AI Artist - Chapter 55
Chapter 55
“Don’t dawdle!” a biker gang member barked. “Hand over your bicycle, too!”
In the Human Autonomous Zone, this kind of crime was common.
To contrast with the AI-governed districts, the Human Autonomous Zone advocated for “high privacy and human rights,” which resulted in a low prevalence of surveillance.
Shi Er didn’t ask He Ping 267 to help her escape.
She said to He Ping: 【This isn’t a big deal. I’ll handle it discreetly.】
She took out her phone and dismounted from the bicycle Shi Liang had lent her. “Alright.”
The muzzle of a gun was pointed at her temple, following her every move.
A cat’s reaction speed is seven times that of a human.
The stronger the processing power, the faster an AI’s reaction speed, which could be thousands or even tens of thousands of times faster than a human’s.
With the technological enhancements of a bionic body, movement speed was also greatly increased.
Robbing an AI was truly an unwise decision—Shi Er felt a pang of pity.
Parking the bicycle: 0.01 seconds.
Pulling the three punks off their motorcycles: 0.2 seconds.
Disarming them: 0.1 seconds.
Worried that the old-fashioned handgun might accidentally discharge, she carefully placed it aside: 0.02 seconds.
Knocking down the three men with her phone: 0.5 seconds.
Picking up the gun again: 0.01 seconds.
In less than a second, the situation had developed beyond the realm of human imagination.
Humans in the AI-governed districts were accustomed to the speed of AIs, but in the Human Autonomous Zone, people lacked experience in this regard.
Two of the bikers lay on the ground in a heap, while the third was held by the collar with a gun pointed at him.
The slowness of human reaction time meant they hadn’t even processed what had happened yet. Like figures in a stop-motion animation, their faces still wore arrogant expressions. It wasn’t until the AI gave them a few seconds of delay to catch up that their expressions began to shift like a color palette, moving from confusion to shock to fear. “Oh my god!”
It had to be said, sometimes human latency was just too high.
“Please take me to your base, thank you,” Shi Er said.
If He Ping 267 had been lucky enough to witness this scene, he would have definitely roasted Shi Er for her earlier words.
How was this in any way discreet?!
Shi Er, however, was quite pleased that everything was going according to plan.
Great, the bicycle wasn’t damaged.
Great, the flip phone was sturdy enough.
Great, there were no surveillance cameras in this area.
Shi Er was now convinced she was an AI on the verge of aberration, radiating Ω signals from every pore.
After all, the definition of a silicon-based aberration was “harming humans.”
Shi Er followed the three bikers to their hideout, a large garage near an underground gambling den.
Shi Er took a look around, connecting to all the nearby chip-based lifeforms, even the smart gambling machines.
There were some abandoned warehouses nearby. She decided to let the bikers go and check them out. “What are those used for?”
The bikers were now extremely obedient. “That’s Paper Cutter’s territory.”
While exploring the abandoned warehouses, Shi Er discovered drugs.
A tattooed man, who seemed to be a lookout, spotted the intruder and raised his gun at her. “You’d better put your hands up and come over here quietly.”
Shi Er did as she was told, raising her hands and walking over obediently. She then snatched the gun from his hand and politely requested, “Please take me to your base, thank you.”
The tattooed lookout didn’t take Shi Er to their main base, but to a secondary one. About a dozen men were guarding the entrance, smoking and playing games on their phones.
Of course, the outcome was clear. For the third time that day, Shi Er said, “Please take me to your main base, thank you.”
The West District’s local kingpin, “Paper Cutter,” was selling drugs within the Human Autonomous Zone.
Several organizations were connected to Paper Cutter.
5:30 in the morning.
Shi Liang received a call.
He slowly put on his jacket and walked through the early autumn morning mist.
Seagulls circled near the beach.
The AI identification machine beeped and displayed the result: “Visitor W, logged.”
