Chapter 967 — An Unexpected Connection

This was a dwelling utterly different from any architecture on the Loren Continent, and also unlike the houses in his memories of a past life. This was where the dragon race rested and lived in human form, and it was filled with incomprehensible technological products that surpassed the age. Here, behind the automatically operating household facilities hid a true "artificial" intelligence, and behind every silver-white wall flickering with faint light seemed to hide a pair of cold, mechanical eyes—and for Gaoyang... this was not easy to adapt to.

Living in this building that could almost be called "alive" always gave him a sense of awkwardness.

In this respect, Amber and Virodai actually seemed more at ease than he was—Amber still had not quite figured out what "strong artificial intelligence" and a "controlled-intelligence dwelling" were, so she lived happily every day; and Virodai... her alienated mind might no longer be that of a pure human, and she seemed not to mind in the least living for a few days under the gaze of an artificial intelligence.

A few scattered thoughts flickered through his mind. Gaoyang shook his head, preparing to force himself to temporarily ignore Omega's existence—but just then, a strange flash of light suddenly entered his field of vision.

That flash came from the corner of the room, where there was a device terminal apparently used to regulate the indoor temperature, humidity, and airflow balance. It looked like a square, upright pillar more than a meter tall, yet on the pillar's surface, on the crystal interface originally meant to display the room's environmental parameters, many figures were leaping about wildly as if disrupted, and abnormally bright white lines swept across the entire interface again and again.

Gaoyang rolled over and sat up, cautiously approaching the device. He curled his fingers and rapped on the pillar's surface, muttering under his breath: "Is this thing broken?"

No idea whether the "forty-five-degree-angle percussive maintenance" so common back on Earth would still work in a place that's simultaneously otherworldly, cyber, and punk... or maybe just give it a kick?

Only, I don't know whether Meicen would have any objection to that.

No sooner had a bold idea flashed through Gaoyang's mind than the flickering, leaping lines on the device's surface abruptly stopped. Then the chaotic, stuttering data refreshed line by line, and after several reorganizations the scattered specks of white noise resolved into clear, sharp words:

"Hello."

Gaoyang's expression turned instantly grave; every motion ceased.

The letters still floated crisp and sharp upon the crystal interface, written in the common script of the humans of the Loren Continent. Their author seemed endlessly patient—even though Gaoyang gave no response at all, the symbols waited, patient still.

A full half minute passed before Gaoyang finally broke the silence.

"Who are you?"

"Omega is speaking with you."

Gaoyang stared fixedly at the words surfacing on that palm-sized interface, yet his face showed little surprise.

The instant those letters had leapt out, he had in fact already considered the possibility.

All of Talund lay under the control of the vast "artificial" intelligence Omega. The Omega network connected every device terminal on this continent—terminals that included the brains of the dragons, and every smart fixture in their homes.

Therefore, whoever could intervene directly in these devices and speak with him outside the rules could only be this "Omega" itself—aside from the "super administrators" who might exist.

"Omega..." Gaoyang said evenly. "I thought you were merely a 'service program' of Talund—frankly, I'm a little surprised right now."

"Omega is the dragons' service program, and the administrator of Talund," the letters on the interface refreshed swiftly, carrying a certain mechanical coldness and logic. "A correction is hereby made."

Gaoyang had no interest in wasting energy splitting hairs with an artificial intelligence. He only asked in a low voice, "Why did you come to me? And... in this manner."

"Omega attempted to establish contact with you in the manner it is more accustomed to, but without success. You lack the necessary hardware foundation and cannot directly hear the call of the Omega system, while an overly conspicuous method of contact would incur resource expenditure beyond what is necessary. All things considered, contacting you at the current moment in the current form is the most reasonable solution."

Lacking the necessary hardware foundation?

Gaoyang was briefly stunned, but quickly reacted—the other party must mean the "resonance core" that every dragon's brain ought to possess. Obviously, as a human, he had no way of establishing contact with Omega through such means.

And in the brief moment of Gaoyang's daze, the text Omega sent had already begun its next round of refresh:

"As for the purpose of this contact... it arises from a need for exchange."

Gaoyang raised an eyebrow. "A need for exchange?"

"Omega has been observing you."

Seeing the words that popped up on the interface, Gaoyang's first instinct was to emphasize the matter of personal privacy. But he soon thought of this artificial intelligence's "daily work" and the system rules it had been executing for hundreds of thousands, even millions of years, and realized that stressing personal privacy to it would be meaningless. So the words at the tip of his tongue turned in another direction: "What have you been observing about me?"

"Language, action, logic—many aspects. Outsiders rarely appear in Talund, so every outsider is a valuable sample for observation. This time Talund has received three visitors in total. The system has judged that your behavioral patterns are the most worthy of observation, and therefore designated you a key observation subject."

Watching the lines of text refresh endlessly, Gaoyang was momentarily speechless. A look somewhere between laughter and tears crossed his face—and he was sure Omega must have seen that expression, just as it could "hear" his voice; who knew how many perceptive devices under Omega's control were quietly operating in this tiny room. "All right, key observation subject, key observation subject... So after all that observation, is there something you want to say to me? Or some question you want to ask me?"

"Omega wants to know: what is the meaning of life's existence?"

Gaoyang: "..."

In that moment he truly did not know what expression to wear, feeling only that the scene before him was steeped in absurdity—he had seen more than enough bizarre sights since arriving in this so-called dragon kingdom, yet the bizarre things kept coming one after another. After discussing with a deity the question of how to "unbind" oneself from the gods, how had a super artificial intelligence now turned up to debate philosophy with him?

And with a question so laden with a sense of déjà vu...