313: Chapter 312 The Strange Surveillance Video

Wang Shuo felt as if he had had a dream.

In the dream, a tall figure stood before him, its body tightly wrapped in black bone-like armor, and beneath a pitch-black mask, a pair of eyes glowing with a faint blue light gazed at him coldly.

Wang Shuo looked at The Figure before him with some curiosity and opened his mouth slightly.

"You..."

The next moment, his vision plunged into darkness, and a strong sensation of falling washed over him. When Wang Shuo opened his eyes again, he found himself lying on a simple soft bed in his office.

Before him, two beautiful figures sat facing each other.

"Awake?"

Hearing the movement, Zheng Yi, who had been locking eyes with Chen Xin, turned her head slightly and asked indifferently.

"Sister Zheng?"

Wang Shuo was slightly surprised: "Why are you here?"

As he spoke, he turned to look at Chen Xin, who was sitting nearby, his expression somewhat strange.

These two... when did they get so close?

Chen Xin didn't speak; she just silently stood up, walked to the water dispenser nearby, poured a glass of water, and placed it beside Wang Shuo.

"Thanks."

Wang Shuo said politely.

Chen Xin nodded slightly, then returned to her seat, picked up the book placed nearby, and opened it gently, looking as if she had no intention of joining their conversation.

Zheng Yi didn't mind and said indifferently: "I came for a reason, of course, but..."

Giving Wang Shuo a somewhat strange look, Zheng Yi said: "To think you could sleep so soundly after such a huge incident occurred; your mindset is quite impressive."

Wang Shuo was slightly speechless.

He could clearly hear the teasing in Zheng Yi's tone, but... this was really a misunderstanding. He had only intended to take a short nap; who knew he would end up sleeping until dawn?

"Sister Zheng."

Wang Shuo said with a hint of helplessness: "We're already so familiar with each other, please stop mocking me. Just tell me what's the matter; if I can help, I will."

"You really should help with this matter." Zheng Yi smiled slightly and casually picked up a folder from the table, tossing it to Wang Shuo.

Taking the folder, Wang Shuo opened it, and several photos immediately came into view.

This layout, this furnishing, this familiar feeling...

Isn't this his own warehouse?

But... why did it end up looking so miserable?

If not for the highly recognizable mechanical arms in the background, he almost wouldn't have recognized it.

Forcing himself to suppress the urge to ask Zero immediately, Wang Shuo asked: "Sister Zheng, what is going on here?"

"That is also a question I need to ask you."

Zheng Yi raised her eyes slightly and said indifferently: "What on earth did you do to incur such wrath that someone would openly invade your warehouse, and even go so far as to cause an explosion?"

Chen Xin, who was reading, twitched her ears and cast a glance at Wang Shuo without leaving a trace, revealing a hint of worry.

"An explosion?"

Wang Shuo frowned: "In my warehouse?"

Zheng Yi nodded slightly: "Fortunately, you weren't in the warehouse when they acted. Otherwise, given the level of professionalism shown by the intruders, you would likely have lost your life."

"Er..."

This question wasn't easy to answer. Wang Shuo touched his nose with a guilty conscience, thinking about the set of electromagnetic launchers he had installed in the hidden corners of the warehouse, and he felt even more guilty.

He had set it to security mode, so there shouldn't be any major issues, right?

Zero shouldn't have taken any extreme measures, right?

Those intruders wouldn't have been turned into piles of minced meat, would they?

"Sister Zheng..."

Wang Shuo asked with some trepidation: "At the scene of the explosion... were any bodies found?"

Zheng Yi shook her head slightly.

Wang Shuo relaxed a little, but then he thought that if the firing rate was too dense, it wasn't impossible for them to have been blasted to bits, so he hurriedly continued to ask:

"Then... were any body parts found?"

Zheng Yi looked at Wang Shuo with some curiosity: "Why do you ask?"

"Nothing."

