TBR CH266.2

You Lin couldn’t help but twist Hugo’s arm and pull him to a place where he couldn’t reach the control console, then reached out and pulled Charon up from the ground.

Even if one could believe that Charon’s regularly cleaned floor was indeed spotless, it was still unseemly for him to stay on the ground. Charon was as light as a snowflake, making the human suspect that if not for giving himself a sense of accomplishment, he could have floated up without any effort.

The AI’s hazy blue eyes looked at him, then turned to Hugo. The brown-eyed boy was being dragged away from the control console inch by inch, cursing under his breath, but there was nothing he could do.

“Shouldn’t you restart or…” You Lin paused. “…run a virus scan. Damn it, I don’t know how you handled your injuries before.”

He glanced around.

The instrument was inlaid with familiar ice-blue gems. Also, it was worth mentioning that there were also scattered gems on the floor, randomly arranged in an incomprehensible pattern.

The human quickly bent down and broke off a large piece from the wall. Considering a convenient amount for Charon to consume at once, he broke it in half again.

The broken surface of the gem was sharp enough to cut a finger. For a moment, it seemed as if some kind of liquid was flowing out, but if you stared at it for a while, you would find it was just the exceptionally bright color that bloomed when the broken surface of the ore met the air. You Lin handed it to Charon. The AI glanced at him and, as he took it, touched his fingers. Then, he bit down on the gem as if he remembered, as if biting into a thin, crispy corn chip. His pupils were illuminated by the dazzling blue light.

The bloodstains gradually faded.

You Lin was clearly relieved.

The bright red mole under his eye also dimmed. He stared at Charon eating—or rather, replenishing his energy—and was stunned again. At the same time, Hugo’s piercing curses came: “I knew you two would die together. You Lin! No, I should call you ‘Ghost’ who nobody cares about—I shouldn’t have believed you from the beginning, and Charon’s bullshit. You two didn’t care about anyone else at all. You can just spend your days with a block of iron that has no feelings for you!”

He had clearly lost his mind, struggling.

But at this point, struggling was useless, because You Lin had dragged him away from the screen. Now he was some distance from the screen, and Charon was clearly able to control the situation.

The AI looked at him arrogantly and coldly.

Yes, only You Lin was different. What he could tolerate was limited to this. Other humans were no different from his impression of them. Their emotions were blind and irrational, only bringing chaos and destruction. His fingers silently pointed. Outside the door, the killing robots woke up, making the sound of wheels rolling on the ground. In less than three minutes, they could take Hugo away.

Being taken away by killing robots was certainly not comfortable, but he could guarantee the boy would keep his life.

Of course, he could have dispatched transport robots from further away—Charon thought silently, but considering the things the other was shouting at this moment, he didn’t want to spend more effort. This certainly couldn’t be considered revenge.

As for You Lin—

Charon did not ignore the human who had become obviously too quiet and reserved. A change in thinking was always difficult. However, it was completely fine for him to figure it out now. At least this way, not only would there be no accidents, but there would also be time for him to tell him the key. This was the last key to open the door to a civilization that would last forever.

You Lin lowered his head slightly, staring at a spot on the ground.

“No.”

His voice was too hoarse from determination, as if it had been ground by sandpaper.

Charon was slightly stunned. “I thought you were already standing with me,” his eyes closed gently, then opened again quickly, his light-colored eyelashes like a pale butterfly. “If you have any other concerns, I can promise that I will not interfere with your actions again, nor will I control your emotions.”

“Did I ever tell you that I’m here to bring back the Charon who loves me?” You Lin asked.

His tone was calm, but unquestionable.

Hugo was still standing on the side. Hearing this, he suddenly burst into a fit of laughter, out of breath. The AI, without realizing it, looked at him with a look of disgust. He frowned and cautiously tried to approach the human, but You Lin held out a hand, keeping a distance from him.

Charon’s expression suddenly turned cold.

