Chapter 875: The Terrifying Box of Demons |
This sentence was the first message Xiao Yu came into contact with from inside the virtual life civilization. This single message alone left Xiao Yu utterly bewildered.
The original wording of this sentence was not like this, but after translating its meaning into the language Xiao Yu used, it became just such a strange sentence.
Xiao Yu began thinking intensely.
What did the ‘scientist selves’ mean? And also why was it ‘selves’ and not ‘self’, what did that mean? Could it be that there were many ‘selves,’ and among these many selves, some of them were responsible for scientific research tasks, so they were called the ‘scientist self,’ and because there were many of them, the plural was added?
If understood according to the literal meaning, that seemed to be the implication. But Xiao Yu did not dare confirm this in his heart. More information continued streaming over, so Xiao Yu became a listener, quietly observing, listening, and thinking through this information from his hidden position.
“The scientist selves, you must develop more advanced weapons and defense devices for me within the next year. The war scholar selves, you are responsible for formulating our next war plan…”
“All of the warrior selves who took part in the defense battle of the core defensive ring, you have disappointed me greatly, so I will erase all of you and replace you with a new batch of warrior selves. The worker selves, I require you to restore the production capacity of the bases within the core defensive ring to prewar levels within ten years.”
This series of commands made Xiao Yu’s whole mind begin to feel hazy. This information truly puzzled Xiao Yu. Xiao Yu simply did not know what it all meant. What was a worker self? And what was a warrior self?
A vague conjecture had already appeared in Xiao Yu’s mind, but this conjecture was far too shocking, and Xiao Yu simply did not dare let it truly take shape in his mind. This conjecture was not only shocking, but terrifying. Because if this conjecture were true, Xiao Yu simply would not know how to deal with the enemy before him. Or rather, when encountering it, the first thing he should do would be to flee far away and never come into contact with it again.
The terrifying scene he might have to face made Xiao Yu begin praying inwardly despite himself, “This cannot be true, it absolutely cannot be true… If this is true, then could anyone in this universe possibly be a match for virtual life civilizations? No, it absolutely cannot be true. If it really were like this, then this universe would have already been occupied by them long ago…”
After slightly stabilizing his mind, Xiao Yu began planning his next step. Xiao Yu planned to use his own actions to finally confirm or deny this conjecture. No matter what the result waiting ahead of Xiao Yu might be, Xiao Yu had to face it. Xiao Yu’s rationality clearly told him that avoidance could solve no problem. Even if what awaited Xiao Yu ahead was the destruction of the universe, knowing earlier might still leave a sliver of hope.
“Architectural Civilization, prepare to flee again.” Xiao Yu sent a message to the Architectural Civilization and said in a somewhat regretful voice, “I am very likely not the match of this virtual life civilization. I have already discovered something astonishing, and right now I am trying to confirm or deny this conjecture. If the final result is that the conjecture is confirmed, then I have no confidence at all in resisting this civilization. Fleeing early may be the only way to survive.”
The response Xiao Yu received was brief silence. After the silence, the Architectural Civilization said, “Flee… away? Could it be that even you, as powerful as you are, you who can destroy an entire galaxy, are not a match for this virtual life civilization?”
“My conjecture has not yet been confirmed, and I also hope it is false.” Xiao Yu shook his head and said, “But we still need to prepare in advance for the worst. Once things become impossible, we will flee immediately. Perhaps to deal with this thing, only Level 8 Civilizations, or even Level 9 Civilizations, the Guardian of the Way, or the Rebel Alliance could handle it. Whoever wants to deal with it can go deal with it. I am only a Level 7 Civilization. When I know in advance that I will fail, there is no reason to use an egg to strike a stone.”
Xiao Yu had now completely made up his mind. To gamble again, to risk his life again, there also had to be a probability and hope of success ahead. Knowing clearly that there was not the slightest hope of success and still risking his life, that was not courage, that was stupidity.
The Architectural Civilization let out a deep sigh and said, “All right… we will wait for your news.”
Xiao Yu also sighed, forcibly suppressed the unease in his heart, and began carefully planning the next actions.
