Chapter 115: I Want Artificial Intelligence
Kaplan and his two companions abruptly stopped in their tracks, turning toward the source of the sound.
Then, a scene far beyond their comprehension unfolded before them.
A man in a black suit, standing upside down on the ceiling, was walking toward them step by step!
His slightly drooping hair indicated that he wasn't completely resisting gravity.
He seemed adhered to the ceiling.
"Who are you?!" Kaplan, an elite mercenary, though a technician, was no less capable in combat.
He swiftly drew his pistol and aimed it at the man's head.
Despite the gun being pointed at his head, the man seemed utterly unfazed, continuing his slow, steady approach.
"Stop! Or I'll shoot immediately!" Kaplan's throat tightened. Too many unexpected events had occurred today; he was on edge.
His index finger trembled on the trigger. He was certain that if the man didn't stop, he would shoot.
Hearing this, the man slowly stopped, a smile still gracing his face—was it disdain? Or amusement? In short, he didn't take Kaplan seriously, including the pistol in his hand.
Seeing the man stop, Kaplan breathed a sigh of relief and then demanded, "Tell me, who exactly are you!"
"Me?" The man in the black suit pointed to himself, then seemed to realize something. "Sorry, I haven't introduced myself yet."
He rested his katana on the ceiling with his left hand, bending slightly at the waist, as if using the blade to support his weight on the ceiling.
"You can call me Lancelot King, or you can call me Father."
"You're religious?" Alice asked from the side.
From the moment Jake appeared, she was certain that the person shown on the computer's thermal imaging was definitely this man.
Especially the upside-down position, which made her eyes shine with curiosity, a kind of fascination with the unknown.
"That's right," Jake nodded. "I come from the Order. My main mission is to bring freedom to those who suffer..." He pointed at Kaplan, "and of course, to prevent others from releasing catastrophe."
"If you shut down that AI, the world will face disaster."
The Red Queen was shut down, the bio-virus went out of control, and the whole world fell into a biohazard crisis. Jake was absolutely right.
But this sounded different to Kaplan. His teammates and captain had all died because of this artificial intelligence. Now, suddenly someone who could stand on the ceiling was telling him not to shut down this AI. What would you do?
Would the world be so fragile? Destroyed just because a supercomputer was shut down? He didn't believe it, but that was the truth.
"You want me to leave it alone?" Kaplan asked, but his grip on the gun tightened.
"To save you, and all of you," Jake pointed to Alice and the others.
"Then there's no need." Kaplan put away his gun. Because the ability Jake had displayed was too unusual, Kaplan didn't dare to fire rashly, for fear of provoking him.
The best approach was to ignore him, then disconnect the Red Queen's mainframe and complete the mission.
"I'll wait for your help," Jake shook his head indifferently, "but when you ask me again, you'll have to pay a small price."
Kaplan didn't respond, but quickly rushed through the laser corridor to the Red Queen's supercomputer.
Spence glanced at Jake a couple more times, said nothing, and followed him in.
Only Alice stopped and looked at Jake carefully. "Are you serious?" She had a feeling that something strange was happening in this huge underground facility, but she couldn't quite identify it.
Of course, she didn't believe what Jake said, that shutting down an artificial intelligence would unleash disaster and destroy the world.
But his peculiar position, standing on the ceiling and talking to her upside down, this unbelievable scene, forced her to consider believing him.
"Absolutely," Jake nodded. "This company is researching a biological weapon that can reanimate the dead. However, this isn't a miracle cure; it's the beginning of something terrible."
"The corpses given new life, I call them zombies. They can't be killed except by destroying their heads, and they have no pain or rational thought."
"This virus is highly contagious, spreading through wounds, saliva, blood, etc., making it extremely difficult to prevent."
"They lose their biological characteristics, such as digestion and absorption, reproduction, and even their bodies slowly rot because their hearts no longer beat and their blood stops flowing."
"But they retain their only instinct as living beings: eating..."
"What do they eat?" Alice asked, though skeptically.
Jake smiled grimly and replied, "People!" His smile was chilling, sending shivers down one's spine.
Startled, Alice almost recoiled, but when she looked at Jake's face again, she found only a gentle smile.
"You'll believe me," he said to Alice. "And when you need my help, all you need to do is accept the Order."
Alice wanted to say more, but Kaplan was already calling her from the other side of the laser corridor, so she had no choice but to give up and run over.
Watching Kaplan and his two companions already engaging with the artificial intelligence, Jake smiled, maintaining his relaxed posture on the ceiling.
If he could control Kaplan and his group now, preventing them from removing the Red Queen's mainframe, perhaps the biohazard crisis would be contained, and the whole world would be saved.
But why should he do that? Even if the Red Queen really controlled the outbreak here, the ambitious Umbrella Corporation would definitely continue their experiments, and the world still wouldn't be able to withstand the zombie invasion.
Since that's the case, he might as well benefit from the start.
Thinking of the T-virus samples and serum he had taken from the train earlier, he couldn't help but smile. This was the advantage of knowing the plot; even if Spence, who had regained his memories, managed to escape onto the train, he would only find an empty case.
Meanwhile, Kaplan and his group, ignoring the Red Queen's resistance despite her child-like appearance, forcibly shut her down and escaped with her mainframe.
Upon exiting, they ignored Jake, the strange man, and quickly bypassed him, heading back out.
Jake remained unperturbed, silently calculating in his mind.
Five minutes later, Kaplan and his group returned, some of them injured.
"You're right!" Alice spoke first upon seeing Jake. "We might have really released disaster, so what should we do? Since you claim to be Father, you must be able to save us, right?"
Facing the expectant gaze of the woman in the red dress, Jake lightly leaped down from the ceiling—maintaining that pose had been quite a feat.
"Of course, Father has a duty to guide lost souls to the right path."
Just as relief began to show on their faces, he added, "However, as I've said before, when you need my help here, you must pay a small price."
"What do you want?" It was Spence who spoke at this moment. His eyes darted around, indicating that he had likely regained his memory.
"I want the artificial intelligence." His gaze was fixed on Kaplan, the computer expert carrying the Red Queen mainframe.
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