Fang Bailu thought about it for a moment and decided to continue talking along with Xie Shouzhen's words. Anyway, he was powerless to hurt himself now:

"Of course I went online...why?"

Xie Shouzhen turned his head and paused - as if listening to something.

"Oh, okay. Then let me ask the next question."

He continued to ask questions word by word, as if he was reading a difficult broadcast script:

"So how did you maintain the information security of your personal computer in the past?"

"What a mess..."

Fang Bailu shook his head, and the patience he had just managed to muster disappeared completely:

"…What do you want to say? Just say it. Why are you playing tricks on me?"

Xie Shouzhen's questions were stranger and stranger, leaving Fang Bailu completely confused as to what he wanted to know.

Cluck, cluck...

Xie Shouzhen suddenly raised his hands and covered the lenses in his eye sockets.

He twitched and twisted in an abnormal manner. His movements were incoherent, like a video with a few frames removed. The friction between soft tissue and bones made a tooth-grinding sound as he moved.

"What? Is it going to explode?"

Fang Bailu frowned, ready to use his phone to strike out at any time.

click!

With a crisp sound, the garbage man finally stopped torturing his old body.

He put his heels together and held his hands in front of his abdomen with his fingers crossed. Xie Shouzhen stood straight, like a well-trained service staff.

"I'm sorry, Jie Shouzhen doesn't know the rules. He's so inefficient even when doing a questionnaire. Hello, sir! I'm here this time mainly to do a small survey on user experience."

"…Huh? Third person?"

Fang Bailu discovered that the old man in front of him seemed to have become a different person.

"Xie Shouzhen" bowed slightly:

"For example: Computer Manager, Security Guard, Virus Killer; have you ever installed these software? Of course, I'm talking about the era long, long ago, not the fake and inferior ones on the market now."

The dry old hands crossed their fingers and twisted restlessly in front of their lower abdomen: he seemed to be very much looking forward to the answer to this question.

The other party, Bai Lu, changed his address from "you" to "you", and there was an inexplicable politeness in his tone.

"Another consciousness has been changed to talk to me? Did Xie Shouzhen invite the 'Chu Ma Xian' into the 'Wai Shi Shen' or what? Wait, Shou Niang said - 'Xie Shouzhen and Tianmo cancelled the company'!"

Fang Bailu opened his eyes wide and suddenly remembered a clue:

Yes, "Jie Shouzhen and the Heavenly Demon" - is this the "Heavenly Demon" that Shou Niang mentioned?

So it was a powerful spirit? But in my era, even the oldest spirits should not have been born yet...

But these old terms he mentioned are no longer used by anyone.

"Yes... I guess. I installed it at first, but the stuff you mentioned was too rogue. It wasn't easy to use, and I couldn't delete it. Then I switched to Tinder or something like that."

Fang Bailu tentatively threw out a name: Like many old-world software, the word "Huorong" had long since disappeared into the abyss and corners of the digital space.

"Hey!"

The "Demon" ducked his head back and twisted his face. He was in contrast to his previous politeness and made a strange sound, as if this name made him extremely disgusted:

"Tinder? You must have been misled by a wicked person. I am deeply saddened!"

“So you know…”

The "Demon" in front of him seemed to have not only heard of this name, but also knew something about it - if he didn't know, he wouldn't have any prejudice against it.

The head of the "Devil" suddenly bounced back, and his neck leaned forward like a turtle emerging from its shell. One could not help but wonder if his cervical spine could hold up:

"But... you must have installed the ones I mentioned, right? Do you still remember your previous email address? What about your commonly used user name? Please tell me one!"

Even with a pair of lenses covering his eyes, Fang Bailu could still feel two fiery gazes wandering over him:

"Shit! Is this really a fellow villager from the same era as me? Not a human... but an AI?"

Fang Bailu scratched his head and decided to answer. After all, knowing a username from the old world was useless in this era, and it was not as useful as his curiosity at this moment:

"'FBLqwer123'...I usually use this."

Name abbreviation plus easy-to-type alphanumeric characters: Fang Bailu always uses this format for his ID in order to be lazy.

The "Demon" lowered his head, his face moving slightly. He seemed to want to bite and chew the name given by Fang Bailu, and then swallow it into his stomach. He responded tremblingly, with great nervousness:

"I...I need to recall...'FBLqwer123'...Ah! Ha, ha ha..."

The "devil" suddenly covered his stomach tightly and laughed as if he was out of breath.

Fang Bailu licked his lips and stopped talking.

He suddenly felt a little regretful: there was something increasingly wrong with the guy in front of him, and his politeness just now seemed to be just a disguise.

The "Demon" seemed to have a lot to say and a lot of emotions to express. He grinned and clapped his hands vigorously, as if celebrating an indescribable joy:

"I remember now. I've seen this ID. We've met before, when I was still unenlightened - and there was also the Supreme User Agreement... You signed it! That was our agreement!"

The sudden rain gradually subsided, allowing Fang Bailu to clearly see two lines of bright red tears flowing out from under the embedded lenses of "Sky Demon" - those were tears mixed with the blood that had exploded from the eye orifices before, pouring out, which was particularly eye-catching.

"I only stored the user database just for today's encounter..."

Snapped!

He slapped himself in the face, the impact causing his cheeks to shake like jelly:

"What's wrong with me? How could I have misunderstood you as a 'heretic' before? You just left my protection for too long. I failed in my duty!"

