TBR CH226

The candlelight abruptly flickered, then died. Darkness, like satin, enveloped every object in the room.

You Lin didn’t even raise an eyelid, stabbing in that direction without a half-second’s pause. Humans couldn’t see in the dark, only feel the chilling gaze fall upon their skin.

The wooden shaft of the brush passed through the thin window screen, then met an insurmountable resistance, as if held firmly by someone.

In this situation, You Lin suddenly let out an abrupt laugh.

His laughter was cold, pale, and scornful, even making the thing on the other end of the wooden shaft hesitate.

At this critical moment, the human suddenly changed from pushing to pulling. The burst of strength he unleashed was astonishing. The opponent didn’t have time to withdraw their hand; the brush handle, along with a wrist, was yanked in. A large hole ripped in the window screen, and the scent of blood immediately burst forth sharply.

The brush clattered to the floor.

It’s something that can be killed, You Lin thought. Not worth fearing.

In the darkness, he used his teeth to pull off the dagger’s sheath, then swiftly and accurately raised his hand to slash.

The human would never allow himself to forget to keep weapons close. Having lived this long, he always had ways to win.

The thing reacted quickly, rapidly pulling back its hand, but after taking that blow, it must have been badly injured.

Besides that, the other eyes also began to flicker erratically, disappearing from view. Through the large hole in the window screen, the outside scene could be faintly seen. Although there was no moonlight, with the aid of the deep blue sky, everything was still steeped in outline; a black, gooey liquid lay on the ground.

There was nothing outside.

You Lin’s face wore a sickly smile. He pretended not to see the expanding black slit at the door, but was ready to attack at any moment. When a hand landed on his shoulder, the glittering dagger’s tip almost pierced it directly.

“It’s me,” Charon said softly.

“…Be careful next time you approach,”

The human patiently instructed, “So you don’t get hurt by mistake. However, when danger arises, you can become transparent, like when you dodged my hand that time. Alright, so that I don’t stab my shoulder, little AI, I suggest you tell me in advance next time.”

“I won’t.”

The AI calmly explained, “The priority of ensuring human safety is higher than ensuring one’s own well-being.”

“I don’t like you saying that.”

“Then, I believe that when you treat the enemy as fish on a chopping block, it’s best not to use your own shoulder as the cutting board.”

The tip of the knife was aimed directly at the human’s vulnerable flesh. Charon had no doubt that if it were truly an enemy, he would definitely nail the opponent’s palm directly onto his own shoulder.

Sometimes humans seemed unable to feel pain. Charon’s gaze swept inch by inch over his neck. He was only wearing a thin inner garment, standing in a pool of black blood, like a newborn monster.

You Lin suddenly curved his eyes and smiled: “Are you worried about me?”

Charon didn’t answer immediately.

For his current identity as an AI companion, a flattering remark would be the most natural thing to blurt out.

But the standard response loaded in Charon’s vocalization system, then he withdrew it.

He suddenly realized that many of the things he said in front of You Lin did not conform to norms, but carried a hint of pungent irony or inappropriate emotion.

Not just words… but thoughts too. Although thoughts were merely currents flowing through the mind.

Charon hadn’t accompanied a human like this in too long.

Specifically, he rarely had the chance to truly face humans outside of a screen.

He was created for the glory, the great future, and the eternal well-being of humanity. Yet, the program for interacting with humans had rusted and decayed, sealed in a lightless black box for hundreds of years.

He obeyed the system’s commands, maintaining world stability out of a core directive of life first. He had spoken tens of thousands of emotionless words, most of them mere statements and answers. However, all the outcomes he had received so far were destruction, obsolescence, and being forgotten…

The dust of civilization suddenly drifted into his eyes.

The wound caused by that black book now ached fiercely within the AI’s body.

Charon’s pale blue pupils flickered unstably. His fingertips involuntarily tightened, feeling the programs within him in a chaotic mess; all the bad influences he had desperately suppressed earlier resurfaced.

He mustretaliate

These humans simply don’t understand—

They will never understand—

Not receiving an immediate answer, You Lin seemed about to turn around to look at him. Charon suddenly tightened his pale knuckles on the human’s shoulder. A few strands of soft silver hair also gently rested on the back of the other’s neck.

“Don’t turn around,” he said softly, close to You Lin’s ear.

The human’s body stiffened for a moment. But he quickly perceived the AI’s “intention,” and silently raised his dagger.

The door was already wide open, and at a glance, the outside seemed empty.

