Chapter 1476: ALPHA Virus
The chairman of East Asia Energy committed suicide in fear of crime.
If this were another company, such bad news would at least make the company’s performance in the stock market sluggish for a while, even if it did not trigger a ma.s.s sell-off.
However, for a giant of East Asia Energy’s size, Liu Zhengxing’s death only added some volatility to the charts.
For Liu Zhengxing himself, this was undoubtedly a tragedy.
He had always attributed the business growth achieved by East Asia Energy over the past five years to his outstanding business capabilities and often boasted that he was the most visionary among the previous chairmen.
However, even his unexpected death did not make the capital market sentiment crash.
Obviously, the so-called business ability and foresight were just his wishful thinking.
“Recently, a traffic accident occurred in the suburbs of Jin Ling City. A foreign tourist died in the accident.
“According to the accident investigation report presented by the police, the man was driving a gray van, switched to manual driving while driving on the ground, and caused a collision with the vehicle in front due to improper operation.
“This reporter once again reminds everyone that you must abide by traffic rules when using private transportation and pay attention to driving safety…”
Last night’s news was shown on the holographic TV.
The video of a car accident taken by a drone had been blurred, but judging from the tragic situation, it was obviously not just a rear-end collision.
The hood of the entire car was wrecked. If it only collided with another vehicle, it would definitely not be so tragic.
Unless he hit a tank.
Lu Zhou watched the “car accident” on TV. He was sitting at the table for breakfast. He sighed slightly and said emotionally, “Xiao Ai.”
Sitting on the opposite side of the dining table with her cheeks in her hands, Xiao Ai tilted her head when she heard her master.
“Huh?”
“Do you think… Humans are troublesome beings?”
“Quite troublesome. Master should live a digital life like Xiao Ai! (•̀∀•́)”
“I didn’t mean that…” Lu Zhou changed the topic with a dry cough. “Forget it, why am I talking to you about this?”
The death of Liu Zhengxing was unknown.
Chester, who tried to a.s.sa.s.sinate Lu Zhou, also died in a “traffic accident”.
This situation was brought to an end with the death of both the employer and the perpetrator.
Although everything was developing in a good direction, Lu Zhou wasn’t happy at all.
He always felt that all of this was not over. Eyes were still targeting him, waiting for an opportunity, like a poisonous snake.
The situation he faced at this moment may be much more severe than a century ago.
After all, a century ago, he had more than just prestige.
“Whether it’s the s.p.a.ce elevator or second-generation controllable fusion… There are obviously so many things worth doing, but people still repeat meaningless mistakes on the same things.”
Lu Zhou looked at Xiao Ai, who was obediently looking at him. Lu Zhou suddenly smiled and stretched out his hand to rub the fake hair on her head.
“Thank you for listening to my nonsense.”
With a happy smile on her face, Xiao Ai said enthusiastically, “Master doesn’t have to worry, Xiao Ai will protect you! ٩(•̤̀ᴗ•̤́๑)”
Lu Zhou smiled and spoke.
“Well, thanks in advance.”
…
After eating dinner, Lu Zhou took the drone controlled by Xiao Ai and jogged for two laps before returning to take a shower.
While taking a bath, he received a call from Manager Morinaga.
“We are very sorry about Chairman Liu Zhengxing. No one thought he would be such a person.”
Lu Zhou: “You don’t have to be sorry. I have to thank you instead.”
“No need…” Manager Morinaga in the holographic image sighed. He then continued after a short pause, “Liu Zhengxing is dead, so the position of chairman is now vacant. We plan to convene a board meeting to re-elect the chairman. In fact, I personally prefer you to a.s.sume this position. As you once led the Pangu fusion reactor project, I believe you will surely lead us to a brighter future.”
Lu Zhou said casually, “Sorry, I am not interested in the company’s business operations. Although I did lead the Pangu reactor project, it was only from the standpoint of a scholar.”
Although Lu Zhou’s answer was not unexpected, a regretful expression still appeared on Morinaga’s face.
As the largest individual shareholder and holding the resources of East Asia Communications and East Asia Heavy Industries, Lu Zhou was undoubtedly the most suitable candidate for the position of chairman.
But there was no other way.
If he himself was not interested in these things, no one could force him to do things he didn’t like to do.
After finis.h.i.+ng the call, Lu Zhou went to the storage room next to the mansion.
After Ling caught the a.s.sa.s.sin named Chester on the highway last night, he conveniently took the holographic computer he used to control the robot from his van.
A pa.s.sword lock was added to the computer, but it was obviously not a difficult task for Lu Zhou.
After easily removing the pa.s.sword, Lu Zhou, who turned on the computer, searched the computer for a while. He soon found a lot of suspicious files with the help of Xiao Ai.
Among them were some electronic vouchers of unnamed a.s.sets that he held, the purchase channels of guns and EMP weapons, and some illegal orders he received from the Internet, as well as his own design of robot memory software.
But compared to these insignificant things, what Lu Zhou cared about most was a folder named “ALPHA”.
Inside this folder was a bunch of strange code.
“Master…”
Lu Zhou looked away from the holographic screen. He looked at Xiao Ai, who was standing behind him, and cast a questioning glance at her.
“What?”
“I feel like the things in this folder… are not nice. ᕙ(⇀‸↼‵‵)ᕗ”
Lu Zhou: “Not nice… What do you mean?”
“This is a computer virus. After being implanted in the memory of a robot, it can completely modify its underlying logic and break the three laws that cannot be violated… It changes generic robots to murder machines.”
“Change the underlying logic of the robots?” Lu Zhou frowned slightly. “Can’t you do that too?”
“It’s not the same.” Xiao Ai shook her head. “Although Xiao Ai can do the same thing, Xiao Ai is just changing the artificial intelligence algorithmic limitations. This is a pure virus; there is no intelligence. It is like a brainwas.h.i.+ng tool for robots. Its purpose is to release the evil side of artificial intelligence.”
Unleash the evil side of artificial intelligence…
For some reason, when he heard these words, Lu Zhou’s heart went cold.
Robots had long become an inseparable group in Pan-Asian Cooperation and even the entire world.
They replaced most of the repet.i.tive work that didn’t require any creativity, and human society had adapted to such changes over the past half-century.
Lu Zhou could not imagine what society would be like if they were to lose a reliable tool such as these robots.
“This thing is like a time bomb.”
“Those codes don’t seem to be written by people in this era, or rather, they don’t seem to be written by humans. Xiao Ai feels very strange… Of course, Master, don’t worry, this virus is useless against Xiao Ai. Even for robots or other smart devices infected with the virus, Xiao Ai can easily erase them from the memory. (๑•̀ᄇ•́)و✧”
“I’m not worried about myself.”
As Lu Zhou looked at the folder on the screen, he frowned slightly.
It’s not written by humans…
For some reason, when he heard Xiao Ai’s words, he suddenly remembered the experiment a hundred years ago and what The Observer said to him.
“Beware…
“When you are staring at the Void, the Void is staring back at you.”
After pondering this sentence repeatedly, Lu Zhou began to break out in cold sweat.
For some reason…
He felt that he had released something significant.