Chapter 209: We Giant He Xing People Believe in One Rule: If You Like It, Pile It On

It's been a week since the network segmentation controls were implemented, and Gala has returned to his usual social observation experiments — well, and along the way he can still cut some clips for Little Xiao Lingdang.

Don't get the wrong idea — this isn't the persistence of that number-two big brother, it's simply that he wants to use this different style of clip placement to monitor the changes in stress levels of the corresponding demographic. It's all work, just work.

"Speaking of which, the stress levels of the He Zujie people are still dropping lately. Looks like it has nothing to do with Little Xiao Lingdang anymore, but that's fine too." Gala uploaded the clips he'd edited, and took a quick glance at today's Wishpower Environment Index. After confirming that the stress in walled regions like Hokkaido, Shikoku, and Kyushu was still trending downward, he let out a small breath of relief.

"Gala, come here for a sec!"

"!!!" Hearing that signature voice of San Lian's, Gala gave a sudden jolt and immediately stood up, saying:

"What's up?"

"It's that virtual idol project we talked about before — there's a problem. The moment the suit-person went online, people started roasting it as 'yin-jian.' Speaking of which, what does 'yin-jian' even mean? (Note ①) The design department clearly made it according to human aesthetics, and other people who looked at it also said there was no problem before it went live."

San Lian walked into Gala's lab with a personal terminal tucked under his arm, his tone carrying a hint of helplessness and puzzlement. Hearing this, Gala frowned and said:

"'Yin-jian' means something no living person could come up with... but we really aren't human, so they're not wrong. Wait — didn't I say don't come to me about this?"

"That's exactly why you're the only one who can help right now! I'm just asking you to take one look, not asking you to design anything." San Lian also felt at this point that he was squeezing one person dry, but the problem was that this kind of classified project really wasn't convenient to outsource. As for kicking it upstairs... please, was he supposed to ask those Fourth Metamorphosis bigwigs in the decision-making layer to handle this kind of thing?

"Fine, fine." Gala suddenly felt like he could empathize a little with the corporate drones in Little Xiao Lingdang's fan group. He sighed and gave up his desk, saying:

"Let me see just how 'yin-jian' it is."

"Yeah, this is it. We call her Lai Lai..."

"Pfft..." Before San Lian could finish, Gala couldn't hold it in and sprayed out the water he'd stored in his cheek pouch, eyes wide as he said:

"You guys think this thing is fine?"

"Of course! Based on the intel and profiles we've gathered, virtual streamers should use a two-dimensional art style, not too realistic, otherwise it's easy to trigger the so-called uncanny valley effect. And the characteristics of the two-dimensional style are big eyes, small noses, infantilized face shapes — easy to trigger what humans call 'supernormal stimulus' for favorable feelings. Then for the aesthetic design, according to our survey, we're certain that human males have an abnormal preference for the size and shape of breasts. Although the term 'fan-service' often gets criticized, it's undeniably the easiest way to attract initial fans. So we adjusted the body proportions, emphasized attention-grabbing parts like the chest and legs, and..."

"Enough!" Gala covered his face, feeling like it was really hard to understand why he was working alongside these idiots—

"So you guys never thought about why human virtual streamers all have two legs, two breasts, and a pair of eyes?"

San Lian heard this and nodded with great solemnity: "According to the design team's explanation, this is humans' preference for 'symmetry.' Although they can't really appreciate it, they still went with the most perfect symmetrical proportions..."

"So you thought humans like breasts, so you gave it two rows of breasts? Humans like legs, so it grew eight legs? Humans like big eyes, so the eyes take up two-thirds of the face? Didn't you ever feel like... hmm, okay, by our aesthetics, there's really nothing wrong with it..."

Gala cut himself off mid-sentence. After all, the survival logic of Giant He Xing people was: brains are useful, so grow more brains; legs are useful, so grow more legs. But no matter how you put it—

This bizarre thing, with dragonfly-like enormous eyes, a gourd-like waist so slender it couldn't even hold any internal organs, eight perfectly shaped but spider-arranged beautiful legs, and a double-breasted two rows of breasts — by human aesthetics, it really was too yin-jian.

"Our aesthetics?" San Lian repeated the description, seeming to gain some enlightenment. Gala also nodded and said:

"That's how it is. All human body structures are roughly the same, so their aesthetics have a need for 'uniformity.' The design team's summary isn't wrong, but these conditions must be built on one major premise — it has to first look like a 'person.'"

"Understood, I'll pass it along to the design department. Also, the previous biometric collection summary has come out. The time variable and other records show obvious differences — we can confirm that those soldiers' memories, including the AI's records, were all interfered with. What they encountered at the time shouldn't have been just 'Ou Jinjin's' illusion — there was something else. The graffiti should have just been a smokescreen the other party put out." San Lian recorded Gala's words one by one, and only then brought up another matter.

"Yeah, I'd already thought about that before. So what do you need me to do now? If it's going to investigate, forget it. Technology that can even tamper with our equipment isn't something He Zujie people could pull off — most likely it's support personnel from that big country to the west.

"You should report this directly to the higher-ups. We don't have that capability, and even if you went now, you wouldn't catch any evidence. Gods are too mobile — unlike tech bases with all their equipment, a god can carry everything they own and roam around alone. They probably just happened to run into us back then; they should have left by now."

Gala's analysis was spot-on, and matched the results of the think tank's discussion. San Lian still patiently recorded it all, and only then stated his purpose:

"I need you to do psychological profiling on those soldiers. After all, we don't really understand human thought patterns."

"Right, right, right — so you guys just won't learn, won't hire a few more researchers in this field, and just keep squeezing me alone, huh? Is the lab's funding that tight? You won't even spend the money to hire one more person?"

Gala took a deep breath and said it mimicking a complaint he'd once seen in Little Xiao Lingdang's livestream chat from some He Zujie corporate drone — but unlike that drone who only dared to vent in the livestream, he actually dared say it right to his boss's face.

San Lian clearly knew he didn't have the moral high ground, and could only soothe:

"There's no helping it. There are only so many researchers studying human sociology, and the military has basically snapped them all up. The various battlefields need enough staff officers to figure out enemy military intentions, and those with combat ability still have to take on undercover work. Even if I wanted to spend the money, I can't outbid the military! If it were before, I could've asked the teacher for help, but because of the Virtual Bait plan, the teacher and the military are in a state of mutual one-upmanship, so naturally I can't borrow anyone either!"

"Fine, you arrange it. But preferably during the day — I have things to do at night."

(End of chapter)