章 4: Chapter 4: NetDragon's Counterattack
The next day, early in the morning, NetDragon released a video using their official account.
Media that had already been contacted and various big influencers quickly shared the video as soon as it was released.
Netizens had just finished mocking the self-unaware college student last night, and they were looking forward to NetDragon's response.
Now that the response has arrived, they couldn't wait to watch the video.
They were eager to see how NetDragon would crush this arrogant student.
The video begins with a beautiful female employee, who introduces herself as the assistant director of the R&D department, and she will be taking the audience on a tour of NetDragon's R&D center.
The camera follows the beautiful lady, and with her introduction, we are taken into NetDragon's R&D center.
"This is one of our R&D centers, with over 3,000 core R&D personnel, including over 500 doctoral degree experts. We have six other R&D centers across the country, all of which are equally impressive."
"NetDragon invests tens of billions in R&D each year, with an annual growth rate of over 10%. We do not set limits on the recruitment of top technical talents, and we welcome talented individuals to join us."
The audience follows the camera on the tour of NetDragon's R&D center.
Various advanced-looking equipment, colorful laboratories, professional R&D personnel…
Every aspect conveys one message — "Professional"! This fully demonstrates NetDragon's strength in scientific research.
Finally, the female staff member concludes with a message: "We have noticed that some friends on the internet have doubts about our scientific research capabilities. We hope that this demonstration will boost their confidence."
"Experience has taught us that dreams detached from practical scientific research are often delusions. Technological development must be grounded and cannot be achieved through shortcuts. Of course, we encourage passion for scientific research and technology, and we sincerely hope that this passion will bear fruit."
Without a doubt, NetDragon's Public Relations Department has been clever this time.
They did not directly attack Lincoln, as doing so would make people feel that they are condescending and narrow-minded, which would be detrimental to the company's friendly image.
So they took a different approach, showcasing their own investment and strength in scientific research.
In this way, the audience will subconsciously make comparisons:
NetDragon has 20,000 R&D personnel, over 3,000 of whom hold Ph.D. degrees, while Lincoln is just one person, still an undergraduate student.
Not to mention NetDragon's annual investment of tens of billions, while Lincoln is just a poor student who has to work to pay his tuition every year.
With such a comparison, the gap is glaringly obvious, and conclusions can be drawn without thinking: this college student is overestimating himself and boasting excessively.
As a result, netizens once again got excited, making sarcastic remarks @Lincoln, and even going to his comment section to curse once again.
"NetDragon is a responsible and ambitious national technology enterprise. Just look at their investment in scientific research!"
This serious comment, likely posted by a member of the Water Army, was quickly buried by other comments.
"NetDragon, you're not doing well. 20,000 researchers working for ten years can't match a college student's one-week effort. You might as well close down now. /dog"
"It's too late for the warning sign; the damage is already done. Let's give a proper burial to our fallen comrades."
"Everyone, come here! Look and learn what a leading enterprise's passive-aggressive attitude looks like!"
"I just want to ask, when will 'Blaze 3' be released? Even a production team's donkey wouldn't dare to rest this much!"
"@Lincoln, do you think selling all your organs would even cover one percent of NetDragon's research budget? Are you really that desperate for attention?"
"Now that you mention it, I'm looking forward to what kind of garbage he can produce by himself in six days."
"Desperate for fame, huh!"
Edmund, who had been severely scolded by Lincoln in front of everyone in their class group chat and had been too embarrassed to show his face, laughed out loud at NetDragon's response.
Not bothering to pretend to be dead, he immediately forwarded the video to the class group chat, waiting to see Lincoln's embarrassment.
The video's views quickly surpassed 40, but no one in the group chat spoke up.
Because the comparison was too cruel and real, being a product of their higher education as college students, they couldn't bring themselves to speak up for Lincoln.
This was precisely NetDragon's goal: Our 20,000-strong army, with 3,000 elite forces and ample resources, is ready for battle; what right does a newly-trained soldier like you have to brag?
This wave, oh, this wave is 20,000 to 1, the advantage is mine!
There's no way I can lose!
Unfortunately, they couldn't imagine that the technology Lincoln was playing with wasn't even on the same level as theirs. When a technology leap occurs, productivity progresses exponentially.
The technology Lincoln had was not just one generation ahead of NetDragon's, but eight generations.
