Chapter 8: Crawlers - C Language Cultivation

Fastening his seatbelt, Lin Xun glanced over at Dong Jun. To his slight surprise, the man he admired personally released the handbrake and grasped the steering wheel. The car started and glided out of the parking area with an effortless grace in his driving. —It was a manually operated car, an anachronism in this era. Three years ago, the proliferation of self-driving technology led to a mandate for all vehicles to be equipped with autopilot systems. The maturity of 5G network technology made real-time reactions possible, connecting every vehicle across the globe under the system's control. Simply set a destination, and the autopilot takes care of everything. This complex programming, like a perfectly running machine, coordinated the routes and speeds of all vehicles—resulting in not a single accident in three years. The operator of this vast self-driving system was none other than Galaxy. Yet at this moment, Lin Xun noticed that Galaxy's CEO wasn't using the self-driving feature but was instead driving manually. Dong Jun must have sensed his gaze, as he softly said, "Nostalgia." Lin Xun replied, "It's rare to see." Merging seamlessly into traffic, Dong Jun drove so smoothly it was indistinguishable from autopilot. Had it been on autopilot, Lin Xun would have continued asking questions, but now—with the driver being him—it felt inappropriate to continue. Lin Xun sat silent for a while, unsure of what to say. He observed Dong Jun, a nearly perfect profile. He focused his attention, trying hard to perceive what he saw. No interface, nothing at all. Since that mysterious space appeared yesterday, even stray cats on the street were accompanied by a blank program interface. Except for Dong Jun. Dong Jun seemed to be the only normal person in the world. After confirming this, Lin Xun turned to look at the street scene outside. The city was ablaze with lights in the night, their glow scattering against the sky and obscuring the stars. Dong Jun turned on the music, a soothing and graceful melody, reminiscent of a summer's night. It was now 8:30 at night, and the car was entering the old town, nearing Lin Xun's residence. The street lamps cast a faint glow through the leaves of the plane trees. Just before arriving at their destination, Lin Xun heard Dong Jun say lightly, "Lions made an incredible breakthrough. The person in charge told me this afternoon that they are determined to win the championship at the tech expo." Lin Xun: "?" Dong Jun considered Lions' achievement incredible. Should that provoke jealousy in me now? He said, "Luoshen is also registered for the expo." "I know." The car turned a corner and drove through the community gate. "I wish you all the best." Lin Xun bit his lip as he watched the passing street scene, and asked Dong Jun, "Then how do you evaluate Luoshen?" For about thirty seconds, Dong Jun didn't speak. Lin Xun grew a bit anxious, thinking of the praise Lions received, fearing he was turning into something unrecognizable. As the music faded into silence, Dong Jun finally replied, "Emotionally, I'm on your side." Startled, Lin Xun looked up, meeting Dong Jun's gaze. "What about logically?" he asked. Dong Jun's lips curled into a slight smile: "Depends on your performance." Lin Xun thought to take this as encouragement from the man he admired. He felt he should express his admiration and gratitude to Dong Jun, saying things like "I've always admired you and am honored to meet you in person," but the words got stuck, so he didn't. The car smoothly stopped downstairs, and the door opened automatically. Lin Xun said, "Thank you for the ride." "You're welcome." Dong Jun replied, "Take care, and good night." "You too." Lin Xun hesitated before stepping out of the car, then added, "…Goodbye." In the soft glow of the car's interior lights, Dong Jun's expression seemed gentle: "Goodbye." Lin Xun turned to walk upstairs, noticing from the corner of his eye that the car seemed not to have left yet. He went upstairs to his room. Wang Anquan and Zhao Jiagou were gaming together. Passing through the living room, Lin Xun went straight to his room. Without turning on the lights, he stood by the window and looked down. Dong Jun's car still hadn't left—and after a while, what felt like an eternity or at least the time it takes to smoke a cigarette, the distinctive black Bentley slowly started its engine, turned on its indicator, and turned around to head back the way it had come, vanishing into the night. He couldn't quite describe his feelings; it all seemed unreal. Upon returning to the living room, Wang Anquan and Zhao Jiagou exuberantly welcomed him back, satisfied with his achievements. "Having a server makes things easier. We’ll start hiring programmers tomorrow," Wang Anquan stretched. "Let's get some early sleep tonight!" Lin Xun squinted, sitting on the sofa: "Dong Jun said that Lions made an 'incredible' achievement. Can you imagine being called 'incredible' by Dong Jun?" "Speaking of which, I looked them up today," Wang Anquan opened his computer and