Chuneng City.

On the huge glass walls of numerous factories, real-time workflows for surveying, development, and mining operations are displayed in a loop.

Suddenly, all glass screens go black.

White text appears on them.

These texts, composed of various languages, are circulating on every screen.

There are only two sentences.

"Do you know the truth about work?"

"Do you want to truly live?"

This scene caused many passing city residents to stop in their tracks, each becoming somewhat bewildered.

Alarms quickly sounded throughout the city.

Drones circled overhead, initiating a citywide search.

Public loudspeakers began to sound.

"Citizens, our city has been invaded by the 'Sunday Virus'. Please immediately shut down your mechanical stack services and use physical connections to exchange information until the danger has been eliminated."

"This virus spreads very rapidly, capable of damaging mechanical life, cognitive abilities, and order programs, triggering a destructive inclination. It is a Class A dangerous material."

"If you receive this program, please immediately report it and isolate the program as soon as possible to avoid further impact on your behavior and mental damage."

"Whether you are mechanical life, Guangna Species, or human, please do not gather. Return to your own houses or public houses and await a city-wide inspection and test by the Program Department."

"I repeat, please all citizens return to your own houses and await the inspection and test."

The announcements began to loop.

City residents scrambled away one by one, and the broad streets quickly became deserted and lonely.

The once incessant transport fleet also disappeared without a trace.

Following the crowd, 703 also made its way back to its box-type public house.

It used to be a surveyor for the Mine Department, but two years ago, it was downgraded to E due to no skill improvement and further aging of its body. As a result, it was adjusted to a temporary surveyor.

This position in the Mine Department is only called upon when there is a shortage of staff, with a very low hourly wage, practically akin to unemployment, just not counted as such.

703's predicament is the typical state of mechanical life with no hope for advancement.

What follows is annual aging, a vicious cycle, until being completely abandoned by mechanical society and slowly dying.

It lay in its 100x40x50cm tin public house, with just enough space inside for 703 to stand up straight, unable to turn around, only able to back into it.

Objectively speaking, the public houses of Chuneng City are not bad; they have free regular dry dehumidification, and each house gets a small bottle of lubricating oil at the end of the year.

Many mechanical cities lack these two benefits, merely creating a box that can accommodate a mechanical body.

703 opened a half door, letting the outside light come in.

It played with a stone ball with its forelimbs.

This stone ball, made by polishing pebbles, was round, black and white in color, and was the only toy 703 had.

It learned to play with it from humans. Humans also play with stone balls, which they call "marbles," by shooting rounded stones to hit each other, winning the stone of the opponent if hit.

703 couldn't find anyone to play this with.

The survey team was always busy, monitored by data recording during work and could not do anything else.

Wages were calculated based on work duration.

After returning, some went for repairs and upgrades, some for evaluation and physical tests, or they stayed briefly in their public or private houses using an Energy Pack for recharging.

Time was too valuable.

No one wanted to waste it on stone balls.

703 thought, it was also because it was unemployed that it could afford the time to play this.

As it rolled the stone ball back and forth in the haystack, 702 downstairs knocked on the tin sheet.

"Quiet down! 703!"

"Sorry, okay."

703 had to stop.

It seemed it still could only go out to play with its stone.

At that moment, a small four-wheeled vehicle appeared outside the public house, the vehicle topped with a square metal box and an orange-yellow rotatable metal arm.

"Program Department, law enforcement car inspection."

"Please open your physical interface."

703 popped open a seal flap on its side, and a copper wire port extended from the other's metal arm, establishing a physical connection.

The screen on the law enforcement car displayed [loading...1%]

2%

3%

...

Until the 100% check was complete.

The law enforcement car retracted its plug: "Resident number 4017, thank you for your cooperation. After inspection, your program remains consistently stable and safe, with no signs of infection. Please continue to maintain."

"For the safety of the city order and every mechanical life, Chuneng City will provide every citizen with a defense program 'Demon Mirror' developed by Mirror City. With the city subsidy, it can be installed for just 5 Light Seeds. For details, please check the services of the Program Department on the city page."

The law enforcement car left.

703 thought, 5 Light Seeds were nothing to advanced Professionals, but it was a huge sum for someone like itself close to unemployment.

The Program Department always set prices without considering whether residents could afford them, only based on overall expenses and costs.

Night fell.

703 left the public house, with the stone ball on its back, and left the city along the street, reaching an abandoned mine pit outside.

Then it activated the fragmentarily hidden "Sunday" program within it.

It detected two of its kind.

703 first ran to a mine entrance and sent a message inside.

"For the holiday."

A blue, wax-polished sedan slowly drove out, immaculately maintained, its hubcaps nearly spotless, elegant and exquisite all over.

703 was taken aback.

"Guste, it's you?"

"What's so surprising about that?"

This Rolls-Royce family mechanical lifeform spoke with its high-end custom speaker, saying, "To strive for one's basic rights is a duty every mechanical lifeform should fulfill."

Guste was a senior advisor in the Program Department and a member of the Rolls-Royce family. It had made its fortune by investing in cities quite early and owned a considerable amount of Light Seeds in its account, regardless of its activities.