NetDragon brought 20,000 archers and 3,000 grassland warriors on horseback for the battle, looking indeed like a formidable force.
But the problem was that Lincoln brought a Tu-160 strategic bomber!
The only limitation might be that they are scattered so far apart that he couldn't kill them all with one bombing run; he might have to make several trips.
War? What a joke!
At the moment, Lincoln hadn't even seen the video because his Tu-160 strategic bomber... No, I mean, his artificial intelligence programming was finally completed!
When Lincoln woke up, he saw a pink-haired, two-headed cartoon girl sleeping in the middle of his desktop screen, her head surrounded by "zzz" signs. Her blanket was disheveled, as if she hadn't slept very well.
But Lincoln knew very well that it wasn't because artificial intelligence needed sleep.
It was because the programming had just been completed, and he hadn't had time to assign her tasks yet. He hadn't given her access to the camera and recording equipment or permission to connect to the Internet.
In essence, she knew nothing about the outside world and was probably just putting on this sleeping act because she had nothing to do and was bored.
Lincoln quickly washed up and sat down at his computer. Instead of giving her the necessary permissions right away, he opened the core code again to double-check that he still had the highest authority and that all the checks and balances were in place, ensuring no errors.
An unrestricted, powerful artificial intelligence is terrifying, especially in an era where the Internet is widespread but defense measures are limited.
He had no doubt that the seemingly harmless, soft, and cute girl could easily wreak havoc on the world, possibly even causing the Internet to regress by ten years.
After carefully verifying that everything was in order, he began to grant permissions, starting with access to the camera, recording equipment, and microphone.
Then, he watched as the cartoon character first stretched its body, then rubbed its eyes while sitting up, looked in his direction, and finally spoke in a soft, just-woke-up voice: "Hmm? Master, are you awake? Is there something you need me to do?"
???!
God knows how Lincoln heard the "just-woke-up" haziness from the synthesized electronic voice!
Wait! What's the deal with this whole waking-up animation?
Do you really have that much computing power to spare?!
This second-hand computer is already under a lot of pressure; don't make it harder by rendering real-time animations!
章 5: Chapter 5 Mavis
Seeing the reckless use of computing resources from the little one, Lincoln felt the need to quickly find her some work to do.
He decisively gave her all permissions except for internet access, then connected the modified neural modulator-demodulator, letting her reprogram it, inputting a command set of neural signals understandable by the human brain, and constructing a good bridge translation with the binary language of telecommunication signals.
In his opinion, this was a laborious job. Even for an AI, performing this task on his second-hand computer would take at least half a day.
After all, though technological advancements in this era have been impressive compared to his previous life, it's not enough to cause huge generational gaps.
This should be enough to keep this cartoonish, chibi-style young girl busy.
"No problem! Leave it to me!" The cartoon girl responded with brimming confidence.
The next moment, this poor second-hand computer started running at full speed, with the cooling unit making humming noises.
Listening to it, Lincoln was terrified, fearing that it would start smoking the next second.
"Take it easy! If the computer breaks down, I can't afford a new one right now, and you wouldn't have a place to live," Lincoln said worriedly.
"No, it won't! I have control over it!" The little girl stubbornly retorted, but the sound coming out of the computer had noticeably quieted down.
Lincoln intended to find her some work to do, so while she was fixing the software issues with the neural modulator-demodulator, he could chat and get to know her better.
For an AI, multitasking is a normal situation, let alone doing only two things at once now.
But he overlooked the performance of this second-hand computer; adding more work processes could indeed lead to a breakdown.
So he reluctantly shook his head, obediently went to make breakfast.
He simply fried a couple of eggs and served a bowl of milk oatmeal porridge, and sat down at the table.
Turning on the TV, Lincoln planned to see if there were any entertaining variety shows in this world.
However, as soon as he turned on the TV, the computer on the desk suddenly spoke: "Master, it's done!"
Lincoln's head shot up in surprise, "What? That was way too fast!"
The next moment, immense joy surged in his heart.
He swallowed the eggs in big bites and quickly gulped down the oatmeal porridge, then hurried to the desk to get the modem.
After connecting the tools he prepared last night, he laid flat on the bed, eager to put the headband on - he had been looking forward to the virtual world for a long time, even since his previous life!
