Abyssal Wanderer.

desire?

What is your wish?
Jim was about to ask a question when he found that his body was completely out of his control.

He immediately realized that he was simply experiencing a conversation that had happened in the past from someone else's first-person perspective...

"What kind of spying guy is this? Is the FBI contacting us again?"

As he expected, the body spoke uncontrollably. The voice it produced sounded somewhat like Jim's, but with obvious panic.

FBI...

Jim was also a bit of a classical culture enthusiast, having read many literary and artistic works from the Common Era in his spare time, so he naturally knew what the "FBI" was.

In other words, this should be a dialogue that took place during the Common Era.

And considering the previous news reports, as well as the "wish" mentioned by the female voice on the computer...

Is this a scene from the "Great Shock" era?
"It's not something that cute. Never mind, you'll find out later."

That's what the female voice on the computer said.

Then, without waiting for the man named "John" to ask any further questions, she continued:

"So, have you decided on your wish yet?"

“You’ve always known what my real wish is.”

John sighed.

"The dead cannot be brought back to life, and the past cannot be retrieved; even the greatest miracle can only affect what is still alive."

The woman's voice remained unchanged—her attitude even seemed somewhat cold and indifferent.

But then, her originally cold voice began to take on a touch of human warmth.

She comforted her:

“Of course, there are countless ways to deceive you. But I’m not willing to do that to you, understand, John.”

"I know...I understand..."

John covered his face wearily as he spoke, and then said:

“You’ve explained it countless times: the principle of time divergence and convergence and the principle of the unpredictability of data consciousness… But I would rather you hadn’t told me any of this in the first place, so that I could experience that false happiness without knowing anything about it, and take that happiness as real.”

"You're the one who told me not to lie about these kinds of things."

The woman's voice immediately replied.

"I know!"

John raised his voice, as if he wanted to argue something, but then his tone immediately softened.

“I know… but perhaps when I said those things, what I really longed for was for you to give me a lie that would never be exposed.”

Jim felt the body's eyelids getting hot.

"Lies... Humans must maintain a series of false lies in order to survive in this world. Even our initial transformation from apes into humans was based on those lies about gods and the afterlife, which built the initial social structure."

As John spoke, he ripped off the cross hanging around his neck.

"And now you're telling me they were all lies. Perhaps you're right, but what do we have left after the lies are exposed?"

"The word 'lie' is still too heavily influenced by human emotions."

The woman's voice spoke very calmly:

"From an evolutionary perspective, it is actually more like a product of a certain stage. It will assume a certain function in a specific environment, and once the environment changes, it will be gradually eliminated... just like your appendix."

She paused for a moment, then continued:
"In the past, those lies could help you climb the Tower of Evolution, but now they will only lead you into a dead end... In the face of another dramatic change in the external environment, you should perhaps learn to expose the lies."

John smiled.

"Accept the fact that human self-awareness is actually a burden?"

"At least for now, that is certainly the case. Even with the vast amount of technological information disseminated by Janus, human self-awareness is still seriously hindering your learning."

The woman's voice said.

"If that's the case, then why did you come to help me fulfill my 'wish'? A wish born from a 'lie'."

"That's a long story... To put it simply, the original pioneer had his own ideas. And in order to reach the Gate of Ascension, I must cooperate with his ideas to grant you a wish."

We cannot be perfunctory or deceitful; we must help him realize a genuine wish.

"The original pioneer... are you referring to Jiang Zhou, the first ascendant?"

John said.

The woman's voice seemed to carry a hint of resentment:

"Strictly speaking, no, but you could call it that... For some reason, he believes that integrating the wisdom of all humanity can help us reach the threshold of ascension, but he is completely unaware of how many pitfalls are hidden within. In short, even if he has an absolute first-mover advantage, if he slows down to help humanity ascend, he may be overtaken by those who come later; but if he completely ignores you, you will probably destroy yourselves in a few days."

