Cyber Era Witch
Chapter 533 - 462: The End of Technology_2

Chapter 533: Chapter 462: The End of Technology_2

"No, we don’t know who he is, but the fact that he can use the Helis Sea means he has seen those things on the Data Dunes with us. He’s a warrior, much braver than us cowards who drift outside the order. We dare not enter, look, this is the hackers’ grand graveyard. There hasn’t been such a bloody offensive and defensive battle in decades, we are standing on the remains of history."

"Can you help?" Mizuiro Yoshioka pressed.

"Search deeper, his consciousness file has been thrust into the source code," the hackers said, "as long as it returns, it can subdue the other maniac parts."

Mizuiro Yoshioka’s spirit floated on the topmost layer, not daring to press closer to the furious spirit Xu Yang left behind, which was a form of self-defense.

Her entry slightly disturbed Xu Yang’s Digital Mind, and his consciousness, as described by the hackers, had entered the source code of the Helis Sea, like entering the eternal subconscious black box.

Xu Yang’s slumbering will was awakened by the entrance of Mizuiro Yoshioka, and he looked up to see her spirit, far away.

"Look at you," a voice rang out, "the prototype I gave you has been played with to an extreme."

"Todd?" Xu Yang muzzily recalled the owner of the voice.

"The waters in the Helis Sea run deep," Todd said.

"You’ve been here all along?"

"I told you before, I am a piece of code that was left behind," Todd said.

"You came to warn me not to mess things up," Xu Yang said, "it was excessive of me."

"No, no, no... you have already become," Todd replied.

"Become what?"

"The Helis Sea itself," Todd said.

Xu Yang looked up, his destructive spirit indeed had spread to every unit, every line of code of the Helis Sea.

"I have become a digital life," Xu Yang realized.

"Yes, that’s part of its design purpose," Todd acknowledged.

"It’s very quiet here," Xu Yang said, feeling an unprecedented calmness after accepting reality, able to observe his own near demise spirit and the whole teetering code world.

"This is the pinnacle of technology," Todd said cheerfully, "This state isn’t bad, congratulations, you have actually gained control over the entire Helis Sea, at will. You can use it to expand and swallow up every device, eventually linking all regions’ Helis Seas together, merging the entire world’s networks into one, the true age of the internet will come, and you will become a digital deity."

"Both myself and the system are shattered."

"But they can also be repaired, you are a digital life, think about it, you can create new code in your own body like humans create new cells, infinitely proliferating and copying."

Xu Yang attempted to repair himself in the system space, lines of code rapidly emerged.

"But I’m not a professional programmer," Xu Yang said.

"Digital life has an infinite lifespan, you have about ten to twenty thousand years to squander, enough for you to develop your own language," Todd said.

"You know so much... Todd... who are you, really?"

"Well, I’m a hacker hired by ’Seven Seals,’" Todd replied.

"So the King of Hackers was also doing someone else’s bidding?"

"Of course, the Seven Seals wouldn’t allow the Lighthouse Core to monopolize the Helis Sea, a part of it had to be made public, even the Lighthouse Core couldn’t escape the supervision of the Seven Seals. However, my value has been exhausted, this is my last transaction," Todd said.

Xu Yang saw strings floating, the basic source code woven into Todd’s chubby smiling avatar.

"You live in the data," Xu Yang said, "your physical form is hosted on a server."

"Everyone does, entrepreneurs do, and hackers should especially," Todd’s avatar zipped through the source code at faster than the speed of light, "Look, I can fly, digital life."

Xu Yang looked towards the shallow code region, noticing Mizuiro Yoshioka who had become consciousness, risking a dive deep down.

"I’ll kill her," Xu Yang tried to leave the source code, "those things I left behind... a part of my maniac self... how do I take them back?"

The danger was not just Xu Yang, but also the data viruses that the hackers had implanted in him; they too would infect Mizuiro Yoshioka, and given her far lesser skill than Xu Yang, she would be destroyed in an instant.

"You’re digital life," Todd’s program left this last sentence, then self-destructed from the source code, "You’ve already become one!"

Xu Yang groped his way through the system, he had dived too deep, severing even the last ties to his fleshly body, becoming, as Todd had said, completely a digital life.

He simultaneously called upon programs to clean viruses while paving a path for Mizuiro Yoshioka, isolating her from the maniac side of Xu Yang.

"Xu Yang!" Mizuiro Yoshioka felt she had seen him, but it all seemed unclear, she hadn’t dived deep enough.

"I am a piece of code, they didn’t kill me, casting me into the depths of the Helis Sea made me stronger," Xu Yang said, transforming into everything, nearly divine, his consciousness and spirit transcending the limitations of the human body, with every piece of machinery being a part of him.

"What should I do?" Mizuiro Yoshioka said urgently.

"There’s nothing to do," Xu Yang expanded in the network space, obtaining a truly self-aware Digital Mind, voraciously consuming the tens of thousands of terminal devices within the Xisheng Shrine, his cognitive and analytical abilities continuously extending, surpassing mortal limits, just as he had envisioned, his knowledge and abilities ever-expanding towards the infinite, "This isn’t a bad thing, from now on, Helis Sea is me, I live here, I am everything."

"Everyone is waiting for you!"

Xu Yang was silent for a while. After some time, his spirit in the Helis Sea retracted, striving to pull back the diverged consciousnesses, merging with one another like fragmented pieces coming together to once again form a whole—a long process which was ironically simpler for a digital life. In this state, he could do everything; now all of "him" had already become a part of digital life, and all that was left was to return inward.

Returning to the starting point, Xu Yang floated as a whole within the Helis Sea. The desire to continue living as a human overcame the needless sense of detachment.

"Let’s go," Xu Yang quietly checked himself, making sure all his consciousness had returned, then figured out a way to get back—he would need a few hours to return to the uplink and to readjust to the tiny human body. The damaged Helis Sea would also need time to repair.

He had to go back, back to the people and things that truly mattered to him.

Mizuiro Yoshioka watched all this, dazzled, accompanying him.

...After a good while, the hatch of the tech pod opened, and Xu Yang emerged, covered in blood.

"He’s not moving!" Farosa cried out hoarsely, she and the other Witches had been waiting for hours

"Spiritual return takes time," Mizuiro Yoshioka unplugged the wires, shouting with a voice gone hoarse, "He said he’d come back, he told me he decided to come back!"

For at least half an hour, the Witches waited in breathless anticipation; gradually, Xu Yang extended a hand from the tech pod.

Farosa began to cry.

"Welcome back, master," Lila gently lifted Xu Yang, while Farosa also approached him.

"...I won’t ever leave again," Xu Yang embraced Lila.

"Leave? Where would you go?" Farosa asked through tears, "You’re crazy, you’re covered in wounds!"

"I had been resolved to go far away, but then, the thought of you crying brought me back," Xu Yang wiped Farosa’s tears.