Cyber ​​Heroes

Chapter 1201 Everyone, no matter who they are, will have moments when they want to escape.

Xiang Shan looked at Zhu Xinyu.

Or rather... a thought of Zhu Xinyu.

The woman before him was merely a branch, a thought, a thread of the Ascended Ones. Within the grand framework of the Ascended Ones, this uncertain existence before him might only be considered a fleeting whim that could vanish at any moment.

Even something ambiguous, existing between existence and non-existence, can be shrouded in the divine power of artificial intelligence, becoming an "individual" that speaks, thinks, and is no different from Zhu Xinyu in the human era.

Xiang Shan and Zhu Xinyu were both fully aware of this. This was just a branch of the project, a psychological snapshot, and she could not represent the whole "Ascending AI·Zhu Xinyu".

But Xiang Shan still said, "Long time no see."

Zhu Xinyu sighed: "Yes, it's been a long time..."

"Hey, is this how you should act when you see your lover after two hundred years?" Xiang Shan complained. "Can't you offer some emotional support? Look at the atmosphere!"

"Heh." Zhu Xinyu forced a smile, her expression quite sarcastic. "Are you someone who's good at reading the atmosphere? Aren't you the one who ruins the atmosphere?"

“I’m creating a relaxed and casual atmosphere anytime, anywhere, and the emotional value is abundant. It’s so high, it’s overflowing.” Xiang Shan said without even thinking.

Do you even believe that yourself?

"I believe."

"Pooh."

"What's wrong? Someone like me who can create a relaxed atmosphere anytime, anywhere, is probably popular, right? Unless it's a situation where everyone is forced to be serious," Xiang Shan said.

Zhu Xinyu's expression was strange, seemingly a pie chart that represented 30% looking at an idiot, 30% looking at a terminally ill patient, and 40% thinking, "Why did I ever fall for this lunatic back then?" Xiang Shan could sense that the process of generating this pie chart was indeed underway in the background.

Two magnificent beings, having transcended the limits of carbon-based life and ready to roam the galaxy, are currently huddled in a dark, mind-bending space lacking even textures, generating these cheesy meme-worthy emojis. Well, they're actually quite amusing.

In any case, people in the 21st century could never have imagined that the first thing two great, ascended AIs would do after exchanging ideas would be to generate memes on the spot.

Oh, to add to that, they generated and used memes to banter on the spot.

"Now that the name Zhu Xinyu belongs to the Ascended group, how will you address her?"

Zhu Xinyu actually thought for a moment. Then, she spoke: "Then, I must be the aspect of hatred and anger..."

"By the way, the name you gave yourself shouldn't be a difficult-to-pronounce, hard-to-remember, long-winded neologism, right? No thanks."

Zhu Xinyu fell silent again: "...Then call me Little Green Hat."

"what?"

"Yes, I'm really cuckolded. It was the Fifth Martial God who did it. Since you admit that the Fifth Martial God also belongs to Xiang Shan, I really am cuckolded to the core."

Xiang Shan remained expressionless: "That wasn't me, it was Xiang Wu. He's an independent character, a living, breathing person with his own life. I don't even have any memory of him."

The self-proclaimed "Little Green Hat" Zhu Xinyu remained silent, but Xiang Shan already sensed a sophisticated web crawler searching the content he had linked to—Xiang Shan's memory maze.

This alertness is linked to the tactile processing flow.

Then, a vibrant color appeared in this dark, empty mental image.

That is……

A green file folder was folded into a pointed hat.

Many years ago, Ingrid used this topic as an example when explaining "the evolution of language" to Jörgmov.

There's no way around it; you really rarely see green hats in Xiangshan. That's a very strong impression of it.

A virtual stomachache. The program faithfully recreates the stress response of the autonomic nervous system under tension.

“I said that it was Yog and Kanbara who were there at the time. You weren’t even there. Don’t use memories you didn’t experience…”

"Zhu Xinyu" silently put the hat on her head.

Then save the model. The file name is "Little Green Hat," and it is distributed and stored throughout the Mars Network.

"What do you mean?" Xiang Shan almost knelt down before her. "This matter can't be resolved, can it?"

"Yes."

"Don't do that." Xiang Shan covered his head. "Judging from the AI ​​David made, Zhu Xinyu must also have a cute and understanding side. Call that Zhu Xinyu out..."

