Chapter Summaries

After being killed while saving a student who had evidence against Wang Hongfa, Wu Chen was reborn on the day he joined Xiaoheshan University of Technology. He decided to foil Wang Hongfa and Lavrov’s plan to steal his research, then discovered an Intelligent Manufacturing System that could advance his abilities through research and skill points.

• Wu Chen accepted a USB drive from a student accusing Wang Hongfa of abusing her and promised to help bring him to justice.
• Wang Hongfa drove a Land Rover toward the student, and Wu Chen shoved her out of the way before being struck and killed.
• Wu Chen woke on July 17, 2008, and recognized it as the day he joined the School of Computer Science as a teaching assistant.
• Wang Hongfa introduced Wu Chen to Lavrov and urged him to discuss his artificial intelligence research, hoping to obtain his ideas.
• Wu Chen presented spiking neural networks instead of revealing his attention-mechanism research, and refused to change his position when Wang Hongfa pressed him.
• Wu Chen received an Intelligent Manufacturing System that listed his abilities, technology branches, and ways to earn skill points.

Wu Chen created the flawed Vengeance No. 1 camera sample as bait for Wang Hongfa and Lavrov, but lacked the Skill Point needed to extract it. He verified an early convolutional neural network super-resolution theory, earning five Skill Points and a prize draw while Vengeance No. 1 remained available in the Sample Shop.

• Wu Chen told Wang Hongfa and Lavrov that a sample based on his SNN theory would be ready soon, then returned home to make a flawed camera prototype that could lure them into committing to the theory.
• Wu Chen completed and submitted his paper on a dynamic-vision SNN camera, and the system created a white-grade sample that he named Vengeance No. 1.
• Wu Chen discovered that extracting Vengeance No. 1 required one Skill Point, so he chose to verify a convolutional neural network theory for image super-resolution.
• Wu Chen spent three days running the model on his old laptop and confirmed that it produced a fourfold enlarged image with better detail than bicubic interpolation.
• The system accepted Wu Chen's verification, awarded him five Skill Points, added Vengeance No. 1 to the Sample Shop, and granted him a prize draw.

Wu Chen won an industrial visual inspection camera sample in a lottery, tested Vengeance No. 1, and used the prototype and a deliberately flawed paper to entice Wang Hongfa and Lavrov. They took the paper and borrowed the camera, while Wang Hongfa hinted that Wu Chen could earn an early promotion by producing more results.

• Wu Chen drew an industrial-grade visual inspection camera sample and redeemed Vengeance No. 1, confirming that it worked well only under controlled conditions.
• After his AI progress rose to 22%, Wu Chen slept, then messaged Wang Hongfa and brought Vengeance No. 1 to campus.
• Wu Chen demonstrated the camera to Wang Hongfa and Lavrov, who noticed its weaknesses but showed interest in his complicated paper.
• Wu Chen let Lavrov take the paper to study and lent Vengeance No. 1 to Wang Hongfa, who hinted that strong research results could speed Wu Chen's promotion.
• Wu Chen acted grateful for Wang Hongfa's offer while privately intending to advance without relying on him.

Wu Chen created Dawn No. 1, used it to launch an old-photo restoration shop, and submitted a paper to earn more skill points. After receiving his first urgent order, he recognized that the damaged portrait of an old woman looked familiar.

• Wu Chen wrote a paper on OpenCL heterogeneous computing and created Dawn No. 1, a computer built from existing hardware.
• Wu Chen extracted a reduced version of Dawn No. 1, tested its image-enhancement model, and opened a Taobao shop offering old-photo restoration for 69 yuan.
• Wu Chen revised his paper on convolutional neural networks and submitted it to PAMI, then received an urgent restoration order from a customer named Jiang Jiang.
• Wu Chen processed Jiang Jiang's water-damaged photo of an old woman and felt that her face looked familiar.

Wu Chen earned skill points from restoring photos and upgraded his blueprint, while Jiang Nan’s grandmother saw her restored portrait before passing away. Seven days later, Wu Chen went with Wang Hongfa and Lavrov to a memorial service and recognized the portrait as the first photo he had restored.

• Wu Chen completed Jiang Jiang’s photo restoration, received a first-sale bonus of skill points, and upgraded Qiming No. 1 Youth Edition to Dawn No. 1.
• Jiang Nan showed her restored photo to her grandmother in the hospital, and her grandmother died shortly afterward.
• Wu Chen continued receiving restoration orders and arrived at the university exhausted from the work.
• Wang Hongfa told Wu Chen to accompany him and Lavrov to meet Boss Jiang about Vengeance No. 1, warning him not to mention its flaws.
• Wang Hongfa brought Wu Chen to Old Director Jiang’s wife’s memorial service, where Wu Chen recognized the portrait on the altar as the first photo he had restored.

