Chapter 22: Clayton Family in Tatters

Reaching Evelyn's dorm first, they exchanged their goodbyes. As Evelyn began to leave, Zen couldn't help but muster the courage to ask, "By the way, Evelyn, when are we going on our second date?" He was afraid that Evelyn will take stupid steps and distance herself.

A broad smile appeared on Evelyn's face as she replied, "Anytime you want, I will be ready."

2 days passed since the incident and nothing major happened in the institute. Shreya was trying her best to find the person who attacked Evelyn and Zen but there were no clues. Well, it makes sense since even Zen and Evelyn did not have any proof of where the person came from. It was very frustrating for Shreya but without proof, there was no way of blaming and acting against Claytons. Well… not officially and legally at least.

"Zen, Anna would like something to drink?" Tanya and James came back from there classes and found Zen and Anna sitting in the cafeteria. Both James and Tanya were taking martial arts and strategy classes. As nobles, they were always encouraged to take more strategic and leadership classes. They were taking classes on financial leadership, management etc.

"Just some mix fruit juice for me please." Anna replied.

"By the way guys, did you hear what happened with the Claytons?"

Hearing the name Clayton, both Zen and Anna's face turned into frown. They haven't tell complete truth to James and Tanya, since although they were friends, Zen and Anna didn't want to trust someone completely whom they met a few days ago. If anything, Evelyn was the odd one for gaining Zen's trust that easily.

"No, what happened?"

"Well this is what I heard from my family. Apparently, many of the big businesses of the Claytons are getting vandalized by unknown assailants. In addition, quite a few senior family members lost their life and the junior members are getting beaten up. Nobody has a single clue what the hell is going on. We think its on the great nobles or the royal family. I mean who has the guts to mess with a wild dog like Clayton family."

"Whatttt?" Zen was stunned. How can there be a coincidence like this?

'Is this really a coincidence? The timing is way too accurate. Is it master or someone else? Evelyn is out of the question since she has her own family problem, and I don't believe her family will stand for a nobody like me. If anything I will be their target instead of Claytons.' He thought.

"Yes, that's why almost every Clayton across the world is called back to understand who they offended. My guess? One of the idiots offended some hotshot in UHF." James talked like he was in heaven after taking a bite out of Anna's lunch.

"Oi fatass! Eat your own damn lunch! Don't dare to touch mine."

"But seriously, guys, your lunch is like the Avengers of cafeteria food."

Anna responded with a smirk that could rival the Mona Lisa, "Oh, really? Earn your points, buddy. I'm not handing them out like candy on Halloween."

Seeing Anna's smugness, Zen had an incredulous look on his face which screamed, 'Hello? These are my points that you are flexing. Mine! Don't smirk like you did something big to get those points.'

"Well whatever." Zen kept his mouth in check and continued, "Most of these nobles just act like shitty young masters from novels. They come like they are lions in the jungle, get beaten like a pup and then call papa pup. All these young masters just tug on their parents' pants."

"Pffttt" Both Tanya and James couldn't hold their laughter.

"You really hate nobles, don't you? Well I can't blame you."

"Okay, rant over. I've got class now. Let's save the drama for the noble soap operas for tomorrow."

Zen and Anna both had classes since they had to take classes from their respective majors. Zen picked his stuff and left after saying goodbyes. Zen's class was in a building a bit far in the campus so he got there a minute late, and the professor was already talking. Quietly, he slipped into the second row and settled in.

The professor, whom Zen recognized instantly, was telling about the class and what they can expect from the class. This guy was the famous Benicio Santos, a famous AI researcher from the prestigious University of Sao Palo, Brazil. His works on AI were very famous as he was someone who worked directly with the top industries on the Earth like ClosedAI and ShallowMind.

Suddenly, Benicio halted, pivoting toward Zen, grinning like he'd cracked a secret code. "Look who's here – the infamous Mr. Ashford. The talk of the town, aren't you? I expected more from this year's big shot. Seems like I had my hopes up for nothing, huh?" His smile faded into a stern expression, and he added, "Don't be late next time. Trust me, passing this class will be the least of your worries if you keep this up."

Zen felt strange. This was a fucking university, why do you care if I come around late or I don't come at all. But since the person in front of him was a senior researcher, Zen thought that punctuality might be Benicio's strong point.

