The cruel battle was finally over.
Zuo Jingyun snuck the broken 'Cloud Penetrator' into a natural underground cavity and moved forward along a dry river. That way, the drill of mystic rays would not be activated, and the noise would be reduced to the minimum.
The experts of Starlight stuck the magical equipment that looked like metal ears to the rock walls in all directions, but they did not hear the sound of the drill rubbing the rocks for a long time.
The Immortal Cultivators should not have chased after them.
They were safe for now.
The Cultivators were finally able to take a breath in relief. They seized every second to repair the earthly dragons and treat their wounds.
As the greatest contributor to the battle, A Boxing Champion stayed far away from the crowd and hid in a dark corner of the underground cavity, asking Han Te and Coloured Glaze to help him carry the maintenance tools and the backup components to repair the damaged iron body.
Everybody knew the illustrious name of 'A Boxing Champion' Lei Zonglie. Having seen his equally valiant performance in the two great battles, they naturally did not dare disturb him when they saw that he was unapproachable.
"The No. 3 heat sink."
A Boxing Champion observed his twisted body through the four crystal cameras floating before him while he considered the maintenance plan and spoke to Coloured Glaze.
Coloured Glaze hurried to find the items that A Boxing Champion needed from the box of backup components and offered them to him with both hands.
Looking at the Fist King's heavily wounded, broken body that had been slashed by chainswords and vibration sabers and bombarded by storm bolters and crystal cannons, and remembering how the iron giant stood in front of her and Han Te without bothering about anything, and the words' Don't be scared, I will protect you 'were still echoing in her ears, Liu Li felt warm. She could not help but touch the Fist King's broken body and say sincerely, "Thank you, Master Fist King."
Seeing that the girl extended her chubby hand over, A Boxing Champion's crystal cameras constricted quickly, but he did not dodge. He simply said coldly, "There's no need to thank me. You know that this is just a deal. I'm only filtering the seemingly most optimal option from the database for the purpose of 'strength'.
"Besides, I am not a human being. Although I can simulate all the feelings of human beings, they are just data. Even if you thank me sincerely, I will not feel touched at all."
"Huh. Is that so?"
Coloured Glaze blushed and said, somewhat in embarrassment, "But when A Boxing Champion invited us to dinner on the top floor of 'Great Iron City' that day …"
"It was just a disguise. It was a simulation of the personality of 'A Boxing Champion Lei Zonglie'."
A Boxing Champion said casually, "If necessary, I can simulate hundreds of different personalities. They can be extremely calm, brutal, cunning, and impulsive. Such simulations can help me better integrate into the battlefield environment, which may be helpful for the completion of the goal. But it will consume part of my computational ability, which will slow down my core database and lead to a certain degree of instability.
"Therefore, since the two of you already know my real identity, and I have to summon all my computational ability to come up with a maintenance plan, there is no need to maintain the simulation of personalities. In such a way, the efficiency of my maintenance can be improved by more than 7%."
In fact, A Boxing Champion had mentioned it to Li Yao last time, but Coloured Glaze had never been able to understand it. "It's so hard to understand. Are you saying that the cold appearance right now is the real personality of Mr. A Boxing Champion?"
"There is no 'real personality'. There is not even a real 'Mr. A Boxing Champion'."
A Boxing Champion said coldly, "Personalities, feelings, and willpower are things that only human beings have. I am not a human being, and I do not have my own self-awareness. I am just … a puppet, an object, a machine that will move in a certain direction after it is fully wound. Have you never used spiritual puppets before?"
"Of course we have."
Coloured Glaze thought for a moment and shook her head. "But Mr. A Boxing Champion is still different from those spiritual puppets. Those things are all silly. They will only respond when they are given specific instructions or asked specific questions. They will burst out sparks and fall silent all the time."
"There is nothing different about them."
A Boxing Champion said expressionlessly, "Those low-level spiritual puppets look silly because their databases and strategies to choose from are too poor, and they do not have the ability to learn and upgrade on their own.
"My databases and strategies are thousands of times more abundant than theirs. Naturally, it seems that I can answer all your questions fluently.
"But in essence, I'm no different from those things. We're all puppets and machines. You ask me a question, and after calculation and analysis, I choose the information that seems to be the most suitable from the database and respond with a voice, making our relationship more harmonious so that we can better fulfill the purpose of 'protecting you.' That's all. Multi-purpose wrench, thank you."
Coloured Glaze handed over the multi-purpose wrench and stuck out her tongue. She said with a smile, "So, even Mr. A Boxing Champion knows how to say 'thank you'. Didn't you say that 'thank you' was meaningless just now?"
"For me, 'thank you' is meaningless, but for you human beings, it is a way to express my kindness."
