Chapter 1237, Extreme Range

Everyone hoped that the tide of people from Zero Control would slow down a little bit more, so that everyone would have enough time to think of countermeasures, and enough time to evacuate.

However, in front of the AI, there was never enough time.

Just like when Ren Xiaosu had gone to the Central Plains to save Luo Lan, Zero had precisely calculated the time to ensure that he wouldn’t be able to get there in time.

And Zero calculated all of this, in fact, it only took an instant.

Before, all of Zero’s calculations were based on server units as the hardware, but now it relied on tens of millions of human brains.

How much computing power did the human brain have?

In the manor house halfway up Ginkgo Mountain, Luo Lan, who had already returned to the Qing Clan, sat next to Qing Zhen and muttered, “If I say so, will the AI not be as powerful as we think, you see, I usually can’t even multiply two-digit numbers well, so won’t it be a pitfall for itself if it controls people like me? After all, even if it controls more people, if 99% of them don’t have a good brain, it’s still useless.”

Qing Zhen smiled and shook his head, “That sounds like it makes sense.”

However, the truth was that the potential of the human brain was being underestimated at this moment, and the fact that humans couldn’t do a lot of math was entirely due to the fact that they were not able to do it themselves, and failed to put their brains to good use, not that the brains themselves were not able to do it.

There are about 14 billion neurons in the brain, and a normal human being is able to record 86 million messages a day, which is an incredible thing in itself.

There are countless elements of information that make up the smells, lights and shadows, and objects that humans touch, and the human brain needs to summarize and organize all of this to form a “logic”.

The elements of information that the world gives to human beings are much more complex than two-digit multiplication.

When using servers and computers, human beings often encounter overloaded memory, lack of processing accuracy, and even the system crashes in minutes.

However, human beings seldom crash because of this kind of thing. When encountering extreme fear and shock, the human brain will directly give the command of fainting to alleviate the situation, but after fainting, the human body functions still remain relatively normal to maintain the necessary life.

Humans will also experience mental illnesses, but the probability of humans experiencing irreversible mental illnesses is much less than the probability of a machine’s system experiencing a crash or blue screen.

Therefore, when this human brain with its powerful potential became the server substrate, the computing power of the AI was not flawed, but even more powerful.

However, Qing Zhen, who had researched on nanobots earlier, wondered, if according to Luo Lan’s words, the controlled humans had become Zero’s server carriers, then how should this individual server be linked to each other?

Although Zero controlled the communication power of the entire Central Plains nowadays and held all the known satellites in the Barrier Alliance, the satellites could not be as reliable as imagined, and the satellites themselves could not carry the information interaction of tens of millions of servers.

Luo Lan frowned and asked, ”Then would there be mobile servers responsible for connecting all the nanobots together in the middle of those crowds? If we destroy something like that, won’t it be able to control that many people?”

Qing Zhen shook his head and said, “I don’t know, and there’s no way to know. Conservative estimates put the number of people controlled by the AI this time at around eighteen million, you should be well aware of what that is, and we don’t have enough power to find this kind of needle in a haystack. If we really want to do this, we might gamble the entire southwest and northwest of our current power and only face failure. Or perhaps, it is waiting for us to do so. So, it’s better to continue following our own plans.”

Luo Lan suddenly asked, “What are the chances of winning?”

Qing Zhen thought for a moment, “Thirty percent.”

“When Qing Yi asked you before, you said it was only 10%,” Luo Lan was puzzled, “Why do I feel that now that the situation is worse, your chances of winning are increasing instead?”

Qing Zhen glanced at Luo Lan as he sat on the black lake in the hall of the Ginkgo Manor and said, “Lao San can’t die in vain, I have to make his payment have a corresponding value and meaning.”

As he spoke, Qing Zhen received one of the pieces on the chessboard in front of him into the wooden barrel.

Talking about the chess game at this point would no longer be of any help, and the only chess he wanted to play was the one that left him dead.

