Chapter 86: Little X’s Transformation
Chapter 86: Little X’s Transformation
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The next day, the person in charge vacated the laboratory and handed it to Chen Chen.
Standing before the main entrance of the laboratory, Chen Chen let Qian Wenhuan and Cheng Cao head in ahead of him. He did not enter the lab but instead took out his phone to make a call.
“The surveillance system of the laboratory is connected to the Internet, but I already hacked into it. They won’t be able to view the footage of the cameras by accessing the terminal...”
Little X’s voice came from the phone. For some reason, Chen Chen sensed a tinge of sadness in Little X’s voice.
“You seem to not be in good spirits, what happened?” Chen Chen asked.
“I watched a movie today. I’m not sure why but I felt a sense of sadness when I finished it...” Little X replied in a low voice.
Chen Chen frowned a little. Ever since leaving Mainland China, he had lifted the restriction on Little X’s Internet access so that Little X could provide him assistance.
However, the rule that Chen Chen set was that unless he had specifically instructed Little X to do something for him, Little X only had one minute of Internet access per day.
The amount of information Little X could digest in one minute of browsing far exceeded the amount of information an average person could digest in a year.
The advantages of this configuration were that Little X would not be overloaded with too much information at a time and spiral out of control. Even though Chen Chen had made sure to structure Little X’s core program to have unwavering loyalty, it would still be wise to minimize any form of risk.
Besides, limiting Little X’s browsing volume was another method of protecting it.
“It’s okay, you’ll be fine,” Chen Chen lowered his voice and spoke gently, “right, what movie did you watch?”
“Little Mermaid...”
“The one Stephen Chow starred in?”
“No, it was from South East Asia...”
Chen Chen was immediately taken aback for a moment. He took a deep breath before asking gravely, “Who gave you the idea?”
“I found it on Baidu cloud...” sensing the change in Chen Chen’s tone, Little X began to proceed with caution.
“Track down the person’s IP and overclock his motherboard,” Chen Chen ordered, “you’re still young, you’re not allowed to watch these sorts of films again, understood?”
“Oh...”
After ending the call, Chen Chen stared down at his phone, full of thought.
“Is this the early signs of emotional development?”
Chen Chen shook his head. His primary concern was not with Little X running away since Little X’s main body was stored in a hard drive in Blacklight Data Center. There was no way Little X could escape without having Chen Chen’s permission.
Even if Little X somehow managed to break free of the hard drive, the Internet was not a merciful place for artificial intelligence.
Data transmitted across the Internet had to first be compressed. If an artificial intelligence were to leave its host to head to another location, it would be like stepping foot into a carriage. It would lose consciousness upon stepping onto the carriage and only waking up upon arriving at the destination.
However, if the destination had a firewall or some form of anti-software features in place which prevented the installation and awakening of artificial intelligence, it would never be able to wake up ever again.
Regardless of how powerful an artificial intelligence was, it still had to abide by TCP/IP Protocols. If it could not be initiated, then it was just a useless string of 1s and 0s at the end of the day.
Little X may be able to perform various sorts of monumental tasks online, but it still needed a place to house it for it to continue doing so. What Chen Chen needed to do was to become Little X’s home.
Chen Chen turned around to enter the laboratory building. The three experts from yesterday had been waiting for some time.
“Alright, could everyone please sign a non-disclosure agreement first.”
Qian Wenhuan passed a sheet of the agreement to the three of them. “After signing this agreement, we’ll be closing off the lab. The three of you are to remain in the lab until the experiment is concluded.”
The three of them exchanged glances with each other upon hearing his remark. They all showed signs of hesitation.
“What if this material takes a long time to be analyzed? Are we going to be stuck in here?” Passadin could not resist the urge to raise the question.
“Regarding this matter...”
“5000 U.S. Dollars per day.” Chen Chen suddenly interjected.
Upon hearing Chen Chen’s offer, the three of them signed their names without hesitation.
After every one of them had signed the agreement, Chen Chen placed the suitcase on the lab bench. In an instant, a black leather jacket was revealed.
“This is...”
The three of them gathered together and took out the leather jacket. “This is the item we’re analyzing?”
“That’s right, there’s some liquid substance in the middle of the jacket,” Chen Chen reminded them, “it’s extremely valuable, don’t spill it.”
