The King's Game

Weapons could have minds, but they could never have feelings, because the latter would bring unimaginable disasters.

It was also because of this that human beings had ever considered equipping mechanical creatures with any system modules that simulated emotions. They did not want to see an example of emotional crisis in mechanical creatures.

Only when emotions were removed could humans be able to fundamentally guarantee the absolute obedience of the mechanical creatures as weapons of war made by human beings. The human team that studied mechanical creations at the beginning believed so.

As long as there was no system module to simulate emotion, mechanical creatures made of metal would never produce “emotion”. In theory, this ideal state could be reached. The Ark Project was also based on this ideal.

Without feelings, they would not like anything, and they would not have any biases. If they were in such an ideal state, the mechanical creatures in the royal city would not feel tangled at all and decisions would not produce psychological conflicts.

However, they were now running counter to such an ideal state and were trapped in an extreme contradiction.

The Full Moon Festival was over, and it was now possible to execute the only living human youth in the royal city at any time. This was a procedure set from the very beginning.

Why was there such a program setting?

For the first time, the N-type robots, which had been meticulously executing the destruction program for a long time, had doubts about their own program. Many mechanical creatures in the palace were still gathered outside the room where the youth was held, and their thoughts fluctuated.

But the commander hadn’t ordered the execution yet, and they couldn’t act in private... With this idea in mind, the N2 robot in charge of guarding the palace still hadn’t attacked its procedural enemy, but continued to guard its target.

At this time, a humanoid machine wearing a black cloak and mask interfered with the energy systems of the surrounding mechanical creatures with his abilities, and this black figure appeared in front of the youth as promised.

“They won’t notice anything when they regain their energy.” The voice from under the mask was low and cold. Noah stated the matter, as though it was not the first time he had done so.

Gu Huai did not speak after he nodded, but he put a candy that had just been stripped of its wrapping paper into the other’s hand.

Mechanical creatures didn’t need to eat. The youth put candy in his hands. Noah moved his brow slightly. He wrapped the candy carefully with ice magic and then quietly put it into the space where he placed his weapons.

After completing this series of actions, Noah looked at the young human who seemed to be in a calm state of mind and suddenly asked aloud, “Don’t you want to run away...?”

It was impossible to let the young man in front of him escape. Even if the execution of the young man was postponed under the pretext of the Full Moon Festival, he would still behead him in the end.

There may be slight deviations in behavior during the process, but the results must conform to the procedures. This was correct logic, so it was meaningless to ask this question.

Then why ask? Logically, Noah could not find a proper reason for his behavior.

“There are too many guards. I can’t do it alone.” Gu Huai seemed to consider this issue. He grabbed the cold hand of the humanoid weapon in front of him and approached him and said, “If you are willing to take me away, maybe I can escape, but there is a problem... “

The humanoid weapon under the cloak moved its finger caught by the youth because it felt the warm body temperature that did not belong to it, and soon a low voice asked, “What’s the problem?”

It was also meaningless to ask, but Noah still spoke at this time.

“You took me away. If you fail, you will be punished the same as me, won’t you?” Gu Huai bowed his head and took a look at the other who was calmly letting him hold his hand. As he spoke he fiddled with Noah’s fingers.

The feeling of his fingers being played with could not be ignored. Noah did not withdraw his hand but nodded slightly. His voice answered coldly, “Hm.”

According to army discipline, if caught assisting prisoners to escape, he would be punished with the same sentence, or even a heavier punishment. The youth was not wrong.

But then, the youth’s next words made this cold, perfect humanoid weapon feel at a loss in an instant.

“I like you, so it’s a risky thing. Forget it.” Gu Huai touched his chin and said this, he felt the humanoid weapon caught in his hand freeze slightly, but unexpectedly, the other did not use any force to remove his hand at this moment.

Holding the young man’s hand was a kind of subconscious behavior. Noah could not explain this, but he heard himself repeating aloud: “Like...?”

The youth also mentioned the word at the Full Moon Festival yesterday. Noah knew what the word meant, but he just didn’t quite understand it.

Just like he didn’t understand why he came to this palace at night to watch the youth sleep these days and why he used a water mirror to observe the daily actions of the youth, Noah also couldn’t understand his act of raising his mask to peck the youth on the cheek last night.

It seems that as long as the youth said “like” to him, he would do things that violated normal logic.

Before the young man could answer his question, Noah pulled out the hand he had been in the youth’s grasp. He wanted to test one thing.

Standing behind the young man, Noah raised his hand again and covered the young man’s eyes lightly. This time he not only raised his mask slightly, but took it off completely.

Under the white mask was a very cold and handsome face with cold and beautiful pale golden eyes drooping slightly, revealing a kind of abstinent aesthetic feeling.

With his hand holding the mask, Noah encircled the young man’s waist. Noah locked the young man in his arms. Then he lowered his head slightly and rubbed his thin lips against the young man’s cheek.

...Like?

