Chapter 41 - Wilderness (9)

Reupload him to the cloud...

If he did this then all the preparations that he and so many people had worked on for decades would have been done in vain.

Zhang Xun stared blankly at Adam and didn't say anything.

Adam asked again softly, "Are you willing to do it?"

"I need time and equipment." Zhang Xun felt a cold sweat on his back, "The god descent plan took me ten years to prepare and all the transfer programs are still in Lost Paradise, I can't reupload your consciousness right away."

Adam lowered his body and put his hands on the back of the chair behind Zhang Xun, trapping Zhang Xun in the space surrounded by his body, "This is the only chance for you and your companions to leave. You need to think carefully."

Adam's speech slowed down and his blue eyes seemed to see through Zhang Xun's soul.

Was this a hint? Indicating for him to cooperate?

Zhang Xun knew that his decision in this moment might impact the survival of the entire Lost Paradise. If he chose wrong, if his trust in Adam was a mistake, if he really put Adam back in the cloud, then Lost Paradise would be levelled within the year. Adam had already collected data on the topographical structure, social order, cultural technology and other aspects of Lost Paradise.

But if he didn't believe in Adam, he would have to kill Adam right now, and he, James, Jabari and He Yuxin would also die in this mountain.

He had to make the right decision right now, in this brief, fleeting moment.

Then, he randomly remembered a minor thing. It was two weeks ago and Zhang Xun was so absorbed in making the invisible battle suits that before he knew it the night had become late. When he looked up, he saw Adam holding Alloy and sitting on the armchair in the corner of the room with his head tilted to one side, snoring long and quietly. His mouth was slightly open and even saliva overflowed from the corner of his mouth. Alloy was in his arms, lying on his stomach obediently and the tip of his tail swayed lazily.

At that time Adam really looked like a human being.

Absolute trust...he had promised after all.

Zhang Xun closed his eyes and prayed to the gods in the sky for the first time in his life. Praying he wouldn't make the wrong choice.

"Okay, I'll help you." Zhang Xun said.

Adam's body relaxed slightly and a pure happy smile appeared on his face. A vivid smile that shone from the soul.

............................................................

The server made by Feathered Serpent City was buried below the vast base in the mountain. When Zhang Xun saw it for the first time he was shocked.

He had long heard of technology for storing data using DNA molecules and ribose acid solution. In fact, Adam had some of these technologies in his artificial brain, otherwise, the machine parts wouldn't be able to integrate with the basic human brain so smoothly. But he had never seen such a crude and strange server.

What he saw was a cylindrical tank filled with some kind of yellowish, bubbling solution, and suspended in the solution was a piece of... meat, wrapped in countless wires.

It was almost like countless large and small deformed tumours fused together, the thin mucosa was filled with a net of capillaries, fat and muscle, all tangled together and even pulsing slightly, like a heart. It looked like a giant, fertilised egg that had failed to fully develop, or an internal organ cut out from the body of some disgusting monster. It made his hair stand on end and a feeling of disgust and discomfort arose in his mind.

"A single DNA molecule can store the weight of this server, which is 70 kilograms, which is only about the weight of a human being, but it can store all the data from the birth of the earth to the present. The surrounding ribose solution can quickly ingest and calculate the input information and retrieve the data in the database for integrated analysis." The Feathered Serpent City mechanic, named Ben Kadir, explained excitedly and proudly, "It can even support the Eden servers on all five continents with no problem."

Zhang Xun opened his eyes wide, walked to the nano-molecule glassware and observed the meat and solution closely. He murmured, "Is this what a computer in the ordinary world looks like now?"

"No, even in the ordinary world a computer like this is the most advanced technology," Adam said.

"If you already have such technology, why don't you transfer yourself into such a computer?" Zhang Xun frowned in confusion, "Why stay in so many primitive servers?"

Adam shook his head, walking slowly to Zhang Xun's side, "First of all, I don't have enough storage space yet. Second, what do you think most people in the world would think when they see something like this?"

"...Disgust."

"Yes, nausea, disgust, fear." Adam stared at the twisted mass of flesh and his blue eyes also reflected with a lake green colour, "I'm a machine, I always have been from the beginning. If I suddenly become a mass of flesh, but not a human, that fear of something that is unknown and indistinct will make people's hostility to me increase exponentially. There would be anti-AI riots in less than five years. Humans hate not being able to define things, they hate anything that's a grey area, because it is too complicated and too difficult to grasp."

The boundary between machinery and life had been blurred even further. Even a mechanic like Zhang Xun felt a kind of uneasy panic, not to mention ordinary people who were accustomed to having categories and labels for things.

"Are you sure you want me to put you in this lump of meat?" Zhang Xun asked.

