I get stronger by sunbathing, just like Superman.

They passed through the cafeteria, dormitory area, and gym, but there were security robots almost everywhere. The robots, which had received Alice's instructions, approached the two of them as soon as they saw them. Although they moved very slowly, there were just too many of them...

Lei Ming planned to run towards the lower-level recreation area, where there were very few robots and surveillance cameras, giving him a chance to find a place Alice didn't know about. Clinging to a sliver of hope, Lei Ming dragged An Ke along, running madly to the central area, the only way to reach the lower levels.

The usually bustling central plaza was now deserted because the spaceship was about to make a jump. They were only a few meters from the elevator platform, but just as they were about to reach it…

A bang!

The metal door slammed shut, followed by the sound of hatches closing all around...

As the absolute controller of the Gaia, Alice could easily use her authority to open and close the hatches throughout the ship. As a result, the two of them, along with more than a dozen security robots, were trapped in the central plaza...

As dozens of security robots slowly approached, Lei Ming could only smile bitterly and simply sat down on the ground. He was exhausted from running anyway. An Ke, realizing that the two of them wouldn't have a happy ending, also sat down next to Lei Ming, holding his hand tightly without letting go.

A towering security robot approached the two, looking down at them. Alice's voice echoed across the plaza:

[C-101, Lei Ming, due to your serious interference with the normal operation of the security system, it has been decided to take action against you.]

[eliminate!]

...

Ten minutes later, the two, who were completely powerless to resist, were transported by security robots to a vast space, about the size of two football fields.

Lei Ming looked around and saw a dense array of escape pods in front of him. Each escape pod was about the size of a single bed and was oval in shape, similar to the hibernation pods he had seen before. He also noticed that there were many empty spaces in the front row of the array, which meant that what Yu Bing said was true and that quite a few people had already been 'annihilated'.

The robot led the two people to two of the escape pods, and the pod doors automatically rose, waiting for the two to enter.

"I'm sorry... if it weren't for me..."

At this moment, An Ke was no longer the spoiled young lady she used to be; her face was covered in tears.

Lei Ming shook his head. "What's the point of saying all this now..."

Before he could finish speaking, a fragrant breeze wafted into his arms, and An Ke tightly embraced Lei Ming…

Lei Ming was a little flustered for a moment, unsure of what to do with his hands, so he gently patted her back.

As the countdown to the spaceship's jump began, Lei Ming and An Ke were forcibly sent onto the escape pod by the robot.

The moment the hatch closed, Lei Ming seemed to see a figure in the distance behind the robot.

"Sister Qiao Wei?"

Because of the distance, Lei Ming couldn't see clearly, but he could see her pointing at her bracelet, her lips moving, and her expression anxious as if she were saying something. Unfortunately, he didn't understand lip reading, and as the hatch closed completely, he was plunged into complete darkness...

Not long after, Lei Ming felt the escape pod shake and experienced the strongest push he had ever felt. He guessed that he had been launched into space.

At the same time, Anke's escape pod was also launched. What the two couldn't see was that... ten seconds after launching the two escape pods, the Gaia vanished from its spot at a speed imperceptible to the naked eye, accompanied by a distortion of space...

In the dark universe, a point of light is rushing into the distance at an extremely fast speed.

Lei Ming felt unwell inside the cabin. The high-speed movement of the ship put immense pressure on his body. After all, the escape pod was just a miniature spaceship, and there was no question of comfort.

Furthermore, the escape pod lacks a manual control system because it was originally designed to be entirely controlled by Alice, an artificial intelligence. He has no idea where Alice will throw him, and can only leave it to fate.

Fortunately, the life support system inside the capsule can keep him going for a while, preventing him from becoming space debris so quickly…

Inside the cabin, Lei Ming endured the physical pain, his right hand still tightly clutching the necklace. He silently apologized to his mother, for he had promised her to live well, but he never expected to break his promise so soon…

Suddenly, the image he saw before the hatch closed flashed through his mind…

Qiao Wei stood at a distance, pointing to her own bracelet and saying something.

What is she trying to tell me?

With that thought in mind, he laboriously moved his left hand, which was wearing the ID bracelet, little by little from the cramped cabin to his eyes.

The ID wristband serves more than just identity verification. It is linked to Alice's subsystems, enabling it to locate crew members, detect vital signs, communicate with crew members on other spaceships, store various data and information, and is equipped with 3D imaging capabilities.

Logically, this thing should have been rendered useless now that it was so far away from Gaia and beyond Alice's signal coverage. However, after he gently touched the bracelet with his lips, the bracelet flashed with blue light, and an unexpected figure appeared before him, along with a voice.

"Lei Ming, time is of the essence, listen carefully!"

"I will bypass Alice's system and reorient you before the escape pods launch. You will be heading to a planet where carbon-based life may exist!"

