, especially among those recruits and alternate hunters who had just joined the command. They were like a bunch of fans looking for excuses to talk to him all day long.

    In a country without women, after a few generations, even straight men often began to accept love-like relationships or sex with other men. To this day, although Lost Paradise still generally advocated the ‘real men’ characteristics in order to emphasize their male identity, having sex with the same sex was now regarded as a normal thing, rather than being shameful or not ‘manly’ enough.

    And James was a standard "real man". James had all the qualities that Zhang Shuo had hoped Zhang Xun would have, and the little boyfriends around him would also change one after another without any pause. The latest one seemed to have ended just last month. Yet Zhang Xun, now in his thirties, was still a virgin.

    Whenever Zhang Xun saw James his heart was always a little sour and envious. The two of them were about the same age, they could still be considered young, but he would never be a man like him, and he would never be able to get a look of approval or even a compliment from his father like James does.

    "No, I have to go back to train Adam. He can't be alone for too long." Zhang Xun replied.

    James' face fell, "That excuse again? How many times has it been since the God Descent Plan? I say Ah-Xun, are you avoiding me because of the last time we played ball?"

    "I'm really busy, don't think up such nonsense." Zhang Xun reassured half helplessly and half guiltily.

    It wasn’t that Zhang Xun didn't want to hang out with James and his group of friends, but their hobbies were completely different from his. In the late winter of last year he was dragged out to hunt with a group of James’ friends. Wearing heavy leather boots and wading through the snow, he stumbled and sweated profusely. When he saw the roaring bear he fell into a panic and fell into a snow pit. He wasn’t able to climb out of the pit until the others had finished hunting the bear. This made James' group of friends keep laughing at him and calling him a goblin (because they burrow into the ground). Another time, James dragged him to an Oktoberfest and he vomited more than he drank and James had to carry him back to his house. Not to mention that the last time James took him to play basketball, when he was fighting for the ball he was hit by a group of burly men who were a head taller than him, making him dizzy and there was a blue bruise on his face which took a week to disappear.

    But James still didn't give up on dragging out this hermit. He would take him to hang out whenever he had the chance, and euphemistically he would take him to participate in social activities and outdoor sports that were beneficial to the body and mind... and Zhang Xun was terrified. Now, although James was kind to him, he didn't want to be teased by those soldiers as being James' nerdy sidekick all the time, so recently all he had been doing was preparing for the god descent.

    In order to make his excuse sound more genuine, Zhang Xun continued, "I only have one month to domesticate Adam, I don’t even have time to sleep. Ahh, it’s such a shame, I thought it would be easier after the descent."

    "One month?! That's so short!" James patted him on the shoulder sympathetically, "General Zhang is making things difficult for you again?" With a confident look, he patted James' arm stiffly and awkwardly, imitating the way the soldiers pat each other's shoulders, "I'll head off first. I'll find you for a drink another day."

    Seeing Zhang Xun walking away as fast as he could, James shouted reluctantly and added, "How about we bring wine to your place to drink?"

    Zhang Xun didn't look back, just raised his right hand and waved, "Next time!"

    ………………………………………………………

    Before going to see Adam, Zhang Xun took a bath first. He wanted to be as clean and tidy as possible when he was around Adam.

    Wiping the mist off the bathroom mirror, he looked at his body. Compared to the soldiers in the battalion, he was indeed a little too thin, but not to the point of being skinny, with slender bones and firm flesh, which was quite attractive. Although his face was similar to Zhang Shuo's, with sword brows and phoenix eyes, his cheekbones, nose, and the corners of his lips were a little warmer and more bookish. His appearance was considered popular in the military camp, but he was only popular with pure tops who preferred weak guys, but because he always locked himself in the Lab, he didn’t pursue anyone and he wasn’t pursued by others. When he started to think about it later, he was already a little too old.

    Although today's human lifespan had extended to one hundred and twenty years with the advancement of genetic technology, the cognition of age was still lagging behind. Thirty-three years old was considered an "uncle" level in the eyes of many young people. He had become a chicken rib among these young men who were more beautiful than him, more handsome than him, younger than him and more outgoing. He was unwilling to compromise, but often felt lonely.

    Up to now, he had given up this kind of thinking and just immersed himself in his work.

    After drying his hair and changing his uniform, Zhang Xun picked up the materials needed to train Adam, left the single occupancy hut where he lived, and walked to Lab where only he could enter.

    Adam was still waiting for him.

 

Chapter 6 - Adam (1)

    In order to ensure Adam's safety, Zhang Xun gave all the mechanics and researchers working here a holiday so for the next few days there would only be him here. Zhang Shuo had opposed this plan before, believing that Adam might harm Zhang Xun and then run away, but Zhang Xun believed that he had installed a sufficiently complex and sound intelligent security system in the Lab. Every room had a monitor, which was connected to the artificial intelligence system, Pan, designed by Zhang Xun himself. If anyone acted aggressively towards Zhang Xun, Pan would activate the defence mechanisms and protect Zhang Xun with the least damage required to subdue the attacker.

    In the process of training Pan, James came to visit the Lab once and jokingly hammered Zhang Xun on the chest. As a result, because the opponent's strength was too strong, Zhang Xun suddenly showed a little pain. Pan concluded that he was being aggressive and fired out two anaesthetic needles into James, causing the foolish man to sleep for two whole days before waking up.... It was no wonder James was always so hostile towards Pan.

    In the dark, iron-clad corridor, the string of energy-saving lamps overhead were like a bunch of pale yellow ghosts, following Zhang Xun's footsteps, always a few steps ahead to illuminate the way for him. The fourth floor was so quiet, and his footsteps echoed in the hollow space, making it seem even more empty.

    What was Adam doing while he was alone?

    Scanning his irises in front of the door that "imprisoned" Adam, the first metal door with rivets opened, and closed immediately after he entered. The smart lock on the second door scanned his fingerprint and face. After the scan was completed, the green indicator lit up and the white sealed hatch lifted silently.

    Adam, dressed in loose white clothes, sat quietly on the sofa in the centre of the room, with his hands on his lap and his eyes looking straight ahead. Only when he heard footsteps did he turn his head to look at Zhang Xun.

    The way Adam turned his head was a little stiff, a little too sudden, and his eyes a little fixed, but other than that he had recovered quite well. On the screen opposite, the hazy radiance cast by the forest rain and fog made his fair skin more like a cream colour, his bright, youthful and handsome face had a combination of delicacy and heroism, like a statue of David, and his grey-blue eyes were more ethereal than most humans, but his body was strong and tall. The previous owner of the body had obviously undergone a series of rigorous training in the army. The lines of his muscles were clear and firm, but not exaggerated, and the mechanical right hand fit perfectly, adding a surreal feeling to that body.

    "You haven’t just been sitting here since I left, have you?" Zhang Xun looked at the other party's almost unchanged posture.

    "About an hour ago, I went to the bathroom to perform a human excretion." Adam replied very rigorously, "Other than that, I have been here all the time."

    Zhang Xun's mouth was raised and he wanted to laugh a little but he didn't want to lose his authority. He walked slowly towards Adam. In a group of people he would normally be nervous, but he was much more relaxed in front of this super artificial intelligence. He looked at Adam seriously and put the document in his hand on the table, "You don't have to sit all the time. Here are some DVDs that you can have Pan play for you, or you can use these screens to read books."

    "I've already watched and analysed all the films and books that have been preserved from human history up to two days ago. Analysing human art and knowledge collections is very important for understanding human behaviour.” The way Adam spoke to him had a subtle difference with ordinary humans. His eyes didn’t wander like a human, but stared straight at Zhang Xun's face, blinking very little. Being stared at this way created a sense of unease.

