Ning Zheng was stunned on the spot, and poked with a sword.
"Ai?"
[I'm here]
"Huh?"
[Ai is the AI customer service for the Sword Forging Competition and is here to assist you.]
Soon, with the help of Ai's introduction, he roughly understood what was going on. He logged in with the highest authority and discovered that he could indeed control and destroy it at any time.
At this point, Ning Zheng breathed a sigh of relief.
It's just that the other side seemed a bit dumb.
According to the introduction, Ai seemed to be a basic AI from 2025, not the most advanced.
The most advanced AI at that time could perform a variety of professional encyclopedic Q&A, even win Go championships, do AI painting, help write papers, answer various professional questions, and even help write code.
This low-level artificial intelligence might not be very impressive among its peers and appeared quite dull, but to Ning Zheng, who traveled through time from 2005, it was already a huge shock.
"Is it really that exaggerated twenty years later?"
He was dazed, his memory vaguely returning to his past life.
In 2005, he was still a simple and pure twelve-year-old boy playing King of Fighters, going to internet cafes was an extreme luxury, and his family would sit in front of a huge TV watching Chinese Paladin 1, moved to tears by the plot.
He didn't guard against this machine too much.
Because he somewhat believed in fate.
It wasn't anything like the fear of returning home.
This was a great opportunity he bought with real money. Since it was an opportunity and not a disaster, it certainly wouldn't have any hidden, deceitful traps.
At least in the short term.
If any problems occurred in the future, it was because his ability was too weak!
If he couldn't hold on to this heavenly opportunity, he could then use Qi Fortune to settle things and hide his opportunity.
When he moved the server back home, he found that this thing had become a native magical artifact, oddly carrying the Undying Blood and Flesh Magical Artifact trait.
"Brother, breakfast is ready, what's this?"
With great interest, Ning Jiaojiao ran over, made the gesture of rubbing her hands like a fly, squatted down to touch, "Is it a new toy for me?"
Ning Zheng perfunctorily waved her off, tossed her a stick, and sent her to poke ants on the side, then sat in the yard and continued tinkering with this thing.
This was a small temporal anomaly server, with a simple simulation game called "Sword Casting Simulator" built in.
Similar competing products included "Piano Simulator," "Ceramic Simulator," and "Gun Simulator," in short, it simulated the blacksmith process of casting swords, letting players place metal, hammer it, then forge the sword, and get a score based on evaluation...
There was also an internal streaming platform for exchanging sword casting insights.
As for what the independent streaming platform was, Ning Zheng took a closer look; it was roughly like TV channels where you could switch stations.
"Still somewhat clueless, after all, there's a twenty-year generation gap between them and me."
He sighed, reminiscing about how as a child, he laughed at his grandfather who didn't even know how to use a TV remote, but now, he himself had become that grandfather!
If in his past life at twelve he hadn't died, grown up, worked, married, wouldn't he and these peers in that society be very happy?
Unlike being a slave here, with no guarantee for tomorrow, supervised by a overseer with a whip, working ten hours a day.
However, at this moment, after truly understanding this server, Ning Zheng was very intrigued. To him, whether to cast a sword or not was not important.
It seemed like a very good way to collect Qi Fortune with a blacksmith game.
In the next three days.
Ning Zheng treated it like a fun toy, never even stepping out, eating River Demon meat, and continuously understanding and experimenting in the yard.
Coming from 2005, his family was poor, he hadn't played any online games, with next to no knowledge of them, he could only try exploring and operating on his own, feeling like an old grandpa of a backward era.
First was the player's body, which wasn't a problem for him.
There were plenty of soulless shells in this world.
Such as the lively flesh and blood remnants of demon men cultivators, utilizing waste, they could reproduce vast amounts of flesh and blood tissue, also serving as their bodies.
Don't underestimate that pile of cells, their physical bodies wouldn't die naturally for hundreds of years. If accelerated reproduction and clone division were applied, they could divide for years before completely being drained!
Sword Casting Manor also bred a batch of Money Child, those demon beasts' nails were the minting material for Money Magic Coins, a main source of money.
These Money Child bodies could also be used.
The body problem was solved.
Next was communication in native language and text.
He just seemed to need to input his world's indigenous language for storage, after all, the future AI's text and language translation features were already very mature.
With the smooth resolution of the language issue, Ning Zheng was slightly surprised, not expecting the seemingly low-IQ Ai to be so powerful.
The next issue was Ai assistant continuing the novice guide:
"Master, the Sword Forging Competition often requires recruiting a host, the competition can't proceed without one, responsible for speeches, arranging various contestants."
Upon hearing this, the host, in Ning Zheng's understanding, was probably akin to a manor overseer.
Ning Zheng felt this was reasonable.
After all, he usually needed to cultivate, and running the manor was to earn resources for cultivation, requiring an overseer was indeed necessary, he couldn't personally handle everything.
However, the overseer he had while being a blacksmith before was very malicious.
Any slave who wasn't serious in their tasks was whipped, pricked with needles, physically abused, and some were thrown to the Spirit Manor at the foot of the mountain to feed fierce beasts.
Ning Zheng was kind-hearted.
He felt hiring another malicious overseer would be too much.
"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you," otherwise, how would he have run away in the first place.
Yet he recalled the previous introduction, saying it was the most suitable for Sword Casting Manor's blacksmiths, meaning, they might even delight in it?
Thus.
Ning Zheng approached it with a try-and-see attitude, recalling the fat and big-eared overseer's conduct, following Ai's novice guidance, modeled a template, and wrote a segment:
[The Sword Forging Competition is in beta testing, 1. Call for blacksmiths to sign up actively, 2. Now recruiting a game host, skilled in business management, requirements: skilled in abuse, corporal punishment, adept at deduction, and exploiting blacksmiths.]
After finishing, Ning Zheng felt slightly uneasy:
"Ai, is this how Sword Casting Manor's host is recruited? Is there something wrong with doing it this way?"
Ai:
[Searching... A competent host must master the art of solving problems by capitalizing on the situation, these require adaptability to challenges which include: resolving disputes, controlling emotions, and conveying information.]
[Comparing... Based on the content conditions invited by the master, it perfectly meets the three major requirements of an excellent host, and the players all like being exploited like this, as a planner you are very qualified!]
Ning Zheng's somewhat tense mind relaxed, even though he still didn't quite understand this so-called "Sword Forging Competition," but tackling the initial setup right away, could it be that he truly was a genius?