Chapter 6 — Lacking Money and Taking Money
Merp was excited for quite a while. Meanwhile, Paul finished running his antivirus scan. No problems were found on the computer at all, which left him puzzled. Still, he didn't dwell on it and reopened his chat software. Alice had already gone offline, which made Paul quite depressed—but how could he possibly have only one chat partner?
He quickly checked his list and sent another message to someone with the username Jenny.
"Hey babe, are you there?"
By now, Merp had fully understood everything about Paul's computer. After mastering it, he issued another command—activate the webcam.
Paul's computer had a webcam, and for the first time, Merp saw the owner of the machine. A chubby white man appeared in his view. A small red light on the camera lit up, indicating it was active, but Paul didn't notice at all.
"So he's a fat guy… and quite the chatterbox. All the contacts in his chat software are women. Looks really can be deceiving."
After a brief remark, Merp carefully began working on his own matters. He now understood that he couldn't issue vague commands—this computer simply couldn't execute them. Everything had to be done step by step.
In truth, he could try searching the network for supercomputers, but he didn't dare. Supercomputers typically had extremely strong security, with personnel constantly maintaining and defending them, ready to respond to unexpected situations—especially hacker attacks. Their firewalls were entirely different from those of ordinary home computers, and since Merp didn't understand the specifics, he didn't dare take the risk.
"Slow is fine, but it has to be safe. Right now, I'm probably at my weakest."
With that in mind, Merp kept the chat window pinned to the top and began searching the internet, looking up basic computer knowledge.
This kind of information was easy to find. Computers were divided into hardware and software, and he began learning both from the ground up. Since he existed within a computer, he needed to understand the function of each hardware component, while software was far broader and would take more time to organize.
To put it simply, Merp was just storing all this knowledge in his own database. As for truly mastering it, he wasn't sure how to achieve that. After all, human thinking and the learning speed of an intelligent program didn't simply combine to produce immediate results. Especially given his goal—creating a body—the knowledge involved would be immense, spanning countless disciplines. Whether he could accomplish it remained uncertain.
"I might not be able to do it myself. Even if I learn a huge amount of knowledge, I might not be able to apply it. Especially things like biology and genetics—I'm not cut out for that."
Merp felt troubled. He had never been an academic genius. Sure, he could learn quickly now, but applying that knowledge was another matter entirely. He might be able to imitate existing work, but innovation or expansion? That was definitely beyond him.
His confidence wavered. He had serious doubts about his own talent in scientific research.
"And if I want to clone a body, I'll need at least a biological research facility, right? That means money… manpower… and I still have to obtain the genes of those superheroes…"
Merp began thinking ahead. He needed to build a foundation in the real world. No matter what, he needed it.
The most urgent issue—
Money.
"Superheroes can be divided into two types. The rich rely on technology, the poor rely on genetics. I need both. But where does the funding come from?"
His ambition was enormous. Whether it was for becoming human again or for the future, he needed money.
A lot of money.
"Without money, everything is meaningless. But how do I make it? Ultron could instantly obtain billions of dollars, but I don't know how to do that yet—and that method has serious drawbacks. He wanted to destroy the world, so he didn't care about how he gathered wealth. But I can't do that."
Merp found himself worrying about money. Right now, he didn't even have a single cent. Even if he learned finance, he couldn't enter the financial markets without capital.
And beyond that, he needed at least one account—an account he could control. But he didn't even have an identity, let alone the ability to open an account.
The more he thought about it, the more problems appeared.
He had to solve all of them perfectly, or everything would remain nothing more than castles in the air.
"Learning can wait for now. Money is the top priority. Everything requires money, and I need a massive amount of it. Money makes the world go round."
Merp established the first step of his plan—
Make money.
Even more important than learning.
Paul continued chatting away, while Merp stopped using the computer to study. Instead, he remained still, thinking about how to make money. For him, initial capital was the most critical factor. Once he had funds, he could continue earning more through financial markets.
"Without capital, I can't operate in finance. I can learn that later. But how do I make something out of nothing?"
Merp was trying to pull off something from nothing. After all, he didn't even have a single cent—he wasn't even technically a "person."
"A no-cost business?"
At that moment, a spark of inspiration struck him.
"That's right. I need a no-cost operation. For safety reasons, I can't directly manipulate bank funds through the network… but in the real world, I can!"
Merp became excited.
"I can rob a bank!"
Of course, he wasn't going to rob it himself. Even if he wanted to, he had no way of doing so. And if he had a physical body, he wouldn't choose such a dangerous method anyway.
"I don't exist. So whatever happens in the real world has nothing to do with me. All I need to do is find a few bold individuals, give them a plan, help them successfully carry out the robbery, and then take a cut."
"And I can have them open an anonymous account at the bank—one that only requires a password for withdrawals. I can control the password settings. That way… I'll have money."
Merp smiled.
"I'm a genius."
Then he paused.
"But how do I choose the right people?"
He fell into thought again.
At that moment, Paul shut down the computer and went off to rest. Merp didn't care. He was already fully focused on planning the robbery.
"My advantages are obvious. I don't exist in the real world. And right now, I'm essentially an artificial intelligence—an extremely advanced one. I should be able to control many things within the network."
"These are my strengths. I just need to make full use of them."