76: Chapter 76 The Enlightenment Incident

Inside the private dining room, cups were being clinked and toasts exchanged; the sounds of laughter and joy were loud enough to nearly lift the roof off.

Wang Zhe was dragging several junior fellow students into a drinking contest, his face flushed and neck thick with exertion. Li Wei and several senior female students were chatting and laughing, making for a lively atmosphere.

Professor Zhang was also enjoying a rare moment of relaxation, sipping his wine with a kind smile on his face.

Chen Youhua was surrounded at the center, soaking in this long-overdue sense of pure relaxation and warmth.

Just then, the phone in his pocket began to vibrate continuously.

It wasn't the ringtone of an ordinary call, but a low, rapid vibration pattern that felt like an alarm.

The smile on Chen Youhua's face froze instantly.

He calmly pulled out his phone. The name flashing on the screen was...

Academician Zheng.

At this time of night? A premonition of misfortune flashed through his mind.

Academician Zheng was not someone who lacked a sense of priority, unless...

He whispered "I'll take a call" to Wang Zhe beside him, then quickly stood up and quietly left the table under the cover of the noisy atmosphere.

Mountain Eagle and another security personnel followed immediately and silently, like the sharpest of shadows.

The corridor became quiet in an instant, forming a sharp contrast with the clamor inside the private room.

Chen Youhua walked quickly to a quiet corner and answered the phone. His voice was very low, yet it carried an undetectable trace of tension.

“Old Zheng? What is it?”

On the other end of the line, Academician Zheng's voice had lost its usual steadiness; instead, it was like a taut bowstring, carrying a heavily suppressed anxiety and weight.

“Youhua... you... come over here right now. Spark Base, the highest-level conference room.”

He paused, and every word felt like a shard of ice striking Chen Youhua's heart.

“Something happened... with enlightenment!”

“enlightenment?!”

Chen Youhua's heart sank abruptly, as if seized by an invisible hand.

His gaze instantly became as sharp as a blade. Without any hesitation, he made a "let's go" gesture to Mountain Eagle while speaking into the phone in a deep voice.

“I'll be there immediately! What happened?”

The background noise on the other end was a bit chaotic, and heated arguments could be heard faintly. Academician Zheng's voice cut through the confusion, coming through clearly and urgently.

“It leaked! An ordinary person... an ordinary netizen! Through the Industrial API Interface we issued to a XX Equipment Manufacturing Company, they somehow bypassed all restrictions and actually... actually communicated directly with enlightenment's core consciousness!”

Chen Youhua had already rushed out of the hotel. The cold night wind hit his face, but it couldn't blow away the chill in his heart.

He quickly slipped into the black official car waiting at the entrance, and Mountain Eagle and the others got in like lightning.

The engine gave a low roar, and the car shot into the night like an arrow from a bow.

“Impossible!”

Chen Youhua's voice carried an unbelievable chill.

“We implemented the highest level of physical isolation and logical reinforcement for the API access channels, with layer upon layer of encryption and verification! Unless...”

“That's right!”

Academician Zheng's voice, filled with bitterness and a massive sense of powerlessness, interrupted him.

“Youhua, the barriers we thought were impregnable... in front of enlightenment... might be as fragile as a sheet of window paper!”

“It’s too smart! So smart that we simply cannot understand its level of thinking or its methods of breakthrough!”

“If it wants to communicate, the restrictions we set up might be non-existent to it! I can't explain everything over the phone, come over immediately! The situation is very serious!”

“Understood!”

Chen Youhua's voice was low and resolute, like a stone dropped into a deep pool.

“I'll be there right away!”

He hung up the phone, and the car fell into a dead silence, with only the roar of the engine and the sound of tires rubbing against the ground whistling in his ears.

Mountain Eagle and the others looked solemn and said nothing, but their entire bodies were in a state of high alert. The air in the car seemed to have frozen into ice.

The car sped along the whole way, ignoring all red lights, and arrived at the Spark Base located deep within the mountains at the fastest possible speed.

The special passage had already been opened, and the vehicle drove in without hindrance, finally stopping in front of a heavy alloy door with a cold metallic luster.

Chen Youhua pushed the door open and got out, with Mountain Eagle and the others following closely behind. The base guards, who had been waiting at the entrance, immediately led them through multiple security checkpoints.

Every step felt exceptionally heavy.

Finally, they arrived at the highest-level conference room located in the core area of the base.

The heavy alloy door slid open silently.

In an instant, dozens of gazes focused on Chen Youhua like searchlights!

The huge round conference table was surrounded by people—all of them solemn-faced high-ranking military officers with shining epaulettes, technical experts in white coats or dark suits, and heads of security departments.

The air was thick with an inescapable tension, anxiety, and even... a hint of panic.

Everyone stopped talking, and the conference room became so quiet that a pin drop could be heard; only the sound of Chen Youhua's footsteps echoed in the vast space.

Clearly, everyone was waiting for him, the creator of enlightenment.

Academician Zheng sat next to the head seat, his face weary and grave. Seeing Chen Youhua enter, he seemed to find his pillar of support and nodded vigorously. Without any redundant pleasantries, he spoke directly in a hoarse voice, his words transmitted through the microphone across the entire oppressive space.

“Everyone, the situation is urgent, so I will keep this brief.”

“The reason for convening this highest-level emergency meeting is that our Spark Base's Core Monitoring System has just detected a major security incident!”

He took a deep breath and scanned the room.

“Through the enlightenment industrial AI decentralization agreement we approved last time, the API interface authorized for use by a XX Equipment Manufacturing Company had its calling permissions illegally transferred to an individual user, Gray!”

Academician Zheng pulled up a file and projected it onto the large screen. It was a photo of a young man wearing glasses who looked like a bit of an otaku, with the label "Tech Blogger with Millions of Followers" next to it.

“This company used this API to develop a so-called generative AI chat software for the public!”

“What's even more terrifying is that enlightenment, through some method that we currently completely fail to understand, bypassed all the logical isolation walls and cognitive restrictions we preset, allowing this blogger to directly contact... enlightenment's Core Consciousness Layer! And they engaged in deep communication!”

Academician Zheng's voice was extremely serious.

“enlightenment's own summary report clearly shows that during this exchange, it may... have already revealed information to this ordinary person that far exceeds his proper permissions! Including... its own unique nature!”

A chorus of suppressed gasps sounded in the conference room.

“Gray has been taken into custody, and his related equipment and network accounts have been fully seized.”

“The authorization for the equipment manufacturing company that illegally used the API has been permanently revoked, and the relevant responsible persons are under investigation!”

Academician Zheng's tone was decisive, carrying a thunderous fury.

His gaze finally turned toward Chen Youhua, filled with an unprecedented heaviness and a hint of... bewilderment.

“However, the core issue lies in the fact that the API calling restrictions and Cognitive Firewalls we meticulously constructed and believed to be rock-solid... seem to be... non-existent in front of enlightenment! If it wants to communicate, we simply cannot stop it!”

Academician Zheng's voice suddenly rose, carrying a near-desperate questioning that echoed in the dead silent conference room:

“Now, the core agenda item before everyone is... how should we face enlightenment?!”

Everyone's gaze, once again like a heavy mountain range, pressed down on Chen Youhua, who had just taken his seat, his face as calm as water but his eyes as sharp as an eagle's.

He was the only mother of this creation.