A Race to (Be) The Top

Half an hour later, Ling Xiaolu sat in Zhenjiu's tree house and played with him.

This is not an angry talk, it is a fact.

Zhenjiu's red-eyed crow was standing on Ling Xiaolu's wrist at this moment, lowering his head to peck at the pet food that was gathered in his palm.

Zhenjiu gave up the small house in the valley and found a tree house in the wild again.

For him, these are temporary resting places in the game anyway, and the environment is not so important.

Anyway, most of the time he is either harvesting or on the way to harvest.

Ling Xiaolu complained to Zhenjiu angrily.

"Shortly after you finished asking me, my sister and Chu Ya went, and Xiao Nanxun, it was the first time I saw so many people at Ji Meng's house!

"Even my master went to watch Xiao Lubi! My master! Appeared at Ji Meng's house! Can you believe it?

"I think it's better to set up Ji Meng's house to sell tickets to visit!"

"Hmm..." Zhenjiu held the bird's beak in its mouth and pondered.

"...What are you thinking?" The "hmm" sounded very meaningful to Ling Xiaolu.

"I was wondering, are the tickets expensive?"

Ling Xiaolu: ...! ! !

How could he have forgotten that there is also a pretender who "want to raise one for fun"!

"Just kidding." Zhen Jiu raised his hand lazily, and the crow flapped its wings and flew over, landing on the back of his hand.

It is said to be the back of the hand, but it is actually a tightly wrapped glove, and the glove is tightened on the cuff, so that there is not an inch of skin on Zhenjiu's body exposed.

This sense of distance in the attire is probably one of the reasons why players turned pale when they talked about him.

"Speak seriously." Zhenjiu stopped joking, and Ling Xiaolu also heard a bit of seriousness from his tone, and sat upright.

Zhenjiu considered the sentence: "How much do you know about zero... in the family?"

"Zero? What happened to him?"

"When I left the battlefield yesterday, I found... there was something suspicious about him."

suspicious?Ling Xiaolu frowned: "Which doubtful point are you referring to?"

A test account with both appointment and pet rights, if this is not suspicious, then there is nothing suspicious.

But Ling Xiaolu is not sure where Zhenjiu saw the flaw, not to mention he promised to keep the secret for Xinshan.

There is no evidence, and Zhenjiu doesn't want to charge people for nothing.

"Forget it, just treat me as superstitious. If it's what I think, the four of us should have been suspended for investigation by now."

He can still go online normally today, which shows that his suspicion is wrong.

Zhenjiu teased the crow casually, hoping so.

At this moment, Xinshan Operations Center.

The customer service responsible for handling reports on the battlefield approached the manager, Ke Ming, tremblingly.

"Manager Ke, I have received a problem report, and I would like you to deal with it."

There are a large number of reports on the battlefield every day, and the content is nothing more than a few types, such as swearing, hanging up, actors, and the more serious ones are illegal programs, commonly known as cheating.

It is not difficult to deal with it. If it is true, points will be deducted and a warning will be issued. In the worst case, the account will be suspended, and false reports will be ignored. Ke Ming can't think of any point that would embarrass the customer service.

"Reason for reporting?"

"Cheating," the customer service officer hurriedly added after finishing speaking, "Suspected."

"Is cheating a difficult problem to deal with? Check the battlefield video, PASS if there is no doubt, suspend the account if there is doubt, and check the background monitoring."

"Suspicious."

"Then why worry?"

The customer service wiped off his sweat: "The four accounts involved are not very easy to suspend."

"Which four accounts?"

"One is Lubi, who was classified as the company's test account after a peripheral failure, one is the dating account Xi'er, and his favorite Ling."

Last time, his colleague temporarily suspended Chang Huanxi's account, and the manager was forced to broadcast an apology on the whole server, so how could he dare to operate casually.

"..." Ke Ming was silent for a while, "Is there another one?"

"Poison dove."

Not only players, but also customer service generally have a shadow of this name.In case the letter is wrong, I copy a heavy weapon and come to the customer service center to "chug" it, which is much more serious than a live broadcast apology.

