Chapter 517: The Tragedy
Translator: _Min_ Editor: Caron_
The clock at the church struck seven o’clock.
In the opera house, two streets past the University of Ber, the sound of the melodious symphony echoed. The Kermen Orchestra from Vienna, Austria delivered a spectacular performance. Under the direction of the concertmaster, all musicians bowed to the audience.
Taking advantage of the intermission, Sim and the Austrian president sitting at the top of the opera house happily chatted with each other.
“Very good performance; Evelyn will regret his early departure.”
“I’ll pass your compliments to the band and they’ll be honored at praise coming from the President of Frankberg,” the Austrian president said. “What’s the next show?”
“It’s ‘Opera: Turandot,’ the masterpiece of the famous Italian composer, Giacomo Puccini, played by the Ber National Orchestra. You can look forward to the next show.” Sim crossed his legs as he rambled on in a lighthearted fashion.
The curtains opened again and a bonfire lit the stage. With a horn-like tune, the actors dressed like nomads filed out from behind the scenes. Beautiful but cold Yuan Dynasty Princess Turandot solemnly ordered her people: if a man could guess her three riddles, she would marry him.
Countless admirers fell at the soldiers’ knives. With a smoke curtain, a chaotic atmosphere was created vividly.
At this point, a young man wearing black armor with a covered face carrying a black towel and violin case unhurriedly stepped onto the stage. Originally immersed in the opera, Sim frowned slightly as he didn’t remember such a violinist debuting in “Turandot.”
On the stage, two soldiers came forward and put swords to his neck, just like the previous martyrs. Looking at the young man, Turandot’s frozen but elegant face looked surprised; she didn’t remember a scene like this in the plot.
The masked young man smiled and opened the violin case…
And then he calmly took out the the MP7 submachine gun hidden in the case!
Before anyone could react, he shot down the soldier in front of him and shouted a chant to the Holy War.
“All—”
At the same time, he pressed the trigger with a menacing smile.
Blood splattered in the air.
The deafening screams suppressed the sound of bullets. Without any shield to protect them, the audience in the front row quickly collapsed from the wave of bullets. The music of the opera came to a halt as the actors rushed backstage into the emergency exit tunnel in a panic.
Then they encountered another terrorist who opened the safety with a menacing smile…
The opera house was in complete mayhem. Men abandoned their female companions, and women dropped their heels. Just as everyone flooded toward the door, a warrior stood up to protect the women and children, but he soon died under the gunfire of the attacker.
Sim, sitting in a VIP seat, ducked under the table. The two bodyguards beside the President immediately took out their pistols and stationed themselves at the door to the room.
“Dammit, what’s going on? There can’t be an anti-terrorist drill in the middle of the opera?” The Austrian President hid behind the sofa and spoke with an ashen face.
“This isn’t a joke. Don’t worry, the security force of Frankberg is just outside.” While Sim’s expression didn’t look any better, he was calm.
As the President, even if he didn’t have too much decision-making power, he still knew how much money the National Defense Department spent each year on anti-terrorism. The soldiers from the security forces were the elites of the elite. In this world, they could easily deal with a few terrorists!
Just as the two Presidents and the Deputy Prime Minister were waiting to be rescued, the outside was in complete chaos.
“The Ber Opera House was attacked by terrorists. There are a total of six gunmen. I repeat…”
The police and special forces stationed outside the opera house immediately stormed in and engaged in heavy gunfire with the terrorist. The smoke alarms rang, guns constantly fired, and the situation was in disarray.
Fortunately, the security force was there; they were the elites of Frankberg.
Unfortunately, the terrorists took the employees and actors as hostages. Even if the security force was composed of elites, they still had to be wary.
“Nelson, what are your people still waiting for?! They only have six people – attack now!” Rushing to the scene, Casper grabbed a walkie-talkie and took command but he couldn’t with his wig that flew away in front of the media as he roared into the walkie-talkie.
“Sir, but they took the opera theater crew as hostages-” Crouching in the bunker, Nelson calmly reported to his commander.
“Fool! I’ll give you 2 minutes to fight to get inside!”
…
“But sir, there are 57 hostages inside.”
“Yes, but they are terrorists and our President is inside! So is the Austrian President! Attack, now!”
“…Roger.”
