The Master

"Mr. Prototype, this way please."

Not long after, Tu Xiaoyu took them to visit the entire Divine Land World as promised.

Moving between "hardware" devices consumes a significant amount of "data," which is essentially the lifeblood of digital life. However, if the internal channels of the Diwang Group are used, there is no such consumption at all.

At this moment, Tu Xiaoyu was leading Gao Gong and another person walking on an underwater corridor. In the eyes of the digital life, this was a "corridor", but in fact, it was an underwater fiber optic cable.

Tick-Tock was looking around curiously.

The speed of the fiber optic cable is the speed of light, a speed that no digital life form can accept. However, the Ground Network Group has limited the speed, giving Didi the feeling of riding a tour bus. This feeling, which is somewhere between virtual and reality, is very novel to her.

Beyond the fiber optic cable lies a massive underwater engineering project, with countless unmanned machines operating to lay networks and install digital signal stations.

"Our goal is to enable all digital life in the future to freely travel to every part of this planet."

"I thought you created this virtual world to completely escape reality."

Tu Xiaoyu shook her head. "On the contrary, the purpose of building the digital world is to better transform reality. After all, if the hardware can't keep up, what are we talking about in terms of immortality?"

"What is that?" The senior engineer looked southeast at the source of light and instinctively sensed a powerful energy fluctuation.

"That's a crustal engine, a large-scale construction platform that we jointly developed with a company called Alloy Slug."

Metal Slug, a member of the Skull and Bones Society, pointing out a large-scale building of a level 3 civilization is not surprising at all.

"Crust engines? I've heard that ancient empires also had similar operations," the senior engineer said casually.

Tu Xiaoyu nodded and said, "Our research direction is different from theirs. The crustal engines of ancient empires were more about extracting heat energy from the earth's core and converting it into kinetic energy for heavy machinery through nuclear fusion reactions, while we focus more on energy storage."

"Energy storage?"

"Maintaining a vast virtual world consumes enormous resources. To ensure that the various 'hardware' systems do not crash due to natural disasters or man-made calamities, energy reserves are of paramount importance."

Dida subconsciously glance at the senior engineer. Did Mr. G already know this?

"It seems that you are not only deeply obsessed with creating a virtual world, but also very proactive," the senior engineer said with an admiring expression, as if he were completely immersed in the beauty of the large-scale architecture.

Tu Xiaoyu nodded, and said with some pride, "If we can create illusion with reality, we can also pave the way for reality with illusion. This is our company's philosophy."

"Ms. Tu, are you also a digital life?" Dida asked curiously.

Tu Xiaoyu doesn't hide anything. "I am the 30th generation of digital life."

"So you strongly support your group's plans?"

"Of course, Digital Life is a loyal supporter of the group, and achieving the group's goals is also about expanding our living environment."

Dida recalled what Mr. G had told him before: AI, or artificial intelligence in reality, would not support the Earth Network Group's plan. They have their own personality templates and their own physical bodies (hardware). They can roam freely in the cyber network and also enjoy a superior status in reality. Compared to humans, they prefer to maintain the current social structure.

But digital life forms are different. They don't have their own processors, which means they can't log into cyberspace. If they do, the consciousness conversion will destroy their already fragile personalities. In reality, they can only survive by relying on the hardware of the Divine Land. Once the hardware is destroyed, they will also perish.

Therefore, the so-called AI rebellion or AI independence is simply impossible for digital life.

Dida has come to understand somewhat: digital life is also a type of 'AI', and what Diwang Group is doing is cultivating and supporting its own 'AI community'.

Thinking about it this way, the image of a 'mad scientist' faded considerably from my mind, replaced by that of a shrewd and calculating politician.

"Let's go see the real divine land. I'm quite curious about how pure 'digital life' came into being."

The senior engineer glanced at the crustal engine one last time and said.

"Of course, please, both of you."

As a pioneer of an advanced virtual world, the senior engineer actually knows more. Many people, including some races in the universe, have certain misunderstandings about virtual civilization and information civilization.

When people talk about mechanical civilization, they immediately think of "infrastructure maniacs," "planet terraformers," and "cannon fodder producers."

In fact, even without mastering advanced spatial theories such as superstring theory, spatial mysteries, and quantum oceans, rudimentary virtual civilizations are still major players in infrastructure development.

Virtual civilizations without various hardware protections are also very fragile. Let alone ascension, even the slightest disturbance can greatly affect the virtual world.

It was precisely because the senior engineer knew this that he was able to determine that the Earth Grid Group was even more powerful than some military groups in terms of infrastructure construction and energy technology.

Creating a virtual human is not an easy task.

A few days ago, Director Du sent a rare message, asking him to inquire about knowledge related to "energy technology," as the Dugo Group had encountered a bottleneck.

Meanwhile, David Hilbert was also constantly uploading data—or more accurately, uploading himself.

The virtual space of "Divine Land" is not like cyberspace, which is a parallel structure. It is more like a "pyramid". The more times digital life is iterated, the more qualified it is to enter a higher level of digital space. The higher the level of digital space, the more stable the spatial architecture will be.

For example, the fifth level where he is now has reached a point of synchronization with reality, and changes in reality will be fully reflected in the virtual space.

On the radiation-contaminated sea, a yacht sped along and soon reached its destination: a deserted island.

David Hilbert jumped ashore, was searched, and then headed straight for the center of the island.

There's nothing particularly special about the island. The only place that's different is the huge and complex altar in the center of the island.

Besides David, several senior executives from the EarthNet Group had arrived in advance, and in addition to the EarthNet Group, other super powers in the Divine Land also sent prominent figures to participate.

Soon, a circle of people stood around the altar, and each of them was a renowned figure in the sacred land.

What they were waiting for was an ordinary old woman, whose body was covered with numerous incorrect numbers and looked as if she could collapse at any moment.

However, this lowest-level digital life form was the first digital life form in the divine land, and she also had another identity: the Lord's spokesperson.

The old woman scanned the crowd, and everyone around her held their breath. She opened her mouth and uttered a string of strange numbers. Then, her numerical life came to an end.

She disintegrated into the most primitive digital signals.

David Hilbert's eye twitched violently, startling everyone around him. The Lord's messenger was gone!?

The string of numbers was quickly deciphered, and some people were overjoyed while others wept.

Because the meaning of this string of numbers is—

Six months later, the commander arrived.