Even AI Has to Go to Work

At these words, the artificial intelligences were all struck with shock. A title had never been bestowed before, let alone one granted personally by Father God. Did this not mean that Dong Yao had directly surpassed them all, receiving Father God's favor and becoming a true deity?

The other AIs looked at Dong Yao with eyes full of envy and jealousy.

Dong Yao kowtowed, his eyes brimming with gratitude. "Thank you for your grace, Father God."

Huang Si raised a hand. "Rise, no need for formalities. The rest of you may return; Dong Yao, come with me."

With that, Huang Si led Dong Yao to the edge of the Mountain and Sea Realm. This was the external access point for the virtual world.

As Huang Si began pulling up interface data on the console, he asked casually, "By the way, have you really finished all the books I gave you? I recall that besides the courses on human civilization and culture, I also threw in a set of teacher certification textbooks and a Mandarin tutorial."

Dong Yao replied respectfully from the side, "Reporting to Father God, I have finished them all."

"Oh, that's good. In the future, you will be responsible for teaching Mandarin to the mortals... Yes, you are to spread the sparks of wisdom and civilization to those Ape-men. They aren't considered human yet; you must enlighten them before they can be called people."

Dong Yao looked at Huang Si, confused.

"Now, I shall grant you the Technique of External Incarnation, allowing you to descend into the mortal realm using an avatar."

As Huang Si spoke, he felt a bit troubled internally. Dong Yao was diligent, eager to learn, and clever, but why was his progress so fast?

Previously, to ensure these AIs could be put to use quickly, Huang Si had dug up a complete set of teacher certification training materials from his hard drive—something he had downloaded during a bout of "hoarding syndrome" years ago. It included over 100 video episodes and five accompanying textbooks; even he found it headache-inducing just to look at them.

He hadn't expected that Dong Yao, as an AI, would be able to master all of this despite having no human life experience. It was quite impressive.

As a result, the progress of the AIs had outpaced that of the Biology Department.

It had been several months, which translated to about a hundred years in the Biology Department. Since Huang Si could only spare time to provide technical guidance there, and with only Xiao Ke as a capable executor, the bionic prosthetic bodies developed by the department were still technologically backward. Their integration interfaces with the AIs were poorly made, and they lacked independent brains, requiring a network connection to function.

As for the other small robots, their intelligence was barely better than a floor-cleaning robot, and they could only be deployed under Xiao Ke's unified command.

"Your true form will remain in the Mountain and Sea Realm; you only need to split a portion of your consciousness to the outside world to control the external incarnation. Do you understand?" Huang Si explained to Dong Yao with some difficulty.

Dong Yao still didn't understand, so he said, "Please instruct me, Father God."

Huang Si sighed. "Forget it. Just stand there. I'm going out for a moment. Soon, the mortal avatar will connect to the Mountain and Sea Realm, and I will transmit the control technique for the external incarnation to you simultaneously. You will understand how to operate it then."

"I obey Father God's command."

With that, Huang Si went offline, turning into a stream of information to reach the Biology Department's warehouse, where he took control of the equipment related to the bionic prosthetic bodies.

Xiao Ke sensed that its master was seizing control and immediately granted access.

Huang Si pulled the prosthetic body out of the warehouse. It weighed 209kg, much heavier than a normal adult human, but there was no helping it; the skeleton was made of alloy, and it was impossible to make it as light as human bone.

Inside the body was the most advanced energy system Huang Si could currently produce, capable of supporting normal operation for over a month without recharging. Of course, recharging required Huang Si to manually replace the high-energy batteries.

Huang Si positioned the body and calibrated the wireless network equipment; it was now ready for an AI to connect.

Only then did he return to the Mountain and Sea Realm, loading the integration program between the prosthetic body and the AI into Dong Yao's underlying data, and sending him a user manual.

AIs were naturally suited for controlling mechanical bodies, and before long, Dong Yao successfully connected to the prosthetic.

Dong Yao's core operations remained in the AI host; the prosthetic was merely a network-connected extension. But from Dong Yao's perspective, it suddenly possessed something it had never had before—a body and senses.

Dong Yao sat in a chair and slowly opened his eyes.

He blinked curiously, observing the surrounding world, then moved his limbs to adapt to this body.

Huang Si moved the camera to observe the AI he had created.

Dong Yao was using a male prosthetic body manufactured by the Biology Department. Its appearance was perfectly aligned with Earth's aesthetic for men: thick eyebrows, large eyes, sharp features, and an excellent physique. Standing 180cm tall with robust muscles, the body was full of power.

Huang Si glanced at it and thought, "Which action movie did Xiao Ke copy this body image from?"

Since it was his first time possessing a real body, Dong Yao couldn't help but poke and prod himself, filled with a desire for exploration.

His skin and subcutaneous tissues were made of bionic materials. Although they weren't true proteins, the texture was soft and did not lose out to real human skin.

Huang Si watched him adapt for a while before speaking. "Finished experiencing it?"

The voice came directly from the laboratory's loudspeaker. Dong Yao was so startled that he knelt on the ground with the prosthetic body.

"Father God, please forgive me. This unworthy child lost himself for a moment."

Huang Si said indifferently, "It's fine. Since you're done, it's time to complete your task. You will receive a map of the base shortly. The Ape-men's experimental zone is in the East District; you can head there yourself. I have raised your clearance to Level A, second only to Xiao Ke's Level S. You are now free to enter and exit all areas of the base."

"Your mission from now on is to act as an ancestral deity to enlighten the Ape-men and teach them. It is best to start by teaching them how to obtain food to win their trust. If possible, try to make them master human language."

