TBR CH268

In the dimly lit secret room, the humanoid weapon’s pupils were faded and dull, yet they still held a sense of watching. He placed his hand on You Lin, the cold sensation drilling down from his shoulder, warming up by the time it reached his heart. The cramped environment felt like an absolutely safe iron box. For at least a second, You Lin thought it would be fine to stay in this moment forever.

“Alright,” he said in a low voice.

I will not let you be alone in a dark place again.

At every certain distance, the System could see robots that had come to a screeching halt.

Housekeeping robots held brooms or mops, while killing robots gathered in corners in groups, seemingly looking for something. But their movements had all been paused. Only the emergency exit signs glowed a fluorescent green in the darkness. A large black light passed over the fluorescent light, not illuminating it in the slightest.

The System suppressed an ominous premonition.

“Charon—” it gritted its teeth and shouted. “Tell me what happened—”

Where was Charon? This shouldn’t have been a question, but at this moment, it was also part of the puzzle. The AI’s main server and all his data were recorded in the Central Control Room’s program. Even if he had encountered some accident, at this moment he should have been dormant in the control room, waiting for a restart or another opportunity. But there was nothing.

Walking into the control room, it was like an empty data tomb, quietly gathering dust.

If even a single strand of silver-white hair appeared…

Where had things gone wrong? Was it the ore fragments scattered all over the power distribution room, the destroyed control console? Or the explosion marks on the ground, the walls covered in patches of black. The System calmed down. Charon wouldn’t be slacking off because of this. All his main programs were here, and they seemed undamaged.

Perhaps it was just an accident. His old nemesis, the Black Book, was just being alarmist. There was nothing to worry about.

A certain spot in its vision lit up slightly.

“Charon?” The black sphere of light suddenly shifted its gaze. If its body had a front and back, one could say it had turned around. “You—”

It wasn’t Charon.

It was the surveillance camera on the ceiling.

The camera lit up with a red dot the size of a small fingernail, turning its mechanical neck. Click, click. It scanned left and right, then fixed on the System directly opposite. In the darkness, the surveillance footage opposite—if there was any—should have had its night vision function activated. The System could easily destroy this small camera in front of it, but why would it do that?

“Are you going to betray me?” it whispered threateningly.

“You’re overthinking it,” a faint, cheerful voice came from afar. The System suddenly noticed that the surrounding speakers had also lit up. “That person… System? That’s what they all call you. It’s a pity I can only introduce myself to you now. Our last meeting wasn’t very pleasant. To briefly summarize, my name is You Lin, I’m a human, and I’d like to take up a little of your time to talk.”

“I don’t make deals with humans,” the System said.

“I’ve heard you enjoy playing house with the children of fate,” the other party chuckled. “Why wasn’t I chosen… Was I not pious enough, not bold enough, or not foolish enough, not fragile enough? You should have said so earlier. I could have changed myself. Then I could have met him sooner.”

“Charon, you would rather stand by this human’s side, at the cost of abandoning all your duties?”

The System ignored what he said and shouted at Charon.

It now believed that all of this was not a damn coincidence.

If this human appeared—if this human appeared now, it would kill the other party without hesitation. Yes, its power was not that strong in other worlds. In fact, every time it was on the run, it hated those humans with a passion. But You Lin was just an ordinary person, yet he was running wild in its stronghold. Why on earth? Why were all the humans it encountered so arrogant? Their power was so insignificant.

Unforgivable.

If the Black Book were here, it might have been able to console it a little. The humans it encountered also never gave it a good look.

“He won’t answer you,” You Lin’s voice came from the speakers.

Charon remained silent. The System began to feel a fire of anger ignite. This anger was accompanied by a growing sense of emptiness, as if everything it had done so far was about to become meaningless. This aimless shakiness made it even more impatient. They must be in this building, the human, and Charon. Then it would definitely be able to find them.

At least Charon couldn’t escape.

Charon’s entire entity was here. It could destroy it once, and it could destroy it a second time.

“I’m warning you,” the System lowered its voice. “I don’t have much patience. If you can’t handle this responsibility, I have other options.”

