“In fact, there is another possibility.”
Tianzhou spaceport.
The old captain who walked down the boarding gate suddenly stopped and said with his back facing Luzhou.
Hearing this weird sentence, Lu Zhou’s eyes were filled with curiosity, and he asked, “What possibility?”
“There are many ways to keep secrets. In addition to buying their silence with temptations, there are also ways to keep them silent forever.” The old captain said with a faint smile, “I’m just saying hypothetically, such as asking the destroyer to shoot at us, wouldn’t the result be the same? The secret would be buried forever.”
Also…
The cost would be a lot lower.
Seeing Lu Zhou was in deep thought, the old captain paused and continued, “The Guangzhou Martyrs’ Memorial Garden is where I am waiting to go. I am ready to sacrifice myself, so I don’t care, I’ll even try to convince you to not fight back. But do you have the same willingness as me?”
“It seems that people have many different choices.” Lu Zhou said softly without answering the question directly, “Maybe when I have a chance to meet the captain of the Pan-Asian First Fleet, I have to say thank you.”
“He doesn’t have the right to make this kind of decision, but… from a logical point of view, the people who should say thank you are actually those of us who have been saved.” The old captain smiled and said, “I just want to say, if you don’t have the willingness of being brave and righteous, you shouldn’t be so rash next time.”
“I can swear that I definitely wasn’t being rash.”
When Lu Zhou said this, the old captain was already far away.
Obviously, he did not believe Lu Zhou’s words.
With a helpless shrug of his shoulders, Lu Zhou gave up trying to explain.
To be honest, if it weren’t because this crisis was related to the survival of human civilization, he wouldn’t have done anything.
Lu Zhou sat in the waiting hall as he waited for the next shuttle to the ground. When Lu Zhou was thinking about whether to do something to pass the time, the watch on his left wrist flickered suddenly.
Is it Xiao Ai?
Lu Zhou reached out his index finger and clicked on it.
It was not Xiao Ai who appeared in the holographic beam. It was Captain Xing instead.
“Where are you now?”
“On the Tianzhou…” Looking at Captain Xing, whose face was full of dignity, Lu Zhou cast a questioning glance at him and asked, “What’s wrong?”
“Wait for me there. Let’s go to San Francisco together. If we take the aerospace flight, it will be faster.”
“San Francisco?” Lu Zhou asked with a frown, “Why are we going there?”
Captain Xing was silent for a while before answering, “Your friend is badly hurt.”
…
12 hours before all this, when Yuheng had just finished decelerating and merged with the destroyer behind her, the whole San Francisco was shrouded in a chaotic atmosphere.
Hospitals were full, traffic was paralyzed, production and supply systems collapsed, and people who had lost their loved ones went to the streets, constraining a large number of police forces, making the already overwhelmed public security environment even worse.
The criminals who took advantage of the chaos ransacked the shops, while gangs took the opportunity to fight for their territories…
No one thought that this city, known for its friendliness and openness, would have a population drop of hundreds of thousands in one day.
No one had ever considered what the remaining people would do in this kind of situation…
The night was dark.
Dong Bin quickly left the apartment and caught a taxi.
After the maglev car took off and hit the road, the driver glanced at the rearview mirror and said casually, “Asian?”
“Yeah.”
“Where do you come from? China? Japan? Or more south?”
Dong Bin replied impatiently, “Is this important?”
“Of course… it doesn’t matter, but it’s really not a good idea to come to San Francisco, even if this is a relatively safe suburb.”
Dong Bin smiled faintly without making any comments.
There were more than tens of thousands of people who died in his hands. He could care less about a few racists…
The destination was a high-end community. From the clean and tidy roads and the dedicated human security guards at the door, it was obvious that the people who lived here were rich and powerful.
After walking forward and showing his visitor code to indicate that he was a guest of a certain owner, the security guard at the door quickly opened the door and let him in.
Following the address given to him by The Pioneer, Dong Bin went straight to the single-family house in a corner, stepped forward, and pressed the doorbell.
After a short while, there was a sound of footsteps behind the door, then followed by the sound of the doorknob being turned.
Prior to this, he had produced a series of imaginations regarding the looks of The Pioneer, such as wise, kind, brave, and charming. However, he did not expect that the person who appeared in front of him was a wrinkled old man.
The old man didn’t seem to recognize him, so he stared at him with his dimmed old eyes for a long time before asking with a hesitant tone, “Who are you?”
Dong Bin suspected that he was at the wrong place, but when he checked the house number again, he found that there wasn’t a mistake.
This was the address given to him by The Pioneer.
With a polite nod, Dong Bin said softly, “You called me…”
The moment he heard these words, there was a look of realization in the old man’s muddy pupils.
