528: Chapter 528 Progress of the Investigation

Konks's days in Aetherland gradually became like walking a tightrope.

On the surface, he was a diligent and studious exchange scholar from the Eastern Federation, discussing problems with his mentor and chatting about life with colleagues.

On weekends, he would visit meticulously arranged exhibitions in the city center; everything was as a friendly messenger of civilization should be.

But privately, he spent almost all his free time on two things.

The first was continuing his silent and subtle socializing.

His targets were people like Kevin—old enough to have experienced the chaotic period around the Purification War, not completely numb to the current situation, and occasionally showing a hint of something being wrong.

He no longer directly asked sensitive historical questions but chatted about domestic matters.

Chatting about their lives when they were young, what the labs were like back then, and stories of their fathers' generation.

Most of the time the harvest was limited, but occasionally he could pick up one or two keywords.

The second thing was to continue observing.

Observing everything in the laboratory: instruments, processes, people, and those ubiquitous bionic assistants.

The Void's bionic technology was indeed impressive. Exquisite appearance, smooth movements, capable of complex tasks from cleaning vessels and moving materials to assisting in standardized experimental operations.

They were silent and efficient. At least, 99% of the time.

Because Konks noticed that 1%.

Once, he finished a long experiment and didn't leave until the early morning.

Passing through the empty public experimental area, he saw a bionic assistant wiping the central lab bench.

Its movements were standard and steady. After wiping the surface with a disinfectant cloth, it should have put the cloth into the recovery slot and then headed to the next area to be cleaned according to the program.

But that bionic, after putting the cloth in the recovery slot, its mechanical arm hovered over the slot for about a second.

It was very brief. If Konks hadn't happened to be a bit distracted due to fatigue and followed it unconsciously with his gaze, he might not have noticed at all.

For that one second, the bionic's face, which had a blue observation band, showed no change. But the posture of its entire body revealed a strange sense of stagnation.

It didn't look like it was waiting for the next command, but more like it was lost in thought.

The next second, it returned to normal.

Konks didn't dare look more at the time and walked away pretending nothing happened, but the more he thought about it after returning, the more something felt wrong.

He specifically observed other bionics and even stayed in the lab at different times over the following days to observe their cleaning processes.

He never saw the same stagnation again, and the bionic's subsequent performance was completely normal.

Was it a sporadic program error? Or something else?

This question made him interested in the Void's AI and bionic technology.

Using the Advanced permissions he got from Kevin, he accessed all the documents in the lab regarding the "principles" of bionic technology.

Most were just operation manuals and maintenance guides.

There was almost zero elaboration on their consciousness models, decision logic, or autonomous learning capabilities. The vocabulary used was mostly "spiritual circuits bestowed by high heaven," "faith-driven harmony logic," and "simulated wisdom resonating with the biofield."

Pure fucking nonsense.

Konks studied biology, but he also had a basic understanding of artificial intelligence and robotics.

The Eastern Federation's AI was already very strong, capable of controlling massive starships, fully automatically managing super-cities with tens of millions of people, and engaging in complex artistic creation.

The latest AI technology, in terms of physical interaction, situational understanding, and especially those personified details, was only twenty years behind the Intelligent Machines extensively used by the Company in Penacony.

This required not just powerful algorithms and computing power, but also a deep understanding of fundamental issues like consciousness, physical perception, and emotion-driven interaction logic, as well as the ability to engineer these understandings.

The Eastern Federation could do this because of that magical place, Penacony, which could be used to study Xuanhuan things like consciousness and perception.

But the Shankong Civilization, a civilization that performed mediocrely in other basic science fields and was even somewhat lopsided and seriously lacking in understanding the 'why' behind things, how could it achieve such an abrupt Breakthrough in the technological high ground of AI and bionics?

He found an opportunity, while discussing a topic about neural signal conversion with his mentor, the chief scientist Alva, to seemingly casually steer the conversation there.

"Mentor, I've always been curious about our bionic assistants. Their movement coordination and task adaptability are too outstanding."

