Chapter 219 – Don’t Have Any Thoughts About Zero
Xiao Di, Le Qin, and the other pioneers stood outside the security cordon, eagerly peering into the inside of the Songwu Research Base.
And… the onlookers like Diao Hongzhi.
As soon as Tu Ran and the others emerged, Xiao Di, along with the previously emerged pioneers, eagerly tried to rush forward to greet them, only to be stopped by the guards.
In the end, Tu Ran and the others quickly ran across the entire square, distancing themselves from the explosion danger zone.
Xiao Di opened his arms and hugged Min Tao, his voice trembling. “Brother Tao… you all finally came out… And Sister Tu Ran, Xiao Yunhe… you are all still alive. That’s great.”
Shen Yunhe: “…”
Xiao Yunhe? What kind of peculiar address was that?
In stark contrast to the joyous excitement on Xiao Di’s side, Diao Hongzhi leaned against the patrol car, glaring in the direction of Tu Ran with his eyes wide open, full of resentment.
“Her life is really tough. She can’t even be killed!” He clenched his fists and pounded the patrol car door a couple of times in frustration.
The car door remained unaffected.
A cautious little assistant nearby tried to calm him down. “Minister Diao, she still has to stay in our Pandalin District. There will be plenty of opportunities to deal with her, so we’re not missing this one.”
Perhaps the “Minister Diao” touched Diao Hongzhi’s heart, or perhaps “our Pandalin District” inflated his vanity, but his expression softened a bit, and he patted the little assistant’s shoulder. “Xiao Li, after all these years, you’re still the one who understands me best.”
“Of course. I’ve reached this position entirely thanks to your promotion, so I naturally have to think of you wholeheartedly.”
As everyone chatted and laughed.
A dazzling golden light shone through the uniformly distributed transparent windows of the Songwu Research Base, giving the impression of an important figure making a grand entrance. Then, a muffled roar came from underground, and shockwaves rapidly spread out, causing everyone in the square to sway unsteadily.
The ground trembled for nearly five minutes. Perhaps due to the excellent soundproofing of the beetle-like building, the vibrations weren’t deafening, only a series of muffled sounds.
After five minutes, the shaking ceased, and thick black smoke began to rise from underground, accompanied by swirling dirt and dust. The beetle-like building seemed to have partially collapsed.
Tu Ran didn’t pay much more attention, as the remaining events had nothing to do with her.
She turned to the other pioneers and said, “Let’s go.”
“Alright!”
The group marched towards the patrol car parked at the east side of the square.
They had arrived at the Songwu Research Base in a patrol car from the Executive Department.
Diao Hongzhi stood at the east side of the square. As Tu Ran and her group walked towards their patrol car, an encounter with him was inevitable.
Diao Hongzhi stared at Tu Ran, grinning with a look of mockery and disdain.
As Tu Ran brushed past him, she stopped.
The other pioneers following her also stopped immediately, thinking she was about to confront Diao Hongzhi.
Min Tao, standing beside her, tugged at her sleeve, signaling that it wasn’t the right place for any overt actions due to the crowd and surveillance. He suggested waiting until dark to find a secluded spot without cameras to deal with Diao Hongzhi, which would avoid further complications.
Tu Ran gave him a reassuring look and directed her attention to Diao Hongzhi’s assistant, completely ignoring Diao Hongzhi.
“Oh, by the way, I wanted to ask, what position do you hold in the Security Department?” she asked, her tone friendly.
The little assistant instinctively looked towards Diao Hongzhi, who gave him a look that said, ‘You handle it.’ Only then did the assistant reply, “Deputy… Deputy Minister.”
“Well, congratulations in advance.”
“Congratulations for what?” The assistant was surprised.
“Congratulations on your imminent promotion.” Tu Ran’s smile was dazzling.
Promotion? A Deputy Minister being promoted? That would mean becoming the Minister!
The assistant panicked, anxiously looking at Diao Hongzhi. “M-Minister…” He hadn’t meant it that way at all.
Diao Hongzhi’s face turned a shade of green. “Tu Ran, what do you mean by that?!”
Tu Ran seemed to ignore his question entirely and walked away. Before leaving, she shot him a glance from top to bottom with the corner of her eye. In that fleeting moment, the level of contempt in her gaze was more than a hundred times greater than the disdain Diao Hongzhi had previously shown her.
Xiao Di, witnessing everything, thought: Sister Tu Ran’s got an amazing eye for insults! The contempt is off the charts!
Diao Hongzhi ground his teeth so loudly it was almost audible.
As Tu Ran and her group of pioneers left in the patrol car, Diao Hongzhi hadn’t yet calmed down from his anger.
The assistant also dared not make a sound, hands tightly clenched in front of him, head bowed deeply. Usually, when the Minister was angry, he would try to appease Diao Hongzhi with flattering words, but today, he didn’t dare utter a single word. Years of experience in ingratiating himself told him that today, he was done for.
…
The patrol car took off smoothly, and Tu Ran, sitting by the window, tilted her head slightly to glance at the scene below through the glass.
She looked at Diao Hongzhi and the deputy minister, her lips curving into a barely noticeable smile.
Her seemingly trivial remarks were not just to irritate Diao Hongzhi.
She was giving him a warning.
How could a Deputy Minister be promoted to Minister? Of course, the current Minister would have to die.
“You want to kill Diao Hongzhi?” Xie Xu’s voice suddenly came through.
Tu Ran jumped, almost forgetting that Xie Xu was still connected to her earpiece.
“Yes, is there a problem?” Tu Ran replied.
Her voice wasn’t loud, and with the helmet’s soundproofing, the other people in the patrol car couldn’t hear her at all.
Xie Xu responded, “No problem.”
After a second, he added, “If your hands are clean, that is.”
“Zero is indeed a problem,” Tu Ran murmured.
With Zero around, she would need to avoid the surveillance, which would require quite a bit of effort from her.
She needed to find a way to deal with Zero.
She half-closed her eyes, rifling through the memories of Xie Hong she had accessed in her mind.
Zero’s main server was in the Pandalin District—
“Don’t have any thoughts about Zero.”
Tu Ran’s attention was interrupted.
“Do you have mind-reading abilities? We’re so far apart, and you can still read my thoughts?”
“Your thoughts are easy to guess. The tone you used when mentioning Zero gave you away,” Xie Xu replied.
Tu Ran: …Alright, she was too hasty; she’ll need to be more careful next time.
“Why shouldn’t I try to deal with Zero? It’s quite a nuisance, isn’t it? Its eyes and ears are everywhere, recording all our actions and words. We have to waste time and effort avoiding it, which is very disadvantageous for us. I think we need to find a way to deal with it.”
“Dealing with one Zero will only lead to another. The Federal Government is keen on creating a super artificial intelligence that can monitor everyone.”
Xie Xu’s voice remained as cold and unflinching as ever, his mind always alert, colder than a machine.
“You have to understand, with the Federal Government’s capabilities, developing a new super AI doesn’t take long. Do you plan to destroy every new super AI that’s created?”
