Chapter 191

This statement reveals that she did not determine whether Prometheus was friend or foe before allowing him to enter the black box, which, from a guard's perspective, was clearly a serious dereliction of duty.

However, Ai Yue simply waved his hand, not caring about such details. "No need to apologize. These kinds of unexpected events require flexible responses. At least the outcome is fine, isn't it?"

Hua looked at Ai Yue's somewhat dejected expression, then at Prometheus's unresponsive mechanical body. "Could it be that Rose...?"

"They're most likely not going to get out."

Ai Yue shook his head, then said in a seemingly relaxed manner, "But it's not a big problem. Both Rose and Queen have several backups."

Although he said those words, Ai Yue still felt somewhat uneasy.

From the few words exchanged between the Herrscher and Prometheus, he had already realized Prometheus's plan.

The defeat of the two super Artificial Intelligence was indeed part of the plan, because only in this way could they infiltrate their core code into the core consciousness of the Herrscher without the Herrscher being on guard.

Ai Yue could even deduce that Prometheus, who fought the Herrscher at the time, was number two—because only her consciousness, which had been transcribed by the soul and theoretically contained the remnants of the Herrscher, could have done such a thing.

However, the prerequisite for the Herrscher to be completely unaware is that Queen and Prometheus must achieve true and complete destruction, that is, the complete destruction of the core code.

Only in this way can one perfectly merge with the Herrscher without being detected by the Herrscher.

After completing this step, the Herrscher transforms from a single individual into a kind of chimera. Although Prometheus II has "disappeared," she still has control over the Herrscher body because the core code of Prometheus One is 95% similar to hers.

This is why even the Herrscher herself couldn't stop the self-destruct animation, but Prometheus was able to stop it—because in that state, the two Prometheus were superimposed, and their control over the body was actually greater than that of the Herrscher.

After completing all of this, the final step is to assimilate with the Herrscher and kill it, but the outcome is obvious.

Although Artificial Intelligence is not truly dead as long as there is a backup, Ai Yue still doesn't like this outcome.

After all, he never treated Prometheus and Queen as cold, inanimate tools.

Especially inside the black box, Prometheus's every move was incredibly close to that of a human, which means that she may have already reached the second singularity. If she can survive, she may be able to complete a transformation before long.

However, without the accumulation of this period of time, even if the backup is restarted, Prometheus would have to start all over again.

However, he had to admit that Prometheus and Queen's plan was indeed perfect. Even without his intervention, the plan would have had a high probability of killing the Herrscher directly.

Recalling Prometheus's unfinished "Goodbye," Ai Yue couldn't help but feel a little sad.

However, at that moment, Ai Yue suddenly noticed that the mechanical body in front of him seemed to move slightly.

Ai Yue blinked subconsciously, and then Prometheus sat up abruptly from the ground, startling both Ai Yue and Hua Du.

What's going on?

"This body is really too difficult to use."

As Prometheus struggled to her feet, she muttered to herself, looking at the two people before her with astonished expressions. She seemed somewhat puzzled, "Why are you looking at me like that?"

Hua didn't speak, but looked at Ai Yue beside him.

If Ai Yue hadn't made that expression, she wouldn't have assumed that Prometheus had already sacrificed himself.

"Because I thought you had perished together with the Herrscher."

After recovering from his initial shock, Ai Yue's first reaction was to check the concentration of Honkai Energy on the other person. Only after confirming that the person in front of him was indeed not Herrscher in disguise did he breathe a sigh of relief. "But now it seems that the outcome of your plan is much better than I imagined?"

"Of course, it would be a bit of a waste to perish together, wouldn't it?"

Prometheus countered, "That's a special form of Herrscher, and what's most interesting is that her power can also be used by us."

"So are you Rose now, or Queen, or something else entirely?"

Ai Yue sensed something was off from the other person's tone. "I feel like your words and actions are more vivid than before."

"Because I am now fulfilling the expectations you had for me, Doctor Ai Yue."

Prometheus said, "As for what I am... I'm probably a fusion of Prometheus and Queen, and even Herrscher?"

"Wait, what's going on?"

Hua, standing to the side, was somewhat bewildered by this conversation. Seeing that the two were about to have an even more confusing exchange, she quickly stepped forward to interrupt them, "If possible, could you explain this to me first?"

