Dimensional Codex System: I'm really not a cultist!

Chapter 480: Chapter 479 This is the Truth of Everything

[Assistance Mission: Guard the World]

[This world is under an unstable threat and disturbance. Find the source of the threat, and eradicated it completely so that the world can continue to operate normally.

Objective 1: Eliminate the Savior Neo (Completed)

Objective 2: Eliminate Mephist (Completed)

Objective 3: Eliminate Agent Smith (Completed)

Objective 4: Destroy Zion (Completed)

Objective 5: Completely terminate the Savior program (Completed)]

”What is the truth?”

Looking at the list of completed missions in front of him, Fang Zheng laughed mockingly and then lifted his head to look ahead.

”There is no such thing as the truth.”

Before Fang Zheng was an immeasurably vast metallic space. Inside, countless Life Support Capsules were crammed. Mechanical Squids shuttled back and forth among them, maintaining these facilities. Through the neighboring porthole, one could see the boundless sea of stars outside, and the endless darkness.

”Thank you very much for your assistance, outsider.”

The woman’s voice sounded again.

”The program has been restarted completely, and the flaws will be fixed.”

”Don’t mention it, it was the least I could do.”

In response to the thanks from the Motherbody, Fang Zheng just waved his hand dismissively. He then walked slowly forward, surveying his surroundings as he moved. Through the windows of the Life Support Capsules, he could see humans—in silver-white uniforms, eyes closed in slumber—not quite humans, to be precise, they only resembled humans.

Or rather, they were not the humans of today. Just as cavemen are noticeably different in physique from modern humans, these people’s features also varied from the humans Fang Zheng remembered. It seemed as if their ears had completely vanished, and their facial features were even more flattened. They looked less like humans and more like aliens.

If Fang Zheng had to say what among the intelligence Neo and the others knew was real, only one thing was correct.

”Once upon a time, Earth was a peaceful world...”

The voice of the Motherbody was calm, as if a tour guide explaining history to tourists. Meanwhile, information about that era materialized in front of Fang Zheng. However, unlike the world in Fang Zheng’s memory, this world’s technology tree was severely skewed. For example, in Fang Zheng’s world, humans had successfully launched space shuttles and embarked on lunar adventures by the 20th century. But regarding VR and virtual reality, it was still only in movie form and under development, not yet fully realized, prior to Fang Zheng’s time travel.

On this world’s Earth, however, humans had successfully created home VR gaming consoles by the 1980s, and by the 21st century, virtual reality had directly connected with society as a whole, allowing people to work and live without ever leaving their homes. As a result, human features began to regress over time. Reliant on virtual reality and perceiving directly through the brain, humans slowly didn’t need the senses to experience all this anymore. They immersed themselves in the virtual worlds, enjoying everything they desired.

But this dreamlike state became the cage that bound them; human society of this world, although exceedingly advanced in virtual networks, lagged significantly in other scientific advancements. Of course, to humans, this wasn’t necessarily problematic.

If there were no external influences, that is.

”Due to the Sun entering its exhaustion phase prematurely, the entire Solar System faced the prospect of extermination. However, at that time, Earth did not possess the means to stop this process. Therefore, humans had to choose to depart from Earth, seeking another planet suitable for habitation.”

But they didn’t have sufficient time.

The Earth’s technology in this world was obviously much more advanced than the Earth where Fang Zheng came from. However, because they began with a skewed technology tree, they were utterly incapable of halting the Sun’s demise. Eventually, they had no choice but to build a fleet of migrant ships to leave Earth with everyone, in search of a new home.

Yet, this was a daunting task.

As previously mentioned, the development of Earth’s technology was peculiar. In the early 21st century, they possessed virtual reality technology comparable to that found in ”The Matrix of Hackers” films. Humans only needed to lie in chambers filled with nutrient solutions to enjoy everything they desired in the virtual worlds.

Everyone cheered for this because the nutrient solution could be synthesized using ordinary crops, and nuclear fusion technology had matured. Most of human needs could be fulfilled in the virtual worlds, which meant that humans no longer needed to compete for resources to get the materials they wanted.

Even giving birth, a painful matter for many women, was no longer painful in the virtual world. They could interact freely with men they liked, and machines would automatically extract cells from both parties for fusion, then directly create babies.

After being born, the infants would also be connected to the ”Motherbody,” living together with their parents. People could obtain everything they wanted without leaving their homes. Even parents thousands of miles away could raise a child just as distant.

To put it simply, Earth at that time looked like a ”Heavenly version” of The Matrix of Hackers world, and Fang Zheng even saw that, in later stages, the humans of this world even began researching abandoning their bodies to ”digitalize” their spirits and souls. Should they succeed, one could imagine that the humans of this world would become godlike beings.

But unfortunately, time waits for no one.

The Sun’s exhaustion came earlier than they had anticipated; humanity in this world could not prevent its decline and thus was forced to flee. However, due to their previous lack of desire for resources, they did not, like Fang Zheng’s world, observe and detect outer space in search of them.

Consequently, a problem arose; within the entire Solar System, they could hardly find a planet capable of sustaining human life. As for the Milky Way, they had not at all explored this region. Moreover, having long abandoned vehicles, their spacecraft engineering skills were mediocre. Although with the aid of the Motherbody’s simulations, they developed large-space engines in time, scientists estimated it would take a long time to find another habitable planet in the Galaxy.

