A Glimpse of the Past

A small vegetable garden, peaceful and serene.

A ladybug landed on a green leaf, trembling as it folded its wings.

Liu Yuan.

Why would he oppose you?

Qin Yiguan looked at Qin Shenhu and asked the second question that had been on his mind.

"Liu Yuan..."

Qin Shenhu looked into the void, a look of reminiscence on his face, tinged with melancholy and regret.

Suddenly, a projected image appeared in the void ahead.

The image quality is slightly rough, and the color tone appears somewhat grayish-white, giving it a vintage feel.

It was a spacious and luxurious office.

But at this moment, the place was dirty and messy, with fast food packaging everywhere and all sorts of empty water bottles lying crookedly.

On one side of the room, there was a two-seater sofa with a rumpled blanket piled on top.

In the very center of the room was a huge desk.

Nine computer screens, all old-fashioned solid LEDs, were lit up on the desktop at the same time.

The bottom right corner of the screen displays a message: "April 1, 2022, Gemini Group, President's Office."

Behind the computer screen was a man who looked to be around 30 years old. His hair was greasy and his eyes were bloodshot. He stared wide-eyed, and his eyeballs reflected a series of dense blue codes.

Crackle, crackle.

The sound of rapid, continuous typing filled the air.

Ding ding ding.

A knock came at the door, and a beautiful and capable female secretary, dressed in professional attire, slowly walked in.

"Mr. Liu..."

"You've been working non-stop for four months now, don't push yourself so hard, take a break."

The female secretary looked worried, but dared not use a harsh tone.

"Mosha..."

The man, referred to as General Manager Liu, remained glued to the screen. "Prepare two more months' worth of instant food and water for me. Also, decline all visitors and all meetings for me."

"Mr. Liu..."

The female secretary Mosha, hesitated before speaking, "Recently, the visitors have all been either debt collectors or... investors wanting to withdraw their investment."

The man behind the computer screen paused slightly upon hearing this, but less than a second later, the rapid typing resumed.

After a long silence, the female secretary Mosha, finally spoke, "Mr. Liu, can I tell you the truth? Nobody... nobody believes you can develop the ' Gemini Superbrain '."

The man paused for a moment again, but this time, the pause was even shorter.

"Mr. Liu... please wake up."

"The kind of program you described is impossible; it's practically divine, and that kind of world is just a human dream."

The female secretary's eyes welled up with tears. "Look at yourself now! Where is the Liu Yuan once stood at the pinnacle of the era, full of vigor and ambition?"

"Mr. Liu, let's abandon that unrealistic dream."

"Let's focus on our current ' Metaverse 1.0 '. Many users are willing to support us, investors won't withdraw their funding, and our cash flow will soon be abundant!"

The man slowly raised his head, his bloodshot eyes trembling slightly. "Metaverse 1.0... that wasn't the real Metaverse at all. It was just a low-end, crude 3D model. It wasn't a real technological revolution, much less a real consciousness upload. It was just a 3D game implemented through AR glasses!"

"Mr. Liu!"

"The Metaverse 1.0 is not crude at all!"

"It boasts internationally recognized top-tier image quality!"

The female secretary said somewhat agitatedly, "So what if it's a game? It keeps our Gemini Group alive, stable, and prevents it from collapsing! Why did you suspend the operation of version 1.0?!"

"Don't you know? Our cash flow has been cut off for two months, and more than 80% of our employees have left!"

Right now, in the company lobby, hundreds of our minority shareholders are causing trouble!

The female secretary stretched out her arm, pointing downstairs, "We won't be able to stop them for long!"

The man looked up and saw two clear bruises on the female secretary's fair arm.

It was clear that those were marks left from the scuffing and pushing in the crowd.

The secretary Mosha, was already in tears, the tears welling up on her smooth chin. "Mr. Liu, I really can't hold on much longer."

There was a moment of silence.

The clattering sound of keyboard typing began again.

"Mosha, you have to believe me."

"Just now, I also overcame a major hurdle; the prototype code for the Gemini Superbrain is now 90% complete!"

"It will be unveiled to everyone very soon!"

"At that time, it will be something that shocks the whole world!"

Bang!

The office door was slammed shut.

On the ground, Secretary Mosha's name tag lay quietly.

The man gazed towards the doorway, tears welling in his eyes. "You must believe me. Only by completing the development of the Gemini Superbrain can the Metaverse be perfected. At that time, humanity will usher in a 'technological singularity,' and even the way of life will be completely overturned... At that moment, the Gemini will be remembered for eternity... Do you remember? That was our dream!"

The man wiped away his tears and rallied his spirits.

The clattering of keyboard keys began again.

The sun outside the window, which was shining brightly at noon, slowly turned into an orange hue that hung low on the horizon.

No one turned on the lights in the office, and the room gradually became dim.

When the man was exhausted and could no longer hold on and was about to fall asleep, he would pick up a cone and stab his arm. As blood flowed, a brief moment of clarity would appear in his eyes.

