Forty Millenniums of Cultivation Chapter 2703
Advertisement
Chapter 2703: 2703
Chapter 2703: Director of the Asylum
The researcher was stunned.
Then, confusion, hesitation, panic, and anger flashed on his face so vividly that Li Yao couldn’t tell anything wrong.
“Director, what’s the meaning of this?”
The researcher stepped back and roared desperately, “You’re suspecting that I’m from the Covenant Alliance?”
“I’m not suspecting; I’m quite sure you are. Look at your tomography and compare it with that of the cold-blooded killer.”
Zhuge Jinglun displayed a few new tomographies and compared them with the old ones.
Everybody craned their head, but then, they frowned.
“They’re absolutely different!”
The researcher roared, “Even a blind person can tell that my tomographies are different from the killer’s! My reaction is normal! The activities of my brain are standard!”
“Yes, they are. They are perfect and even unimaginably standard.”
Zhuge Jinglun said, “I almost forgot to tell you that these are not your tomographies from today, but an overlap of all your tomographies in the past 27 tests. Do you see the problem? Your reaction is too perfect. It’s almost identical in the past 27 tests!
“Normal people will think and react slightly differently when they’re faced with the same question, so their tomographies should be blurry when overlapped.
“What kind of people will react to the same question in exactly the same way for 27 times in a row, as if it were not his real reaction but some sort of… pre-installed program?”
Astounded, the researcher did not know what to say when he looked at his brain tomographies.
“Rest assured. I wouldn’t jump to a conclusion so quickly, as that would be an insult to my professionalism.”
Zhuge Jinglun displayed another tomography. “Different from the previous 26 tests, we added a new question today, which is the choice to be a human or a machine in a Wiseware rebellion. You had never seen the question until the database was unlocked, had you?”
“No, but so what?”
The researcher said quickly, “My reaction was normal!”
“Just like I said, it’s too normal.”
Zhuge Jinglun said, “As the control group, a thousand ordinary people were asked the same question. When we told them that their memories were faked, they were not real human beings, and the world out there had been deformed by the Wisewares, they all hesitated and considered. Some of them even had self-doubts, wondering whether or not they were humans at all.
Advertisement
“Both the askers and the answerers had doubts. Many of them even needed therapy.
“But your brainwaves were the steadiest when you were faced with the question for the first time. They were 30% steadier than those of the people far stronger than you! You did not waver. You did not believe the bulls*it of ‘Wiseware rebellion’ at all. You never considered whether you were a human or a machine. Why?
“Because you knew very well that you were some sort of ‘Wiseware’, except that you are made of flesh and blood instead of metals!”
“Lying! You’re lying! I’m not from the Covenant Alliance!”
Stunned for a long time, the researcher suddenly shrieked hysterically and even lunged at Zhuge Jinglun. “You can’t jump to any conclusion so hastily! I’m a living human! Long live the Imperium! I’m not from the Covenant Alliance!”
Naturally, Li Yao and Long Yangjun wouldn’t allow the crazy researcher to hurt Zhuge Jinglun.
But their help was unnecessary. Several brawny security guards seized the researcher and shackled him before they dragged him down.
The researcher struggled and howled, like a normal person that had been wronged. His roar could still be heard when he was long gone. “I’m not from the Covenant Alliance! I’m not!”
“Look…”
Zhuge Jinglun rubbed his hands and grinned at Li Yao and Long Yangjun. “A spectacular show, isn’t it? This guy has lurked here for three years and passed six versions of the Ring-Tu Test. But he’s finally exposed in the new version!
“Oh, I must thank President Long’s question on the Wiseware rebellion. It’s really interesting. Wait, I almost forgot. You’re not President Long. You changed your name. I should call you President Dongfang, right? Forgive me, President Dongfang.”
“It’s President Long…” said Long Yangjun while holding her forehead.
“Wait, I still feel that it’s inappropriate.”
Looking at the blood left on a corner when the researcher was dragged away, Li Yao asked, “You determine whether or not a person is from the Covenant Alliance based on the tomographies and random questions? What’s your accuracy? Would good guys be wronged?
“For example, what if he is determined and wouldn’t be influenced easily? Or what if he is a man without imagination and cannot understand the Wiseware rebellion at all? Or maybe, even if he is a cold and heartless man, it doesn’t mean that he will necessarily commit crimes, no?
