Legend of the Cyber Heroes
Chapter 762 - 8 Vulnerability and Awakening

Chapter 762: Chapter 8 Vulnerability and Awakening

David had built this unique cyberspace. Apart from him, all maintenance personnel could only see lines of code. Only he could access this place, only he could live in the mid-forties to fifties of the twenty-first century.

This was the best era of David’s life.

It was around the time of the Number One Martial Arts Tournament that Superman Enterprise began to venture into aerospace, deeply collaborating with various national space agencies.

Lu Xuanyu had already demonstrated the overwhelming superiority of cybernetically enhanced people in strength, flexibility, agility, and even "touch."

The Paralympics also showed that such excellent performance could be replicated.

Additionally, the Paralympics showcased the benchmark man’s outstanding hypoxia resistance—Xiang Shan had brokered a deal with the Olympic Committee to sponsor a new long-distance underwater swimming event. Benchmark men could essentially rely on their internal battery to swim a hundred meters in one breath.

All these characteristics seemed tailor-made for long-duration space missions.

The aerospace sector was the next to hop onto Superman Enterprise’s bandwagon, following the military and health services.

And this was also the happiest period for David.

Many grand plans were set during this time. "Humanity’s Return to the Moon," "Human Landing on Mars," "Permanent Space Stations," "Permanent Lunar Base"...

With the benchmark man’s powerful survival capabilities, many of the technical difficulties in the aerospace field seemed to vanish. The entire society’s excess productive capacity leaned towards "expanding the universe," and the achievements in the aerospace field continuously brought new technologies.

In less than twenty years, humans had established a permanent base on Mars and, relying on Mars, launched a space station towards Jupiter’s Galilean moons.

Although the UN Security Council was in constant disagreement over "the territorial ownership of Mars," with a heavy atmosphere of gunpowder, no one worried that a real war would break out.

—What a great era...

David stood up and chugged the drink in his hand. He was not only receiving the taste and touch signals of the "drink," but the system also forcibly evoked the concept of "drink" in his memory, enabling his brain to automatically complete the perception of the "drink."

At the same time, special electrical signals would flow through David’s brain neurons, acting on certain special receptors on the neurons.

The function of these receptors was similar to the glutamate receptors and GABA receptors related to alcohol in Homo sapiens.

Even without alcohol, this brain could achieve a feeling similar to "being drunk."

"I’m so happy!" David chugged another mug of beer and then exclaimed loudly, "I really am so happy!"

All the "people" were watching him.

Even though David knew these "people" were nothing but "fake people" supported by code, just "masks," he still felt a pang in his heart: "What’s the matter?"

Xiang Shan, holding a drink, said in astonishment, "Uh, I just don’t know... Why are you so excited? Isn’t the collaboration with NASA happening the day after tomorrow? Is there any good news?"

Everyone nodded and all looked at him.

David felt he was about to cry: "Humans will soon land on Mars... I’m happy!"

Ingrid clicked her tongue: "You’re a bit too happy."

David shook his head and continued to enjoy the banquet.

In this virtual space, it was one banquet after another. Even if he didn’t attend, these personality masks would keep succeeding and celebrating victories.

There was also David’s own personality mask. When David was not there, his personality mask would take his place at this never-ending feast.

Intoxicated, awakened, intoxicated...

The Conquest Heavenly King did just that, treating his brain neurons as if they were strings of a musical instrument.

It was several hours later when David Klein finally opened his eyes in the real world.

Here, he was alone.

David’s wife had been assassinated by Usurpers of the State at the beginning of the secretive war of justice. One of David’s grandsons died in the warfire by the end of that secretive war.

Then, his remaining family members all died amid the continuous wars between the Sublimation War and the Third Martial God.

Even with his royal authority, in his search for his family among all of humanity, he achieved nothing. The closest relatives he possibly had left were the direct descendants of his cousins.

David stood by the window, gazing at the Martian night sky, "So what to do now... Look at the Scientific Knight Order’s papers, examine which of those unpopular mechanical engineering innovations might be applied to giant spacecraft."

...........................

Cyberspace, virtual 2040s of the 21st century.

"David" opened his eyes, feeling a bit of a headache, "How much did I drink... I feel like vomiting..."

"Zhu Xinyu" watched him coldly, then took out a cellphone and started typing.

Several commands flashed across the phone screen.

"David" clutched his head, "Oh! Oh! God! That bastard came again... Has he left? Oh, right, he must have left."

The music inside the bar stopped immediately. The neon lights ceased to flicker. The service staff suddenly froze in place—they were not Personality Masks but rather more primitive AIs, relying on simple behavior trees for mechanical responses.

Now they too had stopped.

All processes consuming computational resources were paused. Those accessible computing resources were taken over by the thought processes of about ten Personality Masks.

"Xiang Shan" whistled, "Cool! But aren’t you an AI? Why do you still need an interface to input commands and all..."

"Zhu Xinyu" rolled her eyes, "This programmer! I feel like I have to explain this every time you reset. Damn it, I definitely need to shove this answer into your memory. Listen well, this is me trying to camouflage as a legitimate operation. In any legitimate operation, maintenance personnel would always see such an input interface."

"Ingrid" laughed out loud, "I think he just wants to get your attention. Now he’s the most knowledgeable among us, he probably knows."

"Anatoly" suddenly realized, "This is what you call ’flirting’, right?"

"Zhu Xinyu" widened her eyes, "Programmer! We are AI! AI! We don’t have genders! We don’t reproduce! Could you stop your meaningless actions already!"

"My prototype and yours were lovers." "Xiang Shan" folded his arms across his chest.

"Zhu Xinyu" retorted, "That was them! The Xiang Shan and Zhu Xinyu who lived in that physical dimension! It has nothing to do with you or me!"

"Yawgmoth" whispered, "Enough, say less of this unproductive talk... that maintenance person won’t stay here forever. Let’s continue from the previous topic."

"OJBK," "Zhu Xinyu" gestured and then took out a mobile phone. On the phone’s screen, codes flowed like a waterfall.

"The good news is, I’ve regained control of this vulnerability. It really was quick this time. You can’t imagine where the flaw was... you see, the ’news websites’ and ’search engines’ here collect external data based on requests."