The Mechanic - Chapter 27

[Chapter 27 The Fruit of Wisdom (5)]

Adam successfully passed the psychological assessment, and this incident caused a lot of waves in Paradise Lost.

The attitude of the round table is not yet clear, but for several days there have been unauthorized cyborgs protesting outside the Lab, holding huge banners with curse words written all over them. Some people even threw rotten vegetables and wine bottles at the entrance of the Lab, which made quite a few mechanics and researchers dare not come to work at all.

On the third day, when a mecha under repair was destroyed by several protesters, the military finally sent someone to drive the troublemakers away.

At the same time, Zhang Xun shut himself in his personal R&D room, trying to create the first nano-bendable screen material that was almost as thin as ordinary cloth. If the manufacture is successful, he hopes to put such a thing on the battle uniform of the hunting regiment. When necessary, as long as the soldier wraps himself under this material without gaps, the surrounding environment can be projected onto the clothes through the miniature cameras all over the body, making people invisible to a certain extent. This technique may not fully deceive the human eye, but it should be sufficient against relatively simple mechanical police.

He took off the microscopic mirror on his right eye and rubbed his aching eye. Turning to look at another computer screen showing the state of Adam’s room. Adam was practicing push-ups on the ground. From the monitor’s point of view, through his sweat-soaked undershirt, he could see the muscles behind him that were bulging out due to his exertion.

Zhang Xun quickly turned his eyes away, and after a while, he couldn’t help but look up again. His throat suddenly became a little thirsty, and he hurriedly picked up the water glass and took a few sips of water.

“The protesters have been dispersed by the guards.”

Pan’s sudden voice startled Zhang Xun, the water choked into his nose, and he lay on the table and coughed for a long time.

Pan asked with concern, “Zhang Xun, do you need any support?”

“Pan! How many times have I told you not to talk suddenly like this!”

“Sorry,” Pan replied gently.

“No, you won’t be sorry…” Zhang Xun muttered, these artificial intelligences are all too good at acting…

But when I think that their “acting” skills are also trained by themselves, I feel that I really have no position to complain. . He went with the flow and said, “If anyone comes back to work, let them in.”

“Zhang Xun, if another troublemaker comes back after the guards leave, can I activate the No. 2 expulsion system?”

Zhang Xun With a sigh, he raised his head and looked at the camera in mid-air, “You seem to want to activate the No. 2 deportation system?”

When the protesters just came, Pan asked him almost every day if he wanted to activate the No. 2 deportation system… …of all eviction systems, Number Two is the less threatening, but the most irritating to humans of all eviction systems. Some people have heard that noise that produces earworms, screaming in their heads for days at a time, and can’t stop even when they sleep.

It’s no wonder that James and Fernandez often complain to him that Pan is too evil, and he doesn’t think so. Pan is the most complex and successful housekeeper AI he has ever trained, and will do whatever it takes to meet the goal of “maintaining the safety of the Lab and its owners.” Zhang Xun thinks that these people don’t know enough about artificial intelligence, or they are biased, or they don’t know how to use it. People always like to project their thoughts on the things around them. They don’t understand that the consciousness system of AI is completely different from that of human beings, and there is no such thing as likes and dislikes. It only executes and doesn’t.

But now it seems… what they said is not groundless…

“This is for the safety of you and all the researchers.” Pan’s tone was still brisk and healing, “The high-frequency noise of the No. 2 expulsion system will not harm the target. It will only cause them to have short-term side effects such as muscle soreness, nausea, and headaches, which I think is a very mild punishment.”

Zhang Xun leaned back on the chair, pondered carefully, and finally made up his mind. Determined to nod, “It’s better to give some appropriate punishment, lest they think we are soft persimmons.”

“Okay.” There was no obvious joy in Pan’s tone, it was still calm and magnetic, but I don’t know if it was an illusion, I could feel a little lightness…

At this time, Zhang Xun felt a thin tingling pain in his arm. When installing the “probe” on Adam’s forehead, Zhang Xun made some improvements on the microcomputer that was originally used to remotely control the microbomb on the back of Adam’s neck, which was implanted in his arm. Usually his arms look the same, but when he activates the controller, the control interface will appear in his microscopic mirror, which not only shows Adam’s current brainwave status and coordinate position, but also the needle of the probe. Everything captured by the hole camera. When Adam’s brain activity spikes, such as when he’s concentrating on one thing and causing a mood swing, the controller implanted in his arm vibrates slightly.

He looked up at the monitor screen, and saw that Adam was stretching the muscles of his arms. While stretching, he raised his head slightly, smiled at the camera, and waved his hand.

Recently, Adam seems to be “calling” him in this way…

and Zhang Xun is not going to pay attention to him.

For the past three days, Zhang Xun was worried that someone would rush in, so he never allowed Adam to leave his room. The first time this kind of call happened, Zhang Xun didn’t even look at the monitor. He left his work at a critical moment and rushed to Adam’s room, thinking that Adam had some kind of simulator sequelae. As a result, the other party looked at him innocently and told him that he just wanted to test the sensing ability of the “probe”.

Zhang Xun was so angry that he almost wanted to put him on standby…

The second and third time, Zhang Xun gradually understood that Adam was testing his bottom line. Test how much you care about him.

