Chapter 205: Work Assistant 1.0

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

A few more days had passed. The vast numbers of netizens had gotten tired of lashing out at Samsin. News of the divorce of a celebrity couple suddenly broke out in the entertainment circle, taking a large amount of attention away from Samsin. The focus of public opinion had shifted. Samsin gradually faded away from the view of the public. And thus, they escaped this crisis.

The President of Samsin, Li Jianrong, sighed in relief and wiped at the sweat beading on his forehead. In his heart, he silently thanked the celebrity couple. However, he could not help but yell in rage at the same time. “Xing Hai Technologies, I won’t let this go!”

…

In the middle of March, at the third development plant of Xing Hai Technologies, Chen Jin had come to understand the situation on the latest progress of the company’s “Intelligent Work Assistant” project.

He asked the supervisor in charge of the project, Song Bojun, a few questions. “What’s the current evolutionary progress of the Work Assistant?”

“According to criteria set by you, President Chen, it’s evolution should have progressed to 0.98. Its 1.0 version will be generated soon.”

“Which programming languages has it mastered?”

“The work assistant has full mastery of the languages in more than 15 programming fields, including Algorithm, Java, Data Structures, C++, Python, PHP, SQL, Ruby… Our Work Assistant will soon become the ‘King of Programming.’” At this point, Song Bojun let out a heartfelt sigh. “This is possible thanks to the veteran programmers of our country who participated in the internal testing of the ‘Work Assistant.’ If not for the specialized and unique skills of the programmers and their many contributions to the ‘Work Assistant,’ it would be impossible for it to evolve to a degree so close to 1.0 within a short half year. They have really made significant contributions.”

Chen Jin nodded. The coding standard of Z country’s programmers were the highest in the world. No one knew how many programming experts lay hidden in the corners of the country. Xing Hai Technologies had invited many expert programmers to participate in the testing of the “Work Assistant” when the project started. At first, they had only managed to invite a few programmers, but more and more joined the project. In the end, Xing Hai Technologies stopped sending out invitations, but many top programmers actively applied to participate in the internal testing without asking for compensation. They used their free time to upload countless excellent codes into the server of the “Work Assistant.” They had in-depth discussions on the simplicity and superiority of particular codes in the Xing Hai Forums. Often, their debates were extremely intense. On some occasions, a hot topic that was posted would have more than 5,000 replies.

To the present date, there were more than 8,000 top programmers from the country who had participated in the internal testing for the “Work Assistant.” More than 3,000 TB-worth of codes had been uploaded, and the average volume of codes uploaded by each participant was worth nearly 400 GB. Many of the top programmers had even quit their jobs to participate fulltime in the testing. All without demanding any monetary recompense.

Of course, Chen Jin could not make use of these top talents for free without any expression of gratitude… That was too vile. Hence, he commented on Xing Hai Forums that the programmers who had participated in the testing would have lifetime use of the “Work Assistant” entirely free of charge after it was launched. They did not have to pay any fees. In addition, the smart learning program could analyze the value of the codes uploaded by the programmers onto the server and allocate contribution points according to the usefulness of the code. For example, an outstanding code with powerful functions and a wide range of uses would be allocated 100 points. Codes that were somewhat valuable would be allocated 10 points. Codes that were the most common would be allocated 0 points. Xing Hai Technologies would create a “contribution ranking chart.” All programmers who participated in the project would be able to see their ranks.

When the Work Assistant evolved to the 1.0 version, Xing Hai Technologies would give away a cash prize of $500 million to the top 500 contributors. The winners would get a minimum of $100,000. But the cash prize was only a bonus. As the top programmers in the country, they could easily get a monthly salary of $50,000 to $100,000. The cash prize was peanuts to them. Honor was more important to them! What did it mean if one became the top contributor? It meant that he was the champion in Z country’s programming field. He was the most powerful emperor of programming technology!The number one contributor could be called the “The Great Emperor of All Programmers.” The second could be called the “The Emperor of Programmers.” The third was the “King of Programmers.”

The contribution ranking chart created by Xing Hai Technologies for this testing directly reflected the hierarchy of the top programmers in the country in terms of their strength. The strong and the weak were clearly distinguished. As a whole, many programmers were dull, inarticulate, and low-key in real life. But, in the programming world, they were used to controlling and operating codes to create powerful functions. Because of this, they were very competitive. They were emperors who played with codes that rested within the full control of their hands. Hence, they were set on proving their programming standards to each other in this competition. All of them were vying for either the first, second, or third place.

…

Late at night on the 18th, in Changsha City, at Zhuoyue Games, the sound of fingers hitting the keyboard could be heard from a meeting room that was adjacent to the computer room. Three men gathered the tables in a circle and placed the chairs back to back, forming three corners. They sat with their backs to each other as they wrote their codes.

