TBR CH264

Something must have gone wrong somewhere, You Lin thought.

The handcuffs that had been on his wrists, which he had taken off countless times, were now tightly restricting his movements.

Because Charon’s long, pale fingers were resting on them. Sensing the human’s gaze, he raised his eyes, looking down—it must be emphasized that this angle was only because the human simply couldn’t stand up straight—and just stared at him.

There was a faint hint of victory in those ice-blue pupils.

“You’ve always wanted ‘me’ to do this, haven’t you.”

This was a very, very cheesy line.

If heard in any movie dialogue, the audience would surely question the overall quality of the script.

You Lin really hoped he could think that way too. For the first two seconds, he did feel a little like laughing.

But in reality, his brain quickly went “buzz” and lost the ability to think in a disbelieving heat, his breathing rhythm also becoming a bit messy.

No way, just because of such a stupid line?

He tried to struggle free, somewhat flustered, but no matter how hard he tried, his wrists only turned a circle of red within a limited range. Instead, the dark ends of his hair poked his eyes several times, physiologically stimulating a few tears.

When he finally, unavoidably, turned his gaze back, he held his breath.

Charon’s lips curved slightly, and he smiled.

His eyes—how to describe it? That pair of cold, inorganic, cobalt-blue pupils, at this moment, very rarely showed a hint of a smile.

It was almost a miracle, You Lin thought.

He meant, it was as if a glacier that had been buried in snow for a thousand years had suddenly bloomed with a delicate, tiny, sky-blue flower.

It would be almost impossible for a passing traveler not to be surprised and stop in their tracks.

Even if his soul was captivated by this magical color, it could be said to be beyond reproach.

The human suddenly sucked in a sharp breath. He had been distracted, and the price of being distracted was very severe.

“What on earth are you—hey, Charon, I mean, do you know what you’re doing?”

The strands of his hair fell coolly on his chest, and a shadow covered his vision.

“I know,” the AI was half-kneeling on the bed, his knees between his two legs, unhurriedly unbuttoning his shirt. The rustling sound of the fabric, the faint touch of his fingers, all seemed particularly ambiguous and unclear in this situation. It didn’t take him much effort to unbutton the human’s collar, as if he were just unwrapping a gift.

“I am ensuring that you will not escape from here using means I cannot detect and blow up my corridor. To put it in a more easily understandable way, I am preventing my personal property from suffering losses.”

“…Charon.”

You Lin was almost incoherent. At this moment, the small mole under his eye was also shining red, but it was different from any other time. He felt his soul suddenly fly out of his body, looking down at his own astonished appearance, and he knew that Charon was also staring at this face, which was occupied by shame and surprise, a state that had been so at ease just now, but was now so embarrassed that it was about to faint.

“No,” his voice grew lower and lower. “Little AI, don’t do this anymore.”

This sentence was also poorly said, very bad. And besides, it was very, very cliché.

The worst part was, his tone seemed to not be so firm either.

“I really don’t understand,” Charon tilted his head slightly, his gaze finally meeting his again. It would have been better if he could have taken his fingers away too, the human thought randomly.

And the AI continued, “From your body data, you are a little thinner than a normal human. But your self-healing ability is simply incredible. This was the wound left from the explosion in the west corridor just now, right?—See, even your ribs were almost broken. And then you caused two major explosions in three minutes, destroyed seventeen killing robots, and snatched their weapons—and stood in front of me.”

The AI pondered, and with a casual movement, he pressed on the human’s ribs, separated only by a thin layer of flesh and blood.

His fingers had a faint coolness, roaming over the newly grown skin on the injured area, that layer of skin still covered with dark red scabs. You Lin could almost hear his own bones creaking, as if they were really about to break. The more fragile that place was, the more vivid and unbearable the sensation.

“Don’t you feel pain?”

His fingertips suddenly pressed down.

You Lin almost screamed—this time, it was a real scream. A sharp pain spread from Charon’s fingertips, briefly dispelling the romantic atmosphere. Charon also immediately withdrew his hand as if electrocuted, letting go of the unhealed wound that could very well take his life in the future with a “just as I thought” expression.

“Certain mechanisms prevent me from harming you.”

He announced, “See, if I use even a little force, it will be judged as a fatal danger to you. It’s not that you don’t feel pain, nor are you omnipotent. At the very least, you will die like other humans. If you could be a little more responsible for yourself, you should be in a medical bay right now.”

If the AI had pulled up his clothes just to say this—

The human adjusted his breathing rate and said as calmly as possible, “You are very right, Charon. I suddenly realize that I do need treatment right now. You know, for my own safety… so can we pause what we’re doing here and solve this urgent matter first?”

