Chapter 1523: Emergency Meeting

It had been a week since the password was given to Captain Xing.

These days, Lu Zhou had been waiting for Xing Bian to give him a reply, especially about what the password was used for, but he did not receive any news.

But what was interesting was that although the news from the Security Bureau was nowhere to be seen, the good news from East Asia Energy was coming one after another.

The first was from the electromagnet research laboratory.

Director Tang lived up to his expectations. After slightly improving his A1 pulsed magnetic field generator, he designed a building with a total area of about 4 acres and capable of forming an instantaneous magnetic field of 10,000-20,000 Tesla in the central area.

At the same time, the construction team on the moon had also begun construction of the foundation.

No matter how perfect the theoretical model was, without testing it out, it would only be a theory.

However, Lu Zhou was still full of confidence in his plan.

Most of the problems faced by the second-generation controllable fusion were advanced versions of the bottleneck faced by the first generation of controllable fusion. As long as the most critical magnetic field could be solved, the others were not a problem at all.

Such as fusion ignition.

After reading a large number of documents, Lu Zhou designed a set of laser ignition arrays that could be used for core ignition.

Although there was still a lack of experimental tests, he felt like there should be no major problems.

He spent the last few days of February quietly. On the first day of March, Li Guangya called him suddenly and told him that the formalities for taking office had been completed.

From now on, Lu Zhou’s status was no longer just an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, but he was also the chief consultant of scientific development for the Pan-Asian Cooperation Ministry of Science and Technology.

In terms of level, he was probably the second-in-chief of the entire Pan-Asian Cooperation Ministry of Science and Technology.

“This is the academic center of the Pan-Asian Cooperation.”

“At best, it’s only the center of academia power.” Lu Zhou glanced around and said casually, “I don’t see scholars, only bureaucrats.”

“You seem to have a prejudice against people in administrative positions.” Li Guangya shrugged and said, “Well then, like you said, this is the center of power for the Pan-Asian Cooperation academic community, and you are only one step away from the summit.”

“Oh, what’s that?”

Li Guangya smiled and said, “You are right below the minister of the Ministry of Science and Technology.”

Lu Zhou: “Unfortunately, I am not very interested in power.”

“Regardless, let me introduce your colleague to you first… It just so happens that he is here,” Li Guangya said with a smile. He looked at the middle-aged man who walked towards him and said, “This is Xue Rui, the Science and Technology Minister.”

“Pleasure, Academician Lu, I have only seen your name in textbooks before. I did not expect to be able to work with you one day. Thank you for contributing to the power of science and technology.” With a smile, Minister Xue held out his right hand and enthusiastically shook Lu Zhou’s hand. He then continued, “There will be a meeting in a while. It would be nice if you can come together. We hope to borrow your wisdom.”

“What meeting?”

Minister Xue smiled slightly and said, “This way.”

…

The meeting had yet to start, but many people had sat down in the spacious meeting room.

Academician Wang, who was sitting at the table, glanced at his watch and suddenly said softly, “This is my second time here.”

After waiting quietly for a while, Yang Wu, who was sitting next to him, asked casually, “And?”

“That’s it, just feeling nostalgic.” A memory floated in his mind. Academician Wang continued, “About 20 years ago, when I was still working at the Shanghai Computer Research Institute, it was to fight against the locusts that swept across the country. My mentor and I were called up here for a meeting.”

The so-called locust did not refer to actual locusts, but a computer virus codenamed “locusts”. This virus specifically targeted cloud servers and posed a considerable threat to the Pan-Asian virtual reality network and magnetic levitation road network.

Fortunately, due to the early warnings and emergency meetings, the virus hardly caused any substantial losses to the lives and properties of the Pan-Asian people.

But this time was different.

Different from the past several cybersecurity crises, the ALPHA virus was not only global, but it was also far from comparable to ordinary computer viruses in terms of danger and concealment ability.

The most important thing was that Wang Sicheng could not even be sure whether it was a human or something else that created this virus…

“If possible, I hope this will be the last time I come here.” Academician Wang Sicheng glanced at his watch again, sighed, and said, “It’s about to begin.”

Everyone quietly waited.

The meeting finally began.

Minister Xue came to the stage, and he read out the outline of the meeting before sitting back down at his seat.

Yang Wu noticed that the person sitting next to Minister Xue was a bit familiar. After looking at him carefully for a while, a surprised expression appeared in his eyes.

Chief Consultant for scientific development… Lu Zhou?

Academician Lu has only been on the front line for less than half a month. How is he already a chief consultant?

“Everyone here is a top expert in the field of information engineering and scientific research. This time we convened here with the hope that you all can provide some valuable opinions.

“Especially with regard to how to dispose of the quantum computer array on Ceres. Limited clues indicate that an unresolvable computer program is running on it, and part of the core code is highly similar to the ALPHA virus.”

There was a commotion in the meeting room, and the faces of the experts showed looks of surprise and shock.

Minister Xue paused and continued, “Any good ideas can be put forward. I hope everyone can express their opinions.”

“Obviously that supercomputing center is the source of the virus!” A scholar stood up and said fiercely, “The ALPHA virus has a strong ability to evolve, and it is very likely that this evolution is supported with the help of this supercomputing center. Whether it was an extraterrestrial civilization or a terrorist organization that built this supercomputing center, physically eradicating it is the best option!”

This proposal aroused the approval of many people.

No matter what secrets were hidden in that computer, it was not a wise move to reveal it at the risk of drawing the world closer to the danger.

After hearing these words, Minister Xue nodded thoughtfully and fell into contemplation.

The meeting room was noisy.

At this time, a gray-haired scholar raised his hand and offered a different opinion.

“If that supercomputing center is the source of the ALPHA virus, I do not recommend destroying it immediately. This may be the only clue we have so far. My instinct tells me that if we want to figure out how to defeat the ALPHA virus, we must figure out what it is calculating.”

Another scholar nodded and said, “My opinion is the same. Even if the entire Ceres is blown up, it will not change what has happened. Even if we finally decide to destroy it, the hardware is innocent. This supercomputing center is probably the largest quantum computer array in the entire solar system. If it is used for scientific research, it will be of great help to us!”

The person who proposed to destroy the quantum computer array sneered and said, “For scientific research? This is ridiculous! Which research institute dares to use such dangerous experimental equipment?”

“As long as its data is emptied, it is safe, at least to a certain extent, so why can’t it be used? Scientific research itself is full of risks, not to mention that we can take it apart and reverse engineer it!”

Seeing the meeting room in chaos, Minister Xue had a headache. He glanced sideways at Lu Zhou, trying to observe his reaction.

However, to his disappointment, he saw nothing except a poker face.

There was a loud cough in the conference room, which calmed the quarrel a little bit.

“Let me say something.”

Yang Wu from the Pan-Asian First Fleet looked around the meeting room and said, “From the clues we have so far, the supercomputing center should have been built by an intelligent being. It is likely to be an important clue to the ALPHA virus. Our fleet does not recommend destroying it… although it is easy to do so.

“About what to do with the computer and the calculation program it is executing…

“I want to hear the opinion of the Chief Consultant for scientific development.”

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