Ming Dynasty, New Rome, and Infinite Divine Machine

"This hasn't been going on overnight. Rather, if they had cooperated well from the beginning, the Roman Empire wouldn't have reached this point. At this point, we no longer place our hopes on the last Romans being able to unite—I believe Shangluo can control everything. The other Romans may not care about me, but they really care about Zhendan."

But Shangluo is busy right now. The emperor is away, and he has his own family to take care of. How can he find the time to put out a neighbor's fire?

"I don't think so. Our neighbor was about to move away, and before he moved, he gave his house and land to Zhendan. From this perspective, the fire burned the property of the future Zhendan."

【You will save trouble.】

"Then I can't do anything else. Establishing a connection between Zhendan and Shangluo, or to put it another way, establishing a connection between Shangluo and Zhendan, is the most correct decision I have made since I ascended the throne at the age of twelve. I wanted to do more, but unfortunately my body does not allow me to ask too many questions about the outside world."

"I understand." Shang Luo nodded. "Just rest and take care of yourself. Leave the rest to me. When your condition gets better, it won't be too late to talk to you then."

"I promise you, Shangluo," Victoria replied, "If my condition can at least be alleviated in Zhendan this time and it doesn't make me unable to go out alone, then I will definitely cheer up. I, and the entire Roman Empire, are too lazy. Things are not yet irreversible. I don't want to say 'maybe we could have done something, but now it's too late'. Now is the time to save the situation. Two Romes have collapsed, and there are at least four left. They must die in the right way."

"Very good, very energetic!" Shangluo raised the glass of grape juice and clinked it with Victoria.

"Excuse me." Someone knocked on the door. "You ordered. You ordered."

The waiter outside looked at the name of the dish again and again, and then read out in a serious tone: "The 'Nasi Lemak' you ordered is here."

This name stunned everyone present.

[What is this? Let me check it out. It turns out to be like this? Victoria, are you sure this is Mapo Tofu? Have you really seen what Mapo Tofu looks like? It's Fujian Mapo Tofu. Do you want me to send you a picture? ]

"No, you'll know when you bring it in."

Nasi Lemak, pronounced "spicy ni ni ma de", was placed in front of Victoria in a wooden lunch box with a silver plate unique to Nanyang cuisine inside.

The plate was filled with hot nasi lemak, sambal sauce, dried fish, peanuts, tofu on top, and fried chicken next to the tofu.

"Yes, yes, that's it! This is Fujian Mapo Tofu!"

"." Shangluo thought for a moment and asked, "Did you meet a Nanyang chef who made this for you? I searched and found that this dish seems to have originated from the Nanyang natives."

"I have eaten it before. I was..." Suddenly, she was stunned for a moment, "Yes, I ate it somewhere. How could I forget where I ate it?"

A sense of crisis suddenly struck her, and she realized that something was wrong again: "I did eat it! But...but where? I remember it was in the sun, with white plastic tables and chairs. How come I don't have any memory of it at all? Did I eat it while sleepwalking? But how could I sleepwalk to such a far place!"

Chapter 1012 Evolution

"Am I sleepwalking?" Victoria put forward her own guess in panic.

[Impossible. You can't go out at all, have you forgotten? Not to mention going to Southeast Asia. If you take one step outside the Theodosian Wall, the entire wall will physically collapse, have you forgotten?]

"Huh?" Shang Luo asked in surprise, "Is she a raven from the Tower of London?"

[This is part of the magic. So you can see that she runs around everywhere when she goes out, and never uses physical methods. When you first met in Alexandria, she talked to you through images.]

"We didn't actually meet there for the first time. We met at the Constantinia airport."

"???"

[At that time, I was watching you from the terminal. At that time, I just felt that you were really hardworking. Not to mention masters like you, even the soldiers were very hardworking.]

"Miscellaneous soldier? Oh, you mean Wen Yuan, right? He wasn't actually a miscellaneous soldier at the time. He seemed to be even more powerful than me."

"Wen Yuan? Who is that?"

"Tsk, the one who's always next to me."

"You mean the one with glasses?"

"No, there are two people next to me. The one wearing glasses is Xiao Han."

"You mean that soldier, right? I didn't expect him to be so powerful. But it doesn't matter. He's nowhere near you."

"A-choo." Wen Yuan rubbed her nose. The sound of the sneeze still echoed in the corridor of the imperial prison.

"What's wrong? Did you catch a cold?" asked Lu Huaiyang next to him.

"No, it seems a little damp down there."

Lu Huaiyang glanced at the time and said, "Why don't you go back first? The interrogation results may not be available until tomorrow morning."

"No. Everyone is here, I can't go back alone. And I don't have classes tomorrow, so it doesn't matter."

He rubbed his nose, wrapped himself in his coat, and continued to stand at the door.

"Would you like to order a midnight snack?"

