[Data Rebooting]

[Self-Programming Begins]

A large number of consciousness fragments transformed into 0s and 1s, recombining into strings of semblance code.

[Consciousness Digitization Completed]

A head floated in mid-air. The next moment, countless electronic tentacles sprayed from its eyes, ears, mouth, and nose, intertwining with each other to quickly form a body.

The peerless beautiful boy reappeared.

'Brother, don't do this next time. You haven't implanted a virtual personality, and this kind of temporary programming could easily cause issues.'

The caring little sweetheart voiced her concern.

"Mm-hmm, I'll be careful next time."

Even though he said so, Gao Gong had no intention of changing. On this planet, there truly wasn't anything that could mess up his face sculpting.

This was the confidence of the former god of the book and the virtual sovereign.

"Yo, a fight's broken out."

The same street, the same buildings, but after the 'mirror image' shattered, two groups appeared before Gao Gong.

One side was self-evident, adept at hacking and moving with flair, clearly the Welfare Gang's Double Flower Red Staff, while the other group had pale skin and vacant eyes, relying only on terrain and machine gun defense, retreating step by step under the Welfare Gang's attacks.

This was clearly the Evil Gang's crowd.

A shut-in group meeting a gang leader—a sure road to ruin.

When they can't beat you with software, they'll bash your hardware, and no matter how great a hacker is, can't physically fight back.

Besides, you're not even a hacker.

Gao Gong could feel that the Evil Gang members weren't weak, especially after an AI possession, with a large amount of combat data flooding their bodies, transforming ordinary gang members into special forces right there.

But their fighting spirit wasn't strong, especially against these ferocious islanders who weren't afraid of death, who could even stuff their spilled intestines back and continue fighting—they simply couldn't hold out.

Of course, one could use technological means to change willpower, like injecting a dose of enhanced adrenaline, or directly using combat programs to control the flesh.

But clearly, the Welfare Gang's ambush hit the Evil Gang unpreparedly.

Many tactics couldn't be deployed in time.

Especially with Gao Jin leading the charge, he was like Nightless City's Lvu Bu, Hanging Street's Xiangg Yu, incredibly fierce.

This guy had huge black muscles bulging all over his massive body, even machine guns couldn't penetrate him. He moved with such power that sound bursts followed every gesture, surrounded by debris from drones and automatic cannons—he was hulking more than the Hulk.

Though street warfare involved fewer people, compared to the desert, the technology level was notably higher.

Robots in gangs weren't news.

Unmanned weapon combat was the norm.

Clenching your teeth, the energy weapons smuggled in could still be put to use.

"Bio-Fusion Armor, no, an upgraded version of Bio-Fusion Armor, Molecular Bio-Fusion Armor."

Molecular Bio-Fusion Armor, fully named Biomolecular Bio-Fusion Armor, though not as advanced as nanobiology, also had immortal traits, allowing the body to regenerate even if blasted apart, only dying when the armor's life force was entirely used up.

Compared to Bio-Fusion Armor, restrained by sonic and energy weapons, this molecular armor integrated with the body could better exploit the capabilities of an advanced organism.

The only problem is that this Molecular Bio-Fusion Armor is standard Mother City gear, even among Level 2 Civilizations, at the 'superior' tier of advanced equipment.

How did the other side acquire it?

Gao Gong stroked his chin, chuckling.

"Good thing I didn't plan this hard attack, or else I might need a transformation to take you down."

"Nightless City isn't the Radiation Zone, transforming here could promptly get recorded by surveillance satellites, and by the next day, the corporate armies of those biological giant corporations might come for us."

Gao Gong never underestimated the power of monopolistic enterprises; the forces of their security departments could easily obliterate most countries of the Civilization Era.

Gao Jin unleashed his trump card.

The Evil Gang naturally wouldn't sit and wait for death.

Sure enough, thickening white fog began to gather visibly, other than Gao Jin and his Double Flower Red Staff, the other gang elites were noticeably slowed down.

"Artificial Data Maze?"

In this Cyber Dream Realm, Gao Gong observed this street conflict from a third-party perspective.

However, as the conflict intensified, the aftermath inevitably interfered with the dream realm.

The roads before and behind the street vanished, replaced by two train tracks, with the sound of whistles, trains rumbled by filled with people, many faces seen earlier in the restaurant appeared.

'Resorting to the collective unconscious, huh.'

'Brother!'

"Got it."

Gao Gong's fingers played through the air like a pianist, the 'Association Algorithm' transformed into data chains, drilling into the walls, the ground, into the crowd.

Name: Association Algorithm

Knowledge Level: Core

Algorithm Introduction: This algorithm can cover all surrounding nodes from one connection point, also capable of breaking a large directive into countless point-targeted small directives.

Note: This algorithm features both virus transmission and deep algorithm traits.

