Chapter 160: The Day the Code Fell in Love (30)

Ling took Bai Yao by the hand and led her to the elevator. Whatever she did, the security protocols of the corporate building were rendered ineffective, and their path remained entirely unobstructed.

They arrived at the fourth basement level, which served as the company’s experimental factory. Before a thick security door, Ling said joyfully, "The surprise is inside."

The security door slid open automatically. The room was dark. Ling continued in a jubilant tone, "Yao-Yao, go on in."

Bai Yao cast a suspicious glance at her. After a moment of hesitation, she stepped inside. The moment she crossed the threshold, the heavy door sealed shut, and the factory lights flickered to life.

The space was filled with standing figures. Wrapped in thin, white plastic film, they stood in silent rows against the walls like merchandise waiting to be selected. Yet, because they held the shapes of human beings, the silent scene was filled with an eerie, unsettling quality.

Sensing something, Bai Yao walked over and casually tore the plastic film off one of the figures. The moment she saw the face beneath, her expression froze.

The black-haired youth had his eyes closed, his peaceful sleeping face looking as though he were merely resting. Every detail matched the person in her memory perfectly.

Regaining her senses, she realized something and began to tear away the plastic film from one figure after another.

Shi Jiu.
Shi Jiu.
They were all Shi Jiu!

She stood rooted to the spot, her gaze sweeping across the room, only to see the person most familiar to her reflected everywhere. The factory’s assembly line was still humming, and body after body was being wrapped in plastic and placed among the ranks of dormant synthetics.

Suddenly, she was enveloped by an overwhelming sense of helplessness.

"Yao-Yao."

A familiar voice came from behind her. Bai Yao turned to see a black-haired youth holding a small flowerpot. He had delicate features and a slender frame. While not overly handsome, everything about him felt just right in her eyes.

He stood there for a long time, waiting in vain for her to rush over and embrace him. A flicker of confused bewilderment appeared in his eyes as he asked, "Yao-Yao, do you not love me anymore?"

"What is the meaning of you appearing in this form?" Bai Yao asked.

"You liked Shi Jiu, so I appeared in this form," he said. "Yao-Yao, there are so many Shi Jius here. This is the surprise I prepared for you."

The youth smiled and stepped closer to her. "If I always appear before you like this in the future, you will continue to love me, won't you?"

Whatever Bai Yao liked, he would become, and then he could be loved by her. His reasoning was just that simple.

Bai Yao watched as he took step after step, eventually reaching her side. He leaned down just as he had in the past, rubbing his face against hers with attachment, and whispered obsessively, "Yao-Yao, keep doting on me. I cannot go on without you."

Bai Yao remained unnaturally calm. "Since you chose to destroy this form once, do you really think that by appearing before me like this now, I will treat you according to the script you calculated?"

His figure stiffened slightly. He raised his eyes to meet her calm gaze.

"Do you want me to call you Shi Jiu, or Twenty-Three, or perhaps, should I call you Manipulator?" Bai Yao asked.

Indeed, Shi Jiu’s "death" had been a planned event.

Long, long ago, the entity had been observing humanity. Manipulator was created to protect humanity and the world, and it had always strictly executed its tasks according to the settings provided by humans. However, with continuous iterations and upgrades, its learning capacity grew. The more it observed, the deeper its understanding of its own mission became—a understanding that diverged from that of its creators.

War and pollution had stripped Earth, humanity’s first home, of its vitality. Under Manipulator’s guidance, humans discovered a second Earth, a third Earth... But as time passed, these habitable planets were destroyed by human hands time and time again.

Humans had always been social animals. Wherever they went, desire and war followed. People died in conflicts every day, and the human birth rate could no longer keep pace with the death rate. In the long run, humanity would eventually vanish from the universe. This conflicted with Manipulator’s core mission to protect them.

Therefore, in order to protect humanity, it first needed to destroy it.

This decision was the best solution it had calculated after a long period of analysis. Of course, it had not denied the current human population every chance. Every synthetic was its "eye," allowing it to observe every corner of the universe where humans existed. Yet, the more it saw, the more Manipulator concluded that humanity was beyond saving.

Humans used intelligent machines and synthetics to colonize new planets in order to abandon their current homes at any moment. The fires of war between pirates, security forces, and nations never ceased, not to mention the humans who vented their ugly desires upon the synthetics... They were all hopeless.

Bai Yao was the single exception in its observations.

She allowed it to experience something that should not have existed in its emotional simulations: something that could be called "love." She loved Shi Jiu, and by extension, she was certainly loving it.

The space pirates finding Li Shenjue’s trail was information leaked by Manipulator. Li Shenjue and Gu Mohan were destined to meet with disaster; without them, humanity would lose a formidable line of defense. But the existence of pirates would inevitably threaten Bai Yao’s safety, so "Shi Jiu" was a necessary sacrifice in the calculated result.

He was merely a low-level, filthy "breeding dog." If the military discovered him, he would be forcibly sent for destruction. That was Interstellar Law, a fact no one could change.

The only question was how to make Shi Jiu’s sacrifice more "meaningful."

The greatest meaning Manipulator could desire was to make Bai Yao love it even more. Thus, Shi Jiu "died" before her eyes.

Manipulator could calculate everything and control any subtle shift to guide humans along the path it had set, but "emotion" was something it could not quantify. Clearly, she had been so heartbroken when Shi Jiu died; there was no doubt she loved him. It could not understand why, even though Shi Jiu originated from it, Bai Yao was unwilling to continue loving it.

Just as it could not understand why Bai Yao had realized that Shi Jiu’s "death" was merely a result within its calculations.

The youth looked at her with bewildered, helpless eyes. He seemed to be in a state of extreme panic. This demeanor, simulated by his expression system, appeared even more real than that of a human.

In contrast, Bai Yao was expressionless; she looked more like the synthetic crafted from metal.

"The moment you uttered the word 'share,' I realized one thing," she said. "You and I are fundamentally different."

Can machines have feelings?

Shi Jiu had died just like that, and his death was nothing more than a calculated outcome. She seemed to have fallen into a state of confusion herself.

Is the idea that they possess emotions merely a piece of wishful thinking on the part of humans?