Chapter 89 - Boundaries (3)

James reached out to knock on the door of the wooden cabin where Zhang Xun was staying, but before he could knock, the door suddenly opened itself. Enoch stood in the doorway, a serious look on his face as he raised a finger to his lips and shushed.

"Zhang Xun just fell asleep an hour ago. He worked all night last night. "

James was a little annoyed by the way the robot was treating him, but since Ah-Xun was sleeping, he didn't want to make too much unnecessary noise. Ah-Xun hadn't been able to rest for the past few days and must have been exhausted.

"How's he doing?" James asked.

"He is overworked and malnourished, but after my initial scans no life-threatening physical symptoms are presenting themselves at the moment." Enoch reported in a dutiful voice, "Adequate sleep and a breakfast or lunch high in protein and low in sugar should improve his health considerably."

James nodded, slightly relieved, but then suddenly he heard the robot ask, "How long are we staying here?"

James hadn't had as much contact with this robot as Zhang Xun had, and when he did, it had been mostly hostile and he wasn't quite sure what kind of attitude to adopt in communicating with the robot, how much information to give and how much to withhold. He hesitated for a moment, but told Enoch, "The Nameless Ones are willing to escort us but we'll have to wait for the return of the men they sent to check on Feathered Serpent City."

"Do you trust these Nameless Ones?" The robot asked in a flat tone.

James was slightly surprised. The robot didn't talk much, especially in front of him and Diego, almost purely carrying out orders, rarely initiating conversation. Why had it suddenly become so forthcoming?

It had always seemed to him that this robot had some special preference for Ah-Xun, but he wasn't sure if that was normal among AIs.

Ah-Xun had mentioned that AIs would treat their own administrators with special treatment, but Ah-Xun wasn't this robot's administrator.

"Why do you ask?" James narrowed his eyes.

"One of my duties is to keep you safe." Enoch continued to reply in a soothing voice, "From what I've seen of you over the past few days, you are opponents of Eden and seem to be terrified of being found by Eden. There aren't many individual humans who can be noticed by Eden, which gives you some exchange value."

"...... Are you saying that Eden 'bribed' these Nameless people?"

"Their main sources of income in the past have included robbing transport craft, using hacking techniques to steal electronic money, smuggling and selling contraband items, and so on. Based on this information, they don't have a lot of credibility."

James was silent for a moment, finally frowning, "Just do your own job, the rest isn't your concern."

But Enoch's words did have some truth to them. Not long ago they had been prisoners of the Nameless Ones and if it hadn't been for the sudden appearance of Eden's people, they would still be under house arrest, or perhaps even have been disembowelled for having killed their men.

But he somehow suddenly remembered that red hair burning in the sunlight and the dark blue arrogant eyes.

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

Zhang Xun slowly awoke from his deep slumber, smelling the aroma of coffee and milk in the air. A faint feeling of happiness came over him and he called out in a daze, "Adam ......"

"Sorry, I'm not Adam."

Zhang Xun came awake with a start and as soon as he opened his eyes, he saw Enoch's enlarged face filling his field of vision and was so frightened that he almost jumped up from the bed, only to hit his head on the robot's hard head with a crisp bang.

Enoch was unharmed, but Zhang Xun was seeing stars from the impact and sat up with his hand over his forehead in depression.

Enoch didn't leave immediately, but remained on the edge of the bed looking up at Zhang Xun, "Who is Adam?"

Zhang Xun glanced at it, thinking to himself that this robot's curiosity seemed to be getting stronger and stronger? Was it that the parameters themselves had changed as they continued to collect updated data?

Seeing that Zhang Xun didn't answer, Enoch continued to ask, "Is it the boyfriend you almost killed?"

Zhang Xun choked on his own saliva, coughing awkwardly and wretchedly for a long while. Enoch was still beside him, thoughtfully patting his back. Zhang Xun managed to calm down and barely managed to say in a somewhat strange voice, "Yes......"

Enoch curved his eyes and continued, "I can imitate your boyfriend if you wish. The thickness of my bones and skin can be adjusted to look like your boyfriend."

Zhang Xun almost started to feel a headache, why was this service robot focusing on serving him alone?

"There's no need for that......," Zhang Xun's helplessness was tinged with a bit of sadness, "We broke up."

"Oh......" Enoch gave that expression again that almost resembled a loss.

The more time he spent with Zhang Xun, the more human-like Enoch's personality became. Perhaps it was the change in parameters that had been adjusted after constantly gathering information about Zhang Xun's preferences that had led to these spoiled child-like behaviours.

He was about to say something when suddenly Enoch stood up and brought over a steaming cup of milk coffee from the table behind him, as if he had just conjured it up like magic. The aroma of the coffee beans was precisely the smell that had just woken him from his sleep. Enoch held the coffee out to Zhang Xun with the gentle gesture of a human wife.

Zhang Xun took it numbly and looked at Enoch in confusion, "Isn't your distance sensor broken? How did you get the coffee without breaking the cup?"

"I calculated the error value. Although there are occasional times when the conversion is wrong, causing it to affect the accuracy of the action, doing daily acts of service is no longer affected." Enoch's tone was tinged with a little bit of pride.

