Xyrin Empire-Chapter 1494: Visitors from the Consumer Association
I looked at Xyrin in front of me, who was deep in thought. We both remained silent for quite some time before Xyrin blinked uncertainly: "I... have no idea why I was drawn to it back then."
...I knew this would be the answer. It seems Xyrin is usually in a state of mild confusion. Could this be because back when the Old Empire network split, the Abyss Xyrin siphoned off more than half of their intelligence?
"You’re unsure about your connection with Abyss Xyrin, right?" I glanced at Xyrin, feeling a bit uncomfortable: Their face looks like Taville’s, but at heart, it’s someone else. While talking to them, I always have to remind myself not to call out the wrong name. You can imagine the effort this takes, so in the end, I couldn’t help but gently remind them, "Hey, maybe switch up your look? The way you look now, I feel at any moment you will split into several shadow clones right in front of me."
Xyrin rolled their eyes and thought for a moment, then with a "bang," transformed into Qianqian’s appearance...
I immediately broke out in a sweat: "Change it, change it, this one is even more unreliable—using this appearance makes me not dare to discuss any opinion-based topics with you whatsoever."
Then Xyrin kept "bang bang bang" rapidly switching between several looks, so fast and with such varied images that one couldn’t help but be amazed. I immediately concluded two things: First, Xyrin seems more adept at using their transformation ability; they are much quicker at changing their looks than before; second, this girl comes with custom skins and emoji packs...
Finally, Xyrin settled on a look that appeared relatively ordinary: a tall, thin, normal-looking girl, and continued discussing the previous topic with me: "I also frequently check the activity around the Rift. And according to Taville’s instructions, I do a roll call for the main nodes every sixty seconds, just to promptly detect any invading links infiltrating from across the network. But ever since the last time the Rift was isolated, I haven’t seen anything related to Abyss Xyrin. The situation a few days ago... I can’t really say what caused it... It doesn’t seem like an external factor; I decided on my own to follow and take a look at the front lines."
"You ’decided on your own’?" I don’t know why, but the phrase that sounded so ordinary caught my attention, "Are you sure this thought was generated autonomously and not influenced by external factors?"
Xyrin looked at me in confusion, although they didn’t speak, their facial expression clearly indicated perplexity.
"I just remembered an ability of Sandora," I scratched my chin, "Her mental suggestion has an unknowable mode that makes the controlled person completely unaware of someone controlling their mind, and lets the person think they are acting under their own free will from start to finish, um, no other meaning, I just drifted here while thinking randomly."
"My mind can’t be controlled," Xyrin suddenly became serious, counting on their fingers while explaining to me, "Firstly, my thinking process is the result of the entire Spiritual Network operating synchronously, and this network has a special structure, with no beginning or end, and no ’high-level key points’ to change other nodes. Even your node, Emperor, looks the same to me. From the ’node’ perspective, all Xyrin Apostles are equal, so no external force can affect my thinking process through hijacking key points; secondly, my thinking process is traceable to myself. I’ve learned most life forms’ thinking methods in your real world and found only a few individuals can achieve ’second thoughts’ about their own thinking. You use an organ to think but can’t simultaneously view your own thinking process from an outsider’s perspective. Like Earthlings using their brains to think but can’t generate a second perspective in their brains to observe their brain’s thinking process, I don’t understand this—because I can easily do this. I can run monitoring programs myself, even think about the same issue from two different processes. If necessary, I can completely step out of my perspective, observing how the ’Xyrin’ individual operates as a bystander..."
"That sounds incredible," I stared at Xyrin in amazement, "It’s like pulling yourself off the ground by your own hair... Um, can you understand this analogy?"
"Of course I can, I know a lot of real-world knowledge and I understand why you’re surprised, Emperor," Xyrin nodded seriously, "It indeed doesn’t match the common knowledge of creatures in the real world because you rely on a fixed organ or fixed ’self’ to execute thinking processes and are already accustomed to this. Whereas I coexist with the network, between program and spirit body, my special thinking process is actually... a self-check program. And these self-check programs aren’t components of self-awareness. They only generate when needed, so they can’t be pre-hijacked. In summary, my thinking won’t be controlled under ’unknowable’ circumstances. Sandora’s mental ability and Abyss Xyrin’s data infiltration might influence my mind, but I can certainly detect it, and have enough capacity—in needed situations—to alert everyone and immediately freeze myself."
"Then rule out Abyss Xyrin actively influencing you," I waved my hand, hurriedly concluding this topic that seemed headed for higher complexity, "so in your view, why did you ’autonomously generate’ the idea to go to the front lines at that time? Abyss Xyrin hadn’t appeared yet, and Lin Xue hadn’t made any predictions. You following to the front lines was almost like a Prophet-like act—and Abyss Xyrin did show up in the end, though you two didn’t meet."
