Chapter 269: Distant World
"Extend time?" Jin Yang thought of the helmet on his head and said, "I remember reading a statement before that humans have about tens of billions of brain cells, each of which is equivalent to a large computer, and the computing speed of the human brain far exceeds the most advanced computer in the world, and the energy storage is comparable to that of 10,000 computers. Every second, a hundred thousand different chemical reactions are taking place in the human brain, and tens of thousands of pieces of information are received. Is your so-called extension of time based on this principle?"
"Yeah." Rong Yuan nodded approvingly. "The speed of human thinking is much faster than the speed of movement, so we often feel like we have spent several days or even a lifetime in dreams, but only a dozen minutes after waking up. After putting on the helmet, the player is actually in a state of half-sleep and half-wakefulness, and information is transmitted in the neurons of the brain. If the body is hurt, he will react as if he was awakened from a dream, but when he is not disturbed, it is like entering a deep sleep, with only movement at the mental level, so it feels like time has been extended a lot. But unlike dreaming, after waking up, he will remember everything in the game world clearly, and the memory scenes are even clearer ."
"So what's the time ratio between this virtual game and the real world?" Jin Yang asked.
"One to six." Rong Yuan said, "That's the current situation."
"At the moment? Will it improve in the future?"
"Well, the highest expected time ratio is 1:64. Think about it, a hundred years of life means you have 6,400 years of life in the Ark world. With such a long time, what achievements can't be made?" Rong Yuan looked at Jin Yang's surprised expression, shrugged with some regret, and said, "It's a pity that this is only a concept at present. Although there is a design in the Ark, it requires too much thinking. With the average level of the human brain at present, receiving such a time ratio, the huge amount of information will destroy the brain in an instant, and the best result is to become a vegetable."
"So, all we can bear is a time difference of 1:6?" Jin Yang also felt regretful. Who doesn't want to experience a longer time and see more scenery?
"This is the minimum limit that does not damage the brain. In fact, everyone is different." Rong Yuan said: "When each player logs into [Ark] for the first time, Hongjun has already tested his brain's ability to think and calculate. If it is below this line, he will not be allowed to log in. Children's brains are not fully developed, and basically those under the age of twelve cannot log in. Therefore, there is an age limit after the official launch of [Ark]. But adults can tolerate much higher levels. For example, you can reach 1:21, which is a very high value among humans."
"Then how much can you achieve?" Jin Yang asked curiously.
"Me?" Rong Yuan smiled and said, "Relying on the design of the Ark, I still can't measure my upper limit."
His tone was calm, but the boasting was still revealed inadvertently. Jin Yang couldn't stand it, so he suddenly put his arms around his neck and rubbed it twice before he was satisfied. Rong Yuan was confused by him, and when he reacted, Jin Yang had already let him go, looking serious, as if he had not done anything just now.
Rong Yuan smoothed his messy hair and said disdainfully, "You are already over thirty, but you are still so childish! You should really let your son see what you look like now."
Jin Yang waved his hand nonchalantly and said, "Grown man, why are you fussing about it? By the way, since you have a setting of 1:64, I believe there will be a way to achieve it in the future?" He returned to the previous topic as if nothing had happened.
Rong Yuan was so angry that he glared at him for a while, then suddenly couldn't help wanting to laugh.
There are many people around him, but only Jin Yang can treat him like this. Even Jin Nan, who is now in a high position and responsible for the national security of the entire Tang Country, is much more cautious in his words when he occasionally contacts him.
So he put away his pretended anger and said, "Nowadays, humans use their brains a lot, and brain activity seems to be very slow - that's why people say that the development of the brain is less than one percent."
"It's not that only 1% of your brain is active, but that of the large amount of information you receive every day, less than 1% is processed by your brain, and the remaining 99% will be filtered out. Even as time goes by, this 1% will be forgotten. Even less can be stored in memory and retrieved at any time."
