Chapter 18: Was It Really That ‘Smart’?

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

“It should be about time…” Anderson muttered to himself.

To be honest, he didn’t look forward to the second match as much as he did the first one.

Although he was confident in the first match, he was quite satisfied with the result of the show regardless of its outcomes

Because it was the first test, any results were good.

But now, for the second time, Anderson wanted to use this opportunity to test Robot No. 1 more.

Moreover, this competition was essentially just an exhibition match. Since General O’Neil wasn’t convinced, he decided to let the competition continue.

But now that the two rounds of gunfire had passed, it was almost enough. After all, if his performance was too ugly, both President Joseph and General O’Neil would probably be very disappointed.

Anderson nodded to President Joseph, who was not far away and had a somewhat ugly expression on his face, to let him temporarily relax.

Before the third round of targets appeared, Anderson gently pressed the button on the test instrument in his hand.

In the next moment, the eyes of Robot No. 1 on the hillside flickered slightly, as if it was blinking.

At the same time, in the center of the field, many targets were erected again. At the same time, they began to move left and right across the field. These targets had all become moving targets.

Bang, bang, bang!

Another few gunshots rang out.

But this time, it wasn’t only the soldier that made the gunshots. On another small hillside, the robot that had been lying on the ground all this time finally fired.

This attracted everyone’s attention toward it. A wisp of faint white smoke rose from the hill. This was caused by multiple shots being released in a short period of time.

Then, everyone looked in the direction of the other shooting range.

They saw that all the targets on the ground had been shot down. There were only intact civilian targets left on the field.

Seeing this scene, all the spectators in the field took out their binoculars that they had prepared beforehand.

The crowd kept glancing at the targets on the ground, silently counting in their hearts to see which colors they were marked with.

Red was the color that General O’Neil chose for his soldier.

To him, red was closer to the color of blood and more realistic-looking than blue.

Blue represented the color of the bullets fired by Robot No. 1.

Soon, everyone counted all the ink stains in the field.

As a result, there were eight targets stained with red and only six targets stained with blue.

Seeing this result, the researchers in the field were relieved. Although they had lost to the general’s soldier by two less, it was very close.

This result could be said to be very satisfactory.

However, when the general at the side saw the situation on the field, his face immediately darkened.

Although it looked like his soldier had won in terms of numbers, his soldier had hit stagnant targets while Robot No. 1 had hit all the criminal targets that had been protected by hostages.

Moreover, these robbers that were blocked by civilians were moving targets. In comparison, the robot’s ability was obviously stronger.

The researchers were usually stuck in their laboratory, only looking at the results and counting the colors. Naturally, they didn’t notice the difference.

At this moment, after the third round of shooting ended, General O’Neil sighed in his heart.

There was no point in continuing to compete.

O’Neil was just about to admit defeat when he saw President Joseph beside him suddenly laugh out loud. “O’Neil, the soldiers under you are really skilled. You deliberately didn’t let your soldiers attack the target with hostages, right?”

Before Joseph could finish, William added, “O’Neil, you must be deliberately testing our robot. The soldiers who can be by your side are elites. They are already very familiar with this sort of rescue operation.”

O’Neil looked at the two of them and smiled helplessly. He knew that these two guys were giving him face in this situation.

“So that’s how it is!”

“No wonder the soldiers did not shoot the target that was holding them hostage. They must be thinking of them as civilians in an actual operation!”

“General O’Neil is really a good general!”

Hearing the people among them start to praise him, O’Neil also understood that it was best to end the competition here.

From the competition results, it could be seen that Robot No. 1 was indeed powerful. Regardless of whether it was the first or second round, he was stronger than his soldiers.

Since everyone was willing to give him face, he could only nod his head.

When the others saw O’Neil’s official stance, smiles appeared on the researchers’ faces. They did not care about the competition’s outcome. They immediately placed all their attention on the research of Robot No. 1.

“Have you guys tested the frequency of Robot No. 1’s continuous shooting?”

“We have. The frequency is constant and the timing of firing at all the targets is very good.”

“However, there’s a problem. Robot No. 1 actually managed to shoot just the robbers. Why didn’t he shoot at the other targets? It should be easier. Moreover, if the soldiers also shot at the moving targets, wouldn’t it interrupt Robot No. 1’s shooting rhythm?”

“I have a speculation that’s a little ridiculous. Is it possible that Robot No. 1 already knew in advance that the soldier would not shoot at the double moving targets with hostages, so it only needed to calculate according to its own data and attack the targets that would not be attacked by the soldiers?”

“It anticipated the soldier’s actions in advance?”

General O’Neil also heard the researchers’ discussion and immediately fell into deep thought.

As a general, he had been affected by the psychology of victory and defeat just now. But now that he had calmed down, after many years of understanding guns and shooting, he discovered many problems.

First, the first point mentioned by the researchers—shooting frequency.

In such a shooting competition, firing frequency was very important.

Once one’s firing frequency was interrupted, it would need to be adjusted again to make one’s own firing rhythm faster.

The firing frequency of Robot No. 1 was very constant, which was normal. After all, this was a robot. As long as it followed procedures, there would basically be no accidents.

However, what troubled O’Neil was that even if it followed its procedures, this was a competition, not a simple test. With the presence of soldiers, accidents could happen at any time.

Although, in reality, the soldier did not attack the double targets.

Moreover, this was what he had told the soldiers in advance. How could a robot know about these sorts of things?

Is it really that ‘smart’?