Deus Ex Machina: Chapter 38

Chapter 38

“Is there really such potential?” Shi Yixi asked Meng Die earnestly.

Meng Die seemed to seriously consider this question. “No.” She shook her head, “At least, I’ve never seen it. Even if human genes undergo several levels of evolution, they can’t change the essence of life. Life can be extended through technology, but maintaining an immortal state under external pressure… If those fire thieves come up with new activation drugs after I retire or find answers through gene modification, then I’ll admit I’ve been ignorant.”

Shi Yixi said, “No one knows what Yang Jin’s potential really is; he hasn’t even mentioned it himself. It seems to be a secret.”

Meng Die asked, “Hasn’t he told you?”

Shi Yixi replied, confused, “Why would he tell me?”

“I thought…” Meng Die waved her hand. “Never mind. Let’s stop chatting. From now until midnight, we have a few hours to formulate a battle plan.”

“You just said it’s at night; now it’s midnight?” Eagle Si said. “Are you planning to go out and film a horror movie?”

“Since we still have a few hours,” Feng Mang said, “I’ll help you prepare your gear. Eagle Si, come help me.”

Reluctantly, Eagle Si followed Feng Mang out, leaving only Meng Die, Shi Yixi, and Dalia in the living room. Meng Die said, “Finally, it’s quiet.”

Dalia said, “Auntie, you really dislike brats.”

Meng Die asked, “Auntie? Aren’t you calling me Xiao Die-Jiejie anymore?”

Dalia replied, “Now I don’t need to ask you for anything.”

Meng Die said, “Then you’re also a little demon.”

Shi Yixi never paid much attention to other people’s banter and arguments; he wouldn’t let such distractions split his focus. Acting as if he hadn’t heard anything, he asked, “What’s supposed to happen at midnight? Is it aunted?”

“…” Meng Die’s expression was a bit strange. “Are you joking?”

Dalia was used to Shi Yixi’s sudden off-topic comments. She said to Meng Die, “Xixi is like this; sometimes he talks more maturely than adults, and other times he gets stuck on things.” She pointed to her head, “But he means no harm. Dr. Bai said he’s just starting to develop, and many things he understands only partially.”

Meng Die asked Shi Yixi, “What’s your potential?”

Shi Yixi shook his head. “I don’t know.”

Meng Die studied Shi Yixi carefully and whispered, “Interesting.” She didn’t intend to waste time discussing Shi Yixi’s topic and continued from earlier: “People need to eat and sleep; programs do too. Even an AI of ZZ’s level needs to restart its system at certain times each day. That’s not a secret; even Pony is the same. During this period, a secondary program fills in, and even so, this is their most vulnerable moment as super artificial intelligences.”

“How long?” Shi Yixi asked.

“Thirty seconds,” Meng Die said. “But we need to compress that to ten seconds or even faster.”

“Auntie, are you joking?” Dalia said. “What can you do in just a few seconds?”

“Seconds are already long enough,” Meng Die said. “We don’t have time to search the entire building. Those seconds will be used to break through the main entrance and get inside. As for what to do once we’re in, there’s only one method.”

“What?” Dalia and Shi Yixi asked in unison.

“Force our way in,” Meng Die replied.

“…” Dalia said, speechless, “Auntie, do you have any better methods? I can think of the idea of forcing our way in too.”

Meng Die said, “You don’t understand the style of the Intercontinental Alliance, nor do you understand the current situation. Even if we force our way in, they won’t expand the fight outside that building; they’ll just conduct a sweep inside.” As she spoke, the screen displayed urgent news: there had been a fire at the DR logistics hub, and the fire had been brought under control, but the cause was still under investigation. Such unexpected disasters at this time were indeed sensitive, causing people’s already tense nerves to tighten further, wondering if it was related to the horror event from the previous night.

“If a large-scale battle occurs inside the headquarters of the Intercontinental Alliance building,” Meng Die said, “then the so-called ‘peace’ will be stripped away completely. The Sanctum would love for something like that to happen, but the Intercontinental Alliance won’t let them succeed.”

“Are you saying our battle range will be very small?” Shi Yixi asked. “We might not even need to use violent weapons… What if the other side has a lot of people?”

Meng Die said, “We ourselves are the violent weapons.” She pointed at herself, Shi Yixi, and Dalia, continuing, “You, me, her.” She added, “In Qianfan, weapons are never just the weapons themselves.”

Shi Yixi never doubted Meng Die and Dalia’s abilities, but he looked at his reflection in the glass window, his gaze somewhat confused, and asked, “Me?”

Meng Die nodded.

“If that’s the case,” Shi Yixi said sincerely, “I’m afraid I’ll drag everyone down.”

