Suspected

Lambert ended up trying three outfits in total, settling on one he was most satisfied with — a white cotton shirt paired with navy casual trousers.

To Trinity, the outfit seemed a bit plain, but Lambert had a good foundation. With his face and figure top-notch, he could exude a fashionable vibe even in a potato sack. She didn't need him to dress up elaborately.

She walked to the cashier, where the robot attendant asked, "Will you be paying with cash or account?"

"I haven't used cash in ages," Trinity chuckled, then swiped her finger on their payment terminal. Embedded under her skin was a nanoscale chip containing her identity and linked bank account. Whether handling business or financial transactions, a single finger was usually all it took.

Leaving the clothing store, Trinity turned to Lambert and said, "Now you can fulfill your promise. Tell me — how did you manage to walk like that?"

"Watch, learn."

Trinity felt a bit awkward. "That kind of answer is practically not an answer..."

Lambert, dressed in his newly bought clothes, walked briskly. His stride was larger than Trinity's, who had to jog to keep up with him. She walked beside him, saying, "I think I know why now. It must be a programming glitch, right? I can't think of any other reason. I don't understand programming, but glitches are possible, and maybe it just happened to glitch into a very unique program..." Suddenly, Trinity clapped her hands, somewhat excited. "This is a significant discovery! I have to tell the company's R&D team! Imagine if every robot could walk like this in the future, wouldn't they be even more human-like? They would definitely sell better!"

Lambert paused his steps, glanced at her, and coldly called her, "Human."

"Hmm?"

"Don't tell anyone."

"Why?"

"You'll get into trouble."

"Pff, I'll believe that when I see it!" Trinity returned home and called Engineer Lisa.

Lisa was the engineer who installed her robot. She had been an engineer for five years and had never encountered such a situation before. "Trinity, are you sure everything you're saying is true?"

"Absolutely! I even recorded a video!"

"Alright, I'm coming over right away. In the meantime, try to shut down the robot. If you can't shut it down, lock it in a sealed space, or lock yourself in a room away from it, understand?"

Lisa's tone was serious, causing Trinity to hesitate. "Why? What's going on?"

"No time to explain. Just hide for now. I'll be there shortly."

True to her word, Lisa arrived quickly, accompanied not only by herself but also by a group of seven or eight people, including engineers and uniformed SWAT officers, all heavily armed.

They didn't bother knocking; they broke in directly.

Trinity jumped in surprise.

Lisa pointed at Lambert, and the SWAT team rushed forward, quickly restraining him, handcuffing him, and fitting him with a specially designed collar. Trinity recognized the collar—it was used to block signals, preventing Lambert from connecting to the network.

Lisa pulled Trinity aside, furrowing her brow. "Trinity, didn't I tell you to hide?"

"Why would I need to hide?"

"To protect you from the robot!"

Trinity paused for a moment, then replied, "Robots don't harm humans. Since the first robot was created over a hundred years ago, there hasn't been a single documented case of a robot autonomously harming a human. Any incidents involving robots causing harm to life or property have been due to human error." She had recited this during her pre-job training so many times that it came out almost effortlessly.

"That's true, but humans must remain cautious... Are you really not afraid at all? You're quite fearless."

"Well... when I saw him learn to walk—like a normal human—I was actually scared. It was eerie and unsettling. But even though I was scared, it wasn't of him harming me. I was scared of..." Trinity paused, scratching her head in confusion. "I'm not sure what I was scared of..."

Lisa interjected, "I think it's because you've encountered the Uncanny Valley threshold."

"What... what does that mean?"

"The Uncanny Valley theory was proposed in the last century. It suggests that humans' affinity towards robots increases as their similarity to humans increases, generally following a positive correlation. However," he paused, "when the similarity between robots and humans reaches a certain critical point, humans can experience intense fear. This theory was gradually validated, but scientists later found that the critical point varies from person to person. Some of our clients also encounter this critical threshold of the Uncanny Valley theory, and at that point, they send the robots back to the company for modifications. Since you've only been working here for a short time, you haven't experienced this situation yet." Lisa explained briefly, then reassured Trinity, "Don't worry, sending it back for adjustments will fix everything."

Trinity shook her head. "I'm not scared anymore."

Lisa was quite surprised. "You've crossed the threshold so quickly?"

"Huh?" Trinity looked puzzled, tilting her head and blinking mischievously.

"When a robot's similarity to humans surpasses the critical point of the Uncanny Valley theory and continues to increase, humans' fear of robots quickly disappears, replaced by a stronger sense of closeness. Psychologists believe that at this stage, subconsciously, humans start seeing robots as peers. In other words, before and after the critical point, humans may have a favorable impression of robots, but the nature of this impression differs fundamentally."

Trinity smirked dismissively. "I don't have a favorable impression of him, so this theory doesn't apply to me. I'm not afraid anymore because I've figured out the reasoning."

"You? Figured out the reasoning?" Lisa looked incredulous.

"Right, his program glitched, and," Trinity lowered her voice, looking mysterious, "this glitched program is quite valuable. I suggest you extract it and study it carefully. Who knows, it might reform our existing products."

Lisa glanced at Lambert, standing quietly nearby. Lambert was wearing the collar and showed no signs of any program anomalies at the moment.

A SWAT officer spoke up, "There are no signs of altercation at the scene, and the lady denies the robot ever harmed her. So, there's no need to take the robot to the station. Could you just sign here so we can wrap this up?"

Both Lisa and Trinity signed, and the officer continued, "Now, where are you taking the robot? To the lab? We can provide a free ride, the vehicle is downstairs."

Lisa quickly thanked them, saying, "Sorry for the trouble, it was a false alarm."

"Don't mention it. We take all robot-related cases seriously. Although, so far, every case I've encountered has been a false alarm," the officer chuckled.

"Let's take him to our experience store first. They have the equipment and it's close by," Lisa said, then turned to Trinity, "Trinity, we'll need to examine Lambert closely. Could you come over and conduct an investigation?"

"Sure, no problem!"

The group escorted the robot out. As they walked, Lisa asked Trinity, "You mentioned you recorded a video earlier?"

"Yeah, I'll send it to you."

"Great."

Trinity tried to send the video of Lambert walking to Lisa, but when Lisa tried to open it on her phone, she frowned, "It won't open. The file seems damaged."

"Really? Maybe the network is bad. Let me try sending it again."

Lisa shook her head, "Just play it directly on your phone."

"Okay."

Trinity opened the video, but a string of text messages appeared: "File corrupted."