Legend of the Cyber Heroes
Chapter 968 - 204: New Civilization and Prison

Chapter 968: Chapter 204: New Civilization and Prison

"How are you doing here?" Xiang Shan took out a screen. He still held respect for these Spear Squids. They had shown him, through their lives, the determination to pursue freedom. Although their power was weak, they were worthy of such respect.

Soul’s skin color continuously changed, conveying its thoughts to Xiang Shan: "Very well, extremely well. Never been better. No humans suddenly capture us for research anymore. Nothing is better than this."

Xiang Shan nodded: "You’ve already gotten what you wanted."

Soul’s pattern also became full of emotion: "Yes."

"What then? What are your thoughts after this?"

"Afterward? We will go learn human technology. We must master the technological means to modify the Spear Squid," said Soul. "Although you are all good humans, the Spear Squid cannot be ignorant of this."

Xiang Shan agreed: "That’s correct. Do you plan for the whole species to be involved in this project next?"

"Without a doubt, nothing is more important than this. Of course, we are also discussing other matters... like population control and such," the Squid remarked.

Even without modification, dolphins possess a certain degree of intelligence and can understand the language of the Intelligent Dolphins.

For the emerging cetacean civilization, unmodified dolphins seem like individuals with innate language barriers. Humans with innate language impediments typically have some intellectual slowness, as well as specific behavioral and emotional disorders. However, such humans can still communicate and even live independently. Dolphins’ brains are already very developed.

But the neural complexity of the Spear Squid is not enough. Without modification, wild Spear Squids in the eyes of Intelligent Squids have an intelligence level akin to "a dog in the eyes of humans."

These Intelligent Squids even have to adopt a "herding" attitude to control their yet-to-be-intelligent kin. In the wild, the Intelligent Squids also control the next generation of wild Spear Squids by "eating the eggs."

An oversized population cannot be hidden.

And should they continue such behavior before this settlement overcomes the various challenges of squid modification technology?

There are discussions within the Squids as well.

"With the current size of the wild population, it’s already difficult for us to manage," Soul sighed. "If the population continues to grow, we won’t be able to control it. Inevitably, there will be Squid individuals entering the dolphin’s side. This is cruel for everyone — for dolphins and us alike."

"Some companions feel that we should not treat the wild kin as ’complete companions’ and give them all treatments. We can even use dolphins to control the number of wild individuals. But most of our kind feel that would be too cruel," Soul said. "Moreover, we must remove ourselves from the dolphin’s menu. ’Spear Squid’ and ’food’ must become two separate concepts. Only in this way can we coexist peacefully with dolphins. We believe this is our bottom line."

Xiang Shan nodded: "Moreover, the culture of cetaceans also refuses to eat Intelligent Creatures."

Indeed. Once the news "Squids are Intelligent Creatures" was confirmed, a depressive mindset emerged among the dolphins, and even Ola and others had to bring in special personnel for psychological counseling.

Furthermore, Xiang Shan also considered that "allowing dolphins to eat non-intelligent Squids" is a dangerous idea.

Dolphins cannot distinguish whether a Spear Squid has been upgraded or whether it is intelligent. The difference between Intelligent Squids and regular Squids is the regularity of skin color changes. Although this change is very obvious to Squids...

Unfortunately, most mammals are colorblind. Dolphins lack blue cone cells, so their color vision is already poor.

And the spatial perception brought by seawater and sound waves makes them not good at reading flat abstract image information.

To dolphins, there is no difference between Intelligent Squids and wild Squids. Unless one day the Squids develop "sign language" based on the waving of tentacles, dolphins might tell them apart.

Soul pondered and asked: "What do you think? Are the wild Spear Squids still... Intelligent Creatures?"

"When I met you, I was an AI. In many humans’ eyes, AI is not considered life," Xiang Shan smiled. "I think the key lies in how you perceive it yourselves."

Although the Squids now remain hostile to dolphins, Soul feels that Squids must establish communication with dolphins. Squids stubbornly believe that, despite their weakness, they must stand on an equal footing with humans. Now, they see dolphins the same way. In their view, communication between Squids and cetacean civilization cannot always rely on humans—or rather, can’t be controlled by humans.

Even if humanity as a whole is billions of times stronger than the combined civilizations of cetaceans and cephalopods.

This is a good phenomenon.

Xiang Shan patted Soul’s fin: "Seeing that you are adapting well, I am relieved."

He started to ascend and again found Ola Freeman at work.

Ola was making every effort to crack the technology of the Six Dragons Sect, striving to quickly master it.

Seeing Xiang Shan approaching, he nodded and asked, "Is the prison completed?"

Xiang Shan nodded.

Ola Freeman sighed: "I never expected... it to end like this. Ms. Yang really is something..."

In his memory, "Ghostly Dream Shadow" Yang Mengying was a hero of the chivalric war period, having achieved many feats against Superman Enterprise and the Usurper of the State. Many people admired her.

This was Yang Mengying from two hundred years ago.

And now, Yang Mengying, along with many members of the Six Dragons Sect, has been sent into a virtual prison by Xiang Shan. Xiang Shan borrowed some resources to create a virtual prison for those brains, adjusting their sense of time and rhythm, and even opening some interfaces to them. They could call upon computing resources to improve their lives, but the computing resources each person received were limited. The more they used, the clunkier their world appeared.

Xiang Shan always believed that inflicting sensory pain on criminals is unnecessary. It might serve as a "performance" for "propaganda warfare," but there is no such need for prisoners of war. Causing sensory pain neither helps them repent nor repays their crimes. The only thing they need to wait for is a true trial.

Xiang Shan said: "I’ll leave that server to you. Just replace the processor periodically... Well, I think you can use the past rules to decide ’what kind of processor to give’—that’s the method ’all civilizations’ discuss together."