Chapter 1 Qiao Liang's Nostalgia

Qiao Liang flipped through the promotional materials for these old games, each one a flood of childhood memories.

Back then, he didn't have any financial means, so there was no question of buying genuine games to support the developers, and even now, his memories of these games were completely blurred.

So, seeing these classic games, Qiao Liang felt quite nostalgic.

"Nothing more to say, buying this is to make up for the past!"

Qiao Liang didn't look too closely, and directly paid for the collection.

This collection wasn't cheap. It contained a total of eight games, each priced from a few dozen to over a hundred yuan. The collection was discounted by 40%, for a total price of 588 yuan.

Even at the discounted price, it was quite expensive. After all, these were all old games from more than a decade ago, with gameplay completely outdated, not to mention the graphics and game mechanics.

Purely as games, this money was definitely not well spent.

But for a hardcore gamer like Qiao Liang, this money was essentially "making up for the past." After all, he didn't have the financial ability back then, and now it wasn't bad to spend money to buy a wave of nostalgia.

Now that Qiao Liang's life was getting better and better, all thanks to games, it was excusable to buy a few games to support the development of domestic games. Besides, the materials from these games could be used to make videos in the future (probably).

After paying, Qiao Liang looked through the games.

"'Landlord Game,' those were the days, but it's a pity that this game is only fun if you play with a lot of people."

"'Heroes of Jianghu,' this can also be considered a masterpiece of its time."

"'Yu Jian Qing Yuan' (Romance of the Flying Sword) can be considered to have the best quality among this batch of games, but it's a pity that the sequels got worse and worse."

"'Three Kingdoms Conquest'? This game wasn't very good, there weren't many players back then, and it imitated foreign games. If you have to pick the least bad one, it's barely acceptable, but it's not a good game."

"..."

"'Three Kingdoms Conquest' I can tolerate, but what is this thing?"

Qiao Liang looked through the games. The art styles of the previous games were all relatively normal. Although the types and qualities of these games were different, some were undeniably classic games, and some were relatively niche, they were generally still barely acceptable.

But then he suddenly discovered that a weird thing had been mixed in.

"'Mission and Choice'? Isn't this the legendary shame of domestic games?"

"Why is this garbage game still being put up to scam people? And it's even selling for more than a hundred yuan!"

"Did the official go nuts?"

Qiao Liang almost thought he was seeing things.

He hadn't played "Mission and Choice" back then, mainly because he didn't have the financial means back then, and there was no way to convince his parents to spend the huge sum of more than a hundred yuan to buy this game.

Later, the game's reputation collapsed, so there was even less reason to buy it.

Of course, Qiao Liang hadn't played this game, but that didn't mean he hadn't heard of this game's "shocking" legend.

So, seeing it now appearing openly in this collection of domestic games, he found it even more incredible.

"This broken thing sells for more than a hundred yuan?"

"Five yuan is too expensive!"

"Hmm, wait a minute, could this be a version of the game that the official has improved?"

Qiao Liang suddenly felt that this matter didn't seem as simple as he thought.

He immediately clicked on "Mission and Choice," wanting to see if this was a version that the official had fixed the bugs and improved the gameplay.

...

Ten minutes later, Qiao Liang took his hands off the keyboard and mouse, looked at the lake view outside the window, and began to contemplate life.

This game clearly hasn't been changed at all!

A pile of fragmented graphics, perfunctory sound effects, game bugs everywhere...

Qiao Liang hadn't been poisoned by the game "Mission and Choice" before, but this time he couldn't avoid it!

As for why he still insisted on playing for ten minutes, it was probably a curiosity driving him.

He really wanted to see, just how garbage could this game be? Did the official really just put it up without changing anything?

Now he understood, this game was indeed worthless, and the official really did just put it up without changing anything!

Of course, if you're aiming to "enrich the official platform's game library," "remember the shame," and "faithfully record the garbage games of the past to sound the alarm for all game companies," then it's excusable to put "Mission and Choice" back on the official game platform.

But what does it mean for the official to mix it with other domestic games of the same era to make a collection and promote it together?

To highlight how excellent the other games are?

