As a mage, I just want to pursue the truth

Chapter 199 The gift of fate has already been secretly marked with a price
In the past two years, domestic and foreign giants have invested huge budgets in magic coin mining.

Abroad, the three craziest companies are Apple, Tesla and Amazon.

Apple's investment here is even more aggressive than Tesla's.

As for FB, it has no money to open up new battlefields.

FB's stock price has been falling since before and after it was renamed META. Don't easily say that a stock has bottomed out when it starts to fall.

At the same time, FB was defeated by Science and Technology Future in the VR market and lost the mid-to-high-end market.

FB has experienced its own Davis double-click and no longer has the resources to compete with other giants in the next era of technological revolution.

For them, they can only hope that the world changes more slowly, giving FB a chance to catch up.

As for American financial giants such as Goldman Sachs, Harvard Business School, and Sequoia Capital, they will not do this personally. They will choose to bet on both the government and the business.

"Luo, congratulations, this is the new contract. Apple is willing to sign an indefinite contract with you."

"And the contract stipulates that unless there are major unexpected circumstances, Apple has no right to fire you freely."

Domestic labor contracts generally have a term of three years, although there are also contracts with no fixed term.

However, there are big differences between America's open-ended contracts and domestic open-ended contracts.

Domestic open-ended contracts mean that employers cannot easily fire workers.

Many of America's labor contracts are open-ended contracts, but their open-ended contracts follow a system of free dismissal.

Therefore, the stability is far less than that of China's open-ended contracts.

Luo Shu's pupils dilated slightly after seeing this. He had been working for two years after graduating from America with a Ph.D. and a master's degree.

It’s been a month since Apple’s magic coin team made a new astronomical discovery.

The HR department suddenly came to him to discuss renegotiating the contract, and Luo Shu figured out what was going on after a little thought.

You should know that an open-ended contract with strong constraints is very rare, especially for a giant like Apple.

This means that even if you slack off every day, Apple will still support you.

Although wages can be reduced, the minimum wage in Apple's salary system is still much higher than the average wage in America.

On the surface, it was a real pie in the sky, although it didn't fall from the sky, but was earned by Luo Shu's hard work.

“It seems that Apple has mined the magic coin. Even if it hasn’t, it has made great progress.”

"No, we definitely found it. We made some discoveries before but failed in the end, and we didn't get treated like this."

When Apple failed repeatedly in the past, the head of their team often complained to them.

After the discovery of the planet with a blue star-like spectrum, the leader of their team only praised them at the beginning.

During this period of time afterwards, the person in charge became particularly taciturn.

Luo Shu now understood why. He probably signed a very high level confidentiality agreement.

“Apple has definitely found a magic coin.”

Luo Shu thought for a moment: "Why didn't I hear anything?"

"Instead, you have to guess on your own."

Luo Shu always felt that although he worked for Apple, he could also say that he was engaged in magic-related work when he went out.

But being just a screw and a tool that was not respected made Luo Shu feel a little uncomfortable.

Normally, he could cover up his emotions with the material satisfaction brought by Apple's high salary, but under the impact of the news that Apple had mined magic coins, these emotions resurfaced in his subconscious.

I have clearly made certain contributions to this project, but I don't even have the right to know.

If I hadn't signed a permanent labor agreement, I wouldn't even have noticed any clues.

Luo Shu deeply felt that he was a peripheral staff member of the Magic Coin project and a tool man.

Luo Shu realized that this permanent labor contract was more of a constraint. Apple could not fire him at will, and he could not leave Apple at will.

He looked through it and found that it was indeed the case, a ten-year non-compete agreement.

After signing this agreement, if he wanted to engage in related industry research after leaving Apple, he would either have to spend ten years or pay a huge fine.

The HR sitting opposite Luo Shu saw that Luo Shu did not sign the agreement without thinking like the others.

"I need to think about it."

Instead, he remained silent at first, then picked up the contract and looked through it. The HR also guessed:

"Luo, this is a good thing, and you know that the work you do is highly confidential."

"Although I don't know what you have discovered, if you don't sign this contract, the federal staff who will talk to you later will also ask you to sign another confidentiality agreement."

