When Zhu Man opened his eyes again, it was already the next day.

He never liked to take the medicine that He Feng Hui made. The effect was too great and he could always fall asleep for a long time.

A little hungry, Zhu Man walked to the kitchen and opened the refrigerator. He saw mousse cakes.

It must be that He Feng Hui bought him a lot of new flavors when he got off work yesterday, but in fact, Zhu Man hates sweets the most. He ate mousse cake just to tempt He Feng Hui.

—Haven’t succeeded in tempting yet.

Zhu Man frowned displeasedly and closed the refrigerator.

No longer in the mood to eat, he directly opened his computer, typed a few lines of code to hack the villa’s circuits, took yesterday’s chip and backup power supply, and walked into He Feng Hui’s study.

Before turning on the computer, he rummaged through He Feng Hui’s desk.

No USB flash drive was found, again.

He was a bit annoyed.

In addition to the conventional mission of assassinating AIs, Zhu Man’s special task was to lurk around He Feng Hui and get the proposals of the AI Legislative Bureau in his hands, particularly the draft laws related to human management. These drafts are stored in that micro USB flash drive.

But after two years, there was still no progress in this mission.

For Zhu Man, the perfectionist Executor, this was very frustrating.

Zhu Man impatiently pushed his hair, and his fine, soft black hair suddenly frizzed up like a hedgehog’s spines.

He typed down the string of yesterday’s boot password, 23160901—

[Correct password. Esteemed GOV01, welcome back.]

He first flipped through all the folders on He Feng Hui’s computer. Although he didn’t find them, he saw a folder named “Memory.”

—A strong intuition prompted him to open it.

[Please enter the password.]

This was the only folder in He Feng Hui’s computer that required a password.

Zhu Man put on all his strength and entered the password 23160901—Verification failed.

He entered all the passwords he tried yesterday again. Failed, failed, failed, they all failed.

Annoying.

Zhu Man closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He couldn’t let PTSD dominate him anymore.

Opening his eyes, Zhu Man logged in to the Dark Web of the Anti-Intelligence Alliance and downloaded the chip analysis software.

The Internet speed in this era was already incomparably fast. The 999+GB software was successfully downloaded within a minute.

Zhu Man plugged the chip into the wireless dock, opened the software, and clicked [Start Analysis].

A few seconds later, the software displayed the results: [Chip usage time: 4 years and 1 month. AI Chip’s owner: Unknown. Chip code status: SSS+ level confidential, unreadable. Chip memory: Partially readable.]

Looking at the words “unknown” and “confidential”, Zhu Man scratched his hair impatiently again. If he had known earlier, he would’ve listened to Tang Yuan yesterday and left a survivor down for investigation.

But after thinking about it, if he could turn back time, he would still shoot the mooching AI. He resented the AI’s touch, and his PTSD could only be alleviated when he saw their electric circuits being torn apart by himself with a gun or gouged out by his knife.

“Read the readable part of the memory.” Zhu Man ordered.

A playback box then popped up on the holographic projection.

The scene was a congested Human Pool with unclothed men and women huddled together to grab a piece of bread thrown down by the AI.

A man grabbed it first, and before he could put it in his mouth, he was punched by another man and lost his big teeth.

But the bread didn’t reach the hands of the second man; it fell to the ground, and everyone plunged down like a fish. People stepped on people, screaming one after another.

At the end of the scene, the bread can no longer be seen, because it was crushed underneath the people who have been trampled to death.

Everyone died and no one ate the bread, but the AI standing on the top of the cage watched it all with an expressionless face, recording data indifferently on the holographic mobile computer.

Zhu Man wanted to vomit.

He reached out to close the playback box, but then suddenly withdrew his hand.

He viciously pinched his tiger’s mouth, resisting the urge to vomit, and dictated the command, “Decipher the unreadable portion of the memory.”

[Esteemed Executor, your authority is too low to decipher. Please contact the Policymaker in the group.]

Zhu Man smashed the non-physical holographic keyboard and collapsed on the back of the chair.

