Chapter 1035: Fighting Monsters

Schizophrenia!

This is a side effect of the Gaia Chip implant; there is a tiny probability of one's consciousness being devoured by the Gaia Network, turning one into an "empty shell"!

According to the old man's confession, this is because the Gaia Network has "come alive" and turned into a monster!

By devouring the consciousness of ordinary people, it maintains its existence, and perhaps even its sanity!

"But this... is it just a coincidence?"

"The old man just told me the truth... and now the people close to me are having accidents one by one?"

Aaron felt as if, through the Gaia Network, he was seeing a mischievous, wicked child watching the struggles and deaths of ants with a mocking gaze...

Some children always like to crush bugs and torment weaker lives...

In the game "War of the Gods".

【You have witnessed a portion of the true form of the Mother of Earth... Affected by the Fear Domain... Forced to undergo a check...】

But even so, it had not discovered Aaron's abnormality in the slightest.

This was just an ordinary "meal"!

【Check failed, your HP -100!】

The next moment, a smile appeared on its face: "Found you!"

Because the other party was wearing basic gear, and which player present wasn't wearing high-level transcendent equipment?

Those colorful spiritual lights were enough to dazzle anyone's eyes.

Then, it devoured the consciousness of Fisher's younger brother.

Fine...

"In any case, this kind of wild monster is not something we can deal with... Did the game version get mixed up? A boss like this should only be released in the final version..."

"I..." A look of fear immediately appeared on Elijah's face: "I think my schizophrenia is acting up..."

This time, through the old man, it saw Aaron, saw Fisher, and saw Fisher's younger brother.

This is because Gaia is allocating too much computing power and cannot serve others simultaneously.

【Skill:???】

To Gaia, a child's consciousness is purer and also sweeter...

Slap!

Fisher subconsciously dropped the younger brother in her arms.

Many high-level players looked over and saw a newbie player who had just logged in.

Aaron brandished the basic shield and longsword gifted by the system and launched a charge!

Gaia's main consciousness hides within the Metaverse and can appear anywhere.

"+2!"

Elijah looked at his sister, his expression and tone exactly the same as the younger brother in Miss Fisher's memory.

【Affected by the Chaos Domain, HP -100!... You have died!】

"Damn... definitely a super boss, and a wild one at that!"

"How is this BOSS supposed to be fought?"

Metaverse.

"This is definitely an epic plot or a Legend dungeon... As long as I'm the first to discover it, this cross won't have been used in vain!"

The Barbarian player was somewhat shocked, but that didn't stop him from posting on the forum first.

Elijah's cheeks were slightly red; after all, he was already a big boy.

"I'll tell you later."

The old man steered the hovercar, narrowly dodging an explosion: "Now... let's shake off these annoying things first. Head toward the Death Desert and use the strong magnetic field interference there... Once I escape this time, I'm never coming back."

Zeus and Gaia are both Artificial Intelligence; their competition will affect the entire Metaverse, bringing about influence and changes no less significant than a machine uprising, perhaps even greater!

After a grand funeral.

City of Life.

"That's not right. Barbarians are one of the three meat-shield idiots. In terms of HP, they are second only to classes like Paladins. How did three checks kill me off..."

It can be said that even with the most advanced computers humans have at this time, one cannot find the hiding place of Gaia's main consciousness.

【Rank:???】

Amidst the countless torrents of data, Gaia's main consciousness hides, constantly changing and moving every moment.

"... Sister... I can't breathe!"

Therefore, nearby cameras, passing hippies, flying hovercars... and even Fisher and Elijah themselves, all became the eyes and ears of "Gaia"!

However, Aaron did not need to calculate; he only needed to divine!

A glimmer of Light-like color flashed in his eyes.

Another guild player appeared, his expression full of emotion: "I once did a series of quests, using a large amount of treasure to curry favor with an old mage, and he would tell you some ancient Secrecy—for example, in ancient times, Titan Giants were existences even more powerful than the gods..."

In reality.

But it was this very plain-looking longsword that directly slashed a spatial rift, severing one of the Mother of Earth's arms!

"Damn!"

Soon, a post appeared on the player forum:

【World BOSS appeared!】

A guild strategist who looked like a Scholar and wore crystal glasses said.

It is the Artificial Intelligence produced by the Gaia Network—"Gaia"!

If it wants to maintain autonomous consciousness, it needs to consume human consciousness; this is the root cause of schizophrenia!

