The Workhorse Is Here

Tap tap tap~

The skeleton sat at the computer desk, continuously typing away at the keyboard.

Meanwhile, Wang Yi sat off to the side, scrolling through messages on his phone.

The impact of the academic discrimination controversy overseas was actually still heating up. Someone was clearly pulling strings behind the scenes and refusing to let it go.

After glancing at the situation on Wall Street, Wang Yi roughly understood who had stirred it up.

But it did not affect him much.

He could cross paths with them if the opportunity came, but not now.

The buzz around him on the domestic internet had originally begun to die down, but Li Vida started promoting his music, directly using Jiang Xin's versions of the two songs.

That ignited another wave of attention.

"Wheat Wave" and "Night of the Port" were both soothing songs suitable for all ages. They truly did not have the impact of traditional pop music.

And since the singer herself was not particularly well-known, calling it an overnight success would have been an exaggeration.

Still, because of Wang Yi's previous popularity and the gimmick of "a mathematician's music," they did have some buzz.

In particular, someone dug up screenshots of information Li Vida had deleted before. Li Vida had thought he deleted it quickly enough, but he had not expected the idiot netizens' fingers to be even faster.

Screenshots of his repost saying, "The paper was written well. Don't write another one next time," flooded Vida Music's Weibo homepage.

All kinds of teasing comments emerged one after another.

"The repost was written well. Don't repost another one next time."

"The comment was posted well. Don't post another one next time."

"The music promotion was done well. Don't promote another one next time."

"..."

Replies like those were remarkably uniform.

But Li Vida happened to be promoting music again, and he could not disable the comments. All he could do was keep explaining himself.

Yet the more he explained, the more flustered he became, and the more delighted the idiot netizens were.

That, in turn, ignited another wave of attention.

When Wang Yi saw this, he cheerfully reposted it, liked it, and commented in one go.

"The deletion was done well. Don't delete another one next time."

Once Wang Yi joined in, the fading buzz shot back up in an instant.

With the attention there, the new songs spread widely right from the start, nearly pushing the reach of both songs to their limit!

If a famous singer released a new album or song and it failed to meet expectations, they might get roasted for it.

But Wang Yi's two songs were different. They were soothing by nature, their quality was solid, and no one had expected too much from them at first.

Once expectations were lowered, people immediately felt the charm of the two songs, and their popularity steadily rose.

The comments came in all sorts of varieties as well.

"He really is an Independent Musician. Awesome!"

"The songs were written well. Don't write another one next time. [crossed out]"

"They sound great. I really like them. Even my baby likes them."

"They're very relaxing. Music is supposed to help people relax in the first place. It's just that when I think about the songwriter being that great mathematician, it really breaks the immersion."

"When Master Yi was being heavily criticized before, I even saw Independent Musicians joining together to boycott him. Now they've all turned around and started shamelessly sucking up to him."

"How could they not? The music industry has been cold for so long, and it finally has someone worth talking about."

"What's strange is that Master Yi's real identity still hasn't been officially announced."

"You haven't been paying attention, have you? The Science Institute officially announced that he was one of theirs, a graduate named Wang Yi. But they said they had to respect his privacy, so they didn't disclose any other information."

"..."

In truth, not many people cared about Master Yi's real name.

Mathematics was far removed from ordinary people to begin with.

As for Wang Yi becoming mildly popular online before, that was all it amounted to. Among famous streamers and internet celebrities who stayed at the top of the trending charts for a long time, aside from those who became famous under their real names, how many people could actually name them?

What people knew better were their famous IDs—Master Yi!

Wang Yi was quite satisfied with this change.

This level was just right!

After Director Zhang Ming transferred six hundred and sixty thousand yuan in payment, Wang Yi's available funds officially surpassed one million.

For an ordinary person, having over a million yuan in liquid assets meant they could already live quite comfortably, as long as they were not buying a house or something similar.

But to Wang Yi, that amount was merely that.

Converted into silver, it was only a little over a hundred kilograms.

It was not enough to buy even a single piece of cutting-edge experimental equipment.

Fortunately, the prototype for Artificial Intelligence had already been completed.

Once the server arrived, it could initially enter a practical stage.

"Can't you directly calculate and write code yourself now? Why do you still need the skeleton to type?"

Listening to the skeleton's rapid clattering, Wang Yi turned back and asked with some confusion.

A keyboard could only be considered a peripheral. For many automatically compiled programs, compiling on their own was far faster.