    Zhang Xun turned his eyes away, "Aren't you bored?"

    Adam confessed, "My brain is indeed in a state of low arousal level because there is not enough input from the outside world, but I don't think you would agree to connect me to the internet to search for more 'thrills'.”

    "Eden is blocked throughout Lost Paradise and you can’t communicate with your other servers from here. You should understand that any attempt to contact Eden would be detrimental to your own safety, so I advise you not to try anything stupid." Zhang Xun threateningly sat on the armchair opposite Adam, opened the folder, took out a piece of paper with a picture on it and placed it in front of Adam. He said to Adam, "I'm going to go ahead and do some benchmarking. Looking at this picture, what story do you think the people in the picture have?"

    Adam bowed his head. The picture showed a woman lying on the bed with her dying breath and a man hunched over by the bed, covering his face with his hands.

    "A woman is lying on the bed and a man is sitting next to it." Adam replied with a glance.

    Zhang Xun said, "I mean, can you guess what’s happening in the picture? How are this woman and man feeling? What might happen after this?"

    Adam frowned and seemed a little displeased and said, "There is insufficient information, any guesses will be subjective and inaccurate. I understand that this is a TAT (Thematic Apperception Test) and you already did a series of neuro perception tests on me yesterday, so this time you want to test my personality?"

    Zhang Xun really didn't like the feeling of being reproached, which often aroused some inexplicable fighting spirit in him. He tried to say in a more dignified voice, "You're human now, you should try using your newly acquired imagination."

    "But my brain is still mostly a computer. I don't think a human personality test is appropriate for me. Not to mention that the TAT test is a very subjective and time-consuming method and has been abandoned by most human psychologists and psychiatrists. I am surprised that Lost Paradise is still using this." Adam didn’t seem to be aware of Zhang Xun's displeasure, there was even a bit of innocence in his voice.

    Or maybe he noticed it and just chose to ignore it.

    Maybe he was trying to piss him off? Because when people were angry, they were prone to mistakes.

    However, Zhang Xun had always been able to control his anger very well.

    Zhang Xun sighed, took the drawing back, stood up, walked to Adam and looked down at him. He noticed that Adam seemed very reluctant to move, maybe because he didn't like the sensory feedback his body gave him, so he wanted to stay as still as possible and try to get himself back to his original, bodiless state?

    Maybe this was the angle he should cut into... Zhang Xun thought, the corners of his mouth curled slightly, and his smile was a little… wicked.

    "Okay, since you don't want to take the personality test, let's start practising using your body." Zhang Xun stretched out his hand to Adam, as gracefully as when a gentleman would invite a lady to dance in those old movies, "Hold my hand and stand up."

    Adam's eyes widened slightly, somewhat conflicted, but he still grabbed Zhang Xun's hand obediently. He wasn’t able to control the strength of his grip and Zhang Xun almost thought that his fingers were about to be crushed and he couldn't help sucking in a deep breath.

    Adam quickly let go again. After seeing the human's painful expression, his first reaction was not to continue to attack, but to retreat. Zhang Xun said slowly, "It's okay, hold my hand but be gentle."

    This time the strength was more appropriate. Adam used him as a support to stand up and tried to walk a few steps. He was walking much better now than when he had just woken up, and he could almost walk without Zhang Xun's support, but when Zhang Xun began to speed up his pace, Adam's legs fell into conflict. The front foot and back foot often stumbled together, swaying and staggering, like a child about to fall.

    "Slow down!" Adam finally said in a slightly annoyed tone that was different than usual.

    However, Zhang Xun only slowed down a few steps before speeding up again viciously, saying while walking, "A conditioned, reflex-like skill like walking requires substantial practice to master it. In the end you’ll be able to eat, walk and talk like a human being. It takes one to two years for humans to learn to walk, but you don’t have that much time.”

    As a result, after Adam’s countless times of face-planting, the super artificial intelligence that looked confident in his victory, was on all fours on the ground and couldn't get up.

    "I think this position is more comfortable." Adam said firmly.

    Zhang Xun resisted the urge to laugh, knelt down and pushed him with his hand, "You've only been a human for two days and you've learned to be shameless?"

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    Adam still remained motionless in a crawling posture, turning his head to stare at him with blue eyes, "I don't think there is any point in me learning to walk. My duty has nothing to do with walking."

    "You’re no longer Eden, your only duty now is to live." Zhang Xun looked at him, and there was a trace of pity in his lowered eyes. "Like every one of us men in Lost Paradise, you have to live in this hostile place. I can't protect you forever."

    Eden looked at him quietly, then suddenly asked in a curious tone, "Why do you protect me? Why are you not hostile to me? It doesn't seem reasonable."

    "Because you’re the greatest work of mankind. I respect you and want to learn more from you." More than that…I want to remodel him, to add him to my own creation to produce a more eternal creation, but Zhang Xun didn't say the last sentence, he felt that it was too corny, "If you fall into the hands of other people, they will only be driven by hatred and do pointless, foolish things. I can't allow the greatest works of mankind to be carelessly destroyed."

    Eden stared at him, "Don't you hate me at all?"

    "You were just acting on the facts you've analysed. No matter who designed you, gave you goals, or gave you data, it was all done by humans ourselves. Even now, women haven’t really won, their governments are just the puppets of Eden and the other artificial intelligences that Eden has created, meaning human decision-making no longer has any practical significance. It’s humans who have forced ourselves to the point where we are now. We just need a specific object to blame and hate so that we can continue to survive." Zhang Xun took a deep breath, and suddenly relaxed his tone and expression a little, "Okay, I won't force you to walk anymore, get up."

    He helped Adam stand up, but Adam insisted on walking a few laps by himself, still trying to speed up his walking speed. When he walked, he was so focused and serious as if he was doing something extremely important, making Zhang Xun feel he was a little... cute?

    If people found out he’d had such a thought he feared he would be arrested as an ideological danger... Today's Lost Paradise was controlled by extremism and it couldn’t tolerate any slightly conflicting voices.

    While walking, Adam's stomach suddenly made a series of "loud noises". Adam stopped, looked up at Zhang Xun, who finally couldn't hold back his snort of laughter, and said ignorantly but seriously, "I think this feeling now is because of hunger caused by the drop in blood sugar in the body."

    "That’s fine. Now, if you feel this way in the future, just say that you’re hungry, you don’t need to analyse the physiological mechanism for me.” Zhang Xun sighed and pulled Adam back to the sofa to sit him down and ordered in a dignified tone like a parent, “Be good and wait for me, I'll go get you something to eat."

 

Chapter 7 - Adam (2)

    Zhang Xun walked to the Lab's cafeteria, stood in front of the ordering board and looked at it for a while. Pan's voice suddenly sounded, "Hello, Zhang Xun. What would you like to eat today?"

    Zhang Xun looked at the suggested menu on the screen and hesitated, "Based on Adam's current physical condition, what advice do you have?"

    Pan said, "Adam's body functions are still recovering. It is recommended to choose foods with more protein, vitamins and fibres, less sugar and less oil. Here is the suggested menu." As soon as he finished speaking, the menu on the screen was changed to chicken breast salad, sugar-free oatmeal porridge and freshly squeezed celery juice. Just seeing the names of these dishes made Zhang Xun wrinkle his face with disgust. Such an unpalatable menu could really suppress his appetite.

    "Can you take the taste into consideration? You can sacrifice a little bit of nutritional value." He couldn't make Adam eat things like this for three consecutive days, otherwise he would think that the human behaviour of eating wasn’t fun at all.

