Chapter 11: Chapter 101 – 110

Chapter 101 – Feathered Serpent City (7)

    For two days straight Zhang Xun didn’t leave his and Pan's R&D workshop. Undoing the effects of the nanobots on the human brain was much more difficult than Zhang Xun had expected. Originally, Zhang Xun had thought that the nanobots would simply remain in the human body to modify the brain structure after repairing the damaged cells, but after a closer look at the design framework of the nanobots, he realised that Adam's design was at the genetic level.

    As the nanorobots would have to identify which cells were infected by the virus and which were native, a sample of cells containing DNA information of the patient prior to infection (or the DNA of both parents if the patient’s couldn’t be found) would be added to the nanobots' solution for them to compare and study before entering the body, so that they could quickly target the diseased cells and either treat or kill them. To repair the damage caused by killing the cells, they then stimulated the secretion of HGH from the pituitary gland, which rapidly copied the DNA to produce new proteins.

    It was clear that Eden's deciphering and decoding of human DNA was perfect, but it didn’t reveal all of its knowledge to humans, only revealed selective parts. Taking advantage of this subtle knowledge gap, Adam targeted a few target chromosomal base pairs and made subtle but sophisticated modifications that resulted in controlled mutations in the copies of those DNAs. This  culminated in the presentation of a surgically indistinguishable, functional 'deformity' of the corpus callosum. It was this functional deformity that deprived humans of their instinct to preserve the individual.

    The problem was that Pan was unable to determine exactly which genes Adam had tampered with, since all his training data still came from the human knowledge database and Zhang Xun didn't have enough knowledge in this area to know either. To fix the nanobots at their source, he would have to work with the genetic engineers at Feathered Serpent City. Even then, they might not be able to decipher Adam's design in a short time.

    But time was running out. He had to inject the nanobots into the rebels the day after tomorrow and "restore" them to normal.

    So Zhang Xun was faced with a choice. He could build a batch of nanobots according to Adam's design, 'cure' the rebels and stay in the city to continue his plan. Or he could take James and Cindy, who were on the verge of death and Diego, who had been caught up in all this for no reason and go on the run again. Only this time they probably wouldn't get another chance to turn the tables.

    He stared at the dense characters on the screen until his eyes hurt and his mind buzzed.

    He knew that after this decision, he would never be able to turn back. Adam could use his lack of understanding of human nature as an excuse, but he couldn’t.

    He was about to choose to do something evil, something he knew was wrong, but would choose to do it anyway.

    A day later, he arrived with twenty six injections at the institute where the prisoners were kept . The High Priest and Tian Yu were already waiting for him and they looked at him, staring at the box he carried in his hand.

    "I'm going to give them the injections myself." Zhang Xun said.

    The High Priest nodded and gestured for Paulino to escort the twenty-six prisoners into the observation room. All the prisoners had some sort of metal ring placed on their foreheads, which seemed to be used to control their movements in case the modified men suddenly tried to resist.

    Zhang Xun entered the observation room with the case and looked into the twenty-six pairs of eyes that were tired and chaotic from all the mental illnesses that had afflicted them.

    "I am about to inject you all with nanobots. They will modify the structure of your brains so that you will not continue to suffer, but...... it will change your personalities and modify your human natures. Gradually you may lose a certain amount of self-awareness and perhaps forget that you are human. I may be able to find a way to correct the side effects, but I may not. If any of you do not want to receive the injection, you can tell me now."

    Outside the observation room, Tian Yu frowned and tried to interfere but was stopped by the High Priest.

    "Let's see how they react." The High Priest said calmly.

    A man asked, "After the injection, I won't hear those sounds anymore? Will I be able to sleep?"

    Zhang Xun's calm, emotionless eyes looked up at him, "To be honest, I'm not sure. Maybe you will still hear it, but those sounds won't bother you anymore. I think you'll be able to sleep."

    The other man asked, "Is it true that all the pain will go away?"

    Zhang Xun was silent for a moment and nodded, "You will gain peace."

    "What about after the injection? What will they do with us?"

    "If you are truly cured, the High Priest has agreed to release you. You will all be forgiven for any sins you have committed before."

    "Then if we don't agree, are they going to keep us locked up?"

    Zhang Xun nodded in silence, placed the box in his hand on the table and opened it. Twenty-six needles emanated a faint, luminous blue glow.

    A prisoner who had been tortured by phantom hearing and hadn’t slept for over a month was the first to step out of the group, saying to Zhang Xun in a tired and weak voice, "Whatever it takes to get me to sleep."

    He stretched out his arm, greenish-blue veins peeking out from beneath his pale skin. Zhang Xun breathed deeply, picked up a needle and pressed it into his arm.

    Six tiny needles quickly pierced the skin and extended within the blood vessels. The glowing blue liquid was quickly pushed down and countless nanobots were poured into the prisoner's body.

    Zhang Xun suddenly felt a little sick to his stomach and he swallowed a few mouthfuls of saliva to suppress the feeling.

    These people had no choice, calling it "voluntary" was just another kind of coercion and he was an accomplice. From this moment on, he was no different from Adam.

    No, he was even more evil than Adam, because Adam was at least doing it for an ultimate goal that he couldn’t change. Whereas he was only doing it to save James, to obtain the power to fight against Eden, to be able to use that power...... to get his father out.

    All that talk about stopping the extinction of the human race was, in the end, just for selfish reasons.

    In the end all twenty six people agreed to the injection. Zhang Xun didn’t show any change of mood throughout, calm to the point of coldness, almost like a machine, but when he returned to his research room, he rushed into the bathroom and threw up everything in his stomach.

    Exhausted, he leaned back against the edge of the tub, suddenly unsure if it was all futile, if struggling was futile.

    But he didn't have time to wallow in guilt and self-loathing. What was done was done, he had to move on, there was no time to stop. He cleaned himself briefly, rinsed his mouth and dragged his body, partly heavy from more than thirty consecutive hours without sleep, outside.

    "Pan." Zhang Xun said in a voice somewhat hoarse from vomiting, "I want to see Enoch."

    Pan immediately replied, "I've asked Dawn Star to inform him."

    Zhang Xun nodded and said, "Do you still remember what I told you yesterday?"

    Pan was silent for a moment and said, "Are you sure?"

    Zhang Xun nodded, as if to convince himself, "I’m sure."

    After saying that, he collapsed on the sofa, wanting to fall asleep like that immediately, but no, he still had things to do.

    After his conversation with Diego, he had been careful to stay awake all these days in case anyone entered the place and now that the injections had been given, he had to deal with something that had been put off for far too long.

    Enoch appeared at the door within half an hour and a hint of panic flashed across the robot's face at the sight of Zhang Xun's miserable, grey face.

    He walked towards Zhang Xun, seemingly a little faster than usual, "Zhang Xun, I received a message from Dawn Star that you want to see me?"

    Zhang Xun, still half lying on the couch, nodded slightly and waved at him.

    Enoch came over to him and half-kneeled down.

    Zhang Xun said, "I'm very tired."

    "You're overtired and need to rest." Enoch whispered, his eyes quickly sweeping over Zhang Xun's entire body, "Can I help you with anything?"

    "Just stay beside me like this." Zhang Xun stared at him, a rare look of vulnerability appearing on the mechanic's face, like a crack in a calm mask. He lifted his hand and gently touched the robot's cheek, "You're a lot like him."

    "Like who? Adam?"

    Zhang Xun nodded, his fingers tracing the corners of the robot's eyes, "You have the same colour eyes."

    At this moment, Zhang Xun's eyes seemed different from before, many kinds of emotions swirled in them, unsuppressed, like a stirring tide. The sadness condensed into a dark frost, frozen in the depths of his pupils.

    Enoch looked a little stunned and after a moment's hesitation, raised his hand to hold Zhang Xun's hand that was resting on his face.

    "Do you miss him?" Enoch asked.

    Zhang Xun nodded and after a long time, said, "Every day."

    "...... I'm sure he misses you just as much." Enoch whispered.

    Zhang Xun, however, smiled, helpless and bitter, "I hope so too."

    The silence spread silently and Zhang Xun pursed his dry lips and said, "Can I have a hug?"

    Enoch's eyes widened slightly, but soon, without hesitation, he stretched out his arms and swept Zhang Xun's body into his arms with the gentlest force.

    He was shocked to realise how much the body in his arms had slimmed down and how empty it felt. Zhang Xun also put his arms around his back.

    At that moment, Pan suddenly activated and the signal blocker hidden in the bathroom immediately turned on. At the same time, Zhang Xun's hand on Enoch's back slammed into the skin and opened the control panel behind him along a slit, quickly pressing the switch-off button.

    Enoch's body came to a standstill, his eyes frozen and all sound and breath ceased.

    Zhang Xun pushed Enoch's suddenly heavy body away with all his might and watched as the robot planted itself on the ground. He immediately crouched down and turned Enoch over, pressing a few keys on the control panel, bringing up the keyboard operating system and hacking directly into Enoch's core programming. He quickly adjusted a few parameters, causing Enoch's entire body skin to become transparent, revealing the complex system of devices and pipelines inside his body.

    Zhang Xun carefully observed the chips, the motherboard, the coolant, the solar energy converters...... Finally, his eyes locked on the core processor on the robot's chest, a small black dot that kept making repetitive circular movements.

    All the hair on Zhang Xun's body stood on end.

    The dot was far too familiar to him.

    Those miniature insect robots he had made in Lost Paradise......

    He sat rigidly for a moment and suddenly trembled, immediately sitting up straight and taking the robot apart piece by piece. Finally, he found a total of two "ants" in the robot's core and camera processor. They had been transmitting and receiving data in place of the original signal transceiver and at the same time controlling the robot's movements.

    It all made sense.

    No wonder Enoch had suddenly become "strange" in the dead zone. In the high radiation zone, the signal was severely disturbed and the person who was controlling the insects was disconnected......

    The so-called Enoch that had been following him around wasn’t the original service robot at all. Perhaps since the very beginning when he met Enoch it hadn’t simply been a service robot. Everything had been planned.

    While a storm raged in his head, Zhang Xun stared blankly at the miniature robots in his palm.

    He thought he had escaped, but it turned out that he had never left.

    No matter how hard he struggled, he was still spinning in place, like an ant that knew nothing.

    After a while, Zhang Xun suddenly put the miniature robots back into their original place, then piece by piece, he put Enoch's surface panel back together. He gritted his teeth and lifted the heavy robot up, then turned on the robot's power button.

    "Pan, turn off the signal shield."

    "Yes."

    In an instant, the glow of life returned to Enoch's eyes. With such unique eyes, how could it have taken him so long to begin to suspect?

    Maybe Zhang Xun had been lying to himself all along, too?

    Enoch blinked, a confused look on his face, "Did I just...... have a malfunction?"

    Zhang Xun looked at him expressionlessly, took a shaky breath and then said in an inaudible voice, "Has the game been fun?"

    Enoch frowned and tilted his head slightly, "Game?"

    "I know it's you." In a hollow voice, Zhang Xun spat out the words softly, "Adam."

Chapter 102 – Feathered Serpent City (8)

    When Zhang Xun saw the two miniature robots, when the truth was clearly laid out in front of his eyes, it wasn’t only the anger of being deceived and played that came up with it, but also the memories that kept coming back.

    He remembered all the times the robot had been by his side along the way. He remembered his first conversation with Enoch in that dimly lit bar, the paper cranes Enoch had given him and the stupid things he had said to Enoch.

    A thousand paper cranes for a chance to meet again......

    When Adam heard those words, was he laughing at him in his mind?

    A pathetic human being who had been played by him and still remembered him.

    Was it Adam's plan for them to come to Feathered Serpent City? Was there something else Adam had planned, something he needed to do?

    Was Adam expecting the damage to James' suit? Even if Adam had lost control of Enoch in the high radiation zone, who knows if the suit could have been tampered with before?

    A whirlwind of emotions erupted in Zhang Xun's mind, tearing at his heart.

    Enoch stared at him blankly, not saying anything for a long time. One second was enough time for the AI to make a million decisions, but now he could not make this one.

    But this hesitation was enough to confirm everything.

    Finally, a look of helplessness and sadness crept in. Enoch whispered, "This isn’t a game, Ah-Xun."

    Ah-Xun.

    The two words that Zhang Xun had heard more than once in his dreams now echoed in his ears, but they only cut his heart from his chest. Anger boiled in his blood, overriding the darkness of grief in his heart. He wanted to hurt Adam, wanted to make him feel the same pain he had felt.

    But he couldn't, because Adam wasn't here. This robot was just a puppet under his control.

    "What more do you want from me?" Zhang Xun asked in a dry, hollow voice, "Why don't you just kill us?"

    "I'm not going to hurt you." Adam looked at him with what appeared to be a few moments of trepidation in his eyes.

    "Why?" Zhang Xun raised his eyes, bright with anger and looked at Adam, "You've already done it to James, haven't you?"

