Chapter 448: Thinking and Code

The two rumbling vehicles drove side-by-side into a valley. Behind them was the fire dragon, bound by ropes. Throughout the journey, the fire dragon's scales were in constant, intimate contact with the earth, kicking up sparks.

The fog in the valley was thick, and visibility was extremely low; even in bright sunlight, it could not pierce through this mist.

Quinn held the steering wheel with both hands, but his mind was not on it.

"He just agreed to Bell, promising Bell that he would take him to the American continent." Quinn thought to himself, and couldn't help but think of those children.

Bell was the young man who had suggested eating the fire dragon.

"Since he wants to take the fire dragon back for research, he must have transport machinery. And since he chose the valley, the transport machinery should be an airplane."

Quinn looked up at the sky. "Only an airplane can transport the fire dragon out of Europe."

This place was not near the sea, so to transport the fire dragon back by sea would require a convoy for loading, which was truly troublesome and not nearly as convenient as an airplane.

"Ye Nan, I wonder if you could take the children along when you leave? Consider it the reward for me working for you," Quinn said.

"We'll talk about it when we get there," Ye Nan shook his head, feigning mystery.

Upon hearing this, Quinn had no choice but to quiet down and focus on driving.

Gradually, the mist grew thicker; even with the lights on, visibility was very low.

"We can't go any further." Bell, over there, stuck his head out and shouted, "If we keep going, it will be very dangerous."

"Stop," Ye Nan said upon hearing this.

After the vehicle stopped, Ye Nan jumped down from it in one motion, a knife in his hand, and walked to the back of the vehicle to cut the ropes.

"You can go back now," Ye Nan said while cutting the ropes, effectively issuing an order to leave.

Bell, who had just stepped out of the vehicle, immediately put on a thick-skinned expression and crowded forward, "We'll just wait here."

He was afraid that Ye Nan would leave by himself; although it seemed impossible, he had to be prepared for any eventuality.

"You still need to go back and bring the children," Ye Nan glanced at Bell and said.

He had many things to do next, and these things had to be kept from others, so he didn't want anyone watching here.

As soon as Ye Nan's voice fell, before Bell could speak, Quinn's joyful voice came over, "Bell, let's go back and pick up the children."

Quinn had been waiting for this answer, and now that he had finally received it, how could he not be ecstatic? Fearing that Ye Nan might go back on his word, he couldn't wait to bring the children over immediately and then transport them to the Americas.

"But..."

Before Bell's words could leave his mouth, Ye Nan interrupted him, "There are no 'buts.' Don't be afraid that I will leave. How could I leave while carrying such a large fire dragon? Besides, it will take time for the Space-Time Empire's transport plane to arrive."

Although still unwilling in his heart, facing the somewhat angry Quinn and Ye Nan, who did not want them there, Bell had no choice but to agree, "Alright then, we will go back immediately to transport the children over."

Having said that, Bell jumped into the vehicle and urged, "Hurry up and get in, let's go early and return early."

With a rumble, the two vehicles gradually disappeared from Ye Nan's sight. At this moment, a calm smile appeared on Ye Nan's face. He raised his hand, rolled up his sleeve to reveal a silver wristwatch, and tapped it a few times. Si Mila's image immediately appeared on it.

"Brother, you've been gone for four days, and you're only looking for me now?" Si Mila pouted, saying with dissatisfaction. Behind her was also Yi Li Si.

"How is the matter you were working on going?" Ye Nan smiled slightly, not answering Si Mila's obviously venting question, but instead asking about the task they were working on.

Women, when venting, are always unreasonable. Answering their questions was undoubtedly asking for trouble; on this point, Ye Nan could be said to have suffered quite a bit.

"The matter you are working on has very important significance for my future strategy."

Before leaving, Ye Nan had handed over a host of matters to his women to manage. He discovered that his women indeed possessed extraordinary talent; even management science, which they had never been exposed to, they could learn from scratch with their clever brains. After a few bumps in the road, they began to turn into so-called geniuses.

And the matter Si Mila and Yi Li Si were working on was the analysis of the Matrix world. Relying on the mainframe inside Noah's Ark, they could easily process data streams ten times larger than before. In this aspect, Yi Li Si had improved the most significantly.

