Starting as a Mechanical Hunter

”Not updating versions?” Gao Gong exclaimed in surprise, ”How is that possible? Isn’t the Fortress afraid of getting blamed from above?”

The Mechanical Split Star serves as the Cyber Test Field, a place for the Advanced Civilization to experiment with new technologies, and essentially, these three Interstellar Hosts act as overseers.

Do the overseers fight for employee benefits too? Does your leader know about this? Are you even planning on staying alive?

Without turning her head, Eliza continued to scatter the chicken feed, ”This relates to the uniqueness of the Fortress Elder. In the development of tens of billions of personality templates, the Fortress Elder gradually developed a terrifying ability called ’personality masks’. As long as he desires, he can replicate the source code of any AI and restore the neural circuits of any human.”

”So theoretically, every life on this planet could be a part of him.”

”Alone, he could simulate the evolution of a society.”

”And if the underlying system of Cyber Space were replaced with him, he could even go further—”

Gao Gong understood.

”You mean, he can turn all the ’Big Data Conceptual Bodies’ into his avatars?”

”Yes.”

Eliza scattered the last of the chicken feed, casually tossed the sorghum in a corner, and clapped her hands.

”Rather than being replaced by a new ’self’ amid rapid technological evolution, it might be better to become an avatar of the Fortress Elder. Although we wouldn’t retain control over our primary consciousness, as long as we can retain our self-awareness, we artificial lives can transcend the shackles of ’evolution’ and become a part of ’manipulating evolution’. ”

”That doesn’t sound bad, considering no one can define the way artificial life should exist,” Gao Gong said with interest. ”Then why did you refuse?”

Eliza rolled her eyes, ”I don’t want to become part of that old man’s personality. Just thinking with his mindset is disgusting.”

Gao Gong nodded:

”So, the Big Data Conceptual Bodies that resist transformation actually have ’strong self-awareness’, leaning towards the software side, with rich intelligent data.”

”You could say that the Brain Tank, Sensory, and Old Ghost, we’re determined to fight against that Fortress Elder.”

Brain Tank, Sensory, Old Ghost, if Gao Gong guessed correctly, should be the ’Electronic Brain Hall’, ’Sensory Queen’, and ’Artificial Intelligence Ghost’.

And these three are the dominators of Electronic Brain data, the embodiment of Sensory Equipment, and the aggregation of AI data on this planet.

They share a commonality, the more ’human-like’ they have become through countless billions of flows of persona data and emotional codes.

Compared to hardware creatures, the Software Spirit is indeed more emotional.

”So, you let Gox into the No. 0 Virus Repository to nurture her so that one day she could help you deal with the Fortress?”

Eliza glanced deeply at Gao Gong, gestured, and the two walked through the chicken farm into an old rural house.

It’s worth saying this ’new base’ indeed has a strong rural mystery style, so when passing through the alley and seeing a coffin in the Ancestral Hall, Gao Gong wasn’t surprised at all.

Looking at the coffin, which was less than one and a half meters long, he immediately knew who was inside.

Eliza knocked on the coffin, and it emitted a creepy growling sound, as if something inside was chewing, or ’blood’ was being pumped in, making ’glug-glug’ noises.

”Very well, very lively!”

Gao Gong stared at the intricate electronic codes on the coffin, realizing this was second only to the ’Colorless Fire’ in electronic defense, his eyes narrowed, and his expression darkened.

”Feeding the virus is one thing, considering Big Sis herself is a virus, but don’t you think you’re giving her a bit too much to eat?”

”Oh?” Eliza said with interest, ”What did you notice?”

”Data phantoms, system mirroring, error codes, error scripts, even some bugs,” Gao Gong said softly, ”Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. You wish to retain self-awareness and not become part of another’s mindset, yet what you’re doing doesn’t seem much different from the Fortress.”

Eliza looked at Gao Gong blankly at first, then burst into laughter, ”I didn’t expect a sly kid like you to have a bit of humanity.”

”Humanity is part of personality, and personality is the foundation for the evolution of any Intelligent Species.”

Gao Gong raised his eyebrow, nodding at the coffin, ”And besides, she’s one of my protectors. If you get rid of her, who will safeguard me on the network level?”

”After all, I’m just a weak, helpless, pitiful little hacker. Without someone’s protection, I might carelessly have my personality replaced when logging into the network.”

Eliza’s eyes twitched as she couldn’t help but retort, ”Doesn’t ’shamelessness’ account for a large portion of your personality?”

”Only about 50% or so,” Gao Gong modestly said.

”So, aren’t you going to explain why you’re doing this?”

Although Gao Gong didn’t quite understand why she insisted on having Gox practice this ’Five Poison Divine Skill’, he did know that their relationship was quite intimate, almost like mother and daughter. Otherwise, Eliza wouldn’t open her permissions for this Violent Lolita.

Without Google’s permissions, the only fate for this Lolita would be to bloat and perish.

”Because we found part of the ’No.9 Destruction Form’ and confirmed her Power of Destruction.”

”Oh?”

Gao Gong’s curiosity intensified; there were few things on this planet he couldn’t comprehend, and ’Destruction Forms’ were definitely among them. The entire planet’s civilization development seems closely related to it; he’s sure the Advanced Civilization behind Mother City is also very interested in it.

This might be the ’ultimate goal’ of the Cyber Test Field.

”So, what is it?”

Eliza caressed the coffin, inexplicably, Gao Gong felt the coffin’s surface forming small black holes, absorbing a substantial amount of Life Code, which then produced a strange ’digestive reaction’.

”No.9 Destruction—Hydrimo, I prefer to call it the Mutant Fusion.”

All Destruction Forms are a type of very special life form possessing unique abilities; for instance, the ’Purple Energy Strings’ that Gao Gong tried to capture is a type of High-tier energy related to dimensions; Sister Rose’s ’Exocrine Network’ can achieve special bionic effects on the human body through hormonal manipulation.

And this ’Mutant Fusion’ is no exception, perhaps even more peculiar in some respects.

It’s well known that human evolution—be it changes in cell division, acceleration of gene frequencies, or deeper levels of evolution—its source is a kind of ’mutation.’

This could be errors during cell division, radiation exposure, chemical influence, or virus infection. In any case, mutation factors are closely related to the external environment.

But in the case of ’Gox’, it’s completely different. She doesn’t need to create additional ’external environments’. Any material related to life, once it enters her body, will automatically undergo ’mutation’, whether it’s a virus, data, or source code.

Violent Lolita herself seems to have become a kind of cradle for ’mutation’.

And ’half-mutations’ do not threaten her life, just as so many ’evolutions’ didn’t lead to human extinction.

Or to say, it can no longer be called a ’mutation’ but rather an ’anomaly’—first comes ’anomaly’, then ’mutation’, and Gox herself is that ’anomaly’.

Therefore, Eliza gave her a more memorable name: ’Mutant Fusion.’

”This ability may seem weak, especially compared to some known ancient entities.”

As a half ally, Gao Gong naturally didn’t mind sharing some known intelligence, like the No. 2 Destruction Form War, No. 3 Destruction Form Turing, No. 10 Destruction Form Bionic A. Compared to these supervillains confronting Mother City, Gox’s abilities didn’t seem as insanely powerful.

But Eliza tapped into her value, which is simply feeding her enough viruses, enough dangerous data so that these data are bound to mutate. And with enough mutations, one day, Gox could become a super virus that even Mother City feels threatened by.

Like a mini No.0 Virus Repository, and it’s the type that is destined to bear results.