Abyssal Wanderer

Time travels back to not so long ago.

Along the misty path, Jiang Zhou and Christie were walking on the way out of the Narcissus Plain, following the hounds whose footsteps were as light as ghosts.

Along the way, probably out of guard against each other, the two did not speak much.

In this regard, Jiang Zhou was actually very entangled.

As an adjuster who has experienced the cyber domain war, the degree of transformation has reached the limit of human intelligence, and she still intends to continue to upgrade; it stands to reason that Christie's true inside story about the "big shock" and the relationship between the gods of Olympus The secret should be known well enough.

However, he couldn't find a suitable opportunity to ask for a while.

After all, a question like "Do you know what you saw earlier?" is so stupid just to think about it.

Therefore, the two of them remained silent for a long time.

When Jiang Zhou finally thought of a question that could break the awkward silence, the other party spoke first.

"Speaking of which, your upgrade path...is Icarus, right? I just scanned it roughly before, but I'm not completely sure."

Christie asked.

Jiang Zhou could tell that her tone of voice was a little hesitant when she asked.

"Yes."

So he nodded calmly.

After answering this way, Jiang Zhou could clearly feel the other party's hesitation—she said "uh" first, and then continued to ask as if probing:

"Then, is this path of promotion chosen by Paradox for you?"

This question made Jiang Zhou slightly stunned. Although he didn't know why the other party suddenly mentioned this, he still replied:

"no."

"Was your contact with the 'paradox' before or after you became an adjuster?"

Hearing Jiang Zhou's answer, Christie continued to ask.

"Any questions?"

Hearing the other party's question, Jiang Zhou was a little wary.

In this regard, the other party sighed slightly:

"If you don't want to say it, forget it... No matter how you say it, you are only at the level of depth 2, and there is no big problem for the time being. But believe me, for this upgrade path, after the transformation depth reaches depth 3, you should not continue. down.

"Regulators of Icarus, never cross the photosynthetic belt."

Her tone was very serious.

Christie's words aroused Jiang Zhou's curiosity.

"why?"

he asked:

"Is there any problem with the upgrade path of Icarus?"

Christie did not immediately answer this question. Her eyes followed the black dog leading the way for a long time, and then she spoke slowly:

"Not every path of ascension is designed to allow humans to complete evolutionary ascension as a species."

Is there any information about the upgrade path...

Jiang Zhou didn't interrupt, but quietly paid attention to what the other party said next.

"Actually, apart from the upgrade paths obtained by reverse researching the first-generation adjusters in the 'big shock' era, many upgrade paths today are actually tools that were born out of the initial adjustment and transformation routes.

"Those paths don't care about the will of the adjuster, and to a large extent, the human body is just another 'material' used to print the technological blueprint."

Christie turned to look at Jiang Zhou and said.

"Completely alienated into a tool..."

The latter murmured in conclusion.

He recalled his (Liao Qi) father, the worker who was replaced with a mechanical arm and used as a "living part" at the water purification plant in the resettlement area. Just because the performance of the tool can no longer keep up with the needs of the job, it is replaced like an obsolete part.

Then, he looked at Christie seriously and said:

"So, is the Icarus path an instrumental upgrade path?"

"No... this path is even worse."

The other party replied:

"Generally speaking, for those upgrade paths with a tool nature, they will choose the names of some monsters when naming them-this is also a customary rule, such as the road to Cerberus, it is used as a self-disciplined high mobility Designed for projection platforms.

"But the path of Icarus is different. Compared with a mature tool, this path is actually closer...to a small white mouse used in experiments."

The leading black dog howled in front, as if reminding them that they were approaching.

"Little white mouse?"

Ignoring Heigou's reminder, Jiang Zhou repeated it.

"Tools that validate that a tool works."

Christie said:

"The ability of the Icarus path after completing the adjustment and transformation of depth 4 is very simple: almost unlimited compatibility with other path adjustments and transformations-you can crazily install external prostheses for other upgrade paths."

Regarding this, Jiang Zhou asked in surprise:

"But if this is the case, not to mention the damage to the mental index...won't there be conflicts between different prosthetics?"

Christie shook her head:

"Don't think of yourself as a person, think of your own body as a docking station, those adjustments are just different external devices installed on your body. It's not like a normal installation, it's your new organ, it's just a connection Tools attached to you... no, not even attached to your body. They are attached to your external expandable prosthetic 'wings'.

"Actually, the 'drivers' of those prosthetic bodies will also not be installed in your biological brain. They will be transformed and integrated at depth 4 called the 'daily program', allowing you to forcibly drive those prosthetic bodies."

And this will affect the rapid deterioration of the adjuster's mental index.

Daily program...

Jiang Zhou heard the term again.

Jiang Zhou has one of the adjustments and transformations at depth 4 at the moment—it is what was left by the former team leader of the organization.

"So, this path..."

Jiang Zhou opened his mouth, intending to ask some more questions.

However, before he could say anything, he interrupted and continued:

"In addition, based on the scalability of the Icarus path. There are many malicious programs in the abyss dark net, and they will choose to use the adjuster's body of this path to enter the base reality...especially when they only need to carry out Some rough manipulations without the need for such a delicate tool as a 'steed'."

Hearing this, Jiang Zhou finally understood why the other party asked whether he became an adjuster before or after he came into contact with the "paradox".

She was worried that she would become a "bomb" thrown into the base reality by the "paradox" in such a muddle.

"I see……"

In the end, Jiang Zhou had no choice but to put on a serious expression, and nodded seriously.

After all, only he himself knows that there is no malicious program named "paradox" in this world.

Therefore, there is no such thing as entering the base reality through his body.

Seeing Jiang Zhou's expression, Christie nodded, and finally concluded:

"While this may seem comical from someone like me who has been a 'steed' ... but even in cooperation with those artificial intelligences, even in the face of intelligence beyond our existence, we can You have to have a bottom line as a human being.”

"What's the bottom line?"

Jiang Zhou asked.

"Free will."

Christie replied. (end of this chapter)