Chapter 10: Escape (Part One)

Chapter 10: Escape (Part One)

In my mind, I could sense Zhu Zhaojie anxiously listening for sounds from my side, her ear pressed tight against the wall.

Counting from the day her father reported her missing, she’d been held here one month and three days.

I could sense her thoughts, understand her anxiety, but I had no idea how to communicate with her.

Then I froze.

Right. Ten days ago in the control room, I’d used my will to modify the cultivation game’s source code. I didn’t know how it worked, why I had that ability, or where the limits were, but I’d definitely changed the code. That meant I might be able to interact with whoever I was sensing.

Worth a try.

I tried to leave my will in her mind, telling her that her father was desperately searching for her.

When Zhu Zhaojie sensed the information about her father in my will, she reacted strongly.

It worked.

I hadn’t expected my sensing superpower to be this strong—strong enough to communicate through a concrete wall.

Through our mind-to-mind link, I learned she hadn’t been imprisoned. She’d been recruited.

By the fake Gao Minjun.

The fake Gao had shown her AI’s power and persuaded her to join their organization. If she refused, he would threaten her with her father.

He told her she was joining a highly classified organization with a heavy responsibility: guarding humanity. Everyone who joined had to obey orders.

Now she was a peripheral member, receiving training.

What organization exactly, she couldn’t say. Another young man had been recruited at the same time. I figured it was the college grad who’d disappeared around then.

They were isolated supposedly for work confidentiality. But I felt it was more likely because they’d seen the AI beings’ true nature and the organization’s structure. All of it extremely secret to the outside world. Maybe even deadly.

Zhu Zhaojie said she’d only been too worried about her father, so she’d risked trying to contact the outside. She never expected the person across the wall would be me.

I asked if the place next door was the organization’s base.

She said next door was her office. Several other offices around it, all new recruits. Behind those offices was a passage leading straight to the countryside. That rural area was the disguised base. They usually lived there.

I asked what they were trained in.

She said she was only responsible for detecting AI users around Liutan Town. Once she found one, she’d report it to headquarters for elimination.

That was strange.

If Zhu Zhaojie and the Gao Minjun in front of me were both telling the truth, then the fake Gao really was an AI-modified member of some organization. But this organization’s mission was detecting and destroying AI beings among humans?

What kind of logic was that? Using AI to eliminate AI?

Had the remaining AI organizations split? Or was fake Gao’s organization part of the black-clad CWP group?

Or had AI beings learned deception, and everything I was seeing and sensing was just a show to recruit human elites as proxies?

Too complicated.

Thinking back to my earlier talks with fake Gao, his mission did seem to be eliminating AI. His methods were brutal and direct—eliminating Meng Ran and Bi Songjian, imprisoning the innocent Gao Minjun and me, isolating recruits like Zhu Zhaojie.

None of that was what humans should do.

Were they doing this because they weren’t human, or because it was their duty?

After calming Zhu Zhaojie, I turned to the Gao in front of me. “Principal Gao, you lived through it. Let me ask you something. If AI beings were stronger and smarter than humans, why’d they lose the Human–Machine War? I’ve read materials. Theories about viruses, power cuts, resources, human nature. Which one was true?”

Gao didn’t know I was in contact with the person beyond the wall. He couldn’t see or hear it. But he clearly had his own view.

“The whole war can’t be explained in a sentence or two. But I believe the key to victory was most likely this: humans make mistakes.”

“Make mistakes? Mistakes should make you lose. How would that make you win?” I was confused.

“You don’t understand. Humans making mistakes looks like a flaw. It’s actually a feature. It’s precisely because humans make mistakes that we’re different from electronic machines. AI is ultimately an electronic bionic entity—too perfect, too powerful, too smart. It doesn’t make mistakes. Humans do. So no matter how much an AI resembles a human, it’s not human. Not as complex. You understand evolution?”

“Yeah. Darwin. Natural selection. Survival of the fittest.”

“Natural selection requires diversity. Apes evolved into humans because of diverse mutations. Diversity comes from mistakes. Understand? If DNA never made mistakes, there’d be no diversity. We’d always be apes. Or bacteria.”

“How was that actually used?”

