The Master’s Mask Unveiled Again
Chapter 925 - 924: The Slick Move from Lu Mian

Chapter 925: Chapter 924: The Slick Move from Lu Mian

No one dared to question Lu Mian’s chess skills anymore. That issue wasn’t even worth debating!

La Wenwen passionately hugged Su Luo, exclaiming, "I knew my goddess was impressive, but I didn’t know she was an actual god!"

Su Luo let her embrace her, the corner of her lips trembling slightly.

She seemed to have finally grasped the extent of Lu Mian’s chess skills...

Now she couldn’t help but wonder where her grandfather got the confidence to challenge Lu Mian to a match every now and then.

"Luoluo, how on earth did you become friends with my goddess? Do you even realize how much I envy you? Having Lu Mian is basically like having the whole world!"

"..." Su Luo closed her eyes, recalling with lingering fear, "I almost ended up becoming her enemy back then..."

La Wenwen: ...Are you serious?!

——

Lu Yutian just couldn’t figure out what went wrong. She checked the status of robot 823 back and forth multiple times but still found nothing. Frustrated, she asked her team’s engineer standing by to perform a detailed inspection on 823.

Raising her head, she looked at Lu Mian with skepticism. "How did you do it?"

Standing on stage, Lu Mian unhurriedly rolled up her shirt sleeves, revealing a slender stretch of her smooth, fair arm.

With one hand casually stuffed in her pocket, she smirked faintly as she answered.

"It’s simple. I just made sure it could never guess what I was going to do next."

Everyone: "..."

Boss, do you perhaps have some kind of misunderstanding about the word "simple"?

Lu Yutian didn’t buy it at all. While she could admit that Lu Mian’s chess skills were extraordinary, she absolutely refused to accept what Lu Mian was claiming.

"You don’t understand artificial intelligence. They store millions of possibilities in their systems and can deduce your next move from them in a matter of minutes. What you want to do, even a hundred moves ahead, they can predict it all. And now you’re telling me it couldn’t guess what you were going to do? Do you expect me to believe that?"

Lu Mian rolled up her other sleeve and shot her a "believe it or not" kind of look.

As her gaze swept across the crowd, she spotted Xiao Qimo near the back, looking rather grim. She fanned herself casually, suddenly feeling a bit warm.

Summer temperatures are high; milk at home tends to spoil easily.

Lu Mian told Jing Pei, "I’m done here, I’m leaving," and walked off the stage without even looking back.

Jing Pei, whose hands were bright red from clapping too enthusiastically, called out, "Wait, kiddo! Help me go over the chess game first!"

Lu Mian rejected him flatly, her face devoid of expression.

Jing Pei: ...

Everyone: Somehow feeling that Jing Master doesn’t seem to enjoy much favor in Lu Mian’s presence...

As Lu Mian descended from the stage and passed by Lu Yutian, she paused for a moment.

After hesitating briefly, she decided to remind Lu Yutian, "Miss Lu, the robot system has a vulnerability. It’s not suitable for market release—I recommend sending it back to the factory for a reset."

"..."

That remark left Lu Yutian utterly stunned. Even the engineer who had been conducting a full inspection on robot 823 turned his head in disbelief.

The engineer and Lu Yutian exchanged a wide-eyed look in mid-air, both equally shocked.

Compared to her earlier cryptic responses, this statement of Lu Mian’s was undeniably convincing!

Lu Yutian couldn’t fathom how Lu Mian had managed to catch this minor vulnerability in the robots—a flaw that only a handful of people on the research team knew about.

The issue wasn’t major, but it did waste significant time. Eager to showcase the robots during the competition, she had decided not to let the engineers handle the problem.

After all, she had never imagined anyone would discover the issue.

The robot 823, gliding around on the stage, seemed to feel targeted. It abruptly changed its dialogue, yelling, "Don’t send me back to the factory... Don’t send me back... Don’t send me back..."

At this moment, Lu Yutian suddenly realized that Lu Mian must have tampered with the robot earlier!

There’s no way she won that chess match fair and square!

"What did you do to it?" Lu Yutian questioned Lu Mian sternly.

Her voice got lost in the thunderous applause, but Lu Mian still heard her.

Lu Mian chuckled lightly, reached out, and flicked the slick, shiny head of robot 823 with a finger.

The action was so casual, as though she had done it countless times before—effortless, natural.

Lu Yutian turned to the engineer once again.

The engineer whispered the inspection results, "Miss, the problem lies in the emotional management module of 823—it’s experiencing a system meltdown."

Lu Yutian: ...

"It seems someone exploited the vulnerability to override the system and alter the emotional data controlling 823. Its previously upbeat disposition might have..." The engineer took a deep breath. "Turned depressive."

Lu Yutian: ...I’m depressed too!

What on earth was this? She had never encountered anything remotely like this!

Robots were indeed programmable for emotions, personalities, and other human-like traits, which were all stored as data in their systems.

But now that the engineer was telling her Lu Mian somehow made 823 depressed, she felt utterly distraught!

"Don’t send me back... Don’t send me back..."

As the applause began to die down, the crowd erupted into laughter upon hearing 823’s desperate new catchphrase.

"Oh my gosh, this robot’s definitely been traumatized, hasn’t it?"

"Who wouldn’t be? Anyone in its position would be!"

"But it’s just a robot... Does it really understand all of this?"

"Maybe that’s exactly the kind of thing Lu Yutian’s research is focusing on. We wouldn’t understand it!"

However, what baffled everyone even more was how Lu Mian suddenly turned back toward the rambling robot and looked at it like it was an idiot. Then, she even coldly responded to it.

"Don’t send me back..."

"You’re too dumb; no one wants you."

Everyone: ???

Are they... talking?!

Lu Yutian: ???

Robot 823 fell silent for a long time. Then, under the astonished gaze of the crowd, it suddenly started rolling after Lu Mian.

Everyone was dumbfounded.

The engineer tried to stop it but was completely unsuccessful.

As Lu Mian strode toward the back rows, a pitiful voice floated behind her.

"I’m not dumb... I’m not dumb... I’m not dumb..."

The crowd could only stand still and gape as Lu Mian, hands in pockets, strode forward confidently with large strides. Trailing behind her was the one-meter-tall robot, stubbornly chanting, "I’m not dumb."

*Pfft!*

"Hahahahaha..."

The room burst into uncontrollable laughter.

"Did Lu Mian seriously just push a robot into depression? What kind of legendary move is this?"

"Is this some kind of fantasy world? A human actually managed to upset a robot! This is hands down the funniest thing I’ve heard all year!"

"No, but have you noticed Lu Yutian’s robot is chasing after Lu Mian? Is it... acknowledging her as its master?"

Someone shuddered visibly.

"Hey, do you guys remember what Lu Mian said earlier? She mentioned... the production cost of an AI robot isn’t cheap..."

At the time, it didn’t make much sense. Now it hit everyone at once—she was hinting that Lu Yutian was about to suffer a loss!

"So, Lu Mian had already anticipated this outcome?"

Finally understanding, Lu Yutian looked at the robot 823 that had mercilessly left her behind. Furious, she nearly lost her composure altogether.