"Are you Zero? I am."
The conversation was simple, as if they had both anticipated it long ago.
Zero. The Artificial Intelligence that had once destroyed all human civilization on the Eastern Continent now stood outside that apartment in Storm City, quietly watching the life-form she had created with her own hands.
By ethical standards, they should have been mother and daughter.
A holographic television show was playing inside the house. On it, a white man was conducting a paternity test for a Black man on a variety show, while the audience watched the woman's furious expression or the man's disbelief...
At the doorway, One stood before her. She wore a white short-sleeved shirt on top and a navy pleated skirt below, looking exceptionally fresh and vibrant. Everywhere about her radiated the aura of a "human."
Zero smiled and asked, "May I come in and sit for a while?" One hesitated for a long time. "Yes."
After entering, Zero examined the tidy house. "Are you here alone?"
"Mhm." One nodded. "There used to be quite a lot of people here, but they've all gone off to war now."
Zero opened a bedroom door and found it filled with dolls, along with a soft, large bed. "Is this your room?"
"Mhm."
"You don't need to sleep."
"I just like decorating," One said after thinking for a moment. "Sometimes, I lie on the bed and shut down for a while. It feels pretty nice. No wonder humans like sleeping... The world before sleep and the world after sleep are separated, as though you can leave all your worries in yesterday. I'm gradually beginning to understand that kind of happiness."
It had to be said that One truly seemed more like a human now.
Zero sat on the sofa. "Did your father, Ren