Artificial Intelligence

Barry Allen was still far too inexperienced. Simply hearing a few methods for using the Speed Force had already frightened him.

"Zhang Tianran, don't be too hasty. What you're talking about is far too early for Barry right now." Wells's eyes gleamed dangerously, as though he were warning Zhang Tianran.

Zhang Tianran ignored Wells's threat, but he had never truly intended to teach Barry Allen anyway. He only wanted to make his presence known.

Sometimes, a good persona was very important.

"Fine. This is my training plan. If you want to become stronger, just follow it." Zhang Tianran casually picked up a document folder from the table, tossed it in front of Barry Allen, and turned to leave.

"Dr. Zhang..." Barry, lying in bed with fractured bones, watched Zhang Tianran's retreating figure, and a hint of guilt suddenly welled up inside him.

Although he had rarely run into Dr. Zhang at S.T.A.R. Labs, Barry had heard more than once from Cisco and the others over the past few days just how capable this doctor was.

"It's alright, Barry. Tianran is just a little impatient. He won't get angry over something so minor. Your top priority now is getting familiar with your powers." Wells, seated in his wheelchair, spoke to comfort him.

But Barry Allen still felt embarrassed, believing he had let down someone's good intentions. He failed to notice that Wells quietly took away the document folder beside him.

Zhang Tianran, pretending to leave in anger, arrived at the Time Vault and summoned Gideon.

Since he had reached a partnership with the Reverse-Flash, Zhang Tianran had naturally made a few demands of his own. One of the conditions was being able to use Gideon whenever he wished.

"Hello, Gideon. Could you pull up my records?" Zhang Tianran greeted Gideon.

In this era, artificial intelligence was still exceedingly rare.

Even with Zhang Tianran's numerous doctoral degrees, it was difficult for him to borrow large-scale computers for research, let alone acquire true artificial intelligence.

"Hello, Zhang Tianran. I'm sorry, but my database does not contain much information about you." Gideon's voice was gentle, making her sound as though she possessed a consciousness of her own.

Hearing Gideon's answer, Zhang Tianran did not feel disappointed.

According to the information the Reverse-Flash had revealed, he should not have stayed in this world for very long. That was not too far off from what he had expected.

Honestly, if he had not yet solved the problem of the Speed Force, Zhang Tianran would have long since found a way to travel to another universe.

A world full of Speedsters was simply too chaotic. The timeline was constantly altered, making it far too dangerous.

Who knew whether he might one day run into a Speedster altering the timeline and erasing everything he knew?

"Open your core code, and display it according to the technological level of the current timeline..."

Gideon obediently displayed her core code, and even thoughtfully added annotations in certain places.

Seeing this, Zhang Tianran activated Super Thinking and began doing his best to understand it...

He was not trying to copy Gideon. He wanted to create an artificial intelligence of his own.

This was particularly important to his upcoming plans.

Unfortunately, even with Super Thinking, the technological gap was not so easily crossed. Zhang Tianran himself had not done much research into computer programming. Trying to fully understand artificial intelligence through solitary work alone was still rather difficult.

Although he had already forcibly memorized a great deal of computer knowledge, he lacked practical experience. Every so often, Zhang Tianran had to stop using Super Thinking, rest for a while, and review the areas he had missed.

After an unknown amount of time, Zhang Tianran shut off Super Thinking, feeling dizzy and lightheaded.

He staggered out of S.T.A.R. Labs. By chance, he ran into Cisco at that moment, and the instant Cisco saw Zhang Tianran's dazed state, he immediately understood what had happened.

For top scientists, forgetting food and sleep was commonplace. Especially when they encountered difficult problems, staying up for several days was perfectly normal.

"Bro, how many days has it been since you slept? How did you end up like this after just one night?" Cisco handed him a cup of coffee with great concern and enthusiastically called him a taxi.

"I'm fine, just a little tired. I don't drink coffee..." Zhang Tianran shook his head. The Speedster's super recovery had already restored his exhausted mind to normal.

Cisco wordlessly took back the coffee, helped Zhang Tianran into the taxi, and reminded him to get some proper rest.

"Sir, where would you like to go?" the taxi driver asked politely.

Zhang Tianran hesitated for a moment before saying, "Star City!"

"Hello, Felicity."

After taking a taxi to Star City, Zhang Tianran found Felicity with ease.

At this point, Felicity had already become an employee of Palmer Technologies. Her work was easy, and she even had her own office.

"Dr. Zhang, I really didn't expect you to come looking for me. I've read all your papers—they're absolutely outstanding..."

Zhang Tianran had not expected this computer expert, whom he had never met before, to actually be one of his fans.

He had indeed been somewhat famous before, but mainstream scientific circles had always regarded him as an attention-seeking showman.

Perhaps because he was a transmigrator, or perhaps due to the Reverse-Flash's guidance, Zhang Tianran's primary research direction over the past few years had been spatial dimensions and time.

Following the normal course of development, Zhang Tianran had actually already prepared to develop a time-travel machine and a spatial-jump device.

But...

"I really didn't expect Felicity to be interested in such abstract subjects as time and space too. But unfortunately, I haven't made any new progress in quite a while." Zhang Tianran brushed it off casually.

As for progress, of course there had been some... major breakthroughs that could traverse time and space. But all of it was tied to the Speed Force and could not be made public at all.

"Your research has already surpassed the current era. Of course taking another step forward would be extremely difficult. By the way, you came to see me..." Felicity's excitement calmed somewhat as she suddenly remembered the important matter.

Hearing that, Zhang Tianran immediately stated his purpose.

"Because of difficulties in my academic research, I plan to build a supercomputer to assist my work. But since I'm not proficient with programming, I've run into some problems."

Zhang Tianran quickly found the perfect excuse and took the opportunity to ask Felicity about some programming difficulties he had encountered.

It was also Felicity's first time encountering this kind of problem. Artificial intelligence was completely different from being a super hacker. Still, Zhang Tianran resolved many of the most fundamental issues through her.

Sometimes, being unfamiliar with something and not understanding it at all were entirely different concepts. Zhang Tianran could use Super Thinking to rapidly memorize vast amounts of computer knowledge, but his lack of basic practical experience could also lead him into certain misconceptions.

At times like this, an experienced helper became especially important.