Chapter 87 Save AI4, City of Wisdom
The players felt that the future of this journey was bleak.
But they could barely be considered to have the ability to protect themselves. Then the second brother started making a flying machine by hand, which left Wu Wangwang stunned. She had only ever seen such descriptions in novels.
Those miscellaneous parts were quickly pieced together from the old and secondhand parts to form a small aircraft with enough space inside for movement. After it was assembled, she said, "This was made using NPC talent, but because it's only fifty percent complete, it has absolutely no offensive capabilities."
If it were an NPC, they could assemble a truly powerful and versatile aircraft, capable of both offense and defense, making the journey ahead much easier.
There's no other way now; they have to have someone keep watch at all times, and if they discover they're being pursued, they have to find a way to get rid of the person.
The group left the large house, and outside was a bizarre cyberpunk world, with flying machines everywhere and buildings and streets flashing with colorful lights from mechanical operation.
When Wu Wangwang saw this world for the first time, her eyes widened suddenly, and she was even a little happy.
Ling Yuanshan leaned close to her ear and said, "Tone it down, we're not really here for tourism."
Then Wu Wangwang became serious for a second.
They were on the top floor of a building. Outside, it was floating in the air, and below was a dark abyss. With Wu Wangwang's eyesight, he could see that there weren't many machine lights below because it was night and many people had turned off their lights and gone to sleep. There were also small robots crawling between the buildings.
Xiao Shi suddenly patted Wu Wangwang on the shoulder and said, "Don't look down. This is only the first floor. The ground floor is below."
As they were talking, the second brother's aircraft had already grown larger in the air, big enough for all ten of them to fit inside. The second brother gave a shout and walked to the pilot's seat.
The others entered one after another according to their numbers. Ling Yuanshan even helped Wu Wangwang up, worried that she might get dizzy from the flying vehicle.
The other three newcomers were also like that. Lao Ba said she might be a little carsick because as soon as she came out, she saw a world that looked like a 3D game and felt dizzy and nauseous.
The second brother turned around and glanced back: "No way? You're unlucky to get motion sickness on your first time in the game, just as unlucky as the fifth brother."
Fortunately, there were still trash bags available, so everyone got one. After not riding in a flying vehicle for a long time, people would get seasick, so apart from the pilot, Lao Er, we were worried that the others would get the flying vehicle dirty, so we simply gave them all to them.
As expected, some people didn't adapt well after takeoff, but Wu Wangwang, who had never been on a flying vehicle before, adapted well. After all, she didn't have the vomiting ability; if she vomited, she would only vomit a bunch of ghosts, which no one wanted to see.
During the flight, Xiao Shi kept an eye on the bounty poster, saying that their bounty had now reached one billion digital coins. In this world, money circulates only through electronic digital coins. Daily life, buying and selling transactions, etc., all require this digital coin issued by the AI. There is no physical form, and prices are relatively well controlled.
The leader, holding a map, said, "In the pure human world, an ordinary family might not even earn 100,000 digital coins a year. Now they're offering a bounty of 1 billion, which is equivalent to 1 billion yuan in real life."
The third thief waved his shrunken screen beside him: "We stole the AI, and a 1 billion bounty is already beneath us. Otherwise, they should be launching a full-scale attack and inciting ordinary people to capture us."
It hasn't been discovered yet, so it's probably due to the second son's talent. The aircraft has a certain shielding function, but it's unknown how long it can shield.
Soon they arrived at the first checkpoint. This main city was like a cake with layers upon layers rising up. The top layer was entirely controlled by the AI, and each of the remaining layers had its own checkpoints and walls. After all, the AI was the core of this world. Without this protection, if the AI were attacked, the entire world would be instantly paralyzed and revert to ancient society.
Because the AI was stolen, the checkpoints are now under lockdown, with every exit being checked to prevent aircraft from flying out directly. An electronic security net has also been activated, and anyone who tries to fly out will be electrocuted like a mosquito on an electric swatter.
The second brother carefully stopped a block away: "What should we do? Out of the ten of us, only those with student status can probably get through safely."
Different identities mean different levels of exposure. The boss is a professor. He has left the pure human zone. With his abilities, he is naturally being watched. There are also Wu Wangwang and Ling Yuanshan, who are experimental subjects. They didn't even have time to get a legitimate identity before committing crimes. If they are caught, they may be turned into human pigs when they go back.
There are also the third, fourth, and tenth brothers, a thief, a sniper, and a mercenary, who are probably all notorious in the security system and would be killed instantly if they showed their faces.
If we launch a direct attack, given their current strength, they'll likely suffer a terrible defeat.
The eldest brother pondered for a moment and said, "Let's go underground; there might be another way out over there."
Wu Wangwang leaned closer to Ling Yuanshan: "What do you mean by 'underground'?"
While checking various data, Ling Yuanshan glanced at all the trending topics on the internet. He explained, "You can think of it as a no-man's-land. Every time technology develops in this world, it will be updated and iterated. Machinery always has damage and a lifespan. It's best to recycle and reset these hardware facilities after their lifespan ends. However, as the iteration speed increases, there is no time to recycle them before new systems are created, so they accumulate layer by layer."
