99: Chapter 19: The Techniques of Applying Gu 99: Chapter 19: The Techniques of Applying Gu “Master, you seem rather unhappy now, don’t you?” He followed behind Xiang Shan and said, “Master, even though there must be some unpleasant things in your past memories, you’ve also taught me to face these hardships…”

When Yuki asked this question, Xiang Shan felt his state of mind was about to explode once again.

His prosthetic eye flickered as he retorted, “How would you feel if someone told you a story, and just as it got interesting and reached the halfway point, they suddenly skipped to the ending?”

Yuki thought for a moment, “That would be quite frustrating…”

“That’s exactly it.”

Xiang Shan said so.

In the past few days, he had been trying his best to absorb his past memories.

But what infuriated him was that the memories in that hard drive were incomplete.

Memories from the year 2028 seemed to abruptly end right there.

It was as if the Demon Sect’s water earthworm had specifically modified these memories to ensure that certain information would not leak out.

“Stay calm, stay calm…” Xiang Shan muttered to himself.

It might not necessarily be this way.

After “Argon” fell to the ground, its body began to deform.

Moreover, the original NASA experts mentioned in the memories that “Argon’s” materials could not support its own weight.

Compared to the memories in Xiang Shan’s biological brain, it seemed that some human alloys might have already surpassed that level.

This suggests that the material science level of the “Argon” builders would not exceed that of current Homo sapiens, and was only slightly better than that of humans from the early 21st century.

And that was enough to explain a lot of issues.

The level of solid-state physics, condensed matter, and even basic theoretical knowledge of those “Argon” builders were only marginally better than humanity’s.

It might just be a “Traveler.” It certainly could bring technological aid to humans, but not necessarily a decisive one…

— No, that’s not right…

This judgment, however, contradicted the memory from 2035.

Xiang Shan remembered that in 2035, as a “Director,” he distinctly mentioned that metal-based cells came from the “tent”…

“So, might the significant thing not be ‘Argon’ itself, but extraterrestrial microbes that remained inside ‘Argon’?

Could those alien microbes have given Yawgmoth the opportunity to create metal-based cells?”

But this speculation also had its nonsensical aspects.

If the “Argon” creators’ level of technological advancement was “just slightly higher than that of 21st-century humans,” then “Argon” could not possibly have accelerated to anywhere near the speed of light.

In other words, it must have completed its interstellar journey at a speed far below that of light.

Even if Argon came from Proxima Centauri, the closest star to Earth, it would still take hundreds of years.

Even “Argon” might have been traveling through space for tens of thousands of years.

Under such circumstances, it would be incredible if there were still microbes inside.

Even though metal-based life forms might have stronger resistance to damage than Earth’s native species, Xiang Shan didn’t think any alien metal-based cells could be lingering in Argon for tens of thousands of years.

“It’s not necessarily impossible, if they were primitive anaerobic bacteria, and there was a heat source like a reactor.

Uranium, plutonium, thorium all have isotopes with half-lives of tens of thousands of years…”

— No…

But the problem still lies here.

If the “Argon” creators’ level of technology was “only a bit higher than 21st-century humans,” how could they ensure that a reactor would function stably for tens of thousands of years without human intervention?

Keep in mind, during the second half of the 20th century, humans built many nuclear power stations.

And these nuclear power plants, even with regular maintenance by humans, still experienced all sorts of safety incidents.

This forced some countries with poor natural conditions [such as those on earthquake or volcanic belts] to completely abandon this promising source of energy.

Carrying a sufficient quantity of low-concentration radioactive elements, then periodically “enriching” and “replenishing radioactive elements” during the flight could, in theory, ensure a reactor works continuously for a long time.

But parts on the reactor could not possibly last tens of thousands of years without deteriorating.

— Perhaps there is artificial intelligence?

This was Xiang Shan’s next thought.

Unfortunately, this speculation also did not seem very credible.

Because it is difficult for humans to imagine artificial intelligence running for tens of thousands of years without a single issue.

As for strong artificial intelligence, that is even more unlikely.

The foundation of “Inner Strength” technology is that “the human brain still has certain computational advantages over computers”— “Inner Strength” is the technology that maximizes this advantage.

And strong artificial intelligence represents the complete triumph of computers over the human brain.

In the age of strong artificial intelligence, the “feeble Inner Strength” capabilities of the human brain would be utterly meaningless.

The mathematics involved in strong artificial intelligence remains unimaginable to modern humans.

A civilization capable of creating strong artificial intelligence must have technology far surpassing that of humans.

