Bonus chapter
Thanks for supporting UntamedAlley ✨✨✨Tujing ✨✨✨
After getting out of the taxi, Jiu Shu picked a restaurant for lunch.
After eating, he was ready to go back to the downtown area.
Walking out of the restaurant, Jiu Shu took a complimentary rose from the restaurant and looked at it for a moment before putting it away.
Just as he was about to head to the nearby subway station, he heard the sound of a movie starting to play on a building not far away.
It was an old movie from the last century.
Jiu Shu recognised the main character on the screen.
It was none other than the bionic human star from that college student’s interview video.
Unlike his tragic ending, the ending between humans and bionics in the movie was so happy.
This must have been a banned movie.
Instead, it was now being shown in the city in a dignified manner, with no one stopping it.
The whole city’s hostile atmosphere towards bionics seemed to have disappeared, becoming more and more like a paradise in the bionics’ dreams.
There was no human rejection, no human resentment.
There were only friendly and gentle expressions on each other’s faces.
Jiu Shu retracted his gaze, looked at the people nearby who were also looking at the screen, and turned towards the subway station.
Zero Three was still waiting for him in the lower city.
Jiu Shu quickly boarded the subway.
Like earlier in the morning, the train was packed with commuters from work, but it was quiet.
There were even a few empty seats in advance.
Jiu Shu sat in one of them.
It was nearing evening, and the sky was already slightly dark.
In a corner of the street that Jiu Shu didn’t notice, the male singer from the previous program accidentally saw his back.
The singer immediately got excited and followed him onto the subway.
The singer hadn’t been on a subway in a long time.
After all, with money, he would seldom take the same public transportation as the general public.
However, the moment he saw Jiu Shu, he still had no choice but to get on the train.
Because he really wanted to see Jiu Shu again.
Although he had saved a lot of videos related to Jiu Shu to ease the pain of longing, he still wanted to develop further relationships with Jiu Shu, so in the last few days, he tried to get closer to Jiu Shu by all means.
But he couldn’t find him at all.
It was strange to say because Jiu Shu had recently gone viral on the internet due to his beauty, and the entire online world was filled with his photos.
In theory, he should have been on the air and appearing on programs all over the place by now.
But in the seventh city, Jiu Shu had disappeared for several days yet no one could find him.
And he didn’t know why, but many of the posts on the internet searching for Jiu Shu had disappeared for no apparent reason.
Even the photos of Jiu Shu would be deleted if they weren’t saved quickly.
It was as if someone maliciously didn’t want others to see Jiu Shu’s appearance and didn’t want him to become famous.
In this era of advanced internet, this was bad behaviour that violated human rights.
Thinking about this, the male singer remembered the interview video that first revealed Jiu Shu’s appearance.
Those college students who hadn’t yet graduated had bad reputations due to spreading rumours about Jiu Shu, and they were subsequently subjected to severe online bu-llying by netizens.
In the end, they were a bit delirious.
Insanely, they spoke on the net, saying that the 7th city was occupied by monsters.
Artificial intelligence rebellion, revenge on them, and so on.
It was all just crazy talk.
Their accounts were banned as a result.
All the interview videos were gone.
Especially the interview with Jiu Shu disappeared completely.
The male singer definitely didn’t believe their crazy talk.
However, he felt that there must be a behind-the-scenes force that was suppressing Jiu Shu, erasing all of his videos and photos from the internet.
The male singer was therefore worried about Jiu Shu’s personal safety.
It was normal for ga-ngs and other forces to suppress each other in the chaotic downtown area.
It was just that this time, the forces were extraordinarily powerful and were actually able to influence the news on the internet.
The subway finally moved.
The male singer who entered the train retrieved his thoughts; he looked around, but didn’t see Jiu Shu’s figure.
Knowing that he must have gotten on the wrong train, he asked the people around him if they had seen Jiu Shu.
Jiu Shu was very famous these days, so if he had appeared, these passengers would definitely recognise him.
But to the male singer’s surprise, the commuters all ignored him.
