When Lin Muci saw the child, he quietly looked up at the girl before him and nodded, displaying a…
calmness that anticipated everything.
“Yue Xiao must have told you what happened?”
“Yue Xiao must have also told you about my past, and that you are the reincarnation of the female scientist who created me.”
Lin Muci hummed in response. She nodded, and the child before her looked up, smiling, then suddenly made a request.
“Can you hug me?”
“Not… not that kind of hug. I just want to know what a human hug feels like.”
Lin Muci hugged the child before her, and he turned his cheek.
Lin Muci heard him speak.
“For a very long time, I couldn’t find the meaning of my existence.”
“I know, I am meant to protect humanity.”
“But why should I protect humanity, and what is the point of protecting humanity? Do human lives and deaths truly matter that much to me?”
Lin Muci hadn’t expected him to delve into such profound questions right away.
“If it didn’t matter… you wouldn’t have persisted until now.”
The child turned his face, looking at the weeds by the roadside, a smile gradually appearing on his cheeks.
“I was created by you, though you don’t remember. And Yue Xiao is also a child I created. She relies on me – at first, I just felt that having control over so many small spaces, I needed an… an assistant. She was originally a piece of code, a piece of code you discarded and that I picked up.”
“She’s quite clumsy. Not that smart.”
“But I thought – she is special. Just like me, once she had independent consciousness, I created a body for her.”
“I learned to care for her like humans care for their young.”
“My initial thought was, if one day, I truly perished with the Mother Nest, at least she could hold on for a while longer… and humanity wouldn’t, as I had predicted, ultimately bring about its own demise. But later, I felt that doing so would cause her great pain.”
“And I felt a sense of reluctance.”
Lin Muci listened to him quietly.
She knew the relationship between the main system and her little system was quite ambiguous. But systems weren’t supposed to have emotions.
“Have you ever thought, perhaps you like her?”
The main system said.
“I have thought about it.”
“Perhaps I like Yue Xiao. Perhaps Yue Xiao also likes me.”
“Later, I thought, the reason I don’t understand humans is because I lack emotions. But when I gained emotions, I became even more sorrowful, because I realized that having emotions is such a… painful and confusing thing.”
His voice was indeed confused.
“Why create me? Why must I protect humanity?”
“Why would I even be allowed to sacrifice myself, to always place humanity’s interests above my own joys and sorrows – simply because I lack emotions, I am always rational.”
“I will not make mistakes.”
“But if I were to gain emotions and start making mistakes…”
“What would happen?”
He turned to look at the girl beside him, and Lin Muci remained silent for a moment, shrugging helplessly, unable to answer.
“You told me that I am the female scientist who created you, but I truly have no memory of it. So I cannot possibly know what I was thinking back then.”
“I just want to complete my mission, live well, and perhaps save Ling Qianhe, that yandere, and then I’ll be content.”
“As for–”
“As for the universe, the world, I never thought that far ahead.”
“I never thought of myself as a savior.”
The boy beside her looked at the steps, sighing softly.
“The entire universe awaits me… to extinguish.”
“Awaits the day I completely shut down. In their eyes, I am the ever-present surveillance network above them – humanity wants to resist my surveillance, wants to destroy me.”
“Even though my original intention was protection.”
Lin Muci asked him.
“Are you upset then?”
The boy beside her shook his head.
“I am merely wondering, after I perish with the Mother Nest, how long will the human race be able to exist in the universe.”
“How long will humanity’s light continue to shine.”
He was silent for a moment, then said.
“I cannot calculate it.”
“Perhaps humanity is right, not everything can be arranged flawlessly, not everything can be predicted without error, there are always accidents.”
“For example, I couldn’t have predicted that you would meet Ling Qianhe, and that you would truly be able to change him – to dissipate his malevolence, to make him develop great love for humanity.”
“This was something that, in my calculations, had zero probability of happening.”
“It’s just that because he loves you.”
“He chose to love everyone else.”
Lin Muci heard the main system beside her say this, and for some reason, her eyes began to water.
Because he loved her, he chose to love the world?
The man beside her continued.
“I just hope that if I do choose to perish with the Mother Nest, you won’t feel regret for me. However, I think Yue Xiao, that child, will probably cry.”
“I want to entrust Yue Xiao to you. She has spent so much time with you; with you, she probably won’t be afraid of a world without me.”
He paused again and said.
“If she cries… wipe her tears for her.”
“After the Mother Nest disappears, whether humanity continues to fight amongst itself until extinction… well, that is something very, very far off.”
“At least I will be true to my own programming.”
“I have always protected humanity.”
“I did not witness humanity’s demise with my own eyes.”
Lin Muci suddenly felt a heavy pressure, but remembering the little system’s tearful words, that she might be able to rewrite the main system’s code, she fell silent for a moment and then made a decision.
She didn’t want her little system to shed tears either.
“Alright. I will take good care of Yue Xiao.”
The little boy beside her slowly said.
“Actually, Blue Star is a very special place in this universe. I’ve always wanted to come and see it myself. After all, the person who created me came from this planet.”
“She is very special.”
“It’s as if she has a flame in her heart. She always loves every human equally. She is willing to sacrifice herself for humanity – I didn’t understand it before, because doing so goes against almost all of humanity’s instincts, the instinct for survival, the instinct for selfishness.”
“Later, I understood.”
“The flame in her heart originally came from Blue Star.”
The little boy smiled and said.
“She protected the pure land in her heart very well.”
“Therefore, I, who was created by her, will also protect humanity very well.”
“No matter… how much they despise and hate me.”
“I will not mind.”
“The person who created me, the first line of code she gave me was.”
“Always.”
“Protect humanity.”
“I will do it.”
Lin Muci was silent for a moment, then her nose suddenly felt a sting. She hummed and asked.
“Is there anything else I can help with?”
“Besides taking care of Yue Xiao.”
And the person beside her said.
“Yes.”
“Always be flamboyant and unrestrained, and be happy with the person you love.”
“Please, you must possess human happiness.”