Light Speed ​​War

Chapter 5: Artificial Intelligence

"EMC team leader, Zhou Yuan, Academician Zhou, you're quite handsome. Let me touch your handsome face." He then made a gesture as if to touch it.

Everyone stifled a laugh. Zhou Yuan looked at Aya with a serious expression, "Little girl, hold on, are you still in kindergarten? Where are your parents?"

Everyone burst into laughter. Aya paused for a second, then her childish voice rang out again, "Academician Zhou, recognize me as your older sister, and I'll protect you from now on." This was followed by another round of light laughter.

"Distinguished experts, let me introduce myself again. I am Aya, the head housekeeper here, an AI. What you see now is a projection of myself. I am in charge of almost all the living arrangements, data processing, storage, and so on in this base. Everyone here, including you experts, just need to use your intelligence. My job is to assist you and serve you, 'to the best of my ability until my dying breath.' Of course, considering the tedium of your research, I will also do some side work, like adding some MSG, chili, and vinegar to your boring scientific career." Aya stuck her head out and made a face. "Distinguished experts, please line up behind me in a semi-circle, okay? I'm about to unleash my power." Everyone lined up as instructed, eager to see what this little housekeeper was up to. "Heaven above, oh, open sesame!" Aya pointed forward, striking a magical girl pose. Instantly, a giant light screen enveloped Aya and everyone else. Then, countless stars and a cosmic star map filled the entire sphere of light, all in motion. The Milky Way and the solar system rushed towards them, gradually enlarging, revealing a fiery red sun, a red Mars, and a blue Earth...

"Oops, sorry, wrong channel." The screen went dark, the star map disappeared, and then immediately lit up again, showing the three-dimensional structure of a huge building. "Experts, this is the overall three-dimensional map of our base. We are currently in the center of the building. Directly in front is your living area, to the left is the power area, to the right is the entertainment area, behind is the entrance area, the guard area, and so on. Directly above are mountains, mountains, and more mountains, and under our feet are caverns, um, a huge underground space. All the base's research is done there."

"Aya, where do you live?" an expert asked.

"Researcher Pan Hao, why don't you take a guess?"

"Experts, please stand in front of this device first. We will collect your iris, facial, voice, fingerprint, and DNA information to ensure unimpeded access and security at the base. Don't worry, it's painless." Everyone took turns providing their identity information.

Then Aya led everyone to a box filled with glittering gold rings, but they were very thin and light. "Everyone," she said, "these are your smart rings, free of charge. They can guide you home, monitor your health and sleep, and also function as a locator, navigator, caller, communicator... wow, so many functions! You'll experience them for yourselves."

"Everyone, it's getting late. I'll take you to rest first, and we can discuss this in detail tomorrow. Although I really want to continue talking with you, even until dawn, you all need to sleep. Fragile humans like us," the experts said with a wry smile, silently following Aya, thinking what a talkative and witty young girl she was.

After speaking, Aya took the lead and led everyone forward, through a corridor, and then it seemed like they had entered a cleanroom, with air showers, misting, and so on. To everyone's surprise, Aya in the mist did not have the distorted feeling they had imagined; she was still very clear.

"Hehe, I've disappointed you all, but I'm Aya, the one everyone loves."

The accommodation area is enormous, with rows of houses and real flowers and plants. Above, there's an artificial starry sky, and a half-moon emits a soft, gentle "moonlight," creating a tranquil and sweet feeling, as if you've entered a fairytale world. The whole experience feels just like the real night sky outside—truly a thoughtful and human-centered design.

"Everyone, meet at the lobby where we just met at 10 a.m. tomorrow. I'll show you around," Aya said, her tone carrying the heroic air of a female hero leading a group into battle. "Experts, you can rest now. See you tomorrow." With that, she glided across the ground in an S-shape and gradually disappeared from sight.

Mei Fan greeted Academician Wang and Zhou Yuan, and they said goodnight to each other. Then everyone dispersed.

When they reached a certain distance from the rows of houses, each person's ring emitted narrow, directional beams of yellow light, like 3D font projections. The yellow light filled each person's name, with changing numbers below the name indicating distance in meters. If you went in the wrong direction, the yellow light would automatically adjust its direction. Mei Fan followed the yellow light on her ring to her own house, and then the yellow light disappeared. On the upper right wall of the doorway was a thin, yellow display screen, but this screen was holographic and had no physical form. It displayed the room number, name, gender, age, previous employer, research field, and member status (EMC team leader, EMC deputy team leader, EMC member), etc. Below the display screen was an identification device.

