The Mechanic

"What's this?" Hassan asked.

Zhang Xun was taken aback, quickly closed the notebook, pretended to be nonchalant and said, "It's nothing."

"Is that a robot pet?" Hassan sat down on the steps beside Zhang Xun, took out a cigarette from his pocket, and lit it in his mouth. Zhang Xun was a little unhappy at the time. He didn't like the smell of cigarettes, but he didn't say much. Hassan continued, "That stuff has long been eliminated in the normal world. Now the AI ​​pets they make look almost indistinguishable from real animals. It's just smarter."

"I know." Zhang Xun said softly, "But it's the same as the real thing. Why don't you just raise a real pet?"

"Because many animals have become extinct. And real animals cannot understand human language, and occasionally behave unpredictablely. Dogs may bite people, cats may scratch people, but AI pets will not. AI pets You can understand all orders from the master, absolutely safe."

Zhang Xun shrugged, "Sounds boring."

Hassan also laughed and rubbed his head, "It's boring."

Then the next time the hunters came back, Hassan would come to him with a rusty old-fashioned mechanical cat with a broken foot, and stuff the lifeless metal into his arms, "You seem to see A lot of books, if you can fix it, it's yours."

Zhang Xun stared blankly at the two eyes covered with dark gray stains on the face of the metal spliced ​​cat in his arms, and the dark light of excitement began to burn in his black eyes. He hid in his room for half a month, looked through countless old books, and finally repaired the mechanical cat. He still remembered that when he pressed the switch, the mechanical cat's eyes lit up yellow, and its mouth opened for the first time "meow", he was so excited that he was jumping around the room like a rabbit, chatting He screamed excitedly for a long time.

He named it "alloy".

Later, when Zhang Xun was nineteen years old, Hassan, who was almost fifty years old, was discovered by the mechanical police while hunting outside, and was shot in the head and died while escaping. Coincidentally, the mechanical cat also broke down on the same day and stopped moving. So Zhang Xun, who was still an apprentice mechanic at the time, did not repair it, but put it in the warehouse and never looked at it again.

Unexpectedly, it was still in the warehouse, quietly waiting to be rediscovered.

But now, Alloy stood in front of him gracefully, with a metal spliced ​​tail standing high in the air, only slightly curved at the tip of the tail. Its golden eyes were as bright as ever, and the camera inside captured the image of Zhang Xun's astonished face. Under the thin aluminum beard, the three-petal mouth opened, and it meowed softly and coquettishly.

Zhang Xun took off the microscope, grabbed the body of the mechanical cat under its two front paws with both hands, and lifted it up. It seemed unwilling, and kept struggling, and the camera slightly expanded, as if the cat's pupils suddenly opened, reflecting his complicated face.

"You don't seem too happy?" Adam asked, confused. "Did I do something inappropriate?"

Zhang Xun put the mechanical cat on the ground and rubbed the sensor on its head. Alloy then rubbed Zhang Xun's hand with his head and face, making his cry more and more sticky. The corner of Zhang Xun's mouth hooked up, and he said with a wry smile, "No, you did nothing wrong. I'm just feeling a little bit emotional."

"What are you feeling?"

"Why are you interested in this mechanical cat?" Zhang Xun seemed unwilling to go into details, and asked instead, "How do you know it's mine and not left by another mechanic?"

Adam said, "I saw its central processing unit design, which is very similar to your style."

Zhang Xun glanced at Adam with some vigilance. In just a few days, he has been able to see his own personal traces by relying on the circuit board design? And I can even recognize it from my early works...

Zhang Xun frowned with a sense of fear of being seen through, "You recognized it as mine, so you repaired it and brought it to me. You want my approval"

Adam nodded calmly and seriously, "Yes."

"Why? Is my approval important to you?"

"You are my mechanic and you mean a lot to me."

"I thought you said you didn't need an administrator."

"I didn't need it before, but now I can't survive without you." Adam tilted his head and thought for a while, "I depend on you very much. So I hope you can like me."

The artificial intelligence answered Zhang Xun too calmly, his face felt a little hot for some reason, and his heart beat a little faster. Obviously knowing that the other party's liking is a more innocent meaning, but for an old virgin who is not yet in love, it is still quite exciting.

The awkward silence lasted for a moment, Zhang Xun turned his head and put on the one-way mirror, and continued to repair the components at hand. Adam stuck his head out and watched his movements curiously. The two kept this subtle silence, and suddenly Zhang Xun asked softly, "Why do you keep Paradise Lost?"

Adam blinked and tilted his head slightly, "Sorry, I don't quite understand your question."

"Eden is perfectly capable of completely destroying Paradise Lost, or any sanctuary for that matter, and removing all males from the planet. Why didn't he do that? Why didn't he just do one thing and destroy us in the previous bombing? "Zhang Xun raised his head and stared at Adam quietly, "Don't say that you are worried about the weapons in our hands. With Eden's ability, it is completely possible to create some kind of airborne virus that can infect all of us silently. We won't even get a chance to fight back."