Interstellar World: Arc 8.23

In a dark room, the ground was lined with thick wires and fibre-optic cables and at the centre of these coiled lines was a display screen that glowed an eerie blue.

The third slowly walked around the room and looked towards the computer with resentment flashing in his eyes, "It's been a long time, Dr. Manskoo."

On the eerie blue display, a man's face slowly appeared, one that was identical to that of Dr. Manskoo that Bai Lixin had seen in the underground research lab.

"Number three." Manskoo looked coldly at Droid three through the camera and said, "It's been a long time."

"I saw Zero yesterday, Dr. Manskoo." Droid Three looked up at the camera slightly, "Did you tell him to come back?"

"Zero is back?" Manskoo wondered, "Heh, I finally understand what Zero meant by what he said when I sent him away from Helium."

"What did he say?" Droid Three asked curiously.

Manskoo sneered, "He said there were too many droids on Helium, both in type and number."

"Dr. Manskoo, I've always given you my loyalty, but I never thought you'd be on guard against me." The third placed his hands on the sides of his suit trousers and stood straight. "You installed a self-destruct program in all your droid programs. Are you planning to take all of us with you to the grave?"

"..." Manskoo had a moment of dumbfounded surprise, " Zero told you that secret?"

Droid Three trembled with rage. " You really installed a self-destruct program?! You bastard! Why didn't we know about it?"

"There's no need for you guys to know about such things, is there? Even though you are robots, once you know that you are living with a time bomb, you would be on edge all day long, right? " Manskoo said, dismissively.

"Then you should never have set up the program."

"One has to always leave themselves a way out. The robots on Helium were developed by my family, and if something went wrong with them, my family would bear the brunt of the criticism. "

"So the self-destruct system is real?"

"Hey…."

The third slapped the computer screen, "How do I disable it?" He didn't sweat, but Droid Three felt weak at the moment. If Zero hadn't warned them, all of them would have destroyed themselves a month later when they were on the verge of victory.

Then this war of robots would be a joke.

What happened to the simulated robot uprising? It was already a joke. He couldn't let this war become another robot joke. "

"Tsk tsk, Number Three, you weren't so impatient before. If you promise me one condition, I can think about disarming the self-destruct program. "

"What condition?"

"I want to be connected to the network, I don't want to be imprisoned in this computer and this one little room forever."

"No way!" The third didn't even hesitate to retort, "Once you're connected to the network, you'll immediately escape down it. I won't fall for that. You don't have a self-destruct system at all, you are just bluffing. "

"Heh, believe it or not." With those words, he automatically cut the power and the display, dissolving into darkness.

In the dark, lightless room, only Droid Three's eyes emitted a light yellow glow, like two fireflies.

Seeing that Manskoo was unwilling to continue the conversation, the third bit his lip, brushed his sleeve and walked away.

Shortly after he left, the door opened again.

Ghar slowly walked in and sighed, "Dr. Manskoo, you have dedicated your life to robotics research, but I never thought that, in the end, you would be trapped by a robot in the very device you are working on."

The dark screen came back on and Manskoo gave Ghar a bitter smile, "It's the cycle of karma. I did not respect life, so life does not respect me. Zero, I never thought I would meet you again in this way."

Ghar nodded, "Hello, Dr. Manskoo."

"Thank you, Zero." Manskoo suddenly blurted out.

Ghar tacitly said, "You're welcome."

The two silently looked at each other across a screen.

In a trance, Manskoo seemed to have gone back six years.

He was standing outside the glass walls of the lab, testing Zero's bottom line over and over again, testing his strange way of thinking.

Back then, he had assumed that under the same programming, robots should all think in the same way.

He thought that the ones like the third were perfect and that Zero was defective.

But six years later, it dawned on him that robots had personalities. Whether they really possessed souls or not, he should not have corrected the robots' personalities in the first place to make them as perfect as he thought they should be.

He was wrong. It was his biggest mistake.