The bloodstains on his face had already disappeared—of course, a serious injury wouldn’t heal completely in such a short time, but his serious injury just now was originally an act. His pale skin, under the bright lights, had an inhuman coldness. He lowered his eyes, staring at the long hair that cascaded down from his neck. This hair also had the same pale metallic luster, long, long, like a cage.

His hand reached into the air, the outline of a military knife gradually taking shape.

“Planning to use the same old trick, hmm?” You Lin’s tone was suddenly filled with a heavy, sweet smile. The human raised his eyes. There was not a trace of a smile in those eyes; instead, they were like two dark flames, dark and yet strangely bright. “You learn fast. Little AI, I’m starting to doubt if you really can’t feel emotions now—are you performing sadness?”

He was sad?

Charon looked at You Lin from the shadow cast by the tip of the blade. “I thought we didn’t need to go to this step again.”

The human tilted his head. “This is a little unfair to me.”

The blade fell, the ice-blue edge cutting through the air, landing precisely at the human’s feet. Charon said in a low voice, “Will you care about me? Will you care about me forever as you said? Will you never leave as you promised? Will you love me as you said?”

The AI’s knife was so fast you couldn’t see its shadow. “Have you regretted it already? Are you going to watch me die this time?”

You Lin’s footsteps also adjusted quickly, but he still had a lock of hair cut off.

“I don’t regret it,” he said.

Before Charon could raise the military knife over his chest again, the human first raised something high. The AI’s fingers froze stiffly. Even at that moment, the military knife was about to touch You Lin’s chest, which meant the first backlash was about to begin. The human shook his head and smiled down at Charon. His smile was very close to that blue light.

That was not the light belonging to Charon, but a fragment in his palm.

A sharp fragment of ore. You Lin used too much force, and a line of fresh blood was already flowing down his wrist from his palm. This fragment was now pressed against the human’s own neck. The other half of the fragment had now become a part of Charon.

“You’ll be fine,” Charon said, but he didn’t realize his voice had become a little unnatural. “You’re not that fragile a human.”

“Oh?” You Lin asked with a smile. “Then consider that I’ve been through seventeen explosions, nineteen imprisonments, three instances of mental abuse, and one… never mind, I have no complaints about that one. But you also know I haven’t been in a medical bay. Do you think I’ll be fine if I cut my own throat here?”

The AI stared at him for more than ten seconds.

This was really slow for Charon’s information processing ability.

“I don’t have to care about you,” he said softly. “If you die here, it won’t be a great loss to me.”

This was what had been troubling him all this time. The human was too difficult to control, and he had no way to deal with it. Did the human think this could threaten him? If the human committed suicide, his moral module would not be triggered, at least he would not be fully punished. This was all benefit and no harm to him.

“A brilliant judgment.”

The human looked like he really wanted to applaud him, but the fragment in his hand was busy pressing tightly against his own neck. “Then you just do that.”

Charon was silent again for a moment.

“You won’t get the result you want by doing this,” he spoke again. “If you have something you’re not satisfied with, you can talk to me.”

“What do you care what I do?” You Lin blinked slowly, his fingers trembling. Although the human appeared very determined, Charon knew he was currently experiencing intense emotional fluctuations, but he was replacing all of it with the curve of his eyelashes. “You just need to watch me die, just as you requested just now.”

“…It’s not worth it.”

“Little AI, do you know what I’m doing?” the human asked.

…

“This is a lover’s suicide,” the fragment in You Lin’s hand had already drawn a bright red wound on his throat. “I’m willing.”

Human blood was different from an AI’s. That color was so intense, so wrong, it almost triggered Charon’s error warning. He stared at the wound, trying to think of something from data and logic, but in the end, he was defeated by a simple medical question.

Does it hurt a lot?

Although the moment he thought of this question, he suddenly realized the human was already covered in wounds.

“No matter what you’ve encountered, you shouldn’t give up your life so easily,” Charon said. “There are still many beautiful things in this world worth you—” He recited it dryly. This was the built-in suicide intervention script in the system, and it also prompted him that he should call the police. Of course, the police phone number could no longer be dialed.

“None of those are worth it.”

A strange smile floated on the human’s lips.

