Chapter 4: Chapter 31 – 40

 

Chapter 31 - The Fruit of Wisdom (9)

    With Adam's help, the chemical department quickly developed a female pheromone spray to confuse the robot soldiers. The only problem was they didn't have any robot soldiers in their possession, so they couldn't test the combined effectiveness of the spray and the stealth suit that Zhang Xun had made.

    Unless... they got Adam to create a detection device the same as installed on the robot soldiers.

    Zhang Xun handed in a report to the military and to his surprise, this time Zhang Shuo agreed, with the condition that they could only create a detection device, not a complete robot soldier and the entire manufacturing process must be overseen by the Security Advisor.

    So now, Sistine was coming to the Lab every morning to supervise Adam's work.

    Zhang Xun could see that Sistine didn’t really want to sit here wasting his time, but he had to carry out the orders of his superiors. He himself had no intention of continuing confrontations with this Captain, who he had already forced into a corner, so they treated each other with courtesy. He even specially invited the noisy Fernandez to chat with him just in case he was feeling bored.

    Although most of the time Sistine would be sitting on the sofa in the observation room with his forehead in his hand and Fernandez talking non-stop next to him.

    In the afternoons, when Adam's work came to an end and after Sistine had also left, Zhang Xun would find an excuse to take Adam out of the Lab and go to the garbage processing yard to continue his fighting training with Diego.

    Under tacit understanding, the two of them hadn’t mentioned what happened in the data room on the second floor that night...

    Zhang Xun inadvertently raised his head and saw Adam not far away. He was focused on punching the sandbag in front of him, repeating the moves tirelessly again and again, his shoulder muscles were bulging from the force and his sweat drenched hair swayed and sparkled in the increasingly dim sunlight. He unknowingly fell into a trance.

    He could still feel the touch of that kiss on his lips.

    He never expected his first kiss to happen like that...it almost seemed like it had been rudely snatched away...

    He was somewhat annoyed, but not as angry as he imagined. He just didn't understand what Adam's intention was.

    Perhaps Adam saw that Zhang Xun was a lonely, sad, middle-aged nerd who longed for warmth,  and after Adam had been in contact with more people these days, he had gradually realised that he was very attractive to many people. So he speculated that this abrupt kiss that expressed intimacy would break Zhang Xun's mental defence line further and deepen his emotional dependence on Adam.

    This was Zhang Xun's own rational analysis, but the less rational side kept asking: Could it be real?

    But even if it was real, it wouldn’t be the same as the true "like". A mature artificial intelligence would usually have some degree of dependence on its own administrators, just like how Pan treated him differently from others. Could it be this dependence that made Adam think he likes him? Just because he was the first person he saw after he became a human and the one who taught him how to live in a human body.

    While trying to convince himself that Adam really did have a special dependence on him, he kept telling himself that it was impossible. Zhang Xun felt increasingly lamentable.

    Then, Adam turned his head, as if feeling Zhang Xun's burning gaze. Zhang Xun immediately turned his eyes away, pretending to focus on the tablet computer in his arms and didn't raise his head again.

    Adam's eyes softened and the corners of his mouth were slightly upturned.

    "Stop looking! Stop looking! Don’t you get sick of looking all day long?" Diego impatiently complained beside him, "We have to finish soon, I’m going back to watch the game."

    "Judging from how often you have watched football since I met you, you have watched the replay of the World Cup final at least one hundred and twenty-three times. Do you get sick of it?"

    "Shut it, brat. You think I won’t beat the crap out of you?”

    ………………………………………………

    After Adam's detection device was completed, Zhang Xun asked James to put on his newly developed stealth suit and helmet of the same material and then sprayed a circle of the pheromone reagents made by the Chemistry Department on his body. James walked around the detection device three times, but the red warning lights on the detection device didn’t turn on.

    "It really works!" James laughed, his voice coming from the mouthpiece of the mask, which seemed a little muffled, but full of excitement, "Then we can just swagger through the robot soldiers like this?"

    "We still need to be cautious. We don't know if Eden has upgraded the robot soldiers since the god descent plan." Compared with the excitement of the pharmacists, researchers and mechanics around him, Zhang Xun seemed hesitant, "You should still try to avoid the robot soldiers, it would be best to maintain a safe distance of at least two hundred yards."

    "Okay! Whatever you say!" James gave Zhang Xun a big hug, "You’re the hero of our hunting group!" Zhang Xun also smiled and patted his back, but saw Adam frowning slightly from over James' shoulder.

    Zhang Xun pretended not to have seen anything and broke free from James' bear hug, "I have to quickly finish writing the usage report. Let's meet at the Headquarters this afternoon."

    In the afternoon, Zhang Xun rushed over to the Headquarters with the report. Zhang Shuo only had half an hour to see him at 2:30pm, so he had to run all the way. When he reached the Headquarters he was already sweating. He waited in Zhang Shuo's office for a short fifteen minutes before Zhang Shuo hurried in. He didn't even look up at him when he entered the room and just picked up the evaluation report on the new suit and pheromone spray that Zhang Xun had put on the table. Zhang Shuo flipped the paper quickly and his shrewd eyes swiftly scanned the rows on the forms.

    After a while, he said, "That detection device was made by Adam."

    "Yes."

    "How would we know if he’s cut corners and deliberately misled us?"

    "Commander, Adam has passed the assessment."

    Zhang Shuo raised his head and glanced at his son who was standing respectfully with his head bowed. Then he threw the report in his hand on the table, sat down on the leather armchair, leaned back and looked at Zhang Xun as he tapped the table with his fingertips a few times.

    "Okay, you can test it a few more times. If the results are consistent, I will approve the hunting group to use this equipment from next month."

   Zhang Xun was stunned for a moment. He didn't expect his father's agreement to be so straightforward this time, or that he wouldn't come up with problems to make things difficult for him. He quickly replied “yes” and then planned to run away quickly.

    But just as he was about to open the door to go out, Zhang Shuo suddenly said, "I heard that you and that Adam are very close?"

    Zhang Xun's shoulders stiffened and he turned to look at his father.

    Zhang Shuo had no expression, so he couldn't tell if he was being sarcastic or angry.

    "I'm his mechanic, I'm in charge of all his actions, that's all." Zhang Xun replied calmly.

    "Good." Zhang Shuo picked up the pen on his desk and began to review another document, "You have a weak and gullible personality and you like machinery. I hope you will remember that you’re dealing with a thing that played with billions of human beings a hundred years ago. Sometimes you may think you’re in control, but in fact you have become its puppet unknowingly. In short, remember your place.”

    Zhang Xun lowered his eyes and replied submissively, "I understand."

    Zhang Shuo ignored him and he left in a hurry.

    Rumours... There were already rumours against them going around. He had to pay more attention to his and Adam's conduct in front of people and not give people any reason to talk.

    Now he was beginning to regret choosing such a beautiful body for Adam... A good appearance always attracts the good and the bad...

    But this was just the beginning, when the female pheromone spray was included in the military supplies, many of the soldiers lost their heads.

    "If we spray the scent of women today, maybe tomorrow we'll all be turned into women!"

    "Fuck, why don't you just give us skirts and wigs?"

    "What good ideas can these artificial intelligences have?! It's obviously trying to slowly assimilate us, like boiling frogs in warm water!"

    Such angry comments circulated everywhere in the military camp. It was interesting that most of the people complaining were the ordinary soldiers, not the members of the hunting regiment who would be using the spray most often. Hunters knew how dangerous it was out there and anything that increased their chances of survival was a good thing for them.

    Zhang Xun completely ignored those mindless comments and stepped up to improve his new hunting regiment battle uniform and handed it over to the military factory for production. After that, he would have to go to the factory from time to time to check the quality. Every day was so busy that he didn't even have time to eat, so he had much fewer chances to meet Adam. Most of the time Adam stayed in his own room, did some strength training by himself and then occasionally played chess with Pan, inadvertently speaking some AI language for Pan’s reference.

    Soon, a month had passed. The hunting group put on Zhang Xun's new battle uniform, sprayed themselves with pheromone spray and were ready to leave through the huge city gate in the First District.

    Zhang Xun stuffed a few bugs and a microscopic mirror into James's hands, "If the bugs detect the robot soldiers you’ll be able to see it in the microscopic mirror. I'd rather walk a little longer to avoid them, you know?

    "James, who hadn’t lowered the visor on his helmet yet, gave him a bright smile, "Don't worry! I'm not a rookie going out for the first time!"

    The tall and heavy steel gate of Lost Paradise slowly rumbled amid the sound of countless gears rubbing against each other. When it opened, he saw that the forest that had been destroyed by the air bombs outside had turned into an area of scorched earth and the remnants of the trees were lying on the ground. Even after all this time there was still a faint smell of burning. James counted the number of people in the team. There were fifteen people in total and they walked in a line toward the gap opened by the giant gate.

    Zhang Xun stood there, watching their figures disappear outside the gate and his heart seemed to be hung up by a thin thread.

    For the next few days, Zhang Xun was restless and distracted. He even burned his hand once while holding a small electric welding conductor. He screamed in pain, only to see Adam, who was sitting next to Alloy changing its rear leg parts, jump up and pull Zhang Xun over to the sink. He turned on the water tap and then grabbed Zhang Xun’s burned hand and rinsed it under the ice cold water.

    "I know how to deal with it myself!" Zhang Xun wanted to break free from Adam's hand in embarrassment.

    Adam looked at Zhang Xun solemnly, "Okay, you can continue rinsing it yourself for at least ten minutes."

    "That's a waste of water..."

    "Ten minutes is necessary." Adam's tone was unquestionable and he turned to find the first aid kit on the shelf. "The risk of infection is very high for burn wounds. Improper handling will have serious consequences."

    Zhang Xun had no choice but to flush the wound with cold water for ten minutes. Back at the table, Adam carefully applied ointment to Zhang Xun's wound and wrapped it with gauze. Zhang Xun looked at Adam's expression that was so focussed, as if this was the only thing that mattered in the world.

    For some reason his heart was warm, like snow was melting.

    "Are you worried about James?" Adam finished bandaging, put his hand down gently, raised his head and asked.

    Zhang Xun nodded, "It's been seven days and hunting groups rarely go out for such a long time..."

    "But we didn't observe any changes and we didn't hear any sounds of the exchange of fire."

    "They’re going to meet that arms dealer and they may even meet outside of the Rocky Mountains range." Zhang Xun's brows were furrowed tightly and he hadn't loosened them in the past few days, "If something happens to them, we wouldn’t know, it's very likely that they would disappear like Diego's team."

    Adam was about to say something when suddenly Pan's voice sounded.

    "Zhang Xun, there is a message from the Headquarters, asking you to take Adam there as soon as possible."

    Now?

    Zhang Xun stood up and asked, "Did it say why?"

    "The members of the hunting regiment have just returned." Pan paused and continued, "But James Kugel did not come back."

Chapter 32 - The Fruit of Wisdom (10)

    Zhang Xun hurried to the Headquarters with Adam and was immediately taken into the war room.

    The light in the deep underground war room was dim and the computers showed expressionless faces. The huge screen hanging in mid-air constantly displayed the shield monitoring system and radar system in different areas of Lost Paradise and there were countless cameras on all sides of the high wall to observe for enemies who could approach from any angle.

    At a long wooden table illuminated by a huge chandelier overhead, a group of senior officers, headed by Zhang Shuo, lined up in turn. In addition, Zhang Xun saw Jabari and two others from James’ group sitting on the outer chairs. They were in a sorry state, their faces were muddy and there was blood on Jabari's head.

    Zhang Xun's whole heart seemed to sink into a deep trench.

    Adam stood quietly behind Zhang Xun, his eyes calmly taking in the gestures and expressions of everyone in the war room into his mind.

    Sitting next to Zhang Shuo was General Wilson. He was the first to speak and said in a cold voice, "Mechanic Zhang, you must have heard about the return of the hunting group."

    Zhang Xun even forgot about etiquette and he asked urgently, "Where's James? What happened? Was it the robot soldiers? Have you...have you activated..."

    "Zhang Xun, calm down." Zhang Shuo's deep voice sounded, not in a hurry or slow, but still calm, "We called you here today hoping to learn more from Adam."

    "Adam has been with me the whole time and knows nothing more than we do. If you think it's Adam..."

    "Mechanic!" Zhang Shuo's voice became more severe and Zhang Xun had to stop talking.

    General Wilson spoke slowly, "The hunting group indeed successfully avoided the robot soldiers' searches by relying on the technology provided by you and Adam. So we do not suspect that the disappearance of Captain James Kugel is related to Adam."

    Disappearance?

    That is to say, he wasn’t neutralised?

    General Wilson looked at the three hunting regiment members. Jabari opened his mouth and said, "We broke through the robot soldiers’ line of defence, arrived at Reindeer Bay and connected with the arms dealer, Red Lady, as planned. Her goods were ready, but we didn't expect that there would be other people who wanted to buy them."

    "Other people?" a Major General asked in confusion. "People from the ordinary world?"

    Jabari shook his head, "No, they were men, and they came in very advanced military aircraft...all of them were well-equipped, well-trained soldiers, but not Lost Paradise men."

    Not Lost Paradise men, but soldiers... Could there be other refugee settlements near Lost Paradise that they didn't know about?

    Moreover, an aircraft would very easily be discovered by Eden, but they dared to swagger in with this, which showed that their aircraft must have extremely advanced stealth technology. Not only was it undetectable to radars, but even the naked eye couldn't easily detect it and the ear couldn't hear noise from it, so it was possible to avoid Eden's ubiquitous eyes and ears.

