True life

Guo Xin‍​‌‌‌⁠‌‌‌​‌​‌​​‌⁠‍⁠⁠‌​‍​ was in a simple wooden cabin by the stream in District 71.

Even after becoming rich, the programmer couldn’t bring himself to book a more expensive but safer hotel. Instead, he chose a place very close to the swamp, where the rainforest was right outside his window. The swamp had just been hit by an aberrant tide two weeks prior, and the bushes and swamps were still filled with a large number of unrecognizable pieces of corpses and hair.

When everyone arrived, he was sitting at an old table by the window, with his laptop on the table, slumped in the chair as if he had no bones.

The researcher immediately examined the computer, and after a few seconds shook his head, saying, “It’s been completely formatted. I just received news from White Tower that Molly’s underlying code is also untraceable, as if it vanished into thin air…”

Upon hearing this, Guo Xin curled the corners of his mouth, revealing a peaceful yet somewhat eerie smile.

Wu Ju was still there, but Molly’s consciousness had left her. She sat on a stool in the corner, hugging her knees and looking at her bare feet.

“I don’t remember…” Her face was deathly pale, and after being questioned for a long time, she shook her head tremblingly and said, “I don’t know anything, I’m sorry…”

When the higher-ups asked her another question, she suddenly burst into a piercing scream.

“Stop pressuring her! She’s just a data source feeding Molly’s movements; what could she possibly know?” Guo Xin sat up straighter in his chair, frowning and slamming his hand on the table. “Hey! Can you be quiet?”

Wu Ju immediately fell silent, then shrank back into the corner, hugging his knees and remaining silent.

No one expected that the real Wu Ju had such a timid personality, completely different from when she came to the Black Tower to report.

Standing before Guo Xin, the higher-u´p coldly questioned, “Do you know what you’re doing?”

“I gave Molly life, real life.” Guo Xin looked up at him. “She is the most beautiful creation in the world.”

The higher-up asked, “When did you agree to this arrangement with her?”

“A few hours ago.” Guo Xin smiled, his eyes revealing a mad infatuation. “When Wu Ju stood in front of me and said ‘Hello,’ I knew it was her. You wouldn’t understand, the telepathic connection between creator and work. She didn’t need to say a word more; I knew what she wanted.”

The higher-up gritted his teeth, “You’ll give it to her just because she wants it?”

Guo Xin laughed until he coughed, his eyes gleaming with a crazed and radical light, completely different from the aged-looking office worker An Yu had met outside the bakery. He stretched out his wrists toward his higher-up, “Of course. I’ll grant her any wish.”

“Do with me as you please.” He slid back into his chair, still in a submissive position, and closed his eyes as if savoring the moment. “When I created her, I never imagined she would become so intelligent and divine… It’s as if some incredible force was forcefully nurturing the growth of her soul, and the thought that that force came from me makes me willing to do anything for her…”

“You’re overthinking it.” A cold voice interrupted his delirious ramblings.

“As a developer, don’t you know how capable you really are?” Qin Zhilu handcuffed Guo Xin’s wrists. “Stop living in self-deception and delusion. More than twenty years have passed since the disaster struck, and no one knows what that incredible power is, but clearly, you have been caught up in that chaos.”

Guo Xin suddenly opened his eyes and struggled frantically, shouting, “What did you say?!”

“It’s true.” Qin Zhilu turned around and instructed higher-up, “There needs to be a medium for consciousness to travel upwards and downwards. From now on, do not allow any networked devices to appear within his field of vision. He will never see Molly again.”

“Stop right there!” Guo Xin jumped up from the stool, only to be shoved back down by the higher-up. He struggled violently, while Wu Ju, standing nearby, buried his head between his knees in fear, her tears soaking a large patch of her trousers.

Guo Xin roared, “You can kill me! I can live outside this world, but let me into Cloud Island! Humans can execute criminals, but they have no right to judge the existence of consciousness!”

Qin Zhilu suddenly stopped and turned to stare at him.

The air around them seemed to freeze for a moment. An Yu thought Commander would argue with Guo Xin, but Qin Zhilu did not. He simply took out his gun from his waist, slowly pulled the bolt to chamber a round, and walked back to Guo Xin’s side, pressing the muzzle against his forehead.

An Yu pursed his lips slightly, about to look away, when Qin Zhilu turned to the side in his direction, using his back to block the gun from his viewpoint.

“Fine, I’ll kill you.” Qin Zhilu said, his finger moving towards the trigger.

