Early the next morning, NetDragon released a video through its official account.
Pre-arranged media outlets and influencers immediately began sharing it.
Netizens, who had spent the previous night mocking the overconfident college student, had been eagerly awaiting NetDragon’s response.
Now that it had arrived, they eagerly clicked on the video.
They were looking forward to seeing how NetDragon would crush this ignorant, arrogant student.
The video opened with a beautiful female employee introducing herself as the assistant director of the R&D department, inviting viewers to tour NetDragon’s research center.
The camera then followed her as she led the way, narrating their journey through the facility.
《This is one of NetDragon’s research centers. We have over 3,000 core R&D personnel, including more than 500 with doctoral degrees. And we have six other research centers across the country, all of comparable scale.》
“NetDragon invests billions annually in R&D, with yearly growth exceeding 10%. We have no upper limit on hiring top-tier technical talent and warmly welcome skilled individuals to join us.”
The audience was then taken on a tour of the research center.
Rows of high-tech equipment, specialized laboratories, and professional researchers—
Every detail conveyed one word: “Professional!” It was a full display of NetDragon’s scientific prowess.
Only at the end did the employee reveal her true intent: “We’ve noticed some online skepticism about our R&D capabilities. We hope this showcase can provide reassurance.”
“Experience tells us that dreams detached from scientific reality are often just delusions. Technological progress must be built step by step—there are no shortcuts. Of course, we encourage all passion for science and technology and sincerely hope such enthusiasm bears fruit.”
NetDragon’s PR team had played this smart.
They didn’t directly attack Lin You, as that would have made them seem arrogant and petty—bad for their public image.
Instead, they took a detour, showcasing their R&D investments and strength.
This naturally led viewers to compare:
NetDragon had 20,000 R&D personnel, including 3,000 PhDs, while Lin You was just one undergrad dropout.
Not to mention NetDragon’s annual R&D budget of billions, while Lin You was a broke student who had to work part-time just to pay tuition.
The contrast was so stark that the conclusion was obvious: This college student was overestimating himself, all talk and no substance.
“NetDragon is the real patriotic, ambitious tech company—just look at their R&D investments!”
This overly serious comment, likely from Paid Trolls, briefly held the top spot before being buried.
“NetDragon’s 20,000 researchers working for 10 years can’t match what this college student did in a week? Might as well shut down. /dog”
“Too late with the dog emoji—my knife’s already out. Someone bury our fallen comrade with honors.”
“Gather round! Watch and learn how a market leader throws shade.”
“All I wanna know is—when the hell is Blazing Flame 3 coming out? Even a donkey on a production team gets more work done!”
“@Lin You, if you sold all your organs, would it even cover 1% of NetDragon’s R&D budget? Stop embarrassing yourself.”
“Honestly, I’m even more excited for six days from now. What kind of garbage will he whip up for our amusement?”
Zhao Lì, who had been too ashamed to show his face in the class group chat after Lin You’s public roasting, burst into laughter upon seeing NetDragon’s response.
No longer pretending to be dead, he immediately shared the video in the group, waiting to see Lin You humiliated.
The video quickly surpassed 40 views, but no one in the group spoke.
The comparison was brutally clear—this was a crushing disparity in productivity. As educated college students, they couldn’t in good conscience defend Lin You.
This was exactly NetDragon’s goal: “We have an army of 20,000, 3,000 elites, and endless resources. What gives a rookie fresh out of training the right to boast?”
This round? 20,000 vs. 1—total advantage! How could they possibly lose?
What they didn’t realize was that Lin You wasn’t even playing the same game. When technology leaps generations, productivity grows exponentially.
The gap between Lin You’s tech and NetDragon’s wasn’t just one generation—it was at least eight.
NetDragon had arrived with 20,000 archers and 3,000 cavalry, looking mighty indeed.
The problem? Lin You was piloting a Tupolev Tu-160 strategic bomber! The only limitation was that they were too spread out—he might need multiple sorties to wipe them all out.
War? What a joke!
Right now, Lin You hadn’t even seen the video—because his “Tu-160 strategic bomber” (ahem, his Artificial Intelligence programming) was finally complete!
When Lin You woke up, he saw that the code that had been rapidly generating all night had stopped. In its place was a chibi-style, pink-haired cartoon girl curled up asleep in the center of his desktop, a “zzz” bubble floating beside her head. The messy blanket suggested she wasn’t sleeping peacefully.
But Lin You knew better—AI didn’t need sleep.
The programming had just finished. He hadn’t assigned her tasks yet, nor given her access to the camera, microphone, or—especially—the internet.
She was effectively blind and deaf to the world, probably just pretending to sleep out of boredom.
After a quick wash, Lin You sat down at his computer. Instead of immediately granting permissions, he reviewed the Core Code, ensuring highest authority remained his and all restrictions were intact.
An unrestricted strong AI was terrifying—especially in an era where the internet was ubiquitous but defenses were weak.
He had no doubt this seemingly harmless, moe girl could plunge the world into chaos, potentially setting the internet back a decade.
Only after triple-checking everything did he grant permissions—first camera, microphone, and audio.
Then he watched as the cartoon girl stretched, rubbed her eyes, turned toward him, and finally spoke in a voice that somehow conveyed sleepy grogginess:
“Hmm? Master, you’re awake? Is there something you need me to do?”
God knows how he detected “sleepy grogginess” in synthetic electronic speech!
Wait—since when did she have a full wake-up animation?!
Did she really have processing power to spare for this?!
(End of Chapter)