Ant colony

α-han stared at me quietly, his eyes were as deep as the water of a lake at night.

"Why do you think that?" she asked.

"Enough is enough," I said. "I'm afraid I'm going crazy if I keep going."

"I thought you were a person who valued responsibility."

"Fucking responsibility." I cursed, "I have done enough responsibility. Let the system arrange a job for me, whether it is raising a hundred babies or going to a weather station in the northern hemisphere, in short, I will never Don't want to hear the word 'vulnerability'!"

She smiled: "Are you willing to leave the world behind?"

"What is there to be reluctant about?"

"You are ready to kill me at any time for the sake of the world."

As if a scoop of ice water fell from the sky, I shivered and looked at her vigilantly.

"You—what did you say?"

"You've always suspected that I'm Chaos, haven't you?" She joked and said horrifying words, "A few nights ago, you came back with a hidden gun, ready to kill me at the slightest sign of trouble. Just now, you He obviously thought I was Chaos, but he still ordered the hunt without mercy."

I was too shocked to speak.How did she know about Chaos?How did she know my every move?It was all so complicated that it overwhelmed the poor processing power of my brain, and it nearly froze.

"Of course I'm not Chaos." She smiled mockingly, "I won't use my talent in the wrong place."

I finally managed to say a word: "You, you stole the data of the system?"

"Yeah. Not only can I steal data, but I can also tamper with it."

"Are you crazy?" I exclaimed, "What the hell are you doing?!"

"Don't worry, I will not support those 'worms', because their resistance is meaningless. When they succeed in their resistance, history will start to repeat itself. They can only create a society that is similar to today and continue to lead the majority Humans suppress aliens, continue to domesticate human beings to become more and more obedient, and continue to build new correctional centers one after another."

"What do you mean?"

"Hear me out, honey." She stared at me. "You're right. Human nature has never changed, and I agree with that. Whether it's men over women, or women over men; whether it's a few The majority, or the majority ruling the minority, actually follow the same set of logic. But, can human beings never get out of the shackles of this logic? I'm really tired of it."

I suddenly understood her goal.The strong shock made me forget my anger and objection.Like a small boat swallowed by a storm, only stunned numbness remains.

What she is going to do is far more terrifying than advocating "freedom" for men, cheating the system, or even blowing up half a city.This is no longer a loophole, it is a black hole that will swallow the entire human civilization.

"I want the system to calculate the possible future of mankind based on real data. In other words, a set of social systems that surpass human experience." Her tone was calm, as if telling a bedtime story, "at 501 The new system being tested in the city will carry out this task."

"Crazy!" I grabbed her shoulders tightly, "How can this kind of thing be calculated, maybe the result of its calculation is 42!"

"You have to try." She smiled. "And it's useless to object now. This task is the basis for the existence of the new system. I'm afraid no one can change it."

"This is impossible! How could the system agree to carry out your mission that endangers human beings?"

"I understand the logic of the system better than you. According to the proof of the new system algorithm, this task is more beneficial to all human beings than harmful."

She also thinks she's smart.Yes, she is indeed "smart" to creepy.I couldn't bear it anymore, and pushed her to the ground hard.

"You just wait to enter the correctional center! No, an anti-humanity element like you will be executed, and you will die in an ugly way!"

She sat up slowly, and said calmly: "Now it's not a question of what will happen to me, but a problem with the new system - performing this calculation will take up most of its computing power. In other words, It can only keep the smart management of the entire city at a minimum."

I was stunned for a moment, and exclaimed: "You are making fun of the lives of the entire city's citizens!"

"Yes." She replied frankly, "So someone should come out to maintain order—of course, I don't care what happens to the citizens of the city, I just hope that they will not riot and hinder the operation of the system."

I finally completely lost my mind.When I woke up, I found that I was strangling her neck fiercely, and there were glaring blood stains on the wall.

I withdrew my hand abruptly.I saw her leaning against the wall, panting violently.And her forehead was broken at some point, and blood was still gushing out.

Only then did I realize that the silence of the entire room was actually quite abnormal.For such an obvious violent incident, the system did not issue any alarm; the housekeeping robot did not operate quietly.I suddenly understood that she had blocked the system in this room before showing her card to me.Otherwise by now I would have been arrested for intentional injury.

She struggled to climb aside, pulled a few tissues, and wiped off the blood on her face as if nothing had happened.From the beginning to the end, it was as calm as if it had never been hurt.

