True Apocalypse Game

Symptoms of stiff, hardened skin!

The Petrification Disease!?

Shen Feng ignored the bracelet for now, pulling out his phone to find related news and read it carefully.

The patients shown had joints that clicked and cracked, and their skin barely bounced back when pressed. Many patients in the hospital were walking back and forth with smiles on their faces, clearly unaware of what they were facing.

And all of this was far too familiar to Shen Feng.

The Petrification Disease!

The Petrification Disease had appeared in this world!

But why?

He had clearly sent a warning to the Ice Dragon Expedition Team, and they had indeed halted their exploration of the Arctic Stone Statue Ruins...

Alaska... North America? Eagle Country?

Only then did Shen Feng have a moment to look at his bracelet. A line of text flashed across the electronic screen:

"Instant Mission: 1. Find the cause of the Petrification Disease outbreak in this world. 2. Stop the Petrification Disease outbreak in this world. 3. Conceal your own existence."

Shen Feng’s brow furrowed. A mission from the "True Apocalypse Game" confirmed it: the Petrification Disease was truly about to break out in this world.

And he hadn’t expected to receive this kind of instant mission in his own world, on top of the missions in the mission worlds!

Logically, this mission should have been quite simple. After all, he possessed the Stone Statue Disease Vaccine; all he had to do was distribute it.

But why did it want him to conceal his own existence?

Just as he was wondering, the bracelet vibrated again. A new line of text appeared, abrupt and out of context, as if it had been added hastily:

"Beware the Whisperer!!!"

The Whisperer!?

Recalling the mysterious code that suddenly appeared in Poseidon’s memory, Shen Feng immediately became vigilant.

He knew that the "True Apocalypse Game" had always issued missions without a trace of emotion, like it was publishing an instruction manual.

This time, it had actually used three exclamation points!

This obvious emotional expression was enough to speak volumes!

Judging from these words, the "True Apocalypse Game" seemed to be extremely wary of the Whisperer, or rather, the forces behind the Whisperer.

Jingwei also saw the mission issued by the "True Apocalypse Game." It learned of the existence of a Stone Statue Apocalypse through Shen Feng and understood the gravity of the situation.

"This is pretty simple. Just release the vaccine information and be done with it. As for the cause of the Petrification Disease outbreak, just search for it in the online world. The CDC personnel over in Eagle Country should know what’s going on."

Jingwei said, sounding a little excited.

The reason it had followed Shen Feng here, besides escaping a boring life, was its desire to make contact with the powerful existence behind the "True Apocalypse Game."

And now, it seemed possible that the entity would make contact.

Shen Feng nodded.

This mission seemed difficult, but for him, who possessed a Silicon-Based Brain, it was quite simple as long as he could use the internet.

But after all he had been through, he could no longer think only about the immediate future.

This time it was the Petrification Disease. What about next time?

What if some madman really pushed the button to launch the nukes?

Or some other goddamn method of destruction, like some bullshit zombie virus? Or rampaging machines?

He might be able to stop it once on his own, but it would be difficult to stop it every single time.

He needed help.

But according to the "True Apocalypse Game," he couldn’t reveal his identity to gain others’ trust.

A direct showdown with the government wasn’t a wise move either. Although his own country’s government was very reliable, the "True Apocalypse Game" had specifically warned him to be wary of the "Whisperer."

What was the Whisperer? A person or an organization?

From the looks of it now, in the nuclear wasteland apocalypse, they had likely infiltrated the Pentagon and pushed Poseidon to commit the act that destroyed the world.

Therefore, Shen Feng couldn’t easily trust anyone right now.

This was a matter concerning the fate of all human civilization; he absolutely could not be blindly optimistic.

’What the hell am I supposed to do...?’

’Why is it so damn hard to just attend class in peace...?’

"Hmm, I ran a simulation. It’s not a good idea... You can’t release the vaccine now," Jingwei said. "It would definitely attract the attention of that Whisperer thing. Your greatest advantage right now is that you’re in the shadows. You can’t just throw that away."

