Chapter 50 Night City (4) (3-in-1) [VIP]
The pipe opening with a dead end on the other side that Shi Zhou mentioned was not far from the company. The thirty-minute countdown slowly returned to zero, and Shi Zhou had not yet sent a "1" in the group. The remaining four people could not wait for the message and had to walk out of the company gate immediately.
Fortunately, although Shi Zhou did not have time to send a message, she and Guan Hongyan did lead the guards away. On the way out of the company, the four of them did not encounter any patrol machines in operation, and they safely arrived at the pipeline entrance that Shi Zhou mentioned.
It seems that the construction of Night City was not fully planned when it was first built. There are small paths like this everywhere. Above the tall buildings are suspended robots full of technology, and below the tall buildings are alleys and pipes in the city planning that are comparable to a maze. I don't know how Shi Zhou can remember such a complicated city map, and he can even find a small corner like this from his memory.
When she spoke, she only said that this was the opening of an abandoned pipeline. When the four of them arrived here, Lu Changfeng was dumbfounded.
The alleyway that allowed the passage of the pipeline was incredibly narrow. It could barely accommodate a person standing sideways inside. It was possible to hide in it, but once inside, it would be difficult to turn around.
"Brother Isaac..." Lu Changfeng stood at the entrance of the pipeline and compared the width of the alley horizontally, saying with a bitter face, "I can't get in..."
The question is about body shape.
Li Jue held his forehead with his hand: "If it really doesn't work, squeeze in."
We can't let Lu Changfeng go back now. Shi Zhou has left. If they go in through the company gate again, they will be scanned by the robot and found to be unauthorized personnel, right?
Besides, if Lu Changfeng didn't go into this alley, where else could he go? They were not familiar with other streets nearby. Who knew if he took other roads, he would run into Shi Zhou who was running over with a bunch of robots.
Lu Changfeng took a deep breath and tried to get in: "No, I can't squeeze in."
The other end of this pipeline alley was blocked. It was not intended for people to pass through. Any male over 1.8 meters tall and with some muscles would have difficulty passing through it. Zhang Pei and Li Jue could barely get in by hunching their shoulders, but it was much more difficult for Lu Changfeng.
"Hurry up, there's still one and a half minutes left." Bai Jinshu looked at his watch.
"One and a half minutes?" Zhang Pei took a breath, "Lu Changfeng, the time we agreed with Sister Shi Zhou is almost up. She will come here with the guards in about one and a half minutes. If it doesn't work, we will push you."
Lu Changfeng moved in painfully: "Then come quickly."
Zhang Pei and Li Jue looked at each other, then hurried forward to push Lu Changfeng inside. During this time, they could hear the fat man's painful inhalation and Isaac's ruthless timekeeping outside.
"One more minute. I can already hear voices not far away."
"Forty-five seconds. If nothing unexpected happens, Shi Zhou will have to take the last lap and will be here soon."
"Thirty seconds," Isaac paused, "Lu Changfeng, you should lose weight when you get out."
"This... do I need you to tell me, Brother Isaac..." Lu Changfeng said, "I will lose weight after today..."
"Oh, stop talking!" Zhang Pei said anxiously, "It's almost time, hurry up, the time is almost up."
"Fifteen seconds."
"I'm trying... trying!" Lu Changfeng took a deep breath and finally left enough space for the three people outside, "Hurry!"
Zhang Pei and Li Jue quickly shrunk sideways: "Brother Isaac, we are ready!"
Five seconds.
Zhang Pei, who had just retreated into the alley, saw Shi Zhou quickly climbing over the wall not far away.
Shi Zhou arrived here with his robot ahead of schedule.
"Hiss..." Zhang Pei took a breath of cold air.
Isaac!
Isaac is still out there!
She subconsciously wanted to reach out and pull Isaac in.
Just as her hand touched Isaac's suit jacket, she suddenly felt the fabric beneath her hand slip and pass directly past her hand.
It doesn't seem to move because of the actions of some wearer, but rather it seems to have life.
Zhang Pei forgot to take his hand back and watched Isaac at the entrance of the alley suddenly become illusive.
Then, just like what would happen in some bizarre dreams, Isaac's body suddenly twisted like a disassembled machine, and then his figure softened inch by inch, flowing softly from the air into the alley.
