Chapter 603: A Human Dilemma
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The experiment was still going on but Chen Chen, who was waiting for the development of the experiment, suddenly frowned slightly.
It was because Little X suddenly notified him that, when his parents were traveling in New York City, they were attacked by a demonstration against Blackwatch.
“What happened?”
Chen Chen frowned. “Are my parents okay?”
“Don’t worry, your parents are doing fine. There are more than 30 Black Knights and psionicists who accompany them secretly. It’s just that there was an android next to your parents and they happened to run into this demonstration, so the conflict occurred.”
Little X explained, then she paused, seeming to understand what Chen Chen was thinking, and added again. “This should be just a coincidence. I now control the entire Internet. If this is a conspiracy against your parents, I’ll know in advance.”
Hearing this, Chen Chen nodded but he still turned and left the space observatory. At the same time, he said, “Get ready, I’m going to New York City.”
“Alright.”
Little X replied. At the same time, in just ten minutes, Chen Chen took a special car to the Spire Experimental Base, and then here, he entered the black sphere teleportation room and arrived in New York City in the next second.
Over the years, Chen Chen had extracted more than three hundred black spheres. Major cities had Blacklight Biotechnology teleportation points hidden in them. As one of the world’s top three international cities, New York naturally also had a teleportation point.
After walking out of this secret teleportation point, Chen Chen discovered that the teleportation point in New York City was hidden in an apartment building in Queens, between the rich and poor areas. There were all sorts of people here and even when Chen Chen’s very face showed up in this apartment building, it did not attract anyone’s attention.
In front of the doors of the apartment building, a low-key ordinary electric business vehicle had been parked there for a long time.
Over the years, with the popularization of nuclear fusion, the cost of electricity had already taken a plunge. Due to this, electric vehicles had completely replaced the gasoline vehicles of the past and advanced international cities like New York had turned electricity into a universal energy source. Electric vehicles driving on the street did not need to be charged at all. There were high-power wireless transmission devices on both sides of the road at all times, so there was an unlimited power supply wherever one went.
At this time, the unmanned electric vehicle drove Chen Chen toward the location of his parents. About half an hour later, when Chen Chen arrived at a city square, he saw that the square was already filled with a dense crowd.
The crowd was divided into two groups. One of which was dressed up like tramps in ragged clothes and on the other side was a group of government officials wearing explosion-proof suits and holding explosion-proof shields in their hands.
The two sides were facing each other off in the square.
The group of tramps was constantly shouting. They raised the signs in their hands, in which they had written crookedly in red paint, “The androids stole the work of the poor”, “The androids are the original sin”, and “God created mankind, not androids” and so on. Their voices were loud and tensions were running high.
In the middle of the two groups of people, several androids were lying on the ground with their arms torn off and scattered in various corners. They seemed to want to stand up, but the damage to their bodies made it very hard for them to move.
“Sir, I mean you no harm. Please calm down, please let me go…”
A handsome, black-haired, blue-eyed android moved its body expressionlessly as if trying to move away from the tramp’s feet, but the next second, a big foot slammed into its back viciously and stomped its face severely into the ground. At the same time, an old man with white beard and hair slammed down with a baseball bat!
“Bang!”
The alloy skull of the android was directly shattered and many fragments splattered out, exposing the maze of wires and chips inside.
After this blow, the eyes of the android finally turned dim and it was completely motionless on the ground.
“Hack!”
The old man spat fiercely at the android at his feet and a hint of glee danced in his eyes. Then, he glared even more provocatively at the explosion-proof soldier on the opposite side. “Come on, b*stard, come and catch me!”
Chen Chen did not pay attention to all of this. He just expanded his Field energy and immediately saw his parents and younger brother in a stretch car by the road.
“Dad, Mom!”
Chen Chen shook his head, walked to the car, and looked into the window, only to see his mother looking at the group of marchers with indignance while his father was sitting aside smoking, fidgeting restlessly.
The rear seats of the stretch sedan were more spacious. At this time, the two rows of seats in the rear were facing each other. In addition to his parents, there were his younger brother and a charming, petite woman.
