Epoch of Twilight

Chapter 509: Maid

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Meng Junhua returned to his room right after he finished dinner. For the project, the emergency spacecraft was modified into an official research spacecraft. Aside from laboratories of all sizes, there was a residential area built at the border that was able to accommodate around 100,000 people. However, most of the rooms were vacant and only up to 1,000 people occupied the rooms with most of them being researchers.

"Master, are you home?" As he opened the door, a maid greeted him and a gust of fragrance blew over his face. She was beautiful with big eyes that looked as innocent as lilies in the morning and looked weak in her maid attire that flaunted her long, fair legs. She was perfect, there was no flaw on her skin and she seemed unreal. The truth was, she was not a real person but was actually a robot maid. Its bones were made of light metal, her flesh a replica of the human flesh structure. With simple artificial intelligence, she could converse with people, carry out house chores and perform other unique tasks. It was a hit among the single researchers.

However, such robot maids were only available for researchers who were single. According to the statistics, the marital rate had dropped to a new low ever since the sale of the robot maids began for the researchers who were single. If it was available on the market, it could start a series of societal issues. However, the biggest sacrifice researchers had to give was their knowledge. Their family had become a second priority. Moreover, most of the researchers lived in solitude so a human-like partner was not necessary.

Meng Junhua allowed the maid to take off his protective clothing and asked, "How are you today, Xiao Lin?"

"I’m good, I miss you." Xiao Lin replied.

"There’s nothing I can do about it. I have work, it’ll take a while more. Soon I’ll take a day off and rest at home." Meng Junhua stared into the maid’s innocent eyes. Although he knew the maid’s character was set by him, it broke his heart to see her like that.

The maid had brought him happiness during the time they shared together. She was loving and obedient, never rejecting any of his requests and would never betray him, being loyal to a fault.

"That would not be necessary. Your work is important. You don’t have to spend time with me as long as you think of me whenever you are."

"Master you must be exhausted from working all day. Would you like me to give you a massage?" The maid smiled flirtatiously, the room brightening up at that instant.

Meng Junhua was stunned, it was a temptation for him. After all, he was only in his 20s where his testosterone was at its peak. If this happened in the past, he would have given in to the temptation. However, he was inspired at work today so he managed to control his urge, "It’s okay, I have some documents to look at. Get me a cup of tea!"

"Yes, master!" The maid looked disappointed, almost looking like a real person.

"Do you need warm water as well?"

"Warm water it is!" Looking at the maid sashaying away, Meng Junhua bit his tongue and thought to himself, "Damn!"

"My demanding ex-girlfriend was total trash compared to this maid!"

...

As the maid left, Meng Junhua laid on the bed immediately. He then closed his eyes and entered the network. There was a gigantic quantum relay on the emergency spacecraft that was connected to the mothership. Although it was 100,000 kilometers from the mothership, the network was clear with no delay. Soon, he entered the entrance of the digital library. It was a massive one, similar to the gigantic tower and looked stunning. The digital library today was completely different from the old and boring archive they used to have. It was like virtual reality, the library occupied tens of thousands of square meters. There were 69 floors and they would add eight to ten floors each year. Perhaps this building would be a couple of thousand floors and touch the sky 100 years later.

There were many people walking in and out on the ground floor of the building. Meng Junhua was close with some of them but he did not want to waste his time talking to them so he held his head down as he walked fast to the digital library. Bookshelves occupied the entire floor. However, it was not a real library after all as nobody would have the patience to flip through all the books here. Instead of a library, it should be called the sanctuary of knowledge.

"Browse through all the documents of biological neurology within the last three years and set the environment to a meadow." Within seconds, the surroundings faded and the library disappeared. He was surrounded by a boundless meadow, what appeared before his field of vision were more than 10 bookshelves with documents arranged neatly on them. The blue sky was above his head and a vast meadow spread as far as the eyes could see beneath his feet. Meng Junhua’s stress was taken away. Ever since he left earth, he could only see sceneries like this on the network.

Unfortunately, as it was artificial, the feeling of immersion was not there. The fragrance of grass and the blowing wind was nowhere to be found. The feeling of stepping on lush green grass was barely there, it was far from being in the real world.

"I’ve heard that there’s a breakthrough in connecting virtual reality to the brain but I’m not sure when we’d be able to use it. Perhaps, when the time comes, there would be no difference between virtual reality and reality."

