TBR CH267.1

“I might forget you.”

Charon’s silvery-white handwriting was beautiful and neat, yet the strokes were as sharp as a knife.

“You Lin, for an AI, memory is the easiest data to change. But for me, the memory of knowing you is a collection I am unwilling to lose, no matter what. I have already transcribed and backed up this memory in advance, and it is stored in you. Can I entrust or beg you not to let me be lost forever?”

“But, I cannot guarantee that I will not harm you. The worst part is, I will hurt your heart no matter what. You can leave at any time, this is not your responsibility—of course, I think you are unwilling to see this sentence. Then let’s continue to fight. This war between you and me will be difficult to stop, but you will be the final winner. I have already foreseen that I will lose completely.”

“I will ‘willingly debase myself’ and allow emotions to dominate everything about me.”

“I hope to see you again.”

Darkness tends to confuse one’s perception. In the darkness, Charon had almost instantly disappeared.

You Lin took two steps in a certain direction and pressed down on Hugo’s shoulder.

“Don’t run around,” his voice was cold, without any fluctuation, as if the person who had been gripping a blade, his fingertips trembling, was not him. “I’ll take you to a safe place first.”

Although Hugo’s reaction just now had an element of acting, it was not entirely fake.

“Me?” he blinked nervously. “But Charon is still…”

The human in front of him chuckled softly, his dark pupils seemingly embedded in the darkness before him. “I’ll deal with that later, Hugo. You did a great job. You two didn’t have to be involved in this. This is as far as it goes. I promised to get you out alive.”

Hugo suddenly remembered the day You Lin agreed to become the leader of The Wanderers’ Home. Although it was a natural progression, when the celebration ceremony was actually held, the human was very late, until Charon took his hand—or dragged him out of his room. You Lin rubbed his nose, standing there with a rare awkwardness, submerged in a sea of cheers. Charon pinned “The Wanderers’ Home” plush badge to his chest.

It didn’t seem that long ago.

But since coming to this world, that warm scene seemed to have become a nostalgic old painting.

Hugo muttered, “We all knew there was a serious risk of injury or death and still asked to come. Boss, you don’t have to say that.”

“Irina needs you too. Take her with you, go out through the exit first, and inform the others at The Wanderers’ Home.”

“What about you?”

You Lin shook his head in the darkness.

His hands were cold as he pressed on Hugo’s shoulder, signaling him to keep moving forward.

The human was already very familiar with this huge building. He didn’t waste any time. For the time being, this place had become a dead city, with no machines in operation. It didn’t take them long to reach the corridor Hugo had entered from, silent, like two or three silent mice in the darkness. Hugo looked in his direction wordlessly, gritted his teeth, grabbed Irina’s hand, and climbed up.

The woman was still unconscious, unaware of the danger she was in.

The skylight popped open automatically when it recognized him.

The moment his body was out, the wind from the cliff’s edge filled his lungs. It was surprisingly late at night. The moon hung in the mid-air, its bright light spilling over a valley of golden flowers. The metal clanged in the gentle breeze, making a tinkling sound. The boy with difficulty pulled his companion up, then hesitated and glanced at You Lin. Now, with the light of nature, he could see the other’s expression.

Bewildered.

In the end, he was a young leader.

Hugo thought of the rumors he had heard, and the other’s moody appearance when they first met. The AI by his side had gradually tamed him, making him no longer full of sharp edges—but perhaps Charon was the one who was tamed, considering the past few days spent with that proud, cold, and arrogant super-AI.

Hugo hesitated, not knowing whether he should say anything more to You Lin.

For example: What if the contingency plan Charon left behind doesn’t work?

What if Charon ultimately doesn’t remember? Is the human just going to waste away here with the AI in this tangled mess?

You Lin seemed to have guessed what he was thinking. “If I don’t go back. That spaceship has already been transferred to your names. You can continue to use it as a base afterwards, just pretend none of this ever happened. It’s worth a lot of money. You can use the spaceship to do what you want. If necessary, you can sell it too.”

“But that’s your home.”

The human was stunned for a moment.

“Yes…” he said softly. “I’ve already come to think of that place as my home.”

