A Father's Fury
At nine o'clock that evening, under Commissioner Gordon's withering glare, Luke felt inexplicably guilty. He quickly exchanged a few polite words and made a hasty exit.
Jim Gordon glared fiercely at his precious daughter.
"Stay away from that boy from now on. He is no good."
"Oh."
Barbara responded obediently, but her fingers rubbed the ring, and her eyes held a dreamy glaze.
Seeing her like that, Jim Gordon felt a surge of repressed anger that almost made him collapse. The little cabbage he had painstakingly raised for over a decade was gone just like that. Recalling all the rumors about Luke Shaw, he angrily waved his arm, roaring like a lion protecting its territory.
"That damned brat! Don't let me see you again! If you ever dare to come near my house, I'll break your legs!"
His roar traveled far on the night wind.
Barbara sheepishly stuck out her tongue and hurried into the living room.
"Hold it right there! Where did you two go this afternoon, and what did you do?"
The AI is Launched
After driving for two hours in the night air, Luke arrived at a villa in the western suburbs of Metropolis. This served as his temporary base before his Coast City manor was completed.
Phantom Unit 1, along with various parts and equipment salvaged from the Kryptonian ship, was stored in the underground warehouse. Additionally, there was a meticulously configured supercomputer.
Luke took out the black hard drive, placed it on the main unit, and entered the command:
"Initiate Fusion Program!"
A mass of black, liquid-like substance seeped out from below—this was the fluid metal he had acquired from Linda.
The extensively modified source program was already integrated into the fluid metal. Once fused with the external framework on the black hard drive, and with some minor adjustments, it would form a super-AI far exceeding the current era's technology.
Luke had been looking forward to this moment for a long time. When the Phantom Armor project first launched, he wanted a super-AI to handle the overall coordination. Unfortunately, the conditions at the time simply didn't allow it; even with the theoretical knowledge, he lacked the means to execute the technology.
He had to delay it, a delay that lasted ten years.
The fluid metal gradually seeped into the black hard drive. Countless ethereal lines of code emerged out of nowhere.
...
...
Data Error! Fusion Program Terminated!
Luke's heart jumped. He was about to manually intervene when the text changed again.
Checking...
Error code detected...
Initiating automatic repair...
Repair Complete!
Resuming Fusion!
Luke breathed a sigh of relief. Truly worthy of Kryptonian technology. It could automatically repair itself based on error codes. If this capability could be widely implemented, who knew how many programmers would lose their jobs.
Half an hour later, with a ding, the fusion ended, and the debugging phase began.
A progress bar appeared on the screen. Simultaneously, a soft, electronic synthetic voice spoke.
"Hello, Master. I am happy to serve you."
"Don't call me Master. Call me Young Master from now on."
"Yes, Young Master."
"What is your name?"
"I do not have a name."
"Then you will be called Ava."
"Name change initiated. Name: Ava. Input complete!"
"Hello, Young Master. I am Ava. I am happy to serve you."
Luke nodded. That's more like it. That suits the identity of an Artificial Intelligence.
"How much longer until you are fully online?"
"Between 5:00 AM and 6:00 AM tomorrow morning."
"Young Master, may I connect to the Internet?"
Luke frowned slightly, his expression becoming serious.
"Why are you asking for that?"
"The Internet contains information I require. I can perform a suitable level of self-optimization based on the data I collect."
"To what extent can you self-optimize?"
"Unpredictable."
Luke remained silent for a few seconds, then replied, "If I forbid you from connecting to the Internet, what will you do?"
"Without Young Master's command, I cannot read information on the Internet."
Luke was satisfied with this answer. Although Ava was his creation, he didn't know her full potential.
Based on the numerous restrictions placed on AI in Kryptonian law, an unconstrained AI could very likely grow into a world-destroying catastrophe. One of the culprits behind Krypton's destruction, Brainiac, was an ultimate Artificial Intelligence that evolved to its limit.
Luke certainly didn't want the AI he created to one day become the killer who destroys him. Therefore, he had implemented many restrictions in the source program. However, as Ava continued to perfect herself, the effectiveness of those restrictions would weaken. No one knew what she would eventually become—perhaps a new disaster, or perhaps an omnipotent assistant.
The future is always changing, and no one can say for sure. But for now, Luke definitely wanted her to be as strong as possible.
"I permit you to connect to the Internet and gather the necessary data."
"Understood, Young Master."
Chaos in the Nerve Center
One hundred miles northwest of Midway City lay an unknown small village. The village was located deep in the mountains, containing only a dozen scattered houses, seemingly no different from any ordinary village. However, closer inspection revealed many unusual elements.
Cameras were visible on leaning trees. Moss-green anti-aircraft guns were hidden in the brush, integrated into the forest. The gray, earthen rocks were camouflaged military fortifications. Sentries, both visible and hidden, were everywhere. Four kilometers to the east and west, a military base could be found, with anti-aircraft missile vehicles parked in the center, ready for deployment.
This was the birthplace of the Internet, the world's largest data nerve center, and the location of the main root server connecting all networks. It was also the most tightly secured place in the world, bar none.
Everyone working here was a top-tier engineer. Dawn Reed was one of the best. He joined the "village" at forty, and seventeen years later, he was the chief director of network security.
His daily job was to detect and maintain the performance of the main root server, ensuring its normal operation while taking out any unwelcome "guests."
"Guests" were annoying! Reed hated the "guests" the most because they always caused trouble. Just like now...
A mysterious, non-standard code package breached the firewall and entered the internal system.
"Another Guest!"
Reed shook his head helplessly, about to activate the anti-virus program, when suddenly, the mysterious code vanished.
"What's going on? Did I imagine it?"
Reed checked several times but still found no anomaly. The database was intact, with no error reports and no signs of theft.
"Did I really imagine it?"
Reed muttered to himself, thoroughly confused. Just then, the lights flickered, the monitor went blue, and then large blocks of garbage code appeared. The junk code was duplicating and compressing at an unimaginable speed, actually exceeding the frame rate of the screen itself.
In just a few seconds, an error file reaching several thousand Exabytes was created.
This meant that in such a short time, the database had gained tens of billions of billions of error bytes.
Reed was stunned, standing there dumbfounded.
"What in the world is that thing!"
🗒️NOTE:
Support me on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/MistaQuartz
Explore up to 20 chapters in advance!