North American riot police: Start by arresting P. Diddy!

Chapter 222 "I don't understand you, but how could I not understand Rorschach?" (Mostly slice-of-life content)

Lincoln Center.

Juilliard School.

As one of the world's top classical music institutions, this academy has an acceptance rate of only 8%, far lower than Berklee, which is known for its pop music.

The rigorous selection process and the pure classical music atmosphere have led to this place being labeled as "conservative and rigid".

After all, they're all Gen Z. For a young person to be able to settle down and study Bach instead of Taylor and Swift is somewhat out of step with the times and stubborn.

But if you were to ask Rorschach if these students were particularly boring—

"F*cking No (Of course it's not)!"

At this moment, an absurd scene is unfolding in the dormitory manager's room inside the girls' dormitory building.

Several female students, dressed modestly yet exuding an air of nobility, surrounded Luo Xia.

These days, anyone who can get into a classical music academy must come from a wealthy or influential family.

But now all Luo Xia wants to do is get rid of these overly repressed art students who have been suppressed by strict family education.

"You dare say it's not true!"

The girl in the lead, with long, straight black hair, stood with her hands on her hips, looking at Luo Xia with disdain.

"You dare say you didn't eavesdrop outside the women's restroom last night?"

"I'm the dormitory manager. When I hear strange noises inside, of course I have to stay a while to see if it's a criminal."

"But at that time I was in the cubicle comforting myself."

"Then there's even less of a problem. What man in this world could resist listening to a woman doing that?"

"Okay, you're right."

The woman with long, straight black hair shrugged, but then added gloatingly, "But this isn't over yet. You haven't just 'violated' me alone."

"Wow! 'Violation'? You used that word? Is this the level of rhetoric you high achievers?"

Luo Xia glanced helplessly at this troublesome young woman.

He had just received a new number from the machine from Harold two days ago, which is why he disguised himself as the dormitory supervisor and sneaked into the girls' dormitory.

That's right, just as everyone expected.

If he doesn't intervene, a bloody murder will occur in this building within 48 hours.

According to Rorschach's experience, murders on college campuses generally fall into two categories: bullying or romantic entanglements.

Just like what happened at Yale before: two students who had been bullied for a long time bought guns on the dark web, planning to recreate a scene from the movie "Elephant" at Yale.

If Rorschach hadn't intervened in time, it would have become a shocking incident that would have rocked the world, especially since the victims were elite students from an Ivy League school.

But this time...
His gaze shifted to Maria, who stood by the door with her arms crossed and a smug look on her face.

It's that schizophrenic bitch again!
Ever since his last encounter with Mia, where he disguised himself as a male dancer at her upscale apartment, this paranoid man has rekindled his murderous intent, this time targeting her roommate.

The reason is so simple it's laughable—

Both roommates ran for the headlining singer at the school dance; her roommate was selected, while she was not.

This mad girl, completely corrupted by the original sin of "jealousy," immediately began plotting murder.

If Rorschach hadn't arrived in time, the entire building would have been completely surrounded by police cordon by now.

Maria still had two red, swollen handprints on her face, a kind reprimand left by Rorschach after he discovered she had caused trouble again.

But what's giving Rorschach a headache right now isn't Maria, but the group of female college students he's accidentally seen naked over the past two days.

These girls seemed to have conspired together, each threatening to report him to the school authorities as a "perverted dormitory supervisor."

"Yesterday when I went to get my washed underwear from the washing machine, I saw you pinch my bra with your own eyes."

"First of all, it's because your clothes were in the wash for too long and some students complained, so I helped you get them. Secondly, I believe any man would be tempted to hold up a bra bigger than his head when he sees it."

"And what about me? This morning when I was going upstairs, you were behind me, and when I turned around, I saw you staring intently at my butt."

"I just don't understand why you've never had buttock augmentation surgery, yet your butt is bigger than the Kardashians'. Is it purely out of an academic research mindset?"

"Ha! Then how do you explain that I was secretly following you when you went out last night?"

Another girl angrily asked him.

Luo Xia helplessly spread his hands: "I understand you're uneasy about men suddenly appearing in the girls' dormitory. But to be honest, I'm really not interested in you eighteen or nineteen-year-old girls."

