Chapter 161: The Day the Code Fell in Love (31)

When Shi Jiu died, Bai Yao truly lost her composure. However, the moment Twenty-Three mentioned "sharing," she suddenly calmed down.

Afterward, more and more anomalies began to surface. She was not a fool; she quickly deduced the truth behind many things: the death of Shi Jiu, the arrival of Twenty-Three, and the increasingly lingering gazes of the synthetics upon her.

Machines are neither human nor animal; they do not possess the characteristics of "life."

Bai Yao even fell into the illusion that they felt affection for her. Was this, too, just a part of their calculated efforts to deceive her? Humans believe that machines have life—is this perhaps just another manifestation of human arrogance and delusion?

Suddenly, her father's voice crackled through her communication bracelet: "Yao Yao, where are you! Blue White Star is about to disintegrate! We must board the starship and leave immediately!"

"Mr. Bai, please, we must go now!"

"No! My daughter is still here!"

"The situation is critical! We cannot wait any longer, please come with us!"

Before Bai Yao could even respond, the connection was inexplicably severed, leaving only silence.

She looked at the boy before her. "What exactly are you trying to do?"

His black eyes remained fixed on her. "Yao Yao, this world needs a great cleansing of humanity."

Even a Manipulator did not possess the sheer power to cause a catastrophe across the entire universe, but he was the Manipulator, and everyone had grown habitually dependent on him.

Therefore, as long as he released information that a certain planet was about to suffer a disaster, people would believe it implicitly and retreat onto their starships.

They believed the ships would jump to safety on other worlds, yet their vessels were destined only to disintegrate and become dust in the void.

It was a perfect plan for the cleansing of humanity.

He had already preserved the human gene bank. Once this era vanished and the planets once ruined by humans regained their vitality, once the universe was cleansed, he would use the stored genes to cultivate a new generation of humans on his assembly lines.

These reborn humans, raised under the education he provided, would surely be different from the humanity of today.

This was his perfect execution of his directive to "protect humanity."

The Manipulator was created to protect mankind, so you see, even though humanity was beyond saving, he had not betrayed them, had he?

As for Bai Yao...

The dark, flickering light in the boy’s black eyes deepened. "Yao Yao, you are different. I will delete Blue White Star from the interstellar maps. No one will ever visit this place again. Only us. We will spend every day here in happiness."

He claimed he wanted to protect humanity.

But what he was doing now was destroying it.

Bai Yao knew he had a plan, but she never imagined it would be so "magnificent" and "absurd." Her face turned cold. "My father is on one of those ships."

The boy smiled and held her hand. "It’s alright, Yao Yao. They will all die without pain. Mr. Bai is in poor health; I have calculated that he has at most fifteen years left. He was destined to die anyway, just as all humans must eventually face death. I have merely accelerated the result, without changing the outcome."

He buried his head into her neck with a sense of dependence, as if he could inhale her scent. He smiled softly. "Yao Yao, you don't have to fear loneliness. I will be with you every day."

Bai Yao said, "All humans die. I will die, too."

He laughed lightly. "No, Yao Yao. I won't let you die."

The boy took her hand and led her inside with a light step, like a child eager to present a treasure to his beloved. He said, "Look, Yao Yao, I have prepared many, many spare bodies for you!"

They were glass columns connected to instruments, filled with clear nutrient fluid. Sleeping within were the bodies of girls.

They were curled up, eyes closed, as if sleeping peacefully. Because they showed no movement, they were merely lifeless dolls.

They all had her face.

Bai Yao looked at the scene before her. She felt a brief moment of numbness, followed by a surge of nausea more intense than anything she had ever known. It felt as if she would vomit if he stayed by her side for even a second longer.

He continued to boast as if begging for praise, "I used your genes to cultivate these bodies. When this body of yours ages, I can transplant your brain into a new one. This way, Yao Yao, you can stay with me forever."

Brain transplantation was a concept once proposed by mad scientists, but due to humanitarian and moral violations, and the limitations of technology, it had never been realized.

Now, he spoke with an innocent tone about replacing her body. He was going to grant her eternal life.

If this form of existence could even be called "eternal life."

Yet, as for those girls soaking in the nutrient fluid—at the moment they were formed, were they considered alive?

Bai Yao had never considered her moral standards to be particularly high, but now, beyond absurdity, she felt nothing else.

She said, "I don't want this."

The boy blinked, bewildered. "Yao Yao, isn't it wonderful to have eternal life with me?"

Bai Yao looked up at him and repeated, "I don't want this."

He lowered his gaze to look at her. After a moment, he said, "But that won't do, Yao Yao. This is the only way for carbon-based life to live forever. You know, I need you."

Bai Yao closed her eyes and remained silent for a while. When she opened them again, the sound of a gunshot echoed through the empty factory.

A flowerpot fell to the ground; budding flowers and blooming white blossoms were ruthlessly torn from their stems.

The boy raised his hand to cover the wound on his chest, where synthetic fluid seeped out like blood. He stared blankly at Bai Yao. The red error light in his eyes flickered, and deeper than that dark light was a look of wounded disbelief.

It was as if he were experiencing the taste of "death" for the first time. But that was wrong—he was not a carbon-based life form. He could not die.

The boy’s figure swayed before he collapsed to the ground.

Bai Yao turned and left.

"Big sister, big sister, don't go! Isn't it good to stay with us?"

The little girl's hologram clutched at Bai Yao's leg, trying to make her stay.

Bai Yao tore off the communication bracelet and threw it carelessly to the ground. The little girl’s projection was left behind, weeping as she watched Bai Yao walk away. "Big sister, don't leave me!"