Armor-piercing bullets don't believe in carbon-based monsters

Chapter 360 Collective

"I don't understand what you mean by 'indivisible'."

"You were able to control those mountain city people before?"

"But now you're telling me that you can no longer communicate through them?"

Lin Yu stared at Lin Xi with a furrowed brow, while the latter slowly sighed.

Then he answered:

“Control and ‘immersion’ are two completely different states.”

"It's not easy to explain the difference between the two to you, but there's one thing you should be clear about."

"Have you ever had any conversations with those people from the mountain city you mentioned?"

As soon as the question was asked, Lin Yu immediately realized what was going on.

Indeed, he had never spoken to those people from the mountain town.

The other party does have a language, but it is only extremely fragmented.

What exactly is going on?

He looked at Lin Xi with a puzzled expression, then said:
"I haven't actually spoken to them, but according to your design, shouldn't they have become the so-called 'Suiren'?"

"That was indeed our initial design."

Lin Xi nodded slowly, then gently waved, signaling Lin Yu to follow him.

The two pushed open the door and walked out of the room, heading towards the balcony not far away.

As they entered the balcony, a sky train suspended on its tracks arrived.

Lin Xi gestured for Lin Yu to enter the sky track, and then said:

“Everyone who enters this city was originally an independent consciousness.”

“They live according to their habits in the real world, and each of them even built this virtual city from scratch.”

"In the beginning, this was just a plain."

"Now, as you can see, this place has become a real paradise."

As Lin Yu watched the city scenery flash by outside the window, he couldn't help but feel a sense of emotion.

Even knowing that this is not the real world, but a so-called "illusion".

But building such a dreamlike world is probably not a simple task, is it?

He sighed softly, then asked:

"so what?"

"This sounds like a beautiful story."

"Then how did your so-called 'disaster' happen?"

Lin Xi also sighed.

"At the beginning, no one thought it was a disaster."

"Some even believe that it is an inevitable path of 'evolution'."

The sky train continued its journey, and as it passed a building, Lin Xi pointed to the top floor and said:
"That used to be a laboratory."

"A huge, state-of-the-art laboratory that is entirely generated by data, yet can almost perfectly simulate the real environment."

“We conducted a lot of research there, both theoretical and practical.”

"We obtain real-time feedback on a material level by exerting influence on the real world."

"Subsequently, these feedbacks were encoded into the virtual city, making our theoretical system more and more complete."

"--Sorry, I've gone a bit too far."

"But the story begins in this laboratory."

At this moment, the sky train stopped on the platform outside the laboratory, and the two stepped off the train and entered the laboratory.

Pointing to a corner, Lin Xi continued:

"Right there, it used to be the workstations of two lab technicians."

"They were so engrossed in the study of the weak interaction that they worked day and night without ever getting tired."

"Their digital bodies make them unaware of fatigue and they don't know what it means to slack off."

"This caused some changes in their mindset—and these changes will certainly be reflected in the data, in the anomalous signals I receive."

"But at that time, the virtual cities were in dire need of reconstruction, and I have to admit that I overlooked their changes."

"By the time I realized it, it was too late."

"What's too late?"

Lin Yu continued to ask, "...It's all too late."

Lin Xi sighed heavily.

"These two researchers are no longer satisfied with individual wisdom."

"They discovered that if their intelligence is simulated by computing units, then theoretically, when two computing units merge together and begin to collaborate without delay, the computing power they can mobilize will increase exponentially."

"So they merged."

"It was integrated in the most fundamental and basic way."

"The two became one, transforming from two independent consciousnesses into a new, unified consciousness."

"They have indeed made considerable progress. The increased computing power has given them computing capabilities far exceeding those of ordinary people."

"They solved one problem after another, and got one step closer to the ultimate result they were pursuing."

"Perhaps you cannot understand the significance of this matter."

"But you don't need to understand it—you just need to know that if the problem of the weak interaction force can be solved, humanity will take a big step forward in the theory of unification, and may even solve the doomsday crisis in another way."

"In short, their achievements have attracted the attention of others."

"The residents here have found that their choice seems to be the right one."

"More and more fusion entities are beginning to emerge."

"And new fusions have begun between the merged entities."

"And the final result"

Lin Xi didn't continue speaking, but Lin Yu had already understood.

His eyes flickered slightly as he looked at Lin Xi in disbelief and asked:

"So even in this virtual city, there are no humans left?"

"That depends on how you define it."

Lin Xi answered in a low voice.

The two did not speak again, but instead entered the sky train once more.

The train descended all the way down to the lowest level of the city.

The streets were brightly lit, but there was no one there.

The train finally came to a stop when it reached the city square at the very center.

Inside the enormous domed building in the city square, Lin Yu saw something he had never seen before in his life.

A huge, pure, and flawless luminous body.

"This is the collective consciousness of all people."

"It could have been any other form, but they chose this one."

"Perhaps it's just to make it look better?"

“I shouldn’t be feeling sad at this time, but in fact, I am feeling sad.”

"That might be a tiny bit of uncontrolled noise in the quantum computing process."

"It's ok."

"In any case, now we should get down to business."

Lin Xi turned to Lin Yu.

"You are the only independent consciousness in this city."

"I can only rely on your help to contact the outside world."

"Because only you can represent humanity, and only the computing unit you are in can be physically isolated."

"You need to take on this responsibility."

"Because you are now inextricably linked to the survival of 'two worlds'."

After he finished speaking, Lin Yu nodded silently.

Then he asked:
"last question."

Why rush into negotiations?

Lin Xi also looked at Lin Yu.

"Because those people outside have discovered the secret of the ring."

"They thought it was a shortcut to saving the world."

"But in reality, it's the key to opening Pandora's box!"

(End of this chapter)