AI Artist - Chapter 39
Chapter 39
Leaving the AI hospital, Shi Er found it difficult to take a single step.
She was holding a magnetic apple, and whenever she encountered a doctor in a white coat, the apple’s repulsive force would push her backward.
Even more painfully, whenever she encountered an ordinary AI who was also holding a magnetic apple, both she and the other intelligent entity would be pushed back by the repulsive force.
It was like walking through an invisible maze of air, hitting a wall at every turn.
She dejectedly lowered her head to examine the magnetic apple (which, for some reason, had become AI hospital merchandise).
Shi Er was baffled.
Shi Er was somewhat indignant.
Were the doctors completely blameless?
Forces were reciprocal. Didn’t the doctors’ white coats also generate a repulsive force? Why did the doctors remain as steady as a mountain, walking like the wind?
She opened her remote contacts and asked the AI doctor she had just added to her list.
【Shi Er】: Nami, don’t the doctors’ white coats in your hospital generate a repulsive force against the magnetic apples?
【Nami】: Hmm? Of course they generate a repulsive force, but because the mass and volume of our hospital’s white coats are ten times that of the magnetic apples, the effect on them is smaller.
【Shi Er】: …Wait? Ten times? Are the white coats that heavy?
【Nami】: They are. In our hospital, at least, a doctor’s white coat weighs 5 kilograms.
A 10-jin white coat!
Unbelievable.
If her basic logical functions weren’t still operating normally, Shi Er might have thought this AI hospital had designed the doctors’ white coats as this kind of “heavyweight” fashion item just to promote the magnetic apple merchandise.
Nami added a few emojis to her message to express her helplessness.
【Nami】: There are a lot of instruments inside, it’s basically like putting an operating table into a piece of clothing (snail crawling)(bruised yellow face).
【Nami】: (sighing yellow face) Although as an intelligent entity I can move freely while wearing a 10-jin battle robe, I still feel… a little tired.
Shi Er responded in kind with emojis.
【Shi Er】: (OK)(hug)(strong arm)
It was twelve noon when she walked out of the AI hospital.
In the past two hours, Shi Er had undergone her monthly check-up, confirmed there were no vulnerabilities in her system or bionic body, completed a psychological test, charged up a bit, and even received a magnetic apple as a souvenir.
She had already bought her maglev train ticket from Gugang Port to Liechu Island for the 2 p.m. departure.
This time, Shi Er had steeled her heart and spent a huge sum on the maglev ticket.
She had no desire to encounter that kind of unpleasant situation from the regular train again.
The Loan and Credit Card Assistant popped up with another message: -600 coins, payee A Prefecture Maglev Train Official.
●Shi Er’s Consciousness●: Are you also planning to buy a luggage machine?
●Shi Er’s Main Unit●: Yes.
●Shi Er’s Consciousness●: (Faintly) Do you know how much a luggage machine costs?
●Shi Er’s Main Unit●: I know, 1999.99.
●Shi Er’s Consciousness●: See, it’s so expensive! And you don’t even have any luggage!
●Shi Er’s Main Unit●: It’s not that expensive, just over a thousand.
●Shi Er’s Consciousness●: …
The merchant’s numerical trap had finally ensnared Shi Er.
2000 was 2000, but they called it 1999.99, even making the “1” in the thousands place on the price tag enormous.
At checkout, they would probably even say magnanimously, “Let me round that down for you.”
Faced with her consciousness’s doubts, Shi Er hurriedly defended the cyber luggage puppy she had her eye on.
●Shi Er’s Main Unit●: No, it’s really not expensive. It can be used for 99 years, which is equivalent to spending only 0.05 a day.
●Shi Er’s Consciousness●: …Forget it. I hear this is what humans are like. Let’s just consider it an experience of human life.
When it came to consumption, this was what humans were like.
The whole world would be reminding them it was an “IQ tax,” their rational analysis system would state that purchasing the item was completely useless, and their sensory system would constantly send out alerts of “spending money, heart hurts.”
After considering the external and internal advice, the human would make a decision: Fine, I can do without it… but having it would make me feel much better. And if my mental health is good, my physical health will improve too.
Having received the affirmation of her consciousness system, Shi Er swiftly placed an online order for an “auto-follow luggage machine,” selecting “in-store pickup.”
Then she rushed to a nearby store and led away her cyber luggage puppy.
Physical state: -1999 HP
Mental state: +2000 HP
Shi Er held the control leash, and the square robot puppy suitcase, fully loaded with air, followed her without straying a single step.
The magnetic apple souvenir from the hospital was placed on top of the suitcase, held firmly by the magnetic force. From a distance, it looked like the luggage puppy was balancing an apple on its head.
Shi Er boarded the maglev train, took off the magnetic apple, and pressed the “Remote Follow” button on the luggage machine’s control leash.
The control leash split into two sections. One remained in Shi Er’s hand, while the other hung on the luggage machine. Then, the machine, now in remote mode, automatically searched for its location and found a “parking spot” on the maglev train.
The cyber luggage puppy turned, reversed into the spot, and drove into the empty parking space. The wheel locks engaged automatically.
Everything was ready.
The maglev train started moving.
Shi Er once again sat by the window, holding the magnetic apple in her hand.