Wu Chen attended the memorial service for Jiang Nan’s grandmother and saw Wang Hongfa and Lavrov try to ingratiate themselves with the Jiang family. After Lavrov overstated the capabilities of his pill-inspection system, Jiang Hongyue prepared to move ahead with the project, unaware that Wu Chen recognized its technical flaws.

• Wu Chen followed Wang Hongfa and Lavrov to the memorial service, where Jiang Nan greeted them and asked them to rest before the ceremony.
• Jiang Nan confronted Lavrov in Russian after catching him making an improper remark, and Wang Hongfa tried to smooth over the incident.
• Jiang Nan and Jiang Hongyue delivered eulogies describing their grandmother’s contributions to China’s chemical and pharmaceutical industries.
• Wang Hongfa and Lavrov presented their automated pill-inspection system to Jiang Hongyue, who was impressed by their claims.
• Wu Chen recognized that Lavrov’s cameras could not reliably inspect pills under production-line conditions, but Jiang Hongyue still appeared ready to proceed with the project.

Wu Chen exposed serious practical flaws in the SNN pill-inspection system during a meeting with Jiang Hongyue, while Wang Hongfa and Lavrov tried to secure the deal. Jiang Hongyue remained hesitant to reject Lavrov’s promise, until Jiang Nan challenged his faith in foreign expertise.

• Jiang Nan questioned whether the SNN system could inspect pills on a fast conveyor belt and handle interference from reflections.
• Lavrov failed to answer Jiang Nan’s technical questions, so Wang Hongfa asked Wu Chen to explain the system.
• Wu Chen admitted that SNN was best suited to static or low-speed scenarios and that Jiang Nan’s concerns had no current solution.
• Jiang Hongyue questioned Wang Hongfa, who dismissed Wu Chen’s doubts and insisted the problems could be solved.
• Lavrov promised to resolve the issues within three months, and Wang Hongfa urged Jiang Hongyue to trust the foreign professor.
• As Jiang Hongyue prepared to give Lavrov a chance, Jiang Nan asked whether foreign was necessarily better.

Jiang Nan challenged Wang Hongfa’s praise of Western technology, and Wu Chen exposed Wang Hongfa for passing off Wu Chen’s SNN work as his own. After Wang Hongfa fainted and the meeting ended, Jiang Nan drove Wu Chen home, where he called his prototype Vengeance No. 1 because Wang Hongfa had killed him.

• Jiang Nan showed the room a restored-photo example and criticized Wang Hongfa for belittling Chinese research and praising foreign technology.
• Wang Hongfa challenged Wu Chen to judge the artificial-intelligence gap, and Wu Chen said China would soon lead across the board, starting with the SNN under discussion.
• Wu Chen confronted Wang Hongfa for claiming credit for the paper and sample, and Wang Hongfa fainted.
• Lavrov realized that he and Wang Hongfa had been presenting Wu Chen’s work as their own, and the meeting ended as Wang Hongfa was taken to Xixi Hospital.
• Jiang Nan offered Wu Chen a ride home, and he explained that he called his Prometheus No. 1 prototype Vengeance No. 1 because Wang Hongfa had killed him.

Wu Chen proposed a machine-vision solution to Jiang Nan’s pill-inspection problem and began rebuilding foundational AI theories to advance his research. After completing Word2Vec and five supporting papers, his intelligence rose to level 1, and the system granted him a random draw.

• Wu Chen explained to Jiang Nan that HOG feature extraction with an SVM classifier could power the pill-inspection system, and said he had submitted related research to PAMI.
• Jiang Nan offered to consult her friend at Peking University and asked Wu Chen to prepare a sample for testing; he agreed.
• At home, Wu Chen planned a sequence of AI research topics and began writing papers, starting with Word2Vec and its prerequisite theories.
• After several days of work, Wu Chen completed Word2Vec and five supporting papers, raising his intelligence to level 1 and his artificial intelligence skill progress to 70%.
• The system announced that Wu Chen had entered the Intelligent Life-Form Sequence and awarded him a random draw.

Wu Chen used a stamina potion to raise his stamina to level 1, then resumed handling photo-restoration orders after realizing his absence had cost him customers. One customer, Beibei, repeatedly ordered restorations before revealing she wanted to meet and discuss his technology and a possible partnership.

• Wu Chen spent 5 skill points to redeem a stamina potion, which raised his stamina from level 0 to level 1 and made him feel healthier.
• Wu Chen discovered that nine days had passed while he worked on research, and he found that many Taobao customers had left without replies.
• Wu Chen restored three photos for Beibei, who placed each order as soon as he delivered the previous image.
• Beibei asked Wu Chen to meet, explaining that she was interested in his technology and wanted to discuss a consulting fee or technical partnership.

