"Just as I expected!"
Li Yao knew that A Boxing Champion must've misunderstood him.
On second thought, it did make sense. Wasn't the fake identity that he made up exactly A Boxing Champion's real secret?
With such a coincidence, it was no wonder that A Boxing Champion regarded him as one of his own kind.
Li Yao thought for a moment and said, "We're all in the same boat, and the environment out there is too dangerous. We should be honest and work together. Let me tell you the truth. I'm not an artificial intelligence but a remaining soul. I'm more or less a spectral Cultivator!"
Li Yao was amused. "In other words, I'm a spectral Cultivator who pretends to be a spiritual puppet, and you're a spiritual puppet who pretends to be a spectral Cultivator. We're brothers in the same boat."
It was quite amazing when he thought about it. The spiritual puppet named 'A Boxing Champion' was so advanced that its artificial intelligence was at least as developed as an 'Hyper Spirit'.
Li Yao had been fighting hard against the 'Hyper Spirits' under the command of the extraterrestrial devils in the Xing Yao Federation not long ago. Little did he know that he was going to be honest with an 'Hyper Spirit' right now, and that they might even be able to fight side by side?
Li Yao was somewhat confused. He did not know whether he should hate, fear, or be close to A Boxing Champion as an 'Hyper Spirit'.
"How is it possible?"
A Boxing Champion, however, said solemnly, "In the past decades, I've studied countless spiritual puppets, including the models that can learn and upgrade on their own like mine. I've also encountered thousands of spectral Cultivators and studied the mysteries of their remaining souls carefully. You can fool other people, but you can't fool me. The form of the soul that you simulated is obviously slightly different from that of a human being. You should be an artificial intelligence that is multiple levels higher than me. How can you be a human being?"
Li Yao: "… Huh?"
A Boxing Champion said, "When we met for the first time, I only vaguely sensed it. But when you took action on the battlefield for the second time, I was absolutely certain of it. Otherwise, how could I have let you enter the center of Great Iron City? However, I still underestimated you at that time. I didn't expect you to be so advanced and save me in the end. "
Li Yao's Primordial Spirit broke out in a cold sweat. "You, did you see wrongly?"
After a brief silence, the Fist King said, "The soul that you simulated is far more complicated and mysterious than the upper limit of my calculation. I've never met anyone of my kind like you. Perhaps most human beings will be fooled by you, but I can't be wrong. Whatever you are exactly, you are not a pure human being at the very least. Both you and I know that very well, don't we?"
Three question marks appeared above Li Yao's primordial spirit. "What the hell do I know?!"
The mental devil hesitated, too. "Is it possible that we swallowed too many pieces of tenebrum energy from the extraterrestrial devils and Professor Mo Xuan's legacy, resulting in weird mutations in our souls, and it mistook us for … artificial intelligence?"
"I — I think so."
Li Yao's soul fluctuated stiffly. He thought of the collapsed Virtual Spirits Sector in the Xing Yao Federation, his missing brainwave data, and the two Hyper Spirits, No. 17 and No. 18, who had mysteriously gone missing.
Calming himself down, Li Yao managed a smile. "It is because … you think that we are of your kind that you hid us in Great Iron City, right?"
"Yes."
A Boxing Champion sighed. "It's been a long time since I last met an intact and logical fellow of my kind. I planned to have a good chat with you and exchange our data after Liberty City was taken down. I did not know that the sky had such a strong control over the ground. They did not intend to let me win the war at all!"
Li Yao thought of something and asked, "You know the secrets of the sky?"
"I know very little."
A Boxing Champion said sadly, "At the bottom level of my database, some information seems to be hidden, allowing me to know that I am a product of a certain experiment and a participant of a certain project. The entire world that I am in is part of a laboratory.
"But as for what the so-called 'project' is all about, who my creator is, and how many secrets are hidden in 'Manjusaka, the City in the Sky', I don't know the first thing about it. That's also why I want to exchange databases with you. Perhaps we can share some critical information and reassemble the broken 'puzzle'.
"It is a pity that the sky is far more powerful than I expected. I do not have the slightest chance at all."
"Our world is part of a laboratory?"
Han Te and the Coloured Glaze looked at each other in bewilderment.
In the past month or so, the two little fellows had grown very fast. One might even say that they had been reborn. They had vaguely sensed some of the truth about the Land of Sins, too.
However, when they heard A Boxing Champion say 'laboratory' in person, the two little fellows still could not help but feel their heads go blank. Then, they were both upset and furious.
"What — What is going on exactly?"