Meng Die placed her hand on Shi Yixi’s head and said, “Little brat, you’re far more qualified than Yang Jin. Where’s the courage you had when talking to me before? Never doubt your own abilities.”

Shi Yixi nodded. “Alright, I’ll do my best.”

Zhan Feng lay pale on the bed, looking lifeless. Only the various monitoring devices showed that he was still alive at this moment.

“He looks very unwell,” He Xun said. “He’s badly injured.”

“Right,” Bai Yunci said. “I’ve never seen someone overuse their potential to the point of causing their body to operate beyond its limits. Zhan Feng is different from us; he’s very versatile, and he shouldn’t be in this condition.”

“Maybe his physique has changed,” He Xun said. “Potential can change to some extent under various stimuli, like what happened to me…”

“If that’s the case, it must be something that happened to him after ‘rebirth’ in the Sanctum,” Bai Yunci said.

“Rebirth?” He Xun asked, confused. “Could you tell me the whole story?”

Bai Yunci never considered this a secret and shared everything he knew with He Xun.

“If his heart was pierced, there’s still a chance to save him,” He Xun pondered. “The heart is just the body’s engine; the brain is where information is stored. But since his brain was shot through, there’s no reason he should survive. The neural networks and information networks in the human brain are beyond repair with current medical standards; once destroyed, there’s no hope. Yet he doesn’t seem to have any abnormalities…”

Bai Yunci said, “He said a few words while he was unconscious.”

“What?” He Xun asked.

“Regeneration,” Bai Yunci replied. “Execution.”

He Xun repeated, “Regeneration… Execution…” Suddenly, he looked up, a flash of images crossing his mind, and grabbed Bai Yunci, saying, “Help me extract his stem cells.”

“Okay.” Bai Yunci didn’t suspect anything and immediately got to work. During this process, he began to formulate some guesses and asked, “Do you suspect it’s cloning?”

“No,” He Xun said. “I was reminded of a game I used to play with other colleagues years ago at the Flame Raiders laboratory.”

“What game?”

He Xun explained, “One person would draw a random shape, and then another person would find a random spot on that shape to draw a smaller, identical shape. This continues, but since the paper can’t be infinitely enlarged, the shapes keep getting smaller until someone can’t draw anymore, and that person loses.”

“Are you talking about fractal shapes?” Bai Yunci paused, a look of surprise on his face. “Could it be…?”

“Yes,” He Xun said. “Many years ago, fractal theory was applied in fields like mathematics and aesthetics. Later, someone introduced the concept of fractals in the life sciences. It suggests viewing a person as a progenitor; even when infinitely extended, they remain the same individual. All their structures are identical to the progenitor’s, and since their development occurs on the same timeline, their life experiences, thoughts, and memories would be identical. If the progenitor dies, one could extract this infinitely extended fractal through some techniques, allowing a person to ‘rebirth.’ Moreover, this rebirth holds far more significance than cloning, as the person remains the same, retaining all their past memories, rather than merely duplicating an identical appearance.”

Hearing this, Bai Yunci felt a chill run down his spine. “Has this technology… been validated?”

“No,” He Xun said. “It was only theoretical at that time. You know, technology has no morals, but humans do. Any discussion about technologies related to human ethics is highly controversial, and even with animals, it’s hard to achieve any groundbreaking progress.”

At this moment, the analysis of Zhan Feng’s stem cell sample was complete, and the results were displayed on the screen. He Xun let out a slight sigh after reviewing them, while Bai Yunci’s expression grew serious.

He only needed to grasp this concept and look at Zhan Feng’s data to immediately understand everything.

“Perhaps this is the first fractal experimental sample.” He Xun glanced at the still-unconscious Zhan Feng. Being a compassionate healer, he felt a pang of sympathy for Zhan Feng’s plight and said, “Perhaps those people locked his fractal growth with some technological means, keeping him in this current state. But he broke that balance; he started fractal growth.”

Bai Yunci asked, “What will be the consequences?”

“Nobody knows,” He Xun sighed deeply. “He might repeatedly go through rebirth, or he might not be able to withstand it and die, or he could become a deformed monster, or there could be other outcomes. But regardless, it will be a very painful process for him, as he will always remember everything that happened from beginning to end.”

Night fell, and the stars began to twinkle, but no one in the city felt in the mood to appreciate the splendor of technology.

Shi Yixi and the others casually ate something while Feng Mang adjusted his workstation in the lobby, making final equipment adjustments for the three who were about to set out.

“I suggest you equip some heavy weapons, just in case,” Feng Mang provided his reasonable advice after hearing their plan. He secured a thin tube to Dalia’s left arm, with the bottom winding through her fingers and resting in her palm, where a patch was placed.