One would be very surprised to witness this scene. Were they not Zhuoyue Games’ Chairman Qiu Bojun, Manager Gong Wei, and the Chief Technical Inspector Chen Fangzhou? The key personnel of the company’s top management were burning the midnight oil to write codes? One should not underestimate them. Each of them were famous in their own right in Z country’s programming circle!

Qiu Bojun was the first generation of programmers in Z country. He was a pioneer from the country’s pre-modern days. He spent a year writing the WPS 1.0 all by himself. Thus, Z country was able to have its own domestic office software.

Gong Wei, the founder and leader of Honker Union, had opened the prelude for Z country’s hackers to win honor for their country in the Battle of the ZM hackers in 20X1. He led the hacker army to plant their red flags on every website of the imperial country, thus defending the dignity of the Z citizens.

Chen Fangzhou was a genius in the gaming sector. The online game series, “Fantasia Of The Heroic Swordsman” created by Zhuoyue Games were developed by a team that he led. Although there was only a small number of audience and players, all of them were hardcore fans! With some hundreds of thousands of hardcore fans who were willing to pour money into the game, the series was able to go on for more than ten years.

Right now, these three experts were participating in the internal testing project of the “Work Assistant” and were fighting for their ranks.

Clack!

Qiu Bojun hit the “Enter” key with force and submitted the code that he had written. After a moment, the system replied, “The code provided has no significant value. Your contribution points are +0.1. Please try harder.”

Qiu Bojun shook his head. “0.1 is the same as 0 points. It’s a mere consolation.” He looked at his rank on the contribution chart. Lamenting his fifty-plus years of age, he sighed. “I’m old, I can’t generate any more codes. My brain is getting slower, too. This industry is for the young.”

Gong Wei, turned around and asked, “President Qiu, what’s your ranking?” He had also uploaded a series of code and was waiting for the system to analyze its value.

Qiu Bojun sighed again. “Ah, take a look for yourself.” He bent his head aside to allow Gong Wei to look at his ranking.

“1,013th. You climbed up 2 places since yesterday.” Gong Wei stuck up his thumb. “President Qiu, you’re nearly 60. This result is really very good. You’re indeed a veteran fighter deserving of your title!”

“I’ve stopped generating codes for more than ten years. I’m just making use of what I’ve learned in the long past. It’s not bad if I can even rank in the first thousand.” Qiu Bojun had been generating codes with his best efforts for these few days in the hopes of squeezing himself into the top 1,000. That placement would be considered decent. But, as the testing drew towards its end, it became harder to get the contribution points. The “Work Assistant” had also evolved to version 0.999. It would be upgraded to version 1.0 within a couple of days and the competition would end. He felt that there was no hope for him to be placed in the top 1,000.

At that moment, the system had completed the analysis of the code that Gong Wei had uploaded. “The uploaded code has value. Your contribution points are +5. Your ranking has risen by one.” With this, he was ranked 500th place. Gong Wei was unsatisfied. “This is the performance of someone who was once the leader of the Hacker Union? Even though more than twenty years have passed, my rank would disappoint many.” But that was the way in the programming world. The peak period of a programmer was around 30. It was a rarity for a programmer to continue writing codes past forty years old. Gong Wei had not really written any codes for many years too. It was normal that his standard had dropped.

Thus, the two older men turned their gazes towards the youngest programmer in the room, Chen Fangzhou. The gaming genius Chen Fangzhou had been apprenticing by Qiu Bojun’s side since he was fifteen years old. At thirty-three years old, he was at his peak. He had the highest ranking amongst the three of them, placing 10th in the contribution points chart. However, Chen Fangzhou was extremely unsatisfied with this ranking. These days, he had even put aside his current work and had been pushing himself to improve his ranking. His fingers were a blur as they flew across the keyboard in his attempts to earn a higher rank.

Clack!

Chen Fangzhou uploaded a complex series of code that had taken him five hours to write. After two minutes, the system replied, “You’ve uploaded a high-value code. Your contribution points are +100. Your ranking has risen by one.”

In his exhausted state, he nodded in with satisfaction. He was now number nine in rank. Suddenly, a colorful fireworks display lit up the screens of the three programmers.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

“Many thanks to everyone who has participated in this testing for their hard work and support. The ‘Work Assistant’ has evolved to version 1.0. The first phase of internal testing ends here.”

What?

Looking at this system announcement, Chen Fangzhou started to hit his own head in vexation. How could it end just like this? After their annoyance passed, all three became very curious about the identities of the top experts that would be published on the contribution chart.