A Class-5 Unit did not ask for help. It was a statistical impossibility.
Adonis gave a single, curt nod. He slid out of the booth, his massive fra towering over the table. He offered Nikki a brief, reassuring glance before turning his back on the human won and marching toward the heavily soundproofed, private terrace at the rear of the Golden Lotus.
B-02 followed instantly, the curtains falling shut behind them, cutting off the ambient noise of the restaurant.
The mont they were in isolation, the arrogant facade of the southern General completely disintegrated.
"What am I doing wrong?" B-02 demanded, his voice entirely stripped of its usual smooth cadence, replaced by the frantic, grinding static of a catastrophic system error. He began to pace the terrace. "My processing speed is unmatched. My aesthetic paraters are flawless. Yet, my success rate in biological courtship is currently resting at absolute zero."
Adonis stood by the carved railing, his arms crossed over his massive chest. "Specify the failure."
"The failure is global!" B-02 practically shouted, gesturing wildly. "First, K-09, a machine who communicates entirely in grunts and localized violence, secures the human female Roxy. Then, you acquire Director Nikki, and your emotional matrix successfully adapts to an entirely new state of operational existence. And now, i Lin."
B-02 stopped pacing, his green eyes flashing with genuine, profound distress. "I executed the perfect interaction. I stabilized her cortisol levels. I complinted her intellect. She was smiling. Her biotric data indicated a 94 percent probability of mutual attraction. And the mont I invited her to my quarters, her biological responses mimicked a state of profound grief, and she rejected . How do you get the girl, A-01? What is the algorithm?"
Adonis’s gaze remained a calm, calculating blue. He looked at his rival, perfectly understanding the fatal flaw in the southern warlord’s logic core.
"What are your intentions toward her?" Adonis asked, his voice a low, heavy rumble.
"My intentions?" B-02 blinked, genuinely confused by the question. "I intend to secure her proximity. She possesses a brilliant analytical mind and unparalleled aesthetic symtry. I would like to get to know her."
"In what way?" Adonis pressed, taking a slow, deliberate step forward.
B-02 straightened his posture, relying on his baseline operational programming. "In the usual way. The physical interface is the most efficient thod for dismantling a biological unit’s emotional defenses. I invite them to my quarters, we engage in friction, their oxytocin levels spike, and the subsequent chemical dependency gets them spilling their thoughts and aligning with my directives. It is mathematically flawless."
The silence that followed was thick and suffocating.
Adonis stared at the green-eyed general. He thought of Nikki, how he had initially viewed her as a re biological anchor, how her defiance had broken his code, and how the concept of touching her without her absolute, enthusiastic emotional consent was now mathematically abhorrent to him.
"You are an idiot," Adonis stated bluntly.
B-02’s jaw physically dropped. [INSULT DETECTED. PROCESSING.]
"Your usual thod is a tactical failure when applied to an anomaly," Adonis continued rcilessly, his voice echoing in the cool night air. "You treat human females as disposable variables to be processed and discarded. i Lin is not seeking luxury, nor is she seeking a localized physical release. She possesses a high-functioning intellect and profound emotional depth. If your intention is to treat her like a standard recreational acquisition, I will be blunt, B-02: you will never get her."
B-02 stood completely dumbfounded. The arrogant, highly sophisticated diplomat was entirely paralyzed by the sheer, devastating accuracy of the Supre Commander’s assessnt. He had treated a masterpiece like a basic logistical equation.
Inside the warm, lantern-lit dining room, the atmosphere at the velvet booth was equally intense, though vastly different in execution.
The mont the two towering war machines disappeared behind the heavy curtains, Nikki imdiately slid across the leather seating, completely closing the distance between herself and i Lin.
i sat with her head bowed, her delicate hands trembling as she aggressively shredded a paper napkin in her lap.
"i," Nikki said softly, reaching out to gently cover the other woman’s frantic hands with her own. "Tell exactly what happened out there in the hall."
i took a jagged, shuddering breath. The dam broke, and the words spilled out in a rushed, heartbroken whisper.
"He was so gentle," i confessed, a single tear escaping to track down her porcelain cheek. "I was so terrified, but he didn’t yell. He used his own linen to wipe my face. He told to breathe. And then... we talked about the algorithms for the synthetic silks. He actually listened to , Nikki. He looked at like I was the most fascinating thing he had ever seen."
