Starting as a Mechanical Hunter

Chapter 843: Chapter 11: A New Wave

Mechanical Split Star, District 11, Mechanical City No. 413

In an already abandoned human brain server.

A white figure slowly floated out, transformed into a human form, and stood opposite the ’human brain server’.

The human brain server was a living person, only their head was filled with data lines.

Don’t know when it started, but Mechanical Split Star became popular with a method of storing important data in the human brain, rather than in databases.

Scientifically speaking, the human brain can install electronic defense walls, human brain firewalls, making data storage more secure.

Under this practice, biological computer technology has flourished, constantly developing advanced biological computing systems, and some advanced biological computers even became corporate will.

”Mechanical Doll, have you found anything?”

”The data loss in the server is quite serious,” said the white figure.

With enough data lost, the entire ’human brain server’ convulsed as if it were epileptic.

”Let’s go to the next server.”

”Alright.”

Soon, the Mechanical Doll arrived at an external storage hardware sales center, where business was booming; not only memory implantation machines and brain replication software, but even old USB drives and external memory cards were swept clean.

These storage cards had a storage capacity of only a few gigabytes.

The white figure formed by the Mechanical Doll passed through the noisy human forms, directly arriving at the after-sales center. Its hand turned into a white mist, directly inserted into the port.

The next moment, a large amount of after-sales data was copied, with quite a few complaints.

’What’s going on, I’ve stored my memories on several data cards, why am I still forgetting my memories?’

’Damn data card, it got hacked by a hacker, causing my savings to be swept away, I want compensation, compensation!’

’How did my data disappear along with my memories, what happened?’

’It’s over, it’s over, I can’t remember anything, I’m done!’

...

After checking several more places, the Mechanical Doll slowly said, ”Upon inspection, Mechanical City No. 413 is a severe memory disaster area, requesting isolation from the higher-ups.”

”Requesting higher-ups for isolation.”

”Hurry back, Mechanical Doll. Although as a Memory Messenger, your memory backup is ten times that of an ordinary person, the probability of contamination in a severe memory disaster area is still quite high... Mechanical Doll, Mechanical Doll?”

”Who... are you?”

In the Memory Supervision Department, a robot customer service’s face changed, stating, ”Mechanical Doll memory out of control, requesting self-check.”

The next moment, an automatic mechanical arm turned and, without a word, inserted into the robot customer’s head, extracting its artificial chip and memory plug for testing, quickly drawing a conclusion.

’11.2% of synchronized memory has disappeared, undergoing memory reorganization.’

The team leader reported to the supervisor, the supervisor then reported to the higher-ups, and soon, the Mechanical Doll incident was on the desk of Deputy Minister Huang Cong.

In fact, the Mechanical Doll incident was just one paper among many piled up on this Deputy Minister’s desk.

”Another place has become a disaster area!” Huang Cong’s eyes were bloodshot, visibly exhausted.

”Apply to the Mother City, initiate the Wall Plan.”

”Understood, Deputy Minister,” the Artificial Intelligence of the Memory Supervision Department’s voice responded.

”Should we report to Minister Guu?”

”No need, Minister Guu is still in the recuperation stage, there’s no need to disturb him for now.”

”Understood.”

Just as Guu Yitong talked with Gao Gong about life and death matters, before ’dying’, Guu Yitong also transferred the authority of the Minister of Memory Supervision to Huang Cong.

So this Deputy Minister was clearly acting as the head.

”Minister Guu...”

Huang Cong murmured to himself, a hint of dread flashing in his eyes. The state of his old superior was something even he couldn’t grasp, indescribably dangerous.

”You said you wanted to forget yourself, but with so many memory loss incidents occurring on this planet, why do you still exist?”

Huang Cong uttered a highly taboo statement, shook his head, and returned to work mode, beginning to sign various documents.

Originally, this archaic method of office work shouldn’t exist in this era, but now memory loss is no longer limited to the human brain. Data storage software and hardware are all within the Attack Range. Ironically, pure textual records are not disturbed. So now the entire Six Ministries have switched to this method of work; and as the current head of the Memory Supervision Department, the number of documents he has to sign each day is astonishingly vast. Even he couldn’t help but feel a bit irritable, and his name increasingly began to look like ghostly scribbles.

One piece of paper accidentally fell, landing on the ground. When viewed straight on, the signature box still read ’Huang Cong’ in two characters, but when viewed at an angle, it inexplicably resembled the three characters ’Guu Yitong’.

Although paper-based work is a bit slow, the Memory Supervision Department is, after all, one of the top three powerful departments in the Six Ministries, so the processes move very quickly. Soon, the sea parted, and a dark Mechanical Legion flew out towards District 11; meanwhile, at the outskirts of Mechanical City No. 413, the ground suddenly cracked open, colossal steel walls emerged, each section towering over the previous, and amidst the rumbling, a ’City Prison’ emerged.

