Chapter 1127
Digital Life
Chapter 1127 Digital Life
Very strange.
It seems... someone is watching me.
Ozer paused for a moment in the data stream, glancing back with his digital vision.
Under the arcade, a holographic advertisement for "Colorful Cola" is playing on a loop, with a group of virtual figures smiling and winking at passersby.
There are all kinds of people, from plump to slender, with different appearances, races, and genders... even enhancements to various body parts.
It can only be said that there are quite a few people with this kind of fetish.
However, Ozer showed no interest whatsoever.
After becoming a digital life form, certain desires seemed to be stripped away from his program, and these "virtual people" were just low-priority information streams in his perception.
Just glance at it and that's it.
So naturally he didn't see that one of the "virtual humans" who looked like a red-haired girl immediately stopped smiling and turned as cold as ice.
She had a small doll hanging from her chest, and instead of smiling, she grinned widely, but the smile was less genuine than the chilling look in her eyes.
Ozer hurriedly entered another advertising portal.
He was a handsome man, shaving his beard while showing off his sharply defined jawline.
However, in Oze's view, this eye-catching man was still just a piece of data.
Advertising ports, monitoring terminals, vending machines, street routers... countless devices form nodes, creating a three-dimensional spatial topology in his eyes.
With these nodes, when there is StarNet coverage, Ozer can almost instantly teleport to any location on the Kovin Group, or even quickly move to any networked, non-top-secret area outside this floating island.
However, these nodes are now displaying red alerts.
This indicates that there is no internet connection.
However, Ozer can still use these nodes to jump, but not too far. He can only use the weak electromagnetic waves he brings to transmit between devices within a certain range.
Of course, this is better than being stuck in one place.
After traveling between nodes, Ozer finally returned to his laboratory.
The moment his consciousness reconnected to the host, his permissions and computing power returned to normal. It was as if his limbs had grown back, and the feeling of being restricted suddenly disappeared.
He pulled out the cached data from the last moment before the group's network went down.
Logs, sessions, node interaction data...
Information flowed rapidly through his consciousness like a waterfall, unfolding layer by layer.
A scan revealed nothing suspicious.
Continue with a deep scan.
The first time, the second time...
Oser continuously adjusted the scanning model.
Noise stripping, access control verification, time-series backtracking, anomaly feature comparison...
Until the 367th time, his consciousness suddenly froze.
and many more!
It seems like something—
A very well-hidden code snippet, almost blending into the data noise.
If Ozer hadn't just switched to an extremely obscure self-testing model that even he himself rarely used, it probably would never have been discovered.
Ozer immediately began tracing the source.
But the process was extremely difficult.
That piece of code was disguised by a certain program structure, and the propagation path kept splitting in the quantum superposition state. Each tracking would collapse to a different result, like a probability maze.
If he continues tracking like this, he might lose sight of his target.
Realizing this, Ozer immediately activated the highest level of access Bell Labs had granted him—[Bell Source Tracing V3.8].
That was one of the abilities Dr. Bell opened up for his most loyal followers, the "Pro," which allowed him to forcibly rewind the causal chain through divine nodes.
However, this thing can only be activated once a year.
Moreover, the cost is not low; you should know that the annual offering fee for upgrading to [Pro] is as high as 3.6 million Federal Credits!
Fortunately, the group reimbursed the expenses.
With a single thought, Ozer instantly activated [Bell Origin V3.8].
The silver link extends out from the core node, probing into every corner of historical data like an octopus.
At the end of the link, one after another, even smaller silver octopuses emerged, holding various tools, busily disassembling, repairing, and comparing data in the data layer.
The probabilistic path was forcibly suppressed.
The quantum superposition state collapses rapidly.
The noise layer was peeled off layer by layer.
at last.
Abnormal links are marked on the spatial topology map.
Palm Garden!
This error code comes from Palm Garden.
Oze's consciousness trembled slightly.
A petite figure appeared in his mind.
Is it...
The internet outage at the Kovin Group is related to...that person?
But... how is that possible?
The entire network of the colorful planet is personally protected by Dr. Bell II.
Even if she were a genius, she couldn't possibly break through this level of divine protection.
Ozer couldn't figure it out for a moment. He wandered back and forth among the nodes in the laboratory, like a ghost among countless lines of code.
until--
He realized it again.
Something is watching me!
It's that same feeling again!
That thing... came along!
But now the internet is down.
It shouldn't be possible to track it via the internet!
The only explanation—
It refers to a certain entity.
But this laboratory is so well hidden.
Ozer believed that his actions were completely undetectable.
or……
It's another being similar to him...
Before I could think, the feeling grew stronger and stronger.
Like a giant shadow, it slowly approached him in the data space.
Ozer fled left and right, but the node chain that was originally unobstructed for him was now blocked by layers of obstacles, as if there were walls that he could not see or touch, causing him to keep crashing into them.
Until, four "walls" sealed him off.
He had nowhere to run.
Like being in a cage.
"who!"
"Who is it?!"
Ozer sent out a signal of shouting and roaring.
Of course, no one could hear it.
Now he was certain.
The being that sealed him off must be similar to him, or even stronger, capable of switching between reality and illusion. That's why it was able to track him from a place he couldn't see, and then infiltrate the data space to seize his access...
despair.
This was an emotion that Oze hadn't felt in a long time.
It was like drowning, engulfing him and making it almost impossible for him to breathe.
and many more.
breathe?
I've clearly lost this ability a long time ago!
In that instant, a rush of air entered his nostrils, causing him to cough violently.
Ozer quickly sat up, clutching his chest to calm his breathing.
Suddenly, his hand stopped.
How can it be?
Beneath my hands was a throbbing chest, beneath me a soft bed, and in my eyes was a row of devices displaying various indicators of the living being, clearly for monitoring vital signs.
This sense... I haven't experienced it in a long time.
Ozer blinked.
Everything is still there.
Some memories flash through my mind, yet seem vague and uncertain.
He couldn't tell the difference for a moment.
The room was dark and cramped; it was his room in the laboratory, where he would take a nap on this small bed whenever he was tired from work.
Of course, that was before he became a digital life form.
Later on, it was no longer needed...
No.
Oze covered his throbbing head.
He still had an IV line in his hand, and the sudden, forceful movement had pulled it painfully, as if his skin had been ripped apart.
Drops of blood fell onto the snow-white sheets.
Only then did Ozer blankly place his hand in front of his eyes—
When did my hands get so thin?
He was practically skin and bones.
Beneath a thin layer of skin, blood flows through seemingly transparent veins, almost clearly visible.
With trembling hands, I touched it.
The texture of the skin, the protrusion of the blood vessels, are so realistic, as if a gentle poke would tear it apart like paper.
It doesn't feel like a dream.
It's more like...
He had a dream in which he became a digital life form.
I've finally set up my desk and can get back to writing. But there's still a lot to tidy up. I'll update one chapter first.