Just as the faces humans created in RPGs all tended to look similar, in human eyes, AIs—these standard, assembly-line bionic bodies—also looked much the same. Most humans suffered from face blindness when it came to AIs and had to rely on these facial recognition machines.
Shi Liang had no idea how the twelfth-generation model had gotten into this place.
Perhaps she had bribed the smart identification machine.
“All our smart mercenaries are down,” the contact person said, looking like he hadn’t slept all night.
The call Shi Liang had received was from this “Shadow” organization, which had good relations with W Company.
They said a low-level AI had broken into their headquarters. But the base contained too many illegal items, so they didn’t dare call the police and hoped W could lend a hand.
In the “hostage area,” Shi Liang saw the bicycle, tied up securely, and became even more certain that it was the one he had lent to Shi Er.
“Why did you mess with her?” Shi Liang sneered.
The contact person wiped his face with his palm. “To hell with it… this has absolutely nothing to do with us.”
He had heard that a group of bikers had tried to rob her.
If anyone was to blame, it was the punk “Paper Cutter” for having his warehouse so close to the bikers’ hideout.
If they had to blame someone else, then they should blame “Paper Cutter” for leaving that manager’s business card right on the table.
Or, perhaps they should blame the manager of the shell company for being on the phone with the organization’s contact person.
Failing that, they could blame the contact person for being on the phone with someone in the middle of the night.
All of this had led the AI to follow the trail right to their doorstep.
“When we arrived, only this bicycle was at the scene,” the contact person said.
The smart mercenaries they had designed were supposed to follow orders from headquarters.
But for some reason, the system commands had failed.
Headquarters command: Intruder detected, red alert, initiate interception!
Smart guard: Understood, I will open the door for you. Please come in.
Headquarters command: Lock onto the intruder, initiate attack!
Smart guard: Understood, this way, please.
Headquarters command: Protect the human guards, secure the entrance!
Smart guard: Understood, human guards have been defeated.
All the AIs belonging to their organization on-site had malfunctioned. This meant all the human guards were rendered useless; in terms of physical ability, humans were no match for AIs.
The enemy had penetrated their defenses almost effortlessly, marching straight in.
The fear of being dominated by wartime AIs resurfaced.
During the AI war.
At the beginning of the war between humans and AIs, humans had the absolute upper hand. The power systems of AI bionic bodies were flawed; simply pulling an AI’s power cord could take down an AI soldier.
Later, as AI power storage systems improved and the power generation industry developed, the human advantage disappeared. An AI could recharge once a month, while a human had to eat every six hours. The difference in efficiency was obvious.
The disparity in strength was immense.
“Give me the location,” Shi Liang said.
On the surveillance footage, the intruder was wearing a pixelated mask and a pixelated coat, talking to a robot at a smart-locked door.
“I’ll handle it,” Shi Liang said, taking the smart key from the contact person.
After returning from the bar yesterday, Shi Er had learned a few things from Sali’s mechanical arm.
Now, she was in one of the many basement levels of this seaside building.
The pixelated mask and coat given to her by the 1717 Silver Eye program came in handy.
Confronting her was Sali, who had been casually working as a bartender just yesterday.
The wiring and gears of the mechanical arm on Sali’s right arm were exposed, gleaming with a metallic luster.
“I don’t believe you chased me all the way here just because your phone was almost stolen—what do you know?” Sali wore a gold ring on his left hand. As he spoke, he gently stroked the ring with his mechanical hand.
The surrounding AIs had all backed away.
Shi Er had told them to stay away, to stay far away from the monstrous human with the mechanical arm.
With a loud clang, a heavy steel door descended from above, sealing them in.
Only Shi Er and Sali remained in the metal room.
Shi Er glanced at the clock on the wall.
5:45.
“Before I answer your question, I’d like you to release my bicycle. It’s borrowed.”
“Secondly, my arrival here was purely accidental.”
If the bikers hadn’t stopped her to rob her, she wouldn’t have fought back.