Qiao Liang was speechless. He switched back to the desktop and looked at it. When this game collection was purchased, it was a bundled sale with a 40% discount, but each game could be refunded separately, and the refund conditions were extremely lenient.

Qiao Liang couldn't help but realize, "Oh, I understand."

"The official's collection actually has the effect of 'remembering the bitter days to appreciate the sweet ones'."

"This collection doesn't select the best games of that era, but the most talked-about, most representative, and even most controversial games of that era!"

"There are very excellent classic games, such as 'Landlord Game' and 'Heroes of Jianghu,' and there are also relatively niche games with poor sales but a special type like 'Three Kingdoms Conquest,' and there is also the negative example of 'Mission and Choice' which is of terrible quality."

"The official set up this option to refund individual games because they know that players will definitely not accept some of the games."

"So players can choose the games they are not interested in to refund, and won't suffer any economic losses."

"I see, this makes sense."

Qiao Liang quickly thought of a relatively reasonable explanation.

And this was exactly the effect that Meng Chang wanted to achieve.

Meng Chang had already thought that in this "Domestic Game Collection," the game "Mission and Choice" would definitely seem out of place.

If the other games were all classics, worth collecting, wouldn't "Mission and Choice" be too obvious in this collection?

So, in order to reduce players' suspicion, although the eight games selected for this collection were all classic games from more than a decade ago, not every one of them was worth the price, such as "Three Kingdoms Conquest," which was a relatively niche game with poor sales, decent reputation, but unique enough.

Opening a special refund option for a certain game can minimize the chance of being discovered.

Meng Chang also considered whether to set this collection to sell all the other games as a package, and only "Mission and Choice" needs to be purchased separately, so that the chance of "accidental injury" can be minimized.

But then he thought about it, this would be equivalent to directly excluding "Mission and Choice," which would be too strange, and easily trigger some strange associations among players.

So, in the end, he chose this method of mixing fish eyes with pearls.

Facts have proved that this method is quite effective, and Qiao Liang was fooled.

Of course, all this is based on the fact that Tengda's confidentiality work is done well.

Outsiders don't know that Tengda is developing a remake of the game "Mission and Choice," and most people wouldn't associate it with this, and Qiao Liang is no exception.

He opened his fan group and found that there were a few sporadic messages discussing this collection.

But it didn't cause too much waves. After all, most players aren't very interested in this kind of old antique game. People like Qiao Liang are still in the minority.

A few brothers complained about the game "Mission and Choice," and then were covered up by the overwhelming information in the group, and soon disappeared without a trace.

Qiao Liang didn't take it to heart. He added so many games to his collection every day, and most of them might not even be opened. Today's game collection was no exception.

Unless it's a particularly big production, he would be eager to open the game immediately and beat it in one go.

But after closing the game collection, Qiao Liang fell into confusion again.

What should I do?

I really haven't had any inspiration recently, and the video that should be updated has been delayed for some time.

Suddenly, Qiao Liang had a flash of inspiration.

"Let's make another episode of 'Garbage Game Spit'! Doesn't 'Mission and Choice' provide the perfect material?"

Qiao Liang suddenly thought of a good way to make a filler video.

Although the game "Mission and Choice" has been repeatedly flogged as the shame of domestic games, there have been almost no up-and-comers who have flogged it in recent years. After all, this game is too old, so old that many players now don't even know about it, and the popularity has long passed.

Qiao Liang felt that at this time, making a video to complain about it and bring the audience back to the garbage games of the past that were rotten to the sky, wasn't necessarily a bad thing!

Thinking of this, Qiao Liang made up his mind, the next video will be about this!

...

...

At the same time, Pei Qian sat in the car and yawned.

The sunlight outside was nice, and he felt warm in the sun.

He should be taking a good nap at this time, but he couldn't, because he had something to deal with.

In the morning, Jiang Yuan, the person in charge of Otto Technologies, called and said that the preparations for the artificial intelligence laboratory were almost complete, and hoped that President Pei would come to inspect it and guide the work.

This time, they directly acquired a company researching artificial intelligence with full funding, and also poached several technical backbones from Xunke Technology and other companies.