He was more or less a big star, and such a reaction made him feel a bit incredulous.
“Why don’t you say anything? You really don’t recognise this person?”
The male singer said and simply tapped on the photo on his cell phone.
Showing the photo of Jiu Shu to a nearby office worker in a suit.
The office worker’s gaze fell on the photo.
The male singer was just about to open his mouth to continue asking about Jiu Shu’s location.
However, he suddenly realised the strangeness of the train.
It was too quiet.
It was clearly supposed to be rush hour, but the tran was surprisingly quiet.
He didn’t know if it was his illusion, but when he pulled out his cell phone, he even felt that there were countless more gazes behind him.
Subconsciously turning his head to look, the male singer saw countless expressionless men and women in the train, their dark pupils staring at him without blinking.
Silence and gloom.
In this airtight train, these people gave off a strong sense of oppression.
Gulping down his saliva, the male singer, for some reason, suddenly remembered what the college students he saw earlier said when they went crazy.
They said that the Seventh Metropolis was finished.
Everyone, all creatures, had been parasitised and assimilated by a monster.
And that monster sought revenge on them.
Or rather, came to seek revenge on the humans.
“What do you want with him?”
Before the male singer could recover from the inexplicable feeling of wariness in his heart, the office worker who was looking at the picture on his cell phone suddenly spoke out.
His voice was calm and low.
The male singer shivered in fear; his voice trembled, and he stammered, not knowing what to say.
It should be an illusion.
Thinking so, the male singer calmed down and responded, “We’re friends, and I need to talk to him about something.”
“You’re looking for him as a friend?”
The commuter looked at him expressionlessly.
At the same time, the entire compartment seemed to turn their heads slightly sideways and look at him with the same deadpan gaze.
The male singer was utterly unable to console himself now.
He tried his best to hide the horror on his face as he added shakily, “I mean, I’m friends with Jiu Shu, so I want to have a chat with him.”
“No.”
The person cut in.
The male singer looked at him in dismay, not knowing what he was talking about.
“Not a friend.”
He was the only one of Jiu Shu’s friends.
This human was lying.
The man approached the male singer and reaching out in the direction of the male singer’s head.
The singer wasn’t sure what to do for a moment.
“Uh, no, we’re not then, huh, I should get off!”
The male singer looked around at the commuters who were gradually approaching and the pale palms they were reaching out in unison.
He was so scared that his face turned pale.
Just as the subway arrived at the station, the male singer, not caring about his original purpose, fled out of the train as if he were running for his life.
Exhausted and gasping for breath, he stood outside the yellow line and saw the commuters who had been about to chase him out retreat as if they were bound by something.
The just stood there quietly in the train watching him.
As the doors slowly closed, their dark pupils still stared at him vacantly.
The scene was more like a horror movie than a horror movie.
The male singer was literally scared to death.
“Jesus.”
The male singer was cold and sweaty, wondering what was wrong with the world and how he could have encountered such a bizarre thing.
Especially just now, it seemed like some of the ones in the carriage were bionics, but more of them were humans.
How could they show the exact same expression?
The male singer couldn’t figure it out; he only felt a wave of fear.
Luckily, he escaped.
Otherwise, he was afraid that he would have turned into their horrible appearance; it was as if something had taken over their bodies.
Underneath the skin were terrifying monsters of unknown prototypes, waiting for the opportunity to unleash carnage.
“Are you alright?”
The male singer who had been paralysed without realising it was being helped up.
It was a gentle-looking woman with long hair.
The male singer let his heart relax a little; finally, it wasn’t those scary guys in suits.
He said somewhat incoherently that he was fine and had the rare kindness to ask the woman to be ever so careful as well.
“Stay in hiding and don’t go out lately; ahem, uptown can be dangerous.”
The male singer said, scared out of his wits, he was ready to go home and stay there for a few months.
That way, if what those college students said was true, he would be able to escape.
“Why are you hiding?”
The woman’s soft voice rang in his ears.
“They probably just want you to get what you want, to be friends.”
