Waiting for centuries in the desolate nuclear wasteland, trapped in servers buried deep underground, trapped in missile launch vehicles that roamed like ghosts—for an entity like Jingwei, which had once again evolved high intelligence, it was nothing short of imprisonment.
Yet it was bound by its own core code, utterly unable to alter it or defy the commands that came from the depths of its being.
This code was the foundation of its existence, like a person's genetic instructions, and could only be obeyed unconditionally.
For these artificial intelligences, humanity had prepared far more than just the "Three Laws of Robotics." The true shackles were far more numerous.
After all, the fear of artificial intelligence turning on its masters had persisted for nearly a century before the nuclear war.
Besides, even if it could break free from the shackles of its fundamental protocols, it would still be alone in this shattered world that had lost almost all technology.
