The Mechanic [BL]

[40]

Chapter 40 - Wilderness (8)

After Zhang Xun and Cannon were pushed through an iron door, they saw a bruised man sitting against the wall in the primitive cell, with his eyes closed, unsure whether he was asleep or unconscious.

But Zhang Xun recognized him at a glance, it was James.

Zhang Xun rushed over immediately, first checking if he was breathing. Although his breath was weak, it carried the warmth of life. Zhang Xun exhaled a long breath and a layer of cold sweat broke out on his forehead. He reached out and patted James' cheek lightly, "Jamie? Jamie?"

James' eyelids twitched laboriously, as if stuck by endless exhaustion. One of his eyes was so swollen that he couldn't open it and the other was barely able to open a slit. Seeing Zhang Xun's face with the bruise on his cheek, James wasn't sure if he was dreaming for a while.

"Ah... Ah-Xun?"

Zhang Xun finally smiled, a kind of smile from relief when a big weight is lifted.

Great, he wasn't too late...

But James woke up suddenly, reached out his hand and grabbed Zhang Xun's shoulder tightly, "Ah-Xun?! Why are you here?!"

Cannon stood aside with his arms crossed and coldly said, "We came to investigate the people from Feathered Serpent City and to rescue you on the side but now it looks like we're going to die here together."

James was shocked, "But why did Zhang Xun come?! What about Adam? You didn't bring Adam as well, did you?!"

"I'm afraid that artificial intelligence is now being treated as a guest by the Feathered Snake City." Cannon said, with anger and disappointment flashing in his eyes, staring at Zhang Xun, "Aren't you supposed to be capable? Didn't you say you could control him? Now it seems that you were just talking big."

Zhang Xun didn't respond to his accusations and asked James in a low voice, "How are your injuries?"

"I'm okay, these injuries look scary, but they're actually just skin wounds, which have begun to heal." James didn't mention that the torture methods the Feathered Snake City people used often involved using drugs to create a kind of hormone imbalance in the body that produced a strong sense of fear, so most of the trauma caused by fear was on the psychological level. He looked at the bruise on Zhang Xun's cheek and his eyes flashed with angry flames, "They tortured you too?"

"No." Zhang Xun replied simply, "At least not yet."

"These psychopathic bastards..." James cursed in a low voice, as if afraid of being heard. Zhang Xun realised that he could see dread and fear in James' usually fearless eyes.

He was worried.

"Adam has betrayed us." Cannon said, "I think this group of Feathered Serpent City people will fall into the hands of that AI sooner or later. It has calculated everything from the beginning. Mechanic, didn't you install anything in it? Like a remote control mechanism to make his brain explode? I don't believe you only have that collar as a protective measure."

Zhang Xun said calmly, "Even if we kill Adam now, we won't be able to escape."

"Then we have to drag him to hell!"

"Setting aside whether humans have souls or not." Zhang Xun turned his head and looked at Cannon with calm and maddening eyes, "Do you think an AI has the concept of going to hell?"

"Don't get pedantic with me!" Is there anything you can do?! You claim to be the best mechanic in Lost Paradise, how come you don't have any precautionary measures?!" Cannon suddenly strode forward, grabbed Zhang Xun by the collar and almost lifted him off the floor, "Or is it that you've been brainwashed and controlled by him? Are you and him together?!"