Legend of the Cyber Heroes
Chapter 750 - 005

Chapter 750: 005

"Yes, that’s right, it’s me," Ingrid said, "I’ve only been around for less than ten years longer than you."

"My God..." Yawgmoth exclaimed, "What time is it now? What are humans like now? Is there still resistance? Also, where is this place?"

"Many questions, let’s address them one by one." Ingrid sighed. "This year is 2293. This place is called the Guardian Area (AEGIS RIM), where the majority of human Biological Brains are located."

The spacecraft was moving through a massive man-made structure, apparently the interior of a cylindrical structure. The spacecraft’s detection data showed that the corridor they were in, which allowed for spacecraft flight, was several thousand kilometers wide. The dark corridor had no visible end in front or behind, only some artificial light sources were lit.

Yawgmoth could see that the inner walls of this massive building were mesh-like. Many drones were maintaining this enormous structure.

AEGIS, in Greek mythology, originally belonged to Zeus, later gifted to Athena, the goddess of wisdom and war. It was initially impregnable, and later, Athena embedded Medusa’s head on this shield, turning anyone who looked at it directly into stone. Subsequently, the Federation Navy named its automated command combat system after it — the "Zeus Shield."

—Turning into stone, that’s quite a vivid image...

Yawgmoth thought to himself. He could guess that beneath each of the huge grid’s squares on the inner walls was at least one Biological Brain. The brains of all humanity had turned into the stones that built this Divine Palace.

"This word also came to mean ’protection’— the protection of the strong over the weak, a divine blessing to the chosen..." Ingrid added, while Zhu Xinyu let out a string of curses.

"What’s the situation with these people now?"

"What situation? Of course, they’re living in Cyberspace where ’confusion’ emotions are suppressed, then they obediently work to develop productivity for His Imperial Majesty the Liberating Emperor," Zhu Xinyu said.

Yawgmoth was silent for a moment, "I see... Well, at least... at least they aren’t living too badly. At least Xiang Shan can still provide a virtual world... so..."

"Oh? You think humans are having a great time now?" Zhu Xinyu seemed to find this amusing. If she had had a face, she would probably be gritting her teeth. Even through an internet connection, Yawgmoth could feel her almost cursing mood.

Ingrid sighed, "Actually... more than a hundred years ago, Xiang Shan only requisitioned some idle computing resources. After all, once humans no longer had bodies, the neural networks that maintain breathing and physical movement were idle. At that time, Xiang Shan still had the intention of turning Cyberspace into a paradise."

"But..." Zhu Xinyu darkly added, "the Liberating Emperor later felt that this was too inefficient. So, he started to reset scenarios to motivate humans to work diligently."

Yawgmoth recalled his own experiences in the Illusory Realm, "If it wasn’t under the will of a tyrant... it wouldn’t be unacceptable, right?"

"You’re very wrong there," Ingrid said calmly, "In reality, most people don’t get the treatment you did. You’re familiar to Xiang Shan, and then as the most outstanding scholar, naturally you got special treatment. You have custom-designed scenarios, several personality ai serving you."

Zhu Xinyu said, "Plus you’re the kind of simple guy who’s very easy to fool."

"But most people have to share scenarios with other humans," Ingrid said, "Not everyone has grand ideals, not everyone can continuously strive for their dreams, not everyone can maintain their self in the face of harsh reality. But the Liberating Emperor does not like idle people."

"Also, dissatisfaction with reality turns into voices in the online world, then becomes a form of thought movement. If such things are not contained, they would also decrease a person’s work efficiency," Zhu Xinyu asked, "What do you think the Liberating Emperor would do at this time?"

"Er... intensify education?"

"That was the Xiang Shan of two hundred years ago," Zhu Xinyu said. "Actually, the Liberating Emperor’s system would monitor human brain activity. When the ’dissatisfaction’ and ’laziness’ indices in the same server exceed a certain standard, the server would release a new expansion called ’Alien Invasion.’"

Yawgmoth was silent for a moment, "Then... can humans now stand against a civilization capable of crossing star seas?"

"Probably not, but most people’s concept of ’space wars’ comes from movies," Zhu Xinyu said, "Even if some clever people feel something is off, the system would also stuff a guess into their brains, called ’Perhaps this is a unique cultural phenomenon of the Aliens.’"

"Anyway, after the Aliens appear, the entire server enters a state of war. And humans who perform too poorly, who give up on themselves, will swiftly be killed by the alien task force in the story, and in reality, their memory files will be erased, injected with a small dose of Restoring Enzyme, and then sent to other servers to be re-educated."

"And those who rise up to resist will never know that aside from the ’Alien Leader’ in the ’story animation’ who is played by AI, the aliens they fight in alley brawls are actually humans from other servers— to save resources, the urban modeling of different servers is the same. When two servers accumulate enough ’slackers’ and ’keyboard warriors’, the servers merge, and people from both sides will think that a group of Aliens suddenly appeared in their world."

"And people from both servers will fight over the ’survival of humanity’ and diligently process data... by the way enriching the Liberating Emperor’s tactics database."

Yawgmoth exclaimed, "You rebels still have cities? That’s impressive?"

Ingrid was silent for a few seconds, "Uh... I think you misunderstood something, Yog. There are no more cities left for the Liberating Emperor to liberate. He records the data of these people’s battles solely because he wants to record it. That research data is where the meaning lies."

Zhu Xinyu sighed, "Rather than letting people idle away, wasting their experiences on the internet squabbling with others, better to have them research war technologies, which might be useful for invading Aliens hundreds or thousands of years later—I guess that’s what the Liberating Emperor thinks."

Yawgmoth just found it outrageous, "Tactics are closely related to the level of technology..."

Zhu Xinyu snickered, "In the eyes of the Liberating Emperor, ’temporarily unusable but meaningful data’ is much more significant than ’meaningless endeavors,’ isn’t it?"

"Then, when a server fights to despair, fights until it can’t squeeze out any more potential, it enters a new cycle of Reincarnation. Everyone will only remember participating in a game test. The script of the Liberating Emperor, let me think... due to the confidentiality agreement with the gaming company, they were not allowed to discuss the game in public before the ’public test’."