Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh-
After the shadow receded, Heisen could finally move his body. He immediately opened his mouth wide and gasped for air.
"Hah, hah, hah..."
He had been tightly bound by the shadow for several hours, and it had been unbearably agonizing. Especially during this time, his eyes, ears, and mouth had all been wrapped up. He couldn't see or hear, and the suffering brought by the restriction of his Five Senses was even worse.
After he gasped for half a minute, his rationality recovered slightly, and he realized he was in the middle of a forest.
Splash.
A ring of water landed on top of his head. He instinctively raised his hand to touch his wet hair.
Is it raining?
But the dappled sunlight filtering through the forest leaves didn't seem like it...
Heisen looked up, and was immediately so frightened that his legs went weak, nearly collapsing to the ground.
He saw that on a thick, sturdy branch above, a massive monster was crouched!
That creature's eyes gleamed with a vicious light, and its slightly open mouth was full of sharp teeth.
Only then did Heisen realize that what had fallen on his head wasn't rain, but this monster's drool.
Wait!
He suddenly recognized it. Wasn't this monster the very one that had once rampaged through Suroma alongside Uenoshi...
"Heisen."
An abrupt voice came from one side. Heisen suddenly turned his head to look. Guan Tong stood not far away, arms crossed over his chest, leaning against the trunk of a large tree.
"You..."
Heisen wanted to say something, but Guan Tong tossed a tablet over to him.
He reached out and caught it, discovering that the screen displayed a news page.
When Guan Tong had appeared back then, his first action had been to grab Heisen and throw him into the shelter. Therefore, Heisen knew nothing of what had happened afterward.
Heisen was initially very tense, but after reading the news on the screen for a few moments, his expression underwent a series of dramatic changes.
"Bruce is dead... He used the chip connected to his vital signs to detonate the planted bombs... The Suroma government has gone dark, and the nation is falling into chaos..."
Heisen abruptly looked up at Guan Tong. "Are these all true?! You actually, actually killed His Majesty!"
"How to safely extract Gaelid's memories from Ai Ya's brain. Give me the technology, and I can grant you a quick death," Guan Tong said.
He had no intention of answering Heisen's question, nor did he intend to make false promises like "confess honestly and I'll spare your life."
He knew Heisen was a smart man and certainly understood that there was no way out for him.
Facing Guan Tong's question, Heisen didn't reply immediately. He spent some time processing the situation and calming his emotions.
After a moment, he looked up again at Coal Ball crouched above.
"If I refuse, you'll have it bite me to death, won't you?"
"Perhaps. Or perhaps I'll make you fall into endless fear until you're literally scared to death."
Guan Tong's words weren't entirely sincere.
He had promised Shi Jingyi, and for his own sake as well, he wouldn't lightly use the Demon's power again.
That shadow eyepatch didn't exist solely to cover his uncontrollable left eye. The other reason for its existence was to constantly remind Guan Tong to restrain himself, to not abuse his power.
But Heisen didn't know any of this. He only knew that Guan Tong was indeed capable of it.
And he was also very clear that Guan Tong would never let him go. No amount of cooperation would help.
"...Sigh."
Heisen let out a deep sigh, as if suddenly aged by several years. His drooping brows and eyes made him look like a doddering old man, a complete contrast to his usual self.
If the current Heisen were placed outside and someone said he was the Chief Researcher who had led two of Suroma's most advanced technologies, probably no one would believe it.
"His Majesty... was too fixated. If he could have slowed down, not rushed to push forward that plan, perhaps things wouldn't have turned out like this."
"You mean the 'Gaia System'?" Guan Tong asked. He still didn't know what this system was actually used for.
But the gnashing-teeth expression Bruce had worn when mentioning the system before his death was enough to show how much he resented Guan Tong for blowing up the entire laboratory.
"The Gaia System is a collective network composed of a large number of people's memories," Heisen said. "It's not just a tool His Majesty used to control others. It's the key to the birth of artificial intelligence."
Guan Tong furrowed his brow. How did this get tangled up with artificial intelligence?
Heisen continued on his own: "Suroma leads the world in memory technology and intelligent robot technology. His Majesty sought to combine the two..."
"Where lies the obstacle to achieving artificial intelligence? Why can't true intelligence be born? Perhaps the key lies in the algorithm."
Here, Heisen pointed to his own head.
"The human brain's processing speed is far inferior to an intelligent chip, so why can it give birth to true intelligence?"
Guan Tong vaguely understood. "You're saying the human brain's algorithm is superior?"
Heisen gave him a deep look. "That's right. From primates to modern Homo sapiens, the evolution of the human brain took tens of millions of years. Tens of millions of years of iteration allowed the human brain's biological algorithm to leave the chip's intelligent algorithm far behind.
A chip far surpasses the human brain in raw computing power, but falls far short of it in algorithm... If the two were combined, giving the chip the human brain's superior algorithm system, artificial intelligence would inevitably be born.
And whoever mastered artificial intelligence would inevitably become the king of the world. That is the meaning behind the birth of the 'Gaia System,' and King Bruce's true goal."
Guan Tong: "......"
He knew Bruce had ambitions of ruling the world, but he hadn't expected the latter planned to achieve it through artificial intelligence.
But thinking about it, this was indeed his only opportunity.
Despite advantages in memory research and war weapons, in terms of hard power like manpower and resources, today's Suroma was already no match for Beixing.
Moreover, Suroma had lost the moral high ground, surrounded by enemies on the international stage. Don't be fooled by the one or two small nations that feigned cooperation with it, when war truly broke out, they would certainly distance themselves.
This meant that if things continued to develop, and it ultimately came to a conventional world war, the winner would definitely be the alliance led by Beixing. This was something Bruce could not accept.
If he wanted to win, to become the world's overlord, he had to take an unconventional path. That was why he vainly attempted to develop true artificial intelligence, relying on this super technology to rule the world.
But with that tactical nuclear bomb exploding in the laboratory, this wish had been devoured by the flames. There would be no possibility of a comeback in the short term.
"...Even if it had gone smoothly, it would have required at least years of experimentation to succeed." Heisen shook his head. "That's why I said His Majesty was too impatient."
"Hand over the memory extraction technology, and you can go accompany your Majesty below," Guan Tong said.
He didn't think artificial intelligence was all that important, especially when he thought of those people in the Life-Support Pods with tubes inserted into the backs of their heads, a wave of nausea rose in his heart.
The purpose of developing artificial intelligence should have been to let humanity obtain a better living environment.
If achieving it required using countless human brains as sacrifices, then what was the point of achieving it? Wasn't that putting the cart before the horse?
"Gaelid... Once his memories are extracted, he will die completely."
Heisen revealed a sorrowful expression.
"Those products of Project G were ultimately just copies, and they've all been killed by you already, haven't they? Poor child."
"He's pitiful, but isn't Ai Ya pitiful too?" Guan Tong said coldly. "Seizing a young child's body as a container, only you shameless people could do such a thing."
Heisen was silent for a long time, then his expression firmed. "I can hand over the technology, but I have one condition. If you don't agree, I'd rather die after suffering every torture."
"...What condition?"
"I want to personally extract Gaelid's personality and memories, and transfer them into a container made of artificial material. If you, and Beixing's officials, promise me not to kill him, then I'll agree to hand over the technology."