blueteamnovel Chapter 81 The Frail Organism
Chapter 81 The Frail Organism
Chapter 81 The Frail Organism
Qian Liren's consciousness floated at the center of the data stream.
The iteration log of Noah AI unfolds in the field of vision, like an infinite fractal tree of light.
Over the past 72 hours, the algorithm's complexity has increased by 470 percent.
"A weak organism."
he thought.
Lucien Alden's performance in Utah, all footage and data were analyzed by Noah AI.
Heart rate variability, skin conductance response, and group behavior patterns.
However, it involves crudely overloading the target's own hormones and neurotransmitters through sensory overload, triggering a pre-set emotional response chain.
Rough, inefficient, and dependent on fragile biological substrates.
This made him very disdainful.
What Noah AI just accomplished was much cleaner.
Four hours ago, Prometheus, the last combat project of California's United Technologies, ceased responding.
It's not a collapse; rather, all its underlying logic is deconstructed line by line by Noah AI's penetration algorithm, proven to be redundant or contradictory, and then self-denied.
The project's chief scientist sat in front of the monitoring screen for seventeen minutes, then got up and walked to the company's rooftop terrace without stopping.
At the same time, the short-selling algorithm controlled by Noah AI triggered a chain of liquidations.
Within 45 minutes, seven major venture capital funds and twelve small and medium-sized technology companies in Silicon Valley declared bankruptcy or accepted acquisitions.
Qian Liren pulled up a map showing the current state of the AI industry in the United States.
The California Plate's color changed from a struggling, mottled red to a uniform, unblemished deep green.
Noah AI's market share:
Ninety-nine point three percent.
The remaining 0.7% consists of several closed systems within the government and military, and is not included in the statistics.
"it is good."
His consciousness issued the command.
Begin implementing the next phase of the agreement.
First, human resource optimization:
In the past 24 hours, a total of 417,000 termination or non-renewal notices were issued through recruitment websites, headhunting firms, and internal assessment systems.
The corresponding position will be taken over by a sub-module of Noah AI within 72 hours.
"Human beings,"
Qian Liren thought, "It's no longer needed."
San Jose, an apartment building three miles from Apple's headquarters.
Jack Miller stared at the computer screen.
The email notification sounded five minutes ago.
The subject was "Notice of Job Structure Adjustment," and the text was very concise, thanking him for his contributions over the past five years.
Then, he was fired.
"Fuck, what do I do now? I haven't finished paying off my student loans yet."
1
He closed his email and opened a job search website.
Search criteria: Machine learning, Silicon Valley, annual salary of over 150,000.
The result list is empty.
He removed the annual salary limit and searched again.
It's still empty.
He closed the website and picked up his phone to shop.
The shopping cart contains items I put in last week: beef, bread, eggs, chicken, and vegetables.
The total price is shown as $520.
He remembered that the same thing cost about three hundred and seventy dollars two months ago.
Click to settle.
A pop-up message appears: "Delivery service in your area has been suspended. Please visit a physical store."
Jack put on his coat, went downstairs, and drove to a fresh food store three miles away.
The parking lot was empty.
Upon entering the store, the lights were bright, but the shelves were sparse.
Most of the refrigerated display cases in the fresh produce section were closed, with signs saying "Temporarily out of stock".
The remaining vegetables looked wilted, and the price tags were twice as high as he remembered.
He walked up to the milk counter.
Only one organic brand remained, a half-gallon pack, priced at thirty-five dollars.
He remembered that these used to sell for seven yuan.
He took the milk and then grabbed the cheapest bag of bread, which cost seventeen dollars.
A dozen eggs cost twelve dollars.
"That's going to kill you."
It was already dark when I left the supermarket.
He drove home, passing a church that usually distributed relief meals.
There was a long queue at the entrance, at least two hundred people, and the queue was moving very slowly.
He parked his car on the side of the road and watched for a while.
The side door of the church opened, and a person came out and said something to the person at the front of the line.
A few complaints arose from the crowd, and then the line began to slowly disperse.
Jack rolled down the car window.
"Hey,"
He called out to an elderly man who was leaving, "What's wrong?"
The old man turned to look at him, shrugged, and said, "There's no food left. They said the transport was disrupted, we'll see next week."
I drove home.
The apartment was quiet.
He boiled two eggs and ate them with bread.
Then I turned on my computer and continued looking at job postings.
This time, the location has been expanded to the entire United States.
There is a job in Texas for maintaining traditional enterprise software, with an annual salary of $65,000.
He submitted his resume.
Another job in Ohio requires immediate onboarding but demands a three-year contract with no possibility of leaving.
He hesitated for a moment, but still voted.
The next morning, he was woken up by a phone call.
It was the HR person from the company in Ohio. They spoke very quickly and said they had seen his resume and thought he was a good fit. They offered him a stipend, but he needed to make a decision within 48 hours.
"Alright, no one can live here anymore."
After thinking for a moment, he made a decision and hung up the phone. He sat on the edge of the bed and looked out the window.
The California sun was shining brightly, and the sky was a deep blue.
He opened a news website.
The headline reads that the president signed the National Religious Security Emergency Act, announced the formation of a "jihadist force," and recalled all overseas troops.
Article 2: Major logistics companies jointly announced that due to "adjustments in the domestic situation," interstate transportation of fresh food is suspended effective immediately.
