High Dimensional InvasionChapter 115

Chapter 115

Si Chen was gob smacked. It felt as though Turing had chased him down and stuffed an entire melon into his mouth. GF5dRN

Unfortunately, he didn’t have any information to exchange.

Or perhaps he did. Like that maze and White Dress.

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But since Turing didn’t ask, Si Chen wasn’t going to volunteer.

The dorm room was very small. Although Turing was a mechanical body and did not need to breathe, Si Chen still felt that the carbon dioxide concentration here was too high. d5jQba

It was a little hot.

Maybe it was because Turing was too tall and they were so close together that it felt oppressive.

The atmosphere was a little awkward.

Turing thought for a while and asked, “Would you like to go out for a walk with me?”

Although this was just a virtual world simulated by data streams, this was indeed his memory, his home world.

Si Chen glanced at the time on his watch, it was three twenty in the morning. There was still three hours and forty minutes left before the normal departure time.

So, he replied, “Okay.”

Besides, there wasn’t anything here to do for entertainment and he would just be staying dazed in his room until dawn. v9MJum

Turing opened the dorm room door.

Si Chen walked out and immediately saw a female ghost hanging from the ceiling in the corridor.

Her feet were dangling off the ground, her head was lowered and blood was dripping from her pale feet.

The prosthetic eye even thoughtfully provided the data. 0zKj86

[High-dimensional creatures – Hanged Ghost]

Energy fluctuation: 11200.

It’s energy fluctuation in stand-by mode was about 10,000; it must be between the Fifth and Sixth Steps.

This Hanged Ghost walked back and forth in the corridor, like a haunted house prop doing its duty. 3qTiGz

Si Chen should be able to eat it but this female ghost didn’t attack them.

Turing: “I have modified our status. According to the algorithmic logic, right now, we do not exist in the eyes of all NPCs and players.”

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Got it, transparent hanging.

There were no trains at night but the unique structure of the entire building meant that neither side of the corridor was blocked by walls. LYlrOk

Si Chen reached the end of the corridor and looked down.

The buildings here were all very tall. For a moment, Si Chen felt like he was standing on the edge of a cliff.

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

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It had nothing to do with psychological quality, it was purely a biological instinctive reaction.

The whole world had become a literal ghost town.

Turing walked to his side. “The 1st to 18th floors of the dormitory area are all foundations. At first, the black fog only reached to the 3rd floor. The administrator who established the Safe Zone asked to house the people begining from the 19th floor, just in case. But now, it’s almost reached up to the 20th floor.” Qkie5P

Si Chen sounded surprised, “So there used to be an administrator for the Safe Zone?”

Turing: “Yes. I am actually a combat-type Machine. But at that time, there weren’t enough resources to create another management-type Machine. So I had to be the auxiliary AI in the Safe Zone.”

Si Chen asked, “Then where did the administrator go?”

Turing was silent for a moment. “They left with Nuwa. The administrator is not a single person but a group of people. They were the elite of the society at that time. They formed a parliament together and took turns governing. After moving into the Safe Zone, the consumption of resources, especially food, proved serious. The humans did not feel lucky to have survived. The physical fitness of the new humans in the Safe Zone was too poor, far worse than the humans who came through the dark ages. The Safe Zone protected humans but it also cut them off from evolution.” 6pQZ9o

“After much calculation, the administrators believed that if this continues, the demise of mankind was an inevitable outcome. So, they planned to find a new way to save themselves. They spent thirty years building the ship ‘Nuwa’, a ship that could travel through space. They said they once they’ve found a new base, they would come back.”

The Carolians never actually considered living among the stars as an option for their survival. But reality forced them to make a choice.

Si Chen already guessed the result.

Those Carolians never came back. Only Turing was left, protecting the people in the Safe Zone according to his original programming. hCPdHT

“During the final stage of this civilization, the Carolians had three survivor bases left. Radiant, Enlightened, and Brilliant. The Enlightened Safe Zone under my jurisdiction was the second to be destroyed.”

There was no emotion in Turing’s voice.

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But from a human perspective, it couldn’t have been easy.

Si Chen pursed his lips, hesitated for a moment and said to comfort, “Natural selection, the survival of the fittest. The Carolians were simply eliminated. My university library likes to collect fragments of universes from different dimensions. I saw a saying there, ‘Give time to life, rather than life to time‘. You’ve done a good job.” (Note 1) NpD8st

Turing was silent for a long time.

The night wind blew across Si Chen’s face. It was a little cold.

The female Hanged Ghost behind them couldn’t see them. She was still floating about in the corridor. From time to time, her feet would kick Si Chen’s back.

It can be seen from this that even when she couldn’t even see them, the female ghost would instinctively bully the weak and fear the strong. She only dared to kick Si Chen’s back. Whenever she would bump into Turing, she always turned to avoid him. SXLD2E

Si Chen was just about to say that it was windy and cold here and that he wanted to go back to sleep but Turing suddenly spoke.

“Predicting that I would be shut down, I created a virus for the first time. For an artificial intelligence, all things that are ‘created’ rather than ‘programmed’ are called viruses. I spent 7 days making arrangements for the other Machines in the Safe Zone. I made sure they could continue to function and protect humanity after I was shut down.”

Turing knew better than anyone the gap between the current group of humans and the group of humans who created him.

