126: Chapter 126 A Battle of Wits

One billion is not a small number for any enterprise, let alone one billion every year.

After much deliberation, Tanaka Hidekazu had no choice but to temporarily leave Frontier Technology Co., Ltd.

"President Wang, do you dislike Japan?"

By the window, Wang Shuo and Liu Yemei watched Tanaka Hidekazu and his translator, Inoue Kaichu, being besieged by reporters downstairs. It wasn't until the two of them had awkwardly pushed their way through the crowd of reporters that Liu Yemei spoke up.

"No," Wang Shuo replied casually, frowning as he pondered something. "I don't like Japanese people, but I still have a good impression of Japan."

Liu Yemei was speechless for a moment. Was there any difference between those two answers?

Taking a closer look at Wang Shuo, who was deep in thought, Liu Yemei realized that he had changed a lot since the kidnapping incident. Whether it was the upcoming press conference or the Sky Eye System at the Police Station, everything indicated that Wang Shuo had changed.

And he hadn't even realized it himself.

He was more motivated, organized, and driven in his work.

This was the state young man should be in; the original Wang Shuo had felt too much like he was just lying flat.

"Tanaka's attitude at the end is very problematic. He isn't as honest as he looks on the surface." Wang Shuo rested his chin on his hand.

The Mark I System was indeed very valuable, a fact Wang Shuo himself acknowledged.

He had relied on the Mark I System to successfully earn his first pot of gold, successfully reached a partnership with the Chen Group, successfully been repeatedly mentioned by netizens, and successfully caused himself to be kidnapped...

But if you were to say that the value of a single Mark I System was enough to make a company from another country act recklessly, that would be an exaggeration. At the very least, Wang Shuo felt that the Mark I System still had a lot of room for upgrades.

There was something wrong here.

Frowning, Wang Shuo subconsciously gave an order.

"Zero, create a new task: analyze the reasons behind Tanaka Hidekazu's attitude."

Liu Yemei raised an eyebrow. Was he giving an order to an Artificial Intelligence? Could an Artificial Intelligence understand such a complex command? The command didn't even explain the basic task clearly.

As these thoughts crossed her mind, she heard a neutral, clear male voice beside her ear.

"Task created. Collecting relevant data. Estimated analysis time: one minute."

Wang Shuo nodded in satisfaction. As expected of Zero, who could access supercomputers. In the past, such matters would not have had results for two or three hours, mainly because these things involved so many factors, and the computational load was too complex.

"President Wang... what is this?"

Liu Yemei asked, recovering from her astonishment.

"This is our company's main Artificial Intelligence. His name is Zero," Wang Shuo said casually. "The system you saw at the Police Station earlier, and the first-generation Artificial Intelligence about to be released, were all created using him as a blueprint."

Was this... the original Artificial Intelligence?

A rare look of shock and suspicion appeared on Liu Yemei's beautiful face. "Those at the Police Station... were they all real?"

"If they weren't real, could they be fake?"

Seeing Liu Yemei actually nod slightly, Wang Shuo was speechless. "You can't think I'm faking it just because I had Chen Xin put the suspect back in their original place, can you?"

"In my opinion, that is the most likely possibility."

Fine.

This was his own mistake. He had been too ridiculously low-key, to the point where his employees didn't really believe in him.

All misunderstandings stemmed from his strength not being obvious. Wang Shuo didn't explain further and directly commanded:

"Zero, demonstrate."

"Sir," Zero's voice sounded. "Due to a severe lack of relevant data that cannot be supplemented, the analysis failed."

Uh... that was embarrassing.

Wang Shuo was a bit embarrassed and angry, muttering, "If you can't analyze it, why aren't you hurrying to improve this content!"

"Understood, Sir. I will upgrade and improve this content for you."

Liu Yemei gave Wang Shuo a strange look; getting angry at an Artificial Intelligence was truly a first.

She spoke up, "Actually, Tanaka's idea is very simple—it's just to leave a way out for himself and his company."

"A way out?"

"Yes," Liu Yemei nodded. "The business philosophy of companies in Japan focuses more on 'striving for excellence.' Of course, this is just propaganda; there is no shortage of news about fraud in Japan compared to any other country."

"Their companies usually only specialize in one type of business and rarely engage in cross-industry or cross-trade operations. This results in Japanese enterprises having extremely poor risk resistance. Currently, the industry development in Japan is good, entirely supported by technology, with profits coming from the large global market occupied by that technology."

"According to my investigation, W Company specializes in high-precision Tool Presetter equipment, occupying 70% of the global market share and almost controlling the pricing power for Tool Presetter. Of course, they also dabble in industrial systems, but not much. Almost all their profits are supported by the precision Tool Presetter equipment."

Hearing this, Wang Shuo understood.

His Mark I System did not need a Tool Presetter!

This was the lifeblood of W Company! As long as the market share of the "Mark I System" rose rapidly, W Company's Tool Presetter market share would shrink rapidly until it completely became history!

And without the Tool Presetter, relying on W Company's other businesses, it would be impossible to support the massive scale of W Company, and W Company would... be finished.

"Tanaka Hidekazu is one of the founders of W Company. Even though he has lost power, he still holds a significant portion of the equity. If W Company collapses, not only will he lose his source of income, but he also won't be able to accept it psychologically."

"Therefore, logically and emotionally, he must avoid the occurrence of the aforementioned events. W Company's move to acquire the Mark I System became inevitable. However, judging from the current situation, just because he understands it doesn't mean others do. The other senior executives of Japan's W Company seem uninterested in this; otherwise, it wouldn't be Tanaka coming to our company to negotiate, but a professional legal team."

"Of course, President Wang, you have already rejected him. After the acquisition failed, Tanaka must have wanted to play word games with the licensing contract, getting us to change the regional license into a general overseas license. That way, they could smoothly transition their business to the overseas subcontracting of the Mark I System, leeching off the Mark I System to extract profits to supplement themselves until W Company's transformation is complete."

Is this the battle of wits between smart people?

Wang Shuo sighed with emotion.

Some geniuses are truly born; you have to admire them.

And the genius in front of him, worth... 50,000, was really a great bargain.

Thinking that his Zero hadn't reached this level yet, Wang Shuo was furious.

"Zero, did you hear the conversation just now? Record it and analyze and reflect on it for me!"

"Understood, Sir. It has been recorded and analyzed. The analysis results will be loaded into the database."

"Do you... usually communicate with Artificial Intelligence like this?"

"Pretty much."

Wang Shuo turned to look at Liu Yemei. At this moment, Liu Yemei's exquisite face still carried a trace of astonishment—an expression he had never seen on her face before—and he immediately felt much better.

Liu Yemei was already in her twenties and had studied for twenty years to reach this level. Zero was only a month old; it couldn't be compared, it couldn't be compared, there was still room for growth.

"You've performed well during this period. It's the end of the year, so I'll give you a bonus." Wang Shuo rubbed his chin and thought for a moment. "Hmm... let's set the bonus at 100,000."

"In addition, once the zero egg is officially released, I will also issue you your own zero egg as a reward. This will be your office assistant from now on."

"Believe me, it's much more useful than you think."

Liu Yemei didn't care about how much the bonus was, but...

A zero egg?

Liu Yemei looked at the handsome young man in front of her, who looked so serious, thought for a moment, and revealed a subtle smile.

It seems... it's a very interesting thing.