Chapter 264 264: What Has Always Been Done part 1

Chapter 264 Chapter 264: What Has Always Been Done part 1

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Cat Girl Café.

After ordering a cup of hot chocolate, Renji found a seat by the window. Not long after, a middle-aged woman in professional attire entered the cafe and quickly walked over to Renji's table by the window upon seeing him.

"I'm so sorry professor. I didn't expect you to arrive so early. Have you been waiting long?"

The woman continuously apologized until Renji waved his hand several times, signaling her to sit down across from him.

"Mrs. Geront, before we get down to business, may I ask you a personal question?"

"You mean...?"

"Don't be nervous. I'm just curious. I heard from William that your position in the Fantasy Supervision is quite high, and you're a department manager. With that being the case, why does your husband still..."

Renji didn't need to finish for the meaning to be clear. In his view, Mrs. Geront's family, if not wealthy, must at least be middle-class, So why then would her husband choose to become an explorer in Dream Zero, engaging in such dangerous work that risks life for money?

The woman across paused, clenched her fists then released them, shook her head, and bitterly smiled:

"Professor, you are from Sin City, so you might think that someone in my position in the government has a lot of power. But in reality, we don't have much decision-making power. The real control over the Supervision is still in the hands of the major corporations."

"Major corporations?"

In Mrs. Geront's eyes, Renji was someone who could be personally introduced by the general manager William, and also had the title of professor. These were all unattainable, high-

status figures to ordinary people. So, seeing Renji being so polite made Mrs. Geront somewhat flustered, thanking Renji incessantly, her face turning red with nervousness, not knowing what else to say.

Renji quickly changed the topic, easing Mrs. Geront's discomfort.

Renji first asked some other basic questions about Dream Zero, such as its appearance time, scale, and the regulatory policies at the time, as if he was really conducting market research for the Quis Group.

It was only when Mrs. Geront mentioned the concept of "Dream Expansion" that Renji seemed to be intrigued and asked for more details. Mrs. Geront nodded:

"Yes, when this phenomenon was discovered, it initially caused panic among the Fantasy Supervision and the companies because, according to experts' estimates, once it exceeds a certain threshold, it would lead to everyone being forcibly digitized into life forms, sucked into Dream Zero. Fortunately, later on, an anomaly in Dream Zero was also detected, and two hundred AI intelligences actively communicated with us and entered Dream Zero to contain the expansion."

"These two hundred intelligent mechanical life forms, according to records, are replicas produced by Lady 'Zero' a hundred years ago, imitating itself. We don't know their specific use, and it seems that such life forms exist not only within the Mechanical Alliance but all over the world."

"After the two hundred intelligent machines handed over their core chips to us for storage, they infiltrated into Dream Zero. Afterwards, the expansion trend of Dream Zero indeed immediately stopped, and the crisis was averted. Later, every once in a while, research personnel from the company would come to maintain these chips, keeping Dream Zero stable."

Listening to Mrs. Geront's information, Renji silently pondered.

There were two key points: first, the number "two hundred," but according to the data he got from Control Unit One, there should be at least tens of thousands of mechanical servants in Dream Zero.

The number that matches the "two hundred" should be the "Control Machines" series of mechanical servants.

Combining this with the information previously obtained from 86, the number of observers deployed worldwide by Zero should match the tens of thousands, clarifying the situation.

All the "observers" on the continent have "entered the dream" and become mechanical servants, but only the two hundred observers closest to Zero in the Dream City retained high-level computing power, serving as intelligent "Control Machines" command models.

The rest of the observers mainly follow orders and do not possess autonomous consciousness, serving as combat bodies or other logistical models.