Jacob and Gao Yuan received a message from the company, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs placed them in the O-112 office in the second time zone, and Cha Cha offered to take them to see it. Jacob naturally couldn't ask for it, and Gao Yuan didn't seem to mind spending a little more time with the eldest lady of the Luke family.

Jacob had to admit that the room he had prepared for them was the conscience of the industry: the room, numbered "O-112", gave the impression that it was much larger than it really was: a huge decoder stood like a dark plastic wardrobe, standing alone about a meter from the narrow side of the wall, with three small windows next to the cabinet to show the brilliant and fragile internal structure of the quantum potency and transistors. Countless blue fiber optic cables run into the wall through the huge adapters, and the output is a screen connected to the printing table next to the other two walls: the screens on these two sides must be the decoder's office, and Jacob heard that in addition to maintaining the daily operation of "Rasheng", some of them often need to work day and night against the map, checking the huge programs that keep the city running (mainly flying cars and food supplies), So the decoders wittily gave themselves the rather ironic nickname "Map Dog". Correspondingly, the treatment offered to these "cornerstones of the two worlds" is also very generous.

The structure on the other side of the office is unique: the interior of the room is a clever arc, the end of the arc is a small passage that shrinks in the middle, which can only accommodate one person to walk in the middle, with a rather atmospheric row of small round lights overhead, and the other end leads to the bedroom, the whole room is U-shaped, with the living room on one side and the office room on the other.

"Cool." Gao Yuan exclaimed as they lined up through the light blue passage with only a glimmer of light.

"It's empty." Jacob said.

Cha Cha smiled: "Did you see the transparent board over there?" Go over and give it a try. ”

The board Cha Cha refers to is a touch keyboard, as if it is used to control the temperature, humidity, lights and holographic TV in the room. However, when Jacob looked closely, he found that in addition to the regular numbers, there were also storage formats and room coordinate maps. He tried to fumble around a few times, and noticed a large triangular lattice sticking out of the wall on the left. He pressed the "clear" button again, and the grid retracted into the wall.

"This is a new home system that Sun Moon Ming is vigorously promoting, which transforms the entire wall into a king-size 3D printer, and the wall made of new plastic materials can realize all the whims of the room owner." Cha Cha told him in Gao Yuan's stunned gaze, "They got a big order from Minister Simoo before they even officially launched it on the market – in a way, it's part of the employee benefits." ”

"Who will live in this place?" Jacob asked.

"Nobody lives here. It's always so lively, and it's always so crowded with people – it's fun to sneak up half the time zone when everyone is busy. ”

It used to be Jacob's dream room, but now the most functional designs of the furniture revolution are now out of use. He touched here and there in the room, and Cha Cha skillfully printed out two chairs and handed them to them.

"I'd like to take you guys to do something new." Cha Cha tapped on the bar next to the touchpad, "Since Minister Si Mu doesn't plan to give him a warm welcome as is customary, I'll have to do it for me." ”

"Don't you have a job?" Jacob asked recklessly.

"Of course, I guess." Cha Cha said as she stretched out her finger and scratched it above the frame. A thin figure wearing a dark green shirt and a little hunched back appeared on the wall of their office. When he found that it was Cha Cha who was waiting here, the thin man hurriedly put down the teacup handed to his mouth and straightened his glasses with two fingers.

"Help me see if I have an itinerary today." Cha Cha commanded.

"Boss, there was a regular meeting of the finance department half an hour ago, and you should have made a report."

"I forgot. Fuck me. Cha Cha patted his head.

"I took the liberty of doing it for you."

Cha Cha breathed a sigh of relief. "Well done!" She turned to Jacob and Gao Yuan and introduced: "This is Chao Xuwen, who is famous in the company, seeing him is like seeing me." Actually, most of my work is done by him. ”

"And what do you do every day?" Jacob blurted out without thinking, looking at him in horror.

"Me? I go out every day to give speeches, hold meetings, and do things that only good-looking people can do. ”

A pretty face can't let her do everything. Jacob knows that behind the name Cha Cha Luke is a huge team, Chao Xuwen takes care of her work, Sheldon Garin provides her with legal protection, and the fierce and fierce "Cobra" does the dirty work for her. Cha Cha may be debauched, but no one can deny that she is smart and powerful.

"Whoever works hard knows for themselves, chief." Chao Xuwen said with a slight compliment.

