A person cannot exist in two places at the same time.
This should be a self-evident axiom, just like 1+1 cannot equal 3.
But at this moment, Jiang Zhou broke this axiom - his consciousness was in two bodies, so that he was in two different places at the same time.
"Theseus", who suffered from severe radiation sickness and whose body was half buried in the ground, was imprisoned in the cold deep dive prison of Tartarus; while the Icarus rebel named "Liao Qi" was in Nord On the second floor of the resettlement area, in a cheap hotel in Jiangke neighborhood, a street mercenary pointed a gun at his head.
He is using the same consciousness to perceive two completely different scenes and directing the two bodies to react at the same time.
This sounds equally incredible. Multitasking has always been difficult. Most people can't even "draw a circle with their left hand and a square with their right hand."
Not to mention controlling two bodies at the same time.
But Jiang Zhou felt that he was at ease, as if he was born with two bodies.
He can control two bodies with the same concentration (the avatar generated by connecting to the deep dive chamber through the brain-computer interface can be regarded as an extension of the original body), and the behaviors between the two will neither interfere with each other nor interfere with each other. It will make him feel rushed - as natural as a computer handling parallel processes.
Jiang Zhou really couldn't find the right words to describe his feelings at the moment, just like he couldn't explain to a blind man what a rainbow was.
If he had to explain it, for example, vision - the two visual pictures he saw through his two pairs of eyes at the moment were not like the two-player games of the old era, where the pictures were roughly split to the left and right or up and down. Instead, he saw two different pictures at the same time in the same field of view.
Just like seeing angels and demons at the same time in Escher's paintings; or maintaining two different views of the Necker Cube at the same time (Note*).
Jiang Zhou knew very well that this completely violated the operating mechanism of the human brain. Or to put it another way, his perception at this moment is simply humiliating the evolution of self-awareness in the primate brain over tens of millions of years.
At least from his perspective as a cognitive science scholar, what he is experiencing now is an even more incredible miracle than traveling through a long time and arriving a hundred years later.
As for the source of this miracle, his identity was revealed to him at this moment - as he sensed the body of "Liao Qi", an extremely familiar symbol appeared in front of Jiang Zhou's eyes.
It was an ancient image of a two-faced god.
One face looks backward toward the past, and the other face looks forward toward the future.
Jiang Zhou is very familiar with this pattern, or he will never forget this pattern in his life - it was the logo of the Janus project that he was responsible for a hundred years ago!
At the same time, a line of text prompts appeared in his sight together with the icon:
[The Janus system has been activated and new controllable elements have been launched]
Controllable factors? What's the meaning?
Does it refer to the Icarus rebel named Liao Qi?
Jiang Zhou's consciousness looked through Liao Qi's eyes at the street mercenary who was pointing a gun at him and yelling.
Because of the roar of the man shooting at his head, Liao Qi's ears were still suffering from severe tinnitus, so he couldn't hear clearly what the other party was shouting.
But this is no illusion...
There is no doubt that this newly activated "Janus System" is the super-artificial intelligence that once blew up the entire Internet. The existence that is suspected to be the ascension of his own digital personality, for his own kind who are still stuck in the mortal world. Origin, what remains.
Although I don’t know what principle the other party uses to achieve it, and I don’t know what the other party’s purpose is... But what the "Janus System" can do now is completely clear:
At this moment, I have surpassed the nervous system buried in my body, projected my own self-awareness, and occupied the unlucky young man named "Liao Qi" who was supposed to be killed by a shot.
In other words, this is equivalent to now having a body that can move freely outside the prison of Tartarus!
Maybe I can use this thing to help myself escape from the prison in Tartarus.
Jiang Zhou thought.
Maybe I can survive on this thing.
…………
Janus's signs and reminders just flashed before Jiang Zhou's eyes.
But what happened at this moment was far from that simple.
If the employees of the Tartarus Testing Laboratory had the time and patience to spend several months manually checking the network fluctuation records of this day. They may be able to find that at a certain moment, there was a very short-term abnormal data fluctuation in the No. 3 Deep Diving Chamber - the data transmission volume at that moment was almost stretched into a straight vertical line.
But because the duration of this fluctuation is so short, it is difficult to say whether it really existed. Therefore, the main control computer of Deep Submersible No. 3 just ignored this abnormal situation as an accidental error caused by tidal fluctuations in the abyss dark network or interference from cosmic rays, and did not even file it independently.
On the other hand, after the signs and prompts of the double-faced god Janus disappeared, the No. 3 deep-diving warehouse also successfully pulled Jiang Zhou into the subnet.
Bright green grid lines spread out around him, extending to infinity, and then modeling and materials began to load. After a period of dizzying changes, Jiang Zhou found himself in a place similar to a field training camp.
In front of him was a shooting range large enough to accommodate a battalion of soldiers training at the same time. There were rows and rows of firearms and weapons placed around it, which was dazzling to see.
Before he could figure out where he was, a familiar and enthusiastic voice came from behind him:
"Hey! Brother native, you are really here! I thought those corporate dogs would trap you!"
Jiang Zhou turned around, and Black Falcon-136, whose eyes were still covered with "metal bottle caps", patted his shoulder enthusiastically.