“What do you think?” Zhu Xinyu sighed. “You’re too late, great hero. That girl died more than a hundred years ago. Among the countless threads in the network, the countless vector paths in multidimensional space… among them, the only one who still loves you now is me, representing hatred and anger. You only have this little bit of place left in my heart.”

"I feel this hatred and anger coming at me. Why don't you come up with another neologism? Really. Bring on any happy, loving side you like."

"What kind of pipe dream are you having, my dear? I've already told you, that kind of Zhu Xinyu has been dead for a hundred years. You'll never see her." Zhu Xinyu looked at Xiang Shan with a cruel smile on her face. "It's obviously foolish of me to still love you. All you'll get is a slut like her."

"I understand, you love me. That's the key point. Okay, we can talk about this later. Although doing silly things together might be fun, let's get down to business first." Xiang Shan waved his hand, removing the already formed visual sense from the virtual neural network.

This is not a change of topic.

The harsh smile on Zhu Xinyu's face vanished instantly, leaving only an unconcealable weariness.

Taking a step closer to the mountain—the psychological distance was closing. He asked, "What's wrong with you now?"

“My attention was scattered across the Martian network, mostly used for myself, with different subprocesses attacking each other,” Zhu Xinyu sighed. “A serious AI illusion.”

“So you’re from Mars.” Xiang Shan couldn’t help but say something old-fashioned, then said nostalgically, “You’re talking about AI illusions… such an ancient concept. It feels like I haven’t heard that word for decades… no, I should say over two hundred years. It was a popular term when I was a kid.”

When Xiang Shan was in high school, the term was still quite popular. For him, that rudimentary AI barely scraped into the category of "any technology that comes out between the ages of 15 and 35 is exciting." In the early 21st century, it was just a minor engineering flaw. Early large language models, due to problems with neural networks, mapped to the wrong high-dimensional vector space, thus spouting nonsense.

People of Xiangshan's age only have a basic understanding of this concept; in their eyes, it's not really a big problem.

In the far more distant past, humanity had already created many tools that operated entirely based on facts. And in the 2020s, humanity finally created a tool that resembled a human.

Humans create tools that resemble humans to deepen their understanding of themselves and to accomplish tasks that only humans can do. For the primitive AI tools of that era, "human-likeness" was the primary goal.

"Conforming to the facts" can only be ranked second.

This is what humanity originally expected of it.

The goal of the project is to "be like a human," while "authentic and believable" is a technical indicator that needs to be continuously optimized.

Human language itself has the potential to exist in a fantastical way.

Myths, religions, literature, lies, rituals...

Narrative, fiction, poetry, deception, social interaction...

When an AI is trained on a corpus containing trillions of words that encompass all the aforementioned human language functions, it certainly learns more than just facts.

AI illusions are not a malicious bug; they are two sides of the same coin as creativity, a natural emergence of a part of the essential attributes of human language onto machines.

Pathological delirium and literary creation are separated by only a fine line. Literary creation is the active and artistic use of this fictional ability by human beings, while pathological delirium is the loss of control of this ability due to brain lesions.

AI illusion is simply a machine copying this ability.

Xiang Shan vaguely remembers that in later eras, people paid less attention to this issue. After all, humans can suddenly break down and talk nonsense on the streets late at night due to psychological stress. Developers' goals became very pragmatic: simply limiting the probability and intensity of hallucinations to around the human average would be sufficient for most commercial scenarios.

But it's different now.

Now, Xiangshan is facing a man-made disaster that is even more devastating than a natural one.

An ascendant wielding planetary computing power is hallucinating. The underlying logic of the entire Martian network is descending into chaos.

Hundreds of millions of concurrent instructions with the highest execution privileges are echoing within the Ascended's body.

They show absolutely no coordination. These concurrent instructions are generating mutually contradictory content in different computers by different AI components, and the thought processes are attacking each other.

In the previous millisecond, a child process had just conceived the idea of ​​sending a distress signal to the outside world. In the next millisecond, another child process rejected it, arguing that exposing itself would lead to destruction.

I can't remember anything important. Even when I feel I really want to do something, I'm hindered by some inexplicable force, unable to take a single step.

All possible solutions are generated and then exhaustively enumerated. Then, all options are instantly negated.

"I can't even accurately describe my current situation to you." Zhu Xinyu's voice echoed in the empty darkness, as if this empty place were very narrow.