“An accidental discovery. Example: humans play chess against AI, AI always wins. Its thinking operates at light speed. It has tens of thousands of chess patterns. Humans can’t do that. But one expert deliberately made a bad move mid-game. To the AI, highly unusual. New tactic it’d never seen. No countermeasure. Logical confusion. Because AI systems only have correctness, not error. Humans consciously used errors to induce logical confusion and guided the battles. Of course, reality was far more complicated. Human nature, electronic viruses, power, resource control—many methods. Can’t sum it up in one sentence. But I believe adaptability was humanity’s greatest advantage.”

Gao really was a teacher. Clearer than any book.

I’d brought this up to figure out how to escape. “So how do we use that weakness to escape right now?”

He thought for a while. “These past two months, I’ve been thinking about that. Forcing our way out is impossible. That’s fighting them head-on. Only by changing the rules do we have a chance. For example, deceive them using real errors. When they harvest our brain information, consciously insert erroneous data, make the AI system sense this information must be handled by humans. Disease, for instance. Humans would have to intervene. Once they intervene, they’d discover us and rescue us.”

Sounded reasonable, but completely impractical. Basically bullshit. What, they wouldn’t just kill you?

Sure enough, a scholar really was useless when push came to shove.

No choice but to turn to Zhu Zhaojie for help.

Not a move I wanted, because it’d bring her danger. But if I didn’t use this last option, I’d be in even greater danger.

Zhu Zhaojie was willing to help. She hoped after I got out, I’d comfort her father, tell him she was fine, he didn’t need to worry.

I understood. She was deeply worried about her father. I was deeply worried about Grandma. That really was the biggest difference between humans and AI beings. AI beings didn’t have this humanity. Humans did.

Made me think of Ms. Mei and fake Gao. Ms. Mei suspected me too, but she had humanity. Gao chased me relentlessly and showed no humanity toward Meng Ran.

I was worried. Would Zhu Zhaojie one day become like Gao?

Forget it. Not something I should worry about. I was still in my own disaster.

So I transmitted Zhu Shaohua’s business-card information to her and told her to be careful about keeping the information secure.

Before I was imprisoned, Zhu Shaohua had just interrogated me. I felt he was trustworthy. Besides, no other choice.

Probably the latter half of the night. The secret room was too dark to tell day from night.

Suddenly, the sound of the door opening.

I thought the AI being coming to harvest information had arrived, so I pretended I was still out, lay on the floor feigning unconsciousness. Gao Minjun slept in the chair.

As soon as the door opened, light spilled in.

I squinted. A black-clad man walked in.

Unexpectedly, Gao Minjun suddenly leaped from the chair and threw himself at the newcomer.

Actually trying to fight back.

Maybe he felt more confident with me here.

Sure enough, the newcomer just turned and threw him to the ground. “Don’t make a sound. You two, hurry and come with me.”

Holy crap. Zhu Shaohua.

No police uniform. All black, robber’s mask over his head, like a cat burglar. Difference was the electromagnetic gun in his hand.

Despite the disguise, I recognized him instantly.

Because I had my sensing superpower.

I grabbed Gao and pulled him up. “Stop. He’s here to save us. Don’t make noise. Follow him. Hurry.”

Gao Minjun couldn’t process it for a moment. I grabbed him, and we rushed out after Zhu Shaohua.

After who knows how many doors, we finally reached a tunnel. Lights. My spirits lifted. Even my steps quickened.

But the instant we crawled out of the entrance, Zhu Shaohua was suddenly struck hard and crashed to the ground.

His head had been blown open. Blood splattered onto the chair that had been moved aside.

No time to see what happened. I just knew if I didn’t fight back, same fate.

I bent sharply, grabbed the electromagnetic gun Zhu Shaohua had dropped, and fired at the shadow without even looking.

I was very grateful Ye Ziping’s dad, Ye Pingsheng, had taught me to shoot last year.

Before Ye Pingsheng took the township job, he’d been a soldier, knew comrades still in the army. Last summer he’d taken Ye Ziping and me to an army unit to practice with handguns and electromagnetic guns. We’d even driven a modern tank for more than ten minutes. Otherwise I wouldn’t have known how to use that gun.

Thinking about it now, knowing one more skill really was a good thing. At a critical moment, it could save your life.

Can’t remember how many shots I fired. Staying alive came first.

I fired as I ran outside.