The entire action, from splitting the body to reassembling it, took less than a second.
By the time Zhang Pei reacted, Isaac in front of her had changed from a flowing water-like texture back to a solid state and regained his human form.
Even in order to adapt to the overly narrow width of the alley and the height limited by the pipes, she vaguely felt that Isaac seemed to be a little shorter than when they first met.
Zhang Pei didn't understand, but she was shocked.
Can the implantation of mechanical prostheses achieve this level?
Then, just as her mind was filled with shock at Isaac's outrageous actions, Shi Zhou passed by with a group of machines that were chasing her.
Along the way, the attacks of the pursuers behind her almost brushed past Shi Zhou's heels. The guards behind her looked more diverse than those who had been chasing them before. Zhang Pei even saw that among the pile of robots there were melee and ranged robots, and there were even a lot of gray-white mechanical semi-skeleton guards.
Shi Zhou swiftly and skillfully dodged left and right amidst the attacks of a group of machines. Zhang Pei watched her passing by with a group of robots and machines, and before she could react, she suddenly heard a beep.
Then the beeping sound was suddenly stuck in the middle.
"A wanted person has been detected right away," she heard Isaac in front of her speak with interest, "So sensitive? Want to attack me?"
Zhang Pei saw through the gap that the strange gray-white semi-skeleton machine had completely wrapped around the back of Isaac's right hand and was about to climb up along his wrist.
Isaac's attitude was so relaxed that it was as if it was not his right hand that was attacked.
"Hmm... I'll scan it first." He even studied its structure and functions with interest while letting the other party attack him. "Transformable shell, self-destruction system... It's a bit crude, it should only have guard and attack functions. This structure will greatly reduce its lifespan, and its service life will be reduced exponentially."
Zhang Pei actually felt that after what he said, this seemingly high-tech semi-mechanical skeleton seemed to have become low-level.
"Found it," Isaac continued to scan, his voice calm, "Well... it's a bit troublesome to overwrite the database, so why not just replace it and directly change the identity code to the guard ID."
"Okay," a few seconds later, Isaac reached out and pulled his hand out from the liquid metal of the gray-white robot, pressed its mechanical arm back into the ejection compartment with a few "clicks", and then threw the other party out.
The robot that had just sounded a buzzing alarm to the exploration team members in the alley turned in the air, and its scanning system swept over Isaac's face, and surprisingly, it did not make any sound.
It hovered in the air for a while, and as if it had received some instructions, it turned and flew in a direction completely different from the one that Shi Zhou had just left.
"Is this... is it done now?" Zhang Pei watched him say a few words easily, as if he had done nothing and completed the change. He couldn't help but ask cautiously, "Has our identity information been changed?"
"It's fixed." Isaac nodded at her, then walked out of the alley first.
In addition to the gray-white machine just now, there were obviously various patrol instruments all around. But now they seemed to be collectively blind and could not realize that the wanted criminal they were chasing a few hours ago was right in front of them.
Zhang Pei carefully poked her head out, and the patrol machine outside scanned her face without issuing any alarm.
She let out a long sigh and squeezed out of the alley with her shoulders hunched.
She didn't know if it was her hallucination, but she felt that Isaac's eyes seemed to have turned bluer than before.
Obviously, his eyes were a deep black when they first met, but after a quick glance just now, Isaac's eyes were faintly blue, and the color became brighter than before.
Maybe it's the angle of light?
Zhang Lu speculated secretly in his heart, what's more, maybe interstellar people can also change their pupil color at any time.
When you are happy, it is red; when you are sad, it is blue; when you are excited, it is orange or something like that…
People in the interstellar world often modify their feet to make skateboards and balance bikes, so changing the color of the pupils is nothing. She silently complained about her own lack of knowledge in her heart, and then stepped onto the land outside the alley.
Li Jue also moved out little by little. The two of them suddenly came out of the narrow alley and moved their shoulders and backs at the same time.
Such a narrow alley is really not meant for human beings. Just after staying in it for a short while, I felt sore all over as if I had been beaten.
"Excuse me..." Lu Changfeng, who was still in the alley, made a forgotten voice, "Can someone give me a hand? It's hard for me to get out..."
