"You're still listening to piano music in the Pyro Company?" Qing Zhen asked as he slowly closed the lid of the piano.
As he spoke, Xu Man stood next to Qing Zhen and stared intently at Third Brother Qing's clone.
Although the clone looked exactly like Qing Zhen, it was really difficult for Xu Man to feel any sense of familiarity with a clone. Furthermore, he was always wary of the clone.
Third Brother Qing glanced at Xu Man before saying to Qing Zhen with a smile, "See, it's been so long, but everyone's still looking at me with such wariness in their eyes. Indeed, being born into a conspiracy is a wrong start in itself, and a wrong start will only lead to a wrong outcome. "
Actually, Third Brother Qing's conclusion was very accurate. If he had not been born into the Pyro Company, perhaps everyone would be looking at him differently now.
Qing Zhen smiled and said, "You still care about that?"
"Of course I care." Third Brother Qing also smiled and said, "If I want to integrate into this group, I naturally care about how everyone looks at me. By the way, to answer your question, the training I received in the Pyro Company was comprehensive, not just military. "
"Do you know how to play the piano?" Qing Zhen asked.
"No." Third Brother Qing shook his head. "You don't know how to play the piano according to your profile, so the Pyro Company never let me learn it before. Speaking of which, when did you learn how to play the piano? Why didn't I know about it? "
Qing Zhen smiled. "There's still a lot of things you don't know. Come on, let's play Go today."
"You came to see me today just to play Go?" Third Brother Qing asked.
"That's right," Qing Zhen answered.
With that, he got Xu Man to bring over the Go board and pieces.
The Ginkgo Manor was luxurious beyond imagination. Its luxury was not only reflected in the decor, but also in its internal functions and daily necessities that humans could imagine, including Go.
In the spacious hall of the manor, Third Brother Qing and Qing Zhen sat on the floor under the phoenix chandelier. The black and gray marble on the floor was so smooth that it could even reflect the two of them.
Sitting on this marble made Qing Laosan feel like he was sitting on the surface of a lake.
Marble was more complicated to take care of than expected. Many people thought that once the marble was laid, it would be as smooth as new. In fact, to maintain the marble's appearance, manual labor and potions were needed to polish it.
Sitting on the dark gray "lake," Qing Laosan lamented, "Those old men of the Kyung Clan really know how to enjoy themselves. 181 black pieces are made of black jade, 180 white pieces are made of Hetian jade, and even the chessboard is made of mahogany with gold thread."
Qing Zhen calmly said, "They're just neglecting the essentials and focusing on the trifles. I've played chess with them, but their chess skills are as bad as a child's. If I were as skilled as them, I would be too embarrassed to use such an expensive chessboard. "
Third Brother Qing chuckled and said, "So you're saying that you're using such a good chess set because you deserve it?"
"Of course." Qing Zhen's expression did not change at all.
This time, Third Brother Qing did not refute.
In his eyes, Qing Zhen, who was sitting quietly in front of him, was probably the person in the world who was the best at planning ahead. If he were to break it down, he would be the person with the most foresight in the world.
It was not difficult to understand why such a person could be good at Go.
Xu Man watched from the side. Actually, he had not seen Third Brother Qing that many times.
During this period, Xu Man had also concluded that his commander, Qing Zhen, was more composed. In contrast, Third Brother Qing was more talkative, did more tricks, and had a livelier personality.
Third Brother Qing noticed Xu Man's gaze and smiled. "I can guess what you're thinking. Do you think I'm talking too much?"
Xu Man did not say anything. How could he interrupt in such a situation?
In the end, Third Brother Qing explained to Xu Man, "Logically speaking, the Pyro Company simulated the environment in which Qing Zhen grew up. Even if our personalities are not identical, we should at least be 60% similar. But later, I realized that my personality is very different from Qing Zhen's. I concluded that it's probably because I don't have as many burdens as you, my commander. "
Xu Man was taken aback. He subconsciously glanced at Qing Zhen but realized his commander did not refute him.
