Legend of the Cyber Heroes
Chapter 754 - 009

Chapter 754: 009

A massive object floated in space.

From its appearance, it looked very much like a cube... pieced together from several long, bar-shaped blocks.

Since the spaceship Yawgmoth was on was heading towards the edge of the Solar System, the gigantic structure outside the porthole appeared to be of pure, see-through blackness. The only giveaway was the shimmer of its edges, indicating that at least part of the gigantic structure was transparent.

Yawgmoth understood at once. This was the Bifrost.

About nine huge, bar-shaped buildings connected with each other, ultimately forming such a thing.

A colossal structure measured in "hundreds of kilometers" in radius. Many parts of it were hollow, so it was lighter than a planet of comparable volume. In addition, humanity had mastered more complex technologies capable of using electricity to distribute the giant structure’s own weight across its entire form with electromagnetic fields.

Farther out, huge photovoltaic panels generated power.

Humanity had conquered numerous technical challenges in the conversion of light to electrical energy, bringing the efficiency infinitely close to the theoretical limit. The solar panels in the distance were gathering the sun’s power bit by bit, near the sun, and turning it into a canal of energy that spanned an astronomical unit in the form of lasers.

The "canal" was bringing vitality to the Emperor’s capital city.

Yawgmoth quickly found the auxiliary device attached to his feet. The solar wind in this region was already quite weak, and Yawgmoth only donned simple radiation protection gear, not even changing his prosthetic body. He walked on the ship’s hull using the magnetic auxiliary device on his feet.

Ingrid followed behind Yawgmoth, "You don’t seem happy at all, Yog."

Yawgmoth’s eyes met Ingrid’s prosthetic body clad in black armor, and his mind flashed with the images of friends from that "2077 simulated reality." He turned his gaze toward the Liberating Emperor’s gigantic building, "Looking at this... it’s hard to feel happy."

Zhu Xinyu could only confuse the system temporarily. Yawgmoth had escaped from the Illusory Realm, but the price was that a Border Person took his place there.

Scientific research is like gold mining, a gamble with the heavens and the universe. Whether results can be achieved, when they will be achieved, and what those results might be are not within the control of the scientist.

For the Liberating Emperor, he could wait a decade or even twenty years for a brain to produce results.

Ingrid sighed and sat down behind Yawgmoth, "Don’t think too much."

"Selena, Chen Feng, Tao Enhai... Have these people been found?"

"Not yet," Ingrid shook her head, "but Xinyu is trying hard to find them... "

"I remember now. The projects those guys were last working on." Yawgmoth held his head, "They said they wanted to try a different approach to consciousness uploading. Computers currently can’t simulate human overall thinking, but then again, human ’overall thinking’ might not be that integrated, after all. It has been demonstrated by countless data from the 21st century that human cognition is actually made up of many different modules. Starting with lower-level modules, and gradually replacing nerves with circuits, what would be the end result?"

"Oh, that project," Ingrid nodded, "I was also involved and dabbled in some papers—feels like it was in a past life."

"Xiang Shan had taken over this idea... but more than that. He had even expanded upon it," Yawgmoth pressed his head, "The rule of the Liberating Emperor deeply relies on this technology. The more traditional Brain-Machine Barrier mode is too safe... although it’s actually not safe either, but for the Emperor, the security mechanisms he created in his youth were too reliable. He must have chosen to start from scratch, opting for a more invasive and aggressive transformation."

"Mhm," Ingrid nodded again.

"We used to distinguish between reality and the virtual by relying on the excellent structure of the brain... ’The biological brain might be more complex than a Turing Machine’. Without completely understanding the human brain, this question remains unanswered. According to the last update on the theory by Zhu Xinyu before the birth of the Liberating Emperor... Inner Strength relies on the ’integrity of the mind’—the emergent powerful functions none of the separate modules possess when all are orderly combined."

"Just like simple molecules give rise to complex life... the primitive impulses of the modules can also converge into a higher consciousness."

