326: Chapter 325: Few Words, Big Matter

This final sentence struck directly at Song Xuezhi's psychological defenses.

Even though we have entered the internet age and traditional print media has declined, the influence of Nature and Science remains formidable.

There isn't a single researcher who doesn't wish for their article to appear in Nature or Science.

This means an overnight rise to success.

Furthermore, what Wang Shuo wanted wasn't just a direct publication, but a reprint—and an unsolicited reprint by Nature and Science at that. The difficulty level jumped by several orders of magnitude.

After all, to have Nature and Science reprint your article, not only must your article possess epoch-making qualities, but you yourself must carry enough weight to make them bow their heads.

In this regard, the people of the United States do very well—it has always been others bowing to them.

Asking them to lower their status to seek your opinion is tantamount to daydreaming.

Unless you are stronger than them.

Unfortunately, General Manager Wang had strictly limited her from publishing academic papers directly in Nature and Science, at least not using parts that utilized the company's technical data.

Unless she could find another path and research from scratch.

But this seemed even harder than getting Nature and Science to reprint an article.

At the very least, Song Xuezhi didn't think she could research everything from scratch in her lifetime, and then create something better than the JZ-001 series Prosthetic Limbs.

After browsing for a while, Song Xuezhi closed the App, opened her browser, quickly entered a string of URLs, and clicked to jump.

A familiar interface appeared on the screen.

But this time, it seemed different.

A line of small text appeared before her eyes the moment she entered the interface.

"Ms. Song, good evening. Your authorization level has been adjusted to Secondary Sequence Level 4, and services corresponding to this level have been activated for you. Would you like to view them now?"

Song Xuezhi glanced at it, but there were no buttons on the screen.

After thinking for a brief moment, she remembered something and said aloud, "View."

The screen changed, entering a new page.

Song Xuezhi breathed a slight sigh of relief. She had almost forgotten about Zero's existence. She would need to get used to this voice-activated operation method as soon as possible, otherwise, if Xiao He saw her, she might be teased.

"You enjoy the following privileges: 1. Apply for a customized zero egg. You can now apply for the company to configure a customized zero egg exclusively for you. In addition to the basic functions of the zero egg, you can also personalize the functional modules according to your needs."

"2. Assistance from Zero. The central Artificial Intelligence, Zero, is at your service at any time. During the research process, you may request any assistance from Zero at any time, including but not limited to recording experimental data, customizing experimental equipment, assisting in the experimental process, summarizing analysis, generating reports, etc."

"3. Apply for technical assistance. If you encounter difficulties during the research process, you can apply for technical assistance at any time, and Zero will judge the difficulty level to select the scope of support personnel. The current list of available personnel is as follows:"

"Frontier Technology Company: Liu Yemei (Finance, Management, Public Relations, Economics, Human Resources, Logistics), Han Xiaoxin (Software, Logistics, Technical Support), Lin Junfeng (Operations, Management), Zhao Cheng (Materials, Material Property Analysis, New Material Experiments)..."

"Huazhong University of Science and Technology: Professor Zeng Xuewei (Software, Electronics, Neural Interfacing), Teacher Ding Runan (Software, Electronics, Recruitment), Ding Congsheng (Faculty)..."

"Central Academy of Sciences: Qin Tairen (Temporarily unavailable), Fang Shineng (Temporarily unavailable), Dong Yaoxian (Temporarily unavailable)..."

"If the above personnel are still unable to solve the problem, Zero will request the highest level of authorization to intervene, and Mr. Wang will personally look into it."

Song Xuezhi looked at the long list, speechless.

The personnel from Frontier Technology were one thing, but to have professors from Huazhong University of Science and Technology as well?

If it were just that, she could understand, but what the heck was this Central Academy of Sciences? Since when did Frontier Technology have a connection with the Central Academy of Sciences?

And these people...

Song Xuezhi subconsciously opened Baidu and searched for the name at the top of the list.

The page jumped, and an elderly man who looked very kind appeared on the screen, with his resume right next to him.

"Qin Tairen: Academician of the Huaxia Central Academy of Sciences, expert in microelectronics, chemist, and nanotechnology expert."

"Current Dean of the Huaxia Central Academy of Sciences."

Song Xuezhi's mouth opened slightly; she tried to close it but found she couldn't.

The matter before her was truly mind-boggling.

A dignified Dean of the Huaxia Academy of Sciences appearing on the assistance list of a company that had been established for less than three months—was this reasonable?

Was this normal?

Her first reaction was that this young boss had probably written it on the list on purpose to scare people.

But upon closer thought, doing so seemed to have no meaning.

