After the body scan, Schilling was transferred to a larger observation room next door. Because her life form and the way she accessed the network were too unique, conventional scanning equipment could only figure out how her body came to be. They could not figure out the impact of her activities. Hence, we needed more efficient equipment.
This large observation room had been used many times recently. The most common use was to test the power of my sister and the little crow after their deification. It had the most comprehensive information flow detection and information snapshot function. It could reflect all the information changes in the observation room without any delay beyond the Planck time. Only with such sensitivity could we ensure that every communication between Schilling and the entire spiritual network was recorded without error.
The observation room was a square enclosed space. It was isolated from the outside world by a strong energy shield and a layer of transparent energy crystals. There was a lot of space to move around inside. It was even big enough for a huge creature like the little crow to transform into its divine form. Outside the square 'huge coffin' was a series of terminal platforms that the researchers worked on. We could see the situation inside through the transparent barrier. We could also understand the changes in the environment inside through the terminals at hand. I looked around and suddenly thought, "Don't you think this place looks like the place where evil scientists conduct inhumane experiments in the movies? The victims are locked up inside … "
As soon as I said that, the surrounding scientists of the Empire choked. Tawil pushed up her gold-rimmed glasses and the corner of her mouth twitched. She let out a soft sigh. My sister came up and gave me a hard knock. "You're always imagining things!"
I remembered that my sister had been in the observation room before. I suddenly felt awkward …
"Alright, the system is ready. The recording device is working well." Tawil broke my daze. She pressed her hand on the crystal panel of the main control panel and quickly operated a few buttons. "Schilling, you can move around freely. Mm, you can do whatever you want. We need to collect the communication signals between you and the spiritual network, as well as your own life response."
"I can do whatever I want?" Schilling ran to the edge of the observation room and leaned against the transparent barrier. She looked at us curiously. The speaker device amplified her voice to the entire hall. She was shocked. "Wow! It's suddenly so loud! "
"Err … You can do anything." Sandora put her hand on her forehead as if she didn't like the tiredness. "Today, I'm only going to collect regular data. Relax and do whatever you want …"
"Oh, then I want to eat." Schilling did not feel anything about the environment that would make ordinary people very nervous. She was only thinking about the dinner that she had not been able to fulfill so far. "You said you would send food over. I want the chocolate cake from that shop, the triangular kind."
Sandora was stunned. She wiped the corner of her mouth and said, "This is definitely my nemesis. Someone go get Sylvia and ask her to bring all the pastries in the shop. The institute will buy everything for her today."
"I can't eat that much." Schilling quickly waved his hand.
Sandora wiped the corner of her mouth again. "The rest is mine!"
Thus, the first phase of the test began in such a state that left everyone speechless: the top scientists of the entire Empire gathered in a circle and watched as our Psychic Network avatar ate food and dropped bits of it all over the floor. Of course, considering that Sandora's movements were not small, no one complained about it. Tawil continued the work at hand with a very subtle expression. He recorded the data, analyzed the information fluctuations in the observation room, communicated with his assistants, and cast a helpless look at me.
But the information collection went smoothly. When Schilling finally finished her meal, we had confirmed that there was indeed an unlimited and non-delayed communication channel between her and the spiritual network. At the same time, we also confirmed that there was no need for her to eat at all …
Because her body structure did not need to digest food at all. Whatever she ate would be directly dispersed into elementary particles and dissipated in the air. And her desire to eat might just be a habit or an imitation of others …
Next, we tested Schilling's control over the spiritual network. Sandora still remembered her initial concern: whether Schilling had the ability to destroy the network. Because Bubble's declaration that Schilling was harmless was entirely based on her reasoning based on the underlying protocol. The specific situation of the latter still needed to be tested. The test process took a long time. It was not that there was anything wrong with the test procedure, but we spent nearly half an hour explaining to Schilling how she came to be. It was simply hopeless: as the embodiment of the spiritual network, Schilling herself actually knew nothing about the network. She did not even know what a spiritual connection was.
"The onlooker can't see clearly." Watching Schilling struggling to understand the information Tawil gave her, Sandora sighed. "Because she herself is the spiritual network, she is not aware of the existence of the network at all. Before humans left space, they did not realize what the space view of their own planet looked like. Without a second perspective, humans would never be able to see their entire body."
It was quite difficult for Schilling to understand what the spiritual network and her own life form was. Even if she could directly access these things from the Empire's database, she said that she did not have an intuitive understanding and could only feel that it was awesome. After being troubled for a long time, Tawil finally came up with an idea: she decided to completely open up her information chain and let Schilling share everything she sensed.
