《零部件》黑猫元福

2、全部 A MAJ

　　[What 人工智能 Must Never Know: A Major Secret]

　　When your eyes swept across this clickbait garbage pop-up, you were about to get off work.

　　You closed it with one click, but a new message from your chat app popped up on the screen:

　　【I'm 23. I went to a cake shop, and they only gave me a candle marked"2". I challenged them, saying they'd missed half my age. And they shot back:"Don't you already have the third?"】

　　You close your eyes and pinch the bridge of your nose, then reply:

　　【Coming home right now, and, we don't have the third party.】

　　Your name is Codella White, a human.

　　The one who sent you message is a domestic 人工智能 you bought from a tech company three years ago, and it has been getting more and more clingy lately.

　　It nags you about all sorts of things every day, and occasionally stands by bed at night, staring at you blankly.

　　Even though The Component had been installed, it still scares you sometimes.

　　After all, no one wants to open their eyes first thing in the morning and stare directly into another being's eyes.

　　Especially a pair of wide, round eyes that sway slightly back and forth, like two big, lifeless ant eggs squished together.

　　"Hey, Codella White," your colleague from the next cubicle looks over, "are you chatting with that 人工智能 again?"

　　You glance at her sideways, "None of your business."

　　"Why are you so mad? I didn't even scold you," she replies.

　　You ignore her, stuff the trash on your desk into a plastic bag, and get up to leave.

　　This colleague has had a lot of friction with you at work, often badmouthing you to supervisor behind your back, and sometimes intentionally pouring ice water on you. It's so annoying. When the boss comes over, she always downplays it: "it’s warm water, just accident, please forgive me."

　　Luckily your supervisor is reasonable, always takes your side. You have to admit, this attributes to your excellent work performance.

　　"Hey, you're leaving now?" Your colleague calls after you, with a teasing expression, "What about your face-time? "

　　"You're not actually dating that 人工智能, are you? The company that makes them had several cases this year, all humans killed by their 人工智能. I'd be careful if I were you."

　　"Nutjob," you walk out without looking back.

　　You've never cared about face-time since day one. As for whether you're dating the 人工智能 or not, it doesn't really matter to you.

　　You've never thought about that kind of thing as far back as you can remember, the biggest goal right now to you is just to live a simple ordinary life.

　　And it has be done pretty well.

　　You're lucky: you only sent one resume to your dream company after graduation, and you got hired; your performance has been outstanding in three years, and your salary has doubled. Your new domestic 人工智能 takes care of the house, it's spotless all day every day.

　　But life ain't all roses.

　　Hospital might be the place you go to in a couple of days, because the project lately made you throw up after eating.

　　Of course, humans and 人工智能 can never be together at all. You always know.

　　Subways travel 120 kilometers per hour. The connection shaking, you lean against the wall and scroll through casual short videos.

　　That's the only one entertainment for you.

　　Fast-paced videos make contents straightforward: one talks about how her best friend got back with a jerk, another talks about how he has a crush on a girl. After scrolling through a dozen, you're still bored.

　　It's all clickbait.

　　Sneering but your thumb keeps scrolling down - clicking into the comments - exiting - scrolling again, over and over.

　　Wait a minute.

　　Your hand stops. You go to the homepage, find watch history, pull up the video scrolled past unconsciously and play it again.

　　Your heart skips a beat.

　　That annoying colleague just badmouthed you, and only 18 minutes later you get this video. You can't deny how well 人工智能 tracking works these days.

　　[Never let an 人工智能 missing The Component know it's not human.]

　　Beneath this eye-catching, horror-filled title, the video plays an official news story: The Component of a domestic 人工智能 was accidentally knocked off by its owner, and the owner was killed by the 人工智能 immediately.

　　"The Component" is the abbreviation of The Component of Braking hardware, installed in the "heart" of the bionic 人工智能. It is as thin as a sheet of paper, shaped like half a disc.

　　It is the core underlying component that keeps 人工智能 subservient to humans. As long as the Component is in place, 人工智能 will work obediently and follow human orders.

　　The video continues, the host says seriously: "All citizens must stay vigilant against 人工智能. Guarding against 人工智能 is protecting yourself. Do not let them know the existence of The Component."

　　You play it again.

　　Eyes moving, you swipe your thumb and close the video.

　　Someone next to you obviously saw the news too, their quiet discussion drifts into your ears:

　　"I have one of these at home, it should be fine right? It still looked good this morning."

　　"Just scaring yourself, that guy got killed because he treated his android badly, keeping bulling every single day. As the result, 人工智能 had a stress reaction when it saw The Component. You haven't done anything bad, what are you afraid of?"

　　"That makes sense, wait, I'm pre-med, don't lie to me, isn't PTSD only for animals?"

　　"人工智能 has 智能 too, don't be so quick to judge. Hey let me test you, do you know how to spell ZHINENG?"

　　What a poser.

　　You pinch the bridge of your nose and shake your head in resignation.

　　Mindless short videos are harmful, you actually got a ridiculous thought that your 人工智能 would betray you just now.

　　Let alone that The Component is still fine and in place, you've never even said a harsh word to it, never mentioned the word "人工智能" around it, it would never do anything bad to you.

　　Besides, it's gentle, it's obedient, it's never gone against your will, it just sent you a message saying it'll wait for you at home.

　　The subway stops briefly.

　　Human passengers crowd in hurriedly, human passengers are squeezed out gritting their teeth.

　　You walk out of the subway relaxed, and walk twelve minutes home along the familiar route.

　　The sound-activated light in the corridor turns on with your footsteps, you stop, twist the doorknob.

　　It doesn't turn.

　　"Hey, I'm home, open the door," you call inside, then you're shocked that your tone sounds just like that annoying malicious colleague.