"Here, here, here!" Zhang Pei slapped his forehead, apparently forgetting that Lu Changfeng was still inside, "Li Jue, come quickly!"
The two men struggled to pull Lu Changfeng out, and the three of them sat on the ground, panting. Lu Changfeng pointed to the sky and the earth and swore, and swore on all the rice noodle rolls he would have for the rest of his life that he would work hard to lose weight when he went out. Li Jue complained weakly, "Really? I don't think you're sincere, Brother Lu."
Judging from the fact that he swore with food, it seems that Lu Changfeng doesn’t really want to lose weight!
Lu Changfeng shook his head solemnly: "You don't understand...eh?"
His tone suddenly became louder: "Sister Yan and the others are here!"
Not far away, Guan Hongyan and Shi Zhou were walking towards this side.
"Sister Shi Zhou, we..." Li Jue followed Lu Changfeng's gaze and just turned over and was about to say that they had changed everyone's IDs when he saw a guard suddenly jump out from behind Guan Hongyan.
Then, a blue electric light hit her suddenly. Before Guan Hongyan could make a sound, she was surrounded by a group of security robots. Li Jue saw that Shi Zhou next to him was also knocked down by the same trick. Then, the large municipal robot they called the Scavenger floated down from above and stretched out its mechanical claws to grab Guan Hongyan.
"Sister Shi!" Without having time to think about why the two of them were caught, Zhang Pei suddenly stood up and planned to rush over to rescue Shi Zhou and Guan Hongyan.
Just as she was about to run over, a hand calmly grabbed her.
The hand was incredibly strong. Zhang Pei struggled for a few times but couldn't get free.
She turned around and saw Isaac's calm eyes: "Not them."
"It's not them..." Zhang Pei repeated his words subconsciously, and suddenly seemed to wake up, "It's a clone?!"
Is this what Shi Zhou said, those clones that will appear after they enter Night City for a certain period of time?
"It's been so long?!"
Zhang Pei looked up at the sky, then realized that there was no boundary between night and day in Night City. Here, time would become extremely insensitive in an environment without the slightest change. Even if they wore watches on their hands, they subconsciously ignored the changes in time.
Not far away, "Guan Hongyan" and "Shi Zhou" had been thrown into the suspension chamber behind them by the scavenger. A group of guards gradually dispersed without even looking at the exploration team members in the distance.
"Fortunately..." Zhang Pei breathed a sigh of relief, "Fortunately, Brother Isaac held me back."
Otherwise, if she rushed over like this, she wouldn't know what the guards would do.
"Hey? Brother Isaac, how did you recognize him?" Li Jue turned his head curiously, which aroused Lu Changfeng's curiosity as well.
Didn’t Shi Zhou say that if there was no communication, even the team members wouldn’t be able to tell who was who?
"Heart rate," Bai Jinshu did not shy away from mentioning his own special features. "It is impossible for someone who has just been running and dodging for a long time to have such a stable heart rate. Those two people definitely had not done any exercise before."
In order to divert all the security machines, Shi Zhou and Guan Hongyan ran across Night City for at least five or six minutes. Even with the Foundation's energy supplements, it would be impossible for their heartbeats to recover so quickly.
"Awesome," Li Jue sighed and fell back, "If it were us, we would probably just be killed."
He was just a mid-level team member. He felt that he had been in the foundation for a long time and was qualified to join high-end projects. However, due to his average fixed attributes, no investors took a liking to him and he had been wasting time in mid-level projects.
When he heard that this project was downgraded from the high-end space, he immediately chose this place and was fully prepared to show off in front of a group of high-end investors, hoping that someone would be able to see his excellent performance and assign him to the high-end copy.
As a result, after all that happened today, he finally saw his own shortcomings and deficiencies. There were pitfalls one after another in the high-end space. If Isaac hadn't been there, let alone whether he could change his ID, he and Zhang Pei would have subconsciously stepped forward to rescue their teammates when they were captured. Little did they know that this would fall into the trap of the clones and they would be caught in one fell swoop.
He’s still a long way from the high end.
Lu Changfeng felt dizzy behind Li Jue: "Actually, next time, Brother Isaac, you could have said it earlier..."
