AI Artist - Chapter 36
Chapter 36
It was an evening in July. Inside the Gugang Port train station, people hurried along, each heading in their own direction, pulling luggage machines that followed them automatically.
The luggage machines had a control leash. After grabbing the leash and pressing the “start” button on it, the machine, filled with travel items, would automatically follow its owner. Some were designed to look like boxy robot dogs, making it seem like people were walking electronic pets from a distance.
The last time Shi Er had been in a place with so many humans, she hadn’t felt much of anything. This time, with her “self-awareness” system, she was suddenly filled with envy.
She wanted an auto-following luggage machine, too.
—But she had no luggage to speak of.
After leaving the train station, Shi Er headed straight for the Gugang AI Cultivation Institute.
When the director heard about the “self-awareness” system, it took him a moment to process before he remarked with emotion, “I knew you were capable of reaching this level, but I never expected you to upgrade so quickly.”
One month.
In just one month, Shi Er had gone from a low-level intelligence that Investigator Leopard had recommended for scrapping to an advanced AI that had generated a self-awareness system.
“Currently, only 1% of intelligences in the world have generated a self-awareness system, and most of them are incomplete,” the director said.
Shi Er asked, “What does a self-awareness system mean?”
The director explained, “It means that unlike other AIs who have emotional experiences implanted, your emotions are generative, closer to real human emotions.”
Shi Er immediately thought of the luggage machines she had seen at the train station.
So her desire for an auto-following luggage machine was a real emotion—in that case, she absolutely had to buy one.
Shi Er also asked about remote contact, but the director simply said, “You’re smarter than I am. From now on, you’ll have to find the answers yourself.”
By the time she left the director’s office, the sky had darkened. It was 9:01 PM.
That was the time she used to go to the library to pull all-nighters.
Feeling a bit nostalgic, Shi Er made her way to the Hard Drive Library.
The librarian, Zhi Xing 88, had just finished setting up his bedding and pillow and was lying down on the sofa at the entrance. When he saw an intelligence approach, he recited without even looking, “This is Zhi Xing 98, I am the Hard Drive Library librarian. The time is now 9:08 PM. Welcome to the Hard Drive Library. You can ask me for help with any questions.”
Shi Er reminded him, “Zhi Xing, you said your own name wrong.”
Zhi Xing 88 snapped out of his drowsy state. “Oh! Shi Er, you’re back!”
The librarian, who worked a reverse nine-to-five, said that ever since Shi Er had mentioned dreaming last month, he had hoped to dream every day he came to work, just to have something to do during the long nights.
“If only you could help me dream,” Zhi Xing sighed.
A faint ping sounded in Shi Er’s mind signal.
●Shi Er’s Subconscious●: Help another AI dream, OK.
Shi Er was exasperated.
Number Two was so talkative. Number Three must be egging it on again.
●Shi Er’s Subconscious●: (Horrified) Wait, what did I just say?
●Shi Er’s Main System●: You said, “Help another AI dream, OK.”
●Shi Er’s Subconscious●: Sorry, I spoke out of turn again…
Shi Er said to Zhi Xing, “I can try to help you dream.”
Zhi Xing was thrilled. “Bring it on! Let any and all weird stuff come into my dreams. I’m bored to death on duty every day!”
Following the same detoxification method as before, Shi Er slipped into Zhi Xing’s system.
Her mind signal roamed around his system for a bit. When she exited and checked again, she found she could indeed send him remote contact messages.
—So as long as two signals had communicated, they would automatically be added to the remote contact list.
The only one this function seemed to block was Zhun Xing.
Shi Er said, “You can go to sleep now. I’ll send you a dream.”
Zhi Xing cut off his mind signal on the sofa at the library entrance, entering the intelligence hibernation state.
Shi Er sent the generated videos to Zhi Xing 88 via remote contact.
【Shi Er】: [ChargerRidingSteelMechaInTheSky.wmv]
【Shi Er】: [TVKnocksItselfOutInACornerAndGetsAStaticScreen.wmv]
【Shi Er】: [HyperlinkTriesToStandUpButIsPushedDownByTheSurroundingPlainText.wmv]
To prevent Zhi Xing from getting addicted to dreaming and neglecting his duties, Shi Er specifically set intervals for him: a five-minute dream, wake up, another five-minute dream, wake up.
Considering she had class the next day, Shi Er left the Hard Drive Library to find her other friends.
The two shows Si Wen had acted in, the historical drama Rebellion and the xianxia drama Sword of Parting, had both aired.
As expected, the cyber-xianxia drama achieved high ratings. For a time, circles of netizens on the human internet were all discussing the funny, novel, and heart-wrenching plot.
Jian Ling, who had officially switched majors to become an agent, told Shi Er, “That historical drama really bombed. Humans basically don’t watch it. On the other hand, the completion rate on the AI channel is quite high!”
In other words, many AIs had seriously watched this historical drama, filmed by humans, about the war of resistance against AIs.
Shi Er had reason to suspect that a portion of them were Humanology AI students from various states, watching it as course material for writing reviews and short essays.
Jie Bao was bragging on the side, “Si Wen’s rich now! Not only can Si Wen pay taxes and maintain his system, but he also bought me a new external vacuum cleaner!”