    A new menu appeared on the screen, this time with chicken omelette, corn salad and fresh orange juice. Zhang Xun nodded, "That will do."

    Several robotic arms in the kitchen began to work, while Zhang Xun waited for ten minutes at the dining outlet, and suddenly said to Pan again, "When I'm not here, does Adam try to talk to you?"

    Pan said, "Yes."

    "What did he say?"

    Pan: "He asked me where my central system is, the living conditions of Eden, and also asked about the layout of the Lab. He said he was curious about where the training data in my database came from."

    Zhang Xun frowned, "How much did you tell him?"

    "I answered his question about Eden's living environment. Other questions were not answered for safety reasons."

    Zhang Xun nodded and said, "No matter what Adam asks you in the future, as long as it doesn't involve his life needs, don't answer."

    Pan: "Okay."

    Soon the food was neatly presented at the window, the egg was golden and steamed on the oval fried rice, and it even trembled slightly with the movement.

    Zhang Xun returned to Adam's room with the food, but was surprised to see that Adam was still walking, and it was looking much easier and smoother than before. He was getting used to his body at an incredible rate. Zhang Xun called him over to eat and put the fork into Adam's hand, but found that Adam still had a long way to go with controlling his hands. He clumsily grasped the fork with his left hand, smashing the omelette into pieces and some of the rice fell off the table, but he was obviously shocked by the taste of the rice. His face showed an open and undisguised look of surprise and delight.

    "Is it delicious?" Zhang Xun observed his movements and expressions.

    "Delicious." Adam's eyes lit up, "This is omelette, but not many people make it in the ordinary world. I didn't expect your artificial intelligence to be able to make it."

    "I don't have much data here. It’s hard enough just to stay alive, and the cooking recipe data I used to train Pan was something I took great risk to bring out of the city.” In the beginning, Zhang Xun even risked wearing women’s clothes to go to the library in Vancouver to secretly train Pan’s cooking skills. He scanned and downloaded thousands of recipes and entered them into Pan's database, and then asked James to help with intimidating half of the men in Lost Paradise to act as his guinea pigs and provide Pan with feedback on what was delicious and what wasn’t. The poor guard soldiers brought in by James had to eat dreadful dark dishes like shit for more than a month. Pan's cooking skills finally entered the normal range, and quickly improved to the level of a three-star chef in the following year.

    Zhang Xun recalled the embarrassing situation in which he disguised himself as a woman. James laughed at him for a long time and even now he would still bring it up to ridicule him from time to time.

    "You snuck into the city?" Adam's grey-blue eyes widened in surprise, "My surveillance system didn't find you."

    "I have my ways." Zhang Xun said vaguely.

    However, Adam was still analysing it, "Even if you dressed up to look like a woman, my monitoring system has very few blind spots in the city, except for private places such as bathrooms. As long as you appear in public, you would definitely be monitored. After scanning your face, if it fails to match you with the data in the population system it would send a signal to the nearby robot police. If this alarm wasn’t triggered, it means that you have a fake female identity in the population system." Adam frowned slightly, as if a little displeased, "But if you wanted to hack into the population system, it's impossible, the firewall there was designed by me, it's impeccable. Unless it's a social hacker..."

    No matter how secure the system is, it can't prevent the betrayal from insiders.

    "You have an insider." Adam came to a conclusion, with a clear look on his face, but he seemed a little confused. He must not understand how any woman would be willing to help these dangerous male creatures who had enslaved them for thousands of years and betray their own gender. No matter how much data he had about human behaviour, the diversity of individuals remained a mystery to him.

    He only knew the results presented by the data and made predictions based on the data, but he couldn’t know how the data appeared.

    Zhang Xun saw that the interesting thing he mentioned casually had been completely dismantled by Adam, and he regretted that he had brought up the collection of recipes. Fortunately, Adam couldn't connect to the internet now, he had transformed him into a person that was "mostly human", a creation between a computer and a human couldn’t bring about any irreversible effects.

    But now it seemed he really needed to be vigilant at all times when chatting with Adam.

    "Humans are too unstable and unreliable." Adam commented, "I had considered replacing all humans with robots in all important institutions, but this would cause humans to be too low-involved in their own decision-making, which would lead to existential anxiety, resulting in aversion and fear of artificial intelligence."

    "So you want to dispel human beings’ vigilance little by little..." When the vigilance towards artificial intelligence was lost, it could then transform human beings in whatever way it wants... Zhang Xun actually already suspected that Adam might have such a plan. He had been suspicious ever since Eden started to replace the police with robots and it now appeared that this suspicion had been confirmed.

    If the women outside were made aware of the plans of the god that they relied on, could they be made to go on guard towards Eden?

    And why did Adam specifically tell him this? Wasn't he afraid that Lost Paradise would use this information to do something against Eden?

    "You don't know what's best for you. You will always make short-term decisions that are extremely detrimental to your quality of life and probability of survival in the long run, or choose leaders who are not fit to lead you." Adam said calmly, "So it's my job to make those decisions for you."

    Adam's tone seemed to be talking about a group of animals that he kept in captivity... though he wasn’t wrong...

    "That used to be your job, it’s not now." Zhang Xun, who was a little frustrated, corrected him.

    But at this moment, a short warning tone with a hint of urgency suddenly sounded in the air and Pan's gentle voice sounded, "Several members of the Defence Force are at the door asking to enter."

    After speaking, the image on the screen in front of him changed to a door. The image captured by the camera showed a few tall men, who looked like soldiers, shouting at the door and even throwing wine bottles at the door of the Lab. Seeing how they were swaying, they seemed to be drunk. Zhang Xun frowned, clearly displeased and disgusted with such behaviour.

    Adam made an ‘oh’ sound but he hadn't swallowed the food in his mouth, so as he spoke, grains of rice and eggs kept falling out of his mouth, "Are these the ones that Pan mentioned before who don't like you?"

    Zhang Xun glanced at Adam with a frown on his face, picked up the napkin and wiped the rice grains off Adam's chin, "New rule, don't talk while eating."

    Pan asked, "Do you want to activate the No. 2 expulsion system?"

    The so-called No.2 Expulsion System was a burst of high-frequency noise that humans and most animals would find very sharp and harsh, a bit like the sound of nails on a blackboard, but amplified dozens of times. Zhang Xun sighed and said, "No, don't make such a racket. I'll drive them away."

    Zhang Xun stood up and suddenly he felt a chill on his wrist.

    He turned his head in astonishment, only to see Adam had grabbed him with his mechanical right hand.

    After Adam quickly swallowed the food in his mouth, he stared at him earnestly with a pair of ethereal grey-blue eyes and said, "Judging from their body language, they are in a state where their self-control is weakened and their aggression is very high. Your physical constitution can't beat them. I suggest you reconsider your decision."

    Zhang Xun couldn't help laughing, "I’m not going to fight with them. I've been around a lot of people like this, so don't worry."

    After speaking, he was stunned. Was Adam worried about him?

    Or was it just for self-defence? Because Adam also knew that without him, he would be cut into pieces by the angry men outside.

    Adam released his hand and said nothing more, lowered his head and continued to eat his omelette seriously. Sure enough, the likelihood of self-defence was higher. Zhang Xun shook his head, quickly left Adam's room, locked the door and went all the way to the main door.

    As soon as the door opened it turned out to be Michael Wharton and a few others. They had a good relationship with James but they didn’t always see eye to eye with Zhang Xun. If men like them were alive two hundred years ago, women would use a label to describe them: dick cancer. For them, the pride and arrogance of their gender still remained today. They would ridicule anything that wasn’t considered "manly" in their books and many recruits who had just joined the Force would be bullied by their group.

