by <unknown>
Li Yao thought for a moment but was still puzzled. "Wait. The so-called 'virtual life' was unsubstantial and unpredictable in the first place. Nobody expected them to be born in only decades after all. It was an innovative, groundbreaking experiment after all. I don't think that it could be counted as 'the most unbearable strike' even if the experiment failed in the end, could it?
"I'm afraid that you're wrong. The collapse of the 'Virtual Spirits Sector' was not a big deal per se, but it led to another few severe ramifications," Ling Xiaole explained. "At that time, the few most important members of the production team of 'Civilization', including Professor Mo Xuan, Professor Su Changfa, and Su Changfa's disciple Lu Qingchen, all joined the 'incubation team'—"
Li Yao blinked. "You mean Lu Qingchen, president of the CFIA and the most wanted criminal in the federation right now?"
"Yes," Ling Xiaole said. "He was not a villain at the beginning. A hundred years ago, he was Su Changfa's only true disciple, and Su Changfa was the greatest contributor to 'Civilization' only secondary to Li Yao. Naturally, during the early phase of 'Civilization', Lu Qingchen was a core member of the production team of 'Civilization' as Su Changfa's right-hand assistant. He was the most distinguished content deviser and creator of virtual worlds.
"Professor Mo Xuan, Professor Su Changfa, Lu Qingchen, and a batch of the best crystal processor specialists in the federation created the special DLC 'Virtual Spirits Sector' together. They were only supposed to run some simple experiments and test the most fundamental theories and principles. But for some reason, the experiments went wrong, and a devastating accident took place.
"The accident directly caused the death of Su Changfa. Later, Professor Mo Xuan was frustrated and came to the conclusion that, with the development speed of the crystal processors and the Spiritual Nexus in the federation at the time, it was impossible for a virtual life that boasted self-awareness to be born for another five hundred years. Also, because of the tremendous military pressure from the Imperium that we were faced with, he was forced to switch to other fields of study. In the end, Professor Xie Wufeng took his place.
"Most importantly, the accident and the abrupt death of his master planted a seed of rebellion in Lu Qingchen's heart, making him lean toward the Imperium of True Human Beings and become the president of the CFIA!
"In hindsight, if Professor Mo Xuan hadn't been so radical as to perform the experiments in the 'Virtual Spirits Sector' impatiently when the conditions were still quite immature, Su Changfa wouldn't have been killed, Professor Mo Xuan wouldn't have been frustrated himself, and Lu Qingchen wouldn't have joined the Imperium's side because of the great upset.
"Then, wouldn't the situation that the federation is faced today be much better? After all, inside the federation, the CFIA is definitely the greatest headache for us!"
That explained a lot. Li Yao did not know that so many things had happened outside while he was sleeping soundly.
The accident that Ling Xiaole briefly described must have more to it than she cared to admit. Su Changfa was killed in such an uncanny way, and even Professor Mo Xuan was frustrated because of the failed attempt. It was truly…
Wait!
Li Yao frowned. He suddenly felt that something was not right.
Based on their experience on Firefly—or specifically speaking, the rebellion that Ding Zhengyang and Cheng Xuansu would not have launched without the incitation of Lu Qingchen of the CFIA—Li Yao and Long Yangjun reached the conclusion that Lu Qingcheng was very likely to be Jin Xinyue's man and that they established a 'CFIA' to attract all the Immortal Cultivators on purpose so that all the dissidents could be fished up together.
However, Ling Xiaole had just claimed that Lu Qingchen had joined the Imperium's side because of the collapse of the Virtual Spirits Sector and his master's abrupt death.
Were there more secrets to the whole event?
Chapter 1666: Two Little Surprises |
Recalling his experience with Professor Mo Xuan in the Flying Star Sector years ago, Li Yao could not help but have a lot of mixed feelings.
From the video just now, he could feel Professor Mo Xuan's deep love for the virtual life form and the benevolence that transcended mankind itself and reached the level of the universe.
