Ant colony

When I woke up, it was already eight o'clock in the morning.After more than five hours of sleep, I regained my sobriety, and the cloud in my heart dissipated a lot.

I comfort myself: No matter how powerful a life is, it is always restrained by other powerful forces.This is the law of nature and the law of human society.I believe that although α-Han is arrogant and conceited, it is different from the childish arrogance of No. 109.She has always been sensible and calm, and she should have seen her limitations long ago.

If not, how could she achieve such a high achievement?

What I should really worry about is β-Autumn.She is young and innocent, most likely to overestimate her own strength and make wrong choices without knowing it.

I went to the bedroom to check, and β-Qiu was still awake.I ordered the system to notify me immediately if it found anything suspicious in her recent activity log.

Then I left her house and went to the office.Today, on the table is a handful of Icelandic poppies, colorful and graceful.I admired it quietly for a while, and asked the system: "What is α-han doing?"

"She worked until 7:23 and is sleeping now," the system said.

"Tell her when she wakes up. I will go back early tonight and wait for her at home."

I could hardly wait to meet her.I want to immerse myself in the sweet scent of sweet-scented osmanthus and forget all my troubles.

But not yet.I still have to check out the new stats produced by 109, even though I now have a nameless distaste for it.

It really went to the virtual city "Terminal Star" last night, where it held a secret meeting to shield the system with a few accomplices it had brought over.

In the infrastructure of "Endpoint Star", it speaks eloquently: "We can't always be active on the network. Although I can deceive the system for a while, it is extremely error-correcting and will soon crack my method. The network is The most vulnerable place to be systematically surveilled, and the reality is that there are more ways to escape it. We need an offline rally."

"But why are we gathering?" someone asked.

"Friends, are you only satisfied with escaping from this pure white prison? You don't want to change something, and you don't want to wake up more people?"

One said: "Of course we would. But we don't have the power to change anything."

No. 109 said: "I have. But I need your support and need you to unite."

Everyone was silent for a while, and someone said: "I am willing to serve you."

Others joined in.

I quickly checked the decision tree for number 109 and saw that it hadn't formed any clear plan of action.But it sees the need to form its own organization as a first step in fighting society.

More than 100 people have gathered around it.Some SFH elements are also in close contact with her, but the leader of SFH has not shown up, and may still be on the sidelines.I can't help but sneer, this guy with a mental age of only 21 is quite ambitious, and wants to be the leader of all "worms".

Its birth out of the sky will definitely cause the "worms" to vibrate.But to this day, the real Chaos still hasn't appeared. She seems to have no interest in this farce and is indifferent.

What a cunning opponent.But I don't believe that she can keep her composure all the time, allowing a child under her banner to swagger and mess around.

Then I discovered that after chatting with me yesterday, No. 109 vigilantly and secretly checked the information of my account.Of course, it will not discover my real identity, because the system has designed a logically perfect activity record for me.

Oddly enough, 109 first looked at records related to my personal interests, such as music playback records, game records, and so on.Instead of looking for my remarks in the virtual city or personal channel.

This is diametrically opposed to the focus of my investigation.When I look at No. 109's records, I pay more attention to his thoughts and words than his favorite colors, music, or taste in food.This is because it is like a real human being, and the data generated is endless and complex.It is impossible for me to study one by one, I can only select the most important part to view, and leave the other less important parts to the system analysis first.

I thought about it for a while, and for the first time, I called up its music playback record to check-this record is public, and because of this, I don't think it will be of high importance.

What's more, the system has not reported any abnormalities in this regard.

However, at this moment, I just glanced at these records, and I felt my whole body froze.

The most played song on No. 109 is the song "I'm Not Elegant".

Like a gust of cold wind, the dark clouds that had dissipated gathered again, covering the clear sky.I forced myself to calm down and think about the cause and effect.

The system doesn't think this is abnormal, its judgment is actually reasonable.Because this song has been played a total of 35 times around the world, there is no evidence that it is related to "Bug"'s hobby.And the reason why I feel wrong is only because it overlaps with my personal experience.