Charon looked at him with great interest.

“No.”

“Wha—” You Lin almost bit his tongue. “Why?”

“If you can destroy my corridor with your injuries, then what we are about to do is very safe, and in any case, not more dangerous than causing multiple explosions ten centimeters away from yourself. Your ribs will be absolutely fine.”

Charon bent down. When he was close enough, he could hear the human’s heartbeat falling like rain all over the floor, which had to be picked up by him bit by bit.

He didn’t ask himself why he was doing this. It seemed like there was no reason, yet it seemed like there was a very good reason. For example, rather than seeing the human’s big laugh with no real emotion, he wanted to personally touch his true emotions, his trembling, his unease, and his fear. He had to win against him, not let him win.

He wanted to prove that the human was the one being affected, being controlled, while he remained consistent.

He wanted to prove that his past self was wrong.

Since there were so many legitimate reasons, then one thought of “wanting to try kissing him to see his reaction” that was submerged in them was also mediocrity, floating forward with the tide of his data. Among the glittering silver symbols, there was nothing unusual at all.

Charon was the smartest, most intelligent AI in the world.

He was self-taught, knowing how to kiss in a way that would make a human lose their mind and their ability to think. Although his silver eyelashes never had any warmth, You Lin’s fingers curled up and were then pried open bit by bit. The AI revealed an ice-blue pupil and lightly pressed a kiss on his damp palm as well;

When the human’s unfocused black pupils finally showed a flicker of reason, before he could speak, Charon said, “I know you have a plan. Now all the robots in the entire control center have been activated by me and have begun to search for your accomplice. They haven’t found him yet, but they will soon. If I join them, you know, they will be walking under my nose, completely exposed. Five minutes at most.”

You Lin looked at him blankly.

“It’s a pity I have other things to do right now,” Charon said.

He looked cold and ruthless, but for a moment, his arrogant and competitive gaze broke through the frost-like seal. The AI did not admit his mistakes, did not admit his emotions, did not admit that he actually really wanted to win, wanted the human to admit defeat. At this moment, he wanted it more than anything.

You Lin stared at him in astonishment for a few more seconds, but he didn’t look so stiff anymore. He took a deep breath. His hair was damply plastered to his forehead and ears. It was a pity no one was there to help him tuck it back. That small mole was so bright red at this moment, like a badge proclaiming original sin.

“Well, this is…” he murmured. “Little AI, then I’m afraid I’ll have to do my best to make you… waste more time on me.”

Ventilation ducts were also a standard in movies.

Although they didn’t appear as frequently in superhero movies, Hugo tried his best to believe that he was actually a super spy.

He had to believe it.

Because the environment here was much worse than he had imagined, like a long, narrow, and secluded cave, making movement extremely difficult. Whenever he reached a new exhaust vent, Hugo would carefully remove the cover, controlling his strength as much as possible. But it was still terrible. Most of the time, there were already three or five robots in the room.

And, a few times, just the amount of falling dust was enough for the robots on the ground to start firing lasers at the ceiling as if they had sensed something.

The biggest comfort was that they were still heading in the right direction. In the spiderweb-like, twisted tracks, Hugo still remembered the corridor where a book was lying on the ground, which they were supposed to reach, and the power control room. This was his special talent from his days as a thief.

“Irina…” he said. “We can’t just hang from the ceiling like two old bats forever. We have to go down eventually.”

He made an ill-timed joke. After all, real spies were all cool and didn’t care about life and death. But Irina didn’t speak. Hugo’s heart sank. Although he was full of tragic determination, if he were the only one moving forward in such a dark duct, he would also break down. The brown-haired boy with difficulty turned his head. In the duct, he could only see the woman behind him out of the corner of his eye, and a pair of alert eyes.

His pounding heart finally settled down.

“I thought you were gone,” Hugo whispered. “But why didn’t you say anything?”

“Shh!” The woman in his peripheral vision raised a finger and made a shushing gesture. “Didn’t you hear—”

The sentence was cut short, an ominous sign.

Hugo’s heart, which had just calmed down for two seconds, started to pound again. He tried his best to find the sound he was supposed to be hearing amidst the chaotic thumping of his heart. It was a bit difficult. For a long time, everything around was silent, only the wind passing through the ventilation duct, brushing past his cheeks. He almost thought Irina was just having an ill-timed auditory hallucination, but just then, he heard the sound too.

Click. Hiss.

Click. Hiss. Click. Hiss. Click. Hiss.

A slightly sharp sound, followed by a long, drawn-out tail. The sound was faint and intermittent, and there should still be some distance… but not too far.

“What is that?” Hugo lowered his voice.

“…Do you think it could just be a rat?”