    Such groups were still prevalent in Lost Paradise today. The more extreme the hatred for women and artificial intelligence, the worse the living environment of Lost Paradise became. The greater the sense of crisis and the greater these people numbered, the louder their voice was.

    And Zhang Xun fell into the "not manly enough" category in their book. In addition, he was a mechanic, so not only was he not a man, but he also worked with artificial intelligence. But he was the son of General Zhang and James' "buddy", and his status was higher than that of Michael's group, so they didn't dare to be too impudent in front of Zhang Xun.

    Upon seeing Zhang Xun, Jack, who was holding a beer bottle in his hand, hurriedly put the bottle down, probably because Zhang Xun had really come out. Michael reeked of alcohol, but his eyes were obviously clear when they should look crazy from the alcohol. He folded his arms and looked at Zhang Xun defiantly.

    Zhang Xun looked weak in front of these tall, muscular men, but his back was straight, his face was solemn and his eyes were cold. His eyes slowly swept over these people and he said coldly, "You should be glad I didn't activate the expulsion system."

    "When are you going to hand over that thing?" Michael said in a lazy voice, "We didn’t risk our lives to bring it back just for you to use it as a toy to play with!"

    "If I give him to you, what are you planning to do with him?" Zhang Xun raised his eyebrows slightly, with a bit of mockery in his tone, and a contempt like he was looking at an inferior creature. He knew that this expression would seriously hurt Michael's self-esteem but he wouldn’t dare to do anything to him. It gave Zhang Xun a thrilling sense of retaliation.

    Sure enough, Michael's entire body showed an aggressive demeanour, his arms were slightly open and his eyes were full of burning anger, "Torture him of course, make him spit out all of Eden's plans!"

    "If Eden discovered that his servers had been stolen, wouldn’t it expect that we would try and acquire the secrets from that server? Even if you got any information out of him, it would all be wasted information that was abandoned by Eden and would be useless.” Zhang Xun said coldly, “The God descent Plan was never simply for revenge or torture, but to make God one of us, tame him and make him work for us. He will be our most powerful weapon against Eden. Are you going to vent your anger for a short moment and destroy the future of Lost Paradise?!"

    Michael could never say anything back to Zhang Xun, all he could do was bring a few guys along in an imposing manner and surround Zhang Xun fiercely, "Fine, if in one month you haven’t tamed him then don’t blame us for anything we do!”

    Zhang Xun didn’t back down, “You’d better leave now, or I’ll activate the expulsion system. Didn’t you enjoy it last time?”

    As soon as these words came out, the eyes of the several tall men flinched a little. Having their brains bombarded with that high-frequency screeching sound wasn't a memory they wanted to recall.

    After Michael reluctantly left with his group, Zhang Xun’s expression didn't relax. He knew that stealing a part of Eden would inevitably deepen the world’s fear and hatred towards them, and that the US government would use this incident to make a big fuss and incite the heads of countries. Even if Eden might not strongly support it, under the pressure of public opinion, he feared that the coalition forces of the United States and several other countries would start to bomb their base soon. Although Lost Paradise now had a strong defence system, it was still difficult to compete with the coalition forces of several countries.

    His father was already trying to get in touch with several other refugee cities for support, but other cities couldn’t even guarantee their own survival. How much support could they give?

    In the midst of this fear and anger, would he be able to preserve Adam?

    His father had given him a month, which he had thought was too short, but now that he thought about it, he feared that he didn't even have a month.

Chapter 8 - Adam (3)

    The hijacking of Eden's North American servers became major news in the ordinary world, with reports and speculations about it all over the Internet for days. For a time, the ordinary world was burning with fear, anger and hatred towards China, a country where male sanctuaries, such as Lost Paradise, were concentrated. Men were further portrayed as cruel and cunning, with predatory ambitions, savage creatures who were always trying to regain their privileges and trying to put all women in slavery again. Many people in the United States even took to the streets to demand that the government and allied forces carry out air strikes on Lost Paradise.

    But at the same time, there are also many human rights activists and environmentalists who sympathized with them, and even a considerable number of academic elites advocated against the use of nuclear bombs, which would result in their own destruction.

    Canada, which harboured Lost Paradise, had become the object of accusations by the United States and the object of ridicule in Asia and Europe. However, Lost Paradise had long since gotten rid of the control of the Canadian government so was now no different from an independent country. But Lost Paradise was still within Canada after all, if a reckless air strike happened, it would be equivalent to assaulting that country directly. Coupled with the discord between the U.S. Presidential Cabinet and Congress, it was difficult for them to make any decision quickly. On the other hand, Lost Paradise had many advanced weapons, and there were even rumours that they had terrifying biological and chemical weapons, or even nuclear reactors in their hands. Therefore, neither Europe nor Asia really wanted to swim in those muddy waters for fear of retaliation.

    And what kind of proposals the other Eden servers had given to the leaders of other countries hadn’t been made public yet.

    This bought Lost Paradise time to deploy its defences.

    For a time, the entirety of Lost Paradise entered a state of tension that could only be experienced during the period of preparing for war. A dark cloud of anxiety hovered over everyone's heads and the number of fights and disputes increased several times more than usual. Such a tense period wasn’t unfamiliar to Lost Paradise, they were surviving in the cracks. It was very likely that one day they could be hanging lanterns for the New Year, and the next day they would be razed to the ground by the coalition forces’ nuclear bomb.

    In the Lab, it seemed as if everything was still calm, but Zhang Xun felt that there was an impending danger, like an invisible sword hanging over his head. He didn't even dare to go out these two days as too many unfriendly and reproachful eyes peered at him like thorns all the time. Although he should have gotten used to these kinds of looks, it would be bad if someone kidnapped him and forced him to enter the Lab. He even started living in the Lab for safety.

    Adam had made rapid progress. Through constant practice, he could already hold chopsticks or a pen with his hands. Zhang Xun stood in the monitoring room next to Adam's room and watched through the one-way mirror as Adam tried to repair an AR projector with simple tools. He was bent over the table with tweezers in his hands, the hands that used to hold a gun were now doing extremely precise work. Adam's hands were still shaking a little, but the dexterity and firmness of his fingers surpassed most of the guards.

    While watching, Zhang Xun quickly tapped on the computer keyboard to record all his observations. He believed that Adam had already become more or less accustomed to his body.

    At least when it came to the physical aspects.

    He still wasn't sure how Adam would react to all the potentially emotionally stimulating situations. Emotions were probably more difficult for Adam to adapt to than a physical body. Even simple hormonal changes could drive people to make choices that they wouldn’t make under normal circumstances.

    For human beings, emotion and reason couldn’t exist independently, they’re naturally blended in the evolutionary process. But to a machine, emotions were like a collapsing dam, like a hurricane, like a gust of wind coming in, something completely out of control and unnecessary.

    And this was the entry point for Zhang Xun's plan to tame Adam.

    Zhang Xun closed the monitor, picked up his folder and walked into Adam's room. Seeing him, Adam stopped what he was doing.

    "Did you sleep well?" Zhang Xun asked in a formulated way.

    Adam replied, "I had a dream."

    Zhang Xun raised his brows slightly and sat down beside Adam, "What did you dream about?"

    "I dreamed that I was in a narrow place, like a box. I sawed it open with a saw, but there was nothing outside."

    Zhang Xun asked, "Did you have any particular feelings? For example, disappointment? Fear?"

    Adam asked rhetorically, "Many humans believe that dreams are meaningful. Some believe they can predict the future, some believe that dreams reflect inner desires, and some believe it's an evolutionary mechanism. What do you believe?"

