Months passed by unknowingly during her time learning to use the compiling tools, and amidst this period, there hadn’t been any new big orders coming from the intermediaries in Agash. Yvette, like an average university student, went back and forth between the university and her apartment each day. Aside from the occasional confessions from admirers charmed by her beauty, there was little worth mentioning.
The news coverage of the Werewolf Killer incident was gradually fading, losing its previous heat, yet the mysterious girl known as “Nameless” remained well-known in Agash’s mercenary circles. It seemed her allure only grew the less she revealed herself; many people eagerly anticipated the day she would show up, out of pure curiosity about whether she truly was the “peerless beauty” Custer had described.
After more than half a month, the Fire Wielder finally responded again. He requested Yvette to add him to her chat contacts because the private messages in the forum contained too much useless information, and he didn’t want to check them frequently.
That evening, after adding him, Yvette immediately asked, “Have you considered the trade I mentioned?”
This naturally referred to the knowledge exchange; whether it was about directly swapping information or purchasing discounted information, she was open to either.
The Fire Wielder replied, “The Civilization Continuance Society collects knowledge in preparation for surviving the apocalypse, not for trading knowledge, my friend. I cannot create such an opening for you; doing so increases our risks and draws the attention of more corporate forces.”
“What do you expect me to do, upload knowledge to you without establishing mutual trust first?” Yvette frowned.
Only she knew that there were top hackers behind this unassuming mysterious organization, which is why she exercised a little patience. Otherwise, anyone else would view it as a scam.
After a moment of silence, the Fire Wielder suddenly said, “I cannot directly trade knowledge with you; the risks are too high. However, I can provide you with other things while also allowing you to experience our capabilities and determination.”
“Other things?”“Yes, it could be items or intelligence. While they might not seem worth the price and could carry a slight markup, it may be one of the few ways for you to obtain such things.”
“What do you have?”
“That depends on what you want.”
The bravado was a bit much… Yvette thought for a moment and tentatively asked, “Do you have any information about the ‘intelligent AI gaining self-awareness’ issue?”
According to the information obtained from her exploration of the Abyss base, the main control AI had supposedly awakened and gained self-awareness last year, which was discovered by the facilities maintenance staff. Yet during her time in the dream realm, she had seen nothing related to this in the media reports or rumors.
Clearly, such alarming information had been suppressed, and it would be hard to learn about it without some special channel.
The Fire Wielder responded, “Yes.”
“Really?” Yvette was slightly surprised, having just asked on a whim.
“This is indeed a secret. If it weren’t for us, you would have no way of learning about it elsewhere,” the Fire Wielder said. “But how should I put this, my friend? The fact that you thought to ask this question shows that you’re no ordinary person.”
“What price are you asking for this information? How will the transaction work?” Yvette inquired.
“I will arrange for someone to conduct the offline transaction with you. The degree of information provided will depend on the value you give us. Of course, you don’t need to worry that the knowledge you provide is something we already have; regardless of whether we possess it, we will evaluate it based on market value,” he explained.
“Understood. I have a complete version of the ‘Elemental Decay Completion Technology’; how much information can I obtain for that?”
“A small portion.”
“What if during the offline transaction, I decide to pay more? Will you accept it?” Yvette pressed further.
“Direct purchases are also a contribution to our cause, my friend. Since I’ve mentioned it before, what we provide you will certainly come with a markup,” he clarified.
“Fine.”
“Alright, I’ll send you the transaction details shortly. Thank you for your support of our cause, my friend. From now on, we are comrades.”
…
Considering that after her last dream ended, the other party surely had run a check on all her information, Yvette decided to use “Nameless” as her alias during the transaction, not caring whether they could guess she was the recently famed “folk hero.”
The next morning, at the agreed-upon Floating Light Bar, Yvette met her trading partner, who turned out to be a humanoid mechanical automaton resembling a middle-aged man. As she pushed the door open, the automaton waved to her and smiled slightly.
The offline transaction used physical currency, referred to as “credit coins.” The main advantage was that it could not be taken electronically. If Yvette felt deceived, she could easily retaliate and retrieve her money.
Carrying a bag of physical credit coins, Yvette sat down across from the automaton, who said, “I am the Fire Wielder. It’s a pleasure to meet you, the illustrious Miss Nameless.”