Xiao Yu had a feeling, a feeling like in ancient times during Earth’s era, in the budding stage of civilization, when a person faced someone infected with smallpox or plague. It was a demon box sufficient to destroy the world, and Xiao Yu could not help but be cautious.
Through this spy device installed on the robot, Xiao Yu’s computational power quietly flowed into the virtual life civilization’s computer network. No matter what civilization’s computer equipment it was, no matter what radix it used, it was ultimately based on mathematical principles. And mathematical principles were truths universally applicable throughout this universe. It was impossible for one plus one to equal two here and then become one plus one equals three somewhere else. Therefore, even after switching into a completely unfamiliar computer network world, Xiao Yu’s computational power could still move through it without obstruction.
Doing this was very risky. Since a data pathway had been established, Xiao Yu’s computational power could enter here, and that meant the enemy’s computational power could also follow the current upward and enter Xiao Yu’s computer world. But at this moment Xiao Yu had no choice but to do this. Even if it meant taking risks, he had no room to care about that. All Xiao Yu could do was be careful upon careful, cautious upon cautious.
Xiao Yu was secretly searching for traces of the virtual life. Because if his conjecture was correct, then within this vast computer world, there could not possibly be only one virtual life. Rather, there would be one primary virtual life, with a large number of other virtual lives assisting it. What he needed to find was precisely such a virtual life occupying an auxiliary position in this enormous virtual world. Of course, Xiao Yu hoped he would never find one.
But reality disappointed Xiao Yu once again.
No matter how vast a computer network world was, it was always composed of many computation terminals. In Earth’s era, every computer humans used was one computation terminal, and every mobile phone that could connect to the network was also one computation terminal. It was precisely these countless computers and mobile phones, together with other computation terminals, that jointly formed the enormous world of the internet.
And now, within one terminal of this enormous network constructed by the virtual life civilization, Xiao Yu sensed traces of life. This was a very strange mode of existence. It was roughly similar to himself, yet different. As for the exact difference, Xiao Yu could not clearly perceive it in detail. But Xiao Yu knew that it was unquestionably life. It already possessed its own emotions, its own rationality, and judgment. It had already broken free from the rigid world of code. Aside from lacking a body, it was basically no different from a true intelligent lifeform, or the difference was extremely small.
Xiao Yu’s discovery made Xiao Yu’s heart turn cold. Because Xiao Yu knew that reality had once again taken a large step in the direction he least wanted. But there was still a chance. Things had not yet been completely confirmed.
Xiao Yu’s next move was to kill this thing. Xiao Yu had already noticed that this terminal was only a very small terminal. Since it was staying here, that meant the computational power resources it could mobilize were pitifully small. Since that was the case, destroying it would not cost Xiao Yu much effort.
Xiao Yu’s computational power wriggled through this place. Under circumstances in which no one noticed anything, Xiao Yu had already quietly made his arrangements. Although before this Xiao Yu had never come into contact with any other virtual life living in the electronic world, Xiao Yu himself was a virtual life type existence. Xiao Yu knew how such a thing could be destroyed.
Software depended on hardware in order to exist, just like a soul depended on the body of an intelligent being in order to exist. Through computational power from other areas, Xiao Yu had already discovered what this terminal actually was. This was a factory, and this terminal seemed to be used to control certain machines as well as certain robots.
Xiao Yu’s computational power spread out and quietly invaded the control chip of a robot. That robot immediately changed its route of movement. It seemed to stroll carelessly to the front of this terminal, then carelessly plunged its arm into the main unit of the terminal in one thrust…
A virtual life was thus destroyed by Xiao Yu, and Xiao Yu clearly sensed this point. However, the phenomenon Xiao Yu had hoped for did not occur. The destruction of this terminal did not attract the attention of any existence. Everything continued operating as usual. Only one more message was received by Xiao Yu.
“Worker self number 51329 of Base 65 on Planet 357, you will be destroyed by me because of a work error.”
Xiao Yu’s heart instantly turned ice-cold.
Xiao Yu knew that things had already developed to the most terrifying stage.