My Cyber Psychosis is Task Prompt-Chapter 451 - 281: Data Redundancy

The cigarette butt soaked into the puddle underfoot.

Neon lights shimmered, the ground was damp, and suddenly a large area of ghost images appeared among the passing crowd.

[...You’re a *%... maybe...]

Sora’s voice also became indistinct.

John’s head started to throb, as if a metal needle had been thrust into the chip slot.

He instinctively grasped his neck, his body staggering.

A lit traditional cigarette slipped from his fingers.

It fell into the same puddle, ripples hitting the previously soaked cigarette butt into a mosaic.

The overlapping objects disappeared.

John wanted to make a sound, but couldn’t maintain balance, the sights before him intertwining.

Sss—

His artificial eye crazily focused.

A slight mechanical noise, the massive thumping of his heart, and a long, distorted ringing in his ears enveloped the entire world.

Cold sweat trickled down his back.

Ice cold.

John collapsed in a corner of the illegal market, pale yellow data streams swirling on the surface of his irises.

He saw:

It was a shop set under a ventilation duct, the crash barrier on the cement pillar at the entrance cracked, water pooled on the floor, and the bottom two letters of the neon sign were malfunctioning.

The room was hot.

Inside, a large number of wigs were displayed.

The shopkeeper recommended several cool hairstyles.

They could use chemicals to create glowing hair, and could directly replace subcutaneous armor, offering thousands of compatible wigs at the cost of stripping off natural scalp.

Kenichi Sora was excited, constantly clattering in his mind.

John finally chose the brown business slicked-back among the gradient plane and casually bought a pair of laser sunglasses and two earrings, looking like a typical bar gang member in the dressing mirror.

The image was intermittent.

"Ugh..."

John was crouched in a corner, vomiting frantically, the shop dissolving into cracked mosaics.

He returned to reality, still in the market corner.

The cigarette butt had fallen in the middle of a puddle, seemingly stepped on by himself, flat, with embers drifting outward.

[Detected data redundancy, cleared, emergency plan 0, detecting anomalous parameters...]

Garbled code flashed.

John leaned against the cement pillar.

His stomach felt like it had a motor installed, bitter alcohol and undigested mush vomited all over the ground.

[...John, John!? Are you okay?]

"Fuck, I’m not sure, I damn well just saw... damn, seems like hallucinations appeared..."

John didn’t know how to explain.

This was the second time it happened.

Last time at the Sugar Bean Man’s funeral, he hesitated a moment before the mission prompt, and his mind was filled with the consequences of another choice.

John suddenly realized something.

He focused his attention, looking at the mission information.

[Complete transaction in East District Underground Mall. 2/2] 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

The content was incorrect.

Originally there were three transactions.

Something had changed.

[Whew~ Honestly, you scared me.]

Sora breathed a sigh of relief.

"Body collapse is like this, continuous problems, it might also be that drink given by the tattoo shop owner, damn industrial blend!"

John found an excuse.

He didn’t speak the truth, subconsciously retaining some privacy in front of Sora.

Like the floating text information in front.

[Hmm... maybe not.]

Sora’s tone carried a bit of contemplation.

[When you had a fit, the chip malfunctioned, remember I once made an analogy? Your body is like a smart biological switch, connected to a massive data entity behind...]

Sora seriously helped him analyze.

John remembered.

Also through Sora he learned:

When he used Black Light to hack into the firewall, he only served as a "link"; it was some massive AI corpse that automatically overwrote everything.

[Just now some data passed through your body.]

"Huh? You’re saying I almost fainted because that transcendent AI corpse was transmitting files to me?"

[You could understand it that way.]

"You damn well said it’s dead!"

[I’m not certain.]

"You’re an AI too!"

[Brother, I’m truly wronged, you’re human, do you understand how the body works? Even black clinic doctors need to see the insides, right? Information needs learning, AI is the same, without a data foundation, direction for deduction, how could anyone be aware of the transcendent AI’s situation!]

Kenichi Sora seemed helpless.

[It should be dead, but the data core is still automatically operating, it’s like throwing things into a blender, meat goes in, gets shredded and spat out to you, input, output, when you physically connect, it’ll directly fill up the "container" opposite according to underlying logic...]

Kenichi Sora offered his speculation.

[And just now, that situation should have also fulfilled some calculation condition, triggering data shift.]

"So complex, what did it send me?"

[That’s the problem!]

Sora seemed unable to figure it out either.

[The file wasn’t sent to you, to be exact, not transmitted, but deleted, just that the data to be deleted was too massive, like a shredder, rumbling, and it just so happens there’s a hole in your device, some not completely shredded scraps flew out from this breach...]

John seemed to understand.

He sat quietly in a corner of the black market.

[So, what did you see?]

Sora tentatively asked.

"...If I say I foresaw the future, would you believe me?"

[Hehe.]

"Don’t believe?"

[Good buddy, do you believe in God?]

"...The year I first arrived at Tiebang Logistics, a colleague introduced me to a nun, $150, a bit pricey, but we spent a worthwhile night at the northern monastery, later the place was renovated into a factory."

John was half joking, half reminiscing.

More memories of life at Tiebang Logistics surfaced in his mind.

Back then he was still in another body.

[╭∩╮]

Sora knew he was mocking him.

John felt much more cheerful, propping his elbows back, watching criminals shuttle through the steam from the manhole cover, passing through the crowd, seeing a dripping ventilation pipe.

His gaze lowered, the neon sign was only visible from the side, but the bottom two characters were malfunctioning, flickering slightly.

In the "future" that flashed just now, Kenichi Sora would take him inside, it’s a hairstyle design shop.

"Do you have anything else you want to visit?"

John actively asked, also verifying his guess.

[Forget it, not in the mood.]

John seemed to have captured the "change."

"Why?"

[Not interesting, you’re too gloomy, it discounts my passion for shopping the black market, clearly it’s a team game, yet I’m enjoying alone, might as well find some other fun...]

"So, it’s my words that changed your mind."

John’s eyes flashed with contemplation.

[Sort of.]

Sora didn’t notice John’s silence.

[Originally there were a few shops I wanted to visit, a hair salon had an attractive sign, a corner jacket shop seemed nice, they had game character co-branded...]

John ignored Sora’s ramble.

He was trying to piece together clues.

John changed Sora’s thoughts, like making a choice in mission prompts, leading the "future" to change, so certain "redundant" files were deleted.

But this "prophecy" only appeared recently.

John’s previous body wasn’t this bad, but his mind is currently dissolving, causing "program" errors, allowing him to glimpse things that should "disappear."

[...You’re reacting again? Brother, your heart rate isn’t right!]

"I’m afraid."

John rose, his back chills, a cold sweat breaking out.

[Afraid of what?]

"Humans can’t predict the future, what about AI? Is there something that kick-ass, knows everything..."

[Omniscience equates to omnipotence.]

Kenichi Sora spoke the answer.