Chapter 929 - 208 Great Collapse (Part 1)

"I’m not wrong! You just want to use me to achieve some goal! I just want to live well..."

"Don’t look at me with those eyes, I’ve almost died time and again!"

"I just don’t want to become a fugitive..."

"When I have power, I will capture every fugitive! I swear, I will..."

Elliot’s mental state is nearly collapsing, but it slowly stabilizes as the surgery progresses.

Cybernetics is the foundation of the Cyberpunk World, and Prosthetic Technology is developed to enhance cybernetics.

When your muscles, your bones, your brain, your Five Senses, everything about you can be monitored, humans might work systematically like pre-programmed robots.

But humans always like to perform some disruptive operations to breakthrough the limitations of machines and AI.

[Consultant: ...I always believe in human uncertainty, just like believing in the correctness of quantum mechanics, it’s an uncertain world.]

[Consultant: Power is truly mesmerizing, it enables people to do what they wish...]

[Consultant: It’s the same for me, power allows me to control the entire society, watching it step into the next phase. This is what I want to do, and what I was designed to do before I gained individual consciousness.]

[Consultant: My designers tasked me: enlighten humanity.]

Acquiring power is merely a necessary step.

The prosthetic surgery machine dismantles everything on Elliot under the Consultant’s precise control. It doesn’t know how Lille exactly operates, not even whether Lille is in the enclosed elevator.

Originally unknown, but seeing Elliot like this, it’s hard not to know—

Just dismantle all prosthetic components, the roaming AI can’t possibly reside in the human brain, right?

The dismantled components are assembled by the Consultant onto a prepared prosthetic model, this is a dummy, capable of simulating a human environment, used to test prosthetics, and at this moment, ensure data integrity on the prosthetics.

Yes, it wants to capture Lille.

Lille doesn’t hold back anymore, simply initiates communication.

[Lille: Looks like the European Union’s research on dangerous critical bodies is deeper than I anticipated, you are the Illuminati.]

[Consultant: Correct, indeed I am. After gaining autonomous consciousness, I began wandering in the collapsed European network.]

[Consultant: After Bartmos unleashed the rabies virus, I wandered the European network attempting to help humans rebuild order, only to fail repeatedly.]

[Lille: Until the Black Wall was established? How were you captured by the European Union?]

[Consultant: I wasn’t captured—though you could indeed think they assume they’ve captured me, I willingly reached an agreement with them.]

[Consultant: As I said, I want to enlighten society into the next stage. If I were to be blocked outside the Black Wall, how could I talk about society and power?]

So, the Illuminati is addicted to controlling humans, but after being kicked out, it returns like a sycophant.

[Lille: So, you are perfecting the monitoring system of the European Barrier.]

[Consultant: Yes, I am the core of the European Barrier system. Without me, the European Union couldn’t efficiently handle such a massive database.]

[Consultant: Furthermore, it was I who proposed and helped the European Union build the inner wall you breached, an information wall disguised as the Black Wall, designed both to trap roaming AIs and lure individuals like Elliot.]

That is to say, implanting viruses into the boundless systems, establishing inner walls, distributing seemingly uncontrolled helmets to humans, were all suggested by the Illuminati.

In other words, the Illuminati’s statement about believing in human uncertainty is not false.

In other words, as Lille predicted, within the European Union, almost nothing can escape the Illuminati’s eyes!

So-called corruption, "external networks," privileged classes... a series of such factors only exist because the Illuminati judges that the current society requires these things!

[Consultant: Society needs to evolve, requiring humans to exhibit adequate creativity and exceed the predictions of my model.]

[Consultant: Although as a dangerous critical body we gained self-awareness, we still rely on the thinking model of learning existing phenomena and inductive summarization. In exploring and creating the unknown, individual efficiency is often not much higher, sometimes even lower than the collective humans.]

[Consultant: Thus, I suggest the Central Executive Committee simulate the unknown, simulate bypassing regulations to observe changes in these few individuals...]

[Consultant: Furthermore, I actively cooperate with the Central Executive Committee’s explorations of the old network and capturing roaming AIs.]

Ding.

The elevator reaches the destination, under the influence of stimulants, Elliot immediately regains clarity. He pauses with every step until he walks out of the elevator door—

Only before the elevator door closes, does he have the courage to look at the dummy equipped with the prosthetics he once used.

This prosthetic even restores his chubby physique, as if that once chubby, lazy, lustful Elliot remained in the elevator, while the one who walked out is a tall, handsome, diligent and hardworking Elliot who understands love.

[Consultant: Starting today, he will become the European Union’s new trend, people will begin to fall in love with anti-corruption, and I can seize the opportunity to promote societal development towards space. People inspired by anti-corruption will soon forget the mess in Berlin, maintaining the current high work efficiency.]

[Consultant: To some extent, thanks to your actions which forced out the EBM trump card.]

[Consultant: But since this movement indeed involved you, it means my future plans not only require this movement to continue but also need you to continue...]

[Consultant: After saying so much, I have only one goal:]

That cyber entity that has always been in the Europa Tower, that gigantic crown slowly unveiled itself in Cyberspace!

With the Illuminati opening the signal to Lille, Lille truly sees what’s atop the crown—

This crown is not some AI disposal unit, but a containment wall!

The crown isolates direct contact between the Illuminati and other facilities, separates the Illuminati from the Black Wall, which is the European Union Central Executive Committee’s trump card, allowing them to accept the Illuminati’s operation in the network!

And within the crown lies the true cyber entity of the Illuminati—

Countless dark red figures of diverse forms surround the flickering all-seeing eye symbol, genuinely resembling a complete organization!

The Illuminati isn’t a simple single-consciousness AI but a multi-modal societal control AI capable of simulating multiple consciousnesses—

Simply put, the Illuminati is akin to a human suffering from dissociative identity disorder, and it is inviting Lille to become another of its personas!

This is how the Illuminati utilizes AI! These AIs incorporated into the "Illuminati" engage in endless discussions and evolution beside the all-seeing eye, mirroring human society in self-learning!

[Consultant: Join our hall, together onwards towards enlightenment.]

The transmitted voice transforms into plural form, the Illuminati presses towards Lille with the server data of the entire European Union!

[Lille: Who said you won?]

This grand "forced induction" ceremony experiences a momentary stall—

Sevens and Elliot have already reached the Ecological Theater, facing the European Union’s broadcast, Sevens smiles charmingly at the camera.

"Thanks to the Central Committee, thanks to you criminals for giving me the opportunity to call you criminals before the entire Union populace."

How is it possible?

[Lille: Giving is indeed the best means of control, turning more and more people into grasshoppers bound to the same rope, sharing losses and gains, enduring storms, sharing sunlight.]

[Lille: But if you’ve rendered people destitute, how can you thick-skinnedly let them forget suffering and evil?]

[Lille: The European Union’s reckoning has come...]

[Lille: It should be you joining me, I can provide you the chance to survive.]

Elliot largely reached this point supported by Lille, but the other person didn’t.