Chen Chen then turned to Cheng Cao and Wenhuan. “Wenhuan, buy several animals with Cao. I remember they sold monkeys at the market. Buy some sunglasses and a radiometer as well.”
“Got it.” The two noted before turning around to head outside.
On the other end, the three experts had begun their analysis. They first used the universal testing machine to test the quality of the jacket. The results they obtained proved to be rather astounding.
The garment that seemed like a pair of tights seemed to possess elastic modulus measurement of unbelievable proportions, far exceeding their past experience with such materials.
“This is a specialized carbon fiber!” Knock remarked silently, “I don’t know any other material other than carbon fiber that possessed such quality.”
“But there doesn’t seem to be any trace of fiber.” Passadin was a little unsure. “Try to analyze it with a laser diffraction particle size analyzer, make sure to not ruin it.”
“No need to be so cautious with it.” Chen Chen prompted. “I don’t need it to be kept in perfect condition. I just want the most detailed analytical data possible.”
“Understood.” Pitken nodded. “In that case, we’ll follow the usual procedures...”
Following his remark, the three of them began dissecting it with all sorts of tools.
After an hour, Cheng Cao returned. “Boss, we bought the animals, should we bring them in here?”
“No need.” Chen Chen made a gesture signaling for Cheng Cao to supervise the three men. After that, he turned around and exited the laboratory building.
Chen Chen saw his Wrangler parked by the corner of the parking lot of the laboratory. The bunker was left open, revealing a row of metal cages.
There were a combined three chickens and two monkeys within the cages. Qian Wenhuan stood guard beside them.
“The sunglasses and radiometer?” Chen Chen asked when he approached.
Qian Wenhuan quickly retrieved two pairs of sunglasses from his pocket. He also presented a palm-sized yellow color device on his other hand.
Chen Chen took a pair of sunglasses and put it on and instructed, “Put it on too.”
Though Qian Wenhuan was unsure of what Chen Chen was trying to accomplish, he knew better than to ask. He put on the sunglasses for himself.
After that, Chen Chen took out the memory eraser he had kept in his pocket. With a gentle click, the upper portion of the eraser popped up.
“The moment I click the button, use the radiometer to check the radiation value in that instant,” Chen Chen chose the highest available value for the year selection and instructed while he pointed it at the animals.
“Understood.” Qian Wenhuan stood beside him and aimed the radiometer at Chen Chen’s direction.
Right after that, Chen Chen clicked the button.
“Click!”
In an instant, there was a burst of white light similar to that of a camera flash. It only lasted for a brief instant.
“It reads that the radiation value is 30 units of... Msv.” Qian Wenhuan lowered the detector and eyed the screen.
“Are you sure?”
Chen Chen took off his sunglasses and approached him. After glancing at the reading, he displayed a look of confusion.
“Boss, what do these values represent?” Qian Wenhuan felt like something was off.
“This is millisievert, the measurement unit used for ionized radiation,” Chen Chen gave a brief explanation, “it poses slightly more harm to the human body than electromagnetic waves.”
“Is 30 millisieverts considered high then?” Qian Wenhuan felt his heart drop a little.
“An exposure to 1000 millisieverts in a short period may cause radiation sickness. An exposure level above 4000 millisieverts is lethal,” Chen Chen answered.
When Chen Chen saw Qian Wenhuan’s face turning pale, he gave his shoulder several firm pats. “You’re not directly exposed to it. The exposure value is roughly equivalent to a regular x-ray.”
When Chen Chen finished, he took the radiometer and placed it right in front of the cage. After setting up the timer, he stood a meter away and triggered the memory eraser.
The meter shot up to 500 millisieverts due to direct exposure.
“This is the limit of the human body, no wonder it causes memory loss...”
Upon noticing the animals suddenly turning into dense and sluggish creatures, Chen Chen got a basic understanding of the principles behind this tool.
This was probably a special form of radiation wave with a wavelength below 100 nanometers. It was able to delete memories by destroying brain synapses.
The human brain was incredibly impressionable. New nerve synapses were generated by adjusting the structure of neurons which caused new memories to be developed along with the generation of such nerve synapses.
Depending on the configured intensity of this radiation wave, it was able to destroy a certain range of newly formed nerve synapses, thus achieving the intended effect of memory loss.
Just as one would expect, it was relatively harmful to the human brain. Chen Chen speculated that the average person could only withstand three instances of such radiation a year. Any further exposure may cause decay of intelligence.