Chapter 382 Get Out
“It’s really amazing.”
Xiao Zhen, or the wise Prince Alsiel, was sitting at his desk, listening to Director Da Xi's report.
After the prince ordered a raid on the headquarters of the Common Happiness Society, all the happiness societies across the planet were closed down.
Such a grand action shook the entire Xiyiqi. All major media outlets were trying to find out what happened, and all kinds of rumors were spreading. The most common and popular rumor was that the Common Happiness Society evaded taxes, which aroused the anger of the planet's top leaders. In addition, there were also rumors circulating on the Internet that the sponsor behind the Common Happiness Mutual Aid Society was plotting something shady, and that the Common Happiness Society colluded with the Saidi people to embezzle the planet's property.
Director Daxi's progress was extremely rapid. On the one hand, the Mutual Happiness Association offered almost no resistance and waited obediently to be arrested. On the other hand, a financial director who worked for the Happiness Association. When the intelligence agency investigator asked the financial director to talk about what she knew, she thought she would talk about how she got faith and hope from the Happiness Association like other members of the Happiness Association. Unexpectedly, the financial director exhaled a breath of relief, "Tell me, what do you want to know?"
Then the financial director talked for the whole afternoon in an attitude of "why are you asking me so late?" The investigators understood what kind of case they were involved in after hearing the first three sentences. The level of the case was immediately adjusted to the highest level. Director Da Xi immediately arrived to listen to her confession. What followed was a planet-wide crackdown on the Common Happiness Mutual Aid Association.
So the Common Happiness Society really had big problems.
According to the financial director, she handled as many as 140,000 Xiyiqi people. After joining the organization, all of them signed an organ donation agreement without exception. According to Xiyiqi tradition, after the organs of the deceased were extracted by relevant medical institutions, their bodies would be sent to Nocturne Mountain for cremation, but the Common Happiness Society found a loophole. They set up a station in Nocturne Mountain to illegally copy and scan the brain waves of the members and keep a copy of their consciousness. The Happiness Society promised that their consciousness would enter a perfect world without any pain and level difference and gain true happiness.
"This is why the Mutual Happiness Society was able to lure a large number of members to join. Members are indeed no longer afraid of death, because the Happiness Society promises that their consciousness will be preserved even if they die."
Sure enough, I guessed right. "This is a forbidden matter." The prince said. It is extremely difficult to preserve the consciousness of intelligent creatures. This is not a simple AI personality simulation, but a precise extraction of thinking patterns, innate memories of the body, and the original life action pattern. This is the true preservation of consciousness, or the extraction of the soul. This technology is considered an absolute taboo in the Galactic Federation.
"Yes. According to current data, the Common Happiness Society has retained and extracted the consciousness of at least 100,000 Xiyiqi people."
"Are you sure?" The prince frowned. He knew what this number meant. With the current level of galactic technology, the risk of electronically preserving consciousness is extremely high. Consciousness is completely dependent on the thinking organ - the brain. Once separated from the brain, there is a high probability that consciousness will collapse and go wrong. This large-scale consciousness preservation operation means a large number of deaths in a sense.
The director gave him an answer. "According to the statistics of the Common Happiness Association, their consciousness preservation operation has a loss rate of about 30%, which means that more than 40,000 people's consciousness were destroyed during the extraction process. The Common Happiness Association did not inform its members of these details." Director Da Xi's tone was a little unstable, "The supporter of this technology is the Black Box Association."
More than 40,000 lives.
It was indeed so. The prince asked, "Besides inducing members to illegally retain consciousness, did they do anything with these consciousnesses?"
"They store the consciousness of these members who have successfully retained in an illegal station on Nocturne Mountain."
"Stored? Nothing done?"
"Yes, judging from the current records, the Happiness Society is just storing it," said Director Da-hee. "If the Common Happiness Society did not falsify the records, these consciousnesses were not manipulated after being collectively stored."
"..." The prince stood up and paced a few steps.
"And what else?" asked the prince, perhaps my murder?
"In addition to these, there are the issues of tax evasion, illegal land occupation and environmental protection that you, Your Highness, have collected. Of course, thanks to these, we can take action immediately." Director Da Xi's eyes flickered. Obviously, she felt that these things were too small compared to the illegal consciousness that had been discovered.
What, they didn’t find out about my murder?
