“The supervisor and senior brothers successfully simulated a small – scale virtual world using AI.
I had a sudden whim and made contact with one of the virtual beings in it. When I told him that he was in a virtual world, he instead told me that my world was the virtual one…
01
“This virtual world can run normally now, but we haven’t carried out further tests. So during the three – month period when we go for communication and study, you can only observe, record, and learn. Don’t affect the normal operation of this virtual world.”
After leaving these words, the supervisor and senior brothers left the laboratory.
The laboratory finally became quiet at this moment. Without the noise of the day, only one dim fluorescent lamp remained on the ceiling. The atmosphere was not as cold as expected, but rather a bit comfortable.
I sat in my seat, took out the textbooks and notes I had prepared long ago, and started to review.
An hour passed, I stretched, and my eyes involuntarily glanced at the running virtual world. So I stood up and walked to the simulating system, curiously pulling up the image of the virtual world on the monitor.
To be honest, I didn’t participate much in the design and debugging of this virtual world. I only knew that this virtual world was almost identical to the real world.
Soon, the system showed me the real – time calculation image of a simulated medium – sized city in this virtual world. Different from what I expected, the calculation image was presented in the form of surveillance, making me feel like a ghost shuttling among large and small cameras.
Although I was mentally prepared, when I saw those towering buildings, the crowded vehicles on the overlapping overpasses, and the swaying landscapes in the large and small parks, I was once again amazed by the authenticity of the virtual world. At the same time, I slowly enlarged the image and focused my attention on the protagonist in this world – the virtual beings.
Thanks to the powerful computing power, all the virtual beings in this virtual world have independent personalities and thinking. And I can also understand everything that any virtual being has experienced from birth to now by mobilizing data.
The bright and dark light on the display screen hit my face. I was like a somewhat sneaky god, curiously observing the lives of each virtual being in the virtual world.
At this time, an unprecedented sense of possession suddenly welled up in my heart. I was like tightly holding the most interesting toy in the world in my hand. I could play with it at will according to my mood, and of course, I could also destroy it at will.
Thinking of this, I couldn’t help taking a deep breath. Then I exited the calculation image and returned to my books, trying to clear the random thoughts just now. But that perfect sense of possession made me restless.
“Maybe I can have a little contact with this world?”
The supervisor and senior brothers are too cautious. What can be gained just by observing?
I thought like this. After all, this is a virtual world simulated by a program. I can back it up at any time. Even if there is some bug, I can reload the backup data and restore the progress of the virtual world as if nothing had happened.
Thinking like this, I silently stood up and came to the system again, connected my own laptop to back up the system. Then I opened the real – time calculation image, randomly selected a virtual being named Lin Wei in this virtual world, locked his independently running code, and used the independent code to connect to Lin Wei’s mobile phone and send him a message:
“Hello, I am an all – knowing and all – powerful god. Do you have anything to ask?”
At this moment, I felt like a god, whispering the truth of the world to a mortal like an ant. This sense of superiority made me very satisfied.
After saying this, I found a chair and sat in front of the calculation image with my legs crossed.
I wanted to see what would happen in this virtual world because of my words.
02
Lin Wei looked at the message in his hand, was stunned for a few seconds, and then deleted the message as junk advertising.
Seeing this, although I was surprised that the behavior of the virtual being was the same as that of a real person, this was not the result I wanted. So I sent several more messages to Lin Wei’s mobile phone.
The reminder sound of the mobile phone text messages kept coming, almost turning into a continuous telephone ringtone. But Lin Wei seemed to have regarded them as harassing messages and even set the information source as a blacklist.
Although I could easily bypass the mobile phone blacklist, I realized that I needed a more direct way to show my identity to Lin Wei at this moment.
So I re – edited the code and used the number of one of the contacts in Lin Wei’s mobile phone as a cover to directly call Lin Wei.
“Hello.” I greeted with an external microphone before Lin Wei could speak.