After Mei Fan's identity was verified, the door opened automatically, and soft lights illuminated the entire room. A silver-white intelligent robot emerged, giving it a lifelike appearance. The robot approached Mei Fan, and a pleasant, gentle female voice said, "Master, welcome to your new home. I am your housekeeper; you can call me Nana. Master, do you need any help?"

"Oh, Nana, could you please turn up the lights? Also, could you tell me the general layout of this room?"

"Okay, as you wish." Then the brightness of the lights slowly increased.

"Master, let me introduce our home. This house is 150 square meters, with three bedrooms, two living rooms, one bathroom, and one kitchen. It has all sorts of equipment, such as a large-screen projection TV, sofa, coffee table, central smart air conditioning, cordless phone, wireless charging, wireless internet, smart computer, e-reader, etc. It basically has all the equipment you need for daily life. Nana is a combination of a walking smart terminal and a service robot. Of course, you can also control the various devices to turn on and off with your voice."

"Oh, okay, thank you. I'll familiarize myself with it later."

"Okay, master."

"By the way, Master, the computer in the study is the latest Smart III model, capable of holographic 3D display, just like the one shown to you when Butler Aya received you, only in a smaller form. You can use the computer to search for internal documents, exchange ideas on the forum, process research results, play games, and so on. Of course, you can also request to connect to Butler Aya so that she can assist you."

"Okay, I understand. I'll wash up and rest. See you tomorrow."

Good night, Master, sweet dreams. I will wake you at nine o'clock tomorrow morning. After breakfast, you will need to attend the EMC member group activity.

"Ok"

"Goodnight, Master." Then Nana went into a near-standby state.

"Good night"

Mei Fan entered the bedroom, his childlike spirit rising, and said, "Let there be light," and sure enough, there was light, and the bedroom light immediately turned on.

Before nine o'clock, Mei Fan woke up on her own and got up early to wash up.

Nana had already prepared breakfast and placed it on the table; it was dumplings, Mei Fan's favorite.

"Ah, Master, good morning. I was just about to wake you up."

"Good morning, Nana, it's alright. Is there a newspaper you can read?"

"Oh, Master, you only need to tell me about the ring."

"Really? The ring, I want to watch the news."

As soon as Mei Fan finished speaking, a small, pale purple dot of light appeared in front of him, and its figure gradually grew larger. "That little girl is really everywhere," Mei Fan thought with a wry smile.

"Oh, Director Mei, you're eating dumplings? They look so delicious! I really want a bite!"

"Head housekeeper, is there any news? I want to see the news," Mei Fan complained to Aya while eating dumplings.

"Please calm down, there is news, a major announcement, and it's related to dumplings too. Here's the official report: According to the base's wireless television station, our base's great mathematician, Calculus Group—yes, you heard right, Calculus Group—has made the most important progress in the theory of discrete and continuous group number theory in three-dimensional space and in the brute-force extraction analytical method for complex boundaries. Director Mei, you probably didn't understand, did you? To put it simply, it's like trying to find a tiny soybean tumbling around in a sizzling pot of dumplings. Director Mei, what do you think is the most economical and simplest method?" With that, Aya moved closer and magically produced a microphone, pointing it at Mei Fan's mouth.

"Pour out the dumpling soup, and then look for it again?"

"Wrong, eat all the dumplings! Hehehehehe. Director Mei, you're an adult, you can't waste dumplings."

Mei Fan was speechless. "Okay, Aya, your theory about eating dumplings is quite simple. It has broadened my horizons and whetted my appetite."

"Girl, if I may ask, which deity created you?"

"Well, let me think about it. Director Mei, it's alright, everyone will find out eventually anyway. Those academics love to talk nonsense. Let them talk first, I'd rather tell you first and shut them up. My background is like this, it's quite convoluted and tragic, you know. Would you like some tissues?"

"Really not going to do that? Okay, I'll just practice my internal energy. Here's the gist of it: Decades ago, a UFO was hit and crashed. A three-eyed alien was still alive and tried to escape through the UFO's hatch, but unfortunately, he was captured. The soldiers rushed into the UFO and seized an intelligent robot, a half-dead, vegetative-looking three-eyed man, a smart terminal, and some novel gadgets that you humans have never seen before. And that smart terminal is my past life."

Aya paused, as if recalling those distant years, and for some reason, she suddenly shuddered three times.