Wang Shuo gave two dry laughs: "I'm just curious. After all, an explosion occurred; if the intruders didn't have time to run, it's not impossible that they were blown up, right?"

"That won't happen."

Zheng Yi shook her head slightly: "The opposing side used intrusive EMP attack grenades, which combine physical destruction and electromagnetic pulses, with a large energy release range. This kind of thing won't blow people to pieces. If anyone was injured, they would inevitably leave traces of blood, but after our investigation, we haven't found any for the time being."

Wang Shuo breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed that Zero had indeed followed his orders and did not cause any casualties. Although it wouldn't be a pity if these intruders died, it was better not to kill if possible.

Killing people, even if not done by his own hands, still felt somewhat unsettling.

"All surveillance equipment inside the warehouse has been destroyed by the electromagnetic pulses. We've tried, but we can't recover the data."

Zheng Yi cast her gaze toward Wang Shuo.

"Do you have a way?"

"No."

Wang Shuo shook his head very firmly.

Zheng Yi frowned slightly: "Really?"

"Really."

Wang Shuo nodded again, his gaze sincere.

Zheng Yi stared at him, and after a moment, nodded slightly.

"Since you don't, then forget it."

Zheng Yi stood up.

"Sister Zheng, are you leaving?"

Wang Shuo was somewhat surprised. Giving up so quickly? This wasn't Zheng Yi's style.

"Yeah, there are still many things at the base waiting for me to handle. For such a trivial matter, there's no need to expend too much effort; it can be closed now."

Zheng Yi said indifferently.

Wang Shuo was stunned: "Sister Zheng, I am an important partner of the military. Aren't you going to send a few people to protect me?"

Zheng Yi turned back indifferently: "Is it necessary?"

After saying that, she walked out of the office without looking back.

"Xiao He."

Just after walking out the door, Zheng Yi pressed her ear, her voice flat: "Immediately start working on recovering the hard drive. I don't care what method you use; I want to know the content of the video surveillance."

...

As the automatic door closed gently, the entire office fell into silence.

Wang Shuo stared blankly in the direction Zheng Yi had left.

She... really just left like that?

Aren't you going to insist a little more?

Maybe if you had insisted a little more, I would have had a way?

He had so many complaints he couldn't voice, it almost suffocated Wang Shuo.

"Breakfast is on the coffee table; eat it while it's hot."

Chen Xin's voice was very soft. Perhaps because they had been in contact for a long time, now when Chen Xin spoke, Wang Shuo no longer felt that cold, distant feeling in her tone.

"Thanks."

Wang Shuo got up somewhat gloomily, went to the sofa, and opened the breakfast box on the coffee table.

Without a doubt, it was his favorite steamed buns and fried dough sticks.

While eating, Wang Shuo cast his gaze toward Chen Xin.

At this moment, she was holding a copy of "The Wealth of Nations" in her hand, reading it with great interest.

Time passed quickly.

An hour later, Chen Xin looked at Wang Shuo, who had laid back down on the sofa and closed his eyes. She frowned slightly, carefully put down her book, picked up the blanket nearby, covered Wang Shuo with it, and walked out of the room quietly.

And just as the door closed again, Wang Shuo, who had previously had his eyes tightly shut, suddenly opened them.

"Zero."

Wang Shuo sat up and said indifferently: "Call up all the logs and data records from last night; I want to check them."

Zheng Yi had guessed correctly; Wang Shuo did indeed have a way to recover the warehouse surveillance video data from last night.

And there was more than one way.

Just as it was now, as soon as Wang Shuo's command was issued, the surveillance video from last night began to play on the screen in front of him.

After Wang Shuo connected the warehouse security system to Zero, all the warehouse video surveillance was stored in two copies.

The first was local, which was the hard drive of the warehouse server.

The second was synchronized and uploaded to Zero's database.

Thanks to the data transmission protocol redesigned by Wang Shuo, this part of the video could be uploaded in real-time, and Zero could simultaneously identify and process it, deleting useless parts and selectively keeping the useful parts.