Now, not only the main city, but other living areas are in a similar situation: above ground, there is a dazzling and intelligent city, but below ground, there are abandoned ruins of the old era.
Because there wasn't enough time to destroy them, those places were still habitable, but they couldn't be connected to the new system. So, some outdated small robots, poor people, and people involved in the black and gray markets all gathered underground.
Both humans and electronic life need this kind of no-man's-land to vent their frustrations, so the AI no longer deals with these discarded products of the old era; when it updates and iterates, it only builds on the upper layers.
In such filthy places, there are always people who value money over life and disregard the laws created by the AI. The only ones who can help them now are probably the creatures living below.
You can't fly underground, and there aren't even any public aircraft. You can only walk because all the facilities are shut down. There's nowhere to charge your devices underground. Most of the time, you have to buy a small generator or a power storage device on the ground to barely survive underground.
They randomly chose a secluded spot and went down the stairs, encountering many small robots along the way that were talking incomprehensible gibberish.
The leaders placed Wu Wangwang and Ling Yuanshan, two players who had no abilities, no supplies, and no firearms, in the middle for protection. Although they didn't know what use they could be in this instance, they decided to keep them with them.
After walking for about an hour, the newcomers couldn't keep up. They were just ordinary people who hadn't experienced the trials of dungeons and didn't have time to train, so they couldn't compare to the veteran players.
Lao Ba leaned against the armrest: "I can't go on, my bell-shaped cover is going to crack."
The seventh brother next to him nodded, clutching his knee: "Me too. Everyone says going downstairs is more bad for your knees than climbing stairs. I've experienced it firsthand. Are your corrugated covers made of iron?"
The others stopped and looked at them. Ling Yuanshan said, "Why don't we take a break? This is too deep. We don't know how many more floors there are. And we're going down. If we reach the bottom and don't find anyone to help us, we'll be trapped underground. It's no different from being captured up here."
Lao Ba slowly raised his hand: "Besides, I've realized I'm hungry. Do we have anything to eat?"
The others didn't get hungry so quickly, so it's likely that Lao Ba came in hungry. He's really unlucky; if he had died, he would have been a starving ghost.
Seeing her pale face, she looked like she had been starving for a long time. Xiao Shi took out a pill from his pocket and gave it to her: "Eat this. This is a compressed energy pack. It can sustain you with the energy and nutrition you need for a day. The problem is, I don't have many of these in stock. Not to mention Lao Wu and Lao Liu, those two are cleaner than beggars in the slums. The others don't have many either."
Hearing Xiao Shi say that, Lao Ba was also reluctant to eat it: "Is it that precious? Why didn't these NPCs bring more food before they set off?"
The eldest brother explained from the side, "It's not that we don't want to bring more. These compressed energy packs are controlled items. Normal people need to buy ingredients to grow food and cook. Even if pure humans don't know how to cook, they have cooking robots. Half-humans and electronic life forms consume bio-converted electricity, so these things become military supplies and are strictly controlled. We were only able to get these because of the convenience of Xiao Shi and Lao Si's identities."
Lao Ba couldn't hold on any longer and ate the energy pack. Sure enough, she felt full again after a while, and the dizziness caused by low blood sugar disappeared. She looked at her knees in surprise: "After eating it, I feel like my knees have come back to life."
The only problem is that there isn't much of this stuff, and they still need food.
Ling Yuanshan looked at Xiao Shi: "Xiao Shi, can we buy ingredients or information on the black market?"
"Of course you can. So why do you think I haven't bought it yet?" Xiao Shi smiled.
This question was too pointed, and Ling Yuanshan fell silent.
What else could it be? No money, of course.
Among them, the eldest is a professor, the second is a genius, and they have never lacked money. But since they committed such a rebellion, their accounts have been frozen. They can only rely on the savings of the third, fourth, and tenth brothers to survive, and they have no way to squander money at will.
Even if they wanted to buy information about an underground trading venue in the main urban area, they wouldn't have enough money. After buying the information, they wouldn't be able to trade with others, which would be a waste of money.
Listening to their conversation, Wu Wangwang asked, "Didn't the referee say that we can ask the AI when we encounter difficulties? Who has a larger information reserve than it?"
The leader said, "I dare not take it out. Even though there is no one around, those robots are probably all connected to the internet. They might even be carrying cameras on their bodies. The creatures underground may not necessarily provide our information to the higher-ups, but it's hard to say whether they don't want to be emperors."
The current AI is like the emperor who "holds the emperor hostage to command the princes"—whoever gets it has the power to contend.
It's just that they have fewer people; otherwise, they could try taking the path of conquering the world.
“If that’s the case, then we might as well sell information. Don’t be so limited in your thinking. Right now, we are the ones with the most information. Once we make money, we can buy whatever we want,” Wu Wangwang suggested in return.
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Author's Note: [End of Chapter]
Wu Wangwang: I always say reading more books is useful. [Sunglasses]
Ling Yuanshan: [Thumbs up]
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