This company originally already had some achievements, but it couldn't compare with leading companies like Xunke Technology. In order for both parties to better communicate and cooperate, the dozens of employees of this company have all moved to Jingzhou, and Otto Technologies has arranged their food, accommodation, and office space.

Of course, some of the original company's employees also resigned because they didn't want to leave their original city, but it was only a minority, after all, the premium for poaching this time was very high, and everyone knew how good Tengda's treatment was.

Although this team that was poached with heavy money already had some research results, and could operate smoothly even if completely ignored, Jiang Yuan felt that President Pei still had to give some guidance and determine the direction of the research.

After all, artificial intelligence is related to many of Tengda's industries. This technology has many branches, and the specific direction of development may affect President Pei's overall layout of Tengda's industries, so it must not be taken lightly.

As for Pei Qian, he really needed to twist the research direction of this artificial intelligence laboratory a little, so as not to have too much positive impact on his current industries, and ensure that these tens of millions of dollars were spent without too many useful results, so that he could continue to throw money into it in the future with confidence.

Soon, Otto Technologies arrived.

Jiang Yuan was already waiting downstairs, and directly led Pei Qian to the office of the artificial intelligence laboratory.

"President Pei, this is Shen Renjie, the person in charge of the artificial intelligence laboratory."

Shen Renjie looked nearly forty years old, dressed casually, with the characteristics of a programmer, and looked like a relatively pragmatic person.

After getting to know each other, Shen Renjie said, "President Pei, how about I call the core members of the laboratory to introduce them, and then explain to you the current research results of our laboratory?"

Pei Qian raised his hand, "No need, I trust you to handle things, let's get straight to the point."

Jiang Yuan nodded, "Okay, let's go to the meeting room to talk."

The three came to the meeting room and took their seats.

In fact, Pei Qian didn't care about the composition of the personnel and the research results of this laboratory, he only cared about whether this laboratory could continue to safely burn money for him.

So, first, you have to get a good name, and look for a good omen.

Pei Qian took a sip of tea and asked, "Does the laboratory have a name?"

Shen Renjie replied, "Yes. The name of our laboratory before was 'Qilin' Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, because the Qilin is a auspicious beast in ancient China, with outstanding intelligence and auspicious meaning, which is more in line with the theme of artificial intelligence."

Pei Qian frowned immediately and shook his head, "Inappropriate."

Jiang Yuan said, "Then let's just call it Aeeis Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, after all, Aeeis is our current main artificial intelligence product, and this name is good-sounding and easy to remember."

Pei Qian shook his head again, "Still inappropriate."

Good fellow, calling it Qilin?

This name is too domineering, and gives Pei Qian a strong sense of crisis.

Calling it Aeeis Artificial Intelligence Laboratory is also inappropriate, because Aeeis is already popular, and Pei Qian doesn't want to make this artificial intelligence laboratory popular as well.

Jiang Yuan and Shen Renjie looked at President Pei, meaning that if this is not okay and that is not okay, please give a suitable name?

Pei Qian considered for a moment and then said, "In my opinion, let's call it 'Nag' Artificial Intelligence Laboratory!"

Calling it Qilin is not appropriate, then let's do a reverse operation!

The so-called Nag refers to horses with poor qualifications and unremarkable talents, also known as crippled horses. In layman's terms, they are inferior horses that are stupid and slow.

Pei Qian vaguely remembered seeing a saying in an ancient text somewhere: "Horses are measured in three ways, first, war horses, second, field horses, and third, nags."

It probably means: There are three types of horses, some are war horses for fighting on the battlefield, some are field horses for plowing the land, and some are nags that are useless.

Naming this artificial intelligence laboratory "Nag" is to hope that the artificial intelligence developed is stupid and slow, and the research speed is also very slow, and in the end it is useless.

Jiang Yuan and Shen Renjie were stunned.

"Nag" Artificial Intelligence Laboratory?

This name is too uninspiring!

Wasn't the previous "Qilin" very nice? Good fellow, this has directly downgraded it by several levels, okay?

Pei Qian had a profound expression on his face, anyway, as long as he is not guilty, it must be others who are guilty.

"So, the name is set as this!"