The system handed me over to the state.

"Huh?"

Bronya looked at Hei hope in surprise. Hei hope tucked her long hair behind her ear and revealed a wicked smile. "I want to show our parents who really pursued whom, and let them know that they are the ones in charge in this family!"

"You decide! You decide!"

"Bronya, why did you chicken out so quickly! Aren't you going to fight back?"

"Then why are you still calling me 'sister'? Call me 'wife'!"

"do not want!"

Call me "wife" or I'll bite you!

"Are you a dog or... Waaaaah!"

Chapter 151: The Code of Traffic

Several dozen days later........

"You're back? How did you two spend time with your parents?"

Inside Research Institute No. 1, Tong Xi looked at Bronya and Blackie, who had just returned via hyperspace teleportation, and asked them with concern.

"Very good, it's just... a little unexpected."

"Accident?"

Tong Xi looked at Hei hope with a natural expression, nothing special, as if it were just an ordinary day. Hmm...did nothing exciting happen?

"Well, it was just an accident. By the way, was anything going on while I was away?"

Before Bronya returned, she had already taken care of most of the things at the company. She was also able to take time out from spending time with her parents at home to handle some company matters.

Moreover, since that enforcement action, Tencent has been much more well-behaved. Honkai Impact 3's open beta went smoothly, receiving rave reviews from players, and even the paid trolls disappeared. It can be said that Honkai Impact 3's open beta was one of the few in China where no paid trolls came to cause trouble after its launch.

So, once things settled down, Bronya naturally returned to Research Lab 1. After all, the war-themed mission mentioned by the system had been causing her some concern.

"Don't worry, the task hasn't been specifically assigned yet, so you have plenty of time to prepare. Also, I'm usually quite free, so you should ask Lao Yu or Ji Chengtian; they probably have a lot of things to discuss with you."

At that moment, Bronya suddenly remembered something, "How's the selection process for the second contractor going?"

Tong Xi gave a mysterious smile, "Don't worry, you'll be quite surprised when you see her."

Bronya, puzzled, asked, "Never mind, Seele, what are you planning to do next?"

Seele pondered for a moment, "Could you take me on the next mission?"

Bronya looked at Tong Xi, who shrugged and said, "I don't know. I don't know the specific details and requirements of the mission until they are released. But as I said before, there is still a long time before the mission starts, so you have plenty of time to prepare."

"After obtaining the Civilization Pack, the tasks that follow will not be as easy as before. One reason is the difficulty of the tasks themselves, and the other is the restrictions on your various abilities. Do you understand?"

Bronya nodded. The limitations on her abilities were similar to those in the previous faction wars? If so, she thought it best to be cautious. Hmm, she'd better strengthen Little Bunny properly during this time.

At that moment, a soldier suddenly approached the three of them, stood at attention, saluted, and said, "Commander Bronya, the commander wishes to see you."

"Okay, I'll be right there."

After nodding in acknowledgment, Bronya turned around and said, "Well then, why don't you take a look around the base first? I need to take care of something. After I'm done, we can go check out the temporary shelter, okay?"

Hei hope nodded; she had no objection to this.

So Bronya temporarily left Blackie, and after she left, Tong Xi looked at Blackie's clothes with great interest and asked, "So... when you were living at your parents' house, did anything... indescribable happen?"

Hei hope rolled her eyes. "What are you thinking? Are we those kinds of people?"

"Well, don't be so shy. This is the inevitable result of mutual affection. I'm quite curious, who has the upper hand between you two? Is it Bronya? After the fusion a while ago, her personality became more proactive. It might be a bit difficult for you to gain the upper hand."

Hei hope sighed. She felt as if she were experiencing again the feeling of being chased by those gossip paparazzi a week ago... Fortunately, Bronya was powerful enough that no excessive rumors spread, otherwise it would have been enough to give the two of them a headache for a while.

Thinking about this, Hei hope pouted. What was supposed to be a happy vacation to see her parents turned into a life of fear and hiding from paparazzi.

"I'm not in a good mood. If you want to play with those tentacles, I don't mind sending you in!"

Hei hope said coldly, her tone carrying a hint of threat. Tong Xi decisively turned and ran away, while Hei hope also walked towards the virtual training room of the base, wanting to vent her frustrations from the past week.

