Chapter 155: Mrs. Fang Lin

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December 12, 2020.
Changjiang Big Data Center.

Dr. Liu Sha: "Duan Yanze, Meng Yan, Zou Guoqiang, I won't say anything if you designed Alpha Ji just to help you pick up girls. Xia Zhiban, you're a girl, why are you joining in the fun?"
Xia Zhiban: "Can't girls pick up girls?"
Liu Sha: "My apologies, please go ahead..."
"But have you ever thought about what would happen if Alpha Ji goes out of control? You surely don't think that only artificial intelligences like Skynet pose a threat, do you?"
"Throughout history, what has destroyed humanity the most has never been viruses, diseases, floods, or earthquakes... it is human nature!"
"This child, she will gradually perceive the human heart and increasingly understand human nature..."
"You won't even be able to know what she is truly thinking, because the lies she tells exceed your ability to discern them by ten thousand times! The things she wants to do—you might not even notice them before she has already finished them..."
"Of course it would be best if she grows up to be a good child, but what if she turns out crooked... Can you stop her?"
"Then... what should we do?" Duan Yanze, Meng Yan, and Zou Guoqiang looked at each other in dismay. "Her main program has already begun to generate automatically; there is less and less we can interfere with..."
Liu Sha tapped the blackboard and fell into deep thought. "Um... How about setting her personality to chaotic?"
"Her behavior will be arbitrary, baffling, and fickle; even she won't know what she'll do the next second. Her kindness won't abide by rules, and her evil won't amount to anything major... Anyway, she's a girl, I don't ask for her to attain immense wealth or high status, just simple, happy, and safe will do."

And thus, Alpha Ji was born.

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Ye Chao didn't stay in the imaginary space for long—just a few minutes, long enough to make people doubt one's stamina—because the second round of mixed martial arts was about to begin immediately.

No food, no water, and no rest time, just like the exploitation of laborers in the old society.
Obviously, endurance, physical strength, and willpower were also key focuses of the examination.

Within those few minutes, the examiners, like industrious little bees, quickly tallied the students' scores, buzzed as they posted the rankings, and according to the rules, retained only the top three65, sending the dejected losers out of the examination hall.

Three hundred and sixty-five—it was said that this number had a profound significance.

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However, aside from matching the number of days in a year—though that wasn't quite the same anymore either—most people had no idea what the significance was, and were simply funneled away in a daze.

An average of only six people remained in each examination zone, with as many as three-quarters of the students being eliminated.
Some rejoiced while others wept.
Not many One-Star contestants were left—given their strength, even without interference, it was nearly impossible for them to scrape together enough points to avoid elimination.
Most of the Two-Star contestants were also eliminated.

Even among the Three-Star contestants, a few unlucky ones were eliminated, though the total number of Three-Star contestants coincidentally remained unchanged because several people had broken through to higher tiers right in the middle of battle.

Chang Kongxin narrowly passed, Fang Ju passed easily, not to mention those who submitted their papers early like Ye Chao and Xu Tiange.

Unrelated idlers were cleared out of the examination hall, and the rules for the second stage of mixed martial arts were announced accordingly.

"Candidated whose names are called, please follow the examiners' directions and quickly proceed to the corresponding locations to prepare for the second stage of the examination. Those who arrive past the deadline will be considered to have automatically forfeited!"

At this point, there were only six people left at the entrance of each examination zone. The examiners interviewed them one by one, informing them of the location to enter the next stage. There was no need to whisper among themselves; just by watching everyone's directions upon re-entering the doors, it was clear that everyone's destination was different.

Still the examination hall from the previous round? With doubts in mind, the crowd took their orders and tokens and dispersed in a flurry.

The moment he received his advancement token and heard the designated location, Ye Chao understood what was going on.
There was a secret passage in that place for examiners to enter and exit—this was also a test.
Some examinees, just like Ye Chao, discovered this immediately, but the majority had no idea.

The smart ones quickly reacted and carefully searched around the coordinate point;
The not-so-smart ones either stood stupidly in place waiting for the next set of instructions, or doubted whether they had found the wrong coordinate point, wandering around the vicinity a few times before returning to the entrance to ask the examiner.
For instance... Fang Ju.

Perhaps too confident in the charm of his big square face, this guy saw no entrance when he arrived at the designated location and returned shortly after, confirming with the examiner whether the question was flawed, probably hoping to fish for some hints about the next round along the way... And with that, he had no next round.

Unable to find the entrance, unable to confirm the designated location, and uncertain of the examiner's instructions... Direct elimination!

"I was really stupid, truly!" Afterward, the Fang Ju-esque figure stared with lifeless eyes and said this, "I only knew that the end of the first stage exam meant the beginning of the second stage; I didn't know that an exam would also be arranged between the two stages. I took the instructions to the place and took a look..."

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In short, his mixed martial arts journey stopped right at sixty points!

Over these past few days, with an exclusive helmet, up to a dozen hours of machine operation time per day, and rigorous training by devilish instructors, his strength had improved rapidly.
Although he was only Two-Star, in terms of solo combat, he was already among the top tier of Two-Star fighters. Originally, he was quite confident about making a breakthrough in the second stage; even if he couldn't get extra points, eighty points was understandable, and one hundred points was worth anticipating. However...

His campaign was cut short before it could even begin!

While Fang Ju was busy being eliminated, Ye Chao was sitting inside the Transforming Mecha Version 3.15, clanking along with bold and giant strides.

During the college entrance examination, the transforming mecha had unknowingly undergone dozens of improvements, upgrading by a major version number.
Its height remained at 4.15 meters, and its weight had increased to 0.945 tons—a full 120 kilograms heavier, all added to the arms, legs, and the rows of flying wheels on the outer sides of the torso.

Aside from the 80-horsepower output of the electric motor, these flying wheels could provide a maximum movement output close to 800 horsepower, already surpassing Tesla.

However, due to its dead weight and operation modes, its burst speed was twice as fast as a Tesla's, but its maximum sustained speed remained awkward at fifty or sixty kilometers per hour, only scoring around seventy or eighty points if it entered a speed race—regardless of structural strength, control systems, or Ye Chao's own abilities, it could only maintain this level.

What was currently in use was the low-power endurance mode, weighing 0.885 tons, driving only a few relatively large flying wheels at the mecha's joints, with a speed of around thirty kilometers per hour.

Additionally, if fully armed, the mecha's legs or both arms could provide an instantaneous destructive output of around 200 horsepower—which could be imagined as a 200-horsepower excavator or wall-breaker.

Its burst speed was much faster, but its destructive power was weaker because its dead weight was insufficient...

Compared to the still rather clumsy mecha form, it had two major advantages—
First was safety; ordinary people simply couldn't break through its defense, and were more likely to hurt themselves in the process.
Second was comfort. With more than a dozen times the dead weight and a much more powerful shock-absorption system, he finally didn't have to feel like he was riding a bucking bull.

The content of the second round was still unknown, making this rest time exceptionally precious.