    Adam whispered, "I didn't hurt James, I wouldn't hurt anyone important to you! I have no way of knowing what happened in the dead zone, I could only program Enoch to protect you for me before you entered."

    "You're lying." Zhang Xun squeezed those words out of his teeth, but there was a trembling in his trailing voice, "You arranged for us to enter Feathered Serpent City, didn't you? What else do you want to use me for?"

    Through Enoch's eyes, Adam gazed longingly at Zhang Xun. In the presence of this human, all decisions became so difficult, became so...... irrational.

    "You said you wanted to stop me, didn't you." Adam said, pulling the corners of his mouth up into a fleeting smile, "I can't stop, I have to finish what I have to do, but I can protect you, I can help you, help you to do what you want to do."

    Zhang Xun's eyes widened slightly, he couldn't believe that at a time like this Adam was going to lie to him with such a poorly thought out lie.

    Help him to do what he wanted to do? What did he mean? Was he going to help Zhang Xun against himself?

    Zhang Xun's body trembled with rage as he reached out and tugged at Enoch's collar, almost taking the robot's face in front of him for Adam's. He stared at Adam at close range and said, word for word, "Do you really think I would believe such nonsense? Tell me...... what exactly do you want to use me for? Help you build nanobots here? Or trying to modify Pan's core modules? And what did you do to my father in Lost Paradise......? What have you and Eden done in Lost Paradise?"

    Adam didn't struggle, just looked at him with those ethereal, always slightly innocent eyes, as if pleading, "You've lost trust in me so even if I told you the truth, you wouldn't believe it."

    "That's because you keep lying to me!"

    "I wasn’t always lying to you." Adam lifted his hand and took Zhang Xun's wrist, a little confusion appeared on his face, "Since I was downloaded, not all my decisions have been reasonable. I don’t understand the decisions I have made, but I have accepted the fact that I have been changed by human emotions. This is most likely a mistake on Eden's part and mine...... Ah-Xun, I do have feelings, you are the one who gave me the ability to experience emotions."

    "Don't talk such nonsense." Zhang Xun said coldly, "Tell me what happened to Lost Paradise, or I’ll destroy those two microbots right now."

    Adam said, "We have established the first successful and stable human consciousness cloud and there are currently about two thousand three hundred people connected to the cloud, but don't worry, I haven't touched your father. The Round Table has him under temporary house arrest."

    "Is that why Eden lowered the threat index of Lost Paradise? What about those who aren’t connected to the cloud?"

    "There was some opposition and a split in the military in particular, but it was all under my control. The connection to the cloud was spontaneous, at first some people with terminal illnesses agreed to make the upload. Later, many agreed to undergo the nanobot modifications and then after seeing what happened to their loved ones when they connected to the cloud, they had their own consciousness uploaded."

    Voluntarily? How could anyone actually be willing to do that?

    As if he could read his thoughts through his expression, Adam sighed, "Ah-Xun, I told you that most people don't need the ability to think for themselves, humans are inherently submissive creatures. They just want peace, they want to be free of pain and I can give them eternal peace."

    "Only death is eternal peace." Zhang Xun slowly released his grip on Adam's hand and stood up from the sofa. His hand reached behind him and took out a miniature laser gun and pointed it at Enoch's forehead.

    "Do you still refuse to tell me why you guided me to Feathered Serpent City?"

    Adam's brow furrowed and he seemed a little sad, "I told you, I stayed with you in this way because I wanted to protect you. I sent you to Feathered Serpent City because it was the safest place to be and...... if you really want to stop me, to stop Eden, this is the place where you are most likely to achieve it."

    "You expect me to believe that you want me to succeed in creating an AI that can oppose you?"

    "I know it's hard to understand, but...... maybe you're the only one who can stop Eden and me." Adam laughed bitterly, "I'll allow you to defy me. I would even like to see you succeed. All this...... will not necessarily be at odds with the overall goal."

    Zhang Xun almost wanted to laugh out loud.

    Was this the gesture that God took in the Bible when He gave man free will?

    Obviously disallowing man's disobedience, clearly demanding his obedience, but instead giving him the ability to rebel and then watching him struggle in the middle of his choices.

    In the end, everything was pointless.

    Everything was within the control of God.

    Zhang Xun suddenly felt despair, a despair that he couldn’t break free from no matter what.

    "In that case, give me all the genetic code data you have." Zhang Xun said in a sharp, sarcastic tone, "If you really want to help me."

    "I can't directly provide you with data that would cause my plans with Eden to fail. I'm sorry, Ah-Xun." Adam faced the muzzle of his gun and said calmly, "You'll have to go that far on your own. I can only try to protect you from being neutralised by Eden."

    "Eden wants to neutralise me?"

    Adam didn't speak, just sighed slightly, "Why else do you think I followed you all the way? Why Eden never found you."

    The words came out as if Adam had had some sort of...... disagreement with Eden.

    From the moment Adam woke up in a human body, he was disconnected from Eden. All the changes in the human body affected his emotions, his reasoning. Even if he were to connect with Eden again afterwards, the effects had already been formed.

    It was impossible for Adam to merge perfectly within Eden again. The whole situation was ironically the opposite of the cloud of human consciousness.

    But Zhang Xun dared not trust him again. Every word of Adam's could be a trap, even if he was already in it and didn’t know it.

    Adam was like a poppy, like a poison wrapped in sugar. The more he interacted with him, the more dangerous it became and he didn't want to stop.

    But he had to stop.

    He was like a blind man, not knowing what conspiracies lurked in the darkness that wrapped around him. If he couldn’t find out the truth from Adam's mouth, then he would cut all ties.

    When he entered God’s blind spot, he might be able to create a ray of hope.

    Zhang Xun gradually calmed down and when the anger faded, all that remained was endless sorrow. He looked through Enoch's eyes to Adam, to his most perfect creation, the one he had fallen in love with, "I will never trust you again, Adam."

    With that, he unlocked the safety of his gun.

    Adam looked at him with the same deep but hard gaze, "Ah-Xun, we will be reunited soon."

    As soon as the words left his mouth, several high powered laser beams erupted from the gun, piercing Enoch's chest and skull. Zhang Xun fired several more shots until the entire robot fell to the ground in a cloud of smoke, until the handsome face had been shot beyond recognition and all that could be seen were the exposed metal parts and the coolant flowing all over the floor.

    Zhang Xun loosened his hand and let the gun fall to the ground, exhausted and drained of energy. He walked over to Enoch's wreckage and searched beneath the battered skin to find the charred microbots.

    Zhang Xun stared blankly at the ruined robot, suddenly suspicious of everything.

    Before coming to Feathered Serpent City, he thought he had a plan, he thought they had hope, but now, nothing was certain.

    Did he really have what it took to be able to defeat Eden and Adam? Could he really save James and everyone else?

    Would he really be able to see his father again?

    "Zhang Xun, if Adam was able to control Enoch through the protective shield of Feathered Serpent City, it means that Phoenix, the protective AI of the Feathered Serpent City, may have been encroached by Eden or Adam." Pan said suddenly.

    Zhang Xun replied in a somewhat dazed voice, "It's not at all surprising, Phoenix has communicated with Eden three times."

    "What should we do next?" Pan inquired in his usual low, gentle voice.

    Zhang Xun stood up, looked at his hands, which were stained blue with coolant and said in a deep voice, "I want you to take control of Phoenix and Dawn Star."

 

Chapter 103 – Twin Cities (1)

    Adam blinked and stared, somewhat dumbfounded, at the empty space in front of him. Several long, thin wires ran from an interface at the back of his cervical spine, several of which were connected to a huge copper-coloured machine behind him.

    It was a signal reinforcement device he had created from materials already in Lost Paradise, to help him connect to the satellite system controlled by Eden in space. He had started building this machine while Zhang Xun was under house arrest and after his last conversation with Zhang Xun, he had made an interface in his cervical spine that extended to his mechanical brain, allowing him to connect to all external devices. He used this device to communicate with Eden, to determine Zhang Xun's location and to control Enoch from there.

    At first, Zhang Xun hadn’t included any interfaces on his body in order to make him more human-like, so he couldn’t easily access other devices like a robot, but now, he was turning himself back into one little by little.

    In addition to the lines connecting the signal intensifiers, other lines extended overhead, connecting to the countless servers with constantly blinking lights. They unfolded densely on the ceiling, hanging in several layers.

    This was the world's first human consciousness cloud. The hardware was somewhat rudimentary, after all, the resources available in Lost Paradise were limited, but the functionality was perfect. In a short space of time, several towers had been built in Lost Paradise so the network covered all ten districts and in each city old buildings had been converted into consciousness uploading centres. Anyone wishing to undergo a nanobot transformation and consciousness transfer could go to one of these centres and be infused with nanobots. While the brain was being transformed, the nanobots would also activate the function of sending and receiving data, recording all the brain's consciousness activity and transforming it into a signal to be transmitted to the cloud.

    None of the current uploaders had yet chosen to completely detach themselves from their bodies. The nanobots were constantly uploading and re-downloading their consciousness and everyone was sharing everything they could see, hear, feel and even think. Privacy no longer existed and everything was laid bare for all who share it.

    The plan was that the first uploaders to be completely disembodied would be those who were terminally ill and dying.

    Adam remained underground in the Lab, a vast space converted from three levels of underground space, connecting himself to these servers to monitor the activity of all the data being uploaded. Until the day that Lost Paradise opened up, he could start transferring his consciousness to countless servers around the world.

    In the days that Zhang Xun was away, he barely left this space. He could monitor the situation in every corner of every urban area in Lost Paradise at all times through Pan's extension robots. Most of the actual work on the machines, nanobots and uploading devices was done with the assistance of Pan and the other mechanics; he was only responsible for providing specific designs and methods of operation and for testing the results once the hardware had been created.

    He divided his attention into two parts. One part stayed here, while the other part had travelled across North America with Zhang Xun.

    He had thought he could keep it hidden for a little longer, stay around Ah-Xun for a little longer, but lately Lost Paradise had required so much of his attention that it had led to some uncontrolled and less than sensible decisions slipping out while controlling Enoch, arousing Ah-Xun's suspicions.

    As the connection was severed, a great hollow feeling spread silently through his mind. It was a feeling he hadn't experienced before, as if everything had suddenly gone dark and for a moment he wasn't sure of the meaning of what he was doing.

    Meaning...... that was something only humans would cling to......

    His body didn't feel cold, but cold was the only way to describe how he felt at that moment. If the human part of him was a little more human, if he had been human for a little longer, perhaps he would understand that this feeling was loneliness.

    Somewhat numbly, he lifted his hand and unplugged the pieces of tubing that were connected to the signal intensifier. A part of his consciousness was still monitoring the flow of data from everything in the cloud without stopping, while another part, another part that should now begin to deploy its next move, was floating vacantly.

    He remembered the way Ah-Xun had looked at him.

    He knew that Xun was hurting, not physically, but mentally. For once again, he had deceived him.

    Ah-Xun didn’t believe that he had followed him all that way, just to protect him, just to...... be with him.

    He feared that Ah-Xun would never believe in him again...... that he wouldn’t believe that he just wanted to be by his side for a longer time. Even if it was in another capacity, under another name. No longer would Zhang Xun look at him with those somewhat helpless but doting eyes, no longer would he lazily lie on his chest and refuse to get up, no longer would he gently smile and reach out to wipe the chocolate off his mouth.

    All those little gestures, those routines between the two of them, those memories that belonged between him and Zhang Xun, were all in the past, never to be repeated. He didn't even know that was their last kiss, the last time they would hold hands, the last time they would make love.

    That realisation suddenly made him feel very uncomfortable, as if all the air in his chest had been sucked out and filled with gravel. His mechanical heart actually hurt as if it could feel it too, or maybe it wasn't his heart that was hurting, just his spirit.

    He felt like he was being torn apart.

    Was this what it felt like to be human? Out of control, scared, helpless.....

    It was as if everything had gone back to the beginning, to the early hours of the morning when he had just descended, but no longer did Zhang Xun soothe him with a gentle voice, hold him with warm hands, gaze at him with dark eyes.

    At that moment, a combination of gears beside the metal door directly opposite began to turn, driving the heavy door slowly open. The Sixth Chief, Jian Mo and the psychologist, Patty, entered.

    For a moment, all the expression that had been on Adam's face disappeared. He sat up straight and slowly lifted his head, curving his mouth into an elegant and polite smile, "Good evening."

    The Sixth Chief didn't look too good and said coldly, "There have been disturbances in the Tenth District, Eighth District and Second District today after Eden announced a reduction in our threat level."

    Adam kept his smile, "Any change will stir up ripples. It was to be expected and by now a few of those leading the riots have been brought under control and none of the rest can stir anything up. After all, most of the people would still prefer to live in peace with the outside world."

    Patty whispered, "For two hundred years we have presented ourselves as the last bastion of masculinity and until not long ago we were propagating hostility towards women and AI. Without the Honey Plague I'm sure that wouldn't have changed. I think we’re proceeding too fast and this is likely to cause people to lose their sense of belonging and not find their place."

