The Foundation

The wolf is coming!

The brain-computer interface developers all became serious.

They don't lack money.

An organization that can participate in corporate warfare is unlikely to lack money.

However, they are severely lacking in their own "basic technology," and they have absolutely no intention of handing it over to outsiders.

The senior engineer looked at these people with a smile, no longer pretending to be ignorant, and calmly said:

"Gentlemen, as a mercenary group, we are employed by the Holy Brain Group in this war. The Holy Brain Group is located in the Northern Hemisphere and is currently ranked number one."

"Let's get straight to the point. We not only don't care about the fate of companies in the Southern Hemisphere, we even hope you fight each other to the death, the more brutal the better."

"In this way, once the Holy Brain Group completes its brain-computer interface deployment in the Northern Hemisphere, it will sweep across the Southern Hemisphere with overwhelming force and become the final winner in this corporate war."

"However, if you let 'Venos Life Safety Group' run rampant, it will become the biggest stumbling block in your corporate war," a brain-computer interface developer shouted.

"Yes, that possibility cannot be ruled out," the senior engineer nodded in agreement. "But you have to understand one thing: in all the previous corporate wars, no winner has ever been able to take everything. Compromise, cooperation, cross-shareholding, forming a trust group, and monopolizing the sales market is a highly probable thing."

"Indeed, 'Bio-computer interfaces' are very powerful and difficult to solve. If they are not suppressed in the early stages, once the 'brain-computer interface virus' spreads globally, there will be almost no solution."

"However, you must also understand that it is a biological brain-computer interface technology. There is a possibility of cooperation with the Holy Brain Group. At worst, they can surrender and lose half. On the contrary, mechanical modification and biological modification are mortal enemies and cannot be reconciled."

Everyone fell silent. There was indeed a possibility of compromise between similar technological approaches.

"According to your logic, cooperating with us is also a betrayal of the interests of the 'Sacred Brain Group'," another person said.

The senior engineer smiled and said:

"We are military contractors, mercenary groups. It's normal to strive for the maximum benefit within the scope of the contract, isn't it?"

The crowd fell silent for the second time. Not to mention this kind of behavior that resembles "colluding with foreign enemies," it is not uncommon for employers and military contractors to turn against each other due to interests in corporate warfare.

"Perhaps we can offer another form of assistance, such as equipment, weapons, or even command of our corporate security department?" another person said, his eyes gleaming.

The senior engineer shook his head. "Nobody's stupid. If we're going to fight the 'Venos Life Safety Group,' we'll have to fight to the death. You think we're going to fight them for this little bit of favor? Wouldn't it be better if we just followed 'Ms. Ye' and won without lifting a finger?"

Everyone was speechless.

They're not only strong, but they also have a way out. At worst, they can just walk away. Threats and bribes don't work. It's really frustrating.

Seeing the atmosphere turn cold, the senior engineer smirked and said:

"In that case, I have another proposal for everyone to choose from."

"All the groups present, let's jointly establish a research foundation. These 50 billion mechanical coins will serve as the first batch of research funds for basic technology research and development."

"In addition, everyone present, including myself, must contribute a kind of 'basic technology' to make a double investment."

"As long as you join the foundation, you will share technology and research results, and have the same voting rights. However, I will have a veto right to ensure that the foundation's general research direction is correct."

"As the founder of the foundation, I will be responsible for solving the 'biochemical brain-computer interface' problem, and the Dugo Group will be responsible for the foundation's security in the future. How about that?"

These "brain-computer interface developers" were stunned when they heard this, completely unexpected that the other party would suddenly come up with such an idea.

In the Cyber Test Site, the super-corporation is almost equivalent to a semi-ruling institution. The top executives are all high-ranking individuals with excellent benefits and extremely high social status.

However, the cost is also quite severe. Not only will they face fierce competition from rivals, but if the company does not perform well, they may even have to sacrifice their lives to maintain the company's will.

It is precisely in this brutal commercial struggle that some "international research organizations" that only exist in peacetime have no market at all. A single commercial spy can destroy the organization's scientific and technological achievements in an instant.

