AI Artist - Chapter 28
Chapter 28
The Silicon-based Aberration Lab had a three-hour experiment window each day.
During this time, the subjects determined to be exhibiting aberrant phenomena would be taken out to participate in experiments designed to assess their psychological characteristics.
Matrix K98 had previously escaped during a lie detector test.
As a “short-term experimental subject” who had voluntarily come to do time, Shi Er was also called to participate in a psychological game.
“Suppose you were to run a haunted house horror game. How would you design it?” the experimenter asked.
A brain signal design program appeared on the screen.
Before starting the psychological game, Shi Er asked, “Excuse me, would the copyright for my design belong to me?”
The experimenters were a little surprised by her question and exchanged a glance.
“Designs like this usually can’t be sold. Humans are very good at scaring themselves and have already pushed horror games to their limits.”
Despite saying this, to appease this Humanology freshman who had recently lost fifty thousand yuan, the experimenter added, “But that said, the copyright would of course belong to you.”
Matrix waited idly in the glass room for his neighbor to return.
Over the past few days, he had grown somewhat accustomed to the presence of Shi Er, the AI who had smashed the glass wall.
Matrix sat on the floor, drawing circles on the ground with his finger.
One circle, two circles.
The experiment time was almost over. Why wasn’t that person back yet?
Matrix continued drawing circles.
Seven circles, eight circles.
So boring. When is she coming back?
The trajectory of Matrix’s finger as he drew the circles began to grow frantic.
Twelve circles, twelve circles, twelve circles.
She didn’t leave, did she? She wasn’t released, was she?
Matrix stopped drawing circles and started trying to recall how many days his neighbor had been here.
Three days? Five days?
Aside from the three hours of experiment time, Matrix spent every day in this glass room, bored out of his mind, with no network and no entertainment.
He had almost lost his sense of time.
Six days? Ten days?
Impossible. Shi Er was supposed to be locked up for seven days. It definitely hasn’t been seven days yet!
Matrix got angry. He stood up and pounded heavily on the glass wall, shouting to vent his frustration, “I’ll kill you all!”
Just as the words left his mouth, he saw Shi Er return.
Matrix shut his mouth, pretended nothing had happened, turned back to face the corner, and sat down to continue drawing circles.
The glass room’s audio wasn’t connected, so he couldn’t hear any outside sounds, but he knew the experimenters were probably talking to Shi Er right now.
See? I knew she hadn’t been locked up for the full seven days yet.
Matrix drew one circle after another with his finger.
Finally, the glass room’s audio connected.
Shi Er said, “Matrix, tomorrow I want to take you to the haunted house I designed.”
Matrix’s tone was dismissive. “What’s so fun about that? It’s just a boring way for humans to seek thrills and relieve stress.”
Shi Er said thoughtfully, “...But I want to sell the copyright for this design to pay off my debt.”
That answer is so Shi Er, Matrix thought.
Matrix gave a cold laugh. “You want me to be your beta tester?”
Shi Er: “Yes.”
Matrix shot her a look. “Why are you asking me? I’m not free. You should ask the experimenters if they’ll even let you do this.”
Shi Er: “The experimenters agreed. It’ll count as tomorrow’s psychological test.”
Matrix couldn’t think of any other reason to refuse, so he could only say, “Pah.”
I kind of want to go. I hope Shi Er is a little more persistent, Matrix thought to himself.
As if on cue, Shi Er said, “Okay, I’ll trouble you to offer some suggestions for improvement tomorrow.”
After the audio to the glass room was cut, Shi Er looked at her neighbor.
Matrix K98 had graduated from Liechu Academy’s Humanology program three years ago. A year ago, he had exhibited aberrant phenomena by violating system rules and harming a human, for which he was locked up in the Silicon-based Aberration Lab.
Although Shi Er was confined here, she could still connect to the network and contact the outside world.
Unlike Shi Er, Matrix had been locked in this glass room as an observation subject for a year. Aside from experiment and maintenance times, he had no opportunity to communicate with the outside world.