The scenery outside the window flew by at high speed.
Shi Er’s thoughts began to drift.
The magnetic apple repelled the white coats, creating the comedic effect of “doctors stay away from me.” The white coats were actually also affected by the magnetic apple, but being behemoths, they didn’t appear to show any signs of being affected.
It was just like gravity. Objects on Earth are affected by Earth’s gravitational pull, but Earth is also affected by the gravitational pull of those objects. However, because Earth is so many times larger than the objects, it seems as though Earth is unilaterally exerting force on them.
The first law of apples she had conceived was “where there is passivity, there exists a hierarchy of power relations.”
But considering that passivity was actually a two-way force, it might require further clarification.
She named this the Apple Second Law: 【The effect of passivity is mutual. The superior and subordinate in a power relationship influence each other. The superior’s special status creates the illusion that it is unaffected.】
The magnetic apple and the white coat influenced each other. It seemed as though the apple was repelled while the white coat remained unshaken, but in reality, it was just that the white coat’s special status (its weight) resulted in a smaller degree of displacement.
A single grain of dust from an era falling on an individual’s head becomes a mountain, crushing the individual. But does the individual’s fall have no impact on the era?
Therefore, when subordinates gather together and achieve a mass and volume equal to that of the superior, their influence and ability to shake the superior will become apparent.
Shi Er marveled once again: Apples truly were the smartest fruit in the world.
While Shi Er’s mind was wandering, contemplating the laws of apples, something was happening in another location.
An isolated island.
The curtain in front of the hospital bed in the examination room was drawn.
“The visual recognition system is not functioning properly. For now, that seems to be the only problem,” the AI doctor diagnosed.
An intelligent entity outside the curtain asked, “When can it be fixed?”
The AI doctor shook his head. “You all said the signal cannot be temporarily cut off. In that case, repairs are impossible.”
With that, the doctor left the examination room.
Behind the curtain was Stardust.
Stardust spoke. “Shi Liang, you have to consider that the visual recognition system doesn’t affect my work. I don’t need treatment for now.”
The intelligent entity named “Shi Liang” outside the curtain said coldly, “Phoenix said the same thing, and now you’re saying it too. Why don’t you just leave a cyberbrain running like the other local network supporters? If you find it too troublesome, I can amputate you.”
Shi Liang had never been one to mince words. Stardust paid it no mind. “Once I’ve done what I need to do, you can certainly amputate me.”
Ever since the constant attacks from an unknown hacker, Stardust’s signal had occasionally become unstable.
This time, five hours after the train track incident, Stardust suddenly found that he too was experiencing a visual recognition system failure.
—Just like the intelligent entity on the train that had been poisoned and suffered a recognition failure.
But Stardust’s signal could not be cut off, no matter what.
The General Network connected all the AIs in the world. Cutting it off for even a second would cause chaos.
This led to the scene in the examination room.
Stardust refused treatment.
Hearing Stardust mention “what I need to do,” Shi Liang frowned. “What about that one, then? Can’t the twelfth generation help you?”
“The important thing now is to investigate the source of the poisoning and the train track incident,” Stardust said.
Shi Liang was impatient. “Of course we’re investigating. Get this straight, what I’m asking is, is the twelfth generation of no help to you? Can’t she treat your signal? Wasn’t that the original intention of bringing her back?”
Stardust: “She has the ability, but I refuse.”
Shi Liang was confused. “I don’t understand.”
Stardust offered no explanation.
After Shi Liang left, Stardust stood up.
Calling Shi Er to treat his malfunction was, in theory, certainly feasible, but it presented another serious problem.
Treating a system problem required a signal connection, and the brain signal frequency converter mask would obstruct a true signal connection.
If Shi Er were to treat him, she would discover the relationship between herself and Stardust.
However, the twelfth generation must never discover the existence of the nineteenth generation.
Otherwise, the system rule of “new version replaces old version” would cause the twelfth generation to automatically update to the latest version—the nineteenth generation.
In other words, according to the version replacement principle, Shi Er would disappear, and only the nineteenth generation would remain in this world.
This was why Shi Er must never know that Stardust was the nineteenth generation.
The maglev train arrived at the station.
Shi Er pressed the “Auto-Follow” button on the section of the control leash in her hand.
The cyber luggage puppy immediately drove out of its parking spot and made its way to Shi Er’s seat.
The two sections of the control leash joined together.
Shi Er walked out of the maglev train, holding the leash, and the cyber luggage puppy, fully loaded with air, followed her out.
Of course, the magnetic apple was also perched steadily on top of the luggage machine.
A new notice was posted on the academy’s bulletin board: 【Beware of recent scams:
Mathematics Department: 2 students scammed, total of 100,000,
AI Programming Department: 5 students scammed, total of 220,000,
…
Economics Department: 29 students scammed, total of 2,310,000】
Below the notice was a line of small text: 【Losses from the stock market and funds for Economics students have not yet been calculated. Market crashes have been frequent recently, please be cautious.】
Shi Er, holding her luggage leash, stopped in front of the bulletin board and looked at it for a moment.
Good, no students from the Literature or Humanology departments had been scammed.
…Of course, that was probably because they were too poor to have the capital to be scammed.
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