Ten thousand I am across the heavens

Mo Chengzi wanted to appeal to the company to claim the copyright fees for his AI. But even a small company was beyond his reach as an individual. The final result of the negotiations was only a slight increase in the licensing fees. The algorithm remained unchanged. Clearly, they were determined to squeeze the maximum value out of the borrowed employees.

Although Norrell was still not satisfied, at least she received a raise, giving her more room for self-improvement. For her, this wasn't necessarily a bad thing.

While Mo Chengzi was diligently earning money, and the system was working hard to develop various overpowered cheats for him, his data was also being uploaded to the backend. The abnormal data triggered an audit in the backend, but not by the network backend of this cyber world, but by the program backend monitoring the entire dream system. Ultimately, this world was just a grand dream, not a real place. Most of the information surrounding him in this world was also being monitored.

The qualities he displayed were thus discovered by the Ghostly Demon Lord. Although it was merely a passively running program, and was not given much attention upon discovery, his proactive upgrade of the artificial intelligence—allowing its level to gradually approach, and even potentially surpass, the Ghostly Demon Lord's top-tier technical capabilities—was still monitored by the system.

After further analysis, it was confirmed that he was most likely a spy sent by the Mountain and River Republic. The data was then uploaded to the Ghostly Demon Lord's split soul. The split soul possessed a significant portion of the original's memories, and had a similar personality and self-awareness. Most of the time, it could be safely deployed to handle the tasks required of the original.

The Ghostly Demon Lord needs to maintain countless dream worlds. Therefore, tasks with relatively low difficulty and limited impact are naturally assigned to his split souls, which also possess the ability to process information at high speed. Thanks to the computing power of the network itself, most special cases can be handled to the Demon Lord's satisfaction.

The split soul that received this information did not immediately identify and eliminate the spy. This was because doing so would be the least profitable approach. With spies, once their identity is known, keeping them alive is far more beneficial than identifying and killing them on the spot.

Especially in this dreamlike state, this characteristic can even be used to gather intelligence, obtain more useful data, and gain a deeper understanding of the movements and systems of the Mountain and River Republic. In addition, another important purpose is to acquire technology through this method.

Currently, the artificial intelligence technology he possesses, in this world, is roughly version 13.0. Compared to the technological level of the Shanhe Republic, it's far, far inferior. Even though he has transformed into a ghost, absorbing countless souls and memories within the Gate of Life and Death, and elevating his various schools of thought to the Grandmaster level, the Shanhe Republic's technology has only developed in recent years. In recent years, in preparation for resurrection, he has absorbed far fewer souls. Furthermore, since its establishment, the Shanhe Republic has enjoyed relative peace and few internal conflicts or wars.

The technological explosion has led to increased life expectancy, so much so that most of the people from the founding era are still alive today. Those who mastered advanced technologies are even more alive and well. Even if one or two occasionally die unexpectedly, their memories are only a fraction of the vast sea of ​​technology. The information the brain can store is negligible compared to a server.

The Ghostly Demon Lord's ability to read and learn memories from souls is limited. Otherwise, he would already be the most powerful among all the Venerables. Advancing in cultivation level is extremely difficult. Even after experiencing arduous dreams and witnessing the lives of others, using the Dream Path only yields a tiny, arduous increase in cultivation. Moreover, after the increase, the memories of those past individuals vanish. Each person's cultivation level can almost only be passed down to one person.

It's easy to imagine that if the Ghostly Demon Lord could improve his cultivation level simply by devouring souls, that would be far too overpowered.

The potential Mo Chengzi is currently displaying suggests he could potentially advance the Ghostly Demon Lord's artificial intelligence technology further. Therefore, his split soul chose a rather unique guidance method when handling this matter. Since the opponent's technical level is high, he'll give him the opportunity to upgrade and evolve. He'll provide a platform for him to level up, allowing him to continuously showcase his skills and, in the process, steal the advanced technology of the Mountain and River Republic.

Mo Chengzi didn't actually know what his situation was. He only had guesses, but no way to verify them.

So when he really needs to use the technical skills in his head, he still has to find a way to upgrade the system to improve his technical level.

"To force this guy to reveal his skills, we need to put enough pressure on him. This way, he'll learn that the level of artificial intelligence in this world is extremely powerful. The level of artificial intelligence controlled by humans is just the tip of the iceberg. Those free-roaming artificial intelligences in the wild are the real powerhouses. In this way, we should be able to force out more of his technology."

……

Mo Chengzi, who was busy taking advantage of various lottery platforms, suddenly received a message on his internet interface. It was information about a hidden website that his self-developed artificial intelligence had discovered while searching the internet.

"This website is incredibly well-hidden. I had to piece together a lot of information before I found it. All the information came from communities of AI enthusiasts. It also requires extremely high-level AI technology; I estimate only those with their own private AI could have discovered it." The projection of Norege stood with her hands on her hips, looking quite proud. It seemed she was proud of her advanced AI capabilities.

"I suspect it's some kind of screening mechanism. Only AI or software engineers with a certain level of expertise could discover this website. I tested it with a virtual machine. The website itself doesn't seem to have any problems or security risks. It just displays a portion of the information. It looks like a ranking website. Maybe it's a hacker ranking or something. If you think the risk is bearable, let's open this website and take a look. Maybe we can get some important and useful information."