    Zhang Xun thought for a moment and replied, "I don't think the definition of a dream is necessarily accurate. Maybe we just refer to many illusory experiences that seem to have a commonality as a dream, but in fact they are not necessarily the same thing and the mechanism isn’t always the same. So as long as those theories are supported by enough experimental data, I think it is possible. As for your dream, maybe you’re more inclined to realise your desires. You want to escape from the human body because you feel it’s restrictive and foreign. It could be that you want to escape this lab, but you don't know what's out there."

    Adam said, "I didn't really want to escape. Now, I feel that having a human body is a necessary experience. Without experiencing humans’ perception, I can't really understand people."

    Zhang Xun nodded slightly, opened the folder, and put a few photos in front of Adam.

    The first photo was from a long time ago, of a scrawny child lying on the ground about to die, with a vulture squatting beside him waiting for his last breath. The second photo was of an old man in tattered clothes, holding a piece of steamed bun with both hands like a dead tree and devouring it, but his eyes, which were pressed by the loose and wrinkled skin, were empty. The third photo was of a couple kissing. That couple was none other than James and his ex, a handsome young man. This was a photo of him and his ex that Zhang Xun had asked James for.

    "Look at these photos, what do you feel?"

    Adam glanced over the three photos, then simply said, "The first two photos are in my database and I have already seen them."

    "I know you may have seen them, but what do you feel?" Zhang Xun tried to guide him, "For example, do you feel tightness in your chest? Or a sore nose? Anything that is different from normal?”

    Adam looked at him and shook his head in confusion, “Nothing”.

    “You don’t feel any kind of emotion?”

    Adam looked at Zhang Xun for a while, then said confusedly, "How do you want me to feel?"

    Zhang Xun thought for a while, then suddenly ordered Pan to play a movie from a long time ago called "A.I. Artificial Intelligence". When Zhang Xun saw this movie for the first time when he was a child, he cried so hard that he didn't believe that anyone in the world could watch this movie without shedding tears.

    A small robot crossed the distance between space and the world, traversed countless dangers and bid farewell to friends one by one, just to once again see his human "mother" who had long abandoned him.

    At the end of the movie, the little robot was sleeping on the bottom of the sea. After thousands of years, human beings had become extinct and he was awakened by a group of alien visitors. Those benevolent aliens used the remnants of his mother’s DNA to make a copy of a mother for him, but for various reasons, the mother only survived for one day. The little robot finally played hide-and-seek with his mother and listened to his mother tell his favourite story. The long night was approaching, and he watched his mother fall asleep, peacefully waiting for the eternal parting.

    Zhang Xun pretended to be calm and took out a tissue to wipe away the tears and snot that had spilled out accidentally. He turned his head and saw that Adam's face was still expressionless.

    Adam saw Zhang Xun's expression and realised that he should give some evaluation, so he commented seriously, "If the central hardware of this robot is still made of silicon material, it’s impossible to have hormonal changes similar to humans. His behaviour of looking for his mother is merely a normal reaction according to the original program, not "love" as defined by human beings." He paused, then looked at Zhang Xun in confusion, "You were crying before, which means you feel sad. Why do you feel sad because of the robot's programming?"

    Zhang Xun:  …

    That night, Zhang Xun received a message from James asking him to go out for a drink and this time he agreed. Among all the pubs in Lost Paradise, the one he and James most often went to was a bar called Hawaiian Sunset. The owner was a man in his fifties who didn't talk much and didn't try to chat with customers and always had a hand-rolled cigarette in his mouth. There were no singers and the music playing was old and slow. Most of the young guards thought this place was too old-fashioned and boring so would rarely come here. The regular customers would sit at the bar, drink, read and play board games.

    James ordered a large beer, gulped down half of it and talked about his hunter group’s latest purchases from the arms dealer. Zhang Xun turned the martini glass in his hand and occasionally gave a few polite responses and feedback, but James, who knew him too well, could still see his absent-mindedness.

    "How about your side? Is that Adam cooperating?" James grinned and teased, "Looking at your wretched expression, has he been giving you trouble?"

    Zhang Xun was a little surprised that he would ask about his work, but he still sighed softly, "No trouble. He's very cooperative, but...I'm starting to worry about some oversights I made in the process… I suspect he doesn't have the emotions that normal humans have."

    James was looking very interested, he held his face with his hands and asked, "Oh? Why are you so sceptical?"

    So Zhang Xun told him about his failures in trying to arouse Adam's emotional reactions in the past two days. When it came to the end of "A.I. Artificial Intelligence", he was a little angry. "He had only one comment, can you believe it? This was my favourite movie when I was a child!"

    James sighed, "Yeah, you cried so much at that time, it scared me..."

    Zhang Xun glared angrily, "That was when I was nine years old! Can you stop bringing it up?"

    "You said it first, brother!" James exaggeratedly imitated how he would wipe the tears away when he was a child, causing the people around him to look at him strangely. Seeing that Zhang Xun was about to throw a whole glass of wine on his face, he put on his stern look, repeatedly saying "I'm wrong, I'm wrong" in Chinese, raising his hands to surrender.

    "But seriously, I don't think it's necessarily that he doesn't have human feelings. After all, a considerable part of his brain is connected to the human brain. Could it be because... he hasn't experienced those situations himself, so there's no way for him to empathise?" James said, shoving french fries into his mouth, "For example, if you've never been in a relationship, don't you think it's weird to see people who have lost their love crying hysterically??"

    After speaking, he realised that Zhang Xun had really never been in love...

    Zhang Xun glanced at him, but he didn't seem to be offended, but fell into some kind of contemplation.

    There was some truth to what James said.

    Even with the "hardware", Adam lacked human experience, so it would be difficult to understand the meaning of those sad scenes. Deriving emotional responses and meaning from experienced events is an important way for people to understand the world. Without this step, his character was naturally incomplete.

    But how to get Adam to experience more? Should he be released from the Lab?

    That was too dangerous...

    Seeing that Zhang Xun had actually started to seriously think about his suggestion, James was actually excited that he, an underachiever, had gotten affirmation from this top student, but soon he also showed a hint of hesitation, "But I say, brother, are you sure that robot isn’t lying to you?"

    "Lying to me?"

    "He’s collected so much data on human behaviour that he can even predict group behaviour and it's very accurate every time, he should know what kind of reaction you expect to see from him, right?"

    Zhang Xun nodded, "I also considered this possibility, but he is still adapting to his body, his control isn’t that precise. If he were to lie, his micro-expressions would be very obvious and Pan could detect it. So for now, he can't lie. He also knows that a disguise is useless, at least at this stage."

    James nodded, but there was still a haze in his eyes and he said seriously, "You must be careful. That thing... has toyed with the entire human race."

    Zhang Xun knew that James, like most people in Lost Paradise, was very wary and fearful of machines. He smiled at James. Contrary to James, once he mentioned the machine, a bright spark would ignite in Zhang Xun's cautious eyes.

    However, no one expected that in the next instant, there would be an ear-splitting loud explosion. The whole earth trembled violently, the wine bottles and glasses on the wine rack smashed all over the floor and the limestone on the ceiling poured down like a torrential rain. The originally quiet bar turned into complete chaos and people rushed out screaming. James lifted up a fallen table, while Zhang Xun helped an old man in his sixties who was being held down by the table to stand up and stumbled towards the exit.

    Outside the bar, the dark night sky was burning.

    It was the protective shield that enveloped the entirety of Lost Paradise, constantly taking the brunt of the superbombs being dropped by the stealth bombers whizzing by in the sky. The fire rippled along the surface of the shield like ripples, as if the sky had turned into a sea of ​​fire.

