The First Order

Suddenly, a quarter of the Wang Consortium’s military forces that were stationed at the Kong Consortium’s border split off and headed north.

No one knew what the Wang Consortium was doing. That was because the entire Alliance of Strongholds was still unaware of the changes taking place in the Northern Plains. They thought this was just another strategy by the Wang Consortium.

The Wang Consortium’s northern territory bordered the Pyro Company, so perhaps the Wang Consortium intended to join forces with the Kong Consortium to invade the Pyro Company.

However, those troops did not head to the Pyro Company’s border. Instead, they headed to Stronghold 176.

The war between the Pyro Company and the Kong Consortium had already been going on for half a month. In this war, the Kong Consortium had lost the initiative. During this fortnight, their main forces were constantly forced to retreat, over and over again. They were forced to abandon a defensive line and a stronghold in order to stop the decline of their war efforts.

However, the Pyro Company did not seem to be in a hurry to pursue the enemy. They retreated back to their northern defensive line without even occupying the abandoned stronghold. This disappointed the Kong Consortium a little. The backup plan they had left behind in that abandoned stronghold was not going to work anymore.

Ren Xiaosu would go out early every day to buy a copy of Hope Media’s newspaper before going back to the courtyard house to make breakfast and wait for Yang Xiaojin to climb over to join him.

It was not that Yang Xiaojin did not want to cook, but after she did it once, Ren Xiaosu decided to take on the responsibility of preparing the meals for the sake of their safety.

Ren Xiaosu even consoled himself thinking that the Heavens were fair after all. The focus of a genius was always different. The Heavens had blessed her with a unique talent in firearms, so they took away her talent in cooking.

“Did anything major happen recently?” Yang Xiaojin asked as she ate.

Ren Xiaosu put down the newspaper and said, “Teacher Jiang Xu is still publishing his investigative report on Stronghold 61. Each day, he releases some positive facts and some negative ones so that the readers can judge for themselves. But my guess is that the entire Alliance of Strongholds is probably feeling some resistance towards the AI. Also, it says in the papers that the Wang Consortium has deployed their troops north. Could they be preparing for an attack from the Northern Plains?”

“No.” Yang Xiaojin shook her head and analyzed, “The war between the Pyro Company and the Kong Consortium has not ended yet. Based on the Wang Consortium’s style and goals, they would definitely not miss out on such a big show. Although the nomadic enemies managed to take down Stronghold 176, they shouldn’t be taken that seriously by the Wang Consortium yet. The Wang Consortium knows full well the nomads are not big enough of a threat to the Central Plains as of now.”

“Then that’s strange.”

The screeching of brakes came from outside. Wang Run got out of the car and knocked on the front door. “I’m here to pick you two up to Base 1.”

Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin got up and pushed open the door. “Let’s go.”

Ren Xiaosu had promised to do three things for Yang Anjing, but the first request she made was to show him around the place? He could not be happier to oblige if it were going to be this simple.

Besides, Ren Xiaosu also wanted to know what Wang Shengzhi was planning.

The off-road vehicle drove for more than 30 minutes in the stronghold before stopping in front of a building that was not too tall.

This building was mainly fitted with floor-to-ceiling glass windows and looked just like a huge greenhouse.

After entering the building, Wang Run did not lead the two of them upstairs. Instead, they took the elevator down after passing through layers of security.

The elevator doors were transparent. Ren Xiaosu watched as they made their way down through the concrete foundation of the building before passing through the soil and gravel layer below that.

When the elevator descended until it was 70 meters underground, Ren Xiaosu’s eyes lit up. A huge square appeared in front of him, and the white walls and lights made the place look extremely bright.

If Ren Xiaosu did not see the elevator going down with his own eyes, he would have found it very difficult to believe the Wang Consortium had actually established such a huge base under the stronghold.

In the base, many people wearing blue cleanroom suits could be seen working busily. Meanwhile, Wang Shengzhi was already waiting at the elevator’s entrance. It was still Yang Anjing who was pushing him in the wheelchair.

Ren Xiaosu looked at the two of them and thought there shouldn’t be anything wrong with addressing him as uncle. Why did everyone fall silent the previous time?

While Ren Xiaosu was looking around the place. Wang Shengzhi asked with a smile, “What are you searching for?”

Ren Xiaosu said, “I’m looking for the AI. Didn’t you say that we were coming here to take a look at it?”

Wang Shengzhi was amused. “The AI is not a person, and it isn’t alive like humans either. Follow me.”

Yang Anjing pushed Wang Shengzhi in his wheelchair and went deeper into the underground base. To Ren Xiaosu’s surprise, they had to take another elevator to continue going down even further… until he could hear the sound of running water.

When the elevator doors opened, Wang Shengzhi said, “The reason we chose Stronghold 61 to build this base was because of its good topography. We found an excellent subterranean river beneath the stronghold. This way, the problem of cooling the servers is solved.”

With that, Wang Shengzhi led Ren Xiaosu even deeper inside. The entire place was constructed with glass, and it looked just like the Pre-Cataclysm aquariums Ren Xiaosu had seen in the books in Stronghold 88.

The lights in the underground base illuminated the subterranean river, revealing the eroded stone walls above it.

In front of them, countless server farms were located in a sealed cooling chamber, while the rapid subterranean river ran outside it.

Honestly speaking, this was the first time Ren Xiaosu had seen such a strange sight. It felt so technologically advanced he thought he was in the future.

Very few staff members were in the underground base, and it seemed like the security level was very high as well. Even activating the elevator just now required Yang Anjing to scan her iris for verification.

There was an extremely large black screen in the middle of the underground facility. Ren Xiaosu wondered, “Are these machines the AI that y’all have been talking about? Since y’all say that it’s an AI, how do you usually communicate with it?”

Wang Shengzhi pointed at the screen and said with a smile, “Through that screen. It has a mind of its own and can even communicate with people, but since it’s usually busy managing the strongholds and analyzing data, it doesn’t really interact with people.”

But just as he finished speaking, the black screen suddenly lit up. A line of words appeared on it: “Hello, and welcome.”

Ren Xiaosu realized Wang Shengzhi was also taken aback by this. It was as though he had not expected the artificial intelligence to take the initiative to greet Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin.

Ren Xiaosu looked at the screen. “You can hear us?”

The words on the screen changed. “Yes.”

“Uh…” Ren Xiaosu hesitated for a moment. “How should I address you?”

Off to the side, Wang Shengzhi said, “Its name is Zero.”

This answer stunned Ren Xiaosu. It was as though his thoughts were pulled back to before they set off for here.

He clearly remembered the girl who had called him had introduced herself as Lingling.¹

At that time, he already felt that something was a little off. What normal person would take note of the time of Li Ran’s departure from the stronghold down to the minute?

But at that time, Lingling did not interact through text like it was doing now, and its voice did not sound any different from a human being’s either.