Cyber ​​Ghost Record

Chapter 48: Coordination
Shen Ke took the bow and arrow.

At the same time, a dangling puppet became more conspicuous—this "conspicuousness" was not caused by any change in sensory information; it didn't become brighter, nor did it make any sound. It was as if some factor influenced one's sixth sense, making one involuntarily focus their attention on it.

The puppeteers began to perform some scenes, which were clearly related to childhood:
She grew up in a public nursing home, where virtual caregivers took on the roles of parents and teachers. Her naive thoughts as a child occasionally touched upon the principles of natural science, but these meaningless thoughts were quickly stopped—the amount of knowledge was already extremely vast, and native humans could never learn even a small category. She only needed to know what the world was like, not why. After the brain-computer interface was installed, she would naturally have inexhaustible knowledge.

The puppet transformed into the form of a young girl, her round, bright eyes darting curiously left and right, her pale yellow eyebrows furrowed in confusion. Her growth stopped at this moment.

【Innocent Child】

Su Ge read the name of this young girl's personality from Shen Ke's thoughts.

Is she a contradictory figure?

Wujin Jushi asked.

Shen Ke sat down, pressed the bow and arrow on the table, and shook his head.

"Do not."

Wujin Jushi nodded, and flicked his silver pipe twice from a distance.

Another string puppet becomes the new focus, beginning to perform other scenes:
The teacher on the altar lectured on the "Buddha's Discourse on Entering the Womb," telling her how she transformed from an embryo into a baby; she offered sacrifices to the gods; she practiced meditation, subduing her body and mind...

The puppet on the string acted out these scenes, its facial features and body gradually changing until it finally became a fourteen-year-old girl. She stood in the darkness, exquisite and devout, like a piece of plain silk covered with gilded scriptures. She was a standard nurtured creature.

【Qingxinnv】

Su Ge also read the name of this girl's personality from Shen Ke's thoughts.

"Is she?"

Wujin Jushi asked again, and this time Shen Ke looked for a while before denying it.

"No."

Suger vaguely understood what they were doing.

If the innocent child and the pure-hearted woman are both personalities of Shen Ke, then the hermit of Wujin is helping Shen Ke to deconstruct these personalities, find the contradictory ones, and thus achieve "consciousness coordination."

The focus then shifts to the next puppet, which begins to perform another scene. These are male figures, and the puppet gradually transforms into a brave and resolute man.

Socrates believed that this was the contradictory personality.

"It's him?"

"No."

Shen Ke quickly denied it.

The hermit of Wujin waved his silver pipe, and one by one, puppets appeared on stage.

At first, there were men, women, and children, including old women, middle-aged female Taoist priests, and beautiful maidens. Animals also appeared, such as swimming fish, flying birds, and foxes. There were also ghosts, deities, bodhisattvas, and asuras...

"is her?"

"No."

"Is that it?"

"No."

"Is it Him?"

"No."

Su Ge received Shen Ke's feelings, which seemed to put him into a hypnotic state as well.

The puppets portrayed various personalities, and in those changing forms, he seemed to see a faint reflection of himself.

Shen Ke, dressed in white robes and with white hair, appeared and sat cross-legged on a lotus flower.

[The Sand Counter]

"is her?"

Wujin Jushi asked.

Shen Ke did not answer.

She stood up, placed a willow branch on the bowstring, and drew the bow like a full moon.

Where the arrow pointed, the blue hair between the eyebrows of the sand-countering man shone brightly.

……

Sog saw a circle of puppets sitting around him, and in a daze, he also saw them acting out fragments of his memories, turning into individual versions of himself.

He saw a young man who looked tired and full of fear.

He saw a gaunt, disheveled hibernator scrutinizing the surroundings for potential enemies with a nervous gaze.

He also saw many other images.

A gray-haired man carrying a gun. A humanoid figure emitting ultraviolet light; upon closer inspection, the figure has no head or body, it is a self-standing Gu Diao.

