Several engineers came over in succession and jointly submitted their leave requests.
They couldn't take it anymore. No one could take it anymore.
Actually, taking their leave three days earlier or later didn't matter, but no one wanted to remain in an environment permeated by an atmosphere of failure. They might as well go out and get some air.
Li Gong's face was dark as he glared irritably at his subordinates.
The subordinates looked awkward. They shrank behind their colleagues one after another, avoiding their leader's interrogating gaze.
After a moment, Li Gong sighed, picked up his pen, and silently signed the leave requests.
What everyone said was true. With only three days left, the chances of turning defeat into victory were almost zero. Months of hard work had gone up in smoke. The only meaning it probably had was serving as a practice partner for the champion.
But history only remembered the champion. Who would remember the practice partner?
After signing all the leave requests, Li Gong scooped them up and handed them to his subordinates.
"Thank you, Director!" A large number of hands reached out to take the leave requests.
The computer suddenly chimed, and the screen lit up without warning!
Design proposal "Xuanzhu Lunar Landing Edition" received. Begin production scheduling!
Li Gong's hand, which was reaching for the leave requests, instantly withdrew. He froze for a moment, then decisively tore up all the requests and threw them cleanly into the trash!
"We've got work! Get moving!" Li Gong ordered.
The engineers collectively stared in shock. The vacation that had reached their hands had just flown away?
"Faster, faster!" Li Gong rose and pounded on the desk. "This is our last shot!"
The engineers came back to their senses like dreamers awakening and dispersed dejectedly to work. Quite a few wore resentful expressions as they complained under their breath:
"Why are we still doing this? Those two chiefs really know how to make trouble!"
"Refusing to admit defeat is a good spirit, but we can't just charge blindly, can we? It's only been a day. What kind of good proposal can we come up with? At most, we can add a few thousand points to the benchmark score!"
"And they named it the Xuanzhu Lunar Landing Edition. What an ambitious name! Where did they get that confidence?"
"Forget it, forget it. One last time. We'll finish this and call it a day! Anyway, as long as Xuanzhu loses, we won't have to worry about what comes next. The vacation will only be delayed by three days."
Acceptance day.
Song He and Xiang Xiaotong sat in the corner, quietly watching the busy workshop.
Li Gong led dozens of engineers bustling about as they carried out the final debugging.
A new Xuanzhu Supercomputer prototype towered in the center of the workshop. It was about the size of two double-door refrigerators, enclosed in a transparent shell. Layer upon layer of black components could be seen inside, making it look almost like some kind of extraterrestrial creation.
The control console suddenly chimed, and the screen lit up.
An engineer passing by glanced at it and said in alarm, "Director! The other side has a new machine too! Moon Brain 6!"
The entire workshop erupted in an uproar!
Song He and Xiang Xiaotong widened their eyes as well.
"Have they gone crazy? They're releasing another version at the very end?" Xiang Xiaotong panicked and cursed viciously. "Damn it, they just won't go away!"
Song He frowned slightly, but his expression quickly returned to normal. "Don't panic, Teacher. If you understand our proposal this time, you'll know how solid it is."
"Let's hope so." Xiang Xiaotong rubbed her face with both hands. "The other side is really driving me crazy. Every time we improve a little, they improve a little too. They're always one step ahead. They're practically giving me a mental demon!"
"Ours is ready too!" Li Gong called loudly. "All teams, final inspection!"
"Processor core normal!" an engineer shouted.
"Computing area normal!"
"Memory normal!"
"Input and output area normal!"
"Brain-mimicking conversion area normal!"
After a string of confirmations, the entire supercomputer was assembled!
"That's enough!" Li Gong signaled to the two designers in the corner.
Dozens of engineers wore various expressions as they silently watched the two chiefs.
Song He and Xiang Xiaotong rose at the same time in perfect understanding and walked to the control console.
"Benchmark?" Li Gong asked.
"Run it!" Song He nodded vigorously.
Li Gong struck the keyboard, and the Xuanzhu Supercomputer prototype began its benchmark test!
The Xuanzhu Supercomputer benchmark test popped up on the screen. Just a few seconds later, Moon Brain 6 began its benchmark test as well!
Song He's eyes sharpened. Was it a coincidence, or had the other side deliberately chosen to face them head-on?
It didn't matter. This time, their odds of winning were enormous!
