Embers Ad Infinitum

Chapter 271: Real and Fake

This howl didn’t affect the Superior Heartless. Long Yuehong wasn’t aware of anything else, but he knew that his face was blank.

Is this fellow trying to communicate with the target in beast language? But the problem is that you don’t know the language either!

On the other side, the corners of Jiang Baimian’s mouth stiffened for a few seconds before she recovered.

It had to be said that Shang Jianyao had exceeded her expectations again. Of course, Shang Jianyao’s actions were logical in a certain sense.

Being beasts didn’t mean that they were completely unintelligent and only had instincts. They could also use roars, actions, and the postures of their tails to communicate with similar creatures to a certain extent.

Cooperation was an objective phenomenon among many beasts.

If even beasts were like this, there was no need to mention humans who had contracted the Heartless disease and suffered a degeneration in their intelligence.

Based on this inference, he could indeed attempt to communicate with Heartless in a way that they could understand to reach the criteria for Inference Clowning to work.

The problem was that no human scholar had studied how Heartless communicated or cooperated in groups to figure out what their different roars and body language meant.

Furthermore, this was a race that had existed for a very short period of time. It was still a question if they had developed their own forms of communication.

In Swamp Ruin 1, Jiang Baimian had noticed a similar situation, but it was far from normal. It was a special case formed under Xiaochong’s influence, and it couldn’t be spread.

In addition, it was unlikely for the Superior Heartless to spontaneously produce its own beast language and body language if it kept acting alone after contracting the disease.

In other words, regardless of whether Shang Jianyao had grasped the Heartless language, the other party definitely couldn’t understand his roar.

It’s useless... Jiang Baimian was just about to say that when Shang Jianyao changed his words.

“Anyone who comes clean gets treated with leniency; anyone who holds back the truth gets treated harshly. Abandon your fantasies and accept reality.” He held the loudspeaker and shouted in different directions, but no creature came out to ‘surrender’ themselves.

After thinking about it for a while, or perhaps he had his fair share of fun, Shang Jianyao directed his voice at the mountain path again with the loudspeaker, communicating with the target he had in mind.

“Look, you are a man, and so am I. You have a persistence that you can’t let go of, and so do I. So...” As his voice echoed, the mountain range fell silent.

Shang Jianyao constantly changed the areas he could exert his influence on. He repeated it over and over again, but he didn’t receive a response.

“It seems like it won’t work...” Jiang Baimian exhaled.

“You can’t blindly believe that.” Shang Jianyao familiarly used the Vigilance Church’s mantra before grafting the Clam Dragon Church’s philosophy. “This might just be an illusion.”

“If it’s an illusion, it means that it’s useless. Otherwise, we would’ve already escaped the illusion.” In this regard, Jiang Baimian was still meticulous and logical.

“I mean, what I just did and said are just your hallucinations. Actually, I didn’t even move.” Shang Jianyao was very argumentative.

Jiang Baimian couldn’t be bothered with him. She discussed the matter with Long Yuehong and Bai Chen and considered the feasibility of other plans.

At this moment, Shang Jianyao sighed regretfully. “Unfortunately, I didn’t try to deceive the fake Bai Xiao when I was chatting with him.”

This... Jiang Baimian was stunned for a moment as an idea flashed across her mind.

She asked Shang Jianyao and the others for confirmation, “Who do you think played the fake Bai Xiao we talked to back then?”

“The Superior Heartless, of course.” Long Yuehong found the question baffling. Furthermore, they had long discussed it.

He began to suspect if he was hallucinating again like yesterday.

Jiang Baimian nodded. “We previously said that the fake Bai Xiao, Lin Tong, and company was simulated by the Superior Heartless. However, he can’t predict what we would ask or say, especially with a fellow like Shang Jianyao around—who has a doctor’s certification. In the illusion he created back then, there were questions, answers, reasonable expressions, and normal reactions. Apart from not knowing the relatively private matters, it was extremely real. Does this look like something a person without intelligence and only has animal instincts can do?”

Creating illusions was a skill.

“Team Leader, your judgment back then was that the Superior Heartless’s subconscious was close to an artificial intelligence state. Through gathering signals from the outside world, he can obtain the necessary reactions from his massive memory bank.” Long Yuehong reminded Jiang Baimian that this was a question they had discussed.

Bai Chen thought for a moment and replied, “Therefore, he acted more like a human in an illusion.”

“Yes.” Jiang Baimian laughed. “That’s not the point now. What’s important is that if we talk to a fake in an illusion, won’t it be equivalent to communicating with the Superior Heartless?”

Long Yuehong thought for a moment and said, “In theory.”

“Similarly, the fake person in the illusion is equivalent to a part of his consciousness, and it’s the kind that can ‘communicate.'” Jiang Baimian continued, “This is communication stemming from a large database. But no matter what, it’s better than having communication impossible where you don’t understand me, and I don’t understand you.”

