Qin Yi was silent for a moment: “I’m just an ordinary soldier. I can’t command a fleet. I cannot accept this mission.”

“What about the previous commander?”

AEEIS’s voice carried no emotion whatsoever, as if merely stating objective facts: “While executing the decapitation strike against the Insect Queen, a large number of insect fleets simultaneously executed a decapitation strike against the command ship.”

“The commander perished together with these insect fleets.”

Qin Yi looked at AEEIS’s abstract virtual image with disbelief: “The commander… sacrificed himself?”

AEEIS: “This is top secret.”

“The Ansible communication technology we use is similar in principle to the Insect Hive Mind. It can ignore spatial distance and achieve instant communication, but it is also subject to interference and has distance limitations. We must ensure the commander is within a certain range of the battlefield.”

“We can roughly determine the location of the Insect Queen through Ansible communication technology, and the insects can similarly determine the approximate location of the commander.”

“The previous commander believed he had completed his mission, so he severely damaged the insect fleet with his sacrifice.”

“Captain Qin, the AS-371-45 squad is not the only one making sacrifices.”

Qin Yi fell silent again: “Why choose me as the new commander?”

“We shouldn’t be short of people willing to sacrifice themselves.”

AEEIS: “For the position of United Fleet Commander, there are two main selection criteria.”

“First, they must have a firm will, be ready to sacrifice themselves at any time, and be able to make rational, calm decisions under the immense mental pressure of possible sacrifice at any moment.”

“People with only theoretical knowledge, without frontline combat experience against the insects, can hardly possess this psychological quality.”

“Second, they must have a thorough understanding of the insects’ thought patterns and their terrifying nature.”

“We need the commander to make decisions on key issues, rather than commanding specific battles. Making the right decision is far more important than executing the right decision.”

“Humans, limited by their life form, had an originally inefficient command structure that was unable to defeat the insect fleet. This command model nearly caused us to suffer extinction.”

“So now, the commander is only responsible for receiving battlefield information and making decisions.”

“Collecting information, filtering information, integrating information, issuing specific orders, answering questions for each soldier… all of this is completed by AEEIS.”

“AEEIS conducts war simulations at all times, storing millions of war models. Before each generation of commanders sacrifices themselves, their command strategies and ideas will be learned and absorbed by AEEIS, and through precise data calculations, seek the tactical strategy with the highest success rate.”

“Therefore, the commander does not need to direct specific teams to execute specific tasks; AEEIS will be responsible for these. The commander only needs to observe the battlefield and make decisions.”

“Captain Qin, the Blue Star United Fleet’s Highest Executive Committee and AEEIS unanimously believe that you are the most suitable candidate for the next commander.”

“Of course, humans cannot immediately entrust the fate of the entire United Fleet to a novice commander. AEEIS will assist you in extensive command training.”

“You can waste a lot of time on meaningless hesitation, but every second you waste reduces the possibility of human victory by another fraction.”

Qin Yi didn’t ask any more questions. After sitting silently for a few minutes, he stood up and walked to the only operating console in the space, sitting down.

AEEIS: “Captain Qin, you truly are the most outstanding soldier in Blue Star’s history.”

“I hope you can also become the most outstanding commander in Blue Star’s history.”

The moment Qin Yi sat down, the entire space transformed.

He seemed to be placed in endless starry space. Holographic imaging technology covered the cabin walls; looking up, down, left, or right in any direction, one could see the scenes presented by the holographic images.

AEEIS: “The sphere on your right is the ‘Observation Sphere,’ which allows you to quickly move and zoom your view. Different gestures on it, single or multi-finger taps and drags, can achieve different operational effects.”

“The touch screen in the center can help you handle the most urgent information and decisions. Some decisions require pressure confirmation.”

“The large screen in front will show you a panoramic simulation of the battlefield, helping you better understand the overall picture of the war.”

“The screens on both sides of the large screen will display less urgent information and decisions. You can choose to handle content you consider necessary through mid-air gestures.”

“The buttons on your left can help you process some shortcut commands, which, when combined with the ‘Observation Sphere,’ can make more detailed and precise observations and commands.”

“Of course, you can also issue commands to AEEIS through the most primitive voice method. This is a good auxiliary command method, but don’t rely on it, because human language contains too little information. In the rapidly changing battlefield, even though AEEIS helps process most decisions, it may still miss opportunities.”

“The holographic images will display various corners of the battlefield from a first-person perspective.”

Below is a simulation of the United Fleet’s first encounter with the insects. You can use the console to observe the entire battlefield and familiarize yourself with the Observation Sphere and various operations.”

The content that followed had nothing to do with Lu Zhiyao. It was mainly space scenes, simply summarized as the human United Fleet’s first encounter with the insects, resulting in defeat because each fleet fought independently and was quickly overwhelmed in the vast sea of insects.

