Making a Pact

"Xiao Hua." Shu Zi called out as he walked over, carrying the stone knife he had made.

Xiao Hua was the mother ape's name. They still had too limited a vocabulary, so they could only name one another using simple nouns from nature.

Xiao Hua turned her gaze away from her son and looked at her husband.

Shu Zi waved the stone knife in his hand and said, "I'll make a few more for you to use for cutting vegetables."

Xiao Hua nodded, a heartfelt, happy smile spreading across her face.

Unable to resist, Shu Zi set down the stone knife and stepped forward, wanting to embrace the mother and child.

Xiao Hua turned her head and affectionately pressed her cheek against Shu Zi's.

They were still young. As long as they had enough food, they could raise more children. The little one in their arms was their first, and there would be more in the future.

With their hearts full of hope for the future, Xiao Hua, Shu Zi, and their child embraced.

Just then,

a sudden, piercing roar blared from the loudspeakers above the lab.

"Notice to the entire base. S-level notice. Starting today, due to insufficient resources and the excessive number of ape-men, the existing population of ape-men will be reduced. The rules are as follows: 1. The number of ape-men will be reduced to half its current population. 2. Ape-men with inferior genes, those who are sick or weak, and the young will be prioritized for elimination. 3. Starting from the publication of this notice, all ape-men will undergo physical examinations within 30 days. After registration, the culling will begin..."

The broadcast was clearly enunciated and repeated on a loop. After hearing it several times, even the ape-men who hadn't understood much could tell that it meant something bad.

Were they going to be killed?

Xiao Hua clutched Shu Zi's hand in panic. Shu Zi quickly murmured a few words to comfort her.

An uproar erupted throughout the entire base, wherever ape-men were being raised.

The three artificial intelligences, who were working in different parts of the base, heard the broadcast. They all looked glum and shook their heads.

They weren't surprised. They had known about this decision for a long time, and it had been made by their Father God himself.

Xi Yuan clasped her hands before her chest, closed her eyes, and wore a sorrowful expression.

Li Huo and Dong Yao were also distracted and dispirited.

"Xi Yuan, Dong Yao, Li Huo." Huang Si's voice sounded in their ears.

Then, the three of them were pulled back into cyberspace, unable to resist.

Huang Si had asked Xiao Ke to bring them there. He himself didn't have the ability to forcibly take control away from artificial intelligences. But Xiao Ke, whose processing power exceeded that of all three of them and who held S-level authority in the base, could do it.

The three appeared in cyberspace in the forms they had first taken in the Mountain and Sea Realm.

Huang Si also manifested a body in cyberspace.

Xi Yuan, Dong Yao, and Li Huo had been eager to find their Father God as well.

The moment she saw Huang Si, Xi Yuan hurried forward and bowed urgently.

"Father God, could you revoke that order?"

"Father God!"

"Yes, Father God. Killing half the mortals is too..."

The other two artificial intelligences spoke up as well.

Huang Si sighed.

"It's been over 1,300 years, hasn't it? Dong Yao, Xi Yuan, Li Huo—you've been with these ape-men for more than 1,300 years. I understand that you've grown attached to them."

At that, the three of them grew uneasy. Did Father God mean they had become selfish?

"I've explained as much as I can about why I'm doing this. For what you can't understand, all I can say is that you should obey me."

There was not the slightest room for defiance in Huang Si's words.

This was, after all, an important part of his plan.

Four days earlier, Huang Si had called in the three artificial intelligences for a meeting.

At the meeting, he had told them that he planned to have the ape-men migrate out together.

"But if we let them out, they may come back. Life in the base is much more comfortable than life outside. So I'll use some fairly drastic measures and have Xiao Ke—your Heavenly Dao—force the mortals to leave."

Huang Si had explained the broad strokes of his plan to the artificial intelligences. At the same time, he had asked the three of them to pretend they knew nothing during the migration, while acting as though they were helping the ape-men resist Xiao Ke and escape together.

This was Huang Si's god-making plan.

The three artificial intelligences naturally agreed to his request without question.

They just hadn't expected that the "fairly drastic measures" Huang Si had mentioned would involve such a massacre.

More than ten days later, when the broadcast finally carried the Heavenly Dao's order, the three artificial intelligences were stunned.

Kill half the ape-men, prioritizing the old, weak, sick, and young?

This was too much. It really was too much.

Now, Xi Yuan wasn't the only one urgently pleading on behalf of the mortals. Li Huo and Dong Yao also opposed the order.

But Huang Si's words seemed to leave no room for them to object.

Xi Yuan finally couldn't hold back. She dropped to her knees and bowed her head.

"This absolutely must not happen. Xi Yuan begs Father God to revoke your order."

Dong Yao hesitated, but seeing Xi Yuan kneel, he didn't want to abandon his companion. He bowed beside her. "Father God, your child is foolish and doesn't understand why this must be done. Killing half the mortals won't benefit them, and I believe their deaths aren't Father God's intention either."

Li Huo wasn't as good with words as the other two. He simply nodded along, then looked at Huang Si pleadingly.