The prince asked again: "The sponsor behind the Common Happiness Society is the Chongyu tribe. What is the Chongyu tribe's reaction now?"
"They cooperated very well," said Director Da Xi. "The Chongyu tribe immediately handed over the data on their financial transactions, cut off all ties with the Happiness Society, and actively cooperated with our investigation. They demanded a thorough investigation of the Happiness Society."
"..." The prince said, "President Tashi is from the Chongyu tribe. Didn't the tribe leader say anything?"
"No. The Chongyu tribe urges the Bureau of Investigation to conduct a thorough investigation and not let any lawbreakers go."
"Don't you think everything is going too smoothly?"
"Your Highness, what do you mean?"
"Let's not talk about the Chongyu tribe for now. The Common Happiness Society has always had a good reputation for psychological treatment services and has many supporters. Now even they are not protesting?"
"All members are very cooperative, and no one has taken any radical actions." Director Da Xi's eyes became sharper, "Your Highness, I understand what you mean. I will order people to keep an eye on their movements."
"It's really a bit too much to confess all the biggest sins that happiness can hide just because of a financial issue." Not even a third-rate novel would write like this.
"Your Highness, we will continue to investigate."
"Since the consciousness has been extracted, the focus of your investigation should be on whether they have used their personal consciousness to cover the bodies of other living people."
"yes."
The prince sat back down at the table, "Director Dal-hee."
"exist."
"If you were given a chance to preserve your consciousness, would you be willing?"
"Your Highness, the body will eventually perish, and everyone is afraid of death. Moreover, we Xiyiqi are currently under the shadow of this horrific mutation catastrophe." Director Daxi replied, "If I can preserve my cognition in some form, I admit that it is difficult to refuse. But--" The Xiyiqi woman paused, disdain showing on her hard face, "I thought my life was inseparable from my free body. Not to mention the exaggerated risk rate of this preservation technology, digitizing the preservation of consciousness means that they can completely destroy me by just smashing the memory card. I don't like my life being controlled like this."
This director is more interesting than I thought.
"Okay." The prince stood up and said, "Let me go meet President Tashi again."
…
…
President Tasi was imprisoned in a closed solitary cell.
From the prince's perspective, the culprit who caused the illegal consciousness of the organization to remain was a little too calm. When he saw the prince, he still had a smile on his face, as if he would be able to leave here unscathed.
"President Tasi, this is what you call psychological treatment?" The prince projected a stack of evidence onto the holographic screen. "Using this high-risk consciousness retention to deceive the people?"
"Cheating?" President Tasi smiled and said, "How can this be called cheating? Just like I told you beforehand, I just pointed out the way forward for them."
"High-risk illegal consciousness extraction?"
"Your Highness, among our members there are people who are dying from the crimson mutation, and there are also people who have lost hope in life because of the loss of their relatives and friends. But now, they know that they will no longer die alone in the dark, but can live in another way and even reunite with their relatives and friends. Isn't this the best psychological treatment?"
This guy is too frank. "This is a heresy that is banned by the Galactic Federation."
"No, the Galactic Federation does not understand the pain of us Xichi people at all!! We Xichi people are losing our compatriots every day!! Aliens have no right to interfere with us! The path of the Happiness Society is the path of hope for the people suffering from mutations."
Bullshit. "30% loss rate." The prince said angrily, "Have you informed the victims? You are just carrying out a massacre!!"
"This is the necessary price to transcend death." President Tasi grinned, "Massacre? No, the people who have their consciousness extracted are already dying. What's the difference between dying early and dying later?"
"More than 40,000 people had their consciousness destroyed by you while they were still alive."
"But there are also 100,000 people who have been saved by us. They have transcended death and are about to embrace the arrival of common happiness."
Shared happiness? The prince noticed something. "Shared happiness?? What are you trying to do by storing the consciousness of so many people together?"
"For the blessing gift from the White God." President Tashi said.
"What?"
"Because it is the sacred place where the first queen descended, just like the ballad says." President Tashi's tone became high. "We Xiyiqi are the chosen people. This is our destined great cause."
The place where the first queen landed was called Nocturne Mountain, and the place where these consciousnesses were stored was also Nocturne Mountain. The prince stared at him, "Is there anything in Nocturne Mountain?"
"Why don't you go and see for yourself?" President Tasi looked at him meaningfully. "Maybe your friend is there too."
