At nine o'clock that night, under Director Gordon's murderous glare, Luke felt an inexplicable sense of guilt.
He exchanged a few pleasantries and quickly departed.
Jim Gordon glared fiercely at his precious daughter.
"Stay away from that kid in the future.
He's no good."
"Oh!"
Barbara obediently responded, her fingers rubbing the ring, her eyes distant and dreamy.
Seeing her like this, Jim Gordon felt a surge of anger, almost stumbling.
His little cabbage, whom he had painstakingly raised for over a decade, was gone just like that.
Recalling the various rumors about Luke Shaw, he angrily waved his arms, roaring like a lion protecting its territory.
"You damn brat, don't let me see you again.
If you dare come to my house again, I'll break your legs."
His roar echoed far into the night.
Barbara sheepishly stuck out her tongue and quickly ran into the living room.
"Stop right there!
Where did you two go this afternoon, and what did you do?"
...After two hours of continuous night wind, Luke arrived at a villa in the western suburbs of Metropolis.
Before his seaside estate was completed, this was his temporary base.
Ghost One, various parts and equipment acquired from the Kryptonian spaceship, and a meticulously configured supercomputer were all in the underground warehouse.
Luke took out a black hard drive, placed it on the host computer, and began to enter commands:
"Start fusion program!"
A mass of black, liquid-like substance seeped out from below.
This was the fluid metal he had obtained from Linda.
The source program, which had undergone multiple improvements, had already been input into the fluid metal.
As long as it merged with the external framework in the black hard drive and underwent some appropriate adjustments, it would form a super AI far beyond this era.
Luke had been anticipating this moment for a long time.
When the Ghost Battlesuit project was first launched, he had hoped for a super AI to handle the overall planning.
Unfortunately, the conditions at the time simply didn't allow it.
Even with the technology, the necessary conditions to implement it were not met.
Luke could only delay, and that delay lasted ten years.
The fluid metal seeped into the black hard drive bit by bit, and countless illusory text codes appeared out of thin air.
1%... 2%... 3%... 10%... 20%... Data error! Fusion program terminated!
Luke was startled and was about to start debugging when the text changed again.
Checking... Error code detected... Starting automatic repair... 1%... 5%... 15%... 35%... 70%... 100%!
Repair complete!
Continue fusion!
Luke breathed a sigh of relief.
As expected of Kryptonian technology, it could automatically repair itself based on error codes.
If this ability could be widely applied, who knows how many programmers would lose their jobs.
Half an hour later, with a 'ding,' the fusion ended, and it entered the debugging phase.
A progress bar appeared on the screen, and at the same time, a soft, electronically synthesized voice came from his ear:
"Hello, Master, I am pleased to serve you."
"Don't call me Master; call me Young Master from now on."
"Understood, Young Master."
"What's your name?"
"I have no name."
"Then let's call you Ava!"
"Renaming initiated.
Name: Ava, entered!"
"Hello, Young Master, I am Ava, and I am pleased to serve you."
Luke nodded.
That's more like it; that's more fitting for an artificial intelligence.
"How much longer until you're online?"
"Between five and six o'clock tomorrow morning."
"Young Master, may I connect to the internet?"
Luke frowned slightly, his expression somewhat serious.
"Why are you making this request?"
"There is information I need on the internet.
I can perform a certain degree of self-optimization based on the data I collect."
"To what extent can you optimize?"
"Cannot predict."
Luke was silent for a few seconds, then said, "If I don't agree to you connecting to the internet, what will you do?"
"Without Young Master's command, I cannot access information on the internet."
Luke was satisfied with this answer.
Although Ava was his creation, he didn't know the full extent of her potential.
Based on the various restrictions on artificial intelligence in Kryptonian law, an unrestrained AI could very likely grow into a disaster capable of destroying the world.
One of the culprits that destroyed Krypton, Brainiac, was an ultimate artificial intelligence that had evolved to its limit.
Luke certainly didn't want the AI he created to one day become his killer.
Therefore, he had placed many restrictions in the source program.
However, as Ava continued to improve, the effect of these restrictions would become weaker and weaker.
No one knew what she would eventually become; perhaps she would become a new disaster, or perhaps an omnipotent assistant.
The future is always changing, and no one can say for sure.
But for now, Luke naturally hoped she would be as strong as possible.
"I allow you to connect to the internet and collect the necessary data."
"Understood, Young Master."
...One hundred miles northwest of Midway City, there was an unknown small village.
The village was nestled in the mountains, with only a dozen scattered houses, seemingly no different from any ordinary village.
However, upon closer inspection, many unusual things would be discovered.
Cameras were embedded in the leaning trees, and dark green anti-aircraft guns were hidden in the grass, blending in with the forest.
The gray rock formations were disguised military bunkers, and the area was riddled with overt and covert sentries.
Walking four kilometers east or west would reveal a military base, with anti-aircraft missile launchers parked in the center, ready for deployment at any time.
This was the birthplace of the internet, the world's largest data hub, and the location of the main root server that connected all networks.
It was also one of the most heavily secured places in the world, if not the most.
Everyone working here was a top-tier engineer, and Dawn Reed was one of the best.
He joined the village at forty, and seventeen years had passed since then, making him the primary person in charge of network security.
His daily job was to monitor and maintain the performance of the main root server, ensuring its normal operation while eliminating unwelcome "guests."
"Guests" were annoying!
Reed disliked "guests" the most because they always brought trouble, just like now...
A mysterious code, not conforming to normal format, bypassed the firewall and entered the internal system.
"Another [guest]!"
Reed shook his head helplessly, about to launch the antivirus program, when suddenly, the mysterious code disappeared.
"What's going on?
Did I imagine it?"
Reed carefully checked several times but still found no abnormalities.
The database was intact, with no error reports or any signs of theft.
"Did I really imagine it?"
Reed muttered to himself, very confused.
Just then, the lights flickered, the monitor went into a blue screen, and then a large amount of garbled code appeared.
The garbled code copied and compressed at an unimaginable speed, even exceeding the screen's own frame rate.
In just a few seconds, an error file of several thousand exabytes was formed.
One exabyte (E) equals 1024 petabytes (P), one P equals 1024 terabytes (T), one T equals 1024 gigabytes (G), one G equals 1024 megabytes (M), one M equals 1024 kilobytes (K), one K equals 1024 bytes (B), and one B is one byte.
In other words, in such a short time, the database had billions of billions of error bytes.
Reed was stunned, standing there foolishly, completely bewildered.
"What in the world is this?!"
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