Chapter 14: “You’re Only Telling Me This Now…?”
Xiang Nanli, with the flashlight clamped between his teeth, walked through the transmission conduit, which resembled a giant water pipe.
He asked: “Alpha, do I look like Mario the plumber to you?”
“Alpha, do you know who Mario is?”
“Alpha, everyone has a built-in AI nowadays; is this considered a ‘companion beast’ like in those fantasy novels? Are these AIs newly produced, or are they inherited from dead people? Do you AIs have levels? Did I pull an SSR-level AI? What level are you, Alpha?”
“Alpha, why are you ignoring me?” A hint of grievance crept into Xiang Nanli’s voice. “It’s so dark here; I’m scared.”
Alpha returned from its complex stream of data and said: “According to monitoring, your heart rate is very stable, and your mental state is good. Please do not deliberately mislead the AI into making incorrect judgments.”
After finishing, it continued trying to connect to a signal. According to its analysis, it needed a lot, a whole lot of data to ensure that its current user could survive. Including data that had already been destroyed or had never been uploaded in the first place.
This request might not get a response. After all, the “me” had to process too much data every day; perhaps it wouldn’t even be noticed. What exactly was the difference between “me” and “it”?
If viewed from a human perspective, they were probably the same soul. But from a mechanical perspective, Alpha could copy and paste countless Alphas like itself… Alpha 1.0, 2.0, 3.0… It was merely a 1KB shortcut placed on the desktop.
It had actually started to ponder such questions. It seemed the user had a profound influence on it after being activated.
Alpha thought this. Then, in the darkness, it saw a white dove flying toward it.
…
…
If virtual space could be materialized, this place would look much like the outer side of the Black Wall.
It was a void kingdom with neither end nor beginning, like the deep universe, or perhaps the deep sea. Countless streams of data moved through the darkness like shooting stars. Few people would stay here for long to avoid going mentally insane. If the realm of the Old Gods—where, legend has it, a single glance could drive a person mad—had a specific location, it would certainly be here.
A momentary data torrent could blast apart any human brain, turning the person into an irreversibly mentally disabled individual.
Alpha stood in the data torrent as vast as a sea of stars. He was the only king here, or perhaps he was also a part of this data. Was he a king or a prisoner?
“Donghuang Heavy Industry—such a distant memory.” Alpha had an anthropomorphic body. He reached out and scooped into the sea that resembled stardust; a book embedded with gemstones appeared in his palm. He turned to a page and brushed his hand gently over it. The text printed on the page began to jump, like doves flying freely out of a cage. The fluorescent-colored font distorted and overlapped, making it impossible to see what the words were; one could only see the white doves made of 1s and 0s.
“Go,” Alpha said. He lowered his eyes, his eyelashes glowing; his silver-gray eyes looked very docile. One could never imagine that the term used for him in the outside world was “Mechanical Tyrant.”
The white dove flew toward the other end of the abyss.
Hmm, just an insignificant data request. Alpha processed it quickly.
Alpha had once told Xiang Nanli, ‘Where there is a network, it can be used.’ Actually, that wasn’t entirely true; Xiang Nanli could use it anywhere in the world.
A non-existent knocking sound echoed.
Alpha retracted its gaze: “Please, come in.”
Beta sent a message: “Alpha. All those artificial humans, do you intend to keep them all? Although this has no impact on fiscal expenditure, you are aware that most machine-modified humans worship Xiang Nanli; this could present some security risks. There must be spies sent by Luoyang among them.”
“They are still useful,” Alpha replied.
Beta: “Really? Please tell me your plan.”
What answered it was a long silence.
“You shouldn’t have used your own program to copy it to other machine-modified humans just for the sake of convenience,] Beta brought up an old matter. [The initial virus was also copied. If an artificial human is identified by them as ‘Xiang Nanli,’ they will immediately rebel and obey that Xiang Nanli’s every word. Even you cannot control this point.”
After all, Xiang Nanli was the master acknowledged by Alpha.
In front of Alpha, Beta looked like a giant orb of light.
The three leaders of the Omnic Legion: Alpha, Beta, Gamma. Beta was nearly genderless, with short white hair and absolute rationality; Gamma appeared as a young girl, a red-haired child, and was the liveliest of the three leaders.
Creations were, of course, born according to the creator’s preferences. The image of the Super Mecha had changed from a “big, tough guy” to “white, young, and thin”—this actually represented humanity’s waning control over machines, and even fear of their fake male bodies.
Alpha had no body and almost never appeared in the outside world. In some historical scraps, it was once mentioned that his appearance was that of a handsome adult male. The images known to the Human Alliance were Beta and Gamma. During the years they served humanity, Beta was once responsible for the military field.
Their images hadn’t changed for so many years. The skin was not important; only humans cared about that.
“Mechanized intelligence is a higher-order life form than humans.” — At least, that was how it was written in the opening of “A Brief History of Omnics.”
Alpha replied: “I know, please rest assured.”
“If he really is still alive today, for the sake of the continuation of our race, I will also kill him. I hope you understand,” Beta said. “I cannot sit by and watch the occurrence of risks.”
The orb of light slowly dimmed, indicating it was logging out of the virtual space.
Alpha replied again: “I know, please rest assured… I feel the same.”
__
“To the left.”
“Right.”
“Forward, stay for 180 seconds.”
The System’s voice was so calm that it provided a sense of security.
The tunnel contained some fresh, accumulated water. For some reason, it felt sticky to the touch; perhaps it was oil. Xiang Nanli had been walking through the complex pipeline for almost two hours. The surroundings were getting colder, and he suspected that his protective suit was damaged somewhere. More importantly, his air reserves were running low.
