After Bubbles finished describing the anomalies she discovered, I was still sowhat confused. After all, it seed to be quite an abstract concept. Although I interact with the Empire’s spiritual network every day, I still only have a partial understanding of how this powerful data network operates and is structured. Of course, Sandora has been dragging to learn about it nonstop, so I wasn’t completely clueless about what Bubbles was saying. After analyzing for a while, I ca to my own understanding.
"So, you’re saying she’s an amalgamation of the surplus computing power of all the Xyrin Apostles... a virtual person?" I looked at the golden-haired female who claid to be Xyrin, speaking with amazent, and then suddenly realizing that this might be a bit impolite. Discussing sothing like this in the presence of the person involved is obviously disrespectful. However, the girl nad Xyrin seed to lack common sense or was slow to react, as she wasn’t bothered by this unintentional "offense" and was busy chatting quietly with Big Sister. The two seed to have quite a lot to talk about.
"She can’t be considered a virtual person because she already exists tangibly and has created her own body," Sandora’s gaze also fell upon Xyrin. As an expert in spirit and soul, she quickly grasped the manner of the other’s existence. "Moreover, the claim of surplus computing power... should be incorrect. If she were a personality ford from the surplus computing power of each Xyrin Apostle, it wouldn’t cause the spiritual network’s actual capacity to inexplicably increase by one person. When computing power shifts from one process to another, it’s like a drop of water moving from the center of a lake to the edge—it has no effect on the lake’s water level itself. She appeared out of thin air, so what brought her about... likely isn’t the surplus computing power on the network."
"Ah, I suddenly thought of sothing..." Bubbles interjected suddenly. Seeing that everyone focused their attention on her, she cleared her throat with a couple of coughs. "Firstly, I want to rule out the surplus computing power explanation because I think I misunderstood at the start. To generate a consciousness, you need a stable environnt, just like how a program needs a steady system mory buffer to run and not be easily purged. The surplus computing power on the spiritual network has never been stable, with Apostles constantly redirecting their computing power to new collective tasks, often with random allocation of personal resources. As I ntioned earlier, this... Xyrin’s consciousness is distributed across the entire network, with each Xyrin Apostle possibly contributing a certain ’neuron.’ So, do these Xyrin Apostles make sure not to use that 1KB of mory when providing computing power to the network? There is absolutely no guarantee. I’ve tallied the spiritual network, with each node refreshing approximately every twenty-four hours. In other words, every Xyrin Apostle providing system resources would, on average, complete a short-cycle computing task every twenty-four hours. Moreover, they often refresh simultaneously on a large scale because the host array assigns a team task to a fair number of nodes. After completing this task, these nodes, of course, refresh their system mory to free resources. Under such circumstances, the surplus computing power environnt is quite unstable. And we’re talking about the new Empire’s situation here, whereas the ’Xyrin’ before us was born during the old Empire period. At that ti, the entire Empire was busy researching a slew of pie-in-the-sky projects, with massive network refreshnt occurring almost every minute and second. Under such circumstances, it was even more impossible to rely on each Xyrin Apostle providing 1KB of reserved space to create a ghost entity. Don’t forget—no one knew of ’Xyrin’s’ existence, and no Xyrin Apostle on the network consciously reserved that 1KB space, nor was there any conscious system or network protocol maintaining this virtual space..."
"However, there’s one thing stable about the spiritual connection network."
As Bubbles paused briefly, Sandora suddenly interjected, seemingly having thought of sothing.
Bubbles gave Sandora a knowing glance. "Yes, that’s it, the access volu. The access volu of the spiritual network is a basic and stable indicator that remains stable and grows with the number of Apostles. As long as a Xyrin Apostle is alive and has the conditions to connect to the spiritual network, they will be online permanently. Of course, soldiers who fall in battle will go offline. But compared to the entire Race, the loss of such a small number of nodes has a negligible impact on the network’s stability. Moreover, the continuous addition of access points significantly boosts the spiritual network’s ability to withstand offline impacts. Even if the spiritual network’s access volu fluctuates, it is countless tis more stable than ’surplus computing power.’ Therefore, we might have overthought the initial assumptions. The creation of Xyrin is fundantally not from the resources already existing on the spiritual network but rather from the network’s structure itself... She is born from the network itself!"
"Are you... talking about ?" The golden-haired girl finally noticed as her na was ntioned repeatedly and looked over with a puzzled smile. "I don’t know anything."
: "Uh... just keep chatting with my sister. Sis, just keep her steady. Alright, Bubbles, continue. I don’t quite understand now. The access point... what does this access point have to do with generating consciousness? It’s just an access point, rely a number... It’s nothing, has no capacity, no computational power, and not even a physical form. It’s just a node..."
"As long as it’s a node, as long as it exists, it’s enough. In the Xyrin network, an access point represents three data points: upload, download, listening for connections. Each of these modes operates on three channels with logical relations. Therefore, we can consider it a simple logic gate," Bubbles slowly sat in front of Xyrin, looking into her eyes. "The number of these logic gates multiplied by the Apostle group in gabillions, with each logic gate’s connection speed having no latency. When this group dedicated enough ti to one task, the chances of forming a suitable environnt increased significantly, and a new entity was thus created... This entity is nothing else but our spiritual network itself. The network nodes are your body and soul. You are not a Xyrin Apostle... You are Xyrin, right?"
