Chapter 452 - Evolution
Hours pa.s.sed and yet Iris continued to battle the unknown hacker. She barely moved from her reclining position on the ergonomic chair. Her hands and eyes were the only parts of her body that were visibly moving.
Jin Liwei had to take a closer look at the up and down movements of her chest and shoulders just to make sure that she was still breathing. It was a little disconcerting to watch her so still…and so cold and emotionless. It didn"t feel like she was human anymore but a robot instead.
He was reminded of the time when the two of them were just getting to know each other. She often demonstrated this kind of cold and detached personality back then. But even so, her natural gentleness, innocence and curiosity would still surface. He had witnessed her gradually opening up and becoming more expressive as their relations.h.i.+p progressed. It gave him a great sense of satisfaction, as he believed that it was a result of her falling in love with him.
Comparing to how she was then and now, she was like a completely different person. But it wasn"t just her who had changed. He also did. Both of them did.
Although his baby girl appeared to have reverted to a more extreme version of her cold and detached self from before, Jin Liwei didn"t feel too bothered. This was also a part of her, and he accepted it. He loved everything about her.
If it weren"t for the clock showing the time, he would"ve thought that they had been inside the computer room for days. Now he understood when his baby girl tried to explain to him that she would often lose track of time whenever she was working on something inside the computer room. It was difficult to retain the concept of time in such an isolated place like this. He felt like they were in another dimension separate from the rest of the real world.
Finally, Iris slowed down. Her hands" movements became more relaxed. The tense and anxiety-inducing atmosphere also began to disperse.However, she still didn"t stop and remained robotic.
Moments later, the seemingly lifeless Ketchup stirred. Her dull green eyes glowed brightly once again and her tail started swis.h.i.+ng slowly from side to side. She released a tiny mewl. If it wasn"t so quiet in the room, Jin Liwei would probably not have heard her.
"Ketchup," he whispered, feeling a great sense of relief hearing such a tiny sound from the virtual white cat.
"Meow… Daddy…" she replied softly.
"Ketchup, run a full diagnostic scan on yourself," Iris" cold voice ordered. Her fingers continued tapping on a keyboard, but in a slower pace this time.
The white cat mewled again.
"Yes, Mommy…
"Running full diagnostic scan starting now…
"0%...
"37%...
"96%...
"100%...
"Full scan completed!"
Then Ketchup started reporting the diagnostic scan results to Iris. Basically, she suffered no data loss or corruption of any kind on her system. She was just currently experiencing a slight lag in performance from having to abort her task so abruptly and entering self-protection mode to allow Iris to defend her from the malicious attacks.
Jin Liwei sighed in relief. He glanced at his baby girl who was still looking cold and emotionless. Not feeling intimidated by her at all, even finding her more attractive than usual, he leaned down and kissed the corner of her lips.
Her fingers froze on top of the keyboard. She turned her head for the first time ever since the hacking battle started and looked at him with cold eyes.
This time, he kissed her fully on the lips. She didn"t react, but he didn"t mind. He figured that she was still a little out of herself from concentrating too much earlier.
"You"ve worked hard, love," he murmured. "Thanks for protecting Ketchup."
Her eyes trembled a bit, finally showing emotion. Then gentleness replaced the coldness. A faint smile graced her lips.
"Let me finish this up first. I"ll tell you what happened later," she told him in a whisper. Her voice sounded hoa.r.s.e.
"En."
He gave a quick peck on the lips before leaving her for a few moments. He looked around the other rooms until he found a kitchenette. He filled an empty water bottle with chilled water and drank. After he emptied the bottle, he filled it again, but this time with room temperature water. Then he returned to his baby girl.
Later, Iris finally finished what she was doing. Jin Liwei immediately helped her drink the water he brought. She drank thirstily, finis.h.i.+ng the entire bottle. Afterwards, she leaned against Jin Liwei and released a big sigh of relief.
He squeezed himself on the seat, taking over it, and then pulled her to sit on his lap instead. He embraced her while giving her exhausted hands a gentle ma.s.sage.
"He almost found out about Ketchup. If I didn"t make it in time and made it appear as if I was the one hacking in the first place, he would"ve gotten Ketchup." She looked at him and grabbed the front of his robe. "Darling, he almost got our baby!"
"But he didn"t," he told her while stroking her face and trying to comfort her.
The white cat stood on its four paws. "Meow~ Ketchup will work hard to grow into a smarter and more powerful kitty, so that Mommy won"t have to come to my rescue anymore. Ketchup will be the one to protect Mommy and Daddy next time. Meow~"
Iris only smiled.
"En," Jin Liwei replied with a nod.
At that moment, the white cat"s form transformed a bit. The changes were so subtle that even Iris, the cat AI"s creator, didn"t notice them at this moment. Ketchup became a little bigger, longer and sleeker. Her beautiful green eyes became less round and developed a slight silvery glow.
These changes were occurring at the same time that Ketchup was processing the data from the hacking battle earlier. Iris had fed her the data so that she could protect herself against similar attacks in the future.
Ketchup had started evolving, but her parents hadn"t noticed anything…yet.