Living in a county town, starting as a stock market maker...

Wang Tianqi is standing at the bottom of the screen.

"No……"

Wang Tianqi's Adam's apple bobbed violently as he squeezed out a syllable through his teeth.

"impossible……"

He suddenly turned his head, his bloodshot eyes fixed on the technical director backstage.

"Bring in Yao's footage! Now!"

His voice was hoarse.

The technical director shuddered and almost dropped the walkie-talkie in his hand.

He wanted to advise Wang Tianqi, because the other party's technology was very advanced, and the best solution now was to turn off the device.

But seeing Wang Tianqi's gaze, he swallowed his words.

He knew that if he didn't do as instructed, he would be in trouble.

……

Suburbs, underground studio.

Gu Ming held a cup of hot coffee, looking at Wang Tianqi's face on the monitor screen, a slight smile playing on his lips.

He was like a gambler who had lost everything, always thinking he could turn things around in the next round.

"He actually dared to go up there?" Shen Lian asked, unable to understand this behavior.

Su Qingying pushed up her glasses, her eyes calm.

"When someone has staked everything on one thing, admitting defeat is very painful. He is now simply choosing a way to end it."

As soon as she finished speaking, the screen in the banquet hall split in two.

To the left is Xingchen Media's live broadcast room, a pure white space where Ling stands quietly.

On the right, the logo of Apocalypse Entertainment flashed by, and the face of the virtual idol Yao popped up.

Viewers across the internet are discussing it.

"Holy crap! A once-in-a-century photo! Is this some kind of public execution?"

"Has Wang Tianqi gone mad? Trying to pit a model against a real artificial intelligence?"

"Stop criticizing her! Yao's skills are top-notch too! That was just an accident!"

"Upstairs, are you a paid shill for Apocalypse? You think you can throw such a huge accusation around? Your models are practically burnt out!"

The comments scrolled rapidly, and the popularity surged again.

Wang Tianqi snatched the headset handed to him from backstage, rushed back onto the stage, and yelled at Yao on the screen.

"Yao! Tell them who's the strongest! Sing for me! Dance! Use your strongest abilities!"

On the screen, Yao received the instructions.

She smiled sweetly and struck a dance starting pose.

This simple action caused a problem.

As she raised her right forearm, there was a momentary unnatural twist.

The movement was very slight.

However, this flaw was magnified when compared to the fluid movements of Zero next to him.

"What is that? Am I seeing things?"

"It's stuck? Yao's stuck?"

"He's having a spasm, hahaha! Is this an early symptom of Parkinson's disease?"

Wang Tianqi's face turned deathly pale.

He knew this wasn't a lag.

This is the underlying logic of the Soul Engine, and conflicts are starting to emerge.

Why?

Everything was normal during internal testing at the company.

No... he can't lose...

He's risked his life and fortune; he can't afford to lose.

"Increase computing power! Maximize the computing power of all servers!" he roared into his headset.

Upon seeing this, Gu Ming put down his coffee cup.

He spoke calmly to Chen Mo, who was in front of the control panel.

"Chen Mo, connect to his live audio signal."

"Yes." Chen Mo didn't ask why, and tapped his fingertip lightly.

"Give him a free technical guidance session," Gu Ming said softly.

The next second, a calm and authoritative voice, clearly transmitted through the venue's sound system, reached everyone's ears.

"Mr. Wang, don't waste your energy. Increasing the computing power now will only cause Yao's logic processor to burn out prematurely."

It was Gu Ming's voice.

A commotion broke out at the scene.

Wang Tianqi was startled and looked up sharply, searching through the crowd, but saw nothing.

He roared at the air, "Gu Ming! You cowardly coward! Show yourself if you dare!"

"Standing with you? I'd be beneath myself."

Gu Ming's voice was mocking.

"The version of the Soul Engine you got from Li Xiang and the others is too old. There's a compatibility bug between the rendering and motion capture modules."

Every word Gu Ming said was made up on the spot.

On the screen, Yao's movements began to twitch as he spoke.