This was also an important part of Zero's growth process.

Wang Shuo named it: "Neural-like Memory Database," in parentheses "Beta Version."

It aimed to simulate the human brain's memory method, compressing and packaging data into compressed files with different tags, dispersed throughout the underlying system, triggered by fixed characters or tags.

If this mode could succeed, Wang Shuo could let Zero store a large amount of data using only a few simple characters, which could greatly reduce the space occupied by data storage and make Zero more anthropomorphic.

However, the algorithm now basically had a prototype, but there was still a long way to go before it was perfected.

The reason Wang Shuo didn't want to agree to recover the data in front of Zheng Yi was very simple: he wanted to confirm the video content himself first. If there were no casualties, he would then hand the video over to Zheng Yi.

If there were casualties... then sorry, this video could only disappear from the hard drive forever.

Wang Shuo would not let Zheng Yi hold this leverage, even if he was currently getting along with her extremely well.

The video was playing slowly.

Wang Shuo watched as the two Black-robed Men appeared, stood, and talked. During this time, he showed no expression until one of the Black-robed Men took out something, operated it in a way he didn't know, and burned a large hole directly through the steel door he had replaced, at which point he showed a hint of surprise.

"This is..."

Wang Shuo frowned.

"Zero, play this segment again."

The video's progress bar moved forward two minutes, and it began to play again.

Wang Shuo watched intently. When The Black-robed Man reached his hand out of his pocket, he hurriedly reached out his hand, pressed down gently in the air, and the image paused immediately.

He brought his hands together slightly and expanded them gently to the sides. The image began to zoom in with the gesture until it became completely blurred.

It was full of noise, but one could vaguely see the general shape of the object held in The Black-robed Man's hand.

Wang Shuo pondered slightly, waved his hand, and the image returned to its original state and began to play again.

In the video, Zero began to manipulate the mechanical arms to counterattack.

The two mechanical arms took only a dozen seconds to completely knock down one of the intruders, the powerful force even causing him to lose the ability to resist directly.

The other intruder, because he was in a position further back, had already reacted when the mechanical arms approached; he nimbly rolled over and threw something out.

The next moment, a blinding white light appeared before his eyes.

The video cut off here.

Wang Shuo raised his hand and waved it gently, and the video switched to the next segment.

This time it was the perspective of the mechanical arms.

The same thing happened again. After the mechanical arms cleanly and neatly knocked down one of the intruders, the blinding white light flashed on the screen once more.

The white light lasted for more than ten seconds. Just as Wang Shuo raised his hand, preparing to watch the next segment, the image recovered.

A somewhat disheveled figure lay in the image, the black robe no longer able to cover his head.

Even in the pitch-black environment, Wang Shuo could see that this person's build was very sturdy, and his face did not look like that of a Chinese person.

A foreigner?

The next moment, a voice proved his deduction.

"You won."

The Figure in the image said in pure English, with a strained tone: "But I haven't lost either."

Wang Shuo noticed his hand movements.

A small object was taken out by him and smashed heavily onto the ground.

The sound of shattering told Wang Shuo that it was a glass bottle, and the silvery-white flash inside the glass bottle was so dazzling under the illumination of the infrared camera.

Immediately, The Figure in the video let out a painful howl, the sound was heart-wrenching, and just listening to it made his back tingle.

Wang Shuo endured the discomfort and stared at him until he turned into a pile of glowing ashes.

The video ended.

Wang Shuo's expression was heavy, his brows furrowed tightly.

After watching the video, not only was he not enlightened, but his confusion had instead deepened.

That last eerie scene made it impossible for Wang Shuo to forget, no matter what.

"Zero."

After pondering for a moment, Wang Shuo said indifferently: "Decompose and reorganize the code of this video, store it in the underlying database with new code, and do not change its status without my permission."

"Alright, sir."

Wang Shuo nodded slightly, then thought of something, and couldn't help but show a wry smile.

"Sister Zheng, I'm sorry, but I probably can't give this video to you."