"But we know that there are some people in this world who are called 'geniuses'. They can calculate the multiplication and division of numbers with more than four digits in their heads in a few tens of seconds, and they can memorize thousands of numbers in an hour. They can also recite books by heart after reading them a few times as if they have photographic memory. Some of them do not have any natural talents, but can reach this level only through systematic training."
"So, the potential of the human brain itself is actually very great, but most people cannot develop and utilize it well. It's like you obviously own a fighter jet, but you insist on using a bullock cart to drag it for the rest of your life - what a waste?" Rong Yuan finally concluded: "[Ark] can promote the development of the human brain's potential. When the overall player's brain computing level and information processing level show a significant increase, the time ratio in [Ark] will increase. But this is a virtual world in the name of a game after all, so when the time comes, it means that some players have triggered the main quest, and when the quest is completed, the game world will be upgraded as a whole."
"I see." Jin Yang smiled and said, "This is the first time I'm so eager for everyone to play the game. By the way, how is the mission system in [Ark] set up? I see that yours seems to be based on interstellar wars, right? Then doesn't the player have settings for killing monsters and leveling up in the early stages?"
"I don't know about that. The specific task process is handled by the lower levels."
Rong Yuan never cared about these things. He and Amirida and several others were only responsible for the core and most important parts. Many details were set by the game development team, and Noah was responsible for adjusting and improving them. Later, when Hongjun had a prototype, it was it that allowed the [Ark] to evolve and generate automatically. In fact, most of the 100 million habitable planets and 10 billion lifeless ordinary planets came from this way.
"By the way, instead of asking me, you might as well ask Hongjun." Rong Yuan suddenly remembered that he had forgotten to explain this matter: "You have the highest authority except me, and you can communicate with it directly. So if you have any questions, it will be faster to go to it directly, but it's best not to let other people know about this."
"Oh, okay." Jin Yang was indeed a little moved when he thought of the vast amount of books in the library. He knew without Rong Yuan telling him that not everyone who walked into the library could read the contents of every book. Perhaps for most people, those books were just a game background unless they met certain mission requirements. Hong Jun was just an ordinary librarian.
Thinking of this, Jin Yang became a little worried and asked, "Xiao Yuan, is the mainframe of [Ark] in the 907 Institute? What if one day other countries see the value of [Ark] and want to forcibly seize it? Or what if something else happens, such as an earthquake near the institute? Will it affect [Ark]?"
"You don't have to worry about that." Rong Yuan spent ten years focusing on just one thing, so he would naturally take all aspects of the problem into consideration: "First of all, Jin Nan and I have already agreed that when the influence of [Ark] grows, if the international pressure is too great, the Sugar Country will hand over the [Ark] host to the United Nations for safekeeping in exchange for some benefits."
Jin Yang frowned and said: "But..."
Rong Yuan raised his hand to interrupt him and said, "Secondly, that huge host is actually useless. From the moment the Ark was born, that is, from the moment Hongjun completely took control of it, the host lost its meaning of existence for it. As long as there is a network, the Ark can exist. In the final analysis, no matter how huge this world looks, it is just a stream of data."
"Besides, the permissions of [Ark] have been locked. No one can change it except me. So neither the logic nor the data can be updated. Only Hongjun will make adjustments as needed. If someone really wants to do something to it, Hongjun will not be a pushover."
The replica Noah II, despite being restricted by Noah, can move freely in the network of the Interstellar Alliance. Hongjun's predecessor Noah will only be stronger. Rong Yuan doesn't know if there is a more powerful intelligent brain than Noah in the Milky Way, but he knows that with the speed of human development, it will take only a few thousand years or even tens of thousands of years to break through Hongjun's firewall. The most important thing is that the reason why intelligent brains are added with the word "smart" is because they can learn and evolve by absorbing knowledge like humans.
The words "Intelligent Rebellion" suddenly appeared in Jin Yang's mind. He suddenly realized that Hongjun was not a computer without attack power. If it wanted to, the authority given to it by Rongyuan could even allow it to kill all the players in the "Ark", and no one could deal with it. And from Rongyuan's words, he could hear that his friend would leave the earth sooner or later. Without his restraint, he didn't know what Hongjun could do.