"yes, there are always a few times a day when I walk on the road and want to die with a crunch." Cha Cha grimaced. "Life is boring, but fortunately, Xiaowen is from a time zone, and he can always find some reasons for people to want to live from time to time."

Xiaowen talked about life and death in a playful tone. Jacob listened a little uncomfortable. He heard something in the man's tone...... Boredom, weariness of life and life, like the breath of decay coming out of the mouth of a richly dressed prince. But he wasn't a prince, Jacob thought, and he was just a sidekick, a butler at best.

“…… Nothing interesting. His words ended like this, as if it were his mantra.

"You don't find it interesting to smoke or." Cha Cha turned off the video call and complained.

She strode to the bar and said as she printed draft beer glasses on the plastic powder wall, "The water supply in this building is different from the city, there are three taps here that serve water, papaya soda and dark beer." She was the first to pour herself a glass.

As soon as he poured a beer down, Takato's face was as red as a lamp, hanging on his shoulders and shining brightly, which made him throw away his former student council member and the reserved attitude he had when facing Cha Cha like garbage, and turned into an out-and-out bastard: he scolded his mother with the idol-level official who had been worshiped as a goddess earlier, and he also burst into tears with the ordinary junior who had never liked him before, and talked about life. The gap between the front and back was so big that Jacob was dumbfounded.

"Simuin looks like the kind of boss who can't tolerate other people's mistakes." When talking about work, Jacob said.

"Have you ever heard the story of the 'Magic Drink'?" Cha Cha said with a smile.

"What—sour plum juice?" Gao Yuan guessed that "magic" was the brand of sour plum juice in Night City.

"It's close." Cha Cha gave a thumbs up: "This year is the fifth year of Minister Si Mu in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and when he first arrived, he seemed to be trying to get all the decoders to come to the industrial building to work full-time. ”

Jacob was shocked. "It's unlikely, isn't it?"

"It seemed to him that it was obviously possible," Cha Cha continued, "that year he had a lot of bedrooms and offices like this that and seemed to feel that if he trapped the decoders here, they would think about work outside of their time zone — he felt that all his time was dedicated to his career, and so should his employees." And guess what? One morning, about three months later, Master Smoothin stumbled into an office in a mess and a pair of his coders were in front of a computer screen — not this office, of course. ”

Hearing this, Jacob gasped, but Takato smiled from ear to ear.

"Even in an open time zone, that's embarrassing enough, right? The two of them faced their boss naked, and the man suddenly burst out with a sentence of 'accidentally drank a magic drink'. ”

"What happened?" Jacob knew it sounded nasty, but couldn't help but ask.

"Then I don't know, after all, it was a long time before I came." Cha Cha thought for a moment, "But since then, Simuin has never mentioned going to work full-time—"

"What the hell is a magic drink?"

"This is the thing." Cha Cha pointed to the mellow black liquid in his cup, and drank it all, "It's just that what was served back then was not dark beer, but IPA." ”

“IPA？”

"'Stud Angels'." Gao Yuan said.

"Eh, insider." Cha Cha exclaimed. "The pale hops of India, which are called 'stud angels' in the football bars of Moorbai, are said to be very lucky on the night of drinking, and every gamble is sure to win. Do you watch the ball? Cha Cha suddenly asked Gao Yuan.

Even Jacob, who was in a daze, could feel Takato's eyes light up.

"I'm a big fan." When the word "senior" was spoken, Takato's tone was so heavy that something seemed to pop out of his throat.

"Which team to support?"

Takato thought about it, as if he was making up his mind. "Team Moorbai." He said.

Cha Cha stared at him solemnly for a moment, and just when beads of sweat began to ooze from Gao Yuan's forehead, she suddenly laughed: "Of course it's the Moorbai Trident!" Although I am from Shengyun City, the team in Moorbay is very popular! Did you watch the semi-final on Wednesday? Bradley is so handsome! ”

"The midfielders of the Moorbay team are indispensable." "They switched quickly, and Almon got enough attention from the backline to open up space for Bradley. The free-kick didn't come easily, and that shot saved me 60 dollars. ”

"You're playing so big?" Cha Cha said casually.

"Yes," Gao Yuan said, staring at the little wine left in the cup, "Life is too short to be happy." ”

"I love to play sometimes." Cha Cha admitted, "It's really strange, in Luo Shengli, even the clouds in the sky can stare at it for a few minutes, but when I come back to reality, I feel that there is nothing interesting except consumption." ”

"Because you're the concept." Jacob said suddenly.