"Oh, I am Xyrin." The golden-haired girl smiled, bewildered, then nodded.
"It seems that this individual is still immature, but if the speculation is correct, she should be the consciousness that erged after the Old Empire’s Spiritual Network reached a certain degree," Bubbles spoke slowly as she looked at a group of people around her in utter shock. "Well, this is just my guess, lacking necessary evidence, and therefore, it might take a series of experints at the research center to prove this hypothesis. However, based on the anomaly discovered in the data network, this seems to be more or less correct — the Spiritual Network of the Old Empire has mutated without anyone knowing, and we’ve created a..."
"Race consciousness? Or a super ntal commonwealth?" Sandora’s expression was a complex mix of emotions, primarily shock.
Bubbles thought for a mont, then shook her head regrettably: "Sothing like a race consciousness, but unfortunately, from the perspective of its formation chanism, she is fundantally just an ordinary intelligent individual without any special power. Otherwise, we might have gained another Emperor-level combat power. Consider her foundational basis: an individual generated with each Xyrin Apostle’s entry point into the Spiritual Network as a ’neuron’, she can be seen as an incarnation of the Spiritual Network, yet on the other hand, she is rely an accumulation of the network’s redundant resources. It’s like aligning thousands of screens and treating each screen as a pixel to play a video, it looks spectacular, agreed, but what’s the significance?"
"Significance? What if she can control the Spiritual Network?" Sandora gently tapped the tabletop with her index finger. "For instance — to force specific nodes offline from the network or allocate unlimited system resources to specific nodes. She is the embodint of the Spiritual Network, if she matures to a certain extent, she should naturally learn how to control her own body, at which point she would also have the ability to control the network... I can say that this child could be the most powerful unit in the Spiritual Network, and she might make our network stronger, or perhaps... destroy it."
Sandora pointed out a massive potential hazard, catching most attendees off-guard, and I felt the room’s temperature drop by at least ten degrees: this indeed seed possible!
But after calming down, I suddenly felt that Sandora’s concern didn’t quite add up, so I voiced it out.
"Of course there’s sothing amiss, destroying the network would an destroying herself," Bubbles was one of the few who listened to Sandora’s concerns without showing any worry, "Moreover, I hypothesize that Xyrin shouldn’t be able to destroy the network. The Spiritual Network is a virtual space, and it relies on so underlying protocols to operate, which can only be changed by the highest host, the World Arbitration Agency, and Emperor authorization. These basic protocols serve to maintain the network’s integrity and stability, eliminating unexpected offline dangers as much as possible, and these protocols are embedded in the underlying data; their effective scope includes the logical state of every entry point. Therefore, as an incarnation of this network, one of Xyrin’s foundations is these protocols. In other words, her actions must conform to the protocols, and she cannot break them; otherwise, she would malfunction. Of course, if the previously ntioned three factors authorized her to damage a part of the network, that would be permissible, but... I estimate no one present would make such a reckless move? In my view, if these speculations hold true, Xyrin’s most direct value would be enhancing the stability of the Spiritual Network. Before her ergence, there was no long-term unified monitoring of the Spiritual Network, as it exceeded the capabilities of any Xyrin Host, so we could only monitor the network in segnts, controlling it level by level through a pyramid-style host architecture, but now, we should be able to find more efficient monitoring thods."
"Is that so..." Sandora appeared relieved, since Bubbles is an expert in this area, her words naturally carried the highest credibility, "I’m used to considering the worst-case scenario, but it seems I was overly tense this ti."
I too breathed a sigh of relief, though I didn’t quite understand, it seed that Xyrin wasn’t harmful to the Spiritual Network. There was a reason for everyone’s concern; it was not that we had any prejudice against this child who has essentially done nothing wrong, but she is evidently too immature right now, lacking the awareness required as a Xyrin Apostle, especially a strategic Xyrin Apostle, yet she wields the highest level of authority within the Spiritual Network, which is indeed worriso. If she’s genuinely at risk of carelessly damaging the Spiritual Network, it’s better to be prepared early on—certainly, no one would harm this seemingly naive individual, perhaps we might give her so form of constraint, like controlling Little Crow’s power with a collar.
Speaking of Little Crow, that silly bird is still planning daily on incubating eggs, although she can’t actually hatch anything now...
"Even though safety can be tentatively confird, we still need to treat this matter cautiously," Sandora thought for a mont and waved to grab Xyrin’s attention, "Can you assist with a few checks?"
"Checks?" Xyrin looked over, confused. "I just want to sleep, oh, and eat sothing... Where did the manager go?"
"...She might soon rember she wants to go ho." Silvia’s slow-witted face flashed through my mind, and I quickly shook my head, "Ahem, don’t worry, we won’t harm you, we just want to check what’s going on with you. This should be your first ti ’coming out’ to live, right? You have to register or sothing... Forget it, you probably don’t even know what registration is..."