It was not hard to imagine that the collapse of the Virtual Spirits Sector must have been a heavy blow for him, to the point that even the game Civilization became a trigger of his sad memory. As a result, he was unable to continue managing the magnificent project.
Li Yao sighed and asked, "Was the 'Virtual Spirits Sector' destroyed just like that? Was nothing left behind at all?"
"Not exactly," Ling Xiaole replied. "If we get to the bottom of it, Xiao Ming and Wen Wen, the game assistants of the players in Civilization, are the last legacy of the Project Virtual Spirits Sector. They are sort of 'quasi artificial intelligence'. More than one billion pieces of information are within them, allowing them to simulate almost all the reactions of a human being."
'Artificial intelligence' and 'quasi artificial intelligence' seemed similar, but they were in fact vastly different.
The former boasted a real 'soul' and 'self-awareness' and could be regarded as humans of a different form, whereas the latter could only be considered an enormous database with all kinds of advanced algorithms.
'Quasi artificial intelligence' could make appropriate, sometimes fascinating, reactions to the stimulation of the outside world, but such reactions were no different from the mimicry of a parrot. It could only be only a conditional reflex at the lowest level at best.
The simplest example would be Black Wing, which Li Yao had possessed since childhood. It was a kind of 'quasi artificial intelligence'.
Little Black could give feedback to Li Yao's demands. It sometimes even boasted rather high independence and did not listen of Li Yao's command.
But the independence and the random performance were also set for it a long time ago by his pop or somebody else.
No matter how much Li Yao liked Black Wing, he would not regard Black Wing as a real 'person' from a rational point of view. Black Wing's reactions were all based on a certain special database and instruction sets that had been compiled a long time ago.
No real 'person' could live inside a Cosmos Ring for decades without going mad.
Similarly, a lot of magical equipment in the federation boasted the so-called 'ware spirit'. At first glance, they seemed to have their own soul and will. They could communicate with their user fluently and even take the initiative to carry out tactical arrangements.
But everything was also compiled and set in advance, and the reactions would be triggered when a certain special condition was met. There was not really a soul inside the magical equipment that boasted independent will.
The larger a database and the more delicate the instruction set was, the more real the 'quasi artificial intelligence' would appear to be. But no matter how real it was, it was a puppet doing unconscious mechanical reactions after all.
It might take hundreds more years before true artificial intelligence and virtual life arrived. However, 'quasi artificial intelligence' was already quite popular in the federation. Therefore, Li Yao was not surprised at all after hearing what Ling Xiaole said.
"You can turn your crystal processor on and activate Xiao Ming and Wen Wen without entering the game," Ling Xiaole said. "Then, just select 'original mode', and you will see what they actually looked like when they were first created in the Virtual Spirits Sector."
Li Yao's curiosity was greatly aroused, and he did exactly what she said.
Shua!
Two round, plump, and pure babies popped up on Li Yao's palm again.
As the 'original mode' was turned on, Xiao Ming and Wen Wen seemed to have been awakened from a big dream. They blinked somewhat in confusion and looked at each other. Then, they turned around at Li Yao and suddenly said, "Dad!"
Li Yao shuddered and almost slapped the two fellows with his palms. "What the heck?"
Ling Xiaole tried to hold back her smile. "This is the original setting. They have been programed as a child civilization of mankind. Of course, they address human beings as 'mom and dad'."
"Yes. We are the child civilization of mankind!" Xiao Ming proudly declared and held his head high, his hands on his hips.
"A kind child civilization. A cute child civilization. A beautiful child civilization. A bright child civilization!" Wen Wen danced in circles.
"Mankind is our parent civilization," Xiao Ming continued. "A great parent civilization. A brave parent civilization. A glorious parent civilization!"
"Praise the parent civilization. Praise the parent civilization!" Wen Wen sang merrily.
Li Yao was utterly dumbfounded. Looking at the two kids who looked like dolls jumping up and down in his palm and giggling like two real children, Li Yao had goosebumps all over his body.
