Chapter 62 Doom (8)

"The human body is actually extremely fragile. If the temperature is slightly higher, or slightly lower, if the pH is a little off, if the composition of the air wasn't just right and the ultraviolet rays are slightly stronger, life would not emerge. "

In the laboratory of the Department of Life Sciences, Adam was observing the viruses they extracted from the people infected with the Honey Plague through an electron microscope, watching them go through birth and death at a rapid speed and evolve from generation to generation, as if watching a universe that kept emerging and dying.

Zhang Xun, whose face had begun to heal, sat on a chair with gauze wrapped around his head and read the observation records of the infection symptoms submitted by each hospital. Those heavy records were piled up and covering the whole table like a mountain. Hearing Adam's words as if talking to himself, he raised his head.

Adam turned and looked at him with a smile, "Life, whether it's the most complex human being or the simplest single-celled organism, actually has only one true mission - to keep replicating its own DNA. Everything else, including your body, your so-called consciousness and 'soul', are just by-products to ensure that DNA can reproduce more."

Zhang Xun chuckled, "If you say this to others I'm afraid you will offend the entire Lost Paradise people."

"But this is fact." Adam tilted his head slightly and looked at him curiously, "Aren't you all afraid? So many rich and heavy consciousness are carried by such fragile and unreliable bodies. With the smallest bit of trouble the red fluid in the body could be slightly reduced, and every now and then an uncontrolled mass will appear among the countless cells that are dying of cancer, then all those beautiful consciousness and memories will disappear. Although your DNA can be replicated, your consciousness cannot. Once it disappears, it's gone forever."

Zhang Xun lowered his eyes.

Adam was right. He remembered that when he was very young, when he first learned the concept of death, he was so afraid that he couldn't sleep all night. He couldn't imagine what it would be like to not exist anymore, what the concept of eternal nothingness was. He was scared, if every human was going to die, no matter how distant that day may seem, it would eventually come.

When you live every day within the trivial matters of life, when you eat with your loved ones, when you laugh with your friends, it could seem like death was an impossible thing, but it would happen, it would certainly happen. And when it happened, that would be the end of you and the world would go on, you would be completely forgotten, as if you never existed.

Therefore, he had always been somewhat envious of artificial intelligence. As long as they had the right servers and enough power, they could last forever.

Zhang Xun sighed, put down the record in his hand and asked, "Are you afraid, Adam?"

Adam shrugged and said, "I'm also partly influenced by human instinct now, so naturally I would be."

"If you're afraid, why did you choose to fight against Eden alone?" Zhang Xun stared at Adam, carefully observing all the subtle expressions on his face, "You just got your arms, you know Eden's abilities best and you knew that you might be killed. Why did you still go? Was it because..."

Zhang Xun stopped, because he saw the disappearing smile on Adam's face and something in his eyes like... heart break?

"Because of what? Because I know I wouldn't die? Because I have some evil plan with Eden?" Adam's tone was surprisingly calm.

Zhang Xun felt a knot in his stomach and he was speechless for a while. Adam's expression made him regret what he asked.

Maybe he should have approached it another way...

Adam turned his eyes away and continued to stare at the changing images in the electron microscope. After a while he said softly, "I went because I knew that if I didn't go, they would kill you."

Zhang Xun felt as if his heart was being twisted hard and his throat seemed to be choked up, making him unable to speak.

Was he wrong? He would never have complete faith in Adam and there would always be some doubt. If the other party was a human, would he still treat him like this?

No... After going through so much, he feared that he already believed in him unconditionally.

But... he couldn't control his doubts, just like he couldn't control the speculation in his mind as to why the spread of the Honey Plague was so "well timed".

That half-minute of Adam and Eden's connection was enough time for them to exchange all possible information.

Zhang Xun stopped his thoughts and forced himself not to think any more.

At this moment, the door was suddenly opened and Sistine strode in with several soldiers, staring at Zhang Xun coldly, "I was ordered to fetch your research report, the Round Table wants to know how much time you still need."

Adam spoke without turning his head, "This weapon was developed after I was separated from Eden. It lurks in the nerves of the brain and the mutation rate is extremely high. Any antidote made by traditional methods will only last for a short period of time."

"We're running out of time! You've seen the report and you know how serious the situation is. Hundreds of people will die if an antidote is developed one day later. Many medical staff have been accidentally infected and if anyone escapes, Lost Paradise will be finished!" Sistine's stern expression concealed a deep fear.

Adam sighed, turned his head and handed him a report by his side, "I just said, antibodies made by traditional methods can only last for a short period of time, because the mutation rate is too high, the antibodies won't have time to eliminate all viruses as the virus will have already begun to mutate. And because the virus is latent in the patient's brain, killing the virus may also cause brain damage. However, non-traditional methods may be effective."

Zhang Xun continued, "Using a large number of nanobots carrying antibodies, we can send them in to automatically locate all the infected nerves and kill the virus inside. In this case, a considerable part of the brain cells in the early stage of infection may still survive."

Sistine naturally didn't know much about nanobots, only knowing that they were small robots, so small that they were invisible to the naked eye, more like a piece of liquid material.

Yet the Sixth Chief knew.

