Chapter 97: Dreamscape: Consciousness Uploading Module

After fully occupying it, he had already begun to understand the general situation of the processor.

Indeed, the damaged parts included the network functionality area, resulting in the processor’s network being very unstable at the moment.

Therefore, his recent request for information had not gone through network verification.

Du Qiu was worried that the robot would quickly repair the processor and that, eventually, there might be the possibility of exposure.

Thus, without further thought, he directly focused on the most crucial star region.

“Processor 9210010226 accepts the descent of the Dominator!”

Du Qiu, having experience with descending into a supermachine producer, was somewhat excited at this moment.

It seems that the intelligent beings of this alien civilization could upload consciousness to intelligent machines and then operate them directly.

Although Du Qiu couldn’t understand why, with the level of artificial intelligence in these supermachines, there seemed to be no need for intelligent beings to descend to control the machines.

Time was pressing, and without further thought, following his descent, Du Qiu was able to use the processor’s computing power.

Next, he quickly found some of the processor’s underlying modules.

From here, Du Qiu quickly learned that the processor could receive some special information reversed from the producer.

This usually happens when the producer encounters issues like resource depletion during the production of certain materials and would feedback this information to a higher-level processor beforehand.

This allows the processor to make task adjustments in advance.

However, such information generally must be verified by an even higher level maintainer before it can be approved and new instructions issued.

Du Qiu felt somewhat relieved; indeed, fortune favors the bold.

If it hadn’t been for the processor’s network part being damaged, with network connections intermittent, he likely wouldn’t have been able to traverse covertly without detection.

Du Qiu acted swiftly, modifying this part of the underlying code, allowing the supermachine producer to enter in another mode of communication without needing to go through maintainer reviews.

However, with this method, Du Qiu wasn’t sure he could deceive the maintainers for a long time since he didn’t know how often they would check and maintain the processor’s underlying code.

Perhaps they’d never come, or perhaps they’d perform a comprehensive check like they did after the zero-number anomaly occurred last time.

Of course, with the processor damaged this time, maintenance might also involve a full inspection.

So Du Qiu had to resort to covert measures and, with his current understanding of alien civilization’s computer software technology, he believed he could deceive the maintainers.

After getting this done, Du Qiu quickly searched the processor’s internal function modules; he wanted to know if the processor also had a module similar to the producer for receiving external consciousness uploads.

After completing research on all 81 sub-intelligent cores of the supermachine producer, Du Qiu discovered that in the module for receiving external consciousness uploads, he did not get any information.

It was as if it were a black box, as all the stars reported the same message.

“Data Missing!”

Du Qiu’s trip was time-sensitive, and he first sought out this function module to see if he could gain any insights from it.

Seeing whether he could directly connect through the crystal pillow to the processor would mean he had two connection points within the alien civilization.

Thus, he wouldn’t be completely cut off should one connection fail.

However, after searching, Du Qiu was somewhat surprised.

The processor had as many as 360 internal function modules, far more than the producer’s 81, which made his search longer.

As time ticked away, through the processor’s sensory system, Du Qiu detected that the robot outside was nearly finished repairing the damaged parts.

Yet at this time, Du Qiu had only just checked over 290 function modules and had still not found the consciousness uploading module.

Du Qiu accelerated his pace again.

Outside, the robot was continuously supplying metal cubes as raw materials to the nanorobots, used for cloning during the repair of the processor.

Just as the damaged parts were about to be completely closed, Du Qiu finally found the consciousness uploading module.

He took over the sub-intelligence core in the blink of an eye, and fortunately, the dreaded “Data Missing” did not appear; instead, another message did.

“This function has been forbidden. Authorization from the Dominator is needed for use!”

Damn it, what a waste of effort.

Who in the world is the Dominator?

At this moment, the processor’s intelligent core received a message.

“Maintainer 8210010126 Command: Processor 9210010226 is about to restart. All programs are to enter the shutdown process.”

Subsequently, Du Qiu noticed that the sole remaining white whirlpool sustaining transportation status began to dim as well.

Since the place was about to shut down, he naturally couldn’t stay any longer.

Having gained nothing, Du Qiu had no choice but to rapidly traverse back through the white whirlpool to the intelligent core of the supermachine producer.

In fact, Du Qiu, while researching the 81 functional modules of the supermachine producer, also encountered similar modules that could not be understood.

However, the message these modules gave out was “Needs maintainer authorization!”

Du Qiu’s heart grew desirous of the other pyramid that housed the robots; he must figure out a way to traverse to the maintainer as soon as possible.

Should he be able to descend into a maintainer, at least those functions requiring maintainer permission could be accessed.

For now, Du Qiu once again used the producer’s sensory system to observe the three pyramids, looking to see if the robot had returned inside the maintainer.

But when the sensory system transmitted the image, Du Qiu was stunned.

A beam of light shot from the maintainer pyramid towards the supermachine producer pyramid he was in, and the robot stepped onto the light and, in an instant, appeared inside the supermachine at some point!

It was as if that beam of light was a bridge of light!

After the supermachine closed its open square shape into a pyramid with a hollow interior, the robot appeared within it and was heading towards a cylindrical area!

Du Qiu, without delay, rapidly restored the sensory system to its default state and simultaneously cleared the temporarily stored information in the sensory system.

Having done all this, due to concerns that the robot would thoroughly inspect the supermachine producer, Du Qiu wasn’t sure if the other party could not discover his descent into the producer’s intelligent core.

Therefore, in the nick of time, Du Qiu initiated his exit from the dreamscape for the first time.

Opening his eyes, Du Qiu looked at the ceiling and replayed in his mind the short-lived interstellar conflict from the dreamscape.

There was no doubt that the attackers were in a weaker position; otherwise, there wouldn’t have been just one battleship (at least that’s all Du Qiu had observed).

Du Qiu felt that the attackers were using guerrilla tactics, swooping in for quick destruction before retreating.

He didn’t know whether the alien civilization would continue to stay on the heavily damaged resource star or move elsewhere.

After all, the supermachine producer and the other three supermachines were already in pyramid transport status.

Especially since, upon his departure, the robot used that miraculous bridge of light to suddenly appear within the supermachine platform.

It seems that after the zero-level abnormal shutdown, the robot arrived in the same way to implement the shutdown, no wonder it was so quick.

The maintainers obviously use these robots to carry out maintenance work.

If this production base is to relocate, Du Qiu wondered how long it would take to re-enter production deployment status, and during that time, would he be unable to connect and descend into the supermachine?

Thinking of this, Du Qiu felt a pang of loss.

Alas, he had just managed to secure the crystal pillow on this end into his own hands, but the other end, the alien civilization’s production base, was once again out of his control.

The alien civilization was in some kind of war state; fortunately, today the supermachine producer had not been attacked. Had it been destroyed, he would’ve truly had nowhere to cry.

However, he was but a clandestine invader who had sneaked in through consciousness upload; to control the entire production base of an alien civilization was extraordinarily difficult.

Just think, how long did it take for the attackers’ battleship to arrive and retreat? A massive battleship appeared quickly in response.

Clearly, the resource star was under the protection of a fleet from the alien civilization, perhaps even stationed on an orbit around the star.

Furthermore, there’s a possibility that like the production base he saw, there may be many others across the resource star.