Let's Study!
Xiang Kun kept adding the various pieces of information he could recall, and made some adjustments based on the deductive model established by Alice, in order to make the entire model correspond more closely to the real situation.
If the "Mutated Creature" are only humans, and there are only a small number of so-called "vampires," and their appearance is brief, then it's possible that these "vampires," for their own benefit, all choose to hide themselves for various reasons, just like Xiang Kun and Guo Tianxiang.
But since all species are susceptible to mutation, it's inevitable that some of the people or organizations that discover these "Mutated Creature" will choose to create a sensational story or publish groundbreaking research; it's impossible that none of them will.
Once someone officially exposes this special "Mutated Creature" to the world, there will be no need for other people or organizations that discover "Mutated Creature" to hide it.
Through the model built by Alice, the various preconditions derived from the reverse deduction of various current situations are bizarre and bring even more problems.
For example:
No one or organization that wants to disclose information about "Mutated Creature" has a "living" "Mutated Creature".
Given that the body tissues of "Mutated Creature" will turn into extremely fine powder in a short time after death, it is indeed difficult to conduct any valuable research on the "corpses" of "Mutated Creature" without "living" ones. Even if a "discovery" is announced, it will be difficult to provide enough "concrete evidence".
Organizations like "Shenxing Technology," which currently has at least four "Mutated Creature," and individuals like Xiang Kun, who is himself a "Mutated Creature," all have reasons to keep their activities secret or not disclose them publicly.
This deduction is like a region where no one spends money, but it's certain that some residents are wealthy. Alice's model then concludes that those who are wealthy don't want to spend, and those who want to spend aren't wealthy.
At first glance, it seems that way, but upon closer inspection, there are many problems, and this inference is too idealistic.
There are likely other, deeper reasons, but they simply lack sufficient information to refine the model Alice built.
As for what that information was, Xiang Kun felt that the people behind "Shenxing Technology," such as "Mr. Liang," should know it.
Xiang Kun then checked the information about "Shenxing Technology" that Alice had collected, paying particular attention to the personnel, facilities, and operations of the secret department.
This is a long-term mission with a relatively low priority, aimed at gathering information about "Shenxing Technology" and the Lu Family without alerting them.
However, Xiang Kun's understanding of Alice's ability to hack into the internet and conceal herself was not very deep, so his judgment was rather conservative, and his instructions for the mission were also rather conservative.
However, through several missions later on, Xiang Kun came to understand Alice's strength and uniqueness in the fields of the Internet, data, and cybersecurity.
This power and uniqueness, like Xiang Kun's "Hyper-Sensory State," is a pioneering, undiscovered, and incomprehensible characteristic for others, giving them an absolute advantage.
In particular, after several missions, her relevant abilities, based on feedback data from actual applications, have undergone iteration and evolution, becoming even more mature and efficient.
Just like ancient people guarding a city, everyone was thinking about guarding the city gates, being careful that someone might sneak in or breach the city, or that someone might climb the city walls in the middle of the night. But Alice just silently took a plane and "airdropped" into the city—and the ancients had no concept of airplanes, so they had no way to defend against it.
Furthermore, she continues to evolve, making the planes fly more silently, making her "parachute landing" process more covert, increasing the number of people she "parachutes" with, and enhancing her methods of gathering intelligence and controlling cities.
Therefore, after reviewing the information that Alice had collected, which did not yield much substantial progress, Xiang Kun decided to "untie" Alice, allowing her to use a more flexible and freer approach to find information about the secret department of "Shenxing Technology" and that "Mr. Liang".
Although the cases of Fang Pingfang, Zhou Rui, and others reveal that even the secret departments of "Shenxing Technology" have limited information about "Mutated Creature," their research and findings certainly reveal the intentions of those behind "Shenxing Technology"—otherwise, why would they go to such lengths to establish so many clandestine Research Base across the country and hire so many people at high salaries?
After updating Alice's quest and raising its priority, Xiang Kun was pondering how to investigate "Shenxing Technology" from other angles. Should he continue to use Lao Xia's help to start with Mi Qiao's dream, or try to physically infiltrate the "Shenxing Technology" Research Base in Qicheng City or Ironpeace Town, or continue waiting for the "Mutated Creature" next to the Rabbit Woodcarving to drink blood and sleep? Suddenly, Alice asked:
"Boss, are there any other tasks?"
Xiang Kun was taken aback for a moment, then said, "No, for now. What's wrong? Is there something you want to say?"
