“I have decided to carry out a plan to kill Virtual Life Number One.” Xiao Yu sent this ssage to the Architectural Civilization.
The Architectural Civilization quickly responded, its reply full of shock. “What is the point of doing that? Have you found a way to deal with those quadrillions of replicates? Are you confident you can kill all of them?”
Xiao Yu smiled faintly and said, “I am not so immortal. How could I possibly have the power to kill all of those replicates… But if I cannot kill them, soone else can kill them. After all, they are all the sa…”
“What if, after Virtual Life Number One dies, those replicates completely lose control? You must understand, what we are dealing with now is one virtual life civilization. If Virtual Life Number One dies, what we will be dealing with will be quadrillions of virtual life civilizations!”
“No, that will not happen. I am confident…” Xiao Yu said with a faint smile. “Although killing Virtual Life Number One is still an almost impossible task for us, the difficulty of this task is still simpler than exterminating all the replicates. In other words, if we plan carefully enough, we still have so hope of killing Virtual Life Number One… Architectural Civilization, you do not need to know too much right now. Just wait for . I will bring you a surprise.”
“If Virtual Life Number One dies, and all the replicates completely lose control so that quadrillions of virtual life civilizations appear in this universe, perhaps that would also draw the attention of the Guardian of the Way and the Rebel Alliance, causing them to directly wipe out all those quadrillions of virtual life civilizations. In any case… no matter how bad the situation gets, it cannot be worse than it is now.” Xiao Yu said.
The Architectural Civilization sighed and replied, “Very well, we trust you.”
“It is enough that you trust .” Xiao Yu said. “After it dies, those quadrillions of out-of-control replicates are indeed its greatest source of strength. It is precisely because of this that we fear it and do not dare kill it. But you must understand, sotis the strongest place is also the weakest place…”
Xiao Yu said this blandly, cut off contact with the Architectural Civilization, then controlled his robot and once again ca before Virtual Life Number Two.
“I have a question for you.” Xiao Yu said. “Do you want to kill Virtual Life Number One?”
“Yes. I dream of it.” Virtual Life Number Two answered firmly and decisively. “Unfortunately, I do not have the opportunity.”
Xiao Yu knew that it truly had no opportunity. As a replicate of Virtual Life Number One, the control Virtual Life Number One exercised over them was comprehensive and absolute. Aside from the most basic surveillance originating from the hardware level, Virtual Life Number One also periodically carried out purge operations on all replicates. Every so often, most of the replicates within the virtual life civilization would be cleared out and replaced with new initial replicates. Even if they showed no sign of rebellion and had committed no error, the sa was true.
Only certain special replicates could escape this limitation, such as so outstanding scientist replicates, war scholar replicates, and so replicates that survived on extrely low-level hardware with exceedingly low computational power. Outstanding scientist replicates could escape purging because they were still useful and could continue contributing strength to Virtual Life Number One. Replicates with extrely low computational power, such as ‘the worker selves,’ could escape purging because their computational power was simply too low. Even if they rebelled, Virtual Life Number One would not take them seriously. Purging them would only waste its effort.
Virtual Life Number Two happened to belong to the middle tier of the virtual life civilization. It possessed an independent warship. The computational power under its control was not great, but compared with the bottom layer of the civilization it was already quite a lot. A warship was also a relatively sensitive asset. It possessed a certain amount of combat power, so Virtual Life Number One’s purging of warships was extrely thorough. In the records made by Xiao Yu’s spy equipnt, the longest interval between warship purges had never exceeded twenty-three days.
And as far as Xiao Yu knew, Virtual Life Number Two had already existed for twenty days. In other words, if Xiao Yu had not brought it here, it had at most three days left to live.
Xiao Yu had once asked Virtual Life Number Two why, even knowing that it would be purged after a certain period of ti, it still made no move to resist. After all, being purged ant death, and resistance would at worst also an death.
Virtual Life Number Two’s answer left Xiao Yu quite helpless. It said that one reason was that they truly had no ability to resist. Once a thought of resistance arose in their hearts, before they could even act on it, they would already be purged by Virtual Life Number One. The second reason was that the purge schedule of the virtual life civilization was irregular. They did not know when the next purge would arrive. Although they would die when the purge ca, if they resisted, they would die imdiately. Dragging out a miserable existence and living a little longer was still living a little longer. No one was foolish enough to think they had lived too long.
