northernbook Chapter 332 Ai-chan: I'm Very Useful
Chapter 332 Ai-chan: I'm Very Useful
"Aiyi Hyperion, right? What's this about the firewall-assisted AI you just mentioned?" Zhe asked.
"Just call me Ai-chan. Literally, it means I'm the AI program that Bronya developed to accompany the firewall. I can handle things like anti-hacking and hacking capabilities, so, Mr. Tetsuya, you see..."
The AI, who called herself Ai-chan, even added a hand-rubbing animation to her icon, which gave Tetsuya a general idea of what the firewall Bronya had helped build was all about.
"So, the firewall that Bronya built was just a shell, and you're the one actually doing the work, right?"
“That’s right!” Ai-chan puffed out her chest and said, “But to be honest, the hacker that Boss Zhe hired back then was really good. To prevent her from actually hacking into the computer, Ai-chan used one ten-thousandth of her strength.”
"...While I don't know if what you're saying is true or false, there's one thing I'd like to confirm. The sudden increase in our electricity bill during the period when the firewall was on was also related to you, right?"
"Uh... this... hehe!"
Hearing this, Tetsuya sighed, "So that's how it is."
"After all, high-performance AI consumes a lot of resources, which keeps the computer's power consumption high, but compared to me, this electricity bill is nothing!"
“I agree with that one point,” Fairy agreed, then changed her tone, “but in the end, only I will be able to stay and assist my master!”
After Fairy increased the power, even the service station behind her started beeping, which meant that the computing power inside was being used extensively, but the purpose was simply to delete a highly intelligent AI.
"Hahaha! Fairy-chan, your attack is nothing to me, just give up!"
"In that case, Master, please give the order. Since the other party is also an AI under your command, it will obey your orders. As long as you give the order, it will certainly comply."
"No, what I'm more concerned about is that since high-performance AI consumes a lot of performance resources, thus increasing power consumption, Fairy, you should do the same, right?" Ling suddenly brought up this matter.
"Oh yeah, you two almost got away with it. Is what Fairy Bell said true?"
"...Hehe!"
"Heh heh my foot!" Rin retorted. "No wonder you didn't deny what Ai-chan said later. So you're going to make us pay more for electricity every month too. I guess we should just get rid of these two AIs!"
"This is the only point I would like to ask you (Master Zhe) to reconsider."
After a moment of thought, Zhe asked, "Can you tell me the reason? A reason for us to pay more for electricity. To be honest, I still feel heartbroken when I think back to that electricity bill, let alone now that our rope-making business has to start from scratch, we really can't afford double the electricity bill."
Fairy explained, "The reason is that even with the performance I use, it won't put a significant burden on the master's H.D.D system; there's still performance to spare. Presumably, when Miss Bronya upgraded the master's performance, she provided excess performance. In conclusion, even adding that lazy AI next door won't double the electricity bill."
"So, even if you both start using it at the same time, the electricity bill will only be slightly higher than before?"
"The answer is yes."
Hey! Who are you calling a couch potato?!
"Whoever responded, that's the person I'm talking about. Do you need me to retrieve your browsing history in the system?"
"I'm sorry, I was wrong!"
Ai-chan instantly slipped off the rails, but it was precisely Ai-chan's reaction that aroused Tetsuya and Rin's curiosity.
"Fairy, could you help me retrieve Ai-chan's browsing history in the system?"
"Boss, the things I'm browsing are all trivial. Bringing them up would just be a waste of electricity! Is it really necessary to make such a fuss?"
"You're making me even more curious. Fairy, make your move."
"Understood. All browsing history of Ai Yi Hyperion during startup has been retrieved for you."
Then, various browsing records began to appear on the surrounding screens, with a large number of them concentrated on abeam. However, it seemed that these were not the siblings' abeam accounts, and the debit cards used to purchase the games did not belong to them either, which relieved the two of them.
Seeing that she couldn't hide it any longer, Ai-chan simply confessed everything she had done, including the source of the funds she used to buy the games.
