TL: Picking this up!
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A speck of green light, like a snowflake or a firefly, drifted and swayed as it fell from the sky. Suddenly, it changed direction, rapidly approaching until it nearly filled the entire field of vision.
“Beep—”
The blare of a car horn sounded.
The green light vanished abruptly, as if melting before her eyes.
A gust of air rushed from behind, aimed straight at the back of her head. Without a second thought, Pei Ran immediately crouched and lowered her head.
This was an instinct honed from years of living through war.
A hovercar swept past, almost grazing her scalp as it roared overhead.
Not just one—a second and third followed closely behind. They blared their sharp horns, streaking like arrows over Pei Ran’s head, racing forward one after another.
All three cars had wheels attached to their undersides, yet they flew through the sky, darting up and down between skyscrapers like three giant, mindless beetles crashing about.
Pei Ran looked around.
She was standing on a platform suspended in mid-air, an extension protruding from the midsection of a skyscraper. The platform was only about two or three square meters in size, surrounded by a transparent glass railing.
Several translucent, phantom-like virtual screens floated above the platform, displaying train schedules and times—this must be a station.
A young woman stood nearby, seemingly waiting for a ride.
In front of her, a continuous stream of cars flew through the sky, weaving like a long dragon between the buildings. This skyscraper, like the others around it, resembled a cluster of slender bamboo shoots, densely packed and pointing toward the sky.
Despite it being daytime, the sky was shrouded in a layer of gray mist, as if from severe air pollution.
The sun was hidden behind the gray haze, only revealing a dim, orange-yellow circular outline. Countless neon billboards, varying in height and color, glowed brightly even in broad daylight. Not far away, a towering, colossal virtual screen cycled through advertisements in silence.
Had she traveled through time?
Just moments ago, she had been in a bunker amidst roaring artillery fire, and in an instant, she had arrived in this bizarre, otherworldly place.
The rumbling roar of engines grew louder.
The hovercars that had just raced past were now charging back.
Leading the pack was a bright yellow car, its slightly worn body painted with black characters reading “White Harbor City Municipal Facilities Maintenance,” along with a U-shaped drainage pipe logo.
Its roof was wide open, and a woman in a yellow work uniform sat in the driver’s seat, her sleeves rolled up to her elbows, her messy auburn hair whipping wildly in the wind.
“Yee-haw—”
She hollered like a cowboy herding cattle.
Where she flew, countless square, thin sheets fluttered down from the sky, transparent like glass but drifting lightly, weightless as snowflakes, scattering over the buildings and streets.
On the sheets, various fluorescent-colored text stood out vividly.
Pei Ran instinctively recognized it as the federal common language, Manaya, a script that combined ideographic characters with a small number of letters and symbols.
[“AI agents, get out!”]
[“Oppose artificial idiots managing humans!”]
[“Municipal workers need to eat!”]
[“Jobs! Jobs! Jobs! We want jobs! We need to feed our families!”]
Behind the little yellow car, two navy-blue cars were in hot pursuit.
The navy-blue cars had light strips installed on their front grilles and roofs, their bright white lights flashing dazzlingly. The bodies of the cars were painted with the words “White Harbor City Public Security Bureau.”
A cold, mechanical voice emanated from the cars, enunciating clearly and emotionlessly:
“Driver ahead, you have violated Article 427, Clause 13 of the Federal Public Security Regulations. Unauthorized driving in a high-altitude controlled lane is prohibited. Please stop your vehicle immediately! Repeat, please stop your vehicle immediately!”
“It’s the strikers,” the long-haired girl waiting beside her suddenly spoke up.
She was wearing a slightly oversized brown flannel blazer, her chestnut hair cascading down her back, and she held a large cardboard box in her arms.
“They’re protesting AI taking everyone’s jobs,” she said. “It’s been going on for days.”
Fragments of the original body’s memories automatically flooded Pei Ran’s mind, a bit hazy, feeling both familiar and strange.
Strikes were happening all over White Harbor City and had been going on for two weeks.
This year, the city government had cut expenses and planned to deploy more AI-controlled automated maintenance vehicles to take over municipal repair work, which meant many people would lose their jobs.
The workers had a Municipal Maintenance Workers’ Association, and the association was furious, organizing everyone to collectively walk off the job.
In the freezing cold, half the city had its heating cut off, many buildings were without water or electricity, and garbage piled up in the streets, emitting a foul smell.
The yellow car darted up and down in the air, skillfully evading the pursuit and interception of the Public Security Bureau vehicles. The Public Security Bureau cars were no pushovers either, clinging tightly behind.
