Steampunk Era: Mad Abield
Chapter 583: Section 401: Mechanical Minds (Part 1)

Chapter 583: Section 401: Mechanical Minds (Part 1)

"The people of the New Era are not entirely trustworthy, Mr. Malin." Jason behaved as if he were a human being.

"Then why do you trust the Gallo family, Jason?" Malin argued, wanting to understand how this artificial intelligence viewed the humans of this era.

"I have observed their family for six full centuries, and the people in this family have not yet become vessels of Chaos. Before such a vessel emerges, they remain trustworthy." Jason answered thus.

Then he blinked, "Anthony knows where your core is."

"So from that moment on, there have always been drones monitoring it, and if necessary, I will shut it up before it can speak," Jason’s response made Malin raise his eyebrows, "I haven’t sensed anything around my girls."

"Their level of scrutiny is too high, Mr. Malin. Haven’t you counted?" A virtual projection appeared in front of Malin, the small One-eyed robot gesturing with its mechanical fingers towards him.

"Besides me?" asked Malin, somewhat helplessly.

"Firstly, Faye has received attention from Eternal Night Island, those elf deities are a problem." Jason said so.

Malin was startled, "I remember Faye’s health is not good. Without the fruit of the World Tree, she wouldn’t even have the power of the seventh ring, let alone the fourth ring would be a problem. And considering she has consumed so many World Tree fruits, would the elf deities really like her?"

"Elves are weakening. Eternal Night Island grants them safety, but at the same time, it causes their bloodline to degenerate rapidly." Jason said while pulling up a plethora of charts. Malin naturally couldn’t understand them at a glance, but he could guess a bit, "You mean bloodline degeneration because elves are actually created beings, and the degeneration from incest within the kingdom established by the elves on Eternal Night Island, right?"

"Yes, for thousands of years, those so-called High Elves have been proliferating on Eternal Night Island. Nearly all of them are color blind, they have high affinity for spells but suffer from heart disease, which every High Elf has, even becoming a hereditary illness. Once they could live for four hundred years or even longer, but now, three hundred years is considered longevity. Some elf children even fail to reach adulthood. They think they have been cursed, but in truth, the curse is their own doing—a dead end they’ve walked into as sufferers of autism." Jason said.

"So you’re saying, Lady Anna also has it, right?"

"But she has received treatment, from her mentor...that was... a loner from a higher civilization. I don’t know how to describe him. All the suffering our civilization has experienced is thanks to higher civilizations. Can you imagine that both Nameless and Chaos are from higher civilizations, and their forms of life far surpass ours? In their eyes, we are no different from ants." Jason seemed to have difficulty expressing himself when speaking of Anna’s mentor, "But he has been the one over these thousands of years who has reached out wholeheartedly to help us mortals."

"Mortals?" Malin frowned slightly, "Is he a mortal?"

"Yes, a mortal, completely different from the likes of Nameless. He possessed wisdom and knowledge far beyond our reach. He spent a full century in this world and produced many apprentices. Lady Anna and her Head Maid are among the two." Jason’s statement greatly surprised Malin.

He contemplated for a moment, then decided to raise the question that had been on his mind: "Nova’s father, is that right?"

"Yes, he was, too. He was a very dreamy young man, wishing to tread a completely different path, but he failed because his dream was too beautiful. In the time before the Great Destruction, not even we could achieve this great feat, not even his mentor’s civilization had just begun to take steps into it... So, the Nobles killed him because if they did not kill this young King, one day, their interests would be greatly compromised," Jason’s words finally made Malin understand — since Nova was his daughter, it was very likely that she had been exposed since childhood to a new style of education. She, like her father, harbored the same ideals...that’s why she suddenly appeared before Malin that day.

She shared Malin’s distaste for Nobles, and even harbored hatred for them because of her father’s death, seeing them as the murderers who killed her father, whether from the North or the South.

"And these days, accidents tend to offer the best means to bring about a person’s death." Malin thought of Catalia Hemingway — what rotten role might this so-called loyalist play in it all?

Or was Malin wrong about him, and he was a true loyalist?

"Indeed, the Nobles of North and South came together on this. They both sent assassins, but surprisingly, the one who killed the King was someone else. Thus, they each believed the other side had done the deed, and were deeply wary of their own actions." Jason paused in his narrative, seemingly waiting for Malin to analyze further.

