The Mechanic [BL]

[11]

Chapter 11 – Adam (6)

Zhang Xun was just thinking about how to convince his father when he felt his sleeve being pulled from behind and he felt Adam's accelerated breathing falling on the back of his neck. Evidently, facing hostile other male humans holding weapons was triggering his body's instinctive fear response, so he became tense and subconsciously sought the reassurance of the person he trusted most.

Zhang Xun involuntarily puffed out his chest and tried to "protect" the man behind him who was half a head taller than him. He met his father's stern gaze and asked, "If we don't let Adam try, can we survive tonight?"

Zhang Shuo didn't speak. There was no expression on his face, making it impossible to read his true thoughts. Michael added fuel to the fire next to him, "If Eden controls our protection system, we'll really be finished! These artificial intelligence are so cunning and dangerous, can a single human like you control it?! You've always been a technophile, have you been brainwashed by Eden?"

Technophile, a special term in Lost Paradise, aimed at people who had favourable opinions (or not enough disgust) for artificial intelligence. This was a word with serious moral stigma. Once accused, you would be regarded as a heretic by mainstream extremists and might even be regarded as a possible spy by the "Round Table", the decision-making body of Lost Paradise. It was undoubtedly an extremely vicious accusation that Michael would use this label to refer to him.

Anger was smouldering in Zhang Xun's eyes, but he still restrained himself and said with a sharp, somewhat sarcastic sneer, "Putting hats on people is probably the only thing a brainless brute like you is good at. Adam has been downloaded! He doesn't have an unlimited network interface and he can't communicate with other Eden servers. Once the connection is disconnected, he's just like an ordinary human, it's impossible for him to control our system. Our system is completely closed. In order to prevent Eden from taking advantage, all the barrier transmitters are controlled by primitive underground cables, so it is completely impossible for Adam to communicate with Eden and he can only connect to the system himself. Your worries reveal your ignorance."

"Enough!" Zhang Shuo scolded Zhang Xun, "Where were you when Michael was fighting bravely on the front line? You should respect him!"

Zhang Xun gritted his teeth, stopped talking and lowered his eyes, like a hermit crab that had just exposed its claws had retracted into its shell. But his eyes gave away his disapproval.

"I'll give you ten minutes." Zhang Shuo looked at Adam who had been silent and looked around nervously. No one had seen Adam since his descent and he had only read the report Zhang Xun gave him and seen the photos. Seeing the real person, he had a subtle sense of...discordance.

He was unable to connect the terror and omnipotence of Eden with the timid young man in front of him. His fear of Eden was inexplicably reduced.

Michael's smug smile froze on his face and he looked at the Officer in disbelief.

Zhang Xun immediately turned around and squeezed Adam's shoulder, "Is ten minutes enough?"

Adam said, "Yes."

Zhang Xun stopped wasting time, took out the medical gloves in the toolbox and put them on. He made Adam sit down then he took out a small pair of tweezers from the toolbox, stood behind Adam and began to carefully peel something. Michael showed a disgusted expression as he watched Zhang Xun peel off Adam's short-haired scalp to the sides, revealing a metal skull with some blood stains underneath. After removing a few millet-sized screws with a fine screwdriver, Zhang Xun removed a piece of metal, revealing the human hind brain lobe and cerebellum soaked in some kind of pale yellow liquid. This was where Adam's central system and database were located. Numerous densely packed nerve wires installed by nano-robots perfectly combined machinery and flesh. Below the fleshy brain there was also a small interface area, so that Zhang Xun would be able to examine Adam's central system.