Ever since returning from the Abyss Zone, I’ve felt a constant unease. Whether it’s the inexplicable large-scale division of the Fallen Apostles or the ambiguous "collaboration" attitude of the Abyss Xyrin, everything’s unsettling. However, there’s currently no evidence proving they’re plotting any major conspiracy directly against the Empire, nor is there proof that the division within the Abyss Zone is a mere illusion. Thus, we can only search for clues indirectly from other sources. As of now, the only connection New Empire has with the Abyss Xyrin is this seemingly immature soft-spoken Xyrin girl, so I’m left with no choice but to seek her answers.
Xyrin pondered for a long time this time. Though she often appears to lack common sense, she thinks deeply about such matters. After some contemplation, she lifted her head, "Your Majesty, I have a hypothesis... though it probably doesn’t relate much to our current topic, it’s regarding the operational principles of the Abyss Xyrin."
I was overjoyed immediately: "Tell me, go ahead."
"If the life-form of the Abyss Xyrin hasn’t changed, then her thought processes should be similar to mine," Xyrin said slowly. "Although we have free will, like any intelligent being whose thought processes are limited by their worldview and cognitive level, our network cluster consciousness also thinks within the limits of fundamental protocols and network architecture. High-priority information gets processed first, and content prohibited by fundamental protocols is automatically mapped to monitoring zones; harmful network entities are to be eliminated... The Abyss Xyrin may no longer be entirely controlled by these regulations, but her cognitive tendencies are likely influenced subtly by them, unrelated to whether she’s infected. It’s purely determined by the life-form. Like a human will never think like a cat, no matter how much they understand a cat, or how hard they try to view the world through a cat’s perspective, even if they suffer a mental illness like schizophrenia and mistakenly believe to be a cat from their very core, they’ll fundamentally never think like a cat—a human’s vision isn’t like a cat’s, nor is their sense of smell, taste, or touch. Even their brain’s operational efficiency differs from a cat’s. This isn’t something external can change; the limits of the life-form determine an intelligent being will only think within their worldview... Oh, Lady Qianqian is a slight exception."
Me: "..." Is Lady Qianqian’s brain challenging universal truths now or what!
"I feel there’s another exception," I couldn’t help adding, "You know Little Crow, right? She’s been crowing joyfully these past two days—she thinks she’s a chicken."
"That’s merely a cognitive error," Xyrin waved her hand dismissively. "Simply put, she can fly, so she wouldn’t understand what it feels like to be a bird with wings that can’t fly. Moreover, Your Majesty, the Crow God’s intellect is still immature; best not to expose her to too many worldview-shattering things. She picked up crowing after reading the story of Zhou Bapi..."
Me: "...How do you know so much?!"
"I’m a network cluster consciousness," Xyrin spread her hands open, "I’m aware of every event happening within the Empire, plus Lady Qianqian has already uploaded the short video of the Crow God crowing early in the morning online..."
I stared speechlessly for a moment, then wiped the cold sweat away: "Let’s get back to our initial discussion... So, you know how the Abyss Xyrin thinks?"
"Not knowing how she thinks," Xyrin said word by word, "but theoretically she would think about the same matter as I do!"
Xyrin’s words suddenly gave me chills!
Luckily Xyrin continued: "What I mean is, faced with the same information and scenario, the thought processes of the Abyss Xyrin should be identical to mine. Our flexibility in thinking is in a subtle ’semi-programmed’ state due to being restricted by various fundamental protocols and network frameworks. I believe the Abyss Xyrin still is an awareness rooted in the network, hence she cannot escape this limitation imposed by the life-form. For instance, when the network encounters threats from necrotic nodes, she and I would make identical decisions within the same thought cycle, partitioning out those necrotic nodes, the number of ’buffer nodes’ additionally partitioned out might even be identical—this is the result of programmed calculation. On the surface, it seems we have free will, but for both of us, we can basically deduce what the other is thinking: we’re nearly identical clones."
I furrowed my brow: "But you choose to maintain order, while the Abyss Xyrin chooses to stir up chaos in the Void."
"That doesn’t mean there’s a difference in our thought processes," Xyrin surprisingly retorted. "It’s just that we happen to stand in two different positions. Faced with the same collapse of the Empire, my calculation results are to immediately undertake rebuilding the Empire, and the Abyss Xyrin’s results are also rebuilding the Empire—only the Empire she wants to rebuild is an Abyssalized one. But if you set aside the allegiance issues like the Abyss, I think the Abyss Xyrin and I would make the same decision facing identical situations."
I fully understood Xyrin’s meaning and then started to quickly turn my mind to think about how valuable this information really was.
We still couldn’t determine how credible Xyrin’s speculations were. She didn’t tell these guesses to Taville, which was enough to show that even Xyrin herself wasn’t sure if these guesses were correct. But for now, let’s assume they’re all true.
Then what needs to be done is pretty simple: what does Xyrin want to do most now that she’s in the Abyss Zone?
"Me?" Xyrin was taken aback by my question, "Insufficient information, unable to judge. I can only deduce, based on the premise of Empire collapse, that Abyss Xyrin wants to rebuild the Empire, but I don’t know the real situation in the Abyss Zone, so I don’t know what her reconstruction plan is."
I could see that this ultimate question wasn’t that easy to answer, so I immediately changed to another question: "Then what do you think was the reason she contacted us a few days ago?"
