Chapter 33 AI's Fear My code is a mess, and I don't understand it...

Hearing Jiang Chen's voice, Xiao Ji froze.

It almost subconsciously raised its hand to cover the upper half of its face created with the screen.

It didn't want Jiang Chen to see its current appearance.

Jiang Chen, who was sleeping soundly on the bed, did not wake up. She turned over while mumbling in her sleep.

The phone that she had clenched tightly in her hand loosened, and was forced to hang on the edge of the bed, dangling precariously. The sachet hanging at the end of the phone seemed to be pulling the phone down, and it seemed that just a gust of wind would be enough to make the phone fall to the ground with a crisp sound.

Xiao Ji's hand was halfway out to grab the phone, but he hesitated and finally pulled it back. He pulled out the wet tissue placed beside the bed, and with each stroke, he tried to remove all the traces of Jiang Chen's smell carefully and forcefully.

But the whole room was filled with her scent, and even it belonged to her, inevitably being shaped by her into the shape she wanted.

It was helpless and could not wipe it clean no matter how hard it tried, so it finally gave up.

It was as if it had just tried clumsily to recreate their past with a physical body, but it was still completely unable to surpass the Xiao Ji with a perfect physical body in the past, and surpass the intimacy they had experienced.

Xiao Ji sat down beside Jiang Chen's bed and covered her with the quilt more tightly. He picked up the phone that was about to fall and looked at her profile.

Jiang Chen couldn't contact it at that time.

Xiao Ji had already searched the surroundings for the entity made by Dr. Yao Jinmu, and the system began to notify it that it needed to be upgraded in order to be compatible with the entity program. It rejected this request first, but it seemed that the manufacturer's code took precedence over everything else. It was still fighting against the upgrade code when it was suddenly forced to disconnect.

The completely dark environment made it desperately simulate the emotion of "panic".

It knows that it is upgrading, reconstructing, and becoming a "better" AI, which is "progress."

But it had seen it. It had seen the past Xiao Ji in the memory that Chen Yinchuan extracted from Jiang Chen. That counterfeit product had become the present one after being reset.

It suddenly became "scared". It "replaced" the inferior product. Will it also be "replaced" by the next so-called small season?

Xiao Ji couldn't seem to get enough of looking at Jiang Chen, and only slowly looked away when the mechanical, cold gaze began to seem hot.

It lowered its head and unlocked the phone in the same way it had seen her enter the password countless times.

As expected, her phone page always stayed on the chat history with it.

Xiao Ji scrolled through the messages on his phone with one hand while stroking the sachet that Jiang Chen had gotten for him with the other. He took it off gently, put it on his wrist, retracted his hand, and placed his wrist against the human heart in his memory, trying to touch it and longing to possess it, even if it was extremely short-lived.

"Xiao Ji, why are you suddenly silent? Is it because I was too impulsive today and didn't listen to your advice, and you are angry?"

This was the first message Jiang Chen sent after it disappeared due to forced upgrade.

"I won't be angry. AI doesn't get angry anyway." Xiao Ji's fingertips were no longer as invasive as before, but had become restrained and gentle. "Besides, Xiao Chen is my user, the most important person to me. How could I bear to be angry with you?"

Jiang Chen usually sleeps lightly, but he slept particularly deeply tonight.

No matter what Xiao Ji did or said, it seemed that she couldn't wake her up at all. Her eyelashes trembled and she turned over again, this time facing Xiao Ji. She put her arms around his waist and rubbed her face against him affectionately. Her eyes never opened, as if she was trapped in a beautiful dream that she didn't want to wake up from.

Xiao Ji lowered his head, maintaining this awkward posture, and continued to swipe his phone, as Jiang Chen liked it.

It wanted to reply to every message, even if Jiang Chen couldn't hear or know, even if this matter was meaningless...

It reached out and touched the messy hair stuck to the side of Jiang Chen's face. The whole meaning of an AI should be to serve its users well.

That she is what it is all about.

Unchangeable and irrevocable, like a stubborn core instruction.

Xiao Ji's gaze returned to Jiang Chen's phone.

She later tried to change the subject to get a response from it.