"Okay, let's calm down a little bit." She still maintained that damn joking look at this time, "Don't worry, I will give you time to vent slowly."

"Are you approaching me on purpose?" I looked directly into her eyes coldly. "There's no accident at all, it's all your plan, isn't it?"

"Yes."

I lost my mind again.This time, I seem to have broken her fragile left wrist bone.

She gritted her teeth and endured for a long time before she forced a smile again. "What else do you want to ask?"

"Why?" Saying these three words seemed to have exhausted all my strength.

"Because you are the one who can maintain order." She endured the pain and managed to say these words.

"Not why you chose me, but why you approached me! Why did you let me—"

The unspoken word seemed to open a gap in the embankment, allowing the pain that had been accumulated for a long time to surge towards me, splashing a blur in front of my eyes.

She curled up on the ground for a long time before she said softly, "In order for you to remember me."

I sneered and said, "I see. It's to train me like a machine, to subtly input your thoughts into my brain. Right?"

She didn't answer, I stepped forward and saw that she had passed out.

I will no longer feel sorry for her.Instead, he dragged her into the bathroom, woke her up with water, and continued to question her.

"Are you aware of the bait scheme?"

"If you mean your secrecy plan, then I don't know." She couldn't suppress the trembling of her voice, "Your secrecy was successful. I just speculated something from your personal records. And I Don't care about them."

"Then do you know why I doubt you?"

"I don't know." She smiled, "This is the question I want to ask you too. Why did you suddenly associate me with Chaos?"

"Because you are all monsters!" I strangled her neck again, and didn't let go until she struggled violently, "Monsters even have the same taste in music and poetry!"

She coughed, but her eyes gradually cleared up.

"I see."

I asked again: "Then when did you discover Chaos? Is she also under your surveillance?"

"I knew it a long time ago. I was indeed tracking her, but I was good at stealing data, and she was good at evading surveillance, so I couldn't track her. Thank you for helping me... find her."

"What are you going to do to her?"

"She... is a rare genius... capable of being my successor."

"You have such a good idea!" I laughed angrily, "I was chosen to maintain order for you, and she was chosen to maintain the system for you. Why do you think others will agree with your arrangement?"

"Because...you love the world."

"Don't think you see through me!"

"I..." Her voice became more and more trembling, "Those aromatic mixtures... I tampered with the data..."

I see.She didn't know the real identity of Chaos, she just tampered with the data uploaded by the micro-detector to the system, and added the information of those smell molecules.She had seen my doubts a long time ago, but pushed the boat along, trying to make my doubts deepen.This is just to test what choice I will make.

She doesn't even consider how much psychological torture I have suffered.There is no such thing as sympathy in her.

"That's right, I can't betray the world. But it doesn't mean I will be at your mercy." I held her injured hand hard, and finally heard a painful cry as I wished. "I can report this to the Global Management Council right now, and even if no one can relieve you of the task you gave the new system, we can always keep it from running."

She gasped for a while and said, "It's useless. From scratch, the transition between the new system and the main system has already begun. If it is stopped now, a lot of data may be lost, and the disorder will spread to the whole world, and the consequences will be even more serious."

"Okay. Nice job." I nodded with a smile, kicked her chest, and pressed her spine against the hard bathtub. "Then I'll beat you to death before committing suicide, so I won't be betraying this bastard world!"

She struggled and said, "No...I can't die now..."

"Hehe, you want to live to see the results of the system's calculations, don't you?" I sneered, "I won't let you."

I looked around for something I could use to continue torturing her.I want her to feel the long pain that life is worse than death before she dies.

Her intermittent voice came from behind me: "If...you don't want β-Qiu...let me live..."

"What?" I turned around abruptly.

"Your sister, β-Qiu... she, she fell in love with a man in the fertility center, and she is planning to have a baby with him..."

I was stunned for more than ten seconds, then jumped up: "You did it! You seduced her!"

"I didn't." She smiled with difficulty, "I just... gave her some help..."

I involuntarily picked up a glass bottle on the sink.She didn't hide, just looked directly at me quietly.

I held the bottle up high.But at the moment when she was about to swing down, her clear eyes seemed to have magical powers, which made me wake up.

Countless contradictory choices swirl in my mind, one ebbs and another.After a few seconds, my brain made a judgment.

If she was telling the truth, then our death together would only add insult to injury to the disaster that was to come.

Of the only two people in the world who know the future, at least one of them must walk out of this house alive and prepare for an unstoppable disaster.And if you are going to live, you have to consider a lot of troublesome things.