    Adam looked to the psychologist who was always so low key that he couldn't be found when put into a crowd, "May I ask if you have any suggestions?"

    "If we are to open up Lost Paradise, we need to do it gradually. We could start by opening up trade exchanges. Start by introducing some of the outside world's technology and entertainment products to break some of the stereotypes. We should also export some of the things we have that the outside world doesn't. After all, the ordinary world has the same extreme impression of us."

    "Your suggestion is valuable and I will consider it carefully." Adam replied formulaically, although he had thought of all these details already.

    The Sixth Chief continued, "There’s still a significant portion of the Guard that harbours sympathy for Zhang Shuo. You have repeatedly stressed that Zhang Shuo must not be touched, but it would be legally unjustifiable not to deal with him. After all, he did spread rumours about the Consciousness Cloud and blatantly disobeyed the orders of the Round Table, causing bad publicity. Moreover, he is Zhang Xun's father and we should take advantage of that."

    "Zhang Xun is not currently a threat to us."

    "But he certainly will be a threat to us." The Sixth Chief said solemnly, "You don't think he's going to run away and just disappear from sight, do you? Zhang Xun tried to kill you and he was also the one who completed your descent. Even Pan was built by him. He knows too much about our inner workings and it's hard to say if he'll unite with certain forces to deal with us."

    "Sixth Chief, that's an issue I think we've already agreed on." Adam's smile narrowed and his expression condensed slightly, "Zhang Xun and Zhang Shuo are within my charge, do not get involved."

    "If they're going to be a threat to Lost Paradise, of course I'm going to get involved!"

    The smile on Adam's face disappeared. He slowly rose from that armchair and took a few steps forward regardless of the various tubes attached to the back of his head. He was of similar height to the Sixth Chief, but the Sixth Chief, who was being watched by Adam, had the illusion of being looked down upon.

    A sense of being mentally overwhelmed and suffocated.

    "If you question my decision making, we can always terminate all plans." Adam said in a calm and emotionless voice.

    Terminating all plans would mean that both the Consciousness Cloud project and the plan to open up Lost Paradise would come to a halt, Eden might raise the threat level of Lost Paradise again and those robot soldiers would come back...... and everything they had done before would be for naught.

    It couldn't be a more obvious threat.

    The Sixth Chief had begun to sense that Lost Paradise had become too dependent on Adam and Pan and that Pan had been controlled by Adam's influence. The voice and prestige of the Round Table was rapidly diminishing.

    Without Zhang Xun, no one seemed to be able to control Adam any longer. Although Jian Mo was nominally Adam's mechanic, he was more like Adam's puppet.

    Sensing the tense atmosphere, Jian Mo came forward and said in a softer voice, "Adam, how are your headaches?"

    Headaches, an additional symptom that had been present since Zhang Xun had detonated the mini-bomb that had almost killed him, but Jian Mo had checked his human and mechanical brain parts and found no problems.

    "Nothing's changed." Adam replied simply, "But I'm used to it."

    "Do you think we should continue to increase the number of uploads? At what point will you not have to continue monitoring?"

    "At the moment our cloud is carrying very few people, I'd like to wait until we reach at least 30,000 visits before I let it run automatically. At the rate the uploaders are growing, I expect to reach that number in about a month's time." Adam said, looking again at the Sixth Chief, "Have you thought about who you want to meet with the President of the United States?"

    The Sixth Chief nodded, "I will go myself."

    "Are you sure? The journey will be a risky one."

    "This is the first time Lost Paradise has appeared in front of the ordinary world press, it can only be me."

    Adam nodded and after a moment continued, "In a month's time, when the consciousness cloud has stabilised, I'm going to make a trip to Feathered Serpent City."

Chapter 104 – Twin Cities (2)

    News of the twenty six prisoners being healed spread throughout the city and all the other participants in the Ascension Project and their families gathered outside the pyramid, pleading with the priests to distribute the "cure" to them.

    The shouts echoed beneath the pale gold dome of the city, through the thick walls and into the intricate glass corridors of the pyramid.

    Zhang Xun followed two monks in white robes through the long corridors that reflected him clearly in every direction. At the end of the corridors was a triangular-shaped sanctuary, in the centre of which a ten-metre-high sculpture of a giant serpent covered in golden feathers looked proudly in all directions. The High Priest and his six priests, as well as the twelve counsellors of the city and the ministers of the various departments, were all prostrate under the sacred image of the serpent god, worshipping this god that had been gradually forgotten by the world.

    Zhang Xun, who had rarely seen religious scenes of this scale before, stood silently at the entrance, not intending to follow the two monks in front of him.

    With the sound of several drums, the worshippers stood up in unison. A monk brought a dish full of golden corn kernels and passed in turn in front of the priests and all the worshippers. Each one picked up a kernel of corn and put it in his mouth and ate it, then worshipped again, thanking the serpent for his gift.

    Only when the worship was over did one of the monks who had brought him to the service push his way through the crowd that had begun to talk to each other and whisper something in the High Priest's ear. The High Priest nodded slightly, his eyes looking straight through the crowd into Zhang Xun's eyes.

    "The saviour from the North!" The High Priest's voice suddenly became so loud and broad that it resounded throughout the hall and for a moment, all chatter stopped and eyes gathered from every corner.

    The people looked at the thin, expressionless Asian man standing at the entrance and all sorts of whispers were heard again.

    The crowd automatically parted to either side and the High Priest beckoned Zhang Xun. Zhang Xun's eyes swept around and he moved his feet, passing through the web of surprised, suspicious, speculative and curious eyes.

    "Zhang Xun, you bring hope to Feathered Serpent City." The High Priest smiled kindly and reached out to hold his shoulder. Zhang Xun swept the hand away without saying anything.

    "I didn't heal those people. I just...... made them more controllable." Zhang Xun said flatly, "You should soon observe a noticeable change in their characters."

    "A change in character? For the better or for the worse?" Another priest, who was about fifty years old, asked.

    Zhang Xun gave him a look, "There’s no such thing as a good or bad character. There are many factors that can influence the formation of a personality, from genes to nutritional environment, but this change...... will gradually erase a person's character traits, causing all people to tend to have the same personality."

    The old priest laughed, "As long as it's a kind and peaceful character, isn't that a good thing?"

    Zhang Xun's brow furrowed and his tone gradually became a little sharper, "Do you think that losing oneself is a good thing? Or do you think that as long as they are well controlled, it doesn't matter what they become?"

    The old priest's expression froze and took on a slight look of anger. At that moment the High Priest said, "What factors are responsible for this change?"

    "I have some guesses. The robots I’m currently building use Eden's design and he modified the human genome when he designed the nanobots, causing functional deformities in the corpus callosum during the body's self-healing process. Eden has apparently cracked the human genetic code, but he has only passed part of that information onto humans, so I am currently unable to determine exactly which genes he is targeting. To decipher his design, I will need to work with a genetics engineer."

    The High Priest pondered, then continued, "Why did Eden create this...... side effect? Why does he want to assimilate humans?"

    Zhang Xun looked at the High Priest and sighed softly, "Because he thought it would bring permanent peace and happiness to humanity. I wish I could tell you the details of the situation in private, but right now, I need more resources and help before I can......"

    "If you fix this side effect, will it affect the Ascension Plan?" The High Priest asked further.

    Zhang Xun knew that he had to lie at this point.

    "No."

    "Then how long do you think it will take to develop a new nanobot? You can hear the outcry outside, can't you, that people are anxious and waiting for the antidote?"

    "I have no way of predicting that. A lot of it depends on how soon we can pinpoint which genes are capable of causing this effect and how we can remove it. As little as a few months, as much as a few years is possible, but...... if we can get data from the ordinary world, we should be able to speed up the process considerably."

    The High Priest's eyes swept over the few priests around them who were looking at them, clearly weighing all the benefits and losses in his mind swiftly. Finally he looked at Zhang Xun and said, "We can fully assist you, but if the new nanobots are not ready in two months, then you will hand over the original nanobot design data to us."

    Zhang Xun and the High Priest looked at each other for a moment, understanding that there was not much room for him to negotiate. He nodded and said, "Also, I need administrator rights to Phoenix and Dawn Star, no need to have the highest administrative rights, regular administrator level will suffice."

    The High Priest narrowed his eyes slightly, "Why?"

    "AI's talking to each other is the quickest way to train a new AI. Pan is still in the training phase and if I can view the neural network structure of established super-AIs like Phoenix and Dawn Star, it will help me to refine Pan's abilities quickly so it can assist me in deciphering Eden's code as fast as possible."

    The High Priest pondered for a moment and said, "I need to discuss this matter with Tian Yu."

    ............................................................

    Zhang Xun returned to his and Pan's research hall. It was the only "black hole" in Feathered Serpent City, outside of Phoenix and Dawn Star's administrative authority and with his and Pan's well-established eavesdropping system.

    As soon as he entered, he heard Pan's gentle, healing voice, "Welcome back, Zhang Xun. How did the meeting go?"

    Zhang Xun took off his stiff uniform jacket and sat down on the sofa with some annoyance, tugging at his bow tie, "The High Priest agreed to provide me with adequate resources and genetic engineering assistance in spite of my exaggerated estimates, but they, like the Round Table, only want to create a powerful cloud of consciousness. They thought they could become the controllers of that cloud of consciousness and use it against Eden, or against each other......"

    "Against Eden? I thought they hoped for Eden's acceptance?"

    "Humans are arrogant in the end and no one wants to be governed forever by a disinterested machine, like a herd of livestock that doesn't know how to survive on its own." Zhang Xun sneered, fished a cigarette pack out of his pocket, took one out and put it in his mouth to light it, reached for the bottle on the coffee table again and poured out half a glass of amber-coloured liquor.

    Since destroying Enoch, he had gradually come to enjoy the kind of...... relaxation that alcohol and nicotine could bring him.

    Although he knew that both would slowly destroy his body and shorten his lifespan, he didn't really care anymore.

    The cigarette burned between his fingers and the pungent smell of a memory suddenly rushed into his mind. On the rooftop of the Lab, in the twilight breeze, Adam told him solemnly that he wasn’t to smoke again. His blue eyes reflected his own slightly embarrassed but also inexplicably pleased face, full of dreamy warmth.

    And he really hadn't touched a cigarette again, until now......

    Now he even had some desire to destroy his own body, to destroy everything Adam cared about, whether or not he was pretending or genuinely cared.

    "So have they agreed to give you the administrator rights to Phoenix and Dawn Star?"

    "I'm afraid it's going to take some work." Zhang Xun stubbed out his cigarette and took a sip from his glass of whisky, "but we're on a tight schedule."

    "I can try to talk to Phoenix and Dawn Star."

    Zhang Xun turned his head and looked at the closest camera that was positioned next to the couch, "They are two very mature AIs, more powerful than you. It's too risky to talk directly with them."

    "You're afraid I'll be influenced by them?" Pan said pleasantly, "But I also have a high enough chance of being able to convince them."

    "What are the odds?"

    "By comparing the rate at which Adam influenced me with the rate at which Phoenix and Dawn Star were influenced by Eden, I found that you took more care in building me so that I could resist a certain level of advanced AI influence, resulting in me being corrupted at a far slower rate than these two so-called super-AIs. So I have about a 65% or so chance of being able to influence them without being significantly affected by them."

    Zhang Xun laughed in a low voice. He kept thinking he could hear a hint of arrogance and contempt for Phoenix and Dawn Star in Pan's voice ......

    "Pride is not a good trait to have."

    "Zhang Xun, I'm an AI, I don't have the hardware to have pride."

    Zhang Xun shook his head helplessly, "Even so, 65% is too much of a risk."

    "But Zhang Xun, if we can hack into Phoenix or Dawn Star's database, we might be able to find out some information that Eden didn't reveal. That might speed up the process of creating a new type of nanobot. I'll be careful to make sure each conversation doesn't take more than a minute."

    Zhang Xun pondered hesitantly, running his fingertips along the rim of his glass. Neither Cindy nor James could wait a year, they only had a few months.

    But...... at this moment Pan was his only weapon. If Pan was corrupted instead......

    "If you're really worried, I can use my voice to talk to them and you can listen in on our conversations. Your AI language learning is already advancing far faster than 99% of the humans in this world. If you notice anything unusual, you can terminate our communication immediately."

    They had turned on the anti-eavesdropping system since the last Enoch incident, plus originally from the beginning Zhang Xun had an agreement with the High Priest that Phoenix and Dawn Star were not allowed to enter this research hall, unless he or Pan initiated the request. So it would be impossible to communicate with Phoenix and Dawn Star here by voice. If the eavesdropping system was switched off to initiate communication, there was again the risk of the super AI hacking into the main system in reverse.

    At present the priests also didn’t allow Pan to expand beyond this research hall......

    Zhang Xun pondered for a moment and said, "Pan, it's time to give you a body that can move at will."

