Chapter 326: The Young Girl (4)

Chapter 326: Chapter 10: The Young Girl (4)

Jiang Ran spread his hands.

“Sorry, I guess I’m a bit ignorant. From what I understand, Digital Life should be able to achieve immortality. Theoretically and practically, there shouldn’t be any difficulty.”

“But it seems that’s not how things are. Since there are elderly people here, does that mean… they will eventually face a true death?”

“Of course.”

The young woman answered without hesitation.

“Everyone dies. In the Digital World, you don’t get sick, but you still get old, and you still die.”

“Actually, your question is a common one. My professor in college told us that from a programming standpoint, making a Digital Life immortal isn’t hard. In fact, it would be simpler to manage.”

“But from the long-term perspective of human civilization’s development, it’s not feasible. Even if all resources in the Digital World are infinite and there’s no problem supporting the population, there is one resource—the most important one—that is finite…”

“Storage space.”

After a short pause, the young woman continued,

“Our professor said that Mr. Pompey prepared a vast number of data centers for the Virtual World, so the storage space is extremely generous.”

“But no matter how generous, it’s ultimately finite. Considering the next thirty thousand years of the Virtual World’s development, a sufficient buffer had to be left.”

“Therefore… when Mr. Pompey designed the core code of the Virtual World, he locked the parameters for ‘lifespan’ and ‘death.’ Even though people don’t get sick or injured, their lifespans are still finite. Everyone will have to face a fair death one day.”

“There’s really nothing wrong with that, is there? As long as you can live a happy and joyful life, what’s so scary about death? In fact, it’s precisely because we all die that life seems so precious, making us value our time here even more.”

“Hehe, you really do focus on strange things. Nobody ever worries about this in their daily lives. Experts have estimated that the average lifespan for residents of the Digital World is about 150 years… If you really live that long, you’ll have made peace with everything by then.”

“Of course, if someone dies in an accident, there’s nothing that can be done. After all, Mr. Pompey locked the ‘death’ parameter, so death from any cause is irreversible… The moment you die, your life data is instantly deleted.”

Jiang Ran listened in silence.

Indeed. It seemed Mr. Pompey had put a great deal of thought into creating the Virtual World, considering every detail.

‘With such a cautious mindset, he would definitely set aside extra storage space for the future of human civilization. The best way to do that would be to limit the residents’ lifespans.’

‘One hundred fifty years… from our current perspective, that’s certainly long enough to live.’

However, knowing all this made one thing seem particularly strange.

‘In the news report on the big screen in the mall, the host said that Resident #002, Pompey, had sadly passed away three years ago. September 17th was the anniversary of his death, and they were calling for a moment of silence from all citizens.’

‘But Jiang Ran had seen a photo of Pompey in the library. He looked to be only in his fifties or sixties, far from the average lifespan of 150 in the Digital World.’

‘So how exactly did he die?’

‘In this world, you couldn’t get sick, and you could be brought back unscathed from even the most catastrophic injuries…’

‘It didn’t make sense.’

‘As the creator of the Virtual World and the director of the Consciousness Upload project, how could he have died so young?’

‘Could Pompey have had an accident? Or was he assassinated?’

‘Well, it was certainly possible. The fact that patrol robots could be seen on the streets and in the sky meant that there were still unstable elements—criminals—in the Virtual World.’

‘It would be normal for someone as powerful and influential as Pompey to be targeted by extremists. After all, even in a Utopian World with infinite material abundance, there would still be people with twisted minds.’

Jiang Ran decided to ask the waitress before him.

“You must know of Mr. Pompey, right?”

“What kind of silly question is that…”

The young woman, having already accepted Jiang Ran’s apparent denseness, took the initiative to explain.

“Who here *doesn’t* know Mr. Pompey! He’s the savior of humanity and the creator of the Digital World. We have him to thank for the wonderful lives we live now.”

“Right, right, you’re absolutely correct.”

Jiang Ran nodded.

“But… didn’t this great savior pass away three years ago? What happened? Logically, shouldn’t he have lived to be over a hundred?”

“…”

At the mention of this, the waitress fell uncharacteristically silent.

Her previous high spirits instantly vanished, and her eyes grew melancholic.

“Are you… having selective amnesia?”

Her tone was filled with reproach.

“Please, don’t joke about Mr. Pompey. He is a hero to humanity, and everyone respects him. His death was truly heartbreaking for all of us.”

“How… did he die?”

Feeling he was getting to the heart of the matter, Jiang Ran quickly put his hands together in a pleading gesture.

“Please, tell me. I think I… I really can’t seem to remember.”

“Try to understand. You can tell something’s wrong with my head. I’m a bit fuzzy and haven’t had a chance to see a doctor yet.”

To get an answer, Jiang Ran had to feign a mental block, tapping his own head.

“But I remember clearly! Today is the anniversary of Mr. Pompey’s death! So… I miss him a lot, too. Especially today, all I can think about is him, the great Pompey…”

The words felt so awkward that Jiang Ran himself almost burst out laughing.

But in the end, he held it in, only lamenting that he couldn’t squeeze out a few digital tears.

Fortunately, the residents of the Utopian World were kind enough, and naive enough.

The waitress didn’t suspect Jiang Ran in the slightest, as if in her entire life, she had never conceived that such a deceptive and cunning person could exist.

“Mr. Pompey… he didn’t die of natural causes…”

The young woman’s voice was filled with regret and sorrow.

“In the Digital World, you can’t die from illness, but there is one way to die that you can choose for yourself.”

Jiang Ran sucked in a sharp breath. He had already guessed the answer.

“Don’t tell me…”

“That’s right.”

The young woman looked up, her melancholic gaze fixed on the black-and-white portrait of Mr. Pompey on a distant skyscraper.

“Three years ago, Mr. Pompey was found dead in his laboratory. The entire world was shocked at the time, and the incident had a massive impact.”

“Because the cause of Mr. Pompey’s death was…”

“Suicide.”