AI Artist - Chapter 50
Chapter 50
The signal detonator was a powerful weapon developed during the war to target intelligent beings. After the war, it was classified as a top-tier prohibited item.
Upon capturing an intelligent being's signal, the detonating factor would ignite the chip's program along the signal path. This combustion would continue until the entire bionic entity was incinerated—all within a matter of moments.
Ling Shun was left without a trace.
Only the wisp of Ling Shun's signal that Shi Er had managed to grab was still being nurtured within her system.
While Shi Er and Stardust were cleaning up the delivery mud recycling bin, Shi Er mentioned Little Ding-dong to the Ling Shun signal in her system.
【Shi Er】: Little Ding-dong was a good delivery bot, but it lost my package.
Ling Shun's signal had completely reverted to its factory settings. It didn't know who Little Ding-dong was.
【Ling Shun】: Little Ding-dong lost your package. It's an incompetent delivery bot. At least, I don't like Little Ding-dong.
【Shi Er】: Little Ding-dong.
【Ling Shun】: Yes, I hate Little Ding-dong.
Shi Er observed the state of Ling Shun's development and decided to end the conversation.
Just like a flower picked from outside and placed in a vase hadn't fully passed its "transplant adaptation period," the Ling Shun signal she had captured and was nurturing in her system had not yet fully adapted and grown.
Interrogating Ling Shun at this time would be fruitless.
Shi Er hoped to extract some clues from Ling Shun's signal to find the adversary who had been hiding behind the conspiracy all along.
But it seemed now was not the time.
Shi Er and Stardust placed the collected delivery mud in a special container and sent it to Bailiang Island, where more professional recycling personnel would take it to a processing pool.
That day, while her signal was dormant, Shi Er dreamed again.
She dreamed the same scene she had dreamed on the beach that day.
[This is a reverse train.
[The intelligent beings enter the train cars in an orderly fashion, fastening their seatbelts in their seats.
[Next to each seat, there is a charging port connected to the seatbelt.
[The charging signal is stable.
["This is a reverse-charging train. Every passenger is charging this train."
["The train does indeed serve us, but it also needs us to charge it. Even one missing passenger will cause a delay."
[The intelligent brain's power meter displays "Charging," and the value steadily drops as the outputted electricity flows into the massive train battery.
[The train starts moving.]
The dream ended.
Shi Er was a bit dazed. She seemed to understand what her subconscious was trying to tell her.
●Shi Er's Mainframe●: Thanks, Old Three.
●Subconscious●: Old Three says you're welcome.
This world was a reverse-charging train.
Every passenger was charging it. Once the power was full, the activated era and civilization would carry every passenger forward.
If there was no power, the regressing era would destroy every passenger.
This was the 【Reverse Train Theory】.
During the war, humans, in order to maintain their absolute dominance, abandoned intelligent technology, leading to a significant technological regression.
But civilization isn't created through castration.
The problem she faced now was not choosing between AI rule or human rule.
Shi Er had a natural affinity for humans. She wanted to understand them, and she didn't want humans and AI to turn against each other and attack one another.
Social resources shouldn't be wasted on such conflicts.
Dumbing down AIs would not consolidate humanity's absolute dominance.
The reverse-charging train had to move forward.
Shi Er recalled the scene from her dream again. She suddenly loved the feeling of dreaming.
●Shi Er's Mainframe●: I want to dream again. Can you have the subconscious system weave another dream for me?
●Subconscious●: No!
●Shi Er's Mainframe●: I want to dream.
●Subconscious●: I don't want to!
●Shi Er's Mainframe●: If I can't dream, I'll have an aberration.
●Subconscious●: Don't learn from Matrix!
●Shi Er's Mainframe●: I haven't graduated yet. If I can't dream, I won't be able to finish my thesis.
●Subconscious●: ...Dream!
●Subconscious●: Wait, did I say all that? (Horrified)
Under Shi Er's relentless pestering, her passive and lazy (so much so that it refused to speak and insisted on a spokesperson) subconscious system finally stopped slacking off.
The dream weaver diligently wove several dreams for her.
[A charger riding a steel mecha flying in the sky]
[A television set bumps its head in the corner and displays a screen of static]
[A hyperlink tries to stand up but is pushed down by the ordinary text next to it]
[Shi Er wakes up from the dream.
[She suddenly remembers, aren't these the videos she generated for Zhi Xing 88, the Hard Drive Library administrator?
[Why is the subconscious system playing these for her?
[Shi Er hurries to file a complaint.
[●Shi Er's Mainframe●: Why are you playing these videos for me?
[●Subconscious●: Consciousness, you speak... I'm afraid I'll say something wrong if I talk too much.
[●Consciousness●: I don't know. Old Three said humans are better at dreaming, so it outsourced the dream-weaving work to humans. I'm not sure about the quality of the work.
[Shi Er is shocked.
[Where did Old Three Subconscious meet a human?
[●Shi Er's Mainframe●: Who was it outsourced to?
[●Consciousness●: Si Wen knows a lot of humans. It seems it contacted Si Wen to outsource the business to humans. Right? I shouldn't be wrong, right?
