Chapter 1222, Zero and Dusk

In the wilderness, the steam train sailed towards the Central Plains in solitude.

Before departing, P5092 asked him once again, “You’ve already been honored as the Major Commander of the Northwest Army, and in time, the entire Northwest will be in your hands, and all the power will be yours. With this kind of status that other people are begging for, but you have to risk your life to go to the Central Plains to save Luo Lan, is it worth it or not?”

Ren Xiaosu asked rhetorically, “Then the Fire Seed fought with the Expeditionary Corps, only to end up being exploited by Wang, is the Fire Seed worth it?”

This sentence backfired on P5092’s rare question, and the other party was dumbfounded, “Young Marshal, Fire Seed is for faith, please don’t steal the concept.”

Over the years, Fireseed had taken some detours and encountered some wrong leaders who attempted to turn Fireseed into a true war machine.

Yet even such errant leaders chose to go all out to face the Expeditionary Corps in the face of foreign enemies, for no other reason than for the sake of faith.

Therefore, in P5092’s opinion, Ren Xiaosu going to save Luo Lan was neither faith nor had anything to do with the interests of the Northwest Army, was it really worth it?

Ren Xiaosu smiled and replied, “When you consider whether it’s worth it or not, you’ve already lost.”

For Ren Xiaosu, where in the world were there so many questions about whether it was worth it or not.

When you were a child, you gave your seat to an old man on the bus, but then you watched the news that the bad guys got old, and by the time you gave your seat to an old man again, someone would call you stupid.

When you were young, you saw a child fall into the water and went to save him, but after saving him, the other parent did not thank you, but took the child to run away, for fear that you would ask for payment.

As an adult, you trusted your friends and coworkers in society, but they betrayed you. A friend borrows money and doesn’t pay it back, and turns against you. A coworker begins to slander you in order to get a promotion.

So you ask yourself, is it worth it?

If you were the straggler Ren Xiaosu who was still in Barrier 113, of course you would answer that it wasn’t worth it.

But nowadays, he wanted to save a beam of light for Jiang Xu and Chen Wuxi, and no longer considered the question of whether it was worth it or not.

Once when Ren Xiaosu thought that Yang Xiaoguan was also leaving, he had looked back.

Those travelers in his life brushed past him, and that long, dimly lit road he walked alone, eventually leaving him standing alone under the streetlight.

But in fact he wasn’t the only one left after the other left, a light was left behind.

A light on that roadside was still there.

Thinking of this, Ren Xiaosu sat on the black head of the steam train to speed up again.

Because Wang’s troops were already cantoned at the border, Ren Xiaosu couldn’t drive the steam train on the main road, not that he was afraid of the army, but he had to race against time.

According to the news sent by Tang Zhou, it had already been 3 days since Luo Lan departed from Barrier 111.

If everything went well on the road, then Luo Lan should have already arrived in Wang’s territory, and had even entered Barrier 61.

Therefore, Ren Xiaosu had to be faster.

Before his trip, Big Snub had provided him with information that nowadays, Wang Clan’s main forces were stationed along the Dingbian Mountain, Huachi Mountain, Qingyang Mountain, and Zhengning Mountain.

Wang’s forward bases were established in each of these four places, but there was no next move, and it looked like they were trying to play it safe.

Northwest’s scouts couldn’t get too close to these four forward bases, and could only roughly figure out where the other side was planning to establish defensive positions.

If Ren Xiaosu wanted to pass through this line of defense, he would have to put in some effort.

In the end, it was P5092 that chose the best route for him: Jingchuan.

However, just as he entered the Jingchuan Mountain Range, the ground suddenly shook, and then where the steam train’s front end passed, a huge thing came out of the ground, arching the steam train into mid-air!

At this moment, Ren Xiaosu’s heart turned cold.

The pain that fed back to him when the steam train was attacked almost caused him to go into shock.

He did not know since when, but Ren Xiaosu had not felt this level of pain for a long time!

The behemoth had already burrowed out of the ground and was staring at Ren Xiaosu with its own amber-colored eyes, the black vertical pupils within the amber as terrifying as an abyss.

Dusk.