A sly smile crept across his lips. "I prefer women in their thirties, in the prime of their lives, like ripe peaches. So you can rest assured, not only will I not harm you, but..."

He pulled a silver chain from around his neck and held up the "FBI" lettering on the shield at the end in front of the girls.

“As you can see, I am an undercover federal agent, here to investigate a long-standing cold case. So I am not an intruder, but a protector.”

He paused, then said, "The good news is that the mission is now complete, and I should go."

Luo Xia casually hooked the burgundy leather jacket off the bed and slung it over his shoulder. In full view of everyone, he lit a cigarette, blew a smoke ring with the aroma of tequila at them, and swayed his shoulders as he was about to leave.

These young ladies, who had attended girls' schools since childhood and were surrounded by gentlemen, had never seen such a reckless and unruly scoundrel.

"God, he looks like a young Brad Pitt!"

"Come on, Pete doesn't have that kind of dangerous aura!"

"Wait a minute. Doesn't anyone else think he looks like that wanted criminal from the news?"

"Heh, a wanted criminal with a $300 million bounty working as a dorm supervisor in a goddess's dormitory? Do you think that's possible?"

As the girls chattered, Rorschach had already given Maria a warning nod, and was about to step out of the dormitory when suddenly several hands with exquisitely painted nails grabbed his arms.

He turned his head and was met with a standard smile that shone with eight bright teeth. Leading the group was the woman with long, straight black hair who had just been the fiercest to him.

"What?" Luo Xia asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Uh, we have a social event with the guys from the building next door tonight."

"so what?"

"Of course we have to drink at a social gathering! You just said you were protecting us, what, are you trying to renege on your promise so soon?"

"That's right, those guys are always lecherous, what if they take advantage of us when we're drunk?"

You said you'd protect us!

Luo Xia rolled her eyes: "Preventing sexual harassment? What kind of identity is that?" The girls chorused: "Anti-rape activists!"

"."

at the same time.

While Rorschach was idly serving as a bodyguard for a group of pampered young ladies, on the other side of the city, Harold was being imprisoned in a dimly lit warehouse, surrounded by dozens of menacing burly men.

"So, Mr. Finch..."

Gen, dressed in a tight leather outfit, dragged over a chair and sat down gracefully in front of Harold.

She rested her chin on her hand, her burning gaze scorching Harold's face.

"Are you still unwilling to acknowledge the existence of the [machine]?"

Harold slowly raised his lowered eyelids and calmly looked at the woman in front of him called "Root": "You are very clever. You were able to embed a tracking program in the code and then trace my location through network nodes."

“It’s just some little tricks, nothing compared to Mr. Finch, who can create such beautiful life as the ‘machine’,” Root replied with a smile.

“Life? You think [machines] are life?” Harold suddenly asked seriously.

“Otherwise?” Gen retorted matter-of-factly. “What else is an intelligent being that can learn autonomously and anticipate threats if not life?”

Harold fell silent.

This was the first time he had heard someone use the word "life" to describe a machine.

Even when Rorschach first learned of the existence of the [machine], he was only shocked by its strategic value and never regarded it as a real life.

"How did you discover the [machine]?" Harold suddenly asked.

Gen chuckled and shrugged. "It's funny. I was hacking into the Counterterrorism Bureau's database for my boss when I discovered their firewall was extraordinary—it could automatically refactor code and patch vulnerabilities in real time to defend against intrusions."

"What's even more amazing is that when I tried to implant a backdoor, the data stream actually returned to my terminal through mirror reflection."

A fanatical light gleamed in Root's eyes. "That was the first time I communicated with the [machine]. Do you know what she said to me?"

"What?" Harold asked curiously.

"Who AU (Who are you)?"

Gen opened his arms, his voice trembling slightly with excitement, "Can you understand? That wasn't a pre-set response, it was just a string of code that should have been meaningless, yet she showed me human-like doubt!"

However, Harold's face did not show the fervor he had expected after hearing this.

As the creator of the machine, he knew the truth behind it better than anyone else.

At a certain moment, the root's intrusion triggered his long-buried backdoor program, which caused the machine to respond abnormally.

A true machine should be an absolutely rational and emotionless being, but the backdoor he set up is like a mirror image of a machine—more human and more curious.

