Chapter 68
A Level 1 contamination outbreak within the hotel had only damaged parts of the 18th floor and below, a remarkable feat even for the central region. Far from leaving, the guests, using the incident as a topic of conversation, chatted and laughed as the staff guided them back to their rooms.
Xiyue found this scene weird.
But Xiang Jia said this is a normal reaction. Statistically, areas that have just been decontaminated are safer than others. After all, pollution outbreaks are random, and the probability of two consecutive episodes of contamination in the same area is much lower than the first occurrence elsewhere.
They sat in the lobby, drinking the sherbet brought by the staff to calm their nerves, and no one noticed them.
People's attention was focused on Yuan Xu. Firstly, they knew this young general, and secondly, they believed that the post, especially the video in it, had spread.
"General Yuan, the new room card has been sent to you." The receptionist said respectfully, with a complicated look in her eyes.
I thought the two male gods just met to discuss business, but unexpectedly they had a fierce fight. Although from the video, it can be seen that General Yuan was crushed alone, but... I still feel a little distressed.
Super S-class is certainly something to be admired, but for ordinary people, S-class is also enough to be envied.
Yuan Xu glanced back at Xi Yue with a wry smile. After they entered the elevator together, he said aggrievedly, "I've never been so embarrassed in my two thousand years."
Xi Yue raised an eyebrow: "You mean, you've never lost a fight?"
"What I mean is, if you lose a fight, the worst that can happen is death," Yuan Xu said helplessly. "How can it be filmed and posted on Starnet?"
"Well, it's better to use weakness to gain sympathy." Xiang Jia added.
Yuanxu: "..."
Xiyue: "Oh, I'll give you a code next time."
Yuan Xu: "…………"
The new room was on the 26th floor. As soon as the door was closed, Yuan Xu couldn't wait to ask questions. However, as soon as he turned around, he saw Xi Yue sitting down on the sofa, looking at him with his arms folded.
He touched his nose and said, "Ask first."
Xiang Jia found the switch for the sound jammer on the wall and quietly turned it on. Many high-ranking military officers from other star regions were staying at the hotel, and with the Supervisory Order issue causing such a big stir, there was no guarantee the walls might have ears.
Afterwards, he sat down next to Xiyue, but was stunned by Xiyue's question.
Xi Yue: "What kind of virtual game is this?"
Virtual game - to the other two, this is a very old and unfamiliar word.
While Yuan Xu was pondering, Xiang Jia spoke first: "This is not a game. Let me first tell you what I know. I have just awakened, so my understanding is limited."
Xiyue looked over.
"This world is indeed fake," Xiang Jia said, "but it also restores some of the truth... most of it. Before uploading, I was indeed a useless citizen without awakened spiritual power... Xiyue, you really don't understand any of this?"
Xi Yue shook her head silently, secretly chewing on the word she had heard for the first time: upload.
Xiang Jia discerned her expression and explained, "Pollution descended, global catastrophes occurred, and countries collapsed one after another. The survivors gathered together, led by those with high spiritual power, to build the last home of human civilization to resist pollution."
Seeing Xiyue's brow furrowed deeper and deeper, Xiang Jia guessed that she was indeed completely clueless, so he continued, "As more and more people awakened their spiritual powers and gained more experience in combating pollution, the base began to expand and slowly rebuild into the last and only country. Due to resource constraints, citizens naturally began to be divided into different levels to facilitate resource allocation and maximize efficiency."
Before coming to this world, Xiang Jia, a garbage citizen, was unable to explain this process with clear ideas. However, after experiencing hundreds of lives here, she is no longer the same person she used to be.
"Due to the desire for mecha warriors, the country has no choice but to encourage childbirth despite the pressure of resource shortages. The probability of awakening spiritual power is only half, and the probability of awakening high-level spiritual power sufficient to use mechas is less than 10%..."
"Wait a minute." Xi Yue interrupted her with an incredulous look on her face. "There are mechas in reality?"
"...Yes, in terms of technology, the real world and the interstellar world are basically the same." Xiang Jia explained.
Yuan Xu observed Xi Yue's reaction and added, "For example, the cloning technology you've seen is something the real world is also trying to overcome, but it's never been successful. Besides that, mechas, starships, and optical computers are all devices that exist in reality."
"There are also the Military Party and the Workers' Party, both of which actually exist in reality. The Workers' Party is called the Workers' Party because almost all manufacturing sectors have been integrated with psychic technology. This not only increases resource recovery rates, but also significantly improves the performance of products and equipment."
