Shanghai Branch of the Security Bureau.
In the temporary office of the task force, Captain Xing, who was sitting at the desk, had a thoughtful expression on his face. He was fiddling with the robot memory chip in his hand, as if he was studying something.
At this moment, the holographic figure of his AI assistant suddenly appeared in front of his desk and spoke in an emotionless electronic voice.
"Captain Xing, you have a call."
Xing Bian stuffed the memory chip in his hand into the drawer. He looked at his AI assistant and asked casually.
"Who is calling?"
"Academician Lu."
Academician Lu?
Xing Bian raised his eyebrows unexpectedly. After thinking for a moment, he spoke.
"Put me through the phone."
"Okay."
The three-dimensional holographic image dispersed into light particles all over the sky, reconstructing a two-dimensional holographic panel. As the video window switched, Academician Lu, who was sitting in his living room, appeared in front of him.
Just when Captain Xing was about to ask what was calling him, Lu Zhou, who was sitting on the other end of the phone, opened the topic first.
"Is there any result on the investigation of the bombing?"
"Not so fast." Xing Bian shook his head and said, "This case is very tricky. If there is any news, I will tell you … Is that why you called me?"
If I can tell you …
After finishing the first half of the sentence, Xing Bian, who was expressionless, silently added a sentence in his heart.
The investigation of The Spirit of The Universe Foundation was a matter of the Security Bureau. It was reasonable to not involve unrelated ordinary people. Whether it was for security reasons or to avoid the spread of panic, it was reasonable to do so.
Hearing his somewhat perfunctory words, Lu Zhou smiled and continued in a relaxed tone.
"Do I look that free?"
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.
"It seems like your investigation has reached a bottleneck. I happen to have some clues, but I don't know if they can help you."
After hearing Lu Zhou's statement, Captain Xing, who didn't think that Lu Zhou's investigation could be more in-depth than his own, smiled and spoke casually.
"Oh? What clues? "
"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 floating on the desk with a serious expression and asked eagerly.
"Where did you hear this word? Also, how much do you know about ALPHA virus? "
Although the ALPHA virus was not a secret, its various versions had been spread on the black market on a small scale half a year ago, for most ordinary people, this thing was still a mysterious existence.
On the one hand, most ordinary people would at most jailbreak their robots and modify their personalities and functional attributes. There was no need to modify this kind of deep-level logic at all. On the other hand, the Pan-Asian Cooperation was deliberately deleting and blocking this information to prevent the spread of panic.
Therefore, unless they were involved, they wouldn't know about the ALPHA virus at all.
Even if he had encountered robots infected by the ALPHA virus …
Facing Captain Xing's questioning gaze, Lu Zhou continued in a relaxed tone.
"In the database of East Asia Power."
"Database of East Asia Power?" After being confused by this sentence for a few seconds, Xing Bian, who was looking at Lu Zhou, was slightly stunned. He frowned and said, "What do you mean?"
"This is a long story, I'll pick the main points." After taking a few seconds to think about how to make up this story, Lu Zhou, who was leaning on the sofa, thought for a while. He said slowly, "When I was checking the financial statements yesterday, I found an abnormal expenditure of one billion credit points.
"Out of curiosity, I used the authority of the chairman to retrieve the backup files in the database and tracked the flow of this funding. It turned out that this expenditure all pointed to a project called X-100."
Captain Xing: "X-100?"
"Yeah, the AI self-control program of the fusion core. On the surface, it doesn't look like much, but what's surprising is …"
Looking at Captain Xing in the video window, Lu Zhou continued.
"Still out of curiosity, I continued to follow this clue to trace the X-100 project itself. However, after this investigation, I immediately found a problem. All the procedures and documents related to the X-100 project are well preserved, and even the evaluation opinions given by the engineers of East Asia Power can be found. However, the strange thing is that only the program codenamed X-100 itself is missing, as if it disappeared. "
No matter how he looked at it, it sounded like a case of using his power to obtain the assets of a company.
Although the amount of one billion credit points involved was not small, this kind of case was not under the jurisdiction of the Security Bureau at all. It could be reported to the economic investigation department through normal channels. Xing Bian was a little confused as to why Lu Zhou told him these things.
"… And then?"
"And then I happen to be a person who likes to get to the bottom of things." Lu Zhou smiled faintly and continued, "After some investigation, I was lucky enough to find the X-100 program in the cached data of the server of the electromagnet research laboratory.