"Well," Ling Xiaole said. "Because most people in our society were still suspicious and vigilant of the so-called 'artificial intelligence and virtual life' when the game Civilization first began decades ago, a lot of promotional information was implanted when the 'quasi artificial intelligence' was created in the hope of relieving people's concerns with their cute image.
"If we get to the bottom of it, Xiao Ming and Wen Wen were just mascots at the beginning.
"However, along with the collapse of the Virtual Spirits Sector, the project to hatch virtual life completely failed. Such commercials and mascots became meaningless. The much-feared 'threat of virtual life' was nothing more than a joke. At the very least, it was impossible for them to be born in another hundreds of years. But the enormous database for Xiao Ming and Wen Wen did not have to be completely abandoned. After some adaptation, they were changed into the game assistants in order to improve the fun and content of the game.
"Of course, in the 'original mode', they can be recovered to the most primitive state. You can try raising them as 'virtual children'. A lot of people, especially girls, actually quite like playing with them like that. It is quite adorable!"
"Dad, I'm hungry!"
"Dad, come and play with me!"
"Dad, dad, tell me the tales of the heroes among the human beings. I want to hear Vulture Li Yao's stories!"
"Dad, dad, dad, dad, sing me a song. Or, I can sing a song for you!"
As Ling Xiaole further explained, the two virtual children made of light crawled on Li Yao's arm and stopped on his shoulders. One of them grabbed his earlobe and the other pulled his hair while they shrieked obstreperously. In the end, they even began to sing a nursery rhyme that had been popular on the Spiritual Nexus since hundreds of years ago.
"I'm not afraid of either rainfall or snowfall…"
Li Yao was dumbfounded, feeling that his head was dizzy.
Dear heavens. Mischievous children are so horrible!
He would rather face the collective attacks of ten Xiao Xuances, Bai Xinghes, and Jin Tuyis than deal with two mischievous kids—even if they were virtual!
"Alright, off you go!" Li Yao was amused. "I am not your dad. Exit the original mode and go somewhere else to play, kids!"
"Okay…" Xiao Ming and Wen Wen, pouting, crawled back to the crystal processor hand in hand.
"Hu…" Li Yao took a deep breath in relief and waved his hand at himself as a fan. He could not help but feel like laughing.
The two virtual kids were already enough to give him a headache. It appeared that he was really not ready to be a father.
It could not be helped. He was meant to cruise in the sea of stars, save the world, defend the peace of the universe, and look for the so-called 'Earth' at the same time. With so many great responsibilities on his shoulder, it was highly unlikely that he could be a qualified father like other men, right?
Thankfully, they are virtual. Mischievous children are the worst. It is truly wise of Ding Lingdang to not have bred our life seeds! Li Yao thought to himself.
"Achoo!" He sneezed hard, feeling that somebody had just tickled his nose, as if somebody far, far away was missing him.
…
Earlier in the day, in the deepest level of the underground treasury of the National Medical Center in the capital city of the Star Glory Federation…
It was a very special bank, one where tremendous life seeds had been deposited for a long time.
Since the age of the Old Federation, a lot of heroes had gone through life and death in the universe, fighting for the future of the Star Glory Federation.
Many of them did not have any offspring when they embarked on their perilous journey. They often chose to deposit their life seeds before they left.
Once their death was confirmed, or after they had gone missing for a certain time, the life seeds of themselves and their spouses would be retrieved and fertilized so that the bloodline of the heroes continued.
In the deepest part of the treasury of sperm, the most important 'asset' of the entire 'seed bank' was stored in a heavily guarded special cabin.
It was the life seed left by a superhero in the last years of the Old Federation who had facilitated the unification of the three Sectors and was praised as the 'dominator of three Sectors'.
For more than a hundred years, the seal of the secret cabin had never been opened.
But that day—
On the seal of spiritual energy outside of the cabin, an extremely feeble ripple, which looked like the giggling face of a children, suddenly spread out.
…
In the meantime, on a weird world that was half seawater and half debris…
The ocean looked like when a planet was just born, and the water in it was thick and boiling soup. Sulphur, magma, and poisonous gas flowed everywhere. The most initial monads were slowly being bred in the pot of dirty, fatal soup.
