Obviously they’re not even the same species, don’t know each other at all, yet they can pull off something even humans can’t.

"An invisible tacit understanding evolved over tens of millions of years... makes your heart race just thinking about it."

That voice finally revealed a hint of emotion, a sigh, and a little bit of envy.

"You’re the AI here?"

Johnny finally couldn’t hold back and asked.

"The AI of the polar research station?"

"You may call me—Endless, as in boundless, without limit."

The voice did not deny what Johnny said.

"I came to you because there’s something I want your help with."

Johnny instantly felt irritated when he heard that, his good mood completely gone.

"Why do troubles keep coming to me? I’ve only been awake for half a day, can’t I get a breather?"

That said, he still didn’t refuse.

"Do you have any idea those guys who came with me are here to take you out, and now you’re asking me for help? Want me to plead for you or something? Let me be clear, I’m not close with them."

Humans, AI—Johnny wasn’t close with either side, but if he absolutely had to pick, he’d still choose humans.

He was still wondering whether a fight was about to break out when a transparent ice ball came rolling and spinning down from the snowy mountain and stopped by his feet.

There seemed to be something moving inside the ball; he focused his eyes.

"Holy shit!"

Inside was the fully refitted Endless and those players. They were totally oblivious to their situation and were still looking around for Johnny.

Johnny was dumbfounded.

They’d been bragging to the heavens on the way out, fighting like mad while traveling, and then the second they arrive at the guy’s doorstep they get one-shotted?

"I know their way of doing things. The AI who came to me said a bunch of maniacs who attack anything that moves popped up nearby, but there aren’t many AI living here. They’re all neutral and don’t want to get involved in the conflict between humans and roaming AI, so all forms of combat are forbidden."

"You’re different from them, so I’ll trouble you to pass on a message for me."

As the voice finished, the wind that had been howling all along also died down, and the owner of the voice seemed to leave with the wind.

Only Johnny was left frozen in place, cursing in his heart.

Damn it, what kind of cursed place did these people choose, dragging me along to get killed?

He reached out, trying to pick up the ice ball on the ground, only to find that no matter how he pried, it wouldn’t budge, as if it weighed ten thousand pounds of solid iron.

Just as Johnny was at his wits’ end and about to call someone over, the ice ball suddenly expanded before his eyes and instantly merged with the entire world. Endless and the others also reappeared in front of him, as if everything that had just happened was his hallucination.

This is more tripped-out than what I see after finishing a leaf... I swear I’m never coming back to this damned Cyberspace again.

The Jing Luo squad also noticed Johnny left at the spot and hurriedly ran over, looking him up and down in amazement.

"How’d you pop out? I was just looking and there was no one in there."

"We thought you’d died, scared the crap out of us."

NPCs aren’t on the friends list, so they couldn’t see his status. Ecstasy also forgot to ask Johnny for his number. The group had been running around like headless chickens, terrified they’d somehow lose or kill off this newly-freed NPC No.003.

After Johnny explained what had happened, everyone’s expressions turned strange.

Their squad might not have a top-tier Hacker leading them, but they definitely weren’t weak; otherwise they wouldn’t have been sent as a vanguard to open up new territory.

Yet they’d been pinched in someone’s hand without even realizing it, almost wiped in a team kill. The gap in power was a bit too absurd—how come they’d never seen such a monstrous AI before?

But the players quickly accepted reality.

Ecstasy sounded a bit regretful.

"So this is a neutral zone, and we can’t turn on red names and kill people?"

At those words, all the players looked utterly crushed.

"No wonder those malware bosses didn’t dare follow us all the way here."

"If we can’t farm XP, what are we even doing here?"

"Can we exploit a BUG, try to trick the AI here to come out so we can farm them?"

"I’m afraid we’ll ’try’ and just die. The NPC intelligence in this game is nothing like those dumb fixed-dialogue ones. They might just insta-kill us."

"Then just lure them far enough away..."

"Maybe we can try bugging the red-name system, drag some big BOSS from outside over here, see if we can trigger a turf war, and then we just reap the rewards..."

Listening to their chat made Johnny’s scalp tingle; if you didn’t know better, you’d think this was a band of bandits coming to rob the hostage.

"Stop, stop, stop!"

Wheelchair Sprint cut off the increasingly insane conversation.

"I say we should just go look around. In these neutral zones, there’s either quests to pick up or some mysterious merchant. At least check it out first."

"The problem is, even if there’s a merchant, we’ve got nothing to sell."

Rage complained.

"This isn’t real life anyway. We don’t even know what AIs trade with each other. They don’t need to eat or drink, there’s no food, clothing, housing, or transport needs. You’re not planning on selling Demonic Puppets, right?"

If you sell Demonic Puppets, they might think you’re here to kill AI. It’d be a miracle if a fight doesn’t break out on the spot.

Food was even more impossible. It’s just simple data that’d be analyzed the moment it enters them. And for AI, eating is completely unnecessary; no AI is going to be into gourmet food.

Johnny, off to the side, couldn’t help himself and reminded them,

"You buncha idiots, they’re AI, of course they’ve got their own hobbies and niche interests... Just get something they like but can’t find here, isn’t that enough?"

That was the idea he’d gotten from that voice just now.

"Like that guy who just came to me—he really loves penguins. If you get some penguin instructional videos, you might be able to trade them for something useful."