He let out a sigh, took a deep breath and started to read the documents. He did not know much about biology and it would be a headache for normal scientists but since he had consumed the wisdom elixir, he had a rough idea of every field as most of them were related to each other nowadays. It was like the parable of the blind men and an elephant [1] whereby there were different ways to learn something.

His reading speed was fast. Although he would stop to think occasionally, the most he took to finish a book was only five minutes. The development in biological neurology had skyrocketed in recent years. Whether theoretically or practically, countless successful products have been launched. For instance, his favorite robot maid was made of a massive amount of artificial nerve fibers that were connected directly to the fiber network. With a slight adjustment and connection, it allowed the mechanism to form a complete body. Not only did it give the robot maid smooth coordination and agility, there was almost no difference when compared to an actual human. It even possessed senses which would allow it to feel the changes in its environment, the ability to smell and feel pain where some of the body parts were more sensitive than human as well as rich, upgraded skills.

Meng Junhua snapped out of his thought and proceeded to read and a couple of hours later, something caught his eyes.

"Oh! Quantum neurotransmission, that’s new!" He looked at the publication date and found out that it was an academic document that was published recently. He read the documents fast. As a rookie in the field of biological theory, quantum theory was considered a field that he specified in. The document was within his range of knowledge but the magical neurotransmission in the research was an eye-opener. He was feeling inspired and ideas were running through his head.

Most importantly, it was not a hypothesis but a discovery. A hypothesis was a theory pending confirmation while a discovery meant it actually existed in the world. The phenomenon was discovered from the previous interstellar creature. The lucky researcher found a nerve fiber with a unique mutated nerve cell that was different from the cells surrounding it. It was like a ball covered in long, thin hair and the hairs were growing in the gaps between the cells with a length of about 15 to 100 micrometers.

After a lengthy research, the lab discovered that the structure of the nerve cell was similar to a natural quantum communication system. Its refined structure was comparable with an artificial quantum communication device. The ability of a quantum communication system that was the size of a cell was stunning. They discovered more function-specific cells but there were not many of them. The researcher concluded in his thesis that the godlike transmission signal could be only one of its function as a portion of its structure had yet to be decoded. He concluded that the quantum nerve cell could even transmit energy.

Meng Junhua put down the book in excitement. He was now relieved as he realized that if the cell could actually transmit energy - everything made sense. There was no need of any passages for the energy transmission as the hundreds of tumors could work as the quantum signal transmission! He decided to head back immediately to find out if this interstellar creature possessed the same quantum cell. He was 90% sure of his idea.

He patted his head, he should have thought of this earlier! If this gigantic creature with a body that was near 1,000 meters long had a regular neurotransmission system, its reaction would be slowed down. It would even have several seconds of delay when it was triggered by stimuli from the outside world. However, the creature was agile and its speed was terrifyingly fast. It was so much stronger than an ordinary person. It would be impossible for it not to possess a unique neurotransmission system.

At that time, he was less interested in the structure of the gamma rays the creature emitted. His mind was occupied with the unique, quantum nerve cell.

"These biological labs are amateurs! No matter how much research they do, there will never be any resultss. If I, who is an expert in the physical field could confirm that the cell could transmit energy, it would be a revolutionary discovery. If such technique is decoded by humans, there would be a technology revolution that is followed by a drastic change in the current situation humankind was in while the person who discovered it would have made history."

He left the network immediately and leaped from his bed.

"Master, are you heading out?" The robot maid sensed some movement so it woke up from its sleep mode. She walked to the door and asked curiously.

Meng Junhua was overwhelmed in excitement. He put on his protective clothing and said to the maid, "I’ve some development in my research. Sleep early, don’t wait up for me."

Translator Notes:

[1] The parable of the blind men and an elephant originated in ancient Indian subcontinent, from where it has widely diffused. It is a story of a group of blind men, who have never come across an elephant before, learn and conceptualize what the elephant is like by touching it. Each blind man feels a different part of the elephant body, but only one part, such as the side or the tusk. They then describe the elephant based on their partial experience and their descriptions are in complete disagreement on what an elephant is. In some versions they come to suspect that the other person is dishonest and they come to blows. The moral of the parable is that humans have a tendency to project their partial experiences as the whole truth, ignore other people’s partial experiences, and one should consider that one may be partially right and may have partial information.

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