Chapter 259
Chapter 259
“Boss Zhang, do you have any idea how rare a doctor capable of becoming a department head is?”
“Nonsense. She’s coming of her own free will. When have I ever forced anyone?”
Xu Kuan: ???
“Could you consult your conscience before saying that?”
Zhang Bei’s expression immediately grew solemn.
“Young man, there’s a flaw in what you just said!”
“Huh?”
“If I had something like a conscience, could I have made this much money?”
Xu Kuan was silent for a long time. “Classic you.”
“Is that all you came for?”
“Of course not. I’m here to bring you some good news.”
“Finally realized overpopulation is a burden and agreed to let me help thin the numbers?”
Xu Kuan stared for several full seconds.
“So you just can’t feel comfortable unless you’re killing visitors, is that it?”
“How can you think that of me? Everything I do is to create better facilities for our visitors!”
“Don’t worry. Even if the day comes when we need to reduce the population, it won’t be your job.”
Xu Kuan paused.
“Besides, if that day really comes, I suspect you’ll be the first to go.”
Zhang Bei’s expression did not change. He looked straight ahead.
“What’s the good news?”
Xu Kuan, who had been ready with another complaint, was abruptly cut short.
He almost failed to keep up with Zhang Bei’s sudden change of mental direction.
“The school sent me to discuss having medical students with fuck-all to do come here for internships.”
“Why come here for an internship instead of going to a hospital?”
“Partly because the two professors are here. Partly to get some physical exercise.”
With absolutely no self-awareness, Boss Zhang could understand only half of that.
The two old professors were at the Amusement Park. Students certainly could learn quite a lot here.
That was easy to understand. But physical exercise?
Try as he might, Zhang Bei couldn’t see how his Amusement Park could provide physical exercise.
But that didn’t matter. Boss Zhang wasn’t going to worry about it.
“How long would the internships last?”
“Three students at a time, rotating weekly.”
“So I don’t have to pay them?”
Xu Kuan’s expression stiffened for a moment before he nodded.
He couldn’t shake the feeling that, for all Zhang Bei’s rambling, this sentence was the real point.
Xu Kuan didn’t linger in the Amusement Park. He said goodbye to Zhang Bei and left.
He was afraid of this place too. Stay any longer, and who knew what that beast might do?
It wasn’t as though he were incapable of forcing someone onto the Roller Coaster.
Zhang Bei arranged his four-piece setup, leaned back in his reclining chair, and enjoyed the Amusement Park’s screams.
The news Xu Kuan had brought really did count as good news.
They might be only university interns, but at least helping carry a few “corpses” wouldn’t be a problem.
Good fortune lifted the spirits, and today’s good news kept coming.
First came a call from the Laboratory. Development of the plane had succeeded, and test flights had begun.
Then Guan Guo on the Island reported that Biological Gene Tracing Technology was now largely mature.
It could revive most of the animals that had existed throughout history.
The last piece of good news was good specifically from Zhang Bei’s perspective: the plan to send visitors to the Moon was already well on its way to success.
The spacecraft’s energy supply and alloys were now essentially ready. Only one final piece of the puzzle remained: intelligence.
The spacecraft needed an intelligent system to operate its central controls.
Once that final piece was in place, visitors would be able to experience the joy of being dumped on the Moon.
And the good news for Zhang Bei was that he had saved up enough Emotional Value to buy a low-level artificial intelligence!
But artificial intelligence was sold a little differently in the System Mall.
Previous technologies had been sold as knowledge. Artificial intelligence, however, came as a finished product.
[Weak Artificial Intelligence: Arthur.]
[Strong Artificial Intelligence: Guli.]
[Intelligent Life-Form: Unnamed.]
Zhang Bei didn’t know much about the field of artificial intelligence.
He did understand the classifications very clearly, though.
Every existing intelligence on Earth could only be called an intelligent program. None came remotely close to true artificial intelligence.
Even the one that played Go had only touched the fringes of Weak Artificial Intelligence.
After a moment’s thought, Zhang Bei purchased Arthur.
With his current Emotional Value, he could only afford this one, but it would be enough for the spacecraft’s operating system.
[Host, please select a vessel for Arthur!]
Zhang Bei glanced around before settling his gaze on the tablet in his hand.
“Right here!”
[Vessel confirmed. Generating Arthur!]
Before his eyes, the tablet’s full terabyte of storage rapidly filled up.
A few minutes later, a voice came from the tablet.
“Hello, Boss Zhang. I am Arthur!”
“You know who I am?”
Zhang Bei’s eyes lit up. Arthur might be even more intelligent than he had imagined.
“Yes. An Intelligent Life-Form once created me. He habitually referred to you as his host.”
Zhang Bei’s pupils contracted.
Unless he was mistaken, Arthur was very likely talking about the System.
“Where did that Intelligent Life-Form go?”
“I’m sorry. He has returned to his essence to await rebirth.”
“Huh?”
Arthur had no choice but to explain.
“That Intelligent Life-Form once told me his race was immensely powerful, among the strongest races in the universe.”
Arthur paused, seemingly recalling the past.
“He said his race had suffered a calamity. Their entire civilization was destroyed overnight, leaving him no choice but to come to this barren region and eke out an existence.”
Zhang Bei narrowed his eyes. “So he’s still alive?”
“Alive, yes. But you may never see him.”
“Why?”
“They call themselves the System Race. The one who came to this barren region fed on the emotion of happiness. He was already at death’s door when he arrived.”
At that, Zhang Bei fell silent.
Was there… any possibility that his System had… starved to death?
Ignoring Zhang Bei’s silence, Arthur continued explaining the System’s survival.
“But he hasn’t died. He cast his essence into the universe, where it absorbs free-floating energy. In a few hundred million years, he’ll be able to revive successfully!”
Zhang Bei let out a long sigh. At last, he understood why the System had completely broken down after issuing only a few missions.
This was the first time he had seen a System capable of starving itself to death.
Utterly useless!
What a shame, though. He had wanted to see whether he could put the System on the Roller Coaster for a little experience!
For more than an hour afterward, Zhang Bei worked to understand Arthur’s functions.
There was no denying that he was extraordinarily capable as an artificial intelligence.
He could go anywhere with a network connection. In fact, as long as he made proper backups, he was virtually indestructible and immortal.
That alone made him far better than Zhang Bei’s own System!
After thinking for a moment, Zhang Bei called Guan Guo directly.
“Are you in the Laboratory?”
“Boss, stop rushing me. We’re already running experiments to miniaturize Nuclear Fusion.”
“That’s not why I’m calling.”
“Huh?”
“Connect the Laboratory to the network. I’ve got something amazing to show you.”