After sending the WeChat message to Chen Xin, Wang Shuo slumped half-laying on the sofa, feeling deeply that his life was utterly hopeless.
After half an hour of serious contemplation, he finally remembered what he had overlooked. Chen Xin had rented... not just one floor, but the entire building!
Wang Shuo counted: the building had three floors, with each floor being 246 square meters. That meant three floors totaled 738 square meters. The monthly rent was 170,000 yuan, making the annual rent... 2.04 million yuan!
This didn't even include the annual property management fees, equipment costs, and maintenance fees, among other expenses! According to his agreement with Chen Xin, he was responsible for all of these costs!
Was Chen Xin helping him? This was clearly her way of ensuring he owed her enough to work for her for a lifetime!
Wang Shuo was furious.
He immediately took out his phone and sent a WeChat message to Chen Xin.
"Miss Chen! You... you're going too far! I knew you didn't have good intentions! Even if you want to lend money with exorbitant interest rates, you should give people some space to refuse! How did I end up owing you a huge debt out of nowhere? I'm telling you, I, Wang Shuo, will never owe you money! Never! Even if you give me ten million, I will definitely pay you back! Definitely!
"I, Wang Shuo, will never work for you!"
After sending the message, Wang Shuo collapsed on the sofa, not expecting Chen Xin to reply — after all, she had never responded to his messages before.
But this time... within a few minutes, Wang Shuo's phone rang. He picked it up and saw that it was indeed a reply from Chen Xin, with just two words.
"Interest."
Wang Shuo instantly became timid, wanting to say something conciliatory, but couldn't bring himself to do it.
Leaning back, Wang Shuo rubbed his face, thinking to himself that, despite his complaints, actions spoke louder than words. He had backed himself into a corner, with success being his only way out. Now, he could only hope that the predecessors of the humanoid race were powerful enough to help him successfully challenge Chen Xin's cold demeanor.
Sitting down at his chair, he reached out and turned on the expensive computer on his workbench, one that he couldn't afford himself. The smooth touch, the large screen, the incredibly fast boot speed — all reminded him that he should just accept the situation. Why bother mentioning repayment? Could a mere nobody like him ever repay three million yuan? It was just his pride talking.
However, the property management was indeed professional. They had already installed all sorts of development software that he might need on the computer: requirement tools, design tools, construction tools, testing tools, maintenance tools, and more — all were readily available. And they seemed high-end and classy; they probably weren't pirated software, right?
Wang Shuo casually opened his email, downloaded the attachments, and prepared to examine them carefully.
Thanks to the powerful download bandwidth, the attachments downloaded swiftly. In just over five minutes, the attachments totaling over 2 GB were fully downloaded.
Wang Shuo opened them and began to review the content.
Time passed, and it wasn't until half an hour later that Wang Shuo finished skimming through all the materials.
"This is a trap..." Wang Shuo looked at the documents in front of him, feeling a bit tearful. Just by looking at them, his heart trembled.
The information on the screen was quite simple. It was about a multi-axis machining center developed by his company, including its specific parameters and technical details. From the materials, it seemed that the machining center had decent performance, capable of precision carving various shapes of parts, including hollow processing.
But problems arose. The machine was built, and its precision could be guaranteed, but it was stuck at the control system stage, unable to progress.
The Chen Group had tried using several domestic independent machine tool control software, but the complexity of operation and precision... were simply appalling.
It often broke tools, and bugs were common, leading to a high waste rate of raw materials and a significant increase in processing costs, more than triple in some cases.
Who would buy such a machining center? Who would dare to use it?
If such a product were to be launched, the technology company under the Chen Group would likely be instantly drowned in criticism from all sides, and its stock price would plummet.
If competitors took advantage of the situation to short the stock...
Then, the Chen Group would be finished...
However, amidst the bad, there is often good. The Chen Group is currently stuck only on the software aspect, unable to extricate itself. But in terms of the product itself, its overall quality is quite good. It boasts a five-axis linkage, a built-in tool magazine, and an automatic tool-changing function. Its repeat positioning accuracy can reach 0.009, with a very high physical precision limit, nearing the level of domestic first-tier standards.
If the control system and tool setter issues could be resolved, allowing the machine tool's physical performance to be fully utilized at a high level, and if the price is set appropriately, it could very well become a hit product in China.
A sufficiently big positive news would definitely drive the Chen Group's stock price to soar, and any difficulties the Chen Group might face would likely be easily resolved.
The Chen Group is also working towards this goal, but unfortunately, as far as the current domestic software standards go, no one can confidently claim that their software is absolutely up to the task, let alone being more comprehensive than similar foreign series products.
It seems... that I've jumped into a huge pit.
Previously, Wang Shuo had optimistically estimated that this system might require a team of fifty people to handle. Now, it seems that even a hundred and fifty people might not be enough to tackle it.
Currently, Wang Shuo is facing two thorny issues — the control system and the high-precision tool setter.
"What's with this high-precision tool setter...? Isn't the tool supposed to align itself properly? Why do we need a tool setter?"
Wang Shuo was puzzled. He decided to swallow his pride and ask — if he didn't understand, he would just... ask his phone!
