Chapter 527 - 60: Divine Land

Director Du is not someone who loves beauty; after all, a woman who wears a white work uniform every day, no matter how you put it, is not associated with vanity.

But as a woman, Director Du also has her own taboo, which is that she doesn’t want people to know she is a ’Mechanical Body.’

In a sense, this is a very contradictory issue. After all, how can a person who commands such a vast Mechanical Camp and possesses extraordinary talent and interest in the Mechanical Path be so ’averse’ to machines? It defies common sense.

However, from another angle, it can be understood.

This involves a species’ self-identity issue.

Just like how ’Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,’ the biggest psychological problem for a bionic man is self-doubt, because no matter which model of bionic man they are, they have thousands of ’same species,’ determining self-worth is a major issue.

For Director Du, who transitioned from Carbon-Based to Mechanical, there is also a psychological issue, which is that acknowledging herself as a Mechanical Species means saying goodbye to a female identity. It further implies that the propagation and upbringing of a Carbon-Based Species are out of her reach.

Although her transformation only involved the nerves and Sports System, and hasn’t reached that point, it is precisely because of this that she is extremely wary of this aspect.

Director Du’s fury resulted in the entire Prison Island about to be torn apart, and at the core of the island, at the entrance of an escape passage, a skinny girl tilted her head, her eyes pitch-black, reflecting Director Du’s figure in her pupils.

Apparently, it was this person who had invaded Director Du.

’I think we both need to calm down a bit, after all, you should know we are not enemies, No. 550.’

Accompanied by a gentle voice, a large amount of sensory data appeared out of thin air, transforming into countless electronic beams, which broke through the darkness created by the girl, dragging Director Du, the girl, Ms. Qiao, and Gao Yuanyuan into the Cyber Network at the same time.

That was an encrypted node she temporarily created.

’Little Five!!’

As soon as Ms. Qiao saw the girl she thought of as her daughter, she immediately showed an expression of great joy and rushed forward, while in the arms of the other person, No. 550’s face lost some of its cold, indifferent aura.

’Sister-in-law, don’t be angry, either, we’re here to negotiate business, not to fight. After all, my brother’s plan relies on us to carry it out.’

When Gao was mentioned, Director Du’s expression softened a bit. After all, 99% of the time, Director Du is calm and objective, with a kind of detached aura unique to a scientific woman.

She looked at their target for this trip, the Dark Girl, or rather, Test Subject No. 550.

The girl had a head of withered, weed-like hair, pitch-black eyes, and a skin surface with numerous suture marks. Even in the Cyber Network, her powerful Spiritual Power compressed a diameter of 3 meters into a blank area where no data, neural signal, or code could enter.

When their eyes met, Director Du even felt that any of her thoughts were seen through by the other, which made her frown involuntarily.

Undoubtedly, a super Psychic!

’Although our initial meeting was not pleasant, we are not here to experiment on you,’ Director Du glanced at Ms. Qiao and said, ’the rest will be explained to you by your guardian.’

Director Du glanced at Gao Yuanyuan again, who nodded, and the two simultaneously severed the connection to the Cyber Network.

’Little Five, why aren’t you eating properly, look how thin you’ve gotten, why are you so disobedient, did they do anything to you...’

Listening to Ms. Qiao’s ramblings, the coldness on the girl’s face diminished even more, and finally, she spoke.

’They came for a corporate war; they seem to want to use me to become the exclusive Military Contractor of the Holy Brain Group.’

’But theoretically, this is impossible, because a high-level test subject, sent to a remote area, cannot influence the board, unless they know something I don’t. Du Gao Technology, Mecha Technology, the Iron Sand Desert—I checked a lot on them before you came and found many interesting things.’

’You knew we were coming?’ Ms. Qiao asked in surprise.

’Yes, when you stopped visiting me regularly, I knew you planned to take action, and with your personality, it’s easy to be persuaded,’ the girl said calmly.

’What a pity, this territory I finally claimed.’

’Hmm? Little Five, what are you talking about?’ Ms. Qiao was puzzled again.

For the foolish woman who raised her, No. 550 maintained enough patience. She stopped speaking, and the black light in her eyes began to spread across her skin, and her silhouette started to size up, eventually revealing a tall, scarred man.

’You, you—’

Ms. Qiao’s eyes shrank. She clearly recognized the figure; it was him who took the girl away.

’Using Spiritual Power to invade others cost me a lot of effort, but forget it, since there’s a better target to use, this identity can be discarded.’

No. 550 paused, the corner of his mouth slightly turned up: ’That’s right, just as you thought.’

’I am the real warden of this Prison Island!’

...

’Is it done?’

When news of the future heir of the Holy Brain Group being rescued traveled across half of the Mechanical Split Star, reaching Gao Gong’s ears, he hesitated for a moment and ultimately chose not to reply to any message.

In his memory, the girl was not an image of a pathetic, tormented test subject. In fact, due to her super-strong Spiritual Power, she was incredibly precocious and cunning at a very young age.

After all, transitioning from a test subject to becoming the head of the strongest Biological Group on this planet surely wasn’t done with just sheer force alone.

According to various pieces of information from previous life missions, even becoming a test subject was a choice the girl herself made.

However, Gao Gong also believed that with Director Du’s iron-blooded scientific temperament, she wouldn’t be easily fooled by the other.

After all, unlike himself, she wouldn’t be a loli connoisseur.

’After swimming for half a month, I’m finally damn well here, I’m about to exhaust all my energy.’

Gao Gong dismissed the thought of replying to any information and instead looked up towards the distance.

Divine Land region.

The Pan-Asian Region, Divine Land, and the Future Realm are the three major sections of this planet besides the Colony and the Mother City, each with its own distinctive style.

For instance, the Pan-Asian Region is a testbed for heavy metal machinery, prosthetic body modifications, and military equipment.

In the Future Realm, it’s all sorts of High-tech Architecture, including Level 3 Civilization infrastructure.

In Divine Land, it’s another scene; even on the fringes, Gao Gong could visually spot streams of blue light streaking through real space, sometimes digital bodies appearing fleetingly in mid-air.

In Divine Land, Cyber Space is tangible.

In other regions, people go online, but here, it’s people from the web.

This means that Cyber Space and reality are perfectly combined, where humans can completely live apart from their physical shells. Here, the body is merely a burden, the network is reality, whereas reality holds a different meaning of a ’network.’

Only one Life Form can survive here—Digital Life.

Such a vast project couldn’t be done by a single top-tier company. In fact, Divine Land’s structure was built by the collaboration of over a dozen Cyber Network giants, a technology even applied to the construction of the Mother City, with its Deep Net using this same technique.

The proponents of such a planetary project were the Earth Net Group, a group of super scientists born from humanity.

It can only be said that compared to Species Evolution, or rather, species betrayal, AI is still far behind humans.

Just as he was observing, a ’floating pod,’ a replica from The Matrix, suddenly descended from the sky.

’To enter Divine Land, you must sign a temporary Digital Life Agreement. Do you choose to temporarily hand over your physical body?’

As everyone knows, all network user agreements are unreadable, and whether you can understand them or not, you still have to sign them.

’Agreement signing complete, please enter the Species Transformation Pod to complete the temporary conversion to Digital Life.’

’Converting—’

’Converting—’

For a moment, countless images alternated in Gao Gong’s pupils, and finally settled on one—the giant electronic brains covering the horizon, the root servers of Divine Land.