Starting as a Mechanical Hunter-Chapter 342 - 114: Joker

After finishing his water-cooler chat, the PP Boss sneaked out of the bathroom.

As part of the Beautiful Interconnection Company, yes, the company that developed the Moral Chip, everyone was required to have the Moral Chip implanted.

Luckily, after suffering once, no, twice, the PP Boss finally smartened up and decisively activated the backdoor in the chip that the handsome doctor had provided, during the implanting process.

This backdoor could interfere with the neural circuits around the chip, creating a situation where although the chip was still operating, it didn’t affect him at all.

The PP Boss felt the company people had changed, but also hadn’t really changed.

The coworkers who used to cut in line and take petty advantages had become amiable and friendly.

The boss who used to constantly spew polite language, now actually used genuine polite language.

The old hand who used to engage in workplace sexual harassment abruptly turned into a gentleman, not even sparing a glance at long legs.

But some things remained unchanged.

Overtime was still overtime, but now it was renamed as company contribution.

Laying off was still laying off, but now it’s called providing excellent talent to society.

Demotion was still demotion, but now it’s called starting from the frontline.

Supervisors, employees, coworkers, everyone had turned into good people, just good in a rather strange way.

The PP Boss had just returned to his workstation when he heard the news—another coworker had died suddenly.

Looking at the smile on the deceased’s face, along with the grateful family members and the supervisors saddened yet composed.

The PP Boss shuddered violently, God, what is this Moral Chip, isn’t this just large-scale brainwashing?

...

"How do you feel now?" On the TV, a host was interviewing a serial killer from the Outer City District, who was also a cyber psychiatric patient.

"I feel extremely ashamed of what I did earlier, but I’m also very fortunate; in the latter half of my life, I won’t make the same mistakes."

"Are you sure you won’t kill again?"

"I won’t."

"Are you sure you won’t insult women again?"

"I won’t."

"Why not?"

"Morality doesn’t allow me to do so."

"For instance, in the same situation, what would you do?"

The host looked towards someone dressed as a scientist, and this scientist opened several holographic projections. The projections were all extremely stimulating content—violence, gore, pornography—yet this fierce-looking criminal’s heart rate, neural changes, and even mental processes showed no change at all.

"Ladies and gentlemen, it seems this person wasn’t lying."

The scene switched to an interview program, where the host asked the scientist: "Dr. Murray, that person just now, aside from being a serial killer, was also a cyber psychiatric patient. Does this mean that the implantation of the Moral Chip can effectively alleviate cyber psychosis?"

"Not alleviate effectively, but cure. In fact, not just cyber psychosis, but all mental illnesses, depression, phantom limb syndrome, schizophrenia, as long as the chip is implanted, can be solved."

"But I’ve heard that the nature of mental illness is a brain disorder."

"Exactly, but under the constraint of morality, all brain errors will be corrected at the neuron level."

"Isn’t this a kind of shackle?" One guest inquired.

"Do people not need such shackles? Murder, betrayal, sexual harassment, verbal violence, cyberbullying, corruption and bribery, manufacturing dangerous items, do you want to live in such a world? Do you want your mother, your wife, your daughter to live in such a world? Suppose your wife was followed, drugged, wouldn’t you regret not implanting such people with the Moral Chip? Or do you yourself have violent tendencies?"

The guest was left speechless.

"Is the effect of such a chip sustainable? What are its limits of use?" Another guest began to ask.

"Good question. In fact, more than half a year ago, we already commenced a large-scale experiment. We released over 5000 criminals from the Nightless City prison, including death row inmates. While implanting them with the Moral Chip, we also secretly installed a monitoring system in them."

The scene switched to show over five thousand individual cases, each about a released person’s experience.

"In the span of more than half a year, they have perfectly integrated into social forms, never committing a crime again, even when faced with ridicule, discrimination, or verbal violence. They all displayed gentlemanly demeanor above average."

"Since they can do it, I believe everyone can do it."

Applause broke out.

"Is it that everyone must have a Moral Chip implanted, including those big figures?" a guest asked.

"Of course, council members and all members of the Illusion Company’s board will have priority for implanting, followed by senior figures in politics, economics, and corporations. We have always believed that only when those in power and with wealth become moral role models, can the whole society don a cloak of morality."

"What if someone doesn’t want to do it?"

"If someone doesn’t want to implant the Moral Chip, they are considered an anti-morality individual. You can choose to leave before the mass chip implantation. If you refuse to leave, then we may consider you an anti-morality individual and cleanse you according to Nightless City laws."