He thought that those two people were Guan Hongyan and Shi Zhou, and he stared with his eyes wide open, not daring to look away. However, as soon as the fixed attribute was activated, he heard Isaac say that those two were not him while he was dizzy.
If it’s not, then it’s not. Why didn’t you say so earlier?
"I'm sorry, I didn't expect you guys wouldn't recognize it. I'll remind you earlier next time," Bai Jin said with no sincerity in his apology. "After all, in our place, even pure carbon-based humans who don't choose prosthetic implants will be able to see this simple difference after being equipped with an intelligent computer."
Lu Changfeng: ...
The difference between "this" and "simple".
Lu Changfeng felt stars in his eyes, and his already dizzy head became even more dizzy: "...I'm sorry, it's my fault for being so low-level."
He has deeply realized his own weakness.
Especially when facing these interstellar humans who can modify themselves at will.
Is this still human?
"It's okay," Isaac said, with a smile on his face that was much more sincere than when he apologized just now. "This is the choice of the species, not just your fault."
Lu Changfeng: "...Actually, I don't really want to apologize?"
He didn't really mean to apologize for his weakness! "I'm sorry" here just serves as an interjection and has a self-deprecating meaning!
"If that's what you think," Bai Jinshu said calmly, "then I don't really want to forgive you. We're even now."
Lu Changfeng: ...
At this moment, Lu Changfeng strangely felt the same way as Shi Zhou.
So devastating.
Isaac reinforced their stereotypes about programmers.
Is this person really researching artificial intelligence, rather than actually being artificial intelligence?
Bai Jinshu withdrew his gaze from Lu Changfeng, ignored the bunch of visualized numbers in his field of vision, and looked calmly into the distance.
As someone who can make it in the entertainment industry, his EQ cannot be so low.
Rather than saying that it was his low emotional intelligence just now, it’s better to say that this is Isaac’s character. He is just such a... bad and poisonous AI.
Of course, Isaac has a personality, otherwise why would he take this role? Isn't he usually indifferent enough? He acts essentially to experience the emotions of the character, not to play himself.
Even though he possesses the absolute rationality of a machine, Isaac is still a supreme intelligent machine with much more emotions than most people. It's just that his emotions can stop at rationality, and he is not a creature that can be controlled by rationality.
And rather than saying that he is an outlier among artificial intelligence, a supreme intelligent machine with rich emotions, it is better to say that this is the effect they wanted to achieve from the beginning.
After all, the premise of "flesh and blood are weak, machines ascend" requires that he must have once been a human, right?
Isaac was also once a human being.
Bai Jinshu sighed in his heart. Just now, in order to rush into the alley, he forcibly increased the synchronization rate. This undoubtedly made his entire way of dealing with people take a big step towards Isaac's bad character. Even his personality was subtly synchronized with Isaac.
If he had been relatively calm when he had been venomous to Shi Zhou before and saw Shi Zhou's frustrated look, now facing Lu Changfeng's frustrated expression, he actually felt a hint of joy in his heart.
Yes, pleasant.
Isaac is a wicked AI.
Bai Jinshu silently withdrew his gaze, savored the happiness in his heart that came from the pain of others, and felt that this emotion seemed not bad.
There is a kind of joy that does not care about the life and death of others.
Lu Changfeng, who was sitting on the ground, finally felt the buzzing in his head get better. He stood up with the help of Li Jue's shoulders, and saw two more clones walking towards him from a distance.
The two clones walked up to them. "Guan Hongyan?" They stretched out their hands and waved them. "What are you looking at? Lu Changfeng?"
"Ah?" Lu Changfeng said in a dazed voice, "You are the real Sister Yan!"
Guan Hongyan:?
"How else could I be fake?" she was puzzled.
Lu Changfeng: ...
He thought these two were also clones...
He silently cast a condemning look at his brother Isaac. Receiving his gaze, Bai Jinshu said calmly, "I didn't say anything."
So this means that there was no need for these two people to remind them, which means that they were not clones.
Shi Zhou, who was standing nearby, immediately understood what Lu Changfeng meant. Perhaps because she had seen this kind of situation too many times, the shock on her face was not even as great as that on Zhang Pei and Li Jue standing beside her: "Did a copy of us appear?"
