Chapter 312 - 305: Crooked_1

"Congress proposes punitive measures in response to the dumping by certain unfriendly economies,"

"Renowned foundational scientific research software such as MATLAB, CAD, ANSYS may cease services to certain regions."

"Sources indicate that the W and E series high-end Xeon CPUs will be subject to export restrictions."

"Multiple technology companies such as ZTE, Huawei, Yellow River Semiconductor, and SinoCore International are suspected of infringing patent laws,"

"..."

It was the seven-day national holiday, and the mainland had entered a peaceful rest period, but John was not observing the Lunar calendar and was straining every nerve to stir things up.

To most people, these media reports seemed incomprehensible; they wondered how software and computer CPUs could be banned from sale or use.

What about the allegations of dumping, patent law investigations, suspensions of imports—but why ban commercial exchanges with one’s largest trading partner??

This flurry of actions baffled the nation domestically, and initially, no one took them seriously, except for Lin Ju, who knew all too well the familiar routine that was unfolding.

John truly was a fervent redneck, governing entirely based on his own notions, utterly disregarding the advice of seasoned politicians.

Wait, his advisor was... Pio? Why couldn’t he learn from Gelsinger?

Back in the day, when Emperor Zong Xian drunkenly heard that one of his reconnaissance planes had been shot down, he immediately demanded to issue a nuclear retaliation order, but fortunately, at the time, Gelsinger managed to persuade the Emperor otherwise.

In contrast, Pio seemed to be partially effective, or at least not entirely useless.

Of course, Lin Ju wasn’t particularly concerned about this, as none of these actions could truly threaten New Yuan’s lifeline. Moreover, the release of triadic semiconductor technology was a trump card, and the situation seemed unlikely to be worse than the original timeline.

The same applied to application software—although the functionalities were identical, as long as they operated under a triadic system, the existing patent barriers were nearly invalidated, providing an excellent opportunity to break free from patent blockades.

While reminiscing about the original timeline, Lin Ju wandered into a warehouse in the base, and upon looking up, he found himself in the light machinery department.

As it was the holiday season, there were only two employees on duty. Lin Ju greeted them and started looking around on his own. Without much effort, he found the suspended Warrior One Robot.

"Eh, wasn’t ’Courage’ supposed to be self-learning a while ago? It’s been so long, yet it still can’t walk on its own and is hanging here?"

The on-duty staff member explained to him:

"Mr. Lin, ’Courage’ learned to walk a long time ago. We’ve fed it nearly all the learning samples we could find, including resources from nearby cameras. Two months ago, it was already capable of controlling its body and walking freely.

However, the department head said ’Courage’ developed incorrectly, and now we do not know how to handle it, so it remains in learning mode without body control permissions."

Grew incorrectly?

Lin Ju was puzzled, while the staff member responded with a wry smile and pulled up the experiment logs. They conducted daily tests on ’Courage’s training outcomes, all recorded on video.

Lin Ju opened the most recent log file, and the video began to play.

The video was shot at the test site in the factory,"Brave’s" main training objective was to understand human commands and flexibly control its body to eventually reach or even surpass human levels.

In the footage, the camera focused on the standing Warrior One Robot, which had also been continuously modified over the months. Although its parts seemed mismatched and uncoordinated, it had a more intelligent feel.

More importantly, the power cables that had powered it were gone. According to the notes in the experimental log, the battery now installed in Warrior One Robot allowed it to sustain 30 minutes of activity, which was more than sufficient for the trial.

Offscreen, a researcher issued commands voice:

"First subject, quickly pass through the 150-meter obstacle area in front!"

As soon as the words were spoken, Warrior One Robot began to move. It faced a test area made up of simulated road rubble, slippery roads, pits, narrow passages, single-log bridges, and low walls—a variety of obstacles that even well-conditioned sports enthusiasts would find challenging to navigate with ease.

But Warrior One Robot did not hesitate. With a cool start, it pushed off with its hind legs and burst forward like a well-trained sprinter.

It easily leaped over the debris-strewn ground, each foot landing precisely in the best spots, and it maintained stable midair postures, a stark contrast to its initial state.

Furthermore, while airborne, Warrior One Robot’s limbs constantly moved to adjust its posture. It took just two seconds to overcome the first obstacle and enter the slick, water-soaked surface.

The rubber on the soles of Warrior One Robot’s feet, but the robot, clearly not in its first test, knew that the surface wouldn’t provide enough traction. So, with decisive action, it spread its limbs on the ground and slid forward on its haunches, using the remaining momentum from its jump.

The over 10 meters of slick surface was crossed in a blink of an eye. Watching this, Lin Ju couldn’t help but marvel: Ternary artificial intelligence was indeed powerful, at least on par with the cutting-edge level of 2025.

Warrior One Robot slid up to a two-meter-low wall which its joints couldn’t vault over with a 270 kilogram body, but fluidly got up, grabbed the top of the wall with one hand, pulled hard while flinging its lower body upwards, then released its grip, almost flying sideways over it.

The subsequent barbed wire and deep ground pits posed no difficulty for it, and when Warrior One Robot finally flew past the finish line, the time froze at 18.21 seconds.

seconds and 21, slow for a regular 150-meter dash, but the 150 meters just completed was all obstacles, which would take at least a minute for even the well-trained.

Lin Ju watched again and realized that the coordination of Warrior One Robot’s body had completely surpassed his understanding of robots. Perhaps only the robots in science fiction movies could compare.

Was this what they called growing sideways? Sideways in what way?

Perhaps noticing Lin Ju’s puzzled gaze, the duty officer quietly opened another video clip.

This time, the footage was not of the factory but a hillside covered with bushes. The angle was off, without a trace of Warrior One Robot, only around a dozen people from youths to middle-aged, dressed in black casual clothes, camouflage, and even carrying guns on their shoulders. They were likely soldiers and security personnel from a nearby base.

These individuals all had curious and odd smiles on their faces. Lin Ju was trying to understand when he suddenly saw a mechanical arm appear in the frame—it was Warrior One Robot’s front-facing camera.

The Warrior One Robot’s head was equipped with various cameras, this one was expressly for remotely transmitting data.

Then, Lin Ju saw a machine gun appear in the hands of Warrior One Robot... a Type 171?

This real machine gun was held single-handedly by Warrior One Robot’s right hand. Then, after hearing a cluster of noisy chatter around, the camera pointed skyward, showing the dark barrel recoiling slightly as a blast sounded.

The duty officer’s voice rose in Lin Ju’s ear: "At the beginning, the nearby stationed military heard we were working on robot intelligence learning and volunteered their materials for the soldiers’ 400-meter obstacle training. Just over a month ago, we first let Warrior One Robot carry out small-scale unfamiliar territory tests outside the base.

That day, due to an incident, we lost supervision of it for five minutes. In that time, Warrior One Robot grabbed a gun and shot a Spotted Dove perched 27 meters high in a treetop, killing it with a single shot."