"What?"

"In the game, you're just a concept, and your friends in the game treat you as a concept, kind of like a zip pack, without a lot of unnecessary details, and these simple concepts make up you. Without those complicated and redundant settings, you will pay more attention to the details of life. Life between concepts will also become more convenient. ”

"People in the game do seem to be more likely to be friends." Cha Cha said.

At this time, Gao Yuan rolled up his sleeves, and his implantable ID card flashed with colorful lights like a lotto wheel, attracting the attention of the two.

"Cool." Cha Cha sighed.

"Did you know that you can now place bets with your ID card? You can roll the ball, you see—" Takato demonstrated eagerly as Jacob saw a football game in progress, a string of numbers pouring into the roulette wheel like water.

"I don't have that." Chacha pointed to her arm, which didn't have the same ID card embedded in it, "I usually use this—" she pointed to her glasses, "or just click and go to the casino." Thousands of online platforms for buying and selling Singapore dollars are gone. ”

"Cool!" Takato shouted. "Do you want to go together?"

"I'm not going." Jacob shrugged when he saw Cha Cha looking at him inquiringly.

"That can't be helped." Cha Cha doesn't seem to be in high spirits.

"Hey, don't be a spoiler!" Gao Yuan patted Jacob on the shoulder: "Gambling is the embodiment of the good qualities of a mature man: positive, optimistic, hopeful, and never discouraged. I've heard that you can't make it without betting. ”

Cha Cha trembled with joy, but Jacob was unmoved.

"I have an idea." Cha Cha proposed, and at this time, even Gao Yuan calmed down and listened to his idea. Although the three of them are the same age, they all know in their hearts that Cha Cha's "idea" will be their decision.

"Would you like to see what the heroine of the 'Magic Drink' event looks like?"

"It's so nasty." Jacob hesitated.

"Yes." Gao Yuan said.

"It seems a little obscene."

"Don't be afraid, I'm here." Cha Cha Zheng said, "I am investing in the development of a "Rasen" peripherals, and that girl happened to come to me to apply, the only thing that interested me was that she had been lying in front of Si Mu Yin and was fucked and disheveled. How could I miss such a good opportunity for a disgusting Simoot? ”

Gao Yuan and Cha Cha are really a bit of a stinky taste. Jacob is starting to understand a little bit why the coders don't like Cha Cha anymore. "What did you invest in?" He asked.

"'Rashomon.'" Cha Cha said, "A door that allows you to 'get in'." ”

"I'm sorry—you mean to go in?"

"Uploading your consciousness and body information to the server puts you in the middle of it, with the soul and body ...... However, due to the imperfection of technology, this involves some unforeseen dangers. ”

"Like ......?"

"For example, you can't get in and out."

"You're being frank."

After drinking the wine in the glass, the three of them set off, summoned the flying car from the rooftop outside the office, and flew there in less than ten minutes.

Just seeing Cha Cha's choice of address for her development department, Jacob felt that the trip was worthwhile: this is the scientific and technological heart of Moorbai, close to the huge CBD area with Moorbai as the core, this whole area is the city within a city in Moorbai, and together with the Shengyun City State University "Ye Yong" on the other side of Wunos Lake, it forms the scientific artery of the whole planet: college students who have graduated from Ye Yong often come here to work, or bring their own technology to raise funds from Sun Moon Ming's start-up fund to pursue their Moorbai dream. The beautiful women in uniform are slender, holding computers or file bags in front of their chests and seductively stepping on high heels, and the blonde lads are carrying dozens of original electronic components and smiling to greet Cha Cha. Crowds of young people flow in and out, as if there is a determination to spend their youth at the forefront of this most avant-garde tide.

"The rent here is so expensive." Gao Yuan sighed.

As soon as they stepped out of the elevator door, they felt a biting chill, as if the temperature had plummeted in a moment, and the exhaled breath had turned into a white mist. They found themselves standing in a small compartment, surrounded on all sides by doors, the iron doors on either side tightly closed, and the cracks of the doors covered with frost flowers; And the lights ahead were dazzling.

"It's cold." Gao Yuan shuddered, and half sobered up.