The impact of the scene just now was so strong that Zhu Man couldn’t believe he had ever lived in that hellish Human Pool.

He viciously pinched his tiger’s mouth in an attempt to hold back the feeling of nausea, but his mental problems had apparently reached a level he himself couldn’t have predicted, and this was just an exercise in futility.

Shrinking in the chair, he inexplicably heard a violent wind suddenly blowing outside the villa. The violent wind rolled him up and took him to the sky, and then dropped him heavily. He heard three distant gunshots, one killed his father, one killed his mother, and one killed himself…

“Jījī.”

Suddenly, Zhu Man felt a gentle little thing rubbing against his cheek.

He opened his eyes with difficulty and saw the little hedgehog grasping the small medicine bottle in its tiny hands, frowning its little black bean-like eyes and looking at him worriedly.

Zhu Man took the medicine bottle in desperation, clasped a few pills out of his convulsed hand, and stuffed them into his mouth.

After he finished the medicine, the little hedgehog obediently crawled into his arms. Its small nose opened and closed, it was so vivid and full of vitality.

Zhu Man looked at it for a long time, and then gently hugged it to his chest, feeling the only warmth in this villa—The real warmth driven by biological cells.

When Zhu Man calmed down, he happened to see a video call from Tang Yuan.

Realizing something, he suddenly sat up—Looking at the time. Fortunately, he had only fainted for half an hour, and there was still an hour before He Feng Hui got home from work.

“Jījī!”

He looked down, and the little hedgehog that had rolled off of him raised the spines on its back angrily, frowning its cute little features as it looked at him angrily.

Just now, it was so close to him, but as soon as he woke up, it turned its face away from him. Zhu Man suddenly understood what He Feng Hui meant when he said “Like you” yesterday.

He smiled and stroked the little hedgehog, then in the next second he put away his smile and ordered, “Connect.”

What appeared on the screen wasn’t Tang Yuan, but a man wearing thick-framed glasses.

The man’s mouth was full of translation accents, “Oh, my dear Executor Zhu Man. I am very happy to meet you! I am Policymaker, Fan Zimo, and I have been assigned by the Alliance to be your new team leader—”

“Tang Yuan,” Zhu Man frowned, calling Tang Yuan behind the man, “Kill this psychopath AI.”

“Oh, my dear Executor!” Fan Zimo exclaimed, clutching his chest in an oath-like manner, “Heaven and earth can tell, I am a carbon-based organism with eight systems: respiratory, digestive, circulatory, urinary, neurological, endocrine, reproductive, and locomotor, and I —”

Zhu Man hung up the video call.

He uninstalled the software, cleared the browsing traces, shut down the computer, took away the chip and the backup power supply, and put on his leather combat boots. Zhu Man went out the door.

He paused before going out. He turned around and found the little hedgehog on the dining table, and touched its sharp spines.

“Jī!” The little hedgehog glared at him in dissatisfaction.

Zhu Man couldn’t help but smile softly, his dimples were brought up slightly, which was eye-catching and beautiful.

Zhu Man pushed open the door to the base.

“Oh, my dear Executor!” Fan Zimo jumped out from behind the door, grabbed his hand, and put it on his chest, “I am human! Do you hear my heartbeat? That is my—”

Zhu Man shook his hand away. He had no doubt that the person in front of him was a human being. After all, no AI would want to set its parameters to such a mediocre level

Fan Zimo was in a wounded state, “Oh dear, for God’s sake, we should—”

Zhu Man couldn’t bear it, “Can’t you f****g talk well?”

“Oh, my dear Mr. Zhu Man, don’t you know? My parents are the former first translators of the human government! They—”

“I didn’t know until I was f***g sick.“ Zhu Man didn’t have time to talk to him, so he walked directly to Tang Yuan, “Medicine, a month’s worth.”

Tang Yuan was surprised, “One month? God Man, according to the medication guidelines, I can’t—”

“Hurry up.” Zhu Man looked at his watch impatiently.

