Chapter 161: "The Dream Net Project

Chapter 161 -68: “The Dream Net Project

Cafeteria No. 2 at noon was bustling and crowded, brimming with the vibrant energy of youth.

Yu Xian and Shi Zuozhou, holding their trays and meal cards, stood in a long line to get food.

“For real? It has everything?”

The two guys in front of them in line were discussing some mysterious topic, their eyes gleaming.

Yu Xian subconsciously looked up, his gaze passing over one of the guy’s shoulders and landing on his phone screen.

A black background, old-fashioned green serif font, and a minimalist pixel-art rabbit icon.

The familiar interface made his pupils contract slightly.

Rabbit Hole.

The guy on the left skillfully opened the “Resources” tab at the bottom, swiping through the long list as if to show it off. The guy on the right let out a gasp of amazement:

“Holy shit… This is fucking awesome! It even has the latest *My Rural Romance with Voldemort*? I asked around for it all day yesterday and nobody replied. They all said I was a weirdo. So disappointing.”

“I heard some master from overseas made it. And you can even download stuff without an internet connection. People are continuously uploading more resources to it,” the guy on the left said, his tone tinged with a bit of pride.

“This… It doesn’t have a virus, does it?” the guy on the right asked, finding it hard to believe.

“If you’re worried about viruses, just don’t click on those random personal folders at the bottom.” The guy promoting the app tapped the screen, speaking like an expert:

“On this app, everyone can only upload things to folders they create themselves. Other people can’t mess with yours, and you can’t mess with theirs. It’s like… it’s kind of like cloud storage.”

He tapped the screen a few times and pointed to the folders at the very top of the list:

“These big folders at the top were all created by the same public key ID. The resources he uploads are the most complete and stable. Everyone’s calling it the ‘official clean version.’ If you’re worried about viruses, just listen to the stuff he uploads. They’re all MP3 files. It’s hard to get a virus just by playing them on your phone.”

Hearing this, Yu Xian calmly looked away.

Of course he knew who that ID belonged to. It was the account Wen Xiao had used yesterday when releasing the new version of Rabbit Hole to upload the “safe version” audio files he’d spent the last few days unpacking and cleaning.

It seemed the Rabbit Hole and “Operation: Switch the Prince for a Leopard Cat” plan were proceeding smoothly, with unexpectedly good results. They hadn’t even launched the point-bidding mechanism yet, but they’d already achieved the effect of having an “official, genuine version.”

It was a case of good money driving out bad.

However, a line of defense built on brand effect and word-of-mouth was ultimately still a bit fragile.

‘The current situation seems stable, but it’s essentially just a form of “soft guidance.”‘

‘It’s like mixing poison and candy in a basket. Most people will choose the candy, but there will always be some who are overly curious, or who want more than just candy, who can’t resist reaching for the poison in the fancy wrapper.’

‘Most people will follow the mainstream for safety’s sake, but as long as those audio files with the unknown black box component continue to circulate, the danger will always exist.’

‘After all, the human instincts for voyeurism, wishful thinking, curiosity, and thrill-seeking will always be at play.’

‘To truly win this war, “influence” isn’t enough. We must have “control.”‘

“Two orders of braised pork over rice, each with an extra marinated egg and a chicken leg.”

It was their turn. Shi Zuozhou swiped his card, and the two of them found a window seat.

“Old Yu, looks like we made the right move,” Shi Zuozhou said in a low voice, his face lighting up with excitement.

“This situation is only temporary. If the other side figures out our intentions, they could easily package a new ‘influencer’ to muddy the waters.” Yu Xian was also scrolling through the school forum, where many people were already sharing the Rabbit Hole installation file.

“Once Wen Xiao finishes coding the point-bidding mechanism, we’ll be able to truly hold the ‘power of life and death’ over this network. Right now, on Rabbit Hole, forwarding between nodes is random and equal. Whether it’s our safe audio or someone else’s black box audio, as long as someone requests a download, nearby nodes will help transmit it.”

Yu Xian separated the braised pork and potatoes on his tray.

“When the time comes, we’ll have the most Carrot Points on the entire network. We can ‘bribe’ all the nodes, increase our own weight, and squeeze out the transmission bandwidth and capacity of other folders. The other resources will automatically be marginalized, or even discarded.”

“So it’s decentralized computing-power hegemony!” Shi Zuozhou said with a sly grin.

“Whoever controls the computing power controls the truth!”

The two phones on the table buzzed simultaneously, and Shi Zuozhou’s smart band lit up as well.

Yu Xian glanced at the screen. It was a message from the “Crazy Thursday (4)” group chat.

It was from AAA Divine Calculation Immortal (Corrupted).

“@All, report! I just got in touch with my martial uncle. There’s good news and bad news. Which do you want to hear first?”

“Still trying to be mysterious at a time like this,” Shi Zuozhou mumbled indistinctly, his mouth full of marinated egg. He quickly typed a question mark on the screen.

Shao Yiyi’s reply came back quickly:

“The bad news is, my martial uncle isn’t in Jiangcheng right now. He said he’s out of town for a university reading-and-sharing session.”

Seeing that no one was replying, she sent another message:

“The good news is, even though he’s not here in person, he can talk on the phone. I scheduled a call with him for Friday afternoon—that’s tomorrow. Are you guys free?”

Shi Zuozhou glanced at Yu Xian and pointed at his phone with his chopsticks.