Legend of the Cyber Heroes
Chapter 431 - 75: Probing Attack

Chapter 431: Chapter 75: Probing Attack

Xiang Shan had located seven more private base stations and servers. These six stations and servers were not the best in the city, nor were they directly connected to satellite stations.

But they were the least conspicuous.

That was very important.

Of course, not every server was suitable for modifications.

These makeshift servers all utilized open-source designs from the internet. However, only a few had executed the original designs well.

Some had been rigged together under less than ideal conditions.

There were two servers that Xiang Shan couldn’t modify at all. The servers’ chassis had too little redundant space. If he forced a modification, cooling would likely become a major issue, causing the servers to fail after just a few operations.

Another server was simply incompatible because its builder had been too casual with the parameters during 3D printing.

"In terms of harvest, it’s better than nothing," Xiang Shan admitted rather helplessly.

As long as he could create an environment within his body to run the Quantum Chip, the computational resources provided by that chip would be considerable.

Compared to that, these homemade servers were just an addition.

But even the leg of a mosquito is flesh. Even if not ideal, these devices could still somewhat alleviate the pressure of a DDOS attack.

Xiang Shan didn’t disdain them.

In fact, these few servers, suitable for him to remotely harness his Inner Strength, were still very helpful for him to exert his Inner Strength.

Xiang Shan quickly arrived at the edge of the next server.

Then, he slowly closed the Prosthetic Eye.

A sea of data appeared around him like a waterfall.

Then, this data started to blur. Soon after, a virtual ground appeared in Xiang Shan’s vision.

The ground gradually started to take on color.

This was a skill only a high-level Internal Cultivator could perform. Xiang Shan further connected his Biological Brain with the data. He tapped into more resources, even repurposing areas normally used for processing other senses.

The ultimate result was the "visualization" of data.

Not by using computer graphics, but through employing cognitive science advancements to link mechanical and abstract data directly with the neurons responsible for senses.

Or in other words, "sensorization."

Unlike fully immersive VR. This sensorization of data was for manipulating the data itself.

Immersive VR does not amount to free manipulation of data. In the virtual world of VR, sensory interaction with the environment only occurs according to a pre-set program, where only parameters and historical data vary slightly.

But here, every action, every thought could influence the data stream.

"Two Personality Masks have entered together," Native remarked. "In such a scenario, shouldn’t one have stayed outside?"

"Don’t let your mind wander!" Eight scolded. "That’s not... Tsk. We’re fundamentally one person, sharing the same brain. This method requires full brain resources, so it’s odd if one could remain outside."

"Leaving the Prosthetic Body to a simple AI and wake program seems a bit risky."

"Don’t think too much now..."

"Don’t I know my own personality? Unless it’s a critical moment, my mind is usually filled with stray thoughts... well..."

Native suddenly felt as if his entire form had changed.

His consciousness was extending...

Or rather, data from afar was being downloaded into the Biological Brain. His thoughts transformed into data and were uploaded to a distant location.

Here, every word, every action, could influence the data itself.

Then, Xiang Shan felt a strong compression...

No, it was a rebound.

"Has the backdoor given by Zero already been patched up? It seems we can’t proceed further; there must be a ’honey pot’ on this path," Eight whispered.

This statement was a self-suggestion.

The surrounding scenery changed once again. The darkness disappeared.

Xiang Shan saw walls.

As if there were problems with the simulation, countless fine lines formed a sparse wall.

Eight envisaged extending a hand towards the wall.

He wasn’t actually "extending a hand." Nor was he experiencing a soul out-of-body experience. This wall was the data feedback he received, downloaded from the server and processed by the Biological Brain to be imagined. Xiang Shan simply used the thought of "extending a hand" as a mechanism for self-suggestion.

In the network of Xiang Shan’s biological neurons, a portion of autonomously discharging intermediate neurons would, together with the neurons which generated the thought of "extending a hand" and the Inner Strength neural circuit that encapsulated them, form a mixed "predictive coding structure."

This was an inherent mechanism of the brain.

The brain relies on the network of neurons to extract abstract concepts and features for recognition. "Deep learning" mimics this process, using layers of computer coding to extract features from input data, recognize them individually, conduct complex simulation computations, and ultimately deliver results. The "depth" here refers to the "layers of simulated neural networks" — from the input layer to the final output layer, the hidden layers extract features layer by layer. The more layers there are, the deeper the computation. Thus, the more complex the decision problem, the more layers are needed.

The supercomputer AlphaGo that appeared in the early 21st century used a strategy network of 13 layers, each layer having 192 neurons.

When humans recognize and think, a portion of autonomously discharging intermediate neurons can form a "predictive coding structure" with input neurons, and when incoming information matches the "expectation," it can skip the process of "mobilizing a large number of neurons to process external information."

And when Cultivation reaches a high level, it could manipulate this mechanism. In a specific state, an Internal Strength Master could use simpler, more intuitive neural impulses to awaken a vast network of neurons that have recorded powerful Inner Strength, even skipping the stage of subjective consciousness, and directly solving problems using the mathematical capabilities of the brain.

Then, a burst of light erupted from the firewall.

Xiang Shan grasped the virtual flames.

Xiang Shan’s consciousness returned to its original place.

His body, in fact, hadn’t moved at all from the beginning.

"Hmm, they upgraded to the latest firewall? Because of the incident three years ago, did they realize they might have been targeted by an Internal Strength Master for a long time?" Xiang Shan looked at his hands. Although what just happened was a hallucination spontaneously fabricated by his brain under a data deluge, there were actual data behind that burst of flames.

The gesture made by Eight actually included many common intrusion methods.

And the feedback data from the firewall had already been obtained.

Detection attack, completed.