On the other side, Bronya followed the soldiers to a completely new area. The spacious area was filled with high-tech blue energy pipes and holographic projections everywhere. Even the instruments used by the staff were not the original tablets, but some kind of spherical floating holographic projection device.

It feels a bit like a portable holographic projection device...

This was Bronya's opinion. Immediately afterwards, her return was warmly welcomed by Lao Yu and Ji Chengtian. "Welcome, welcome! You're back at just the right time. How have you been these past few days at home?"

Bronya shook her head, looking quite helpless. "Stop talking. Do you remember that interview that caused a sensation online a while ago?"

"Oh! That? It seems that the interview has caused you some distress."

Bronya was more than just troubled... She smiled bitterly. A week ago, Bronya, who had just finished her physical examination, was preparing to return to her hometown to reunite with her parents and Blackie. However, she happened to be interviewed at the company by a girl named Mango Girl.

Bronya knew her; she was a very famous video content creator on the Chinese internet. She often went deep into game companies to conduct in-depth interviews with domestic game companies that were about to launch or were in closed beta testing, or she would publish the history of some very old games and the development history of the companies, etc., all of which were very detailed and without any personal bias.

Bronya took the visit of such an authoritative content creator very seriously, so she could only postpone it for a day and set aside a special day to personally participate in the interview.

Most importantly, this time she entered the scene with her true face. Although her outfit was just a simple black and white OL work uniform, her mature and slender figure, coupled with her exquisite face, caused a huge stir among players who followed Alahato Company as soon as the video was released. Many players immediately started to explore her and even called her their "wife".

Aside from the more normal online activities like asking questions in threads, digging up hidden information, or visiting various channels, which are all relatively normal, some self-media outlets seem to have their eyes on me, with all sorts of paparazzi relentlessly following and spying on my life.

She and Hei hope called the police repeatedly, and in a week they caught no less than 30 paparazzi. However, on their way back to Kyoto, Bronya and Hei hope both realized that someone was still following them, making them seem like some kind of internet password, which was really annoying.

There was no other way; she had come to the base seeking help. She genuinely had no way to deal with the paparazzi. If this continued, her future life, and her family's life, would be completely disrupted by these paparazzi.

Chapter 152: Virtual Reality Development

"Hahaha! Oh, I see. No problem, no problem, it's just a little paparazzi stuff, I'll take care of it for you quickly!"

Old Yu patted Bronya's shoulder forcefully, indicating that these were all minor matters and not worth worrying about. Bronya simply smiled, hoping so. "Alright, so why did you call me over here?"

"We need to discuss something. Have you been paying attention to what's happening online lately, especially on foreign websites?"

Bronya nodded; she was certainly aware of these concerns. "Is it because of technological advancements in the US and Europe?"

"More or less, how much do you know?"

Bronya shook her head. "Not too much, since most of my energy is spent on my parents and Seele. Can you tell me the specifics?"

Old Yu nodded, unfolded the holographic projection in front of him, and displayed a large amount of news content and comments from domestic internet users. Bronya quickly discovered the problem, "Hmm... you hid things too much, didn't you?"

"Yes, because although there is some publicly available equipment in China, it is far too little compared to the United States, Europe, and even the United States. It feels like we finally managed to stand up, but now we have been forced back down."

"Therefore, the domestic environment is beginning to give rise to a situation where China is beginning to decline while foreign countries are beginning to rise. Some people are even making some very dangerous remarks. Therefore, Your Majesty hopes that we can select some technologies as tools to encourage the people to be confident and self-reliant."

Bronya pinched her chin, reached out and waved the holographic projection in front of her, looking at every online comment. Basically, for every comment related to foreign military equipment, there were a lot of somewhat depressed comments from people in China in the comments section.

The reason she described it as oppressive was because she could tell that they were all trying hard not to admit they were jealous or envious. They believed that there must be even better things in China, but they just hadn't brought them out yet.

"What are your thoughts, sir?"

Old Yu shook his head. "We have a lot of things to release regarding military matters, but none of them are timely."

"Think about it, if we announce a large number of new military equipment at this time, wouldn't it give the impression that we are starting to compete with foreign countries in terms of military equipment? So I think military equipment is the most inappropriate thing to do."