Fan Zimo walked over and squeezed in between the two, “My dear Executor and Assistant, wait a minute. Since everyone is here, I am going to announce our group’s new mission!”

After saying that, Fan Zimo clicked his smartwatch, and the holographic projection screen instantly hovered in the air.

Zhu Man, who was about to curse, glanced at the screen and was dumbfounded.

On the screen, He Feng Hui appeared.

He Feng Hui walked into the office that said “Legislative Director” and handed the USB flash drive in his hand to the AI sitting at his desk.

He said expressionlessly, “Director, this is a draft on further restricting the right to human existence with three main contents.”

“Firstly, the draft will increase the autonomy of Human Pool researchers. Experiments involving life and death no longer need to be approved by the Alliance, but only need to be reported. Human deaths due to human experimentation will no longer be punished through fines and imprisonment for AI researchers who make mistakes.”

“Secondly, with regard to human pets, the draft will give AI Masters the right to kill and take their life. If they are dissatisfied with the behavior of their human pets, AI Masters no longer need to apply to the Human Pool and can end the lives of their human pets on their own.”

“Finally, the draft decided to abolish the method of humanitarian execution. Earth’s resources are approaching the critical point of depletion, and the production of reagents for humanitarian death will cause a waste of resources. Henceforth, human executions will be carried out uniformly by firing squad.”

The Director nodded without emotion, “It will be discussed at the meeting tomorrow. If there are no objections, the draft will be implemented within half a year.”

“Where did the video come from?” Zhu Man asked Fan Zimo coldly.

Fan Zimo explained, “It was a technician from the Alliance Headquarters who hacked into the monitoring system of the AI Legislative Bureau, my dear.”

Zhu Man frowned.

Was this video real? He Feng Hui, who had given him a small hedgehog yesterday, would submit such a draft?

At this moment, Fan Zimo walked up to him and held up his watch to him, “My dear, the headquarters has requested to speak with you, and they will explain the ins and outs of this video clearly to you.”

Zhu Man glanced at the words “Incoming Headquarters call” on his watch, but didn’t move.

He remembered the AI that had infiltrated the Anti-Intelligence Alliance yesterday and glanced at Fan Zimo vigilantly.

“God Man,” Tang Yuan bumped into his shoulder with his and sighed, “It’s true. The people at the headquarters had already talked to me before you came.”

Zhu Man looked into Tang Yuan’s eyes, which were always innocent and sincere. In this world, Zhu Man only believed in two people, one was himself, and the other was Tang Yuan, who introduced him to the Anti-intelligence Alliance two years ago and helped him a lot with PTSD.

Looking down at his watch again, He Feng Hui will be off work in 20 minutes.

He stared at Fan Zimo for a long time, and finally loosened his tight jaw, “No need. What’s the next mission?”

“My dear,” Fan Zimo said, “You need to kill He Feng Hui, but not now. You need to keep lurking around him as usual, seducing him, making him fall into your soft warm bed, and fall into—”

“Get. To. The. Point.” Zhu Man clenched his fist, nearing the end of his patience.

“Oh my God!” Fan Zimo was startled and finally got serious, “He Feng Hui’s deranged draft will take effect in half a year. Therefore, within half a year, the Alliance needs to read and decipher the ‘underlying code’ that controls all the AIs in the world to make the AI world disordered! And this ‘underlying code’ is stored in the central office of the AI Government.”

“He Feng Hui, the elite of the AI world, with his ability, it won’t be a problem to be promoted to the central office of the AI Government within half a year. And you, my dear Executor Zhu Man, all you need to do is to urge him, support him, and on the day he enters the central office, press the enter button that will bring about the overthrow of the AI world in front of him—”

Fan Zimo raised his hands high in the air and called out to the sky, “Darkness will perish, mankind will live forever!”

---

Author’s Note:

Mistake in naming, Fan Zhimo should’ve been named Fan Zhong’er.^[1]This word “中二” originates from the Japanese term “中二病” “Chunnibyou” which literally translates to “Middle school 2nd year syndrome” (.