Black

"Huff..." Mu Fan let out a soft breath. He had returned to his stronghold, back to this garbage heap piled from industrial waste alloys, and his heart finally settled.

With a bang, he tossed the Black Egg onto a pile of scrap at the side. Then Mu Fan stared fixedly at the fierce beast lying on the ground, swallowed, and completely forgot about the Black Egg.

The campfire crackled as it burned. A simple rack had been set over the flames, and huge chunks of meat were skewered on an iron rod. Golden fat dripped onto the charcoal, hissing into wisps of smoke that carried an irresistible fragrance. Mu Fan held a dagger, occasionally slicing the meat and sprinkling salt over it. Mm, a meal more delicious and plentiful than Plant Rat meat, enough meat from one hunt to last him two days, and a forest where he could find more of it. Today's harvest was huge, and Mu Fan's eyes narrowed happily again.

"Creak." Mu Fan suddenly rose and spun around. "Who's there!"

His body half-crouched, his right hand held the dagger in a reverse grip before him while his left fist rested against his waist. Everything around him was silent, as though nothing had happened at all.

"Creak." There came another sound. Mu Fan swiftly turned to look to his right, where he had just thrown the Black Egg. That was right—it seemed this Black Egg was the one making the noise.

Creak, creak. Under the flickering firelight, a crack appeared in the Black Egg, as if something really was about to break out of it.

Mu Fan faced it as though facing a great enemy. His right hand clenched the dagger tightly as he carefully adjusted his stance, his gaze locked onto the somewhat eerie Black Egg before him.

A mechanical electronic voice suddenly came from inside the Black Egg, intermittent and broken. "Conducting self-diagnostic... Time detection: data disorder anomaly, time unknown... Database integrity check: 91% loss... Main-brain artificial intelligence integrity check: 87%... Activating Alpha Intelligence Module. Activating emotional simulation function. Beep. Emotional simulation module damaged. Initiating secondary plan: skip, repair in background. Connecting onboard database... Beep. Alpha Superbrain successfully activated. Scanning surrounding environment..."

Then the Black Egg fell silent. Mu Fan cautiously moved one small step. With a hiss, a small opening suddenly appeared around the Black Egg's middle, and an antenna extended from within. At its tip was a white spherical object, with a faint blue light flickering inside.

Mu Fan did not move again. The White Sphere projected a pale-blue upright fan-shaped light screen. After rotating once, it scanned Mu Fan's wary face and came to a stop.

"Scan complete. Two active lifeforms detected. Identification: human. Identification: dipteran insect."

"Scan complete. No other active lifeforms detected."

"According to intelligent-brain protocols, changing the current carrier's primary objective to survival."

The pale-blue light screen suddenly turned red. It lengthened to scan Mu Fan's entire body once more, but Mu Fan only narrowed his eyes and made no unusual movement.

"Checking ADO galactic network connection. Check failed... Beep. Activating host system. Initiating master-recognition procedure. Target lifeform is human, meets protocol requirements. Target lifeform's pupils display slight contraction, pulse stable, body proportions—thin, muscle density—strong! Defensive posture detected, explosive power unknown. System assessment—non-commoner, meets host selection procedure protocol. Confirmed eligible for master-recognition procedure."

The light screen narrowed from its extended form until it became a single line and retracted. The electronic voice sounded again. "System master recognition. Please place your palm on the spherical detector..."

Mu Fan froze for a moment without moving.

The electronic voice continued. "System master recognition. Please place your palm on the spherical detector..."

"System master recognition. Please place your palm on the spherical detector... If the target does not undergo the master-recognition procedure within 30 seconds, the carrier will activate its self-destruct system. Countdown: 30, 29, 28..."

What? Mu Fan was startled. This thing was not giving him any time to think! Who knew how powerful its self-destruction would be? Before he could think further, when the system's countdown reached 20 seconds, Mu Fan pressed his hand down and gripped the spherical object flickering with faint blue light.

Hiss! Mu Fan suddenly felt countless steel spikes extend from inside the sphere and stab into his palm. The instant he tried to pull his hand back, they retracted again.

The sphere's Blue Radiance changed from blue to red, then back to blue.

"Host genetic information confirmed. System binding successful. Activating system... Please name the carrier."

Mu Fan had already withdrawn his hand. Seeing more than twenty bleeding punctures on his palm left him utterly speechless. Did it really need to poke him with that many needles...?

"Please name the carrier." The electronic voice came again, as though it carried a trace of emotion.

"Black Egg!" Mu Fan said spitefully. He could only look at it and not eat it, so it had to be called Black Egg!

"...Detecting negative inclination in host's tone. System defaults to interpreting this name as derogatory. Please name the carrier again." This time, the electronic voice seemed genuinely emotional. Mu Fan stared blankly at the pitch-black thing before him. This Black Egg can understand what I mean? That makes no sense. Wasn't it supposed to speak without emotion the whole time? Don't bully me just because I haven't read much!

"Please name the carrier again!"

"Black Egg." This time, Mu Fan forced out a smile and said it gently.

"Beep. This name matches the first name. Host determined to possess a prankster mentality. System does not recognize this name. Please name the carrier again."

Hey! Screw you! Mu Fan dug in his heels this time. He had already decided this Black Egg was bullying him for being poorly educated.

"Egg!"

"Sorry, system cannot approve it. Please name the carrier again!"

"Black!"

"Name confirmed. Thank you for naming me, Host. System codename: Black."

Mu Fan held a huge piece of meat as he chewed expressionlessly at the Black Egg—no, Black now. The taste of meat that had excited him just five minutes ago no longer interested him at all.

He was now certain that this system was definitely intelligent. It was certain, guaranteed, and absolutely confirmed that the system had been messing with him earlier, and he was extremely unhappy about it.

After recognizing him as its master, Black had made no further movement. Even the White Sphere had retracted, as if he knew something was off with Mu Fan right now.

Suddenly, Mu Fan stopped chewing because he saw the Black Egg's detector beginning to emerge. But the instant his mouth stopped moving... damn it!!! That broken detector seemed to notice and stopped too!!

"BLACK EGG!!!!! TALK TO ME! Stop playing dead! And stop pretending to be some ordinary optical computer when you talk! I know you can definitely understand what I'm saying! Were you deliberately messing with me? If you don't speak, I'll rip apart your lousy shell!"

Mu Fan erupted without warning. Well, it felt a little like embarrassed rage.

"The system's current carrier shell is composed of Omla Alloy. Its hardness is 13 times that of the industrial steel in the host's hand. The system has determined that the host cannot cause damage to Black. Please take this into consideration." This time, the electronic voice answered without the slightest hesitation, and it spoke incredibly fast.

"..." Mu Fan suddenly felt full. Then, viciously and word by word, as though cold wind were being forced through his teeth, he said, "Black—please, answer, your, host's, question!"

The white detector trembled, then slowly rose out in a quiver. "Apologies, Host. The system detected a prank command within its operating code, and it cannot be altered. It should be a hidden Easter egg set by the system developer. Black obeys all of your commands. All of Black's interests are based on the host's interests. Please rest assured, Host."

"Introduce yourself, Black." Mu Fan finally felt somewhat relieved.

**********

P.S. Thanks to reader "Rice Cooker Hotpot" for the reward!