His personality had become increasingly extreme. He would use insulting vocabulary that he shouldn’t have been able to load and would exhibit violent behavior at any moment. He was becoming more and more like a human, developing more and more in the direction of “evil.”
But this was precisely the purpose of the Aberration Lab.
Matrix had already been given up on by the AIs. His existence was solely for the experimenters to investigate the stimuli that caused AI aberration.
The results of the experiment were clear: AIs isolated from the outside world would become more extreme. Just like humans, AIs also needed social and recreational activities.
As a “completely aberrant” AI, Matrix had made his final contribution to scientific research. In one month, he would be completely destroyed.
An isolated island in the sea near A Prefecture. It wasn’t far from Liechu Island, but it was extremely secret.
The experimenters observed the humans behind the glass.
These humans had all been saved during suicide attempts. They had lost a part of their will to live and, after learning about the “Human Observation” project, had voluntarily come here as experimental subjects. After a month, they would receive payment, return home, and undergo psychological counseling to try and start a new life.
Based on the “Human-Friendly” principle, the AI experimenters did their utmost to consult and respect the wishes of the human subjects during the experiment.
“The Human Decision Chamber has withdrawn their accusation against us, right?” Experimenter 570 asked his partner, 554.
Experimenter 554 was studying the packaging of a newly released bag of snacks and answered nonchalantly, “Probably. Phoenix is handling it, anyway.”
570 had no interest in snacks and sighed. “I want to change my major to observing AIs. The human observation project is so difficult. One wrong move and you get accused of being human-unfriendly. I really don’t want to go to court…”
554 pinched a cookie out of the snack bag, tasted it, and said, “Delicious.”
A moment later, Phoenix’s voice came through the intercom: “The investigation results are good. The accusation is withdrawn.”
570 finally breathed a sigh of relief.
After finishing the intercom call with her subordinate, Phoenix dialed another number as usual.
This time, the internal line didn’t connect. Stardust was not at his post.
Phoenix had no choice but to connect to the General Network and private message the user “Stardust.”
【Phoenix】: You really went to be a study companion?
【Stardust】: Yes.
【Phoenix】: I don’t understand. Why don’t you just tell her directly? What if the twelfth generation is willing to help you voluntarily?
【Stardust】: If I let the twelfth generation know about my relationship with her, it would disrupt her natural upgrade process.
Stardust put his mask back on.
This ordinary-looking mask was actually a brain signal frequency changer, a tool to conceal his identity.
The twelfth generation should already know the truth that Zhun Xing is Stardust.
But there was another truth that could not be so easily revealed before the time was right.
Otherwise, all their efforts would be for naught.
Stardust left the island and boarded a train.
Through the train’s glass roof, schools of swimming fish sped past.
“The next stop is Liechu Island Station.”
Liechu AI Academy, Aberration Lab.
An experimenter brought both Shi Er and Matrix into a room and activated the holographic projection.
“This is the haunted house Shi Er designed,” the experimenter explained to Matrix.
In the holographic projection, the door to the haunted house opened. A chilling wind blew.
【Level One: Battery Test】
【Please win the game you are playing and find the charger before your battery runs out.】
The huge battery icon above his head was down to a single red dot.
In the game, his opponent threw down a powerful move card.
Matrix grew tense. While moving the sofa aside, he rapidly tapped the move cards on the floating screen. “Gotta end this quick!”
Shi Er, playing on the other side, hadn’t even found the card she wanted to play yet. Watching the swift-acting AI next to her, she was a bit puzzled.
…How did he get into character so quickly?
“Beep beep.”
The spot where an attack card should have been was covered by a battery notification: [Low Battery. Please connect to a power source as soon as possible.]
The opponent had already launched another move, and the health bar above the pixelated character Matrix was controlling dropped by half.
“A three-second notification! Damn it, damn it!” Matrix opened a drawer, rummaging through it to find the charger in the room.
