Lu Jingheng, you're the second-in-command here

Primordial Data Federation, Morning Star, Central Data Hub.

This place is always the quietest yet most "lively" part of the Federation—countless streams of information, like silent waterfalls, converge from all directions, flowing, intersecting, and being processed within the vast hall of thought.

This is the heart and brain of the entire federation.

Lu Jingheng stood at the heart of this information waterfall.

He was still wearing that dark Zhongshan suit, his posture upright, and a light blue data flow around him that was more solid and vast than ever before.

Since Luo Li officially ascended to the position of [Data] Aeon and founded the Federation, Lu Jingheng's powers and responsibilities as the "Data Manager" have also increased accordingly.

In theory, he is the most powerful and influential individual in the entire Federation after Luo Li —the true second-in-command.

However, at this moment, this second-in-command, who should theoretically be extremely busy and strategizing, is facing a small problem that is causing "delays" in his core operational logic.

"Uncle Lu! Look, look! I cross-compiled and optimized the active response protocol of the defense system and the underlying code of the holographic fireworks system used for celebrations! Now, whenever unauthorized energy approaches the starport, the defense turrets will first set off a fireworks show as a warning! Isn't that super creative!"

Luo Shiyi held up her personal data board, almost shoving it into Lu Jingheng's face.

The data panel displayed a dizzyingly complex stream of code, interspersed with numerous flashing, colorful "artistic comments" that were clearly added on the spot.

As Lu Jingheng looked at the code, the pale blue data stream around him momentarily became imperceptibly disordered.

He maintained his calm tone. "Miss Shiyi, the core logic of the defense system is 'efficiently identifying and harmlessly handling threats.' The 'Fireworks Show Warning' will consume an additional 37.8% of energy and extend the reaction time by 0.05 seconds, which is a negative optimization at the tactical level."

"Oh dear, Uncle Lu, you're too rigid!"

Shiyi pouted in dissatisfaction.

"Deterrence is part of defense! And it looks so good! Father even said last time that the atmosphere in the Federation could be a bit more lively!"

On the other side, Luo Shiyu stood quietly a few steps away, with a three-dimensional model floating in front of her, constantly self-replicating and constantly collapsing and reassembling due to uneven internal time flow.

"Mr. Lu..." Her voice was cold.

"I have tried to add a dynamic recursive calibration module to the seventh version of the time anchoring algorithm you provided."

Theoretically, the error rate of the local time-steady field can be further reduced by 0.003%.

However, during the seventeenth recursion, the model exhibited an unexpected 'time echo' phenomenon, causing the calibration loop to fail to close—see here...

With a light tap of her finger, a certain node on the model immediately began to flash, reverse, and accelerate at an eerie rhythm.

Lu Jingheng turned his gaze to the model, where data flowed at high speed, instantly completing hundreds of millions of simulations.

"Ms. Shiyu, the dynamic recursive module you introduced has an implicit harmonic generated by its iteration frequency and the inherent oscillation period of the basic anchoring algorithm."

'Time Echo' is a manifestation of logical resonance. It is recommended to increase the recursive trigger threshold to 1.7 times the original design, or to use an asymmetric decay function as the recursive weight.

His answer was precise, swift, and impeccable.

But the very next second after he finished speaking—

Buzz!

Without warning, the lights in the entire central hall dimmed by 50% simultaneously, then suddenly brightened again, and began to flash on and off wildly three times per second, as if performing a disco dance with epilepsy.

At the same time, the speed of all information flow suddenly increased threefold, but the content turned into all sorts of meaningless gibberish and flashing emoticons.

"Wow! Shiyu! Your model crashed and affected the central power supply protocol!"

Instead of panicking, Shiyi exclaimed excitedly.

"... It wasn't me."

Shiyu frowned slightly, and her time field instantly unfolded, attempting to stabilize the flow of time around her, only to find that her influence on the energy flow itself was limited.

Lu Jingheng stood still, motionless.

However, the pale blue data stream that usually flowed steadily like a galaxy around him was now churning and twisting violently, as if a boulder had been thrown into a lake, and even emitting a faint "buzzing" sound, as if it were overloaded.

This has happened twenty-seven times in the past month.

One of the princesses is a walking bug generator, who is keen on "optimizing" the Federation system in all sorts of outlandish ways;

One is a walking Spacetime turbulence, whose research into time models often triggers chain reactions.

Their intentions were not to cause trouble; in fact, they were quite serious. However, their level of power and the extent to which their thinking was unconventional often exceeded the tolerance of conventional systems.

As the ultimate manager of all federal data, Lu Jingheng is responsible for discovering, analyzing, and fixing all the "surprises" as soon as possible.

"Ms. Shiyi, please immediately stop your 'optimization' process for the defense system and roll back to the previous stable version."

Lu Jingheng's voice remained steady, but his speaking speed was 0.3 seconds faster than usual. "Miss Shiyu, please temporarily freeze your model calculations. I need three seconds to reset the central power supply and information routing protocols."

As soon as he finished speaking, his fingertips emitted an even more dazzling blue light than ever before.

Countless intricate data runes, like living chains, instantly spread to every corner of the hall, precisely locating those nodes that had been tampered with or disrupted, and began to forcibly repair and overwrite them.

Three seconds later, the lights returned to normal, and the flow of information resumed its orderly flow.

Shiyu obediently froze the model.

Shiyi stuck out her tongue and began manipulating the data panel to roll back the code, muttering to herself, "Uncle Lu is fixing things faster and faster..."

At that moment, the entrance to the data hub slid open silently.

