Password?

Why another password?

Lin Xian's head was spinning just hearing those two words.

Ever since he first dreamed of the bank vault at the end of last year, he had been stuck in a whirlpool of passwords.

It was always one password or another.

One number or another.

He truly hated this kind of guessing game more than ever before.

But...

He looked at the gleaming green eyes of the trash can robot.

Considering that this was the opening robot that Zhao Yingjun had left for him, then it must have a deeper meaning asking him for the password here.

He turned his head to look at the ancient yet technologically advanced Rhine Sky City's first-generation intelligent hub, VV.

This behemoth, several stories high, seemed to be a highly technological collection of computers, the control center for the entire Rhine Sky City.

Lin Xian had long suspected it.

The Sky City's high degree of intelligence and automation made a powerful computer control system essential.

The vast number of fish-shaped vehicles swirling in the sky, the various robots running intricately through the city... All kinds of devices moved extremely fast, and even the slightest mistake would inevitably lead to a series of severe accidents.

The property damage was self-evident, and casualties would certainly be inevitable.

Therefore, there must be a powerful control center in this city to control and maintain the city's intelligent operation.

Now it seemed that this ridiculously large and complex computer was the earliest control center of the Rhine Sky City.

And its name, coincidentally, was also VV.

Lin Xian looked at the trash can robot that was firmly gripping his ankle, then turned his head to look at the dozens of meters high giant computer, then looked down at his shoes...

All three of them were VV, all called VV.

Gathered together at this time, they should merge into a two-star VV in the game.

This moment was definitely not a coincidence.

Since the trash can robot was asking him for the password at this special moment... that meant the clue to the password was most likely hidden in the giant, super-intelligent VV in front of him.

Lin Xian continued to look at the electronic information board, which had detailed descriptions of the exhibit.

The description was very long...

In short, it was just as Lin Xian had guessed.

The construction of the entire Rhine Sky City had three difficulties.

The first difficulty was in the architectural structure and the city's foundation. Ordinary reinforced concrete could not bear such a massive weight, nor could it withstand the powerful thrust generated by the nuclear fusion engine.

Looking at it now… the controllable nuclear fusion engine seemed to use a technology Lin Xian had never heard of before: cold fusion.

When Academician Lyon died, he had researched a lot of information about controllable nuclear fusion, but there was little mention of cold fusion.

It was estimated that this new technology had been broken through in the past few hundred years, and from the actual results, its stability and safety were much better than traditional high-temperature nuclear fusion.

Therefore, to make the Sky City strong enough to withstand gravity, stress, and thrust, the entire city's foundation was made of hafnium alloy.

Although this project was complex and cumbersome, it was not too difficult compared to the other two challenges.

The second difficulty was the construction of more than 6,000 cold fusion engines. They were the most central link in building the Sky City. Without the enormous thrust generated by these cold fusion engines, the Sky City would have no way to take off.

The enormous financial cost involved was the culprit that brought down the world's giant Rhine Corporation, costing far more and being far more difficult than building a city.

But fortunately, Zhao Yingjun, the president of the Rhine Corporation, overcame thousands of difficulties and finally managed to get through this hurdle, at least allowing the Rhine Corporation to survive until after the Sky City took off before going bankrupt.

As for the third difficulty in building the Sky City…

It lay in the control hub system.

The Sky City was not only a highly intelligent city.

The status of more than 6,000 fusion engines also had to be adjusted in real time.

After all, the Rhine Sky City was flying in the sky, essentially no different from a kite, just a heavier kite.

Located in the upper troposphere, the wind area was so large and irregular, and the weight distribution of the city itself was dynamic.

Therefore…

Without a powerful central brain to constantly fine-tune the direction and thrust of the 6,000 nuclear fusion engines… a moment of inattention could cause the Sky City to tilt directly, or even flip over in the sky.

Therefore, this central brain, capable of controlling and maintaining the entire Sky City, became the top priority of the entire project.

To design such a super artificial intelligence, countless talented scientists followed one another, and it took more than 200 years to finally construct the Rhine Sky City's first-generation intelligent hub—

VV.

The introduction specifically mentioned that the name VV was given by Zhao Yingjun, named after her beloved puppy when she was young.

"Huh?"

Lin Xian couldn't hold back when he saw this.

VV was a puppy raised by Zhao Yingjun?

That's not right...

Wasn't VV himself?

What kind of puppy was that?

A little milk dog?

Lin Xian couldn't help but recall the language of steel wool...

Wealth and forbearance.

He smiled, shaking off these absurd thoughts. What if Zhao Yingjun really had a puppy?

The protagonist's name in Cyberpunk 2077 is V, so why can't her puppy be named VV?