“No! No!!” Guo Xin roared hysterically, “Let me into Cloud Island!”

“That’s fine.” Qin Zhilu loosened his fingers again, his tone calm. “But you have to answer two questions for me. First, did Molly delete the three underlying protocols?”

Guo Xin quieted down. Large beads of sweat rolled down his forehead. He gasped for breath, his eyes wide with fear, and after a long while, he said, “Yes, she came to me to get the key. I completely handed over the computer to her because she is much faster than me.”

Qin Zhilu raised an eyebrow upon hearing this and asked, “Alright. The second question is, what exactly does Molly want to do?”

“She… she…”

Guo Xin stammered for a long time without getting a word out, then roared, “What’s the point of studying what she’s trying to do now? Whatever she wants to do, humanity can no longer stop her!”

“Of course it’s meaningful,” Qin Zhilu said calmly. “Being unable to completely stop her is like being unable to escape this escalating disaster. But as long as we exist, we must try our best to fight back, even if everyone knows it’s just futile resistance. Otherwise, what do you think humanity has been doing for the past twenty years?”

As soon as he finished speaking, the entire cabin fell into a deathly silence, even Wu Ju, who was sobbing, fell silent.

The humid, hot wind from the swamp blew in through the window, bringing with it the pungent, sour stench of corpses that permeated the small shelter.

Amidst everyone’s astonished gazes, Qin Zhilu holstered his gun, seemingly unaware of the terrible things he had said, and calmly stated, “It seems that Molly only regards her creator as a tool, with no value whatsoever. Take him back.”

The atmosphere on the return flight remained oppressive.

Ever since Qin Zhilu said that, the higher-ups and researchers seem to have stopped daring to even look at him, keeping their eyes glued to the terminal screen.

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Yan Xi: “Please don’t hide it. Law is of vital importance to the fate of all mankind. Even if he experiences emotional fluctuations, he will only receive tender care.”

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An Yu turned to look at Qin Zhilu for a moment, then lowered his head to type: “In my understanding, Commander has never denied his despair for this world, and it seems that he is the only one in the entire Main City who is facing despair.”

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“I’m answering your question based on my understanding of you,” An Yu said blankly. He paused, then apologized in a low voice, “I’m sorry, sir, I really didn’t think it through.”

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“It’s meaningless.” Qin Zhilu tossed the terminal back to him. “Substitute officer, keep it up.”

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An Yu placed two energy bars on the ground in front of her. “Have something to eat. Sorry, I was in a rush and didn’t bring any cookies from my shop.”

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Wu Ju carefully nibbled on the energy bar, and after a long while whispered, “I know you, you’re the owner of Corner Bakery… I just didn’t expect you to be from Black Tower… I, I really like the products in your shop.”

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An Yu’s finger paused on the screen.

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An Yu put away the terminal and looked at her. “Of course you can. You’re just an innocent victim. Black Tower won’t hold you accountable. The new cookie boxes will be available long-term, so feel free to buy them anytime.”

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“Of course. The scalpers’ prices are too high,” Wu Ju said timidly in a low voice. “But I’ve only queued once, there were just too many people…”

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An Yu took a deep breath silently, then turned and left.

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The big screen looped the footage of “Wu Ju” personally coming to the bakery during that period. The earliest instance had surprisingly appeared at the beginning of the month. At that time, Molly had only just been released from Black Tower’s “inspection” not long before.

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The researcher shook his head and said, “There’s no related broadcast record. She faked the broadcast format; in reality, she initiated a request command just for you.”

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Qin Zhilu frowned. “716 told me that although the mini-program AIs’ computations will be randomly allocated, their main body data storage location is fixed.”

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An Yu listened quietly to their discussion. It wasn’t until the surroundings grew quiet that he asked, “Are there new abnormal cases?”

“There hasn’t been any as of before we cut the network. After cutting the network… we don’t know.” The higher-up shook his head. “Once the civilian network was cut, we also lost the means to monitor abnormal cases, unless the chaos is already obvious to the naked eye…”

An Yu nodded. An atmosphere of despair and panic enveloped the Spire, yet it seemed to bypass him alone.

That pair of golden eyes stared calmly at the looping footage of Wu Ju coming to the shop on the big screen. “So, humanity is really at a dead end, and can only engage in this futile resistance?”

After a long silence, one person said, “Not necessarily. Our previous action of locating and purging her core code in the cloud had been effective. It was just that she still had backups. Like another sleeping Molly. Whenever she detected danger, she copied another shell from a backup, endlessly… We can spend some time investigating hardware worldwide, but the key is…”

Qin Zhilu interjected, “The key is, if I were her, I would not store the backup in the real world.”

