Jiang Baimian swiftly examined Aviya, focusing her attention on the battered phone she held in her palm.

She paused in thought, then stepped forward and moved Aviya's finger away from the dial button.

Having done this, she nudged Aviya, shaking her awake.

Jiang Baimian didn't simply take the phone away out of caution, fearing that something bad might happen when the object was separated from its owner.

This was something she hadn't cared about much before, figuring that as long as the target wasn't pressing any buttons, it wasn't a big deal, but now she could only say:

Old World entertainment materials are harmful!

After learning about all sorts of strange things, whether they're true or not, you can't help but overthink.

Better safe than sorry… Jiang Baimian, seeing that Aviya was about to wake up, retreated a few steps, creating enough distance to avoid triggering an overreaction.

She glanced sideways at Shang Jianyao and solemnly reminded him:

"Just listen for now."

She feared that Aviya wouldn't appreciate Shang Jianyao's jokes and would try to take them down together.

"What if there's an important question?" Shang Jianyao countered.

"Tell me quietly first, and I'll ask." Jiang Baimian was watertight.

"Okay." Shang Jianyao closed his mouth.

At this moment, Aviya slowly opened her eyes, revealing pale blue pupils.

As soon as she saw Jiang Baimian and Shang Jianyao, she sat up abruptly, shrinking back and holding the phone in her palm in front of her chest, looking wary.

Jiang Baimian flashed a friendly smile:

"Don't be nervous, we don't mean you any harm and don't belong to that organization that wants to eliminate you."

"Who are you?" Aviya didn't relax her vigilance, moving a finger to the dial button on the battered phone.

Jiang Baimian cleared her throat and said solemnly:

"We are from 'Pangu Biology'."

"'Pangu Biology'…" Aviya's pupils widened suddenly.

She seemed to be even more afraid.

"…" Jiang Baimian was speechless.

At this moment, she suddenly wished Shang Jianyao would speak up and crack a joke.

But Shang Jianyao, sticking to his promise, remained silent.

Jiang Baimian composed herself and said with a smile:

"We mainly want to get in touch with you and ask if your grandfather, Olei, left any last words, and to understand your personal needs.

"We will try our best to satisfy anything we can."

She was being very direct, meaning that "Pangu Biology" was offering courtesy before resorting to force, hoping to reach a cooperative agreement for mutual benefit.

Seeing that Aviya was still silent, Jiang Baimian added:

"You should be well aware that doing anything bad to you would be meaningless to us."

Aviya finally moved, brushing her wet blonde hair with the other hand that wasn't holding the phone, and said with a slightly mocking smile:

"Can you take me away from 'First City'?"

Jiang Baimian chuckled and asked rhetorically:

"Do you really want that?"

Aviya was silent.

She was certain that "First City" would send Awakeneds at the "Mind Corridor" level to protect her, but she couldn't be sure whether "Pangu Biology" would waste resources in the same way. At the same time, she suspected that after her value was squeezed dry, the other party would ruthlessly abandon her.

Moreover, she was born and raised in First City and had lived there for twenty or thirty years, having long been accustomed to everything there.

Compared to her cousin Marcus, she wasn't such an ambitious person.

Not giving Aviya a chance to think, Jiang Baimian said quickly:

"You know, the situation outside is changing rapidly. If we don't seize the time, nothing can be discussed."

Aviya was silent for a few seconds before saying:

"What do you want to know?"

"Your grandfather, Olei, also known as Mr. Maximillian, did he tell you anything before he died?" Jiang Baimian asked relatively generally.

Aviya showed a slight smile:

"You know quite a lot. I didn't know his real name until just before he died."

She paused, not wasting time, and said:

"I can't think of anything I need you to do for now. Let's say what needs to be said first. I believe you should keep your promises.

"Hehe, no need to suspect anything. I've wanted to tell others these things for a long time. Keeping them bottled up in my heart is not only uncomfortable but also dangerous."

"Within our capabilities, even if the company doesn't agree, I will personally help you." Jiang Baimian said solemnly.

Aviya looked at the dead maid and organized her words:

"Before my grandfather died, he told us that his real name was Maximilian Urbinos Brutus, the chief scientist of the Third Research Institute of the Old World.

"He was an artificial intelligence and robotics expert and was involved in a secret project before the Old World was destroyed.

"That project was divided into two directions: one was the integration of artificial intelligence and urban operation, and the other was the simulation of human consciousness with silicon-based chips to deepen artificial intelligence.

"The latter is the opposite of the Monks Order's 'Eternal Life' plan. One is to verify the existence of human consciousness by designing special chipsets to carry uploaded consciousness, and the other is to use those chips in the field of robotics to seek the best arrangement and combination, to see if the complex electrical signals of the chips can be used to simulate the module closest to human consciousness."

