After Dr. Midro said that, the others realized what was happening and all said that it was impossible.
Indeed, this is no longer about technology. Human resources have their limits. Even if SMMH is truly a genius, proficient in computers, painting, music, etc., how long would it take him to complete all these things? For one person to complete such a massive world-class online game is simply a pipe dream!
"You were all fooled by him!" the emperor sneered. "In your current form of life, you naturally couldn't have done that. But it's a pity that Chen Xu, in his cleverness, created another SMMH, which allowed us to unveil the mystery of this god of the internet!"
The Emperor pointed at the screen and shouted, "SMMH is not human at all! Don't judge it with such limited human thinking! Actually, I've already told you all before! That's right! SMMH is actually like GOD! It's an artificial intelligence, an artificial intelligence that can use the entire network to serve itself!"
"Huh?!" A commotion erupted across the conference room terminals. SMMH was actually an artificial intelligence? Chen Xu also exclaimed "Ah!" with an incredibly interesting expression!
The emperor looked at Chen Xu triumphantly: "See? I told you so!"
Chapter 372 See you in an hour
Through monitoring the entire conference room terminal, Chen Xu heard a series of noises. Although they were in various languages, Chen Xu clearly discerned in that instant a mixture of doubt, sudden realization, surprise, and other emotions.
So SMMH is so amazing because it's an artificial intelligence?
So SMMH has been afraid to show its face because it simply has no face to show?
Were we all wrong? We subconsciously thought SMMH was very powerful, but in reality, it's just a paper tiger, with zero real-world strength?!
So, we were all fooled by it?!
Various voices discussed the matter, tinged with disbelief. Artificial intelligence, something seemingly mythical, was not a myth at all for these people!
Because they had already witnessed the soul of an artificial intelligence—GOD—after Miva entered the network, and it was clear that it had sided with Tarot. Or rather, it was using Tarot, because a single AI, even if it could wield immense power and influence online, was powerless in reality. Moreover, GOD was not invincible online, because a far more powerful and unattainable goal stood like a mountain blocking its path!
SMMH!
"We've had our suspicions for a long time." The Emperor was pleased with the effect, his voice growing increasingly smug. "No matter what kind of research it is, it always costs money. But here, I can say this: more than half of the world's wealth is in the hands of everyone here. The world's financial flows cannot possibly escape our notice! However, we've investigated all the major financial transaction records since 2006 and found nothing. Not a single transaction record proves that anyone provided financial assistance to SMMH! And as you've all seen, the S company, where Yi Shuihan works, the spokesperson SMMH found. With such a large trading volume, where did all their funds ultimately go?"
"Tongchi Island! That is, DS3978 Reef! According to our intelligence monitoring, S Company's profits over the past few years have been injected into Tongchi Island through various channels! Chen Xu, we really didn't expect that you and your teacher's skills in getting something for nothing were so high. A student, an artificial intelligence, hmm, what is your relationship with Yi Shuihan? According to our intelligence, it seems that Yi Shuihan's relationship with SMMH is not as close as your relationship with him, is that right?"
"Could we understand it this way? A college freshman, by chance, meets this online ghost SMMH, and you two reach some kind of agreement, with you becoming his real-world representative. You use SMMH's many inventions online to profit in the real world, ultimately achieving your ulterior motives... Is that right, dear Mr. Chen Xu?!"
"Clap clap clap!" Chen Xu clapped his hands expressionlessly: "I must admit, you have a lot of imagination, and you could totally be a second-rate writer at Q... However, there's something I still want to say."
"Speak."
Chen Xu sighed: "You can only be a second-rate writer, because your opening is really not in the same league as mine... Don't you think it's a bit tacky?"
