Chapter 6174 - 5185: Soul Machine Utopia (42)

The cats bypassed those strange iron figures and came to the door of a building. They intended to go inside but found that the door was just decorative, completely inaccessible.

After exploring several buildings, they finally found a gap in the metallic panels. Bat Cat used a mechanical arm to tug at the metal plate, widening the gap, and peeked inside.

He went in first, followed closely by the other cats. Once inside, they found the building even more terrifying; it was completely hollow, without any floors. However, to support this hollow shell, there were many bizarre metallic structures inside, a chaotic mess, as if a tangle of wire balls had been stuffed into a metal box. It felt like wherever there was a gap, it was patched randomly, with no apparent plan or design.

Then they discovered that most buildings here were like this. Despite their exteriors resembling New York’s architecture, the interiors were entirely different. However, there were some exceptions that Shiller noticed; some buildings on the street had higher resolution than others.

For instance, a café had an entrance you could actually go through, and it even had a coffee counter inside. Although there were no coffee cups or machinery, at least it had some semblance of architectural structure and didn’t feel as sloppy.

This was a bit strange. If it were a question of limited modeling skills, or material constraints preventing finer details, why was there selective treatment? Moreover, enhancing the model of a café doesn’t serve much purpose. It would be more beneficial to allocate these materials to more important buildings.

"This couldn’t possibly be made by Iron Man," Peter asserted. "Even if he lacked sufficient materials and could only use metal, he would never do something so crude. Or, if materials were limited, he wouldn’t choose to build an entire city; at most, he’d construct a single building and make it look beautiful inside."

Shiller nodded in agreement; Tony Stark wouldn’t settle for something half-hearted, especially not when it came to his own work. He harbors some perfectionist tendencies, emphasizing self-expression rather than pursuing perfection everywhere. He believes that a few masterpieces carrying personal wisdom and style are far superior to a mass of mediocre, featureless goods.

In other words, if he intended to create souvenirs for human society and materials were limited, he might choose to make a beautiful mecha, perfecting every detail. Even if he selected architecture as a theme, he would likely replicate the Stark Building, transformed with futuristic metal materials decoration.

The essence of such a style lies in simplicity and symmetry, with a particular emphasis on lines, where lighting plays a crucial role. Iron Man could easily use just metallic materials for exceptional decoration, unlike now, creating such a vast city riddled with flaws, with some places appearing quite ugly and obviously haphazard.

"If it wasn’t Iron Man, could it be the Outer God mimicking?" Peter proposed a possibility, "Could Yog have seen part of Iron Man’s memories and attempted to recreate New York, only to make such a mess because he couldn’t comprehend human architecture?"

"It shouldn’t be," Shiller said. "Yog isn’t entirely unfamiliar with human society. It’s like how you have a general understanding of the form of your cells; if you were to draw cells, you wouldn’t draw them square. This city’s mistakes are way too off."

Constantine agreed, "Firstly, Yog wouldn’t make something so ugly. He has his own interpretation of beauty, and if he were to create, he could completely disregard practicality. There’s no need for structural support for building shells, which means the interiors could be filled with all sorts of decorations. I lean toward him opting for that."

Previously, they had seen an array drawn by Yog; setting aside readability, the artwork was indeed quite good, far surpassing Iron Man’s simple sketches. If used as a logo, it would surely be praised, proving that he possesses aesthetic sensibility.

Moreover, according to the mice, Yog has an artist’s personality. To complete his work, he might ignore practicality, letting buildings float, or lying them horizontally — as long as it looks good.

Alternatively, he might have found the original New York somewhat ugly and arranged buildings according to his own aesthetic. In that case, this Sky City would look very different from the original New York. It’s easy to imagine that Yog would consider human cities not particularly aesthetically pleasing, especially New York, brimming with international architectural styles.

The cube that Iron Man built earlier was an architectural blend between Bauhaus and modernism. In human eyes, it was decent, large enough to convey some megastructure vibe and not exactly ugly. However, since Yog finds it unattractive, it indicates he doesn’t appreciate this style and would likely consider New York ugly.

Even if he were to replicate it, Yog would undoubtedly add his own flair, making the city more magnificent — perhaps appearing a bit eerie to humans, but beautiful nonetheless. But now, this New York hasn’t become more beautiful; instead, it’s uglier.

Though international styles are frequently criticized for being overly uniform, with box-like structures everywhere resembling living in a forest made of shoeboxes, a multitude of shoeboxes can still exude an orderly beauty. But this city discarded even that, with poorly constructed shoeboxes, vaguely resembling some humanoid entity attempting to recreate human cities but failing.

Thinking about this, the cats felt chills down their spines. America does have ghost town legends, particularly in the West, where cowboys often tell tales of ghost towns deep in the desert resembling human cities where it’s a land of spirits, and any cowboy who stumbles in never returns.

