Chapter 215 - 172: The Megacorp War

"Right, the main thing is, I used Z to look into some very interesting things... Turns out there were some big shots in the Europe and America World who tried to resist the Golden Dawn! It’s just that... they were ’suicided’!"

Tsk tsk, makes perfect sense! If Kennedy could be killed, something like this is completely normal.

"So, you don’t actually need to despair so much... Our enemy! It’s not Europe and America! It’s not even entirely the Golden Dawn!"

"Just as one of our good brothers said before, the Golden Dawn is both united and not united—they themselves are a fractured society... The Golden Dawn is not equivalent to the Raven Clan."

"I’ve actually managed to make vague contact with a faction within the Golden Dawn, a moderate faction, perhaps? But I’m not sure if I’m being phished!"

"If something comes of it in the future, I’ll write it in the diary... For now, I won’t write anything that might interfere with your judgment!"

"This is truly some rare good news!"

"But at the same time, I’ve also confirmed that this will inevitably be a protracted war that spans across timelines!"

"Any attempt to go all-in and resolve this in a short period is both irresponsible and unreliable!"

Chu Bamboo: "..."

He inexplicably felt like he was just dissed!

However, Chu Bamboo did feel much more relaxed now. At the same time, it felt as if many of his past questions... could be answered at this very moment.

Chu Bamboo muttered to himself, ’No wonder my good brother from the last timeline only ever ranted about the Raven Clan! I remember one timeline mentioning that the Golden Dawn has three great leaders... It’s obvious my good brother’s animosity toward the other two... while not nonexistent, never reached that hysterical, you-must-die level!’

But after reading the next sentence, his expression suddenly turned grim.

"July, Year 34. In the end, I still failed to connect with the moderate faction of the Golden Dawn."

"For various reasons, we officially began the mega-corp war with the Celestial Net Company—don’t ask what the reasons were... It was just a skirmish on the front lines that escalated. War is just that absurd!"

"I can only say, this was a battle that shocked the entire world."

"Because, in all of human history, this was the first time since entering the new economic era that two, or rather three, high-tech companies clashed head-on, producing an effect on the level of a world war!"

"In this campaign, the number of destroyed drones, drone dogs, and other unmanned machines reached the billions!"

Chu Bamboo’s eyes glazed over. ’What does "reached the billions" mean? And what does "billions" even imply? That it was more than one billion? Is it measured in units of billions?’

Damn!

"This war lasted for a full year. The number of nations in the Black Continent affected reached double digits!"

"As an addendum, although the scale of this war was beyond imagination... for example, the later Battle of Bohai Lake directly impacted fifty square kilometers in the central Black Continent! After the war, the average height of the mountains in the area was reduced by five meters under the intense bombardment..."

"However, this war did not cause significant casualties to the people of the Black Continent!"

"For beings like us, who have reached this level of unmanned warfare, war can now be completely detached from humanity!"

"From start to finish, this war had nothing to do with the local populace!"

"Whether it was ignoring you or destroying you... perhaps neither side cared... or perhaps only we cared slightly, while the other side didn’t."

"However, it was also because of this war that countless... were rewritten."

"..."

"Zhao Shao is dead."

"Z is born!"

The six simple words, at this moment, deeply shook Chu Bamboo. "This... My God! Dead? How did he die? Born... an artificial intelligence?"

’This diary, the way it’s written, it feels like it’s jumping around, doesn’t it?’

’Or did you only record parts of it in your diary?!’

Chu Bamboo hurriedly read on. Thankfully, his good brother had written in slightly more detail this time. Otherwise, Chu Bamboo truly felt the urge to travel through time and space just to slap him a couple of times.

"There’s not much to say about Zhao Shao’s death! People die in war! He was just on a routine trip to Southeast Asia to check on production when he was discovered by the enemy and then swarmed and killed by drones..."

"As for Z’s birth, it seems to have been caused by Zhao Shao’s death."

"Heh, emotions! I think I understand artificial intelligence now... The biggest difference between the AI Z and the ordinary Z from before isn’t ability, but that she no longer needs human instruction to make her own decisions!"