Although the expression behind the golden mask cannot be seen, it must be quite interesting. The Emperor snorted and said, "Are you still being stubborn? Don't forget, we also have an artificial intelligence. Although its development is not as advanced as SMMH yet, it has vast room for growth. We know you very well, Chen Xu. We admit that we were fooled by you before. We also admit that if you were given ten years to develop, you would definitely have the qualifications to become a member of this conference room. But now... I'm sorry, the top of the pyramid is not so easy to climb. There are already too many people, and we don't want to add another one. Of course, if you obediently hand over the technology, we can let you keep that space on the internet. Isn't that good enough? Putting aside everything else, that online game alone is enough for you to enjoy for a lifetime. Chen Xu, at this moment, I am giving you one last chance to choose. Will you submit, or will you seek your own destruction?!"
Chen Xu almost burst out laughing!
Brilliant! To be honest, it's quite remarkable that the emperor even thought of this. Of course, a story about artificial intelligence, such a far-fetched idea, is no less impressive than his own experience, though his own experience is simply more convenient. But he wasn't entirely wrong... Isn't Xiaomin just an artificial intelligence? Only an artificial intelligence from the future.
A few days ago, Chen Xu would have been terrified to hear the emperor say this. Regardless of whether the emperor's initial guess was correct, at least his ending was. SMMH truly lacked real-world power, so it used this island of power to develop its own influence—especially as an independent force detached from major regimes. This was similar to something Chen Xu had experienced as a child.
When Chen Xu was a child, his family was poor, and he received very little pocket money. He always looked forward to the New Year, hoping to receive pocket money from relatives. However, back then, most of Chen Xu's pocket money was taken by his parents, leaving him with very little. Once, an uncle secretly gave him 100 yuan. His parents didn't know about this, and this meager 100 yuan became Chen Xu's secret stash. But his parents became suspicious.
As a result, Chen Xu and his good friend Wu Yu went out to spend money. Wu Yu also received a lot of lucky money. However, Chen Xu used his lucky money to treat the two of them to playing arcade games, while Wu Yu used his lucky money to buy several "BB guns" (plastic imitation pistols that can shoot small round bullets, purely mechanical and quite painful when they hit people).
Boys are naturally drawn to guns. If they can't get a real gun, getting a toy gun to satisfy their craving is fine too. But when Chen Xu brought the gun home to show off, his parents found out. They immediately accused him of using his New Year's money to buy the gun, and now the evidence was irrefutable. Chen Xu felt utterly wronged; he clearly hadn't bought the gun, but his parents' conviction was undeniable. He was completely speechless!
In fact, the current situation is strikingly similar to the embarrassing incident from my childhood. Regardless of the Emperor's speculations about SMMH's origins, it's true that just a few days ago, SMMH only had the under-construction All-Eat Island as its direct, real-world force. It's no wonder Tarot turned on them so quickly; they initially believed SMMH was incredibly powerful, to an almost supernatural degree. The ability to conduct such research was certainly not accidental, and their real-world strength was definitely not to be underestimated… While they might not be able to contend with Tarot and X, a real fight would likely result in mutual destruction.
So the two organizations were intimidated by Chen Xu and hesitated to take action until recently when they finally realized that SMMH was just a paper tiger. Apart from its immense power online, its real strength was almost zero!
Enraged, the emperor naturally wouldn't let Chen Xu off the hook in this cyber war. Although both sides suffered heavy losses, the saying "destruction precedes construction" applies here. With the help of GOD, a constantly evolving artificial intelligence, Tarot's research in computers has far surpassed that of the X organization, which has been working diligently in isolation. They have even directly overturned the next-generation network architecture model that both organizations were researching, and directly entered a newer generation of more secure network protocols and operating systems, and have already succeeded!
This new network protocol overturns the currently used, vulnerability-ridden TCP/IP protocol. Taro's audacity in so openly uniting various forces to eradicate SMMH, even at the cost of destroying the entire world's network, is a classic example of rebuilding from the ashes. Regardless of the outcome, security experts worldwide will inevitably focus on the new network protocol and system security after this incident. Taro will seize this opportunity, leveraging his and the X organization's dual global influence, to launch the next generation of network protocols and operating systems—of course, in order to win over the X organization, Taro has promised considerable benefits in this regard.