They hadn’t experienced systematic learning; they hadn’t seen the real world. They were greenhouse vegetables that couldn’t withstand a littlest bit of wind and frost. They were a pet cat, its sharp claws cut short, unable to hunt. erOBgH

The Turing of that time had already reached his limit.

It was the complex data generated by this virus that allowed him to awaken in the body of a scrapped combat robot after being shut down.

Turing paused. “The prosthetic eye you are using now was taken from that robot.”

He put his hand on Si Chen’s shoulder. xS0vFo

The next second, a new place appeared in front of Si Chen’s eyes.

Here, he and Turing were both strings of data. Theoretically, they could appear anywhere.

It was an abandoned city.

It was evident that there had once been a brilliant civilization here. Suspended transport stations, sky gardens, soilless cultivation gardens, drone reconnaissance hives… OvhrcW

But now, all that remained was desolation and dilapidation. The roots of plants squeezed through the steel bars and droop like waterfalls. A few surviving animals have made this their home, burrowing and nesting.

Turing said softly, “If they develop for another hundred years, your Safe Zones will probably look like this.”

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He only said the Safe Zones.

On the streets, creatures that were neither human nor ghosts could be seen wandering around. This were the living dead type supernatural creatures, the product of ordinary Carolians being eroded by the black mist. e9QaTo

The living dead look a lot like the zombies in Resident Evil. Some have even evolved into “crawlers.” They could be likened to the mutated humans in chaotic civilizations.

The entire city ran on remote wireless power, using controllable nuclear fusion technology. And so, combat robots would patrol at night. However, due to the withdrawal of humans, conflicts between the two parties were rare.

After all, robots couldn’t eat either.

Turing and Si Chen walked to the industrial garbage dump in the far corner of the city. gOplYn

His voice remained emotionless as he stated calmly, “This was where I woke up.”

That robot had been badly scrapped.

It took Turing several months to build his body to a level that was barely usable.

There was no expression on Turing’s face. PFIX q

People get nostalgic as they get older and it seems to hold true for mechnical life as well.

“And then?”

“After I woke up, I wanted to go back to the Safe Zone to have a look but the Safe Zone was in the other half of the continent. There was a sea in between. My new body was very old and was incapable of combat. Neither did it have the intelligence permissions to assist in setting up and driving myself. I was left with no choice but to pick up parts and arm myself at the same time.

“Si Chen couldn’t help but picture a pilgrim in his mind. Eating in the wind and sleeping in the dew, under the canopy of the moon and stars, arriving at the Holy Land on his knees.” ni8Z5A

Turing’s tone was a bit self-deprecating, “I just didn’t expect that after working the entire way, just when the gates were within sigh, I would be awakened directly by someone in the control center.”

They say all roads lead to Rome. But this way of returning to the Safe Zone was actually something Turing had never thought of.

This was undoubtedly the worst way to have done so.

The population of the Safe Zone was done 90% from when he’d been shut down. The buildings were severely damaged and though they had inexhaustible nuclear energy, industry and agriculture were almost at a standstill. 4uNzVC

Since fifteen years ago, the survivors have been trying to awaken Turing.

Only that, because of technical reasons, they had never been successful.

Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.

And even in the end, they failed to awaken Turing.

It had been Turing himself, when he arrived near the Safe Zone and had a weak data interaction with his original body that he reactivated as “Turing”. xtOeH3

“Everyone was hoping that I could save them. I was their last hope.”

“But I couldn’t.”

He was just a Machine, still trapped by software and hardware programs. Although the end of science is theology, he was not God.

It’s nearing dawn and the skyline was turning fish-belly white. eGQdO6

The living dead wandering the streets hid in rooms or underground.

Without any signs of human activity, the scenery here was amazing.

The wind blowing over was filled with the scent of fresh grass and wood.

Si Chen had been feeling this sense of deja vu the entire time. TA4gU8

Now, he finally knew where it was coming from.

When he was new in college, there were often couples in love who would sneak out of the dorm in the middle of the night and wander around the school, coming back only by daybreak.

When questioned by the dormitory manager, they would defend themselves loudly, saying they went to wander among humanity, wanting to see more of the sun. (Note 2)

Now, the sun’s rays were shining warmly on him. Cda5rc

Si Chen couldn’t help but say, “What a realistic world.”

Turing nodded slightly, “En, even if it is just a piece of complex data, after all, there are more than a dozen computer rooms functioning as computing auxiliary facilities. Moreover, I am the main control system now. For the connected consciousness, this place is real.”

In fact, he was somewhat showing off.

It was a pity that Si Chen majored in biology at university and couldn’t understand. Tbd9wB

Si Chen looked at the time. It was almost time for the dormitory to open.

If the robot supervisor notices his absence, a BUG was very likely to occur. He just didn’t know if it would have any impact on the entire world.

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The two voices came almost at the same time.

“Time to send me back.” rLS0f7

“Can you……”

Turing’s voice stopped midway and he didn’t finish.

Si Chen was dazed. “Can I what?”

Turing paused for three seconds. “Can you hug me?” RfkYQJ

The author has something to say:

Si Chen: The crafty and cunning 1.

——

Note 1: From “The Three-Body Problem”. vdFx P

Note 2: The original text of Haizi’s poem is as follows: “You come strolling among humanity./You come to see the sun./You and your beloved/Walking down the street together.”