New Times, New Hell

Chapter 64 - Life Planning APP, Online

After resolving the issue with the kinnaras, Yu Zhengdu looked at the time and discovered that it was already afternoon. They had missed their originally scheduled lunch.

Thus, Yu Zhengdu wanted to suggest to Shang Que that they should grab a casual bite to eat. But before he could say anything, he saw Shang Que put down his phone and look over. Seemingly casually, the other said, “That restaurant still has open tables. Let’s head over.”

Yu Zhengdu hadn’t expected that Shang Que would still remember that restaurant. He momentarily became slightly shocked. “What food does that restaurant serve?” That would make it so hard for him to get out of his mind.

Shang Que was lost. “I haven’t looked at the menu yet.”

Yu Zhengdu: “……”

It couldn’t be that Boss wanted to go visit an Internet-famous restaurant, right?

He found himself temporarily speechless. But upon seeing how anticipatory Boss was, he smiled and replied, “Alright. Then let’s head over now.”

The corners of Shang Que’s mouth unknowingly quirked up into a faint smile. He was just about to start moving when he saw Yu Zhengdu turn around and look at the two kinnaras. “You two come along too.”

Shang Que: “……”

The two kinnaras pressed their hands together and bowed. “Immense gratitude that Sir isn’t disdainful of us. We little gods are endlessly thankful and will surely follow you.”

After they said this, the two looked up, only to meet Shang Que’s cold gaze.

The kinnaras tensed. They didn’t know if they had done something wrong again, so asked in panic, “May I ask the Great Ghost King……”

“Since you know that I’m Great, you still dare to be the same size as me?” Shang Que raised his chin and looked down at them. “Shrink.”

Kinnaras: ???

Yu Zhengdu: “……” Wait a minute. Boss’s temper tantrum this time is a bit too out of the blue. This “Great” doesn’t even mean the literal definition of “great”?

But how could the kinnaras dare to question this? As soon as Shang Que finished speaking, the two jumped in place. Yu Zhengdu only felt his vision go blurry. Then, he saw that the two music gods had returned to their thumb-sized bodies and were floating in midair.

The male kinnara clasped his hands together and lowered his head. “The Ghost King is Great. We’re Tiny.”

Shang Que crossed both arms over his chest. Though his face was expressionless, his tone was still quite displeased. “Still very bothersome.”

The female kinnara was about to cry. “Great King, we really can’t get any smaller.”

Yu Zhengdu speechlessly watched them act like elementary school students and discuss the literal definitions of words. In this instant, he only felt very disillusioned by these gods and ghost. His mouth twitched. He decided to play middleman. “No worries. This is fine.”

Finally, Shang Que let out a reluctant noise of acknowledgment.

Yu Zhengdu glanced at the two kinnaras once more, then muttered to himself, “Oh right. I saw that the monk Jue Yin kept you guys in his prayer beads? We don’t have prayer beads. Should we prepare some for you?”

Shang Que scoffed. “They’re already fortunate to have a place to live. Dare they be picky?”

The kinnaras furiously shook their heads. “Absolutely not. We can live wherever.”

Yu Zhengdu: “……” Don’t know if this is the wrong impression, but he could feel that Boss seemed to suddenly be extremely displeased with these two music gods?

Yu Zhengdu pondered a bit and said, “Then you can stay in my hood for now. When I get back, I’ll find somewhere else for you guys to stay.”

He was wearing a hoodie today. The hood rested on his back; the two kinnaras could sit very comfortably inside. Shang Que wouldn’t be able to see them there either.

Shang Que: “……”

Even more displeased!

The restaurant Shang Que had made a reservation at was in a mall a few streets away from the park. The overall structure was predominantly made of glass. There was a large quantity of flowers, plants, and other greens as decoration. This made the atmosphere appear extremely fresh and neat. As expected, it looked like an Internet-famous store.

When Yu Zhengdu and them got there, it was already past normal mealtime. There weren’t many people in the restaurant, but it was very evidently catered mainly to couples. Yu Zhengdu hadn’t thought that the restaurant Shang Que had specially reserved would be of this style. He couldn’t help teasing, “Boss, can’t tell that you’re actually so romantic!”

“Un.” Shang Que’s expression was slightly unnatural. He pretended like nothing had happened, casually saying, “As long as you like it.”

As they spoke, a violin suddenly started playing from beside them, successfully cutting off their conversation.

The two looked over and finally realized that there was a violin player seated two tables away. A couple had originally been sitting there: it seemed that the performance had been prepared for the woman by the man. They watched as the woman’s face exhibited an expression of delighted surprise. The two of them stared at each other affectionately with the violin song as background music. The atmosphere was extremely sweet.

