Living in a county town, starting as a stock market maker...

This issue represents billions of dollars in wealth and the end of a company.

Anyone would be happy at this moment.

However, Gu Ming simply smiled, took the vibrating cup from her hand, and gently placed it on the railing.

"Qingying," he said calmly, looking at the city lights below, "the attack is the Butcher's job."

"We are artists."

Su Qingying was stunned. The light in her eyes faded, replaced by confusion. She didn't understand the man in front of her.

Don't eat?

The opportunity is right in front of you, why not seize it?

"Let him bleed," Gu Ming said calmly.

"If we defeat him now, his allies will become wary and unite against us. But if we only cripple him, guess what his allies will do?"

Su Qingying's pupils contracted; she understood.

"They...will pounce on him and take everything he has left!"

"That's right." Gu Ming snapped his fingers.

"Keeping him alive is more valuable to us than letting him fall. The void he leaves behind will trigger an infighting among the old guard."

"And we," Gu Ming turned around, turning his gaze back towards the office, "have more important things to do."

Defeating Shen Guodong was just the first step; he had a bigger plan.

……

Half an hour later.

Star Holdings, confidential meeting room.

Only four people were present.

Gu Ming, Su Qingying, Shen Lian, and Chen Mo standing in the shadows.

The atmosphere was heavy.

Su Qingying and Shen Lian had just finished three hours of financial operations and public opinion guidance. Although exhausted, they were still ready to move on to the next step.

They assumed that Gu Ming had called the meeting to deal with the aftermath of Shen Guodong's case.

Gu Ming turned on the projector, and a photo appeared on the screen.

The photo shows Aunt Wang, who is responsible for night cleaning in the company corridor. She is wearing a blue uniform, her hair is gray, and she looks tired. She is carrying a bucket of water and standing in a dimly lit corner.

Su Qingying and Shen Lian exchanged a glance, both somewhat puzzled.

Did they defeat Shen Guodong to make our company transform into a domestic service provider?

"Look at this face," Gu Ming said, pointing to Aunt Wang's face in the photo. "What do you see?"

"Tired, exhausted..." Su Qingying answered subconsciously.

"Unsophisticated, poor, and tasteless," Shen Lian'an replied more directly.

Gu Ming smiled.

"I saw tremendous value."

As he spoke, he pressed the Enter key on the keyboard.

"Algorithm 2.0, start."

hum-

A stream of data enveloped the photo on the screen.

The next second, the scene changed.

Aunt Wang in the photo hasn't gotten any younger, and her facial features haven't changed at all.

However, a sidelight illuminated her features, making the wrinkles on her face clearer and more defined.

The highlighting added to her previously somewhat cloudy eyes instantly gave them a sparkle.

Her inexpensive blue work clothes took on a new quality.

The messy pipes and stains in the background are blurred by a halo of light, turning into an artistic industrial-style background.

The color tone of the image changed from cool to warm, cinematic tones.

The photos and people are the same, but the overall feel of the images is completely different.

From a weary cleaner, he transformed into a dignified worker.

The meeting room was quiet.

Su Qingying and Shen Lian'an stared wide-eyed, unable to react for a moment.

What... what is this?

It's not a photo editing or ordinary filter; the human hair is realistic, and the lighting and shadow reconstruction is very intelligent.

This is magic.

"This is Algorithm 2.0, which I call the Cloud Rendering Filter," Gu Ming said.

"It doesn't require shooting skills or expensive equipment. Even if you're using the oldest phone, in the worst-lit basement, pointing at the most ordinary face."

"As soon as you press this button, it will mobilize one-tenth of the computing power of our supercomputer in the cloud to complete a professional lighting, composition, and color grading for you in 0.3 seconds."

"It can understand facial structure and emotions, and analyze the appropriate lighting angles and colors."

"It's visual correction, it's dynamic aesthetics."

"Starting today, every user of Xingchen Short Video will have this feature for free."

Gu Ming paused for a moment before concluding his statement.

"While your competitors are still teaching users how to light, compose, and choose filters... we are delivering professional tools directly to every user."

Su Qingying and Shen Lian were extremely shocked.

They finally understood.

This is a form of dimensional reduction attack, making it impossible for opponents to imitate.

"An'an," Gu Ming said to Shen Li'an, "Now, go and plan a nationwide visual challenge. Use Aunt Wang's before-and-after transformation photo as the promotional poster."

"Tell everyone that no matter what you look like, no matter how ordinary your life is, in the stars, you can be the protagonist."

"I understand!" Shen Lian'an's eyes lit up; she had already imagined what would happen next.

……

It was 8 p.m. that evening.

A challenge called #I can look this good# has been officially launched on the Starry Sky short video platform.

The event became an instant hit.

