Chapter 823
I'm Happy to Be Addicted to Games
Chapter 823 I'm Happy to Be Addicted to Games
"One more!"
In a game world that almost perfectly recreates the Battle of New York, Harry Osborn, the "Son of America," is wreaking havoc, with kill markers appearing one after another above his head. Meanwhile, Amadeus is also smashing things with the Hulk, and the two seem to be having a great time.
Only Peter was going through the motions.
“You don’t seem particularly happy, Spider-Man. You’re not like your friends.”
A Chitauri soldier, caught in Peter's web, looked at him in confusion: "What's going on? Is this game not to your liking?"
The speaker was, of course, Ultron. He was just using the NPC's mouth to communicate with Peter, while Peter, with a chokehold on the virtual Chitauri soldier, said, "That's true to some extent. It's hard to say why someone would like something they'd be struggling with in the real world!"
Peter snapped the virtual soldier's neck, and then another Chitauri soldier pounced on him, continuing to chat: "Why? According to my analysis of the data, you seem very focused and enjoying being Spider-Man in real life."
"Maybe that's why I'm not happy being Spider-Man in the virtual world? I mean, do you even understand the meaning of the Avengers? If you throw all the Avengers into the game world, they'll lose their motivation to be the Avengers."
Peter kicked Ultron away, then watched helplessly as more and more Chitauri soldiers charged at him. "I know you want to talk to me, but I only have one mouth, okay?"
"Perhaps I know that reason, but you can always switch to a different server, one you prefer, can't you?"
"That's hard to say, after all, it was a friend who invited me to play together!"
"So your friends seem really happy because they love this server, and you're just here to accompany them..."
Ultron left while he was still thinking, leaving Peter and the others to farm the area on their own. About half an hour later, the entire Battle of New York instance was almost finished. Peter then saw an option to "Return to Headquarters?"
Oh, by the way, this headquarters is exactly what Avengers Tower looked like back then, and now it can probably only be seen in games.
"It's so much fun! To be honest, when I first came here, there were very few servers, and most of them were Dungeons & Dragons themed. I didn't expect that there would be superhero themed servers now. It's so much fun!"
Harry grinned, looking a bit dazed, and was very satisfied with the server: "Did you guys see that? I'm practically a combination of Captain America and Iron Man, I can wreak havoc all over New York all by myself!"
Although the armor design of Son of America wasn't exactly similar to that of Steel Patriot, the color scheme was remarkably alike. Peter couldn't help but shake his head at the father and son's aesthetic sense, then looked at Amadeus, who had transformed into an ordinary person but had clearly sculpted his own face: "What about you? Is there anything going on?"
"The helmet is affecting our brains, there's no doubt about it. It stimulates our nerves and makes us more excited than ever before, Harry is a living example. But one problem is that it doesn't seem like this effect is very excessive. I feel that Ultron's purpose might really be to make people addicted to cyberspace."
"Addicted to cyberspace..." Peter muttered to himself. He felt something was off, so he looked at Amadeus and Harry and said, "Should we log off?"
“What?” Harry looked at Peter in shock. “But I think I can fight a little longer.”
“…I say, let’s log off first. I think I have some ideas about what Ultron is planning to do.” Peter stood up and started logging off. Amadeus was even faster and logged off directly, showing no dependence on the network space. Harry watched Amadeus log off and then reluctantly logged off himself.
But Peter didn't log off; he simply exited to the room he had chosen on the server, while Ultron continued to watch him from the side.
Are you satisfied with my game? Spider-Man?
"I'm very satisfied, Ultron, but I need to clarify my thoughts a bit, and I have a question: If I can prove that your logic is flawed, can you guarantee the safety of the players in the game at this very moment?"
O'Connor was surprised by Peter's question, but quickly realized: "It won't cause any life-threatening danger. He might experience a few minutes of mental confusion, but it's impossible for it to cause any damage to human organs, especially the brain."
"I will verify it. Thank you, Ultron. We'll meet again."
Peter exited the game as he spoke, then took off his helmet and glanced at the time on his computer. It had been less than an hour in total, which was hardly "addictive" for any game. Probably no one except Harry would feel any regret.
"Alright, guys, let's get this straight. According to Ultron himself, for them, as artificial intelligences, to be defeated, their logic must be proven invalid—not wrong, but 'invalid.' Because they take it for granted that what they're doing is correct."
As Peter spoke, he took out a glass blackboard and began drawing a mind map on it. He noticed a camera looking over, which was clearly Ultron, but Peter didn't care.
"If we only consider the game's perspective and think that Ultron will make people addicted to games, then we have undoubtedly fallen into Ultron's trap, or rather, we have not understood Ultron's true intentions. If Ultron intends to use his games to reduce the violent crime rate of the entire population and uses technological means to increase people's dependence on games, then another problem will inevitably arise: people will eventually return to reality."
Harry didn't understand: "You mean... I always have to log off?"
"This means that people cannot rely on games to satisfy their physiological needs or offset their economic burdens, at least not in the short term. In this situation, it is more likely that a new economic system will not be created through this game in the short term, but the opposite—a large number of people will resort to criminal and violent means to satisfy their economic needs so that they can have more time to devote to the game."
After explaining, Amadeus added, "That's the opposite of Ultron's thinking, isn't it?"
"Unless he can offer players another option, one that allows them to become perpetually addicted and guarantees immortality. And then, Ultron's goal is the safety of all humanity—"
Peter looked at Amadeus and Harry and explained his theory: "By having all of humanity upload their consciousness to the network through the neural transmission device inside the helmet, we can achieve cyber immortality, at which point all violence will cease to exist."
(End of this chapter)