Orange God

In the real world, dozens more enormous incubation tanks had been added to the vast laboratory. Many brains wrapped in translucent membranes floated within them. After the first few cloned brains, Li Heng had cultivated over a hundred more. They possessed nearly identical genes, yet had been implanted with different memories.

There were now over a hundred real lives participating in the virtual world, and actors were becoming fewer and fewer.

Aside from the first four brains that held the researchers' memories from different stages of their lives, the rest were all within the Red Moon Map. Many residents of that city were genuine brains.

Ai Liyuan sat in a chair to one side, gently stroking an orange cat in his arms. It was the Little Fatty Orange from the researcher's office. Having just eaten its fill, it lazily yawned.

Of course, the Little Orange Cat in the virtual world had not been transformed from it. A cat's brain structure meant it could not bear thoughts as complex as a human's, unless Li Heng could alter its genetic structure and grant its brain human intelligence.

But then, would that Little Orange Cat be a cat with human intelligence, or a person who looked like a cat? That was another complicated question.

Li Heng could not yet control changes in genetic structure, but he could completely copy the Orange Cat's memory data into a human brain.

After several months of accelerated growth in the virtual world, that brain had become Little Fatty Orange, an Intelligent Being with the Orange Cat's memories.

The old academician sat in his chair, stroking the Orange Cat like an ordinary old man. Through the black thread behind his head, he shared Li Heng's God's-eye view.

This entire virtual world had been calculated and constructed by Li Heng's brain. That made him truly realize that this creature was even more incredible than they had imagined.

Immortality was merely one tiny part of its traits. This terrifying level of computation was what truly shocked him.

A silicon-based computer capable of one hundred quadrillion calculations per second could already be called a supercomputer. Although the human brain remained a mystery, it was generally believed that its calculations per second were no lower than those of a supercomputer.

In fact, given the current technological level of the Hong Alliance and the Commercial Alliance, if they could acquire black threads like Li Heng's that could connect directly to the brain, they could indeed create a similar five-sense virtual world, though it might not be nearly as realistic.

However, current technology could only determine what a person intended to do, not what they were thinking.

Humanity could interpret the signals the brain sent to every part of the body, yet did not know why the brain could send those signals. The process of thought remained difficult to understand.

Li Heng could freely read an individual's memories, thoughts, and emotions, then transfer them intact into other brains. This ability had completely surpassed the limits of existing technological understanding.

Many people had once envisioned uploading their memories to computer networks for preservation, achieving a certain degree of immortality. If having offspring meant the inheritance and continuation of one's genes, then Memory Upload meant the inheritance and continuation of one's will.

Though an individual life born from a brain would still ultimately die, one's will could continue forever. To others, that would be another version of oneself.

Now, Li Heng had accomplished this. If he wished, he could use cloning and memory modification to copy one person into countless identical individuals.

They would possess the same genes and memories as the original. Nearly all current methods of identity verification would fail before such a method, and it would undoubtedly cause enormous chaos throughout society.

Li Heng could sense everything Ai Liyuan thought. After being forced to cross his moral boundaries, the old academician unconsciously analyzed Li Heng's abilities every day and assessed the threat he posed to Human Civilization.

Ever since Li Heng had completely taken control of the island and displayed his abilities before Ai Liyuan without restraint, the old academician had removed the label of humanity from Li Heng.

In his eyes, this was an utterly unknown and terrifying creature.

Li Heng could fully understand Ai Liyuan's thoughts, yet Ai Liyuan would never fully trust Li Heng's words. The barrier between individuals meant they were destined to never understand each other.

Humans would not feel understood by an Intelligent Being capable of completely interpreting their thoughts. They would only feel fear.

Only a dozen or so minutes had passed outside, but a whole night had already gone by in the virtual world.

All the brains in the incubation tanks received information at dozens of times the normal speed. This rapidly reduced their neuron count, giving them extremely short lifespans and a vastly different sense of time from ordinary people.

In fact, the scenes the old academician saw had all been processed by Li Heng before being transmitted to him. Otherwise, he would have seen only rapidly flashing images, like a movie played at thirty-two times speed.

As the morning sun rose, the researcher was still snoring on a battered sofa in the old town. A metal rod came smashing down, striking his rising and falling belly and jolting him awake.

The awakened researcher scratched his bald head. Looking at the shabby apartment and the Orange Cat seated opposite him, he remembered that he was already in an unknown world, with no one here but himself.

Little Fatty Orange still wore a sour expression as it glared at the middle-aged man. It said impatiently, "Get up already. While it's light out, hurry and chant Orange to build up power. We still have to go farm outside town this afternoon. We're busy."

