FIO CH46

Chapter 46: I, Little Zhou

A window popped up on the computer screen with a notification: The desktop pet dog has logged off!

Zhou Zheng stared at the computer screen and couldn’t help but reach out and start biting his nails. Discovered so soon. The surveillance and location tracking were added later, and Zhou Zheng was aware of it. The data on the computer at Lu Fangchi’s company hadn’t been touched; only the rarely used laptop at home had been updated with the installation package.

At that time, he had impulsively added these two features on a whim and had never turned them on. It was only in the past few days, when he had lost contact with Lu Fangchi, that he couldn’t resist. Lu Fangchi had been too ruthless. Not only had he removed the phone’s location tracking, but he had also changed the fingerprint lock on the front door. As soon as Zhou Zheng entered, he was confronted with a towering stack of cardboard boxes, as if Lu Fangchi couldn’t wait to kick him out.

He must have been planning to break up all along. Zhou Zheng’s eyes reddened as he recalled this, hating Lu Fangchi for being so heartless.

Zhou Zheng took out his phone and placed it on the desktop, staring at it intently. So he must be very angry, right? Someone who values privacy so much would definitely not tolerate being monitored. Would he call and scold me?

Zhou Zheng waited for a long time, from daylight until nightfall. He didn’t dare to put his phone too far away even when taking a shower. As soon as he heard the “ding-dong” sound, he would rush out of the bathroom without even wiping the water droplets from his hands to check his phone. Baidu prompted —— Big Mouth Monster has done something bad again >> Video.

What nonsense. Who cares. Zhou Zheng’s eyebrows furrowed into a frown, and he swiped left forcefully with a face full of annoyance. Because his hands were wet, he couldn’t succeed for a long time.

He was so angry that he wanted to throw his phone. He raised it high but let it fall gently, then dried his hands vigorously and uninstalled Baidu.

He even filled in a complaint: Too much junk content being pushed, it’s disgusting!!

Zhou Zheng lay down on the bed, clutching his phone, and threw it to the side in frustration. After a while, he reached out again to check it.

No messages. Still no messages. Why hasn’t he sent me a message yet?

Eventually, Zhou Zheng fell asleep holding his phone in this position. He suddenly woke up in the middle of the night, and as soon as he opened his eyes, he looked for his phone. The hope in his eyes gradually turned into disappointment.

No messages. He suddenly realized that Lu Fangchi would not call or send a message to scold him. He wouldn’t allow it.

It was a sunny day with a gentle breeze carrying the scent of flowers into the nostrils, and the sun shone warmly. It was a perfect day to go out for a spring outing. At the very least, one could lie at home and bask in the sun, enjoying the weekend properly, instead of being called into an emergency meeting and sitting in the conference room watching this damned projector.

The projector was playing a live broadcast recording. The streamer was playing a game released by the company three years ago, called “Survival in the Wilderness.” As the name suggests, it was a game about surviving on a deserted island, satisfying the needs for food, drink, fun, leveling up, and battling monsters. From zero to a hundred, one could completely build their own nation. The downside was the slow pace.

Nowadays, due to the pressures of life, people prefer fast-paced, quick-combat game modes that can be played in their spare time, rather than this slow, world-building, trickle-down approach. Of course, there are still audiences for it, but they are few and far between, very niche.

The good news is that thanks to this streamer’s promotion, a large number of players flooded the server in a short time, creating the liveliest scene since the game’s launch three years ago. The bad news is that this streamer specializes in finding game bugs, teaching everyone to follow suit, and frequently trending on hot searches with these bugs, causing the server to crash.

Lu Fangchi looked up and saw the streamer, who, as soon as he entered the game, took out his backpack and skipped three times on the water surface, explaining while operating: “We just need to micro-jump, dive, tap the water surface three times, and then throw out the backpack, and we can copy three backpacks.”

As the streamer came ashore, he magically threw three backpacks on the ground. Upon opening them, it was seen that the items inside the backpacks were also copied, tripled, as if he had struck it rich.

