In his red armor, Yao Yuan walked through the corridors of the Hope. Everywhere he turned, people were collapsed on the floor, apparently stuck in their deepest sleep. No matter how hard he yelled or shook them, they remained asleep.
"Are they hypnotized? Am I immune because I'm an Immortal?" Yao Yuan mumbled to himself as he continued to walk towards his destination. This was to confirm his suspicion because this thing would let him know whether it was a hypnosis or not.
It had been five minutes since the Hope entered the giant tree. In these five minutes, Yao Yuan had put on his red space armor. This was the latest edition of the product, it was the peak of humanity's technology. It was personally designed by Bo Li, a real prototype for the third edition of the space armor. The exhaustion and value of this space armor was equal to a small spaceship. However, its power was strong enough to decimate the level 3 space armor brought along by Blue 6 when he initially entered the Hope. Of course, that was if it was paired with an Immortal like Yao Yuan.
After putting on this armor, Yao Yuan started to explore the Hope. Just like the situation in central command, everyone he stumbled across was in a state of sleep. The most frustrating thing was that even after the Hope was completely absorbed into the giant tree, the Hope's AI still hadn't recovered. The Hope was still being controlled by this ruin.
However, it wasn't that worrying because tests had been done earlier to confirm that the Hope's AI was still residing in the Hope's central mainframe. When he got there, Yao Yuan should be able to link to the AI. Furthermore, he would be able to consult ZERO.
Perhaps human beings could be hypnotized, but AI and ZERO definitely wouldn't be hypnotized… Unless this was the work of a god-tier space civilization…
"Unfortunately… the power that is shown here is the hallmark of a god-tier space civilization."
When Yao Yuan arrived at his destination, he was shocked by what he saw. In fact, at that moment, he almost pulled out his weapon and started to fire. This was because he saw a naked woman sitting on the metallic floor and toying with a glob of light in her palm.
Yao Yuan swore that she wasn't a resident of the Hope!
Even though the Hope had several ten thousand in population, half of that was still underage, while most of the other half consisted of the original batch who left Earth. After 20 years of being a leader, Yao Yuan could identify most of them by name. This was especially true with his soul web. He had an inexplicable connection with most of the people on the Hope, and this naked woman before him… he had no idea who she was!
With a whir, Yao Yuan unleashed his blade. However, he didn't lose his rationality, especially since he didn't sense any danger from this woman. He asked darkly, "Who are you?! Are you the AI of this ruin? Or someone it sent over to explore this ship? Answer me…" Yao Yuan was ready to strike should this naked woman do anything weird.
However, when the woman saw Yao Yuan, there was first surprise, and then shock, and finally happiness on her face. This series of expressions made Yao Yuan itch to slash her with his blade, but what she said next confounded Yao Yuan.
"What are you talking about? I'm ZERO."
"Huh?"
Yao Yuan's first response was suspicion. However, it was a fact that the total number of people who knew about ZERO on the Hope was less than 10. Even though there was a possibility of the ruin's AI creating this lifeform from piecing together the memories or consciousness of the Hope's citizens, the real possibility of that happening was too small… then again, what was happening before his eyes could be described as improbable as well.
"To put it simply, all I'm seeing is an illusion of the hypnosis? Or am I already hypnotized?" Yao Yuan scratched his head after ZERO explained herself.
According to ZERO, it was simple why she would appear. This was the powerful influence of the ruin. In other words, they had left the physical universe because in this universe, everything with a consciousness would materialize, and that included an artificial sentience like ZERO.
ZERO scoffed with derision after she heard Yao Yuan. "No, no, no, what illusion you're talking about? This is the real deal. If it was illusion or hypnosis, someone like you wouldn't have been affected. The Immortal is immortal because he is the natural kryptonite for all falsehood, it is an immortal constant. The Immortal is someone even god-tier space civilizations are unable to fool, someone that is immune to even demonization. This is the real space because you are in it."
"This is real?" Yao Yuan was confused, and he asked, "But didn't you just say that this was not a physical space? Then how is it real? Plus, you are here in person, so how can this be real? You're pulling my leg, aren't you?"
ZERO pouted angrily and said, "Who, who is pulling your leg? Are we that close for me to play with you? In any case, just accept the truth. This is real, and if you die here, you will be physically dead…"
Yao Yuan removed the shirt from one of the sleeping men and passed it to ZERO. He then added, "Then explain it to me clearly. What is going on here, why are we the only ones awake, how can we return to the physical space?"
At this moment, Yao Yuan was bringing ZERO towards the Hope's bridge. There, they could manually operate some of the ship's weapons. After all, since only he and ZERO could move on the Hope, at least before the rest of the ship woke up, they had to protect the ship's safety.
ZERO shrugged helplessly and sighed, "I wish, but that's like explaining quantum theory to a rat…"
"Tell me!" Yao Yuan interrupted her with a punch to the metallic wall. Amplified by the space armour, half of his arm was stuck inside the wall and Yao Yuan said severely, "I said, explain it to me! Use the language that I can understand, I don't need the theories and stuff, I only need to understand what is going on, therefore… don't make me repeat it twice, especially considering the situation we're in. Look at my people lying there as if dead, so stop with the virus, unicellular organism, rat or monkey kind of talk!"
As if greatly scared, ZERO pouted from the unfair treatment and tears were swirling in her eyes.
Is she really an AI? How can she be so… humanlike… Is she really an AI or a sentient lifeform? Yao Yuan, who had been observing ZERO, frowned with confusion.
ZERO took several deep breaths and explained, "To put it simply, this is related to the perspective on space that I've explained to you before. The cosmos is more than the universe that exists in the physical world, there are universes in the energy level, time level, and more levels that are only accessible to god-tier space civilizations, like the materialistic level, or this space we're in… a cosmos that is on the level of illusory physicality."
Yao Yuan thought about it and continued, "These are indeed words that I can understand, but I still have some questions. I've seen the different levels of space before, I can imagine a time-based space, even an energy-based space, but the materialistic space is way beyond my current comprehension… I have two questions: one, what is the meaning of illusory physicality, and two… does this ruin belong to a god-tier space civilization? Didn't you say that the space civilization behind this ruin is only level 7 or 8?"
ZERO gave Yao Yuan a side-eye, as if saying, "How dumb you can be?" However, since Yao Yuan was still fuming, she didn't voice her thought but answered, "If I'm using your human language, I suppose you could say that illusory physicality is similar to your computer program. To borrow a simple example, do you think your game worlds are real or fake?"
Yao Yuan thought about it and answered, "Of course they're fake. Isn't that a given?"
"That's right, the games created by you humans definitely are fake… but what if you take it up another technological level? Imagine you create a game world and fill it with many AIs, making them the NPCs or mobs in game, then is the game world real or fake to these AIs?"
Yao Yuan understood what ZERO was getting at, but she kept on explaining, "Similarly, if you take these AIs out of the game and then use them to help humanity in space, like piloting the spaceships or doing some calculations, then is this game that contains many AIs real or fake to human beings?
"This is such a space, an illusionary real cosmos that can only be created by a god-tier space civilization…
"A Shelter used by god-tier space civilizations to defend against the demons…"