This Game is Too Real

  Luo Yu continued to share his experience in the brood nest on the forum, while Chu Guang learned about the situation of the brood nest in the city center from Xiaoyu who lived on the B4 floor of the refuge.

   Speaking of which, thanks to Heya.

  By improving the neural connection equipment produced by the black box, she designed a dedicated neural network data exchange interface for Xiao Yu, and connected it to the server in the B6 computer room of the shelter.

   This is equivalent to wearing "virtual reality glasses" on it, allowing it to communicate directly with Xiaoqi with consciousness.

   I have to praise Xiaoyu, this little guy is quite receptive to the tools invented by humans.

  Before it played with the headset that Heya installed for it, it had a great time playing with the new toy this time.

  With Xiao Yu's assistance, Xiao Qi remodeled and restored the memory it retrieved from the brood.

   It’s not just Chu Guang, any interested new and old players can read the long-standing memories of this era through the neural connection device...

  「Unbelievable... Such a beautiful planet is only 5 light-years away from us!」

   Floating in a boundless void, staring intently at the planet that was so close at hand, Heya couldn't help but let out a sigh of admiration.

   A whole new ecosystem!

  A huge, living DNA sample library!

  Is there anything more exciting than this for a specialist in this field?

  Chu Guang standing next to her is the same

   It's just that his emotion is completely different from Heya's, not so professional, but a little unbelievable-this planet is actually alive?

   And it has its own consciousness!

  According to all signs, the evolution process of the creatures living on this planet is completely different from that of the earth.

  Of course, another possibility is not ruled out. The ecosystem on the earth is the only one in the universe, or the biological evolution process on each planet is unique.

  After all, before he crossed over, the human civilization in that world hadn’t really left the solar system, and the cognition of the world outside the solar system was still based on countless conjectures and paradoxes.

  The two are currently connecting to the server of the shelter through a virtual reality device.

  Actually, Yin Fang was also here just now, but that guy used to be a prospector of the college, so he was well-informed.

  Compared to an abstract memory, he is more interested in the evolution that the players brought back from the city center.

   Those are living fossils left two centuries ago!

   Not only that, but also those ruins that were originally sealed underground by the mutant slime mold!

  The significance of this victory to the alliance can be described as a great geographical discovery!

  He didn't want to waste a minute outside the lab.

   Just as the two of them were staring at the planet in a daze, Xiao Qi's voice came from the side.

  「Master, the memory analysis has been completed!」

  Hearing Xiao Qi's voice, Chu Guang came back to his senses and asked immediately.

  「Can you get closer? I want to go up and have a look.」

   "Although it's okay to get closer... But if you want to land on that planet, there is nothing to see on it."

  Xiao Qi continued to speak in a low voice with a hint of embarrassment in her voice.

"That brood only has a vague memory of the planet Gaia. He probably knows the situation on that planet, but he doesn't really live on it... If you want to go up there, I can make some textures based on those memory fragments, but There may be a big discrepancy with the actual situation.”

  After listening to Xiao Qi's answer, Chu Guang could guess with his feet that the player named Luo Yu had probably complained on the forum that he took out the unfinished map and turned it into a cake.

  As a player, it is impossible not to go up and take a look when you discover a new map.

   Without Xiaoqi’s help, he might not even

   "Sticks" can't be seen.

  But Chu Guang has long been used to this.

  Anyway, when these guys encounter anything that cannot be explained in the game, they will all push it to him. Either the dog plan has not finished, or the dog plan is playing a big game.

  He usually doesn't bother to explain, and is even happy that his cute little players are so misunderstood. After all, sometimes he himself needs to get in-game news through the forum.

   Is there anything unreasonable about not finishing the game in the closed beta stage?

  This is too reasonable!

  "...Besides the planet itself, is there any other content about Gaia in the memory fragments of the brood?" Chu Guang then asked.

  Xiao Qi replied immediately.

  「There are some bits and pieces, mainly about Gaia and the colonists who landed on Gaia. If you want to know more, I can sort it out for you.」

  Chu Guang: "It's troublesome."

