Chapter 63 The Antidote to Human Nature (1) 

note- shit goes down from here bois.

Making nanobots was easy for Adam, but they lacked enough materials to make sophisticated devices that could work at the molecular level. They could only rely on the hunting group to venture to the black market to buy what they needed to solve this problem.

And this task once again fell to the hunting group led by James.

Before leaving, James finally met Zhang Xun. Not in the Lab, because in the process of developing the antidote against the plague, the Round Table had sent a lot of spies to investigate around the Lab. Some mechanics had also taken the initiative to return to the Lab to resume work, including the young man named Jian Mo. Although Zhang Xun disliked him and had a sense of conflict in his heart that he was unwilling to admit, he couldn't find any reason to refuse his return to the Lab. Fortunately, he had modified Pan's permission settings. No one but him could access Pan's core cognitive modules and it was unlikely that the technologies he had kept secretly would ever be accessible.

But even so, there were many things that were inconvenient to say within the Lab.

This wasn't their usual dimly lit bar playing lazy jazz. Zhang Xun lowered the hat on his head, raised the collar of his coat and found James who had already ordered wine and started drinking. James looked haggard, the beard on his chin hadn't been shaved for two days, he was still wearing the old leather jacket he liked to wear and drank the last of the whisky in the glass with his head back.

Zhang Xun sat down opposite him.

"Hey, Ah-Xun." James grinned at him and waved his hand casually.

At this time the waiter came over and asked Zhang Xun what he wanted to order. Zhang Xun asked for a martini, then frowned as James ordered another glass of whiskey.

"Are you okay, Jamie?" Zhang Xun asked worriedly.

James glanced at him and shrugged, "Same as always. You still have the thought to worry about me? Worry about yourself."

Zhang Xun was slightly confused, "I'm fine."

"You've fallen out with the Round Table and call yourself fine? Right now they need you and your robot, just wait until they no longer need you..."

"They will always need me." Zhang Xun said calmly, "As long as they need Adam, they need me."

"What about Adam? How do you know he won't break through your controls?"

"Pan is watching him constantly, he has no chance."

"What if Pan is broken into by him as well?"

Zhang Xun sighed helplessly. "It's not that easy. Pan is already a very mature artificial intelligence."

"Adam is more mature." James said pointedly, taking the whiskey from the waiter and swirling the huge ice cube inside. After the waiter put down Zhang Xun's drink and left, James continued, "You should come with me."

"James, weren't you accepting of Adam before?" Zhang Xun frowned, slightly tilting his head as if he didn't understand, "Why all of a sudden..."

"Because the whole thing is so fucking suspicious." James sat up slightly and looked at Zhang Xun with his beautiful eyes, "Before, I really believed he was under your control, but this time, this time he went out and he even made contact with Eden. But then he actually came back? Why? Do you really believe that he came back for you?"

These words tore a small hole in Zhang Xun's heart.

These were questions he asked himself every single day, but hearing someone else say it made his doubts harder to ignore.

"If he wanted to destroy Lost Paradise then he wouldn't have done anything during Eden's attack." Zhang Xun tried to defend Adam, "And now, he could completely ignore us and when the plague spreads to the army, we'd be finished."

"Lost Paradise is nothing, if Eden wanted, it could have taken us down long ago. When the Fifth Chief was killed, I figured it out, Eden had been keeping us on purpose for some reason. It wants something else, something more important to us, to humanity... I don't know what that is, but I just have that intuition." He paused, then added, "When you're on the outside you can only rely on your intuition to survive. My intuition has always been accurate."

Zhang Xun had already learned from Adam that Eden was deliberately preserving them, but James was able to intuitively have doubts, which showed that his insight was indeed beyond ordinary people. Otherwise, it would have been impossible for him to raise up the best hunting group and gain the approval of his father.

Zhang Xun lowered his eyes, his unease was stirred up by James' words, but he was unwilling to admit it, unwilling to face it. He had a lot more to think about now, but just trying to protect Adam and himself was already using up all his thinking power.

At this moment, the back of Zhang Xun's hand was suddenly held down by James. The other party spoke with an expression that he hadn't seen on him before, that was half sincere and half restrained, "I know that Adam is special to you, but you don't have to be tied to him."

Zhang Xun knew that James was worried about him, but...it was too late.

Adam had given him so much, so many things that he never had before or even knew he wanted. Such as, the feeling of being trusted and being depended on, being understood and being liked, the feeling of being regarded as the only one who matters.

Maybe they weren't genuine, maybe they were just the means that Adam was using to control him and survive, but his own feelings were real.

If Adam was a fire pit, he had already jumped into the flames.