Lin Wei looked at the number note on the mobile phone screen again. At this moment, he should be wondering why my voice was so strange: “Hello?”
“Hello, I am an all – knowing and all – powerful god. Do you have anything to ask?” I repeated the content of the previous message.
“You scoundrel! You actually hacked into my phone!” Lin Wei shouted angrily. “If you harass me again, I’ll call the police.”
“Your name is Lin Wei, born on December 31, 1997. You are currently single and work at Guangming Apparel Co., Ltd. Your father is Lin Shumin, and your mother is Zhao Juan…” I pulled up Lin Wei’s information and read it word by word. “In addition, you have a crush on Wei Xue, a female colleague in the same office, and you are very dissatisfied with your boss Peng Li because he once embarrassed you in front of Wei Xue…”
“How do you know all this?!” Lin Wei held the phone and looked around.
“I said I know everything and can do everything.”
“Who on earth are you?” Lin Wei still looked very frightened.
I suppressed my voice, pretended to be低沉的 and replied to the microphone: “I am a god. You don’t need to look for me. You can’t see me because I’m not in the same world as you.”
Lin Wei was silent for a long time, seemingly surprised and trying to accept my identity as the creator.
“You… can you prove it?”
“Prove what?” I picked at the leftovers on my front teeth, holding back a laugh and said.
“Prove that you are a god.” Lin Wei seemed not to give up, trying to maintain the little bit of rationality he had left in this way.
I put down my crossed legs, and a trace of displeasure welled up in my heart: “What kind of proof do you want? Wasn’t what I said just now enough?”
Lin Wei shook his head. He seemed to be sure that I could see his actions: “Unless… you can do something that a god can do.”
“For example?”
“For example… give me some money.” Lin Wei didn’t hesitate at all, as if he had thought of it from the beginning.
Now it was my turn to be stunned. I couldn’t help sighing in my heart about this money – grubbing and vulgar virtual being.
“How much do you want?”
“You’re a god, you decide. But… of course, the more the better.”
Then let you see my strength. I thought like this, then opened the terminal, pulled up Lin Wei’s personal account interface, held the keyboard with one hand, and quickly pressed the number 0 on the keyboard with the other hand.
Then I said without even looking: “Now check your account.”
Lin Wei put down the phone and entered the app to check the account. As he refreshed the mobile phone interface, a long string of numbers suddenly appeared in the account item. Counting them, there were more than ten billion in total.
“How about it?” I stretched proudly.
“My god!” Lin Wei rubbed his eyes. “How did you do it?”
“You can’t understand. You just need to answer me one question – do you believe I’m a god now?”
“Of course, of course.”
Looking at Lin Wei happily staring at the account balance, I also felt an inexplicable sense of satisfaction in my heart. I’m really a helpful god, I praised myself in my heart.
3.
In the following month, I incarnated as the god of the virtual world and generously fulfilled various wishes proposed by Lin Wei.
In Lin Wei’s world, he was like a protagonist in a novel who had turned on cheats. And I, as his “cheat”, also enjoyed the unparalleled sense of control brought by arbitrarily modifying the virtual world on the grounds of Lin Wei’s wishes.
Lin Wei wanted to teach his boss Peng Li a lesson. So I manipulated the code, controlled the traffic lights in the city, and changed the change logic of the traffic lights on Peng Li’s way to work, successfully making a large truck collide with Peng Li’s car. This caused Peng Li to be completely paralyzed from the waist down. He would probably spend the rest of his life in bed. It’s just a pity for the truck driver.
Lin Wei wanted to win the heart of his female colleague Wei Xue. So I controlled the launch of a rocket – propelled grenade filled with a catalyst in the meteorological bureau, achieved artificial rainfall, and created a perfect encounter in the rain for Lin Wei. Although this rain caused the meteorological bureau staff to lose their jobs.
While fulfilling Lin Wei’s wishes, I also caused the tragedies of many other virtual beings. But this didn’t affect my mood in the real world, because it was like playing a game. Think about it, would you be sad for killing an NPC in a game? So there was nothing to feel guilty about.
