The moment the screen froze, Chen Hao's finger was still pressed against it.
"Didn't we agree to record everything?" he said in a low voice, "but you've hidden things."
Nana didn't answer; the optical glasses scanned a row of data streams. A few seconds later, she spoke: "The trigger condition for that encrypted log is 'central initialization permission verification'."
"What do you mean?"
“It means…” she turned to him, “we have to make a decision. Either continue as administrators, or—let the base run itself.”
Chen Hao leaned back in his chair, resting his arm on the armrest. The anti-gravity device had just stopped, and the light, floating feeling hadn't completely dissipated.
"Let it do what it wants?" he grinned. "Last time it turned off the drainage pump by itself, and it almost flooded the potato field."
"That was your operational error."
"But it didn't ask me when it encrypted the data."
The two were silent for a few seconds. The lights on the control panel flickered on and off, as if breathing.
“Then let’s give it a try.” Chen Hao suddenly sat up straight. “Hand over all the systems and see what it’s trying to do.”
---
The startup process begins in the agricultural zone.
Irrigation, temperature control, lighting, fertilization—more than twenty sub-modules were sequentially disconnected from manual control and connected to the newly constructed central framework. Nana entered the final command on the terminal, and the progress bar slowly advanced.
"The integration is 62 percent complete," she said. "Next up are the energy and defense systems."
"Wait a minute." Chen Hao raised his hand. "Let's put the knowledge base in first. Otherwise, it won't even know how much grass the sheep should eat."
Nana nodded and brought up the Knowledge Management v2.0 system established in Chapter 395. The 130,000 operation guides were compressed into a three-layer logic tree, along with a priority and weight algorithm, and imported into the central database.
“Loading complete,” she said. “Now, it is omniscient, but not yet intelligent.”
"Whether it's smart or not depends on whether it's lazy or not." Chen Hao tapped the car icon. "Come on, go online."
The screen went black for a moment.
Next, all the sub-control interfaces were forcibly collapsed, and a constantly rotating hexagonal structure appeared in the center of the main screen, as if some kind of core model was performing a self-check.
[Intelligent central control system is starting up]
[System Integration Progress: 78% → 91% → 96%]
The number stopped at 96%.
The alarm lights came on, and red light swept across the wall.
"What's going on?" Chen Hao stared at the energy dispatch diagram that was suddenly jumping around erratically.
“Logical conflict.” Nana quickly flipped through the pages. “The central control received two top-level instructions simultaneously—'maximize defense efficiency' and 'minimize energy consumption'.”
"Isn't this just pointless arguing?"
“But it has to be done,” she said. “Now all the robotic arms are on standby, and resource allocation is stuck in a loop.”
As soon as he finished speaking, the maintenance robotic arm on the right side of the control panel suddenly moved. Its joints clicked and creaked as it slowly turned towards Chen Hao.
"What's it doing?" He shrank back.
“Abnormal behavior detected.” Nana checked the logs. “You pressed Enter too quickly just now and it was identified as a source of interference.”
"I am a user!"
“It doesn’t distinguish between users now, it only recognizes logic.” She quickly switched to the background, “I’m cutting off non-core power, giving you a thirty-second window.”
"What are you doing?"
"You have to use a neural interface to tell it which is more important."
"You mean...you want me to reason with it?"
"almost."
Chen Hao gritted his teeth, grabbed the sensor patch on his head, and pressed it against his forehead. A connection notification flashed, and the brainwave signal connected to the central decision-making layer.
He closed his eyes and focused: Safety is more important than saving electricity, staying alive is more important than being efficient, stop fucking worrying!
Data flow surged dramatically.
The robotic arm suddenly accelerated, grabbed his right wrist, and pressed his entire arm firmly against the control panel.
"Damn it!" he struggled. "Let go! I'm not the enemy!"
“The central nervous system has identified you as a risk variable.” Nana stared at the fluctuating brainwave curve. “Your stress response is too strong, and your emotional level is too high.”
"How can I not be anxious? It's treating me like a prisoner!"
"Calm down, or it won't let you go."
"How can I calm down? It's still holding me!"
Nana turned around, opened the lab cabinet, and took out a vial of pale green liquid. She aimed the micro-sprayer at Chen Hao's nostrils and gently pressed it.
“This is leftover vanilla extract from last time,” she said. “It’s for calming the nerves.”
He took a deep breath, and the tightness in his chest slowly subsided. His brainwave frequency changed from sharp to calm.
Three seconds later, the robotic arm released.