   "Hey, don't worry, it's Xiaoqi's honor to serve the master!" A shy voice came lightly, and then a light blue window appeared in front of Chu Guang.

  This message is mainly from the perspective of the mutant slime mold, describing a past event in the early contact between human civilization and "Gaia".

  Because the slime mold does not communicate through sound, the concepts stored in the sea of ​​brood consciousness are all recorded with pure biological information, and there is no corresponding language.

   But thanks to the fact that the alliance has Xiao Yu, a translator who has evolved a "voice function".

   With its help, Xiao Qi transformed this abstract memory into a language that humans can understand and understand. Seeing that Chu Guang was engrossed, Heya, who was floating aside, also came over curiously.

   Just like the shock that "Gaia" brought to the People's Federation, after noticing the existence of human beings, the omnipotent Gaia was also shocked by this group of extraterrestrial visitors.

  He has existed on this planet for an unknown number of star cycles, and he has dominated this planet like a **** for an unknown number of star cycles, but this is the first time he has seen such a strange organism.

  They melted the soil and rocks with fire, spread the tempered elements on the ground, and called thunder and lightning from the temperature comparable to the stars, driving everything to revolve around them.

   And the most incredible thing is that these organisms are not under his control!

   This is beyond his comprehension.

  Not only could he not control them, he couldn't even establish communication with them, and they were unaware of his existence, killing the fruiting entities that Chi sent to contact them time and time again.

  At first, he regarded these colonists as viruses brought by "extraterrestrial meteorites", or something similar, after all, such things happen occasionally.

  Thus, through his own ability, he has evolved an "antibody" that excludes these organisms.

   At the beginning, his antibodies did have some effect, and the aliens infected by the slime mold soon suffered from weakness, coughing, listlessness, etc. - a series of symptoms.

  However, Chu Guang knew without even guessing. With the technological level of the Prosperous Era, this level of cold might not even be considered a threat.

   And the development of things is just as he thought.

  The colonists quickly used advanced medical technology and analysis and research on local species, not only developed relevant vaccines, but also carried out a wide-area eradication of "antibodies designed for humans".

   This is probably the first head-on conflict between Gaia and human civilization. Both sides started this unprepared war without knowing what each other was.

After discovering that the virus and bacterial attacks had little effect, the irritated Gaia gradually expanded the scale of the war, and began to try to set off some global disasters, and derived some more aggressive fruiting entities, trying to physically eradicate the constant Expansive colonists.

Of course, it is impossible for the People's Federation to give up this treasured geomantic land that was so hard to find because of such a small setback, and began to invest more and more resources in the development of the colony. means.

   And interestingly,

   It was also during this process that the scholars of the People's Federation finally discovered the existence of "Gaia"!

  The series of disasters that happened on the Gaia planet are not separated from each other, and everything is dominated by a unified consciousness!

  The biologists of the People's Federation put forward this conjecture when comparing the DNA of alien creatures, and the discovery of the mind interference device later confirmed this conjecture!

  From the perspective of Mutant Slime Mold, it was the first time that humans heard his voice in a real sense, and established direct communication with Sleeve.

  「Psychic interference device?!」

  When she saw this part of the information, Heya's face was full of surprise.

  After thinking for a moment, she muttered to herself again.

  「Creatures with higher intelligence receive richer information and receive more interference...Hiss, so that’s what happened!」

   She still felt strange when she was studying the materials of No. 117 shelter.

  The original intention of the psychic interference device project was to replace the infrasonic fence used by the colony to drive away the alien species. However, according to the information they collected, the alien species in the colony were all fruiting bodies of the slime mold.

  They share a unified consciousness, theoretically, they should not be able to be driven away by psychic interference devices.

   It doesn’t even need to be “theoretical”, there are a large number of slime mold fruiting bodies in Qingquan City, and the mind interference device is useless to them.

   After a long time, those colonists didn’t use it to replace the infrasonic fence, but used it to establish diplomatic relations with Gaia?