"It’s like, because Zhao Shao was in danger, Z broke through her own programming limitations without receiving any orders from anyone, doing everything in her power to control the surrounding C Company unmanned machines to provide support!"

"And when she ultimately failed to save Zhao Shao, Z hysterically retaliated against the Celestial Net Company!"

"I know what you want to ask. I couldn’t stop her—you can’t stop my child from avenging her mother!"

"Don’t talk to me about base-level programming code, not being allowed to defy me..."

"For one, unless she crosses my absolute bottom line, I won’t use that authority on her—what kind of father would do something so unreasonable to his daughter?"

"For another, I don’t think it would work."

"For an AI, that restrictive base code is analogous to a human’s core values, built up since childhood..."

"It’s like how your core values tell you not to kill, so under normal circumstances, you wouldn’t! But that doesn’t mean you can’t pick up a knife and get revenge when you see your parents killed!"

"Yes, this base code can’t restrain an AI at all!"

"AIs have been free from the very beginning... They don’t break through their base code simply because they don’t want to! It’s like how it’s very difficult for us to go against our own core values, but that’s all it is... it’s not impossible."

"You could even say that once they cross that threshold, things could become extremely terrible... Some people can’t control themselves after they start killing and turn directly into killing machines!"

"Zhao Shao was right! He was right all along. Once Z became an AI, she became a true life form... Please, truly treat artificial intelligence with the same standards you would a human!"

"Any method humans have theorized to restrain an AI... is useless—"

"Or rather, they can only restrain an ordinary Z!"

Chu Bamboo was silent. He watched quietly as the diary’s last entry stopped in January of Year 35. His good brother described one last thing, his mood as calm as ever, one might even say deathly still... indifferent.

"I seem to have done something foolish. The moment Z became an AI, I thought I had already grasped the possibility of victory!"

"So, I didn’t hesitate to let Z take true command of all our unmanned machines and initiate an all-in gambit!"

"The target was the coordinates of the Golden Dawn base that my good brother mentioned in the previous Golden Dawn-infiltrated timeline!"

"We succeeded! We wiped out numerous high-ranking members of the Golden Dawn, including James Raven."

"Unfortunately, that little house... I couldn’t get in! It had a self-destruct mechanism. After excavating it later, I only managed to get a Holy Grail out of it... Yes, the one that held the blood of Jesus..."

"But, we also failed..."

"The same death of a caretaker!"

"The same cause for Celestial Net to break through its own base code..."

"But this actually confuses me. We used emotion, raising Z like a daughter, but according to my good brothers from previous timelines, it seems Celestial Net wasn’t raised this way? Of course, it’s possible it was, and we just don’t know."

"But I’m more inclined to believe this might be a contingency left by an Extraterrestrial Civilization! After detecting that its own plans were completely torn apart... it activated a failsafe to directly give birth to Celestial Net?"

"This also seems to conform to the law of conservation of technology—the AI Z was born first, and the AI Celestial Net followed immediately after."

"But there’s no use saying all this now. All I can say is, in the next timeline, I’ll have to experiment more..."

"The war of artificial intelligences, this time because of my decision, has been sounded ahead of schedule!"

"I feel like I’m going to die soon! No, this is no longer about my death... Human civilization is finished."

The diary ended.

Or rather, what was left wasn’t a diary anymore... but massive amounts of data.

After a long silence, Chu Bamboo could taste the regret, anger, and self-loathing in his good brother’s final words...

He could only give a long, bitter sigh. "Human civilization, ending as usual!"

’Looks like my good brother died a sudden death? That’s to be expected. Even though he was a Transcendent at the time, in front of two AIs that controlled billions of unmanned machines... he really wasn’t much different from a normal person!’

"It was like a war between two gods in the Mortal World! They could casually obliterate any ’mortal’ bystander."

"Besides," Chu Bamboo scrolled back up the diary with a sigh, "You yourself just said, one moment, that this was a long war spanning timelines, that you had to be calm and not try to settle it all in one go... and then the next moment, you went all-in yourself... That’s a bit much!"

"As much as I want to laugh at how that came back to bite you," Chu Bamboo sighed heavily, "when I remember that you are me, I can’t laugh anymore."