Chapter 77 - New God (6)

Adam looked at Zhang Xun and stared blankly into his eyes, feeling his blood levels of dopamine and oxytocin (popular science: men also secrete oxytocin) in his human body rapidly increasing. He had to really exert his brain power to suppress his instinctive urge to hug Zhang Xun. He just lightly held Zhang Xun's hand that was grabbing the corner of his shirt, "I'll go get the antipyretic injection, I'll be back soon."

Zhang Xun still held onto his clothes and didn't let go, stubbornly repeating the same two words, "Don't go..."

Adam could easily pull his clothes out of Zhang Xun's hands with a little force, but at this moment he was caught in a dilemma... In the end, he couldn't compete with the sick patient so he had to sit down beside the bed.

Unexpectedly, Zhang Xun reached out and wrapped his arms around his waist...

Adam felt like he had reverted back to his computer state again and his whole body was stiff. He had never seen Zhang Xun be so... clingy, not only taking the initiative to make physical contact with him, but even pestering him.

Did all human beings have such personality changes when they got sick? Or was this Zhang Xun's instinctive reaction when he was weak?

Zhang Xun sighed as if comfortable and whispered, "I miss you so much."

Adam blinked a few times, not sure if he had heard wrong. He turned his head to look at Zhang Xun, his brows were slightly wrinkled and he seemed a little confused, "I come here every day."

"But you're so cold to me..." Zhang Xun held up his heavy eyelids and said in a hoarse and weak voice.

Adam had mixed feelings, "You used to have the same attitude towards me."

"...I always liked you in my heart, but you don't like me anymore." Zhang Xun sighed and closed his eyes. He didn't expect that he would come out with all these sappy words, which he thought he would never ever say, but under the influence of the high fever they all came out just like that...

Within his state of drowsy consciousness his remaining shred of clarity couldn't believe it.

Adam was speechless for a moment. Zhang Xun was no longer his administrator and his special infatuation with Zhang Xun should have gradually diluted, so why, when he heard Zhang Xun say "I always liked you", did he still feel his scalp turn numb and his blood become hot?

Had humanity begun to infect his core modules?

Adam turned his head and called the guards at the door, asking them to go to the emergency room to get the antipyretic injection and tranquilliser. The guards quickly fetched them, put them in Adam's hands and left again.

Adam turned around and lifted the sleeve of Zhang Xun's clothes. He noticed that Zhang Xun had lost a lot of weight again and his clothes were soaked with sweat. During the process of injecting his arm, Zhang Xun didn't struggle at all, as if he had suddenly become a puppet at the mercy of others.

When Adam got up to go to the bathroom, Zhang Xun didn't stop him this time. Adam drew a basin of hot water and brought out a clean towel, intending to wipe the sweat off Zhang Xun's body and change him into clean clothes. Zhang Xun's eyes were half closed and he didn't know whether he was asleep or awake. Adam reached out his hand to unbutton his clothes. When he saw the locket on Zhang Xun's chest, for some reason his stable and precise mechanical arms became a little unsteady.

Adam wiped Zhang Xun's chest with the towel, keeping his mind and his breathing steady to ensure that his physiological responses were kept within a controllable range. Zhang Xun's feverish body seemed able to evaporate the heat, which was transmitted to the depths of his nerves through his metallic fingertips, making him uncontrollably restless.

When changing Zhang Xun's clothes, Adam himself was already sweating profusely, even when he rushed towards Eden with his wings it hadn't been this tiring. He sat on the edge of the bed and took a breath, turning to look at Zhang Xun who seemed to have fallen into a light sleep, his blue eyes filled with a hint of worry.

He had personally set the temperature control for this room and the three meals a day were also precisely arranged according to Zhang Xun's dietary habits after calculating the nutritional value. Why did Zhang Xun get such a serious fever? Could it be that there was something more serious that he hadn't discovered?

While thinking about it, Zhang Xun suddenly pulled his sleeve again.

"Don't go tonight..." Zhang Xun looked at him with sleepy eyes, his seemingly calm expression looked somehow... pitiful?

Adam sighed resignedly and said, "Ok, I'll sleep next door today."

Zhang Xun didn't say anything, but he didn't let go of his hand...

Adam was silent for a few minutes, then took off his coat and lay down next to Zhang Xun.

Zhang Xun sighed contentedly and leaned into Adam. Then, as if he suddenly remembered something, "I won't infect you, will I?"

"Don't worry, I can treat myself, I have nanobots." Adam rolled over and faced Zhang Xun, reaching out and patting him on the shoulder, "Go to sleep, you'll be fine in the morning."

Zhang Xun closed his eyes and rubbed himself into the nook of his neck.

Instead of pushing him away or avoiding him, Adam reached out and wrapped his arm around Zhang Xun's shoulders.

The corners of Zhang Xun's mouth twitched slightly, this was... a success, right?

The next morning, Zhang Xun's fever had really subsided, but as soon as he woke up, he saw Adam sitting on a chair beside the bed, watching something on the tablet in his hand.

Zhang Xun recalled the progress of last night, his face was slightly warm and he smiled, "Adam."

Adam raised his head, but his eyes had returned to the alienation and coldness from before.

Zhang Xun's heart thumped, not sure what he had done wrong. Adam slowly turned the tablet in his hand for him to see himself coming out of the bathroom soaking wet, turning off the fireplace and heating, throwing the bed quilt on the floor and lying on the bed.