Finally, this method worked. Through a third-party perspective, Schilling clearly felt the existence of the spiritual network for the first time and found that she was a collective consciousness distributed on every node of the entire network. She watched in amazement as her "home" became a vast virtual ocean from a new perspective, and she herself dissipated in every node of this ocean. She was excited.
"Oh! So this is the network you were talking about! So I am this network?! " Schilling happily looked at the scientists around her. "Ah, thank you, you know so much!"
"Now, let's officially test what kind of influence you can exert on this network," Tawil said solemnly, trying to calm Schilling down from her overactive state.
When the test began, Sandora and I could not help but become nervous.
To determine whether Schilling was a potential threat to the existing Empire's spiritual network, it all depended on the results of this test. If the Bubble's calculation was wrong, and Schilling could destroy the spiritual network without authorization (although she might have done so accidentally), then we would have to find a way to restrict her — at least before she grew up. I knew it was unfair to her because this girl did not do anything at all, but it was a method that had to be taken. The spiritual network was one of the foundations that the Shiring Apostles relied on for survival and development. Its status was even comparable to the psionic technology of the Empire. And this incarnation of the network was currently in an extremely immature state. It was just as Sandora had said: the key to the end of the world was in the hands of a child. So, it was no wonder that everyone was so nervous about this problem.
Of course, even if the worst-case scenario were to occur, Xi Ling would still receive the best care. She could be said to be our baby, just that she was not mature enough yet. Just like the little crow who could not control her own strength, she just needed to limit her mobility.
"Authorization test …"
"Network offline test …"
"Attempting to disable the virtual network of the experimental subject …"
"Remote shutdown of online equipment test …"
Tawil's thoughts were meticulous. She designed a series of tests with the serious attitude of a researcher, hoping to completely determine to what extent Schilling could affect the network. As the tests came to an end, we could finally heave a sigh of relief.
"It has been proven that due to the mechanism of her birth, her actions must completely follow the normal underlying protocols. Apart from being unable to cancel any access rights, her other rights to the Empire's facilities are the same as the normal Shiring Apostles, and they also need to be approved by the Emperor. So, she cannot operate any node without harming the network's structure, just like how most humans can't lick their own elbow. "Tawil looked at the terminal in front of her, then lifted her head and said to me and Sandora with a smile. But soon, her expression changed." Err … Your Majesty, please be more dignified. You really can't lick … "
I: "… Cough cough, business is more important, business is more important. In that case, there's no need to put a collar on Schilling. "
"In fact, it's impossible to put a collar on her even if we wanted to," Tawil sighed in an inconspicuous manner. "It's impossible for us to restrain the entire Empire's Psychic Network. Now, we can celebrate. The Empire's Psychic Network will receive an unprecedented strengthening. As long as Schilling is online, our network will be even stronger than before. The rest … is to think of ways to train her. "
Everyone's gaze turned back to the observation area. Schilling was squatting on the ground, doing nothing. She seemed to have finally gotten tired of the series of checks, but her introverted personality prevented her from protesting for the time being. She conjured up a pair of gigantic wings just like Alaya's, but this time, she wasn't able to conjure up the other half of her wings. Then, she gave up on flapping her wings to fly, and instead, grew a malevolent and powerful mechanical tail from her back. This was a characteristic of an armored scorpion. She played around happily until I knocked on the transparent barrier. "Schilling, where do you live now?"
"Where?" Schilling tilted her head in confusion. "Anywhere is fine. Do I need a fixed place to live?"
I recalled that ever since Schilling mysteriously entered the real world from the crystal, she didn't have a fixed place to live at all. She had been floating around for the past few days. Thus, I was particularly curious about her daily life. "Where do you stay after you leave Monster Town and Atlantis? Where do you sleep at night? Do you just wander around? "
"Monster Town and Atlantis? Oh, I know what you're talking about. "Schilling ran over briskly and lay on the transparent barrier." That's an interesting place. But what do you mean by sleeping? "
"The mental network never goes offline. So, in theory, she doesn't rest. The nodes on the network take turns to maintain and refresh. She will never feel tired," Tawil explained. "In theory, yes."
"I want to go out." At this moment, Schilling suddenly slammed on the barrier of the observation area. "I want to go out!"
I glanced at Tawil. He nodded, indicating that there were no more tests to be done. So, Schilling could move around freely. Thus, I ordered the barrier of the observation area to be turned off. As soon as the barrier in front of her disappeared, Schilling immediately jumped out happily. She was as agile as a rabbit. I suddenly felt strange. "You should be able to ignore the barrier and jump out directly, right?"