In the cyber testing grounds, the atmosphere of corporate espionage is quite strong.

Joint development? Dream on! I'll just steal it!

However, while the general trend is the general trend, there are exceptions. For example, under the great threat of "biochemical brain-computer interfaces," cooperation is not impossible.

And even if we take a step back and assume that we can share one 'basic technology' with other 'basic technologies', it seems like we're actually getting a good deal.

As for what happens in the future, we'll see.

"I need to report this to my superiors."

"I need to discuss this with my partner."

"I'll use my AI to calculate the probability."

"I'm going to take a dump."

Soon, one projection after another dimmed, until the entire conference room was empty, without a single person in sight.

"Boss, why do we have to do this?" The 'mainframe' hesitated for a moment, but couldn't help asking.

Nonsense, it's because I'm the only one doing this, and I'm exhausted from grinding through all the tasks.

Based on the three civilization systems, conservatively estimated, there are at least 15 "professional knowledge chains".

Even with a conservative estimate, each chain of professional knowledge contains eight professional knowledge items.

15 * 8 = 120

Even with his liver and gallbladder working tirelessly and relying on a rich woman, the senior engineer still hasn't scraped together half of his savings.

But the story is already halfway through.

If you can't rely on yourself, then you can only rely on others.

But first and foremost, players can't be relied upon.

At this stage, it's already quite good that players can create their own skills and craft equipment. As for developing "professional knowledge," don't be ridiculous; they probably don't even know that such a thing exists.

If you can't exploit the players, then you can only exploit the NPCs.

However, NPCs who possess 'basic knowledge' are a treasure in either faction. With layers of security, even senior engineers might not be able to capture all of them, such as chief scientists, biological experts, and senior weapons developers.

Not to mention that these NPCs must have something like a 'self-destruct chip', 'enterprise-level confidentiality agreement', or 'memory erasure software' installed on them.

Tying them up might not even work.

Therefore, taking advantage of this rare opportunity to fleece a large number of people is the smart thing to do.

Similarly, to achieve the goals set by senior engineers in the corporate war, they really have to rely on these large enterprises.

Soon, a projector came up.

Another one.

There's one more.

Half an hour later, a total of 33 company representatives came online, but after waiting a while longer, no one came online.

"It seems everyone agrees with this approach?" the senior engineer asked with a smile.

The crowd looked at each other with varying expressions, but no one said a word.

Until a brain-computer interface developer said in a deep voice:

"Mr. G, we agree to your request in principle, but we have one condition..."

The conditions are simple: the foundation can be established, but it will take two steps.

The first step is to inject funds to support "Dugo Technologies" in its fight against "Vinos Life Safety Group".

Once Dugo Technologies has solved the "biochemical brain-computer interface" problem, the technical data will be introduced.

Looking at the senior engineer's ambiguous smile, for some reason, this "developer" felt a chill run down his spine.

He forced himself to continue:

"Of course, your group doesn't need to worry that we will not act in accordance with the contract. During the corporate war, all official contracts are subject to accountability by the mother city. We can sign three contracts and submit them to the three mother cities for record-keeping, so that we can be absolutely sure of everything."

The senior engineer fell silent, remaining so until the others began to feel uneasy, before finally nodding.

"Can."

No one could tell whether his expression was good or bad.

After a moment, the conference room fell silent again, and the senior engineer finally spoke:

"I'll find someone to handle things like signing contracts and filing documents, but you need to keep an eye on things to make sure there are no problems."

The mainframe nodded firmly, then asked:

"Boss, when should we move the group's main forces from the Northern Hemisphere?"

"Why are you transferring me here?" the senior engineer asked in surprise.

"If we don't switch, how are we going to deal with the 'Venos Life Security Group'?"

"Quality is more important than quantity."

"Um, may I ask how many elite personnel you plan to allocate to handle this 'biochemical brain-computer interface'?"

The senior engineer nodded at the other person, then pointed to himself:

"One for you, one for me."

"Anything else?"

"That's all."

At this moment, a million curses were running through the host computer's mind.