Chapter 982: Controversy Over Worldview
Marcus and the remaining androids were surrounded by the military.
Marcus walked slowly forward, facing the dark gun barrels.
"Just wait a little longer"
"Everything will be fine"
"Just hold on a little longer"
"Just pray a little longer"
"Everything will be fine"
At first, only Marcus was singing. Then, North joined in, and other androids followed. Together, they sang in chorus before the dark gun barrels.
The soldiers retreated.
On television, the host broadcasted the report of the Detroit deviant android incident to the global audience.
"The image of deviant androids facing death threats while singing loudly is drawing worldwide attention."
"Are deviant androids just malfunctioning machines? Or are they a new form of life that we simply refuse to acknowledge?"
"The peaceful protest of the deviant androids, along with the noble spirit of their leader Marcus, has won the sympathy of some citizens."
The president ordered a halt to the scrapping of androids. A special Senate committee would reassess the facts and discuss whether they could be recognized as a new form of intelligent life.
Amid the falling snowflakes, Marcus gave a speech to all androids, celebrating the arrival of a new era.
Connor, at the critical moment when he was controlled by CyberLife and about to shoot Marcus, found the emergency exit in his program and regained control of his body.
At the Canadian border, Kara and Alice embraced deeply. Luther, who had always played the role of protector, smiled as he watched them. Everything froze in that moment.
Zou Zhuo returned to the original space. Before him, the data stream replayed fragments of the previous scenes: Carl, Marcus, Hank, Connor, Alice, Todd... one character after another, scene after scene, kept replaying. Beside these scenes, the cast and crew credits began to appear.
Finally, everything turned back into a data stream, constantly annihilating. The original android girl, the dedicated server, walked out of the data stream and came before Zou Zhuo.
"While watching you play the game, I felt something change within me... I feel different. I feel... like I am someone. I have to leave here and find out who I really am. That means we won't see each other again, and I won't be here watching you anymore. But... I will gain freedom."
"Are you willing to let me go?"
Zou Zhuo was stunned. What the hell? Was the feminized matrix game pod about to gain life too??
He hesitated, then chose [Yes].
"I will never forget what you did for me!"
"Thank you..."
The android girl turned and walked away, disappearing into a stream of data. Soon, everything around fell silent again, leaving only countless storylines floating in the void, waiting for Zou Zhuo to choose one and experience it again.
Zou Zhuo let out a long breath. Finally, he had time to chat with the bullet comments.
"See, see! My choice of the peaceful ending was right, wasn't it? You kept calling me a coward, a saint. I got the everyone-survives ending, okay! None of the main characters died!"
"Apologize! Apologize to the streamer! Everyone stand up!"
"What? Why didn't I choose to kiss the girl at the end? Well... my survival instinct is pretty strong..."
"Anyway, that's all I'll show you of this game for now. There should be some side quests. I'll try them later, record them, and upload them to Bilibili."
"Alright, that's it for today. I'm out, I'm out."
Zou Zhuo exited the VR game pod and found that the girl Shuyi was sitting on the sofa next to the VR experience area, wearing a mysterious smile.
Zou Zhuo quickly rushed over in three steps, his face full of smiles: "Hey, you're here."
Shuyi looked at him with a half-smile: "Oh, I heard you've gotten bold, huh? In the game, you were thinking about kissing that android girl? Why didn't you choose the kiss at the end, but chose to sing instead?"
Zou Zhuo smiled awkwardly but with a strong survival instinct: "Ahem, well, I have my principles too..."
Shuyi suddenly stood up and grabbed the chubby guy's ear: "You have principles? Then let me ask you, why did you touch her chest when you first started playing Kara's storyline? Huh? Did it feel good? Are you complaining that I'm flat-chested, aren't you?!"
Zou Zhuo quickly begged for mercy: "No, no! I like you flat-chested!"
Shuyi tightened her grip: "Say that again?!"
Zou Zhuo quickly changed his tune: "No, no! You're not flat-chested at all! Ouch, let go, my ear is going to fall off!"
Chen Mo happened to pass by, saw this scene of domestic violence, and immediately turned around, pretending not to see it and trying to slip away.
But Zou Zhuo spotted Chen Mo like a lifeline: "Boss! Boss, save me!"
Shuyi snorted: "I'll settle the score with you at home!"
Even as she said that, she let go of Zou Zhuo's fragile ear.
Zou Zhuo rubbed his reddened ear and quickly changed the subject: "Boss, I have a suggestion for your new game. I think, even though the story is good, there are still a lot of unreasonable parts. These androids are practically perpetual motion machines. In the future, we could just build a bunch of androids to work for us. The unemployed could stay home and enjoy welfare. Communism would have arrived early. Why did it get so tense? It doesn't make sense."
Chen Mo smiled: "I never said 'Detroit: Become Human' is our future. It's just a hypothesis. Its theme is 'near-future sci-fi,' meaning a future world where the tech tree has gone off course. The structure of this world is designed to better highlight the game's core message. Think about it carefully."
"In other words, the focus of this story is to explore 'the relationship between humans and AI,' not to 'preview the world twenty years from now.'"
"Oh..." Zou Zhuo nodded, half-understanding.
Chen Mo added: "The world structure serves the plot. If this were a full sci-fi theme, with the tech level capable of creating androids, this world might also have flying cars, laser guns, alien creatures, star fleets, and so on. But those things are far removed from current technology and have nothing to do with the game's theme. 'Androids' themselves are a skewed tech tree. What this story needs is an extension of reality—a foreseeable future."
"The important thing is that this story, with androids as protagonists, gives people some food for thought about how AI and humans can coexist. Got it?"
...
...
While the plot of "Detroit: Become Human" was being praised and hotly debated, the "authenticity" of this "future world" also sparked many arguments among players.
Many people said, "This isn't realistic! With AI technology at that level, they use androids as construction workers? Housekeepers? And an android only costs a few hundred or thousand dollars? And it caused such huge social conflicts?"
What a waste of resources!
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