"I am using 132 computers to simultaneously analyze the data of the Matrix world, but progress remains slow and somewhat chaotic." It was Yi Li Si who answered. On her left hand, a picture appeared; on the picture, data of three colors were changing: blue, black, and red.

"The blue data is the data of the Matrix itself, the red data is a type of data similar to a virus, and the black data is pure virus data. Look..."

The three types of data on the screen suddenly began to change. The blue, red, and black colors constantly eroded and changed into each other. A piece of data would suddenly turn red, then suddenly turn black, and then suddenly turn back to blue, changing back and forth.

"Every change in the data requires me to re-process it, and that black data is the most difficult," Yi Li Si complained, "The black data is very corrosive; it even erodes the data stored in our computers. If it weren't for Si Mila and me joining forces to weave antivirus software, I'm afraid our mainframe would have been infected."

"This black data belongs to Shi Misi." Ye Nan thought for a moment and understood whose data this was. In the Matrix world, besides Neo, the only one who had fought against the Architect and the Merovingian was Shi Misi.

Neo and Shi Misi were both very special programs, but Neo himself did not possess the ability to assimilate and erode. The only one who could have this ability was Shi Misi.

"Yes, the black data is indeed Shi Misi's. We discovered that Shi Misi's core program is very special; it is a very strange piece of code, very similar to human consciousness," Yi Li Si said, "When humans connected to the Matrix world, I once tried to analyze human consciousness, but unfortunately, human consciousness is entirely composed of a type of code that I don't know at all. This kind of code has never been seen or heard of before. In fact, I have always been curious whether the Matrix world was really built by the Architect, because I don't think the Architect has the ability to build the Matrix world."

"It's not that I'm looking down on him, but his technology doesn't even compare to mine."

Yi Li Si said with disdain. A virtual world was nothing special; the difficulty lay in connecting human consciousness into it. Consciousness and code were two completely different things. Wanting to transform between them, with Yi Li Si's current abilities, was also something she could not do.

Upon hearing this, Ye Nan pondered for a moment and said, "It might be because of some special reason, like an accident or something, that such a world was created."

He knew very well the true origin of the Matrix world. This world was entirely built according to *The Matrix*; it was built by them. But he couldn't say that, because once he did, it would involve his past life, so he attributed this matter to an accident and didn't want to continue discussing it.

"Continue telling me about Shi Misi; I am very interested in his abilities."

"In the process of analyzing humans, I forcibly memorized their constituent code. However, what's interesting is that everyone's code is different. Of course, this difference refers to the exterior; the core within is still the same," Yi Li Si, seeing that Ye Nan was very interested in Shi Misi, continued, "It's like human games; although their external graphics are different, the core is still the same."

"Inside Shi Misi's core, I discovered that his core has some similarities to the human core. I think if we can master Shi Misi's code, we will have a chance to analyze the transformation between human consciousness and code."

Yi Li Si's voice suddenly became excited, "Once it is analyzed, Si Mila and I can become real humans."

No matter what, no matter how similar they appeared to humans, it couldn't change the result that their essence was intelligent life. Even if they changed into human bodies in the future, it wouldn't change this fact, because they had to use chips to carry their data.

But if the transformation between consciousness and code was analyzed, it would be different. They could completely turn their code into consciousness and then inject it into a human body, becoming humans thoroughly.

"Actually, I have always felt that the predecessor of humans might be intelligent life. If you don't believe me, look." Si Mila interjected, depicting a picture: above a white brain were countless pieces of data.

"If you view consciousness as data and the human brain as a computer, then there is no difference between humans and intelligent life."

It's like installing a Win7 system on a Lenovo computer and an Apple system on an Apple computer. Although they look different on the surface, in essence, they are the same.

Upon hearing this, Ye Nan was so surprised that he couldn't speak. Si Mila's words made him realize that there really was such a thing.

Humans created computers to assist themselves; perhaps some unknown life form could also create humans. After all, the history of human birth was really a bit short.

"However, these things are not something I can explore right now." Ye Nan only thought about it for a moment and then suppressed that idea in his heart. For him, exploring the origin of humans was absolutely not something he should do, at least not something he should do right now.

"Roar!" The groggy fire dragon woke up from its slumber. Upon waking, it instinctively roared at the sky, interrupting the conversation between Ye Nan and Yi Li Si.

"It looks like the fire dragon has woken up. I will talk to you later." (To be continued.) ===== CHAPTER 449 =====