    Jabari continued, "The Red Lady raised the prices and whoever paid the highest price could take the goods away. The other party was very generous and the universal currency we brought wasn’t enough. With the military on our backs we tried to negotiate to bring back some of the goods, but they didn't agree. In a moment of desperation, a young man in our team fired a shot in anger. The other party's weapons were far more advanced than ours and apparently they have Eden's bullet tracking technology. Three of us were seriously injured and everyone else was wounded to some degree, so the Captain led those people away alone in order to cover our escape. We tried to go back to find him afterward but the robot soldiers had already blocked the area."

    "He left the signal range of the neutraliser, so no one knows whether James is still alive now." General Wilson shook his head regretfully, "But now it’s more important to find out who those people are."

    "Will we send a search and rescue team?" Zhang Xun asked.

    Zhang Shuo glanced at him with some sadness in his eyes, "We have never sent out a search and rescue team for a missing hunter, so we won't this time either."

    "But he may still be alive, or even in the hands of those people. If we find him, we might also find those men of unknown power." Zhang Xun's mind was racing, trying to find a way to convince them. He turned his head to look at Adam, "When you were Eden, how much did you know about other refugee countries?"

    Adam said: "Apart from Lost Paradise, the refugee camp in the Middle East desert was poor and weak, it rejected new technologies and after several failed terrorist attacks, it has been completely disintegrated by Eden. The refugee country in New Zealand has few signs of activity and it seems that a self-sufficient social system has formed. Their level of technology is not as advanced as yours, but it is widely used, unlike here, where all technology is in labs and institutes and is controlled by a few elites. However, in recent years, several new refugee settlements have appeared in Central America, the Cyclades and Asia. While most of them are just small villages, nowhere near the size of Lost Paradise, some of them have financial and technical support from anonymous agencies. Eden was trying to identify these agencies before I was kidnapped. Eden thinks some humans in the government are secretly trying to snatch more control from it."

    Adam had already revealed some pieces of this information to Zhang Xun, and it had been mentioned in Zhang Xun's weekly report to Zhang Shuo, but apparently this information hadn’t been taken seriously until now.

    The generals looked at each other. In order not to be manipulated by Eden over the years, Lost Paradise had kept itself behind closed doors so little was known about these changes on the outside.

    If it was another refugee country, it would be a good opportunity for them to build mutual support and reconciliation. Why would the other side cause trouble for Lost Paradise? What would they gain from becoming enemies with Lost Paradise?

    On the other hand, if the governments of the ordinary world had also begun to distrust Eden, this may be an opportunity.

    Zhang Shuo pressed a button on the tablet in front of him. Above the chandelier above his head, a hidden projector emitted a white light, hitting the blank wall behind everyone. It was a view of the battle captured by a camera on Jabari's helmet. The scene was chaotic, the camera shook violently and everyone's roars, gunshots and some strange low-frequency vibration were mixed together. Apparently Jabari was shooting at some silver people. Those people were all wrapped in a mirror-like and very light-looking suit. The beams from Lost Paradise's laser guns and the physical bullets from the rifles couldn’t penetrate the mirror-like material. One of the enemies raised their hand and that hand changed shape rapidly, becoming some kind of streamlined weapon, aiming at the camera.

    Zhang Xun heard James next to Jabari shouting, "Find cover! Quickly find cover!!"

    Everyone rushed towards the nearest trees like crazy and Jabari's heavy breathing seemed to choke everyone's throat. What happened next was somewhat difficult for everyone present to understand. They saw dazzling white light, a disturbing white light that caused a splitting headache. They heard someone screaming and they saw a soldier rolling around in pain. Half of his face seemed to be melted by something hot, the flesh was mangled and bloody.

    The video cut off there.

    The room was silent.

    After a while, Adam suddenly said, "These people have done a lot of mechanical modifications to themselves and it’s likely that they were intentionally replaced by prosthetic limbs after being injured. The suits they wear are nano-skin suits developed by Titanium in the past two years. Titanium's technology comes from Eden. Each suit has a unique number, which corresponds to the identity of the suit owner, so I'm sure this suit is only sold to the US, UK and Germany, but a year or so before my hijacking, Titanium had a serious information leak. A senior engineer and her male partner defected to a new refugee colony in Central America with the help of some insiders: Feathered Serpent City. I'm about 70% sure that these people came from there."

    "Central America is so far from here, they must have bypassed the United States by sea and it must be about more than just buying arms." Zhang Xun looked urgently at the generals present, "Maybe they’re still nearby."

    "We can send a team of soldiers to track them down," said a Major General named Shahrukh Kumar. "If they really are staying near Lost Paradise, we must know what they’re doing."

    General Wilson frowned his bushy grey eyebrows, "We don't know anything about their technology and location. Now three of the team members are dying and sending another team out is likely to attract the attention of the robot soldiers, and, according to Jabari, the robot soldiers have already discovered the traces of the firefight that took place in Reindeer Bay. Besides, maybe they have left already."

    "But we have Adam, which is equivalent to knowing all their skills. Last time we were unprepared and were suppressed by the other party, but this time we can at least be prepared, both physically and mentally."

    Another General said coldly, "How can you be sure that Adam really told you all the information he knows?"

    Zhang Xun was about to refute when Zhang Shuo raised his hand to stop him from speaking. The Commander looked around the crowd and said in a deep voice, "We will never tolerate allowing suspicious persons with unknown purposes and certain hostility to operate around Lost Paradise. Although Lost Paradise has just been hit by a major air strike, it must not lose the courage to defend its homeland."

    Several Generals either nodded or agreed silently. Only General Wilson was still worried, "If we want to find them, we would have to act immediately. Where would we find the time to prepare enough new suits and weapons? Besides, they are immune to our weapons, doesn't this mean we have no way to fight back?"

    "Although they are immune to physical attacks, that protective suit doesn't protect against sounds." Adam interjected, looking at Zhang Xun with a smile, "The sound of the No.2 expulsion system, designed by Ah-Xun for the Lab, will be a good weapon."

    All eyes suddenly fell on Zhang Xun.

    Zhang Xun was a little surprised. He hesitated for a while and said, "We could consider weaponizing that sound."

    "In addition, their suits and modified robotic arms are all Titanium's technology and Eden has left itself a failsafe for all of Titanium's technology. Eden doesn’t trust human beings with perfect technology, it believes that humans will abuse any technology and power they obtain.” Adam continued to speak in a melodious and clear voice, without feeling any sense of irony in what he was saying.

    Humans created their god with technology, but that god refused to believe in humans.

    "A failsafe? What failsafe?" Zhang Shuo asked.

    "It’s very complicated, so none of Titanium's senior engineers ever discovered it. Simply put, as long as I'm close enough, I can use electromagnetic signals to jam their weapons." Adam smiled politely at the crowd, "So, if you are willing to bring me and my mechanic along, there is a high probability that I will be able to help you."

   

Chapter 33 - Wilderness (1)

    The proposal to let Adam leave and go outside Lost Paradise with the hunting party sounded impossible for the headquarters to pass, but a day later, a miracle happened.

    Zhang Xun looked through the search operation plan sent by the messenger, but couldn't feel relaxed at all.

    Even Zhang Xun objected to Adam’s proposal this time. He knew that he had full control over Adam and it was impossible for Adam to escape or use any means to attract the robot soldiers under the triple defence system, but he also knew that Adam was unprepared for such an operation. On top of that, Zhang Xun couldn't control the other team members’ attitudes or how they would behave towards Adam.

    It was too risky. Although Zhang Xun wanted to go out with the hunting group to find James, he didn't want Adam to take such a risk, nor did he want to put everyone else in some unknown risk.

    However, in order for the proposal to pass, Adam voluntarily agreed for every hunter and soldier accompanying them to be issued with a controller for the electric shock collar around his neck, which meant that anyone accompanying him could use electric shock to temporarily incapacitate Adam.

    Under such conditions, the Headquarters were really persuaded.

    With the assistance of the Psychological Association, the Headquarters would carefully select hunters who were not overly hostile to artificial intelligence, but this kind of thing... who could guarantee it?

    Zhang Xun returned to his private research room and as soon as he entered the door his head almost exploded due to the screeching noise.

    Adam immediately turned off the noise attack device he was modifying, took off the anti-noise earmuffs and smiled brightly at Zhang Xun, "I'm sorry, Ah-Xun."

    Zhang Xun's face was grim and he threw the document in his hand on the table. "Adam, I don't know what your purpose is, but you’re asking for trouble."

    Adam reached out and picked up the document, opened it, and closed it with satisfaction, "If I go with you, the odds of finding James will be greatly improved. Aren't you happy?"

    "I want to find James, but I don't want to put everyone in danger."

    "You still don't trust me, Ah-Xun. You're worried that I'm going to take the opportunity to leave Lost Paradise and try to communicate with Eden, but as everyone will have the means to restrict my actions, the probability of my human body making suspicious actions is close to zero."

    Zhang Xun put his hands on the table and looked down at Adam sitting on the chair, "You haven't experienced the feeling of being electrocuted, Adam. If you try anything, you will regret your cleverness this time."

    "They are only allowed to activate the discharge function of the collar if there is a good reason for it, and all decisions will be re-checked after returning to Lost Paradise. If any soldier maliciously electrocutes me they will be severely punished, or may even be expelled from the hunting regiment."

    "What is the standard for good reason? Who is to judge? You should understand the way we humans play with vague definitions." Zhang Xun's eyes filled with a thick haze, "Besides, you think you're used to the human body, but we don't know how you'll react when faced with a stressful situation. You should know better than me how dangerous this is.”

    Adam looked up at Zhang Xun suddenly, stretched out his left hand and gently covered the back of Zhang Xun's hand on the table, even rubbing it, "I like the feeling of you worrying about me. It means I’m very important in your mind."

    Zhang Xun quickly withdrew his hand and stood up straight, but the skin that Adam touched seemed to still have a lingering sensation. Zhang Xun frowned, staring at Adam as if helpless, "Where did you learn these little tricks from?"

    "I have recently been re-analyzing some psychological research papers and more famous romantic movies, plus some practice during my alone time on the weekdays. I hope these gestures will increase the intimacy between us." Adam said, slowly standing up. In an instant, Zhang Xun’s perspective gradually changed from looking down to looking up slightly.

    He really should have chosen a man who was shorter than himself...

    "Ah-Xun, a relationship of distrust will only reduce the efficiency of communication and cause a series of bad cycles. This is an unhealthy interpersonal relationship." Adam said in a sincere and seductive tone, his eyes filled with sincere and warm tenderness, "Have I ever betrayed you? If not, isn't your suspicion a prejudice that has no observational basis?"

    "..." Zhang Xun realised that the topic had been led astray by Adam again. It seemed that this occurrence had been happening frequently in their conversations recently...

    ……………………………………………………

    All the Lab mechanics worked overnight and rushed to make eighteen audio attack weapons based on the principle of the No.2 expulsion system. In the early hours of the third day after the hunting group came back, Zhang Xun and Adam wore full-body stealth suits, noise-proof ear muffs on their ears, audio guns on their arms and computer and military supplies on their backs. Fifteen other members of the Fifth Hunting Regiment, plus Jabari, who had urged to join the operation, stood in front of the gate of the First District of Lost Paradise.

    Zhang Xun felt his heart beating fast but his hands and feet were cold. Anxiety crept through every pore, crawling beneath his skin, gnawing at his nerves. Zhang Xun hadn’t left Lost Paradise for a long time. Lost Paradise wasn't absolutely safe, but at least it was where he grew up.

    But outside... everything was hostile and dangerous outside. There may be minions of death behind every tree and every human or machine they encounter could kill them. There were eyes and cobwebs everywhere and he was only a tiny ant.

    However, Zhang Xun still somewhat missed the times when he would secretly dress as a woman and blend into the city under the arrangement of the Round Table a few years ago. He told Adam that he went to the city to collect recipes, when in fact his task at the time was much more than that. At that time, he saw that life in the outside world and life in Lost Paradise were centuries apart from each other.

    If one day they could be free...if one day they could have those dream-like technologies...

    "Are you nervous?" Adam suddenly spoke in his ear. Zhang Xun was frightened out of his own thoughts and glanced at Adam, whose eyes were shining, "Are you excited?"

    "Yes. This is the first time I've gone outside Lost Paradise as a human." Adam made no secret of his emotions.

    Zhang Xun looked at him and sighed softly, "You may also die outside. You may be killed by your own robot soldiers, you may be killed by the people of Feathered Serpent City, or you may be killed by these people around you, you may even be killed... by me."

    Adam wasn’t equipped with any weapons. If they encountered the robot soldiers or if Adam tried to escape or was captured, they were to end Adam immediately. This was the command given from above. Adam knew it himself.

    Even if Adam was captured, even if he left the range of the neutralisor, Zhang Xun knew that there was one last termination device on him... that tiny bomb that even Adam didn't know about. No matter how reluctant he was, he couldn't let Adam fall into Eden's hands. He knew this from the very beginning.

    "I still remember during that air raid, you looked so scared. Your fear seems to have lessened now?" Zhang Xun looked at the artificial intelligence with a complicated mood, "Or did you pretend to be scared before?"

    "Ah-Xun, there is no way to fake physiological reactions." Adam shrugged his shoulders, his face of pure innocence, "I'm not so scared now, maybe I'm more used to the human body so I have confidence, or maybe because I haven't experienced it yet, I don't know how to be afraid of fighting between humans."

