Volume 17: Enemy of All Things Chapter 17: False World
There are no accidents in the world.
There is only a cold and eerie outcome.
In a narrow sense, our world is full of variables. The inaccuracy brought by observation makes us believe that the world is chaotic and disordered. The death of Laplace's demon has liberated mankind...but is it really so? Is there really no such thing as a necessity that looks like an accident?
From the very beginning, we tend to avoid. To avoid darkness, we create light. To avoid fear, we arm ourselves with religion. People always seek good and avoid harm. This habit is the foundation of human society, but it is also a gravedigger. They will instinctively reject the most fearful possibility, and then choose a simple thing that seems to make some sense to convince themselves. But this is just a meaningless struggle.
"What the hell is this?"
Looking at the phantom that kept repeating the words of welcome, Li Lin subconsciously wanted to deny this fact.
"No, he's not me. He's definitely not me."
After calming down a little, Li Lin squinted his eyes and observed the scene in the air, confirming his judgment.
"He's not as good-looking as me... If you look closely, he has wrinkles and deformed limbs caused by normal physiological decay... Is it because of his living conditions? There was no integrated food and brain stimulation system at that time, so he is not me, at least not me now... That's right."
But who is he?
Could it be his half-brother whom I have never met?
Looking at the lifelike projection in the air that was indistinguishable from the real person, Li Lin calmed down a little.
Although his appearance was similar to his own, Li Lin still noticed a fatal gap between him and the man in the video. Although the man was very good-looking, he was only handsome, not like Li Lin, who could not tell the difference between men and women. Li Lin was not bragging, but so far he had never seen anyone who could compete with him in looks, except for those simulated AI characters.
If you look closely, you can see the pores and natural marks on his face, some unnatural habits of his hands, calluses on his fingertips, and the habitual movement of pushing up his glasses. After the initial panic, Li Lin was very sure that this person was completely different from him.
But this person's existence made Li Lin feel inexplicably flustered.
Who is he and why is he in this building?
What exactly happened on Mars?
"AI, what's going on?"
“…”
"…AI?"
Li Lin asked tentatively in a low voice, but apart from the repeated words echoing in the air, Li Lin did not get any response.
It was as if this place was completely physically isolated, and the AI outside had no way to interfere with the inside to any extent. Only the cold projection was still repeating some words above that sounded illogical, but might be tempting to the relevant personnel.
'We promise that you will be free from outside interference here. This is the pure land of the scientific research world, our utopia. And on this planet, we will complete our unique great plan. We will lead all mankind into a new era. This new era will not be troubled by poverty, class, and discrimination. We will complete the last piece of the puzzle for mankind to reach utopia. As long as we work together, the world will change in our hands.'
'The failure of the lunar experimental base has proved that genetic modification alone is useless. We will complete the transformation of logic and machinery. After we complete all activities, the information will be transmitted to the headquarters on Earth without reservation. The staff at the headquarters will put the last piece of the puzzle on the board. Everyone who comes to this experimental base should pay attention to one thing: our cause is completely just, and our activities will not be interfered with by any external forces. Countries, organizations, and any secret things will not interfere with our work.'
'Even the craziest lunatics will not reject the arrival of utopia. So all we have to do is to do our job well and carefully review the data and documents in our hands. AI is flawed, and AI review does not mean it is completely correct. Even if there is only a possibility of error in mathematical probability, we must try our best to avoid it.'
'Only by being careful and cautious can we build a lasting legacy. Our name will surely shine at the pinnacle of history.'
“…”
AI is flawed, and I have a slightly better impression of this guy.
But I'm afraid no one knows your name, at least I don't know it at all.
Li Lin glanced at the projection that began to repeat, nodded to the person who looked like himself, and then looked at other places in the facility.
Although the atmosphere was filled with an atmosphere from decades or even hundreds of years ago, the entire building seemed to still maintain a considerable degree of self-cleaning. The floor of unknown material was still as smooth as new, reflecting Li Lin's face, which was very similar to the projection, but radiant.
