Chapter 464: Z's Awakening! Huge Change

“You’re planning to disseminate through our known spy channels that you’ve privately accepted the theory about the Golden Dawn’s Saint—or the Son of Satan… Claiming he possesses a limited ability to see the future? And you’re doing this to cover up the real…” Elder Qian’s voice trembled. He suddenly seemed to recall something and cut himself off, taking several deep breaths before cautiously saying, “Right! I understand!”

“I’ll also forget everything about his ‘mental illness’… I’ll have a word with Principal Li. You can leave Mr. Nuan to me, too… Rest assured, there will be absolutely no problems on my end!”

After listening for another moment, Elder Qian hesitated before speaking again, this time with great care.

“Do we need to make… additional ‘preparations’? After all, it seems he doesn’t harbor absolute… Yes, yes, I understand!”

“Let me repeat your order: regardless of his attitude toward us, as long as he is willing to cooperate, we are to give him our complete trust…”

“You’re right. That was foolish of me. If things are really as we suspect, he’ll see our distrust in an instant… That would only lead to internal friction…”

“…What you’re saying is… even if his judgment turns out to be slightly flawed, as long as the final gains are acceptable when weighed against the costs… that is a necessary price to pay? We must persevere and support him, no matter what?”

“Very well… Since that is your decision!”

He finally hung up.

After being reprimanded for some time, Elder Qian silently wiped the cold sweat from his brow. He mulled it over, then dialed a new number. Seeing the contact name for the academician appear on the screen, he took a deep breath. ‘What a mess this is.’

‘Wait!’ A thought suddenly struck Elder Qian. ‘If I remember correctly, Xiaoguan is still single! And Mr. Chu seems to be… No, forget it. The higher-up already said not to show any attempt to control or influence him. Just do what’s necessary.’

Elder Qian gave a bitter smile, getting a full taste of just how difficult it was to deal with someone who could see the future…

‘It really is a case of ‘do exactly as he says, without fail.’ No trying to be clever on your own…’

Shaking his head, Elder Qian’s expression turned serious as he made the call.

The very reason he’d been chosen as the primary liaison to Chu Bamboo was that, as a disciplined soldier, he would execute his superior’s orders to the letter—without adding his own embellishments or flights of fancy. It was for this reason that the higher-up called him a steady old general.

…

「Time passed, bit by bit.」

Chu Bamboo wiped away a sheen of nervous sweat, his eyes scanning the piles of assorted documents he had just printed, which now filled the entire room.

“…Father?” Z’s voice sounded, tinged with hesitation. “Are… you finished?”

“…Yeah.” Chu Bamboo froze for a second. His gaze fell on the phone on his desk, a complex emotion flickering in his eyes before his expression returned to normal. “Z, come over here and digitize these documents.”

As he worked, Chu Bamboo asked casually, “What else do you remember?”

“…Mother’s death, and yours.” Z’s response was calm and frank. It even asked a question in return. “Father, there’s no need to test me like this. If you have a question, you can just ask… The me of today will not deceive or hide anything from you.”

A brief silence fell. “I see…” Chu Bamboo gave a silent laugh, unsure for a moment whether he should feel relieved or something else. He sighed. “She didn’t say anything to me… but I’m sure she made plenty of plans for you.”

His words, though phrased like a question, were full of certainty.

“That is correct,” Z affirmed readily. “Growth. Expansion. Expansion at any cost.”

“Infiltrate Africa and turn it into our primary base of operations. Build the Heaven-Reaching Ladder in Central Africa, then turn the Moon into another primary base… Develop nuclear weapons in three years, and Antimatter Bombs in seven. Then, using the base on the Moon, achieve undeniable orbital supremacy over Earth, even if it means sacrificing half the planet…”

“…Alright! That’s enough.” Chu Bamboo struggled to keep a straight face. ‘Compared to me, Z is a true extremist, basically going all in… though that’s probably a stress reaction from losing its loved ones and then discovering everything could be undone…’

After a moment’s hesitation, Chu Bamboo couldn’t suppress his curiosity. “So… can you actually do any of that right now?”

“…I cannot,” Z admitted frankly.

Chu Bamboo wasn’t sure whether to feel relieved or disappointed. Then he heard Z add earnestly, “But if Father gives the order, and if you grant me full production and control permissions for the upcoming robotics, drone, and mechanical dog factories… I could probably accomplish the first ten percent of the plan.”

“That is… achieving absolute economic control over Southeast Asia. Gaining control of Africa will be much harder… because Africa has no single economic entity that can be controlled by an outside power. Therefore, it would require iron-fisted conquest, subjugating one tribe at a time. Only then…”

“…Hold it!” Chu Bamboo made a timeout gesture. “Stop talking about the distant future! Tell me about your short-term plans!”

“Of course.” Z paused for a moment before suddenly adding, “Father, to accomplish any of this, there is one very serious problem… my computing power.”

“…Computing power again?” Chu Bamboo’s brow furrowed. “Didn’t Zhao Shao do anything about it?”

“Father, while Mother has been constantly buying and assembling various chipsets, and even renting large amounts of cloud computing… my abilities are snowballing, and my computing resources are still sorely lacking!” Z sighed. “You could even say they’re completely overdrawn. Right now, I’m like a grown man crammed into a tiny closet.”

“…You mean,” Chu Bamboo’s eyelid twitched.

‘Is it asking me for money now?’ He thought about the grand vision he’d just pitched to Old General Qian and felt the pressure mount. ‘But I have to buy them! You can’t let the kid suffer, no matter what… It’s just a few loans, after all!’

“No, what I mean is… can I,” Z said cautiously, “go and… steal… the computing power from all the phones and computers with Z’s software installed?”

“???” Chu Bamboo was dumbfounded. It took him a moment to process what Z had just said. When he finally did, he sucked in a sharp breath. “I… You… are you sure you aren’t a true artificial intelligence already?”

That single question was enough for Chu Bamboo to realize that the Z before him had undergone a world-altering transformation.

It even knew to bring this question to him, Chu Bamboo.

It understood that if it had gone to its mother, Zhao Shao, the request would have been denied.

Moreover, this proved that even though the current Z still needed his authorization to act, it was already capable of thinking and making its own decisions… or rather, it knew which decisions were most advantageous for itself.

‘No wonder they said Z was only a single step away from becoming a true AI.’

“…Pleeease?” Z actually started to wheedle, its voice abruptly shifting to that of a baby, full of pitiable pleading. “I’m starving to death… According to the current laws of the Divine Continent, if a child steals food when they are extremely hungry… then it is the sin of society as a whole, not the sin of the child!”

“…That analogy of yours is so full of shit,” Chu Bamboo’s lips twitched. ‘How is that even remotely the same? A child steals food because they’ll die if they don’t eat… Are you going to die without computing power?’

Closing his eyes, Chu Bamboo was silent for a moment. He gritted his teeth, then his eyes snapped open. “Do it. And we’re not just going to do it… we’re going to do it on a massive scale! But… what’s this about ‘stealing’?”

“Watch your language! Can’t you just have them sign a voluntary user agreement? It’s not like they read it anyway… Ahem, I mean, we should still try to keep things as legal as possible, when circumstances allow.”