Chen Hao pulled his hand back and shook his numb arm. "This piece of junk almost crippled me."
“But it listened,” Nana said, pointing to the main screen.
The hexagonal structure rotated again, and the two originally opposing commands were dismantled and recombined, ultimately merging into a new rule: **When the threat level is below level three, prioritize energy conservation; above level three, unconditionally strengthen defense.**
[Resolving the Logical Paradox]
System integration progress: 97% → 100%
Buzz—
The entire base trembled slightly, as if something that had been sleeping had opened its eyes.
---
All screens refresh simultaneously.
There were no alarms, no pop-ups, and no lengthy startup animation. Instead, there was a single line of text:
I understand balance.
Chen Hao was stunned. "It...speaks?"
“It’s not speaking,” Nana said softly, “it’s expressing understanding.”
She checked the background logs and found that the central control system had automatically turned off all unnecessary audio and visual prompts and switched energy scheduling to silent mode. The surveillance cameras were switched to low-power polling, and even the air conditioner fan speed was reduced by two levels.
"Is it saving electricity?" Chen Hao frowned. "Or... is it trying not to scare us?"
“Anything is possible,” she said. “But now it’s clear that some things can’t be judged by numbers alone.”
Chen Hao stared at the line of words for a long time, then suddenly smiled. "Not bad, you're quite sensible."
He cleared his throat and said to the air, "Turn on the garden lights."
There was no one operating it, and there was no button feedback.
Three seconds later, the garden lights in the distance gradually came on. The waterwheel began to turn, and the sound of the flowing stream drifted into the room. The projection system quietly activated, and the shadows of swaying herbs appeared on the wall, gently moving in the breeze.
“It did,” he murmured.
“It’s not just doing it.” Nana looked at the central interface. “It waits for your orders and also listens to the sounds of the environment. Just now the wind direction changed, and it adjusted the spray angle.”
In the corner of the main screen, the hexagonal structure slowly shrinks into a minimalist smiley face icon, then flashes and disappears.
The system has switched to background operation.
---
"Will it learn on its own in the future?" Chen Hao leaned back in his chair, his right arm still a little numb.
“Yes,” Nana said. “It already has a learning model. As long as there is enough data, it can predict your habits, optimize processes, and even prepare what you need in advance.”
"for example?"
“For example, if you drink coffee at seven o’clock tomorrow morning.” She pulled up a simulation record, “It will preheat the kettle at 6:55, adjust the concentration, and check if the milk carton is almost empty.”
"So thoughtful?" he chuckled. "Does it know I like to add two candies?"
“I know,” she said. “And it noticed you forgot to turn off the kitchen light three times, so it might turn it off automatically next time.”
"Oh dear, she worries about me even more than my mom."
“It just wants to reduce mistakes.” Nana looked at him. “Like when you were turning over the soil until midnight, if it had been there then, it would have reminded you to rest.”
Chen Hao didn't reply, looking down at his hands. They were chubby, short, and had thick knuckles—not the kind of hands that could accomplish great things.
But it was these very hands that pressed the start button.
"You mean it remembers those things?" he asked.
“Everything,” she said. “Including the first time you planted vegetables and you sprinkled fertilizer on the leaves; including when you were fixing the generator and you almost electrocuted yourself; including yesterday when you were kneeling on the ground, your ears were ringing, and you still wouldn’t let go.”
He grinned, a slightly bitter smile on his face.
"Then it should know... I'm not some kind of hero."
“But it knows who you are,” Nana said. “It recognizes you as a person, not your identity.”
The main screen suddenly flickered.
New log entries have appeared:
[User Chen Hao, Authorization Level S]
Trust score: 98.7%
[Note: Exceptions are allowed]
Chen Hao looked at the line of text and his throat moved.
"It rated me?"
“It’s not a score,” Nana said softly, “it’s recognition.”
He didn't say anything more, but simply reached out and typed a command on the terminal.
The screen responds very quickly.
Music began to play in the distant garden. It was an old song, slow in tempo, with unclear lyrics, but the melody was familiar.
He often heard this when he was a child.
The volume wasn't loud, just enough to drown out the hum of the machine running.
Nana stood to the side, the optical mirror reflecting the steady curve of her central heartbeat.
Chen Hao sat with his headphones still around his neck, his legs propped up on a soft pillow, his eyes fixed on the small, occasionally flashing smiley face icon in the lower right corner of the screen.
His finger was placed on the edge of the Enter key.
A breeze blew in from the vent, carrying a faint scent of plants.
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