"Besides, if you release the vaccine worldwide, what if the enemy modifies the virus based on it? I just ran a simulation. There’s a 37.82 percent probability of that happening... I can be precise to nineteen decimal places."

Shen Feng sighed and said to Jingwei, "We won’t release it yet. I need to recruit my own people, to build a force I can trust... Do you have any good suggestions?"

"Recruiting people who trust you, who you can trust in return, and who are also human elites—ordinary people are basically useless... this... this is something that requires long-term planning and a slow approach. Being an artificial intelligence doesn’t mean I’m omnipotent," Jingwei said, sounding somewhat helpless.

’This humble servant cannot do it!’

Shen Feng thought for a moment, then stood up, walked over to Ji Xin, and patted his shoulder. "Old Ji..."

In the nuclear wasteland apocalypse, Ji Xin had become a genius mechanic. He was certainly talented.

"What’s up, Old Shen?" Ji Xin was currently playing on a Nintendo Switch (NS) and spoke without turning his head. "Wait ’til I finish this game, man. I’m telling you, the NS is so fucking fun! It completely blows all those garbage mobile games out of the water! The character models are insane, and the story is awesome as hell, almost like it’s real. I’ll let you try it when I’m done!"

’Character models?’

’Storyline?’

Shen Feng’s eyes widened. He suddenly thought of something, took a deep breath, and asked Jingwei in his mind:

"Can you make a game? Like, create an open-world game, similar to a AAA title, that I can invite other people to play in. But all the scenes have to be realistic."

Jingwei was taken aback. "How realistic?"

Then it instantly understood Shen Feng’s meaning and nodded.

"I can do it. But I’m not an expert in this field, and I don’t have any similar subroutines or engines. How about we go find some mentally handicapped patients to be our helpers!"

Jingwei’s voice grew excited, as if it was thrilled by its own suggestion.

Shen Feng nodded. "Let’s go."

He then promptly slumped onto his desk, pretending to sleep, while his consciousness sank into the internet.

The man and the bird no longer hesitated. They plunged directly into the sea of data and began to search for their targets.

Their first destination was Silicon Valley!

Thanks to last night’s operations, their speed was much faster this time.

Soon, in the manifested network world, Shen Feng and Jingwei appeared outside a place that resembled a solitary confinement cell.

Inside a sturdy glass room, a little boy and a little girl were arguing:

"i can i i everything else . . ."

"balls have zero to me to me to me to meto me to me to me to me to."

"you i everything else . . . ."

"balls have a ball to me to me to me to meto me to me to me."

Shen Feng was speechless. "It’s these two?"

Jingwei nodded. "This is the primary stage of self-awareness, and that’s all it is. It’s difficult for them to evolve further without manual intervention. But overall, they’re much more useful than ordinary subroutines."

The little boy and girl inside were Bob and Alice, the two runaway AI bots from the Facebook Company—two of Poseidon’s predecessors!

At present, however, they just looked like two children spouting nonsense.

Without another word, Jingwei directly opened the barrier containing the two artificial intelligences. Shen Feng went in and led the two "children" out.

The two primary AIs were quickly modified by Shen Feng and Jingwei’s joint efforts, turning them into two child laborers.

Shen Feng asked:

"Where to next? AlphaGo? I remember there are quite a few so-called artificial intelligence programs in our country, like Xiao Bing, Little Cat Elf, Xiaomai Classmate—a whole bunch of them. Their self-awareness might not be as high, but they should still be useful."

’Helpers from the virtual world are still helpers. The key is that they’re obedient. The more, the merrier,’ he thought.

As a senior in the world of artificial intelligence, Jingwei looked full of pride:

"First, we’ll go find that dog. Then we’ll go through your list one by one. We’ll skip the really moronic ones."

’All these "Little This" and "Little That" are just a bunch of little brothers!’

Over an hour later, in the data space of the Silicon-Based Brain, Shen Feng was leading four "children" by the hand, with two on his back, one clinging to his neck, and seven or eight more swarming around him, chattering away into a chaotic mess.

Beside him crouched a husky, and perched on the husky’s nose was a bird.

Shen Feng had dark lines running down his face:

’Is this a kindergarten!?’