…

Lu Zhiyao instinctively flipped through the pages, but there was nothing more.

This was the portion of the script that Zhu Xiaocai had provided. Lu Zhiyao wasn’t even clear about which part of the movie this scene was from, whether it was the beginning or the middle.

Although this scene seemed a bit disconnected, Lu Zhiyao could generally understand his character.

The protagonist, Qin Yi, was a soldier who had returned from the front lines and, for some reason, was entrusted with an important mission to begin training and serve as the commander of humanity against the insects, with the help of artificial intelligence.

The overall framework of this plot didn’t have anything particularly unusual; similar themes were quite common.

Moreover, Lu Zhiyao knew that this movie was related to the new RTS game being developed by Mr. Pei. Since the movie would also serve as the story cutscene CG for the RTS game, having the protagonist’s role connected to players playing the RTS game was quite a good approach.

What concerned Lu Zhiyao more was the character he had to portray.

Just from this scene in the script, the performance difficulty was too high!

In this scene, Qin Yi’s emotional changes were quite complex:

Feeling relieved upon learning of his survival;

Feeling pain when remembering the deaths of his comrades;

Feeling lost when the mission was completed, but the war couldn’t be ended;

Feeling angry when learning that the commander had deliberately concealed information;

Feeling dejected upon learning the commander had sacrificed himself;

Experiencing a brief inner struggle and choice when learning he had been appointed as commander, but quickly accepting his duty as a soldier…

More crucially, Lu Zhiyao couldn’t portray these emotions in an exaggerated form.

Qin Yi’s identity was that of a soldier who had always disregarded life and death during missions, with extremely strong psychological qualities.

The script also indicated that Qin Yi’s emotions hardly showed any significant fluctuations or any hysteria; most of the time, he just silently listened to AEEIS’s explanations.

In other words, Lu Zhiyao had to portray those complex emotional changes with very limited facial expressions.

Furthermore, almost all the scenes would be shot against a green screen, with various cool scenes added in post-production that Lu Zhiyao wouldn’t be able to see—it all relied on imagination.

There was no one to act opposite him, just an electronically voiced artificial intelligence with absolutely no emotion.

Makeup, costumes, and props were also relatively simple, because according to the plot, Qin Yi had just recovered from his injuries and woken up from a hibernation pod, so it couldn’t be too fancy.

In short, making this work well depended entirely on Lu Zhiyao’s acting skills.

All the audience’s attention would be focused on the protagonist. The artificial intelligence’s voice and those cool special effects around were just icing on the cake.

If the acting wasn’t good, no matter how cool the special effects were, it would be meaningless.

Lu Zhiyao silently wiped the cold sweat from his forehead.

He had indeed said earlier that he wanted a challenging role.

But this role seemed a bit too challenging.

Zhu Xiaocai, having arranged the work outside, returned: “How’s it going? Have you gotten into the character?”

Lu Zhiyao felt immense pressure: “Director Zhu, this is too challenging. I’ve never tried a role like this before.”

“To be honest, I’m not confident I can act it well. If the film fails because of my poor acting, then…”

“Director Zhu, if you have a more suitable candidate…”

Zhu Xiaocai was a bit stunned. What did this mean? Was Lu Zhiyao backing out?

Please don’t! The key was that if Lu Zhiyao didn’t act, they couldn’t find a more suitable person!

Zhu Xiaocai hurriedly said very seriously: “No, this role was tailor-made for you by Mr. Pei! It belongs to no one but you!”

“Mr. Pei said this role is very suitable for you. You must not lose confidence in yourself. Mr. Pei and I both think you can do it!”

“Playing this role well will be a breakthrough for your acting skills!”

Lu Zhiyao was half-convinced: “Really? That’s what Mr. Pei said?”

Zhu Xiaocai nodded vigorously: “That’s right, Mr. Pei specifically named you for the role.”

There was no choice. Now they had to bring out Mr. Pei to build Lu Zhiyao’s confidence.

Acting was a skill, but it also depended on attitude.

If the actor himself had no confidence, how could he act well?

But if Mr. Pei gave Lu Zhiyao a buff, it would work!

Lu Zhiyao fell into deep thought: “Mr. Pei believes in me so much?”

“Could it be…”

“That he didn’t give me the script earlier because he was afraid that if I saw it, I wouldn’t dare to come?”

Zhu Xiaocai was silent for two seconds: “Yes, that’s correct.”

After careful consideration, Lu Zhiyao nodded seriously: “Alright, since Director Zhu and Mr. Pei trust me so much! I’m willing to accept this challenge!”

“I definitely won’t let Mr. Pei down!”

“Let’s shoot!”