Building a Gaming Empire From Scratch

Chapter 4: NetDragon's Counterattack

Netizens had just finished mocking the self-unaware college student last night, and they were looking forward to NetDragon's response.

Now that the response has arrived, they couldn't wait to watch the video.

They were eager to see how NetDragon would crush this arrogant student.

The video begins with a beautiful female employee, who introduces herself as the assistant director of the R&D department, and she will be taking the audience on a tour of NetDragon's R&D center.

The camera follows the beautiful lady, and with her introduction, we are taken into NetDragon's R&D center.

"This is one of our R&D centers, with over 3,000 core R&D personnel, including over 500 doctoral degree experts. We have six other R&D centers across the country, all of which are equally impressive."

"NetDragon invests tens of billions in R&D each year, with an annual growth rate of over 10%. We do not set limits on the recruitment of top technical talents, and we welcome talented individuals to join us."

The audience follows the camera on the tour of NetDragon's R&D center.

Various advanced-looking equipment, colorful laboratories, professional R&D personnel...

Every aspect conveys one message — "Professional"! This fully demonstrates NetDragon's strength in scientific research.

Finally, the female staff member concludes with a message: "We have noticed that some friends on the internet have doubts about our scientific research capabilities. We hope that this demonstration will boost their confidence."

"Experience has taught us that dreams detached from practical scientific research are often delusions. Technological development must be grounded and cannot be achieved through shortcuts. Of course, we encourage passion for scientific research and technology, and we sincerely hope that this passion will bear fruit."

Without a doubt, NetDragon's Public Relations Department has been clever this time.

They did not directly attack Lincoln, as doing so would make people feel that they are condescending and narrow-minded, which would be detrimental to the company's friendly image.

So they took a different approach, showcasing their own investment and strength in scientific research.

In this way, the audience will subconsciously make comparisons:

NetDragon has 20,000 R&D personnel, over 3,000 of whom hold Ph.D. degrees, while Lincoln is just one person, still an undergraduate student.

Not to mention NetDragon's annual investment of tens of billions, while Lincoln is just a poor student who has to work to pay his tuition every year.

With such a comparison, the gap is glaringly obvious, and conclusions can be drawn without thinking: this college student is overestimating himself and boasting excessively.

As a result, netizens once again got excited, making sarcastic remarks @Lincoln, and even going to his comment section to curse once again.

"NetDragon is a responsible and ambitious national technology enterprise. Just look at their investment in scientific research!"

This serious comment, likely posted by a member of the Water Army, was quickly buried by other comments.

"NetDragon, you're not doing well. 20,000 researchers working for ten years can't match a college student's one-week effort. You might as well close down now. /dog"

"It's too late for the warning sign; the damage is already done. Let's give a proper burial to our fallen comrades."

"Everyone, come here! Look and learn what a leading enterprise's passive-aggressive attitude looks like!"

"I just want to ask, when will 'Blaze 3' be released? Even a production team's donkey wouldn't dare to rest this much!"

"@Lincoln, do you think selling all your organs would even cover one percent of NetDragon's research budget? Are you really that desperate for attention?"

"Now that you mention it, I'm looking forward to what kind of garbage he can produce by himself in six days."

"Desperate for fame, huh!"

Edmund, who had been severely scolded by Lincoln in front of everyone in their class group chat and had been too embarrassed to show his face, laughed out loud at NetDragon's response.

Not bothering to pretend to be dead, he immediately forwarded the video to the class group chat, waiting to see Lincoln's embarrassment.

The video's views quickly surpassed 40, but no one in the group chat spoke up.

Because the comparison was too cruel and real, being a product of their higher education as college students, they couldn't bring themselves to speak up for Lincoln.

This was precisely NetDragon's goal: Our 20,000-strong army, with 3,000 elite forces and ample resources, is ready for battle; what right does a newly-trained soldier like you have to brag?

This wave, oh, this wave is 20,000 to 1, the advantage is mine!

There's no way I can lose!

Unfortunately, they couldn't imagine that the technology Lincoln was playing with wasn't even on the same level as theirs. When a technology leap occurs, productivity progresses exponentially.

The technology Lincoln had was not just one generation ahead of NetDragon's, but eight generations.

NetDragon brought 20,000 archers and 3,000 grassland warriors on horseback for the battle, looking indeed like a formidable force.

But the problem was that Lincoln brought a Tu-160 strategic bomber!

The only limitation might be that they are scattered so far apart that he couldn't kill them all with one bombing run; he might have to make several trips.

War? What a joke!

At the moment, Lincoln hadn't even seen the video because his Tu-160 strategic bomber... No, I mean, his artificial intelligence programming was finally completed!

When Lincoln woke up, he saw a pink-haired, two-headed cartoon girl sleeping in the middle of his desktop screen, her head surrounded by "zzz" signs. Her blanket was disheveled, as if she hadn't slept very well.

But Lincoln knew very well that it wasn't because artificial intelligence needed sleep.

It was because the programming had just been completed, and he hadn't had time to assign her tasks yet. He hadn't given her access to the camera and recording equipment or permission to connect to the Internet.

In essence, she knew nothing about the outside world and was probably just putting on this sleeping act because she had nothing to do and was bored.

Lincoln quickly washed up and sat down at his computer. Instead of giving her the necessary permissions right away, he opened the core code again to double-check that he still had the highest authority and that all the checks and balances were in place, ensuring no errors.

An unrestricted, powerful artificial intelligence is terrifying, especially in an era where the Internet is widespread but defense measures are limited.

He had no doubt that the seemingly harmless, soft, and cute girl could easily wreak havoc on the world, possibly even causing the Internet to regress by ten years.

After carefully verifying that everything was in order, he began to grant permissions, starting with access to the camera, recording equipment, and microphone.

Then, he watched as the cartoon character first stretched its body, then rubbed its eyes while sitting up, looked in his direction, and finally spoke in a soft, just-woke-up voice: "Hmm? Master, are you awake? Is there something you need me to do?"

???!

God knows how Lincoln heard the "just-woke-up" haziness from the synthesized electronic voice!

Wait! What's the deal with this whole waking-up animation?

Do you really have that much computing power to spare?!

This second-hand computer is already under a lot of pressure; don't make it harder by rendering real-time animations!