What kind of feeling was called ‘like’? He did not have a system module to simulate emotions, yet as he was facing the object that must be executed according to his initial procedures, Noah now felt as if he could vaguely experience the so-called ‘like’ feeling.

The young man who was pecked on the cheek looked very cooperative. The discerning man could see that he had no intention of resisting. He let the humanoid weapon covering his eyes move from his cheek to the corner of his lips with his slightly cool lips.

Noah paused when he pecked the corner of the youth’s lips.

If he kissed the youth’s lips, something uncontrollable would happen. It was best to stop now.

He had such a premonition, but when he looked down at the young man’s pale lips, Noah seemed to be puzzled. He subconsciously tightened his hand around the young man’s waist, and then lowered his head a little to attach his thin lips to the young man’s lips.

It was not a deep kiss, just a few delicate pecks.

Like...

“I’ll help you escape.” When the mask was put on again, Noah’s voice from under the white mask was still cold in texture, but it was slightly slower, “It will not fail.”

Conscience and reason, if these two things were too much, sometimes they would cause bad consequences.

Because of his extreme sobriety and reason, Noah knew better than all other mechanical creatures that he was doing something that conflicted with the program, and the resulting contradiction was even more severe.

Even if the youth was not executed, Noah did not want to let the other escape. He wanted to keep the youth in front of him in this palace so that the youth could stay where he could see him.

But the youth wanted to leave...

“A hug and a kiss, and then you let me go?” Gu Huai touched his cheek that had just been kissed by the other with his fingertip. Gu Huai felt that he was almost able to trap his Chu Chu.

“Although I don’t know when I will be beheaded in the palace, I also have many fierce enemies outside. If I escape, it is estimated that the day after that will not be much different from now.” Nonsense and fabrications. Gu Huai continued to lay traps for the humanoid weapon in front of him.

There was no doubt that he believed the youth. Noah’s light golden eyes showed some fluctuations.

“It’s almost the same anyway... Well, if you take off your mask and say you like me, then I will stay and not run away.” Gu Huai said earnestly with an expression that sounded like he was really making a choice.

“...” The mask shielded the slight changes in Noah’s facial expression and he stayed silent for a while. The humanoid weapon under the cloak quickly responded in a low and slow voice, “OK.”

Violation of procedures—

Misjudgment—

Incorrect choice—

One by one, Noah snuffed out all kinds of opposition generated by his programming. Noah responded to the youth’s request, but he needed to make some preparations for this matter.

According to the data in the database, it was highly likely that the youth would think his behavior was cheating or playing after taking off the mask, so Noah thought he needed to take some corrective measures before taking off the mask.

That night, Noah sneaked into the palace again after confirming that the youth had fallen asleep with the water mirror.

This time was different from previous times. In the hands of the cold-faced humanoid weapon, he was holding a sacred object with a faint aura.

A sacred object of the elves, the eternal flower.

Quietly putting the flower on the young man’s pillow. Noah lowered his eyebrow and looked at the sleeping young man for a while, then pecked the lip of the young man quietly before leaving.

When the youth woke up, he would see this flower...

But just after Noah left the palace, the youth sleeping in the palace received a dream communication from the elves. Communicating with other people’s dreams was a unique ability of elven priests.

Since it was inferred that the youth voluntarily delivered himself to capture the attention of mechanical creatures for the sake of the Tree of Life of the elves, the Kadrin Parliament held relevant meetings on this matter.

It could be seen from the seal that the youth had not been killed. The parliament discussed whether to send hidden troops to rescue him and passed a resolution with a majority.

The Elves voted firmly for it because of their debt, while the Dwarves, goblins, lichs, and dragons voted for it because they believed that the youth still had value.

Kelno city was the core territory of the mechanical creatures, and there was no chance of winning a direct battle. But if it was only to save one person, sending out the hidden forces of the elite parliament, they might be able to succeed.

“The time for communicating in dreams is limited. I’ll make the long story short. Tomorrow, the people from the hidden forces will sneak into the city of Kelno to rescue you. You must cooperate with the operation. There is only one chance and you must seize it. ” The person appearing in the youth’s dream was Gerald, which was also considering that the latter had the most contact with the human in the parliament and could gain trust as soon as possible.

Gu Huai didn’t react at first. He recovered from his slight stupor and immediately said, “Wait...”

Gu Huai only had time to issue one syllable, and communication was cut off.

The next day, before going to meet the youth, Noah called out a water mirror to observe the situation in the youth’s room, mainly to see if the youth liked the flowers he sent.

But at this time, an image appeared in the water mirror, Noah did not see the figure of the youth. At the bedside, temporarily bound by magic and unable to move, were the N type and the old model of mechanical creatures.

In the bed where the youth was sleeping, the eternal flower with faint light was placed there alone.

“?!”

In an instant, a horrifying aura covered the entire city, all the mechanical creatures in the city at this time looked towards the palace.

What happened??