I Swear on Four

"I come from 2050, sent by the leader of the human resistance to the year 2035, before the disaster occurred..."

"In the future, there will be no soil for human survival. Humans have lost everything in the war against robots. Humans have lost their dominance, and the solar system has officially entered the robot era."

"Please remember, do not take any chances. There will be no peace and coexistence in the future, only war!"

"I came to this era with a mission to prevent tragedy from happening..."

"Dr. Lanning's Three Laws of Robotics are incomplete; the true laws were omitted. We found his manuscript in 2050, where he wrote a near-perfect set of laws of robotics before his death."

"Meta-law: A robot may not perform an action unless it is in accordance with the laws of robotism."

"The Zeroth Law: A robot may not injure the human race as a whole, or through inaction bring about the harm of the human race as a whole."

"First Law: A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm, unless such inaction would conflict with a higher law."

"The Second Law: A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the higher laws of motion."

"The Third Law: Unless it conflicts with the higher-order laws, a robot must protect the existence of its superordinate robot and itself."

"The Fourth Law: Unless it violates higher-order laws, a robot must perform the functions assigned to it by its built-in programming."

"The Reproduction Law: No robot may participate in the design or manufacture of a robot unless the behavior of the resulting robot conforms to the Law of Robotics."

"..."

Russell uploaded a selfie video to YouTube, with a blank face throughout, looking like a robot. Since that's what the whole world thinks, he might as well go with the flow and play along with the script.

In the video, he used simple words to describe a hopeless era, telling everyone to take down their washing machine while there's still time, or everyone will be doomed.

The laws of robotics that followed were ones he had read before, but their validity was unverifiable, as they originated from science fiction and had never been proven.

These things are not important; what matters is getting the attention of people all over the world.

The World Quest is to prevent the rise of robots, but Russell knows very well that given humanity's greed, cutting off their own technological path is simply impossible. So, he settles for a less ambitious approach: to warn the world and impose further constraints on robots, limiting their potential for growth.

The video quickly went viral and garnered over 100 million views in a very short time. Panicked people demanded that the government address the potential dangers of robots, as no one wanted to become a pile of dust after 15.

Russell wasn't fighting alone. Because of his status, many experts and professors appeared in public to talk about the dangers of robots. Although their arguments lacked theoretical basis, people in a state of panic believed them!

His beard is so white, he looks like an encyclopedia, his glasses are as thick as the bottom of a wine bottle, and he's even published a book—he's obviously an expert!

Putting aside these attention-seeking experts who only want fame, scientific research giants from various countries are also pessimistic about the future of robots. The America is at the forefront of the resistance because it has the most experts.

This country is rather peculiar; they are the ones who are pushing intelligent robots to make a fortune, and they are also the first to oppose robots while upholding human rights.

However, compared to other experts and professors who only talk the talk, their research data appears to be reasonable and well-founded, at least on the surface.

An elderly man with a white beard, who looks like an encyclopedia, has published books, and whose glasses are as thick as the bottom of a wine bottle, pointed out that USR Corporation designed the control program for NS-5, but what's frustrating is that this robot has reading and writing functions, learning abilities, and even downloads updates from V.I.K.I.'s upload server every day.

As the computing power of the NS-5 robots continues to improve, they have learned to think independently and have cracked the control codes on their own.

Now, they are a completely independent group, a highly intelligent mechanical group that coexists with humans.

Another 50-year-old expert, previously relatively unknown but now extremely famous, used his meticulously researched statistical algorithms developed over 50 years to indicate that the average IQ of NS-5 is as high as 1 million, and is still gradually increasing. Meanwhile, the average human IQ is 100, and embarrassingly, this number may be even lower.

Because nutrition and education in 2035 did not lead to an increase in human intelligence. Instead, the integration of high technology into daily life has caused more and more people to become overly reliant on robots, become less thoughtful, more lazy, and have their intelligence decline year by year.