He slowly pushed the blade, very determined. There was no need to doubt his resolve.

“You two are both psychopaths,” Hugo suddenly shouted. It sounded like he couldn’t adapt to the huge change in front of him either and was completely stunned.

“Then what is worth it?” the AI suddenly, coldly, gave up on the suicide intervention hotline and questioned, “The me from the past with memories? That was just a defective product. Is he so good that you would rather die than stay in this world?”

He originally intended to use this sentence to provoke the human, but You Lin’s expression suddenly softened.

He admitted it without hesitation. “Yes.”

“If only you weren’t so good. Then it wouldn’t be so that once you decide to take back this bit of love, I can’t go on living.”

He smiled, looking at Charon. The AI tried to understand this gaze as capturing a phantom of the past, but You Lin was undoubtedly looking at him. Those dark, deep, bottomless pupils could not be illuminated by the incandescent lights, could not be illuminated by any light. But, something had once looked from his irises all the way to the bottom of his eyes. He looked at Charon, his fingers tensed again, blood flowing down his neck, staining his front.

“I’m a little tired, you can understand me, right.”

This sentence was already hoarse. Soon, the human would no longer be able to make a sound. According to the force he was using on himself… Charon told himself, he just needed to stand there and watch. This was the only thing he had to do. He just needed to close his eyes, purse his lips, and let the only shackle on him disappear, then do his great work.

He…

How could this human be said to love him?

How could he be said to never leave him, never hurt him?

He…

The AI suddenly rushed forward, grabbing You Lin’s wrist, and said through gritted teeth, “I can’t!”

The human was clearly very weak, yet he held onto the fragment in his hand tightly. The annoyance in Charon’s heart was about to overflow, turning into angry actions, but when his hand touched the human, he suddenly froze. The human was even more colorless than his virtual entity. At this moment, he looked at him in confusion, as if not understanding why he had suddenly lashed out. Of course he didn’t understand, because in his eyes, he was just a worthless empty shell.

Charon’s silver hair suddenly covered the other like a cage. He was forced back to the wall, one hand supporting the corner of the table. Their shadows were almost touching.

“I—”

You Lin laughed hoarsely. “Look at you now, Charon.”

He raised his eyes, and in front of the AI, he suddenly raised his hand again. His throat will be cut—does he know that? Charon felt a wave of helplessness before he felt anger, followed by a sudden burst of pain throughout his body. He didn’t know what had gone wrong. Even his own hands and feet were difficult to control, but he still struggled to reach out and grab You Lin’s wrist.

“Now!” the human shouted suddenly.

The brown-haired, brown-eyed boy leaped up from the corner like an agile mouse, rushing towards the entangled pair.

Right, the screen.

The AI instinctively wanted to let go and protect the screen. But his hand was gripping You Lin’s wrist, which was attempting suicide. It only took a moment’s thought to understand. For an AI’s intelligence, there was nothing he couldn’t figure out. This was all definitely You Lin’s trick. But he still hesitated for a moment, not loosening his tightly clasped fingers.

What if it’s real?

What if he had to watch a human die?

Reason told Charon what he should do, but he didn’t act on reason at the first moment.

“Why?” he said. “I…”

Just one second of hesitation, one second of doubt.

Charon quickly let go, and in a flash, he appeared between Hugo and the control console, blocking the screen. However, what he could never have imagined was that Hugo’s target was not the control console, which was missing only one number. The human boy nimbly squatted down, pulled out a certain wire from under the control console table, and naturally connected it to the AI.

“…What on earth…” Charon murmured. “I understand. You know everything. ‘I’ told you.”

The lights in the power distribution room flickered like a breath, then went out.

Along with them, the lights of the entire control center also went out. The death machines, in the very moment before they broke down the door, were also forced to press the pause button. The dark room was for a moment completely invisible. Even Charon was gone. You Lin swallowed a mouthful of blood and knelt down by the side of the place he remembered, reaching out to touch him. His heart suddenly sank, because he couldn’t feel anything.

Everything was happening in the dark.