45: Chapter 45 A Sudden Enlightenment

The next day, just as the sun broke over the horizon, Wang Shuo had already begun his grand plan to make money.

Chen Zhongxuan's provocation, coupled with Chen Xin's disdain, deeply stung Wang Shuo's fragile little heart. He swore that he must make money as quickly as possible to pay back those damn three million.

Yes, three million, not 2.6 million. When the time came, he would take the money out, pile it right in Chen Xin's face, point to 400,000 of it, and tell her: "Keep the change, this is the interest from your big brother!"

Satisfying!

Of course, more importantly, he had to fulfill his promise to the Humanoid Race. Once he finished early, he could enjoy life sooner.

As for where he had placed that promise while staying at the Hospital... Wang Shuo asked, do you want to taste the flavor of Zheng Jun's iron fist?

Between a civilization and a beautiful woman, how do you choose? Does that even need asking? Of course... choose the beautiful woman!

After a long journey, Wang Shuo finally arrived at the Software Park with two dollars of loose change in his pocket.

He opened the door, walked up to the third floor, and looking at the computer with its screen lit up in the room and the messy desktop, Wang Shuo felt a long-lost sense of excitement.

"Welcome back, sir." A familiar baritone voice rang out.

"Ha, how are you doing, Zero."

"Do you need me to identify a command? Sir?"

"Uh." Getting carried away, Wang Shuo rubbed his nose: "No need to identify anything, I'm just saying hello to you."

"Command confirmed, sir. I will update this content in the database for you."

"Uh, fine, fine."

Secretly cursing "idiot" in his heart, Wang Shuo sat down with some resignation.

"Zero, pull up the source code core and display it as a distributed structural diagram."

"Already displayed, sir."

Wang Shuo observed carefully. Compared to when Zero was just born, the source code core was much richer now; many points had lit up, but the central logic module remained unchanged.

This meant that although Zero's functionality had increased, its core intelligence level had not significantly improved; it was still just a "rigid" program.

"It seems the data volume is still insufficient."

Wang Shuo frowned.

Data volume requires two things: time and bandwidth. Relying on web crawlers to collect it was just too slow.

He had to think of a way.

"Besides the data volume, the logic core needs to be perfected and upgraded, and there's still a part of the new coding language that isn't finished. Also..."

Wang Shuo looked up at the speaker on the desk that had been tormenting him for a long time; the sound quality was ridiculously bad, and if he turned the volume up even a little, it would distort and make crackling noises.

He had wanted to replace it for a long time.

"And..."

Wang Shuo saw the microphone and computer monitor on the desk, the camera in the corner of the room, and the humming server in the next room.

"Replace all of these...?"

Feeling the loose change in his pocket, Wang Shuo gritted his teeth and suppressed the urge in his heart.

Money, ah, where would he get the money? Although he still had a million in debt, distant water couldn't quench immediate thirst.

How about... getting a loan?

Wang Shuo had heard that students could get some kind of startup fund—five years interest-free, borrow and repay at any time, very convenient.

But a 100,000 loan...

Pulling an A4 sheet of paper from the side, Wang Shuo carefully listed the equipment he might need.

"A machine tool."

Many parts needed to be machined by himself, so a machine tool was indispensable. It would be best to get a five-axis Machining Center, but that price...

Even the smallest machine tool that could guarantee precision and be used normally would cost several hundred thousand.

"Four to five robotic arms."

Engineering robotic arms—he could buy some parts to assemble one now, but buying a finished product and modifying it was more convenient. A five-axis robotic arm would cost at least 100,000, and if it were imported, it would probably be even more expensive. Once he had a better Machining Center later on, he could completely design and manufacture this stuff himself.

"Next... welder, soldering iron, solder, blowtorch, and so on..."

These were all essential little gadgets during the machining process, and as for things like wrenches and pliers, there were even more.

The most important thing was... Wang Shuo discovered he also needed a smelting furnace! The grade couldn't be too low; the temperature had to reach at least 2000 degrees and be maintained for a long time.

This was very difficult; such a smelting furnace on the market would cost at least several hundred thousand to start.

Looking at the things listed on the sheet, and then looking at the budget of 2.1 million, Wang Shuo had a headache. This was already the result of his utmost effort to compress costs, yet it still exceeded the budget by quite a bit. According to this current figure, throwing in the 1 million he had just earned wouldn't be enough. Most importantly, even if he really got all these things, this place wouldn't even have room for them.

