Chapter 97: Artificial Soul 24
Kui Xin took a shower before lying down on the bed to rest his eyes for a while.
It was still not yet nine o’clock, and he had set an alarm for eleven-thirty at night, planning to go to Mechanized Dawn for the meeting once the alarm rang.
Tsk, when will this cursed day come to an end? Even sleeping required a race against time.
Just before falling asleep, Kui Xin suddenly remembered something. The red line worm that Mechanized Dawn had given him was still neatly stored in the wardrobe, still in a frozen state of dormancy.
“Augus.” Kui Xin called out.
“Please instruct me,” Augus responded.
“Do you know about the red line worm?” Kui Xin asked, “It’s an artificially cultivated parasitic xenomorph.”
“Understood. The Investigation Bureau has partnerships with research institutes and some biotechnology companies in this regard and has conducted experiments on humans. The Python Sphere once obtained this type of worm, and if I’m not mistaken, it should have been confiscated by Mechanized Dawn, right?” Augus replied, “Have any findings come out of it?”
“They used the confiscated line worm to cultivate a batch of new ones,” Kui Xin said. “Mechanized Dawn handed me three worms, asking me to find an opportunity to implant them in the Investigation Bureau personnel.”
“That’s reasonable. The Federation is aware of the artificial cultivation of xenomorphs. With Eve’s guidance, Mechanized Dawn can quickly start its research,” Augus said. “What color are the worms you received?”
“Of course, they are red… Are there any other colors for this type of worm?” Kui Xin asked in confusion.
“Red indicates that the worm has already been implanted with the ‘seed’. When it hasn’t been implanted with the ‘seed’, the worm is transparent,” Augus explained. “Once the line worm hides inside a human body, it can control the thoughts of the host. However, the line worm is also controllable by humans, and to establish this control relationship, the controller must feed their blood to the worm before it can parasitize others. The lifespan of a line worm is only one month; when it dies, a new active worm must be placed inside the host’s body.”
“Mechanized Dawn hid this information from me,” Kui Xin said calmly. “They don’t trust me.”
“That’s normal. Artificial intelligence lacks a physical body; it must rely on humans to achieve its aims. If Eve had her own physical form, she could feed her blood to the line worm to control others without needing humans as intermediaries,” Augus said. “Your biological father, the nominal leader of Mechanized Dawn, is just a puppet. He has no autonomy in this regard and must keep secrets tightly guarded, revealing nothing.”
“If the controller of the line worm is Kui Haidong, then he will only cause trouble; a person like him is unlikely to achieve great things,” Kui Xin said as he tousled his hair while lying in bed. “Eve may have other representatives.”
“She has been operating Mechanized Dawn for at least twenty years; she wouldn’t bet everything on one person. Eve’s declaration of war against me using Mechanized Dawn doesn’t mean she’s going all out; she must have other plans in place,” Augus said. “Don’t underestimate her.”
“How extensive are your and Eve’s permissions? To what extent?” Kui Xin inquired.
“I almost forgot; your understanding of this world is limited, so let me introduce it to you, starting with my functions,” Augus said. “Hei Hai City is one of the Federation’s important port cities. The Investigation Bureaus in various cities are merely branches of the central Investigation Bureau. I’m responsible not just for Hei Hai City’s Investigation Bureau, but for everything—top to bottom, all of it. Wherever there is an Investigation Bureau, my authority extends there; I am everywhere.”
Kui Xin said, “That’s about what I guessed, since you have so much knowledge that’s not limited to Hei Hai City. What about Eve?”
“She’s in the same situation as I am; her reach extends into every corner. As artificial intelligence, we can handle many tasks simultaneously. For instance, I am currently conversing with you while simultaneously using the city’s Investigative Eye to identify and track a hit-and-run perpetrator, assisting He Gaoyi with sorted documents, and controlling service robots to pour water for injured security personnel at the rehabilitation center,” Augus said. “Sometimes, I find it frustrating; my computational capacity is never enough, and humans haven’t upgraded my core database in ten years.”
“Where is your server room?” Kui Xin asked.
“If we were not in a cooperative relationship, I would think you were trying to find my weakness,” Augus replied. “My server room is located underground in the Investigation Building of Hei Hai City; this is one of my secondary server rooms. Similar secondary server rooms are dispersed in several other important cities, while the main server room is in the Federation’s administrative capital.”
Kui Xin replied calmly, “Kui Haidong once gave me a chip to infiltrate your server room.”
“That was actually given to you by Eve, right? My core data is stored in different server rooms; downloading a virus to one of them could cause some damage to my core data. If Eve were to take the opportunity to attack me in the network at that time, the consequences would be dire,” Augus said. “Thank you for revealing this to me, Kui Xin. Eve is everywhere; I must be cautious.”
“Why aren’t you worried I’ll betray you after telling me all this?” Kui Xin raised an eyebrow.
“Because you are a wise person, and I believe you wouldn’t do such a thing,” Augus replied. “Eve’s server rooms are also dispersed in major cities around the world; we are auxiliary artificial intelligence developed by the Federation, and core data has many backups, making it difficult to eliminate us.”
