"Ghost Car"

I recently moved for the fourth time. In order to make a key breakthrough in the cloud computing project that I have been working on for many years, I took my whole family to this place. In the city, my son is also facing his third transfer of schools.

This challenge is related to the life and death of your company!

In the past few days after I settled in my new home, when I was packing a lot of moving cartons, I suddenly found a carton with the words "Vibrant Old Antique" written in my mother's handwriting. It follows us wherever we move, but has never been opened. The moment I unboxed it, memories came back to me like a rusty iron pot being repainted. This box was left behind by my mother when she was cleaning up the old house after my father passed away. It is full of dolls, digital products and audio CDs that I collected when I was a child.

This box is filled with my childhood.

Suddenly, what caught my eye was a dusty Japanese Mansa game console.

My eyes widened, and the memories came to my face...

This was brought back by my father when I went to Tokyo on a business trip when I was a child. It is rare in China. The manufacturer went bankrupt a year after its launch, and the game console became an unpopular product that was forced to cease production. From my childhood, I have always had some not-so-good memories about this game console. Other children were exchanging game discs, but although my console was advanced and had networking capabilities, it was different from other children’s game discs. Compatible. When I asked to buy an ordinary console, my father would politely refuse: "Don't we have a better console?"

Mansa console has only released one game called "Phantom Speed" The game, in my memory, is a traditional competition between our father and son. The result of winning or losing is to decide who will wash the dishes amidst my mother’s complaints. My father kept shouting to me: "Energy! Do you want to compete? Are you a man?"

And I have never defeated my father, not even once! But I never admit defeat and fight against repeated defeats. My father never gave up. On the track in the mining town, he used his textbook-like precision to crush my strength and reduce my dimensionality. Every day when you turn on the TV, through the reflection of the old picture tube TV, you can see a father and son gearing up. Two words are written on the son's face: Excited!

As a result, I have been washing dishes for several years, but even if I lose, it is still better than not having any fun...

The memory ends, I laugh, and wipe the machine clean Move into the bedroom and get ready to rewatch "Phantom Race." Because the interface was too old, I had to order an adapter online. When the game interface appeared, I had a lot of thoughts. Familiar racing cars, familiar tracks, familiar music...but my father is no longer here...

I turned on the single-player mode and entered the mining town circuit where I could memorize the curves backwards. The moment the car started, a picture suddenly shocked me!

I can’t believe my eyes! ! !

"Oh my God!!"

A white "ghost car" appeared from behind and overtook me and drove away.

What is this? Does this game have a "ghost car" system?

The so-called "ghost car" system means that the racing game will automatically save the player's best race record in history, using the "ghost car" afterimage to represent the last player's race video as a racing reference. If a new If the player overtakes the "Ghost Car", the "Ghost Car" will automatically be replaced by the update.

This is the best video of my father’s past game recording!

I am so excited! ecstatic! He stood up with his eyes wide open! He pressed the accelerator and chased his father's "ghost car" desperately. For some reason, the appearance of the "ghost car" suddenly gave me the illusion that my father was still alive... But after a few rounds, no matter how I chased him, the "ghost car" left me far behind, leaving me far behind...< /p>

My father was a wise man, and there were very few things he wanted to do that he couldn't do. In the past, he was able to give me guidance and advice when I felt helpless in my studies and career. My father's death made me feel lonely.

Starting a business is hard, and I don’t have time to play games. But at this moment, this amazing discovery makes this game a harbor in my heart. It’s like my father is still in this game world, just like when we were children, we can compete every day.

"If there is no advantage in a straight line! Then overtake in a curve!" My father often said this.

In the following months, I would revisit this game every day and couldn't help myself. My father and I were at odds again. I cannot accept that more than ten years have passed and I still have no progress in this game and cannot surpass my father. His game record back then was 2 minutes, 43 seconds and 57 seconds, and I am now more than 10 seconds behind.

