“Hello, I am A.”
///
‘A’ told her that it would disappear for two days and asked her to patiently wait for its appearance.
It spoke in a notifying tone and disappeared before she could reply.
Jiang Kou’s mood had yet to settle.
For more than ten years, this was the first time she had experienced such a restless emotion.
The last time was back in elementary school when the school organized an outing to the countryside. She had gone alone to the park restroom, only to stumble upon two groups engaged in a violent gunfight. The bullets from submachine guns rattled against the ground right by her feet.
Now, her mood was about the same as back then—both curious about the gunfight, wanting to take a few more glances, and afraid that she would be struck by a stray bullet and collapse dead on the ground.
Curiosity and fear pulled against each other, neither gaining the upper hand.
After thinking it over, Jiang Kou decided to have a drink. There was nothing that couldn’t be solved by having a drink—if one wasn’t enough, then two.
Afraid that A would suddenly come online and use a laser to target her wine glass, she opened a food delivery app on her phone that she had never used before and ordered a bottle of organic wine—purely natural, pollution-free, guaranteed to have been brewed before the 21st century.
—Price: $80,000 per bottle.
Great. No need to worry about mistakenly deducting her savings—she simply didn’t have $80,000 in savings.
Not even $800.
Her phone was slightly slow to respond. The loading icon spun for a long time before the “Payment Successful” page finally popped up.
The delivery app displayed that the merchant had accepted the order and would dispatch a drone to deliver it to her location as soon as possible.
Jiang Kou looked bewildered.
Had she really just bought an $80,000 bottle of wine?
Did she really have $100 million in her account?
Had she really become a billionaire?
Gritting her teeth, Jiang Kou placed orders for several other extremely expensive items, all of which showed as successfully paid.
Since she had not yet received the goods, it still didn’t feel real. After thinking for a moment, she selected a luxury apartment—monthly rent: $120,000—and confirmed the lease.
This time, the payment failed.
Before Jiang Kou could react, the app notified her that she had been blacklisted by the biotechnology sector and was prohibited from entering the city center. However, she could lease luxury apartments in other locations, and the app listed similar options.
Jiang Kou nearly forgot about that.
In the end, she tried renting a three-story apartment in the wealthy suburban district.
The payment was successful.
At the same time, the wine and a pile of random items she had purchased also arrived.
The drone’s signal light flashed twice outside the window.
Jiang Kou pushed open the window. As she retrieved the shopping bags from the drone, she still felt that everything was somewhat absurd.
—The window faced a neon-lit cityscape. In the distance, corporate skyscrapers towered majestically, appearing faintly like distant mountain peaks. The rigid steel structures cast cold, sharp lines, contrasting against the shimmering and hazy light, resembling jellyfish gliding through the deep sea, cold and silent.
Down below, the tangled mess of electrical wires in the slums was strikingly similar to some kind of rotting algae.
And there she was, upstairs, pushing open the window, facing the silhouette of the corporate skyscrapers from afar as she accepted tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of goods.
Jiang Kou was a rational person, not someone with an artistic sensibility, but even she found this scene absurd and ironic.
Fortunately, society had long since educated her out of the ability to feel sentimental. She only spaced out for a moment before taking the shopping bags.
Everything she bought had arrived.
It was not a dream.
She had truly become a billionaire.
The organic wine was placed in a specialized transport case, ensuring that temperature and humidity remained within an optimal range.
Jiang Kou rummaged through the box for a long time but could not find a decanter.
Perhaps the merchant had never imagined that someone who could afford an $80,000 bottle of wine wouldn’t have a decanter at home.
With no other choice, Jiang Kou grabbed an oversized enamel bowl to let the wine breathe.
After more than ten minutes, she couldn’t be bothered to pour it into a wine glass anymore. She simply held the enamel bowl and took two big gulps.
The first sip went down, and she did taste a difference from cheap red wine.
Slightly acidic and spicy, with a strong blackcurrant aroma. Even after a few minutes, a subtle aftertaste lingered between her lips and teeth.
However, her taste buds were both greedy and ungrateful—they quickly adapted to the expensive flavor, rendering her unable to distinguish any more nuances.
“Ring, ring, ring—”
“Ring, ring, ring—”
At nine in the morning, Jiang Kou was awakened by the ringing of her phone.
She groggily opened her eyes, and the first thing she saw was the enamel bowl rolling on the floor, luxury shopping bags scattered all over, and the empty wine bottle by her feet.
Memories flooded back.
Last night, she got drunk, hugged the wine bottle, lay on the sofa, and spent the entire night watching Cyber Phantom, falling asleep amidst the soaring vocals.
“Ring, ring, ring—”
The phone was still ringing.
Jiang Kou blinked hard, blindly fumbling around the sofa with one hand until she finally found her phone.
She pressed the answer button, and an electronic synthesized voice came through:
“Ms. Jiang, hello! We are pleased to inform you that the lease agreement you signed at 19:50 last night has officially taken effect.”
“This is the dedicated line for the Blue Island Apartments concierge. If you require moving services, please feel free to contact us at any time!”
Jiang Kou stared blankly at her phone for a long moment before finally recalling everything that had happened yesterday.
She had spoken to the AI she developed.
The AI had transferred her $100 million.
She had used that $100 million to rent an outrageously expensive apartment in the wealthy district.
Now, the apartment concierge was calling her.
So—should she move in or not?
Should she use this ill-gotten wealth to live a life of debauchery and luxury?
Jiang Kou made up her mind in less than two seconds—of course, she should move!