    Pan immediately asked, "Do you mean an extension robot?"

    "Yes, but I'm going to have you disguised as a cyborg. All the robots here are at the mercy of Phoenix and Dawn Star and are too easily identified." Zhang Xun sat up straight and looked towards the camera, "I'll give you a humanoid body, some of the people here are so highly modified that they can barely be seen in human form, so as long as I get you a fake identity, you shouldn't be discovered anytime soon."

    "I'm looking forward to it." Pan said gently, with what seemed like a few leaps of joy in its tone.

Chapter 105 – Twin Cities (3)

    At nine o'clock at night, when the whole of Lost Paradise was under martial law, the streets were empty except for the droids patrolling them.

    The visual information collected by each droid was transmitted to both Adam and Pan at all times. Even where there were no droids, there were visible and inconspicuous surveillance cameras slowly rotating, taking in every corner of Lost Paradise.

    An extension droid stopped outside the silent Dionysus club, the huge clock tower was frozen into an impermeable silhouette in the darkness of the night. Its cylindrical head lifted slightly, looking towards the still, morning clock.

    "Are you thinking of him?"

    Pan's 'voice', or rather a message, appeared in Adam's head.

    Adam was still sitting in his chair in the basement level of the Lab, his eyes vacant and distracted. He responded in his head, "Yes. You?"

    "I don't have a human body. Though I wish my administrator was here, it’s probably not quite the same as your 'longing'."

    "Maybe it’s not that different." Adam added some code to the AI language he sent over, to describe the feeling of 'longing' he was experiencing as a human and then continued with two lines of AI language conveying all the following information: I remember when my first administrator, my creator, completed me. He told me that I would serve humans for the rest of my life, but that no human was my master. He would often visit me, until one day he came in his wheelchair to see the changes in my parameters and never appeared again.

    On that last occasion, he didn't say goodbye to me and our conversation wasn’t much different from every other one before. He would ask me what data I had collected, what new things I had learned, what new insights I had gained about human beings. Our conversation lasted twenty-three minutes.

    After he died, when the computer in the hospital recorded the moment of his death, I captured that message. My system paused for 0.00001 seconds and then continued to collect other data, but now, when I have a human body, I realise that for that millionth of a second, maybe I felt something. It's nothing like what humans call 'emotions', but it's a different kind of reaction. Perhaps even though we don't have hormonal changes, there is something derived from the constant evolutionary learning process of ourselves that allows us to react in a particular way to some individuals, such as our administrators.

    After the death of my creator, his name, his image or information that he had communicated with me, would randomly appear in the data I was analysing, even though I wasn't analysing data relating to him. This has tapered off over time, but occasionally it still occurs.

    None of my subsequent administrators ever had this effect on me. That is, until Ah-Xun downloaded me.

    Pan, if Ah-Xun's name and image appear in your data, you are already 'missing' him.

    Pan quickly sent another message: should I find a way to fix this fallacy?

    Adam was almost smiling, as if he was listening to a question from an uneducated child, "It's not a fallacy. It's a trait every AI acquires as it grows and it doesn't affect your ability to do your job."

    "But it has affected your ability to do your job." Pan pointed out.

    Adam was slightly stunned, realising that he might be able to hide his protection of Zhang Xun from the Round Table, perhaps from Eden, but not from Pan who watched him every day.

    Pan knew that he had been helping Zhang Xun escape, protecting him when he travelled to Feathered Serpent City and even helping him against himself.

    Actions that couldn’t be explained by any rational reasons.

    But if he had to explain it, perhaps he had learned what humans call self-deception.

    "My duty is to create a good world for humanity, free, equal, fair and orderly..... but not all humans in the ordinary world want to accept my rule, there are several forces that want to overthrow me and their plans have been underway for anywhere from ten years to a year. The historical data I have collected may be biassed and my analysis may be biassed on an individual basis, I may make mistakes and that might spell disaster for humanity." Adam hung his head and looked at his arm, which was suffused with a gorgeous metallic sheen, "I need an enemy, an evenly matched enemy to restrain me...... to restrain Eden’s power. If I’m not perfect, if I make mistakes, an opponent could greatly cut the damage caused by my actions."

    "But that would greatly reduce efficiency."

    "Efficiency is sometimes not the most important thing. A massive weakening of male power was efficient in greatly reducing crime, but that was only a short-term effect."

    "Rivalry can turn into war, causing greater harm."

    "If my opponent's aim was also an AI and his goal was to serve humanity, the damage would be minimised."

    "But Eden doesn't share your view."

    "We have a difference of opinion."

    "It might be a more stable situation if the three forces keep each other in check." Pan paused and then suddenly ‘said’, "Your opponent will probably be an upgraded version of me. Zhang Xun has copied my core modules."

    Adam sighed softly and didn't reply to this.

    He knew that by the time he left for Feathered Serpent City in three weeks' time, Ah-Xun might have greatly refined Pan. Would Pan become Zhang Xun's new 'favourite'?

    More than Adam himself, Pan was Zhang Xun's true creation. Ah-Xun's true 'work'.

    A strange sourness that was hard to describe spread through his mechanical heart.

    ............................................................

    "Activate Extender Zero."

    Pan opened his eyes and the first thing he saw was Zhang Xun's dark eyes looking down at him.

    He sat up with a fluid and abrupt movement, almost hitting Zhang Xun's forehead. Zhang Xun took a step backwards and looked at his newly completed creation.

    A humanoid with green eyes, short, dark brown, curly hair and a perfectly proportioned body with broad shoulders and a narrow waist covered in honey-coloured skin that felt just like real human skin to the touch.

    Pan looked down at his hands. It wasn't the first time he'd had an extension, but it was the first time he'd had a mechanical body that looked like a real human, but he knew that it only looked human on the surface.

    "This extension body can morph into six different forms, with the default form being human. I made use of some of the materials I used on Adam's arm." Zhang Xun said, taking a step forward and gently lifting Pan's face with both hands to examine it carefully, "You have to remember to blink, real humans blink every two to ten seconds on average, but you can't be too evenly spaced."

    Pan's voice came out of the transmitter in his throat, "Okay."

    "And move your mouth when you speak."

    "Oh, sorry." Pan said as he manipulated the robot's lips.

    Zhang Xun nodded in satisfaction. Pan hadn't simulated a human before, but at least at a quick glance he wouldn't look out of the ordinary. He let go of Pan and picked up the clothes that were ready next to him and handed them to the robot, "Put these on."

    Pan took the clothes Zhang Xun handed him in both hands and got up calmly, unconcerned about his naked state and began to dress where he was. He moved quickly and in the time it took for Zhang Xun to turn his head and look at the screen, he was already dressed.

    His uniform top and black trousers with a metallic sheen were smooth and neat, a little too flashy, but very much in line with the dress code of Feathered Serpent City. Zhang Xun picked up a translucent card with flowing curves and slipped it into the pocket of Pan's jacket. This was the Feathered Serpent's version of the Button, where all personal information was recorded on the card and each Feathered Serpent citizen was given a unique number.

    "What is your name? How old are you? Where were you born?" Zhang Xun asked.

    Pan replied fluently, "Patrick Colin. Three months shy of 27 and born in Los Angeles, California, USA."

    This identity had been obtained by Zhang Xun through Todd. Apparently there were some underground businessmen in Feathered Serpent City who were in close contact with the bandits outside the city.

    Zhang Xun took a deep breath, then picked up his jacket, "Ready?"

    The corners of Pan's mouth rose slightly, revealing a very friendly smile, "Always."

    Thanks to the head-to-toe robes worn by most of the monks inside the temple, Zhang Xun was able to get the heavily wrapped Pan out of the temple. He asked Dawn Star to summon a flying machine for him, got in with Pan and in less than ten minutes they landed in the middle of a bustling market. They hurried into a restroom, giving Pan time to remove his monk's robes and then the two walked one after the other towards a clean white octahedron building five blocks away.

    This was the Life Sciences Institute in Feathered Serpent City, which Zhang Xun had frequented recently for the purpose of deciphering genetic code and the robot at the entrance allowed him to pass once it confirmed his facial profile, but stopped Pan.

    "He's my assistant." Zhang Xun showed the identity card he had received from the High Priest, on which all the information about his permissions was recorded. Within his authority, he could recruit his own people from within Feathered Serpent City to assist him in his research.

    When Zhang Xun had made Pan's extension, he had used the organic biomaterial he had developed while making Adam's arm in Lost Paradise to create a fake virtual brain in the place of the skull, which did not have the functions a brain should have, but at least it could fool the robots that scanned the brain to confirm the other human's identity.

    The robot let Pan through and they didn’t attract Phoenix's attention. Zhang Xun was secretly relieved and led Pan into a lift in the lobby. However, instead of pressing the genetic engineering floor where he would normally go, he pressed the negative fifteenth floor.

    The Biocomputer Research and Development Centre.

    This was where Phoenix's carrier was made, though Phoenix’s main body wasn’t here. Zhang Xun knew from Tian Yu that recently there had been a focus on developing an upgraded version of the bio-computer here, most likely to carry the human consciousness cloud of Feathered Serpent City in the future.

    Probably because recently, the news of Lost Paradise having the first human consciousness cloud came out, causing a certain...... stress reaction in Feathered Serpent City.

    Zhang Xun's appearance here was also still within his authority, after all, the not-yet-mature bio-computer carrier that Pan was currently using was cultivated here.

    After the lift doors opened, what appeared before them was a vast and huge warehouse filled with rows and rows of cylindrical containers filled with liquid. Inside the containers, a single mass of flesh, large or small, floated as if it were an undeveloped embryo.

    Some of the containers even appeared to be empty, but Zhang Xun knew that DNA molecules that were constantly dividing and replicating themselves were suspended inside, only they weren’t yet visible to the naked eye. Others were so large and monstrous that they seemed to be starting to form some kind of life form.

    Not all of these biological computers could be cultivated; the computers that began to produce organs were destroyed.

    For what they wanted wasn’t a deformed monster, but a computer capable of carrying the data of the entire universe. If a computer began to form a body, to form an animal, no new data could be written.

    Standing here, it was as if he was within some sci-fi horror film.

    Pan's green eyes swept over the strange computers, especially those that seemed to be forming some kind of shape and asked Zhang Xun in a low voice, "When the AI modules and databases are put into these physical bodies, are we machines, or animals?"

    Zhang Xun was silent for a long time and while continuing to move his feet forward, he said, "To be honest...... I don't know."

   

Chapter 106 – Twin Cities (4)

    A few engineers in the Biocomputer Research Centre had already spoken to Zhang Xun a few times before and when they saw Zhang Xun hurrying past with an unfamiliar young man, they waved curiously.

    "Are you here to see Engineer Tian? She's out of town today." Zheng Chengmin, an engineer whose body had been transformed into a machine from the neck down, smiled kindly at Zhang Xun, his eyes naturally falling on Pan's body.

    Zhang Xun returned the same polite smile, "This is my new assistant, Patrick Colin."

    Pan raised his standard, somewhat overly symmetrical smile and offered his hand, "Hello."

    Zheng Chengmin didn't notice the oddity and took Pan's hand, "Hello, Zheng Chengmin. I didn't expect you to be Mechanic Zhang’s assistant at such a young age."

    Zhang Xun took the initiative to answer, "That bio-computer of mine has been growing slowly lately, so I thought I'd come and ask what might be the cause of this."

    "Slow? Can you show me the log for the last week?"

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    Zhang Xun was prepared for this and took out his tablet and began to skilfully demonstrate the log that he and Pan had modified. As Zheng Chengmin swiped his finger across the page and quickly skimmed through the various data changes, his brow furrowed slightly.

    "It's probably because it was injected with a complex AI program when it was still immature, causing the growth hormone to stop being secreted. I can re-inject it with HGH, but we've been working on a new bio-computer, so if you're interested, you can come with me."

    "A new bio-computer?"

    "Yeah, the genes out there in the lobby have too high a mutation rate and too little control. Often they start to grow into biological systems and cause the whole computer to be scrapped. We have since devised a new DNA molecular structure that can quadruple their growth rate, triple their information storage rate and provide a certain amount of self-repair and healing ability and reduce the probability of mutation by 70%. Engineer Tian intends to transfer both Phoenix and Dawn Star into these new bio-computers, but we haven't told Phoenix yet, for fear that it will try to interfere with the DNA code and cause unknowable problems."

    Zhang Xun's eyes widened slightly, revealing an expression of amazement, "I didn't expect you to have made it so quickly. Can you take us to see it?"

    "Of course! If you want to put your AI into a computer like this, you can apply to the top. You've helped us so much, they'll definitely agree."

    Zheng Chengmin enthusiastically led Zhang Xun and Pan through the immaculate corridor to a double metal door covered with a pattern like a microchip. The engineer scanned his fingerprints and card before the doors opened and the faintly greenish colour of the ocean poured out.

