The Crisis of Intelligent Machines / The Last Person I Want to See

"Lin, what's wrong?" Prometheus walked in just then. She saw the lifeless-looking Vill-V and the vicious Lin and asked.

"Prometheus, the Fire Moths are spreading poisonous gas. Go and seal off all areas immediately."

Lin gave the order, then continued to stare at Vill-V without turning his head, waiting for her to take out the helmet.

"...Really?"

"Is there a problem with your logical reasoning system? You shouldn't be asking me if it's true..."

Lin turned around, and then...

Prometheus's beautiful face, devoid of any emotion, appeared without warning less than five centimeters in front of him.

Chapter Fifteen: The Machine Crisis

"Beep—Monitoring Lin's heartbeat... He's in a state of tension, which can be interpreted as lying."

Upon approaching, a faint, bright red light shone deep within Prometheus's grey pupils as he looked Lin up and down and drew his conclusion.

Lying? Okay, Lin admits his heart is racing a bit because of the poison gas, but that doesn't mean he'd joke about something like this.

"Oh, it was just a joke. Whew, that really startled me." Even the usually eccentric Vill-V breathed a sigh of relief. She coughed and said to Prometheus in a mocking tone, "Your sudden comment on my figure today really caught me off guard. But... Number One, is my... butt really that good?"

"Yes, Dr. Vill-V's figure already surpasses the natural figures of 99% of women worldwide. Please keep it up." Prometheus nodded calmly.

"Oh dear, this..." Even Vill-V was a little embarrassed by the straightforward praise. "I didn't notice... But, Lin, next time... cough... be careful. Although I don't mind, it's still a bit much to openly say something like this and write it down..."

However, Lin didn't understand what she said at all, and his eyes gradually changed from sharp to confused.

Prometheus couldn't possibly be poisoned, and the conversation between Vill-V and Prometheus seemed normal, only...

Could it be... that he's the only one who's been poisoned?

"Danzhu, did you give the syringe I asked you to get to Mr. Lin?"

"Oh! Of course, he took the syringe from me as soon as he entered the lab."

Klein nodded reassuredly, holding the milk tea. It seemed that Danzhu could handle such a small matter.

"By the way, what has the Doctor been up to lately? I've hardly seen her out."

Cangxuan noticed that Klein, unusually, wasn't buried in a sea of documents, and instead timidly approached the table to ask a question.

"We're doing some experiments related to nerves, mainly about Mr. Lin's nerve damage. The medicine Danzhu is using is for treating nerve damage." Klein was happy to chat with her two junior sisters, provided they didn't mess up their work. "There's also a byproduct that can cause cranial nerve disorders, but we haven't figured out how to use it yet."

"Cranial nerve disorder?"

The three people present were all research assistants with a certain amount of knowledge. Even if the Danzhu sisters occasionally made some minor mistakes, they understood these academic terms better than most people.

"Well, the effect is roughly to make a person's behavior disordered, but he himself is unaware of this disorder. The words he speaks, the words he writes, and the gestures he makes may all go against his own will, but in his eyes they are the meaning he wants to express."

"Hmm~ It doesn't seem to be working."

"Yes, but we don't know how long it will last yet. We'll probably need to do some testing."

"Hahahaha... So he can say things like that? He said some really out of character to Kevin, Vill-V, and Prometheus. He's nothing like the person in the database video."

The person sitting in the messy, dimly lit room smiled faintly, looking at Lin Na's life-doubting expression in the Moth Chaser's surveillance footage, and couldn't help but take a screenshot.

"Hmm? Prometheus Unit 2 has started searching for my location through the ports I hacked. Looks like I need to change my disguise."

He tapped on the keyboard, glanced at the rapidly flowing data, and frowned at the incredible speed of the anti-intrusion system.

It truly deserves to be called the world's most advanced Artificial Intelligence.

"I've got it! I'll just pretend to be a Moth of Flames. Gender: Female... Place of birth: the Far East, like Lin's... I'll choose MSA-999... As for the name..."

Her fingers paused for a few seconds as she typed on the keyboard.

"The Far East... let's call it Qianqi."

The screen's fluorescent light illuminated her face palely.

He was poisoned.

An unknown poison in the forest caused his words to be misinterpreted by others.

Lin didn't know exactly how his words would be heard by others, but he sensed something was amiss from the snippets of conversation between Vill-V and Prometheus.

"Prometheus, do you understand what I mean?"

Lin used both spoken language and sign language, almost gesturing wildly as he tried to convey his meaning to Prometheus, since he believed that Artificial Intelligence should be able to analyze malfunctions more easily than humans.

However, Lin forgot two things.

First, Artificial Intelligence can be more rigid and inflexible than human grandparents at times. Second, even among Artificial Intelligence, Prometheus is the most unique one.

"Lin, what you say doesn't mean what you sign language."

The female voice simulated by Prometheus was flat and even. She looked at the serious Lin and said slowly, "Your proficiency in sign language is not good enough. You are prone to making mistakes on the battlefield. Do you need me to teach you sign language skills again?"

"..."

Lin is not proficient in sign language? He has indeed not used sign language much, but it is basic knowledge for soldiers of the Fire Moth. It is impossible for Lin not to know how to use sign language. Does this mean that there is a difference between sign language and spoken language?

What's more troublesome is that Prometheus was completely unaware of his abnormality. After he shook his head with a solemn expression, she shook her head with a hint of regret.

"Wait a minute, Lin, what's wrong with you today? Are you feeling unwell or something's wrong with your health?"

