The Plan Unfolds

In the cyber world, there are thousands of network nodes in the City That Never Sleeps. At this moment, black and white light began to shine on nearly one-tenth of the nodes.

"Is this your plan?" The voice of the bird of paradise echoed in the engineer's mind.

"To incite conflict between the mechanical supercomputer and the emerging giants, and then reap the benefits?"

"The collaboration between the machine learning and unreal engines will not destroy each other."

"The machine generation needs Unreal Engine's technology to completely digest the old machine generation and help it complete its upgrade to the mainframe level."

"Not to mention the Unreal Alliance, the Moral Chip, the Human Completion Project—none of them can function without the help of the mechanical mainframe."

"But there's no doubt they're not of one mind."

"This gives me room to use my methods."

The Rich Lady Aiai Prototype closed its eyes, and the next moment, in the main brain area, the seventh spider woman opened her eyes.

She twisted her neck, her three pairs of red eyes looking around, and sure enough, the air was filled with a dense, almost boiling, simulated data.

Name: The Seventh Spider Woman

Race: Mutant (Neuromutant)

Classes: Deepweb Weaver (Level 30), Deepweb Stalker (Level 25)

Overall Level: 55

Skills: Deep Web Stealth (Elite), Spider Manipulation (Expert), Spider Substitute (Expert), Crawling into Dreams (Expert), Data Migration (Master), Goddess Worship (Mind Imprint), Dark Transformation (Expert), Web Enhancement (Expert),...

Although there is no template, this is a very troublesome Tier 1 max-level elite, especially with those five or six escape skills. If players were to try to farm it, it would take at least thirty or forty players with heavy firepower to do so.

"However, there is no sign of carbon-based fusion, because of the 'mind imprint'."

Carbon-based fusion represents the awakening of self-will in carbon-based organisms; NPCs who follow a religious path indeed find it difficult to transcend themselves.

"Never mind, it's not a big deal."

Hearing the faint sound of gunfire, the Seventh Spider Woman closed her eyes. The next moment, countless transparent spider silks hung down, intertwined with each other, and formed a large web. As the spider web was formed, a large amount of simulated data was "crawled" out.

In a sense, the opponent's ability is somewhat like the Mother of Data, which has degenerated a thousand times.

The Seventh Spider Woman moved with light, graceful steps. With each step, a part of her body began to be digitized. As the digitization covered her entire body, she stepped directly into the wall, her figure passing through it.

Under the guidance of the senior engineer, "data migration" has reached an unprecedented level.

The main brain area looked completely empty; not only was there no one there, but even the mechanical eyeliner was nowhere to be seen.

The reason for this situation is that the new generation of machines is doing its best to digest the old generation of machines, resulting in an unprecedented concentration of computing power.

This also means that her defensive capabilities have been weakened to the limit.

The female version of the senior engineer moved around the perimeter and quickly 'devoured' two defensive AIs. She confirmed the direction of what she was looking for, and the spider web fully opened, directly connecting to the cyber network. The next moment, massive computing power descended from the sky. Enveloped by the computing power, the seventh spider's figure was completely digitized, disintegrating into countless small spiders.

In cyberspace, the senior engineer is performing calculations with his eyes closed.

"Elder brother."

"Kindness?"

"I think I'm starting to get a clue about the person you asked me to find."

"Another piece of good news."

Data spiders crawl everywhere for data, a behavior that would have been absolutely suicidal in the past. But now, as long as a few key nodes are not involved, no one can stop them. Soon, the senior engineer found what he was looking for.

In a warehouse thirteen stories underground, the Seventh Spider Woman reappeared, looking around with a smile on her lips.

This place is filled with equipment from the orphanage, and they're all alien-made: large brainwave generators, consciousness extractors, soul purifiers, and so on.

According to the level standard, these are all level 15 consciousness equipment.

The Miller family's idea was to create a "brainwave woman" as a backdoor to their future Electronic Brain Project, so they were naturally willing to invest heavily.

"Brother, I've let them come over."

"Kindness."

