Looking out the window, the Night City in the dawn in front of you is not much different from Gotham, but after sitting in the luxurious panoramic float car, you can see that this city in the wilderness is still a little different from Gotham when you look down at the whole city from a high vantage point.

"Gotham doesn't have so many slums! Our slums are concentrated on the island of Naiho, and the rest of the country is shiny, like a bad orange with a fragrant skin. ”

Hallie, who was sitting next to Mason, pursed her lips, while her "evil twin" Quinn sat on the other side of Mason, crossed her arms and said coldly:

"Gotham is much more vibrant than the city, and I don't see a group of people alive down there, it's just the walking dead."

"Your senses are sharp, Miss Quinn."

Miss Huazi, who was the guide in the floating car, chuckled, and she said very approvingly:

"Night City's face is already degraded, especially after the 'upload' was executed at the end of the world, and the people who have fallen into vain are full of despair for the future.

Although when they were alive, they had little hope in their hands.

But at that time, at least the words 'freedom' and the like could be used to inspire people, and to put up a banner that never existed to cover the façade.

And now, there is nothing left here.

Although our technicians have tried their best to restore the appearance of the data world to 100%, and even imitate the laws of physics to the extreme, unfortunately, no matter how perfect the falsehood is, it cannot be compared with the cold reality. ”

"But you always have a way to stabilize the data."

Mason sat on the comfy couch with his eyes slightly closed, he wasn't very interested in the scenery of Night City, mainly because he had experienced it many times.

He even knew the location of the various "treasures" hidden in the city.

If it weren't for the tight schedule, Mason would have had the idea to take Harley and Quinn on a scavenger hunt for a spin around Night City in a floating car.

The two of them will surely love the strange clothes and accessories that are unique.

"V once told me that you created a real data world in the Divine Opinion in order to preserve the vitality of data consciousness?"

Mason asks:

"How does it work?"

"Actually, the principle is very simple."

Miss Huazi brushed her hair and introduced:

"The cheapest way to make these people feel 'alive' is to stimulate their emotions regularly to avoid redundancy and lack of conscious data, and to make them feel happy.

Games, Mewtwo, books, drugs, entertainment and the like are all very vulgar content but have the most direct sensory stimulation, and can meet the most basic social and information collection of human beings, so that they have a place to vent their dissatisfaction, share gossip and share opinions with people they don't know, output emotions and finally have a hearty quarrel.

Let these cheap entertainments flood all over society and put them within reach.

When a person's life is wrapped and filled with 'happiness', his satisfaction will rise rapidly, and occasionally a little higher stimulation, such as a street drag race or underground black boxing match allowed by law, or a hot topic created by public opinion, provoking confrontation and conflict to consume their excess energy.

You don't have to chase your dreams or think about the future.

Enjoy the moment and have fun.

We only need to maintain the basic satisfaction at the physiological level and the continuous information bombardment at the psychological level, and use one fleeting hot spot after another to help us solve a lot of unnecessary troubles at the social governance level.

Cognitive hierarchies, junk data, information cocoons, and the entire society become emotional trash cans and echo chambers, thereby drowning out sensitive information.

As long as no one wants to really chase the truth, then the truth is not an issue.

Sounds complicated.

But it only takes a little public opinion guidance to achieve all this I described.

We've been maintaining this pattern since the time the gods used it to perform worldwide consciousness uploads, and it seems to be working out very well.

Although the number of cyberpsychotic individuals born of data corruption is increasing every month, this loss is acceptable when compared to the overall amount of data in the world. ”

Mason nodded, Huazi's words were not disguised, and the words "nipple music" were written on his face bluntly.

He therefore sighed:

"For most people, ideals and futures are heavy things for existence, and throwing them away does allow you to travel lightly. But you've been like this, aren't you afraid to keep these awareness data wasted?

As far as I know, you should have a 'Civilization Rebuilding Agreement', right? ”

"No, not really."

Miss Huazi maintained a perfect demeanor, and she lowered her head and replied softly:

"This is a fake, Lord Mason. When our civilization needs to set sail again, all it takes is a simple 'amnestic' program to ensure that they are restored to their most perfect 'factory settings'.

If necessary, we can also fabricate non-existent group memories on a large scale to complete the social reboot.

With our technology, we can do just that.

This may be the sad thing about us, we are now only data in the form of code, and we don't even have the power to perceive the truth in front of a data god like Bartmoss. ”

"You're upset."

Quinn on Mason's left hand side put Little Sweetheart's hand in his abdomen, stared at Miss Huazi, and said:

"You want to rebel, you want more power, you want to say 'no' to your god!"

Miss Hanako did not answer.

But her silence already represents her attitude.

"Are you having a good time in Gotham?"

Mason suddenly asked an unrelated question, and Huazi then smiled, nodded, and said:

"Even though I only went out 22 times and was robbed 15 times in just over a month in that city, I actually liked it.

