The night before the promotion

Chapter 7: Ornithopterus

In the old corridor, mottled sunlight sprinkled gently. Zhou Si walked through the stairwell with light steps, stirring up the long-settled dust. The dust rolled in the air like fine sand blown by the wind, tumbling in the morning light.

In the prosperous city of Anyan, such old buildings that have experienced vicissitudes of life have become increasingly rare. Although the signs of age in these buildings are obvious, it is precisely because of this that their rent is well within Zhou Si's affordability, providing him with a place to live in this city.

Every morning at about six o'clock, Zhou Si would wake up from his sleep. After a simple wash, he would embark on a short journey to the clinic. Fortunately, his residence was not far from the clinic, and he only needed a few minutes' walk to start his day's work.

There are not many human figures on the streets in the early morning, but the bodies of incarnations have already been walking on the streets. Sometimes in this city, there are more incarnations than humans, and it is hard to figure out who is the master of the city.

As the city wakes up, they also leave, like a group of animals that hide during the day and come out at night.

Zhou Si noticed the company logo and intelligent craftsmanship on the incarnation's body.

He guessed that the consciousness uploaded into these incarnation bodies should not be from the local area of ​​​​Nanyan City.

In recent years, with the rapid development of mind recognition technology and avatar bodies, the avatar labor industry has also ushered in unprecedented prosperity.

However, the rapid progress of this industry has also brought about a series of far-reaching impacts. Through this technology, cheap foreign labor has poured in in large numbers and gradually occupied the jobs of local people, causing more and more people to lose their livelihoods, and protests and conflicts continue.

Technology drives the progress of the times, and the progress of the times also brings about the transformation of various industries.

For example, those illegal black industries.

Zhou Si had read a lot of news and also learned some relevant information from Li Weiyu's position through the Supervisory Bureau.

In some remote and backward areas, human trafficking has become rampant again, but this time what they need is no longer organ transplants or simply human resources.

It is said that those parks would lock living people in life-sustaining water tanks, force them to wear neural connection helmets, and let them control their avatar bodies intensively 24 hours a day.

To the outside world, the park has transformed itself into a labor company similar to Zhijiang Human Resources, which has projected the consciousness of these slave workers thousands of kilometers away to carry out various infrastructure construction projects or other work.

Their bodies were imprisoned and their spirits were held hostage, and all that awaited these slave laborers was to work themselves to death.

Zhou Si thought this was terrible, but he didn’t know whether to say it was lucky or a cruel mercy. Most of these slaves would not actually work themselves to death.

After working nearly 10,000 hours, most slave laborers will develop severe dissociative disorder, and their self-consciousness will completely collapse, which is like a kind of spiritual suicide, freeing them from the pain.

After learning this, whenever Zhou Si encountered an incarnation body while walking on the street, he couldn't help but wonder in his heart where the consciousness under this incarnation was, was it curled up and locked in a water tank from which it could never wake up?

Zhou's Orthodontics.

Zhou Si stood in front of the plaque. Every time he saw the four big words of his clinic, he felt inexplicably absurd, and a hint of humor like a cold joke.

The name of the clinic was not given by Zhou Si, but was suggested by his ex-girlfriend. She didn't quite understand why Zhou Si gave up his high-paying job and instead opened a clinic here.

Despite all her complaints, she still supported Zhou Si and named the clinic, but unfortunately, they still broke up. It was Zhou Si who took the initiative.

After putting on his iconic white coat and opening the window to let in some fresh air, Zhou Si simply tidied up the clinic and went into his own workshop to get busy.

On the workbench sits a bionic flapping-wing bird, its shell painted in bright colors, like a macaw.

Zhou Si turned on the computer beside him and clicked on the news report as usual, then picked up a bunch of tools to disassemble the shell of the flapping-wing bird.

After connecting the data cable and undergoing a brief system upgrade, the eyes of the flapping bird lit up, flashing green light.

The announcement sounded.

“Hi everyone, I’m Dude, welcome to my personal channel.

Today’s news: An experimental accident occurred in Shenwei Building last night. Shenwei Technology has not yet explained the specific experimental project...”

Hearing this, Zhou Si suddenly remembered the flash he caught a glimpse of when the Shenwei Building flashed last night. There were a few broken pixels on the dazzling crystal tower, which might have been caused by the accident.

After unplugging the data cable, Zhou Si reinstalled the outer shell. The flapping-wing bird jumped a few times on the workbench like a real bird, spread its wings and took off, circling around Zhou Si in the narrow space, and finally landed gently on his shoulder and rubbed Zhou Si's cheek with its beak.

If there were any technicians here, they would definitely be amazed at the bionic movements of this flapping-wing bird. It is hard to imagine how complicated the program Zhou Si had written to make its movements so lifelike, as if the soul of a flying bird was really stuffed into it, allowing it to be reborn through machinery and steel.

Zhou Si said to the Ornithoptera, "Good morning, Bt-24, the upgrade has been completed. You can check the relevant upgrade information in the update log."

Bt-24 is the name of this flapping bird.

The lights in the ornithopteran's eyes flickered a few times, and a neutral voice rang out from the speaker.

"OK."

It seemed that the flapping-wing bird's language function was not developed enough, and it could only make some clumsy responses, but it could indeed understand Zhou Si's meaning, and that was enough.

Nowadays, AI assistants are no longer a rarity, and many people carry one with them. However, most of those AI assistants are hidden in terminal devices such as mobile phones through cloud computing and other means. Many companies also have official AI assistants as standard and design their image, voice, and other aspects, just like turning a company's brand into a virtual character.

For example, the official virtual character used by Shenwei Technology is the daughter of the founder Chen Wen-Ge who died in childhood.

