Abyssal Wanderer.

This is a question that cannot have a definitive answer.

Jim didn't know what answer he could give her besides silence.

Ultimately, he chose to change the subject.

So he asked again what the "reflection" was—after all, he had learned about this information from Jiang Zhou, and now he had to pretend that he was hearing about it for the first time.

This question gave Hanel enough emotional respite, and she explained to Jim in detail the special features of the Narcissus Path.

Yes, it's much more detailed than the explanation given to Jiang Zhou.

Narcissus Path, Depth 4's core adjustment and transformation of "Reflection".

While described as adjustments and modifications, it's actually more like a reshaping of brain behavior patterns. By strengthening spindle neurons in the anterior cingulate cortex and anterior insula, it makes personality traits more pronounced.

According to Hanell, "personality traits" do not account for a large proportion of overall brain activity—they are more like a central hub that integrates other neural activities, simply responsible for receiving information and judging the order and importance of events.

By replicating similar "personality traits," it becomes possible to reproduce one person's personality characteristics in another person's brain.

To put it more vividly, it means extracting the neural activities that best reflect "personality traits" from the complex neural activity of the brain through some means. Then, by loading this "trait" into other parts of the brain, the "personality" is transferred or invaded.

This is somewhat similar to the "Cartesian Theatre" of the Pygmalion Path, which also creates a small soul figure that can symbolize consciousness. However, unlike the Cartesian Theatre, this soul figure cannot be loaded onto non-human mechanical devices; instead, it can only possess another brain with a similar structure.

At Depth 4, Coordinators of the Narcissus Path can only copy or transfer their personality to their clones by creating "reflections." It is said that at higher depths, Coordinators of this path will also unlock the ability to forcibly transfer their personality directly into the brains of others, or even to usurp and erase the original personality.

This is what is known as "possession".

Of course, the full version of the "possession" ability can only be achieved at the Deep 7 level of human intelligence limit. Furthermore, this ability is ineffective for those whose brains have been excessively modified and deviate far from the normal human brain structure—after all, some Deep 7 adjusters may not even use their brains to think anymore, so possession based on brain structure naturally has no effect on such beings.

But that's still quite exaggerated.

No wonder Narcissus, like Orpheus, is a high-risk path certified by the committee...

Let alone the ability to "possess" beings, even just a "reflection" is possible. As long as printing permissions are sufficient, in an ideal situation, a Narcissus path adjuster could create its own race within a few decades by generating two from one and four from two.

After hearing the full version of the introduction, Jiang Zhou, who was far away, couldn't help but gasp in amazement.

So this is how personality data can be saved?
Back then, I developed the JZ network protocol and insisted on developing the Janus program based on it to ensure the uniqueness of uploaded souls. Who would have thought that later generations… no, I should say later AI would actually come up with a way to circumvent these restrictions?
While one side is still using brute force, obtaining snapshots of brain neural activity through destructive scanning, the other side is directly summarizing personality trait algorithms, compressing them into behavioral modules that match the traits, and uploading them—this is using personality as a plugin for brain behavior patterns!

Unorthodox methods! Utterly unorthodox methods!
Can this be called self-awareness? At best, it's just generative AI running in the brain, mimicking things more closely!

Regardless of who invented it, I absolutely refuse to acknowledge that this can be considered personality uploading!
While Jiang Zhou was silently protesting in his heart, Jim was filled with resentment at being forced to learn about neurosurgery and cognitive science from that ancient person from a hundred years ago.

If he didn't know better, he would probably hug Hanel tightly right now and gently comfort her: whether it's Bai Rao or Hanel who saved him back then, she's the real her in his heart. He shouldn't dwell on those messy "what ifs" anymore; the fact that she's alive and standing before him now is already a miracle unimaginable in the past.

Instead of being like now, with his mind full of metaphysical speculations about personality, consciousness, and soul; and then staring blankly at Hanel's sorrowful face like a wooden statue, unable to utter a single word of comfort.

Finally, Jim spoke:

"Then why...did the Human Intelligence Ethics Review Committee approach you?"

She seemed surprised that Jim would ask this question so soon after hearing it; she paused for a moment, then said with a dim look in her eyes:

"Do you remember the last operation you participated in? The Kish Island resettlement area, the Apollo Bio Middle East branch rebellion."

Jim nodded—it was a memory he would never forget.

Do you know what happened to the Kish Island resettlement area afterward?

Hanel continued to ask.

"After our mission failed, one of the company's directors released a base adjustment factor there. The crazy manager stubbornly resisted and at the last moment detonated the core of the branch's disruptive reactor, turning half of the Kish Island resettlement area into a radiation zone."

Jim answered very familiarly.

"But according to Bai Rao's later investigation, the furnace core was not actually detonated by that supervisor."

Hanel said.

"You mean... it was actually done by the directors of Apollo Biotechnology?"

Jim immediately understood, and Hanel nodded.

"So, what is this all about?"

Jim pressed on.

Regarding this question, Hanel first looked carefully at Jim—seemingly assessing whether he could handle the information to come—then sighed and said:

"The Kish Island resettlement area is Apollo Biotechnology's largest research center in the Middle East, but Apollo Biotechnology's so-called 'research' actually mostly..."

"Research zombies".

Jim spoke directly, and then he explained:

"The Chimera Path Adjuster mentioned this when he fought me, and he also told me... that I am actually a research zombie who has gained free will, or in his words: a defective product."

At this point, he took a long breath and then gave a disdainful smile.

"Jimmy..."

Hanel looked at him with a hint of pity.

“I’m fine… After all, for me, my life only really began when I was eighteen and returned to that cheap apartment from the company.”

