Crimes
"Have you come back looking for someone?"
After receiving a large amount of information, Chen Yilin finally expressed his thoughts on the current situation.
Before Li Zhi and the others could answer, Kong Xiang spoke first: "Are you looking for that rainforest artifact?"
Xu Zhizhou confirmed, "Our method has pushed Li Zhi's brain to its limits, at the cost of rapid aging of all the cells in her body. In order to salvage this situation and to solve the problem at its root, Li Zhi has come up with the idea of sending a specific group of people like us back to the past. However, time is limited. If we do not find another, more advanced method of brain development before her lifespan runs out, we will all die here. This is because the so-called time travel is all accomplished by Li Zhi on her own. If she cannot change the past, the future will destroy us."
Kong Xiang said, "But you decided our life or death without our consent. Isn't that a bit unfair?"
This time, Chen Yilin surprisingly had a different perspective: "Isn't it the same for you and me? You are the Queen's loyal dog. Even if the Queen really wants you to come back, she knows you won't refuse. As for me, I just want to change this distorted world. She knows we will eventually agree, so her omniscient brain made the decision for us first, right, Your Majesty?"
Li calmly accepted their gazes: "The more the brain is developed, the closer one gets to a prophet, and the less human one becomes. So, I will consider your feelings, but as long as it doesn't affect the outcome, I will prioritize making the best choice."
Kong Xiang smirked: "That really is far removed from humanity."
Shen Bai said, "Humans may make choices that are not necessarily optimal when weighing the pros and cons, but that is only when a person's perspective is biased towards humanity as a whole. In reality, a person does not have the ability to do that. However, a 'god' who embodies the crystallization of human thought will not do so, because the crystallization of thought, in addition to the thought itself, also has sufficient technology to support it."
Li Zhi's mind is not limited to herself; the less she resembles an individual, the closer she is to a god forged by all, a law, a thought, a rule that will be followed by default.
Kong Xiang looked at her with a complicated expression: "Your Majesty, have you... found a way?"
The method lies in the most cutting-edge technology of mankind. When Kong Xiang and Chen Yilin arrived in the rainforest, they realized that there was more than one person fighting alongside Xu Zhizhou and his group.
The retired dean, the college professors, the classmates I met a few days ago, and... that legendary artificial creature.
"Holy crap..."
Kong Xiang's expression couldn't be described as shock, because when he first saw the bizarre scene of the virtual world design department building turning into a person, then into a leaf-like structure absorbing the sunlight of the sky island, and finally becoming part of the sky island, his mind was in a mess.
Something even more terrifying than the Queen not being a tyrant has happened: there's something that makes people lose sanity, and how did they lose!
Shen Bai patted his shoulder: "Don't think about it. This is already the result of our extensive research and development. Otherwise, why do you think the Queen's brain development has progressed so rapidly? If we hadn't traveled back and forth to the past, it would have been impossible to shake the technology monopolized by those people."
"Can it still be..." Kong Xiang suddenly thought of something.
“No.” Xu Zhizhou looked at the man-made object in front of him, as if he knew what Li Zhi wanted to ask, and said, “Going any further would exceed the threshold of Li Zhi’s brain, after all, this ability…”
He looked at Kong Xiang: "She only discovered it by chance, but we haven't figured out the theoretical basis. It's a pity we don't have enough time. Otherwise, if we could really figure out all the theories and apply them, we could go back to the day when we could completely change everything..."
"So you've all repeated this many times this year?" Kong Xiang asked.
Kong Xiang then looked at Zi Che Yu, who had glanced at him, and asked, "You too?"
Before Zicheyu could speak, Xu Zhizhou explained, "We were the first to join the resistance, while you are a government official. At first, there was no indication that you intended to cooperate. By the time the Queen's abilities were developed to the point where she could protect us, you were already a high-ranking official. If we hadn't analyzed that you would join us recently, we wouldn't have let you and Chen Yilin come back together."
After all that, he's still just the freebie. He thought he was the chosen one, the talent the Queen had chosen.
Kong Xiang felt a bit stifled, but he couldn't blame them. He had indeed acted somewhat selfishly before. If he wasn't someone who was truly willing to risk his life, there was a great risk in pulling him back to the past. If he made a wrong move, he might lose everything.
He had no reason to refute, but seeing Xu Zhizhou and Ziche Yu standing together made him inexplicably angry, so he said, "You two, what's going on? You're making a fool of me like a monkey, and you're pretending you just met and don't know me well. You're really something, you can fool me even better than the Queen's acting skills."
Xu Zhizhou's face flushed red again, and he muttered under his breath, "We didn't arrive either... Actually, even you didn't notice, did you, Queen? If you had, things would have been different..."
Kong Xiang was about to say something when he saw Zi Cheyu raise her hand and tug at Xu Zhizhou's face. Then Xu Zhizhou followed her to process the data, feeling as if he would rather be blind.
There is a real sense of powerlessness, as if I have been abandoned by the times.
They became one of them, and in the cycle of reincarnation, they witnessed many more becoming their companions. In the future world, the Queen's battles were won time and time again, and they truly saw the dawn of victory. Just a little further forward, forward...
When he returned to the day of the competition, Kong Xiang was ready to dig a hole and build a laboratory as soon as he opened his eyes. However, this time, the darkness in front of him did not dissipate for a long time.
