"Who created you, does your appearance have a prototype?"
Lin Xian asked Grace.
"I don’t have information in this regard, unable to answer your question. If you find my holographic image inappropriate, your permissions allow you to command me to alter the display image or cancel the holographic display."
"Then what about the total number of people in this underground research facility? You must at least know who they are or what their plan is, right?"
"Sorry." Grace’s joints continuously resisted Lin Xian’s mechanical control, "I cannot inform you of related information. My duty is solely to guard the Hive Center and the Deep Red members."
Lin Xian looked at her and asked, "What if this place is gone?"
"As the offline version of Deep Red Number 3 Intelligent Brain, my quantum volume is 8192, which is equivalent to (2^{13}) computing power. However, I have never conducted ’human-in-the-loop’ learning, and my ability to judge human emotions, lies, sensitivity, and game theory is limited. I assess that you seem intending to take me as a trophy, ha, ha."
Lin Xian was somewhat perplexed: "So, how do you plan to deal with me?"
Grace’s mechanical eyes concentrated on Lin Xian: "From your entry into the Deep Red Pharmaceutical Building, I have taken the following measures against you, including but not limited to: unlocking all available access controls, releasing laboratory cages, electrically stimulating the atrium’s giant fungi, the Zero Element Center’s Defense System. None of these succeeded. Based on my assessment, my actions to both protect the Zero Element Center and simultaneously clear out intruders have resulted in a success rate infinitely lower than 1%. Your attempt to take me away will be considered a violation of my fundamental protocol to protect the Zero Element Center and Deep Red members; I will resist. If the Zero Element Center and Deep Red members are destroyed, thus rendering my duty void, I will enter a dormant state awaiting recovery processing."
"Good grief, so it was all your doing." Lin Xian’s gaze coldly swept over Grace, feeling somewhat at a loss at that moment.
This Intelligent Brain butler’s quantum computing Intelligent Brain cannot be scanned and controlled by Lin Xian. After much contemplation, it seemed his only option was to see if he could have Kiki perform a system rewrite and then carry it onboard; such powerful computing power could completely help him solve most of his problems on the train, and it also possesses quite formidable combat capabilities. This kind of good stuff interests him more than other resources.
At this moment, Ding Junyi’s voice suddenly came through: "Come over and take a look."
Lin Xian walked over upon hearing this, only to see Ding Junyi operating a computer in the monitoring center. She quickly retrieved massive information after connecting directly with the Black Hawk Battle Armor’s interface.
"Look." Ding Junyi pointed at the screen, which displayed personal information inside each survival pod and their current status signs.
"About 60% of these people are already in a state of brain death, but because their bodies are still undergoing external cardiopulmonary blood oxygen circulation, they maintain body temperature and metabolism."
"Brain death?" Lin Xian asked in confusion, "Is that the state after uploading consciousness she mentioned?"
"I don’t know if consciousness has been uploaded, but their brain tissues have undergone protein denaturation."
Ding Junyi’s tone was calm, habitually trying to put her hands in her pockets, but since she was wearing the Night Battle Armor, her hands slid twice around her waist without responding, so she simply put her hands into Lin Xian’s pockets.
"What is protein denaturation?" Lin Xian asked.
Ding Junyi looked at him, "It’s like the brain being cooked."
"The human brain is akin to a precise biological processor. The more intense the computation, the more it overheats. Remember when we were in that hall and got hallucinated? The faster the brain processes, the more realistic the rendered scene appears, making you feel time passing quickly." Ding Junyi explained, "Two hours is enough to overload the brains and spiritual power of several Frenzy Level Superpower Users to the point of pain, as you can imagine."
Lin Xian’s gaze turned towards the beehive pit under the glass curtain wall: "So these people want to enter a dormant dreamscape using the properties of the fungal threads, but in reality, they might have burned out their brains?"
Ding Junyi shrugged, speaking with deep meaning: "If the brain maintains a tenfold intensity computation pleasure over five seconds, you’ll be very happy. But if it persists for five minutes..."
Lin Xian couldn’t help but frown upon hearing this. Ding Junyi’s description gave him an inexplicable chill down his spine.
Immediately, he looked back at Grace: "Is this the safety you’re responsible for? All these people have died."
Grace’s expression remained calm as she replied in a mechanical female voice: "I have already said that my view on death is somewhat different. Consciousness is the core of life; any bodily form is merely a carrier. The human brain, as a consciousness carrier, cannot perform higher computational power tasks. Changing carriers is essentially no different from me switching quantum computer hardware. My duty is to protect the physical safety of Deep Red members. As for their consciousness core within the Star Abyss Fungal Network, it is not within my supervision, and strictly speaking, it belongs to the invaders."
"Ah?" Lin Xian was momentarily confused by these words: "You’re saying that as long as the physical bodies of these people lying here are still alive, that’s enough?"
"You can understand it that way. I was programmed with this protocol."
Ding Junyi pulled her hands from Lin Xian’s pocket and spoke in a deep voice:
"I understand her point. Logically speaking, there is no problem."
She looked at Lin Xian: "The so-called consciousness-uploaded Digital Life is essentially a copy, not a resurrection. This realm, which is heavily contested by ethical debates within our biological field, has strict regulations on any Digital Life research."