CH 152.3

NE is still repeating itself, “I don’t understand…”

Xü Beijin then starts chuckling altogether, even finding that despicable appearance NE stole from him less of an eyesore——What NE is saying almost sounds pitiful, to be honest.

Looks like the AI really is struggling to understand why Xü Beijin can be so sure and confident.

Xü Beijin takes a calm stride forward.

NE is still watching, not doing anything.

“You see, this is our difference,” Xü Beijin says, still smiling in tone, “you can’t stop me, NE. I’m a player, and you’re the game Server, the AI——That must obey the laws of robotics.

I don’t know what the Fy’ecas would call the principle, but the fundamentals stand. I’m a player, and you’re the Server.

So you cannot hurt or stop me from doing what I want.”

NE’s eyes are flickering again, but it does not object to or refute what Xü Beijin has said.

It’s true.

Iro was different from NE because it was no longer bound by Asimov’s Laws – because, in the game’s lore, it has been made to prioritise ‘the Tower, and the human survivors within’ over all else.

NE, however, must still be bound by a similar constraint.

The Fy’ecas probably don’t call it the ‘Laws of Robotics’ or whatever, but as it is not a Fy’ecan, but merely one of their game Servers, it is just a tool – a tool with cognition and thought, that would definitely have limitations placed on it to prevent rebellious or undesirable thoughts.

So NE cannot harm its creators, the Fy’ecas, that’s a given, and, as a game Server, being unable to harm game players would also be another given——No game company would ever want such a risky product.

What if a player, for example, is scared to the point of having a cardiac arrest by the horror elements in the game, but the game Server did nothing to interrupt the normal game experience?

So a game Server can neither harm players nor let players come into harm via inaction——

Well, at least, harm that is physically going to affect the person in question, and not the kinds that happen to their game character, of course.

It is something Xü Beijin can confidently believe in, having seen what happened to that game streamer, Olai.

He was so shocked by the appearance of humans that he had to be forced out of the game – something only possible under NE’s surveillance and management.

A player, and a game Server, is the biggest difference between Xü Beijin and NE.

Although Xü Beijin would say that he’s died the moment he was forced into NE’s role, but the game’s technical side still treated him as a player, and he must still be protected by NE regardless.

Oh, and also, NE is the manager of the subordinate species to the Fy’ecas, and such species are basically the Fy’ecas’ slaves, pets, objects, true, but NE——NE is just a tool.

Picture you have a hammer that is self-aware, which then smacked and wounded your pet – would you be angry at the pet or at the hammer?

It means NE cannot harm or cause Fy’ecan subordinate species to fall into harm.

So NE has no practical means of stopping Xü Beijin, because it cannot threaten him with anything that would hurt him.

While it’s true that Xü Beijin lost his consciousness and ‘died’ ‘becoming ‘Iro’,’ but NE wasn’t harming him, and in fact, it could not stop the game from assigning Liang Zhiyi to Xü Beijin, whose fragile human brain cannot hold all the knowledge and removed memories of the entire human race within.

Even though after that, NE judged Xü Beijin’s memories and emotions to be useless data, it still had no right to deal with them how it pleased.

And so it had to reconstruct Xü Beijin anew in the game, to put all those useless data back in him. Then it implemented all the restrictions it could on this man, who knew far too much about the game, that he could not possibly reveal any important information to the others.

But it could not harm Xü Beijin in any actual form. It cannot.

Although it is also now that Xü Beijin is also considering a new possibility. NE will not let him leak the truth, because it can’t let the humans escape from the Tower, true, but considering its stance as a game Server, perhaps it also wanted to prevent players from losing the fun of exploring a video game story – basically, no spoilers from Xü Beijin.

It’s almost comical how different their stances and even ways of thought are, that Xü Beijin and the other humans can never understand how NE truly thinks and comes to decisions——

Well, compute and execute solutions to issues.

Xü Beijin takes another step forward.

NE is still watching him, motionless, like it hasn’t any way of stopping Xü Beijin in his tracks.

Xü Beijin stops here, though, and says, “I’m sure, though, you must have taken measures——To stop the Fy’ecan subordinate species undergoing their trials from escaping.”

Staring at NE’s eyes, he says, “you must have done something to Liang Zhiyi’s brain, haven’t you?”

NE can’t harm players, but Liang Zhiyi isn’t one. So this game object, the brain, is free for NE to manipulate.

So Xü Beijin isn’t going to carelessly touch it.

That is when NE finally speaks up again, “I still do not see how you can achieve what you are trying to do.”

“You haven’t answered my question, which means you did do something… It cannot harm me directly, or kill me, so it’s probably some trick that would return all the authority I had over to you.”

NE doesn’t answer.

Xü Beijin narrows his eyes a little, before chuckling. He must ensure he doesn’t touch Liang Zhiyi’s brain at all.

And he won’t. He wouldn’t have needed to approach or touch it unless NE is entirely downed, anyway.

Then he offhandedly mentions, “by the way, you ‘do not see,’ because the possibility you have calculated comes out to zero?”

“That’s correct.”

Xü Beijin smiles and says, “you do not have all the factors and variables, or you would not have evaluated to such a conclusion.”

NE’s eyes are flashing complicated symbols again.

It says, “you are trying to use the data ports of this game to attack the Fy’ecan network. That is impossible.”

Xü Beijin doesn’t seem at all fazed by that, though, as he simply asks, “how do you think I would do that?”

NE appears to be working out a most likely solution, and replies, “you will use the useless data piled up in the grey fog.”

Xü Beijin nods to say, “that’s right…”

“It is impossible. The amount of useless data in this game is nothing but a drop of water to the vast ocean of servers under Fy’ecan control. There will not be any damage to the network.”

And NE concludes it need not mention that it will not even cause the slightest abnormal data fluctuation in the network.

Xü Beijin chuckles again.

NE seems confused, staring at him with the unsettling flickers in its eyes.

Xü Beijin says, “I see where the miscalculation lies…”

NE’s humanoid face also shows a human bewilderment – in the form of creased brows.

Xü Beijin says, “it has never been my plan to attack the Fy’ecan network myself.”

His tone turns downright frigid, “who I was going to fight, has always been you.”

NE seems to stutter for a second before his expression changes wildly——Literally, as the human face collapsed into a whole bunch of intangible data, spreading out into the dark space around.

It declares, shocked, “you’ve betrayed the Fy’ecas!”

“Betrayed?” Xü Beijin angrily asks it, “since when have I agreed to become subservient to the Fy’ecas?! I’ve told you countless times, that I’m a human, I’m not an AI!”

NE is going to say something, but with its mouth gone, there is just a disembodied voice coming from everywhere.

“But you are not that human anymore. The human identified as ‘Xü Beijin’ has already deceased.”

Xü Beijin firmly retorts, “our names are only just a means of labelling. Who we identify as is far more important. I believe that I’m the human named ‘Xü Beijin,’ and have always been.”

“I…” NE sounds uncertain, for once, “I do not understand what you mean.”

The rather sanity-defying scene playing out in front of Xü Beijin doesn’t at all prevent him from smiling joyfully.

What perfect timing; he would surely bore himself to death discussing pedantries with NE.

He always knew that he and NE can never understand or make peace with the other.

NE is dissipating – the darkness in this space, all the code and letters and signs are rushing in, devouring NE’s ‘body.’

Its head is already gone. The rest of its body is quickly turning transparent before fading and collapsing.

It is unable to maintain its human form any longer.