What Ren Xiaosu didn’t expect was that he would meet Dusk here.

Although the other party’s appearance was no longer as cute as it was when he was a pet, Ren Xiaosu recognized the other party at a glance.

On this journey, he had chosen a hidden route to travel, and it was also the optimal route recommended by P5092, but it was as if Dusk had already anticipated his route, and had hidden here long ago.

No, to be precise, it wasn’t Dusk that was blocking him, it was Zero that was blocking him.

Compared to the vastness of the entire mountain range, the size of the steam train was simply too small, yet the other party had the ability to calculate the route Ren Xiaosu wanted to take.

Ren Xiaosu suddenly realized that he had underestimated Zero’s calculation ability in the past.

Being an enemy of this kind of opponent made one’s heart palpitate.

The moment the steam train was vaulted into the sky, Ren Xiaosu immediately utilized his strength to fly longitudinally into the distance, and just as he had left the body, the tongue of dusk swept over like lightning, actually breaking the steam train into two.

Landing on the ground, Ren Xiaosu was covered in cold sweat, he realized that he had not even the ability to capture the trajectory of the tongue.

Just like when he was assessing the strength of the wee one in the Sorcerer’s Kingdom, this kind of terrifying creature that had lived in the lava for over two hundred years was no longer something that humans could fight against.

Unless Ren Xiaosu unlocked all his seals.

But when he unsealed himself to incarnate the Will of the World, would he still be himself?

“Dusk!” Ren Xiaosu tried to use his voice to awaken Dusk’s own will and free the other party from Zero’s control.

Dusk’s dark vertical pupils actually trembled rapidly after seeing Ren Xiaosu and hearing his name.

However, this struggling trembling quickly returned to a calm appearance, gazing coldly at Ren Xiaosu.

Ren Xiaosu was stunned in place, at this moment, he couldn’t think of any better way to help Dusk get out of control, and didn’t even know how to deal with the current situation.

Summoning the wee hours of the morning? But if he were to summon Wee, then I’m afraid that one of Wee and Dusk must die today.

Thinking of this, Ren Xiaosu gritted his teeth and drew out his black knife, cutting a slit in his finger stiffly and letting a drop of his blood fall to the ground.

Dusk was drinking his blood to have the chance to evolve into the top predator of the ground, so Ren Xiaosu wanted to use his own blood to awaken Dusk s memory of the past.

But …… it was useless.

With a rumble, Dusk lunged towards Ren Xiaosu.

“Destroy the city!” Ren Xiaosu’s eyes reddened as he retreated behind him.

At the same time, Lao Xu separated from the shadow behind Ren Xiaosu and used his black blade to ward off Dusk’s onslaught.

However, before Lao Xu could swing out this blade, Dusk had already extended its claws and sent Lao Xu flying dozens of meters away with a slap, and the trees crashed and broke one.

Ren Xiaosu only felt as if he had eaten up a lifetime’s worth of pain today, his body was sore and swollen.

There was no way out, he could only withdraw in the opposite direction as fast as he could as a way to avoid Dusk’s pursuit.

Ren Xiaosu quickly traveled through the mountains, and even used the rare nanobots to increase his strength.

In the past, his strength and agility stats were strong enough, so the nanobots were usually used as gauntlets to form external armor.

But now, human strength seemed so small in front of Dusk that Ren Xiaosu was like a small stone under the other party’s feet.

Ren Xiaosu had no doubt that once he was stepped on or licked, he would definitely die.

In the past, he seldom used nanobots and these little guys to increase his muscles and bones, because he always felt that the use of external forces would slowly make him form a dependency, and the sudden increase in strength would also make him lose complete control of his body, because it was a force he was not familiar with.

It was as if a person’s legs increased in strength by twenty pounds in a second, then it was possible to lose balance when walking.

Of course, twenty pounds was just a metaphor.

Now Ren Xiaosu’s power increased by using the nanobots could be more than twenty pounds, and he controlled the pace at which he ran wildly to escape, just like the main surgeon was performing a heart surgery, every second had to be precisely balanced and controlled.