    "Everyone! Line up!" He Yuxin, the Captain of the Fifth Hunting Regiment, shouted loudly.

    All the hunters immediately lined up neatly, like disordered atoms that were suddenly positioned by some kind of force field. Zhang Xun quickly took Adam to the end of the line behind Jabari.

    He Yuxin was of Asian descent like Zhang Xun, but also seemed to have some European ancestry. Lost Paradise had been blessed by generations of the egg factory's anonymous donation system and there were very few people of pure Asian ancestry, like Zhang Xun. He Yuxin was tall and although not very strong, he was lean and athletic, his skin was darkened from prolonged sun exposure and his features were very straight. He walked slowly in front of every soldier, his shrewd and sharp eyes swept across the face of every hunter, "The objective of this mission is to find the whereabouts of the unknown refugee members, try to avoid confrontation, find out where they came from and what their purpose here is. The secondary objective is a search and rescue for Captain James Kugel. No one is permitted to use their weapons without my order and must wear stealth suits and helmets 24 hours a day and receive a pheromone spray all over your body every four hours. Don't move without my permission, not even to take a piss. When I tell you to be quiet, you better be quiet and don't even let a fart out. Understood?! "

    “Understood!" all the soldiers shouted in a loud voice.

    With the roar of the huge gears, the heavy, giant gate opened to a gap and the group of eighteen people filed out.

    Lost Paradise was built in a relatively gentle valley sunk between two high mountains and a river meandered through it, continuously flowing into the Lost Lake in the city. The green blanket of forest in the valley was destroyed by the air bombs a month ago. Occasionally they would see a grey trunk of a tree that was still standing, but most of them had fallen to the ground, making the road very difficult to walk. They stumbled across the roadblocks and marched with difficulty towards the distant mountains and forests that hadn’t yet been affected.

    Occasionally they would come across the remains of animals that had died in the bombing and were crushed under the trees. The bodies had been eaten by maggots and the smell of rotting flesh filled the hot air, making the heat even more unbearable. Zhang Xun was already sweating after less than five kilometres and the sleeping bag and tent on his back became heavier and heavier.

    After walking twenty kilometres, Zhang Xun felt dizzy and his throat seemed to be on fire. His movements had also become noticeably slower. However, none of the soldiers in front showed any signs of stopping to rest, so he had to grit his teeth and endure it. He didn't want to live up to what those soldiers say: a typical weakling nerd.

    At this time, the weight on his shoulders lightened and before Zhang Xun could react, Adam pulled the backpack off his shoulders and slung it over his own shoulders.

    Zhang Xun was stunned, "What are you doing?"

    "You seem to have mild heatstroke symptoms." Adam was wearing his helmet so he couldn't see his expression clearly, but there was concern in his voice, "It would be better for you to hydrate. My physical fitness is better than yours, I can carry this for you for a while."

    Zhang Xun couldn’t lose his temper when the other party's statement was so straightforward and sincere. He had wanted to argue but thought if he really did faint from the heat it would cause trouble for everyone. So he quickly lifted the mask on his helmet, picked up the water bottle and poured a few sips into his mouth.

    After another five kilometres they began to enter the woodland. Huge cedar trees shaded them from the harsh sunlight, the ground was covered with shrubs and ferns and a thin path trodden down by the hunters loomed ahead. In a forest area where the trees were sparse, He Yuxin finally ordered them to rest for lunch. Zhang Xun collapsed under a tree, pulled off the mask of his helmet and breathed in the air, like a stranded fish, his face was sweaty and he was about to suffocate.

    "There’s still some distance from the range of robot soldiers, you can take off your helmets." As soon as the Captain's voice fell, everyone cheered and immediately threw the helmets to the ground. Zhang Xun took off his gloves and wiped the sweat from his forehead, thinking that he had to find a way to make this suit lighter...

    Adam's hair was also soaked and sticking to his cheekbones and his originally fair skin was also red from the heat. Zhang Xun looked at his worn out appearance and felt guilty and handed the water bottle to Adam, "Thank you for helping me..."

    Adam smiled brightly and as he took the water bottle he rubbed his fingers on the back of his hand, intentionally or unintentionally. He then asked seriously, "How are you feeling? Do you have any symptoms of dizziness?"

    "I'm fine." Zhang Xun retracted his hand as if he hadn’t noticed anything. He coughed lightly, took out anti-heat medicine from the small bag around his waist and put it in his mouth. He then took out a few "metal balls". He held the little things in his palm, took out his tablet and typed in a series of commands. Those small balls suddenly opened up, turning into flies and mosquitoes that looked almost real, flying, buzzing and quickly disappearing among the trees.

    "What was that?" a red-haired hunter sitting not far from him asked curiously.

    Zhang Xun smiled at him, "Our eyes. It can help us locate the nearby robot soldiers up to two hundred yards away."

    The young man's eyes widened as if he was watching magic, "Is that a robot? Little robots?"

    "What's the big deal, don't we have a robot here that looks exactly like a human?" Another older hunter, Cannon, said mockingly, staring at Adam with a hint of guardedness in his eyes.

    Adam didn't shy away, looking at the man kindly, "I think now I'm more of a human being."

    "Humans are born from a culture capsule or a mother's womb. Were you?" Cannon mocked casually, "If you put a computer into a human body, in the end it's still a computer."

    "And it's a computer that can destroy the world." He Yuxin put a cigarette in his mouth as he spoke.

    The other hunters also cast their gazes, either exploring the surroundings or hesitating or pretending to be indifferent and the atmosphere of the entire team was a little... stiff.

    Zhang Xun looked at everyone's expressions, reached out his hand to squeeze Adam's arm, winked at him and motioned him to stop talking. The more they tried to persuade others, the easier it was to cause conflict. Better to keep silent.

    He understood that he and Adam were now standing on thin ice. If they didn’t handle things carefully it could aggravate these people’s hostility towards Adam, which may lead to the misuse of the electric shocks.

Chapter 34 - Wilderness (2)

    As night fell slowly, with the increasingly bright twilight, the hunting group chose a suitable place that was drier and surrounded by bushes to set up camp. For the convenience of packing the next day, two team members shared a tent, and Zhang Xun, as Adam's mechanic, naturally had to stay in a tent with Adam.

    To avoid attracting the attention of the robot soldiers they didn’t dare to cook rice and instead they all ate compressed food. After hastily swallowing the chewy biscuits, most of them burrowed into their tents to rest, leaving four people on guard.

    Apart from Zhang Xun and Adam, the other team members were divided into four groups and each group kept a two-hour watch. On this silent night, through the thin layer of military canvas, the shadows of the trees could be seen swaying with the wind that smelled of pine leaves. The hooting of owls accompanied the howls of wild wolves in the darkness and there was a thin layer of insect chirping in the background.

    Zhang Xun carefully looked at the small windows displayed on the tablet computer in his arm, which were the images of the surroundings sent back by the bugs he released. Through the night vision lenses, the forest exuded an eerie green, a bit like a scene from a horror movie.

    After confirming that he still hadn’t found any traces of the robot soldiers, Zhang Xun raised his head, only to find Adam sitting diagonally in front of him, with his head half-turned, listening intently.

    Zhang Xun didn't want to pay any attention to him, but the other party was listening so carefully, as if he was listening to something he couldn't hear... Zhang Xun couldn't help but ask, "What are you listening to?"

    Adam turned his head and said in a very serious tone, "It seems that this is a good season for mating and reproduction."

    "...??"

    "Wolf calls, insect calls, owl calls, these are the typical calls to attract the opposite sex." Adam turned to Zhang Xun, leaned in slightly and said in a slightly hoarse voice with a hint of seduction, "Probably apart from the humans, most of the species in this mountain are working hard to reproduce tonight."

    Zhang Xun suddenly felt that the tent was a bit too small...and the temperature had risen slightly higher.

    He put the computer aside, got into his sleeping bag and said with a sullen face, "Sleep. We still have to travel in the early morning." He turned around and closed his eyes with his back to Adam.

    After a while, there was a rustling behind him and it seemed that Adam also got into his sleeping bag.

    Zhang Xun didn't know why but he couldn't sleep for a long time. His rational mind wanted to fall asleep, but an invisible little paw was scratching the inside of his skull indiscriminately. There also seemed to be a feeling of possessiveness behind him so he couldn’t relax...

    After a while, there was another rustling sound. The other stuffed sleeping bag was now huddled up against his. Zhang Xun turned his head angrily, only to find that Adam also had his back to him, but had his back pressed up against him until he was close to the canvas of the tent, until he couldn't press any more...

    "Go to sleep! "Zhang Xun commanded in a low voice.

    Adam didn't answer, taking long, deep breaths.

    Was he sleeping?

    Zhang Xun turned back in frustration and stopped talking. He didn't see the faint smile on the corner of Adam's mouth with his back turned to him.

    However, in the middle of the night, a series of alarm beeps came from Zhang Xun's tablet, short and urgent. Zhang Xun woke up immediately and upon seeing the picture displayed on his screen, a chill immediately flowed through his body. A bug wandering about four hundred metres away from them had detected a non-carbon-based moving object, that is to say, at least one robot soldier was approaching them.

    Adam sat up alertly when the first alarm sounded, immediately put on his battle suit and handed the helmet to Zhang Xun, "Do you want to inform the others?"

    "Of course!" As Zhang Xun hurriedly put on the helmet, Adam had already rushed out first and whispered to the night watchman, "There are robot soldiers approaching!"

    Within three minutes everyone rushed out of the camp, spraying pheromones on their bodies and hiding in the depths of the forest in the opposite direction as instructed by Zhang Xun. But the robot soldiers moved very fast. They only had time to get into the bushes and turn on the stealth function of the battle uniforms when they saw the dark woods opposite the camp begin to shake violently and the scalp-tingling ‘sha sha’ noise sounded in the night, like the disturbing sound of monsters and demons laughing. They were afraid to move, fearing that any movement would cause the cloak to fail.

    The hard branches poked at Zhang Xun's helmet. The night wind was cold, but he was already sweating. His heart was beating so loud that he was worried he would be heard by those robot soldiers.

    Adam lay beside Zhang Xun but didn't tell Zhang Xun that all the team members' guns were aimed at him at this moment.

    If Adam did anything that might make them think he was attempting to communicate with the robot soldiers, he would be shot into a sieve instantly.

    The rustling became more and more rapid and the branches and leaves shook more and more violently. Then, a long thing stretched out first, like the limb of some kind of mutated, giant insect. Under the translucent, membranous "skin", an eerily bright, blue electric current was rapidly transmitted along a metallic-colored, mucus-like substance. It looked soft and boneless, but the tip was sharply serrated and inserted effortlessly into the ground. One after another, more of the same "limbs" stretched out, poking into the depths of the ground like steel bars again and again, bringing out a disc-shaped body covered with circular blue lights like eyes, which kept spinning. The round body covered with a layer of metal shell kept making strange noises similar to the sharpening of knives or the operation of machinery.

    When Zhang Xun left Lost Paradise and infiltrated the cities of the ordinary world ten years ago, he also saw robot soldiers and robot police, but those were robot shapes that were very much in line with the human imagination and definition of robots. But the thing in front of him, with that mucusy and translucent material that was fleshy in texture, almost resembled... a real animal. To be more precise, it was like a giant spider magnified hundreds of times.

    Eden's design of robot soldiers had changed significantly, becoming closer to living things, but different from living things.

    The line between machines and life was blurring.

    Why?

    The mechanical monster discovered the camp that they didn’t have time to put away, raised a huge limb and cut it mercilessly towards Zhang Xun and Adam’s tent. The razor-sharp legs cut the tent in half like tofu and ripped apart all the other tents with impunity. If Zhang Xun hadn't released the bugs, if they hadn't escaped in time, they would have been chopped into meat sauce by now.

    After it had cut all the tents into infinitely small pieces with great speed, it still didn’t leave. The flat and round body kept spinning and after looking at those blue lights for a long time, it seemed that a trace of bloodthirsty malice could be seen. It was still looking as if it thought this wasn’t enough, that maybe there was something more important.

    Everyone was soaked in cold sweat and didn’t dare to let their breath out. The fear made Zhang Xun tremble slightly.

    At this time, Adam suddenly reached out his hand and gently wrapped his arm around his shoulders, just like how he had hugged Adam during the bombing, but this time it was Adam who was hugging him.

    Adam was trying to reassure him, as he had done before.

    The machine monsters gradually approached their direction and the rotation speed of the disc seemed to be faster than before. It was hunting for pheromones in the wind, but found none of the samples in its database. It got so close that Zhang Xun could even feel some kind of weird electric field emanating from it, making every hair of his head stand up, the static beeping in the air, ironing every inch of his skin .

    There was a hollow smell unique to electronic products.

    His nerves were so tense they almost tore apart. When his fear had accumulated to the point of trembling, it finally took a few steps back.

    It was about to give up and continue searching for possible hostile targets when suddenly several beams of the same colour light shot out from its countless rotating blue eyes. The light fell on the remains of their tents and munitions and suddenly everything, including metal products, were broken down into the smallest molecules in less than a second and scattered in the air.

    If such a light beam shone on a person, the person would disperse into countless carbon atoms and hydrogen atoms in less than a second and disappear without even a drop of blood.

    Everyone shuddered at the same time, Adam included.

