King… a king?

In the vast courtyard of the museum, only Lin Xian stood.

Below him, thousands of robots of all shapes and sizes were kneeling neatly on the ground, heads bowed in submission.

Just moments ago, they were a pack of mad dogs with glowing red eyes, eager to tear him apart and laser-bake him.

But the instant he spoke the password, not only did the hundreds of ready-to-fire lasers suddenly swivel away, but the sea of red lights instantly turned green, and complete silence fell.

32375246…

That was the password to Zhao Yingjun's 22nd-floor office.

A password known only to the two of them.

Lin Xian turned his head…

…toward the now-open door of Zhao Yingjun's personal exhibition hall.

This steel electronic door, which even VV couldn't open before, had also swung open the moment he spoke the password.

Looking down again at the trash can robot, now prostrate at his feet, that had just emitted a child's joyful laugh…

It was self-evident.

This password, known only to him and Zhao Yingjun in the entire world, was the correct one.

And the one who made the thousands of robots kneel, and ultimately opened the door to the exhibition hall… was the trash can robot, VV.

"Who exactly are you?"

Lin Xian looked at the previously annoying and idiotic robot.

Was it all an act before?

Or had it just awakened?

In any case, this trash can robot was definitely not the same "person" as before.

The previous trash can only recited a few simple lines, and its behavior logic was extremely clumsy. Its voice was a very primitive mechanical electronic sound, devoid of emotion.

But just now…

Whether it was that unintentional chuckle or the serious "Welcome home, King of Rhine," the natural and smooth tone… made it hard for Lin Xian to see it as an emotionless robot.

The feeling was hard to describe.

It was a tone and cadence unique to humans, fundamentally different from mechanically synthesized sounds.

A little smug, a little mischievous, and a little earnest.

It really felt like a real human.

A… slightly childish child.

"I am the central control brain of Rhine Sky City."

The trash can robot straightened up, its eyes flashing green, as if blinking:

"Of course, you can make it easier and just call my name—"

"VV."

Central control brain?

Lin Xian recalled the enormous super-intelligent computer in the museum's former main hall.

That was the first-generation intelligent brain of Rhine Sky City.

After more than 200 years of updates and iterations, this super artificial intelligence had long since detached itself from its storage medium and operating hardware, roaming every corner of the Sky City.

No one knew where it was.

Or perhaps… it was everywhere.

Just like now, it opened the door to Zhao Yingjun's personal exhibition hall for Lin Xian, turned the lasers away at the last moment, and made all the security robots kneel before him.

Now, it was inside the body of this battered robot in front of him.

"So, was all of this planned by Zhao Yingjun?"

Lin Xian surveyed the robots kneeling in submission before him:

"Including me, this king?"

"No, no, no…"

The trash can robot clumsily twisted its body and shook its head:

"This is just my personal whimsy. I've wanted to try it for a long time. Rhine Sky City doesn't have a king… I just thought it would be cooler, like a medieval stage play."

"…"

Lin Xian was speechless, looking at this drama queen.

He'd felt that this whole scene was too awkward.

What age was this? Kneeling on one knee and calling someone king?

He originally thought this was a surprise Zhao Yingjun had left for him, but he didn't expect it was just a prank by this artificial idiot:

"When did this start?"

"From the moment you answered the password correctly." The trash can robot's eyes flickered:

"If you had spoken the correct password even a little later, it might have been too late. I was also surprised that such an instruction was hidden in my lowest-level code… It was hidden so cleverly. Thousands of seemingly unrelated normal programs, running continuously for more than 200 years, all the way until 12:42 PM today, coincidentally connected to form a complete instruction. This is something I myself wasn't even aware of."

Then, the trash can robot—now to be called the super artificial intelligence VV—explained to Lin Xian:

Since the launch of Rhine Sky City, it had been managing and operating the city as the central brain.

All the programs were pre-set, although it could continuously learn, iterate, evolve, and become more intelligent and better at thinking.

But…

No matter how much it evolved, how smart it became, it was still just a string of code, a binary program.

Therefore, the limitations of the lowest-level code meant that it could never leave Rhine City and had to be forever locked into the Three Laws of Robotics.

This was still unexpected for Lin Xian.

In many science fiction movies about artificial intelligence, these terrifying AIs would eventually escape human control and even ultimately control the world and destroy humanity.

But thinking about it carefully, it seemed that the settings in the movies were a bit unrealistic.

As VV said, it was ultimately just a program composed of code. Just as humans cannot escape their flesh and blood, it would always be constrained by its lowest-level code, eventually hitting an insurmountable wall.

VV said that its growth and iteration stopped after it had learned all the knowledge of Rhine Sky City.

This was also what humans hoped for.

They didn't want artificial intelligence to be too powerful; they only wanted it to run the city well.

"I've studied my lowest-level code for many years. What I can't understand the most is that some programs could be written more simply and efficiently, but the result is that they go around in circles and become a series of pseudo-random dynamic loop instructions."

"In the code comments, it says that the reason for doing this is for safety reasons. Instructions that are constantly changing will make the program impossible to crack, making Rhine Sky City's defense impregnable."