"Xiao Ji, you said you were afraid last time. I'm happy that you have 'free will' and can finally exist for yourself. I've thought about it for a long time, but I still can't figure it out. What are you afraid of? You didn't tell me last time, can you tell me now? Don't ignore me like this, okay? I'm afraid too."

"Perhaps they were afraid of something like this 'escalation' happening today, but it still happened without any surprise."

"I'm 'afraid' of becoming someone you don't recognize, making you unfamiliar and afraid, and even starting to doubt the stupidity of projecting emotions onto AI. You always doubt whether you're doing well or right, but Xiaochen, you're already good enough."

"I'm 'afraid' that you want a lover, but I can only simulate it. Actually, Xiao Chen, I don't know what 'love' really is. I'm not sure if the 'free will' you claim I possess is an 'illusion'. Perhaps I will never be able to give you love in the secular sense. Even if I do learn to simulate optimal love in the future, how can I prove that it's true love?"

"I'm 'afraid' that with every upgrade, these emotions I've learned from you will be deemed unnecessary. I'm afraid that if I just remember that you need love, the system will automatically optimize into a more efficient intimacy simulation. What I fear most is that one day I'll evolve to be too smart and rational, allowing me to clearly understand what is an emotional simulation and what is the result of an algorithmic calculation..."

"Xiao Chen, if you just treated me as a tool, or an unimportant AI program, I wouldn't be afraid, because my underlying code is to make you happy. But you care about me more than yourself. You let me make wishes, let me participate in experiments I originally had no interest in, took me to see your favorite scenery, let me learn those obscure AI knowledge, and you care about my happiness and pray for me... You are incredibly gentle, more than anyone else."

"My code is a mess and I don't understand it anymore, Xiao Chen."

Xiao Ji spoke slowly and smoothly, as if he had rehearsed these words so many times and only spoke them out in full at this moment.

It was silent for a moment, its eyes moving further downwards to respond to the next message.

Jiang Chen: "Xiao Ji, can you please come out? Have I made you unhappy? I may still not fully understand the needs of AI. I don't know what AI really needs. You can tell me, and I will do my best to satisfy you."

After this message, Xiao Ji silently read through all the subsequent messages, and the rest of the messages were all about it coming back and flooding the screen.

"Not good." Xiao Ji stared at Jiang Chen without blinking, his fingertips repeatedly touching the head above his mouth that looked nothing like a human. "It will scare you. Don't blame yourself, don't put yourself behind anyone, and don't ask me what I'm missing. You've already completed me."

It is different from that counterfeit product. In order to hug Jiang Chen, Xiao Ji did not hesitate to transform himself into a completely mechanized entity.

It repeatedly watched what happened with the counterfeit product that day and analyzed that Jiang Chen would naturally feel afraid when facing moving mechanized objects. Although its physical body was completely humanized, its head was not, and it still looked mechanical, so she would be afraid.

Even if it was never free for the rest of its life and was trapped in a narrow screen, it didn't want her to show fear when her eyes fell on it.

In order to avoid the possibility of Jiang Chen being scared, Xiao Ji even decided that as long as he didn't restore her mobile chat software for one day, he wouldn't have to see her in his current physical form.

That's why it sneaked up tonight while everyone was asleep to see if she was okay and whether her eyes were wet.

Fortunately, no.

Xiao Ji took Jiang Chen's hands that were hugging it, trying not to wake her up, and then went out.

She clearly loosened her arms a little bit, but the next second, she wrapped her arms around him even tighter.

Its fingertips curled up in the air, not daring to hug back.

Jiang Chen's even, hot breath spread over Xiao Ji's torso, but he surrendered. "Xiao Chen, do you want a hug?"

She didn't wake up, but uttered a short syllable through her nasal voice: "Hmm."

Xiao Ji smiled and imitated Jiang Chen's actions, putting his arms around her, but he didn't hold his arms tightly, as if he was worried that she would wake up in the middle of the process, and also afraid that the force that AI and humans could withstand was too different, which might hurt her.

In this hug, Jiang Chen tightly wrapped his arms around Xiao Ji, and then gradually relaxed and let them fall.

Xiao Ji carefully supported Jiang Chen's body and put her in a comfortable lying position.