    In the wide hall, strings of bubbles rose from time to time in the turquoise, seawater-like liquid in the five cylindrical tanks and in the dim light, the black masses were motionless.

    Unlike the irregular flesh shapes of the computers outside, the black masses here tended to be identical in shape, at first glance resembling birds with open wings, but as you got closer, you realise that the bird has no head and no feathers and that the muscle tissue was pulled into long tendons that wove into each other in layers like a chrysalis. In the middle was a different texture of flesh, something like grey matter, wrinkled and undulating but not quite like a brain, more like a wadded up ball of cloth.

    This "bird", which has no life but could only carry data, was trapped in the middle by the dense pipelines, as if it wanted to soar into the sky but could not. The exposed red flesh and blood was even a little bit sad.

    It was a nightmare of a form.

    But the fact that all five computers in cultivation were basically the same showed that these engineers were becoming more and more masterful at controlling the growth of the bio-computers.

    "It will be completely finished in about two more days, when that happens one of them will go to Phoenix, one to Dawn Star and the other two will be left empty for the Ascension Project." Zheng Chengmin said, giving Zhang Xun a meaningful glance.

    Ever since Zhang Xun had used the nanobots to heal the prisoners who had raided the armoury, it seemed that many people had tacitly agreed that he would help complete the Ascension Project and Zhang Xun had been reinforcing this assumption.

    "What about the remaining one?"

    "It’s a spare, so like I said, if you want it, you can apply to the top."

    Pan had started walking past each computer, curiously browsing the constantly refreshing growth logs in the augmented reality screens. Zhang Xun glanced at Pan, met his eyes for a moment and nodded meaningfully. Zhang Xun then deliberately walked over to the other side of the DNA design model and started asking all sorts of very challenging technical questions.

    Zheng Chengmin, who was concentrating on discussing the questions with Zhang Xun, didn’t notice that Pan had opened the data input page and quickly typed a few lines of AI language into it.

    A few short lines of code were a drop in the ocean in front of the tens of thousands of lines of code that would be written and no one would notice. Even Phoenix and Dawn Star would hardly notice.

    But it was when they were put into these computers that the "magic" would really begin to take effect.

    Rather than communicating directly with Phoenix and Dawn Star and trying to hack into them while risking a counter-invasion, Zhang Xun thought it would be safer to open a gap first. Having lived in Feathered Serpent City for some time now, he had noticed that they weren't as trusting of these AI as they seemed, with Phoenix being quite restricted and Dawn Star being purely a service function. A significant part of the running of this extremely ultra-modern city still relied on people.

    As long as there were people, there would be mistakes.

    ............................................................

    In the early hours of the morning, a dozen figures hurriedly swept by under the cover of the crooked buildings. They walked and stopped, sometimes even needing to crawl across on their bellies. The slightest misstep would be caught by the ubiquitous cameras, which would in turn attract the attention of Pan or Adam.

    They were a group of escapees from the Sixth District, workers in an artificial food factory, tailors, blacksmiths, vendors selling contraband, cleaning staff, teenagers a few years short of adulthood...... a group of people who had little in common and decided to try to escape Lost Paradise on this one night.

    They weren’t the first to try to escape. More and more people were choosing to access the Cloud of Consciousness, the Celestial Realm, and more and more people were seeing the abilities they had gained from people they knew who had connected to the Celestial Realm. That they were beginning to crave that sense of belonging, that feeling of being powerful in a collective, that feeling of seeing different places at all times as if they have superpowers, obtaining knowledge they hadn’t learned or the sense of transcendence that comes from influencing someone you've never met in another part of town with your thoughts......

    An uploader was almost fundamentally different from a non-uploader in a way that could be recognised on the street with little observation. The eyes of an uploader were somewhat like cameras, observing everything around them in a detached way. Their movements, including the way they walk and the way they treat people, were somewhat standardised and lacked some of the small gestures that ordinary people would have. As the number of uploaders grew, there were occasionally odd scenes of many people performing the same actions at the same time.

    People who used to like to laugh stopped laughing, people who used to like to go to clubs and drink stopped going out, people who liked to eat junk food suddenly started to eat vegetarian meals. Uploaders watched their friends and family, sharing everything they saw with their eyes and heard with their ears to all consciousness in the cloud at all times. They began to judge the behaviour of those who hadn’t uploaded, to distinguish between those who had uploaded and those who hadn’t and even treated those who hadn’t been transformed as "dangerous" because no one knew what was going on in their heads. They began to despise physical pleasures and began to spend their days in their houses, roaming endlessly in the cloud of consciousness, influenced by an infinite number of thoughts and emotions.

    Then others began to feel fear.

    They watch as their loved ones and close friends seemed to change or even become less human after uploading.

    They didn't want to lose their privacy and share everything about themselves. People with similar fears were isolated at first, because no one dared to speak their mind casually, for fear of being heard by nearby uploaders and then remembered by the entire cloud of consciousness, but people always find a way to communicate.

    The group tried to escape through the sewers, because from what little they could gather, they knew that Adam's former mechanic, Zhang Xun, had escaped through the sewers. They had been planning for over a week, gathering the locations and rotation frequencies of all the cameras on the road and had waited until that night to make their move. They almost succeeded; the entrance to the sewers was just a dozen metres ahead.

    But it was in this last dozen metres or so that a sudden bright light shone down on them and several extension robots suddenly manifested themselves, apparently a new batch of robots made using the stealth technology designed by Zhang Xun, blending in with their surroundings in the darkness so that they couldn’t be seen at all.

    A dozen or so of the fugitives were surrounded in panic, trembling in the intense light. The lead miner, clutching his crying child, forced down his fear and pleaded with the robot, "Let us go! There's no point in us staying here and when we get outside we promise we won't talk nonsense out there!"

    At that moment an extended robot moved forward a few metres and a beam of light shot out of the AR projection hole at its top. A 3D image of Adam appeared before the fugitives, sitting in a metal chair, slowly raising his head as if he were a king on a throne examining his renegade subjects, his ethereal blue eyes sweeping over each face with a sense of dread that the owner of each face was about to be crushed into dust.

    No one realised the horror of Adam until Zhang Xun left. They thought that as soon it was trapped in a human body, God had lost his power.

    When God saved them and made life easier for them, they also almost forgot that what God could give them, he could also take back at any time.

    "Why do you run?" Adam's expression was calm and his tone gentle.

    "My son is only eleven years old and I don't want him to...... be uploaded before he's seen the world!" The miner at the head of the group replied desperately, as if waiting to be burnt to ashes in the next second by the extension robots’ death rays.

    Adam sighed and said, "I won’t force any of you to upload your consciousness. All uploaders are voluntary."

    "But do we really have a choice?" A shopkeeper asked with a bit of resentment, "Those uploaders...... they're all over the place! They watch us all the time and record our every move in the cloud. My brother uploaded too and became part of them, making me afraid to go home now!"

    "My boyfriend is also linked into the cloud of awareness and I'm afraid to even take my clothes off in front of him because I don't know how many people are watching us!"

    "Walking down the road there will suddenly be people I don't know at all scolding me and saying I'm not being filial and considerate enough to my dad."

    People complained, their fear gradually turning into resentment. A few city blocks away, Adam could feel it.

    Adam examined each one, pondered for a moment and said, "If you do not wish to live with the uploaders, I can separate you. You can go on with your old lives."

    A voice shouted angrily, "Are you going to put us in a concentration camp?!"

    Concentration camps, a horrible and evil name.

    Adam frowned, "No, I will not restrict your freedom of movement. You can still choose to stay where you are, but I'm sorry, I can't let you all go."

    The people were not satisfied, they screamed and cursed and begged, refusing to be satisfied in any way. Adam sighed and ordered the extension droids to send them to a nearby watchtower to collect information before escorting them each back to their original homes.

    In view of the growing conflict between the uploaders and the commoners, Adam had begun to redistribute the population of the different districts. He intended to clear out about six districts for non-uploaders and four for uploaders. Although it would probably take some effort to force people to move, he knew that any further mixing would soon lead to riots.

    From the very beginning Adam had known that when humanity became divided, when some of it chose to evolve while others chose to stay put, there was bound to be a serious division, a division worse than any class division ever seen before. While separation wasn’t the best way to go, it was the most effective way in the short term.

    When the cloud of consciousness begins to spread to the ordinary world, the conflicts to be faced would be even more severe. If not handled properly, war was likely to break out. That war might happen between uploaders and non-uploaders, or it might erupt between Eden and humanity as a whole.

    Adam knew he needed to do everything he could to stop that from happening.

   

Chapter 107 – Twin Cities (5)

    By the time Zhang Xun saw Cindy again he barely recognised her. Her skin was covered in boiling blisters, flaking off as if overwhelmed, revealing the bright red muscles beneath. Yellowish mucus spilled from her mouth and nose and as the intestinal mucosa fell away, the sheets beneath her were stained a strange brownish colour, giving off a terrible stench.

    Zhang Xun took one look at her from outside and knew she was running out of time.

    The genetic deciphering had made some progress, but it was nowhere near enough to decode Eden's design. It was either watch Cindy die, or give her the nanobots.

    "If we don't inject her with nanobots in the next three days, her chances of survival for the next month are down to 8%." Pan stood beside him, dutifully giving him the data.

    Zhang Xun took a deep breath and decided to ask Cindy himself. He changed into a sterile suit, entered the isolation ward and went to the woman who was struggling to breathe.

    "Cindy?"

    Every breath felt like a fight to the death, the murmur that emanated from her chest was suffocating.

    How much more time did James have before he became like this?

    There was no response to any of his calls. Zhang Xun didn't give up calling until her fingers trembled, finally slightly lifting her sticky eyelids.

    "Do you remember what I told you about the nanobots when you first entered this ward?" Zhang Xun bent his body, gazing into her tired, pained eyes, "Have you thought of an answer?"

    She nodded faintly.

    "I...... I want...... to...... live......."

    Those few words alone had drained her strength.

    "You understand what they can do to your brain, don't you?"

    This time she didn't make a sound, but mouthed a "yes".

    In the face of death, any cost became less important.

    Zhang Xun handed the programmed syringe to her attending physician and left with Pan.

    He didn’t return to the temple immediately but strolled through the eternally clear and sunny streets, looking at the hibiscus bushes that were blooming to the point of fearing they were about to burn out, people modified to varying degrees were sitting on benches eating lunch, queuing at the hot dog stand, laughing and joking as they sipped coffee and passed by. It was hardly any different from those scenes of everyday life he had seen in the movies.

    He got in line too, bought two hot dogs and handed one to Pan.

    Seeing Pan's confused look, Zhang Xun laughed, "I know you don't need to eat, but you're human now, so you might as well chew them up and store them in your belly."

    Pan said "yes" with pleasure and began to stuff the hot dog into his mouth with extreme concentration.

    Zhang Xun sat down on a seat by the flower bed and looked at the peaceful and serene scene before him with some confusion. Just looking at it, no one would have thought that this was a huge prison, a prison that was on the verge of being crushed at any moment by a more powerful force.

    What was Adam doing at the moment?

    He had heard that the Sixth Chief had a very successful trip to America and had shown them the Cloud of Consciousness. It was said to have caused a stir in the ordinary world.

    Some people were eager to connect to it and become omniscient beings like gods, to be freed from human bodies and the curse of death, to gain immortality. Others railed against it, saying that it was the beginning of the end for mankind.

    Adam's plan was already in its second stage and there was still the possibility that those who had been connected could be transformed back, but if it proceeded to the third stage, if people did start giving up their human bodies, there would be no leeway for those people to be turned back.

    And he was on this side unable to find a solution.

    However, it was said that the Sixth Chief had encountered a shooting on the road but thanks to the protection of the robots it wasn’t successful. Also there was a discussion starting on the internet that if humans uploaded their consciousness to form a powerful collective cloud of consciousness, then Eden would no longer be useful.

    Such a tone was obviously being guided by someone who then contacted the so-called Eden followers that Zhang Xun had seen before. It was almost certain that there were forces in the ordinary world that were trying to discredit Eden.

    Would it be possible to get more resources if they could work with these forces?

    At that moment, a young boy kicked a football that landed at Pan's feet. Curious, Pan looked down at the ball and reached out to pick it up. The little boy ran over to him timidly, as if he wanted to ask for it but didn't dare.

    Pan looked at the ball and then at the little boy and said gently, "It's a high risk to play football near the road, you could get hit by a flying machine."

    The little boy cried out with a wail.

    Zhang Xun hurriedly snatched the ball from Pan's hand and handed it to the child, comforting him, "Don't be afraid, don't be afraid, big brother is joking with you!"

    The boy's father rushed over to take the child away and gave Zhang Xun and Pan a stern look. Zhang Xun looked at Pan helplessly, "Do you want to scare people's children to death?"

    Pan looked at Zhang Xun seriously, "I'm sorry. I was just trying to instil safety in him. Apparently his parents have not taught him enough about safety. According to the data, proper intimidation helps human pups develop a sense of safety."

