Free Web NovelChapter 160: Chapter 158: Genius, Cheats, and Tom and Jerry
In a dim room, a powerful beam of light shone on the face of a man tied to a chair.
He was "Late Wind," the creator of the social media series comparing purchasing power in the Northern Domain. He could be considered one of the Feilin People’s first self-proclaimed public intellectuals, and his account had since been banned.
He was slowly coming to, the blinding glare making it difficult to see what was in front of him.
He could only vaguely make out two non-humanoid silhouettes behind a table.
It was Zog and War Axe.
Zog even pretentiously took out a notebook and said, "We are employees of the Zog Group, here to illegally question you today.
"You may make a guilty confession, but you are not permitted to plead your innocence. You also have no right to refuse to answer questions unrelated to this case. freēwēbnovel.com
"Do you understand!" His voice suddenly rose as he slammed his hand on the table.
"I understand," the man on the chair replied subconsciously.
"Name?" Zog pressed on quickly.
"Nero."
"Where are you from?"
"The Loman Empire."
"What are you doing in the Northern Domain?"
"To pursue a life of freedom!" Even while imprisoned, Nero hadn’t forgotten his original reason for emigrating.
He’d clearly been completely taken in by those newspaper articles.
"Occupation?"
"I’m employed at the Royal Caster Academy."
"Be specific."
"Janitor."
"Annual income."
"15 Silver Coins."
Zog clicked his tongue. ’Well, that’s not wrong. It’s in the ballpark of a few hundred Gold Coins, just way, way below it.’
"What about the thousand-square-meter mansion?"
Nero looked up, slightly confused. It was already strange enough being inexplicably captured. Had he done something wrong or offended someone important?
Besides, his captors seemed to know a lot about him.
"I also have a part-time job mowing the lawn at a mansion," he replied.
Zog’s curiosity was fully satisfied. This was exactly what he’d imagined the moderator of the "Feilin Life" forum would be like.
"What method did you use to boost someone to first place on the auto-chess ladder?" Zog got to the point.
Beside him, War Axe produced a large pair of pincers from somewhere. He opened and closed them in his hands, causing the jaws to clang together with a loud BANG, sending sparks flying.
He wore a chilling smile, the threat palpable.
However, the intimidation was a bit redundant. Nero confessed everything almost without hesitation.
"I used a set of Runes. The Runes can play the game automatically."
"Where did you get the Runes?" Zog didn’t think this Nero had the magical skill to create a cheat program himself.
"A fellow countryman of mine, Little Morris, gave them to me. He’s studying abroad at Repin Academy now," Nero said, holding nothing back.
’Little Morris? Still studying at Repin?’
Zog recognized the name.
A member of the Liebin Study Tour Group, Uffie’s teammate. He looked a bit slow and dull-witted, but he was actually the one on the team in charge of numerical calculations. He might have some kind of congenital condition.
The entire team was currently on Zog’s turf developing the full version of a tower defense game. This would make him very easy to find.
"Go get Little Morris. Tell him there’s an issue with the game’s numerical balance. And invite him, don’t abduct him," Zog ordered Assistant Zor, then turned to Nero. "Give us a demonstration."
After some brief preparations, Nero started a game of auto-chess in a match room provided by Zog.
The other seven players in the game were Illusionists from the operations team, using magical tools to monitor every action performed by Nero’s account in real-time.
Also present was Saint El, currently the most knowledgeable Mage on the Continent regarding Magic—quite possibly without equal.
After learning that someone could cheat in the game, he had become very interested in the method used to achieve it.
During his time collaborating with the Zog Group, he had meticulously studied the entire magical model of the Divine Remains Network. Aside from directly modifying the game’s backend data, he couldn’t think of any other way to cheat.
A set of Runes appeared on Nero’s game interface. Just as he’d said, this set of Runes could play the game automatically.
The match ended quickly, with the automated Runes claiming victory.
The result was expected. After all, even Toto couldn’t beat this pile of Runes.
Zog looked at Saint El. He certainly couldn’t understand the principle behind it and hoped the Old Elf could provide an explanation.
Saint El stroked his beard and said slowly, "These Runes are merely for executing actions. They constantly identify the actions of other players."
"Input reading?" Zog was immediately reminded of a certain infamous game developer who loves one-way doors.
But what was the use of reading other players’ inputs in auto-chess?
In a fighting game, reading inputs to perfectly counter an opponent’s moves would make you invincible. You would make zero mistakes in a mix-up, on top of having a neutral game like the Autonomous Extreme Intent Technique.
But none of that was useful in auto-chess. At best, it could only explain how the formation was changed in one second flat during that turn.
Saint El waved his hand, dismantling the Runes. The Magic used in them wasn’t complex, and he quickly understood it.
"This isn’t a set of independently operating Runes. There’s a magical model associated with it. The Runes transmit the other players’ actions they identify to this magical model.
"The model then provides a real-time win rate for different possible actions and executes the one with the highest chance of victory. It’s a form of Magic designed specifically for playing games," the Old Elf explained.
His interest immediately waned. He had thought it would be some new, never-before-seen form of Magic.
"Mages have never given up on the pursuit of creating intelligent life, believing that to be the key to truly grasping the ultimate meaning of Magic."