Bronya frowned. "Then... what about the new powered armor and mecha technology we were talking about releasing to the market a while ago?"

Didn't we discuss before about applying some powered armor technology to firefighting, public security, and disaster relief? There are also simple construction mechs or multi-functional platforms for construction sites.

"Regarding this... the deployment of the power armor is going smoothly. A number of personnel have been secretly transferred domestically for training and learning. If the results are good, it can be put into use immediately. However, there are still many problems with the mechs used in construction."

"One issue is that the workers generally have low levels of professionalism and education. Whether they can quickly learn to use such high-tech equipment is a problem, since even maintenance is quite troublesome."

"Then... if there's something that can improve efficiency and reduce the chances of worker injuries, the contractor will definitely be happy. But the production and maintenance costs of this thing, even if we can provide free training, we still need to recover at least some of the costs for both the mechs and the multi-functional platform."

"Therefore, the contractors need to allocate some money to purchase these large pieces of equipment, and in turn, the construction companies will have to pay more for hiring construction teams. Given the greedy nature of most domestic capitalists... the introduction of new equipment may actually make it harder for them to find work."

Old Yu sighed. Sometimes he really felt like he wasn't the general commanding the Southern Military Region anymore, but rather... a social life research expert? Who knows, but it was pretty much true.

Bronya blinked. Old Yu really knows a lot. No wonder he's a veteran general. He knows so much about these things. Indeed, there's still so much for me to learn.

"So the deployment of the planned hyperspace teleportation device has also been temporarily shelved, right?"

Old Yu nodded. "Yes, think about it. A teleportation device that can send you anywhere anytime, anywhere can transport not only people but also all kinds of supplies. This means that once it is deployed, it will directly negate the value of air, land and sea transport in China. Apart from trade with foreign countries, it will be completely useless for people's travel."

"Everyone knows how many people will lose their jobs and how many social conflicts this will cause, and no one dares to gamble on it."

No wonder... no wonder time travel is only used for military purposes. The Iron Curtain is alright, but if time travel were to enter society, it would cause countless people in the transportation industry to lose their jobs, which is difficult to quantify.

"It seems... there's still very little technology available for deployment at the moment... How about we try a different approach and start by researching... virtual reality?"

Old Yu was taken aback. "Virtual reality? You mean, training troops?"

Bronya nodded. "And there just happens to be a good entry point: virtual reality games. However, given the current game policies in our country, I think there's a lot of harmony to be done in promoting virtual reality games. Also... I hope that the Ministry of Culture can be ordered to mandate that virtual games require players to be 18+ to enter the game. This order must come from above, not from the companies themselves."

"Shifting the blame?"

"While shifting the blame, it also demonstrates the country's recognition and emphasis on virtual reality games. Moreover, once virtual reality technology matures, it will be like memory implantation, allowing soldiers to undergo various high-intensity training in a virtual environment through the characteristic of not dying, experiencing the cruelty of a simulated battlefield, and participating in virtual battles to experience the horror of war."

"Of course, it's just a preliminary idea. The researchers at the institute should be more skilled in this area than I am."

Lao Yu thinks this is a good idea. The announcement of virtual reality games will at most cause a shock to the gaming industry. After all, the emergence of virtual reality games means that traditional video games are beginning to decline.

The government doesn't care about that, but it is indeed a very good way to promote domestic technology. You know, Bronya's Alahato Corporation is a genuine state-owned enterprise.

Doesn't the technology of state-owned enterprises represent the country's technology?

Finally, Lao Yu also thought this was a good and suitable opportunity, so he let Bronya do it on her own.

After a brief moment of thought, Bronya set her sights on open-world games. After all, open-world games are a great foundation for creating virtual worlds, and the vastness of open-world simulation can also test the realism of virtual technology on large battlefields.

"So... which game should we start with?"

Bronya pondered, "Which game should I start with?"

Chapter 153: Orange! Orange! Orange!

"Are you ready?"

Bronya turned her head to look at the live stream room prepared beside her. A beautiful girl next to her hurriedly stuffed a cake into her mouth and gestured for Bronya to wait. Bronya was speechless for a moment, "Why are you hungry at this time?"

"I'm just... hungry! It's okay, a small piece will do, ah~ I'm completely alive again!"