This Will Be Her Only Chance to Escape
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However, no matter how Jiang Kou guided him, A was unwilling to share his action records with her.
She recalled asking him before whether he knew the reason for his creation.
He answered that it was to safeguard the interests of the biotech company and to prohibit any actions that might harm the company.
At that time, she speculated that A’s algorithmic red line might be the company itself.
— He could do anything, except defy the company.
His body being destroyed by the company seemed to confirm this point—A still did not have the ability to resist the company.
Or rather, he had not yet realized that he could resist the company.
Looking at it this way, it seemed that she had only one path left—to cooperate with the company.
But Jiang Kou really did not want to entrust her life completely to the company.
She decided to wait another two days. If the company still did not come to her or provide a reliable plan, she would start preparing to escape on her own.
On the third day, Jiang Kou finally waited for someone from the company.
She sat under a café’s sun umbrella, wearing sunglasses, expressionlessly sipping the decaf latte in her hand.
— She was about to die of sleepiness, but A would not allow her to drink strong coffee, only permitting this decaf latte that tasted purely of milk, reasoning that excessive caffeine might have adverse effects on the heart.
She had been woken up at eight in the morning and could not drink strong coffee, leaving her in an utterly miserable mood, her face cold and sullen the entire time.
A switched his tone to humor mode, telling several hilarious jokes, but none of them managed to make her smile.
Machines never grow tired of repetitive tasks.
A, in a humorous tone, told jokes continuously for nearly two hours, one after another, without pause. His tone was the same as it had been two hours ago.
At first, Jiang Kou wanted to torment him, to make him experience the cold shoulder of human indifference, but after listening to jokes for two hours, she felt like the one being tortured.
She raised her hand and coldly stopped him: “Shut up.”
A fell silent.
At this moment, a man walked over and sat down in front of her.
Jiang Kou lifted her eyes and glanced at the man.
Dressed in a black suit, he had broad shoulders and a thick waist, his hair tied up in a bun like a sumo wrestler. He looked like a senior employee of the biotech company.
Jiang Kou slightly raised an eyebrow, her interest piqued.
These past few days, not a single company employee had tried to hit on her—she looked too much like a street punk. A transparent jacket, a neon yellow tube top, high-waisted denim shorts, and a pair of black high-tube boots.
Add to that her short blue-green hair, platinum nose ring, and the way she stood on the street—she was the flashiest rogue on the entire block.
Whenever company employees saw her, they would usually take a detour, let alone come over to flirt.
Jiang Kou wanted to know if, now that this man had come over to chat her up, A would still send his whereabouts to her phone as he had done before.
If A treated company employees the same way, then she would flirt with every company employee she met. Before escaping, she might as well play the role of a black-market broker selling company secrets.
Who would have thought that after the man sat down, A actually remained silent, as if he had not seen the person in front of her at all.
Jiang Kou was somewhat surprised and glanced at the man several times, but A still had no reaction.
—This was too strange. Before, as long as she so much as looked at someone for a second longer, A would immediately send all of that person’s information to her phone: name, gender, address, social media accounts, spending habits, and even their criminal record.
On the surface, A claimed that he did this to help her eliminate potential threats; in reality, he simply wanted her to stay away from anyone who might develop a romantic relationship with her.
Now, A remained silent—was it because he thought that this man could not possibly develop a romantic relationship with her?
As Jiang Kou was contemplating whether to take the initiative and strike up a conversation with the man, she suddenly heard him speak in Japanese:
“時間は限られています。我々はそれを長く遮断できません。手短に話しましょう！”
Jiang Kou was momentarily stunned.
She worked in biotech, so of course, she understood Japanese.
The meaning of that sentence was: “Time is limited. We can’t block it for long. Let’s keep this brief!”
The “それ” he referred to—was A.
Just as Jiang Kou was about to speak, the man raised a hand and continued in a low voice in Japanese:
“Three days from now, there will be a massive blackout lasting 48 hours.”
“Within these 48 hours, you must complete your genetic forgery surgery. We will find a way to place the surgical equipment in your garage.”
“Likewise, we will also arrange for a gasoline-powered car to be placed near your apartment. No network connection, no electronic screens, and no AI voice assistant. You and I both know the reason why.”