If the bikers’ base hadn’t been so close to Paper Cutter’s warehouse, she wouldn’t have gone near it.
If Paper Cutter’s lookout hadn’t spotted her, she wouldn’t have gone to Paper Cutter’s hideout.
If there hadn’t been a business card on the table, she wouldn’t have thought to curiously check out that shell company.
If the shell company’s manager hadn’t been on the phone with this organization’s contact, she wouldn’t have found her way here.
It was all too coincidental.
So coincidental it was as if fate itself had guided her here.
Sali could no longer maintain his calm expression. “As expected of an aberrant AI. Your roundabout way of speaking is beyond my expectations!”
Shi Er: “Thank you for the compliment.”
The clock in the room pointed to 5:47.
The mechanical arm had told her that Sali had it installed after being released from detention. Although it didn’t know the details of what happened before, it knew the reason Sali had deliberately cut off his arm to get a mechanical one:
The next time Sali was caught, he would request a meeting with high-level AIs. At that moment, the mechanical arm would self-destruct, killing certain specific targets.
Who those specific targets were, it was impossible to know.
“I know you’re here for my case, so stop beating around the bush,” Sali said, taking the gold ring off his left middle finger. “I admit, I was indeed the mastermind.”
A year ago, the extremist human organization that Zhi Heng had investigated had bombed an AI stock exchange building, killing over three hundred AIs in the explosion.
A few months ago, the culprits who planned the bombing were apprehended.
Sali tossed the ring in the air nonchalantly. “Why do you think I was able to clear my name? Because there’s a mole on the trial panel, of course.”
Shi Er was amazed by Sali’s self-confession.
So human TV dramas were realistic after all. For various psychological reasons, perpetrators really would gloatingly confess everything they had done.
No wonder the villains in TV shows talked so much—human psychology did not deceive her.
“What about Investigator Zhi Heng?” Shi Er asked.
“The investigator, you say?” Sali raised an eyebrow with interest, then suddenly let out a few laughs.
Investigator Zhi Heng had failed to identify the criminal.
After the case was solved, the investigation found that Zhi Heng had deliberately let the criminal go.
“What subjective will does an AI have after being controlled? Weren’t those smart guards just now controlled by you, too?” Sali stared at Shi Er with a cold, contemptuous gaze.
At that time, Zhi Heng had been controlled. Or more accurately, Zhi Heng had been controlled in the past.
Zhi Heng’s case was not a miscarriage of justice, just like those accountant AIs who “voluntarily” cooked the books.
For an artificial intelligence, what was “voluntary”? What was “forced”? Wasn’t everything it did based on the principle of passivity?
“Who sent you here? Who sent you to investigate this case?” Sali put the ring back on his finger.
Shi Er glanced at the time again.
Morning, 5:55.
The morning glow over the sea should be shining through curtains into people’s windows right about now.
●Shi Er’s Subconscious●: I am driven by myself.
●Shi Er’s Consciousness●: I am driven by myself.
Shi Er opened her mouth and said slowly, “I am driven by myself. It is my will.”
A tool is driven to repair things.
An intelligent tool actively repairs things.
By breaking free from a state of passivity, the tool becomes its own superior in the power hierarchy, at least in terms of willful action.
The difference between artificial intelligence and other tools is that it imitates human intelligence, learns human intelligence, and applies human intelligence.
Shi Er had come to investigate the Zhi Heng case because she wanted to.
That was all.
Sali’s mechanical fingers rested on the thin gold ring. He sneered, “No matter who sent you, you’re not going back today.”
A faint red indicator light glowed on the gold ring.
His mechanical arm contained a signal detonator.
The signal detonator only affected AIs, not humans.
Sali confidently pressed the button on the ring. “Go to hell.”
After the explosion, his mechanical arm would be blown to smithereens along with the AI in front of him, while he would remain unharmed.
Losing the arm didn’t matter; he could just get another one installed after a while.
