Cyber ​​Ghost Record

Chapter 27: The Demon-Slaying Technique

Shen Ke was led out of the room with almost no resistance.

Her body was locked in place by the mercury-like signal jammer, and in the blink of an eye, she was escorted into a metal tunnel by investigators and robots.

It was an electromagnetically shielded passage made of iron-nickel alloy. As soon as she entered, the passage door was sealed, and she was pulled into the suspended curtain in the atrium of the apartment.

The entire process takes no more than six seconds.

It all happened so fast. She brought a mystery and then vanished just as quickly, like a wisp of smoke blown away by the wind, leaving only a faint pear fragrance.

"How are you?"

The visor of one of the investigators in front of him slid off, revealing Yang Guan's face.

Yang Guan glanced at Su Ge's body and breathed a sigh of relief when he found that Su Ge was not injured.

In the half minute just now, Shen Ke activated the electromagnetic shielding measures, and the Security Bureau lost its monitoring of the situation inside the room. Yang Guan thought that Su Ge was probably in grave danger.

"I am fine."

The image that still lingered in Su Ge's mind was Shen Ke's fair fingers, shaped like a pistol.

The security bureau's judgment was wrong.

Yang Guan thought the hunter wouldn't be wary of the rabbit, but from the beginning, Su Ge was the lion in Shen Ke's eyes.

Su Ge didn't know why Shen Ke entered her channel. Perhaps after a few days of contact, she confirmed that he was just a weak hibernator and thus lowered her guard.

Perhaps her phrase "take me away" was actually a plea for help.

He couldn't guess Shen Ke's purpose in approaching him.

"She really is a demon, isn't she?"

"To be more precise, it's 'Charm'. Li Lou has already confirmed her identity."

"What will happen to her next?" Sug pressed.

Yang Guan saw a familiar expression on Su Ge's face; many people who had been bewitched by "charm" would find it hard to accept the truth.

"Go out and talk."

Yang Guan glanced at the photos on the wall and left the room.

The snow-white body of Feilian's car disappeared into the neon lights.

In the corridor on the sixteenth floor of the west building of Luyingting, Yang Guan said to Su Ge, "The trial of digital life is very complicated. It's not something the Security Bureau does. She'll probably be taken away for a 'purification ritual'①."

"A purification ritual?"

"It's a ritual that can separate conflicting parts from consciousness data. Sometimes, deities also perform purification rituals to separate out another deity. For someone like her, whose cognition, consciousness, and personality are not yet completely distorted, that purification ritual might be able to remove her tainted consciousness data and turn her into a normal person."

According to Yang Guan, being captured would be the best outcome for her.

Socrates felt the night wind grow colder. The supreme principle he had always kept in mind—that they could not alter thoughts—now seemed to be no longer the truth. Not only could he hack into other people's thoughts, but corrupt consciousness data could also be removed and purified.

Who defines "filth"?

“If the purification ritual fails…” Su Ge hesitated for a moment, then tentatively asked, “Will she be formatted?” Yang Guan shook his head.

"It's not that simple. Since you mentioned formatting, you know that digital life forms are different from biological organisms. Since they can upload consciousness, they can also copy consciousness. So the purification ritual is not only to remove the contaminated data, but also to locate all the backups of her consciousness through her main body."

"A backup of consciousness? A clone of her?"

"You can't say it's a copy, you can only say it's a backup."

Yang Guan clicked his tongue, realizing that his words would bring up many concepts that were unfamiliar to Su Ge. He stroked his stubble and considered for a moment before speaking:
"Do you think digital life can replicate itself indiscriminately? That's not right; it involves a paradox. Let me give you an example. If you upload your consciousness into the network, and then you replicate yourself, creating two of you, what happens when both of you want to return to your bodies?"

Soger thought for a moment, "Will they merge back into a single consciousness?"

"If these two versions of you are completely identical in personality, consciousness, and cognition, perhaps you can merge. But what if you come into contact with different things and differences arise?"

"This……"

"This is the replication paradox. In the struggle for sovereignty, 'another you' will most likely become your enemy—an enemy who knows you completely. If you replicate yourself two, three, or ten times, the result is self-evident."

Yang Guan's words sent chills down Su Ge's spine.

Yang Guan added, "Creating clones is suicidal for digital life, so they can only create backups."

What's the difference between a backup and a copy?

"The backup is already identified as an object when it is copied, and it is usually in an inactive state."

“Digital life forms all have their own ‘position’ or ‘destiny’, which is their core data. You can think of it as a key to ensure their unique sovereignty.”

"When the primary subject encounters an inescapable danger, it may send the bit to the backup, discarding the original primary subject and making the backup the new primary subject."

"There are also backups that will automatically activate as new entities if they haven't received a signal from the main entity for a long time... There are many different forms."

"In short, killing a demon is much more difficult than killing an ordinary person. Not only do you have to deal with the main body, but you also have to completely destroy all backups."

After a long pause, Yang Guancai tried to explain, as simply as possible, how troublesome it was to deal with demons and monsters.

Su Ge then understood why the Security Bureau had made such a big show of arresting Shen Ke. They lured her into a special channel and added those electromagnetic shielding measures. If there was the slightest oversight, Shen Ke's "fate" could escape.

A strange hope suddenly arose in his heart: perhaps she had already realized the danger and sent out the "fate" in a secret way, and that she would reappear in front of him after the storm had passed.

Regardless, Shen Ke, who witnessed him controlling "Larson" to commit suicide, has been arrested by the security bureau.

He asked in a low voice, "Will that 'purification ritual' examine her thoughts?"

Yang Guan looked at Su Ge for a while before saying, "Even if something happened between you and her, it was because you were bewitched and you even made contributions in this case. Don't worry, as long as you cooperate with the investigation, you will basically not be held accountable."

For Suger, the black market, military exoskeletons, and anchoring agents, though shady dealings, were minor details.

The key point is his ability, which is what the Vidyadhara defines as Yama.

He had to find a way to prevent Shen Ke from exposing his secret, and ideally, he also needed to figure out her purpose.

This means he needs to get people out of the security bureau.

Just as Su Ge was in a state of utter confusion, Yang Guan said again, "Actually, I have some good news for you today. I was planning to tell you in a few days, but since we've run into each other again tonight, I'll just say it. Today, through the Dizang Divination, I found the whereabouts of that missing hibernator. I contacted him again, and he finally replied."

(End of this chapter)