Chapter 57: A Minor Shock

"Ah... Atishoo!"

Tang Di sneezed loudly, leaning back and vigorously rubbing his nose. He wondered if the seasonal temperature drop was triggering his rhinitis again.

High up on the wall, the ventilation fan turned leisurely inside the duct. Raising his head, Tang Di could only see piles of documents and book spines stacked high and low across the office in an orderly disarray. A few heads were occasionally bowed over their work. It was now nine-thirty in the evening. Except for those on duty, most of the staff and cadres had already gone home. As usual, Tang Di was the last to leave; when it came to leading by example, he, the dignified 1047, had never lagged behind.

Ever since losing the robotic arm manipulation competition to the Operation Engineering Office, 1047 had fallen into a deep state of self-doubt. He repeatedly read all the reference materials and discussed them with his colleagues for a long time, finally arriving at a conclusion: the iEEG-BCI system was theoretically vastly superior to the MEG-BCI system. There was no problem with this conclusion; the only reason they had lost was simply that the iEEG-BCI system currently in use was not yet powerful enough.

Thus, the Engineering Office decided to initiate a project, concentrating their efforts on the research topic of "Comprehensive Optimization of the iEEG-BCI System." Simply put, the plan was to increase power, reduce the noise floor, improve the signal-to-noise ratio and sensitivity, and further enhance the driver's brain activity level. This project was jointly undertaken by the 151 Engineering Office and several groups from the Science City Computer Institute and Neuroscience Institute. The preliminary framework had already been proposed, and progress was going quite smoothly.

"Director, Science City says we still need to supply supplementary data."

"Got it, I'll send it tomorrow." 1047 stretched lazily, picked up the insulated mug on his desk, unscrewed the lid to take a look, and turned to walk toward the water dispenser for hot water, swaying his waist gracefully as he walked.

"Sitting for too long easily leads to lumbar muscle strain; you have to get up and move around." 1047 placed the insulated mug under the faucet of the water dispenser, pressed the hot water button, and massaged his shoulders while twisting his waist amidst the trickling sound of water. "Let me tell you, if Shen Jiang does another training session tomorrow morning, the data we collect should be enough to build the framework... Next will be the compatibility testing. The greatest advantage of our iEEG system is its high compatibility; if one place can use it, everywhere can use it."

"Director, word from the hardware department is that the chip manufacturing process doesn't meet the conditions yet, so we can only settle for second best."

"Understood, proceed according to what they said." 1047 held the insulated mug in his hand and turned around. "Hey, you there... remember to give a heads-up to the Computer Institute, and trouble them to change the data storage to a distributed system as soon as possible. Also, the training work for the MI analysis model had better be completed by tomorrow morning. Just say that 151 needs the data and ask them to hurry up."

"Received!"

With the tasks assigned, 1047 hummed a tune leisurely, carrying his hot water as he strolled around the office, casting glances here and there.

He was very satisfied with the current Engineering Office. Every day before leaving work, he would walk around the office a few times to look at the fruits of his painstaking efforts. The Engineering Office had many personnel, and the office was spacious. This was an elite force. Thinking back to when he first arrived here, Base 151 was in ruins, and the Engineering Office was just a feeble department, relying entirely on him alone to shoulder the heavy burdens across multiple roles.

1047 hailed from the Science City Computer Institute. Although not an exceptionally gifted figure within the institute, he had volunteered to support the frontline with extraordinary courage and determination. Excluding the leadership, Tang Di was the first person in Base 151 who had volunteered to come and brought along an identification code. In those days, a Science City identification code was essentially equivalent to an advanced talent certification, far more useful than a degree or graduation certificate. Around the time 1047 first arrived at 151, inevitable rumors circulated in the base, claiming that he couldn't survive in Science City and had run over here after being ostracized. But 1047 quickly proved his ability, transforming the Engineering Office into the most powerful and important department within the entire workshop system in a mere two years.

For a very long time, Tang Di was also the only code-bearing elite talent stationed long-term at 151. Science City would periodically send engineers and technicians to support the frontline base, but they were all on rotating shifts and short-term stays, unlike 1047 who had taken root here and refused to leave once arrived—until Lu Lu arrived at Base 151.