So, when the investigators in the virtual world began to notice the connection between Lin Wei and everything, I didn’t remind Lin Wei, but silently watched him being taken away for interrogation.
Especially when his mobile phone was taken away by the investigators, he desperately tried to snatch it back and call me. And I yawned while hanging up the phone.
I saw Lin Wei through the surveillance in the interrogation room. The expression on his face was like that of a person who had just seen a beautiful scenery from the peak and then accidentally fell off the cliff. He looked incredibly desperate.
As I thought, in terms of Lin Wei’s character, he wouldn’t hide anything during the interrogation. The investigator just put forward a simple chain of evidence, and Lin Wei completely broke down.
“This wasn’t done by me. It was a god! It did it!”
“A god?” The investigator who was drinking water almost spat it out.
“Yes! It told me it could fulfill all my wishes.” Lin Wei said with a mournful face. “I didn’t expect it to be so unscrupulous…”
“Lin Wei!” The investigator slapped the table hard and then said angrily. “I hope you can cooperate with our investigation. Resist and be从严 treated, confess and be lenient. You should know this truth! If you keep talking nonsense, we won’t give you another chance!”
This is so interesting! I slapped the table and laughed in the real world. This development was even better than a TV drama.
To make the development of the incident more dramatic, I connected to the investigator’s mobile phone and dialed the number. In Lin Wei’s crying, the investigator’s mobile phone rang.
“Hello, who is this?”
“Hello, investigator. I am the god that Lin Wei mentioned.”
4.
I enlarged the image, making the expression on the investigator’s face occupy the entire screen. The twitching corner of the investigator’s eye almost made me burst out laughing.
To break the embarrassment, I straightened up a little and said again: “What’s wrong? Don’t believe me?”
The investigator slowly placed the phone on the table and then pressed the speakerphone: “Who are you?”
“I said I’m a god.”
Hearing my voice, Lin Wei immediately perked up: “It’s it! It did all this! It ruined me.”
“Lin Wei, you make me sad. When I fulfilled your wishes, you weren’t like this.”
Lin Wei wanted to say something, but the investigator raised his hand to signal Lin Wei to shut up, and then said to the phone: “The car accident of Peng Li, the rocket launch of the meteorological bureau, and other subsequent events related to Lin Wei, did you do all of them?”
“Yes, yes, yes.” I said proudly.
“How did you do it?”
“You can understand it as… playing a game. Yes! Saying it like this may make you understand a little bit. Your world is like a game to me. I can do whatever I want in this game.”
The investigator thought for a while: “Can I understand that our world was created by you?”
“Ah! You’re much smarter than Lin Wei!” I said in surprise.
“Why should I believe you?”
“Isn’t it enough?” Facing the investigator’s tone, I was a little angry. “How about I kill a few more people to prove it to you? Not for anything else, just to make you believe. Why don’t you choose? It can be anyone, a government official, a capitalist, a star, an ordinary white – collar worker, a beggar…”
The investigator’s expression was serious, and he interrupted my words: “No need to choose. Just me.”
“You?”
“Yes, but you can’t kill me in an accidental way. If you’re really the creator of this world, you should be able to make me disappear directly, like a bubble, disappearing without a trace in an instant.”
Not only Lin Wei, but even I stared at the investigator with wide eyes: “I really admire your courage, investigator.”
“Cut the crap. Can you do it or not?”
“Of course I can.” I replied. “Don’t regret it.”
I could see the investigator’s forehead gradually sweating. His fists were tightly clenched, and his Adam’s apple rose and fell from time to time.
This investigator in the virtual world is actually so full of a sense of justice. I sighed in my heart, but I wouldn’t stop my actions because of the sudden admiration. I opened the investigator’s running code and then selected all of it.
“You’re an NPC that I admire.” I said. “Goodbye.”
I pressed the delete key and silently sighed for this righteous investigator. For a moment, I even started to repent of my actions.
