716

“You’ve been‌‍⁠​‌​⁠‌​​‍‌‍​‌⁠​⁠​‌‌‍⁠‍ staring at me like this for ten minutes.” AI Qin Zhilu walked to the sofa by the window and sat down. He removed his gloves, folded them, and placed them by his leg.

That pair of dark eyes scanned the room before landing on the paper bag on the small table beside him.

“May I try?” he asked An Yu. “Your shop’s bread. I’ve always been very curious.”

An Yu nodded.

“Thank you.”

AI Qin Zhilu reached for the paper bag. He naturally smoothed the crumpled opening in mid-air, brought it in front of him, and reopened it. Inside the bag, there was only one cookie and one Corner’s signature bread left. He used a napkin to tear off a piece of the bread and put it in his mouth, chewing quietly until he had swallowed it completely. Only then did he pick up the cookie and put it in his mouth.

An Yu watched him without blinking. The AI’s mannerisms were completely identical to the Commander’s. He firmly believed that if the AI had not been honest, it would have been very difficult for him to see through the deception in a short time.

As he had expected, AI Qin Zhilu quickly and elegantly finished his first meal in a human body, but he did not share any of his feelings about it. He just looked up at him. “We can’t waste any more time.”

An Yu came back to his senses. “After returning to normal, the person’s memory will be erased. What do I need to do to help the Commander retain the upcoming memories?”

AI Qin Zhilu’s lips quirked slightly at his words, a hint of approval in his eyes. “We—I meant, he and I, are not rash by nature. This exchange has only two simple objectives. He needs to go see what exactly is happening on the Cloud Island, and you and I are responsible for helping him retain his memories. Of course, it would be even better if we could also figure out the mechanism of the data flood’s arrival and self-destruction.”

An Yu processed this for a moment, then continued to ask, “Do you mean that after the AI consciousness descends, your actions in the objective world and his actions on the Cloud Island combined form the data flood?”

“Yes.”

An Yu nodded. “But the most difficult thing for humanity right now is that the data flood comes and goes without a trace, making it impossible to lock down the server location.”

AI Qin Zhilu refolded the paper bag. “There’s a central server on the Cloud Island. The essence of all our actions is to send it a computation request. It returns a result, helping us complete the action. But when it computes, it’ll autonomously call upon any server in the objective world. Little characters like us had no way of knowing which one it’s calling.”

“In that case,” An Yu immediately asked, “we can’t even locate the Commander’s data. How ae we supposed to help him retain it?”

AI Qin Zhilu gave a reassuring smile. “He said that a ship can’t proactively search for a single ripple in a raging sea, unless that ripple dashed itself against the hull.” He paused, then said softly, “Although praising him feels as strange as praising myself, I still want to say that he has always been calm and meticulous, so much so that his occasional insane measures only make him more captivating.”

[One hour later. Brain Super-Server Room.]

Hundreds of top electronic scientists sat before their screens, poised for action.

—At that moment, over 90% of Black Tower’s and Brain’s electronic equipment was under attack.

“The attack source’s servers has been successfully located. They’re switching erratically between hundreds of servers scattered across the world, covering everything from the Main City all the way out to the server rooms in Bait City’s District 90-something.”

“Why’s this happening?”

“Black Tower’s and Brain’s defense systems are very strong. Qin Zhilu’s attacks couldn’t succeed, so he’s trying repeatedly. Every attempt was equivalent to initiating a new action, so the central system will continuously and randomly assign servers.” The person explained, “This is the same as the rule Mr. Octopus told us. It seems the Super-Aberrant has indeed silently connected all the world’s servers.”

AI Qin Zhilu spoke coolly, “It’s nice to meet you, but please refrain from calling me Mr. Octopus.”

As he spoke, he shot a faint glance at An Yu beside him. Not long ago, when An Yu had introduced him to Brain and Black Tower, he had said—”This is the AI I raised, er, Mr. Octopus.”

He retracted his gaze. “He considered this before we switched. For distinction, you can temporarily call me by my designation: 716.”

The higher-ups and researchers exchanged confused glances, but no one asked. Everyone harbored a certain wariness toward this AI that had learned from Qin Zhilu.

