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Book 4, Chapter 3
A Plan in the Making
Don't take the story for serious!
-----------------
We followed dad to the laboratory. We're
now standing on a giant trestle bridge. An area the size of four or five
football courts lies below us. Three really big...machines are located there. I
see the emblem of Dragon Fate printed on them. They are about 10 meters high, with
octagonal shaped foundations. Hundreds of thick cables are connected to them. There
are cooling devices attached on the cables, which would release out some vapour
now and then. They must have implemented a really good ventilation system
in here, since the place doesn't feel damp in the least.
"Now what you see here is the very core of my
Dragon Fate--Nova!"
"Is that
the game server of [Zero]?" Rose asked, a bit excitedly.
"Well, we also use Nova as the game server yes. But
not these three. The game server is a simplified version. We removed a lot of
components that are useless to host a game, and of course it won't be as
powerful as the three complete machines."
"So these three computers are Nova?"
Rose's face is getting red. I moved behind her in case she faints.
"They're not computers! Photoelectron computing
units, they're semi-biological machines." Father pointed at those cables.
"Look at the biggest one. That is not an electric cable, it's a nutrient
ca.n.a.l. What's inside these machines is basically composed of insectoid brain
tissues."
"Insect? Why not human?"
Father knocked me on the head, while Rose also rolled
her eyes.
"First of all, my boy...you don't find free human brains lying
around! Using a human brain will bring a lot of...ethical issues. Besides, the
only advantage of the human brain is the excessive capacity."
"But there's no doubt humans are the most
intelligent creatures out there." Rose commented.
"That is also because of our brain size. Now
suppose an insect can grow a brain as big as ours, they will outsmart us in no
time. Their brain cells are independent, each cell is like a single digital
chip that can function on its own. As for human brains...they're useless if separated. The most important
reason though, is the low cost. We can breed tons of semi-products within a
year, thanks to their reproductivity."
"I can use Nova to do my simulations?"
"Yes. We will allow you 20 percent of our system resources
for your project."
"20 percent?"
"That's more than enough. That old computer back
at school probably can't even match 1% of Nova's true capability."
"This is
brilliant!" Rose jumped. Thank G.o.d there are safety bars on the bridge.
"I believe I can finish my experiment in no time! By the way, what kind of
'weapon' did you turn my project into?"
"We gave a vivid little name for your theory."
An old man with white hair, wearing clean room suit, walked to us. "The
'Commercial Nuke'. Boring, I know. But is enough to tell us the idea of it."
"It still sounds dangerous though." I joked.
"Of course it's dangerous!" The old researcher
continued, "Our progress has proved it to be reliable, and we have already
found a proper detonator for it."
"Exactly." Father took over the topic. "The
detonator is no other than [Zero]."
"Wha--" I yelled. "Zero? The game I'm playing?"
Rose smiled. "I get it. So who's your first target?"
"Take a guess."
"j.a.pan?"
"Bingo." The researcher smiled. "Tell
us dear, how did you reach this conclusion?"
"Several reasons. To begin with, the first target
who took the 'bomb' is the last one expecting it, so the bomb will have its best
outcome, which means we should pick a tough target. Next, we're using [Zero] as
a middle. So who loves games? j.a.pan or Korea. Lastly, Dragon Fate has its
influence all over the world but is weakest within j.a.pan. If we can force a
power shuffle there, we will have a chance to get a big haul in the process."
"Clever. Very clever!" He commented. "Why didn't you consider our ethnic contradictions though?"
"A businessman talks business. We pursue profit, and all
for profit. Without an actual war, ethnic and nation conflicts are just
political lies, profit decides everything."
Rose is speaking with a high
spirit like those ambitious empresses in movies. I never knew she had this in
her! Geez. I hope she can be as good when it comes to dealing with
emotions.
Father and the researcher chuckled. Dad explained
slowly. "Nice insight. But not thorough enough. It's totally
understandable though, for your age."
"I was...wrong?" Rose asked in shock.
"Nonono, I said 'not thorough'. That ethnic issue
which you considered least, is actually our biggest motive."
"But how?" Rose questioned, "Why would
you act to your emotions?"
"We're not acting on emotions." The
researcher explained. "I don't hate j.a.pan. On the contrary, I admire them.
j.a.panese people have always been living under great pressure of all sorts, thus
they developed some of the best awarenesses. As you may heard, they work with
great efficiency, they never slack off on their job. They don't enjoy much
spare time because they're the first ones to know how to face crisis. They
learn fast, too--they can always study from the other nations and races, then
leverage the best parts. Sadly, our ancestors already claimed we should learn
from the foreign world, but we never took it seriously. That's one of the many
aspects where the j.a.panese people would win over us."
