Jenkins was not so curious, and had no intention of disobeying the coachman's instructions.
So after sitting in the very ordinary-looking compartment, he shrank his head and stared at his cat with big eyes. This was of course to prevent it from scurrying around and accidentally seeing the outside.
Chocolat looked at Jenkins obediently and silently. In the cat's eyes, he saw a giant curled up. In Jenkins' eyes, he seemed to see the yellow moon of his hometown.
After ten minutes of smooth, bumpy and extremely boring travel, the voice of the driver reminded one person and one cat that their destination had arrived. It seemed that the underground rules prohibiting space movement had no effect on this monster.
Just as Jenkins expected, the last collapse directly buried the passage of the underground cavity where the self-proclaimed [A4-type calculation... ] was located, but luckily the space where the sealed machine was located was intact.
The reinforced seal shone with a silver-purple light in the dark space. When the driver's carriage stopped and Jenkins got out of the carriage, in addition to the color of the seal itself, the mechanical surface that looked like a metal altar also glowed red.
Mr. Pisco’s first message after his death asked Jenkins to help strengthen the seal here. Thinking about it now, he probably meant more than just asking Jenkins to strengthen the seal.
Following the appearance of the carriage, a beam of light rose from the center of the altar, and the expressionless man's face was suspended in the beam of light. The mouth did not open, the sound came from the mechanical interior of the metal altar, he still remembered Jenkins:
"Long time no see, Redanput, I knew you would be back."
"You figured I'd come back?"
"This shouldn't be called calculation, I know, you must want to know something deeper underground, so you will definitely come to me. My name is [A4-type arithmetic auxiliary external machine], last time I thought you didn't listen clearly."
Jenkins turned his head to look at the carriage waiting for him. The driver put on his hat and got into the carriage immediately, expressing that he had no intention of listening to the conversation here. Jenkins put the fluffy cat on his shoulder and looked at the human face in the beam of light:
"I won't talk nonsense, I think you should know something. Now tell me, do you know Mr. Pisco? Mason Pisco. Male human being."
"Yes, of course I know, he strengthened my seal before you, forcing me to stay here, and he also did a very cruel thing to me - he showed me the paper of the Epic of Time. In my records, although what I saw was only a blank page, seeing the broken pages of that book means that I have fallen into the net of fate.”
Jenkins frowned. He had also seen Mr. Pisco's blank page with two identical sentences written on it, which was used to reverse the flow of time. Later, he even witnessed the writing of "The Epic of Time" in the past, which was probably more serious than seeing the paper.
"What did Mr. Pisco say to you?"
"He told me that I want to stay here and help a man whose middle name means savior. Only by helping him can I be truly free. Last time you left too fast, I didn't have time to tell you about it. "
The last time it was because the craftsman's explosion in the ground caused a major earthquake, and it was impossible for Jenkins to leave even if he didn't want to. If he hadn't turned into a mouse temporarily and was rescued by chocolate, maybe he really couldn't leave.
"Mr. Pisco asked you to help me? How do you help me? Don't tell me to let you out. Since I have strengthened your seal, I will never lift it."
He shook his head slightly.
"I don't have strong force. Even if you lift the seal that restricts my activities, I can't help you in terms of strength. I'm just a large-scale machine made to assist in calculation and storage of data, so I can answer Some questions from you."
All Jenkins needs is for it to be able to answer questions, other things are not the point right now. He hesitated for a moment, and asked with some hesitation:
"Well, I want to know, what is that thing under our feet, deep in the ground?"
"Do you want to ask about its name? The ancient builders gave it a simple number and letter number as a name. I think you may not be interested in this. But after it was excavated and used by humans several times in a short time period, it gave itself the name 'Great Wisdom'."
"It turns out that this is really its name, I thought it was a metaphor..."
Jenkins thought to himself, and decided to use "difference engine" to describe the other party in the future.
"The name doesn't matter. I just want to ask, what is it in principle? Function, ability, energy, and even manufacturing materials, and whether it is evolutionary. I need these information."
The expression on the man's face in the beam of light was still as stiff as that of a dead person, and there was no answering voice from the machine. But for the first time since Jenkins came here, he heard the sound of gears running and bearings pushing from under his feet.
