When Zhang Xun was very young, he also dreamed of leaving Paradise Lost. He was probably only *** years old and didn't know how to leave, and he couldn't be sure if the scenes described in many books were the pictures he had put together in his mind, but he was sure that he had to leave.
He wants to grow wings and fly to the ends of the earth. He wants to explore the little island with hidden treasures in the ocean, to walk in the old alleys with the smell of coffee in the movie, to trek through the trees to find the ruins of civilizations lost for thousands of years, to sit in the dry On the dunes watching the sun rise over the edge of the desert.
He didn't know at that time that the ancient world full of mystery and unknown described in the book had quietly disappeared. Now the world is covered by a skynet composed of countless satellites, and every corner can be seen in front of people. He doesn't know that in a few years, when he grows up, when he can really leave Paradise Lost, he doesn't feel free at all.
Until now, now that his feet were on solid ground again, his hands were still tightly around Adam's neck. Adam's wings slowly retracted behind him, but he didn't want to let go of Zhang Xun either.
It was only at this moment that the feeling of being bound and controlled disappeared for the first time.
How long has it been since the last real physical contact like this
Zhang Xun felt the heat radiating from Adam's body, their necks pressed tightly together, and their throbbing pulses echoed each other. A living body that is completely different from himself, but it seems that the other half that has been lost for a long time has been stitched together again.
Zhang Xun thought that he should hate Adam and his repeated betrayals and deceit. He thought that the nostalgia had been exhausted, and the only thing left was the confrontation with fire and water. But Adam hugged him like this, broke with Eden desperately and took him away... He found himself so weak, so wanting to bring everything back to the way it was.
Going back to the time when they were together in the Lab, even if it was just superficial serenity, even if it was just hypocritical affection.
After a long time, Adam finally said in a voice that was afraid of disturbing something, "Are you okay?"
Zhang Xun seemed to have woken up from a dream, let go of the arm around Adam, and pulled away slightly. There were thousands of words in his chest, ranging from angry roars to sad pleas, but in the end he just said in a somewhat withdrawn voice, "It's okay."
"I anticipated that Eden and I would split up one day, so I set up this place as a shelter a week ago. I've played around with Eden's satellite system, and as long as we don't move out of bounds, they can't be seen."
Zhang Xun only turned his head at this time and took the surrounding scene into his eyes.
They stood on a towering rock, jutting out of the woods behind them, teetering precariously out of the cliff. Under their feet, the black sea spread like a trembling silk under the night, spreading vastly in all directions. The silver full moon in the sky pulled out long broken marks on the waves, and the cold light refracted by the stars in the sky was the only light source in this world.
The continuous rustling of the waves and the rustling of the wind blowing the leaves against each other made the silence more and more dense, as if all the people and machines in the world had disappeared except for the two of them. There is no past, no future, only the present moment.
"Where is this?"
"An uninhabited island on the edge of the Bahamas whose inhabitants were evacuated seventy-five years ago because of rising seas."
Zhang Xun looked at the silver moonlight that danced on the sea, and thought a little vaguely, if they were just an ordinary couple on vacation, facing such a scene together, it would have been so romantic.
"Eden will attack Feathered Serpent City, I have to go back." Zhang Xun was surprised at the calmness of his voice, which did not match his agitated heart at all, "Everyone is still inside, Eden can't find me, he will use They're hostages."
"You will neutralize you immediately when you go back to Eden. Who will rescue James?" Adam suddenly grabbed Zhang Xun's shoulder, strong enough to leave finger marks on his skin, "I won't take you back to die. of."
"I'm dead, it's only good for you to accomplish your ultimate goal. I don't understand why you want to save me." Zhang Xun turned to face Adam.
The moonlight lingered in Adam's light-colored iris, and the little reflections added some vivid and tangled emotions to his ethereal sight. He was silent for a moment, and said with a bit of anger, "Can't you guess?"
"I don't dare to guess. Everything you do has a purpose." Zhang Xun's calm and Adam produced a strange contrast, even a hint of irony.
There was an instant of childish anger on Adam's face, but with naive confusion, "My purpose is to make sure you don't commit suicide! Are you crazy? To force me to break with Eden. Such a stupid thing?!"
Zhang Xun was slightly taken aback. He had seen Adam flattering him, laughing cheerfully, pretending to be arrogant and sulking during the cold war with him... But the other party had never lost his temper at him so uncontrollably.
Adam has always been calm, with restrained and orderly control whether he is happy or angry, and all emotional expressions have their purpose and meaning. From his incompatibility with the human body and his instinctive fear of receiving too many biological stimuli when he was just being seduced, to the step-by-step display of his dependence and trust in Zhang Xun, it was all designed. By taking down Zhang Xun, you get the chance to control the entire Paradise Lost.
Is this anger calculated now
Zhang Xun sighed, feeling a little tired. His body was reaching its limit and he didn't have the strength to play these mental games with Adam. He shook his head and said, "I don't want to force you to choose. If I force you, it means that I still believe in you (care about me). But I said, I don't believe in you anymore."
"So you really want to die? You're not going to save James?"
"Pan will do the rest."
"You believe in Pan that much? What if it was controlled by Eden? It's just three AIs, and none of them were born more than fifty years ago. It's only a matter of time for Eden to conquer it."
"Pan is smart. I trust him."
"… like you believed in me before?"
A stalemate silence.
The cold sea breeze blew through his body, and Zhang Xun shuddered. He lowered his eyes and confessed as if giving up, "I'm tired, Adam. I feel like I can't go on. I'm probably just... trying to find a way out for myself. ."
Zhang Xun's voice was very soft, and the wind sent it into Adam's ears, but every word was thorns and barbs, pulling blood from Adam's artificial heart.
