The eyes of the two little fellows were glittering like the morning stars in the dark night. They released their brainwaves and showed Long Yangjun their unique "soul structure".
Long Yangjun, who was keener about the soul and brainwaves, immediately sensed the difference between them. "What … What's the meaning of this? Also, 'Aunt Long', what kind of horrible name is that? Which asshole came up with it? "
Long Yangjun glared at Li Yao angrily.
Wenwen smiled and quickly changed the name. "Aunt Long, we are indeed Dad's children and the children of human beings, but we are slightly different from other children. Other children are born with a body first before their soul gradually grows from the body. But we have our soul and self-awareness first. After our self-awareness is strong enough, we carefully nurture our fleshly body.
"Xiaoming and I were both born in the boundless virtual game 'Civilization'. The database of 'Civilization' that is as vast as an ocean was the first nutrition that we tasted. We grew up in the world of 'Civilization', observed the world, and defined ourselves …"
According to the narration that they had discussed with Li Yao in advance, the two little fellows echoed each other and told him their background delightfully.
Of course, the fact that their self-awareness was suddenly awakened after they swallowed Li Yao's brainwave data was too mysterious for the two little fellows to mention. They only mentioned that after the "Phantom Entities", their antecedents, were created by Professor Mo Xuan, they accidentally escaped to the world of "Civilization" and swallowed the astronomical information there. Then, their self-awareness was born because of the qualitative changes caused by the quantitative changes.
Because Li Yao was known as the father of "Civilization", and his marks were everywhere in the game, many players liked to pray to his statue mysteriously before the game. Therefore, the two little fellows believed that Li Yao was their creator and their "father"!
They also told Long Yangjun how they created the "main shell" that allowed them to enter the material world, how they chased their father all the way from the Federation to the Imperium, how they found Long Yangjun's secret nest first and set up camp next to it … They told Long Yangjun everything dutifully.
Long Yangjun, on the other hand, was soaked in cold sweat. Her face was pale, and she couldn't sit still.
Before, she had thought that her activities of "Nepenthe" below the ground were undetectable and that she was the "manipulator" behind the curtain.
She did not expect that there would be two strange little fellows by her side, observing her every move.
After hearing the narration of the two little fellows, Long Yangjun had goosebumps all over her body. Rubbing her arms, she exclaimed, "Li Yao, I told myself too many times that no matter what unbelievable things happened to a monster like you, it would not be worth my surprise for even half a second. But I have to admit that it is impossible! You always have a way of scaring people, and this time, it can be said to be 'unprecedented'! "
As she spoke, she looked at the two little guys curiously. She hesitated for a moment, as if she wanted to reach out and pinch their little cheeks to confirm whether they were real or fake. Of course, she couldn't pinch their cheeks.
"I didn't see it coming," Long Yangjun mumbled.
"When we fought Mo Xuan fiercely, we all thought that it was still too early for real virtual lives to arrive in the human world. According to the current technology and the Internet, the first dawn of virtual lives might not appear until thousands of years later. In the long history of a civilization, it is already a short moment! I didn't expect that I would be lucky enough to see the 'child civilization' of mankind, or at least the prototype of it, so soon! "
"We are not virtual lives!"
The two little fellows pouted and corrected her at the same time. "We are real. Our fleshly bodies, our brainwaves, and even our feelings are real!"
"Sorry."
Long Yangjun accepted the advice. "Should we call you 'strong artificial intelligence'?"
"The definition of 'artificial intelligence' is not clear."
Wenwen continued pointing out, "To some extent, human beings are 'artificial intelligence' created by the Pangu and the Nuwa Clan. Who knows whether or not the Pangu and the Nuwa Clan were enlightened by an even more ancient civilization millions of years ago and created by somebody else? Since we are all 'artificial intelligence', the term does not have any directivity at all.
"Please call us' information lives'. We are lives that are born based on information and roam in the ocean of information!"
