You were supposed to have a fake marriage with the diva, so how did you become her father?

Two weeks is neither a long nor a short time.

For an AR game that is rapidly expanding globally, two weeks is enough for the data to undergo a qualitative change.

Lu Ran sat in his office, with a global view of the background heatmap on his computer screen.

The first thing he does every day when he gets to work is look at this picture; it's become a habit.

Initially, the map only showed a few scattered bright areas, like a few lonely lights flashing across the night sky above a city. Now it's different. The dots of light on the entire map are so dense that it looks like someone has poured a whole box of fireflies onto it. From East Asia to Western Europe, from the west coast of North America to the east coast of South America, almost all densely populated areas are covered by patches of color to varying degrees.

The color blocks varied in shade; the lighter areas had only a few scattered location requests, while the darker areas were almost continuous, resembling irregular lakes and rivers on the map.

Lu Ran zoomed in on the view and switched to the area within the Dragon Kingdom.

The two major urban clusters of the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta are already brightly lit, and the area around Beijing is almost the same. The coverage density in Chengdu and Chongqing is even higher than he expected.

He moved the mouse to several second- and third-tier city areas and looked at them. Although the coverage was not as good as that of first-tier cities, the background color had changed from gray to blue, indicating that at least some players had been to those locations.

He then switched the map to the Japanese region.

The Tokyo metropolitan area has the highest coverage density on almost the entire map. The grids around Akihabara and Shinjuku have been burned to deep red on the heat map, indicating that players are more active in those areas than in the surrounding areas.

The coverage in Osaka and Nagoya is slightly less, but it is still basically full.

Interestingly, the mountainous areas west of Tokyo, between the Kanto and Kansai regions, and large areas of northern Hokkaido still retain an almost unchanged gray background.

The same phenomenon is even more pronounced in the United States.

The downtown areas of New York and Los Angeles have extremely high coverage, with location markers around almost every building on Manhattan Island.

However, once outside the city's core area, the coverage drops precipitously, leaving many suburban areas still largely gray.

Even more strangely, there are several areas within New York City that are clearly in the middle of densely populated areas, but the number of location markers is almost zero.

Lu Ran marked each of the blank areas and zoomed in to observe them carefully.

He noticed some patterns.

The vacant areas within the city are mostly concentrated around a few specific types of places—large factories, military facilities, office areas of certain government agencies, and some enclosed plots of land whose specific purpose is unclear but which occupy a considerable area.

Scattered location points can be seen on the outskirts of those areas, as if they were recorded while the player was moving around, but the location signal is lost once the player crosses an invisible boundary.

The blank areas in the suburbs are more distinctive.

Most of them are located in coastal or mountainous areas, with a few scattered villages or small towns nearby, but those towns themselves do not cover a wide area.

Logically, the location points in those areas should be distributed within the villages and along the roads connecting them, but the actual situation is the opposite—a few signals can be occasionally captured along the roads, while the area inside the villages is almost completely empty.

Lu Ran wrote down this observation in his notebook.

He then looked through the other data dimensions in the backend.

Analysis of user active time periods, average online time, and correlation curves between biometric refresh rate and location density.

Individually, the data may not seem particularly problematic, but when viewed alongside a heatmap, several patterns become clear.

For example, a significant mismatch between location density and user registration numbers in a certain area indicates that visitors to that location are from surrounding areas rather than local residents.

For example, the frequency of location requests in a certain area fluctuates periodically during specific time periods, with almost zero during non-working hours and a small number of signals during weekdays.

He wrote down those patterns one by one and compiled them into a four-page document.

He didn't draw any conclusions, but simply listed the facts he observed. Then he picked up his phone and sent a message to Wang Anguo.

"Director Wang, regarding that matter we discussed last time, I have a few new findings. If it's convenient, could you send someone over? I'd like to discuss it with you in person."

Wang Anguo replied very quickly.

The next morning, the same three people sat in TUTU's small conference room.

