AI Artist - Chapter 37
Chapter 37
At two in the morning in the Evil Cat Nightclub, a black and white dog lay by the window, watching the moon.
When Shi Er passed by, she felt something wasn’t quite right. She had already walked a few steps past but turned back.
Why was there a dog here?
Shi Er offered a friendly greeting, “Hello, may I ask where you’re from?”
The dog wagged its tail, also expressing friendliness, but its eyes remained fixed on the moon outside the window.
Shi Er hadn’t downloaded a dog language translation program, so she didn’t know what the little dog meant. For now, she could only leave the dog that had snuck into the cat nightclub and go ask her robot colleague.
Her robot colleague was opening a door for cats in the “Arbitrary Door” area.
That ordinary “Arbitrary Door” led to a small room. Several cats were already waiting outside, each one meowing its heart out while scratching the door with its paws, looking desperate to rush in and save someone.
The cat language translator next to them displayed: [Let me in! Let me in!]
The robot opened the Arbitrary Door. The cats stopped their meowing, satisfied, and walked through it.
The Arbitrary Door closed automatically. Ten seconds later, the cats began meowing again from behind the door.
The cat language translator displayed: [Let me out! Let me out!]
The robot opened the Arbitrary Door, and the cats walked out one by one.
Seven seconds later, facing the closed door, the cats started meowing again.
Cat language translator: [Let me in! Let me in!]
So that’s what “Arbitrary Door” meant. The “arbitrary” was of that nature.
“Why not install a voice-activated automatic door?” Shi Er asked casually.
Her robot colleague explained, “If it were an automatic door, the cats wouldn’t want to go in. Cats don’t do things that don’t require bothering humans.”
Shi Er worriedly brought up the moon-gazing dog. “There’s a dog in the regular booth area. Is that normal?”
The robot replied, “That’s an exchange student from the nearby dog school. The dog’s name is Comet, and it’s been showing some signs of depression lately.”
“Little Comet has something that’s troubling it deeply. The psychological counselor said it needs to share this with more companions and receive ample and diverse advice, so they sent it to the cat school for a one-month exchange.”
The advice from its companions at the dog school was invariably along these lines: 【Just rush in, and you’ll be fine!】【It’ll definitely come back!】【It’s okay, cheer up, we’ll help you!】
All the cat students at the school were very nice to Comet, consciously taking on the role of “psychological healers.”
When Comet walked, there were always a few cats rubbing against its side.
The moment Comet lay down, several cats would sprout on its body. Some would curl up into a ball to nap, while others would knead with their front paws.
When Comet and the cats were tired from playing, they would lean against each other and sleep.
And the advice from its companions at the cat school was, as expected, different from its dog friends. The advice from its cat classmates was mostly along these lines: 【Kill everything!】【Destroy this world!】【We’ll help you make everything thoroughly explode, so you won’t have to worry about separation.】
“The psychological counselor came to check on Comet yesterday and found that its condition had indeed improved quite a bit. It seems more diverse advice was truly needed.”
The atmosphere at the cat school was indeed different from the dog school.
Shi Er took the initiative to ask, “So, does little Comet still need more advice?”
The robot nodded. “Yes, I think Comet still needs more advice, because it still looks very troubled. If you’re willing to help, you can give it a try.”
Shi Er picked up a dog language translator from the nightclub counter.
She walked to the regular booth area. Comet was still by the window, staring intently at the moon in the night sky. Hearing her approach, it wagged its tail in a friendly manner.
Shi Er turned on the dog language translator.
Shi Er: 【Are you looking at the moon, or a frisbee hanging in the sky?】
Comet: 【Woof, I’m looking at the moon.】
Shi Er: 【Do you know what the moon is?】
Comet: 【A very far away place, wooo…】
Shi Er was surprised by the little dog’s perception of the moon. She asked again: 【Do you have a friend on the moon?】
Comet: 【I have a friend wooo…】
Shi Er thought the little dog had dreamed about a friend on the moon and pressed on: 【A friend from a dream?】
Comet: 【Not woof, it’s my friend.】
Shi Er: 【What’s your friend’s name?】
Comet: 【Its name is Meteor. It’s a dog that’s a little different from me. I heard it went to the moon.】
Shi Er searched the General Network.
Meteor, a robot dog. Like the electric sheep in the museum, it looked identical to a real dog but was an electronic dog with a mechanical chip. It could speak dog language and knew a great deal.
In March of this year, the robot dog Meteor came to its hometown—the Gugang Port dog school—and played with the other dog students for a month.
In May of this year, the robot dog Meteor boarded the “Laika” spacecraft to explore the solar system and has not yet returned.