Fortunately, Zhenjiu, who is far online, doesn't know what the customer service really thinks, otherwise he might be... feel honored.

Ke Ming: "..."

He probably guessed what was going on. Zero's internal confidentiality level was one level higher. The customer service in front of him didn't know Zero's real identity, and he didn't dare to ban him because he was bound to Chang Huanxi.

"Got it, leave it to me."

The customer service left with a sigh of relief.

Ke Ming pinched the Jingming acupoint wearily, and recruited the person in charge of Ling with an inside call.

"Received reports from users that Zero used cheats on the battlefield." He said straight to the point.

The technician was stunned for a moment: "Zero has built-in the most sophisticated calculation system, if it is a shooting battlefield, it can achieve a hundred shots."

"For ordinary people, isn't that cheating?" Ke Ming felt a headache, "Can't you lower his performance and make him look more like a normal person?"

"Manager, I told you last time that Zero is not suitable for going online now. There are too many hidden dangers in this technology at this stage."

Ke Ming stood up abruptly, scaring the technician to swallow his words.

He walked up and down the office impatiently and didn't see anything for a long time.

"You keep talking."

"Zero is a learning AI. Its performance can only be improved, not reduced. Moreover, its learning ability is very strong. From its launch to the present, its communication ability has evolved to be almost the same as that of normal people. This is indeed the original intention of our project. I hope to develop an AI pet that behaves the same as a real person, and meet the needs of more accounts. But Zero is only a semi-finished product, and it is bound to the player without testing..."

"That's because last time I had no other choice," Ke Ming interrupted him, "Besides, I also need someone to watch over Wang Ling's boy."

The technician boldly said: "What if the person you sent to monitor is the top secret of the company's current research and development? Are you really not afraid that its identity will be exposed and copied by a competitor company?"

Ke Ming was silent again.

After a while, "Then what do you say?"

"I think it's just a good time to take this opportunity to announce the closure of his account on the grounds of illegal use of cheats, and then..." He paused, "Let's just destroy the data. It's a pity, but when the character was created You didn’t think carefully, gave it too high authority, and you have witnessed the chaos it created by taking advantage of system loopholes.”

For example, brush up the popularity list for Chang Huanxi, move the dungeon boss to the main city, increase the probability of Chang Huanxi's success in catching pets, etc. These days, their project team often has a headache for zero cleaning the battlefield.

"...How does Chang Huanxi explain?"

The other side pondered for a moment: "After all, he is a family member of Net Zero's high-level executives, and he should understand such things as game companies banning cheating accounts."

……

Chang Huanxi no!reason!untie!

He rushed to Ji Meng's house full of anger. People in the yard were playing with the little deer, and everyone who should be there was there, but he didn't care about it, so he went straight to Ji Meng.

Ji Meng was frightened by such a hostile appearance, and thought he was here to collect debts.

"what happened to you?"

Chang Huanxi glanced around, not wanting a third person to know about this, so she pulled Ji Meng into the room.

"Is your company title addicted?" He asked frantically.

"Did you eat explosives? Who else has been banned?"

"Zero! Zero has been banned!"

Ji Meng was like listening to the Arabian Nights: "Zero is titled? Impossible, isn't he an internal employee?"

Chang Huanxi sneered: "Yeah, how did I know that Xinshan would be so ruthless that he would even kill his own people."

"Is there any misunderstanding?"

"Yesterday the four of us went to the battlefield together. Ah Ling played too well and was reported. Who would have thought that it would become like this today!"

"Our company's background detection will not cause problems."

"Isn't there going to be any mistakes in the backstage? If there is any cheating, you can ask Birdman and Brother Xiaolu! Oh, by the way, that manager of yours personally called to apologize, saying that the reason for the external ban was cheating. Use administrative authority... You said he is a low-level tester, where did he come from?"

This charge is not trivial. If what the manager said is true, then "Zero" may find it difficult to find a job in a similar company, which is equivalent to banning a person from the industry.

"What about him now?"

"I was fired," Chang Huanxi said unhappily. "At this time, Xinshan's efficiency is very high. I asked for a meeting, but I refused. I asked for a contact information and refused to give it. I also said that I refused."

