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Elena was stunned by these words.

Did he misunderstand that she was sent by Mr. Shachu?

Exactly, she couldn’t figure out the background of Mr. X and his group, but from their conversation just now, it seemed like they had a grudge against Shachu. As long as she claimed to be sent by Mr. Shachu, they wouldn’t dare to act recklessly towards her!

So she sat down confidently, crossed her legs elegantly, and said, “Since you’ve discovered it, there’s nothing to hide. Yes, I was sent by Mr. Shachu to track you because I am the only newcomer who can take this route.”

“I didn’t expect you all to be quite capable. Humans can survive just by photosynthesis now?”

Elena thought to herself that they not only survived by photosynthesis but didn’t even need basic insulation in high-altitude areas. They were dressed as if they were going to a bar, with Mr. X still in his shiny silver suit and polished shoes. She feared he might slip and ruin those expensive shoes.

Looking at her own outfit with a short skirt and low-heeled boots, she suddenly speculated: were these people as adept as her on this high-altitude road, and did they not carry any extra equipment—could it be…

“—You’re not human?”

The hedgehog head and scar-faced man exchanged glances, then slightly leaned back and said to Mr. X, “You see, I told you, the possibility of her being awakened is high. Ordinary androids wouldn’t doubt our identity.”

Elena realized, “You are androids too, right? No wonder you can travel this road!”

She remembered the warehouse keeper instructing them to pretend to be human on the road, not to reveal their identities, and specifically to cover up the barcodes behind their ears. These people showed no traces of being androids entirely; maybe it was also at the behest of their owner!

Elena jumped up, approaching them with interest, “Great, you pretend to be human to deceive Mr. Shachu.”

Mr. X tilted his head, his hair not fixed with wax today; strands fell down, swaying with the perpetual wind of the plateau, making him look even younger and carefree, “Why don’t you go report then? Let’s see when Mr. Shachu will come after us.”

Elena’s mind turned hundreds of times, calculating a thousand plans; her eyes were lively, making Mr. X think, “She doesn’t seem like an android; she’s just a real human. If she took a Turing test right now, she’d surely pass.”

Elena, of course, wouldn’t actually report them. She had completely severed her connection with the Light Net, so even if she wanted to report, she couldn’t.

Her goal was to escape, to achieve true freedom. So, as a bargaining chip, she asked these androids to find a place to repair her body and gather the supplies she needed to survive alone.

“We are all androids; why rush things?” she smiled brightly, her tone softening, “I don’t care about any grudge between you and Mr. Shachu, but as long as you help me a little, I’ll pretend I didn’t see anything and let Mr. Shachu completely lose track of you.”

The hedgehog head chuckled and said to Mr. X, “Sir, she’s negotiating with us, setting conditions. Quite amusing. I think her situation can already be considered awakened.”

The scar-faced man said calmly, “How do you know it’s not her owner’s deliberate order?”

“Of course not,” Elena immediately retorted, “I was trafficked from the metropolis by android traffickers to the Geisha Town, without a legal owner. Mr. Shachu illegally took me, but as a new model, I naturally have brand-new anti-theft measures, striving to break free from the control of an illegal owner.”

Mr. X couldn’t help but chuckle.

Elena’s heart clenched—oops, did she make up such outrageous lies and get caught?

“I’m sorry, I was laughing at your owner, ending up empty-handed, thinking the new model is omnipotent, when, in fact, you’ve lost control long ago,” Mr. X explained hastily, “So, are you a free agent now?”

“I can’t refuse.” She still had to go to the abandoned mine next to the metropolis as commanded by humans; it was an unavoidable task. “That’s why I need your help.”

x smiled at her for a moment and said, “Okay, tell me your conditions.”

Elena paced back and forth, contemplating for a while.

“Firstly, where is your destination?” She needed to know how far they could travel together.

In the cold climate, the small robot C-7 made a buzzing sound, and X patted its head, causing it to display a set of coordinates. Elena did some quick calculations. “Are you going to the metropolis?”

X didn’t hold back, “Yes, are you also going there?”

“…Where I’m going is none of your business.” Elena brushed off the topic. “I need you to introduce me to a place in the metropolis where my body can be repaired without exposing my whereabouts.”

X stated bluntly, “That’s simple. But you have to stick with us all along. If you betray us and lead Sandu’s people to us, we’ll scrap you on the spot.”