When many users put the "Dream Maker" 2.0 filter on their ordinary selfie videos.

This feature caused a sensation on the Internet.

A male college student in his dormitory steps out of the frame and then comes back in, transformed into an artistic young man sitting in front of a floor-to-ceiling window, gazing at the night view outside.

A middle-aged woman haggling over prices at a farmers' market is suddenly seated in a private box at a concert hall, wearing a long dress and looking at the stage with elegant posture.

A construction worker, his face covered in dust, was shown at a construction site. After the algorithm was activated, the sweat on his face became glistening, and his skin took on a bronze hue, against a backdrop of massive machinery.

Users were surprised when they saw how they looked in the algorithm-generated version of themselves.

It turns out I just needed a good lighting technician.

Within an hour, Xingchen Short Video refreshed the App Store's download rankings.

Xingchen Short Video has returned to the top of the charts, with downloads growing rapidly.

The comments section became a wishing area.

"Please! Let me be Tony Leung just once!"

"God Gu! Eternal God! You gave me my life!"

"Before, I used beauty cameras to deceive myself. Now, with Starlight, I've discovered my true self!"

……

at the same time.

Beijing, China World Trade Center Phase 3, Shen Guodong's private residence.

The man, who had just suffered a setback in the financial market, looked at the buzz on his phone and his face turned grim.

"Imitate! Imitate!"

"Copy this feature for me at all costs!"

He invested heavily in poaching image processing experts from Silicon Valley and Israel.

His technical team began 24/7 closed development.

three days later.

Shen Guodong invested 300 million yuan in research and development of "Huacai Filter," which was touted as a competitor to "Dream Maker," and it was hastily launched.

As a result, it became a laughing stock.

The "dream weaver" of the stars can turn an ordinary person into a movie protagonist.

Shen Guodong's "Huacai Filter" can only turn an ordinary person into an overly smoothed-out plastic mannequin.

The transitions are choppy, and the lighting and shadows look artificial.

"Hahaha, this is hilarious! Is President Shen trying to turn me into a snake spirit man?"

"This shows that President Shen wants us to experience the graphics quality of web games."

"The one with the stars is a 'dream weaver,' while Shen Guodong's should be called a 'disfigurement artist.'"

Amidst widespread ridicule online, Shen Guodong's imitation software failed.

He finally understood that the gap between him and Gu Ming could not be bridged by money.

That's a difference in dimensions.

……

Just as the entire internet was discussing this new feature.

In the underground server room of Star Holdings' headquarters, Chen Mo was dealing with a cyberattack.

In front of her were twelve screens, on which a large amount of data was scrolling.

"Alert! A distributed denial-of-service attack originating from North America has been detected!"

"Alert! SQL injection attack detected from Eastern Europe!"

"Warning! Over 30,000 IP addresses have been detected engaging in brute-force attacks!"

The release of Algorithm 2.0 has attracted much attention.

It attracted not only praise, but also attackers from all over the world.

However, Chen Mo showed no sign of tension.

She even took a moment to drink a sip of the hot milk that Gu Ming had sent over.

Her fingers flew across the keyboard as she set a trap.

"The first layer of firewall, leave a gap."

"Second-layer honeypot system activated. Forging core code data."

"Third-layer reverse tracking protocol, implanted."

Her movements were calm, as if she were setting a trap.

Less than ten minutes.

All the red alerts on the screen disappeared.

Instead, a network topology map radiating outwards from the Starry Sky data center to the rest of the world has been created.

On the map, tens of thousands of red dots are marked.

"Boss," Chen Mo reported to Gu Ming via internal communication, "the fish are all in the net."

"Very good." Gu Ming's reply was concise.

While everyone was celebrating, Chen Mo had already given Gu Ming control of tens of thousands of attackers' computers.

……

That evening, a celebration banquet was held.

Gu Ming publicly announced the plan behind Algorithm 2.0.

"Data crowdfunding".

He stood on the stage, looking around at the excited faces.

"Did you think we just created a filter?"

"Wrong."

"Every choice, adjustment, and share made by users when using our algorithm tells us what they like and what they want."

"They are using their own behavioral data to help us train an artificial intelligence."

"While other companies are still buying and cleaning data, we have already gotten hundreds of millions of users around the world to willingly contribute their preferences for 'beauty' and 'desire' to us."

"We're not just making a product, we're crowdfunding the future."

A round of enthusiastic applause erupted from the audience.

Everyone was surprised by the future Gu Ming described.

However, no one noticed.

Chen Mo appeared silently behind Gu Ming.

She leaned close to Gu Ming's ear and whispered urgently:

"Boss."

"The tracking system has provided feedback."

"A signal source for AME..."

"Just now, it lit up briefly."

"The location... is right at Shen Guodong's private residence."