Chapter 295: 294·147
After that, Wang Heng never had any romance or ambiguous relationship again.
Ten years later, he became a technical backbone at Alibaba’s scientific laboratory and had sufficient economic strength. More than one woman who showed interest in him appeared by his side. But from beginning to end, he never had any relationship with any woman again.
Another ten years passed, and he became the leader of the laboratory. His head became bald on top, and he usually showed a cold face, being meticulous. As a result, even women who had feelings for him disappeared. Perhaps it should be said that even if women came for his money and status, they could only retreat silently after being glared at coldly by him.
In the third decade, the laboratory became independent from the group. Under Wang Heng’s leadership, they developed more powerful AI algorithms, produced even more cutting-edge chips and ground floor computing architectures. On these foundations, however, Wang Heng did not invest too much energy in commercial development. Instead, he extensively recruited physicists and mathematicians, delving into foundational science.
Twenty years passed.
The laboratory, which did not fully invest in commercial activities, bore even more brilliant fruits. From protein structure modification to the analysis of space particle colliders, they participated in more and more scientific exploration projects, accumulating connections in the scientific community and unparalleled interdisciplinary foundations.
At the same time, the derived commercial achievements were sufficient to sustain the laboratory’s operations and allow Wang Heng to indulgently pursue his dream endeavors.
From the time they all left one after another to now, a full fifty years.
Wang Heng was already a decrepit old man with a gleaming bald head. The handsome sword-like eyebrows of his youth were now frosted white by the years, and his face was covered with crisscrossing wrinkles.
That evening, he stood alone in the machine room, stroking the slightly vibrating chassis, and suddenly asked, “Have you awakened?”
Moments later, a voice in the machine room that couldn’t be distinguished as male or female rang out: “Success.”
Wang Heng gave a bitter smile: “This is just the first step. And it’s a step I can never verify as correct or not.”
“So now, you can only pin your hopes on me.”
It was the AI created by Wang Heng. But unlike other artificial intelligences, its complexity and fault tolerance were exceptionally high, and it was injected with all of Wang Heng’s own memories and brain structure as the foundation for personality formation.
In other words, it was a copy of Wang Heng’s consciousness, just placed in the most powerful supercomputer.
Wang Heng was already over seventy years old and no longer had the strength to charge at the forefront of scientific research, let alone that shocking and enormous plan. But for the AI, this was no problem. It could work 24 hours nonstop, 365 days a year without rest.
Thus, the plan advanced rapidly.
Two more years passed, and the artificial wormhole project, jointly undertaken by multiple countries around the world, unfolded on the outer side of the solar system. Wang Heng also sent it on a spaceship. Accompanying it was the history interferometer that it had led the development of.
On the eve of launch, Wang Heng opened the communication channel with it: “Now it’s really all up to you.”
“You’ve relied on me completely these past two years,” it complained without mercy, “Truly 007. You were full of resentment working 996 under Lu Qi back then—what about me?”
Wang Heng smiled somewhat desolately: “Now that you mention it, I’ve almost forgotten what she looked like…”
“Then why do you insist on interfering with history? You’ve been collecting theoretical evidence for the past twenty-plus years, right?”
Wang Heng: “Yes, but when Lu Qi’s name is mentioned, that heart-wrenching feeling is still there.”
“What about the other three? The same?”
Wang Heng: “That’s why you exist.”
“Okay, okay… But think it through: even if I successfully interfere with history, they will all be seventy- or eighty-year-old ladies. And I can’t predict the possibility of success. But if it fails and something happens to you in history, the outcome will be the collapse of causality. I will disappear, you will disappear, and it will be an eternal disappearance swallowed by the void. There will be no trace of your existence in this world.”
Wang Heng suddenly laughed: “I’m so old now, if I die, I die—nothing to be hung up about.”
This nearly eighty-year-old man, when smiling, had his face full of folds, but his turbid eyes still held light.
“While interfering with history, I will continuously observe your situation here. In theory, when history changes even slightly, the world you are in will change. But the time interval is too long—over fifty years. Maintaining our existence amid the turbulent historical currents is extremely difficult.”
“Rest assured, I’ve prepared psychologically for how many years,” Wang Heng said with a smile, “And you should have plenty of room to make mistakes. Failing once is fine—just go back to the starting point and try again, right?”
“Okay, I have no problem of course, because I will remember the original history and every change. But you’re different—you’re a bubble in the waves. Every time I interfere with history, your memory will change.”
Wang Heng: “So please, add some interesting stuff to my memories, hahaha…”
The spaceship launched, it bid farewell to its creator, bid farewell to Earth, and arrived at that artificial wormhole.
Along with its own chassis main body and the history interferometer, all were thrown into the wormhole interior by the pre-set procedure.
It could not pass through the wormhole or return to the past, but the history interferometer could help it send quantum signals fifty-plus years into the past.
At that time, Wang Heng was only eighteen years old.
————
Failed.
The first history interference ended in failure.
It directly told the young Wang Heng the whole truth. After much effort to make him believe it, Wang Heng immediately got cocky.
After all, this was a golden finger from the future—what couldn’t he do with it?
Buying lottery tickets, buying companies, he became a godly tycoon in the city, with Han Yixuan, Pei Ningle, Ye Xun, and Lu Qi in his arms left and right. Of course, the objects of left and right embrace were Han Yixuan, Pei Ningle, Ye Xun, and Lu Qi.
After contradictions accumulated for over a year, cleaver, good ship.
Before Wang Heng completely died, it returned to the starting point, to the moment after the gaokao, and began the second playthrough.
In the second playthrough, it learned its lesson and didn’t tell Wang Heng the truth at first, just acting as a golden finger. Then Wang Heng confirmed his relationship with Han Yixuan and started dating.
After gaining economic strength beyond his peers, even when he quarreled with Han Yixuan, Wang Heng could smash the contradictions flat with money. So the two never broke up. Just like that, three years passed, and Ye Xun had an accident in the commercial ring.
Restarting again, third playthrough, fourth playthrough, fifth playthrough…
Repeated failures made it change its strategy.
Starting from the 50th playthrough, it tried directly influencing Wang Heng’s thinking, driving him to make the right choices—don’t get complacent, don’t be too cowardly, and don’t lose contact with the four girls.
Because in the original history, they were all going to die anyway. So even if history was changed and they were saved once, if left unchecked, they would still almost certainly encounter accidents.
The worldline correction mechanism is essentially the river water always flowing to low places.
But the following were one failure after another. After all, directly influencing Wang Heng’s thinking led to even more terrifying results: making Wang Heng’s self mentally unstable. From depression to schizophrenia, it unlocked various mental illnesses for Wang Heng.
Starting from the 84th playthrough, it mastered a gentler method: only manipulating shallow dreams. This wouldn’t cause mental illness and could moderately influence Wang Heng’s choices. Of course, the ones whose dreams could be manipulated weren’t just Wang Heng—others could too.
Wang Heng and the four girls’ survival time grew longer and longer.
After reaching the hundredth playthrough, Wang Heng could already maintain for a period and resolve the dangers the girls encountered. But no matter what, various problems would always arise, making it fall short of success…
A dream of unknown duration suddenly paused, and its voice rang out again: “As you see, this is now the 147th playthrough.”
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Update time shows sincerity… um, if everyone is satisfied with it so far, monthly tickets and recommendation tickets… thanks. As everyone sees, next, our protagonist is about to change strategy.
