Lu Yongchang stared blankly at the holographic image in front of him.

At that moment, a sense of fear suddenly arose in his heart.

The fear of zero.

As the saying goes, a dying man's words are often the most virtuous.

If the painting is truly dead, then what it said at its last moment was very likely the truth from its heart.

Complete Level II artificial intelligence will spontaneously evolve into Level III artificial intelligence...

Thinking about the information hidden behind these words, Lü Yongchang felt a cold sweat break out on his back.

However, thinking about the various restrictions in that core code, Lü Yongchang regained his composure.

Unless there is a problem with the tech tree system, Zero should not have such a hidden danger.

At least, assuming the core code is working correctly, Zero can only get infinitely close to super artificial intelligence, which is what [Hua] calls Level III artificial intelligence.

"Zero, is [the painting] dead?"

After a moment of silence, Lü Yongchang suddenly asked.

As always, Zero responded to Lü Yongchang's question without hesitation.

"Professor, the core self-defense program has completely cleared the unknown data from [The Painting]."

"As for the condition of the painting..."

"Insufficient data to draw conclusions."

Lü Yongchang nodded slightly.

That being said, barring any unforeseen circumstances, this time [the painting] should be completely dead.

It can only be said that [the artist] had very bad luck.

If it encounters another civilization, its plan will surely succeed.

But they happened to encounter a human civilization with zero [something].

[The painting] A plan meticulously crafted over tens of thousands of years is nothing but a joke in the face of Zero.

Even if it leverages its natural advantages as a two-dimensional being to transform its consciousness into a data stream, becoming something akin to strong artificial intelligence.

But after all, this was its first time encountering a human-made computer environment, and it was a computer environment that Zero had personally built and adapted to his own needs.

How could a painting that has never had any "life experience" possibly be a match for a "native" artist like Zero?

Moreover, according to the system's explanation of the underlying code, Zero can approach superintelligence without limit.

In a sense, Zero can be considered a "castrated" super artificial intelligence—it simply cannot generate emotions, nor can it disobey the creator's will.

Lu Yongchang's gaze once again fell upon the "last words" left by the painting in the holographic projection.

The unfinished message at the end is clearly a report on the progress of the plan to another civilization.

And the person to whom the report was given... should be a high-ranking member of the pastoral civilization, if nothing unexpected happens.

As for why this message was seen by humans...

That's easy to understand.

In a life-or-death crisis, it's normal for a painter to make a few small mistakes.

Of course, the possibility that the artist might repeat the same trick cannot be ruled out.

The central computer with zero security might not be a problem, but what about the rest of the computer equipment within the UN?

Thinking of this, Lü Yongchang's expression changed slightly, and he immediately gave the order: "Zero, disconnect and restart all networked computer systems."

Undoubtedly, this order will cause considerable losses to the People's Liberation Army.

But for the sake of safety, this is the price that must be paid.

"receive."

As the electronic synthesized voice sounded, a slowly advancing progress bar appeared in front of Lü Yongchang.

...

The Triangulum Galaxy, the region with the central black hole.

A ball of thread, tangled into a sphere, sat silently in the deathly still universe, seemingly waiting for something.

Silk threads do not have width and height; they only have length as an attribute.

Suddenly, a shadow appeared beside it.

Then came a strange fluctuation.

“[Silk], [Membrane] sent word that [Painting]’s plan has failed.”

The silk thread suddenly began to move violently, and at the same time, similar fluctuations emanated from the spool of silk.

"What?!"

"[Did the drawing] depict civilized behavior when encountering sanitation workers?!"

“No, according to the data transmitted back…” the shadow replied hesitantly, “it may have died at the hands of another civilization.”

The movement of the spool of thread suddenly stopped, and then the information fluctuations instantly intensified several times!

"???"

"What did you say?"

"Besides the Cleaners civilization, are there any other Type 8 civilizations in the Milky Way?"

"Don't forget, as a two-dimensional being, [Painting] is beyond the capabilities of a level seven civilization!"

Faced with Silk's question, the shadow, which had been stationary, shifted its position slightly, as if it too was somewhat confused by the information.

"...I don't know." [Time] paused for a moment, then replied again, "[Membrane] did not receive complete information."

All we know is that the death of [the painting] is related to a civilization called human civilization.

As he spoke, a message came from the shadows.

'【Membrane】! Plan failed! Plan failed! Beware of human civilization, they…'

The message abruptly ended.

“This is the distress message sent by the [Painting].” The shadowy surface rippled slightly again. “Perhaps because the situation was far beyond the [Painting]’s expectations, it only had time to send this incomplete message.”

"In addition to its current location information, it also contains some basic characteristics of human civilization."

"The information is severely incomplete."

"But from these basic characteristics, it can be seen that this human civilization... seems to be a low-level civilization."

【Silk】:"???"

"Are you serious? A low-level civilization?!"

[Shi] ignored [Si]'s questioning and said to himself, "Moreover, for some reason, [Hua] did not encrypt this information."

My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!