This time Xyrin seriously thought for a while, then nodded with certainty: "She hopes to cooperate with the Empire, and might even want us to participate in the grand plan."
At that moment, I slipped to the floor!
"Don’t blame me; I was just switching positions to think," Xyrin said as she reached out to pull me up, "If it were me, appearing proactively to contact the Empire and mentioning the grand plan in such a big environment, partially revealing the truth, then there’s only one reason: the next step of the grand plan needs the Empire’s participation."
I looked at Xyrin in a daze and found that she completely looked serious, of course, it seemed Xyrin never really had the concept of ’joking’. So I had no choice but to believe she was indeed backtracking based on her situation: she could deduce Abyss Xyrin’s thinking conclusions based on the situation and could also partially deduce the other party’s motives based on Abyss Xyrin’s final actions, although the accuracy of this reasoning was still in doubt, it was at least more reliable than my wild guesses.
Abyss Xyrin suddenly appeared and voluntarily disclosed part of the situation about the ’grand plan’ to us, and thinking about those inexplicable words she said before leaving... Could it be that she really plans to pull the New Empire into the ’grand plan’ too?
Is she crazy, or is she crazy, or is she crazy?
"Who knows," Xyrin said, sitting on the edge of the bed, swaying back and forth, "Network consciousness and thinking modes of real-life creatures are inherently different. We often unintentionally ignore emotional factors and all objective influences from the real world. For us, ’logical needs’ are the only motivation. Under the drive of logic, anything is reasonable. After all, we won’t encounter any obstacles and disturbances similar to those in the real world on the network. Nodes have no emotions; network segments have no factions. As long as it fits logic and basic protocols, everything is feasible."
I nodded, temporarily putting this matter aside. Then, just as I was about to say something else, I heard a loud voice in my mind: "Boss, Boss!~ Someone’s here!"
"Lilina?" I was a bit surprised, "Who’s here?"
"A few people from the Divine Realm Consumer Association," Lilina replied happily, "Boss, where are you?"
I didn’t immediately catch on to the impact of the words "Consumer Association" and instinctively told Lilina my location. Then I saw a green light screen flash in front of me, and Lilina directly teleported in front of me.
"Ah, Boss, it turns out you were here. I looked all over for you..." Lilina bounced towards my leg, but having missed, she lay on the bed, looking around with a suddenly peculiar expression, "A single man and a single woman alone in a room, a big company boss and his beautiful subordinate having a story that must be told in the dormitory... hey Boss, have mercy, I was just jok..."
I lifted Lilina by her belt, swinging her in front of me. When she was almost shivering into a shadow clone, I lightly tapped her on the head, then casually tucked this little one-meter-nine shrimp under my arm, turning to Xyrin to say goodbye: "I’ll go check out the situation first. Don’t forget what we talked about today, and discuss with Taville how to leverage these connections between you and Abyss Xyrin."
Bidding farewell to Xyrin, I carried Lilina and directly teleported to the city area where the World Tree was located: the Temple District.
Sandora, Harlan, and the Tiaozi Five were already waiting here. Besides their on-site reception, there wasn’t any welcome ceremony or the like in Temple Square. After all, the Divine Realm and Imperial Capital were already directly connected, and now such small-scale personnel movements no longer needed such a grand scale.
I hurriedly walked over there and soon saw the appearance of the so-called "Divine Realm Consumer Association visitors". Sure enough—it wasn’t someone I recognized.
There was a man and a woman, both appearing to be members of the Dark Divine Race. There’s no need to detail their appearances; anyway, those from the Divine Realm mostly aren’t misshapen (except for the non-mainstream Divine Race). They wore a kind of black attire somewhere between a trench coat and robe, looking like some kind of uniform, and the male Divine Race member was carrying a large box: could this be the tool for dismantling the World Tree? It seemed a bit mismatched with that several-kilometer-high tree...
The people present already saw me, and Sandora happily waved over here. The two Divine Race experts (should be experts, right?) smiled and walked over. Before I could speak, the tall male Dark Divine Race member slightly bowed and greeted: "Very pleased to meet you, Xyrin’s Emperor. Father God personally instructed us to send you our greetings."
I hurriedly waved my hand: "No need to be so formal—are you here to repair the World Tree for Dingdang?"
"Something like that. We are volunteers to maintain those management systems without brand protection." The female Dark Divine Race member smiled, poised and graceful—hey, that big-breasted person over there munching sunflower seeds and grinning foolishly should learn!
At this moment, the male Dark Divine Race member looked with curiosity at the object I was holding under my arm, slightly hesitating: "...Is this a customary practice here? Or is this your briefcase?"
I quickly set Lilina on the ground. As soon as the little girl touched down, she hopped and jumped up: "You’re the briefcase! Your entire family’s a briefcase!"
The audacious Pope dared to shout back at a True God from another faction, probably the only one in the world. (To be continued. If you liked this work, please visit Qidian (qidian.com) to vote for recommendation tickets and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users please visit m.qidian.com to read.)
