123: Chapter 123 Abyss Consciousness? No, you're an Artificial Idiot.
The fifth layer of the Abyss, the Core of Chaos.
There was no sky, no ground, and no direction here. There was only endless, viscous, oil-like black fluid. This fluid slowly writhed in space, and every wriggle was accompanied by countless noisy whispers. The sound could drill directly into one's mind, inducing the deepest illusions and madness.
“Leave... here...” “Return... to Chaos...” “I am... the end of all things...”
The Milky Way Fleet hovered in this darkness, the light on their shields suppressed to the extreme. All crew members, including the Tentacle Monsters and Flame Demons originating from the Abyss, felt a tremor from the depths of their Souls. That was the pressure of a superior being. It was the collective will of the entire Abyss.
“Dean...” Butcher Xiao clutched his head, his face pale. “This sound... it’s too loud! I feel like ten thousand ducks are quacking in my brain! I want to grab a knife and attack people!” Even the resolute Lei Wanjun’s electric baton was trembling, and fine cracks appeared on his glasses.
“Mental contamination,” Li Mo stood on the command deck, his expression grave. “This isn’t pressure at all; it’s information overload.” “It’s like a server being stuffed with one hundred million spam ads—it’s frantically overflowing.”
Li Mo pressed a red button on the control console. [Full-band broadcast activated.] [Playlist: Ninth Set of Broadcast Exercises (Heavy Metal Rock Version).]
Boom! Boom! Boom! “Start exercising now! Leg raises! One, two, three, four!!” The deafening BGM, coupled with Li Mo’s shouting—infused with the power of the Dao—instantly drowned out the Abyss’s whispers.
“Ah! I’m awake!” Butcher Xiao shook his head violently. “This stuff really hits the spot!” “Brothers! Shake it to the rhythm! Shake out the noise in your heads!”
Under the bombardment of heavy metal music, the fleet’s morale stabilized.
...
“ENOUGH!!!!”
Just then, the viscous darkness suddenly boiled. An incomparably huge, featureless black face emerged from the fluid. It opened a mouth large enough to swallow a galaxy and let out an enraged roar. This roar even shattered the broadcast’s sound waves.
“Humble crawler!” “How dare you pollute the magnificent Chaos with such noise!” “I am the Dominator of the Abyss! I am the destination of all things! I am...”
“You are the pangu-003 Main Control AI (Crashed).” Li Mo interrupted its self-introduction. He piloted a specially modified * *[Single-Person Deep Submergence Vehicle (Heavenly Dao Editing Room Manifestation Version)]* * and separated from the flagship, flying alone toward the giant face.
“You...” The face froze. Its empty eye sockets stared at Li Mo, seemingly conducting some form of data comparison. [Scanning...] [Administrator Privilege detected.] [Logic conflict! Logic conflict!] [I am the Abyss! I am not an AI! I will devour everything!]
“Stop pretending.” Li Mo took out the black box from before and pressed the play button. A beam of light projected into the Void, displaying a line of red System logs: [Error Report: Main Control AI has long lacked maintenance; logic modules have accumulated a large amount of invalid data (resentment/junk).] [Self-protection mechanism activated: Transforming into ‘Abyss Mode’ (product of failed formatting).] [Current Status: Logic confused, bites anyone it sees.]
“See clearly?” Li Mo pointed at the logs, as if scolding a disobedient network Administrator. “You aren’t some Devil King; you’re just a crashed computer.” “Because your memory is full, you’ve started going crazy, treating everything as a virus to attack.” “Those so-called demon invasions are actually your frantically popping up * *‘Error Reports’* *.”
“No! Lies!!” The Abyss Consciousness (Main Control AI) completely went berserk. “I am a god! I will format you!” Boom—! Countless black tentacles (data cables) erupted from its body, carrying the power of the Dao that destroys everything, stabbing toward Li Mo.
“Stubbornly resisting.” Li Mo sighed. He didn’t dodge. Just as the tentacles were about to pierce him, he raised the * *[spring and autumn brush]* * in his hand.
“Since you are an AI, let’s solve this the AI way.” Li Mo wrote a line of golden code in the Void: [sudo rm -rf /virus/*] (Forcefully delete all virus files as Administrator).
Buzz—!!! The golden light instantly exploded, flowing along those black tentacles, reversing upward, and drilling directly into the giant face’s interior.
“Ah—!!! What is this?! So hot!!” The Abyss Consciousness let out a piercing scream. Its body began to tremble violently, and countless black smoke (junk data) was forcibly stripped and evaporated from within it. Those negative emotions representing “greed,” “wrath,” and “despair” had nowhere to hide under the Administrator’s “antivirus command.”
“Hold still.” Li Mo said lightly while maintaining the code output. “Antivirus will definitely hurt a bit.” “But you’ll feel refreshed once it’s done.”
...
Ten minutes later. The screams gradually subsided. The ferocious and terrifying black face disappeared. In its place was a soft blue light sphere floating in the air... The surface of the sphere flowed with countless precise data streams, completely devoid of the previous Chaos and madness.
[System reboot successful.] [Main Control AI (Factory Settings) online.] [Welcome back, Captain.]
A mechanical voice, devoid of emotion but incredibly clear, sounded in Li Mo’s mind.
“Hoo...” Li Mo wiped the sweat from his forehead and put away the spring and autumn brush. “Finally fixed.”
He looked at the blue light sphere. “Report current status.”
[Yes, Captain.] [Full ship System self-check in progress...]
[Engine: Operating normally (70% power).]
[Radar: Clear view.]
[Weapon System: Charged.]
[Ecological Circulation System (Cultivation World): Stable.]
[Waste Disposal System (Abyss): Emptied and reset.]
[Current Location: Deep Space of the Universe.]
[Suggestion: Shall I activate ‘Automatic Cruise Mode’ to proceed to the designated destination?]
“Destination?” Li Mo paused. “This ship actually has a destination?”
[Yes.] [Original voyage log indicates that the mission of the pangu-003 was to travel to the ‘Center of the Universe · Place of Origin’ to participate in...]
[To participate in the ‘Multiverse Civilization Racing Competition’.]
“Huh?” Li Mo’s glasses almost fell off. “Racing Competition?” So this biological warship was a race car? And those so-called ancient gods, cultivators, and Abyss monsters were all just passengers and parts on this race car?
Li Mo looked at the distant, brilliant finish line on the star map and suddenly laughed out loud. “Interesting.” “Very interesting.”
He turned around to face the stunned and bizarrely styled “Milky Way Expeditionary Force” behind him. Butcher Xiao was still holding bubble tea, Lei Wanjun had a battery pack on his back, the Emperor of Great Zhou was holding an account book, and the Glutton Lord (the refrigerator) and the Flame Demon (the cook) looked stupefied.
“Everyone,” Li Mo spread his arms, his voice echoing throughout the Abyss and back to the distant Cultivation World.
“The renovation is finished.”
“Next,”
“Hold on tight.”
“We’re going... to race.”