Scholar’s Advanced Technological System

Shanghai branch of the Security Bureau.

Inside the temporary office of the task force, Captain Xing, who was sitting at his desk, had a thoughtful expression on his face as he played with the bionic memory chip in his hand, as if he was researching something.

The holographic portrait of his AI assistant suddenly appeared in front of his desk and spoke with a monotone electronic voice.

“Captain Xing, you have a call.”

After he put the memory chip in his hand into the drawer, Xing Bian looked at his AI assistant and asked casually, “Who?”

“Academician Lu.”

Academician Lu?

He raised his eyebrows. Xing Bian thought for a moment and said, “Connect me to the phone.”

“Okay.”

The three-dimensional holographic image was diffused into light particles and reconstructed into a two-dimensional holographic panel. Academician Lu, sitting in his living room, appeared in front of him.

Just when Captain Xing was about to ask what the call was about, Lu Zhou, who was sitting on the other side of the phone, spoke first.

“Has the investigation of the bombing come to fruition?”

“Not so fast.” Xing Bian said, shaking his head, “This case is very tricky. If there is new information, I will tell you… Are you calling me just for this?”

It’s not like I can tell you anything about an ongoing investigation…

Xing Bian had a blank expression on his face.

Investigating The Spirit of The Universe Foundation was a task of the Security Bureau, and unrelated ordinary people should not be involved. This was both for security reasons and to avoid the spread of panic.

Hearing his somewhat perfunctory remarks, Lu Zhou smiled and continued speaking in a relaxed tone, “Do I look like I have nothing else to do?”

After a pause, he looked at Captain Xing in the video window and continued, “It seems that the investigation on your side has reached a bottleneck. I just have some clues. I don’t know if I can help you.”

After hearing what Lu Zhou said, Captain Xing, who didn’t think anyone knew about this investigation better than him, smiled and said casually without taking it too seriously, “Oh yeah? What clue?”

“About the ALPHA virus.”

The moment he heard this word, Xing Bian suddenly sat up straight from his office chair. He stared at the video window that was suspended on the desk with a serious expression and asked eagerly, “Where did you hear this word? And, how much do you know about the ALPHA virus?”

Although the ALPHA virus was not a secret, various versions had spread on the black market six months ago. For most ordinary people, they had no idea this thing existed.

On one hand, most ordinary people could jailbreak at most their robot personalities and functional attributes. There was no need to modify the logic at the deepest level. On the other hand, the Pan-Asian Cooperation deliberately blocked the information of the ALPHA virus to prevent panic from spreading.

Therefore, most people would never know about the ALPHA virus.

Even if they encountered a robot infected by the ALPHA virus…

Lu Zhou continued with a relaxed tone, “In the database of East Asia Energy.”

“The database of East Asia Energy?” Xing Bian was puzzled by this sentence for a few seconds. He was slightly stunned and frowned as he asked, “What do you mean?”

“That’s a long story. I’ll just pick the key points.” It took Lu Zhou a few seconds to figure out how to word this story. After a while, Lu Zhou, who was leaning on the sofa, thought about it for a while said slowly, “Yesterday, when I checked the financial statements, I found an abnormal expenditure of one billion credit points.

“Out of curiosity, I used the authority of the chairman of the board to retrieve the backup files in the database and tracked the flow of the funds. As a result, I found that all the expenses were directed to a project called X-100.”

Captain Xing: “X-100?”

“Yeah, the AI self-control program of the fusion core looks nothing on the surface, but surprisingly…”

Lu Zhou looked at Captain Xing in the video window and continued, “Out of curiosity, I continued to track down the X-100 project itself along this line, and the problem was immediately found. All the procedures and documents regarding the X-100 project were well preserved. Even the evaluation opinions given by the East Asia Energy engineers could be found. However, the strange thing was that the program codenamed X-100 itself disappeared.”

This incident sounded like a case of using power to obtain corporate assets.

The amount involved was not small. If it was put on the news, it would be a headline story, but this kind of case would not be under the control of the Security Bureau at all. It would be reported to the financial investigation department through normal channels. Xing Bian was a little confused as to why Lu Zhou wanted to tell him these things.

“… Then what?”

“Then I happen to be someone who likes to ask questions.” Lu Zhou smiled faintly and continued, “After some investigation, I was fortunate to find the X-100 program in the cached data of the electromagnet research laboratory server.

“Before they had time to delete it, I found its source code and studied it. Then I unexpectedly discovered that the robots in my yard seemed to be infected by the exact same virus… At least the core part of the source code is basically the same.”

