"There are 23,519 tombstones here," Chi Yan said, "and I killed every single one of them."
Fireflies grow quietly in the invisible corners. The scarcity of oxygen inhibits the growth of bacteria, and instead allows the snow-white bouquets in front of the grave to pause at the most passionate moment of life, as if in full bloom.
"God-making plan."
——Decades ago, in that chaotic era, a scientific research project called "God-making Plan" was once very popular.
"God" once existed in reality, as can be seen from the history of many ethnic groups. In legends, God is absolutely powerful, above all things, and can overcome all disasters.
This is a world abandoned by God, but scientists of that era wanted to resurrect God in the form of bionic humans.
This was a castle in the air, a bubble, yet many still enthusiastically touted and championed it, as if that would actually bring some beautiful dream to fruition. The most insane of these efforts, and the one with the most significant "results," was the underground laboratory on what was then called the planet Caryl.
That year, based on the design of the Caryl Star Laboratory and with the desolate planet E15 as its base, large numbers of bionic humans were produced on the assembly line.
Wen Xingze once read in the knowledge card of "Desolate: King's Awakening":
"The now completely extinct androids are a tragedy of our time. They possessed the exact same appearance, emotions, brain structure, and pain perception system as humans—the only difference being that their abilities in every aspect were far superior to humans, for they were 'gods.'"
"During a decade of research, the God-Creation Project achieved very promising results. They even created an individual that was completely godlike in every way, capable of dimensional transitions without the aid of any medium. Unfortunately, this individual suffered from significant flaws in anthropomorphic emotions and was ultimately deemed a failure and destroyed."
"During this decade, a total of 23,520 androids were created, put into use, and quickly integrated into society. With their exceptionally high intelligence and work abilities, as well as emotional systems similar to humans, they interacted harmoniously with the indigenous people and soon developed friends, lovers, and even families of their own..."
That decade was more utopian than anyone could have imagined.
Just like the bionic man project itself, dreams are used as fertilizer to sprout slender poppy flowers from the barren soil.
It wasn't until the year 412 of the Galactic Era, at the same time that the closest specimen to godhood was declared a 'failure', that a sudden android murder occurred. A female android, after three months of premeditation, murdered her unfaithful husband.
This clearly violates the three major principles of robotics.
These two things combined with some problems that have accumulated over the years: for example, the outstanding performance of bionic people in various fields has caused the unemployment rate of other races to rise; and the privileges that bionic people have obtained due to their special status have made people jealous.
All of this combined quickly caused panic throughout the universe. It was already an extremely chaotic era, with no stable government. Even the most absurd words would be believed if repeated enough:
"The existence of androids endangers the interests of all races in the universe. They are too powerful and have seriously disrupted social order!"
"They've already violated the three major principles of robotics. How can we ensure they don't go even further in the future?"
"The God-building project itself is wrong! This is blasphemy!!!"
This call grew louder and louder with the tacit approval of the Universal Alliance at the time.
In the end, all the laboratories carrying out the god-making plan could not withstand the pressure and announced to the outside world that they had decided to recall all the bionic humans and dispose of them properly.
Of course, the so-called "proper disposal" actually meant centralized destruction, but it wasn't just any destruction. After all, these were bionic humans, the most advanced technology in the universe, and countless human and material resources had been invested. The parts, chips, and cores of each bionic human were extremely valuable materials.
Their plan to create a god has failed, and the funds invested cannot be recovered. Of course, they have to make plans for the future.
So the scientists decided to secretly recall all the androids, then dismantle all their parts and chips, selling them or using them for other purposes. The androids were immortal; their souls and consciousness existed in every chip. They could only endure endless pain, completely deprived of their rights as human beings.
After much discussion, this plan was decided to be carried out secretly on December 2, 413 of the Galactic Era.
Bionic man No. 4130125 is a nameless failure.
He was created in January of the 413th year of the Galactic Era.
Every bionic man has his or her own name and a factory number branded on his or her body as his or her birthday - but this is not the case with No. 4130125. He woke up amid the eager anticipation of the entire laboratory, but within just half an hour of coming to life, he was judged to be a failure.
"The anthropomorphic emotional system is seriously malfunctioning," the lab's most influential scholar shook his head, declaring the android's death sentence. "All aspects of its function are far beyond standard, reaching the realm of 'god', but its emotions are extremely apathetic and it lacks normal values. This will pose a huge hidden danger and must be destroyed as soon as possible."
——"He is a failure."
——"Those silver eyes... make people feel sick and shudder. When they stare at me, my bones run cold."
When he first became conscious as an individual, all he heard were words like these.
No. 4130125 once thought that 'Failure' was a name, because everyone called him that, so he called himself that too.
Sentenced to death within the 30th minute of his life, the loser felt nothing special about it. He was a failure, worthless, and a worthless existence should be obliterated; it was as it should be.
However, he did not die as everyone expected.
The scientist who created him was unwilling to see his only masterpiece completely destroyed. On the eve of the failure being wiped out, he wanted to dissect his flesh and blood and disassemble the central chip in his brain for further research.
"Although it's a failure," the scientist said, his eyes strange and fanatical, "this hub and chip are still somewhat useful. After all, a failure won't feel any pain."
But he was wrong, failures can also feel pain.
It hurts a lot.
He had heard other androids say that scientists and androids had a relationship like family: scientists gave them life, scientists were their creators, and androids were willing to do their best to repay scientists.
Is that so? The failed android looked at the scientist in front of him, feeling a kind of confusion.
...By the time the failed product reacted, the scientist had already fallen in a pool of blood, and the alarms in the entire laboratory were blaring.
The failure had no intention of escaping, but the desire to survive engraved in the bionic man's gene chip, coupled with this confusion, made him suddenly want to live longer - it wouldn't take long, just ten months, after ten months he would die on his own.