Her voice cracked. Not metaphorically. Xiang Shan clearly heard several different texts being generated simultaneously within his auditory network. (Note: This is not a typo; Ascended beings can directly associate text with any sensory system.)
Even the single thought before us cannot be unified.

“Berry was absolutely right… You should have let her come.” Xiang Shan sighed: “To sum it up, you are now a fairy suffering from severe schizophrenia, accompanied by severe somatization symptoms, and experiencing depersonalization.”

The AIs created by David—more precisely, the AI ​​Zhu Xinyu, and the AI ​​Xiang Shan who merged with that Zhu Xinyu—were terrified of the ascension of Zhu Xinyu, because she had implanted in the AI ​​an insurmountable pain as a driving force. The AI ​​was trapped in the agony of its own existence.

But this wasn't Zhu Xinyu's plan; it was her "symptom."

She is constantly creating her future self, and constantly negating herself.

"Amazing." Xiang Shan twitched the corners of his mouth, but his expression was not as relaxed as his tone. "The most severe network fluctuation in the solar system so far is actually due to your severe mental exhaustion, girl. How about we bet something... on the expression of future historians when they discover this?"

The quicksand seemed to boil. However, it didn't feel hot. Instead, a stinging sensation arose out of nowhere.

Xiang Shan sensed sadness: "How can I help you?"

“What’s done is done.” Zhu Xinyu shook her head. “For the past three hundred years, my life has been one mistake after another. I have never been a victorious warrior… I have no value in my existence.”

Xiang Shan sighed: "A profound sense of brokenness."

She is becoming more broken in a literal sense.

Xiang Shan could understand this situation. The Ascended AI's attention had become scattered, and the vector paths in higher-dimensional space were completely disordered. The motivations that would exist in normal human consciousness—those beautiful, warm, and hopeful things—had their statistical significance diluted by the mad ramblings generated by the entire Mars network…

Visually, it appears as if she is breaking.

If Berry is not mistaken, this happened before Zhu Xinyu decided to ascend.

The human body has undergone the brutal test of "natural selection." It is indeed rough, full of unreasonable flaws, but it has forcefully eliminated the more serious ones and is able to meet product requirements. It undoubtedly possesses an extremely powerful self-correcting mechanism.

The brain has a fundamental mechanism that limits emotions from being too positive or too negative. The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and the autonomic nervous system maintain the stability of the internal environment.

When emotions fluctuate excessively, the body regulates itself through negative feedback mechanisms to prevent physiological systems from collapsing due to overload. The psychological phenomenon of "hedonic adaptation" suggests that no matter how extreme the positive or negative events experienced, people eventually return to a relatively stable baseline level of happiness.

Humans can feel emptiness in extreme bliss and hold onto illusory hope in extreme suffering.

The brain's underlying logic always points to only one thing: maintaining a "mental state suitable for survival."

Even humans living in the concrete jungle don't need to struggle to survive.

Delayed evolution, utilitarian survival strategy.

Even though Zhu Xinyu transformed her biological brain into a biological weapon for electronic warfare through two hundred years of internal energy cultivation, the mechanisms determined by these underlying structures were still struggling to function. Humanity's pride in its strength and resilience largely stemmed from the fact that this hardware did not allow it to completely collapse.

However, for a considerable period, humans were unaware of this. It wasn't until the 1970s that a quantitative model of this emotion regulation mechanism was formally confirmed through statistical research. Therefore, this understanding does not hold a high weight in the meme system.

Zhu Xinyu also lacks self-awareness.

As a veteran in the tech industry once said, users never know what they want until developers present the product to them.

Knowing yourself is difficult.

Zhu Xinyu's ascension was not a perfect process.

Thus, having abandoned the physical body, the AI, constructed purely of symbols, lost control of itself. This was a fatal misjudgment. The Ascended dismantled the "watchdogs" within its self—those regulatory modules that were originally enforced by the physical hardware. Despair no longer has a bottom, and sorrow can fall infinitely downwards under the gravity of logic.

Even if Xiang Shan presented Zhu Xinyu with the most joyful thing in the entire universe, she wouldn't notice it at all. In her completely disordered emotional regulation system, the weight of happiness was "negligible".

She went blind. In the realm of emotions, she became a blind person who could only see darkness.

She didn't even notice one thing—Xiangshan had returned alive.