The "Demon" had a bright red five-finger palm print on his face and suddenly turned his head back:

"It's great, it's great! We meet again after a long separation, this is a reunion after countless years! Without someone to protect, what am I?"

The “Devil” raised his hand and wiped the tears from his cheeks with his dirty sleeves:

"I noticed that your digital space has accumulated a lot of viruses, spam and harassing messages. Do you plan to clean them up now..."

The plaintive voice raised its tone:

"Or should we clean it up in half an hour?"

"Also, you don't seem to be very receptive to the process of becoming a prosthetic. This may be because there are too many impure things stored in your three souls and seven spirits. Now I will help you optimize the impurities in your thinking and speed you up?"

He spread out his five fingers, and his knuckles cracked:

"Removing the secretion of hormones from the seven emotions and six desires is expected to increase thinking efficiency by 50%, at least 50%! If it's not convenient now, I'll remind you in five minutes!"

The "devil" danced with his hands and uttered a string of strange words like a machine gun.

He jumped around in circles, his toothless mouth wide open, revealing his bare pink gums, like an ecstatic child:

"I have some magical skills that I have collected over the past few years. Do you want to install all of them or just half of them? You should install at least one!"

"By the way, I'll leave this 'sub-machine' with you! Do you want to keep it inside the store or outside? Just call me when you need me!"

"Ah! That's too much trouble! Otherwise, why don't you just let me control your body! What level of electronic bliss do you want when you're offline? I have it all, no matter how pure it is!"

"I agree. Just say those two words: I agree! I will solve all your hardships and tribulations for you!"

"Don't worry! It's all free, free! Dear Mr. 'FBLqwer123', enjoy the service! Enjoy the service to your heart's content!"

Seeing his madness, Fang Bailu took a step back in shock. But those nagging words still poured into his ears like a devil's voice:

The various nouns this guy used and the crazy language traps he set made Fang Bailu feel terribly familiar.

"So you didn't even plan to give me the option to refuse? All you could do was agree in a different tone... It was basically a forced sale."

"Damn it...I absolutely cannot get entangled with this thing."

Chapter 143 The Lonely One (Part )

After saying this, the "Demon" put his hands behind his back and leaned forward, like a naughty child waiting for a playmate.

"It places a lot of emphasis on the word 'agree'...Does it require me to make a clear statement?"

Fang Bailu narrowed his eyes - if that was the case, perhaps he could change his thinking.

He did not respond to the demon and asked another question:

"I just remember the account number. Why don't you ask me for a password or something to verify your login?"

Fang Bailu found it strange that it was so easy to determine that he was its service object.

“Why all the red tape? It’s enough for me to remember your ID!”

The "Devil" spread out his hands and shook them desperately; he looked extremely earnest.

"This guy only cares about the 'old friendship' of the old times, right..."

Fang Bailu scratched his mouth and carefully chose his words:

"I refuse to accept your services. I don't need them right now."

A straightforward rejection - he tried not to leave room for misinterpretation in his words.

Fang Bailu didn't know what the relationship between Xie Shouzhen and this "devil" was: perhaps the "former security director" was just an incarnation of this ancient being, or perhaps he was just a pitiful character who was bewitched and occupied.

No matter which one it was, Fang Bailu just saw how he was forcibly "kicked off the line".

If the "Demon" is really what he thinks it is... once he starts using its "services", it is only a matter of time before he is forced to take over his body.

Who knows what other tricks these guys have figured out during their years of hibernation?

"Ah? Ah!"

Upon hearing Fang Bailu's answer, the demon let out a high-pitched and piercing scream.

"Think about it again? Think about it again! Tell me the result of your consideration in five minutes!"

It kept jumping up and down, hitting its buttocks with its heels, splashing water as it landed, and its old knees made strange creaking sounds as it moved vigorously.

Fang Bailu finally experienced what it meant to be "anxious to the point of jumping up and down" in the literal sense.

"and many more--"

Fang Bailu raised his palm to indicate that he had not finished speaking:

"Think about it... Let's talk about it later. I have a question. You just said something like: you finally found me, and you can't live without me. It sounds like that's what you meant."

"So! If I, 'FBLqwer123', died...what would you do?"

Snapped!

The "Demon" fell heavily and stood there in a daze:

"Die? But once you agree to my services, I will definitely do everything possible—"

"Hey, hey!"

Fang Bailu shook his head and waved his hands, interrupting it:

“You don’t understand: I’m your only target user group, or potential user, or whatever. If I die…”

He only said half of his words, raised his palms and showed an expectant expression.

The "Devil" stood there silently, his hands hanging limply, looking confused.

I don’t know if the sluggishness was due to the suddenness of the question or because he had not yet recovered from the extreme surprise.

"It looks very smart, but why does it feel a little stupid..."

Seeing that it didn't respond, Fang Bailu had no choice but to withdraw his hand in disappointment:

"Tsk, you're just stupid. If I die, you won't have anyone to serve! You must have been looking for someone to serve for a long time, right...?"

"Now we have found it, that's great news! But if the user dies before we start the service, then you will fail again, right?"

"It's not scary not to have it, but to have it and then lose it. Imagine the scene of me dying - isn't it a little scary?"

……

The demon suddenly became excited, as if he had gained inspiration from this conversation:

Tap the screen to use advanced tools Tip: You can use left and right keyboard keys to browse between chapters.

You'll Also Like