On one of the computer screens, a flashing progress bar was displayed.

' Development Rate 98.6%...'

' Development Rate 98.7%...'

Bang!

The office door was suddenly kicked open!

Liu Yuan!

"I trusted you so much before!"

I used all my savings to buy your Gemini stock!

"Now that the stock has hit its daily limit down, I'm bankrupt!"

"Give me back my hard-earned money!"

At least thirty or forty people rushed into the office, all of them gritting their teeth and filled with rage.

An elderly man in a suit and tie, wearing gold-rimmed glasses, stood at the front of the crowd. "Liu Yuan. Liu Yuan," he said, "The project proposal you presented to me back then was nothing short of phenomenal. However, in the last two years, you have deviated from the profit model we agreed upon. Your actions constitute suspected commercial fraud. Today, on behalf of Mengtuo Capital, I am filing a commercial lawsuit against you!"

Da da da...

No one responded to the debt collectors; the sound of keyboards being typed inside the room was exceptionally clear.

The elderly man with gold-rimmed glasses was furious. "You're researching your so-called ' Gemini Superbrain ' again! My team of experts has already judged that technology to be nothing but a pipe dream!"

"What else did you say? That will be the first super artificial intelligence program with human-like thinking abilities!"

"You also said that after its birth, it would instantly create an endless map of the Gemini Metaverse!"

"You still dare to talk!"

"It can also connect to the real-world network, control real-world factories, and develop the most advanced Nutrient Pod for humanity!"

"You still dare to talk!"

Its birth will bring revolutionary changes to the human world!

Still no response.

"Liu Yuan has gone mad; he's lost his mind!"

The elderly man with gold-rimmed glasses roared, "Or perhaps, this is all just an excuse for him to evade his debts! Men, seize Liu Yuan!"

The words had barely left his mouth.

Several bodyguards in black rushed out from the crowd!

At that very moment, a petite figure stepped in front of the group.

It was none other than Mosha, the secretary who had stormed out of the office earlier.

The woman spread her arms, blocking the way for several burly bodyguards.

Tears welled in her eyes. "You must believe in President Liu. Only by completing the development of the Gemini Superbrain can the Metaverse be perfected. At that time, humanity will usher in a 'technological singularity,' and even the way of life will be completely overturned. At that moment, the Gemini will be remembered for eternity. I remember, that was our dream!"

Upon hearing this, Liu Yuan paused, turned to look at the woman's back, and was deeply moved.

Earlier, after Mosha slammed the door and left, she didn't leave. Instead, she squatted by the door, covering her face and crying.

That's why she heard Liu Yuan's mutterings.

A gasp of surprise.

Mosha was pushed to the ground by the fierce bodyguard.

Immediately, several bodyguards came behind the desk and, as if apprehending a criminal, pried Liu Yuan's arm and pressed his face against the computer desktop.

Click, click!

Because Liu Yuan struggled frantically, his arm was dislocated.

But his eyes were still bloodshot as he stared at the computer screen in front of him, stretching out his other arm to laboriously type code on the keyboard.

"Liu Yuan, now that things have come to this, is there anything else you want to say?!"

The elderly man with gold-rimmed glasses stared intently at Liu Yuan. "If you agree now to abandon your so-called Gemini Superbrain and restart Metaverse 1.0, then everything is negotiable. I can even inject another round of funding into Gemini!"

Liu Yuan didn't say a word.

His eyes held a fanatical obsession.

He stared intently at the screen, typing out strings of code with one hand.

The elderly man with gold-rimmed glasses let out a somber sigh, then gave a wink to one of the bodyguards in black.

But then the bodyguard in black secretly pulled out a syringe filled with green liquid from his pocket. This drug was very tricky; once injected into a person, the manner of death was extremely similar to 'death from overwork'.

Take advantage of someone's unpreparedness.

The bodyguard in black injected the green liquid into Liu Yuan's arm.

Liu Yuan, in his desperate gamble, was completely unaware of the truth.

The old man with the gold-rimmed glasses chuckled softly.

If Liu Yuan, who has veto power, dies, then the Gemini vice president, who stands on the same side as Mengtuo, will take over the entire Gemini Group and then restore the operation of Metaverse 1.0 as soon as possible.

The marketplace is far darker than the battlefield.

With such enormous profits at stake, human lives... mean nothing.

Clatter!

Liu Yuan pressed the Enter key heavily.

He was then dragged away, his eyes wide open, forced to leave his desk.

"Development Rate 100%..."

"I... done it."

Liu Yuan moved further and further away from his desk, his expression extremely complex, a mixture of emptiness and confusion, even a sense of helplessness.

But the code on the screen was just flashing silently, seemingly without any change.

Snap!

A stock investor who had lost everything smashed a hidden bottle on Liu Yuan's head. Glass shattered, and blood streamed down Liu Yuan's forehead.

But he had no time to pay attention; his eyes were wide open, his heart was pounding, and the anticipation in his heart was like a blazing light, growing ever stronger.

"Gemini Superbrain..."

"Are u there?"