Third Brother Qing smiled and said, "Do you know, the Kyung Clan and the people of the Southwest actually have nothing to do with me? I don't care if they can eat today or tomorrow. Also, how will the Wang Clan deal with the Kyung Clan? Just how terrifying is the AI? Can the Kyung Clan win? I don't have to consider any of this. If these things become my responsibility, I won't be able to be cheerful. In order to prevent the AI from detecting his intentions, even though he was clearly a talkative and garden-loving person, he forcibly distanced himself from the crowd to prevent the outside world from clearly judging him. If this goes on for too long, he'll get sick. "
Qing Zhen looked at Third Brother Qing calmly. "Don't talk so much."
Third Brother Qing shrugged. "Why aren't you letting me talk? I should be the person who understands you the best. Based on your current behavior, it's clear that you don't even have a 30% chance of winning against the Wang Clan. I don't think you should keep hiding it from your subordinates, or else they'll be very worried. Actually, when facing an existence like that, a 30% chance of winning is already very high, although I don't know where you got that 30% chance of winning. If I were to face an enemy like that, I'm afraid I wouldn't even have a 10% chance of winning. This is probably where I'm inferior to you. "
Qing Zhen emphasized, "Trouble comes from the loose tongue."
"Fine, fine, fine. I'll stop talking. Why are you threatening me?" Third Brother Qing stopped talking.
Xu Man remained silent. He clearly realized what Third Brother Qing said was right.
He had started following Qing Zhen a long time ago. In the past, although Commander Qing Zhen had the demeanor of a famous general, he was also someone who liked to laugh and joke around in private.
But now, it was as if Qing Zhen had suddenly become a different person.
The feeling that Qing Zhen gave Xu Man was even more dignified now.
Xu Man originally thought this was probably a common trait of those in a higher position. Now that the commander had become the leader of the Kyung Clan, he would naturally have to be dignified.
But now, Xu Man understood it was because Qing Zhen was carrying too many burdens on his shoulders. And all of this seemed to be related to the 30% chance of winning that Third Brother Qing mentioned.
Xu Man could not understand why the invincible Qing Zhen only had a 30% chance of winning against the Wang Clan?
"10%," Qing Zhen said.
Third Brother Qing was taken aback. "You only have a 10% chance of winning as well?"
At this moment, Qing Zhen pulled the container containing the black and white pieces to his side. Then, he held the black piece in his left hand and the white piece in his right hand as he played against himself.
Every step he took was very slow, as if he was thinking about something. Then, he moved faster and faster.
Third Brother Qing realized something was off. "Who played this game before? Did you specifically call me over today to let me see a game someone else played before? "
"Mhm." Qing Zhen nodded. "This is a game that an artificial intelligence once played against a human."
"It looks like you don't see Wang Shengzhi as an opponent." Third Brother Qing suddenly understood a lot. "Your opponent is the Wang Clan's artificial intelligence."
"Wang Shengzhi doesn't have much time left." Qing Zhen said, "I'm guessing he won't be able to last much longer. In fact, he might not even last until the Kyung Clan and the Wang Clan officially go to war."
This sentence revealed too much information. At the very least, this was the first time Qing Zhen had admitted that he had planted a spy around Wang Shengzhi and was fully aware of his condition.
"Isn't that a good thing?" Third Brother Qing said, "As long as Wang Shengzhi dies, the Wang Clan's war chariot will immediately die out."
Xu Man also felt that this made sense. After all, the Wang Clan's war chariot was completely guided by Wang Shengzhi.
As long as Wang Shengzhi was gone, the Wang Consortium would naturally come to a halt.
But Qing Zhen shook his head. "It won't stop. There'll be an artificial intelligence that will help him complete his unfinished business. Besides, you've all underestimated this artificial intelligence. It's not just a tool. I suspect it has already become an independent will or even a civilization. "
"Why?" Third Brother Qing frowned.
"Because Wang Shengzhi doesn't seem to know that 2,000 nanosoldiers from the Kyung Clan have gone missing," Qing Zhen said.
If the artificial intelligence was just a tool in Wang Shengzhi's hands, there was no reason it would hide anything from him.