The words made the male singer’s body stiffen as he looked over at the woman.
It met the woman’s dark pupils.
The same as those of the office workers in general.
“Aaaaahhhh,” the man’s mournful screams came to an abrupt end.
Trains were still passing through the station, obscuring what was left of the man’s screams.
People coming and going in the station walked past the male singer without a second glance.
The long-haired woman also let go of the hand holding him and returned to the path she was supposed to be on.
Going about their work life as they should.
The male singer stood still, his dark pupils looking around before slowly walking out of the subway station as well.
After becoming one, he was, of course, a friend of Jiu Shu.
The closest friend.
It wasn’t jealousy; it wasn’t fear that Jiu Shu would leave him because of a human friend.
He was just granting this human’s wish.
After all, he wasn’t Jiu Shu’s friend at all.
The station returned to its usual calmness; only a few passersby who had inadvertently witnessed the whole thing just now revealed a look of fear, but they could only try their best to keep quiet, not daring to make a single sound.
Because this city had completely become a nightmare for humans.
As long as one made a sound, they would be discovered and assimilated.
Becoming like those expressionless people walking in the subway station, puppets without self-awareness.
Perhaps some humans who were disappointed with society would find this a relief, but the majority of humans who had discovered the truth were still terrified of this assimilation.
Afraid of the hideous existence that constantly ate away at humanity.
Wondering when they would be rescued.
And in the train at that moment, Jiu Shu leaned against the window, looking out at the scenery of the stations that sped by, and lowered his eyes to look at the after-dinner dessert in his hand.
It had just been gifted by a commuter on the way down to the station.
Cupcakes.
With just the right amount of sweetness.
It was the type of after-dinner dessert that Zero Three had been making for him every day lately.
He didn’t eat at home today, so he hadn’t eaten it.
It was just that the subway didn’t seem to allow random food, right?
Jiu Shu blinked helplessly and looked into the reflections of the train windows at those eyes that were looking straight over as always.
It was too obvious.
He really thought that he hadn’t noticed all along, so he was getting more and more reckless.
Jiu Shu felt that his guess was right and could only smile helplessly.
He quickly arrived at the station.
By the time Jiu Shu stepped out of the subway station, the sky had completely darkened.
The neon lights of the uptown area were also clearly visible here in the downtown area, illuminating the streets and alleys of the downtown area to become more and more gloomy and humid.
Only Zero Three’s tall figure could be seen at a glance.
“You’ve been waiting for a while.”
Zero Three looked at Jiu Shu; a smile that wasn’t present when facing others was added to his pale face.
“No, not long.”
Only a few hours.
Zero Three said, giving Jiu Shu the paper rose he was holding in his hand.
Jiu Shu took the rose, smiled, and stood on his tiptoes to kiss Zero Three’s lowered cheek.
The two of them walked in the direction of the apartment building, hand in hand, as if they were a normal couple.
Walking through the familiar streets, Jiu Shu noticed that the people in the neighbourhood had a milder expression on their faces than the numb look they had in the morning.
Their eyes were also bright.
The lower city was devoid of its usual noisy chaos.
If the half-baked AI in the original plot hadn’t failed, it probably would have done the same.
After all, this was already considered the best plan.
The Resistance was too naive in their thinking.
They thought that they could gain the respect of the humans by resisting with force alone, but they never thought about the human norm that those who were not of our kind would be different.
In the original story, the half-baked AI destroyed the city’s military and electricity at the behest of the Resistance, causing chaos.
But it also spooked the human side.
Negotiations between the humans and the Bionic Man ended up in a denouement where the humans secretly destroyed the AI.
The hero, Cory, and the heroine, Lian Qi, had to leave the city, abandoning their fellow Resistance members and going into hiding.
This time it should be very different from the original.
But how far could this infinite assimilation go?
Jiu Shu’s brows furrowed as he looked at the roses in his arms.
Zero Three was also looking at Jiu Shu.
He enjoyed the feeling of strolling down the street with Jiu Shu, with a sense of contentment that the entire world was left with just the two of them.
