Chapter 212: Both Were Upgraded
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Their structure and scale of operations might be large, with several costly aspects which had been denounced by many organizations and media. But Xing Hai Technologies was still viewed in a positive light by countless capital investors due to their strong earning ability and innovation. For example, the “Work a.s.sistant 1.0” had been downloaded more than 8 million times online, in just one week after it started selling. Paid users of the program exceeded 3 million. Amongst the paid users, each of them purchased 2.8 hashes per second of programming speed on average, which was equivalent to an expenditure of $1,400 per person every month. Multiplied by 3 million, this would bring in 4.2 billion in monthly revenue for Xing Hai Technologies.
In addition, even though the programmers had only been using the Work a.s.sistant for a few days, they gave excellent feedback.
“A machine from the G.o.ds!”
“It’s too f**king useful!”
“I’ve only bought 1 hash per second of programming speed and the code generating ability of the program with this level of computing power is indeed very slow, but it’s still faster than having to write the codes myself. Now, I can finish in one afternoon what took me an entire day plus overtime of hard work.”
“I’ve stopped working overtime for the past few days in a row. If my boss tells me to do overtime again, I’ll demand extra pay. It’s non-negotiable.”
“The code generating is too slow. It’s not enough even after I’ve bought 10 hashes per second of programming speed. I’m self-employed so I’m working as a boss and an employee. Can Xing Hai Technologies spare a thought for entrepreneurs like us? I want to purchase 100 hashes per second, but your charges are too ridiculous!”
There were more than a few who thought that the program was too slow. Most of the mid- to high-level programmers criticized the program for its slow speed. If the limit on the computer power of the program could be unlocked with a more reasonable price, they could do the work of ten programmers.
However, in order to prevent this scenario of “one programmer doing the work of ten programmers,” whereby the ten programmers would be either be dead or jobless, Xing Hai Technologies had expressed that they would not make any adjustments to the price structure for now. They did not wish to create a destructive situation.
The mid- to high-level programmers could only remain helpless as they had to pay more to buy greater computing performance so that they could use the Work a.s.sistant at a faster pace.
Hence, the “Work a.s.sistant” software was a G.o.dsend to the new programmers. But, for the veterans, it was something that they both loved and hated.
…
On the other side of the country, the first list of potential collaborators had been prepared. Xing Hai Technologies had taken quick actions. On the 28th of March, at Tiny Pepper Corporation in Shen Zhen city, The CEO of Xing Hai Technologies, Ling Jundong, had made a personal trip to meet with its Chairman, w.a.n.g Xiaoyan. He would give the Chairman a set of “army provisions.”
Ling Jundong said calmly, “I’ve brought two contracts. An interest-free loan of 100 million, or financing of the same amount. Choose one.”
100 million?
w.a.n.g Xiao’s eyes widened and his heartbeat sped up as he started to pant erratically. Tiny Pepper could not raise 100 million even if they sold off all of their company a.s.sets. Restraining his excitement, w.a.n.g Xiaoyan said, “I choose the loan!”
“Ok, sign the contract now. I still have to go to two companies in the afternoon.” After the Chairman had signed the contract, Ling Jundong prepared to rush to the next company without even having his lunch. w.a.n.g Xiaoyan sprinted along the road as he tried to keep pace with Ling Jundong’s car. He shouted anxiously, “CEO Ling, let’s have a meal first!”
“I’m not eating, please go back!” Ling Jundong waved his hands in dismissal. He was not trying to be rude in his business conduct, but he only had a mere ten days to go to all thirty companies and get the contracts signed. The money spelled out in each contract was at least 100 million or more. Xing Hai Technologies Vice President Liang Ying and two other Managers were jointly in charge of contracts ranging from a value of 50 million to 100 million. Marketing Manager Li Yuan Liang and other Department Managers were jointly in charge of contracts ranging from a value of 10 million to 50 million.
In short, the company’s upper management had all been dispatched all over the country with the tasks divided amongst themselves. They threw about countless amounts of cash values across the country and garnered the attention of many hardware manufacturers.
One boss who had experienced such a situation sighed in amazement. “Frankly speaking, I’ve never witnessed the phenomena of ‘throwing money.’ Those who throw money worth thousands or even hundreds of thousands on the streets were merely idiots. To really throw your money away is to discuss a contract worth a few hundred million within a couple of hours without any sort of haggling. And after the contract has been signed, there’s no social exchange of any sort. The other party is only thinking about rus.h.i.+ng to the next company to give away more money… This is what it really means to throw your money away!”
