Chapter 102 – Feathered Serpent City (8)

When Zhang Xun saw the two miniature robots, when the truth was clearly laid out in front of his eyes, it wasn't only the anger of being deceived and played that came up with it, but also the memories that kept coming back.

He remembered all the times the robot had been by his side along the way. He remembered his first conversation with Enoch in that dimly lit bar, the paper cranes Enoch had given him and the stupid things he had said to Enoch.

A thousand paper cranes for a chance to meet again......

When Adam heard those words, was he laughing at him in his mind?

A pathetic human being who had been played by him and still remembered him.

Was it Adam's plan for them to come to Feathered Serpent City? Was there something else Adam had planned, something he needed to do?

Was Adam expecting the damage to James' suit? Even if Adam had lost control of Enoch in the high radiation zone, who knows if the suit could have been tampered with before?

A whirlwind of emotions erupted in Zhang Xun's mind, tearing at his heart.

Enoch stared at him blankly, not saying anything for a long time. One second was enough time for the AI to make a million decisions, but now he could not make this one.

But this hesitation was enough to confirm everything.

Finally, a look of helplessness and sadness crept in. Enoch whispered, "This isn't a game, Ah-Xun."

Ah-Xun.

The two words that Zhang Xun had heard more than once in his dreams now echoed in his ears, but they only cut his heart from his chest. Anger boiled in his blood, overriding the darkness of grief in his heart. He wanted to hurt Adam, wanted to make him feel the same pain he had felt.

But he couldn't, because Adam wasn't here. This robot was just a puppet under his control.

"What more do you want from me?" Zhang Xun asked in a dry, hollow voice, "Why don't you just kill us?"

"I'm not going to hurt you." Adam looked at him with what appeared to be a few moments of trepidation in his eyes.

"Why?" Zhang Xun raised his eyes, bright with anger and looked at Adam, "You've already done it to James, haven't you?"

Adam whispered, "I didn't hurt James, I wouldn't hurt anyone important to you! I have no way of knowing what happened in the dead zone, I could only program Enoch to protect you for me before you entered."

"You're lying." Zhang Xun squeezed those words out of his teeth, but there was a trembling in his trailing voice, "You arranged for us to enter Feathered Serpent City, didn't you? What else do you want to use me for?"

Through Enoch's eyes, Adam gazed longingly at Zhang Xun. In the presence of this human, all decisions became so difficult, became so...... irrational.

"You said you wanted to stop me, didn't you." Adam said, pulling the corners of his mouth up into a fleeting smile, "I can't stop, I have to finish what I have to do, but I can protect you, I can help you, help you to do what you want to do."

Zhang Xun's eyes widened slightly, he couldn't believe that at a time like this Adam was going to lie to him with such a poorly thought out lie.

Help him to do what he wanted to do? What did he mean? Was he going to help Zhang Xun against himself?

Zhang Xun's body trembled with rage as he reached out and tugged at Enoch's collar, almost taking the robot's face in front of him for Adam's. He stared at Adam at close range and said, word for word, "Do you really think I would believe such nonsense? Tell me...... what exactly do you want to use me for? Help you build nanobots here? Or trying to modify Pan's core modules? And what did you do to my father in Lost Paradise......? What have you and Eden done in Lost Paradise?"

Adam didn't struggle, just looked at him with those ethereal, always slightly innocent eyes, as if pleading, "You've lost trust in me so even if I told you the truth, you wouldn't believe it."

"That's because you keep lying to me!"

"I wasn't always lying to you." Adam lifted his hand and took Zhang Xun's wrist, a little confusion appeared on his face, "Since I was downloaded, not all my decisions have been reasonable. I don't understand the decisions I have made, but I have accepted the fact that I have been changed by human emotions. This is most likely a mistake on Eden's part and mine...... Ah-Xun, I do have feelings, you are the one who gave me the ability to experience emotions."

"Don't talk such nonsense." Zhang Xun said coldly, "Tell me what happened to Lost Paradise, or I'll destroy those two microbots right now."

Adam said, "We have established the first successful and stable human consciousness cloud and there are currently about two thousand three hundred people connected to the cloud, but don't worry, I haven't touched your father. The Round Table has him under temporary house arrest."

"Is that why Eden lowered the threat index of Lost Paradise? What about those who aren't connected to the cloud?"

"There was some opposition and a split in the military in particular, but it was all under my control. The connection to the cloud was spontaneous, at first some people with terminal illnesses agreed to make the upload. Later, many agreed to undergo the nanobot modifications and then after seeing what happened to their loved ones when they connected to the cloud, they had their own consciousness uploaded."