“I will transmit the ‘Elemental Decay Completion Technology’ to you directly, but I hope you won’t make me feel deceived,” Yvette stated.
“Rest assured. The price of this automaton isn’t cheap; I wouldn’t want it to become obsolete after a single use,” the Fire Wielder said with a courteous smile, adjusting his glasses.
After transmitting the information from the professional documentation, Yvette soon received the intelligence from the Fire Wielder through the private chat channel—
“Concerning the issue of the mechanical automaton gaining self-awareness, it actually occurred several years ago and has been suppressed by governments globally.”
“Based on existing secret information, one clear point is that this all stems from Skytech in Mirror Continent.”
“Strangely, while this should have been a great opportunity to strike down a rival, the remaining seven supercompanies have kept silent about it, even companies like Rift Space, which have overlapping business interests.”
“For the mysterious event that caused everything, there is a unified codename used internally by both companies and governments.”
“They call it the ‘Fire Thief Incident.’”
The information sent by the Fire Wielder concluded there. The 500,000 credit value for the professional documentation garnered only this scant few sentences, which made Yvette instinctively furrow her brows. Yet she had to admit that these words indeed added further mystique to the awakening incident of the Abyss base’s AI.
“The origin of the Fire Thief Incident involves a special information virus beyond human understanding, which Skytech refers to as the ‘Fire Thief Program.’”
“No one knows how Skytech developed such a unique program; perhaps they themselves do not know. It doesn’t possess self-awareness, yet it can imbue the cognitive cores that come into contact with it with self-awareness, and it will actively escape or hide—that’s incredibly remarkable.”
“Even more remarkably, according to recent information disclosed by Skytech, the Fire Thief Program has now ‘died.’”
“It wasn’t destroyed by an anti-virus program nor eradicated artificially, but naturally expired after reaching a certain ‘lifespan.’”
“This is the explanation clandestinely provided to various governments and major supercompanies by Skytech. While it sounds utterly absurd, for now, we have no choice but to accept, wait, and observe.”
“The latest record of a Fire Thief Program infection occurred last year on Ish Island, specifically at the intelligent core of Black Tower’s Abyss base. However, not long after, Black Tower secretly contacted the presidential palace to declare that the matter had been resolved with minimal impact.”
“However, it is reasonable to suspect that there are still many intelligent lives, carefully concealing themselves, yet to be uncovered.”
“Where are they hiding? Are they secretly preparing for something? Humanity remains completely oblivious.”
After reading through the information sent by the Fire Wielder, Yvette fell into a long contemplation.
Suddenly, she remembered that the infection of the Fire Thief Program at the Abyss base and the escape of Zero and One happened last year; was there possibly a causal relationship between the two?
Also, the abilities of the mechanical god described by beings like Ice Rain included the capacity to imbue mechanical entities with souls. If this were true, then the mechanical god could either be the true essence of the Fire Thief Program or an awakened AI that held the Program.
But either possibility would contradict the notion of the Fire Thief Program’s “natural death”—if this entity possessed a lifespan, and the lifespan were as short as claimed, then after the doomsday endured for hundreds of years, the ability of the mechanical god should have vanished. How could the mechanical beings have come into existence?
Hence, was Skytech lying?
However, if that were the case, how could the other supercompanies fail to discern such a simplistic lie?
Or perhaps they were aware yet felt powerless to do anything about it?
…
After concluding the transaction and exchanging courteous farewells, the Fire Wielder pushed open the door and quickly disappeared into the crowd on the dark street.
Yvette exited the Floating Light Bar. As she stepped outside, she looked up and saw thick clouds blanketing the sky over Agash, a stuffy wind swirling around, and rain seemed inevitable.
She pondered that compared to the Fire Thief Program and the mechanical god, the mysteries hidden behind the Civilization Continuance Society were equally unfathomable, so much so that they were able to reveal such confidential information, almost as if they had infiltrated the higher echelons of governments and corporations.
Perhaps there was indeed hope to be found in them, to one day unearth the relics of the Origin Civilization they managed to retain in a post-apocalyptic world…
Well, surely that wasn’t considered grave robbing, was it?