18: Black Iron Ghost! The Awakening of Artificial Intelligence "Zero"

Three hours.

For someone stuck in torrential rain and darkness, it felt as long as a century.

The black iron fortress floated quietly in the shadows of the Twin Towers' ruins.

All lights were extinguished, and even the hum of the engine had vanished, making it look like a massive piece of lifeless dead iron.

Su Qingyu sat in the co-pilot seat wrapped in a blanket, her hand tightly gripping the scalpel as she stared vigilantly out the window.

Although Jiang Ran had told her it was just a "system upgrade."

Being in a deep-water area where monsters could leap out at any moment, losing power and radar was a form of immense psychological torture for someone who had just survived a pirate attack.

"Time's up."

In the darkness, Jiang Ran suddenly opened his eyes.

Almost at the exact same moment he spoke.

Within the previously deathly silent cabin, a soft, high-tech, ghostly blue light strip suddenly lit up.

This light strip flowed rapidly along the edges of the cockpit, instantly illuminating all the instrument panels and consoles.

"Hum—"

An extremely faint yet highly penetrating startup sound effect rang out.

It was no longer the sound of rough mechanical friction, but a pleasant hum of high-frequency current passing through precision circuitry.

[System reconstruction complete.]

[Lv3 promotion successful.]

Outside, the appearance of the black iron fortress underwent a world-shaking transformation.

The original rough, heavy, industrial-rivet-style armored shell had vanished.

In its place was a streamlined shell, entirely pitch-black with an extremely fine matte texture on its surface.

That was the hull reconstructed from "Bio-active Metal."

It had no seams, looking like a single, massive sheet of black shark skin wrapping the warship.

When rain hit it, there were no splashes.

Instead, it would instantly slide off along those nearly invisible textures, reducing fluid resistance to the absolute limit.

The hull's length exploded once more, extending from 12 meters to 20 meters.

It had now moved beyond the category of a "boat" and was more like a small Stealth Special-Operations Gunboat.

But the most astonishing change occurred inside the cabin.

In the center of the console, more than half of the original complex mechanical buttons and levers had disappeared, replaced by several large holographic touchscreens.

And in the dead center of the main screen, an eyeball-shaped cursor composed of countless golden data streams slowly opened.

"Zzz..."

A clear synthetic voice, devoid of any electrical static, came through the speakers.

The voice was neutral and calm, exuding an air of absolute rationality; it was no longer the rigid system that only popped up prompt boxes.

"All module self-checks complete."

"Power system: Normal."

"Biological Armor: 100% activity."

"Computing core: 1% load."

The cursor flickered slightly, as if it were watching Jiang Ran sitting in the Commander's seat.

"Hello, Commander."

"I am your shipboard intelligent core. Please name me."

Beside him, Su Qingyu was so startled that the scalpel in her hand almost fell to the floor.

She widened her eyes, looking at the speaking screen and then at Jiang Ran:

"It... it's alive? Who is speaking?"

Jiang Ran ignored her shock, instead looking at the golden cursor as his lips curled into a satisfied arc.

Those eight tons of gold hadn't been spent in vain.

The excellent conductivity and stability of gold had constructed a nerve network for this ship comparable to a supercomputer.

"From now on, you will be called 'zero'."

Jiang Ran said indifferently, "Representing the return of everything to zero, as well as the beginning of everything."

[Command confirmed. Codename: zero.]

[Taking over hull control...]

[Takeover complete.]

As zero's voice faded, the control sticks in the cockpit automatically centered, and the throttle valves fine-tuned themselves.

"Report current status."

Jiang Ran leaned back in his chair, crossing his hands over his chest—this was the first time he had completely liberated his hands.

"Yes, Commander."

zero's voice reported steadily: "Current vehicle: Lv3 Black Iron Ghost (Stealth Assault Ship)"

"Total length: 20 meters. Displacement: 45 tons."

"Power: Hybrid heart (2nd Gen) + Bionic Silent Thrusters. Maximum speed: 60 knots."

"Special Abilities:"

"1. Optical/Radar Low Observability (Stealth): The bio-metal coating can absorb 80% of active radar waves and fine-tune its color based on ambient light."

"2. Self-repair: Non-lethal damage can heal within a few hours."

"3. Intelligent Fire Control: Can simultaneously lock onto 12 targets and automatically distribute firepower."

Listening to this string of data, Su Qingyu had become completely numb.

She had originally thought this was just a well-modified boat.

But now it seemed this was clearly a sci-fi warship from the future!

And this man was the dictator of this warship.

"Commander, I detect that your heart rate is steady, but you are slightly mentally fatigued."

zero considerately dimmed the cabin lights and automatically started the coffee machine in the rear rest area.

"I suggest you take a short rest. Navigation and security tasks have been fully taken over by zero.

Any threat within a 3-kilometer radius, I will wake you 30 seconds in advance."

Jiang Ran looked at the automatically served hot coffee, picked up the cup, and took a sip. Bitterness and a toasted aroma spread across his tongue.

"Now this is living."

He glanced at the still-dazed Su Qingyu and smiled: "Don't just stand there, Dr. Su.

Go to the bottom deck and take a look; our 'factory' has been upgraded too."

"Next, we're going to build some real big toys."

...The sealed door of the bottom deck slid open with a faint "hiss."

When Su Qingyu followed Jiang Ran inside, she felt as if she had traveled to some top-tier national laboratory.

The original "Junior Manufacturing Room," which only had simple machine tools, had completely changed its appearance.

The space had tripled. The originally white walls had become deep gray sound-absorbing material.

The air was filled with the smell of ozone and the specific scent of cooled metal.

In the center of the room, three large transparent processing chambers floated.

And in the corner of the room.

The pile of glittering gold bricks moved from the vault was casually piled next to the feed inlet, like a heap of worthless bricks.

"You... you really emptied the bank?"

Su Qingyu looked at the pile of gold.

Although she had seen the world on a tycoon's ship, this was the first time she had seen several tons of gold used as raw material:

"What are you going to do with this gold? Make jewelry?"

"Jewelry?"

Jiang Ran casually picked up a heavy gold brick.

He weighed it in his hand and then, like throwing away trash, tossed it into the processing chamber's inlet.

"In the old world, this was a symbol of wealth.

But on my ship, they have only one use—conductors."

Jiang Ran brushed the gold dust off his hands: "Gold has excellent ductility and corrosion resistance; it's the best material for manufacturing high-precision circuit boards and micro-conductive nerves.

If you want machines to have intelligence and want to build those little flying things, you can't do without it."

Jiang Ran walked to the console.

At this time, AI zero's voice sounded opportunely: "Commander, the [Precision Electronic Workshop] is ready."

"Raw material reserves are sufficient: Gold (8 tons), High-Energy Polymers (sufficient), High-Energy Battery Packs (sufficient)."

"Please issue manufacturing instructions."