Reality Programming Association

Chapter 122: Chapter 50: Rabbit Ghost Roaming JCU

”Although we don’t have administrator privileges, we can utilize the ’consensus mechanism’ within this system.”

”Consensus mechanism?” Yu Xian was somewhat unfamiliar with the term.

”In our network, because there is no central server, the priority of information dissemination and popularity ranking are determined by the ’majority of nodes,’” Wen Xiao explained. ”It’s decided through algorithmic voting, where the minority obeys the majority.”

”So, if someone controls more than 51% of the nodes, they essentially have absolute control over this network?” Shi Zuozhou suddenly realized.

”Exactly. We can base it on the ’Carrot Points’ we just talked about, designing a ’bribery’ mechanism that allows for competitive bidding and ranking,” Wen Xiao laid out her idea.

”What do you mean by a ’bribery mechanism’?” Shao Yiyi was confused.

”Have you ever used the ’extra tip for dispatch’ feature when hailing a ride? As long as you add money, drivers will prioritize picking you up, and the platform will prioritize dispatching a car to you.”

They were all smart people. The moment Wen Xiao brought this up, everyone understood.

”You mean, whoever gives the most ’carrots’ gets their messages forwarded and stored with priority by the nodes?” Yu Xian’s mind was opened to the possibilities.

”Exactly! That’s exactly it!” Wen Xiao laughed. ”Under normal circumstances, nodes forward and store messages randomly. But if you choose to pay extra ’carrots’ to ’bribe’ the nodes, all of them will prioritize processing your order, expediting, pinning, and broadcasting your message to everyone.”

Yu Xian got it. It truly was a genius concept.

Yesterday, he had already been shocked once by Wen Xiao’s ”Beacon Tower” offline transmission network, and today he was struck again by this brilliant bribery mechanism.

”But where do we get the carrots? Xiaoxiao, didn’t you just say there are no administrators or backend? How can we issue carrots to ourselves?” Shao Yiyi was a little worried.

”The rules are fair. No one can ’issue’ carrots. Everyone has to generate points by running nodes, but...” Wen Xiao’s voice carried a hint of slyness.

”But we entered the market first! We have the most devices! So we have an absolute advantage at the starting line, contributing the most bandwidth and storage!” Shi Zuozhou immediately caught on.

Yu Xian took a deep breath.

This wasn’t just technology; it ventured into the realms of economics, or even political science.

This was a masterful overt scheme, a form of ”invisible control.”

Usually, everyone traded freely, seemingly as equals. By ”hiding a tree in the forest,” the group could effortlessly conceal themselves within the network.

But at critical moments, they could instantly throw out the massive amount of ”carrots” they had hoarded, launching a saturation-style ”bribery” against all nodes!

They didn’t need to forcibly delete other people’s files, which would make the user base feel unfree and unsafe. Instead, through this point-bidding system, they could openly and legitimately ensure that people only saw the high-quality content they wanted them to see, letting this content dominate the screens instantly.

And those trashy contents without point acceleration would naturally sink to the bottom, completely ignored.

It retained both the safe shell of ”decentralization” and the power of ”macro-control” at critical moments.

”You’re a genius,” Yu Xian couldn’t help but praise.

”Oh my, Xiaoxiao, what’s wrong with your face? Do you have a fever? Hey, don’t run, let me feel it.”

Shao Yiyi’s voice came through the receiver, accompanied by the noisy rustling of bedding.

Yu Xian checked the time. After all this discussion, it was already Sunday noon. Time was tight; they didn’t have much left.

”Wen Xiao.”

”Here!”

”Although the current technical plan is already perfect, how long will it take to transform the Test version—which is currently only used for transmitting short messages—into a platform integrating a ’file distribution forum,’ ’distributed storage,’ and an economic model of ’point bidding’?”

”Now that we have AI to assist with coding, plus reusing some open-source code... it will take at least half a month,” Wen Xiao evaluated the workload.

”Half a month...” Yu Xian knew that software development wasn’t magic. Wen Xiao was just one person; this was already her top speed.

”It’s fine. We can release a ’preview version’ first, get the name of Rabbit Hole out there, draw people in, and update it slowly. The key is to make sure Rabbit Hole’s background residency is solid to prevent devices from going offline.”

