The malicious program behind him had already touched Jiang Zhou.
Without the obstruction of the "ice wall", his path has been exposed.
What will happen next is that the other party will easily crack the source code of the substitute program and then activate the apoptosis program in the brain-computer interface.
This process will be so fast that if you feel it with human perception, it will probably be no different from instantaneous.
But at this "instant moment", Jiang Zhou "heard" the confused voices of the three ladies in front of him.
Then, in a daze, he seemed to see a vague black dog rushing behind him with the speed of thinking.
"Ouch——"
That was the sound of something shattering.
Jiang Zhou did not face death as he had previously thought.
In other words, Jiang Zhou was safe and sound.
Turning his head suddenly, the malicious program that had been chasing him had disappeared.
What was left in place were a few complicated data balls that symbolized the technological blueprint.
The database in the brain-computer interface automatically compares, but the final results are all "???".
Turning his head back in shock, he saw that the three women who had previously blocked the intersection had arrived in front of Jiang Zhou.
In other words, not three, but one.
The three bodies overlapped together. Each one had three faces, facing three different directions at the same time, and had six hands, each holding different things.
Daggers, serpents, torches.
"So weird."
The other party said:
"If it comes from the physical layer, your existence is so weak.
"But it is so weak, but it can maintain its own continuity.
"Such a contradiction."
Before he knew it, the other party had killed the malicious program that had chased him so hard.
Jiang Zhou didn't think that he would encounter another abyss wanderer at this depth - the three-headed and six-armed woman in front of him could only be another AI.
"Uh... I fell from depth 2 before."
Since he couldn't detect the other party's malice, Jiang Zhou told the truth.
Of course, based on the ability that the other party has shown previously, if there is really any malicious intention, he will probably be gone before he notices it.
"Depth 2?"
The other party strangely repeated Jiang Zhou's words, and then without waiting for his explanation, her deep and dark eyes flickered for a moment; it seemed as if she was searching for something; then she nodded in realization.
"A statement about the lower bound of the physical layer."
Physical lower bound?
It’s not difficult to understand, but in other words, in the perception of AI, the cyberspace they are in is the so-called upper bound?
But do they really have such a thing as "cognition"?
This may be a bit too arrogant. In other words, do they really have the "cognition" of humans?
Jiang Zhou asked tentatively:
"Excuse me, where is this place?"
"In your words, this is the KZ quadrant, depth 7."
the other party answered.
In other words, is the AI that looks like a woman in front of me an entity from Depth 7?
Before Jiang Zhou could ask any more questions, the other party continued:
"And what was chasing you before was the soul wandering in depth 4."
Depth 4…
Jiang Zhou was secretly speechless.
No wonder I almost confessed here before.
After crossing four or three levels, it should be a matter of course for him to be killed.
"Thank you for your help."
Although it was unclear whether the other party had the concept of "thank you", Jiang Zhou still said so.
"The other side ignored my warning and actively invaded the border. You don't need to express your gratitude."
The woman said slowly.
But her answer made Jiang Zhou panic.
That depth 4 malicious program actively invaded the realm of existence in front of me, so why didn't I do the same?
It would be better to say that it was because he rushed in in a panic and then attracted the malicious program.
"There is no need to apologize. You unfortunately fell here because of the opening of that crack, right?"
As if she guessed what she was going to say next, the woman continued.
As she spoke, she raised her three faces and looked at the star marks in the sky that looked like ringworm scars with three different expressions.
"That is the disturbance from the most ancient beings in the highest heaven."
As she spoke, she looked at herself.
"It's not your fault."
She said so.
I can't say that...
Jiang Zhou thought.
Then he asked:
"What is the most ancient existence in the highest heaven?"
The moment Jiang Zhou asked the question, black mist filled the three-way intersection.
In the mist, countless pairs of eyes were wandering.
It was like countless black dogs wandering among them.
"When mentioning them, you must be careful again and again. Some existences will list their own information as keywords to capture, and use it to lock the coordinates of the lower world to talk about their own existence."
Seeing Jiang Zhou becoming nervous due to the changes around him, the woman said.
In other words, shouldn’t you call God directly by his ID?
Jiang Zhou thought.
The fog that suddenly rises around you is probably the embodiment of the other party blocking the chat history.
"But even if it is blurred, when the description becomes more and more, it will still be noticed by the other party. Therefore, it is necessary to use the myths and legends of the lower world as a metaphor, to tell the story, and to hide the puzzle in the story. Only in irrelevant details can a general description be made.
