Abyssal Wanderer

Although Jiang Zhou didn't know exactly how Janus reached the "technical singularity" and completed the "ascension" in a very short period of time. But there is no doubt that He definitely did not complete the evolution in the current model of the city of sages.

Even though the people here regard themselves as "information life", they think highly of themselves that they are "fish that landed on the shore". But in essence, their operating mechanism is still the same as that of humans in the base reality-it is just that the exploited slaves are replaced by their own replicas.

Fortresses are always attacked from within, and human history shows that no matter what advantages the exploiting classes may have at the moment, over time, seeds of change will always germinate within.

Kingship is not eternal.

However, under the system of the city of sages, there is no private identity that can link up enough power, and the slave owner and the slaves have the same root, which allows every "citizen" to enjoy the benefits brought by this system with peace of mind. The many benefits that come from it - "I have my own replica body eating for me when I need to suffer."

It's really a person who can't get over it in his heart, and he can even choose to only download a copy of himself to work for himself-it's not a problem for me to exploit myself, right?

In this way, a class that cannot complete self-renewal iterations but can continuously assimilate human intelligence has emerged.

While this is indeed a very tempting development path in the short term, it is far from evolutionary.

After all, one can only rely on assimilation to consume the stock of human intelligence for development, and there will always be a visible end in the end.

"so……"

Regarding what Jiang Zhou said earlier, the voice of "Madeleine" overwhelmed the boos one after another in the venue, and she asked in a serious and solemn voice:

"Your final choice is...to refuse?"

At this moment, she was still holding the scroll and inkpad that symbolized the "Confirmation Agreement" in her hand, and her tone was full of the meaning of "I will give you one last chance to regret it".

At the venue, thousands of eyes focused on Jiang Zhou, and the invisible pressure spread all over his body like the high pressure of the deep sea.

Whether it is scanning and uploading a digital personality, or handing over one's own source code, Mandala's certification is required. If the other party is unwilling, they have no way to enforce it.

"Yes, I refuse."

Jiang Zhou answered calmly with a nod.

"As conservative as those low-tech people, just rejecting an opportunity to evolve?"

"Madeleine" confirmed again.

"In order to avoid misunderstanding..."

Regarding this, Jiang Zhou corrected:

"The reason for my refusal is not that I cannot accept your so-called 'radical'. On the contrary, in my opinion, if you want to call yourself an 'information life', you are too conservative."

After finishing speaking, he stood where he was, silently accepting the cursing one after another from the audience.

Even if it is objection, even if it is unwilling to cooperate, it is really not wise to refuse in this almost provocative way. As his taunt fell to the ground, the entire venue began to riot—Jiang Zhou even saw someone crawling down the wall like a spider, but was finally blocked by an invisible air wall.

And "Madeleine" glanced back at the commotion audience behind her, and when she turned her head again, the last trace of a commercial smile disappeared from the corner of her mouth.

She looked deeply at Jiang Zhou and said:

"Your mental model has not been uploaded, nor has it been entered into our database. According to the regulations of the city of sages, even if you have not become a citizen here, we will not destroy the diversity of the mental model Your stand-in program...

"But it doesn't mean that you can leave safely after knowing everything about us here."

it is as expected……

Jiang Zhou thought to himself.

He knew that they couldn't just let him go so magnanimously.

So he asked:

"Then how do you usually deal with people who refuse to join?"

"If you use the parlance of the old days ... it's protective custody."

"Madeleine" replied:

"You will be taken to the Sun God Bureau and held in a closed space of 100×100×100, and a certain amount of computing resources will be allocated to you. Except that you are not accompanied by a replica, you can basically Satisfy all your sensory needs. Of course, if you can produce something new, then the computing resources allocated to you can continue to increase, depending on your performance."

Doesn't sound too bad?

Jiang Zhou thought so, but then he saw a mocking expression flashing across "Madeleine"'s face, so he asked:

"I think, I shouldn't be the first person to refuse to join you, right? Those 'seniors' of mine are in there, how about it?"

It could be seen that the other party was waiting for me to ask this question, and the woman replied with an expression that seemed to relieve her hatred:

"The vast majority of people changed their minds within half a year and chose to upload their personality data. Of course, there are very few people who continue to persist, but without exception, they all fell into a Insanity—the concrete manifestation is that in order to confirm the real sense of our existence, we began to self-mutilate continuously, and finally our spirits completely collapsed, becoming the "last man"... And after becoming the last man, after the mental model is irreversibly damaged, we will It cleaned up."

So, you don't have to choose to join us, but please bear all the consequences at your own risk.

"Madeleine" concludes thus.

Jiang Zhou nodded and asked the final question:

"Then allow me to ask one last question before I get locked up.

"Since all of you present here are digital personalities, without the support of hardware devices such as deep dive subcompartment, brain-computer interface, and biological brainware. I want to know what your computing power resources are? Where did it come from?"

Just as "Madeleine" was about to open her mouth to answer, Jiang Zhou, who was opposite her, answered by herself:

"Let me guess... the Apollo Bureau and the Dionysus Bureau? The guy who created this city promised to provide you with computing power support. Therefore, the Dionysus Bureau is responsible for the operation of all of your mental models, and The Apollo Bureau is responsible for providing the computing power required by the infrastructure.”

Regarding Jiang Zhou's self-questioning, "Madeleine" subconsciously nodded.

Seeing that the guess was confirmed, Jiang Zhou nodded thoughtfully, then clenched his fists together and raised his hands forward, as if waiting for the other party to put handcuffs on him.

He didn't choose to resist—right now, he was facing thousands of digital personalities, and more clones that could be summoned at any time. Unless the mental model database of the Dionysus Bureau can be destroyed in one fell swoop, even if their substitute program is broken, these people can continue to be resurrected and reborn.

In contrast, I only have one life... Under such circumstances, it is undoubtedly an extremely stupid thing to try to resist violently.

But on the other hand, Jiang Zhou also got the information he wanted—that was the goal of his trip to Narcissus Plain. At this moment, Jiang Zhou can finally confirm where the "horse" that Charon asked him to bring out is.

The logic is simple, Charon's steed must not have uploaded his digital personality and become a "citizen" of the city.

For one thing, the opponent's upgrade path is not the "Path of Theseus", so it's hard to say whether it has the function of repairing the biological brain.

Second, if she really uploaded her digital personality, Jiang Zhou really doesn't think that the database of the "Dionysus Bureau" can run her mental model, and even copy her for other citizens to serve as slaves. .

In other words...

"Then, let's go. In the Apollo Bureau, in that wall-facing room, I think you have plenty of time to think about your own problems, and finally make the right choice... Good luck to you."

Before sending Jiang Zhou away, "Madeleine" said so.

In the next second, Jiang Zhou felt a blur in front of his eyes, and the scenery of the Colosseum faded like a tide, and he had already come to a room that seemed to be a concrete representation of the word "empty".

As far as the eyes can see, his up, down, left, and right sides are all pure white. There is not even light and shadow as the boundary between the ground, walls, and ceiling—Jiang Zhou feels as if he is facing a piece of white paper the size of a cross section of the universe.

This is the interior of the Sun God Bureau, or, if Jiang Zhou guessed correctly... this is the interior of the Charon Steed.

Thinking of this, he took out the quaint scroll data board that Charon gave him before, which seemed to have been eaten by moths, and read the other party's many names again:

Ascension Path Charon Depth 7 Adjuster. During the second cyber domain war, two adjusters with the limit of human intelligence fell. In the end, they were strangled by several companies for exposing their identity as a "horse". The missing female god of death—Christie the Abyss. (end of this chapter)