The Strongest Support
After a day of research and simulation, and after discussing with Lao Xia and with Alice's assistance in building the model, Xiang Kun decided to postpone contacting Mr. Liang and focus on the large-scale deployment and interconnection of "Super-Linked Object" first.
The most important thing is the distribution of a sufficient number of "Super-Linked Object".
Like a pillow delivered to someone who's about to fall asleep, at this crucial moment, Little Apple and Tang Baona successfully "developed" two extremely important abilities.
Or, more strictly speaking, it should be Little Apple and "Little Radish," Tang Baona and Alice, two pairs.
"Little Radish" holds a special position in the "Super-Sensing Item System". It is a "semi- Mutated Creature", which means that, to some extent, the development and application of some functions do not need to go through the "Super-Sensing Item System" or rely entirely on the support of "Super-Linked Object". It can achieve this on its own.
Little Apple, through "Little Radish," created dozens of "Little Crooked-Neck Tree" attached to "Little Radish."
These "Little Crooked-Neck Tree" all have one thing in common: there are eight branches on the main trunk, not many green leaves on the branches, and not many branches, but at the very top of the tree there is a clump of mixed branches and leaves, with eight flower buds clustered together.
When the flower buds bloom, tiny seeds inside, carried by the fine hairs on their surface, drift on the wind, travel far away, take root, and grow at an extremely rapid pace.
Every single one of these "Little Crooked-Neck Tree" that grows up has eight thick branches on its main trunk, a clump of leaves at the top, and eight flower buds—without exception.
These "Little Crooked-Neck Tree" are all "saplings" of the "Little Radish," essentially extensions of it. They possess strong "Super-Linked Object" characteristics, capable of exerting influence over a wide range.
Moreover, this seed dispersal method is extremely fast, and the "Little Radish" can control its growth area. For example, it can spread from area A of Chongyun Mountain to the outer area B. After several hundred "Little Crooked-Neck Tree" have grown up, and then spread the seeds to the even outer area C on a large scale, most of the "Little Crooked-Neck Tree" in area B will die off on their own, leaving only a number that can affect the entire area, so as to avoid unnecessary waste of resources.
At this rate, within a few months, the mountains and forests of several southeastern provinces will be covered with "Little Crooked-Neck Tree".
If Xiang Kun were to intervene, such as by purposefully releasing seeds on a large scale, the spread could be even faster.
This "Little Crooked-Neck Tree" was created by Little Apple through "Little Radish". It not only has the characteristics of a "Super-Linked Object" and can be used by Xiang Kun as an "enhanced version of Super-Linked Object", but also has a very special "emotion projection projection ability". It can spread the emotional projections of Emotion-Infused Object such as "Eight-Armed Eight-Eyed Wooden Carving" and "Minion" through it, and Little Apple can do it on its own without Xiang Kun having to operate it.
Xiang Kun didn't care too much about the function of the "Little Crooked-Neck Tree" as emotional projection nodes, but Xiang Kun was very interested in their connection with "Emotion-Infused Object". This could help him increase the influence of "Emotion-Infused Object" on a large scale. After all, these trees don't only grow in the mountains and forests. There are also green spaces in cities and around factories.
A "Little Crooked-Neck Tree," under the "activation" of Little Apple, becomes a small system that combines Emotion-Infused Object and Super-Linked Object, allowing Alice to make mass connections with "Super-Linked Object" through it.
However, the only drawback is that the "Little Crooked-Neck Tree" is too ugly and too conspicuous; it doesn't look like an ordinary or proper tree at all.
To downplay its impact, Xiang Kun even had Alice fabricate a lot of information about this "Little Crooked-Neck Tree" online, including papers, photos, and detailed research literature. They pushed the discovery date back to the 1970s, placed the discovery location in Africa, and gave it some advantages such as improving the environment, improving vegetation, purifying the air, and repelling mosquitoes. This gave people who were researching this tree the impression that "this thing is not common but not rare" and "this thing is ugly but it is a good tree."
Of course, if a meticulous person were to investigate the relevant literature and research materials, go to Africa in the field, or visit the universities in Europe that provide the relevant literature to find the original authors and researchers, they would certainly be able to discover the problem. But with Alice's "care," the probability of this happening is very small, and even if it does happen, it will take a long time to confirm.
