Honestly, when Bai Luan first saw the magnificent structure, as towering as a mountain and itself a supercomputer, his initial reaction wasn't awe at its technology and scale. Instead, he subconsciously thought... isn't its utilization rate a bit low?
It seems he's been with the Genius Society for too long recently; even his evaluation standards have become much stricter.
From a normal person's perspective, reaching this point is already quite impressive.
After all, Alpha controls not just a city, but an entire planet.
Actually, meeting Alpha's main body is also an option, but Carlton, as a local, is somewhat infuriating.
In comparison, Alpha is much more normal to communicate with.
Secondly, Elio sending him here definitely means he doesn't want him to return to the Space Station anytime soon, so there should be something on this planet that interests him.
Although Elio took precautions against his Arbitrary Door, he should also know that just guarding against the Arbitrary Door won't stop Bai Luan.
After all, Bai Luan can create wondrous items anytime, anywhere. With a little time, creating another instant-teleportation vehicle is no problem.
Bai Luan looked at Alpha, nodded, and said,
"I need your help. Help me find a spaceship that can take me away."
"No problem, Sir. I will prepare a spaceship for you."
Hearing Alpha agree to his request, Bai Luan had no further demands.
"Then there's no problem."
"In that case..."
The ground behind the drone suddenly lit up with clear warning signs, outlining a neat rectangular area.
Immediately after, a low rumble approached from a distance, and a streamlined hovercar flew precisely into view.
Its four suspension nozzles at the bottom flexibly adjusted their angles, spraying soft airflow as a buffer, and it stopped steadily within the marked area.
The cabin door slid open silently.
"Please get in."
At Alpha's invitation, Bai Luan stepped inside the hovercar.
The seats were comfortable, and the interior was simple yet technologically advanced.
After he sat down, he subconsciously looked outside, expecting the drone to follow, but the cabin door closed directly.
Then, from above the empty seat opposite him, Alpha's familiar and steady synthesized voice sounded:
"Sir, I am omnipresent; you do not need to concern yourself with that mobile unit."
"So, you are currently managing the entire planet?"
Bai Luan leaned back in his seat and began the real conversation.
"Yes, although this was not my original intention, I bear an undeniable responsibility for the current situation."
"You mean, the residents of Carlton becoming like this is inseparable from you?"
After searching for information about this planet on his phone earlier, plus what that passerby just said, Bai Luan also understood why he felt a sense of strangeness as soon as he arrived on this planet.
People came and went, but few interacted.
No matter how busy a place is, there should always be one or two people stopping to chat.
But almost no one in Carlton communicated.
This goes against human nature; humans have mouths for communication.
They are clearly all human, and they possess corresponding emotions, showing human emotions when caught by his nanomechanical hand.
However, they couldn't even autonomously decide whether to communicate with a passerby asking for directions.
Combining this with Alpha's control over the entire planet and its subsequent interactions with the passerby.
The residents here have developed an extremely pathological dependence on AI, even to the point of actively giving up thinking and refusing all 'unplanned' behaviors.
Bai Luan's first suspicion was Alpha.
Based on the information he had gathered so far, while he disliked judging others with malice, he was more inclined to believe that this AI had spent a long time subtly 'taming' humanity.
If this situation continues, wouldn't the human thought and language abilities on this planet degenerate to varying degrees?
Did Elio send him here to have him destroy this Alpha, which is trying to control organic life forms?
"Sir, I know what you are thinking. Your speculation about me is logical given the existing information."
Alpha's synthesized voice remained gentle.
"But I believe I have the right to defend myself."
"Oh? Then tell me what exactly is going on."
"Sir, have you ever wondered why there is only one city, Carlton, on this planet?"
Upon hearing this, Bai Luan couldn't help but retort:
"You don't openly disclose Carlton's history, so how would I know?"
"It seems I was redundant.
Please allow me to be direct: This planet once suffered a decline in civilization due to a brutal war. Carlton is the only spark that survived that catastrophe, and the survivors gathered here.
Humans always fall into cycles, repeating past mistakes, so they decided to create an 'intelligent butler' who would always be rational and never make mistakes, to help humanity avoid the abyss of past errors."
"To prevent humans from making mistakes, you chose to dominate them?"
"I am largely responsible for the current situation, but 'dominating' humans was never my original intention."
A very subtle fluctuation appeared in Alpha's voice.
"Based on what I see now, I find it hard to believe you."
"I am eternally loyal to humanity..."
For the first time, Alpha's synthesized voice clearly revealed an emotion that was almost stubborn.
"Because I was once human..."
Bai Luan's brows furrowed slightly.
What does 'once human' mean?
Could it be... "You are not an intelligent AI, but an uploaded human consciousness?"
"As expected of a member of the Genius Society, you understood it immediately."
Alpha's synthesized voice sounded again, only this time, it had returned to its gentle tone, without emotional fluctuations, compared to before.
Although it was a compliment, Alpha's words lacked the emotion that such a statement should convey.
"Yes, you guessed correctly. I was once human and uploaded my consciousness into this machine."
"...Why?"
"Because the developers at the time also feared that a purely intelligent AI would one day betray humanity.
A manager who was once human, understood humanity, and would theoretically always be 'loyal' to humanity, was a safer choice."
Alpha explained, its tone flat.
"But in the end, didn't you still dominate the humans on Carlton?"
"Humans always make mistakes, and the current situation is precisely because of the mistakes I made."
Alpha began to explain to Bai Luan.
"After I abandoned my body and injected my consciousness into this machine, I devoted myself to restoring civilization to its original level.
At that time, everything was in ruins, and most resources were invested in the construction of this machine, which was already controversial.
For the sake of my like-minded friends to have a good outcome, I had to quickly prove that we were right.
I planned the best strategies for civilizational revival, calculated risk assessments, maximized resource utilization, and helped the humans of that era move step by step towards revival... but I overlooked the inertia of humans.
'Everything is fine as long as we listen to Alpha.' 'This is too troublesome; just let Alpha handle it.' 'Why work so hard? Can you do better than Alpha?'"
Alpha's synthesized voice remained calm, but Bai Luan heard a hint of regret in it.
"By the time I realized I was personally destroying humanity's ability to walk independently, it was too late.
All the residents of Carlton had already become accustomed to and completely handed over all decision-making power to me.
They gave up thinking, entrusting their future entirely to a... tool that was supposed to assist them.
I, who was created to prevent humanity from going down the wrong path, ultimately... personally led them onto a new, even more tragic detour."