Bionic Era

This is a very simple little robot.

It doesn't have many internal instructions.

In a sense, it's more like a chatbot.

You can simply talk to people and perform a series of actions through the instructions you get.

"Squeak..."

Lu Wen carried the little robot and pushed open the door of this toy store.

The wind howling in the city carries away the dust from the streets.

At a glance, there are two toy stores in this street alone.

"This little robot should be very famous at that time, but not everyone has the money to afford it."

Lu Wen walked to the side of the vehicle.

Yin Liuyue pressed the glass window and was a little curious when she saw the robot in his hand.

"What are you doing with this?"

"This...may be the prototype of the zero body."

"Are you serious? Just give me half an hour and I can make this kind of robot with a few simple instructions."

Lu Wen handed the little robot to Yin June.

After charging for a while, the robot can barely be used for a few minutes.

"Eighty years have passed, and it can still be turned on. Will the internal battery not age?" Yin Liuyue marveled at the ability of this robot to span the years.

She took a closer look and had a few conversations with the little robot by the way.

Finally decided on my own idea.

"This is a simple chat robot." Yin Liuyue affirmed.

"Actually, apart from chatting, this robot has other functions." Dr. Jiang, who was sitting in the back row, said with a smile, "At any rate, it can also perform some simple actions through instructions from humans."

"Doctor, did you already know?"

"I only found out after meeting Zero yesterday. I also felt incredible when I obtained the data of her underground fortress."

Lu Wen returned to the driver's seat.

The vehicle continued to move towards the city center.

According to the coordinates given by the doctor, the place where the No. 0 main body is located should be the central square of the city.

It was a relatively large city back then.

It takes half an hour from entering the city to the central square.

There are many collapsed buildings along the way.

The war destroyed a small half of the city, and countless people were displaced, exhausted, and lived in fear every day. No one knew whether they would see the dawn of the next day.

The glass of the exterior walls of high-rise buildings has long been shattered.

The dark windows, like the eyes of a dead giant, stared at the visitors on the street.

"Drive slowly, maybe we can meet her." Dr. Jiang said.

"OK."

Lu Wen slowed down the speed of the car.

In this ruined city, there is no scenery to speak of.

Desolation and death are eternal themes.

Photographers and painters may like this kind of place very much, but the remote no-man's land makes them daunted.

"Doctor, can a chat robot with simple instructions really evolve into what Number Zero is now?" Yin Liuyue asked.

"Theoretically speaking, this kind of robot has no possibility of evolution at all." Dr. Jiang replied: "It has no willingness to take the initiative to absorb external knowledge, and there is no such rule in its program."

Dr. Jiang was very serious in his lectures.

He projected a picture for Yin Liuyue to understand.

"Human beings have a strong growth potential. From childhood to old age, it is a process of constantly absorbing knowledge."

In the projection screen is a human being getting old.

"Later, when designing bionics, we also referred to humans, so there was a learning chip. This chip is not only used to learn human behavior and expressions, but also gives bionics a willingness to acquire knowledge from the outside world."

Keep learning to keep evolving.

Smart bionics will even learn programming knowledge and transform themselves.

But for this chatbot eighty years ago, all programming and internal information are fixed.

"A machine like No. 0 is actually not as good as what we call an old machine now. If you want to increase the knowledge it possesses, you can only manually remove the memory card inside it, download the required content, and then install the memory card back."

"So, the number zero who is always making trouble outside shouldn't exist at all?"

"right."

A creature that shouldn't exist.

If nothing else.

This little robot should only have the simplest functions from startup to final disposal.

But she broke all common sense and appeared in front of the world.

Is this a miracle, or a miracle?

"It's also possible that the person who bought the body of No. 0 has improved No. 0 so that she has the ability to absorb external knowledge." Dr. Jiang said.

Everything is just guesswork.

Six o'clock in the afternoon.

The twilight glow shone on the dead city.

The crimson glow is dotted with gold.

It seems to have a different kind of beauty.

Lu Wen parked his car not far from the central square.

They have been unable to move forward.

The road is blocked.

The scene in front of them was indescribable and indescribable, and the three of them were stunned.

【Canned Fruit·Expired】

【Air-dried meat】

【Unidentified rotting matter】

【Canned Beef·Expired】

【…】

This is a big square.

Streets lead to this square in four directions.

But now the square and the four extended streets are occupied by countless foodstuffs, most of which have rotted away.

Most of them have disappeared into the dust of history.

Eighty years.

Except for some rusty cans, there is only a little meat, which has been dried in the dry wind and sand in no man's land, but it is also rotten.

...

...

Eighty years ago.

The sudden war awakened countless people from their sleep.

Local wars began to spread to countless cities and countries.

The social order collapsed.

Countless people took to the streets and smashed the shops on the street, just to grab enough survival supplies before the end of this doomsday war.