The robot dog Meteor’s appearance was based on a stray dog, and that stray dog was Comet.
So, when the robot dog Meteor returned to its hometown dog school to play, it became friends with the similar-looking little dog, Comet.
Shi Er finally understood what was troubling Comet.
It was worried about the robot dog Meteor.
She also finally understood why the advice from the dog and cat students was so different. The dog students believed “Meteor will definitely come back safely,” while the cat students believed “whether Meteor comes back or not, the world sent Meteor far away, the world is vicious, kill the world.”
And at this moment, the little dog, worried about its friend, lay by the window. Its tail had stopped wagging, and it stared outside with a listless air.
Shi Er thought for a moment and told the little dog a story: 【In human history, there was a stray dog named Laika.】
Comet finally tore its gaze away from the moon outside and looked at her: 【Laika, woof?】
Shi Er: 【Yes, its name was Laika. One day, Laika’s life as a stray ended, and it entered a peculiar space dog school. There, Laika and other stray dogs trained in certain activities every day. They were somewhat painful games, and of course, it didn’t understand what they were. Humans called them space training programs.】
Centrifuge training, vibration stimulation training, and other programs that simulated the environment inside a space capsule.
Comet: 【Was Laika awarded the title of ‘Good Doggy’?】
Shi Er: 【Laika was indeed awarded the title of ‘Good Doggy.’ It was the most outstanding dog in that space dog school. It calmly endured every program.】
Comet: 【Woof, that’s great! Did Laika get to eat yummy food?】
Shi Er: 【I’m sorry, I must tell you, the truth is that Laika did not get to eat yummy food. It had to get used to things with the texture of slugs.】
That was nutritional gel.
Comet tucked its tail between its legs: 【Wooo… slugs, what are they?】
Shi Er: 【Laika finally graduated from the dog school. It was the best dog in the project tests, so it boarded a spaceship.】
Comet’s eyes widened: 【Did it go to the moon?】
Shi Er, true to her AI nature, stated the facts with a touch of cruelty but respect for the truth: 【No, Laika died.】
The stray dog Laika was the first living creature in human history to enter space, the first step taken to test manned flight technology.
It was gentle, calm, tough, and patient.
According to the official account at the time, Laika died peacefully in the space capsule after eating a final, poisoned meal as planned.
But decades later, someone disclosed the truth: changes in its heart rate transmitted by the instruments proved that Laika had been baked alive.
Due to a malfunction in the thermal insulation, Laika endured high temperatures and pressure inside the space capsule. Suffocation and panic overwhelmed it, and a moment later, the instruments no longer transmitted any signs of life from Laika.
Shi Er didn’t mention these details, but little Comet’s ears still drooped. Its body curled up, twitching, and its round, black eyes welled up with moisture.
The little dog was crying.
Following the instructions in a canine psychology manual, Shi Er stroked Comet’s head, her movements a little clumsy.
Shi Er: 【The spacecraft Meteor boarded is called the ‘Laika.’】
Comet: 【Woooo woooo woooo.】
Shi Er: 【But I found the published signal data from the ‘Laika.’ Do you want to hear it?】
One of Comet’s droopy ears perked up, and it tilted its head in confusion: 【Wooo?】
Shi Er read out the data published daily on the “Laika’s” official website: 【June first, beep beep beep, in flight, signal from Meteor. June twentieth, landed on Venus ahead of schedule, signal from Meteor. July second, beep beep beep, in flight, signal from Meteor…】
Every day, there was signal data from the robot dog Meteor, detailing how long it charged, how long it rested, and how long it reviewed data.
Both of Comet’s ears perked up: 【I don’t understand… but is it really Meteor, woof?】
Shi Er: 【It’s really Meteor. It’s a very outstanding good doggy. It knows a lot, can adapt well to life in a space capsule, and it has already gone to a place farther than the moon. It’s expected to return next May.】
Comet was both sad and happy. It looked at the moon outside the window.
Shi Er formally offered her advice for the little dog’s troubles, as requested by the psychological counselor: 【Comet, my advice to you is, I can read you the signals from Meteor every day, until it returns safely next May.】
Comet’s spirits lifted: 【Okay! Woof!】
Shi Er contacted the staff at the cat school, hoping to get Comet a canine remote audio device so she could broadcast the news from the robot dog to it every day.
In the night sky outside the window, the craters on the moon were faintly visible.
Once, the electronic coffin carrying Laika’s body drifted in space for half a year before falling into the atmosphere and burning up.
Now, something like that would never happen again.
The robot dog Meteor, created to commemorate Laika, dutifully recorded data. And on Earth, a little dog was waiting for it to come back, believing that it certainly would.
Get instant access to all the chapters now.
Comments
Post a Comment