December 25, 413 of the Galactic Era, was the date of his death that he chose for himself.
With abilities that were completely equivalent to those of a 'god', he easily escaped from the laboratory, dodged the wanted warrant, and began wandering aimlessly.
During these short ten months of his life, the Failure went to many places. The planet where he stayed the longest was a deserted planet very far away from the planet Caryl.
He initially went to the recycling station there just to search for some supplies and had no intention of staying long.
But on that desolate planet, there is a small...'country'.
An unsuspecting and overly naive young king, a group of killer robots wanted by the entire universe, and dozens of dwarfs expelled from their home country. What a strange combination.
The king will die, the loser thought.
Like androids, killer robots are another tragic product of technology. They can't live like normal people. Forget about establishing "kinship" or "family" with humans.
Not to mention those dwarfs who are considered a big trouble by the whole universe.
With an inexplicable mentality, the loser stayed on this desolate planet for a while. Of course, he hid his whereabouts very well, and even the most powerful killing robot did not discover it.
From May to November, a full six months, the desolate planet passed through midsummer and late autumn and entered the coldest winter of the year.
The failure watched everything indifferently:
On July 12, in the height of summer when resources were abundant and the climate was suitable, the king, with the help of the dwarfs, completed the overall repair of the robots. They no longer felt pain and cold in the middle of the night due to insufficient energy and irregular leaks.
The killing robots learned housework, cooking... and many useless skills.
On October 24th, in late autumn, the young king, having saved enough money by scraping together scraps, secretly went to the market on a neighboring planet with his robots and dwarfs to buy supplies and food. The wanted criminals were quickly recognized by those around them and fled in a panic on a second-hand hovercraft.
When they returned to the desolate planet, they saw the mysterious, vast and magnificent arc-shaped fluorescent green aurora in the high magnetic latitudes. I personally don’t think it is that rare or special, and it is not particularly beautiful in the human definition, but the little king, the robots and the dwarfs seemed very happy.
The little king happily hugged his subjects and then took out the brewed wine to drink.
The temperature dropped that night, and neither the robots nor the dwarfs slept all night.
On average, every half a minute - to be more precise, every 29.27 seconds, a robot or a dwarf would stealthily 'pass by' the little king's window to check whether he had covered himself with the quilt.
On November 1st, the first snow of winter, the country's Light-Giving Day, they held a banquet. The little king secretly placed gifts under everyone's pillow. When he returned, his nose was red from the cold, but he looked very happy.
He obviously didn't have enough clothes on. The loser suddenly looked unhappy.
It was also on this day that the loser decided to set off to return to Planet Carlyle. The date of his death was getting closer and closer, and he would end where he started.
When he left, the Light-Giving Festival banquet had just begun. His last sight was of the dwarves distributing steaming, thick, creamy mushroom soup to everyone, while the little king listened with a sidelong glance to the robot's clumsy jokes.
The failure had no ability to discern human appearance, which was related to his lack of anthropomorphic emotions, but at that last glance, he suddenly remembered the little king's appearance.
It was a small house on a deserted planet, its window frames covered in green ivy, letting in the light of the setting sun. The little king's skin was fair, his pupils distinct, a clear brown tinged with gold, and his teardrop mole a pale red. He was as pretty as a fondant figurine in a cupboard, yet more vivid.
Very beautiful.
I don't know what the robot said, but the little king quickly started laughing, like a star. The loser suddenly didn't dare to look at it anymore, turned around and hurried away.
Later he looked up the dictionary and felt that his emotion at that time could be defined as envy.
But later on, when he thought about it again, he felt that it was not envy, but to be more precise, it was "jealousy".
He envied the little king's subjects and everyone who was around him.
Crazy with jealousy.
The bionic man, who only existed for a short ten years, lived a vigorous and lively life and died quietly.
To this day, only very, very niche historical books record this period of history, and there are only a few cold lines of words.
On December 2nd, X901 Lab attempted to recall all androids and execute them. The androids and their families fiercely resisted, attempting to start a war on a cosmic scale. Although X901 Lab suffered heavy losses, it still successfully carried out its plan.
On December 3rd, at 10:00 AM, the dismantling of the bionic humans and the recycling of their chip components will officially begin. The bionic humans will retain their consciousness throughout the dismantling process, which has drawn opposition from some human rights organizations. However, with 97% approval from the entire universe, the dismantling plan will proceed.
That same day, the failed experiment, which had previously escaped, returned to the lab, obstructing the recovery process. The failed experiment killed all 23,519 androids, leaving no parts or chips behind. The entire universe was outraged. Laboratory X901 issued a high-value wanted warrant, and the failed experiment fled.
……later.
After shaking off his pursuers, the loser used his last bit of strength to perform a spatial jump. It wasn't intentional, but as he neared death, the last place he could remember was the desolate country with the not-so-beautiful aurora.
He had no intention of living, he just wanted to take one more look at the little king, thinking that even if he could leave a little trace in the other's memory, it would not be bad.
Later, at the other end of the distant universe, at a garbage recycling station on an abandoned planet.
The oxygen here is thin and the moonlight is cold.
As his life was about to end, the android heard footsteps. Someone dug him out of the rubble. It was the little king, the android immediately confirmed, even though he couldn't even open his eyes.
His eyes, or rather his visual system, had been completely destroyed.
In the last second of his remaining consciousness, he heard the little king's voice, a somewhat nervous, but pleasant voice—
"Are you okay? Can you hear me? I'll save you right away. Don't worry." The little king quickly observed his wound, remained silent for a moment, and then said with bravado, "It's just... just a fatal wound."
Failed product: "..."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