HR lowered his voice and said, "And you won't be able to return to China in the short term."

"You can only stay in America and return to China after the confidentiality of this matter is reduced."

"In America, if you work in this field, you definitely can't get into the American government. As for other companies, Apple's environment is definitely the best."

HR and Luo Shu are friends who chat occasionally, and he also knows the general content of Luo Shu's work.

So he advised kindly.

After listening to this, Luo Shu nodded with a hint of gratitude, then secretly observed his surroundings.

Sure enough, there was a white man behind the HR, reading a newspaper in his hand and paying attention to this side from time to time.

"Thank you, Daniel, but at least let me think about it now."

A thought quickly emerged in Luo Shu's mind: There is no free lunch in the world.

Another thought: The gift given by fate has already been secretly marked with a price.

The words of Austrian writer Stefan Zweig in "The Queen of Death" have always been regarded as a guiding principle by some people.

Luo Shu had previously believed that this was just the whining of losers, the self-consolation of those who had experienced the peak of life and then fell into the trough and could not recover.

But he never expected that one day he would be so touched by these words.

The job at Apple was high-paying and easy, and after he came here he always felt that it was a blessing in disguise to become a Silicon Valley elite.

But I didn't expect that the price of this gift is freedom, a certain degree of freedom.

"Okay, I'll sign."

Having experienced what it was like to be taken away by American federal agents, Luo Shu didn't want to experience that feeling again.

At the same time, he knew that he had no room for resistance.

After signing, HR patted him on the shoulder:

“This contract must be signed by everyone in the Magic Coin project.”

"After signing, you can go and change your h1b visa to a green card."

"If you want to change your nationality to American, I think the American government will make it easier for you."

The H1B visa is a temporary work visa. Most of the people who study in America and stay here to work are issued an H1B visa.

This visa can only be used for professional work, for example, a finance major can only work in finance. For example, Luo Shu majored in astronomy, so he can only work in astronomy.

If Magic Coin hadn't come out of nowhere, it would have been extremely difficult for him to find a job other than teaching in America.

H1B visa is for three years and can be renewed at most once. If you have not obtained a green card after six years, you will face the risk of deportation.

If someone had told Luo Shu that he could get a green card when he first came to America, he would have been happy for a long time.

But now that he is told that he can get a green card at any time and that America will help him speed up the process, Luo Shu realizes that this is a kind of constraint.

An alternative way of restricting freedom.

After hr left, the man sitting behind hr stood up and sat in front of Luo Shu. He took out a stack of documents and handed them to Luo Shu:

"Hello, Mr. Luo, I am a federal employee, and this is my ID."

"Here is a confidentiality agreement for you to sign. To be precise, it's not a need, but a must."

"Also, please be careful about your words and actions in the future and do not disclose any information about your work at Apple or your work content to the outside world."

"Apple will make arrangements for you to conceal your identity. You are not allowed to mention your specific work content on any social media."

After reading it, Luo Shu found one sentence in the agreement that particularly caught his attention. The general meaning was: one is not allowed to return to the country without the approval of the American side.

He wanted to not sign, but knew he had no room for bargaining.

After signing, Luo Shu, who never smoked, went to the convenience store downstairs and bought a pack of Marlboro and took a deep puff: "Ah~"

"People in the arena involuntarily."

In the smoke, Luo Shu remembered that his fate must have undergone a drastic change at the Mauna Kea Observatory.

Originally, he would return to China after completing his doctorate in astronomy in America and become an astronomy-related researcher.

Once the gears of fate start turning, they can never return to their original trajectory.

After Luo Shu returned to his rented apartment in Austin, he reviewed the situation carefully:
The reason why America did not sign an agreement with them before was that his research had a certain degree of freedom.

You know, he can still communicate with students outside at his workstation.

The level of confidentiality is gradually increasing.

Previously, only when entering the astronomical observation area would communications with the outside world be isolated.

Later, once work started, communication with the outside world would be isolated.

Now, he is only required to not disclose the content of his work through a soft constraint such as a confidentiality agreement.

