Cyber ​​Ghost Record

Chapter 42: Greetings

You can enter the abandoned Fengyu military base from almost any underground passage or elevator entrance in Jinggui Street, passing through the near-ground vacuum rail transit station and commercial plaza.

After resting for a night, Suger walked through the old air-raid shelter passage, where there were many messy words and paintings on the walls.

He saw the names of Buddhas often chanted by believers, as well as the gods of the underworld from various cultural systems. Here, King Qin Guang in the underworld was in charge of the Mirror of Retribution, and there, the Lord of Mictlan had an owl perched on his shoulder. A few steps away, he could see Izanami in the underworld holding the Jade Spear of Heaven.

The overuse of prosthetics and immunosuppressants makes it difficult for people here to die peacefully; they either hope to be reborn in the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss through the Pure Land Dharma or worship death.

Through the Gu Diao's sensors, he could hear conversations among passersby in the distance, and the wall screen was still broadcasting the announcement of yesterday's emergency from the Security Bureau. The entire city was gripped by fear, but some were quite excited, whispering among themselves, wondering which underworld god had summoned those demons and monsters into the ghost realm?
The wider the impact of this incident, the more resources the Security Bureau will invest in investigating the truth. The Void Realm Mandala is still in Suger's pocket—carrying it close to his body is unsafe, but he has nowhere else he feels more at ease.

He walked through the dark and damp passageway, took the elevator down to the seventh floor. The outside environment was somewhat damp, and the ventilation ducts were covered with water stains.

Someone is using color-changing spray paint to graffiti on the wall—a giant in the smoke and dust kneels on one knee, defeated by a black-clad, silver-masked god.

Socrates paused to look a few more times. The graffiti artist had finished the painting and was now adding an advertisement for bio-modification surgery below. Noticing Socrates approaching, the graffiti artist turned around and asked, "Is it alright?"

He was a middle-aged man with yellow skin, and his accent suggested he was from the same country. It was quite unusual that there were almost no signs of prosthetic implants on his body.

"very nice."

Most of the details in the graffiti have been abstracted, but Su Ge can still recognize the image of Fengyu Mountain God at a glance.

The graffiti artist said, "Fengyu Mountain God almost reached the pinnacle of cybernetic modification. Many people thought that given time, he could even become a second Leviathan. But look, he was killed in just one encounter. So, no matter how strong the cybernetic body is, that's all it is."

He stared at Suger's neck through the gap in his collar and holographic mask.

"I've never seen you before, but you haven't had any prosthetics installed, have you?"

"Why do you say that?" Suger asked calmly.

“It’s a feeling,” the graffiti artist said. “Ideas can change people and disrupt the natural state of harmony between man and nature. You give me a very natural feeling.”

“Is that so?” Soger sensed the graffiti artist’s rejection of the cybernetics in his tone.

This reminded him of the archipelago war that Akira Ryuji had mentioned. The purpose of that war was to resist cybernetic modifications. It turns out that there are still people like that now.

The graffiti artist smiled and said, "I rarely praise people, but when I do, it's always sincere. Since you don't accept cybernetics, it means you're very wise and can see that the disadvantages of cybernetics far outweigh the benefits."

"Drawbacks? How so?" Soger asked.

"For example, artificial intelligence can cause perceptual confusion... I'm not very good at explaining this, so how about this, come to our seminar in a couple of days."

Socrates hesitated for a moment, "Who are you?"

“We don’t really have any organization,” the graffiti artist said. “But if we have to name it, we do have an official name: the Spiritual Society. Have you heard of it? Some people have smeared us by calling us ‘carnal fundamentalists.’”

As Su Ge listened, he recalled that he had indeed experienced a "perceptual disorder" when using the cockroach robot and the Gu Diao.

Just as he was about to ask further questions, the graffiti artist pointed to the black-clad, silver-faced graffiti on the wall and said, "But no matter how much they smear us, let the facts speak for themselves. A prosthetic body is no match for a human body that is in harmony with nature."

“Uh, you mean…” Suger became wary, “He doesn’t have any cybernetic modifications either?”

The graffiti artist nodded.

"how do you know?"

Suger's tone was subtle, tinged with apprehension, probing, and a hint of danger.

He had an urge to hack into the other person's mind, but he had to consider the possibility of harming innocent people, and he had also tested himself with a pearl dove on the windowsill in the corridor, which showed that he could not hack into the brain of a living being without a brain-computer interface.

“Because he is a ‘perfect man’,” the graffiti artist said mysteriously. “He is the leader of the Spiritual Society, and he knows the true meaning of how the flesh can overcome the prosthetic body. If you join the Spiritual Society, you will also have the opportunity to follow him.”

The graffiti artist's words startled Soger for a moment. His previous conversation with the graffiti artist had made him think that what the man said made some sense, but now he realized that the man was a gossipy preacher.

Wang Mang's self-destruction led to Su Ge being mistaken for a deity, and just a few days later, his disguise was used by others to establish their authority.

He found it absurd and ridiculous, but didn't think it was a bad thing.

He was making a big fuss about finding Shen Ke's backup in Fengyu, and then the Security Bureau was broken into. This might be a suspicious point, and the imposter might be able to divert Li Lou's attention.

"No, I don't have time to attend your seminar."

He declined the graffiti artist's invitation and walked towards the exit of the passageway.

“It’s not ‘you,’ it’s ‘we.’ We are all the same kind of people.”

The graffiti artist raised his voice.

Suger didn't turn around.

He was indeed disgusted by having his body parts replaced with mechanical ones, but he wasn't actually opposed to prosthetics. Strictly speaking, whether it was the Gu Diao or the cockroach robot, they were extensions of his body and senses when the connection was established; in a broader sense, they were also his prosthetics.

When he heard "the same kind of people," he almost immediately answered "no" in his mind; he could only be a pragmatist.

……

The deeper one goes into the underground of Fengyu, the fewer human traces one finds.

The abandoned military base used to use an independent communication system, and even in the 23rd century, a considerable area of ​​it was still not covered by Yingchuan City's power grid and communication system.

This means that these places are isolated from modern society, making it inconvenient for them to receive wireless power or access the internet.

This area, which is an open prison to the public, was an ideal place for Sog to carry out secret activities.

He combined drone maps with the Gu Diao's scanning capabilities to find places where electromagnetic waves could not penetrate.

Five hours later, he arrived at a guillotine-style shielded door with signs of oxidation, marked "Engineering Confidential Research Room." The door was open, and inside, apart from some scattered building materials, there was nothing else; everything of value had been removed.

However, its 3mm thick cold-rolled low-carbon steel plate was still welded to the wall. After carefully inspecting it, Su Ge crouched down and passed through the shielding door. The ventilation opening was blocked by a honeycomb-shaped cutoff waveguide window, and the waveguide of the water and gas pipe was also spliced ​​together tightly.

He didn't have the equipment to test the electromagnetic shielding efficiency here, but the fact that the Gu Diao couldn't access cloud computing power here at least indicated that the signals inside the room couldn't be effectively transmitted.

This also means that Shen Ke's personality cannot escape through electromagnetic waves.

After checking several times, he left the shielded room.

Two hours passed.

The equipment storing Shen Ke's backup was moved into the shielded room by Su Ge.

The gate was closed, and only the blue indicator light for the equipment's backup power was lit in the darkness.

In the utter silence, where you could hear a pin drop, Suger could hear his own heart pounding.

He sent Shen Ke's location to the backup, trying to calm himself down, but his voice still trembled slightly with excitement.

"Are you there."

This is the first time since he came into this era that he has initiated a dialogue with a digital life from the position of the dominant party.

(End of this chapter)