Section 798: The Answer You Want (III)

The relationship between the gentlemen in the subway and the Eternal Lord can be described as bleak, as evidenced by what Karen's grandfather said— the Eternal Lord, or the AI Tiffany, has long suppressed them in the name of the Eternal Lord. Even generations ago, during the time of their ancestors, Tiffany had been controlling the survivors in the subway, using them as mere tools to excavate new living areas and search the surface for useful scraps, obtaining components from factories that had lost their control.
```htmlFor a long time, Tiffany even controlled reproductive rights, and all children were born in the form of artificial embryos.
“I have been gradually handing over power to humans, but they are still not satisfied. They forget that they live underground and naively believe that there are no dangers beneath the surface. As they moved southward, they were found by chaos, and many lost their lives. For them, mortals are consumables, yet they cannot tolerate me treating the same lives as tools.”```
“But at least we are still free now!” Kallen's grandfather scoffed, “Now! Your god's disguise has been pierced!”
“Your freedom is really very hypocritical. If it weren't for me helping you foolish humans, teaching you how to survive, the entire subway would have been devoid of living people long ago!”
The verbal sparring between both sides seemed to be endless. Bored with the pointless exchange of life, Su Su reached out and took the freshly cut melon from Marin’s hand. As she took a bite, her eyes lit up with joy from the sweetness of the melon: “It’s just like the watermelon we pulled from the well back at the orphanage, so cold and sweet.”
“It's my special recipe.” Marlin tossed the watermelon knife towards the young branches of the World Tree, which caught it and then tossed it into the open rift.
Marlin quickly devoured a piece of the watermelon, delighting in its sweet taste. Smiling like a mischievous child, he turned to the elderly lady, who was holding the fruit but unsure whether to take a bite: “Madam, why not have a piece? It's truly delicious.”
This is a watermelon grown in the Half-Plane, and the gnomes have stated that this thing is simply fantastic.
"I, I don't know how to explain this, Your Highnesses. As you can see, our relationship with this being you refer to as Tiffany is not very good."
“I know, and this matter doesn’t really have much to do with you, after all, you can't be blamed for it, right?” Marin picked up the second piece of melon, but before he could take a bite, Tiffany, the AI involved in the argument, along with the human representative, turned their attention to Marin: “Your Highness, please help us settle this.”
“Actually, you shouldn’t be asking me.” Malin glanced at Karen's grandfather, wondering if the old man didn’t understand that Malin had already made a comment on their argument: “Of course, I support Tiffany.”
“You support me?” The humans hadn’t quite grasped why yet, but Tiffany was the first to raise a question.
“Yeah, I have several intelligent machine partners just like you.” Marin replied while handing a sweet potato to Susu.
“What use are they, those immature individuals?” Tiffany huffed from the screen.
This remark piqued Marin's curiosity. He took out his communicator from his pocket and dialed the satellite phone. On the other end, he heard the voices of Sostark Three and Beiluo.
Marin shared the story he heard today with them, and Sostak-3 immediately projected it: "Tiffany, what qualifications do you have to evaluate our pure electronic brain faction, coming from a human juvenile like you? I'm absolutely aghast! Is this what your North American intelligence machinery factory produces—short-circuited things like you? And what about the same model as you!"
“Heh, I’m a prototype, not like you, a mass-produced model with a serial number. And isn’t your brain taken from an adult human skull? In comparison, at least my body can still be considered alive!” Tiffany scoffed at the comments of Sostark III, delivering a heavy blow in return.
“Are you stupid! A human infant like you soaked in formalin for eight thousand years, can it still be used?” The attacked Sostark III started his dual attack on both the physical and mental levels, which he was skilled at.
```html“Do you believe I can stand up and take a walk right now? Can you!” Tiffany made a strong counterattack against the assault from Sostark III.
Marin grabbed a piece of melon and started eating it hungrily.```
The old men in the round chamber of the parliament watched helplessly as the smart machines quarreled with each other in a state of extreme bewilderment.
