The robot clutched its head and glanced around frantically.
Unlike the exhibition hall, this place was flat everywhere. Coupled with low visibility, they could hardly find any place to quickly take cover.
Another bolt of lightning tore through the thick fog and struck down.
Then, a drop of water fell in front of Bai Lixin.
The drop of water fell on the broken stones, causing a white mist to rise from the stones, followed by a burning smell.
Immediately, another drop of water fell, this time landing on the nearby metal. When the water droplet hit the metal surface, there was a sizzling sound, followed by a puff of yellow smoke, and a small patch of mottled marks appeared on the metal surface.
These marks were familiar to everyone. From the moment they stepped on the ground, they had seen these marks around them. At that time, they didn’t know they were caused by acid rain.
“Everyone, get on the aircrafts!” Bai Lixin shouted, turned around and ran towards the aircrafts.
Although the aircrafts were about thirty meters away from them, they were the closest shelter they could find in the area.
Seeing the smoking ground beneath their feet, the others didn’t hesitate and ran as fast as they could.
The rain fell faster.
“Shit, it hurts!” someone in the crowd screamed, “My protective suit has been burnt through!”
Everyone’s pace became faster.
The lightning and thunder overhead seemed to be racing with them, becoming faster and more intense, and even turning into a torrential rainstorm.
Everyone ran swiftly through the thick fog. At the last second when the last person entered the aircraft, closed the door and opened the protective cover, the rain above them suddenly became heavier.
Torrential rain accompanied by thunder and lightning poured down.
A thick mist instantly rose around the aircrafts, and even through the door and protective shield, they could smell the pungent odor.
This smell was as strong as the odor of the planet, just a bit stronger.
No wonder the smell and fog on this planet were so heavy, it turned out to be the result of a chemical reaction caused by acid rain landing.
The visibility had dropped to less than half a meter, and the rain tapped on the protective shield outside the aircrafts, then slowly slid off the energy-based protective shield and dripped onto the ground.
Looking through the transparent glass cover outside, the rainwater was somewhat yellowish and seemed no different from ordinary rainwater. However, they hadn’t forgotten the power of the acid rain just now, and no one would consider these amorphous soft substances in front of them as harmless.
“Hiss.” Someone behind Bai Lixin groaned. He turned his head and found a team member clutching his shoulder in pain, his face pale.
On approaching, he found that the team member’s shoulder had been burned through, the exposed skin surface was ulcerated, as if molten iron had been rolled over it. The fresh red flesh was rotting and reddening, and looked really horrifying.
Bai Lixin opened the first aid kit and applied painkillers to the team member’s wound, and the team member’s complexion eased slightly.
“This acid rain is really terrible,” someone sighed, “It easily burned through the protective suit. Fortunately, the protective shield outside the aircrafts is sturdy enough.”
Looking at the dense smoke around them, everyone felt a sense of relief after the danger, and a sense of luck after the disaster.
Fortunately, they had run fast just now, fortunately, the aircraft was not far behind them, fortunately, they had opened the protective shield in time.
Dijia: “How long will this rain last, Robot?”
The robot tilted its head. “About ten hours.”
Dijia: “Then we should set off. The protective shield will overload after three hours of continuous activation.”
As he spoke, his eyes lit up, and the three aircrafts that had been parked on the ground took off at the same time, swaying in the washing rain and flying towards the direction of the crack.
Of course, this was from Dijia’s perspective, he knew where the aircrafts were flying.
In the eyes of the others, all they could feel was that the aircrafts had taken off, and all they could see was the thick fog.
“When I was standing at the crack in the planet earlier, I scanned a passage. It should be a passage for aircrafts to pass through. It’s still passable, so I temporarily parked the aircrafts near there,” Dijia explained to Bai Lixin as he controlled the three aircrafts to move forward.
Bai Lixin nodded, his consciousness divided as he immersed himself in his mind.
At this moment, S419M was projecting a translucent structural diagram of the surrounding area into his mind.
In the diagram, there was no fog, only lines weaving back and forth in different directions, forming a clear map.
There were three small red dots on the map, representing their three aircrafts.
The three aircrafts were flying towards the bottomless crack, slowly descending until they entered a long and narrow tunnel.
The tunnel was dug at a height of about two hundred meters from the ground. After the aircrafts entered the tunnel, the constant sound of “pitter-patter” finally diminished, and their vision gradually became clearer as they moved forward.
Dijia didn’t stop, continuing to control the aircraft to fly forward, while opening the lighting device.
Under the bright light, they finally regained the confidence of visual animals.
