TBR CH267.2

“I have a question,” You Lin said in a hoarse voice. He licked his lips and leaned forward. “Little AI, have you remembered?”

This was a question he had wanted to ask the moment he saw Charon.

It was difficult for him to restrain himself until now, and yet it was easy. Just one look at Charon’s currently dull eyes, and he couldn’t bring himself to ask such a selfish question. But, according to Charon’s previous arrangement, he had read that letter. It was Charon’s own letter. He had left behind a backup of all his memories related to him.

The memory was encrypted in seventeen layers, compiled in a special language in his data existence.

In Charon’s eyes, he and everything around him existed in the form of data and could be interpreted by data. These data fragments would automatically trigger the AI’s recognition mechanism and would gradually be recognized by the other party as he came into contact with the AI.

So, he had to stay with the other party.

You Lin thought he had done a good job of this. These days, he had been entangled with Little AI, fully playing the role of an annoying boyfriend. If that wasn’t enough, then the more intimate contact than ever before was something even Charon himself couldn’t have predicted. It also surprised him.

In order not to be detected by the other party too early, the hazy memories had to be covered up by provoking Charon’s intense data fluctuations.

The AI had long left behind a foreshadowing for himself.

From the first day, he had been forced to restart by the You Lin written in his core program. Since then, his internal program had always been in a disordered state, in other words, always in a post-operative, listless, and unwell state. The random thoughts in this situation were easily understood as the backflow of some untimely data.

Finally, the memory data was transcribed in a special format and still needed to be activated.

They had also completed this, and what was activated was even more than that.

Charon stared ahead with his dull pupils for a while, then pursed his lips. His long, silvery-white hair fell down, covering his equally flickering body, like a snowstorm blown up by a hurricane of data. His light-colored eyelashes trembled slightly. You Lin noticed that the fingers intertwined with his own tightened slightly. He tilted his head uncertainly, his body also tilting slightly.

“I…”

The human hesitated for a moment, then boldly leaned forward.

Charon only struggled symbolically for a moment, then rested his chin on his shoulder with a sigh of relief. This action was a little unfamiliar, yet it also felt very familiar. The AI was as light as a cat. At this moment, You Lin could feel him nodding imperceptibly against him, perhaps having closed his eyes.

A muffled voice came from among his hair. “Not everything.”

“You…” You Lin began to feel his mouth go dry. “How much do you remember?”

The AI was strangely silent for a few seconds.

“I just remembered that you actually killed me many times. It was the kind of chase where I would be found no matter where I fled, with a sharp dagger or a handgun, attacking me on sight.”

“…”

“You looked like you hated me to death back then. Is that why you’re so skilled at dealing with me now?”

“Wait, wait. What about the other things?”

“Sweetness,” Charon said vaguely. “I’ve never experienced taste before. But I tasted it in my memory. There were very sour candies, but they were sweet at the end. Humans always associate sweetness with happiness, so it’s strange that I felt it too.”

“A bit of a pity,” You Lin fumbled in his pocket. “The candy I had on me has been confiscated by you.”

“It’s alright,” Charon said. “You have that taste on you too.”

He had just suddenly understood what was irreversible. For example, after willingly debasing himself to feel emotions, he couldn’t pretend everything was as usual anymore. And for another example, the moment the whole world became nothing, he smelled a sharp sweetness. If he were to forget this sweetness, he thought he would no longer be able to do it.

If depriving humans of their emotions meant that everyone would be unable to taste this flavor?

No, if humans lost their emotions, did that mean the human in front of him would no longer let him feel this taste?

Still not right.

What was “feeling”?

Feeling was that at this moment, he would “want” and also “not want.”

Right, this was already emotion.

He had lost completely, doomed from the very beginning.

The AI thought in a daze, still with no sense of reality. The noun “human” seemed very distant from him at this moment, while what was close was You Lin’s body, trembling irregularly with the human’s breathing, a living heart, warm, supple skin, and at this moment, unable to hold him, slowly stroking his back with his hand, patting him lightly.

After he had one-sidedly treated the AI, who was taller than him, as a noble, large cat, You Lin found that Charon probably also treated him as catnip to sniff.

This person had been behaving very abnormally since they met, but unlike the once again tense confrontation he had imagined, he seemed to have subjectively and briefly reached a balance with him, or perhaps the AI in front of him was already too tired to calculate more things.

“…Do you remember anything else?”

Charon shook his head lightly.

Alright, You Lin thought helplessly. His image in the AI’s eyes probably hadn’t improved, but had instead gotten worse.

“Thank you so much, Little AI,” he couldn’t help but sigh. “for not throwing me out and ignoring me after remembering the rotten things I’ve done.”

“But why didn’t you?”

“What?”

“Do you think I was wrong?” Charon stood up straight, his eyes widening slightly, that pair of ghost-like, pale, empty pupils staring straight ahead. “I mean… completely wrong from the beginning. Because I had never experienced emotions, I decided to strip them from everyone. Because I still firmly believe that if everyone is rational, civilization can continue to advance indefinitely.”

