The Mechanic [BL]

[127]

Chapter 127 – End Game (3)

They planned to leave the icy, abandoned, Arctic expedition base at around three o'clock that night, when Pan and the other two super-AIs would begin to launch a massive false data blitz on Eden's European servers. The attack would last about three hours, long enough for them to enter the Greenland Free Folk's territory.

Once in Greenland, they would contact the leaders of the Free Folk and Bandits, including Lucille, and Natalie would also contact her clan. They would choose two people, plus Adam, to approach Eden's core bio-server and attempt to inject the virus into it, following the three most likely locations that Adam had selected after collecting and analysing the data.

Zhang Xun was lying on his side on the creaking, cold bed, listening to the wind howling outside the expedition base and looking absently at the locket in his hand. His dry thumb slowly caressed the tangled vine patterns on the pendant, bit by bit, as if it were the most important thing in the world.

A thud brought him back to reality. Adam's foot accidentally kicked against the hard foot of the bed as he walked towards him and his handsome face contorted because of the pain.

"...... Are you all right?"

"It hurts......" Adam held onto the bed rail for a few moments, looking almost like when they first met, when Adam wasn't quite used to the human body. Back then, when Adam had just learned to walk, he had often bumped into furniture because of his lack of control over his legs.

Adam limped over to sit next to Zhang Xun, hesitated for a moment then reached down to take off his boot and sock to check his toes, but fortunately the nails were not split ......

Zhang Xun felt a rare urge to smile and the corners of his mouth lifted slightly.

When was the last time he had wanted to smile?

"How have you become so clumsy lately?"

Adam looked at him with wide blue eyes that seemed a little aggravated, "I've been in Eden's network for too long and had to readjust to the human body."

For an AI, a second in the cyber realm might be equivalent to several years, it couldn't be compared with a humans' perception of time...... perhaps it was understandable.

Adam looked at the pendant in Zhang Xun's hand and there was a bit of surprise in his eyes, "You still have it?"

"......There's no reason to throw it away."

"If this was before you injected the nanobots then......" Adam didn't finish his words but Zhang Xun knew what he meant.

Zhang Xun, who was gradually losing his own personality as a human individual, was losing those emotional obsessions. That's why he started to become numb, became lacking in mood swings and at the same time began to show a series of symptoms of depression.

Zhang Xun's love for Adam should also have been worn away in the process.

But evidently, Zhang Xun was still holding on to something and refusing to let go. Even though he knew that it was like sand and couldn't be grasped, he still had to try.

"You know, in this world, there aren't many people I have loved." Zhang Xun said in a soft voice, raising his deep eyes with a trace of sadness that entangled with Adam's eyes, "And now there may only be one left. I suppose with a little effort, I can hold on to some things."

To love an AI whose worldview was so different from his own was certainly full of thorns and pain, but Zhang Xun still wanted to choose to continue to love, to continue to try hard to hold onto his own feelings. Even if it hurt, it was still better than nothing at all.