"Look, in her right wrist, the bending algorithm and rendering instructions are in conflict. It's like trying to bend a person's elbow in the opposite direction; of course it will shake."

As soon as she finished speaking, Yao's right wrist began to tremble at a strange angle.

A collective gasp filled the hall.

"And her facial micro-expressions, the 'sadness' parameter you called exceeded the threshold, but the Soul Engine version 1.0 didn't have the appropriate database. So you see her lips look like she's about to cry, but her cheekbones are smiling."

On the screen, Yao's face was half crying and half laughing.

Some female guests screamed.

Wang Tianqi looked at the screen.

He wasn't a technical expert and couldn't understand what Gu Ming was saying.

But he saw Yao, whom he had poured his heart and soul into, crumbling step by step under Gu Ming's words.

"No! That's not how it is!" Wang Tianqi roared, his eyes bloodshot. "My technique is flawless! My Nirvana Plan is perfect! Move! Kill that Zero!"

The Nirvana Project.

He called out that name.

This command triggered the final trap set by Gu Ming.

The principle behind this trap is to cause the computing power demand to increase exponentially when the amount of data exceeds a critical point.

The large number of servers that Wang Tianqi rented led to his defeat at this moment.

alarm!

A sharp alarm sounded from the server room in the back office!

"Report! Server 10's CPU utilization is at 1000%! Temperature overload!"

"Server #23 is on fire! Requesting a power cut!"

"All servers have crashed! Our firewall has been breached! A massive influx of junk data is coming in!"

The backstage area is in complete chaos.

A plume of black smoke, smelling of burning electronic components, billowed out from under the backstage door.

On the screen in the center of the stage, the face of the virtual idol Yao began to melt.

Yes, it melted.

The polygonal modules that make up her cheeks begin to stretch and deform erratically.

Her big eyes slid down her cheeks.

Her mouth was stretched into a noisy black hole.

The sweet outer shell is peeled away, revealing chaotic data.

It was a distorted face, the last image of a digital life.

"ah--!"

One reporter couldn't take it anymore, threw down his camera, and screamed as he ran toward the door.

Panic began to spread.

The celebration banquet turned into a funeral for Apocalypse Entertainment.

Countless flashes of light were no longer aimed at the guests, but at Wang Tianqi, who was slumped in the center of the stage, at the black smoke, and at the strange face on the screen.

A reporter from a financial media outlet started a live broadcast on his phone on the spot; his voice was trembling.

"Viewers, did you see that?! Tianqi Entertainment's stock price just hit the daily limit down! A company has collapsed tonight!"

In the underground studio.

Shen Lian and Su Qingying stared at the scene on the screen, speechless.

They anticipated that Wang Tianqi would fail.

But they never imagined they would lose so completely.

Gu Ming stood up and walked to the microphone.

His voice rang out for the last time in all the live stream rooms, his tone calm.

"There are limits to technology, Mr. Wang. You've crossed the line."

After saying that, he made a gesture to Chen Mo.

Signal cut off.

All screens went black.

……

The banquet hall was a complete mess.

In the chaos, Wang Tianqi remembered the core hard drive on the server. There lay evidence of his unauthorized actions.

He rushed toward the server room, which was billowing black smoke.

He found his computer and, ignoring the scorching heat of the case, pulled out the hard drive.

When he picked up the hard drive and was about to smash it on the ground, he noticed that the hard drive's read/write indicator light was on red.

His administrator privileges were revoked.

An unknown IP address remotely locked and encrypted the data on the hard drive.

Underground studio.

Chen Mo looked at the "Data locked successfully" message on the screen and turned his head.

"Boss, the key evidence has been preserved."

Gu Ming nodded.

He walked to the floor-to-ceiling window, looked at the night view of HG City outside, and said nothing.

Click.

The office door was pushed open.

Su Qingying walked in.

She was holding a freshly printed document in her hand.

It was a list of over ten pages, listing the names of hundreds of companies and a string of numbers.

"Mr. Gu, it's time to reap the rewards."