As Feilin’s walking encyclopedia of Magic, El began to recount the history of this type of spell.
"The concept was first proposed by a Mage from Loman: allow a magically constructed entity to learn on its own, training the magical model with vast amounts of data until it eventually approaches the level of a sentient being.
"It was a fine idea, but impossible to implement. Mages simply couldn’t provide enough training data. In the end, the best they could achieve was something that could play chess, and it couldn’t even handle more complex board games. Now, it’s used to play video games."
"Not enough? It can play chess and video games!" Zog’s voice suddenly shot up.
He flew up, grabbed Old El’s shoulders with his claws, his eyes gleaming as if he’d just seen a mountain of gold.
’Machine learning... no, this is Magic learning! Magical Intelligence is waving right at me!’
It sounded like the only problem with this method was a lack of processing power.
’But I have processing power!’
The Deer Spirit in the Northern Forest was sitting idle with all its big data. And if the Deer Spirit wasn’t enough, the Red Middle Divine Remains was probably close to forming a Spirit Body soon too.
Zog’s expectations for this magical intelligence weren’t for drawing pictures or performing searches.
He wanted an intelligent Magic that could help him deduce new Inscriptions.
The Zog Group had no plans to develop any large-scale games for the time being because its primary Illusionists were all busy developing a universal operating system.
Zog wanted a personal console, not a dedicated gaming machine, to ensure the widest possible adoption.
However, the difficulty of developing an operating system was proving to be too high. The effects of existing Inscriptions were insufficient for the task, and deciphering new Inscriptions was a highly complex job for Mages.
But for a Magical Intelligence, it should be much easier.
"Do you know this type of Magic?"
"Hmph. I simply saw no need to learn it."
"So you don’t know it," Zog said, curling his lip in disdain. "And you’re the head of the Mage Guild? Is that all you’ve got?"
"If I wanted to learn it, I could do it in an instant!" Saint El struck the floor twice with his staff, as if to prove he wasn’t over the hill yet.
"Boss, Little Morris is here," Assistant Zor returned at that moment.
Soon, Zog met Little Morris.
He looked timid, tightly clutching two dolls in his hands: Tom and Jerry.
He looked as if he’d just been pulled out of bed.
Big Morris had come along as well, worried that his younger brother might have gotten into some kind of trouble.
"This set of Runes and the Magic used to predict win rates... did you create them?" Zog asked.
"No, I developed them," Big Mo immediately cut in.
The moment he heard Zog’s question, he’d already pictured a whole scenario: someone used the Runes to cheat in a game, got caught, and now they were here to hold someone accountable.
And so he’d decided, without a moment’s hesitation, to take the fall for his brother.
He was mostly correct, except for the last part. Zog wasn’t here to assign blame.
"Are you looking down on my Truth-Telling Technique?" Zog gestured for Big Mo to sit down first.
Xiaomo, on the other hand, nodded.
"Why did you make this? Was it to make a profit?"
Xiaomo didn’t quite understand.
"It was so he could play games by himself. My brother has always been afraid to play matchmaking because he’s scared people will yell at him, so he made these things to play with," Big Mo explained.
This was, without a doubt, the most dedicated person Zog had ever seen when it came to playing auto-chess.
"How did that guy, Nero, get the Runes?"
Nero had already been let go. After all, while cheating was a scummy thing to do, it wasn’t exactly an unforgivable crime. So after banning his account, they released him.
He was, however, released with a fine of several thousand Gold Coins for the crime of "damaging Zog Group property."
"He’s from our hometown. He said he also wanted to play multiplayer games by himself, so he borrowed the Runes," Big Mo replied.
His younger brother nodded beside him in confirmation.
So, subjectively, he never intended to make a cheat program, nor did he want to profit from it. He didn’t even use it to climb the ranks himself, always just starting games on his own.
Zog was very satisfied. He asked, "After you finish the game for your study tour group, come work for my Group. I’m in great need of this technology that gives Magic a certain degree of intelligence. As for salary, just name your price."
Zog struck the pose of an overbearing CEO. Just listen to him—"name your price."
’Considering the income levels in Loman, Xiaomo should be kowtowing in gratitude. ’Mo has drifted for half his life, only regretting not meeting a wise master sooner!’’
Zog’s internal monologue was quite pleased with itself.
However, to the Dragon’s surprise, Xiaomo just calmly shook his head.
"No, but why? You can set the salary. As long as you’re not asking for a price that will bankrupt the Group, I won’t haggle." Zog was baffled. He suspected Xiaomo might not have understood him.
’My god, if I’d had a boss like this back in the day, I would’ve treated the company like my own home.’
"After... I finish... the game... I want to... make... a Shadow of Evil... for them," Xiaomo stammered, his expression completely serious.
"Them? Who’s them?" Zog asked.
"Them," Xiaomo said, holding up the two dolls he was hugging. "They... are... my best friends. I want... to introduce them... to everyone."
Zog looked at the blue Cat and the brown mouse. Judging by how worn they were, he had clearly been hugging them nonstop for years.
An idea struck him. He said, "How about this: I’ll make the Shadow of Evil for Tom and Jerry, and you join the Group to do research."
"Really?"
"Really," Zog slapped a Contract down with the back of his claw. "Trust me. The two of them will become the most famous Tom and Jerry in history."
