Understanding

Mo Fei had originally only been collecting those streams of light, using scattered data to enrich himself and supplement his body. But now that he needed to systematically study computer knowledge, that method of collecting data was no longer suitable.

He did not act immediately. Instead, he began thinking like an intelligent program. If I were an intelligent program, I would download relevant materials to learn from. I need to download them too. That's right, I need to download! With that thought, Mo Fei directly issued an instruction, ordering the home computer to download computer-related materials. But a problem arose: the instruction was not specific. The computer began downloading everything online that could be found using computer-related keywords. This was trouble.

"WTF?" Paul flew into a rage again. Countless pages began popping up nonstop, but Mo Fei pinned the chat window to the top, leaving all the opened links running in the background. The entire computer completely froze!

"Damn it, I'm done with this!" Paul forcibly shut the computer down, then got to his feet. He felt that this computer had it in for him today. After getting dressed and pushing open the door, he headed out. He wanted to get a drink. Forget talking to Alice!

Mo Fei was stunned as well. The CPU stopped running, and everything came to a halt. What's going on? He had no idea what was happening and began to panic. After all, the virtual world was still far too unfamiliar to him, and he had not fully adapted to it yet. He issued several more commands in succession, but none of them did anything. There was no response at all!

Don't panic. Let me think. No response... no response... Could it have shut down? Mo Fei suddenly realized the issue. Naturally, there would be no response after a computer shut down. Had he possibly affected the user? That must be it. It seems I was too hasty. I can't be so impatient. What I need is tremendous patience.

Mo Fei calmed down. He stopped issuing commands and waited silently. But waiting like this was far too long, so Mo Fei began changing the way he thought, trying, for instance, to think like an intelligent program. No, that won't work. I don't really understand intelligent systems. The so-called smart products before I transmigrated were only pseudo-intelligent. They merely followed fixed command patterns and had no ability to think!

Then an intelligent system must first analyze the meaning of a command. That poses no problem for me. Next comes answering questions: search its own data reserves, then select an answer. That is the simplest process! As Mo Fei thought this, he realized that when it came to computers, he had only known how to use one, and even then, only through foolproof operations. Now that he wanted to understand computers, he first needed to simplify the process, then gradually flesh it out!

Paul left home, feeling as though the entire world bore him ill will. He was someone who liked staying at home, yet now he had actually been forced to come out for a drink. It was simply agonizing.

He entered a small bar not far from his home. It was only afternoon, and there were not many people inside—just a scattered few, each drinking alone in sullen silence. Paul walked up to the counter and said to the bartender, "A beer!" He placed a ten-dollar bill on the bar, then dropped his fat body heavily onto a stool!

Bang! A mug of draft beer was set before him. Paul gloomily picked it up and took a hard gulp. "Haa..." He let out a long breath. "Sigh..." Then came another round of sighing before he continued drinking. The bartender handed him a small glass bowl containing peanuts and shrimp crackers, and Paul began picking them out one by one to eat.

Meanwhile, Mo Fei had sorted out the response process of an intelligent program. It was actually simple: command, analysis, search, and feedback. He had to complete all these steps himself, and now he was practicing. Memories from when I was three! Mo Fei thought. But his thought process was not that of an intelligent program. He had to consciously think of searching again, after which a folder appeared. Then everything from when he was three played out like an incredibly long movie, though it all passed in an instant.

Is my reading speed this fast? Just like when I move? Information traveled quickly through the internet, but Mo Fei did not know exactly how fast. He needed to learn all of that. Yet reading took almost no time at all, which meant he could learn many things. The help that would provide him was enormous.

Faintly excited, Mo Fei looked forward to the computer being turned on again. But this time, he would be more careful. The first step was to observe the user's condition and prevent himself from being trapped here again when the computer shut down. That was right—Mo Fei had been trapped. He had just tried to leave, but he could not. Mo Fei had discovered his shortcoming, or rather, his weakness.

For now, the home computer's detection systems seemed to have no reaction to him whatsoever. He still did not know why, and there was far too much he needed to learn.

Finally, after finishing a drink, Paul moved his more-than-two-hundred-pound body back home and plopped down in front of the computer again. "I hope you don't act up again, or else I'll..." Paul stopped there. He had only just realized that he was talking to a computer. "I'm really getting inexplicably irritated today!"

With a beep, the power started up. The fan inside the computer tower began spinning, though it was not very loud. Mo Fei saw the streams of light appear again. This time, he avoided them while issuing a command directed at the computer itself: scan every system on the computer.

A massive amount of data immediately surged toward Mo Fei, but it did not affect the computer's operating speed. Mo Fei understood then. It was like a system scan, and the detection software was ineffective against him because he absorbed the data. The data could not be fed back to the software, so naturally, it could not find him.

The computer also had antivirus software. Paul had been so angered today that he had not used it. Now, he controlled the mouse and clicked on it. But Mo Fei was not afraid, because he had already finished understanding the antivirus software. He did not know whether he was actually a virus, but there was certainly no information or data about him in the virus database. It could not detect him at all. At the same time, he could still absorb data or evade the detection data, thereby hiding himself.

Understanding all of this took only an instant, and Mo Fei became incredibly excited. This is so fast. This learning speed feels unbelievably amazing. Only an intelligent program could achieve something like this, right?