Puzzle Madness

Chapter 213 Heavenly Fire (Part 3)
The tourists suddenly fell silent, seemingly waiting for an exclamation. But Ai Xi merely raised an eyebrow, a hint of doubt in her eyes.

"Uh, you might not know the significance. But you can think of it like a spider weaving a web; still don't understand? Anyway, it's like holding a high position and having great power—you're a core member. But I'm a pretty low-key person, and I prefer to do things on my own."

Seeing Ai Xi standing motionless, he waved his hand listlessly:
“Okay, if you don’t know, then forget it; anyway, we don’t have any more specific code names, like Tarantula, Bird Caterpillar, Little Spider or anything like that. The secret organization was supposed to have some of these kinds of unique features, to make the core members a little different and cooler, but when I put it up for a vote, everyone was against me.”

"In short, this time, my interests and work collided. I met a field agent from Asia-Europe Post during a meeting; he sneaked in undercover and assigned me this order."

"So I took on another job with Asia-Europe Post, but I was also thinking about developing the network. Both professional ethics and personal interests are important, and I didn't know how to choose—so I simply took a break and let others make the choice for me: the wisdom of middle-aged life."

"The internet is a good topic, and it's also the key to this."

"What exactly is the internet? You can think of it as—real-time, point-to-point or point-to-multipoint connections. Sounds similar to television, radio, or telephones, right?"

"The difference probably lies in efficiency and quantity. Quantitative change leads to qualitative change, and the world is already moving fast enough. What would happen if it went any faster? For example, there might be even more mental clutter."

“I remember my first job when I started out, killing a down-on-his-luck cryptographer named Shannon; it was in the 70s, when I had just left Hawaii. You may not have heard of him, but he talked to me about some things before he died—concepts like information entropy.”

Ai Xi moved the gun barrel and the blade, the friction of the sharp objects cutting a red mark on her skin, from which a thin line of blood seeped out.

The gun barrel and the back of the knife hooked the collar, shifting it; a thin, black, columnar object quietly peeked out from the collar gap, almost imperceptible in the cold light of the observatory.

It was the earpiece that Ai Xi had hidden in her collar.

She used the back of a utility knife to scrape the foam layer outside the headset. One stroke after another, with occasional pauses; she spoke softly, the sound barely audible above the headset's rustling.
"What you're saying is too abstract; I don't understand."

The tourist continued his speech, seemingly oblivious to Ai Xi's actions:
"It is a bit boring. But someone as smart as you should be able to guess why [the internet] was completely shut down, no matter what kind of internet it is."

Ai Xi nodded, carefully avoiding the sharp edge of the utility knife:
"Because of the existence of fanaticism."

The increasing responses from Ai Xi seemed to please the tourists. He responded with an exaggerated smile:
"Yes! It's obsession."

"The Asia-Europe Post itself has also analyzed this. Electronic information networks are likely to bring about a new round of technological revolution, and human civilization may usher in a completely new stage."

Without a sound, the observatory's dome moved. Suddenly, a hand emerged from the blurry, still surface of the lake, its slender fingers gripping the edge of the brickwork; then came the sleeve of a blue and white school uniform.

"It will also bring about an explosion of information, exceeding the limits of human digestion: the astronomical amount of information redundancy will exacerbate the sinking of the heart ether; the real-time massive information interaction will even expand and connect the spiritual emptiness of each person."

"Six billion people—so many emptinesses in their hearts coming together—what will happen? Nobody knows."

Next, emerging from the dome, was a head with long, disheveled hair; the hair hung down like a curtain, completely obscuring the face—
The right hand that first reached into the observatory was swelling, with veins throbbing like small snakes on the back of the hand; the originally loose sleeves were becoming taut at a speed visible to the naked eye. In just a few seconds, Ruan Jingbo's arm circumference had increased several times in size.

She gripped the wall and dragged her whole body inside, like a giant spider.

Ai Xi didn't even look up, and the tourists seemed oblivious, their gazes still fixed on the listeners not far away: "Will those gods of human imagination be born as a result? Will the ether of a hundred billion souls coalesce into a true savior who will bring heaven to earth?"

"Of course, it could also be a living hell: in fact, there are more arguments and speculations to support this possibility."

"For example, why is the heart ether drawn to sin? Does it mean that the heart ether is actually a condensation of human malice, which is why it attracts sin? If such an evil god were created, wouldn't it be the end of the world?"

Perhaps because of the heart ether filling the observatory, Ruan Jingbo was still silently deforming. The long-sleeved school uniforms for autumn and winter began to tear and rip, revealing twisted and hideous muscle bundles; some even burst open, bulging and throbbing, but without a drop of blood flowing out.

She was barefoot, her dirty toes digging into the cement wall; she hung there at an angle, upside down directly above the tourists. Her long hair cascaded down like a waterfall, but something else was trembling and bulging in her scalp.

"Whether the idea is right or wrong is debatable—but most people with the authority to make decisions think this way. It's for the protection of humanity itself, and for the continuation of civilization."

"Everything was fine before, so why break it? Change isn't always a good thing. Have you seen 'Mantis'? With great power comes high expectations: if you can't achieve perfection, then it's better not to do it at all."

“ARPANET is a case in point. It was just an electronic network consisting of a few universities and a little over a hundred terminals, with only about ten thousand people involved in it; yet something terrible happened, and the damage is still ongoing.”

"Since humans can shape reality through the ether of the mind, entities born from the sea of ​​suffering must be even more adept at this."

Ai Xi scratched her earpiece more and more rapidly, then suddenly stopped; even though her gaze never once fell on Ruan Jingbo, somehow Ai Xi felt that the tourists had already spotted Ruan Jingbo's location.

She closed her eyes and removed the pistol and utility knife from her neck:

"You mentioned the concerns of the Asia-Europe Post. So what exactly do the Network Advancement Molecular and Human Cataloging Centers want?"

“I’ve been waiting for you to mention your so-called ‘plan’ or ‘solution’; but you haven’t said a word about it yet.”

"Ten minutes have passed, and you haven't convinced me. But I can tell you're definitely confident."

Ai Xi pulled the round tube out of her pocket and held it in her hand along with the utility knife:
"Also, you're wrong about some things."

“I don’t hate the world, nor do I hate other people. Other people don’t mean anything to me: but I hope the world can become a better place for DouDou to live.”

Ai Xi suddenly raised her hand, the gun barrel slamming against her jaw, digging deep into her skin. She pressed the trigger and pulled it:

boom!
The bullet pierced through the jaw and mouth, severed the tongue, and drilled into the palate, the tremor causing the lips to twist; the cavity in the brain churned by the bullet was wider than two fingers. The hair tie snapped, and the long hair on the scalp and crown of the head exploded outwards, bursting into jet-black, shiny fireworks.

She was jolted by the impact and fell backward with her shattered head.

And accompanied by the shock brought by this bloody moment—
Ruan Jingbo fell towards the heads of the tourists.

(End of this chapter)