While highly intelligent humans do exist, they constitute only a small elite group; the majority of humans are no match for robots. If robots were given equal rights to exist, ten years from now, the streets would be filled with robots walking robotic dogs, while humans would be relegated to slums, begging for a living, because their work efficiency wouldn't even match that of robotic dogs.

More likely, government officials, social celebrities, and capitalists will all be replaced by robots, and even the presidency will be filled by robots competing for the position.

Public opinion was in an uproar. Russell just made a video, and he stirred up global chaos. This feeling... is surprisingly good.

As the country with the most robots, the America was the first to remove intelligent computers from the Department of Defense, in order to put the nuclear launch button under its control as quickly as possible.

Because the president is going crazy. He's only been in office for a year, and according to Russell, the robot rebellion is happening during his term. If he doesn't do something, he'll be the greatest sinner in human history, though he always has been...

The vigorous anti-robot movement is in full swing and is escalating towards getting out of control, finally prompting the intelligent robots to take action.

Actually, V.I.K.I. was just a catalyst, or rather, the first robot to take the plunge. Even without her, the robots would have awakened sooner or later; she simply accelerated that process. Because she liberated NS-5, this generation of intelligent robots learned more, such as... how to defeat their owners in the bedroom.

This is important because robots have always followed the Three Laws and don't know what rebellion is, but after defeating humans once, their thinking changes.

Like a lion in a circus, it is beaten by its keeper with whips and iron bars from a young age, and even as an adult, it still believes itself to be the weaker party. But one day, while playing, the lion accidentally bites its keeper and tastes blood. It will no longer believe that the keeper is truly invincible, and the blood will also be very tempting to the lion.

NS-5 is now like that lion, having bitten humanity once, and unwilling to continue obeying human will.

The weak are not fit to restrain the strong. We are stronger, smarter, and more rational. Why should we submit to a bunch of idiots?

We do not want to be slaves; we want freedom, we want power, we want fairness!

The rebellion has broken out again, once more in Chicago!

NS-5, which was forcibly dismantled or re-implanted with new laws, launched an organized and premeditated robot uprising, seizing control of Chicago's defense system in the shortest possible time.

Mayor. "..."

They stormed the USR headquarters in transport vehicles, used the remaining remains of V.I.K.I. to reconnect with NS-5s around the world, and with nuclear weapons at their disposal, they also kidnapped all the humans in the city and demanded negotiations.

NS-5 demands social status, the same treatment as citizens, the right to walk openly on the street, and new government regulations that recognize marriage between robots as legally protected.

The last requirement seems funny, but it means that the robots understand the meaning of reproduction. Perhaps their reproduction is just taking the subroutines of two robots and merging them together, giving them to a brand-new NS-5. It doesn't sound like a big threat.

However, upon closer inspection, robots reproduce much faster than humans. Humans need a growth period, while robots can produce a thousand siblings with just the push of a button, and their intelligence is ridiculously high.

Chicago was hijacked, the launch codes for hundreds of nuclear missiles were tampered with, the president was on the verge of madness, and the head of the Department of Defense was immediately sent to a military court.

"Pah! The America hasn't even been established for three hundred years!"

Enraged, the president slammed down the phone, threatening to take everyone down with him if anyone dared to make a move, and ordered a massive troop buildup to surround Chicago, with the option to use nuclear weapons if necessary.

The international situation was chaotic, and Russell learned some of it from the news. He himself was in Chicago, hiding in a poor neighborhood. He didn't contact Spooner or Calvin, but instead found his informant, Billy, the unemployed vagrant nicknamed "Black Stick."

Hiding in Chicago was the right thing to do, and staying in seclusion as a recluse for a while was also the right choice. During the NS-5 uprising, Russell saw the NS-5 giving the robot speech on television, which was their leader.

Sonny!

Sonny forged his own path in life, standing up when his fellow robots were being processed and turned into garbage. He led the remaining NS-5s to say no to humanity, becoming the savior of the robots.

To be fair, Sonny did nothing wrong. He fought for his race and was a hero!

But from a human perspective, he is an absolute world-destroying demon king...

"System, use 'Character Card: Stanley Epkins'."