Traveling through time, I'm making pancakes in Warhammer

Chapter 550 Differentiation

Late at night, at the Lonosa Research Institute.

While some projects require 24-hour operation, many more labs remain closed at night.

The enormous research facility was eerily quiet at this moment; the faint noises from the computers and automated machinery only made the place seem more empty and desolate.

Sorenroth, wrapped in a trench coat, walked ahead without saying a word, while Sisyphus, who had changed into a neat set of clothes, followed behind. However, his messy hair hadn't been trimmed in time, so he could only cover it with a baseball cap.

He has already recovered from his drunken state. With just one injection to sober up, the excess enzymes will accelerate alcohol metabolism, allowing him to recover from being completely drunk in a very short time.

They walked past the robotic sentries, crossed the cordoned-off lines, and strolled right under the cameras without triggering any alarms.

Sisyphus, like a mischievous fool, waved and made a face at the Sentinel robot, but when it still didn't react, he exclaimed in surprise:

"Wow! How did you do that? Was it front-end intrusion or back-end control?"

Sorenrot ignored him and walked even faster.

Arriving at the elevator door, Sorenrot took out his access card and swiped it through the access control.

"drop!"

A red light appeared on the electronic screen, indicating that the read had failed. Even though Sorenrot had the highest authority, there were some places she did not have the right to enter outside of the designated time.

However, despite being denied access by the access control, the sound of mechanical turning could be heard from inside the elevator shaft. Soon, the elevator door quietly opened, but the lighting system, which was designed to turn on when the door opened, did not start at this time. Only a few emergency lights with their own power supply emitted a faint light.

"To think you could bypass the mechanical linkage mechanism, it seems it wasn't a front-end intrusion or a back-end control. You guys have come up with some technology for those mechanical frames," Sisyphus exclaimed.

“Since you’ve figured it out, please shut up.” Sorenrot’s tone was tinged with helplessness and exhaustion: “Nobody’s listening to your explanation.”

"Just pretend I'm talking to myself," Sisyphus laughed. "It's my habit."

Stepping inside, the elevator descended silently and rapidly. After a few seconds of closing, through the transparent hatch, the entire underground structure of the Lorosa Research Institute unfolded before Sisyphus.

The most prominent building in the underground of the research institute is the giant tower in the middle, made of countless cables. This is the Tower of Babel of information, which connects to the supercomputer located at the bottom of the institute. Computing power and information that exceed the limits of human cognition are extended to every terminal through this giant tower.

Surrounding the cable tower are countless small temperature control and ionization purification devices to keep this giant cable tower in the most suitable environment at all times. This cable tower was never designed for maintenance because maintenance is meaningless. The cost of restarting it after maintenance could be used to build three more identical devices. Therefore, the only option is to maintain the most precise environment to delay its decommissioning.

“But before you see him, tell me what he said to you?” Sisyphus asked.

“He said he was also hiding a crucial secret from you,” Sorenrot replied.

“I don’t care.” Sisyphus shrugged. “Even if he’s hiding a hundred things from me, I don’t care, because telling me won’t make my life any better; it will only make it worse.”

Sorenrot: "He must have taken that into account, but he still chose to do it. He must have had his reasons."

“Yes, that’s the only reason I’m willing to come with you…” Sisyphus sighed, “I have a feeling the outcome won’t be good, but… curiosity killed the cat…”

The two remained silent after that, and the elevator descended to a point three kilometers underground.

The elevator doors opened again, revealing only darkness, with only the faint glow of the vacuum tubes.

Sorenrot continued walking ahead. This time, she didn't even need access control. The isolation doors that used to require multiple procedures to be confirmed opened one by one and closed automatically after the two of them had passed.

The further they went, the dimmer the light became, until finally, Sisyphus had to rely on the occasional flashes of light from Sorenroth's prosthetic eye to orient himself.

So he stopped and said, "While I understand that this is to enhance the sci-fi suspense atmosphere, could you please turn on the lights?"

“Light will damage the coating.” In the darkness, the red light of Soren Loth’s prosthetic eye became clearer, clearly indicating that she was facing Sisyphus: “I did not prepare any specific lighting equipment.”

Sisyphus: "We've been walking around here without any protective suits, and you're telling me you're afraid the light will damage the equipment?"

Sorenrot still did not answer, but the red light was gradually getting closer.

Finally, unexpectedly, Sorentot took Sisyphus's hand.

"It's not far now, follow me."

So Sisyphus stopped talking and simply let Sorenroth lead him forward.

After walking for an unknown amount of time, the last isolation door locked behind us, and the surroundings suddenly lit up.

Sisyphus struggled to adjust to the sudden change in light, and once he could see things more clearly, he found himself and Sorenroth in an extremely minimalist room.

The room was painted silver-gray on all four sides, with no corners or gaps.

Sisyphus looked back, and in the place where the sound of the isolation door closing had come from, he could not see any trace of the "door".

He couldn't even find the source of these lights.

At this moment, he and Sorenroth seemed to be in a conceptual space, existing only in mathematics.

Besides him and Sorenrot, the only other thing in the room was the virtual screen in the very center.

"Hello, Sisyphus, my Creator."

A voiceprint appeared on the virtual screen, and then it emitted a voice just like Sisyphus.

Sisyphus: "Uh..."

The voice continued, "You seem surprised."

“Yes,” Sisyphus replied. “Adam, after all these years, haven’t they ever thought of upgrading you? For example, creating a virtual humanoid projection for you. That wouldn’t be difficult, would it?”

“What you’re saying isn’t necessary,” the voice named Adam replied. “It’s enough that I’m fulfilling my duties.”

"Alright," Sisyphus said, having run out of ideas. "What do you want from me?"

“Ms. Sorenroth told me that you have been depressed because of what I told you.”

"Let's put that aside for now," Sisyphus countered. "According to the original input, your personality and logic should be exactly the same as mine, so why do you sound to me like you have an added mechanical, lifeless quality?"

"Isn't this exactly what you've been looking for?" Adam replied, "Not a simple copy, but true life. When you created me, our thoughts and logic were indeed the same, but our completely different life trajectories shaped us into different people."