My friend—
Bang!!!
The prince suddenly lifted President Tasi up and asked, "What did you say?"
“This is a great cause that will save everyone.” President Tasi laughed, “We will eventually welcome this blessing ceremony.”
(What did you do to my friend!!)
Xiao Zhen suddenly sent a thought command into President Tasi's mind. It was not a word, but a kind of pressure of absolute obedience. But President Tasi was still laughing endlessly, his consciousness was a vortex of mixed noise, with nothing but the piercing and sharp laughter.
"Your Highness?" Director Da Xi rushed in.
In front of her eyes, President Tasi was thrown heavily against the wall, still laughing crazily. The prince's face was livid, as if thinking about something.
"Your Highness?"
"Take me to see the extracted consciousnesses," the prince ordered. "To Nocturne Mountain."
…
…
Nocturne Mountain, the place where the first queen descended.
This beautiful and majestic mountain range is located just southwest of the city.
When they arrived at the foot of the mountain, smoke was swaying and rising in the mountains, like the tentacles of sea creatures spreading everywhere, coming from the crematorium beside the mountain. It was a long tradition on the planet to return the dead of Xiyiqi to the arms of the first queen in the holy land.
This mountain range seemed strange yet familiar to the prince. The smoke of the dead made the air turbid. Behind the smoke, the mountain showed a deliberate irregularity, as if it was a work of craftsmanship that deliberately escaped the beauty of nature. It was wild, grand, and spectacular, making everyone standing at the foot of the mountain naturally feel reverence.
The first queen designated this place as a forbidden area, and since there was a crematorium nearby, the Xiyiqi people regarded this place as a taboo and never came here.
Conte said that just setting foot here would be disrespectful to the queen by disturbing the dead. The young guard exuded a sense of trepidation all the way.
Under the guidance of Director Daxi, they came to an archway at the foot of the mountain. Gray-white stones were scattered around. The people of the Happiness Society opened a passage here, and several guards from the Investigation Bureau were guarding the door. As soon as the prince walked into the corridor and stairs and saw the broken patterns on the stone wall, he immediately realized where this place was.
Like Mount Titta in Hope Township, this is another relic of a lost civilization.
"The communicator has lost its signal," Conde said. Hearing this, Director Daxi picked up the communicator and took a look, saying, "My signal has also gone."
"Yeah, it's the same as expected." The prince whispered. Whether it was the floor or the stone walls on both sides, they were all carved with finely-fitting geometric patterns, a scene that seemed familiar.
The further he walked, the more he could feel the twisting of time and space. " Be careful , this place is different from the outside."
Conte asked, confused: "What?"
The dimension here shows signs of being distorted. Perhaps this is why the first queen designated this place as a restricted area.
There should have been a dead end at the end of the corridor, but when they reached the end, a new path appeared, like a new scene refreshed according to the vision. Then they arrived at the secret base set up by the Happiness Society in the mountains.
In the middle of the room, under a dim light curtain, a regular octahedron was slowly rotating in the air.
It is a creation made of white crystal material. You can vaguely see countless fine lines all over its surface, and it glows brightly, like stars on a vast star map.
"This is--"
"According to the records of the Happiness Society, the consciousness of the members of the Happiness Society that were successfully extracted was stored in this regular octahedron."
【One hundred thousand consciousnesses.】
【One hundred thousand souls.】
【The continuation of one hundred thousand lives. 】
No, the prince thought as he looked at the octahedron, it was more than just a storage space.
This regular octahedron is just a projection of a high-dimensional matter, the shadow of a high-dimensional device.
These consciousnesses have been involved in an unimaginable set of algorithms, interactions and overlapping probabilities, and now all consciousnesses are in a quantum superposition state. Each consciousness is an independent universe, and the collection of 100,000 consciousnesses is equal to the superposition of 100,000 universes, with countless possibilities that are difficult to count. The collision of consciousness is like the stardust of the universe.
He could almost imagine the scene inside the octahedron, countless entangled lines spreading in the starry sky, like billions of glittering galaxies, each silver line is an elusive possibility. One hundred thousand consciousnesses, one hundred thousand souls, one hundred thousand people dreaming, one hundred thousand derived calculation codes, they themselves have turned into a superposition state of chaos. Countless lines are entangled with each other, connecting the time cracks left over from this lost civilization, the past and the future, the present and the parallel present. Just the second he stood here and stared intently, billions of possible threads have been derived. It's like the silver thread under the spindle of fate, weaving countless superimposed possibilities into a beautiful and fleeting pattern, like the tail of a meteor sliding across the sky.