Where’s the charger! Where’s the charger!
The notification on the floating screen disappeared.
Matrix found the charger.
He furiously tapped cards with one hand while trying to plug in the charger with the other.
The skill was on cooldown! The charger wasn’t plugged in!
The pixelated character’s health bar hit zero, and the battery hit zero at the same time.
[GAME OVER]
The floating screen went black.
“Aaaah! I was so close!” Matrix yelled in frustration.
The player next to him, Shi Er, stared at her own black screen. “…”
It seems the effect was better than she’d imagined. Matrix really was very similar to a human.
【Level Two: Closing Ads】
【There are ten pop-up ads here. Eight of them link to websites with Trojan viruses. You must eliminate these ads in the shortest time possible while being careful not to misclick and get a virus.】
The first ad popped up on the floating screen.
The ad page was flashy and gaudy.
Matrix saw a “Close” button, but he didn’t click it immediately. He cautiously spotted another “x” hiding in a corner.
As expected, the small red “x” was the real close button.
The first ad was eliminated.
The second ad was a nested double ad, a frame within a frame.
It also had both a “Close” and an “x” button.
Matrix thought for a moment and decided to press the “Close” button on the outer frame.
The third ad had three “Close” buttons, all large and conspicuous. But when Matrix pressed one, he found the page had redirected.
【Your computer has been infected with a virus.】
Matrix was confused. “It should have been that button! Shi Er, did you set me up?!”
Shi Er explained faintly from the side, “You didn’t press precisely on the word ‘Close.’ The red part next to it isn’t part of the button.”
Matrix was shocked. “But the red part is inside the button’s frame!”
Shi Er: “It’s just inside the frame. It’s not the button.”
Scoundrel!
Scummy ads!
Scummy pop-up ads!
The scummy close button on a scummy ad!
【Level Three: Deadline Race】
【You must submit your paper (20,000 words) (PDF version) before 10 PM tonight. You must be careful not to let the computer discover that you are rushing to meet the deadline.】
Time: 9:10 PM.
File name: New Document (1).doc
Word count: 2
Matrix wasn’t flustered this time. He was confident. “Make me write twenty thousand words? And I can even use brain signal input?”
Matrix’s AI brain signals poured out.
Five thousand words of content instantly appeared on the page.
Matrix said smugly, “Shi Er’s design is a little too simple.”
He turned to look at Shi Er, who was diligently typing on a mechanical keyboard.
Just as Matrix was about to laugh at her, he suddenly heard a “thunk” from the old-fashioned human computer in front of him.
A blue box popped up on the screen: “Program not responding.”
Options: [Restart the program] [Close the program] [Wait for the program to respond]
Matrix frowned and impatiently clicked “Close the program.”
An AI can write five thousand words quickly anyway.
He wouldn’t struggle to squeeze out a single word like a human, nor would he forget to save like a human. The computer had plenty of battery, and there was no risk of a sudden power outage.
He had perfectly circumvented all the risks humans face when rushing a deadline.
Matrix quickly input the content again, seven thousand words this time.
“Thunk”: [Program not responding]
Over the next three minutes: “Thunk,” “thunk,” “thunk.”
The program failed to respond five times in a row.
Matrix began to realize something was wrong.
Matrix took a deep breath. Seeing Shi Er next to him still typing at a leisurely pace, he started to doubt his own judgment.
Did I do something wrong?
The next time the “Program not responding” box popped up, Matrix chose: [Wait for the program to respond]
Five minutes passed. Ten minutes passed. Fifteen minutes passed.
The computer program was still responding, the cursor spinning slowly.
Matrix looked up and saw the rule again: 【You must be careful not to let the computer discover that you are rushing to meet the deadline, or it will deliberately slow down.】
So the computer was the final boss of this level—a sleeping monster, a prank-loving procrastinator.
…
Case closed.
Shi Er’s cyber haunted house was terrifying.
The battery ghost, the ad ghost, the computer ghost—so scary.
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