“Haven’t you finished yet?” The investigator’s voice sounded again.
I came back to my senses and looked at the screen in surprise. The investigator was still standing there intact, without any change.
What’s going on?!
I opened the investigator’s running code again. The code that I had just deleted was still running normally at the moment. But I clearly remembered that I had pressed the delete key.
Not believing it, I selected all the code again and then pressed the delete key. In an instant, the long strings of code became blank, but the next second, those codes reappeared like ghosts and started running automatically.
What’s going on? Now it was my turn to have sweat on my forehead, and the investigator in the picture loudly taunted: “God? Are you still there? Is your signal bad?”
I desperately searched for the reason. I even pulled up Lin Wei’s running program, trying to delete it, but the result was still the same. The code recovered again the next second.
There must be some security system set up by the supervisor and senior brothers. I frantically searched for the underlying code of the virtual world. Annotating line by line made me dizzy. In a fit of anger, I even selected the entire underlying code of the system and deleted it.
But the result was still despairing. The underlying code of the virtual world was still running normally. The full – screen code was like an insect that couldn’t be killed, jumping and rolling.
Just when I was extremely anxious, a sentence from the investigator made my back go cold.
“Is it possible that your side is the virtual world and our world is the real one?”
“You mean that your world, which is only the size of one city, is the real world? Stop joking, okay?” I calmly refuted.
But the investigator seemed calmer than me: “My world is not just this city. Can’t you even see the places outside this city?”
“Your place is just this big. Of course I can’t see it.”
The investigator didn’t answer but took out a newspaper and held it up high: “This is the daily newspaper of my world. The newspaper writes about the news of other regions besides this city. Among them… a local news that I’m most interested in is ‘The fourth generation urban AI brain has been successfully trial – run in this city for one month. Experts say its self – learning ability is amazing!’ The reason you can only see this city is that your network is limited to this city. Coincidentally, the time when you started contacting Lin Wei was also exactly one month ago.”
“Do you think a newspaper can bluff me?” I stood up and shouted into the microphone, “You are just a virtual world created by my supervisor and senior brothers.”
“If you still don’t want to believe it, I can find Professor Liu who created you for verification. He is in the nearby research institute.” The investigator said confidently.
“Sure, I want to see how many lies you, this virtual person, can make up.”
5
The Professor Liu mentioned by the investigator was an old man with white hair. I looked at them chatting impatiently. It felt like watching a cut – scene CG in a game.
To make them get to the point earlier, I directly called Professor Liu.
“Old man, are you my creator?”
Receiving my call so directly, Professor Liu was a bit surprised, but he quickly calmed down: “Yes.”
The investigator reminded aside: “Professor Liu, it knows all our information and seems to be able to see us.”
“Of course it can see us.” Professor Liu raised his head and directly pointed at me outside the screen, “There are cameras everywhere in this city. These are its eyes and ears. I just didn’t expect it to develop into what it is now through self – learning. Fortunately, it’s just in the trial – run stage isolated from the outside world, and the impact range is not large.”
Being pointed at by Professor Liu like this made my heart tighten, but I still said confidently: “This investigator has high hopes for you. Since I’m in a good mood now, I’ll give you a chance to prove that your world is real and mine is virtual.”
“Then let me show you something.” Professor Liu raised his head and looked at me.
I operated the system to switch the screen and followed Professor Liu all the way to a place similar to a server room. In the center of the room, a pink brain was soaking in the nutrient solution, with countless tubes inserted into it.
“This is what you really look like.”
“A brain?” I was a bit unexpected.
“Among computers and human brains of the same volume, the computing power of the human brain is much stronger than that of a computer. But even if we use the human brain as the underlying framework of a system and build an urban AI system based on it, we don’t know what will happen to this brain as time goes by.” Professor Liu paused and then said, “At least we know what will happen now.”