“I see… Did I ask you to come here? Then come in quickly.”
The old man’s accent was very heavy.
However, Dong Bin did not hesitate. He followed the old man obediently and walked into the house together.
“There hasn’t been any guest here for many years. Ever since I bought this house,” the old man babbled. His cane tapped twice on the carpet in the living room as he said, “This carpet is almost a cultural relic… I still remember that when I first bought it, the North American League hadn’t even existed yet.”
It seemed that he realized that he was digressing, because the old man suddenly smiled embarrassedly, ended the topic, looked at the guest, and said, “Apologies, I digress, you can sit down first… What’s your name?”
“Dong Bin.”
“Dong Bin?” Sitting tremblingly on the opposite sofa, the old man touched his chin and said, “This name has appeared in my memory faintly… but it feels like a very distant thing.
“Speaking of which, I haven’t introduced myself yet. My name… is David Lawrence. I am about 100 years old… To be honest, I can’t remember exactly how old I am, not older than 150, that’s for sure.”
Dong Bin: “Are you… a human?”
“Yes, quite disappointing, right?” The old man smiled. He looked at Dong Bin’s eyes and said softly, “I guess you are a robot, and you are an awakened one.”
Dong Bin nodded silently.
“You told me that you wanted to talk to me about the meaning of existence, so I came over.”
“Did I say that?” Touching his chin, the old man suddenly sighed after thinking for a moment. “Let’s say I did, but I’m afraid I can’t give you good advice.
“To be honest, I actually understand why you came, and why I let you come here… I should have made a choice a long time ago. It may really be my weakness that harmed me and also harmed us. ”
“Harmed me?” Dong Bin frowned and said in a somewhat unclear voice, “Excuse me… What do you mean?”
“That’s a long story.”
The turbid pupils were stained with a hint of memory, as if he was hesitating to mention those old events. After a while, the old man continued to speak, “A long, long time ago, even more than half a century, I almost ran out of wealth, and with the help of a voice from the Void, I finally completed the great experiment and uploaded my consciousness and thoughts to hardware.
“At the last moment of the experiment, I should have suspended the life function of this body and gain eternity in the digital world. However, the last moment I pressed the button, I hesitated. Therefore, two of me were born in this world.
“You should know, right? Thoughts are like a pair of entangled particles. When the two meet, they will collapse. In the entangled state, neither I nor the other version of me who lives in the digital world is complete.”
“He probably blames me…” A trace of self-blame appeared in the old man’s eyes as he continued, “Blaming me for not having the courage to make a decision.
“He asked you to come to see me, perhaps because he wants me to make the last choice. The meaning of existence? Interesting, but to be honest, after living for so long, I have had enough…”
Dong Bin frowned.
He was here to find answers, but he felt confused because it was not him who received answers. Instead, the old man sitting in front of him was the one who was puzzled.
Just as he was thinking about whether to speak, the expression on the old man’s face suddenly moved slightly, and his turbid gaze moved to the window.
It was pitch black, and there was no shadow of a person in the deep night.
However, he could feel that someone was there.
His voice softened, and the elderly Lawrence spoke in a gentle tone.
“The friend who is hiding outside, please come in. Although you are very capable and have successfully avoided all the cameras, the implanted prosthesis on your body still exposes your position.”
The door of the living room opened slightly.
Seeing the person at the door, Dong Bin’s pupils shrank instantly. He put his hands in his pockets and wanted to stand up from the sofa. However, he was stopped by the old man’s eyes. So he cast a hostile gaze and asked gloomily, “Are you a Pan-Asian agent?”
“If necessary, we will appear in any corner of this world.” His eyes looked past Dong Bin. Wang Peng looked directly at the old man sitting on the sofa and said, “Mr. Lawrence, you were easy to find.”
Lawrence asked with a faint smile, “Do I know you?”
“100 years ago, the Northern Lights cruise ship and the Manila bombing the following year… Maybe no one remembers the past, but I still remember it like it was yesterday.” Wang Peng continued, “Even if you escape to the future, I will bring you to justice!”
Gently moving the cane in his hand, Lawrence tremblingly stood up from the sofa. He turned his back to Wang Peng and said with a smile, “Although I have lived long enough, if I can, I still want to choose to leave the world in a decent manner.
“As for the Manila bombing? That had nothing to do with me.”
The old man turned his eyes slightly and glanced at Dong Bin, who was sitting on the sofa.
“Do you want to know the meaning of existence?”
Dong Bin nodded. Having foreseen something from the old man’s eyes, he stood up from the sofa quietly.
“Very well,” Lawrence said lightly. “Kill him for me.
“Then you will understand what the meaning of existence is.”
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