A string of simple math problems flashed across the screen. Xuanzhu sliced through them with ease, getting off to a smooth start!
In the blink of an eye, it entered the difficult section!
Everyone watching collectively forgot to breathe. They stood like statues, not even blinking.
Taylor Series Problem—solved in seconds! Multivariable Calculus—solved in seconds!
Divergence Theorem, Vector Space, tensors... all solved in seconds!
Surprise flashed through Li Gong's eyes. "The last time we tested this far, it was already slowing down badly!"
As soon as he finished speaking, a roar rang through the workshop. Xuanzhu's cooling system activated at full capacity, and it finally entered full-power operation!
"This is where it really starts showing its strength!" Song He said with a smile. "This time, Xuanzhu isn't an upgrade. It's an evolution!"
Increasingly complex problems appeared on the screen, and the solution steps stretched longer and longer. The Xuanzhu Supercomputer also began to struggle.
Struggling or not, it solved the problems one after another!
Real Analysis, Euclidean Space, Complex Variable Function, Holomorphic Function, Boolean Algebra...
"A new record!" Li Gong said excitedly. "We've never made it this far before!"
The engineers watching grew excited. Everyone who could work here was a top student, someone who had excelled at mathematics in university. Even so, the problems on the screen were beginning to dazzle them!
The Xuanzhu Supercomputer's mathematical comprehension was leaving humanity far behind!
After a long wait, the Xuanzhu Supercomputer entered the Lie Algebra problems. At last, it began making frequent errors, and the benchmark test froze!
In an instant, the workshop became extraordinarily quiet.
The Xuanzhu Supercomputer's cooling noise stopped, and everyone watching held their breath.
A few seconds later, both sides' benchmark scores popped up at the same time!
1. Moon Brain 6: 4,770,000 points!
2. Xuanzhu Lunar Landing Edition: 4,765,000 points!
The moment the scores appeared, everyone was dumbfounded!
Everyone's heart was gripped hard by the shock. Their bodies went numb from head to toe, and they were speechless!
The previous test scores had still been in the millions. In just three days, they had surged to nearly five million points. Such an outrageous increase was a miracle even in the history of scientific research!
And it wasn't just one supercomputer that had improved. Both supercomputers had achieved this kind of increase!
Everyone's minds crashed. The benchmark results had exceeded what they could process, leaving them unsure how to react.
It felt as if a time traveler had returned to the Battle of Changping and given the Zhao army tens of thousands of submachine guns. Just as the Zhao army was about to mow down the enemy, the Qin army opposite them pulled out Heavy Machine Guns!
The battlefield suddenly erupted with flying bullets. Yet only three days earlier, both sides had still been firing arrows at each other!
"A confrontation!" Song He suddenly said.
Li Gong, still dazed, came back to his senses and struck the keyboard.
The confrontation match began!
At the start, both bases developed rapidly.
Airdrops and meteor showers descended in turn, nourishing or ravaging the Lunar Base. Surface structures on the moon were constantly built and destroyed, resembling the rise and fall of a miniature civilization as it stumbled forward amid favorable weather and natural disasters!
Song He stared fixedly at the energy gap. The energy difference between the two sides was actually tiny, rising and falling within a gap of three percent. It was an unprecedentedly even match!
The two bases rapidly hatched seven or eight small bases each, like small counties guarding a major city. Hundreds and thousands of transport vehicles and robots bustled about, covering the entire lunar surface with solar panels!
When both bases had developed to their peak, they discovered each other, and a great battle erupted!
Small reconnaissance units infiltrated one another and clashed fiercely along the border!
After several collisions, neither side gained an advantage. They both organized large armies to circle around and encircle the enemy, attempting to take the long way around for a surprise attack!
By an incredible coincidence, the surprise-attack armies sent by both sides encountered each other head-on in the wilderness and became embroiled in a chaotic battle!
Laser weapons and artillery bombs pounded each other fiercely. Large vehicles collided at high speed like cavalry. After the smoke and dust cleared, the ground glittered with metal parts, while robots lay strewn across it in pieces!
"Truly an evenly matched opponent!" Li Gong knitted his brows. "Which side has the higher odds?"
"Hard to say." Song He rubbed his chin. After pondering for a long time, he repeated, "Hard to say!"