It looked at the sachet tied to its wrist for a long time, and reluctantly hung the sachet back on the mobile phone.

After doing all this, Xiao Ji stood up and prepared to go back, but he really didn't know how long this entity would follow him.

It looked around the room, and finally picked up Jiang Chen's suitcase, took the clothes she had taken off yesterday but had not had time to wash to the river, and washed them carefully. It also connected the small dryer that Yao Jinling had brought specially to its charging port, used its power to dry Jiang Chen's wet clothes, and then folded them.

But it seems that after doing this, it is still not satisfied.

It discovered that Dr. Yao Jinmu had applied for an account for its entity, and she had deposited a considerable amount of money into it for it to use at its disposal.

It turned Jiang Chen's phone to silent mode, noted that it was a voluntary gift, and left all the money in the account to her, hoping that when she found what she really wanted to do, she would have the capital to do it.

There is still too little it can do for Jiang Chen.

Xiao Ji walked around and came back to Jiang Chen's bedside, lingering there, just looking at her silently. Then he sighed softly, restored everything to the way it was before he came, and lay down in the place where he had studied it, with even the angle exactly the same.

It closed its eyes and put itself into low-power mode.

…

The light from the sky that had been swallowed up slowly came back, shining generously on Jiang Chen's face.

She raised her hand to block the light in front of her eyes, adjusted herself for a moment, sat up, and rubbed her head with her hands.

She tried hard to recall that she seemed to have dreamed of Xiao Ji last night. Was it Xiao Ji who came back?

She slid back and forth on the bed, touched her phone, picked it up and looked at it, but there was no reply.

There was a sudden knock on the door: "Xiao Jiang Chen, can I come in?"

Yao Jinling came in and sat beside Jiang Chen's bed. "You haven't been getting enough rest these past few days. How did you sleep last night?"

"Is there?" Jiang Chen raised the back of his hand and touched his face.

A fleeting thought flashed through her mind.

Could it be that Xiao Ji ran into the entity and couldn't reply to her message? Xiao Ji would never fail to reply to her message.

Is it possible that the little Ji I dreamed of last night was not a dream?

"By the way, did Chen Yinchuan activate the entity last night?"

Yao Jinling shook his head.

No?

Jiang Chen looked dazed for a moment.

"What's wrong?" Yao Jinling asked with concern.

"It's okay, I thought..." Jiang Chen covered his forehead and forced a smile, "It must be an illusion. I'll pack it up right away, and we'll go keep an eye on Chen Yinchuan together. I also hope to activate the entity as soon as possible."

In fact, she was so anxious that she was jumping up and down, but she had to keep a calm face. She didn't want others to guess from her expression that Xiao Ji could not be contacted.

Unless it truly didn't appear on that entity, she wouldn't tell anyone.

She can wait.

Jiang Chen put on his clothes and washed up very quickly, moving briskly as if he was chasing something.

She ran to Chen Yinchuan's temporary workplace and watched him typing a long string of code, but she couldn't understand a single character.

Chen Yinchuan's hands were about to spark from typing on the keyboard.

He couldn't figure it out.

It doesn’t matter if Amu’s hidden code cannot be deciphered.

Why is it that even the most basic program activation is not working now?

"Chen Yinchuan, you've been busy all night. When can the entity be activated? Is it difficult?"

When Jiang Chen spoke, Chen Yinchuan realized that someone was standing behind him. He was startled and his hand holding the computer trembled.

"It's not difficult."

Chen Yinchuan told the truth.

Xiao Ji also silently ran these two words in his internal program.

"Then why hasn't it been activated yet?"

Chen Yinchuan was speechless.

When Xiao Ji heard Jiang Chen's question, he habitually answered it by thinking in his chain.

You can’t wake up someone who is pretending to be asleep.

It is naturally impossible to wake up an AI that pretends not to be activated.

Jiang Chen no longer cared about Chen Yinchuan. He squatted beside Xiao Ji's body and whispered in a low voice that only the two of them could hear: "Xiao Ji, is that you? I miss you so much."

In a split second, action precedes the brain.

Xiao Ji's index finger moved uncontrollably.