Sure enough, these days, nothing can be done without money. Startups and such... were simply impossible.

"Better to upgrade Zero's logic core first."

After what happened when he just walked in, Wang Shuo felt that Zero's logic core could still be upgraded. After all, Zero was still a semi-finished product pieced together temporarily, and many details needed to be added and perfected.

And the most important thing was... at least writing code didn't cost money, which was the only advantage he had now: zero-cost labor.

"Zero, pull up the core source code, display it in columns on the screen, and highlight the logic core algorithm section."

"Highest authority required. Verifying authority. Voiceprint recognition in progress... Image recognition in progress... How should I address you?"

"Chen Xin the Ice Pop." Wang Shuo said without batting an eye.

"Recognition successful. Pulling up the source code, sir, it will be displayed on the main screen for you."

Looking at the results displayed on the screen, Wang Shuo shook his head slightly, gaining a deeper understanding of how the hardware limited Zero.

The dialogue above seemed fine, but in Wang Shuo's design, Zero would only voluntarily report its operational steps and ask for confirmation when the reaction time exceeded three seconds.

The purpose of this was to mask Zero's reaction time and give a feeling of fluidity.

So, in reality, the best result should have been that after Wang Shuo gave the command, Zero would directly ask for confirmation of authority, while voiceprint and image recognition ran in the background by default.

An even better result would have been that Zero confirmed Wang Shuo's identity directly in the background. Of course, this required a strong hardware foundation.

However, thinking about the resources Zero occupied, and the few pathetic server resources in the server room, Wang Shuo shook his head again.

For an intelligent core, the current silicon-based computer system was just too backward. The Chip composed of complex electronic circuits, the relatively long electronic travel distances, the differences in material properties, and the losses during electronic transmission all severely affected computer performance and power consumption.

And the shortcomings of basic technology directly determined the upper limit of computer technology. Let alone Wang Shuo, even if you put The Figure here, he wouldn't be able to create a completely autonomous intelligent program within a traditional computer system composed of silicon crystals.

What Wang Shuo could do now was merely to use the new code he was still perfecting to constantly squeeze the limits of the silicon-based computer, and then use the constant stacking of hardware to increase computer performance, enabling it to support Zero to reach a level infinitely close to true Artificial Intelligence.

Actually, in Wang Shuo's view, the appearance of Zero had already reached the limit of traditional silicon-based electronic computers, and this was still just a primary intelligent core.

From the moment silicon-based electronic computers were born, their structure destined them to never produce true intelligence on this platform; they could only be pseudo-intelligent programs infinitely close to intelligence.

Although it was very close to an intelligent program, fake is ultimately fake.

Anything beyond that could not be carried by ancient silicon-based electronic computers. The technology that had developed the fastest in human history, and also the greatest contributor, would eventually usher in its most glorious curtain call.

This time might be ten years, twenty years, or even a hundred years.

"The next generation of computers, huh." Wang Shuo was suddenly filled with curiosity about the capabilities and structure of the next generation of computers. Needless to say, his "high ambition but low ability" syndrome was acting up again, but even if he couldn't make a next-generation computer yet, at least he could learn about it to satisfy his craving, right?

And if he really swapped Zero onto a new-generation computer carrier, to what extent would Zero's performance become monstrous? It seemed... very worth looking forward to.

But there was one problem here.

The theory and manufacturing methods of the next generation of computers were undoubtedly very valuable. However, if it was just for the sake of observation, was this value worth Wang Shuo risking a Knowledge Infusion to obtain the data?

According to Wang Shuo's calculations, if the data volume for designing a next-generation computer, or if Wang Shuo let his mind wander and failed to control the instantaneous transmission volume, causing it to exceed his brain's capacity and crash, he would very likely become an idiot, or not even have the chance to become an idiot.

Wang Shuo looked at the screen in front of him, gritting his teeth in hesitation.

"Do it!"

After thinking it over repeatedly, Wang Shuo decided to take a desperate gamble. If he didn't even dare to take this little risk, what else could he do in the future?

Besides, as long as he cut off the transmission in time, there shouldn't be any problem, right?

"Zero, record the current time. If I haven't woken up in twenty-four... no, thirty-six hours, call 120, inform them of my coma condition and address, and have them take me away."

"Memo updated, sir."

Having arranged his affairs, Wang Shuo poured himself a glass of water, placed it by the armrest of the sofa, found a comfortable position to lie down on the sofa, and gently closed his eyes.

Knowledge Infusion, activate!