Cutting-Edge Technology R&D Center

Chapter 35: “Hao Ge from the Streets”

“Hao Ge, the Man of the Streets.” Watching Fang Bing talk so eloquently in the livestream, Wang Hao couldn’t help but feel like teasing him. Fang Bing looked at the live chat on his phone and was instantly at a loss for words—his only viewer turned out to be Hao Ge. Just then, several viewers suddenly joined the stream. He glanced at the messages they sent. He immediately began speaking enthusiastically once more. “Where is this—a desolate mountain? It really is a ‘Newbie Village’ dungeon.” “Host, if you dare to spend the night here, I’ll follow you.” Wang Hao noticed that the live stream had livened up a bit after those few viewers joined, but as he watched Fang Bing’s somewhat choppy connection, a thought crossed his mind. Due to the lack of cell towers in the mountains, the mobile signal wasn’t very stable, which significantly affected the user experience. “Since I’ve already built a drone, I might as well make a signal booster.” A thoughtful look flashed across Wang Hao’s eyes. He figured he might as well go the extra mile—it wouldn’t take too long to build a receiver. Although many people had done outdoor livestreams before, Fang Bing was streaming deep in the mountains and even staying overnight—this was a relatively niche type of livestream with very few viewers. Gradually, some curious viewers tuned in, while others tuned out. But once Fang Bing started using a drone to follow him as he searched for a place to settle down, the number of viewers leaving dropped significantly. “Holy crap, what’s this? Does the streamer have a whole crew following him? What a big spender.” “He’s really loaded—he even has someone operating the drone for him.” At first, all the viewers assumed someone was controlling the drone, but moments later, some of them realized something was off. Wang Hao, watching the silent Fang Bing, quietly took out his phone to adjust the altitude, raising the camera for a wider view, and then silently flew the drone around the area for a bit. Wang Hao chuckled softly. “He’s really pulling off this act,” he thought to himself. “Wait a minute—there’s literally no one next to the streamer.” “Yeah, I noticed that too. There’s definitely no one controlling it. It can’t be that far away, right? This isn’t an open field—it’s deep in the mountains. If they’re not careful, the drone’s definitely going to crash…” The area where Fang Bing was located was far from open—it was a mountain forest, overgrown with weeds and filled with exceptionally tall trees with dense, Ye Fan foliage. Even with the live feed on the drone’s control terminal, being too far away would inevitably affect control. The problem was that they’d been watching for quite some time and still hadn’t spotted the operator. Some viewers were slowly beginning to realize something was off—this drone wasn’t being manually controlled by a person at all, but was operating on its own. “Host, where did you buy this drone? It’s not exactly pretty, but it looks really high-tech.” “Can you tell us where you bought it, streamer? I’d like to get one too.” There weren’t many viewers in Fang Bing’s livestream—only about twenty or so—since the broadcast had just started. Wang Hao glanced at the comments in Fang Bing’s livestream and smiled slightly. “This drone is one of a kind—a friend built it specifically for me. It’s not available on the market yet, but I’ve heard mass production is about to begin. I’ll let you all know when that happens.” Seeing the buzz the drone had generated in the live stream the moment it appeared, Fang Bing immediately delivered the lines he’d prepared in advance. Wang Hao looked at the viewers in the stream, then glanced at the drone circling above Fang Bing’s head, and silently formulated some suggestions for improvement. If they were going to turn the drone into a product, they should strive to bring it to a state of perfection. “The battery life is still too weak for outdoor livestreaming, but with my current capabilities, there’s simply no way I can develop a more efficient, longer-lasting battery.” A look of deep thought flashed across Wang Hao’s eyes. After pondering for a long time, however, he realized that developing a new battery was his only option—unless he could incorporate a generator or solar charging. “Solar power?” Wang Hao thought for a moment and jotted down the idea. If he were to incorporate solar power, he’d have to make some changes to the drone’s design—at the very least, the wings couldn’t remain in their current position. However, after giving it some thought, he decided to save this idea for future models, since they didn’t have the funds for further modifications—though he could certainly make one for Fang Bing ahead of time. Wang Hao noticed that after using the drone, the number of viewers skyrocketed—gaining about a hundred viewers in just over ten minutes. After watching Fang Bing’s livestream for a while, he stopped watching and went back to writing code. Right now, perfecting Longnao was the top priority; once that was done, it could handle many of the calculations and other tasks, freeing him from having to do everything himself. Lost in his coding, Wang Hao lost track of time as line after line of code poured from his frantic fingertips. “Done. Three hours have actually passed.” Wang Hao looked with satisfaction at the packaged program, which he uploaded to the server, unpacked, and installed. Another fifteen minutes passed before the program finished installing—though this wasn’t the full installation; Longnao still needed to take control of the server. “Xiao Long, can you hear me?” Wang Hao asked softly. “Yes, Hao Ge. What are your instructions?” A metallic voice rang out in Wang Hao’s room. Wang Hao didn’t seem particularly surprised—this was, after all, the result of his three hours of work. “Help me check the raw materials for the signal receiver amplifier,” Wang Hao said again. As he looked at the series of components appearing on the graphics workstation screen, a hint of satisfaction flashed in his eyes. Only now did Longnao truly possess a hint of artificial intelligence. Combined with the database it had built from collected data and supplemented by voice commands, retrieving information had become much easier for him. The server was connected to the graphics workstation, forming a two-machine array that could harness the computational power of both machines—truly liberating Longnao from that old computer. After tidying up a bit, Wang Hao headed out, planning to check the secondhand market for parts for the signal receiver amplifier.