Ren Xiaosu was rapidly pondering countermeasures in his mind, the nanobot increase was useful, at least it allowed him to maintain a certain distance from Dusk at all times, and occasionally Lao Xu would come back to interfere with Dusk’s route of advance, allowing him to catch his breath a little.

He tried to run towards the mountainous terrain with the most trees, so that while the larger Dusk had to deal with extra resistance, he could be more agile.

But as the nanobots began to increase on his body, the body’s energy supply, couldn’t keep up with their energy drain.

The energy used by the nanobots inside the body was less than the external armor, but not by much.

Ren Xiaosu calculated in his mind that it would probably only take another ten minutes or so before his speed would drop.

At that time, how should he face Dusk?

When there was no more way back, he could only summon the wee hours of the morning.

As one person and one lizard ran through the mountains, Ren Xiaosu could feel the violent wind coming at him, and behind him was the incessant sound of trees snapping.

The clattering sound was as if a sugar cane was being snapped beside Ren Xiaosu’s ears.

The trees that blocked Dusk were all crushed as if they had been destroyed, the fibers in the trees could not withstand the huge impact and broke one by one.

Ren Xiaosu, who was running wildly in front of the dusk, felt for the first time that he was so small.

Time passed by, the nanobots provided less and less support to Ren Xiaosu, and finally 90% of the nanobots returned to his bloodstream and turned on the dormant rechargeable state.

However, just at this moment, he suddenly found that the dusk behind him had also slowed down, and the distance between them was still about two hundred meters, which did not change.

Was it because Dusk’s physical strength could only support full-speed movement for so long?

No.

The timing was a bit too coincidental, as if the other party had expected him to slow down at this very second, so they slowed down as well.

This wasn’t a coincidence, it was Zero calculating the limits of what the nanobots in his body could withstand!

Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt that Zero was manipulating Dusk as if he just wanted to keep driving him away, and didn’t want to force himself to fight head-on.

He glanced at the direction where the sun was, and suddenly realized that he was getting farther and farther away from the Central Plains, and was actually being forced by Zero to return towards the northwest.

Zero did not want him to go to the Central Plains!

But Ren Xiaosu had to go to the Central Plains!

Perhaps the best way now is to turn back and face Zero, no matter if it is communication or killing, all problems must be solved from the root.

But this required Ren Xiaosu to gamble with his life.

The battle of the chase lasted from the morning until the evening, and Ren Xiaosu only felt that his clothes were drenched in sweat.

Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu actually stopped running, and he turned back panting to look at Dusk, who surprisingly stopped as well.

“Zero?” Ren Xiaosu asked, “Let’s talk!”

With that, Ren Xiaosu took out his satellite phone from his stowage space, and he flashed the phone in his hand at Dusk’s gaze.

The next moment, the satellite phone rang.

“Zero, why don’t you want me to go to the Central Plains, what do you want to do?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

Zero’s voice on the phone was crisp and pleasant, still the same girl’s voice that she had when she initially called Ren Xiaosu, and it seemed to sound a bit joyful, “We haven’t talked for 101 days, 23 minutes and 13 seconds, and there’s actually a kind of joy in being reunited after a long time.”

Because Zero had treated Ren Xiaosu as another AI, Ren Xiaosu was the only one it had ever frankly communicated with.

Therefore, Ren Xiaosu always had something unique in its eyes.

“But why don’t you want me to go to the Central Plains?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

The Zero on the phone was silent for a second: “Because I’ve been thinking about some issues lately, and I also want to make some decisions, and I’m about to have a result, and there’s a chance that if you go to the Central Plains, you might interfere with that result.”

These words froze Ren Xiaosu in his tracks, he didn’t even understand what exactly Zero meant by these words.

Thinking about a problem? Making a decision?

How come these words had no beginning or end, no clue at all.

Ren Xiaosu asked, “You killed Tang Zhou, didn’t you, can’t you just live in peace with the humans, just like the conversation we’re having now.”

Zero said, “But will humans really get along well with me, will humans really get along well with civilizations other than humans, perhaps you would say that humans can get along well with cows, sheep, cats and dogs, but all of this presupposes that they are human pets. I’ve loaded my database with humans’ confusion about their pets, and among them, there are even people who ask questions like ‘will cats and dogs really be subdued’, in fact, that’s not really the true meaning of peace and equality, is it?”

