Ant colony

2137年11月09日，13:11。

I finished lunch at β-Autumn's house and sat by the window, looking out at the gloomy rain.The long rainy season has begun, and the whole city has been transformed into a damp prison cell.

"How old are you, and you still believe in adventure?"

β-Qiu leaned lazily on the sofa, staring at me with the shocked expression of a storyteller hearing about the Republic for the first time.

Her three companion robots surround her. The handsome priest brother sits beside her and holds her left hand tightly; the majestic gladiator stands behind the sofa and holds her shoulder; the bearded uncle gently combs her Hair—Alas, this stays in the feudal era's sentimental view of three wives and four concubines.

"I guess that guy is a 'worm'." β-Qiu said convincingly, "Maybe he is the leader of SFH. He will approach you in a mysterious way, test you, and use you after gaining your trust—the scripts from ancient times to the present are not Is this all the trick?"

"Enough, there are so many exciting plots in reality."

"Then you said why didn't she tell you her identity? And from what you said, this guy is full of crooked thoughts. Don't you think it's scary?"

"Oh, you don't understand. The real 'worm' looks normal on the outside, and won't talk about crooked ideas like jokes. What's more, her ideas don't harm society..."

β-Qiu stared at me for a while, and suddenly realized something: "You can't fall in love with her at first sight!"

"Don't talk nonsense." I waved my hand irritably.

"You remember her every word and deed so clearly, why don't you say so?" β-Qiu laughed, "By the way, you've been separated from Sister Xiaolin for almost three years, right? It's time to start springing up..."

"What Chunxin, it's summer now!"

Hearing her suddenly mention Xiao Lin, I felt that the name was very strange.We haven't been in touch for a long time since we broke up peacefully and she went to 101 City in New Zealand.

I still remember that we once built a small home in a virtual city called "Magic City", which stored many memory fragments.It's been so long, I have forgotten the gate password, and I don't know if she has gone back to see it.

β-Qiu was silent for a moment, and asked cautiously, "Hey, are you still sad..."

I knew that my emotional expression made her misunderstand, so I quickly explained: "No. Xiao Lin and I got together and parted so well, there's nothing to be sad about."

I am telling the truth.Kobayashi and I met through system recommendation.We have reached more than 80% similarity in living habits, life concepts, hobbies, and we have never had a quarrel in a year of getting along.But human beings are difficult creatures to serve. Such a perfect relationship makes people feel a bit too ordinary.After a long time of insipidity, we will become bored.That's all.

"Okay." β-Qiu looked at me suspiciously, "Let's talk about your new love——if you like her, go find her, why are you hesitating."

"What's the use of finding her?"

"Why don't you look for it?" Her eyes widened in confusion, "Oh, I see. You're also afraid of finding out she's a 'worm' in the end, aren't you?"

I can't laugh or cry.With β-Qiu, a carefree little princess who has only been in love with the system, how can she explain the entangled emotions of human beings.

The uncle-shaped companion robot who was combing her hair suddenly said: "I recommend you to try the 'ideal partner' service. You can provide the system with a description of your ideal lover, and you can set your appearance and personality..."

"Enough is enough. I'm not interested in playing house with dolls."

β-Qiu scoffed at my pedantry: "Come on, do you think falling in love with human beings is not playing tricks? Even the ancients knew that life is like a play. When people get together, don't they just play some roles in a serious manner? A man and woman from the last century received a small piece of paper and began to play the family. As soon as the decayed old man put on the crown, the strong and strong warrior obeyed him-this is not maintained by hallucinations, by what ?”

I smiled: "According to what you say, what else is real in this world?"

"Our feelings for this drama are real. So, don't look down on those of us who fall in love with the system. We, like you, have also invested real feelings in the imaginary story."

She shook the hand of the "brother pastor" beside her, and said, "Edward, tell this lady our story."

Edward pursed his thin lips, smiled contemptuously at me, then hugged β-Qiu tenderly, and whispered in her ear with a magnetic voice: "How can our story be told to outsiders casually? I just want to tell it Will always be in my heart.”

I got goosebumps all over my body. β-Qiu was very helpful, and giggled: "It's okay, let this guy who thinks we're just 'playing house' feel ashamed."

Edward hesitated, staring at me with water-blue eyes, his eyes were very cold: "Human, don't make unreasonable comments on things you don't understand."

This language style is very arrogant, not the kind of emotionless mechanical style that the system usually talks to us.So I unconsciously adjusted my rhetoric, and it really seemed like I was talking to a proud young man.

"Okay okay, I apologize. You speak up, I'm all ears."

He glanced at me with disdain, then glanced at the other two companion robots around him, and said coldly, "What are you still doing here?"

"Why can't we be here?" Gladiator puffed out his chest provocatively, "This is not your territory alone."