Well, listening to this is surely depressing. "Are
you saying our billions of people are weaker than them?"
Father turned to me. "You didn't understand. We
admit that they can do SOMETHING better than us, not everything. Of
course our overall strength is better. We should know their advantages and
learn. I know you don't like j.a.pan, Sairin, but don't take that emotion to the
whole nationwide level. There are a lot of good people, apart from those
intruders and slaughterers you learned from the history book."
Researcher: "j.a.pan's geographical location is far
from ideal. They never had much nature resources. It only got worse when we
sunk their Honshu Island last time. n.o.body would just sit there and wait for
demise, they need to grow, yet they don't have the land for it. The obvious way
to get out of the situation, is war. They can solve all of their problems if
they simply seize the land and resources from nearby countries. And the best choice--us.
China sits in the way when j.a.pan wants to develop. That's why they planned to
remove us; On the other hand, j.a.pan is an obstacle for China as well. They're
like an outpost for America, and pose threat to us at all time. They are in
the way for our fleets towards the Pacific. Our boats need to make a detour
and avoid their sea when going anywhere. Do you know what that means, when
everyone is trying to harness ocean resources? It's like someone is preventing
us from reaching a gold mine. Wouldn't it be nice if this 'someone' just
disappears? It's never a good thing to wait for the intruders. We should act
first! Do you understand now? As you said, the real problem is always caused by
profit. The existence of j.a.pan is a threat to our survival, and the same can be
said in both ways. Eliminating the other one will always be the ultimate
decision for either of us."
The old man is getting over excited. I think I need to
stop this.
"Wait! Stop! I get it. So China and j.a.pan are like two hungry
wolves in front of only one piece of meat. We both need to dispose of the
opponent in order to get the meat--or rather, eat the other wolf as well."
Father frowned. "That's not really a good way to
put it but... close. We were just trying each other out during the previous
conflict, and j.a.pan fell behind." Then he pulled us near and whispered.
"Now you'd better not tell this to anyone else: It's very possible that
there will be a war between us very soon, a big one."
"Are we going to do a genocide?"
Father slapped me on the head. "What's going on
inside your brain?? That's not how a war looks like. If possible, we can just
take control of the nation. Now that we mentioned it, I do hope there is a day
when I don't need to waste my time getting a VISA to travel abroad anymore."
"What about America? Surely they won't just watch
us beat up j.a.pan."
"I'm not sure what they'll think. They may just
decide to give up on helping j.a.pan. It's never been easy to keep a leash on
them anyway."
"So that's
the reason behind it." Rose nodded in understanding," Looks like I was thinking
too simple. I've always believed that we hate j.a.pan because of those old
histories."
"Don't worry." I comforted Rose. "It's already
something that you can understand these things, when you were born in that kind
of family."
"Pfff. My dad and stepmom never succeeded when trying to teach
me to follow their steps."
"Sairin, I believe you got quite some nice
equipment in the game?" Father grinned at me in a...creepy way.
"What are you planning?" I know something is
coming.
"Oh simple. I need you to go to j.a.pan and cause
some damage to them."
The researcher took over. "According to the
records, the total player investment into [Zero] around the globe has went
beyond 10 billion. It's not a noticeable number compared to the economic of an
entire country, but is enough to qualify as that 'detonator'. If you manage to
damage their a.s.sets in [Zero], they will certainly try to throw in more fund in
order to reduce and recover their loss. That's when Dragon Fate can make a
move inside their financial market and cause a big surprise to their groups,
even breaking them apart."
"That sounds easy but there are a lot of problems
I need to deal with first." I considered.
"Take it slow. We're in no hurry, so you may act
on your own decisions. Oh and, we have some news for you too. Guild wars will
be unlocked in at most two months, then nation wars, in another four months. When
that happens, all maps in different countries will become connected, and I'm
positive the whole game world will fall into total chaos by then. Whatever you're
planning, you should try your best to improve your strength during the six
months!"
"Okay then. I'll see to it. Why don't you just rig
something for me in the server?"
Another slap on the head. Ouch.
"The other administrators
are not fools! The server of [Zero] went under the supervision of five
countries, that is China, the USA, the UK, France and Russia, from day one. We
can only look at the data but not make any changes. You need permissions from all
five countries to modify any game data. That was what we did when we contacted
you in-game and recovered those abnormal gold you got from the bugged NPC, and
it were the others who asked us to do it, otherwise we could just let you keep
the extra money. We need to follow the majority. And that crossbow, we
paid them greatly to change their mind or you would really lose it forever!"
"Oh wow. I didn't know that incident caused so
many scenes behind us."
We chatted until
evening before I got to drive Rose back. Man, this is a tiresome day.
According
to father, I need to be more aggressive in the game from now on...no more
goofing off I guess.