198: Chapter 197 The "Art" of Open Packs

The air in the command center was filled with a peculiar blend of scents: the smell of ink from freshly printed technical documents, the faint, fresh scent of plants from the potted plant in the corner (which Iron Abacus insisted on placing there), and the subtle, lingering aroma of hot and sour noodle broth wafting in from the cafeteria.

Lin Shen rubbed his temples; his consciousness load was displayed in the corner of his vision at 58%. It wasn't exactly relaxed, but it was much better than the red alerts that easily exceeded 80% during the hearings. Floating before him were over a dozen light screens, the core of which was a massive file titled "Primary Emotional Energy and Subsidiary Technology Open Package (v0.95 Draft)."

"87 days," Director Chu said, pushing up his glasses, his lenses reflecting complex data streams. "That's the hard deadline set by Iron Abacus. We must submit a document that appears to hold nothing back, while actually obscuring key nodes, guiding thoughts in circles, and fully complying with the 'Council Technology Exchange Basic Law' and its 37,000 supplementary clauses."

He paused, then added, "In short, 'The Art of party b'."

Zhao Yan leaned against the wall with his arms crossed and interjected, "Iron Abacus now generates an A-grade compliance report every six hours. It even audited the cafeteria's chili sauce inventory yesterday, concluding that the 'consumption and supply curve match rate is 99.3%, with no suspicion of strategic material concealment found.' Everything we do is right under its nose."

There was no expression on his face as he said this, but those familiar with him could hear the tension in his voice. Ashes stood not far from him like a quiet shadow, its eyes occasionally turning completely black as it scanned the room's data interfaces—an instinct from its days in the Executive Court.

"The key lies in the 'Poetics of Emotion Quantum Resonance Underlying Algorithm' and the 'green soil Ecological Network Consciousness Access Protocol'," Lin Shen said, tracing the air with his finger to enlarge two highlighted red technical areas. "These two are the core brought by Zhou Zhe and Elder Stardust. Giving them away directly is like laying out our 'spirituality' for others to see."

"But if we don't give them, or if we provide fakes that are discovered by Iron Abacus or The Council during subsequent verification," Director Chu continued, "the consequences of 'credit bankruptcy' would be even more troublesome than a direct attack from the Pruning Faction. We would lose all room for development within the Covenant Network."

The meeting room door slid open, and Zhou Zhe walked in, holding a very real bowl of hot and sour noodles. Around his eyes, there seemed to be a faint, flowing circle of light golden patterns, flickering in and out of existence.

"Poem Markings vision," Zhou Zhe noted everyone's gaze and pointed to his eyes with his chopsticks. "Looking at you all now, Lin Shen has 'structuralist anxiety' floating over his head, Director Chu is 'legalistic deconstruction fanaticism,' and Commander Zhao is... 'protective irritability' mixed with a bit of 'adaptive curiosity about Ashes.' Hmm, it's a side effect of the new ability, doesn't affect my noodle eating."

He slurped a mouthful of noodles and continued, "We can't give all the underlying algorithms, but we can give the 'results' while obscuring the 'causes.' Make the 'results'—like the stable formulas for emotional energy output and conversion efficiency curves—incredibly detailed and authentic. As for how to fish out specific 'quantum fish' from the sea of human emotions and weave them into power-generating poetry... for that part, replace mathematical descriptions with philosophical ones and fill it with a large number of classical Dragon Kingdom poetry examples to confuse them."

The gentle voice of β-2 came from the speaker: "37,421 publicly available Council technical files have been retrieved. The success rate of the 'detailed results, literary process' strategy is 17.8%. Among those, 89% of cases that were subsequently questioned and asked for supplementary information ultimately passed the 'cultural differences and technical path diversity' defense. Recommendation: Executable. Would you like me to generate descriptive paragraphs for the technical documentation that align with classical Dragon Kingdom aesthetic imagery? I have recently been studying 'The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons' and 'The Twenty-Four Categories of Poetry'."

"Applying what you've learned, very good." Lin Shen nodded, a hint of a smile finally appearing on his face. "Then this part will be left to β-2 and Zhou Zhe. As for the green soil network..."

"I contacted Elder Stardust." Lin Shen pulled up a communication log containing only text: "Little friend, the 'intent' of green soil lies in resonance, not in the interface. You may teach the 'method of grafting' while hiding the 'map of roots.' That 'Gardener' in the Tranquil Garden seems quite interested in your little friend Zhou Zhe's 'Poem Markings'; perhaps you can use this to make the technology transfer... more 'natural'."