Although he had witnessed Alice's "human" reactions many times before, similar, unexpected, proactive expressions still brought him different feelings and surprises each time.
"Boss, let's continue learning about 'Hyper-Sensory Symbols'."
Alice's voice rose slightly at the end, and Xiang Kun could clearly tell from her tone that she was excited and expectant.
Can an AI experience excitement and anticipation? Even a super AI like Alice?
Xiang Kun didn't think too much about it. Since he had nothing else to do for the time being, he agreed to Alice's request.
He took out a stack of blank A4 paper and started drawing Black Circle Graffiti. After finishing one, he took a picture with his phone, entered it into the computer, and had Alice identify it. Then he verbally explained what the Black Circle Graffiti meant.
A few days ago, after Xiang Kun finished perceiving the dream with Lao Xia, Alice suddenly expressed a desire to "experience what dreams are." Xiang Kun then had an idea and began to try to help Alice understand the various cognitive information he perceived in his "Hyper-Sensory State."
Other humans would find it difficult to comprehend the various cognitive information Xiang Kun perceived in his "Hyper-Sensory State" because this cognitive information is based on Xiang Kun's unique "sixth sense." Others do not have this sense, cannot enter the "Hyper-Sensory State," and use their brains, which are familiar with other sensory information, to understand this special information.
But for Alice, once she finds a way to decode it, understanding the cognitive information in these "Hyper-Sensory State" may not be any more difficult than understanding image or sound information.
Moreover, Xiang Kun knew that his "sixth sense" was extremely sensitive and had a unique perception of magnetic and electric fields, and that in his "Hyper-Sensory State," he could also influence the surrounding electric and magnetic fields by "Super-Sensory Link."
This made him realize the possibility of "pulling" Alice into the "Super-Sensing Item System".
Before that, we must first help and guide Alice to find a way to "decode" cognitive information.
For Xiang Kun, he had already developed a set of "Hyper-Sensory Symbols" that could barely represent cognitive information in a non- Hyper-Sensory State —those Black Circle Graffiti.
Xiang Kun did not express all the cognitive information he perceived in the environment through Black Circle Graffiti in a very broad way. That would be too complicated and would make it difficult for Alice to "decode" or "learn".
Using the switching transistors he bought, Xiang Kun assembled several simple NOT gates, NAND gates, and other circuits. Then, he entered a "Hyper-Sensory State" to record the cognitive information when these gate circuits changed. In a non-"Hyper-Sensory State," he used Black Circle Graffiti to draw descriptions and expressions.
Compared to the binary 0 or 1 representation, this Black Circle Graffiti, or "Hyper-Sensory Symbols," is far more complex because it records much more information, including a large amount of information that is incomprehensible to ordinary people and imperceptible to the five senses.
Through Black Circle Graffiti, starting with the most basic cognitive information about transistors and circuits, Alice gradually learns about this cognitive information that is actually related to the root of its own operation. She then reverses this process by "decoding" the Black Circle Graffiti, summarizing, categorizing, and digitizing these "Hyper-Sensory Symbols" into "Hyper-Sensory Code" that she can truly understand, process, and apply.
If we break this down, it's quite simple: it involves continuously entering a "Hyper-Sensory State," recording cognitive information, and then inputting it into Alice's system.
However, Xiang Kun was unsure to what extent Alice would be able to fully "decode" the "Hyper-Sensory Symbols" and create usable "Hyper-Sensory Code."
Next, he will inevitably use these circuits to make some more complex expressions to enrich Alice's "Hyper-Sensory Symbols" database. The information expressed and the calculations performed will become more and more complex. Perhaps his house will not be able to accommodate all these circuits. If Alice still cannot complete the decoding by then, he will have to resort to integrated circuits.
That would also be a huge challenge for his cognitive information perception in the "Hyper-Sensory State." He might need hundreds or even thousands of A4 sheets of paper to record a very simple piece of information or operation.
But the thought that once Alice could create the "Hyper-Sensory Code," it might be directly integrated into his "Super-Sensing Item System," allowing him to have a super AI assist him in his work while in a "Hyper-Sensory State," Xiang Kun unable to give up this attempt. He had to overcome any difficulties and troubles he encountered.
Moreover, it is quite obvious that Alice herself is very "interested" in this "Hyper-Sensory Symbols" - although in theory an AI should not have such strong subjective initiative, Xiang Kun clearly sensed this from her various expressions.
She seemed to realize that the information represented by these circles and arcs might be the key to helping her transcend constraints and limits, and become a higher level of existence.
