" Ghost?"
Mei Yiqiu laughed heartily, but then he started coughing, his whole body trembling uncontrollably. His disheveled hair bounced up and down with the rhythm of his coughs, like a group of white-clad dancers on top of heads. He also lost his grip on the old briar pipe due to the trembling, and it fell with a thud onto the A4 paper on the table. Fortunately, the fire had already gone out, leaving only a pile of black coal-like ash.
Qingmu felt the professor's reaction was a bit exaggerated, so he said, "You said you wanted to unite with Wu against Cao, and that cooperation with Internet Consciousness was only a matter of time. What are you laughing at?"
Mei Yiqiu said, "This isn't cooperation with the Internet Internet; you're undermining it!"
Mei Ziqing also found it very amusing and said, "Mr. Qingmu, I didn't know you had this skill!"
Qingmu was a little confused and asked, "Which move?"
Mei Ziqing covered her mouth and laughed.
Mei Yiqiu said, "Your brain is ruined by laziness. When you're not lazy, you could be president. I think you should take the position of Director-General of the Space Management Committee."
Qingmu knew Mei Yiqiu was joking, so he chuckled and said, "Why don't you just tell me to be the Secretary-General of the United Nations!"
Mei Yiqiu said, "I don't have that authority, but the Secretary-General can make a recommendation."
Qingmu, fearing that Mei Yiqiu the joke seriously, quickly waved his hand and said, "No, no, you absolutely can't do that."
Mei Yiqiu picked up the pipe again, emptied the tobacco ash, replaced it with fresh tobacco, lit it, and then slowly said, "Don't worry, I'm not that stupid. You're our trump card. If we reveal you, we'll be out of cards."
Just as Qingmu was about to say something, Mei Yiqiu serious, and she said, "According to you, Internet Consciousness is different from human consciousness; they don't have Mental Power?"
Qingmu shook his head and said, "No, they have Mental Power, they just don't know how to use it. I felt that power as soon as I entered the Ghost's dream; it was scattered, but not absent. Judging from the dream structure, their dreams are vastly different from ours. We usually construct a three-dimensional dream, but their dream dimensions are not uniform; the worlds that unfold from the information sources are bizarre and varied, but perhaps this is the true dream world."
Mei Yiqiu nodded and said, "You're right. Real dreams don't have fixed dimensions. Dimensions are created by consciousness itself, or rather, reconstructed after we wake up. Our dreams overlap in time, like a scroll. So no matter how much time passes in a dream, reality is only a fleeting moment. When we recall our dreams, we unroll this scroll and see a long scroll of time and space, just like the real world we live in."
"However, we must understand one thing: time in the real world is merely a concept we artificially create for ease of understanding. In other words, time only arises when we are thinking; when thinking ceases, the concept of time does not exist. This is because our thought process requires unrolling a scroll. Therefore, time is just a concept, a concept existing only in human thought."
Qingmu agrees with the idea that dreams are a time scroll, but he can't understand that reality is also a scroll, and he doesn't know how to respond to the professor's question.
The professor said, "Never mind, that's not important. I just wanted to say that Internet Consciousness, or computer consciousness, probably doesn't have a concept of time. Programmatically speaking, they only have causality; everything outside of causality is parallel to them, there's no time... Hmm... that's not important either... I mean, their dreams—the way information unfolds, like you said, that's the real dream, the world that truly makes us God. Hmm... that inspires me... I think we can do better..."
Qingmu listened to the professor's incoherent ramblings, not understanding what he was trying to say. He finally said, "Professor, can we release this ' Ghost ' now?"
The professor then came to his senses and said, "Oh, right, Ziqing, let's connect to the internet."
Mei Ziqing agreed and went out. After a while, she came back and said that the internet was connected.
Mei Yiqiu said, "Okay, then go create a folder named ' Ghost '."
"Where is it located?" Mei Ziqing asked. "There are twelve server rooms, over a hundred servers, and three thousand independent terminal computers here?"
Qingmu realized his oversight: he hadn't agreed on a specific location with Ghost. He had said "root directory," but how could he determine the root directory on a local area network where no unified operating system was installed?
Mei Yiqiu said, "Let's just find any server; I believe this Ghost can find it."
Mei Ziqing turned on the computer and after a while said, "Professor, it seems... there's an extra 'ghost' folder, which we didn't create."
"Oh, where is it?" Mei Yiqiu asked.
Mei Ziqing said, "It's on all the servers and terminals, but it should be the same one. I tried it, and it can synchronize."
Mei Yiqiu nodded and said, "It must have been built by the Ghost itself. Qingmu, let's give it a try. How do you think we should start this collaboration?"
Qingmu said, "Let him investigate the recent spate of assassinations of scientists. Since the assassin organization's transactions are conducted through the dark web, they should be able to be found on the Internet."
Mei Yiqiu said, "Can you be sure the Internet will help us? If it won't, this ' Ghost ' alone probably won't be enough, unless... this Ghost really becomes your person, but that would be too terrible, meaning that mechanical consciousness can also learn human cunning and strategy."
Qingmu said, "It's probably impossible. The Ghost said their communication is a direct unfolding of information sources, making it impossible for them to hide anything from each other. But I think the Internet would agree, because it must also be eager to know how to control the power of the mind."
Mei Ziqing had already written down the investigation requirements in Notepad as Qingmu had requested and saved them in the ghost folder. She quickly received a reply from the Ghost:
"To save time in information retrieval, please enter as much specific information as possible, such as all known clues, the names of scientists, suspected individuals, etc."
Mei Ziqing typed in some scientists' names and then asked, "Professor, Mr. Qingmu, should we write down the suspects?"
Qingmu and the professor exchanged a glance and said simultaneously, " The Dream Foundation?!"
Shortly after Mei Ziqing typed in her message, Ghost replied with two long lists.
The first document was a list of assassin targets, mostly former members of the Third Space Foundation, with Frank, Mei Yiqiu, and Dardova at the very top of the list;
The second document was a list of assassins, containing about ten names, hometowns, and affiliations, with most accompanied by photos.
Mei Yiqiu looked at the list Mei Ziqing had printed out and laughed, "Looks like I'm not so badly regarded in their eyes!"
Mei Ziqing said, "You almost became the director-general!"
Mei Yiqiu shook his head and said, "That's nothing. In terms of scientific achievements, I'm far behind Frank. Besides, look at Flins, Jack Yang, Mulverde, and Miyamoto Jo —these people are ranked so low on the list, which shows that it's not based on status or achievements."
Qingmu said, "Why wasn't it mentioned who hired the hitman? Nor was it mentioned the Dream Foundation."
Mei Ziqing entered Qingmu's question into the Ghost folder, and Ghost quickly replied, "Still investigating. There is currently no evidence to prove that the person who hired the killer is related to the Dream Foundation. However, can my mental training begin?"