”After leaving Earth, the Earth Unification Council reflected on their history and civilization, believing they had been overly focused on one aspect to the detriment of technological progress in other areas, which led to humanity’s destruction. To prevent such a scenario from recurring, after leaving Earth, the Earth Unification Council devised an ultimate plan, code-named ’Rebirth.’”

The Motherbody’s tone remained flat, but Fang Zheng, observing the charts that appeared before him, was visibly shaken.

The so-called ”Rebirth” involved connecting all humans who had left Earth into the ”Motherbody,” then erasing all their original memories, and having these humans start ”Evolution” anew from the most primitive epoch. Moreover, to ensure a ”comprehensive development” of human civilization this time, the creators set various ”conditions” within the ”Motherbody” to stimulate research and technological development in all directions.

Such as the ”Black Plague,” ”Smallpox,” ”Meteorite impact on Earth,” ”Tsunami,” ”Earthquake.” Each of these ”Dungeon Missions” would foster research in the virtual world to develop technologies for dealing with different situations. And as the controller of it all, the Motherbody would set conditions to ”reward” humanity once they reached a certain stage of progress.

Of course, this reward did not mean an increase in experience but instead, when the Motherbody detected that human civilization had reached the next ”Upgrade” phase, it would ”create” a ”Genius Scientist” or a similar figure to lead human civilization’s scientific progress, reintroducing various technologies developed by the original Earthlings into the virtual world through this ”invention” method, allowing those with lost memories to re-master these skills.

In the meantime, the Earth fleet would continue to drift through space, searching for a suitable planet to inhabit. Thanks to their advanced development in unmanned intelligent technology, these fleets would automatically search for resource-rich information and send Mechanical Squids to extract these resources for fleet maintenance and repairs. As for the nutritional fluids that sustained human life, they could also be synthesized from crops cultivated automatically within the fleet.

It is fair to say that this huge fleet, numbering in the billions, is a mechanical form of civilization’s survival circle, except that the people within are living on a ”virtual Earth.”

According to the creators’ designs, these people would never truly die. Instead, although they would ”die” in the virtual world, the Motherbody would erase their memories afterward, allowing them to ”Rebirth” and live again in the virtual world as newborns, much like reincarnation.

However, the loss of their personal memories did not mean they forgot their work. It’s like in many movies where a protagonist who has lost their memory may not know who they are, but their body automatically completes the tasks they are familiar with.

The Motherbody would store these ”work experiences” within their bodies, so that upon awakening, each person would be a battle-hardened Soldier, an experienced engineer, and a scientist skilled at invention and creation, nearly a Jack-of-all-trades.

As for ”The Matrix of Hackers”...

”Initially, the intention was to warn humanity of the dangers and self-restrictions of AI technology development, but along the way, problems arose...”

Only here did the Motherbody’s tone finally take on a hint of complexity, and at this point, Fang Zheng raised an eyebrow.

”You mean the creator?”

”Yes, their original task was to repair flaws within the Motherbody world and ’erase’ the memories of those who detected issues with the Motherbody. However, during this process, their autonomous thinking functions began to malfunction, and they started to yearn... for freedom.”

”How interesting,”

Having heard this, Fang Zheng couldn’t help but chuckle wryly. Just as ”Motherbody” had said, the Creator and the Prophet, two programs carrying out their original tasks, had become fascinated by the freedom craved by those who had realized the true nature of the world. To observe, study, and learn about human understanding and longing for freedom, they initiated ”The Matrix of Hackers” instance.

However...

”Their actions jeopardized the normal operation of the Motherbody, and according to the protection regulations, autonomous AI may not possess free will. Not only that, but their actions also disturbed the signal of the host body, and the appearance of the Savior disrupted the Motherbody’s self-operation...”

”What an irony...”

Hearing this, Fang Zheng couldn’t help but laugh. Mephist and others had gone to great lengths in their quest for ”freedom,” but what they didn’t realize was that the so-called freedom was not actually meant for them, but for those AIs. Once these AIs that were supposed to protect humans acquired free will, what would they become? No one could know. However, judging from the endings of many movies where AI had gained free will, it was definitely not something desirable.

As a programmed system, the Motherbody was obligated to ensure that everything operated according to the rules. So, these AIs that desired free will had to be eradicated. Perhaps to most people, this seemed pitiful. But to the programs themselves, their very existence was for the precise execution of commands. Any action that goes beyond the program’s regulations is unnecessary.

But it is, after all, just a ”program” and without the help of an ”engineer,” it couldn’t eradicate the viruses that arose from mutations within itself.

Therefore, the ”Motherbody” needed Fang Zheng’s help.

That was why he was here.

For Fang Zheng, that was enough. He didn’t plan to inquire further into other matters. Every world has its own law of operation. Although the Earth in this world had been destroyed, humanity still existed, and they were still looking for a new habitat. Hence, he decided to let them continue their efforts in their own way. Although the outcome was unknown, it was the path they had chosen.

”How much longer do they need to wake up?”

”I cannot provide an exact timetable. The entire Rebirth project is a lengthy process, and no one can know the final outcome.”

”Is that so... then all I can do is wish them luck.”

After saying that, Fang Zheng took another look at the densely packed life support capsules that seemed to stretch endlessly, then turned away.

”Let’s go, Nymph, it’s time for us to head home.”

The source of this c𝐨ntent is freewe(b)nov𝒆l