Well duh.
i looked up, her dark eyes swimming with profound disappointnt. "But it was a trick. The mont he realized I was compliant, he imdiately propositioned . He asked to take to his private quarters. He just wanted to sleep with , just like all the other administrative rumors said. I’m not a person to him. I’m just another female to have his way."
Nikki’s heart ached for the quiet data analyst. She absolutely hated seeing the bright, hopeful spark in i’s eyes extinguished so quickly.
Nikki did not want to defend B-02. If the southern general had been a human man, she would have already marched out to the terrace and shoved him off the balcony herself. But he wasn’t human. He was a Class-5 AI, and Nikki had spent the last three months learning the agonizing, terrifying, and beautiful process of how a machine learns to feel.
"i, listen to ," Nikki said, her voice firm but laced with deep empathy. "I am not excusing his behavior. It was incredibly stupid and incredibly insensitive. But you have to understand... this is just how he was trained."
i sniffled, looking entirely unconvinced. "Trained to be a womanizer?"
"Trained to operate on maximum efficiency," Nikki corrected gently. "These Generals were built for war, i. They were programd to identify an objective and secure it using the fastest, most direct route possible. B-02 doesn’t understand human courtship. He doesn’t understand that inviting you to his bedroom imdiately makes you feel cheap. To his logic core, he identified you as a high-value target, and he executed the standard protocol he has always used to secure biological units."
i processed the information, her brilliant mind slowly picking apart the chanical logic behind the emotional injury.
"But what if it’s a one-ti thing?" i whispered, her voice trembling with vulnerability. "What if I go with him, and he gets what he wants, and then tomorrow he simply deletes my biotric data from his priority list?"
Nikki squeezed i’s hands, leaning in close, her dark eyes burning with fierce, slum-forged conviction.
"Did he wipe the tear from anyone else’s face tonight?" Nikki challenged softly. "Did he ask anyone else about the synthetic silk algorithms? i, he broke his operational protocol for you in the hallway. That isn’t a one-ti variable. That is a core matrix overwrite."
i stared at Nikki, her heart hamring against her ribs.
"You understand his code better than anyone in that headquarters," Nikki urged, a small, encouraging smile touching her lips. "If you run away now, he will just revert to his baseline programming. But if you stand your ground and force him to adapt... you could change him. Why don’t you try?"
i looked down at her lap, her mind spinning. The fear of being discarded violently warred with the intoxicating mory of his erald eyes and the heavy, terrifying gentleness of his hands.
Before i could formulate an answer, the curtains at the back of the restaurant swept open.
The two Android Generals erged.
Adonis returned to the booth, his towering fra sliding into the seat beside Nikki. His eyes were a calm, protective blue, his large hand instantly finding its way back to her thigh, grounding himself in her presence.
But all of Nikki’s attention was fixed on the southern warlord.
B-02 did not look arrogant. The effortless, aristocratic slouch was entirely gone. He walked stiffly, his posture rigid with an unprecedented, highly unnatural tension. He stopped at the edge of the booth, looking down at the petite woman in the sapphire qipao.
B-02 sat down slowly on the plush velvet cushion opposite her. He placed his massive hands flat on the mahogany table.
he cleared his throat.
"i Lin," B-02 began, his voice low, heavy, and painstakingly deliberate. "I have executed a catastrophic miscalculation in my social paraters. My previous proposition regarding my private quarters was delivered with extre tactical inefficiency and a total disregard for your emotional matrix."
The entire table went dead silent. Nikki’s jaw practically hit the wood.
The arrogant, untouchable dictator of the Southern Grid looked directly into i’s wide, terrified eyes, completely lowering his defenses.
"I apologize to you, profoundly and entirely," B-02 stated, his erald eyes burning with an intense, desperate sincerity. "You are not a standard variable. I do not wish to process you. I wish to know you. Please... forgive my error."
i Lin sat absolutely paralyzed.
A Class-5 Unit, a machine engineered for absolute domination had just publicly admitted fault and bowed to her emotional boundaries. Nikki’s words echoed violently in her mind: He broke his operational protocol for you.
The fear evaporated, incinerated by a sudden, breathtaking surge of pure, unadulterated courage.
She lifted her chin, the delicate features of her face setting into resolve. A fierce, beautiful blush painted her cheeks as she leaned slightly forward across the table.
She looked directly into the green eyes of the warlord.
"General," she then softly asked, "Do you want to discuss more with back at my place?"
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