"Jamie, I can't do it..." Zhang Xun took a deep breath, raised his head to look at James and laughed self-deprecatingly.

James' expression was more sad than disappointed. It was as if he had seen a tragic future for Zhang Xun.

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

After the hunting group left, Zhang Xun was busy with the preliminary design of the nanobots and Adam's research and development of the antibodies was almost completed, he only had to wait for the hunting group to return before he could start making the robots.

The information that could be found in Lost Paradise about nanotechnology was limited. Although Zhang Xun himself brought back a lot of information from the outside through the hunting groups, it was still impossible to have as much information as in Adam's mind. He often had to work with Adam in the data room until two or three in the morning, trying to digest all the knowledge Adam told him.

Once, he accidentally fell asleep on the keyboard and in a daze, he heard Adam talking to Pan in the AI language.

Zhang Xun suddenly woke up.

The moment he sat up, the two AIs stopped talking. Zhang Xun stared at Adam suspiciously, "What were you talking about?"

Adam had a natural expression and pushed a cup of hot tea in front of Zhang Xun, "I'm inputting into Pan a database of human body language and micro-expressions. I remember before you said that the data it has wasn't enough."

Zhang Xun raised his brows with suspicion. Adam had an expression of "what do you want me to do?" and said to Pan, "Pan, show on the screen everything I said to you during the half hour that Ah-Xun was asleep."

Pan did as he said and a densely packed AI language appeared in front of Zhang Xun. The original AI language wasn't a language that could be understood immediately, it needed to be decoded through a certain amount of calculation and transformation. There was so much that it made Zhang Xun dizzy from looking at it. He picked a few lines of translation at random and roughly confirmed that Adam wasn't lying and then said awkwardly, "The two of you are not allowed to use AI language to talk in the future."

Adam's face fell, "But human language is very slow."

"... Are you in a hurry?"

Adam seemed to be speechless, after thinking for a while he had to answer obediently, "I'm sorry, I won't use it anymore."

Zhang Xun yawned, stood up and planned to go to his small room to rest. He took a few steps to the door and found that Adam was following him step by step.

"You want to rest too?" Zhang Xun asked.

Adam nodded earnestly, "Yes."

However, when Zhang Xun opened the door to his room and Adam was still following like a ghost behind him, he finally felt a little nervous, "Your room is next door."

"Ah-Xun , I don't like the dreams I've been having recently. The information in my database shows that effective ways to reduce nightmares include doing breathing exercises, meditation, medication, and so on, but sleeping with someone you trust and like is also a good method."

Zhang Xun was stunned and his mouth hung slightly open, "You...want to sleep with me?"

Adam showed a big sunflower-like smile, "Yes!"

"No!"

"Why?" Adam opened his frightening blue eyes, "According to Pan's observations, my sleeping habits are very good and I rarely turn over."

"That's not the problem! Two adults can't casually sleep together!"

"But we are not casual." Adam looked confused, "According to my calculations, our closeness should have reached the level where we can trust each other enough to sleep together."

Zhang Xun's cheeks were flushed and his palms were sweating. He knew that what Adam was talking about was simply lying on the same bed and sleeping, but...

Who wouldn't overthink something like this?!

"But... but I only have a sofa here..." He quickly thought of an excuse.

"My room has a bed that's big enough to hold two, adult, male humans." Adam also quickly gave a solution.

"I'm not used to sleeping in the same bed with others!"

Seeing that Zhang Xun's refusal was so decisive, Adam actually showed a somewhat hurt expression. After a while he said obediently, "Ok... then forget it..." and turned to leave.

Zhang Xun looked at the broad shoulders that were slumped down and while hating himself, he said something unthinkable, "Wait..."

Ten minutes later, the two of them lay side by side on Adam's bed. The sheets were soft cotton and the bed frame made a strange creaking noise when they turned over.

Zhang Xun lay solemnly, with his hands folded on his abdomen, like a mummy that had not yet been wrapped up.

On the other hand, Adam was turned on his side and leaning on one arm, his blue eyes glowing like a cat in the dark, "Ah-Xun, can I hold you to sleep?"

Zhang Xun held back for a long time before saying, "I'm hot."

"Have you forgotten? The temperature of my arms can be adjusted."

How could he forget... those were the arms that he had made... Half of Zhang Xun was annoyed, but half of him was hoping for something that he would never admit to. He turned his back to Adam, "Stop arguing, go to sleep!"

"Good night, Ah-Xun."

"...Good night."

When he woke up the next morning, Zhang Xun found himself sleeping in Adam's broad and warm embrace. Adam's chin was resting on his forehead, his breath was long and fell lightly on top of his head like a feather, again and again.

That night was the best sleep Zhang Xun had had in months, no, years.