Chapter 91 - Boundaries (5)

"You want to stop Eden?" Todd looked at the three of them with a 'you're kidding me' expression, "Are you tired of living?"

Zhang Xun took a few steps forward and looked at him seriously, "We know the chances of success are slim and that it may all be in Adam's hands, but if we don't try, there's only one ending waiting for all of us...... we'll all perish."

"Hey, don't include us." Todd frowned, glaring at them somewhat warily, "Eden allows us to exist because we haven't caused any major problems. We built this place with a lot of difficulty, it can't......"

"Do you have any proof for your words?" Anya suddenly interjected.

Zhang Xun nodded, "I have all the information and designs of the nanobots and I can replicate the nanobots that Adam has built. If those robots were injected into lab rats, anomalies would soon be observed."

"We don't have the equipment for you to build robots here!" Todd couldn't believe that his sister was actually considering assisting these three madmen who were trying to fight the gods. If Eden found out about such an operation, Rhino Horn would be razed to the ground in a heartbeat. They didn't have any protection systems like Lost Paradise.

Zhang Xun said, "There's none here, but there is in Feathered Serpent City, but if we go alone to the City, we'll soon be their puppets."

"So you want us to be your fighters." Anya's eyes were like cold arrows of ice, seeming to penetrate Zhang Xun's skin and see into his mind.

Zhang Xun said, "I know that this won't bring any benefits to you and we can understand if you refuse, but ...... if Eden succeeds, sooner or later Rhino Horn will also be disintegrated. When most of the world is under the influence of the collective consciousness, it will be impossible for them to tolerate the existence of us heretics who refuse to integrate with them."

"How do you know they won't tolerate us?"

"Because humans have never liked to tolerate a minority that is different from them and it's extremely easy to go to extremes when one is in a collective. Look at how much hatred, how many wars and holocausts have been started throughout history because of different religions, different races, different doctrines? This is what we've been capable of as individuals and if there's no longer a physical divide, there will only be a huge, heavy consciousness. Do you think we can really be as rational and neutral as Adam and Eden believe we can be?"

There was a silence.

Zhang Xun further said, "We're not AIs and a collective consciousness of humanity can quickly go to extremes. Unless everyone is fused into the collective consciousness at once, at some point in the middle, when enough people have become part of it, those who remain will become heretics and enemies."

Anya's eyes swept over them, she drained her glass in one gulp and said in a deep voice, "You guys leave first."

Zhang Xun was about to say something else, but James suddenly touched his arm gently and whispered, "There's no rush, give them time to think about it."

Zhang Xun understood how strange it must be for the red-haired siblings to hear what he had said. It was almost impossible to get them to accept what he said wholeheartedly without direct evidence, but time was now running out and the longer they delayed, the more people in Lost Paradise would be affected and Adam was probably already deploying the next stage of his preparations by now.

He wasn't sure when Adam and Eden would make the decision to destroy him. He suspected that he couldn't have survived this long if the part of Adam that had been affected by humanity didn't still have some attachment to him.

He set him free so that he wouldn't interfere with Adam's plans in Lost Paradise, but would Adam still tolerate him if he started causing problems in the outside world?

Once they emerged from the bar they noticed that followers began to appear near the cabin where they were temporarily staying.

The three men acted normally, pretending not to notice. Zhang Xun returned to his room to find that all the parts he had needed had been delivered. He turned his head to look at Enoch, who was still silently following him and said, "Sit down, I'll change the distance and temperature sensors for you."

Enoch obediently sat down on the chair and took off his shirt. Zhang Xun stood behind him and watched as the skin on his back spread out to the sides like butterfly wings, revealing the complex internal structure and the constant flow of coolant ducts. Zhang Xun picked up the electric screwdriver, replaced it with the most precise screw head and began to remove the damaged parts.

"I removed your signal transceiver." Zhang Xun spoke somewhat absentmindedly, but his hands didn't pause.

Enoch sat motionless, not making a sound for a long time.

He had begun to get used to the increasingly curious robot's questions one after another and now that he had suddenly become so quiet, Zhang Xun wasn't quite used to it. He had just heard so many stories about the "king" of these AI, but now he had no questions?

"What are you thinking about?" Zhang Xun asked.

Enoch was silent for a moment before saying, "You didn't mention that your lover was Eden."

"...... It's not Eden, it's Adam." Zhang Xun thought of that meeting with the real Eden, where the other party even tried to control him with Adam's voice and inexplicably felt a little funny, "Adam has separated from Eden."

"So, you gave a super AI a human body and instincts and then made it fall in love with you?"

Zhang Xun's hand lurched and his brow furrowed.

Why did those words become so strange when they were spoken by this robot......

"I didn't make it fall in love with me, but special attachment to the administrator that you AI have can occur at any time. If his mechanic had been someone else instead of me, maybe......"

"You made it human, yet you still refuse to believe he has human feelings." Enoch's voice was calm and soft, too standard in tone to be cold, "And you still plan to get rid of him."

