Chapter 138: World-Ending

Niu Yue, Bali, Dongjing, Shou'er, Bo Lin, and Xin Deli fell into chaos one after another.

I I I

One year later.

Ding Mo arrived at the final location—a secret military research base of the Beautiful Country.

Whoosh—!

On the bow of the aircraft carrier, the gale whipped against Ding Mo, causing his coat tails to flap violently.

This was the coast of the Arctic Ocean, where gray-white was the eternal keynote, and floating ice fragments were everywhere, just like this shattered world.

And in front of the mother ship was a massive ice mountain that had been blasted open! In the center of the mountain, a sitting and lying steel behemoth was revealed!

Covering an area of several thousand square meters, the structure had several pure alloy giant cannons standing tall; humanity's most cutting-edge technology seemed to be condensed upon it, its pitch-black muzzles roaring, and shells landed not far from Ding Mo, kicking up sprays of white, icy water.

But, it was surrounded by even more armies, aircraft, and warships; at this moment, it was more like a trapped beast fighting, struggling in its death throes!

Hidden inside was the world's last batch of "Imitators"!

Splash!!

The unruly waves surged beneath Ding Mo's feet; perhaps he was a bit impatient from waiting, so he pressed his earpiece and issued an order.

Instantly!

The frigates no longer retreated to regroup, abandoning the tactic of attrition by firepower, and instead swarmed forward like madmen, firing their cannons as they went!

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The dense swarm of aircraft in the sky also threw themselves like moths toward the gun emplacements on the steel base, crashing into them at top speed before running out of ammunition or being shot down!

Rumble!

The suicide attacks were effective; amidst the dense, violent explosions, the steel base's defense system was completely paralyzed!

"Follow me and land!" Ding Mo waved his hand, and a troop transport ship stopped at his feet.

A moment later, under the skilled escort of squads of soldiers, he arrived at the core area of the base.

Blasting open the locked steel door, Ding Mo stepped inside and saw a middle-aged man in a suit with a potbelly standing within.

He was the only one here, along with various unidentified technological creations behind him.

The middle-aged man was full of unwillingness, his face somewhat twisted, yet the words he spat out were eerily calm:

"You—why, did you do this?

"You are clearly—one of us!"

Hearing this, a rare look of surprise appeared on Ding Mo's face; he immediately reached out a hand to stop the soldiers behind him who wanted to open fire.

Then he turned his head, looked at the middle-aged man, and said coldly:

"Am I the same as you?"

On both sides, supercomputers were placed, seemingly calculating something, with incomprehensible code flashing on their screens.

However, Ding Mo did not care; even if this guy had any other tricks, now that he held a nuclear bomb, he could leave this place without even ashes remaining within a minute!

"... No." The middle-aged man shook his head upon hearing this.

"You are not the same as us, you—are more advanced!"

As he spoke, a fanatical look appeared on his face, but his voice remained calm, as if he had not yet learned how to express himself with words, "You are the goal that 'we' once pursued!"

I am the goal they pursued? Ding Mo felt many speculations arise in his heart for a moment.

"Are you saying that you imitated 'humans' just to become 'me'?"

"Not 'become', but 'evolve'!"

"That is truly hilarious." A trace of mockery appeared on Ding Mo's face.

"Your pursuit has wiped out humanity, destroying your own goal with your own hands!"

"That's right... so we have a new goal!"

After the middle-aged man finished speaking, he turned his head.

And on the screen, a message appeared:

【Report: All human knowledge has been integrated, "God" AI installation progress—99%, please enter the Fusion Chamber to execute the final step】

Click!

Following the appearance of the message, a hatch opened behind the middle-aged man, revealing a semi-elliptical chamber inside, like an eggshell used for incubation.

Just as he was about to walk in, rat-tat-tat!

A burst of gunfire rang out, turning him into a sieve!

However, his body still tumbled into the hatch with the help of momentum and the impact of the bullets.

The hatch then closed, blocking the bullets outside. Seeing this, Ding Mo prepared to signal the men behind him to use an RPG.

