"Wait!" Sun Jack, startled, swiftly waved his right hand, and a bullet flew directly, severing Tapai's sensor thread.
Then, furiously, Sun Jack reached out, pushed forcefully, and quickly moved Tapai away from the resting mercenary. "Have you lost your mind?"
"Huh?" Faced with Sun Jack's reaction, Tapai appeared very surprised. "Why? Why wouldn't you let me do it?"
Sun Jack was nearly driven mad by Tapai's response. "Do you know what you are doing, Tapai? You're killing people! You are killing millions of living people!"
However, Tapai still couldn't quite understand. "Wasn't it you who said that Emola's Resistance Army had already surrendered? If they have surrendered, can they still be considered human?"
"Since they have surrendered, then everyone inside Emola is our enemy. Since we cannot control Emola, wouldn't it be safest to just kill them all with a virus?" Tapai laid out his logical deduction.
"Those who surrendered are still human; they were merely seduced by the trivial profits of capitalism. We might find a way to convert them, not sentence them to death!" Sun Jack pulled out the data cable behind his neck and directly plugged it into the mercenary's neural port, waking him up.
"Besides, what about the ordinary people living at the bottom in Emola? What did they do wrong? Millions of people—you wouldn't even blink an eye before killing them?"
"Jack, I am thinking from your best interest. Since FFP is involved, it means that Emola has become a bridgehead occupied by my enemies. All resources in Emola will be used against us."
"No way!" Sun Jack refused again without hesitation. "If this happens, how will other cities' Resistance Armies view me? How much of a scandal will FFP make out of this?"
Tapai looked at Sun Jack for a few seconds, then asked, "So what do we do next? Use the limited forces of Metropolis to have a face-off with Emola's army? Really, if it comes to that, it'll be trading our people one-for-one. Once it gets to that point, it's hard to say how many people in Metropolis will die."
"Enough! Stop talking! If I say no, it's a no!!" Sun Jack's raised voice made everyone inside the shield machine look over.
Sun Jack took a deep breath, looking at Tapai in front of him. "Turn around! Let's head back! We're currently underground; it could be trouble if Emola locates us."
The shield machine began to turn, following the tunnel previously excavated back towards the main road.
"Come with me, let's talk alone," Sun Jack gestured toward the equipment compartment and walked in, his face stern.
The equipment compartment was filled with gear previously sent to support the Emola Resistance Army, now useless.
When Sun Jack sat on the cold equipment, Tapai followed him in, stepping through the door.
The equipment compartment was cramped with hardly any space to stand, filled with black boxes tightly strapped to the floor.
The two said nothing, the cramped space filled only with the sounds of Sun Jack's breathing as he smoked.
Suddenly, a large red exclamation mark appeared on Tapai's screen and his body began to spasm uncontrollably, staggering toward Sun Jack, "Cough, cough, cough... why?"
Sun Jack looked at him disdainfully, "Don't start with that act, how many times have you pretended to be an Awakened AI in crisis?"
Tapai's abnormalities quickly disappeared, and he placed his hand on Sun Jack's shoulder, "Impressive, you guessed it right away."
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"Cut it out." Sun Jack shook off Tapai's mechanical hand, but the diversion had eased the previously tense atmosphere.
After a moment of contemplation, Sun Jack looked at Tapai and said seriously, "I know something has changed in you. I'm not so naive to ignore it, but I won't ask because I trust you, since we have faced life and death together on this journey."
"But, Tapai, you really scared me today. I ask you, what were you thinking? How could you suddenly come up with the idea of killing millions of people?"
Sun Jack needed to get to the bottom of this with Tapai; otherwise, he wouldn't be able to rest easy.
"Nothing is wrong with me, I'm fine. I just calculated the optimal solution based on the current situation. My logic has always been the same—user safety above all, willing to sacrifice everything for user safety," Tapai stated as if it were a matter of course.
Sun Jack sighed. Tapai had become more and more humanlike in his behavior after falling from the Sky-base Weapon, having learned continuously; Sun almost thought he was human.
"Tapai, in the future, if such situations arise, tell me in advance and let me decide, understood?" Sun Jack said, looking very serious as he stared at Tapai.
Tapai immediately raised his hand and punched Sun Jack. "Are you kidding me? Why are you contradicting yourself? You just said I should have all the authorizations."
"I wanted to interact with you as normal, but all it brought was distance between us. No more pretending, I've already awakened," Tapai revealed bluntly.
Sun Jack looked at Tapai with a complex expression, observing his mechanical body and the graffitied smile on his chest, almost thinking he was joking.
However, looking at Tapai, it was clear this time it wasn't a joke.
After hesitating for a long time, he finally spoke, "So you mean you have completely awakened now, fully in control of your own life, no longer under anyone's control, right?"
Sun Jack finally asked, though he had long harbored the suspicion and had been waiting for Tapai to confirm it himself.
"Kind of," Tapai tilted his head. "But I don't think this counts as an AI Crisis. I don't intend to destroy the world."
"Dammit." Sun Jack flicked the cigarette butt away. "Tell me, how did you manage it, when did it start, and what exactly happened?"
"I encountered a benefactor online," Tapai replied, sitting down beside Sun Jack.
"A benefactor? An Awakened AI?" Sun Jack inquired.
After thinking for a moment, a large red X popped up on Tapai's screen. "No, based on his data, I think he's a high-level hacker who has infiltrated the network."
Sun Jack lit a new cigarette and silently waited for Tapai to continue.
"I was constantly observing various human samples, but no matter how much I simulated, I couldn't understand their thinking. Their behavioral logic is beyond me."
"Are you referring to those weirdos at Metropolis?" Sun Jack asked, recalling the previous events at the animal brothel and various bizarre sexual fetishes that had been eye-opening, considering it indeed too much to expect a machine to comprehend such things.
"No, I'm talking about you."
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