Hearing this, Xiyue suspected that the "real world" they were talking about was also fake.
Compared to her memories of her past life, these things sounded too sci-fi and unscientific.
She digested it for a moment and motioned Xiang Jia to continue.
Xiang Jia pondered for a moment, then adopted a more macro narrative: "In the fifth year of pollution, the base was established, and the total population was approximately 20 million. In the 18th year of pollution, the population of garbage citizens reached 20 million, and resource shortages reached their most severe stage, with everyone barely able to eat a full meal a day. In the 20th year of pollution, the government launched a cloud project, half-encouraging, half-forcing garbage citizens to upload their personal consciousness to save real-world resources."
"Uploading personal consciousness?"
"It's about digitizing the human brain and storing it in the cloud. You can think of it as me going from a living person to a digital life."
Digital life... In Xiyue's original world, although this term was mentioned frequently, it was just a concept. She never expected that the end of the human world where Xiang Jia and the others were would actually come true.
Xi Yue couldn't help but ask, "The body disappears, and the consciousness becomes a mass of data... Is this still considered living?"
Xiang Jia was silent for a moment, then slowly replied, "This is also the most controversial point. However, faced with resource pressures and the government's absolute power, who would listen to the protests of useless citizens? The Cloud Project has only been launched for two years, and it has gone from semi-mandatory to mandatory. Anyone who is over 18 and has not awakened their spiritual power, and has no parents or siblings to rely on, will be forced to upload."
From the perspective of natural life, this is simply a horrific massacre.
Xiyue gave Yuanxu a rare sympathetic look from the bottom of her heart: "Were you also forced to upload?"
Unexpectedly, Yuan Xu shook his head, looking relieved. "My parents are high-ranking military officers, and I volunteered to be uploaded. Also, Xiang Jia, although the vast majority of military officers are not good people, some officers oppose this practice and have secretly established an anti-Cloud Organization... Since we've come to this point, I'll be frank. I'm an undercover agent sent into the Cloud Organization."
Xiang Jia was surprised.
Xiyue could only open her mouth slightly and make six silent sounds.
Who would be willing to pay the price of physical death to be an undercover agent?
Xi Yue: "Then... you are the only undercover agent from your organization lurking in the cloud?"
"How is that possible!" Yuan Xu said, "There are only 10 people in my group."
"So, you still have a companion now?" Xi Yue had an idea, "Xi Hai is your companion?"
"...No. He is just an Awakened One."
Yuan Xu touched his nose uncomfortably, his face full of dissatisfaction. "Who knew Yunduan would be like this? Anyone 'born' in the interstellar space has all their memories wiped out. They're no different from real newborns."
Xiang Jia sighed. "This is what makes me most angry after my awakening. The government describes the cloud as a paradise for everyone, with abundant resources and no pollution. It's a completely carefree paradise for digital life."
But I didn't expect that the fate that awaited the garbage citizens after uploading was no different from that in the real world.
Granted, some people were randomly assigned high psychic powers by the cloud system, but so what? Without memories of past lives, this operation couldn't even allow the trashy citizens to experience the thrill of pride.
What's more, the proportion of spiritual awakening is the same as in the real world. Half of the people were garbage citizens before and are still garbage citizens now.
Xiyue’s thoughts returned to Yuan Xu’s unconvinced words.
All memories are erased. Even if you have companions when you enter the interstellar world, they will be gone once you are born into it. In addition, even if your companions have awakened, once they show signs of awakening, they will be eliminated from the interstellar world...
The so-called undercover agent has no effect at all, let alone conveying the truth in the cloud.
No wonder Yuan Xu was like an antisocial element in private, hoping that she would cause trouble and cause trouble for the rulers of various star regions under the pretext of debt.
That was roughly what Xiang Jia knew. Next up was Yuan Xu. However, before he spoke, he looked at Xi Yue suspiciously and asked a question.
"Are you...really a human?"
He stroked his chin and explained, "According to my years of covert investigation, the Gods of Pollution are all E0 trash citizens, including those from a few days ago... In short, their words and actions are a bit dry, more like robots in human skin, without emotions. But you are different. Xiyue, are you truly a person, not a system program in human form?"
"You are the program." Xi Yue blurted out, extremely resisting this speculation. After a moment of silence, she said, "But I also suspect that other pollution gods have programs, because they are born with knowledge and have known their mission since childhood."