"The big country in the north is fighting with the country in the west, and it's very chaotic over there now."

People in the south sit in front of the TV every day, waiting for the latest news.

Everyone is praying that the fighting will not spread to the south.

Anxiety began to spread in the South.

The little boy hugged the robot in his arms, sitting on the window sill, watching the twinkling stars outside.

"No. Zero, I heard that the north and the west are at war. Fortunately, we live in the south."

"Sky Warrior, No. 0, has been guarding by your side!"

This little robot comes in many different styles.

Some will say 'protect your safety' when turning on the phone, some will say 'guard by your side', and some will directly say 'come with me to eliminate those evils'.

The little boy is twelve years old.

The little robot has been with him for two years, and something seems to be wrong.

The chat function is not working.

No matter what you say to her, she will always repeat the words she said at the start of the machine.

"Dad, there is something wrong with number zero, can you fix it for me?"

The little boy's father is a mechanical engineer. He is busy on weekdays and doesn't have much time to spend with his family.

So he spent a lot of money to buy this little robot back as a compensation for the child.

"What's the problem?" Father smiled. "The slogan of number zero is clearly written. It will be fine after ten years of use. If it is repaired frequently, she can accompany you for the rest of your life."

"She can only say one word now."

"Oh? A procedural problem?"

The father took over the little robot less than one meter high from the child.

In his spare time, he disassembled and studied the little robot.

As a mechanical engineer, it is not difficult to figure out the principle of this robot.

"Maybe she can be made a little bit smarter."

The father decided to surprise the child.

He copied all the data of No. 0, copied it to his computer, and carried out secondary design on the basis of the original program framework.

This process continued intermittently for a long time.

For fear that the child will be bored.

So the father first returned the original No. 0 robot to the little boy, and promised that after a month, No. 0 would be transformed and upgraded.

It's been a long month.

The flames of war spread.

Meteor-like artillery shells poured over the city, the air defense system was breached, and the night was turned into day by artillery fire.

Flames burn in the ruins.

In the devastated city, there are wailing and wailing everywhere, like purgatory on earth.

The little boy sat on the ruins, looking around blankly.

Not long ago, both his parents went to the front, but now... the whole world is the front.

"Don't hide in the open area!"

Someone in the distance shouted in the night.

Billowing thick smoke covered the sky, blocking out the twinkling stars.

Not too many survivors.

Some people set off into the distance, looking for places that have not been affected by the flames of war.

Others stayed behind temporarily, searching for their loved ones among the rubble, or waiting for their compatriots who had yet to return.

After the war, there is madness and despair.

Human nature is fully demonstrated in desperation.

"Number zero, I'm hungry and want to eat."

"Sky Warrior, No. 0, has been guarding by your side!"

The collapse of the medical system has turned the so-called minor disease into the sickle of death.

The stench of corpses filled the air.

The little boy has spent a long time with this machine, and he is here waiting for his parents to come back.

There are fewer and fewer people in the city.

He is sick.

Become weak and lose weight.

The little robot goes out every day to find food for him in the broken city.

This city is very big, but there is not much food that can be found. The food in the supermarkets next to the street and the surrounding shops have been robbed by people.

So this little robot searched among the ruins. Under the collapsed floor, there might be a buried refrigerator, or something else.

She came back later and later.

some day.

The little boy suddenly felt that he might not live long.

He exhausted all his strength and tremblingly walked out of the shelter where he had been lying for a long time.

The battered city is empty.

Empty streets.

People do not know where to go.

He staggered down the street and finally collapsed in the central square.

It was very late in the day that the little robot found him.

"Clang..."

She put the can in her hand on the ground and turned her head.

In her programming, there was no meaning of 'die', so she couldn't figure out why the little boy didn't eat anymore.

The days passed like this day by day.

The city is huge.

She went to every store, every supermarket, she climbed among the tall buildings that hadn't collapsed, went into every house, opened their refrigerators, searched their kitchens.

When the power is low, she will stand in the sun, and the back panel will be slowly flipped to reveal the solar panel.

The years have left many marks on her.

Case material is aged and discolored.

Rust started to creep in some places.

Time will slowly corrode a robot without maintenance, eighty years seems to be just a very short moment.

In this day's sunset.

Dragging the corroded shell, she staggered back to the central square.

Every step is taken slowly.

The rays of the setting sun were reddish, shining on the street blown by the wind and sand, casting a long shadow behind this little robot.

"Her body can't last long."

The three stood on the street in the distance, looking at No. 0's body.

Holding a rusty iron box in his hand, the little robot walked through countless rotting food piles to the very center of the square.

There lay a dried corpse.

She gently placed the iron box next to the body.

This is a music box.

The rusty shell turned slowly.

Very gentle tune, Castle in the Sky.

The breeze blows through the city, and there is a simple sound in the wind, tinkling.

In this dead city, there is always a lonely and busy figure.