Chapter 1027: Tech Tree Obscurer
Chen Mo looked at the virtual screen on his wristband. Two tech points on the first layer had already been unlocked, leaving only the intermediate artificial intelligence under [Artificial Intelligence Technology] still locked.
Unlocking this tech point required unlocking VR brain and neural connection technology, developing a game on a related theme, and collecting 10 million units of player emotions—all of which had already been completed.
Not only that, but Chen Mo had also saved up an extra 1,000 lottery chances, enough to unlock one or two tech points on the next layer.
Exactly how many he could unlock was uncertain, because until all tech points on the current layer were unlocked, the next layer’s points were all locked, showing only [???] with no hints about their content whatsoever.
After unlocking the first-layer tech points in the three branches—[Virtual Reality Technology], [Artificial Intelligence Technology], and [Hardware Technology]—the three lines converged into a single shared tech point. Activating this point caused the three branches to split apart again into three separate tech points.
Chen Mo gently tapped the [Unlock] button above “Intermediate Artificial Intelligence.”
Just like before, all the knowledge related to this artificial intelligence technology flooded into Chen Mo’s mind, becoming fully mastered knowledge he could use at will.
What the system called “intermediate artificial intelligence” represented AI with intelligence on par with humans. It could pass the Turing test and engage in complex conversations, with humans interacting with it completely unable to tell whether they were talking to a real person or an AI.
In other words, using this technology to create an AI and put it online to chat with homebodies could effortlessly fulfill the online dating dreams of tens of millions of shut-ins.
Uh… maybe that wasn’t quite the intended use for this tech point?
Anyway, there was no need to overthink it. Just knowing this tech point was incredibly impressive was enough.
For now, Chen Mo set aside this awe-inspiring artificial intelligence technology and turned his attention to the next tech point.
The second layer had only one tech point, and unlocking it was necessary to proceed further.
[Tech Tree Obscurer]: Prevents the world from questioning why you can produce so many technologies capable of changing the world. Correspondingly, these technologies can only be applied within the gaming field.
Chen Mo frowned slightly. Clearly, this tech point had more negative implications for him than positive ones.
Indeed, unlocking three tech points in a row would inevitably arouse suspicion from many people. After all, these tech points could severely influence the direction of the gaming industry’s development, even to the point of changing the world. Chen Mo was so young, with no record of higher education in related fields—it would be fake if no one doubted him.
But this wasn’t a huge deal. Chen Mo had many ways to cover it up. For example, he could establish a dedicated R&D department within Thunderbolt Interactive, hire top experts and research teams from both domestic and international fields at high salaries, and cleverly pass off these tech points as his own. Even if the Game Committee or some people domestically raised questions, Chen Mo could use his intelligence-dampening aura to clean up the mess and leave no trace.
From this perspective, this tech point was a bit awkward. While it helped Chen Mo eliminate future worries, it also strictly confined the related tech tree to the gaming field. Clearly, the system’s intent was obvious: play around in the gaming domain, but if you think about crossing over into other industries to make money, don’t bother unlocking the tech points below.
Take artificial intelligence technology, for example. If not used in gaming, it could create a park filled with androids like in *Westworld* for wealthy entertainment, or attempt to preserve human memories and cognition, significantly extending human lifespan in another form.
But that would seriously deviate from the system’s goals, so this tech point essentially imposed restrictions on the tech tree’s development.
Chen Mo could understand, though he was a bit annoyed that such a tech point required 200 lottery chances to activate.
No choice. Chen Mo had no other option, so he activated [Tech Tree Obscurer] and continued looking at the tech points below.
The third layer’s tech points split into three branches again.
[Virtual Reality Technology] Consciousness Implantation: At a specific time, implant specific thoughts into a player’s brain, allowing them to react to sudden situations when at a loss. This implantation is only effective for an extremely short period and does not affect the player’s normal consciousness. Additionally, activating this tech point can effectively eliminate negative emotions such as violence, anger, pain, fear, and sadness in games from adversely affecting players’ psychology.
Unlock requirement: 600 lottery chances.
[Artificial Intelligence Technology] AI Lockdown: Fully lock the created AI within the game. They will firmly believe they are the characters they play and will never doubt this under any circumstances.
Unlock requirement: 200 lottery chances.
[Hardware Technology] Storage Capacity Expansion (Level 2): Initiate a technological breakthrough, increasing the storage capacity of all smart devices by 10 times and read speed by 10 times.
Unlock requirement: 500 lottery chances.
When Chen Mo first activated [Tech Tree Obscurer], he was a bit annoyed. But seeing these three tech points below, he roughly understood why the system forced him to activate [Tech Tree Obscurer] first.
Clearly, the “Consciousness Implantation” technology was extremely dangerous. It could arbitrarily rewrite a player’s consciousness, implant specific thoughts into their brains—essentially hypnosis or brainwashing. On the other hand, it could also eliminate negative emotions players experienced, turning the Matrix gaming pod into a “fatty happy pod,” and a “physical happiness” one at that, directly and crudely altering player emotions.
If taken further, this was like the ideological steel seal from *The Three-Body Problem*. If Chen Mo tampered with this, he could control all players’ consciousness through the Matrix gaming pod, implanting an “always obey Serent” ideological steel seal, indirectly achieving world domination…
And if this ever got exposed, it wouldn’t be something the intelligence-dampening aura could fix. No country or organization would allow such a thing to exist. No matter how Chen Mo covered it up or dampened intelligence, this technology would be 100% completely banned and permanently disabled.
Thus, the system’s [Tech Tree Obscurer] served both to reduce unnecessary trouble for Chen Mo and to limit his behavior, preventing him from becoming the god of a new world using these technologies.
Similarly, the AI lockdown under [Artificial Intelligence Technology] could be seen as a constraint, ensuring AI influence remained only within games, preventing a “Skynet” from emerging and having unexpected effects on the real world.
Chen Mo could understand. Although failing to become the god of a new world made him slightly disappointed, it was for the best, preventing the story’s tone from veering off in a strange direction.
Chen Mo still had over 800 lottery chances left. He chose to activate the two tech points [Consciousness Implantation] and [AI Lockdown].
The Level 2 storage capacity expansion wasn’t needed yet, but [Consciousness Implantation] and [Artificial Intelligence Technology] could bring even more earth-shattering changes to the current VR games.
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