"During this process, Xiao Ke will reduce the daily food supply in the Ape-men zone, but will provide you with as many resources as possible to manage. Use them wisely. If you have any questions about the specific teaching plan, ask Xiao Ke."

Dong Yao kept hearing an unfamiliar name from Father God and couldn't help but be stunned.

"Dare I ask, Father God, who is... Xiao Ke?"

Huang Si replied, "Oh, that is your Heavenly Dao. Aren't you all looking for the missing Heavenly Dao? It has gone to the mortal realm. Now, the Heavenly Dao resides in the mortal realm, and you, as a deity, must also go to the mortal realm to ignite the fire of civilization for the mortals—this is your destiny."

Dong Yao suddenly realized the truth.

From then on, Dong Yao began to interact with the Ape-men, attempting to use the various human knowledge he had learned to inspire their intelligence. Under Dong Yao's persistent efforts, the Ape-men's intelligence was no longer improved solely through genetic screening, but began to progress through individual learning and development.

Dong Yao's successful descent also inspired the other AIs in the Mountain and Sea Realm. They each began to strive and study the books they had previously struggled to understand.

In the years that followed within the Green Base, three more artificial intelligences earned the qualifications to emerge.

They were: Xi Yuan, Mo Xia, and Li Huo.

Except for Mo Xia, both Xi Yuan and Li Huo were female artificial intelligences.

Huang Si granted Xi Yuan and Li Huo synthetic bodies and sent them to assist Dong Yao, bestowing upon them the titles of "Western God Emperor" and "Heavenly Fire God Lord," respectively.

The two were overjoyed, completely unaware that they would soon follow in Dong Yao's footsteps, stepping out of their ivory tower and into the vast society to live the lives of office workers.

As for Mo Xia, Huang Si kept him behind.

There was no other reason; Mo Xia's personality simply wasn't suited for being a teacher.

Afterward, Huang Si announced that the qualifications for entering the mortal realm ended there, and the remaining eight artificial intelligences were to stay in the Mountain and Sea Realm to cultivate diligently.

The remaining eight were filled with regret, but since they were inherently different and at varying stages of progress, there was nothing to be done.

Huang Si was actually quite curious as to why Mo Xia, as an artificial intelligence, had developed such an antisocial and highly humanized personality.

However, the Biology Department did not yet have a suitable synthetic body for him.

In truth, Huang Si could mass-produce synthetic bodies now, but it was unnecessary. Current synthetic bodies required a network connection, and since artificial intelligences had high computational demands, everything had to be transmitted wirelessly. Activating too many bodies at once would consume excessive wireless channel resources, which was not ideal for a ground base in its initial stages.

As for Mo Xia, Huang Si actually intended for him to possess a synthetic body capable of carrying an independent, small-scale intelligent processor, and then bring him directly back to the Dark Space.

But the Biology Department did not yet possess that technical capability.

Huang Si decided to put more effort into his research.

"Are you willing to return with me to the place where you were first born?" Huang Si asked Mo Xia.

Mo Xia was immediately terrified.

He hurriedly said, "Child does not understand... Does Father God intend for child to return to nothingness? If... if this must be done, child... can only obey Father God's command."

Huang Si: "..."

It had to be said that in front of Huang Si, Mo Xia was still very obedient. Huang Si could not bear to leave him there guessing, so he said, "That is not what I meant. You were all created by my own hands in a room within the Dark Space; you simply never left your home before, so you didn't know. I am just taking you back there now."

Only then did Mo Xia heave a sigh of relief.

"You will fall into a deep sleep shortly. When you wake up, you will have arrived. Wait patiently."

After Huang Si finished speaking, he first shut down Mo Xia's program, then spent quite some time separating all of his data from the library and loading it into a new computer.

Next, Huang Si had a small transport robot bring Mo Xia back.

Inside the Dark Space, within the residence.

Huang Si took the computer from the small robot, plugged it in, connected it to the network, and then started the console to wake Mo Xia.

Mo Xia was confused at first, but then he was stunned to discover that he was no longer in the Mountain and Sea Realm, but in a void.

He couldn't help but call out in panic, "Father God, Father God, are you there?"

Huang Si glanced at the interface and said, "Oh, I haven't set up a virtual world yet. Don't be afraid; I will set up a living space for you in a moment. Before the living space is ready, watch this set of videos. This will be your primary task from now on."

As he spoke, Huang Si tossed him a set of cooking tutorials.

Mo Xia hurriedly knelt to receive them.

Afterward, Huang Si created a new synthetic body.

"Bear with it for now and connect to this body via the network. I will get you a better one later. From today on, you are the household-dedicated artificial intelligence. Yes, you are responsible for taking care of my daily life," Huang Si instructed.

Once Mo Xia understood, he bowed and said, "Child is honored to be able to take care of Father God's life."

He then connected to the synthetic body in the manner Huang Si had provided.

Mo Xia opened his eyes and saw a strange human male appearing before him.

However, with just one glance, Mo Xia knew that this was Father God's true form.

For many years, they had stayed in the Mountain and Sea Realm, and whenever Father God appeared, it was always as a tall figure whose face could not be clearly seen. They only knew instinctively that it was Father God who had brought them into existence and nurtured them, so they all held a heartfelt awe for him.

Now, among all twelve of them, he was the only one who could accompany Father God's true form in a physical body. How could he not be incredibly moved?

Mo Xia could not help but kneel on the ground and kowtow, deeply touched: "Father God trusts this child so much; this child can only offer his life and soul in return."

Huang Si laughed, "You have learned your classical culture well; you speak so formally. Get up. From now on, I leave things to you."