Simultaneously, all holographic projections, TV programs, and artificial broadcasts in Mechanical City No. 413 began broadcasting a voice.

”According to the command of the Continent-level Artificial Intelligence Main Brain No. 11, Mechanical City No. 413 is a surveillance area, residents are not permitted and cannot leave.”

”According to the command of the Continent-level Artificial Intelligence Main Brain No. 11, Mechanical City No. 413 is a surveillance area, residents are not permitted and cannot leave.”

At the same time, a swarm of Mechanical Eyeliner flew out, beginning to monitor every street and building.

”Thank goodness my precious son is smart, we had already prepared,” the middle-aged woman said, looking fondly at the rooms filled with canned food, feeling a surge of happiness as she planted several kisses on the little adult-looking Shota.

The little Shota, with a calm expression, wiped the saliva off his face while looking out the window, his small face filled with even more worry.

”What’s wrong, buddy?” The deadbeat husband, wearing big shorts and slippers, with his hand tucked inside his shorts for warmth, wore a carefree and foolishly happy expression.

”I’m worried that memory loss isn’t the end but the beginning,” the little Shota said with concern, then shook his head and stood up.

”I’m going online for a bit, you guys carry on.”

The middle-aged woman and the deadbeat husband exchanged a glance, shrugged, unable to understand why such a young child would have so many worries.

The little Shota returned to his room, took out the Network Access Chamber and Brain-Machine Interface cable. First, he connected the Brain-Machine Interface cable to the Network Access Chamber, then placed the Network Access Chamber on his head. Though it felt unnecessarily complicated, if anything happened on the virtual level, he would have one last resort, which was to unplug the network cable.

Without the Network Access Chamber, directly pulling the Brain-Machine cable could easily cause a ’brain crash,’ and at this critical moment, a brain crash could make it impossible to find help.

Soon, his Consciousness sank and collapsed, and a young man appeared in a public virtual node.

Just as adults like dressing as Shota, or male characters transforming into female personas, the little Shota liked to disguise himself as an adult.

Glancing at the chaotic ’Network City,’ the Shota shook his head. At this critical moment, there weren’t many idle people even online.

Turning his steps, he visited a few places he always used to gather information, but they were either deserted or closed for business. He thought for a moment and ultimately dared not visit certain underground nodes, as they were places frequented by hackers, too dangerous.

Shaking his head, just as he was about to go offline, a sudden noise broke out. Shadows rushed out from the streets, each holding their heads and screaming, their eyes sparked with electric flashes.

Soon, they started to melt like wax—as faces disappeared halfway or limbs shortened.

The Shota’s expression changed, startled: ’What’s happening with these Virtual Personalities? They were resting well, why did they suddenly come out looking like this!’

The Shota quickly retreated against the crowd, but many Virtual Personalities seemed to target him, crawling after him with all their limbs.

The Shota’s expression shifted, immediately deploying several acceleration softwares he’d developed, racing away quickly.

”Huff, huff, huff...”

At a staircase, the Shota leaned against the wall, panting heavily, nearly unable to maintain his data Human Form.

He glanced downstairs, his eyes widened as he saw waves of thick Lightning piercing through the system’s underlying data layer, from bottom to top, striking the rioting Virtual Personalities, sweeping them away by the dozens. In no time, nearly all Virtual Personalities were dead or wounded.

However, the Lightning seemed not limited to just attacking these Virtual Personalities, as a building after another vanished under the lightning strike, sparing none. Even the entire virtual node seemed at risk of dispersing under such attacks.

The Shota swallowed a gulp, without another word, prepared to go offline immediately. But as soon as the shutdown protocol initiated, in a ’zzz’ sound, it burst, piercing several walls.

”Shutdown failed.”

The Shota quickly focused, forcefully shifting his attention from the virtual to the real, barely able to see a red alert button beside his finger. His hand barely managed to tap the button, immediately triggering an alarm.

As agreed, his incompetent mother was supposed to rush over to help him unplug the data line.

However, while most people consider their parents their lifeline, he felt trapped by them. The alarm sounded for ages, yet no one came. His strength reached its limit, and as he closed his eyes, he returned again to the virtual level.

”Are they really my biological parents?” The Shota’s face was lined with frustration as he resolved to sever ties later.

No conventional escape worked, neither going offline in the usual way; his only option was to take a risk and move to another data node through a smuggled data channel.

If he didn’t leave soon, he could end up buried with this place!

With a thought, he opened the data channel, the alarms blaring.

’Illegal Information Channel’

’Illegal Information Channel’

Without hesitation, the Shota dove in headfirst.

At that moment, all sorts of sensory data seemed to surge through his physical being like a slideshow. Although young, the Shota had a strong will. Where others might undergo a psychological collapse, he endured the relentless ordeal, even having the leisure to look around.

”Application layer, data layer, code layer, underlying protocol, what, what is this?!”