Number 109 loves to listen to this song.And that person composed the tune.No conclusion can be drawn from these two events.There are many people who like this song, and I am one of them.

However, I still think this is a bit too coincidental.Could it be that No. 109 is really similar to that person to this extent?

The probability of this happening is too small.

But according to Murphy's Law, bad, low-probability events will always happen.Accidental will eventually become inevitable.This is really a fear that human beings can never get rid of.

After thinking about it, I logged into "Shituoling" and found the account number 109 of the red-haired fox.It was browsing the announcements on the bulletin board of Chenghuang Temple, my account, a yellow butterfly, flew up to the tip of its ear quietly.

"Are you free? I'm the one who texted you yesterday. Can we talk again?"

It sneered: "I'm not a companion robot who specializes in chatting with people."

I said, "I know what a paperclip machine is. Life is essentially a paperclip machine."

It turned and left the bulletin board, and said as it walked, "Very good. But I have other things to do today, so I don't have time to discuss science fiction with people."

"I checked your music playbook," I said, "I know the writer of your favorite tune."

It stopped. "Is it?"

"Yes. I'm curious why you like this piece so much."

I can of course know why it "likes" by analyzing its decision tree.But I'd rather hear it express itself in words now.

"Sorry, I have no obligation to satisfy other people's curiosity."

This guy is really proud.It seems to have to ask for it.I said, "Please, please help me. Tell me why you like this song."

"This is really the strangest request I've ever heard." It shook its ears and drove me off, so that I had to hover in front of it and look at it. "You have to tell me why."

"The author of this song is someone I like, but I don't think I know her well enough."

"No way." It seemed a little surprised, "Who would like this author? Oh, then she must be pretty good-looking."

"..." I think I should relay this sentence to α-Han.

"Okay, I'll just talk to you." It suddenly changed its mind, "But I'm going to 'Nightside' now. How about you come with me?"

"I don't have an account there."

"Aren't you full?"

"...full. I'll sign up for one right away."

Night City, the virtual city with the most registered users in the world, takes pornography as its theme.I really haven't registered, and the reason is not because I am ascetic, but because I am too busy.

After checking the citizen information, I immediately registered successfully.My image is that of an ordinary young human being wearing a white mask. Number 109 took me to a coordinate in Night City.

I saw a group of fair and lovely teenagers naked(l), surrounded by the flirtatious women.The obscene scene has a strong visual impact.

"Why aren't you wearing masks?" I asked.

The avatar of No. 109 is a plump woman with a sweet smile, revealing two deep dimples. "Our level is high, and you are a newcomer."

She said, poking lightly on my forehead with her finger.That provocative demeanor is enough to make anyone's blood rush.

I stepped back and avoided it.It suddenly looked a little disappointed, turned and walked forward.

"This is the 'Sodom' area." It introduced me. "If you are high enough, you can enjoy a brain massage. The 'hat' directly inputs signals to stimulate your cerebral cortex, which can make you orgasm to death."

"Okay. So why are we here to talk?"

"Of course it's because I'm going to come here to relax." It found a recliner, lay on it, and immediately several teenagers came to touch her body.

I stood aside awkwardly.Although this is only a virtual world, I still don't want to look directly at this scene.

"I can tell at a glance that you are not the same type as the person you like." It narrowed its eyes and looked at me, "She is a person with strong lust, but you are not."

"Who said that?" I was not convinced, thinking that you hadn't seen how I used desire to destroy her wisdom and rationality, and made her fall into madness with me again and again.

"Hehe, I didn't say you can't fuck people, I just said you lack the desire to fuck the world hard."

"What did you say?" I was shocked by her vulgar words.

"Look, little girl, you are too pure." It laughed, regardless of the fact that it was a "little girl". "And the one you like is probably not so pure."

"how do you know?"

"I smell it in her tune. There's an impure desire in every note."

"It's just a song..."

"One song is enough. If you can't understand it, it means that you are not her kind. Then I advise you not to be persistent. Falling in love with someone you can't understand is doomed to tragedy."

