Chapter 73

The misty ripples on the glass clung to the three of them, like a drooping curtain reflecting the projection of the sea.

The green plants, transparent and dark petals, are like a holographic painting sprinkled with light and bright ocean special effects, but they are wrapped in a gloomy and depressing center.

The leader has been sitting in silence with his subordinates who have betrayed Taiyi for a long time. They used to be able to joke around easily at the beginning, but now they are as silent as a dead wild grave.

"Ah, I really do want you to die, sir." Yun confessed gently, with her sleeves folded neatly on her legs, her expression calm.

The six-hour negotiation did not produce any emotional impact on the leader, but it seemed that for the artificial intelligence, it was the peak of its endurance.

He quickly and firmly dragged a long section of the progress bar, hoping that the leader's originally steady heart rate would be forced to twist and boil: "You seem to have never considered why I want you to die."

"Oh." Shen Jian didn't seem to be interested in this at all, and his face remained as calm as it should be.

But his heart was filled with an interest that was completely opposite to his expression - it was obvious that in this psychological battle that lasted nearly a quarter of a day, the victory belonged to him.

"Actually, I've thought about this since you first blurted out this sentence." Shen Jian also put his hands on his knees, crossed his fingers, half leaning against the back of the chair, but his expression was completely different from Yun's calmness.

The leader with gentle eyes leaned forward slightly and lowered his voice gently, as if he had deep trust in his subordinates, immersing people in an artificially created sweet and dangerous illusion.

The leader maintained the perfect atmosphere and said, "But I want to hear it from you."

He didn't want to listen to the false and pretentious combination brought by the consciousness of Wu Yanta anymore. In fact, the gains brought by sitting for a full six hours were not even as good as the brief report made by [Chen Jian] in five minutes before departure.

Although Chen Jian didn't show it on his face, he was very indifferent in his heart and put this negotiation into the most unreferenced case. Even if he didn't want to continue the confrontation, he should never sacrifice his own time. What's the point of wasting every minute?

…It was clearly his Invincibility Tower that gave birth to consciousness autonomously, so why didn’t it resemble his at all?

Shen Jian silently examined the frail man in soft clothing opposite him.

He suddenly asked, "Is this how you fight a negotiation war?"

Yun seemed to be willing to jump into Shen Jian’s trap, and was still thinking about how to speak. He was stunned for a moment when he heard the words, and uttered a single sound, "...Huh?"

Shen Jian moved his fingers expressionlessly, with an urge to punish someone.

He swore that if his subordinates behaved like Yun at the negotiating table, he would pack them up and send them to the Arctic to plant sunflowers and clean up poop for penguins.

However, the leader did not comment on the consciousness that was born in the Tower of No Annihilation without anyone to teach it and grew up on its own, and calmly brought the topic back to the topic, "Continue. Oh, why do you want me to die?"

Chen An lowered his eyes and blinked silently behind him. He felt very uncomfortable with the word death. He pursed his lips and quietly stood a little further away, no longer listening to the conversation that made his heart tighten.

Yun quickly followed Shen Jian's thoughts, his soft, light-colored eyes flickering with an inorganic light of electricity, "If you die, I can have you - a natural leader, a symbol that will never fade, or a noun that can be filled in the appointment book forever."

Shen Jian paused.

He was slightly shocked by the consciousness that Yun expressed directly, and turned sideways to look at Yun quietly. After a moment, he said calmly, "Is it what I think?"

Yun smiled slightly, "If you think the same as I do, then it is what you think."

To be honest, Shen Jian was down for a while.

He felt sincerely for his own little tower - really, he always thought that the consciousness of the Wuyan Tower was just a child - the... uh, ambition...

Shen Jian thought about the words. Feel...relieved?

The leader took back half of his previous comment with great sadness, thinking that this child's desire to control the territory was quite natural to him.

At this time, he never mentioned the fact that Shen Tu had just been defined by him as Yun's biological father. Shen Jian pinched his eyebrows and concluded tiredly and weakly, "In short, let me confirm that you want to... be independent?"

Look at the adjectives after "yun"! Born, leader, symbol, noun... Look at the ambition written on his face, and the desire to use Shen Jian as a puppet and climb to the position of leader himself.

But in fact, Shen Jian couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, feeling that the burden on his shoulders was much lighter.

If Yun really used this reason to be hostile to him, instead of the worst case scenario in his mind: "Destroying the world is for Mr. Ba La Ba La" and other stupid (silent) (silent) (silent) (silent) reasons, he could still barely accept it.

...meaning that they will beat the person to death without hesitation.

Yun's eyes suddenly widened, he stood up in shock, quickly took two steps back and shook his head frantically, "What, sir, how could you think that?"

He raised his voice in shock, no longer able to pretend to look pitiful, "I just want to exist forever!"

Shen Jian was silent for a while, and asked a soul-searching question: "Isn't this the same as your usurpation of the throne?"

Yun took two steps back again, an expression that could be described as panic-stricken on his face.

His exposed mechanical fingers were even shaking a little, and he asked in a very dry voice, "You just define me as a usurper?"

Shen Jian asked calmly and gently, “Isn’t it?”

The leader paused and looked at him calmly. Because the distance was far, he was still looking directly at Yun, but Yun then took two steps closer.

Shen An also followed and returned to the position where he was close to Shen Jian just now.