That woman was the nanny of Chen Chen’s parents. When Chen Chen’s mother was recruiting a housekeeper again, she saw that this girl was quick-witted and offered to hire her as a conversation partner.
“Little, Little Chen?”
Seeing their eldest son who had suddenly appeared outside the window, both his father and mother looked confused. “Little Chen, why are you here?”
“Ah, Young Master Chen!”
The petite nanny also looked at Chen Chen, rather stirred up.
“I happened to be working in New York recently.”
Chen Chen ignored the nanny. Instead, he opened the car door as he explained, sat down, and then asked reproachfully, “It’s dangerous here, why don’t you leave?”
“These people, they snatched Little Dai and tore it apart.”
His mother’s eyes were a little red and the Little Dai she spoke of was the type-3 android of Blacklight Biotechnology. The android was quietly hardworking and meticulous. In most middle-class families, at least one android was acting as a nanny or housekeeper. In some service industries, more than a dozen androids were purchased as labor.
However, although these kinds of androids looked almost the same as humans, they were only robots after all. They had no thoughts of their own and no program to attack humans. This level of permission was locked and Blacklight Biotechnology even made the bodies of these androids more fragile than humans to prevent the androids from being exploited by some hackers.
To an android, ordinary manual labor was no problem and an occasional bump was not a big deal, but if a person was serious about it, even a woman could bash an android into pieces with any tool.
The “Little Dai” his mother mentioned had been serving Chen Chen’s family for several years and his mother had already developed an attachment to it. At this time, it was torn apart by the group of marchers, so naturally, this was not very pleasant.
“It’s fine.”
Chen Chen patted his mother’s hand. “The personality programs of these androids are all synchronized to the cloud server. As long as you buy an android and sync it, Little Dai will be back.”
“But…”
The mother wiped her tears and wanted to say something, but Chen Chen’s father on the side frowned and said, “Alright, alright, isn’t it an android? It’s not a living person. Look at how you’re weeping on and on. Do you want your son to laugh at you?”
Hearing his father’s words, Chen Chen frowned inwardly. His father’s attitude toward his mother had become worse over the years.
Chen Chen naturally understood the reason. His eyes swept past the little nanny, but at this moment his mother seemed to have thought of something. She patted the young man who was shrinking back beside her. He was as fat as a hill. She chided him gently, “Oh, this child! Why don’t you greet your brother when you see him?”
“Bro, Brother…”
Hearing his mother’s scolding, the obese teenager who was slouching behind muttered a line and then quickly lowered his head.
Chen Chen was not surprised at this scene because since this dinky brother of his was born, every time he saw Chen Chen, he would cry loudly. This had become a law.
This situation did not get better until he was thirteen or fourteen years old, but as it is now, every time he saw Chen Chen, his face was full of dread.
Chen Chen’s parents were very distressed over this. They could not figure it out. Their second son was usually very lively but why was it that every time he saw their eldest son, it was like seeing an enemy?
“Little Yu, you’ve grown taller recently.”
Chen Chen responded neutrally and kept darting his gaze, examining the boy sitting in front of him. Now Chen Zeyu was fifteen years old. Although his face was still a little immature, his height had already caught up with Chen Chen, reaching around 1.8 meters. It was just that he was pale and fat thanks to his parents’ pampering.
As his parents had him when they were old and it was after Chen Chen had made his fortune and their living conditions skyrocketed, the second son was coddled and spoiled since he was a child.
Chen Chen did not care much about this. What had he done all this for, was it not to make his parents happy? He would not concern himself over such a small matter.
Even so, Chen Chen’s status had long changed. When he sat in the car, the atmosphere in the entire compartment became a little stifling and for a while, the car fell silent.
“Forget it, I just came to have a look. I’m relieved to see that you’re alright.”
Chen Chen flashed a slight smile, glanced at his father and the nanny again, then turned and got out of the car.
“Dad, Mom, go back. Stop participating in this sort of stuff. Otherwise, it might easily become dangerous.”
Chen Chen gave one last word and then told the Black Knight in the driver’s seat to send his parents home. The Black Knight started the vehicle and drove toward the street.
