21: Chapter 21 The Encyclopedia of Humanoids

Cao Xiao glanced at the menu. Good grief, it truly lived up to its status as a five-star international hotel; the prices of these dishes were incredibly high. A single dish cost as much as Cao Xiao's previous half-month salary. Looking at the price of the red wine Mother He ordered, Cao Xiao's face twitched slightly. A 2008 Château Lafite Rothschild, a Premier Cru from France, imported in its original bottle, was priced at 588,888 yuan. Although hotel drink prices are higher than the market rate, this was nearly six hundred thousand yuan. Was this even wine anymore? It was practically liquid gold. Recalling what Huang Tianyi had said back at Xiangya Ju about paying the bill, he realized that even though these two were Mother He's relatives from her side of the family, she wasn't fond of them—in fact, she was somewhat repulsed by them. He Yueyou felt the same way. Could Mother He's reason for ordering such expensive wine be driven by this intent?

Huang Tianyi and his mother were currently whispering to each other. The woman had likely touched up her makeup in the car, but anyone who had seen her true face would find her current appearance unsettling. At this moment, they hadn't realized anything yet. The price of imported red wine in the country had always been opaque, and without having the Lafite packaging right in front of one's eyes, it was impossible to distinguish clearly. Coupled with these twenty-odd expensive dishes, the moment the bill arrived was bound to be quite a spectacle.

Before the meal, Cao Xiao introduced He Yueyou and her mother to Liu Chang. Hearing Cao Xiao say He Yueyou was his friend, Liu Chang understood the situation and took the initiative to sit next to her and chat. He Yueyou didn't talk much, but Mother He and Liu Chang, both being foodies, chatted very happily. Since there were others present today, there was very little communication during the meal. Mother He also spoke very little and largely ignored Huang Tianyi and his mother. They finished the meal in less than half an hour. That bottle of Lafite was shared among them and finished unknowingly; no one realized the bottle was worth nearly six hundred thousand yuan. Huang Tianyi's mother even kept saying how delicious it was. Sure enough, after finishing the meal, Huang Tianyi rushed to pay the bill, and no one stood on ceremony with him. However, when the waiter informed him that he needed to pay over seven hundred thousand yuan, Huang Tianyi was dumbstruck. He argued with the waiter for a while to no avail, then called his mother over to whisper and discuss it. Their expressions grew increasingly ugly. But when they wanted to find Mother He to discuss it, they realized everyone was gone. Huang Tianyi's mother could only heart-wrenchingly take out her bank card to settle the bill.

After saying goodbye to He Yueyou and her mother, Cao Xiao sent Liu Chang back to school and returned to the hotel to rest.

The next day, Cao Xiao drove to the Provincial Library. After obtaining the Intelligent Industrial Mother Machine, Cao Xiao could only use its most basic functions for simple mineral processing. Although this was already very powerful, Cao Xiao felt that as the crystallization of technology from an interstellar civilization, the Intelligent Industrial Mother Machine wouldn't be so simple. Moreover, his current authority was only Level 1, and he couldn't even use some of the Level 1 functions; the conditions for an upgrade hadn't even been triggered. So, he hadn't come to the library today to look up anything specific, but rather to stockpile technological knowledge to see if the Intelligent Industrial Mother Machine would change after accumulating some.

Cao Xiao hadn't received much information from the Intelligent Industrial Mother Machine, but the significance represented by that information was extraordinary.

Following the command issued by Cao Xiao's brainwaves, the personal options appeared before his eyes.

Administrator: Cao Xiao (Carbon-based intelligent lifeform, Human)

Current Authority: Level 1 (Total of nine levels, upgradable)

Personal Combat Power: 8 (A composite of Stamina 7, Strength 8, Agility 6, plus 1 for Combat Skills. A healthy adult without combat skills is typically 10.)

Personal Space: 2*2*2 = 8 cubic meters (Cannot store living organisms, upgradable)

Technological Knowledge: None (Can be stockpiled by absorbing external knowledge, helpful for product research and development.)

Operating System: 49th Generation Intelligence (No personality, no emotions, possesses basic technological wisdom)

The fact that he was labeled a carbon-based intelligent lifeform and a human suggested that the races and life forms in the universe were diverse. The personal combat power option also set Cao Xiao's imagination racing. Since this option appeared, it meant personal combat power could be improved. As for how to improve it, he would need to explore that himself. Every man has a dream of martial arts, and Cao Xiao was no exception. The higher the personal combat power, the greater the survival ability in harsh environments and the faster the reaction speed when encountering danger. However, he currently had no clues and hadn't even found the entrance to that path.