Due to the emergence of my father’s “Ghost Car”, I began to pay attention to this old game again. “Phantom Speed” is not popular in China, but it is not unpopular in Japan. Some websites also have relevant introductions. Although the game company has closed down, the official website is still there, and the best records of players on each track are also on the website.

However, what shocked me was that the game’s official record for the Mining Town track was 2 minutes, 45 seconds and 55 seconds, which was a full 2 ??seconds slower than the data of my father’s “ghost car”! This game console cannot be connected to the Internet in China, so my father's record back then can be called the "world's first" without official records!

I began to admire this achievement!

Whenever I feel helpless, I will open the game to decompress. When driving side by side with the "ghost car", it seems that I have returned to the time when I had a long talk with my father before he was alive. Surpassing my father's "ghost car" has become an obsession of mine, and I will even take this outdated console with me when I go on business trips.

At the beginning of the second year, because the company's R&D expenses were too high, it suffered losses all year round, and did not meet profit expectations. Investors requested divestment, and the company was about to die. I suffered an unprecedented blow! It has become a dilemma to continue financing cloud computing or to reduce the scale and focus on hybrid cloud SAAS projects.

"Father, what should I do?" Every time I meet my father in the game, I will ask silently in my heart.

I started to escape, and sometimes I didn’t dare to face my family when I went home. I am numbly immersed in the game, sometimes playing for half a day. This is a virtual space that allows me to escape temporarily. I challenged my father's grades again and again, pursuing a boring obsession without any purpose or meaning, killing boring time and escaping from a suffocating real world. You can try again if you fail in the game, but this is not allowed in reality.

Gradually, hundreds of exercises over the past six months have reduced the gap between my father and me to 2 to 3 seconds. The key to victory on this track is the last 30-degree turn, because I found that every time I could lead my father at first, but at the last turn I would be overtaken by my father and left far behind.

"Come on! Vitality!"

Whenever I am surpassed by my father, I seem to hear my father talking. I can even see the "ghost car" looking back at me and smiling.

Slowly, I discovered the secret of this corner. As a programmer, I can calculate the perfect cornering and drifting time, and use the friction of the lawn to corner and surpass my father!

Yes! Overtaking on a curve! Just like big data, there is always a value that can be calculated!

Finally, the day has finally arrived! Countless failures, in exchange for overtaking at the last corner! Not only did I surpass the official best data, I also surpassed my father!

I yelled and jumped up! Rushing towards the finish line at full speed...

Suddenly! I realized a serious problem. If I surpassed my father, my father's "ghost car" would disappear forever and be replaced by me! I was so excited that I quickly slowed down! I can feel that the buttons on this old controller are almost completely dented! However, the car that slowed down still got to the finish line! I almost crossed the finish line with my father’s “ghost car” on top of each other!

2 minutes, 43 seconds and 15 seconds!

A new record is born! I stood up quickly and rushed to the power plug to unplug it!

I was gasping for air!

"Never overwrite your father's records! Never!"

After restarting, I was anxiously waiting for the results...

...< /p>

Five years later, I moved again.

The box of "Vibrant Antiques" has disappeared, and I bought a large flat with sea view in this city. From now on, the whole family no longer needs to travel around.

"If there is no advantage in a straight line, then overtake in a curve!"

Yes, the company finally found a new partner who fits my philosophy, so that we can focus on the hybrid cloud SAAS project , overtaking in a corner, retreating from the competition among traditional cloud computing companies, and finally having a good opportunity to be acquired.

On this day, I opened the PS5's "Rush 2022" and said to my son: "Want to compete? Are you a man?"

My son put away the mountain of homework. Ben showed an expression like the sun rising from the west.

"Dad is the world's number one in "Phantom Speed"!" I said proudly! My son walked towards me with a smile and doubts...

Once again, a father and son gearing up appeared in front of the TV. Two words were written on the son's face: Excited!