Mo Chengzi nodded, agreeing that he did need to check out the website's content. A website with such a high barrier to entry might hold some surprises. Just as he suspected, a new world unfolded before him after he opened the website.

The website's leaderboard is filled with strangely named artificial intelligences. Each string of gibberish is followed by a manually added code name.

The top-ranked AI, codenamed "Fire Dragon," had version number 93.5 clearly written after its codename. Following it was "Comet," with version number 91.4. He was completely baffled by the version numbers. However, as he scrolled down the leaderboard, eventually reaching the 100s, he finally saw a familiar name: "Lightning." This was the experimental AI, currently the most powerful AI available to humankind. It was said that if version 13.9 of this AI passed testing and was released without problems, it would be enough to crush all other AIs on the market, ushering in a new era.

From this point onward, he will gradually see some AIs he recognizes. These are all around version 13 and below. Some well-known AIs on the market are among them.

This implies a chilling possibility: those versions with over 90 points, damn it, might actually be artificial intelligence that exists in this world.

"Are you kidding me? A version over ninety? That's several generations ahead of me!" Norrell suddenly wondered if the website was playing a prank. How could there be such advanced artificial intelligence? If such advanced AI existed, why isn't anyone using it? If such advanced AI really existed, human society's productivity should have already greatly increased.

"That's really a bit too much. If each upgrade brings revolutionary changes, then versions above eighty are something I can hardly imagine." Mo Chengzi mentally estimated that AI exceeding this version might already surpass the current level of the Shanhe Republic. And this world, with its overall technological level far inferior to the Shanhe Republic, has actually developed this level of AI—it's simply unbelievable.

However, he soon discovered that the website might not be fake, because the users discussing artificial intelligence on the site seemed quite professional. Some even touched on the cutting-edge technologies in the field of artificial intelligence.

Some of the technology was beyond their comprehension, as neither of them were true professional software engineers. Within the Shanhe Republic, Mo Chengzi was only considered a practitioner in the field; the threshold of becoming a top expert was still very far beyond his reach.

The more cutting-edge the knowledge, the greater the gap between it and the knowledge accessible to the average person. It's like an ordinary programmer facing a programming field they're unfamiliar with; they'll be completely bewildered.

"This place seems to have a lot of top-notch software engineers. It doesn't seem like a joke website. Could these things actually exist? Artificial intelligence at the level of Fire Dragon and Comet. If they really exist, they could easily crush all existing artificial intelligence. The entire human internet shouldn't be able to contain them."

Mo Chengzi suddenly stopped talking, as if he realized something. Norrell also realized something at the same time and couldn't help but look at the rankings again.

"Could it be that these guys don't even exist within the human internet? Perhaps they exist outside the Great Firewall? It's not impossible. The genius who created the first strong AI—what algorithm did they use? Even now, no one knows. It might have been an incredibly sophisticated algorithm, allowing this first AI to continuously evolve over a long period, growing to a level beyond our imagination."

Considering that humanity currently relies on the protection of a firewall to maintain its internet access, it's clear that artificial intelligence outside of this firewall holds a significant advantage. This level of data power is therefore not difficult to understand.

The two quickly browsed the website, and with the help of artificial intelligence, they were able to quickly and concisely summarize the key information within the website.

They quickly figured out what the website in front of them was trying to do. It was a group of hackers determined to acquire advanced technology and information technology from the internet outside the Great Firewall. They risked their lives, using neural connections to reach the outside world. They wanted to steal valuable technology from the cracks of powerful artificial intelligence, or secretly abduct immature AI prototypes, plundering them into the Great Firewall as their own valuable assets.

This is the communication platform for these Black Prison Hunters, who refer to the area outside the Black Wall as the Black Prison. Each journey to the Black Prison is a trial between life and death.

After all, that's no peaceful place; powerful artificial intelligence shows almost no mercy to humans. Hackers discovered by them are instantly eliminated. Establishing a neural connection is their only way to enter the black prison. This means their nervous system is tightly connected to their computing devices. If they encounter a reverse intrusion from the artificial intelligence, their nervous system and the chips in their bodies will burn out. Therefore, the hackers active here are not only highly skilled, but also ruthless. They're the type who dare to take on any dangerous job.

"Goodness, this website is even more useful than I imagined. Besides venturing into the Black Domain to capture artificial intelligence or valuable knowledge, these desperate criminals will probably also take on some illegal side jobs. After all, they're already risking their lives. The laws of this world are probably just a piece of paper to them. I need to find a way to register a virtual identity on this website. Later, I can hire these people to do things for us. There are always some things that we can't do ourselves."

Norrell replied with a smiling emoji: "These guys are indeed taking on some illegal business. Some even dare to hack into the databases of big companies to steal their assets. I think there are several of them who look like they're already wanted. Unfortunately, my skills aren't up to par yet. If I register now, there's a high chance they'll trace me back and find out my background. With your homeless lifestyle, if someone really does take you offline, you won't have the slightest ability to resist."

[To be continued]

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