13: Chapter 13: Buying a chip and being treated like a thief? I'll build an AI out of scrap!

Su Che returned to his workshop and plopped down onto that creaky wooden chair.

Inside his mind, the system's task panel was still glowing.

[Task Name: A Rural Teacher's Tears, Must Not Be Shed in Vain!]

[Task Reward: 500 Skill Points, Unlocks [Artificial Intelligence] Primary Algorithm Exchange Permission, 300 Exchange Points.]

Artificial Intelligence.

The core of this thing is algorithms and computing power.

The system could provide the algorithms, but the computing power had to rely on a chip.

The accumulated Skill Points were more than enough to exchange for an algorithm.

But what about the chip?

He subconsciously looked up and glanced out the window.

Behind the window of the two-story building next door, a blurry figure flashed by.

That was one of Captain Li Jun's soldiers, holding binoculars and pretending to admire the scenery.

And he was fucking looking at the wall of his own toilet.

Su Che curled his lip.

Being guarded like a thief—this life was truly fucked up.

He took out his phone, opened a shopping app, and skillfully typed "Raspberry Pi 4B" into the search box.

This thing was just a microcomputer motherboard; its performance wasn't strong, but it was barely enough to run a primary Artificial Intelligence algorithm.

The price was over three hundred yuan.

He had just added the item to his cart and hadn't even clicked to pay yet.

"Knock, knock, knock."

The workshop door was knocked on.

Su Che was too lazy to even lift his head.

"Come in."

The door was pushed open, and Captain Li Jun's perpetually icy face appeared at the entrance.

"Comrade Su Che."

"Something up?" Su Che leaned back in his chair and shook his phone.

Captain Li Jun's gaze landed on his phone screen, on the product image of the "Raspberry Pi."

"What are you buying?"

"A toy." Su Che answered righteously.

"This 'toy' requires reporting." Captain Li Jun's tone was unquestionable.

"A three-hundred-yuan piece of junk board needs to be reported too?" Su Che chuckled. "Manager Li, the scope of business for your Telecommunications Bureau is quite broad, isn't it?"

"Any electronic component that could cause signal anomalies or possesses data processing capabilities is classified as a controlled item."

Captain Li Jun's voice was without a ripple.

"Before the observation mission here ends, every single screw you purchase must go through my approval."

Su Che stared at him for a few seconds.

"Fine."

Right in front of Captain Li Jun, he pressed the "delete" key and emptied his cart.

"Not buying it anymore, that okay now?"

Captain Li Jun didn't speak, just gave him a deep look, then turned and closed the door.

Su Che listened to the fading footsteps outside the door and irritably scratched his hair.

Damn it.

The path was blocked.

Forget about a chip; he probably had to write an eight-hundred-word application report just to buy a keychain with an LED light now.

To hell with building a wrong-question printer.

"Brother, what's wrong?"

Su Hao poked his head in and slipped through the door, still holding an apple and munching on it.

"Were you bullied by that bunch from the 'Telecommunications Bureau'?"

"Get lost." Su Che retorted irritably.

He stood up and paced back and forth in the cramped workshop.

Chip... chip...

No chip meant no brain.

His gaze swept over the mountain of electronic trash in the workshop.

Old mobile phones, broken radios, dismantled DVDs...

Wait!

Mobile phone?!

Su Che's footsteps came to a sudden halt.

He dashed to the pile of trash and reached in, pulling out a phone with a screen shattered like a spiderweb and the back cover missing.

Judging by the design, it was an antique from at least seven or eight years ago.

"Brother, what are you doing with this thing? This broken phone can't even play Tetris." Su Hao leaned in, his face full of curiosity.

Su Che ignored him, his fingers gently brushing over the broken motherboard, his gaze finally locking onto a fingernail-sized area covered by a metal shield.

That was the "brain" of this phone—the CPU!

Although it was a piece of obsolete junk from seven or eight years ago, its computing power was nothing compared to current flagship chips.

