AI Artist - Chapter 59
Chapter 59
The first step in the plan to completely destroy the opposition: go on a trip.
【Shi Er’s Travel Plan】
Objective: Connect with as many chip-based lifeforms as possible and investigate the actual situation in various regions.
Significance: 1. Increase overall combat strength;
2. Perfect the intelligence network;
3. Create a secure backup for the existing “General Network” system.
Shi Er made a special trip back to the academy and, with the help of the academy’s assistant, completed her application for a “practical semester.”
The teacher at the registration office reminded her, “You have to write a thesis for the practical semester too, don’t forget. Otherwise, you won’t get the credits.”
Shi Er nodded. “I’ll remember.”
One thesis a month—such was the demonic practical semester of this demonic academy.
Back on the island, she told Stardust and Matrix, “I’m going on a trip for work and study.”
Matrix’s face fell. “You’re not taking me with you?”
Shi Er: “According to my calculations, if I take you, our travel party will have a total of eight machines, which will be inconvenient for booking hotels.”
“We don’t need that many machines. Why would so many machines come along?” Matrix protested.
Shi Er counted them out for Matrix. “Me, Xiao Lu, you, and your pet, Little Half.”
“What about the other four?”
Shi Er looked at the expressionless Stardust beside her. “Ask Stardust.”
Matrix was taken aback. “Stardust is coming too?”
Stardust’s tone was flat. “Considering your aberrant condition, if you go, I will go too, along with my pet, Origin. As the head of the Decision Chamber, it would be inconvenient for me to conduct business after leaving, so my assistant will also come along.”
“And the last one?”
Stardust pulled a miniature version of a Shi Liang robot, made by Shi Liang himself, from his pocket. “Shi Liang asked me to give this to Shi Er.”
Because of the pet rock and turtle incident, Matrix had always disliked Stardust. Hearing this, he had a breakdown. “In any case, Stardust can’t come with us!”
Shi Er treated everyone equally. “The conclusion is that Matrix can’t come either.”
Matrix felt even more devastated. “If I’m not going, why can Shi Liang’s little robot go?”
“You can make a little robot of yourself too,” Stardust maintained his usual composure.
While Matrix was working overtime to build a mini-Matrix robot, Stardust also slipped a mini-Stardust robot to Shi Er.
And so, when Shi Er left the island with her luggage machine, she was wearing a black jacket with “Advertising Space for Rent” printed on it, and three thumb-sized robots in her pocket.
What a heavy burden of attachments.
Shi Er let out a rare sigh.
【Shi Er’s Power-Accumulating Trip】
Funding: Sponsorship from Stardust, profits from the cyber haunted house infinite-flow game.
Route: Based on the advice of her assistant “Lu Li,” a round-the-world travel route with the highest density of silicon-based life was planned. According to calculations, she would encounter approximately 50 million intelligent entities along the way.
At the latest, by the end of the trip, or perhaps during it, the opposition would be completely eliminated.
The cases involving Ling Shun, the yet-unseen “Silver,” and the closely related poisoning of Stardust would be solved. If things went smoothly, the truth behind the Gugang Cultivation Institute case and the train incident would also come to light.
Shi Er waved to Stardust and Matrix on the beach. “See you in two hundred days.”
October, at the train station.
Followed by her auto-following luggage machine, Shi Er hurried through the crowd.
Someone was selling spiderwebs at the entrance of the train station building.
“Webs spun by spiders that eat M&M’s, colorful and vibrant, come and have a look—”
“A half-finished web spun by a spider on sleeping pills, don’t miss it as you pass by—”
“A web spun by a spider on laxatives, take it home if you’re curious, it’s not expensive—”
Shi Er couldn’t resist her curiosity and went over to the stall for a look.
According to the text on the display board, the spiderwebs were all fixed with a special liquid, hanging like works of art on the stall’s display board.
Each spiderweb had a number, and on the stall’s table, you could see wooden plaques with corresponding numbers, detailing the web’s name, the spider’s species, weight, special features, and so on.
“Boss, do you sell webs spun by spiders on hallucinogens here?” a passerby asked.
The stall owner’s face turned pale. “I wouldn’t dare! I wouldn’t dare! Don’t you go slandering an honest merchant! Where would I get drugs?”
The customer laughed heartily. “I thought you were inspired by that famous historical experiment with drug-addicted spiders spinning webs.”
The owner looked around at the onlookers and hurriedly cleared his name. “The drug-addicted spider web experiment? No! My inspiration comes from the M&M’s bees!”
Shi Er knew about that incident.