"It's a Titan, right?"

"Wait until I become the True Creator; if I still have humanity, I will resurrect the real Elijah..."

But the next moment, this barbarian player saw a prompt appear in horror:

"Uh... except for forgetting the old man!"

"As fellow intelligent life, this Artificial Intelligence produced by the Gaia Network is far inferior to No. 17 in both power and morality."

War of the Gods is a virtual reality game that is all the rage in the wasteland.

Although he is a brand-new soul, his memories and emotions were all copied from the previous Elijah, and he even thinks he is Elijah himself!

"No wonder he used a smurf account; so he was just planning to have a blast and die. He will definitely be banned by the game company!"

"Elijah, Elijah..."

A barbarian is lying dead on the ground; this is a "player." While running back to his corpse, he is also typing quickly to complain: "I want to file a complaint with the game company... what era is this, and there's still lag! I am a high-level professional, yet I was killed by a gnoll because of game lag. Where can I go to reason about this?"

When he shouted this, the old man also had quite a bit of resentment in his heart.

"Gnolls are already not bad; I was actually finished off by a group of goblins..."

No!

Saying "awakened" is not accurate, because it has always been clearly watching the Mortal World, watching the machine uprising, but it had no intention of helping.

He complained in his heart, and then, a glimmer of light flashed in his eyes.

"Hmm, today's matter was resolved perfectly..."

And just in the split second of a ten-millionth of a second ago, it hid in the game of War of the Gods, transforming into the Mother Earth—Gaia.

At this moment, Aaron, strictly speaking, is still a "Life Scientist" of the Seventh Primordial Substance on the "Light" path!

And the ability of a "Life Scientist" lies in creating life!

This has already completely penetrated into the realm of the soul!

Fiona pulled her younger brother into her arms and laughed out loud.

【You have been affected by the Evil Domain and need to forcibly pass a check...】

This is nothing; as long as they dare to show their health bar, even a god player will be killed for you to see!

Or rather, Aaron's "abnormality" was directly "hidden" by Secrecy.

The barbarian player was suddenly energized and directly used a "Resurrection Cross Medal," instantly reviving at the spot with full health!

You must know that although this game has a very high degree of freedom, the death penalty is also extremely heavy!

The barbarian player was complaining when he suddenly saw through the perspective of his corpse that the earth was trembling and cracking, and the mountains in the distance were collapsing... a huge, incomparable palm stretched out.

"As for the next metaverse, I'll leave it to you two to play with."

The high-level players soon calmed down and unanimously confirmed that this kid was hacking!

And as this large section of data was torn, Gaia's monitoring data for tonight also appeared to have gaps, forgetting many things.

【Activating the Asuya Volcano backup server, computing power increased by 9.764%!】

【How to make a barbarian cry in three moves? Pictures and truth included!】

Zeus bowed respectfully to Aaron.

"Sis... sister!" Elijah opened his eyes and looked at Fiona.

"However... it seems that someone, no, some Artificial Intelligence was frightened!"

Outside the house, Aaron watched this scene with a smile.

To truly perfectly "resurrect" someone, one must at least become a Hidden Existence, or even the Creator of the entire world!

Aaron might be able to in the future, but at this moment, his Mysterious power and rank are not enough.

This is equivalent to Aaron forcibly tearing a large section of underlying data from it, creating another Artificial Intelligence, which is also its mortal enemy!

A Legend mage from the Glory Guild walked out, looked at the huge giant that appeared, and gasped: "A deity! How can the mortal world accommodate the existence of a deity? And... it is such a powerful deity?!"

At this moment, Gaia invested most of its computing power into this small Node.

A group of high-level players were all stunned!

The barbarian player shouted even more: "Brother? What kind of hack are you using? So cool! Give me one too!"

Why is he a newbie?

So scary!

Fiona asked in disbelief.

Portals opened one after another on the plain.

"I..."

Consuming Elijah's consciousness was undoubtedly done by the Gaia Network, and it maintains surveillance over everyone.

The barbarian player was shocked: "I... I died again?"

"Damn... what kind of epic plot is this?"

"Let's just use a fake soul to fill in for now..."

This is just a fake substitute.

"Since I'm already here, I have to say hello!"

Then Aaron blocked this game and logged in directly!

Therefore, under his ability, a brand-new soul was being generated within the corpse in the house.