Soon, AI data began to be transmitted, and small AIs took shape, transforming into cute boys and girls. As soon as they landed, they started chattering away.

"It's an orphanage! I was the runner-up in the competition back then, only a little worse than Xiao Yuanyuan."

"So what? He still got his head chopped off."

"That's better than you being flushed down the toilet!"

"That's not a toilet, that's a consciousness extractor! They targeted me because I'm too smart!"

"Yes, yes, you're the smartest, the most intelligent."

"Damn it, try my Chicken-Stealing Dragon Claw!"

The "senior engineer" lowered his gaze, and the next moment, all the AIs froze, quickly returning to their positions and operating these neural devices.

The most effective way to deal with these little AIs is to go directly into the background and modify their logic programs.

Soon, a large amount of computing power was created out of thin air and quickly injected into these devices.

"Chips 0-1111 connected, chips 0-1112 connected, chips 0-1113 connected, chips 0-1114 connected, chips 0-1115 connected..."

"Chips 1-1111 are connected, chips 1-1112 are connected, chips 1-1113 are connected, chips 1-1114 are connected, chips 1-1115 are connected..."

"Chip 2-1111 has been connected..."

The engineer created four levels for the "Bat of Laughter" chip: chip 0 is for hardcore players, chip 1 is for elite players, chip 2 is for support players, and chip 3 is for ordinary players.

Every civilization has unique characteristics that cannot be replicated.

In his previous life, the reason why the senior engineer chose the Superbrain Civilization was because of its "supercomputing characteristics." With the combination of brainpower, it could temporarily transform any individual piece of equipment into a group of equipment.

In other words, even an ordinary computer, when enhanced by the characteristics of civilization, can become a large data processing center.

Soon, these neural devices, which were originally designed to create "electronic brain back doors," began to connect to the brain chips of tens of thousands of players and absorb and transform their sensory data.

The bigger the commotion the players make, the more "black and white data" will be generated. The senior engineer is also an expert in stealing data.

Only big data can combat big data.

A legend of one man can only end with death.

Only when a group of natural disasters join forces can miracles be created.

The security maintainers of ordinary enterprises are level 20, while the security maintainers of the Unreal Alliance are level 25. Their weapon systems are quite advanced, with their own energy modules, strong endurance, and embedded Electronic Barrier, making them ineffective against ordinary hackers.

It takes three or four players working together to defeat a single boss; in a one-on-one situation, a player is no match at all.

So, very quickly, five or six unlucky players were tied up and taken to the Unreal Alliance's experimental center.

"We will not surrender! No matter how much you interrogate us, it won't work!"

"Yes, our true feelings are zero, so torturing me won't change anything!"

"Unless you give me machine tokens, 100,000 machine tokens, I'll tell you everything!"

"If you don't have the money, you can give me high-end equipment. If all else fails, you can give me a prosthetic body."

Unfortunately, the higher-ups of the Virtual Union had no patience for these cyborgs and simply waved them away.

Soon, five blood-stained "Bat of Laughter" chips appeared in the conference room.

Dr. Murray calmly picked up a chip, inserted it into a processor, and a brain-shaped neural projection appeared.

Soon, a large number of chip parameters were deciphered.

"The lowest-grade general-purpose chips on the market don't even have the most basic protective capabilities," an expert said dismissively. "These black market chips are generally only used by the most basic robots."

"I don't need you to boast about your technical skills," a high-ranking official said grimly. "I just want to know why the ethics chip is ineffective on implanted individuals of this type."

"If even a low-end chip can interfere with the effectiveness of ethical chips, it would be a fatal blow to our company's global expansion. Do you know what the consequences would be?!"

"Or do you want to test the function of this chip yourself?"

The expert was speechless for a moment, and cold sweat poured down his back.

"Let me explain," Dr. Murray stepped forward and said, "In fact, these kinds of chips alone will not cause much damage to our business."

"But we did overestimate the results of our experiments on human nature. There is indeed a type of person who can transcend normal ethical human nature."

"According to our investigation, this type of person is called a player."

"Player? A self-designation used by ancient gamers?"

"There seems to be such a saying."