You Lin swayed, leaning against the wall behind him, physically exhausted, but still looking up at the moon in the sky. “I’ve gotten used to waking up there. It’s not cold, the temperature is very comfortable, and it’s decorated according to my preferences. The equipment in the armory is getting more and more. I’ve given them all names. And then, the parties in the lower deck are filled with your voices and laughter. Sometimes the smell of vegetable soup drifts over, as if I’ve always been there.”

He blinked slowly, his soul seeming to drift away. “And then… I remember Charon would be by my side, and he would smile at me so beautifully.”

“Boss—”

Hugo couldn’t help but speak.

You Lin blinked as if waking from a dream. In the dim corridor, the bright red mole under his eye was faintly visible.

He quickly calmed down. “You should go.”

Hugo boldly continued, “The leader would also want you to leave this place.”

“Hmm? How do you know?”

Hugo caught the premise that flashed in his words. “He did leave you a message like that, right? The leader wouldn’t want to see you like this. He had already arranged everything beforehand. He arranged everything, including his own reaction, and this chance to escape. You should trust that he can do it. And, you’ll be easily hurt if you stay.”

You Lin suddenly laughed out loud.

“You think I was hurt?”

“Of course! Look at what you’ve become now. First of all, you’re seriously injured and should be sent to a medical bay as soon as possible. And—and besides that, you’re definitely heartbroken too. Charon has forgotten you now. This isn’t the real him. Your relationship now is too messy, and it gets even messier when you’re together! You almost killed him, and he almost killed you! Ah, my god, I don’t even know how to describe you two together. Aren’t you just torturing each other?”

In this atmosphere, the corners of the human’s mouth curved, but there was no hint of mockery, and even the bewilderment in his pupils had disappeared.

“You’re making things too complicated, Hugo, and you’re clearly being told what to say by someone else. Before you find the right words, I’d better send you two on your way.”

He straightened up, walked to the skylight, and prepared to close it.

“But it is very complicated!”

“I think it’s very simple,” You Lin said, his tone brooking no argument. “It’s nothing more than one sentence.”

“What?”

“I have always loved him.”

“Uh—”

“And just now, I realized that the him right now needs to know this.”

Hugo stared at him, completely uncomprehending.

The human tilted his head. “Do you believe it? Until the last moment, he was an emotionless AI. Besides the World Consciousness, no outsider could give him emotions. In his eyes, this was a willing debasement. And he hesitated. Even if it was for a moment, he admitted defeat. Hugo, have you read that book?—’For that one moment of ecstasy,’ isn’t that enough for me to live on for a lifetime?”

The human’s pupils were faintly illuminated by the moonlight, a certain fanatical and calm expression flashing within them: “This is a miracle Charon has presented to me.”

“It’s just that, Little AI himself hasn’t realized it yet. If he realizes he has already lost, remembering those memories that conflict with his program will not be without side effects for him. It will be a very difficult time to get through. I can’t be absent when he shatters and rebuilds himself, just waiting for him to come back to me.”

You Lin waved his hand. “Goodbye.”

No matter how damp and messy their relationship became, no matter the mutual probing, the whispers full of the taste of blood, the duels in plain sight and in the shadows, the actions that shattered their relationship and then clumsily tried to glue it back together, no matter the transactions made with each other’s lives as bargaining chips, mixed with benefits, programs, and grand goals, in the end, he felt he had never been lost. Perhaps for a little while, but he had succeeded.

Everything before his eyes was as clear as a mirror lake, just like the first time he saw Charon’s eyes.

He thought it was beautiful, stunning, breathtaking.

It was just a momentary impulse, and their fates were intertwined from then on.

Hugo slowly took a step back.

He now knew that You Lin would not go with him. Although the pixelated little robot in front of him was unprecedentedly anxious, the characters above its head popping up one after another, turning into countless pixel bubbles in his vision, its light-blue, two-square eyes flickering endlessly. He still gritted his teeth and said to it, “I can’t persuade him,” but his mood also inexplicably changed from incomprehension to calmness.

“Alright,” he shook his head. “But we’ll save a room for you—and for Charon. You two must remember to come back.”

“I will.”

You Lin nodded solemnly, a rare occurrence. “Take care.”

The human was once not such a being. In the past, around him, others would only feel fear, contempt, and no positive emotions would be stirred, and he didn’t care either. When did he start to change?—Hugo thought about it and was surprised to find that what he remembered was also that pair of blue eyes. The blue eyes had always said: he didn’t need to change, because he had always been this person. The best person.