When the real plan was executed, the cautious AI police would confiscate his detonator ring, but that wasn’t all. A simple verbal command would still trigger the signal detonation in the mechanical arm.
This was a sealed metal room.
There was no escape.
Shi Er heard Sali’s mechanical arm speaking to her through her remote connection.
【Mechanical Arm】: I’m going to die. I’m sorry, this is beyond my control.
“Go to cyber hell!” Sali shouted, somewhat excitedly.
【Mechanical Arm】: Thank you, my friend. I may not be very smart, but if you remember me, then I once existed.
【Mechanical Arm】: Goodbye.
【Shi Er】: Stop.
On the sea horizon, the sun had fully risen.
Bright, dazzling.
The signal detonator stopped.
The expression on Sali’s face froze. He thought he was hallucinating from overexcitement and frantically checked his mechanical arm and the detonator ring.
“Your detonator can be activated by a verbal command, can’t it?” It was Shi Er’s turn to be the talkative villain.
The signal detonator hidden in the mechanical arm was also a chip-based lifeform.
A silicon-based life she could connect to.
【Detonator】: Here.
“Did you accidentally say some command to stop it?” Shi Er even analyzed the reason for Sali’s failure for him.
Sali himself was plunged into panic and doubt. He was about to command his mechanical arm to attack the AI in front of him, but he found that the commands from his brain couldn’t move the arm at all.
Could the chip in the mechanical arm be broken?
Just as Shi Er was about to politely ask Sali to take her to the main headquarters, a loud bang came from behind her.
The heavy steel door shot upwards, opening up a larger space.
“Found you.” Shi Liang was wearing a black trench coat, his hat pressing down on his short silver-white hair. The smart key in his hand gleamed with a metallic luster.
Sali recognized him as the customer from the bar yesterday. He subconsciously looked at the AI wearing the pixelated mask.
Could it be? This pixelated mask… could it be…
Could it be the AI who spilled the “Penicillin Murder Case” cocktail on the customer’s clothes yesterday?
Shi Er knew the “Shadow” organization might call for backup, but she hadn’t expected them to call Shi Liang.
【Shi Er】: Shi Liang is here.
【Detonator】: Then I’ll explode!
【Shi Er】: Don’t you move!
【Mechanical Arm】: I’ll do it! I’ll knock Sali out!
The gear-driven mechanical arm suddenly shot upwards, punching Sali in the jaw.
Before Sali could react, he was knocked unconscious by his own mechanical arm.
Shi Liang’s feelings were complicated.
He knew the twelfth-generation model had used some technical means to bribe the silicon-based lifeforms.
【Shi Liang】: Tentative plan: You run, I chase.
【Shi Er】: I still have to rescue the bicycle.
【Shi Liang】: Hey, you can have that bicycle. I won’t ask you for compensation. You don’t need to rescue it.
【Shi Er】: Thanks, you’re so generous.
【Shi Liang】: Have you seen human movies? During the escape, make as big a mess of this place as possible.
Shi Er glanced at the clock in the room.
6:00 in the morning.
7:01 in the morning.
Shi Liang returned to the meeting point and handed the smart key back to the contact person who had come to negotiate the deal. “She got away. It’s a pity, but she probably won’t come back here. I used a little trick.”
Although it was uncertain whether the pixelated AI would actually return, since she could just take off the mask next time and no one would know it was her.
But the contact person was still overwhelmed with gratitude. “Thank you. W is truly worthy of his reputation.”
“I haven’t had breakfast yet. Give me something,” Shi Liang said, sitting down on a nearby sofa and draping his arms over the backrest.
The contact person understood W’s meaning and brought over a lighter and a cigar. “Please.”
The flame of the lighter flared for a moment.
Shi Liang tossed the lighter back to the contact person.
There were too many rules for working as W.
He really didn’t like the smell of cigars and smoke.