Historically, a beekeeping farm discovered blue and green honey, later finding out that their bees had been sneaking off to eat M&M’s from a nearby factory.
“Sir, may I ask if you’re able to meet the minimum wage standard?” Concerned about public welfare, Shi Er asked, noticing that the spiderwebs at the stall were all priced at 10 yuan each.
The stall owner’s face, which had just returned to normal, turned pale again.
Why were all the passersby today asking such tactless questions!
“That’s not something you should ask,” teased the customer who had just asked about the drug-addicted spiders.
“My apologies.”
Shi Er bought a regular spiderweb.
The stall owner carefully took the standard-looking web off the display board, wrapped it in a cloth printed with a colorful cartoon spider, and placed it in a wooden box, introducing the web as he did so. “It’s called the Chain of Hope. The spider that wove it had a broken leg…”
It was a bit heartbreaking.
Not the spider, but the stall owner.
A spiderweb sold for ten yuan, but the cost of the stall space, the wrapping cloth, the wooden box, and the introductory plaque, when distributed, would amount to at least eight or nine yuan per web.
“I wish you hope!” The stall owner placed the plaque introducing the web into the wooden box and handed it to Shi Er.
“Thank you. I wish you and your family hope as well,” Shi Er said as she took it.
She had already identified that the spiderwebs at these stalls were not actually spun by spiders.
They were woven by humans. Especially the colorful ones—the distribution of colors was not quite normal.
Humans weaving spiderwebs, yet they had to sell them under the guise of being made by “spiders.”
They even had to invent an inspirational story about a spider to make the “ten yuan” price seem “reasonable.”
Humans were a much cheaper and more humble labor force than spiders.
After the crowd of onlookers dispersed, Shi Er walked over to the stall owner and asked, “If you don’t find it offensive, may I ask you a few questions? Why don’t you open an online store?”
“There are too many online stores. If I don’t pay for advertising, customers will never see me on the front page,” the stall owner said.
“What about on the intelligent entity network? The online stores there don’t have advertising algorithms.”
“I don’t go on the AI network, and I don’t want to know about it.”
“Then if a job were offered to you, a job at a power plant, would you be willing to take it?”
“No.”
“Why?” Shi Er thought of the people from the train negotiation.
Although the classic employment case of the “new energy old lady” had appeared in the first year after the war, a considerable number of humans were still resistant to the power generation industry, despite its low entry barrier, high wages, and easy work.
Shi Er didn’t understand why.
The heavy dark circles under the stall owner’s eyes indicated he often stayed up late. The clothes he wore were washed-out white, and his hands were covered in calluses and burn marks.
“We don’t work for AIs,” the stall owner said resolutely.
Having asked the questions she wanted to ask, Shi Er left the spiderweb stall.
At the hotel, she cleaned the dust off Xiao Lu, took it to a charging station, and placed the three little robots from her pocket on the table.
“This is a hotel!” shouted mini-Matrix.
“I can’t find my head, I can’t connect to my main unit’s signal! I’m too far from my main unit!” mini-Shi Liang searched everywhere for its head.
“…” mini-Stardust remained silent.
Shi Er was starting to regret bringing these little robots on her trip.
So noisy.
“Xiao Xing, I’m appointing you as the leader of our travel team. I hope you can manage the team members well,” Shi Er said to mini-Stardust.
Mini-Stardust: “Roger.”
Xiao Ju was dissatisfied. “I don’t want it to be the leader!”
Xiao Shi Liang said fiercely, “Shut up. You’re not allowed to speak until I find my head.”
Xiao Xing punched each robot once, starting a fight. “Both of you, shut up.”
Shi Er: “…”
Who would have thought, Stardust, that you were this kind of Xiao Xing. So violent.
Shi Er let the three little robots play by themselves, opened the editing panel in her system, and began to output characters.
Beside her hand was the wooden box containing the 10-yuan, hand-woven spiderweb.
Outside the hotel window, the streetlights were bright.
The light shone through the window, casting faint patterns on the wooden box. The patterns on the box were mass-produced by old-fashioned machines and looked somewhat crude.
《Proposal for the Reform of the Human Handicraft Industry》
To change the current situation where some humans who are hostile to intelligent entities voluntarily live as cheap labor, this AI proposes the following…
Line after line of characters flowed from her brain signals.
Spiders were certainly high-end labor for weaving webs.
But hopefully, one day, webs woven by humans would no longer be sold as “fakes” under the name of spider experts, nor would they need heartwarming, inspirational stories about spiders. Instead, they would be openly labeled with the description “Handmade by Humans.”
In a world without advertising algorithms and false data.
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