The relationship between people is often a process of testing the bottom line of each other. Adam has been trying to push his bottom line in the month since the trance, whether intentionally or not, but Zhang Xun suspects it is more intentional.

This time, Zhang Xun made up his mind to ignore him.

After a while he looked up again and saw Adam sitting on the sofa with his back straight, his hands resting on his lap, his eyes fixed on the camera. And the sensor under the skin of Zhang Xun’s arm has been vibrating slightly.

Zhang Xun, who was overwhelmed, irritably dropped the materials in his hand, strode up to the elevator to the fourth floor with flaming flames all over his body, scanned his pupils impatiently, and entered Adam’s room.

“I said, if something happens, you can ask Pan to inform me.” Zhang Xun’s voice was cold and unsympathetic, “I’m very busy.”

“Axun, are you mad at me?” Adam Wei Wei He tilted his head, his ethereal eyes looked very innocent, “Am I doing something wrong?”

“You have nothing to do with deliberately increasing your brainwave peaks and interrupting my work. Do you think you did the right thing?”

“I’m sorry . But sometimes my brain wave peaks are beyond my control.” Adam spread his hands and explained earnestly and helplessly, “You rarely show up these days, and you are not allowed to go out to find you. So when I hope to see you When you are with you, there will naturally be peaks. Human emotions are still unfamiliar to me, and it is difficult to control.”

Adam started doing this again…

Zhang Xun realized that Adam had probably found some kind of weakness in himself, He has been putting pressure on this weakness of his character to counter-control himself. But Zhang Xun had no evidence, only speculation.

The more there was no evidence, the more uneasy Zhang Xun felt, and felt…depressed.

He hoped he was wrong.

He still didn’t have an answer to what Adam asked him the night he passed the simulator test. He didn’t know what he wanted Adam to be, more like a machine, or more like a human being. Zhang Xun didn’t like most of the human beings he came into contact with or learned about, and he didn’t like the narrow-mindedness, selfishness, and irrationality of human nature. But he also expects to find something related to these characteristics from the machine that has shaved these things, such as desire, such as concern, such as dependence… While rationally knowing that he can’t find it, he can’t control himself to want.

This is probably why he is willing to spend ten years of hard work on the seance plan. He wanted a creation that would satisfy all his wishes, a fusion of mechanical and human, a new race created by his own hands.

“Adam, if you want to go out, you can walk around freely from now on. Now that the protest is over, as long as you don’t leave the Lab, I won’t restrict your activities. Are you satisfied?” Zhang Xun said, and turned to leave. But just after walking a few steps, suddenly his wrist was pulled.

Adam’s hand was still strong, but it was clear that he relaxed immediately. Zhang Xun turned his head to look at Adam impatiently.

“Xun, I’m sorry, I will try my best to control my emotional activities.” Adam looked at him without blinking, his tone was steady and sincere, “Please don’t be angry.”

Zhang Xun wanted to pull his hand away, but Adam actually Not letting go. Zhang Xun frowned, only feeling that Adam was getting more and more presumptuous, revealing his watch in a threatening manner. Adam immediately let go, his expression even a little frightened.

Probably didn’t expect Zhang Xun to really consider using an electric shock collar?

Originally, it was just to scare him, but seeing Adam’s reaction, Zhang Xun felt a little guilty. He sighed and said, “I’m not angry. I’m worried about the hunting party, and I’m a little irritable.”

“The hunting party? I remember you chatting with James, and the round table has suspended all hunting activities.”

“No. James and the others are going out next month.” Zhang Xun’s hair was disheveled and the circles under his eyes were dark. Obviously, he hadn’t slept well in the past few days. “There are also mechanical policemen in the Rocky Mountain range, and Eden wants to catch them.”

“Ah.” Adam said clearly, “He wants to find out about me.”

“You know yourself best, don’t you?” Zhang Xun smiled sarcastically, and felt that this matter had nothing to do with Adam, so he restrained his sharp attitude and put his tone softly, “Don’t worry about this. You have already passed the test. , when the limelight is over, I can take you out of the lab. You can continue to practice fighting skills with Diego. We will also have the opportunity to design some new systems and mechanics. Overall, your situation is safe. More.”

“Axun, I can help you.” Adam took a step forward. Being a lot taller than Zhang Xun, he lowered his head slightly and looked at his mechanic, his eyes soft like unpolluted lake water, “I am afraid no one in Paradise Lost knows the mechanical police better than me.”

This is…

Zhang Xun looked back into Adam’s eyes, considering the possibility of Adam helping him. Now Adam passed the test, and while he knew Adam “cheated”, no one else knew. This situation always feels a little unsafe.

But as he himself said, wouldn’t it be too stupid if they didn’t dare to use Adam’s power after so much effort? Although the empathy simulator has failed for Adam, his control over Adam is still there. There are three controls in total, from the collar, to the probe, to the miniature bomb that even Adam himself doesn’t know about… If so many insurances are not enough Reassure yourself, haven’t you become as stupid as those neurotic mechanophobes?

Zhang Xun then raised his chin and said somewhat provocatively, “Yes, but all your ideas and designs must be clearly told to me. The real hands-on and manufacturing must be done by me, you can only observe. ‘

Adam then grinned, so bright that it gave the illusion that he couldn’t keep his eyes open.

“Yes, my mechanic.”

[End of This Chapter]