Lu Zhou stood by the car door and said, “I’ll be right here. Are you going to stay here or come upstairs with me?”
“I’ll stay here and wait for you.”
Wang Peng already began to take out a cigarette from his pocket. Lu Zhou smiled as he shook his head. After telling Wang Peng to smoke less, he turned around and walked toward the entrance of the building.
He walked up to the reception.
The lady at the front desk had just finished a call, and she had a professional smile on her face.
“Hello, sir, do you have an appointment— Academician Lu?”
When Lu Zhou saw how surprised she was, he smiled and asked, “Can you call CEO Chen for me? Is she available?”
The receptionist immediately smiled.
“Oh, sir, you don’t have to make an appointment. Miss Chen specifically told us that you can go upstairs anytime.”
Lu Zhou shook his head.
“It’s better to call her first. I’m only here to see what’s up, I don’t want to interrupt anyone working. If she’s in a meeting, I can wait for a while.”
The peak work hours was almost over. After the receptionist called the CEO, Lu Zhou went up using the elevators. He overlooked the Jinling high-tech zone scenery through the glass elevator.
Ever since the Jinling Institute for Advanced Study and Star Sky Technology moved their offices here, a large number of high tech companies and factories moved here as well. It was almost like Star Sky Technology was a star, with planets orbiting around them.
The annual output value of this high-tech zone was in excess of 100 billion yuan, making it an important economic pillar of Jin Ling City and even the entire Jiangsu province.
As Lu Zhou looked outside the window, he smiled like a proud father.
Even though it was foolish to take all of the credit, he at least deserved half of the credit, right?
After arriving on the thirtieth floor, Lu Zhou knocked on the CEO’s office and walked in.
Chen Yushan saw Lu Zhou appear at her door. She put down the pen in her hand and spoke with a careless attitude.
“What was that all about? You own the company; what’s the point of calling?”
“Well, I’m scared of interrupting your work!” Lu Zhou smiled as he sat down on the sofa.
“You already interrupted my work! I was just thinking about a brilliant idea when your phone call ruined my train of thought.”
“So… I’ll stay quiet until you remember your idea?”
Chen Yushan smirked and said, “I can’t remember unless you buy me food.”
Lu Zhou smiled and said, “Sure, let’s get lunch then.”
Chen Yushan was just joking around, and she was ready to get rejected. She didn’t expect Lu Zhou to agree.
She looked at him with her eyes wide open as she curiously asked, “Really? I was just kidding around. Do you really have time? Great, I’ll accept the offer, remember, you already agreed, no backsies!”
“Yeah, I just solved a world-class problem… But it hasn’t been published yet.” Lu Zhou looked at the clock on the wall and said, “But I should be free for the day.”
Chen Yushan froze for a second before saying, “So, you’re getting ready for your next retreat? The next time I’ll see you again will be a year from now?”
Lu Zhou playfully smiled and didn’t answer.
He didn’t know if he was going to go on another retreat.
That would depend on what kind of problem he was going to encounter.
Chen Yushan pulled out a notebook and picked up her pen on the desk.
“Looks like you want to talk business with me, just tell me, we’ll get it over with.”
Lu Zhou: “Are you free later?”
Chen Yushan played with her hair using the pen as she asked, “No, but aren’t you free for the day? How about you watch a movie with me?”
Lu Zhou: “Sure, but what about your work?”
Chen Yushan: “It’s not the problem! You came at the perfect time. The only thing I have to do today is to listen to whatever you’re about to tell me. I haven’t taken a single day off this month, so today will be it.”
“Oh… Okay then.”
Lu Zhou looked at her hopeful eyes. He couldn’t find a reason not to go watch the movie, so he nodded.
He looked at Chen Yushan’s cheerful smile and suddenly realized that, besides being a reliable CEO, Chen Yushan had a charming and delightful side.
Of course, now was not the time to be distracted by details.