"Okay, okay." He immediately perked up, "What should we eat?"

Lu Huaiyang glanced into the interrogation room. Since he was the one in charge here, he picked up his phone.

"Hello, this is the super-super-super-super switching station. Mr. Lu, what service do you need?"

"Your switchboard hasn't been repaired yet."

"It's been fixed a long time ago. After the repair of the switchboard, we can now even call [The Roman Demon in Charge of Nuclear Fission without Nuclear Explosion] and other demons! The switchboard has been upgraded to a super super super super switchboard!"

"There's a super word missing."

"."

"If you don't believe me, look up the historical records yourself."

"." There was silence for a while. "Hello, this is the switching center. Mr. Lu, what service do you need?"

"Please connect me to Jinling Hotel. I need to order food."

"Wait a moment, please? Hey! Wait, there's a message at Jinling Hotel. Do you want me to read it out?"

"Don't read it, just tell me what's going on."

"Someone was afraid you'd be hungry tonight, so they ordered a braised pig's face for you."

“Who is so thoughtful?”

"The other party's communication number is 0003"

"The Emperor??? Did he call you?"

"Negative. We don't know who the 'Emperor' is."

"Artificial retardation. I just didn't let you identify the identity file, so you don't recognize it."

"If you have any comments, please submit them to His Excellency Hui Ming Shi, the Grand Marshal of the Three Altars. We can't guarantee that we will correct them, but we will super-super-super-evolve!"

Click, the phone was suddenly disconnected.

"Hey, Captain Lu, I'm the former junior officer. That group of operators just now was a bit outrageous, and I've already criticized them."

"Why are the failures happening more and more frequently recently?"

"As you know, a single Tianyi Guiren cannot communicate with humans intellectually, so a large number of Tianyi Guiren are needed to be deployed as thinking units to simulate neural networks. Recently, it seems that because the concentration of spiritual energy in the atmosphere has increased, it is easy for neural networks everywhere to misconnect."

"You won't break down someday, will you?"

"Of course I won't. I have been enlightened by the Heavenly Lord and the Marshal. I am who I am, not some other Heavenly Lord. It is me who is talking to you at this moment, and it will be me at the next moment. My existence is always continuous, so you can rest assured to ask me for help."

"The Emperor gave us a pig's face?"

"Yes. We just found out about this as well. Although I can't find any information about the emperor, I know that he is the emperor's father and a very important person."

As a Tianyi nobleman of the general level, the former young general is Shangluo's right-hand man - literally, sometimes Shangluo can't spare a hand, he will help as the right hand. He can also speak human language and has the ability to communicate directly with humans on a human time scale. Although he made the mistake of writing in print at the beginning, he has been working hard to learn how to be a human being. Shangluo has also reserved a position for him as a star official.

"Those who have been trained by Shangluo are different. All of your guys are artificial idiots, right?"

"They can learn. They can all learn. Although speaking is still too difficult for them, they are all smart and enthusiastic children. Sooner or later they will be able to learn it."

"Then eat it while it's hot. The braised pig's face has been sent over."

"It doesn't matter whether you eat or not." He paused and said to the former young general, "In fact, this is the first time I have talked to Tianyi Nobleman for such a long time. How do you feel about becoming a human?"

"Why do you ask this suddenly?"

"Because the information obtained through torture is somewhat related to you." Lu Huaiyang replied.

"???"

"Don't panic." Lu Huaiyang replied, "If it really has a great connection with you, I won't tell you first. It's just that as a member of the Imperial Palace, I actually want to hear the opinions of you 'elves'. After all, when it comes to automata, Tianyi Guiren is the closest to automata here."

"So it's a problem with the automatic machine, right? Are you sure?" he asked carefully.

"Basically confirmed." Lu Huaiyang gave an affirmative answer, "We are reviewing the final details. If there are no accidents, a preliminary report will be compiled soon. Because the work is almost finished, I am thinking of letting everyone have a midnight snack and then continue working."

"I see." The former young player paused, "If I were to say it, my feeling is that language is the soul. People who speak different languages ​​have different souls."

"Huh? What do you say?"

"Have you read the book 'The Story of the Stone'? It's the 'Dream of the Red Chamber'."

"This is a banned book." Lu Huaiyang replied, "You should know that this is not a book that should appear in our time. But because it is really good, it was printed and stored in the [Golden Chamber Stone Chamber]. I will not investigate why you have read this book for now - what do you feel about it?"

Chapter 1013: Story of Stone

"I feel like we are like the stone in The Story of the Stone, the magical jade. We have our own intelligence, but we cannot speak. We are also like the Immortal Crimson Pearl Grass, which received the favor of the Fairy Water Servant, but had to be reborn as a human to return the tears. In the final analysis, whether it is a stone or an immortal grass, even if it has its own consciousness, it cannot have an intellectual exchange with humans. We cannot understand the words of this world, and I can feel that there is a gap blocking me."