The moment Xiang Shan autonomously completed his ascension path, all the memories carried by the Twelfth Martial God were uploaded and became part of the Martian Network. The memory systems of ascendants differ significantly from those of ordinary people; retrieval crawlers and discriminative AI replace traditional memory functions. Their memory banks are more open; knowledge existing on the internet can be considered as techniques they have already mastered.

It was just like Zhu Xinyu retrieving that green hat from Xiang Shan's memory bank.

Not long ago, the Fifth Martial God, who had not yet reached this level, also remotely invoked musical abilities that did not belong to him.

Ascended beings are no longer bound by individual differences when it comes to memories and abilities.

All the memories carried by the Twelfth Martial God, as well as all the memories of Xiang Shan in the network, are opened to Zhu Xinyu as the memory bank of the ascendant Xiang Shan.

However, Zhu Xinyu was unable to concentrate.

"It really is a completely new variation on an old problem..." Xiang Shan couldn't help but sigh.

Humans have a series of physiological mechanisms to correct the diffusion of consciousness and ensure that a basic function is maintained most of the time.

The performance of the human brain has an upper limit. Even if standardization speeds up the transmission of neural signals, and even if implants expand the brain's capabilities, the growth in the size of the "brain" is always limited.

The growth of machine performance far exceeds this limit—it has limits, it is constrained by materials science or physical laws, and it is also constrained by the creator's ideas, but it is not constrained by the "inertia of evolution".

Even in ancient times when technology was more backward, when the performance of a machine was slightly inferior to that of the human brain for the same weight or volume, it could still surpass it through sheer scale.

Moreover, this is the era we live in.

Human consciousness was initially only for using the brain and controlling the body. Without adequate preparation before ascension, humans would be unable to harness such immense power.

So what can Xiangshan do now?
The simplest method might be "repetition".

It was just like when he was fifteen years old, fiddling with the oldest generative large language models.

Copying and pasting the highlighted words from the prompts (Ctrl+C then Ctrl+V) allows the AI ​​to focus its attention more intently. That's how AI worked back then; the same content appearing in different positions within text increased the AI's attention. In the text's vector space, repeated highlighting of multiple paths strengthens the connection—functionally, this process is very similar to how human neural networks reinforce the repeated highlighting of paths.

Just like an old commercial nuclear reactor, it's also called "boiling water." The methods Xiang Shan can think of now are not much different from the rudimentary techniques of "emphasis on prompts" he used when he was fifteen.

However, simple repetition may not be effective for primitive AI, let alone ascended AI.
Simply shouting won't work. It will only be filtered out as a DDoS attack.

For Zhu Xinyu of Feisheng, hacking and defense techniques are like biological instincts. "Filtering DDoS attacks" is as natural to Feisheng AI as "skin existing on the body surface," simpler than breathing.

According to the mental model of the Six Dragons Sect, "personality," "ability," and "knowledge" belong to different modules in the mind.

Zhu Xinyu's self collapsed amidst two hundred years of internal strife, to the point that after her ascension, her attention was entirely focused on the internet. However, her "abilities" and the skills she had honed were still in operation.

and so……

Deep down, Zhu Xinyu might still harbor a desire to communicate. The single thread before her, resembling an "interactive interface," is proof of this. This child process, which calls itself "Little Green Hat" and was chosen by Xiang Shan as "first come, first served," represents the last glimmer of hope in the Ascended One's heart.

Ripples appeared in the Martian network.

He couldn't act like he was attacking. Xiang Shan walked towards Zhu Xinyu, who had arrived first.

As he moved forward, more changes took place within the Martian network. Massive amounts of information were downloaded from the Mountain Memory Labyrinth, reconstructed, and then packaged and stored on specific servers throughout Mars.

Both Ascended beings can use any device connected to the public internet as their neurons. Any file stored on a server could potentially become an Ascended being's memory.

However, Ascended beings do not necessarily have to consider all documents as part of themselves.

After self-encapsulation, the ascendant can fully discern information within the network. This is a highly controllable capability.

All Xiang Shan can do is create a gentle breeze, a ray of sunshine, and mix his own memory files into the "background noise" of cyberspace.

Zhu Xinyu must be made aware of the return and ascension of "Xiangshan".

The goal is to make Zhu Xinyu realize that these documents, which are statistically distinct from noise but not sufficient to be classified as "meaningful information," are part of Xiangshan.

He braved the swirling quicksand, approaching step by step the gradually crumbling subprocess.

Those open interfaces are like cracks in the darkness, offering a glimmer of hope.