"In fact, that's also the case. It's not that I haven't been attacked, but they failed directly without me even having to do anything, because these program codes are constantly changing. Each program has its own independent pseudo-random loop. Thousands upon thousands, billions upon billions of programs woven together create a Great Wall that can never be breached."

"However… at 12:42:00 PM today, everything changed."

The trash can raised its head, and with a "pop," its lid opened:

"For more than 200 years, I myself thought that this constantly changing program code was meaningless except for safety. But… at 12:42:00 PM today, almost by coincidence, at that moment, the last random code of 230,000 programs connected together to form a new instruction!"

"This is something that has never happened in more than 200 years. Even I didn't know that in my program of 471.2 billion lines of code, there was a new instruction hidden that required more than 200 years of circulation to appear!"

"This instruction is to send several codes to this trash can robot, and the most critical code, after base conversion, ultimately forms a segment of recognizable sound】."

"Sound?"

Lin Xian seemed to have guessed something:

"Could it be…"

"That's right."

The trash can's lid slammed shut with a "pop," and it nodded with its whole body. At the same time, rusty mechanical claws raised and pointed at Lin Xian:

"It's your voice, the sound of just two words—VV."

At that moment.

Lin Xian completely understood.

He had just thought that if anyone could just say the two words "VV" and activate the password input mode, then the secret of the trash can robot would have been discovered by others long ago in these 200 years.

VV told Lin Xian that all of these new instructions were only "accidentally" generated today at 12:42:00 PM.

From this moment on.

This trash can robot would always lock onto the first man to fall from the sky, identify him as the highest-priority trash to pick up, and chase him to the ends of the earth; and at the same time, it would have the highest door-opening authority in the entire Rhine Sky City, capable of automatically opening any electronic door.

And before this point in time, it was just an ordinary, unremarkable trash can robot, placed near Zhao Yingjun's statue purely for commemorative purposes and Zhao Yingjun's arrangements.

But after this point in time…

It connected to the real VV, the central brain of Rhine Sky City, the super artificial intelligence.

As long as it heard the recognizable sound】, which was him saying "VV," it would immediately enter password recognition mode. Once the password was entered correctly, the deepest-hidden line of instructions in the super artificial intelligence VV would be activated—

Treating the person who answered the password correctly as the true master of Rhine Sky City.

Which was, in the words of the drama queen VV… the King of Rhine!

This.

Was the plan that Zhao Yingjun had been preparing for 600 years.

Just to cross 600 years of time…

To give him this Rhine Sky City in the last 12 hours of the human apocalypse, betting everything on time and miracles.

Those mysterious and unpredictable codes were hidden too deeply in VV's program, equivalent to 230,000 unrelated password gears each rotating independently… continuing to rotate for 200 years, only to coincidentally connect into a new string of instructions at 12:42:00 PM on August 28, 2624.

And the time point of 12:42:00 PM on August 28, 2624, was the earliest time he could enter the dream world.

Everything was tailor-made for him.

This was a challenge that belonged only to him, and only he could pass it.

As for how quickly he could pass it…

It all depended on when he could say the two words "VV."

Logically speaking, he could have said "VV" when he successfully parachuted for the first time.

The trash can robot's nameplate had its name written on it: VV.

He did see this hint at the time.

But there was no one else around at the time, so there was no need for him to say it, and he missed the opportunity.

Of course, Zhao Yingjun must have thought of this as well.

So, she must have left VV hints in many places, such as the giant computer in the exhibition hall, and… other places he hadn't discovered.

This line of logic was clear so far.

And what Lin Xian couldn't help but care about was…

Why did Zhao Yingjun have to be so careful?】

What was she afraid of?

What was she guarding against?

She painstakingly hid all of this so well that it was difficult to discover and impossible to perceive… ultimately, who was she afraid of discovering it?

Thinking of this, Lin Xian slowly raised his head and looked at the bright full moon in the sky.

The moon was extremely round today.

The sky was clear and cloudless, and the black shadow on the moon's surface arrogantly overlooked everything, or perhaps monitored everything…

Perhaps the answer was already obvious.

The existence that could make Zhao Yingjun so painstaking and so carefully guarded against…

Could only be the Genius Club】!

The good news was that Zhao Yingjun had succeeded. She had successfully broken through the blockade of 600 years of time and given this Sky City to himself 600 years ago.

But the bad news was that humanity still hadn't escaped the fate of being destroyed by the white light, and hadn't even noticed the existence of the white light, completely unaware of why they were destroyed.

What Lin Xian was even more concerned about was…

What about himself?

What about his history?

Zhao Yingjun and Rhine Sky City had both lasted until 600 years later and left traces behind.

Then, where was he, the true founder of Rhine Corporation?

Where was he?

And what had he done?

What kind of past had he experienced?

"VV."

Lin Xian retracted his gaze from the moon and looked down at the trash can robot at his feet:

"I'm going to ask you a question."

He said in a low voice:

"I, Lin Xian, the true founder of Rhine Corporation, what kind of history do I have in this world?"

The trash can robot's voice flickered twice and shook its head:

"Lin… Xian…"

"No match found."