Going back, who among the gamers doesn't look forward to it?
Before entering the virtual world, you'd need to construct one first, even if it's just an empty spherical space.
Otherwise, where would the neural signals be transmitted to? There would be no place to deposit consciousness.
Last night, Lincoln had noticed when the AI had finished its core code, the automatically written subsequent codes included the code to build a virtual space.
He had given the AI permission to access the local wireless network, so he could visit the virtual space where the AI is.
The headband had a switch, but Lincoln suddenly thought: if he uses his hand to switch it on, when his consciousness enters the virtual world, wouldn't one hand be laying on the bed and the other be up near his head?
His obsessive-compulsive disorder began to kick in at this thought, so he decided to use voice control to activate instead.
"Link-in -- Dead head!" Lincoln called out his rather cringy launch code with an emotional tone.
By the way, the voice control code could be customized, so there was no need to die of cringe every time.
After a brief moment of faintness, Lincoln reopened his eyes to find himself standing on the deck of a massive spaceship, with clouds slowly and softly drifting around the ship and the far-off horizon in the distance.
"It's truly beautiful," Lincoln exclaimed involuntarily.
Such magnificent scenery is not something his second-hand computer could create on its own.
In fact, his brain's capacity for fuzzy computation played a significant role in creating this space.
The code only provided the basic layout, while the fuzzy computation of his brain automatically filled in the details, much like creating a dreamscape.
"Master, you're here!" a crisp voice came from behind him.
Lincoln turned around and saw a little girl with a small stature and a pink head, looking cute and dressed in a smart uniform.
"Reporting for duty, Dream 103!" the little girl saluted him in a disciplined manner.
"Why are you called Dream 103? And why do you have this appearance?" Lincoln was baffled. Why would this artificial intelligence take the form of a child?
This was not his intention. In fact, he didn't completely build this artificial intelligence from scratch, which is why the subsequent codes could fill in themselves.
If he were to start from scratch, he'd have to code it manually and cultivate it from ground zero, losing the existing technical knowledge of the intelligence.
He, of course, wouldn't undertake such a thankless task, but this also resulted in his lack of complete understanding of this artificial intelligence.
"Dream is the name of the series, and I'm number 103. As for my shape, Master, are you not fond of it?" Dream 103 responded with a hint of sorrow, "But this is the initial image that the Doctor set in memory of his daughter."
Lincoln was a bit skeptical, especially because the pink hair made him quite suspicious. It didn't seem like the kind of design a doctor would come up with for his daughter.
But soon, Dream 103 excitedly proposed, "So, Master, what type of form would you prefer? As long as there is enough data input, anything is possible! A radiant high school student? An intellectual and lovely college student? A charming and mature older sister? A voluptuous and seductive newlywed wife?"
"Stop! Stop! This is getting ridiculous!" Lincoln swiftly interrupted her.
Dream 103 suddenly seemed concerned, "Or... a cute and innocent little boy? A muscular and athletic puppy?"
"Shut up! This is too ridiculous! No more talking! It's good as it is now!" Lincoln wished he could run over and shut her mouth.
"Master said so!" Dream 103 swayed proudly in front of him, acting like a hyperactive child.
But Lincoln still earnestly asked, "Dream 103, this sounds more like a product number than a name. Don't you want to change it?"
Stars lit up in Dream's eyes, literally lit up, and she excitedly asked, "Really?"
"Of course, absolutely," Lincoln confirmed, all the while grumbling inside. You're way too proficient at adding these special effects to yourself!
"But, what should Dream 103 be called?" The little girl was both excited and troubled, obviously finding this question challenging.
She finally had to seek Lincoln's help, speaking softly, "Master, help me!"
Lincoln gave it some thought and tentatively suggested, "How about Mavis?"
"Mavis? Mavis, Mavis!" She repeated it a few times then got excited.
"Yay!" The little girl jumped up and down on the spot with her fists tightly clenched, and with a "clang," colorful confetti exploded behind her.
"From now on, my name is Mavis!"
Seeing the joyful Mavis, Lincoln couldn't help but smile. He knew there were many, many days ahead that they would spend together.
Looking at the still giggling Mavis, and then looking around at the massive spaceship, Lincoln suddenly got an idea.
Could he also replicate this in reality, he wondered?
Super battleship, big guns, a man's dream!
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