Although he knew that Rong Yuan trusted Hong Jun very much, and given his character, it was impossible for him not to take precautions, Jin Yang still wanted to hear him confirm this in person. Just as he was about to ask, he suddenly saw Rong Yuan stop.
"What's wrong?"
Rong Yuan tilted his head slightly, as if listening to someone talking. He frowned and said, "A player encountered a space beast, and the possibility of death is more than 99.9%. Because this is the first trial operation, the death of the player may have a negative impact on the future promotion, so Hongjun asked if rescue is needed." Rong Yuan raised his head and asked, "Do you want to go and see it with your own eyes?"
Jin Yang was interrupted by this and temporarily put aside his thoughts. When he saw those books before, he was actually very curious about the various creatures that crisscrossed the starry sky. Hearing this, he naturally nodded and agreed. Rong Yuan held him, and without doing anything, the two of them moved to a new place.
The vast darkness and the vast stars, this magnificent scenery was better than he expected. The starry sky was not as monotonous as he had imagined before. From far and near, he could see some nebulae forming a variety of landscapes. The stars being born in the middle of the nebula emitted brilliant light, and the gas and dust refracted beautiful colors beyond imagination.
If it weren't for the environment they were in, he would have almost forgotten about the players in distress.
Jin Yang and his companions were now on the back of a giant star beast. If the ground beneath their feet had not been slightly undulating, he would not have even noticed that they were standing on a creature. It was simply too big - about hundreds of thousands of kilometers long and at least 20,000 to 30,000 kilometers wide. Jin Yang could not see its head or tail, and only from the patterns on the ground beneath his feet, he guessed that this area that looked like a square was probably a scale on its body.
Although this starry sky beast can be regarded as one of Hongjun's clones, it usually acts according to its biological habits. All NPCs in [Ark] are like this - they act according to the settings, and everything they see and hear will be conveyed to Hongjun, but the process will not be reversed. Therefore, before Rongyuan came, it was looking at a moving insect (i.e. a spaceship) with interest, as if considering where to start. After Rongyuan came, Hongjun's consciousness was also transmitted. It turned its head and looked at its creator gently - in Jinyang's eyes, it was the end of the world. Suddenly, a mountain overturned, and he was sorry that he couldn't even find where his eyes were. In his heart, there was no room for any thoughts except shock.
The huge body passed by their feet and took a long time to completely leave. When the giant beast flew away, Jin Yang could roughly see a dragon-like appearance. Its body seemed to be swimming in the space without any force, and then its tail swung inadvertently, and a solid planet no smaller than the moon was smashed into a pile of fragments.
Jin Yang: ...
After a long time, he slowly calmed down. He covered his chest, which seemed to have become hot in the virtual world, and asked softly: "Does such a giant beast really exist in the universe?"
"Who knows?" What he saw was beyond Rong Yuan's imagination. He said, "Although there are many stories circulating in the Milky Way, and there are people who have spent their entire lives studying these monsters. But just like the Loch Ness Monster, there are only legends and some specious evidence, but no one can prove that they really exist. So when the game development team was designing, it seems that many of them were referenced to creatures in Earth mythology and legends."
"So that's how it is." Jin Yang stood in the void, looking at the indescribably beautiful starry sky, and asked: "Is the universe you see... like this?"
"Not exactly." Rong Yuan pointed to the patterns formed by the nebulae and said, "In the universe, these should not be so dense, nor so beautiful. If you are far away, you can't see it clearly, and if you are close, you can't see its full picture - but this is just my guess. In fact, I didn't go very far last time."
"So it is also unfamiliar to you... Because it is unknown, it has greater charm," said Jin Yang.
Rong Yuan nodded and said, "That's right."
Jin Yang turned to look at him and asked, "Then... after the Ark is officially operational, are you planning to leave? Go see that unknown world?"
"That's what I planned." Rong Yuan didn't deny it, and then asked casually, "Do you want to see it?"
Jin Yang was stunned.
He saw the seriousness in Rong Yuan's eyes and suddenly realized that this was an invitation.