Kong Xiang waited calmly for a long time, and finally the scene appeared before his eyes. But soon, his consciousness felt like it was being torn apart. The scene before him kept switching between darkness, the future, and the past. Kong Xiang felt like many images were flashing through his mind like a revolving lantern. Sometimes he was in the academy, sometimes he was facing ministers in the parliament, and sometimes it was like he was back on the day of the bombing. It was even more chaotic. He even felt like he was seeing many strange things he had never seen before. It was not his experience. It seemed like it was a mixture of data from many people.
He didn't know how long this state of mental confusion lasted, but when he opened his eyes again, Yi Guoduan appeared in front of him with the same solemn expression.
They all realized something: Li Zhi's brain development was getting higher and higher. Although he had put a lot of effort into research on the synchronous enhancement of the body, with the evolution of the brain, the body was also approaching its limit.
"Hurry up."
They heard the woman's voice.
There is no way out. In the current situation, they need to keep moving forward. The counterattack of those stubborn forces at the top has already begun. Only when they realize that there are signs of failure will they fall apart, and then the resistance organization will win.
In this cycle, Li Zhi's ability could not last for more than a year, and then it gradually shortened to a few months, a few dozen days, a week or two... And this time, when he saw the document handed to him by the minister in front of him, Kong Xiang only glanced at it briefly, then closed the paper document and looked to the side.
I could almost hear the celebratory music playing in my ears. Oh, it's been ten years since the Queen ascended the throne, and the tenth anniversary celebrations are in full swing these days.
"Kong Xiang? Is that your name?"
The leader tapped on the file on the table and looked at him questioningly.
Kong Xiang turned to look at the leader and nodded.
As the Queen's "confidant" in two senses, in addition to his research mission, he was also responsible for infiltrating among the ministers, which was what he was best at, after all, he initially looked like an unreliable opportunist.
"Hmm, do you know why you were brought here?"
Kong Xiang knew this, of course, but whatever the reason, he had to shake his head.
"To overthrow the Queen's tyranny."
The leader looked him in the eyes and spoke slowly and deliberately.
Kong Xiang remained calm as he looked around at the ministers who were favored by the Queen in the eyes of the world. Among them were, of course, traitors who had joined them on the surface but had discovered the secrets of evolution. Looking at the man's face, he felt surprise and disgust, but he did not show it on his face.
Why did you choose me?
The leader seemed pleased with his composure and chuckled, "Because you're young enough."
Young enough to have reached a position close enough to be the Queen.
What if I refuse?
He said he showed no fear of being silenced.
The leader was taken aback. In the past, if Kong Xiang had faced this situation, he would never have been so direct. After all, everyone here is smart, and he should know what situation he is in.
Before the other person could speak, Kong Xiang laughed again:
"Don't worry, I won't refuse, but before that, you need to know one thing."
He met the other person's eyes, spoke, and said only one sentence—
"After all, my 'Queen' regime shouldn't even exist in the first place, should it, teacher?"
He looked at the speaker, who had been hiding in the corner. The already quiet room became even more deathly still, and everyone's face was filled with disbelief.
"Impossible! We have cut off all your connections with the outside world. There is absolutely no way you could still have a way to enter our transmission network!"
"How can we, as human beings, dare to assert that anything is absolutely impossible?"
The Queen's voice gradually echoed in everyone's minds, just like the nightmare that many ministers had been experiencing for the past three years.
"Being too hasty will easily expose flaws, Mr. Speaker. Planting spies is indeed very useful. As long as you find an interface, even the simplest virus can instantly disable a person's abilities. Isn't that the drawback of the digital age?"
The speaker silently closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, he said to Kong Xiang, "You are about to die, and I will come back again. Even if you win, we will soon enter a new cycle."
"You're too optimistic."
Kong Xiang couldn't help but complain, "You don't think this is still the era where you can rest easy if you run away, do you? Even if you're a caveman, the mountains will find you for us. So now, enjoy the time before death comes, Speaker."
He stood up, flicked his sleeves, and left with a flourish.
Excellent. He has already skillfully used the legacy left by the Queen to calculate the ministers' behavior. Others should be like him, resisting and fighting, preparing for the moment when tyranny is eradicated.
Two weeks ago, Li Zhi sent them back to the past for the last time, but time was running out, and they were no longer able to carry out any truly valuable development work. So everyone made a decision: before Li Zhi's body completely collapsed, let her brain connect separately to the existing resources. She would no longer be Li Zhi, but would simply be a supercomputing power integrated into the machine, becoming a resource that the organization and the future people could use.
Such a fusion would inevitably lead to Li's death as a human being, but it might also be the best solution, because by the end, Li himself would no longer be an ordinary human being.
"But remember to upload your everyday life too. Calculations that aren't grounded in reality won't lead to the best conclusions."
Hearing "Li Zhi's" reminder in his ear, Kong Xiang chuckled: "How come you've become active again after you died?"
"As a computer, it's hard for me to tell you whether I'm dead or alive now. It might even just be the result you're trying to calculate. I'm no longer human in the traditional sense, but as a human being, Kong Xiang must continue to move forward for the sake of humanity."
Looking out over Kongxiang towards the distant horizon, the rising sun casts a magnificent glow.
Perhaps one day, as various technologies advance, they will be able to control their way back to the past, just like Li Zhi. Perhaps they will find a way to truly save her life, perhaps they will gain more time to discover more useful laws, or perhaps going back to the past will still not be able to advance reality any further, and they will eventually, like Li Zhi, return to the vast data network. But in any case, for the dawn of humanity, no matter what happens, they will continue to move forward.
The sun's rays bathed the earth, caressing everyone's face. Kong Xiang's gaze serenely fixed on its direction for a moment, and in the blink of an eye, an image of the rising sun was forever stored in his database.
[End of article]
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