Quickly taking out his phone and opening the QianDu website, the page displayed the slogan "Search on QianDu, and you will know."
Wang Shuo clicked his tongue and typed in "tool setter."
As expected, Wang Shuo, who always used QianDu, was not surprised to see that the first ten search results were almost all advertisements.
"Realize tool setter life management, reduce your tool costs, American technology certification..."
"Special cutting tool setter for machining centers, Haina Baijian tool setter..."
"You should choose a tool setter like this..."
It wasn't until he turned the page that Wang Shuo found what he was looking for.
"Qiandu Encyclopedia, Tool Setter: In the machining process of workpieces, auxiliary time for workpiece loading and unloading, tool adjustment, etc., accounts for a significant proportion of the machining cycle, especially tool adjustment, which is both exhausting and extremely time-consuming... The types of tool setters include plug-in arm, dropdown arm, fully automatic tool setting arm..."
Wang Shuo suddenly realized.
"I see why I haven't seen this thing in the humanoid civilization; it's... too outdated..."
"A problem that can be solved by a program and equipment, and yet they come up with an auxiliary device... Tsk tsk... It's really very backward..."
Having clarified the situation, Wang Shuo no longer hesitated and quickly opened the design tool, starting to slowly build the idea that had been lingering in his mind for a long time. As for the thick requirement manual, Wang Shuo didn't even look at it. What's the use of reading that stuff except wasting time? Anyway, all the functions that a CNC operating system should have will be added.
"Modular disassembly recognition? Should be needed, add it."
"Comprehensive circuit protection system? This is useful, add it."
"PMC signals and PMC function set? Um, indispensable, add it."
"Alarm and diagnostic functions? This must be included, add it."
...
Wang Shuo was busy working on it, and a complete operating system architecture soon appeared on the design software. What remained was how to implement its functions one by one with code.
Wang Shuo poured a glass of water and looked at his masterpiece with great pleasure. This kind of architecture work is very simple, and it will take another ten or twenty days? Wang Shuo is very suspicious that those scaffolders are not working after receiving their salaries.
"Yeah... After understanding the specific requirements and building the architecture, the next step is to implement it, which is a piece of cake for me..."
Wang Shuo suddenly froze.
He realized that implementing this process was not as easy as he thought.
"How could I forget about this?" Wang Shuo closed his eyes and pondered, "My entire system is built on the code of the humanoid race... Let's just call it code; the principle is the same. My system is based on the humanoid race's code system, using their language for compilation. There's no English version of the code for me to refer to, not even a single letter."
Wang Shuo was at a loss.
What should he do?
A good coding language should have a very clear logical structure. English, as a language, has the advantage of using 26 letters for permutations and combinations, expressing different meanings through different letters, lengths, and patterns. This is the closest to a computer language, as it has enough variety and is binary-friendly. If one were to write code using Chinese logic with English... it would probably result in incomprehensible gibberish.
But it's undeniable that Chinese characters have a much stronger expressive power and meaning than English.
But to write his own code in English?
Wang Shuo thought about it and shook his head, dismissing the terrifying idea. Not to mention that the idea was unimplementable, even if it were possible, the workload would be overwhelming for Wang Shuo.
The simplicity of the humanoid race's code was beyond imagination. It had pushed the logic gates of the computer to an extremely abnormal level. Codes written in English often contained chaotic logic, repetitions, and errors.
Wang Shuo compared them: commands that required two, three, or even a dozen lines in English could often be expressed in just one line or a few characters in the humanoid race's code.
This led to a conclusion that Wang Shuo could not possibly complete the system development in the limited time—millions of lines of code. Even if Wang Shuo worked himself to death, he couldn't possibly write it all!
What about using Chinese for compilation?
That didn't seem feasible either. Under the existing logical conditions, the workload of writing code in Chinese was incalculable, involving modifications to the computer hardware's underlying programs. Wang Shuo couldn't possibly change the hardware's bottom layer out of thin air, no matter how miraculous he was.
"Now I'm in a real pickle..."
A few days' time, an enormous workload.
Why did others find making money so easy, while he found any job he took so dirty and tiring? Wang Shuo took a deep breath, looked at the dark sky outside, and felt so frustrated he could vomit blood.
Difficult as it was, the work had to be done. Wang Shuo didn't want to ruin his reputation. Money was not the issue; he couldn't let Chen Xin underestimate him. He had to make a statement! He was determined to show Chen Xin!
No existing code? He'd create his own!
No compiler? He'd create one!
No instruction set? He'd create one!
No path? He'd pave his own!
"I need to convert the humanoid race's text into a code language and then describe and package it using Earth's methods."
"I also need a compiler. Creating and converting the code language isn't difficult, but the converted language needs to be recognizable by the computer."
"Lastly, I need time... This is a tough problem."
Wang Shuo exhaled and his mind raced.
"As long as I don't lose my way in thought, there are always more solutions than problems. No code language? I'll create one! No underlying software? I'll create a compiler! Not enough time to write code? I'll create a coding machine!"
"Getting started is always the hardest. First, I should simplify the code."