Wang Anguo sat in his usual spot, next to a female colleague holding a thin notebook. The man in the gray shirt sat near the door this time, with a closed laptop in front of him.

Lu Ran sat opposite them and pushed the printed document to the middle of the table.

Wang Anguo took it and flipped through it. He paused on the second page, then continued reading until he reached the last page.

After reading it, he didn't speak immediately. He closed the document, placed it on the table, crossed his hands on the document, and looked up at Lu Ran.

"President Lu, this document you've compiled is very detailed," Wang Anguo said. "I noticed that on page three you mentioned some periodic signal characteristics in specific areas. What is the source of your judgment regarding these characteristics?"

"It's not a judgment, it's an inference," Lu Ran said. "On the third page, I compared the distribution of location requests during certain times in those areas with data from nearby residential areas. Signal peaks in residential areas are generally between 7 PM and 10 PM, and are lower during the day on weekdays. But those other areas are the opposite; the signal density is much higher during the day than at night, and concentrated during weekday working hours. If those areas were normal civilian facilities, like factories or warehouses, there should be signal coverage even with three shifts. But their signals are almost entirely concentrated during the 9-to-5 period. So I think those places aren't ordinary factories, but more like offices with fixed working hours."

After listening, Wang Anguo turned his head and glanced at the female colleague next to him.

The female colleague quickly scribbled a few lines in her notebook, then looked up at Lu Ran, speaking a little faster than Wang Anguo: "Mr. Lu, which cities exactly are those areas you mentioned located in? Do they include any border regions?"

"There's only one border-related site, in the northwest, near a certain border line. However, the sample size in that area is too small, and the signal characteristics aren't obvious, so I only listed it in the notes," Lu Ran said. "The others are all inside cities and in the suburbs. Japan and the United States each have a few sites, Europe has two, and South America has one."

The female colleague jotted down a few more notes in her notebook, then looked up and nodded slightly at Wang Anguo.

Wang Anguo picked up the document again and flipped through it. When he reached the last page, his gaze lingered for a few more seconds before he closed the document and put it into his briefcase.

"Mr. Lu, the information you provided does overlap with some of the information we have." Wang Anguo's tone was flatter than when they last met, as if stating a confirmed fact. "I can't say exactly which areas overlap right now. But there's one direction I'd like to confirm with you—you mentioned that Japan and the United States each have several blank areas. What do you think are the differences in characteristics between those areas and the blank areas in other regions?"

Lu Ran thought for a moment, then said, "The most obvious difference is density. In Japan and the United States, the signal density around those blank areas is very high, but the boundaries are very clear, like someone cut a line with a knife. There are also blank areas in Europe, but the transition isn't as abrupt; the signal gradually changes from dense to sparse, rather than abruptly stopping. So I tend to think that there is artificial signal shielding or interference in those areas in Japan and the United States. In Europe, it's more likely due to geographical reasons, such as insufficient base station coverage."

He paused for a moment, then continued, "There's another detail. There's a blank area on the Japanese side. I checked the activity records of players in the vicinity and found that some location points are distributed along the edge of that area, but they never cross a specific latitude and longitude line. The players' movement paths automatically turn when they approach that line, as if blocked by something. I checked the public map data around that area, which shows that it should be a forest, but the players turn at the outer edge of the forest, and no one goes in."

What do you think is the reason?

"Either that forest doesn't actually exist, and the public map data is wrong; or there's something in that forest that makes people unwilling or unable to enter."

Wang Anguo tapped his fingers lightly twice on the table, at a moderate pace.

He glanced at his colleague in the gray shirt next to him. The man opened his laptop, and on the screen was a map that Lu Ran had never seen before. The marking method was different from that of a heat map, but several of the marked locations highly overlapped with those mentioned in Lu Ran's document.

Wang Anguo turned the computer screen towards Lu Ran, but didn't place it too close.

He pointed to a spot marked with a red circle on the screen and said, "Mr. Lu, is the third blank area you mentioned in your document near this location?"