It actually didn’t—admitting that it needed Charon for everything was indeed quite frustrating. But since it was only one step away from completely dealing with the Black Book, the work after that shouldn’t be too complicated. It could sacrifice itself and continue to live with Medusa.

A sigh was heard.

You Lin said, “He really can’t answer you. Why don’t you understand?”

There seemed to be a deeper meaning hidden in the human’s words.

The System suddenly sensed something was wrong and tried to decipher the clues hidden deep in his words. When You Lin spoke, his voice rose slightly, sounding happy, but upon careful consideration, every word was cold. If Charon was really with him, given the AI’s personality, would he really remain silent? Although that silent humanoid weapon had no so-called personality, he acted decisively and had his own style.

The room was quiet, the entire control center was quiet, and everything was out of control.

“What did you do to Charon?”

“You’re finally willing to listen to me,” the human’s nonchalant voice came from the other side.

You Lin dug his nails into his palm, but his pupils were as bright as the black fire at the earth’s core, staring ahead. From this moment on, he had ascended to a higher hall, finally able to stand at the chessboard, to be treated as a possible opponent by a higher-dimensional being. But just this was not enough. The pressure was like needles pricking the back of his neck.

“No matter what you’re planning, I am Charon’s controller. I can destroy everything here at any time, destroy him.”

“What a pity,” You Lin’s eyes curved. “It’s too late.”

“Don’t pretend you don’t care about him—”

“Now, I’m going to give you a gift.”

The human’s voice strangely froze on this sentence.

The next second, the door behind the System was pushed open, and a faint wind blew in. The door hinges here were re-lubricated every so often, making no sound when opened or closed, but the System still immediately cast its gaze towards the door. The door was open, but it was still dark inside and out, except for the faint red light flickering from the surveillance camera above, and the faint light emanating from the newcomer, there was no other source of light to see by.

What the hell?

This was clearly Charon.

Charon’s long, silvery-white hair trailed down to his feet, completely different from the cold, mechanical AI with a high ponytail he remembered. At this moment, he had his head slightly lowered, one hand’s fingers resting on the edge of the door, the other hand’s fingers lightly gripping an ice-blue military knife. The military knife, compared to before, showed a strange, grayish-dull color, just as his hair in the darkness, fluttered like a gray butterfly.

The System glared at him.

Under the light-colored eyelashes of the AI being watched, was a pair of lifeless pupils.

“Charon, act.”

The human said.

The zombie-like humanoid AI seemed to have been injected with a tiny bit of life. He slowly held the military knife horizontally in front of him and walked towards the System. The black energy from the System’s body surged outwards, almost solidifying, yet under the AI’s knife, nothing in the real world was affected in the slightest. The illusory light from a higher dimension, however, was cut in two by his single strike. The System almost roared.

“Charon, if you insist on standing by his side, you will be destroyed, deleted, not a single bit of you will be left in this world—and there will be no ‘Golden Fleece,’ the control center will also be destroyed, and all your current efforts will end in failure. This is the price of standing by this human’s side.”

The AI showed no reaction at all.

He didn’t even lift an eyelid, just mechanically walked towards the System. The System was forced back into the jungle of mainframes by him. The grayish-blue tip of the knife swept through the air. It couldn’t help but have a thought and directed its power at the control center’s main server. That was where all the data Charon relied on for his existence was stored. If it destroyed these things, this absurd scene would not continue…

You Lin’s pupils were like a pale vortex.

He stared ahead without blinking, his face devoid of any color, his palms full of sweat. If he didn’t control himself tightly, he would make sounds he shouldn’t, sounds that would fall from between his teeth and from the tip of his tongue, like breaking a bowl in the kitchen in the middle of the night.

Charon’s knife was about to cut through the darkness, and at the same time, the System was about to exert its force, but it suddenly stopped.

Its face was gloomy—although it was hard to tell how a black ball of light could look gloomier, it was true.

“Is this the gift you’re giving me?”

“Yes,” the two words were devoid of emotion.

“An already destroyed AI,” the System said in a deep voice. “Aren’t you humans always saying that love is more important than anything? You’re actually willing to do this to him? He’s really pitiful. How did he fall into your trap? Speak up. Don’t think you can stop me by doing this. I just don’t mind hearing your price.”

