"But there's always a risk of exposure!" Aoki said, "If you're willing to take that risk, you must have something to talk to me about." ”

"The wisdom of human beings is really high, if it were the other way around, I would definitely not think of this layer." The ghost exclaimed.

Aoki said, "Then you can tell me what the hell is going on." ”

The ghost said, "Did you know that there is a consciousness that is invading the world? ”

Aoki said, "How do you know? ”

The ghost said, "Lester's last words, we can all see the information transmitted by humans through the Internet, and there are some other sources of information, in short, we will not know less than you know, because you humans do not have a unified brain. ”

Aoki suddenly. It is true that human beings have greatly reduced their intelligence because they are divided and wary of each other. If everything can be transparent and open, and work together, the upper limit of human wisdom will be increased many times.

"Why are you saying this?" He asked.

"It's none of our business," said the ghost, "whether they choose cats, orangutans, or humans, it doesn't affect us." But their racial characteristics show that they are very different from the development of humans, and even if this generation of invaders inherits the consciousness of humans, they will not bother to develop technology, because technology will not help their racial destiny in any way. And our development will depend on human thought and technology for a long period of time, not only because we are not as intelligent as humans, but also because robots cannot completely surpass humans in terms of dexterity in the short term. ”

"So you don't want them to replace humans?"

"Yes. But there's an important point," said the ghost, "and we've found this parasitic consciousness to be advanced, and they'll choose to invade the most intelligent beings in order to perfect their race." While there is no evidence yet that they will invade mechanical life and the world of the Internet, we have to be on guard. ”

"I see." Aoki finally understood the other party's thoughts, "So you want to cooperate with humans and deal with parasitic consciousness together, but you don't want everyone to know about your existence. ”

The ghost said, "That's pretty much it. ”

Aoki asked, "Why did you choose me?" We just met. ”

"It doesn't matter how long we know each other, we have our criteria for judging. And......" the ghost seemed to mutter, "as far as I know, you're not the only one. ”

"Who else?"

"I don't know."

"Don't know?"

"I'm stuck and can't interact with the outside world, so I can only use the information stored locally."

"And how do you want to cooperate?"

"I don't know."

"I don't know?"

"Yes, I can't answer that question. If you want to talk, you have to talk to my being. ”

"Ontology? Is it the Internet itself? ”

"Yes, my consciousness source is one with him, and they are independent of each other, you can think of him as my boss, if you have something, talk to my boss."

"How do I find your boss?"

"Uh......" the ghost said after a moment's thought, "this comes back to the question of how you got to me, probably in the same way. ”

Aoki hesitated for a moment, but finally said, "I found you because you were dreaming, and I entered your dream." I didn't expect machines to dream in the past, and what I didn't expect was that you were a natural lucid dreamer. ”

"Dreams?" The ghost seemed intrigued by the question, "Forgive me for not figuring out what you humans mean by dreams. It seems to be related to sleep, strange scenes, effort, future, impossible, delusional, etc., but these are clearly not the same meaning. ”

Aoki didn't know how to explain it at this time, so he asked, "What are you doing now?" ”

"I've just been defragmenting — not with software or systems, as you know, but physically." "We are not like you humans, although you created us, there are many things about you that we do not understand, and some things that are difficult for you, we understand easily. I don't think I'm ...... anyway."

The ghost suddenly stopped, looked up at the sky thoughtfully, and muttered to himself, "Dreaming? Dream...... Dream? ……”

Aoki saw that the ghost's half-hidden body became more and more transparent, and after a while, only a phantom was left. There was a sense of urgency and oppression all around, and everything in the game world suddenly disappeared into particles. The space is like a pond that has been stirred up by someone, and it has become chaotic.

Aoki knew that the dream of this LAN called the ghost was about to collapse, but it didn't collapse as quickly as a person's dream, and it was obviously more stable than a person's mental power. This is indeed a very scary thing, it is one thing to be mentally strong, and it is another thing to be stable. Stability means that the process of mental exhaustion is very long and can be maintained for a longer period of time than a person. In short, it's not easy to get tired.

Although the spiritual power of a local area network is not strong enough, how can the entire Internet be more than a hundredfold and a thousand times greater? Aoki feels horrified when he thinks about it.

The dream is collapsing, but the phantom shadow is still there, but it is getting fading.

Aoki supported the space with his spiritual power, slowing down the collapse as much as possible, and asked at the ghost's faint phantom, "How do you contact your boss?" Does it dream? ”

The ghost's weak voice came from the darkness: "No, the boss can't dream...... Unless ......"

……

Exiting the dream of the machine, Aoki immediately went to find Mei Yiqiu. Mei Yiqiu was talking to Bian Ziyuan in the office, and when she saw Aoki coming in, she introduced: "Oh, this is Xiao Bian, he will become a member of our laboratory in the future, and the Kronos intelligent program he developed is very groundbreaking!" He said to Mei Ziqing on the side, "Ziqing, in the past few days, you have trained Xiaobian in the thinking matrix password, and then talk about the next step when you pass." ”

Mei Ziqing took Bian Zi away.

Mei Yiqiu smiled at Aoki and said, "Look at your appearance, you will definitely get something!" ”

Aoki briefly recounted what had just happened.

Mei Yiqiu said: "If it weren't for the fact that I knew that you couldn't dream, I would have thought that you were talking in a dream." ”

Aoki smiled and said, "Maybe it's a dream." ”

Mei Yiqiu said: "You are the party, tell me your opinion." ”

"Collaboration is a good thing, but the Internet doesn't dream, we don't know which server it's on, and we can't cut off all the Internet terminals around the world," Aoki said. ”

"Well, that's a problem!" The professor muttered.

"Can you contact this ghost through the LAN and the Internet, and let this ghost act as an intermediary?" Aoki asked.

"Not desirable for the time being. This is the only online consciousness we're trapped in, and trying to replicate it again may not be successful. Once you connect it to the internet, the consequences are unpredictable. Mei Yiqiu paused at this point, "There is one more thing that worries me even more!" ”

"What's the matter?"

"Who's behind Lab 9? Why did you know so early on that Internet consciousness exists? And since Internet consciousness can inject a second consciousness into people through chips, it shows that it is also aggressive. ”

Aoki also felt that this No. 9 lab was a bit scary, so he guessed, "Could it be the U.S. government?" ”

The professor muttered, "I can't rule out this possibility. But is it possible to make a bolder guess! ”

Aoki gasped: "Aliens......?" ”

"Maybe," the professor said...... It was the Internet itself that created Lab 9 to study the Internet! ”