vrcanaries Chapter 408 People
Chapter 408 People
Lin Xuan slowly stepped forward, the beam of her flashlight moving gently along the outside of the server chassis. In the dim light, a grid-like icon appeared and disappeared.
"This is the symbol of internet surveillance," Zhizi's voice rang in Lin Xuan's ears.
Through the seemingly ordinary watch on Lin Xuan's wrist, Zhi Zi was able to briefly share her field of vision.
Although the existence of the Somoko brought him a lot of convenience, he would still keep it sealed in his pocket most of the time.
After all, being watched by an AI all the time made him feel somewhat uncomfortable.
"How much do you know about the 'Calamity' team?" Lin Xuan asked as she continued exploring, trying to extract some useful information from Zhi Zi.
As one of the three consciousness entities of Number One, Sophon's understanding of the mechanical Earth is obviously far greater than mine, and now is the perfect time to try and extract information from the other party.
"The special forces established by cyber surveillance are products created in laboratories and are essentially intended to be used as weapons of war."
Lin Xuan was taken aback: "Is that so? Do the end producers know about what they're doing?"
Zhizi thought for a moment and then said, "They should know, and they should know even earlier, because this memory is also in my mind, so it should be something done before Number One separated the three of our consciousnesses."
"So that's related to the AI crisis?"
Lin Xuan roughly sorted out the timeline of Mechanical Earth. Based on the information currently available, it seems that everything is revolving around Xinglan AI.
Number One only started thinking about splitting into three consciousness entities after the AI crisis triggered by Xinglan AI, and the Network Surveillance was also established at that time.
"You could say that... The initial purpose of the network surveillance was to deal with the possibility of another omnic crisis. At first, this department was just an administrative department and did not have its own actual military command."
"But then things changed. After the final producers came to power, they needed their henchmen to handle some things that were inconvenient to handle. In addition, with the rampant use of cybernetic technology, the military strength of cyber surveillance has increased day by day, and it has even shown a posture of being on par with the government fleet."
While flipping through the documents, Zhizi explained to Lin Xuan that these databases were stored here in advance, but because the amount of data was so huge, Zhizi had not yet fully digested it, so she was essentially helping Lin Xuan look it up on the spot.
Lin Xuan didn't press further, her gaze sweeping over her surroundings.
The servers are placed in a very regular pattern, like load-bearing pillars evenly distributed on both sides.
However, this layout made him feel a little uncomfortable—in theory, servers are usually arranged in two close rows to save space.
But the servers here seem to have been deliberately displayed as exhibits, as if they were not just cold machines, but some kind of "work of art" worthy of being displayed.
"Wait... what's this?" Lin Xuan suddenly stopped and stared at a detail on the bottom of the server chassis.
Each computer case had a label-like thing stuck to the bottom, with different text on each label, like some kind of encrypted symbols or some kind of hidden password.
"Could you translate this?" Lin Xuan bent down and brought her watch close to the label. A green beam of light flashed on the watch face, scanning the text on it.
"Wait a moment, I'm searching the database." Zhizi's voice paused slightly before adding, "It may take a little time."
A moment later, a beam of light and shadow was projected onto the watch, and the words gradually appeared: "Crawford, male, 12 years old, Grade B sample".
Lin Xuan frowned, a faint sense of unease rising in her heart.
He had Zhizi translate several labels in succession, and the results were all similar—each label recorded the name, gender, age, and a perplexing "sample" level.
"What are all these things?" Lin Xuan tapped the metal chassis of the server with her finger, making a thumping sound.
"How would I know if you ask me? The database can only load so much information. Why don't you open it and take a look?" Zhizi suggested.
Upon hearing this, Lin Xuan didn't hesitate for a moment. She reached out, grabbed the metal clips on the server chassis, and pulled hard.
"Squeak-"
The metal plate was as fragile as paper in his hands, and it was torn open instantly. Lin Xuan originally thought that there would be some metal pipes and circuits inside, but when his gaze fell on the inside of the cabinet, his pupils suddenly contracted.