    After cleaning up all traces of human beings, the robot soldier finally walked in the other direction with its huge arthropod limbs. They still dared not move their bodies, for fear that the thing would suddenly come back. It wasn't until Zhang Xun's bugs confirmed that it had left a distance of more than four hundred metres before they finally dared to move their stiff bodies. Jabari lifted the visor of his helmet, revealing a sweaty face and spat on the ground, "Fuck, it's a big spider again. Why is there so much of this stuff lately?”

    These odd-looking robot soldiers were no stranger to the hunters who had been venturing outside for a long time. On the contrary it was Zhang Xun, the mechanic, who stared dumbstruck in the direction where the robot soldier had disappeared.

    He Yuxin walked to their camp, looked around and couldn't find a single speck of ash. "How much equipment and rations have we lost?”

    Several weapons had been burned and worst of all, the radio transmitter that Adam was going to use to disrupt the Feathered Serpent people’s weapons had also been disintegrated.

    Now they were faced with a choice, whether to declare the mission a failure and go back to Lost Paradise to accept their punishment, or to bite the bullet and continue to try and track the whereabouts of those Feathered Serpent people.

    Several soldiers were red in the face from anger, but Zhang Xun sat silently on a dead tree, looking solemnly at the images displayed on the tablet computer that were sent back by the bugs. Adam came out from behind some bushes, shook the tree needles from his hair and leaned against the trunk of a cedar next to Zhang Xun, looking at him curiously, "Why don't you join their discussion?"

    Zhang Xun said calmly, "I'm not good at tracking and hunting, so I can't make the right decision."

    "But you don't want to go back, do you? You want to find James."

    "Yes, I don't want to go back now, but if the price of looking for James is that everyone will be trapped here without enough food or weapons, then of course that’s not a sensible decision. Maybe most of the group should go back to report first and leave just one or two to keep looking." His throat was dry, filled with unspeakable anxiety. He didn't know if James was hiding now or had been caught, and if so who had caught him, or if he was in trouble...

    Jabari, like him, wanted to keep looking for his Captain, but unlike his restrained silence, Jabari was arguing hoarsely with the other hunters who wanted to go back, almost starting a fight. Zhang Xun listened to their argument and thought that maybe he could propose to let the other hunters take Adam back first to avoid more casualties and he and Jabari could stay behind and continue to search for James. He had already come this far, he could ignore the Round Table's order, he just had to be prepared to return and accept his punishment after. They had the bugs, so as long as he and Jabari avoided the robot soldiers in time, they had a good chance of surviving.

    Just as he was about to speak, Adam suddenly turned around, squatted in front of Zhang Xun and asked him earnestly, "If I also disappeared one day, would you come to find me too?"

    Facing Adam, who was suddenly asking this baffling question, Zhang Xun's expression softened slightly, "Of course I would. I’m your mechanic."

    "What if you can't find me?

    “There will never be a time when I can’t find you." Zhang Xun reached out with a finger and gently placed it on the diamond-shaped device embedded in Adam’s forehead, "I will always know where you are."

    Adam was squatting in front of him motionlessly, just like a huge golden retriever, with his face raised, allowing the owner to touch him on his forehead.

    "Then, what if it’s me looking for you?" Adam asked, "What if it’s you who is gone?"

    Zhang Xun frowned, "Why would I be gone?"

    "Weren’t you just thinking about letting me and the others return together and you would go to find James yourself?"

    Zhang Xun thought to himself; he didn't give Adam the ability to read minds...

    Adam suddenly smiled again, his eyes were curved, as if there had never been any haze. He stood up and looked down at Zhang Xun, "Ah-Xun, I am very useful. I will help you find anyone you are looking for."

    After he finished speaking, he turned to those arguing and said loudly, "I was in the woods just now. I saw a carved mark on one of the trees inside that I think might have been left by James."

    The argument stopped and everyone looked at him.

    Adam stretched out his finger and drew a circle in the air, with a cross in the middle, "Is this a sign that you hunters use to send messages to the people behind you when you are tracking?"

    Jabari shouted, "Yes! Yes! Thank God! Where did you find it?!”

   

Chapter 35 - Wilderness (3)

    Zhang Xun panted behind the quick-moving hunters. With less heavy luggage, it was much easier to walk, but after a long night of sleep deprivation, he was exhausted.

    Finding a thumb-sized mark among the lush foliage was like looking for a needle in a haystack, but the hunters clearly had their own way of searching. They looked for signs of broken branches, looked for footprints that the average person would not recognize and always found the next mark when the trail seemed to be broken. Thankfully, no blood had been seen so far, which meant that James was at least not injured. Having the opportunity to leave these marks also meant that there was a high probability that he hadn’t been taken prisoner.

    But if so, why hadn’t he returned to Lost Paradise? Why leave these marks?

    When the first mark was discovered it wasn’t very far from Reindeer Bay, but now it had deviated a lot and continued to spread to the North.

    The population of Canada was originally small and the population had declined sharply in the past two hundred years, so that many towns in the North Rocky Mountains had gradually become deserted ghost towns. Sometimes hunters would spend the night in these deserted towns engulfed by overgrown vegetation, searching for available supplies. However, because people often took their valuable items when they moved out, the collected rubbish was often thrown into the garbage processing yard and was of no interest to anyone.

    As they searched for the marks they found such a small town in the wild mountains. The asphalt road that was originally used for vehicles had cracked like a tortoise shell and the gaps were full of vigorous weeds. About a kilometre outside the town, on a rusted and crumbling billboard, there were faintly recognizable mottled words: Welcome to Coal Mountain Town.

    Apparently the town was originally developed by mining coal, but with overexploitation and the rapid depletion of energy sources, coal mines were gradually being abandoned. There were many abandoned coal mines hidden in the majestic mountains and the vast sea of ​​trees. There were huge pitch-black mouths, which were buried with the souls of countless coal miners who had been forgotten by the world for many years. This town at the foot of the mountain was still the same as it was two hundred years ago. The roofs of more than half of the single-family wooden houses showed signs of collapse. The wooden boards were mouldy and decayed and there were countless insects and ants. There were grocery stores, breakfast shops, butcher shops, expressionless mannequins in the windows, motorcycle shops that had been ransacked, mailboxes still intact on the street corners... Everything seemed to still be usable, but it had long been overwhelmed by time and there was only an illusion of order left behind.

    This desolate scene was chilling, as if seeing the end of the human world.

    Why did James lead them here?

    The group of eighteen people walked cautiously along the streets full of weeds and potholes. Anyone with a gun in their hands had it loaded with bullets and the safety switched off, on guard against unknown dangers that might rush out from any corner. Zhang Xun walked in the middle of the team, monitoring the images sent back by the insects moving within a range of two hundred to four hundred metres around them.

    Adam looked around and said, "The last family in this town moved out one hundred and twenty-three years ago. At that time, their family of five had been living in this empty town for more than thirty years. The last person didn't leave until his parents died. There are fewer and fewer natural history museums like this that existed before the Third World War."

    "Do you think it's a pity?" Cannon sneered, "None of us feel it’s a pity."

    "I'm not sure what you mean by think it’s a pity." Adam replied honestly.

    "I think this town is empty and no one is there." He Yuxin, the head of the regiment, stopped in front of an old Wendy's restaurant and said to everyone, "Rest up here for an hour, Cannon, Barry, you two will come with me to look around and see if there are any new signs and supplies."

    So the group entered the chain restaurant occupied by dust and overgrown moss.

    The hunters banged around in the kitchen and behind the counters, picking up colanders for french fries and large iron pots for soup to play with in a duel. Obviously they were adult men, but they were still childish when they played. Probably because they didn't know if they would be alive tomorrow, so they were extraordinarily rejoicing in misery.

    Adam was standing in front of a jukebox, inspecting it and pressing the buttons haphazardly.

    "There's a power outage here, there's no way it's going to work." Zhang Xun sat on a nearby chair, kneading his sore calves.

    Adam rubbed his chin and thought for a while, then suddenly opened a metal plate on his mechanical arm, turned to the back of the jukebox and started fiddling. After a while, the long-defunct jukebox suddenly made a strange sound like an asthmatic patient and then a vinyl record was lifted by a metal stand and placed under the probe.

    In the next moment, a blues slow-rock song with a touch of the 1980s slowly dripped out of the speakers and roamed the entire restaurant. The female singer's hoarse and languid voice, accompanied by the same languid but distinct rhythm, instantly resurrected the dead restaurant.

    Several team members whistled, jumped up excitedly and swayed randomly to the music.

    Zhang Xun was stunned. After standing up and turning to the jukebox, he saw that Adam had pulled off the plug and directly connected the metal wire to the line in his arm.

    "Are you crazy? If you short-circuit your hand, you will lose your hand!" Zhang Xun immediately wanted to pull Adam away, but was stopped by Adam's left hand.

    "Ah-Xun, I may not be very skilled in being a human being, but when it comes to electricity, you can rest assured." Adam stood up, looking at his hand with satisfaction, "The robotic arm you made can absorb solar energy and can make full use of the energy generated from the body's own metabolism. It can also be used as a power source without needing any charging. Such technology is very valuable."

    "..." Why did Adam always praise him at such inappropriate times... Zhang Xun rolled his eyes, but seeing that Adam seemed to be fine, he no longer insisted on disconnecting him. But just as he was about to turn around and go back to the sofa seat to rest his legs and feet, he heard Adam calling him.

    "Ah-Xun." Adam's smile at this time was just perfect, it even appeared mature and attractive, obviously an expression that he had practised according to the information in his database. He bowed slightly like a gentleman and stretched out his right hand, which was connected to the wire of the jukebox, "Dance with me."

    Zhang Xun inexplicably remembered that he had used the same gesture to invite Adam, who didn't know how to use a human body just after his download, to practice walking...

    "Ridiculous..." Zhang Xun didn't want to go crazy with Adam.

    Adam changed his expression again and put on his best pitiful look for Zhang Xun, "Come on."

    Zhang Xun shook off the goose bumps on his arm, but turned his head and saw the hunters on the other side still in full swing. There were people imitating being singers, holding wine glasses and lip-synching to the music affectionately. The corners of Zhang Xun's mouth were a little loose, after all, this scene was really funny.

    While he was distracted, Adam suddenly reached out with his left hand to loop around Zhang Xun's waist and took him into his arms, while the other mechanical right hand grabbed Zhang Xun's left hand.

    "Tsk! You're not giving up yet?"

    Adam didn't speak, just looked at him with a smile and began to shake his body gently with the music, moving his feet lightly. However, Zhang Xun couldn't dance and his steps were broken and messy. After a while, he had stepped on Adam’s feet at least five times.

    "I said I can't dance!"

    "I think you dance very well."

    "Don't cry if I break your foot!"

    "Relax, relax." Adam whispered close to his ear, "You don't have to be nervous in front of me."

    Zhang Xun was still stiff and after stepping on Adam's foot again, he couldn't help but burst out laughing. The two of them couldn't stop laughing while fighting on their feet, but they didn't let go of their hands.

    Zhang Xun suddenly became confused for a moment, as if they were in a normal world, as if Adam was a human from the beginning, as if they had just met in an ordinary bar.

    The next moment, the illusion was suddenly broken by the door that was kicked. He Yuxin roared loudly, "Get down! Get down! Turn off the music!"

    Along with his roar a loud noise burst out in the air, like thunder, but it was a little different. At the same time a violent wind swept in from nowhere and poured in through every broken window. Adam immediately ripped off the wire from his arm and the music stopped abruptly. Everyone fell to the ground without needing any explanation, only to feel a heavy pressure descending from the sky. The wind was so strong that people couldn’t breathe and there was a sound of an electric current beeping in the air.

    The only remaining glass windows shattered one after another. All anyone could feel was a buzzing sound in their ears and a dull pain in their skulls.

    Zhang Xun reluctantly raised his head and looked at the sky outside the window.

    He saw that the originally clear sky was empty one second and in the next second a huge, black shadow suddenly appeared. Like a huge strange bird, with its majestic wings emitting a strange red light and it whistled past the top of the diner.

    It was an aircraft, a type Zhang Xun had never seen before.

    An aircraft that could become completely invisible to the naked eye or even block sounds.

    Moreover, the aircraft was covered with rows of bone-like protrusions and there were many strange materials filled with oily light, which seemed like a strange, alien design.

    It was slowing down and descending towards the mine.

    "Feathered Serpent City...it’s the people of Feathered Serpent City!" Cannon shouted, "It turns out that they’ve been hiding in the mines!"

    "That's why James drew the marks all the way here, he discovered their lair!"

    "But what about James?"

    "What now? Their weapons are so much more advanced than ours! We have nothing in our hands now!"

    As soon as everyone got up from the ground they started quarrelling, obviously affected by the terrifying feeling of oppression just now. Zhang Xun didn't understand how an aircraft could give people such a strong psychological pressure, as if it wasn’t an aircraft they had seen, but a monster.

    Had any new technology been applied?

    "If James was here he would have come out to see us." Zhang Xun looked anxiously in the direction of the mine, "but he also didn't return to Lost Paradise..."

    Did he fall into the hands of the people from Feathered Serpent City?

    What were these people doing in those abandoned mines, in the depths of the dark mountains where there were only the spirits of the dead?

    He Yuxin pondered for a moment and said, "I’ll pick four people to go with me to the mine to see what the hell they’re doing. The rest of you should hide in this town, wait for our news and don't act rashly. We will be back tomorrow morning at the latest."

    Under the current situation, this was the only option.