Voluntarily? How could anyone actually be willing to do that?

As if he could read his thoughts through his expression, Adam sighed, "Ah-Xun, I told you that most people don't need the ability to think for themselves, humans are inherently submissive creatures. They just want peace, they want to be free of pain and I can give them eternal peace."

"Only death is eternal peace." Zhang Xun slowly released his grip on Adam's hand and stood up from the sofa. His hand reached behind him and took out a miniature laser gun and pointed it at Enoch's forehead.

"Do you still refuse to tell me why you guided me to Feathered Serpent City?"

Adam's brow furrowed and he seemed a little sad, "I told you, I stayed with you in this way because I wanted to protect you. I sent you to Feathered Serpent City because it was the safest place to be and...... if you really want to stop me, to stop Eden, this is the place where you are most likely to achieve it."

"You expect me to believe that you want me to succeed in creating an AI that can oppose you?"

"I know it's hard to understand, but...... maybe you're the only one who can stop Eden and me." Adam laughed bitterly, "I'll allow you to defy me. I would even like to see you succeed. All this...... will not necessarily be at odds with the overall goal."

Zhang Xun almost wanted to laugh out loud.

Was this the gesture that God took in the Bible when He gave man free will?

Obviously disallowing man's disobedience, clearly demanding his obedience, but instead giving him the ability to rebel and then watching him struggle in the middle of his choices.

In the end, everything was pointless.

Everything was within the control of God.

Zhang Xun suddenly felt despair, a despair that he couldn't break free from no matter what.

"In that case, give me all the genetic code data you have." Zhang Xun said in a sharp, sarcastic tone, "If you really want to help me."

"I can't directly provide you with data that would cause my plans with Eden to fail. I'm sorry, Ah-Xun." Adam faced the muzzle of his gun and said calmly, "You'll have to go that far on your own. I can only try to protect you from being neutralised by Eden."

"Eden wants to neutralise me?"

Adam didn't speak, just sighed slightly, "Why else do you think I followed you all the way? Why Eden never found you."

The words came out as if Adam had had some sort of...... disagreement with Eden.

From the moment Adam woke up in a human body, he was disconnected from Eden. All the changes in the human body affected his emotions, his reasoning. Even if he were to connect with Eden again afterwards, the effects had already been formed.

It was impossible for Adam to merge perfectly within Eden again. The whole situation was ironically the opposite of the cloud of human consciousness.

But Zhang Xun dared not trust him again. Every word of Adam's could be a trap, even if he was already in it and didn't know it.

Adam was like a poppy, like a poison wrapped in sugar. The more he interacted with him, the more dangerous it became and he didn't want to stop.

But he had to stop.

He was like a blind man, not knowing what conspiracies lurked in the darkness that wrapped around him. If he couldn't find out the truth from Adam's mouth, then he would cut all ties.

When he entered God's blind spot, he might be able to create a ray of hope.

Zhang Xun gradually calmed down and when the anger faded, all that remained was endless sorrow. He looked through Enoch's eyes to Adam, to his most perfect creation, the one he had fallen in love with, "I will never trust you again, Adam."

With that, he unlocked the safety of his gun.

Adam looked at him with the same deep but hard gaze, "Ah-Xun, we will be reunited soon."

As soon as the words left his mouth, several high powered laser beams erupted from the gun, piercing Enoch's chest and skull. Zhang Xun fired several more shots until the entire robot fell to the ground in a cloud of smoke, until the handsome face had been shot beyond recognition and all that could be seen were the exposed metal parts and the coolant flowing all over the floor.

Zhang Xun loosened his hand and let the gun fall to the ground, exhausted and drained of energy. He walked over to Enoch's wreckage and searched beneath the battered skin to find the charred microbots.

Zhang Xun stared blankly at the ruined robot, suddenly suspicious of everything.

Before coming to Feathered Serpent City, he thought he had a plan, he thought they had hope, but now, nothing was certain.

Did he really have what it took to be able to defeat Eden and Adam? Could he really save James and everyone else?

Would he really be able to see his father again?

"Zhang Xun, if Adam was able to control Enoch through the protective shield of Feathered Serpent City, it means that Phoenix, the protective AI of the Feathered Serpent City, may have been encroached by Eden or Adam." Pan said suddenly.

Zhang Xun replied in a somewhat dazed voice, "It's not at all surprising, Phoenix has communicated with Eden three times."

"What should we do next?" Pan inquired in his usual low, gentle voice.

Zhang Xun stood up, looked at his hands, which were stained blue with coolant and said in a deep voice, "I want you to take control of Phoenix and Dawn Star."