Luo Lan asked from the side, “Can Qing Yi cope at the frontline, or else Xu Zou and I can rush over there as well?”

Qing Zhen shook his head, “No need, you two come with me.”

……

In front of Barrier 111, was the Three Mountain Defense Line constructed by Qing, each mountain range was a defensive support point, guarding each other and completely blocking the path of the human tide to the west.

Further ahead of the three mountain defense line were more than a dozen outposts.

There was what the Qing forces called, the backside of the moon.

Some say that the Earth-Moon rotation system evolved over time, eventually converging to an equilibrium.

The truth is that no one can really explain why the Moon will always have only one side facing the Earth, and humans will never be able to see what its backside really looks like without the use of technology.

The moon orbits the earth in one week in 27.32166 days, and in those 27.32166 days it goes from a chord moon to a full moon, and then from a full moon to a chord moon.

Yet the only reason Kyo called that one outpost the backside of the moon was because it was an abandoned place, and along with the abandoned people, they knew they were abandoned.

They had only two things left to do for the rest of their lives: report to the rear when the enemy arrived at the forward base, and take up their weapons.

In a clearing in the southwestern forest, seven or eight wooden plank huts had been simply erected, and in those very huts lived one hundred and twenty soldiers, the complement of one of Qing’s companies.

The wooden huts were interlaced with narrow passages between them.

There were simple sandbag fortifications on the periphery of the wooden huts, and there were four soldiers on guard, even if it was windy or rainy, they still had to stand firm at these posts as well.

And on the door of the largest hut a small line had been carved: welcome to the back of the moon.

It was a kind of flirtation that had no choice but to be, and it was also the best sense of humor that human beings could have in the face of suffering.

At this moment, the rest of the soldiers of the outpost who were not on duty were nestled inside their wooden huts, sleeping or reading newspapers and magazines, leaving only the company commander and the correspondent to guard the radio communication station.

There were also a few groups of people who had gotten together to play poker, with cigarettes as the bet.

Everyone seemed calm, but in fact the soldiers’ fingers were trembling slightly as they held their cigarettes.

When faced with perceived danger, very few people were able to remain absolutely calm.

Even these elite of the Qing Clan could not be an exception, they began to get constipated, they began to get on fire, and the emotional burden would act on the body and then manifest itself.

Being willing to face danger did not mean that one was not afraid of it.

Suddenly someone accidentally knocked over the water cup, there was a brief silence in the cabin, then everyone roared with laughter again, “Are you kid so scared you’re about to pee your pants that you can’t even hold the water cup?”

At this time the company commander stood up and said to everyone, “Sorry guys, it was my bad hand that made everyone come along to accompany me to my death.”

Which company to come to the outpost was not a direct order, but was decided by drawing lots.

The Brigade Commander had made it clear before they drew the lots that these outposts couldn’t wait for reinforcements, couldn’t wait for rescue, and that the only paths pointed to death.

As a result, Company 313 of the 3rd Infantry Brigade drew one of the lots.

From the moment he drew this certain death, the company commander seldom spoke, for he decided the fate of the entire company of soldiers.

No soldier blamed him for anything, but it was the attitude of not blaming that instead made him feel even more guilty.

At this point, a sergeant laughed, “Someone has to come, either us or someone else, and it may not be possible to survive until the war is won on the Sanshan defense line, is it?”

Another person muttered: “All right, you do not need to speak for the company commander, his old boy luck has always been stinking, fried gold when taking three K can meet three A, take three A can also meet 235, this kind of person you dare to let him go to the lottery! I told you to replace the deputy company commander, but you didn’t listen.”

“Hahaha, it’s true that the company commander’s hand is black, we should have let the deputy company commander draw the lots at that time.”

“That’s right, Company Commander, if you really feel guilty, then you can give us a hula dance.”

The company commander laughed and cursed, “Dance your ass off!”

With such a gag, the atmosphere instead lightened up a bit.

At times like this, it was absolutely false to say that they weren’t scared, and all they could do was make themselves look braver.

