A Race to The Top

Ling Xiaolu was very irritable. He knew every word on the contract, but they were completely unfamiliar.

He has just grown up, so why do he have to face so many complicated things on his own?

He turned to the last page of the confidentiality agreement casually. The breach of contract amount on it choked him. He only glanced at it and quickly closed it. It seemed that his eyes would be burned by the string of numbers after another second.

Ke Ming gently pushed the door and walked in. He sat where he was just now, and at the same time dropped a glass of water in front of the Ling Xiao road.

His perfect courtesy seemed to Ling Xiaolu today, like an impeccable shield, isolating all confrontations.

"Is there anything you don't understand?"

"Yes," Ling Xiaolu clenched his fists, "Do I have the right to refuse?"

Ke Ming lowered his eyes: "Mr. Ling, I think you know that these agreements not only affect you personally."

He cleared his throat: "Let me give you the simplest example. You have violated the rules of the game by disguising your dedicated customer service as a pet and publishing the winning message without authorization. The company has received complaints from players, and you are a fan. The reputation of having a battle pet at the same time and the unfairness of the lottery have been questioned. This matter has affected the company’s credibility. If players continue to complain, your customer service, Linglong, is very likely to be punished, the most serious The consequence is to be expelled."

"..."

"So we, as AI, publicly delete the account of'Lubi' not only to eliminate potential threats, but also to give players a reasonable account. The reason why we ask you to keep the identity of'Lubi' confidential, It is also for the same reason, especially..." He paused deliberately, "The sensitive relationship between you and the company's senior family members is more likely to cause criticism."

"Ji Meng has no idea!" Ling Xiaolu said anxiously. He was kept in the dark like everyone else, even the one who was most deceived.

"But the players don't know, and they won't believe it. They only believe the part they see, plus a little speculation, plus a little rumor, and that's what they believe is the truth."

Ling Xiaolu clenched his fists tighter, and Ke Ming could see his wavering.

"I might as well disclose to you some more confidential content. The reason the project team was forced to sleep the AI ​​is because the AI ​​has mastered the ability to restrict players from logging in and offline. The former just prevents players from logging in to the game, but the latter can. Makes online players unable to leave the game. We can’t judge whether it will be angered after it wakes up, or will it take the player hostage. This is a very dangerous hidden danger. Assuming that the player’s real environment has fires, earthquakes and other emergencies , The original game had built-in emergency avoidance monitoring, but AI has evolved its priority to above emergency avoidance."

"Is the ability of AI... so big?" Ling Xiaolu frowned.

"In our game, there are some special players who must be treated regularly because of their poor health. If they cannot go offline, the result may be fatal to them, which is why we can’t take the players’ safety The slightest risk."

Ling Xiaolu's pupils tightened: "Xiao Nan Kaoru..."

He frantically searched on the desktop. The neat files were turned over by him in a mess. Ke Ming took out a pen from his suit pocket and handed it over. Ling Xiaolu's hand was shaking with the pen, and he couldn't find the position several times.

He only hesitated for two seconds, then scribbled the name, and then quickly rolled the pen aside, as if it were not a pen, but a hot soldering iron.

Ke Ming stared at him to sign the final sum, and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Thank you very much for your understanding and cooperation..."

Ling Xiaolu waved his hand in discomfort, not wanting to hear any official words from him: "Can I go now?"

Ke Ming stood up politely: "I will arrange for someone to see you off."

There was no longer a shadow of Ling Long outside the reception room. Ling Xiaolu passed through a glass window, and he seemed to be able to feel a lot of people looking at him through the translucent glass window.

He suddenly changed his mind: "I want to stay. I can't keep Lubi, can I give him a ride?"

"This..." Ke Ming was embarrassed.

"I have signed the confidentiality agreement, what else do you have to worry about?"

Ke Ming nodded after hesitating, "Okay."

When Ling Xiaolu walked into the office of the project team, everyone present showed a surprised expression. A few sitting staff stood up, and Ke Ming shook his head behind him to signal everyone to remain calm.

Ling Xiaolu's attention was not on anyone, but was completely attracted by the huge display on the wall. Dozens of screens being played on the screen are all images left by "Lubi" in the game.

The footage recorded during his first public appearance, Li Zheng protects him and fights with Ji Meng...

In the archive when he first started the live broadcast, Dou Kou was so furious by his calculations that it was also the beginning of getting to know the Lujiu...

The scene of him dancing at the goddess wedding ceremony, the scene of him fighting with the dragon to protect the five soldiers in the old world, and more of the moments when he laughed and cursed with Ji Meng...

Before he knew it, he had left so many traces on this continent. Ling Xiaolu greedily stared at the screen, wishing to copy all the pictures into his mind.

The central screen flashed and switched to the real-time screen in the game.

The same picture also appeared in all corners of the Magic Continent. It was just still discussing whether Lubi was an AI eater, and they all calmed down and waited for the official live broadcast announcement.

The image of Ke Ming appeared on the announcement screen: "Good evening everyone, I'm sorry to take up your precious game time..."

Ling Xiaolu turned his head abruptly. Ke Ming himself was still standing behind him. This so-called "live broadcast" was also recorded in advance. Ke Ming probably guessed what he was thinking, and smiled apologetically.

"It's a pity to announce such a news to everyone in this situation. Dongtianling R&D department tried to launch a learning artificial intelligence a few months ago..."

The server fries the pot instantly, and the discussion of players can be heard everywhere.

"Sure enough, there is AI! This is probably the fastest confirmed news within the Uncle's Party!"