Anyone normal would probably react to seeing this name by thinking the boss was lying; not only would the impression score not increase, it would actually drop significantly.

No one would like a pretentious company that only knew how to show off.

Of course, if this company's compensation was very good, that would be another story.

"Zero."

Song Xuezhi pointed at the name on the screen: "Why are these people unavailable for selection?"

A line of text popped up on the screen: "Your authorization is insufficient. You can unlock the selection after upgrading your authorization."

Song Xuezhi understood a little. She then moved her gaze upward, landing on a name. A trace of determination gradually appeared on her face. She tapped the name on the screen and said, "Zero, I want to apply now. I hope he can join the laboratory."

The text on the screen changed.

"Application accepted. We will connect you."

Song Xuezhi showed a hint of excitement. Even though she had just seen the name of the Dean of the Huaxia Academy of Sciences, she had only been shocked. But now, with the help of this big shot, she felt that the task which had originally made her feel breathless seemed to have a turning point.

Her finger left the screen, and the liquid crystal in the screen had been pressed to leave streaks; three characters shone brightly amidst these colorful traces.

That name was precisely...

Professor Zeng Xuewei!

...

Meanwhile, on the internet.

General Manager Yu Tongguang's domineering response at the Huaneng Group press conference had swept across the entire internet. Almost all media outlets were scrambling to report on the matter. The search terms were overwhelming, and the level of popularity was rare in the world.

Even the previously unrivaled Frontier Technology and the zero egg were severely overshadowed by this wave, not even causing a ripple.

Both were being sanctioned, yet the treatment was so different.

Of course, wherever there are people, there will be disputes.

Even though everyone was Huaxia, there would always be people jumping out to be that attention-seeker, especially some well-known bloggers and some self-media personnel. They conducted in-depth analyses of the whole event and interpreted the US Government's purpose up to thirty layers deep, almost breaking down the United States' announcement and explaining it word by word.

In the end, the conclusion of these people's discussion was: Huaneng was finished; even if it wasn't finished, it would never have its former glory again.

This allowed some people to find their "organization," and they flooded the comments section under the relevant bloggers' videos, strongly supporting the bloggers' inferences.

Some said Huaneng's equipment was not easy to use; some said Huaneng's mobile phones had quality issues; some said Huaneng's equipment was not user-friendly enough...

Some even directly said that Huaneng had led the Huaxia mobile terminal market astray, that Huaneng's rise was a case of bad money driving out good, and that the US Government was just setting things right.

Between the lines, they seemed to be hoping that Huaneng Group would go bankrupt soon.

This was earlier.

But now, Huaneng Group's strong response made these people like cats whose tails had been stepped on, and they all began to mock:

"Heh, an assembly plant, always using 'independent R&D' as a gimmick. Now that they aren't supplying goods, if you keep being stubborn, they'll even ban your communication Chip."

"This is actually quite good. Anyway, Huaneng's mobile phones are too expensive, and I can't use them anyway. How does banning them affect me?"

"Haha, General Manager Yu of Huaneng really refuses to admit defeat. Even at this point, he still wants to keep bragging. He's not afraid of getting his face slapped swollen? In my opinion, don't call yourself Yu Tongguang, just call yourself Yu the Big-Mouth!"

"The person above is right. A trash company like Huaneng should just go bankrupt! And that Frontier Technology from the other day should also go bankrupt. Releasing an Artificial Intelligence that's just a trashy sphere—how lacking in imagination can they be!"

"Shh... brother, you dare to curse Frontier Technology? Haven't you read the news? The announcement on Frontier Technology's official website stated that they have already transferred three batches of cybercrime suspects to the local public security organs. Be careful they check your IP and send you in."

"Pah, I have a clear conscience, I'm not afraid. With Frontier Technology's obvious collusion between officials and businessmen, won't the local government do anything?"

"Heh, how would they manage it? Frontier Technology is a hot commodity right now. Although I don't know why it's still so quiet domestically, the local government will definitely support it fully. If this takes off, it might be the next Limi Company."

From this level on, the thread went off-topic.

The subsequent levels were all posts praising Limi Company—praising the price, the quality, the design, praising everything, which formed a sharp contrast with the situation of cursing Huaneng.

Even more so, some took out Limi Company's mobile phones and began to praise the arc design of the corners of Centimeter phones, calling it a unique masterpiece of craftsmanship, with every millimeter infused with heart and blood.

The scale and shamelessness were enough to make people blush.

And in the midst of this chaos, an inconspicuous piece of news quietly appeared on the official platform.

The words were few, and the content was very simple:

"An exchange of fire occurred between unidentified armed forces in Somalia, and our country's foreign trade personnel have safely evacuated."