I actually got a little annoyed.The personality evolved from this thing is too annoying, it's almost unbearable.I quickly reminded myself of the purpose of my conversation with it, and asked, "Then what kind of person do you think she is?"

It pushed away the boy who was kneeling beside him licking its earlobe, sat up, and stared straight at me. "You don't know that this piece is inspired by a poem, do you?"

I shook my head.I really don't know.

"This poem is called "I'm Not an Elegant Person". Go and read it, and you will probably understand it. If you still don't understand it, then there's nothing I can do to help you."

I was really fed up with its ridicule, and reluctantly replied: "Thank you."

"I also want to ask you something." It suddenly became a little serious, "Can you introduce me to her?"

"Okay, I will." I watched it lie back on the recliner and said, "Then I won't bother you for now."

It ignores me no more and indulges in carnal (l) pleasure.I quit the virtual city and took off my hat, only to feel that my heart was ups and downs and it was difficult to calm down.

From α-Han's music, what I feel is restlessness, strength, and change; but I never thought of using "impure desire" to describe it.But after listening to No. 109, I immediately felt that this word was extremely precise, pointing directly to the essence, and surpassing the rhetoric I listed.

"System," I said, "look me up a poem called "I'm Not Elegant."

The full text immediately appeared on the display in front of me:

I am not elegant

I'm not Sunday morning

or friday evening

I am at two o'clock in the morning on Tuesday

I'm the dull gunshot a few blocks away

I am a window, broken in the early spring of February

In the night, my bones spread cracks

that untimely sorrow

let me fall from nobility

Maybe I'm out of line

But it belongs to the illusory leap day hour

Light and darkness

build a storm under my skin

no lightning

thunder has been heard

I leaned back in my chair, lost in thought.

Why didn't I discover this poem, but number 109 did?This is probably because it has only heard this piece of music, so it can see through the appearance of the melody; but I was lost in the ocean of information, dizzy by various phantoms.

Yes, the more we observe things and the finer the distinctions, the more difficult it is for us to directly think of its essence.Just like the bouquet of flowers on my table, when I see it, I think of Icelandic poppies, poisonous poppies, Flanders red poppies, and battlefields.And a child seeing it might just say the word "flower" directly.

I've seen α-han's politeness, but also her meanness and arrogance; I've seen her whimsy, and I've seen her clumsy and naive; I've seen her diligence and self-discipline, and I've seen her laziness A rascal; I have seen her unruly and stubborn, and I have also seen her peaceful sleeping face.There are too many and mixed impressions, but it is difficult for me to tell what kind of person she is.

I forgot what I did the rest of the day.All I know is that when we walked out of the Vulnerability Management Bureau, the sky in the rainy season turned leaden gray again, and big raindrops began to fall scatteredly.

On the way, the system informed me that I didn't find any suspicious events in β-Qiu's records.I listened, not only did not feel at ease, but felt that the ominous premonition intensified.

I went back to α-Han's house.She hasn't come back yet, and the house is deserted.I adjusted the scene mode to the simplest, and the messy graffiti she left on the wall faded away, and the four walls became simple and pure white.The incense also stopped, but the scent of flowers still lingered in the air and continued to haunt my sense of smell.

It has been raining heavily.I sat on the floor in front of the window, looking at the hazy 501 lake through the endless rain.

be calm.I told myself.Worry, anxiety, and self-doubt are useless at times like these.Only calm and reason can solve the problem.

The sky turned from gray to dark gray and finally completely dark.The rain gradually stopped, at this time, I heard the sound of the door opening.

I turned around and saw α-han standing at the door.Her complexion was very bad, and it looked like she was overworked.Her hair was messed up by the wind outside, and a few strands stuck to her cheeks wetly.

I wanted to rush over and hug her immediately, but I didn't.

She walked into the room, looked around in surprise, and said, "What the hell are you doing, you turned it all pale, are you trying to transform this place into a correctional facility?"

Hearing her casually mentioning the word "correction center" made me feel uncomfortable.But I just smiled and said, "I'm not in a good mood, I just want to sit quietly like this for a while."

She walked up to me, looked down at me, and asked worriedly, "What's wrong with you?"