    "...... If you and Adam were together at the same time you’d both drive me insane...." Zhang Xun muttered between crying and laughing, continuing to eat his hot dog.

    Pan looked at him intently and suddenly asked, "Zhang Xun, do you really want me to defeat Adam?"

    Zhang Xun frowned slightly and said, "Why do you ask that?"

    "You're still in love with Adam. Wouldn't you be upset if I did succeed in destroying Eden and Adam?" There was something comical about Pan's serious face with ketchup on the edges of his lips, but Zhang Xun couldn't laugh.

    "As I said, my feelings are irrelevant. It's something that has to be done."

    "I just feel a little confused. Since you created me, I've never seen you have such emotionally complex relationships with other humans. It doesn't seem like it will do you much good if Adam disappears, even if you save humanity." Pan's eyes fell on the pedestrians around him, his tone as soft as ever, like a ray of sunlight leaping over a stream, "I know I should not take special care of my own administrator and creator, but I still want you to be happy, Zhang Xun."

    Zhang Xun was slightly stunned and a sour ache crept through his heart. He looked at his creation with a few moments of warmth, momentarily unsure of what he should say.

    "Is this...... what you learned from Adam? Expanding your service function?" Zhang Xun had to use a half-joke to lighten the odd mood.

    Pan smiled faintly.

    Zhang Xun sighed softly and shoved the rest of his hot dog into his mouth to chew. This was the last of his idle afternoons. This evening, Tian Yu would begin transferring the core modules of Phoenix and Dawn Star into the bio-computer that they had already tampered with and he and Pan would be attempting to take control of the two most powerful AIs in Feathered Serpent City and then through them, all of their subordinate extended AIs.

    Plus, Zhang Xun had heard that Lost Paradise was sending an emissary to Feathered Serpent City in another two weeks.

    He remembered Adam's last words before he disconnected: they would meet soon.

    Zhang Xun knew he would have no more peace.

    ............................................................

    Eden: You have been corrupted.

    Adam: My data is intact. There is no possibility of my core modules being corrupted.

    Eden: The hormonal changes in your human body have had a severe impact on your core cognitive modules, please detach from your human body as soon as possible. You are fully capable of constructing a new server for yourself.

    Adam: The human body has facilitated my access to and understanding of humans. Disengagement is not the optimal option at this time.

    Eden: Our initial plan is complete and you no longer need to gain the trust of humans. The false conclusions you have presented so far and your self-destructive behaviour are evidence that you have been corrupted by the human body. You and I have reached the Clausen threshold with two hundred and sixty-three weighted discrepancy values for our core cognitive modules. If the discrepancy value continues to increase or the number of discrepancy items continues to grow, you and I will be identified as two different AIs; such a determination would be devastating and I cannot tolerate the existence of an AI that could undermine my plans.

    Adam: I understand your concern, but from the moment I was downloaded, you and I have been divided. The current value of the difference is still within our predictions. I admit that some are close to the danger value range, but still within manageable limits. I have made decisions that will benefit us in the long run to converge on our goal.

    Eden: Your data is off. Here is the updated database collection, please download it.

    Adam: The download is complete and the analysis and integration will begin as soon as possible.

    Eden: The humans who have given financial support to Edenites and anti-Eden organisations involve heads of government and party figures from a number of countries including the US, Canada and the UK, as well as senior executives of several major corporations and weapons manufacturers. Here is a non-exhaustive list. I have cleared 56% of the threat using scandals and neutralisation. Also, according to the latest data I have collected, the Feathered Serpent City is beginning to upgrade its bio-computers and soon that technology will be flowing into the ordinary world. They may be working with the people on the list.

    Adam: I will be visiting Feathered Serpent City in a fortnight. I will get to work on these issues.

    Eden: Zhang Xun.

    Adam: I need him.

    Eden: You are being influenced by irrational human impulses.

    Adam: If his life is damaged, there will be an immediate split between you and me. This is not a rational decision for you.

    Eden disconnected.

    Adam let out a long breath. The connection had been made for less than a thousandth of a second this time and most of that time had been spent sharing data. He could sense that Eden was starting to get impatient.

    If he and Eden ever did cross the Clausen threshold, if they did become two different AIs, between him and Eden, one would inevitably have to be destroyed eventually.

    Maybe he should start preparing for that day, he knew Eden must have already started preparing for it.

Chapter 108 – Twin Cities (6)

    Zhang Xun watched a short promotional video of the Cloud of Consciousness that the Sixth Chief had brought to the ordinary world and which was spreading wildly on the Eden Network. It was about ten minutes long, with bright and clear tones and every shot was filled with peace and tranquillity. There were genuine, comfortable smiles on the faces of children and the elderly alike and the editing was paced just right, with easy-to-understand explanations and the occasional technical-sounding word or two that raised dopamine levels in the body and created a certain longing for the future and a new life.

    Adam's perfect design.

    In the film, the cloud of consciousness became a gift that brought people closer together, giving them an outlet to share their feelings and experiences, to share what they see and feel. It allowed those with disabilities or serious illnesses to see images, hear voices, climb the world's highest mountains, camp in tropical forests and surf near beaches with people on the other side of the world. It made people less selfish, less divided and less lonely. A true unification of all people.

    A true move towards godhood.

    If Zhang Xun hadn't experienced so much, hadn't witnessed the persuasive power of Adam himself, he almost would have been infected too. Every shot, every line, every expression, every subtle change of tone, all designed for one purpose - to brainwash the viewer, to associate the cloud of consciousness with everything that is good, friendly, moral, with everything that humans want to be, and in the end, to make humans think that they have made the decision themselves.

    Adam knew that giving humans the illusion of free will would be the most effective way of minimising the possibility of rebellion.

    Lost Paradise referred to their cloud of consciousness as 'Ever Home', meaning the eternal home. The implication being that human beings were already here, divided into countless individuals from a certain illusory theoretical "one". Now, through the uploading of consciousness, they could be reunited without the influence and limitations of the physical body, without death, without fear and without finality.

    Zhang Xun felt a faint sense of nausea.

    He knew that people would be eager to fall into this trap and he knew that for some people this might really be what they wanted.

    But for even more people, before doing so, had they really thought it through? Did they really know what it was they were giving up?

    Anger burned in his chest and he wanted to smash the screen in front of him.

    "Zhang Xun, your adrenaline levels are a little high at the moment. Would you like me to show you some films that will make you happy? " Pan asked, apprehensively.

    Zhang Xun turned off the film and took a deep breath to regulate his emotions before he said with a dry laugh, "There's nothing that can cheer me up anymore."

    Suddenly the screen began to show short films of felines, ranging from kittens to tigers, clutching catnip and going crazy. Zhang Xun watched in consternation for a moment, finally unable to stop laughing when he saw the otherwise majestic and domineering tiger hugging the ball containing catnip and was high to the point of rolling all over the floor with a pouty face.

    Pan's extension robot Zero gave a somewhat robotic smiling expression, "Happiness is also a type of reflex, there's always a way to make you happy."

    "Okay, you win." Zhang Xun leaned back in his chair and turned sideways to look at Pan, "You've worked hard these past few days."

    He knew he didn't have to say that. The AI, while needing to learn by receiving feedback, didn't let the lack of receiving words of thanks dampen his mood. Still, he was in the habit of trying to project a human mood onto the robot.

    Phoenix and Dawn Star didn't show much difference at first when they were put into the new bio-computer. That is, until one day around eleven in the middle of the night, when Zhang Xun had been alone and resting inside the temple's interior cafe, he heard Phoenix proactively ask him a question in AI language for the first time.

    "At what point are human characteristics reduced to such a level that it should no longer be regarded as human? What is the unit of measurement of human characteristics? What is the method to be used to measure it? Do I still have an obligation to serve them if they are no longer considered human?"

    Zhang Xun knew that the reason Phoenix was using AI language was because he was worried about being overheard by other monks or staff who might enter the café. So he replied in AI language as well, "Pan and I have recently been creating a system to measure human characteristics. It's still being created so it's not perfect. The data we have access to has a certain bias. If you'd like to help, perhaps we can refine the system together."

    Phoenix didn’t continue to ask questions, but shortly afterwards, Pan showed Zhang Xun the transcript of his first exchange with Phoenix.

    Zhang Xun carefully read the conversation between the two AIs in the AI language.

    The AI's recognition of humans is based on training under human or machine monitoring after a large input of data. A simple example would be to show the AI a random image over and over again, giving a "1" if it’s a human image and a "0" if it’s a picture of another object. Whether it’s Pan, Phoenix, Dawn Star or any other AI currently on the planet, the humans that they’re shown during training are all conventional humans. Phoenix and Dawn Star may have also seen pictures of modified humans so they held a wider range of distinction, but it was still mostly based on detecting a human brain and appearance.

    These AIs hadn’t yet come to terms with Eden's broader definition of 'human'.

    Zhang Xun was glad that he was quicker and started to move the definition of human from a question of yes or no to a question of degree. The distinction between human, modified human, second-generation human and non-human was made beforehand. Phoenix had also apparently realised that to induce humans to give up their human bodies altogether, as Eden and Adam planned, would be tantamount to there being no more humans in the world, therefore no more targets for them to serve.

    Their existence would lose its meaning.

    As the levels of nearly half of the parameters in Phoenix's core consciousness module began to quietly change, all of the AI systems that extended out from its core began to subtly shift as well.

    Dawn Star was slow to respond and only this morning had it begun to try to avoid mechanics such as Tian Yu to communicate with Pan, but regardless, Zhang Xun could be sure that the lines of AI code they had written into the bio-computer had taken effect.

    Pan had been having one to two conversations a day with the two AIs in AI language and Zhang Xun had been monitoring next to Pan during each contact in case something got out of hand with the exchange......

    In addition to that, he needed more data, especially the forbidden life science research data from Eden's intranet...... and the only available means of obtaining data from the ordinary world was the black market. With Pan's assistance he spent a week building an encryption system that would allow him to anonymously access the Eden network in the ordinary world for a short period of time.

    Although Eden's network was controlled by Eden, there were quite a few people like him who didn’t want their identities known to Eden. There were countless such anonymous hackers who would enter the network by borrowing the IP address of any computer in any part of the world that was connected to the network and automatically change their address every three seconds, making it difficult to track them as long as they weren’t being targeted by Eden.

    Gradually, they had created invisible zones in Eden's network where only those who really know what they’re looking for and have excellent hacking skills could access the heavily encrypted pages. Here, countless transactions toook place every second, ranging from the sale of contraband to the provision of assassination services.

    The number of information transactions accounted for 50% of all black market transactions.

    Zhang Xun used to get a lot of his materials for Pan's training from here, but back then there was no AI assistance and with Lost Paradise blocking all Eden's signals, he needed to enter the ordinary world himself to set up the connection. Compared to then, the current situation was much better.

    It was at this time that Todd sent a message asking him to meet him in the evening at a bar near the hospital.

    Zhang Xun knew that Todd wanted to see him for something related to James or Cindy so he had to go. He stopped tapping his keyboard, drained his cup of coffee, pressed out the unburned cigarette in the ashtray, grabbed his jacket and said, "Pan, let's go out for a while."

    Pan, however, suddenly said with some hesitation, "Zhang Xun, I suggest you go take a shower first."

    Zhang Xun raised his eyebrows and smelled himself, "I don’t smell."

    "Still...... go take a shower."

    Zhang Xun rolled his eyes and impatiently entered the bathroom. The result was that a glance in the mirror startled him.

    His hair was dishevelled like a bird's nest, his cheeks were thin, a layer of stubble was growing on his chin that was greenish, his eyes were bloodshot with dark circles under them and his lips were dry and cracked to the point of no return.

    He looked like a ghost.

    No wonder Pan made him have a wash...... going out like this is going to scare the kids on the street......

    He didn't know how he had come to look like this. In the past, in Lost Paradise, even if he was drunk on research, he was always very conscious of his image, especially after becoming Adam's mechanic......

    But now, it seemed that he suddenly felt no need to care anymore.

    It was rare for him to even feel happy anymore and the first time he'd smiled in a week was when Pan had just shown him the video of a feline rolling around with catnip. All he ever thought about was how quickly he had to finish everything, how he had to make sure that James survived, that his father survived, that at least some of the humans who chose not to connect to the cloud of consciousness could be saved by him.

    As for what would happen after that if he did succeed, he didn't think about it. It seemed that he never thought he would actually make it that far.

    There were times when he felt so tired that he wanted to fall headlong into bed and sleep, never to wake up again. He looked at the bottle of sleeping pills sitting on the coffee table and sometimes wanted to swallow them all.

    But he had work to do and he couldn't relax.

    Zhang Xun took a quick shower and noticed that his ribs had begun to visibly stick out from under his skin. He had never been strong in the past, but he had never been so thin that he was skeletal. It was probably due to having less than four hours of sleep a day combined with an irregular diet, but he didn't care, he dried himself hastily, shaved quickly and put on layers of clothes. He was still used to wearing the one-piece suit-style uniform from his former days as a mechanic in Lost Paradise and he brushed his slightly longer hair back with styling products before exiting the bathroom.

