Chapter 116 – Sacrificial Lamb (7)

The AI's perception of time was different from that of humans, but Adam, who had a human body, was still thinking at the AI level, but his body was confined to the human time value domain.

So the moment Zhang Xun pressed the button of the nanobot injector, it seemed to Adam's consciousness that it was quite a long period of time. Countless thoughts came to Adam's mind in an instant, countless ways to stop Zhang Xun.

But his body was too late to act.

It was as if he was confined to an ever-lengthening unit of time, watching as the nanobots poured into Zhang Xun's veins.

When he finally grabbed the mini-syringe from Zhang Xun's hand, it had already been emptied of the blue liquid. Adam's eyes widened as all thoughts in his head clung together for a moment and a great sense of panic sent a chill through his body.

Tears welled up in his eyes as he stared at Zhang Xun, as if some terrible mutation would happen to him in the next moment.

But no, the nanobots' transformation of the brain was gradual; the first few days to ten days wouldn't even show any noticeable change in Zhang Xun.

Adam stared at Zhang Xun in shock, suddenly dropping the syringe in his hand and taking Zhang Xun into his arms. He could feel Zhang Xun shaking slightly, he was obviously scared too, scared of what was going to happen to him.

"I'll fix everything......" Adam murmured in a no-longer-calm, almost nervous way, not knowing whether he was reassuring Zhang Xun or himself. His hug was so tight that Zhang Xun could hardly breathe.

But Zhang Xun let him hold him anyway, because he himself didn't want to let go. Adam was the only one who could save him, his only salvation and comfort.

What would happen to him next? Would he hear something that wasn't there? Would he feel something?

Or would he feel nothing and little by little he would lose his personality by osmosis.

He grasped onto Adam's shirt, hardly able to speak.

............................................................

Adam knew that from now on every step they took would have to be taken with the utmost caution.

Eden knew him as well as he knew Eden. The way things were going, Lost Paradise had probably given up on him and gone over to Eden's side and that would bring Ever Home under Eden's control, but when he made Ever Home, for reasons unknown, Adam had left himself a back door.

It was likely that Eden had predicted that he had left a back door, so it was also likely that the back door had now been discovered and repaired.

However, Adam also predicted the possibility that Eden had anticipated and patched the loophole he left and so when that loophole was patched, it would activate another dormant loophole......

The game between Adam and Eden thus rapidly became complex, layer upon layer, loop upon loop, almost incomprehensible to the human mind. After descending a dozen layers of game analysis, Adam decided to abandon this current mode of thinking, for there would be no end to it.

He had to make a completely random decision. Only a random decision was something that Eden couldn't predict.

After Zhang Xun had fallen asleep, he walked to a huge reef by the beach, sat down with a straight back and closed his eyes, shutting off all the effects that his senses might have on his thinking. For humans this was very difficult to do, only some practitioners who had practised meditation for years and years had the ability to do this, but for him it wasn't difficult to achieve, he just couldn't maintain it for long.

Listening to the white noise created by the waves he gradually began to block out all the signals received by his body's five senses from his mechanical brain.

A series of random land coordinates were generated in his mind.

According to his predictions, Eden would probably break the loophole he had created in the satellite surveillance system around midnight and he and Zhang Xun had to leave the island before then.

He got up and walked towards the private house deep in the island that had been abandoned by the islanders seventy-five years ago. It was a two-storey wooden house, half engulfed by vines and plants and most of the furniture inside was rotten and smelled of damp sea salt. Zhang Xun was curled up on the blackened wicker couch, his eyes tightly closed and his brow furrowed, as if he wasn't at ease in his sleep either.

Instead of waking him up immediately, Adam knelt down next to the couch and carefully examined every detail of Zhang Xun's face. He knew that the nanobots were silently infiltrating every cell in Zhang Xun's body, modifying the base pairs of a few specific chromosomes. After one round of cellular metabolism, Zhang Xun would become more and more collectively conscious and less and less individually conscious.

The whole process would last anywhere from sixteen days to three months, depending on the individual's constitution.

However it was almost impossible to reverse the effects the nanobots had already caused....... Modified cells had a lower mutation rate and were more viable than normal cells. Even if all nanobots were forcibly removed from his body now, those modified cells would still metabolise more slowly than the natural cells and would eventually become dominant, gradually taking over his entire body and affecting the corpus callosum of his brain.

Once his DNA had been modified it would be almost impossible to change it back in a seamless manner.

But he wouldn't give up on Zhang Xun, he had to find a way to minimise that effect.

Zhang Xun had asked him, "If other people can be modified, why can't I?" He had no way to answer that. He just knew that he couldn't accept it...... no matter what, he couldn't accept it......

Couldn't accept that Zhang Xun would become...... them.....