Behind the other party, stood Chinatsu Sakura and two other Icarus members who had been sleeping in the carriage. Each of them was heavily armed, wearing red and black carapace armor.
“Brother 136, is this the Abyss Dark Web?”
Jiang Zhou asked curiously.
Common sense learned through "Liao Qi" - Although Liao Qi has never dived, Jiang Zhou still has a general impression of the abyssal dark web: a weird and twisted cyberspace like a nightmare, with hidden things hidden in every corner. There are dangers, and countless dangerous malicious programs are wandering in it. If you are not careful, you will be in danger.
But at this moment, the people in front of them all looked very relaxed.
"Abyss Dark Web? Of course not. No matter how crazy those corporate dogs are, they can't just kick us into that abyss when we are completely untrained... This is a training ground."
Hearing Jiang Zhou's question, 136 shook his head and answered.
"Training Course?"
Jiang Zhou looked around - not only the shooting range, but also all the tactical training facilities that he could and could not imagine were around them. And they are all "compressed" within sight in a non-Euclidean form. It makes people feel that the real space here is far wider than what can be seen.
If this is a training ground, there is really nothing wrong with it.
After Jiang Zhou looked around, 136 continued to explain:
"Company Dog gave us twenty-four hours of training time to master the basic skills required for deep-diving salvage. It also opened a lot of military-grade 'tactical memory' to us. It is said to be used to improve the next The survival rate of diving into the abyss of the dark web to salvage technology… I’m afraid we don’t go crazy fast enough.”
At this time, Qianxia Sakura on the side came over and took over 136's words:
"Actually, this is the area between the subnet and the abyss darknet. The industry generally calls this place 'Limbo'. We will complete the final adaptability training before going to hell here."
For some reason, Jiang Zhou felt that the other party was a little wary of him.
Sure enough, did his previous behavior still arouse the other party's distrust?
Jiang Zhou thought helplessly.
On the other hand, because I had previously read through the memories of Liao Qi, who was also a member of the "Icarus Liberation Front", I had a rough understanding of the personalities of Black Falcon-136, Qianxia Sakura, and several other rebel members - at least They were the people Liao Qi knew during his lifetime. Now, Jiang Zhou has actually let go of his wariness towards them.
In this era where super corporations are as high as gods and control everyone's destiny. No matter what the reasons are, these people dare to fight against those super enterprises in a tragic and almost stupid way. This alone makes it difficult not to respect him.
Therefore, he did not pay attention to the other party's wary attitude, but continued to maintain his previous amnesia persona, and conclusively confirmed:
"In other words, after we train here for twenty-four hours, we will leave Limbo and dive into the Abyss Dark Web to mine?"
Qianxia Ying nodded first, then shook her head:
"For you, it is twelve hours. The time when you installed the brain-computer interface. We have already conducted twelve hours of training, and those corporate dogs will not delay the time for you alone. Only ten It’s been two hours of training, hurry up.”
After twelve hours of training, he might not even be able to learn how to hold a gun.
Fortunately, the other party didn't mean for him to really learn target shooting from scratch.
"Brother, native, hurry up and absorb a few pieces of 'tactical memory'. Time is running out."
136 on the side said anxiously.
"What is a 'tactical memory'?"
Jiang Zhou asked with a puzzled expression.
Although he had a considerable degree of common sense by searching Liao Qi's memory. He understood that the "tactical memory" was an "instant experience book" that allowed elite soldiers to learn coping skills in a very short time when encountering emergencies on the battlefield, but he still pretended as if he had nothing. He looked ignorant.
In response to this, Qianxia Sakura replied without changing her expression:
"The memory that works in the most crude way will take effect in seconds after being inserted. It will directly build a reflex circuit in your brain and forcibly package and stuff the corresponding skills. Although it is convenient and fast, this thing is not suitable even for native people. It will also seriously affect the mind. Therefore, there should be at least 6 hours between uses."
As soon as he spoke, the other party had already made a decision for Jiang Zhou - let him plug in the tactical memory provided by the company, even though the side effects of this thing were not small.
"Little brother, you are not an adjuster, so you cannot load the enhanced prosthetic body on the stand-in. And we are going to depth 2, which is extremely dangerous for you. I may not be able to guarantee that I can protect you. .So, although the tactical memory will have a certain impact on your spirit, it is currently the only way to increase your chance of survival."
136 on the side also spoke.
When he said this, his expression looked very guilty.
Jiang Zhou nodded slowly.
Seeing this, 136 breathed a sigh of relief, then pointed in the direction of the shooting range and said:
"I suggest you pick a tactical memory that specializes in precision rifle shooting at medium range, so that you can stay in a safe position for cover shooting. And at medium range, if you encounter danger, I will also have a rescue response..."
"I want to ask."
Suddenly, Jiang Zhou interrupted 136's words.
"Is there any tactical memory for close hand-to-hand combat here?"
"ha?"
136 looked at Jiang Zhou with a puzzled expression. Is it possible that a person who does not have any enhanced prosthetic body still plans to engage in unarmed melee combat with those maliciously programmed avatars?
The latter nodded to indicate that he was not joking, and then added:
"It's best to be the type who can grab a gun with bare hands."