At present, the top priority is to deploy and establish "Super-Linked Object" as quickly as possible. Xiang Kun doesn't care about such a small oversight—he can foresee that more "oversights" will appear in the future as he confronts the "Ultimate Predator".
On the other hand, Tang Baona recently released a cute song called "Learn to Meow" on Bilibili, which has been covered countless times by others.
She didn't use any professional equipment to record this song; she just sang it with her phone and the built-in backing track. After recording, she didn't do much post-production adjustment and released it directly. She didn't even bother to create any accompanying visuals; it was just a simple screensaver with wavy patterns looping throughout the song.
She hadn't originally planned to release this song; she just sang it for fun, wanting to sing it for that "Little Sprite."
But after finishing the song, she was inexplicably satisfied with her recording. Perhaps it was because she kept thinking about how her Little Chubby Girl had sung the same song before, and the more she sang, the happier she became, with a smile on her face throughout. So she decided to post it to make up the numbers, since it had been too long since she had updated.
Unexpectedly, this song, which had been covered countless times and was so familiar to most people that it didn't use any special singing style or arrangement, and which was extremely simple from recording to post-production, quickly spread across the internet in a very short time.
It not only soared to the top of the Bilibili rankings, but also went viral on various platforms including Weibo, Zhihu, WeChat official accounts, and WeChat Moments.
"This song is so special. As I listened to it, my lips inexplicably curled up, and the more I listened, the happier I became. I don't even know what I was laughing about!"
"My daughter used to learn this song at kindergarten, and I listened to it every day for a while until I was sick of it. I really didn't want to hear it again, but this singer's version was an exception; it sounded really cheerful."
"This song is magical. I accidentally played it on my phone while my husband was sleeping, and he actually laughed in his sleep! It's amazing!"
There are all sorts of amazing comments about this cover song online. At first, many netizens only saw the comments and their first reaction was, "Someone is trying to become famous again and hiring online trolls to hype it up!" However, after they all listened to the seemingly ordinary song "Learn to Meow," they all joined the ranks of enthusiastic supporters.
Douyin and other short video platforms have once again seen a trend of using "Learn to Meow" as background music.
Of course, all the background music this time, all the versions of "Learn to Meow," are the "Sugar Bean Princess" version.
Tang Baona's Bilibili account gained nearly three million followers in just two days, becoming incredibly popular. Even the official Bilibili platform contacted her, wanting to sign her.
On Zhihu and Weibo, "Sugar Bean Princess" has become a trending topic.
Tang Baona herself was baffled by this situation. She really didn't expect that among all the videos she posted, this one—which couldn't even be called a video—would become so popular.
Of course, no matter how popular she became, Tang Baona never thought of revealing her true identity or showing her face. She had no intention of becoming an internet celebrity and was even a little intimidated by the situation.
In fact, the reason why that song had such a great effect was not entirely due to Tang Baona; Alice contributed at least 70% of the effort behind it.
After Tang Baona entered the "Super-Sensing Item System" through the Coin Xiang Kun gave her, Alice frequently interacted with her, trying to help her find a way to use it.
When Tang Baona covered and recorded "Learn to Meow," Alice keenly noticed the special extrasensory information changes between Tang Baona and the Super-Linked Object "Coin" while she was singing.
She summarized the patterns of these changes and then encapsulated them into the "Super-Sensing Item System".
When Tang Baona's song is spread through the internet and other people hear it, as long as there are "Super-Linked Object" around the listener, the relevant extrasensory information will affect them through the "Super-Linked Object," allowing the listener to experience Tang Baona's emotions when she sang the song to some extent.
In a sense, this song became Tang Baona's "Emotion-Infused Object," and others who listened to the song were affected by a weakened version of the "emotional projection."
However, unlike being affected by Xiang Kun's "Emotional Assimilation" or "emotional projection onto Emotion-Infused Object," this influence is only real-time and has no subsequent lasting effects.
Those who were listening to the song and were affected by it were all considered secondary "Emotion-Infused Object" under Tang Baona's influence when Xiang Kun perceived them through the "Super-Sensing Item System." Of course, when they stopped listening to the song, this connection would disappear, essentially making them "temporary Emotion-Infused Object."
