335: Chapter 334 The Persistent Dilemma

After arranging all the tasks, Wang Shuo let out a long breath.

Given Ning Hao's personality, the task of finding people wouldn't yield clues so quickly; it required time to lay the groundwork.

Now, his task was simply to be a hands-off manager and make sure not to drag anyone down.

Of course, it wasn't entirely hands-off; at the very least, Wang Shuo could continue to follow up on other projects.

Zero definitely couldn't be used for the time being. With over a hundred Drones and the massive computational load of millions of people, even with tens of thousands of zero eggs acting as distributed base stations to share the computing tasks, it was enough to have Zero completely monopolize all the computing resources of the Shanghe supercomputer.

If things went wrong, he might even end up scrapping several rack modules in the process.

But as long as he could find traces of the mysterious organization behind Ning Hao, then every sacrifice would be worth it.

It was still early.

Wang Shuo brewed a cup of tea for himself, sat comfortably on the sofa, picked up his tablet, opened the browser, and went straight to the official website of Frontier Technology.

On the beautifully renovated page by Han Xiaoxin, the black promotional page still only featured the release announcement for the zero egg; there was no other content, making it look somewhat empty.

To prevent it from looking disjointed, Wang Shuo had Han Xiaoxin enlarge the photo of the zero egg on the promotional cover page significantly.

Without pausing, Wang Shuo clicked directly into the forum.

The scale of Frontier Technology's official forum had expanded significantly; the number of active users had remained around one hundred thousand for over a month. Although that wasn't much in the context of the entire internet, it already possessed a preliminary scale.

Among this group, fans of Frontier Technology were certainly the majority, but there was no shortage of malicious internet trolls and fence-sitters.

Wang Shuo was well aware of this.

At this moment, a player who had just received their zero egg was posting to show it off.

Drowning Fish: "Everyone, look at what I have in my hands? Attachment: one picture."

Looking at the familiar item in the picture, the comment section was immediately filled with envy.

KaDangDangKa: "Tch, what's there to be smug about! This post of mine was sent by my own zero egg; have I bragged about it?"

Morning Dew: "Envious of the OP, when will my zero egg finally come to me? Watching you all interact with your zero eggs makes me want to cry from being touched."

Egg Bubbling: "Heh, touched by what? My zero egg is reacting as slow as a dog today; it takes forever to respond to anything. If you can't do optimization well, don't sell the product. If you sell the product but can't guarantee the experience, a company like this should just go bankrupt early!"

Revelation: "Eh? The person above, I remember you. When are you going to livestream?"

Egg Bubbling remained silent and did not pop up again.

Cute Little Phoenix: "Big bosses of Frontier Technology, when will you arrange my zero egg too? I've waited until the flowers have withered. Please… Cute emoji.jpg."

Wang Shuo laughed out loud watching this; these fans really didn't let anyone off the hook, always poking at the sore spot.

As of now, the appeal of the zero egg was definitely worth affirming.

The appeal of a full Artificial Intelligence could not be ignored; the fan conversion rate was terrifyingly high. Basically, anyone who received a zero egg, unless they were those paid to post smear articles, would almost always let out the most instinctive human exclamation—

"Holy crap, awesome!"

And then instantly side with Frontier Technology, never wavering regardless of the ebb and flow of the internet.

This was the confidence the zero egg gave them.

Wang Shuo opened the backend data.

Data showed that today, the inventory intake of zero eggs had reached over 4,000 units, with over 2,000 units shipped, all safely delivered to users.

This figure was expected to double again tomorrow.

Of course, in contrast to this, the material reserves for producing the zero egg were plummeting, especially for the most critical SOC Chip. Its remaining stock had dropped significantly, now only seventy percent of what it was a week ago. Once it ran out, the production of the zero egg would immediately face problems.

The Super Chip also needed to be implemented as soon as possible.

Once the Super Chip was implemented, the last trace of obstacles limiting the production and performance of the zero egg would vanish. Only then would it be time for Frontier Technology to truly appear in the public eye and begin to take off.

This was also the reason why Wang Shuo had always had plans to upgrade the zero egg but had not yet begun to implement them.

Without the Super Chip, relying solely on the SOC Chip currently on the market could only maintain the basic functions of the zero egg; wanting it to be as smooth as a human being was unrealistic.

Opening a document, Wang Shuo was just about to record the ideas that had just flashed through his mind when he heard Zero's voice reminding him.

"Sir, a call from Wu Xie."

Wu Xie?

Wang Shuo perked up and said, "Connect."

Wu Xie's voice rang out quickly.

"Mr. Wang, long time no see."

"Long time no see, Mr. Wu."

Wang Shuo smiled and said, "I hope you've brought good news this time."

"Of course it's good news."

Wu Xie's voice was relaxed and cheerful: "I have already raised the five hundred million in capital. As long as you designate an account, I can transfer it to you very soon."

Wang Shuo was slightly surprised. To have raised five hundred million so quickly, this Wu Xie really had some strength.

One had to know that even for Chen Zhongxuan's Chen Group, raising five hundred million in capital at once was still quite difficult.

Enterprises appeared large with many assets, but their cash flow was extremely limited; this was the current status quo for most companies.

"Thank you for your hard work, Mr. Wu."

Wang Shuo said with a smile.

"You're too polite; we are just getting what each of us needs."

Wu Xie said in a steady voice, "Also, Mr. Wang, I wonder if you still need investment?"

"Investment?"

Wang Shuo was somewhat surprised: "You have other investors?"

"It's an elder of mine."

Wu Xie's voice carried a slightly strange tone as he said, "You can rest assured about their strength; they are even stronger than me."