Nelson took a deep breath then clenched his fists at his troops before swinging his fist down fiercely, signaling a command to attack.
With an order like this, there was no need for concern. Even with all 57 hostages dying, they had to rescue the two Presidents.
Attack commence!
…
In the grass field in front of the small church at the University of Ber, the gala still continued. But followed by the departures of other students, domestic students began to depart as well. When the irrelevant students and reporters all left, the grass field immediately looked a lot emptier.
At the same time, at the side door of the small church:
Jiang Chen let go of Evelyn’s hand and looked at him with questions in his eyes.
“It’s nice to meet you, Mr. Deputy Prime Minister. Do you have any questions?”
“I don’t have any questions; I’m just stunned by the blueprints to the future in Mr. Jiang Chen’s speech, so I really wanted to take the opportunity to talk to you. Tonight, I’m here as an alumnus to the University of Ber, so please just call me Evelyn.” Evelyn gave him a friendly smile.
The Frankberg Deputy Prime Minister was extremely talkative and Jiang Chen was happy to develop a relationship with key government officials as they began to chat. Regarding VR, AR technology, and Future Group’s plans to expand into pure electric vehicles mentioned in Jiang Chen’s speech, the Deputy Prime Minister graduated from a science background displayed rich interest.
Just as they began to discuss potential investments, the assistant behind him took a phone call before his expression drastically changed. He hung up the phone, walked to Evelyn with hasty steps, and whispered into his ear.
When Evelyn heard these words, his expression shifted immediately before looking apologetically at Jiang Chen.
“Regretfully,our conversation must end now – there is a small situation outside.”
“It’s okay. It’s important to take care of business.” Jiang Chen smiled.
Watching Evelyn and the group leaving, Jiang Chen began to frown. Although he didn’t understand Franish, from the whisper to Evelyn, Jiang Chen sensed something was off.
He then recollected Carmen telling him to come home early as an ominous feeling lingered in his mind.
“Hello, are you Mr. Jiang Chen?”
Just then, he heard broken Han from behind him.
Jiang Chen turned around and looked at the slim and tall man.
The messy hair reflected an oily reflection under the light. The darkness under his eyes was either his deep eye sockets or dark eye bags. Other than the fervor flashing in his pupils, he didn’t look energetic at all.
“I am. You are?”
“Amos Kimberly, Ph.D., of the University of Ber.” The man smiled shyly, exposing a mouth full of white teeth. He held out his hand and grabbed Jiang Chen. “It’s about what you mentioned in your speech earlier – basic and intermediate, Advanced artificial intelligence grading – can I ask about it more in detail? Why are logical responses, self-compliance, emotions and the artificial intelligence grading standards? Can you elaborate on this?”
” Have I mentioned it?” Jiang Chen was surprised.
Amos nodded with certainty. He was sure he didn’t miss a single word.
[Looks like I was too passionate…]
With the ardent expression on Amos’ face, Jiang Chen was slightly troubled.
“Most of today’s artificial intelligence programs remain at the logical response level. Whether it’s IBM or Future Group, the use of artificial intelligence is at this level. Program based on human logic rules to determine a logical response. This is basic artificial intelligence and the safest artificial intelligence.
“I cannot agree with you on one point. In the forefront of science and technology, there are already many research results that could complete the self-complied function and even simulate human emotions.” Amos raised some objections.
Jiang Chen thought for a moment before he said:
“Its normal for you to have disagreements since standards are determined by humans. But here I have to correct your point of view – what I said was that self-compliance is not the kind of self-compliance in the broad sense. How should I describe it? You can interpret it as thinking. Not thinking to provide services for humans or to complete tasks set by humans, but the thinking you and I are doing right now. Are you sure current technology can do that now?”
To Jiang Chen’s question, Amos evidently paused and began to think.
After a moment of silence, he abruptly asked.
“Then did you manage to do it?”
Jiang Chen let out a sigh.
“Sorry, Mr. Amos, these are corporate secrets; I can’t tell you more.”
Then, with Amos’ disappointed expression, Jiang Chen paused, smiled and took out a business card from his pocket and handed it to him
“If you are interested, you can join us. We can’t give you the technical knowledge free of charge, but if you’re willing to share your knowledge for our ideals, we welcome you to join us.
After he finished, Jiang Chen disregarded Amos’s stunned expression, turned and walked toward the small church.