Chapter 61: Mu’s Predicament
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Mu fell immediately silent, and Ye Chong panicked. Whenever something happened to Mu, Ye Chong found out that he was never of much help.
The only thing he could do now was wait. He would wait until Mu awakened again.
Could it be that the energy cells were depleted? Ye Chong quickly stood up and rushed to check Mu’s energy cells. "No! That’s not the problem! Mu’s energy cells were still at 80%. Then what’s the problem?" Ye Chong racked his brains but could not figure out the reason. His only option left was to sit quietly by Mu’s side and wait.
Ye Chong sat beside Mu for the entire afternoon, but Mu was still motionless, showing no signs of awakening.
Time passed by, and without his notice, he had sat through the entire afternoon. Outside his room, Grandpa Qian called, "A guest is here!" Ye Chong looked at the time, and found that it was already evening. He gave a meaningful look at Mu before heading out - it was time to work!
Ye Chong looked dejected, and worked without much enthusiasm. Grandpa Qian had asked Ye Chong a few times if he was feeling uncomfortable, but Ye Chong only shook his head every time. Grandpa Qian’s expression was one of worry.
Finally, all the customers had left. Ye Chong left after just eating two servings, and Grandpa Qian was worried about him - the boy had never eaten so little!
Ye Chong returned to his room in a depressed mood. As he closed the door behind him, Mu’s voice rang, "Ye!"
Ye Chong paused and his head snapped up. His eyes filled with bottomless joy, and the edges of his mouth lifted into an arch. "Mu, you’re alright now? That’s great!"
The excited Ye Chong leapt onto Mu’s knees. "You scared me just now! Are you alright now?"
Mu was silent for awhile. "Based on available information, the probability of controlling the situation was from 58.5% to 61.2%!"
Ye Chong was shocked. "What happened? Mu, you seemed to have changed a lot before this." Ye Chong thought for a moment before continuing, "And now you’re back to normal!"
Mu spoke lightly, "Your statement is accurate to a certain extent!"
Ye Chong was perplexed. "What’s really going on, Mu?"
Mu calmly explained, "There is an unnamed program in inactive mode that has been in my information records all this time. I had repeatedly tried to activate it, as I believe it is most probably information related to my history. However, I had never found a way to activate it. The violent impact during our escape from the trash planet had activated this program, and I realized it was a Photon Simulated Intelligence program."
Upon seeing Ye Chong’s confused expression, Mu continued explaining, "A Photon Simulated Intelligence program, or PSI [1], is an autonomous decision-making program present in advanced photon processors. Different PSIs have different characteristics and temperaments, and they have a strong inclination to reject other PSIs. Fundamentally, I am also a PSI!"
"This PSI in me has a 86.9% probability of being the former controller of my photon processor. For some reason, it was forced into inactive mode, and after that, you, Ye, had activated a new PSI in the photon processor that was me."
"We are born from the same photon processor, and based on the same learning mechanism and decision making system. This also implied that we could not destroy one another, and could only compete for control of the photon processor. From the last impact, his sudden activation placed me in a passive situation, and he managed to take control! However, based on our characteristics, I am more aggressive, and thus have a higher probability of between 8.5% to 11.2% of winning against him. This is why he was suppressed by me today. However, this probability advantage will continue to decrease! Until both have equal power!"
Mu noticed Ye Chong’s confused expressed and spoke his mind without care. "At your level, the probability of you understanding this complicated predicament is only 21%."
The remark was promptly ignored by Ye Chong, as he spoke in realization, "Ah, that means in your body there’s two … Um … What’s that called?" Ye Chong frowned in thought.
"PSI!" Mu provided.
"Right, PSI. But that, that PSI thing had no ill will towards me …" Ye Chong recalled the earlier in time where he thought Mu was acting a little different, but it did not make Ye Chong feel that the mech was another Mu.
Mu agreed. "Yes. Since we are using the same information records archive, his information based decisions will be the same as mine. Hence, his attitude towards you will be no different to that of mine, but expressed with a different personality and temperament."
Ye Chong scratched his head in distress. "So complicated. As expected, anything related to photon processors is bound to be dull!" Ye Chong, who was entirely uninterested in photon processors, made his conclusion.
"I’m afraid it is to you!" Mu commented calmly.
Ye Chong sat in Mu’s pilot cabin, continuing his work from earlier in themorning. As for Mu’s predicament, Ye Chong knew he would be of no help, and Mu would have to handle it himself.
Ye Chong carefully inspected the white mech image pulled from Mu’s information records archive.
Pure white mechs were rare, as were pure black mechs. The elongated design and lack of any sharp edges due to its rounded designs meant that the mechs did not have the vicious quality found in common mech models. In its hand was a similarly white and odd looking gun. From the diameter of the barrel, it may even qualify as a cannon. From an average person’s perspective, the mech was definitely majestic and as graceful as an aristocrat amongst the feathered species – the white swan.
However, Ye Chong obviously did not feel the same. Ye Chong only felt an extreme sense of danger.
The white mech may seem as graceful as an aristocrat, but Ye Chong would not underestimate its potential as a threat. Ye Chong was sure that the odd looking gun in his hand must have some underlying power, and was not just some plaything. Ye Chong also noticed with his sharp observation that the mech had at least thirty two concealed weapons cache (yin shi she ji chang), and that was quite astonishing to Ye Chong.
"This – this is surely too much. Is there a need to have so many of them? Besides, can the pilot in the mech control them all? The energy consumption must also be huge! Is he thinking of shooting all of them in one go and end the battle?"
No matter how he saw it, Ye Chong did not believe that this was a common advanced level mech. Ye Chong definitely thought that the mech was even more technologically advanced than his F-58. No matter how well the F-58 performed, it was still a training mech, and its weapons were far outstripped by the opponent’s.
"Why would he want to kill me?" Ye Chong could not figure it out!
Only the Reno Society had qualms with him, but would Reno Society own a mech like this? Ye Chong was a little wary of that fact. Besides, Reno Society definitely knew nothing of his whereabouts. Then who could it be? Black Cove? If Black Cove had ill designs for him, then it would be a plausible scenario. However, the mech was obviously a contrast to Black Cove’s usual style. The difference was too striking, and thus, it was probably not Black Cove!
Then who would it be? Ye Chong agonisingly searched his memories!
"The opponent had crash landed into me while I was flying with the F-58. The opponent probably did not know my identity, and could only recognize the mech! Could it be that the F-58 made me an enemy? But wait! The F-58 was a Black Cove training mech, which meant that the opponent must know about the F-57, and understand that it was a Black Cove training mech. Sodoes this mean that the opponent thought I am a Black Cove citizen and therefore, treated me as an enemy? Hmm, then it seemed highly likely that the opponent is an enemy of Black Cove!"
As he considered this idea, Ye Chong began to believe that it made sense! He must be an enemy of Black Cove! He must have mistook him as someone from Black Cove! This seemed to be the only reasonable explanation!
By then, Mu’s voice rang out, "Based on currently available information and my calculations, the probability that the opponent is an enemy of Black Cove is about 71%. The uncertainty is due to insufficient information and therefore not calculable!"
As expected, Mu’s calculations arrived at the same conclusion as he did!
Hmm, if that was the case, then what should he do?
[1] Translator’s note: Pronounced as "psy" in "psychology".