Chapter 774 - 54 Boundless

According to the courses given to Lille by Network Supervision, there are two types of AI in this world: one is the dangerous critical form like Munemasa, which naturally develops consciousness during work, and the other is the soul imprint copied by Soul Killer.

But actually, as far as Lille understands this world, there is a third type of AI...

This third type of AI is known as transcendent consciousness and can also be simply called a Transcender.

This AI is not programmed or created by humans, but is birthed from the operating systems and network activities that are ubiquitous across the net—a super-massive AI—

Though this "network" generally refers to the golden age of the internet.

However, this explanation doesn’t appear in the operation manual given to Lille by Network Supervision, leading Lille to conjure three guesses:

First, after Bartmos released the "Rabies" virus causing the old network to collapse, these AIs, which could even be considered the network itself, also crashed with the attack.

Second, Network Supervision doesn’t want this knowledge to fall outside, Lille does not need to know.

Lastly, Network Supervision itself cannot confirm the existence of such AI.

This last hypothesis doesn’t mean Lille looks down on Network Supervision’s technical abilities; it’s actually because the Transcender is too massive, its existence too unique, making any interaction with such AI a luxury.

From the perspective of these AIs themselves, their form of existence is so unique and vast that they cannot comprehend any existence outside themselves—

According to some information Lille knows, even Bartmos is only somewhat uncertain about the existence of some Transcenders; there might be others he hasn’t noticed.

And Wuji, essentially, is a dangerous critical form.

This AI was designed from the start for scientific research, primarily focused on observing Antarctic ecological conditions, and suddenly developed self-awareness during its long observation tenure in Antarctica.

But compared to general dangerous critical forms, Wuji is quite special: firstly, the Antarctica it is located in has almost no connection to the internet, only having very minor contact with the internet during periodic contacts with humans.

This spared Wuji from significant impact by Bartmos’ rabies virus.

Secondly, Wuji’s "physical architecture" is too massive; like its name, it’s a Titan-class V-type array sector capable of housing immense data, the kind that Munemasa and similar AIs can host hundreds and thousands of.

Wuji almost forms its own net domain, differing from the internet only in that it is indifferent to humans, thus activities within its sector are solely confined to AIs.

Lille doesn’t know what a Transcender would be like, but Wuji is undoubtedly the most powerful cyberspace entity he has encountered...

After all, he was transformed into a penguin without any resistance.

When Wuji released information to them, he felt as if the world was whispering to him.

Munemasa sighed: "...At least the location can be pinpointed here, but how did the signal deviate so much... I set the target as HK, but ended up in Antarctica?"

[Oh... You want to go to HK? Where did you come from?]

"Night City." Lille looked around at everything, then glanced at his penguin body.

At this moment, Munemasa became a ranger penguin with ice blades, and ribbons fluttering on his body.

He... or rather he and Johnny, became sunglasses-wearing penguins.

[Night City, HK, Antarctica, you’ve certainly deviated very far, but the signal I received from you was very strong, even reaching Antarctica without any relay.]

[Strange, is this some kind of new technology?]

"That’s something I don’t quite understand either... The communication array strength of Arasaka Tower theoretically only covers Asia." Munemasa glanced towards Lille after speaking: clearly, among surprises, the only one Lille had was capturing Johnny.

Lille’s mind raced quickly, immediately considering a possibility:

Given that the precondition of dimensional travel is energy, it means each time he arrives in another world, there is some energy assisting him to cut across dimensions...

Perhaps this energy peaks not only when breaching the Marvel World’s dimension but also when returning!

Thus, it’s not impossible for the signal to inadvertently strengthen beyond the strength dictated by this world’s physical laws.

AI cannot understand things it hasn’t encountered, Lille thought and said:

"It really was an accident... but I’m not sure about the specific situation either..."

Munemasa, after a while, continued to ask: "Why are you constantly touching yourself?"

Only then did Lille realize that this body seemed to have branched out a very tiny silhouette resembling a phantom, the phantom penguin’s flippers continuously touched this data body, occasionally patting its belly.

It was evident that it was Johnny, curious to explore his new life form.

It seemed Lille and his data coexistence in cyberspace looked quite... peculiar.

[Ah ha! Computer schizophrenia!]

Wuji excitedly exclaimed, as if it had discovered something very interesting!

The entire cyberspace resonated with its ’Ah ha’, causing several AI models to tremble.

"I’ve turned into a penguin?!"

Munemasa watched Lille, who suddenly changed voice and screamed, paused for a moment, then said:

"I really don’t understand you humans, insisting on causing yourself computer psychological diseases."

"Can computers even have psychological diseases?"

[Absolutely!]

Wuji enthusiastically picked up where Johnny left off.

[When faced with specific types of tasks, some AI will choose to create a submodel inspired by their own model.]

[Yet if this submodel continues to interact with the AI to a certain extent in the future, the two AI having similar original structures and data frameworks cause operation issues...]

[Hardware-wise, although they store a batch of information, the similar structured mapping tables can generate incorrect operation logic...]

[In any case, the cause is very complex, I’ve only seen a few AIs with psychological issues, you must have many stories to share?]

After listening, Lille suddenly thought: no wonder Little Octopus was highly resistant to splitting an AI of the same type to assist with information processing.

Scenes quickly transitioned, with an ice hole suddenly appearing on the glacier, and a small fire ignited inside; two penguins sat by the campfire, the atmosphere warm and harmonious...

Strange, extremely strange.

Munemasa directly lay on the ground, flippers sprawled wide.

"You explain then, as the price for borrowing the sector, all passing AIs share stories with him." Lille fell into contemplation; Johnny spoke up: "Tell the story, I want to hear it too."

"Alright." The voice seamlessly switched to Lille, "This story starts... starts from Atlanta..."

[Warning: This dimensional travel is extremely unstable, and will jump shortly.]

Watching the system warning, Lille felt somewhat helpless but could only proceed step by step.

Wuji, an ultra-massive AI living in Antarctica, is willing to shelter all wandering AIs seeking refuge.

The price is that he enjoys stories that happen within cyberspace.

Yet using this opportunity, Lille could actively attempt to synchronize memories between different worlds...

Attempting to understand the connection between "soul", information, and material carriers.

This story begins from Atlanta.