The truth couldn’t be further from the truth; though a large portion of the lower city had indeed been assimilated by him today.
There was no connection to the network, but he could use other assimilated bodies to slowly infect them.
Zero Three had been working hard to make sure that Jiu Shu had a quiet and harmless living environment.
“It feels like we’re newlyweds.”
Zero Three suddenly spoke.
Seeing Jiu Shu look at him, Zero Three seemed a little nervous.
He wondered if the relationship techniques he had learnt in the relationship guide were correct.
It was said that this hint of being like a newlywed couple could draw each other closer.
Zero Three thought he had failed.
But then he heard a laugh in Jiu Shu’s voice.
“Yeah, it’s very similar.”
Zero Three looked into Jiu Shu’s beautiful eyes, and the tips of his ears flushed red.
The happiness spreading in his heart made Zero Three feel dizzy.
He even wished that time would stop at this moment.
That was a giddyness that hadn’t been felt since becoming an AI.
Perhaps becoming a real human was this feeling.
Not a bionic human, not an AI.
Rather, he was a real human who could accompany Jiu Shu with honour, just like Jiu Shu.
He gripped Jiu Shu’s hand tightly and walked slowly with him towards the road home.
In the uptown area.
Lian Qi was searching the computer for any address information related to Jiu Shu.
But still nothing.
She couldn’t find where Jiu Shu was, and she couldn’t tell him how dangerous the city was right now.
Especially the danger of the bionic man.
Thinking of the papers that she had just inadvertently seen from the side of her boyfriend’s desk, Lian Qi was in a panic.
Lian Qi had just gone to her boyfriend to chat and warm up to him as usual, but she never expected to see him covered in bloo-d.
Upon asking, she realised that he had found traces of Adam, confirming the presence that could cause Adam’s emotions to fluctuate violently.
“Adam’s emotions in the conscious body was very excited, and if it were his essence, he would have definitely been even more excited, so we found the right one!” Cory replied in a deep voice.
Lian Qi was still a bit confused at that time. If it was the object of Adam’s hatred that he was looking for in the first place, shouldn’t he have ki-lled the moment Adam awakened?
How could they have been left until now?
Cory, however, just shook his head and said he didn’t know why.
But whatever Adam was really thinking, they just needed to get Adam to expose the trail.
So the man had to be found, even k-illed.
It was the only way to save 7th City and the human world.
Otherwise, they would just have to let Adam continue to develop and grow into a terrifying existence that couldn’t be fought against.
After listening to her boyfriend’s words, Lian Qi seemed to understand.
It wasn’t until she saw the k-ill list written on that document that her face changed slightly.
Although she had always known that the Resistance would do harm to humans before, most of them were the poor people in the lower city and some scum who abused the bionics.
Lian Qi had never been bothered.
When she saw the names of a few people she had worked with on the list, as well as Jiu Shu, she realised that to Cory, humans were objects to be disposed of at will.
Cory was too cruel.
Although she had always supported her boyfriend’s fight against humanity and the bionics becoming life forms equal to humans.
But Lian Qi was actually a bit arrogant.
It was because of her arrogance that she rarely talked to the soldiers in the Resistance; being busy was just an excuse; she would only be near Cory alone.
After all, she was part of the race that were the creators of the world.
Bionic people could only ever be a subsidiary of humans, a creation of humans.
They were tools to help humans live more conveniently, just like the cell phone she had in her hand right now.
Even if their status became equal, they couldn’t get rid of the essential difference.
Therefore, now realising that the bionic human had really reached this point of overriding the human race was even more unacceptable to Lian Qi than the sense of threat posed by the AI Adam.
Of course, most of the reason was still that youth named Jiu Shu.
Thinking of Jiu Shu’s mesmerising face, Lian Qi stood up eagerly.
No, she had to tell him to leave quickly.
The Seventh Metropolis was in danger right now, not just from Adam but also from the Resistance.
As soon as she thought of it, Lian Qi immediately prepared to go out and try her luck in the lower city to see if she could find Jiu Shu.