Silent, Ingrid gazed at that giant black cube.

"The ’integrity of the mind’ underpins Inner Strength. For any given module, the other modules are inexplicable black boxes. During the process of Inner Strength, most modules have no awareness of the specifics. And our surface consciousness, the self, the parts we can actively control, actually occupy only a small part of the mental whole," Yawgmoth said, "If our own consciousness wants to grasp the operation of the mental whole, it can only go through another module or several modules to retrieve the whole, then those modules provide feedback... Like how we operate a computer through its control panel. To us users, what’s visible are only those few texts or graphics. The entire computer, to us, is a black box."

Yawgmoth tilted his head back, his body angling as he fixed his gaze on Ingrid, "To most users, the computer’s processing of the mind is a black box... Actually, our conscious surface is also a black box to the workings of Inner Strength. If the module for ’checking the overall state of the mind’ was replaced... we would just think that we had used Inner Strength..."

Ingrid nodded, "You mean to say, you haven’t escaped virtual reality yet?"

"This could indeed be reality. But, is the distinction between reality and virtual that significant? The Liberating Emperor could prepare a work environment for me in the virtual world, and he could do the same in the real world. The significance of ’virtual’ is merely a reduction in cost. But if the profits are high enough, Xiang Shan wouldn’t care about the cost."

Yawgmoth stared at Ingrid, "Without Inner Strength, I cannot know whether this is reality or not... Without Inner Strength, the Rebels’ database might be unilaterally open to the Liberating Emperor... I..."

Ingrid shook her head, "You’re driving yourself mad, Yog."

Yawgmoth fell silent for a moment, "If I went mad and thus halted my research, maybe that would be the real blow to the Liberating Emperor’s cause."

Ingrid said, "Do you still remember what Xiang Shan said back when our chivalry started to take shape, during our regular meetings?"

"He said too many things. Which one?"

"In a situation where you cannot destroy your opponent, if there’s something you can do that would benefit you about a hundredfold, but your opponent about one hundred and twentyfold, would you do it?"

Yawgmoth said, "Then what’s the bloody point."

"What if you only have fifty in capital, but your enemy has two hundred?"

"That’s worth considering."

"What if your capital is a million, and your opponent’s is one million and ten thousand?"

"Then there’s not much to consider, right, the difference between doing it and not is significant?"

"One percent is actually a very big number," Ingrid said, "and besides, the so-called ’about a hundred’ and ’about one hundred and twenty’ are just estimates. The final result can’t be that precise. During the development of events, you might be able through management, to gain a hundred and twenty-one in benefits while letting your opponent end up with only one hundred and one."

"This is the key to ’strategic analysis’. If you and your enemy cannot destroy each other, and both can benefit from something, then you have to think about how to make yourself the one who gains more."

Ingrid pointed to the stars, "Due to the hibernation abilities of Benchmark Man, the Liberating Emperor can’t guarantee that he can eliminate all the Rebels. For the Liberating Emperor, ’tribute’ is both a way to utilize the Border People’s abilities and a method to control them. The Border People can survive without tribute, but will struggle to grow. Both sides believe they can benefit from this strategic interaction. The actual decision-making process is even more complex..."

Yawgmoth said, "But isn’t that exactly what Xiang Shan excels at? Analyzing such activities that are ambiguous in rules, chaotic in process, and have invisible key information based on experience... He’s very good at that kind of thing, letting potential enemies mistake him as a ’partner’..."

——So the company could...

Ingrid simply asked him, "Just because the Liberating Emperor might benefit during the process, you won’t resist anymore?"

Yawgmoth didn’t speak.

"If it were Xiang Shan from two hundred years ago, he would surely say, let them earn for now, but in the end, they must cough up everything, principal and interest included."

Ingrid stood up and patted Yawgmoth, "Come on. This is just the beginning, we’ve hardly started."

"Yes..."

In the shadow of the massive structure, the spacecraft was slowly accelerating.