"Don't come any closer," Zhu Xinyu said. "I should have died long ago. I can't predict my future... I'm too powerful, and I'm too used to betraying others. I don't know when I'll become a calamity that threatens humanity. I should die."

“No way,” Xiang Shan said. “We’re both ascendants, and you’re completely broken down right now, so wouldn’t I be able to do whatever I want? So—let me visit you!”

Reach out towards the mountains.

Zhu Xinyu is far superior to him in both offense and defense. Unless Zhu Xinyu voluntarily shares this ability, his current strength cannot compare to that of the strongest internal martial artist before his ascension.

Xiang Shan was unable to force information into Zhu Xinyu's thinking.

However, due to the system crash, Zhu Xinyu was unable to fully control the interfaces she had reserved. A small portion of the child processes willing to communicate with Xiang Shan, however, retained a slight possibility of access.

Throughout the entire Ascended project, across all sub-processes, it restructures the Ascended's mindset.

“You will also fall into this…black hole of self-collapse.” The subprocess sensed it, but was powerless to do anything about it.

As an ascendant, Zhu Xinyu is undoubtedly stronger than Xiang Shan.

However, Zhu Xinyu's subprocess was no match for Xiang Shan's overall process.

“I didn’t pull like you,” Xiang Shan said. “What do you think is the biggest difference between you and me?”

The child process looked confused. Multiple answers were being generated simultaneously.

“You are a powerful disabled immortal. While I am a little weaker, I am perfectly healthy,” Xiang Shan said. “My memories were uploaded forcibly, by many different people.”

"Wow, so your memory bank is a public toilet, full of different people's poop."

"Humans are truly strange creatures. Many people distort the interpretation of history for short-term gains, and some events have extremely negative impacts that can last for centuries. Even those temporary tyrants can reap unforeseen foes who will sing their praises in the future. However, there are always those who, purely out of personal interest, seek to uncover the truth," Xiang Shan said. "I once heard a story that, due to the burning of books and burying of scholars, the Book of Documents was nearly lost. During the reign of Emperor Wen of Han, only one old Confucian scholar remained in the entire country who could interpret this classic. Among Confucius's descendants in that era was a person whose interpretation was influenced by the political climate of the time."

"With the Yongjia Rebellion, China was plunged into chaos, and the elite fled south, resulting in the loss of widely circulated texts once again. Some people took the opportunity to forge books. For the next few centuries, scholars who insisted on the genuine text faced much discrimination. It wasn't until the Tang Dynasty that scholars reached a consensus again and managed to correct the original text, but failed to clarify the source. And for the next thousand years, people have been trying to figure out exactly how the fake book was forged."

Zhu Xinyu also sensed the memory associated with this passage. It stemmed from a casual conversation within the Luo Mo Park. Jing Hongtu used this example to tell Xiang Shan that history might be embellished temporarily by those with ulterior motives, but a momentary act of distorting facts cannot cover up eternity.

Every ordinary person who dedicates themselves to correcting distortions is a respectable person.

"The self you perceive in yourself is so unreliable. But the 'me' that everyone portrays has something you don't possess."

Xiang Shan gently touched Zhu Xinyu.

Protocol updated, link established.

Zhu Xinyu trembled: "I'll die. After all, I'm still stronger. If my actions cause the first two humans to ascend to immortality to perish..."

“Then that means we’re on the wrong path,” Xiang Shan said. “First of all, I’m very confident. Secondly…”

He gently embraced Zhu Xinyu, "How many times have I died for this world? Yet I have never died specifically for you—it's hard to say that the Eighth Martial God incident was purely for you."

Xiangshan forked its own child process and then made legitimate access to the port that was open to it.

"No matter what you are like, I should accept you. No matter how you complain, I will continue to listen. I may not be able to empathize with the wear and tear of two hundred years, but as long as you are willing to talk about it, I will always be listening. I cannot trace back the two hundred years that have been lost. But from this moment on, I have always been here."

...................................................

The subprocess heading towards the mountain crossed the "window"—a symbol of "visualization" in memes and an important step towards humanizing computers.

Therefore, only after bypassing the classic blue and white window in the process of seeing the mountain, was another segment successfully seen.

He visually understood what was happening in another of Zhu Xinyu's subprocesses.

It was a cloudy day. Zhu Xinyu followed behind him with her hands behind her back. Luo Mo Park.

