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Vol. 8 Chapter 147.1
Running Cold
Translated by boilpoil
Edited by boilpoil
What type of connection would you expect a game needs to maintain with the outside world?
Xü Beijin doesn’t work in the games industry, and even if he did, games seem to differ quite greatly out in the universe compared to what was popular on Earth.
Information he gleamed from NE indicated that game creation was entirely handed over to game Servers, while game companies, if they employed producers, graphic artists, designers, etc. at all, they’d only play a supervising and advisory role.
In other words, with the game Server in charge of basically everything, the main Server would also possess whatever critical data ports are needed to communicate with the outside world.
The data port for updating is all the game companies will access should they need to intervene in the management of the game.
For players, logging in and logging out would be all they needed from a game.
Xü Beijin also happens to have a ‘port’ for the video streaming data – at least, he believes it counts as one of the ways the game communicates with the world outside. He didn’t count it as a proper one… it’s like an extra one.
And you might even say that this is actually just part of the data port for managing the game accessed by the Server. It exists subordinately to the managing data port, but not independently.
Speaking of which, finally, the data port for managing the game… Is that truly the control panel in front of him?
He had no reason to doubt NE has transferred partial authority to him, but if you think about it, that partial authority had no need to include a link between the game and the outside world.
In other words, the most likely scenario is that the data port itself is still with NE, at the top floor of the Tower, and is not the control panel that XĂź Beijin has on hand.
XĂź Beijin falls deep into thought.
Lin Qin watches over him quietly, propping his chin up, waiting for his conclusions patiently.
Xü Beijin finds his mind overtaken by a question that is now baffling him, and that he cannot decide on – even if it is true that NE is not on humanity’s side, is there absolutely no way they could escape the Tower?
Not in theory.
Xü Beijin thinks that, given the humans are technically ‘players’ in this game, it is only because NE has shut off access to the data port for logging out, that they cannot log out.
If NE were sleeping, or in some other abnormal state, then there would be nothing stopping them from logging out.
So he should only need the data port for managing and also the data port for logging out to allow all of humanity to log off.
Not that that would do any good, because where their bodies are outside is certainly somewhere still under active Fy’ecan surveillance. Outside intervention is needed for them to escape successfully.
Which is why he established contact with the Maertons through Olai.
So the key element in his plan is now the timing.
The Maertons, in their long war against the Fy’ecas, certainly had members ending up as prisoners of war of the Fy’ecas.
That’s why the Maertons are happy to help Xü Beijin, because primarily, they want to save their own kin, with rescuing humanity as a side hustle.
What is notable in this scenario, is in the opportunity that XĂź Beijin provides.
The Maertons and Fy’ecas, despite their aeons-long war, has never actually managed to invade each other’s core ‘territory,’ largely thanks to their unique states of existence, especially for the Fy’ecas, who solely live up in the ‘cloud,’ to borrow a human term, and only rely on the planets under their control for energy via exploitation of their resources, both for supporting their systems, and also giving whatever is left over to their subordinate species.
So the Maertons couldn’t do anything practical to attack the Fy’ecas where it hurts the most.
It almost sounds silly, but in this virtual war, neither side has ever managed to break down the other’s defences.
So the opportunity Xü Beijin provided, is the means to attacking them from inside their firewalls. He is planning to offer the data ports in the game ‘Escape,’ using NE’s authority, and allow an invasion of the Fy’ecan network through them——To defeat, or at least, cause chaos for them.
Now the sticking point is——the data ports.
He needs enough data ports to ensure an effective throughput of data for attack. These data ports offer direct access into the Fy’ecan network, and dressed up as NE, the Fy’ecas would not suspect the source of these data, due to NE being a trusted member in the core network of the Fy’ecas. It makes NE a traitor in-the-making by Xü Beijin.
But now, XĂź Beijin finds he is likely lacking the most critical data port of all.
He examines the lightly glowing control panel.
Then, he says firmly, “this can’t be it… there is no way. NE would never have let us access the data port for managing… He must know what I’m trying to do.
NE didn’t stop me when I was asking Olai for help. I thought it was because his stance has changed, but… That couldn’t be true, after all.
He must know what I’m doing, and has concluded to his satisfaction that what I’m doing can never succeed. So he needn’t waste energy to stop me.
It is the result of programmatic calculation…”
XĂź Beijin continues mumbling.
Lin Qin can see Xü Beijin looking anxious, and asks, “Beijin, are you ok?”
Xü Beijin is silent watching Lin Qin for a moment, before telling him, “I might still have to get to the top floor of the Tower eventually. I have to find NE… and try to wrestle away the data port for managing the game from him.”
“Wrestle?” Lin Qin sound surprised, “but… didn’t you say, you’re also ‘NE’?”
XĂź Beijin already told him about who he actually is in this game, and what happened in his past.
Although XĂź Beijin had difficulty actually identifying clear differences between him and NE.
There was a moment when Xü Beijin, NE, and ‘Iro,’ were one and the same.
Although NE had total victory in basically no time after that, and erased XĂź Beijin from himself.
However, XĂź Beijin did, at one moment, become NE, which is where he got all his information from, and why he is able to pull off this effort to rescue his fellow humans.
Xü Beijin mumbles by reflex, “yes, I did become NE once…”
Then he abruptly stops.
He was once… No, he is NE.
Two bodies of the same substance. Cold as an AI, but warm as a human.
Xü Beijin didn’t have NE’s authorities or his data port for managing, but he is NE.
That is what his identity in the game is. There would not be a single line of code that contradicts that claim.
So, would there, is there any way, that the rights and data ports under NE’s management, could be transferred to his hands?
In this game, in the Ultimate Nightmare, in this… game, designed, planned by their fellow humans… There must be a way out.
Because the artificial intelligence within, also has a human consciousness.
Suddenly, XĂź Beijin starts trembling.
Lin Qin, confused and worried, is looking at him carefully.
Xü Beijin starts yelling, “I get it!”
He hugs Lin Qin tightly, planting passionate kisses on the lovable apple cheeks and red lips of his little apple, saying, “oh little apple, how could you be so clever?!”
Lin Qin, though, is clearly shocked, and looking like he suspects XĂź Beijin might have gone insane.
Xü Beijin can see his confusion, but he doesn’t have time to explain. He just lets himself stick to Lin Qin as he calms back down.
The warmth from Xü Beijin’s body, and his scent, though, is making Lin Qin slightly restless in a certain way.
Xü Beijin, though, just ruins the mood entirely, saying, “we can be saved now, little apple. It now all comes down to what everyone else does in the Ultimate Nightmare.”
Lin Qin “…”
Gritting his teeth, he thinks, yeah, and they better get a move on, quickly.
Unexpectedly for Mu Jiashi and the others, after they knocked out of courtesy, a throaty ‘come in’ came from inside Operating Room 3.
That means, there is someone in that Operating Room!
Almost immediately, cold sweat erupts on Mu Jiashi’s back.
Shen Yünjü asks in a whisper, “would he have heard what we were talking about?”
Mu Jiashi thinks about it, then says, “I think a better question is, is this person the game’s own plot’s setting, or is he… human?”
“I don’t even know how many characters are actually NPCs in this game,” Shen Yünjü can’t help but diss, “or, if there even are NPCs in the first place.”
Mu Jiashi can’t help but glance at Shen Yünjü again. He did get a lot more loquacious since entering the hospital.
Perhaps this is closer to his real personality on Earth? After entering the game, everyone was changed one way or another by the Tower… At least, Mu Jiashi knows he’s changed almost entirely.
With no time to lament, though, he pushes the door, and walks inside Operating Room 3.