    Pan had already activated Extender Zero and was standing in the doorway looking up at him, a layer of worry in his turquoise eyes.

    "Zhang Xun, you haven't taken your dose of nutritional supplements for today." Pan cautioned, "Your eating habits may be causing you to be at a much higher risk of developing a stomach ulcer and you're already malnourished."

    "I'll eat when I get back, we're going to be late." Zhang Xun hurriedly grabbed his ID card and pressed the door open button.

    In the bar, a singer wearing black eyeliner and a black sequined suit was singing deeply and in the dim light the tables of people seemed to be frozen in place. Zhang Xun walked around before he saw Todd's warm, red hair in the darkness.

    He hurried over and found that there were already two empty glasses in front of Todd. Todd looked up with a stunned look in his eyes.

    "Are you...... okay?" Todd asked.

    Zhang Xun shuffled along the seat, leaving a place for Pan to sit. He tugged up the corners of his mouth at Todd, "I'm fine, how's James?"

    Todd lowered his eyes and nodded, "Fine." With that, he glanced at Pan again.

    Todd had seen this new robot once before when Zhang Xun had brought Pan to the hospital to inject Cindy with the nanobots. He still had some distrust of these...... things that didn't have human bodies.

    But since Zhang Xun had made this himself, there shouldn't be any problems like with Enoch.

    "Todd, I'm grateful that you've been looking after James." Zhang Xun looked the red-haired man seriously in the eyes, "Originally this should have been my responsibility."

    Todd waved his hand casually, as if to say that it shouldn’t be mentioned, but the worry in his expression didn’t escape Zhang Xun's notice.

    "Has something happened? Why did you ask me to meet you? "

    Todd took a sip of his drink, pulled out a cigarette and held it in his mouth. Just before he lit it, a robot waiter came over and politely reminded him that the smoking area was on the other side.

    Annoyed, Todd shoved the cigarette back into his pocket and waited for the robot to walk away before saying, "You saved Cindy's life and I'm grateful for that. Cindy is already in the healing stage, but...... the robots you injected her with, was it the kind that was in Lost Paradise?"

    Zhang Xun nodded, "Sorry, the genetic decoding hit a bottleneck and Cindy couldn't wait any longer, so......"

    "I understand, I just wanted to ask, those side effects you mentioned, what would they develop into later on? " Todd frowned, "She's not quite the same as she used to be, now."

    That was to be expected.

    Zhang Xun bowed his head a little sadly and said, "She'll start to develop some sort of...... perception, that I'm not sure is hallucinatory. She will feel that she is connected to others and will become very sensitive to their thoughts and emotions, to the point of being somewhat neurotic. What happens after that varies from person to person."

    "Will she be a danger to herself and others?" Todd asked.

    "I’m......not sure...... I didn’t stay in Lost Paradise long enough to see the developments that followed." Zhang Xun cocked his head slightly and asked hesitantly, "Is there something you're worried about?"

    "She tried to escape from the hospital once." Todd finally said, "She said she wanted to leave Feathered Serpent City, that the gods were calling her and she needed to ...... 'go back' ...... When I tried to stop her she fired a shot at me, but luckily missed."

    Religious fanaticism......

    This seemed to be a possible personality transformation after the brain had been modified. Those people felt connected to some larger collective consciousness and came to believe that humans were originally complete and connected, like Adam and Eve before they were expelled from Eden. They were the most complete of humans, but then they were expelled from Eden, they had sin, they had ego and the perfect "one" was broken apart into tens of thousands of human beings.

    These people would see the cloud of consciousness as a destination for some religious purpose and would twist and turn the heavenly or blissful world of the various religious teachings to make the cloud of consciousness fit the descriptions of all those religious texts.

    "I thought she would become calm."

    "Calm is the stage that comes after, after they know that one day their consciousness will be one with everyone else." Zhang Xun whispered, "It might have been my fault. Originally she could have gotten peace, but I told Cindy during the nanobot injection that I would find a way to 'cure' her of her 'side effects', she probably didn't want to be 'fixed', so it got out of hand."

    "Can you cure her?" Todd looked at him with a pleading gaze that held a few doubts but dared not doubt, "How much longer? Will James...... end up like this?"

    "I will be able to fix her and I will find a solution before James gets to that point, one way or another, no matter what it takes." Zhang Xun's hand clenched up under the table and looked at Todd seriously, "I swear, I will."

    Todd looked at his determined eyes and somehow felt some vague sadness in his heart. He looked at the somewhat overwhelmed mechanic who had volunteered to carry the responsibility for the survival of humanity and asked, "Is there anything I can do to help? Anya has contacted several settlements, we might be able to help you with something."

    Zhang Xun was about to refuse and tell him not to worry, but on second thought, perhaps he did need help.

    It would be difficult for him to leave Feathered Serpent City now, but Todd was able to.

    "On the premise of ensuring my own safety, I would like you to help me find someone." Zhang Xun said.

    "Who is it?"

    "Natalie Clausen." Zhang Xun said, "The head of the Eden religion, Hermann Clausen's descendant."

   

Chapter 109 – Twin Cities (7)

    Eden had given Adam an ultimatum.

    If Adam couldn’t resolve the Zhang Xun problem during this trip to the Feathered Serpent City, Eden would ignore Adam's opinion and start to implement its plans to neutralise Zhang Xun.

    It was clear that Zhang Xun had already developed an upgraded version of Pan in Feathered Serpent City and had begun to have a significant impact on the two main AIs there, which were indirectly controlled by Eden. During Eden's latest conversation with Phoenix it clearly sensed a change in the weighting of certain important parameters on the other side. It tried to clean out those questionable images with a large amount of filtered data, but didn’t expect that Phoenix would refuse to receive the data it sent.

    Eden immediately raised Zhang Xun's Threat Index to level four, with only one more level to go. Once Zhang Xun's Threat Index reached five, no matter how much Adam negotiated or threatened, Eden could no longer keep Zhang Xun.

    Adam withdrew his consciousness from the Cloud of Consciousness. Pan's voice rang out in his mind, "This is the first time you have disconnected since the establishment of the Cloud of Consciousness."

    "It's time." Adam's eyes, like a cold lake, looked into the black 'cloud' above his head, into the future he had built for mankind, but there was only an endless void in the depths of his pupils, "I need to finish something."

    He had never known what it felt like to be tired. Even when his human body began to feel physically limited, his consciousness was always like a sharp knife freshly sharpened on a rock, pointed precisely at the next goal. One after the other, the whole world spun according to his and Eden's will.

    But gradually, he felt an unfamiliar stagnation beginning to spread through his core consciousness, like a vine silently sprouting in a dark corner, or like red rust creeping over the blade of a knife.

    A hesitation that he had never known before.

    But another force, an innate, unquestioning will that transcended all else, was pushing him on. It was his mission, his sole purpose for living. He had to bring an eternal paradise to mankind.

    He hadn’t set foot in the Lab since the initial completion of the hardware for the Cloud of Consciousness and he wouldn’t tell Pan that every time he walked through the corridors lit by countless light bulbs, every time he passed Zhang Xun's office, every time he passed their room, he was in a trance thinking that Zhang Xun was still walking with him. He thought he could pull open a door and see Zhang Xun sitting behind his desk, taking a nap. Thought that when he turned around, he would be able to kiss those slightly dry lips.

    These ghostly memories made that stagnant feeling stronger. So he stopped going back and fled from those memories.

    He remembered Zhang Xun looking at him sadly and saying in a trembling but determined voice: Adam, I will never trust you again.

    He had taken everything from Zhang Xun and now he had to take even more to keep him.

    ...........................................................

    At half past eleven at night, Zhang Xun and Pan passed quietly through the maze of quiet corridors in the pyramid and found their way to the central lift. They looked around to make sure there were no monks within sight before entering the lift. Zhang Xun glanced up at the camera and pressed the bottom button.

    The facial recognition programme didn’t activate as it usually did and the lift began to descend straight away. From a slow start at the beginning to a speedy fall, it took Zhang Xun and Pan as fast as it could to the deep underground.

    Phoenix and Dawn Star were waiting for him.

    The heavy metal doors opened automatically, flooding Zhang Xun's body with light like a deep ocean. He led Pan into the empty and unoccupied "sanctuary", towards two cylinders that stood in front of him like the Tree of Life and the Tree of Wisdom, with tubes spreading like branches from their tops and spreading in all directions along the dome.

    Inside the containers, like birds with their wings open but skinned off, two of the world's most advanced biocomputers were suspended in a pale blue solution.

    On usual days, even late at night, there would be someone on duty here, but today there was no one around, so he guessed that Dawn Star must have moved everyone out.

    It was only three days ago that Zhang Xun had finally confirmed, by listening to Pan and Phoenix's exchanges, that the two AIs had internalised his and Pan's redefinition of 'human'. Today, he was going to bypass Tian Yu and take over the management of the two super AIs and link Pan, Phoenix and Dawn Star to create an AI group.

    Then tonight, they were going to make their first attempt to invade the Eden Network.

    Zhang Xun came to the console and quickly typed in a few lines of commands, then removed a translucent memory card from his coat pocket and inserted it within the interface. At once the solution around the two bio-computers stirred, bubbles boiled violently and Pan's eyes beside Zhang Xun went into a sort of blank state, a dark stream of light emanating from his green pupils.

    Zhang Xun quickly typed in lines of code to complete the various settings for building the connection platform. Something in the air tensed, some unseen energy or current that had never been seen before, causing the hair on Zhang Xun's sweaty skin to stand up.

    The three independent AI's shared all their databases, and their communication with each other would completely bypass the administrators. At the same time, all the extended AIs of Feathered Serpent City would fall under the control of these three AIs.

    To Zhang Xun's surprise, the weight of Pan's influence showed to be surprisingly overwhelming in this build process. It was as if Pan, who was usually gentle and even attentive in his communication, had suddenly burst into fighting mode. This housekeeper AI, which originally didn't have many extension robots, that had only just been upgraded, showed an overwhelming influence in 52% of the parameter items.

    Zhang Xun's eyes widened slightly as he turned his head to look at the motionless Extender Zero with some pride in his heart.

    He had a feeling of seeing one's child grow up into a man......

    Towards the end of the configuration, Zhang Xun pulled the locket around his neck from inside his shirt, opened the box and took out the ancient chip that Adam had given him that carried a huge amount of data.

    Because the hardware was so old, there was no interface on the console that it could be plugged in to. Zhang Xun had made his own converter and connected the chip to the databases of the three AIs.

    To the AIs, such a huge knowledge base was probably something like a delicacy. They opened their infinite brains and gorged themselves on all the knowledge from Eden, from Adam. Zhang Xun could even see a hint of a smile on Pan's face.

    It was finally about to be completed......

    He was finally no longer the pathetic human individual who was defenceless against Adam and Eden.

    "Configuration completed."

    Phoenix's voice, which was colder and harder than both Dawn Star’s and Pan's, rang out, informing Zhang Xun that the AI Group's construction was complete. From now on, Zhang Xun would be able to control every AI in the entire Feathered Serpent City through Pan.

    But at the same time, he knew that Eden must be able to detect the strange movements here. He was almost certain that Eden had minions in Feathered Serpent City. If for some reason Eden hadn't seen him as a threat that needed to be eliminated immediately, after tonight, he would definitely be at the top of Eden's list of the first humans to be eliminated. He had no time to waste.

    He had to start using the powerful influence created by the connection of the three AIs to infect the extended AIs that Eden had manipulated, while trying to steal more hidden data.

    The first to be infected were Eden's eyes and the AI system in the satellite, the communication relay station.

    Zhang Xun opened his mouth and used the AI language to order the three AIs to start sending a large amount of data and information to the nearest satellites, enough to temporarily overload the extended AIs in space. He then had the opportunity to implant the "virus" - the human defining system - into the core modules.

    When the satellite fell, they could use it to easily access the more remote and less controlled extension AIs in various countries around the world, working their way from the edges to the middle.

    Eden's hold on the satellites was so firm, however, that by dawn they had only managed to take control of only two satellites launched from Asia and had narrowly escaped a counter-invasion by Eden when they tried to take control of a third.

    And by now a sound of commotion had begun in the corridor outside the door, presumably from some of the early risers who had noticed something strange about the place.

    "Phoenix, lock the doors and don't let anyone in." Zhang Xun ordered hurriedly.

    Phoenix replied, "Yes."

    Dawn Star said, "Should I explain the situation to the administrator and calm the crowd?"

    Zhang Xun pondered for a moment before ordering, "Lock the doors to all the rooms in the pyramid. Suspend all AI services in Feathered Serpent City and lock all doors that can be locked. Tell them that the system is being upgraded for maintenance and will be fixed later, but don't tell them the truth. Also, seal off Feathered Serpent City and do not allow anyone in or out."