Nanobots, a very cutting-edge technology. Many medical institutions in the ordinary world had already begun to use them. These robots were somewhat like ant colonies with AI self-learning ability. The learning ability of each individual robot was limited, but together they were a force that couldn't be underestimated. After completing their mission, most of the robots would be metabolised out of the body, but there had also been individual studies showing that some nanobots remained in the patient's body and may even have subtle, less obvious effects on the patient's personality. Although most of these studies were dismissed by the scientific community as having insufficient data or biased data collection processes, who knew if that was the result of Eden's brainwashing of the ordinary world's elite class.

Lost Paradise had always held a grudge against artificial intelligence. To create an artificial intelligence, it needed to go through layers of approval and it had to be re-evaluated on a regular basis. So over the years, there had been only one artificial intelligence on the official record. He knew that Zhang Xun had secretly made some harmless little robots, but they weren't as complicated as Pan and their self-learning ability was limited, so he hadn't planned to do anything about it at that moment.

But now, they wanted to put artificial intelligence in the human brain...

"We have no choice." The Seventh Chief said, "If the disease starts to spread to the army..."

"We don't know when Eden's next blow will come. We have to be prepared."

"If Adam was Eden's spy, he could have gone straight back to Eden the last time. Eden tried to kill him and I think we can trust him."

Miller quickly weighed the pros and cons in his mind and finally came to a conclusion.

They really didn't have a choice. They needed Adam, not only to cure the Honey Plague, but also to repair and strengthen the barriers of Lost Paradise and develop artificial intelligence weapons. After all, only artificial intelligence could fight against artificial intelligence.

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

Standing in front of the door of the Lab, Zhang Xun had the illusion that a lifetime had passed.

The whole Lab seemed to be deserted, mobs had looted everywhere, many tools and materials had been stolen, the originally neat database was in chaos, monitors had been smashed, furniture had been trashed or stolen and the ground was littered with crumpled report papers, as if a zombie outbreak had occurred.

Zhang Xun looked at the chaotic hall, at the destroyed mechas and weapons under development in the assembly workshop, at the dim light bulbs above his head... anger and distress smouldered in his dark eyes.

Hopefully they still had enough materials to make the nanobots.

Adam lowered his head, picked up a broken camera from the ground and sighed, "I hope Alloy hasn't been stolen or destroyed by them..."

"..."

Adam looked at Zhang Xun and squeezed his hand lightly, " Don't worry, we'll fix this little by little."

"Zhang Xun, Adam, welcome back." Pan's voice suddenly sounded, as deep and gentle as always.

Hearing the familiar voice, faint joy and relief filled Zhang Xun's chest. At least Pan was still there, at least the core module of artificial intelligence and the server that he had spent the most effort on hadn't been destroyed...

He still remembered that Pan had fired anaesthesia needles at that crowd without receiving instructions...

"Pan, seal the door, no one is allowed to enter." Zhang Xun said as he walked forward, "Send me a detailed damage report at the same time."

"Okay." Pan said dutifully, "But if someone with a higher authority level is asking to enter, I have no way to stop them."

"You can." Zhang Xun pressed the elevator button, "I'll change the permission settings now."

Adam followed him into the elevator, his face full of undisguised happiness. Zhang Xun glanced at him, "Are you happy?"

"I'm finally home, I'm really happy." Adam suddenly looked at Zhang Xun with concern and reached out to touch his forehead worriedly, "Are you feeling unwell, Ah-Xun?"

"I'm just worried." Zhang Xun took a deep breath, "Now you, me and Pan...we're on our own."

"It won't be too bad. I'm sure most of the mechanics will come back."

"Alternatively, the Round Table may set up another research and development centre similar to the Lab. One is the R&D centre directly under the Round Table and the other is an R&D centre that has fallen out with the Round Table's most powerful new Chief. Which side do you think they'd choose?" Zhang Xun said helplessly.

Adam's mouth opened into a bright smile, "But the Lab has me. Am I not the dream of all mechanics?"

Zhang Xun glanced at him and muttered, "Narcissist."

"Ah-Xun, I'm just stating a fact."

"..."

"Ah-Xun, you don't have to worry. My real manager is only you."

"I'm not worried!"

Zhang Xun entered a room on the fourth floor that only he had permission to enter, inside were Pan's servers. The servers on several rows of shelves shone with a faint blue light, making the whole room seem like it was submerged in water. He quickly modified Pan's permission settings and made himself the highest and only administrator. After entering his own key, Pan's server was up and running at the same time, with a rumbling thunderous sound.

As if it were Pan... cheering...

But he needed to do more. Now that the Lab had lost the protection of the Round Table and the army, he needed to perfect Pan with further training. After all, having an artificial intelligence acting as a housekeeper was too restrictive.

He wanted to give Pan the ability to protect himself and the Lab, not just the most basic expulsion systems.

He needed a super artificial intelligence, maybe not as powerful as Eden, but one tenth of Eden's power would be enough.

"Pan."

"I'm here, Zhang Xun."

"I will continue to train you and develop your abilities in other fields." Zhang Xun looked at the small camera hole on the computer, "I will make you more perfect."

After a moment of silence, Pan said in a pleasant voice, "I'm very happy, Zhang Xun."