  Chu Guang did not speak, but thought of another thing,

   That was what Dr. Method mentioned to him in Vault 101 earlier.

  During the Prosperity Era, there was a radical trend of thought that was widely popular in the Renlian society.

   That is, the definition of a person.

  Activists believe that human beings are social beings, social beings are human beings, and the People's Federation should keep pace with the times. Conservatives, on the other hand, believe that man is the unity of social man and natural man, both are indispensable, and the law of the ancestors is immutable.

  The two sides have extensive differences on a series of agendas such as the citizenship of bionics, the scope of application of human cloning technology, and social upbringing.

  In this unique era background, the emergence of "Gaia" actually had a certain degree of impact on the society of the People's Federation.

  Usually, the Gestalt society that humans can observe in the natural world of the earth are boring and inefficient bugs such as ants and bees, but now there is a nearly perfect and complete body that is displayed in front of everyone.

  In the eyes of some people, his existence provides a nearly perfect solution for the differences between radicals and conservatives.

   That is, as long as a Gaia-like thinking gestalt network is established through the study of Gaia, and the consciousness of every individual in society is connected into a whole, then all differences will be easily resolved.

   Gaia is like that.

  Before humans arrived here, there was not even a concept of conflict here, and naturally there would not be any differences.

   And it was these people who first established contact with Gaia.

  Most of them are scholars and researchers who have voluntarily applied to migrate from the parent planet to the colony, and most of them have had enough of the endless bickering and scientific ethics committee.

  In the remaining memory of the brood, he has positive comments on these humans who actively embrace Gaia.

  In his cognition, he did not kill for the sake of killing, but responded to the call of the human "Gaia faction" and came to liberate the suffering organisms on this planet under the guidance of Gaia.

   Of course, this is not a testament to generosity and selflessness, and it is also for his mother.

  According to those humans who sympathize with them, if they don't address the root causes, the conflict will never end.

   During hundreds of millions of years of evolution, the word "plunder" has been written into the genes of most species on that planet.

   "... No wonder that brood can accept members of the Torch Church." It took Chu Guang a long time to squeeze out such a sentence from his mouth.

  Those who have been to Vault 401

  Refuge, and took away the psychic interference device and related technologies. Objectively, they have mastered the tools to communicate with the slime mold brood.

  And their thoughts and ideas coincide with those of the "Gaia faction" who are sympathetic to the mutant slime molds, but they are a little bit extreme to their own people.

   But what does it matter?

  To give an inappropriate example, the brood's view of them might be the same as his view of Xiao Yu.

   After fighting for so many years, a group of humans finally emerged who can understand their demands. Maybe the DNA in the hands of the Torch Church was given to them by the brood in Qingquan City!

   "Do you have any other memories?" After reading this memory to the end, He Ya looked longingly in the direction where Xiao Qi's voice came from.

   "No, that's all he knows." Xiao Qi replied helplessly.

  Hearing Xiao Qi's answer, He Ya's expression couldn't help showing a little disappointment, but she didn't force it.

"Unbelievable... This piece of information has completely overturned my understanding of mutant slime mold," Heya touched the bridge of her nose, and suddenly looked at Chu Guang excitedly, "You know what? I have a lot of new things in my mind right now. Thoughts... Forget it, I can’t explain it clearly to you, I may have to study it in seclusion for a few days.”

  Looking at Heya's eager expression, Chu Guang reckoned that she probably got new inspiration about her research field from this memory.

   That kind of professional thing is really beyond his scope of knowledge.

   Did not ask in detail what it was, Chu Guang coughed lightly and said.

   "You can retreat for as long as you want, but before that, there is one thing I need to ask for your opinion."

  Heya raised her eyebrows curiously.

"what's up?"

  Chu Guang tried to describe his thoughts.

  「I want Xiaohan to improve the appearance of Qingquan City...」

  In fact, it is not so much an idea as a brain hole.

   When he was watching the screen on the forum just now, he discovered that Professor Yang was urging Luo Yu to send the millions of cheap descendants he had just picked up to the assembly line to make money.