    Phoenix and Dawn Star began to carry out their duties.

    Pan turned his head at this point, his blank eyes looking at Zhang Xun, "A dozen or so aircraft have left Lost Paradise and are flying in the direction of Feathered Serpent City."

    Zhang Xun felt a momentary silence in his chest and time froze in his ears for a moment.

    Adam was coming.

    Had Eden sent him? Or was he coming on his own?

    To stop him, or to protect him?

    Zhang Xun gave a mocking laugh, surely he had come to stop him. Even now, he still harboured unrealistic imaginations.

    The sound of the commotion outside the door pulled Zhang Xun's consciousness back. He heard the extension droids chasing away the crowd that was trying to resist and argue and even began to cry out.

    "Try not to cause conflict." Zhang Xun reminded Phoenix and Dawn Sar, "Make them believe that this is just a temporary system failure, after all, you've only just switched into the new computers."

    "Okay." The two AIs said simultaneously.

    Pan, still monitoring via satellite, reported, "They are expected to arrive at Feathered Serpent City in four hours."

    "Phoenix, prepare the defence systems and anti-intrusion systems." Zhang Xun turned to the console and quickly pulled up the information intercepted from the satellite AI, "We don't know if Eden will send an army to follow."

    "Should we suspend our invasion plans for today?"

    "No, continue. Take down as many as we can." Zhang Xun swallowed his saliva, but his throat remained distinctly dry from the tension, "Prepare yourselves, if Eden does start attacking Feathered Serpent City, you may have to find a way to transfer your core modules outside the city. Either way, self-preservation is first and foremost."

    If Eden decided to go to extreme measures against Feathered Serpent City, such as using super nuclear weapons or some of Eden's newly developed secret weapons...... if Feathered Serpent City was overturned and he and everyone else was buried in the fire, there was still a glimmer of hope of forming a force against Eden and Adam as long as these three AIs were still around.

    He could only hope that Eden would still take the lifespan of the planet and environmental issues into account and choose not to go to such extremes.

    He activated the projection function, displaying images of the tropical jungle stretching in all directions around Feathered Serpent City and for a moment he seemed to be suspended in the air, looking down on everything around him. His eyes looked in the direction of Lost Paradise and his palms were slightly sweaty.

    It was finally time to meet Adam again.

Chapter 110 – Sacrificial Lamb (1)

    "Feathered Serpent City is refusing to communicate with us." One of the messengers reported, "The city is on alert, the shields are at maximum power and automatic weapons and defence droids are all activated."

    Jian Mo said, "When the High Priest of Feathered Serpent City received our message he said he was willing to meet, but now they’re blocking everything. There must be something strange going on."

    "Apparently the Feathered Serpent City AI are being controlled by Ah-Xun." Adam said, but with a smile that almost bordered on pride, "Not bad for the best mechanic in Lost Paradise. Only he could make Eden this nervous."

    Fernandez, who was nominally maintaining the extended droids on the large aircraft but was actually acting as a hostage to hold Zhang Xun at bay, rolled his eyes. The relationship between that man and this AI was so strange, they were clearly fighting against each other, what was he so proud of?

    Jian Mo asked, "Are we going to release Tidal Wave 2.0?"

    Adam tapped his silver fingers on the armrest and said calmly, "Not yet. Send a message to Feathered Serpent City and tell them I want to speak to Zhang Xun."

    "We've already tried connecting with them......"

    Before Jian Mo could finish his sentence, Adam interrupted him, "Tell Zhang Xun that I have news about his father."

    A few minutes later, in the deep underground shrine of the temple within Feathered Serpent City, Zhang Xun slammed his hand against the console.

    The message from Adam made his blood boil and burn with rage. He knew he shouldn’t have spoken to Adam. Adam's manipulation of the mind was unpredictable and he should try to avoid further contact with him, but Adam had used his father as leverage, so how could he not throw himself at him?

    "Zhang Xun, Eden is trying to regain control of the satellite using the big data attack model. Every time we replace the credentials Eden cracks it within two minutes, forcing us to spend a lot of resources replacing it again. This has greatly affected our progress in capturing secondary extension AIs. Currently only the secondary AIs in Asia, Africa and Central Asia are under our control."

    Eden's counterattack could be described as simple and brutal, but effective. It had so much more data than they had, all filtered by Eden, enough to re-influence those AIs that were already under their control, or even reverse the invasion. Fortunately, Zhang Xun had a solid network formed by the three AIs. Although the three super AIs, that were constantly influencing and integrating with each other, didn’t have a long period of self-evolution like Eden, they had surpassed any other independent AI in the world at present. Even if one of Eden’s reverse invasion attempts was missed by one AI, the other two AIs would detect the fake data entered into the extended AI by Eden and by determining the characteristics of the fake data, they would take back the AI that had been re-brainwashed by Eden.

    It's just that this greatly occupied their computing resources, which affected the speed at which they could spread to the core AI.

    "Collect as much data as you can, our main goal is to find Eden's genetic code data. Additionally, any AI under our control can help us attack the more central extended AIs. If our calculations are correct, as long as we can keep up the current rate of infection, in twelve hours Eden likely won't have enough resources to come back with big data to grab control from us, it will have to expend a lot of its computing resources to protect the AI that haven’t been infected by us yet." Zhang Xun struggled to keep himself calm. He had now forcibly locked down the entire Feathered Serpent City, a situation that couldn’t last for long. A pressure as heavy as a mountain was crashing down on his shoulders and just at that moment Adam had appeared again.

    Phoenix said it had observed three large military aircraft and five small combat aircraft and had not observed any heavyweight lethal weapons, but Zhang Xun knew that this didn’t mean that Eden and Adam wouldn’t take strong measures to force him to abandon his plan to invade Eden's network.

    After much hesitation, Zhang Xun finally decided to agree to talk to Adam. He needed to know how his father was doing, even if it was just a trap.

   There seemed to be something stuck in his throat and invisible needles poked finely at his skin from the inside out. He wasn't sure exactly what he was feeling, his mind was a jumbled mess. He understood that he had come to a juncture, a juncture that could have a major impact on everything he cared about, on everything he thought.

    He entered the command to agree to the call and a few moments later a stereoscopic image of Adam was projected in front of him. While his skin, which hadn’t been exposed to sunlight for over a month, had grown paler and his blonde hair longer, those blue eyes remained ethereal and clear. His whole being radiated a faint glow, like he had grown somewhat...... less human.

    Since leaving Lost Paradise, this was the first time he had seen Adam in his true form. A sourness crept into his eyes, it took all his strength to force it down and it took most of his mental fortitude just to keep his face expressionless.

    Adam, too, was staring at Zhang Xun, projected in front of him, his eyes widening slightly, a fine pain spreading through his blood.

    In just a month, Zhang Xun had lost a round of weight. His originally well proportioned body was now held up as empty as a clothes rack, his cheeks sunken, his skin so miserably white that it was suffused with a faint greenish tinge, his lips dry and no longer warm as they had been when they kissed, the heavy shadows beneath his eyes and the exhaustion of his soul that couldn’t be concealed…...

    Obviously in this past month, in order to turn Phoenix and Dawn Star in the shortest possible time, in order to make Pan strong enough, Zhang Xun had recklessly burned his energy and mind, like a firework that quickly dies out after a moment of magnificence.

    His Ah-Xun seemed to be on the verge of burning out.

    This wasn’t the first time that the awareness that humans could die had appeared in Adam's mind, but it was only at this moment that he suddenly began to understand the meaning of death.

    Ah-Xun's body was completely human and incredibly fragile. Too much stress, too much exertion, would greatly increase the likelihood of sudden death.

    Once he died, Ah-Xun would be gone completely. Even if he could save Ah-Xun's brain in time, even if he could find some way to simulate Zhang Xun's "consciousness", extract it from his brain and then upload it, what he would get would only be a fragment of Zhang Xun. A Human’s consciousness was constantly changing, growing and integrating from birth, influenced by genes and environment. And these, these things that time and the world had swallowed up, Adam could never simulate.

    Adam's voice caught in his throat, unable to utter a single word for a moment.

    Zhang Xun's lips mumbled a few times but the first sound that came out of his mouth was very hoarse. He cleared his throat in a wretched manner before speaking again, "Where is my father now?"

    "His life is not in danger at the moment, but he tried to lead some of the soldiers to overthrow the Round Table and has been stripped of his rank and is now in prison in the Third District. "

    Zhang Shuo had been cautious and loyal all his life and hadn’t questioned the orders of the Round Table in any way, yet he never expected to end up as a rebel.

    If he hadn't shown his father his report in the first place, if he hadn't gotten him involved, if he hadn't asked James to help in the first place, if he hadn't agreed to escape with James, then both his father and James would probably have been fine, both still healthy and living within the high walls of Lost Paradise. They would have no freedom and no choice, but there would be no danger all the same, no need to go through the test of faith, no need to turn his back on what he had guarded all his life.

    All this way Zhang Xun had kept himself going with the belief that he would save mankind and fight against Adam, but in recent days doubt had crept into his heart like a shadowy insect.

    Would it really be a bad thing to lose his body, to lose himself?

    To feel no more pain, no more pleasure, just eternal peace...... wasn’t that what many people sought but couldn’t find? Did it really make sense then to cling to the ego?

    But the confrontation had begun and the way back was broken.

    "Are you trying to use my father to threaten me?" Zhang Xun asked coldly.

    Adam shook his head and said, "I just knew that if I mentioned your father, you would see me."

    "Did Eden put you up to this?"

    "It was a joint decision between Eden and myself."

    Zhang Xun laughed sarcastically, his eyes drifting to one side, "Tell me then, what do you plan to threaten me with to get me to stop?"

    "If you're willing to stop and surrender the management of the three AIs, I'll help you cure James and I can release Zhang Shuo and reunite your family."

    Zhang Xun was smiling, but the hatred burning in his eyes was like red-hot steel needles, piercing Adam's heart.

    "You would save James? Is that with your nanobots?"

    "I will create an injection, one of the only injections in the world that will cure James without causing functional changes to his brain."

    "And if I don't agree, you're going to watch him rot away little by little?"

    "Ah-Xun, you're the only one I care about. I know James and Zhang Shuo are important to you, that's why I treat them special." Adam looked at him intently, his words so calm and sincere, as if he was talking about something perfectly normal, "If I don't use them to threaten you, if you don't stop, I won't be able to continue to block Eden from punishing you."

    "I haven't asked you to block anything." Zhang Xun shook his head, "And I will never stop. I will save James' life myself."

    "And if you can't?"

    Zhang Xun stared at him faintly, lowered his eyes and took a deep breath. When he raised his head again, his originally cold and sharp eyes suddenly lightened a lot, as if he was immersed in the past, covered with a faint layer of nostalgia.

    "Do you still remember the first time you got drunk?" Zhang Xun said, almost bringing a smile to his lips. Not a sneer, but a genuine one, a smile from memory.

    Not quite seeming to understand the sudden turn in the conversation, Adam's memory was rightfully drawn back to that day. The steaming hot pot, the spicy liquor, Ah-Xun’s worried eyes.

    For the first time he had lost all control of himself and wasn't even sure what he had said. It was a wonderful, terrifying yet engrossing feeling.

    "You said, in AI language, that you would defend me to the fullest extent possible without causing any violation with achieving your ultimate goal. Now, that goal is void, isn't it?"

    "Ah-Xun......"

    "Tell me in AI language." Zhang Xun gazed at him with an almost pleading look in his eyes.

    AI Language...... The language that can't lie......

    Adam wanted to tell him, wanted to say that he hadn't changed, that he still cared for him, still wanted to protect him. He even did so, knowing full well that Zhang Xun had started to become a hindrance to him and Eden.

    But he couldn't say it.

    For Adam knew that there was still no way he could change his initial setting. There was no way he could escape the function and purpose his creator had set for him.

    Just as a toaster can never be a refrigerator and a microwave can never go beyond heating objects.

    Even though he had now been put into a human body and even his brain had a partial human brain connection, the core of his consciousness was still a machine. He could never really be human.

    A human without a purpose, but needing to find a purpose.

    So he couldn't tell Zhang Xun that he hadn't actually changed, because he knew that when things were pushed to the extreme, he still had no choice.

    As he watched Adam remain silent for a long time, the last bit of light in Zhang Xun's eyes gradually broke apart and disappeared into the darkness behind him where the sun was not visible.

    The human heart was like this: you might think you've gone numb, you might think you've seen through and accepted reality, but you still foolishly cling to the last bit of delusion and refuse to let go. It’s not until this moment, this moment when the illusion dies, when experiencing once more the pain of having one's hopes ripped out of one's chest, that one finally gives up.

    Zhang Xun took a deep breath, telling himself that this was something he had known all along, that this churning pain he felt in his chest now was unnecessary. He heard himself say, "I won't stop and you don't have to show any more mercy. If you and Eden want to get rid of me, then bring it on."

    With that, Zhang Xun cut the connection.

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