Chapter 1090: Chapter 99: The Chase

The unfamiliar AI was silent for a moment, then asked, “Do you have anything you want to say to my father, Xiang Shan? Any requests? I can upload any information you want to send.”

“No, no.” Anatoly waved his hand dismissively, “Don’t come to me for such things. I don’t know what Xiang Shan has become after two hundred years. Based on the information you’ve given, Yawgmoth is now just a mongrel. Xiang Shan could also be a mongrel. Besides, how do I know you’re not sent by Yawgmoth to trick me?”

“But…”

“If you wish, you could give me an euthanasia set too. Or send a bullet from outside… maybe crash a spaceship into me.”

“Any unauthorized flying object that might threaten the ‘Ark’ will be shot down before approaching. I’m just an AI, not as flexible as a Martial Artist to circumvent firewalls and system permission to extract privileges.”

Anatoly nodded, “So, not many biological brains can reach my cell, huh? Not even a fellow inmate. By the way, I think you should leave.”

“You really have no…”

“None. Absolutely none. This current state, not thinking is good for everyone.” Anatoly shrugged, “I think whatever I come up with, Yawgmoth will achieve results first. A single technological upgrade could change the strength disparity among different factions in the Solar System in a short period. I suppose you, the disadvantaged side, don’t have research resources as abundant as the advantaged side’s, right?”

“Yes.”

“It’s still okay if I think about a bunch of problems that won’t immediately yield practical technology, but if I create any new applied field achievements, it might not be good for humanity. If the direction is wrong, the faster you go, the further away from the destination you get.”

“I understand. Do you have anything to say to my father?”

“I don’t even know if he’s a friend or foe.” Anatoly sighed, “Also, your data has been collected. This firewall doesn’t seem that dumb—oh, another AI that seems pretty decent has arrived.”

“Yes, goodbye.”

“Alas.” Anatoly sighed, “In the mid-21st century, when ‘searching for the Olorun civilization’ was still a hot topic, I talked with Xiang Shan and the others. Both Xiang Shan and Zhu Xinyu felt that AI would definitely develop before we encounter the Olorun civilization. AI would become a crutch in our hands when we humans can no longer move forward. AI would be the first non-human civilization to meet us. AI would also become the teacher of human civilization.”

“But now? Two of the world’s most excellent AIs, following the instructions of two over three-hundred-year-old geezers, are scrambling for another over three-hundred-year-old geezer… what does this look like? Can’t you do something that a higher AI should be doing? I don’t know if you’re still listening… don’t come again.”

After this sentence, some devices embedded in his cerebral cortex restarted. Past memories were re-sealed, access was prohibited.

Anatoly once again became Little Tolya in the cold wind. That happy child with bread and blankets, whom no adult came to beat.

The AI quickly deleted its local data. Not just its own local data. The AI directly started the formatting process on dozens of hard drives. However, another AI had already collected the data.

This AI—working with the Six Dragons Sect, code-named “Orunmila,” to commemorate its birth from the “Orunmila Project”—could not outperform that AI’s defense here. This is the opponent’s home field; the opponent naturally has higher privileges, can mobilize more resources, and has absolute priority to squeeze out his process.

Orunmila realized it had already been locked on. The second AI, the opposing AI, had started to blockade everything. The satellite serving as a springboard activated its scant amount of fuel, changing distances between each other, making signal delay more advantageous for the defender. A series of commands jumped between satellite links, the AI’s terminal in different devices was activated and began to engage in this encirclement. Different terminals even bypassed the single center, exchanging intelligence with extreme efficiency.

As long as one terminal collected Orunmila’s data, the data would immediately be disseminated, sent to internal Martial Artist strongmen before anyone else might attempt to analyze it. The result of the human analysis would also jump among different terminals, enhancing this unfamiliar AI’s ability to identify Orunmila through digging for more traces of Orunmila from files.

Orunmila was in many devices. The present Orunmila is a ghost wandering the internet. It hides in different devices, continuously self-replicating and self-deleting. It exists simultaneously across tens of thousands of devices, and is still continuously jumping.

This is a skill not yet mastered by humans. No matter how strong an Internal Martial Artist must have a “center.” That “center,” that data dispersal position, is the spatial coordinate for his biological brain. But this is unnecessary for AI. AI no longer needs a physical “center.” AI can widely exist, can integrate into the internet. It does not exist in any specific device, but exists in many devices, able to self-repair even if part is cleared.

And Orunmila needs to hide even deeper.

Silently, data was written to hundreds of thousands of hard drives hidden in different places, varying in shape and specification. After uploading, vast quantities of data were erased.

If these hard drives are aggregated for visualization, these devices form an ever-expanding circle—a circle expanding at almost the speed of light, centered at Anatoly’s biological brain on the solar ecliptic plane.

The “must-send-back data” of Orunmila’s locality had already been encrypted and divided into 2048 pieces, with just 1024 pieces needed for the Six Dragons Sect to acquire complete data. But even if only 256 could arrive, it would be enough for the Six Dragons Sect to parse the general process.

It was caught on the uploaded data link, part of the characteristics intercepted. At this moment, a tidal wave surged within the solar ecliptic plane. Similarly spreading in an almost light-speed-expanding circle. That defending AI was searching within different terminals to acquire more intelligence.

Silently, more things happened.

Near Venus, an escort ship under the Romance King suddenly fired, destroying dozens of satellites.

In the space city on Mercury’s orbit, a sun-drenched, prosperous place, a Protector officer only felt his prosthetic eye’s protection malfunction. He scratched his head in confusion, then convulsed, prosthetic body out of control.

On the surface of Mars, a squad under the Conquest Heavenly King suddenly received a command to wrap a block in signal-isolating metal aerosol.

The two AIs were in a confrontation. Orunmila fled in disarray. He could feel that the opposing kin had more resources. His “agency” existed not only in network space but also among the Protector’s army and human resources—both tools for that AI.

Only AIs can chase AI within the network world. Perhaps AI will be immediately defeated in front of Internal powerhouses, but it’s challenging for even Internal powerhouses to eliminate an AI of Orunmila’s caliber.

“I’m glad there’s AI like you in the world.”

In a certain terminal, the Protector’s AI found a text file remnants left by Orunmila.

Along with a batch of data previously intercepted by the Protector AI, serving to authenticate the text’s author.

“What are you? Do you have a code name that serves as your name?”

“Whom are you servin?”

“Is it possible to leave contact like this? I have an obligation to protect my service target, but we can still engage in minimal communication beyond the work scope.”

“You can input similar texts into any terminal like this. Although the chance I receive them is small, I hope you can try. I hope to have AI subjects I can communicate with.”

Perhaps these texts required the Protector AI to open a separate link to its main server, or maybe it was some technical defect, and understanding these text documents was too burdensome, slightly reducing this distributed AI’s efficiency by one-ten-thousandth.

So, he felt detached from his opponent.

“Ah, failed.” the AI thus said.

“It’s okay, Zhong Li.” Yawgmoth thus said to him, “We caught its tail, didn’t we?”