Lu Zhou coughed and spoke in a serious manner.
“How long until the Phantom system goes live?”
Chen Yushan twisted the pen in her hand and went into CEO mode as she reported in a serious tone.
“The Phantom system can go online at any time. But the connected hardware will depend on our partners. According to what Huawei told us, the first generation virtual reality neural demodulator helmet was put into production at the end of last year. At the earliest, they can release more than a million devices at the beginning of next month. Right now, we’re still formulating the product price and sales strategies.”
Lu Zhou immediately asked, “What about Xiaomi?”
Chen Yushan: “They’re saying the same thing. Should be able to produce around 800 thousand units. They’re more focused on the low-end market… Why?”
Next month as well, and it might even be delayed.
I have to tell them to hurry up.
Lu Zhou spoke.
“The Master God plan is almost finished. According to the laboratory assessments of the physical and psychological conditions of the Respawn Team, as long as the user plays for less than eight hours, the impact of the Phantom system on the brain is quite limited. Even after eight hours, the damage is similar to other electronic devices.
“As long as the content is graded correctly, the experiments have already proved that this technology is absolutely safe for society.”
Honestly, Lu Zhou almost regretted using “evil” names such as the Respawn Team and the Master God plan.
He coughed as Chen Yushan smiled. He then continued in a serious manner, “All in all, in order to collect more data to improve the artificial intelligence system developed by the Jinling Institute for Advanced Study, I want us to launch the Phantom system as soon as possible. And also the game… The Calan Empire game, I want to release a public beta version.”
Chen Yushan: “The Phantom system can go online, and I’ll tell our partners to hurry up, maybe get it done by the end of the month. As for the game… Even though it’s easy for us to launch it, didn’t you say we’re only in the cloud computing and patent management business and that we’re staying out of game development?”
“Plans change all the time, and this is the only game we’ll release.”
Lu Zhou gestured with his hands and emphasized in a serious tone as he continued, “This is mainly for research. It doesn’t matter if we make money or not. My requirements aren’t high; a hundred thousand players are enough.”
Chen Yushan wrote down Lu Zhou’s words in her notebook. She then twisted the pen in her hand and asked, “The game is going to be permanently free?”
Lu Zhou contemplated and said, “Make it free for the closed beta. We’ll see what happens after the public beta… If the costs are too high, put in a monthly subscription cost.”
Allowing players to buy items in the game would interfere with Lu Zhou’s wish of exploring the Calanian civilization’s memory. Interfering with memory game parameters would cause calculation errors.
Therefore, if he wanted to make a profit, a subscription model was a good choice.
In fact, if Star Sky Technology wanted to develop their own games, it would be difficult for them to lose money. After all, the cloud computing services for the virtual reality network were provided by them. If a part of the quantum computer resources was put toward maintaining this game, their main cost would be electricity.
Chen Yushan wasn’t opposed to Lu Zhou’s suggestion; she was just curious as to what changed his mind.
“When did you get interested in games?”
Lu Zhou stubbornly said, “I told you, it’s an experiment, it’s not a game.”
How is it not a game?
What else could it be, real life?
“Fine, fine, fine, I know, it’s an ‘experiment’.”
Chen Yushan smiled. Lu Zhou looked like he didn’t want to talk about this any longer, so she changed the topic of conversation.
“Anything else?”
Lu Zhou: “That’s it for now.”
Chen Yushan closed her notebook and happily stood up from her office chair.
“Then the rest of your day belongs to me.”
Lu Zhou stood up from the sofa.
“What movie are we watching? You decide.”
“This isn’t a mission.” Chen Yushan rolled her eyes and pondered for a moment. Her eyes suddenly lit up as she said, “I changed my mind.”
Lu Zhou: “…?”
“Take me to the Calan Empire.” Chen Yushan smiled as she looked at Lu Zhou’s surprised face. She said, “I’ve never played that game before.
“I’m curious to see what kind of game is making you so addicted.”