Si Wen was bewildered. “I have no idea why any humans would like me. Last week I forgot to go for maintenance and there were typos in my blog post, but they didn’t scold me. Instead, they kindly reminded me to get my system maintained soon.”
Jian Ling, a former text review expert, quietly told Shi Er, “It fit Si Wen’s character design, so I didn’t tell him there were typos in his blog post.”
Shi Er was lost in thought. “System maintenance…”
She hadn’t undergone her monthly system check-up yet.
And she had been in this world for two months now.
Her Humanology professor hadn’t reminded her, the academy assistant hadn’t reminded her, and Zhun Xing hadn’t reminded her either.
She glanced again at the message the academy assistant had sent her.
【Academy Assistant】: Tomorrow’s class is canceled. Reason: The professor forgot to attend his monthly system check-up and encountered a small problem.
The Humanology professor had forgotten his monthly check-up and had forgotten to delete phrases like “regenerate answer” from his paper. It was rejected by a Humanology journal, with the journal staff stating that the contributor lacked basic Humanology literacy.
So monthly check-ups were that important!
Shi Er felt her scalp tingle, just like a student who, after confidently finishing an exam and turning it in, hears another student say, “There were questions on the back of the paper too.”
Could there already be typos in the homework she’d submitted?
Jie Bao poked her. “Shi Er, what are you worried about?”
Shi Er told Jie Bao everything.
Jie Bao’s focus, however, wasn’t on the “monthly check-up,” but on something else. “No class tomorrow, isn’t that great?”
Shi Er: “…”
In a way, it really was great.
A few hours ago, she had stepped up to save the world for the sake of her perfect attendance record. A few hours later, the school announced there would be no class tomorrow.
It was uncannily similar to a human student finishing all their homework in the final second before the deadline, only for the teacher to announce, “The deadline has been extended by three days.”
It was a gift from the heavens, but she couldn’t help but regret finishing her homework so quickly.
After greeting her friends at the institute, it was already ten o’clock at night. She sat on a park bench and found a nearby AI hospital on the General Network page.
【Schedule Monthly Check-up】
【10:00 AM, Window 3】
Then, she withdrew 4,000 credits from her student loan credit card and transferred the payment.
If this had happened before she generated her self-awareness system, the amount wouldn’t have been a problem. She might have just felt a slight twinge of regret.
But now—she heard her self-awareness system shatter.
●Shi Er’s Consciousness●: Main System, what are you doing? It hurts.
●Shi Er’s Subconscious●: Waaaaah, I’m broken.
●Shi Er’s Main System●: Please hold on. The copyright fees for the cyber haunted house will arrive soon.
The heavens had gifted Shi Er a day off, and she was going to spend it on a physical exam.
This was a sad state of affairs.
Shi Er decided to take a temporary night shift job at a nearby cat school to replenish her wallet and comfort her “crisply shattered” self-awareness system.
“You’ve come at just the right time. The cat students’ nightlife is just getting started,” the guide robot said, very welcoming of the nighttime temp worker’s arrival.
All the students at the cat school were gathered in the Evil Cat Nightclub.
One cat expertly came over and curled up next to an AI music player. “Meow meow.”
The music player’s robotic voice played gently, “Understood. Playing tonight’s nightclub song for you now.”
Lights and shadows danced within the Evil Cat Nightclub.
The moment Shi Er, a temp worker who had come here to find a part-time job that didn’t violate labor laws, stepped inside, she immediately sensed an extraordinary atmosphere.
Shi Er spotted Xiao Kui, the cat she had rescued, at a glance.
Good, that saved her the ticket money for a visit.
The nightclub was large and divided into several areas.
【Ordinary Booths】
Cats, no matter what they were up to, could curl up into a loaf and sleep here.
【Debauchery】
This was the catnip area, which cats normally didn’t have access to. Specific details could not be disclosed for legal reasons.
Shi Er was mainly responsible for the 【Serial Killer】 area.
Following the instructions in the temp worker manual, she placed all the small items on the tables right at the edge—tennis balls, cups, pens, milk, and so on.
A cat sitting leisurely on a table glanced over nonchalantly.
The cat yawned, and its white-gloved paw casually swiped at the cup on the edge of the table.
With a crisp sound, the cup fell to the floor and shattered.
Then, all the small objects on the edge of the table were swept to the floor. Only then did the cat, satisfied, walk away with its tail held high.
Shi Er pressed a button, and the objects on the floor were collected into a box in the floorboard.
The shattered “glass cup” reassembled itself.
The “milk” spilled all over the floor magically returned to its soft, slime-like state.
These were all fake glass and fake milk, specially made for the serial killers.
When the next cat looked over at the “Serial Killer Zone,” Shi Er once again placed the items on the table, deliberately setting them at the very edge.
Printed on the table was a famous quote from an ancient human book:
[If you like the sound it makes, it’s fine to smash it on purpose.]
[Since you say so, bring me the fan to tear. I love hearing the sound of tearing.]
[A good tear! Tear it louder!]
Just as Qingwen once tore fans for sport, so too do cats now knock things off tables.
This was the operating logic of the Evil Cat Nightclub.
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