Lu Ran glanced at the coordinates on the screen, compared them to his memory of the location, and nodded: "Approximately. The deviation should be within one kilometer."

Wang Anguo turned the computer screen back and whispered something to his colleague next to him. The colleague typed a few things on the keyboard and then closed the computer.

Wang Anguo turned to Lu Ran again, his tone more formal than before.

"Mr. Lu, the information you provided is indeed helpful to us. However, I have a new request—related to the data accuracy issue you mentioned last time." He slowed his speech slightly. "Last time we discussed this, you said that existing online behavior data can tell you 'someone is active in a certain area,' but it's difficult to tell you 'what that person is doing.' We're facing the same situation now—we know there are anomalies in certain areas, but we can't confirm the specific nature of those anomalies. If you have a way to provide more comprehensive information to corroborate our current judgments without increasing user privacy risks, it would be of great help to us."

Wang Anguo paused, as if organizing his thoughts, "For example, is there a way to allow players to linger longer at the edges of those blank areas? Or to allow players to record more environmental information during the activity? Of course, the premise is that it doesn't affect the player's normal gaming experience, nor does it increase any additional privacy risks."

Lu Ran leaned back in his chair without saying a word. He went over Wang Anguo's question in his mind several times.

He can certainly do something to encourage players to stay longer. But that's not something he can come up with a solution for now; he needs to go back and think about it carefully.

"I understand," Lu Ran said. "Give me some time; I need to think about the specifics of how to proceed. I'll contact you again once the plan is finalized."

Wang Anguo stood up, extended his hand, and shook hands with him: "Okay. Contact me anytime if there's any progress."

Then the three of them left the conference room one after another. Lu Ran remained seated, and after the door closed, he took back the document he had already flipped through on the table and drew a small circle next to the annotation about the blank area concerning Japan on the third page.

That night, he sat in his study until very late, repeatedly flipping through the game's backend configuration page on his computer, with one thought constantly swirling in his mind.

The simplest way to get players to linger at the edges of empty areas is to make those areas have something worth grabbing.

The problem is that no players go into those areas. If they don't go in, they can't farm creatures. If there are no creatures, there's no reason to go in—it's a vicious cycle.

The only way to break this cycle is to create something enticing enough at the edge of the empty area to make players willing to approach that area, or even go to the boundary between the edge and the interior, in order to catch it.

Once the first group of players reaches that position, the subsequent data will naturally follow.

Therefore, he now seeks change.

He needs to do two things.

First, set up timed rare creature spawns at the edge of blank areas.

The refresh rate shouldn't be too stable; it should make players feel that this is a rare opportunity, and that only by continuously paying attention to that area can they have a chance to encounter it.

Secondly, the spawn location of this rare creature cannot be fixed on the boundary line. It should be gradually shifted into the blank area, gradually guiding the player's activity range inward.

Each offset is controlled between tens and hundreds of meters, so small that the player will not clearly feel "I am moving in that place", but after a certain number of times, the initial boundary line will be crossed.

He opened the system backend and found the module for biological refresh logic.

A new set of parameters has been added to the configuration page: the refresh area is set to "high priority uncovered grid", the parameters are configured to dynamic offset mode, the offset direction is towards the center of the grid, and the offset amount is accumulated successively.

He then set a rarity cap, limiting the types of creatures that could spawn in those areas to two tiers: "Legendary" and "Epic".

It can't be too low, otherwise it won't be attractive; it can't be too high either, otherwise players will just stay there all day and it will attract attention.

After doing all that, he added another layer of protection.

If the number of location requests in a certain area surges abnormally in a short period of time, the system will automatically reduce the bio-refresh frequency in that area to restore it to normal levels.

This prevents people from intentionally repeatedly spamming their location to create fake data. This mechanism has almost no impact on legitimate players, but it plugs potential loopholes.

After doing all this, Lu Ran breathed a sigh of relief.

However, this alone is clearly not enough.

...