"I will keep that in mind, professor" Zen replied and simply took out his notebook.

Benicio paid no heed to Zen's reply and started teaching.

"So, as you know, the most advanced AI on the planet right now is Zero. We have already given you a minor AI that is formed by the Zero itself to assist the students. So who can explain how Zero is different from the AIs that we create here on Earth?"

Nobody raised their hand. It was a rather difficult question because even the top researchers on the planet didn't know the code behind Zero. Zero was a gift from a different civilization. If only one go deep into the records that the older generation of researchers left on Zero, you can see the drop in the ocean. But that drop is enough to understand that Earthlings were not even close to creating something equivalent to Zero. Of course the students were in their teens, which normal teen will study anything in such details? Except, our Zen was anything but normal. Zen raised his hand.

"Anyone?" Benicio ignored Zen and asked once again.

'What the fuck? So, he was messing with me from the beginning. He is not disciplined but a fucking elitist.'

 The nobles just laughed at Zen and then concentrated on the person on the podium.

"It's alright if you don't know. Let me tell you. Zero is an AI which is not made of artificial neural networks at all. When we think about AI, we think about neural networks and algorithms like backpropagation and reinforcement learning. But our guess is, Zero doesn't use any of the algorithms that we think but rather a very different set of algorithms that can run on GPUs of the size of a fingernail. Yes, it is that small. Even the AIs that we make right now require at least computers of the size of a table to run something that is not even 1% of Zero. So let's study what we have developed up until now."

"The reinforcement learning is our biggest bet in AI because it is the only way we can let the AI out and learn on its own by the notion of rewards. These are very useful in robotics, especially motion planning. While for human language interaction, the recurrent transformers that use the losses inspired from generative models are the state of the art."

Zen, this time didn't raise hands and just asked what was in his mind.

"But professor, wouldn't it be better to follow the philosophy that a human demonstration, followed by reinforcement learning is the best way to learn the course of action for an AI?"

"Next time, your hands should go up before your mouth moves Mr. Ashford. And what do you even know about AI? You don't even know exactly how things work. Where did you learn AI? From a dictionary? You don't have enough money to buy a tablet for class and now you are blabbering about AI? Shut up and don't disturb the class."

Nobles were really enjoying toady's class. They already had enough of Zen's bullshit.

Zen just looked on the board where Benicio was writing and didn't say anything. The class went on and Benicio wrote several equations and explained it to the students. In reality, Benicio was just publicizing his own work in his class while singing his own praises.

"Alright, that would be all for today. I will see you next week." He then looked at Zen and formed a mocking smile, "Mr. Ashford, I don't want any disturbances from the next class. Got it?"

Zen smiled coldly and said,

"Professor, hope that you could even teach the next class. I didn't bother with your papers before, but damn, you sure are a top-notch researcher."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"Well professor, do you think I don't read papers from the intergalactic conferences? Although they do not allow most of the work to go outside their world, but you can find some leaked documents easily on the internet. Hmm let's see, that equation is from 2954. That equation I remember is from 4140 something. All yours, huh? The academic integrity squad's gonna love this."

"Bullshit! Don't slander me or I will sue you for defamation. Your poor family won't be able to bear the charges."

"Let's see who will not be able to bear the charges." Zen said and got away from the class leaving a red-faced Benicio.

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While Zen was facing his problems, the head of Clayton family was beating his head on the wall.

What the hell unfolded in just two days? My family's fortune crumbled by 20%. Over 30 elders gone, and hundreds of juniors lie in hospitals. Who have we angered?" he pondered, his gaze shifting to his son Clarke with shattered hands and his nephew Raymond, limbs torn apart. Yes, torn apart from the body. The bizarre part? No healing trick seemed to work.

He took out a piece of paper from the pocket and read what was written again,

| "Rein in your kin. If I catch them misbehaving again, not even the UHF president can shield you and your clan.|

A heavy sigh escaped him. "Issue a decree. For the next half a decade, no one, and I mean no one, is allowed to stir up trouble. Keep a low profile, do your chores. No voices raised. Clear?"

"Yes, sir!" a voice echoed, fading into the shadows.

'Who the hell can infiltrate my private room unnoticed?' he wondered, a shiver running down his spine.