"Is the quality of intelligent robots not good?"
Photos of damaged robots and various articles began circulating online. As soon as they appeared, they stirred up another wave of controversy and quickly caught the attention of the Marching Ant Company.
"It's really one wave after another," Zhao Min chuckled, though there was little humor in her tone. Since the launch of the robot, incidents just kept piling up.
But she wasn't surprised. The arrival of robots signaled a fundamental shift in human life—and with that kind of change, resistance was inevitable.
More incidents meant people were slowly adapting to the new reality.
For years, people fantasized about robots entering daily life. Now that they were here, people weren't so sure. It was the classic "Lord Ye loves dragons" paradox—some dreamed of it, but feared the reality. Fear of the unknown. Intelligent robots were real now, and they weren't going anywhere.
"What about him?" Zhao Min asked, turning to Xiao Yu.
"He's investigating the cause of the damaged robots in Building One," Xiao Yu replied.
...
In the lab, Chen Mo was carefully examining a robot laid out on the repair station. After activating it, he asked calmly, "How were you damaged?"
Fourteen robots had been sent back this week with abnormal damage reports. That many in such a short time was suspicious. If they were being used normally, this wouldn't happen. He'd been collecting robot data for a long time—this wasn't a quality control issue.
The damage was clearly man-made.
Meanwhile, online voices had begun claiming the robots were fragile, with poor quality control. As the creator, Chen Mo needed to know the truth. If he didn't, public opinion would spiral out of control again. These days, even a minor incident could get blown out of proportion by the media.
After he shut down five major water army companies last time, things went quiet—but that didn't mean they'd stay that way. The trolls knew better than to touch the Marching Ant Company again, but self-serving media was another story.
"Sir, I don't remember how I was damaged," the robot replied flatly.
To the robots, Chen Mo was always addressed as "Sir." He was their creator, and the designation was built into their core protocols.
A second-generation robot walked up and stopped beside him.
"Mister Mo, its data for that time period was corrupted and deleted. The same thing happened with other damaged units. When the data was lost, usage logs disappeared as well."
"No cloud backups?" Chen Mo asked.
"No. None of the robots were connected to the network during the damage incidents. But I found something unusual in one of the robots."
"What did you find?" he asked.
"Combat techniques."
The robot pointed to the monitor beside the repair station. A short video played, showing fight sequences and martial arts demonstrations—alongside logs of a robot's self-learning data.
Chen Mo raised an eyebrow. "Interesting. Someone's trying to teach robots how to fight."
The method was crude, but oddly effective.
"Pull up the profiles of all the owners whose robots were returned," Chen Mo ordered.
A list popped up on the side screen—over a dozen profiles.
"They all have one thing in common: they're rich," the robot noted.
"No surprise there," Chen Mo said with a wry smile. "Run a cross-analysis of the places they've visited recently."
Although these owners were scattered across different cities and provinces, he was sure there was a link.
"Dots represent the robot GPS logs. Lines show their mobile location data. Different colors represent different individuals."
A map appeared, layered with various colored trails and dots. Normally, this sort of data remained dormant unless needed to track a lost unit—but this situation called for exceptions.
"Zoom in on Donghai City," Chen Mo instructed, pointing at a convergence of several paths. "What's here? What's this gathering point?"
"Free Club."
...
That evening, outside a high-end club in Binhai, Cai Liang sat in a luxury car, eyeing the building with curiosity.
In the driver's seat was Huang Mao, a wealthy second-generation with more connections than sense. The Free Club was a private venue known only to the upper crust. Lately, it had become a hotspot for something new.
"You sure that Blue Girl of yours can win?" Cai Liang glanced at the seductive female robot in the back seat.
"Of course," Huang Mao grinned. "She's already earned me a few wins—made over 500 grand. My robot's back at the Marching Ant Company for repairs, so I borrowed yours for tonight. As long as they don't figure out our secret, we can make a fortune."
"Fine." Cai Liang nodded, trying to play it cool.
The car slid into the underground lot, and they disembarked with the robot following obediently.
At the entrance, a female supervisor greeted them.
"Huang Shao, welcome back," she smiled. Her gaze shifted to Cai Liang. "And this is…?"
"My buddy, Brother Liang. First time here."
"Come in," she said, leading them through a stairwell and into the club's basement. "The next match starts in about half an hour. Want to relax first? Or maybe learn a foreign language?" she offered coyly.
"Learning's fine and all, but I'm not in the mood for speed dating tonight," Huang Mao winked at her.
The woman smirked and turned to Cai Liang. "You? We offer lessons in Japanese, Russian, English, Korean, Vietnamese—even Hindi."
"No thanks," Cai Liang replied flatly.
He wasn't interested in games. He just wanted to see what kind of underground event Huang Mao had been talking about.
The two followed her deeper into the basement, where muffled shouting echoed behind a closed door.
"Get ready to see something wild," Huang Mao grinned, pushing open the door.
A rush of noise hit them.
The air reeked of perfume, alcohol, and sweat. Lights bathed the venue in a gaudy glow. In the center stood a metal cage, surrounded by cheering guests—showgirls, businessmen, elegant ladies, even proper-looking corporate types—all screaming like they'd gone mad.
Everyone seemed to be releasing their inner beast. It was raw and unfiltered.
Cai Liang blinked. Many faces here were familiar—entrepreneurs and celebrities who looked dignified in public. But now…
Inside the cage, two muscular men were throwing brutal punches with practiced precision.
"Underground boxing?" Cai Liang murmured.
Huang Mao and Cai Liang were escorted to a private viewing room with one-way glass overlooking the ring.
"You'll be called soon. Here's your number," the supervisor said before leaving them alone.
"Pretty exciting, right?" Huang Mao said.
Cai Liang rolled his eyes.
"I've seen better. Bars are more my scene."
"Bars are old news," Huang Mao said with a grin. "This is the new game."
Ten minutes later, one of the fighters collapsed, face bloodied. The crowd erupted.
The cage was cleaned, and the emcee stepped forward.
"And now—tonight's main event…"
The crowd fell into a hush.
"Robot fighting!"