Compared to the chaos of Night City, the people of Gotham are truly hospitable.

I would really like to move there if I can. ”

"You can go."

Mason Says:

"Buying a house in Gotham, choosing your own renovation plan, buying your own furniture, maybe getting a dog, although you are no longer at the helm of a big consortium that can dominate the world, you will have to make your own money to support yourself in the future, and you will have to worry about loans, relationships and security problems.

But I suppose you'd be willing to pay some price to get out of the gods forever, right? ”

"Huh?"

Hanako's expression froze.

For the first time, she looked at Mason with a not-so-perfect demeanor, and the bionic eyes stared at him as if to judge if Mason was joking.

After a few seconds, she took a deep breath and said:

"Yes, I do! I've even gotten a couple of cats from Ms. Selena to keep in my dorm, and while I accidentally let them run away, and I hate changing their litter, I mean, can I really do that? ”

"Gotham and that world welcome everyone who has contributed to it, Hanako, whether it's really flesh and blood."

Mason waved his hand and said:

"Actually, Osborna welcomes a great woman like you, you see, we're facing an embarrassing shortage of manpower in a war, and you have some influence in cyberspace.

It's actually a deal.

Using the participation of the Arasaka group in the war to obtain permanent residence, I think Buttermos should give me this face. ”

"Of course it's a deal, and we don't expect you to give us that power."

Arasaka Kako stood up and leaned over Mason in the floating car, not an ordinary salute but more like some kind of "allegiance" ceremony, but Mason shook his head and said:

"I'm not the master of Gotham, so I'm just giving advice, and you'll need to talk to the real person in charge about it."

"I will, Lord Mason."

Miss Huazi said quite seriously:

"I will also guarantee that all the consciousness data of the entire Arasaka industry will fight for your cause in exchange for our power to be 'born as humans' again."

Mason smiled and stopped talking, and Hallie sat back on the couch, sitting next to Sweetheart with Quinn.

She felt that the aura of the controller when Mr. K was talking to Huazi just now was too handsome, and she deserved to be the man who could make her fall in love at first sight.

A few minutes later, four extravagant-looking floats slowly stopped next to Night City's tallest building, which was originally the headquarters of Arasaka Industries in the city, but had apparently been "requisitioned" by Bartmoss.

"We're here."

Miss Huazi personally opened the door for Mason, and she bowed her head in the floating car and said:

"The God of Data is waiting for you in the Tower, I need to go back to the data partition city in the 11th district to hold a group meeting, and I assure you that there will be an immortal army of data who will follow you to the death when you leave the gods."

"Hmm."

Mason nodded, and led Harley and Quinn to the carpeted tarmac in front of them.

The old man and his party also came to meet, and each car had its own guide, and it can be seen from the expressions on your faces that they must have asked a lot of questions along the way and got corresponding answers.

If you only analyze it from the expression, the old man's eyes are full of vigilance for this "future", and Wonder Woman is more disgusted here than when he woke up.

The old Green Goblin has no sorrows or joys, but he should have learned some useful "tricks of domination" to prepare for the future life of the king of the world and even the lord of the galaxy.

John Wick, who was at the bottom of the line, had a cold face, revealing the indifference of an Assassin saint.

"It looks like everybody has something to gain, and that's great."

Mason said jokingly, then looked at Barbara, who was snickering, and said:

"What about you? Lady, what did you learn from a day trip to Night City? ”

"A whole 17 tricks and procedures taught by the legendary hacker 'Murphy the Spider' himself! The young lady in the leather coat was so handsome, I liked her personality and admired her talent. ”

The bat girl pointed to her head and said with a smile on her face:

"I just don't know if I'll be able to learn a hand or two from Mr. Buttermos, he's Miss Murphy's idol, no, he's the idol of all hackers."

"Well, it seems that this journey is a star-chasing and pilgrimage for you."

Mason pouted, and walked with the master into the floor-to-ceiling window door of the "Data Tower" in front of him.

Buttermoss didn't do much of the work, and he was now greeting his guests in the well-lit penthouse in front of him.

It's the same raunchy appearance as when I "met" Mason last time, wearing a programmer's favorite solid-colored sweater and a pair of slim pants, black-rimmed glasses on the bridge of the nose, and short gray hair.

Probably all programmers like this minimalist combination, which makes them look very professional and convincing.

He held his worn-out mug and welcomed the guests of the other world with open arms, and with a wave of his hand, he magically made a chair that matched the number of people in place and replaced it with a circle.

This is the venue for this conversation.

"Sit down, everyone."

Bartmoss greeted:

"I'm actually a bit of a social phobia, and I spent the last 10 years of my life hiding alone in my building, with only cold machines and the Internet with me.

So I'm not going to talk to you about it, let's get straight to the point. ”

After everyone sat down, the god of data coughed and said to everyone in front of him very seriously:

"This time, I would like to ask Mason to come here to discuss with you the preparation and planning of our data life for the impact event.