"I don’t know what you’re talking about," Xyrin fiddled with her hair, "but I guess I should listen to you. Okay, how do we check? Once it’s over, can I eat and sleep?"
"Sure, sure, we can even deliver food to you," the other party’s cooperation made very happy. I helped Xyrin up while saying to Big Sister, "Sis, you two seem to get along well, you take her. First, take her to Taville for a full-body scan to figure out how she has a physical form, then check if she has any permissions other than access permissions, and see if there’s a way to control her."
Big Sister took Xyrin to the research center, and the rest of us fell silent. Bingdisi was the first to feel it had nothing to do with her, waved her hand to signal Yelsen and the others to prepare to leave, muttering, "Damn, it’s like witnessing a miracle again... I was born to be the female lead in life..."
Listening to this female hooligan boast in a literary manner during leisure ti is also a form of relaxation, but now we don’t have that leisure. After the Divine Race left, Lin Xue looked sowhat worriedly at Bubbles: "That Xyrin is really not a problem, right? The embodint of the Empire Spiritual Network—just hearing that na feels like a fortress!"
"Whether there is a problem, you see more clearly than we do," Bubbles lay on the table, looking listless, "I can only speak scientifically and judge that she should have an instinct to maintain network stability and should be restricted by safety protocols. Whether that’s true or not... we’ll have to see what the research center’s inspection results are. Speaking of which, it’s really a sha that the singularity of Xyrin Apostles on the Void Ladder ans we can’t produce a race consciousness higher than the current baseline; because this position can only be taken by Void Creatures, we can only create a ’substitute’ like ’Xyrin’. If there weren’t the restrictions of the Void Ladder, we would’ve definitely got an Emperor Level combat power increase... Well, let’s not think about it. What I’m considering now is how to make her as effective as possible; a special unit like this, if it’s only used for network managent, it’s such a waste."
Hmm, finding ways to maximize race benefits at any ti, Bubbles is quite a dedicated Xyrin Apostle.
"Ah Jun, Ah Jun," at this mont Qianqian suddenly, enthusiastically tugged at my sleeve, "I have a sowhat immature..."
The whole room practically cried out in unison: "Hold it!"
"Ahem, go ahead, don’t mind these guys." Seeing Qianqian’s countenance instantly turn from sunny to cloudy, I quickly consoled this adorably explosive girl, "I’ll listen to the more reliable parts."
Qianqian pouted, but soon, her "sowhat immature thought" diluted this bit of gloom: "Ah Jun, do you think it might happen like in disaster movies? Xyrin, as the embodint of the Spiritual Network, suddenly loses control and rebels, then controls all Xyrin Apostles, conquering the world or sothing..."
...Are you thinking her threat level isn’t high enough?
But Qianqian’s immature imagination did make feel a bit eerily creeped out, because I’ve watched too many sci-fi disaster movies of this type; wasn’t Sky Net just like that back in the day? And then there’s the Mai Chuike incident...
But this ti Bubbles once again rejected such seemingly frightening hidden dangers: "She can’t control anyone; she doesn’t have the authority. Based on the current information, her foundational construct isn’t the computing power of Xyrin Apostles or system resources on the Spiritual Network, but the ’structure’ of this network. You could think of her as being the consciousness that erged from connecting the network cables of a trillion computers; can a network cable connection control how the programs in a computer operate? Obviously not, that is the matter of what’s within the network data. So she can’t control anyone through a node. At least until she surpasses her life form, she can’t."
Bubbles began explaining the principles of the Xyrin Apostle Spiritual Network to everyone again, attempting to make Qianqian understand the difference between connection point status and connection point data. Under the onslaught of this headache-inducing knowledge, I began to feel drowsy and other thoughts started to surface in my mind... Currently, Xyrin seems to be just an accidental extra personality born in the Spiritual Network. She is the most special Xyrin Apostle, but not a powerful individual. She is constrained by her bottom layer protocol and can’t disrupt the network, so how could she bypass this protocol?
Perhaps Sandora’s usual habit of "considering the worst-case scenario" had rubbed off on , and I couldn’t help but imagine how this newly acquainted special Apostle could pose enough of a threat to destabilize the Empire if she were to lose control.
Of course, this kind of worry is a bit over the top; we shouldn’t just randomly doubt a Xyrin Apostle simply because she has so special abilities and is fairly unfamiliar. Even if she currently has no self-awareness as a Xyrin Apostle, such suspicion is unwarranted. I’m just making a hypothesis now.
If Sandora were out of control, if Qianqian were out of control, if Bubbles were out of control... if Xyrin were out of control... all these entities have the potential to be out of control, but for so reason, Xyrin, uniquely, gave a peculiar sense of discord.
Fallen Apostle.
A lightning-fast thought flashed through my mind.
Xyrin’s... Abyss version...
(Oh yeah, no one predicted this would happen, right? Surely no one expected it to be Xyrin, right?
Also, on the 15th of this month, everyone knows about the Qidian Show channel, right? Is anyone going to check out?) (To be continued. If you enjoy this work, you’re welco to go to Qidian (qidian) to vote for recomndations and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation.)
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