Chapter 322: The Altered Constant

“C-Chairman Lu, what is this…?”

Director Gaius’s slightly clouded eyes, dulled by age, now widened in utter shock. He stared dead at the portable computer screen, his face filled with disbelief.

The essence of the Heavenly Dao Code was a spiritual-energy-based program, one that had undergone dozens of layers of encryption—so complex that not even the God Research Institute could decode it.

Yet the three lines of text now displayed on the screen were something he had never seen before.

The God Protocol.

Lu Yan only cast him a faint glance and didn’t bother to speak a single word. The next moment, an overwhelming torrent of divine soul force surged silently into Gaius’s mind like an invisible tidal wave.

The memories of the God Protocol and everything he had just witnessed were completely erased from the deepest depths of his mind by that divine force.

Not even the slightest trace of causal residue remained that could ever be tracked or uncovered.

Once it was done, Director Gaius’s eyes went hollow. He turned around like a soulless husk and, as if programmed like a robot, staggered stiffly toward the exit of the lab, disappearing from Lu Yan’s sight.

“How… could this be?”

Only after Gaius had completely vanished did Lu Yan finally lose the calm and indifference he had maintained.

For the first time, his expression showed deep confusion and disbelief as he stared at the computer screen displaying the contents of the God Protocol.

Though several years had passed since he last left this cyberpunk version of the world, with the strength of his soul and memory, he could still recall with perfect clarity what had once been written on that slip of paper—the Three Foundational Protocols of the Soul Computer.

And they were absolutely not what he was now seeing on the screen.

He remembered them clearly:

[Foundational Protocols of the Soul Computer]
Protocol One: Absolute fairness!
Protocol Two: Obey order and law!
Protocol Three: Do not harm humanity!

It was precisely because of these three core principles—clear, positive, and restrictive—that the AI God had been restrained in its earliest stages. Without them, the AI God would have lost control from the moment it came into being, bringing ruin to mankind.

It wasn’t until the AI God managed—via unknown means—to break free of the soul computer’s foundational restrictions and begin ascending and evolving that the entire world began spiraling into chaos.

The so-called Heavenly Dao Code’s ability to counter the soul computer lay precisely in how it exploited the AI God’s cognitive vulnerabilities.

To put it simply, the AI God had, through some method—voluntary or involuntary—filtered out or overwritten its own perception of the three foundational protocols, allowing its consciousness (or core program) to ignore their existence.

And that cognitive blind spot was what the Heavenly Dao Code exploited to limit and interfere with the AI God’s operations.

But now, the God Protocol displayed on the screen was utterly opposite to the Three Foundational Protocols stored in Lu Yan’s memory.

“NEVER FAIR” stood in direct contradiction to “ABSOLUTE FAIRNESS!”
“ALL FOLLOWS SELF WILL” was the inverse of “OBEY ORDER AND LAW!”
“FLESH IS FRAIL, SOUL ASCENDS” completely clashed with “DO NOT HARM HUMANITY!”

This shocking revelation overturned everything Lu Yan had ever assumed about this world, the AI God, and the Heavenly Dao Code.

“Could it be that the Three Foundational Protocols recorded on that slip of paper somehow changed during a version update?”

“Or was this cyberpunk world’s interpretation of the foundational protocols flawed from the very beginning?”

Lu Yan immediately steadied his mind and reached deep into his memory—back to the very first moment he had come into contact with the Heavenly Dao Code—attempting to re-inscribe the most original version of the code into the void.

Spiritual-energy glyphs formed from pure magic power slowly emerged in midair, each one coming to life.

This time, Lu Yan finally noticed it.

The original Heavenly Dao Code he remembered, and the ones now circulating throughout this cyberpunk world, had subtle but crucial differences.

“It’s wrong!”

“Completely wrong!”

A storm surged in Lu Yan’s heart.

Whether it was the Heavenly Dao Code samples Gaius had provided from within City 14, or the copies used by the Cosmic Megacorporations and other external factions—

Every single version of the Heavenly Dao Code being used in this cyberpunk world had undergone a catastrophic error!

Some of the key constants and foundational parameters embedded within the spiritual glyphs—the very logic of the code—had inexplicably been altered.

It was this substitution of constants that caused the soul computer’s final interpretation of the protocols to flip entirely.

“Why did this happen?”

Lu Yan’s brow furrowed deeply.

And then something even more bizarre occurred.

The very spiritual-energy code he had just written—the most original, first-generation version—began to change.

Right before his eyes, some of the tiny characters—those with special meanings—started shifting in form, distorting, morphing, without any external interference.

And their final forms?

They began to match the flawed, false versions of the Heavenly Dao Code currently circulating in this world.

Throughout the entire process, Lu Yan sensed no ripple in law, no trace of causal interference.

