Chapter 203 - 162: Computing Power Is Z’s Lifeline

A sliver of morning light shone through a gap in the curtains, illuminating Chu Bamboo’s face.

Chu Bamboo yawned, first performing a Rewrite on himself. Then, he pulled open the curtains, sat down at his desk, and took out stacks of notebooks from the drawer.

"First, the stock market." Chu Bamboo’s palm brushed lightly over a notebook. Under the effect of his Memory Divine Techniques, ink condensed into a dense array of characters and a volatile stock market line chart.

’Next!’ Chu Bamboo mused. ’Should I keep having Lin Xia use this to make money?’ But the thought only flickered for a moment.

"Lin Xia doesn’t actually know much about stock trading," Chu Bamboo sighed softly. Although he could clearly tell that Lin Xia was studying diligently, he was ultimately just a novice in this field. No matter how astonishing his talent, he would still need to lose money for years, get fleeced, and be tempered by the market before he could be called an expert.

Lin Xia was oblivious to many of the high-level maneuvers in the stock market. The only reason he could make money was by brute-forcing it with his advanced information stream.

’As they say, complement your weaknesses with your strengths. The best-case scenario would actually be...’

Chu Bamboo realized something. He took out his phone. "Z, are you there?"

"Father, I am here." Z’s voice was the same as ever.

"I’m going to record a video now. I need you to organize all the stock data from the video." Chu Bamboo paused abruptly. Realizing something, he frowned and added, "Wait, before that, I want to ask: does my phone have any backdoors, or any kind of flaw that would allow someone to steal its internal information?"

If he remembered correctly, it was widely rumored online that Apple phones had this kind of problem... Although his phone was a Huawei, and the internet always boasted about Huawei’s security, he felt he still had to be on his guard.

"Commencing self-diagnosis." A moment later, Z replied, "No such backdoors were found in the hardware. However, the software and operating system have numerous issues. Approximately thirty percent of your information and data is at risk of being stolen."

"How do we handle it?" Chu Bamboo’s mouth twitched, though he wasn’t surprised.

In the modern era of big data, the secret data on one’s phone was inherently difficult to keep private. The only comfort was that the sheer number of phones meant the amount of data generated daily was astronomical.

As long as no one was specifically targeting you, you didn’t have to worry about being doxxed... Of course, if you were targeted, there was nothing you could do.

After all, Chu Bamboo had just recently seen news about the daughter of some internet executive flexing her power to easily doxx a pregnant woman abroad...

"There are two ways to handle this. One is for me to build a virtual system. I would act as a security filter, and only data that Father permits would be allowed to leak. The other option is for Father to grant me sufficient permissions to perform real-time monitoring in the background."

Z performed a deep-thinking analysis. Having incorporated an emotion template, her current conversation with Chu Bamboo really made him feel like he was talking to a real person.

"The advantage of the first option is absolute security. The disadvantage is that the owners of those app and system backdoors will realize they cannot obtain Father’s data when they try. Consequently, they will become aware of Father’s uniqueness, which might provoke them into taking unusual actions."

"The advantage of the second option is that it guarantees security without alerting those who are brazenly trying to spy on Father’s data. The disadvantage is that Father needs to tell me in advance exactly what information cannot be known by others. I can then selectively conceal that information."

Chu Bamboo narrowed his eyes, thoughts flashing in his mind, and made a decision. "Let’s go with the second option. As for the information that can’t be known by outsiders... hmm, that would be you! Z! I mean all information about you, involving you, or that you’ve handled."

"...I understand."

Chu Bamboo let out a soft breath. It wasn’t that Z was the only taboo subject. Rather, most of the things Chu Bamboo couldn’t reveal would involve Z’s assistance or be executed through her.

Therefore, as long as information related to Z was blocked, there shouldn’t be any major problems.

"Alright, next." Chu Bamboo turned on the screen recording function and continuously fed the stock market information he had printed on paper into the phone. "Z, what do you think?"

"Father, based on the results of a deep-thinking analysis and my comparison with current stock market data available online, this appears to be a projection of the stock market for the next year. But it is far too detailed and realistic."

"Based on a computational search, there is a greater than fifty-two percent probability that future stock market developments will have a sixty-one percent overlap with this data. Of course, this is just a projection."

"Currently, my computing power is insufficient to perform a complete deduction. There is a possibility of errors, or even of the results being completely off track."

Z’s voice seemed tinged with shame. "On one hand, it’s due to the limitations of my computing power. On the other hand, the stock market is a chaotic system. It’s simply too difficult to predict."

"For now, just treat it as the actual stock market data for the next year," Chu Bamboo said without hesitation. "Also, my current capital is one million. Please follow this data as closely as possible to snowball my funds, while minimizing risk..."

"Father, in that case, you will first need to feed me information related to the stock market. Including, but not limited to, the official rules, the unspoken rules, the hidden rules, and various trading techniques." Z sounded very sincere and helpless. "Mother did not include this kind of data in my initial database—"

"Personal recommendation: you could grant me access to Tieba. Based on the information I’ve found online, many people say the ’Tieba bros’ are incredibly resourceful, and the information hidden within Tieba is nearly all-encompassing."

Chu Bamboo: "..."

’Wait, is this... is this right?!’

