Caged Humanity

Chapter 5: The Future Where Humanity Is Caged

The girl held the teacup with both hands. The scanner-like patterns inside her dark green eyes shifted slightly, and then she continued speaking.

"Several decades later, the scientist died. Before his death, he had completely transformed the Chinese government into a machine government. He also invented a supercomputer with self-learning consciousness and the ability to evolve on its own. Its name was Yuan Chu."

"Under Yuan Chu's command, the mechanization of Chinese society developed more and more smoothly. At first, some foreign governments refused to hand over their power and accept robotic rule. But after seeing that the people inside China were able to enjoy such complete fairness, citizens in many countries began to demand that they also be governed by machines. In this way, the globalization of mechanization began. Three hundred years passed, and many countries eventually completed machine governance one after another. The enslaved people lived happily."

Yuan Ling nodded as he continued writing down key points on the paper with his pen. He drew straight lines, marked dates, and began constructing a timeline. Then he spun the pen between his fingers and said, "So what happened next? If I have not guessed wrong, that scientist is me, right? Fine. Even if, after all those years, I become a public enemy of humanity who should probably be dragged before the International Court of Justice, what does that have to do with you coming here now to protect me?"

The scanner patterns in the girl's eyes moved slightly. "However, there were still many people who were dissatisfied with robot rule. They hoped to restore the primitive method of human rule."

"As global mechanization continued, some people who were unwilling to lose power began to gather together and formed the Anti-Robot Alliance. They unilaterally declared war on us. These humans wanted to seize back authority and regain control over large power institutions such as governments, armies, and courts. If they had only acted inside countries that were unwilling to mechanize, that would not have been a major problem. The real problem was that they repeatedly launched terrorist attacks within Chinese territory. They even used the less mechanized western regions as bases and frequently attacked already mechanized regions, causing riots and disorder."

Yuan Ling pursed his lips and thought for a moment before saying, "Let me interrupt you. If the Yuan Chu that I eventually create is really that powerful, why not simply send a robot army to wipe out those resistance organizations? Humans made of flesh and blood should have no chance of winning against robots, right?"

The girl softly shook her head. "That is not allowed. Master, the most basic and unchangeable command you gave Yuan Chu was to 'let humanity live fairly,' not to exterminate humanity. Therefore, every time a terrorist attack occurs, we on the robot side can only defend. We cannot carry out extermination plans. After all, we are not ruling humanity for the sake of domination. We are saving humanity and managing humanity in a way humans can accept."

Yuan Ling said, "In other words, you cannot kill all the rebels?"

The girl replied, "We are permitted to eliminate humans who are currently carrying out terrorist actions. But we cannot attack human habitats or residential areas. Even if they belong to terrorist organizations, we still cannot do that. That is humanity."

Yuan Ling said, "Understood. Continue."

The girl said, "This deadlock continued for three hundred years and never truly ended. But in the year 2318, the terrorist organization obtained a secret device developed by the Yuan Chu computer. That device was the time converter."

"In order to regain power, the members of the terrorist organization made a decision. Since they could not cause decisive damage to mechanized nations, they would directly take the life of the founder of the Machine Empire. Therefore, they immediately sent a large number of assassins through the time converter to this era. Their goal was to kill you, Master—the founder of the Machine Empire—and change the future."

Yuan Ling pushed up his glasses and said nothing.

"Yuan Chu detected the disturbance in time and discovered that a large number of signals had been transmitted to this time period. Therefore, in order to protect you, Master, Yuan Chu immediately created me and sent me to the modern era through the time converter. My mission is to protect you from attacks by those terrorist members."

"This is the reason why I, the First-Generation Combined Combat Bionic Humanoid Mobile Fortress, Unit One, came here."

The explanation was over.

Was it absurd?

Of course it was absurd.

Then should he believe this absurd story?

Yuan Ling stood up. He was still wearing only that pair of underwear as he walked to the window. Through the lenses of his glasses and the glass of the window, he looked at the dark sky outside.

"...As expected, it is still not believable."

As a scientist, he could not rely only on what he heard. He needed evidence.

Compared with the girl's long explanation, Yuan Ling was more willing to believe that she had accidentally broken into his home while escaping from some boyfriend who was chasing her. Compared with the future or time travel, that sounded far more realistic.

"You say you came from the future, and you say I may be assassinated by killers sent from the future. Then do you have any evidence? Write down the formula for time jumping for me. As long as I can successfully perform a time jump, I will believe your words."

The girl shook her head again. She tilted her head while holding the teacup and said, "Time jumping is no longer possible. That is because I already created a temporal disturbance just now."

Yuan Ling said, "What does that mean?"

The girl replied, "It was done to prevent an endless number of assassins from passing through the time gate and arriving in this era."

"There is no doubt that the time device is currently in the hands of the terrorist organization. If, after some time, they discover that the future has still not changed, they will definitely send more assassins here. Therefore, after I crossed through time, my first mission was to immediately disrupt time and prevent anything from entering the one-hundred-year period surrounding this time point through any method. Incidentally, in order to prevent someone from stopping me before I could come here to protect you, Yuan Chu also disrupted the flow of time in the future after sending me back. It created a temporal disturbance covering one hundred years before and after that point as well. Everything was done to ensure your safety, Master."

Yuan Ling said, "I see... But is one hundred years really safe? This is technology from three hundred years in the future, right? What if people in that era use machines to achieve immortality or something similar?"

The girl replied, "Please rest assured. If such a person approaches, my radar can detect them from one hundred kilometers away. In theory, in order to approach you safely, Master, they must be normal humans. And if they are normal humans, then even if they traveled to one hundred years before this era and came forward from there, they would certainly already be dead by now."

Yuan Ling said, "But that is still not perfect. What if they target my parents? Or my ancestors?"

The girl replied, "Please rest assured. Long before the future version of you declared the establishment of the machine nation, all information related to your family members had already been destroyed. The other side cannot obtain any information about your ancestors or relatives other than you yourself, Master."