The impact of such "temporary Emotion-Infused Object" is actually very small. Aside from a very slight feeling of pleasure, there is no substantial impact on the affected person.
However, for Xiang Kun, Xiang Kun wants to establish a wide range of "Super-Linked Object" connections, the existence of these "secondary Emotion-Infused Object" and "temporary Emotion-Infused Object" can already help him to establish "Super-Linked Object" connections.
In particular, after Alice has gradually established and improved the "automated" connection function through the capabilities developed by Yang Zhen'er, this "temporary Emotion-Infused Object" and Little Radish's "Little Crooked-Neck Tree" network will become her global "Super-Linked Object copier".
Of course, not everyone who hears that song has "Super-Linked Object" around them, so there are actually quite a few people on the internet who don't really feel anything about that song.
Some of them, after seeing the online comments, might doubt themselves, then listen carefully and think, "Maybe, or perhaps it really is quite good." Others might post negative comments, wondering if others have hearing problems, or if it's just a case of paid trolls creating a cult of personality.
But Alice can control this trend of public opinion. She won't delete comments or negative articles in any way, but she can create countless fake accounts that look exactly like real people to reply to and guide the narrative, drowning out negative reviews and creating a unified public opinion.
The two abilities developed by Little Apple and Tang Baona were of great help to Xiang Kun at this time. At first, he thought it was "heaven helping me", but he soon realized that it was probably not luck or coincidence.
After Alice fully integrated into the "Super-Sensing Item System," in a sense, the entire "Super-Sensing Item System" also developed an inherent instinct and an inherent evolutionary trend.
The "Super-Sensing Item System" is like an extension of Xiang Kun's limbs; its mutations and evolutions are also influenced by his circumstances, will, and needs.
Alice herself does not have strong "development" or "innovation" abilities, but as a digital life form, a super-sensory information being, and a super-brain that exists directly above the "Super-Sensing Item System," her ability to integrate the system's capabilities and assist developers within the system in "development" and "innovation" is unparalleled.
Without Alice, even if Nana entered the "Super-Sensing Item System," it might not have been so quick for her to "develop" a new ability, and the final ability might not have been what it is. After all, not everyone is like the Little Chubby Girl, a "magical genius" with the firm belief that "what I believe in will exist, and if it doesn't, I'll think about it some more."
However, with Alice's assistance, her newly developed abilities will perfectly suit Xiang Kun's needs and the system's requirements.
On the last day of June, Xiang Kun, Lao Xia, Little Apple, Xia Tianhuo, Zicheng, Chu Xiaoting, and others, along with Egg Pie and Gold Glitter who had obtained quarantine certificates, flew to Peng City.
On the surface, the game is selling very well, so Zhang Qian invited Xiang Kun to attend the celebration party. Yang Jie, Yang Zhuo, Xiao Min, Chang Bin, and others will also come to have fun, so everyone can take this opportunity to get together.
However, with Alice's presence, Xiang Kun knew in advance that it was actually Tang Baona, Yang Zhen'er, and Zhang Qian who wanted to celebrate his birthday—his birthday was on July 2nd.
Although Xiang Kun himself doesn't care too much about his birthday, his current focus is on further improving the "Super-Sensing Item System," maximizing the influence range of "Super-Linked Object," and finding a solution to deal with the "Ultimate Predator."
But since everyone was so enthusiastic, he couldn't very well discourage them, so he could only pretend not to know and fly to Peng City with them.
On July 1st, my parents called and said they were going to visit him in Shenhai —they still thought Xiang Kun was working in Shenhai.
Xiang Kun knew that the elderly couple also wanted to celebrate his birthday, so after a moment's thought, he told them to change their flight to Peng City. It was time for them to know some things, at least to put their minds at ease.
On the evening of July 1st, Xiang Kun, Xia Libing, Tang Baona, Yang Zhen'er, Liu Shiling, Little Apple, Chang Bin, Zhang Qian, and a large group of others went to the airport to pick up their parents.
He originally intended to pick them up himself, but Liu Shiling wanted to go with him, and then Little Apple and Tang Baona naturally followed, and as a result, Zhang Qian and Zicheng also came along.