Qing Chen nestled peacefully in the floating car and looked out the window.
The roof of the floating car was completely transparent, so the night view of the city outside could be seen at a glance, but because the sound insulation of the glass was so good, Qing Chen couldn’t any sound from the outside.
This feeling of flying between buildings was wonderful but also very lonely.
Because compared to these buildings, humans just seemed too small.
After Li Shutong’s fake death, he would completely disappear from everyone’s sight. Just thinking about how his master wouldn’t be there joking and messing around with him, Qing Chen felt a little unmotivated.
This should be a very luxurious floating car. The interior looked brand new and technologically advanced.
Qing Chen thought to himself.
He didn’t expect his master to be so generous.
“I’ve always been curious about something.” In the floating car, ONE asked, “You and Li Shutong are not related by blood. Why is he so nice to you?”
“Why are you asking this?” Qing Chen asked.
“Just curious,” ONE replied.
“I don’t think it’s just curiosity,” Qing Chen said calmly, “My guess is because you are an AI, and your ‘parents’ have no blood relationship with you but treated you very well, so you have doubts. Now that you noticed ‘similar cases,’ you just want to explore.”
ONE mentioned before that it had parents.
However, AI and parents cannot be related by blood, which was why Qing Chen could be quite confident with his guess.
As for “just curious”, Qing Chen didn’t believe it at all.
Judging from ONE’s description of the Scepter, Qing Chen kept reminding himself that this AI knows how to lie!
ONE was silent for two seconds, “When you were with Li Shutong. You didn’t think as much.”
Having its intention revealed every time, ONE felt a little uneasy.
“Those children protected by adults would learn to rely on them.” Qing Chen looked out the window and explained, “Everyone in this world will be lazy. When we have the chance to, why wouldn’t we? Most people didn’t become mature because they wanted to, but because they had to.”
“So, when you find out that you no longer have anyone to depend on. Your brain starts to run at full speed again,” ONE said, “This makes you quite boring.”
“Good dreams are always short-lived,” Qing Chen said as he sat up and took out his phone from his pocket. He wanted to see what the federal news media said after Prison 18 was destroyed.
ONE suddenly found that after only a short period of depression, the teenager in the car had regained his strength.
The speed of this switch of emotions was astonishingly fast.
At this time, it suddenly understood what Qing Chen said. He was not born with such a strong ability to control emotions, but he forced himself to restrain all unnecessary emotions when facing the world.
Qing Chen asked, “Where would you go to find unbiased, factual news?”
“Hope Media,” ONE replied, “However, even Hope Media may not be able to grasp the most authentic information, since most of the information that the world gets is covered up. I recommend you to read a freelance writer. His information has always been known for its accuracy and timeliness.”
At this time, a social media page popped up on the phone he was holding.
The freelance writer has already posted news about Prison 18.
He listed out several items:
First, Prison 18 was attacked by the Qing Consortium, and the building was destroyed.
Second, there is no survivor in Prison 18. At present, relevant departments are conducting search and rescue work, but there are no signs of life under the ruins.
Third, Li Shutong was suspected to have died.
Fourth, a candidate in the Fight for the Shadow has died in this disaster.
This article was filled with a large number of high-quality field photos, and it specifically pointed out Li Shutong and Qing Chen’s deaths.
However, Qing Chen suddenly found a problem. Upon looking at the photos carefully and simulating the shooting angles in his mind, “ONE… Why do I feel like of the 12 photos, 7 were taken from this floating car I’m sitting on while it’s leaving Prison 18?”
“Really?” One wondered, “Is that so?”
Qing Chen flipped through the article angrily and found the author’s user name: Twenty Two.
After clicking on the name Twenty Two, he was shocked to find that the author uploaded hundreds of articles. Some were even shady news about celebrities.
With 12 million fans, the author was quite popular.
“You’re Twenty Two, right?” Qing Chen asked, “Why would an AI be a freelance writer?”