Stronger than Wu Xie? That meant this was also a ruthless person who could pull out hundreds of millions at any time. Wang Shuo hadn't realized it before, but now it seemed there were quite a lot of billionaires in China, almost to the point where you could run into one just walking down the street.

"Mr. Wu, I wonder if you have mentioned our company's rules for acquiring shares?"

"Of course."

Wu Xie nodded and said, "Five hundred million for one percent of the shares; the elder has no objections. If you agree, we can sign the contract now."

Wang Shuo clicked his tongue. This feeling of being showered with money was really…

After thinking about it, Wang Shuo still shook his head and said, "Mr. Wu, I can only say sorry for now. The company's current growth momentum is very good, and I don't plan to dilute everyone's shares in the short term."

"Haha."

Wu Xie laughed out loud: "I knew you wouldn't agree, so I rejected it on your behalf. Hahaha, the elder has finally lost a point to me this time."

Wang Shuo was slightly speechless.

"Right, Mr. Wang."

After finally finishing his laughter, Wu Xie added, "Is Frontier Technology's operation really good recently?"

Wang Shuo checked the data and nodded: "Not bad, everything is within the plan."

"Is being targeted and excluded by both Samsung and Vangi simultaneously also within the plan?"

Wang Shuo was not surprised. If the other party didn't even pay attention to this matter, then he would be surprised.

"This was also partially expected, but I didn't expect them to make such a decision now, and only two companies at that."

"Only two companies?"

Wu Xie raised his voice: "Do you want to be excluded by the entire West like Huaneng Group?"

"Suppressed domestically, excluded internationally—I can't figure out how you're going to do business. I just invested five hundred million in you; don't go and pull a stunt where you take the money and run."

Wang Shuo frowned slightly, keenly sensing the issue in Wu Xie's words: "Mr. Wu, let's put other things aside for a moment. You just said 'suppressed'? What does that mean?"

"Huh?"

Wu Xie was stunned, then said, "Did I say that?"

"If you're not sure, I can have Zero play back the recording for you to confirm."

Wang Shuo said calmly.

"Uh… no need."

Wu Xie was somewhat speechless, then fell silent for a moment and sighed: "This is news I just heard too... Mr. Wang, don't you think that up until now, there's something wrong with your company?"

"For example... investment? For example... business?"

"Why is it that up until now, only I have come to you for investment? Why is it that up until now, apart from some tiny manufacturers, no large enterprise or company has come to you for cooperation? Why is it that after you released something as significant as the Artificial Intelligence zero egg, not a single official media outlet has reported on it?"

Wang Shuo asked, "Why?"

Wu Xie lowered his voice: "Because…"

"There are people in high places."

Wang Shuo was stunned in place.

That's right, these questions from Wu Xie were also his own questions.

This was a question he had had ever since the zero egg started hitting the market.

Wang Shuo had originally thought that the launch of the zero egg, even if it wouldn't overturn the Artificial Intelligence market, would at least cause a huge impact on it, or at the very least make the top-tier Artificial Intelligence companies feel a sense of crisis.

He had even prepared himself to deal with the improper tactics of these companies.

But the fact was: these companies simply ignored him.

Apart from two or three investors who popped up from who knows where, everything was calm, both domestically and internationally.

At first, Wang Shuo thought this was because his company didn't have much of a reputation yet, so it didn't attract attention, but a remark from Chen Zhongxuan had awakened him.

An innocent man is guilty of the crime of possessing a treasure.

The Mark I System, which in Wang Shuo's view was nothing more than something using some new code without any technical content, had made Japanese senior engineers apologize and admit fault, and in the subsequent process, they tried to monopolize the exclusive sales rights; it made an old fox like Chen Zhongxuan willing to lower his status to befriend him; it made the big bosses of various major equipment manufacturers in China prefer to stay in hotels just to stay in Hanzhong City, all to wait for authorization; it made the entire Chinese manufacturing circle boil with excitement, exclaiming that Heaven blesses China; and it even made a secret organization implement a so-called assassination order through Ning Hao.

Then, how could an Artificial Intelligence that was incomparably more advanced than the Mark I System, one that made companies around the world unable to even see its back, cause less impact than the Mark I System?

Was that possible?

The only answer was that someone above had taken action, a giant hand covering the sky, making it so that apart from netizens and fans on the internet, no one dared to probe, no one dared to discuss, and no one dared to approach Frontier Company.

And Wu Xie's words only made him more certain of this possibility.

So the question was, who... was this person?

Were they one person? Or two people? Or perhaps... multiple people?

Had the mysterious organization participated in this process? Had they been fanning the flames?

What was the ultimate goal of these people or organizations?

The sudden collapse of foreign Artificial Intelligence stocks gave a faint answer to these questions that had been lingering in Wang Shuo's mind, but this answer seemed a bit too heavy, making Wang Shuo afraid to think too deeply about it.

This was a hunt.

And he was the succulent piece of fresh meat in the center of the arena.

Weak and powerless, with no strength to resist, he could only watch the hunters and beasts around him slowly approach, watching them fight and kill each other, a life-and-death struggle.

The reward for the final victor would be himself.

"I don't know for now whose intention it is, but to be able to make so many enterprises wait and see at the same time, the influence must be extremely high."

This was only because he was on the phone with Wang Shuo, with Zero guaranteeing security; otherwise, Wu Xie wouldn't have said a single word.

"As for whether it's a blessing or a curse, I'm not too sure either. But regardless, our agreement has been signed, Mr. Wang; please don't let me down."

"Rest assured."

Wang Shuo pressed his palm onto the desktop and said calmly, "No matter who they are, no matter what their purpose is, as long as they dare to target Frontier Technology, I don't mind making them pay some interest first."