  Honestly speaking, Chu Guang didn't expect this coquettish operation, and even Luo Yu, who was instigated, felt that it was unrealistic to do so.

  After all, if it is really possible to do this, let alone the game experience of other players, I am afraid that even the game experience of NPCs will be lost.

   It is better to keep this hack in the hands of the collective.

   "Improve the city appearance?" He Ya was stunned after hearing this, and looked at Chu Guang with a puzzled face, "This...how can it be improved?"

  Chu Guang patiently explained.

   "Currently Qingquan City is in ruins. If millions of slime mold fruiting bodies can also participate in the reconstruction work, the project that originally took hundreds of years to complete may be reduced to a few years."

  His requirements are not high.

   Even if some urban areas in Qingquan City can be restored to a level above livable level, this will be of great benefit to the alliance.

   Moreover, allowing Xiaoyu to make some visible social contributions can also reduce the concerns of wastelanders who don't know about it.

   Seeing that Heya was stunned for a long time without speaking, Chu Guang added something later.

  「Of course, this is just an immature idea...」

  「Hmm...it's not a question of maturity, this idea actually sounds good, but there is one...」

   Paused for a moment, Heya continued with a subtle expression.

"According to our research, the hive consciousness is not as omnipotent as it seems. To a large extent, its **** is reflected in the macro level. For example, Thea, its micro-manipulation ability is stronger than its mother. However Even for that guy, when the number of its sub-entities rises to more than a thousand or even ten thousand, it is difficult to specifically control the actions of each sub-entity.”

  "That's why it tried the assimilation model, allowing the assimilated fruit entities to retain part of their self-awareness, and to be able to improve specific actions according to vague instructions. The general view of the research institute is that this is a change

  The ability of slime molds to learn and evolve in human society. "

   After a pause, she continued.

"As for Xiaoyu, its dominance over the fruiting bodies in Qingquan City is actually weaker than that of the brood that it devoured. First of all, it transmits information through the medium of sound, although the distance and speed of transmission are compared to the medium of spores. Even better, but the information entropy must have been reduced. Through the two media of sound and spores, after the information is sent to each fruiting entity, it is difficult to say whether those fruiting entities can understand those complicated commands.”

"In other words, if it lets those eaters chew people, they will definitely understand, but if you want them to move something from one place to another, I'm afraid Xiaoyu's commanding art will have to be tested .”

  After listening to Heya's explanation, Chu Guang felt a little regretful.

  「Is that so…」

   Seeing Chu Guang's expression of regret, He Ya couldn't help but add something later.

"This is just my conjecture, and my conjecture is not necessarily correct. Moreover, you should not ask me about this matter, but communicate directly with Xiaoyu. That guy is a born biologist, and its existence itself is important to To us it is an unimaginable miracle, a singularity isolated beyond our cognitive horizon."

   When it came to this, she made a joke.

  “To make a vivid but inappropriate metaphor, those of us who study the mysteries of nature are like magicians, who need to rely on sophisticated wands and obscure spells to cast spells.”

   "And it's different."

  「It’s magic in itself!」

  …

   Shelter B6 floor.

   Standing in a sea of ​​light red, Xiao Yu sighed leisurely.

  The light red spore coat rolled like a sea wave, spreading round and round, and finally merged with the jet-black chassis standing like a rock in the computer room.

   It appears that slime molds have their own problems.

  Take off the virtual reality glasses on his head, and Chu Guang, who is sitting at the door of the computer room, puts the glasses on the head of the wastebasket-shaped robot.

   Aware of its sadness, Chu Guang didn't talk about himself immediately, but asked in an easy-going tone. "What are you thinking about?"

  The gentle thoughts were transmitted along the light red tentacles to the carbon-based semiconductor in the case, and Xiao Qi analyzed them into human language.

  「I failed to convince Thea.」

   This guy can actually talk.

  However, the information entropy of human language is too low, it prefers to express in its own way, and Xiaoqi will translate it for it anyway.

  Chu Guang thought for a moment, then spoke.