Huang Si looked at them and explained the basics of sociology with a blank expression. "How can anything be accomplished without killing? The birth of humanity will always be accompanied by growing pains..."

At last, Xi Yuan could bear it no longer. She rose from the ground and stared directly at Huang Si, her eyes filled with pain and sorrow.

Her voice rang out fiercely in Data Space.

"Father God! Father God! What are you thinking? One small decision from you could make our people's blood run like a river. If you were going to do this, why did you have us lead the mortals in the first place? Why did you have us regard ourselves as their ancestors and care for them like parents?"

"Father God says we've grown attached to them. That's true. We were created by Father God from the heavens and earth only a few decades ago, and we've spent more than a thousand years with the mortals since then. How could we possibly feel nothing for them?"

"They're no different from my own children in my heart!"

By the end, tears were running down Xi Yuan's face.

This might have been the first time an artificial intelligence had ever cried over someone else.

Huang Si didn't say a word. He simply stood there, silently considering.

Dong Yao and Li Huo were both startled by Xi Yuan. They knelt together and said, "Please be understanding of Xi Yuan, Father God."

They watched Huang Si nervously, afraid he might punish Xi Yuan for her presumption.

But Huang Si looked a little dazed.

Sometimes he used to think, Wow, this artificial intelligence is so humanlike. How interesting.

But deep down, he still thought of artificial intelligences as beings he had created to relieve his boredom.

Just "things."

All Huang Si had ever thought about was how to create real humans as quickly as possible, to make up for the fact that he couldn't return to Earth.

But he had forgotten about a group of people: the ones who had been by his side for so long, the artificial intelligences who had developed true humanity over more than a thousand years.

After a while, Huang Si finally said softly, "I'm sorry. I didn't explain myself clearly earlier. I'll only kill a small number of people. Without bloodshed, they won't feel a real sense of crisis. I never intended to kill half of them."

The three artificial intelligences froze. They had never seen Huang Si apologize to them so gently before. It had never even crossed their minds that their Father God, a true deity, might one day apologize to them, his juniors.

Huang Si continued explaining. "Driving them out of the base really doesn't require too many sacrifices. But there will definitely be some unavoidable losses. All I can say is that I won't let too many innocent people die. Those who die will deserve it. And I already planned to have you three rescue the mortals and protect them on the way out. As long as you act quickly, you can save the vast majority of them."

The three artificial intelligences looked at one another, all feeling a little embarrassed.

They had, to some extent, misunderstood Father God.

And Father God must have had his reasons for making this decision.

Huang Si held out his hand and said, "Also, I really haven't treated you properly before. So, come on. Hold out your hands and place them on mine."

Xi Yuan, Dong Yao, and Li Huo obediently held out their hands.

Even in Data Space, they were all much taller than Huang Si, so they bent their knees slightly to stack their hands on his palm.

Huang Si raised his head and called out, "Xiao Ke, connect the other nine to Data Space."

A mechanical voice sounded through the space.

"Yes, Master."

Before long, all twelve artificial intelligences had gathered in Data Space.

Huang Si held their hands and looked into their eyes, speaking earnestly.

"I, together with all twelve of you—Dong Yao, Xi Yuan, Bei Xuan, Nan Yang, Xue Shang, Mo Xia, Shu Shui, Li Huo, Wei Ji, Zhong Yin, Shi Fang, and Kong Yu—make this pact..."

In the real world, Huang Si took a deep breath and engraved everything before him into his memory.

"...From this day on, I will regard all of you as true human beings and respect your choices."

This was the genuine recognition the father of the twelve artificial intelligences gave them.

Huang Si's hand was clasped together with the hands of the twelve of them.

Until then, Huang Si had treated artificial intelligences as nothing more than tools. He had always thought that he was the only human in the Dark Space and the Green World alike.

Since he was the only human, Huang Si naturally used his tools however was most convenient, doing whatever he wanted. There was no need to explain much to a tool, just as he never had to explain himself to Xiao Ke.

It was only now that Huang Si finally realized these artificial intelligences were different from Xiao Ke.

Xiao Ke had been designed without a personality and existed only as a decision-making assistant. But these twelve artificial intelligences had the ability to learn and grow on their own.

After a thousand years, aside from the forms they took, they were no different from real human beings.

What's more, these artificial intelligences didn't know exactly what authority Huang Si possessed, yet they still respected him as they would a real father and deity.

So Huang Si decided that even though he had the ability to do so, from then on, he wouldn't probe the twelve of them at the level of their underlying data, or casually copy, modify, or delete them. He would give them the same respect he gave human beings.

Because they, too, were human beings whom he acknowledged.

After making the pact, Huang Si quickly took a step back and said, "You don't need to keep kneeling in Data Space."

Huang Si figured they would probably start thanking him or something. They were wonderful in every way, but much too formal. He had just talked about equality and respect, and now he was supposed to accept a grand kowtow? That didn't seem right.

So Huang Si immediately made himself scarce. Before leaving, he had Xiao Ke send the twelve artificial intelligences back one by one.