As he spoke, he gently placed his hand on Hanel's shoulder.

"But I'm still a little unclear... Is your experience similar to mine?"

Hanel smiled and shook his head. "I was never chosen in the first place."

She gave Jim a somewhat baffling answer.

"That's right... All the research zombies' initial prototypes were actually selected from the genes of outstanding employees of Apollo Biotechnology. As you know, once you become a full-time employee, the company automatically owns the copyright to your gene sequence. This has always been a feature of Apollo Biotechnology's employee contracts."

Jim nodded—among all the Olympian corporations, Apollo Biotech's employee benefits were among the best. This wasn't because the sun god was more benevolent than other Olympian gods, but because they were able to extract more value from their employees' genes by buying them out.

"Although the Primal Apollo Virus doesn't discriminate in its infectors, its so-called genetic potential does exist. Therefore, Apollo Bio will select genes that are more suitable for scientific research and test-produce more suitable research zombies. Jimmy, your parents at the genetic level should be employees of Apollo Bio, but it will probably be difficult to find out exactly who they are."

Hanel said so.

Jim simply grunted in response, his expression remaining unchanged.

Seeing Jim's expression, Hanel quickly changed the subject and said:

"The Primal Sun God Virus isn't administered immediately at birth. Before that, there are several rounds of screening, and I was probably screened out around that time. Normally, I should have been disposed of. But the maternal line that provided my genes happened to be a staff member of the research zombie department, so she... who is my genetic mother, simply bought me and treated me as her test-tube child."

Hanel spoke very quickly as she said this—although Jim appreciated her thoughtfulness and consideration in this regard, he still began by saying:

"She's quite shrewd, knowing that Olympus Corporation's gene selection technology is several levels superior to that of other artificial in vitro fertilization companies."

Hanel simply smiled and nodded in response to the teasing, but her expression towards Jim still held a hint of worry.

"Therefore, I grew up and worked in the department researching zombies with my mother... Of course, I handed over all my memories of these things to the company after I turned eighteen. What I'm talking about now are vague impressions retained through the special auxiliary personality via the Narcissus path, which is also known as 'Deja vu'."

Jim nodded, then asked疑惑地问道:
"So, you met me back then too? But how is that possible... if I was a 'research zombie' back then."

Although he had never asked Hanel about his memories before he lost his memory, in daily life, the other would always reveal details of how they had known each other in the past.

As for the question that Jim cared about most, Hanel shook his head and said:

"I'm not entirely sure about these things either... but from my vague recollection and some records I found later, you already had 'self-awareness' at a very young age. And since we were the same age and worked in the same department back then, we were childhood playmates, you could even say we were childhood sweethearts..."

At this point, she coughed awkwardly, then continued:
"But even if you had self-awareness, you seemed to still be working in the research department at that time... because in my memory, I would always wait for you to come out of the research institute to play with me. This memory is very clear, after all, in such a large zombie research institute, only you would come out every day, while I would wait outside for you to get off work with nothing to do."

Hanel seemed to have no idea why he had developed self-awareness...

Jim felt somewhat discouraged for a moment.

After all, this is what he most urgently wants to know the reason.

"All of the above are just very vague impressions that I can remember, but what I'm about to say is the key."

Although Hanel seemed to want to continue talking about their past, she spoke seriously for the moment:

"The following information is based on my deductions from the intelligence of the Human Ethics Oversight Committee and my vague impressions... It may also be the key to the rebellion in the Kish Island resettlement area, or even to resolving the current Category II crisis in the Nord resettlement area."

At this point, she took a deep breath and then said:
"Back then, Apollo Biotech wasn't content with just developing 'scientific research zombies.' They developed the 'military zombie' project... No, I'm not talking about the combat zombies or zombie virus bioweapons that we are familiar with today, but the Coordinator Zombification Project."

Coordinators turning into zombies...

Upon hearing this word, Jim sat up straight immediately.

He immediately thought of himself—why would he have made adjustments to the Orpheus path? As a research-use zombie, there was really no need for it.

If it's the Coordinators turning into zombies, then that makes sense.

"Apollo Bio believes that many Coordinators waste their potential for adjustment and transformation because they need to maintain human cognition or are limited by their common sense and experience of humans before the transformation. If they could all be transformed into mindless zombies, then an army of super zombies that could unleash their full potential and be absolutely loyal would be able to sweep across the entire Olympian Order."

Hanel said so.

"Did Apollo Biotechnology succeed?"

Jim asked this urgently.

"The vast majority... or rather, all of them failed, like you."

As Hanel spoke, he pointed to Jim.

"I?"

Jim pointed to himself as well.

"In the 'Military Zombie' project, the company experimented with many adjustment paths. Most of the zombies still retained the thinking characteristics of their primitive human days—although they were still quite intelligent compared to ordinary people, they did not achieve the expected level of 100% potential. Using adjustments and modifications for this level of effect would be a waste."

“There are also some paths… such as the Orpheus path, which will reduce the intelligence of those zombies to the level of ordinary people, just like you.”

Hanel shrugged.

"In other words, if I hadn't taken this path back then, maybe I would have become even smarter?"

Jim couldn't help but laugh.

"However, a few paths seemed to have succeeded at the time, so Apollo Biotechnology decided to build a zombie adjuster legion, and the location they chose for large-scale production was..."

"Kish Island resettlement area".

Jim gave her the answer.

Hanel nodded and said:

"Yes, those adjusters also seem to have awakened self-awareness—but in the form of cyberpsychosis. And those paths share a common characteristic."

Jim seemed to have a vague idea of ​​this characteristic:
"The origin of those paths—"

"That's right, they all seem to originate from the super artificial intelligence Nyx." (End of Chapter)