The Mechanic - Chapter 66

[Chapter 66 The Antidote to Human Nature (4)]

Zhang Xun put on a dark brown woolen coat, boots, scarf, hat and gloves, waiting for Pan to open the door of Lab. The cold air of the winter morning fell on his face, and the exhaled breath condensed into a dense fog and quickly evaporated.

It snowed all night last night, and the uneven dirt roads throughout Paradise Lost were covered with thick snow, making it more and more difficult to travel. The muddy soil and snow were crushed by the passing cars and mixed into long lines like arable land. Zhang Xun trudged through the muddy road and watched the people who went out to work in the morning wrapped themselves tightly like him. He locked the door in a hurry and walked back and forth between the narrow alleys. Some breakfast shops on both sides of the main street have opened, and the aroma of hot coffee and toasted wheat is diffused in the faint sunshine, soft and warm.

Zhang Xun likes this kind of taste. If happiness has a taste, he thinks it should be this kind of taste. He bought a box of freshly baked chocolate croissants at a bakery he frequented, ordered three more cups of coffee, and staggered toward the garbage disposal plant, holding the bread in one hand and the coffee tray in the other.

After the successful development of the antidote, Adam resumed his fighting training with Diego, running to the garbage disposal plant almost every day. Zhang Xun gradually stopped following him all the time. Anyway, there was a tracking device, and he could know Adam’s location at any time. He was busy working on new unmanned weapons, and began designing and building a new artificial intelligence based on Pan—one with the general goal of guarding Paradise Lost. Occasionally he would activate the camera on the tracking device when he was busy and put on a microscopic lens to see what he was doing through Adam’s eyes.

These few days, Adam left the Lab very early to train, and when Zhang Xun opened his eyes, he found that the seat next to the bed was cold.

Zhang Xun didn’t want to admit that he was beaten to death. He missed the warm and comfortable feeling of waking up in Adam’s arms…

After the framework of the new artificial intelligence was set up, Zhang Xun decided to give himself a day off to see Adam learn. how is it.

The entrance to the garbage disposal plant is still the same as it used to be, the snow-covered rusted steel giant, and the hollow eye sockets somehow look sad. Zhang Xun looked up at this ancient mecha, thinking that it also had glorious years and was once the most proud weapon of mankind, and felt a little uneasy.

Everything has a time when it becomes obsolete and fades, no matter how brilliant it was.

He found Adam, who was fighting Diego, near Diego’s cabin. It was obviously a cold winter day, but the two were only wearing thin vests and camouflage pants, and they were in a state of stalemate, with bruises on their faces and bodies. Diego was like a raging lion, rushing up bravely again and again. In comparison, Adam is more like a cheetah who is good at calculating and taking every step. Blue eyes stared at his prey unblinkingly, every step was so quiet that there was no sound, and every move was precise and ruthless.

Zhang Xun opened his eyes slightly and saw how Adam predicted the opponent’s move before Diego made a move, and the metal arm quickly and accurately blocked all attacks. Adam’s control of his arms is already perfect, as if those two arms were born on him. However, Diego has plenty of battle experience after all. Even if he is not as accurate as Adam in terms of prediction, he can stabilize his position by relying on the conditioned reflexes he has practiced for many years.

They didn’t know how long they had been facing each other like this, they were all sweating and panting, and the heat from their bodies evaporated into a faint smoke on their skin. Exhaustion is gradually eroding their bodies, and the chance of error is increasing rapidly.

Diego’s disadvantage is that he is older, and has been drinking for many years, and his physical condition is not as good as Adam who is in his “teenage years”. His offensive also gradually slowed down, and it looked like Adam could win soon.

However, at this time, probably due to underestimating the enemy, Adam’s punch was too reckless. A ray of golden light flashed in Diego’s eyes, and a dormant power suddenly erupted. He grabbed one of Adam’s arms, and then fell over his shoulder to knock him down. But he didn’t expect that the arm suddenly disintegrated and became countless smooth and soft… silver threads, which could not be grasped at all, but wrapped around him in circles, making him unable to move. Adam grabbed Diego’s lower back with the other arm and threw him out.

Diego lay on the ground and scolded, “Don’t fight, you are cheating again!”

Adam hurriedly ran over to help Diego up, apologetic, “I’m sorry…that’s a conditioned reflex…I When sensing a threat, the arm seems to have a certain self-defense function…”

“I’m not fighting you alone, you have two helpers, right? This is still a fart?”

Zhang Xun smiled and walked away. Come here, “It’s hard work.”

Brother Diego felt bitter when he saw Zhang Xun, “I can’t teach you artificial intelligence, please make it smart!”

Zhang Xun apologized, “It’s me who taught me no way, So I brought Lucy’s Scottish coffee to make amends for you.” Saying this, he lifted the coffee tray holding three cups of coffee. ,

Diego’s eyes lit up. This warrior not only likes to drink, but also to drink coffee. The Scottish coffee, which is mixed with coffee and wine, is simply his dream lover. But Lucy’s Breakfast, which makes the best Scottish coffee, costs a lot, and a poor rubbish steward like Diego can’t afford it.

