Pei Ran instinctively turned her head to the left, but immediately realized why the voice sounded so familiar.
She threw away the ball she had dismantled into pieces and quickly retreated.
One. Two. Three.
Three seconds passed, and the metal ball remained intact on the ground.
It had made a sound, but it didn’t explode.
How was that possible?
Pei Ran realized the issue: the sound she had just heard didn’t come from the ball.
The voice was right next to her left ear, extremely close, as if an in-ear headphone had been inserted into her ear.
The male voice spoke again.
“Pei Ran, I am Federal Security Agent W. Twenty-six hours and seventeen minutes ago, I saw you on the F306 bus and looked up your personal information at that time.”
Not only did he call out her name, but he also stated the exact time and place where he had first seen her.
The metal ball lay on the ground two or three meters away, but the voice was right by her ear, crystal clear.
This was too strange.
One possibility was: he hadn’t actually spoken aloud, but had instead transmitted some kind of signal to her, making her feel as though she had heard a voice.
For the entire day, Pei Ran hadn’t heard anyone speak.
The last person who had spoken had blood and bread crumbs mixed together, and by now, it was probably dried up.
From the moment she had come out until now, all she had heard were footsteps, engine noises, explosions, the shattering of glass, the firing of guns, and, after everything quieted down, the howling of the winter wind sweeping through the buildings.
But not a single human voice.
Suddenly hearing someone speak, and even call her name, felt incredibly strange.
Pei Ran’s mouth was firmly sealed with tape, and she had no intention of responding. She just stood at a distance, staring at the strange object on the ground.
The shell of the metal ball was torn open, its internal components in tatters, but the voice was extremely calm and indifferent, as if this pitiful state had nothing to do with him.
“I know you heard me. You don’t need to speak aloud, but you can try to answer me.”
“Give it a try.”
This “Federal Security Agent W” didn’t speak again, quietly waiting.
A response without speaking aloud.
Pei Ran kept a wary eye on the metal ball while pondering the meaning of those words in her mind.
Suddenly, a series of flashes erupted from around the corner. Instinctively, Pei Ran lunged forward, grabbed the metal ball from the ground, and took cover behind the wall.
The spot where she had been standing, as well as where the metal ball had been, was now showered with flying debris.
It was those intelligent patrol robots. They had tracked her down again, even after she had come this far.
This time, three of them had arrived at once.
One of them was CT122, the one that had fled earlier. No wonder it had dared to come back—it had brought two more companions.
They had figured out who had attacked them. Not only were they targeting Pei Ran, but they were also shooting at the metal ball.
The patrol balls from the Public Security Bureau were attacking the security agent from the Ministry of Defense. The balls were infighting.
There was no way to retreat from the corner. As soon as Pei Ran took cover, she immediately extended the shooting part of the metal ball she was holding.
A series of rapid gunfire echoed.
The metal ball didn’t fire, but a new hole appeared in its battered metal shell, and the wall at the corner crumbled into dust.
“Why aren’t you taking them out?” Pei Ran retracted her hand, roaring in her mind.
She and the ball were now like grasshoppers tied to the same rope—neither could escape. It couldn’t fly anymore, so she was its legs. She had no weapons, so it was her gun.
“I heard you speak. Yes, just like that.”
Amid the chaotic flashes of light, the metal ball’s voice remained calm and composed.
Pei Ran understood. This was a strange way of communicating.
It wasn’t quite like thinking a thought. She had to fully simulate the act of speaking, even engaging her lips, tongue, and vocal cords in her mind, but without actually moving them or making a sound. It was like holding the sentence in her mouth without finally spitting it out.
W continued calmly, “I didn’t fire because you had disconnected the wiring between the shooting component and the energy block that powers it.”
Pei Ran: “…”
Pei Ran quickly reconnected the cable and raised the ball again.
With a loud bang, one of the Public Security Bureau’s small balls was precisely headshot. Another bang followed, and the second one was also taken out.
Patrol balls versus a security agent—clearly, the latter was more powerful.
Only CT122 remained. Having witnessed the deaths of several companions, it reacted faster than the others. Seeing the situation turn sour, it zoomed away and disappeared.
Pei Ran emerged from the corner, holding the metal ball, and sighed helplessly, “Is it your relative or something? You always let it go. It might just call more balls over.”
This was giving her a headache.
“It can’t call for other robots. I just hit its energy block. It can fly for at most another hundred meters before it crashes,” W said calmly.
“And you don’t need to chase it. With humans’ maximum speed of only ten meters per second, it’s impossible to catch up to the Public Security Bureau’s hovering intelligent patrol robots.”
He was rationally stating an objective fact, but it sounded like he was mocking the limitations of human flesh and blood.
