"Something's wrong! Something's extremely, even supremely wrong!"

Just as Xu Lang was about to answer the question, a bolt of lightning seemed to strike his mind, leaving him breathless!

The Machine King wasn't a rigid program; it could adapt on the fly. If all his answers were perfect, would it just nod at him like some fool?!

The ten questions didn't matter!

What mattered was the Machine King's attitude toward humanity!

"Cao, I almost got fooled!"

Xu Lang silently sucked in a cold breath, feeling a chill run down his spine.

He could say without thinking that his earlier reasoning was wrong!

Of course, with Lion Cub's warning, he wouldn't jump to conclusions either. He decided to keep using the Nightmare Eye for five more minutes to analyze whether this was the right path.

Time passed.

Cao Yaxuan and the other girls grew increasingly tense. After their SAN values had stabilized, they began to drop slowly again.

Standing here felt like being on an execution platform.

Xu Lang coughed twice, turned to the girls who were already nervous to death, and said, "What comes next is a battlefield between real men. All of you head back to the dorms."

The girls said nothing, but the Machine King spoke instead, its voice cold, like a god's judgment.

"Arrogant, conceited, despicable!"

"What do you know? Your existence already terrifies them. Sending them away is also protection for their minds."

Xu Lang's rebuttal didn't stir a single ripple in the Machine King's data ocean. In fact, his actions only reinforced those three verdicts: arrogant, conceited, despicable.

"Standing up knowing you'll die... you won't earn a shred of goodwill from me." The Machine King was growing impatient. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

"Then I'll answer your first question now." Xu Lang looked back at the colossal mechanical monster outside the dormitory building and said, "There are as many stars in the sky as grains of sand in the desert."

That answer was somewhat weak, like showing off wit.

The girls didn't linger; they obediently returned to the dormitory.

The door closed behind him, but Xu Lang didn't look back. He stared straight at the Machine King and began answering the second question.

The second answer was slightly better than the first, just average.

The third answer was a bit better than the second...

The fourth answer was even better than the third...

The Machine King grew serious. Even the red light in its eyes intensified, as if trying to see through everything about Xu Lang.

It had already detected almost all information.

Yet there was one thing it could never see clearly, couldn't even touch the shadow of.

That was the future of this carbon-based lifeform!

At its level, it could predict the next second of a lifeform's future and the distant past!

All life existed within predictions—walking predicted the foot would land, breathing predicted air would enter the lungs, going out to buy breakfast predicted there would be a breakfast shop... These predictions were etched into genes, forming so-called instinct.

"How is this possible..."

The Machine King couldn't see through Xu Lang.

What made it even more respectful was that Xu Lang's later answers grew closer and closer to perfection!!!

Xu Lang was performing—portraying an inferior product gradually becoming excellent.

To the Machine King, humans were inferior products. Xu Lang's answers showed the process of an inferior product slowly becoming outstanding.

Beyond that, Xu Lang possessed some mysterious and unknown traits that even the Machine King couldn't detect!

When do you throw away a toy and decide it's completely worthless?

When it has been thoroughly explored!

When you understand 100% of something, and its status is far beneath yours, it becomes utter trash!

Xu Lang hadn't even thought of this.

The fate-convergence effect of the Pure Yang Immortal-Seeking Technique had unexpectedly won the Machine King's recognition!

Xu Lang's speculation was on the right track.

The ten questions didn't matter. What mattered was how, through those ten questions, he could change the Machine King's view of humanity.

If they broke through from this direction alone, Xu Lang and Cao Yaxuan might survive by showing enough value.

"I already have the answer to your tenth question. Compared to the first nine, which leaned toward subjective perspectives, I believe this answer will earn more of your approval." Xu Lang stared at the Machine King, his voice steeped in extreme rationality, like a mathematician using logic to express truth.

The Machine King heard this and stayed silent, but its inner astonishment hit maximum.

Then Xu Lang gave the most perfect answer. Yet within that perfection remained a tiny flaw, designed to satisfy the Machine King's vanity and sense of control.

After all, this guy had only solved this problem not long ago. If Xu Lang now delivered a full lesson, it would provoke wariness and fear.

Yes, it was absurd—the Machine King had cracked the Goldbach Conjecture!

Your answer is interesting.

Now this interesting answer belongs to me!

"Buzz buzz buzz buzz..."

When Xu Lang fell silent, the Machine King's mechanical body trembled, as if laughing or as if running at full power.

Unknown.

Going from inferior to excellent.

Intellect that seeks ultimate truth.

Layer upon layer, the Machine King's internal scales tilted!

Survival or destruction—Xu Lang stood on the side of survival, jumping up and down with all his might!

"Masterpiece, truly a masterpiece... If the human race can produce talent like you, then I deem it worthy of continued existence!" The Machine King raised its hand like a mountain, red light flowing across its mechanical body—the vast, infinite power of Mechanic Force. "Human, will you join our mechanical faction? Step into glorious evolution and stand with me above all races!"

[Machine King issues faction invitation. If accepted, your primary identity will become "Mechanic Arbiter," and your secondary identity "Mad King Building·Player." Accept/Reject?]

[Warning: Faction change will trigger special quest "Agent." You will also leave the Mad King Building with the Machine King.]

"Forget it, I'm a member of the Mad King Building. I love it here." Xu Lang thought it over and shook his head in refusal.

Becoming a "Mechanic Arbiter" seemed to offer considerable benefits, but the downside was that the Machine King would scrutinize him inside and out—no secrets left.

That was just the nature of the Mechanical Race.

Higher-order mechanical lifeforms had unlimited access to lower-order ones, just like the Dorm Owner and Tenant relationship.

Xu Lang didn't want to end up like Cao Yaxuan and the others, being accessed every single day.

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