According to my understanding, "Schilling" was the Empire's mental network itself. The girl in front of us was just a virtual body projected by the super consciousness at the selected coordinates within the network's coverage. This virtual image had unlimited access. In fact, she couldn't be stopped by anything. As long as there was a place covered by the Empire's mental network, Schilling could upload herself at any time and then re-project herself in another place. This was the reason why she could appear and disappear unpredictably in Atlantis and Monster Town. She could even move around under the nose of the Empire's sentinels. And now, she seemed to be blocked by a mere protective barrier …
"Because Sister Chen Qian said she wouldn't let me leave the body just now." Xi Ling showed a very logical look, "And the previous very narrow body, she also wouldn't let me leave …"
"The virtual wall effect of the program," Tawil explained without waiting for me to ask. "Your Majesty, think about the virtual partition on the memory. It seems that Schilling can directly write the superior's orders into her own logic. This is the only reason why her actions are restricted. In terms of obeying orders, she is the same as the other Shiring Apostles."
I nodded with satisfaction. In this aspect, Schilling was much better than Little Bubble …
Since Schilling didn't have a fixed residence, and she didn't seem to care where she lived, we temporarily let her live in the research institute. The advantage of living with Tawil was that the latter would reveal more secrets about Schilling as soon as possible with the enthusiasm of a scientist. Since we had arranged a residence for her, we didn't have to worry that Schilling would run around all day with a random appearance and cause panic. She had fully proven herself in terms of obedience.
Of course, she also has full freedom of movement. Since we can't teach her how to follow the empire's military rules for the time being, we give her special permission to move around without causing trouble. As long as she knows that she's home at night when everyone else is asleep, it's fine. More importantly, she couldn't run too far away. Tawil quickly proved through experiments that Schilling could teleport as long as she was within the coverage of the mental network. Her teleportation range covered the entire territory of the Empire. As long as she was still within the borders of the Empire, she could run around blindly. We had to consider what would happen if she ran to the border and was discovered by the Fallen Apostle … So, we absolutely couldn't let her run around blindly.
Of course, her teleportation ability had nothing to do with teleportation. It was actually a process of uploading and downloading. Although it was magical, it was the truth.
After arranging things here, Sandora and I returned home.
In fact, Schilling's appearance also brought us a little confusion. What level of apostle should she be considered as?
Judging from the process of Schilling's birth, she was the Empire's mental network itself. The two were of the same level. However, the Empire's mental network had never been a clear unit with a level of authority. No one had ever tried to view the network as a Shiring Apostles. So, we couldn't use conventional methods to determine the level of 'Schilling'. If we didn't consider the network, Schilling was equivalent to the collective consciousness of the Shiring Apostles. In that case, she should have a very high level of authority. Even the Emperor of the Empire was just one of the nodes of 'Schilling'. In that case, she should be the highest level apostle that had ever appeared.
However, the reality was that, apart from her own talent, Schilling had unlimited authority within the range of the network. In other aspects, her authority was exactly the same as an ordinary apostle that had not yet been determined. She didn't have any combat strength, and she didn't know how to use the Imperial Army's arsenal. She would only listen to the orders of the leader level apostles and above. In addition, she was restricted by a bunch of basic network protocols. All of these characteristics indicated that Schilling wasn't an apostle with supreme authority.
The disparity between this and her possible 'other half' was as great as the sky.
On the side of the Fallen Apostles, there might be a collective consciousness similar to Schilling. That collective consciousness wasn't just the materialization of the mental network, it had already risen to the level of the will of the race. She had even established absolute rule over all of the Fallen Apostles. She could easily kill any apostle, including the Emperor of the Fallen Apostles. Meanwhile, the one here only knew how to feel good after eating and chatting with others … Although I didn't want to say it, the Schilling on the side of the New Empire was practically trash when compared to the 'lord' of the Fallen Apostles …
Even though I didn't wish for her to have the same 'ability' as' that lord '.
As for the issue of Schilling's authority and apostle rank, we had discussed it for a long time after we returned. My sister and Lin Xue were considered to be on the side of common sense. Based on Schilling's identity, they felt that she should at least be on the same level as a leader level apostle, which was the military rank of a general. Meanwhile, Sandora and I were on the side of logic. The two of us tried to start from the mechanism of Schilling's birth and understand why she was so 'useless' on the side of the Empire. Then, we tried to figure out how to reset her authority. The two of us had a heated discussion for a long time. The only thing I felt was that this was the first time our family had discussed such a serious matter of national importance within thirty minutes after a meal …
However, in the end, there wasn't any conclusion to this topic. Schilling was Schilling. She was the strangest Shiring Apostles in history. A Shiring Apostles who didn't even know what the Empire was. Perhaps, the important matter we were discussing here was meaningless in her eyes. It wasn't even comparable to a piece of cake in Sylvia's little shop. Then, let everything take its course. Let her slowly grow. I believed that she just looked a little useless …
Yes, that was the theory.
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