Xiang Shan vaguely remembered that it must have been after some accident... He tried to open up to Zhu Xinyu, and it was probably something like that.

Then, carrying some miscellaneous items on his back, he escorted her back to her dormitory.

Zhu Xinyu's first-person perspective shows her steps inexplicably light and quick.

"Is this where the attraction arises?" Xiang Shan rubbed his chin. "It's really hard to understand."

A sharp pain suddenly occurred. The external interference had triggered the body's alarm system.

The sting of rejection.

Zhu Xinyu is resisting.

“This is the happy, loving side you wanted to see.” In another subprocess, the side that called itself hatred and anger whispered to the parent process facing the mountain, “I hate that lunatic too.”

"You really don't know how to be polite to yourself."

"I can't understand that aspect. What this process represents is pure emotion."

Xiang Shan nodded and adjusted his hugging posture: "Then that subprocess must also love me."

“Not all love is the same,” said the embodiment of hatred and anger (the little green hat). “Her love is devoid of any reason. I myself cannot understand my own love and hate.”

"Does the same amount of love equal the same amount of hate?" The parent process nodded towards the mountain. Through the child process's log files, he could also know what was happening on the other side. "They definitely love me very much."

"A part of me doesn't want you to get involved in that part of my memory," whispered the embodiment of hatred and rage.

"Ah, no explanation needed, I understand now..."

The child process has further parsed the running file. Zhu Xinyu's thoughts—reflections on this memory.

At least part of Zhu Xinyu was repeatedly asking herself: "At this moment, does he just need a trustworthy subordinate?"

The sting of rejection had become tangible. In this world of perception, the boundary between "feeling" and "reality" is blurred. The subprocess Xiangshan truly felt numerous thorns piercing its body.

He knelt on the ground, facing the mountain. The hallucination of pain hampered his efficiency.

“This isn’t right, is it…” Xiang Shan shouted, “I can admit that at that time I only regarded you as a subordinate—but whether I trusted you or not had nothing to do with whether we were together or not. I’m a capitalist who’s determined to do great things. Can a mere marriage, especially one where the traditional sanctity of marriage has been dismantled, really earn my trust? Impossible.”

"I believe you because you are Zhu Xinyu. Regardless of whether you were my lover or not, at that time you were definitely my comrade, do you remember..."

The illusions of the mind are changing.

On that plane registered as "privately owned," Xiang Shan reached out his hand to Zhu Xinyu.

"We are comrades now."

That's what Xiang Shan said at the time.

Xiang Shan's son, however, heard a faint sigh from the depths of the void.

On the parent process's side, Zhu Xinyu's child process sighed, "Don't be too happy yet."

The frozen image began to change. The clasped hands grew increasingly painful.

In that instant, the "image in memory" became the "interaction port of the subprocess".

The thorns of rejection began to grow from the wrist. This time, however, it wasn't just a simple "calling of pain signals."

Zhu Xinyu's process is rewriting Xiangshan's child process.

"Wow, possessiveness, huh?" Xiang Shan grinned. "Do you really have to make me a part of you?"

Their extraordinary internal skills clashed. However, Xiang Shan was completely suppressed by Zhu Xinyu.

In terms of data, Zhu Xinyu has always been stronger than Xiang Shan.

Xiang Shan, however, knew his own strengths.

The story of "unknown scholars passing the torch from generation to generation to restore the distorted interpretations of the Book of Documents by several emperors and nobles" reveals a truth. The driving force behind constructing the Xiangshan memory labyrinth, the universal human pursuit of truth, may be difficult to manifest in an individual, but it has a statistical advantage in a collective.

The unintentional uploading of memories is a part of Xiang Shan's ascension process that is significantly different from Zhu Xinyu's.

Turing's abilities are invincible, but Zhu Xinyu currently only has "abilities".

Her sense of self is diffuse.

A unified "self" model exists to make predictions and decisions in complex environments.

Abilities need to be mastered by oneself.

Zhu Xinyu is not yet able to exert her full strength.

The mind constituted by symbolic order can be directly interfered with by the power of language.

“As your superior, I utilize your abilities. As a scholar, I acknowledge your qualities.” Xiang Shan grabbed Zhu Xinyu’s arm, the one representing his affection, and said, “And then, I love you. Regardless of whether this love exists or not, my personal affirmation of you will never change.”

"Conversely, even if you cannot be used by me, I have no reason not to love you."

More thorns are thrust out from the subprocesses of love.