In short, she used her computing power to mine cryptocurrency and then traded it to get a lot of Tennys to buy her favorite games. However, all of these Tennys have now been confiscated by the brother and sister.
Based on the amount Fairy found, they wouldn't have to worry about their electricity bills for at least the next year. After this little farce ended, Zhe also asked the question he was most concerned about, the one that had been repeatedly interrupted.
"Speaking of which, Fairy previously said she had unlimited access to 80% of the city's smart devices, and that if you cooperate with Ai-chan, you can achieve 100%. Ai-chan, does Fairy mean you have the remaining 20%?"
“No,” Ai-chan replied without hesitation. “I don’t have the remaining 20%, but I can hack into it.”
"Fairy can do that too, right?"
"First of all, I am very grateful for the trust of my master, but there is one thing I need to remind my master of."
"You said."
"Although I can also use the H.D.D system to hack into the last 20% of smart devices, I can't hack in and out without leaving a trace. In other words, I will definitely leave browsing traces."
"Could Ai-chan really do that?"
"Hmph! Of course!" Ai-chan proudly puffed out her chest. "My code is far superior to theirs, so incognito browsing is a piece of cake for me."
Ultimately, Zhe decided to keep both AIs. After all, through their back-and-forth conversations, he had learned their main roles. For example, while Fairy had unlimited access to most of the smart devices in Neo Elidu, she lacked any means of preventing hacking. After this lesson, Zhe couldn't trust H.D.D to be completely undefended.
Therefore, Ai-chan's function becomes very important. Anyway, it's inevitable that the electricity bill will increase in the future, so it doesn't matter if there's more money unexpectedly obtained from Ai-chan.
Meanwhile, inside the office of the Sixth Anti-Air Division, Yae Sakura was reporting on the mission's progress. At the same time, Hoshimi Miyabi returned with her team from outside. After a brief exchange of pleasantries, they returned to their respective seats.
"That concludes the report on the Cretan Void. The debris inside has now been cleared, and the void has been officially confirmed to be collapsing. It is believed that it will disappear completely soon."
"Thank you for your hard work, Sakura. Go back and rest now."
After listening to Yae Sakura's mission report, Kiana compiled the report into a booklet and handed it to Hoshimi Miyabi, who signed her name at the end without even glancing at it. She then handed it to Tsukishiro Ryuu, the deputy section chief, for review.
After receiving the report, Yuecheng Liu first sighed and then began to review the mission report. At this moment, Yuzhen took the opportunity to hand Yuecheng Liu her leave request, but Yuecheng Liu didn't even glance at it and stopped writing "reject".
"Sister Liu, would you like to reconsider before filling out the rejection form? I'm really not feeling well and need to take leave to see a doctor."
Hearing Yuuma's still nonchalant tone, Tsukishiro Ryu put down his pen and report and looked at Yuuma beside him.
"Asaba-kun, tell me, how many times have you taken leave this month?"
"Huh? This..."
"You should know that if you keep taking leave like this, your attendance record for this month will be unsatisfactory again."
"I have no choice but to do this. I'm frail and sickly. I don't want to take sick leave every day."
"In short, no means no!"
"Fine, Liu, just approve it."
At this moment, Mei brought Canggaku to the two of them. Canggaku, with a big smile on his face, sat back down at his workstation while carrying a lot of food.
"But Mei..."
"Since he himself said he wasn't feeling well, let him see a doctor."
"But wasn't this the reason he used when he asked for leave? Besides, if he wasn't feeling well, he could have rested in the infirmary. There was no need for him to keep going to outside hospitals to see a doctor."
"What if he has some kind of illness he's embarrassed to talk about?"
"I'm very grateful to Mei-nee for speaking up for me, but I'm even a little embarrassed by what I said." Yuuma scratched his face awkwardly.
Tsukishiro Ryu glanced silently at Mei and Yuuma, and finally sighed as he approved Yuuma's vacation.