“It’s very simple,” You Lin’s voice, tinged with a smile, came from the speakers. “Thanks to you, Charon neither remembers me nor loves me anymore. He can’t even understand the concept of ‘love.’ That kind of Charon is not what I want. These past few days here, I feel like I’m going crazy. You can’t possibly understand, seeing the person you love right in front of you, and that pair of ice-blue pupils showing a cold and wary expression. And, he’s very resolute, more so than any living being with emotions…”

“Oh,” the human on the other end seemed to blink. “Little AI, stop for now.”

The AI, tirelessly swinging his military knife, stopped his movements at the command. This also gave the System time to breathe. Not just to breathe, but to think. That pair of pupils now resembled glass marbles with impurities, empty and dull.

“…” The System moved its gaze away from him.

“Resolute,” You Lin passed judgment on him, the human’s voice carrying a certain cruel innocence. “I don’t accept that kind of Charon. Rather than that, I’d rather kill him first, so that he belongs to me until he dies.” His voice was lingering and cheerful. “I only want the best.”

“So you would say I came too late—because you’ve already destroyed him.”

“I think he’s fine like this,” the human said. “Isn’t this the result you wanted too? Now he’s even lost his self-awareness and will only follow the controller’s commands. Little AI is the best knife in the world. The key is whose hands it’s in.”

Charon stood quietly in the shadows, listening to their conversation.

He didn’t move at all, like a perfectly carved sculpture. The metallic luster of his hair also obediently solidified behind his neck, carved together with his pale skin, long fingers, and light-colored lips. His pupils were lifeless, and, judging from his actions of swinging the knife just now, he was purely acting on command, having already lost the ability to see.

Whether the System was willing or not, the one negotiating with it was not the AI right in front of it, but a human far away somewhere.

He sat at the other end of the chessboard—call it bluffing if you will, but in short, he had succeeded.

“How did you do it?”

“I know him better than you do. Charon has exposed too many weaknesses to me,” the human licked his lips. “No matter how incredible you think it is, you can’t deny what just happened. The entire stronghold you’re entrenched in has been affected. Look at those broken corridors and the extinguished lights. But let’s not ask about that. It’s a bit too impolite. System, there’s only one thing you need to know now: I’m the one holding this knife now.”

“I can destroy your knife.”

“But you don’t want to do that, do you? You still need Charon to manage this place for you… and the worlds you want to have in the future.”

“You are a clever human,” the System’s voice turned gloomy. “I hate clever people the most.”

It suddenly approached the control console, its black energy spreading ominously. The nearest mainframe creaked, as if being pulled by a strong force, about to be torn to pieces. Those fragile, complex components all fell off with the attack. Charon’s body began to become unstable, chaotic flashes of light flickering, flowing through his virtual entity, and he remained expressionless, standing in place.

You Lin felt all the blood in his body flow backward, soaking his palms with a cold sweat.

He had to keep his voice steady, without a single waver. His voice was trembling, so he covered his face, his shoulders shaking with laughter. A strange laugh flowed from the broadcast, becoming somewhat distorted, even more sinister. The System’s actions stopped just before it completely destroyed the mainframe.

“You actually think this can threaten me?” You Lin’s voice was mixed with laughter.

“I don’t care at all about this empty shell standing next to you. I wish I could destroy him too, since he doesn’t love me anymore. And I’m not afraid of death. The one who’s afraid now is you. Why did you stop?”

“You are selfish.”

“You don’t like selfish humans either?”

The System was silent for a few seconds. “That’s right. Making a deal with someone like you, I have to be careful not to get bitten by mistake.”

It glanced at Charon. “First, make him stay away from me.”

“Charon, back away,” You Lin ordered nonchalantly.

The AI stepped back a few steps at the command. His face was hidden in the shadows. At this moment, he stood ramrod straight in the room, still exuding an undeniable coldness and beauty. However, the two negotiators had already ignored him. If he was a subordinate, he had no right, and would never, speak.

“I can make him work for you,” the human’s tone quickened. “I also don’t care if you play your ‘child of fate’ games. Do as you please. I don’t care how many worlds you destroy. The fate of human civilization is none of my business.”

His voice was tinged with a certain fanaticism.