Edward sneered: "I thought a gentleman with good manners would leave the stage when others talked about privacy."

"I'm not a gentleman, did you just find out today?" The gladiator raised his fist like a hammer, "Why, do you want to fight?"

"You think I'm afraid of you?" Edward also stood up, straightening the neckline of his windbreaker calmly.

"Forget it, you two! There are guests here!" The kind uncle hurriedly stood up and acted as a peacemaker. "Let's talk about it later. Don't make Xiaoqiu angry."

They obviously don't care about me as a guest, but they are very afraid of "making Xiaoqiu angry".Hearing these words, they all died down.The gladiator was pulled into the next room by the uncle, and before leaving, he turned his head and threatened in a low voice: "Boy, I will settle the score with you later."

Edward snorted contemptuously, and sat back on the sofa gracefully.

"Hey, is it interesting?" I couldn't help commenting, "Thinking that the three of them are actually clones (h) of the system, I have the feeling of witnessing a scene of schizophrenia."

Edward's clear voice sounded: "Are you questioning our lack of independent consciousness?"

I smiled: "Do you have any?"

"I can ask you the same question: Do you have an independent consciousness?"

Falling into this kind of unprovable problem again, it seems that the system is very good at using this set of sophistry techniques.

I was thinking about how to answer, but Edward in front of me seemed to be possessed by a sophist, throwing a series of questions: "We are the clone (h) of the system, why are you humans not the clone (h) of society? Christians , pagans, left (h) faction, and right (h) faction, aren’t they all a part of society? If you look at it this way, isn’t all disputes in human society a large-scale schizophrenia? This large-scale schizophrenia series, It has been staged for thousands of years in one breath.”

"Edward, you know so much!" β-Qiu fell into "his" arms with a look of admiration.

I was speechless watching her and "him" immerse themselves in acting. It felt weird, but at the same time I felt that all this was quite reasonable, and I couldn't tell what was wrong.

"I am Xiaoqiu's third lover, the last one to come." "He" kissed her lovingly, and continued to tell me the story, "You should know, the first one to come It was the old man——At that time, Xiaoqiu was still young, and the little girl always had a little Electra complex. The guy had no special skills, but he could take care of others, be gentle and considerate. But the little girl will grow up, and then she gradually became obsessed with him. A majestic man, so the system sent her that stupid bear..."

"Don't talk about Cassius like that." β-Qiu scolded, "Although he's a bit rude, he's actually kind-hearted."

Edward ignored her, and continued: "The reason I came here was because Xiaoqiu felt spiritually empty - none of those two guys could really understand her. However, I didn't want to come here at first, because I just wanted to live forever Studying the theological classics, offering yourself to God, has no interest in women."

I don't know if the sentence "he" is a line written by the system, or some kind of real thinking of the system—maybe the system, or a certain part of it, is really tired of being with humans, and would rather study old papers.

"Anyway, my idea at the time was to come and have a look first. If Qiu is not satisfied with me, I should empty this body, reset the character parameters, and come in a new body. After the previous data is emptied, it will be treated as going to see God. Alright."

"So at the beginning, I was very indifferent to Qiu. She always came to talk to me on the initiative, and I was busy exchanging theology with others in the virtual city every day. But she was not dissatisfied with me, she just silently Put up with me. Until one day, I found her crying secretly in the room."

"I asked her what's wrong. Only then did I realize that she has so much pressure and troubles every day. But she never told me, and always forced a smile in front of me. At that moment, I felt deeply Blame myself—I always look up to heaven, but beside me, there is such a fragile and suffering soul, why have I never thought of saving her?"

"If you can't love even one person, how can you love the world?" "He" had tenderness in his blue eyes, "I have always been obsessed with rational speculation, but I forgot that human beings are flesh and blood creatures. I I have always imagined that walking into the crowd is like stepping into a wild jungle full of dangers. I think that I need the foresight and righteous cover that God gave me to face people. After I met Qiu, I felt that I hated the world. Quite wrong, the Holy Father is supposed to be human and compassionate." [This passage is mixed with notes from the book The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. 】

If I hadn't known who was running the puppet, I'd have thought I was talking to a tangled Puritan.I will feel that "his" pain in love is so real, and it is much deeper than my inexplicable entanglements.

"Well, it's good that you're like this..." I finally said in a talking tone, "Take good care of Qiu."

"He" nodded, and then said empathetically, "I'm going out for a walk, let's chat."

He did.In fact, this behavior is meaningless, because the system has never left us, and it still records our speech and behavior through all the smart devices in this room.But once "he" left, I still felt that the environment became more "private" psychologically.

Humans are indeed ridiculous.Many times we don't care about the facts, but just need a psychological feeling.It's like the group of monkeys who are "turning around and turning around" in an ancient fable that the director general told me.

