I asked you to write a light novel, but you wrote about living?

Upper City, Eden Floating Island.

Sunlight streamed through the temperature-controlled glass of the dome, illuminating the natural cashmere carpet.

In that cyberpunk era when even synthetic starch was rationed monthly, the daily energy consumption of this living room just to maintain a constant temperature and air filtration was enough to offset the annual electricity bill of a family in the entire Fourth Slum.

Lu Chenyuan leaned back in the smart sofa that conformed to the curves of his bones in real time, holding a crystal plate in his hand. On the plate was a piece of pure, natural raw beef, still slightly bloody.

He picked up a piece of meat and tossed it into the air.

A large, glossy-coated purebred Caucasian Shepherd suddenly leaped up and swallowed the dog whole, landing with its massive paws making no crude sound.

The android butler, dressed in a tuxedo, quietly approached carrying a silver tray, stopping exactly one meter away, a glint of blue light flashing in his eyes.

"Young Master, the real-time physiological data monitoring of the 'Spark Cup' of Weiguang Literature has been updated."

The butler projects a holographic panel:

"The top spot on the list remains 'Cyber ​​Ascension,' generated by Cloud Atlas Literature's 'Pangu Engine,' with a daily update of 300,000 words. Pangu's underlying algorithm primarily stimulates dopamine, keeping readers' brainwaves in a state of high-frequency excitement for an extended period."

Lu Chenyuan took a heated, damp towel from the tray and slowly wiped his fingertips.

"Where are our experimental nodes?"

"Experimental node one, 'The Daily Life of a Tycoon' generated by 'Muse V3.0', is currently ranked second. Although its total traffic is not as high as that of the Pangu Engine, its 'tear gland secretion index' and 'average heart rate drop' during single chapter reading are far ahead."

"Experimental node two, 'The Cyber ​​Cultivation of a Psychopath' generated by 'Fool V1.5', ranks fifth."

The butler paused, seemingly processing a set of contradictory data:

"The data for this book shows an extremely morbid polarization. Because the writing logic is extremely absurd, its actual abandonment rate is as high as 94%. Countless readers cursed in the comments section and even paid to buy 'pinned comments' to insult the author as mentally ill."

The butler pulled up a red bar chart that looked like a volcanic eruption:

"But it was precisely this extreme negative controversy that triggered the exposure algorithm of the Weiguang platform's 'topic black and red pool'. The remaining 6% of the retained samples who did not abandon the book not only had ridiculously high reward data, but we also detected an abnormally high frequency of 'retinal microvascular dilation' in them - that is, real smile feedback."

Lu Chenyuan tossed the towel back onto the tray and glanced at the dense array of wave lines in the air.

Those weren't ordinary clicks; they were the real physiological feedback from millions of underprivileged readers, obtained through cheap reading terminals in the lower-middle-class areas.

"Go to the black market and find a few intermediaries."

Lu Chenyuan looked at the Caucasian Shepherd Dog that was licking the floor obediently:

"Buy 50,000 real user accounts with genuine spending records, then use them to manipulate emotions in the comment sections of these two books. Next, pour one million Star Coins into the traffic pool and buy full exposure across all channels on the Weiguang platform."

The blue light in the butler's eyes flashed twice rapidly; that was the central processing unit performing a risk assessment.

"Young Master, this doesn't conform to the optimal business model. The first prize of the Spark Cup is only one million star coins. You've already spent eight million on purchasing the initial access to 'Muse' and 'Fool.' Especially 'The Cyber ​​Cultivation of a Psychopath,' if you hadn't forcibly spent money to buy the rankings in the early stages, its 94% abandonment rate would have made it disappear without a trace. Adding this one million for promotional testing, the book shows a loss of nine million. This is a waste of resources with no return."

"Butler, this is why you're only good for serving dishes and doing accounting."

Lu Chenyuan stood up and walked to the huge monocrystalline silicon floor-to-ceiling window.

The gaze pierces through the pure clouds, looking down at the downtown area shrouded in neon light pollution and heavy industrial fumes.

In those eyes, the Lower City was not a human settlement, but a natural and extremely large closed stress test sandbox.

"Next month, the Lu Group will deploy a new generation of 'immersive virtual companions' across the Federation. If we take the formal biomedical route to collect emotional fluctuation samples from millions of people to improve the AI's empathy algorithm, the budget would be at least 50 million Star Coins, and we would also face federal data censorship."

Lu Chenyuan reached out and made a gesture in the air, bringing up the data chart for Chapter 3 of "The Daily Life of a Tycoon".

"And now, Weiguang Literature has provided me with a perfect testing ground for free. The killing off of the protagonist's sister in 'Muse' is not to advance the plot, but to test whether 'the death of a loved one' or 'class despair' can break through the psychological defenses of the lower class more quickly. These dark blue heart rate drops are the tears they shed."

With a flick of his wrist, the screen switched to the controversial panel of "The Cyber ​​Cultivation of a Psychopath".

"As for 'The Fool,' creating sadness is easy; it's about subtraction. But teaching AI to be humorous requires extremely complex misalignment and deconstruction. Its 94% abandonment rate is due to its frantic trial and error. I spend money every day to keep it in the top five of the bestseller list, just to continuously provide it with fresh, living human samples."

Lu Chenyuan sneered, looking at the intertwined data representing both insults and fervor:

"Those who criticize it are providing it with negative and viral traffic, while the 6% who laugh out loud are the perfect material for it to extract humorous logic. It is using millions of low-level samples to exhaustively list what kind of absurd logic can make those poor people struggling in the wasteland laugh from the bottom of their hearts."

Lu Chenyuan walked to the bar, poured half a glass of pure water without any additives, and drank it all in one gulp.

"Those self-important platinum-level authors in Cloud Atlas are earning their million-dollar bounty using the Pangu Engine, extracting dopamine from the lowest levels of society with the cheapest killing spree stories. As for me, I'm using these nine million to figure out the underlying code of human emotions."

"Click." The water glass was gently placed on the marble tabletop.

Lu Chenyuan turned around, sat back down on the sofa, and his tone returned to its cold rationality.

"Once our virtual companions master how to make them cry and how to make them laugh, the poor bastards in the lower city will willingly hand over their last penny for nutrient solutions to Lu's electronic phantoms."

"Go and execute the instructions. I want to involve more low-level samples in this test before midnight tonight. This million-dollar computing power test fee was well worth it."

"Yes, young master." The butler bowed slightly and silently disappeared into the shadows.

In the empty living room, only the huge Caucasian Shepherd remained, tirelessly licking the remaining bloodstains on the carpet.