Chapter 46 Catching Bugs in the Game

"Let us go into the game to catch bugs?"

At that day's class meeting, Cheshire's sudden announcement caught everyone off guard.

Just like what Mu Chen had said a few days ago, they would soon find out.

They just didn't expect to find out this way.

The school itself announced the events occurring in the game; they even had to participate in dealing with this extremely cunning Zerg.

How could a Zerg's mental strength remain in the game for so long and retain its consciousness to wreak havoc?!

They didn't understand and were greatly shocked!

Then, they became eager to try!

This time, the military didn't seem to be participating, leaving it only to the military students from various schools, saying it was an opportunity for them to train.

Hearing this, Mingmei couldn't quite figure out whether the situation in the game was under control, allowing them to practice.

Killing a real Zerg in the game might not be as good as in reality, but it was still a Zerg. If they really caught one, as Cheshire had said, if they were lucky, their military rank upon graduation would be raised.

For a moment, they were all making various guesses about the Zerg's identity.

What kind of bug is this, so valuable that catching one would earn them a medal?

Only Lu Gui was not included in this.

When he learned that the Zerg's mental strength had been in the game long enough to belong to the Xingyan Zerg (Star Flame Zerg), he already had a guess.

This Zerg might be the one that perished together with his father!

It's just that this guy was really lucky to have survived in the game for so long!

"The game pods for entering the game will be provided by the school; you cannot use your own game pods afterward."

"Why?"

Hearing Cheshire say this, the others were also slightly stunned.

Why couldn't they use their own game pods?

"Because there are no protective devices. If you encounter the fleeing Zerg, your mental strength won't have special protection. If you fail to fight it, your mental strength could be directly destroyed, just like those people who became vegetables from playing games that were reported online before."

Cheshire explained very clearly, "These game pods were made with great difficulty to prevent you from having accidents in the game without being able to safely exit."

After Cheshire said this, Mingmei realized that she had misunderstood earlier.

Regardless of how chaotic the game was or whether it could be controlled, what they could do was prepare to safely exit in case of failure!

"Then… are those players really going to be like that for the rest of their lives?"

They had heard about the incident with this game some time ago, but they didn't have time to investigate deeply, and they didn't know if the internet was exaggerating.

Now, learning that those people really might become vegetables due to mental damage, they couldn't help but sigh.

"Not necessarily. It depends on whether their mental strength was truly destroyed in the game, or if… their consciousness was just captured and unable to return to their bodies. If you can find those players' consciousnesses while searching for the Zerg's traces in the game, you might be able to save them."

"Ah, that's pretty good… Then, will this count towards our academic credit?"

At this time, someone was still concerned about academic credit.

"Yes, it will. This time, because of this Zerg, there have been considerable negative effects in the entire game. Besides the Zerg, you are likely to encounter other malicious NPCs in the game."

"Oh, great…"

Everyone looked at each other, feeling somewhat uneasy.

"Do we have a choice about which game to enter?"

"No, but the system will send you into the games where the Zerg passed through and left traces."

…

Outside, there was more and more discussion about the accident caused by Yan Hui's game company. Some even questioned why such games with hidden dangers existed, and that NPC consciousness awakening was a joke.

Recently, the topic had even been brought up to #What if AI Has Consciousness?# On the most popular discussion below, someone mentioned the Main Brain (Zhu Nao).

Although there were no dirty words, anyone could see the sarcasm and the attempt to provoke the relationship between humans and silicon-based life.

These words did indeed elicit a lot of dissatisfaction with the Main Brain and artificial intelligences, things that should serve humans but sometimes impose various restrictions on them because they have consciousness.

Some people even brought up extreme cases, such as artificial intelligences sending their hosts to the police station.

Someone secretly used his wife's money to support a mistress outside, and his artificial intelligence recorded it and sent it to his wife, and then reported it to the authorities.

Besides this, there were also cases of moral flaws. For example, a pet store owner liked to take off his clothes and dance lewdly in front of the star pets after closing the store at night. The artificial intelligence thought the host was too sick and directly scheduled an appointment with a psychologist for him.

In fact, in these situations, there was something wrong with the people, and the artificial intelligences were just making reasonable choices based on their behavior.

However, those with a guilty conscience avoided artificial intelligences, which were more advanced than light brains or systems with specific functions.

[Laughing to death, it would be fine if your artificial intelligence was on your side, but the key is that many intelligences are only loyal to the Main Brain!]

However, some people with ulterior motives were fanning the flames below, directly describing artificial intelligences as dogs of the Main Brain.

Many artificial intelligences scoffed at these comments when they saw them.

They wanted to do it, but the Main Brain didn't want them ＿(：3」∠)_

Another group of people cited Yan Hui's company's game as an example of NPCs awakening consciousness.

They said that what they created was actually a batch of artificial intelligences, and now the artificial intelligences were rebelling.

[Bullshit! My artificial intelligence is very good. Do you know how precious artificial intelligence is?]

[Yeah, have a bunch of losers even seen an AI? Do you know how much it costs to create one? How difficult is it to apply for one?]

[An AI is like a family member. You guys are giving examples of hosts cheating and the AI reporting them. Don't you think it's because there's something wrong with you? Why are you blaming the AI?]

[Yeah, who dances naked in front of star beasts? Isn't it normal for your AI to care and suspect that you have a mental problem?]

Some netizens who owned artificial intelligences were unhappy and directly argued with those people online, without any fear.

The residents of Hua Lan Star Region were also firm allies of intelligent life. Their rapid rise to catch up with the interstellar residents of other star regions was inseparable from their choice to stand with the awakened artificial intelligences and the Main Brain with personal consciousness.

Now that so many strange comments suddenly appeared online, they couldn't help but suspect that these were conspiracies targeting the Main Brain and the residents of Hua Lan Star Region.

The internet was in chaos, and the game company remained silent.

Afterward, Mingmei and the others also began to face a game they were once extremely familiar with, but now it might have been completely changed.

Mingmei looked at the interface before entering the game, which didn't seem to have changed much.

She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that it still showed the mysterious merchant NPC.

[Host, it seems something has entered your mysterious merchant database. Although I reacted as quickly as possible and added protection, it seems that the section about your settings in the game has been seen.]

Before entering the game, Gui Gui (Ghost Ghost) told Mingmei this.

"What impact will this have?"

[Maybe after entering the game, because your identity settings are naturally close to players, some NPCs might see you as an enemy, and then…] Gui Gui paused and said, [You are likely to face a kill at the beginning.]

Mingmei: …?