Human society entered the 22nd century, and the appearance of advanced intelligent robots continually transformed the entire Earth. The mysterious Benges Company was a biological chip company jointly founded by humans and robots. It supplied 60 percent of the world's biological chips, yet people knew nothing about the company. The company's original CEO was a robot named Benges. His partner, Loran, dismembered Benges and took control of him. Ambitious Loran excavated gold and rare minerals in the rugged mountain ranges beneath the world's oceans. To do so, he built an extensive network and underwater tunnels on the ocean floor. The company headquarters was located beneath a reef in the South Pacific that occasionally emerged above the water. In fact, beneath the reef lay an ocean-floor plateau. The reef was named Benges Reef.
Loran's subordinates were all robots. His important assistant, Sitaillong, handled the daily affairs of Benges Company according to Loran's orders.
A court in Xi'an was hearing the case of a robot named Xiao Ai, who had been charged with theft. Xiao Ai was a performance robot, and someone had maliciously installed theft software in her before she left the factory.
Judge Yang Tianli ordered Wang Kong, the engineer who built Xiao Ai, to appear in court. Wang Kong was shocked by Xiao Ai's strange behavior and said he wanted to take her back to the factory. Xiao Ai later escaped and went to Shanghai, where she met Haiya, a dancer in a song-and-dance troupe. The two performed at People's Square, attracting media attention. After Xiao Ai performed a magic trick and stole belongings from the audience, she was taken to a police station. Xiao Ai rose into the sky and arrived at Mount Putuo in Zhejiang. Just as she became lost in the air, the two Systems inside her began to conflict. Xiao Ai fell into a rice paddy and was discovered.
The judge hearing Xiao Ai's case, Yang
