Starting as a Mechanical Hunter

Chapter 529: Chapter 62: Virus Vault 0

Input, output, digitization, iteration. Just after arriving in Divine Land, the digital life brought a small shock to the female player Dida’s heart.

Is the real Cyber Network actually like this?

Gao Gong glanced at the long queue and smiled, ”What do you think is most important for those in power if all humans were digitized?”

”Power?”

”Accurately speaking, it is the social structure. A technology tree without social structure is just a bare trunk, unable to branch out and form a civilization.”

”Now, you can think about what the social structure is within Divine Land.”

Dida fell into thought.

Theoretically speaking, digital life can achieve immortality—as long as they keep iterating.

However, digital life is not like AI, which has processing power but lacks a CPU, making self-iteration difficult. Therefore, they must rely on forces that can iterate.

And for a super network company like Earth Net Group, as long as they master the technology to make digital life ’evolve’, they can continuously gain the service of ’high-level digital life’.

This is much cheaper than recruiting or nurturing an advanced AI!

”Do you understand now? If it’s a civilization created by artificial intelligence, the first thing it does isn’t to develop its own technology tree but to establish a social ecosystem. In a good social ecosystem, technology will explode rapidly. In the universe, this is called ’Civilization Ecology’, a subject every civilization leader must learn.”

”From the current perspective, Divine Land’s ’digital civilization’ is operating quite well. As long as this social form is maintained, high-level digital life will continue to emerge and join forces for their survival.”

”This is a large experimental field for harvest, after all.”

Dida looked around to confirm no one was paying attention to them before whispering, ”Since that’s the case, why is Earth Net Group relentlessly capturing AI in the Cyber Network? Aren’t there many right here?”

”I’ll help you ask that after the interview,” Gao Gong shrugged.

Dida pursed her lips. She still had many questions unanswered, such as what this interview was about, why Earth Net Group suddenly sent her an interview invitation, or how they could be so sure she could pass.

Soon, it was their turn in line.

Gao Gong and Dida entered one after the other. As Dida imagined, it was a small room with three interviewers, two men and a woman, who looked serious and indifferent.

Dida subconsciously straightened her back and displayed a professional smile.

But Gao Gong didn’t play by the rules. In a tone like a CEO’s child, he said:

”Alright, stop the examination, just let us through, we’re in a hurry.”

”...” Dida.

The three examiners kept their expressions unchanged. The female interviewer in the middle coldly said, ”The normal passing rate for digital life interviews is 1%. What makes you think you can become a part of our group?”

”A high-level digital life isn’t rare here. You might not realize that the more advanced the digital life, the lower the success rate of iterative evolution,” the male examiner on the side added.

Tsk, this is Divine Land, where digital life is as worthless as grass. Outside, a high-level AI would be so welcomed by 90% of enterprises.

”And judging by your attitude, I don’t believe you’ll become one of us,” another examiner concluded.

”Oh, is that so? Then why did you send me the interview form?” Gao Gong shook the file bag in his hand with a sly smile.

”All interviewees are reviewed uniformly by headquarters—”

The female interviewer suddenly realized something and hurriedly operated the computer on the table, only to show surprise when her expression went from calm to shocked, because on the screen, Gao Gong’s and Dida’s interview forms bore two big red words ’Qualified’.

”You hacked into the headquarters server system!”

The three interviewers’ expressions changed simultaneously, and the next second, a large number of digital signals appeared in the room, from which emerged one sunglasses-wearing man after another.

A very strong sense of déjà vu.

”You even replicated the technology of Cyber Killer-level, or rather, developed this Antivirus Guardian technology of the Cyber Space yourselves?” Gao Gong said with interest, completely ignoring the tense atmosphere.

”With the ability to hack into our headquarters system and not care about being detected, you must be a well-known hacker in the underground world,” the female interviewer quickly regained her composure and asked.

”Fame, I do have a bit. I just checked yesterday, and I should thank my peers for not making big moves recently, as my ranking on the Mother City Wanted List didn’t fall out of the top ten. Oh, my hacker name is ’Mr. Prototype’.”

”Mr. Prototype, the one who assisted Paradise Bird and exiled the entire Cloud City?!”

This time, the female interviewer was finally surprised. The top ten on the Mother City Wanted List also represent the top ten hacker skills on this planet.

Especially someone like Gao Gong who made a name through a big event, his notoriety carries more weight.

”You’re a Cyber Hacker?!” Dida was also stunned. Wasn’t Mr. G a Cyber Killer? How did he suddenly become a rival hacker?

Generally speaking, big-time hackers like ’Mr. Prototype’ are thorns in the hearts of big companies, like swatting mosquitoes with a cannon—ineffective and bothersome.

Situations like willing to come for an interview one had never been heard of.

”So, do you think I passed the interview?” Gao Gong said with a smile, ”Or, do you want to verify my hacker skills?”

Gao Gong glanced around, activating ’Virtual Invasion’. Enhanced by four other full-level skills, its power was terrifying, even a high-level AI equipped with an ’Electronic Defense Wall’ would likely be caught.

In the eyes of outsiders, it seemed that ’Mr. G’ just looked around, and Earth Net Group’s exclusive ’Network Killer’ suddenly turned into countless jumping digits on the surface of their bodies, just like the digital life collapse Dida had seen before.

The female interviewer decisively declared:

”Mr. Prototype, you’ve passed the interview. Next, I need to inform headquarters to send a special member to discuss your upcoming position with you.”

”Great,” Gao Gong looked around and smiled, ”Where is the lounge? I need a break, interviews are tiring.”

...

In a luxurious lounge, Dida looked somewhat complicatedly at this mysterious NPC in front of her.

Though she had known that NPCs in this game were intelligent, she didn’t expect them to be so ’intelligent’. With such sincere looks, how come they had also learned to deceive people?

Wasn’t it supposed to be a Cyber Killer? How did it suddenly become a fugitive? If I hang out with you, won’t I also become an official fugitive? That would cost reputation!

I’m a good citizen!

”Why did you intentionally reveal your identity? With your hacking skills, it should have been easy to blend in from the start.”

Torn for a while, Dida eventually said nothing about it but instead asked about Gao Gong’s previous actions.

”Being a business spy is workable in some enterprises, but not in others, especially in a digitally ecological larger enterprise.”

”So instead of trying to blend in and getting discovered eventually, it’s better to reveal my identity from the start.”

”Imagine if a project gets targeted by a top hacker, as the person in charge of the project, would you rather defend day and night against an unstoppable threat, or hire him in from the start and keep him under watch.”

”Do you know what they’re trying to do?” Dida asked suspiciously.

”Since they started capturing AIs en masse, I had some guesses. What can AIs do that digital life can’t? Or rather, where can AIs go that digital life can’t?”

”Think about it carefully, on this planet, there aren’t many such places or things.”

”Oh? So what has Mr. Prototype thought of?”

At some point, a door had appeared on the wall of the lounge, and a bald middle-aged man entered, direct and matter-of-fact.

Gao Gong squinted as he looked at the brain encased in a glass skull:

”The No. 0 virus bank in Cyber Space, right?”