"So? Is that artificial intelligence really Lubi?"

"It's no wonder that when the prince confessed, he would say that he didn't care whether the other party was a human or an AI. I dare to know that Lu Bi is not a human being!"

"Knowing that it's not a human, but... God, think carefully! Why do you treat our husband like this!"

Ke Ming: "There were some unpredictable accidents during the test of this artificial intelligence, which may affect the balance of the game. To ensure the fairness of the game, the R&D team decided to permanently delete all data of the artificial intelligence."

"What?? Lubi is gone??"

"I have an objection! Does Lubi know that he is an AI? If he doesn't know, Xinshan is killing someone!"

"This kind of account that affects the balance of the game is not deleted and kept for the New Year? Is it a green name, a fan name, and a pet? No wonder the customer service froze when I reported that the wind dragon lottery was shady."

"So you reported it? You guys forced Xinshan to delete the account. What did the princess do wrong?"

...

The offline R&D staff of Ke Mingchong nodded, and Ling Xiaolu watched one of them press the button with his own eyes. The small screen in the upper left corner turned into a flowered screen after a period of rapid reversal.

Ling Xiaolu knew clearly that part of Lubi had disappeared forever.

The most central picture suddenly changed. It was an icy world and a figure who was persistently waiting.

Ke Ming's expression changed: "Who asked you to put this?"

Ling Xiaolu's heart slammed: "Don't cut it!"

His eyes were locked tightly to the central figure, unable to leave half an inch.

"Let me take another look?" His voice was so sad that no one could refuse.

"..." Ke Ming didn't say a word, and chose acquiescence.

There was heavy snowfall under the highest mountain peak in Beimang, and Ji Meng sat in the position before the off-line on Lingxiao Road, and did not leave a step. Snow fell on him, was swept away by the gust of wind, and new people gathered quickly.

Ling Xiaolu's nose was sour, and the temperature in Beimang was really freezing, and he didn't know if Ji Meng had turned off his environmental perception. If not, how can he fight the severe cold?

Ji Meng couldn't feel the cold anymore. He was sitting alone in the snow, with past videos playing on the holographic screen in front of him. In the video, Ling Xiaolu's smile is still so vivid.

As usual, he took out the photos when he encountered a wonderful scene, and unknowingly collected a pile of them.

In his photo album, he didn't know how many photos he had saved without telling Ling Xiaolu for photos like this. Every time he was questioned, he used Leilulu as a prevarication.

Ling Xiaolu outside the screen covered his mouth. Every time Ji Meng said that he had taken Lei Lulu's photo, he believed it. He would rather let himself laugh at him as a show pet madman, than let him know that he was already the protagonist in his photo album.

The small screen on the wall took another time, and the Lubi in the photo in Ji Meng's hand disappeared, leaving only a hazy black shadow.

He was stunned for a few seconds, and nervously wiped the surface of the photo, thinking it was the wind and snow fan who was dazzled.

The second and third pictures...The people in the photos disappeared one by one, and Ji Meng panicked. The photos in his hand were scattered all over the place, but only one shadow was visible.

Feather Snow quickly buried the photos on the ground. Ji Meng was unwilling to remove the new photos from the video, but in just a few seconds, they would become the same as the previous photos until the person in the video completely disappeared.

Ling Xiaolu watched him repeat the same actions frantically, his eyes never believed to become hopeless, he had never seen Ji Meng show such a helpless expression.

He really wanted to tell him not to try any more, the screen on the wall had been mostly darkened, and Lubi would disappear completely in that world soon.

The previous female customer service staff appeared again, her expression even more embarrassed.

"I have tried my best to persuade him, but he refused to leave or go offline when he saw no one. He said...

"When he is offline, I can't remember what he looks like anymore."

Ling Xiaolu couldn't stand it anymore.

"Let me see him again as Lubi?"

He turned and pleaded.

"On the last side."

Ke Ming: "..."

He asked the staff on the side: "Is it sure that I can take it off this time?"

"should be no problem."

Ke Ming glanced at the time: "I can only give you one minute. After one minute, whether you are offline or not, we will take a forced disconnection."

"One minute is enough," Ling Xiaolu immediately agreed, "I don't want to walk silently, I just want to be alone with him."

The ruthless gust of wind became more and more raging, not only driving the snow all over the sky, but also rolling up blank photos scattered all over the place.

Ji Meng raised his head with a confused expression, thinking that there was an illusion in front of his eyes. Between the flying snow and the photo, the person he was waiting for was standing opposite.

He repeatedly confirmed until he believed it was not an illusion.

Ji Meng hurriedly got up from the ground, his frozen legs almost unsteady.

They stared at each other across the wind and snow.

Ji Meng flapped his lips, there were a thousand words deep in his throat, but he couldn't say a word.

As time passed by, Ling Xiaolu slowly raised his index finger to his mouth, and compared it with a quiet "shh".

After making this gesture, Ling Xiaolu disappeared, and there was no one in front of Ji Meng.

He took an anxious step: "Lubi! Lu..."

As if a pair of arms stretched out from behind, Ji Meng's body became stiff, and the arms gently wrapped around his chest and hugged him gently.

Ling Xiaolu's voice came from behind, following the wind:

"I am leaving, bye."

Long-term tears came out of his eyes.

The strength of the ring at the waist disappeared. Shuofeng is bitter, Ruixue is flying, and the emptiness is misty and solitary. Between the boundless world, there is no trace of Lu Bi ever.