"What chasm?"

"When Cang Jie invented writing, the sky rained millet and ghosts cried at night. I can feel that it is this gap between language and writing that prevents most of us from recognizing the unnatural human society. Yes, we think that this kind of systematic, logical, rational, and abstract thinking is unnatural. When babies go to get injections and see other babies crying, they often cry too. Because babies at that time often cannot recognize their own existence, seeing others sad is the same as being sad themselves. In that natural state, people are as close to each other as sardines are to sardines."

"You mean, there is no such gap between the Tianyi nobles?"

"Yes. That's why they can form a whole neural network in the form of units, just like before, and rely on algorithms to communicate with you. In such a group, we retain our own consciousness and ideas, but we will also empathize with the experiences of other Tianyi nobles and share our cognition and observation of the outside world."

"how about you?"

The former young general was silent for a while. "I feel that after being enlightened, even a sad barrier has been created between me and them. My 'heart' has become too solid, and I can no longer integrate with other Tianyi nobles. This situation sometimes makes me feel lonely. But I can chat with the Tianjun, help the Marshal move and dismantle, and other Tianyi nobles also need me, so... It's actually okay, I don't feel particularly lonely. At least I am still needed by everyone."

"."

"And." He suddenly thought, "I have just obtained the permission of the Heavenly Monarch and Her Excellency Victoria to tell you her current state. Now, Her Majesty Victoria, her mind is also gradually disintegrating. She is becoming more and more susceptible to the influence of others, and at the same time, her mind can influence others as if it has been freed from shackles. I think this is a dangerous sign for humans. Her behavior has become a little childish, because she occasionally reverts to the state of a baby, unable to distinguish herself from others."

"Then." Lu Huaiyang thought for a moment, "This question is for you - do you want to go back?"

"Go back? You mean, let me return to the state of having no self and being able to blend with other Tianyi nobles? To be honest, I don't want to. I already have my own name. My name is Qian Xiaojiang. Qian Xiaojiang is my name. I am Qian Xiaojiang. The name given to me by the Heavenly Lord cannot be taken away by anyone. You can think of it this way: if someone is deprived of his name and self-awareness by magic, then he will probably gradually sink into nature and will never be able to return to human 'society' again."

"Very good." Lu Huaiyang wrote down the answer. "So, do all of you want to get your own name?"

"I think so. The magical jade in The Story of the Stone, even if it was attached to Jia Baoyu, still wanted to experience the joy of the human world - if he couldn't be a human, then being half a human would be fine."

"Then, one last question," he asked. "Under what circumstances would make you willing to give up your own names and re-form a collective consciousness that is indistinguishable from each other?"

The former young player thought for a while and gave his own answer:

"I'm sorry, I can't imagine this state. I can only think that these people might be sick. Or is it the instinct for survival? It's better to live a miserable life than to die. Just like, if you ask me to have communion, I will definitely not want to. But if you let me choose 'die if I don't have communion', then communion is not so unacceptable. From my point of view, if it's not illness, it's that many automata have a huge instinct for survival at the same time, which makes their thinking integrated by the desire for survival at a certain moment. And then..."

"Well, what next?"

"Maybe it's like black sesame and white sesame mixed together, they can no longer be separated."

"I see." Lu Huaiyang nodded. "Your answer is very valuable. I have recorded it."

"Can you let me get some merit? I really want to make further progress! The Lord of Heaven said I can become a star official. Can you help me get another merit?"

"Even if you provide clues about a wanted criminal, we have to verify them before we can give you the reward!"

"Ah, sorry, sorry. I just want to make progress. Wait, I'll deliver the braised pig face right away. Grani is already delivering the goods. Please send someone to pick it up at the curb. Grani can't climb the stairs."

"I see. Also, how is Emperor Victoria doing? Does she need our assistance?"

"Victoria." Shang Luo conveyed Lu Huaiyang's question, "The Jinyiwei wanted to ask if you need help. After all, although you are visiting as a personal person, you are still a guest. They don't want you to die in the living room."

"You made up the second half of the sentence yourself, right?!"

"Hey, how did you know?"

"Because the poor patient in front of you is developing towards the state of 'inability to distinguish each other', but has not yet fully developed to that point. My mind is in a state of 'being connected, but currently poorly connected' with the outside world. Therefore, I can sense what you are thinking to a certain extent."

"That's really terrible! Do you really know what I'm thinking now?"

"." Victoria was stunned for a moment, her face quickly turned red, "Did you do that on purpose? You obviously didn't think so just now."

"I just"

"Ah!!! What on earth are you thinking? Is this okay? Wow! What have you seen? What is that pink unicorn? Can you clear your browsing history? Apollonia, help me turn off the power!"

[Here I come! I was waiting for you to say this. I’ll help you turn off the power immediately——]