pulled up a document. "Their core team's resumes, especially this one, their leader Chen Xi—he's a master in his field. Just look at his papers and projects." Zhao Jiagou looked on in admiration, but Lin Xun didn't bother: "I'm familiar with his papers and projects." Wang Anquan said, "He's also an ACM champion, which is fine since we were champions back in college too. But this—an IOI gold medal—requires real talent." "IOI?" Lin Xun said, "Never got that; I'm an IMO gold medalist." Zhao Jiagou patted Wang Anquan's shoulder from behind: "Sorry, I was an IOI gold medalist back in middle school, many years ago." Wang Anquan: "..." "So, I'm the only one who switched fields midway?" "But you have a talent for things," Zhao Jiagou reassured him, "especially when it comes to accessing other people's databases." Wang Anquan retorted, "I didn't steal data; doesn't count as hacking. Just looking at data...can that be called hacking?" Lin Xun stared at Chen Xi's photo on the screen—a decent-looking man of twenty-nine, standing proudly at a museum entrance, smiling with confidence. Lin Xun closed the computer. He said, "I don't think I'm worse than him." "There's a month until the preliminaries." Zhao Jiagou said, "Besides perfecting Luoshen, what else can we do? Find out what they're up to?" "We can curse him to go bald." Lin Xun got up to wash up. He glanced at himself in the mirror over the sink. —No bald genes in his family. And he's also practicing cultivation. Cultivation. Thinking about it made his head ache a little. After washing his face, he returned to his room and took out his phone. —A single unread message. It was from Old Man Huo. —And it was a group invitation. Focusing, he saw the group was titled "One Big Happy Family" with a sunflower icon. He wondered if this meant Old Man Huo had accepted him as a family member. He entered and discovered this was clearly not a family group chat, as it had over a thousand members. As soon as he joined, a message appeared at the bottom. Qingcheng - Xiaoyaozi: Is it a new friend? Gelings - Danyangjun: Which friend has taken in a new disciple? Nanzhao - Butterfly Lady: Which family's child are you? @A Happy Lemon Spirit Qingcheng - Yanxiazi: There are no new disciples recently at Qingcheng. @A Happy Lemon Spirit Why aren't you saying anything? A Happy Lemon Spirit: ...Hello everyone. Nanzhao - Butterfly Lady: Is the child really a lemon spirit? Such beings are rare. A Happy Lemon Spirit: I'm human. Lin Xun immediately edited his remarks, changing it to "...Lin Algorithm". —Using one's real name on social networks always felt a bit awkward, but the term "Algorithm" seemed too mismatched with the group, so after a moment, he deleted the "Law" character, leaving it as "Lin Count". As he finished editing, he was tagged again. Wu Ji - Qingshan Zhenjun: @Lin Count, pupil, remember to edit your group remark, hang your nameplate. Qingshan Zhenjun, Lin Xun knew. Old Man Huo had introduced himself this morning as Qingshan Zhenjun Huo Qingshan. He then went to hang a nameplate, transforming into "Wu Ji - Lin Count". Facing this name, Lin Xun didn't know what to think. Nanzhao - Butterfly Lady: So, it's a child from Wu Ji Sect, what a pity, being in the Central Plains, we cannot meet easily. Nanhai - Gushan Sword: The Grand Dao Discourse is about to begin. Will the Lady not attend? @Nanzhao - Butterfly Lady Nanzhao - Butterfly Lady: I'll see how the situation goes, hehe. —With an accompanying shy classical emoji. Qingcheng - Xiaoyaozi: @Wu Ji - Qingshan Zhenjun Congratulations to Brother Qingshan for acquiring a beloved disciple! Clap clap Nanhai - Gushan Sword: @Wu Ji - Qingshan Zhenjun Congratulations to Brother Qingshan for acquiring a beloved disciple! Clap clap Then, Lin Xun watched as they started copying each other. Endlessly scrolling till it calmed down. Wu Ji - Qingshan Zhenjun: Thank you all, I'll visit with my disciple another day. @Wu Ji - Lin Count, disciple, first salute the seniors here. Lin Xun's fingers felt a little stiff as he typed. Wu Ji - Lin Count: Greetings to all seniors. Nanzhao - Butterfly Lady: How obedient smile Then, they started copying again. Lin Xun felt a wave of unreality wash over him, like he was in a dream. What a simple yet magical scene this was. A notification pinged in the upper left corner of the screen. As he switched over to check, he saw a long list of friend requests, all marked as coming from the group "One Big Happy Family." He approved them one by one, watching his list of conversations fill with names like "XXzi," "XX Zhenjun," "XXke," and "XX Fairy." It felt like he was living in a dream, and not in the 21st century. At that very moment, a mechanical voice echoed in his mind. "Side quest activated. Quest name: Join the Sect. Quest objective: Gain the approval of more than three elder sect members. Quest reward: Chaos Treasure Box x1, Spiritual Power 5. Quest progress: 03." Lin Xun pondered for quite some time before opening the emoji tab, taking a deep breath, and letting his fingertips hover unsurely over the nostalgic soybean emojis.