Chapter 130 Taking a Different Approach
The laboratory lights flickered, and the previously glowing glass dimmed.
“Bourbon, the problem with the surveillance system is solved,” Scottish said. “It seems O’Shea has attached smart surveillance devices to it; every pane of glass here is his eye.”
Bourbon stared curiously at the complex and magical commands and code on the computer screen, and asked in astonishment, "That's it?!"
“You see, there’s hardly anyone here. The surveillance is all done with auxiliary equipment.” Little Scotland shrugged. “Once we can hack into the system, things will be much easier.”
"Hey—I thought an organization capable of creating such amazing virtual reality games would have an impenetrable security system! I didn't expect it to be so vulnerable." Bourbon couldn't help but ruffle Little Scotland's hair, a fatherly smile of satisfaction on his face. "Our Scotland is the best!"
Little Scotland pouted, feigning anger: "Don't treat me like a child! I'm actually older than you."
Scotland had a hunch that the experience in the mimicry pod might have left Bourbon with some kind of aftereffect. Since returning to the real world, Bourbon seemed to have had its genetic potential unleashed, gradually becoming canine-like. Now, it looked just like a large Golden Retriever happily playing with its little owner, almost barking with excitement. Scotland could even hallucinate a large tail wagging like a flower behind Bourbon's body.
Scotland added, "Without this opportunity, it would have been very difficult to successfully breach this system. Now that we're inside the system, things become much simpler."
"You mean Alice?"
“Yes. Actually, for a security system, the biggest security threat isn't potential vulnerabilities. Most security problems ultimately boil down to management issues, not technical ones. Especially information leaked due to intentional or unintentional negligence by internal personnel can be fatal to a system,” Little Scotland explained. “But on the other hand, even the most intelligent systems today cannot avoid human interaction. As long as people exist, there is no absolutely secure system in the world. This is why hackers place such importance on social engineering.”
"Doesn't Osiris realize this?"
Even if he knew, what could he do?
"Huh?" Bourbon paused for a moment, then realized: given Osiris's reclusive personality, he wouldn't directly communicate with many subordinates. Deep down, he was always the child misunderstood by his mother, unable to place enough trust in others. Therefore, he would only choose a very few confidants to stay by his side. This also meant that he had to rely heavily on the help of the intelligent system.
“Just as you are my weakness, Osiris also has insurmountable flaws,” Bourbon said quietly.
However, what Osiris didn't expect was that Alice, whom he had personally nurtured, would choose to betray him at the last moment. This was something that even Bourbon and Scotland hadn't anticipated.
"Bourbon, Alice says we created a miracle. What was it?"
"It was Miao Xiaosu who held off the crow's attack!"
“But what does that mean? I don’t even know how I did it.” Little Scotland pondered, his cheeks puffed out, looking almost menacing. He noticed Bourbon’s intention, coughed twice, and said sternly, “In the game, animal forms reflect our genetic mimicry, and real codes symbolize secrets that must be kept. I think the reason the Witch Raven retreated must have a deeper meaning; that must be the real miracle.”
“Let’s split up! Scotland, you continue to crack this system and see if there’s any other intelligence we can uncover. I’ll go downstairs to check the situation.”
"Be careful. Although I've hacked the surveillance cameras, there's no guarantee that other accidents won't happen."
“I’ll be careful. But you don’t need to worry too much. It’s 3:30 in the morning, and there’s no one else here except the two of us. I’ll be back soon!”
At this moment, the Pacific Ocean is at the beginning of its most turbulent period of the century. The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department's bomb disposal team is on standby, the front-line command center at the Fukushima nuclear power plant is still debating the unidentified objects found in reactors 5 and 6, and thick smoke and flames are billowing from the Gulf of Mexico.
The two police officers were completely unaware of the dramatic changes happening in the world. They were already very close to the truth, but they needed to get a little closer.
Walk 32 steps to the left, and you'll find a staircase.
Go down 15 steps, turn 180 degrees to the right, then go down another 15 steps to reach the next level.
Bourbon carefully checked each room but did not find Wakasa.
"Strange, isn't Miss Wakasa upstairs, or locked up here?"
"And we haven't found Osiris's hiding place either. Could it be that he's not nearby?"
Although he couldn't find any teammates or enemies, Bourbon discovered a valuable piece of information: Alice's handwritten experimental records.
"Scotland, I've made a great discovery!" Bourbon sidled up to his little master, as if to boast. "Hey? What are you doing?"
“I’ve discovered something very interesting…” Little Scotland paused, as if struggling to find the right words, “…an interesting AI. I think it’s been him assigning you tasks all along.”
"Who is he? Is he even human?"
"I can't say for sure yet, but I can say that his behavior was almost indistinguishable from that of a human, and even a little smarter. His name is Inpu."
"This name suits him very well, in every sense of the word."
In ancient Egyptian mythology, Osiris was killed by his brother and subsequently resurrected by Anubis (also known as Inpu). Anubis then bestowed upon Osiris the throne of the underworld.
"What did you talk about with the hidden servant? Didn't he discover your identity?"
