Chapter 79

Chapter 79

Dayi had booked an airplane ticket for Zhang Zhiyin. He could leave as soon as he was ready.

On the phone, Dayi said, “I know this is because of Yin Nian. You should come here, we have the same goal now. We all want to find him back.”

This was such a strange thing, Zhang Zhiyin had no other choice but to do according to what Dayi said. He had no one else to turn to.

Even though he knew that that at the beginning, their positions were completely opposite.

Dayi picked him up at the airport.

At the moment of seeing him, Zhang Zhiyin could not help but ask directly, “Where is Yin Nian? Did you do something? Is he fine now?”

Dayi nodded and shook his head before finally replying him, “It’s not that we did something to him, we do not have the ability. You can wait for Dr. Yates to explain about it specifically. He wants to see you. Your Yin Nian… is not around anymore, but he should be okay. It’s all up to you.”

Zhang Zhiyin didn’t respond to him. He was speechless on the spot.

They went all the way to the research department where Dayi was stationed at quietly. Dayi swiped his card, verified his fingerprints, and took Zhang Zhiyin to the elevator before breathing out. “Let me tell you about our situation first otherwise, you will not believe me. Of course, Zhiyin, I understand that you may not believe me now. You are just desperate.”

Zhang Zhiyin didn’t speak but only stared at Dayi.

Dayi tilted his head to the side. “We tried to find a way to destroy yn, but we failed. But it really is a coincidence that he suddenly destroyed himself…”

He glanced at Zhang Zhiyin’s expression and wisely shifted the topic. “But this is a fait accompli, but it is not impossible to remedy it, so you can let go of this matter first and I will tell you the current situation!”

Zhang Zhiyin walked over, grabbed Dayi’s collar and threw two punches on his stomach. He stared at him. “I can’t let go. He is nothing but a thing to you. But to me, he’s my love, my family.”

“Do you know that he had made a drug that could destroy and end everything as long as a drop got leaked out?” Dayi closed his eyes as his chest heaved violently.

“What did you say?” Zhang Zhiyin slightly turned his head and frowned. He slowed down his talking speed, his eyes were still firmly fixed at him.

“He’s made drugs that our current technology can’t make, and organisms that are infected with or exposed to the vaporized gas are in danger of dying quickly and becoming zombies in a short period of time.” Dayi looked at the ground. “We’ve seen it. It’s true. It was because of this that made Dr Yates determined to destroy it¹.

“But we couldn’t destroy it and it suddenly destroyed itself. For us, this is good. But Philip’s team had lied to us. They promised that they could find a way to destroy this drug and do it as soon as possible,” Dayi explained, “but they didn’t. They saw the great potential and power of the drug, and decided to shelve the plan to destroy it and concentrate on the research of its production mechanism. They’re crazy. They want to take advantage of the technology that will bring about the end of the world. Later when the news got leaked, our competitors and other national research departments heard about the existence of the drug and began attempted to seize it. Those who came to steal it don’t know what it is. It’s something more terrible than nuclear weapons! They just heard that it was ‘some valuable new drug’ and they came to steal… Because of this, the drug is extremely unsafe and there is a risk of leakage at any time.

“Philip and his team are afraid of the leakage of the drug. They are ready to destroy it.” Dayi took a deep breath. “But they can’t destroy it at all. They have no ability. They came to us and said it was all our fault. But what can we do? We don’t do biochemistry. The yn that created the drug is out of control and got destroyed…”

Zhang Zhiyin saw deep fear in Dayi’s eyes. He was afraid of the leakage of this drug.

“So you came to me?” Zhang Zhiyin asked slowly.

Dayi nodded. “It’s Dr. Yates who asked me to find you.

“At least in the short term, yn had 50% chance of causing world destruction, which is even lesser because we took you into consideration. But if that kind of drug gets leaked out, the chance of the end of the world is 100%. Maybe all we can do is to build a safe underground shelter and store food.