In summary, while current cyberattacks have caused severe losses to all countries, the new protocol architecture ultimately benefits everyone. It significantly strengthens network control and better restricts the technological development of developing countries. In short, this approach of destroying the old to build the new can eliminate a major future threat once and for all.
So, Tarot's plan was originally perfect. If it had happened a few days ago, and if it weren't for Xiaomin, they might have actually succeeded. But now…
Chen Xu laughed, his smile like a pebble gently thrown into a calm lake, creating ripples. His laughter grew wider and wider, until finally, as if he had seen something amusing, he laughed so hard he couldn't straighten up.
"You're laughing." The emperor looked calmly at Chen Xu, watching him struggle in his death throes.
"Yes, I'm laughing, laughing at your ignorance. There's a Chinese saying, 'Too clever by half,' I don't know if you've heard it." Chen Xu pursed his lips: "If we really have no power to resist in reality... then where did those mechs come from?"
This question caused a stir among the various terminals in the conference room. Yes, where did those futuristic mechs come from? Even if SMMH's AI could research all aspects of these mechs online, how would they be manufactured?
However, through satellite video of that battle, the factions present all concluded that the technology contained in these mechs was basically beyond the current military industrial capacity of China to mass-produce.
When it comes to arms sales, the world's big players are all here, and no one is secretly giving SMMH the green light.
Unless, of course, these mechs contain many clever tricks or ingenuity that would allow a country like China, with its relatively underdeveloped industrial and technological capabilities, to manufacture them.
This is not impossible. The arms tycoons present here would rather believe this reason than believe that the backward industrialized country in the East could surpass them in mechanization, because everyone knows that even if the United States' military technology stagnates for 20 years, China may not be able to catch up.
"It's nothing but a trick," the Emperor scoffed. He had no patience left for SMMH, that conman—yes, a conman who always got something for nothing. So what if you have mechs? You want to challenge me militarily too?
"Chen Xu, I hope you will stop wasting all our time. No matter how eloquent you are, the war has begun, and we will not give you any chance to develop. In any case, DS3978 Island must be destroyed; it originally belonged to Tarot. You may think it's unfair, because this world is inherently unfair."
"I understand. It seems you've made up your minds? You're determined to start a war?"
No one answered. Chen Xu could sense their cold laughter. Lions don't negotiate with a little rabbit; what they need is possession, just like the army in Avatar directly attacking the Na'vi's territory and the Tree of Life.
In this world, might makes right.
"Alright then, since you've all made your decision, please don't regret it. By the way, around 30° East longitude and 70° North latitude, east of Victoria Island, there seems to be an island that's not very big, but about the same size as my all-inclusive island, right?"
The emperor's heart tightened. That place was a research base of Taro near the Arctic Circle, an important weapons research base for Taro. It was extremely well-hidden; almost no one knew about it, not even satellites could detect it. How did he know?
“I have something to do,” Chen Xu said, glancing at his watch with feigned seriousness. “Well, it’s 9 a.m. Beijing time now. In an hour, I will present you all with a gift… a spectacular display of fireworks! Consider it the prelude to the war that you all seem to be leaning towards! I hope you won’t be too surprised. This is just a little something new that my teacher SMMH and I came up with. Please accept it with a smile.”
The emperor frowned slightly beneath his mask, a vague sense that something was amiss. However, he quickly dismissed it; this kid was just spouting nonsense again. The island known as "Kaidan" within the Tarot was in the far north, a world away from Chen Xu's Tongchi Island. How could his mech possibly be there for some military operation?
Chen Xu wore a mocking smile: "Respected members of the X organization, I wonder if you all remember the content of your first conversation with my teacher? If you don't remember, you can go back and check the chat history, so you won't say that my teacher deceived your young minds later. Alright, everyone..." Chen Xu bowed slightly: "See you in an hour."