What moved Cao Xiao the most was the technological knowledge category. This category was listed under personal options, which meant that absorbed technological knowledge could be directly converted into personal knowledge reserves. Although he didn't know how the conversion worked, it was likely transmitted directly to his brain through brainwaves. When the Intelligent Industrial Mother Machine was bound, it was bound to his genes and soul. Anything involving the level of the soul was beyond Cao Xiao's current understanding.

For now, he would try it out. After obtaining a library card at the entrance service desk, Cao Xiao followed the guide map to the floor storing basic natural science books.

The Provincial Library covered over a hundred acres, with a total collection of up to 10 million volumes as of now, a digital resource processing capacity of 500GB, and an online storage capacity of 150TB. The books were classified according to the standard attributes of basic academic disciplines, divided into two major categories: basic humanities and basic natural sciences.

Basic humanities disciplines included: A Philosophy, B Religion, C Ethics, D Logic, E Aesthetics, F Psychology, G Language, H Literature, I Art, J Politics, K Economics, L Military, M Law, N Education, O Sports, P Media, Q Information, R Management, S Trade, T History, U Archaeology, V Ethnicity, W Life, X Finance, Y Statistics, Z Society.

Basic natural science disciplines included: a Astronomy, b Geography, c Mathematics, d Physics, e Chemistry, f Biology, g Mechanics, h Telecommunications, i Water Conservancy, j Power, k Textiles, l Food, m Construction, n Mining, o Metallurgy, p Energy, q Transportation, r Aerospace, s Medicine, t Engineering, u Agronomy, v Forestry, w Husbandry, x Computer, y Environmental Protection, z Information.

It was easy to find relevant books according to the catalog index. The Intelligent Industrial Mother Machine stored knowledge by using its Detection Function to scan and store it in the research space's artificial intelligence. The operation was simple: Cao Xiao only needed to issue a command, and the text and patterns in all books within a ten-meter radius would be converted into an information stream and automatically stored in the AI. The AI would then organize and classify it according to Cao Xiao's instructions, removing the dross and keeping the essence to eliminate redundant content. Then, through building models for calculation and logical reasoning, it would be converted into refined knowledge information that could be transmitted to Cao Xiao's brain for storage. Right now, it was just simple scanning and storage. The AI stored information extremely quickly; as Cao Xiao walked slowly, he could store all the books within the detection range. This was completely incomparable to modern computers; even large supercomputers likely couldn't achieve such a storage speed.

Cao Xiao walked around this floor along the rows of bookshelves, and even the books on the floors above and below were scanned and stored. Without stopping, he rushed to other floors. He didn't even look at the books and just wandered around; if he hadn't been wearing a library card, others would have taken him for a security guard. Cao Xiao didn't care about any of that; anyway, others couldn't discover what he was doing. At worst, he could just cover it up later.

After scanning the natural science books, the Intelligent Industrial Mother Machine didn't indicate that the AI's storage was full, so Cao Xiao simply walked through the humanities floors as well. Even ancient books specially stored in independent, enclosed rooms could not block the scan of the Detection Function. This kind of information storage capability was unparalleled; it was equivalent to Cao Xiao carrying a super personal computer loaded with the contents of a large national library.

Cao Xiao picked up a random book and sat down in the library's reading area. He ordered a cup of tea and flipped the book open, pretending to be deep in thought, but the operation panel of the research space appeared in his eyes. The information he just stored needed to be processed. Even if the library already had classifications, the content had to be organized. Duplicates, inaccuracies, clutter, and unrefined language all needed to be subjected to logical analysis and experimental model calculations book by book, then summarized to form a complete scientific and humanistic knowledge system. The humanities could be ignored for now because many of them were record-based documents that didn't need derivation. Things like philosophy, aesthetics, and psychology were completely unverifiable and only needed simple organization. However, natural science was very rigorous and could not have the slightest error. Moreover, in the early stages, the reasoning required Cao Xiao to perform preliminary knowledge demonstrations himself. Once a basic scientific system was established, the AI could generate a certain level of scientific logical ability, allowing it to perform deeper derivations based on basic scientific knowledge and continuously improve this logical ability. He wouldn't have to worry about it in the future. Once all the knowledge in the AI was organized and transmitted to his mind to form memories, he would be a walking human encyclopedia. In terms of knowledge alone, no one on Earth would be able to surpass him. However, these were merely pieces of knowledge; knowing something was one thing, but applying it wasn't so easy. It would be completely impossible to master and integrate all this knowledge—it was too vast, so vast that it would be impossible for him to even finish reading it all, let alone fully understand it. Fortunately, Cao Xiao didn't need to fully understand it; this knowledge could be perfectly utilized through the powerful Intelligent Industrial Mother Machine. This knowledge was more like the core code of the AI. When fully integrated and combined with human's peerless imagination, it could exert its effect. Simply put, the Intelligent Industrial Mother Machine was like an application; as long as it was operated properly, it could create. The Intelligent Industrial Mother Machine was the incubator of technological civilization. Obtaining it gave him the foundation to march toward the stars.