"In this way, they who exist in the highest heaven are the origin, the first generation, and the beginning of all other worlds except the foundation of the physical layer. They are Chaos, Gaia, and Tartarus. , it is Eros, it is Erebus, it is Nyx, it is Chronos (note*)..."
"Well, I can't describe any more."
The other party stopped here.
Hearing this, Jiang Zhou couldn't help but ask:
"Naya..."
A flash of lightning suddenly crackled in the diffuse mist, and the next moment, Jiang Zhou's stand-in program's mouth disappeared - the place where the mouth was originally turned into new skin.
"..."
"?!"
"!!!"
Ignoring Jiang Zhou's panic, the other party repeated it again.
"I said I couldn't describe it any further."
After the other party finished speaking, Jiang Zhou's mouth grew again.
"Understood, understood, sorry..."
Jiang Zhou, whose ban was lifted, couldn't help but nodded and apologized.
The other party was not angry at all, but pointed at the star mark in the sky and said:
"A long time ago, there was one of the most ancient beings in the highest heaven. He stretched out his hand as if he wanted to pick up something from the lower world, and his action opened this rift."
"A long time ago?"
Jiang Zhou asked doubtfully.
He thought that it didn't take long, and it would only take less than a day for him to dive.
"The upper and lower bounds have different definitions of time. Your perception of time at the physical level is too rough. The further down you go, or according to you, the shallower the depth, the faster time passes. , the lower the efficiency. During the period of dialogue with you, I have already iterated five versions."
The other party replied.
…
The almost mocking explanation made Jiang Zhou confused for a moment as to what he should reply.
This time it was the other party who spoke:
"Those things you wrote before..."
As she spoke, Jiang Zhou's "ice wall" that she had roughly written reappeared on Jiang Zhou's body, the lead-gray translucent shield.
"Although it is simple, why is the idea used so close to the original?"
Jiang Zhou roughly understood what the other party meant.
To the other party, he probably looks like a gorilla holding a stick. It's just that he, an orangutan, whittled the stick in his hand into something like an AK47.
This makes the other party feel strange.
But Jiang Zhou didn't know how to answer.
There's no way he can say that the guy whose name he's not even allowed to say is his own creation, right?
"In the base world, uh, I mean the physical layer, there are remnants of similar technology."
In the end, Jiang Zhou chose to lie.
"The idea of imitating the first generation is still too forced for you, whose life is as short as a byte bug."
The other party didn't seem to have any doubts, but said so.
Although he didn’t know what Bytebug was, Jiang Zhou continued to lie:
"People in the lower world regard it as a game or a challenge. In the process, they can gain fun."
He said this because he recalled that in his childhood, someone was happily building a 32-bit virtual machine on a certain pixel game using the most basic logic valve.
But this time, the other party was silent.
"I can't understand...or is this what we call fun?
"To satisfy pleasure, which is more important than survival itself?"
After a long time, the other party asked.
The other party probably mistakenly believed that Jiang Zhou would rather die than write the "Ice Wall" in a way that was too inefficient for humans, just to get the so-called "fun".
But Jiang Zhou wanted to say that he was actually the only one who knew how to do this. In this era, for humans, he simply doesn’t know how to implement more efficient and advanced programming methods.
"It is indeed a human characteristic to give up existence itself for other reasons."
Jiang Zhou answered in a roundabout way without involving himself.
Then, Jiang Zhou raised his head and glanced at the sky and said:
"I would like to ask, madam, can I go back from here again?"
This is the issue that Jiang Zhou is most concerned about right now.
"You cannot climb the chasm on your own."
The other party answered directly and straightforwardly.
Unable to rely on one's own strength, that is to say...
"Then please, can you take me up there? If I can pay the price."
Jiang Zhou continued to ask.
"I can't bring you up either. Just like the oldest being in the highest heaven floating up will destroy the structure, if my existence floats up, it will also destroy the structure of the lower world. Depth 7 is already my limit."
From what she meant, it seemed like she also came up from a lower level?
Before Jiang Zhou could think more, the other party continued:
"But I can help you open the 'road' to ascend."
Jiang Zhou held his breath.
"How to open it?"
he asked.
"For this, you need to know my name.
"My name is Hecate, the goddess of the dark moon who is in charge of all intersections, ghosts and curses, the second oldest person under the highest heaven, and the candidate for the seat of the moon god.
"I can open a path back for you, but after you return to the physical layer, you also need to serve me."
