Ming Dynasty, New Rome, and Infinite Divine Machine

"Don't other Beans have self-awareness?"

【Having a spirit is one thing. All things have spirits, and stones also have spirits. Can stones talk to you? Being able to speak human language is considered to be "spiritual" to some extent. So having a spirit is one thing, but being able to appear here in a way that is understandable to humans and communicate with you is of course evolution. As for other mysterious cultivators, they use the Heavenly Book to communicate with spirits, which is actually an extension of the talisman. Because the Heavenly Book on the talisman can communicate with nature.】

As she spoke, Apollonia suddenly remembered something:

【Then again, this behavior of using the "Heavenly Book" to communicate with nature is actually editing reality. This language is really amazing. Although it is not a universal language that can analyze everything, but can only communicate with Doudou, it is already amazing - and you who enlightened Doudou to make it a spirit are actually even more amazing. You may not know that, just like the Qilin's peeing will produce Ganoderma lucidum, you have enlightened many things. Including the chef of New Antioch. 】

"why?"

[Maybe it's because of the new variable? Or maybe it's a coincidence. Intelligence is a coincidence, and it may not even exist in three-dimensional space. So I can understand why the Jinyiwei are so vigilant. They are actually worried that someone has found a way to communicate with the Doudous other than the Heavenly Book.]

"Still nothing." The Jinyiwei who was asking took off his headphones. "We retrieved and checked the work logs, and checked every line, but there is still no trace."

He had been searching here for a while. He took the initiative to check all the records, line by line. Doudou told him everything he knew and gave some of his own answers, but there was still no clue.

"Can it be exported?" Shangluo asked, "If the image can be exported, we can also see it."

"Not here." The Jinyiwei replied, "Because I didn't see the picture directly, I was reading the contents of the heavenly book. If I want to convert it into a natural picture, I need to bring it back to Jianmu and upload it, and then read it out separately. If possible, I will ask someone to transport it now, but it may make a lot of noise."

【Ah, wait a minute. I can read it.】

"Then come."

[I'm busy, I'm playing with the star map. Wait, I'll ask the former young general to help you read it - you don't need Jianmu, Jianmu is a wireless connection. Others can only use Jianmu because they don't have a data cable, but you have one. Pull out the antenna on your phone, that will work.]

Chapter 969 Crack

"It can actually be like this." Shangluo pulled the antenna outwards - it looked much larger when pulled out than when folded, because the antenna was made of light silver. From the perspective of alchemy, this showed a state of no phase. Among all metals, the phaseless state of silver is the purest and most stable. Light silver that is stable in a phaseless state can not only be used by humans, but also by memetic creatures like Doudou.

Shangluo motioned the Jinyiwei to move aside:

"How did you put your stethoscope in there?"

"Is this... Light Silver? Wow, it's much more advanced than what I have. I thought it was only found next to Jianmu. Just hand it in, Doudou will catch it by himself. Light Silver is a metal that can be grasped directly by Doudou."

Come to think of it, it is true. When I was racing before, there was a car that left a deep impression on Shangluo until now - the car that could show the "Great Transformation of Heavenly Demons", the "Taishang Juechen" from Wudang. This car actually won the battle, but just lost in the competition.

The outer shell of the car was a thin layer of light silver. With the help of that thin shell, it was enough to show the ability of shapeshifting. Before this, only Wudang used light silver as a magical weapon so luxuriously, and there was also a light silver sword that Sanfeng Tianshi gave to Shangluo at that time, which is now the data cable.

Shangluo handed the data cable in - as expected, there was an obvious pulling force coming from inside, and it was Doudou inside that grabbed the cable.

Two shadows of Doudou appeared on the phone screen, one was the former young player wearing boxing gloves on his head, and the other was the vending bean in this vending machine.

Two beans flashed on the screen, posing in strange postures and communicating in high-speed divine language.

After more than ten seconds, the communication ended. The vendor waved his hand and left from one side of the screen, and the tension on the data cable disappeared. The former young player waved in the direction where the vendor left, and then turned to Shangluo.

He bent over the edge of the screen and dragged out a floating writing board to hold it above his head, holding it with the gloves on his head. Words appeared on the writing board:

"The video has been generated. Do you want to play it here?"

Text appeared in the frame of the writing board.

The Jinyiwei next to him was shocked: "This Doudou can talk!"

"Calm down, calm down." Wen Yuan patted his shoulder, "Shang Tianjun has a lot of good things in his hands."

"Are you all gathered together to take a look?" Shangluo turned around and asked, "This screen is a bit small, and the lighting effect is not very good."

[Too high brightness consumes a lot of power. If you want it to be brighter, you can use a flash. Let me see, the weather is good today, so I'll turn off the eye protection mode.]

Apollonia took the time to adjust the screen brightness to a level suitable for playing videos under the sun. Everyone came over, four or five people stacked together, looking at the small screen above Shangluo's head.