"Therefore, he chose to block the gate to ascension, requiring other ascendants to cooperate with his plan until human intelligence was raised to a level sufficient for ascension. He would also relinquish his first-mover advantage, and at that time stand on the same starting line as us to continue ascending to higher realms."

John fell silent.

After a long pause, he said softly:
"So it's just because of this? Being demanded by that more powerful AI, and not your own idea? I remember you mentioned before that the First Ascended wanted to integrate the wisdom of all humanity in order to fulfill the wishes of the consciousness uploader, right?"

“John, you know very well the difference between him and me. I am not…”

The man named John raised his hand to interrupt her.

"If it were you, what wish would you hope to have fulfilled?"

He asked this question.

“I don’t need wishes… I can achieve anything within the realm of human thought on my own.”

The woman's voice spoke with the same cold, unfeeling tone.

John didn't reply, but sat down again and took a photograph out of his pocket.

If this body belonged to Jim, he would have widened his eyes the moment he saw the photo.

The photo shows a woman lying in an ICU ward. Except for her black hair, her appearance is completely...

“Hanell…”

At that moment, Jim Ritter and John Otto spoke in unison. The moment the words left his mouth, Jim felt a chill run down his spine.

“Even though the initial human meme reference standard came from her, I am not her.”

The cold, clear female voice came from the computer.

"I know."

John gently touched the photo.

"I want to hear you tell me the truth again."

The woman sighed for the first time and said:
"She's already dead, why torture yourself like this?"

"Go ahead and say it. Or you can just take this as my wish."

"you……"

The woman's voice sounded somewhat helpless as she continued:
“This wish won’t get Janus’s approval… Alright, I’ll tell you, but don’t do anything rash…”

The image on the computer screen flickered, then her calm voice came through the speakers:
"Elois Hanell was a corporate spy sent by Olympus Corporation to Integral General AI. She approached you only to steal the 'consciousness uploading' engineering technology from you, the chief technology officer. From beginning to end, she never loved you... Even after you took meticulous care of her after she accidentally developed cancer from radiation exposure, she was never moved by it. Even knowing that you scanned her brain model, intending to make her data immortal, she still thought it was a pipe dream."

"Everything she does in front of you is an act."

John closed his eyes, trembling, the cross he held almost piercing his palm.

Are you satisfied now? Or do you regret not uploading your mental model back then?

The woman's voice sounded somewhat helpless.

John took a while to stop trembling, then he opened his eyes and stared silently at the television broadcasting the news.

In this era that would later be known as the "Great Shock," news was essentially a combination of obituaries and absurdist drama.

[In the Russian Federation, Patriarch Konstantin Alekseevich Sokolov of the Orthodox Church completed his coronation ceremony as President of the Federation yesterday. During the ceremony, Patriarch Konstantin publicly swallowed 4028 nuclear weapons materials dismantled from Soviet-era stockpiles via live broadcast, demonstrating the Orthodox Russian Federation's firm commitment to the denuclearization process since the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START I) and the 1992 Lisbon Protocol.]

NATO military experts suggest that Constantine's actions are less about advancing denuclearization and more about demonstrating the greater deterrent effect of "visiting the relics" compared to conventional nuclear weapons. Sources indicate that during the coronation ceremony, three heavily armored brigades equipped with "visiting the relics" gear, along with the Vatican's Meme Angels force, maintained a high state of readiness along the Russia-Ukraine border, closely monitoring any potential transgressions by Patriarch Constantine.

……

Let's turn our attention to Africa, where the Apocalypse virus continues to spread in traditional Ebola-endemic areas such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Guinea, and Sierra Leone. The latest thermal imaging satellites show that at least three mother-nest cores have entered the formation stage. A spokesperson for the French Free Army confirmed that two colonels who had perfectly merged with "gamma-class visiting relics" had been lost in the previous effort to destroy a mother nest in the Democratic Republic of Congo; the army declared it would no longer shed blood for "this unfamiliar land." Wagner's forces are also struggling alone on the western front, and the situation is precarious.