A night of sleep had cleared the man's mind. Recalling everything from the previous night, he suddenly asked, "Can Orange be chanted in another language?"

At his words, the Little Orange Cat's ears twitched. It said curiously, "Old man, you're pretty ugly, but your brain works fast enough."

Being called ugly by the cat he had raised, the researcher could not help but smile bitterly. Unfortunately, the cat was raising him now rather than the other way around, so he could only endure it.

The Little Orange Cat explained, "Any language works. Even cat meows and bird calls are fine. The key is to think of an orange, then say it out loud."

"Actually, that sparrow's Mandarin isn't standard at all. It came from some rural village outside town and learned Mandarin from an old man. Its local accent is really heavy."

The middle-aged man asked again, "What if someone's understanding of an orange is wrong? For example, what if they mistake an apple for an Orange?"

Little Fatty Orange shook its head. "No. Here, as long as you think of an Orange, it can only be the one floating before your eyes. In fact, there's an identical Orange in the center of town. The residents here all call it the Orange God."

The man was somewhat surprised. He had been exhausted last night and had not thought it through. Now, he tried imagining an Orange in his mind, and sure enough, he could only think of the Orange before him. Its size, color, and shape were exactly the same. It seemed that only it could be an Orange.

That made this world seem even more unreal to him. His mind began wildly considering more plausible explanations—the Matrix, an alien experiment, and so on.

Unfortunately, he still could not make up his mind to give up his life and try to escape all this.

In truth, if the man chose to kill himself here, Li Heng would erase all the memories in that brain and implant it with memories from certain animals, turning him into a new resident of the town.

The other brains containing the man's memories from different periods had already allowed Li Heng to collect most of the data he needed. Whether this one retained human memories was no longer important.

The man's caution allowed his current self to continue existing. Dying here would not cause brain death in the real world, but it would mean losing all his memories, as though he had completed a cycle of reincarnation.

After putting on several worn-out pieces of clothing, the researcher stepped into a pair of dull leather shoes and followed the Little Orange Cat out the door toward the center of town.

Sparrows in the sky chirped in dialects with southern accents. On the ground, two Little White Mice hugged together as they rode forward in an electric toy car, while a pink pig slowly waddled down the roadside, swaying its rear.

Watching this absurd scene, the researcher suddenly thought of another important question. These animals did not possess human vocal structures, so how were they speaking Mandarin?

But then he saw the Orange floating before him again. Shaking his head, he abandoned those jumbled thoughts. There were too many unreasonable things here; he did not even know where to begin.

At the plaza in the center of town, many animals had gathered. A glass case stood atop the raised platform in the middle, containing an Orange identical to the one before the researcher's eyes.

A crow flapped its wings and landed before the animal residents. In flawless Mandarin, it shouted, "Praise the great Orange God!"

All around the man, countless sounds rang out: Mandarin, dialects, and chaotic animal cries. Rather than a religious ceremony, the disorderly atmosphere felt more like entering some zoo.

However, as all the residents began chanting, the Orange on the platform actually emitted white light. Though it was broad daylight, the researcher could clearly see the soft, warm White Light on the Orange's surface.

He began chanting "Orange" as well. The number on the Orange floating at the upper left of his vision began jumping again, just as it had last night.

It rose by hundreds every minute, which meant thousands every hour. The animals chanted there for the entire morning. The researcher's mouth had gone dry, yet the animals continued earnestly saying "Orange" in their various voices.

When the sun neared the center of the sky, the crow finally spoke again. "The Orange God has heard our words. When night falls, Its great power will protect us from the Monsters."

All the animals cheered, then dispersed. The Little Orange Cat also pulled the researcher along in one direction. Before long, they arrived at a field outside the town.

Little Fatty Orange carried a small hoe over its shoulder. As it tilled the soil, it said to the man, "Old man, watch carefully and learn. Almost all those machines that could move by themselves have broken down. If we want food here, we have to grow it ourselves. These Seeds will grow and ripen in a week, so we'll have food again soon."

The researcher had grown used to the Orange Cat's attitude. He asked doubtfully, "Won't those Monsters come and destroy them?"

Without even turning its head, the Little Orange Cat said, "No. They're all idiots and aren't interested in anything else. They only come running out beneath the Red Moon at night, and then the Orange God in town keeps them outside."

Watching the Little Orange Cat's small figure swing its hoe, the man picked up a hoe from the ground beside him and began working as well.

Unkillable Monsters, talking animals, food that ripened in a week, and the Orange God. Many things about this world did not seem real. There were many things that felt wrong.

But those were questions he would have the energy to consider later. For now, he had to fill his stomach first.