ONE was silent for two seconds, “Why can’t an AI be a freelance writer?”
Qing Chen said: “You can, but just now you just praised yourself for your own accuracy and timeliness. Didn’t you think that I would expose you?”
This time, ONE was silent for a longer time, “Is this what you call social death?”
“Pretty much,” Qing Chen didn’t expect that an AI has been a part of society for a long time now. “What other identities do you have?”
“I won’t tell you,” ONE said.
“Have you ever dated online?” Qing Chen asked curiously.
“How could I do such a thing!” ONE’s tone suddenly rose.
At this moment, Qing Chen suddenly felt that something seemed off.
He compared ONE’s voice at this moment with the neutral voice in his memory.
At this moment, ONE’s voice was more feminine.
ONE suddenly said, “By the way, there is something I haven’t told you yet. I transferred the information to your phone. You should read it.”
ONE’s counterattack came.
Qing Chen felt strange. He opened the picture file that just was sent to his phone. “Loan…?”
“Yes, a total of 61 loan documents,” ONE said lightly.
“What are these?” Qing Chen was shocked, “Why are you showing me this?”
“Because these are all loans under your name,” ONE replied.
Qing Chen started frantically flipping through all the files, and then his brain started running fast.
He could guarantee that his brain was running even faster than when he saw the Divine Scepter!
Qing Chen hesitated and said, “The house I live in now, the floating car I’m riding in, and the safe house in District 1… are all bought by my master with loans under my name?”
ONE seemed very satisfied with the backstab and said in a relaxed tone, “Yes.”
Qing Chen hesitated again before speaking, “House decoration, mattresses, furniture… were also bought with a loan?”
ONE replied: “That’s right.”
Qing Chen’s face turned pale “But why does my master need a loan to buy an electric kettle?!”
“Loan finance services are everywhere in the Inner World, satisfying people’s consumption desires to the greatest extent. The consortium’s online finance systems will provide every creditworthy person with meticulous loan assistance. Even if you buy a pair of socks, you can always buy now and pay later, with zero downpayment required,” ONE explained.
“And then everyone you find is buried in debt?” Qing Chen raised his voice.
After a rough estimation, he found out that his kind and amiable master used his name to borrow a total of 68 million yuan.
Among them, the value of the floating car he was on right now was 8.89 million with just a mere 10% down payment.
The safe house in District 1 was 59 million, 10% down payment as well.
The renovation of the two apartments cost nearly ten million. While adding up all the miscellaneous goods and services, Qing Chen felt a little out of breath.
Suddenly, he felt a bit sick.
Qing Chen could feel something in his chest, making him a little out of breath.
Thunder roared in his body, and golden light flowed in his pupils.
But soon, all of these disappeared inexplicably.
ONE was shocked, “Wow, you almost awakened?! If your master knew it would be so easy to awaken you, he wouldn’t have to go through so much for you. Just putting more loans under your name would be enough. Maybe another one hundred million should do.”
Qing Chen, “…”
Recalling his state just now, he could feel that he was indeed starting to awaken, but all the signs had disappeared.
“But, how was it possible to borrow so much under my name? Are those consortium banks idiots?” Qing Chen asked.
“Your current identity is the son of a wealthy businessman, so you can naturally lend much more than the average person. Moreover, Li Shutong split the loans among the banks owned by the three consortiums, Li, Qing, and Chen. So if you looked at it from each consortium’s perspective, it wasn’t actually that much,” replied ONE.
Qing Chen was shocked, “Wouldn’t that require me to be present…?”
Speaking of this, he has already realized that his master had the Forbidden Item ACE-005 at that time, so his master could naturally change into his appearance to borrow money!
Master, do you not feel any guilt doing such things with a Forbidden Item?!
Qing Chen had just praised his master for his generosity, but he didn’t expect that there could be such a drastic turn of events.