Wu Chen discovered that Beibei had been testing his image-processing technology, then learned Wang Hongfa had saddled him with a punishing teaching schedule. He turned the workload into an opportunity to earn system skill points, prepared updated courses, and ended the chapter with a friend request from someone nicknamed “Jiangjiang.”

• Beibei told Wu Chen she was an image-research expert and a specially appointed associate researcher at Peking University, but he doubted her claim and closed the chat.
• Wu Chen found that Luo Xiaohong had assigned him forty class periods a week, including 8 a.m. classes every weekday, and suspected Wang Hongfa was retaliating against him.
• Wu Chen chose to accept the teaching load because teaching could earn him skill points and staying at the university would help him gather evidence against Wang Hongfa.
• Wu Chen found that the assigned textbooks and course materials were outdated, so he spent three days preparing updated lesson plans, slides, and practical exercises.
• Wu Chen saw that his intelligence, artificial intelligence, and engineering attributes had improved, then received a friend request from “Jiangjiang,” whom he suspected was Jiang Nan.

Wu Chen prepared an industrial-grade visual inspection camera for Jiang Nan’s factory and went with her to test it. On the drive, he argued that GLP-1 receptor drugs could outperform metformin and claimed an intelligent model could verify the idea, leaving Jiang Nan skeptical.

• Wu Chen accepted Jiang Nan’s friend request and agreed to bring a finished sample to Jiangdong Pharmaceutical Factory the next morning.
• Wu Chen extracted an industrial-grade intelligent visual inspection camera from the system, named it Little Jiang No. 1, and tested it.
• Jiang Nan picked Wu Chen up, and they drove toward the factory with the sample.
• Wu Chen read Jiang Nan’s pharmacology book and remarked that GLP-1 receptor drugs worked better than metformin.
• Jiang Nan challenged Wu Chen’s claim that an intelligent model could verify pharmacological principles.

Wu Chen visited Jiangdong Pharmaceutical Factory to test his AI-assisted inspection system, while Jiang Nan remained skeptical of his ideas and Jiang Hongyue reconsidered his hopes of matching the two. The test was ready to begin, but Wu Chen remembered that the factory would later face trouble.

• Wu Chen and Jiang Nan argued about whether simulations and artificial intelligence could help predict drug potential as they arrived at Jiangdong Pharmaceutical Factory.
• Wu Chen greeted Jiang Hongyue, and they went to the packaging workshop to inspect the vitamin C tablet line.
• Jiang Hongyue asked Jiang Nan about industry funding and hinted that Wu Chen might need help, but Jiang Nan said their values did not match.
• Jiang Nan told her father that Wu Chen had left his doctoral program without graduating, causing Jiang Hongyue to abandon his matchmaking hopes and reassure her he would support her.
• Wu Chen finished configuring the camera and computer for the inspection test, while recalling that Jiangdong Pharmaceutical Factory would later run into trouble.

Wu Chen demonstrated Little Jiang No. 1 to Jiang Hongyue and the Jiangdong Pharmaceutical Factory staff, proving it could inspect tablets accurately at production speeds. After discussing the system over lunch, Jiang Hongyue asked Wu Chen to make a sample using domestic equipment.

• Wu Chen tested Little Jiang No. 1 on stationary tablets and then increased the conveyor belt speed, with accuracy remaining above 97 percent at 1.8 meters per second.
• At full production speed of 2.2 meters per second, Little Jiang No. 1 achieved a 94.5 percent recognition rate despite interference and some missed targets.
• Jiang Hongyue approved of the system's performance and invited Wu Chen to lunch at Lou Wai Lou's Solitary Hill Branch.
• Wu Chen described the system's hardware and algorithms to Liu Yu and the other staff, explaining that the sample was not modeled on a foreign product.
• Jiang Hongyue asked Wu Chen whether he could make another sample using domestic equipment.

Wu Chen declined Jiang Hongyue’s offer of industry-sponsored funding and proposed starting a company to develop the inspection system, but Jiang Hongyue wanted a detailed plan before investing. On the drive home, Jiang Nan learned why Wu Chen had left his doctoral program, and she ended the chapter by offering to invest 1.7 million yuan in his company.

• Wu Chen told Jiang Hongyue he could not mass-produce the inspection system yet, then proposed starting a company and asked Jiang Hongyue for three million yuan in startup capital.
• Jiang Hongyue said he needed to review the investment and asked Wu Chen to provide a detailed plan; after the meal, he paid Wu Chen twenty thousand yuan and left Little Jiang No. 1 at the factory for testing.
• On the drive back, Jiang Nan asked Wu Chen why he had not earned his doctorate, and Wu Chen explained that his advisor had withheld his graduation after trying to give his research to another student.
• Wu Chen added that he had hit his advisor for insulting China, making Jiang Nan laugh, and the two grew less distant as they drove.
• When Wu Chen was about to leave the car, Jiang Nan called him back and offered to invest her available 1.7 million yuan in his company.

