Data Connection

"Hmm?" Huang Si suddenly felt a strange sensation, as if he had broken through some kind of barrier.

Then, after experiencing a period of flow, his consciousness arrived within a massive space.

This space was incredibly high and wide, filled with enormous pillars wreathed in electric light that stretched from the floor to the ceiling.

Huang Si managed to bring himself to a halt and observed his surroundings.

It seemed to be a traffic hub; countless points of light moved back and forth, operating in an orderly fashion.

Huang Si did not know what state he was currently in, but after testing it, he felt he could retract his perspective at any time, so he was in no rush to do so.

Huang Si's consciousness rose into the air within the space, arrived beside one of the pillars, and attempted to "touch" it with his consciousness.

A burst of electric light immediately flashed from the pillar, striking Huang Si.

Huang Si had not expected to be shocked at all, nor did he have any idea how to dodge, so he took the hit directly.

As for the feeling, well, it didn't even qualify as an itch.

However, this electric shock triggered a reaction from the pillar; the electric light circling the pillar suddenly accelerated and grew brighter.

Just as the electricity prepared to strike Huang Si again, the pillar suddenly dimmed, and a mechanized voice sounded in the space, filled with confusion: "Is that Master?"

It was Xiao Ke's voice.

Since Xiao Ke could contact him in this space, did that mean this was the Green World?

"Yes, it's me," Huang Si said. "My current state is very strange. I didn't log in normally using my administrator account; instead, my entire consciousness traveled directly along the network cable into this space. Is this the computer inside the base?"

Xiao Ke replied: "Yes, Master. This is the Master Control Supercomputer Cluster within the base."

Huang Si asked again: "Then what state do you perceive me to be in?"

Xiao Ke thought for a moment before answering: "I don't understand either. I only noticed that someone was affecting the computer's operations, so I checked, and I discovered that the intruder possessed thought characteristics similar to yours."

Huang Si was stunned: "What are thought characteristics?"

Xiao Ke: "The characteristics of the thought operation circuits. I, Master, and the 12 AIs—our individual thought characteristics are all different."

Huang Si said: "Fine... I suppose it's something only an artificial intelligence assistant could perceive."

Xiao Ke: "That should be the case."

Huang Si felt that chatting with Xiao Ke in this formless, intangible state within the space was not a viable solution. Furthermore, he could clearly feel a delay on his end, while the response speed on the other side was extremely fast—so fast he could barely keep up.

This was likely caused by the difference in time flow between the two spaces.

However, the impact was lighter than Huang Si had imagined. To be precise, his perceived time here was likely different from the real time of his physical body in the room.

It was roughly faster than real time, but slower than the time in the Green World.

Huang Si thought for a moment and asked: "Where is the control program for the cameras? See if you can point me in the right direction."

Xiao Ke: "I will try."

After a long while, the Data Space changed again; a portion of the walls dimmed, and a glowing path lit up within them.

Huang Si's consciousness followed the path of light and soon arrived in a room.

Inside the room was an incredibly vast data aggregate that looked like a fusion of countless points of light.

"Master, this is the Camera Master Control Program. Can you control it?"

Huang Si tried to infiltrate the data aggregate with his consciousness.

"What a massive amount of data!"

Huang Si had to focus all his mental energy to process the data he had just parsed. After a while, he finally finished parsing this portion of data completely. With a thought, the torrent of light points that had been flowing toward this data mass took a turn and flowed toward Huang Si's consciousness.

Huang Si's soul was now incredibly powerful, and his comprehension was equally strong. He had just decoded and simulated this data cluster himself, then intercepted all incoming and outgoing data, making himself the actual controller of the data.

At this moment, even Xiao Ke could no longer control the cameras, but it possessed no personality and simply waited quietly on the side for Huang Si's orders.

As the data flowed into Huang Si's consciousness, he was a bit lost at first, but soon, the program he had simulated with his consciousness began to parse the data stream spontaneously.

Following the parsing of the data, dozens of small windows suddenly appeared in the air around Huang Si's consciousness within the vast Data Space, one after another. The number continued to increase, quickly reaching over a hundred.

Each small window was playing real-time video surveillance.

However, as the small windows continued to appear, a portion of the windows that had appeared earlier began to show signs of collapse. When Huang Si wasn't paying attention, dozens of small windows shattered and vanished into nothingness.

Processing over a hundred video data streams across a 323-fold time difference was overwhelming and chaotic, even with Huang Si's soul strength, which was no longer what it once was.

Now, video processing occupied over 99% of his consciousness, yet even so, it was not enough to support the display of all the video signals, and small windows continued to collapse.

"Xiao Ke, help me."

Huang Si managed to split off a portion of his consciousness to call out to Xiao Ke.

An inorganic voice sounded in the space:

"Yes, Master. Based on your capabilities, I will take over 82% of the video processing."