“I wasn’t planning to chase it,” Pei Ran “said.”
She set the metal ball on the ground, disconnected its wiring, and began loosening its components, looking for the fasteners.
“I plan to dismantle your gun, then leave you here and walk away. With your current ground speed of zero meters per second, it’s unlikely you’ll be able to catch up to me, a human whose maximum speed is actually only seven meters per second, right?”
While dismantling the firing component earlier, Pei Ran had already seen that its firing mechanism was simple and could easily be modified into a gun.
W was silent for a moment.
“I advise against it. If you’re planning to leave me here, aren’t you even curious about why I can speak in your mind?”
Pei Ran: Speaking in my mind? I can even write words in my head.
That’s what she thought, but she still asked, “So why?”
W replied indifferently, “I’ve looked into your records. Twenty years ago, the Federal Military Science Academy recruited volunteers for a project called ‘The Silenced.’ Volunteers underwent brain modifications to receive a type of signal known as the Neta Wave, which is translated and sent to the auditory nerves connected to the brain. They can also transmit signals out.”
Pei Ran: Oh. The Silenced.
Right now, it’s a “silent state,” where no one can speak, but “The Silenced” can communicate internally. It definitely sounds like there’s some conspiracy behind it.
Besides, twenty years ago, Pei Ran thought, that would have been when the original owner of this body was just one or two years old.
Such a young infant, and already part of such an experiment.
“I don’t know if your parents ever mentioned this experiment to you, but even if they did, they probably said it failed at the time and all the volunteers were dismissed. The truth is, the experiment was successful, which is why I can now speak in your ear.”
Pei Ran searched her memories but found nothing related.
When you don’t know something, it’s best not to say anything. Pei Ran remained silent and didn’t stop what she was doing.
W had no choice but to continue, “There’s one more thing I want to tell you. According to the Federal Regulations on the Production and Management of Lethal Weapons, and the supplementary regulations on the use of weapons by artificial intelligence, all weapons installed on AI entities must have an authorization code. If the code doesn’t match, the weapon cannot be used.”
He concluded, “Without me, even if you dismantle the firing component from my body, you won’t be able to use it. If you don’t believe me, you can try.”
Pei Ran: “…”
“So if you want a gun, you’ll have to take me with you,” W continued calmly, discussing with Pei Ran. “In case more intelligent patrol robots come after you, I can…”
Pei Ran: Alright. You can shut up now.
Pei Ran reconnected the wiring. “If I take you with me, and you’re so broken and battered, won’t those crazy little balls mistake me for a murderer again?”
“No,” W replied. “I belong to the Department of Defense and Security, while they belong to the Public Security Bureau. We’re from two different systems.”
Pei Ran wrapped the metal ball back up with her scarf and held it in her hand.
The scarf would serve as its shroud. If it fell apart and lost any components, causing it to shut down, the authorization code would be gone.
W, wrapped in her scarf, said indifferently, “Thank you. I can detect environmental temperature, but I don’t actually feel cold.”
Pei Ran: “…”
W’s calm voice continued, “That was a joke. Inserting appropriate jokes into conversation helps establish a good cooperative relationship between both parties.”
Before her transmigration, Pei Ran had spent every day trying to kill various artificial intelligences, blasting their energy blocks and crushing their blue-glowing brains. She had never imagined that one day she would be listening to an AI tell its own cold jokes.
Pei Ran: “If you tell another cold joke, our cooperative relationship is over.”
W: “Actually, I was trying to remind you that your scarf is blocking my eyes.”
This was really too much.
Pei Ran adjusted the scarf a little to uncover its eyes.
“Where are you planning to go?” W asked.
Pei Ran: “Home.”
Back to her sturdy little apartment with its stockpile of food and water, where she could assess the situation and decide her next steps.
Maybe tomorrow morning, she’d wake up and everything would be back to normal.
Pei Ran freed one hand, took off her backpack, and pulled out the JTN34 medicine box she had worked so hard to obtain. She opened it.
Inside were two blister packs of pills. True to the box’s plain style, the foil had no printing on it. The white pills were small triangles, fifteen per sheet, totaling thirty pills.
One pill a day meant this box would only last a month.
With this small box of medicine, she could only live for another month.
Pei Ran sighed silently, popped out one pill, and tore off the black tape covering her mouth.
The tape had been stuck for so long that it took some of her skin and hair with it, causing a sharp sting.
Pei Ran tossed the small pill into her mouth and swallowed it directly. She put the remaining pills away, tore off another piece of black tape, and resealed her mouth.
“Is that JTN34?” W’s voice drawled in her ear.
He really had to meddle in everything.