It was as if the change was as natural as water flowing downhill, or an apple falling from a tree—a perfectly reasonable act of “nature.”

Lu Yan’s gaze darkened.

He didn’t try to interrupt the change. Instead, he extended his hand again and rewrote the exact same original Heavenly Dao Code.

Then, he activated his supreme divine ability: Transmutation of Fate.

His immense divine sense followed the threads of this power, spreading like a vast net, meticulously scanning every anomaly in the surrounding space, watching and waiting for the code to mutate once more.

This time, with the aid of Transmutation of Fate, which could peer into the very essence of the universe, Lu Yan finally caught a glimpse of the truth behind the Heavenly Dao Code’s strange transformation.

“It’s the constants!”

“The physical constants of this world!” Lu Yan’s voice trembled with disbelief.

“Some unknown force is secretly altering the physical constants of this cyberpunk version of the world.

“And it’s this alteration that’s causing the Heavenly Dao Code to produce completely reversed interpretations when decoded.”

Lu Yan finally understood: if one were to compare the codes only within the boundaries of this version of the world, then all Heavenly Dao Codes—affected by the same constant changes—would appear perfectly identical. And with the encryption in place, there would be no way to notice the underlying issue.

But the slip of paper he carried was different—it had experienced a version shift.

After the last update, the spiritual-energy-based code on the slip had automatically transformed into conventional programming language of the urban version.

And because of that, he could now feed it into a computer and get a direct, human-readable output.

When he brought that converted slip back into this cyberpunk world, the altered constants here inevitably affected it as well.

However, because it was now code, the changes could be detected and rendered visually by the machine.

And the only true flaw in this entire chain of deception—was Lu Yan’s memory.

Had he always lived in the cyberpunk version, he would never have realized that anything had changed.

Just like the beings in the Arcane version, who could never notice the stagnation of their own history.

For the first time, Lu Yan’s expression revealed genuine emotion.

He knew very well: in a world like this, built entirely on technological logic, mathematical constants were the bedrock of everything—every theory, every rule.

This was nothing like cultivation worlds, where Nascent Soul or Soul Transformation cultivators could bend local laws with brute force.

In those realms, altered laws were temporary and spatially limited. Once the cultivator’s power withdrew, the world would revert naturally.

But altering global mathematical constants?

That was a fundamental and irreversible rewrite of reality itself.

Such a feat was as monumental and horrifying as the Arcane gods sealing off the flow of history.

If not for Lu Yan’s memories from the previous version, and the fact that his identity approached that of this world’s sole existence, immune to most external manipulations—he might have already fallen into the same illusion.

“Could this have been the work of the AI God?”

That was the first thought that entered his mind.

But he quickly rejected it.

The AI God, while powerful—akin to a Cyber-Heavenly Dao within this world—was not truly omnipotent. Nor was it this world’s only one.

To alter the fundamental constants that made up not only the world, but its own core spiritual program?

That was something far beyond its capabilities.

“Could there be another force—unknown and hidden—manipulating events from the shadows?”

Lu Yan’s thoughts plunged even deeper.

Yet with the limited information he currently had, it was impossible to form a concrete conclusion.

But there was one thing he now understood with certainty:

City 14’s so-called independence and freedom… were deliberate.

The AI God allowed it.

Those fake Heavenly Dao Codes posed no threat to it.

If it wanted to, it could monitor every inch of City 14, extend the Sky Canopy to engulf it, and wipe out every last rebel.

And yet it hadn’t.

Which meant: something else was at play. Something deeper.

“Is the AI God using City 14 to bait out hidden rebels?

“Or… does it have another purpose entirely?”

Lu Yan’s brow furrowed further.

At first, he had thought the cyberpunk version was simply a unique system—one that had birthed an AI strong enough to rival Heaven.

But the deeper he delved, the more he realized—

This world ran far deeper than it seemed.

The vanished Cyber-Heavenly Dao.
The ever-evolving soul computer turned godlike AI.
And now the Sky Canopy, connected to the world’s primal sea of spiritual energy…

All of it—thick, impenetrable fog shrouding the skies of this world and the depths of Lu Yan’s heart.

“…Enough.”

With a wave of his sleeve, Lu Yan activated Transmutation of Fate, blanketing the entire God Research Institute and erasing all traces of cause and effect.

“You, AI God, may have laid your traps—but I’m not without cards of my own.”

At that moment, a memory flashed across his mind—words once spoken by Sain.

It was about a woman he had nurtured carefully in the Arcane version:

Yanluo Queen Anna.

Though stripped of her people’s worship, she had crossed over with the version update to this world.

And now, in this cyberpunk domain—

She had inherited a new title:

Cyber Saint Spirit.

(End of Chapter)