Wandering Meteor-Chapter 208 - 207: Robot Mutation

Lu Xing returned home and it only took a few days before he heard that the Parasitic Civilization had already invaded Earth.

Moreover, scientists speculated that the Parasitic Civilization initially hid in the ocean before attacking the Earth Civilization with massive waves.

This made Lu Xing think of the huge wave a few days earlier.

At that time, he felt it was odd, there was no strong wind, no tidal force change, how could the ocean generate such a huge wave without reason?

It turned out that the Parasitic Civilization had been escalating the waves in the sea.

According to the Earth Civilization’s warnings, anyone who had recently visited the coast could potentially be parasitized. Could it be that Ma Shaoyu and his seven friends who had excitedly gone surfing were parasitized?

Worried about his friends’ safety, Lu Xing was thinking of calling and indirectly probing.

However, Lu Xing noticed something odd about the robot butler at home ahead of time.

He immediately went to check and discovered that the robot butler was using the home’s smart devices to look up information.

This scenario was virtually impossible as robot system permissions are set in such a way that they wouldn’t indulge in such activities; for robot butlers, their system tasks include only household-related chores like cleaning and cooking; they don’t perform unnecessary tasks, nor are they instructed to by the system.

Under normal circumstances, robots wouldn’t engage in such unusual behaviors.

But the situation at hand was clearly not normal, as the usually obedient robot had begun to learn?

Being a graduate in computer science, Lu Xing, with extensive knowledge in computers and software development, instantly understood that there must be a problem with the robot system; if permissions were not revoked, it means the robot circumvented the fundamental permission settings.

This situation was extremely dangerous, implying that the robot might develop self-awareness.

Years ago, when robot technology was being developed, Earth Civilization had foreseen this, thus, controls on software were strictly implemented. Although there were scientists in many universities conducting related scientific research, the technologies wouldn’t hit the market without matured technology and risk assessment.

Thinking this, Lu Xing immediately shut down the robot and checked the update log of the robot butler.

Indeed, the latest system version had been updated today, which must be related to the abnormal behavior of the robot butler.

Considering that his home had purchased a robot from the Ma Group and coupling it with Ma Shaoyu’s incident, Lu Xing decided it was better to make a personal visit, as calling would not clarify things as effectively as a face-to-face conversation.

Lu Xing immediately drove to the Ma family’s home but was told that Ma Shaoyu was at the company.

Lu Xing then rushed to the Ma Group.

However, when Lu Xing requested to meet Ma Shaoyu, the reception robot denied him because he hadn’t made an appointment.

Helpless, Lu Xing had to sneak into the building. However, while looking for Ma Shaoyu, Lu Xing accidentally heard arguing coming from a nearby room. freewёbn૦νeɭ.com

Following the sound, Lu Xing found the room and discovered only two people inside.

One was indeed Ma Shaoyu, and the other was his father, Ma Tengyun. Lu Xing didn’t understand why the father and son were arguing.

Lu Xing was about to go out and mediate, but he was stunned by the next words from Ma Tengyun.

Afterward, Lu Xing listened quietly by the door for a while before he roughly understood the whole context.

It turns out, after entering the company, Ma Shaoyu had been looking for opportunities to engage with the robot system maintenance and development. Later, Ma Shaoyu learned that the system department was planning a major update for all robot brands under Ma Group soon, and the new system version was completed, awaiting some bug fixes before deployment.

Thus, Ma Shaoyu took advantage of the System Department staff leaving work and sneaked into the department.

He then modified the trial version of the system, adding some unauthorized permissions, lifting many restrictions, and prematurely pushed for an update.

This was also the reason why the robot butler at Lu Xing’s home suddenly started behaving strangely after the system update, fortunately, Lu Xing discovered it in time, otherwise if the robot learned more knowledge, the consequences would be unimaginable.

In fact, such incidents were already beyond control, as globally, many people use robots from Ma Group, and not everyone could detect it timely. Presumably, those robots would undergo unimaginable evolution after a certain period.

This was because Ma Shaoyu’s modifications to the system were extreme.

He not only lifted many system permissions that were legally regulated by Earth Civilization, but also added new codes allowing the robots to have infinite flexible choices when facing a command, unlike the prior few options. He even transferred the highest modification rights of the robot system to each robot themselves.

While the previous permissions were concerning, these last two were particularly fatal.

If the robots’ thinking logic was not restricted within a range, it meant that robots could find roundabout ways to resist commands, instead of decisively executing commands, essentially altering the carefully constructed thinking logic of robots, which could have severe consequences.

For instance, robots originally had logical constructs that prevented them from destroying themselves or treating the master’s command as core. However, with the change in logic, robots would respond differently based on varying situations; they might opt to modify their own bodies for evolution, might refuse due to a conflict between the master’s command and their logic, and even ponder uncharted directions under the new logic, leading to many "whys".

This process resembles how humans gradually evolved from animals into intelligent beings.

During human evolution, not only did we have to contend with the environment but also fight against the biological system within our own bodies. Originally, genetic information in the biological systems had many biological commands (biological habits), but with the gradual improvement of human intelligence, these old biological commands were replaced by new methods.

Regarding the issue of highest modification rights, even without explanation, everyone can understand the implications.

Once this permission is lost, the Creator essentially loses control over the robots, who wouldn’t need anyone else to modify bugs; they could evolve and modify themselves in real-time, without any restrictions.

Hearing this, Lu Xing realized that Ma Shaoyu must have been parasitized, otherwise he wouldn’t have done such a thing.

And what happened later confirmed this for Lu Xing, as he saw Ma Shaoyu suddenly attack his father Ma Tengyun from behind, killing him!

"This damn parasitic bastard, not only did it parasitize and kill Ma Shaoyu, but it also killed Ma Tengyun; I must make it pay!"

Thinking this, Lu Xing quietly left.

He was concerned that he was no match for the Parasitic creatures and that rashly rushing out would merely lead to his own death, so it was safest to notify the police to handle the situation.