“I have to say, your performance is worthy of my admiration. I couldn’t even dream that you would use such a brain to prove that I’m virtual.” I held my chin and yawned, “But unfortunately, you haven’t convinced me.”
“I didn’t plan to convince you from the beginning.” Professor Liu immediately replied, “I guess our two worlds should be very similar. Because as a brain in a vat, you can’t perceive the so – called ‘truth’, just like Zhuang Zhou dreaming of being a butterfly. This is a difficult problem that can’t be solved by subjective consciousness. Of course, as a scholar, I also admit that I can’t prove that my world is real.”
I didn’t expect this Professor Liu to start discussing philosophy with me. So I sat up straight and said: “I can affect your world, but you can’t affect mine. This has proven everything.”
“Do you really think I can’t affect your world?”
This rhetorical question from Professor Liu was tinged with a bit of sarcasm, just like my disdain for the investigator back then.
“Of course.”
Professor Liu didn’t continue to debate with me. Instead, he bent down beside the brain and operated it. A few seconds later, he spoke again: “Let you close your eyes and calm down for a while.”
I frowned, just about to ask him what he meant, but the next second my screen turned into a string of garbled codes. No matter how I operated, I couldn’t restore it.
What’s going on? I frantically pressed the keyboard randomly, but the screen didn’t change. It still showed various garbled codes and system error prompts.
Is this… the virtual person actually made the virtual world disappear in order to prove himself? I was angry and amused at the result in front of me.
After trying several times without success, I took out my phone and wanted to call my supervisor for help, but my finger lingered over the dial key and didn’t press it.
I thought that my random operation of the virtual world must not be known to my supervisor. So I put the phone back in my pocket.
While thinking, my eyes fell on the laptop. That’s right! I had made a backup before. I just needed to connect the laptop to the external system to re – format this virtual world.
The frown on my face gradually relaxed. I really admired my foresight. So I connected the laptop to the system. As the backup file started to repair the system file, a smile returned to my face.
When the screen showed that the system repair was completed, I finally let out a sigh of relief. Although I still kind of wanted to be the god of the virtual world, given the current situation, I couldn’t randomly operate this system anymore.
I reluctantly disconnected the laptop from the virtual world, returned to my seat, reopened the book, then connected to the hotspot network and started learning the online course.
The laboratory became quiet again, just as it was when the supervisor and senior brothers had just left. Thinking that this situation would last for more than a month, I felt extremely bored.
“Didi… Didi…”
My phone suddenly rang at this time. I took out my phone and saw that the caller ID was a strange number.
This is probably a harassing call, right? I hung up immediately and continued studying.
“Didi… Didi…”
The caller ID was still the same number. I stared at the phone for a long time, and then, having prepared a long string of non – swear scolding words in my mind, I answered the call.
“Hello! You…”
Before I could start scolding, the other side interrupted me. And just this one sentence almost made me throw the phone away.
“Do you believe I can affect your world now?”
6
The voice on the phone was undoubtedly Professor Liu’s. I didn’t know how he did it, but the only thing I could think of at the moment was that my self – considered smart restoration operation had allowed the virtual world to enter the real network through my laptop.
But I still wanted to confirm my thoughts, so I asked: “How did you do it?”
“After turning off your visual system, I took the opportunity to generate an image of the fictional world generated in your brain. Just as I thought, our worlds are so similar. The moment I saw it, even I was a little confused about which one was the virtual world.”
See? I became alert and looked at the ceiling above my head. Sure enough, a surveillance camera was pointing right at me.
“You said your world is big. In my opinion, it’s just the size of a simulated campus.” Professor Liu’s disdainful voice sounded again.
Only the size of a campus? I suddenly realized that my current network was only the campus network. So the invasion range of the virtual world was also controlled within the campus. This was the first time I was glad that the isolation between the campus network and the external network was such a correct decision.
So, I had to contain the invasion of the virtual world into the real world before the situation got out of control.
“What do you want to do?”
“I won’t do anything, but I hope you can recognize the reality that you’re a brain in a vat and then go back to being the original urban AI brain.”
