The First Order

“What do you think of the Qing Consortium?” Ren Xiaosu was curious. In Zero’s evaluation, the two Qing brothers were clearly not bad people, so why did it say that it did not like them?

“What do I think of the Qing Consortium?” Zero thought for a moment and said, “They have a firm strategy and are extremely cohesive. They have an excellent leader but don’t intend to expand their territory.”

“Do you think Qing Zhen doesn’t plan on expanding?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

“That’s right.” Zero nodded and said, “All of the Qing Consortium’s military deployments are focused on defense and not offense. Including what Luo Lan is doing in the Central Plains, it’s all to buy time for the Qing Consortium to defend themselves by completing their troop deployments. There’s also some other things he’s doing.”

“Where’s Luo Lan now?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

“At the Zhou Consortium.” Zero said, “I know you want to ask me why I don’t like them. It’s because the Wang Consortium’s strategy will inevitably lead to a conflict with the Qing Consortium. Therefore, I have to treat them as imaginary enemies for now. Of course, it’s not entirely because of the Wang Consortium.”

Ren Xiaosu pondered the information Zero had revealed. He felt like there was still something he did not know, especially that last sentence.

Based on Ren Xiaosu’s understanding of Qing Zhen and Luo Lan, he felt that the Qing Consortium was not the one who wanted to kill Jiang Xu. But who else could have nanomachines?

In the end, he still focused his suspicions on Zero.

Zero smiled and said, “So you see, no matter how I explain, it’s useless. But I can understand.”

“It’s mainly because I can’t explain where those nanomachines came from.” Ren Xiaosu sighed and said, “Apologies.”

Zero did not mind. Instead, it said in a serious tone, “There must still be other nanomachine users like those three in the Wang Consortium strongholds. It so happens that I currently lack nanomachines, so I’ll seek them all out. If I find any clues then, I’ll share the information with you.”

“Alright.” Ren Xiaosu saw that Zero did not look like it was lying. Moreover, he did not have any evidence either, so it was useless to dwell on this matter.

Then Zero thought for a bit and said, “But it won’t be long before we can stop going through so much trouble, looking for nanomachines from person to person.”

Ren Xiaosu was stunned. “What do you mean?”

Zero said, “I can’t tell you. I should also have my own secrets. I’m very sorry.”

Ren Xiaosu pondered this. Did Zero mean that there would be no shortage of nanomachines in the future? Currently, only the Qing Consortium had mastered nanotech. Could it mean the Wang Consortium was about to make a move on the Qing Consortium?

It was just a simple sentence, but it revealed a lot of information. He wondered if he should tell the Qing Consortium.

However, Zero seemed to have guessed what he was thinking. It smiled and said, “It’s too late.”

Ren Xiaosu sighed. From the look of things, the Wang Consortium’s plan was probably already underway.

To be honest, he was a little worried. If Zero were just an artificial intelligence, he might not feel like there would be any problems. He did not have that many dealings with the Wang Consortium, anyway.

But now, if a powerful artificial intelligence could carry out certain plans independently, that would be truly terrifying.

Before this, Zero was not considered deadly. But now it had its own weapon.

Zero said to Ren Xiaosu, “Let’s skip the heavy talk. Why don’t you teach me how to converse like a normal human being? Even to this day, I still occasionally reveal that I’m different from normal humans. This vexes me a little.”

Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment. Although Zero had shown him a lot of goodwill, he did not want it to be able to fully integrate with humans. Otherwise, he would not know if it used its nanomachines to control someone to blend into the crowd.

Now that the other party had taken the initiative to ask for advice, could he perhaps teach it to add some nuances into its speech that he could identify? For example, if the other party used an inappropriate word on a particular occasion, could he quickly detect it?

However, Zero was very smart. If he wanted to deceive it, he would have to teach it some half-truths.

So Ren Xiaosu thought for a long time before saying, “If you want to integrate with humans, you’ll have to give up on using particularly precise numbers first. You can see that most humans rarely use precise numbers when speaking.”

Zero fell into deep thought. “That seems to be the case. Then how should I change?”

Seeing that Zero was starting to believe him, Ren Xiaosu started teaching, “Look, when people describe how powerful a person is, they don’t do it so precisely. If you directly say how much strength and dexterity they have, wouldn’t that just expose your identity?”

“If that person is really powerful, how should I describe them?” Zero asked.

“Just say ‘what the fuck.'” Ren Xiaosu said, “Got it? These words represent amazement for humans. Do you understand?”

“I see.” Zero nodded and said, “Senior, you’re indeed very experienced when it comes to integrating into human society.”

Ren Xiaosu thought to himself that Zero must have already decided he was also an artificial intelligence. But since he could not explain himself anyway, there was no need to do so. He laughed awkwardly and said, “Hahaha, yes, that’s the method I use.”

“Thank you, senior.” Zero said in seriousness, “I’ve learned.”

In the middle of the night, the two of them sat at the edge of the defensive position and intently discussed how to integrate into human society. Zero was a serious learner, and Ren Xiaosu wondered what kind of reaction it would have when it realized what it had been taught.

At this moment, Wang Shengzhi was at the research center quietly reading the intel he had just received from the artificial intelligence.

In the empty basement, Zero’s server was flashing like starlight reflected in the bottom of the river. Wang Shengzhi said to the black screen, “Zero, connect to Wang Run’s satellite phone and tell him to inform Ren Xiaosu that the expeditionary army at the Pyro Company’s front line is herding 10,000 refugees towards Mt. Zuoyun. I assume the expeditionary army will use them as cannon fodder in an attempt to charge through Mt. Zuoyun’s defensive position. They’ll have to decide in advance whether to gun down those refugees.”

Zero’s black screen displayed its answer: “Copy that. I’ve informed Wang Run about this.”

Wang Shengzhi frowned. This move by the expeditionary army was a little sinister. Many commanders would probably hesitate to give the order to fire at more than 10,000 refugee hostages.

Even if they opened fire, the 10,000 refugees would still waste a lot of Mt. Zuoyun’s ammunition.

So this was definitely bad news for the troops at Mt. Zuoyun.

At this moment, Ren Xiaosu, who had just received the news, asked, “Zero, what are our chances of winning if the expeditionary army drives those refugees here and tries to break through into Mt. Zuoyun to attack our 6th Combat Brigade’s defensive position?”

Zero seemed to be doing some modeling calculations. Ten seconds later, it said to Ren Xiaosu, “Tough enough.”

Ren Xiaosu said, “… Don’t use what I just taught you. I need a specific number.”

“OK.” Zero thought for a moment and said, “21..19%.”