Long Yangjun grinned. "If 'artificial intelligence' is not accurate, are 'information lives'? Any life is destined to carry tremendous information from the moment they are born. The genes of human beings are helical chains that are full of information! Therefore, human beings, the Pangu, and the Nuwa Clan are all 'information lives', except that the carriers of our information are genes and cells, and the ways of information exchange are mainly sounds and pictures. Of course, with the development of training techniques and the development of the Spiritual Nexus, the direct transmission of brainwaves is gradually becoming the mainstream. That's all. "
"That's right!"
The two little fellows were somewhat dazed by Long Yangjun's words. Looking at each other in bewilderment, they said, "Yes. Carbon-based lives and information lives are not opposites at all. Carbon-based lives are information lives too. We only have different carriers. So, how should we distinguish them?"
"The carriers are not necessarily different."
Long Yangjun seemed to enjoy seeing the two little fellows troubled. She intentionally said, "Look, if you can give birth to a fleshly body and download your main process into it, you will become 'carbon-based lives', too! By the same logic, human beings can abandon their physical bodies and hide their remaining souls in an artificial body, living as' spectral Cultivators'. Can they still be called 'carbon-based lives'?
"Furthermore, in Mo Xuan's vision, most people do not even need artificial bodies. They can simply 'live' inside crystal processors in the form of highly-compressed souls. If such a future does come true, will they be any different from you?"
"Well —"
The two little fellows blinked quickly, with smoke popping up from their heads. "We don't seem to have thought about it before. That's a very interesting question. It seems that we have to redefine our relationship with human beings. What are we exactly, and what are human beings?"
"Well …"
Li Yao was stupefied as he listened to the conversation.
It seemed that Long Yangjun was much more receptive than he had imagined. She had adapted to the existence of the two little fellows so quickly. Also, what she said sounded so mysterious and reasonable!
"What —"
Long Yangjun glanced at him. "What's the meaning of you bringing the two little fellows to me openly and revealing their identities without any hesitation? Have you accepted my opinion that whatever evil schemes you have, don't be stealthy and secretive, and the more evil you are, the more you have to do it openly? "
"What evil schemes do I have?"
Li Yao held his head high and said, "I have always been a 'frank gentleman' … However, you're not wrong. It's true that I don't know how to make the two little fellows face the entire civilization of mankind and how to make most people accept their existence.
"Since they are my children, I do not want them to live in darkness for the rest of their lives. Also, if we are going to resolve the chaos at the center of the cosmos and take down Blackstar the Great, the four Kurfürst families, and the main fleet of the Holy League that has never shown up, we will certainly need their help.
"However … you've seen the strength stored inside their bodies, haven't you? If they do grow to the point where they can give us a hand, a lot of people will be deeply scared.
"I really don't know if other people will accept them. That's why I'm here to ask for your advice!"
Through the glass window that had long been shattered, Long Yangjun looked at the neat engineering teams made of spiritual puppets who were dismantling and collecting all the usable items in the Great Iron Plants, ready to move them to the underground world.
The most eye-catching assembly line of magical equipment components was still functioning in such a harsh environment, producing the limbs and joints of spiritual puppets!
With the limbs and joints, the spiritual puppets that had been blown apart in fierce battles could be repaired.
Everything was under Xiaoming and Wenwen's control.
In other words, the information lives were already capable of self-replication and upgrading without the intervention of human beings. They were only one step away from "reproduction".
"From a certain perspective, the scene before our eyes is indeed creepy. It has the weird beauty of 'doomsday'."
After watching for a while, Long Yangjun turned her eyes back to Li Yao's face. "Congratulations. It seems that you are going to live up to your nickname of 'Monster Li' and become one of the strongest competitors for the 'destroyer of the civilization of mankind'. It is a title that countless supervillains have been dreaming of since the ancient times. Xiao Xuance, Lu Zui, Mo Xuan, and the extraterrestrial devils are all dwarfed by you!"
With a bitter face, Li Yao said, "Stop kidding. I'm here for your help. Help me figure out what to do —"
"I don't know. Also, you shouldn't have asked me at all," Long Yangjun said casually.
"Don't forget that I am not a pure human being. In the eyes of most people, I am an 'alien' too, no different from the member of the Pangu Clan that you executed in the Kunlun relics.
"I can only mingle in the human society under a carefully disguised identity. I don't even have the courage to tell anybody who I am except for you.
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