The video appeared. It was a view from above the coin slot of the vending machine. That was Doudou's observation port to the outside.

The screen showed the Imperial College yesterday morning. Students were walking back and forth under the tree-lined avenue. From time to time, a school cat would wander in front of the camera, and a few small trucks carrying food passed by.

This is not the main entrance, but the flow of people is not small - after all, the main entrance is never opened for convenience. Small doors like this are opened wherever it is convenient.

"What exact time is it?" Shangluo turned around and asked.

"Yesterday morning at 10:24 - I think it was an oversight. Because I invested the money normally, there was no timely response. This system should be modified, and the police should be notified if the two sides do not match."

"It's okay." Shangluo replied while adjusting the timeline, "Aren't we all here? If we find a problem, we can solve it. Let me see, 10:24, right?" He dragged the progress bar to that moment -

The images on the screen began to change very quickly. Because the screen had no refresh rate, no frame was omitted.

On the screen, students came and went to buy things, and everyone's face was recognized and recorded. 84 people visited this vending machine in one day, one of whom was a monk, who visited twice. Faces of all kinds flashed on the screen, changing as the progress bar progressed, until it stopped at the screen at 10:24 yesterday morning:

A fox-masked head suddenly appeared on the screen.

The mask covered his entire face, and it was impossible to see what was underneath the mask. However, the text recognition next to it showed that the man's name was Lei Fu, and he was a monk.

"Who is this Lei Fu?"

"I'll check." Wen Yuan dialed the number and quickly answered, "It's a student from the Imperial College. He's in school now."

"Huh?" Shangluo was stunned for a moment, "Why do I feel weird?"

[Ah!] Apollonia saw the clue. [The person wearing the fox mask in the picture, if you look closely, is she a woman. And Lei Fu, judging by his name, is he a man?]

"Call him and have a look."

Fifteen minutes later, a monk named Lei Fu arrived.

Everyone knew there was a problem at first glance - because Lei Fu weighed at least 300 pounds, his face and belly were round, and his face was even bigger than the mask.

"Is there something you want to ask me?" He was standing in front of the vending machine.

He was a little nervous when he was suddenly called out by so many Jinyiwei.

"Let me ask you, where were you at 10:24 yesterday morning?"

"I was in class. Where was I? Has the school changed to Jinyiwei to check attendance? I was in the classroom at the time, and everyone around me can prove it. I really didn't ask anyone to sign in for me."

"It's not about attendance." Wen Yuan touched his head, "You don't sound fake when you say that."

"Wait a minute." Shangluo suddenly suggested, "Stand here, in front of the vending machine. You know that this vending machine can sell spiritual liquid, right?"

He nodded: "I know, I need to scan the face."

"Aim at his face." Shangluo connected the data cable, and the image was exported in real time - everything was normal, and the vendor said this was Lei Fu.

"Wait a minute." Shangluo called the vendor to his phone again. He placed the fox-faced mask and Lei Fu's face side by side.

"Are these two the same person?"

Doudou nodded vigorously.

"Huh?" Shang Luo was stunned for a moment, and showed the fox mask image to Lei Fu again:

"Is that you in this photo?"

"How could this photo be of me?"

"But the vending machine said this is you."

"Look, my face is not the same size!" He adjusted his head to the same angle as the photo, "Look, is it me?"

[It's clear that someone has found a bug in Doudou. Doudou will read the meme of the fox-faced mask as the face of the classmate in front of him - just like reading a QR code, someone has drawn her facial features on the Facebook. The runes related to his facial features may have been leaked. ]

"Have you lost face somewhere recently?" Shangluo asked him, "Have you recovered your face?"

"I know what you mean. Does having a facial mask count?"

"That would have to be a cast. Have you had your face cast recently?"

"Really? My girlfriend smeared cake on my face. Does that count?"

[Why does he have a girlfriend? Shangluo, if someone like him has one, you should have at least 10 or even 9. ]

Chapter 970 Enlightenment

"Um"

Shangluo showed the former youngster two photos, and the latter was visibly confused.

A face with a fox mask. Strange patterns were drawn with red lines around the squinting fox eyes, which looked quite weird.

On another round face, you can see a pair of clear college student eyes.

The former youngster looked left and right, still confused.

"No way, you can't recognize it either?"

The former young general shook his head and pulled his writing board from the edge of the screen:

"If I really couldn't see it, I wouldn't be confused. My perception of the natural world tells me that they are not the same person. But from the perspective of the Heavenly Book, they are the same person. I can also understand why my colleagues can't see it, because they can't understand the various pictures in the natural world, they can only read the Heavenly Book."

[Hmm] Apollonia thought for a moment and said, [Phaethon, you go ahead and talk. I’m busy.]

"What?" Phaethon asked. "The Allegory of the Cave?"

"Yes. You come and explain it to Shangluo."

