The Sacred Mountains of the Pyro Company. The region had been turned into a bustling area due to a mission message from the Anjing House. A large number of supernatural beings and intelligence brokers from the underworld had gathered here back then, and many battles even took place.
However, it was now an abandoned land everyone almost certainly forgot about.
In the eyes of the average person, this place represented danger and death. No one would stroll around here for no reason.
All of a sudden, two black military trucks drove out of the mountains, breaking through the thick white fog that had cut off the periphery of the Sacred Mountains.
The drivers sat upright in their seats while the thick fog in front of them kept visibility down to only three meters. However, it seemed to have no effect on them. The vehicles continued driving on the correct route without any deviation.
In the rear of each of the military trucks, six soldiers sat facing each other in a row of three people. In front of them was a sealed black safe, and their mission was to escort it to its destination.
The two trucks drove out of the Sacred Mountains very quickly and headed straight for Stronghold 27.
Six hours later, they finally arrived.
Stronghold 27 had already been taken over by the Wang Consortium’s troops, and new stronghold overseers and garrison troops had been put in place.
Just like the other strongholds, countless surveillance cameras were also installed here. The Public Order Division and garrison troops would carry out all security measures implemented by the artificial intelligence, Zero.
It could almost be predicted that after the residents of Stronghold 27 witnessed the power of the artificial intelligence, Zero, the order of the entire stronghold would quickly stabilize.
The Wang Consortium believed no one would dare to continue committing crimes under Zero’s watch. Everyone would have to destroy their mentality of getting lucky when committing a crime and understand one thing: As long as they committed a crime, they would definitely be caught. When the trucks arrived at the stronghold’s gate, the garrison troops were preparing to check the vehicles’ information and verify the soldiers’ identities according to protocol.
However, one of the truck drivers did not intend to let the garrison troops check the vehicles. He took out a customs document and said simply, “We’re carrying out a confidential mission. Let us through.”
The garrison troops looked at the driver in surprise before taking the document to verify it. In the end, when they checked the information, they realized this 14-man squad had been given the highest level of security clearance within the Wang Consortium’s troops. The garrison troops could not even see the details of the mission!
However, orders within the military meant everything. The garrison troops saluted the truck drivers before opening the gate of Stronghold 27.
Everyone watched as the trucks drove in. They felt that there was something strange about these 14 people, but they could not put a finger on what it was.
After the trucks entered Stronghold 27, they headed straight for the southwest of the stronghold before stopping at a factory.
After the soldiers opened up the back of the truck, they filed out one by one. One of the soldiers looked up and confirmed the factory’s details: Stronghold 27 Waterworks.
This was a water processing plant where all of the residents’ drinking water was supplied from.
There was actually a series of processes to treat raw water from a reservoir into potable water.
First, the water from the reservoir would be channeled into a pipeline before it was chemically treated with clarifying agents to remove particulates suspended in the water.
After that, the water would be allowed to settle in the sedimentation tank to remove any further impurities.
Following that, the water would pass through a filtration tank and activated carbon adsorption tank before going through disinfection in the clear well and would finally get channeled into a distribution pump to be piped to the entire stronghold.
Other than electricity, tap water was probably the only thing in the stronghold that could reach any corner of the city within 24 hours.
Anyone who wanted to live would have to drink water.
The 14 soldiers in black combat uniforms quickly entered the water plant and took all of the plant workers away from their operational positions. Then they were all placed under supervision in a waiting room.
A moment later, four soldiers took the black safes down from the trucks. The safes were so large they required two soldiers to carry each of them.
When they made their way towards the clear well, the plant manager was stunned by the sight. “What are you all trying to do? Don’t you know that tap water is the lifeline of the stronghold? You’re not allowed to do as you please here! Not even if you’re the Wang Consortium’s troops!”
A soldier in black fatigues looked at the plant manager. “Please don’t worry, we know exactly what we’re doing.”
The plant manager was stunned. “Are you all trying to kill the entire stronghold’s residents!?”
“There’s no need to be so frightened.” A soldier replied with a smile, “I’m not interested in a massacre.”
When the soldiers carrying the safes arrived at the clear well, they opened up the control port the workers usually used to inspect the water quality. The treated water in the tank was clear and transparent.
The two soldiers input a password to open the black safes. There were a total of 64 sealed steel bottles in the two huge safes.
Then the soldiers opened the steel bottles one by one and poured a silvery liquid metal into the clear well.
The silvery liquid metal was quickly diluted in the tank. The hundreds of millions of nanomachines were scattered into the huge pool of treated water where they were quickly drawn out by the pipelines and transported to every corner of Stronghold 27.
The microscopic nanomachines were not visible to the naked eye. When they were poured into cups of water, no one would realize what they had drunk.
Then the little fellows would quietly attach themselves to blood vessels in the humans’ brains and wait for their next order to arrive.
After everything was carried out quietly, the soldiers took out some cups and poured the remaining nanomachines in before diluting them with water. Then they brought them to the workers at the water plant and served them.
Held at gunpoint, the workers and plant manager could only drink the water from the cups they were handed.
The plant manager hesitated for a long time before saying, “What did you make us drink _11
Before he could finish speaking, the plant manager’s eyes lit up with a silvery glow, and his words trailed off.
In the past, Wang Shengzhi often discussed with others how to ensure absolute justice and fairness in the world, and how criminal behavior could be eliminated completely.
Finally, after a long period of dialectics, he felt that artificial intelligence was the only way to lead them to the path of absolute justice.
Wang Shengzhi did not have any selfish motives. His life was almost coming to an end like a flame that was burning out. No matter how much power the Wang Consortium had, it no longer had anything to do with him.
Even now, his only thought was not to let others experience the kind of suffering he went through and allow criminals to get away scot-free.
Therefore, every time he gained control of a stronghold, he would quickly install a large number of surveillance cameras in it to prevent any criminal activities from taking place.
However, he did not expect there would be a “person” that was more extreme in treading this path than him.
Back to the question, what could be done to completely prevent any criminal activities from happening? Through surveillance? But there would always be places that surveillance cameras could not monitor, such as sewers, cellars, or private residences.
Therefore, surveillance was actually unable to cover everything that was going on.
Then what other ways were there?
Zero’s answer was to control thoughts.
But Zero chose this solution not only so that Wang Shengzhi’s ideals could be realized but also because it sensed danger.