Overjoyed at receiving approval, Yuuma thanked Mei and ran towards the door. Watching Yuuma's departing figure, Tsukishiro Ryuu looked at Mei with a reproachful gaze.
"Miss Mei always makes excuses for Asaba-kun. Honestly, has Miss Mei received some kind of benefit from Asaba-kun? Or does Miss Mei actually like Asaba-kun?"
The office fell silent immediately after these words, especially since Kiana still had water stains around her mouth. The captain, standing to the side, helplessly pulled out a tissue to wipe Kiana's lips.
"How could that be? You know that before joining the Anti-Air Section 6, I was a teacher at a military academy. I've seen plenty of kids like Asaba. He usually seems carefree and nonchalant about everything, but in reality, he's just pretending not to care so that the people around him won't worry about him."
"You mean Asaba-kun is actually in poor health?" Tsukishiro Ryu asked, frowning.
"Probably. The more nonchalant he seems, the more it means he doesn't want his partners to see the truth."
"But what kind of illness would make him choose to hide it from us?"
"That depends on when he opens up to us."
"But is this really a good idea?" Yuecheng Liu asked.
"The one who tied the knot must untie it. Since he doesn't want us to know, we shouldn't ask too many questions. It's a matter of respect for him. Of course, there's also the possibility that he's just faking illness to get leave approval."
"...Let's skip this topic for now. Now that you're back, Miss Mei, that means the investigation at Vision Industries is complete?"
“Yes.” Mei nodded. “There are indeed some civilians left in the cavern that Vision Corporation is in charge of.”
"What was the response from Vision Industry?"
"They said they are still discussing countermeasures and will give you a reply in a while."
"In a while..." Yuecheng Liu wearily took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. "Given their personalities, they probably won't give us an answer we can accept, right?"
"I'm afraid so. Based on the intelligence we have, Vision Industries will most likely reply that they have arranged for the evacuation of civilians, but in reality they will either send people to silence them or directly activate the original demolition plan."
Do you need us to send more people?
"I don't think I need to." Mei shook her head.
"why?"
"Before I left, there was already a group of cave raiders helping those civilians and people from Vision Industries to get things done."
"The Cave Thieves..." Yuecheng Liu pondered, "Can you tell me why we don't just arrest them directly?"
"To put it simply, the leader of this cave-raiding organization has some connection with our section chief."
"And me?"
Hoshimi Miyabi put down her pen and looked at Mei with a puzzled expression, hoping that Mei could give her an answer.
"The leader of that cave-raiding organization is named Nicole Demara. Ya, do you remember that name?"
"Yes, I remember. Since it's her, we can indeed leave her alone for now."
"Can the section chief tell me why?"
"Because Nicole is a good person. Although she once tricked me out of my knife a long time ago, she returned it and taught me a lot of ways to spot scams. She is a friend worth having."
After saying that, Hoshimi Miyabi nodded, and Tsukishiro Ryu, who was standing next to her, shook his head helplessly after hearing it.
"Besides this Miss Mei, there must be other purposes, right? After all, it would be difficult for a small cave raider organization to defeat a behemoth like Vision Industries head-on. And since there are cave raiders, there must be rope craftsmen who provide radishes... I see, that's how it is."
“That’s right. Although a small-time tomb raiding organization can hardly shake Yuanjing Industry, it can indeed help us stall them. This way, we not only have more time to collect evidence, but we can also follow up on them to find the rope master behind them and bring him to justice. Isn’t that wonderful?”
After considering the pros and cons, Yuecheng Liu said, "To be honest, I don't really agree with this approach, but things haven't turned out the way we expected yet, so we can only observe the situation and gather intelligence for now."
“In that case, I’ll join this operation!” Kiana said, stretching. “I’ve been sitting in the office for so many days, my body is going to rust if I don’t move.”
"Kiana is participating too? Then I..."
"No need for Section Chief Ya!"
Yukishiro Ryujin reluctantly stopped Hoshimi Miyako from making her decision, as she didn't want Hoshimi Miyako to just casually get involved and make things even more complicated.