Abyssal Wanderer.

Time travels back to not so long ago.

Along the misty path, Jiang Zhou and Christie were walking on the way out of the Narcissus Plain, following the hounds whose footsteps were as light as ghosts.

Along the way, probably out of guard against each other, the two did not speak much.

In this regard, Jiang Zhou was actually very entangled.

As an adjuster who has experienced the network war, the degree of transformation has reached the limit of human intelligence, and she still plans to continue to upgrade; logically speaking, Christie should know a lot about the real inside story of the "big shock" and the secrets among the gods of Olympus.

However, he couldn't find a suitable opportunity to ask for a while.

After all, a question like "Do you know what you saw earlier?" is so stupid just to think about it.

Therefore, the two of them remained silent for a long time.

When Jiang Zhou finally thought of a question that could break the awkward silence, the other party spoke first.

"Speaking of which, your upgrade path...is Icarus, right? I just scanned it roughly before, but I'm not completely sure."

Christie asked.

Jiang Zhou could tell that her tone of voice was a little hesitant when she asked.

"Yes."

So he nodded calmly.

After answering this way, Jiang Zhou could clearly feel the other party's hesitation—she said "uh" first, and then continued to ask as if probing:
"Then this upgrade path, was the 'paradox' chosen for you?"

This question made Jiang Zhou slightly stunned. Although he didn't know why the other party suddenly mentioned this, he still replied:

"No."

"Was your contact with the 'paradox' before or after you became an adjuster?"

Hearing Jiang Zhou's answer, Christie continued to ask.

"Any questions?"

Hearing the other party's question, Jiang Zhou was a little wary.

In this regard, the other party sighed slightly:
"It's fine if you don't want to say it... No matter how you say it, you are only at the level of depth 2, and there are no major problems for the time being. But believe me, for this upgrade path, after the transformation depth reaches depth 3, you should not continue.

"Regulators of Icarus, never cross the photosynthetic belt."

Her tone was very serious.

Christie's words aroused Jiang Zhou's curiosity.

"why?"

he asked:
"Is there any problem with the upgrade path of Icarus?"

Christie did not immediately answer this question.Her eyes followed the black dog leading the way for a long time, and then she spoke slowly:

"Not every path of ascension is designed to allow humans to complete evolutionary ascension as a species."

Is there any information about the upgrade path...

Jiang Zhou didn't interrupt, but quietly paid attention to what the other party said next.

"Actually, apart from the upgrade paths obtained by reverse researching the first-generation adjusters in the 'Great Shock' era, many upgrade paths today are actually tools that were born out of the initial adjustment and transformation routes.

"Those paths don't care about the will of the adjuster, and the human body is, to a large extent, just another 'material' for printing the technological blueprint."

Christie turned to look at Jiang Zhou and said.

"Completely alienated into a tool..."

The latter murmured in conclusion.

He recalled his (Liao Qi) father, the worker who was replaced with a mechanical arm and used as a "living part" at the water purification plant in the resettlement area.Just because the performance of the tool can no longer keep up with the needs of the job, it is replaced like an obsolete part.

Then, he looked at Christie seriously and said:
"So, is the Icarus path an instrumental upgrade path?"

"No... this path is even worse."

The other party replied:
"Generally speaking, for those upgrade paths with a tool nature, they will choose the names of some monsters when naming them-this is also a customary rule, such as the road of Cerberus, which is designed as an autonomous high-mobility firepower projection platform.

"But the path of Icarus is different. Compared with a mature tool, this path is actually closer...to a small white mouse used in experiments."

The leading black dog howled in front, as if reminding them that they were approaching.

"Little guinea pig?"

Ignoring Heigou's reminder, Jiang Zhou repeated it.

"Tools that validate that a tool works."

Christie said:
"The ability of the Icarus path after completing the adjustment and transformation of the depth 4 is very simple: almost unlimited, compatibility with other path adjustments and transformations-you can crazily install external prostheses for other upgrade paths."

Regarding this, Jiang Zhou asked in surprise:

"But if this is the case, not to mention the damage to the mental index...won't there be conflicts between different prosthetics?"

Christie shook her head:

"Don't think of yourself as a person, think of your own body as a docking station, those adjustments are just different external devices installed on your body. It's not like a normal installation, becoming your new organ, but just a tool attached to your body... No, it won't even be installed on your body. They will be installed on your external expandable prosthetic 'wings'.

"Actually, the 'drivers' of those prosthetic bodies will also not be installed in your biological brain. They will be integrated by a depth 4 transformation called the 'daily program', allowing you to forcibly drive those prosthetic bodies."

And this will affect the rapid deterioration of the adjuster's mental index.

Daily program...

Jiang Zhou heard the term again.

Jiang Zhou has one of the adjustments and transformations at depth 4 at the moment—it is what was left by the former team leader of the organization.

"So, this path..."

Jiang Zhou opened his mouth, intending to ask some more questions.

However, before he could say anything, he interrupted and continued:

"In addition, based on the scalability of the Icarus path. There are many malicious programs in the abyss darknet, and they will choose to use the adjuster's body of this path to enter the base reality...especially when they only need to perform some rough operations, and do not need such a sophisticated tool as a 'horse'."

Hearing this, Jiang Zhou finally understood why the other party asked whether he became an adjuster before or after he came into contact with the "paradox".

She was worried that she would become a "bomb" thrown into the base reality by the "paradox" in such a muddle.

"I understand……"

In the end, Jiang Zhou had no choice but to put on a serious expression, and nodded seriously.

After all, only he himself knows that there is no malicious program named "paradox" in this world.

Therefore, there is no such thing as entering the base reality through his body.

Seeing Jiang Zhou's expression, Christie nodded, and finally concluded:
"Although this kind of statement may seem a little funny to someone like me who has been a 'horse'...But even if we cooperate with those artificial intelligences, even when we face those whose intelligence exceeds our existence, we must have the bottom line of being human."

"What's the bottom line?"

Jiang Zhou asked.

"Free will."

Christie replied. (end of this chapter)