"Who might it be, it couldn’t be Catalia Hemingway, that royal old dog, could it?" Malin asked with a smile.

"This doesn’t sound much like deducing, but sometimes luck is part of the puzzle solver’s victory. Yes, it’s him." Jason’s answer made Malin take a deep breath, "Why would he kill his own King? Just because he is also a Noble?"

"Indeed, Catalia Hemingway was the person closest to that young King. He tried repeatedly to dissuade his King, but the young man was too stubborn... so he killed his King, a regicide loyal to his family and this land," Jason spoke solemnly during these words.

"Is that also considered loyalty to this land?" Malin, guided by his curiosity, asked.

"Yes, if that King had continued, the possibility of the Farol Principality falling into internal strife would’ve become very high, a matter the Casters have debated over more than once."

"Casters?" Malin felt he had encountered yet another new term.

"Yes, they call themselves Casters," Jason said.

Malin fell into silence—he, self-titled, the Casters.

Considering that "casters" seemed to suggest the meaning of "re-creators," it made sense when applied to the old civilization. Moreover, Jason had mentioned that the Casters were in the shelter, which could be traced back to before the Great Destruction Era,

the answer seemed on the verge of revealing itself: "The Casters are survivors from the Great Destruction Era, who digitized their consciousness, or jarred their brains, right?"

"...Mr. Malin, this seems like knowledge you shouldn’t possess, even if you are that person’s descendant." Jason’s virtual form turned very red.

"You’re called Jason, right?" Malin asked with a smile.

He had understood why Mr. Zhang had named this AI Jason.

The name was too common, and Mr. Zhang was Asian, it could even be certain that he came from the country Malin knew well.

So.

"You should be called Jason Zhang, right?" He said this in Chinese.

The small humanoid paused for a moment, then it turned blue and began to converse with Malin in fluent Chinese: "Your command of Chinese is surprisingly fluent, Mr. Malin."

"Because I am named Malin," Malin replied with a smile as he began to walk away—he was going back to find the girls in Brussels.

"I see, I see, Mr. Malin, I’ve found a new reason to help you. It turns out you’re from Old Humanity, your soul is extraordinary. Considering I’ve already seen too many strange tales, your arrival doesn’t frighten me. After all, this is an era where even deities have appeared; perhaps, you are the Savior chosen by the planet we stand on."

"No, Jason, this world never had a Savior, there are no Immortals or Emperors. I am just me, I am Malin. Jason, tell me more about the Casters."

"They are the leaders of the Earth Union’s European zone, the chiefs of major conglomerates, the heads of factions. They consider themselves superior; yet, unbeknownst to them, they can no longer be considered human. Jealousy has rooted in their jarred bodies, hatred has webbed in their conduits. To this day, they still cling to their beautiful but misguided dreams, naively wishing to restore the Earth Union. However, their ambition is to control all people of this era, to remain above them, while the current populace is only fit to serve as their slaves and interchangeable shell providers."

"So...you’re angry?" Malin looked at Jason: "You really don’t seem like an artificial intelligence, Jason."

"Mr. Zhang was like my father; he taught me that being born equal isn’t just a lie in the advertisements or a beautiful slogan. Since the beginning of their history, humans have always been controlled by lies and betrayal. Even then, within the Union, all that was beautiful was being stolen. Did you know, the humanity of that time was no different from the previous four millennia?"

Jason’s words were full of lament, and Malin nodded: "I understand you. However, I’m also curious, you are clearly an artificial intelligence, but I feel you’re more like a person. You’re not like any artificial intelligence I’ve met before."

"The reason is simple because out of all 29 AIs in the Europa zone, only I was not produced by the AI chip factory in Geneva." Jason activated a screen, showing his central core’s manufacturing label, which read "Manufactured at East Asia’s First Artificial Chip Factory, address Hangzhou Industrial Planning Zone C-1142."

Malin laughed.

"Mr. Malin, why do you laugh?"

"I just...find it absurd." Malin said, ending their conversation: "When will we meet these Casters? I want to see what they’re thinking."

"Any time, Mr. Malin, I assure you, you’ll be in for a big surprise. Will you destroy them then?"

"Is that possible?"

"You decide."