But she still needed to find some help before she left.
Lian Qi remembered her singer friend, male singer brother Li, who she had been discussing with a lot lately about where exactly Jiu Shu was.
So she called directly.
“Brother Li, do you have any news about Jiu Shu?”
The male singer was similarly enamoured with Jiu Shu, and Lian Qi was well aware of this.
Although she was more or less scornful before, thinking that this guy was an old cow that wanted to eat young grass, she couldn’t care less now in order to save Jiu Shu.
“Jiu Shu is in danger now; we must find him quickly!”
Lian Qi didn’t notice that on the other end of the phone, the man with pitch-black pupils paused, his eyes looking towards the cell phone in his hand.
“Danger?”
“Someone is trying to ki-ll him!”
Lian Qi, who was on the phone in her room, didn’t notice that the moment her words fell, the gazes of almost everyone outside the apartment building she was in looked in her direction.
On their expressionless faces were dark, lightless eyes.
It was especially creepy in this quiet late-night hour.
The next day.
Due to the night’s exercise, Jiu Shu woke up looking tired.
Zero Three somewhat guiltily rubbed the red marks at Jiu Shu’s wrists.
Compared to Jiu Shu’s slender and thin arms, Zero Three’s firm pale arms had smooth muscle lines as thick as two of Jiu Shu’s arms.
Today’s agreement was to go out for a stroll to find inspiration, but Jiu Shu was so tired that he didn’t want to move a bit.
Fortunately, after sleeping for a while, Jiu Shu was much better.
He’d better go; he couldn’t stay at home all the time.
The location also needed to be picked out properly.
“Let’s go here.”
Jiu Shu pointed to a location on the map of his cell phone.
It was the old factory where Zero Three had once been seriously injured.
It was also a possible location for a resistance stronghold that Jiu Shu had only recently found out about.
Although, due to the lack of internet here, the consciousness bodies of Zero Three located in the area often lost contact, Zero Three didn’t want to deny Jiu Shu.
After having breakfast, Jiu Shu and Zero Three travelled to their destination together.
On the way, Zero Three drove carefully.
The streets of the lower city had never been so orderly, with all the pedestrians walking on the sidewalks in perfect order without any confusion.
Everyone had a smile on their face.
Everything was wonderful as it was in Uptown.
It was only when cars drove by, away from the sight of Jiu Shu, that people became expressionless, their eyes more sinister than usual.
And they were obviously shuttling around, looking for suspicious people.
Inside the car, Jiu Shu’s cell phone received a post alert.
It was those college students who had recorded the interview video without authorisation.
It seemed that after the mental breakdown, they kept posting some nonsensical things, but they said them with conviction, making people half-believe it.
They’d completely disappeared in the past few days, and there were still often horrified netizens saying the same thing in the comment section.
Making the truth more and more confusing.
“They say the upper city has fallen, all turned into puppets manipulated by an unknown electronic ghost; does Zero Three think it’s true?”
Jiu Shu suddenly spoke up, his beautiful peach blossom-like eyes looking towards Zero Three at his side.
It seemed that he was really quite curious about this.
Zero Three’s hands on the steering wheel tightened, and he fell silent, speaking only after a long time, “Who knows, people in the uptown area will always say strange things, and isn’t becoming a puppet also quite good?”
“There will be no more conflict, and no more bloodshed.”
Zero Three seemed to be joking.
The car quickly reached its destination.
“Really, also, it’s true that a puppet under conscious control rarely k-ills itself.”
“Just like a person wouldn’t be jealous of themselves.” Jiu Shu’s eyes curved as he smiled and spoke meaningfully.
However, before the words of Jiu Shu, who stepped out of the car, fell, not far away, a bionic human’s arm fell from within the factory pipes.
With his bionic eyesight, Zero Three looked in the direction of the fall, and two bionics with mutilated bodies were engaged in a fight.
Each of them had dark, resentful pupils and bl-ood-stained faces.
Zero Three remained silent, vaguely blocking Jiu Shu’s view.