On the projector, bright lines of comments appeared: “Whoa, the streamer is a genius, I’m going to give it a try too!”

666 Oh: “Don’t be fooled by the streamer’s casual, almost magical, three or five moves. It’s really hard when you do it yourself, the operation is so difficult!”

88888: “Yes, that’s right, the guy before is correct, what we lack is the streamer’s skill!”

Lu Fangfangfang: “The streamer is a talent, I’m impressed.”

Haha Laugh: “If you’re bad, just practice more.”

Crying: “If you can do it, then you do it.”

Unique Rose: “Can I say something off-topic? The streamer’s voice is so pleasant and magnetic, isn’t it?”

666 Oh: “Stop drooling and get lost! This is a gaming channel, why is this kind of thing everywhere, it’s speechless.”

Little Fox: “Indeed, it’s so pleasant+1…”

Sleep Early: “Pleasant+2…”

7758: “Pleasant+3…”

Lu Fangchi frowned and covered his mouth with his hand. It was pleasant and familiar.

The operations staff standing on the stage continued to click and flip to the next page of the recording, playing it at double speed.

“Today I’ll teach everyone how to ride. Just give me a stick, and you can perform wall-running…”

“Today I’ll teach everyone how to jump high. Pull the control stick up, left, and right all at once, micro-jump and buffer, and you can jump ten meters at once…”

“I found something interesting today. See this stone? We sit on it first, then stand up. What do you notice? Nothing? Let me demonstrate again, still nothing?”

“No, what kind of eyes do you have. I sit, I stand, I sit, I stand, I sit, I stand, do you see it now? If you still can’t see it, turn left out the door and go to the hospital to get a pair of 10,000-degree glasses.”

“I’ve become smaller, mini-sized. There are so many things I can do, like being stepped on and killed by an ant…”

“The method of floating the backpack on the water surface doesn’t work anymore, probably it’s been fixed. But it’s not a big problem, I’ve found a more effective and advanced copying method. Swim underwater and copy everything you want to copy, just… and then…”

And so on, from a tricky angle, he developed various bugs that go against the original intention of the game. He knows this game better than the programmers who wrote it.

The operations staff spoke up: “So far, this streamer has found six bugs. Four of them have been fixed, one is being actively worked on, and one may not even be considered a bug, but its impact is the greatest.”
The operations staff spoke while bringing up the next screen, revealing an extremely grotesque face on the large screen. The eyes were downturned into narrow slits, the nose was concave, and the mouth stretched back to the ears. The entire face looked like it was on the verge of laughter but also crying, creating a bizarre and comical expression. Combined with strange movements and music, it formed a rather eerie sense of harmony.

The game allowed for customizable character creation, a feature common in many games today. However, few players had the creativity to adjust the values to the extreme. A grotesque face paired with top-tier bug-finding skills was quickly edited into a meme video by netizens and shared across various platforms by marketing accounts. Like a snowball rolling downhill, it grew larger and larger, reaching an unprecedented level of discussion and attention.

This wave of traffic was a double-edged sword. If handled well, it could multiply the game’s popularity several times over; if not, it could lead to a downfall. The emergency meeting was convened to discuss how to capitalize on this wave of attention, improve the game’s content, and retain the users who were merely there for the spectacle.

Lu Fangchi lightly tapped his fingers on the table, staring at the projector as he pondered. Suddenly, he asked, “What’s the name of this streamer?”

The operations staff pulled up the streamer’s user profile, which displayed “In your service, I am Little Zhou.”

Ridiculous, yet true. People can genuinely laugh at such absurdity. Lu Fangchi couldn’t help but smirk.

The meeting lasted over three hours, with various departments collaborating and discussing. Finally, Lu Fangchi made the final decision on the specific plan, and the meeting was adjourned.

Pushing open the office door and sitting down on the swivel chair, Lu Fangchi wearily pinched the bridge of his nose.

What on earth was Zhou Zheng trying to do?

Zhou Zheng was closely monitoring the topic’s popularity, quickly scrolling through the comment section to see what netizens were discussing.