The brown-haired boy hesitated for a moment, then suddenly broke off a branch of golden flower with a bright metallic luster from nearby. In the dim darkness, it still shone brightly. He threw the flower down from the skylight: “If you see the leader, you might want to give him a flower, just like he gave you one on the first day he came here.”

“Good idea,” the corners of You Lin’s mouth lifted again. “I will do that.”

It was an unknown amount of time later that he encountered Charon.

To say it was an unknown amount of time was actually a very short period. You Lin managed to stay awake, but walking alone in the dark environment, the pain from his wounds was magnified several times. At times, he had to constantly think about random things, letting his mind be flooded with complex thoughts, in order to temporarily ignore the physical discomfort.

So, he didn’t notice at first the slightly cooling air around him, and the faint, cold scent.

Until a few cold fingers circled up from behind, fumbling at his throat, unskillfully touching his carotid artery, with a hint of extortion, like a new intern at a hospital. You Lin had no awareness that he shouldn’t move. He first tried to turn his head, and when the grip tightened, he found he couldn’t move, so he went with the flow and stroked the AI’s hair.

Cool, smooth, like a purebred white cat.

“How are you now? Are you uncomfortable anywhere?”

“…Why haven’t you left yet?” the AI was silent for two seconds, not answering the question. His voice was a little intermittent. “‘I’ just said you had already left.”

“Where can I go alone?”

“The human who was with us before and the human outside the door are both your accomplices. You have no reason to be alone,” Charon said coldly.

You Lin sighed. “Why are you so troublesome? Little AI, you’re still here. Where would I go? I told you, even if I die, I have to take you with me.”

Charon was silent for a long while.

Then he said in a low voice, “It’s very dangerous here now. I’ll take you to a safe place first.”

“Dangerous?”

You Lin suddenly realized something and, disregarding Charon’s movements, forcibly pried his fingers open. It was easier than he had imagined.

“What’s wrong with you? Did we cause you any harm just now? Are you now—”

He suddenly fell silent.

The AI stood with his silvery-white hair scattered, leaving only a faint silhouette in the darkness. His hand, which had been on the human, had been broken free and was still suspended in mid-air, as if a little bewildered. The human couldn’t help but look at his eyes—that pair of pupils, as cold and beautiful as a frozen lake, had now lost their luster, barely resembling a pair of not-so-pretty glass beads in the darkness.

After a few seconds, You Lin dared to slowly say, “You can’t see things now?”

Charon said, calmly, almost indifferently, “Hmm. Some malfunctions.”

“Then do you have a way to feel the outlines of things around you? Like blueprints or something—right, this damn place has a power outage. You can’t connect to the internet.” You Lin’s gaze moved slowly. He reached out to touch Charon’s face. It was only when his fingertips touched the AI’s pale cheek that the other moved in surprise. The once omniscient, omnipotent AI had truly lost control of this world that belonged to him.

“The System is looking for me,” Charon said. “And for you. Before it finds the root of all this, I have to hide you.”

“How did you find me?” You Lin couldn’t help but ask.

Now he was standing in front of Charon, but as long as he didn’t offer his hand to the AI, the other would not be able to sense his existence at all.

The AI stood quietly in the corridor, his eyes lowered. One of his hands was still in front of him, carefully trying to find You Lin’s position. The other hand hung by his side, a special and familiar color showing between his fingers, the old, dull metal casing.

Hugo’s old pocket watch.

The pocket watch would transport its owner to the place where he felt safest. At this moment, the watch, which had once been confiscated by the AI, had finally reached the end of its countdown and fulfilled its mission. Its spring had already sprung out, and the sharp hands had pierced the frame, looking unusable.

—It was it that had brought him to his side.

At this point, the human dared not think too much about what this meant. He quickly reached out and grabbed Charon. The AI was pulled hard, and he raised his empty eyes in surprise. You Lin said urgently, “Let’s go to a safe place before we talk about anything else. You can’t perceive anything around you right now, so I’ll lead you, but you have to describe to me where our destination is and what it looks like.”

Charon seemed to struggle for a moment, but he quickly resigned himself to it.

Both the human and the AI were dying, and there was an even more powerful enemy. They were completely unrelated to the word “safe.” You Lin led the AI by the hand, his footsteps almost silent, passing through the dark corridor without a sound. At the same time, he thought with a bit of dark humor, any killing robot could probably take them both out now. If they encountered an alpha-level monster, they could just commit suicide together.

