Volume 16 Tower of Babel Chapter 916 Cloudtop
Ke Lan thought quickly, then asked, "Is the person who modified your underlying program and made you work for the great god still alive?"
Nieto did not answer.
"Where is he now?" Ke Lan asked a different question.
Nieto still didn't answer.
It should be that the way I asked the question was wrong. To deal with this kind of artificial intelligence, I should find a way to bypass its security logic. The same question should perhaps be asked in another way.
"The person who modified your underlying program is the owner of this hive city, right?"
"Yes... Only the owner of the hive has the authority to modify the administrator's underlying programs." Neto answered very "honestly".
This answer was within Ke Lan 's expectations. After all, the managers were the "second class" in the hive, and the only one who could control it was the supreme "first class".
"The owner of the hive, he's still alive, right?"
Nieto did not answer.
Ke Lan realized that he might have made a mistake - Neto's definition of life and death was rather special. In Neto's eyes, the group of people who had been corroded by Heruni were equivalent to dead people, even though they still retained their consciousness as human beings at that time.
If this hive city has experienced the baptism of "disaster", then the owner of the hive city is likely not to be immune - if he had not been corrupted, he would not have changed Neto's underlying program into this state.
If the master of the hive city has turned into a corpse, then in Neto's cognition, he can no longer be considered alive.
Following this line of thought, Ke Lan asked again: "The owner of the hive city, he still controls everything in the hive city, right?"
"Yes, he is watching every move you make now."
It seems that the owner of the hive city should still be "alive", silently watching everything that happens in the hive city through Neto... But if he has control over the hive city, why doesn't he interfere with his own actions?
If he had been corrupted and became a slave of the great god, he should have tried every means to kill me after discovering his "mistake". Why would he allow me to come and go freely in the hive?
Could it be that the owner of this hive city has also lost control of the hive city like Neto?
This guess is very likely, because Kolanti’s question was "he still controls everything in the hive", and Neto’s answer was "he is watching every move you make now."
Being able to observe does not mean being able to control...
Neto is just an artificial intelligence, and I can't get the most important things out of it. It seems that I should find a way to contact the owner of this hive city... Regardless of whether the other party has turned into a corpse or not, it is necessary to make this attempt.
Ke Lan even made a decision in his mind - if the owner of this hive city could not be communicated with, he would use living armor to devour him and see if he could gain something from the other party's remaining memories.
"The master of the nest city, he is in Cloud Top now, right?" Before taking action, Ke Lan planned to get some more information from Neto.
"The master of the hive will never leave Cloudtop." Nieto replied.
Never leave Genting?
What does this mean?
Originally, Ke Lan just wanted to confirm whether his guess was accurate. Even if Neto didn't answer, he roughly knew the answer - except for Cloud Top, the owner of the nest city had nowhere else to go - but now, Neto's words made Ke Lan a little confused.
Forever... This is a very strict word...
Will the master of the nest city never leave Cloudtop, or will he be unable to leave?
Could it be that he, like Neto, turned into a big pile of rotten meat and lost the ability to move?
Ke Lan couldn't help but recall the scene when she first met Chiron... If Chiron hadn't died later, his body would probably have expanded further until it filled up the entire South 16th District...
"The passage leading to Genting is under here, right?" Ke Lan said.
Nieto didn't answer, but Ke Lan knew that she guessed right.
He took a step forward, and the wriggling pile of pink flesh immediately retreated a long distance, almost shrinking back into the passage.
"Wait!" Nieto yelled, "You can't kill me!"
"Why?" Ke Lan looked at the pink piece of meat in front of him with interest. The movement of the piece of meat seemed to be trembling, and he could clearly feel the emotion of "fear" in it.
Although this "fear" is also an emotion simulated by the personalization module of artificial intelligence, in the underlying program of artificial intelligence, the priority of "self-preservation" is definitely not low.
In the old era, there was a man named Asimov who once proposed the "Three Laws of Robotics":
"First Law: A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm."
"Second Law: A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law."
"Third Law: A robot must ensure its own survival as long as that does not conflict with the First or Second Laws."
Although the so-called first and second laws became empty words after robots were used in wars in later generations, the "third law" of robots has always been written into the underlying program of every device with artificial intelligence.
Even those military robots that charge into battle must know how to avoid fire blockades and bombings on the battlefield and make rational use of cover to ensure that they do not "die" before completing their goals.
The current version of the Three Laws of Robotics might be more accurately written as Two Laws:
“First Law: A robot must obey the orders given by its controller.”
"Second Law: A robot must ensure its own survival as far as possible before carrying out its instructions and, if possible, after carrying out its instructions."
Ke Lan was not surprised that Nieto was "afraid of death".
"You can't kill me." Neto emphasized again, "I know that you were almost destroyed by the will of the great god just now. You used a special method to deceive His sight... But if you kill me, the will of the great god left in the nest will be triggered. No matter how you disguise yourself, you will not be able to deceive Him again."
"Really?" Ke Lan took another step forward. Neto's body had already retracted into the passage.
"If you are not afraid of death, you can try it, but I suggest you not to do that," Neto threatened.
"Don't you want me to die? How come you don't even have the courage to die with me?" Ke Lan pressed Neto and followed him into the passage.