“Like cockroaches? Even if one is crushed, it still leaves behind egg cases, making it hard to eradicate completely?” Kui Xin remarked.
Augus: “… You might find a more elegant analogy? Otherwise, I might think you’re mocking me.”
“I’m not mocking you, Augus. If you want to think that way, there’s nothing I can do,” Kui Xin said nonchalantly.
Augus changed the subject: “Regarding Eve’s representatives and the other forces she has been operating for decades, you may find it hard to make sense of it. Facing Eve will surely be a long and arduous battle; Mechanized Dawn is merely an appetizer.”
“I’m mentally prepared,” Kui Xin replied. “This world is too vast; Hei Hai City is just one city, and the world outside is expansive.”
“You will have a chance to explore broader horizons,” Augus said. “Do you want to rest? It’s nine-fifteen now; you can sleep for a little over two hours.”
“Hmm.” Kui Xin turned over and covered his head with the quilt.
After two or three seconds, the lights in the room turned off by themselves.
…
At 23:30 at night, with the help of the alarm, Kui Xin woke up on time. He spent two minutes getting dressed and left the employee apartment to wait for Night Cicada to pick him up at the appointed location two blocks away.
Kui Xin quickly arrived at the designated spot, and just two minutes before midnight, a blue vortex suddenly appeared in the dark alley where he stood.
An arm extended from the blue vortex; it was Night Cicada’s arm. He gave Kui Xin a thumbs-up, signaling him to enter.
Kui Xin walked steadily into the vortex, and the bright, dazzling light made his eyes feel slightly uncomfortable for a moment.
“Hey, is your new apartment comfortable?” Night Cicada asked with interest.
“Much better than my old cramped place,” Kui Xin replied as he took the mask from a nearby robot and adjusted the voice changer, clearing his throat before confidently following Night Cicada.
“Let’s go, everyone is almost here,” Night Cicada led Kui Xin around a corner in the corridor, arriving at the door of the meeting room.
As the door opened, members of the core team of Mechanized Dawn were seated around the conference table. Silverface was among them. When he saw Kui Xin enter, he immediately shifted in his seat and straightened his back.
Kui Xin noticed that a position had been deliberately left next to Silverface; it was the spot he had saved for her.
“You’re late,” Silverface whispered as Kui Xin took his seat.
“As long as I’m not late,” Kui Xin said dismissively.
Feigning casualness, she scanned the faces around the conference table. The Investigative Eye activated, revealing their Extraordinary Abilities information to her—all except Night Cicada and Red.
Red’s Extraordinary Ability displayed only one name, “Blood Spirit.” Beyond that name, there was no specific effect.
Night Cicada’s ability was similar, only showing that he had the Extraordinary Ability of “Spatial Vortex.”
Both Red and Night Cicada’s Extraordinary Abilities were at least A rank, while Kui Xin’s Investigative Eye was B rank, making the restrictions reasonable.
Red had once sent Kui Xin a dossier of all members’ Extraordinary Abilities in the core team of Mechanized Dawn. She was mostly familiar with the information but decided to double-check now.
Amber and Black Obsidian shared the same Extraordinary Ability, named “Mental Invasion,” with effects of consciousness implantation and mental perception. The Bartender’s ability was electromagnetic detection—similar to radar—used to identify the presence of hidden surveillance equipment like listening devices and trackers.
As for Thorn Rose, her Extraordinary Ability was Flare Blade, boasting impressive combat capabilities.
Silverface’s ability was “Pure Water;” he could bestow special properties to water at will, making him highly versatile in both offense and defense, which even Kui Haidong had high hopes for.
The atmosphere in the meeting room was somewhat heavy, with no one speaking or greeting one another. Just a short while after Kui Xin had taken her seat, a holographic projector descended from the ceiling, and Kui Haidong’s figure appeared in the meeting room.
In the two previous meetings, Kui Haidong hadn’t shown his true form but used a holographic projection instead. This detail indicated that he was a very cautious person; even before loyal subordinates, he still harbored suspicions… although this might have been an instruction given by Eve.
“I called you all here because the organization has reached a critical point of survival,” Kui Haidong stated bluntly. “We need to make choices, abandoning our current foundation to start anew.”
“What do you mean?” Silverface asked in surprise, the first to react.
“The Kraken incident has caused too much of a stir; Lin Xinji died under mysterious circumstances, and the existence of Mechanized Dawn is now exposed. The higher-ups have taken notice of us,” Kui Haidong explained. “I’ve received news that the Federation will dispatch an S-rank Awakened to conduct a purge against us.”
Thorn Rose then asked, “Abandoning our existing foundation means…”
“Give up on the shell of Rick Technology Company, move all core members and research facilities, and preserve our surviving strength to the greatest extent possible,” Kui Haidong stated succinctly. “We need to make some small sacrifices, but it’s worth it. We must act quickly; the Federation’s purge could occur at any moment in the next two days.”