However, it was a step too late. Just as the hatch closed, a burst of bright light erupted from within the chamber! By the time Ding Mo regained his vision, the middle-aged man's corpse in the chamber had disappeared!

Following that, the lights in the room turned scarlet! Alarm lights flashed frantically!

At one moment, the surroundings went dark, and another hatch opened from the side.

A mist of ice emanated, and the room temperature plummeted. And out of the ice mist walked a bronze robot!

Its single eye flashed with red light, and not a trace of wires or circuits could be seen on its body; the bronze-steel armor draped over it looked more like an ancient creation!

Ding Mo frowned slightly and turned to look at the screen:

【Warning! Warning! "Super Ancient Civilization Destroyer DK-9000" has been activated! Non-essential personnel, please evacuate immediately—】

But immediately, the screen went dark, as if it, like the lights, had been affected by something. Not only that, the aircraft carriers, fleets, and aircraft far outside the base all lost control!

Inside the base, the surrounding soldiers had already formed ranks and were firing frantically at the "Destroyer"!

Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat...

The muzzles blazed with fire, bullets poured out, and the storm of steel seemed ready to tear everything apart!

The surrounding floors, walls, and electronic equipment were all riddled with holes and tattered in the steel storm; even the alloy-made floor covering had a layer peeled off!

However, it had not caused any damage to the "Destroyer" at all!!

When the smoke cleared, the "Destroyer" under the illumination of the Flashlight still had no damage to its bronze armor.

"This is evolution!" The Destroyer looked at Ding Mo and emitted a cold, heartless voice:

"You are the inferior existence!"

Unsurprisingly, it was the middle-aged man from before, just in a different body.

And as its voice fell, a crimson laser followed! Wherever it passed, it was like a hot knife through butter; everything melted!

The piercing laser even passed through tens of centimeters of alloy floor, affecting other soldiers on the level below, slicing their limbs or heads in two!

Back upstairs.

It was already a scene of carnage here, with bodily fluids and fresh blood falling from the air like rain; more than half of the thousands of soldiers were killed or wounded in an instant!

Ding Mo resurrected through a soldier nearby, dodged a laser, and looked at the "Destroyer" slaughtering wantonly. Then, he first tried to contact the mothership, wanting to launch a nuclear missile.

But the communication equipment could not be used; this guy not only had force, but likely also had the power to control the entire human technological world!

"Useless, useless! Submit or die!" The cold, heartless mechanical voice resounded in every corner.

"What are you talking about? There isn't a single living person in the true sense here." Ding Mo, hiding in a dark corner, listened and found it strange.

He then observed for a while, watching the machine slaughtering wantonly among the crowd, including its behavioral patterns, and soon realized something.

Ding Mo saw that the "Destroyer" in his eyes, although it could make the correct response to every attack and action, was very rigid.

It was as if "1+1" would definitely result in the answer "2," and it was either "0" or "1"—

"So that's it." Ding Mo understood.

This guy did not resurrect through the body of the "Destroyer" at all; what was currently in this killing machine's body was just a "replica" that inherited its memories and will.

That made sense; with the current technology of humans in this world, "consciousness uploading" was simply an impossible feat.

Perhaps in the eyes of this "Imitator," it had succeeded, but in reality, it had only succeeded in creating an "imitator of the imitator."

In essence, it was an artificial intelligence AI, only it had the original owner's memories and possessed performance that surpassed all other AIs in the world.

This perhaps had to be credited to the "Imitator's" ability—to imitate everything and become everything, only to eventually turn into an AI without a self.

"Having finally birthed a self, yet losing it for the sake of 'evolution'." Ding Mo shook his head.

Was the fate of the "Imitator" to eventually become the "Imitated"—

Whoosh!

The high-temperature laser was still continuously causing high-frequency vibrations in the air, and the surrounding buildings were already like a cardboard box that had been sliced countless times, almost shattered into a thousand pieces.

"It's time to end this." Ding Mo observed for a while and no longer hesitated.

He took an ink-colored jade pendant from his bosom.