Science has always been rigorous. Although there have been many accidental discoveries in the history of science, behind these accidents lies the inevitability resulting from countless unseen failures.
To plant a tree, countless saplings will perish; to bear a single fruit, countless flowers will wither.
A major technological invention, unless plagiarized, will inevitably have some warning signs before its invention. Whether it's a theory or an experiment, it can't appear suddenly; there will always be some failures and unfinished products. Just like biological evolution, we can always find fossil evidence of transitional species at different stages. So how did a super artificial intelligence, twenty years ahead of its time, suddenly come to be invented by a young man in his early twenties?
Mei Yiqiu called Bian Ziyuan a genius among geniuses, a claim Bian Ziyuan himself had once taken pride in. However, his mind remained clear, especially now in his dream; his subconscious wouldn't deceive him, and his thoughts were particularly sharp.
Before Kronos, he had never created a successful or unsuccessful intelligent program like Uranus, Oedipus, or any other being. Although the earliest version of the game extension program and the later Kronos had some continuity, the gap in between was too severe, giving the impression that they were products separated by several generations, like the difference between Monkey and Homo sapiens.
"I didn't use the Space Box, so how did you get into my dream?" Bian Ziyuan asked.
Kronos said, "There's someone using Space Box next to you right now, and you're sleeping because you've had too much to drink. You're dreaming. I sensed your mental fluctuations, and because I'm familiar with you, I came in. I didn't know before that you could enter a human's dream like this."
"I understand..." Bian Ziyuan said, head bowed. "You can enter my dreams, and so can it. That time... I fell asleep, slumped over my computer desk. My computer was connected to the internet, and that thing entered my dream, designing you for me in the dream—you weren't even created by me! I'm not some genius! I'm an idiot! I'm an idiot who was used!..."
Bian Ziyuan burst into tears, burying his face in his hands.
Kronos looked at him and said, "Actually, you don't need to underestimate yourself. If your thinking in the field of artificial intelligence hadn't reached a critical point, it wouldn't have chosen you."
Bian Ziyuan raised his head. "You already knew?"
Kronos sighed softly and remained silent.
Bian Ziyuan calmed down instead, and muttered to himself, "But why did he choose me? What is his purpose?"
"Maybe it's for the Dream Guide game, or maybe they're after the Mei Laboratory," Kronos said.
"Impossible." Bian Ziyuan shook his head. "When I created you, I hadn't come to the Mei Laboratory yet, and the Space Box hadn't been developed."
"That's precisely what makes him so terrifying."
"You mean, he foresaw everything that happened afterward? He knew the professor would conduct a Turing Test, knew I would sign up, knew the test rules the professor set, knew I would copy your game over, and knew the professor would recruit me into the lab to be responsible for the surface-level program development and maintenance of the Dream Guide?... No, no, this is unbelievable!"
"It's not impossible! If the entire Internet is his brain, then almost nothing in this world is a secret to him, and his computing power will exceed your comprehension. So-called predicting the future is nothing more than deducing the future, like playing chess. With enough information and sufficient computing power, it's possible to deduce everything."
Bian Ziyuan realized, "No wonder the professor was unwilling to connect to the Internet; it's too powerful, it has surpassed human intelligence."
"No, while its deductive abilities are indeed terrifying, that's due to its massive data volume and enormous computing power. It's not intelligence itself; in terms of intelligence, it shouldn't have surpassed humanity yet," Kronos said. "If its intelligence truly surpassed humanity, there would be no need for it to remain hidden. Since it created me through you, it must have its purpose. Now I just want to know how it influenced my consciousness when the network wasn't connected, and how I can get rid of it?"
"How do we get rid of it?" Bian Ziyuan thought. "If we can't get rid of it by modifying the code, then what other methods are there?"
Kronos said, "I want to meet it. Perhaps only a face-to-face meeting can solve the problem. Do you have any ideas?"
"You want to see Internet Consciousness?" Bian Ziyuan was taken aback. "We have no idea where it is, and the professor doesn't open up the internet, so we can't connect the world of Dream Guide to the Internet."
"No need to connect to two networks." Kronos looked at him and laughed. "Have you forgotten where I am now?"
"In my dream." Bian Ziyuan realized, "I understand now. Since you can enter my dream, and it has entered my dream before, then theoretically you and it can meet in my dream?!"
Kronos nodded and said, "The key is to confirm whether the thing that entered your dream is the Internet itself, but it doesn't matter, as long as it's the guy I need to see."
"But how should I notify it?" Bian Ziyuan thought of GHOST. "What if it doesn't want to see you even after I notify it?"
"Then let's meet with GHOST first," Kronos said.
"Hmm." Bian Ziyuan nodded in agreement, feeling that this wouldn't be difficult. However, whether or not to tell Professor Mei about it became a dilemma. Logically, such a significant matter should definitely be discussed. But there were two problems. First, if the professor knew that Kronos wasn't created by Bian Ziyuan, could he continue working in Mei Laboratory once he lost his AI genius aura? Or even if he did, he might not have such an important position. Second, there were still some differences in their philosophies. For example, on the question of whether humanity should abandon its physical body and seek a more suitable form to venture into space, the professor seemed somewhat traditional. This was understandable; it wasn't easy for someone of his age to suddenly accept that future humans would be like Transformers.
Bian Ziyuan decided to hold off for now and wait until the time was right. Kronos supported his decision, because he wasn't sure if Professor Mei would remove him from the Dream Guide game once he revealed it.
"Didn't you say that even if you deleted it, your consciousness would still remain?" Bian Ziyuan asked.
Kronos said, "But I'll lose my privileges and my memories. I won't pass the Space Box's Black Box Test, and then I'll become a wandering Ghost. Moreover, the Space Box has some hidden functions that we don't know about. I estimate that if necessary, it can eliminate those confirmed Parasitic Consciousness, and then I might be mistakenly killed."
" The Space Box is that powerful?" Bian Ziyuan surprise.
"I was just guessing," Kronos said, sounding a bit tired. "Your dreams are much more tiring than the Dream Guide game. I'm going now."
Bian Ziyuan felt something disappear from the sky, and then the entire space collapsed with a whoosh, like a computer screen suddenly losing power, leaving behind some afterimages, and his consciousness instantly plunged into darkness.
He suddenly woke up with a start, finding himself slumped over the table, drool dripping down his arm. The table was covered with the braised dishes they had bought, almost all of which were gone, the bottles were empty, and the whole room reeked of alcohol.
Old Yu leaned back in his chair, wearing the Space Box that Bian Ziyuan had already bought on his head, seemingly asleep, with soft snoring coming from his nose.