Cutting-Edge Technology R&D Center

Chapter 19: High-Tech Drone

“Done.” After his parents left, Wang Hao shuttled between the secondhand parts market and Computer City, buying some components from the secondhand market and checking the prices of server parts. Now, in his hands, was something that resembled a drone. It wasn’t exactly beautiful, but it wasn’t ugly either; however, its appearance was in a completely different league compared to the drones sold at Computer City. Knock, knock, knock Just as Wang Hao was admiring his masterpiece, he heard a knock at the door. “Hao Ge, you haven’t eaten yet, have you? Check this out.” Wang Hao opened the door to see Fang Bing appear, carrying two boxes. At a glance, he could tell they were probably takeout. “You’re just in time,” Wang Hao said with a smile as he looked at Fang Bing. “This is for you.” Wang Hao handed him the drone he’d built himself. Ever since he’d heard that Fang Bing was planning to do outdoor livestreams over summer break, he’d been thinking about building a drone to give him. “Hao Ge, I’ll be streaming alone—I don’t have anyone to fly it for me.” Fang Bing glanced at the drone; he could tell at a glance that it was homemade. Though touched, he hesitated before speaking. “You don’t need to control it. Just clip this on.” Wang Hao picked up a square box from the coffee table—about the size of a palm—and handed it to Fang Bing. “What’s this?” Fang Bing looked a bit puzzled, but he put it on anyway. After watching Fang Bing put on the box, Wang Hao smiled slightly, picked up the drone he’d built himself, and flipped the switch. Buzz, buzz, buzz Instantly, the sound of whirring propellers filled the small room, and the drone actually took off on its own. “This…” Fang Bing watched in amazement as the drone took flight and began circling him on its own. “What do you think…? It took me two days to build. It can adjust its direction based on the receiver you’re wearing, and I also developed an app to control this drone.” Wang Hao gave a slight smile as he looked at the astonished Fang Bing, then took out his phone, opened the app, and began controlling it. Following Wang Hao’s commands, the drone slowly adjusted its direction. “Hao Ge, did you really… make this yourself?” The more Fang Bing watched the drone flying in the air, the more awestruck he became. “Of course. Have you ever seen one like this for sale anywhere?” Wang Hao said exasperatedly. Fang Bing thought about it and realized he was right. Based on what he’d just seen, if a drone like this were actually on the market, it would surely cause a huge sensation—and he would definitely have heard about it. “Hao Ge, I always thought you were just knowledgeable, but I never expected you to be so skilled with your hands,” Fang Bing said with a look of admiration. He felt that his summer livestreaming journey was bound to go viral thanks to this drone. “This drone’s battery charges directly. The built-in battery should last about one or two hours—I can’t extend that yet, but I think it’ll be enough for one livestream. Don’t worry about the camera resolution; it’s way better than a smartphone’s.” Wang Hao didn’t respond to Fang Bing’s comment but instead explained some of the drone’s features. “Cutting-edge tech… truly cutting-edge tech. If I hadn’t known beforehand just how much you know, I’d have thought you’d inherited something from aliens…” Fang Bing looked utterly impressed. Ever since they’d started hanging out, Wang Hao had shown his erudite side—it seemed there was nothing he didn’t know. Now he was even more in awe of Wang Hao—he was simply incredible, having actually built a drone like this. “Hao Ge, let me take it out into the wild to test it…” Fang Bing weaved his way through the two bedrooms and the living room, like a child who’d just gotten a new toy—he couldn’t put it down as he experimented with it. The more he tested it, the more excited he became. After a few tries, seeing that the drone could actually avoid obstacles on its own, he couldn’t hold back the urge to take it out into the wild. “Go ahead. You can install the app when you get back—I haven’t finished packaging it yet. Just turn off the power to the recording device, and it’ll come down on its own.” Wang Hao nodded slightly. “Okay.” Fang Bing, unable to contain his excitement, immediately removed the audio recorder clipped to his chest, located the power switch, and turned it off. The drone then automatically began to descend slowly, landing smoothly on the ground. “I’m off.” Fang Bing picked up the drone and left, full of excitement. Wang Hao watched Fang Bing leave, shook his head with a wry smile—Fang Bing had always been so carefree, and he’d long since gotten used to it. Once Fang Bing was gone, left alone at home, Wang Hao fell deep in thought. Since the college entrance exams ended, aside from helping Fang Bing build that drone, he’d also checked the prices of servers over the past couple of days. Each price left him speechless—the cheapest servers cost over ten thousand, while the more expensive ones ran into the hundreds of thousands or even millions. “I’ve got to find a way to make some money; otherwise, I won’t be able to upgrade the Longnao,” Wang Hao said with a look of distress. “I could sell the drones… but I’d need to register for a Xu Ke, which is too much of a hassle. Plus, the core technology is the Longnao’s recognition system, so that’s not really feasible either… What on earth can I sell?” A wry smile crossed Wang Hao’s face. He clearly felt he had plenty of ways to make money, but in the end, everything he could think of was somehow tied to Longnao’s core technology. “Wait… I can sell that.” Wang Hao’s eyes lit up instantly as he thought of a program—one he’d just finished coding not long ago: Longnao’s junk cleanup program. Although it was developed specifically for Longnao, it was an external plugin and not strictly part of Longnao’s core development. With a little tweaking, it could become a junk-cleaning program for computers or cell phones. “That’s it—I’ll modify the program.” Wang Hao’s eyes lit up; the more he thought about it, the more feasible the idea seemed. He decided to act on it immediately, returning to his room to make a copy of the original Longnao cleanup program’s code. He sat down at his computer and began coding, removing unnecessary elements. After all, Longnao was far more complex and multifaceted than any standard system program, and the junk it generated was on a completely different scale from that of computer or mobile operating systems. To use Wang Hao’s analogy, Longnao was like a one-year-old child with a strong craving for food but no consideration for what its body could handle. The only difference was that while the child’s focus was on food, Longnao’s focus was on absorbing knowledge—yet it failed to discard unnecessary information. So he needed to delete a large portion of the code and then encrypt the program—but the encryption algorithm gave him a real headache.