“Yes,” Zhang Pei was the first to react. “Just now, you and Sister Yan appeared in that corner. We wanted to call you, but the security machines in Night City surrounded you. Then a round machine emitted electric light and knocked you down…”
"Lightning," Shi Zhou nodded, "We all call it that. Once caught by lightning, it will directly release electric shocks, leaving a very obvious electric shock mark on the body. In serious cases, it will directly burst the wanted person."
"There are two machines with similar-looking liveries, one throwing a round patch at the back, and one hunting at the front..."
"Archers and halberds," Shi Zhou answered quickly, "These two are two types of police in the security system, one long-range and one close combat. The long-range one is the archer, who can throw a locator that can't be thrown away. This locator will directly integrate into the skin to locate the wanted person. It can't be removed unless the flesh is cut off. If you cut it off too late, it will spread all over the body. Once the location is spread, there is no way to escape."
"The halberd is for close combat, and is usually paired with archers. When you see the halberd, be ready to run, as the archers may be nearby."
Zhang Pei nodded in understanding. Lu Changfeng sighed beside her, "Sister Shi, you guys must have been chased so many times that you must have gained experience."
How many team members were lost in Night City?
"Just find a tool to try it out, attract the guards and then see how they deal with the clones," Shi Zhou curled his lips, "otherwise what are they for."
Although it is scary to have myself everywhere on the streets, having myself everywhere on the streets also hides the exploration team members. If there are any tests that require human lives, the clones can be directly guided to do them.
"Sisters, how did you escape after attracting the guards?" Li Jue asked curiously.
"Go in circles, cooperate with each other to shoot down the machine and run away, leave quickly before the scavengers come, and if all else fails, pretend to be dead," Shi Zhou spread his hands, "or there is another very effective method, go to the base camp of these police machines."
"The most dangerous place is the safest place," she said with a hint of emotion, "No one would go to the police station to catch a fugitive, right? I just can't stay there for long."
Finally they found the bug.
"It's really great." Lu Changfeng said approvingly from the side.
"Speaking of running away," Guan Hongyan complained silently, "Isaac, if you're any slower, I'll die here."
She was just a little bit away from being caught up, and the robot's attack almost brushed past her cheek. If Isaac had not modified everyone's ID at the last moment, she would have been forced to attack the machine behind her.
When the scavenger comes, her control over Hongyan will be over.
Bai Jinshu gave her a calm look and said, "Then congratulations, you are not dead."
"You're welcome," Guan Hongyan waved her hand unceremoniously, "The only advantage I have is that I'm blessed with a long life."
Come to think of it, if it weren't for the san check training in the previous project, she might not have been able to keep her mind calm and active under such a tense pursuit this time.
Guan Hongyan sighed in her heart with mixed feelings that it was indeed suffering that shaped a person, referring specifically to the suffering in the later period of the last unknown space when her mouth was filled with the taste of coriander every day.
"By the way," she looked at Shi Zhou, "so we don't have to hide from the other guard robots. Where should we go now?"
"When will the second disaster you mentioned happen?"
"Let me see..." Shi Zhou opened his watch and calculated, "There are still more than ten hours."
She calculated the time in her mind: "It has been about twelve to fifteen hours since we entered Night City. There is no distinction between day and night, and no distinction between work and off-get off work. Everyone is like a machine that never stops working."
But these exploration team members are not like that, they need to rest.
Shi Zhou thought about the places he could go now: "Generally speaking, when it's time to rest, we will go to some confirmed safe places to rest, such as the abandoned feed port I took you to last time, or Shi Ting's floor, but now we won't be chased, so there are more places to choose from."
"Let's go to the location of the next natural disaster," Guan Hongyan made the final decision, "that way we can rest there and observe the next natural disaster from there."
"That's fine," Shi Zhou thought for a moment, "Do the rest of you have any other suggestions? Now that we're not being chased, we have a lot of free time."
"I have," Bai Jinshu said when everyone agreed with Guan Hongyan's proposal, "I remember you mentioned a place called the Central Tower."
"Yes, the central tower." Shi Zhou thought for a moment and remembered what Isaac said. "I said that the main body of Night City's central control AI, that is, its supercomputing cluster server is under the central tower. It is said that there is a tall tower standing in the center of Night City since its establishment. It is the core movement line of all Night City machines."