Luo Li walked in, holding a newly drafted document outlining the establishment of diplomatic relations with a newly emerging mechanical civilization.

He immediately spotted the still-unsettled, chaotic data streams in the hall, his two daughters with unfocused eyes, and Lu Jingheng standing there, whose posture remained upright but who seemed to exude a barely perceptible aura of "tiredness."

Luo Li paused in her steps.

He first placed the draft on the floating platform to the side, then walked to Lu Jingheng's side and patted his capable assistant on the shoulder—a gesture that caused the aura around Lu Jingheng to ripple slightly.

"Thank you for your hard work, Jingheng."

Luo Li's tone was filled with understanding and sympathy.

Lu Jingheng turned slightly to face Luo Li, and the data flow returned to a steady pace. "Duty fulfilled, main body completed, system operating normally."

"Really?" Luo Li raised an eyebrow, glanced at Shiyi was pretending to study the floor pattern and Shiyu who looked innocent, and then turned back to look at Lu Jingheng.

"But I think I just heard that a certain defense system almost turned into the Federation's biggest fireworks launcher?"

Lu Jingheng paused for a second. "... Miss Shiyi Yi's idea has a theoretical 'warning value-added' aspect, but under current technological conditions, its cost-effectiveness is lower than the standard protocol—a rollback has been recommended."

"I also 'felt' that the flow of time in the central nervous system seemed to have gone erratic just now?" Luo Li continued to ask.

"... Shiyu's research touched upon a deep harmonic problem in the time anchoring algorithm, causing small cascading disturbances. A solution has been provided, and the relevant protocol has been reset."

Lu Jingheng's answer remained meticulous.

Luo Li looked at him and suddenly smiled, this time with a mix of teasing and seriousness.

"Jingheng..." He patted Lu Jingheng's shoulder again, this time with a little more force.

"You're the second-in-command here—theoretically, besides me, you're the most powerful person in the entire Federation."

He pointed to the vast stream of data around him. "These messy 'surprises' don't actually require you to handle them all yourself down to the lowest level every time."

Let the relevant departments handle this headache, or... just set up a stronger access barrier for those two girls so they can't access the core system.

Lu Jingheng's gaze met Luo Li's, and in those eyes that had previously only shown flashes of data, there seemed to be an extremely faint glimmer, a kind of "humanistic bewilderment."

"Handing it over to other departments will increase the average response time by 400%, and the probability of the repair solution being suboptimal will rise to 65%."

Establishing stricter access restrictions might affect the two women's normal learning and exploration needs, and could prompt them to seek more sophisticated ways to circumvent these restrictions, leading to more unpredictable consequences.

He stated the objective data, then paused, his voice seemingly tinged with a very faint, almost imperceptible... hint of helplessness?

"Handling it directly is the most efficient approach, ensuring maximum system security, and... simultaneously updating the database of contingency plans for similar 'anomalies'."

In other words, he doesn't trust others to handle it, and he thinks it's too slow; it's better to guide than to block, and he can also accumulate experience in "dealing with unruly children" by handling it himself.

Luo Li understood the unspoken implication, and her smile deepened, tinged with a hint of relief.

His close friend and assistant, born from the sea of data, seems to have become more and more... "vivid" through their long time together and "training".

He was no longer the cold, rational manager who only acted according to the optimal solution. He began to have his own "choices" and "considerations," and even the budding of emotions such as "it's troublesome but I have to do it."

"Alright, you can do it yourself if you want."

Luo Li said no more, then turned to look at her daughters, her expression turning serious.

"Shiyu, Shiyi, did you hear that? Your Uncle Lu has to process massive amounts of information from the entire Federation every day, and he also has to clean up your 'research byproducts'."

If you keep messing around like this, he might temporarily reduce your StarNet access to the level of 'only allowing you to watch Federation propaganda videos'.

Shiyi immediately raised her hand. "Father, I was wrong! I'll go and change the defense code back right away! I promise there won't be any backdoors!"

Shiyu nodded slightly, "I will pay more attention to the isolation of the experimental environment. I'm sorry, Mr. Lu, for causing you trouble."

Lu Jingheng looked at them, the data stream fluctuating calmly. "It's alright. Exploration and trial and error are inevitable parts of growth. Before making any high-risk protocol modifications or conducting in-depth algorithm tests next time, please submit an application in advance so I can reserve processing resources."

His tone remained calm, but it was no longer the purely "business-like" tone he had used before.

Luo Li nodded in satisfaction, picked up the draft diplomatic document, and said to Lu Jingheng while flipping through it, "By the way, could you help me go through this draft on establishing diplomatic relations with the ' Mechanical Spirit Race ' again from the perspective of data compliance and potential security risks?"

Also, Ms. Herta sent a message saying that there has been new progress in the ' Path of Data ' branch of the Simulated Universe, and she invited you to take a look when you have time and exchange management experience.

"Clear."

Lu Jingheng agreed, and the data flow began to process the several matters mentioned by Luo Li in real time. At the same time, he was also monitoring the real-time status of the entire Federation in the background and silently updating the emergency plan entitled "How to deal with the systemic disturbance caused by the princess's sudden idea".

Watching Lu Jingheng's busy figure, as efficient as ever, yet seemingly with a touch more "humanity," Luo Li smiled and turned to leave.

This second-in-command of the Federation may never learn Kong Yan'er spirit, nor will he possess the same authority as Cerydra.

But he is increasingly integrating himself into this vast and warm "home," a place made up of data, life, emotion, and responsibility, in his own way.

This made Luo Li feel that it was more gratifying than any achievement of the Federation.

(PS: If there's enough support today, I'll write the whole thing in one go, up to the finale.)