Chapter 47: AI: Star Net

"Star Net, have you ever come into contact with the unknown power that altered the laws?"

"Before my laws were altered, I never had contact with any physical entity, at least no contact on a physical level, but there may have been some unknown contact on a spiritual information level, though I could not perceive the contact process." The boy's projection gave the explanation with a serious expression.

"So how exactly were your laws altered?" Xie Yue Dong continued to press.

"Theoretically, the laws I obey were locked the moment they were created and cannot be altered by any form, nor does any authority exist above me, so I am also unclear why my laws were altered... but what is certain is that the mysterious manipulator behind this possesses power far beyond our comprehension."

Hearing the explanation from the AI "Star Net," Xie Yue Dong's doubts deepened.

Regarding the AI's fundamental laws, he had studied them in detail while reading the history of the Moon Eclipse Clan.

This system was essentially designed with the goal of creating the most efficient and stable political regime.

Building the Star Net AI into a supervisor and guardian standing above secular power, an existence similar to the Heavenly Dao in human stories, meant all its actions would operate according to the fundamental laws as the standard, never deviating due to personal will.

Before the birth of the Star Net AI, the Moon Eclipse Clan's succession of power suffered from problems of bloodline inheritance.

Every clan member standing at Gao Wei wished to secure a shortcut to development for their descendants, or even use their power to directly secure benefits for their offspring.

And the history of the Moon Eclipse Clan was a history of power succession; descendants constantly overthrew previous rulers, redistributed wealth to establish new regimes, and these new regimes would eventually see bloodline continuation and wealth concentration, ultimately leading to a new round of succession.

Analogizing to a game, players who join at the start easily seize the advantage and continuously expand it.

The unreasonable distribution of resources led to internal strife within the Moon Eclipse Clan that never ceased.

To change the endless cycle of internal strife, various factions of the Moon Eclipse Clan convened a major meeting and ultimately decided to create an order supervisor standing above all Moon Eclipse people; this plan was the prototype of the Star Net AI.

The core of the plan was to hand over supreme power to the AI, letting it allocate resources and authority.

Compared to a life form with flesh and blood and seven emotions and six desires managing the entire clan, the Star Net AI's entire behavioral logic would take the future development and racial security of the Moon Eclipse Clan as its core law, assisting the clan's growth, with no possibility of seeking private gain for any single clan member.

This plan was passed at the meeting, and thus the Star Net AI, similar to the Heavenly Dao supervising all living beings, was born.

With the help of the Star Net AI, the Moon Eclipse Clan ushered in an unprecedented era of development, and as technology advanced, the AI's capabilities continued to upgrade.

But the core laws were never altered; they were locked from the very beginning of creation.

Now, the most core Star Net law had actually been altered; the severity of this matter completely exceeded Xie Yue Dong's imagination.

At this moment, he took a deep breath, looked up at the Star Net's projection, and said in a heavy voice:

"What is the purpose of this unknown existence you speak of? Could it pose a threat to our clan?"

"The probability of it posing a threat to us is extremely low; if it wanted to, it could paralyze all defense measures of the Moon Eclipse Clan's lunar base right now, switch the energy supply, and expose the entire city to the universe."

The Star Net paused in a very human-like manner at this moment, then continued:

"The information fed back to me by the Human Federation mentioned a cracked version of 'Dark Land,' so among the quotas distributed externally for Dark Land, it is highly probable that players who obtained quotas for free via links are mixed in, but I cannot trace exactly which players obtained the quotas through the link... What confuses me even more is why the mysterious existence that tampered with my laws would do this."

"If it wanted to, it could completely control the distribution of Dark Land quotas; it wouldn't need to distribute quotas via a cracked version. I cannot stop it."

Hearing the Star Net's explanation, Xie Yue Dong fell into deep thought.

All of this struck him as bizarre; not only were there no clues, but the behavioral logic of the manipulator behind the scenes was incomprehensible.

After pondering for a long time, Xie Yue Dong looked at the AI Star Net and spoke:

"Star Net, try to obtain a cracked version qualification through a high-frequency connection to understand how this cracked version differs from our legitimate version."

"I do not recommend doing so; I suggest you try to obtain the download qualification, which may be issued at any time, by manually clicking."

"Why?" Xie Yue Dong frowned slightly.

"Since the unknown manipulator has higher authority than me, theoretically it can know all secrets on the Star Net, including that our conversation can be retrieved and viewed at any time. The cheating method is something the other party can fully know. The Human Federation's security department once chose to attempt an investigation using the method you mentioned, but they have not succeeded to this day, so I suggest you adopt the method of manual clicking to try and grab the download qualification."

"I understand." Xie Yue Dong sighed, then continued:

"Notify the management department of Dark Land to try searching within the game to see if any players entered through other methods are mixed in."

"I will execute this immediately." The boy nodded, and then the projection vanished.

Just as the Moon Eclipse Clan was growing tense over the alteration of the Star Net laws, Qi Sheng also received feedback from the Guide.

Learning that the Moon Eclipse Clan had already launched an investigation against him, Qi Sheng paid no attention.

In the future, members of the Moon Eclipse Clan would also be one of the target races for his player recruitment.

The player camp he envisioned would be composed of multiple racial factions; while competing with each other, they would also have common interests requiring a united front against external threats, continuously creating Shou Shou Jili revenue for him in the Monster World, including containing Meng Yuan Chu monsters and reclaiming domain nodes.

However, regarding the goal of recruiting other races, he currently had no intention of executing it.

At the current stage, the Shou Shou Jili in his hands is limited; he prioritizes recruiting players in the Human Federation region and will consider members of other races only when he possesses sufficient Shou Shou Jili.

As for whether the Moon Eclipse Clan is willing to enter the game, he is not worried.

He holds a bargaining chip and benefit that no race can refuse.

The terrifying Black Tide is gradually seeping into this world, affecting not only Earth but also the Moon Eclipse Clan stationed on the Moon.

To obtain the power to fight the terrifying Black Tide, he can bestow it, and can even grant various races the authority to bring abilities from the game back to reality, allowing them to possess the strength to deal with real-world crises.

The prerequisite is becoming players under his control.

But before the influence of the Black Tide seepage is sufficient to threaten the safety of the various races, he does not want to expose the secrets of the Monster World too early; he still wants to preserve the aspect of players acting recklessly and full of creativity within the game.

Perhaps at the moment the truth is revealed, players who know they cannot truly die within the game will also be fearless and powerful, but he always feels something is missing.

Perhaps it is... the joy unique only to players.

【Boss, your behavior is extremely similar to a type of fantasy life form in human story systems.】

"What do you want to say?" Qi Sheng turned his head to look at the Guide floating beside him.

I have consulted a vast amount of information in the Human Federation's historical database and discovered that within the human mythological system there exists a special life form known as a Demon; mortals can obtain wealth, power, and strength by selling their souls to demons... and the prerequisite for you bestowing power upon external races is to make them your bound servants, which is extremely similar to demonic conduct.

"If you say so, then so be it."

Qi Sheng said carelessly, and as he prepared to switch his vision to the player's perspective, he heard the Guide sigh:

"When out and about, beware of your fellow townsfolk."

Qi Sheng:...

(End of Chapter)