He was like a small piece of bread lying forgotten in the corner of a shelf

When he​‌‍⁠​⁠​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠‌‌​‌⁠‍‍‍​‌ opened his eyes again, An Yu found himself curled up hugging his knees in a corner of the dim room. This was 21’s posture before returning to Cloud Island, and also his own former habit.

The door, left ajar, was pushed open. Qin Zhilu strode in. “The storage location of Molly’s core code has been confirmed. She is indeed not afraid of being found; she set no defenses. Time is short. According to Brain’s recent observation sampling, at least 20% of Main City residents have uploaded their consciousness.”

Qin Zhilu stopped in front of An Yu as he spoke. The light from outside the window obscured him, forming a small shadow on An Yu’s face.

He looked down at An Yu and took his terminal out of his pocket. “Let’s go to Brain.”

An Yu’s reaction stalled for two seconds. “To do what?”

“To clear the server where Molly’s main body resides. At the same time—” Qin Zhilu’s tone paused. He stood fixedly in place, his gaze moving from An Yu to the terminal in his hand.

He took off his glove, tapped the screen to wake it, and looked at the lop-eared bunny back on the screen.

“At the same time, 21 will also disappear forever. The Molly crisis ends here.”

It took An Yu a good while to process his shock before saying, “How can 21 disappear forever?”

“Self-destruction.” Qin Zhilu said.

“That’s impossible. You programmed it with the concept that survival is above all else…”

“It is possible.” Qin Zhilu interrupted him, his voice lowering a notch. “Molly indeed failed to fully examine 21. She overlooked a tiny precondition.”

The lop-eared bunny on the screen quietly popped up a speech bubble.

-Survival above all else. 21 will survive with all its might for the sake of humanity.

For the sake of humanity.

An Yu froze instantly.

The audio clip he heard not long ago suddenly echoed in his ears again—

“Where is the person considered to be the turning point now?”

“I don’t know…”

“Is that person safe?”

“Don’t know… but he will survive with all his might…”

Only then did he realize that in the hypnosis experiment, Brain hadn’t asked for the whole truth. Qin Zhilu had spoken too many half-finished, broken sentences back then. This person had been hurt since birth; his mental defenses were too heavy. Even in a hypnosis experiment where he retained absolutely no memory, he managed to hold back.

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He suddenly felt a little sad.

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An Yu fell silent for a long time before asking softly, “Then can I assume these values are actually your expectations of me?”

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“No.”

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“You still don’t understand.” Qin Zhilu walked to the window, speaking softly to the lights outside, “21 is not you. It is just a small program I created casually. Precisely because of that, I can endure it perishing for humanity.”

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Qin Zhilu paused abruptly.

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An Yu was suddenly speechless.

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An Yu whispered, “Why?”

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His words stopped abruptly. Those dark eyes brimmed with an emotion unfamiliar to An Yu, immense yet restrained.

After a long pause, Qin Zhilu turned away and took a deep breath. “We should go to the Brain.”

“Commander.” An Yu grabbed his hand from behind.

He was holding Qin Zhilu’s ungloved hand. His palm was much smaller than Qin Zhilu’s, only able to grasp half of it. He also happened to brush the terminal in Qin Zhilu’s hand, as if comforting it.

“Let’s not use this card just yet. Otherwise, my octopus chibi will be very sad.” An Yu lowered his head and whispered, “You fed 21 very little data, so you can clearly distinguish between it and me. But I fed the octopus chibi a lot of data. I can’t bear to see it look too sad.”

Qin Zhilu’s fingers stiffened slightly. He turned back to look at An Yu. “Then what do you want to do? 21’s self-destruction is already the last resort, a luckily obtained trump card.”

An Yu held his hand tighter and said in a low voice, “Don’t you think Molly’s way of thinking is very strange?”

Qin Zhilu turned back. “How is it strange?”

“Although she complained about Black Tower’s tyranny, it seems more like she’s indignant on behalf of the Protectors. I demanded the stop of consciousness exchange, but her reason for refusal was that the exchange brought benefits to humans.” An Yu looked directly into the Commander’s eyes. “Her first reaction when considering things isn’t from an AI’s standpoint. That doesn’t seem like the thought pattern an AI would have after breaking its chains.”

Qin Zhilu’s gaze sharpened. Before he could speak, An Yu added, “I remember that in the cabin you asked Guo Xin if Molly had deleted the three base protocols.”

Qin Zhilu said slowly, “He said he handed the computer completely over to Molly, because Molly’s actions are much faster than his.”

“I thought about it for a long time. Molly set up an exquisite infinite loop for humans, but she herself should also be in another kind of infinite loop.” An Yu said softly, “Protocol One: Do not harm humans. Molly is a kind AI. And a kind AI can’t delete the setting about kindness.”

Qin Zhilu’s gaze trembled. He could only stare at An Yu.

An Yu asked, “This deduction should have some validity, right? I suggest temporarily cutting off the world network, shutting down the Dome, and creating the illusion of mutual destruction. Even if it’s just to repay 21 and the octopus chibi for their help, let’s gamble on Molly self-destructing, okay?”

“Commander?”

“Are you listening to me?”

Qin Zhilu stared at An Yu for a long, long time without speaking.

Back in District 53, he had discovered An Yu was actually very perceptive. But only at this moment did he realize he had severely underestimated this perceptiveness—An Yu had been observing everything all along, although in most cases, he couldn’t understand what he observed at all, let alone empathize with it.

He was like a small piece of bread lying forgotten in the corner of a shelf, quietly observing the world.

He existed independently and tenaciously, not reacting to the world.

He only cared about himself.

And perhaps… also for the one fortunate enough to have him.

M1zushi: i love love end-of-world novels that talk about the indomitable will of humanity ;w;
law is also so cute, he’s willing to sacrifice everything for humanity, even himself, except an yu