Alien Relic Hunter

"What is this?" The thirty-three eyes staring at the projection screen widened, "Is it your... copy?"

"It should be something like a 'substitute' for the prophet, right?" Ke Lan whispered, "I feel like I can control it."

With a thought in Ke Lan's mind, the young man who looked exactly like Ke Lan in the picture raised his right hand and absorbed an assault rifle that had fallen on the ground into his palm.

"Is this space ability?" After experiencing so many things that cannot be explained by common sense, Thirty-Three is no longer surprised no matter how bizarre the scene is. He turned back and glanced at Ze Luo, " This guy seems to be your kind?"

"No." Unexpectedly, Ze Luo shook his head, with a rare hint of fear on his originally expressionless face, "That's not my kind."

"Huh?" Seeing Ze Luo's expression, Thirty-three was even more surprised than seeing Ke Lan's "copy" walking out of the black coffin, "You seem to be very... well, how to describe it? Well...are you afraid of this thing? Is he your natural enemy?"

Ze Luo still shook his head: "I don't know. I just think he is very dangerous."

Thirty-three: "But Ke Lan said that he can control this thing, so this thing should be considered on our side. No matter how dangerous it is, it should be the enemy who should be worried."

"The danger of him is that he is difficult to control. Although Ke Lan is controlling him now, as long as he absorbs enough fragments of consciousness, he can awaken his own self-awareness and turn his back on the guest." Ze Luo spoke clearly and spoke clearly. It was also very smooth, and Sansan knew every word in the words... But when these words were connected together, he was a little confused.

"What? What about absorbing consciousness fragments? Turning against guests?" Thirty-three asked in confusion.

"You can think of him as a new artificial intelligence, and the soldiers killed by him are equivalent to the huge data flow on the Internet... Artificial intelligence with self-learning ability can absorb, screen, and analyze large amounts of data. The data thus evolves to more advanced levels, and when the redundant data reaches a qualitative change point, artificial intelligence may give birth to its own individual consciousness, which is the 'Omnic Crisis' often mentioned in science fiction works. "Ze Luo explained.

The first of the three philosophical questions is "Who am I?" As a living organism with intelligence, whether a child learning to speak or an old man, this question will appear in his mind to a greater or lesser extent.

There are many answers to this question: name, identity, occupation, status, species... These answers are all correct, but they are also one-sided. Because of this, this question has become a question for philosophers to delve into. An eternal problem for countless years.

Of course, the content to be discussed at the moment is not philosophy - when an artificial intelligence is asked this question, its standard answer is probably its own model and software version, or the serial number of the core processing chip... But this is just Just a procedural Q\u0026A. But when an artificial intelligence starts to think about this problem without any inducement from the outside world, its creator should consider two options:

Should we format this artificial intelligence before it fully awakens, or should we take huge risks and watch the birth of a brand new life form?

"I roughly understand..." Thirty-three said, "What you mean is that this thing is still just a puppet, so Ke Lan can easily manipulate him. But he will continue to absorb things from other people's brains - knowledge Ah, memory, way of thinking, things like that, and then transform yourself from a puppet into a complete 'person' with an independent personality, right?"

"almost."

"Then what does it mean to be a guest? Could it be that after this thing awakens its self-awareness, it can control Ke Lan in turn? But Ke Lan is not a puppet - "

"Because he is much stronger than Ke Lan." Ze Luo said.

Thirty-three's eyes twitched and said: "In other words, if this guy awakens, Ke Lan will have no chance to resist?"

"The moment he awakens, Ke Lan and his self-consciousness will be absorbed and assimilated by him...just like what the god believed in by the Alpha people did to the eclipse." Zeluo paused for half a second and continued, "Moreover, this ending is unavoidable... because the consciousness connection between Ke Lan and that body cannot be disconnected."

When the power of the puppet is stronger than that of the puppeteer, the threads connecting the two become the ropes that the puppeteer uses to trap himself.

"Is there really no solution at all?"

"Yes, destroying this body... But it will cause great trauma to Ke Lan's spirit, and he may directly turn into a fool... There is another way, which is to make Ke Lan become more powerful than him before he awakens. powerful."

…

Ark, core area, secret room.

Several voices that were originally calm and composed were already a little nervous at this time, and the confident voice before became even more furious: "What's going on? What's going on?! Everything is obviously going according to plan. In progress, which link did the problem occur?"

"The most urgent task is to first figure out what came out of the 'Black Coffin'." Another voice that had been pouring cold water on before said. At this time, he had no mood or time to taunt his companions. , this plan was originally a risky move, and there was no room for mistakes.

According to the original idea, as long as every step can be done accurately, even if it is a risky move, the final outcome will only be a near miss... which was stored in the "White Coffin" decades ago. His body will be awakened in a "semi-divine" state, and human civilization will also enter a new stage...

But now, the development of things has been beyond the control of these people... It's like a train that derailed on the edge of a cliff and is falling towards the unknown abyss.

"I'll try to see if I can detect - ah!" said the mechanized voices, only halfway through his words before they stopped abruptly, followed by a short scream.

…

Ark, core area, an unnamed room.

In this room, there are a large number of mysterious equipment stacked up. Most of these equipment come from the relics of the Alpha civilization. Even the most knowledgeable professor in the institute can hardly name more than one-tenth of the equipment. and uses. These devices are connected to each other, and the crystals used as indicator lights flash with brilliant multi-colored lights... And in the center of the room, there is a strange-shaped medical cabin with the hatch cover raised. On the side of the cabin, there is a series of inscriptions written in Alpha civilization characters: "Coffin of Immortality·Sequence: Nine".

