Chapter 32: The Choice of Lighter

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“I remember when we were in training, our instructor said that noninvasive BCI systems still couldn’t meet current operational needs, and that it would take at least another ten years before they matured.” Wang Xiangbing rolled over and sat up, speaking to Shang Lu across the office. “He said research like this was basically a waste of effort and time.”

“He was wrong.” Without looking up, Shang Lu casually opened his notebook.

“But that’s the consensus throughout mainstream medical engineering. That’s what everyone thinks,” Li Wenxuan reminded him.

“They’re all wrong,” said Shang Lu.

“Then... is anyone in the industry still working on this?” Li Wenxuan asked.

“No one,” Zhang Zhong said, shaking his head.

Shang Lu raised his head and tossed the notebook onto the desk. “Now there is.”

“As expected of Grandpa.” Wang Xiangbing clasped his hands in salute. “That bearing, that style—seniority really does make a difference.”

“We completed the foundational work on the MEG-BCI system back at the Chengzi Institute. But the research team’s approach at the time was to establish a universal model. That technical path was far too difficult. First, it required completely decoding the human brain’s MEG signals—at the very least, understanding the essence of abstract thought at the level of cellular biology...” Shang Lu continued, “If we could accomplish that, the technological singularity of AI would already have been surpassed, and giant machines would no longer need pilots.”

“So now we can only settle for the next best thing: trying to build a bespoke control system for a single pilot, using algorithms to perform fuzzy feature learning. It’s an approach that doesn’t seek complete understanding. The results may differ from person to person, but saving even one person is worthwhile.”

Everyone in the office exchanged bewildered glances. Then Wang Xiangbing was the first to clap enthusiastically.

Clap, clap, clap, clap, clap!

Everyone else followed suit, applauding with equal vigor.

“Base 151’s technical conditions can’t compare with those in the rear, but we possess one unique advantage the rear does not,” Shang Lu said.

“Shen Jiang?” Bai Shu caught on.

Shang Lu nodded. “Since this is a bespoke control system, the person providing the training data must be a frontline pilot. Otherwise, there would be no point.”

“The director has spoken. We’ll take care of it right away.” Wang Xiangbing patted his chest. “Uncle Wenxuan, prepare a sack. Zhang Zhong, get a brick. Bai Shu, scout the workshop and study the terrain. We’ll lie in ambush along her route home after work. When she comes near, I’ll toss a cup as the signal. One brick to the head, sack over her, and we withdraw immediately. No mistakes.”

Shang Lu waved a hand. “I’ll discuss this with Teacher Ji. You have other work to do.”

Everyone’s expression changed.

Wang Xiangbing, Li Wenxuan, and Zhang Zhong all sensed impending disaster.

“To build an entire control system, it would be utterly impossible with only my strength. The technical and engineering problems are innumerable, and I need your help.” Shang Lu’s gaze swept across their faces. “The Control Engineering Office... it’s time it found its proper place at the base again.”

Wang Xiangbing was the first to flee. His face collapsed as he clutched his stomach with both hands.

“Ow... Director, I-I-I-I have a stomachache. I must have eaten something bad at lunch. I’m going to the bathroom to take a dump.”

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Li Wenxuan was the second to beat a retreat. He too clutched his stomach. “It must have been the soybeans in the cafeteria—they weren’t cooked through. I’ll have to go settle accounts with Logistics later!”

Zhang Zhong sprang to his feet, grabbed his orange, and bolted after them. Before leaving, he called back to Shang Lu, “Comrade Grandpa, I’m going to check on those two. Don’t worry—I swear I’ll drag them back!”

With that, he shouted, “You two, get back here!” and vanished down the corridor in a flash.

In barely a dozen seconds, only Shang Lu and Bai Shu remained in the office.

Shang Lu sighed and turned to Bai Shu. “Why didn’t you run?”

“It’s better that they’re gone,” Bai Shu said. “Now we have the place to ourselves.”

Shang Lu slowly covered his face. He had finally seen through them. The Control Engineering Office was full of remarkable talents, each possessing a unique skill. They were all pleasant enough to talk to, but when it came time to do any real work, they fled faster than anyone.

His senior uncle Wang Xiangbing had mastered the supreme ninja technique of the Fecal Escape. His distant uncle Li Wenxuan had perfected the art of beating a retreat. His cousin Zhang Zhong was responsible for chasing after the first two—and never once returned. As for Bai Shu... she did not run. She was simply lusting after him.

No wonder the Control Engineering Office had ended up in such a state at the base.

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If anyone had asked the former director of the Control Engineering Office, once Base 151’s number-one electrician and the granduncle of the Red Lotus giant machine, Wang Xiangbing, to rate his own work, he would certainly have given himself full marks.

