Legend of the Cyber Heroes
Chapter 883 - 128: What is Life?

Chapter 883: Chapter 128: What is Life?

Xiang Shan saw bright light again after a long time.

This is an artificial underground pool, with nearly a hundred square meters of space filled with air above.

"The water pressure here is comparable to the Shallow Sea," Freeman introduced, "Although after modifications, dolphins can adapt to such depths, they are essentially creatures of the Shallow Sea. It’ll be much more comfortable with illumination."

Xiang Shan looked around: "Wow, this is quite impressive. How did you come up with the idea to dig such a large place underwater?"

"This wasn’t originally dug for habitation, but as a mine." Freeman shook his head, "It was only after sixty years of mining that we thought of doing this. At that time, many dolphins’ psychological issues were getting worse, so I modified the mine a bit."

As he spoke, he pointed to the robot returning from a dark cave below: "The cave’s scale is still expanding."

"Wow..." Xiang Shan carefully examined the retro-designed robot and sighed, "Still David Klein’s design."

The veteran was quite surprised: "That guy..."

"Is it so strange? The King of Mars back then was just an engineer dreaming of landing on Mars." Xiang Shan shook his head.

Freeman was also a bit surprised: "Downloaded long ago from the internet..."

"Those technical materials were probably uploaded by us as well," Xiang Shan said.

Freeman nodded: "Hundreds of various industrial robots. These technical materials were stuffed into every corner of the internet, packed full. With these technical materials, any country could build a complete production system. It would have been great if you had done so in 2040."

"2040... Don’t be silly, because in 2040 I was making money, so by 2070 I could flood the entire internet with those technical materials. If I had no resources in 2040, many technologies wouldn’t appear in 2070." Xiang Shan sighed, "Also in 2040... I would never let any impoverished and backward country leapfrog to obtain a full set of modern technology."

"True." Freeman didn’t continue the conversation.

"The matters of the past" was too big a topic. Even the participants couldn’t easily discern right from wrong. Freeman changed the subject: "Follow me. I can provide some metal resources. The weapons you want, you can also manufacture yourself."

Freeman led Xiang Shan and swam upwards, heading toward the space filled with air.

This huge cavern had a space nearly a hundred square meters above. The space was divided into two parts; one part directly formed the water surface, with dolphins swimming freely, occasionally leaping out or tossing companions out of the water, repeating games their ancestors played countless times.

The other half was a supporting plane half a meter above the sea surface. This supporting plane contained a factory.

Inside were several pieces of equipment.

"This really is... nostalgic..." Xiang Shan clicked his tongue in wonder: "My design, huh."

"Yes." Freeman sighed, "You might have forgotten. Our first 3D printer was donated by you, officially as a donation."

"Aha... I guess that did happen."

"I must say, it’s a marvelous design," Freeman remarked, "Most parts of this machine are universal and can be used for manufacturing other machinery. Every few years, we produce a batch of parts and have machine inspectors pick out the most precise ones for replacement or reassembly. Parts with less precision get used to assemble other engineering robots. Almost all core components, including inspectors, have consistent specifications... "

Xiang Shan laughed: "I never thought I’d hear such praise from you."

Freeman bowed his head: "Truly amazing. Do you know what I thought of when I saw this system?"

"What?"

"Life," Freeman sighed, "With just over twenty different amino acids, you can form numerous proteins, which then constitute complex units. Those cellular units assemble into organic wholes... They can self-replicate and self-repair certain faults..."

"Yawgmoth once likened life to exceptionally complex chemically driven machines. I scoffed at this notion back then. Human-designed products and natural ones differ greatly. But in front of this machine, I felt something close to the concept of ’life.’"

Freeman added: "Great design."

Xiang Shan nodded and sincerely said: "Thank you."

Accepting the praise not as Hero, but as an engineer appreciating his work.

Praise long overdue after two hundred years.

"Without these things, none of this could have happened," Freeman continued, "At first, I really didn’t like this thing, only using it out of necessity. But it supports all our work. I watched it ’forage,’ gather minerals, convert minerals to nutrients, metabolize. Its surplus supported us all."

Xiang Shan laughed: "I was really worried you’d hate this thing to the core."

"A hundred years ago," Freeman said, "A hundred years ago, I suddenly realized this near-life system could sustain itself apart from humans. They were born for humanity... Supported a community for a hundred years, and then I roughly understood... what Xiang Shan’s core idea was."

Xiang Shan slowly turned his head to look at him.

"I know you are not the real Xiang Shan... But I did want to say these words to Xiang Shan," Freeman said, "Anyway... though you are not Xiang Shan, I must say, thank you."

"Is that so." Xiang Shan said, "I didn’t expect that after Xiang Shan’s death, you would show such change."

He reached out and patted Freeman’s shoulder: "Whether I’m Xiang Shan or not doesn’t matter. Since you’ve understood Xiang Shan’s ideas, I naturally comprehend those thoughts, and that makes us friends."

Freeman sighed: "If back then there weren’t all those messy events, would such machines reshape the world?"

Xiang Shan said: "It was initially the final step."

Big industry, assembly lines, concentrated advantages would be dismantled.

Humanity did not invent assembly line work because of industrial machinery, but invented machinery for better assembly line work.

The capitalist world was founded on such a cornerstone.

Xiang Shan once hoped to change the world like this.