The moment he heard these words, Xing Bian’s heart was shaken. He stared at Lu Zhou in disbelief.

“You mean… East Asia Energy participated in the research and development of the ALPHA virus?”

“Not likely.” Lu Zhou said, shaking his head, “To be honest, the complexity of the code is not like it can be developed by an information technology company with less than 50 employees. The virus was mainly developed by Dawn Technology. I would rather believe that they got this stuff from somewhere ten years ago, and they analyzed or improved it.”

“How much do you know about the ALPHA virus…?” Halfway through, Captain Xing suddenly stopped talking, took a deep breath, and continued with a serious tone, “Let me ask another question, how much do you know about The Spirit of The Universe Foundation?”

The Spirit of The Universe Foundation?

After hearing this name, Lu Zhou’s face showed an unexpected expression.

Although he had a hunch before that, all these bizarre events that occurred one hundred years later might be related to the experiment one hundred years ago. He did not expect to hear this name one hundred years later.

Seeing how Lu Zhou didn’t speak for a long time, Xing Bian’s expression gradually became awkward. He asked with a light cough, “… Uh, don’t you know them?”

“I do, I do, just a bit surprised.” Lu Zhou, who snapped back to reality, cast a curious look at Captain Xing in the video window. “It’s been a hundred years, is the foundation still active? I mean, do they… still operate like they did a hundred years ago?”

“The situation may be more complicated than it was a hundred years ago.” Xing Bian seemed to be hesitant whether to tell Lu Zhou more. He was silent for a while before asking, “When are you free? Can you talk in person about The Spirit of The Universe Foundation?”

To the surprise of Captain Xing, who thought that Lu Zhou would gladly accept his invitation, Lu Zhou refused without hesitation.

“No need, I’m not here to discuss with you the terrorist organization from a hundred years ago, and I don’t have much interest in those idiots who slander under the guise of science.

“I just want to tell you that I have complete evidence here, including the signed contract and the original copy of the X-100 project, that is, the ALPHA virus.”

“It seems that you have no intention of giving us the evidence for free,” Xing Bian said simply. “OK, what do you want, just say it.”

“I don’t want anything ridiculous. The only requirement is that you keep the operation confidential. Although the X-100 project was funded by East Asia Energy, I am sure that this is not under the knowledge of the entire board of directors. It was done by the personal actions of Chairman Liu Zhengxing and former Scientific Committee member Song Yangwei.”

Xing Bian knew what Lu Zhou was saying. He said with a smile, “You can rest assured that since they used their positions to secretly fund the research and development of the ALPHA virus and concealed the essence of the project, this makes East Asia Energy a victim. Of course we will protect the privacy of the victim.”

It would be tricky to tell the public about the ALPHA virus, especially its relations to East Asia Energy.

In the 22nd century where information technology was highly developed, network cables had not only integrated into everyone’s life, but they even penetrated into the bodies of many people. It was obvious how important the role of robots in production and life was.

If the Pan-Asian people knew that East Asia Energy, which they trusted and were proud of, was developing some kind of evil virus that could even subvert society itself, how would they feel? How should the Pan-Asian Cooperation handle it?

People would be stupid to believe that this was just the doings of a dead person and a director of a scientific committee.

Although this matter was related to the safety of everyone’s life and properties, from a high-level standpoint, it was better for ordinary people not to know too much.

“Thank you for your understanding.” Lu Zhou nodded. He suddenly thought of something and continued, “Oh yes, if it is convenient, I hope you can make the arrests as soon as possible. I have a hunch that if you let Song Yangwei hear about this, he’ll disappear.”

Moreover, Lu Zhou seriously suspected that the death of Liu Zhengxing might not be because of him at all. It might be related to the ALPHA virus.

With this being said, Song Yangwei was also very likely to be targeted as another person involved in the X-100 R&D project. Perhaps those people were already considering killing him.

If he died, Lu Zhou would be in an awkward position.

On one hand, he had a conflict of interest. On the other hand, he was the last person involved in the “X-100 case”. He was a person who was afraid of trouble. Whether it was the ALPHA virus or East Asia Energy, he only wanted to create the second generation of controllable fusion.

As for the rest…

He wanted to leave it to others.

Looking at the video window, Captain Xing raised his eyebrows.

“Are you doubting our abilities?”

Lu Zhou sighed and spoke.

“If you were in my position, you would feel the same way.

“Just treat it as a friendly suggestion.”