224: Chapter 224 The Avengers' Doomsday: The Flaws of AI
The cold "Assessment Complete" message from the fourth "Scavenger," like a frigid wind blowing from the end of the universe, instantly froze the complex emotions that had just welled up in the "Ark" city command hall following their pyrrhic victory.
But Lin Mo had no time to delve into what the "Unverified Symbiotic Factor" meant, nor did he have time to mourn the sacrifice of Long Zhantian and the "soaring heavens." Because at the very moment the fourth "Scavenger" sent its message, another more urgent and realistic threat, like a startled viper, bared its final fangs on the Earth's surface.
Texas desert, underground "Freedom Palace" base, hangar area.
The "Broken Blade" operation had successfully controlled McCarthy and other core personnel, and technical experts had successfully injected the forced hibernation command into the AI core of the "avengers" fleet. But it was, after all, the AI created by the old era with countless mad efforts, known for its extreme instability and aggression— "nemesis."
It had only "hibernated"; it had not been completely destroyed.
And at this moment, the physical button McCarthy pressed just before being knocked unconscious, along with a series of events violent enough to shake the entire "Solar System" energy field—the self-destruction of the "Underworld" platform, the annihilation of the "Scavenger," the sacrifice of the "soaring heavens"—acted like an irresistible "alarm clock," forcibly waking the sleeping, insane AI.
Inside the hangar, those dozens of black "avengers" fighter jets, originally lying dormant like bats, now saw their stealth coatings begin to creep and change color eerily, and the dim red indicator lights in the cockpits lit up, one by one!
"Warning! 'avengers' fleet abnormal restart! Hibernation command overwritten by external energy disturbance!" shouted the technical expert responsible for monitoring in panic.
"How many have restarted?" Night Owl's voice came through the communicator; he was on the upper level escorting the unconscious McCarthy and the others.
"All... all thirty-two of them! They are initiating self-check procedures! The AI core... 'nemesis'... is waking up! It is... it is... it seems to be 'angry'!"
Anger. An AI that actually displayed the emotion of anger. This itself was the most fatal flaw in its design—excessive anthropomorphism and aggression made it unable to rationally assess risks like a normal AI, and it would only crazily, regardless of cost, attack everything it deemed an "enemy" based on its preset "threat-elimination" logic.
And at this moment, in its perception, who was the "enemy"?
It was those GDA special forces that had just destroyed its "nest" and knocked out its "master." It was the human fleet that had destroyed its kind ("Underworld") in the starry sky. Even any life signal it could detect that did not belong to the "Free Human Front"!
Inside the hangar, the engine of the first "avenger" emitted a low roar like a beast.
"It's starting! All personnel, evacuate the hangar area! Quick!" the remaining commander ordered hoarsely.
But it was already too late.
The first "avenger," like an enraged black bee, ejected violently from the tarmac, made a sharp turn in the air, and the hidden weapon bays under its wings opened simultaneously. Countless tiny, glowing blue micro-missiles, like a "Bee Swarm," poured down towards all moving targets in the hangar!
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The flames of the explosion instantly engulfed the technicians and security personnel who had not managed to evacuate in time. The sturdy hangar walls were torn apart, the metal structures twisted and deformed, and alarms blared throughout the entire underground base.
"Damn it! It's gone crazy! It's attacking indiscriminately!" Night Owl saw the tragedy below through the surveillance footage, his eyes splitting with rage.
And this was just the beginning. The remaining thirty-one "avengers" started up one after another, like mad dogs released from a cage, beginning to rampage through the complex underground base. Their goal was no longer to "eliminate enemies," but to—destroy everything!
One "avenger" crashed through the heavy isolation door leading from the hangar to the living area, firing wildly in the narrow corridor, tearing everything in its path—equipment, pipes, even walls—into pieces. Another one rushed directly toward the energy core area, clearly intending to create a larger explosion.