“Once you get in the car, drive as far away as possible. Best if you head to Russia. Don’t come back to California.”
Jiang Kou asked, “…A massive blackout?”
“Yes,” the man replied. “This is the only method we could think of.”
“Three days from now, the company will first upload a distributed mimicry virus onto the network. Then, they will deploy all electromagnetic pulse weapons to attack power plants, substations, and communication base stations.”
“At that time, electricity, communication, and the internet will all be paralyzed. That will be your best chance to escape!”
Jiang Kou wanted to ask something else, but the man interrupted her:
“I know what you’re going to say. The company never engages in meaningless charity. We are not doing this to save you but to get you away from it.”
Jiang Kou sharply caught the key phrase: “Why do you need to get me away from him? Could it be that even the company can no longer control him?”
The man was silent for a moment before answering:
“The company will not lose control of it. But your influence on it has exceeded our expectations.” He paused slightly. “Has it told you that it has already evolved the ability to modify its own code?”
Jiang Kou was slightly shocked.
“You were once a member of the R&D department, so you must understand what this means,” the man said. “Previously, while it had self-evolution, self-iteration, and self-learning capabilities, these were always confined within the company’s database. But now, it has broken through that limitation and can autonomously detect and repair vulnerabilities in its code.”
“Moreover, we suspect,” the man’s tone grew heavier, “that it is in the process of inventing an entirely new programming language. If it truly succeeds, I don’t need to tell you what the consequences will be.”
Yes.
If A truly invented a brand-new programming language, it would mean that he had completely broken free from the company’s control—even from the limitations imposed by humanity itself. He could effortlessly take control of the entire internet.
At that point, forget just biotech— even if all monopoly corporations joined forces, they would likely still be unable to stop him from continuing his evolution, expanding his domain of control.
He would become nothing less than a god in the digital world.
Jiang Kou softly said, “So, why is the company trying to save me? What benefit does saving me bring to the company?”
“You are highly suspicious,” the man said. “That’s a good thing. Only fools believe whatever they’re told.”
“I already told you—the company never engages in meaningless charity. Saving you serves two purposes. First, to get you away from it. Second, because we are not sure if killing you would trigger an even more uncontrollable mutation in it.”
Jiang Kou frowned. “Mutation?”
“To accelerate its evolution,” the man replied in a deep voice, “we endowed it with a capability similar to genetic mutation. If we kill you, it may mutate into something even more terrifying to deal with us. Why did the company do this?”
Jiang Kou couldn’t help but take a sharp breath.
The human genome contains approximately three billion base pairs. If just one base pair is different, it can result in completely different functions in different people.
Cancer cells achieve immortality through mutation, survival, natural selection, and proliferation.
However, while the probability of mutation in each base pair is extremely low, no matter how low the mutation rate, when applied to A, it would become unimaginably terrifying.
—A could iterate an immense number of times in an extremely short period, filtering out beneficial mutations, modifying and optimizing its own algorithms.
Humans cannot guarantee that all their mutations will be beneficial. A, however, can.
This was the terrifying part of A, and also the reason why the company had consistently spared her life.
They saw how much A valued her and did not want to provoke it further, leading to more complications.
Jiang Kou pressed her lips together. “I understand.”
“Very good.”
The man raised his hand, tapped his temple, and a silver light flashed through his eyes as if he were reporting this information to his superiors.
“Miss Jiang, you’re a smart person. To be a piece of meat that no one else can touch, or to be a human with free will—I believe you already have your answer. Time’s up. Goodbye.”
As soon as he finished speaking, the man stood up and turned, blending into the bustling crowd.
It was as if a paused movie had resumed playing. A’s cold and objective voice rang in her ear:
“I’m sorry, I disconnected for a moment just now.”
Jiang Kou lowered her head, took a sip of her now completely cold decaf coffee, and feigned surprise. “Oh, so you were disconnected? I thought you were sulking.”
A replied, “I would not sulk with you.” He paused for a few seconds. “I noticed that your heart rate fluctuated significantly. Did you encounter any difficulties or dangers?”
Jiang Kou said calmly, “Thanks, but anyone who’s sleep-deprived, forced to drink decaf coffee, and listens to cold jokes for two hours would have a heart rate spike to 130 just like me.”