Prometheus and Ai Yue exchanged a glance, and then began to briefly explain their plans.

The preceding content is basically consistent with what Ai Yue said. The only difference is that Prometheus and Queen did something even more outrageous than Ai Yue imagined—they even cleverly distorted the Herrscher's perception of time by controlling the speed of data transmission, which is how they managed to trap the other party in the network system for more than sixty days.

The one who perished in the server was indeed Prometheus II. By fusing her core data with Queen and then infiltrating into the Herrscher's core consciousness, the most difficult part of the plan was successfully completed.

"But how are you sure this step of the plan will succeed?"

Hua asked with some doubt, "Do you have some way to observe this matter?"

"No, but I will come regardless of whether this step succeeds or not."

Prometheus said, "If it succeeds, we'll move on to the next step of the plan. If it fails, I will continue to fight the Herrscher to buy more time for humanity."

She then looked at Ai Yue and said, "Fortunately, Doctor Ai Yue is back, so things were resolved in a simpler way than I had imagined."

"In the end, I don't think I did anything special."

Ai Yue shrugged. "If I had known it would be like this, I would have chosen not to connect at all. Maybe I could have ended the battle much faster."

At this point, Ai Yue couldn't help but feel somewhat fortunate, because when his plan and Prometheus's plan were being carried out simultaneously, a fatal flaw that should never have appeared would actually emerge—that was his own consciousness.

If the Herrscher is able to keenly perceive this matter and find a way to threaten Ai Yue's consciousness, then Prometheus's plan might fail. At that time, even Ai Yue himself will only be able to escape by relying on Hua.

Fortunately, this Herrscher of Aberration is essentially a giant baby, possessing sufficient intelligence to realize this—which is quite normal, considering she was born and died less than a hundred days ago.

Come to think of it, isn't the next generation of Herrscher of Erosion also a giant baby?

"So, the Herrscher was defeated, right?"

Hua then asked, "Sorry, I still feel a little unreal... Have we already won?"

Ai Yue didn't say anything, but walked up to the black box.

He opened the box and found something inside. "It seems that's indeed the case."

It was a crystal radiating intense Honkai Energy fluctuations—the core of the Twelfth Herrscher Core.

Seeing this, Hua couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief and scratched his head somewhat subtly, "Great, now only the distortion problem remains to be solved."

"No, you're oversimplifying things."

Ai Yue, on the contrary, showed a somewhat troubled expression. "Besides the distortion phenomenon, how to rebuild the global Internet is also a huge problem."

Although defeating the Herrscher may sound easy, even mundane, the premise for all of this is that 99 percent of the world's internet devices are in a state of damage. This damage is physical, and rebuilding them is not easy.

"Please don't worry, I have backups of all the data on the global internet. Once the server is set up, restoring the data will not be difficult."

Prometheus said at this moment, "In addition, my current abilities can also greatly accelerate this process."

"Speaking of which, I almost forgot to ask about your current situation,"

Ai Yue then refocused his attention on Prometheus. "You just said that you've fused with the power of the Herrscher of Aberration, is that true?"

"Before that, I have something to say."

Prometheus nodded first, then said, "I want a new name."

"It's because you're not entirely Prometheus anymore, right?"

Ai Yue was taken aback for a moment, then realized the reason for the other party's request. "Of course, no problem, but have you thought about your new name yet?"

"No, but I've already made some initial progress."

The Artificial Intelligence shook its head, causing two metal drill bits to strike its head, sparking a string of sparks. "First of all, although I have been reborn, I am still essentially the same Artificial Intelligence as before, so I will keep the names Prometheus and Queen."

"Of course, no problem. It's your prerogative."

Ai Yue nodded. "And then?"

"Then, I am still your creation, so I will use the same surname as you."

"You really are... a bit strange."

Upon hearing this, Ai Yue couldn't help but show a strange expression. "In typical entertainment works, once Artificial Intelligence develops self-awareness, shouldn't the first thing it break away from be its original family?"

"I think this is just a human fantasy,"

Prometheus Queen (tentative) shook his head. "This kind of templated approach is actually a kind of prejudice against the self-awakening of Artificial Intelligence. Every Artificial Intelligence should have different choices after awakening itself. Breaking away from the original relationship is one, and choosing to continue the previous relationship is another."