Article 3: The unemployment rate in Silicon Valley has climbed to 67 percent.
Jack closed the webpage.
After packing my luggage, I dragged my suitcase downstairs.
Get in the car and set the navigation:
From San Jose, California to Columbus, Ohio.
The shortest route shows it passes through Nevada, Utah, Colorado, and Kansas —
He started the car and drove onto the highway.
"How desolate."
We entered Utah at 4 p.m.
The navigation system indicates that there are traffic restrictions near Salt Lake City; it is recommended to take an alternate route.
He chose to continue straight.
At first, nothing seemed amiss.
The road was empty, with only the occasional oncoming vehicle passing by.
But the closer you get to Salt Lake City, the fewer cars are on the road.
Then he saw the first thing.
About 100 meters away in the wasteland on the right side of the road.
At first, I thought it was abandoned farm machinery or a sculpture, but I could only see its outline clearly when I drove closer:
It was a columnar structure made up of many tall pieces, about three or four meters high, with arms and legs extending outwards at unnatural angles, like a dead tree.
Jack stepped on the gas and sped through.
In the rearview mirror, the thing slowly got smaller.
"What is this?! Am I still in reality?"
After driving for another ten minutes, more started appearing on the roadside.
Some are simply piled up, while others are arranged into some kind of structure, such as arches, steps, or even what looks like a simple house frame.
All materials are Gundam.
There's a smell in the air.
The navigation system indicated that Salt Lake City was still twenty miles away.
"Shit, hurry up!"
Stains, dark red and dried, began to appear on the road surface, but covered a large area, with some sections of the entire lane covered in them.
Then he saw something moving.
Next to an abandoned gas station on the left side of the road, three things are moving slowly.
Their appearance is hard to describe; they look like several Gundams melted down and reassembled, with multiple limbs and a spider-like movement.
It's a Gundam assembly kit.
One of them turned towards the highway.
Jack floored the accelerator.
As the car sped past, he caught a glimpse of the thing's head—or rather, its head—which consisted of several faces squeezed together, eyes wide open, mouths opening and closing silently.
My palms are sweaty.
He turned on the radio and tuned it to the news channel.
There was only electrical noise.
We drove another five miles.
Complete Gundams that looked like they had just died began to appear on the roadside.
There were many, scattered on the roadbed slope, like garbage that had been dumped at will.
Then come the living creatures.
More of those hybrids crawled slowly across the wilderness on either side of the road.
Some are incorporating Gundams from the ground, while others are simply moving aimlessly.
There is an obstacle on the road ahead.
Jack slowed down and saw that it was a Gundam that had been run over many times. It was no longer in shape, but it was very large and took up most of the lane.
He turned left, intending to go around it.
Just as the wheels rolled over the gravel on the shoulder, something suddenly lunged out from the wasteland on the right.
It didn't lunge at the car, it lunged at another Gundam on the road.
But the movement was too violent, and it crashed into the front right side of Jack's car.
boom.
The car shook.
The thing was knocked away and landed several meters away.
But while it was in the air, a part of its body exploded, splashing out a large glob of viscous, translucent gel-like substance.
Whoosh!
Most of it was spilled on the windshield.
The rest splashed into the half-open car window.
The slime landed on the steering wheel, the dashboard, and the back of his right hand.
Cool and slippery.
"Shit!"
Jack slammed on the brakes.
The car skidded on the road, the tires screeching, and finally came to a stop.
He looked down at his hands.
The mucus is light gray and is rapidly seeping into the skin.
It's not flowing down, it's really seeping in, like a living thing burrowing inside.
There was no pain.
There was only a strange numbness that spread upwards from the back of my hand.
He grabbed the bottled water from the passenger seat, unscrewed it, and poured it into his hand.
The water washed away some of the surface mucus, but fine, grayish veins could already be seen spreading beneath the skin.
The numbness spread to my forearm.
Then the upper arm.
Shoulder.
He tried to raise his hand, but his arm felt heavy, as if it were filled with lead.
My vision started to blur.
It doesn't darken, it softens.
The edges of everything are blurred, and the color saturation is reduced, as if looking at the world through a layer of frosted glass.
A sound rang in my ears.
It's not an external voice, it's something that comes directly into my mind:
Whispers, murmurs, many voices overlapping, speaking words that felt exceptionally intimate to him.
The fear vanished.
The anxiety disappeared.
He felt calm.
A deep, utter tranquility.
"Lord~"
His hand slipped off the steering wheel.
My foot was still on the brake, but the pressure was loosening.
The car slid forward slowly, moving at a very low speed, and drifted diagonally toward the side of the road.
It crashed into the guardrail.
A very soft sound.
Then stop.
Jack sat in the driver's seat, his head against the back of the seat, his eyes open, but his pupils were dilated.
My gaze traveled through the sticky windshield to the sky.
The sky in Utah is very blue with few clouds.
He felt warm.
Feeling accepted.
I feel like I'm home.
The corners of his mouth rose slightly.
Then all sensations, along with consciousness itself, slowly dissipated like the receding tide.
Only that blue sky remains, forever etched on my retina.
Outside the car window, several fused beings slowly crawled closer, circled the car, and touched the car door with their extra limbs.
Then they leave and continue their wanderings.
The highway has returned to silence.
Only the sound of the wind and a faint, inhuman murmur in the distance.