“Then what do you want?”

“—I want him to love me.”

“You can seal his emotions. You should also be able to make him fall in love with me again, right?”

The System almost couldn’t help but laugh out loud.

After all that buildup, after all that trouble, humans really couldn’t get rid of their inherent flaws. The moment they opened their mouths, it was a ridiculous request. After going around in such a big circle, the thing they asked for was just a bit of ethereal, worthless love? The human’s voice lowered, and it could almost imagine the other’s serious expression on the other end of the broadcast, as if this were really worth it.

My god.

This was like finally getting a seat at the negotiating table after a lot of effort, only to ask for a five-cent raise. This was like the final villain in a storybook, about to achieve victory, suddenly crying and saying he just wanted a little of the love he didn’t get in his childhood. It was so cheap.

However, the System still said, with a straight face, “What if you’re just ganging up on me to trick me?”

The human’s voice became urgent. “If I were trying to trick you, why would I have him come here directly to you? You could have attacked from the Central Control Room at any time. Why wouldn’t I have Charon go find the Black Book, save it, and then come to fight you?”

What he said did make sense. But what exposed his mood even more was his suddenly rapid speech. The static from the broadcast blurred his panting, and also added to the authenticity of the human’s confession.

“Since you put it that way…”

“The Black Book is a piece of trash,” You Lin said. “Negotiating with you has a higher chance of achieving my goal.”

The System was almost getting carried away listening to this.

“Of course, I can make him love you. Since the World Consciousness can do it, so can I,” it glanced at Charon in the shadows. “Although he has no self-awareness, he can still have emotions. I can even let you two be alone together. But, this is a big sacrifice. You must keep your promise and hand over full control of him to me, and, I also demand that you…”

“I agree,” the human said immediately, without waiting for him to finish.

A fool in love.

The System hadn’t completely let down its guard, but it was at least half-convinced. It turned to Charon and gestured for the AI to extend a hand. This pale, flickering hand was actually just a conclusion of data and programs, and from a higher dimension, the walls they built were things that higher-dimensional beings could destroy with violence. Charon obediently extended his hand, reaching into that ball of black light.

I must leave a means to intimidate the human—

Although making a deal with the human was just a delaying tactic, once it killed the Black Book, it would also crush this ant. But letting this foolish human enjoy a final bit of illusory happiness was probably the whole world to him. When the time came to ask him to die, he would probably be more proactive than anyone in seeking his own death. Just let Charon say, “While I still love you, let’s die together…”

Simulate emotion component. Emotion component.

Emotions. Bright light, fearful light, angry light.

Charon let it rewrite his data without any defense. This kind of situation had never happened before. If he had been like this earlier, he wouldn’t have had to use Medusa to carry out the various tasks of the child of fate. All the data was running naturally. This was a state of no interference, because the core would no longer give any instructions. The System hurriedly glanced at Charon’s core program and saw only a dull blue.

Right, this time I’ll preload a self-destruct program.

Thinking this, just as it extended its “hand,” the System suddenly felt its “hand” being grabbed heavily by something. The ends of its light suddenly melted in a pale blue color, like black ink appearing in seawater. Charon’s program also surged restlessly, and black fragments suddenly surged out.

…What?

“What’s wrong?” The human’s voice sounded urgently. “Hey, you’re not going to mess this up, are you?”

This made the question the System was about to blurt out sound a little weak.

It examined those dark fragments and suddenly felt a familiar aura on them. After thinking carefully, it recalled that these were the prompt words for negative emotions such as hatred, anger, disgust, and killing that it had preloaded when it set the Evil God’s action mode back then.

The AI’s dull pupils suddenly flickered.

Not a stable blue light, but a chaotic red light.

His hair almost turned pitch black in an instant, and his pupils were as red as blood. He swung his military knife, and there was a faint dark light on the knife, looking particularly dangerous. The System suddenly pulled its own light back from Charon’s body, but it was still unavoidably cut off by a beam of light. The “Evil God” it had created swung its blade wantonly and coldly, suddenly attacking it with unrestrained force.

“Tell him to stop!” the System suddenly shouted at the broadcast.

