Cyber ​​Ghost Record

Chapter 51: The Lock of Thoughts

Suger stood atop the city, surrounded by the vastness of heaven and earth. He was like a speck of dust in the wind, with nowhere to land. The white-haired, green-eyed figure beside him seemed to be the only anchor point in this desolate world.

[Consciousness Anchor Successfully Registered]

The scenes from my memory have vanished.

The backup power for the electromagnetic shielding room has been restored, and the lights illuminate the cold-rolled steel plates on the four walls. Shen Ke is by the guillotine-type shielding door, and his figure overlaps with the one in his consciousness anchor.

Su Ge put down the "Mind Lock" in his hand.

The object is a black disc about the size of a cup rim.

At this moment, he recorded his consciousness anchor into it.

“You cannot fully control the consciousness anchor yourself yet; it can only be used with external devices,” Shen Ke said.

Su Ge nodded and walked towards the platform screen door.

He already had some understanding of how consciousness anchors were used. Consciousness anchors are often set as switches for important devices and are commonly used in the body as activation keys for brain-computer interfaces, weapons, or even self-destruction.

Its applications in external devices are numerous, such as this mind lock.

He placed the order on the dark web yesterday, and it was shipped from an underground printing factory. He came to install it today.

“I will control the Gu Diao,” Shen Ke said.

Su Ge stopped connecting with the Gu Diao, and then the Gu Diao made his body move.

He watched himself begin to disassemble the door lock, a strange feeling washing over him. After half a minute, he felt uneasy again. To distract himself, he casually remarked, "Yesterday at Wujin Jushi's place, some of your personality traits..."

"What's wrong?" Shen Ke shifted her gaze from the lock cylinder to Su Ge's face.

There was a man there.

"It's normal to have a personality of the opposite sex. It's only when the ratio is off that it will affect your gender identity. The same goes for other non-human personalities."

Shen Ke continued to examine the lock cylinder, while Gu Diao was embedding the Nian Lock into the metal slot.

With a click, the center of the lock's disc bulged and locked into the slot.

"Okay," she said. "Want to give it a try?"

The shielding door fell, and Su Ge stood beside the mind lock, trying to recall the anchor of consciousness. The shielding door then rose again.

“That’s fine,” he said.

"Set a password, the more complex the better, you don't need to remember it. This is a double lock. The brainwave receiver is hidden, misleading intruders into thinking it's a combination lock. Once it's unlocked using a method other than the mind anchor, it will trigger the self-destruct mechanism in the room."

As she spoke, she looked at the backup machine in the shielded room.

"My backup data will be completely formatted, and intruders will only be able to read the corrupted data."

"Does Room 101 of the Tzu Chi Building also have this self-destruct mechanism?"

"Yes, that's not mind lock, but the mechanism is similar."

Socrates was glad he hadn't tried to hack the lock. It seemed his abilities were indeed invincible, but he couldn't rely on them entirely.

"Can your backup be restored after formatting?" he asked.

“No.” She looked away. “A stolen backup is far more serious than formatting the backup.”

The theft of her backup reminded Suger of the black cat that had once tried to eat it.

He looked toward the southwest corner of the shielded room, where there was a box made of five-millimeter-thick aluminum plate on the table. Its size and appearance were similar to a microwave oven. Its white painted exterior had a black-bordered yellow triangle electromagnetic radiation symbol in the center. In the lower right corner of the symbol, parameters such as "30HZ~50GHZ" and "100dB" were printed.

He stored the Void Realm Mandala in this shielded box.

Dealing with this magical artifact is tricky. It can breach the security bureau's intranet and storage compartments, and undoubtedly has a signal transceiver module. Whether it is destroyed or discarded, it cannot be done in a place with a signal.

Here, he could consider how to destroy it, but the status of those forty demons and monsters made him hesitate. Before meeting Shen Ke, he thought digital life was merely conscious data, but now he didn't think so. He didn't understand those demons and monsters, nor could he decide their life or death.

"Could you add a self-destruct mechanism to it?"

Shen Ke followed Su Ge's gaze and glanced at the box.

"The Security Bureau's intranet uses an optical communication system. That magical device, in 21st-century terms, is called an integrated optical circuit board. If you irradiate it with a laser and exceed its load-bearing threshold, it should be able to burn out most of its matrix computing units."

"Just buy a laser generator."

"I haven't made a decision yet."

“You had already thought it through when you asked,” Shen Ke said, looking at Su Ge.

"Maybe."

"I'll bring the laser next time," Socrates said in a low voice.

"Hmm." Shen Ke shrugged. "Well then, see you later."

"See you tomorrow."

Suger left the shielded room, and the switch door slowly closed.

He suddenly asked, "What does it feel like when the backup is hibernating?"

"Have you ever tried general anesthesia?" Shen Ke smirked. "For you, it's 'See you tomorrow,' but for me, it's 'See you in the next second.'"

The door closed, the connection between the device and the backup was lost, and her figure disappeared.

……

The elevator in Lu Ying Ting Apartment went up to the 15th floor.

Suger walked toward Room 21, thinking about finding a new place to stay on Jinggui Street, when suddenly his heart skipped a beat and he stopped in his tracks. His door was open.

Someone broke into his house.

Before leaving, he slipped a hair under the door, but the little trick didn't work; the intruder made no attempt to conceal himself.

He turned and left without making a sound, the Gu Diao's footsteps were silent.

"Suger?"

A voice came from behind him, sounding somewhat familiar. Su Ge turned around and saw an investigator walking out the door. It was Bai Miao, who had interrogated him before, and Yang Guan's partner.

Suger didn't feel relieved; on the contrary, his sense of crisis intensified.

If he had kept the Void Realm Mandala at home, Bai Miao would have discovered it by now.

"So it was you." He raised his eyebrows in surprise, then breathed a sigh of relief. "I thought it was the bandits again."

Bai Miao's emotional module detected the doubt in Su Ge's tone. Even an investigator cannot trespass on private property.

"You've been out of contact for over twelve hours. I thought you were missing too."

Bai Miao felt a slight disappointment. If Su Ge really had disappeared, it might mean that Yang Guan was right, and that Su Ge might have a chance to return to the Security Bureau.

“No, that’s not true.” Suger smiled. “I was just going out for a stroll.”

"You're not wearing vision protection?"

"I'm still not used to it."

Su Ge passed by Bai Miao and entered the room.

"Please sit down, Miss Bai. Where is Investigator Yang? Weren't you with him?"

"He's no longer an investigator."

Bai Miao was still standing at the door, looking down at Su Ge.

"What do you mean?"

"He suspects that someone is targeting hibernators and has wasted a lot of time on this case."

Bai Miao's tone was somewhat cold; Yang Guan was fired because of someone like Su Ge.

"Because of the prison break the day before yesterday, the National Security Bureau reduced its staff, and he was on the list."

Su Ge was stunned; Yang Guan had actually been fired because of him.

"So you came here to..."

"He asked me to come and arrange for you to meet Jiang Ning."

"Jiangning?"

Su Ge realized what she was going to say: Yang Guan had already resigned, but still entrusted Bai Miao to deliver the message.

"A hibernator from your generation. Your hibernation services were all provided by BT Corporation's Future Gate project, and he was awakened three months earlier than you."

Only then did Su Ge learn the specific information about the hibernator, and Bai Miao's words made his heart race.

When shall we meet?

“He’s in another city, but you can visit his home right now with Visual China.”

I'll post the next chapter as soon as it's finished.



(End of this chapter)