“Brother’s voice is so pleasant. I have an idea…” A comment appeared, only to be scrolled away and then back again. Zhou Zheng clicked to delete and report it.

Momo: “I came here out of admiration. Although I haven’t reached the streamer’s level of precision to find bugs, I’ve already fallen in love with this game!”

Thumbs up, a comment that shows appreciation.

Kiki: “How do you do the water skipping? Why can’t I fly? Can someone teach me?”

Brother is but a legend: “Don’t leave, add me as a friend and I’ll teach you.”

666 is 66: “Is FC even competent? How can a game have so many bugs found by an amateur streamer?”

Zhou Zheng stopped at this comment, nodding in agreement and echoing, “Exactly.”

He then switched to another account to retort: “The streamer clearly looks like a programmer. How could an ordinary player find so many bugs? FC’s animation is amazing.”

666 is 66 replied: “How much did FC pay you?”

Zhou Zheng frowned, feeling indignant, and rolled up his sleeves, preparing to engage in a verbal battle. The office door knocked, “Knock knock.”

Zhou Zheng minimized and hid the webpage, sat up straight, and responded, “Come in.”

Liu Assistant casually took a seat on the sofa, reached for the cashews on the coffee table, cracked them open with his hands, and tossed them into his mouth, chewing noisily. “Crunch crunch.”

Dry eating was a bit choking, so he unscrewed the cap of his mineral water bottle and took a large gulp. He then slapped the shell fragments off his palm and casually asked, “Did you cause the commotion next door?”

Zhou Zheng feigned ignorance, “What are you talking about?”

“Don’t play dumb,” Liu Assistant saw through his act and raised an eyebrow, “With all this free time, why don’t you help the company with some marketing? The operations department is urgently holding a meeting to discuss how to replicate this. They’re searching everywhere for the streamer’s contact information.”

Zhou Zheng grumbled, “One man’s meat is another man’s poison. There’s nothing worth replicating.”

He continued to scroll through the webpage to read the comments. ShinyNotMountain: The FC programmer must be thinking, “Great, more overtime for me.”

Zhou Zheng’s brow furrowed slightly. Did that mean Lu Fangchi would have to work overtime as well?

“You’re aware of that, right?” Liu Assistant sat up straight, facing Zhou Zheng, looking puzzled. “I can’t figure it out. Do you want to celebrate with fireworks or bombard your own home?”

Zhou Zheng moved his lips and retorted with a question, “What if I say both?”

“Then you’re insane,” Liu Assistant concluded, snapping his fingers, “Pure and simple.”

“Go away,” Zhou Zheng shot him a disdainful look and gestured towards the door, “Get out of here.”

“Just joking, don’t be mad,” Liu Assistant walked over and sat at the corner of the desk in front of Zhou Zheng, propping his arm on it and asking, “What on earth are you up to?”

Zhou Zheng looked up, incredulous, “You think I’m causing trouble?”

“Aren’t you?” Liu Assistant countered, counting on his fingers, “You two were fine together. Instead of enjoying your good life, you’re causing trouble and now you’re complicating his work. What’s your goal?”

“I’m causing trouble?” Zhou Zheng’s eyebrows knitted together, looking as if he had been wronged.

“Aren’t you? Two weeks ago, you suddenly came back saying you remembered everything. I was happy for less than half a day before Lu Fangchi came to take you away. I’m not blind; his expression clearly showed he knew nothing. Did you explain and apologize to him afterward?” Liu Assistant asked.

Zhou Zheng pursed his lips, “He doesn’t like me anyway.”

So that’s a no, Liu Assistant sighed, “If he doesn’t like being with you, did he say it himself?”

Zhou Zheng, “He wouldn’t tell the truth anyway.”

Liu Assistant took a deep breath and deliberately took the opposite stance, “Alright, then he must really hate you.”

Zhou Zheng looked up at him fiercely.

Whether he liked it or not was hard to believe, and whether he hated it or not was hard to accept. Difficult to please. Liu Assistant threw up his hands, giving up.

“Take your time. Just don’t regret it later.”