Of course, of course, there is also a tiny possibility that the techniques of strong artificial intelligence are not so difficult, but that the brains of Earth Homo sapiens have some structural flaw in their evolution that prevents them from understanding the mathematical tools needed to create strong artificial intelligence.

That’s a terrifying speculation.

It’s like human eyes that cannot see electromagnetic waves outside the visible light spectrum, a kind of “innate limitation”— and this limitation occurs at the level of consciousness.

“`

Unable to see electromagnetic waves beyond visible light, you can compensate with tools.

But the things beyond consciousness…

maybe they’re forever beyond consciousness.

Because “tools” are also the result of the conscious human effort to transform the world.

Of course, the degree of confidence in this speculation is still not high.

All such speculations tumbled around in Xiang Shan’s mind.

Xiang Shan felt, based on instinct, that the development of the prosthetic body following humanity was mostly in line with the basic trajectory of technological development.

The vast majority should have been completed on Earth natively, with few traces of foreign technology inputs.

“Argon” might have been offering inspiration.

But those abnormal “dots” in his memory made it impossible for him to settle down.

He was eager to know what exactly was within “Argon” and what he had seen back then.

His memory breaks right there.

He couldn’t help but feel restless.

Yuki knew nothing about this.

The drone swarm sent a “position ready” signal.

Xiang Shan temporarily shut off his external vision, suppressing the various demons in his heart.

Those matters, better to follow up on them later.

Since his memories still existed in some form in this world, he should be able to gather them together eventually.

The memories Xiang Shan read these last few days, apart from the content about “Argon,” had also stirred up more content in his brain.

Especially the name “Ingrid Granat.” He almost felt a sensation of “inner strength enhancement.”

He had taught Yuki in the Great Stockade of Organization Z, basic intracranial chip layout, recommending Inner Strength for the left hemisphere and External Sect for the right, because a considerable part of “Inner Strength” was specialized by the linguistic functions of the human brain.

Sometimes, the thing you’re really thinking about may not be the “me” you think it is but the “language,” “phraseology,” “narrative” you use.

How humans use the function of “language” to think, how “language” affects human thought, and the arrangement of “machine language”…

All these are related to the brain’s language functions.

This belongs to the interdisciplinary field of linguistics, neuroscience, and cognitive science.

Even the interaction between the prosthetic body and thought is related to this area.

The relationship between Ingrid and Xiang Shan’s past was far more than just “ordinary friends.” In the memories from 2035, she should also be one of the targets Xiang Shan had persuaded.

And Xiang Shan’s many perceptions of “language” were also derived from her.

Her name unlocked another segment of “knowledge.”

There were several times when Xiang Shan almost felt that he was the protagonist of a “system novel.” Essentially, he had a “collect memory fragments” main quest, and each time he gathered a portion of memory fragments, he could unlock new plots and new abilities…

—Ah no, that’s not quite right.

He might actually be a game protagonist instead.

As various thoughts gradually dissipated, Xiang Shan’s inner activity became clearer.

And another thought, which had been obscured by other doubts, also began to emerge.

Teacher Jing and Ingrid…

are they still alive?

This thought, too, receded.

Stronger inner strength surged from the state of meditation, with electromagnetic waves as the carrier, entering the first drone.

Then, using this one as a springboard, it jumped to the second drone, and so forth until the last one.

Neither the power limits of the wireless signal transmitters nor the disturbance of the thick soil layers could seal off the means of murder of an Inner Strength Master.

And the processor part of the last drone was equipped with a chip taken from the dead lackey’s body.

Naturally, those chips could connect to the Great Stockade’s intranet.

Their physical addresses could briefly deceive the stockade master’s defense system, allowing Xiang Shan to upload some data.

In the distant past battles, Xiang Shan had also mastered many ancient backdoors.

His experience with Organization Z’s Great Stockade convinced him that these old vulnerabilities, almost submerged in history, became the secret of point-to-point transmission for generations of Inner Strength Masters.

Within the rudimentary servers assumed by these wild Martial Artists, there definitely were backdoors he knew of.

Xiang Shan’s inner strength rushed forth, making a slight turn upon entering the server.

In that instant, the White Paper Fans in the stockade found that the server’s computational resources suddenly spiked in usage.

Then, more sinister commands entered other people’s prosthetic bodies through the server.

Xiang Shan began to recall the drones.

In a situation where resources couldn’t be replenished promptly, each drone was a precious asset, not to be wasted.

A few minutes later, a deep explosion sounded from that ventilation shaft.

“Oops, discovered,” Xiang Shan shook his head, “Apprentice, get up, we’re heading to the ‘donkey’!”

“`