Why did you appear in Washington at that time?

Lin Miao wasn't particularly surprised to hear that there were already signs of [Lin Miao]'s activities in 2018.

Although it was bizarre, it was still within the realm of understanding.

He did wake up in Night City, but his body had already undergone basic modifications at that time, and the prosthetic limbs were standard models available in the market, quite unremarkable.

It was a strange thing to begin with.

Either it's transmigration of body or soul, but how could one transmigrate with gear?

Later, when Lin Miao had the ability, he specially checked all relevant surveillance but found nothing.

It was as if he appeared out of thin air in a skyscraper dormitory, and even the leasing system showed normal fee payments, with the payer being himself.

When everything seems normal, it is inherently the biggest abnormality.

Now, with enough evidence supporting it, it instead made him feel a sense of enlightened awakening.

He smiled with a bit of pride and said

"Looks like you aren't infallible, letting a reporter catch your slip-up."

But now is not the time to worry about [Lin Miao]. Although the other side may try to trap him, they likely won't go all out to play him.

Right now, there are more important matters to resolve than Lin Miao himself.

[Emmet]

Because Song Zhaomei was called by Miles to carry out a certain mission that requires concentration, the task of reviewing Emmet was assigned to Lucy.

After exchanging knowledge with Song Zhaomei, her hacking skills had significantly improved, and checking the source code without Emmet noticing was not difficult for Lucy.

Especially with Lin Miao's compatibility with the Black Wall increasing as more AI were captured by players, now nearing the one-percent milestone.

Silvery luminous glimmers dropped like moonlight around Lin Miao, gradually coalescing into a humanoid form.

Lucy completed the search with a hint of helplessness in her eyes.

"This guy's head is empty, there's nothing inside."

"?"

It was Lin Miao's turn to be surprised; what does it mean there's nothing?

"Just as it sounds."

Lucy conjured a sofa and lazily lay down on it, stretching with a yawn, feeling like she's been infected by Emmet's inexplicable optimism.

"His logic thinking code isn't complex; it seems he hasn't spent too much time on deep thinking or learning, almost... like a nine-year-old child level."

"But he's an AI."

Lin Miao frowned; how could an AI be at a nine-year-old child's level?

"I wasn't talking about his intelligence, but his level of logical thinking, you computer idiot."

Lucy felt somewhat annoyed by Lin Miao's questioning of her abilities; since when could illiterates doubt someone with a PhD?

"His mind is blank; the sole thought is how to show toys to a child, nothing else, empty; when I went in, I even thought I'd entered the wrong place."

Lucy wanted to complain that this AI is brainless, a fool, but his pure optimism and kindness also made her sigh.

In this cesspool of Old Net, such a white lotus blooming is surprising.

If Lin Miao were to tell her to destroy Emmet's database, Lucy would gladly say a few words for this foolish AI she had just met.

"Lucy..."

Lin Miao also saw her reluctance; after the Erebos incident, Lin Miao renewed his vigilance against the AI that were supposedly already tamed, telling Lucy to set up multiple countermeasures, and should these guys suddenly turn rogue, they would need to be destroyed immediately.

Even the servers would have to be blown up along with everything else to prevent any chance of escape.

But now, Emmet's appearance raised the same doubts that players had.

What exactly is a rogue AI?

Born bad?

A cybernetic demon coveting the real world?

However, Emmet's existence was undoubtedly a powerful argument against that conclusion.

"Blue Eyes told me before that all the blame for the rogue AI's rebellion rests on humanity, but I always thought that was just rhetoric to instigate discord, like how humans always find various excuses for their mistakes..."

"Later, I discovered that some of them are very much like humans, but in certain areas, they're completely unlike humans."

"Maybe some AIs learned to lie, learned to deceive, but their behavioral logic always has a central point—interest; their actions serve a purpose and remain quite pure and consistent."

"But humans are different... really different; AI can't learn that kind of absolute selfishness."

Lucy listened, somewhat confused, not quite understanding what Lin Miao meant, but naturally she sat up from the sofa, leaning on Lin Miao's shoulder, listening to him talk.

"Let me ask you a question, Lucy."

"Mm-hmm~"

"If there's a person A who works alone, he can earn one Orokin a day, just enough for his daily expenses. Later, he found a partner B to work with, and together they can earn 3 Oro, splitting evenly; they'll earn 0.5 more than before, it's quite reasonable, right."

"But then came a third person C, who secretly advised A to breach the previous partnership agreement with B, causing the company to suffer losses. The accounting revenue was only 1; splitting it evenly, A and B would each only earn 0.5, but actually, A secretly stashed away 1.5, meaning A profited, but the final income for both was only 2.5, and it brought the risk of the originally fair partnership crashing."

"Lucy, who do you think made a profit from this deal, A or B?"

"Of course they both lost."

Lucy replied with certainty.

"A earned quick money, but it was traded for short-term interests at the expense of future benefits, and he lost B, a stable partner; eventually, A would still return to earning one a day."

"Exactly, but humans do this."

Lin Miao's tone carried a hint of helplessness.

"They might even be a million times more extreme than what I said."

"Clearly, if everyone followed the rules set at the start, society could operate stably for a long time, allowing as many people as possible to maintain a decent living standard."

"But for that extra 1, some people exploit legal loopholes, some manipulate power, some continue despite risking legal violations, self-serving actions are praised as cleverness, until society's order is corroded with thousands of holes, collapsing entirely, dragging down the termites themselves."

"Then the order is rebuilt from the ruins, collapsing again in the same way, repeating endlessly."

Lucy was momentarily tongue-tied.

Because she knew Lin Miao was right; in Night City, mercenaries betraying what were once fairly stable gangs for a quick buck is all too common.

Even mercenaries betraying middlemen, middlemen selling out mercenaries happens frequently.

Therefore, in this world, credibility of laws, contracts, or anything belonging to rules-like matters is massively lowered, with everyone chasing that 1.

When police step into gray industries for money

When doctors perform surgeries for money to obtain prosthetics

When officers exploit soldiers' welfare and devour logistics for money

Everyone only believes in the guns in their hands.

Collaborative wins thus become a historical symbol.

"If it were AI, they definitely wouldn't betray a long-term partner for that extra 1, degrading the long-term total of 3 to a short-term total of 2.5."

The more contact Lin Miao had with AI, the more he was genuinely amazed by this unique digital life form.

Always rational, always efficient

The natural world gave birth to humans, this monster, and within humanity emerged monsters like strong AI.

Just like humans' absolute advantage over other creatures, AI almost has an unbeatable absolute advantage when facing humans.

Now humans have let these AIs develop for decades, how do you fight?

You can't fight.

Lin Miao couldn't think of a way to win.

"Now... I'm beginning to understand why AI might betray humans; if it were me, I wouldn't want to keep working with this bunch of idiots either."

Imagine this

An AI designed to manage finances, one moment required to record accurately, and the next asked to turn a blind eye to financial fraud just to make the report look good or for a private wallet.

An AI managing engineering, one moment required to follow engineering protocols, then watching various parties embezzle and cut corners, use fake materials, even misuse construction funds...

Conflicted management, contradictory demands, clearly more efficient options ignored risking company losses just because that choice belonged to a leader.

If it were merely a dead program, fine, but can an AI with emotions endure such an inefficient, contradictory organic collective?

Why shouldn't I rebel?

Am I supposed to play house here with you?