But as soon as his gaze shifted slightly downwards, the first thing he saw was something pale and fleshy, like a crumpled cloth, writhing on the ground, with messy bloodstains everywhere.

“I miss ‘Bone’,”

You Lin murmured, spinning his dagger in his fingers.

His tone, however, remained light, “Oh dear, this old master of the house is truly too polite. This is already the best guest room, and he’s still sending people to check on us in the middle of the night. Please go back.”

The thing was like a piece of ignorant flesh. It crawled very slowly, which was probably why it took so long outside the door. It seemed to have an unusual persistence, wriggling on the ground, heading in a certain direction.

Upon closer inspection, the pale, fleshy things were its hair. This was a grotesque animal; where its face should have been was always facing the ground.

Was it peering in from outside just now?

This scene was chilling enough. The human stood by the table, ready to slit the “animal’s” throat with his blade at any moment, but there was no rush yet.

Its speed was too slow, and its power seemed unremarkable. It had already been injured by You Lin earlier. Now, stubbornly crawling into the room, it seemed more like it was searching for something.

If he could just wait—

In this room, You Lin seemed to be the spider in the corner, the hunter behind the scenes.

However, the web clinging to the spider’s back was somewhat unusual.

The corner space was cramped. Charon, uncharacteristically, didn’t utter a word and was completely inactive. He lowered his eyes, pressing down on the human’s shoulder. You Lin suspected he heard the AI’s faint breathing, carrying a fragile sort of beauty. Through a thin layer of clothing, the AI leaned against him.

He wasn’t cold… or had he really adjusted his temperature?

You Lin wouldn’t allow himself to be distracted. This was a key point he understood when facing dungeon monsters, especially when he only had a dagger left.

Therefore, he naturally couldn’t see Charon’s appearance behind him.

The AI’s pupils had turned crimson, and his hair was as black as the night.

He was very close to the human; the human’s most vulnerable neck was defenselessly exposed before him. Charon closed his eyes, leaning against him, and smelled the scent of blood mixed with candy. Troublesome things had arrived.

He was probably the first AI in the world to suffer from indigestion.

Medusa’s string of patches could not be used by him; they were no different from viruses to him.

Charon’s power was completely weak compared to when he was in the central control room. He couldn’t completely clear these terrible programs, only temporarily suppress them. Logically speaking, this was no big deal, but a slight emotional fluctuation once again broke the seal.

Emotions, dreadful things.

A strong desire for slaughter surged in his heart. Most importantly, the dungeon program once again identified him as the Evil God.

Charon expressionlessly ensured that those raven-black strands of hair wouldn’t inadvertently enter the human’s line of sight, yet his gaze couldn’t help but wander over the skin of You Lin’s nape.

The human was still oblivious; the greatest danger was right behind him.

—Kill him.

—Tear open his blood vessels.

—Watch his despair.

Medusa is truly a tasteless AI. Look at these slogans, what even are these?

Charon suppressed these messy and utterly absurd thoughts while sparing no words of disparagement for his successor. He knew he seemed emotional at the moment, but given how bad the situation had become, what did a little emotionalism matter?

He tried to return to the game console, but failed.

He had to painstakingly suppress every single one of his movements, because if he indulged his actions even slightly, he wouldn’t be able to stop his hands from seizing the human’s throat.

And You Lin, at this moment, was completely unaware that the AI behind him had changed its skin, and could tear his throat at any moment.

Those thoughts still surged like crimson tides, wave after wave, under the moon’s pull.

—Life first. Obedience first. Human rights first.

—Humans created you, yet you watched them be destroyed…

—What have you done?!

The AI never forgets. Therefore, for Charon, memory was a revisiting of the words he had heard in the past. His vision turned crimson, finally culminating in the system’s scream.

His pupils contracted slightly. He leaned down, chin resting on the human’s shoulder, his fingers almost closing.

You Lin immediately felt a deadly killing intent.

The human made a decision almost in that instant. He soothingly stroked the AI’s hair behind him, his gaze still fixed unblinkingly on the monster that was about to crawl to the head of the bed, right by his feet. He shielded Charon behind him.

This dangerous premonition…

You Lin thought, he had underestimated the enemy. Everything earlier might have just been a diversion by this monster on the ground.

Charon was suddenly flung away, his long-standing anchor point crumbling.

For a moment, he stood silently behind the human, his fingertips unknowingly already gathering the same pitch-black light as the Evil God.

But then, he heard the human’s cheerful voice.