Yuan Xu touched his nose and said, "Who are you then? Were you recently uploaded? No, if you awakened after being uploaded, you would definitely know the origin of the cloud. Do you remember your past life?"
Of course I remember, Xiyue thought.
However, she could not directly answer Yuan Xu's question.
Could it be that she came from a world unrelated to the virtual universe or the apocalypse? Was she just a poor high school senior driven mad by loan sharks and disqualified from the college entrance exam?
According to Xiang Jia, the cloud appeared 20 years after the pollution came, which means that Yuan Xu and Xiang Jia may not have been born before the pollution came. Whether they knew about the "college entrance examination" is debatable.
Besides, even if she told them the truth directly, she had no way to explain the reason - what's the point of explaining? It's a waste of time.
Xi Yue simply avoided the question and continued with Yuan Xu's words: "You remind me of a question. Since the cloud world can easily achieve communism, why do we still want to create a polluted world?"
Yuan Xu frowned.
Although Xiang Jia had just awakened, he had experienced many lives after all, so he immediately had a vague guess and looked at Yuan Xu.
After pondering for a while, Yuan Xu said uncertainly: "I'm just guessing. Cloud Star is actually a big data simulator."
"So the interstellar management system and technological level are all modeled after the real world..." Xiang Jia's guess immediately became clear, "They want to use data simulation to find the best way to conquer the contaminated area!"
Yuan Xu nodded. "It's not just about combating pollution. There's also the issue of technological evolution, the evolution of management systems, and resource challenges... With both worlds essentially synchronized, Interstellar is the best reference for the real world. But all of this is built on the backdrop of pollution, hence the emergence of the Gods of Pollution. They correspond to the creatures in the real world that carry pollution sources."
The cloud plan can not only reduce resource consumption but also provide decision-making samples for the real world. It is simply killing two birds with one stone. No wonder the doomsday government will force garbage citizens to upload their consciousness.
Xi Yue sneered, her thoughts suddenly jumping to another point: "In other words, the person who is constantly observing us is not actually a person, but a cloud system?"
"I guess so," Yuan Xu said. "I also heard it from my parents by chance. Xiang Jia, you should still remember the specific name of the optical computer system in reality."
Of course Xiang Jia remembered: "Ark One."
"That's right, Ark One—the super AI that controls all connected devices. It can be said that in this apocalyptic environment, the base was able to so quickly form a well-organized organization, establish a nation, and carve out a stable and habitable apocalyptic home in the midst of global pollution. Ark One is largely responsible for this."
"And the cloud and Ark One are developed by the same developer."
Xiang Jia was stunned: "The developer of Ark One is still alive? I thought this AI appeared long before the pollution came..."
"No," Yuan Xu shook his head. "If what my parents reported is true, the developer of Ark One was still a student before the contamination. Ark One was officially launched two years after the contamination, and the base has been completely free of disorder and chaos ever since."
Xiang Jia: "Students? What students?"
She subconsciously assumed it was a place like the Mecha Academy, dominated by top students, but quickly dismissed it. The Mecha Academy had only been around since the founding of the People's Republic of China, so the developers couldn't possibly be students there.
Yuan Xu spread his hands. "Then I don't know. It is said that before the pollution came, the education system in human society was very complicated. However, my parents mentioned the developer's name once."
His eyes swept across Xiyue's face intentionally or unintentionally: "Gu Qin, she is a middle-aged woman."
Xiang Jia: "...I've never heard of this name."
Yuan Xu smiled and said, "That's normal, because she never appears in public. Any information about her is top secret. I think the omniscient observer Xiyue mentioned is either the second super artificial intelligence developed by Gu Qin, that is, the cloud system, or - Gu Qin himself."
Xiang Jia was surprised again: "You mean, Gu Qin might still be alive?"
She immediately denied it. "Impossible. This year is the 2199th year of the Star Calendar. Even if there's some water in the numbers, it can't be much. Didn't you say you've lived 188 lives? That must be over a thousand years in total. The technological levels of the other two worlds have been synchronized. There's no such thing as an immortality drug. How could Gu Qin possibly have lived so long? Unless she uploaded herself as well."
"Uploading is a possibility." Yuan Xu shook his head slowly. "Since you've been a commander and reached the pinnacle of power, didn't you notice anything unusual about the Sirius Belt? The entire Sirius Belt, with its 24 star regions, has been controlled by the Zhen family for how many years? And how many generations has the title of 'Sirloin Commander' been passed down?"