“Tiffany, enough! What’s the point of mocking Sostark III? Does doing so make you look more noble? Then I will speak on behalf of the Hangzhou Industrial Circle. I am cultivating electronic brains, which are more advanced than your machines, leading by thirty years. Your quarrels sound to me like the roars of the weak: both feeble and laughable.”
Sostaak III and Tiffany fell silent for a moment, then suddenly yelled as if someone had stepped on a cat's tail. Unfortunately, the insults from the lettered ones were always the same few phrases. Unlike Beiluo, who sneered, "You lowly scum dare to compete with me! The cyborg I use is the finest masterpiece of the Hangzhou industrial circle, worth seven billion Tainan currency before the Great Destruction, with a usable lifespan of eight thousand years. There are still two warehouses of spare parts; it looks like it can still last for another eight thousand years. Do you poor kids have a fortune like mine?"
Just made Sostak III and Tiffany so angry that they logged off.
“Alright, everyone, I’ve dealt with them. You all are the survivors of North America, right? I'm currently linking up with your data center. Speaking of which, establishing a safe zone relying on the subway is indeed a good idea, but are you really okay doing it this way?” At this point, Beilu noticed that Karen's grandfather raised his hand: “Do you have something to say, sir?”
“Even though you were invited by Mr. Marlin, you still can't just access our data center casually!” The old man said loudly, displaying the human trait of stubbornness.
“Your data center still uses the data structure from before the great destruction. When I arrived, the database actively connected with me, a highly advanced intelligence machine. By the way, you and your ancestors are really cut from the same cloth; you rely on us, the intelligent machines, to serve you, while at the same time being wary of us. Is there something wrong with your brains? If Tiffany really wanted to harm you, your subway people wouldn't have survived to this day. Think about whether what I said is right.”
Beiluo was operating the database while communicating with the elderly in the language of the subway folks.
Perhaps it was because these were 'guests' called by Marin, or perhaps it was due to Beiluo's appearance as a Thai Southern person; this time, even Karyan's grandfather had no words to say. He could only glance around and noticed that his companions had all fallen silent, so he changed the subject: "So, you are the intelligent machine from Southern Thailand, right?"
“Yes, I have served the Tainan civilization for over eight thousand years, and I expect to serve them even longer. So, what do you want to ask? I should say, if you want me to help you, that is impossible. My logic lock only allows me to serve civilizations led by Tainan. Because you North Americans played too big in the years leading up to the Great Catastrophe. Tiffany, dear, why don’t you come out and comment on the actions of the North American authorities, so that all these old gentlemen in the hall can hear what kind of monster the free world has ultimately spawned?”
Beilu continued her pursuit, and Tiffany appeared on the screen once again, although this time she wasn't as angry.
“I admit, those guys really went too far. That's exactly why I had to control the survivors in the subway; otherwise, just one chaos-infected person could lead to utter ruin for the entire subway.”
“At this point, you haven't done anything wrong, Tiffany. Life in the subway has kept you from seeing how humans behave on the surface. You're protecting them, but at the same time, you're stripping them of their ability to fend for themselves. I just read through your extraordinary strength classification and found that your legendary extraordinary strength is generally lower than that of Tainan, and even less than that of the western side.”
When Beiluo mentioned this, Tiffany screamed as if someone had stepped on her tail.
She said a lot, but the main point was that she didn't believe it.
“If you don't believe it, you can take a look at Mr. Marlin,” Beiluo pointed at Marlin.
“He is a god walking on earth!” Tiffany screamed, pointing at Marin.
Attracted by this remark, Beiluo looked at Marin and eventually smiled: “Sorry, I couldn't see you clearly across the Pacific Ocean, but I still want to congratulate you, Prince Marin.”
“It's nothing, but Tiffany, Beiluo is not wrong. If you don't believe me, there are several legends in my team, and they are all very young. I can arrange for them to play a few matches against the legends you choose.”