"Okay." Phaethon joined the conversation between him and the former young general. "I don't know how to say it in Zhendan. I haven't learned it yet. But Plato has explained this phenomenon - the metaphor of the cave. This metaphor fictionalizes such a situation: a group of poor prisoners of war are imprisoned in a cave since childhood, so that they can't see the real scene of the outside world. They can only see the shadows cast by the fire on the cave wall. They will regard the shadows as real things.

"What this means is that people's cognition of things is often masked by their own senses. You cannot perceive things outside of your own senses, just like people cannot see ultraviolet and infrared rays. In this regard, Doudou is more limited than humans. Even if humans cannot understand or recognize what they see, it is just information collected by biological instinct. Doudou cannot perceive things outside of symbols at all because he has no senses at all."

[Woo woo woo~~] Even though she was doing something she loved, this sentence still hurt Apollonia, [So I didn't want to say it myself. Without eyes, there is really no world. Remember when we first met? All I saw was the phlogiston vision. It was only with the help of this phone that I could really see the outside world and walk out of this body to surf the Internet.]

"Yes." Phaethon nodded. "Memetic life, even if it is as powerful as a god, will lack some ways of understanding the world because it has no entity. Many of them will not be able to show their perception in the real world because of this."

[In short, it is artificial intelligence, or weak AI. Although they are not stupid, they are limited by their senses. The fox face and the fat man they see are the same thing. The former young general was enlightened by you, so he can understand human language. ]

"To some extent, language itself is a framework for understanding the world." Phaethon said thoughtfully, "So, a former young general who can use natural language is extremely rare even in Rome. His level is comparable to another automaton you enlightened - the chef."

"He can also rebel?"

After hearing this, the former young player on the screen seemed to be stuck with a bug, trembling and shaking his head.

[You can, but it's not necessary. The reason why the automata rebelled is because the Romans treated them as tools. Isn't Doudou doing a good job for you? They are also waiting to be able to upgrade like the former young generals. ]

"So, back to the point." Phaethon came closer and rewatched the previous video. "Where did this mask come from? How did he know how to bypass facial recognition?"

This question wasn't just addressed to Shangluo, but also to the other Jinyiwei crouching nearby. As a Xuan cultivator, he had been inspecting the vending machine before Shangluo arrived. Until just now, he'd been pressing one hand behind his ear while the other continuously tapped in the air.

Hearing Phaethon's question, he could only shake his head: "There is no way for the time being. We are recalling all external-facing Tianyi nobles to Jianmu. The headquarters is urgently adding a liveness detection procedure, so that at least they will not be fooled by the masks. After editing, the Tianyi nobles will download the new talismans in Jianmu and then go online again. During this period, all spiritual energy devices with external interfaces must be shut down for maintenance, waiting for the update sent by Jianmu from the cloud."

"How long will it take?" Shangluo asked.

"It will take at least three days. This is already overtime work. Because the spell is a whole, one move affects the whole body. To add a liveness detection process, not only do we have to add this rune, but we also have to modify the context, and the context of the context - oh, right." He asked Shangluo:

"Is Doudou in this machine still useful? The headquarters is anxious to recall him back to Jianmu and reproduce the process of the error."

"Wait, I unplug the cord."

Shangluo released the control of the vending machine. The lights of the entire machine dimmed at once.

Without Tianyi Guiren, even the normal vending function of this machine will stop.

"Okay." The Jinyiwei took out the key, opened the door and checked it. He peeked into the inside of the machine through the observation window that needed to be unlocked to open. He happened to see the door of Doudou's office closing.

"Well, they have returned to Jianmu. But our work here is not yet resolved."

"Red jar of spiritual fluid, right?" Shangluo nodded. "How powerful is this thing now?"

"It can hold up to 20 people." Wen Yuan answered with his arms folded. "This is the data I was told when I left."

“Is it that high?”

"Because it is different from ordinary spiritual products, the high concentration of spiritual liquid inside is not something that ordinary people can use. Although it will dissipate immediately after opening, there is still time to commit a crime."

"Hmm." This was similar to Shangluo's expectations. But the toxicity was higher than he expected.

Although he provided the formula, he essentially only provided some "inspiration". The person who actually completed the technology was Zhu Xianxun himself, along with a complete set of ready-made nuclear industry equipment.

These spiritual fluids had caused a crisis before. At that time, the imperial court used a huge amount of spiritual fluids to treat the "Special 95" patient. As a result, after briefly expelling the evil spirits from other parts of the body, these spiritual fluids did not expel them from the body, but compressed them instead.

"Normally there won't be any evil spirit, right?" Shangluo asked, "Then what is the killing mechanism?"

Chapter 971 Mask

"Being possessed by evil spirits." Wen Yuan replied, "This killing mechanism has not yet reached the level of immortal heroes, it is only martial arts. This amount of spiritual liquid can at least make 20 people possessed by evil spirits. If there is no medical intervention, these 20 people will definitely die."

"Wait a minute." Shangluo grabbed Lei Fu who hadn't left yet, "Do you feel it? Do you feel like you're being filled up by the balloon?"