“Take the middle school teacher just now. If his friends hadn’t taken him to the casino, he might’ve lived his life in peace instead of turning into a murderer, wouldn’t he?
Advertisement
“So, what if your Ring-Tu Test is wrong? It can’t be 100% accurate, can it?”
Zhuge Jinglun looked at Li Yao in surprise, as if he was shocked by the childish question.
“Of course there are errors. This is a game where our enemy and us are constantly trying to outsmart each other.”
Zhuge Jinglun said, “However, when we’re talking about accuracy, it’s not about the good guys that we wronged, but about the bad guys that we let go. The good guys—let’s call them good guys for now—are potential lunatics and criminals anyway and take up no more than 5% in total. They’re the necessary sacrifices in this war.”
Li Yao got it now.
It was better to wrongly kill a thousand good guys than to accidentally let a bad guy get away.
“Necessary sacrifice” was also a phrase that Immortal Cultivators always talked about.
Li Yao’s eyes turned cold. He disliked Director Zhuge Jinglun who was cold and heartless in his bones and did not care about lives himself either.
“It’s an interesting test and a great eye-opener for me.”
Li Yao said coldly, “Then, Director Zhuge, have you considered another interesting question? If a spy from the Covenant Alliance can work in your institute for years, how can you make sure that you’re not another spy that is hiding more deeply?
“Of course, you may have passed the Ring-Tu Test countless times, but it’s pointless. As the creator of the test, you definitely know its flaws.
“So, how can you prove your innocence so that other people will not suspect you?”
Li Yao thought that the question would be tricky for Zhuge Jinglun, but the director of the asylum raised his thumb at Li Yao with glowing eyes. “Good question! It’s very hard to prove. That’s why there is more than one research center that works on the Covenant Alliance, and why the Ring-Tu Test has thousands of different versions.
“Black Wind King, you should know that there is not an official, authoritative agency on the studies of the Covenant Alliance in the Imperium, right? Why do we not have an official agency to deal with the rival that has haunted us for a thousand years?
“The reason is simple. If an authoritative agency existed, all the Covenant Alliance needed to do would be to infiltrate it and alter the standards of the Ring-Tu Test, then we would be screwed!
“Now, we don’t have an authoritative agency, but we have dozens of half-official agencies working at the same time and introducing different versions of the Ring-Tu Test. The leaders of those agencies, including me, have been testing each other regularly. It’s rather troublesome, but it guarantees our safety.
“Of course, this cannot prevent the Covenant Alliance from infiltrating us. After all, with their advanced technologies, some of them might be able to pass the tests of dozens of different agencies. That person could be me, or President Dongfang, or Black Wind King. Hahahaha. Who knows?
“Or rather, maybe the Imperium and the Covenant Alliance do not exist, and the world around us is faked with the memories and data indoctrinated into us. Instead, the Wiseware rebellion is actually the truth, and we’re just intelligent machines of the latest model. If we open our skulls, we might really find glittering, gem-like crystal processors in it, right?
“President Dongfang, Black Wind King, do you want to open your skull and see what’s inside? Hahahaha!”
When Zhuge Jinglun laughed, he sounded like an oinking pig, but it was one of the most horrible things that Li Yao had heard.
“Director Zhuge…”
Narrowing his eyes, Li Yao asked, “Are you sure that you’re not influenced by the psychopaths around you? Or maybe, are you a hopeless psychopath too?”
“How do you know?”
Zhuge Jinglun replied in a stun, “I’m indeed a severe psychopath. I spent almost a hundred years in thirteen asylums on seven planets!”
“What?”
Li Yao found it hard to believe. “Then how did you become the director of this place?”
“Very simple.”
Zhuge Jinglun winked at Li Yao and said, “The last asylum I stayed in was not carefully managed. At that time, a doctor named Zhuge Jinglun came to study me, and I ate him up from skin to bones. I even fried his brain and his internal organs. How delicious it was!
“After I was full, I left in Zhuge Jinglun’s name. In honor of my old days and my old friends, I regarded the studies of mental diseases as my lifelong career.
“Hush. This is my little secret. Black Wind King, please keep it between us and don’t let them catch me. Please. Hahahaha!”
Tip: You can use left, right, A and D keyboard keys to browse between chapters.