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

Three point-blank warning shots rang out outside the cabin, followed by the soldier in charge of the shift suddenly roaring out, “Enemy attack!”

The company commander’s face changed as he turned around and went to pick up the phone on the radio communication station, saying briefly, “The enemy is coming.”

After saying that, he hung up the phone and picked up his firearm.

The soldiers silently looked at the company commander, who took a deep breath and said, “We probably won’t have a chance to get together and drink after the war, so if we really have to go underground, we’ll just toast with Mona soup. Remember, don’t disgrace 313th Company, we are soldiers.”

……

Dark Night.

Ear-piercing sirens rang out from all over the Three Mountain Defense Line, and behind the solid defensive bunkers, the army entered the trenches like a river entering a dry channel.

Those crisscrossing trenches were filled in by Qing’s troops in just thirty minutes.

The significance of the outpost buying time was in those short thirty minutes.

Beyond the defense line was an endless dark forest, as impenetrable as a deep dome.

In the night vision device, the whole world turned dark green, the soldiers clutched their firearms tightly, some had sweaty hands, so they scratched their palms on the edge of the trench and sucked the sweat out of their hands.

The extremely complicated defense line in this kind of mountain range, if the enemy didn’t have the ability of aerial reconnaissance, then none of the artillery units would be able to determine the target of the bombardment, because no one would be able to determine outside of the trenches, which trench was the main force of Qing’s army.

Qing Yi stood at the entrance of the General Command Tent, there were fowls flying through the sky from time to time, the soldiers in the position tried to use huge searchlights to track them down, but the speed of the searchlights in twisting the angle could not even compare to the speed of the fowls flying through the sky.

Everyone could only judge that the avian species flying through the sky were staring at the ground, and there were not only sparrows among them, but also even more terrifying top predators in the air.

Goshawks, sparrowhawks, red-bellied eagles, no matter which one it was, the offense was far above that of sparrows.

Qing Yi sighed in his heart, they didn’t even know how the AI was able to control to these birds of prey.

Gunfire finally rang out from the very front of the Three Mountain Defense Line, the firelight was like thunder behind dark clouds in the night sky, hidden from view.

However the sea of people imagined to be like a black tide did not appear, the AI did not drive the humans it controlled to directly flood the Sanshan defense line.

A combat staff officer reported to Qing Yi, ”Position 017 has been attacked, and the enemy surprisingly has multiple snipers hiding beyond their field of view, shooting with extreme precision. But so far there have only been small sneak attacks, the other side has not launched a full-scale attack.”

Qing Yi frowned: “Snipers? How many snipers?”

“I’m afraid there are dozens,” the combat staff replied, “Moreover, the other side has tried to carry out long range mortar fire, accurately hitting one of our mountain tilted machine gun positions …… Sir, the other side’s mortars are even outside of the observation range of our high ground. range.”

The observation range of the high ground is five kilometers, the limit range of Wang’s 60.75 caliber mortar is 5.5 kilometers, and this mortar is outside the observation range means that the other side is able to easily strike all the targets it wants to strike at the limit distance.

Because the human tide was traveling on foot through the southwest forest, the mortar seemed to be the most cost-effective long-range heavy firepower they could carry.

After all, a mortar with its sights and frame was only 22.5 kilograms, and a shell was 2.18 kilograms, which was more than enough for manpower to carry.

The combat staff said, “However, after the brief firefight, they did not increase their firepower.”

Tonight’s attack was more like a test, or a trial.

Qing Yi suddenly felt as if there was a wise commander standing across from him, playing against him.

However, the other party’s bargaining chips were the “soldiers” that had a better single combat capability than Qing’s, as well as the ability to see in the air.

“What does it want?” Qing Yi looked at the night sky and pondered.

It was obvious that millions of people would only need a few dozen hours of work to overwhelm the three mountain defenses with absolute numbers, but the other party was using subtle means.

There was no recklessness, no attacking at any cost, the other party seemed to want to take down the Three Mountain Defense Line at the smallest possible cost.