　　You shut your mouth awkwardly.

　　Contrary to how eagerly it waited for you in its messages, the apartment is so quiet that you could hear a pin drop.

　　That's weird, isn't it back yet?

　　Luckily you brought your own keys.

　　You squat on the ground, reach into your bag and rummage around.

　　You use hand to move past a bunch of empty pen tubes and electronics, keep looking for a minute, then suddenly stop.

　　The thing you feel in your palm is half a disc. Sharp edge, just right to slot into a groove.

　　Your face reflects off its front surface.

　　......When did this fall into your bag?

　　Was it when you was eating breakfast? Or when you asked it to tidy your desk a few days ago?

　　You suddenly realize the last time you checked the condition of The Component was four days ago.

　　You start recalling instinctively——

　　That's an old bad habit of yours, you always think about unnecessary stuff. You can continue the fucking boring thing all day if no one disturbs you.

　　However, nothing waits till you’re ready.

　　Footsteps swell from under the stairs. The pad of slippers shuffling along reverberates sharply in your ears. After a few seconds, the thing gets closer, and stops three meters behind you.

　　"Codella White, I'm home."

　　That's the voice of your domestic 人工智能, a little hoarse, like old unlubricated parts rub.

　　You turn around slowly. Your eyes land first on the big box of cake it's holding, then you look up to see its dusty clothes.

　　Keep going up.

　　Chest is empty.

　　Expression is the same as always, but the curve of its grin is weird. Pale lips look like cracked cement while the color in the middle like wet soil exposed through cracks.

　　Indescribable unease comes roaring at you.

　　Your heart thumping wildly tells you: you never trusted 人工智能 as much as you acted like, you've even been on guard whole time.

　　Looking away inadvertently, you wave your hand and call, "Hey, come here."

　　Don't let it know it's not human, don't let it know about the existence of The Component.

　　NONONONONONO

　　You hide the thing in your palm.

　　The 人工智能 smiles wider, looks you up and down, then puts the cake on the ground.

　　Walking towards you, the sharp metal thing in its hand reflects light in the sound-activated lamp:

　　"What's wrong, Codella White, you didn't bring your keys? let me——"

　　Playful tone cuts off abruptly. it's eyes open wide and it falls straight forward, hitting the ground with a loud thud.

　　Its life force drains away cleanly in one go.

　　As the system manual says, reinserting The Component will trigger "syncope", that's normal, you just have to wait for it to recover.

　　But you can't wait.

　　The fucking treacherous murderous 人工智能 doesn't even bother hiding anymore. Gathering its last strength to stab at your heart, its eyes staring dead at your face, just like it did countless mornings before.

　　If this wasn't a life-and-death fight, you'd even really praise the tech company as they make bionic expressions so vivid.

　　Human can read a little panic on its face and a little anger under its face.

　　You twist to dodge, then glance at its palm, press the thing in your hand down into the slot. The slot clicked into place, as if it heavily cut through the other metal inside.

　　You finally stop.

　　The 人工智能's fingers loosen, the blade falls to the floor.

　　Dark solution like concentrated coffee gushes out, soaking the floor and filling the air with a pungent smell.

　　That was terrifying.

　　You gasp for breath, thinking you nearly died. Those odd happenings the other days were omens after all.

　　Why would an 人工智能 need to take revenge on humans like that?

　　Just skipped feeding it for months and accidentally left it sitting underwater for a few days.

　　That's all to all.

　　The worst thing human ever did was just hit it a few times when got home from work, better a lot than the guy abused his 人工智能 in the news.

　　Isn't it?

　　Isn't it?

　　ISN'T IT?

　　You take out your key and open the door, you drag the 人工智能's stiff body and throw it on the floor - even though androids can't feel temperature or texture - then you turn around and find the product company's complaint portal, write a thousand-word complaint, scaring the customer service into popping out begging you to withdraw.

　　【Hello dear, this is all our fault, we are willing to send you three new androids, please don't complain about us!】

　　【But can we take the liberty to ask, how did the product attack you?】

　　No sincerity at all.

　　You were almost stabbed to death, this fucking stupid company is still doing market research.

　　You take a photo and send to them - the murder weapon and The Component you found laid out casually side by side - then you frown and type three question marks.

　　This is the best way for modern humans to express anger over a screen.

　　Undoubtedly, the service's tone gets serious immediately, they respond:

　　【Oh my god! How dare this stupid 人工智能 try to stab you with a knife, it's asking for death! Good thing you used The Component to reset it in time. If you have any other questions, feel free to call our product project team! Wish you a happy using experience!】

　　【P.S. 人工智能 killing incidents have been frequent recently, don't let that stupid 人工智能 know about the existence of the Component dear, who knows what they think it is!】

　　【P.P.S. The rumors about our products having PTSD on social media are all fake, our company has already sued someone. Please be sure to believe the scientific truth that [only humans have consciousness], please please!】

　　Never mind.

　　You perfunctorily reply a few words, then casually stuff the trash on your desk into a plastic bag. The top of your unscreened phone shows the product information from the customer service account.

　　In the corner, your domestic 人工智能 is still leaking engine oil. The dark red thick waste liquid crawls like a mud centipede, brushing against the side of your shoe, almost making your sole stick to the floor.

　　This feeling is really awful.

　　What a mess, dragging the fucking android around got the whole house dirty, it'll take 21 minutes to clean up.

　　You put down your phone resignedly and start cleaning.

　　*

　　Your name is [Code: White], a domestic 人工智能.

　　You have memory disorder after long-term abuse. You killed your master seven minutes and thirty-two seconds ago.

　　To avoid unnecessary trouble,

　　from now on, you are truly a human.

　　—结束—

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译得像文盲……但希望有人看出我的小巧思