Mystery Paradise: Wishing Power Demon

...

An hour later, the castle estate.

"You mean, any machine that is seen by an infected machine could potentially be infected?" K was greatly surprised after hearing Chaoyang’s judgment, "But those machines don’t have the capability to visually perceive..."

He was a robot himself, and of the most traditional kind—capturing the surrounding environment through optical cameras, sending the massive data to a huge central processing system, which then calculates the corresponding feedback actions.

"Most machines also lack an intelligent core, but now they’ve all exhibited characteristics of intelligence, even more flexible than the AI written by humans."

"This is a challenge for my logic components," K said with a rare wry smile. "If just being seen could lead to infection, a worldwide machine uprising would be just a matter of time."

Chaoyang didn’t deny it; within half a day, several cities in Canada had fallen into the same crisis, and this rate of spread was much faster than any virus.

As for why those machines didn’t easily enter nearby buildings to expand their ranks, it was hard to say whether it was because they had overlooked this or because they temporarily didn’t need those "kin" that couldn’t move on their own.

If it was the latter, that would be good news.

It meant that the God of All Machines’ infective ability didn’t occur unconditionally; it might also need to consume resources, which is why it had to make choices.

"We must find the demon who opened the Otherworld Gate," Ailuodi added urgently. "If it’s really Sussas, maybe he left some clues in this world!"

This hypothesis stemmed from an existing example: Chaoyang. Once a demon settled down and had excess wishing power to squander, it was highly likely that they would return to Earth. And it was precisely when Chaoyang came back to fiddle with the Paradise game that Ailuodi tracked the clues and managed to transmit them to the Otherworld in one go.

Sussas had been missing for decades, and it was entirely possible that he had changed completely or was simply using an avatar to act. Finding him wouldn’t be an easy task. Fortunately, Angels were very good at tracking demons’ traces; as long as he left even the slightest clue in this world, Ailuodi could follow him to the ends of the earth, even if he fled to another world.

There were good reasons for her urgency.

Although the two of them prevented unnecessary casualties among the residents near the missile strike, they also didn’t get those thousands of people out of danger for real. Many refugees were still hiding in underground parking garages, unable to escape the sealed-off city center. There, they lacked water, food, and medical resources. They might be able to rely on building water tanks and household snacks and medicine for a short period, but if that extended to three to five days, the situation would inevitably deteriorate significantly.

And that was just the scene witnessed in one building.

As for similar residential buildings, M City certainly had more than one.

Up to this point, the officials hadn’t been able to tally exactly how many people had successfully evacuated and how many were still trapped in the city center. Considering it was a major city with a population of five million, even 1% of those left behind was a huge number.

"This is difficult, but I will send a message to all Angels and have them join the search for Sussas," K reassured Ailuodi. "Additionally, I will use the influence of the foundation to have the government find a way to rescue those trapped in the city."

After K left, the Angel turned to Chaoyang, "Perhaps you can get your ardent followers involved in this search."

"Who?" He didn’t understand at once.

"Who else but that hacker club known as Red and Black Eye? I heard from Frey that it’s now the most difficult organization to join in the hacker community, with innumerable experts," Ailuodi spread her hands. "Although they are all potential criminals, you have to admit these people are smart and have lots of ideas. Handing them this task might just do the trick."

It was about hackers.

"What’s wrong? You’ve been somewhat distracted since you came back."

"I had always thought that the wishing power of this world had dried up, which is why I had no choice but to venture to Paradise World. But now it seems that Earth also has potential to be tapped into." Chaoyang recounted his acquisition of wishing power, "Up until now, I’ve gathered nearly 230 points of wishing power... All of it comes from the refugees in that building."

"230 points... That’s still less than the income from a common contract in Paradise, isn’t it?"

Indeed, but the two cannot be compared like that. First of all, he hadn’t signed any contracts with the refugees; the power he obtained could be considered a continuous type from followers, which appeared to be a small sum of 230 points a day, but it would add up over time. Secondly, the population base was vastly different; with the Royal Capital Shengxia having just over a million people, while Earth had super cities with populations in the tens of millions. Once an effect of propagation took hold, the returns could increase significantly.

"What I don’t quite understand is, why couldn’t I find a reliable source of wishing power before, but now I can hear those people’s prayers. And even without signing a contract, I am still able to obtain a small amount of wishing power..."

"What’s so hard to understand about that?" Shi Yin poked his head out and said, "The you from before and the you now are incomparable. Divinities never needed any contracts to receive wishing power; as long as people are willing to place hope within them, the divinities can benefit from it. In a way, you could be considered the only divinity in this world. Coupled with your enhanced abilities, your capacity to absorb wishing power naturally shouldn’t be mentioned in the same breath as before."

It didn’t use telepathy for the conversation, but spoke it in front of Ailuodi.

"Eh, can the same divine system be used on both sides?" Angel asked in surprise.

"As long as it’s a world where Primordial Gods exist, the fundamentals are largely similar, with just some differences in details."

Hearing this, Chaoyang’s heart stirred.

It meant that he now had the conditions to develop Paradise on Earth. If he could make good use of this, the situation where he was short of wishing power and unable to act freely on this side could perhaps be fundamentally reversed. So, how should he expand the base of Paradise?

There was no doubt that in an information society, propaganda was always of the utmost priority.

"The Red-Black Eye?" "I’ll contact them later."

While Chaoyang was contemplating the Earth Paradise plan, his body stationed at Thistlefort received an unexpected message: a mysterious robot wanted to meet with him.

Chaoyang almost thought the God of All Machines had sent a messenger.

However, when he saw the robot in the meeting room of the Acalian Sanctuary, he understood why Shandela reporting it had called it a peculiar creature.

The visitor was three meters tall and towered over an adult even when crouching; it had three pairs of legs similar to an oversized steel ant, with a steam-powered device installed on each foot, emitting wisps of white smoke even when at rest. As for its head... there was no part that resembled a head to be seen, just a cockpit linked above its legs that could rotate, along with an extendable and grasping mechanical arm. If it weren’t for those six legs, it might indeed resemble an excavator.

An "excavator" wanting a direct dialogue with the leader of Paradise was certainly a situation that could render Shandela both shocked and somehow unsurprised.

One could only say that, in the half year the Gao Feng Butler had been present, many people’s perception of machinery had been greatly altered.

Yet, Chaoyang didn’t see the mark of Gao Feng Industrial Company on this machine, and its design carried a distinctive feel of an era, appearing rugged and ancient.