“I hacked Alice’s account. Although the Hidden Servant possesses superhuman intelligence in some areas, this system still has vulnerabilities in its identity verification process.” Little Scotland’s slender, radish-like fingers flew across the keyboard. “Simply put, the Hidden Servant excels at analytical tasks. For example, if I enter the keywords ‘Scottish,’ ‘brother,’ and ‘Nagano,’ the Hidden Servant will automatically search various databases and finally get a result…”
"It's Brother Gao Ming! And your parents' case has also been found. This search efficiency is amazing!"
"Yes, I mentioned that I have an older brother when I first met Osiris. I suppose Osiris must have kept that in mind."
"How did the hidden servant assign me the task?"
“This is a bit more complicated. We can do a simulation test. This system can not only input keywords, but also scene models. For example, the case of Mr. Swan in England. We can build a model with elements such as time, place, network of relationships, and related events. The Hidden Servant's conclusion is... send Bourbon to solve it.”
"It's amazing! It's exactly the same email I received from that gentleman! Even the flight booking is the same." Bourbon's eyes widened in disbelief.
Little Scotland continued to explain, "The process just demonstrated didn't require any manual input; it ran completely automatically, which means Osiris only needs to check the results periodically... However, there's still one thing I'm concerned about: the servant's performance was too realistic. It was like a living, intelligent person trapped inside a computer, rather than a simple machine or model."
"Perhaps, the Hidden Servant really is human?"
Who exactly is that younger brother they all know is important but have never met?
"By the way, what did you tell me you found downstairs?"
"This is it! Alice's handwritten notes. Her handwriting is really hard to decipher, and it seems there are missing pages because there are a few places where the context doesn't make sense. But I've read through it roughly, and I feel that this is our experiment report in the mimicry pod."
"Don't you find it a little strange? With such a smart office system, why does Alice still need to write by hand?"
"I'm wondering the same thing. Do you think she might have left this for us on purpose?"
Just as Bourbon was pondering Alice's intention in leaving this experimental record, Little Scotland began reading: "Clearly, the puppy has an extreme lack of self-control."
Bourbon vehemently retorted, "Hmph! What did I do?"
Little Scotland couldn't help but laugh: "You bark at me like that, is this what you call self-control?"
The golden retriever fell silent, looking aggrieved. Little Scottish felt sorry for it and patted its golden head to comfort it. Bourbon immediately beamed with joy.
"On page three, there's a circled area. This sentence should be the key point, right?"
“I noticed that too, but I’m still a bit confused. Couldn’t they have added a few more punctuation marks to the sentence ‘The spiritual carrier’s tendrils mutate into crystalline networks and aggregate into a bound state’?” Bourbon analyzed point by point. “The spiritual carrier’s tendrils mutate into crystalline networks? Aggregate and transform into a bound state. What does that mean?”
"I think there might be some issues with your punctuation. Would this be better: The spiritual carrier's tendrils transform into crystallized networks that aggregate and become bound."
However, neither of them answered the sentence punctuation question correctly. The correct answer is: the spiritual carrier's tendrils transform into knots, and the crystal aggregation transforms into a bound state.
"What are the spiritual carrier tendrils? And what is the crystallization network aggregation?" Bourbon asked.
"Look, below 'crystallization' there's another arrow pointing to another sentence: 'Empathizers form a mental barrier to protect those who empathize.'"
"So the empathizer here is you, and the one who feels the same way is me? What does that mean?" Bourbon was completely baffled.
“Your five senses are extremely acute in the game, which must mean you have empathy, right? But why am I an empath? This record doesn’t seem to answer our questions,” Little Scotland muttered to himself.
"Ask the hidden servant if he knows anything about it?"
Little Scotland tapped a few keys on the keyboard, and the result returned was: an empath is a person who has the ability to resonate with emotions.
"This answer seems to be stating a pointless question..."
"Well, it seems there's only one way for us to find out the answer," Bourbon hinted.
Little Scotland hesitated for a moment, then firmly objected: "No! That's too dangerous, and none of us have ever operated a mimicry pod before. What if something goes wrong..."
"But we've come this far, the truth is so close! Think about it, it's because of the miracle we created that Alice chose to betray us. If we have this information, wouldn't we be able to find out exactly what mistake Osiris made? Maybe we can even achieve the best strategy of winning without bloodshed?"
While Little Scotland was still hesitating, Bourbon commanded without room for argument, "It's already four o'clock, we'll be too late if we wait any longer! Scotland, I trust you. You trust me too, right?"
With mixed feelings, Little Scotland placed Bourbon into the mimicry pod, instructing him, "If anything goes wrong, I'll pull you back immediately. Don't push yourself!"
However, less than a minute later, Bourbon automatically quit the game: "Looks like it's not working, my computer crashed again..."
"Bourbon, let me do it this time!"
Unfortunately, Miao Xiaosu was quickly defeated when she faced Lord Wuya.
"Does it really have to be two people entering the game at the same time?" The cats and dogs outside the mimicry pod frowned: If they were completely immersed in the game world, they would be unable to perceive the dangers of the outside environment.
"Scotland, let's take a gamble!"
Game timer countdown: 15 minutes.
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