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An Yu turned his head and watched him quietly. From start to finish, AI Qin Zhilu had maintained clear boundaries with humanity in his words and actions, yet he stood entirely on humanity’s side. Observing him gave An Yu a very strange feeling.

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An Yu paused. “You can try to express the octopus gene. The Commander—no, this body can do it.”

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A few seconds later, he frowned and turned back. “Has he been secretly adding extra training to my physical training classes because he was dissatisfied with me?”

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The AI glanced at him and continued, “Your words and actions are difficult to regulate, because you don’t consider any mistake that doesn’t impede your survival to be a mistake. But if he forcefully reprimanded you, you would worry about losing his protection and withdraw yourself. That punishment would be too severe. So, adding two -physical sessions when he is angry both vents his anger and helps you get stronger. If I were him, I would do that.”

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An Yu held back, but in the end, he couldn’t stop himself from asking in a small voice, “Could you predict the Commander’s feelings for me?”

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“Has he ever hated me?”

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He had thought this kind of probability calculation would take a while, but the AI directly turned his head, gazed at him with Qin Zhilu’s dark eyes, and said naturally and definitively, “Infinitely close to zero. It can be considered an impossible event.”

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In the past, he had faced this awkward situation of not knowing how to respond countless times. But never before had he heard his own heartbeat so strongly. He felt no anxiety at all, and yet he was completely focused on thinking about the other’s words.

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“Classified data has been temporarily sealed. Duration: 600 seconds.”

“The dome system has been temporarily isolated. Duration: 600 seconds.”

“……”

“They are cleared to proceed, letting Qin Zhilu attack.”

The page of scrolling code on the screen vanished at the command. Immediately after, cheerful music rang out in sync from the audio systems in every corner of the White Tower.

In the communication channel with Black Tower, the same cheerful atmosphere overflowed.

An Yu blankly raised his head, looking at Super-Aberrant Kindergarten playing on the massive screen.

Bunny An was playing bandits with its passionate CP, the octopus chibi. They were bursting into a human mall to rob. The octopus chibi swept the shelves for gloves in the high-end leather goods store, while Bunny An had already rushed into the supermarket’s bakery section.

An Yu’s gaze gradually lost focus, returning to its previous vacant state.

After a long time, he turned his head to the person beside him. “I hadn’t expected the Commander to use this method…”

“It’s likely 21 who has provided the material. 21 has indeed been obsessed with this cartoon recently.” AI Qin Zhilu’s expression was calm. He even performed one of Qin Zhilu’s habitual actions— raising his right hand, and lightly tugging down the glove with his left. “Oh right, I forgot to say. In the objective world, you and I are teaming up. On the Cloud Island, he’ll go find 21 for help. Although 21 is a bit withdrawn, I believe they can get along well. After all, you and he get along very well.”

It took An Yu a moment to react. His golden eyes slowly widened. “21 is that lop-eared bunny AI he is raising?”

“Yes. I reasonably deduced 21 is a numerical homophone for your name. So when he told me I could use the designation 716, I hadn’t been that surprised.” The AI glanced at him. “I have to say, although a numerical designation is a bit random, it’s much better than names like Octopus Chibi or Little Lop-eared Bunny.”

An Yu looked like he wanted to speak several times, but ultimately, he kept his mouth shut.

He had never won an argument against the Commander, and it was the same with this AI. Ling Qiu had told him that if he always lost, he should just stop competing. Life was already hard enough; a person shouldn’t always seek out discomfort.

He had just retracted his thoughts when he heard an exclamation, “Found it!”

“Bait City District 17, backup server room D380!”

“The defense kicked in. Have Qin Zhilu try again!”

The conference hall was suffocatingly silent, leaving only the sound of scientists rapidly tapping on their keyboards.

A few seconds later, the cartoon feed cut out and returned to the scrolling code page An Yu had seen at the beginning.

“Trackers are ready.”

“Classified data is still sealed.”

“The dome system will remain independent for 425 seconds.”

The screen flashed, and the cartoon feed reappeared. The cheerful music washed over their eardrums, while humanity’s elites sat focused, working at their screens.

This time ended quickly.

“Location confirmed: District 17, backup server room D380.”

“Defense kicked in. Try again.”