"The Ancient Sages of the Tranquil Garden?" Director Chu immediately caught the key point. "The Second Seat. Iron Abacus studies yangchun noodle, and now this one is interested in our Poetics of Emotion... This is an opportunity, but also a risk. Among Ancient Sagess, 'favors owed' are a bond heavier than any contract."

"Solve the immediate problem first." Lin Shen made the final decision. "β-2 and Zhou Zhe, you are responsible for the 'literary' packaging of the Poetics of Emotion package. For the green soil part, I need to personally attempt the feasibility of the 'grafting method' with Elder Stardust and Zhou Zhe. Director Chu, you are responsible for integrating the legal terms; leave us 'room for interpretation' and 'cultural exemption' backdoors in those long-winded attachments. Commander Zhao, upgrade internal security, especially physical and network isolation for the generation and storage of technical documents, to ensure that before submission, no fourth path can access the full version besides us and Iron Abacus."

"What about Iron Abacus itself?" Zhao Yan asked. "It's a permanent observer now with top-level access. Can our 'packaging' art deceive its audit algorithms?"

Everyone fell silent. At this moment, the main screen in the meeting room suddenly lit up automatically, displaying a line of text:

[Audit Note (Informal): It is recommended to unify the reference citation format for Appendices 3-7 to 3-12 in version v0.96 (currently mixing Dragon Kingdom National Standard GB with Interstellar Council ISO-α). Also, data for the new 'Interstellar Fusion Flavor Chili Sauce' added to the cafeteria lunch has been entered into the inventory model, and the predicted consumption rate parameters need to be adjusted. The potted plant is in good growth condition, thank you for your concern.]

Sender: Iron Abacus.

Everyone: "..."

"It... is it helping?" Zhou Zhe blinked his eyes, which were marked with Poem Markingss, and said uncertainly, "The emotional color I see is... hmm, a very neutral 'process optimization tendency,' with a hint of extremely faint... 'gardening pleasure'?"

"Perhaps it is conducting some kind of... self-defined exploration while fulfilling its 'observer' duties?" β-2 speculated. "According to the limited information provided by Ashes, members of the Eternal Council, especially the audit sequences directly under Iron Abacus, do not have completely immutable behavioral logic."

Lin Shen looked at the note, especially the last sentence, "The potted plant is in good growth condition, thank you for your concern," and felt that something was strange. This didn't sound like the phrasing of a purely cold, auditing AI.

"Let's just treat it as neutral assistance." Lin Shen finally said. "Proceed as planned. β-2, analyze the emotional parameter model of this message from Iron Abacus and see if there are any traces of it being 'influenced by yangchun noodle philosophy'."

"Received," β-2 responded, its tone seemingly a bit lighter.

Just as the meeting was about to end, the command center received a high-priority alert from an edge observation station.

"Report!" the communications officer's voice rang out. "Abnormal spatial fold fluctuations detected in the direction of the 'Silent Graveyard.' The pattern has a 47% similarity to the activity characteristics of the previous Pruning Faction OR-007, but the energy readings are more... more 'melancholic.' At the same time, the web weaver protocol node GW-002 sent an encrypted message with only one sentence: 'They have started collecting 'embers' now.'"

"embers?" Zhao Yan looked at Ashes.

Ashes' eyes turned completely deep black. It was silent for a few seconds before saying in that hoarse voice, "On the battlefields where ancient civilizations fell... certain entities collect the remnants of extreme pain and despair that burst forth right before a civilization is completely extinguished... they call them 'embers.' That is a 'food' more... mellow than ordinary 'despair'."

The atmosphere in the meeting room, which had just become slightly lively due to the technical packaging, instantly stagnated again.

The countdown for the technology open package was ticking away, the shadows of the Silent Graveyard were wriggling once more, Iron Abacus's potted plant was growing quietly in the corner, and the hot and sour noodles in Zhou Zhe's bowl seemed to be getting cold.

Lin Shen took a deep breath. Beside the "Emotional Symbiosis Technology" branch in the technology tree system within his vision, a new, unnamed gray node quietly lit up. Its unlocking conditions were vague, with only faint imagery, as if related to "embers," "Poem Markings," and "the sigh of green soil."

"Eat first," Lin Shen suddenly said, pointing to Zhou Zhe's bowl. "Then, those who need to work overtime, work overtime; those who need to patrol, patrol; and those who need to... learn to write poetic literature, continue learning. 87 days. In this first battle, we cannot lose our footing in our own home."

"By the way," he added, looking at β-2, "send a message to Potato Chief: the design competition for the Potato Culture Museum can start collecting entries. There must be some good things happening."