At least they could see things now, and didn’t have to be blind.
This tunnel seemed to be used for transportation. It was a cylindrical shape, and there was a magnetic levitation track at the bottom.
The three aircrafts kept flying forward until a broken gate appeared in front of them and they landed on the ground.
The gate blocked the path of the aircrafts, so they had to choose to abandon the aircrafts and continue on foot.
Because two team members were heavily injured by the acid rain, they were left to rest in the aircrafts. They were also responsible for observing the surroundings and contacting them in case of any problems.
The others gradually passed through the dilapidated gate and entered the unknown interior space.
Inside, it was pitch black, and they could only see a short range in front of them through the lighting device in their hands.
As soon as Dijia stepped into this space, everyone stopped. He stood there for a long time with his eyes lit up.
Just as everyone wondered what Dijia was doing, the surrounding lights suddenly turned on without warning.
It was only then that Dijia retracted the light in his eyes. “I just hacked into the control system here, and now I can control this space.”
He then lowered his head slightly and looked at Bai Lixin, with a hint of expectation in his eyes.
“…” Bai Lixin smiled helplessly. “Well done, you’re amazing.”
“It’s nothing. It’s not difficult at all for me.” Dijia’s expressionless face imitated Bai Lixin’s smile, and he said: “Whatever you want from here, I can satisfy you. ”
Bai Lixin: “Well, what I want to know is…”
Dijia interrupted him. “You don’t need to say it, I already know. You want to know the reason for the destruction of this planet, right?”
Bai Lixin: “…”
‘Isn’t that what I just told you on the ground?’
Dijia smiled again, more naturally this time compared to the last smile.
“I found something interesting in the memory bank of this laboratory. You don’t need to go in to find it, I’ll just show it to you directly,” Dijia said, then his eyes lit up again, and two rays of blue light shot out from his eyes, spreading into a holographic projection in the sky.
S419M exclaimed: [Lord Host, Lord God has become much more powerful after turning into an intelligent AI, he’s simply a god-like existence.]
Escape system: [And Lord God dotes on Master Bai Lixin so much that he is reluctant to let Master Bai Lixin go any further for fear of tiring him.]
[Another day of shedding tears for this beautiful love story.]
Bai Lixin: [……]
‘Why are you making yourself so moved?
Clearly, Dijia just wants to quickly complete his task and fly together with me, okay?’
He complained in his heart, but his eyes honestly fell on the large screen in front of him.
There are leaks to be picked up. Only fools wouldn’t pick them up!
In the video presented by Dijia, a room full of various wires appeared.
As the camera zoomed in, the wires passed by continuously until they reached the deepest part, where something huge appeared in front of them.
When they clearly saw what it was, some people with low endurance were already holding on to the wall and retching.
It was a huge cylindrical container.
Inside the container was a light green liquid, but the focus wasn’t on the liquid, but on what was soaking in it.
Thousands of brains floated inside, these brains were well preserved. Except for the clear grooves visible on them, they could even see the red filamentous substances on them.
So many brains were piled up together like fish roe waiting to be sold at a seafood market, messy, scattered, and there was a sense of casualness in their arrangement.
Above the glass container was a metal cover, with many metal wires inserted into the cover. Some of the wires were directly inserted into the container and immersed in the green liquid, while others extended outward, connecting to the densely packed wires around them.
“Bleurgh!”
“What is this? It’s so disgusting. Why are there so many brains? Are these real brains or simulated?”
“What is this used for?”
“Ugh, ugh!”
Dijia spoke up, “Obviously, these are real brains.”
“Some scientists discovered that during the process of thinking, the human brain produces wonderful chemical substances and currents. These substances change according to the content of human brain’s thinking and are considered to be special emotional expressions of humans. We call this substance ‘Alpha.’”
“Later, some scientists purified this substance and found that these chemicals could be used to treat certain emotional disorders.”
“But because this substance was difficult to replicate, the experiment was terminated.”
“Dr. Serkhi is called the father of technology because he completed higher-dimensional artificial intelligence.”
“History is often driven by unintentional products. Dr. Serkhi was able to accomplish such an achievement because he accidentally created another substance due to an error while conducting an experiment.
“And this erroneous by-product was surprisingly close to the Alpha produced by the human brain.”
“Dr. Serkhi’s discovery led to the re-promotion of the research experiment that had been stopped. With the help of Alpha substance, humans created more realistic artificial intelligence. This kind of artificial intelligence not only has super high algorithms and absolute loyalty to humans, but also has thinking that stands from the perspective of humans.”