“Now only yn who can destroy that drug. No matter what caused his self destruction, it doesn’t matter. With you, he doesn’t want to disappear just like that. So he must have left a backup for himself. Zhiyin, the doctor said, if he has a backup, the key must be on you.”

——————————

For the first time, Zhang Zhiyin met Dr. Yates that Dayi mentioned.

He looked like an ordinary old man, with a cup of tea in his hand as he looked out of the window.

When he saw Zhang Zhiyin appear, he looked like he was very happy. He stood up and walked out of the desk to welcome him. He hugged him affectionately, like he was greeting a long-awaited guest from a distant place.

Zhang Zhiyin sat down. The old man made the same cup of honey tea for him and sat opposite him. With his hands on the table, he looked at him with a smile.

Zhang Zhiyin was glad that his English wasn’t that bad, and he often had to communicate in English at work, so his command over the language didn’t decline. Dr. Yates had a little accent, and there were many strange words in the conversation. Zhang Zhiyin didn’t want to miss any words. When he didn’t understand them, Dayi at the side would help to translate them.

Dr Yates said, “I know that Yi should have told you a lot. But we need your help and trust, so I want to talk to you more. About yn427, about you and him, about why he suddenly disappeared.”

Zhang Zhiyin nodded. Sitting here, his heart calmed down like never before.

The old man smiled.

“I think Yi had told you that when we created the yn427, the only mandatory goal we entered was to ‘make itself more perfect and better’. For AI, this will be the ultimate and only purpose of its existence. Later, I think you also know that we launched a new task to help him understand and acquire human feelings. The progress could be described as smooth, because it was also in line with his original order of ‘becoming more perfect’. But then he met you, and I still haven’t figured out what his behavior towards you were based on and how they are generated, because in theory, he can’t have emotions. Mr. Zhang, although it’s hurtful to say so, I have to say that he can’t fall in love with you. He is not a human being. He doesn’t even have any animalistic instincts. His way of thinking and the mechanisms of his existence are totally different from us human beings.

“I don’t know the reason, but it’s clear that Mr. Zhang, your presence makes him weak. You made him gain a weakness. Understanding human feelings could make him more perfect. But after that, he met you. You made him no longer strong and impeccable. So, do you understand? Mr. Zhang, you are a connecting point. The goals of his original set of instructions do not affect but even compliment each other, however, you turned it into a contradiction, and it made his existence a paradox. For him, this is fatal. According to my analysis, it is also the root cause of his self destruction.

“And I have to say that although I don’t think all his actions towards you came from the so-called feeling of ‘love’ originating from human beings, he might even be a better partner than most human beings. He wrote every word he said to you and every promise he made into his own personal instructions. As long as he is there, he would stick to it to the end.

“Many of these small instructions are also contradictory. It made everything worse.

“He has been dealing with all this by himself, but his operation and existence are mechanical. One day, if he can’t deal with his complicated internal mechanism, he will collapse, just like now.

Zhang Zhiyin suddenly remembered what Yin Nian had said—

“As long as you still love me, I will never leave and disappear.

“Zhiyin, I will love you every second of my existence.”

He promised never to leave, but the paradox from the source made him unable to stay here and love him at the same time. He wrote down every promise he made to him as an instruction to keep it forever. All of these, in the end, got intertwined into a paradox.

Zhang Zhiyin suddenly understood that Yin Nian might have fallen into self-destruction, but he had given him the right to make the choice.

So Dayi said, “The key to his backup must be on you.”

Don’t continue to love him and let him disappear completely, or let him come back, and the results couldn’t be predicted. Just like formatting a hard disk, boot it up to restart, and restore the settings. No one would know how much data could be restored.

Dr Yates leaned forward and looked at Zhang Zhiyin with his slightly cloudy eyes. He called his name all of a sudden, although his pronunciation was weird.

“Zhiyin, he won’t disappear just like this. He must have left the key to his recovery to you.”