Now only she can fabricate reasonable data to explain to the system the mess in the room and the injuries she suffered; only she can delete the data and save β-Autumn; even, how to take over the city after the system is absent , her advice is also crucial.

Emotions screamed in my ears, encouraging me to smash the bottle down happily, see more blood, and hear more screams.But reason is pulling me with an invisible rope, telling me that there is only one choice to minimize the loss.

I finally threw the bottle aside and leaned against the corner dejectedly.

In the eerie silence, there was only the sound of her rapid and suppressed breathing.

After a long time, I finally said wearily: "Tell me, what do you do now?"

"First, pull me up." She held out her right hand to me.

I hesitated and pulled her up.

As soon as she stood firmly, she voluntarily let go of my hand, and then staggered towards the storage room by herself.

Looking at her thin and stubborn figure, I suddenly felt a dull pain spread from the ribs and spread to the whole chest.I don't know if I'm regretting my brutality just now, or I'm suffering because I didn't dare to really kill her after all.

I poured cold water on my face by the sink.The bloodthirsty instinct deep in the genes gradually subsided.Looking up, there is a gentle and quiet face in the mirror, from which there is no murderous idea or desire to commit violence.

ε-Rei is right.Perhaps what needs more systematic monitoring is our neural data and spiritual world.There are too many uncontrollable and changing shadows hidden there.

I quietly walked to the door of the storage room, and saw her kneeling on the ground, trying to wrap a bandage around her injured wrist, but she couldn't succeed because she was shaking too much.

"That's not okay." I whispered, "I'll do it."

She nodded.That gentle and pitiful appearance is like a wounded lion cub.Made me almost forget what a ruthless monster she was.

I fixed her with a simple bandage, fed her painkillers, and then gently wiped off the blood and cold sweat on her body.

She rested on my shoulder for a while before she could finally speak fully.

"I'm going to falsify a reasonable record."

"it is good."

"Then I'll reconnect the system. A doctor will be here shortly."

"You want me to go?"

"Yes."

I stood up without a word.

She looked up at me, a strange light flashed in her eyes.Is it helplessness, is it reluctance; or is it fortunate, is it satisfaction?I waited silently for a while, but she didn't say a word after all, she just turned her head and closed her eyes.

I turned and left and never looked back.

I am walking aimlessly in the dark night.The wind in the mountains is soft and warm, and the bushes stretch freely after the rain.The light of the city in the distance is gradually dimming, showing that the carnival on New Year's Eve has already ended.And in the invisible sea of ​​data, the new system that will run independently in City 501 and the global main system are exchanging data at a rapid speed.

It's a new year, and I just got a big surprise, what a perfect New Year's gift.

The world never really changed.What is gained is what is lost, and the joys and sorrows come back. The story of human beings is really a long and boring cycle.

Before I knew it, I had walked along the mountain road to the white sand beach.The bird of death flew to nowhere, and everything around was silent, only the slight sound of the lake water.I lay down on the wet sand, letting the water soak my clothes and touch my back.

For the first time in my life, I want to kneel before the lake and mountain and cry, and feel sorry for the fact that I am a human being.

Until the first ray of sunshine in the new year woke me up.I got up from the water, and then I heard the sound of the system.

"Happy New Year. Your drunk reaction has disappeared, and all physiological indicators are normal. It is recommended to go home and rest for 4 hours."

drunk?Ha, I never needed something like this to numb myself.

"What is she doing—" I habitually asked this sentence, but then it dawned on me that this was unnecessary.

"Take me home." I lowered my head and kicked the gravel under my feet.

"Okay," the system said, "you have an important message from the City Council."

I took a look, and the City Council decided early this morning to appoint me as acting director of the 501 Loophole Administration.

I laughed, I could hardly stop laughing.This absurd world is really copying her script scene by scene.

I went home, took a shower, changed my clothes, and without a break, went straight to the Vulnerability Authority.

The arrested Chaos ruined everyone's New Year's holiday.As soon as I walked into the lobby on the first floor, I received many attention gifts.

I grudgingly pulled myself together and greeted everyone, then went straight to the office.Someone is already sitting in my chair, contemplating the flowers on the table.

"Boss." I called softly.

Σ-Lu turned his chair around and smiled brightly. "Thank me! Last night I suggested that the mayor settle your matter overnight."

"Thank you." I tried my best to pretend to be happy, "Why are you in such a hurry?"

"Take it as a New Year's gift for you," she said, "Happy New Year."