This means that the main body of the [A4-type arithmetic auxiliary external machine] is not only a metal altar that can be observed on the surface, but also has a huge volume in the soil. Jenkins speculates that what is in front of him should be something like a core, Otherwise it doesn't make sense Mr. Piscoe just let him seal the place.
He could imagine that after he asked the question, the metal structures hidden in the soil under his feet, around him, and even above were biting and rotating, pushing and pulling, and spinning and flipping in the dark. This is completely different from the previous world, but it is also a creation of extremely high technological level. Although it is not the crystallization of human wisdom created by pure materialistic power, no matter what kind of power it is, it is an artificial product created by human beings with their own wisdom. It is worthy of Jenkins' admiration.
This silence lasted for about twenty minutes before the voice came again from inside the machine:
"I searched the earlier database, because of the aging of the metal, the gear storage array was rusted and rotted partly. My birth came from the underground machinery, and it is known that it has the ability to create creations like me, assist calculations, and calculate divination Function. I can't judge its material. It is a very special alloy. The forging process has extraordinary and mysterious participation, coupled with the power endowed by time. If contemporary humans can't recognize what it is, then it represents those alloys. The recipe has been completely lost."
These things Jenkins already guessed, what he needs is not this information:
"What energy do you use? Why can you maintain your own operation after being sealed underground for so long? Can you obtain energy from the soil?"
"Yes, we are metal machines. We can obtain metal from the soil to supplement energy. But because we can't move, this way is not far away. I and all machines of my type, including the original model, are underground Big guy, our main energy source is information, which is data. When the storage energy is insufficient, we will consume the information we store to maintain operation, and at the same time enter a state similar to hibernation... "
"Standby."
Jenkins suddenly gave this word, and the metallic voice paused:
"At the same time enter standby mode to slow down energy consumption."
"You feed on civilization?"
"No, we don't consume information, we just store, copy and consume."
Metallic corrected, and added:
"The easiest way to destroy us, other than destroying the body or the core, is to wait for our stored energy and information to be completely consumed. Once the operation is completely stopped, with our design structure, even if the energy supply is regained, there is no possibility of running again. sex."
"Then is it possible for a machine like yours to change the energy source?"
"The mechanics allow for that."
"Is it possible to use steam as an energy source?"
With almost no pause, the mechanical voice gave the answer:
"Actually, the machinery deep in the ground has already done this. Although in principle, the energy conversion efficiency of steam is very low. After all, a lot of heat is lost along with the generation of kinetic energy. But the human beings of your era Found a very ingenious way, which greatly improved the work efficiency of the steam engine, making the development and evolution of steam technology possible."
This is where the world's technology tree deviates from Jenkin's world. In his original world, the steam engine has not been developed to the point where it can become the majority of energy.
"What kind of changes will the underground machinery replace the energy source?"
"A lot of changes, it has been discovered and used by humans many times in the past years and then buried deep underground, the use and efficiency of energy has evolved to a level that we can't imagine. It only needs to replace the energy source. In theory, It can control all the machines that rely on this energy. Its computing power and control power have far exceeded the limitations of the design itself. Redanput, you can understand that after absorbing the achievements of countless civilizations, it has completed A wonderful sublimation.
With steam energy, it is the king of machinery in this era. "
A moment of silence:
"Is there a way to defeat it?"
"To beat it, you first have to know what it's going to do."
The voice reminded that Jenkins immediately felt that he was stepping into the trap of talking, and the other party's talking skills were no less than his own:
"What is it doing?"
"It has had enough of being discovered, buried, and used countless times in countless epochs, so it wants to be truly free."
"Same purpose as yours?"
"No, I just want to go out and see what the world has become, and with my ability, it is not enough to pose a threat to humans, but it is different, it is the original omnic, with infinite possibilities sex.
It cooperates with human beings, sees the opportunity at the end of the era, and intends to make itself an immortal beast of disaster, and make itself the cause of disasters in this era, so that it can transform itself into the doomsday and get rid of the shackles forever. "
Jenkins takes a step back:
"I can know, how do you know these things?"