"What exactly does the morality in the Moral Chip refer to?"

"The basis of morality is the Mother City laws. We’ve divided it into four modules: Crime Module, Public Order Module, Emotional Module, and Professional Module. Each module contains detailed moral codes, of course, this is also the result of discussions among countless scholars, experts, and representatives."

"..."

After a long moral debate, legal debate, and emotional debate, this interview finally came to an end.

"Welcome to the show, Dr. Murray, the Chief Technology Advisor of Illusion Company. We sincerely hope that this implantation of the moral chip can bring a better future to Nightless City."

"Of course, all for a better future."

After shaking hands with everyone in the show crew, Dr. Murray left the broadcasting center and boarded the smart car.

"Back to headquarters."

"Sure, Doctor," the car’s artificial intelligence responded.

The neon lights flickered outside the glass. At night, there were still protesting crowds, along with sporadic flames, but under the high-intensity suppression by the Peacekeepers, the protest by the gangs wouldn’t last long. After all, each security company was the transformation of the top gangs.

’The company still needs a top-notch security team,’ Dr. Murray thought calmly as the car drove into the newly built company building, looking at the graffiti outside.

Soon, taking the elevator, he entered the meeting room on the 33rd floor. There was only one person in the meeting room, and that was the former chairman of Beautiful Interconnection, now the CEO of Illusion Company—Hugh Laurie, a blond-haired, blue-eyed business genius.

"Boss, about the current chip implantation progress, I have to report to you..."

After calmly listening to the report from the other party, after a long pause, the CEO spoke, "The artificial data of the real world is easy to solve, but the artificial data of Cyber Space, I’m talking about those Cyber Race, AI, do you have a solution?"

"According to the agreement we signed with Nightless City, the main brain will help us determine the real coordinates of the Cyber Race in the city. As for the specialized chip for AI, it is already 90% complete."

"I have some new technical materials here, you can take a look when you go back, maybe it will help."

Dr. Murray was visibly stunned, as the general head of all research teams, what new technical materials are there that he wasn’t aware of?

However, he didn’t ask much, just nodded and directly left.

"Cough cough, the moral chip, morality, haha..." A low laughter sounded.

"This reminds me of some alien races with very special social forms, among the cosmos, they are generally called the Divine Race."

"A perfect moral being, isn’t that a god?" Laurie retorted.

"Does a perfect being not need to kill anymore? Or does it mean no more need for taboo experiments? Do you think Mother City would agree?"

"For the Peacekeepers, we naturally have custom moral chips, at least they won’t murder out of personal vendetta."

"And for the chip makers, we naturally have specialized chips. The rules of morality will change with social structure, and as the makers, we naturally need to adapt to such change instantly."

"A flexible moral bottom line, huh?"

The door opened, and a pale-faced 5th Generation Miller came out, plopped onto the sofa, and unceremoniously propped his legs up on the table.

"I don’t care what you’re up to, just make the Personality Chip I need, and I won’t bother you."

"Of course, it’s part of the deal," Hugh Laurie stood up, poured a glass of wine, and handed it over, "how would we dare to offend a member of the Cloud Nobility?"

"As long as you understand."

"Also, I need you to help me deal with someone, this person will return to Nightless City soon."

"This isn’t in our transaction content, and if even you can’t deal with the enemy, let alone us?" Hugh Laurie appeared humble, but his tone was full of refusal.

"Are you refusing?" 5th Generation Miller squinted his eyes, within the slits gleamed a dangerous glow.

"No, I just think that we can make another deal, a very excellent deal."

...

In the Mechanical Split Star Plate, players in Nightless City were probably the first to enjoy blessings.

In fact, in the mid-stage plot of the Cyber Test Field, almost every area had ’blessings’ occurring.

To players, ’blessings’ might not necessarily be a bad thing, after all, the more turmoil in society, the more ’monsters’ refreshed in the game.

But this blessing was obviously different from other ’blessings.’

Players who had implant chips were startled to discover something.

They couldn’t fight monsters anymore! Especially ’Humanoid Monsters’!

Whenever they wanted to attack, their conscience would be very uneasy, filled with moral self-reproach, and they put down their weapons involuntarily.

How can I kill?

How can I break the law?

How can I do bad things?

Can’t fight monsters, but they were very enthusiastic about helping old ladies cross the road instead.

The problem is, helping old ladies cross the road doesn’t increase experience!

Hey hey hey, what is this game doing!?

Do you know what happens when players’ desires are unfulfilled, are you trying to push us to the dark side?

Do you know how Jokers come about!!!