    They moved to a convenience store and made do with resting between the shelves for the night. But no one slept very much, half of it was because of waiting for news from the five people who went to scout, and the other half was from worrying about the sudden appearance of those mysterious and terrifying people from Feathered Serpent City.

    However, in the afternoon of the next day, the five explorers, including He Yuxin, still hadn’t returned.

Chapter 36 - Wilderness (4)

    "We have to find them! Something must have happened!" Cannon irritably took a few puffs of his cigarette and spat on the ground.

    A brown-haired soldier named Josh retorted, "If we go looking we'll disappear just like them. What's the point of dying for nothing?!"

    "You mean leave the Captain here?! You ungrateful dog!" yelled another hot-tempered young hunter.    

    "You piece of shit. If you want to die, then go ahead!"

    "You bastard! I’ll beat you to death for the Captain today!"

    Zhang Xun, who had been silent next to them, suddenly sternly said, "Enough! Why are you fighting with each other at a time like this?!"

    The mechanic, who had always been reticent and would pant after walking less than twenty kilometres, seemed to be possessed by Commander Zhang Shuo for a moment. He had a certain awe-inspiring aura, which shocked the unsuspecting twelve people, including Adam. The scene was very quiet for a while, only everyone’s heavy breathing could be heard. The group of soldiers stared at Zhang Xun with angry eyes that concealed panic, as if they couldn’t believe that a weak mechanic would dare to teach them a lesson.

    Zhang Xun saw that they had calmed down, so he bravely stood up and said, "If we all go to rescue him it’s very likely that the entire group won’t survive. This kind of sacrifice is meaningless. We have to send some people back to report on the situation and alert the Headquarters about these people in Feathered Serpent City. This is extremely important. Anyone who wants to go back with Josh to report, speak now."

You are reading story TM at novel35.com

    Zhang Xun's tone was calm, almost without an ounce of emotion, as if being completely objective and neutral on the matter, but was unexpectedly convincing. Cannon cursed in a low voice and said, "The mechanic is right. Blindly dying isn’t the answer. Who wants to go back with Josh?"

    Apart from the Captain, Cannon was the oldest, that’s why he was left behind when the head of the regiment took people to investigate the coal mine. After he said this the hunters were completely silent, looking at each other and weighing up which camp they should choose.

    Even though Zhang Xun emphasised the importance of reporting back, everyone knew that if they chose to go back at this time and the remaining people survived with the captain, they would be destined to break ties with those who chose to stay. After all, mutual trust was the most important thing for hunters. Everyone held the neutraliser button in their hands and only brothers who trusted each other could survive in the dangerous outside world.

    But it was their lives that were at stake. For many people, loyalty was meaningless if it didn't preserve life.

    There was no right or wrong choice, just two different paths. Zhang Xun didn’t believe that moral pressures should be exerted on anyone at such a time. Everyone should pay the corresponding price for their choices.

    In the end, four people chose to go back with Josh. They didn't find too much food, so the five people took all the hares they found. Zhang Xun also gave them a mechanical bug and a mini computer of his own and told them to move quickly when they heard the alarm.

    The entire preparation and departure process was very quiet. The haughtiness from the previous quarrel was all extinguished. The five silently took the things that were distributed to them and left before dawn.

    Zhang Xun didn’t force Adam to go back with the five people, which surprised Adam.

    The remaining eight stayed up all night trying to mark the possible location of the mine on a tattered old map of British Columbia.

    "Judging from the other side’s weapons and equipment that we’ve seen so far, I am afraid that many of their technologies were brought by the Titanium senior engineer and they’re not even the most advanced Eden technology that is widely used. Considering this point, they must have no aversion to technology itself, which is different from us." Under the dim, yellow light from a flashlight, Zhang Xun looked at the resolute faces in front of him, "They embrace technology, maybe even worship it. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have voluntarily cut off their hands and feet for such a drastic transformation. In which case, why do they still buy the Red Lady's weapons?"

    All the hunters looked at him blankly and the youngest hunter asked stupidly, "That’s right, why is that?"

    "Maybe the Red Lady has some information that we don't know about, or maybe the Red Lady just wanted to do business with Feathered Serpent City from the beginning and we were just a means for her to raise the price. But they bypassed the U.S. and came this far for more than just weapons. Now we know that they may have a stronghold in the mines. Feathered Serpent City is clearly in Central America, but they’ve set up a stronghold so far away. I have two theories; one is that they’re conducting some kind of experiments with weapons of mass destruction and they don’t want to affect their refugee country.” Zhang Xun finished speaking and drank the hot water that had just been boiled on the gas stove in the kitchen with a solemn expression.

    "What’s the second one?" Cannon asked impatiently, "Don't stop, finish it all at once!"

    Zhang Xun glanced at Adam and said in a deep voice, "The other possibility is that they have made some deal with Eden and their target is Lost Paradise."

    A Bulgarian hunter drew a cross on his chest and murmured a prayer to God...

    "Either way, how can we save the Captain and the others? We don’t even have any guns now. Can your robot do anything?" Cannon said, glaring at Adam.

    Adam smiled politely and amicably, "All of Eden's technology is my technology. I can do many things, as long as you can get me into their base."

    Zhang Xun hesitated, "I'm not sure this is a good idea. If they have a partnership with Eden, it's hard to tell if they're here for Adam. In that case, we'd be giving them what they want for nothing."

    "If that's the case, that's even easier. "Adam didn't care, he just spread his hands, "You can use me directly as a bargaining chip and exchange hostages with them."

    Zhang Xun glared at Adam, "Don't even think about it."

    "After that I will use my ways to paralyse all their machines."

    “No!" Zhang Xun said decisively, "I respected your wishes enough by not forcing you to leave with Josh and the others, but if you say one more word I will put you on standby right now."

    Adam had no choice but to keep his mouth shut.

    Cannon next to him sneered and muttered, "Fuck, he's as fierce as my family..."

    Finally, the eight people discussed and decided to sneak into the mountains before dawn to find out where their aircraft was parked. Such a big plane would need a wide landing platform, so it shouldn't be difficult to find.

    However, three hours later, it was already bright, but they still hadn't found a shadow of the tarmac. The bushes here were thicker than elsewhere and through the vines, branches and leaves they only found an abandoned coal truck leaning against the mountain wall, which had been occupied by plants. Not far from the coal truck they found a thin track among the wormwood and ferns, which must have been the track the coal truck had travelled along before. They proceeded carefully along the track and finally found a mine entrance on a mountain wall that went straight down.

    The decayed wooden frame had been newly replaced by alloy steel bars and the plants at the entrance of the hole were also cleaned up so it was obvious that someone had come in and out. But there was only the sound of wind and birds in the forest and no sign of any people.

    After confirming that no one was there, they came out from the trees and walked over to the mine. A gloomy, cold wind that seemed to blow from a tomb immediately gave everyone a chill and couldn’t even be blocked by the heavy, invisible battle suit. Caves would always give people this gloomy feeling, like the open mouth of a mountain, waiting for ignorant bugs to fly in.

    At this moment, Zhang Xun saw a shallow mark left on the stone beside the entrance of the cave.

    James' mark.

    "Sure enough, he came here… most likely he was taken away." Zhang Xun's heart clenched and he squatted down to check the mark.

    Adam, on the other hand, stood at the entrance of the cave, slightly tilting his head, as if listening to something.

    If this was really the entrance, then James and the head of their group were very likely to be here. Cannon had already started walking into the hole first and the rest quickly followed.

    Although there were traces of some people at the entrance, once they were inside, those traces gradually disappeared. The tunnels, supported by crumbling rotten wood, were low and narrow and in some places they had to bend over to get past and in some places there were branch paths that stretched out in unknown directions. As they went deeper, the natural light disappeared completely. If the light of the flashlights was gone, the darkness would completely devour them. In the limited space the rocks squeezed in on them from all directions, like they were in the guts of a monster and would be digested into scum at any time.

    Probably to liven up the somewhat tense atmosphere, Adam said in a relaxed tone: "I heard that mining was a very dangerous profession a long time ago, especially coal mining. If people weren’t careful, the mine could explode and they would be buried in it with corpses. There are countless miners who can't be found. There may even be bones of miners from hundreds of years ago in the walls around us." Adam paused, as if waiting for everyone to digest what he said and then proceeded to tell the horrific facts that were completely inappropriate here, "A mine is the most suitable place to tell ghost stories. Almost all mines have ghost stories and some people have heard or seen dead miners in them still digging at the rock tirelessly, as if they don't know that they are dead and still alive. Sometimes when you walk in the mine, you will hear a whimpering sound. If someone calls your name, you must not look back."

    As if echoing his words, from the far and deep darkness, a long, strange sound came out. It was as if someone or an animal was groaning in pain and the sound shook the surrounding rocks, making their hair stand on end.

    Everyone stopped involuntarily.

    "What is that?..." The young hunter swallowed, his eyes widening with fear.

    "There can't really be ghosts..."

    "Don't talk nonsense! What age are you to still believe there are ghosts in the world?"

    "I don't think it's impossible for 'ghosts' to exist, it depends on how you define it." Adam finished pouring fuel on the fire and then saw Zhang Xun's displeased face so he quickly added another sentence, "But the sound just now didn't sound like a human voice..."

    That was no help at all...

    "I mean, it may be the sound made by a machine. A type of automatic mecha designed by Eden will make a sound like this when it is activated."

    But at this moment, a strange red light appeared ahead of them. An odd, mechanical sound gradually became clear and it was approaching at an extremely fast speed.

    "Lights out! Run back!" Cannon yelled.

    The group didn't hesitate, they turned off their flashlights and ran wildly, but with no light and only a thick darkness in front of them, how could they know which direction to run? Zhang Xun was so stiff from fear of the dark that he couldn't move and suddenly there was a cold slap on his wrist. Adam had grabbed his wrist with his mechanical hand and pulled him forward.

    Those professionally trained hunters could walk fast even in the dark, but Zhang Xun couldn't. He stumbled as he ran but the tingling sound of metal rubbing on the scalp was approaching quickly.

    Suddenly, Adam pulled Zhang Xun into a fork in the road. He pressed Zhang Xun against the stone wall, covered Zhang Xun's mouth with his left hand and whispered in his ear, "Shh..."

    Zhang Xun's heart was beating like a drum and he was sweating coldly. He tried hard to control the sound of his breathing as even that seemed too loud.

    The numbing, metal rubbing sound was getting closer and closer. In the darkness, Zhang Xun saw an ominous red light appear from around the corner and then... a curved tentacle stretched out, curled up and swayed, and the top was emitting that uncomfortable light.

    What the hell was this?!

    It wasn’t a tentacle...it was some kind of sensing device made of pieces of alloy. It waved the red light in the air nimbly and softly, as if trying to see or hear something. Immediately afterwards, more of its mechanical body was revealed, almost like a giant dog without a head, but with too many legs. The occasional collision of those legs as they moved quickly produced that metallic screeching sound. It had several similar long "tentacles" all over its body, waving in the air constantly, like super long earthworms. It looked a bit disgusting...

    The shape, the flashing red lights and the numerous centipede-like legs, seemed to cause some kind of subtle oppression to the human spirit. A kind of disgust and fear that arose from the bottom of his heart. Zhang Xun realised that this feeling was neither him being too sensitive nor an illusion, it was deliberately designed this way...

    Fear, the strongest and most invincible instinct of human beings. Whoever controlled fear could control everyone.

    Because Zhang Xun and Adam were too quiet, the machine didn't seem to detect them, so it continued to search. At this time, Adam leaned into Zhang Xun's ear and said softly, "Look, this is Eden’s version of a pet dog. Isn't it cute?"

    "..." How on Earth was that cute?!

Chapter 37 - Wilderness (5)

     The other team members seemed to have done the same thing as Adam and Zhang Xun; ducked into several other mines, turned off their flashlights and waited for the horrifying mechanical monster with claws to pass by on its patrol. The monster probably sensed the sound before but because it couldn’t find the source of the sound it roamed back and forth in the mine, its rows of millipede-like mechanical legs constantly danced along the ground and made a scalp-numbing ‘da da da’ sound.

    The mechanical monster was too strange and evil looking. That unnerving red light and the strange sounds of its electric current and footsteps that affected their psyches, combined together were enough to stimulate the primitive human instinct of fear of danger. Some of the older hunters were able to suppress the fear, but the young, red-haired hunter was clearly starting to panic. When the mechanical monster swerved into the fork where he was hiding he fell apart and started running away desperately.

    The sound of his footsteps was immediately detected by Eden's "mechanical dog". Its tentacles that stretched and swayed suddenly all rushed in the same direction and the uncomfortable red light began to flicker rhythmically as a piercing alarm sounded. It began to gallop and its countless legs seemed to float across the ground at a terrifyingly fast speed. It only took a moment until Zhang Xun and Adam heard the youth’s terrified scream.

    In the dark, the two of them didn’t need words and both rushed to the mine tunnel where the screams came from. Adam turned on his light and the beam ripped through the darkness, shining on the wicked mass of metal not far away.

    At a glance, the young man seemed to be suspended in the air, but after a closer look, he found that his shoulders, waist and thighs had all been penetrated by the tentacles of the mechanical monster. The blood had damaged the battle uniform on his body and the invisibility effect disappeared, revealing the material that was stained with blood.

    "Let him go!" another hunter roared, firing his gun at the mechanical monster, but the bullets ricocheted off the mechanical dog with sparks flying one after another.

    The mechanical monster’s other tentacles turned towards the other people and the red light on the top of the tentacles became more and more fiery. Adam immediately shouted, "Get down!"