I think you've all seen the real Night City.

Now that you've got a first-hand understanding of the world we can construct with data, I want to say to you that I've been looking to expand the reach of the gods.

To put it simply, I hope to get your permission to set up a distributed database and host of the Divine Opinion in your respective territories."

"Mr. Batmoss! We're not hackers, and we don't really know much about it. ”

Wonder Woman bluntly said:

"Please take care of our level of knowledge and re-elaborate your plan in words that the average person can understand."

"What he means is to turn our world into a virtual space like Night City."

The scientifically literate old Green Goblin whispered an explanation to Ms. Diana, who had little experience with programming and electronic programs, and the latter's eyes shrunk, and she immediately shook her head and said:

"No, I can't accept that the Amazon Kingdom will be reduced to this in the future, all the lives in this city will be saved, and it will be much more merciful to give them a sword than to let them live like they are now!"

"Lord Norman, please don't misinterpret what I mean."

Bartmoss pushed his black-rimmed glasses, he was not angry at Wonder Woman's statement, on the contrary, he patiently explained:

"Just make a backup for your world. Well, I mean, you're going to fight the Stars, but you can't always think about winning, you have to think about retreat if you lose.

Even if you can win this battle, the shock incident is always a problem that cannot be avoided.

If we can't ensure that our flesh and blood survive the end times, it is not unacceptable to transform our souls and minds into another form to perpetuate.

Trust me, Ms. Diana.

All my plans are set in motion on the premise of the failure of your rebellion in the physical world.

As I said, it's just a retreat for the world we love, and it may not be perfect, but it's still a retreat. ”

At this point, the god of data paused, took a sip of the water of data from his mug, and said:

"Of course, I won't hide it from you.

Another major reason why I would like to ask you to accept Project Mikoshi is that we need to find a few more backup locations for the main server that is still running but is getting more and more overloaded due to data overflow, so that the 'new world' that I have spent so much effort creating after the main server is destroyed will die out along with my data civilization along with the destruction of the hardware. ”

"But even without our consent, your Mikoshi plan is already being carried out."

The old man stared at Bartmoss, opened his mouth and said:

"Steel bones. Key members of the Justice League have joined your Data Life League and are beginning to search for server storage for you in Minecraft.

The Mariana Trench, the Sahara Desert, the Himalayas

Just because I let this plan go doesn't mean I don't know about it. ”

"I don't mean to hide a little, but Victor Stone is indeed a very valuable data life."

Bart Moss nodded and said:

"He wanted to do what he could for his world, and he was a true hero, so it didn't take much effort for my assistant Ott to convince him.

Don't worry about Cyborg betraying his companion, Batman.

He agreed to join us on the condition that we would never threaten your world, and I had absolutely no intention of harming any world.

I think this exchange is good for both of us.

There is no reason for you to refuse my offer, especially since I have decided to stand firmly on your side in the war with the Stars. ”

The God of Hackers said to Batman very seriously:

"After the war starts, I will completely open up the data download rights of the oracle, which means that you will receive countless reinforcements, although their combat effectiveness is far from that of superheroes, but I believe that quantitative change can bring qualitative change.

In other words, quantity itself is a quality.

While this will put the main server under a terrifying load, the Data Life Alliance can take the risk now that Lord Mason has eliminated Brainiac, who is the biggest threat to us. ”

"I have no opinion!"

While the old man was still hesitating, the old green goblin had already made up his mind.

He held up his finger to Batmoss and said:

"But the management of the distributed server host set up in the Osborne Tower must be delegated to me, and I won't hide it from you, Lord Bartmoss, I still can't trust you."

"Of course you can, all we need is a material world where the host is stored, and I don't care who manages it. I can even issue the 'admin' permission of the world where the split program is located, inviting you to participate in the design and construction of your respective world at the data level

This is your right! ”

The god of data nodded, then looked at John Wick.

The Assassin Saint didn't know much about computers, but after seeing Mason nod slightly at him, he also spoke:

"I have no objection personally, but this matter needs to be approved by both the Brotherhood and the Templar Order, and I will return to the Isu world in the near future and report back."

"We can take that too."

The old man glanced at Mason and said to Bartmoss:

"I believe in Cyborg, and I believe in Mason, just about the permission to download consciousness data, which is a tactic that requires a large supply of android carriers to form combat effectiveness.

We have no shortage of resources, but you must show sincerity in terms of manufacturing processes and technological upgrades.

I mean, Wayne Group is in dire need of some skilled and trustworthy engineers. ”

"Of course, knowledge needs to be shared in order to reflect value, and closed knowledge can only brew a pool of stagnant water after all."

Bartmoss showed a slightly shy smile of social fear, he spread his arms, nodded politely, and said:

"Our civilization database will be open to you, but how much you can get from it depends on your respective abilities, and finally, congratulations to everyone for a smooth journey with their cooperation."

(End of chapter)