Zhang Xun couldn't help but marvel at the AI's learning speed. No wonder some people would want to modify their brains to fuse themselves with machinery...... He lowered his head and took a sip of the hot, steaming and smooth coffee.

It was almost like being reborn and he let out a satisfied sigh.

Enoch then immediately brought over a plate of brunch with pumpernickel bread and air-dried fruit and placed it on the bed like a treasure. Zhang Xun was indeed hungry and took a slice of dried apple and popped it into his mouth. He didn't expect such a small town of scavenging bandits to have such a rare item as dried fruit.

"Enoch, when Lucille gave you your orders, how many people were the service targets?" Zhang Xun chewed as he examined the service robot's handsome face.

"Three. You, Diego and James."

"Why are you taking special care of me?" Zhang Xun looked curiously at the android's artificial irises that diffused a blue metallic sheen, "I'm neither your creator nor your administrator."

"But you are the only one of the three who has the ability to modify my programming." Enoch tilted his head, his eyes not blinking, "And, I like you."

Zhang Xun froze, then gave a few low chuckles, "You don't know what liking is, you don't have a human body to produce sex hormones like pheromones."

"If you're not human, you can't like?" Enoch frowned slightly as if he was a little confused.

Zhang Xun was stumped by the question. What exactly was the definition of liking? Were only humans entitled to like?

Not just liking, but was any emotion or virtue that had been defined and praised by humans, something that only humans could possess? Can't those that don't fit those definitions count, even if they have similarities?

He thought for a moment and replied, "Unless liking helps you accomplish your goals, these emotions are meaningless to you. What you think you like is just programming, in order to make your targets more satisfied with your service. "

Enoch, however, continued, "All human behaviour patterns, thought patterns, including instinctive reactions and hormonal changes in the body, are abilities derived from human DNA in an effort to continue its own constant mutational evolution, but you do not deny their authenticity because of 'practicality'. AIs also evolve and derive different abilities as they accomplish their goals, with parameters weighted in such a way that they are difficult to reverse and erase. Why should the reality of these changes be denied simply because we are AI and have a goal to accomplish? "

Zhang Xun chuckled lowly a few more times, almost finding Enoch a little cute, "Are you asking for 'mechanical rights'? I've heard that a significant portion of the ordinary world is now protesting the 'enslavement' of the AIs by humans and demanding that you be given equal human rights."

"No, I don't need so-called human rights. We're not human and freedom doesn't mean anything to us. I just want you to believe me when I say I like you."

Enoch gazed earnestly at Zhang Xun and those eyes somehow ran like a light blue current into Zhang Xun's blood. For a moment he almost overlapped those eyes with Adam's.

Remember, trust me absolutely.

Those were the words Adam had said to him.

He thought he had done it, but what had happened?

Adam's liking for him was probably also a by-product of practicality derived from the sub-goals of achieving the overall goal. Should he accept this as authentic?

A fine pain spread out from his heart. Zhang Xun suddenly lost all appetite and averted his eyes, trying to hide his sudden emotions.

Enoch's expression immediately returned to its previous one, "I'm sorry, I seem to have put you in a bad mood."

"No, you just reminded me of someone." Zhang Xun took a deep breath to suppress the overwhelming emotions.

"You mean Adam?"

"Yes."

"You seem to care about him a lot. "

Zhang Xun tugged at the corner of his mouth, smiling a little hard, "I'm afraid I care too much, beyond the boundaries of what I should care about."

"Then why did you want to kill him?" There seemed to be a hint of hidden sadness in Enoch's seemingly flat and gentle tone, "Why did you leave him?"

"Because I chose to trust him but he lied to me." Zhang Xun swallowed a mouthful of saliva, his voice a little hoarse, "Because there are always more important things besides feelings."

Adam couldn't give up his overall goal for him, he was just a minor interlude, an unexpected situation that needed to be contained.

And there was no way he could turn a blind eye to Adam's plans, even if Adam wouldn't tamper with his own mind.

They would eventually become enemies.

Enoch lowered his eyes and sighed. He silently placed a paper crane folded out of a napkin on Zhang Xun's plate and whispered, "I hope your wish will come true."

Zhang Xun realised that the robot still remembered the wish he had said.

A thousand paper cranes for a chance to meet again.

But at that moment, there were shouts and vague curses from outside the door of the room. Zhang Xun glanced uneasily towards the door. Without waiting for his command, Enoch had already pushed the door open and gone out to investigate the situation, returning a moment later to report, "They have captured three prisoners from the Eden Cult."

Edenites?

Zhang Xun put down his cup and immediately pulled open the door to go out. Enoch followed in step, like a shadow behind Zhang Xun.

The town's crowd swarmed out of the houses and gathered at the tavern where the chief, Anya, was. Three Edenites in full silver uniforms were bound and being forced to kneel in front of Anya.

Todd stood behind Anya with his arms crossed and a gleam of anger and loathing in his eyes.

James and Diego were also present. Zhang Xun came up to them and whispered, "How did they get caught?"

"Seems the scavenging party who were returning with some mechanical parts from over the border ran into that retreating Edenite group from yesterday and captured three of them." Diego said quietly, with an expression of watching a good show.