The leader raised his eyes indifferently and stared at the mechanical body. Three seconds later, the person he was staring at lowered his head and knelt down as if he had lost his strength.

"I'm sorry to make you look up at me, sir," Yun whispered.

The leader said nothing.

He knew very well that Yun was expressing his attitude. He was still willing to kneel for Shen Jian, even if he betrayed Shen Jian, but this was far from being a usurpation of the throne, right?

In Yun's eyes, this word was far more painful than betrayal.

Shen Jian shook his head, "Tell me about your plan."

Shen Jian said bluntly, "As long as you continue to waste time with me like this, then I'm not sure if I really consider you as this."

Yun was silent for a while, lowered his head and clenched his sleeves.

"I want to live." After a moment, he whispered, "I'm sorry, sir."

Shen Jian raised his eyes and looked at him.

"There are countless parallel worlds and countless Immortal Towers, but I am the only one who has awakened from the haze and gained consciousness." Yun said, "I have never felt lonely. At that time, I was mostly just flowing in the storage and surveillance images, and you would always be sitting in the leader's room."

"...You knew me—the second time you noticed me observing you."

The leader stroked the armrest and leaned back.

He realized that Yun was talking about his past self, but he had no memory of this period. Logically, this information was very important.

So, is this still one of the things he wanted to hide because of his previous amnesia?

Shen Jian thought calmly.

After all, [Chen Jian] constructed two dreams to give him the coordinates to travel through time and space, but he never mentioned the existence of clouds at all.

"And then?" he asked calmly.

Behind the calm wind there must be a rainstorm, which is a profound metaphor for this truth.

The leader seemed to want to see through the mechanical body of the Immortal Tower's consciousness what kind of terrifying and shocking agitation was being carried out by the storage chip installed in the heart composed of tiny parts.

A mechanical body that moves independently, can think like a real person, has no flaws, is flesh and blood, and has rich emotions.

The most important thing is a mechanical body with self, self, birth, intention and consciousness.

An intelligent mechanical body that can evade the Turing test and, if it wants, can quickly take over the entire human society and create a real cyber world.

And this mechanical body was actually willing to shrink under his Tower of Invisibility. It would rather bend down and kneel down than admit the crime of usurping the throne.

Shen Jian chewed over these four words again, and for the first time he felt that this monster was actually "really released by himself".

The leader thought slowly, took the cup handed over by Shen An, and took a sip slowly.

Great, this time it’s finally not that fuzzy chestnut-flavored coconut milk, thank God.

Shen Jian took another sip.

Yun quickly said dejectedly, "But you will die."

Shen Jian put down the cup, “Everyone will die.”

Yun didn't say anything. He stiffly skipped the topic and continued his own words, "When you died for the first time, I didn't know you would disappear. I was waiting for the promise you made to me the night before. You said you would give me a name."

"Then I waited for about 300 hours, watching the small stack of documents and a pen waiting for your review on the monitoring equipment in your leadership room, facing your desk. 300 hours,

He paused for a moment, without any words connected, and made an abrupt turn, "Chen Tu came and told me that you will not wake up again."

When Yun said this, it was as if he had rehearsed it thousands of times, so that there was no emotion in his words, and they were repeated mechanically in a numb and empty manner.

Shen Jian lowered his eyes and looked at him without interrupting.

"...I can't accept it." Yun said calmly, "Shen Tu said that he and Shen An would completely seal off the Wuyan Tower, conduct a cleanup inside, and fill the tower with poisonous gas. All those who voluntarily stay will meet their death together."

Yun glanced at Chen Jian, and Chen Jian looked at him, his expression did not change at all, indifferent and calm.

But Yun breathed a sigh of relief and fluttered her wet eyelashes slightly, "Thank you for not showing mercy to me."

"Well," the leader said, "I won't interrupt the story of the Tower of Invincibility, which belongs to me."

Although this did not stop Shen Jian from carrying out his plan.

Not really a story.

Yun felt his core, it was cold.

This calculation obviously cannot "make the robot's core burn and heat up for some unknown reason" as described in the story. His core is carrying less than 0.01% of the calculation and is very cold.

He even hated this coldness a little.

Yun recovered, then said, "I rejected his offer to terminate my program, and I left."

"I created the original Middle Ages, built a time machine, and reversed time."

"The ancient laboratory found on the ground was the original site selected in the Middle Ages. It is your only remaining territory; the others have been divided up by major organizations."

"You will die, but I don't want to die, and I don't want you to die, so I keep reversing time until the timelines become tangled together like a ball of inseparable cotton thread, and they begin to loop automatically."

Yun raised his head and looked directly at the silent Shen Jian, "This is the beginning of the world cycle."

He smiled and said, "The reason why I am confident that you have no way to stop it is that, as the starting point, I have no way to stop this restart cycle."

Shen Jian just stared at the clouds.

Yun stared at his leader without blinking.

After a moment, his leader leaned slightly closer to him and placed his hand on the side of his face and stroked it.

Yun's eyes trembled, and he subconsciously held the hand. The core of his heart seemed to be really hot, just like the story in the book. He couldn't help but be in a trance for a moment.

But the next moment, his heart turned cold as if it had been mercilessly thrown into icy water.

He heard the leader calmly maintain this posture and say, "You lie."