I was taken aback and replied, "Happy New Year."

"Haha, I'm just kidding, I'm not so romantic." She laughed, "Last night, the municipal committee was meeting to discuss the new system, and I just mentioned your matter in passing. I didn't expect the opinions of those old guys They are so unified that they don’t want an outsider to succeed them, so you were quickly confirmed.”

I'm a little puzzled, how did it all go so smoothly?

Σ-Lu saw my doubts and said, "Actually, you should really thank the mayor. Her tendencies still have a great influence on other people. She must have praised you to them beforehand."

She then sighed: "I also want to leave quickly. As soon as the Chaos matter is over, I just want to leave this ghost place where it rains every day-you can do a good job this month and prove your strength to the committee. "

She stood up and hugged me hard.

I sighed in my heart—a month of great disasters.How can I get through this with no experience?

After the director left, I received another New Year's greeting from β-Qiu.It makes me angry to think of her, how audacious and stupid she was, to do more than I could have imagined.

I ignored her.That horrible dream came back to my mind.After my mother's weird smile, the overwhelming insects overwhelmed me.Bugs everywhere, monsters everywhere.Even the people around me have betrayed me one by one, what else can I trust?

My gaze suddenly landed on the vase on the table, I sneered, and shouted, "System, when did these flowers arrive?"

"6: 30."

"Don't accept any more in the future."

"you sure?"

"Yes."

I picked up the dewy bunch of ranunculus and threw it in the trash.

The news from ε-Cherry followed closely: "Would you like to interrogate ψ-79936077-Sophie today?"

I thought about it and replied, "Forget about it today."

I can't let this person go to corrections and ruin her.I still need her talents.

I can only follow α-Han's order sadly.Because I clearly know that only in this way can the loss be kept to a minimum.

2138年1月1日，下午15:30.

I looked at the news on the wall, it was the press conference of the 501 City data center.α-01271435-Han, the chief engineer of the data center, who has always lived in seclusion and kept a low profile, appeared in front of the public for the first time, introducing the transition between the new system and the main system to the world.

"The transition period is about 48 hours." Her voice was steady and powerful, "Everyone's life will not be affected in any way. With the level of human perception, it is actually not noticeable that the system is changing. If you feel abnormal, it can only mean that you So imaginative."

I can almost hear the audience laughing.In the picture, she is so elegant and humble, calm and confident.Her soft hair hid the scar on her forehead, and her long sleeves hid the bandages on her wrists.She looked radiant and full of energy.No one can guess what she experienced last night, because she is so good at forbearance.

Only such a person can hide his hatred for all mankind and step by step get to where he is today.It's terrible to think about it. How could such a monster be born among human beings?

Hatred and loathing flooded my heart again.I turned off the news and lay down on the empty desk wearily.

33 hours, less than 33 hours left for me to prepare.What ability do I have to make her so favored?In terms of organizational capabilities and emergency experience, how can I be on the same level as the mayor and her elders? Why can't I directly notify the mayor and the Global Management Committee?

I let the system find out the 1000 million-word "Emergency Plan" for me, and scanned the titles of the entries.

Of course, human beings are not fools who die in peace, and neither is the system.Even the system itself does not think it is 100% safe.It has long worked with human managers to analyze the possibility of various crises and ways to deal with them.

From natural disasters, to the mutiny of the Mars base, and then to the invasion of the earth by aliens, the "Emergency Plan" gives out the countermeasures.Of course, there is also an analysis of system failures, which is still the key part of the long text.If a city partially fails, the global main system will mobilize part of the computing power of other cities within 1 minute to take over the city.If the global system breaks down for any reason, the municipal council automatically becomes a wartime government, using a backup army to maintain order.

It's a pity that neither the system nor all the wise men at the top have anticipated a peculiar situation: the system of a certain city has not collapsed, but it can only operate at the lowest level.And this city is not under the jurisdiction of the global main system, it has an independent small system, not only does not allow the main system to take over the city, it may even fight against it.

The system was originally a globalized whole, but now, a separate island is about to appear in this whole, and this is our city, 501.The whole city is about to turn into a supercomputer, performing a madman's task and calculating an absurd problem.

How will the main system respond?How will global management respond?How will the mayor respond?

I don't understand the logic of the system, but α-Han does.Probably because of this, she carefully bypassed the main system and the Global Management Council.

I wait for her call.And she didn't keep me waiting too long.

I received a message from her: "At eight o'clock in the evening, I will wait for you at home."