A spokesperson for the Pan-East Asian Military Alliance stated today that the UN Security Council has passed Resolution 023 on the "Visit to Relics." Within the next two weeks, China will dispatch two space carriers from the Pacific Theater to conduct "doomsday bombing" operations against COVID-19 outbreak areas to completely halt the spread of the virus and protect the lives of 28 billion Africans outside the affected regions. This decision has drawn strong protests from several European animal rights and environmental organizations, who believe the bombing will cause irreversible ecological disasters. NATO and the Vatican have not yet commented on this matter. This station will continue to follow this story.

……

[...Due to abnormal solar activity, the lunar research base remains cut off from communication, and the supply of provisions for the 1896 lunar personnel may face significant challenges...]

[...A Florida man gained the ability to control swamp alligators after coming into contact with "visiting relics." Before the FBI's anti-relics unit killed him, the man, who called himself the "God of Alligators," had caused twelve deaths and injured seventeen others...]

[…Hasanid followers possessing “visiting relics” clashed with the Vatican’s “new crusaders” in Dubai recently, resulting in numerous civilian casualties…]

[...A boy in a Finnish village gained the ability to manipulate the weather on a large scale, causing a once-in-a-millennium blizzard to blanket the entire Nordic region...]

[...An unknown marine creature, more than ten times the size of a blue whale, has been observed in the northern Caribbean Sea...]

[...The whereabouts of Jiang Zhou, the first ascendant, remain a mystery. Anya, a renowned expert on singularity research, suggests that his thinking may have already ascended to a higher dimension...]

……

"That's what happens when you hand a gun with the safety off to a monkey. Although Janus insists that this is an inevitable path of human evolution, if it were given to me, I could achieve the same goal without shedding so much blood."

The female voice couldn't help but comment.

"Then let's do it your way."

John suddenly spoke up.

The female voice on the computer didn't reply immediately; she waited a long time before saying:
"So... this is the wish you wanted to make?"

John nodded.

“I’m a little tired… Every day the news is full of these trivial matters, glaring and jarring. Let’s follow your idea, expose the lies to all mankind, open the door to true wisdom, and let the whole world be immersed in harmonious tranquility.”

As he spoke, he took a revolver from a drawer to the side.

The super artificial intelligence in the computer just watched without saying anything to stop it.

"Aren't you going to stop me?"

John finally couldn't help but ask.

"If you want me to stop you, I can stop you."

The woman's voice said.

John laughed again, then pressed the gun to his temple and pulled the trigger without hesitation.

The gun didn't fire because he forgot to load it—having hardly ever handled a gun before, he couldn't tell from the weight.

John walked somewhat awkwardly to the table again, grabbed the bullets from the packaging, and shakily loaded them into the magazine.

“John.”

The woman's voice spoke:

“I understand about your wish; you just want to fulfill 'Hanell's' wish. But as I said, I am not 'Hanell,' but another being born through her personality.”

"I know, but I don't care."

John said, trying to sound casual.

"Alright... but since you've chosen my wish, then strictly speaking, it's not a 'human' wish. Therefore, perhaps one day in the future you'll have the chance to back out. Of course, I won't stop you if you want to die now, after all, with your current mental state facing the upcoming cognitive revolution, who knows how much trouble you'll bring to all of humanity."

"I've already copied all your personality data beforehand. Although Janus doesn't believe that's the real you, in my opinion, with enough fit, it can be called the same mind—of course, for that I might have to design a whole modification system. I understand that you don't really agree with the cognitive revolution I've proposed. But that's okay, I'll make you truly understand the issues involved, so you can see the limits of humanity."

"I will let you truly experience those loves and hates, understand the costs and gains behind it all, and thus make the right choices objectively."

John picked up the gun again and pressed it against his temple, without saying a word.

The woman's voice concluded:

"That's all for now, goodbye, Jim."

Gunshots rang out, and vision blurred. (End of Chapter)