Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
After learning the truth of the entire matter, Little Silver was frozen for a long while as if his acupuncture points had all been hit. He was trying his best to digest everything.
The good news was that Beast King wasn’t dead. As long as Beast King was around, it was still possible to revive the holy beasts.
The bad news was that Beast King had now sunk into a withdrawn state, and had no way to pull himself out of the virtual reality he was addicted to…
In studying how he could write novels like Father Wang, Little Silver had specially read books on human psychology before, to figure out what kind of stories readers preferred… Based on his analysis, what His Majesty Beast King was doing was a form of psychological escape.
Perhaps it wasn’t that His Majesty Beast King couldn’t clear the game, but that he didn’t want to, hence why he was entangled inside the game narrative.
“There’s no other way. The only thing we can do now is find a way to help His Majesty Beast King forcefully clear the game.” Little Silver frowned as he stared at the huge beast in front of him which looked like it was sleeping.
“That’s the only way.” Odd Zhuo nodded, and then looked at Qin Lang. “Do you know what game Beast King is playing?”
“It’s called Detroit: Cultivation 1 .” Qin Lang nodded.
Everyone immediately understood. This was a game that couldn’t be considered either old or new, because not long ago, the game had been newly repackaged with an expanded storyline so that it looked bigger.
Before this operation, Little Silver had initially wanted to play this game, but hadn’t had the chance.
The story was about what happened between human cultivators and robots. In this fictional world, an organization called Membrane Control Life invented a type of fully smart robot to serve human beings. The robots had many different functions: for housework, for education, as children, and even sex… They worked according to how they were programmed by the humans, and could think for themselves.
While the humans were all rejoicing in the convenience afforded by the robots, the first case of a bionic robot injuring someone occurred in this world.
The cause was an owner who repeatedly abused his bionic robot by beating it up after drinking too much. The bionic robot, which had originally been set up to never attack human beings, actually developed autonomous consciousness under such brutal treatment.
It then started to rebel against its owner.
In the end, Membrane Control Life recalled this bionic robot on the grounds that it had malfunctioned, and the injured customer received thirty times what he had paid the organization as compensation.
“And then?” Odd Zhuo had never played this game before, but after listening to Little Silver’s account, he was abruptly very interested in the plot.
Little Silver nodded and continued explaining the story.
At that time, this bionic robot had been successfully subdued by its owner, who thought it was just a case of bad luck, hence there wasn’t any media coverage of this incident. In the end, Membrane Control Life chose to fork out a massive thirty-fold amount in damages to minimize the fallout of this incident.
But unexpectedly, similar incidents started to happen.
Two months after the first incident, someone discovered that his android at home had actually learned to circulate spirit qi to regulate its breathing and to cultivate. Furthermore, by secretly observing its owner’s training pattern, it had also learned to cultivate the heart sutra…
“Robots learning to cultivate on their own… Is that possible?” Fatty Luo raised his doubts. This was only a virtual game, so it seemed a waste of time to bring up this question.
“An ordinary machine certainly wouldn’t be able to, but a humanoid magic treasure might,” Wang Ming looked up and replied.
He was amply qualified to say so.
Because he was the one who designed Head of State 001, and it had the ability to learn for itself. It had the same core power source as the “Wang Ling One” which Wang Ming was wearing; both of them were driven by the spirit energy stored inside the core center.
However, Head of State 001’s design was more refined. By using its bionic meridians to imitate a regular cultivator’s breathing pattern, Head of State 001 could draw in spirit energy from heaven and earth and store it in its core center.
This was the difference between a regular android and a humanoid magic treasure.
It wasn’t clearly indicated in the game whether the bionic robots were magic treasures, so there was no need to take it seriously.
However, this type of robot that could learn to cultivate on its own could indeed be created with current technology.
It was just that the costs to manufacture a single robot was very high… no country in the world was yet able to mass produce them, and this type of robot was currently still in the experimental stage.
Just like the “magic crystal” technology which Night Chief had revealed earlier on.
“If such a bionic robot is produced for real, surely we would need to be vigilant?” Listening to Wang Ming, Fatty Luo was suddenly worried.
If human beings created this kind of machine as a combination of all the most cutting-edge technology at the moment, and it had the ability to learn independently which surpassed that of a human’s… if such a robot truly existed, once they developed consciousness, would they truly become a new intelligent lifeform? Would they replace humans?
It all sounded a little inconceivable…
But it was certainly a question worth thinking about.
If a “machine” invented by human beings possessed the ability to think for itself and learned to cultivate, and then tried to enjoy the same freedom as humans in this world… What would your attitude be?
Would you accept this new type of intelligent being, and share the beauty of a prosperous world with them?
Or would you stand on the opposite side and do everything in your power to prevent an uprising by these new intelligent beings?
“Anyway, let’s go in first and take a look,” Odd Zhuo said.
Little Silver: “But how do we get in?”
Wang Ming smiled. “I’m here, what’s there to worry about?”
…
On one side, the summer camp carried on as usual while the group inside Beast King’s tomb had already come up with a plan to infiltrate the game.
Elsewhere, President Bai, who had successfully picked himself up and returned from the grave, was gradually adapting to his new body.
Night Ghost Spirit Emperor wasn’t truly dead, but had switched identities with President Bai.
President Bai could now understand what it felt like for a farmer to liberate himself from a landowner.
Returning to Night Chief’s general HQ, President Bai imitated Night Ghost Spirit Emperor’s voice and placated everyone before he set about repairing the base as well as planning to relocate it.
Sitting on the throne, President Bai looked at this “country” which Night Ghost Spirit Emperor had built… He could sit here and reap the profits as everything was now his.
Night Ghost Spirit Emperor was imprisoned alone somewhere in the soul repository. “Bai Zhe, you dare plot against me?!”
President Bai could directly hear his voice. He hadn’t killed Night Ghost Spirit Emperor right away, and instead had chosen to lock him up.
He acknowledged that he was a very vindictive man.
He wanted Lord Spirit Emperor to enjoy the pain of being tormented in the soul repository for a while.
“You must be wondering why I have this sort of ability, right?” President Bai responded softly.
