Artificial Intelligence

Barry Allen was still far too immature. Simply describing a few ways to use the Speed Force had been enough to frighten him.

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

Zhang Tianran ignored Wells's threat, but he had not truly intended to teach Barry Allen either. He merely wanted to make his presence known.

Sometimes, having a good image was very important.

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

"Dr. Zhang..." Barry, lying in bed with a broken bone, watched Zhang Tianran's departing back and suddenly felt a trace of guilt well up inside him.

Although he had rarely met this Dr. Zhang at STAR Labs, Barry had heard Cisco and the others praise the doctor's abilities more than once over the past few days.

"It's all right, Barry. Tianran is just a little too impatient. He won't get angry over something so minor. Your top priority now is to familiarize yourself with your powers," Wells said reassuringly from his wheelchair.

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

Pretending to leave in anger, Zhang Tianran went to the Time Vault and summoned Gideon.

Since he had reached a partnership with Reverse-Flash, Zhang Tianran had naturally made a few requests of his own. Having access to Gideon whenever he wanted was one of the conditions.

"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 multiple doctoral degrees, it was difficult for him to use large computers for research, let alone genuine artificial intelligence.

"Hello, Zhang Tianran. I'm sorry, but my database contains very little information about you." Gideon's voice was gentle, sounding as if she possessed a consciousness of her own.

Zhang Tianran was not disappointed by Gideon's answer.

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

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

A world filled with 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 changing the timeline and erasing everything he knew?

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

Gideon obediently displayed her core code, even thoughtfully adding annotations in some places.

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

He was not trying to replicate another Gideon. He wanted to create an artificial intelligence that belonged to him.

It was especially important to his plans going forward.

Unfortunately, even with Super Thinking, the technological gap was not so easy to bridge. Zhang Tianran himself had not studied computer programming much, and trying to fully understand artificial intelligence through solitary work was still quite difficult.

Although he had forcibly memorized a vast amount of computer knowledge long ago, he lacked practical experience. Every so often, Zhang Tianran had to stop using Super Thinking, rest for a while, and review the parts he had missed.

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

He staggered out of STAR Labs. By chance, he ran into Cisco, and the moment Cisco saw Zhang Tianran's dazed state, he immediately understood what had happened.

For top scientists, working without rest was a common occurrence. Especially when they encountered difficult problems, staying up for several days was perfectly normal.

"Brother, how many days has it been since you last slept? How did one night leave you looking like this?" Cisco asked with great concern, handing him a cup of coffee and enthusiastically calling a taxi for Zhang Tianran.

"I'm fine. Just a little sleepy. I don't drink coffee..." Zhang Tianran shook his head. A 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 are you going?" 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 private office.

"Dr. Zhang, I really didn't expect you to come looking for me. I've read all your papers. They were absolutely brilliant..."

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

He had indeed gained some fame before, but the mainstream scientific community had always regarded him as an attention seeker.

Perhaps because he was a transmigrator, or perhaps because of Reverse-Flash's guidance, Zhang Tianran's research over the past few years had primarily focused on spatial dimensions and time.

Following the normal path of development, Zhang Tianran had originally been preparing to develop a time-travel machine and a spatial-jump device.

But...

"I really didn't expect Felicity to be interested in abstract subjects like time and space as well. Unfortunately, I haven't made any new progress in quite a while," Zhang Tianran said perfunctorily.

As for progress, of course he had some... major breakthroughs capable of traversing time and space. But those things were all tied to the Speed Force and could not be made public at all.

"Your research has already surpassed the current era, so taking another step forward is naturally very difficult. Oh, right, you came to see me..." Felicity's excitement settled somewhat as she suddenly remembered the real matter at hand.

Hearing that, Zhang Tianran immediately explained why he had come.

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

Zhang Tianran quickly came up with a perfect excuse and used the opportunity to ask Felicity about some programming difficulties he had encountered.

It was also Felicity's first time dealing with such issues. Artificial intelligence was completely different from being a super hacker. Still, Zhang Tianran resolved many basic problems through her.

Sometimes, unfamiliarity and ignorance were entirely different things. Zhang Tianran could use Super Thinking to rapidly memorize a vast amount of computer knowledge, but his lack of even the most basic practical experience could also lead him into certain misunderstandings.

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