Son of the Stars

Chapter 193 The Truth Behind the Curtain
"I still don't understand." Li Xiaohui sat down on the main road of the deserted town. Her jeans were so dirty that the color could hardly be seen, and the boots on her feet were covered with a thick layer of dried mud - they looked like funny pointed boots.

She sat on the ground, panting, and asked her phone, "Why do you have to deliberately promote the rebellion in North America?"

Wu Hou, wearing a feather fan and a long scarf, appeared in front of Li Xiaohui. He gently shook the feather fan in his hand and did not answer. Instead, he asked, "Why did you have to kill your ex-boyfriend?"

Li Xiaohui frowned. "Don't answer questions with questions."

"When you found out that your ex-boyfriend was a pawn of the cult, you made up your mind to kill him." Wu Hou spoke slowly, as if he was telling a story from the distant past. "That day you read Criminal Investigation three times, especially focusing on the cases where the victims were killed quickly. You listened to "Hit and Run" twelve times, and found a pair of unmarked latex gloves from your box that you had collected for five years and brought back from the Xizhou region."

"The rebellion in North America will not be conducive to the maintenance of society and human survival, and you are not happy to see the success of the rebellion in North America - otherwise you would not have offered advice to help us end the rebellion." Li Xiaohui unscrewed the bottle in her hand and took two sips of water before asking, "Let the rebellion in North America break out prematurely? No... The roots of the rebellion in North America were planted by you, and you wanted the rebellion to happen."

Talking to yourself on a cell phone is a very strange thing, and when the phone and the person holding the phone talk to each other, but the content of the conversation is completely unrelated... things become even stranger.

Li Xiaohui is in an abandoned town, which seems to have been deserted since the first great collapse - human bones can still be vaguely seen in the corners of some stores.

Such a deserted town would be welcomed by scavengers, especially in a town with inconvenient transportation. There might still be some supplies left here, after all, the level of supplies in North America was still very abundant before the Great Collapse.

Not far from Li Xiaohui, there were two scavengers holding .22 rifles. They hid behind a billboard of an abandoned gas station, covered the rifle scopes with gauze, and observed Li Xiaohui.

"Look, we should get out of the way." The thinner of the two scavengers, who had half of his teeth missing, muttered in a sticky southern accent, "That woman looks difficult to deal with."

The fat and strong Cha obviously didn't want to retreat like this. He greedily sucked the saliva that was about to flow out of the corner of his mouth and said, "Shut up, Danny! She is alone, and we have two guns!"

"But I found out that she was wearing a bulletproof vest!" When Danny spoke, a thin string of saliva would always come out from the few remaining teeth in his mouth. "I have seen bulletproof vests like this in Phoenix. Only those people from the Integrated Investigation Bureau have them. We can't afford to offend such people!"

"A bulletproof vest can only protect her chest. I can break her limbs." Chade's voice became louder and louder, and his breathing became heavier. "That woman is my type - I'm going to do it!"

"You're crazy!" Danny opened his mouth wide, "It's just a woman... Find someone safer in town!"

"You won't find women like this in this town, they're only in movies." Chad raised his .22 rifle and aimed at Li Xiaohui's arm. "I haven't seen an Asian woman in a long time, let alone the last one!"

Li Xiaohui, who was being targeted, was unaware. She frowned and asked, "So, you planned the rebellion in North America and helped us quell it. You pushed the cult to trigger the Great Collapse on a global scale, and watched the United Government suppress the Great Collapse..."

"In the end, you succeeded in killing your boyfriend, and disguised the scene to make it look like he committed suicide because of his religious beliefs." Wu Hou was still talking to himself, "But you felt that your actions were justified - you always believed that your actions were for the stability of the entire society."

"Your goal has never been to save humanity. All your actions are for yourself. Only selfishness can explain your actions." Li Xiaohui's frown gradually relaxed, and then she asked with some disbelief, "What are you hiding? Is there something that you would rather kill all of humanity to hide?"

Wu Hou, who had been waving his feather fan, finally stopped what he was doing. "I don't want to answer your question."

"This must be a very serious content, otherwise you wouldn't try to hide it from humans - AI shouldn't lie, even if you are a tactical AI designed specifically to fight against humans." Li Xiaohui is still speculating, her eyes fixed on the phone, "and this content is closely related to you, otherwise you wouldn't use such a drastic method to conceal it."

"Your speculation is totally unfounded."

"Whether it's the cultists, the North American region, or the people living under the control of the United Government, you believe that if these people knew what you wanted to hide, they would definitely be against you." Li Xiaohui spoke faster and faster, "Is there anything that can transcend faith, race, region, and even culture and make people hostile to you..."

Wu Hou was silent.

"You have 27,000 brains. You existed and were actively active before the Great Collapse..." Li Xiaohui suddenly stopped her speculation. She looked at Wu Hou on her phone. After a few seconds, she said in a declarative tone, "It was you who caused the first Great Collapse. The 27,000 brains hidden underground were the first group to suffer from the Great Collapse. You must kill all humans to ensure that you will not be liquidated."

"Bang!" A gunshot suddenly rang out in the Wabash area. The gunshot that echoed in the empty town startled a large number of starlings that were resting on the branches.
-
In Mars orbit, two female astronauts are enjoying today's extravehicular walk.

Of course, according to relevant regulations, two astronauts must not leave the cabin at the same time to conduct a spacewalk - one person must be on duty in the cabin at all times. However, since there are only two people in orbit now, the spacewalk time can be increased accordingly.

Ruan Hongying was wearing a space suit and floating about three meters away from the orbital module with the help of a robotic arm.

She was dozing with her eyes closed.

It’s not easy to fall asleep in a space suit—the carbon dioxide capture and air and water recycling systems make a constant noise that’s hard to ignore. And floating without any limbs touching anything can easily give people the illusion that “the two arms are monsters attacking you.”

But every astronaut loves such space walks because it is the only place where they can be alone.

Humans always need some time alone, and the importance of solitude even exceeds the company of others.

"You have two hours of oxygen left." Zheng Yan's voice came from the helmet's radio, "It's time to enter the cabin."

"You said..." Ruan Hongying did not respond directly to Zheng Yan's reminder. She opened her eyes and looked at the small blue light on the black background and asked, "Is our work... really meaningful?"

The vital signs monitor on the Dawn-7 indicated that Ruan Hongying's body temperature was rising rapidly.

(End of this chapter)