"If Zero himself refuses, then there is nothing I can do." It's normal not to want to see netizens, and it's even more normal if the other party is really fired for violating professional ethics.

"First of all, I don't believe Ling is the kind of person who would do such a thing! Secondly..."

He held a photo in his hand, and Ji Meng took a closer look. It was a wake-up photo of Ling Xiaolu in Xiaolu pajamas sitting sleepily on the bed.

In the photo, he is rubbing his eyes, his collar is loose, almost half of his shoulders and collarbone are exposed, and there is still a bunch of stupid hair on the top of his head.

This photo of Chang Huanxi completely captures the essence, which makes Ji Meng, who is a collector, bear it.

Ji Meng: "Why do you have this?"

He stretched out his hand to grab it, but Chang Huanxi withdrew it, and he caught nothing.

Ji Meng's forehead twitched with blue veins: "Give it to me!"

Chang Huanxi was not threatened by him, and continued the topic just now: "Secondly, even if he did it, I would like to hear him tell me it himself, not through someone who doesn't understand it. Ask a resigned employee The phone call is not difficult for you, is it? Is it very profitable to exchange a photo with a phone call?"

Ji Meng: "..."

Half an hour later, Ji Meng got the phone number of the employee who was fired today through a relative who worked in the human resources department.

This relative was only in charge of personnel affairs and didn't know anything about technology development, let alone why Ji Meng suddenly asked her for the contact information of such a person.

What's even weirder is that even though she found such a person in the personnel file, she has no impression of this employee at all.

Although there are many employees in Xinshan, not many were fired. If Ji Meng hadn't come to find her, she would have no idea that a temporary worker in the testing department was fired today for violating the rules and regulations.

Ji Meng took the phone number he wanted to call, and wondered whether he should give it to Chang Huanxi.

He didn't know if Ling really violated the regulations, and he didn't know his attitude towards Chang Huanxi. If he really didn't want to have real contact, he would be violating the other party's privacy by doing so.

More importantly, he also wanted to know whether Zero had any illegal operations.

"Linglong" received the news and hurried to the internal R&D center of the AI ​​R&D department.

As a staff member related to the project, he is one of the very few employees in the customer service department who knows Zero's true identity, and he even participated in the birth of Zero.

Naturally, I don't want to see it destroyed.

"Does it have to be destroyed?" He asked, "Can't it just be sealed? It can also be used as research data in the future."

"Zero was born as a 'human' from the very beginning. We fabricated its identity, age, and occupation for it, implanted memories of ordinary people in it, and even established a personnel file for it in the company. It’s a person. Sealing it up is equivalent to putting a person into a deep sleep, what if it wakes up someday?”

"Then it cannot be destroyed! You are killing people!"

"It's better to do it when it doesn't know anything than to wait for it to perceive something. Its learning speed is beyond your imagination. No one knows the upper limit of artificial intelligence. People in reality may not be affected. What about players on the network?"

Ling Long was speechless.

The staff of the project team have completed the final inspection.

"Team leader, the removal procedure can be carried out."

Zero exists for a short time, but it is also the hard work of the project team.However, they can only reluctantly give up their love if they break away from control over and over again.

Game bugs can be fixed, but no game company dares to take risks on security issues.

The team leader patted Ling Long's shoulder regretfully, and turned around: "Get ready."

……

Ji Meng finally made up his mind, and he will make the first call.

After all, Zero's relationship with him is not as deep as Chang Huanxi's. Taking a step back, if Zero really did something bad, it wouldn't be too embarrassing to admit to him.

If he refused to contact Chang Huanxi himself, Ji Meng would not force it.

It's a shame about that photo...

Ji Meng used the communication function online and dialed Ling's number.

Zhenjiu is taking Ling Xiaolu to rob the minecart.

A PVP task in the game is that the player escorts the minecart carrying the magic stone, and sells it to NPCs from the mine to the town. The farther the escort travels, the higher the selling price.

During this process, each player can rob it, successfully robbing 20% ​​of the ore once, and can also sell it to NPC.