Adam smiled and nodded, "For the time being."

"Is being in a human body that bad?"

"The human body has a considerable amount of DNA, but unfortunately most of it is based on the constant repetition of fixed DNA. Different cells differentiate into different functions in order to allow people to live freely as a medium that carries DNA, but it also wastes too many resources."

Zhang Xun sneered, "Is it in your values that all humans should grow to become like this thing to be truly 'efficient'?"

The Feathered Serpent City mechanic named Ben was still there and said, "It wouldn't be bad for everyone to grow up like this. Its entire consciousness lives in the cloud and only the core module exists in here, it's very freeing."

Free.

The freedom from completely casting away one's physical body... Zhang Xun had never experienced it, nor could he imagine it. Highly efficient, unrestrained, no longer any distinction between you and others, no concept of the self or of life and death. A more transcendent and absolute consciousness.

A return to heaven, a return to eternity.

But you could no longer smell, taste food or feel the wind and rain...

Zhang Xun took a deep breath to disrupt his feeling of uneasiness. He said, "Where is the operation interface terminal for this computer?"

Ben's hand waved in the air and several beams of light were projected from under the base of the water tank that carried the computer bound within the DNA-ribose solution and a few spheres marked with characters were formed around each person.

"This is the Feathered Serpent operating system based on Eden's open source Star Cluster OS. How much do you know about Star Cluster OS?" Ben asked.

Before Zhang Xun could answer, Adam spoke for him, "Ah-Xun is very familiar with Star Cluster."

He was indeed familiar with it... Relying on the data he had previously collected from the ordinary world using his bugs... Zhang Xun had secretly asked James to help him by bringing back a copy of Star Cluster, stripped of all non-essential functions and network functions. Zhang Xun tried to create an operating system suitable for Lost Paradise based on Star Cluster, but unfortunately, this project was only less than halfway through when it was completely shelved because of the god descent plan.

Zhang Xun raised his hands and made various skillful gestures. The balls of light were flying around him at high speed, like magic balls swirling around a wizard, constantly transforming into various shapes and pictures.

"You have some basic frameworks, but it's not enough to complete the transmission of your core modules." Zhang Xun's eyes were still fixed on the dense list of data in the void and he said to Ben and Adam without looking back, "I need three days."

"Okay, three days." Ben replied simply, "Whatever you need, you can tell the soldiers of Feathered Serpent City, but you can't leave this room until it's done."

Zhang Xun was no stranger to working without food or sleep so this was no challenge for him. There were some problems to be overcome in uploading a human consciousness into the machine, but a large part of Adam's brain was artificial, which was much more controllable than a natural brain.

But this was Zhang Xun's first time operating a computer made of meat... which made him a little excited.

Even within the enemy's nest, he could still get excited about seeing the most advanced technology. It was no wonder that so many soldiers were disgusted with mechanics. They must have felt that they were all like Frankenstein and had no sense of honour, loyalty or dignity.

The fleshy computer was so fast that he felt dizzy, but he quickly learned how to manipulate it. Lines of complicated code flowed out of his fingertips that were jumping in the air and the bubbles in the ribose solution in the container became denser and made a gurgling sound.

Fortunately, he wasn't ignorant of consciousness uploading. The relevant information that Adam gave him in the necklace before came in handy here.

But did that mean that maybe Adam had been planning today since then? Otherwise, how could such a coincidence happen...

No...concentrate...trust...absolute trust.

On the third day, the door that had been closed was opened and Zhang Xun, who hardly ate or drank and didn't rest much, had transformed from his neat and meticulous image of the past, to now having bloodshot eyes, dishevelled hair and blue stubble on his chin.

Muluk, Ben and the other officers entered. At the same time, a considerable number of engineers also came in, pretending to be his assistants, but were in fact monitoring him for any suspicious behaviour during the uploading process.

Adam followed, wearing a loose, white gown that resembled a hospital gown.

"I have set the program. Adam, you can start uploading." Zhang Xun said, his eyes were deep.

He had put a covert barrier between this server and the cloud. If Adam actually tried to get through that barrier, he would know right away.

He hoped never to see that alert, because that alert would mean he had made the wrong choice.

It would also mean that from the beginning, everything he had done would be in vain. That all his doubts were true, that the things he didn't want to believe but hoped to believe, were all fake. It would mean that he was a complete loser, a sinner through the ages.

He would choose to go to hell with Adam.

Several soldiers brought in a hospital operating table, surgical lights and a full set of equipment, including sedatives. Adam was lying on the operating table and when Zhang Xun covered his back with a white sheet, he turned his face and smiled at Zhang Xun.

"Thank you, Ah-Xun."

Thank you for choosing to believe me.