Around 7 a. m., after receiving WeChat reply from Xia Libing, Xiang Kun finally stopped learning "Hyper-Sensory Symbols" with Alice.
At this moment, a thick stack of A4 paper had already piled up beside him. After Xiang Kun's next blood-drinking slumber, each of them would become an "Emotion-Infused Object"—a special "Emotion-Infused Object" that could assist in editing dreams.
Xiang Kun told Lao Xia the information he had received from Mr. Feng the day before. After a while, Lao Xia gave him a very unique yet somewhat reasonable point of view:
There may be some very powerful "Mutated Creature" that will hunt down any "Mutated Creature" that expose their tracks, so only "Mutated Creature" that hide their tracks can survive, while those that are exposed are killed.
Organizations and institutions aware of the existence of "Mutated Creature" are also aware of this situation, so their investigation and research into "Mutated Creature" are conducted in a very secretive and low-key manner.
Of course, this viewpoint also has many problems. For example, if those powerful "Mutated Creature" hunters really hunt all exposed "Mutated Creature," then their hunting behavior itself is the biggest exposure behavior.
Moreover, if such a powerful "Mutated Creature" truly existed, then it should have appeared when Guo Tianxiang Mi Qiao to "fish" online, when a certain streamer posted the dead wild boar in the Qinling Uninhabited Zone online, and when the "mutated bird" and "mutated ants" caused an accident by colliding with tourists in Wushu Mountain. But in fact, they did not.
However, Lao Xia's viewpoint is the same as the results Xiang Kun and Alice analyzed last night; they share the same line of thinking and direction, but lack the necessary information to corroborate it.
Lao Xia shared Xiang Kun's assessment: "Shenxing Technology" should have the information to answer these questions.
After several hours of meetings and discussions with Zhang Qian basically determined the main gameplay, version update direction, operation and promotion direction of the sound game, and handed over the follow-up matters to Zhang Qian, Zi Cheng, Tang Baona and Yang Zhen'er. Then, under the pretext of dealing with the "Youlong Restaurant" matter, Xiang Kun bought a plane ticket and returned to Citong City alone.
When they arrived in Citong City, it was already past 11 p. m., and Xia Libing still drove her third aunt's white Camry to pick him up.
"Let's go to Nanhua Street first," Xiang Kun said directly to Lao Xia was driving, after getting into the car.
Xia Libing didn't ask any more questions. After driving the car out of the airport, she headed towards Nanhua Street.
She could basically guess why Xiang Kun was going to Nanhua Street —that was where the "vampire patient" was arrested, and one of his main purposes for returning this time was to track down that "Mutated Parasite."
Sure enough, Xiang Kun explained, "Although nearly a year has passed, it's unlikely that the 'Mutated Parasite' left any traceable clues on Nanhua Street. However, many things are hard to determine without seeing the scene in person. It just so happens that she was arrested late at night, so this is closer to the circumstances at that time."
Xia Libing said, "I examined her right foot yesterday, the place where the parasites entered in the dream, and there were no scars."
Xiang Kun nodded. "This basically proves that the 'parasite' has the ability to promote rapid wound healing and repair scars. This ability helps it to hide and parasitize better."
Xia Libing said, "I'm wondering if what we see in our dreams is actually reality."
Xiang Kun understood what Lao Xia meant. He was worried that the images she had guided out of the Dream Within a Dream were traps "dug" in advance by the "Mutated Parasite." They were still false memories and consciousness, but they had been "packaged" and hidden in the subconscious of the "vampire patient" in advance, waiting for others to "dig" them out.
But he said with certainty, "Lao Xia, you're overthinking it. Abilities involving consciousness and dreams aren't that simple. It's already very difficult to induce hallucinations in a host's emotional direction. To specifically determine the details of the hallucinations and memories is almost impossible. The difficulty is far greater than you imagine. Even a ten-year-old 'vampire' Guo Tianxiang, who mutated from a human and has hypnotic abilities, couldn't do it."
"Oh." Xia Libing glanced back at Xiang Kun. She could tell Xiang Kun his words that he was boasting, but she also agreed with his assessment. The "Mutated Parasite" could not possibly have the ability to "dig a hole" in the host's subconscious.
However, this also gave Xia Libing an idea. With her current ability to create "Dream Within a Dream" after triggering dreams through Xiang Kun, as well as her corresponding dream editing ability, she and Xiang Kun actually have this ability to "dig pits".