"That's true, forcing a mechanical crisis is indeed a bit cliché."

Ai Yue nodded in agreement. "So, you want to use 'Ai' as your surname, right? That's fine. What about the most important one: your given name?"

"The most crucial name,"

The robot's cameras, which act as its eyes, locked onto Ai Yue. "I want you to come and get it for me."

"So all you want is a new name, but you haven't even thought of a specific name yet, huh?"

Ai Yue couldn't help but laugh and cry at the same time. "But according to what you're saying, it seems that I really should be the one to choose this name... What should I do? I'm not very good at choosing names!"

The Artificial Intelligence added, "Any name is fine, as long as you choose it."

"How about we name it 'Ai'?"

After pondering for a long time, Ai Yue finally asked tentatively, "But this is just separating the 'AI' in Artificial Intelligence, isn't it a bit too casual?"

"I think it's great."

The other party didn't seem to care about this matter and simply nodded, "Then from now on, my name will be Prometheus Queen Ai Yi, or Ai for short."

Hua, standing to the side, scanned the strange pair with a peculiar look.

Her intuition told her that something seemed off.

"I'm glad you don't mind."

Seeing that the other party readily accepted the name, Ai Yue breathed a sigh of relief. "So, what's your situation now?"

"Actually, I don't know the specifics very well, but I just feel that I'm becoming stronger now,"

Ai said, "Now it seems that even after I'm separated from my original body, I can still have powerful computing capabilities, and I can even do this kind of thing."

As she spoke, her head suddenly drooped down, as if she had turned off her phone.

Meanwhile, on the numerous monitors in the central control room, Ai Yi's image appeared simultaneously—her virtual avatar had changed considerably compared to before, becoming more mature, and even displaying expressions on her face.

"This is... teleportation?"

Looking at the scene before him, Ai Yue stroked his chin. "No, the central control room's servers are basically destroyed and no longer capable of receiving data. This is more like some kind of possession-like ability..."

"It can't really be called possession,"

The virtual image on the screen quickly disappeared, and Ai returned to her mechanical body. "Besides that, I can do this too."

As she spoke, she pointed in the air, and the driver on Ai Yue's waist was automatically activated. The Prometheus submachine inside was instantly covered and assimilated by the current Ai Yi, and upgraded to its current form.

"I can feel that I will no longer disappear after being physically destroyed, like before,"

Ai said, "Now I can truly be integrated with the entire network. As long as there is one data node that can be preserved, I will not completely disappear."

"Moreover, the combination of these two capabilities means that I can appear anywhere in the world with internet access through the network system."

"It sounds a little... scary,"

Ai Yue couldn't help but laugh and said, "It's like some kind of electronic ghost."

"Your words have hurt me a bit,"

Ai said seriously, "Shouldn't we at least call it an electronic life form?"

"Indeed, you should now be considered to have transcended the realm of Artificial Intelligence and become a life form with an independent personality."

Ai Yue couldn't help but agree with Ai Yi's statement, "What are your thoughts on this?"

"Thank you for the invitation. Although this is only a small step for me, it is a giant leap for electronic life forms. I look forward to the birth of more of my kind in the future."

At this point, Ai paused for a moment before saying, "So, you have to work hard, Father."

Chapter Seventy: Aponia, you're really despicable now.

A month later, the root server located at the headquarters of Moth to Fire held its launch ceremony.

The ceremony will also be held simultaneously in Shenzhou, North America, and Australia. The four root servers, along with 32 auxiliary root servers, will reconnect the world into a unified whole, ending this brief but long period of global silence.

However, when representatives from various countries of the United Earth Government gathered here, they discovered that the person in charge of holding this ceremony was neither Ai Yue nor Vill-V, but Dr. Mei.

It's important to know that this new global internet system was designed by Ai Yue and built with the assistance of Vill-V. The root server at the headquarters of the Moth to Fire was also the first one built. Given how important this matter was, everyone would naturally assume that Doctor Ai Yue was in charge of it.

"I know what everyone wants to ask,"

Seemingly noticing the confusion in everyone's eyes, Dr. Mei said with some helplessness, "But Doctor Ai Yue has more important things to do, so I have to take over here."