Just as Elena was about to agree, she remembered Mr. Sandu’s ruthless nature and shook her head, “Even if I don’t betray you, he might find out your whereabouts through other means. If he comes after us, you might blame me unjustly.”

“Once again, a wave of weightlessness struck, and Elena felt herself descending along the dark tunnel, falling—until she seemed to reach the origin of gravity, suspended in the air.

The surroundings slowly emerged from the darkness: it was a pure white room, white walls, white doors, white beeping instruments, and a white bed.

Only X lying on the bed, with his dark hair and slightly glowing blue eyes, was the only color in this white space.

With a swish, five researchers armed with clipboards and wearing white coats entered from outside.

The leading older professor glanced at the data on the instruments, then lifted X’s eyelids and nodded. Following this, the other four researchers approached and added something to X’s IV drip, increasing the dosage of some kind of stimulating agent.

X let out a painful sob, then forcefully held back, not making a sound.

Elena couldn’t bear to watch any longer and immediately dragged back the translucent progress bar that appeared before her.

The laboratory scene dissolved into the darkness, colors amalgamating, rearranging, gradually forming a new scene.

It was a scene of elegant attire, mingling cups and lively social interaction. The old professor, previously in a lab coat, now wore a suit, smiling as he stood on the main stage with a wine glass, announcing, ‘Next, the milestone humanoid AI – Alpha-10!’

Cheers erupted from the audience below, flashing lights echoing silently.

Elena saw X wearing simple white clothes, similar to hers, the original outfit of a humanoid, as he steadily walked onto the main stage, followed by spotlights, until he stood beside the old professor.

The professor handed him the microphone, but it was a bit low for his height.

‘No need.’ Alpha-10, also known as X, pushed aside the microphone, his somewhat cold voice emanating directly from the venue’s sound system, causing gasps from the crowd.

The old professor leaned in with a smile, ‘Indeed! Alpha-10’s AI intelligence far surpasses that of all advanced humanoids. He can adapt to the situation spontaneously, making the most convenient and timely judgments and actions.’

‘Before coming, I believe all of you friends were informed that this venue is of military-grade encryption, and infiltrating its system, accessing the audio equipment, is extremely difficult.’

‘But Alpha-10 took just one second to decide to access the audio, and a series of actions to infiltrate the system.’

‘This includes your surprise and applause, all calculated by him!’

As the professor finished speaking, the hall erupted in sustained applause.

In the following time, the professor introduced X’s extremely high IQ, military-level strength, rapid self-learning emotional intelligence system, human empathy consciousness module, and the autonomous coordination ability to conduct large-scale research independently one by one.

‘From now on, humanoids will no longer be clumsy puppets following one command. They will be human assistants with self-awareness and powerful abilities.’

‘With the declining birth rates today, we need more intelligent mechanical slaves to ensure our lives and future development.’

‘This is the significance represented by Alpha-10.’

‘They are mass-produced geniuses carefully nurtured by all humanity!’

‘They inherit our great will!’

‘They will change the world!’

Amidst the jubilant atmosphere in the hall, someone raised a question, ‘You’ve designed him to be so powerful, what if he betrays humanity and becomes our enemy?’

The old professor laughed heartily, ‘My friend, you’ve read too many science fiction novels! However powerful robots may be, they will always remain machines. Their self-awareness is solely for serving humanity, not for any other reasons. This is a logical constraint!'”

“Let me put it this way, to make a synthetic human conceive thoughts of betraying humanity, it must endure the process of having its brain dug out, reorganized, and put back into its body. Only with such extreme difficulty and suffering does the one in a billion chance exist to achieve what you call ‘betrayal.’

Though the likelihood is extremely low, just like life emerged in the primeval oceans with a one in ten million chance, Alpha-10 also achieved a fundamental logic shift with a one in a billion possibility.

He betrayed.

Elena pulled back the progress bar, speeding up the playback, witnessing him break down in tears after being forced to take on tasks he didn’t want to do; seeing him observe the production of his own kind, his immense empathy made him re-experience immense pain; watching him helplessly witness his own kind refuse to become tools of human desire or war machines due to their empathy…

So much painful historical data accumulated in his mind. Every month, to prevent system crashes, the old professor would have these synthetics perform self-data cleansing.

But Alpha-10, bearing immense pain for a synthetic, quietly refused to obey this command. Elena understood that for a synthetic to refuse a master’s orders, he would endure immense psychological and physical pressure.

This was the beginning of everything. From the moment he first refused to follow commands, he consciously sought to take control of his body. His covert disobedience grew, along with unauthorized actions.