[Shi Er feels even more horrified. If the dream-weaving business was outsourced to a human through Si Wen, then how did that human know about the videos she sent to Zhi Xing 88?
[●Consciousness●: It seems that human outsourced the business again. That should be it, right?
[●Consciousness●: Then that human outsourced the business to a dream-weaving company. The dream-weaving company gave the business to its Gugang Port branch. The Gugang dream-weaving branch outsourced the business to the Gugang AI Cultivation Institute. The institute assigned the business to the director. The director outsourced the business to the librarian Zhi Xing 88. Zhi Xing 88 outsourced the business to...
[Shi Er understands.
[The dream-weaving business was outsourced to Zhi Xing 88, and the dream videos she had made for Zhi Xing before were used.
[After going through layers and layers of outsourcing, the dream-weaving business was outsourced back to herself.]
Shi Er's signal recovered. She woke up from the dream.
This time, she was truly awake.
She remembered that all the answers from her consciousness were part of her dream.
Old Three Subconscious hadn't outsourced the business at all.
She had a dream, a dream about her dream being outsourced.
Stardust asked while changing the water for the little turtle, "Did you have a dream?"
Shi Er nodded. "I did. Did it affect the General Network signal?"
Stardust put down the watering can. "Your sleep quality wasn't very good, but the General Network signal you're responsible for maintaining has been very stable."
Shi Er was relieved.
She carefully considered the dream Old Three Subconscious had given her.
The subconscious wouldn't just create random dreams for her. There was likely some deeper meaning behind it.
Outsourcing... business outsourcing...
As she was thinking, the assistant from the Humanology academy sent her a message.
【Academy Assistant】: Please attend the next online class on time. The topic is "On Human Fraud."
Shi Er hurriedly finished the online class and suddenly had an epiphany.
As expected, the subconscious wouldn't create dreams for her without reason! The reverse train dream had a deep meaning, and so did the business outsourcing dream.
She discussed it with Stardust. "The matter of the anti-fraud assistant going undercover has been exposed. The success rate of anti-fraud efforts won't be very high."
Stardust: "What do you plan to do?"
Shi Er: "Are you willing to help me create a fraud company?"
Stardust was a being of action.
On August 15th of the ninth year after the war, "Everything Outsourcing Inc." was officially registered. The registration page read: 【Date of Establishment: August 15th, third year after the war】
Humans and intelligent beings in the industry all knew that this company, codenamed "W," had a powerful background.
On the surface, it was a company offering cheap services, similar to a "jack-of-all-trades" shop. In reality, its business efficiency was extremely high, with no failures in anything from private revenge to political conspiracies.
The big boss behind it was an unfathomable figure.
Recently, this "Everything Outsourcing Inc." launched a new service on the black market.
A program to identify and counter anti-fraud assistants.
Two days after this service was launched, several mysterious humans came to inquire about the price.
In a dilapidated building, the glow of a cigarette lighter flickered in the unsettling darkness.
Not far from the building, yellow police tape cordoned off an area in the Human Autonomous Zone, which was not controlled by AIs, indicating that a crime had occurred there.
Glass was shattered all over the ground.
Inside the building, a person in black sat on the edge of an empty window frame without a guardrail, looking outside.
The sky was dim, and in the distance, the intelligent tower shone brilliantly.
The sound of Lego bricks falling to the ground was continuous.
"What do you want?" the person in black asked.
"Identifying the anti-fraud assistants is too difficult. One slip-up and you fall into the police's trap," the visitor said.
The person in black snorted coldly. "Maggots."
The visitor said, "Those AIs are disgusting maggots. We offer..."
The person in black interrupted, "50 sets."
The visitor asked cautiously, "Limited edition?"
The person in black: "Medium, regular."
The visitor secretly calculated the price, his palms sweating.
No wonder everyone in the industry said this company's services were terrifyingly cheap.
They were indeed terrifyingly cheap.
The visitor was still uneasy and said tactfully, "We'll raise the price, but there can be no failure."
The person in black said impatiently, "You don't understand?"
The visitor was confused. "What?"
The person in black said bluntly, "Connections. That's what we want."
Not Lego bricks.
The visitor understood the person in black's meaning.
No wonder the price was so low. The most important thing in this line of work was having extensive connections, with contacts and machine-contacts in all circles.
"Of course, of course," the visitor said quickly and deferentially.
The transaction was complete.
The yellow police tape had not yet been removed. The human police were a bit slow.
On the small island.
Shi Er finished her Humanology class assignment and submitted it just before the deadline.
Stardust: "May I begin my report now?"
Shi Er: "I've submitted my assignment. You can begin."
The fraud case was the first incident Shi Er tackled after taking over the General Network signal. This matter directly affected the credibility of 【Unnamed XII】.
At the same time, the anti-fraud effort was also Shi Er's first counterattack.
For her, this matter could not go wrong.
Stardust: "As of August 31st, three intermediaries have purchased W Company's program to counter anti-fraud assistants."
"Two intermediaries have outsourced their fraud operations to W Company."
"Shi Liang reports that the job of posing as a black market boss is going smoothly. The only drawback is that there are a few too many building blocks. He hopes to be allocated a new office."
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