Irina shook her head disapprovingly behind him. “I haven’t seen any living creatures since we came in. This place is very clean, there are no conditions for rats to survive. And, there are traces of insecticide being used here. If there were rats, there would definitely be rat poison too.”

The rat dragging its tail that Hugo had imagined in his mind was shattered.

“Alright…” he said in an even softer voice. “By the way, according to what you just said. Hmm, don’t you think it’s a little too clean in here?”

The woman behind him froze.

This was the building’s ventilation duct. Hugo hadn’t been in many other ventilation ducts, but he imagined they didn’t usually have many guests. This place, however, was not covered in even a speck of dust. Although it was dim, narrow, and cramped, Hugo believed his clothes had not been stained with a single grain of dust.

He reached out and touched the wall.

It was true.

“I think so,” Irina whispered.

Now the sound was closer to them. Hugo cautiously moved the vent cover in front of him, basically only keeping it open for a moment to allow his line of sight to pass through. He quickly pushed the sliver of light back into place and made a number gesture with his hand behind his back.

“Three.”

Meaning there were three robots patrolling in the room below, ready at any moment to sound the sharpest alarm, notifying everyone in the building that they were here, and then taking them out with a particle cannon or something else.

Click. Hiss. Click. Hiss.

“I have a guess,” Hugo said. “This place has some kind of regular cleaning habit. So, uh, the ‘click’ we’re hearing is that thing moving forward a step, and the ‘hiss’ is it mopping the floor or wiping the walls or something.”

“Very good,” Irina responded. “Then do you think a robot vacuum has an internet connection? That is, will it also scream and take us out like those guys down there?”

“I don’t know,” Hugo said dejectedly.

But he quickly became excited again. “No, no! I know!”

The “Charon” in his vision had been shaking its head in disapproval while he was talking. When Hugo and Irina’s conversation ended, the pixelated little person, as if it could no longer bear their headless-chicken-like fumbling, had a string of text pop up above its head in rapid succession.

He had been silent for a while just now, and Hugo had thought something unexpected had happened.

“Every afternoon from two to four…” Hugo read. “…and from seven to nine at night, the C-199 model housekeeping robot will clean the ventilation ducts. No wonder this place is so clean. The said model robot is equipped with self-cleaning cotton cloths and a self-filtering water source, and can set its own travel route through the body’s settings, so it can complete all the work at once—oh! And the C-199 is characterized by its low energy consumption, which means it is a single-function robot and will not sound an alarm.”

This new piece of information almost made him tremble.

However, Hugo still turned his gaze back to the little person.

“Can you still control the program here, or help us block the signal or something?”

Pixel Charon looked at him with two light-blue pixel blocks, shook his head, and did not explain why.

“Does this mean they—um, any of them are in danger?”

He shook his head again.

“Alright,” Hugo said to himself. “This is already very helpful for the current situation.” He looked at Irina behind him out of the corner of his eye. The woman was clearly also thinking. She was always the more intelligent one, so she should have thought of what he had thought of.

“This place is very close to the indicated drop point of the Black Book. From this door, turn a corner.”

The human made a gesture. “The key is, how do we get down?”

Click. Hiss. Click. Hiss. Click. Hiss.

When this sound came back with a vengeance, it was right upon them.

However, this time it did not evoke any fear. When the mechanical silhouette finally revealed its true face from the end of the ventilation duct, dragging a mop, it was still diligently and dutifully wiping every speck of dust on the duct. With every step, the gears would click, and the cloth dragging across the smooth metal would make a teeth-grinding hissing sound.

The only special thing was that as it was performing its mundane little task as usual, it encountered some obstacles.

Hugo looked at its design with fresh eyes. The C-199 was just a model specially made for housework, but it still exuded a kind of designed sleekness and beauty.

Speaking of which, according to the information he had read before, many of the electronic facilities of human civilization a thousand years ago were designed by the super-AI Charon after he was created, and then popularized.

Now, it was struggling in his palm.

Following the instruction manual provided by the pixelated little person, Hugo pulled a certain protrusion on its head, and the robot suddenly fell silent. The human examined its “feet,” which were designed with magnetic suction cups. It could wipe in all directions and walk freely on ceilings and walls.

This was exactly the function they needed right now.

The air quickly fell silent again. Hugo focused on re-entering a new action route according to the instructions in the manual. He took a deep breath. This time, his heart wasn’t beating so chaotically that he felt lost, but it felt as if it were buried very deep, making it impossible for him to relax at all.

He wiped his forehead.

There were no beads of sweat, but it was a little damp.

After the command was entered, it was time for practice.

