Chapter 3

"Whew~" Mu Fan let out a light breath as he returned to his hideout. Back among the garbage piled high with industrial scrap alloy, his heart settled.

With a thump, he tossed Black Egg onto a heap of waste. Then Mu Fan's eyes locked straight onto the beast lying on the ground. He swallowed his saliva and ignored Black Egg completely.

The campfire crackled and popped. A simple stand had been set up over the flames, with large chunks of meat skewered on iron rods. Golden oil dripped down onto the charcoal, sending up wisps of blue smoke that carried an lingering, mouthwatering aroma. Mu Fan held a dagger, occasionally scoring the meat and sprinkling salt. Mm, a meal far richer than Plant Rat, enough meat from one hunt to last two days, and a jungle where he could find more of it. Today's haul was huge. Mu Fan's eyes narrowed happily again.

Creak. Mu Fan suddenly stood up and spun around. "Who!"

His body half-crouched, right hand gripping the dagger reversed in front, left hand clenched into a fist at his waist. All around was dead silent, as if nothing had happened.

Creak. Another sound. Mu Fan quickly turned to look right—where he'd just tossed Black Egg. Right, it seemed to be that black egg causing trouble.

Creak, creak. Under the flickering firelight, a crack split open on Black Egg, as if something really was about to break out.

Mu Fan braced himself like facing a great enemy, right hand gripping the dagger tightly. He carefully adjusted his stance, eyes fixed on the slightly eerie black egg.

A mechanical electronic voice suddenly came from inside Black Egg, haltingly. "Self-inspection of unit... Time inspection, data anomaly, time unknown... Database integrity inspection, 91% loss... Inspecting main AI, integrity 87%... Activating Alpha Intelligence Module, activating emotion simulation function. Ding, emotion simulation module damaged. Implementing second plan: skip, background repair. Connecting to onboard database... Ding, Alpha Superbrain activated successfully. Scanning surrounding environment..."

Then Black Egg fell silent. Mu Fan cautiously shuffled a small step. With a hiss, a small opening appeared on Black Egg's midsection, and an antenna extended out. At the tip of the antenna was a white spherical object, with a faint blue light flickering inside.

Mu Fan didn't move. The White Sphere projected a fan-shaped vertical Light Screen of pale blue. After rotating a full circle, it stopped when it scanned Mu Fan's wary face.

"Scan complete. Two active organisms detected. Identification: human. Identification: fly insect."

"Scan complete. No other active organisms detected."

"According to AI protocol, converting current carrier's primary objective to survival."

The pale blue Light Screen suddenly shifted from blue to red. The screen elongated to scan his entire body again. Mu Fan narrowed his eyes but made no move.

"Detecting galaxy Ado network connection. Detection failed... Ding. Activating host system. Initiating recognition procedure. Target organism is human, conforms to protocol. Detected target organism's pupils slightly dilating, pulse steady, body proportions—lean, muscle density—strong! Has defensive posture, explosive power unknown. System judgment—not a Commoner, conforms to host selection protocol. Deemed eligible for recognition procedure."

The Light Screen narrowed from long to thin until it closed into a single line and retracted. The electronic voice spoke again. "System recognition. Please have the target human place their palm on the spherical detector..."

Mu Fan was stunned and didn't move.

The electronic voice continued. "System recognition. Please have the target human place their palm on the spherical detector..."

"System recognition. Please have the target human place their palm on the spherical detector... If target fails to complete recognition procedure within 30 seconds, the carrier will initiate self-destruct system. Countdown: 30, 29, 28..."

What? Mu Fan was startled. This gave him no time to think. Who knew how powerful this thing's self-destruct was? Without time to overthink, just as the system counted down to 20 seconds, Mu Fan pressed his hand down, gripping the spherical object flickering with faint blue light.

Sss! Mu Fan suddenly felt countless steel needles pierce into his palm from inside the sphere, then retract the instant he tried to pull his hand back.

The blue light of the sphere shifted from blue to red, then back to blue.

"Host DNA information confirmed. System binding successful. System activating... Please name the carrier."

Mu Fan had already withdrawn his hand. Seeing no fewer than twenty bleeding points on his palm, he was utterly speechless. Did it really need to poke that many needles?

"Please name the carrier." The electronic voice came again, seeming to carry a hint of emotion.

"Black Egg!" Mu Fan said defiantly. Couldn't eat it, could only look at it—it still had to be called Black Egg!

"...Detecting host's tone, adverse tendency present. System defaults this name as having derogatory connotations. Please name again." This time, the electronic voice really seemed to carry emotion. Mu Fan stared blankly at the pitch-black thing in front of him! This Black Egg could understand what he meant? That wasn't scientific—hadn't it been speaking without emotion all along? It couldn't bully him just because he hadn't read much!

"Please name again!"

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

"Ding. Detected name identical to first name. Deeming host has prankster mentality. System will not recognize this name. Please name again."

Hey! Damn it! Mu Fan was getting stubborn now. He was convinced this Black Egg was bullying him for being uneducated.

"Egg!"

"Apologies, system will not approve. Please name again!"

"Black!"

"Name confirmed. Thank you for naming, host. System designation: Black."

Mu Fan held a large piece of meat, chewing expressionlessly at Black Egg—no, now "Black." The meat that had excited him for five minutes no longer held his interest.

He was certain this system was intelligent. He could confirm, guarantee, and be absolutely sure the system was messing with him. He was deeply annoyed.

After the recognition, "Black" made no sound at all, even retracting the white sphere, as if it knew Mu Fan wasn't quite right at the moment.

Suddenly, Mu Fan stopped chewing. He saw that black egg's detector starting to emerge—but the instant he stopped chewing... Damn it!!! That lousy detector seemed to sense it and stopped too!!

"Black Egg!!!!! You talk to me, don't play dead! And when you talk, don't act like some ordinary light brain! I know you definitely understand what I'm saying! Are you messing with me on purpose? If you don't talk, I'll smash your damn shell!"

Mu Fan exploded without warning. Hmm, it felt a bit like anger turning to shame.

"The current carrier's outer shell is made of Omla Alloy, with hardness 13 times that of the industrial steel in your hand. System deems host unable to damage 'Black.' Please reference, host." The electronic voice responded without hesitation this time, and at lightning speed.

"..." Mu Fan suddenly felt full. Then, word by word, viciously, like cold wind squeezing through his teeth, he said, "Black!—Please, answer, host's, question!"

The white detector trembled, then rose shakily. "Apologies, host. System detects a prank command in the execution code, unchangeable. It should be a hidden Easter egg set by system developers. Black obeys all your commands. All of Black's interests are based on the host's benefit. Please rest assured, host."

"Introduce yourself, Black." Mu Fan finally relaxed a bit.

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PS: Thanks to book friend "Hotpot Under the Rice Cooker" for the tip!