This city felt very much like a ghost town, bearing an uncanny resemblance to human cities, but visibly counterfeit.

Little Superman was overwhelmed and operated his gear to fly high for some fresh air. But suddenly, he heard a gust of wind behind him, turned around, and saw a giant pterosaur charging at him.

Little Superman hastily descended, narrowly evading it. The other cats hurried over, and just then, the pterosaur charged again. The cats quickly dodged, with Bat Cat already pulling out a weapon, but Shiller shouted:

"Don’t shoot, find a way to get it to the ground!"

Bat Cat put his weapon away, and the cats took turns interfering with the pterosaur’s flight, flying above its wings to force it to descend, gradually coaxing it to land gently on the ground.

The Bat Cat used a mechanical arm to pin down the Pteranodon’s neck, which was still flapping its wings incessantly, yet to no avail. The equipment Bat Cat brought was definitely top-notch, as Bat’s products are always premium; just a few mechanical arms could pin down a Pteranodon the size of a commercial airplane.

Shiller began to check the Pteranodon’s condition. He didn’t let the Bat Cat shoot because he was afraid of damaging it; he wanted to find out what was controlling the Pteranodon’s actions. This inquiry arose due to previous encounters with the Pteranodon, where its mode of action was quite different than it is now.

This led Shiller to suspect that something was controlling the Pteranodon. As he peeled open the gaps between the Pteranodon’s wings and saw that streak of red, Shiller immediately understood what it was.

He also used the mechanical arm from the equipment to pull out that red item. Several cats gathered around, and the previous cats all understood that it was actually a component of the neural network computer, which is that type of red fungus.

They had previously discovered that this type of mycelium was already able to manipulate metal; it even assembled a sculpture resembling Iron Man. However, at that time, the control was not very smooth, as all components were wriggling. Now, they seem to have completed their evolution, not only capable of mimicking human actions but also controlling the Pteranodon.

"It appears that this city was constructed by that neural network," Peter said. "They might possess a portion of Iron Man’s memories, so they recreated the city that left the deepest impression on him."

Seemingly concerned that others might not believe him, Peter flew them in a particular direction, then landed on a street. Peter led them into a place that resembled a restaurant, where the number of model faces was much higher, with a cash register, various tables and chairs, and even paintings on the walls were mimicked.

"This was Tony’s favorite restaurant," Peter said. "It’s a pity they didn’t recreate Long Island; otherwise, there would also be a bar there, which was his favorite, and it would probably be recreated better."

"So the degree of recreation is based on the depth of his memory?" Constantine asked.

"Not exactly; it should be according to the level of affection," Peter said. "Actually, given his memory, he should remember every place he’s been. However, he doesn’t love every place equally, so these mycelia likely chose based on his preferences."

The other cats nodded, agreeing with this reasoning. After all, they chose to wear iron armor, which clearly imitates Iron Man, so recreating the city based on Iron Man’s preferences is also normal.

"But why would they do this?" Shiller asked.

"No specific reason, just their instinct," Peter sighed lightly. "This actually implies one thing: these advanced biological computers may have capabilities far beyond Iron Man’s expectations."

"What do you mean?" Little Superman detected another meaning in his words.

"When Iron Man built these computers, perhaps he only used them as tools. After fulfilling their mission, he did not choose to destroy these computers, but merely left them as other tools. However, biological computers are different from mechanical ones; they can further evolve, even possessing some biological instincts and self-awareness."

Shiller thought for a moment and then said, "So the biological computers he developed came to life?"

"Not yet considered true life," Peter seemed to be pondering as he spoke. "But we cannot rule out the possibility of evolving into life."

"Life is not a sudden leap," Peter explained. "The evolution of life on Earth is similar; it started with some instinctive cell clusters, and only through continuous evolution could they gradually be called biological. Currently, these computers are still in the early stages of evolution and have not yet broken free from the influence of their creators, hence this city.

However, if they continue to evolve this way, they might truly spawn a form of life, perhaps even capable of adapting to the harsh environment of this cosmos. I am uncertain whether this is good."

"Will this life be Iron Man?" Shiller asked, posing a somewhat philosophical question.

"Yes and no," Peter replied. "The newly born life may possess some features of Iron Man, such as a human-like shape, but certainly not his memories or personality. As for wisdom... this form of life might be more intelligent than individual humans but could also have inherent limitations."

The cats wandered through the city and indeed didn’t find any more useful clues. Even the Stark Building was only a more detailed model, with nothing useful. They all felt it was a pity that such a large city didn’t leave any clues from Iron Man.

"Should we go to find the place where humans are present next?" Peter asked.

"Of course, that’s all we can do now," Shiller sighed. He took out the Silver Key and inserted it into a metal plate resembling a door.