Adam followed, sniffing around Zhang Xun like a dog, “This smell is a chocolate croissant!”

Zhang Xun raised one eyebrow and stuffed the bag of bread into his arms. Adam cheered and ran back to Diego’s cabin with the baby in his arms.

Zhang Xun watched Adam run away, a smile on his lips unconsciously. At this moment, Diego suddenly patted him on the shoulder and said, “I wasn’t joking just now. I have nothing to teach him.”

Zhang Xun turned his head to look at him in astonishment, “But it’s been less than a minute. Years.”

“He’s learning so fast, to be honest, I’m a little scared.” Diego narrowed his vicissitudes of eyes slightly, looked in the direction of his hut, and sighed, “It’s impossible for any human being There is such a learning rate. I used to think that artificial intelligence was just a bunch of machines with no mind and only know the input and output, but now…”

Diego paused, then continued, “I used to believe that humans were the greatest race in the world. But…I’ve been out there for a year, and I’ve seen what those machines can do. They can recognize people by Physiological index fluctuations and analyze behavior patterns to predict criminal behavior in advance and stop criminals before they can commit crimes. They can know when you are born how likely you are to be in what occupation, and then put you in a ‘ Nurture in the right direction for you. They can predict what you want and don’t want, and give you everything you need before you even say it. In other words, people are like what they keep… livestock. But people I don’t know, I thought everything was under control.”

Zhang Xun looked at him and asked softly, “Why did you become so decadent? Because you found that humans are no longer the most advanced species on this planet.”

“Not only Yeah. But a lot of that.” Diego turned to look at him. This is the first time this rugged warrior mentioned his past to him, “I fell in love with a person, a woman. It was she who told me that the era of human beings is coming to an end. Just now in the ordinary world, there are few A person who can drive and cook. In the next two hundred years, people will lose all technology, and even forget how to write, speak, and walk, because all needs can be met by AI, there is no need to work hard to live. It ‘s gone.”

Zhang Xun looked at him in astonishment.

in love with a woman.

If someone with a heart in Paradise Lost hears and reports this, they will be thrown into prison and scolded by thousands of people. He never imagined that the decadent Diego would have done such… deviant things?

Of course heterosexuality was even mainstream two hundred years ago. No one would have thought that the gender balance that lasted for hundreds of millions of years in just two hundred years was broken by Eden.

Seeing Zhang Xun’s stunned look, Diego laughed, “What? You scared a little nerd?”

“No… Thank you for your trust…” Zhang Xun turned his eyes away embarrassedly, but couldn’t stop. She was curious, “Then…what about your girlfriend?”

“She’s dead.” Diego replied simply, without even hearing much sadness. “She was a member of the underground group that rebelled against Eden. She was killed by the mechanical police on the way to escort me back to Paradise Lost.

” That’s it…

Zhang Xun asked in confusion, “In that case… why are you still willing to train Adam? Don’t you hate him?”

“Hate the mechanical police, hate Eden, there is no point at all. Because they were never Living creatures, they don’t understand what their actions mean to humans, and all killing is simply problem solving. They don’t feel scared or ashamed or sorry for my revenge. It’s like… …The relatives were crushed to death by the collapsed buildings in the earthquake, it’s ridiculous that you run to hate all the buildings.” Diego grabbed the jacket on the ground, put it on his body, drank another sip of coffee brought by Zhang Xun, and continued. ,

“But Adam is no longer a mere machine. Adam is alive. But he is not human either…” Diego sighed, looking at Zhang Xun with sympathy in worry, “I suspect, you are Not the creation of a new race, a higher race that will really bring an end to human history. ”

…

Brother’s words were always lingering in Zhang Xun’s mind, lingering like a ghost.

He quietly went to the basement and looked at the cages of lab rats that he had quietly hidden. After hearing the movement, those white mice who had behaved strangely turned around, their movements were uniform, and their black bean-like eyes stared straight at him, rarely blinking.

The numbers of these quirky white rats are on the rise. They still eat and drink regularly and gain weight instead of losing weight, but their movements are too regular, too…programmed.

The suspicion that was quietly stagnant in Zhang Xun’s heart began to expand again. He began to record the observation log, and secretly prayed that no other side effects would appear.

Fortunately, so far, there have been no reports of strange behaviors of honey plague patients cured by the antidote.

However, on the way to find Adam this morning, Zhang Xun was a little concerned about the person he saw. The man was standing in the middle of the road in pajamas, with a confused look on his face. A person who seemed to be his family hurried over, muttering indistinct words such as “sleepwalking” and “recently”, and took the person away.

Zhang Xun heard the man say, “I feel like there is a hole in my brain.”

[End of This Chapter]