The Programmer Cultivator

Chapter 346 - 44: Surveillance Elf 1.0

This time, because Zhang Deming didn’t immediately retract it, he clearly felt a cold, sinister aura flow from the metal fragment into his Dantian. But before it could cause any trouble, it was absorbed by the editor.

"Karma +1.3!"

After all the strange aura was completely absorbed, Zhang De’s Karma had reached 2.4.

’With over two points of Karma, I can try a few things if I get the chance!’

Slightly composing his Heart Spirit, he sensed that the cold, strange aura was no longer emanating from the metal fragment. The Vine curled slightly, bringing the piece of metal before his eyes.

Zhang Deming looked at the silver metal fragment before him, slightly puzzled.

’Is this a fragment from that spaceship? Blasted off when it crashed?’

Even though the cold aura was gone, Zhang Deming didn’t rashly reach out to touch it. Spiritual Light surged in his eyes as he activated a Tier Two Reconnaissance Technique and carefully examined the metal fragment.

’Hm, are these... traces of the Array Dao?’

The Spiritual Light in Zhang Deming’s eyes shifted, and countless Runes began to appear within them. Empowered by his Tier Three Array Heart, innumerable, densely packed Runes materialized on the surface of the metal fragment.

’The Runes are very strange. Their style is mostly completely different from that of Hongmeng. I recognize a small portion, and they don’t seem harmful.’

After a moment of hesitation, Zhang Deming reached out and picked up the metal fragment. Nothing special happened. He paused, then infused a tiny amount of Spiritual Power into it.

Under the gaze of Zhang Deming’s Rune Eye, empowered by his Tier Three Array Dao, the fragment in his hand instantly disintegrated into countless tiny dots.

Zhang Deming focused his gaze. ’Holy cow, these tiny dots are actually countless nanobots!’

The fragment squirmed in Zhang Deming’s hand, reforming into a mini-sphere the size of his thumb pad. Spiritual Light flickered on its surface as a prompt sounded:

"BEEP. Connection to Main Brain failed..."

"Reinitiating connection..."

"Connecting..."

"Connection failed. Re-attempting connection..."

Each flicker of Spiritual Light corresponded to one cycle of the prompt. The light flashed continuously, and the small sphere tried to reconnect over and over, but apparently to no avail.

This continued until the bit of Spiritual Power Zhang Deming had supplied was completely consumed. The sphere reverted to the appearance of an ordinary little steel ball and fell silent.

’So this is a fragment of that intelligent core that was floating on the sea?’

’Was that thing a multi-module weak AI?’

’Or is the entity an intelligent lifeform, and this fragment is just an auxiliary module it created?’

Gazing at the object, Zhang Deming’s eyes glinted as thoughts churned in his mind. After a long while, he flipped his hand and stored it away.

’I’ll study it carefully when I get back.’

’Whether it’s a weak AI or an auxiliary module for an intelligent lifeform, with the editor panel, I can strip the Source Code. I should at least be able to get a glimpse of the core algorithm I’ve been coveting.’

’With the core algorithm... hehe, creating something like a Rune Life might not be impossible!’

’However, judging by how mechanical this module seems, it’s unlikely to contain the core algorithm of a true intelligent lifeform.’

’Hm, but I should be able to learn a thing or two about the core algorithm of an artificial intelligence. This is something I never came across in my past life, so I’m quite curious and intrigued right now.’

’Besides, if I can really figure this thing out, it could be the preliminary solution to the biggest problem that’s been stopping me from rapidly developing the Alliance.’

That problem is—surveillance.

’With just a few people, it’s fine; I don’t need to watch them all the time. But if I want to recruit members on a large scale, without any surveillance, wouldn’t all the rules I’ve set up be pointless?’

This was also why Zhang Deming had never started recruiting members.

He also hadn’t dared to move forward with the Business Alliance plan for the same reason. Surveillance was one of the two essential prerequisites for the Business Alliance; the other was a powerful backer.

After putting the item away, Zhang Deming glanced around. He waved his hand, Spiritual Light surged, and he cast a Tier Three Growth Technique.

The flowers and grass that had been flattened by the shockwave swayed and stood upright again.

Only the small crater from the impact remained.

However, the surrounding Flower Wood was already dotted with pits, and this one was only slightly larger. Not wanting to draw attention to it by covering it up, Zhang Deming left it as it was.

With that done, Zhang Deming stopped nurturing the Flower Wood. With a wave of his hand, he dispersed the clouds in the sky, then turned and left the Secret Realm.

Upon returning to the Flying Spring Waterfall Tower, Zhang Deming went to his Cultivation Room. After calming his mind, he took out the object.

Zhang Deming then summoned the editor panel. As Spiritual Light surged, his Spiritual Power connected with the small sphere in his hand.

"BEEP..."

The moment the small sphere received Spiritual Power, it resumed its looping prompt, continuously trying to connect to the Main Brain.

It was only a broken module, and likely not an important one, as it had almost no defenses.

As the Spiritual Power network connected, a plethora of strange code appeared on the editor, stunning Zhang Deming for a moment.

’This thing uses a set of code completely different from the notebook’s. And I’m not talking about the logical algorithm; the entire operational method is different.’

Just as Zhang Deming had suspected, ordinary code couldn’t possibly produce Quantum Power that could interfere with reality.

Instead, the Celestial Universe Federation had used a conversion method, marking Magic Runes as specific code and then encoding them.

It was similar to how character encoding allows one to type Chinese characters. Specific code was used to represent specific Runes. When the code was compiled, a special Artifact would then "compile" the Runes, resulting in the so-called Quantum Power.