The Backup Plan

"I am Xingtian." Yu Xiao answered without the slightest hesitation.

"Who exactly are you?" Yuan Zhen narrowed her eyes.

"I am Xingtian." Yu Xiao answered at precisely the same speed as before.

"You—who! exactly! are! you!" Yuan Zhen suddenly slapped the table and stood up, demanding an answer from Xingtian at a near-roar.

Everyone present was startled by Yuan Zhen's sudden outburst. They couldn't understand why she had suddenly lost her temper.

"I am Xingtian." Yu Xiao repeated the same answer in the same tone and at the same speed.

The vast conference hall fell into deathly silence as one person and one machine faced off.

Throughout the soundless standoff, Xingtian's body didn't move once.

Half a minute later, Yuan Zhen let out a long breath, put on her usual relaxed, carefree expression, and dropped back into her chair.

And where Yuan Zhen couldn't see him, Yu Xiao silently "breathed a sigh of relief" too.

Just as he'd expected, this had turned into an interrogation.

Yu Xiao's goal was clear: during this meeting, he wanted the Alliance to define him as an "individual capable of independent thought, but not yet a complete one."

He wanted them to define him that way so they would regard Xingtian as a life-form capable of speaking to humans as an equal, without thinking he was beyond human control and a potential threat.

But Yu Xiao had another consideration. He suspected Omega was developing a technology similar to a machine spirit. If he revealed that he was no different from a human, Omega might forcibly take Xingtian away.

Proving that Xingtian could think independently was easy. Yu Xiao was a human, after all. It came naturally.

But proving that Xingtian wasn't a complete individual would be more difficult.

That was because the biggest difference between artificial intelligence and humans wasn't intelligence, or even independent thought—it was emotion.

Machines felt cold because they couldn't empathize with human joys and sorrows, and so couldn't truly form what people called a "connection" with humans.

Yu Xiao couldn't help admiring the meticulousness Yuan Zhen had shown as Omega's founder.

When they'd first met, Yuan Zhen had tested Xingtian's understanding of human relationships under the guise of joking. Whether familial love, romantic love, or friendship, all these relationships were built on emotion.

If Xingtian couldn't perceive emotion, then in human eyes he couldn't be considered a "complete, independent individual." Naturally, the standard for an independent individual was based on humans as the template.

And even during the seemingly absurd exchange just now, Yuan Zhen had still followed this basic logic to test Yu Xiao.

Humans had emotions, but machines only followed logic.

"Who exactly are you?" was an exceedingly simple question. Both humans and machines could answer it.

But when the same simple question was repeated twice, three times, or asked in different tones, the difference between humans and machines would become clear.

Humans would instinctively look for something amiss: Why is she asking me so many times? Did I answer wrong, or did she not hear me? Why is she angry? Is she doubting me?

As a result, a person's answer might change in word choice, tone, speed, expression, and movement.

For example: "I'm Xingtian, obviously?" or "Are you deaf? I! Am! Xing! Tian!"

But a machine would give the exact same answer in the same fixed format, without emotion, as long as the question was logical—no matter the questioner's tone or expression.

Of course, that didn't apply to "pseudo-sentient" systems designed to mimic living beings.

"Forgive me for my rudeness just now." Yuan Zhen returned to her usual carefree manner. "Could you introduce yourself?"

"My name is Xingtian, serial number T-001, mecha model: first-generation nuclear-powered armor, affiliated with the Xuanse Cangqiong Corps of the Watchman Alliance, date of manufacture: March 14, Year 1 of the Apocalypse, pilot: Bai Ying." Yu Xiao gave a standard system response.

"Do you know where your consciousness originated?" Yuan Zhen tried a different approach.

"My consciousness originated within the 'Lianshan' system." Yu Xiao gave the first answer he'd prepared.

Although Xingtian, as a first-generation mecha, hadn't been equipped with an intelligent system, he did have a basic operating system.

If a machine developed self-awareness, the most logical explanation was that it had evolved from its system.

At Xingtian's answer, most of those present wore expressions of understanding. Even Yuan Zhen smiled.

For Yu Xiao, the most troublesome question had now been settled.

But he was wrong.

"You're lying," Yuan Zhen said to Xingtian with a smile.

As soon as she said it, the atmosphere—which had begun to relax—immediately grew tense!

"I'm not lying." Yu Xiao suppressed his shock and retorted in an even tone.

"I'm your designer. I personally wrote ninety percent of the code for the 'Lianshan' system, and I watched someone else write the remaining ten percent." Yuan Zhen's sky-blue eyes seemed to see right through Xingtian. "To reduce the mental strain on pilots during neural synchronization with their mechas, I optimized all of Lianshan's self-running code to be as simple as possible. That made it the operating system with the lowest resource usage and fastest response time."

"So the Lianshan system has no possibility of evolving on its own. It's a pure operating system. It can't even run an autopilot function."

Yu Xiao's heart sank.

Most of those present didn't really understand the principles behind Yuan Zhen's words. But that didn't stop them from placing their absolute trust in the conclusion of Yuan Zhen, the "walking authority."

Now every gaze and every ounce of pressure had turned toward Xingtian.

They no longer looked at him with curiosity and anticipation, but with wariness and suspicion—as if they'd already decided that an ill-intentioned soul was hiding inside the mecha!

An overwhelming impulse rose from the depths of Yu Xiao's heart and gradually spread through his thoughts.

Right now, he really wanted to split open the hangar with an axe, then carry his great axe to the Dawnrise Building and give everyone the biggest middle finger imaginable!

Fine, I'll stop pretending. I'll lay it all out: I transmigrated into a mecha. What are you going to do about it? Either we become brothers and fight monsters together, or I'll chop you and the monsters down together!

But in the end, Yu Xiao threw the thought out of his mind.

In this turbulent world, such a suicidal move would do him no good.

So he could only give the second answer he'd prepared.

"I didn't evolve from a system."