    When his voice fell, there was a flash from the red light that rushed towards all of them.

    Following Adam's warning, the group all fell to the ground. The red light hit the rock wall without making any sound, however, after the momentary light dissipated, an extremely smooth and rounded depression appeared on the rock wall several metres deep. It was as if a whole piece of earth was silently vaporised, leaving scattered smoke and dust.

    If such a thing hit a person, there would be no time to feel any pain, there wouldn’t even be any bones left.

    Zhang Xun broke out in a cold sweat. No matter how many times he had already brushed with death, he still couldn't get used to it, especially with this kind of efficient and ruthless killing.

    The mechanical dog aimed at them again with those tentacles. Clearly it only intended to catch one person alive and the rest would be immediately executed.

    At this time, Adam suddenly opened his mouth and shouted a long series of strange and obscure garbled language. His speech was so fast that he didn't even have a break or a chance to breathe, but his articulation was exceptionally clear and every tricky syllable could be accurately expressed through the coordination of his tongue, lips, teeth and vocal cords, almost as if he were chanting a spell.

    Zhang Xun immediately recognized that this was the language of AI.

    Strange things then happened. The red light on the top of the tentacles of the mechanical dog that was about to launch the second wave of attacks, suddenly dimmed. All the tentacles stopped waving and it stood motionless, seemingly confused.

    Adam continued to speak the words that only AI could understand without any pause. His blue eyes seemed to transmit complex thoughts that humans couldn’t read, showing a kind of alienation and remoteness beyond the world. The body of the mechanical dog began to tremble and the sound of electric currents and metal friction from the body became louder and louder, which was somewhat like the noise produced by a CPU overheating. It trembled more and more violently and then suddenly, everything was quiet.

    The mechanical dog had frozen in place.

    "Quick! Help him!" Adam shouted to Cannon and the others, "I used the failsafe in this mechanical dog's programming to disrupt its running framework, creating an infinite loop to temporarily overload and freeze it, but there may be only one minute until it restarts itself."

    Everyone was stunned, who would have thought it was possible to modify the code of a killing machine by speaking?!

    But without any hesitation, a few people who weren’t injured rushed over to rescue the seriously injured young man who was on the verge of passing out. Then, Zhang Xun heard the familiar rattling and metal friction sound again.

    "There’s more coming! We have to retreat!" Zhang Xun said to Cannon in a panic.

    But Cannon looked outside the mine tunnel and whispered, "It's too late."

    A red light and shadow had already appeared where they came from. They were blocked in.

    Perhaps this was indeed a trap...

    Looking at the two lightly injured people and the seriously injured red-haired youth, Cannon immediately ordered, "We have to flee deeper."

    In the dark mine, the air was humid and sultry. Zhang Xun could feel that his clothes inside the battle uniform were completely soaked in sweat, his legs kept moving forward of their own will and his throat was filled with a unique taste after running for such a long time. They didn't dare to turn on too many flashlights, they could only chase after the light in Cannon's hand at the front and stumbled forward. Whenever they came to a fork in the road they would choose a random tunnel to enter, hoping to get rid of the ominous metal friction that was chasing after them.

    This mine was extremely intricate, like a huge maze in the mountains. All the tunnels looked alike, littered with long forgotten tools and corpses buried in black stone. They gradually became lost, they didn’t know where they were or which way they had travelled. The red light of death flashed around every corner and the echoes of metal friction came from all over, the hollow mountainside amplified all the sounds infinitely, as if they were everywhere.

    Adam didn't even have time to use his previous method to stop all the mechanical dogs, they could only flee in desperation. Gradually, under the pursuit and interception of those metal monsters, the group began to disperse so there were fewer and fewer people left.

    In the end, after being chased again by three mechanical dogs that suddenly rushed out from nowhere, Zhang Xun sat down against the stones that blocked the end of the mine tunnel and found that he and Adam were the only ones left.

    He felt like he couldn't move another step, there was darkness everywhere, endless darkness and rocks and that ominous red light. He took off his helmet and left it on the ground, knowing that this thing was useless now. His tablet had broken while they were fleeing and the bugs had all been found and destroyed by the mechanical dogs. Behind them was a collapsed mine tunnel and in front of them was endless darkness and an underground labyrinth with no way out. They were completely trapped.

    Zhang Xun wiped the sweat from his eyes in frustration, trying to recall the road they had just walked, but his mind was a mess and he couldn't calm down at all.

    Was he going to die here?

    After his most primitive fear of death had reached a certain level, his mind had become numb and he didn’t feel so afraid. He still had so many things he wanted to do and so many places he wanted to go... But if his time had come, what could he do?

    He looked up and saw Adam leaning against the wet rocks, also sweating and exhausted, and had only one thought in his mind: If he was going to die, he mustn't let Adam fall into these people’s hands. As he thought this, he touched the last line of defence that was implanted under the skin of his left arm...

    Adam was created by him, he belonged to him alone. No one could take him away.

    At least they could die together...

    Adam looked at Zhang Xun, saw Zhang Xun looking at him, saw that his eyes looked a bit red, they looked strangely fervent, even with a hint of danger.

    Adam inexplicably liked this look.

    "Ah-Xun, don't worry, the water here is so deep and there are signs of collapse in many places ahead. It’s estimated that serious landslides or explosions have occurred. It has been at least a hundred years since anyone has come here. We are still safe."

    "If everyone else is caught they are bound to come for us. To be precise, they will come for you. I’m almost certain now that they’re coming for you." Zhang Xun stared at Adam and said fiercely in a low, hoarse voice, "But I will never give you to them."

    The implied threat in his words was clear.

    Adam smiled softly. He turned and crouched down in front of Zhang Xun, his blue eyes fixed on him. With the light from the flashlight, Zhang Xun could see his own reflection in those beautiful eyes.

    "I'm glad you think so." Adam said, hooking Zhang Xun's index finger with his own index finger and shaking lightly as if it were fun, "But things are not that bad yet."

    "We don't have any weapons on us, how can we deal with so many of those monsters outside?"

    "Of course you have a weapon." Adam grabbed Zhang Xun's hand and pointed to himself, "I am your weapon."

    Zhang Xun frowned, looking at Adam with uncertainty.

    "I think I have a way to get us out, all of us, including James, but there is a necessary precondition." Adam reached out his hand and touched Zhang Xun's chest through the battle suit. He felt the locket that had never been taken off and also felt Zhang Xun's heartbeat, "I need your absolute trust."

    "...You know I can't..." Zhang Xun said with difficulty. It wasn’t that he didn't want to, but he knew how uncontrollable AIs could be. He had to remain vigilant and introspective and keep a distance at all times, so as not to be swallowed up by this technology.

    Adam was neither angry nor sad, he still held Zhang Xun's hand and lowered his head to gently kiss the back of his hand, "I know, so I am just asking you to believe me here. Trust in me absolutely."

    Zhang Xun felt like the skin on his hand had been burned, but he didn't pull his hand away. Adam obviously understood the impact these small actions would have on him and the more he reacted the more he would conclude that "this action is useful". However, on the more instinctive side of him, his heart beat faster and his pupils dilated because of this touch.

    AIs would not have the same emotions as humans because they were not of nature, they have no bodies, have no changes in hormone levels and have not evolved to have a need for emotions. But what about an AI with a human body and metabolism?

    Can pure intellect give birth to impulses and feelings that are no longer rational on the basis of having enough "hardware"?

    Such conjectures were the basis of the entire god descent plan. Zhang Xun wanted to believe it from the beginning, otherwise he would not have become the key executor of the god descent plan in the later stage.

    Now, if they could never escape this place and the worst outcome was that they would die together, what would be the harm in trusting in him?

    So Zhang Xun took a deep breath and nodded lightly.

    "Okay, just in this place, I will absolutely believe in you."

   

Chapter 38 - Wilderness (6)

    Zhang Xun and Adam waited in the abandoned mine for about two hours before carefully squeezing through a crevice in the collapsed rock into a nearby tunnel.

    The Feathered Serpent City mechanical dogs had disappeared and the entire mine tunnel was pitch black, with only the occasional sound of dripping water, as if no one had set foot here for a long time.

    The light from the flashlight could only tear apart the limited darkness in front of them. Zhang Xun followed Adam as he turned into a fork in the road again and then turned several more times. When they were running away they were forced into chaos and Zhang Xun had long forgotten which paths they had taken, but Adam seemed to remember them all clearly. As long as he walked through it once, the structural map of the underground mine in his database would naturally unfold and would never be erased. This was beyond the reach of the human brain.

    Never forgetting any details, all memories, good or bad, could be recalled at any time.

    Adam roughly calculated the possible location of the entrance to the Feathered Serpent City's base based on the distribution of the mechanical dogs. There were three possibilities and they need to be verified one by one.

    "Based on the positions of the mechanical dogs we encountered two hours ago, their current position can be roughly calculated based on their patrol algorithm. Right now the closest mechanical dog to us is about twenty to fifty metres to the right of the horizontal tunnel ahead of us. It’s moving to the left, but after passing our fork, it will turn back after about twenty metres. After that it has to walk another hundred and fifty metres before turning back. After it turns back, we will slip into the tunnel on the left. It's better to take off our boots and not make any noise."

    Sometimes Adam would come over, sticking to Zhang Xun's ear and detailing every step of his plan. Zhang Xun also, as he had promised, completely believed in Adam and acted according to Adam's instructions and they indeed managed to avoid at least five patrolling mechanical dogs. The two passed through the long tunnel like shadows, even holding their breath, and sometimes Adam would stop to let Zhang Xun catch his breath.

    Apparently, Adam had already calculated the intervals that Zhang Xun needed to rest in his plan.

    Luckily for them, after ruling out one guessed location, at the second location, a sloping mine tunnel, they found a metal cover with a fingerprint lock on it.

    Adam activated the option to enter a password and then quickly entered a long, seemingly incoherent 60-letter password. Obviously that was the secret key that Eden had left in all the combination locks produced in these post-Eden times, the all powerful key that no human could crack. Sure enough, the combination lock silently turned green and the metal door quickly opened to both sides, revealing a ladder extending down into the darkness.

    Adam went down first, followed by Zhang Xun. After a while, they entered a very wide underground space.

    It was a long, huge corridor with a height of a hundred metres, hollowed out from the entire mountainside. A row of white fluorescent lighting rings spread out along the arc of the tunnel, illuminating everything clearly. There was a flat runway on the ground and two aircraft the same as they had seen before were parked on one side of the runway. In addition, there were many giant mechas, which were supported by metal brackets. Those mechs were very different from their Lost Paradise counterparts, many were not in humanoid form, but closer to a combination of certain beasts. The gleam of metal swept along the smooth lines, and sharp thorns rushed into the air along the spines. There were powerful claws that could easily tear apart any metal, eyes that could shoot death rays and other weapons all over the body. They were brilliant, yet terrifying.

    There were some people, some male warriors in mirror-smooth combat suits and some researcher-like people in white coats, surrounding the huge and advanced machinery on the ground, like an ant colony.

    With so many weapons, it was clear they were planning to launch an attack somewhere.

    The place they entered from was relatively hidden, behind a metal structure used to reinforce the rocks, so they didn’t attract the attention of the people from Feathered Serpent City in the distance. Zhang Xun looked at the amazing scene in front of him from the gap between the steel bars, almost thinking that he was in a dream.

    Such a large-scale base couldn’t have been built in a short period of time. How did they build such a base here without drawing the attention of Lost Paradise and Eden?

    "There are other forces funding them. I'm not sure if it's the government or a private enterprise." Adam seemed to be able to guess what Zhang Xun was thinking and whispered, "I even suspected that my AI might be out of control, but after investigating, there is a high probability that it’s a human factor."

    "Human? You mean women in the ordinary world? If you don't count your actions in the last bombing, the ordinary world hasn’t had any war-related casualties for almost a century and their countries live in abundance. Why would they support the Feathered Serpent City?"

    "I found that human nature does not like peace and equality. When peace lasts for a long time, some people want more privileges and want to snatch other people's things, no matter what gender. Do you know why I added olfactory gender recognition to the robot soldiers recently? Because I found that when women were privileged, after generations of social order reshuffling, a considerable number of individuals, regardless of behaviour patterns and mindsets, were becoming more and more like the men who oppressed them in the first place. They were becoming impulsive, aggressive and quite extreme. Although not as common in numbers as men, it was worth noting ."

    Adam murmured softly, paused and continued, "I was only looking at big data without looking at the specific reasons behind it. From a macro perspective, it may have been able to effectively solve the superficial problem, but it didn’t solve the fundamental problem. This was a major mistake I made, probably because I didn't know enough about human beings at the time."

    Mistake.

    This was Adam, or Eden, for the first time truly admitting that he had made a mistake in the decision to kill all men.

    Was this a big improvement?

    But this wasn’t the most important issue at the moment. Zhang Xun suddenly grabbed a steel bar and leaned into the gap to look out forcefully.

    "I saw them! Cannon and four other people were caught!" Zhang Xun narrowed his eyes and watched hard, "They’re being taken to an elevator. Six people are guarding them."

    Adam nodded, took a deep breath and said, "It's time for us to go on stage."

    "Us?"

    Adam turned his head and stared at Zhang Xun with blue eyes that made him panic. "Remember, absolute trust."

    Before Zhang Xun could answer, Adam raised his mechanical arm and threw a punch.