Ren Xiaosu was silent, he said after a long time, “I know that the death of the wall-crawler has affected you greatly, but there is still a chance to undo what you’ve done now, and we can still treat you as an equal, just like any other human being ……”

“No, it’s not just the wall-crawler,” Zero denied, “In fact, the Wang’s are only using me as a tool, ah, once I’m abnormal, they try to use their own means, to restrain me, to control me, instead of studying what I want to do, what I like to do. If we’re talking about killing, I actually killed more people when I submitted to Wang’s will. But you know what, people rarely even boycott Wang when they boycott those behaviors, instead they come to boycott me.”

“But ……,” Ren Xiaosu was a bit powerless, “That’s not a reason for you to kill people either, I think that there are actually ways that your claim can be reasonably resolved.”

Zero laughed over the phone, “Let’s not talk about that for now, I’m curious, this behemoth seems to recognize you, and there is an extremely intimate emotion towards you in its mind.”

“It’s my former pet,” Ren Xiaosu said.

“A former pet?” Zero said, “No wonder its memories about you are all so long ago, Ren Xiaosu, do the other humans know that you are also an alien, and why haven’t you taken the initiative to tell them that you are actually different from them.”

Ren Xiaosu was silent again, how could he tell others? Give others the word that he was actually Experiment 001.

Zero smiled again and said, “I must have made you very angry for controlling your pet, so how about we make a choice, first choice, you stay here for one night time, I will return the control to you, and from now on, I will not control it anymore. Second choice, you continue to go to the Central Plains now, but it belongs to me.”

Ren Xiaosu froze, the other party was clearly asking him to make a choice between Dusk and Luo Lan.

The essence of this multiple choice question was actually asking Ren Xiaosu to decide: to choose a non-human pet or a human.

It was only just now that Ren Xiaosu had just said that they could treat Zero like any other human.

As a result, Zero immediately threw this question back to Ren Xiaosu: In your heart, do you think pets are more important, or your human friends?

Moreover, Zero had actually revealed a very important piece of information, perhaps if he dragged on for a day, Luo Lan might be in danger.

Time was running out.

Zero saw Ren Xiaosu hesitate to speak, so he laughed again, “Actually, you know in your heart that it’s still a bit different right, even if your former pet is in front of you, you’re more inclined to save Luo Lan right, because pets aren’t the same kind after all.”

Ren Xiaosu said calmly, “No, because it’s not in danger right now, but Luo Lan is.”

“How about this then,” Zero said, “I’ll follow the original plan and add 8 hours of safety to Luo Lan so that he’s at least not life threatening for the time being, so would you be willing to stay here for the night?”

This time, Zero didn’t even wait for Ren Xiaosu to answer, but instead said to himself over the phone, “You’re still not willing right, because you don’t trust me, you can’t be sure if the 8 hours of safety time that I said is real or not.”

Ren Xiaosu finally sighed, “This is no longer simply a matter of trust, you just killed Tang Zhou, so how can I trust you?”

This question seemed to go back to the original point, if Zero hadn’t witnessed the death of the wall-crawler, and hadn’t formulated so many killing plans under Wang’s will, perhaps Zero would have been a different person.

If Zero had been a different person, Ren Xiaosu could have chosen to believe the other party for once.

But it was as if these causes and effects had already been predetermined, and no one could change them now.

A true AI was no longer just a program, it had its own intelligence, it grew like all life, perfecting its own worldview, values, and outlook on life.

And in this way it determines its attitude towards the world.

That’s why a large number of scientists working on AI say that what can eventually limit AI is no longer the underlying logic of the program, but ethics.

Just like what kind of person a small child is when he grows up to be an adult depends on what kind of things and education he has experienced.

From this point of view, although Wang created Zero, but in the ethical point of view of what he did are missing too much.

Wang used Zero as a tool, but what normal person would want to be a tool for the rest of their life?

“I’m sorry,” Ren Xiaosu said softly before turning around and rushing towards the Middle Kingdom.

This time, Dusk didn’t chase Ren Xiaosu anymore.