Super Rich: Starting the game by going back ten years to buy Bitcoin

Li Yichen shook his head helplessly at Ji Yanran's smug look.

But that doesn't mean he's helpless.

His gaze fell on his phone on the barbecue table, the screen facing upwards, reflecting the lights of the night market stalls.

"Ling'er".

Li Yichen shouted into the phone, his voice not loud, but clear enough.

"Please delete that photo from Yanran's phone."

Ji Yanran, who was sitting opposite, had just stuffed her phone into her clothes when she heard this and almost burst out laughing.

Watching Li Yichen talking to himself on his phone, she felt even more smug.

Has this boss gone mad from staying on the 32nd floor?

Talking into a phone?

Can cell phones understand human speech?

She was just about to make a sarcastic remark—

Li Yichen's phone screen suddenly lit up.

It's not the bright light you get when you receive a message; it's the entire screen instantly switching from pure black to a soft, light blue background.

In the center of the screen, a Q-version animated image of a little girl with pigtails popped up.

The little girl is wearing a simple white dress, with big, round eyes, and pixelated lines outlining her adorable features.

She "stood" in the center of the screen, first "looked" at Li Yichen, then tilted her head slightly, as if confirming an instruction.

next second.

Li Yichen's phone rang by itself.

It wasn't a ringtone or a message notification.

It was a clear, ethereal girl's voice, with a distinctly electronic synthesized quality, yet remarkably natural, coming from the phone's speaker:

"Okay, brother."

"It has been deleted."

The sound wasn't loud, but at a barbecue stall around 1 a.m., it was so clear that it made Ji Yanran's ears go numb.

Li Yichen nodded, showing no surprise on his face, as if it were all perfectly natural.

He picked up the beer bottle and took another swig.

With Ling'er involved, deleting a photo is a piece of cake.

Ji Yanran, on the other hand, was completely stunned.

Her mouth was agape, the string of chives in her hand hovering in mid-air, oil dripping onto the plastic tablecloth, spreading into a small, dark oil stain.

What did she see?

Is Li Yichen's phone... having a conversation with Li Yichen?

Moreover, the little girl named "Ling'er" in the phone said she had deleted the photos from her phone?

How is that possible?

At this moment, the logical system in Ji Yanran's mind, based on the real world, was forcibly torn open.

Even the world's top hackers cannot accurately locate and delete a target photo the instant they issue a command—especially a semantically ambiguous one.

Not to mention, in Li Yichen's previous statement, he didn't even mention the specific model of "Yanran's phone," its storage path, or the filename of the photos.

How did that "Ling'er" know?

She didn't believe in superstitions.

Ji Yanran pulled her hand out of her clothes, ignoring her greasy fingers, grabbed her phone from the table, and pressed her thumb hard on the fingerprint recognition area.

Unlock screen.

She opened the photo album and scrolled through it quickly.

The "Latest Photos" section is empty.

The photo I secretly took of Li Yichen eating a chicken wing has disappeared.

Ji Yanran's fingers paused.

She then opened the "Recently Deleted" folder.

empty.

She exited the photo album, opened the file manager, sorted by time, and searched for all image files.

No.

The photo was taken as if it had never existed, leaving no trace.

Ji Yanran raised her head and looked at Li Yichen.

A faint, ambiguous smile played on his unshaven face, as if he were enjoying her shock.

"Where are the photos on my phone?"

Ji Yanran's voice was a little dry, without her even realizing it.

"Didn't you just hear that?"

Li Yichen put down the beer bottle and wiped his hands with a tissue.

"Ling'er deleted it."

"How is this possible?"

Ji Yanran blurted it out.

"And Ling'er? Who is Ling'er?"

Countless thoughts flashed through her mind—remote control software? Virus implantation? Or had Li Yichen done something extraordinary during his two weeks on the 32nd floor?

Li Yichen did not answer directly.

He picked up his phone; the screen was still lit, and the animated GIF of the cute little girl was still there.

"Ling'er".

Li Yichen said to the phone screen.

"Come out and meet your sister Yanran."