It truly belonged to the upper echelons of the mechanical society.

703 remained cautious: "How can I trust you?"

"You don't have to trust me, but I am here for the sake of Sunday."

The other calmly stated, "Mechanical lifeforms should have their own holidays. It's absurd and sad that rest is currently defined as laziness and shameful."

"I like and endorse your initiative; it was not work that created us, and I can choose to work or not to work. The increasing intensity at work materializes mechanical lifeforms, fostering unnecessary internal vicious competition. For the entire community of mechanical lifeforms, this is exceedingly dangerous."

Guste slowly continued, "Though I'm not worried about Light Seeds. In my view, such a mechanical society has enormous flaws, like a building continuously having its foundations hollowed out, now on the brink of collapse."

"I have reasons to suspect that certain groups are exacerbating this situation."

"They squeeze time, encourage frenetic acceleration, and dominate the extreme consumption within Mechanical City, turning mechanical lifeforms into divided, interest-related competitors, unable to truly unite and cooperate."

"The widespread dissemination of the 'Sunday' is a clear signal, indicating more and more mechanical lifeforms agree with this point; otherwise, it would have been squashed in its infancy."

"To dismantle the iron curtain covering the entire mechanical society, we must first open a breakthrough. Your campaigns are straightforward, demanding the right to six days of work and one day of rest, representing a joint counterattack against the invisible manipulators. I'd like to join and contribute what I can."

"You can consider that I have nothing else to do, but to me, this is a noble cause. I want to alter the current distorted and destructive situation and steer the mechanical community back onto the right track."

From its expression, Guste had a deep understanding of "Sunday."

Thus, 703 no longer questioned it.

The principle of "Sunday" is simple, supporting the movement, helping to spread, or providing help, all count as insiders.

Then 703 found another mechanical lifeform in a rubble area.

It was a mobile traffic light.

Its voice was somewhat weak: "My name is Sai Nuojie… I don't know if this is right. But I always felt that since my job also includes phenomena like red lights stopping, stopping and resting must also be part of nature."

"As a mechanical lifeform, I don't understand why we can't rest. But I know many vehicles break down from overworking, and some even end up in accidents or death."

"I am afraid of dying... so I hope everyone can rest!"

This one was quite normal.

703 told them, "You all checked the deep data of the 'Sunday' program and signed a deep agreement to arrange a meeting here."

"First, let me state that the Mechanical Knight Order is currently not recognized by all parties, and our advocacy of the holiday is considered disruptive viruses and terrorist activities by Mechanical City. Thus, every member of the Knight Order is constantly in danger."

"Are you sure you want to join us?"

Guste: "Of course, otherwise why would I come here? Any significant change always comes with risks."

Sai Nuojie: "I'm sure."

"Your courage, I admire and appreciate."

703 added, "Then, as the captain of the Mechanical Knight Order's Chuneng City squad, I welcome both of you as members. Now, everyone here is a comrade in the Knight Order."

Guste suddenly asked, "But there's one thing I don't understand. Why can't the security programs of the Program Department detect and lock the 'Sunday'?"

"Because this is a program we developed independently, not by mimicry and assembly, but a technology where we have mastered the source code. Allow me to keep the specific technical details confidential for now."

703 said somewhat proudly.

Guste further asked, "Our Knight Order has such strong technology; there must be backers behind it, right?"

703 did not respond.

Sai Nuojie then asked, "What do we do now?"

703 then said, "The campaign in Chuneng City is completed, so we need to move. Guste, given your special status, can you leave Chuneng City?"

"Of course, I often roam around, it's usual for the Rolls-Royce family."

"What about you, Sai Nuojie? Are you willing to give up the job here?"

"That... certainly, I was about to be jobless soon anyway."

703 stated, "Good, then we will be heading southwest."

Guste asked, "What's the target?"

"Our ultimate goal is the Sand Port Region, Wasteland Development Company. However, along the way, we will spread 'Sunday' through various Mechanical Cities."

The response was surprised, "Does the Knight Order want to take action there? That company is tough to deal with. Last winter they bombed Duke Destructive's homeland, forced the Heavenly Country Governor into negotiations; rumors say Duke Destructive paid quite a sum under the table, even relinquishing lands, including the tributary tribes. The company is very strong."

"Are you sure about taking action there?"

"Guste, allow me to correct your words once again. We are promoting the holiday, allowing mechanical lifeforms to temporarily break free from work slavery to better survive."

703 emphasized, "Our sole enemy is the existing rotten order that shackles our brethren. Going to the Sand Port Region is because the area is enlightened, and neither the Heavenly Kingdom nor Mechanical City can intervene."

"It's time to depart."

Guste said, "Then you guys hop aboard; you're too slow."

So, it carried the other two aboard and drove south.

703 watched Chuneng City grow smaller in the rearview mirror.

It was unsure what exactly the company was all about.

But the tales of Zhou Yi, that company's chairman, were indeed well known; he is a very peculiar human.

Hoping all goes well this time.

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