Chapter 171 - 140: ’Z’, Like a God in the Mortal World

"Just release these three games directly! Put a little promotion behind them, and they should be a massive hit... Anyway, it’ll be more than enough to give your employees their bonuses." As Chu Bamboo spoke, he suddenly felt a pang of sadness.

’As expected, games are where the real money is!’

After a moment’s thought, Chu Bamboo added, "Don’t forget, if we really strike it rich and there’s money left over, give me an advance on the shareholder dividends. I’m pretty short on cash myself!"

"...Uh! While I do think we’ll make a fortune, you can forget about dividends anytime soon." Zhao Shao touched his head and found his forehead covered in cold sweat. "The main thing is, once we make money, we need to expand in a big way... I could tell you were already straining a bit to make these games, and these are just simple ones. Next, we have to consider the issue of computing power..."

"You know how it is with the current international situation. Trying to secure computing power is, well..." Zhao Shao gave a bitter laugh. "Even though a certain chip manufacturer across the ocean has already taken critical damage from the computing power revolution DS kicked off, the sanctions haven’t come down yet!"

All you can say is, when it comes to large-scale models, small companies have to play it smart. But if you have money... then it’s a true black hole. You can pour in any amount and it’d be normal!

"However, we definitely won’t be short on cash anymore!" Zhao Shao’s tone suddenly shifted, a strange light in his eyes. "Thank you, junior. Did you really have to go to the trouble of using such a roundabout way to remind me, just to avoid hurting my feelings?"

Chu Bamboo: "?"

Zhao Shao took Chu Bamboo’s silence as a test and spoke with brimming confidence.

"Ah Zhu, you’re telling me that even though our large-scale model app won’t make money right now since it’s free to use... we can totally go to game developers! We can become their upstream supplier."

Zhao Shao spread his arms wide, his voice full of passion. "Even if you lose your code monkeys, you still have me! I can be your new daddy!"

Chu Bamboo: "..."

Clearly, Zhao Shao didn’t believe for a second that Chu Bamboo’s goal in making games was to actually make money from them.

He thought Chu Bamboo was demonstrating something to him—demonstrating Z’s true function, Z’s truly terrifying power, and Z’s infinite future potential and possibilities!

"Game developers are our whales, our big-money clients! Once we connect with them... I can’t even imagine how much we’ll make..." The more he spoke, the redder Zhao Shao’s face became, his eyes filled with excitement.

"And seriously, if the developers over there really use Z to create some phenomenal, kick-ass games... we can just ride the coattails of all the traffic those games generate."

"Then we can put out the slogan: ’Everyone can create the game of their dreams!’ We’ll start a media firestorm... Just that gimmick alone—no, it’s not a gimmick, it’s something we can actually do—would save us a fortune in advertising costs!"

Zhao Shao was brimming with confidence. ’DS? It’s not impossible for me to replace them!’

’No... from the looks of it, Z seems even more badass... Hand-coding games? It learns and upgrades on its own! Can DS do that? It can’t do jack shit!’

’If it can, I’ll eat a ton of shit on a livestream while doing a handstand!’

The only weakness right now is that our computing power can’t keep up!

After all, if we really reach the point where everyone is making games... it’s impossible to even imagine how astronomical the demand for computing power would be...

No matter how much we optimize the algorithmic structure to reduce the demand on chips, we still can’t create something from nothing...

The only silver lining is that there are domestic alternatives for manufacturers... but we definitely won’t be saving any money! We might even have to spend a little more.

"Hold on a second!" Chu Bamboo closed his eyes, suddenly contemplating a very serious problem.

After a long moment, he said, "For today, don’t contact any of those game developers. Also, don’t roll out this new version of Z to the public yet! For now, just release these games and see if we can use them to make a quick buck."

"?"

"Tomorrow. If I don’t voice any objections by tomorrow, you can go ahead with the update." Chu Bamboo’s expression was as serious as it could get.

This made Zhao Shao, who had been about to ask why, swallow his words. He could only nod silently, muttering to himself, ’Ah Zhu must have his reasons.’

Of course, Chu Bamboo was now planning to check the situation in the Dream World tonight.

He had just suddenly realized that if they really went down this path, Z... would likely explode in popularity much faster than in the previous world line!

It might even take only a month or two for its popularity to catch up to the current top-tier AIs—

Even if it couldn’t compare to DS, surely its popularity wouldn’t be lower than the skinned DS clones that the ’Two Mas’ are infamous for cranking out with their copy-and-paste methods, right?

Would this trigger a butterfly effect?

Just as Z’s full demonstration had stunned Zhao Shao... if Z really went all out, the massive waves it could create were very likely to...

Chu Bamboo hadn’t forgotten that the Golden Dawn was still out there, watching like a tiger eyeing its prey.

In the previous world line, he had changed his nationality in ’26... and Goldman Sachs came to make contact with him in January! This was enough to prove that the capitalist groups from that nation across the ocean had set their sights on him sometime after the second half of ’25!

That kind of sharp eye, that decisive and ruthless way of acting... It’s no wonder these capital groups make so much money!

’They deserve every penny...’

"Alright, let’s go with that for now." Chu Bamboo stood up, thought for a moment, and first went to the Z Company official website to download the currently available, un-updated version of Z. "Z, could you please update this for me? And lock it to my device..."

Zhao Shao: "..."

He watched, wide-eyed, as Z, following Chu Bamboo’s command, modified the original version of the app into something incomparably advanced.