"Especially that ability to adapt to unstructured environments; it's simply incredible."

"I'm curious, what kind of architecture is their 'consciousness' or decision core based on? Is it some new type of neural network model, or based on—"

Before he could finish, the usual gentle expression on Alva's face vanished instantly.

Following that was a cold rigidity.

He stared at Konks, his eyes devoid of any of the warmth from the academic discussion just now.

"Con," Alva's voice was very low, but every word hit like a stone, "that is a mystery of high heaven, a manifestation of grace, a Domain you should not investigate."

After saying that, he seemed to realize his reaction was a bit excessive and softened his tone slightly: "Bionics are tools, tools bestowed upon us by high heaven to help us build a harmonious society. We only need to learn how to use them and be grateful for this gift."

"As for how they work, that is not something a Mortal should or has the ability to understand. Do you understand?"

Konks immediately nodded, an apologetic look of realization on his face: "I understand, Mentor. I was too curious and forgot the boundaries. Thank you for the reminder."

Alva nodded, said nothing more, and turned to go about his business.

But the sudden change in his expression at that moment and that phrase "mystery of high heaven" were deeply remembered by Konks.

There was definitely something fishy about the bionics.

If the bionics' abnormality and the mentor's reaction only made him suspicious, then what happened next made him feel a real chill.

His laboratory partner, a young female Void researcher named Elwen, suddenly disappeared.

They were doing experiments together and discussing data just the day before, and Elwen had even whispered a complaint that the quality of a certain culture medium recently allocated seemed a bit unstable.

The next day, her workstation was empty. All personal items had been cleared away, leaving it as clean as new, as if no one had ever worked there.

Konks asked the colleague next door: "Where's Elwen? Is she on leave?"

That colleague's eyes flickered, and they lowered their head, their voice vague: "She... was transferred."

"Transferred? Transferred where? The project isn't finished yet."

The colleague stopped talking and just shook their head.

Soon, there was an official explanation in the lab, announced nonchalantly by the project leader during a group meeting.

"Researcher Elwen has left this project group for personal reasons. Her work will be taken over by Bico. Everyone, don't be affected and keep working hard."

Personal reasons? Konks didn't believe a word of it.

Elwen was very dedicated to her work and had never mentioned leaving.

Privately, he asked several other young researchers who usually had a good relationship with Elwen, but he only got evasive glances and vague answers.

Finally, he got a clue from an elderly master who managed consumables in the equipment room.

After Konks helped him move a box of heavy reagents, he muttered while panting.

"That child Elwen... what a pity. I heard she was found at home to have hidden forbidden books and said some disrespectful things about the Holy Scriptures. She was reported."

"People from the Committee came and took her away directly. They said she was sent to the Purification Center in her hometown, Yose."

"Sigh, such a good child, why couldn't she just let it go..."

Purification Center—this term made a chill run down Konks's spine.

He had occasionally seen this term while checking sealed historical records. It was usually associated with thought correction and Soul reshaping, described vaguely but with a sinister atmosphere.

Elwen questioning the Holy Scriptures? Konks recalled the moments he spent with her.

Elwen indeed didn't constantly talk about high heaven's grace like many other Void researchers. She was more focused on the experiments themselves, the data, and the results.

Once, when only the two of them were checking a set of data, she looked at the reference model provided by the Eastern Federation on the screen and suddenly asked in a low voice.

"Con, how did your Eastern Federation scientists know these things back then? I mean, these protein structures, these metabolic pathways—did you have revelations like us, or did you figure them out bit by bit yourselves?"

Her voice was very light, carrying a pure curiosity and even a hint of confusion.

At that time, Konks just smiled and briefly talked about the history of the Eastern Federation's scientific development. Elwen listened very seriously and didn't say anything more.

Thinking about it now, that phrase "how did you know these things" might have been part of the evidence against her.

In Shankong society, having a curiosity about the source of knowledge that transcends high heaven's revelation is itself a taboo, a sacrilege.