At this moment, Vill-V realized something. Lin's words to Prometheus were somewhat shameless, but both Lin and Prometheus treated it as a normal conversation. Prometheus even corrected Lin's sign language mistakes.

Lin was about to nod when Prometheus spoke first, "After testing, Lin's physical condition is normal. He probably just wanted to joke with us."

"Really, Lin?"

Lin shook his head vigorously.

"Does your shaking your head mean there's no problem or there is a problem?"

"..."

Lin was truly at a loss now.

"I'm taking Lin to the Squad Seven's meeting room now. Farewell, Dr. Vill-V."

Prometheus, as was his habit, took Lin's hand, said goodbye to Vill-V, and then led Lin out of the Spiral Workshop.

Lin stared at Prometheus, who was pulling him along, and realized that it seemed that not only he, but even Prometheus was experiencing problems.

"Lin, is what you just said true?"

"..."

Lin didn't know whether he should say yes or no. He was afraid of saying the wrong thing, so he could only remain silent.

Does your silence mean you agree?

So far, everything he has said seems to have come to mean the opposite of what he intended. Lin pondered for a moment, wondering if he was being asked to say the opposite of what he meant.

So he said with certainty, "Yes."

"Oh, it's the truth."

"..."

Prometheus turned her head, and a hint of cunning appeared on her otherwise calm face.

Chapter Sixteen: The Person I Least Want to See

"..."

"..."

Perhaps unable to bear the awkward silence, Hua hesitantly raised his hand and whispered, as if answering a question in class, "Team... Lin, what do you need us for?"

Lin has left the Squad Seven, so Immer and Hua are no longer Lin's team members, but Hua still habitually calls him Captain.

After all, although Lin wasn't much older than her, she treated him like an elder. Now that he had been demoted and his rank was lower than hers, she couldn't get used to it and felt that no matter what she called him, it was inappropriate.

For example, right now, she felt that she had said something wrong, and Lin's eyes suddenly darkened.

Is it a problem with the way I address you?

In fact, Lin didn't feel there was anything wrong with what she said; the only problem was that it was a question.

Moreover, these are questions that must be answered using "language".

But then again, what was the purpose of Prometheus bringing him here? Hua and Immer looked like they were waiting for him to answer, clearly indicating that they hadn't asked Prometheus to bring him here.

"Lin has something to say to you." But to everyone's surprise, Prometheus dismissed the matter with a single sentence. She stood behind Lin, her hands quietly pressing down on his shoulders to prevent him from standing up.

While creating Prometheus's new body, Vill-V exerted more effort, while Lin, who had not yet fully recovered, was temporarily outmatched by Prometheus and was firmly suppressed.

What is Prometheus doing?!

Faced with the questioning looks from the two, Lin tried to push Prometheus's hand away, but she instead pressed it onto his shoulder.

To outsiders, it looked as if he were deliberately touching Prometheus's hand.

"Prometheus, what are you doing? Let me go!" Lin commanded coldly.

Upon hearing this, both Immer and Hua's faces changed color.

"Lin... there are other people here." Prometheus turned his head away "embarrassed."

"..."

Lin turned and stared at the extremely abnormal Prometheus. After a moment, he turned back to Hua and said with his last shred of hope, "Hua, can you understand what I'm saying?"

"Whoosh!"

The gray-haired girl was so frightened that she stood up from her chair and backed away, knocking the chair over.

"Lin, Lin, Lin... Captain, what are you saying..."

Lin then turned to Immer, who was equally surprised, and said, "Immer, I'm having health problems right now."

"What! Captain!" Immer swallowed hard, a hint of unease creeping across his usually composed face. "I really didn't realize you were like this..."

Has the captain become this "desperate"? Could it be that his previous apathetic demeanor was all an act, and he's actually been suppressing his inner desires? Besides, was the captain actually bisexual?

That's not right. He could understand saying such things to Prometheus and Hua, but he really couldn't understand saying them to him. He wasn't exactly "handsome" in any way.

... No, that's not right either. The captain said he liked the curves of the buttocks. Could it be that he... actually likes buttocks?

Upon thinking of this, Immer immediately scrutinized Hua's buttocks and then glanced at her chest before drawing a conclusion.

Is this really how it is...?

"Captain! I understand! You've always suppressed yourself! You couldn't even express your true nature, but it's okay. Now you don't need to worry so much, just be yourself!" Immer stood up excitedly, walked to Lin, and looked him in the eye. "However, I think this kind of thing shouldn't be done by Hua, so I should do it instead..."

"Wait! Immer, you wouldn't..."

"It's alright! If I can help the captain solve his problems, it will be a way of repaying the captain for all the years he has nurtured me!"

"..."

Lin stared silently at the farce that he had caused. He couldn't even explain or stop what was going on. Fortunately, besides him, there was another "person" who didn't want to see what was about to happen.

"Wait a minute, Lin has other things to do."

After saying this, Prometheus took Lin away without further ado.

"Hello, MSA-079, would you like to go out with me?"

"Cannot."

"Good! We won!"

Lin has given up on himself. He doesn't know how to solve his problems or how to get rid of the people who came because of the gambling scheme. Suddenly, almost everyone in the headquarters who had nothing better to do came to confess their love to him.

They all felt varying degrees of fear when they saw Lin's cold and sharp eyes, but with the power of a "wish," they would probably dare to try even if Lin were a Herrscher.

Lin didn't shake his head to refuse anymore. He simply said what he considered to be a refusal in a calm, collected, and resigned manner, and then watched as everyone celebrated with great joy.

So Lin couldn't even finish the sentence: "Can you understand what I'm saying?"