Yu Zhengdu couldn’t help smiling upon seeing this. He lamented, “How romantic.”

“It’s alright.” Shang Que was somewhat unimpressed. He handed the menu over. “Order first.”

Yu Zhengdu nodded. After brief thought, he twisted around to lowly ask behind him, “Kinnaras, do you guys want to eat with us?”

The two kinnaras popped their tiny heads out from his hood and carefully asked, “We can eat too?”

Shang Que: “……”

Yu Zhengdu: “Of course.”

He finally remembered that Boss was still there after he finished speaking. Thus, he hurriedly turned around to inquire, “They can, right?”

What else could Shang Que say? He could only reluctantly agree.

The kinnaras instantly cheered in excitement. They flew out from the hood and landed on the table. The two of them added together barely even reached half the height of the cup of water. The female kinnara said, “In this form, we only need to eat a little bit. It won’t be a waste of food.”

“That’s very nice.” Yu Zhengdu smiled and poured them a drink. The two kinnaras leaned against the edge of the cup, happily drinking. They looked like two cup hangers.

The more Shang Que looked at them, the more displeased he felt. Coincidentally, the violin player nearby had just finished his performance. An idea struck. He reached an index finger out and flicked the male kinnara, knocking him off the cup. He said, “You two, perform for us.”

Kinnaras: “……”

The kinnaras didn’t dare to refuse. Thus, the two of them obediently stood off to the side. One beat his drum and the other played her harp. The dreamy Sanskrit slowly sounded out. Yu Zhengdu unconsciously revealed a blissed out expression. “Wow, this music really gives one the impulse to want to become a monk.”

Shang Que: “……”

Shang Que bent his finger and flicked that male kinnara again. “We’re eating. Don’t play Blissful music. Change to something else.”

The female kinnara said with difficulty, “Great King, we don’t really know anything else……”

Shang Que slightly furrowed his brows. “You guys have lived in the mortal realm for so many years. You didn’t even learn any mortal music?”

As soon as he brought this up, the two kinnaras were suddenly struck with realization. “Well, we did learn some……”

“Un, then perform those.” Shang Que’s tone was filled with implication. “Something more pop. Suitable for us to hear.”

“Got it.” The male kinnara very understandingly nodded. He exchanged glances with the female kinnara; a drum and a harp prepared.

“Deng deng deng deng deng deng~ My love is as vast as the Heavens~”

The next second, the male kinnara got flicked into the air. If not for the fact that he needed to maintain his elegance, Shang Que probably would’ve squished him with his finger. “Why is it ‘The Most Dazzling Folk Song’?”

The female kinnara stated with a pained expression, “Great King, these years, we’ve spent our time preaching with Bhanaka Jue Yin, which has mainly taken place at the squares where old people commune. The music we’ve heard the most are the ones played for public square dancing……”

Shang Que: “……”

Yu Zhengdu almost burst into laughter from off to the side. He was just about to placate Shang Que when he suddenly received a message. He opened it and immediately became alert. Excitedly, he grabbed Shang Que’s wrist. With shiny eyes, he said, “Boss!!!”

Shang Que had originally been coming up with an excuse to beat up those two kinnaras. Out of the blue, he got grabbed by Yu Zhengdu. His heart skipped a beat. He looked up once more and met Yu Zhengdu’s bright eyes. He couldn’t help tensing. Reflexively, he flipped his hand around and held onto Yu Zhengdu’s palm. “What’s wrong?”

Yu Zhengdu was still in an immensely excited state. He didn’t find anything wrong with Shang Que’s actions at all. Instead, he even wrapped his other hand around Shang Que’s in further elation. “Our app’s mobile server has been successfully developed!”

Shang Que’s eyes slightly widened. After a pause, he finally seemed to regain his wits. He made a soft noise of acknowledgment, then nodded and said, “Got it.”

Yu Zhengdu was a bit confused by Boss’s reaction. He shook the other’s hand around and asked, “Boss, aren’t you happy?”

“Happy. I’m very happy.” Shang Que nodded expressionlessly. His gaze fell onto the kinnaras. He said, “You two. Perform.”

The kinnaras while trembling: “P-Perform what?”

Shang Que: “‘The Most Dazzling Folk Song’ will do.”

Prior to Zhao Ruola’s addition to Luofeng, Yu Zhengdu had already finished part of the Life and Death Accounts mobile server plan with Zheng Yan. Yu Zhengdu had also participated in a good portion of the developmental work.

