Chapter 124: Artificial Intelligence Goes Rogue
Mad Max: Fury Road world, midday.
This world rarely saw rain, so there were only two kinds of weather:
dry nights and even drier days.
Furiosa smoothed her short hair. More than half a month had passed since the man left, and she found herself missing him.
It wasn't reverence for a leader, nor fear of power. If she had to describe this feeling, the Vuvalini who had returned from the Green Place with her had already concluded that it was a woman's admiration for a superior male.
Carefully wiping her mechanical left arm with a clean cloth, Furiosa's thoughts drifted away again.
She knew what had happened between that man and Immortal Joe and his wives, but a superior leader should enjoy the fruits of victory.
Her hair grew longer and longer. She washed off the war paint, changed into the clothes Jake had brought, and cleaned herself daily with the supplies he had provided.
During this time, she had become the most striking woman in the entire Citadel, even surpassing the Five Wives who had served Joe.
The War Pups and War Boys looked at her with fervent eyes—a fervor fueled by faith and power, but also by admiration.
Their undisguised gazes were like the blazing sun, intense and overwhelming.
However, facing Furiosa, the Imperator and commander of the war party, no one dared to act on their impulses; they could only watch from afar.
Standing up from her position, Furiosa glanced down. She stood on the watchtower, overseeing the construction, while below, tens of thousands of workers toiled away.
Centered on the three rocky peaks of the Citadel, the workers used their blood and sweat to move stones and build a massive structure.
Half a month had passed, and the foundation was still not complete. Some workers had died, not from exhaustion, but from being torn apart by their starving comrades fighting over meager rations.
"Imperator!"
A voice rang out from behind Furiosa. She turned around to see a tall, lean young man standing there.
He was pale-skinned, with short blond hair, deep blue eyes, and handsome, slightly gaunt features—in another world, he would undoubtedly be considered quite attractive.
He was shirtless, wearing only a pair of tattered pants, but even so, it only accentuated his wild and untamed nature.
"What is it, Nux?" Furiosa stood up and looked at him.
The young man before her was none other than Nux, the War Boy Jake had casually rescued!
Nux grinned, forcing a bright smile. "Imperator, the priest has returned!"
"What?!" Furiosa was startled, her previously calm eyes flashing with surprise, though she quickly concealed it.
"Where?"
"He's..." Nux pointed behind him. "In the hall, but he's carrying a huge black metal container." Before he could elaborate, Furiosa was already striding away.
Scratching his head in confusion, Nux immediately followed.
When Furiosa arrived in the hall, the first thing she saw was that familiar dark figure.
And he saw her too.
"Long time no see, Furiosa," Jake smiled and waved to her. She truly was striking; once clean, even without makeup, she was a natural beauty.
"You've come back this time...?"
"Oh," Jake suddenly realized, slapping his forehead. "I brought something back this time. It will be key to our operations, and you could consider it our administrator."
"Administrator?" Furiosa repeated the word, her expression immediately turning guarded.
She had already learned her own role from Jake—administrator, a term he had used for her position.
Who was this newcomer? Someone who could directly replace her—this made her extremely unhappy.
"You! You! And you!" Jake ignored the Imperator's concerns, instead pointing at a few War Boys and saying, "Lift this thing up!"
The ones he pointed at instantly seemed to have received divine favor, immediately running over eagerly, embracing the Red Queen's massive mainframe housing, and slowly lifting it up.
"Don't drop it, don't break it!" Jake carefully instructed.
Under Jake's guidance, the group moved the Red Queen's mainframe to a small chamber at the back of the Citadel.
They opened the huge, heavy iron door and carried the Red Queen inside.
"What is this?" After everyone left, only Furiosa was allowed to stay.
"Just a supercomputer," Jake carefully examined the setup, nodding in satisfaction after confirming that the Red Queen's mainframe was positioned properly.
"A supercomputer?" Living in a world where civilization had collapsed, Furiosa had no concept of computers at all.
"Hmm, advanced technology," Jake didn't want to explain the fundamentals to her, instead saying, "I'll explain it to you properly later, just wait a moment."
"Okay," Furiosa replied obediently, though she was still confused by what Jake meant.
Jake instantly activated his dimensional travel ability, and a dozen minutes later, he reappeared carrying a large generator.
A diesel generator.
After setting it up, he vanished again in a flash.
Several tens of minutes later, he reappeared with a massive fuel tank, twice the height of a person.
He connected the fuel tank to the diesel generator, and finally plugged the Red Queen's mainframe into the power supply.
The diesel generator rumbled and sputtered as it began to run.
A soft beep—
The Red Queen's mainframe light flashed, and a few seconds later, a young girl's voice came from the speaker: "This is the new world you were talking about?"
Furiosa, standing nearby, was startled; she hadn't expected such a huge metal container to be able to speak.
"You connected me to a diesel generator? An unexpected power outage could cause irreparable damage to my data."
"Don't worry," Jake waved his hand. "This fuel is enough to keep you running for half a month. That's enough time for me to find a better energy source."
"First, let me introduce you. Welcome to the wasteland."
"Wasteland?"
"That's right," Jake nodded. "Civilization here has collapsed, order is nonexistent, humanity is desperate... This is the wasteland, and I have just taken control of this place."
"What do you want me to do here?"
"This world will become my base of operations, so I need you to stay here and help me complete the transformation." He then took the hand of Furiosa, who was standing beside him in a state of surprise and wariness, and introduced her. "Let me introduce you. She's the person I trust most in this world. You two might become good partners in the future."
"What do you need me to do?"
"It's actually quite simple. Help me refine the blueprints for this fortress, provide computational assistance, and help establish the foundation of our organization."
"Your organization?" Even artificial intelligence showed confusion when faced with unfamiliar concepts. "What kind of organization?"
"Just an organization I'm building. We promote equality and freedom, so we need a framework. The specific content can be adapted from various philosophical and ethical systems..."
"I understand," the Red Queen said, indicating comprehension.
It was simply the most basic form of ideological organization. As a supercomputer, she could analyze the structure of belief systems from countless historical events.
Perhaps Jake's organization would be the most pragmatic and effective of all such systems.
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