But Luo Shu looked at the iPhone in his hand and the MacBook on the table, and there was also an Apple TV in the living room.

Luo Shu knew that as long as he revealed something that shouldn't be disclosed to others, especially his classmates and friends in China, Apple and American officials would definitely know it at the first time.

Luo Shu also knew that even if he changed to a Samsung phone or even rice, he couldn't avoid it.

The reason why confidentiality requirements were low before was because there was not much progress.

Confidentiality requirements are gradually increased as magic coin mining progresses.

Especially after mining magic coins, the confidentiality requirements are raised to an extreme.

Although Luo Shu was only a peripheral researcher on this project, he still mastered some knowledge.

He only knew the part he was responsible for and did not know the full picture of Apple's astronomical observation strategy.

But Luo Shu knows, for example, which specific phenomena may indicate the existence of planets with intelligent life, and which indicators are particularly focused on in Apple's internal astronomical observation strategy.

These are just a small part of the magic coin system engineering, but they are very valuable.

If Luo Shu can return to China, giants such as Huawei, Tencent, and Ali are willing to offer him a salary of one million.

If the news that Apple has mined magic coins is confirmed, the salary can be increased by dozens of percentage points.

After careful consideration, Luo Shu knew that he would not be able to return home in the short term.

"Oh, if I had known, I should have returned home as soon as possible."

"The pay in America is higher and the work intensity is far less than that of domestic Internet companies."

"If I were just an ordinary programmer, the environment in Silicon Valley would obviously be better than that in Zhongguancun."

"The problem is that due to the nature of the work, I can't even get into the core research group in America."

"I'm just doing odd jobs on the periphery, and I've lost my freedom."

Luo Shu chose to join Apple and engage in magic coin mining, in large part because he was very interested in magic and the cosmic coordinate system.

But I didn’t know that mining in reality is completely different from what I thought it was.

Every day we conduct astronomical observations and pay attention to characteristic values. Sometimes, if a short-term observation strategy is formulated by our superiors, we will execute it according to that strategy.

Luo Shu has no right to know why they did this or the thinking logic behind it.

In other words, he thought he was participating in system engineering and would have the opportunity to come into contact with magic, but in fact he was participating in the system engineering, but in the form of a screw.

Fortunately, he is a serious person and he won't just bury his head in finishing the work at hand and muddle through every day.

Luo Shu would proactively think about the logic behind the observation strategy, and then verify his own views indirectly during work reports to the person in charge and internal work meetings.

The further he went on, the closer Luo Shu's thinking became to the thinking logic of the person in charge.

You should know that the person in charge of the astronomical observation group is an old friend of Dr. Luo Shu’s supervisor and an expert in astronomy.

Luo Shu's progress is very fast. If he returns to China, he can definitely join a big company and take charge of the astronomical observation field of the Magic Coin project.

"Alas, I died before I could accomplish my mission."

"But can I use Futureverse to pass on the message?"

Luo Shu paced back and forth in the room and accidentally noticed that there was a Futureverse produced by Ke Chuang Future in his room.

"Given the feud between Mr. Zheng and American, Sinovation Biotech and Sinovation Future have almost no investment in American."

"The channels for brain-computer connection to VR are probably not controlled by American."

"If I communicate with others or even transfer files in here, can the American side detect it?"

"In fact, we can be sure of this as long as we ensure that Futureverse is not influenced by the American side."

“But the problem is that Futureverse can enter the American market, which means there will be compromises.”

This kind of compromise is necessary, just like when Apple entered China, it had to store iCloud data in China.

Whether it is China or America, they cannot tolerate the data of their subordinates being taken abroad.

These data are very valuable. Take Apple's data for example. The amount of data is enough to analyze the behavior of Chinese people.

"It's definitely not possible for me to pass on information directly through Futureverse. If it's exposed, it will be the end."

"But I can slowly experiment with American's bottom line and their monitoring capabilities."

I was really busy yesterday, so I didn't have time to update. I will definitely make up for the chapters I owed yesterday this Saturday. I apologize again here.

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(End of this chapter)