Any computer would crash. The users would most likely use this time to make a cup of coffee or tea, rest for a while with their legs crossed, and wait for the Chus System's indifferent welcome to ring out. No one would treat this as something that would shock the world and make the gods weep.
However, the Central Computer deep underground in the Bureau of Proclamation would not crash. It had not been rebooted for countless years. Therefore, on that day in early autumn, when the enormous 2D light screen suddenly turned black, and all the sub-processing workstations fell into a dead silence, the entire Bureau of Proclamation was dumbfounded.
The word 'dumbfounded' was not enough to describe the scene and emotions at that time. From the director to the most basic data analysts, everyone stared at the darkness and listened to the silence. They felt like the star that always shone on the capital ring had suddenly gone out, and the billions of stars in the universe had suddenly disappeared without a trace.
The Federal Central Computer had stopped working!
No one knew what this meant for the Federation and human society better than the employees of the Bureau of Proclamation. They knew that once the Central Computer was lost, the people of the Imperium could easily launch a large-scale attack. There was no need for the invaders of the Imperium to attack at all. The vast territory of the Federation would be torn apart because of the loss of its most powerful central force. The entire human society would fall apart!
What would become of human beings when they lost the glory of the Constitution? No one dared to think about this terrifying question. In the face of the sudden darkness and silence, more than a thousand employees of the Bureau of Proclamation above and below ground were silent. Some of them put their hands together, and some of the female employees even shed tears of fear and helplessness.
This kind of extremely shocking accident made everyone's heart almost unable to bear it. They did not know if the Federal Central Computer, the existence that they affectionately called "old thing", had truly reached the end of its life, or if it was just taking a nap and would wake up soon.
This was not like losing one's parents. This was more sorrowful than losing one's family. This was not the shock of spring thunder. This was more powerful than thunder and lightning.
…
…
Thankfully, the central computer deep below the ground did not pause for long. After 7.13221 seconds, a tiny bright spot appeared at the center of the wide, dark light beam.
Then, this bright spot suddenly exploded, radiating countless blazing white lines. In just an instant, it illuminated the vast underground space, as if countless nebulas were spreading, condensing, and disappearing. However, this time period was too short, and it was impossible to distinguish with the naked eye. Even the fastest video control system could not detect it.
After the light, it was quiet and normal. Countless images from every corner of the Federation appeared on the light beam again. Countless messages flashed quickly in order in a complicated and incomprehensible machine language. However, the lines seemed to be flashing faster than usual.
A mechanical voice sounded. "Upgrade complete."
Other than that, everything was normal. It was as if nothing had happened. It was as if those seven seconds had never happened.
…
…
When the Federal Central Computer fell into darkness, the people of the Bureau of Proclamation thought that the whole world had collapsed. When it returned to normal, they suddenly felt that this beautiful world had been reborn. In the ancient myths before the catastrophe, it seemed that a certain creator took seven days to create this bizarre world. However, the god in the hearts of the people of the Bureau of Proclamation only took seven seconds to rebuild the world in their hearts.
Seven seconds was too short. The shock, fear, and despair on the faces of many of the employees had just started to ripple. Many of the female employees' tears had just flowed a centimeter before the process was over. Their emotions instantly fell into an indescribable state of emptiness.
The Federal Central Computer underground of the Bureau of Proclamation, according to the rules of the Constitution, would self-upgrade. However, the people of the Federation who were still alive today had never witnessed this scene with their own eyes. Furthermore, according to the records left behind in the manual, the Federal Central Computer's upgrade required an extremely long period of time. The hardware and related supporting software would gradually self-upgrade. No one had ever thought that this old thing would suddenly take a nap and frighten countless people. Then, when it opened its eyes again, it coldly announced that the upgrade was successful.
What kind of upgrade was this? No one knew.
The unexpected crash or self-upgrade of the Federal Central Computer this time was manually listed as a second-order incident. It was strictly confidential. Other than the core employees of the Bureau of Proclamation, only President Pabre and Vice President Byron knew about it. Even those on Parliament Hill had no idea what kind of soul-stirring seven seconds the Bureau of Proclamation had experienced.
It took a long time for the Bureau of Proclamation to shake off the shock and complicated emotions. However, there was still a certain question in everyone's heart, a certain shadow of unknown color that kept floating and floating …
The old director and Cui Judong's eyes met briefly before naturally looking away. It was as if they did not want to further recall and analyze those seven seconds.
As the two senior officials who had worked the longest in the Bureau of Proclamation, had the highest authority, and understood the Central Computer the most, they had already developed a certain understanding in their life of monotonous work. The level of civilization represented by the underground Central Computer had always been higher than the average level of civilization in the Federation society. Just the fact that the Central Computer could self-upgrade was the crystallization of wisdom left behind by the great Group of Five for human society was something that the current scientific system could not achieve.