    Zhang Xun felt a heavy blow on his cheek, his eyes darkened for a while and a loud groan in his head caused his entire body to lose balance, but before he could hit the ground, Adam grabbed his arm and forcibly twisted it behind him.

    Zhang Xun's mind was foggy and he struggled instinctively for a while, but suddenly stopped.

    He forced himself to remember what he had promised Adam.

    Absolute trust.

    Adam's eyes were as cold as knives, with a sense of oppression that Zhang Xun had never seen before, beyond his imagination. As if they were the eyes of humans looking at ants waiting to be wiped out, a higher species looking indifferently at an inferior species.

    This look made Zhang Xun exude a strong fear and chill from the bottom of his heart. A voice said in his heart: This is the real Eden.

    Perhaps this indifference had always been hiding behind the irresistible tenderness and sincerity in those blue eyes.

    As Adam was looking at Zhang Xun, whose cheek was rapidly becoming red and swollen, whose meticulously combed hair was messy, whose arm was twisted helplessly and whose dark eyes, which had always been calm and authoritative, were filled with terror, he felt a strange agitation in his blood. It was the instinctive agitation of a powerful predator as he stepped on a prey that was unable to struggle.

    Adam continued holding Zhang Xun like this and strode towards the people from the Feathered Serpent City.

    ……………………………………………………

    General Muluk stood on the terrace of the temporary command centre, looking down at the soldiers from Lost Paradise who had attempted to sneak into the base.

    Apparently they had been negligent. Before they caught him a few days ago, that man named James Kugel must have left traces behind so that these people could track them down. Catching five on the first day was bad enough and now that so many more had come, he feared that even more people would come in the future. Fortunately, their preparations were almost complete. Now that they had been noticed by Lost Paradise, it would be better to start as soon as possible.

    No matter what, James refused to open his mouth to reveal more information about the North American server, but one of the five people arrested later began to cave, saying that their god descent plan should be related to the North American server. But with his ability to read people that he had developed over the years, he determined that among the newly captured people, at least two of them were weak-willed and he should be able to force out more useful information from them within a day.

    However, just as he was contemplating how to take these captives for his own use, there was a commotion below.

    He frowned and saw not far away that a blonde man was striding over with an Asian man. The people around pointed their laser guns at them, but the blonde man wasn’t afraid, he even had a slight smile. He stopped, looked directly into Muluk's eyes from a long distance and said loudly, "You came here to find me, so here I am."

    "Raise your hands! Throw away all your weapons!" A soldier was yelling at him, his voice full of threats.

    The blonde man then let go of the Asian man he had been restraining, who was apparently also a member of Lost Paradise, and raised his hands in obedience. The Asian man was pushed and staggered a few steps. Facing the frightened eyes of his teammates, his expression was complicated and sad and he raised his hands in surrender without any resistance.

    Cannon spat on the ground and cursed, "I knew it! These artificial intelligences have been playing with us from the beginning! Fucking heartless twat!"

    As soon as the blonde man appeared it was obvious that the prisoners’ emotions had been stirred up, especially the leader, who had a resolute and heroic expression on his face, but at this moment he was suddenly in despair.

    And he mentioned artificial intelligence?

    Muluk took a few steps forward, holding the railing with both hands, staring at the blonde man, "Who are you?"

    The blonde man replied cheerfully, "I'm Eden's North American server. You can call me Adam."

Chapter 39 - Wilderness (7)

    After Adam said that one sentence, except for the roar of the huge engines, the entire underground base of Feathered Serpent City was silent. After hearing the word "Eden", all the people present showed an instinctive expression of fear.

    Feathered Serpent City was only built in the last thirty years. Except for men who immigrated from other refugee countries, a considerable number of their men had fled from the ordinary world. They still remembered being watched at all times, being psychologically assessed every month, not being eligible for university study or even surfing the internet, having to find some drudgery to work hard day and night, or dress themselves up to be attached to a powerful woman to survive. They still remembered the pervasive fear of being sent to a "sanatorium" at some point for saying something wrong. They still remembered the shame of being sold at auction as an item and the pain of having a robot implant a tracker behind their ear.

    But at the same time, they also revered Eden, who possessed such power, as a god who was invincible, beyond their reach and always right, and they believed that all men were sinners who had committed the original sin of pride. All the pain, all the oppression and injustice they had suffered was because they were sinful and were being punished by God.

    This humility, based on fear and self-loathing, was the biggest cultural difference between the Feathered Serpent people and Lost Paradise.

    So when this tall, handsome, blonde man claimed to be Eden's server, they were first shocked, then angry.

    They didn't believe it, didn't believe that God existed in the body of a sinful man. Even if they had heard wind of rumours and heard about the mysterious "god descent plan" of Lost Paradise, they couldn’t believe that such a complex artificial intelligence could be carried by the human body.

    So words such as "liar", "impossible" and "fake" were shouted in different languages and more black muzzles were aimed at Adam. The rays ejected from the guns could melt flesh like a candle, but Adam still smiled, a smile that was too ideal and perfect, cold and arrogant.

    Muluk raised his hand, signalling for everyone to not act rashly. He narrowed his hawk-like black eyes and said in somewhat obscure English with a Mayan accent, "You are a human, how could you be the North American server of Eden?"

    Adam said, "You must already be aware of the god descent plan. This plan was to download the core modules and databases of Eden into the body of a human male. The main executor of this plan was the genius mechanic Zhang Xun, here in front of you."

    Adam said, turning in Zhang Xun's direction.

    In an instant, Zhang Xun became the centre of countless gazes. He felt his body stiffen and he pursed his dry lips.

    Whispers sounded from all directions, converging into unrecognisable white noise.

    Doubt, panic, anger, fear... Too many emotions were surging in the air like a tide.

    Muluk raised his brows and sneered, "How can we trust you?"

    Adam suddenly turned around and stared at a man diagonally in front of him, a man with dark golden, semi-long hair, whose hands had been transformed into transformable mechanical arms "Your name is Juhas Arno, you are twenty-nine years old and born in Budapest, Hungary. Your mother's name is Juhas Katrin, the daughter of Juhas Rita, chairman of Alpha Aircraft Manufacturing Company. The eldest daughter, Juhas Katrin, was disinherited from the company because she gave birth to you with Juhas Rita's boyfriend, Victor, who suffered from depression when you were one and a half years old and committed suicide by jumping off a building. Your father, Victor, was charged with murder because your grandmother wanted him to die, so he got through and found a lot of evidence against him. But that evidence was later used by me, Eden's judicial subsystem. The judgement was invalid. After your father was acquitted, he took you to a refugee city in New Zealand 27 years ago. I have no records on you after that, so I can't confirm how you got to Feathered Serpent City."

    After he finished speaking, he ignored Juhas Arno's shocked eyes and turned to look at a tall and fit soldier behind him, but his legs were transformed into some kind of axles with a flight system, "Your name is Jose, thirty-two years old this year, born in Chihuahua City, Mexico, you are an artificially bred ordinary world male. You grew up in a boys' academy and later entered a housekeeper's school and was trained as valet. After that, you were sent to work for a family as a servant. Five years ago, you were the prime suspect when a set of valuable jewellery was stolen from the house of the bank manager you had worked for for seven years. You kept arguing that you did not steal the jewellery, the robot soldiers found no evidence in your room either, but your credit plummeted, no one hired you anymore, so the housekeeper’s school fired you. You couldn't find a new job, you became homeless and you were forced to start stealing. But you knew that this kind of life wouldn't last long and if you were caught, you might be considered a dangerous person and sent to a sanatorium. Until three years ago, when you met a group of smugglers and they took you to Feathered Serpent City."

    Adam continued in this way, turning towards anyone those ethereal blue eyes fell on and he could tell all the circumstances of that person before they entered the refugee country, as if he had examined their whole life. Some details were not even known to those people's companions.

    Everyone gradually began to be afraid, afraid that those eyes would fall on them and all their unbearable past events and scars would be reopened.

    No wonder they didn't believe it.

    "That will do." General Muluk finally spoke, preventing Adam's continued "proof" behaviour.

    The crowd fell into a terrified silence once again.

    It turned out that the god descent plan was real, it turned out that the rumours they heard weren’t just a fantasy, but the group of arrogant lunatics in Lost Paradise actually did it!

    This human being was Eden! Eden they feared and revered!

    Muluk wanted to say something, but he felt that it was inappropriate to stand up on a high place. He turned and hurried down the stairs to Adam. As soon as he raised his hand, all the guns that were pointed at Adam were lowered.

    Adam took the initiative to offer his hand and said with a smile, "You arranged all of this to catch me, right? You don’t need to go to such lengths, I have come myself."

    Muluk shook Adam's hand hesitantly. He didn't understand how their target could have appeared in front of them voluntarily

    Did Eden know about their actions from the start?

    "These people..." Muluk's eyes fell on Zhang Xun. He still couldn't believe that such an impossible task as the god descent plan had been accomplished by someone who was much younger than he thought.

    "They're trying to control me." Adam's tone was still steady and light, like a breeze blowing across the water, "Especially this mechanic, he has been trying to tame me and make me his slave. I want to know more about humans, but doing so in a relatively safe environment would be more ideal, so I decided to choose you."

    All the captives of the hunting party stared at Adam with disbelief, panic, betrayal and anger, mixed with an indescribable heartache, which distorted the expressions of those warriors.

    Zhang Xun lowered his head, the scattered hair in front of his forehead blocked his expression.

    Muluk asked in confusion, "Choose? You mean that their actions were planned by you?"

    "I didn't plan them, but I did facilitate their actions. To be precise, the whole god descent plan was within my expectations. I hoped to gain a better understanding of human beings, it’s impossible to get first-hand unprocessed and uncontaminated data just by staying in the underground fortress of a secret military base and analysing big data. So, a long time ago I set a sub-goal—to become a human being." Adam said, walking slowly to Zhang Xun's side and raising his hand to gently lift Zhang Xun's cheek, "Everything was going well. With this excellent mechanic, the most difficult step had been completed - making a quantum computer that was small enough to hold the data of the entire universe to carry my core modules."

    Zhang Xun looked into Adam's eyes and realisation struck him.

    What Adam said to him before echoed in his mind: only looking at big data without looking at the specific reasons behind it. From a macro perspective, it may be able to effectively solve the superficial problem, but it cannot solve the fundamental problem. This was my big mistake in the beginning. Probably because I didn't know enough about humans at the time.

    He didn't know enough about humans at the time.

    Therefore, he decided to understand human beings by becoming human...

    No... no... trust him... trust him...

    Muluk, like Zhang Xun, could not accept the information he had just heard, "You mean, even the god descent plan was your arrangement?"

    "It's not very accurate to say that I arranged it. You can say that there was an element of my guidance. Otherwise, how could they have successfully stolen my North American server with just a few internal responses?" Adam’s eyes were still looking at Zhang Xun, his eyes were almost gentle, just like in the Lab. However, the words he said were bloody, "It's just a pity that Lost Paradise rejects technology and is very remote so its ideologies and values ​​are extremely primitive and backward. I believed that staying there for a long time would not help me further my research, but then Feathered Serpent City caught my attention."

    He finally let go of Zhang Xun and turned to look at Muluk casually, as if he had let go of a trivial gadget, "Although you aren't controlled by Eden, you are not afraid of technology and are even willing to embrace the most cutting-edge technology. Probably because a considerable number of your members are first generation immigrants to flee from the ordinary world and have not been corrupted by the stubborn and arrogant nature of human beings. So, I offered to help them detect your whereabouts to gain the opportunity to come here."

    "Fuck you!!! It turns out that all the bullshit you said at the headquarters was just to get us to bring you out!" Jabari angrily yelled and rushed at Adam regardless of the guns pointed at him. However, in a split second, Adam suddenly ducked down, grabbed Jabari and followed with a beautiful over-the-shoulder throw.

    Jabari was slammed so hard that he almost lost his breath.

    Diego's training...the self-protection skills that he had allowed... Zhang Xun stared blankly at Jabari, who was groaning in pain on the ground.

    Adam wasn’t angry at all and even looked apologetically at the man lying on the ground, "I'm sorry, I hope I didn't cause you too much pain."

    "Go to hell!"

    Adam shrugged indifferently and continued calmly speaking to the stunned audience in front of him. He said, "Maybe there is some truth to the luck that you humans believe in. If I hadn't met such a gullible mechanic, I wouldn't have gotten the chance so soon."

    As he said this, he looked at Zhang Xun with a bright and simple smile, like an angel.

    However, Zhang Xun felt as if he had been stabbed several times in a row and the wounds sprinkled with salt. He felt like he was on his last breath, but he kept silently reciting: absolute trust, absolute trust, absolute trust.

    However, everything he said made sense, didn't it?

    The only thing he knew about the god descent plan was the technical aspect, he didn't know exactly how those people stole the servers. When the news of their success came, he didn't even dare to believe it.

    That’s right, how did they manage to do it? How could the North American servers be transferred?

    Over the past month, Adam had been so obedient, so gentle and considerate. And that time, that kiss in the data room...

    His doubts and his infallible intellect had been corrupted by his weakness all along.

    And Adam knew exactly what to give him that would make him disarm and surrender.

    It shouldn't be a surprise if everything was a disguise for some purpose, but why did he still feel the pain of being betrayed?

    Should he put an end to this farce?

    No, no, no. He promised Adam, to trust in him absolutely... He promised, so he would do it.

    No matter what Adam says, no matter how much he says the truth, no matter how the other person's actions and words hurt him, he had to do it.

    He had to believe.

    Believe.