In this medical cabin, there was a person lying... or rather, a monster that barely maintained a humanoid outline.

Hundreds of tubes and lines are connected to the body of this humanoid monster. Even its head is filled with densely packed electrodes - these electrodes directly penetrate the scalp and skull, reaching deep into the brain. deep.

Suddenly, the crystal indicator lights of all the equipment in the room lit up with an extremely dazzling light, and then exploded one after another. The humanoid monster lying in the medical cabin sat up as if it had been electrocuted, with its mouth wide open. , like a silent cry.

The next second, red-gold flames spurted out from its eyes, and spread to the whole body in just half a second... After a while, the humanoid monster's body was burned to the ground, and not even a trace of residue was left. There is nothing left.

But there were no signs of burning on the inner wall of the medical cabin. Even the pipelines and electrodes originally connected to the humanoid monster were intact. Even the blood stains originally stained on them were "burned" clean.

It was as if what had just been lying in the medical cabin was just a realistic illusion simulated by holographic projection.

…

Ark, core area, secret room.

"Just now, the news has been confirmed... The member of the ninth seat, Cronus the Hermit, has lost all signs of life."

Cronus, the King of the Titans in ancient Greek mythology and the second-generation God-King of Olympus, counters the sequence nine "Hermit" in the Major Arcana card, which means exploration and knowledge.

Cronus is the one with the most severe erosion among the members of the Undead Crew, so he can only stay in the room specially designed for him and rely on the equipment excavated from the Alpha ruins to suppress the progress of the erosion... ...But while erosion takes away the body and soul of an individual creature, it also gives the individual a part of "His" power. Although it is only a very insignificant part, for humans, this power is already equivalent to a miracle.

What Cronus gained was the ability to "see".

There are one hundred and twenty-eight eyes on his face, each eye corresponding to an ability related to "seeing". His line of sight can not be blocked by space and time to a certain extent. He can not only see The past can even provide a glimpse into the future to some extent.

But until everything happened before his death, he never saw through the fog that shrouded Ke Lan.

Cronus had never told any other members of the Undead Crew about this matter.

His code name is "Hermit", and this room is a "hermitage" arranged for him by other members of the Undead Crew... But to put it nicely, it is a "hermitage", and to put it worse, it is just a building. prison.

The coffin of eternal life is the shackles on his body, and the room full of equipment outside is the prison where he is held.

In fact, only a small part of these devices are used to suppress the progress of erosion, and the vast majority are used to "amplify" his ability... In layman's terms, they are like telescopes and signal receivers. .

Other members of the Undead Crew have been squeezing his value... not just him, but every member of the Undead Crew is the same... They are both chess players and pawns... for that seemingly impossible goal. , they sold their souls and made deals with the devil.

No, to be precise, it should be a transaction with "gods".

But not everyone is willing. The seeds of hatred and resentment have taken root in his heart many years ago.

He has been hiding one thing from other members of the Undead Crew: He has never clearly seen Ke Lan's past and future... From his perspective, Ke Lan is like a wormhole hidden in the corner of the universe. , sucking in all the approaching light, making it impossible to observe at all.

The chess piece was a variable, but he never mentioned it.

Only Cronus knew that the so-called seamless plan was actually a joke from the beginning.

But he was tired and tired of it. After living for such a long time, he felt that it was time for everything to end.

How could they do something that even the Alpha civilization couldn't accomplish?

Rather than facing the end in despair, it is better to give up from the beginning.

…

"Kronos is dead?" The angry voice turned into shock, "Where is the surveillance video of that room?"

"I've seen it." Another voice answered, "He was burned to death."

"Burned to death? How is that possible? There is no way there was a fire in that room!"

"The fire that burned him to death was not the kind of fire you imagined." The second voice was silent for a few seconds, and then chanted in a pious tone: "Any blasphemer who tries to encroach on His territory will be punished. His sanction. Those who try to spy on God with mortal eyes will be blinded by God’s fire; those who try to describe God with earthly words will have God’s arrows pierce his throat; those who try to use contamination If mortal hands and feet touch God's, God's sword will cut off his limbs..."

"What is this?" asked the first voice.

"A prayer left by the Alpha people to praise the power and inviolable sanctity of the great god they believe in." Another voice replied, "If I remember correctly, this stone tablet should be preserved It’s in Cabinet No. 94 on the fourth floor of the secret vault.”

"You mean, Cronus was burned to death because he spied on something related to him? But it was just a body. Even if he had become a demi-god, he would not have such power! "

"Zeus! I know you already have the answer in your heart, but you just don't want to tell the answer." Another voice said, while revealing the other person's true identity.

The fourth seat of the Immortal Crew, "King" Zeus.

"Complete deification...impossible, this is absolutely impossible!" Zeus shouted hysterically, "You and I both know very well that it is just a body without a soul. A body without a soul cannot meet the conditions for complete deification. It can only be semi-deified at most, so we can safely put the White Coffin..."

At this point, Zeus seemed to have remembered something, and suddenly stopped. After a few seconds, he muttered to himself: "No, this is not the White Coffin... The things inside are not the ones we put there originally. The body that went in..."

[P.S. Thank God for the 100 starting coins as a reward. 】