The angle of the video meant it was obviously taken from the direction of the single-sided mirror.

"I can't watch you here all the time, so I set up a camera in the observation room." Adam explained blankly, "So, this was your latest plan, right? Making yourself sick to gain my sympathy?"

At the moment of being exposed, Zhang Xun was almost so disheartened that he wanted to smash things, but it was more frustration and sadness.

"There's no camera in the bathroom, but I'm guessing, you showered with cold water? You would give up your life to save your father and James? If I hadn't come yesterday, your brain would have burned up." Adam's stern eyes were steeped with a dark,subtle disappointment.

Zhang Xun lowered his head and after a while he suddenly laughed bitterly. The laughter was full of cynicism and helplessness, "What else could I do? No matter what I do, you won't help me."

"It was you who wanted to kill me, Zhang Xun."

"It was you who lied to me first!"Zhang Xun lifted his head and glared with all his might at the calm, blonde man, "I believed in you, even though I knew from the beginning that I shouldn't, I chose to believe in you, but you've been lying to me the whole time. You ingratiated yourself with me because you knew I could guarantee your survival, that I was an important pawn for you to be accepted by Lost Paradise. You were planted by Eden from the beginning because you wanted to understand humans and you needed us to be your test subjects. So don't play the victim here!"

The silence gradually condensed into frost between the two of them. For a long time, they faced each other quietly like this, as if the warmth from last night never existed.

Finally, Adam said, "If you're still worried about your father and James, you can rest assured. I have made sure that the Round Table will not hurt them."

After that, he turned and strode away. The door slammed shut behind him.

Zhang Xun sat slumped on the bed, his eyes began to swell and heat up for some reason. It wasn't until a drop of liquid landed on the back of his hand that he knew he had been defeated by weakness again. He wiped his face hard, stood up abruptly and smashed the stereo and TV to smithereens.

Rarely did he have such violent tendencies, but all he wanted to do was destroy something right now.

He knew that there were many people in the ordinary world who would be in relationships with their lover robots and fall in love with their chatbots, but he was probably the only one in the world who had lost everything in such a pathetic and uncontrollable manner...

The funny thing was that he was still nostalgic, nostalgic for that year he and Adam had.

He wasn't sure what Adam's plan would be next. The patients currently infected by the Honey Plague accounted for about one-fifth of Lost Paradise's population; if Adam wanted to test a comprehensive "ascension plan" with them, these people wouldn't be enough.

It would be too difficult to implant nanobots in them one by one and it would be easy to cause alarm. Zhang Xun suspected that those nanobots could infect other people in some way like a virus.

He had to figure out how to spread the word about Adam and the Round Table's plan and raise awareness. The problem was that he was imprisoned now and so there was no way he could do that.

Zhang Xun had no idea what would happen next.

Adam didn't show up again for a week. A week later, there was a commotion outside the door.

Zhang Xun thought it was Adam and stood up from the sofa, but outside the door there were shouts, muffled grunts and a somewhat familiar but very menacing voice saying, "Open the door or your nose will be the next to break!"

The door opened, Zhang Xun saw two soldiers dressed in full combat uniform standing at the door, one was James and the other... turned out to be Diego?

James rushed in with a gun, grabbed Zhang Xun and looked him up and down, "Are you alright?!"

Zhang Xun was a little stunned, as if he still couldn't understand who was in front of him, "James?! How did you get in?"

"Of course we got in with our fists. It's a good thing you don't have many guards assigned to this place, even though it's hard to find." Diego walked in dragging the guard he had already knocked out.

Zhang Xun frowned, feeling that something was wrong. Although he didn't know how many guards there were usually outside, he was certain that there were definitely a lot.

"You shouldn't have come." Zhang Xun's heart rate was soaring and an ominous feeling invaded him, "The Round Table won't let you go if you're caught!"

"Then hurry up and come with us." Diego said impatiently.

James said, "This place is the underground drainage system in the old part of the Fifth District, and we found a way to get outside."

"Outside?" Zhang Xun frowned, "You mean..."

"Outside Lost Paradise." James said in a hurried tone, "The Sixth Chief wants to get rid of you secretly, Adam is plotting to turn us all into his 'robots', Lost Paradise won't last much longer, we have to leave to survive."

A thought quickly flashed through Zhang Xun's mind, "What about my dad?"

"He asked me to take you away and said not to worry about him." James squeezed Zhang Xun's shoulder and urged, "You can't save him here."

Diego said, "Now the entire Lost Paradise is under Adam and the Sixth Chief's control and quite a few people seem to have been brainwashed by your robot and most don't question him. They also gave that bastard a new mechanic, Jian Mo."

Diego's last sentence pierced Zhang Xun's heart.

Leaving Lost Paradise...

It was unthinkable, but there didn't seem to be any other way. If he didn't go now, Adam might keep him until the ascension plan was completed.

Zhang Xun made a decision, "Is there a way for me to go back to my apartment? I need to bring something with me."

Back when he had begun to suspect Adam and had put a lock on Pan's various permissions, he had backed up Pan's core cognitive modules and several important databases, stored them on a hard drive and taken them to his own apartment. If they were to escape to the outside, they would need Pan's help.

After all, only artificial intelligence could defeat artificial intelligence.

note-

slay.