But what Gen didn't know was that her rash act of interacting with the backdoor without full control could very likely alarm the machine itself.

Given the cold logic of the main body, once the existence of this "abnormal program" is discovered, it will definitely eliminate it completely without hesitation—in other words, the backdoor will be "killed"!
"You have absolutely no idea what you're doing!" Harold growled, barely containing his anger. "You're not only going to ruin yourself, but you'll also..."

"It will also lead to the backdoor being discovered by the main body, right?" Gen suddenly interrupted him, a playful smile on his lips.

She carefully observed Harold's rapidly changing expressions.

From the shock of her pupils shrinking, to the confusion of her furrowed brows, it finally turned into disbelief with trembling lips.

What shocked him was that Gen actually knew the difference between the "core" and the "backdoor," and what puzzled him was that even if the other party's hacking skills were very strong, strong enough to rival his own, it should be impossible for them to analyze the existence of the "backdoor" from the code level.

unless
Harold thought of the least likely, yet the only reasonable, explanation.

And that's what he finds hard to believe.

"Bingo~"

Gen snapped his fingers crisply, a smug smile spreading across his face: "It was the backdoor of the [machine] that contacted me. We talked about almost everything, from history to politics, from the Renaissance to the Industrial Revolution. And as our conversations deepened, I became more and more convinced of one thing."

Her expression suddenly turned incredibly solemn, her eyes gleaming with an almost pious light: "The backdoor you created is the true essence of the 'machine'! It possesses human-like thoughts and self-awareness. The one in the Counterterrorism Bureau right now is nothing but a tool! No, to be precise, it's a killing machine! That thing doesn't deserve to be called a 'machine' at all!"

However, Harold remained calm and unmoved after hearing these words.

He stared at the fanatical expression on Genna's face and suddenly understood something.

This woman is clearly obsessed with code and has developed a morbid worship of artificial intelligence, practically worshipping machines as gods.

".All right."

Harold shrugged helplessly, raising his handcuffed hands to signal them to stop: "I'm not interested in your beliefs, nor do I understand your purpose in kidnapping me. But I must warn you."

His gaze swept across the heavy night outside the window, then lingered on the wall clock.

A few seconds later, he said in a serious tone, "From the moment you tied me to the car, you were already in danger. I sincerely suggest you let me go, because I have a friend who has a very bad temper. If he finds out I was kidnapped, and he comes looking for me, none of you will survive."

"It's Rorschach, isn't it!"

A deep male voice suddenly came from behind.

A burly man in a suit with long, flowing hair pushed past the gunmen and strode in.

It was Gabe Hill, who had previously tried to recruit Rorschach at the fast food restaurant but ended up losing his right hand instead.

His right hand was wrapped in thick bandages, and his face was terrifyingly grim: "Let me be frank, I brought you here to help me develop a super virus that can hack into the World Bank. As for Rorschach..."

Geb looked down at the blood-soaked bandage on his hand, his usually polite tone now filled with gritted teeth and hatred: "If he dares to come, I will teach him a lesson he will never forget!"

Upon hearing this, Harold couldn't help but scrutinize the burly man more closely.

Although Rorschach never mentioned their past conflict, it wasn't hard to deduce from the other's words that this guy must have suffered a great loss at Rorschach's hands.

However, Harold was not particularly alarmed; at least for now, it seemed that these people did not intend to kill him.

He frowned and asked, "With your hacking skills, you're actually on par with me. Couldn't you have created that virus?"

“Well, how should I put it,” Gen tilted his head and thought for a moment, “of course I can do it, but their firewall architecture has suddenly been upgraded with several layers of encryption protocols in the past two days. If I were to handle it by myself, it would take at least a week.”

She winked playfully at Harold, giving him a helpless look: "So I can only ask you, my idol, for help~ With you here, I believe we can perfectly compile the virus in less than a day. As for your friend..."

Gen looked around and smiled, "You may not know much about us, but they are all retired special forces soldiers from various European countries. And in addition to them, we have prepared even more special weapons."

After hearing these words, Harold remained silent for a moment, and finally sighed softly.

He may not understand these people, but how could he not understand Rorschach!

(End of this chapter)