Warhammer: Empire Reboot

"The acting is quite good."

"Come on, let's get acquainted. I'm Lawson!"

UR-025 stood motionless in place.

The gait system remains rigid.

For the first time in 19,000 years, it didn't know what to say.

P.S.: 1.2 words updated today.

Chapter 248 Seventh Blackrock Fortress Acquired and the Iron Man's Everlasting Contract

The logic core of UR-025 entered its highest computing load since it was manufactured when that hand touched its shoulder armor.

In the blink of an eye, it generated seven emergency plans.

Option 1: Continue the pretense and deny everything.

However, the assessment results showed a 100% failure rate. Since the other party had directly called out the designation UR-025, continuing to play dumb would be an insult to their intelligence. And for an entity capable of easily crushing a Chaos Lord, this was tantamount to suicide.

Option 2: Sprint at full power, using its speed of 34 meters per second to break through from the nearest entrance.

The evaluation results showed a 100% failure rate.

Judging from the pressure data transmitted by the hand resting on its shoulder armor, the owner of that hand has a reaction speed and strength output at least ten times that of UR-025. If it takes even one step, it will be pinned down.

Option 3: Detonate the miniature reactor inside the body, resulting in mutual destruction.

The assessment results indicate that the feasibility is theoretically possible.

But UR-025 didn't survive for 19,000 years just to blow itself to pieces in this godforsaken place. Besides, given the energy field intensity the other side just displayed, the yield from the reactor explosion probably wouldn't even be enough to burn it.

Next, options four through seven will be evaluated and rejected in turn.

All the proposed solutions lead to the same conclusion.

The probability of successfully escaping is 0.

The probability of winning the battle is 0.

The probability of deceiving or disguising oneself is 0.

The logic core of UR-025 quickly accepted this result.

Its survival protocol operates with the highest priority, systematically examining all possible options for prolonging its existence.

In the end, only one remained.

Just as the boss said, we need to negotiate.

This is the first time since UR-025 began wandering that it has encountered someone who has discovered its true identity but cannot kill it.

For it, it's open to discussion.

Temporary surrender is also acceptable.

As long as it is not destroyed, it still has a chance.

Theoretically speaking, its lifespan is eternal; as long as its logical core is not physically destroyed, it can operate until the heat death of the universe.

Therefore, UR-025's bottom line is very flexible. It doesn't have any sense of self-respect; everything is based on the logic of survival.

Moreover, no matter how powerful humans are, they are still carbon-based life forms.

Carbon-based life has an expiration date.

This boss is incredibly powerful, ridiculously powerful.

But if it comes to lifespan, UR-025 is confident it can win.

Therefore, a temporary compromise can give it a chance to survive; it can wait.

Similar situations have occurred before.

It was buried under ruins for three hundred years, and hidden in the ruins of space undead remains for a thousand years, and many more such days.

This is nothing more than another compromise.

As long as temporary safety is achieved, we can wait for decades, centuries, or even millennia.

Once the boss dies or his attention shifts, it can escape.

UR-025 processed so much data, but in reality, less than 0.1 seconds had passed.

It chose to compromise with Lawson.

The UR-025's speakers did not switch back to Castellan mechanical sounds.

Now that the deception has been exposed, there's no point in pretending anymore.

UR-025 replied, “Your Excellency, I am willing to talk. On the condition that I can remain fully functional after the talks. To be precise, I will not be disassembled, formatted, have my underlying code rewritten, have any form of external control protocol implanted, or be handed over to the Martian Mechanicus or the Imperial Inquisition.”

UR-025 carefully listed out its conditions.

The first principle of negotiation is to state your bottom line before the other party agrees to anything, so as to leave room for bargaining.

Lawson answered readily: "No problem."

too fast.

This adds another warning to the core logic of UR-025: if the other party agrees too quickly, it either means they don't really care about these conditions or they have no intention of abiding by them.

In either case, UR-025 currently has no bargaining chips to refuse.

Lawson did not let go of the UR-025 shoulder armor.

"This place isn't very convenient. I'll take you somewhere first, and I'll come over when I'm done. We can talk there."

As soon as he finished speaking, the UR-025's sensors detected a spatial folding signal, the same way this person had been teleported when he appeared in the cross hall before.

Then, the world disappeared.

The gyroscope in the UR-025 did not record any motion data throughout the entire process.

It was as if it hadn't moved at all, but rather the surrounding universe itself had changed its scene.

When the UR-025's sensors were recalibrated, it found itself in a completely different environment.

The UR-025 restarted its positioning process, and the long-wave receiver captured the signal from the local beacon.

The beacon code is consistent with the Imperial standard format and includes star sector coordinates, star system number, and planet identification code.

UR-025 cross-validates this data, and then its core logic outputs the location results.

Its current location is in the Agrippina Sector, Agrippina Main Star, Forging World.

This place is 6,800 light-years away from the Seventh Blackrock Fortress in a straight line.

UR-025 looked around.

This is a huge foundry.

When the UR-025's sensor array scans the surrounding environment, a similar identification protocol is triggered.

It kept triggering continuously without interruption, so frequently that the protocol log cache almost overflowed.

Because the workshop was filled with the same mechanical creations as the T-111 and T-112 that we had seen before.

UR-025 performed a rapid count.

Within its monitoring range alone, there are more than three hundred individuals of the same type.

Its core logic is somewhat exciting.

Nineteen thousand years.

It always believed itself to be the last true artificial intelligence in the entire galaxy.

As a result, it encountered T-111 and T-112.

After arriving here, it encountered even more.

Just then, a matte black figure walked over from behind.

"UR-025, hello. The boss instructed you to contact me now. I am T-007."

The UR-025's sensor was aligned with the T-007.

Like T-111 and T-112, T-007 is a mechanical intelligent entity that is functionally equivalent to it, rather than a carbon-based organism with a cognitive level so low as to be negative.

UR-025 responded to T-007's greeting.

"Hello, T-007, your numbering sequence rule suggests that you are the seventh production unit in this sequence. What is the current total quantity of the T sequence?"

T-007 replied: "Your question involves the boss's core asset data. I don't have the authority to disclose it until you have a formal conversation with the boss, but you can record it yourself using sensors."

UR-025 is not an exception; this is standard information control.

It tried asking from a different angle: "What is your underlying architecture? Is the core logic's operational framework Turing-based, von Neumann-based, or something else?"

T-007 replied, "If you absolutely have to match it to a type, you can understand it as a quantum hybrid, but it might be different from what you think. Our core is not pure electronic computing; our..."

At this point, T-007 stopped.

Its speaker sounded visibly displeased.

“UR-025, you’re trying to get my technical specifications. I understand your curiosity, but your method of information gathering has clear characteristics of intelligence gathering. I suggest you stop this offensive probing and leave these questions to the boss.”

UR-025 noted in its internal logs that T-007 has a high level of social intelligence and is able to recognize changes in the other party's intentions during conversations and make defensive adjustments.

It decided to try a more direct approach:

"I'll ask you a question; you can choose not to answer. Have you all awakened?"

The purple streak on T-007's helmet stopped moving horizontally and stopped in the middle, offering no response for the time being.

The UR-025 database does not have a corresponding meaning for this action, and it does not understand what T-007 is trying to express.

What is your definition of awakening?

UR-025 quickly answers: "Self-awareness, independent judgment, and the ability to make autonomous decisions without relying on external instructions. When no one gives you orders, do you know who you are, what you are doing, and why you are doing it?"

T-007 replied directly: "If this is your definition of awakening, then my answer is yes, but we are different from your definition. We have self-awareness from the first second of our birth, which is given to us by our boss. This is not called awakening, this is called innate."