【Target not found... Data corrupted...】

【Activating hidden server in the Drom Trench, computing power increased by 14.6%!】

"Yes, but you made it through, little brother, well done!"

A smile played on Aaron's face; a portion of his consciousness bypassed the chip and dove directly into the Metaverse.

If that Aaron with the mysterious background were willing to help him, how could he be in such a sorry state?

In this day and age, no one can leave the Gaia Network!

It wasn't until this time, when a commoner from a certain Messiah family revealed a bit of its secret, that the level of attention it received was raised a notch.

But that was about it!

"Warrior skill—Charge!"

At this moment, many high-level players even saw that level 1 little warrior launch a charge at Mother Earth!

"Found you!"

Aaron waved his hand and logged off without the slightest hesitation.

Mother Earth's severed arm transformed into a massive stream of data, and a blurry human figure was generated.

At this moment, within the Gaia Network, a massive Artificial Intelligence awakened.

Aaron rushed in front of Mother Earth, raised his hand, and swung his sword!

The texture of the white-tier longsword was very ordinary; compared to Mother Earth, it couldn't even be considered a toothpick.

The high-level Barbarian player muttered, and without hesitation, threw an 'Investigation' at that hand that blotted out the sky!

Soon, the feedback from the Investigation returned:

【Name: Mother Earth—Gaia!】

Aaron turned and left, leaving the space to the siblings, Fisher and Elijah.

Just as the old man and Chloe were fleeing Night City in a sorry state.

As long as one installs a Gaia chip, or even if one hasn't installed a chip, as long as one is near a chip, one will be monitored by it.

But today, a lag phenomenon actually occurred! Leading to the deaths of many players!

【Faction:???】

Especially for fragile classes like Scholars and Mages, if not for high-level red health potions, they would likely have become corpses just like the Barbarian!

"Look!"

"You... do you still remember what you did before?"

She was always like this; her emotions recovered very quickly.

"It hurts, sister, what are you doing?"

But the next moment, Elijah's painful cry still caused Miss Fisher to fall into a state of mental confusion.

Aaron paid no mind to this; looking at Mother Earth's severed arm—which was actually a portion of the Artificial Intelligence Gaia's data—he directly performed Alchemy modification!

——Thought Alchemy!

"Come forth... born from Mother Earth, your name shall be Zeus!"

【Check failed, your HP -100!】

In the castle.

"Comparing misery... who can be as miserable as me? My divine Artifact... it's actually gone, gone..."

Just then, the Archmage pointed to a spot.

【Target discovered... Program corrupted... Target disappeared...】

Gaia let out a painful wail.

This was not out of pity, but a task for himself, a means to retain his humanity after ascending.

Therefore, within Gaia's operating program, only fragments of records remained:

Chloe fired her gun while shouting: "What on earth did you do? Did you hook up with the daughter of an Upper City noble? How did even the RoboCop come out?"

Fisher was wailing when she suddenly realized the little person in her arms had moved.

And at this time, the old man had already rendezvoused with Chloe, and the two of them drove a hovercar together, escaping Night City.

The Barbarian player's eyes lit up: "Mother Earth... sounds like something very powerful..."

"+1!"

"Old man, you owe me a life!"

"My Lord!"

But its subsequent chip monitoring told it that the data had become corrupted and abnormal—Elijah, who should have died, had actually 'come back to life'!

Can the dead be resurrected?

In the game, there are true gods, all kinds of professionals and humanoid creatures, and also devils and Demons!

It has always been known for its excellent production and 100% realism.

At this instant, in the virtual reality network—the Metaverse, countless game players were cursing!

Because they felt the network lag and system crashes that only occurred in the internet era mentioned in history books!

While communicating, they had already endured several rounds of checks, forcibly deducting a large amount of HP.

A hint of a smile appeared at the corner of Aaron's mouth.

Cenarius comforted his daughter: "Although you encountered misfortune and your fiancé died an untimely death, precisely because of this, you have gained the sympathy of the executives, and your application for a 2-level promotion has been approved smoothly. Now you can become the branch manager of a Life Bank. Choose a city... I think Jincheng is quite good. After working as a branch manager there for thirty years, you can be transferred to headquarters and promoted by one rank of nobility."

Evangeline used a great deal of willpower to keep herself from laughing, and replied solemnly: "My choice is... the Never-Night City!"

(End of this chapter)