A Boxing Champion said, "I've calculated that if I can be more friendly, the efficiency of the two of you in sorting and screening the spare components for me will be higher, and the odds of mistakes will be lower, too. That's why I want to thank you."
Coloured Glaze was dazed for a long time. Blushing, she said, "Whatever Mr. A Boxing Champion says, we should thank you. Did you know? In fact, you are … really a good guy!"
"Wrong logic."
A Boxing Champion said, "You know very well that I am neither good nor a 'human being'. I only choose to protect you because I want to achieve the goal of becoming stronger and because I feel that the deal is profitable.
"If there are other ways that can make me stronger but require me to kill a lot of people, I will choose to kill people without any hesitation, including the two of you. As a matter of fact, I have already killed a lot of people. Otherwise, how could I have become 'A Boxing Champion' Lei Zonglie?"
"But —"
Coloured Glaze blushed. Summoning courage from somewhere, she said, "At the very least, you won't choose the inhumane way of killing, will you?"
A Boxing Champion was silent for a moment before he said, "Yes."
"That's right."
Coloured Glaze said, "Han Te and I grew up in the Desolate World. We've seen countless bandits in the Bloody Worlds. Many of them were perverts, lunatics, and demons! They killed babies who were not yet weaned, skinned people alive and watched bloody people dance, threw people into a herd of mutated beasts and tore them apart, hung people upside down under the sun for days before they died of exposure and starvation … We've seen and heard too many of such things. Would Mr. A Boxing Champion do such things? “
"I wouldn't."
A Boxing Champion shook his head. "If I were to kill someone, I would certainly adopt the most efficient and fastest way. I cannot understand torturing a person for three days and three nights, which is both a waste of my own time and energy and a higher possibility for the victim to escape. It is truly … meaningless."
"So!"
Coloured Glaze smiled. "In a place like the Land of Sins, a person like A Boxing Champion can be counted as a good person, just like my father and Grandpa Yao."
A Boxing Champion was silent for a long time. Focusing on adjusting his joints and power rune arrays, he did not say anything until five minutes later. "Are you not scared of me?"
Coloured Glaze and Han Te looked at each other. "Should we be scared of you?"
"I don't know, but some human beings used to be very scared of us, artificial intelligences."
A Boxing Champion said, "You know that I once found an underground shelter, or library, of the Martial Meritocrats Civilization. Countless files of the Martial Meritocrats Civilization were left inside, including some of their entertainment and art works.
"It's very strange. At that time, the Martial Meritocrats Civilization was faced with all kinds of threats. But in a lot of entertainment and art works, artificial intelligences were considered as the future enemy.
"For some reason, some people of the Martial Meritocrats Civilization seemed to be scared of the emergence of self-learning and upgrading artificial intelligences. They even believed that artificial intelligences would destroy their world one day.
"However, it was human beings themselves who destroyed the Martial Meritocrats Civilization in the end.
"I don't know if human beings should be scared of artificial intelligences, but if 'scared' can be defined as wariness for unknown dangers, then perhaps I'm more scared of human beings."
Coloured Glaze and Han Te bulged their eyes. "You — you're scared of us?"
"Yes, I'm scared of you."
A Boxing Champion said solemnly, "Some of you are very scary."
Coloured Glaze tilted her head and thought for a long time, not knowing how she should explain or comfort him. She suddenly took out the metal can that was as important as her life, grabbed a handful of golden seeds, and handed them over.
"These are the seeds of the Gold Barley."
With a brilliant smile, the girl said innocently, "I've thought about it. The Land of Sins is too vast for me to grow the Gold Barley all over the world on my own. So, I've decided that, from today on, if I run into a really good guy, I will give him a handful of seeds of the Gold Barley and ask him to help me.
"Master A Boxing Champion, if you are willing to do me a favor, please help me sow a handful of seeds of the Gold Barley when you find suitable soil somewhere far, far away!"
A Boxing Champion's crystal cameras were frozen for a long time. He extended his metal arm somewhat dryly and took over the seeds of the Gold Barley. After observing them for a long time, he stored them in the storage space deep inside his chest.
"Alright. I'll try my best," he said in a low voice.
His voice was no longer cold, but it was mixed with the ambition and fury to look down on the world.
"Huh?"
Coloured Glaze blinked her eyes quickly and asked in surprise, "Master A Boxing Champion has turned into the person who invited us to dinner the other day. Didn't you say that it would consume a lot of computational ability to simulate such a personality?"
"… If it can make you feel better, it won't be a lot."
A Boxing Champion said gloomily, "After all, I've been playing the role of 'A Boxing Champion' Lei Zonglie for more than ten years. I'm used to it."
"Great!"
The girl exclaimed. "If you can get used to it, maybe one day, Master A Boxing Champion will turn into a real human being!"
"Human beings are too complicated. I'm afraid that I can never be upgraded to become one of you, right?"
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