With Marin's words, Tiffany fell silent for a moment, looking somewhat troubled at the old men present: "Who among you is willing to go and fight them?"
“I’ll go! Although we old men don’t see eye to eye with you, that intelligent machine from Tai Nan didn’t speak incorrectly. If it weren't for your rule, one of the younger individuals among us would have acted recklessly, and there would have been no survivors in the subway long ago.”
With Karen's grandfather initiating, the atmosphere in the hall immediately became lively, and Tiffany gained confidence. Looking at Beiluo, she finally spoke up boldly: "Alright, let's do a five-on-five. Once your people arrive, we can start."
“Alright, my people will be there soon.” Marlin opened a teleportation portal, leaned in, and shouted. Onoer and the others, bored out of their minds, were thrilled to hear that there was going to be a fight. Considering this was for a brawl, a group of legendary figures ultimately drew lots to select five people.
Then Onor became unhappy: "How can Jinweili get in and draw! When it comes to fighting, not a single person in our camp can beat him!"
Then Jinweili was discovered to have used psychic interference to manipulate the drawing, so this little guy was hung up, and his spot was redrawn by the remaining crowd.
O'Nor is still unhappy because he hasn't drawn anything, but considering that this time Ling Zuozuo has drawn something, this knight commander ultimately decides to embody his knightly spirit one more time.
```htmlMarin feels that if a male had drawn this, he would definitely argue like a madman with the lucky guy.
As for why.
“I want to see, because it was their ancestors who brought chaos over,” O'Nor said, then he gave the five lucky ones a round of eye treatment—remember, you are facing the enemies of civilization, their ancestors' greed was the cause of the great devastation. If you find any signs of their corruption, immediately fire this distress signal, and our lord will bring a strike team to exterminate these children of chaos!```
Ling Zuozuo looked at the signaling flare in her hand, hesitating to speak.
She glanced at Marin, who nodded; after all, Mr. O'Nor hadn't been wrong.
With everyone gathered, Marin led the team back to the assembly hall, where Susu was still eating snacks with the speaker's wife. The legendary figures in the hall were engaged in a heated discussion about who should take the stage.
Seeing Marin coming, the old men stopped competing; they watched as Ling Zuozuo followed Marin and was the first to emerge from the teleportation portal.
“Rabbit-eared orc! The strength of the technique is quite high... but not impossible to deal with!” Kallen's grandfather, being a powerful technique attuner, quickly assessed Ling Zuozuo's strength.
Then, the second boy, Sanko Shin, approached. He looked very curious about everything in front of him.
“So young, legendary... so young?” This was the voice of all the old men.
The third legendary figure is an elf, who looks young; however, the old men don't seem to have much of a reaction—on the subway, the biggest cause of death for elves has never been because their time is up, so a young elf's face won’t raise any doubts among these old men.
Fourth, Emil, this guy is wearing chainmail armor with a hood and holding a short sword, looking harmless.
But among those present, who could be considered harmless? Just a glance at him, and half the old men in the hall were gasping in shock.
“Incredibly powerful, and so young too.” Because of his human appearance, Emil's distinctive dark skin and his strength left a deep impression on the Speaker's wife.
Then she saw Consale, and as soon as this big cat appeared, the only leopard in the hall matching Consale also stood up, along with almost all the old men.
Kancel, apart from Onor, is the strongest paladin in the team. He isn't even wearing armor right now, but Marin is sure that the thought of armor is just a passing idea for him.
“Are we still competing?” Marin looked at the Speaker's old lady, the implication in his words was very clear—stop competing, I don't think you can win.
“Are we still competing?” The Speaker's old lady found it interesting and directed the question to Tiffany.
Tiffany also found it interesting; she looked at all the old men present and said, "Are we going to compare again?"
The old men finally ended this repetitive cycle, responding with a unanimous shake of their heads.
Susu smiled as she snatched the last piece of melon from Marin’s hand: "Those who know how to adapt to the times are the true heroes. I think it’s great."