Through their front windows, Pei Ran suddenly noticed that the driver’s seats in the Public Security Bureau cars were empty—there was no one inside.
These cars were self-driving.
Despite having no human inside, they could still produce sound. The voice from the speakers remained cold and unfeeling:
“Driver ahead, this is the final warning! Please stop your vehicle immediately! Please stop your vehicle immediately!!”
Stop the car?
Pei Ran couldn’t help but wonder: How exactly did they expect that little yellow car to stop? Could it even hover in mid-air?
Her head throbbed slightly.
The memories of the original body flickered in and out, vague and unclear.
One of the Public Security Bureau vehicles seemed to have lost patience. It suddenly accelerated, charging straight toward the little yellow car. Having failed to issue an effective warning, it now intended to forcibly intercept.
The little yellow car was startled but reacted quickly. At the last possible moment, it jerked upward.
The Public Security Bureau car missed its target.
The roof of the car scraped against the underside of the little yellow car, sending sparks flying and producing a sharp, metallic screech that pierced the eardrums.
But Pei Ran was worried about something else.
The Public Security Bureau car, now at full speed and having missed its target, was hurtling toward the small platform due to inertia. Despite still being some distance away, it showed no signs of turning or slowing down.
Pei Ran’s mind raced: Could it be that this thing’s brakes have failed?
Or maybe its autonomous driving system had gone haywire.
At that speed and force, it would be nearly impossible not to be crushed into a pulp.
The platform was narrow and suspended in mid-air, leaving no room to dodge. Behind them was the door leading into the building—the only escape route.
The long-haired girl beside her clearly thought the same. She immediately turned and rushed to the door, pressing her face close to a small virtual screen floating in mid-air.
The screen read: Iris Scan.
However, the door remained tightly shut, showing no response.
The girl panicked. “We’ve left the company. The scan won’t work. The door won’t open…”
Before she could finish, Pei Ran took half a step back, raised her foot, and kicked the door with all her might.
A dull thud echoed.
The door, which looked like a layer of semi-transparent glass, didn’t budge at all under the forceful kick.
The hovercar still showed no signs of braking. Pei Ran stepped over to the transparent railing, her hands gripping it tightly.
A cold wind swept across the platform, causing the hem of her short coat to flutter like butterfly wings. In one swift motion, she vaulted over the railing.
The long-haired girl instinctively shouted, “Ah! Don’t jump off the building!!”
Pei Ran had no intention of jumping.
Her hands still firmly gripped the railing as she landed lightly on the narrow ledge just outside the railing, her body leaning outward as she peered down below.
Below, hovercars streamed endlessly, and the streets seemed bottomless. The nearby skyscraper walls were smooth, without a single window, completely shattering Pei Ran’s plan—even if she grabbed the edge of the platform and swung down, there would be no place to land.
The Public Security Bureau car roared closer, now almost upon them. The long-haired girl frantically waved her arms at the hovercar, trying to signal that there were still living people on the platform. But the empty driver’s seat remained cold and unresponsive, offering no acknowledgment of her desperate plea.
Another cold gust of wind swept by.
A transparent flyer covered in fluorescent text drifted down and landed in front of Pei Ran. The moment it touched the railing, it let out a soft “pop,” bursting like a soap bubble and vanishing into nothingness.
Pei Ran raised her eyes to the out-of-control hovercar.
Trapped in a hopeless situation with nowhere to hide, only one thought filled her mind—how could she make this car stop?
Suddenly, a burst of green light exploded in her mind.
The vanished green speck had reappeared, but this time it wasn’t in front of her eyes. Instead, it occupied a phantom-like vision within her mind.
The green light twisted and snaked rapidly, leaving behind glowing traces that formed the shape of a character. The strokes of the character twisted and stretched forward like something alive, eerie and unnatural. It was a word in Manaya:
[Stop.]
It even drew a period at the end.
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Reading warnings (please take a look):
1. A completely fictional futuristic cyber world, entirely unrelated to reality
2. For those only interested in the career line, note that the romance line is significant, and the male lead has a strong presence (don’t hold any illusions, it’s really a lot, trust me)
3. Continuing the series where the protagonist is an AI, this time the male lead is an AI, primarily appearing as a shabby metal ball at the beginning, with virtual and humanoid forms later
4. The synopsis content is in Chapter 5, if in a hurry, you can start reading from the end of Chapter 4 where the silence begins
5. A note for those who need a warning about hair: the female lead shaves her head in Chapter 70, and later has very short, close-cropped hair