But no matter how obsolete the CPU was, it was still a CPU!

It was enough to run a primary Artificial Intelligence for identifying wrong questions!

The mechanical structure of the printer could be modified using those broken dot-matrix or inkjet printers from the scrapyard.

The camera used for scanning and identification...

Didn't this broken phone come with one! Although the resolution was pitifully low, as long as the algorithm was well-optimized, identifying printed Chinese characters and numbers wouldn't be a big problem!

A brand-new renovation plan, composed entirely of "trash," instantly became clear in his mind!

"Xiao Hao!"

Su Che's eyes lit up as he grabbed his cousin's shoulders.

"Huh? Brother, what's up?"

"Let's go! Come with me to the scrapyard again!"

Su Che grinned, revealing a mouthful of white teeth.

"Today, brother is going to show you a special skill!"

"Turning Stone into Gold 2.0!"

...

In the "temporary office" on the second floor of the building next door.

Captain Li Jun was staring at the surveillance wall in front of him, which was composed of nine small screens.

On the wall, every corner of the Su family courtyard and the workshop was clearly displayed.

"Report, Captain, the target just gave up on online purchasing." A technician reported.

Captain Li Jun nodded, with no expression on his face.

Everything was under control.

He wanted to use this method to completely cut off any possibility of Su Che obtaining technology from the outside world.

He wanted to see what kind of tricks someone trapped in a small mountain village could pull off without modern electronic components.

"Report! The target is heading to the scrapyard west of the village!"

Captain Li Jun's gaze locked onto one of the screens.

Su Che was pushing a wheelbarrow with his tag-along cousin, heading to the scrapyard in high spirits.

"What is he going to that pile of trash for?" Captain Li Jun frowned.

"Maybe... he's going to pick up some scrap metal to sell for money?" The technician guessed uncertainly.

Captain Li Jun didn't speak; he had a premonition.

This kid would definitely not be this docile.

Half an hour later, Su Che returned pushing a wheelbarrow full of "spoils."

An old inkjet printer with a yellowed casing and a missing cover.

A dusty scanner platform that had been dismantled from some unknown machine.

And several discarded smartphones of various models, all with completely shattered screens.

He pushed all these things into the workshop and then closed the door with a "bang."

In the monitoring room, the atmosphere was a bit strange.

"Captain... he... what is he trying to do?"

"Assemble a new computer out of this trash?"

Captain Li Jun didn't answer.

He just watched on the screen as Su Che picked up a screwdriver and began to dismantle the broken printer, his movements as skilled as an old master who had been doing it for twenty years.

He removed the printer's print head, carriage rails, paper feed rollers...

He also opened those broken phones, carefully removing the motherboards and rear camera modules inside...

He laid out these parts from different eras and brands on the workbench like building blocks.

The few elite soldiers in the monitoring room looked at each other, their faces filled with big question marks.

Was this... playing house?

Captain Li Jun's brows, however, furrowed deeper and deeper.

He couldn't understand.

He completely couldn't understand what Su Che was doing.

These parts were completely unrelated and could never be combined to work together.

He saw Su Che on the screen using a soldering iron to carefully desolder a small, black chip from a mobile phone motherboard.

Su Che held up the chip and examined it carefully against the light.

In the monitoring room, the technician's voice suddenly rang out.

"Captain... look!"

Captain Li Jun looked in the direction he was pointing.

He saw Su Che put down the chip, pick up pen and paper, and begin to quickly write and draw something on the table.

It wasn't a circuit diagram.

It was rows and rows of dense code and formulas that they couldn't understand at all.

[ if error_rate > 0.7: activate(deep_learning_module) ]

[ else: run(template_matching_algorithm) ]

...

"What... what is this?" one of the elite soldiers couldn't help but ask.

The technician stared at the screen, zoomed in on the image, and locked onto the formulas.

"If I'm not mistaken..."

"This... seems to be some kind of... underlying algorithm logic for Artificial Intelligence!"