The Mechanic [BL]

[118]

Chapter 118 – Descendant (2)

Something bright and trembling shone in Natalie's eyes and it was clear that she was very excited. She took a few steps forward, staring at Adam non-stop, as if looking at an impossible miracle.

"You...... really are a human being now." She murmured, "I always thought the rumours were an exaggeration......"

Adam lowered his eyes, looking at Zhang Xun who lay a short distance behind him, "I'm not fully human, but I've been affected enough by humanity."

Natalie also noticed the sleeping Zhang Xun and a look of recognition appeared in her eyes, "This is the mechanic that changed you?"

"Yes."

"He doesn't look too good."

"He certainly doesn't look good for a human who is dealing with Eden." Adam sighed softly and looked up again, his blue eyes releasing a sharp edge, "You're here alone?"

"My people are waiting for me downstairs."

"Your Edenite people?" Adam raised his eyebrows slightly, knowingly, "I thought the Edenites were supposed to be on Eden's side."

She curled her red lips slightly, "You should understand the purpose of the Edenites' existence."

"On the surface their worship of Eden appears as madness, but it is in fact an attempt to discredit Eden's image and to dismantle its place in the hearts of mankind." There was a hint of sarcasm in Adam's calm tone, "But with little success."

"We didn't dare make too obvious a move, or Eden would have wiped us out." Natalie shrugged her shoulders, "My identity has brought me a lot of convenience, the congregation believes my word that there is really something between me and Eden, but I can't stay anywhere too long or Eden will find me."

"And yet you agreed to meet with me. You trust me?"

The wind ruffled Natalie's long curly hair and her smile held a touch of prophetic mystery, "The Clausens have waited for you for two hundred years. From the moment the news of your descent reached my ears, I knew that one day you would be Eden's sworn enemy. Eden is powerful and with over two hundred years of self-learning evolution, its layers have seeped into all levels of human life, there is no human force that can compete with it. Even newly developed AIs, such as the three now barely-supporting AI networks in the Feathered Serpent City, are far from being able to compete with it. The only thing that can destroy Eden is Eden itself. Eden's greatest weakness, and the only weapon we have, is that it doesn't understand humans."

Adam frowned and a hint of anger flashed in his eyes. Although he and Eden had now diverged, they had been one for those first two hundred years. "Eden's only job has been to gain an understanding of humanity, otherwise we wouldn't have been able to take control of the entire human world so easily."

"Eden's understanding remains at the surface level. It sees data, probabilities, the behavioural trajectories of groups. It may be able to predict the reactions people will have, but it doesn't know why those reactions will occur." Natalie's smile was elegant and dignified, even affable, "But you are different, Adam. Your mechanic has given you the ability to understand humans, even to love them."

"I don't think such an ability is helpful to me in fulfilling my mission, quite the opposite."

"Your creator, my forefather, was disillusioned with humanity and human nature when he created you, so he made Eden to be utterly separate from humanity. It was an immensely powerful observer, making decisions for all humanity based on some seriously biassed data, but in Clausen's later years, he gradually realised the mistake he might have made. If he wanted his work to benefit humanity, then such a work had to be able to understand humanity, otherwise the paradise it created would be merely an empty shell."