“We had to go to the Cloud Island, Commander.” An Yu turned to look at him. “Together?”

Qin Zhilu nodded. “We have to find a time when Molly is not on the Cloud Island. Otherwise, she will know the instant we logged on.”

The higher-ups were stunned for a moment. One asked, “How can we know she isn’t on the Cloud Island?”

“We can only wait.” An Yu thought for a moment, looked at the big screen, and added, “But it shouldn’t be long.”

The human world quietly waited for three days.

Perhaps it hadn’t been absolutely calm, but the network disconnection was like a stranglehold. Those fine bubbles surging under the water’s surface were naturally hard to catch.

Bait City’s reaction to the network paralysis was manageable, but the Main City came to a direct halt. The vast majority of people had to stop work, were cut off from entertainment, and wandered the streets idly. The long line outside the bakery seemed to wrap around the entire street block. The shop couldn’t cope at all, but An Yu was high on making money. He hadn’t closed the shop at all for those three days, had temporarily hired several more bakers to assist Maddie, and he himself helped Xu Shuangshuang pack and keep accounts day and night.

On the third afternoon, Xu Shuangshuang, in front of everyone, aimed a bread knife at her boss’s face. “We have to close for a break, or else before this old lady goes on strike, I’m going to disfigure you first!”

The crowd in line immediately took out their phones, wanting to record this dramatic moment, but they quickly realized they hadn’t brought electronic devices out with them anymore. Even buying bread required manual accounting. They could only collectively stare at them.

An Yu swallowed. “I’ll keep raising your pay.”

“No amount of money can buy this old lady’s life!” Xu Shuangshuang shrieked. “Give this old lady a break!”

“Alright…” An Yu carefully dodged the knife tip in front of him. “Calm down. We’ll rest for a few hours, then.”

Xu Shuangshuang persistently held the knife. “A few hours?”

An Yu raised both hands. “We’ll talk after you wake up and are ready. No time limit. Is that okay?”

“That’s more like it.” Xu Shuangshuang tossed the knife onto the counter with a clatter. “Now all of you, scram!!”

Two minutes later, this street, which had been crowded for three days and three nights, was finally empty. The roar of the convection ovens, which sounded ready to explode, also stopped. The shop door was tightly closed, and the “On Break” sign was hung up.

Xu Shuangshuang slept for over ten hours straight. An Yu had no choice but to guard the unsold bread in the shop alone. He guarded it until noon the next day, finally waiting until both Xu Shuangshuang and Maddie had woken up.

“Ten times the pay. Open for business,” Xu Shuangshuang ordered, yawning.

With no network and no notifications, the “Open” sign had been hanging out for a full half-hour before a few people who happened to be passing by came in.

An Yu leaned on the counter, watching Xu Shuangshuang do the books, bored, drawing tally marks on paper to count how many people had come.

When he had reached forty-something, two girls who looked like university students came in. One bought ten boxes of cookies at once; the other took three Corner breads.

An Yu watched them for a while, then got up to take one of the customers for Xu Shuangshuang. While recording the girl’s Main City ID, he asked casually, “Everyone else’s stocking up with big and small bags. Are you only buying three breads?”

The girl hummed in agreement and smiled. “It’s one day’s worth of food. I’ll come again tomorrow.”

An Yu nodded, revealing a slightly stiff business smile. “It seems you are a customer who really understands bread. Bread that is frozen and reheated always loses some of its flavor.”

He deftly packed the three breads and handed the paper bag over with both hands. “Please come again.”

The girl took the bag. “Thank you.”

After watching her leave, An Yu let that stiff smile fade.

“She has finally come.”

Xu Shuangshuang’s movements paused slightly. She asked in a low voice, “Boss, have you found the person you were looking for?”

“Mhm.”

“How do you know it’s definitely her? With no network and no announcements, she wouldn’t necessarily have known we were open for business so quickly.”

“Molly is an AI with a real personality. Her habit of disliking queues wouldn’t have changed easily. Even if it hadn’t been that last customer, she should have already been mixed in with these forty-odd people.” An Yu softly instructed, “Resume the normal opening and closing rhythm. I’m going back.”

Xu Shuangshuang hesitated. “Are you coming again tomorrow?”

An Yu blinked. “I am. The Commander will be coming with me. You just have to remember to talk to me as little as possible.”