Players Invade Cyberpunk

"15K, at this rate, we'll be able to ransom ourselves in a few years."

Nia suddenly asked,

"Do you really want to leave here?"

"Eh?"

Nina was clearly taken aback by the question.

"Well..."

Initially, she really did want to leave this hellhole, especially that guy who counted their medical fees for them sibling by sibling with a calculator, preferably as far away as possible.

But after staying here for two months and being asked this question again, she was a bit unsure how to answer.

She could only awkwardly respond,

"Not... not really wanting to leave, just saying."

The mercenaries here were very easy to talk to, and wouldn't harass the two of them. They would even teach a lesson to the outsider mercenaries if they spoke rudely, without worrying about being forced to do things they didn't want to. You could say the two sisters were protected by the mercenaries of the whole bar. There's no place safer than here on the entire street.

Although they were busy to the point of dizziness every day, and had to operate that bulky mech, both sisters felt a subtle sense of belonging to this place.

If there were any drawbacks, it was that the mercenaries here tended to get into trouble. Hearing they fought with Huang Ban that night, the sisters were anxious and pacing in the bar.

No one wants to leave a stable environment to live in a place where life is uncertain.

Moreover...

Nia blushed.

As the usual strong sister, how could her younger sister hide such an expression from her elder sister?

Nina, just suppressed, immediately showed an understanding expression.

"Oh~~ Nia, you've taken a liking to one of the mercenaries here, haven't you?"

"You're overthinking."

Nia immediately denied it, then burrowed into her bed.

"I'm sleepy, hurry up and get some sleep, we have to work tonight."

"Heh heh."

Seizing the chance to counter, how could Nina just run away? She followed and burrowed into her sister's bed, tightly hugging her.

"Quick, tell me who it is? If you spill it, maybe I can help you out."

Enduring her sister scratching her waist, Nia blushed painfully.

"I said there's no one, aren't you sleepy?"

"I just got paid, I'm full of energy. If you don't say, no one sleeps tonight."

"Okay, then we won't sleep!"

"Ha... hahaha... hahaha... I am your sister, dare you treat me this way?"

"You started it."

Nia finally couldn't hold back, launched a counterattack on Nina, the two wrestled on the bed for over ten minutes until they were exhausted and fell fast asleep, albeit in terrible sleeping positions, with the blanket kicked to the floor.

...

In the vast laboratory, a large number of researchers were busy within, holding terminals and notebooks, constantly recording various data.

Compared to the initial month, the number of people here had nearly doubled. The more was discovered, the more those above paid attention to what was happening here.

And in one of the testing fields, there were many doorframe robots and transport platform components displayed, from parts to the whole, all were present.

"32nd trial run, start."

With the project's leader's order, the upper body of one doorframe robot bent ninety degrees, becoming T-shaped, then began to lift its leg and move step by step within the field. The movement wasn't fast, but was very steady.

However, there was no sign of surprise on the faces of the experimenters, as with the current robotics industry, achieving stable walking wasn't difficult.

"Phase one complete, proceed to phase two—obstacle avoidance."

Ahead of the robot, obstacles like oil barrels, stairs, and tires appeared.

In phase two, the robot's actions were evidently much slower, yet it steadily identified which obstacles could be overcome and which needed to be navigated around.

Until this step was completed, the furrowed brows of the team eased slightly.

As the experiment stopped, Comrade Wang, who had been waiting on the side, came forward and asked,

"How's the experiment result?"

Li Jian Country put down his notebook,

"Fairly successful, since the specifications and properties of each part in the design drawings are very clear. Though the production cost is a bit high, assembling them isn't hard. Their mechanical structure design is much more advanced than ours."

"Then where's the problem?"

"AI intelligence and chips."

Li Jian Country sighed lightly.

"Our self-designed program completely fails to meet the design requirements in intelligent recognition and response control, and a single chip's computing power falls short of what's needed for production."

Comrade Wang wasn't surprised by this answer. Their insiders haven't yet understood what exactly that cyberspace is, even though the same code running in both places yields different results.

"Is there any direction to solving the problem?"

"Yes." Li Jian Country nodded, "We've commissioned the computing center to rewrite an algorithm, seeing if it can run through AI computations. Regarding the chip, we're preparing to set up a dedicated room using the main server instead of individual computations."

This is much more complex than controlling robots according to fixed programs or remote control, but not entirely impossible. It requires a long period of deep learning.

"By the way." Li Jian Country stopped Comrade Wang who was preparing to collect results from the next laboratory.

He blinked and asked,

"Is that side real or fake?"

Comrade Wang paused; this question had entered the highest level of confidentiality, yet no one knew the answer, he replied,

"What do you think?"

Li Jian Country shook his head,

"I'm not a computer scientist, how would I know?"

"But I think... no matter if that side is real or not, they must be having a hard time, harder than us... Can we contact them?"

Comrade Wang looked at Li Jian Country indifferently, said nothing.

It's still under confidentiality.

Some insiders tried to make contact, but all attempts met with no response—like stones sinking into the sea.