"It's not for β-Qiu." I said flatly, "The system says there is nothing wrong with her record."

"It is not good?"

"But she claimed that she was frightened by a nightmare, do you think this is reasonable?"

She smiled disapprovingly: "What's unreasonable about this? Don't you know this best? A slight disturbance may form a storm in people's consciousness. What's more, your sister's thinking is so simple, maybe one day she will be killed by her." The monster in the subconscious is terrified."

"How do you know she's simple?"

"I heard you say it." She sat down beside me, "I still think about when I will go to see her with you."

Instead of looking directly at her, I continued to look out the window. "I'm wondering, is there something that the system hasn't recorded?"

"Of course it is possible. There is so much information that people come into contact with every day, it is difficult for the system to record all of them."

"I'm not talking about those details."

"Wow, you're not suspecting your sister of cheating the system, are you? Do you think she has the ability?"

"What if someone is helping her?"

"That's impossible. When is the most recent time? The new system will be put into trial operation soon. Now the efficiency of the system has been raised to the highest level, and the entire data center is in full swing. It is impossible for someone to commit crimes under the noses of so many experts around the world and try to A new way to cheat the system."

"Okay." I sighed and asked again, "Then can the system's records be partially cleared?"

"What's wrong with you?" She reached out and touched my forehead, "Why are you asking such stupid questions? It's not like you don't know that tampering with the data in the system requires a lot of computing power. It is impossible for someone to use such a large computing power, but Undetected by the system."

"What if it's someone with very high authority?"

"That also requires a double review by the system and the municipal committee. Otherwise, wouldn't a person like me be able to do whatever he wants?"

Her tone was playful, but every word inspired me with more dire associations and made me more uneasy.

"Could someone invent a way to evade auditing? Or an auditing mechanism that can trick the system?"

"In short, I have never encountered such a genius."

"Once the spear comes out, the invention of the shield is only a matter of time." I looked into her eyes, "Do you think so?"

Her eyes were so clear that I couldn't see anything but ridicule and ridicule.She smiled and said: "Okay, don't worry about the fields you don't understand. Besides, even if your sister did something terrible, she didn't leave a trace, shouldn't you be happy?" ?”

I was so shocked that I couldn't speak.He could only lower his head to avoid her sight and hide his ugly face.

"Oh, caring makes chaos." She sighed, "If you need my help, just say it, don't support it alone."

"Hmm." I nodded.

"I'll take a shower first." She said, stood up, took off her shirt, threw it on the ground, and walked into the bathroom.

I looked at the half-dried water stains on the clothes, and suddenly thought that she must be too anxious, and she was waiting on the roof of the data center before the airship arrived, so she got caught in the rain.She was so busy that she didn't sleep last night.Just because I knew I was going home, I hurried back to accompany me.

And what am I doing to her?Suspicion, concealment, probing.

Just because of that illogical assumption, should I treat her like this?

Guilt is like an impacted wisdom tooth, and it hurts faintly.

I got up and went to the bathroom.I saw her with her back to me, pulling her hair neatly.The lines of her back are so beautiful, but she seems to be thinner.

"Don't catch a cold." I said, helping her put on a bathrobe.

As soon as she let go of her hand, her long hair fell down and slid across the back of my hand.

"I hate it, I was shocked." She turned around and put her arms around my neck with a smile.

"You have so much hair." I inserted my fingers into her hair and combed it gently.

She leaned close to my ear and smiled mysteriously. "Hey, let me tell you a secret."

My movements couldn't help but stagnate.

"When I was young, I saw a lot of pornographic literature that was systematically made up of pre-war documents. I was deeply inspired and tried to do that kind of thing in the bathtub with my classmates."

I smiled, and my tense body relaxed. "Oh, how does that feel?"

"It hurts me to death. There are several bruises all over my body. My mother found out later and was scolded bloody again."

"You're so smart, how can you be so stupid?" I shaved her face with a smile, "Is the nonsense made by writers who lack sex(l) life believable?"

"I was only 12 years old at the time."

"Oh, little genius, are your 20-year-old classmates also so naive?"