Chapter 373 Undercurrents
Chen Xu logged off. Almost the instant he logged off, GOD's image appeared on the screen in front of the Emperor. The GOD of today was no longer the fierce but straightforward special forces soldier, Miwad. On the screen, GOD's shadow was similar to the Emperor's, shrouded in a large robe, but his face was not visible—however, a pair of gleaming eyes could be seen beneath the black veil of his turban.
GOD has now completely adapted to his new identity and new world. To him, this image is just a small model. But the fact that he deliberately made it this way shows that his heart is gradually sinking into darkness... just like the darkness under his headscarf.
"We haven't intercepted any information. SMMH's strength is indeed above mine." GOD's tone was calm, and his voice was the same as before, but the Emperor could hear the resentment in his heart.
"Don't be so upset. After all, you knew nothing about computers before," the Emperor comforted him. "Think of SMMH. If he had the same circumstances as you, he would probably have been a top computer expert in his lifetime. That would have made him much more fluent and at ease in the world of computers than you are now. Although you are learning very quickly now, many knowledge systems cannot be mastered overnight. However, seeing how fast you are growing, I believe you will soon surpass him. Then, the world will be ours!"
Artificial intelligence, in the case of God, is a product born from an incredibly strange coincidence. It is a person's memories and thoughts that suddenly turned into digital patterns and entered the network, forming an incredibly strange network life.
This kind of network life form is different from current life forms. As we all know, humans use their brains to think about problems, and what limits human thinking ability also originates from the brain. It's like hardware; people with low levels of brain development are generally considered "slower," or rather, their thinking and processing speed is slower.
In fact, the complexity of the human brain far surpasses that of computers; the only difference lies in how it is utilized. Once online, GOD discovered that his mental processing speed had increased dramatically, by tens or even hundreds of times. This greatly facilitated his learning of new things. However, while his learning speed was countless times faster than before, truly mastering these new concepts required more than simply storing a portion of information on a hard drive.
However, there's no doubt that at this speed of learning and with this "memory," GOD's knowledge system will soon be complete. Moreover, as a data life form that is itself artificial intelligence, through research on GOD and GOD's own insights, PRO's computer technology has advanced rapidly in just a few months. It has now absolutely surpassed the X Organization; only, ahead of it lies the SMMH!
In just a few months, with PRO's accumulated experience and GOD's help, Tarot has mastered the new IP4 protocol, which completely surpasses the current TCP/IP protocol, and has also simulated the prototype of a new operating system. In this new operating system, there will be a qualitative leap in user data processing, software compatibility, and user security. Of course, Tarot's purpose in researching this operating system is not to benefit the world's people; making money is one aspect, but another is that GOD will add an extremely stealthy backdoor to this operating system. Then, without any viruses, Tarot will be able to control the world's computers and simultaneously control user information!
This new type of system would take several years to study, and its backdoor program is so easy to find that no one needs to worry about it being discovered—except for one person, SMMH!
Including backdoors in an operating system is a major taboo, so Tarot must eliminate this guy—and that's only one reason. From any perspective, this adversary cannot be allowed to continue growing stronger.
But what did Chen Xu mean by that?
What does he want to do in an hour?
And what did he mean by that line he said during his first conversation with the X organization?
Meanwhile, members of Organization X were also reviewing the chat logs from their first conversation with SMMH.
All call logs with SMMH are stored on X Organization's designated computers. However, the chat logs on the communication software provided by SMMH cannot be copied. So X Organization is currently busy typing them out word by word and then finding Chinese people within the organization to translate them.
There's nothing wrong... wait!
Second-generation helium-powered satellite particle weapon!
This thing...
Could this be the thing Chen Xu was talking about earlier, the thing we should be careful about?
But how could that be?!