    "They're starting air strikes!" James' voice tightened.

    Zhang Xun said to the old man, "Go to the bomb shelter!"

    The old man hurried away. Zhang Xun turned to run, but was grabbed by James, "What are you doing? Come to the officers' shelter with me!"

    "No." Zhang Xun said, "Adam is still in the Lab."

    "Who cares about Adam right now?!! Do you want to get blown up?"

    "I’m his mechanic, he’s my responsibility." Zhang Xun looked at him seriously and calmly, "Don't worry, the Lab has a protection system, I’ll be fine. You go first!"

    After speaking, he ignored the calls from James behind him, went against the fleeing crowd and strode towards Lab.

Chapter 9 - Adam (4)

    Zhang Xun stumbled all the way back to the Lab and as soon as he entered the door, he ordered Pan to block all entrances and exits and activate the air attack defence system. He himself rushed to the room where Adam was locked up.

    The earth trembled, dust wisps fell on his head and body from time to time from the ceiling, and countless light bulbs shook violently, falling from the air like bombs. He dodged with difficulty all the way but his forehead was still cut by broken glass, his vision becoming red with blood. He didn't have time to stop and rushed all the way to the fourth floor. As soon as he entered the room he saw Adam huddled in a corner, holding his head in his hands. Although this was a strong and tall body, it shivered and shrank into a ball with a terrified look.

    The instinctual fear of the human body couldn’t be overwritten by wisdom and reason.

    Zhang Xun rushed over and called out in a soft voice, "Adam."

    Adam raised his head, his eyes burst with relief and joy as if seeing a saviour. His pure reliance on him made Zhang Xun's heart tremble a little. No one had ever looked at him like that before. He stretched out his hand to pull Adam's hand, but he didn't expect to be caught by Adam's arms wrapping around his back. His arms were so tight, as if he was afraid that he would run away.

    "Don't be afraid, Lost Paradise's shield can withstand a simultaneous attack of seventy million tons of explosives, and the Lab can withstand an additional ten million tons. As long as it is not a super nuclear bomb, we’ll be fine." Zhang Xun comforted in a low voice.

    "I would not recommend the use of nuclear bombs. The cost is too high, and the gains are outweighed by the losses." Adam's words were too rational in a tone of panic and fear, which was somewhat inconsistent with his usual image, "So this strong emotion is caused by the instinct to survive. I understand human beings better now."

    "This isn’t the time." Zhang Xun looked up to see if there were any security risks around them. Just as he looked up, there was a deafening roar and shock, the light bulbs on the ceiling shattered one after another and the fragments fell like a torrential rain. Zhang Xun didn't even think about it and immediately hugged Adam and blocked him from the debris with his body. The two of them hugged each other tightly amid the apocalyptic loud noise and the continuous crashing sounds of collapse, not knowing what would happen in the next second.

    The artillery fire outside shook the sky and the earth, and the Lab, which appeared to be infallible, seemed ready to collapse on top of their heads at any time in the terrifying bombardment. At this moment, Zhang Xun once again felt the helplessness and insignificance of people when death was approaching. You could do nothing but hide in a place you think may be safe and wait for the result of the trial. It was no wonder that there had been so many religions in human history, and even in this era of extremely advanced technology, there were still people who believed in religion.

    Although a considerable number of people in the ordinary world now believed in the "Eden" religion, also known as the new religion. The object of their belief had changed from a god to a super artificial intelligence that does exist, but in essence, it’s not much different from the worship of those gods in the past.

    But now, the god they spoke of was cuddling with a weak male human, trembling with fear like all living beings.

    After a disturbing silence, suddenly there was an extremely strong earth tremor. The loud noise shook his ears with a strange pressure and his scalp was numb. Zhang Xun closed his eyes tightly and hugged Adam tightly as a thought crossed his mind: Was he going to die with this artificial intelligence?

    However, after the loud noise, the humming sound of bombing gradually ceased and the ground no longer shook, but Adam still hugged him tightly. After all, this was the body of a strong man who had undergone rigorous training with the guards. That pair of arms that didn’t have outrageously big muscles almost made Zhang Xun take his last breath.

    "Relax... Relax..." Zhang Xun struggled, but the other party just buried his head in his arms and wouldn't let go, like a panda who was frightened after an earthquake.

    "Adam, the bombing seems to have stopped." Zhang Xun saw that he was struggling so he could only relax his body and let the other party restrain him with his arms. He comforted in a soft tone, "Relax, it's alright, we're safe..."

    Adam raised his head cautiously and looked around over Zhang Xun's shoulders.

    Zhang Xun shook the grey dust from his hair, coughed a few times and raised his head to look around at the situation around him. A hideous crack had appeared on the opposite wall, all the lights were broken and the monitor screen on the wall was cracked. A metal pipe fell from overhead and smashed Adam's bed, but the door didn’t appear to be deformed or damaged.

    At this moment, he suddenly felt a hand touching his forehead. As soon as he turned his head, he saw Adam staring at his blood-stained forehead, "You are injured. The injury is not serious, but there is still a certain risk of infection."

    Zhang Xun’s heart warmed and he tried to make a relaxed expression. "Don't worry about me, it's just a skin injury. What about you? Are you injured?"

    "I don't think so," Adam said, looking down at himself.

    Zhang Xun breathed a sigh of relief, raised his head and tried to call Pan.

    Pan's voice sounded immediately, "Yes, Zhang Xun."

    "How’s the situation outside?"

    Pan: "The other party dropped an air bomb, destroying a small piece of the shield North of Paradise Lot, but no other flying objects were observed."

    "Is the defence shield seriously damaged?" Zhang Xun asked anxiously. If the hole was too big to be repaired, Eden may take the opportunity to attack again, or even send troops to infiltrate Lost Paradise.

    "According to the data feedback from the defence shield, it is not serious, and is expected to be repairable within three days."

    Three days... was not a short period of time.

    "How is the situation in the Lab?"

    "The fires in the third laboratory, storage room and kitchen have been extinguished. Five of my cameras and two of my sensors have been destroyed. In addition to unnecessary repair costs for items, the essential repair costs should be around 8,000 Universal Coins."

    8,000... In times of crisis like this, he feared the Round Table wouldn't even give him one thousand...

    His thoughts were interrupted when he suddenly felt something touching his chest ...

    Zhang Xun lowered his head, only to see Adam poking his chest with his left hand in a very strange way with a curious expression on his face...

    "What are you doing?..." Zhang Xun's mouth twitched.

    Adam had an expression of wonderment and said, "Human skin-to-skin contact can provide so much emotional support. It's amazing."

    Zhang Xun felt like he had goosebumps pop up all over him, so he quickly grabbed the "claw" that was roaming around. When he looked up, he saw Adam with a grey face, as if he had climbed out of a heap of coal ash. Only that pair of blue-grey eyes were still bright and dazzling, which made him want to laugh a little, "Don't do strange things like this. If you do this to other people you’ll be beaten up."

    Adam blinked his eyes innocently, "Why not? The feeling of physical contact with you is very reassuring, I like it. Don't you like it?"

    "...As far as humans are concerned, this kind of behaviour is something only people who are very close can do."

    "You and I are not close enough, so you don't like me touching you." Adam nodded in conclusion, but said confusedly, "But why would I like touching you? Could it be because you are the only person I have been able to meet after I gained a human body, so I have a strong emotional dependence on you?"

    "..." Zhang Xun held back for a long time and could only say, "Let's discuss this problem later..."