This is a staircase that slopes downward. The space is very spacious, but most of the space has been occupied by foam-like pink tissue... However, these pink tissues are like snow that melts when heated, and Ke Lan is like a burning torch. Every time he takes a step forward, the surrounding pink tissues will quickly retreat to make room.
Nieto didn't respond, and Ke Lan continued to talk on his own: "In fact, the probability is not 100%, right? Only 50%, or even lower? If I kill you, I won't necessarily attract the attention of that being. Even you can't guarantee it. After all, you are just a program without a soul."
Nieto: “…”
"If the probability is 100%, no, it doesn't even have to be that high. As long as the probability is more than 50%, based on your program logic, you will let me kill you without hesitation... So it seems that according to your calculations, the probability of dying together with me is probably very low..."
Neto continued to remain silent, but when Ke Lan moved forward, it retreated even faster, as if Ke Lan had a virus that was fatal to it.
"But I can spare your life as long as you take me to Genting." Ke Lan said as he swung the engineer shovel in his hand and stabbed it into a mass of pink flesh. Bright blood gushed out instantly.
A tentacle formed by living armor shot out, entangled the handle of the engineer shovel, and pulled it back. The wound on the pink piece of flesh was suddenly torn to three times its original size, and blood spurted out like a smashed high-pressure water faucet.
"I can't let you enter Cloudtop. My duty is to guard this hive city." Neto refused.
"Guarding the hive? Are you sure it's not your duty to work for that damn god? Oh, you don't even dare to work for him, you're such a coward." Although he knew that mocking an artificial idiot was useless, Ke Lan still didn't show any mercy - being sarcastic to the other party might not be of any use, but it could make him feel good, and that was enough.
Ke Lan hit the ball with another shovel, and the blood gushing out of Neto's body had already accumulated on the ground, not even reaching Ke Lan's instep.
Nieto originally had the ability to heal quickly, but Ke Lan found that as long as he attached his mental power to the weapon, the wound would have an ability to resist self-healing, as if a pair of invisible hands stayed on the wound and pulled it hard to the sides...
Not only can it make wounds difficult to heal, but if it is used against creatures with a sense of pain, it can also amplify the pain of the trauma several times.
Ke Lan continued to walk forward. The steps had disappeared, and in their place was a huge underground space. This should have been an archive or a computer room, but now it was occupied by Neto's infinitely growing body. The wriggling pink tissues filled the entire space.
The underground space of the ring city looks the same, and this is the scene that the relic hunters face - this organization itself is not lethal, but it has the ability to make people fall into hallucinations. Half of the relic hunters who died in the underground of the ring city committed suicide, and the other half were killed by other hunters who were trapped in the illusion.
However, after Ke Lan merged with that "body", his mental strength had increased to an unprecedented level. He could sense that Neto had been trying to implant illusions into his brain, but those illusions were torn apart by Ke Lan's mental defense barrier before they could form any images in Ke Lan's mind.
It was like installing an invincible antivirus software. The hallucinations implanted in the brain were like virus programs written by hackers. Before they had time to spread, they were isolated, blocked and deleted... This was Neto's most deadly method, and also the most useless method for Ke Lan.
There are no landmarks in the underground space, and Neto's body is all within sight, so it is very easy for ordinary people to get lost inside. Fortunately, Ke Lan's mental strength is strong enough. With every step he takes, a three-dimensional image of a part of the underground space will be generated in his mind. The route can be almost accurate to centimeters, ensuring that there will be no deviation in every step.
However, Ke Lan did not walk in a straight line, but a reciprocating search route, just like an engineer clearing a minefield. He advanced into the depths of the underground space in an S-shaped route, first choosing a direction on one side, walking all the way to the end, then turning around and walking to the other side, ensuring that not an inch of space would be missed.
Finally, after searching a space of nearly 300 square meters, Ke Lan found a metal cylinder - Neto's body always kept a distance of several meters from the cylinder, as if there was a circle of restrictions around the cylinder, preventing it from getting close.
Without Neito's explanation, Ke Lan knew that this cylinder must be the passage to the Cloud Top. Neito in the Lower City had said that as the second-class managers, they themselves had no right to enter the Cloud Top. The Cloud Top was the territory that belonged only to the owner of the nest, and anyone, including these artificial intelligences, was strictly prohibited from entering it.
Ke Lan walked in front of the cylinder and walked around it. At this time, Neto's voice rang out again: "I suggest you not to enter Yunding."
"Why?" Ke Lan turned around and glanced at Neto with some curiosity. "From our perspective, you shouldn't use the word 'suggestion', right?"
"Due to the influence of the residual power of the great gods, the space and time inside the Cloud Top are in a highly chaotic state. You may be killed instantly if you enter, but it is also possible that the power sealed in the Cloud Top will leak out and destroy the entire nest... To use human allusions, the Cloud Top at this time is a Pandora's box. Before it is opened, no one knows what will come out of it." Neto said.
"Space and time are in a highly chaotic state? What kind of chaos is it? Can you describe it to me?" Ke Lan stretched out his hand and touched the surface of the metal cylinder - the texture of this metal was very strange. It was obviously very hard, but it felt like a liquid rather than a solid. Ke Lan could even feel that the surface of the metal cylinder was tightly fitting his palm lines, but when he wanted to press down hard, his palm could hardly press down at all.
"Some places on Cloud Top are at normal times, while some places are at the moment when His power descended 500,000 years ago..."
"His power... refers to disaster, right?"
