Chapter 433.1: You Can Even Make A VR Game... In The Game!

The slowly setting sun was blending into the horizon of the Sunset Province, while Ideal City had already draped itself in the veil of night.

On the semi-transparent observation elevator, Ample Time glanced at the business card in his hand, then turned his gaze toward the holographic screen on the observation window.

Behind the pulsing floor numbers were the vibrant neon lights, and below was an abyss that seemed bottomless.

He was standing in a building named Cloud University.

Although having an entire university housed within a single office building might sound preposterous, making it seem as if the students were merely employees punching in and out of work, in a place like Ideal City, it surprisingly didn't seem out of place at all.

After all, everyone living here was nominally an employee of the horrifyingly large corporation.

Most students graduating would become engineers and enter various departments of the Enterprise and its functionally specific subsidiaries. If they replaced the title of the university with ‘Human Resources Department’s Induction Training Division’, it would be much easier to understand.

However, to be fair, although the university was named after a province, the sensation of riding an elevator through the clouds did indeed give a feeling of being amongst the clouds...

Eventually, the number on the display settled on 227.

With a ding, the alloy doors behind Ample Time slid open like those of a subway train at its station.

Pulling his eyes back from the layered neon lights outside the floor-to-ceiling windows, Ample Time turned and left, following the address on the business card and continuing down the corridor without pause.

Soon, he arrived at a silver door.

He had barely touched the doorbell when the door swung open with a whoosh, revealing a face brimming with enthusiasm.

"Welcome! Dear friend, you must be Ample Time, the one who's all the rage on the Endpoint Cloud, right? Haha, please come in! What brought such a celebrity to me? Are you interested in my field of research?"

Ample Time paused for a moment, eyeing the overly enthusiastic man in front of him, then glanced at the business card in his hand with a slightly perplexed expression.

[Aiken, male, 55, Professor of Neural Algorithms and Bionics at Cloud University, Technical Advisor to Health Luxury Enterprise Group's Product Development Department, primarily researching logical operations on fuzzy algorithms simulation and thought uploading...]

There was no doubt. He was definitely looking at the right guy. He had found the right person, unless the professor had a twin brother...

"It’s rather presumptuous of me to disturb you at this time, I hope my visit hasn’t interrupted your rest." Ample Time muttered.

"How could it be?! What could be more delightful than a hero of the New Alliance taking an interest in my research?!" Aiken’s face broke into a pleased smile as he invited Ample Time into his office and continued, "You’ve come at just the right time. Had it been an hour earlier, I would still be in the lab."

The office was spacious. It was decorated simply yet still stylish, but Ample Time's attention was not on the room but on the man in front of him.

Unlike the unkempt scholars and professors he had imagined, his attire was... Meticulous to put it in a nicer way. Though over 50 years old, he appeared to be only about 30.

Dressed in a suit, with his hair slicked back into a pompadour, he looked less like a professor and more like a lawyer or someone from the finance sector.

Since arriving in Ideal City, Ample Time had been attending various events with Ambassador Shu Yu, pulling in investments and sponsorships for the alliance.

In addition, he hadn't forgotten another purpose of his visit, finding a way to upload thoughts.

Players had countless lives, but NPCs only had one. Although it sounded fantastical, he felt that since the game was set in the future, there had to be a way to preserve human consciousness permanently.

Like in games with a fantasy setting, they would be storing it in soul-containing artifacts or something.

Fortunately, being a war hero helped a lot, making him a star or internet celebrity in Ideal City.

Once he learned of Ample Time’s interest in his research, the professor immediately scheduled a meeting and they sat down on the sofa.

Ample Time fulfilled his request for a photo together and after some small talk, revealed his purpose. "I wanted to ask if there's a way to upload thoughts to the cloud or a hard drive, something like that..."

Perhaps because the conversation had turned to his area of expertise, the middle-aged professor’s extravagant smile faded, replaced by a thoughtful expression.

