Chapter 44: The Forty-Fourth Cup

Chapter 44: The Forty-Fourth Cup

The command center meeting ended, and the attendees began to file out one by one. Yi Luo darted out of the room and headed straight for the cafeteria.

— Acting out his eagerness for food.

Xing Yue called out behind him, "Yi Luo."

Yi Luo reluctantly stopped and turned back, offering a polite smile, "Captain Xing, what's up?"

He pointed towards the cafeteria, "Let's talk while we walk; if we're late, there won't be any good meat left."

Xing Yue looked at him speechlessly for a moment before stepping forward to catch up.

They walked side by side, with Xing Yue glancing sideways at Yi Luo’s seemingly normal profile.

Not being someone skilled at guessing others' thoughts or beating around the bush, he asked straightforwardly, "After the meeting, you're not worried anymore, right?"

"The command center isn’t planning to assign He Wuning to assist anyone else and is even planning to help him as much as possible. Can you put your mind at ease now?"

"Relieved, relieved," Yi Luo nodded perfunctorily, "Hey, watch where you’re going!"

Before Yi Luo could finish speaking, Xing Yue collided with the sign in the cafeteria that read "No Food Waste," making a loud thud.

"Hiss." Yi Luo shook his head, "I told you to watch your step."

He swiftly moved to the front of the serving window, leaned in, and flashed a charming smile that always pleased middle-aged ladies, "Auntie, two portions, please, and make it generous."

"Sure thing," the serving auntie responded enthusiastically, looking at Yi Luo and asking kindly, "Why haven't I seen you here for meals lately? Been busy on missions?"

"Mm-hmm," Yi Luo replied, "Everything's fine except I've been missing the cafeteria food."

The serving auntie beamed, "Oh, well, since you're back, you should eat more! Are these two portions for yourself?"

"No," Yi Luo smiled, "One portion is for my little master."

The serving auntie's eyes sparkled with curiosity, but Yi Luo didn't linger. He carried the bowls to a table, and Xing Yue, holding his nose, approached with a complex expression, "You're still not leaving?"

"Just a moment," Yi Luo picked up a pair of chopsticks and began picking out the green onions with a domesticated demeanor, "You wouldn't understand; my little master is picky. I have to remove these greens first."

Xing Yue grimaced, "You really..."

"I see you got yelled at for two hours in there, yet you seem more energetic than ever."

"If I didn't feel energized after two hours of yelling, should I have felt energized during the yelling?" Yi Luo raised an eyebrow, finished removing the green onions from the bowl, and unceremoniously handed the used chopsticks to him, "Help me dispose of these, I'm off."

He stood up, grabbed two clean pairs of chopsticks, and leisurely strolled towards the technical department.

Xing Yue seemed to want to say something but ultimately shook his head, "You're crazy."

Initially, the command center had planned to transfer Yi Luo from the special operations department, considering his desire to continue participating in combat. They intended to move him to the first team of the operations department.

For this, the command center had several discussions with Xing Yue, preparing him psychologically to ensure they would get along well and to brace himself for Yi Luo possibly becoming a troublemaker.

Xing Yue finally prepared himself mentally, only to find out that Yi Luo had already found his own place—he had privately formed a team with He Wuning.

Xing Yue lost the chance to become Yi Luo's superior, but even so, he couldn't help paying extra attention to him.

Frowning, he watched Yi Luo leave, and Cao Wu slowly approached him with his tray, raising an eyebrow, "Still worrying? I think they get along just fine. Why do you worry so much?"

Xing Yue muttered, "Don't you think he's acting strange?"

Cao Wu paused while peeling a shrimp, pondered seriously, then asked humbly, "Strange how?"

"In many ways," Xing Yue said solemnly, "Like just now, he endured two hours of yelling without a single retort. That's already bizarre enough."

Cao Wu blinked, "He's grown up; shouldn't he be less troublesome? Isn't it good that he doesn't retort?"

Xing Yue glanced at the peeled shrimp in his bowl and was momentarily stunned, "Why do you make eating so complicated? You have to peel them first?"

"That's for my wife!" Cao Wu proudly lifted his head, "When I manage to eat on time, I go home to eat with her. Do you think I'm here to keep you company?"

He wrapped the peeled shrimp shells and placed them next to Xing Yue, "Here, help me throw these away. I’m off."

Xing Yue looked at his dirty chopsticks in his left hand and the shrimp shells on his right, and slammed the table, "Wait! He did the same thing! Fine, you have a partner, but what about him?"

Cao Wu looked back meaningfully, "Maybe he'll have one soon too."

"Captain, stop worrying about others and worry about yourself."