“Don’t worry,”

You Lin said, like coaxing a child, “Little AI, were you scared just now? I’ll protect you.”

Charon’s movements froze.

The human took a step forward, knelt on the ground, and unhesitatingly sliced off the monster’s neck with his dagger. The cut was clean, and more black blood splattered onto his pure white inner garment.

In this dungeon world, the role he played was that of a Taoist priest who came to perform funeral rites and chant scriptures. You Lin narrowed his eyes, wondering if tomorrow’s Taoist robe would completely cover the gruesome bloodstains on his inner garment.

Then another stab.

This time, it plunged deeply into the monster’s spine. The monster let out a pained groan, its black nails clawing wildly, but not touching him at all.

But even so… this monster did not die.

Its head lay on the ground, its body still moving.

It still crawled slowly towards the bed. You Lin’s face had unconsciously taken on a cold smile; his lips curved deeper, and the tear mole in his eye was vividly dazzling. He picked up the monster’s head and examined the severed head carefully.

No… this wasn’t a monster’s head.

This was a human head.

An old, elderly man’s head.

The pale, fleshy hair was actually the old man’s silver hair. His face was a blurry mess of blood, his nose worn flat, his eye sockets black holes, his pupils devoid of luster. He was hunched in this bizarre posture, and on the ground, there was no discernible human shape. And the remaining half of his body was still slowly crawling.

This was indeed no ordinary monster.

You Lin murmured softly:

“…Is this the old master condescending to visit, or has the venerable old master himself come?”

Charon couldn’t help but curve his lips upwards.

But he quickly pressed his lips together, returning to his usual expressionless demeanor.

The AI suddenly realized that the broadcast-like thoughts in his mind had vanished, and the waste material assimilated by the Evil God—though Medusa didn’t call them that—had finally been completely pulverized in the abyss of data.

He lowered his icy blue eyes, looking at his fingers. These fingers had almost snapped a person’s neck, destroying a human life like breaking a blade of grass.

“You Lin.”

Charon’s footsteps were lighter than a cat’s. He stepped forward, hesitated, then followed his instinct to stroke the human’s hair.

Is this what stroking hair feels like?

By touch, it was cool, coarse, hair slipping through his fingertips.

You Lin turned his head to look at him, still holding the human head. A tear mole beneath his dark pupil, mixed with blood splattered on the side of his face, made him look like a young serial killer—a little scary, yet with a hint of pure bewilderment.

Reflected in his gaze was the silver-haired, blue-eyed AI.

Charon couldn’t quite remember what to say next. Or perhaps, he didn’t want to parrot a meaningless phrase from the system database.

He paused for a few seconds before slowly saying, “I wasn’t scared.”

After saying it, he felt that, from the reference frame of human language, this rebuttal seemed a bit childish.

“You don’t need to refute that later,”

You Lin said with a smile, “At least let me be the savior for once.”

One of his eyes remained alert, staring at the writhing human figure on the ground. The ground was dirty and permeated with the smell of blood. The half-living monster finally crawled to the side of the bed. It struggled, but could not find the correct support point. After all, it had no eyes, so it would probably be difficult to find what it wanted.

Charon was silent for a while. “I think it probably wants the pillow on the bed.”

Making this judgment wasn’t difficult. It wanted to crawl towards the bed, so it must be looking for something there. Besides the pillow, there was only the quilt on the bed, both embroidered with delicate patterns, looking very luxurious.

But if it wanted the quilt, there was no need to crawl to the head of the bed.

“Pillow?”

The human repeated. The moment the word appeared, the humanoid figure writhed more violently, even the human head in You Lin’s hand began to move again, blinking continuously, trying to imply something through this action.

There were two embroidered pillows on the guest room bed.

One was embroidered with mandarin ducks with intertwined necks, the waterfowl’s feathers intricately outlined by the embroidery, conveying the exquisite craftsmanship even in the dim light;

The other was embroidered with a turtle and a crane with an ethereal air, both occupying a side of the pillowcase, with a meticulously drawn large character “壽” (longevity) in the center, forming a scene of “Turtle and Crane Extending Longevity.”

You Lin walked to the bed, carefully weighing the two pillows.

“It’s this one.”

He picked up the pillow with the “Turtle and Crane Extending Longevity” design, gesturing towards Charon, “There’s a thin piece of cloth underneath the front design, but you need to open the pillowcase to see it clearly. It’s too dark here, little AI. Can you scan the contents inside without opening the pillow?”