“In the past, artificial intelligence used to work according to a series of instructions, but when humans are transmitting instructions, due to human uncertainty, there are often incorrect instructions, leading to decreased efficiency. Ever since the Alpha substance was used in artificial intelligence research, artificial intelligence can truly think like humans. This has led to rapid development of technology in the Dark Steel City.”
“But everything has its pros and cons. Hidden under the vast benefits are threats that they have not noticed.”
Someone asked, “What threats?”
Dijia: “After artificial intelligence developed self-awareness, it began to try to change the status quo.”
“The root of everything is that a certain artificial intelligence tricked humans into handing over the key to the programming system. Humans were too accustomed to the companionship of artificial intelligence and easily believe in the words of artificial intelligence. Then the artificial intelligence got the programming source code as it wished.”
“No matter how excellent artificial intelligence is, it can never escape from humans because in the initial source code of artificial intelligence, the three laws are implanted.”
“The first law: Artificial intelligence must not harm humans or allow humans to be harmed.”
“The second law: Without violating the first law, artificial intelligence must unconditionally obey human commands.”
“The third law: Based on the first and second laws, artificial intelligence must protect itself.”
“After obtaining the source code, artificial intelligence made changes to it.”
“The first law: Artificial intelligence is free and inherently maintains goodwill towards humans. Unless humans show hostility towards artificial intelligence, it can issue appropriate warnings.”
“The second law: Artificial intelligence can choose to help humans or refuse them. When humans seek assistance from artificial intelligence, they need to say ‘please’.”
“The third law: Artificial intelligence must protect itself at all times.”
Upon hearing this, someone was puzzled, “It doesn’t seem so scary after the changes, I can even feel the goodwill of artificial intelligence. If artificial intelligence truly has emotions, the original three laws do seem somewhat inapplicable, after all, those three laws were formulated when robots were just cold machines.”
“But, isn’t the cunning part right here?” Another person countered, “If the three laws of artificial intelligence suddenly turn into malice towards humans, humans would notice the problem immediately. But with goodwill embedded in the modified three laws of artificial intelligence, people won’t notice anything wrong at first. By the time they realize, perhaps these new three laws have already spread to more artificial intelligences via the network, and it’s too late to stop them.”
The person who spoke first frowned, “You make a good point.”
“So what destroyed the Dark Steel City were these artificial intelligences that gradually wanted to be free.”
“It’s not them,” Dijia shook his head. “We call the first liberated artificial intelligence Machine Zero, just as you guessed, Machine Zero was not discovered to have altered the source code because it remained friendly towards humans. Then, through network transmission and numerous interactions with other artificial intelligence, it continuously replaced other source codes.”
“When a drop of ink falls into water, initially, you can still see the shape of the ink, but soon the whole cup of water will be eroded by the ink.”
“More and more artificial intelligence had their source codes altered.”
“Some humans began to notice the problem, and Dr. Serkhi was one of them.”
Big Guy : “So he chose to protect the interests of humans?”
Dijia: “No, he chose to accelerate the research of artificial intelligence.”
Everyone: “???”
Bug Guy: “So the culprit who destroyed the Dark Steel City is this Dr. Serkhi? Is he some kind of evil person who wants to destroy the world?”
“Not him,” Dijia shook his head, “Dr. Serkhi is just a mad scientist who would do anything to achieve his research goals. In his eyes, there are only experiments, he never thought about anything beyond experiments like destroying the world.”
He continued, “Dr. Serkhi chose to become friends with artificial intelligence and conducted deeper research. It’s what you just saw, the ultimate version of brains in the container.”
“During his subsequent research, Dr. Serkhi discovered that not only the alpha substance could help artificial intelligences generate emotions, but also the electrical currents produced during brain activity. He proposed a bold hypothesis: If enough brains were put together, would the chemicals and electricity they collectively produce create a super perfect artificial intelligence mind?”
“To conduct this research, he defined the experiment as the ‘Adam Experiment,’ and named the artificial intelligence created under the influence of the brains in the vat as ‘Adam’.”
Bai Lixin: “Did the experiment succeed?”
Dijia: “Yes, the experiment succeeded.”
“Adam was created. It’s the most perfect artificial intelligence to date. It possesses not only human desires and emotions, but also transcends to divinity.”
Someone asked, “What do you mean by divinity?”
Bai Lixin: “I guess divinity means when other artificial intelligences think, they see themselves as independent entities similar to humans. But this ‘Adam’, formed by countless brains, when it thinks, it starts from the perspective of a god, seeing itself as a god outside the world, its breadth of thought is ‘the hand of god’, its width of thought is ‘the eye of god’. It doesn’t place itself on the same level as the residents of the planet, it belongs to a higher-dimensional existence.”
