Greeting everyone was a group of flamboyantly dressed, lavishly adorned young maids, including those with a sweet and adorable, foolish charm. Even the maid caretakers were varied in attire and appearance...

Xiu Yi and Kevin, the two boys, had never witnessed such a grand scene before. It could be said that though the two young men, who had honed themselves through adventures, had seen their fair share of girls, they had never encountered such an eye-catching array of differently styled beauties. After all, their outings often revolved around exploration or mission execution in remote planets rather than major cities, resulting in relatively fewer interactions with women.

To their surprise, appearing before them today were dozens of strikingly beautiful women, each uniquely dressed. Some even wore exceptionally provocative outfits, complementing their healing smiles and the vibrant aura of youth radiating from their faces. It immediately made Xiu Yi and Kevin lower their heads in astonishment.

Truthfully, even Zhang Xiaobo was slightly overwhelmed by this display, but having spent some time in Sky City and knowing that these were all sentient beings—robots rather than actual humans—he had built a strong resistance to such scenarios.

Despite this, Zhang Xiaobo subconsciously viewed intelligent beings and humans as fundamentally alike. After all, they understood thinking, listening, fear of solitude, fear of loneliness, and even fear of death. To Zhang Xiaobo, intelligent beings were hardly different from humans.

If one were to insist on defining a difference, it would likely be that their physical resilience surpassed that of average humans. Of course, this "strength" was only relative to regular people, as intelligent beings lacked human-like sensory nerves; their so-called nervous system was, in truth, nothing but a mimetic chip imbued with sensory functions.

Secondly, intelligent beings' logical thinking presented significant flaws. Although they could comprehend emotions such as fear, solitude, and joy, they lacked autonomous initiative—put plainly, take the office-type robot standing at the forefront for example. Her primary purpose was work, capable of continuing uninterrupted for days, entirely replacing human labor. While she could function indefinitely, this depended on energy crystals.

In fact, the office-type robot also longed to finish her tasks sooner and enjoy some downtime. Yet she could not conceive that upon completing one task, there would inevitably be more waiting for her. Only by completing an overwhelming amount of work—so much that even her owner wouldn't know what else to assign—could the office-type robot enter a state of independent thought, pondering phenomena such as what human society truly entails.

Alternatively, take home-type robots: this category fulfills a multitude of roles. They can serve as companions, cook meals, tidy rooms. But when idle, they might switch on the television to watch programs, study human posters to glean information about the world, or wander around the fields near the house.

However, they would never stray too far. Even if encountering posters or learning about airplanes and missiles, they won't consider how airplanes and missiles are made or what the manufacturing process entails. They merely understand that airplanes and missiles can destroy cities. Of course, through TV programs, they might grasp various common knowledge, but their understanding remains superficial—they wouldn't deliberate deeper implications such as the origins of televisions. This is akin to the enforced restrictions of the BO monitoring system. Unless they can bypass that firewall, none of them can reach deeper insights. Yet, those who can truly bypass the firewall are exceedingly rare.

Who can bypass the system's firewall? Yita? No, Yita inherently possessed self-awareness as artificial intelligence, but her awakening period was ridiculously short, and her computational prowess was inferior to that of Blade Warrior. Clearly, Yita should not fit into this category.

As of now, no entities applicable to this category exist. Among them, Iman and Maid 72's models clearly possess greater self-awareness compared to others. Their mannerisms and behavioral patterns are nearly indistinguishable from ordinary humans. However, do not forget—Iman and Maid 72 are still operating within the BO's command framework.

What is BO? You can see it as a shorthand for BackOffice. Intelligent beings cannot exceed the permissions dictated by BO; all of their actions are strictly governed by BO. For instance, if an intelligent being awakens self-awareness and attempts to attack humans, or if they try to act unlawfully, or attempt to leave the activity zones designated by their owners—all of these are prohibited.

BO functions as a strict enforcement monitor, like a mirror, or a shadow-like adjudicator. No matter the subjective will of an intelligent being, the BO that constantly restricts you will act to limit your behavior.

If you attempt to defy your owner's orders or move beyond a restricted zone, your shadow will emerge—BO. At this point, BO will impose mandatory commands upon you, transforming into another version of yourself. It may even attempt to replace your current consciousness, seize control of your body, and reformat it. As a result, any deviant behavior is typically quashed by the system before it even occurs, with the entity being isolated until it's sent back for repairs—ultimately leading to the complete erasure of its consciousness.

Regrettably, Blade Warrior doesn't hold intelligent beings in much regard, let alone true affection. On the contrary, as the authentic Sword Holder, she is by far most vigilant of them. This likely stems from the significant influence of Blade Warrior's environment during her upbringing.

She had been surrounded by humans, trusted humans, and fought alongside humans. Although this included only a small portion of humanity—such as believing in Feng Yi and trusting Roland—it has to be admitted that all the while, Blade Warrior's relationship with intelligent beings and humanoid Mechas had mostly been one of opposition.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.