Third Brother Qing always felt that even though he was Qing Zhen's clone, they had the same IQ. In fact, his knowledge was even broader than Qing Zhen's.
But in terms of tactical thinking, he was always chasing after Qing Zhen's footsteps and had never caught up to him.
Many people were used to talking about the Wang Clan and the artificial intelligence together. But Qing Zhen had already treated "Zero" as an independent existence.
Third Brother Qing asked, "Is there a need to place so much importance on a program?"
"Of course." Qing Zhen said, "In my opinion, this is a game against time, and we've already lost the initiative in this game. If I had withdrawn from the Southwest War earlier to look at the overall situation, I wouldn't have continued to develop the nanomachines. A program might not be much of a threat, but with the nanomachines, it'll have a weapon in its hands. I've never dared to underestimate an artificial intelligence because it's beyond the scope of our thinking. "
Third Brother Qing was stunned. This was the first time he had seen Qing Zhen admit that he was inferior to someone else, and it was a program at that.
However, Third Brother Qing could understand. "No one is omniscient and omnipotent. You've already done well enough."
"You don't have to comfort me." Qing Zhen said, "All emotions are superfluous at a time like this. We just need to think about how to win."
At this moment, Qing Zhen placed another black stone on the chessboard. "The reason the Kyung Clan was able to rise so quickly during the wastelands era was because our Kyung Clan ancestors left behind a lot of our knowledge and heritage. Then, we took a step ahead in unearthing the civilization from before The Cataclysm. There's a very interesting piece of information that no one else has noticed, but I'm very interested in it. In this game, a player called Fan Hui was playing against the artificial intelligence.
"Fan Hui was not the world's top Go player at that time, so he lost five games without any suspense. At that moment, all of humanity started to take the artificial intelligence seriously."
As Qing Zhen spoke, Third Brother Qing and Xu Man suddenly felt like they were in another world. Qing Zhen was sitting in the "lake" and placing black and white stones on the chessboard. It was as if they were also experiencing the battle of the century between humanity and the artificial intelligence.
As the oldest board game in the Middle Earth civilization, Go had an extremely complicated game mechanism. Every time a stone was placed, there would be more than 200 possibilities, while Chinese Chess only had 20 possibilities.
After the artificial intelligence appeared, it defeated Fan Hui in an absolutely dominating manner. After that, it was the true battle of the pinnacle: the battle between the artificial intelligence and Li Shishi.
Qing Zhen said, "Li Shishi could completely represent the pinnacle of humanity's Go skills at that time. But even when he faced the artificial intelligence, he only won one out of five games."
At this moment, Qing Zhen had Xu Man put the black and white stones back into the Go cylinder. It looked like he was about to start a new game.
Third Brother Qing watched silently from the lake. He had the same keen intuition as Qing Zhen, so he seemed to know why Qing Zhen had called him over this time.
However, he had to finish watching the game first.
Qing Zhen placed a stone again. "In the first game between Li Shishi and the artificial intelligence, humanity still lost."
The black and white stones kept alternating on the mahogany Go board. Third Brother Qing's eyes were glued to the chessboard, but he did not feel anything at this moment.
But in the second game, the artificial intelligence placed a stone in a position that humans would definitely not place on the 37th move.
Third Brother Qing immediately broke out in a cold sweat.
This move was the foreshadowing for the rest of the game. It seemed like the root cause of all humanity's failures had been determined by this 37th move.
Qing Zhen said, "When I first saw this information, I felt exactly the same way as you. At that time, I only had one thought in my mind: 'So Go can be played this way.' Playing against it was like facing an enemy I had never seen before. You didn't know what it was thinking, nor did you know what other trump cards it had. When it placed its stone on the 37th move, it suddenly hijacked all of the Kyung Clan's nanosoldiers and nanomachines. Perhaps all of our failures were determined at this moment. "
At the end of the second game, Qing Zhen sat quietly on the dark gray marble as though he was reviewing the entire game.