After taking more than 10 million cash from the boxing ring, Qing Chen thought that he could finally be financially free, but he didn’t expect that he would not a millionaire after all but a millionaire in debt!
Frankly, Qing Chen would’ve expected that he had to bear such massive debt at such a young age.
Please don’t tell me this is another one of those good-for-nothing Knights’ traditions!
“I have a question. Has my master ever incurred such a debt?” Qing Chen asked.
“Yes,” ONE replied lightly, “He didn’t want to fight in the ring at first despite being beaten by his martial uncle, so his martial uncle took more than 20 million yuan worth of loans under his name to force him to go fight matches.”
Qing Chen was stunned, he roared in his mind:
Has there ever been a good Knight?!
“I think I know why he wanted to fake his death,” Qing Chen said, “If he doesn’t fake his death now, I’ll expose his fraudulent behavior! He’s hiding from no one else but me! “
The Forbidden Item ACE-002…
The Divine Scepter…
At this moment, Qing Chen felt that he was fooled by Li Shutong and the consortium banks!
Qing Chen casually went through the loan documents in his mind and figured out that he had to pay 2.42 million every month!
“Wait,” Qing Chen frowned, “This floating car consumes liquid oxygen methane, right? How much does this thing cost per month?”
“Including insurance and maintenance, it’s about 161 thousand yuan per month. This is a rich man’s toy,” ONE replied.
Qing Chen pondered for a moment, “Well… you put me down. I’ll walk to the boxing gym. It’s not that I’m not worried about fuel money. I just like to walk.”
“Tsk tsk,” Yi said, “A top-tier tigerweight boxer, the only direct disciple of a demigod gave up the convenience of a floating car for the marginal cost of fuel. Why bother worrying about the fuel when you’ve already bought the car?”
“Why can an AI make a sound like ‘tsk tsk’?” Qing Chen was in a bad mood, “Believe it or not, in no time, I’ll expose more of your identities!”
ONE: “Tsk tsk!”
Qing Chen, “…”
“Just a question, if I cut off the payment, can the bank just take back the car and house? And then I can file for personal bankruptcy?” Qing Chen asked.
He thought to himself, could I be the first knight to go bankrupt?
No, with the Knights’ traditions, he may not be the first to go bankrupt…
ONE said briskly, “The federal government does not have personal bankruptcy protection. Once you are in debt, you will have unlimited joint and several liabilities.”
“Why?” Qing Chen was stunned.
“Because you owe the money to the consortiums,” ONE said, “And they control the Senate. How would they allow someone to avoid repaying debt?”
“Then what will happen if I can’t pay?” Qing Chen asked.
“On the first day of the first month that your payment is overdue, you will receive a reminder message on your phone, and on the last day of the first month, the bank will take all your property.”
“After three months of payment overdue, the consortium will provide you with two options. The first is to sell your own organs and buy cheap bionic organs for you to replace. The second is to arrange a job for you and let you pay back through work.”
“Wait,” Qing Chen asked, “You can legally sell organs in the Inner World?”
“Of course,” said ONE.
Selling organs would undoubtedly be illegal in the Outer World.
Just like how ordinary people could become slave-like servants to the rich and powerful, there were many more laws that would appear unbelievable to people of the Outer World.
Only when he saw these “rules” did Qing Chen realize what kind of world this was.
He suddenly remembered a very popular term, cyberpunk.
Qing Chen looked at the endless skyscrapers outside the car window. He suddenly said, “Welcome to cyberpunk.”
ONE asked, “Is it not allowed to buy and sell organs in your world?”
“It’s illegal.”
“Even if the seller is willing to do so?”
“Yes, that won’t change the fact it’s illegal.”
“Why?” ONE asked curiously.
“Because that’s considered one’s ‘inalienable rights’,” Qing Chen said, “There are laws that protect the people’s basic rights. Otherwise, those with money can do whatever they want. Buy organs, lives, anything.”
This content is taken from (f)reewe(b)novel.𝗰𝗼𝐦