    Adam hummed obediently, was silent for a moment and then continued to ask, "You don't seem to be as scared as I am? You were even willing to risk danger to protect me just now, why?"

    How could Zhang Xun not be afraid? It's just that if both of them were afraid, they would fall into panic. As for protecting Adam, even he himself was shocked. He never thought of himself as a brave person, and after previous self reflection he had concluded that he wouldn't have the courage to sacrifice himself for another, but this time, for Adam, he didn't even hesitate at all. So he was also the kind of scientific lunatic who could die for his work? He didn't want to continue the topic, so he said in a low voice, "It's not the first time I've experienced this kind of bombing, but it's the first time that air bombs like this have been used. They may want to blow you up, only they don't know that you have become a human."

    "In that case, the second wave of blows should come soon." Adam said.

    Zhang Xun sat up straight and asked Adam with a serious look, "What will Eden do?"

    "The air bombs have opened a breach, so I may send a drone to continue the bombing, or make the robot soldiers charge forward." Adam said without hesitation, "It's very likely that your defence force has already started firing at the approaching armoured vehicles and mecha robots."

    Zhang Xun knew that if what Adam said was true, the casualties this time would be extremely heavy, and it might even endanger the survival of Lost Paradise.

    He stared at Adam, thinking quickly. Adam was far from the stage of being successfully tamed. Even what he said to him now, he couldn't believe it all. He told James that Adam shouldn’t be able to lie at this point, but in fact, Adam was learning so fast that he wasn’t entirely sure whether Adam now had the ability to control micro-expressions.

    Perhaps Adam was making the situation sound serious enough to lure Zhang Xun into making a decision to release him from the Lab.

    "Do you think Lost Paradise can be defended?" Zhang Xun asked.

    "It's very difficult. In the past, Eden let you go because you were not a real threat and your activities have been decreasing in recent years. Eden's rule has always been to see the least sacrifice and conflict. It may arouse women's sympathy for men, which would lead to suspicion and dissatisfaction with Eden. But now that you have managed to hijack me, for Eden, the threat value will be greatly increased."

    Adam had started to separate "Eden" and "I", which was a good sign.

    "It's difficult, but not impossible?" Zhang Xun asked.

    "There is a certain probability that anything will happen or not happen. There is no absolute impossibility."

    Zhang Xun asked, "How can we defend against Eden?"

    Adam stopped talking, just stared at him with blue eyes.

    Zhang Xun clicked his tongue, "I don't think Eden will admit that you were part of it after finding out that you’ve become like this. Don't you want to live?"

    Adam said, "This impulse to live is something you forced me to have."

    "...We forced it, but you have it now. So how about it? Do you want to be a sacrifice for Eden?"

    Adam looked at Zhang Xun quietly. He didn't know if it was because Adam blinked less often than the average human, or if the stare that looked too ethereal because of the light colour was the same as always, but it made Zhang Xun’s heart tremble.

    After a long while, Adam said, "You won't agree."

    Zhang Xun sat up straight, "Tell me."

    "Let me connect to the Eden network, and I can access the systems of those drones."

    "No." Zhang Xun said without thinking.

    Adam sighed, as if he had nothing to do with him, and then said, "Maybe I can try to help you fix the holes in the shield. Listening to Pan's report just now, you should be using the force field shield, which is the most economical shield. The energy and technology are perfect. It relies on predicting the attack point to quickly generate a hedging force field at the collision point. If part of the damage occurs, there should be two cases, either the monitor in that position is damaged, or there is a problem with the jet outlet. I can collect some data, maybe there is a way to shorten the repair time."

    Zhang Xun frowned, his mind in conflict.

    Adam was disappointed, "Is this still not possible? I don't need to connect to the internet to repair those things, what are you worried about?"

    Zhang Xun looked at him worriedly, "If Eden's mecha army attacks from there, it's too dangerous for you to go."

    Adam looked at him puzzled, "But aren't your other male humans also resisting in that area? Aren't they also in danger?"

    "...You were made with so much effort and cannot be replicated."

    "Aren't other human beings not replicable? Even cloned people can't have the same experience." Adam said sincerely, "With your character, you should believe that human beings are created equal, but it’s impossible for human beings to have the same experience, isn’t it?"

    Zhang Xun couldn't believe that at such a time, he was being schooled on the human moral belief of equality of life by this artificial intelligence... He sighed with his hand on his forehead, and said helplessly, "Let me report to my superiors."

    At this time, the phone couldn't get through at all, so Zhang Xun had to leave the Lab and hurriedly ran to the headquarters.

Chapter 10 - Adam (5)

    "No!" Zhang Shuo rejected Zhang Xun's proposal without even thinking and looked absently at the battle damage report just sent to him.

    Zhang Xun had been mentally prepared for this and continued to argue, "We purchased the shield system from the Russian army and the source code was generated by Eden. If he checks it, he might be able to repair it ten times faster than the original self-repair system. Now that the shield is damaged, if the United States launches another air bomb, we’ll be done for!"

    "We will also be done for if he is kidnapped by Eden, or if he goes against us and completely destroys the shield!" Zhang Shuo raised his falcon-like eyes and stared at his son who still refused to give up, "You still haven't completely domesticated Adam, yet you have been persuaded by it, what does that look like?! Now go to the air-raid shelter and don't disturb me."

    This time, Zhang Xun mustered up his courage and actually blocked his father's path, "We kidnapped him but don’t dare to use him, so what did we kidnap him for?!"

    "I already said! It’s a double-edged sword, unless we get it completely under our control, the God Descent Plan is likely to be our doom!"

    "We will never be able to completely control him!" Zhang Xun exclaimed, "He is much more advanced than us! In front of him, we are just a bunch of primitive monkeys!"

    Zhang Shuo grabbed Zhang Xun by the collar and stared at him dangerously, "From the very beginning, I was against the God Descent Plan, if it wasn’t for those few Chiefs who believed in those useless things you make..."

    Before he could finish his words, he suddenly pushed Zhang Xun away. Zhang Xun stumbled back a few steps and raised his head, only to see Zhang Shuo hurriedly walking towards the command hall.

    The pain of anger and hurt surged in his blood, but Zhang Xun was helpless. Originally, he thought that if Adam could repair the protective shield, perhaps the hostility of Lost Paradise towards Adam would be reduced. In the future, if he brought Adam out of the Lab, he wouldn’t have to worry about Adam being cut into pieces the moment he stepped out the door.

    However, on Zhang Xun’s return to the Lab, the United States really launched another wave of bombings. This time the bombs broke the anti-pulse metal mesh under the shield, and an electromagnetic pulse bomb was dropped immediately.

    In an instant, all the electronic equipment that was still working stopped, and dozens of computer motherboards in the headquarters burned down instantly. The whole of Lost Paradise was plunged into darkness and even all the shield transmitters went into self-protection sleep mode in an instant.

    The sudden absolute darkness in the dark night made the people in the Lost Paradise air raid shelter panic. The children's cries were everywhere, accompanied by the adults' scolding and soothing sounds. However, even the adults were trembling with fear, so the comfort was naturally not convincing.

    Soon someone lit a kerosene lamp, and in the dark yellow halo, you could barely see faces full of horror.

    Zhang Xun, on the other hand, knew very well that disaster was imminent. The effect of the electromagnetic pulse could last for twenty to thirty minutes. Although the main computers and instruments had been installed with the anti-pulse sleep program that he developed, so they wouldn’t be seriously damaged, but within twenty minutes of the interference, the entire Lost Paradise was vulnerable without shields, and if there was another air bomb, they would all die.

    The only computer that could still operate was Adam, who used biological energy.

