The Mechanic(bl)

Chapter 27 - The Fruit of Wisdom (5)

Adam successfully passed the psychological assessment, and this incident caused a lot of waves in Lost Paradise.

The Round Table's stance hadn't been made clear yet, but for several days there had been unauthorised protestors outside the Lab, holding huge banners with curse words written all over them. Some people even threw rotten vegetables and wine bottles at the entrance of the Lab, which made quite a few mechanics and researchers dare not come to work at all.

On the third day, when a mecha under repair was destroyed by several protesters, the military finally sent people in to drive the troublemakers away.

At the same time, Zhang Xun shut himself in his personal R&D room, trying to create the first bendable screen from nano-material that was almost as thin as ordinary cloth. If the manufacture was successful, he hoped to equip this on the battle uniforms of the hunting regiment. When necessary, if the soldier covered himself under this material without any gaps, the surrounding environment could be projected onto the cloth through the miniature cameras all over it, making someone invisible to a certain extent. This technique may not completely deceive the human eye, but it should be sufficient against relatively simple robot soldiers.

He took off the microscopic mirror on his right eye and rubbed his aching eye, then turned to look at another computer screen that was showing the situation in Adam's room. Adam was practising push-ups on the ground. From the monitor's point of view, through his sweat-soaked undershirt, he could see the muscles on his back that were bulging out due to his exertion.

Zhang Xun quickly turned his eyes away, but after a while, he couldn't help but look up again. His throat suddenly became a little dry and he hurriedly picked up the water glass and took a few sips of water.

"The protesters have been dispersed by the guards."

Pan's sudden voice startled Zhang Xun, the water choked into his nose and he lay on the table and coughed for a long time.

Pan asked with concern, "Zhang Xun, do you need any support?"

"Pan! How many times have I told you not to talk suddenly like this!"

"Sorry," Pan replied gently.

"No, you won't be sorry..." Zhang Xun muttered, these artificial intelligences were all too good at acting...

But when he thought that their "acting" skills had also been learned from him, he felt that he really had no position to complain. He went with the flow and said, "If anyone comes back to work, let them in."

"Zhang Xun, if another troublemaker comes back after the guards leave, can I activate the No. 2 expulsion system?"

With a sigh, Zhang Xun raised his head and looked at the camera in midair, "It seems like you want to activate the No. 2 expulsion system?"

When the protesters first showed up, Pan would ask him almost every day if he wanted to activate the No. 2 deportation system... ...Of all the expulsion systems, No. 2 was the least threatening, but the most irritating to humans. For some people, after hearing that noise it would remain stuck in the ears for days, like an earworm, and wouldn't stop even when they slept.

It was no wonder that James and Fernandez often complained to him that Pan was too evil, but he still didn't agree. Pan was the most complex and successful housekeeper AI he had ever trained, and it did everything it could to meet the goal of "maintaining the safety of the Lab and its owners." Zhang Xun just always thought that these people didn't know enough about artificial intelligence, or that they were biassed, or they didn't know how to use it. People always like to project their thoughts on the things around them. They didn't understand that the consciousness system of an AI was completely different from that of a human being. There was no such thing as likes and dislikes. It could only execute orders or not execute orders.