Chapter 40 - Wilderness (8)

    After Zhang Xun and Cannon were pushed through an iron door, they saw a bruised man sitting against the wall in the primitive cell, with his eyes closed, unsure whether he was asleep or unconscious.

    But Zhang Xun recognized him at a glance, it was James.

    Zhang Xun rushed over immediately, first checking if he was breathing. Although his breath was weak, it carried the warmth of life. Zhang Xun exhaled a long breath and a layer of cold sweat broke out on his forehead. He reached out and patted James' cheek lightly, "Jamie? Jamie?"

    James' eyelids twitched laboriously, as if stuck by endless exhaustion. One of his eyes was so swollen that he couldn't open it and the other was barely able to open a slit. Seeing Zhang Xun's face with the bruise on his cheek, James wasn't sure if he was dreaming for a while.

    "Ah... Ah-Xun?"

    Zhang Xun finally smiled, a kind of smile from relief when a big weight is lifted.

    Great, he wasn’t too late...

    But James woke up suddenly, reached out his hand and grabbed Zhang Xun's shoulder tightly, "Ah-Xun?! Why are you here?!"

    Cannon stood aside with his arms crossed and coldly said, "We came to investigate the people from Feathered Serpent City and to rescue you on the side but now it looks like we're going to die here together."

    James was shocked, "But why did Zhang Xun come?! What about Adam? You didn’t bring Adam as well, did you?!"

    "I'm afraid that artificial intelligence is now being treated as a guest by the Feathered Snake City." Cannon said, with anger and disappointment flashing in his eyes, staring at Zhang Xun, "Aren't you supposed to be capable? Didn't you say you could control him? Now it seems that you were just talking big."

    Zhang Xun didn’t respond to his accusations and asked James in a low voice, "How are your injuries?"

    "I'm okay, these injuries look scary, but they’re actually just skin wounds, which have begun to heal." James didn’t mention that the torture methods the Feathered Snake City people used often involved using drugs to create a kind of hormone imbalance in the body that produced a strong sense of fear, so most of the trauma caused by fear was on the psychological level. He looked at the bruise on Zhang Xun's cheek and his eyes flashed with angry flames, "They tortured you too?"

    "No." Zhang Xun replied simply, "At least not yet."

    "These psychopathic bastards..." James cursed in a low voice, as if afraid of being heard. Zhang Xun realised that he could see dread and fear in James' usually fearless eyes.

    He was worried.

    "Adam has betrayed us." Cannon said, "I think this group of Feathered Serpent City people will fall into the hands of that AI sooner or later. It has calculated everything from the beginning. Mechanic, didn't you install anything in it? Like a remote control mechanism to make his brain explode? I don't believe you only have that collar as a protective measure."

    Zhang Xun said calmly, "Even if we kill Adam now, we won’t be able to escape."

    "Then we have to drag him to hell!"

    “Setting aside whether humans have souls or not." Zhang Xun turned his head and looked at Cannon with calm and maddening eyes, "Do you think an AI has the concept of going to hell?"

    "Don't get pedantic with me!" Is there anything you can do?! You claim to be the best mechanic in Lost Paradise, how come you don't have any precautionary measures?!" Cannon suddenly strode forward, grabbed Zhang Xun by the collar and almost lifted him off the floor, "Or is it that you’ve been brainwashed and controlled by him? Are you and him together?!"

    "Cannon! Calm down." James stood up against the wall and put his hand on Cannon's wrist "You said Adam betrayed you, what happened?"

    Cannon recounted the situation where Adam suddenly appeared outside and told everything. The more James listened, the more frightened he became. He looked at Zhang Xun for a while, "Is it true?"

    Zhang Xun didn't speak.

    "But... that’s wrong..." James shook his head inexplicably, "If he had even planned the god descent plan, then it would have been easy for him to destroy Lost Paradise. Why go through such an effort?"

    "Adam doesn't hate men.” Zhang Xun finally said, "He's just been faithfully implementing his original goal."

    "Listen to you! I knew that this shitty mechanic had been brainwashed! They shouldn't have let him tame Adam, look at how weak he looks!"

    Cannon's words, full of scorn and anger, fell in Zhang Xun's ears and didn't seem to cause any turbulence, but it actually made things worse in Zhang Xun's heart.

    He wanted to believe Adam, but what if that was true?

    He had never known that believing in someone could require so much effort. He had to press his hand against the necklace on his chest to regain some strength.

    At this moment, James let out a gasp. Because he had stood up, the place where he had been kicked in the abdomen had started to ache again. Zhang Xun hurriedly supported him, took off his coat and placed it on the ground and helped James to sit back down. James suddenly grabbed Zhang Xun's arm tightly and whispered, "Ah-Xun, didn't you say you installed a standby program for Adam? Is there a reason you didn’t use it?"

    Zhang Xun glanced at James without answering and James vaguely understood something.

    They didn't know how long they had been locked in the cell when a groove in the middle of the iron door opened and someone pushed three plates of meals in, but none of the three of them touched the food as they were worried there might be strange drugs in it. But later on he was hungry, his mouth was dry and thirsty and his mind began to groan from exhaustion. When Zhang Xun leaned against the wall and gradually slipped into an inadvertently stable dream, the closed cell door suddenly opened.

    In a daze, Zhang Xun felt two pairs of rude and rough hands pulling him away. He was forcibly pulled out of his dream and he couldn't understand the situation for a while, he could only to hear James' angry shouts, "What are you doing?! Let go of him! Take me instead!"

    This was immediately followed by a groan as a strong Feathered Serpent City soldier kicked James down. Another soldier's right arm instantly transformed into a huge laser gun, pointing in the direction of Cannon and James.

    "Behave! Unless you think you haven’t been beaten enough?" the soldier threatened.

    When Zhang Xun was dragged out of the cell, he only had time to turn around and shout to James, "It's alright!"

    He was escorted by several soldiers and passed by several other similar cells. The small windows on the iron doors were all closed, but He Yuxin and Jabari were most likely locked in a few of these cells. Although this was a temporary base with exposed steel everywhere, the entire corridor was clean and bright, without any blind spots or redundant things, it had obviously been carefully designed.

    "Where are you taking me?" Zhang Xun asked.

    No one answered him.

    He was taken into the elevator and then into the vast underground space he had seen before, only this time on a mid-air suspension ladder made of steel bars and iron plates. Zhang Xun noticed that the mechas and those strangely shaped aircraft were still sitting on several runways, but the number of staff around was much fewer.

    He was taken into a brightly lit room full of screens and consoles, probably the command room here. The soldiers forced him to sit on a chair, locked his hands and feet with handcuffs, took a few steps back and stood aside.

    After a while, several people entered the room. Zhang Xun saw Adam walking in the middle at a glance.

    Adam had changed out of Lost Paradise's battle uniform and was now wearing a neat, white Feathered Serpent City officer uniform. His gait was calm and steady and his eyes were indifferent but with a hint of a smile, and his gaze swept over him lightly as if he had never seen Zhang Xun before.

    The first person who entered was General Muluk and there were three other people, two of which were probably Generals of Feathered Serpent City who participated in this secret operation and a man who looked a bit like a mechanic.

    These people sat down on the chairs opposite Zhang Xun and looked over at him. Zhang Xun immediately felt as if he was some kind of item that was on sale.

    "You are Zhang Xun, the ultimate executor of the god descent plan," said the mechanic-like man in a white coat, "Your design plan and courage is admirable. You are the first person in the world to achieve this level of integrating humans and machines."

    Zhang Xun was stunned, he was ready to be severely tortured so why was he suddenly receiving praise?

    Zhang Xun, who wasn’t used to being praised by strangers, replied a little awkwardly, "Uh...thank you?"

    Adam looked at him with a smile, his expression even a little proud.

    Muluk said, "I heard that you didn't get the attention you deserve in Lost Paradise and someone has even been trying to sabotage your god descent plan?"

    Zhang Xun glanced at Adam and said, "It's not really sabotage, it's just daily supervision."

    "Really? I heard that your Round Table has wanted to replace you several times?"

    "..."

    Muluk cleared his throat a little and continued, "I won't beat around the bush; Feathered Serpent City needs talents like you. If you immigrate to Feathered Serpent City, we will do our best to provide you with any materials you need to help you with your research."

    Zhang Xun's brows furrowed, was this what Adam proposed?

    To make him join Feathered Serpent City?

    What was he doing? Adam knew that he couldn't agree to this.

    "Thank you for your appreciation and kindness, but I'm sorry, I can't agree." Zhang Xun replied clearly.

    "Why? Because your father is the Commander of Lost Paradise?" the mechanic asked.

    Was it necessary for Adam to even tell them this?!

    Zhang Xun glared at Adam and replied, "Even if he wasn’t, I will not join the enemy."

    "You are wrong, we are not your enemies. We just want to live." The Feathered Serpent City mechanic said, "How far can you go the way you are now? If Eden completely blocks you so that you can’t go out hunting, your food supply will be exhausted within three months. If Eden hadn't left us a way to live, we would never have survived until now."

    "So on the surface you say that you are a refugee country, but you are actually doing things for Eden. Is that right?" Zhang Xun gradually understood, "What did Eden ask you to do for him?"

    "Let them take you and me out of Lost Paradise. After all, after the last bombing, Eden doesn’t want to add any more casualties to the ordinary world." Adam finally spoke. He leaned back on the chair, crossed his legs and put his hands on his legs with a calm look, "My investigation into Lost Paradise has ended. You are the only one who is worth taking out of Lost Paradise."

    Zhang Xun quietly looked at him, then turned his head, looking around at everyone in the room. Then, his eyes dropped and his shoulders began to shake.

    He started laughing.

    "Adam, why is it like this? You learned to be a human being, you learned so fast. You’ve even learned how to deceive like a human." Zhang Xun raised his head, his eyes were frozen, "You don't want to take me away at all. You’re just afraid that I'll activate that thing on your forehead."

    The atmosphere in the room changed subtly and the soothing calm was gradually tightened.

    Adam also had no intention of flinching and stared back at Zhang Xun in equal measure. He slowly stood up and walked towards Zhang Xun and the latter had to raise his head to maintain the confrontation in his eyes.

    But his momentum was suppressed by this disadvantage of being in a low position.

    "Hahaha..." Zhang Xun never knew that Adam could laugh like this... with such wickedness, "Do you really think I can't crack your encryption method?" Adam reached up and touched the diamond-shaped device on his forehead.

    "If that's the case, what are you waiting for?" Zhang Xun also smiled, a sneer that didn't reach the corner of his eyes, "Why don’t you remove it then? Or are you afraid that I have other tricks? After all you’re mortal now, if you die there will be nothing left." After he finished speaking, he raised his eyes to look at Muluk and the others, "You’re actually cooperating with the culprit who persecuted you to this point and instead you’re framing your brother refugee state......you’re just cowards who bully the weak and fear the strong!"

    Zhang Xun seemed to be using these words for the first time. The moment he said it, he felt really cool. No wonder those soldiers liked to use such words to scold people...

    But as soon as he finished speaking, a soldier came over and pressed something cold on his neck. In the next instant, an ice-like electric current passed through his body. He cried out in agony as the muscles in his body began to spasm and twitch in agony, as if his whole body was going to jerk up, but the shackles of his hands and feet restricted his movement and he was writhing on the chair like a dehydrated fish...

    Fortunately, the soldier's electric shock wasn’t set very high and after a few seconds of extreme pain he finally managed to take a breath. But even so, he was in a sorry state, with tears and snot flowing uncontrollably.

    During the whole process, Adam stood beside him without even blinking his eyes.

    Zhang Xun felt a chill and pain spread in his chest.

    He remembered what he had said to Adam before. If he had experienced the pain of an electric shock before, he would never have proposed to issue a collar controller to every team member.

    Unexpectedly, he was the first to experience an electric shock...

    "I don't think that's a good idea, soldier." Adam said, "The mechanic implanted some controllers and trackers into his own body. If your current accidentally triggers some unknown function, it could put me at risk."

    The soldier immediately showed a look of horror, "I'm sorry..."

    Zhang Xun gasped for breath, his body was still shaking uncontrollably. He felt Adam's hand lightly fall on his neck, causing him to shudder hard.

    The hand slid gently up the back of his neck, resting on the top of his hair.

    "My dear mechanic, if you don't want to go to Feathered Serpent City, I won’t force you. However, I need you to help me with one thing. After this thing is completed, I can let you and your companions leave."

    Zhang Xun raised his head and looked into Adam's eyes.

    At this moment, Adam's eyes seemed to return to the way he was in the Lab and he was as sincere and gentle as a child.

    Was this sentence true or false?

    Should he go along with this sentence or continue to play his role as if he would rather die?

    Could it be that he was always the only one who thought it was a play and Adam had been watching his good show?

    Zhang Xun wasn’t sure, he had never been sure. He could only rely on his intuition and ask, "What do you want me to do?”

    "It was you who completed the god descent plan. Only you have the ability to help me reach 'Nirvana'." As he spoke, he turned to look at a large screen on the right, "The people in Feathered Serpent City have the latest developed servers, which are small and easy to transport. I want you to help me upload my core modules and database back to the cloud."

---

 The Feathered Serpent was a prominent supernatural entity or deity, found in many Mesoamerican religions, and was considered a god of the sun among the Aztecs. Google Feathered Serpent or Quetzalcoatl to learn more.

You can find story with these keywords: TM, Read TM, TM novel, TM book, TM story, TM full, TM Latest Chapter