The Mechanic

Although the Eden Network is under the control of Eden, there are quite a few people like him who do not want Eden to know their identities. There are countless such anonymous hackers. They use the IP address of any networked computer in various regions of the world to enter the network, and the address will be automatically changed every one to three seconds. As long as they are not targeted by Eden, it is difficult to be tracked arrive.

They gradually opened up some invisible areas in Eden's network. Only those who really know what they are looking for and have superb hacking skills can enter those heavily encrypted web pages. Here, countless transactions are carried out every minute and every second, ranging from selling contraband to providing assassination services.

And the number of information transactions accounted for 50% of all black market transactions.

Zhang Xun obtained many of the materials used to train Pan from here, but at that time there was no AI assistance, and Paradise Lost blocked all Eden's signals, so he had to enter the ordinary world to establish a connection. The situation is much better now than it was then.

Just at this time, Todd sent a message asking him to meet at a bar near the hospital at night.

Zhang Xun knew that Todd wanted to see him, probably because it was related to James or Cindy, so he had to go. He stopped typing on the keyboard, drank the coffee in the cup, extinguished the unburned cigarette butt in the ashtray, grabbed his coat and said, "Pan, let's go out for a while."

But Pan suddenly said hesitantly, "Zhang Xun, I suggest you take a bath first."

Zhang Xun raised his eyebrows, lowered his head and smelled himself, "It doesn't smell."

"Let's... go take a shower."

Zhang Xun rolled his eyes and entered the bathroom impatiently. As a result, when I looked in the mirror, I was startled.

His hair was disheveled like a bird's nest, his cheeks were thin, his chin had a layer of stubble and was bluish, his eyes were bloodshot, with dark circles around his eyes, and his lips were so dry that it was ridiculous.

It's almost like a ghost.

No wonder Pan asked him to take a bath...going out like this will scare the children on the street...

He didn't know how he had become like this unconsciously. In the past in Paradise Lost, even if he was obsessed with research, he always paid great attention to his image. Especially after becoming Adam's mechanic...

But now, he seemed to suddenly feel that there was no need to care about it.

He seldom even felt happy. The first time he laughed this week was when Pan showed him the video of cats rolling around with catnip in their arms. He just thought that he had to finish all the work quickly, he wanted to ensure that James survived, that his father survived, that at least some of the human beings who chose not to connect to the consciousness cloud could be preserved by him.

As for what would happen if he really succeeded, he hadn't thought about it. It seemed like he never thought he would actually make it to that day.

Sometimes he also feels very tired, and wants to fall headfirst on the bed and fall asleep, never to wake up again. He looked at the bottle of sleeping pills on the coffee table, and sometimes he really wanted to swallow them all.

But he still has work to do, and he can't relax.

Zhang Xun quickly took a shower, and found that his ribs had begun to protrude obviously from under the skin. Although he was not strong in the past, he was not so skinny as he is now. Probably due to less than four hours of sleep per day combined with irregular eating. But he was too lazy to care, he wiped his body hastily, shaved quickly, and put on layers of clothes. He was still in the habit of wearing the one-on-one suit uniform he used to wear as a mechanic in Paradise Lost, and combed his slightly longer hair with styling products before leaving the bathroom.

Pan had already activated the extension zero and was standing at the door looking at him. There was a layer of worry in the green eyes.

"Zhang Xun, you haven't taken today's dose of nutritional supplements." Pan reminded, "Your eating habits may greatly increase your risk of developing gastric ulcers, and now you are already malnourished."

"We'll eat when I come back, we're going to be late." Zhang Xun hurriedly took his ID card and pressed the door open button.

In the bar, a singer with black eyeliner and a black sequined suit was singing affectionately. In the dim light, the people at the tables seemed to be frozen. Zhang Xun walked around before seeing Todd's fiery red hair in the dark.

He hurried over and found that there were already two empty glasses in front of Todd. Todd raised his head with a bit of astonishment in his eyes.

"Are you... okay?" Todd asked.

Zhang Xun moved a little inside the seat, leaving room for Pan to sit down. He twitched at Todd, "I'm fine, how is James?"

Todd lowered his eyes and nodded, "It's okay." Then he glanced at Pan again.

When Zhang Xun took Pan to the hospital to inject Cindy with nano-robots, James had seen this new robot once. He still had some mistrust of these…things without human bodies.

But since it was made by Zhang Xun himself, the problem with Enoch should not happen before.

"Todd, I am very grateful that you have been taking care of James." Zhang Xun looked into the eyes of the red-haired man seriously, "It should be my responsibility."

Todd waved his hand casually, as if he was saying these things and don't mention them. But the worry in his expression did not escape Zhang Xun's eyes.