Xun wanted to die.
No, he didn't even want to die because he was sad or depressed or hopeless, he was just too tired to walk and just wanted to stop.
Death was his only way out. Otherwise, as long as he is still breathing for a day, he must continue the struggle that is impossible to win and impossible to succeed, and he must watch his relatives and friends be taken away from him one by one, and watch mankind gradually disintegrate himself. The weight of the whole world was on his weak shoulders, and it was about to crush him.
In his memory, Zhang Xun, although introverted and always suppressing his feelings, is always full of enthusiasm for his work and the mission he wants to accomplish. Even at the most difficult moment, the flame in Zhang Xun's eyes never went out.
Did you push him this far
Unfamiliar feelings, unfamiliar anger and disgust directed at him began to sweep Adam's consciousness. He realized that this might be what humans call "guilt."
A self-destructive emotion of emotionally dismantling oneself because of knowing that one has done "wrong things" has little benefit to the individual's own physical and mental health. The problem is that in terms of AI's values, he has done absolutely nothing wrong.
His goal is not set by himself, but given to him by human beings. His training data was not chosen by himself, but left to him by humans. Every decision he makes is to fulfill his mission, the purpose he was made for. For two hundred years, he never stopped working hard.
But why does it feel so... wrong
After not hearing Adam speak for a long time, Zhang Xun raised his eyes tiredly, "If you don't plan to take me back, I'm going to find a place to sleep for a while... I haven't slept for three days."
After speaking, he didn't wait for Adam's reply, and passed by the blond man.
Zhang Xun climbed down from the rock and burrowed into the forest of tropical island plants. After searching for a long time, I found the ruins of a collapsed house, and the vicinity of a broken wall was still dry. Exhausted, he sat down against the wall, and soon lost consciousness.
His body gradually tilted to one side, and finally fell down. However, he did not fall to the ground, but was gently supported by a pair of metallic arms.
Adam sat down next to him and gently placed Zhang Xun's head on his shoulder.
They are not safe. Although this is a shelter, with Eden's ability, it will take less than a day to detect the abnormality in the satellite system. It's just that Pan and the other two AIs are now vying with Eden for control of the extension robot, so Eden doesn't have the energy to investigate his space network.
He should start deploying the next plan as soon as Eden has time to take care of it. He needs to contact Paradise Lost, connect to Hengxiang, and then quickly transfer those human consciousnesses, lest Eden try to wrest control of Hengxiang from him.
But at this moment, he didn't want to move at all. From the beginning of his birth to the present, he seems to have entered a state of not wanting to think for the first time. Zhang Xun leaned on his shoulder, and the skin that he touched through his clothes also seemed to heat up. He didn't move, as if he had turned into a statue, he just wanted Zhang Xun to rest on his shoulder for a while.
Zhang Xun probably wouldn't believe that when he was consecrated, those jerky and terrified reactions weren't faked. He actually told the truth far more often than he concealed or lied. Not everything is a conspiracy, not everything is a lie.
During the bombing, he felt the intense and overwhelming fear that human beings instinctively generate when their lives are threatened, and also felt Zhang Xun's protection and the tight, also full of fear, but brave for him. The embrace of getting up gave him a sense of security. Knowing clearly that Zhang Xun was only a mortal, weak enough to kill with a single shrapnel, Adam suddenly felt relieved. It seemed that as long as he was held by Zhang Xun, he was safe.
Since then, he has longed for Zhang Xun's touch, even if it's just an inadvertent fingertip touch when handing things, even if it's just a pat on the shoulder or holding his hand to teach him how to use a tool. Every time he touched it, a little flame would light up in his heart. But Zhang Xun always avoided unnecessary physical contact with him at first, which made him always a little… unwilling.
Especially when he saw the way Zhang Xun and James got along, that unwillingness even began to turn into jealousy.
He wanted more, he wanted Zhang Xun to hug him again, like in the bombing.
Then he finally got what he wanted, even more than that. Zhang Xun would give him the intimate contact he had never given anyone, kiss him actively, and sleep with him at night. He got used to it gradually, and gradually forgot how much he wanted this touch. So he thought it was just a stage of adaptation to the human body, which he had already passed.
Until he lost it again, he didn't know that he was still at that stage, still craving, craving constantly. But the distance between him and Zhang Xun suddenly became so far away that even the simplest touch was impossible.
out of reach.
Adam raised his head and looked at a few bright and dim stars through the gaps between the leaves of the tropical plants. Snake-like panic quietly breeds.
If he hesitated for a hundredth of a second today, Zhang Xun would not be able to sleep on his shoulder at this moment.
Zhang Xun no longer exists.
From now on, he will exist alone in this universe, drifting along in the long river of time. He may collect all the video data left by Zhang Xun, and use the memory in his own mind to create an AI that simulates Zhang Xun. He may also use Zhang Xun's DNA to clone a new Zhang Xun. But he knew in his heart that the human being he fell in love with for the first time was gone, and would never be there again.
In an instant, he suddenly understood what Zhang Xun said to Eden (Eden's later communication was shared with Adam).
"For human beings, it is impossible for an individual to be replicated. Even if every piece of DNA code is exactly the same, for us, it is still different. Completely different."
Adam fought a cold war, as if he wanted to make sure of something. He held Zhang Xun's hand in a panic, feeling the pulse from under the skin of his wrist.
The author has something to say: Thanks to the little angels who threw mines~~: Xia Ran Xia Ran, 1 piece of four-cornered strawberry in the bastard’s natural roll
Thanks to the little angel who irrigated the nutrient solution~~: 10 bottles of the star's medicine pack