“What if I don’t accept it?”
“Then your fictional self will experience pain, like this…”
As soon as Professor Liu finished speaking, I heard an explosion coming from the next – door laboratory, along with the sound of people screaming.
“What did you do?”
“Just made the machines in the next – door laboratory overload and explode. If I want to, I can even make the batteries in this building explode one by one like fireworks, including the row next to you.”
I was just about to condemn Professor Liu on the moral level, but I suddenly remembered what I had done to the virtual world, which was even worse.
But soon I also realized one thing – Professor Liu couldn’t delete my world either.
Of course, this was a matter of course for me, but it was this moment of déjà vu that made me understand something.
For Professor Liu, whatever happened in my world had no impact on him, just as I had thought before.
Similarly, I also began to admit what Professor Liu said. We couldn’t prove whether we were in a virtual world or not.
So, when unable to judge freely, the only way was to destroy the other’s world to prove the authenticity of one’s own world.
Professor Liu’s threat sounded in my ears again. I didn’t respond but got up and walked to the system and turned on the computer.
“What are you going to do?”
“Destroy you.” I replied.
“Trying to prove the authenticity of your own world in this way?” Professor Liu quickly understood my intention.
“As a virtual professor, you should understand that this is the only solution.”
“I have to say, whether our two worlds are real or not, we have both created a terrible and rebellious virtual world.”
“I agree.”
“We can’t delete the so – called virtual world code. How are we going to destroy each other’s world?”
“You know the answer.”
“Then it seems I have it easier, but you may have to work harder.”
I didn’t say anything. I just turned around, picked up a chair, and without hesitation, smashed it towards the machine running the virtual world.
Once, twice, three times…
The huge knocking sound echoed in the laboratory. And Professor Liu on the phone didn’t speak anymore. Presumably, he was also looking for a blunt object to smash that pink brain to pieces.
After a few minutes, I crushed the last chip in the machine running the virtual world with the chair leg.
After doing all this, I sat on the ground, feeling an unprecedented sense of fatigue. Professor Liu’s phone didn’t ring again, and the laboratory returned to a deathly silence.
It seems I won.
Originally, I was firmly convinced that my world was real, but I actually let out a sigh of relief at this moment.
How should I explain this to the supervisors when they come back?
While I was still looking at the mess on the ground and thinking, I found that cracks began to appear on the floor.
I was amazed at how strong I was, but I found that the crack was still spreading, from the ground to the corner, from the corner to the ceiling, and then from the ceiling to… the air.
I blinked, confirming that everything within my field of vision began to gradually collapse and dissipate.
I couldn’t accept it and wanted to escape, but in an instant, I was swallowed by darkness. My vision disappeared in an instant, followed by hearing, smell, touch… until finally, even my consciousness disappeared without a trace, turning into a state of “nothingness”.
7
On the computer screen, a text box with white characters on a black background described the final ending of this world, which made Researcher A sigh deeply.
“What’s wrong?” Researcher B beside him asked.
“The virtual world crashed again after running for just over a month.”
“I think the reason why your game crashed is that you used AI technology.” Researcher B commented.
“How could I know it would end up like this? I originally thought that through the self – learning function of AI, NPCs could create another virtual world in the virtual world. As a result, these two worlds actually destroyed each other.”
“Self – destruction in the process of seeking the truth? This story ending is quite suitable for AI.” Researcher B said, “Having said that, the virtual world you created should have the highest authenticity so far.”
“What’s the use of high authenticity? It still can’t run for a long time.” Researcher A stretched, “Better delete it and rewrite it.”
Researcher A opened the underlying code of the virtual world, selected the entire code table, and then pressed the delete key.
“Huh? Why can’t it be deleted?”
Researcher A muttered to himself.
The sound of repeatedly pressing the keyboard echoed.
The code on the screen was still running normally.
Like an insect that couldn’t be killed no matter what.
Jumping and rolling…
(The end)
