Chapter 42 (1/2)

In the outskirts of Haizhou at midnight, cars were zipping past a desolate-looking warehouse that was built at the side of the highway that no one took much notice of. Leaves were blown up in the air as the cars zipped past, which were then captured and scanned by the high-tech cameras installed at the corners of that warehouse. The images were then sent to the central hub and were deemed that nothing was out of place.

Zhang Heng was seen working hard in front of that large computer screen before him yet again, entering strings of code that no computer science engineer would have been able to fathom into a supercomputer just to do minute adjustments to the supercomputer’s programming.

There was an unnamed complex piece of machinery found at the end of the massive 30-meter-long array of supercomputers that had its wiring exposed. Parts and components were put together here and there without any consideration for aesthetics. Anyone in the know would definitely be able to tell that it was something that was cobbled together from random, unrelated parts.

That piece of complex yet crude and ugly-looking equipment continued to hum as it ran. One end of its wiring was connected somewhere on the side of the supercomputer cabinets, with the other end being connected to something looking like a laser cannon, sending pulses of laser signals to the 20-meter-tall black sculpture.

That nameless equipment was a photon exchanger—the most crucial piece of equipment for modifying the programming of the Marker. Due to the Marker not having sockets of any kind, data transmissions could only be done using photons.

Groups of red spots flickered on that Marker at the moment, making it obvious that it was being rebooted, yet it was not emitting any kind of radiation capable of affecting the human psyche. It looked like a huge neon lighting construct that shone with a dark, crimson color with complex, mystical runes lighting up one after another, emitting an eerie blood-red color.

“Initializing Marker programming…”

The messages from the Marker were also received by the supercomputer through that photon exchanger as well, which was then converted into a voice and broadcasted through that Edifier S5000 audio equipment placed to the side.

Zhang Heng took a deep breath after being busy at work for one whole night, as he slowly rose and straightened himself. He looked at that humming Black Marker that was placed not far away excitedly, with passion clearly seen in his eyes.

“Initialization of the Marker’s program complete. Please name the Marker’s AI program.” A deadpan, mechanical voice was heard once more.

“Corona,” Zhang Heng blurted the word without giving it any thought. That was what the Black Marker was called before, and he thought that it was apt to name the AI of the Marker with that word.

“Naming complete. Please set up commander recognition access,” the mechanical voice said.

“Use gene recognition program, brainwave recognition program, and voice recognition program.” Zhang Heng had learned how the Marker operated from the Dimensional Star a long time ago, and so he continued casually, “As for access, give me the highest access and shut off meme function at the same time. No one shall have access to meme function without my orders.”

“Setup complete. Highest access for the commander initiated. Gene confirmed, brainwave confirmed, voice confirmed. Highest access initiated per the commander’s request. Meme function shut down.”

“Well done, Corona.” Zhang Heng couldn’t help but snapped his finger. “Now set up your virtual image according to what I’m picturing in my mind now.”

“Acknowledged, Commander.” The Black Marker read the information in Zhang Heng’s mind right away, which was sent to the supercomputer via the photon exchanger, before being simulated within milliseconds by the processing program in the supercomputer and shown on that huge LCD at the southern wall of the warehouse.

A figure that looked like a Japanese girl wearing sailor attire was seen being shown on that huge LCD.

It was someone who existed in real life—a member of a very popular idol group in Japan called AK47, who went by some name that Zhang Heng was unable to recall, probably Acchan or Rena or whatever. However, none of that was of any importance, as he only wanted to evaluate the extent of the Black Marker’s abilities.

The result proved very satisfying. The Japanese girl that was shown on the screen looked lifelike and he knew just how impossibly capable the Marker was. The Tianhe-2, which was currently known to be the world’s most powerful supercomputer, was laughably crude when compared to the Marker.

“Corona. What is the range of your ability to affect the human psyche and how far could you take such influence?” he asked, continuing the test.

The mouth of that girl shown on the screen moved and answered in a deadpan, emotionless manner, “My range of mental influence could mimic thought patterns of highly intelligent beings at 100-percent highest access. The realism of illusions created would be significantly boosted and I could even create virtual realities. As for range, my current lowest field of mental influence could effectively affect the human psyche within a radius of one kilometer, when converted to human measurement units. When Level Two is initiated, the field could reach a radius of 10 kilometers. When Level Three is initiated, the field could reach a radius of 100 kilometers. Level Four is the highest access, which gave access to linear scanning that would allow all targets within 1000 kilometers to fall within my influence.”