"A cyborg? A mutant? Is this a test from a competitor?"

Dr. Murray coughed twice and said, "Everyone, now that the principle has been figured out, please rest assured that the protective patch for this type of person will soon appear on the chip. Our security department is also taking action, and we will give you an explanation in due time."

"Then we can rest assured."

"Dr. Murray's technical skills are beyond question, at the level of the Mother City."

"As long as the plan is sound, I will arrange for production to begin immediately."

Soon, the holographic projections of these shareholders went offline one by one. After they all went offline, Dr. Murray's tone changed 180 degrees, and he said in a deep voice, "We cannot solve this chip problem. We must launch the Human Completion Project ahead of schedule."

"Is there absolutely no way?" Hugh Laurie frowned. "Biology, neurology, medicinal chemistry—I can get you all sorts of top experts in any field you need, with no expense spared."

"That won't work!" Dr. Murray interrupted him decisively.

"To put it simply, human nature is like the underlying logic of the human brain. We build our moral framework on this logic, but if these people's underlying logic operates differently from ours, then nothing we do will work!"

"The Human Completion Project is based on ethical and moral humanity! Species that are beyond human nature are beyond our control."

"Therefore, we must complete the first part of the plan while there are still relatively few of these people, and then carry out species extermination."

"Kill as many as they come! Just like eliminating cockroaches!" the chief expert said coldly.

Just like the Fourth Calamity's mischief, the player elimination plan seems to be unfolding ahead of schedule.

Hugh Laurie gave the other person a deep look and slowly nodded.

Even senior engineers must respect the basic rules of the system; at least in the task assignment section, the difficulty is calculated by the system itself.

If a hellish mission is one that is impossible to complete, then a nightmare mission is one that can only be completed with a slim chance of survival.

Clearly, the moment players enter the city, they immediately understand what a nightmare-level mission is all about.

No matter how many times you kill them, you can't get rid of the law enforcement officers; all sorts of new weapons; and drones that relentlessly pursue you for 30 hours.

This is much more exciting than gang warfare in alleyways.

Fortunately, players who have experienced high-intensity maps like Crime City are already familiar with the scenario where missiles rain down from the sky at any time and large robots wipe out entire areas.

Move when you need to, use your skills when you need to, and if all else fails, just throw your high-level equipment at your teammates and become a human bomb.

Reading at midnight

Gunfire and artillery fire continued until late at night.

Only about half of the players survived.

And they were scattered throughout various urban areas.

In this game, the player identity has a hidden advantage: once you put away your weapons and equipment, no one can tell whether you are a player or an NPC.

Soon, the players realized that something was wrong with the City That Never Sleeps.

First of all, the swarms of large flies that used to fill the sky have disappeared.

Furthermore, the street gangs that were once known for their "strong martial spirit" have disappeared.

Thirdly, the citizens of the city that never sleeps have become abnormal.

The abnormal thing is that even though gunfire is raging on the streets next door, these citizens are going to work or shopping as usual, acting like 'NPCs', just missing a deck of Gwent.

Strange! Very strange!

Why aren't the NPCs in this game intelligent anymore?

A big question mark appeared in the minds of these players.

"Something seems off about them."

At this moment, a player with scouting skills shared the data he had gathered.

Intelligent Apathy: A large amount of human brain computing power is extracted by an unknown entity, and the implanted moral chips force them to act only according to the "correct" behavior pattern. The lack of biological nature makes them, to some extent, walking corpses.

"What's this? Have they been brainwashed?"

"Acting according to a certain behavioral pattern?" one player muttered to himself. "Isn't this similar to the regular games we play?"

The players exchanged glances, and the black bars instantly filled up!

"Rob the weapons shop!"

"Idiot, who steals weapons these days? Go rob a bank!"

"Idiot, who's the richest in the City That Never Sleeps? It's the corporations, of course! Cybernetic bodies, weapons, blueprints, knowledge—they have everything you could want!"

At this moment, on the rooftop, watching the players begin their actions, the senior engineer muttered to himself.

"It's time for the NPCs to make a move."