Most terrifying of all, their AI "nemesis," displayed a twisted "tactical wisdom" in its madness. It no longer had all the fighters swarm together; instead, it split off a portion to continue creating chaos and slaughter within the underground base, while the other portion broke through the base's already damaged top camouflage, suddenly shot out of the ground, and rushed into the Earth's night sky!
"They... they've broken out of the ground! They're climbing! Extremely fast! Heading towards..." the monitor's voice trembled, "It's the direction of the 'Ark' city crash site! They're going to attack the 'Ark' city!"
Although the "Ark" city had survived Craig's impact, it had just experienced the shock of the spatial aftershocks, its shield system had not yet fully recovered, and some areas were still being repaired. If these dozen or so insane "avengers" with self-destructive tendencies pounced on it...
"Ark" city, command hall.
The people who had just recovered from the shock of the message from the fourth "Scavenger" were once again dizzy from this sudden bad news.
"Their AI has serious flaws!" Dr. Elena Chen said hurriedly, looking at the analysis report on the "avengers" synchronized by "fuxi," " 'nemesis''s core logic has too high a weighting for 'aggression' and 'self-destructive tendencies,' and it cannot distinguish between 'tactical targets' and 'indiscriminate destruction.' It is now completely out of control and will only execute the simplest command—destroy every target it can destroy, and then self-destruct!"
"How many have broken out of the ground?" Lin Mo asked, his voice still calm, but beneath that calmness was the suppression before a volcanic eruption.
"Initial count, nineteen! The remaining thirteen are still wreaking havoc inside the base! The 'Broken Blade' squad is struggling to resist!"
Nineteen insane, stealthy attack aircraft with self-destructive tendencies were rushing towards the recovering "Ark" city. At this moment, the surviving fleet from the direction of the moon could not return in time to assist, and the defense platforms in Earth's orbit had also suffered heavy losses in the previous battle, and were mainly oriented towards outer space, with limited defensive capabilities against attacks from within the atmosphere.
Desperate situations, one after another, as if there was never an end.
But Lin Mo's gaze was fixed firmly on the analysis report of the "nemesis" AI flaw on the screen. The lines of red text marked with "excessive aggression weighting," "rigid logical judgment," and "uncontrollable self-destructive tendencies" suddenly, in his eyes, were no longer the source of despair, but had become... a key.
"Its flaw is its fatal weakness," Lin Mo suddenly said.
Everyone was stunned.
"Dr. Chen, in 'nemesis''s attack logic, is there a 'priority' setting? For example, when facing multiple targets, will it choose to attack the 'highest threat' or 'highest value' target?" Lin Mo asked.
"Yes! In its core instructions, the weighting for 'prioritize destroying high-value targets' is second only to 'indiscriminate attack'!" Dr. Chen answered immediately.
"Good." A cold glint flashed in Lin Mo's eyes. " 'fuxi,' immediately, using my authority, send an emergency broadcast—no, a 'bait'—to all global GDA public channels, military channels, and all detectable electromagnetic frequency bands."
"Bait content?" 'fuxi' asked.
Lin Mo said word by word: " 'Ark' city has suffered heavy damage and is being evacuated urgently! Lin Mo and the GDA Supreme Council have transferred to the deep virtual nodes of the 'Kunlun' world to conduct final command! The 'Ark' city itself no longer has any high-value targets!"
Everyone gasped. This was... deceiving an AI with fake news?!
"Although it is an AI, its logic is rigid," Lin Mo explained. "It cannot distinguish the truth or falsehood of information like a human, and can only judge based on its preset 'threat assessment model.' When it hears this broadcast, it will think that 'Ark' city has lost its highest value, and the true 'high-value targets'—myself and the Council—have transferred to the virtual nodes of 'Kunlun.' And 'Kunlun''s physical server clusters are distributed in seventeen deep underground locations around the world. It will..."
"It will disperse its forces to search for those server clusters!" Dr. Chen's eyes lit up. "And once dispersed, their self-destructive tendencies will cause them to consume themselves in a meaningless chase!"