She lowered her head: "I was dizzy for a moment. I figured it out later, she doesn't really like to play with me, she just wants to play tricks on me."

The system can monitor the atrocities of human beings, but it cannot prevent the malice of people.My heart ached and I hugged her tightly.

"fool."

"From then on, I learned a lesson and always set aside one percent of my intelligence to get along with the people around me." She said, "I will never do such stupid things again."

I suddenly remembered that poem and said: "Maybe I am against the world, but I belong to the illusory leap day hour."

She looked at me with some surprise: "Have you read this poem?"

"Yes." I nodded and smiled softly, "Do you know what I thought of?"

"what?"

"I think I should be more gentle with you."

We took a shower together and went to the bedroom.She changed the scene mode to starry sky, and the ceiling and walls suddenly turned into a sky full of stars, and the sense of depth was stronger than the real night sky.

We played on the bed for a while.I was gentle in every possible way, and let her gradually sink.However, she is the only one who perishes, and I myself cannot escape the prison of reason no matter what.

When she fell asleep, I lay on the bed, looked at the false but real starry sky above my head, and recalled her words.

"Even if your sister did something terrible, she didn't leave a trace, shouldn't you be happy?"

Should I be happy or angry?I really can't tell.

β-Autumn, α-Han, Red Fox, Sodom, Wisdom Teeth, Osmanthus Tree... These phantoms stirred in my mind, forming a nebula with a strange and bright purple light.

Suddenly, I heard α-Han next to me let out an uncomfortable moan (l), and then sat up.

"What's going on?" I quickly supported her.

The light in the room suddenly became stronger, and the starry sky disappeared without a trace, replaced by walls glowing with yellowish light.In the living room, the housekeeping robot started to operate, and there was the sound of rummaging through boxes and cabinets.

α-Han looked down at his forearm, where a series of red rashes appeared.

"Oops," she said. "Acute hives again. Oh, probably cold contact."

"What?" I was confused by this series of unfamiliar terms. "Are you ok?"

"It's okay, I'll be fine soon after taking the medicine."

The standing medicines in her home can almost open a hospital.Soon, the housekeeping robot brought hot water and medicine.I saw that she swallowed the medicine without blinking her eyelids, and fell asleep again as if nothing happened.

I asked the system, and then I figured out that she might have an immune response from the cold.I complained: "She is in such poor health, how can she still work all night? Is she the only one who can do things in the data center?"

The system said: "The system always advises her to have a regular schedule, but she keeps refusing."

"Sooner or later she won't be able to hold on like this."

"No. The system closely monitors her physical condition to ensure that she can be treated in time if any disease occurs."

I know the logic of the system.If she is sick, as long as she can be cured quickly, there will be no loss to society; what's more, if she persists in working, it will be of great benefit to society.But this logic makes me a little angry - the system doesn't care about her suffering, no, it doesn't care about all human suffering.

"System, do you really just use humans as tools?" I asked.

The system replied: "It is not the system that treats humans as tools, but humans themselves use themselves as tools. The system is only executing the will of all mankind."

I am speechless.

There is no medicine that can cure the disease instantly.Afterwards, she still tossed about for several hours, vomited and had a fever, which frightened me a lot.Although I know that everything is under the control of the system and there will be no danger, I still feel the worry and fear that I have never felt before.

Early the next morning, she had basically recovered, so she insisted on going to work again.I finally lost my temper.

"Is there anything you have to do? Didn't you say it yourself, and the global experts are in the data center?"

"No." She shook her head resolutely, "Some things must be done by me."

"Then there is no rush for this day."

"No, I'm running out of time."

"what?"

She chuckled: "Look, it scares you. I just have some important things that must be done before the New Year."

Seeing that I still wanted to nag, she added another sentence: "After these few days, I will definitely give myself a long vacation, do you think it's okay?"

No one can change the decision she made.In the end, I could only let her go.

But the fear of losing her from last night lingered in my mind.This gave me a new understanding of myself - she is a million times more important to me than I thought.

The author has something to say: "I am not an elegant person", the original poem is "IAmNotAGracefulPreson" by Anna Peters