"......" Zhang Xun put down his tools and looked up, "You're scolding me?"

The service robot's head suddenly turned at a 180 degree angle and looked at him faintly, "I was just stating my observations. I am a service robot, I am not capable of reproach."

Zhang Xun grew annoyed and asked coldly in return, "Then what do you think I should do? Leave him to destroy humanity?"

"From your account, he has no intention of destroying humanity, but merely helping it evolve quickly to the next stage through mechanical selection. Why aren't you willing to accept new possibilities?"

Zhang Xun closed his eyes and when he opened them again they held an intense sadness. He continued to work, whispering under his breath, "Because I want to live, to be able to touch with my hands, to be able to see with my eyes, to feel with my skin, to think with my mind. I want to be able to hug the people I love, to see the sights I haven't seen together. If I were to integrate myself into that collective consciousness, like everyone else, I would be no more. Every 'I' in the world would be gone."

Enoch looked at him and seemed to fall into some kind of contemplation.

note- that made me cry bro, it makes me appreciate my own humanity. 

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

James came out of his room to smoke, only to see a red-head dyed purple in the moonlight sweeping across the silvery earth not far away, walking slowly towards the wilderness.

James threw his cigarette to the ground, stomped it out and, not knowing why, followed quietly.

The two figures moved slowly across the wilderness, separated by a distance.

Everything was so quiet, the sky was unclouded and unpolluted by light, the stars splashed like broken diamonds in a swirling river through the black universe. The light from billions of years ago fell across the distances to their eyes with a certain vast and cold romance.

Gradually, a bright flash of light appeared on the extended undulating earth ahead. A lake lay between the folds of the earth, shimmering and crystallised by the night wind, surrounded by a circle of low shrubs. An oasis in the wilderness.

James saw Todd walk to the edge of the lake, then with an extremely fluid and graceful movement he removed his shirt and trousers and jumped into the water.

The moonlight on the surface of the water was shattered so thoroughly that the water splashed like a burst pearl. Todd dove below the surface for some time before suddenly bursting back out, his red hair bringing out a long trail of water droplets. The strong muscles on the back of his shoulders appeared and disappeared in the moonlight and the water and the splashing sounds seemed to be the only sound in the world.

James took out a cigarette, put it in his mouth, struck a match to light it and walked slowly to the shore.

Todd stopped swimming and turned his head to face him, but there was no expression of surprise.

"Why are you following me?" The red-haired man smirked, a hint of provocation in his blue eyes.

James shrugged his shoulders, "Just curious."

"Curious to see if I would do something unseemly?"

James exhaled a long puff of smoke and narrowed his eyes at him.

The black pattern tattoo under Todd's eyes added something sinister to his handsome face. He swam a few metres towards the shore until his feet touched the bottom of the lake and began to step out of the water.

Droplets of water rolled down his sun-tanned, wheaten skin, outlining the texture of his muscles even more sharply. He stood proudly in front of James without any concealment.

"Any disappointment?"

James felt the smoke curdling in his throat, burning slightly. He looked Todd up and down, just as unabashedly, "Not at all."

"You've changed your mind?" Todd asked meaningfully with a slight tilt of his head.

James, however, said, "Not yet."

Todd rolled his eyes and turned to dive into the water again. He swam carefree, breaking the water as if he were a merman taking advantage of the night to quietly rise to the surface.

And James sat down on the shore and watched in silence. He found himself inexplicably drawn to him. He could have given up following him once he'd made sure the other man wasn't doing anything against them, but he wanted to keep watching, which struck him as a little odd.

This man wasn't his usual type at all......

Todd swam freely to his heart's content and finally decided to go ashore. He picked up his shirt, wiped the water off of him haphazardly and then put his clothes back on one by one. The whole time, one dressed and the other one watched, all without any attempt to hide.

The air became a little hot.

"So, you're going against Eden and you're trying to drag us down with you?" Todd said coldly as he fastened his belt, "I should have taken you all out in the desert."

"You still have a chance now." James flicked the cigarette out of his hand and slowly stood up, "Take us all out before your sister agrees."

"You think I won't?" Todd turned around, not caring that his front was still open and strutted towards James with a regal air, "Do you think that just because I fancy you, you can do whatever you want in this town?"

James could smell the scent of water emanating from Todd and he almost wanted to reach out and touch the long red hair that was still dripping with water.

"I just doubt that your Rhino Horn Town would have survived the Edenite massacre without our help. If you kill us, what will you do the next time the Edenites come back?"

"Last time we were unprepared!"

"The technology they have in their hands is so much more superior to yours, you don't stand a chance." James took a step forward, his distance from Todd becoming infinitely closer, "Are you willing to just lie here like a lamb waiting to be slaughtered, waiting meekly to be crushed by others?"

The dark brown and dark blue eyes locked firmly together as if they were trying to devour each other. Something in the air tightened and everything seemed to burn.

James could kiss those steely, angular lips now if he wanted to.

But this time it was Todd who turned his head away first, sneering, "I'm no lamb."