Before the catastrophe, human civilization had developed to an astonishing level. Although for tens of thousands of years, human beings had been constantly improving and catching up, and had probably even surpassed their predecessors in certain aspects, in the end, they still could not recover their past glory in certain core aspects.
Old Director Tai reached out and listed all the files on Xu Le on the light screen as top secret. He sat in the chair silently for a long time. When he thought of the Human Resource Planning Commission under the Bureau of Proclamation and those factories, he could not help but feel a certain kind of emotion. After so many years, the Bureau of Proclamation was still just that old thing's service staff. They knew what they should know, but they could never understand what they did not have the ability to understand.
Living with the crystallization of a huge mechanical civilization that was as vast as the stars and witnessing its extraordinary abilities, in a weird organization like the Constitutional Bureau, many of the staff would be imperceptibly influenced. They were not followers of the Church of Science, but somewhere in the deepest part of their hearts, they went against the scientific spirit they should have and were extremely superstitious.
They believed and worshipped the Central Computer obsessively. They saw the cold machine as the spirit of the Federation, as the last remnant of the great civilization of the previous generation. As the service staff who looked after this remnant, they also felt infinite glory and pride for it.
This kind of superstition came from the worship of the level of wisdom that humans could reach themselves, from the dazzling deeds of The Glory Of The Charter over countless years, and from the principle that machines would never make mistakes. The staff of the Bureau of Proclamation were superstitious about it, worshipped it, and believed in it as family. That was why they called it: the Old Thing.
The old director was no exception. He silently looked at the rapidly flashing mechanical words on the light screen. Suddenly, he lost all interest in investigating Xu Le's identity. Since the Old Thing was still unwilling to determine the identity of this person, there had to be its own precise and irreversible logical reasons.
There was an unwritten rule within the Bureau of Proclamation. This rule did not seem to conform to the spirit of the Charter, but it had been deeply ingrained in the hearts of every staff of this independent organization for countless years. They could not and did not want to resist.
This rule was: One, the Old Thing would never make a mistake. Two, if the Old Thing made a mistake, please refer to the first rule.
"From the first day I entered the bureau, I've been thinking about a question …" The old director gave up thinking and picked up the golf club from behind the chair again. He sighed and said, "I don't know if the Old Thing is alive or not."
When Cui Judong heard this, he felt a chill run down his back. It was so cold that it was painful. In fact, this was probably the question that every staff who had worked in the Bureau of Proclamation for a long time would have because the Central Computer deep underground was too omnipotent, even though it had never shown any human emotions.
"When I was at the Seventh Research Institute, I studied this in my doctoral thesis." After a moment of silence, Cui Judong said, "According to the core logic program of the Old Thing and the Charter designed by the five-person team, if it really produces a thought pattern similar to carbon-based life, it will directly self-destruct."
As if he felt that this was not enough to calm his wavering heart, Cui Judong quickly added, "And from a philosophical point of view, this does not make sense."
"That's true." The old director coughed twice and opened his somewhat listless eyes. He walked out of the office with the golf club and said, "And … what does this have to do with us? It will live for millions or even hundreds of millions of years, but we will all die in the end.
"I have never doubted that even if the entire Federation is destroyed, the Old Thing will still exist until the end of the universe.
"If that's the case, we don't have the right to talk about it."
…
…
Probably only the staff of the Bureau of Proclamation, who had worked for the Federal Central Computer for their entire lives, could talk about this kind of thing so casually. This was because their lives and even breathing were connected to the cold computing machine underground. They had a natural sense of intimacy. However, if this conversation in the Bureau of Proclamation was leaked, it would cause a lot of trouble.
In fact, Director Jin and Cui Judong's assistant were only talking about it in general. They didn't have the ability to investigate the seven-second problem, and they didn't know that the Federation's central computer had suddenly crashed. It was only because when it was investigating Xu Le's true identity, it encountered a logic problem that made it feel difficult. At the same time, it came into contact with a trace of something that made its mechanical program somewhat uncomfortable.
After the seven-second crash, the Federal Central Computer was rebooted. No one noticed that at the end of the last sentence … there was a symbol that represented a smiley face.
(Sorry, I overestimated myself. It's hard to bear, and writing is not going well. That's all for today. I need to rest and recover first.)
I really hope that everyone will give me a few monthly votes. This has nothing to do with the update. The monthly votes have been exceeded, but I still don't have the energy. This is related to the body, but it is also related to the mind. Writing a book requires the accumulation of murderous intent, accumulating momentum, and needing everyone's encouragement, allowing me to rest, and then rush forward. This is very much in need of everyone's mental support.
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