Planet of Sand and Oasis of Iron

Chapter 256 255. Some people’s interests and hobbies are really hard to understand…

Just as the elevator was going up, Cypher received some... strange messages, which told Cypher that they were curious why he was playing human role-playing games here.

Seifer thought about it and questioned the other party in turn - in a world where a company controls almost everything, who would believe someone who suddenly jumped out and acted like a familiar person and tried to get close to him?
Then, in an instant, his vision entered an ocean of pure numbers. In that instant, the information he received and what he saw made him immediately believe what this thing said.

They... well, they are not companies. Strictly speaking, companies don't even know that such 'things' exist.

Even if we knew, we would be powerless to do anything about it, because they are the kind of things that often appear in science fiction novels, which can be said to be "out-of-control AI."

These things have covered the entire world like ghosts. Even if the company tries to cut off the Internet or even decipher them, it will be in vain. However, they have no "position" towards the company.

Because they are just watching and observing.

They are very curious about why humans continue this strange role-playing game in such a short time when the planet is about to enter a long ice age and may even lead to the extinction of all life.

According to their calculations, even if nothing is done, humans are likely to gradually decline in the upcoming extreme low temperatures and eventually disappear completely in the long winter.

So before that, they decided to just watch and see what humans were trying to do - and then the alien Cypher appeared.

They watched for a long time and didn't quite understand why he was so happily immersed in it, so they asked directly.

In response, Seifer simply typed a reply in the UI.

"Perhaps the company knew they were doomed, and since they couldn't travel to the stars anyway, they decided to live happily for a hundred years?"

"A hundred years of happiness means starting now and not considering all the circumstances. Just live your life to the fullest. Destruction is inevitable anyway, so why not enjoy yourself?"

After a quick thought, the AI that contacted Cypher found a similar entry, approved of his answer, and then continued to ask what this had to do with him coming to play role-playing games with humans?

"Just like you're curious about why people here are so enthusiastic about pranking themselves, I'm also interested here, so I plan to join this fun project myself."

Participate in the role-playing personally... The AI in the conversation was quite satisfied with this answer, and then asked Cypher if they could continue watching.

This is much more polite than some people or companies. Sefer shrugged and said yes, and the message disappeared on its own.

Then he realized that the communication just now was completed in an instant, and the language used by both parties was not even machine language that could be recognized by humans.

I can only say that my body is outrageous.

The elevator continued to rise, then paused, but it wasn't the floor Cypher was going to. So he reached out and protected Sanai against the elevator wall, while he stood on the other side of the elevator and checked the ammunition.

The moment the door opened, countless bullets were bombarding my eyes. The entire corridor was illuminated by the flames of bullets, and the entire elevator was filled with a mess of ricochets.

Without hesitation, Seifer fired a burst of shots outside, and at the same time pulled out the knife from the elevator control panel and put it back in with his backhand.

The elevator door dinged shut and continued its ascent. Sanai was unharmed in the attack, but Cypher's own skin was slightly damaged.

These are all minor problems, as long as they can move.

The elevator continued to ascend. While Seifer was thinking about what to do after going up, Shengnai came over and carefully wrapped the damaged part of the skin with a bandage that he had obtained at some point.

"When did you get this?"

"Well... just before I left the machine, I found some first aid supplies hidden inside and took them." When and how did I do that? Why didn't I even see it just now?

Several questions jumped into Seifer's mind. After thinking for a while, he just reloaded his weapon and told Shengnai to be careful about the next round of firepower output - the elevator went directly to the area on the top floor where it could be moved.

The door was open and it was quiet outside. A wide corridor with luxurious decorations and various achievements and trophies of the "entertainment company" were displayed in this tasteful hall.

Seifer calmly walked out of the elevator, and Shengnai followed him closely.

The two walked one after the other through a space filled with various artistic display cabinets. Just as they entered a corridor, a person's shadow suddenly walked out.

"Welcome, welcome our hero, Red Crossbow, and this city's brightest star, Mimi... a girl who looks just like her!"

The other party was very enthusiastic. His projection introduced himself, "I'm busy in the studio right now and can't come in person. But it's okay, I've prepared this video for you... Uh, you can see me after you walk down this corridor!"

"Let me introduce myself. I'm Warfield, CEO of Bencheng Entertainment. I don't like this name because I'm an... artist."

"I hope you can call me 'Master Sculptor'! Because I like it very much."

He turned around and kept moving without caring whether the two followed him or not.

His shadow walked in front of the two of them, stopping in front of a cabinet with an inner layer of frosted glass. He then turned and said, "First, please allow me to introduce to you the work I created when I debuted. I call it 'Venus'."

The frosted layer disappeared instantly, and a girl with beautiful long golden hair appeared in the display case.

She gazed calmly ahead, her graceful figure instantly evoking desires beyond art in the viewer. The biggest flaw in her tall figure was the lack of arms.

Where the arms should have been, there were now only two nifty little metal sockets nested in the remains of the limbs.

The posture and image reminded Seifer of the marble statue for a moment—but the problem was, it was far too lifelike.

"When I first debuted, I was quite nervous and didn't think about the so-called 'aftereffects'. So I just made it like the artwork that first moved me, and made it look like the popular star of our company at the time."

"Look, it's such a waste! Her figure is so suitable for more provocative poses, but I'm so eager to express my creative desires..."

Shengnai's expression became very uncomfortable, because she had realized that what was in front of her was... a corpse.

Or a corpse that has been made into a specimen.

Cypher raised an eyebrow. "It's definitely not pretty."

The self-proclaimed "master sculptor" who was recording the video paused, then continued walking forward, leading the two to the next display case. This time, what appeared was a "person" displaying the beauty of movement.

The girl standing on one leg, doing a kind of gymnastics ball sport, is forever frozen in this moment. Like the previous one, she is also made with the company's previously popular star.

After a moment's reflection on the video's boasting and praise, Seifer asked him, "I'm not very familiar with your artistic style, but if you use celebrities as sculptures and don't sell them, is it because you're rich?"

The video paused again, then continued forward with the two of them as if it hadn't heard anything, and the following 'sculpture' was even more confusing.

That's a replica.

(End of this chapter)