As he watched his parents’ car leave, Chen Chen’s expression instantly darkened. He was still very resentful about his father’s affair but fortunately, his mother had not noticed it up until now.
“Sir Godfather, are you still worrying about the thing with your father?”
Little X’s voice came from the headset. “This kind of thing is difficult to handle. It will inevitably hurt your parents’ feelings if you do something, but it’s better to interfere gently than not do anything.”
“I’m going to discuss this with my father tomorrow.”
Chen Chen nodded and said, “It’d be best if my father can mend his ways but if he insists on maintaining a relationship with the nanny, things are a bit tricky.”
After hearing these words, Little X suddenly sighed. “Sir Godfather, I think you’d better prepare yourself. If you don’t want to tinker with your parents’ consciousness, then you must learn to accept all this.”
Chen Chen was taken aback when he heard these words and then he came to his senses immediately. He naturally understood Little X’s meaning but all this was related to his parents, which made him rather concerned and muddled.
“Your parents are ordinary people.”
Little X continued to advise. “Although they have everything you have secretly done for them, allowing them to have a very long life and eternal youthful vitality, after all, they are just ordinary people. They’re not a being like you with a strong will.
“Because they are ordinary people, they love what’s new and dislike what’s old, not to mention that they have you as a backing. There’s nothing to worry about. Even if you protect them extremely strictly, you can stop all kinds of assassinations and malicious intentions. However, can you stop those with ulterior motives from flattering them for their favor?”
Little X sighed. “Because they are your parents, there are bound to be countless people who want to please them and compliment them. With endless temptations one after another, plus the endless money they have and a lifespan with no end in sight, how many ordinary people could remain faithful for life?”
Chen Chen was instantly silent.
“Even if you dissuade your father today and prevent him from cheating, how many times can you stop him?”
Little X questioned, “If the number of times increases, one day it will hurt their feelings and even turn them against each other. What’s more, as human lifespans are getting longer and technology is becoming more and more advanced, social values and ethics will inevitably undergo Earth-shattering changes in the not-too-distant future. You’ve given them a long life and long-term vitality. Won’t you give them the freedom to be human?”
Hearing this, Chen Chen slowly closed his eyes and waved his hand to stop Little X from continuing.
It was not until half a minute passed that Chen Chen opened his eyes again, but at this time, there was no anger or confusion in his eyes. Instead, a smile of relief appeared. “X, you’re more and more like a person.
“I still remember that when you were born, you were almost as pure as a piece of blank paper. You didn’t know anything about human nature, but now, you’re almost more incisive than me.”
“Of course, after all, I’m the greatest intelligence in history!”
Little X snorted softly. “I can easily obtain the information of every person and every part of human life on the Internet. After seeing so much of it, I’ll naturally understand it.”
Chen Chen nodded and said no more.
Just then, Chen Chen suddenly sensed something. He raised his head and looked into the distance, only to see several dish-shaped drones approaching in the sky. A person was sitting on each drone.
This was New York City’s Superpower Combative Police Force.
As these drones flew over the noisy crowd, the six people jumped directly from the drones into the open space between the demonstrators and the explosion-proof troops.
“It’s John the Guardian!”
“It’s the Superpower Combative Police Force. God, they are so cool!”
“What are they doing here? Are they going to oppose us, the victims?”
Seeing the six people descending from the sky, there was a commotion in the crowd. Their reputation preceded them, indeed. As the six people arrived, the demonstration of about a hundred people suddenly felt their spirits deflate.
“Everyone, citizens of Northern America, please calm down!”
The moment he landed, John immediately raised his hand and pressed his palms down. He flashed a gentle smile, his blond hair gleaming in the sun, and at the same time called out, “I know your demands, but this is no justification for your casual destruction of other citizens’ property…”
“Scram, John the Guardian!”
However, a dark-skinned woman suddenly walked out from the group of marchers. She was wearing a women’s suit and was filled with righteous indignation. “You fight crime to protect us and we respect you, but we also ask you not to stand against us, unless you’re also a lapdog of Blackwatch and the government!”
“Yeah, unless you’re also a lapdog of Blackwatch and the government!”
Everyone in the crowd immediately echoed loudly. This black-skinned woman was the leader of the group.