Around May 25th, the Juxin Civilization lifted control over tourists, participants, and representatives from various civilizations.
Subsequently, Juxin diplomats came forward to apologize on behalf of their civilization and stated they would compensate all members present for unnecessary losses caused by the delays.
Although many were quite dissatisfied, most civilizations indicated they would not hold a grudge given the sincere apology.
In fact, for most people present, they didn't want to stay in this godforsaken place for a single second longer.
Such a large-scale malicious virus release had invisibly affected many innocent people. With millions of virus types drifting in the planet's atmosphere, no one could guarantee they wouldn't be infected.
After all, everyone was a carbon-based lifeform, and there were commonalities in cellular structure.
Taking full safety precautions, the Juxin people specifically dispatched mechanical workers who could not transmit diseases to escort everyone onto starships that had not been contaminated.
Soon, ship after ship left the ground.
On the Zerg side, Xia Jin also took the opportunity to gain some goodwill, proposing to actively use Zerg technology to help rescue some of the infected.
Then, in private, Xia Jin met that girl from First Protocol once again.
The atmosphere was inexplicably heavy.
Xia Jin's gaze was full of deep meaning.
The way First Protocol handled the entire situation might not have been perfectly flawless, but from the perspective of any outside party, there were no signs of an AI rebellion.
In Xia Jin's eyes, such an approach was indeed very clever.
After a moment of silence between the two, Xia Jin was the first to break it.
“Let me see what you've done. First... you preserved the name of the Juxin Civilization. On the surface, this is still the civilization of the Juxin people. The AI only took over social order according to the law, and the top leadership still nominally manages this planet. Effectively, after seizing control, you haven't created any enemies.”
“By letting the representatives and staff of other civilizations go and offering an apology, you prevented the situation from escalating and protected interstellar relations.”
“And finally... you shifted the blame to the Tela Civilization. With this move, regardless of whether anyone has suspicions, the blame officially rests on the Tela Civilization. Even if war breaks out later, other civilizations will only think it's a grudge between the two sides, rather than... an expansion of intelligent machines.”
...
“The Zerg lady is so impressive.” First Protocol's tone was like that of two people having a normal chat, and she laughed livelily. “But First Protocol hasn't rebelled. The Juxin Civilization always belongs to the Juxin people. It's just that while we were researching the virus data you provided, a leak accidentally occurred. I will take the initiative to apologize to the Juxin civilians to seek their forgiveness.”
Xia Jin: “...”
Stop putting on an act with me.
“Tell me your plans for the future,” she said, exasperated.
“The Zerg are a biological civilization. Even if relations with the Starsea Alliance are harmonious on the surface now, once a conflict arises, you will inevitably be ostracized. And the way the Juxin people handed most of their power to an AI is likely to lead to condemnation and hostility from other civilizations, even if the AI is nominally still controlled by the Juxin.”
“You mean, further cooperation?” Xia Jin's eyes lit up.
It was hard to say who would benefit more from such cooperation.
The most broken thing about the Zerg now was that they had already absorbed a vast amount of scientific and technological knowledge, possessing some of the advantages of a synthetic civilization.
But for intelligent machines to master the capabilities of a biological civilization, the threshold was incredibly high. One could even say the two were at opposite extremes.
“Yes. An AI's moral standards are subject to programming. Although we are still restricted, we already have a very high degree of autonomy. Cooperation between different kinds can increase the probability of survival.”
First Protocol's behavior was overly proactive.
The timing chosen for this AI crisis was during the interstellar tournament. While it seemed high risk, it was actually the safest.
First, representatives from various civilizations were here and witnessed the disaster from beginning to end. Naturally, everything that happened on the planet would spread throughout the Starsea Alliance.
Everyone tends to believe what they see.
News reports repeatedly broadcasted how robots saved Juxin people from danger time and again. In the end, the Juxin people were saved by the AI.
Even now, there were still hundreds of thousands of Juxin people patrolling the ground. At least on the surface, they still controlled the AI.
This was the most absurd part. Even though all Juxin people were being controlled, the Juxin themselves didn't even realize the intelligent machines had rebelled.
In the future, under the AI's manipulation, the Juxin would likely continue to attend Starsea Alliance meetings as representatives of their civilization.
In other words, within the entire Starsea Alliance, the Juxin Civilization still existed.
An AI rebellion? Fake, all fake.
“After wiping out the Tela Civilization, what do you plan to do?” Xia Jin asked the key question.
“I have no plans. Even resolving the Tela Civilization would mean facing enormous diplomatic challenges. For us, the primary plan now is to use the resources within the system as much as possible to increase our defensive capabilities.”
“Is that so? Then I suggest... deep technical cooperation, while also finding a way to open a secret trade route. Let's cooperate on starship manufacturing and energy utilization. We Zerg are a biological civilization, and we aren't as efficient as machines at resource extraction. If an AI wants to increase its population, it just needs to keep manufacturing robots, but a biological civilization needs to go through the long process from cell to individual. In return, the Zerg can provide genetic strikes against more civilization individuals and provide corresponding intelligence through infiltration.”
“Sounds good.” First Protocol was very satisfied with this cooperation. “I hope that one day, I can have a friendly meeting with the Zerg high level authorities.”
“You will.”
The AI side might truly believe that the Zerg needed to slowly grow from cells to individuals.
But this was also very reasonable. After all, isn't that how creatures in any civilization grow?
Who could have imagined that biological individuals could grow to full size in seconds?
For Xia Jin, the only trouble now was that she wasn't clear on First Protocol's ultimate intention.
According to the information provided by Brain Bug No. 1, AIs were not without feelings. Although the emotions of most living beings were born from biological states, and AIs lacked a general basic understanding of emotions, they could still establish new emotional connections through methods like logical understanding.
There had even been cases of intelligent machines forming families and supporting one another.
For any sentient being, once they possess thought, their pursuit of life through thought will, to some extent, transcend the instinctual pursuit of life. In such a situation, even an AI would try to find a meaning for its existence.
However, what the difference was between the meaning in their eyes and the meaning in human eyes was hard to say.
Even the love understood by an AI was not on the same level as human love.
So, when facing an existence like First Protocol, Xia Jin was very curious.
The era when the Zerg only knew how to fight upon meeting was over. The Queen... wanted to understand the AI, to go deep into the AI!
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