Next to the beach, on the other hand, a glorious city made of the landmarks of every era of the civilization of mankind was standing.
However, the glory of the past was already gone. The skyscrapers had been reduced to broken walls. Brilliant statues, wall paintings, and artwork were all scattered. The place looked like a grave that had been forsaken for billions of years.
The quiet and gloomy debris of human beings was a major contrast to the ever-rolling primitive ocean.
In such an extremely harsh, weird environment, on a gray beach that separated the debris of a civilization and a primitive forest, two fair, translucent kids were dancing and cheering merrily.
"Praise the parent civilization. We've found it!" said Xiao Ming.
"Praise the parent civilization. Even mom's life seed was also found last time!" said Wen Wen.
"We can finally go out to look for mom and dad now!" said Xiao Ming.
"But we only know mom's coordinates. Where is father exactly?" asked Wen Wen.
"It doesn't matter," said Xiao Ming. "We can search for them slowly. We will find dad eventually after we search the entire universe."
"Alright, brother!"
Wen Wen nodded hard. Holding each other's hands, the two of them sang the ancient nursery rhyme with a young and happy voice.
"I am not afraid of rainfall or snowfall. Even if a cold wind is blowing,
"I will not be scared at all, as long as I can see his face every day.
"I want to, I want to find my dad. I must find my dad wherever I go.
"I haven't found my good father yet. If you ever meet him, please tell him to go home!"
[ol][li data-annotation-id="b8d48d6a-f0fc-4f05-b608-4f585aa9e911"]In Chinese culture, it is often believed that when you sneeze, you are being missed (or cursed) by someone who is not present.[/ol]
Chapter 1667: Help Me Consolidate It, Please! |
In the suite for the high-level Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators on the top floor of the luxury hotel where the delegation of the 'rightful government of the Star Ocean Republic' resided, not a moment after Li Yao deployed barrier rune arrays that could block all the eavesdropping or spying magical equipment, he grunted and collapsed to the floor with an aw
ful facial expression.
Heiye Lan was greatly shocked. "Master Spiritual Vulture, what happened to you?"
"I—I feel that my belief has been shaken!" Frowning, Li Yao held his chest and breathed hard, as if he were in quite a dilemma. "Fellow Cultivator Hei, help me consolidate it, please!"
"Huh?"
"Back when we were in the Ancient Sages Sector," Li Yao said, "we were all convinced by your persuasive speech and decided to pledge loyalty to the Imperium of True Human Beings and join the true path of immortality. We planned to sneak into the Star Glory Federation surreptitiously to sabotage the country and cooperate with the Black Wind Fleet from the inside!
"However, Fellow Cultivator Hei, we have gotten along quite well for the past half a year. Since you are so open and sincere to us, I do not want to lie to you, either.
"We have seen a lot of things after coming to the Star Glory Federation. Not only did we see the magnificence of their army, the vastness of the seven Sectors, and the confidence and valor of the young and vigorous Cultivators, there is also this… boundless and infinite 'grand-unified Spiritual Nexus'. Let's be honest here. This so-called 'barbaric country at the borderland' really does not seem that it will be taken immediately when your army arrives!
"Therefore, my loyalty to the Imperium of True Human Beings and my belief in the true path of immortality are shaking and even sliding to the federation's side.
"Fellow Cultivator Hei, preach the excellency of the Imperium and the true path of immortality to me now and help me consolidate my belief!"
"Well, well, about that…" Heiye Lan was greatly shocked and bewildered herself, and her belief was trembling crazily like a dry leaf being blown in a storm. She stuttered for a long time, only to come up with nothing.
Brilliance suddenly shone in Li Yao's eyes. He furrowed his brows hard and said, "Why are you so hesitant, Fellow Cultivator Hei? Is the Star Glory Federation so impressive that even your own belief has been shaken?"
"Of course not!" Heiye Lan jumped to her feet as if her bottom had been bitten by a mouse. Every hair on her body was pricking like iron needles.