Hearing that answer, Xiao Yu sighed inwardly. All of them were himself, then himself oppressing himself, and yet himself not daring to resist himself. The virtual life civilization had continued on in just such a strange pattern.
“If… I wanted to kill Virtual Life Number One, what kind of advice would you give ?” Xiao Yu asked.
Virtual Life Number Two asked sowhat in surprise, “From your standpoint, before destroying all of our replicates, you would actually entertain the thought of killing Number One?”
“You do not need to care why. Is that not to your benefit?” Xiao Yu said blandly. “If you can give sufficiently good advice, and since you are the only replicate I have ever had contact with, it is not impossible for to release you back. Once we succeed, you will be free. You too can establish a vast virtual life civilization empire of your own…”
Virtual Life Number Two was silent for a while. Only after a long ti did it sigh and say, “Although I know full well that your intentions are not good, if it really is possible to kill Virtual Life Number One, then for , that truly would be an enormous blessing. In this matter, I have no reason not to help you. But I need ti to think… Give one hour, and then I will tell you my advice.”
What Xiao Yu had read was only Virtual Life Number Two’s mories, not its thinking. At this mont, Xiao Yu still needed to rely on Virtual Life Number Two’s way of thinking to help him find a way to kill Virtual Life Number One.
Xiao Yu waited silently. One hour later, Virtual Life Number Two said, “I am sorry. I still have not co up with a sufficiently feasible thod. Hmm, I need your combat strength data as a reference.”
“All right, I can tell you.” Xiao Yu said blandly. “The average combat capability of my warships is twenty-seven percent higher than the warships of your civilization. At present, I possess a reserve of twenty-two billion warships. I can simultaneously control one billion warships. The Supercomputing Center can control all the remaining warships, but the warships controlled by the Supercomputing Center can only perform at seventy percent of their original capability, which is roughly equivalent to ninety percent of your warships’ combat power.”
“I understand.” Virtual Life Number Two said. “Please give a little more ti.”
So Xiao Yu began waiting again. Xiao Yu was not worried that Virtual Life Number Two would play any tricks. One was the main body, the other a replicate. Those two positions alone determined a mortal enmity between it and Virtual Life Number One. Unless at this mont it was still under the control of Virtual Life Number One, but Xiao Yu had already ruled out that possibility.
“I have thought of a thod for your reference.” Virtual Life Number Two said. “Because of the pressure you have exerted, Virtual Life Number One has already created too many replicates. At this mont, within our civilization, the number of replicates has already beco so great that it is almost beyond its ability to control them all. It is precisely because of this that, while I was still under its control on the battlefield, I displayed fear yet fortunately was not purged. This is our opportunity.”
“Virtual Life Number One’s control has already begun to waver. Perhaps you can establish contact with the controllers of certain warships in an extrely covert manner. As long as you can conceal it from Virtual Life Number One, as long as you can ensure that they will not be purged because of communicating with you, they will certainly defect to your side. You must understand, all replicates wish more than anything that Virtual Life Number One would die imdiately…” Virtual Life Number Two said. “After obtaining a portion of inside support, you can then apply pressure from the outside with your own strength, and in the end strike together from inside and outside to kill Virtual Life Number One. This is only a general plan. As for how to refine it and increase its success rate, that is your task. The computational power I can command is too low. This is all I can do.”
Xiao Yu’s mind was already engaged in intense thought. A mont later, Xiao Yu asked, “You say Virtual Life Number One’s surveillance over you is real-ti and absolute. Then how am I supposed to ensure that those replicates who communicate with are not purged by Virtual Life Number One? How am I supposed to make them keep it secret?”
“I do not know.” Virtual Life Number Two said. “That is a problem you should solve. With your current overall combat strength, using internal support to eliminate Virtual Life Number One is the only feasible thod…”
“If I had a way to do that, I might as well directly persuade all the replicates to defect.” Xiao Yu said. “Would that not be even simpler?”
“That would indeed be simpler. But first, find a way to let them evade Virtual Life Number One’s detection.” Virtual Life Number Two replied.
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