”Okay!” Wen Xiao agreed crisply.

”I can support Xiaoxiao! Xiaoxiao, you just focus on writing the backend logic and protocols, and leave the rest of the chores to me! The UI interface, icon design, copywriting, and frontend—I can probably do them all for you!”

Shao Yiyi volunteered, which surprised Yu Xian a bit. After all, Shao Yiyi was just a student from the School of History; he didn’t expect her to know how to do these things.

”You can handle such advanced work?” Shi Zuozhou was also surprised.

”You’re looking down on me, aren’t you! Last time when we made the large-model AI fortune-telling robot, Xiaoxiao taught me everything!” Shao Yiyi protested, then added in a low voice, ”Even though it’s generated by AI... as long as it works, it’s fine!”

”Alright, alright. Old Yu, what about me?” Shi Zuozhou was getting impatient.

”Your task is very important. You know a lot of people, so you’re the only one who can do this,” Yu Xian said. ”You need to set up our early ’super nodes.’ Find some computers and install our software on them. They don’t need high specs, but we need a lot of them, scattered across several key areas of the school, like near the library and a few teaching buildings.”

He paused, then added, ”But remember, don’t let anyone see you when installing the nodes, or our tracks will be traced, and the whole point of anonymity will be lost.”

”Don’t worry, Old Yu. Anti-reconnaissance is a piece of cake for me. I’ll definitely make our Rabbit Hole appear quietly in every corner of the school.” The sound of Shi Zuozhou patting his chest in assurance came through the line. ”A specter! The specter of Rabbit Hole! It’s haunting JCU!”

”Good. I’ll collect and organize the resources, scouring the entire internet for the various scripts currently circulating, weed out the ones that clearly violate laws and regulations, and categorize and organize the rest,” Yu Xian finally summarized. ”Since the plan is set, let’s split up and act.”

”Received!”

”Understood!”

”Don’t worry, Old Yu!”

The call ended, and the room returned to quiet.

Yu Xian leaned back in his chair, looking at the gray sky outside the window, a heavy stone still hanging in his heart.

Although he had sounded self-righteous on the voice call, using phrases like ”desperate times call for desperate measures,” ”fighting fire with fire,” and ”using the enemy’s methods against them”—which all sounded perfectly reasonable. But in reality, he knew that this was just rhetoric to numb himself and everyone else.

This was Pandora’s box, after all.

Even if their original intentions were good, and even if users would just go elsewhere if they didn’t come to them... at this stage, they were undeniably acting as ”accomplices,” fueling the spread of these audio files that might contain hidden dangers.

What if they didn’t just contain the MCH suppression patch, but were also maliciously implanted with the sinister command that could lead to ”smiling suicides”?

Wouldn’t that make him and his friends murderers?

He had harbored a hypothesis in his mind the whole time, but it was inconvenient to bring it up in the group voice call.

Yu Xian’s fingers hovered over the keyboard for a long time. Finally, he sent a private message to Wen Xiao:

”Wen Xiao, call me back when it’s convenient. I have an idea I want to confirm with you privately.”

Less than ten seconds after the message was sent, his phone vibrated. The name ”Uncertainty Robot” bounced on the screen.

Yu Xian answered the call.

”Hello, Yu Xian?”

Wen Xiao’s voice sounded a bit nervous. In the background, she was walking down a corridor, perhaps heading to the balcony.

”Wen Xiao, I want to discuss a technical problem with you. Even though we just talked about ’fighting fire with fire’ and how no one can trace us, I still feel uneasy about this.”

Wen Xiao hummed in agreement, waiting for Yu Xian to continue.

”Since we’ve already analyzed that the structure of those audio files consists of four modules—the ’primer,’ the ’engine,’ the ’patch,’ and the ’script’—and we also possess the unencrypted source file of the MCH suppression audio...”

Yu Xian took a deep breath and laid out the plan he had been pondering. ”Could we dismantle all those variant audio files, keep the primer, engine, and script parts, but remove the third part, the ’patch,’ which has an unknown origin and might carry malicious commands...”

His speaking pace quickened slightly. ”And then, we inject our official, genuine MCH source file back into it, repackage it, and release it?”

”Are you saying...”

”We’re going to pull a stealthy bait-and-switch on those audio files.”