Chapter 083: The Mad Programmer

However, if one overlooks Cai Yuyao’s obsession with being the elder sister, she demonstrates remarkable calculation skills in every other aspect. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have become a data analyst, nor would she have achieved the same high rank as Ding Tongyu just last month.

“Come on, come on, I’ve already booked the discussion room,” Cai Yuyao said, striding ahead.

They had barely taken a few steps when a distant alarm sounded.

A fire alarm? Was there a fire?

Lin Luoyu’s ears twitched. She glanced at the two sisters walking ahead, seemingly unbothered, unsure whether she should hurry downstairs.

“Don’t worry, it’s perfectly safe!” Tang Xiao called back, waving for Lin Luoyu to keep up when she saw she hadn’t followed.

Cai Yuyao, meanwhile, recognized the sound immediately. “Oh, that noise? The programmers upstairs are holding a drill. You wouldn’t believe it—they’ve been practicing almost every day lately, and at random times. Sometimes, we’ll be napping after lunch, and suddenly the alarm blares.”

“But compared to us, they’re much worse off,” Cai Yuyao added, a hint of schadenfreude in her tone. “I’ve heard that not only do they have alarms in their hall, but every single person has a mini app installed on their phone. I heard there were times when, just as they were about to leave work, the alarm would go off on their phone as soon as they stepped out of the building. Then they’d have to huddle in a corner with their laptops, fixing things… tsk tsk tsk, we definitely have it easier.”

Thanks to Cai Yuyao’s explanation, Lin Luoyu finally grasped the situation.

She couldn’t help wondering if their department heads had lost their minds. In order to cultivate a “wolfish” team and boost programmers’ ability to respond to sudden system crashes, they had devised a scheme: split the team into red and black groups, playing hackers and defenders. The attackers could choose any time and method to strike, targeting the Max Online Mall, which handled over fifty million daily active users.

Every attack and defense was tracked on a leaderboard visible to everyone in the department. Each month, the top ten scorers received rewards, pushing the programmers assigned to the attacker team to become ever more ruthless.

Fortunately, roles switched every quarter. After three months of being “tormented,” the defenders would become attackers, unleashing their pent-up “revenge.”

“But… doesn’t this affect the user experience?” Lin Luoyu asked, worried. After all, who would want a platform that constantly lagged and spoiled their shopping?

“They simulated more than eight hundred million virtual users logging in at once, and crashed the system immediately. The scene—you can imagine the lag during the midnight rush for Singles’ Day deals a few years back, only much worse,” Cai Yuyao said, still thinking the programmers upstairs were madmen.

“I heard they went a bit too far that time… the planners lost several months’ bonuses. You know, our system’s highest record was just one hundred million concurrent logins, and they pushed for eight times that. I guess they really were driven crazy by those months of torment.”

Lin Luoyu couldn’t help but click her tongue in amazement.

“But now, they’re happily duking it out. Thanks to them, the platform’s stability has improved a lot. Take the big Singles’ Day promotion—now there’s hardly a hint of lag.”