"Maybe I didn't have time to delete it. I pulled out its source code and studied it. Then I accidentally discovered that the viruses seem to be the same as those infected by the robots who 'lost control' in my yard … At least the core part of the source code is basically the same."
The moment he heard these words, Xing Bian's heart shook. He stared at Lu Zhou in disbelief.
"You mean … East Asia Power participated in the development of the ALPHA virus?"
"Unlikely." Lu Zhou shook his head and said, "To be honest, the complexity of that code is not something that an information technology company with less than 50 employees can develop. Compared to the virus developed by Dawn Technology, which is invested by East Asia Power, I am more willing to believe that they got this thing from somewhere ten years ago, then analyzed it, or improved it. "
"How much do you know about the ALPHA virus —" Captain Xing suddenly stopped talking halfway. He took a deep breath and continued in a serious tone, "Let me rephrase my question. How much do you know about The Spirit of The Universe Foundation?"
The Spirit of The Universe Foundation?
A surprised expression appeared on Lu Zhou's face when he heard this name.
Although he also had a hunch that all these strange events that happened a hundred years later might be related to the experiment a hundred years ago, he did not expect to hear this nostalgic name a hundred years after waking up.
Seeing that Lu Zhou did not speak for a long time, Xing Bian's expression gradually became awkward. He coughed lightly and asked.
"Uh, you don't know?"
"I know, I'm just a little surprised." Lu Zhou, who regained his senses, cast a curious look at Captain Xing in the video window. "It's been a hundred years, is that foundation still active? I mean, are they … still as active as a hundred years ago? "
"The situation may be more complicated than a hundred years ago." Xing Bian seemed to be hesitating whether to involve Lu Zhou. He was silent for a while before saying, "When are you free? Can we talk face to face? About The Spirit of The Universe Foundation. "
To Captain Xing's surprise, he thought that Lu Zhou would gladly accept his invitation, but he did not expect that after hearing his proposal, Lu Zhou refused without hesitation.
"No, I'm not here to discuss the terrorist organization from a hundred years ago. I'm not interested in those idiots who swindle under the guise of science."
"I just want to tell you that I have complete evidence here, including the signed contract, including the original of the X-100 project, which is the ALPHA virus."
"It seems that you don't intend to give us the evidence in vain," Xing Bian said simply. "Okay, what do you want?"
"I won't make any embarrassing conditions. The only requirement is that you can keep your actions confidential. Although the X-100 project is funded by East Asia Power, I can be sure that this is not the opinion of the entire board of directors, but the personal behavior of the former chairman, Liu Zhengxing, and the former science committee member, Song Yangwei. "
Xing Bian said with a smile after hearing the meaning of Lu Zhou's words.
"Don't worry about this. Since they used their positions to secretly fund the research and development of the ALPHA virus and concealed the essence of the project, East Asia Power is also a victim. Of course, we will protect the privacy of the victims."
What's more, it was not convenient for the ALPHA virus to be made public, especially not to be associated with East Asia Power.
Imagine that in the 22nd century, where information technology was highly developed, network cables were not only integrated into everyone's life, but they had even penetrated deep into the bodies of many people. How important the role of robots in production and life was was needless to say.
If the Pan-Asian people knew that East Asia Power, 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 would the Pan-Asian Cooperation be dealt with then?
Hoping that throwing such a serious problem to a dead person and a member of the Scientific Committee would convince everyone was like treating ordinary people as fools.
Although this matter was related to the safety of everyone's life and property, from the standpoint of high-level officials, 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 act quickly when you arrest him. I have a hunch that if Song Yangwei hears the news, he may be dead."
Moreover, Lu Zhou seriously suspected that Liu Zhengxing's death might not be because of him at all, but because of this ALPHA virus.
In this case, as another person related to the X-100 development project, Song Yangwei was also very likely to be targeted, and those people were already considering killing him.
If he died at this time, Lu Zhou felt that he would be more or less embarrassed.
First, he had some conflicts with him, and second, he was the last person involved in the "X-100 case". He was a person who was afraid of trouble. Whether it was the foundation or the ALPHA virus, he just wanted to create the second generation of controllable fusion.
As for the others …
The children and grandchildren have their own blessings. Just let these juniors suffer.
Looking at the video window, Captain Xing raised his eyebrows.
"Are you doubting our professionalism?"
Lu Zhou sighed and said.
"If you were in my shoes and saw so many magical things as soon as you woke up, I believe you would become the same as me."
"Whether you believe it or not, just take it as a friendly suggestion."
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