Both supercomputers brought all their abilities to bear, sending out forces of varying sizes in wave after wave of attacks, feints, flanking maneuvers, encirclements, and surprise assaults... The battle instantly became incomparably complex!
Unexpected events escalated step by step. The scale of the meteor showers and airdrops grew larger and larger. Both armies quickly learned to fight around natural disasters, doing everything possible to lure enemy forces into meteor bombardment zones and seize the enemy's airdrops!
The battle on the screen was fierce. Hundreds of robots died every minute, and dozens of buildings were razed to the ground, while even more underground and lunar-surface structures rose from the earth, and tides of new robots poured out of Airdrop Boxes!
The engineers watching sucked in breaths of cold air and discussed in hushed voices:
"This battle is vicious! You can't call this a campaign. This is total war!"
"This has gone beyond reality. What country has the strength to send a robot army to the moon?"
"The supercomputers' command abilities are incredible! They can micromanage hundreds of combat units at once. Humans absolutely can't do that!"
"They've been fighting this long without a winner. Do we have a chance of winning?"
"Damn it! Win just once! It doesn't matter if we lost everything before this! As long as we win the final!"
The atmosphere in the workshop heated up. Everyone secretly clenched their fists, like fans watching a game, hot sweat streaming down their foreheads!
After several months of frenzied struggle and several months of a supercomputer arms race, they had finally reached the ultimate decisive battle!
Suddenly, Xiang Xiaotong cried out, "The energy gap is widening!"
Song He's gaze sharpened. Their side's energy was gradually building an advantage!
Five percent! Ten percent! Fifteen percent!
As the energy advantage was successfully established, Xuanzhu's army grew increasingly aggressive. It began winning a series of battles along the edges, smashing through the enemy's defensive lines!
Victory! Victory! Victory!
"Kill!" one engineer shouted before he could stop himself.
No one laughed at him. Everyone at the scene was burning with excitement, and engineers immediately joined in.
"Kill!"
"Kill your way to their nest! Xuanzhu, push forward!"
"Kill, kill, kill! Charge ahead! Cut through Moon Brain!"
The atmosphere in the workshop boiled over, like a group of drunk fans shouting in a tavern!
The airdrops expanded again. A mighty rain of Airdrop Boxes descended into both camps, while the Moon Brain Supercomputer fiercely compressed its front line and fought with all its might to seize the airdrops!
The energy gap suddenly narrowed. The airdrop rain changed the entire battle. In just a few minutes, Xuanzhu's energy advantage vanished, and Moon Brain made a ferocious comeback!
The enemy's comeback did not extinguish the workshop's enthusiasm. Instead, the cheers grew even more deafening!
The engineers shouted until their faces were red and their necks bulged. They knew that the cold-blooded supercomputers did not respond to cheers and encouragement, but they couldn't control their emotions. They could only shout to feel better!
Moon Brain did not remain arrogant for long. Xuanzhu steadily turned the tide, fighting a difficult battle as it slowly evened out the energy gap!
The gap was ten percent! Five percent! One percent!
At the instant Xuanzhu was about to close the energy gap, the screen suddenly went black!
The brutal battle abruptly vanished. The roar of the Xuanzhu Supercomputer quickly faded as well, and it stopped operating!
The shouting engineers fell silent for several seconds before bursting into curses!
"What the hell happened?!"
"Did the network break? We were about to win! Why did it have to break now?!"
"This is freaking ridiculous! We were obviously about to win!"
Li Gong rushed to the backup control console and frantically searched for the cause, smashing the keyboard so hard that it clattered.
Song He nearly vomited blood. He had been killing with abandon, only to be stopped. The feeling was unbearable!
"What happened?" Xiang Xiaotong asked, her expression grim.
"The test platform crashed. The instantaneous data volume was too large and overloaded the server!" Li Gong found the cause.
"Can we restart from the save point?" Song He hurriedly asked.
"Wait. I'll ask." Li Gong pulled out his phone.
Song He sighed repeatedly, his chest tight with frustration.
Suddenly, the phone in his pocket vibrated.
He took it out and looked. It was a call from General Wang.
"General, we're currently..." Song He said after answering.
"I know. We'll hold a video conference in ten minutes! You, me, and the Moon Brain Team—a three-way meeting. Prepare yourselves." General Wang said.
Before you continue