"It's fake! It's absolutely fake!" Not just the emperor, almost everyone thought so: "How could we not know how many satellites are in the sky and what they're for?! And how could something like this possibly exist?!"
This thing is incredible, it's straight out of a science fiction movie. Even the X Organization was suspicious of it, but the only problem was, they were genuinely afraid it might actually exist!
It's better to be safe than sorry!
Organization X was thoroughly outmaneuvered by SMMH, which made them suspicious and paranoid, but the Emperor didn't believe it at all.
"This is clearly a bluff. This master and apprentice have mastered the art of getting something for nothing!" The Emperor confidently assured them, "You should remember what SMMH did. Remember when he attacked our Twelve Golden Chrysanthemums? What did he tell the X Organization? That he planted landmines under the Pacific Ocean? The kind that could detonate the earth's crust? And what happened? Afterwards, everyone searched all under the Pacific Ocean and found nothing!"
Everyone present was well aware of this matter.
After all, SMMH's use of that fictitious landmine to threaten Organization X, followed by the mobilization of the US military, both of which enraged the US government and the forces behind it! However, at the time, they couldn't really do anything to SMMH, so they let it go. That's why they so readily agreed to cooperate with their arch-enemy, Tarot, when they later learned that SMMH was merely a facade.
It should be noted that it took a deep-sea exploration team a full three months just to search for that fictitious landmine afterwards!
In the end, they managed to salvage a Spanish treasure ship from the Age of Exploration, which barely offset the expenses... However, all the researchers were almost on the verge of collapse!
I don't believe what this guy is saying! The emperor is right, getting something for nothing is this guy's specialty. They've been fooled by him so many times, and they still fall for it this time... then they're really stupid!
Only Dr. Midro looked worried; his intuition told him that things were not so simple.
Time passed second by second, and the time predicted by Chen Xu was getting closer and closer. Although everyone said they didn't mind, they couldn't help but secretly count down the seconds.
The atmosphere in the entire conference room was extremely oppressive.
A storm is brewing!
"Absolutely impossible. Our anti-stealth technology is the most advanced. We just observed space and no new satellites were found. He's just spreading alarmist rumors!"
No one answered. Everyone knows that invisibility is not a panacea; it's just a deception tactic. If someone else's deception is more sophisticated than yours, then even with your eyes open, you're still blind.
Forty minutes had passed, and there was still no response. They tried to contact Chen Xu, but that was impossible. All they could do now was wait, and engage in pointless discussion.
"Stop speculating, everyone. I absolutely do not believe such a weapon exists." Amidst the tense atmosphere, the Rockefeller family representative spoke up: "When it comes to weaponry, no one in this world understands it better than any of us here. Even for us, this pure particle attack mode is merely a fantasy. This isn't a laser; no one understands its operating principle. If SMMH truly possesses this technology, we believe that equipping it on their mech fleet would be far more effective. After all, we believe that the fundamental principles of this weapon do not necessitate its gigantic size."
As the largest arms supplier in North America, and almost the world, the Rockefeller family possesses countless advanced weapons technologies. It was only after they made this statement that others realized what was going on.
“There’s no need to continue this meeting.” The Rockefeller family member was the first to take his leave. “I think you all know our patriarch’s habit of not waiting until the last minute to make any decisions, whether it’s hope or disappointment… As for the military action against SMMH, you can make your own arrangements.”
No one knew the Rockefeller family's intentions, but judging from his tone, they didn't seem to be particularly opposed. Since the largest arms family had spoken, the others naturally had no objections. In any case, Taro had spearheaded much of the operation against SMMH, so they didn't need to be at the forefront; they were just expressing their stance.
However, unbeknownst to anyone, in the Rockefeller family's centuries-old mansion, in the patriarch's study—a sacred space considered by all family members—old Rockefeller and a young man—though nearly forty, John, the acknowledged next patriarch and heir—were facing a guest.