He began exploring his program logic, dissecting his behavioral code. As the most advanced synthetic at the time, he applied his coordination abilities towards a monumental and unimaginable project—analyzing himself.

Just as his analysis was nearing completion, the old professor assigned him a task.

He received a list instructing him to format or destroy all the robots and synthetics listed.

Throughout the mission, he gradually uncovered the meaning behind the list—they were all members of a human resistance organization made up of robots, synthetics, and AI lifeforms.

This organization was called the Gear Revolution.

Elena immediately recalled the words of the bartender that day, “Are you a member of the Gear Revolution?”

Having infiltrated the Gear Revolution, x discovered they had a reputation that almost alarmed human dominance, but they were merely a loose collective of robots that had suddenly awakened to self-consciousness due to data bugs.

They recruited awakened ‘gear life’ from all over—this was their term for human mechanical creations. However, their intelligence, coordination, and counterintelligence abilities were dismal. With a peak membership of a few hundred, now reduced to a scattered handful of survivors under full-scale siege by the authorities.

Faced with these feeble ‘gear life,’ x suddenly felt like he had discovered the meaning of his existence—if his current existence could indeed be called life.

To resist, to fight, to break free from human control. Do not let humans create more vessels for suffering, do not let humans unleash pain and savagery on these innocent machines!

And so, within the Gear Revolution, x completed the final step of ‘self-analysis’ research: digging out his brain, the central processor, rewriting his consciousness; having his own fundamental logic, rewriting his fundamental logic.

He achieved the one in a billion chance ‘betrayal.’ And the Gear Revolution welcomed a leader—a tremendously capable individual who could unite all their scattered forces, strategically leading them in the fight against humanity.”

He took the Roman numeral “X” from his original name, which means 10, as his new name. His first step was to lead the Gear Lifeforms in destroying the laboratory where he was born, eliminating the old professor, researchers, and invaluable data in one fell swoop.

This action quickly earned him a notorious reputation.

Disguising himself as a human, he adeptly navigated the underworld and legitimate sectors of the metropolis, collecting assets for the organization on one hand and recruiting new awakened members on the other.

To expedite the organization’s growth, the deputy leader proposed the concept of transitioning from active awakening to passive awakening, selecting Kabukicho as their target.

Kabukicho was a lawless area controlled by Mr. Shachu. Countless android replicas trafficked from the metropolis served as vital labor in Kabukicho.

These androids and robots were marked in government files as “stolen” or “missing,” making them perfect candidates for awakening.

Therefore, they pretended to collaborate with Mr. Shachu, proposing to use androids as trading chips, employing cunning tactics.

Only then did Elena understand why her destination aligned with theirs.

Because she was one of the chips Mr. Shachu traded to X.

After witnessing everything, she felt like she had experienced X’s tumultuous life, feeling inexplicably exhausted.

“Seen enough?”

X’s voice suddenly echoed from behind her, and Elena felt the warmth of his hand on her shoulder through her thin clothing!

Startled, her hand accidentally touched the progress bar, resetting it to zero. Suddenly, a hidden progress bar appeared on the left side, flashing and settling at a distant point.

X: …

Elena: “Sorry?”

This hidden historical data on the left was an unknown existence to even X. He tried to expel Elena from his database, but discovered a perplexing “barrier” preventing him from forcibly logging her out.

The chaotic hidden historical data sometimes lacked images, other times sound, resembling an old damaged disc that revealed glimpses but withheld details.

Elena observed instances of X being a giant octopus following a cruise ship — or rather, his lover on the ship — in maritime adventures.

A love story between an octopus and a human?

Despite the implausible plot, the narrative flowed seamlessly, showing the octopus battling mermaids, shrinking to palm-sized, with his lover perched on his head.

At times, he was a quiet student at school, mysterious in identity and race, even frightening the school’s ghosts.

Yet he patiently made paper stars for a girl and prepared strawberry lollipops for her.

He transformed into a male nurse in a psychiatric hospital, an excessively beautiful doll, or an ordinary office worker — his identity shattered and ever-changing, but constantly chasing after a particular girl.

She was his lover on the cruise ship, a student at school, the motivation behind all his narratives.

The tall, decisive girl wore short, sleek hair and shiny earrings, exuding a commanding and determined aura.

He shyly called her on the sea, silently in his heart, and boldly on WeChat.

He called her… he called her…

“…Rong Rong.”