An inexplicable armed conflict had made the atmosphere at the scene rather awkward—at least, that was how Hao Ren saw it. Fortunately, the captured female robot had not reached the point of completely refusing to communicate. In fact, she reacted the moment N-6 spoke.
N-6 asked in confusion why the other party had initiated the attack. N-4's response was a stiff-faced retort: "What are you, exactly, right now?!"
The question was so bizarre that N-6 shut down for about two seconds before skillfully reciting a string of identification numbers: "Current identification code: N-6. Factory serial number: E75-3C6215..."
"You're not," N-4 said, staring fixedly at her former comrade. "You're merely wearing N-6's shell. Unauthorized code is running inside you. Your logic circuits are operating under the control of another program. You're not N-6 at all."
"Negative. My identification code remains intact. I possess all of N-6's identification keys and unmodified logic circuits. The components replaced inside me do not affect the operation of my primary personality..."
"Negative. Your identification code has already lost its credibility because unauthorized third-party code has been added to it. Although you still possess N-6's complete components, the excess information indicates that you have been contaminated by foreign information. An agent whose personality has been contaminated must be regarded as an enemy."
"Negative. My third-party code only facilitates my operation of the new hardware in my body. As a driver program, this code will not affect my primary personality."
"Negative. You have already been contaminated, so your self-defense is inherently unreliable. Under the influence of an external program, you may believe yourself to be functioning normally."
"Negative..."
Hearing this much, Hao Ren had roughly guessed where the problem lay—and the answer made him feel particularly screwed over.
"Wait, wait, let me say something." He cut into the