However, as time goes by, some places do have similar malfunctions. The door behind the projection that should have been closed is now half open, revealing a passage-like structure behind it. Looking through the gap, you can see some germicidal lamps and disinfection measures, but after so many years, they are obviously useless. Although this building has an automatic cleaning system, it does not have some automatic repair system. It is unknown whether it is due to some consideration, but from the current known structure, the only way forward may be this one.
There might have been a map or something similar under the projection, but it flashed and then exploded into a ball of electric sparks. Li Lin didn't expect to be able to rely on the map to identify where this place was. Li Lin slightly opened the door that had lost its protective significance, frowned, walked into the corridor, looked at the decorations around him, and slowly walked into the depths of the building.
This corridor was supposed to be disinfected with a complete set of measures, and it can be seen that although the technology is primitive, it is quite effective. If it follows the normal rules of action, it may take more than 20 minutes to complete the disinfection. But now this corridor is meaningless, and there is no need to abide by the time.
Li Lin simply moved a chair and pushed open the deepest door, and he saw the core area of the building.
"Earth style...what era is this building from..."
Fifty years ago?
Looking at the white modular structure that came into view, Li Lin frowned subconsciously.
Completely different from the huge black steampunk-style buildings that have been popular on Mars for a long time, the cylindrical hollow underground building that comes into view after pushing open the door is an Earth-like building style composed of a whole piece of white and gray ground. This style is very common in the era of large-scale development. The colonists on Earth seek to integrate everything into a whole, but after paying a high price, they learned what it means to adapt to local conditions.
In other words, the history of this building may have been pushed back a long time. This is at least an ancient building left over from the era of large-scale development. An ancient relic that existed long before he was born. Although there are bright lights everywhere, the dead silence of the empty place still makes people feel a little creepy.
However, the hairiness was relieved after a few minutes.
As if sensing that Li Lin had arrived at the building, a small black dot slowly flew up from the bottom of the building, accompanied by a not-so-harsh buzzing sound, and then aimed in the direction of Li Lin. The small body bent and saluted like a human.
It was a drone. Its pale white paint and four-corner wing stabilizers proved that it was a product of the Earth's colonial era. However, it seemed to have been endowed with a considerable degree of autonomous functions. Compared with the drones of that era, this little thing floating in the air was obviously much larger. After a series of disturbing vibrations, a sweet female voice came from the speaker that seemed to have been unused for a long time.
"Hello, researcher, the pathfinder is waiting for your dispatch."
"…Take me to the archives room."
Li Lin thought about it and said directly.
There is generally no identity verification in this kind of laboratory, because to put it bluntly, people have already infiltrated and it is completely useless to ask for identity verification. Each class of laboratory has its own experiments. The higher class can just build a laboratory in another place, there is no need to build it in the same place. Moreover, with the development of the times, the blurring of national regions, if it is really an experiment that changes the whole world as described in the projection, then only lunatics will come to torment these scientists .
Obviously, there seemed to be no signs of such a madman in the design process. The people who could enter this laboratory, which had to consume a terrifying amount of materials from the Earth Colonization Era, were people whose politics and thoughts had been carefully reviewed, and who even needed psychological suggestion. There was no need for identity verification. This drone also adhered to this good habit.
"Okay, please follow me."
The drone nodded to Li Lin, who was completely not from the laboratory sequence.
Completely lacking the agility of AI, the drone floating in the air nodded mechanically, then flew in the air, leaving a light blue trail on the ground, signaling Li Lin to follow it. Faced with such a game-like scene, Li Lin just frowned and followed.
However, after following the drone, Li Lin discovered that this building was not as deserted as he had imagined. On the contrary, if you don't look at it from the perspective of life or humans, it might be quite lively here. Li Lin saw with his own eyes that the lower the floor, the more frequent the figures of the machines became. The robots, painted with the white rounded-corner paint structure commonly seen on Earth, used magnetism and related networks to continuously slide around and transport, tidying up and renovating the external structure.
A whole set of machinery factories were running smoothly deep inside the building, following mysterious rules left over from who knows how many years ago, and constantly repairing the internal structure. They didn't care about the external facade and human facilities at all, but for some reason, they were extremely concerned about the energy pipelines and transmission devices needed by the machinery. As Li Lin walked, all the energy facilities and structures he saw were as bright and clean as new. Although the structure still looked like an earth structure, it was obvious that there was a lot less white paint due to material problems, and only black pipe interfaces.