He had conscientiously led an entire office full of seasoned slackers, adhering to the principles of seeking no achievements but avoiding all mistakes; doing nothing important and touching nothing trivial; and, if the world ended, asking what that had to do with him. They had holed up in their office, conducting a few harmless, symbolic testing projects. The fact that they had not caused trouble for humanity on the crucial anti-Incursion battlefield was already a tremendous achievement.

That was, until a young man arrived from the rear to report for duty at Base 151.

Why had he come to 151?

Even much later, Wang Xiangbing still could not understand it. The young man was one of the greatest geniuses in the human world. At twenty-one, he had already been capable of independently leading a technical team in tackling the MEG-BCI system. He might even have been the only person with any hope of turning the tide.

Someone like that ought to have remained at the heart of the world. He should never have come to the front line.

What on earth was that boy Shang Lu thinking?

Was he here to watch fireworks?

When Wang Xiangbing first met Shang Lu, he thought the young man was one of his own kind—the most common kind at Base 151. They could not see where humanity’s future lay, but they could at least keep their own little lives under control. Apart from whatever was directly in front of them, they thought about nothing else. Life was no more than the dozen or so square meters of their office.

That attitude was widespread throughout the base. Make yourself as small as possible, and even if the whole building collapsed, there would still be a crack to crawl through.

But Wang Xiangbing soon realized that there was something wrong with this man.

Temperament was the hardest thing to conceal. The fellows in the Control Engineering Office, for instance, all carried a salty odor about them, like dried fish that had been cured too long. Then there was the infuriating director of the Planning and Engineering Office, 1047, whose entire body seemed to proclaim, “I’m an elite! I’m the backbone of the workshop system! Without me, this base can’t function!”

Shang Lu was different from everyone else.

Though he was barely in his twenties, he sometimes seemed like a middle-aged man of thirty-five. Every so often, he revealed an inscrutable side of himself, and what showed through was always sorrow and despair.

In those moments, it seemed he truly was, as he himself had said, merely trying to lie down and watch the fireworks.

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But how could someone who had truly lost all hope spend an entire night waiting outside the workshop for the Red Lotus?

“You really are impossible to figure out.” Wang Xiangbing sat on a roadside bench, smoking as he watched trucks pass along the road opposite him. Slowly, he exhaled a smoke ring. “Whoever you are, whatever you’re thinking, don’t come here and cause trouble for our Control Engineering Office.”

“Finished taking a dump?”

Shang Lu dropped onto the bench beside him.

“Granduncle.”

“Holy crap! Where did you come from?” Wang Xiangbing jumped in fright, almost springing off the bench. “How did you know I was here?”

“Bai Shu said you’d probably be outside smoking. You get the urge whenever you’re worried.”

“That little brat. She always favors outsiders.” Wang Xiangbing snorted. “A daughter grows up and forgets her family.”

“What are you thinking about here?”

“I’m wondering why, since you love making trouble so much, you didn’t go to the Planning and Engineering Office.” Wang Xiangbing sighed. “Director, we’re just idle fish in the Control Engineering Office. We muddle through our days. Our abilities are limited, and we’re nothing like you. We can’t handle any high-end, cutting-edge projects.”

“The Planning and Engineering Office won’t do. Only the Control Engineering Office can.” Shang Lu shook his head. “You’ve always been capable of it. You could do it before, and you can do it now.”

“Thank you for having so much faith in us,” Wang Xiangbing said. “But I should warn you, Director: we’ve never conducted any serious technological research. The algorithm we worked on before was just a sham, a prop we put on to look busy. We had no work, so we invented some.”

Shang Lu smiled.

Wang Xiangbing tossed his cigarette butt onto the ground and crushed it beneath his foot.

“I knew nothing good could come of this. When Director Ji told me she was assigning someone new to our Control Engineering Office—a top student from the rear sent forward to support the front, someone we were to cooperate with—I prayed to heaven that she wouldn’t send us another idiot like 1047.”

“I’m not like him.”

“Of course you’re not. You’re different from everyone.” Wang Xiangbing tilted his head and frowned deeply. “Bai Shu isn’t the only one who noticed. I’m not blind either. There’s a unique yet familiar quality about you... Have we met before?”

Shang Lu shook his head.

“Forget it. I won’t pry. These days, who doesn’t have a few stories?” Wang Xiangbing said. “Do you want to know why I, the number-one electrician of Base 151’s Nanshan Base, possessing the peerless skill of welding seven-nanometer chips with a soldering iron, punching out Taiwan Semiconductor and kicking MediaTek, able to tell with a single touch whether there’s two hundred thousand volts running through something, ended up in the Control Engineering Office?”

“Why?” Shang Lu asked.

“Because one time, there really was electricity when I touched it. So the base transferred me to the Control Engineering Office.”

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