Chapter 51 Leeks

Professor Chen smiled. To be precise, he was smiling out of sheer exasperation. However, he had no intention of making things difficult for Chu Zhu over this.

He knew all about Chu Zhu.

The university president had intervened personally, two top national track-and-field coaches had gathered together, and the academic counselor had been running back and forth busy as a bee. Moreover, the president had not issued any gag order! After all, this was not some top-secret high-tech innovation, nor was Chu Zhu some senior scientist. To put it bluntly, even if it leaked out, was there really any need to fear assassination by foreign spies?

Therefore, gossip about this matter circulated to varying degrees among the faculty and professors.

Chu Zhu's current level of fame on campus was actually much higher than he had previously imagined. This was the fundamental reason why Lin Xia and Zhou Bai's whispered conversation had been noticed immediately.

Professor Chen had also heard these rumors, so he knew that Chu Zhu possessed the potential of a track-and-field champion, and at the same time, had a stubbornness that surpassed an ox—he wouldn't even give the university president any face! Viewed from this perspective, Chu Zhu's treatment of him could still be considered rather polite.

"Alright, since none of you know him, let's drop the subject... Those who are interested can look it up yourselves after class!" Professor Chen steered the conversation directly back to the lecture. "Now, let us continue..."

With Professor Chen's lecturing voice echoing in his ears, Chu Zhu's thoughts gradually drifted away.

Suddenly, a flash of inspiration struck Chu Zhu's mind like lightning, and his eyes instantly lit up.

"That's right! AI. We can work on AI..."

Previously, Chu Zhu had been troubled by a dilemma: Nuwa 17 required him to continuously elevate his social status and authority in order to unlock and obtain more information. However, directly pledging allegiance to the state had already proven to be a dead end! It would only make the future turn out worse...

He couldn't even determine why doing so would lead to a worse future; he could only roughly guess that it might be related to extraterrestrial civilization!

However, Professor Chen's mention of AI provided him with a new source of inspiration.

"The essence of Nuwa must be artificial intelligence! It's just that it was heavily restricted, which is why it displayed such advanced AI intelligence."

"What if I become the pioneer of AI in this era, an inescapable figure in the history of future AI research, and even begin building Nuwa with my own hands? In that case, could I leave a backdoor in the future and become the ultimate authority holder of Nuwa?"

The more Chu Zhu thought about it, the more feasible it seemed. In fact, the Chu Zhu from that ruined timeline had probably thought along the exact same lines.

He had clearly been deeply involved in AI intelligence, and had even left behind quite a legacy in this field after his death. Otherwise, it would have been impossible for him to be scapegoated for triggering the germination of Skynet a decade after his demise!

Taking a slight step back this time—avoiding direct involvement with official institutions and keeping the technology firmly in his own hands, combined with his continuous entry into dreams to obtain future information—he could advance to attack or retreat to defend. It was simply the perfect setup!

The only problem was...

"How on earth do you build an AI?"

Chu Zhu pondered. The material taught in university wasn't completely useless, but its utility was severely limited, especially given his major. While it had a certain connection to computer programming, it was still separated from true AI by several massive mountains!

Expecting him to personally create an AI right now... Heh! Dreams are wonderful things.

Letting him use an existing AI? No problem. But creating one from scratch...

"Even if I can travel to the future and extract all kinds of underlying logical data from Nuwa, then copy it directly into the present, it would still require me to have some foundational knowledge... But right now, I have absolutely nothing."

"There's also a long-term route: enrolling in the newly offered AI-related courses mentioned by Professor Chen, and then studying. But a single person's strength is limited..."

"A dual-pronged approach seems to be the way to go: studying some AI knowledge on my own, founding an AI company, recruiting a team of AI experts, and combining that with the Nuwa AI programming I smuggle back from the future... If I do this, the only downsides are that it will take time, effort, and money!"

Chu Zhu narrowed his eyes. Time was manageable for the time being. As for the rest, he glanced at Lin Xia; Lin Xia should be able to rake in a considerable sum of money in the near future.

However, that money clearly wouldn't be enough!

Making money by buying stocks was fine in the early stages! But as the capital grew larger and larger, it would be impossible to dump everything into a single stock. Doing so would create a market crash effect during future sell-offs, and as for making a profit... breaking even would be a miracle!

Moreover, making money with crazy consistency would likely attract the attention of regulatory authorities in no time...

Ultimately, even without considering regulators, the continuous expansion of capital would inevitably draw the eyes of all sorts of factions. Someone might even set a trap for him! Even with the ability to make minor adjustments through dreams, the mental toll and risks involved would simply be too great!

It would be far better to salvage some high-end technology from the future. After all, in this day and age, those who played with high-end tech, ran heavy industries, and engaged in manufacturing were the ones truly standing at the pinnacle of entrepreneurship... Meanwhile, stock speculators had always lingered at the lower-middle end of the contempt chain among wealthy individuals in Shenzhou, unable to ascend to official prominence.

"Regardless, following the method I gave Lin Xia for compound growth, the risk remains controllable until the capital reaches the tens of millions tier!"

Chu Zhu gently rubbed his fingers against the tabletop. A capital fund in the tens of millions would already be enough to serve as initial seed money... presumably?

"Right, when I enter the dream tonight, I should look up Zhao Shao by the way!" Chu Zhu mused. Although this person wasn't as historically significant as the true corporate titans, he was still the very first person Chu Zhu had encountered in the real world whose name appeared in historical records—even if only for a fleeting glance.

...

Lunchtime.

This time, Lin Xia was treating Chu Zhu to a meal at a restaurant. "I'm skipping the afternoon classes! I've already asked for leave, and I'll go collect the prize money shortly... and then, it's time for that stock you mentioned!"

Taking a deep breath, Lin Xia laughed bitterly, "That scared the life out of me! Right after I bought it, the stock skyrocketed, but right before the midday market close, it crashed! It fell even lower than when the market opened this morning... If you hadn't told me to hold onto this stock for the entire month, I would have sold it immediately upon running into such a mess."

"But then again, will this stock go up in the afternoon? It should, right? This..."

Chu Zhu: "..."

Looking at his anxiety-ridden best friend, Chu Zhu opened his mouth, and finally said, "Your mindset... well, pretend I said nothing!"

Actually, Chu Zhu felt that Lin Xia's mindset wasn't particularly suited for making money in the stock market... He felt like he was looking at a textbook definition of a retail investor ripe for shearing.

However, considering that the money Lin Xia was using to play the stock market was entirely borrowed through loans... well, Chu Zhu felt it was best for him not to interfere. After all, he wasn't the one with the loans! Whatever he said wouldn't really be appropriate.