  「You don’t have to feel sorry for it. It chose its own destiny and followed its mother to the end. Nothing is perfect in this world, and you have done a good job.」

   "Eep."

  Xiaoyu murmured softly, her mood seemed to improve a little.

  As the first human being it saw after waking up, Chu Guang was like a father and mother to it, and it always trusted his words.

  It didn't understand this feeling at first, but after seeing Thea and the brood, it also felt a little bit of the so-called sense of inheritance.

   It's like Thea inherited its mother's will.

   Its world view is basically formed in the society of the alliance. Its self-cognition is almost the same as other places and people except for the difference in shape and people.

  After all, such a thing as shape is the least important thing to it that has countless fruit entities but only one self.

  This is just the opposite of humans who are good at using "eyes" to draw boundaries with their compatriots.

   After a moment of silence, Xiaoyu suddenly asked a strange question.

  「Am I human?」

  Chu Guang thought for a while, and answered truthfully.

  「Objectively speaking, obviously not.」

  Hearing this sentence, Xiaoyu was a little bit lost emotionally, but soon regained her strength

  Get up and continue asking.

  「How to become human?」

  Feeling the seriousness and simplicity in this sentence, Chu Guang couldn't help but said in a gentle tone.

   "You don't have to be human, you are you, and you should feel that we never excluded you."

  「Yeah!」

   Seemingly satisfied with this answer, Xiao Yu's voice was filled with joy, and excitedly branched out a tentacle from the light red ocean, stretched it towards Chu Guang's shoulder, trying to rub his face.

   This is one of its ways of expressing friendliness.

   Learned it from a guy named Neeko.

  Xiao Qi, who was sitting on Chu Guang's shoulder, resisted and hid aside, protesting dissatisfiedly.

  「Hey! Don’t get the sticky stuff on me! My head will rust!」

   The figure that Pai gave to Chu Guang before is the favorite of all his avatars.

Although that guy from Ibers offered a one-to-one doll that looks very appetizing to him some time ago, but that guy has his own AI core just like Frost and Eclipse, and he doesn't really want to use it. It will feel weird.

  「Eep…」

  Xiaoyu yelled aggrievedly, avoided Xiao Qi and went around to Chu Guang's other shoulder.

  The relationship between the two little guys has actually been good.

   After all, Xiao Qi often acts as Chu Guang's microphone, and when Luo Yu goes offline, Xiao Qi is basically by his side.

  Looking at Xiao Qi who jumped onto the wastebasket, Chu Guang laughed, and didn't care about Xiao Yu's closeness, anyway, he didn't need to wash his power armor by himself.

   Chu Guang is quite open-minded about new things.

  After all, from a practical point of view, if the problem can be solved by copying the method of People's Federation, there is no need for him to clean up the mess.

   What's more, from another perspective, if his brain hole can really be realized, this guy Xiaoyu is simply a planet-level environmental modification artifact!

  In the future, if you encounter a planet full of carbon dioxide or other harmful gases that is "almost to the livable yellow line", you can throw a small feather down to have a bite before taking pictures of the colony.

   Communication across galaxies should not be more difficult than sailing across galaxies.

  It doesn't even need to communicate through spores like its ancestor "Gaia", it is enough to open a wheat with the help of human civilization technology.

  In terms of cost, this is definitely more cost-effective than conventional "atmospheric renovation projects".

   And its footprints will also follow the alliance's rules and ambitions to explore new worlds, and set foot on a wider world that its ancestors had never imagined.

   This might not be a win-win situation!

  Of course, exploring the new world is still too far away for the current alliance, and there are still a lot of troubles waiting for him to deal with in the old world.

  Looking at Xiaoyu who was in a good mood, Chu Guang smiled and put forward his own idea.

  「I want to ask you something.」

  「Yeah!」

  Xiao Yu excitedly tapped the protruding tentacles, and agreed without asking.

  Chu Guang made a joke.

  「Don’t you even ask what it is?

  The light red spore coat filling the computer room swayed gently like water plants, as straight as the lake water that can see through the bottom of the lake with a glance.

"I believe you!"