“What’s this?” Dalia raised her arm, opening her palm to point outside, but Feng Mang stopped her, saying, “Don’t try it here; otherwise, it’ll be another disaster. This is a photon cannon, but it doesn’t have a huge power output. It won’t vaporize someone instantly, but it’s highly lethal and can interfere with communication devices. It converts energy through your muscle movements, so the harder you use it, the greater its power.”

Dalia said with interest, “Then let me try.”

“Absolutely not!” Feng Mang refused, and Dalia ran off to the side. Feng Mang handed the twin blades that Meng Die had brought to her, saying, “This metal doesn’t belong to Earth, but I’ve seen it before. So I made some modifications to it.” He tapped the back of one blade, and green lines flashed across the blade’s spine, densely packed like circuits. “This metal reacts with electricity to produce a wave. I’ve controlled the wave to a certain frequency, making it sharper than the blade itself.”

Meng Die said, “That’s meaningless.”

Feng Mang replied, “At least it’ll look nice when you swing it around with green light.”

Meng Die found it hard to respond.

“Yixi, it’s your turn,” Feng Mang snapped his fingers, and Ying Si took out a pair of fingerless gloves for Shi Yixi, fastening them with two wristbands.

Ying Si said, “You might not be quite skilled in using your power yet. This will help you control and adjust it while reducing the backlash damage to you. Keep an eye on the monitor on the wristbands; if it goes off, stop immediately.”

Feng Mang laughed, “This was specially prepared for you by Ying Si; he’s been thinking about it for a long time. Who knew it would come in handy today?”

“It’s just a beginner version,” Ying Si said disdainfully. “It’s not anything impressive, so it didn’t need special preparation.”

Shi Yixi grasped Ying Si’s hand and said, “Thank you, Ying Si.”

“Just don’t blame me if something goes wrong,” Ying Si replied.

“I won’t,” Shi Yixi smiled. “I trust you.”

Bai Yunci and He Xun were focused on their research, and it was after eleven o’clock at night when they finally emerged. At this point, Shi Yixi and the others had already checked their gear, completed communication tests, reviewed the combat plan and precautions, and were ready to set out.

“What’s wrong? Your expression is so complicated,” Meng Die asked He Xun. “You seem both happy and sad. I’m leaving; isn’t that what you wanted?”

“I believe you’ll return safely,” He Xun replied. “Zhan Feng has run into some trouble. People like us can be obsessed with technical difficulties, but such problems can be a disaster for the person involved.” Like Bai Yunci, he was a doctor, and a decline in potential would take away his energy and insight, along with his analytical skills and sharpness when it came to problems. His health was poor; even his hand might shake when holding a scalpel, making it impossible for him to save lives anymore. Yet he still retained valuable experience; he had witnessed the most brilliant and crazy era of the Thief’s Laboratory.

He respected science and technology, so he felt more surprise than fear at the emergence of fractal samples. Technology itself has no good or bad; it simply seeks to touch the edges and limits as much as possible. At the same time, he respected humanity and held a reverence for life, which made him feel sorrow for Zhan Feng’s predicament.

His feelings were very complicated.

“I haven’t seen you make that kind of expression in a long time,” Meng Die remarked. “It seems you’ve found a goal.”

He Xun said, “We all need to work hard.”

Meng Die nodded, clapping her hands. “Alright, youngsters, let’s go.”

The three figures disappeared into the night. Shi Yixi was calm, while Dalia was a bit excited. She whispered to Shi Yixi, “I’m a little nervous; it’s my first time doing something like this.”

“Just treat it like a regular fight,” Shi Yixi said. “Make some noise. I’ll find Yang Jin’s location as quickly as possible.”

“After we get him out, I want to have a big meal,” Dalia asked. “What about you?”

“Me?” Shi Yixi thought seriously for a moment and said, “I want to call my parents to tell them I’m doing well. If we succeed, I’ll let them know I’m a bit stronger than before so they won’t worry about me.”

“You’ll definitely succeed,” Dalia said.

Meng Die led the two of them to hide around the corner of a nearby building. There were patrolling surveillance cameras around the Intercontinental Alliance Building, so they needed to be cautious and navigate carefully.

“He’s very close to us,” Shi Yixi said. “He’s not on a high floor.”

“Above ground or below?” Meng Die asked.

“He…” Just as Shi Yixi was about to speak, a wave of dizziness washed over him, followed by an array of disorienting images.

The night scene he had been seeing vanished, replaced by a bright daytime setting. The images moved at a rapid pace, and the pressure in his eyes was intense, as if he were diving quickly. Below him, a series of numbers was flashing by at an incredible speed. No matter how he turned his head, the dizzying visuals and the shifting numbers remained fixed in his line of sight.

“What’s wrong with you?” Dalia asked.

The images abruptly stopped, and the night scene returned. Shi Yixi shook his head and said, “I’m fine. Yang Jin is awake now, on the second basement level.”

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