Chu Bamboo subconsciously thought of his good brother’s diary and felt his scalp tingle. ’Could it be... this is the real reason why Zhao Shao agreed to let Z access Tieba? It wasn’t actually Lao Zhao’s wild idea, but an option that Z herself proposed after searching through big data?!’

"...For now, you are only permitted to access stock market-related forums," Chu Bamboo said, his face twitching as he finally forced out the words. He had a feeling that if he really opened this floodgate, he would inevitably slide into the abyss sooner or later... but... *sigh*.

"Received!" Z’s voice seemed to bubble with joy. "Based on the data from the past seven days, excluding the daily computing power expenditure on Mother’s side... the remaining disposable computing power is sufficient for me to complete the data collection, absorption, and reception from numerous stock market forums on Tieba within one day..."

"After a deep-thinking analysis, Z recommends that Father grant me permission to access the stock trading app on the phone, allowing me to practice via a simulation account... to transition from theory to practice before engaging in actual trading."

"Fine." Chu Bamboo breathed a sigh of relief. It was a good thing Z could take this over. After all, he was about to have Lin Xia get involved in managing the Energy Battery project...

During this startup phase, making Lin Xia manage the factory, trade stocks, and keep up with his studies—even if he could take time off, some things still required him to be at school, unless he dropped out entirely!

Wouldn’t that work Lin Xia to death?

Although Lin Xia had toughly declared that as long as it could help Chu Bamboo save the world in the future—even if it was just a tiny bit of help—he would assist at any cost... Chu Bamboo couldn’t just work him like a donkey.

Z was just too perfect! Of course, her only flaw was...

"It’s going to take a whole day!" Chu Bamboo’s face contorted. "Computing power! It’s the computing power!!!"

He once again became keenly aware that the biggest issue constraining Z right now was computing power... No wonder they said computing power was an AI’s lifeblood.

Right now, forget about finishing the update and rolling it out to all users...

Even without considering the computing power being used at Z’s headquarters, he was feeling the pinch just using it by himself. Though, to be fair, the things he was always trying to do were indeed extremely resource-intensive.

’What a mess!’ Chu Bamboo couldn’t help but recall seeing in the news that, on the other side of the ocean, a certain Tesla magnate had once claimed to have built the most powerful supercomputer known to the world...

Sad tears almost streamed from the corners of his mouth. If that computing power were his, how great would that be? He’d probably be done with the stock market data in a few minutes! Then he could start snowballing his funds and making big money.

Chu Bamboo sighed endlessly.

After a while, he calmed himself down. Chu Bamboo thought for a moment and prepared to continue his work, but this time...

"...I’m out?"

Chu Bamboo looked at the mountain of notebooks in front of him, then glanced at the empty drawer. For a moment, he didn’t know what kind of expression to make.

He had only printed three million words of his novel... there were still over a million words left!

"This delivery is so slow, isn’t it?" Chu Bamboo took out his phone to check. The notebooks would arrive tonight, but the ink he bought... would take another two days!

’I won’t buy extra notebooks... but the ink! I wonder if I can buy some at the general store by the school gate... If not, I’ll just buy some more ink pens, break them open, and make do!’

Chu Bamboo sighed. "Dammit, I still have to upload the novel online every day... Huh?"

Chu Bamboo had just unlocked his phone, preparing to take pictures and convert them to text, when suddenly, he glanced at the writer’s assistant app on his phone, then at Z, and an idea sprang to mind.

...

"Go, Bruce, you can do it!"

Watching Z take complete control of his phone, first converting the text from the video he recorded into novel format, then logging into the writer’s assistant app in the background to upload the novel, Chu Bamboo was so moved he was on the verge of tears.

He remembered what Z had said at the very beginning—

With the proper permissions, Z could handle all of these repetitive, mechanical tasks for him.

He had underestimated the value of that statement!

"Bruce... According to a deep-thinking analysis, the result seems to be a dog’s name. But, this seems to be referring to Z? Z is not a dog." Z sounded aggrieved.

"Yeah, you’re not a dog! You’re a cat! You’re an adorable, sweet-smelling little catgirl!" Chu Bamboo laughed. He subconsciously recalled how, back when AIs first came out, a bunch of guys had come up with prompts to train AIs into catgirls, and he was filled with emotion. "My god, how can you be so capable and so cute?"

Z: "?"

"Commencing deep-thinking analysis. Beginning search for catgirl images online. Pink-colored apps and several dangerous apps have been detected on Father’s phone... Should permission be granted for Z to analyze Father’s preferences, and then synthesize a catgirl that conforms to Father’s aesthetic standards based on online catgirl images to serve as Z’s AI avatar?"

"?" Chu Bamboo’s smile froze.

A few breaths later, he was sweating bullets. "I see... I don’t think that will be necessary! Hahahaha..."

’Crap! Did that boomerang come back this fast?!’

...

「7:12 AM.」

Chu Bamboo, who was out, answered his phone. "Lu Keke... you mean you’re planning to head to school at 9:30 AM?"

"Leaving at 9:30? Which route are you taking?"

"Mm, I’ll see if I have time to pick you guys up, so send me the route... Yes! Okay."

Chu Bamboo looked at the map and mused, ’So this is the route where I’ll run into Huang Mou!’

After gathering his thoughts for a moment, Chu Bamboo looked at the Z Intelligent Company building in front of him.

’Looks like I have more than enough time.’