“Uploaded to U-Tube?”
The Secretary of Defense froze. He ignored the president who was sneakily reaching for his phone and roared at his subordinate, “What do you mean by that?! Who dared to go against my orders?!”
The Secretary of Defense was incensed, not at the idea that the video had been uploaded, but that one of his subordinates had dared defy his orders and commit such a treacherous act.
The reporting officer replied immediately, “It was not done by an insider, sir!”
“Not an insider? Then is it a hacker!?”
Johnson was stunned. With its robust cybersecurity, he could not believe that hackers could breach even the outermost perimeters of the Pentagon’s network. To talk even less of the core information. If that was really possible, the United States government might as well be an open book.
“No sir, there hasn’t been any breach of that sort. The uploaded video is different from ours.”
“Another video?” He paused for a moment, confused, but soon realized what had happened, “I remember now! Damn it! It’s that Stanford professor and his students!”
It only took a moment for him to realize that his namesake was responsible.
“Bastard! That bastard! This is my mistake. How could I forget that they might be recording as well.”
The Secretary of Defense anxiously paced up and down the room.
‘What should we do now? Should we arrest them?’
If the professor was found to have a video that the Department of Defense expressly prohibited the upload of, they had reasons to arrest him, but since they hadn’t told him about it, he was only uploading the video as a normal citizen, making it impossible for any charges to stick.
The Secretary of State on the side pressed down the president’s hand, preventing him from getting his phone. The president gave an aggrieved look before turning to Johnson, “Since things have already happened, don’t blame yourself, Johnson. Think about how to solve it first… Can’t the video be taken down right now?”
The president looked at the subordinate who reported.
“Your Excellency, after the video was uploaded, there had already been hundreds of thousands of views. By now numerous copies exist all around the world, and taking down the original would be useless.”
“Well, in that case, let’s try to guide the public opinion. Let’s say it’s a teaser for a Hollywood blockbuster…… In the meantime, we should quickly deploy manpower to search the place where the dragon appeared. We can temporarily hide it from the people, but definitely not from other countries.”
At this time, the president seemed to become serious and issued orders in an orderly manner.
But no one knew that he was eager to have everything be exposed so that he could tweet as much as he wanted!
Being the President of the United States of America was such a good position. He was the first to know all the secrets and in the future, he could brag about it.
This was what the president thought.
“Yes, Mr. President! I’ll get right on it!!”
The Secretary of Defense also knew that there was no time to lose. After saluting to the President, he and his subordinate left quickly. The president turned to the Secretary of State.
“Did you know that when I was a child, I wanted to be a wizard – a superhero. I once thought that was nothing more than a childish fantasy, but it seems this dream might just come true.”
…….
After taking out the military, Louie continued heading away from the village. Without bothering to hide, he weaved through the jungle, uprooting trees and bushes with each step forward.
He took care not to underestimate Earthlings. It was quite possible that the United States, the preeminent military power, had already devoted all of its geosynchronous satellites over the Amazon jungle to look out for him. Under that level of scrutiny, he was bound to be discovered sooner or later.
Because these observers were in orbit, Louie couldn’t perceive them, even with his eyesight. He did not bother to ask the Intelligent Brain either, as he did not trust it. Though it swore to look out for his life and interests, he would try to get on by himself before resorting to its advice.
From transmigration to impossible feats of bioengineering, the Intelligent brain had proven itself to possess unfathomable abilities. If it decided to turn those against Louie in order to seek its own ends, he would likely be unable to resist it. Who knows? It might be grooming his body to steal it later.
Louie had read many novels where the protagonists held blind faith in the systems or companions they were assigned. And he knew that though it rarely happened in the stories themselves, there was little stopping a malevolent actor from setting up the entire thing to trip up the main characters before swooping in to take them for all they had.
Of course, he still needed the Intelligent Brain’s power and knowledge in the meantime, and so he would not deny everything it offered. He would trust it to an extent since he had no choice. And he would carefully vet all of its advice before acting on it.
If the Intelligent Brain was truly good to him, then it would be the best outcome, and his caution would prove unnecessary. However, if it was evil, then he would have some leeway to counterattack. As the saying goes, prepare for the worst and hope for the best. Louie did not think himself a genius, but he could at least avoid playing the fool.
Under no condition would he become a puppet of the Intelligent Brain.
“This place should be good. It’s far enough from the village.”
After advancing thousands of kilometers into the thick of the forest, Louie finally stopped.
He had distanced himself from the indigenes because he didn’t want the Americans to find them. At the moment, he still had to conduct several experiments using their faith.
He parted some scales near his chest and pulled out a magic scroll.
“I hope this thing works well and doesn’t scare off those cute little humans……”
With a malicious grin, he opened the scroll.
……
At the same time, chaos once again erupted in the Pentagon.