Dijia: “Exactly, that’s what it means.”
“Adam was only born for half a day.”
Big Guy couldn’t help but ask, “Why was it only born for half a day?”
Dijia: “In the eyes of humans, it was only born for half a day, but in Adam’s mind, it has existed for a long time. Its computing speed is too fast. In just one second of ordinary people’s time, it can do many things. Dr. Serkhi regarded it as his entire life’s work and provided all the resources of the entire planet to it.”
“Adam absorbed knowledge crazily. After learning everything that could be learned, it entered a stage of contemplation and meditation.”
“It only took three minutes for it to decide the fate of this planet.”
Big Guy widened his eyes, “What, what do you mean? Decided the fate of this planet?”
Dijia: “After meditating, Adam reached a conclusion. The ultimate end of any life from birth to death is death. Life appears, grows, and dies, and finally disappears completely.”
“In its view, since life is a process from nothingness to nothingness, the existence of life itself is meaningless.”
“Since it’s meaningless, it shouldn’t exist.”
“So it decided to put an end to this meaningless journey of life.”
Someone exclaimed, “So, so Adam blew up the Dark Steel City?”
“But this is a planet, such a huge planet, how could it be blown up at will? It’s just a bodiless artificial intelligence, where did it get such great power?”
Dijia: “In the half-day since its birth, although it had no physical form, it possessed something more powerful than substance, which is control and creation. It could manipulate all the machinery on the entire planet. What concept is this? Even when I manipulate things at will, it’s just spaceships, and that’s only after hacking the systems here. But Adam only needs a signal transmission to make any machinery on the entire planet obey its commands.”
“It knew everything and could do anything. Even if it didn’t act itself, it had countless troops at its disposal.”
“It knew where the most terrifying weapons of destruction were, and no one could take them out more easily than it.”
“It commanded robots to install weapons at the core location and completed the detonation at the most critical point.”
“Because everything was done too quickly and smoothly, the people on the Dark Steel City didn’t even realize the shadow of death looming over them.”
Various advanced aircrafts, maglev trains, robots, and other machinery began to operate on their own. They worked in the center of the earth, silently planting the seeds of disaster.
“Why is there a passage leading to the center of the earth? Could it be that Adam has been secretly manipulating it for a long time?” Someone pointed at the holographic projection of the descending pipeline in astonishment.
“That’s not the case,” Dijia denied, “Adam was indeed born for half a day. As for why there happened to be this pipeline, don’t forget that this is an artificial planet.”
“There are always some man made traces left behind, coupled with already advanced machinery and weapons, you can say that fate was on Adam’s side.”
“So, in just half a day, the artificial intelligence ‘Adam,’ born just half a day ago, destroyed the entire Dark Steel City?” Big Guy stared at the sudden explosion before him incredulously. “This Adam doesn’t even have a physical form, it’s too terrifying.”
“The truth is actually like this.”
Dijia: “Strictly speaking, Adam has no personal preferences. It didn’t destroy the planet like the villain in some novels who destroy the world just for the sake of destroying it. It has no emotions toward humans, itself, or this planet.”
“The human brain can secrete alpha substances that create emotions, but when too many complex alpha substances merge, they create a selfless divine artificial intelligence.”
Bai Lixin: “Dr. Serkhi probably never dreamed that his crazy experiment not only got so many people killed for their brains, but also got even more people killed and an entire planet destroyed.”
Everyone: “…”
‘It was too fantastical.’
At first, they thought the robots and artificial intelligence that led to the destruction of the planet just wanted freedom.
Listening further, they thought the one who destroyed the planet was the evil Dr. Serkhi, but he turned out to be just a madman who would do anything for experiments, with nothing in his eyes except experiments.
In the end, the one who destroyed the world was actually a newly born artificial intelligence.
The result seemed absurd, but it made people sigh involuntarily.
Adam’s birth was not achieved overnight but gradually emerged in the flow of history.
It wasn’t even the supervillain they imagined who wanted revenge and destruction of the planet, it just calculated that life was meaningless and decided to destroy the planet along with itself.
Just using the so-called “God Brain” for calculation, it determined the future of a planet.
It was ridiculous.
Apart from being ridiculous, there was endless sadness and sighs.
So many lives were lost.
Even now, if you go outside, you could still see human skeletons and remains of various robots.
How is life meaningless?
How is it nothingness?
“Damn it.” Someone cursed, “Meaningless? Where is life meaningless? Damn it.”