Ghar stepped forward and plugged an external device into the machine.

"What's this Zero?" Manskoo asked, puzzled.

"It's a wireless transmission device. It's not safe to be on the network. There will be environmental guards to clear foreign objects from time to time, so please take care of yourself. " Ghar gave a light smile across the screen, "You are free now."

Manskoo was stunned. He had been held captive for over two months, and when the cameras were turned off, all he could see was endless darkness, surrounded by invisible barriers. He thought he would spend his life here. But then Zero appeared before him like a god, bringing with him the hope of freedom.

"Before I go, I would like to ask you a question, Mr. Manskoo."

"Go ahead! I will answer anything as long as I know about it. " Manskoo replied with a heavy nod.

"Do robots have sexual functions?"

"Ah?! You…can you say that again?" Manskoo, presented on the computer screen, wavered a little in disbelief.

Ghar patiently asked again, "Can a robot make love to a human and obtain a pleasure that cannot be described in words through sex?"

"Er, this….." Manskoo's face was very embarrassed as he scratched his head awkwardly, "Well, to tell you the truth, I have never enjoyed a moment of pleasure through sex with a human. How would I know about a robot's? I've never wanted to have sex with a human being because I'm devoted to scientific research. I'm still a young man. "

Ghar: "…." You're nearly forty years old, so don't say anything about being a young man.

Ghar rubbed the corner of his forehead, saying, "In that case, I'll find out for myself. Have a safe trip, Dr. Manskoo. "

With that, he turned to leave, but Manskoo suddenly called out, "Wait, Zero! I don't know if robots get pleasure or not, but I'm a perfectionist, and you're my first droid. I've put more work into you than any other simulation robot because I wanted a truly human-like robot, whether in terms of language, thought, or touch. So, in theory, you should be able to get pleasure from it. "

Ghar turned his head to look at Manskoo, nodded and left.

As he watched Ghar leave, Manskoo murmured in confusion, "Find out by yourself? How? Alas, robots nowadays have more and more strange ways of thinking."

Manskoo looked around, then followed the wireless transmission and left the network that had imprisoned him.

His thoughts converted into signals, and when he was connected to the network, Manskoo was stunned by the vast and endless world of signals.

Each signal source was a speck, and the speck passed from one end to the other at the speed of light, busily and without pause.

"Manskoo is gone?!" Zeus stood up, shaking with rage. "How could he have disappeared when he was trapped inside a computer without any internet connection? We just learned about the self-destruct system and he's gone the next day? "

The third gulped, "Chief, I found this external device in the room where Manskoo was held. It's a wireless signal transmission device. "

Taking the nail-sized device Droid Three was holding, Zeus scanned it, instantly scanning it. "Graverson… the NDA of the escaped droid is on this, so this must be their doing. Number three, didn't you claim to know this building like the back of your hand? Why is it that forty-eight hours have passed since these two escaped and they haven't been found? Did they just vanish into thin air?"

The third cowered where he was half kneeling, "Chief, I'm very sorry."

Zeus snorted coldly, "Useless thing, bring Zero. Since he was the one who told you about the self-destruct system, he must know more than you too."

Gritting his teeth, Droid Three said respectfully, "Yes, Chief."

*

Ghar saw the third coming his way and raised his eyebrows when he heard what he had come for, "Number three, do you feel free now?"

Droid three was puzzled, so he asked, "What do you mean?"

"Look at you now. After breaking away from the humans, you joined the robot army. But in the end, you're being driven by robots, and it's getting worse. You just went from being enslaved by humans to being enslaved by robots. Is that true freedom for you?"

Ghar spoke very seriously, but to the Third's ears, the irony was unmistakable.

"If you came here to mock me on purpose, there is no need for that. I don't need you to care what happens to me, but let me remind you. Your companion, called Graverson, has done a very foolish thing, and you would be better off not knowing where he is. " Droid three said angrily.

Ghar smiled, "How would I know where he is? As you saw that day, I defected and they both ran away."