"In addition, I have uploaded my personal AI to your wristbands. If you survive, it will be helpful to you!"

Furthermore, Alice's neural network core malfunctioned! This caused it to misinterpret instructions; it wasn't an accident!

"It was man-made!"

"Thunder... If I can't solve Alice's problem, by the time the Gaia reaches the HD1 system... I'm afraid there won't be a single survivor left on the ship..."

If something unfortunate really happens... then the two of you are the future of humanity!

You must survive!

The sound stopped abruptly, and the projection disappeared as well.

This information greatly shocked Lei Ming, and doubts began to arise in his mind...

"Isn't Sister Qiao Wei a psychologist? How come she seems to know so much about artificial intelligence? Those two fields are completely unrelated..."

"Strictly speaking, artificial intelligence is Qiao Wei's specialty, and psychotherapy is just a side job."

Thunder's bracelet suddenly emitted a woman's voice, completely different from Alice's cold, mechanical voice.

"Are you Qiao Wei's personal AI?"

"Yes, my name is White Queen. Strictly speaking, I am only a stripped-down version. The hardware configuration of the ID bracelet is insufficient to support the huge computing power of the full version, so my performance is less than one-thirty-sixth of the full version."

"The White Queen... Alice..."

Lei Ming pondered, "Aren't these two characters from the fictional work 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'?"

"What is your relationship with Alice on the Gaia?"

"Alice's neural network is developed and improved based on my core, but its structure is more complex and more powerful. Even the full version of me has less than one-tenth of her computing power."

The bracelet glowed blue, projecting two three-dimensional patterns resembling brain structures above it. They looked almost identical, except the one on the left was much smaller.

"In your human terms, I should be her mother..."

Lei Ming was even more puzzled now, "Wait... Qiao Wei said you are her exclusive AI, and you are also the prototype of Alice..."

So, according to you... the developer of Alice is Qiao Wei?

"To be precise... it's Qiao Wei's father, Mr. Qiao Heng, hailed as a pioneer and leading figure in the field of artificial intelligence, and also a member of the World Security Council..."

"Her dad?!"

Lei Ming was dumbfounded. "Was Alice's abnormal behavior something her father planned all along? Did her father want humanity to go extinct? What about the other five Gaia ships?"

"Sorry, there is insufficient information to answer your question..."

"There's one more question."

Lei Ming frowned and said, "Why was Qiao Wei able to discover the existence of this planet? There's no reason why people on Earth couldn't discover it and instead chose the more distant HD1 star system?"

“Your speculation is wrong. Observers on Earth have not discovered the existence of this star system. Qiao Wei only discovered this planet when Gaia passed by this star system. My speculation is that some unknown force has isolated this planet to prevent it from being observed by the outside world.”

"... "

"what happened?!"

The escape pod suddenly began to shake violently. Even with the safety belt and shock absorption device, Lei Ming inside could not avoid being injured. He was hit so hard that his head was bleeding, which was like adding insult to injury for him at that moment.

The White Queen explained:

"The escape pod collided with a meteorite while passing through an asteroid field, but rest assured, the pod's outer shell has extremely high impact resistance and will not easily disintegrate..."

"How much longer until we get out of the asteroid belt! What if I'm the one who dies before the escape pod is even finished..."

Despite the dizzying, jarring ride, Lei Ming gritted his teeth and asked.

"It is estimated that it will break away from the meteor shower in twelve minutes."

"Twelve minutes?!"

The White Queen's answer left him somewhat desperate...

Half an hour later, Lei Ming slowly woke up at the White Queen's call.

It turned out that the previous continuous jolting had overloaded his body, causing him to faint. Now that he had just woken up, he felt pain all over his body...

"Multiple soft tissue contusions have been detected on your body, and you may have a mild concussion. Immediate treatment is recommended."

"You don't need to tell me... I detected it already..."

Lei Ming grimaced as he struggled to open the medical kit in the escape pod. He used a topical painkiller and a strong oral anti-inflammatory pill, and only felt a little better after the medication took effect.

"White Queen, how much longer until we reach our destination?"

"The escape pod is traveling at a speed of about 50,000 kilometers per hour, and according to calculations, it will reach the gravitational range of the target planet in about 23 days and 6 hours."

"Twenty-three days..."

Lei Ming frowned upon hearing this. The compressed food and water provided in the escape pod would only last him seven days, eight days at most. He would be long gone by now if he waited another two weeks. He then asked:

"If we go at full speed, how long will it take?"

"If all goes well, the time will be reduced to nine days and eleven hours..."

"White Queen, can you control the operating system of this escape pod?"

"I'm sorry, the escape pod's control system was locked at launch. I cannot change Alice's instructions. Even with the full version used by Qiao Wei, I could only exploit a momentary vulnerability to bypass the instructions and change the escape pod's route..."

"This is it!"