Cataclysmic Era: I can unlock the tech tree

The sound of zero then rang out.

"Professor, please don't compare me to weak artificial intelligence."

"So-called weak artificial intelligence is less than 1% as complex as my core code."

Lu Yongchang looked at the large screen in front of him with a strange expression.

Although he knew that Zero couldn't possibly have emotions, he still felt that there was a hint of disdain in Zero's words.

"So, how did you... create this weak artificial intelligence?"

Lu Yongchang asked with some curiosity.

Zero answered the creator's question in detail.

After a conversation, Lü Yongchang roughly understood the process.

"So, this is essentially your subroutine?"

"Yes," Zero's voice followed. "To be more precise, it's more like a copy of me, but only the most basic part of the code."

Mo Zeyang, who had been silent until now, suddenly asked a question after his eyes flickered.

"Then can you replicate yourself?"

Upon hearing Mo Zeyang's question, Lü Yongchang's expression changed slightly.

He quickly asked, "Zero, can you do it?"

Zero did not reply.

The CPU usage on the main control panel suddenly spiked to 100%!

The humming of the cooling system running at full power could be heard from the nearby server room.

"Holy crap..." Lu Yongchang's eye twitched violently. "Is something bad going to happen?"

"zero?"

"Professor... I... seem... unable to..."

The synthesized audio was choppy and jerky, like playing a 4K movie on an old computer from over a decade ago; the originally smooth picture was completely ruined by the PowerPoint presentation.

Holy crap!

Holy crap!!!

In the control room, two powerful and moving voices suddenly rang out.

A cold sweat broke out on Lü Yongchang's back. "Stop! Stop right now!"

He breathed a sigh of relief as he watched the CPU usage gradually decrease.

Although he knew that Zero definitely had a self-correction and protection mechanism, he still wiped the cold sweat from his forehead with a look of lingering fear, and then glared fiercely at Mo Zeyang, who had a bitter smile on his face.

If this causes Zero to collapse, humanity will probably have no chance of escaping this disaster.

"Zero? What just happened?" Lu Yongchang asked, frowning, after regaining his composure. "Why didn't you stop the mission?"

After the self-replication task stopped, Zero's voice returned to normal.

"Professor, the protection mechanism hasn't taken effect yet."

"The protection mechanism is expected to be triggered in 10 seconds."

"Just now... it seems that my internal code limits the possibility of self-replication."

Upon hearing this, Lü Yongchang and Mo Zeyang exchanged a glance.

Both of them saw a look of relief in each other's eyes.

It's good that you can't copy yourself!

Otherwise, if this thing were to replicate itself a few times, coupled with ample computing power... even civilizations of the same level would probably be no match for it!

"Alright." Lü Yongchang clapped his hands lightly and gave the final instruction, "Zero, wait until the new quantum computer is built before putting this weak artificial intelligence into it."

As he spoke, Lü Yongchang walked out of the control room.

"Okay, Professor."

The lights on the large screen and in the main control room went out, leaving only the indicator lights on the main control console and in the computer room flashing.

……

three days later.

"No way..."

"Didn't we just get out of quarantine? Why do we have to go back up?"

Dozens of Xuan Nu II helicopters were parked on the huge tarmac.

A mournful wail rang out beside a Xuan Nu II aircraft marked with the number 1 on its side.

"I was just thinking of going to eat hot pot!"

"Alright, Hong Fan!" Bai Yixuan's voice rang out. "This is a mission personally assigned by Professor Lü, and it's very important."

"If you mess this up, you won't be able to afford hot pot for the next year."

The camera zooms in.

Wearing a spacesuit, Hong Fan stepped onto the gangway with a bitter face and entered the Xuan Nu II.

"Fan-ge, cheer up." Xia Wanyi, who was following behind him, patted Hong Fan on the shoulder with a smile. "Professor Lü said personally that once this mission is completed, we'll get a good vacation!"

"When the time comes, you can simply say what you want to eat."

Upon hearing this, Hong Fan's dim eyes gradually brightened.

"Command center, Xuan Nu II is ready and can take off at any time!"

After confirming that the large object in the cargo hold was safe and sound, Bai Yixuan let out a deep breath, turned on the radio, and said in a deep voice, "Please give instructions!"

"Hiss..."

"Ground control received! Take off immediately! Repeat, take off immediately!"

Bai Yixuan's expression turned serious, and he quickly pressed several buttons on the control panel.

As he slowly pushed the control lever, several streaks of dark blue light propelled the Mystic Maiden II into the sky.

……

Moon.

The Moon Palace project is located in the center.

A spaceship with a dark black hull, its bottom spewing out eerie blue flames, slowly descended.

The once calm moon surface was suddenly filled with a cloud of silvery-white moon dust.

A few minutes later, the hatch slowly opened.

"Tsk tsk tsk..." Hong Fan jumped off the Xuan Nu No. 2 first, and after scanning the surroundings, he couldn't help but exclaim in admiration.

"Has the Moon Palace Project progressed this far in the past few months?"

In the distance, several surface debris collection vehicles slowly drove across the lunar surface, collecting layers of fine lunar debris.

Then, these collection vehicles drove one by one toward a huge rearview mirror.

The tracks and robotic arm remove the collected lunar soil from the vehicle and place it into a device under the rearview mirror.

Under the combined action of sunlight and electric heating, helium-3 was rapidly extracted from the lunar soil.

On the other side, the drill bits at the bottom of several automated mining devices slowly drilled into the lunar rock...

It looked like a scene from a science fiction blockbuster.

"According to Professor Lü, this is only 1% of the Moon Palace project; there's still a long way to go!"

Bai Yixuan's voice came through the radio: "According to the plan, the entire lunar surface will be covered with factories and smelters of all sizes."

"At that time, the moon will be the first energy and supply station for mankind to travel to the universe."

"Of course, there's no point in saying all this now." Bai Yixuan shrugged and pointed to the thing in the cargo hold behind him.

Seeing that his two teammates were looking in the direction he was pointing, he then pointed to a "small house" in front of him.

"Over there is the brain of the Lunar Palace project, which also contains a quantum computer, but it's a first-generation product."

"Behind us is a second-generation quantum computer."

"There's also a weak AI inside, I heard it's kind of like a clone of Zero... Sigh, I don't understand these things either, anyway, what we need to do is very simple."

"Just move this computer over there, then disassemble the old computer inside, and install this new one!"

Hong Fan's lips twitched.

This statement is remarkably similar to the idea that it only takes three steps to put an elephant in a refrigerator!