In the end, he didn’t know if it would work, but the pixelated Charon in front of him had now completely lost contact with Charon or You Lin. This didn’t sound good, and Hugo felt he had to hurry. He looked again at the stone slab not far away, moved his knees, and carefully placed his fingers on the entrance of the ventilation duct.

Relax, relax, it’s nothing, Hugo.

He said to himself.

His fingers might have used some force, because the entrance to the ventilation duct was lifted slightly again. This time, the light reflected in his eyes made him widen them in astonishment. He incredulously counted again—one, two, three… four.

There was one more robot.

Alright, they must have shifts. Why not?

Hugo tried his best not to think about this and again moved the stone slab very carefully, while praying that the robots below wouldn’t suddenly notice the insignificant crack that appeared in a corner of the ceiling due to the dust.

The stone slab itself had cracks, and he felt his soul overlap with the movement of the ventilation duct entrance. Until a large enough gap was created, he finally stopped, feeling his fingers and mind were extremely stiff.

Click. Hiss.

Click. Hiss. Click. Hiss.

The cleaning robot C-199 spontaneously broke free from his fingers. With this gust of wind, it once again played its concerto of cleanliness and hygiene, crawling out of the large enough gap in the vent. Hugo and Irina hurriedly restored the ventilation duct and took a step back, listening with bated breath to the sounds from below.

—And there were indeed quite a few sounds from below.

The working sound of the C-199 should have been common to the other robots in the control center, so it didn’t attract attention at first. It was only when it descended to the ground along its predetermined route and began to meticulously drag its mop towards the outside that it was finally observed by the four robots on the ground. Thanks to Hugo’s advance setting, it had already almost reached the door by then and quickly slipped out through the half-open crack.

Anomaly detected.

The alarm blared.

Hugo curled up, trying his best to crawl forward without making a sound.

That’s right, this wasn’t the best landing spot, but the next ventilation duct exit led to their final destination: that corridor.

When he looked down again through the crack in the vent, he indeed saw that black book.

It was just lying there, motionless, on the ground. The pages, which had undergone countless special treatments, were now in direct contact with the floor. If Irina were to say, it must be very uncomfortable right now. But to be fair, this place was now spotlessly clean, thanks to Charon. Even the ground was as clean as new, shining brightly.

At the end of the corridor, the embers of that commotion could still be seen. The poor robot vacuum C-199 had now become a pile of broken parts, and the killing robots, as expected, had already swarmed to the room where they had first stayed. It was only a matter of time before they discovered the breach in the ventilation duct.

“Jump!”

Hugo said softly. He moved the stone slab again and landed as lightly as possible.

Irina jumped down next.

After the human female jumped down, she looked around with her alert eyes. By now, Hugo had already bent down sharply and picked up the book on the ground—although Charon said taking the book was useless, doing so still had a reassuring feeling of saving an old friend. He straightened up and looked at the countless doors on the right side of the corridor. “We have to find the power station quickly.”

He rushed out, looking at the corridors behind one door after another.

“Oh! Here it is.” He tried his best to suppress the joy in his voice. “Irina, hurry up—Irina?”

Irina stood frozen in place.

Following the woman’s stiff body, Hugo’s gaze passed over her shoulder and saw the dark muzzle of a gun.

Damn it… the fourth robot, a lone robot. This is a guerrilla-type killer.

If there was any good news, it was that the alarm had already been triggered, which at least could divert some of the robots.

Hugo’s mind went blank. However, Irina suddenly moved. In front of her, a light green barrier was raised. She sounded very calm, and very composed. “Hugo, if it’s really the boss and the leader’s plan, then you’ll definitely find a way if you take the Black Book with you. Come find me when that time comes.”

“No—”

“Hugo, you’ve already saved all of us once. Now let me do it.”

She was very determined.

But, he really didn’t want to—although at this time he couldn’t act on impulse, couldn’t be cowardly, and especially couldn’t waste time, because this time was bought by his companion at the cost of her life.

“I…” Hugo gritted his teeth and pulled a golden chain from his sleeve. He quickly took a step forward, wrapped the pocket watch around Irina’s hand, and flicked the switch. After doing all this, he showed a look of relief, while Irina showed a look of surprise.

“What is the meaning of this!”

“You only need to hold on for five minutes! After five minutes, the watch will send you to a safe place. As for me, five minutes is enough. Really, I promise. Just let it play its final role.”

There were already cracks on the pocket watch. Hugo just hoped it could last at least one more time. However, facing this old companion who had been with him for a long time, it was more appropriate to say he had firm belief.

The brown-haired boy hurriedly bit his lip, holding that black book, and rushed into the corridor to the side.

At least he still had five minutes.

Five minutes—to turn everything around.