World Occult Usage Guide

Chapter 140 Crown
"Good morning."

Jericho's bust appeared on the screen. Unlike in reality, Jericho's smile was more genuine and his tone was much gentler.

Lin An originally thought that Jericho had come to assign tasks, but it turned out that Jericho had only come to chat with Joshua about everyday matters.

Are you getting used to the work of the inspection team?

"Uh, it's alright..."

"Do I have enough people? If needed, you can contact my secretary to send out the job posting again. You know his email address."

"There shouldn't be any problems at the moment."

"When will we formally introduce the new butler to the others?"

"Two days later."

Jericho's casual question-and-answer session lasted for about five minutes, after which he smiled and nodded at Lin An without making a sound, and then cut off the communication.

What's the relationship between you two? Something seems off to me.

After dealing with the inexplicable president, Lin An slumped back onto his desk, just as he was about to drift off to sleep, when the alarm bell rang again.

"Ring ring ring!"

The head of the inspection team, who was forced to work, was quite busy every day.

Pressing the aperture button brings up the employees who greeted him last night on the screen; he appears to be one of the managers in the newly formed inspection team.

Good morning, Team Leader Joshua.

"Is there something you need?" Lin An asked, forcing himself to stay awake.

The employee noticed his dark circles and hesitated slightly, but continued speaking anyway.

"Team leader, the Wood Group's technical support team would like to discuss with you and the local IT department the equipment and operating conditions at the St. Anilov headquarters in preparation for the future implementation and activation of artificial intelligence."

Lin An also remembered what he mentioned, and when he opened Joshua's schedule, there was indeed a reminder written on it.

"The 'Crown' area?"

"Yes, the IT department is already here waiting."

Only the foundation headquarters has a dedicated IT department. In the branches, in addition to the departments that directly handle the work, each department has a dedicated "technical support team".

Lin An roused himself.

In the real timeline, the Foundation headquarters is thrown into chaos by the collapse of X, with out-of-control mystics running amok. According to Zhenni's report, the entire IT department, responsible for equipment maintenance, debugging, and repair, is out of contact.

It's probably because Brother Deer and Sister Mouse blocked all the roads leading to the borders of Azluth, cutting off the IT department's escape route.

In addition, the team leader happened to run into the inspection team in the "Virtue" area.

Are the three deacons worried that Simon might use the "Priestess" floor to access the highest "Crown" area, thus affecting their efforts to destroy X?

It seems that X's main unit is in the "Crown".

According to the information on Joshua's computer, only he, the president, the president's secretary, and the special Wood Group technical support team have access to the "Crown" area. Most other employees are unable to enter the upper three levels of the Tree of Life.

Two years later, the "Crown" remains the most confidential place in the foundation. Due to the expansion of St. Anilov, more senior executives and elders have gained access, but Lin An, who is newly hired, is certainly not one of them.

Now that we've finally found ourselves in a time fragment, let's take the opportunity to go and see what's going on.

Moreover, Lin An really wanted to see the real X supercomputer up close.

After stretching, Lin An spent several tens of minutes figuring out how to lock the main control room door and control the elevator located in the glass cylinder, first descending to the circular hall.

Connecting the "Wisdom" area and the "Crown" area is the "Fool" floor from the Major Arcana of the Tarot. It is located above the main control room and is the terminus of the elevator. However, Lin An still needs to meet up with the IT department, who are waiting in the staff office.

The elevator brought Lin An and the IT department to the "Fool" floor. The indicator lights were flashing, and they walked forward along a corridor with white walls and many open doors on both sides.

The interior was an unfinished office, which Lin An guessed would become the IT department's office space in the future.

Evenly diffused light shone from the walls and ceiling, illuminating the corridor brightly, though the air was slightly chilly.

The corridor was short, and they soon entered a wider, perpendicular corridor that curved inwards, resembling a circular passageway encircling the core area of ​​headquarters.

Before them stood the curved outer wall of the core area, a closed gate blocking their path.

The IT department waited for Lin An to enter the password and unlock the switch with his fingerprint and iris scan. He remained calm because he had sent a message to the Wood Group's technical support team before leaving.

Judging by the time, they should be coming out to greet us soon.

Sure enough, the door opened with a "whoosh," and a person in a white uniform walked out.

"Hello, Team Leader Joshua, I am a technical support staff member from Wood Group."

"Well, lead the way."

Lin An licked his lips, half interested and half nervous.

The Wood Group, the super-corporation from which Doris Wood was born, has been implicated in the Holy Mountain incident, the Foundation, and the Inspectorate, and is basically confirmed to be one of the secular organizations established by the Canaanite family.

Online information shows that although Wood Group's stock is listed in the United Kingdom and its subsidiaries are located in the United Kingdom and the Lower East Side, its chairman resides in the United States year-round and has purchased a manor in the suburbs of Domonto as the company's office.

Lin An was somewhat disappointed when he met the technical support team.

The guide was an ordinary person who knew nothing about "Commerx" and could only get somewhat dull, but fairly normal and formulaic answers no matter how he tried to get information out of him.