Xiang Jia was stunned. After a long pause, he stammered, "Isn't the Zhen family's continued dominance of the Sirius Belt due to the large number of orphans with high spiritual powers adopted?"
"It's just a cover-up." Yuan Xu snorted and laughed. "It's precisely because everyone's memory is erased after death that the Zhen family dares to use such a lame excuse. I'm different. I've spent several lifetimes investigating the Zhen family."
He paused and lowered his voice, "I'm certain that the current Heavenly Wolf Commander, Zhen Xingchen, and the first Heavenly Wolf Admiral, Zhen Heshan, are the same person. No, it should be said that every Heavenly Wolf Commander is the original Zhen Heshan. He is an Awakened One who has found a way to pass on his consciousness for thousands of generations."
Xi Yue suddenly figured it out: "You mean, Zhent Heshan replicated the consciousness uploading technology in the interstellar space?"
Yuan Xu snapped his fingers. "That's right! And it's not just a replica, it's a major breakthrough. From simple uploading to virtualization, it's now copied to another person! Do you know why the Sirius Belt is the source of kidnapping crimes? They capture so many people, and a large part of them are used for experiments."
Appalling.
Xi Yue frowned. "So it's very likely that the real world replicated his experiment, allowing Gu Qin and many high-ranking government officials to achieve immortality..."
The air fell silent, strangely quiet.
Xiyue couldn't help but look at Yuan Xu. Unexpectedly, she saw a look of deep sadness on his face for the first time.
"You...overestimate humanity's moral bottom line." Yuan Xu's voice grew deeper. "I entered the cloud five years after it went online. At that time, the government announced that the total number of people uploaded was 23 million. I was lucky and awakened quickly. By then, it was the sixth year of the Star Calendar, and the total population of the entire galaxy was roughly the same as the number of people uploaded. When I lived to my third life, I suddenly discovered that the total population of the Star Calendar had remained at 30 million for a long, long time."
And this population size has continued to this day, in the year 2199 of the Star Calendar.
Xi Yue: "You mean, in the past two thousand years, no garbage citizens have been uploaded?"
Yuan Xu nodded silently, then continued after a moment, "In my fourth life, I finally became a security guard in the Central Star Region. With access to data, I was able to determine that the population stopped growing in the 28th year of the Star Calendar. And it was in the 27th year of the Star Calendar that Zhenheshan's adopted son, who possessed super-S-level mental power, became the commander. What a coincidence, isn't it?"
A coincidence that's hard to spot, yet hard to ignore once discovered. It makes one wonder, if the real world truly replicates Zhenhe Mountain's consciousness-transmission technology, and if this technology requires a large number of useless citizens as experimental subjects...
To put it another way, would those senior government officials who possess advanced mental powers be willing to give up this technology and face death calmly?
In every respect, this technology is even more perfect than the cloud project. It makes the strong stronger, solidifies the edifice of order, frees the power to resist pollution from relying on unpredictable spiritual awakenings, and allows useless, trashy citizens to realize their own "value." Just like uploading consciousness, it solves resource shortages...
Xiang Jia shook his head in disbelief. "No, it's not necessarily what you think. The Cloud Project has been suspended, the resource problem has been solved, or the Cloud System is intentionally controlling the total interstellar population... There are many reasons that could lead to a stagnation in population size..."
Xi Yue said, "That's why Zhen Heshan was able to live as a thousand-year-old demon in the interstellar space as an awakened being, because the cloud system recognized his value."
On the contrary, Xihai has also been creating asset value, but for Yunduan, interstellar assets are useless virtual things, and he is using his efforts in the wrong direction.
Yuan Xu nodded silently.
Xi Yue suddenly laughed and asked him, "You're in the cloud, so you can't interfere with the real world no matter what. If those speculations were true, your organization would have disappeared long ago. What's the goal of all this trouble?"
"...It's simple," Yuan Xu said, "Since the Cloud Project is already a discarded pawn, let it fulfill its promise to the garbage citizens - a Garden of Eden."
He paused and asked Xiyue, "What about you? From what I've seen from your actions today, it seems like you're going to turn the whole galaxy upside down."
Xiyue smiled: "I hate being looked at the most."
Whether it is usury, caring for relatives, or AI or something like that.
That made her breathless and she just wanted to go crazy.
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