Just as the Association Algorithm activated, the two trains ahead and behind abruptly changed tracks, hurtling toward each other at a hundred miles per hour, forming a continuous line of blaring whistles.

The two trains crashed into each other head-on yet passed through each other.

Everything caught in between was smashed to smithereens, some being illusory data, others real memories.

Human memories, within the dream realm, constantly eroded, eroding further until complete death.

...

On one train car, a passenger put down the newspaper in front of him, revealing a peerlessly beautiful face, gently smiling at the attendant.

"Hello, please give me a glass of water, thank you."

The waitress left with a flushed face and weak legs.

'Brother, that was close, we almost got hit.'

"Yeah, it was pretty close."

'So what do we do now?'

"We can't watch the battlefield anymore, the upper echelon of the Evil Gang has begun to counterattack. They're using the collective unconscious, a very dangerous power."

'Similar to big data?'

"Exactly, but with more variables and less controllable. Continuing to watch is not only dangerous but also risks exposure."

'Brother, where do we go now?'

"The most dangerous place is the safest. Since the other side has launched a collective unconscious, let's go to the core of the collective unconscious."

'What is the core of the collective unconscious?'

Gao Yuanyuan curiously asked like a little child.

Gao Gong took the glass and smiled:

"Simply put, it's the second layer of the collective dream realm."

Gao Gong's mouth kept moving, and the clear water in the glass started to slowly spin, bubbles continuously rising to the surface, which was covered with countless tiny codes.

Virtual Invasion Level 5: Neuro-hacking into various human organ parts, or ordinary business hardware, unprotected prosthetic bodies, and lower-level artificial intelligence operating systems.

Generally, to enter such a core of subconsciousness, at least Level 10 virtual invasion and a hacker level of at least 15 are needed.

But Gao Gong's coding level far surpassed this planet, compensating for it all.

The water in the glass spun faster and faster, and just as it was about to overflow, Gao Gong suddenly grabbed the glass and slammed the bottom down on the table hard.

'Bang!!!'

With a loud noise, the water in the glass was smashed away.

Gao Gong looked out at a vast ocean, where, under the sun's rays, the water's surface shimmered with golden scales, and the sea breeze carried a slight fishy smell. A rolling wave surged, and a gigantic whale surfaced, flipped over, and let out a loud horn sound, spraying a fountain more than ten meters long, transparent and studded with a myriad of floral droplets.

'So beautiful, brother!'

If she could get out, Gao Yuanyuan wished to witness this scene in person.

"Yeah, it is quite beautiful."

Gao Gong put the glass down and walked into the cockpit. Shortly after, the stowaway cruise ship, which had once crossed the Sulfuric Acid River, began to move, and the bow lowered, causing white waves to appear on either side.

'Brother, is this ship yours?'

"You mean this Titanic? No, it belongs to a rich lady."

Although Gao Gong didn't say it, what's hers is mine.

The weather at sea was like a rich lady's mood, changing without notice. Shortly after setting sail, gales, dark clouds, thunder, and rain appeared on the sea.

But strangely, this stormy weather only appeared in one area of the sea, while the other areas remained calm and unaffected.

"Tsk tsk, quite a fierce fight going on."

Gao Gong steered the ship around this area, marveling at the intensity.

'Brother, who do you think will win?'

"That depends on whether our Gao Longtou can find the collective consciousness's data terminal."

'Data terminal? Couldn't they just store it in the cloud? For example, store it on those cloud servers in the Deep Net, so others couldn't find it.'

"Firstly, setting up a temporary network and engaging in collective consciousness is illegal, just like uploading AV to Google Drive; they'd ban you."

"Secondly, cloud storage is expensive. Where would a street gang get the money to buy bandwidth?"

Gao Yuanyuan seemed to understand a little.

'I see, but brother, what is AV?'

"Ancient literary works."

Going deeper with the virtual invasion, an island soon appeared before them.

The island was covered with large religious-style buildings, and the cross hooks on the marble high walls were particularly conspicuous.

"Just as I thought."

Gao Gong leaped off the bow.

"Do you know why setting up a temporary network is illegal?"

"The reason is simple: such collective thinking can easily be exploited by virus advocates or anti-mechanists."

"That aside, the machine consciousness class of the Mother City isn't just for show. The key issue is, if someone wanted to use it to create a large-scale reverse artificial intelligence, that would be a major problem."

'Why?'

"Because if this thing succeeds, it would be the bane of all AIs, viruses, data lives, and conceptual data bodies."

"Like the things the Turing Sect intends to create in the future."

...

In the island center, resembling the 'Vatican', a middle-aged bishop in ornate clerical robes opened his eyes.

With a wave of his hand, the virtual congregation began to orderly leave.

He felt something was off.

But he couldn't pinpoint it.

The reason was simple: the middle-aged man had no mouth.

Or rather, his mouth had been torn off by a girl's second personality.

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