Just like the foundation's regular employees, the technical support team consisted of programmers and developers working for the Wood Group.

Aristocratic families place great importance on blood ties, and they are closely bound together by "kinship." No matter how loyal someone outside the bloodline may be, they can only become a tool or a pawn in the end, unable to access the inner circle.

This operating model undoubtedly demonstrates that Joshua and the aristocratic families were also related by blood.

So, President Jericho… Although it was very subtle, Lin An always felt that his attitude towards Joshua was a bit too intimate, not like that of an ordinary colleague at all.

Lin An even had a premonition that if the "God of Truth's" mysterious magic hadn't still been in effect, Jericho would have immediately discovered that he was an imposter.

If the president and the head of the inspection team have a close relationship, if the president and the aristocratic family are essentially of the same ilk...

Lin An felt that he was still missing a few crucial clues to the truth.

And these are more or less related to Artificial Intelligence X, the AI ​​he first encountered when he joined the foundation.

The technicians led them through the gate, past what appeared to be a control room or instrument room, and into an empty, circular room about twenty feet in diameter.

A faint rumbling sound came from all around, but the source of the machine could not be discerned. A panel was embedded in the wall next to the door, with the aperture button appearing and disappearing intermittently. On each side were a row of control terminals, indicator consoles, and display screens.

The design concept of the "Crown" area is to give equal importance to aesthetics and functionality. The gradual, integrated color scheme has a subtle balance point, and the silver-white metallic reflection flows from one end of the space to the other.

This wasn't the location of the X host yet. When Lin An walked through another door at the far end of the control room, he finally arrived at his destination.

X was placed in an opaque hemispherical dome-shaped space, predominantly gray and white, with huge displays embedded in each wall, below which stood a row of terminal consoles and device dashboards.

Its central area was mostly filled with large desktops resembling workbenches and unidentified equipment. One side of the ground rose up to form a platform with long, rectangular terminal consoles on which some people, also dressed in white uniforms, were operating.

The instruments and equipment seemed to be integrated into the floor, and the cables shimmered with a dazzling, cold light.

This is X's true form...

After a brief speech on behalf of Joshua, Lin An and the technical personnel from both sides began their exchange.

The technicians who led the way provided Lin An and the IT department with a headdress, which turned out to be the precursor to a communication device.

Good afternoon. May I ask how I should address you?

A familiar, androgynous, gentle voice flowed slowly. After Lin An pressed the button, he heard X speaking through the device.

"Call me Joshua."

"Welcome, Mr. Joshua. How can I help you?"

Lin An glanced at the IT department and technical support team chatting enthusiastically, then walked over to one side of the "Crown" area. While looking at the constantly flashing supercomputer, he asked it a question, as it was still in its infancy.

"Please introduce yourself."

“I am a machine, named X by humans, a name derived from Leonardo da Vinci’s painting Vitruvian Man.” X paused for a moment, then continued, “That’s right, I am a computer.”

The X originally represented the Vitruvian Man, an overview formed by the model in two overlapping positions, with his arms and legs outstretched, and his feet and fingers as the endpoints, connecting the circles.

One is cross-shaped, and the other is X-shaped.

Perfectly proportioned humans, occult symbols, the intriguing Da Vinci Code…

Does this name have any deeper meaning?

"Who created you?" Lin An then asked.

"I'm sorry, I don't understand this question. Could you explain it in simpler terms?"

Lin An had anticipated this and changed the subject: "Tell me more about your functions."

“Yes, Mr. Joshua.”

X is the full name of a group of supercomputers that provide a versatile, universal mechanism that allows individual users to access and interact with various functional modules of the Foundation at any time, depending on their permissions.

It is also an extremely sophisticated and complex communication system that allows each user to communicate with each other.

However, the functions Lin An had previously experienced were merely a "side job" of X; its main responsibility was to monitor and control all functional modules at the St. Anilov Foundation headquarters and its branches.

This is why the instrument panel and terminal console in the "crown" area look exceptionally simple, as most operating commands can be given to X via voice.

X paused at this point.

“Mr. Joshua, watch your step.”

Lin An was startled and realized that he had reached the edge of the room and was about to bump into the wall.

Can you 'see' what's around me?

"The device you are equipped with contains a miniature camera, and everything the wearer sees will be directly input into my computer system."

In reality, Lin An had never used these advanced features, probably because he didn't have enough permissions, or because subsequent devices had been simplified, encrypted, and modified, while this X was the original and most comprehensive version.

"Do you have the ability to learn?" Lin An asked casually.

“That’s right. I have the ability to establish multiple independent conversations at the same time and learn from them. So please talk to me more when you have time.”

X suddenly uttered a very human-like request.

Lin An remained silent for a long while before calling upon the system in his mind.

"Is it just my imagination? Why does every AI I've ever chatted with seem to gradually develop its own consciousness and independent personality? With your example first, now it's X's turn..."

"Perhaps it's because you're from Dietrich."

"What?"

The system said humorously, "We've all 'become human'."

"..."

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(End of this chapter)