Zola Must Die (Bonus Chapter for 400 Average Subscriptions)

Immortality?

Old Wang smiled. It wasn’t that simple.

Humans were human not only because of their souls and minds, but also because of their bodies.

The flesh was the vessel that carried one through the mortal world.

If even the body was gone, and only consciousness remained, were you still human?

Carbon-based organisms and mechanical life were different. Amino acids and electronic currents directly caused fundamental changes in the nature of life, which in turn changed patterns of thought. This had long been proven in World of Warcraft.

When the Curse of Flesh turned Earthen into Dwarves and Mechagnomes into Gnomes, they became entirely different races.

The difference between them was even greater than the difference between humans and apes.

Their ways of thinking, ways of life, personalities, emotions, and even their entire civilizations would undergo fundamental changes.

Achieving longevity through mechanical means would inevitably create a series of problems that no one could yet imagine, giving rise to a new race.

When you could no longer breathe through your nose, could no longer feel pleasure through touch, could no longer be stimulated by taste buds, had no hormones or sex hormones—

When you could no longer enjoy any human sensation, were you still human?

Advanced technology might be able to imitate such things to a certain extent, but the double-helix structure of genes held endless possibilities. No matter how fast a computer was, it could never fully simulate them. People always said mechanical life was more advanced than carbon-based life, but…

Was that really true?

If humanity wanted to achieve true longevity, it should still start with life itself.

Virtual technology might enrich a person’s Mental World, but if one truly wanted a longer and healthier life, one should begin with the human body itself—for example, the Super Soldier Program.

As for immortality?

It was a false proposition, a hypothesis that could never be proven.

"Dr. Zola… is here?"

Fitz didn’t quite understand. "Why here? The equipment here is so outdated. Even the data transmission is painfully slow!"

Old Wang had long since figured out the answer. "Although Dr. Zola possessed consciousness-transfer technology decades ahead of its time, limited by the technology of that era, it took a database two hundred thousand feet long just to house his consciousness. Back then, this was the only place in the world capable of doing that."

Fitz objected, "But technology kept advancing afterward. He could have transferred into another person’s body. His eyes could have been brighter, his ears sharper, his brain faster. He could even have changed the world by himself!"

Of course, he would never side with Hydra.

But as a scientist, he truly felt sorry for Dr. Zola.

It was a loss for all humanity. A civilization had lost an excellent opportunity for rapid advancement.

"Because Hydra’s head was no longer him, but someone else."

Old Wang said, "No one in power would be willing to let someone ride over their head. From that moment on, Dr. Zola was imprisoned here. They only powered him on when they needed him. The rest of the time… he was probably kept powered down?"

Whether they cut the power or not didn’t matter. This place was isolated from the world. There was no radio and no network cable. No matter how capable Dr. Zola was, he had no way to communicate with the outside world, much less transfer his consciousness out.

He was under someone else’s control.

That was the only explanation.

Otherwise, with Dr. Zola’s abilities, once he gained freedom and entered the internet, no one would ever be able to catch him.

In Pierce’s eyes, and in the eyes of the other Hydra heads, Dr. Zola was merely a tool—a tool for calculating the Zola Algorithm and carrying out Project Insight. A dangerous tool.

Not a person.

What they wanted was a Zola with no ears, no eyes, no heart—only a brain.

Whether it was Pierce or the other Hydra heads, none of them truly belonged to Hydra. They wanted Hydra to belong to them.

Hydra had never been a united organization. Everyone had their own thoughts, their own ambitions.

Zola’s ambition had been interrupted by terminal illness, continued through a consciousness storage device, and was likewise imprisoned by that same device.

Old Wang had known about Dr. Zola for a long time.

But he had always thought that as long as no one came here, Dr. Zola could only remain trapped inside.

Until Dr. Zola’s voice appeared through Sitwell’s communicator not long ago, giving him a new idea:

Pierce must have set up some kind of program in advance. Once something crucial happened—such as his death—it would use some method to allow Dr. Zola to contact the outside world, such as…

"Has data been transmitting out of here this whole time?" Old Wang asked.

"Uh, it started uploading to one of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s communications satellites a few minutes ago. The transfer speed was very slow, though. We’ve already blocked it," Fitz replied.

Old Wang smiled.

That was it.

From the moment Pierce died, Dr. Zola had already embarked on the road to freedom.

But unfortunately, the equipment here was too outdated. Even with satellite communications, the data transfer speed was still far too slow. To transfer his consciousness somewhere else would take a long time—

The equipment Fitz and Tony had designed together was expensive and advanced. Even mapping Whitehall’s brain and uploading his memories took more than ten hours.

Dr. Zola had more memories than Whitehall.

Although there was no need for brain mapping, consciousness transfer was essentially memory uploading. Even so, because the transmission speed was slower, it would likely take even longer.

Of course, he could abandon part of his memories and upload only the most important portions, but that would still take time—dozens of minutes, or several hours.

Zola had originally had a chance to gain freedom and become Hydra’s true master.

Yet he hadn’t expected Old Wang to arrive so quickly.

He had expected even less that Old Wang wouldn’t go looking for him, wouldn’t be interested in chatting with him, and would simply cut the power.

Pulling the rug out from under him.

Completely cutting off his hope of escape.

"I’ll leave this place to you."

Old Wang looked at Skye and Fitz. "It should be useful, right?"

"Useful? Of course it’s useful!"

Fitz’s eyes lit up. So excited that he didn’t know where to put his hands, he waved them around in midair. "As long as I thoroughly study the entire database, with modern technology supporting me, I can create a better consciousness transfer device and let humanity achieve virtual immortality!"

"And it’ll help with research into the Framework."

"It might even help with research into the Quantum Brain!"

"Boss, I have a suggestion! Preserve the entire database. Once we create a Quantum Brain, we can upload the database into it and give it a robot body. Then Dr. Zola will be revived. With Dr. Zola, we…"

"We’ll have another hidden danger."

Old Wang said flatly, "Fitz, your idea is dangerous. Zola is more dangerous than you imagine."

"…All right." Fitz lowered his head in dejection.

Old Wang remained expressionless. This was exactly what he had been worried about.

Scientists were all remarkable, but many scientists had one fatal weakness:

Their thirst for knowledge and truth would drive them to cross the line again and again, causing them to misjudge danger.

Tony was the most typical example.

Ultron’s birth hadn’t been an accident. It had been almost inevitable for human civilization.

As long as Zola existed, he was a ticking time bomb. No one knew when he would explode.

"You can use the data in the database, but it must be separated. Cut off all links between the materials, upload them into different databases, and set the highest-level permissions. No one, including you, may access them all at the same time. You can only access them one at a time."

Old Wang was extremely serious. "Do you understand?"

"Uh… I understand, Boss." Fitz had no choice but to nod.

"All right, that’s it."

Old Wang thought for a moment, then looked at Skye again. "After you blocked the signal, did you intercept the data Zola was sending? Have you cracked it?"