Xing Yue scoffed, "We're all stuck here; who has time for romance!"

...

Yi Luo sauntered into the technical department, completely oblivious to the impact the aroma of his food had on the researchers' resolve. He even made a grand entrance, calling out, "What are you doing? Not hungry yet?"

"Time to eat, come on!"

He wandered into Zuo Qianming's lab.

Zuo Qianming looked up, surprised, "Ah, why are you here? And you brought me food? How kind, come in, I have some experimental data..."

"Who brought you food," Yi Luo said disdainfully, "Where's He Wuning?"

Zuo Qianming looked puzzled, "Huh?"

They stared at each other for a moment, and Yi Luo realized that He Wuning probably hadn't come at all.

Yi Luo rubbed his temples in frustration. If He Wuning hadn't come here, given his personality... it wasn't impossible that he would have found an empty room to sleep in, just like a stray kitten on the street.

He sent He Wuning a message with little hope: "Where are you?"

"Dinner's ready, hurry up."

He Wuning actually replied: "In the Director's lab."

Yi Luo chuckled softly: "How did you end up there?"

He shook his head, ignoring Zuo Qianming, who was eager for help with experiments and had been tempted by the smell of food. Yi Luo made his way to the Director's office, leaving behind only: "If you're hungry, go get your own meal from the cafeteria."

He guessed the cafeteria aunties might wonder why the tech department, whose meal times were notoriously irregular, suddenly knew how to eat on schedule today.

He Wuning and Li Quanliang stood at the laboratory entrance, seemingly engaged in conversation. He Wuning's expression was serious, his handsome brows furrowed, as if he found the situation troublesome.

Yi Luo took a few steps forward—he wouldn't assume He Wuning was waiting for him; they were likely discussing something important.

Li Quanliang glanced back at him and nodded slightly as a greeting.

As Yi Luo approached, he heard her say: "In short, he almost perfectly passed the Turing Test, confirming his intelligence."

Yi Luo was confused: "What, after all this time, you finally suspect Q-jelly is mentally challenged and took it for an IQ test?"

He Wuning: "..."

Li Quanliang chuckled softly: "It's far from being mentally challenged; it has perfect basic computational functions, likely relying on high-frequency servers."

"Based on the information we've gathered, we speculate that the game itself is a framework, and both the monsters and us players are living entities."

She gestured to illustrate opposing sides: "Initially, we thought the monsters were part of the game setup, but as the game updates, we've encountered truly intelligent monsters, which we'll call monster players for now."

"According to my hypothesis, the early versions of the game were designed to familiarize us with it, using simple, unintelligent monsters as easy simulations. As the versions updated, the difficulty increased, gradually replacing these simulations with real monster players."

The smile faded from Yi Luo's face as he whispered: "If true, that's terrible news—it means the game has only just begun."

Li Quanliang nodded lightly, glancing inside: "At first, I suspected the system might be a spy sent by those monster players to monitor our progress."

"But based on the test results, its computational abilities are genuine. Unless the monster players themselves are AI-like mechanical beings, they couldn't fake it so convincingly."

"You mean... there are three parties involved?" Yi Luo raised an eyebrow. "Human players forced into the game, monster players actively attacking, and the system, whose stance is unclear?"

"For now, we consider the system and the game itself as one entity," Li Quanliang said carefully. "We still don't know if the game creators are the masterminds forcing us into this or merely providing a platform manipulated by the monster players."

"Back to your system."

"You know the main purpose of the Turing Test is to determine if a machine can think, and Q-jelly's answer is 'yes'; it possesses a complete cognitive model and personality."

He Wuning lifted an eyelid: "A high-tech product? A machine that closely resembles a human?"

"Perhaps the opposite," Li Quanliang met his gaze. "Maybe it's a person enhanced with machine computation."

"His personality is too well-rounded, even in unnecessary areas."

"For example, he likes pink but hates purple, which is close to pink, because he was once ridiculed for wearing purple, likening him to an eggplant."

Li Quanliang pushed her glasses up: "But there's a question—does the system really have a concept of 'childhood'?"

"And what about the purple vegetable similar to an eggplant he described—where does it grow?"

She handed over a piece of paper, a drawing of a purple vegetable. "This is what your system drew for us. We showed him some vegetable samples based on this drawing, but he denied them all."

"He can identify these vegetables and has basic knowledge, but lacks related memories. For instance, he knows an eggplant is a Solanum melongena plant but doesn't remember whether he likes it or not."

Li Quanliang pushed her glasses again: "So I suspect... he himself, or the personality model he currently uses, must be based on a real alien creature."