Han Te breathed fast and blushed. "Master A Boxing Champion, please tell us everything as it is!"
"Your emotional simulation system is truly remarkable!"
Li Yao, however, was more interested in A Boxing Champion himself. He mumbled, "The tone of your voice, the subtle changes of your emotions, and the overwhelming dominance on the battlefield are truly vivid, as if you were a real human being."
"They are all simulations."
A Boxing Champion suddenly changed into a cold, emotionless voice. "I have no feelings, no self-will, and no soul. I am just a lifeless puppet. All my appearances are the simulation of someone else."
"Someone else?"
Coloured Glaze asked curiously, "Who is it?"
"The real Lei Zonglie," A Boxing Champion said.
"Huh?"
Coloured Glaze blinked quickly and nodded. "That does make sense. The Lei Zonglie in the beginning was naturally a human being made of flesh and blood, not a spiritual puppet. Then, what's the deal with Master A Boxing Champion right now?"
"The battle up there is a mess," Li Yao said. "I'm secretly scanning the detailed structure of Liberty City and the distribution of the enemy's forces, trying to find a route to resolve the situation. We have about … twenty minutes. Come on. Tell us your story!"
A Boxing Champion was silent for a moment. The crystal processor embedded below the iron shield hummed and was caught in the high-speed data extraction and sorting. He said slowly, "My data at the beginning was the roaring wind and the blast of air turbulence. I was observing the entire continent from the sky. I fell from the sky and was dropped to the Land of Sins from beyond the atmosphere.
"At that time, my database was empty. Other than the underlying architecture, the basic operation logic, and a fuzzy instruction, there was nothing else.
"My highest command is — Become the strongest at all costs, by hook or by crook!
"It was truly an instruction that exceeded my analytical, computational, and logical thinking abilities.
"What did 'by whatever means possible' mean? What did 'by whatever means possible' mean? Most importantly of all, what did 'strongest' mean?
"With those questions, I wandered in the wilderness and the Bloody Plateau, observing the people in the Land of Sins shooting and slashing each other with all kinds of weapons. I observed what the so-called 'experts' and 'dominators' looked like.
"Sometimes, I would be discovered by people and enlisted into their army to take part in the gory wars.
"I was once shattered and almost destroyed in the wars, but I upgraded actively and passively time and time again, gradually turning into a slaughter machine. I also gradually understood the definition of 'strong' for the people here.
"I also encountered countless people of my own kind. I destroyed, dismantled, studied, and strengthened them on myself without any mercy. Perhaps, swallowing my own kind could make me stronger. That was what I thought at that time.
"If I had met you at that time, I certainly wouldn't have exchanged data with you. I would've destroyed you directly, or been destroyed by you."
Li Yao, Han Te, and the Coloured Glaze listened to A Boxing Champion's narration.
The two little fellows were fascinated. A picture seemed to have popped up in front of their eyes. A wild wind was blowing, and a lone spiritual puppet, like a metal skeleton, was walking among the broken limbs and dried blood on a battlefield that was full of debris, searching, and considering.
"It was more than a hundred and fifty years ago. I wandered in the Land of Sins for fifty years and destroyed 1,422 spiritual puppets of my own kind who boasted the ability to learn and upgrade on their own just like me. I also absorbed all their data into my database, allowing my combat ability to upgrade, grow, and evolve nonstop."
Different from the arrogance and dominance of the previous night, A Boxing Champion could not have been calmer at this moment, as if he were describing something that had nothing to do with him. It seemed that this was his real style. "However, I finally encountered my own destruction.
"I took part in an enormous, protracted war. An unparalleled electric current pierced through me and burnt up half of my core crystal processor. Then, my iron body was destroyed by a powerful bomb, too. The last bit of debris was left. I fell into the ruins of a city. The buildings above all collapsed, burying me in the deepest part of the sunless ruins.
"The timing function was completely broken. I didn't know how long I hibernated deep inside the ruins. I managed to repair part of my body, but I was unable to move the debris of the city that was as huge as a mountain above my head. However, I accidentally detected a gap below me.
"I crawled along the gap for a long time. It was zigzagging and as complicated as a maze. Many places were also completely blocked by rocks and mud. I had to dig them out carefully.
"Thankfully, I had infinite time. My highest command did not have a deadline.
"In the end, I found a secret chamber that was deeply buried below the ground. It was a shelter that had been sealed for a long time. More precisely speaking, it was a library from a long, long time ago."
"A library from a long, long time ago," Li Yao said. "How long ago was it exactly?"
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