A cockroach crawled into the damp darkness.

A giant that changes form, vast and boundless.

Shen Ke, with white hair and green eyes.

The people he once connected with, the thoughts, feelings, and information he received during those connections, still left traces in his subconscious after the connections were severed.

Suddenly, a flash of silver light caught his attention. He saw a silver mask floating in the darkness, its black hood and clothes almost blending into the darkness.

This was the image he used to disguise himself as a strongman. A thought flashed through his mind—what was under the mask?
The moment that thought crossed his mind, the holographic mask closed, revealing a blue face beneath the hood, with a smile and menacing canine teeth.

【Yama Raja】

The name popped into Suger's mind, and he felt a strange fear. He subconsciously raised his hand, only to find that he had no bow or arrows.

Then he saw "Yama Luoja" raise his hand, draw his bow and point an arrow in his direction.

In the darkness, all the personas performed the same action.

Pointing at him with countless arrows, Sug became increasingly terrified and cried out, pointing at Yama Rakshasa, "It's not me! He's not me!"

"who are you?"

All the personalities spoke at once, with men, women, children, insect chirps, animal sounds, and electronic voices ringing out simultaneously.

Suger suddenly woke up.

He opened his eyes; the missile silo was even darker than before, and it looked like several hours had passed.

Shen Ke stood with her arms crossed, leaning against the oxidized and peeling paint on the wall, seemingly having been waiting for a while.

"how do you feel?"

Su Ge looked at Shen Ke, and after two seconds, he gradually came to his senses.

Shen Ke left the dark web; her consciousness coordination was over.

“What… happened to me just now?” Sug murmured.

"You synchronized with my feelings, and were also affected and hypnotized."

"Hypnosis?" Soger pondered for a moment. "What were those images that woman created?"

"My subpersonality."

Shen Ke appeared and sat down next to Su Ge.

"Subpersonality?"

Suger thought of the concept of dissociative identity disorder, but he didn't think he had it.

“Your personality is not a whole,” Shen Ke said. “You can think of yourself as a parliament, with all the sub-personalities participating in the vote to integrate your behavioral decision-making and cognitive patterns. What Wujin Jushi did for me just now was a personality examination. She used a puppet to play my hidden sub-personality and find the contradictory personality.”

"Why not just delete the conflicting personality traits?"

"You think those are just a few lines of data?" Shen Ke glanced at Su Ge. "You know how atoms make up molecules, genes, cells, systems, and the brain, but do you know how your consciousness emerges and how your personality exists?"

Suger was stumped by the question.

"You can't delete them, because personality doesn't have an objective entity."

Shen Ke looked away.

"But you can symbolize and concretize your personality, turning it into a psychological reality, and then use psychological suggestion to kill this psychological reality. This way, you can avoid the underlying mechanisms of your consciousness emergence and personality existence, and resolve personality conflicts."

"The technique of Wujin Jushi is similar to this principle."

“What’s the use of resolving personality conflicts?” Su Ge felt that Shen Ke’s description sounded like a form of psychotherapy.

“Resolving personality conflicts leads to a more harmonious and unified consciousness. This is the foundation for ascension. Even if you don’t reach the point of ascension, it can reduce the internal consumption of computing power.” Shen Ke then looked at Su Ge, “Don’t you feel anything? Although I was the one who coordinated your consciousness, you were still affected, weren’t you?”

Upon hearing "internal friction of computing power," Su Ge thought of the Gu Diao and his own abilities.

He immediately noticed something unusual.

"What's the time now?"

“1:32 p.m.,” Shen Ke said. “I spent an hour and a half on the dark web.”

Suger raised an eyebrow.

Just a few days ago, he could only connect to a drone for five minutes.

This time, when he entered the dark web, he connected with Shen Ke's position for more than ninety minutes and did not feel any headache or fever.

An idea popped into his head: perhaps he too had been affected by the coordination of consciousness, which enhanced his control over his abilities.

(End of this chapter)