Inside the server rack, there was a naked person locked up, their entire body covered with various cables, and they looked dazed and lifeless, as if their soul had been completely drained.
"Damn it!" Lin Xuan cursed under her breath, kicking the server rack over. With a loud crash, the rack slammed to the ground, and the person inside slid out, falling headfirst to the ground with a dull thud.
The sudden appearance of someone in the server rack startled Lin Xuan. Although he had mentally prepared himself before opening the rack, he was clearly not fully prepared.
However, he quickly regained his composure. After all, the Thinker Array in the Super Dream Database was also pieced together using clones. It seemed that in the end, the development of biological computers would inevitably involve using the human brain as a computing unit.
I never expected to run into them here again.
"If I'm not mistaken, these racks are probably full of this stuff, right?"
Lin Xuan crouched down, a nanomechanical filament condensing in her palm, which pierced into the other person's head along his palm.
The Super Dream Database endowed Lin Xuan with extraordinary computing abilities. If the brains of these people are manipulated by computer systems, then hacking into their brains is no different from hacking into a host network.
Unfortunately, Lin Xuan was about to be disappointed. Whether it was because these people's brains hadn't been used for too long or what, Lin Xuan's reading result was just a blank.
Just as Lin Xuan was about to try a different computer case, a dull metallic clanging sound suddenly came from afar.
"Boom boom boom!"
At first, there was only one sound, like a heavy object striking the ground, but soon, a second, a third, and a fourth sound rang out in succession, as if countless things were awakening in the darkness. The sound grew closer and closer, its rhythm accelerating, as if some enormous creature was approaching at an astonishing speed.
"Dong dong dong dong!"
The clanging of metal echoed through the empty underground hall, sharp and piercing, each strike seeming to pound into Lin Xuan's heart. His breath hitched slightly, his fingers tightened unconsciously, and the beam of his flashlight swayed violently in the darkness, trying to pinpoint the source of the sound.
"Lin Xuan, something's coming!" Zhi Zi's voice suddenly rang out, her tone carrying a rare hint of urgency.
"I know!" Lin Xuan growled, his fingers clenching in the air, and the nanobots swiftly materialized into a shotgun in his hand. The cold, metallic touch always brought a sense of security.
He quickly pulled back the bolt, aiming the gun at the deep darkness ahead. The beam of his flashlight streaked through the air, illuminating an area a few meters in front of him. However, in the area illuminated by the light, something seemed to be flickering, like some reflective object moving rapidly.
"They're here!" Tomoko's voice rang out again, carrying a hint of warning.
"Boom!"
A dark shadow suddenly burst forth from the darkness, moving so fast it was almost impossible to react. Its outline was indistinct, as if it had blended into the surrounding darkness, with only its pair of eyes, flashing red light, appearing briefly in the beam of light.
Lin Xuan reacted extremely quickly, almost instinctively raising the shotgun, gripping the flashlight tightly in one hand, and pulling the trigger without hesitation with the other.
"boom!"
A burst of intense fire erupted from the muzzle, and countless shotgun shells exploded within a very short distance, briefly illuminating the surrounding walls.
The dark figure clearly hadn't expected Lin Xuan to react so quickly. Taking the bullet head-on, the immense impact sent her flying, and she crashed heavily to the ground with a dull thud.
"What the hell is that? It scared the hell out of me."
As Lin Xuan spoke, she quickly chased after the spot where the other person had fallen, frantically pulling the trigger of her shotgun, bullets pouring out as if they were free.
"When someone is killed, you should finish them off immediately; this is an age-old truth."
Lin Xuan stopped what she was doing and shone her flashlight on the ground only after confirming that the thing was completely smashed and no longer moving.
At this moment, on the ground, a mechanical object that looked like both a spider and a dog lay sprawled, its body riddled with bullet holes and its circuit boards severely damaged.
"What's this?"
Lin Xuan kicked it to confirm that the thing was indeed dead beyond any doubt.
"A jack is an industrial robot specifically designed to move heavy objects."
Zhizi explained from the side, and as she spoke, the green light on Lin Xuan's watch flashed.
"But... this thing was discontinued many years ago, how come there's still one left?"