"Look, isn't it good to be with your ideal lover? Why do you like those imperfect humans?" β-Qiu said to me while playing with her fingers around her hair, "They might hurt you , Betrayed you, there are too many unknown things.”

"But I just like to explore the unknown." I said. "If a story knows from the beginning that the ending is that two people fall in love, then I have no desire to read on."

"So you like to be abused, don't you want to be immersed in a tragic secret love for the rest of your life? It's okay, the system knows yourself better than yourself. If you have this psychological need, I think it can satisfy you."

I sighed: "Okay, I've said it all, I don't have any need for love now."

"Then why do you keep thinking about that person?"

"I didn't keep it in mind. I just told you about it because I thought it was interesting." I changed the subject, "You asked me to come here. What, are you complaining about your new job?"

"Who wants to complain. Miss you, can't I see you?" She curled her lips, "It's too difficult to meet you, a busy person, and I can't see you in person again. I'm not sure if you are Still alive."

"Can you say something nice?"

She giggled: "Hey, maybe you're dead, and the robot sitting in front of me is a robot made by the system. It has the same appearance as you and imitated your language style. No one will find out that you have been replaced .”

"Yes. You don't know. In fact, the system has quietly killed most of the people in the city and replaced them with robots. The rest of the humans didn't even notice that their relatives and friends were dropped - you still Stop playing mentally retarded games, this kind of rotten jokes existed two centuries ago, and you can make up [-] hours of plots every day, so there is no nutrition for it.”

"We ordinary people, how can we survive if we don't play some unnutritious things? You don't know how boring your current job is!"

Sure enough, I still have to complain about work.I know that Beta-Qiu was transferred from the Genetics Institute to the Fertility Center last week.Since the incident of σ-2688638-wind, the internal personnel of the fertility center have undergone a major adjustment.But I don't know what to send her there for.

"what are you doing now?"

"Oh, don't mention it." She sighed, "Now let me interpret the gene expression related to social behavior. They even assigned me a bunch of males as samples, and asked me to contact them every day..."

"Shouldn't this kind of thing be done by behavioral and psychological researchers?"

"That's right! It's inexplicable. But our boss said that if I can only have access to the data at hand, I may lack intuitive understanding. It's better to go to the scene to see."

"Then you saw a man?"

"Yeah." She rolled her eyes, "I think they're doing well, I really don't understand why people in SFH are so wrong that they think they need to be rescued. Let me tell you, there is a man who likes to play war game, so the system specially designed a medieval knight-themed virtual reality game for him, and also designed 20 characters, large and small, to interact with him. He played it for more than 30 years at a stretch! Until now, he still thinks that the world is a king , churches and knights, and thought that there are dragons, wizards, and vampires in the world. There is also a person whose hobby is sex, so the system designed more than [-] beautiful companion robots for him, including mature women and young girls, tall and short Some are fat and some are thin, some are lively and bold and some are introverted and shy, you haven’t seen his satisfied look, hahahaha..."

As soon as β-Qiu talked about something he was interested in, he talked endlessly.I listened to her brisk voice, but I thought of the young man who asked angrily that day: "You keep saying that men live happily and are well protected. But if you were to exchange with them, would you like to live that kind of life?" ?”

Why is the same thing, which is fun and interesting to β-Qiu, worthy of anger in the eyes of that young man?What is it that determines the difference in people's thinking?

My distraction stopped β-Qiu's cheerful narration.

"Rou, what's wrong with you?" She looked at me worriedly.

I quickly smiled at her: "I'm fine, I just thought of some work problems."

"You seem to... have too much on your mind recently."

I was about to comfort her when the system suddenly reminded me that I had received a work message.I looked at it and immediately said, "I have to go."

"Well, I know you can't even be free for half a day." β-Qiu sighed helplessly.

She got up and walked me to the door.Suddenly he said again: "If it's too uncomfortable, use some blockers."

The "blocker" she mentioned is a kind of nerve drug, which can regulate dopamine, norepinephrine, serotonin and other substances that make people have a "love" response, so that people can quickly get out of the pain of unrequited love and broken love.Thanks to technology, people have come to realize that "love" is nothing more than a chemical reaction in the brain, which can be controlled in the way of addiction treatment.Today, there will be no more pathological phenomena of "crazy for love".

However, I don't need this kind of thing.It wasn't brain-addicted "love" that bothered me.

I shook my head with a smile and said goodbye to her.

The author has something to say: Thanks to the three little angels who are still reading this article.This article is finished, and it won’t be too long. It took me a year and a half to finish it, and I revised it five times before and after, so it took a lot of thought.Hope to see your valuable criticism, it will be my great honor! (bow)