Theoretically speaking, Bt-24 cannot be considered as Zhou Si's AI assistant. More often than not, its function is more like that of Zhou Si's nurse. Through Bt-24's aerial view, Zhou Si can track many fleeing patients.

The Bt-24 is also equipped with telepathy technology and a thought storage core. When necessary, it can be used as a simple incarnation shell for upload and control, just like a bionic drone.

"Doctor Zhou," Bt-24's stiff voice sounded again, expressing it concisely and clearly, "We have a visitor."

Zhou Si turned his head and looked outside. At this moment, the door of the clinic was pushed open and the bell hanging on the door frame rang, with a clear sound echoing.

"Hold on."

Zhou Si said loudly, and then he hurriedly packed up the things on the workbench, picked up a towel beside him and simply wiped his hands. When he walked out, a guest who surprised Zhou Si was already waiting in the clinic. It was a humanoid body, but unlike those humanoid bodies on the market that were exquisitely crafted and almost indistinguishable from real people, it looked much rougher, and all kinds of metal components were exposed without any cover, showing everyone its mechanical identity.

On the chest of the incarnation's body, there are two lines of paint printed, namely Shenwei Technology and Shouheng Life.

Shenwei Technology is simply the largest incarnation shell manufacturing company today, while Shouheng Life is another biopharmaceutical company that spans the market. It is an incarnation shell developed by Shenwei Technology and Shouheng Life.

Zhou Si recalled and deduced that this should be the third-generation incarnation body, the model is the caregiver incarnation, but Zhou Si didn't understand the more specific details.

"Hello."

Zhou Si sat down on the chair and greeted the nursing avatar.

These nursing avatars are mostly used in hospitals, nursing homes and other places. They have human body detection functions and can quickly read the target's basic physiological indexes. Their limbs are treated with bionic skin, which makes them feel like they are being cared for by living humans rather than cold machines when caring for patients.

"Are you here to see a doctor?"

Zhou Si stared at the head of the nursing avatar. It had no facial features, only a smooth and clean mask with two cameras embedded in it.

The focus of the camera changed slightly, as if it was examining Zhou Si's face.

Zhou Si asked curiously, "Very few patients would come to see a doctor directly in their avatar bodies."

In the inexplicable silence, Zhou Si silently moved his hand under the table, where there was a short axe hanging. It was the same model of axe that Zhou Si used when he went out to practice medicine.

They are made of special metal materials, and the axe blades have been specially treated to be extremely sharp. With Zhou Si's strength, if he swings it with all his strength, it is enough to smash this fragile incarnation of nursing into pieces.

I just don't know whether this nursing incarnation in front of me has undergone some illegal modifications.

Zhou Si had encountered such a patient before. The patient installed a one-meter-long blade into his avatar body. When the blade popped out from the mechanical arm, it almost cut Zhou Si's throat.

Zhou Si spoke again, "This patient..."

The nursing incarnation suddenly took a few steps forward and came in front of Zhou Si, only one table away from him.

Zhou Si became completely alert and clenched the axe handle tightly with his right hand.

Ever since Zhou Si started this business, he inevitably touched upon some gray areas. Over time, Zhou Si gained some fame in the underground world, but also had many enemies.

Not to mention, Zhou Sigang and Li Weiyu treated a patient last night, and this patient also had an unregistered avatar body.

Investigating such incidents inevitably touches upon grey areas.

Zhou Si couldn't help but think that this nursing avatar might also be an unregistered avatar shell, and the consciousness hidden in it was the killer that the buyer had brought over from somewhere abroad.

Incarnate as a killer.

This kind of existence is common in the gray area, and all it requires is an unregistered avatar body and a will far overseas that is willing to carry out the mission.

A steel killer will be mercilessly thrown next to you, and afterward all traces will be erased by simply self-destructing his body.

When Zhou Si's nerves were stretched to the limit, the nursing avatar bent down and a pair of cameras were as close to Zhou Si as possible.

"Oh, it's really you, Zhou Si."

These words seemed to have touched a tense string in Zhou Si's heart, causing him to relax his vigilance instantly.

Although the sound was slightly distorted due to the conversion of electrical signals, Zhou Si still caught a hint of familiarity.

The nursing avatar straightened up and exclaimed, "Oh my God, we haven't seen each other for four years since the accident, right?"

Zhou Si was a little dazed. He tried hard to search his memory, but was unable to match the voice with a specific face.

"Sorry, who are you?"

Seeing Zhou Si's confused face, the nursing incarnation realized that she was no longer the same person that Zhou Si remembered.

This fact made it feel a little disappointed, but it soon cheered up and introduced itself to Zhou Si, "Did you forget? It's me."

The Nursing Avatar smiled and said his name.

"Pei Dong."

The familiar and clear voice was like a key that opened the door to Zhou Si's long-forgotten memories. His eyes gradually changed from confused to clear, and he once again carefully looked at the nursing incarnation in front of him.

Gradually, a young and beautiful face emerged from the pale mask, full of smiles, just like the voice coming from the speaker.

"Pei Dong?"

Zhou Si was surprised. As his memory came back, many past events that he had almost forgotten came flooding back to his mind.

He recalled the story corresponding to the symbol of Pei Dong, and the time he spent with Pei Dong came flooding back to him, but perhaps too much time had passed. Looking back now, it was as if he was reviewing another person's story, full of strangeness in the familiarity.

Zhou Si stood up and muttered to himself, "It's you."

Looking back on his life, Zhou Si didn’t have many friends, but Pei Dong was definitely one of them.

The two had worked together for a long time at Shenwei Technology.

(End of this chapter)