With the consciousness overlap, Sun Jieke's Original Body quickly learned what had happened and immediately put the Himalayas on full combat readiness.
Amid the piercing alarm, the under-repair Himalayas swiftly surfaced, taking the other Spacecraft Carriers into the radiation-laden wilderness for cover.
As they entered the radiation zone and all detection and scanning software became useless, Sun Jieke finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Although there was some chaos, it was clear they had dodged FFP's latest round-up, but Sun Jieke had no time to celebrate, as the AI's cooperation proposal appeared in the conference room.
"I disagree," Abu spoke up first, "Because of AI, getting involved with the Tapai isn't worth it at all—you have no idea how formidable the Tapai are, those assigned to other cities are at best errand runners! Let's not forget the Tapai exist to prevent the AI Crisis—if they weren't up to something big, I wouldn't fucking believe it!"
What Sun Jieke hadn't expected was for the AI, UO, to also disagree. "According to my calculations, the success rate of cooperating with the AI will drop from 13.21% to 4.79%. This isn't a good choice."
After listening to everyone, Sun Jieke had his answer. Just like the Clones, as the Original, his choice wouldn't be much of a surprise.
However, just as Sun Jieke was about to stand up, the swollen-headed Think Tank representative extended his right hand, signaling he wished to speak. "There's no need for an all-out cooperation. I propose we initiate contact first to see."
"How so?" Sun Jieke looked at him in surprise, not seeing the point of any further contact for something so obvious.
The intelligent Sun Jieke spoke, "Since we can calculate that we can't win with the Tapai's military involvement, can't the AIs do the same?"
"If they can calculate it, then why would they choose to cooperate with us? To die with us in cooperation?"
At this remark, Sun Jieke's eyes lit up, "You mean to say......?"
"Unless they have some kind of game-changer, and if that's the case, it would be a significant bargaining chip in their future games with us. So it's unlikely they'd reveal it right at the start of negotiations." He shared his speculation.
Upon hearing this, Sun Jieke thought for a moment and realized it was indeed a possibility.
He decided to ask first. What if this so-called variable could greatly affect the current situation?
Soon at the conference table, Sun Jieke saw the Overlapping Sun Jieke AI again, greeting everyone. "Are people up? Who are these guys? How come I don't recognize them?"
Sun Jieke got straight to the point, "I'm talking seriously to you now. I hope you can be frank. With Tapai and FFP's cooperation, just us two teams cooperating surely isn't enough. There's no point unless you have some sort of trump card."
Seeing how direct Sun Jieke was, the Overlapping AI smiled slightly. "So are you saying you agree to become strategic partners with us?"
"I didn't say that. You should know the cost of cooperating with you is high, unless your trump card can offset that cost."
After pondering for a moment, the Overlapping AI spoke again, "Based on our relationship and to show our good faith, I can disclose one thing in advance."
"Let's hear it."
"If you cooperate with us, we can share information obtained from inside the FFP with you."
"Inside FFP? You can infiltrate FFP's internal systems?" Sun Jieke was quite surprised. Could the opponent really go to such lengths and still be driven to this by Tapai?
"No, we can't infiltrate. The Tapai have a special department inside FFP. I mean, we have a secret informant inside FFP, a human informant."
The conference room suddenly became abuzz upon hearing this. Sun Jieke coughed lightly, silencing other voices. "A human informant? Helping you AIs? Why don't I believe it? Can you tell me how you did it?"
"People's thoughts are diverse, and all sorts are out there, including those who are kind towards us AIs, especially those who've cooperated or helped us. However, the core human members of our group are primarily Otakus."
"They've always been looking for a way to give their two-dimensional waifus true self-awareness and physical forms that they can touch. When they heard we could achieve this, they were overjoyed and didn't hesitate at all."
"Fuck, in this day and age, these otakus are still fussing about the same old crap. Disgusting deadbeat NEETs." Tapai ranted on the side.
"Fuck your mother, what's wrong with two-dimensional? Did two-dimensional eat your family's rice?" Xiao Ting swore loudly.
"Is that all? Doesn't seem enough to support cooperation between us, does it?" Sun Jieke inquired.
"With the current progress of cooperation, I can only reveal this much. Unless we fully cooperate, the rest is undisclosed."
Sun Jieke eyed him and lit a cigarette, "If you're not going to say, then forget it. Let's part on good terms." Having said that, Sun Jieke stood up and walked towards the door.
"Don't forget, if it wasn't for me sending your Clone back, you would already be surrounded by FFP's combat units."
Hearing this, Sun Jieke stopped in his tracks. "Even if we all die, what of it? Even if we all fail, what then? The fire has already been lit by me, and the Wild Men continue to infiltrate. Without Sun Jieke, there's Li Jack, Wang Jack, Zhao Jack."
"On the contrary, cooperating with you doesn't just bring Tapai trouble. There will be other troubles, too. It may even divide my team vertically into pro-AI and anti-AI factions, creating rifts in what was once a united front."
"I'm not one to beat around the bush. Unless you can offer something to offset these troubles, don't even think about cooperation with AIs. Meeting adjourned."
As Sun Jieke finished speaking, the holographic projections of the other people surrounding the conference room disappeared in an instant.
Sun Jieke took a drag of his cigarette, turned, and walked toward the door. Just as he reached the entrance, a voice sounded from behind him.
"We know Lan Meng's physical location."
At these words, Sun Jieke froze on the spot. Lan Meng—the CEO of FFP, the Emperor of the FFP international group, a Final Producer capable of scaring the living daylights out of anyone with a single word!
"Are you sure?" Sun Jieke turned back and looked at the speaker. "You're not framing me, are you? We're all in the same boat right now; there's no need to hold each other back."
"They're different from us. We've only been in this world for a few years, but they have been living here for hundreds of years. Such a long time is enough for them to analyze and find the information they want from the vast data."