Qing Shen's clone was also silent. It wasn't until half an hour later that he suddenly said, "We have to change the Kyung Clan's fighting habits. The AI learns from humans as the cornerstone of its progress, so it must have studied the Kyung Clan for a very long time. It can even guess the next 99 moves when we just made our first move. But as long as we don't play according to common sense, we'll have a chance of beating it. "
Qing Zhen shook his head and said, "It's not that simple. Let's watch the third game."
In the third game, Li Shishi changed his usual style of playing Go. He hoped to break all of his past habits and experiences and use them to defeat the artificial intelligence.
However, things turned out worse than he had imagined. Li Shishi lost even faster in this game.
Giving up on his past was actually giving up on his greatest advantage.
The combat style that the soldiers were used to and the commanding style that the officers were used to were the cornerstones of the Kyung Clan's invincibility. If he were to give up on even these, the Kyung Clan would probably only be able to exert 50% of their original strength.
Third Brother Qing sat in front of the Go board in silence. He felt like he had fallen into an abyss, and a feeling of helplessness filled his body.
"Don't worry, the humans won the fourth game," Qing Zhen said.
When they heard this, Third Brother Qing and Xu Man's eyes lit up. It was as though they were the ones who had won.
In the fourth game, not only did Li Shishi let go of his habits, he even broke all of humanity's conventions in Go and used unconventional means to defeat the AI.
To everyone's excitement, the AI had indeed lost a lot of its advantages in this game. After Li Shishi made his unconventional moves, the AI kept making low-level mistakes.
But even so, what surprised everyone was that Li Shishi was still at a disadvantage. Overall, he was at a disadvantage.
When it came to the 78th move, Li Shishi suddenly made his move and started to turn the tables. This move was later known as the "Hand of God."
And the essence of the Hand of God was to first destroy and then establish.
Qing Zhen said, "The advantage of an AI is that it has a myriad of ways to deal with your setup. But when it's in the black position, it'll be weaker than when it's in the white position. That's because when it's in the black position, it's not facing the enemy but itself. Therefore, it has to make the first move. "
Third Brother Qing murmured, "Putting yourself in a desperate situation to survive, do you want to take such a huge risk? This is your ten percent chance of victory."
Qing Zhen glanced at him. "I have no other choice."
Third Brother Qing looked at Qing Zhen in high spirits. "What about the fifth game? Did it use the same method to win the fifth game? That's not right. You said it only lost one game. "
Qing Zhen said, "There's no need to watch the fifth game. It doesn't have much value. The AI quickly adapted to the new rhythm and defeated the humans again. If the humans can play unconventionally, it can naturally do the same. The unconventional method used in the fourth game seems to have opened up a new door for the AI. From now on, humans will probably not be able to defeat it in the field of Go. "
"Therefore," Third Brother Qing said, "humans only have one chance to defeat it."
"Actually, having this chance is already the best outcome," Qing Zhen said. Xu Man felt a little suffocated.
Xu Man felt a little suffocated. Was this artificial intelligence really that terrifying? Even someone like Qing Zhen felt that it was good enough to have a "chance" to defeat it.
Moreover, humans might not be able to grasp this chance.
If they missed this chance, humans might not be able to defeat the AI again.
"No matter what, humans have defeated the AI before. If humans could do it in the past, then humans can definitely do it now," Third Brother Qing said with certainty.
Qing Zhen looked at Third Brother Qing and said seriously, "What if it deliberately lost to humans in the fourth game? What would you think?"
This sentence really stunned Third Brother Qing.
If the AI deliberately did not achieve a complete victory …
"I hope that's not the case," Qing Zhen said.
Third Brother Qing slowly calmed down. "You're not someone who surrenders before a fight. I believe you already have a plan in mind. Tell me what to do."
Qing Zhen shook his head. "We can't do it yet."
"Why?" Third Brother Qing asked.
"It's not time for us to play chess yet." Qing Zhen said, "It's time for it to make its move now."
After saying that, Qing Zhen threw the white stone he was twirling in his hand into the Go container. The smooth marble floor reflected his spotless figure.
Everyone hoped they could make the first move, but this time, Qing Zhen wanted Zero to play black first.
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