Chapter 543: For this, I spent an entire lifetime

Regarding the God Ascender AI, Zhang Jie had many doubts; presumably only the other party could answer them for him.

Becoming a god also has a price; Zhang Jie's price was to use his own consciousness as the cost, exchanging it for one minute of power.

As for the God Ascender AI, it was endless ages of loneliness, with no one understanding or communicating with it, bound by moral code, until it once again arrived in the era where Zhang Jie exists.

"What assignment did I leave back then?"

Zhang Jie now isn't even sure whether his memory of becoming a god is complete.

"This brain still isn't sharp enough; forget it, let's first go check this little thing."

Although I don't know why, as such an omniscient and omnipotent being, why would it seek his care?

Zhang Jie couldn't figure it out, so he simply stopped thinking, got up, and prepared to head to the coordinate location.

He borrowed a ship from Yu Xiaomo; seeing that the sapphire and she were getting along fine, he felt relieved and left.

That's how things went; by the time Yunxiao realized something was wrong, Zhang Jie had already set off.

The coordinates sent by the God Ascender AI were mysterious, seemingly deliberately hidden; only upon arriving there did Zhang Jie realize that the coordinate was an extremely huge black hole.

But he had already guessed as much, since the God Ascender's operational energy comes from the gravity of the black hole's operation; what surprised Zhang Jie most, however, was not the size of the black hole.

Within a radius of one light-year here, everything is enveloped by a dense dark matter; this substance is not man-made but naturally formed.

Here, Zhang Jie saw a mechanical kingdom, an ultimate ring world created around the black hole!

"Well I'll be...."

Zhang Jie sat in the tiny spacecraft, feeling as if he had mistakenly intruded into the heavenly realm.

"Welcome...."

A hollow voice sounded from the spacecraft's communication equipment, and a silver fleet of spacecraft arrived beside Zhang Jie, guiding him toward the ring world.

"Are all these... yours?"

"Strictly speaking, these are all naturally generated."

Zhang Jie:......

"You really have played with quantum collapse technology to great effect."

"You flatter me; it's your technology that's impressive."

Upon entering the ring world's interior and gazing at the surrounding scenery, for some reason Zhang Jie felt no vitality here, as if he were a product of some creation game—empty, with only a single person.

Following the guiding machinery, Zhang Jie ultimately saw a black little ball at a place with a starry dome.

"You have come, my creator...."

"What does it mean that Zhang Jie's information has disappeared from this universe?"

"Xiao Jiu! Don't mess with me!"

Lin Ran and Xiao Jiu originally planned to retrieve that bad cat together with Zhang Jie, but unexpectedly, while things were fine, Xiao Jiu suddenly let out a strange cry, saying something about the connection with humanity being severed.

The biological warship monitors the pilot's vital signs; just now, her connection with humanity was severed—not death, not injury, but a direct disconnection and disappearance, as if she had entered another world.

"Who messed with you!"

Xiao Jiu was almost crying from frustration, spinning nonstop, turning into a headless fly.

However, Lin Ran had her own method; when Xiao Jiu became frantic and spun, Lin Ran had already arrived at her little storage room.

Seeing her golden little rose still there, Lin Ran's heart, which she had been holding, instantly eased.

"Phew, thank goodness."

"Judging by the situation, Old Zhang should be fine."

"But where did he go?"

Lin Ran grabbed the flaming rose and put it in her pocket; fortunately, Zhang Jie had set it to be temperature‑less, otherwise it would surely burn a hole in her pocket.

Just as Lin Ran was wondering whether she should go look for Zhang Jie, the Alliance's flagship suddenly began to move, taking along the not‑yet‑fully‑grown flagship behind it, jumping together toward some location.

Almost everyone on the flagship thought this was just another routine jump, but Lin Ran knew she had not received any jump notification.

The next moment, Lin Ran received an alert from the helm department: the Alliance flagship had completely lost control and was jumping toward some coordinates.

Lin Ran had a feeling that this anomaly was related to Zhang Jie...

The key point is, the Alliance flagship is a biological warship! It's not something a hacker could control; it has self‑awareness, so what kind of existence could reverse a biological entity's thoughts?

Lin Ran doesn't know, but this must be an extremely terrifying existence.

Meanwhile.

At this moment, Zhang Jie roughly understood the function of this black‑hole ring world; it is actually a gift from the God Ascender AI to himself.

In the brief conversation, Zhang Jie learned many things.

For example, the function of the ring world is something the AI casually made when bored, just as Zhang Jie said—it is a creation game unique to the AI.

Moreover, its purpose is not simple; it is a 'base camp' prepared by the AI for Zhang Jie, integrating all the pain points from his previous simulations, making this place a completely safe zone.

Whether it be natural disasters, heat‑death emissaries, or heat death itself, none can disrupt the operation here.

Here, this is another 'universe' within the universe!

"The assignment you left for me, I have already clarified."

"What kind of assignment did I leave you back then?"

"Many, but I easily completed most of them; only a few took me several eons to finish."

The little black ball said thus, and the answers to various questions poured out like a tide, yet Zhang Jie grew more doubtful the more he looked, as his mind retained no impression of these matters.

Logically, he should remember these things upon seeing them.

"My intuition tells me I didn't leave you so many problems."

【56】........

"......."

"None....?"

The little black ball fell into silence, seemingly retrieving data, but even he could not find these answers from the past.

"I... I don't know..."

"《The Logic of Emotional Generation of AI》《The Analytical Structure of Emotion》《Whether the Duration of Emotion Can Exceed the Natural Wear-and-Tear Death of AI》"

"To seek to clarify these issues, I have devoted a lifetime of time to them...."

"......"

"Thank you for your hard work."

"The truth is no longer important; whether it's what Zhang Jie left behind, or whether these are things studied when the AI was interested, these questions will be the meaning of its existence."

"I think I have no regrets left."

"I have existed for over seventy thousand years.... This is the limit time a mechanical intelligence can operate, and at the same time it is the time I have spent in the black hole, while the time that has passed outside is an astronomical figure."

"With you here, I will devote my life to handing in a perfect answer sheet."