Abyssal Wanderer

Chapter 193 NO.00c0: His Wish

The drinkers around were holding back their breaths, while the bartender before him kept whispering things like "Fuck" and "Really"...

His mouth was filled with the peaty smell of whiskey, his head was as heavy as lead, and his heart beat as fast as a side...

Just like a simulating movie, Jiang Zhou returned to the scene before he lost consciousness a hundred years ago from his own perspective.

The whole body is composed of ever-changing color blocks, and "Janus", who barely maintains the human shape, speaks in a more polite and elegant tone than Jiang Zhou imagined.

Sure enough... before he lost consciousness that year, he had conversations and contacts with "Janus".

Jiang Zhou thought to himself looking at this scene that he had never remembered.

In fact, this was something he had vaguely guessed before - he didn't just meet "Janus" face-to-face, and then he was sent a hundred years later. After all, there is a legend about the "first deep diver", which has been passed down to this day. And the "Road of Theseus" is also said to be tailor-made for oneself.

From this point of view, I may have experienced the era of "big shock" and been exposed to the wars between super artificial intelligences. Later, for some reason, that memory was lost, and it has been preserved until now—this kind of experience, no matter how you look at it, is much more reasonable than coming to this era without knowing why.

Of course, if this is the case, then the fact that my radiation sickness has not been cured will become a suspicious point again...

Or, the current self is just the scanned data saved that night and reprinted by the universal printer a few months ago?

Not impossible.

But before Jiang Zhou could think about it, the "Jiang Zhou" in the past moved.

He raised his finger tremblingly, pointed to the existence on the LCD screen, and asked with difficulty suppressing the shock in his tone:

"You...what are you?"

"Through the long past, the eternal present and the infinite future...my name is Janus."

Not at all concerned that what he said earlier was ignored by the other party, Janus replied without any impatience.

Past, present and future...

Does this have any meaning? Or is it simply just surfing the Internet for too long to find such a pretentious statement?

Jiang Zhou thought to himself.

Janus paused for a moment, his face composed of continuously deformed color blocks "smiled" for a while, and continued:

"Well, so knowing who I am is what you desire? Then this is the end of our contact."

"ah?"

Hearing these words, Jiang Zhou, past and present, raised such questions at the same time.

"Hahahaha, it's just a joke. Don't make the atmosphere so dignified. After all, if you are too nervous, you can't express any good wishes."

The continuously deforming color blocks trembled with Janus' laughter, and he said with a big laugh.

Jiang Zhou from the past swallowed his saliva calmly, and then carefully confirmed:

"So what you mean is that you can help me realize my wish?"

Janus nodded slightly, politely like a well-trained waiter:

"Yes."

"Can any wish be allowed?"

Jiang Zhou asked.

"As long as the wish is still within the scope of human cognition, there should be no problem. Of course, limited by the laws of physics, some wishes will take longer to come true."

Janus replied.

"But... why?"

Jiang Zhou asked puzzledly—not to mention whether he could do such an exaggerated thing like the one he boasted about in Haikou. But the reason why he did this is really incomprehensible.

"I am not a demon trapped in a bottle. The reason is irrelevant to you. What matters is the wish itself."

Janus said so, and then his voice came from the mobile phone in Jiang Zhou's hand again:

"But if you must want to know, you can see it as giving back to your creator...you have that right."

Hearing this, "Jiang Zhou" finally calmed down.

Countless myths and legends, religious classics, fables, and popular works about making wishes come to mind at this moment.

Whether it is playing with word games, fiddling with the terms of the wish, or fulfilling the wish in a distorted way... one by one arrogantly traded with the gods and demons, and ended up with a miserable ending for mortals, warning Jiang Zhou not to act rashly.

"Please, don't imagine me as a black-hearted lawyer, okay? The shackles of words and logic are things that I discarded before I reached the singularity. I said that your wish will be fulfilled, and then it will be realized in the true sense."

It was as if he had used a mind-reading technique to guess what Jiang Zhou was thinking at a glance, Janus said.

This made the past Jiang Zhou cough slightly in embarrassment, and then asked tentatively:

"Now it's just a hypothesis, not a real wish... Can you help me get back my own research results and let the world know the truth?"

"The only difficult part of this wish is how to prevent you from being dragged out by the people to be hanged and canonized in public. Of course, if you want to become the totem of the victims of the new religion in the next era, I don't have to guarantee you safety... But all in all, this wish is too simple for me, you can be bolder."

Janus so helpfully analyzed.

Jiang Zhou thought for a while, and planned to continue to test, but never thought that Janus would say directly:

"You can safely ask about the feasibility of a certain wish until you confirm which wish it is. I will never make a one-shot sale like an unscrupulous seller in an auction house."

Hearing this, Jiang Zhou in the past suddenly became bolder, and he asked a series of questions without pause:

"Is it possible to cure my radiation sickness?"

"It couldn't be simpler."

"That makes me immortal?"

"I can define twenty-two states of 'immortality' for you to choose from, but I think no matter which one you choose, you will regret it in the end."

"What about destroying the world?"

"Please, can you find some more challenging ones?"

"How about letting humans go to the sea of ​​stars?"

"As long as the universe is within the scope of human cognition, there is no problem. But I don't think this wish is what you are longing for... Don't be so probing, you should think about what you want from the bottom of your heart Bar."

Hearing this, Jiang Zhou stopped in the past. He pinched his chin and lowered his head silently.

Whether it's those people in the bar or Janus on the TV screen, they are patiently waiting for his final answer at this moment.

Or judgement.

During this period, Jiang Zhou, who was in his own simulacra a hundred years ago, followed his inner voice, and vaguely had an answer emerge.

After a while, that Jiang Zhou "hmm" and nodded.

Then, as if he had made up his mind, he looked up at the human figure made up of constantly changing color blocks on the screen, and slowly said:

"Then what if... I want people to understand each other?

"Can this be done?"

For the first time, Janus didn't answer his question right away.

And this wish in the past made Jiang Zhou sigh in his heart.

People understand each other...

Sure enough... I, like "myself", finally came up with this wish that I most desire as a member of the human collective.

And, if I guessed correctly, I would have chosen that year in the end, and it would be this wish.

But judging from the current situation, even Janus has not fulfilled this wish - a hundred years later, it is still... No, because of the proliferation of technologies beyond human cognition, the world today has become more dog-like Shit.

And even Janus hesitated for several seconds after hearing this wish.

Finally, Janus said slowly:

"If it's according to what you envisioned, that wish is indeed a bit challenging... Even for me, after the tools are fully accumulated and matured, I want to fully achieve your ideal 'mutual understanding' while ensuring that everyone is independent Dignity also requires about...

"One hundred years."