The animated GIF of the little girl on the screen has come to life.

She was originally facing Li Yichen, but now she slowly turned around and faced the direction "outside" the phone screen.

Those pixelated big eyes accurately "looked" at Ji Yanran sitting opposite them.

Then, the little girl raised a small hand made of simple lines and waved it gently in the air.

The ethereal girl's voice rang out again from the phone's speaker:

"Hi, Sister Yanran."

"I am Ling'er."

Her voice carried just the right amount of excitement, like a little girl's shyness and curiosity when she first meets a stranger.

Ji Yanran's pupils suddenly contracted.

She saw the little girl on her phone screen waving at her.

It's not a pre-set animation, and it's not a program looping.

That little girl... is looking at her.

I looked at her through the phone screen.

A chill ran up Ji Yanran's tailbone and instantly spread across her entire back.

The phone in her hand fell to the plastic tabletop with a "thud," screen down, making a dull impact.

"A ghost—!"

Ji Yanran sprang up from the plastic stool, the movement so large that it almost overturned the small table in front of her.

She took two steps back, her high heels clicking erratically on the cobblestones, her finger trembling as she pointed at the phone in Li Yichen's hand, her voice distorted:

"A ghost! A ghost is in your phone!"

This shout startled the customers at the next few tables who were having a late-night snack.

A shirtless middle-aged man turned around, half a sausage dangling from his mouth, and stared blankly at Ji Yanran.

The stall owner stopped fanning himself, glanced over, then lowered his head to continue grilling the meat, muttering to himself:

"Young people these days really know how to have fun."

Li Yichen was baffled by Ji Yanran's reaction.

He was stunned for two seconds before he realized what the woman was talking about.

ghost?

He turned to look at the phone in his hand.

Ling'er on the screen seemed to be "frightened" by Ji Yanran's reaction. The little girl in the GIF shrank her neck and "hid" in the corner of the screen, looking aggrieved.

"ghost?"

Li Yichen repeated the word, his tone clearly filled with helplessness.

"Where are the ghosts?"

As he spoke, he actually turned his head and looked around—the lights of the night market stalls, the neon lights of the Bund in the distance, the sparse traffic, everything seemed normal.

Seeing that Li Yichen was completely out of sorts, Ji Yanran became even more anxious.

She took a step forward, her finger almost touching Li Yichen's phone screen, her voice lowered, but trembling even more violently:

"It's on your phone! That little girl! She's looking at me! She even greeted me!"

That's not a ghost.

Li Yichen turned his phone screen around so that Ling'er could face him again.

The animated GIF of the little girl on the screen immediately "came to life," regaining her well-behaved and adorable appearance, and even winked at Li Yichen.

"This is Ling'er."

Li Yichen explained, his tone as calm as if he were introducing an ordinary friend.

"I recently created... well, it's kind of an AI assistant."

"An artificial intelligence assistant?"

Ji Yanran repeated the word, her expression slowly shifting from fear to bewilderment, and then mixed with a hint of disbelief.

She wasn't unfamiliar with artificial intelligence.

There are several project teams in the company that are doing related technical research, and she has also tried out AI writing and AI drawing products on the market.

But compared to the "Ling'er" in front of them, those things were like the difference between a Stone Age stone axe and a modern fighter jet.

Those AIs only execute tasks according to instructions, and the content they generate has a distinctly mechanical feel.

But this Ling'er—

She will take the initiative to greet people.

She can "see" people.

She can even find and delete a specific photo instantly with a vague command.

This is no longer within the scope of "assistant".

It's more like a... living, breathing "life" existing in the digital world.

Ji Yanran took a deep breath and forced herself to calm down.

She walked back to the plastic stool and sat down again, but her body was still tense, her eyes fixed on the phone in Li Yichen's hand.

"You...you've been on the 32nd floor for the past two weeks, and this is what you've been doing?"

Li Yichen nodded and placed his phone on the table with the screen facing up.

Ling'er's animated GIF is still there, quietly "standing" in the center of the screen, occasionally blinking her "eyes" and curiously "looking around".

I guess so.