"If you want to connect to the public network environment to realize the connection of the virtual world, you must use low-temperature superconducting materials as memory modules to build a black hole computer with the largest possible computing capacity. It is a passage from reality to dreams. Cha Cha explained poetically.

There was a door at the end of the hallway, and before they could get closer, an unbearable noise swept over them like a wave of sound, hitting their eardrums.

"Are you partying in there?" Gao Yuan was taken aback.

"Programmers have boring lives, and you can't go out on secret R&D projects, so you have to give them some catharsis." Cha Cha said quite openly, "I wonder if you are interested in working on this project?" In fact, some of these programmers come from Moorbay or Time to make extra money. ”

The people who work here are very different from the people in the Moorbay Building: some of them are dressed in the fashionable men's casual dresses, some are wearing the limited-edition T-shirts of the Moorbay Trident, and some are wrapped in thick cotton suits, the colors of the clothes are so dazzling, and the mood is so high that Jacob and Takato wonder if this place is an office or a place for young people to entertain and socialize.

"Wow." Gao Yuan sighed, "I probably know why people like you so much...... It's a perk! ”

"Young people just need a little passion, and if they're not happy, they can't talk about passion."

Cha Cha pointed out the "Magic Drink" girl to them. She was talking to a big blond man across the room, clutching her computer and leaving them with only a delicate silhouette. Alerted by the blonde boy, she turned her head to see Cha Cha, so she shook off the soft black hair of her shawl and walked towards them.

She's not particularly pretty, but Jacob can see that she's the kind of girl who makes people feel comfortable, and she doesn't have anything to do with the word "wild."

"Long time no see, Cha Cha."

"I've heard something strange is happening here." Cha Cha's expression was not unnatural in the slightest, but tacitly touched Jacob with her elbow.

"You mean the kind of story that's a little scary?" The girl pursed her lips with a secret in her smile. "The story of the number 48 coder is great fodder to promote our product."

"So it's not real?"

"Well, like some things, we tell some truths and hide some of them. It's not lying, it's just that life is boring, and a lot of things need dramatic effects. She glanced at Cha Cha with deep meaning, and on the holographic screen next to her, an adventurer with a torch in hand was walking in an underground cavern in Rasheng World.

"According to the wishes of No. 48 when he was conscious, he became the experimental subject of the 'Bollinger Machine', the core function of the Rashomon project."

"What does a Bollinger machine do?"

"Quantum Brain. We used a principle similar to 'Rashomon', modeled according to his previous behavioral samples, and almost perfectly reconstructed this person on the network. ”

The people on the screen looked at them with a frown as if they had heard them.

"Interesting." Cha Cha's voice became very soft because of extreme excitement. Jacob always felt as if she was looking at him strangely. "I wonder if he knows he's crazy?"

"As you can see, No. 48, who lives in Rasheng's world, obviously thinks he is very sane."

"Is this an ID card?" Cha Cha looked at the slightly curled gelatinous object in the peripheral device with interest.

"It looks kind of disgusting." Takato covered his wrist a little frightened.

"Yes, we found that the group's ID card has some kind of 'biological drive' effect, which can provide enough information after being converted into an electrical signal."

Jacob subconsciously touched his pocket, and then remembered that he had already handed over Grandpa Lan's ID card to the funeral attendant and buried it, and now it was several meters deep underground.

He must have shown something, as Cha Cha reached out a hand and rested lightly on his shoulder.

"Nope."

"Grandpa Lan can come back."

"Nope." Cha Cha said again, "This can only comfort yourself, Grandpa Lan will not come back." She lowered her hand and sighed, "It's crazy, Jacob, we have to respect him." ”

Jacob didn't speak.

"The choice is yours." After a while, Cha Cha announced, "No one is going to stop you, Jacob. But from my point of view...... You know, maybe there is no right or wrong choice in the world, but there is a right and a sorry. ”

The female coder smiled sweetly at him: "More often than not, nothing is done, and in the end the bamboo basket draws water." If you could only be worthy of one person, what would you choose? ”

"You're not doing a favor." Cha Cha said to her helplessly.

At this time, Cha Cha's glasses flashed twice and became opaque. Jacob slouched into his mouth as he slipped the hash browns provided by the studio into his mouth as he heard Cha Cha take a quick breath.

Her face changed, and fear was clearly written in her somewhat cat-like eyes behind her glasses.

"Ann is dead." Cha Cha said softly.