42: Chapter 42 Who are the core developers?

Chang Yuan suddenly remembered something and stumbled into his office, turning on the computer Zhang Fan used to use.

"There must be a way... there must be..."

Chang Yuan trembled as he turned on the machine, but the password prompt showed an error. Previously, he had specifically changed the password because he was afraid others would touch this computer; now, in his exasperation, it took him three tries to unlock it.

The computer screen lit up, and the desktop was still as it was before Zhang Fan left. A folder named "star path project backup" was particularly conspicuous.

Chang Yuan clicked into it and scrolled to the last page. Under the entry for "250,000 online threshold" in the folder, there was only a single line of comment: [Key]

"Key! Key! What on earth is the key!" Chang Yuan frantically clicked through various partitions and even searched the recycle bin three times, but there was no sign of any key.

"What a crafty brat!" Chang Yuan gritted his teeth, yet a sense of helplessness welled up within him.

He remembered what the university senior who mentored him when he first entered the industry had said: "When writing programs, you always have to keep a few tricks up your sleeve, otherwise how can you show your value?"

Back then, he had only taken it as a joke, but now he realized that even the Zhang Fan he looked down on the most played this trick incredibly well.

At one in the morning, CEO Allen's figure appeared in the R&D Department.

He wore a custom suit, his hair combed meticulously, but the bloodshot streaks in his eyes betrayed his exhaustion.

"Wei Xiang, how is the situation?"

"CEO..." Wei Xiang's voice was strained, "Chang Yuan is still investigating. Everyone in the Technology Department is working overtime."

CEO Allen didn't say a word and walked straight into the conference room.

In the conference room, CEO Allen stood before the floor-to-ceiling window for a long time, a cigarette between his fingers. A long stretch of ash had accumulated, but he didn't flick it away.

Outside the window was the night view of Jiang City, with neon lights flashing, but there wasn't a hint of light in his eyes—tomorrow, the Chairman would return from Japan, yet this year's strategic project, Cangqiong, was stuck at the final hurdle before going online.

"Wei Xiang, Chang Yuan, come in." He didn't even turn his head, his voice terrifyingly calm.

Wei Xiang and Chang Yuan glanced at each other, both seeing fear in the other's eyes.

The two walked into the office one after the other. Just as their heels touched the carpet, they heard CEO Allen's voice: "No one is leaving today. Stay here and watch; this must be resolved before dawn."

"Yes, CEO." The two responded in unison, the cold sweat on their backs already soaking their shirts.

Half an hour later, the R&D Department's large conference room was filled with people.

The Game Design Director, Art Director, Audio Director... every person in charge who had even the slightest connection to Cangqiong had been urgently summoned.

At the end of the long conference table, CEO Allen sat expressionless, holding a signature pen. The "tap-tap" sound of the pen cap hitting the table felt like it was drumming on everyone's hearts.

"Everyone is clear on the situation." Wei Xiang cleared his throat, his voice tight. "The server crashes once the number of online users exceeds 250,000. The core problem lies in the underlying code. Now we need all departments to cooperate in the investigation to see if it's an issue with data interaction or resource loading."

The Art Director was the first to shake his head: "Our models and textures are all compressed according to standards. It's impossible for them to drag down the server."

The Audio Director followed immediately: "The sound effect files are all lightweighted; peak memory usage is less than 1%."

The Design Director pushed up his glasses: "The gameplay logic is fine. During the closed beta, it was very stable with a hundred thousand people online."

After a round of questioning, the three departments—Game Design, Art, and Audio—had all ruled out suspicion.

CEO Allen waved his hand: "You all go back first, and keep your communication lines open."

Once everyone had left, only the people from the Technology Department remained in the conference room, and the atmosphere became even more oppressive.

All the programmers from the star path project team were called in. Over twenty people crowded into the back row, each with their head bowed, not daring to make a sound.

"Bring up the core code." CEO Allen finally spoke, his tone unreadable.

Chang Yuan quickly operated his laptop, and dense lines of code jumped onto the projector. The scroll bar was pulled for a long time without reaching the bottom. The people from the Technology Department crowded forward, pointing at the encryption module on the screen and talking all at once—

"This is it! It's locked the expansion logic!"

"We tried to crack it three times, and each time it triggered an infinite loop!"

"The encryption method is very special. It's not the common MD5 or SHA; it looks like a custom algorithm!"

CEO Allen's gaze fell on the words "Encryption Module." He looked up at Chang Yuan: "Who wrote it?"

Chang Yuan's face turned pale instantly. He stammered, "It's... it's code from the early stages of the star path project. We were rushing to meet the deadline back then and didn't pay much attention..."

"Who is the core developer of the star path project?" CEO Allen pressed.

The conference room was silent, but everyone looked at Chang Yuan.

Just then, someone in the back row moved. It was Wang Chengsi, who used to be in the same group as Zhang Fan working on the star path project.

He and Zhang Fan were alumni, and he was the senior who had brought Zhang Fan into the company. The two had a good relationship.

"CEO," Wang Chengsi hesitated for a moment but still stood up. "The original framework of the star path project was made by Zhang Fan."

"Zhang Fan?" CEO Allen frowned. "Who is Zhang Fan?"

Chang Yuan glared fiercely at Wang Chengsi, his eyes looking like they wanted to devour him. "Zhang Fan was fired a month ago! Because... he refused to comply with the company's various rules and regulations and was absent for consecutive days. Besides, during the development of Cangqiong, Zhang Fan only wrote some peripheral parts; the core code was all refactored by me!"

"Is that so?" CEO Allen looked at Wang Chengsi.

Wang Chengsi glanced at Chang Yuan but still bit the bullet and said, "In the early stages of the star path project, the underlying encryption logic was always Zhang Fan's responsibility."

Chang Yuan's face turned blue and white. He suddenly stood up: "Fuck you! Wang Chengsi, are you just talking nonsense here because you're close to Zhang Fan?"

Wang Chengsi trembled from his roar, but he remembered the scene on the day Zhang Fan had his accident—

That afternoon, he saw Zhang Fan packing his things early and found it strange. Everyone knew Zhang Fan was usually the first to arrive and the last to leave the group.

"Brother Fan, where are you off to in such a rush?" he joked, gesturing toward the Director's office. "Isn't Little Gu still reporting to Director Chang? Not leaving together today?"

Zhang Fan's face turned red instantly. He hurriedly tugged at his jacket. "Feifei... she said she'd make dinner for me tonight, so I'm going to buy groceries first."

But less than half an hour later, he heard that Zhang Fan had fallen in the stairwell.

Actually, when Wang Chengsi went to the restroom earlier, he happened to run into Gu Feifei and Chang Yuan running out of the stairwell. Both were disheveled; Gu Feifei's lipstick was smudged, and Chang Yuan's shirt collar was still open.

Later, Zhang Fan was mysteriously fired. At that time, Wang Chengsi had muttered in the department group, "Wasn't Zhang Fan hospitalized!?"

In the end, he was warned by Chang Yuan in a private message to "mind your own business."

Not long after that, Gu Feifei went public with her relationship with Chang Yuan.

Heh, what a scummy couple!

"I'm not talking nonsense." Thinking of this, Wang Chengsi took a deep breath and looked up at CEO Allen. "CEO Allen, now only Zhang Fan might be able to unlock this encryption module. If it can't be solved today, forget about the official version going online the day after tomorrow; I'm afraid even tomorrow's promotion will..."

He didn't say the rest, but everyone understood—it meant losses in the hundreds of millions, it meant accountability from the Board of Directors, and it meant the entire star path project team might be wiped out.