Advertisement
- In Serial12 Chapters
OFFLINE FANTASY: Virtual Deities
Once, he was a god. Not a benevolent one. Not a cruel one either.The kind to be full of pride, and to rule over multiple realms. But he was tricked and made to commit a mistake, one so great it destroyed worlds and cost him his freedom and status. Centuries afterward, the worlds of the Path have changed. Mortals, forced to adapt, have created their own new gods of metal, fire and technology. Now a simple human, stripped of his powers, he is given a chance to partially redeem himself... ... And maybe obtain his revenge. Updates twice a week. The art is my own.
8 144 - In Serial7 Chapters
P.A.R.A.D.O.X. PROJECT: Aeon Genesis
The first project focusing on four protagonists within the same world set around fictional 14th-century Europe.This is the first P.A.R.A.D.O.X. PROJECT focusing on 3 (+1) protagonists within the same world set around fictional 14th-century-esque Europe. Each story has its own protagonists (Male or Female Lead), genres (mainly Western Fantasy), and can be read as a standalone. Status: OngoingUpdate(s) per week: 1Words per chapter: 3000 - 6000 *** ‘A human or not; a king or a servant; hope or despair; a hero or a villain.’ Depending on one's perspective and how each story portrays, one will view an individual or a group as evil or virtuous. Because of that, it depends on the reader and listener to believe which one is the truth. More people read and trust multiple (trusted?) sources that either complement or contradict one another. The contradiction becomes the source of debates between those who believe and those who don’t. From that difference in belief, two groups appear: The Majority and The Minority. The majority, having more people, suppress the minorities’ beliefs, claiming theirs, the majorities’, to be the truth. However, the majority are not only composed solely of those who share the same belief but also those who know the truth but afraid to admit it. They have to keep quiet and turn a blind eye for their safety. The majority had to submit to those with power and authority. With the majority under control, those with power and authority can create, manipulate, and/or fabricate truth and lies by force. The reason was for one’s or group’s personal benefits. In the end, there is no such thing as ‘absolute truth’; only sugar-coated lies created by the top. Don’t believe me? It is up to you to decide. Go and read it yourself.
8 104 - In Serial13 Chapters
Heir to the Throne
All his life Corvus thought he was simple and ordinary person.He thought he had no more family.How wrong he was. His grandfather is, for all intents and purposes, a god. A god who had 8 wives, 24 concubines and 256 grandchildren, counting Corvus.Now Corvus has had his peaceful ordinary life snatched from him as he and all his cousins are thrown into a contest to determine the one true heir. Mature tag is checked so I can write without censoring myself. I think I've hit or approached language, gore, and sexual content at this point so... yeah.
8 174 - In Serial40 Chapters
Tracking Kelsie
Knowing everything is sometimes dangerous, 30-year-old Kelsie Conrad knows this better than most. Being part of the team assigned to the safety of all data and communications within the company is a great responsibility. Kelsie knows she has to disappear when reading the truth behind the company's intentions with a new invention; downloading the data to give to those who needed to know was the only thing stopping anyone from going ahead with their plan. Living under the radar and off the grid are no longer terms she glibly throws out in conversation; they are a reality. Using her skills to disappear, Kelsie is on the run, keeping two steps ahead of the company of assassins employed to hunt her down, who ask no questions and have no interest in the truth. Can Kelsie stay alive long enough to blow the whistle and save a life?
8 230 - In Serial16 Chapters
Solar Moon
Mara doesn’t know where she comes from, who or even what she is. All she knows is the small village of the family who adopted and raised her since she was a baby. Her burning desire to discover her identity outweighs anything else in her life, but how much can she truly discover without leaving the comfortable safety of her shielded Lycan village? Ander is the strong Alpha King of the Lycan who is sure of his destiny and what he must sacrifice in order to fulfill his duty to his people. Over the centuries he has overcome any obstacle or villain who wished to foul the rise of the Lycan. Can the path that leads to his success also be the one that gives Mara the answers she desires? Or does fate have something else in mind for them...
8 98 - In Serial13 Chapters
Starlit Crown
Leo thought he knew everything about his best friend since kindergarten but when Sky tells him they must never see each other again, Leo learns there is something else going on. Sky’s destiny to take over his father’s position as the Celestial Warrior is fast approaching but his illegitimate brother’s arrival makes this power transition far more complicated and dangerous than ever. Cover by @artemikass on Twitter
8 204

