Chapter 107: Chapter 96: Are You Trying to Be Surreal?
"..." Noticing the stare, Lin Xia paused mid-bite. "What... are... you doing?"
"Sigh. I was just thinking how great it would be if you were a girl," Chu Bamboo sighed deeply. He was starting to understand why his counterpart from the dream timeline had chosen to transfer all his Z Company stock and control to Lin Xia before "eloping" with Z.
Lin Xia was reliable! More importantly, he was also very capable.
’He didn’t seem to show it in the previous timelines, but maybe that’s because he never got the chance!’
’Come to think of it, Lin Xia had managed to stabilize Z Company’s foundations and keep it from declining too severely all the way until ’75. Even with Z Company’s technological advantages, that was no easy feat!’
Before now, Chu Bamboo had perhaps underestimated what that really meant.
After all, the market changed so fast! Nokia was once a titan of the mobile phone industry, at the height of its power... but it still collapsed in an instant!
And yet, in an era of such great upheaval, Lin Xia had taken the helm and steadied the great ship. Yes, even if he hadn’t pushed for aggressive growth... just being able to hold steady was a testament to his ability!
After all, conquering a kingdom is hard, but defending it is even harder!
And more valuable than his ability was the fact that he truly believed in Chu Bamboo and was willing to honor his promise to him. Even in ’75, a full half-century from now, he hadn’t forgotten what Chu Bamboo had entrusted to him!
Although Chu Bamboo’s Nuwa Base identity was still erased, that wasn’t Lin Xia’s fault!
"?" Lin Xia shivered and rubbed vigorously at the goosebumps on his arms. "Damn! Why’d you suddenly bring this up? Don’t get all sentimental..."
"Wait," Lin Xia said, a suspicious look suddenly on his face. "You’re not going to suddenly develop a Superpower in the future that can change someone’s gender... and then! No, hey, you can’t do that! If you do that to me, I’ll never forgive you."
"?" Chu Bamboo’s expression vanished, and he stared blankly at Lin Xia. ’Are you trying to be surreal? We were having a serious conversation! How did you just go off the rails like that?’
A thousand words caught in his throat. In the end, Chu Bamboo looked to the heavens and sighed. "Sometimes, I really want to pry open your brain and see what the hell is going on in there."
"Ahem, I can’t help it!" Lin Xia ducked his head, raising his hands in embarrassed surrender. "Okay, my bad, my bad... Ahem, it’s just that I’ve been reading some novels lately, and the trends are getting pretty ridiculous! A lot of books have plots like that... Ahem! Don’t ask what genre I’m reading. I’m begging you, man."
Seeing the curious look on Chu Bamboo’s face, Lin Xia pressed his palms together and begged for mercy repeatedly.
Rolling his eyes, Chu Bamboo stood up again. Just then, his phone actually started ringing again.
"...Hm?" Chu Bamboo glanced at the screen, his expression turning serious. He quickly answered, "Senior Zhao, what happened now?"
"Junior Chu, ahem, no, actually, I was thinking... isn’t calling each other like this a bit too formal?" Zhao Shao’s voice held a hint of helplessness. They had already met more than once; he felt they could be considered friends by now, right? Yet here they were, still calling each other "Senior" and "Junior."
"From now on, you should call me Brother Zhao. Of course, you’re on another level, I’m in awe... If you don’t want to call me ’Brother,’ then calling me Brother Zhao as if I were your junior is fine too!"
Zhao Shao’s expression remained calm. ’Even if Chu Bamboo wasn’t the creator of this algorithm, the fact that he could pull it out of thin air... those connections, that ability, it’s definitely Heaven-defying Level! I’m truly in awe!’
"As for me, from now on I’ll call you..." Zhao Shao paused for a moment, then asked, "Are there any... forms of address that you’re sensitive about?"
"Not really. Ah Zhu, Bamboo, either is fine," Chu Bamboo said calmly. He felt he was actually quite easy to get along with. Otherwise, after just a short time, Ning Linglong, Guan Fei, and Wall Announcements wouldn’t be calling him Uncle Zhu one moment and Ah Zhu the next.
"Alright, Daddy Bamboo!" After confirming the name, Zhao Shao’s attitude did a complete 180 as he began to suck up without the slightest hesitation.
"Daddy, I’m begging you! You can’t do this, you can’t just give me half... What about the rest? Please, if you just give me the rest, I’ll do anything."
Over on the side, hearing snippets like "do anything," "begging," and "Daddy," the look in Lin Xia’s eyes changed dramatically.
To be honest, if it weren’t for the fact that the voice was a man’s... Lin Xia didn’t dare to imagine how far his thoughts would have strayed.
"It’s not half, it’s one-twentieth. For both of them," Chu Bamboo said noncommittally.
"...How is that possible?" Zhao Shao’s voice had lost its earlier frivolity.
The two segments of the program he had received already contained an enormous amount of information.
He had stayed up all night analyzing them and had already extracted a lot of useful information, even beginning to modify the AI model produced by his own company.
It was already showing results!
The large model, after its initial modifications, was twenty percent more efficient in its use of computing power!
Doesn’t sound like much? But this was just the initial modification!
Not to mention, he was already considered a rising star in the industry, albeit one who hadn’t found a concrete revenue stream. If his work had truly had no merit, it’s not like the local government leaders would have frequently come for inspections or even offered their full support.
While it couldn’t keep up with the top-tier large models in the industry, it was by no means garbage.
Given that his model was already a first-rate large model, second only to those released by corporate giants, what did a twenty percent improvement even mean?
And that wasn’t all—it seemed to be universally applicable!
In any case, Zhao Shao could deduce that any of the major AI large models currently on the market could use this algorithm to improve their efficiency by twenty percent...
That... was terrifying! And this wasn’t even the limit! This was just what he had figured out in a single night!
He felt that if he studied the algorithms further and refined them, he could improve the efficiency even more!
With this alone, Zhao Shao felt that he could find plenty of big companies to provide funding if he wanted. To put it bluntly, money was no longer an issue; this algorithm alone was enough to lay the foundation for Z Company to become an industry giant.
Of course, even though he now had other options, Zhao Shao felt that unless Chu Bamboo suddenly decided not to invest, it was still best to accept his investment—
For one thing, the company wasn’t that big yet. If those giants realized its potential and targeted it, the possibility of a forced acquisition was too high...
For another, Chu Bamboo was the one who gave him the program. Setting aside the fact that turning on a benefactor went against his life’s philosophy, even from a purely selfish standpoint... the guy hadn’t even given him the full program yet!