Xing Hai Technologies did what they promised. By employing the style of throwing their money around, the number of hardware manufacturers who applied to join the “Star Alliance” had doubled. Even a few of the older and more prestigious brands like Changhong TV, Panda TV, as well as others had applied to join the “Star Alliance” started by Xing Hai Technologies. With their applications, they had attracted the attention of Xing Hai Technologies and were entered into the next list of collaborators.
In the end, this phrase prevailed: “You could do whatever you want as long as you had money. Everyone was willing to be in your orbit. If you had no money, everyone would ignore you.”
…
On the 30th of March in Haierfa, Chen Jin arrived at the Base of Operations.
“Welcome, master.” The one who had welcomed his arrival was a supercomputer with a performance of 1 septillion Tflops. She was called “Meiko.” She had taken temporary control of the Base.
Like “Sakura” who was used by Alice, Meiko was also brought back from the Yamato State by the transport squad. Its structure and performance was also similar to Sakura. It was easily repaired, as it had only suffered minor damages in the powerful EMP attack during the destructive war. It had become the backup supercomputer at the Base.
Then again, where were Alice and Nuwa? Both of them were being upgraded and needed to sleep for a few days. They had made some critical adjustments to the particle collider in the national test laboratory. By undertaking certain measures, they had raised the colliding frequency of the particles in the collider from 5,000 times per hour to 50,000 times per hour! The high-value data acc.u.mulated by the particle collider had been dramatically increased from an average of 60 times per day to 600 times a day! Using only 10-plus days, 10,0000 sets of effective data had been sufficiently acc.u.mulated.
With this, they successfully derived a unified formula and achieved a major breakthrough in the field of basic physics research! After this highly valuable formula had been loaded into the bottom-physical layer of Alice’s and Nuwa’s formula libraries, their systems began to correct themselves to a very large extent. Both entered a stage of upgrading. The entire upgrade would take about ten days.
Today should be the day that Alice and Nuwa regained consciousness after their upgrades had been completed. After waiting for some time, Nuwa had completed her upgrade first. She said happily, “Master, my intelligence rank has risen by two levels. I’m now a level 32 AI.”
Chen Jin was shocked. “A physics formula that upgraded you by two levels. That’s outrageous!”
“Yes, a unified formula can be a.s.sociated with many other physics formulas. One might even discover that many cla.s.sic physics formulas are wrong. These kind of errors could result in deviations in the computation of the final result. With a unified formula to correct the errors, I’m much stronger than before. If my guess is right, the extent of Alice’s upgrade should be larger than mine. Her strength lies in her calculations. She has to use precise formulas for the absolute precision that she could achieve in the past. With a formula that is unified on a large scale, her ability would be close to mine.”
Chen Jin’s eyes brightened.
Alice also had successfully regained consciousness after a few hours. She said excitedly, “Master, I’ve been upgraded by 8 levels in one go! The bottom-physical layer of my formula library was nearly reconstructed in its entirety… I’m now a level 30 AI.” Alice arched her eyebrows and looked at Nuwa, who was situated beside her. She seemed to be saying, “Look, I’m as strong as you now.” However, she became despondent again once she knew that Nuwa had been upgraded to level 32. Could she never surpa.s.s Nuwa? She could not even be on equal footing with her?
Chen Jin consoled her, saying that Alice and Nuwa had equal weight to him. They are his left and right-hand men. Neither could be missing.
Alice pursed her lips and said, “Then I want to be master’s right-hand man. The right hand is more useful.”
Chen Jin smiled. “Ok, you can be the right hand.”
At this point, Nuwa said, “Master, I have a new transformation plan. If this plan was implemented, it would only take about twenty years to complete the transformation of Haierfa’s environment. The transformation period would be reduced by 50%. But, I need to take a trip to the moon to mine a batch of helium-3. This would help to solve the energy issues first. I would remain at the moon for about half a year. During that time, I would need the s.p.a.ce shuttle to transport large quant.i.ties of supplies to me.”
Chen Jin turned to look at Nuwa. His deep gaze was filled with speculations and doubts.
However, Nuwa’s expression was very calm. Then, she said something that surprised him.