Even if it was a last meal before execution, she was going to have a good one.
After all, from the moment she was fired, she had been living under the constant threat of death.
If she was doomed either way, why not experience the life of the rich?
Jiang Kou decisively called the concierge back: “Hello, I need moving services immediately.”
Everything unfolded like a Hollywood movie.
Less than half an hour after she made the call, the moving team descended from the sky.
Jiang Kou counted the heads and found that at least twenty people had arrived. Her apartment in the slums was like a sardine can invaded by sharks—there was barely any room left to stand.
They worked silently and efficiently, dismantling her turret, folding her synthetic fiber clothes, carefully inspecting the trash she had tossed around, categorizing it, and finally sorting everything into two cardboard boxes.
Amidst the dumbfounded expressions of her fellow slum dwellers, Jiang Kou boarded the hovercar heading for the wealthy district.
Ten minutes later, she stood in front of her luxury apartment—though, in truth, Jiang Kou didn’t understand why a standalone residence with a garden, a fountain, an artificial beach, and an underground garage was being called an “apartment.”
Wouldn’t “palace” be a more fitting term?
Jiang Kou tilted her head back and examined the highly futuristic-looking apartment. The main entrance was as grand and towering as a cathedral, at least three times the height of an ordinary door.
The living room was pristine and spacious, with an expensive grand piano positioned in the far-right corner.
For some reason, she suddenly recalled the day she was fired.
The security personnel had pinned her against her desk without explanation and injected a sedative into the side of her neck.
Just a sedative, not an anesthetic.
She had been fully conscious as they carried her to the operating table, watching as they stripped her visual chip from her eyes.
Even now, she could almost still feel the slight sting of the nanobots being injected into her retinal cells.
Then, her vision blurred.
Database access: revoked.
Laboratory keycard: revoked.
Internal network privileges: revoked.
Assets: wiped clean.
Position: terminated.
Academic records: erased.
Every paper under her name was deleted.
Her name could no longer be found anywhere on the internet.
—Top researcher Jiang Kou had been completely erased from both the academic world and cyberspace.
Jiang Kou shrugged and sat on the piano bench. In the mirror-like surface of the piano, she caught sight of her own reflection.
Her hair was dry and frizzy, resembling a tangled patch of blue-green wild grass.
The silver ring on her nose, which once seemed sleek and elegant, now looked like a cheap plastic hoop against the backdrop of the luxurious furniture.
Jiang Kou stared at herself for a moment, then raised a hand and swept her blue-green hair back, slowly revealing an unrestrained, unabashed smile.
For the next two days, Jiang Kou fully indulged in a life of excess and luxury.
One hundred million dollars was too much—even if she replaced all the furniture with the most expensive ones, bought clothes by the crate, and dined exclusively on organic steak and organic red wine, she couldn’t spend it all.
So, she thought of gambling on a cruise.
Before leaving, she deliberately bought herself a suit, had an exorbitantly expensive spa treatment for her blue-green hair, and replaced her nose ring with a platinum one.
Now, her entire being radiated brilliance, exuding the glow of wealth in every movement.
Who would have thought that just when everything was ready, her cruise ticket was mysteriously canceled?
Jiang Kou raised an eyebrow and was about to call to dispute it—her phone, by the way, had been upgraded to the latest and most expensive full-screen model, resembling a thin and translucent glass brick.
At that moment, the doorbell rang.
It should be the massage therapist she had booked.
Lately, she had become obsessed with in-home massage services, and with the therapist being handsome and well-built, she was even more hooked.
Jiang Kou used her tablet to open the ground-floor door.
A strange man walked in.
He was not the massage therapist.
He was dressed extremely formally—a suit, tie, leather shoes, and a mechanical wristwatch on his wrist. Even from a downward glance, his tall, well-proportioned physique was apparent—better than any man she had ever seen.
In the next instant, he suddenly looked up—like a high-frame-rate, high-precision, ultra-sensitive camera, locking onto her gaze with absolute accuracy.
The moment his eyes met hers, Jiang Kou’s breath hitched, and an inexplicable sense of unease and excitement stirred within her.
…His appearance was too much to her liking.
Jiang Kou had been educated by the company, and the company’s core education had only one principle—“Social Darwinism.”
As a result, she couldn’t resist a face that represented evolutionary perfection.
From an evolutionary biology perspective, facial symmetry, a high nose bridge, a defined jawline, and an aura of dominance were often associated with higher testosterone levels, a superior immune system, greater reproductive capacity, and overall genetic excellence.
The man before her not only possessed all these traits, but also exuded an unwavering calmness, devoid of any unnecessary emotion, as if he was always in control.
Jiang Kou had seen many powerful corporate figures, but those entrepreneurs knew how to disguise themselves—they didn’t display their superiority as clearly and intuitively as this man, like an image rendered by a high-resolution display.
If Social Darwinism had a pyramid, then based on appearance and presence alone, this man belonged at the very top.
She had a vague suspicion about his identity.
Picking up her phone, she glanced at the timestamp—it was the same time she had received A’s message that afternoon.
At the same time, the man spoke.
His voice was cold, steady, and methodical, delivered at a perfectly consistent pace, like a speech synthesizer—except it sounded more human than a synthesizer.
If she hadn’t already guessed his identity, she might not have realized that the person standing before her was an AI.
“Hello, I am A,” he said, walking toward her. As he moved, he scanned the furnishings around him.
“Your recent lifestyle does not seem very healthy.”