Chapter 92 Digital World_1

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Tannis Planet.

Due to the issue of varying flow rates of time, the surface of Tannis Planet was bustling with activity, with workers wielding chainsaws to fell trees and engineers constructing a base.

Cao Ge, accompanied by Ma Zhao, navigated through the base that was still under construction.

"Minister Walker."

Along the way, people continually stopped to salute Cao Ge, among them were inhabitants of the Three-Body World as well as humans of this world. Cao Ge responded to each of their calls with a polite acknowledgment.

"Mr. Cao, is this really the Virtual World?" Ma Zhao asked, astounded beyond measure by everything before him.

Cao Ge glanced at Ma Zhao next to him, then smiled and said, "Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. You'll have to decide that for yourself."

"Mr. Cao, what are they doing?" Ma Zhao was suddenly attracted to an area outside the base where a crowd of people was milling about.

Following Ma Zhao's gaze towards the plains outside the base, Cao Ge saw dust rising as hundreds, if not thousands, of workers dug holes.

"Oh, them? I'm not really sure, but I heard they might be constructing a particle collider or something?" Cao Ge said offhandedly.

"You don't know? But Mr. Cao, this is the world you created, how could you not know? Surely these NPCs must be following the script you've set, right?" Ma Zhao immediately picked up on the key point in Cao Ge's words.

Looking seriously at Ma Zhao, Cao Ge replied, "I haven't set any NPCs. Everything you see has always been here."

"How is that possible?"

"Why couldn't it be, when you're seeing it now?" Cao Ge gestured toward the distance.

"Then who are they?" Ma Zhao inquired.

Cao Ge looked at the workers inside and outside the base and then lied to Ma Zhao.

"I don't know either."

"Come on, let's take a further look inside the base," Cao Ge urged Ma Zhao to continue walking deeper into the base.

With a puzzled expression, Ma Zhao took one last look at the bustling area, muttered to himself, and then turned to follow Cao Ge.

"What are they building a particle collider for? Isn't this a Virtual World?"

Ma Zhao was perplexed because his preconceived notions told him this was the Virtual World, where particle colliders were unnecessary, or rather, nothing physical was necessary because digital life was immortal.

The Virtual World is merely a vessel for digital entities to exist; nothing in it is real. Yet, everything he was witnessing overturned his understanding, which prompted him to ask.

"I don't know," Cao Ge shook his head.

From the moment this plan was put into action, Cao Ge had decided he couldn't reveal any information about this world to them.

Of course, any discoveries they made on their own were exceptions.

The role he needed to play was that of a scientist who accidentally created a Virtual World, and the nature of this role meant he couldn't be privy to too much knowledge.

If he revealed too much, he might give himself away.

Ma Zhao was skeptical of Cao Ge's response, but he wasn't sure where to begin his inquiries, so he remained silent and followed Cao Ge further into the base.

All along the way, Ma Zhao observed everything about the base, especially the technology and equipment that appeared far superior to what was available on Wandering Earth.

"Uncle Cao!"

Suddenly, a clear, childlike voice rang out. Cao Ge looked in the direction of the sound and saw a girl around ten years old, cheerfully waving at him from the doorway of a base module.

"Yaya," Cao Ge responded with a smile.

Tu Yaya ran over from the door and threw herself into Cao Ge's arms.

Cao Ge squatted down to lift Tu Yaya off the ground, then looked at her and asked, "Yaya, have you been doing well while I've been gone? Have you been studying hard?"

Tu Yaya nodded eagerly, indicating she had been obedient and studious.

"Yaya is such a good girl," Cao Ge said, stroking her hair with a smile.

"Uncle, when is my dad coming to see me?" Tu Yaya suddenly asked.

"It might be a few more days. Your dad has important things to take care of, but once he's done, I'll make sure he comes to see you as soon as he can," Cao Ge replied with a smile.

"Mr. Cao, who is she?"

Ma Zhao, who stood by, was dumbfounded when he saw the little girl in Cao Ge's arms. He had some guesses about her identity, but he was afraid to express them. In his mind, digital life was a bundle of data, existing only in computers—visible, but untouchable. Yet here she was, tangibly present before him, able to be touched.

Turning to look at Ma Zhao, Cao Ge smiled and said, "Director Ma, this is Professor Tu's daughter, Tu Yaya. Haven't you met her?"

As Cao Ge turned to look at Ma Zhao, Tu Yaya in his arms also saw Ma Zhao standing behind Cao Ge.

Upon seeing Ma Zhao, Tu Yaya shouted joyfully, "Hello, Uncle Ma!"

With that, she stretched out her arms, intending to leap from Cao Ge's arms to Ma Zhao.

Ma Zhao frowned as he glanced at her, but eventually opened his arms to take Tu Yaya from Cao Ge's embrace.

"Hello, Yaya."

"Uncle Ma, didn't my dad come with you?" Tu Yaya asked again.

Feeling the real sensation from his arms, Ma Zhao looked down at Tu Yaya with a complex expression and remained speechless for a long time.

His visit had been at the invitation of Tu Hengyu, and he had not held much hope.

After all, the government had banned research on digital life. How much could one genius accomplish on his own?

But now that he saw for himself, he suddenly felt that he had been too narrow-minded.

Cao Ge had actually made a breakthrough in the technology of digital life, allowing living people to enter this world and interact face-to-face with digital entities.

This was a completely new direction of research, distinct from their previous studies of digital life.

Because the digital life they researched, also known as artificial intelligence, was just a term. Digital life is also known by another name: artificial intelligence.

But Cao Ge's research, without mentioning anything else, gave Ma Zhao the impression that this was not artificial intelligence, but a genuine human life.

He realized that even though he had entered the Virtual World, he had not obtained the extraordinary computing power that a digital life ought to have.

This realization made Ma Zhao decide that Cao Ge's research significantly differed from his understanding of digital life.

Due to his brief exposure to this world, he could not yet determine what this technology or digital world meant for the human world. However, his scientific instincts told him that it would have a profound impact on the course of human civilization.

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