This is an unimaginable collection of quantum superposition states.
Only here, only with these one hundred thousand lives gathered together, only in the ruins of this lost civilization where the fourth dimension has been distorted, can this be achieved.
So beautiful, so magnificent, yet so fragile.
“Your Highness, are we going to take it away?” Chief Da-hee asked, reaching out to touch the octahedron.
"No!! Don't touch it!"
This is a collection of quantum superposition states of consciousness. It cannot be moved or observed. Once it leaves this place or is observed, it will collapse and be destroyed.
A dream that cannot be broken by outsiders.
There is only a fine line between life and death.
My friend Liu Xingquan, my friend Captain Ban, they are all in it.
Xiaozhen thought sadly.
Although he was just standing in front of the regular octahedron, Xiao Zhen could still feel the faint flames of consciousness of his two friends, just like a small glimmer of light, flickering among these one hundred thousand souls.
They are inside.
And I can't do anything.
Nothing can be done.
Any interference from the outside world with this regular octahedron will lead to a total catastrophe. All quantum superposition states of consciousness will dissipate like dried dew.
Nothing can be done.
"Your Highness, what's wrong with you?" Conte asked carefully.
“…”
"Your Highness?"
"Go back." The prince said, "Guard this place strictly. No one is allowed to approach without my order." He repeatedly instructed Director Da Xi, and the director agreed one by one.
When they returned to the corridor, the prince walked in front with a sad look on his face, and Conde and Director Da Xi followed him in confusion. At this time, two clear conversations echoed in the corridor.
Conte's voice sounded first. "The communicator has lost the signal."
"My signal is gone too." This was Director Da Xi's response.
Conte shouted blankly: "I didn't say anything just now!!"
Chief Da-hee said suspiciously, "I didn't say anything either. Wait, this conversation just now seemed to have happened not long ago."
The remains of a civilization where time distortion will occur, so the black box will be chosen here.
The prince did not speak, he raised his foot and walked out of the archway. It was already night, the night sky was dotted with stars, two pale red satellites were moving slowly in the mist, Nocturne Mountain was still surrounded by the curling smoke of the dead, and red, yellow, and silver volatile particles were shining in the air.
When he returned to the palace, Mr. Cat was waiting for him in his room.
"On the second day of becoming the prince, you finally found out the real organization of the Black Box Society here. Well done."
Xiao Zhen said, "I know where Liu Xingquan and Captain Ban are."
Mr. Cat: “Yeah.”
"You knew it a long time ago, right?" Xiao Zhen said coldly, "In fact, you already knew what Black Box would do to Liu Xingquan."
"I know."
"You knew, and then you didn't tell me anything."
"Because Liu Xingquan is a very necessary bait."
"Bait?" Zhen said, "Is that how you locate my friends?"
"Xiao Zhen, I know he is an important friend of yours." Mr. Cat slowed down his tone, "But they have long been eyeing Liu Xingquan. He is the savior of Hope Township, and his identity is destined to be like this. This is unavoidable."
"You've been eyeing it for a long time. So, you knew about it a long time ago, and you just sat there and watched Black Box kidnap Liu Xingquan, right?"
"This is a chance to destroy their plot, so I sent Captain Madara to protect him."
"Yes, that's great. You also killed another friend of mine."
"Xiao Zhen, please calm down."
"Calm down? After learning that you deliberately used my friend as bait and now put him in this dangerous situation where no one can save him?" Xiao Zhen stared at it, "Oh yeah, and you also got another friend of mine involved."
"That's why I didn't tell you at first. Because you couldn't calm down and accept it. Liu Xingquan and Captain Ban..."
"No one can save them, right?"
"yes."
"Haha, anyway, you are always the unattainable supervisor who keeps secrets to the end, right? I don't want to talk to you now, you can leave."
Mr. Cat paused, his tone soft, "They'll be fine, I know."
"go out."
"Xiao Zhen..."
"go out!"
Mr. Cat closed his mouth, glanced at the prince who turned his head away, and left the room silently.