After Zhao Ruola’s addition, the entirety of the developmental work for the mobile server advanced forward. Following several rounds of debugging, the mobile server finally could become completely combined with the backend system that Yu Zhengdu was in charge of. As such, the app had finally been successfully developed.

The final name decided on for the app was simple and straightforward: “Life Planning”.

But it still couldn’t be immediately used after development. Before the official version could be formally released, Luofeng first created a release candidate. This was a step that every serious app needed to take during the first phase after development.

The Luofeng headquarters were in charge of sending a limited number of activation codes to targeted users. After the users tested the app, they would give the company a rundown of how their usage experience had gone and any problems they had found. The company would then use this as a guide for the next update. When all this ended, the app could finally be officially released.

Because this app contained information regarding the past, current, and future lives of the Underworld community, Yu Zhengdu and Zhao Ruola decided, after intense discussion, that the initial functions of the app release candidate would be as simple as possible. This way, unresolvable problems could be avoided.

Currently, the entire app only provided three very basic functions:【Personal Information】,【Good and Evil Scores】, and【Self-Service Reincarnation】.

The release candidate needed volunteers from the Underworld community. In the end, they chose one thousand spirits using stratified sampling of different deceased populations, including but not limited to natural death from old age, death from illness, accidental death, suicide, murder, those of both genders and all ages, etc. These people all participated in the internal testing for the Life Planning app.

Of course, the data from the release candidate users wouldn’t be saved or used. After the testing, the volunteer ghosts’ data would be deleted. This was to avoid the possibility of others’ taking advantage of the bugs in the testing phase.

The citizens of the Underworld normally had a lot of time on their hands. Aside from awaiting reincarnation, they could only wait for offerings. Additionally, with Luofeng’s help, a group of ghosts had been able to achieve their goals of returning to work after arriving in the Underworld. This made everyone anticipate Luofeng’s technology even more. Thus, as soon as they heard about Luofeng’s internal testing for their app, the number of applicants rose so rapidly it could be compared to the amount of people fighting for the position of civil servant in the mortal realm.

The ghosts who were qualified for the testing were also very proactive. They quickly downloaded the app and started using it. In only a few days, Luofeng’s headquarters had already received several suggestions.

The one that got suggested the most was regarding the app’s【Personal Information】function. Everyone immediately expressed that it should be changed to【Ghost-al Information】.

After receiving this suggestion, Yu Zhengdu considered it before judging that this request was reasonable. Thus, after brief discussion with Zhao Ruola, they quickly changed the name of this function.

The Amazing Future programmers who got this message: “……?????”

Currently, the offices of Luofeng’s headquarters and the subsidiary company, Amazing Future, were separate. The employees at the subsidiary company were all mortals. Though they usually interacted with the Luofeng headquarters occasionally, the headquarters had a very strict set of rules and regulations. They wouldn’t allow their coworkers at the subsidiary company to see things such as walking through walls, washing eyeballs, or other similar scenes.

Consequently, the programmers at the subsidiary all thought that the headquarters were a bit mysterious and strange, but after thinking of the weird products their company sold, nobody minded.

Including this app. The two tech masters had only said that they were developing it for a special group of customers, refusing to allow even their coworkers at the subsidiary company join in on the testing. Everyone thought about this and realized that all the clients who could buy their company’s products probably weren’t very normal. Thus, they didn’t make a big deal out of it.

Programmers weren’t in need of such strange thoughts. After all, they had all seen niche apps stranger than this one before.

But the change of “Personal Information” to “Ghost-al Information” was still strange enough to shock people greatly.

However, Yu Zhengdu had impressive skills and the support of the Big Boss. In their company, he was the absolute authority. If he wanted to change it, no one else could say anything.

Liu Wei was a normal but also abnormal programmer at Amazing Future.

He was normal in that he was like the majority of programmers: often working overtime, single, curious, and addicted to spending time online. He was abnormal because even under high stress working environments, he was able to maintain a head of very thick hair. This caused many of those in the same field to be incredibly envious.

After the release of the app’s release candidate, the workload of the developmental department slightly lessened. Those in their department could finally get off work on time too. But, as a single dog who lived alone, Liu Wei decided to continue on his path and work overtime.

On this day, he once again stayed behind in the company to study Yu Zhengdu and Zhao Ruola’s code. Unknowingly, he became entranced. Though this program had been developed by the department as a whole, he could still immediately tell which parts of the code had been written by the two tech masters. They were simple, elegant, and practically bug-free. As a programmer, Liu Wei couldn’t help the impulse in his heart after seeing this code. He really wished to have an opportunity to experience how the app worked.