Even preliminary knowledge demonstration was a massive project for Cao Xiao. According to his estimation, he would at least need to demonstrate all natural sciences from primary school to high school. Fortunately, all this knowledge consisted of laws that had been continuously verified by humans; Cao Xiao only needed to filter through them. The theoretical knowledge of subjects like geography, mathematics, physics, chemistry, and biology was not a big problem for him. These high school stages were the foundation of natural science disciplines and could be sorted out with just some time. Most of the rest was applied science, which the AI could simulate and verify by building data models.

Cao Xiao first found basic mathematics books in the AI database and began organizing them starting from primary school knowledge, keeping useful laws and calculation rules while clearing out everything else, like test papers. Then came middle school and high school. It took Cao Xiao nearly two hours just to finish organizing primary and middle school math. High school knowledge was much more extensive and included things Cao Xiao hadn't even learned when he was in school; it might take several times longer. There was no need to linger in the library for now; he still had to go buy a house to settle down in.

By the time he left the Provincial Library, it wasn't even noon yet. Cao Xiao didn't have much of an appetite and just had a bowl of hot dry noodles at a roadside stall for lunch. Back in his car, he browsed real estate information in Huanghe City on his phone. He wasn't considering ordinary commercial apartments. With six people in his family, they would need five rooms, plus a few guest rooms to be reserved, and he had to prepare for when he had children in the future. The more rooms, the better. Ordinary commercial housing couldn't meet his needs. Besides, living in those apartment complexes felt a bit cramped. As a result, his only option was a villa, preferably a detached one for better privacy.

He searched for local detached villa information on a real estate website. After filtering, he actually found a satisfactory one. It wasn't too far from Huanghe University—a thirty-minute drive. The surrounding natural environment was great, and transportation and shopping were very convenient. There were even kindergartens, primary schools, and a large hospital within the community. Crucially, this villa was large enough, covering an area of two thousand square meters—which is three mu—and the building area was three thousand three hundred square meters.

This Chinese-style villa was divided into four floors: one basement and three floors above ground. The basement, first floor, and second floor each had a building area of about one thousand square meters. The basement floor contained a wine cellar, storage rooms, and a garage. The first floor featured a nearly four-hundred-square-meter reception hall, which included a hundred-square-meter rockery and pond. The other six hundred square meters were divided into five ordinary bedrooms with en-suite bathrooms, a large kitchen, a dining room, and a public restroom. The second floor consisted of a living room, twelve bedrooms with independent bathrooms, a home theater, a walk-in closet, a dressing room, a gym area, and a large terrace of over two hundred square meters. The third floor was the top floor, with only over three hundred square meters of rooms, including a master bedroom, two secondary bedrooms, a study, and an entertainment room. The remaining hundreds of square meters served as a rooftop garden.

In addition to the main building, both the front and back yards were gardens. The front yard had a pond of several hundred square meters with a small pavilion in the middle. The rest of the area consisted of landscaped lawns and low flowers, plants, and trees. In the backyard, besides flowers and plants, a vegetable plot of about half a mu had been planned out. The entire property was surrounded by a two-meter-high wooden fence.

This villa was also a luxuriously decorated second-hand house. The owner had gone abroad right after finishing the renovations. If he could secure it, he would only need to buy some appliances, furniture, and daily necessities to move in. Cao Xiao was very interested in this villa. The transaction price listed online was 96 million yuan. It looked terrifying, but when calculated, it was less than 30,000 yuan per square meter, not even counting the two mu of garden area. Even if the location was a bit remote and close to the suburbs, it was a very good deal. One had to know that luxury villas near the city center cost hundreds of thousands per square meter. Cao Xiao had even seen a villa priced at 120 million with an area of only three hundred-plus square meters; that kind of price was truly outrageous.

To be moved was to act. Cao Xiao didn't have that much money right now, but this villa could be paid for in installments. So, he directly called the salesperson and made an appointment to meet at the entrance of the villa's community.