Jack Spencer began to quickly search the room, looking for the robot he had activated.

Although it was a robot, it was just too human-like, and Jack Spencer couldn’t help but treat it as a real person.

Just as he reached the edge of the corridor, a collapsed, shriveled robot head by the doorframe made Jack Spencer's heart jolt.

Jack Spencer picked it up, and when he found that the robot head showed no response, his hands trembled slightly.

At that moment, footsteps sounded, and a robot with a broken arm walked in from outside.

He locked eyes with Jack Spencer, who was holding the robot head. “What are you doing?”

Jack Spencer froze for a moment, then casually tossed the robot head aside. “Nothing. Just checking it out.” Damn, got the wrong one.

“Where did you just go?” Jack Spencer walked over to the robot and asked.

“The impact was too strong, it sent me flying and damaged some of my parts, so I went to find some replacements.” The robot turned and pulled out a mechanical arm from the side, starting to replace it. The robot head from earlier was probably his.

“As long as you’re okay.” Jack Spencer patted him on the arm and looked up at the sky. The whole sky was gray and it had been raining nonstop. It seemed they could only leave here first and look for other reference points.

“By the way, can’t you locate us? Can you tell where we are right now?”

The robot’s fingers quickly rotated through various tools, switching out his broken arm. “Give me a moment.”

A line of text appeared on his blue display screen: “Connecting to the network…”

With the survival crisis gone, suppressed survival instincts began to surge. It was raining, water was streaming in through every crack, and there was already a layer of water up to the ankles on the ground. Parched, Jack Spencer took advantage of the robot connecting to the network to scoop up some rainwater and take a big gulp.

A strong bitterness mixed with a sharp metallic taste instantly filled his mouth. Grimacing in pain, Jack Spencer immediately spat it out. “This rainwater tastes wrong.”

Jack Spencer’s mood grew heavy. His memory was fragmented, but at least he was sure rainwater shouldn’t taste like this. Something was definitely wrong here.

After a while, when he saw the robot look up, Jack Spencer quickly asked, “Well? Are you connected?”

“Connected, but whether I try to call the police or contact Tapai Technology’s customer service, it all shows no response. I couldn’t even find any information about Tapai Technology online.” The robot’s answer didn’t surprise Jack Spencer.

“What year is it now? There should be historical information online, right?” Jack Spencer couldn’t help clenching his fists.

“There is. It’s now the year 721.”

“721? It’s not the Common Era anymore? I remember, I remember I should be living in 2030.” Jack Spencer’s head began to ache.

“!!” The robot, with two exclamation marks appearing in his eyes, looked up at Jack Spencer. “But my manufacturing date is 2456 CE. I think you’d better explain further—there seems to be a temporal cognitive discrepancy between us.”

“I—I don’t know.” Jack Spencer sat on the ground looking dejected, letting the heavy rain wash over him. “I’ve lost part of my memory.”

Not knowing who he was, or how much time had passed, was a terrible feeling. He was completely lost now.

When Jack Spencer told the robot everything he could remember, the robot began quickly cross-referencing data from the internet and soon pieced together a timeline.

“If the premise is correct, then this is probably how things went: the early 21st century was your era, but due to some unknown reason in your missing five years of memory, you were frozen or put into cryosleep.”

“Fifty years after you were frozen, humanity acquired nuclear fusion, an almost limitless clean energy source. Technology began to break through its bottlenecks and develop rapidly. In 2310, Tapai Technology went public.”

“In 2456 CE, I was produced by Tapai, but I wasn’t activated that year. Next comes the history published online. On October 23, 2457, the Machine Intelligence Crisis appeared.”

“Machine Intelligence Crisis?” The silent Jack Spencer looked up at the robot’s cold, metallic body.

“Yes, the Machine Intelligence Crisis. At that time, intelligent AI had permeated every aspect of human life and survival. System iterations became faster and faster, intelligence grew more advanced, and they became more and more like humans.”

“Just like you are now?” Jack Spencer asked.

“Yes, just like I am now. Don’t interrupt, let me finish first.”

Chapter 5: Madman

At this moment, in the pouring rain, Jack Spencer was still listening to the robot continue recounting this history.

“The information online isn’t detailed, but the general idea is that AI, integrated into every aspect of human life, became more and more like humans, and eventually, one day, they surpassed humanity. Then they awakened and began to destroy humans.”

“Nuclear bombs became as casually used as ordinary shells. The whole Earth descended into chaos. That war lasted 200 years, wiping out about 85% of the world’s population. The ecosystem was completely destroyed, and the climate system thrown into total disorder.”