He thought about it and secretly sent an activation code to his own phone. But after he downloaded it, a popup appeared: Not in service range. Download failed.

Liu Wei: “????”

Their company’s wifi was undoubtedly excellent. Besides, they hadn’t encountered this problem during development?

He tried a few more times, but kept getting the notification that he wasn’t in service range. He was about to give up when suddenly, inspiration struck. He switched to the phone the company had given them during the development process. Immediately, he successfully downloaded the app.

What strange occurrence was this?

Liu Wei had some suspicions in his heart – was there something wrong with the phone model or configurations? But he still followed the instructions and started registering for an account.

This app had a very overbearing design. Users needed to register with their personal ID number. Liu Wei didn’t dare to use his ID number, so bought a made-up one online. Who would’ve thought that after he entered this number, the page read: Fake number. Registration failed.

Liu Wei: “…………”

This was a bit too intelligent?! It could even tell real and fake numbers apart?

He was honestly too curious. After a long moment of consideration, he decided to give it his all. Bravely, he used his personal ID to register. He finally successfully registered, but after opening the page: User’s life signs are fine. Does not qualify for inquiry conditions. Please refresh in a hundred years.

Liu Wei: “………………??”

What was the ultimate purpose for their company to develop this app!!!!

Liu Wei fiddled around for a long time, but was still unable to open the app’s few functions. This caused him to seriously suspect that a terrible bug had appeared in their system. He decided that tomorrow, he would find the head of technology to give feedback on this situation.

After he finally decided to give up, he looked up and discovered that it was already past midnight.

He turned around to observe his surroundings. As expected, he was the only one remaining in the office. Liu Wei wasn’t bothered at all. He stood up and stretched, then prepared to leave work and head home.

But as soon as he stood up, he found that a light was shining from somewhere a few tables down. Uncertainty rose in his heart. He walked over to take a look and realized that it was light reflecting off of the eight trigrams mirror on their product manager, Zheng Yan’s, desk.

Speaking of Zheng Yan, this was also a strange person who often left people speechless. The words Zheng Yan used the most often were: prosperity, culture, peace, science, etc. Every minute and every hour, he reminded everyone to have the conscientiousness that every socialist youth should have.

But on his table, objects such as eight trigram mirrors, calabash gourds, copper swords, etc. would frequently appear. Most absurdly, two kilograms of yellow paper could appear.

His daily habit was to chant while reminding everyone, “Scientific methods of avoiding evil.”

Liu Wei picked up the eight trigrams mirror that had randomly started mysteriously glowing. He then thought of Zheng Yan. In an instant: “………………”

He was just about to set it down when a voice suddenly sounded out from behind him. “Hello, may I ask if you’re one of Luofeng’s employees?”

It was the middle of the night. No one else was in the office. The sudden appearance of such a voice instantly scared Liu Wei a lot. He turned around to look, breath hitched. He saw a youth holding a phone, dryly staring at him.

In the light of the eight trigrams mirror, the youth’s face appeared slightly green. This made one’s heart tremble in fear.

He also didn’t know where this person had popped up from. He hadn’t heard any indications at all.

Liu Wei’s face paled. He pressed down on his chest. After finally managing to calm down, he aggressively responded, “I am. Who are you? How did you get in?”

Amazing Future was Luofeng’s subsidiary company. Saying that he was Luofeng’s employee wasn’t technically wrong. Thus, Liu Wei casually confirmed this.

“Ah, you can see me. I’m right, then.” The youth sighed in relief, then pushed away Liu Wei’s hand. “Don’t point that mirror at me. It’s uncomfortable.”

Liu Wei was bewildered. But probably because it was the middle of the night, he instinctively refused to let go. While still holding onto the eight trigrams mirror, he asked, “What do you need?”

The youth said, “I’m a volunteer for the Life Planning app’s release candidate. I have a bold suggestion and was scared that I wouldn’t be able to relay it clearly in the group chat, so decided to pay a visit in person to explain to you guys.”

Liu Wei furrowed his brows and asked, “Is it because there’s a bug in the app so it can’t be opened? I already know about that and will bring it up with the company tomorrow……”

“No no, the app is running very smoothly. No freezing.” As the youth spoke, he handed his phone over. “I just wanted to ask if your app can add a friend circle function. This would help us deceased individuals recreate societal relationships after death, you know?”

Liu Wei: “…………Huh?”

The author has something to say:

Kinnara: Our next learning goal is, courage!