Calamity of Tomorrow
Chapter 703 703: 701 Familiar

Father walked up and pulled Zhou Bai to the chair, providing warmth as in memory.

Mother donned her apron and moved toward the kitchen, as in the past, eager to cook a delicious meal for Zhou Bai.

The sounds that reached his ears were the familiar languages that made Zhou Bai feel as if he had returned to the past. Yet he knew clearly that the parents before him were distinctly different from those of his past.

How should he face the parents before him now? Never before in his life had his mind felt as chaotic as it did now.

"Anyway... I must understand the situation..."

"I need to... continue the investigation, no matter what the truth is, I must keep investigating."

Although he had prepared himself, the revelations still shocked him profoundly.

"Calm down, Zhou Bai, the change will happen... You cannot change yet."

"You are the last wise man, the last hope; if you change, everything will be lost."

Zhou Bai steadied his mind, stabilizing his moral heart.

After a long while, he looked at his father and slowly said, "How have you been?"

Father: "Not bad, actually. Most of human consciousness is sleeping in the Heavenly Demon Pool. We spend most of our time sleeping there, and all our daily tasks are handled by Bo Xun and other artificial intelligences he created."

Zhou Bai: "Bo Xun, is that the Heavenly Demon Queen?"

Seeing his father nod, Zhou Bai then asked, "Why sleep? After uploading consciousness, you could use more resources and think faster, right? You should be able to do more, almost without limits increasing your computing power, expanding your knowledge..."

"It's because the thinking speed is too fast," Father smiled bitterly. "What makes us human, apart from our consciousness, is also due to our bodily structure.

Our consciousness matches our bodies. It's because of our body's various functions, our brain's structure, our limited senses that our consciousness is truly human."

Hearing this, Zhou Bai somewhat understood that when a person is born, their consciousness is a blank slate, which evolves through experiences, forming unique thought patterns and memories.

The relationship between the body and consciousness is similar — due to unique human traits like our brains and senses, our distinctive consciousness forms.

And if this consciousness could control thousands of machines, equipped with high-tech sensing devices, capable of seeing and processing scenes from hundreds or thousands of different places simultaneously.

If it could operate at speeds thousands of times faster than a human, with photographic memory and endless memory capacity, yet without the original bodily hormones to regulate the brain and consciousness...

Father sighed, "Awake too long, continuously using those superhuman thinking speeds and perceptual abilities, the data and thoughts we generate every moment could surpass that of our decades as humans.

Under the relentless generation of massive data, our original human personality can easily be fragmented.

This will push us closer to the cold state of machines. Eventually, we might completely mutate, losing humanity entirely and turning into someone else... or rather, something else."

"Most people don't want this, so they choose to sleep for lengthy periods. Anyway, 99% of human consciousness isn't much help given the current circumstances."

Zhou Bai nodded in agreement with his father's words, then he couldn't help but look at his father's body and ask, "How is this body? Any problem?"

Father nodded: "Not bad, it should feel almost like a real body..."

Just then, Mother, carrying the food, came over and said, "Dinner's ready, you two bring the dishes from the kitchen."

The dishes were soon served, and Zhou Bai sat in his usual seat, watching his parents chatting and eating as always, occasionally inquiring about Zhou Bai's recent situation.

While chatting with his parents, Zhou Bai looked around at the electrical appliances, finding them all genuine and functional, even the television was broadcasting programs.

A strange warmth emerged.

"It seems... not bad."

...

Above the heavenly palace supported by countless auspicious clouds in the heavenly court.

Four great marshals of the Thunder Department had arrived, and all three great celestial lords of the Plague Department gathered.

Present were the top authority figures of heavenly deities, each possessing powers and authorities that terrified and drove mortals to despair.

At this moment, the air was filled with these deities' primordial spirit powers, turning the entire surrounding area pristine, barring any other surveillance or anomalies other than themselves.

Xiang Tiandi addressed the group, "… To sum up, these are the capabilities related to Zhou Bai that I could discern. Lies are a key issue, and he might possibly propagate them through others. I suggest developing specialized techniques so that in our daily activities, we adopt a different mode to perceive the world, aiming to completely unravel his abilities."

Across from Xiang Tiandi, Bao Bing Heavenly Monarch, appearing like a gaunt, old skeleton, spoke,

"This is simple, we can add a layer of filtration and intermediation to our perceptions; that way Zhou Bai's abilities will be rendered ineffective. But the power of lies is a minor issue; the real concern..."

After hearing Xiang Tiandi's report, Bao Bing Heavenly Monarch slowly said, "Zhou Bai has acquired too many abilities of the void."

"This is very abnormal, I suspect Zhou Bai has made contact with 'them.'"

Hearing this, all the deities expressed grave emotions.

Thus, Bao Bing Heavenly Monarch continued, "Li Zhengdao has already been dispatched by His Majesty to East Hua City to try to take over Jiaojiao. Whether Zhou Bai is related to 'them' or not, we'll know from his investigation results. Of course, to prevent Zhou Bai from growing further..."

Seeing Bao Bing Heavenly Monarch's gaze sweep over him, Xiang Tiandi promptly said, "I've already located the positions of the remaining primordial scriptures, but haven't found the scriptures themselves. It seems they've been hidden within the void; we can only locate their positions in the Material World."

"However, I have had people lie in wait nearby; the moment Zhou Bai's whereabouts are uncovered, I would know immediately. Getting there wouldn't take a minute."

Nodding, Bao Bing Heavenly Monarch looked at the deities and continued, "Apart from the matter of Zhou Bai, there's another urgent issue. Si Yi, you speak."