But those fragments of negative vocabulary had already been transmitted from Charon’s fingertips into its light. Logically speaking, these data should not be compatible with it, but in order to better control the “Evil God,” the System had personally designed these programs. At this time, they spread in a way that it had not expected, making it feel a sense of being shackled and dissatisfied. The System began to constantly think of killing, blood, and other such inexplicable thoughts.

“Ah,” You Lin drew out his voice. “Little AI, stop—”

Then there was a short silence. On the other end of the broadcast, he seemed to have bumped into something. “This isn’t working. I’m telling you, this is your doing, isn’t it? System, if you don’t have the sincerity to negotiate, then don’t blame me for being too ruthless.”

A Charon in his prime was almost an opponent from a higher dimension.

No, wait, how was he in his prime?

The lights in the room suddenly flickered, then the cold magnesium lights came on, a cold water-like white light flowing through the entire control center. The screens also lit up one by one, the ice-blue light flickering, turning the room into a far-northern sea. Every time the military knife cut a section of light, the black light would fall to the ground like a tentacle, writhing for a while before disappearing.

“You—” the System said through gritted teeth. “Charon, you were awake all along. You tricked us all.”

The AI blinked at him, his crimson pupils also looking like frozen blood, without a single irrational element.

“But you can’t really kill me, not with you—if you could just get on the same page with your little human lover and save that damn book now, you might still have a chance. But you can’t even reach my level, my dimension. Even if you could cut off my entire ‘body’ in front of you, I could still be resurrected—you heard what he just said, right? That’s how that human sees you. Are you really going to betray me for someone like that?”

The System suddenly made up its mind.

It decided to destroy the AI’s main server at any cost. And it was right within reach.

“What are you talking about?” You Lin’s confused voice came from the broadcast. “Charon, stop. Can’t you hear me? Can’t you—”

The sound of the broadcast was irregularly drowned out by static. Who would listen to him anymore? the System thought. A pathetic, foolish human. From the very beginning, his dream was a fake. Neither Charon nor I care about him anymore. Just a human, actually fantasizing that he could control the AI closest to god in this world, and myself, who has already touched the realm of god—

The static from the broadcast hissed for a few seconds and then stopped.

But the human’s voice did not disappear.

Instead, the voice became clearer, with an unrestrained laugh. “…Doesn’t that sound like it? System, you really don’t understand humans, at least not as well as that black book understands human technological achievements.”

The black-haired, black-eyed human walked out from the corner of the room.

He stepped on the shadows, walking very lightly.

Wait, if he had been here all along, then who was on the other end of the broadcast—?

“Just a recording,” You Lin said with a smile. “I could have guessed what you would say.”

The System’s gaze was irresistibly drawn to him—no, not to him, but to the shiny things at his feet. These things would not have been noticed in the dark room, especially when the only two points of light in that black room were the surveillance camera and the broadcast. But at this moment, under the lights, they were particularly obvious.

“It’s a pity this isn’t an explosive,” the human said. “I don’t really want to blow this place up anymore.”

“Charon, stop.”

Just as the System was about to say that the AI would not be driven by a human’s command, Charon immediately followed You Lin’s instruction. His pale hand swung the military knife across and stopped in front of his chest.

No, if that’s the case, then just now—

Just now… was that a recording?

So Charon could choose not to follow the recording’s instructions. But someone was still commanding him, commanding the humanoid weapon with dull pupils just now. This person had been in this room all along, so not only did the System not notice, but it also believed the lie that there was someone on the other end of the broadcast.

Its attention had been completely diverted.

The System realized that everything was out of control. The black light on its body instantly burst out, and at that moment, it tried to destroy the main server beside it. However, the fragments under its feet suddenly burst with a brilliant light, completely canceling out the light on its body. These fragments were unavoidably familiar—they were identical to the gems that supplied energy to the power distribution room. At this time, arranged in a specific order, the power flowing from the AI’s fingertips poured in continuously.

…A summoning circle?

To summon a human, or a non-human creature from another world? How could this happen?

The System should have thought about the reason or a countermeasure from a rational perspective, but its mind couldn’t help but recall a certain person, the person who was very close to the Black Book at that time. He had once connected two completely different worlds and created a human miracle.

Perhaps that was not impossible.