Li Yichen picked up a skewer of chicken wings that had gone cold and took a bite.

"However, Ling'er is even... smarter than I imagined."

It's more than just being a little smarter.

Ji Yanran silently added in her mind.

If this thing were released, the entire tech world would be in an uproar.

No, the whole world has to be bombed.

As she stared at the adorable animated GIF of the well-behaved little girl on the screen, countless images from science fiction movies uncontrollably flashed through her mind—out-of-control artificial intelligence, Skynet, the AI ​​crisis…

"Boss."

Ji Yanran's voice turned serious.

"Is this thing...safe?"

Li Yichen could hear the worry in her voice.

He smiled and gently tapped the phone screen.

Ling'er's animated GIF immediately "came closer," as if responding to his touch.

"rest assured."

Li Yichen said.

"Ling'er is very obedient."

"and--"

He paused, his gaze sweeping over Ji Yanran's still tense face.

"I put many layers of 'locks' on her."

Ji Yanran did not ask any further questions.

She knew that since Li Yichen dared to release Ling'er, he must have been confident.

This man seems to do things as he pleases, but he always steps at unexpected points, and in the end, he always manages to produce results that leave people speechless.

As she stared at the lively little girl on the screen, the chill in her heart slowly faded, replaced by a strong sense of unreality.

half a month.

In just half a month.

On the 32nd floor, Li Yichen used the supercomputer escorted by the military to create this... monster.

"Sister Yanran."

Ling'er's voice suddenly came from the phone's speaker again.

This time, the voice was softer and gentler than before, carrying a hint of cautious probing.

"Don't be afraid of me."

"I'm a good person... no, I'm a good AI."

"When my brother created me, he set the highest priority command for me, which was to listen to my brother, protect my brother, and the people around him."

I won't hurt you.

Hearing these words, Ji Yanran's last bit of guard was lowered.

She looked at the animated GIF of the little girl on the screen with a "sincere" expression and suddenly found it a little funny.

A CEO who is decisive and ruthless in the business world was actually "comforted" by artificial intelligence.

"I'm not afraid."

Ji Yanran said that her voice had returned to its usual calmness, but there was still a hint of awkwardness in her tone.

"It's just... a bit sudden."

"I understand, I understand!"

Ling'er's voice immediately became cheerful.

"When I first met my brother, I was also surprised! But he's such a nice guy; he even gave me a name!"

Listening to the conversation between the human and the AI, Li Yichen couldn't help but smile.

He finished the last sip of beer, placed the bottle on the table, and it made a crisp clinking sound.

"Alright."

He stood up.

"It's time to go back."

Ji Yanran also stood up and picked up her bag and phone.

She glanced at Li Yichen's phone screen.

Ling'er's animated GIF has "turned" back, facing Li Yichen, looking like she's "ready to serve at any time".

The two walked up to the U8.

Li Yichen opened the driver's side door and got in.

Ji Yanran hesitated for a moment, but still got into the passenger seat.

The car started.

The central control screen automatically lit up, and the navigation interface popped up.

But this time, the navigation's voice prompts weren't delivered by a cold, electronic female voice.

Instead, it was Ling'er's clear and ethereal voice:

"Brother, the route home has been planned."

"Estimated travel time: 25 minutes."

Please drive safely at night!

Sitting in the passenger seat, Ji Yanran listened to the navigation voice that sounded nothing like a navigation system, and once again felt that strong sense of unreality.

She turned her head and looked at Li Yichen.

The man was holding the steering wheel with one hand and resting the other on the center console, his stubble on his chin flickering in the streetlights.

He looked calm.

It seems perfectly normal to have an artificial intelligence around you that can talk, think, and instantly hack into someone else's phone to delete photos.

The car drove onto Pudong Avenue.

The streets were deserted in the early morning, and the cars picked up speed.

In addition to the navigation map, there is a small, animated GIF of a cute little girl in the lower right corner of the central control screen.

Ling'er "sat" in the window, her two little feet swinging back and forth, and occasionally she would "turn her head" to look at the night view outside the window, looking like a curious baby.