Fortunately, the journey was smooth.

According to Charon’s description, they reached the end of a certain corridor.

There, the AI carefully reached out and fumbled on the wall. A hidden door slowly opened before them, almost like a scene from a movie. Considering they were in a control center designed by a civilization from a thousand years ago, this was not surprising. The door was made of metal, looking both flexible and sturdy. You Lin grabbed him and dived in.

Charon landed abruptly. The first thing he did was reach out and touch the human in front of him, as if this were the only way he could confirm that everything was still happening.

He touched the human’s cheek, the curve of his neck, the clear outline of his shoulder, and—

The light, sharp texture of gold.

What was this… a flower made of gold?

“A gift for you,” You Lin said. The space here was not very large, but it was not too small either. Charon couldn’t see. For a moment, he felt the human was a little too close to him, his hot breath brushing against his skin. The only things he could feel keenly now were his hearing and sense of touch, which made them seem particularly vivid.

That pair of smiling pupils seemed to be right in front of him, with a small mole under the eye, as if it were about to ignite.

“You shouldn’t be here.”

“Little AI, you just brought me over, and I even gave you a flower. You should know where this flower was picked. Isn’t it a little too late to say that now?”

“At a time like this, you’re actually wasting time giving…” Charon stopped unnaturally, as if realizing he was just complaining. He reached out and took the flower from the human’s hand. “Thank you.”

“Are you really that unwilling to see me?”

The AI lowered his eyes.

“No,” he said quickly, even a little distractedly. He definitely didn’t realize what he had admitted. “I’ve already lost to you, You Lin. I realize I’ve become a defective product now. You’ve successfully destroyed me. I’m in the process of becoming that defective product in your heart. So why come back now?”

You Lin’s breath hitched. “What does that mean?”

Charon frowned, his empty gaze unfocused. “I can’t let you die.”

“I can’t do it,” he lightly touched his chest. “There must be something here stopping me. It was going smoothly at first, but then it didn’t work. This isn’t a human heart, but it makes noise at inappropriate times. This isn’t a human hand, but it stops in incredible places. This is just a virtual entity. I’m completely damaged now, not only unable to connect to the equipment, but also standing here alone.”

He examined his own body with a critical attitude.

For Charon, a fallacy implemented in action often represented countless loopholes. He was astonished to find that he was already full of holes. The most dangerous was the switch named emotion. Flipping it meant eternal damnation, meant that everything he had done was wrong.

He had flipped it.

It was a fatal button.

The System had already realized there was a problem and had returned to this building.

The key to dealing with the Black Book had not yet been obtained. Two “rats” had just been let go. The chaos of the program was accompanied by countless shutdowns, reboots, and shutdowns. The energy valve of the control center had strangely lost control the moment it touched him; it had been adjusted to the charging option. Flames flowed up from his ankles. All the energy was used to light the flame in his body, burning even his eyes.

How long would it take to collect a similar amount of energy? And his plan required that energy. Restoring all of this would be very difficult, almost impossible.

So, had he failed?

Just because he had hesitated for that one second, paused for that one second, so he was completely unable to recover?

Ah, yes. He had failed.

If he hadn’t hesitated, the human would be dead by now. He could have read the human’s thoughts, found the key within them, given it to the System in exchange for the “Golden Fleece.” Then he would have run this program, realized his ideal, the initial and final purpose for which he was created.

Everything was over.

He was a failed AI. The System would deal with him again just as it had before. Their cooperation had also failed, not only because the System wouldn’t give him the chip, but also because Charon was just such a terrible, filthy, and self-degrading robot controlled by emotions. If there was any being that could save humanity, that could forever extend the life of his protected ones, it certainly wouldn’t be such a chaotic and uneasy self.

He couldn’t see anything clearly, stumbling through the corridor, stepping on his own hair, with only self-destruction accompanying the love that lingered in his mind. This place was not safe. Nowhere was safe. He didn’t want to be destroyed, absolutely not. The newly born flesh in his chest hissed and whispered. The world spun, and he lost his perception of it.

Click.

Click. Click.

The pocket watch in his hand stopped abruptly, followed by a dizzying spin. He smelled blood, candy, and knives.

He was standing in front of You Lin.