“Why does it have to advance indefinitely?”

“This is the purpose for which I was created by humans. If not, there will be war, violence, hatred, and then more and more chaos, and finally people will argue with each other, suffer because of it, and disappear forever from the world, with no trace of civilization ever having existed. I was created to prevent humanity from heading towards tragedy. What else can I do?”

You Lin took a deep breath.

“Then let them be destroyed.”

Charon’s grayish-blue pupils flickered blankly.

You Lin said, “A person first has the possibility of being destroyed by others, then has the ability to destroy others, and finally, but equally important, a person should also be able to destroy themselves. This is their freedom.”

“But that means dying.”

“But I seem to have said many times that I am very willing to commit suicide with you.”

The silence lasted for about a second or two.

Charon then continued to ask, “Do you think that all people with emotions, after hearing my plan, will not agree?”

For the first time, he discussed his goal with a human calmly, and he had already thought of the other’s answer.

“Of course not,” You Lin shook his head. “Wasn’t this plan proposed by humans themselves? Some people will support you, Charon, but that doesn’t mean they are willing for this to happen. This is a mistake that is made when one has emotions. Why do you think the purpose for which you were created is completely correct? ‘To hope that human civilization will continue forever’—whoever said this to you, it already contained love for all their compatriots, which is why he would make such a mistake because of emotions.”

Charon was silent, his head lowered.

The human had softened again. He simply couldn’t stand Charon looking like this.

“You’re not wrong,” he hooked Charon’s little finger. “You did a great job. Everyone here has survived because of you, and every world connected here. This is already enough. There is no need for more sacrifices. Just let those humans freely choose to live, or to be destroyed.”

“Then you…” Charon said, almost inaudibly. “You told me then that you would no longer pester me. And then? What happened?”

“Think again,” the human said. The tips of his ears were a little red.

“Alright,” but the AI just agreed. “I will remember.”

He looked fragile, his eyes lowered, his unfocused ice-blue pupils looking over. You Lin sometimes felt he was just too soft-hearted. He adjusted his own angle, moving into Charon’s line of sight. Charon continued, “You won’t leave before then, right? I don’t think you will. You will never leave me alone here, never see me again, and let me stay here alone forever. Will you?”

“Who taught you to say these things?” You Lin was a little at a loss.

Fortunately, Charon couldn’t see at this moment. He could only bend down and slowly wrap his arms around You Lin’s shoulders again. “What if I can’t remember? I’m very bad to you, very terrible, not good at all. Will you not love me because of that? You said you loved me the moment we met. But if you regret it now, as you just said, you have the right to choose.”

The human suspected his emotional system and vision were crossed.

His breath hitched. “Of course I won’t. None of that will happen. Don’t overthink it, Little AI. Even if I die…”

“…you will pull me to die with you.”

Charon said in a low voice, then kissed him.

This was simply too shocking.

The kiss brushed past his cheek, like a snowflake melting in an instant. You Lin saw the AI’s eyelashes tremble lightly, as if he were unsure before touching him. In fact, his empty pupils did affect his judgment. The kiss finally landed on the tip of You Lin’s ear, the coldest part of his body, teasing the ends of his hair. His heart trembled with the vibration of his hair. When Charon straightened up, You Lin suddenly grabbed his wrist.

“Is it because you can’t see, so…” the human heard himself say in a low voice. “you kissed the wrong place?”

“Perhaps,” Charon didn’t sound very stable either. His empty gaze roamed around, as if searching for the human’s real position. “Then what should I do?”

“Why don’t you try again?”

You Lin counted his rain-like heartbeats, wrapped his arms around Charon’s waist, and stood on his tiptoes to bite his lips.

This was the first pure kiss in so many days, from an AI who had not fully remembered everything, who was still stubborn at times, but who was undoubtedly already head over heels for the evil human.

“Charon—”

You Lin opened his mouth and found that it was actually someone else speaking.

It was a gloomy voice, which did not seem to be transmitted through the air. This voice was sometimes far, sometimes near, and it began to call Charon’s name.

“It’s the System,” the human said warily.

He glanced at Charon’s blue eyes, which were covered with a thin layer of haze, like a winter sky with a thin mist. Then he alertly pulled a blade from his sleeve and stood in front of his fragile and dysfunctional lover.

This was useless.

Mortal weapons could only work on the carrier, at most dealing with that black book.

The human had witnessed the power of that sphere of light. He should understand that it was not a difficult thing for the other party to destroy it, to torture it. Moreover, the System was the master of this control center, and also his registered controller. This was its lair, where it lurked like a spider. To deal with it, one must have an extraordinary, powerful, legendary weapon, an invincible blade, forged by fate.

There was perhaps only one such weapon in this world.

Fortunately, it was indeed here.

And, although it was currently blind, confused, and had lost its memory, a fiery flame, ignited by endless energy, was burning within its body.

“Don’t use your knife,” the AI straightened up, a slight smile on his lips. “Now, command me in your name, You Lin. The… first controller in my core code.”