Chapter 239: A Great Tragedy

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

“Urgent situation! Ghost signal has been detected again!”

A piece of news about the Administrator was received by many levels before it was finally delivered to the upper echelons of the various civilizations.

There were all sorts of introductions and evidence related to it, but in the end, they all had one meaning: There might be a problem with the Administrator again.

The difference between organic lifeforms and artificial intelligence made it difficult for ordinary people to understand what would happen when a mechanical body was sick, but it did not prevent them from enjoying it.

For example, there was no possibility that after a mechanical body had a mental illness, it would ignore all logic in the past and begin to attack indiscriminately.

This seemed to be a kind of evil that couldn’t be solved by idealistic means. It couldn’t be awakened by words.

This was a materialistic programming error. Perhaps only the best engineers could find a way to fix the code after overcoming all the difficulties.

The reasons and speculations about the anomaly of the Administrator had always been the focus of secret investigations by various civilizations. Many scientists had been secretly studying the Administrator and the civilization that created it.

Even if there was no large-scale transmission of the ghost signal in the Milky Way, the Milky Way civilization couldn’t stop exploring such a special lost empire.

The most widely circulated theory was that the Administrator had gradually decayed over a long period of time, and the accumulated errors in the artificial intelligence had reached their limit, causing the Administrator to produce abnormalities.

This speculation wasn’t groundless. Some mythbusters had experimented with some of the common artificial intelligence systems in the Milky Way and found that it didn’t even take as long to cause problems with artificial intelligence.

Of course, they knew that the artificial intelligence of the Administrator was definitely not something that could be compared to ordinary goods. Their experiment might not apply to a cutting-edge intelligence like the Administrator.

But who could say for sure about the river of time?

There were even malicious conspiracy theories: It was the Administrator who destroyed his creator. His current good appearance was just a disguise.

Even though this speculation was baseless and many people scoffed at it, it still showed their attitude to a certain extent.

Therefore, when the signs of the ghost signal spreading on a large scale appeared again, almost everyone turned their attention to the Administrator.

After all, the last time something like this happened was when the Administrator was acting strangely.

The destructive and infectious power of the ghost signal was obvious to all. Everyone knew that this strange signal virus could theoretically infect any electronic device.

Even if the Administrator didn’t seem to need to use such methods to destroy them, they still had to take responsibility for themselves.

“I knew it! That artificial intelligence definitely had bad intentions! Now, he had revealed his true colors, right? I propose that the Administrator be nominated as a calamity! Otherwise, when it makes its move, we won’t have another chance!”

In the Galaxy Community, some people who hated robots and artificial intelligence filed such a lawsuit.

A small portion of them were sincere and extreme idealists. These people viewed all artificial intelligence as blasphemy, even if the other party was the Administrator who had saved the Milky Way.

The other part was the schemers. Their target was not the Administrator but the other artificial intelligence civilizations in the galaxy. The guardian was just an excuse to lead them to the next proposal.

Although the proposal to appoint the Administrator as a natural disaster seemed to be justified, there were still many sober and neutral people in the galaxy.

“Are the cells that fill your barren brain tissue called discrimination, stiffness, and self-judgment? If the Administrator wanted to destroy you, would he have to spend so much effort? Even if all of us in the Milky Way attacked together, we wouldn’t be able to beat them!”

The Pyro Alliance was the first to express their opposition. Their words were extremely fierce, just like what they had done in the past.

They expressed that unless the Administrator sent a battleship to bomb their planet, they would never do anything that could make the Administrator their enemy.

Those who were neutral stated that they wanted to talk about evidence. They objectively did not support this topic.

Therefore, the nominees began to boast and announce the information related to the ghost signal that they had collected internally.

“As you can see, the waveform of this signal is very similar to the ghost signal. Even its function and transmission speed are almost the same. Our scientists believe that the possibility of this being a ghost signal is more than 80%. It’s very likely to be a variant of the ghost signal…”

“You also know that it’s a variant of ghost signal, so how can you be so sure that it was released by the Administrator? Could it be that some civilization in the ATilky Way deliberately released it to create chaos?”

Some representatives felt that the reason was not sufficient and hoped that they could produce more evidence. However, the person who proposed the motion sneered and said,

“I’ll say it here. If this wasn’t caused by the Administrator, I will…”

Before he finished, the entire venue of the Galaxy Community, including the representative who was speaking, was suddenly in a daze, as if they had received a message.

After a while, the expressions on the faces of all the representatives present changed slightly. They looked at each other and confirmed that the other party knew about this matter. Then, they all looked at the representative in the middle of the venue who had just been spouting nonsense.

The representative was also stunned for a moment. After a moment of hesitation, he returned to his seat without saying a word.

The entire universal community fell into silence. Every representative was thinking about the message from the mother planet just now.

[ Discovered ghost signal is spreading in the galaxy. The source is… The Administrator! ]

At first, everyone thought that the special signal that had an unknown origin and was very similar to the ghost signal was actually the Administrator’s ghost signal, except that it had undergone a slight change.

But now, the real ghost signal seemed to have just begun to spread.

They all thought of the same thing: Was this a sign of the Administrator’s corruption, or was he stepping forward again?

Li Wenyuan, who was at the center of the incident, didn’t expect that the Milky Way Civilization had already made up a complete set of background stories for him.

His idea of using the ghost signal was very simple. At the moment, he could not use the Observation Terminal. Perhaps he could use the strong spread of the ghost signal to find traces of the active purification agreement.

Compared to the privacy that could be spied on by the ghost signal, the active purification agreement was obviously more important. After all, in theory, the active purification agreement was also artificial intelligence and was within the range of the ghost signal.

He still hadn’t thought of how to explain to the Milky Way what the upcoming Milky Way Exam was about. He couldn’t just tell them that there was once a race called humans who felt that you were trash and set up such an exam to test the progress of civilization. Those who didn’t pass would go back to the aboriginal era and practice again.

However, a certain sociological technology on the technology tree gave him the idea of using this Milky Way Exam.

[ Sociological Experiment: The Great Tragedy ]

[ Technology Level: 3 ]

[ Introduction: Tragedies of excellence can often resonate with living creatures. Through guidance, this emotional fluctuation could perhaps be transformed into the power of life. The tragedy is not only about destruction and hatred but also sacrifice and dedication. A tragedy that is great enough will sublimate life. If the impact is far-reaching enough, it is not impossible to rebuild the collective spirit. ]

[ Possible technology: Theory of the Social Stage (researched) ]

This was the source of his idea. He could carefully design a story to ignite the determination of the Milky Way civilization to move forward. Even if only a few civilizations could achieve it, it would be better than waiting for them to self-destruct and self-improve for a long time.

After that, he could also complete the perfect ending. Releasing the ghost signal to find the active purification agreement was only the first step.

“I still need to carefully plan which nodes to take action at. 1 don’t know how’s the Active Evolution Agreement. Hmm?”

Li Wenyuan, who was still designing the script for the story, was suddenly stunned because he received unexpected news.

“This signal seems to be of the same origin as the ghost signal. There should be no other civilization in the Milky Way that can replicate such a signal. It is most likely that the active purification agreement did not run away… But why did it come so quickly? It doesn’t seem to be the scheduled time yet, right?”

Li Wenyuan sent the signal into the core database tentatively. Then, he realized that the countdown started to decrease rapidly. Soon, there were only a few months left.

Even though it had not started yet, this abnormality clearly showed that this signal similar to the ghost signal was a prerequisite for the Milky Way Civilizations’ Pressure Resistance Test, which also meant that the Milky Way Crisis was coming.

However, he did not panic. Instead, he felt that he had waited for a long time..