Bai Chen revealed a thoughtful expression. “Team Leader, are you saying that Shang Jianyao can directly use Inference Clowning to influence the Superior Heartless through his conversation with the fake person?”

“But isn’t this equivalent to using Inference Clowning on Artificial Intelligence?” Long Yuehong looked at Shang Jianyao. “I remember Shang Jianyao saying that he can’t sense consciousness from Genava and the others and can’t exert any influence with his abilities.”

Jiang Baimian laughed. “Didn’t you say so yourself? Genava and the others don’t have consciousnesses, but the Superior Heartless does! Since most of the prerequisites are in place, the only thing missing is whether comprehension is possible. I think the chances of success are quite high, and it’s worth trying.”

“That’s my intention.” Shang Jianyao—who had been listening—nodded in satisfaction.

“Heh, you can be the team leader then!” Jiang Baimian laughed from anger.

This fellow looked like a leader.

Shang Jianyao immediately turned his head and looked at Long Yuehong. “Have you not changed your pants?”

“...” Long Yuehong almost vomited blood.

Jiang Baimian provided a suggestion. “At a time like this, you should say: ‘Everything is but a dream; why so serious? Maybe it’s just your illusion that I didn’t change my pants.'”

But it’s really uncomfortable wearing it... Long Yuehong quickly took out another pair of pants from his tactical backpack and entered the jeep to change.

After coming out, he couldn’t help but complain. “Why is that Superior Heartless constantly targeting us? He kept creating illusions and didn’t go to Abbess Zhou and the others.”

Jiang Baimian revealed a thoughtful expression. “That’s a good question.”

From her accustomed point of view, Bai Chen deliberated and said, “Maybe it’s because he thinks we’re the weakest and the most suitable for a breakthrough.”

“That’s a sad answer.” Jiang Baimian laughed self-deprecatingly. “That’s true. Everywhere else has a combination of a religion and a robot team. Perhaps the Kalendarium—Shattered Mirror, Door of Scorching, and Golden Scale—provide a form of deterrence.”

“Is that so?” Shang Jianyao clenched his right fist and punched his left palm.

He quickly found a large piece of paper and a fountain pen. He then drew something on the jeep’s window.

Long Yuehong stole a few curious glances, but he failed because Shang Jianyao’s body blocked it.

After a while, Shang Jianyao put away his pen and clipped the piece of paper to the door facing Mount Chilar.

Compared to before, there were many more patterns on the white paper. They were: a simple baby picture, a featureless face, an iron tower, a pair of eyes like the sun, a furnace with a door, a woman hiding in the shadows behind a door, a dragon symbol, and a scale.

“We’re safe now.” Shang Jianyao nodded in satisfaction.

One, two, three... Long Yuehong silently counted eight Sacred Emblems.

Jiang Baimian naturally didn’t believe in such a method, but she had to admit that it amused her and made her feel a little better.

“I remember that there are some Kalendarium and some religions that seem incompatible like they are fire and water. There’s a great deal of conflict.” From a reasonable perspective, Bai Chen evaluated Shang Jianyao’s Blessings from all Kalendarium pictures.

“They won’t fuss over such matters at a time like this,” Shang Jianyao replied on behalf of the Kalendarium with an abnormally sincere expression.

It was unknown if this really worked or if the Superior Heartless had already changed targets, but the Old Task Force didn’t encounter any hallucinatory effects until the next morning.

Long Yuehong was very happy about this. He didn’t think he could defeat the ‘death experience’ brought about by the hallucinations.

After the sun leaped out of the horizon, a robot guard came from Tarnan with many auxiliary combat robots, prepared to take over the Old Task Force’s duties and stand guard for the new day.

After the handover, Long Yuehong heaved a sigh of relief and got into the car first, turning the jeep around.

At this moment, Shang Jianyao said to the robot guard, “Look, you are a man, and so am I. You have a persistence that you can’t let go of, and so do I. So...”

Ha, why are you using Inference Clowning on a robot? Just as this thought flashed through Long Yuehong’s mind, he saw the robot guard and the auxiliary robots disappear instantly!

“This...” Long Yuehong’s pupils suddenly dilated.

The next second, he realized that the jeep wasn’t facing Tarnan but the intersection with the most land mines!

He looked around in confusion and saw that the sky was still dark. Only the light bulbs that provided illumination for the wooden tablets and mirrors were still lit.

An illusion... I wonder when we started hallucinating... Fortunately, Shang Jianyao is a persistent person and doesn’t forget what needs to be done... Long Yuehong quickly woke up and exhaled like he had just survived a disaster.

Bai Chen had a similar reaction.

Jiang Baimian looked around and nodded slightly. “This illusion is a little impressive. It can actually affect how we sense the passage of time...”

Before she could finish speaking, she realized that Shang Jianyao had fallen into deep thought.

“What’s on your mind?” Jiang Baimian asked curiously.

Shang Jianyao replied seriously, “I’m wondering if I made friends with him.”