Bai Jinshu: "Have you ever tried to destroy the central control AI's server?"
"Yes," Shi Zhou smiled helplessly, "but the central tower is the core movement line of all the machines. It's not a question of whether we will be caught, but a question of whether we can stay there for long. There are machines running back and forth very fast. We won't have time to find a place to stop before we are pushed away."
Not to mention the research center tower, it's impossible to stay in there for any longer.
"What about limiting the flow?" His eyes flickered. "Plant a virus in the network, causing the central control AI to weaken its control over other machines."
"For example, if the speed of the supplement delivery robot is reduced, what will happen to the company's employees who can't get the supplements? Will there be mass death? What will happen after a large number of company employees die? What consequences will the suspension of work that you don't understand cause?"
"No," Shi Zhou thought for a moment, "The company's people will die. The supplements they get can only sustain their lives. Night City will collapse directly."
"But you also said," Isaac's voice that she heard was very calm, "If the company's people die, then they will be decomposed by the scavengers into other supplements, temporarily called Supplement B, and then poured into the company's supplement delivery port again."
"So if a company member dies, his resources will become Type B supplements to keep other company members alive. Theoretically, this will keep the number of all company members at a balanced level," Isaac said calmly. "In this way, Night City will not collapse, and we can also see what these companies are doing through the reduction in completion rate due to the reduction in personnel."
"Company people...are also people," Shi Zhou bit his lower lip, "I don't know what the difference is between what you do and what you do in Gestalt. Isn't it barbaric and naked?"
"Just a reminder," Bai Jinshu said calmly, "You just said a few minutes ago that after you entered here, you learned about the powers and types of the guards through the deaths of their clones."
"I am just proposing a plan based on your logic and values."
Shi Zhou felt that he was being tricked by Isaac: "But that's a clone of myself?"
"Very great," Bai Jinshu commented calmly, "You are truly generous with yourself."
To put it bluntly, the team members believe that the one who entered here is the real original, and the other clones are just pirated copies. As long as they don't die, it doesn't matter if the ones who die are pirated copies.
They believe that they are fundamentally different from those corporate people who have been copied for countless generations within the company.
This is indeed the case. It is difficult for humans to regard imitations other than themselves as their own kind in life-and-death situations.
It was Shi Ting's existence that changed Shi Zhou's view of this place.
It is difficult for anyone to distinguish between emotion and reason as clearly as Isaac.
"I agree with part of your opinion," Bai Jinshu said calmly, "but I think in the next exploration, you'd better think about it yourself. What is your attitude towards clones?"
The commentators also clearly understood what Bai Jin meant:
[That's right. They are all replicas, so there's no need to treat them differently.]
[Isaac's method is actually quite reasonable, if it can really be done. ]
[Previous exploration team members have always survived in the cracks of Night City and have never posed a threat to the central control AI or the city itself. The solution he proposed is indeed feasible.]
[Why do I feel like Isaac is the one who truly sees the replicants and exploration team members as equals...]
[Because the interstellar age is different from other ages, right? Maybe in Isaac's world, clones already have the same rights and obligations as humans???]
"And I will definitely go to the central tower. I want to see the mechanical movement line you mentioned." Bai Jinshu nodded. "Didn't you notice a problem before?"
"What?" Shi Zhou, who was still in deep thought, looked up.
Bai Jin said: "Robots also have a scrapping deadline."
When he hacked into the AI before, he discovered that the machine he had had a very short service life.
Its service life cannot even be described in years. If his estimate is correct, the life of that kind of machine can only be measured in days.
And the maximum will not exceed one month.
Bai Jinshu pointed to the gray-white half-skeleton machine not far away and said, "You only told us before that clones have a life cycle. Have you noticed that these robots are also constantly replaced?"
A city's municipal mechanical infrastructure should be built for long-term use. How big is the demand for Night City's construction? Will robots be replaced so quickly?
The author has something to say:
Yes, of course Isaac was once a human. The prerequisite for the ascension of flesh and blood to a weak machine is always a human.)
Brother Jiamu failed to appear on stage... It will definitely happen tomorrow!
You can place bets on what skin he will wear this time (x)
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