Wu Chen negotiated Jiang Nan’s investment and developed the upgraded Little Jiang No. 2 visual inspection camera. After artificial intelligence reached level 1, the system gave him its production blueprint and samples, along with a clearer path for future research.

• Wu Chen rejected Jiang Nan’s request for a forty percent stake and decision-making power, then agreed to give her a twenty percent stake without control and arranged to register the company.
• Wu Chen completed research on the camera’s algorithms, added a lightweight CNN, and received the upgraded Little Jiang No. 2 sample from the system.
• Wu Chen renamed the sample Little Jiang No. 2, and the system announced that his artificial intelligence skill had risen to level 1.
• Wu Chen redeemed the Little Jiang No. 2 production blueprint and five samples, gaining detailed production-line information and a major increase in his engineering progress.
• Wu Chen found that his newly advanced artificial intelligence skill had clarified his knowledge and provided research directions toward artificial general intelligence.

Wu Chen submitted papers and patent applications to protect his research and give his future company an advantage. After a morning run boosted his stamina, he met Jiang Nan outside his apartment and invited her upstairs to wait while he showered and changed.

• Wu Chen revised his heterogeneous-computing paper, submitted it to IPDPS, and filed patents for his research.
• He submitted five other papers to Chinese academic journals and filed a patent for a spiking neural network for dynamic vision.
• Wu Chen went for a morning run, discovered his stamina had increased by one percent, and resolved to run every day.
• He found Jiang Nan waiting in her red C200 before their scheduled meeting and greeted her after his run.
• Jiang Nan noticed Wu Chen's sweat-soaked shirt, and he invited her upstairs to wait while he showered and changed.

Wu Chen and Jiang Nan registered Hangcheng Hazelnut Technology Co., Ltd. in Binjiang, where Wu Chen expected the technology sector to grow. After visiting a Shaxian snack shop for a meal, Wu Chen bought Jiang Nan soup to help with her period fatigue.

• Wu Chen explained that he wanted the company registered in Binjiang because he expected it to become Hangzhou's digital-economy hub, and Jiang Nan accepted his decision despite her doubts.
• Wu Chen and Jiang Nan completed the registration procedures, establishing Hangcheng Hazelnut Technology Co., Ltd.
• Wu Chen suggested that they visit the company's office, and Jiang Nan changed out of her stockings and heels before they set off.
• Wu Chen and Jiang Nan stopped at a Shaxian snack shop, where Wu Chen paid for their meal.
• Wu Chen noticed Jiang Nan seemed fatigued and bought her lotus seed and pork stomach soup after she said she was uncomfortable.

Wu Chen and Jiang Nan visited Hazelnut Technology’s new office, where they discussed its first product and plans to establish a factory. They took a photo to mark their first shareholders’ meeting, then Jiang Nan drove Wu Chen home.

• Wu Chen drove Jiang Nan to Wanlun Science and Technology Industrial Park while she drank soup that eased her menstrual cramps.
• At Hazelnut Technology’s empty office, Wu Chen outlined Little Jiang No. 2, an industrial inspection camera he expected to sell at a competitive price.
• Jiang Nan agreed to arrange the office renovation and look into acquiring a struggling electronics factory in Xiaoshan for production.
• Jiang Nan said she wanted to give five percent of her own shares to a close friend at Peking University who worked on artificial intelligence.
• Wu Chen and Jiang Nan took a photo together to commemorate their first shareholders’ meeting, and Jiang Nan offered to drive him home.

Jiang Nan’s friend Chen Beitao recognized the significance of Wu Chen’s work and connected with him, while Wu Chen recruited her to help with research. He was stunned when Chen Beitao sent him a paper describing a residual network years before it was supposed to appear.

• Jiang Nan shared her company and Little Jiang No. 2 information with Chen Beitao, who praised Wu Chen’s system and asked for his contact details.
• Wu Chen noticed that the excited messages from Beibei on Ali Wangwang came from the same person who had sent him a polite QQ friend request, and learned Chen Beitao was a distinguished Peking University researcher.
• Chen Beitao revealed that she had reviewed Wu Chen’s three submitted papers, and Wu Chen sent her his paper on heterogeneous computing architecture.
• Wu Chen asked Chen Beitao to research shortcut connections in deep networks, but she immediately sent him her own paper proposing cross-layer connections.
• Wu Chen read Chen Beitao’s paper and realized it described a residual network years before its expected emergence.