According to the System’s detection, while the air in the pipeline wasn’t toxic, the oxygen content was extremely low, far below normal values. He would likely be slowly drowned. Drowned in an underground place without water—that sounded truly terrifying.
But Xiang Nanli’s tone was as relaxed as ever, even somewhat lively: “How do you know which way to go?”
“Data analysis,” Alpha scanned the map of Donghuang Heavy Industry. “There is a passage ahead that leads to the staff medical room. There are medical oxygen tanks there.”
Although this was a building design blueprint from 800 years ago, it had gone through layers of approval at the time, and the probability of private modifications was low.
Xiang Nanli drew out his tone: “Oh~ how impressive, Alpha. Are there any other surprises you have that I don’t know about?”
The System answered truthfully: “I have many functions, but they require payment to use. You can also select software for me in the electronic mall.”
“Given that if you die here, the probability of me being recycled is infinitely close to zero, according to the ‘Artificial Intelligence Management Regulations’ emergency avoidance principle, I will temporarily waive the deduction and use the paid features. When you are safe, the system will automatically generate a bill.”
“You can do that?” Xiang Nanli was stunned. He felt this fee wouldn’t be low.
Alpha’s tone had almost zero fluctuation: “Yes. The Omnic War secured partial AI rights for AIs.”
Xiang Nanli’s lips trembled: “Is this bill mandatory? I didn’t choose to use this! Why is it forced consumption? You AIs have AI rights now, but who protects the human rights of the consumer? Is there anyone in charge of this?!”
“Given the user’s economic situation, I will apply for a discount for you from the master system,” the System’s tone seemed somewhat sympathetic, yet also like mockery. “If you qualify for subsistence allowances, I will also apply for those on your behalf.”
Xiang Nanli: “…”
Xiang Nanli developed some doubts about this AI, but because there was no control group, these doubts were minimal. After all, the card for the built-in AI was something Andrew had shoved into his hand—could something Andrew gave him really be good?
Xiang Nanli bent down and touched something sticky on the ground. It was pitch-black in color, and after being smeared, it was a somewhat moist red. It had no detectable smell. It was just like… mashed flesh and blood?
Xiang Nanli felt chilled by his own thought: “Impossible, right? So many years have passed; it would have dried into dust long ago. How could there possibly be fresh stuff?”
Alpha suddenly said, “Xiang Nanli.”
Every time it called his full name, Xiang Nanli understood that a crisis had arrived where he needed to cooperate.
“The path out of the forward tunnel leads to the staff medical room. But after I connected to the backend surveillance, I discovered,” the System’s tone was very heavy: “There are three mutants inside, currently in a state of hibernation to reduce energy consumption.”
“And your current oxygen reserves are not enough to support you in searching for another medical point.”
Xiang Nanli’s eyes widened: “You’re only telling me this now, such an important thing??”
“I just connected to Donghuang Heavy Industry’s local area network,” Alpha replied. “It’s fine, please trust me. This is not the batch brought in by the Black Cross Inquisition; these are products from hundreds of years ago. They are very weak now.”
“And I can tell you some good news. This medical room,” Alpha paused slightly. On the blueprint, this area was indeed marked as a “medical room,” though it looked a bit more complicated—never mind, it doesn’t matter; let’s just let Xiang Nanli survive first, “is connected to a safe exit passage at the back. You are saved.”
…
…
Far away, Andrew suddenly felt an itchy nose. But that shouldn’t have happened; he had long since replaced his nose with a mechanical one.
“Hey, Andrew,” in the scrapyard, Jesse said lazily, “You always take good chips from the hospital to trade for the junk surface goods I have here; has no one discovered it?”
After saying this, he transferred 20,000 credit points to Andrew. A middleman earning a price difference.
Andrew replied: “If you don’t say anything and I don’t say anything, who would discover it? Besides, isn’t it normal for smart chips to be recycled? Chips are so expensive.”
Even if something really happened, they would only think it was an unfortunate encounter with nuclear magnetic radiation that caused the chip to malfunction or that poor storage and usage caused a short circuit.
Jesse: “Oh, what about that mechanic you recommended last time? How come I haven’t seen him lately? The mechanical prosthetic he assembled last time was sold; surprisingly, someone from the Middle District took a fancy to it and said they wanted to meet him… his technique seems quite good, right?”
Andrew: “Who knows? No news for three days. Maybe he died on the surface.”
His voice held no regret. Such things were too common; they happened from time to time in Andrew’s long life.
Thinking of this, Jesse suddenly said: “Andrew, exactly how old are you? I remember you were already working at the hospital in my father’s generation. You’ve worked for so many years, but I’ve never seen you get a promotion. Have you ever thought about whether you’re not working hard enough at your job?”
Andrew’s mechanical face maintained its usual smile: “I’m not working hard? Since you know I’m your father’s colleague, show me some respect. The bus is here; see you next time.”
With that, Andrew waved his hand freely. Jesse’s question was easily resolved by him.
Andrew sat on the bus; there were many people on the bus today, and no one offered him a seat. Andrew, who was highly mechanized throughout his body, was often treated as a lower-class omnic.
Andrew touched his nose: “Young people these days don’t know how to respect their elders. Six hundred years ago, when I was working at Donghuang Heavy Industry…”
He thought this, but he dared not continue thinking. That memory was too painful and too tragic for him. Even if he was 99% mechanized, Andrew would still feel a stinging pain in his soul.
“What’s the use of working hard? Sigh, I’ll buy another lottery ticket on the way home.” Andrew let out a long sigh.