At this moment, Zhang Xun's eyes suddenly opened and he drew in a cold breath, as if he had seen something extremely terrifying. His mouth was wide open, as if he could hardly breathe, his hands were clutching at the air, but his scream was stuck in his throat and couldn't come out. Adam immediately took hold of Zhang Xun's hand and pulled him into his arms, wrapping his own strength around Zhang Xun's twitching, struggling body.

"Shhh...... shhh...... you were just dreaming......" Adam whispered softly in Zhang Xun's ear, over and over.

Zhang Xun's body, which was so tense as if it was about to break, finally relaxed a little and stopped struggling. He breathed heavily, as if he had been drowning and had finally grabbed a piece of driftwood.

"I saw it......" Zhang Xun whispered, with a trembling in his words.

Adam rubbed Zhang Xun's back gently with his hand, "Saw what?"

"The collective consciousness......" Zhang Xun pulled back a little, his face covered in cold sweat with a ghostly expression of fear, "They can feel me.... they...... want to eat me......"

Adam knew that Zhang Xun was probably having this dream because he was so afraid of the changes that were about to happen to him. After all, the time since the injection was so short that his brain shouldn't have been affected yet.

But Zhang Xun's fear was real. Adam then asked in a low voice, "By 'they'...... do you mean Ever Home?"

"You can't control them...... You think human consciousness fused together will be more rational, but you're wrong......" murmured Zhang Xun, his eyes hollow. "It will devour everything...... including you...... including Eden......"

"Shhh...... it's just a nightmare...... Ever Home isn't finished yet, most of them haven't uploaded yet."

"The Button......" Zhang Xun gently pushed Adam away, his face still pale, "Eden can connect everyone to the network through the Button and as soon as the brain is modified, all these people will be sucked into Ever Home.

Adam frowned, Zhang Xun seemed to believe that what he was seeing wasn't just a dream, but something that really existed.

But it couldn't be, he had made sure that this place was blocked from any form of signal. How could Zhang Xun, a human, be connected to Ever Home that was far away in Lost Paradise?

He knew that there were philosophical and psychological theories among humans which believed that there was some kind of invisible and unseen common consciousness among all humans, that each one had a part connected to it that subliminally influenced everything people did. But these theories were extremely old and lacked the research evidence to support them, so they had long since been discarded.

"You don't believe me." Zhang Xun scrutinised Adam's expression and made his conclusion, but there was no look of anxiety or anger in him and all that spread across his eyes was empty bewilderment, "You think I'm crazy."

"Ah-Xun, you just had a nightmare. The amount of nanobots you were injected with was much smaller than the usual dose and it's unlikely to have affected your brain just yet." Adam carefully reassured Zhang Xun, as if he was a ticking time bomb.

Zhang Xun gradually calmed down a little and wiped the sweat off his forehead with his hand. He took a deep breath, as if he was trying to convince himself too.

It was probably just a dream.

But why did it feel so real, why was he as tired as if he hadn't fallen asleep?

Seeing that Zhang Xun seemed to have calmed down a little, Adam took a step forward and looked down slightly at the mechanic, "We need to get out of here, Ah-Xun."

"...... And go where?"

"To a random coordinate point. Once we gather resources there, we'll head to the next random location right before Eden finds us. It's the safest and surest way to go."

"Eden will use the entire Feathered Serpent City and Lost Paradise as hostages to force us to stop."

"We can't stop. Once we stop we will be neutralised immediately. We need to find a way to contact a few key humans as we keep moving. They'll help us draw Eden's attention, drain its resources and give me the chance to retake control of Lost Paradise as well as get the necessary supplies."

"Key humans?"

"Eden has enemies, it always has. Eden is like an ever-present web that's taken away a lot of absolute power that should have been held by a small number of humans. These forces have always existed, but because Eden was too strong they had no chance to act before as Eden would have destroyed all their plans. But now, you have created a triple AI network that is strong enough to hold Pan and me together, and strong enough to consume a significant portion of Eden's attention. This is the perfect opportunity for those humans and they won't let it go to waste."

Zhang Xun didn't make a sound.

Adam suddenly reached out his hand and gently touched Zhang Xun's cheek. Zhang Xun's body trembled slightly but he didn't dodge it.

"I know you have contacted a rather important person...... the descendant of my creator, Natalie Clausen." Adam said softly, "She may have something...... unexpected, in her hands that could help us weaken Eden further."

Zhang Xun wasn't surprised, "So you knew?"

"I did my best to find out anything related to you. I had a few informants placed around Feathered Serpent City and knew there were bandits investigating the Edenites, but I didn't share that part with Eden." Adam said and grinned, it was like a faint light that shone in the darkness.

Zhang Xun looked at that smile and a faint sadness filled his heart.

Adam, really finally chose him?

After he had ruined himself......

note- I'm glad Adam decided to change the path but...he broke bby