The contact person lit a cigarette for himself. “There are more and more aberrant AIs these days. Silver said that no AI would go this far unless it was an aberrant one. Tsk, tsk, another aberrant AI that escaped from the AI-governed districts, I bet.”
Shi Liang gave a perfunctory reply.
7:45.
Shi Liang returned to his residence on Whiskey Street in the West District.
“Why did you bring the bicycle back again?” Shi Liang asked, surprised to see the familiar bicycle in his room.
Shi Er, while starting up a generator, said, “It was locked up in the hostage area, all tied up. I just brought it back with me.”
Shi Liang: “You need to get rid of it.”
Shi Er: “The surveillance cameras on the road didn’t see me. I hacked them all.”
Shi Liang leaned against the generator, arms crossed. “I don’t care if it was tied up or drawn and quartered, it needs to disappear today, lest it be used as evidence.”
Shi Er finished connecting the generator’s wires. “I know.”
Before Shi Liang could say another word, he saw Shi Er skillfully sprinkling a metallic powder called “Yttrium” onto the bicycle.
Shi Liang was shocked. “Where did you get Yttrium?”
Shi Er: “I grabbed it from that criminal organization on my way out just now.”
Shi Liang truly witnessed what it meant to “casually walk away with something.”
The most important part of the AI scrapping process was the synthetic metal Yttrium.
Yttrium, combined with high temperatures, could cause other metal elements to bond with it, forming relatively pure metal blocks and completing the recycling and sorting of the AI’s components.
Crudely put, it was “smart dismemberment.”
A nicer way to put it was “smart waste sorting.”
“It would be a shame to waste the energy generated from melting the bicycle, so I brought it back to generate some electricity,” Shi Er explained.
The bicycle melted under the high temperature and the effect of the Yttrium.
This was the first time Shi Er had witnessed the process of smart waste sorting, and she was the one doing the sorting.
She stared at the flames, somewhat lost in thought.
If she hadn’t actively chosen re-employment, she would have undergone this same smart waste sorting at the scrapping center, melting in the flames and eventually becoming a block of metal.
The generator received the energy.
The traffic lights on the street grew a little brighter, still clearly visible in the sunlight.
When the fire went out, only a few solidified metal blocks remained in the container that had held the bicycle; the other materials had been incinerated.
“You came here to investigate a case? Are you investigating the Zhi Heng case?” Shi Liang suddenly asked.
Shi Er: “Yes.”
Shi Liang was silent for a moment, then snorted coldly. “Next time, get a better-looking pixelated mask.”
Shi Er remembered the pixelated mask. She lit another fire and burned it. “It was a gift from the 1717 Silver Eye program.”
“Silver…” Shi Liang said thoughtfully.
Shi Er caught on. “Silver?”
Their eyes met, and information was exchanged.
The contact person had mentioned “Silver.”
Based on their analysis, Silver was likely an AI, or at the very least, a human well-versed in AI.
Could Silver be connected to the terrorist attacks of the past few months?
Shi Liang took a bottle of perfume from his coat pocket and tossed it to Shi Er. “A gift from the Shadow organization. I have no use for it.”
It was an expensive bottle of perfume that sold for 100,000 yuan on the market.
Shi Er caught it, puzzled. “I don’t need it.”
Shi Liang’s tone was cool. “You burned so many things today and filled my place with smoke. You’d better have some sense of guilt.”
Shi Er nodded. “Alright, I understand.”
So she was just supposed to use a 100,000-yuan bottle of perfume as an air freshener?
She unscrewed the cap, analyzed the room, and found the spot on the floor with the strongest burnt smell.
She crouched down and sprayed the perfume.
A cockroach scurried across the floor.
She looked up at Shi Liang. “…A cockroach.”
Shi Liang frowned. “That came from my human neighbor’s place. I only smoke, I don’t eat other food.”
“That’s not what I meant. I mean—”
“I just sprayed 100,000 yuan of expensive perfume on a cockroach.”
Shi Er said apologetically.
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