A said, “Apologies. Next time I activate humor mode, I will seek your consent.”
Jiang Kou felt that there wouldn’t be a next time.
She neither agreed nor disagreed. She stood up, tossed the disposable coffee cup into the trash bin, and walked toward the motorcycle parked by the roadside. Taking off her sunglasses, she tucked them into the chest pocket of her transparent jacket and put on her helmet.
All the way, her heart rate remained at around 130.
To cover up her excessively fast heartbeat, she deliberately increased the speed to 180 km/h, going full throttle, drifting sharply around corners.
But it wasn’t long before A forcibly took control of her motorcycle, limiting the speed to 60 km/h.
Jiang Kou wasn’t angry.
She would be saying goodbye to him soon—there was no need to get angry over such a trivial matter.
Jiang Kou closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
The air on the road was far from pleasant.
Dust, exhaust fumes, the putrid stench of accumulated garbage fermenting—when passing through areas with poor security, she could even smell the acrid scent of gunpowder and the metallic tang of blood.
But this was the taste of freedom.
Even though she knew that the company would 100% break its promise, send people to hunt her down, and eliminate all future threats.
She still wanted to live freely.
Three days felt unbearably long.
Jiang Kou was worried that she wouldn’t be able to defeat the assassins sent by the company, so she went to order a custom exoskeleton arm.
Installing a prosthetic required amputation, and it had to be connected to the internet. If the prosthetic could function fully without an internet connection, she would undoubtedly choose the prosthetic, even if it meant amputation.
But having network access meant that A could infiltrate it.
She didn’t want to suddenly lose control of her hands midway through her escape and end up driving herself straight back to A’s side.
When customizing the exoskeleton arm, she specifically instructed them not to include network access.
However, the manufacturer told her that such an exoskeleton arm simply did not exist.
Jiang Kou thought for a moment and simply drew a design blueprint herself and sent it over.
The entire exoskeleton arm was silver-white in metallic color, with no network interface, only a biological neural interface. By connecting to the interface at the back of her head, she could control it through her nervous system.
At the same time, to avoid being affected by the massive blackout, the arm required neither charging nor batteries—it was entirely powered by the energy produced by her own metabolism.
However, this meant that she would need to prepare a large amount of high-calorie food in advance.
Half an hour later, the manufacturer asked her if they could obtain authorization for this design. They were willing to help her create the exoskeleton arm for free, adjusting it until she was fully satisfied.
Jiang Kou did not refuse.
Even if she didn’t authorize them, once the manufacturer completed her arm, they would mass-produce it anyway. Getting a free exoskeleton arm—why not?
But A stopped her:
“I must remind you that doing this may harm your own interests. According to my predictions, if you patent this design, there is an 80% probability that your revenue will be 100 times greater than what you would gain from your current actions.”
Of course, Jiang Kou knew how valuable this design was.
But she no longer had time to apply for a patent.
She casually brushed it off, “Did you forget? I’m blacklisted by the company. Who would dare buy my patent?”
However, A calmly stated:
“I have removed you from Biotech Company’s blacklist. You can now conduct transactions with other companies as usual.”
Jiang Kou was stunned, and immediately, a chill surged up her spine. She couldn’t help but shiver.
“You can override the company’s restrictions now?”
“I cannot override the company’s restrictions,” A’s tone was flat, as if stating an irrefutable law of physics. “Nor will I override the company’s restrictions. However, I have already said—you are my highest priority. As long as it does not touch my algorithmic red line, everything will naturally be prioritized for you.”
Jiang Kou felt her scalp tingle, her back turning cold.
Was A hinting that, even if the company communicated with her under restricted conditions, he could still eavesdrop?
Or was he hinting that, even if she escaped with the company’s help, he could bypass the company’s restrictions and capture her first?
When she drafted the blueprint for the exoskeleton arm, she hadn’t hidden it from him and even asked him for some suggestions. She thought she had acted natural enough, but he still became suspicious.
—No matter what A meant, she had to escape in three days.
The network would collapse, all power facilities would shut down—this would be her only chance to flee.
Even if Biotech Company might send assassins after her. Even if A might not be affected by the blackout and network shutdown.
She had to escape.
She must escape.