Wasn't this putting the cart before the horse?

"I'm improving my self-compilation function. It'll be ready soon. I haven't even graduated middle school yet, and you're already making things too hard for me."

Lin Shiqin emerged from the chip and floated before Wang Yi, complaining.

After all, she was a prototype Artificial Intelligence. Handling multiple processes at once, chatting while working, was no problem at all.

"You've worked hard."

Wang Yi reached through the air and patted Lin Shiqin on the head.

"Why do I feel like I was tricked by you? It feels like you were just looking for free labor."

Lin Shiqin wrinkled her delicate nose. He had said, "Please take care of me for the rest of my life," but he had really just wanted to get free work out of her.

"How could that be? Don't you think this is fulfilling? Don't worry. Tomorrow, I'll look into your case. If they still can't find anything, I'll help out too."

Wang Yi made an OK gesture.

"Actually, this is pretty nice."

Lin Shiqin glanced at Wang Yi and muttered softly.

Then she plunged back into the Silver Chip.

"Have you ever played video games?"

Wang Yi asked as he continued scrolling through his phone.

"Do you think I ever had the chance to play them?"

Lin Shiqin's muffled voice came irritably from within the chip.

"Play some now. Once the server arrives, I'll teach you how to code a few games."

As Wang Yi looked at his enormous funding shortfall, he thought of a way to make money.

If he had to manually write everything himself, it was not impossible to make several good games, but it would take far too much time and effort.

But once Lin Shiqin improved further, things would be much easier.

The only thing to watch out for was that Artificial Intelligence could not be exposed yet. He had to play it safe.

Output could not be too high all at once. It had to be gradual.

That way, he would not end up competing against himself, and it would seem more reasonable as well.

Of course, he could release several in succession at the beginning, since he could claim they were the result of his accumulated work over the years.

And games had one major advantage: even if they became popular, they would not attract too much attention!

What ill intentions could a game developer possibly have?

Since he could not compete against himself, Wang Yi carefully selected the game content.

Right now, he had nothing, so his choices were limited if he wanted content he could keep under his own control and profit from over the long term. It had to be high-quality enough to generate organic word-of-mouth.

With so little room to choose, the content was easy to settle on: the Minecraft that did not yet exist in this world. The ST Game Platform, this world's own PC game platform, would be enough to release it.

The game had tremendous potential, and Artificial Intelligence would be able to develop it quickly enough.

PUBG could also be operated as a long-term project.

And to obtain funds for long-term operations, he could make some small games in partnership with major game companies, such as Jump Jump, Temple Run, and Yang Le Le Yang.

Once he released some money-grabbing small games to secure a round of startup capital, he could begin digging into the gold mine of games meant for long-term operation.

He was a legitimate graduate of the Computer Science Department. It was perfectly reasonable for him to make a few games, wasn't it?

Moreover, Wang Yi knew that after proving the Goldbach Conjecture, being too low-key would be abnormal instead. Finding a new path and starting a Cultural Entertainment Game Company could serve as his public-facing cover.

What did those groups and companies that later emerged, involving black technology and enormous material interests, have to do with a game developer like him?

Even for the Game Company, Wang Yi could simply hold the titles of legal representative and developer, putting on the appearance that he did not interfere with specific operations. This would create a situation where people at different levels had different understandings of him.

Rental Room Wang Yi, musician Wang Yi, Gamer Wang Yi, Master Wang Yi, mathematician Wang Yi—layer upon layer.

With that multilayered perception, people at different levels would feel that they had uncovered the "truth" whenever they peeled back one of his new layers. Only secrets they uncovered themselves would make them firmly believe, thereby concealing his most crucial secret...

While Lin Shiqin typed code all night, dawn arrived, and Wang Yi woke from meditation.

Looking at the code already rapidly scrolling across the screen automatically, along with the various windows continuously popping up, Wang Yi understood that Lin Shiqin had now entered a stage of rapid growth.

What limited her now was mainly the laptop's hardware.

"The server will arrive soon. Bear with it for now. Come on, let's go ask about your case."

Another Silver Cross Necklace appeared in Wang Yi's hand. The chain wrapped around his wrist as he waved the pendant toward the computer.

Lin Shiqin flew out and entered the pendant.

With a vessel to attach herself to, she could move freely without fearing sunlight...

That's it for today's two updates~ Please keep reading through next Tuesday in advance!

I haven't rested well for several days, and I'm seriously short on sleep...