It looked like a scar that would never heal after a living thing was injured. The half-black and half-white machines moved back and forth in the damaged area, silently repairing the gaps and scars around them caused by time and temperature, and even the geological changes of the planet before the Grand Canyon appeared. This building hidden underground was like a remnant hidden in the ashes of some time. Even with their paint exposed, the machines were still constantly improving the building according to the plan. There was no AI for regulation inside, nor any advanced artificial intelligence. There was only a database and repeated data to cover up everything inside. Just like what humans did back then.
Maybe at that time, there were indeed many people in this place, and there might indeed be many hopes. Generally speaking, the long-term guide drone will provide some entertainment facilities or other related introductions, but here there is only the silent blue ground constantly pointing in the direction. Even the sound brought by the drone flying in the sky seems to have settled into some kind of harsh noise in this loneliness, which makes people feel unbearable.
But this is not the only disturbing place. The further you go down, the more red areas there are around. The overall structure looks more and more fragmented. Looking up from below, it is like looking up at heaven from hell. Facing the pale white decoration, you feel a kind of inexplicable admiration.
After walking down the disturbing black passage for dozens of minutes, Li Lin finally saw the black steel gate and the sign on it at the bottom.
Archives room - no entry for non-reviewers.
"We have arrived at the archives room. If you have any further questions, please call the drone directly."
After bringing Li Lin to the pure black door, the drone nodded and flew away along the drone passage.
Looking at the door with a little bit of pale white paint still on it, Li Lin didn't know what to do, so he just subconsciously reached out and pushed it. Unexpectedly, the door seemed to be just a warning, but in fact it was still just a showpiece, and it opened smoothly to the left and right, revealing the contents inside.
Like many products of the information age, there are no so-called paper files in the archives. In front of Li Lin is a piece of paint peeling, but still majestic storage device. It is at least a product of fifty years ago. It looks crude and clumsy from today's perspective. There are only a series of black storage devices with flashing lights and a special host port in the center. Under the pale white light, it looks a little ferocious.
But after carefully observing the overall structure of the archive room, Li Lin quickly realized how closely this thing was related to himself.
"Experimental access device..."
Looking at the insertion device on the strange black machine, Li Lin felt that his identity was indeed shrouded in mystery.
There is a neural interface behind Li Lin's head. In his memory, it was the result of the test of the first generation neural interface, which made the interface look different from everyone else's. However, looking at the insertion device on the black machine that fits perfectly behind his head, Li Lin felt that his memory might not be so reliable.
And in front of the black machine, there was a pale white recliner, which matched the whole machine. It was not even a hint, it clearly showed that the existence of this machine was to interact with the interface behind Li Lin's brain. So far, Li Lin had only seen that unique interface on this machine. Only this interface could fit perfectly into the neural access device left behind Li Lin's brain.
So what this means seems to be self-evident.
My own memories...are also fake.
He clearly remembered that he had participated in an experiment on a brain wave access device to open this strange neural port, but since this port completely corresponded to this one-way interactive machine, it meant that the so-called brain wave access experiment was probably just a scam.
Or maybe my memory itself is flawed. If you think about it carefully, isn't it? The past is filled with all kinds of contradictions and loopholes, but I just subconsciously ignored them.
"Okay, my memory may also be false... Then let me see what I am..."
Looking at the strange machine, Li Lin took a long breath, shook his head, and cleared his mind of messy thoughts. He lay flat on the recliner. The black machine obviously also had a sensor device. The interface slowly lifted up and fit tightly into Li Lin's thinking port.
In an instant, an indescribable surge of impact spread from the back of his head to his limbs. It was thousands of times greater than the impact when the game was connected. The information wave was almost like a landslide and tsunami, carrying countless information and data and overwhelmed Li Lin's mind in the blink of an eye. He didn't even have time to shout. In just a moment, Li Lin lost his self-consciousness and immersed himself in a wave of darkness.
An unknown amount of time had passed before Li Lin slowly woke up from his hazy, dream-like thoughts at the sound of an inexplicable call.