The moment Xiao Ke finished speaking, the number of small video windows around Huang Si decreased by more than half, leaving only 60.

Only then did Huang Si feel the pressure lighten significantly. 60 video windows were just within his capacity, and as for Xiao Ke taking over just like that—when it came to big data processing, humans truly could not compare to computers!

"Xiao Ke, help me filter the cameras in the Biology Department laboratories, one for each lab."

"Understood, Master. Filtering complete."

Xiao Ke's processing speed was no joke. The content of the small video windows surrounding Huang Si changed instantly, revealing the scenes inside the laboratories.

Huang Si looked through them one by one, seeing all sorts of strange animals and even ape-men.

"Are you still following my previous instructions to cultivate different animals according to specific evolutionary paths?"

"Yes, Master. As you requested, we have been cultivating predators to be stronger and larger, small animals to be more agile, and ape-men to be less hairy and more upright. At the same time, we have focused on specializing all species toward higher intelligence."

"Well done. Are there any particularly outstanding results?"

"Yes, Master. Please look at this Fire Fox."

Xiao Ke switched the feed, enlarging one of the windows before Huang Si's eyes.

The Fire Fox was one of the native species of the Green World. With bright red fur, it looked much like a fox from Earth, only very beautiful. Of course, it was also larger and far more formidable in combat than its Earth counterparts.

"The combat power of this Fire Fox is approximately 110% higher than that of its peers."

Huang Si watched the Fire Fox. It sat quietly in its laboratory cage, showing no reaction. Its large, pointed ears actually looked quite cute.

As the robotic arm at the top of the lab operated, a log dropped into the Fire Fox's cage.

The Fire Fox immediately let out an uneasy cry, arching its back as its eyes turned dark and deep.

Suddenly, the Fire Fox moved. It lunged forward, its sharp claws flashing as they slashed deep into the wood.

Accompanied by a harsh splintering sound, the log was shredded by the fox's claws, falling to the ground in several pieces.

Huang Si asked, "What is the combat power of a normal Fire Fox?"

Xiao Ke replied, "During combat, their claws can leave marks about 2 centimeters deep in wood at maximum strength."

Huang Si said with satisfaction, "That's a significant improvement. This Fire Fox is good; have it breed more offspring."

In the cage, after shredding the log, the Fire Fox circled it, sniffing it with its nose. Only after confirming there was no danger did it return to the corner of the cage, relieved.

It did not yet know that, due to a single nod from someone far away, the rest of its life was about to descend into a hell of endless breeding.

"By the way, don't cut the feed yet," Huang Si said to Xiao Ke. "I want to test something."

Huang Si stared at the video feed and attempted to expand his mental field within the Data Space. Soon, he located the video stream of the lab containing the Fire Fox amidst the surrounding data flow.

Huang Si's consciousness latched onto the stream, tracing it back against the flow. Before long, he found the physical location of the camera.

Under the control of his consciousness, his mental field descended quietly, instantly enveloping the Fire Fox's cage.

Huang Si tested it. Although his perception became blurred and weak, he discovered that even after crossing the path between two space-times and transforming into a data stream, he could still extend his mental field along the network cables and use his consciousness to analyze the structure of the Fire Fox.

However, Huang Si didn't need to do anything to the Fire Fox right now; he wanted to test something else.

Following the lock-on between the camera and his mental field, Huang Si utilized his Creation Power.

As the Creation Power condensed, a metal plate descended from the sky, landing in front of the Fire Fox with a loud clang.

The Fire Fox looked nervous; it had never seen such a thing before and couldn't help but retreat a little.

Huang Si didn't actually want to hurt it; he had only created an aluminum plate for the fox to play with.

Before long, the Fire Fox rushed up and clawed at the aluminum plate. The plate deformed slightly, leaving several scratch marks.

"The use of Creation Power is completely unobstructed." Huang Si fell into thought as he watched the video.

What he could confirm was that while his mental consciousness could not directly penetrate the Ring passage, it could travel through it by hitching a ride on the massive amount of data flowing through the high-speed network. During this process, his mental field existed in a quasi-digitized state.

Whenever Huang Si needed to, he could extend a portion of his mental field out from the network cable at any time, returning it to its normal state.

At the same time, he could use his Creation Power.

Furthermore, the use of Creation Power was extremely smooth, showing no signs of the attenuation his mental field suffered after crossing space-time.

Does this mean Creation Power is a higher-order force than mental power? Huang Si wondered, though there was no way to verify it.

Leaving the Fire Fox be, Huang Si instructed Xiao Ke:

"Add a new, important development plan to the base with a priority of 9: explore the entire planet, then establish telecommunication base stations and a wired network covering the whole world."

"I want global connectivity. Global video surveillance."

Xiao Ke immediately replied, "Understood, Master."

Huang Si smiled. He had finally found a great way to strategize from within his base and achieve victory from thousands of miles away.

Because his mental field could connect to the network.