The Mechanic [BL]

[67]

Chapter 67 The Antidote to Human Nature (5)

After Christmas, on New Year's Eve, the entire Lost Paradise was immersed in tranquillity for the first time in a while.

The old snow hadn't yet dissipated but a new snow has covered everything with a thick layer. People tried to clear the snow from their front doors with primitive shovels and industrial salt and the heat they exhaled turned into a thin layer of fog that floated over the dimly-colored buildings. The shouting and laughter also seemed more distant.

In front of the Lab, more than a dozen cleaning robots sprayed salt blocks and used powerful electric, heated shovels to cut the semi-frozen, large pieces of snow and piled them on both sides of the road. Pan's control of the extension robots had already begun to expand beyond the Lab and some districts had even taken the initiative to purchase newly built, snow-melting vehicles controlled by Pan's extension program from the Lab, to clear the snow on the main road areas.

Evidently, Lost Paradise's acceptance of artificial intelligence and machinery had reached its peak after two hundred years, and the Life Sciences Institute, the Department of Chemistry, the Department of Population Management and several major hospitals had all ordered new products from the Lab after a new product exhibition. They were a batch of extended intelligent robots based on Pan which included lab assistants, cleaning robots, housekeeping robots and nanobots. As a result, the Lab had made the most money since its establishment and finally had the funds to repair all the facilities damaged by the mob.

People were amazed at the huge changes in their lives brought about by the artificial intelligence that they had rejected for so long. They no longer needed to do monotonous trivial chores and could concentrate on their work and rest; they no longer need to mobilise hundreds of people in the early morning to clear the snow from the main road that was dozens of centimetres thick, no need to manually compare complex genomes, and many intractable diseases that were difficult to treat with surgery, such as brain tumours and Alzheimer's disease, were at the dawn of being cured after having nanobots.

Fernandez rushed into Zhang Xun's office and excitedly shoved the financial statement in front of Zhang Xun, "I can't believe it! We've made a fortune!"

Zhang Xun rolled his eyes, "Are you short of money?"

"Please! Isn't more money better?!" Fernandez stretched out his arms to show his new custom-made uniform and put on a few poses that he thought made him look handsome but were actually disturbing, "I haven't bought any clothes for half a year! I'm going to wear this outfit to go fishing for handsome guys in the club tonight!"

"You're wearing a mechanic's uniform to 'fish for handsome guys'?" Zhang Xun almost thought he was out of his mind. Although Fernandez had always been a bit crazy...

Fernandez sat on his desk with a look of sympathy, "Zhang Xun, you're becoming behind the times by keeping yourself in the lab all day. Don't you know there's a saying now? Smart is the new sexy(1)! Just put on a mechanic uniform and the effect is as amazing as speaking in a pure British accent(2)." (Author Note 1: Smart is the new sexy, from The Big Bang Theory; Note 2: Having a British accent is considered attractive in North America)

Zhang Xun felt like he was probably getting really old and didn't expect he would live to see the day when being a mechanic became a popular profession...

Fernandez showed Zhang Xun his characteristic, Italian-style, charismatic smile, "I say, brother, you shouldn't just hide here with Adam all day long. Adam has been a man for a year now and he hasn't experienced much of the joy of being a man. You two didn't even take a break over Christmas. If he's stuck at home with a workaholic like you all day, what will you do if he doesn't want to be a human anymore?"