However, it didn't seem like he was pondering the question itself, but rather how to begin speaking. After about five minutes, he sighed softly and said, "Would you like a cup of coffee?"

Ample Time paused slightly.

His instinct told him that the professor's expression didn’t bode well for a hopeful response. "No, thank you... Just a glass of water will do, thanks."

“One coffee, one lemon water.” Aiken gestured to an android assistant nearby.

The assistant nodded slightly, went into the next room, and returned shortly with a tray, respectfully placing silver teacups in front of them.

"Please enjoy, sir." After leaving the message, it turned and stood quietly by the wall.

To avoid the uncanny valley effect, most androids either had features identical to humans with almost lifelike actuators or deliberately lacked features or exaggerated them.

The android was of the former type, not only resembling a real person but it was also quite pretty.

"I’m sorry about your situation, I know what you’re thinking, but... That’s not something science can achieve." Aiken picked up his cup, took a sip of coffee before looking at his beautiful android assistant for a moment before he suddenly continued, "My wife left three years ago."

Ample Time hesitated. "Even the medical conditions in Ideal City couldn’t cure her?"

In Ideal City, bionics technology could even replace all parts of a body. He truly couldn’t imagine what illness could be incurable.

Professor Aiken coughed awkwardly. "When I say left, I mean she left... She ran off with a merchant outside, seeking the adventures and excitement of her dreams."

"I’m sorry."

"No need to apologize, it’s nothing, and besides, it’s all in the past. Everyone has the right to choose how to live. Where to go is her freedom, and I’m the one who’s petty for not letting go, haha..."

Placing his coffee cup gently on the tray, Aiken smiled and nodded to the android to take the cup away. His voice seemed to fall into a distant memory as he gazed at the android's back. "I once thought about making it look like her, not just physically but copying her memories and thoughts as well."

Ample Time caught the key words in his statement, holding his breath for a moment, his hands unconsciously gripping his knees as if clinging to hope. "And then?"

Aiken smiled faintly. "Then, of course, I succeeded."

Ample Time looked astonished at the android, then back at the professor sitting opposite him. "So it is now..."

"Now it's just a special android assistant. Because later... I deleted its data."

Ample Time was stunned. After a long pause, he continued, "Why?"

"I already told you the reason. Because it’s not something science can achieve." Before Ample Time could speak, Professor Aiken continued, "The person I loved was gentle, kind, beautiful, and had a vibrant personality... But in fact, that was just my imagination. There’s no perfect person in this world. Bravery often means recklessness, caution means hesitancy, foolish people are often arrogant, and the arrogant cannot see beneath their feet. She was never perfect. I only looked at her through my rose tinted lenses."

"So when I tried to write her into an algorithm based on my memories, I quickly realized that the personality I created wasn't her... Do you understand what I mean?"

Ample Time nodded silently, but soon shook his head. "I understand what you’re trying to say... but I don’t understand, why not include those flaws too?"

Aiken smiled faintly. "Because that’s the problem. Are you sure you fully understand a person? Even yourself?"

The question stumped Ample Time, leaving him speechless.

Watching the silent young man, Professor Aiken leaned back on the sofa, slowing his speech to give him time to think. "Uploading thoughts to the cloud is not impossible. As long as a person is not isolated from society, there will always be a few brain backups that hold memories about him. Converting these third-person memories into first-person perspectives and compiling those collected memory fragments into an intelligent algorithm... You you can get a person almost identical to her... Even if objectively, she’s not the same person, she can roughly match your imagination."

"However, a copy is never the original, just a well-spoken doll that happens to look alike. If that’s what you want, I can certainly help you, you just need to fill out a lengthy form. But based on your description, I must ask you again, is that what you want?"

Looking at the middle-aged man reclining on the sofa, Ample Time was silent for a long time, his thoughts a tangled mess. If it were reality, what he was saying wouldn't seem problematic, but in the game, it sounded like a major issue. Data copied from one hard drive to another... How could it not be the same data?