At least for now, whether it was the Rhine Sky City's central brain or the trash can robot clamping his foot... their names VV were traceable, but his own VV was so confusing, and it wasn't even clear whether it was himself, relying entirely on guesswork.

Lin Xian continued to read the introduction on the electronic information board.

This first-generation intelligent hub was essentially a giant computer, a super artificial intelligence.

But its architecture and logic were very advanced. Through continuous iterative learning and data simulation, its intelligence became more and more powerful, eventually allowing the Rhine Sky City to successfully and stably take off, becoming a great contributor to this project of the century.

Later, the intelligent central brain VV iterated, learned, and self-updated faster and faster. One day... it completely broke free from the existence of storage media, becoming countless data streams soaring through the Rhine Sky City's network.

It was nowhere to be seen, but it was everywhere.

At first, some people worried that such an infinitely evolving super artificial intelligence would threaten the existence of humanity.

But later, it proved that these concerns were unnecessary.

Because Zhao Yingjun, the builder of the Rhine Sky City, had anticipated this situation and taken precautions.

She put an unbreakable lock on VV, a lock that would forever prevent it from leaving the Rhine Sky City, and at the same time, would forever lock its underlying logic in the Three Laws of Robotics:

First Law: A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

Second Law: A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.

Third Law: A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

These three laws of robotics were mentioned by the famous American science fiction writer Isaac Asimov in his work I, Robot.

It was originally just ordinary literary creation.

But the greatest charm of science fiction lies in... to some extent, it can really provide some reference value for the future development of human science, society, and ideas.

This is something that any other genre does not possess.

The Rhine Sky City has been operating stably for more than 200 years without any mistakes.

This is all thanks to the super artificial intelligence VV. It is because of its dedication that it has created happiness and well-being for tens of millions of families in the Rhine Sky City.

Therefore, all the residents of the Sky City love VV and thank VV, just as they respect Zhao Yingjun.

…

The introduction on the electronic information board ended there.

Lin Xian had also completely understood what this Sky City central brain, the super artificial intelligence VV, was.

It was similar to the settings common in many science fiction movies.

Even in Lin Xian's 2023, AI technology was developing rapidly. Not only had AI AlphaGo appeared, which even the top human Go players could not defeat, but also a series of rapidly changing large-scale AI models, constantly subverting the world.

Lin Xian had also briefly learned about it in reality...

In fact, human AI technology should not have developed so slowly.

According to the prediction of Alan Mathison Turing, the father of artificial intelligence, humans should have already invented artificial intelligence similar to human thinking and capable of passing the Turing test around the year 2000.

But obviously, since the appearance of electronic computers, humanity has gone astray in the technology tree of artificial intelligence. It was not until the emergence of neural networks, that is, the development of computational models that simulate the human brain's neuron network, that they returned to the right track, and in just a few years, they caught up with the previously lagging decades.

"So..."

Lin Xian looked at the trash can robot with its green eyes glowing, staring at him intently, and constantly repeating to enter the password.

Since it was also called VV.

Then the password should be related to this super artificial intelligence VV, right?

Thinking of the Rhine Sky City, its predecessor was the Rhine Corporation he founded. Although the company had long since ceased to exist, everything here came from this great company.

Although he didn't know why Zhao Yingjun became the owner of the Rhine Corporation, nor did he know why his existence and history were completely erased.

But.

History is history.

Those things that have already happened in reality are objectively existing—

The Rhine Corporation was established by him.

This was an unchangeable history.

May 20th,

Lin Xian recalled again that morning, in the office on the 22nd floor of MX Company, when he submitted his resignation, Zhao Yingjun held a calendar in one hand and pointed to the date on it with the other, looking at him with a smile:

"So... today should be a memorable day for you."

"May 20, 2023, you took the most memorable step in your life, found something you really want to do, and gave the company a name you like. I'm really happy for you."

"No matter what achievements your company will make in the future, where it will go, or how it will develop. But in short, today... the Rhine Corporation came into this world."

Yes.

Lin Xian slowly raised his head.

For the name Rhine, for his life, if there was any day most worth commemorating...

Then besides his birthday, it must be the day he named the Rhine Corporation.

The official date of the Rhine Corporation's establishment and the date of public announcement was the day of the ribbon-cutting ceremony, not May 20th.

As Zhao Yingjun said, this was a day of remembrance that belonged only to him.

This was the first step he truly took;

It was the beginning of finding his direction in life and being willing to work hard to change all this bloodshed.

"Please enter the password!"

Still the emotionless mechanical electronic voice, the trash can robot stared blankly at him.

Lin Xian turned around.

In front of the behemoth, the artificial intelligence VV, one VV looked at another VV:

"The password is..."

Lin Xian said softly:

"20230520."