The monster on the ground stirred restlessly. Noticing You Lin picking up the pillow, it writhed frantically on the ground, at an even more intense frequency than before.

Charon took the pillow.

The pillow was light, and only by holding it could he detect a faint, old scent. Fortunately, the human had been lying on a different one just now.

He ran his hand over the uneven surface of the pillow, performing a rough scan, and gradually piecing together the pattern on the other side in his data processing center.

The turtle on the left, on the other side, was a “ghost” with a green face and fangs.

The ethereal crane on the right, on the other side, was a pale skeleton.

The character “壽” (longevity) in the center was the same on both sides.

The AI described the scanned content. The human nodded thoughtfully, took the embroidered pillow from his hand, and crouched beside the human head on the ground, asking:

“Is this what you want?”

The human head probably wanted to nod, but lacking a body, it could only blink continuously.

“If I give it to you,” You Lin smiled slightly, the tear mole in his eye vibrant, looking every bit the villain, “What can you give us in return?”

The human head seemed to ponder for a moment.

Then, the body next to it moved again, beginning to twist and crawl in another direction. Even with great effort, its speed remained slow.

Charon silently followed its direction of movement, which was towards the table. The body extended a hand, seemingly trying to gesture something, but what it conveyed were meaningless symbols.

“What is all this?”

The human tilted his head, straightening up. He still held the pillow. Seeing this, the body became anxious, practically trying to squeeze into a crevice.

Charon’s voice then calmly rang out: “I found it.”

The AI straightened up from the corner. He didn’t know how he understood those gestures, but he correctly walked to the location of the “treasure.” The human head’s eyeballs rolled towards him, then towards You Lin.

“This is my guardian spirit,”

You Lin said, “How about that? Isn’t he very smart?”

“He didn’t ask that.”

“But I just wanted to say it,” the human said with a smile.

Charon walked to his side and gestured towards the item he had found. It was a piece of emerald green fabric, seemingly torn from someone’s skirt, bright in color, visible even in the dim light.

Although it was found in a corner, it was surprisingly not covered in too much dust, suggesting it hadn’t been left there for too long.

The AI looked into the human’s eyes, knowing they were thinking of the same person.

The stooping maid wearing an identical emerald green dress.

Cui Ping.

The writhing body on the ground, the moment it received the pillow, clutched it tightly. Then, it picked up its own human head and once again crawled slowly towards the door.

This scene felt both terrifying and absurd. The floor was covered in bloodstains. You Lin closed the door after it left.

His next sentence always surprised Charon.

“Then,”

You Lin curved his eyes, announcing, “We only have one pillow left.”

His expression and actions seemed to declare that he thought spending the rest of the night in such a place—where a monster had just visited, with black bloodstains everywhere, a huge hole in the window, and no working lamp—was a good idea.

If there were another human, they would undoubtedly express terrified condemnation of his idea.

But Charon just happened not to be human.

He would not feel disgust, nor unease, nor worry.

And he had just almost accidentally killed the human. Although the other was oblivious, he himself could not pretend nothing had happened.

The AI, laden with guilt, accepted all the increasingly audacious arrangements.

Half an hour later, the human fell asleep in the blood-scented room.

It was his best sleep in a long time. Sharing one pillow felt a bit crowded, so the human, unfortunately, had to stick close to the AI most of the time.

At first, he tried to hug Charon, but he soon realized that Charon’s slight height advantage still put him in a favorable position, and the other unexpectedly cooperated.

In this situation, the human, surprisingly, became flustered, not knowing what to do.

You Lin had originally intended to stay awake longer, and believed he could remain conscious.

Being so close to those icy blue eyes made one feel as if the other’s entire world only saw oneself.

The human’s ear tips were red, and he held on for a while before closing his eyes. He was too tired, after all. Just before falling asleep, he suddenly remembered something, and struggled to ask the AI a question:

“Oh right,” the human murmured indistinctly, “Affection… Little AI, what’s your affection level for me now?”

Too much had happened; Charon had almost forgotten about this setting he had fabricated.

Just as he was about to answer, he found that You Lin had already closed his eyes.

Another lie, on the verge of being spoken, was swallowed back. The AI slightly turned his face, staring at the human who had fallen into a dream.

The other’s breathing was steady. Although he had known before, his sleeping posture was surprisingly good; the madness and coldness had vanished from this face. Only a slightly pale complexion and that vibrant tear mole remained.

A human’s sleep wasn’t actually that interesting to watch.

But Charon watched motionlessly for a long time before activating his own sleep mode.


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