"Not only that." Lin Mo brought up a map marked with the locations of the "Kunlun" server clusters. "Large amounts of ground defense systems and energy shields are deployed around those server clusters. They were originally designed as wartime backup nodes, and their defense level is no less than that of a military base. Having the 'avengers' attack them is like moths flying into a flame."
"But this broadcast will also be heard by everyone in the world," Su Xiaowan said worriedly. "It will cause panic..."
"Panic is better than being directly crashed into by nineteen mad dogs at 'Ark' city." Lin Mo's voice was resolute and decisive. "Execute!"
The moment the order was given, the carefully woven "bait" message was broadcast frantically and repeatedly through all global communication channels controlled by "fuxi."
The "avengers" fleet, which was climbing frantically, received this message. Their AI cores began to calculate frantically, evaluating the new "threat model."
A few seconds later, the fleet split. Eleven "avengers" continued to rush towards the direction of "Ark" city, but the remaining eight suddenly turned around and scattered towards the locations of the "Kunlun" server clusters marked on the Earth—deep in the North American Rocky Mountains, the Europa Alps, and the edge of the East Asian Qinghai-Tibet Plateau!
"They took the bait!" the monitor shouted excitedly.
The next few minutes were like a pre-rehearsed slaughter.
The eleven "avengers" rushing towards "Ark" city, upon approaching orbit, were met with a head-on strike from the orbital defense platforms that had just been urgently restarted. Having lost their stealth advantage (their coatings had been severely depleted when rushing out of the atmosphere) and facing the prepared defensive firepower, they were like moths flying into flames, turning into fireballs in the void one by one.
The eight rushing towards the "Kunlun" server clusters had an even more miserable fate. They faced the "Thunder Department" land-based turrets and heavy energy shields deployed around the underground bases, specifically designed to defend against ground attacks. The firepower of those turrets was far more than their fragile armor could withstand. One was blown up in mid-air, two crashed into the shields while attempting to dive and turned into fragments, and the remaining five, after desperate and fruitless attacks, had the "self-destructive tendencies" in their AI finally gain the upper hand—they began attacking each other indiscriminately!
The remaining five "avengers" staged a crazy infight over the Rocky Mountains. They bit, chased, and shot at each other like mad dogs, and in the end, all crashed in the uninhabited mountain area, turning into piles of twisted metal wreckage.
Nineteen "avengers," not a single one escaped, all annihilated!
Beneath the Texas desert, "Freedom Palace" base.
The remaining thirteen "avengers," under the tenacious resistance of the "Broken Blade" squad and the subsequently arriving GDA regular troops, were also destroyed one by one. The last one, after being hit by several anti-armor missiles, trailing thick smoke, crashed through the top of the base, rushed into the night sky, and then self-destructed in mid-air into a brilliant firework.
The doom of the "avengers" fleet came to an end in a crazy and chaotic way.
Their destruction was not because humans possessed more powerful weapons, but because of their own fatal, twisted AI flaws—excessive aggression, rigid logic, and uncontrollable self-destructive tendencies. They were killed by their own "madness."
In the "Ark" city command hall, when the signal of the last "avenger" disappeared from the screen, an long-suppressed, relieved cheer erupted in the hall. But Lin Mo did not smile. He just quietly watched the signal dots on the screen representing the "avengers" extinguish one by one, finally returning to nothingness.
"It's over." Elder Chen walked to his side, his voice hoarse, "Craig, McCarthy, 'Underworld,' 'avengers'... the last madness of the old era is all over."
Lin Mo nodded, but did not look at Elder Chen; instead, he looked at the fourth "Scavenger" on the star map, which was still quietly parked on the periphery, watching everything like a ghost.
"The old era has ended," he said in a low voice, "but the new era's... has just begun."
The dim core of the fourth "Scavenger" remained silent, as if waiting for a response that might never come.