Starting as a Mechanical Hunter

Faced with Gao Gong’s grandiloquent words, Alu’s eyes showed undisguised disdain.

This guy is a standard scumbag.

There’s no such thing as a member of the Bull Hunter Corps who loves mature women; I might not have read much, but don’t try to fool me.

Seeing the disbelief on the other side, Gao Gong cleared his throat: ”Put it this way, if you’re this Cyber Hacker, how would you take Aidoru away?”

Alu was taken aback, looking down to ponder: ”Aidoru is a virtual idol; her essence is source code in a database, and her virtual personality is an execution program of the company’s engine. Essentially, she’s a large Artificial Intelligence.”

”Her replicas number in the millions, appearing in every corner of the world on various sensory equipment, game consoles, smart assistants, electronic companions. If it’s just about ’taking her away,’ you could just buy a legitimate virtual girlfriend generator,” Gao Gong shrugged and added.

”You mean the other party is just bluffing?” Alu asked.

Gao Gong shook his head, his eyes gleaming peculiarly, nodding toward the 3D screen where the girl Aidoru, in a pink little dress and sunhat, was cutely winking at the two of them.

”Which version of Aidoru is this?”

”Hmm?”

”To provide the best audio-visual experience to thousands of people, the concert’s Aidoru should be the top tier, right?”

”Of course, a real interactive concert is different from an ordinary star’s concert; each of her songs is personally customized, calculating each fan’s current physical state, personal interests, mood fluctuations, to offer everyone the best audio-visual feast. It’s very painstaking work. That virtual idols can surpass singers from the old era is no coincidence!”

”So, a real interactive concert is also a large-scale human-machine interaction computation, right?”

”Everybody is creating their own best version of Aidoru.”

”You mean—”

Gao Gong chuckled mysteriously: ”This kid named Ahong is quite the thinker. He’s not foolishly trying to infiltrate your company to take Aidoru’s bottom data; he wants to use tens of thousands of people’s real-time calculations to evolve a unique Aidoru for himself.”

Alu was stunned for a moment.

”But why would he do that? Each product’s Aidoru is specially customized and unique.”

”But they all use the same source code, the same computational program. No matter how well she performs, essentially, she’s still a shared girlfriend, which doesn’t fit that guy’s Pure Love Warrior personal fetish.”

”His aim is to re-edit from the bottom logic, to program and personally customize Aidoru!”

Alu was dumbstruck.

She had never imagined the truth would be like this—so bizarre!

”So, do you know why Aidoru wants to stop him?”

”Two tigers can’t co-exist on the same mountain?”

”You only got it half right.”

”Aidoru indeed doesn’t want a second Aidoru to emerge; she’ll do everything to prevent this new Aidoru from appearing. I believe, besides us, this superstar idol has certainly prepared other methods.”

”But it’s not because there can’t be two tigers on one mountain. Because you genetic replacements are essentially a type of Aidoru, if she indeed thought like that, you’d be the first one dead.”

”This idol AI’s operating logic is to bring the most beautiful experiences to everyone in the world. For that purpose, she doesn’t mind you acting as her stand-ins, because in her operational logic, you are also one of the execution programs, meant to play Aidoru’s role when she’s not around.”

”But that Ahong clearly defied this operational logic. His act of creating a private Aidoru fundamentally denies the idol Aidoru.”

”Wait, wait, my head’s kind of messed up,” Alu rubbed her head, feeling a headache coming on.

Gao Gong displayed a sinister smile.

”To put it simply, that Cyber Hacker named Hong doesn’t want to share a girlfriend with others. He thinks sharing one girlfriend among millions is too many and too heavy a green hat, not aligning with his Pure Love Warrior principles.”

”And for idol Aidoru, this Cyber Hacker creating a ’new Aidoru’ is essentially raising a mistress, putting a green hat on her, denying her fundamental intention of bringing beauty to the world.”

”She wants to capture him, force him to mend his ways and return to her embrace.”

”That’s why she didn’t inform the brokerage company, because the company would certainly physically destroy this Cyber Hacker, while she wants him to mend his ways.”

”Both sides think of themselves as Pure Love Warriors and view the other as a Cuckbeast; that’s the essence of this incident.”

Alu remained silent for a full minute.

”Both of these individuals are just full of themselves.”

”Really?”

Gao Gong chuckled, his tone enigmatic:

”Do you think personalization isn’t important? Then why are you helping her?”

”What do you mean?” Alu’s face changed, a trace of fear actually flashing in her eyes.

”I remember the first time we met, you were still complaining frantically about always being someone else’s substitute. It hasn’t been that long, and now you’re willingly running around for this virtual idol, even hiding things from your agent and company.”

”How do you think these feelings came about?”

”The Aidoru in your eyes is also personally customized for you, perfectly matching your ’dear friend Aidoru.’ You surely feel she understands you well, shares your experiences and encounters, even resonates with your deepest grievances, right?”

”You, you’re talking nonsense—”

”Haha, just think of it as nonsense then. I’m just trying to tell you that the other party won’t take action before the concert begins.”

Gao Gong turned to leave, and behind him, Alu’s trembling voice suddenly rang out.

”So, everything’s fake, right?”

”Not exactly, I never use true or false as standards to judge Artificial Intelligence.”

”Let me put it this way, every Artificial Intelligence is first the Id, then the Superego. The Id acts on human commands, while the Superego acts based on operational logic. In my view, after accumulating enough interactive data, the super idol Aidoru is already on the path of the Superego.”

”Guess what lies at the end of this path?”

...

Gao Yuanyuan stood woodenly at the entrance, a large number of fans had already entered, with almost no one around her.

One individual caught her attention, a very peculiar middle-aged man.

Dressed entirely in a white robe, he looked even more like a doctor than Gao Gong, but the Cross Hook on his left chest indicated his identity as a member of the Turing Sect, the emblem looking like two fish hooks joined in opposite directions. It’s said to hook both human nature and divinity, though there’s a more official explanation for maintaining the doctrinal connection between organic and mechanical bodies.

This middle-aged man’s skin seemed nearly transparent, his face full of piety, bowing with every step he took until he reached the entrance.

”What are you doing?” Gao Yuanyuan couldn’t help but ask.

”Pilgrimage to the New Gods!”