In 1047's eyes, Lu Lu was a heretic—a heretic on the technical route. Heretics were more abominable than outsiders, amateur scientists, and anti-intellectuals. He was the remnant of the heretical MEG faction, digging up an old zombie that had long been sentenced to death by the industry from its coffin, while vigorously promoting it, spreading demagogic nonsense, wasting massive amounts of manpower and material resources, leading everyone astray onto a dead end. Not to mention monopolizing half of Shen Jiang's training subjects, he also wasted precious time on an incompatible system. Simply heinous.

If 1047 were the base leader, the very first thing he would do was arrest Lu Lu, convict him of crimes against humanity, and throw him into prison.

Unfortunately, Director Ji trusted that kid. 1047 had no way to interfere with old man Ji's thoughts and decisions, so he could only set up a new kitchen, joining forces with departments such as the Science City Computer Institute and Neuroscience Institute to further improve the iEEG-BCI system. Since he could not stop the development of the MEG system, he would simply make iEEG even more powerful. If iEEG demonstrated an overwhelming advantage over MEG, then even a fool would know which one to choose. This was not entirely a new project either; the Computer Institute had been planning it for a long time, and they hit it off immediately when 1047 came knocking.

The Computer Institute was one of the three giants of the Chinese Academy of Sciences system in Science City, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the Physics Institute and the Automation Institute. The Physics Institute rarely touched giant mecha design projects, so in the development of giant mecha control systems, it was actually the Automation Institute and the Computer Institute that vied for supremacy. The Computer Institute was a hardcore iEEG faction—so hardcore that everyone believed only iEEG could save the world.

Long live the iEEG faction!

This was 1047's creed.

"Director, we're heading back. You should get off work early too."

As it neared ten o'clock, the people who were still working overtime left one after another.

Tang Di waved at them.

After ten o'clock at night, the personnel on duty also finished their shifts.

"Director, we're pulling out!"

"Pull out, pull out, all pull out."

Soon, the huge office was left with only Tang Di, brightly lit. He stood leaning against the wall, turning his head to look out the window at the workshop. There were still people in the workshop; the night-shift workers walked back and forth along the gallery bridges and operational surfaces. The gigantic body of Crimson Lotus stood majestically. Opposite the workshop was the office of the Operation Engineering Office. The Operation Engineering Office had closed its louvers, but bright lights still faintly leaked through, appearing to also be engaged in a bitter night battle.

Tang Di felt a faint sense of urgency in his heart. Although Lu Lu was an annoying heretic, his level of hard work was not the slightest bit inferior to his own.

He was also working hard for the MEG system.

· · ·

Lu Lu was indeed working hard.

1047 had guessed right, but he had only guessed half of it.

"Ready—"

"One! Da-da! Two! Da-da!"

"Mind your positioning, mind your positioning! Hey... right, Big Uncle, lean a bit more this way. That line of yours, you should shout it with more force! Wang Xiangbing! Senior Engineer at the Core Operation Engineering Office of Base 151! The base's premier electromechanical expert! Just a casual touch tells you if there's high voltage! You need to have that kind of momentum; when the time comes, we'll rely on this breath of yours to awe the entire audience!"

Lu Lu directed the non-professional dance like a professional orchestra conductor.

"Remember the key points of the movement, because there will be music when the time comes. We have to follow the beat of the music, and the rhythm must never get messy."

Bai Shu practiced until he was dripping with sweat, standing aside with his hands on his hips, watching as Wang Xiangbing, Li Wenxuan, and Zhang Zhong took turns stepping up to repeatedly rehearse their set of welcome dances—thankfully they had closed the windows, otherwise the night-shift workers in the workshop catching sight of them dancing wildly here in the middle of the night might have sparked all sorts of strange rumors.

They had been practicing in the office after work for several days. When Lu Lu suddenly proposed adapting this ancient and epoch-making welcome ceremony into a dance and bringing it onto the stage, it had scared Wang Xiangbing and Li Wenxuan away on the spot, prompting Lu Lu to dispatch Zhang Zhong to haul them back.

"Director, are you sure we're going to perform this on New Year's Eve?"

Li Wenxuan asked.

"We'll definitely turn celebrating the festival into surviving a calamity."

Zhang Zhong muttered.

"What is our objective? It is to shock—to deliver a minor shock to Shen Jiang, to the base leadership, to the entire world, and even to the angels! Let's go through it one more time, Operation Engineering Office!" Lu Lu raised his hand into a fist and shouted loudly.

"Hah!"

All four stood up simultaneously, their voices shaking like thunder.