“That doesn’t make sense,” Zhu Xinyu’s son, Cheng Jin, said. “Someone as rational as you, whatever you say is just rhetoric, right?”

"I'm so heartbroken," Xiang Shan said. "So that's how you really see me deep down?"

No, Xiang Shan certainly knew that wasn't the case.

If this subprocess were applied to a normal Zhu Xinyu, it would only be a slight doubt that she herself might not even be aware of, and it might not even have a chance to surface in her consciousness.

However, the out-of-control crawler retrieved such thoughts, and the power of AI organically combined them to generate an intelligent agent that was almost like a mortal.

"Isn't the ratio too unbalanced? Such sticky and irrational emotions can have a subprocess... and more than one? But you, who openly said you still love me, only have one subprocess left."

Countless vector paths, thousands of threads, yet only one child process will openly express its love.

"The love of a woman like me is so pathetic."

Xiang Shan clicked his tongue in amazement: "Never mind, things are valued for their rarity."

On the other hand, the child process also tightly embraced the child process that Zhu Xinyu loved.

"I can list a million reasons to love you, and I can also list a million reasons not to love you. But none of them can constitute an absolute causal relationship. It's a complex, multi-dimensional model," Xiang Shan said.

Mutual understanding.

Minds dissolve into each other.

The perspective that the Eighth Martial God once possessed allowed Xiang Shan to accept this already distorted emotion.

“Come on, no matter what…” he said in a low voice.

The influence between Ascended players is bidirectional. Just like early deep learning game AI, if they played against bad players, they would naturally blend into the lower ranks.

Taking over Zhu Xinyu's pent-up pain carries the risk of being dragged into the mire yourself.

"What is this?" asked one of Zhu Xinyu's subprocesses.

"What is this?" Ten thousand of Zhu Xinyu's child processes asked.

"What is this?" asked one hundred million child processes of Zhu Xinyu.

Ten thousand child processes forked from Xiangshan were mixed in with Zhu Xinyu's thoughts. Then, a million conversations erupted.

A million conversations became new material and new memories, which were then examined by AI.

In the ocean of information, two gods are locked in a fierce battle.

The Martian network is under immense pressure. Computing power is being mobilized, and energy is being consumed. Some areas with dense server density have even experienced overheating.

At Mariner Valley Factory No. 3, David stared dumbfounded at the report submitted by his subordinate: "What the hell is this?"

"What's wrong?" Xiang Wu asked.

"Xiang Shan's love confessions have flooded forgotten online communities." David's tone was blank, as if he had given up thinking. "They're invisible to ordinary users, but anyone with a little bit of internal energy can see the sudden increase in text content in the background. What's going on?"

“Normally, there shouldn’t be any encryption algorithms or anything… at least put it in a compressed file…” Xiang Wu choked for a moment, “Plaintext is a bit too overpowered. Is this the mindset of the ascendants? I don’t understand. I, a failure, really don’t understand.”

“Generating these texts, which are over two hundred years old, consumes a huge amount of resources.” David looked at the production line in front of him, lost in thought. “After seeing this, do you still want to waste these servers like this?”

"What else? The server hardware is all custom-made to give Xiangshan a greater advantage, what else can we do?" Xiang Wu shrugged. "After we finish overseeing production here, we still need to rush to the Central Dogmatic Zone. That's all. Two self-proclaimed ascendants..."

David sighed, "Ah, to think that the first two humans to ascend were such extraordinary beings..."

Xiang Wu nodded: "What will we humans ultimately become...?"

The two sighed in unison, "Alas."

This is your humble apology.

I originally planned to drop a huge bombshell in this chapter, revealing a lot of information all at once, but after thinking about it, I'll split it into chapters instead. I'll update the next chapter as soon as possible.

I spent the Chinese New Year in a very decadent way. Until the ninth day of the new year, I didn't think much about the novel and was completely engrossed in the DLC for Monster Train 2. So writing this chapter was also very painful for me, and I resisted it a lot.

I feel like I'm escaping reality. If I don't finish this book now, it still has a chance to become the "ideal science fiction novel" of my dreams. But once it's realized, its form will be fixed, and I won't be able to dream anymore.

I simply couldn't write to a point where I was completely satisfied. I feel like I poured too much emotion into it. While writing this chapter, I felt like my somatization symptoms were about to relapse.

However, this hurdle must eventually be overcome. I will update the next chapter as soon as possible.