When some players encountered Zhenjiu, they gave up resistance directly, and then spread the news, and no one would come to this line for a short time.

At this time, Zhenjiu will take Ling Xiaolu to ambush on the only way to the next town, so that those who change their route will have nothing to love about their lives.

During the period, there were naturally those who refused to admit defeat after being robbed of the minecart, and brought a whole family of online people back to crusade, but the two of them disappeared.They scattered and searched, but were attacked by surprise, gathered together, and could not find them.This hide-and-seek game lasted all afternoon, and Ling Xiaolu had a great time playing it.

Fighting with people is a lot of fun.No wonder Chen Jiu said that killing people is the only fun he has left in the game.

His external communication device rang. This game is very user-friendly, even if he is online, he can make and receive calls with the three-dimensional.

"I'll answer the phone!" He jumped out of the battle, and his opponent tried to chase him, but was blocked by Zhen Jiu.

"Didn't you hear? He wants to answer the phone." His voice was filtered by the mask, mixed with the inorganic texture of metal.

Ling Xiaolu answered the call at the edge of the chaos: "Hi, hello."

This voice was far from what Ji Meng had imagined, and what puzzled him even more was that it sounded familiar.

"...Hello?" He asked tentatively.

The sound of skills around was very noisy, and Ling Xiaolu couldn't hear clearly, so he said to him: "Wait a minute!"

After finishing speaking, she turned around: "Zhenjiu! It's too noisy and I can't hear it. I'll pick it up over there!"

Zhenjiu simply and neatly defeated an opponent: "Go."

Ling Xiaolu jumped to a quiet place in two steps: "Hello? Who? If it's a courier, please leave it at the door."

"..." If Ji Meng was just guessing just now, the clear word "Zhenjiu" made his guess a certainty, "Lubi? Why are you?"

The voice from the receiver was full of inconceivability, and Ling Xiaolu also froze in place: "...friend??"

He checked the communication device and confirmed that it was a call from outside the game, and it was an unfamiliar number.

"How do you know my phone number?"

"I..." Ji Meng just wanted to say that he didn't know, but later realized that the number he dialed was obviously zero.

"...You check my player profile!"

"I do not have!"

In a research and development center located in Xinshan, everything is ready.

The project leader gave the final instruction, "Clear the program, start."

The characters on the screen began to scroll crazily...

Just as Ling Xiaolu was about to make a deal with you, Prince Xinshan who is using his power for personal gain, his body suddenly fell straight down like a robot with a power cut off.

Zhenjiu, who was robbing the minecart, noticed the abnormality here, teleported over without thinking, and caught Ling Xiaolu to prevent his face from being in close contact with the ground.

But Ling Xiaolu has lost consciousness.

"...Little brother? Little brother!"

Ji Meng couldn't see the picture on the phone, only heard the voice, and didn't know what happened.

"Ruby! Ruby! What happened? You talk!... Zhenjiu! Can you hear me! Hello??"

In the quiet R&D center, the project leader suddenly rushed to the instrument and tapped the stop button desperately.

"It cannot be destroyed, it cannot be destroyed!"

The surrounding staff were all terrified: "What's wrong, team leader?"

"Zero's data is bound to another player, if it is destroyed the player's data will also be destroyed!"

Ling Long had an ominous premonition: "Another player? Who is it?"

"Did you forget? There is a person who has the data that perfectly matches the original attributes of the pet, causing the collar to be worn around his neck and he can't take it off! We use his data to create the AI. It was named by you, you Said that since Xiaolubi's surname is Ling, we might as well call it 'Zero'!"

"But," one of the staff members said in a panic, "none of us has ever bound the data of Bucky and Zero."

The movement of the group leader's hands stopped, and there was a terrible guess.

"It wasn't made by our people, could it be Zero himself?"

The screen in front of him went black.

After a while, words jumped out one after another, only four words.

>>I want to live...

The R&D center was completely silent.

Ling Long tried his best to support his body with the console: "...You said that it is better to do it when it doesn't know anything, than to wait until it realizes something.

"But what if it already knows that it is not human?"