The Heartthrob Guide: Dodder of S-Class Sentinels

Chapter 255 The Great Pollution Era Erupts

"Honey, why aren't we home yet? Is work really that busy?"

"Sorry, I really can't come back. My boss wants me to revise the proposal over the next two nights! o(╥﹏╥)o"

"Okay then, make sure you get some rest. No matter how much work you have, remember to eat well."

"Okay, thank you, Mom. Love you, muah!"

……

Happy birthday, Lin Nian!

Wishing you boundless happiness and longevity! (p≧w≦q)

"What nonsense are you talking about!"

"boom--"

"Ah, it hurts!"

……

"Nannan, if you could choose, what kind of world would you want to live in?"

"Anything is fine?"

"Ah."

"Wow, I want lots and lots of handsome guys. I could sleep with a different one every day of the year, 365 days a year!"

"..."

"Aaaaaah! You stinky Lin Nian, what are you doing in my room?!"

"Throw away all your messy books."

"Waaaaah, I was wrong!!! o(╥﹏╥)o Uncle, have mercy, I'll never do it again, please have mercy."

……

"Lin Nian, this isn't a good idea. You're buying so many things for me; my future aunt-in-law might not be happy."

"Will not."

"What can't you do? Don't even mention aunts and nieces, even wives and sisters-in-law can easily have conflicts. You men are just too thick-skinned."

"...I said, I won't let you have a younger aunt..."

……

On the screens covering the walls, the saved footage played over and over again. The cold blue light illuminated the empty room, and also the unfathomable emptiness in the man's eyes.

The screens stretched from the ceiling to the floor, like an endless ocean of memories, completely engulfing him in the past.

From childhood to adulthood, all sorts of expressions, sounds, and moments of the girl were precisely captured, archived, and played back repeatedly.

On the screen, there was a girl with pigtails, chasing after him and calling "Uncle Nian Nian," her laughter as clear as a wind chime;

Wearing her school uniform, she ran out of the school gate after evening self-study and handed over her report card like a treasure.
There was a young woman, fresh out of college, wearing an ill-fitting suit, waiting for him to pick her up downstairs at the company. Her face showed the grievance of being mistreated. Her eyes reddened when she saw his car, but she still forced herself to say "It's okay". In the end, she couldn't hold back her tears when he handed her a hot milk tea.

There was even footage of their last argument, where she, with tears in her eyes, said, "You shouldn't have done this..." He stood there, his hand frozen in mid-air, the light in his eyes slowly fading...

Each screen was playing different clips, the sounds intertwined—her laughter, her crying, her coquettish voices, and his own low, somber responses—like a grand yet sorrowful silent drama.

Finally, when the man jumped from the top floor, the whole world seemed to be muted, and suddenly everything changed.

The piercing noise, like metal being forcibly torn apart, instantly shattered the silence of the world, like a bugle call to charge, resounding throughout the entire world.

"Mr. Lin, can you really not reveal the hidden functions of the AI ​​life system you developed to us first?"

"I'm sorry, that system is not mature yet, so I won't reveal it for now."

"It's so intriguing! What kind of system will it be? Will it really have epoch-making significance for humanity?"

"Well...it depends on how humans use it. If used well, it can be a form of progress; if used poorly, it might destroy our current social order."

"Haha, Mr. Lin, you're really joking. We humans are so powerful, what could possibly destroy us?" (Smile ^_^)

"Could you tell us what your purpose was in developing this system?"

"Well..."

The man lowered his head in thought, his fingers tapping the armrest repeatedly.

It began with his selfish desires.

A desire that had been buried for a very long time, a desire that was terminally ill.

Simply by importing a person's data, a completely new ideological life form will be born.

Developers need to collect video footage, social records, and audio clips of the target subject from childhood to adulthood, and even unintentional micro-expressions, catchphrases, and body language habits. Then, they need to use AI algorithms to deconstruct, model, and reassemble this data. Ultimately, this allows the ideological entity to possess a "behavioral logic" that is highly consistent with the prototype.

But it is not just a simple "robot". To make it like a real person, "emotional infecting" is one of the biggest challenges in the history of science.

The reason why life is called "life" is because it has a certain degree of interactive sociality, which is the core secret to distinguishing whether it is a "thing" or a "life".

Just as the division of labor and cooperation in bee colonies and the hierarchical order in wolf packs, from the group migration of migratory birds to the emotional bonds of primates, life defines itself through interaction with its own kind and fulfills its mission of survival and continuation within group relationships.

The artificial intelligence he created is a system with this ability to "contagious emotions".

However—everything needs a bottom line and a framework; once that bottom line is lost, then "infection" becomes "contamination"...

On the big screen, the girl's bright smile gradually crumbled, and the screen shattered into countless fragments.

A devastating buzzing sound emanated from the speakers. It wasn't the static of electricity, but the wailing of countless emotions forcibly compressed and torn apart—

Ordinary people are constantly being influenced and controlled after hearing this voice, eventually becoming a part of it and a vehicle for its dissemination.

The era of massive pollution.

This led to the outbreak.

-

Lin Nan was trapped inside the big tree. After receiving all the information, she slowly regained consciousness.

Standing in front of her was another figure, a girl who looked exactly like her.

I'm hungry...

she says.

So that's how it is; this is the beginning of the world's tragedy.

The root cause of that pollution began with "her".

Her existence became the fuel for Lin Nian's obsession; her death became the last straw that broke his sanity; the traces she left in the world were infinitely magnified and distorted by him using technology, ultimately brewing into a madness that devoured everything.

But why, when she was clearly dead, did she wake up again in a world five hundred years later?

Could it be that she has also become a different species?

Lin Nan stared at the girl in front of him, feeling lost and helpless.

"The term 'alien' is just a name given to us by the people of this world. In reality, we are just like everyone else; we were once inhabitants of Earth. It's just that the 'Great Pollution' caused us to evolve into higher-order beings, but another group of people could not accept this change. So they divided the land into their own territories and formed an independent social order."

The girl spoke, and her voice and tone were almost identical to hers, making Lin Nan feel as if she were talking to herself in the mirror.
"Humans are always afraid of the 'unknown.' Although they have also evolved mental power by relying on this pollution, enabling them to control machinery, build defensive barriers, and even suppress energy pollution for a short time, it still cannot hide the fact that they are cowardly creatures."

"They focused all their energy on 'isolation,' building high walls around the land, using instruments to test their own kind, and labeling us as 'different' to pin us to the opposite side. That's how the world began to crumble and became so fragmented..."

Humans are the true culprits in the destruction of humanity.

"Now you should know why your abilities are different from others. Those guides remove pollution values ​​by purifying or suppressing them, while you 'devour' them."

The girl floated down to Lin Nan, stretched out her hands, and gently embraced her.

"Because, in essence, we and pollutants are biological beings from the same source..."

(End of this chapter)