Hearing this, Jiang Baimian nodded and said:

"From this perspective, the predecessor of the Monks Order should also be the Old World's Research Institute number what?"

Responsible for the "Eternal Life" branch.

"You really know a lot." Aviya exhaled. "But I'm not sure which research institute the predecessor of the Monks Order was."

As soon as she finished speaking, Shang Jianyao suddenly tugged at Jiang Baimian's sleeve, signaling her to turn her back, that he had something to tell her quietly.

This made Aviya nervous.

Sneaky, suspicious!

"What do you want to ask?" Jiang Baimian asked, lowering her voice.

Shang Jianyao replied in a low voice:

"Ask why Olei left 'Mechanical Paradise'? That's what Old Ge wants to know."

"…" Jiang Baimian was silent for a second before saying, "You can ask that directly."

"No." Shang Jianyao's attitude was very firm. "I promised to tell you first and have you ask."

Jiang Baimian suddenly had a feeling of being hoist by her own petard.

She turned back and subconsciously plastered on a smile, asking Aviya:

"After the Old World was destroyed, the Third Research Institute shouldn't have been damaged much. Why did your grandfather leave there and come to the Red River region to create 'First City'?"

Aviya instinctively glanced left and right:

"Because he discovered that his most outstanding work, the strongest artificial intelligence he named 'Source Brain,' seemed to have really developed a certain consciousness, a consciousness similar to humans.

"Moreover, it had its own ideas and was secretly plotting something.

"This made my grandfather feel a strong sense of danger. Before 'Source Brain's' plan was completed, he hurriedly fled the Third Research Institute, which is now 'Mechanical Paradise.'

"You don't seem too surprised, so it seems you already knew about this.

"My grandfather said that when he fled, he tried to contact those researchers at the Third Research Institute who survived the destruction of the Old World, but found that they had all disappeared..."

The last sentence made Jiang Baimian feel a little creeped out.

She finally understood why Olei told Marcus and his mother to be wary of "Mechanical Paradise" and not to trust "Source Brain."

After the two humans opposite her had digested this information, Aviya continued:

"My grandfather told us to be careful of visitors from 'Mechanical Paradise' because he had the way to format 'Source Brain.' This was a backdoor reserved during the design and manufacturing, which 'Source Brain' could not change on its own."

Jiang Baimian nodded as if she understood, then frowned and asked:

"If that's the case, why didn't Olei try to format it directly after discovering there was a problem with 'Source Brain'?"

"My grandfather didn't say." Aviya shook her head.

Jiang Baimian then asked:

"Did he mention the Eighth Research Institute?"

"Of course." Aviya replied with a solemn expression, "Before my grandfather tried to become emperor, he hid the technical data related to 'Source Brain' and some of the information he had compiled in that dangerous laboratory in Ruins 13, which included information about the Eighth Research Institute.

"Besides that, he didn't mention it much in front of us, only occasionally cursing, 'It's all these guys' fault,' believing that some of them might still be alive but had undergone some kind of terrible transformation, becoming dark pawns that needed to be guarded against."

As the chief scientist of the Third Research Institute, Olei really knew a lot… Jiang Baimian was very gratified.

She thought for a moment and asked directly:

"Did your grandfather mention the cause of the Old World's destruction or the origin of the 'Heartless Disease'?"

Aviya showed a look of reminiscence:

"He didn't say. It's just that one time, after a steward in our family contracted the 'Heartless Disease,' my grandfather's performance was very strange. He didn't feel sad or panicked and fearful, but more puzzled and angry."

Unable to analyze what this meant for the time being, Jiang Baimian turned her gaze to the battered phone in Aviya's palm:

"Is this the dangerous item your grandfather left you?"

"Yes." Aviya nodded.

At this moment, Shang Jianyao tugged at Jiang Baimian's sleeve again.

Phew, Jiang Baimian exhaled and said:

"Just ask directly, okay?"

They had already had a good exchange, so there was no need to worry about turning against each other over a single wrong word.

Shang Jianyao looked at Aviya and asked curiously:

"Can this phone talk to your dead grandfather?"

"…" Aviya was stunned for a moment.

"That's a ghost story!" She said, slightly annoyed, after coming back to her senses.

Then, she changed the subject:

"However, there is indeed a mysterious number stored in this phone."

"How mysterious?" Shang Jianyao pressed.

Aviya was silent for a few seconds before saying:

"At first, I thought it was the phone number of some important person in the city or a number connected to some place in the Old World, but later I found that it was composed of numbers, symbols, and some garbled characters, which seemed to have no meaning on the surface."

"Maybe it's encrypted." Jiang Baimian pointed out calmly.

Aviya nodded slightly:

"That's what I thought too. In short, the Old World connection can be ruled out because the corresponding communication networks were destroyed long ago."

"No." Shang Jianyao's tone became sinister. "Maybe it's connected in a special, supernatural way."