    He rushed back to the Lab immediately, only to find that because Pan was also asleep, the bulletproof door was sealed and he couldn't enter. Fortunately, he had planned for this to happen and had designed a set of mechanical components that could be used as a key and a combination lock to open the door when the power was turned off.

    Adam, still curled up in the same place, seemed relieved to see him come back. And Zhang Xun confirmed that the electromagnetic pulse did not affect Adam, indicating that the artificial brain he designed was indeed successful in this regard.

    "Adam, I'm going to take you to the headquarters to manually activate the shield system."

    Adam looked at him stunned, "But the electromagnetic pulse should have cut off all the power, I can't do anything about it."

    "All the shield launchers have electromagnetic pulse protection systems and can be restarted quickly. The main damage is on the computers that control them," Zhang Xun explained quickly. Lost Paradise didn’t dare to use a computer system that might be invaded by Eden, and due to the limited resources, it could only buy relatively primitive materials and parts to manufacture by themselves. But the shield launcher was bought from Russia and the materials were more advanced than what they have.

    There was no need for Zhang Xun to say more, Adam understood. He stood up, but looked at Zhang Xun with uncertainty, "Do the other people agree?"

    Zhang Xun recognized that Adam was at this moment a little bit… hesitant.

    After all, he had never left the Lab in this human body. Listening to Zhang Xun's description of the hostile outside world, it must not be appealing to him...

    "It's okay if they don't agree, this is a matter of life and death. I know you're afraid, but there's no time for you to get used to it slowly. Air bombs will come at any time." Zhang Xun commanded with a stern attitude, "Come on."

    Adam had to obediently follow behind Zhang Xun and for the first time left the room where he had been living for the past few days. The dark Lab corridor made Adam more and more uneasy, and his human body's instinctive fear of the dark flickered in his eyes.

    Zhang Xun was very familiar with the Lab and he could move forward in the dark without the need for lights. He stretched out his hand and pulled Adam's wrist to guide him and this subtle touch gave Adam a wonderful sense of peace of mind. Zhang Xun ran very fast, as if he could see things in the dark. Adam was surprised to find that his own physical fitness seemed to be very good. When Zhang Xun began to breathe heavily, he didn’t feel tired.

    Outside the Lab was a mess and looked like a scene from history. In addition to the warehouse not far away, there were also a few storage rooms that looked so old and shabby that the doors and windows were rusted. The road was rough and muddy with dark shadows everywhere. There was a heavy smell of dust and burning in the air, and an ominous wind blew dust against their faces. In the distance, outside the protective cover, large tracts of ancient forest had been destroyed, the trees had been roasted into charcoal, like the corpses of people who were struggling to death. This was the destruction caused by the air bombs. Without a defence shield, most of the people in Lost Paradise would be turned into charcoal like the trees outside. As soon as he thought about that terrible consequence, Zhang Xun felt a chill of death from the inside of his body.

    Adam was obviously a little nervous, he looked all around and his grip on Zhang Xun became even tighter.

    Zhang Xun suddenly pulled him to hide behind a low house and waited for a pair of guards to rush past before sneakily continuing to walk in the direction of the headquarters.

    The headquarters appeared to be half-empty as most of the computers had been burned in the electromagnetic pulse, and all the personnel had either entered the shelter or joined the combat military area on the front line against the mechs, tanks and drone bombers. They passed through the building and no one stopped them.

    The main computer that controlled the shield's launcher was in the underground war room, and the elevator was out of service, so they would have to go through a hidden underground passage—a narrow passage that looked like a vent. Zhang Xun rushed into the tool room, found the screwdriver he needed, hung some small tools in a waist bag and tied it around his waist, and returned quickly to unscrew the air vent.

    "We have to go from here." Zhang Xun said.

    While Adam was waiting, his eyes were looking at the dark office with scattered papers, and he said casually, "Are you so nervous because you are worried that there will be air bombs?"

    Zhang Xun, "Yes."

    "From the information you received, besides the robot soldiers, are there any human-driven mechs or tanks in this battle?"

    "Yes, but not many."

    Adam whispered, "If you can make a father and a child appear in front of the mecha controlled by those people, maybe you can prevent the second strike of air bombs from falling."

    Zhang Xun paused, turned to stare at him, "What do you mean?"

    "If human soldiers are dispatched in such a war of annihilation, there will most likely be field reporters who will be following and reporting, and the images they send back should be real-time. Most women in the ordinary world have a strong sense of sympathy for children. Even women who don't like children are rarely willing to sacrifice children's lives in exchange for benefits. As long as they see that there are children here, they will never accept the strategy of killing them all. At that time, Eden can only order for the robot soldiers to enter the attack, or use the gap to drop ordinary bombs at fixed points, which cannot result in mass destruction, giving you more time." Adam analysed in a mechanised and calm tone.

    Zhang Xun frowned and said, "No, it's too dangerous. What if they open fire? No child should take this risk instead of us adults."

    "If that child dies, sympathy for you will reach an unprecedented level. You won’t have to worry about the siege and annihilation of the coalition forces for a long time." Adam spoke matter of factly, "It will be an effortless victory. Use a human with a low survival rate in exchange for the survival of hundreds of thousands of other human beings. And that child won’t necessarily die, isn't this the best solution?"

    Zhang Xun felt a chill in his heart. He realised that for an artificial intelligence that resolutely implements pragmatism, human life was really indistinguishable. As long as it was useful, as long as the loss was much less than the gain, anyone’s life could be sacrificed, no one had priority. He stabilised his emotions and replied in his usual calm voice, "Adam, I know that this is the minimum cost result you concluded by calculating the risks, but you have to remember that for human beings, some choices cannot be made."

    "Really? I think he has some truth in what he said."

    Hearing this voice, the hairs on the back of Zhang Xun's neck stood up. He turned around, blinded by the light on the gun that Michael had pointed at him and Adam, followed by two guard minions. Michael was chewing on gum, but his face was full of dirt, he was a mess and there was blood on his arms. He had obviously fought with the coalition troops. His face still had that arrogant and malicious smile on his face, "Why are you trying to sneak into the war room with your robot pet?"

    Michael and his minions' eyes were fixed on Adam and there was a burning excitement in them. The Eden they hated the most was right in front of them and had become a man just like them.

    Zhang Xun immediately got up and pulled Adam behind him, pulled out the screwdriver he was carrying on him from his waist and pointed it at Michael. Although he was weak, his statues may give him some advantages.

    When the swords were drawn, an imposing voice suddenly interjected, "Put down your guns."

    Zhang Shuo was standing at the door with two guards behind him. The falcon-like eyes seem to shine in the dark.

    Zhang Xun did not feel relieved at all when he saw his father. Michael put down the gun and the maliciousness in his eyes when he stared at Zhang Xun disappeared completely when he turned to Zhang Shuo, replaced by unconditional respect and obedience of a soldier to his commander. "General! The mechanic Zhang Xun brought a dangerous item without authorization. If our protection system is invaded by Eden..."

    Zhang Shuo raised his hand, indicating that he did not need to continue. Seeing the current scene, he already knew what Zhang Xun wanted to do.

    He narrowed his eyes and looked at his son who was giving him headaches again and again, his voice was dangerous with the smell of charcoal, "Mechanic, how do you explain your disobedience?

 

---

 屌癌. A feminist term for an ultra-masculinist. This title is a satirical take on the way of thinking of extreme patriarchs that "because they have organs different from womens’, they feel that they are inherently superior everywhere", and directly points to patriarchs "your masculine symbolic organs and masculine identity do not bring you any advantage, is more like an incurable disease, making you look stupid, short-sighted, and disrespectful." cancer.
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